Diego D’Elia

Lieutenant Colonel in the Carabinieri Corps and Chair Holder at the Centre of Excellence for the Stability Police Units in Vicenza, Diego D’Elia earned a PhD in Cultural Heritage Protection and went on to conduct research on the bibliographic, cultural, legal, artistic, iconological and iconographic aspects of chess history, with specific interest in the Late Mediaeval and Renaissance periods. He has published many authoritative articles and books, including editions of the ms. Vaticano Boncompagni N3 and of the ms. 1475 of the Bertoliana Library, as well as a critical edition of the Deventer Poem. His research has revealed numerous unpublished documents, including an engraving for La Filosofia degli Scacchi by Marco A. Severino (17th century), the oldest known draft prints of a chess book (Lucena, circa 1497), a Venetian chess poem of the 18th century and a translation into English of Una partita a scacchi by Giuseppe Giacosa (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Patetta 839).