Philologist Andrea Mazzucchi is the new Director of the Department of Humanistic Studies at Federico II

Andrea Mazzucchi is the new Director of the Department of Humanistic Studies at the University of Naples Federico II.

Eread on the morning of December 15, 2020, takes over from the philosopher Edoardo Massimilla and will lead the Department for the next three years, starting from January 2021.

Mazzucchi, full professor of Italian Philology and Dante Philology, was a member of the Academic Senate and is currently President of the School of Human and Social Sciences of the University of Federico II.

Dedication to work was the hallmark of his brilliant academic career, up to his rise to the helm of the Department of Humanistic Studies. A modern philologist and skilled popularizer, he innovated manuscript studies, making them accessible and, at the same time, exciting for new generations.

Innovation that he constantly demonstrates, for example, in the management, at the Oratorian Library of the Girolamini of Napoli, of the Higher Education School in 'History and Philology of the Manuscript and the Ancient Book', born from an agreement between the University of Naples Federico II and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. An evocative journey that has also returned to the community the immense book heritage of the Oratorian complex.

The Department of Humanities collects the legacy of the ancient Faculty of Letters and Philosophy and is the largest of Federico II with 190 professors and researchers and an educational offer divided, among other things, into 16 three-year and master's degree courses and 4 research doctorates. A Department steeped in the territory that, with its many activities, offers constant contributions to cultural policy and the third mission activities that the University of Federico II puts into action.

“We must continue to enhance the rich tradition of humanistic knowledge, which represents a central axis in the research and educational offering of our great University,” says Andrea Mazzucchi. “Continuing to guarantee high quality, in the field of research and in that of educational offering, the Department will have to improve its structures, equipment and services for students in the coming years.”

Member of the Pontanian Academy, Mazzucchi coordinates the PhD in 'Texts, traditions and cultures of the book. Italian and novel studies' at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale.
Vice President of the Pio Rajna Centre for Literary, Philological and Linguistic Research, and member of the Board of Directors of the Casa di Dante in Rome, is part of the scientific commissions responsible for the National Edition of the Ancient Commentaries and the New Annotated Edition of Dante's Works.

Professor, researcher, but even more a scholar of medieval Italian literature with particular attention to Dante's work, his first reception, the relationship between text and image in the manuscript tradition. He is a member of the National Committee for the celebrations of the Seven Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of the Supreme Poet.

He directs prestigious scientific journals and series with other illustrious colleagues, and has coordinated the area of ​​'Historical, historical literary and historical artistic disciplines' of the National Research Plan 2021-2027. His latest work, in chronological order, is the curatorship of the volume by Enrico Malato "Nuovi studi su Dante. Lecturae Dantis, note e chiose dantesche", published on November 26, 2020 by Bertoncello Artigrafiche. A volume that confirms the constant direct relationship with the texts to decipher the Dante universe.