Giovanni Aquilecchia

Giovanni Aquilecchia, (known as Gianni) (28 November 1923 in Nettuno, Italy – 3 August 2001 in Camden, London, heart failure) was a Professor of Italian at Bedford College, London, and the merged college with Royal Holloway, University of London. He was one of the great Italian Renaissance scholars of the second half of the 20th century.

Early life He was the son of Vincenzo Aquilecchia, an officer in the Italian army, and his wife, Maria Letizia, née Filibeck.

He was first educated in Turin and then at the liceum Torquato Tasso, Rome. At nineteen, he entered the Faculty of Letters at the University of Rome and graduated with first-class honours in 1946. for services towards the furtherance of the study of Italian history, literature, art or economics.

He was appointed professor emeritus and then honorary professor of Italian at University College London in 1998.

Personal life In 1951, in London, he married Costantina Maria Bacchetta (born c. 1929), a student. They had two sons and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1973. In 1992, he married Catherine Posford.