Piero Boitani (born 1947) is an Italian literary critic.

Life

Born in Rome, Boitani received his Ph.D. from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

while teaching there and has taught in the University of Pescara and

University of Perugia The University of Perugia ( Italian ''Università degli Studi di Perugia'') is a public university in Perugia, Italy. It was founded in 1308, as attested by the Bull issued by Pope Clement V certifying the birth of the Studium Generale. The offi ...

. He is Professor Emeritus of

Comparative Literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

and has taught at the

Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyola, and included all ...

and at the

University of Italian Switzerland A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

. He was the President of the European Society for

English Studies English studies (or simply, English) is an academic discipline taught in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education in English-speaking countries. This is not to be confused with English taught as a foreign language, which is a dis ...

from 1989 to 1995 (now Founding President), as well as becoming a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

, the Accademia dei Lincei, the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

, the Polish Academy of Arts, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, the Accademia dell’Arcadia, the Medieval Academy of America, and the Dante Society of America. In 2002 he received from 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 ...

the

Feltrinelli Prize The Feltrinelli Prize (from the Italian "Premio Feltrinelli", also known as "International Feltrinelli Prize" or "Antonio Feltrinelli Prize") is an award for achievement in the arts, music, literature, history, philosophy, medicine, and physical a ...

for

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

, in 2010 the De Sanctis Prize, and in 2016 the Balzan Prize for Comparative Literature. He is the

literary editor A literary editor is a editor responsible for refining and overseeing the quality of written content in a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Literary editor deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews. A literary ...

of the Greek and Latin classics series, ''Fondazione Valla''.

Selected works

Boitani has published, among others, the following volumes: * Prosatori Negri Americani del Novecento (Storia e Letteratura, 1973) * Chaucer and Boccaccio (Medium Aevum, 1977) * English Medieval Narrative of the 13th and 14th centuries (Cambridge UP 1982) * Chaucer and the Imaginary World of Fame (Brewer 1984) * The Tragic and the Sublime in

Medieval Literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

(Cambridge UP 1989) * La letteratura del Medioevo inglese (Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1991) * The Shadow of Ulysses. Figures of a Myth (Oxford UP 1994; It. orig. 1992; transl. Spanish and Brazilian, 2001, 2005) * Sulle orme di Ulisse (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007²) * The Bible and its Rewritings (Oxford UP 1999, It. orig. 1997) * The Genius to Improve an Invention (Notre Dame-London,

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

Press; It. orig. 1999) * Winged Words. Flight in Poetry and History (University of Chicago Press, 2007, It. orig. 2004) * Esodi e Odissee (Liguori, 2004) * Dante's Poetry of the Donati (London, Italian Studies, 2007) * La prima lezione sulla letteratura (Laterza, 2007) * Letteratura europea e Medioevo volgare (Il Mulino, 2007) * Il grande racconto delle stelle (Il Mulino, 2012) * Dante e il suo futuro (Storia e Letteratura, 2013) He also edited and contributed to a number of other works, including: * Chaucer and the Italian Trecento (Cambridge UP 1983) * The Cambridge Chaucer Companion, with J. Mann (Cambridge UP 2003²) * The European Tragedy of Troilus (Oxford UP 1989) * Lo spazio letterario del Medioevo volgare (5 vols. Salerno, 2005) He has edited and translated into Italian works including: *

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English alliterative verse. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot comb ...

(Adelphi 1986, verse) * Shakespeare's Cymbeline (Garzanti 1994, verse) *

The Cloud of Unknowing ''The Cloud of Unknowing'' (Middle English: ''The Cloude of Unknowyng'') is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer. The ...

(Adelphi 1998) * a complete Chaucer with facing texts (Einaudi 2000) * (Life and Introduction) W.B. Yeats, Opera poetica (Mondadori, 2005) * Il viaggio dell’anima (Fondazione Valla-Mondadori, 2007) * Seamus Heaney, Poesie (Introduction and Life, Mondadori, 2016).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boitani, Piero Italian literary critics Italian male non-fiction writers Living people Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Members of Academia Europaea Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America 1947 births