lit a candle 1h agoMy dad called to tell me, said the Mattei historian died in Bari. Still have his il Mulino biography on the shelf here in Austin.
Their story
Nico Perrone, born Nicola Carlo Perrone, was an Italian historian, essayist, journalist and university teacher whose work ranged across the political history of modern Italy, the United States and international relations. He became especially known for his research on Enrico Mattei, the founder of ENI, whom Perrone had encountered from…
Nico Perrone, born Nicola Carlo Perrone, was an Italian historian, essayist, journalist and university teacher whose work ranged across the political history of modern Italy, the United States and international relations. He became especially known for his research on Enrico Mattei, the founder of ENI, whom Perrone had encountered from inside Italy's state industry before turning to archival scholarship. Over dozens of books, essays, broadcasts and newspaper articles, he pursued the hidden connections between energy, power, diplomacy and national sovereignty.
Perrone was born in Bari on 27 April 1935, the only son of Raffaele Perrone and Luisa Tortorella. He graduated with honours in the history of international relations at the University of Bari, then held scholarships at University College Dublin and Sofia University. In the early 1960s he joined ENI in Rome to study foreign labour law. Mattei appointed him to represent the company in work connected with public administration reform. Perrone later worked at the state holding company EFIM and, after returning to Bari, at the publisher Laterza.
His academic career at the University of Bari began in 1977 and continued until 2006. He taught American, contemporary and modern history, and twice directed the Institute of Modern and Contemporary History. His classrooms were only one part of an international career. He taught or lectured at Roskilde University, Copenhagen Business School, the University of Copenhagen, Lugano and Tirana. During a United States visit through the International Visitor Leadership Program in 1986, Nebraska granted him honorary citizenship.
Mattei remained the central figure in Perrone's public reputation. His books included Mattei, il nemico italiano, La morte necessaria di Enrico Mattei, Obiettivo Mattei, Perche uccisero Enrico Mattei and the biography Enrico Mattei. Drawing on documents from Italy and abroad, he argued that Mattei's industrial strategy and the Cold War politics of oil made him a target of powerful interests. Perrone also wrote major studies of Alcide De Gasperi, the Risorgimento, Cavour, Garibaldi, Liborio Romano, the Monroe Doctrine and the history of Italy's state-owned economy.
Alongside scholarship, Perrone wrote for newspapers and journals including il manifesto, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno and Le Monde diplomatique. He worked with RAI from 1978 to 2006, notably presenting a twenty-part Radio 2 series on Mattei. He kept publishing into his late eighties, with Frammenti taciuti di storia germanica appearing in 2023. Perrone died in Bari on 19 September 2026, aged 91. He is survived by his wife Maria and sons Aguinaldo and Raffaele. Tributes remembered a teacher who trained students to question familiar accounts and a historian who continued searching the archives for overlooked evidence.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (Nico Perrone), CC BY-SA 4.0; Corriere della Sera Bari, Lorenzo Giliberti, 20 Sep 2026; la Repubblica Bari, Mario Spagnoletti, 20 Sep 2026; il manifesto, Aldo Giannuli, 22 Sep 2026; Radio Ra. Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“The hostilities toward Mattei depended on the industrial choices he had made, on the growing threat ENI posed to the major British and American oil companies, and on the pressure he exerted on Italian domestic and international politics.”
Nico Perrone, interview with G. Petrosillo on Mattei and ENI, published by Paperblog, 20 September 2012; translated from Italian.
“Of Mattei's ENI, today, nothing remains.”
Nico Perrone, interview with G. Petrosillo, 20 September 2012; translated from Italian.
“Italian sovereignty is lost: if it really interests only a few, please consider me among those few.”
Nico Perrone, interview with Maurizio Cabona, 8 October 2013; translated from Italian.
Photos
3Historian Nico Perrone in January 2007
Jan 2007 · by People Forever
Nico Perrone speaking at a public event
by People Forever
Nico Perrone at home among his books
by People Forever
same, picked it up on a whim years ago and never forgot it