Anna Pontani (née Meschini;A. Meschini Pontani signed her publications alternatively using her family name (e.g. ) or her husband's family name (Pontani). Throughout this article, the double form "Meschini Pontani" is normalized for consistency. 11 February 1949 – 20 November 2021) was an Italian Byzantinist and scholar of the Renaissance, professor in Byzantine philology at the University of Padua.
Biography Born in Affile in a working-class family — her father was a railway worker, her mother a workwoman at the Snia —, Meschini studied at the "Mancinelli" lyceum in Velletri and graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome (1968–1972) defending a thesis on Euripides' Rhesus. In 1972 she was nominated Research assistant at the University of Padua, invited by Filippo Maria Pontani, then-professor of Byzantine studies. In 1980 she became associate professor, and was promoted Professor in Byzantine studies in 1987. She taught in Padua until her retirement in 2019.
She and Filippo Maria Pontani married in 1975 and remained together until his premature death in 1983.On F. M. Pontani, see . Their only son, Filippomaria, is (2025) Professor in Classical philology at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei.
She died in 2021 in Padua.
Research activity Meschini Pontani edited, translated and commented the Chronological narration by Niketas Choniates, in three volumes.. She is best known, however, as a leading scholar in Renaissance studies, and a specialist of Greek scholars and studies in the Italian Renaissance.
Publications Meschini Pontani's kleine Schriften on Greek studies in the Italian Renaissance were collected and reprinted immediately after her death, in four volumes . The full list of her publications in .
Books
Articles
= XVI. Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress. Wien, 4.—9. Oktober 1981. Akten. II/6.
= . Review of , here cited because it expands to an essay on the Greek studies in Italian Renaissance.
= . = .
= .
References
Bibliography