Codignola-Bo, Luca

Luca Codignola-Bo, born in Genoa, Italy, in 1947, took his Master's degree in History at the University of Toronto in 1974. New France historian William J. Eccles was his thesis director. He then taught early Canadian and American history at the universities of Bologna (1975-7), Pisa (1976-90), and Genova (1990-2016). At Genova he was also member of the University's Senate (2012-5). In 2008-12 he was Head of the Institute of History of Mediterranean Europe (ISEM) of Italy's National Research Council (CNR). Dr Codignola-Bo has been active in a number of international associations and institutions, such as the International Council for Canadian Studies (President 1985-7), the Italian Association for Canadian Studies (President 1988-90), the Italian Committee for North American History (President 1989-91), the Association internationale des études acadiennes (President 2004-6), the Association internationale des études québécoises (member of the Conseil d'Administration 2005-10), the European Science Foundation, Standing Committee for the Humanities (Italy's representative 2005-8). He was awarded the Northern Telecom Five Continents Award in Canadian Studies (1988), the Special Government of Canada Award (2001), and a Doctorate honoris causa (D.Litt.) by Saint Mary's University (2003). He was also elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2016). Over the years Dr Codignola-Bo has taught in several Canadian and American universities such as York (1990-4), Laval (1997, 2000), McGill (1998), Brown (2001), Toronto (2002), and Saint Mary's (2007, 2013-4). He has also been research associate at the Université de Montréal (1977, 1988, 1990, 1992), the University of Ottawa (1977, 1985), the University of London (1980, 1982-3, 2002, 2004), the John Carter Brown Library (1989, 2001), and the Library Company of Philadelphia (2003). At the time of the donation of his personal papers to McMaster University, Dr Codignola-Bo was Adjunct Professor (History) at Saint Mary's University (2005-17), Senior Fellow of the Cushwa Center for the History of US Catholicism of the University of Notre Dame (2016-8), and Professeur associé (Histoire) at the Université de Montréal (2016-9). He is best known for his work on the the Roman Catholic church in the North Atlantic area in the early modern era, and has also written on the history of early European expansion in the Atlantic region. Since 2016 Dr Codignola-Bo lives in Milan with his wife, Gabriella Ferruggia, a former professor of American literature. They have one daughter, Federica.

R. Stapleton, 2019