Luciano Formisano, Professor Emeritus, is a specialist in Romance Philology
and the Spanish-Italian travel literature of the Renaissance. As a
romanist, he has devoted his research mainly to Dante (a new
edition of 'Fiore' and 'Detto d'Amore', and an anthology of the
Provencal and French poems quoted in the 'Vulgari Eloquentia'), to
French medieval lyrics and epic and to medieval Spanish literature.
As a specialist of travel literature, he is the author of the first
critical edition of Amerigo Vespucci's letters (Milano, Mondadori,
1985), which has been the basis for the Spanish and the English
translations published for Alianza Editorial (Madrid 1986) and
Marsilio Editors (New York, 1992). He has also been appointed as
Philological Editor of the "Repertorium Columbianum", a collection
of contemporary sources relating to the Discovery of America,
published under the auspices of the Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies of the University of California at Los Angeles;
in this multivolume series (13 volumes published) he is the author
of a critical edition of Columbus's "Book of Privileges"
(University of California Press 1996; historical study and English
translation by Helen Nader) and of the Italian Reports on
America, 1493-1533. Accounts by Contemporary Observers
(Turnhout, Brepols, 2002, with a historical Introduction by
Geoffrey Symcox). In 1992 he has published a new edition of
Columbus's Letter on the Discovery (February-March 1493).
As regards the Italian travel literature of the
Renaissance he has also published the volume "La Scoperta nelle
relazioni sincrone degli Italiani" (Roma 1996, "Nuova Raccolta
Colombiana", vol. V: historical Introduction by Gabriella Airaldi),
and several contributions to the study of the literary and
linguistic patterns of travel writings, with especial consideration
of narrative techniques and intertextuality. Other contributions
concern the Italian voyage anthologies of the early Sixteenth
century and metholodical questions in editing exploration
texts.
Other fields of reserch are the history of
romance Philology and the "poesia neodialettale" of the XXth
century.
Prize "Antonio Feltrinelli 2017 per la Filologia" (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei).
