Carlo Battisti (10 October 1882 – 6 March 1977) was an Italian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, famed for his starring role in

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the fil ...

's '' Umberto D.''.

Biography

Battisti was born in

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

in 1882 (nowadays Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy). He studied linguistics at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

and founded, along with

Ettore Tolomei Ettore Tolomei (16 August 1865, in Rovereto – 25 May 1952, in Rome) was an Italian nationalism, nationalist and Italian fascism, fascist. He was designated a Member of the Italian Senate in 1923, and ennobled as Conte della Vetta in 1937. Pre- ...

, the nationalist journal ''Archivio per l'Alto Adige'' in 1906. In the early 1920s he became professor of glottology of the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

. Throughout his life he published numerous books and articles on a wide gamut of linguistic topics, ranging from phonetics to Italian dialectology to toponomastics and Vulgar Latin. In recognition of his accomplishments and expertise, Battisti was elected to the Italian national language academy, ''Accademia della Crusca'', in 1925. A member of the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of It ...

himself, Battisti maintained always a sympathetic position towards the

Italianization Italianization ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or assimilation. It is also known for a process organized by the Kingdom of Italy to force cultural and ethnic assimilation of the nati ...

program which the

Fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

pursued towards the South Tyrolean populations and opposed strongly the return of the German-speaking people, who had to leave their region due to the

South Tyrol Option Agreement The South Tyrol Option Agreement (; ) was an agreement in effect between 1939 and 1943, when the native German and Ladin-speaking people in South Tyrol and several other municipalities of northern Italy, which had belonged to the Austrian Empire ...

of 1939, to the Alto Adige after World War II.Paolo Marrassini (2004). "Una Facoltà improduttiva: Lettere fra cultura e politica." In ''L'Università degli Studi di Firenze, 1924–2004.'' Firenze, pp. 49–164 (p. 73); Hannes Obermair (2018). "Nation-Building facendo edizioni? Il «Tiroler Urkundenbuch», Richard Heuberger, Franz Huter e Otto Stolz." In Giuseppe Albertoni et al. (eds). ''La storia va alla guerra. Storici dell’area trentino-tirolese tra polemiche nazionali e primo conflitto mondiale'' (Studi e Ricerche, no. 18). Trento, Università degli Studi di Trento. , pp. 285–300 (p. 297). Battisti starred in

neorealist film Italian neorealism (), also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema, was a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They p ...

'' Umberto D.'', his first and last as an actor. It was filmed in 1951 and released in 1952. In 1955 he directed the documentary ''Nozze fassane''. Battisti died in 1977 in

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battisti, Carlo 1882 births 1977 deaths Italian male actors 20th-century Italian linguists Italian neorealism