Professor Riccardo Picchio (1923-2011)

[Goldblatt, Harvey]

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is with a very heavy heart and much sadness I write to inform you that Riccardo Picchio, Emeritus Professor of Slavic Literatures at Yale University, died peacefully in his sleep early this morning. He was eighty-seven years old.

Considered one of the truly outstanding and celebrated Slavists of his generation, Professor Picchio taught at Yale for almost two decades, from 1968 to 1986. Together with his colleagues Victor Erlich, Robert L. Jackson, Alexander M. Schenker, and Edward Stankiewicz, he helped create one of the leading centers of Slavic Studies in the United States.

Professor Picchio belongs to that outstanding generation of Italian Slavists who began their academic careers after World War II. Trained in the best traditions of the humanistic discipline by the “founding fathers” of Italian Slavistics, he drew upon the achievements of his teachers in his quest for new methodological principles that govern the literary and linguistic systems in the Slavic world. Nevertheless, it would be a grave mistake to view Professor Picchio “merely” as a product of Italian scholarship. His experiences and contacts in Bulgaria, Poland, France, and above all the United States left an indelible imprint on his approach to Slavic Studies.

Riccardo Picchio was born on September 7, 1923 in the city of Alessandria (Piedmont, Italy), where he received his elementary and secondary school education. In 1941 he entered the University of Rome with the aim of pursuing the study of Germanic Philology, but soon turned to Slavistics under the direction of Professors Enrico Damiani, Ettore Lo Gatto, and Giovanni Maver. In 1946, he defended a thesis on the Bulgarian poet Penčo P. Slavejkov and was awarded the degree of “dottore in lettere.” In 1947 he went to Poland for two years to teach Italian language and literature at the Univeristy of Warsaw. Then, from 1949-1951, a grant from the French government permitted him to attend the “École Nationale des Languages Orientales Vivantes,” from which he obtained the degree of spécialisation in Bulgarian under the direction of Professor Roger Bernard. While in Paris, Professor Picchio’s interest in Polish and general Slavic history was affected profoundly; and at the same time he!
  pursued a systematic study of Old Russian literature under the supervision of Professor André Mazon.

Returning to Italy in 1951, Riccardo Picchio engaged in numerous activities and sought to complete his preparation in Slavic Studies under the guidance of Giovanni Maver, whom he would always refer to as his true teacher, his “maestro.” In 1953, he received his degree of habilitation (“libera docenza”), which entitled him to teach Slavic languages and literatures at an Italian university. A year later, he was appointed “professore incaricato” at the University of Florence, where he taught for seven years. From 1959 to 1961 he also taught at the Univeristy of Pisa. Then, in 1961, Professor Picchio won a national competition and accepted a teaching position as “professore ordinario” of Slavic Philology at the University of Rome. In the same year, he was selected to succeed Giovanni Maver as head of the university’s “Istituto di Filologia Slava,” a position he held for eight years.

In the spring term of 1965 and the fall of 1966, Riccardo Picchio was Visiting Professor of Slavic Philology at Columbia University in New York City. In 1971, he formally resigned his position at the University of Rome to accept a teaching position as Professor of Slavic Literatures at Yale University (where he had been teaching since the fall of 1968). Professor Picchio played an important role in Yale’s program of Medieval Studies. Involvement in this program brought him into close association with the eminent historian Roberto S. Lopez, the founder of Medieval Studies at Yale. Soon after his arrival in the United States, moreover, he also became closely connected with the activities of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, of which he became a fellow in 1976.

In the early 1980s,, Professor Picchio began to divide his time between Yale University and the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples, where he taught Russian and Bulgarian literature. In 1985, he formally resigned his position at Yale to acccept a position as “professore ordinario” of Russian Language and Literature at the Istituto Universitario Orientale. He resigned his position in Naples in 1993; and he continued to divide his time between Rome and New Haven (where he passed away this morning after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease).

Professor Picchio was one of a kind, a scholar in whom one could find an exceptional capacity for critical synthesis, an ability to perceive large structures, and a exceedingly bold scholarly vision. His prodigious knowledge of the European cultural heritage and Slavic literary traditions was unparalleled. Above all, he truly was a good man, a real mensch, possessed of the highest integrity, decency, and honor. He devoted his entire life to fighting the evils of narrow chauvinism, ethnocentrism, and cultural sectarianism.  Professor Picchio’s generosity of spirit was legendary; and he was not only remarkably and tirelessly devoted to his students in both Italy and the United States, but admirably succeeded in bringing together his “disciples” from both sides of the Atlantic.

On a personal note, to say I will miss him terribly, to tell you how important he was in my formation as a scholar and human being, to stress the enormous impact he had on my understanding of Slavic Philology and the essential link between humanistic studies and our essential humanity—all are gross understatements that only imperfectly allude to the value of his life and the precious loss we all have suffered.

May the cherished memory and exceptional deeds of this good man ease of the pain of our bereavement.

Sincerely yours,
Harvey Goldblatt
Chair, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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