Vincenzo Di Benedetto (12 January 1934 – 19 or 20 July 2013) was an Italian

classical philologist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and ot ...

Life

Born to the tailor Saverio Di Benedetto and his wife Maria Gaetana (née Santoro) he grew up in

Saracena Saracena () is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. The town is bordered by Altomonte, Castrovillari, Firmo, Lungro, Morano Calabro, Mormanno, Orsomarso and San Basile and is home to the ...

( Calabria) and acquired a sound knowledge of Latin and Classical Greek at the

Liceo Classico Liceo classico or Ginnasio (literally ''classical lyceum'') is the oldest, public secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age. Until 1969, this was ...

in Castrovillari. Having received a scholarship from the Scuola Normale Superiore, he went on to study from 1952 to 1958 in Pisa and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

( Corpus Christi College). Apart from his academic mentors, he also acknowledged the influence of his friend, Latinist

Sebastiano Timpanaro Sebastiano Timpanaro (September 5, 1923 in Parma – November 26, 2000 in Florence) was an Italian classical philologist, essayist, and literary critic. He was also a long-time Marxist who made important contributions to left-wing political c ...

and his mother, historian of philosophy Maria Timpanaro Cardini. From 1969 onwards until his retirement in 2006 he taught

Greek literature Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving writte ...

at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

, and, from 1971 until 1993,

Classical Philology Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

at the Scuola Normale. In 1996, he was diagnosed with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and used a wheelchair since 2006. Despite this, he managed to continue working until shortly before his death. On May 14, 1972, he married philologist Diana Fiorini; their son Saverio was born on November 27, 1972.

Achievements

His areas of expertise included the history of

Greek grammar Greek grammar may refer to: *Ancient Greek grammar *Koine Greek grammar *Modern Greek grammar The grammar of Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is essentially that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain elem ...

Greek tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...

, the so-called

Hippocratic Corpus The Hippocratic Corpus (Latin: ''Corpus Hippocraticum''), or Hippocratic Collection, is a collection of around 60 early Ancient Greek medical works strongly associated with the physician Hippocrates and his teachings. The Hippocratic Corpus cov ...

, Sappho, and the Homeric epics, but also the works of

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 ...

Foscolo Ugo Foscolo (; 6 February 177810 September 1827), born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and a poet. He is especially remembered for his 1807 long poem '' Dei Sepolcri''. Early life Foscolo was born in Zakynthos in the I ...

, and Manzoni. He published numerous

monographs A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograp ...

as well as bilingual editions, intended both for a larger public and experts. A household name in his native Italy, he never quite achieved the international recognition he deserved, although his last major work, a bilingual commented edition of the

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Iliad'', th ...

(2010), received excellent reviews, such as by Barbara Graziosi, who referred to the book as "a monumental achievement“. Even the selection of his minor works, titled ''Il richiamo del testo'' and published by Riccardo Di Donato in 2007, takes up four weighty volumes, containing some of his most important insights, such as his proof that

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

, when quoting his sources, had been far more reliable than had hitherto been assumed.Vincenzo Di Benedetto, La citazione di Polibo nella Historia Animalium di Aristotele, in: Studi classici in onore di Quintino Cataudella, Catania 1972, Bd.II, 225-233

Selection of Works

* La tradizione manoscritta euripidea,

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

1965, ASIN: B0063Y3D5G. * Euripidis

Orestes In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; grc-gre, Ὀρέστης ) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and the brother of Electra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness an ...

, introduzione, testo critico, commento e appendice metrica a cura di V. Di Benedetto,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

1965. * Euripide: teatro e società,

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

1971, . * L'ideologia del potere e la tragedia greca. Ricerche su Eschilo, Turin 1978, . * with Alessandro Lami: Filologia e

marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

o. Contro le mistificazioni,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

1981, . * Sofocle, Florence 1983 (2nd edition 1988), . * Il medico e la malattia. La scienza di Ippocrate, Turin 1986, . * with Franco Ferrari: Saffo, Poesie, Introduzione di Vincenzo Di Benedetto. Traduzione e note di Franco Ferrari, Milan 1987, . * Lo scrittoio di Ugo Foscolo, Turin 1990, . * Ugo Foscolo, il sesto tomo dell' Io, edizione critica e commento a cura di V. Di Benedetto, Turin 1991, . * Nel laboratorio di Omero, Turin 1994 (considerably enlarged edition 1998), . * ''La tragedia sulla scena: la tragedia greca in quanto spettacolo teatrale'' (with Enrico Medda). Turin 1997, . * Guida ai Promessi sposi. I personaggi, la gente, le idealità,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

1999, . * Euripide, Le Baccanti, premessa, introduzione, traduzione, costituzione del testo originale e commento a cura di V. Di Benedetto, appendice metrica di E.Cerbo, Milan 2004, . * Omero, Odissea, Milan 2010, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Benedetto, Vincenzo 1934 births 2013 deaths Neurological disease deaths in Tuscany Deaths from Parkinson's disease Italian classical philologists Academic staff of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa Academic staff of the University of Pisa University of Pisa alumni Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa alumni