Luciano Canfora

Luciano Canfora is an Italian classicist and historian who is professor emeritus of Classics at the University of Bari. Born in Bari, Canfora obtained his first degree in Roman History in 1964 at Pisa University. While his specialty is ancient libraries, he also wrote about Greek and Latin literature, philology, historiography, and politics, and his works have been translated into some 15 languages. In 1975, Canfora started to edit the periodical Quaderni di storia. In 1988, he joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI). After the dissolution of the PCI, he joined the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) and the Party of Italian Communists (PdCI). He unsuccessfully stood in the 1999 European Parliament election for the PdCI.