The Cervantes Institute awards the Italian Hispanist Gabriel Morelli the Ñ 2022 Prize

The Cervantes Institute has awarded this year's Ñ Prize to the hispanist Gabriele Morelli (Campofilone, Italy, 1937), philologist and professor at the University of Bergamo, a specialist in the Generation of '27 and the avant-garde movements, in recognition of his work in the international dissemination and promotion of the Spanish language. 

King Felipe VI will present the award to the Italian professor and publisher at the next annual meeting of the institution's Board of Trustees to be held this October. The statuette, a bronze sculpture with the Instituto Cervantes logo, is inspired by the letter eñe, characteristic of the Spanish language. 

The choice of Morelli - from among three candidates proposed by the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero - was approved at the meeting of the Cervantes Board of Directors held on 12 September and is the second award given by the institution, following the creation of the prize last year on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Cervantes. 

This honorary distinction recognises the careers of individuals - natural or legal, public or private - whose mother tongue is not Spanish, who are outstanding in their work for the dissemination and international promotion of the Spanish language, for their special support of these objectives, or for their exceptional dedication to them.

Professor at the University of Bergamo, philologist, researcher, author and editor, Gabriele Morelli began his studies in Language and Literature in the 1960s, a period when there were few faculties of Spanish Language and Philology in Italy. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Bocconi University in Milan in 1966 with a thesis on Miguel Hernández and completed his studies in Salamanca. 

Among the works he has edited and compiled are the epistolary collections of Vicente Huidobro, with correspondence dated between 1918 and 1947 with Gerardo Diego, Juan Larrea and Guillermo de Torre; the collection of love letters of Pablo Neruda and the unpublished epistolary collection on Miguel Hernández, the correspondence of Darío Puccini with Josefina Manresa - Hernández's widow - between 1961 and 1971, in order to disseminate the poet's work in Italy. 

A member of the Association of Italian Hispanists (AISPI), of which he was president, Morelli is considered in the academic world as one of the leading specialists in Spanish and Latin American literature, particularly that of the avant-garde years and the Generation of '27.  

His literary awards include the Cross of Isabella the Catholic, the Cervantes Prize for Literary Translation in Italy for his version of the novel "Puerto de sombra" by Juan Chabás, and the León Felipe Prize from the Ateneo de Madrid. 

Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.