Background
Vittore Felice Giovanni Branca was born on July 9, 1913 in Savona, Italy, but spent much of his childhood on Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy. Son of Giovanni and Lucia Branca.
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educationist literary critic philologist
Vittore Felice Giovanni Branca was born on July 9, 1913 in Savona, Italy, but spent much of his childhood on Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy. Son of Giovanni and Lucia Branca.
After graduating from the classical high school "Gabriello Chiabrera" in Savona, in 1931 he attended the entrance examination at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (University of Pisa). As a sign of protest, young Branca appeared before the examination committee wearing the badge of Catholic Action, whose youth circles were suppressed by the fascist regime. On this occasion he has his first encounter with John Gentile, who became his master. He graduated in 1935 with the highest grades and the Doctor of Letters degree.
Vittore worked as a professor at the Accademia della Crusca, Florence, Italy from 1937 till 1948. He worked as a professor of Italian Literature at Maria Assunta University, Rome in 1948-1950. In 1949 he founded the magazine "Italian Letters" together with Giovanni Getto. From 1952 to 1953 he was in Paris, as a visiting professor at the Sorbonne University. In 1953 he began his career at the University of Padua. He was also rector of the University of Bergamo between 1968 and 1972.
Vittore Branca chaired the Division of Arts and Letters of UNESCO in 1950-1953 and was Vice-President of National Italian Commission of UNESCO untill 1970. Moreover, he was president of the Institute Association for Study of Italian Language and Literature and vice-president of Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Branca was an adviser to publishing houses. In 1968 he chaired an authoritative committee to establish the "Institute of Foreign Language and Literature" at the university. He was also an editor of the magazines "Lett ere Italiane" and "Studi sul Boccaccio'.
Branca served in the Italian Resistance during World War II and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Resistenza and the Commandeur de l’Ordre de la Pologne Liberee. He also received several honorary degrees from various Universities: Budapest (1967), New York (1973), Bergamo (1973), Sorbonne of Paris (1976), McGill of Montreal (1985), Cologne (1998). Branca's contributions to Boccaccio's research were fundamental. In 1962 he identified Hamilton 90 as a precious autograph of Decameron, written by Boccaccio around 1370. In 1998, he discovered a manuscript made under Boccaccio's personal supervision, also of the Decameron, conceived in the mid-fifties of the 1300s and formally drawn up in 1360. Branca's studies have also influenced the philological field. After his death, he left his library as a special fund at the Library of the Normal Superiore School. He was an Honorary Citizen of Florence (2002).
Vittore was Catholic. He was a man with strong religious roots.
Vittore was a member of International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures (committee member), Instituto Veneto Scienze Lettere e Arti (president, between 1979 and 1985), Accademia dei Lincei, Accademia Arcadia, Accademia Polacca della Scienze, Academie du Monde Latin, Medieval Academy of America; an honorary member Modern Language Association of America, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Union of Writers (Moscow).
Vittore married Olga Montagner in July, 1938. He had 4 children: Simona, Daniela, Donata, Lodovico.
