Time.news – An Italian linguist and philologist, a professor much loved by students. Luca Serianni was this and much more, born in Rome on 30 October 1947 and died today at the age of 74, after three days in a coma: he was hospitalized from 18 July at San Camillo after being hit by a car, in Ostia , while crossing on the pedestrian crossing.
A pupil of Arrigo Castellani, Serianni graduated in literature in 1970. Professor emeritus of Italian Linguistics at La Sapienza, he had conducted investigations on various periods and aspects of Italian linguistic history, from the Middle Ages to today, and was the author of a successful grammar.
With Maurizio Trifone he had edited, starting from 2004, the Devoto-Oli, vocabulary of the Italian languagea work of which, since the 2017 edition, he has been co-author.
And with Pietro Trifone he had edited a History of the Italian language in three volumes.
In 2017 he was appointed consultant of the Ministry of Education for learning the Italian language.
For many years he had lived in Ostia, where he was very active in the cultural and social fields: last year he held three free lectio magistralis on the Divine Comedy in the frame of the Regina Pacis Church.
Serianni was a member of the Accademia della Crusca and the Accademia dei Lincei, and on 11 December 2010 he had been appointed vice president of the Dante Alighieri company, as well as being an ordinary shareholder of the Casa di Dante in Rome; director of the magazines ‘Italian linguistic studies’ and ‘Italian lexicography studies’, collaborator of several publications dedicated to linguistics.
Among the international awards he had received an honorary degree from the University of Valladolid and an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens.
Retired since 2017, on 14 June of the same year, at the Faculty of Letters of the Sapienza, he had held his last lesson entitled ‘Teaching Italian in the university and in the school’.
Staying in contact with Sapienza even after retirement, Luca Serianni had provided his consultancy, together with his colleague Valeria Della Valle, for the supervision of the vademecum adopted by the University ” Writing with Wisdom – Manual for clear, correct and effective texts ” , signing the introduction.
From the Roman University they define it “point of reference in national culture” and among other things they recall that the study of Italian “was not only his profession, but a great passion to which he dedicated his whole life.
Very active on the cultural scene of the capital and its Ostia, where he had lived for many years, he gave lectures and participated in television broadcasts, also bringing the general public closer to the fascination of language and its link with culture “.