Alessio Ricci (Rome, 1971) is associate professor of Italian Linguistics at the Department of Philology and Criticism of Ancient and Modern Literature (DFCLAM) of the University of Siena.
Previously, after having obtained a PhD in "History of the Italian language and vernacular" (University of Rome "La Sapienza", 2002) and having been a research fellow in Italian Linguistics from 2003 to 2006 (University of Siena ), he was a researcher in Italian Linguistics from 2007 to 2021 (University of Siena), first at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy and then at the Department of Education, Human Sciences and Intercultural Communication (DSFUCI) in Arezzo.
From the academic year 2003-2004 he held, and still holds, courses in Italian Linguistics - History of the Italian language, Italian Grammar, Syntax and lexicon of Italian, Didactics of Italian, Italian for the media, History and geography of Italian - and Philology and Romance linguistics.
He is also member of ASLI (Associazione per la Storia della Lingua Italiana) and SILFI (Società Internazionale di Linguistica e Filologia Italiana).
From 2015 to 2017 he was member of the College of Ph.D. in "Philology and Criticism" (cycles XXXI and XXXII) of the University of Siena. He is currently member of the College for the Ph.D. in "Historical Linguistics, Educational and Italian Linguistics. Italian, other languages and cultures" (cycle XXXIII) of the University for Foreigners of Siena.
In 2017 he has benefited from the Funding of Basic Research Activities (FFABR; Anvur's competitive selection).
His research has been concerned with synchronic and diachronic perspectives of Italian syntax and textuality: with the language of florentine “libri di famiglia” ("Mercanti scriventi. Sintassi e testualità di alcuni libri di famiglia fiorentini fra Tre e Quattrocento", Roma, Aracne, 2005) and with the language of merchants (voce "Mercanti e lingua" per l’"Enciclopedia dell’Italiano", Roma, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 2 voll., 2010-2011); with the language of modern diaries ("Libri di famiglia e diari", in "Storia dell’italiano scritto", G. Antonelli, M. Motolese, L. Tomasin edd., 3 voll., Roma, Carocci, 2014); with the language of prose works of Giacomo Leopardi ("Sintassi e testualità dello «Zibaldone di Pensieri» di Giacomo Leopardi", «Studi linguistici italiani», XXVII, XXVIII, 2001-2002; "Su alcuni allotropi in diacronia nella prosa leopardiana (con particolare riguardo allo «Zibaldone di Pensieri»)", «Lingua nostra», LXIV, 2003); with the language of Santa Francesca Romana ("Ricorsività e semplicità delle «Visioni» di Francesca Romana. Su alcuni aspetti sintattici e testuali del discorso mistico", in "Dire l’ineffabile. Caterina da Siena e il linguaggio della mistica", Firenze, 2006); with the writing of university students ("Sulla scrittura degli studenti universitari", in "Studi linguistici per Luca Serianni", Roma, 2007); with the language of italian song (Paolo Conte, Virginiana Miller).
Recently his research has also focused on the verbal morphology of ancient Italian; literary language in octaves (Antonio Pucci's cantari and the “Orlando Furioso“); Bembo's "Prose"; Galileo's phono-morphology; XVIII and XIX century grammar books; M. Cesarotti and G. Leopardi linguistics; language of the war diaries; Raffaello Baldini's dialectal poetry.
He is currently working on the commented critical edition of P. Bembo's postille at ms. Riccardiano 1534 of G. Villani "Cronica" and on the monograph "La lingua di Leopardi" (il Mulino).
He dedicated a monograph to phono-morphology of some forms of imperfect of Italian ancient language: "Le dolci rime d'amor ch'i' solia. Su alcuni imperfetti in prosa e in versi", Firenze, Le Lettere, 2015. His last monograph is "Sullo 'Zibaldone' e altro. Lingua e linguistica di Leopardi", Roma, Aracne, 2021.
He collaborated, with M. Motolese, on the book "L’italiano letterario: fondazione e modelli", second volume of the series "Storia della lingua italiana per immagini", directed by L. Serianni, Città di Castello, Edimond – Società Dante Alighieri, 2011. With G. Patota, wrote "Restiamo in tema. Guida alla scrittura e alla prima prova dell’Esame di Stato", Milano-Torino, Pearson, 2013.
From 1998 to 2004 he collaborated with the international scientific journal "La rassegna della letteratura italiana" (ANVUR class: A).
From 2000 to 2004 he has been editor and editor-in-chief of the international scientific review “Letteratura Italiana Antica” (ANVUR class: A).
From 2016 he is editor of the international scientific review “Studi linguistici italiani“ (ANVUR class: A).
In 2002 he attended a training course at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken and collaborated with the "Lessico etimologico italiano" directed by Max Pfister and Wolfgang Schweickard (Wiesbaden, 1979).
He has collaborated on a scientific project for an exhibition on the history of the Italian language ("Dove il sì suona. Gli Italiani e la loro lingua", Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 2003). Since 2003, he also has collaborated with Società Dante Alighieri on the P.L.I.D.A. (Progetto Lingua Italiana Dante Alighieri).