Biography
As a young man, Cipolla wanted to teach history and philosophy in an Italian high school, and therefore enrolled at the political science faculty at Pavia University. Whilst a student there, thanks to professor Franco Borlandi, a specialist in Medieval economic history, he discovered his passion for economic history. Subsequently he studied at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics.
Cipolla obtained his first teaching post in economic history in Catania at the age of 27. This was to be the first stop in a long academic career in Italy (Venice, Turin, Pavia, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Fiesole) and abroad. In 1953 Cipolla left for the United States as a Fulbright fellow and in 1957 became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later he obtained a full professorship. In 1995 he received the Balzan Prize with this citation. "Carlo Maria Cipolla is considered by his peers as a leader in economic history who knew how to instill a spirit of innovation in the discipline. Thanks to his intellectual curiosity, dominated by the most rigorous thought and methodology, and through meticulous research of source material, he has combined the macro-historic approach with studies in micro-history in works of great originality and solidity, which cover a broad range of economic and cultural fields".
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