Laura Mancinelli

Laura Mancinelli (; 18 December 1933 – 7 July 2016) was an Italian writer, germanist, medievalist and university professor. 
Mancinelli also wrote academic texts, children's books, essays (numerous of medieval history), and historical novels.
Life.
Laura Mancinelli was born in Udine in 1933 and lived in Rovereto for four years before moving to Turin with her family in 1937.
After her school education and studies, she graduated from the University of Turin in 1956 with a degree in german literature with a focus on modern literature.
In the years following her doctorate she taught without ever giving up her passion for medieval german culture. In 1969 she wrote the essay "The Song of the Nibelungs. Problems and values".
In the 1970s she taught germanic philology at the University of Sassari and then called in Venice by the Germanist , in 1976 she founded the "Department" of "History of German Language" at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. 
On the advice of his colleague and friend, Claudio Magris, in 1972 she edited and translated into Italian from the original volume, the "Nibelungenlied", followed in 1978 by "" (Gottfried von Straßburg) and in 1989 by "Gregorius" and "Poor Heinrich" (Hartmann von Aue).
After returning to Turin as holder of the University Chair of germanic philology, in 1981 Laura Mancinelli made her debut in fiction, publishing, "The Twelve Abbots of Challant" (winner the same year of the Mondello Prize), a historical novel that the author had begun to write in 1968. After came "Il fantasma di Mozart" in 1986 and "The Miracle of Saint Odilia" in 1989.
In the early 1990s, affected by multiple sclerosis, Laura Mancinelli left the Chair of german philology.
From 1994 onwards, she devoted herself entirely to writing and published more than fifteen works throughout the decade, despite hospital stays and lengthy rehabilitation.
In 2009 she published the novel "Gli occhiali di Cavour", followed by "Due storie d'amore" in 2011, free interpretations of the story of two famous couples, Kriemhild and Siegfried, Tristan and Iseult.
Mancinelli died on 7 July 2016 in Turin as a result of her illness.
The farewell ceremony took place on 11 July 2016 in the monumental cemetery of Turin; the funeral took place in Exilles in the Susa Valley, where the writer had set one of her novels.