Lino Pertile

Who is Lino Pertile?

Lino Pertile is an Italian linguist, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and a former House Master of Eliot House. Born in Italy near Padua, he taught at the universities of Reading, Sussex, and Edinburgh before moving to Harvard.

His specialty is Dante scholarship, a field in which he has published widely. Pertile also studies the Italian 20th-century novel. In 2005, he was named Harvard College Professor, a special teaching recognition awarded to those faculty members who have most invested their time and energy in teaching undergraduates. It was announced on December 16, 2009, that Pertile would become the new director of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, in summer 2010.