Giuseppe Balducci (born 1992) is an Italian literary critic, translator and editor whose work focuses mainly on comparative literature, modern European literature and the relationship between literature and the visual arts. His scholarship and editorial work have dealt particularly with Mario Praz, Pierre Loti, Frederick Rolfe, Norman Douglas, Henry de Montherlant and Jean Cocteau.
Biography and research
Balducci was born in Apulia in 1992. He studied literature at the University of Bari, where he graduated with a thesis devoted to the emblem-books section of the special Mario Praz collection held by the Fondazione Primoli in Rome. The research was carried out within the university's bibliography and library-science programme.
His early research was consequently centred on Praz's work as a comparatist, bibliographer and scholar of the relations between literature and the visual arts, particularly the tradition of emblem books and imprese. In 2022 Balducci published the essay "La letteratura degli emblemi e delle imprese. Mario Praz e gli 'Studi sul concettismo'", devoted to Praz's Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery. He later returned to emblematic literature in articles on the symbolic use of animals and on the relationship between emblems, literature and the visual arts.
Balducci's research subsequently expanded to nineteenth- and twentieth-century French and English-language literature. His work on Pierre Loti has examined exoticism, gender and the representation of cultural otherness. An article on Loti's first novel, Aziyadé, appeared in the academic journal Studi Francesi in 2024; it analysed the novel's representation of Istanbul, its literary sources and the relationship between its principal characters.
In 2025 Rosenberg & Sellier published his monograph Pierre Loti fra esotismo e femminilità, a study of Loti's fiction and of the relationship between exoticism, gender identity and autobiographical representation.
Editorial and translation work
Mario Praz
A substantial part of Balducci's editorial activity has been devoted to recovering lesser-known writings by Mario Praz.
In 2022 he edited Misteri d'Italia, a collection of writings by Praz published by Nino Aragno Editore. The edition was discussed by critics including Alfonso Berardinelli in Avvenire, Giuseppe Marcenaro in Alias of il manifesto, and Matteo Marchesini in Il Foglio.
He subsequently edited or co-edited Praz's Omelette soufflée à l'antiquaire and Collezionare libri (both 2023). In 2024 he edited Alcibiade. Gli articoli di "Paese Sera" 1960–1972, with a preface by art historian Alvar González-Palacios. The volume collects the articles that Praz published in the literary supplement Libri of the newspaper Paese Sera between November 1960 and February 1972, most of them under the pseudonym "Alcibiade". The collection was later reviewed in Il Messaggero, Alias – il manifesto and the Sunday cultural supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore.
In 2024 Rai Cultura devoted an interview and profile to Balducci's work on Praz and his recovery of the critic's lesser-known writings. In 2025 Balducci published an essay in Treccani's cultural magazine Il Tascabile on Praz's relationship with Rome, examining the contrast between the critic's domestic aesthetic world and his perception of the transformation of the modern city.
Proust, Loti and other European writers
In 2022, together with Giovanni Balducci, he edited Soggiorno a Venezia. D'Annunzio nella "Recherche", a short text by Marcel Proust connected with the Venetian episode of In Search of Lost Time and containing an unusual reference to Gabriele D'Annunzio and the Fiume enterprise. Balducci supplied the notes to the edition, which included a preface by Proust scholar Takashi Inoue. The publication was reported by Italian national media, including Il Sole 24 Ore and TG2.
His other editorial projects include works by Henry de Montherlant, Aldo Palazzeschi, Frederick Rolfe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Addington Symonds, Aleister Crowley, Norman Douglas and Jean Cocteau.
With Giovanni Balducci he edited and translated a selection of Rolfe's stories originally published in The Yellow Book, issued in 2024 as Di santi, diavoli e… "The Yellow Book" 1895–1896. The edition received reviews in Alias – il manifesto, Domani and Il Gazzettino.
In 2025 he edited and translated Norman Douglas's Some Antiquarian Notes, published in Italian as Capri. Annotazioni antiquarie by La nave di Teseo. The book attracted extensive coverage in the Italian press, including reviews and articles in Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, Il Mattino, Alias – il manifesto and Avvenire.
Balducci also edited and translated John Addington Symonds's essay on the "comrade love" theme in Walt Whitman's Calamus. The Italian edition, Amore cameratesco. L'amicizia virile in "Calamus" di Whitman, was published by Editoriale Scientifica in 2025.
In 2026 he edited and translated Cocteau's novel Thomas l'imposteur as Thomas l'impostore, published by SE with an introductory text by French writer and biographer Claude Arnaud.
Critical interests and journalism Balducci's scholarly and critical writing is concerned chiefly with comparative literature, modern European literature and the interaction between literary texts, biography and visual culture.
Alongside his academic publications, he contributes essays and criticism to Italian cultural magazines and newspapers. His work has appeared in Studi Francesi, Studium, Divus Thomas, Il Giornale dell'Arte, Il Tascabile, La ricerca, MicroMega, Antinomie, Artribune, Cinematografo, and Il Foglio.
His articles have addressed subjects including the history of emblem literature, Praz's methods of literary and art-historical research, John Cowper Powys, Hayden White, and Carlo Ginzburg. He has also written an article on the theatre of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and an essay on Fassbinder's cinema.
Selected bibliography
Monographs
Pierre Loti fra esotismo e femminilità. Turin: Rosenberg & Sellier, 2025. .
Edited and translated books
Mario Praz, Misteri d'Italia, edited by Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2022. . Marcel Proust, Soggiorno a Venezia. D'Annunzio nella «Recherche», edited by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci; notes by Giuseppe Balducci; preface by Takashi Inoue. Milan: Luni Editrice, 2022. . Pierre Loti, Uomo di mare, edited and translated by Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Robin Edizioni, 2023. . Henry de Montherlant, Giulio Cesare. Dialogo con un'ombra, edited by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci; translated by Giovanni Balducci; afterword by Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2023. . Aldo Palazzeschi, Usanze d'oggi, edited by Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2023. . Mario Praz, Omelette soufflée à l'antiquaire. Elogio degli antiquari, edited by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2023. Mario Praz, Collezionare libri, edited by Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2023. . Omar Khayyám, Robā’iyyāt. Alla gloria del Vino, edited by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci. Milan: Luni Editrice, 2023. . Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alastor. O lo Spirito della Solitudine, edited by Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2024. . Frederick Rolfe, Di santi, diavoli e… "The Yellow Book" 1895–1896, edited and translated by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2024. . Henry de Montherlant, Il Bestiario Celeste, edited by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2024. Mario Praz, Alcibiade. Gli articoli di "Paese Sera" 1960–1972, edited by Giuseppe Balducci; preface by Alvar González-Palacios. Turin: Aragno, 2024. . Norman Douglas, Capri. Annotazioni antiquarie, edited and translated by Giuseppe Balducci. Milan: La nave di Teseo, 2025. . John Addington Symonds, Amore cameratesco. L'amicizia virile in "Calamus" di Whitman, edited and translated by Giuseppe Balducci. Naples: Editoriale Scientifica, 2025. . Aleister Crowley, Arte in America, edited by Giovanni and Giuseppe Balducci. Turin: Aragno, 2025. . Jean Cocteau, Thomas l'impostore, edited and translated by Giuseppe Balducci; introduction by Claude Arnaud. Milan: SE, 2026. .
Selected scholarly articles
"La letteratura degli emblemi e delle imprese. Mario Praz e gli 'Studi sul concettismo'", La Biblioteca di via Senato, no. 3 (2022), pp. 29–39. "Pierre Loti: un romantico «attardé» fra esotismo e femminilità", Illuminazioni, no. 64 (2023), pp. 3–20. "Roma di Aldo Palazzeschi: un viaggio nelle contraddizioni della città eterna fra tradizione e modernità", Studium, no. 4 (2023), pp. 681–685. "Aziyadé: un romanzo tra sogno e realtà", Studi Francesi, no. 202 (2024), pp. 53–65. "Storia di un'amicizia fra 'contrari'. 'La storia di Pomponio e di Cirillo'", La Biblioteca di via Senato, no. 6 (2024), pp. 86–91. "La figura del cigno nell'emblematica. 'In hoc cygno vinces'", La Biblioteca di via Senato, no. 1 (2025), pp. 6–15. "Il mito di Atteone: simbolismo del cervo tra letteratura, emblemi e iconologia", Divus Thomas, vol. 128, no. 1 (2025), pp. 163–178.
References
External links
Giuseppe Balducci on Mario Praz at Rai Cultura Author page at La nave di Teseo Author page at Artribune