ERNESTO GRASSI

Ernest Grassi (1902-1991), born in Milan, Italy, dedicated his life's work to a historical retrieval of Italian Humanist rhetoric in order to show its importance for contemporary thought. As a youth, after a life-threatening illness, Grassi developed an interest in philosophy. He studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and finally earned his doctorate at University of Milan in 1925, the same year he married his wife, Elena Stigler. In 1929, Grassi began lecturing on Italian literature at University of Freiburg and, in 1935, was given an honorary professorship there. At Freiburg, Grassi attended several lectures of Martin Heidegger, which lead him to work with Heidegger for the next ten years. He was named director of the Italian Institute for Humanistic Studies in Berlin, but, shortly thereafter, fled from the Nazi regime to Florence, Italy. He served as visiting professor in philosophy at University of Zurich from 1943 to 1946, and, in 1948, he accepted a professorhip at University of Munich and became director of the Center for the Study of Philosophy and Humanism after returning to Germany. Grassi also served as the president of the International Center for the Study of Humanism in Rome, and he published a series of volumes, Zurcher Gesprache [Conversation in Zurich] based on a series of philosophy seminars. His publications in English include Rhetoric as Philosophy: The Humanist Tradition (1980), Heidegger and the Question of Renaissance Humanism (1983), Folly and Insanity in Renaissance Literature (1986), coauthored with Maristella Lorch, and Vico and Humanism: Essays on Vico, Heidegger, and Rhetoric (1990).

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Academic year 2008/2009

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