Laura Mancinelli
Laura Mancinelli OMRI (Italian: [ˈlaura mantʃiˈnɛlli]; 18 December 1933 – 7 July 2016) was an Italian writer, germanist medievalist and university professor.[1]
Laura Mancinelli | |
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Born | Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy | 18 December 1933
Died | 7 July 2016 82) Turin, Piedmont, Italy | (aged
Resting place | Exilles Cemetery, Exilles, Piedmont, Italy, IT |
Occupation | writer, author of historical novels, Germanist and translator, mediaevalist |
Nationality | Italy |
Alma mater | University of Turin |
Notable works | The Twelve Abbots of Challant, The Miracle of Saint Odilia |
Mancinelli also wrote academic texts, children's books, essays (numerous of medieval history), and historical novels.[2]
Life
Laura Mancinelli was born in Udine in 1933 and lived in Rovereto for four years before moving to Turin with her family in 1937.
After her school education and studies, she graduated from the University of Turin in 1956 with a degree in german literature with a focus on modern literature.
In the years following her doctorate she taught without ever giving up her passion for medieval german culture. In 1969 she wrote the essay The Song of the Nibelungs. Problems and values.
In the 1970s she taught germanic philology at the University of Sassari and then called in Venice by the Germanist Ladislao Mittner, in 1976 she founded the Department of History of German Language at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.[3]
On the advice of his colleague and friend, Claudio Magris, in 1972 she edited and translated into Italian from the original volume, the Nibelungenlied, followed in 1978 by Tristan (Gottfried von Straßburg) and in 1989 by Gregorius and Poor Heinrich (Hartmann von Aue).
After returning to Turin as holder of the University Chair of germanic philology, in 1981 Laura Mancinelli made her debut in fiction, publishing, The Twelve Abbots of Challant (winner the same year of the Mondello Prize[4]), a historical novel that the author had begun to write in 1968. After came Il fantasma di Mozart in 1986 and The Miracle of Saint Odilia in 1989.
In the early 1990s, affected by multiple sclerosis, Laura Mancinelli left the Chair of german philology.
From 1994 onwards, she devoted herself entirely to writing and published more than fifteen works throughout the decade, despite hospital stays and lengthy rehabilitation.
In 2009 she published the novel Gli occhiali di Cavour, followed by Due storie d'amore in 2011, free interpretations of the story of two famous couples, Kriemhild and Siegfried, Tristan and Iseult.
Mancinelli died on 7 July 2016 in Turin as a result of her illness.[5][6][7][8] The farewell ceremony took place on 11 July 2016 in the monumental cemetery of Turin; the funeral took place in Exilles in the Susa Valley, where the writer had set one of her novels.
Works
Novels
- I dodici abati di Challant (1981; English translation: The Twelve Abbots of Challant, 2003)
- Il miracolo di santa Odilia (1989; English translation: The Miracle of Saint Odilia, 2003)
- Gli occhi dell'imperatore (1993)
- I tre cavalieri del Graal (1996)
- Il principe scalzo (1999)
- La musica dell'isola (2000)
- Attentato alla Sindone (2000)
- Biglietto d'amore (2002)
- I colori del cuore (2005)
- Un misurato esercizio della cattiveria (2005)
- Il ragazzo dagli occhi neri (2007)
- Natale sotto la Mole (2008)
- Due storie d'amore (2011)
- Un peccatore innocente (2013)
Translations
- (in Italian) I Nibelunghi, Turin: Einaudi, 1972
- (in Italian) Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristano, Turin: Einaudi, 1978
- (in Italian) Heimito von Doderer, I demoni. Dalla cronaca del caposezione Geyrenhoff, Turin: Einaudi, 1979
- (in Italian) Hartmann von Aue, Gregorio and Il povero Enrico, Turin: Einaudi, 1989
- (in Italian) Konrad Bayer, La testa di Vitus Bering, Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 1993
References
- "Mancinelli, Laura in the Italian Encyclopaedia of Science, Letters, and Arts". www.treccani.it (in Italian).
- Editor, Giulio Einaudi. "Laura Mancinelli < Einaudi". www.einaudi.it (in Italian).CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
- "Gli occhi di Laura, in Le lingue occidentali nei 150 anni di storia di Ca' Foscari" (PDF) (in Italian).
- RAI Regione Sicilia. "RAI Regione Sicilia – VII Premio Letterario Internazionale Mondello" (in Italian).
- Isabella Bossi Fedrigotti. "Morta Laura Mancinelli, germanista e scrittrice" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera.
- Luigi Forte. "Laura Mancinelli, il Medioevo tra rigore e prosa fantastica" (in Italian). La Stampa.
- "Addio alla scrittrice e germanista Laura Mancinelli" (in Italian). la Repubblica.
- "TG Valle d'Aosta – Edizione delle 19.30 del 8 luglio 2016" (in Italian).
Sources
- Anderson, Helen Victoria (2010), Historical and detective fiction in Italy 1950-2006 : Calvino, Malerba and Mancinelli, D. Phil. University of Oxford
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