The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani () is a biographical dictionary published in 100 volumes by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1960 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biographies of distinguished Italians. The entries are signed by their authors and provide a rich bibliography.
History
The work was conceived in 1925, to follow the model of similar works such as the German Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1912, 56 volumes) or the British Dictionary of National Biography (from 2004 the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; 60 volumes). It is planned to include biographical entries on Italians who deserve to be preserved in history and who lived at any time during the long period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the present. As director of the Treccani, Giovanni Gentile entrusted the task of coordinating the work of drafting to Fortunato Pintor, who was soon joined by Arsenio Frugoni. In 1959 the direction was taken up by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti.
The first volume was published in 1960 to mark the 100th anniversary of the unification of Italy. It had taken about 15 years to organize a huge index of historical figures from which 40,000 were selected as Italians deserving to be remembered by a separate entry. In December 2020, the 100th and last volume appeared. Meanwhile updates were occasionally issued: for example, in 1990 a supplement was issued for the letters A-C containing entries of people who had died before 1985.
In October 2009, following the threatened closure of the work, or reduction to a simplified version that would only be maintained online, the publisher launched an appeal to ensure the continuation according to the strict scholarly criteria that had hitherto characterized the paper version.
In 2010 the list of planned items from the letters M to Z was published, for the purpose of their inclusion in the planned future volumes. Currently the director of the work is Raffaele Romanelli. In March 2011 a new portal was designed to access the dictionary, in conjunction with the online version of the Treccani Encyclopaedia. This was formally launched on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italy.
Volumes
1: Aaron-Albertucci 2: Albicante-Ammannati 3: Ammirato-Arcoleo 4: Arconati-Bacaredda 5: Bacca-Baratta 6: Baratteri-Bartolozzi 7: Bartolucci-Bellotto 8: Bellucci-Beregan 9: Berengario-Biagini 10: Biagio-Boccaccio 11: Boccadibue-Bonetti 12: Bonfadini-Borrello 13: Borremans-Brancazolo 14: Branchi-Buffetti 15: Buffoli-Caccianemici 16: Caccianiga-Caluso 17: Calvart-Canefri 18: Canella-Cappello 19: Cappi-Cardona 20: Carducci-Carusi 21: Caruso-Castelnuovo 22: Castelvetro-Cavallotti 23: Cavallucci-Cerretesi 24: Cerreto-Chini 25: Chinzer-Cirni 26: Cironi-Collegno 27: Collenuccio-Confortini 28: Conforto-Cordero 29: Cordier-Corvo 30: Cosattini-Crispolto 31: Cristaldi-Dalla Nave 32: Dall'Anconata-Da Ronco 33: D'Asaro-De Foresta 34: Primo supplemento A-C 35: Indice A-C 36: De Fornari-Della Fonte 37: Della Fratta-Della Volpaia 38: Della Volpe-Denza 39: Deodato-Di Falco 40: Di Fausto-Donadoni 41: Donaggio-Dugnani 42: Dugoni-Enza 43: Enzo-Fabrizi 44: Fabron-Farina 45: Farinacci-Fedrigo 46: Feducci-Ferrerio 47: Ferrero-Filonardi 48: Filoni-Forghieri 49: Forino-Francesco da Serino 50: Francesco 1. Sforza-Gabbi 51: Gabbiani-Gamba 52: Gambacorta-Gelasio 2 53: Gelati-Ghisalberti 54: Ghiselli-Gimma 55: Ginammi-Giovanni da Crema 56: Giovanni Di Crescenzio-Giulietti 57: Giulini-Gonzaga 58: Gonzales-Graziani 59: Graziano-Grossi Gondi 60: Grosso-Guglielmo da Forli 61: Guglielmo Gonzaga-Jacobini 62: Iacobiti-Labriola 63: Labroca-Laterza 64: Latilla-Levi Montalcini 65: Levis-Lorenzetti 66: Lorenzetto-Macchetti 67: Macchi-Malaspina 68: Malatacca-Mangelli 69: Mangiabotti-Marconi 70: Marcora-Marsilio 71: Marsilli-Massimino da Salerno 72: Massimo-Mechetti 73: Meda-Messadaglia 74: Messi-Miraglia 75: Miranda-Montano 76: Montauti-Morlaiter 77: Morlini-Natolini 78: Natta-Nurra 79: Nursio-Ottolini Visconti 80: Ottone-Pansa 81: Pansini-Pazienza 82: Pazzi-Pia 83: Piacentini-Pio V 84: Piovene-Ponzo 85: Ponzone-Quercia 86: Querenghi-Rensi 87: Renzi-Robortello (2016) 88: Robusti-Roverella (2017) 89: Rovereto-Salvemini (2017) 90: Salvestrini-Saviozzo da Siena (2017) 91: Savoia-Semeria (2018) 92: Semino-Sisto IV (2018) 93: Sisto V-Stammati (2019) 94: Stampa-Tarantelli (2019) 95: Taranto-Togni (2019) 96: Toja-Trivelli (2019) 97: Trivulzio-Valeri (2020) 98: Valeriani-Verra (2020) 99: Verrazzano-Vittorio Amedeo (2020) 100:Vittorio Emanuele I-Zurlo (2020)
References
External links