Gianfranco Contini (4 January 1912 – 1 February 1990) was an Italian academic and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

. He studied at the Collegio Mellerio Rosmini in

Domodossola Domodossola (; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy. It was also known as Oscela, Oscella, Oscella dei Leponzi, Ossolo, Ossola Lepontiorum, and Domo d'Ossola (due to it ...

, then at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

, where he graduated in 1933. Later, he studied also in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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 city is main ...

, where he met

Giulio Einaudi Giulio Einaudi (; 2 January 1912 – 5 April 1999) was an Italian book publisher. The eponymous company that he founded in 1933 became "a European wellspring of fine literature, intellectual thought and political theory"Saxon, Wolfgang ''The Ne ...

, Massimo Mila, and Leone Ginzburg, who shortly after started the Einaudi publishing company. From 1934 to 1936, he lived in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, following

Joseph Bédier Joseph Bédier (28 January 1864 – 29 August 1938) was a French writer and historian of medieval France. Biography Bédier was born in Paris, France, to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunion. He was a p ...

's lessons, then he was called to teach in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, where he became a contributor to "Letteratura", a literary magazine where he shared his views, among others, with Eugenio Montale, and where he began to collaborate with the

Accademia della Crusca The (; ), generally abbreviated as La Crusca, is a Florence-based society of scholars of Italian linguistics and philology. It is one of the most important research institutions of the Italian language, as well as the oldest Academy#Linguisti ...

. In 1938, he was called to teach Romance Philology at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, as a successor of

Bruno Migliorini Bruno Migliorini (; 19 November 1896 – 18 June 1975) was an Italian linguist and philologist. He was the author of one of the first scientific histories of Italian language and was president of the Accademia della Crusca. Biography Migliori ...

. Among his students, there have been the critics D'Arco Silvio Avalle and Dante Isella. After 20 years of brilliant academic activity, he was appointed at 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 ...

, and to the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. Together with the University of Pi ...

. He was also associated with the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

. He directed the Centre of Philology Studies of the

, until March 1971. He belonged to the

Accademia dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

, and was President of the Società Dantesca Italiana. In 1987, he went back to his hometown where he died three years later.

Selected bibliography

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

,'' Rime'' (editor), 1939 *''Poeti del Duecento'' (editor), 1960 *''Letteratura dell'Italia unita 1861-1968'' (editor), 1968 * Francesco De Sanctis, ''Scelta di scritti critici e ricordi'' (editor), 1969 *''Varianti e altra linguistica'', 1970 (collection literary essays 1938-68) *''Un'idea di Dante'', 1970 * Carlo Emilio Gadda, ''La cognizione del dolore'' (introduction), 1970 *''Altri esercizi'', 1972 (collection of literary essays, 1942–71) * Roberto Longhi, ''Da Cimabue a Morandi'' (editor), 1973 *''Esercizi di lettura sopra autori contemporanei con un’appendice su testi non contemporanei'', 1974 (partially published before as ''Un anno di letteratura'', 1942) *''Una lunga fedeltà. Scritti su Eugenio Montale'', 1974 * Francesco Petrarca, ''Canzoniere'' (introduction), 1975 *''Letteratura italiana del Quattrocento'' (editor), 1976 *''Letteratura italiana delle origini'' (editor), 1978 * Eugenio Montale, ''L'opera in versi'' (editor), 1980 *''Letteratura italiana del Risorgimento 1789-1861'' (editor), 1986 *''Ultimi esercizî ed elzeviri'', 1987 (collection of literary essays, 1968–87) *''Antologia leopardiana'' (editor), 1988 * Carlo Emilio Gadda, ''Lettere a Gianfranco Contini a cura del destinatario 1934-67'', 1988 (letters edited as addressee) *''Quarant'anni di amicizia: scritti su Carlo Emilio Gadda (1934-88)'', 1989 *''Breviario di ecdotica'', 1990 *''Poeti del Dolce stil novo'' (editor), 1991 *''Racconti della Scapigliatura piemontese'' (editor), 1992 *''La letteratura italiana Otto-Novecento'' (editor), 1998 *''Postremi esercizi ed elzeviri'', 1998 (latest collection of essays) *''Poesie'', Pietro Montorfani ed., 2010 * Massimo Colella, ''Gianfranco Contini e Francesco Orlando: un’idea di Dante, un’idea della letteratura'', in «Xenia. Trimestrale di Letteratura e Cultura» (Genova), IV, 3, 2019, pp. 20–32.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contini, Gianfranco 1912 births 1990 deaths Academic staff of the University of Freiburg Italian literary critics Italian male non-fiction writers Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Academic staff of the University of Florence University of Turin alumni Academic staff of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 20th-century Italian philologists