Salvatore Boniello

Salvatore Boniello (18 February 1928 – 25 October 2010) was an Italian historian and writer. A primary school teacher from the early post-World War II years, he conducted historical, dialectological, and ethnographic research on Irpinia. The author of numerous publications, he founded the Museum of Technology, Farming, and Culture of Rural Life in Alta Irpinia in Guardia Lombardi.

He was also a journalist and correspondent to several newspapers, national (Il Tempo and Il Mattino) and local (Altirpinia, Corriere dell'Irpinia, and Ottopagine).

Biography Salvatore Boniello was born on 18 February 1928 in Guardia Lombardi in Campania, Italy.

Teaching career and involvement in UNLA Boniello began his career in elementary education at the age of 18 in 1946, in the context of low literacy in the mountainous areas of Alta Irpinia. His love of teaching led him to travel from one village to another by foot, often in harsh weather.

Ten years later, in 1956, he established a Cultural Center for Lifelong Learning (CCEP) of the National Union for the Fight Against Illiteracy (UNLA) in Guardia Lombardi. The following year, he established courses for illiterate people in Basilicata. In 1958, he became the head of the CCEP in Guardia Lombardi, which he was until 1962, when he was elected a UNLA regional delegate for Campania.

In 1968, he established and directed the Cultural Services Center of Avellino and established the Cultural Services Center in Potenza, Mercato San Severino, Secondigliano. In 1969, with the office of the UNLA national inspector, he visited all the CCEP in and Cultural Service Centers in Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Sardinia, Puglia, and Basilicata.

In 1972, he set up the "Lazzare" tree nursery in Guardia Lombardi.

In 1976, he organized at the CCEP 50 courses for immigrants on the English, Spanish, French, and German languages. In 1980, the year of the violent 1980 Irpinia earthquake, he was elected Deputy Mayor of Guardia Lombardi. During that time, he created the Museum of Technology, Farming, and Culture of Rural Life in Alta Irpinia (in 1981). There, linguist Edgar Radtke announced in a press release his intention to organize a day of study dedicated to Boniello and to pursue his interrupted research.