Robert Joseph Rodini

I offer this tribute to Robert J. Rodini, our dear friend, colleague, long-time AATI member, and past editor of Italica, who passed away on May 28, 2023, at the age of eighty-six. Bob (or Rob, as many knew him) was a highly regarded member of our profession and a dedicated mainstay of our association. All who knew him valued his intelligence and expertise, his collaborative spirit and good sense, and his dedication to productive institutional citizenship.Bob grew up in the Bay Area of San Francisco and specifically around the area of El Cerrito once known as “Little Italy.” As a consequence, it was natural for Bob to attend the “local” university, the University of California, Berkeley, for his undergraduate and graduate work. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was a student in the Department of Romance Languages (i.e., before the split into individual language units), where he benefitted from classes and seminars taught by eminent Italian faculty members and visiting professors from Italy. He was one of the last students at Berkeley to complete the doctoral degree in romance languages, a rigorous preparation that served him well throughout his career. That course of study required him to take preliminary examinations in the literatures of Italy, France, Spain, and Latin America, as well as in romance philology. Bob greatly admired his dissertation director at Berkeley, Nicolas Perella, from whom he learned how important mentors are for their students in many aspects of their lives, intellectual development, and careers. These lessons guided Bob throughout his thirty-five years as a professor.After completing his PhD at Berkeley, Bob began his career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965 and rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming full professor in 1976. Over the course of his career, Bob helped turn the French and Italian program into one of the country's premier departments. He played a major role in the expansion of the Italian section in the number of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty members—from two tenured professors before his arrival to seven at his retirement in 2000.Over his long career, Bob received numerous honors, both national and local. In 1960–61, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Florence (where, appropriately, his love of the Renaissance in all its manifestations was nurtured). This was followed by an American Philosophical Society grant (1970) and an ACLS Fellowship (1976–77). At the UW, Bob was awarded a Vilas Associate grant for outstanding research (1987–89) and received numerous competitive summer research stipends from the Graduate School Research Committee. In 2004, Bob served as honorary president of the American Association for Italian Studies. In 2004, during the twenty-fourth annual AAIS conference in Ottawa, Bob was presented with a Festschrift: Medusa's Gaze: Essays on Gender, Literature, and Aesthetics in the Italian Renaissance in Honor of Robert J. Rodini (edited by Paul A. Ferrara, Eugenio Giusti, and Jane Tylus, no. 11 in the series Italiana). In addition to a biographical sketch and an appreciation of Bob as a teacher, scholar, and editor, the volume features sixteen essays on topics near and dear to his research interests, written by former students and colleagues and divided among three major headings: “Gender”; “Aesthetics”; “Redefining the Renaissance.” Unaware that this volume was in progress, Bob was greatly moved by this outpouring of affection and appreciation. He was especially touched by the fact that his dissertation advisor, Nicolas Perella, was among the contributors.At the UW–Madison, Bob wore a number of important hats over the course of his career as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. He was chair of the Department of French and Italian (1979–82) and associate chair for Italian on numerous occasions. He was also an outstanding university citizen, serving on a number of key committees, some of which he chaired (Graduate School Research, Graduate School Fellowships, Honorary Degrees, Humanities Divisional Committee, University Lectures, Chancellor's Academic Advisory Council, and Faculty Senate). Bob's commitment to all facets of the academic enterprise also included service to other institutions, to which he contributed his expertise and fine judgment by serving on selection panels for the National Endowment for the Humanities, on external review committees for departments at other universities, and in various roles for the Modern Language Association.Bob was a consummate lecturer and taught a wide variety of courses on Italian language, literature, and culture for many decades. He was dedicated to mentoring his students, undergraduate and graduate, and his courses and seminars on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian literature—with emphases on lyric and epic poetry—were legendary and led to his directing a number of doctoral dissertations. He initiated two very popular courses offered in English translation for the larger student body: Dante's Divine Comedy and Images of the Individual in the Italian Renaissance. On three occasions, he directed or taught on academic programs in Italy: Bologna (UW and Indiana University, 1971–72) and Florence (UW and the University of Michigan: Villa Boscobello, 1982, and Villa Corsi-Salviati, 2000).In terms of his published scholarship, Bob made a number of enduring contributions in the general field of Renaissance literature. His important monograph, Antonfrancesco Grazzini: Poet, Dramatist and Novelliere (1970), presents a complete portrait of the life and literary works of Grazzini (“il Lasca”), whose multifaceted literary production made him one of the most engaging literary figures of the sixteenth century. In his review, Mario Trovato stresses Rodini's thorough treatment of the writer—“è il primo che considera il Lasca nella totalità della persona e della sua attività artistica”—and concludes that the book “si offre come modello prezioso di come va preparata scientificamente una edizione critico-letteraria” (Forum Italicum 5, 1971, 482–83).Together with his former doctoral student, Salvatore Di Maria, Bob compiled the extremely valuable reference work, Ludovico Ariosto: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism, 1956–1980 (1984), a volume that more than admirably complements Giuseppe Fatini's Bibliografia della critica ariostea (1958). In his review (Renaissance and Reformation 10, 1986), Peter De Sa Wiggins, praising the authors’ work, notes that “students of Renaissance culture can approach Ariosto with greater confidence than ever before, the crucial scholarship of the past quarter of a century scrupulously recorded and described in this volume” (301).In addition, Bob provided excellent translations of Giovan Francesco Cresci's “Discorso” for the facsimile edition of his A Renaissance Alphabet (Il Perfetto Scrittore, 1971 [1570]), as well as the “A Lettori” section in Leonardo Antonozzi's The Trajan Letters (Dei Caratteri, 1972 [1638]). In 1980, Bob edited a special issue of Forum Italicum on the topic of “Medieval and Renaissance Theater and Spectacle” (vol. 14, 1980).In his published essays, Bob focused on Renaissance topics (especially sixteenth-century comedy and lyric poetry), modern Italian literature, and pedagogical topics, including in this latter category an annotated edition of Giuseppe Berto's Le opere di Dio (1976) intended for use in second-year language courses. His articles and book reviews have appeared in journals and reference works, such as Philological Quarterly, Romanische Forschungen, Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, MLN, Forum Italicum, Modern Philology, Romanic Review, and, of course, Italica. In the last decade or so of his career Bob became interested in gender studies, feminist criticism, and the relationship between literature and art in the Renaissance, and this enthusiasm manifested itself both in his publications and teaching and had a positive effect on the direction of some of his graduate students who work and publish in these areas.One of the highlights of Bob's career came in 1984 when he was appointed editor of Italica, and over a ten-year period he produced forty substantial issues. In that role, he had a dynamic and determining effect on the course of scholarship in Italian literature, culture, and pedagogy. As anyone who has edited a major scholarly journal knows, the position requires countless hours of reading and evaluating contributions, corresponding with authors, editing manuscripts, and preparing copy for publication. In all these activities Bob was tireless and meticulous, and for this all members of AATI—indeed, everyone involved in the field of italianistica—owe him a great debt of gratitude. He was especially interested in encouraging submissions from younger scholars and helping them find their way in the profession. Bob brought two innovations to Italica: (1) the use of an editorial board in the decision-making process for the selection of articles; and (2) the creation of the positions of associate editor for pedagogy (Joseph A. Tursi) and book review editor, innovations that contributed to the success of the journal. Having served alongside him for a decade in the latter role, I know how diligently and creatively he worked on each and every issue. All of these activities continued and confirmed Italica's place as the premier Italian journal in North America, one that is recognized both here and abroad for the excellence of its contributions to scholarship. Bob thus continued the distinguished line of editors, following in the footsteps of Joseph Fucilla and Olga Ragusa with grace and intelligence and preparing the way for subsequent editors: Albert N. Mancini, Andrea Ciccarelli and Michael Lettieri. We were grateful then—as we are today—for his admirable and enduring contributions to the growth, success, and prestige of Italica.Bob also played a major role in the general growth of Italian studies by serving on several editorial boards: journals (Forum Italicum, 1978–85, and PMLA, 1987–91), book series (the MLA's Text and Translation Series, 1991–95), and major reference works (Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, 6 vols., 1999), and was also an advisor for Italian textbooks for several publishing houses.After retiring from the UW–Madison, Bob decided that he wanted to do something in a completely different realm, but with the same commitment to helping others. With this goal in mind, he was happily occupied for almost twenty years as a volunteer at Meriter Hospital in Madison, which included a term on its Board of Trustees and as President of the Friends group. His interest in volunteering at a local hospital perhaps goes back to his youthful thoughts of becoming a doctor or dentist, that is until the science courses at Berkeley dissuaded him from pursuing that idea. And for this decision the world of italianistica is most grateful.Bob met his future wife, Eleanor Morgan, when they were both Fulbright Scholars in Florence, Italy (1960–61). After returning to the States, they began their graduate studies in Italian literature at Berkeley, both working toward the PhD, and married in 1962. Eleanor served for many years as a reference librarian at Memorial Library on the UW–Madison campus. Less than two months after Bob's death, she passed away on July 26, 2023. Their two children, Elizabeth and Mark, graduated from the UW, and each completed the PhD, Elizabeth in art history at the University of Chicago and Mark in economics at Berkeley. Bob was a lifelong lover of classical music and a regular at the Madison Symphony and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also had the reputation as a fantastic cook, and his graduate students were the grateful recipients of the pan pizza for which he was famous. He was preceded in death by his sister, Virginia, and is survived by his family, including his son-in-law, Charlie Rudin, and two granddaughters, Sofia and Natalie Rudin, and numerous relatives, most of whom have remained in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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