We are saddened to share the news that Paolo Cherchi, Professor Emeritus of Italian and Spanish Literatures, passed away on April 4, 2026. Paolo, born in 1937, in Oschiri (Sassari), Sardinia, was a philologist of international renown and prodigious productivity, and a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the highest academic honor in Italy. He received his laurea in lettere from the University of Cagliari in 1962, and his PhD in Romance Languages from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966. He taught at the University of Chicago from 1965 to 2003.
A true Romanist, Paolo’s work and rare erudition spanned medieval and early modern literatures in Italian, Spanish, Latin, Provençal, and Catalan, stretching all the way to the eighteenth (and occasionally the twentieth) century. He was proud that his scholarly record had recently reached 600 publications, which include many monographs, hundreds of articles, critical editions, and translations. This outstanding humanistic legacy encompasses books such as Capitoli di critica Cervantina (1977), Enciclopedismo e politica della riscrittura: Tomasso Garzoni (1981), Andreas and the Ambiguity of Courtly Love (1994), La metamorfosi dell’Adone (1996), Polimatia di riuso. Mezzo secolo di plagio (1539-1589) (1998), L’onestade e l’onesto raccontare del Decameron (2004), Il tramonto dell’onestade (2016), Maestri. Memorie e racconti di un apprendistato (2019), Ignoranza ed erudizione. L’Italia dei dogmi di fronte all’Europa scettica e critica (1500-1750) (2020), and I Rari. leggerli e valorizzarli per la storia della letteratura (2026), among others.
Until his last days, Paolo was in possession of a truly polyglot memory and welcomed conversation. Many colleagues in RLL and beyond had strong personal and intellectual relationships with him. He will be dearly missed.