Thomas Gwynfor (‘Gwyn’) Griffith, who died in Guildford on 1 September 2019, was a distinguished scholar of Italian literature and language, an active and significant promoter and defender of the subject in the universities in which he worked and in the UK as a whole, and an outstanding teacher, colleague, and friend. He was also a strong promoter and defender of the Welsh language and Welsh culture. Born into a Welsh-speaking family in the village of Cil-ffriw, Glamorgan, Gwyn attended Neath Grammar School and then in 1943 was awarded a scholarship at Queen’s College Oxford to study Italian and French. The war however interrupted his studies. He found himself recruited as a Bevin Boy, and worked in difficult conditions deep in the Welsh coal mines until problems with his eyes (the problems would persist for the rest of his life) led to his being discharged. On his return to Oxford he completed his degree and embarked on post-graduate research under Carlo Dionisotti, whose approach and interests had a decisive effect on his own future work. His first teaching post was at Leeds University, which was followed by a period as Lecturer in charge of Italian at Trinity College Dublin, with eventual promotion to a readership. In 1958 he returned to Oxford as a University Lecturer in Italian, becoming a founding member of St Cross College. He was appointed to the new Chair of Italian in Hull eight years later. In 1971 he moved to the Chair of Italian in Manchester, which he would hold until retiring in 1988. Gwyn’s literary scholarship centred on the Renaissance and initially on the novella. His first book, Bandello’s Fiction: an Examination of the Novelle (Basil Blackwell, 1955), presented a sympathetic re-evaluation of an author who had often been seen as little more than a source for Shakespeare, in what would become Gwyn’s characteristic manner – measured, historically scrupulous, and approachable. The same qualities would be evident in the selection of Petrarch’s poems (Manchester University Press, 1971), co-edited with his former pupil and colleague in Hull, Peter Hainsworth, for which he wrote the part of the ‘Introduction’ discussing Petrarch himself. That short essay still seems as perceptive and helpful as when it was first written. Renaissance Italian literature was, though, for Gwyn intimately bound up with questions of language – hence his inaugural lecture in Hull, Italian Writers and the Italian Language (University of Hull, 1966), which centred on the important role played by the theories of Pietro Bembo. It was thus no major intellectual leap when Gwyn embarked on what would be his major work, an English version of Bruno Migliorini’s Storia della lingua italiana, much to the relief and pleasure of Migliorini himself who had a high regard for ‘il Griffith’. The cover of The Italian Language (Faber and Faber, 1966) states only that the original has been ‘abridged and recast by T. Gwynfor Griffith’. In fact the abridgement was meticulously judicious and the history remains densely informative, while the recasting added new information, created narrative clarity, and perhaps most importantly included a very substantial new chapter on post-World War I developments. The work is now rightly normally referred to as Migliorini and Griffith. Gwyn’s scholarship continued at a steady rate, without interruption, throughout the 1970s and beyond, though perhaps he would have published more if he had not been so committed to the cause of Italian studies. He had built up a strong department in Hull, and he maintained and developed the department in Manchester. He had always been since the start of his career a dedicated and popular teacher who believed that the true value of scholarship lay in its being shared with undergraduates. As head of department he supported and encouraged colleagues in both their teaching and research. It is indicative of his special leadership skills that several of his ITALIAN STUDIES 2020, VOL. 75, NO. 1, 1–3 https://doi.org/10.1080/00751634.2020.1694171

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TG Griffith教授（1926–2019）

Thomas Gwynfor（'Gwyn'）Griffith于2019年9月1日在吉尔福德（Guildford）逝世，他是意大利文学和语言领域的杰出学者，是他所服务的大学以及在英国的活跃而重要的倡导者和捍卫者。一个整体，一个杰出的老师，同事和朋友。他还是威尔士语言和威尔士文化的强大推动者和捍卫者。Gwyn出生于格拉摩根Cil-ffriw村的一个讲威尔士语的家庭，就读于Neath语法学校，然后在1943年获得了牛津大学女王学院的奖学金，以学习意大利语和法语。但是战争打断了他的学业。他发现自己被招募为Bevin Boy，并在威尔士煤矿深处艰难的条件下工作，直到他的眼睛出现问题（这种问题在他的余生中一直存在）导致他被解雇。回到牛津大学后，他完成了学业，并在卡洛·迪奥尼索蒂（Carlo Dionisotti）的带领下开始了研究生研究，他的研究方法和兴趣对他自己的未来工作具有决定性的影响。他的第一个教学职位是在利兹大学，其后是都柏林三一学院的意大利语讲师，并最终晋升为读者。1958年，他回到牛津大学担任意大利语讲师，成为圣克罗斯学院的创始成员。八年后，他被任命为赫尔的意大利语新主席。1971年，他转任曼彻斯特的意大利语主席，一直担任该职位，直到1988年退休。格温的文学奖学金主要集中在文艺复兴时期，最初是中篇小说。他的第一本书《班德罗的小说：小说的检验》（罗勒·布莱克韦尔，1955年）对一位作家表示了同情的重新评价，而这位作家通常被视为莎士比亚的出处，而这后来成为了格温的典型方式–衡量，历史上严格和平易近人的。在彼得拉奇的诗歌选集（曼彻斯特大学出版社，1971年）中与他的前学生和同事彼得·海因斯沃思合编的彼得·海因斯沃斯（Peter Hainsworth）共同创作了同样的特质，为此他撰写了介绍彼得拉奇本人的“介绍”部分。这篇短文仍然像初次写作时一样具有感知力和帮助。不过，文艺复兴时期的意大利文学是 格温（Gwyn）与语言问题密切相关-因此，他在赫尔（Hull），意大利作家和意大利语言的首届演讲（赫尔大学（University of Hull），1966）集中论述了Pietro Bembo理论所扮演的重要角色。因此，当格温着手进行布鲁诺·米格里利尼（Bruno Migliorini）的英文版《意大利语》（Storia della lingua italiana）的英文版时，并没有什么重大的思想飞跃，这使米格里利尼本人对“伊尔·格里菲斯”（Il Griffith）倍加敬重。《意大利语言》的封面（Faber和Faber，1966年）仅指出，原件“被T. Gwynfor Griffith删节并重铸了”。实际上，删节是一丝不苟的明智之举，历史沿途内容仍然充实，而重铸则增加了新的信息，创造了叙事的清晰度，也许最重要的是，其中包含了有关第一次世界大战后发展的非常重要的新章节。该作品现在通常正确地称为Migliorini和Griffith。整个1970年代及以后，格温的奖学金一直持续稳定地增长，没有间断，尽管如果他不那么致力于意大利研究事业的话，也许他会发表更多的论文。他在赫尔建立了强大的部门，并在曼彻斯特维护和发展了该部门。自从职业生涯开始以来，他一直是一位敬业而又受欢迎的老师，他认为奖学金的真正价值在于与学生共享奖学金。作为部门主管，他支持并鼓励同事们进行教学和研究。他的2020年《意大利研究》（ITALIAN Studies）卷 75号 1，1-3 https://doi.org/10.1080/00751634.2020.1694171