Dino Bigongiari (March 22, 1879 – September 5, 1965) was an

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...

medievalist and

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

expert. He was the

Da Ponte Lorenzo Da Ponte (; 10 March 174917 August 1838) was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: '' The Ma ...

Professor of Italian at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Biography

Bigongiari was born in

Seravezza Seravezza is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany, Italy. It is located in Versilia, close to the Apuan Alps. Neighboring municipalities *Forte dei Marmi * Massa *Montignoso *Pietrasanta * Stazzema Patron saints S ...

, Italy. He came to the United States at a young age and attended public schools in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He then earned his B.A. from

in 1902 and began teaching at Columbia since 1904 as an assistant in Latin without salary. He took a leave of absence from Columbia and served in the

Italian Army "The safeguard of the republic shall be the supreme law" , colors = , colors_labels = , march = ''Parata d'Eroi'' ("Heroes's parade") by Francesco Pellegrino, ''4 Maggio'' (May 4) ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

as a mounted artillery officer. He became the Da Ponte Professor of Italian in 1929. As a professor at Columbia, Bigongiari was a founder of Casa Italiana. He was also the chair of the Italian department at Columbia during the 1930s and was criticized for his ties to Italian fascism. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' noted that he "eschewed every convenient means of academic advancement" such earning advanced degrees and publishing academic papers. Nevertheless, he gained prominence in academic circles and was respected for his work on Dante,

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

, Augustine of Hippo, and

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...

, which were published in a 1964 essay collection. He received an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1955 from Columbia. His students at Columbia included Italian-American writer and dramatist

Anne Paolucci Anne Paolucci (1926–2012) was an Italian-American writer, scholar, and educator. She was a research professor and chair of the English Department at St. John's University in New York City, and a prolific writer who published plays, short stor ...

. Bigongiari retired from teaching in 1950.

Personal life and family

He died on September 5, 1965, in

. He married Glays Van Brunt in 1930. His cousin, Gino Bigongiari, was also a professor at

and a scholar on Dante.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigongiari, Dino 1879 births 1965 deaths American medievalists Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia University faculty Italian emigrants to the United States American essayists Writers from Tuscany Italian academics