BARBI, MICHELE. - Philologist and man of letters, b. in Sambuca Pistoiese in 1867, d. in Florence in 1941. After serving as a librarian in Florence, in 1906 he became professor of Italian literature at the University of Messina, and later at the Faculty of Education in Florence.
A distinguished Dante scholar, he was director of the Bullettino della Società dantesca and of Studi danteschi; he was also the critical editor of the Vita nuova and of the Canzoniere. He authored a concise and precise monograph on Dante and a two-volume collection of Problemi di critica dantesca. His high standing as a philologist is further evidenced by his writings: Poesia popolare italiana, Studi e proposte, and La Nuova filologia e l'edizione dei nostri scrittori da Dante al Manzoni. Together with F. Ghisalberti, he edited the national edition of Manzoni’s Works. By his will, he bequeathed all his books to the Scuola normale superiore in Pisa “with the aim of establishing a school of Italian philology with practical exercises.”