Giorgio Bassani was born in Bologna, Italy on March 4, 1916, to Angelo Enrico Bassani, a doctor, and Dora Minerbi. He had a brother, Paolo, and a sister, Jenny; the three children were raised as an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Ferrara, where they lived with their paternal grandparents, Davide Bassani and Jenny Hanau, in Via Cisterna del Follo 1, located in the heart of the city’s old Jewish ghetto. Bassani’s maternal grandfather was Cesare Minerbi, a Jewish doctor, researcher, and head of the Arcispedale Sant’Anna, the main hospital in Ferrara. Giorgio attended the Liceo Ludovico Ariosto, and by the fall of 1934 was a student of Letters at the University of Bologna. He graduated from the university in 1939, having completed a thesis on Niccolò Tommaseo, despite existing…
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Citation: Guiati, Andrea. "Giorgio Bassani". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=287, accessed 21 November 2024.]
