Barbero, Alessandro 1959–

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Barbero, Alessandro 1959–

PERSONAL: Born 1959, in Turin, Italy. Education: Degree in medieval history, 1981; Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 1987, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, University of California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704-1012. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Università del Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli, Italy, professor of medieval history.

AWARDS, HONORS: Strega prize, 1996, for Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle, gentiluomo.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle, gentiluomo, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 1995.

Romanzo russo: Fiutando i futuri supplizi, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 1998.

L'ultimo rosa di Lautrec, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2001.

Poeta al comando, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2003.

HISTORY

Un santo in famiglia: vocazione religiosa e resistenze sociali nell'agiografia latina medievale, Rosenberg & Sellier (Turin, Italy), 1991.

(With Chiara Frugoni) Dizionario del medioevo, Laterza (Rome, Italy), 1994.

Un'oligarchia urbana: politica ed economia a Torino fra tre e quattrocento, Viella (Rome, Italy), 1995.

(With Chiara Frugoni) Medieoevo: storia di voci, racconto di immagini, Laterza (Rome, Italy), 1999.

Carlo Magno: un padre dell'Europa, Laterza (Rome, Italy), 2000, translation by Allan Cameron published as Charlemagne: Father of a Continent, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2004.

Valle d'Aosta medievale, Liguori (Naples, Italy), 2000.

La cavalleria medievale, Jouvence (Rome, Italy), 2002.

Il ducato di Savoia: amministrazione e corte di uno stato franco-italiano: 1416–1536, Laterza (Rome, Italy), 2002.

La guerra in Europa dal rinascimento a Napoleone, Carocci (Rome, Italy), 2003.

La battaglia: storia di Waterloo, Laterza (Rome, Italy), 2003, translation by John Cullen published as The Battle: A New History of Waterloo, Walker (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Alessandro Barbero is the author of two different types of works: novels and scholarly pieces about medieval and early modern European history. The two styles complement each other in Barbero's work; his novels are often historical fiction and, as Spectator contributor Eric Christiansen speculated in a review of one of Barbero's nonfiction titles, his ability to "hold the attention with arresting details" in those works comes from his background as a novelist. All of Barbero's books were originally written in his native Italian, but a few have been translated into English.

Barbero's first work to be translated into English was Carlo Magno: un padre dell'Europa, published in English as Charlemagne: Father of a Continent. "The author of this rich, scholarly but accessible study provides an intimate portrait of the man—right down to his shirt and underpants—and a sensitive analysis of his government and times," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. In his biography Barbero debunks some myths about Charlemagne, for example claiming that the "pincers movement" of troops in battle that Charlemagne pioneered was not the result of some great strategic insight, but rather a practical necessity caused by the difficulty of maneuvering vast numbers of slow-moving men and beasts at once. Barbero also examines some of the costs of Charlemagne's rule on the peasants in his territories—peasants who were expected to provide enough surplus food and oxen to keep Charlemagne's army moving and fighting, and who could expect harsh physical punishment if they failed to do so. With explanations such as these, noted a reviewer for the Economist, "Barbero chips away at the emperor's legacy until little more than a mediocrity remains." "All this is well discussed by Professor Barbero," Christiansen wrote, adding that the author "has a lightness of touch indispensable in approaching a subject which has constipated generations of continental scholars."

In The Battle: A New History of Waterloo, Barbero examines the final days of the career of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Barbero's history of the Battle of Waterloo, in which Napoleon was defeated by British, Prussian, and other forces, "is a resounding piece of reportage drawing heavily on the memories of those who fought it—and who remembered the grimmest of details," noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. These personal memories, filled with decapitations via cannonballs and swords and other grisly forms of death, are not for the faint of heart. As Barbero walks readers through the action of the battle, "he folds in background information and includes incisive and accessible description and analysis of arms, equipment, and tactics," David Lee Poremba commented in Library Journal. In addition to the battle itself, Barbero also discusses its strategic implications. The Battle of Waterloo, Barbero argues, helped to propel Great Britain to its nineteenth-century prominence in world affairs. In addition, he shows how Napoleon's final campaigns came very close to bankrupting France. "The narrative is unusually accessible," wrote a Publishers Weekly critic, "and as experienced readers march on, they will find some novel insights and analyses."