author
Domenico Comparetti
1835–1927
A self-taught classicist who rose from work in a family pharmacy to become one of Italy’s leading scholars, he brought unusual range and curiosity to everything from Greek antiquity to folk poetry. Best known to many readers for Virgil in the Middle Ages, he wrote with the depth of a philologist and the imagination of a cultural historian.
2 Audiobooks
Virgilio nel Medio Evo, vol. I
by Domenico Comparetti
Virgilio nel Medio Evo, vol. II
by Domenico Comparetti
About the author
Born in Rome in 1835 and later active in Pisa, Florence, and Rome, Domenico Comparetti became a major Italian scholar of classical philology, papyrology, and epigraphy. Early accounts note that he first studied natural science and mathematics and spent time working in a family pharmacy before his passion for languages and ancient literature pulled him decisively toward the humanities.
His work ranged widely. He taught Greek, directed important scholarly institutions, and published studies that moved between the ancient world and later literary tradition. He is especially remembered for Virgil in the Middle Ages, a landmark study of how Virgil’s reputation changed across centuries, and for his research on popular poetry and myth, including work connected with the Kalevala.
Comparetti died in Florence in 1927. What still makes him interesting is the breadth of his mind: he was the kind of scholar who could treat ancient texts, folklore, and cultural memory as parts of one long human story.