Maria Corti (7 September 1915 – 22 February 2002) was an Italian

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 ...

, literary critic, and novelist. Considered one of the leading literary scholars of post-World War II Italy, she was awarded numerous prizes including the

Premio Campiello The ''Premio Campiello'' is an annual Italian literary prize. A jury of literary experts (''giuria di letterati'' in Italian) identifies books published during the year and, in a public hearing, selects five of those as finalists. These books ...

for the entire body of her work. Her works of fiction were informed by her literary scholarship but also had a distinctly autobiographical vein, particularly her ''Voci del nord-est'' (1986) and ''II canto delle sirene'' (1989). For most of her career she was based 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 she established the ''Fondo Manoscritti di Autori Moderni e Contemporanei'', an extensive curated archive of material on modern Italian writers.West, Rebecca (2006)
"Maria Corti (1915–2002)"
''Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies'', pp. 513-515. Routledge.

Life and career

Corti was born in Milan, the only child of Emilio and Celestina (''née'' Goldoni) Corti. Her mother was a pianist who died when Corti was ten years old. After her mother's death, her father, an engineer frequently absent from Milan while working in southern Italy, placed her in a boarding school run by the Sisters of

Saint Marcellina Marcellina (c. 327 – 397) was born in Trier, Gaul the daughter of the Praetorian prefect of Gaul, and was the elder sister of Ambrose of Milan and Satyrus of Milan. Marcellina devoted her life as a consecrated virgin to the practice of pray ...

. She would remain there for the next five years. After leaving the boarding school she studied at a liceo in Milan, living largely on her own apart from summer holidays spent with her father in

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

. She then attended the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

where she would eventually complete two

laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremo ...

degrees. The first was in literature in 1936 with a thesis on medieval Latin supervised by Benvenuto Terracini. The second was in philosophy with a thesis on African Spir supervised by

Antonio Banfi Antonio Banfi (Vimercate, 30 September 1886 – Milano, 22 July 1957) was an Italian philosopher and Senate of the Republic (Italy), senator. He is also noted for founding the Italian philosophical school called critical rationalism. Although i ...

.Montagnani, Cristina (2013)
"Corti, Maria"
'' Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani ''. Online version Retrieved 23 October 2014 . Corti's early academic career coincided with

Italian Fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

and was curtailed by laws which prohibited women from holding university or liceo teaching positions. From 1939 to 1950 she worked as a teacher in a ginnasio (secondary school for students from age 11 to 16) in Brescia, dedicated herself to private study and writing, and was active in anti-Fascist circles. From 1950 until 1962 she taught at the Alessandro Volta liceo in Como and then at the Cesare Beccaria liceo in Milan. She also held a part-time teaching post at the

from 1955 which she combined with her teaching at the liceo in Milan. After her mentor Benvenuto Terracini had returned from exile in 1947, she renewed her research collaboration with him and formed close personal and intellectual ties with his other students— Cesare Segre, Gian Luigi Beccaria and Bice Mortara Garavelli. The ties would last a lifetime, and Corti (who never married) very often spoke of these scholars as her "family". Segre, Cesare (24 February 2002)
"Maria Corti" La ragazza che si innamorò di Dante"
''

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

''. Retrieved 6 November 2014 . Her first major university post came in 1962 when she was appointed to the chair of Italian language history at the University of Lecce. That same year she published her first work of fiction, ''L'ora di tutti'', an historical novel set in

Otranto Otranto (, , ; ; ; ; ) is a coastal town, port and ''comune'' in the province of Lecce (Apulia, Italy), in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). ...

. She had written two other novels in 1947. The first of these, originally titled ''Il treno della pazienza'' and based on her experiences commuting by train between her teaching job in Brescia and her home in Milan, was published in a revised version in 1981 as ''Cantare al buio''. The second, ''La leggenda di domani'', was published posthumously in 2007 with an introduction by Cesare Segre. Set in Apulia, the novel tells the story of a young orphan girl from Milan who seeks refuge with a fisherman's family in

Santa Maria di Leuca Santa Maria di Leuca, often spelled simply Leuca is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Castrignano del Capo, in the Salento peninsula (Apulia), southern Italy. A part of the town once belonged to the ''comune'' of Gagliano del Capo. The territo ...

. In 1964, Corti returned to the University of Pavia, where she was given a permanent appointment as a professor of Italian Language History. She remained at Pavia for the rest of her career where her scholarship, along with that of Cesare Segre, D'Arco Silvio Avalle, and Dante Isella, Corti's scholarship created the so-called "Pavia school" of philology and

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

. At Pavia, she also established the ''Fondo Manoscritti di Autori Moderni e Contemporanei'', an extensive curated archive of autograph manuscripts and other documents by 19th- and 20th-century Italian writers. She founded and edited the journal ''Autografo'' which published scholarly work based on material in the archive, as well as two other journals ''

Alfabeta ''alfabeta'' was a monthly cultural and literary magazine published between 1979 and 1988 in Milan, Italy. The magazine was the cultural landmark in the country during its existence. History and profile ''alfabeta'' was established in Milan by ...

'' and ''Strumenti critici''. Corti continued working up until the time of her death. The manuscript of her last work, ''Scritti su Cavalcanti e Dante'', was handed to her publisher in early February 2002. She died of respiratory failure in Milan two weeks later at the age of 86. Rai News (23 February 2002)
"E' morta la scrittrice Maria Corti"
. Retrieved 28 October 2014 Her funeral was held at the University of Pavia attended by her colleagues and students,

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

, and the presidents of 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 ...

and 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 ...

. Following the funeral, she was buried in her maternal family tomb in Pellio Intelvi. Volume 44 of ''Autografo'', dedicated entirely to Corti's life and work and including previously unpublished pages from her diary, was published later that year.Cremante, Renzo and Stella, Angelo (eds.) (2002). ''Maria Corti: Congedi primi e ultimi'' (''Autografo'', Vol. 44). Interlinea

Principal works

Philology and literary criticism * ''Studi sulla latinitià merovingia in testi agiografici minori'' (Principato, 1939) * ''Studi sulla sintassi della lingua poetica avanti lo Stilnovo'' (Olschki 1953) * ''Metodi e fantasmi'' (Feltrinelli, 1969), republished in 1997 in an expanded edition under the title ''Nuovi metodi e fantasmi'' * ''I metodi attuali della critica in Italia'', co-authored with Cesare Segre (ERI, 1970) * ''Entro dipinta gabbia: Tutti gli scritti inediti, rari e editi 1809-1810 di Giacomo Leopardi'', (Bompiani, 1972) * ''Princìpi della comunicazione letteraria'' (Bompiani, 1976), published in English translation as ''An Introduction to Literary Semiotics'' (Indiana University Press, 1978) * ''II viaggio testuale. Le ideologie e le strutture semiotiche'' (Einaudi, 1978) * ''Beppe Fenoglio. Storia di un «continuum» narrativo'' (Liviana, 1978) * ''Una lingua di tutti: Pratica, storia e grammatica della lingua italiana'', co-authored with Emilio Manzotti and Flavia Ravazzoli (Le Monnier, 1979) * ''Dante a un nuovo crocevia'' (Sansoni-Le lettere, 1981) * ''La felicità mentale: Nuove prospettive per Cavalcanti e Dante'' (Einaudi, 1983) * ''Per filo e per segno: Grammatica italiana per il biennio'', co-authored with Claudia Caffi (Bompiani, 1989) * ''Storia della lingua italiana e storia dei testi'' (Ricciardi, 1989) * ''Percorsi dell'invenzione: Il linguaggio poetico e Dante'' (Einaudi, 1993) * ''Ombre dal fondo'' (Einaudi, 1997) * ''Un ponte tra latino e italiano'' (Interlinea, 2002) * ''Scritti su Cavalcanti e Dante'' (Einaudi, 2003) Fiction * ''L'ora di tutti'' (Feltrinelli, 1962) * ''II ballo dei sapienti'' (Mondadori, 1966) * ''Cantare nel buio'' (Farfengo, 1981) * ''Voci del nord-est: Taccuino americano'' (Bompiani, 1986) * ''II canto delle sirene'' (Bompiani, 1989) * ''Otranto allo specchio'', (All'insegna del pesce d'oro, 1990) * ''Catasto magico'' (Einaudi, 1999) * ''Storie'' (Manni, 2000) * ''Le pietre verbali'' (Einaudi, 2001) * ''La leggenda di domani'' (Manni, 2007)

Life and career

Principal works

References

Further reading