Francesco Benozzo (22 February 1969 – 22 March 2025) was an Italian poet, musician and philologist. He worked as a professor in philology at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

, Italy, and was a visiting professor at the

Bath Spa University Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, Somerset, Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath, and one at Corsham Court in Wiltshi ...

, UK. Benozzo was known for being an active dissident against the

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by Local government, local and federal governments or intell ...

, with concrete protest actions that even led to his suspension from work for his rebellion against the power and in the name of freedom. His suspension from work due to his rebellion against the restrictions imposed during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

by the

Italian Government The government of Italy is that of a democratic republic, established by the Italian constitution in 1948. It consists of Legislature, legislative, Executive (government), executive, and Judiciary, judicial subdivisions, as well as of a head of ...

had a huge resonance on Italian media, as he was one of the only two university professors (among 70,000) suspended in Italy for this reason. He was the founder of the ''Observatory Against State Surveillance'', sponsored by the ''European centre for Science, Ethics, and Law''. Benozzo died on 22 March 2025, at the age of 56.

Biographical notes

''Poetry''

In Benozzo's conception, poetry is essentially an instrument of dissidence capable of debunking habitual perceptions of the world and restoring individual freedom to each human being. He is the author of long

epic poems Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

about natural landscapes and the origin of universe, which have been collected in 2023 in a bilingual edition (Italian and English) titled ''Sciamanica. Poems from the Borders of the Worlds''. Benozzo usually composed them orally and then performed them with his bardic harp. From 2015 onwards he was present in the List of nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature, with nominations made public by the

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide professional association, association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association ...

for his poetry in defence of natural places and

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

, and for his peculiar use of poetic techniques belonging to the ancient tradition of

oral poetry Oral poetry is a form of poetry that is composed and transmitted without the aid of writing. The complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain. Background Oral poetry is ...

and

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

. In 2016, on the official webpage of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy (), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is best known as the body t ...

, he was consecrated by the international readers' jury as the most worthy author for the prize itself. In 2024 other international scientific academies have officially nominated him announcing this nomination on their official websites: among them, the "Partnership Studies Group" and the "Global Academy for Liberal Arts". In 2022 he was awarded the International Prize "Poets from the frontiers": the committee for the prize describes Benozzo’s poetry as follows: “Visionary, unsettling, epic, windy, Benozzo has the inimitable capacity to recapture the original word when it first named the world. �� Poem after poem, unfailingly and amazingly this poet enacts a revolution of the very idea of poetry: with his atemporal and universal dimension, he is the

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

of post-modernity”.

''Philology and linguistics''

In his book ''Speaking Australopithecus'' (written together with the archaeologist

Marcel Otte Marcel Otte (born 5 October 1948) is a professor of Prehistory at the Université de Liège, Belgium. He is a specialist in Religion, Arts, Sociobiology, and the Upper Palaeolithic times of Europe and Central Asia. In the book ''Speaking Australop ...

) he argues for a much greater antiquity of human language than has usually been presumed in recent research (according to which it was born with

Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

at the end of

Middle Paleolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle P ...

– 50.000 years ago – or at the most with some

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

, 200.000 years ago), providing linguistic and archaeological evidence for seeing the appearance of human language with

Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; or (, ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genera ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans), ''Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus'' evolved from some ''Aus ...

, between 4 and 3 million years ago. He is considered the creator of Ethnophilology, "a new approach and an indiscipline which still maintains the emotions of meeting with texts and words". He is the author of more than 800 publications, including academic works on oral poetry, Medieval literatures, Celtic traditions,

dialectology Dialectology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logy, -logia'') is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now c ...

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, the Paleolithic continuity theory, and the problem of landscape in literature. Shortly before his death, he created the category of ''Homo poeta'', intended as the archetype of our way of perceiving the world before we were able to speak.

''Music''

As a songwriter and harpist, he released 17 CDs, produced in Italy, Denmark and UK, reaching an international wide appeal (two special mentions at the Edinburgh Folk Awards, one prize as "Best album of the month" assigned by the magazine "RootsWorld", and for two times the National Italian Musical Prize "Giovanna Daffini"). He represented Italian poetry and music in different international happenings, including the Rich Text Literature Festival in Cardiff (Wales), the Tradicionarius Festival in Barcelona (Spain), the Stanza Poetry Festival in St. Andrews (Scotland), the Festival Literario de Madeira (Portugal), the Printemps des poètes (France), and the Summartonar Festival (Faroe Islands, DK). He gave concerts in theatres and musical festival outside Europe, mainly in the USA (Los Angeles, Boston, New York), in Canada (Calgary, Montréal, Québec), and in Cuba. In 2003 he performed in Rome at the

Teatro Valle The ''Teatro Valle'' (literally Valley Theater) is a theatre and former opera house in Rome, Italy. It was built in 1726 for the Capranica family. In the middle of the 19th century, it switched from staging opera and theatre to only performances ...

together with the Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska.

Main discography

*''In'tla piola'' (Sain records, Wales/UK, 2000) *''Llyfr Taliesin'' (Frame Events, ITA, 2004) *''Arpa celtica'' (Live Concert, Centro Campostrini, ITA, 2005) *''Terracqueo'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2009) *''Libertà l'è morta'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2013) (with Fabio Bonvicini) *''Ponte del diavolo'' (RadiciMusic, ITA, 2014) (with Fabio Bonvicini) *''L'inverno necessario / The Necessary Winter'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2016) *''Un Requiem Laico'' (ARCI RE, ITA, 2016) (with Fabio Bonvicini & Fratelli Mancuso) *''Ytiddo. BPB- Benozzo Performs Bowie'' (Universalia, ITA, 2017) *''Cronache da un naufragio'' (Stella Nera, Mestre, ITA, 2022) (with Fabio Bonvicini) *''Poeti della marea'' (Udine, Forum, 2022) *''Song of the Remote Islands'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2023) (with Fabio Bonvicini) *''Sylvatica. Errant Shamanic Songs'' (Tutl Records, DK, 2024) (with Barbara Zanoni)

Main poetry books

*''Onirico geologico'', Ferrara, Edizioni Kolibris, 2014 *''Ferns in Revolt'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2016 *''The Castaway's Shack'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2017 *''Stòra Dìmun. A Walked Poem'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2019 *''Poem from the Edge of the World'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2019 *''Maelvarstal. Poem of the Creation of the Worlds'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2020 *''Autoktonia. Poem of the Suicide'', Ferrara, Kolibris, 2021 *''The Ridge and the Songs. Sailing the Archipelago of Poetry'', Udine, Forum, 2022 *''Sciamanica. Poems from the Borders of the Worlds'', Udine, Forum, 2023

Main philological books

*''Landscape Perception in Early Celtic Literature'', Aberystwyth, Celtic Studies Publications, 2004 *''La tradizione smarrita: le origini non scritte delle letterature romanze'', Roma, Viella, 2007 *''Cartografie occitaniche: approssimazione alla poesia dei trovatori'', Napoli, Liguori, 2008 *''Etnofilologia: un'introduzione'', Napoli, Liguori, 2010 *''Breviario di etnofilologia'', Lecce-Rovato, Pensa Multimedia, 2012 *''DESLI: dizionario etimologico-semantico della lingua italiana'' (with

Mario Alinei Mario Alinei (10 August 1926 – 9 August 2018) was an Italian linguist and professor emeritus at the University of Utrecht, where he taught from 1959 to 1987. He was founder and editor of ''Quaderni di semantica'', a journal of theoretical and a ...

), Bologna, Pendragon, 2015 *''The Shamanic Origins of European Culture'', Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2015 *''Il giro del mondo in ottanta saggi'', Roma, Aracne, 2015 *''Carducci'', Milano, Rizzoli-Corriere della sera, 2016 *''Studi di ecdotica romanza'', Roma, Aracne, 2016 *''Falsi germanismi nelle lingue romanze'' (with

), Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2018 *''Speaking Australopithecus. A New Theory on the Origins of Human Language'' (with

), Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2017 *''Perspectives in Semantics'', Edizioni dell’Orso, 2018 *''Poeti della marea. Canti bardici gallesi dal VI al X secolo'', Udine, Forum, 2022 *''Homo Poeta. Le origini della nostra specie'', Lucca, La Vela, 2024 *''Lo sciamanesimo. Origini, tradizioni, prospettive'', Lucca, La Vela, 2024

Other books

*''Anarchia e Quarto Umanesimo'', Bologna, Clueb, 2012 *''Appello all'UNESCO per liberare Dante dai dantisti'', Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 2013 *''David Bowie, L'arborescenza della bellezza molteplice'', Pordenne, Universalia, 2018 *''Lambrusco e Champagne'' (with Fabio Bonvicini), Reggio Emilia, Corsiero editore, 2020 *''Poesia, scienza e dissidenza. Interviste (2015-2020)'', Bologna, Clueb, 2020 *''Memorie di un filologo complottista'', Lucca, La Vela, 2021 *''Covid. Prove tecniche di totalitarismo'' (with Luca Marini), Lucca, La Vela, 2021 *''Biopandemismo'' (with Luca Marini), Lucca, La Vela, 2022 *''Robert Johnson. Mitologia e anarchia del più influente trovatore di sempre'', Genova, Castel Negrino, 2022 *''Leggende di ghiacciai'', Lucca, La Vela, 2022

References

External links

Benozzo's website at the University of Bologna

Website of the Paleolithic Continuity Paradigm
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benozzo, Francesco 1969 births 2025 deaths 21st-century Italian poets 20th-century Italian poets Italian musicians Italian philologists Italian harpists Italian essayists Italian male essayists 20th-century Italian essayists 21st-century Italian essayists Italian male non-fiction writers 20th-century Italian male writers