Background
Rudolph Altrocchi was born in Florence, Italy.
Rudolph Altrocchi was born in Florence, Italy.
He attended Harvard University, earning his Doctor of Philosophy in 1914.
Altrocchi"s family emigrated to the United States when he was a child. Between 1910 and 1928, he taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, and Brown University. From 1928 to his retirement in 1947, he served as chairman of the Italian department at the University of California, Berkeley.
They had two sons, John and Paul.
Paul Hemenway Altrocchi became a renowned neurologist. Altrocchi served in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, managing propaganda and liaison functions in Rome and Lyon, France.
Altrocchi"s 1944 book Sleuthing in the Stacks was a collection of irreverent essays in which Altrocchi deftly dissected such varied topics as forged marginal notes in an obscure Renaissance text, the literary and mythical predecessors of Tarzan, and the image of Dante in a minor painting in a church in Florence. He died in Berkeley, California.