Visiting fellows

A Visiting Fellowship is offered for tenure at Birmingham by a specialist in Leopardi and/or European Romanticism on an ad hoc basis.

Claudio Colaiacomo (March 2010)

Professor Colaiacomo was keynote speaker for the Leopardi day ‘Mind and Psyche. Writing and the Self in Giacomo Leopardi’, sponsored by the Leopardi Centre at Birmingham. He gave a lecture entitled ‘Le discontinuità dell’Io’.

Claudio Colaiacomo is Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’. Among his most important works on Leopardi are: the essay ‘Post-etica rivoluzionaria. La conquista dell'insensibilità nel discorso leopardiano’ (2005), published in the journal ‘Critica del testo’, a study in volume ‘Camera obscura, Studio di due canti leopardiani’ (1992), and the entries ‘Canti’ and ‘Zibaldone di pensieri’ for the ‘Letteratura Italiana. Le opere’ (1995).

Gilberto Lonardi (February 2006)

Professor Lonardi was also available during his visit for consultation with undergraduate and postgraduate students working on Leopardi and related topics.

Gilberto Lonardi is Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Verona, and is one of Italy's leading experts on 19th and 20th century writing. Among his most important publications on Leopardi: Classicismo e utopia nella lirica leopardiana (1969), Leopardismo. Tre saggi sugli usi di Leopardi dall'Otto al Novecento (1974; rev. 1990), and his recent L'oro di Omero. L'"IIiade", Saffo: antichissimi di Leopardi (2005), winner of the 2005 Premio Moretti.

Christian Genetelli (March 2005)

Dr. Christian Genetelli lectures in Italian literature at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). A specialist on Giacomo Leopardi, he has published numerous articles in journals and edited collections. His latest contributions are a co-edition of Leopardi's Appressamento della morte (2002) and the volume Incursioni leopardiane. Nei dintorni della "conversione letteraria" (2003).

He delivered seminars on:

Massimo Bacigalupo, February 2004

Massimo Bacigalupo is well-known for his work on English and American literature, including Wordsworth and Pound. He is the recipient of several major prizes, including, for his translation of The Prelude, the Premio Internazionale Monselice (1990), and the Italian National Translation Prize (2001). His visit to Birmingham was sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Leopardi and the Age of Romanticism, as part of its continuing programme of seminars. He gave talks on Translating Romanticism: Wordsworth's Prelude in Italian and Italian Perspectives on English Romanticism

Marco A. Bazzocchi, February 2003

The Fellowship in 2003 was held by Marco A Bazzocchi who was in Birmingham in February. He lectured on the topic Romanzesco e antiromanzesco nelle Operette morali di Leopardi.

Mario Andrea Rigoni, October 2000

The Fellowship in 2000-2001 was held by Mario Andrea Rigoni who was in Birmingham from 15th to 24th October. During this time he conducted three seminars: on classicism and nihilism in Leopardi; on the Discorso sopra lo stato presente dei costumi degl’Italiani; and on the relation between Leopardi and Shelley. He also spoke in Oxford and London.

Lucio Felici, February 2000

The first Fellow appointed was Lucio Felici, for a long time a senior commissioning editor who actively promoted the critical edition of the Zibaldone (ed. Pacella) published by Garzanti in 1991. Well known for his extensive publications on Leopardi and other writers of the early 19th century, he is the editor of Leopardi’s complete works in book-form (Newton Compton 1997) and on CD-ROM (Lexis 1998). Sadly, at the very last minute Lucio was prevented by illness from coming to Birmingham, and was therefore unable to deliver his planned seminars on the ‘ciclo di Aspasia’. But he had prepared a user’s guide to the Lexis CD-ROM which was demonstrated by Franco D’Intino to an appreciative audience of students who were at that point about to embark on their final-year Leopardi dissertations; Franco also stepped into the empty seminar slots.