BEMPORAD, ENRICO

BEMPORAD, ENRICO (1868–1944), Italian publisher. At an early age he joined the Florentine publishing company of the brothers Alessandro and Felice Paggi. After the death of his father, Roberto, in 1891, he became the head of the firm which had, in the meantime, changed its name into R. Bemporad and son. Under his direction the publishing house became one of the most important in Italy. Bemporad established branch offices in many towns and extended the company's activities from educational and scholastic publications to wider literary fields. His company published the works of Giovanni Verga and Luigi Pirandello as well as the initial edition of Dante's works for the Italian Dante Society. Bemporad was at various times president or managing director of other Italian publishing companies, including Lattes of Turin, Sansoni of Florence, and Zanichelli of Bologna. During the Nazi occupation   Bemporad was compelled to abandon his publishing work. He went into hiding and died a few days after Florence was liberated. (Giorgio Romano)