Prof. em. Dr. Ottavio Besomi

Ottavio Besomi has been full Professor of Italian Language and Literature at the Federal Institute of Technology since 1989. He retired in April, 2002.

Born 1937, 1958-1963: University of Fribourg, Italian Literature and Romance Philology. 1963 Doctorate: Ricerche intorno alla 'Lira' di G. B. Marino. 1964-1965: Post-graduate formation in romance and modern Philology at the University Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. Habilitation: Studi per un'edizione critica dei 'Gesta Ferdinandi regis' di Lorenzo Valla. From 1969: Assistant Professor for Italian Literature at the University of Zurich. From 1977: Professor for Italian Literature at the University of Zurich. From 1989: Professor for Italian Language and Literature at the Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, in Zurich.

Main research interests in Philology and Textual Critics: Italian Humanism (Lorenzo Valla); Baroque Literature (Studies and Publications about Marino, Tassoni, Galileo); 19th and 20th centuries: Leopardi (critical edition of the Operette morali and of the diachronical Concordance), De Sanctis, Croce. Publication in course: ATLI (Thematical Archives of the Italian Lyrics).