Tullio di Mauro: Storico, Lessicografo, Intellettuale Pubblico

Talk by Prof. Nicoletta Maraschio
(University of Florence, Honorary President Accademia della Crusca)

Tullio De Mauro (31 March 1932 – 5 January 2017) was an Italian linguist, a professor emeritus of general linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and an Italian politician. In 1963 he published the monumental Storia linguistica dell'Italia unita ("Linguistic History of Unified Italy"). Two years later De Mauro published L'introduzione alla semantica ("Introduction to Semantics") and, in 1971, Senso e Significato. After preparing the entries on semiotics for the Treccani encyclopedia and publishing the short volume Minisemantica (1982), De Mauro turned to the problem of linguistic education. De Mauro thaught philosophy of language and was director of the Department of Linguistic Science at the University of Rome La Sapienza. In 1975 he was elected to the Regional Council of Lazio in the lists of PCI. In 1976 was appointed commissioner for culture, position he held until 1978. He was the Minister of Education during the second Government of Prime Minister Guliano Amato. From 2001 to 2010 he chaired Digital World, the foundation of the city of Rome. He frequently collaborated with newspapers, magazines and television programs.

Nicoletta Maraschio is the Honorary President of Accademia della Crusca. The Crusca (“The Academy of Bran”), founded in Florence in 1583, is the most illustrious Italian literary academy and has the mission to maintain the “purity” of the Italian language and to promote research on historical linguistics. Professor Maraschio also teaches History of the Italian Language at the University of Florence