is University Professor (Literature) and essayist. Mme Benedetta Craveri is the granddaughter of Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce. She collaborates on a regular basis to the Italian daily La Repubblica. She has published numerous articles (e.g. in the New York Review of Books) and essays and is the author of several books, including: Madame du Deffand e il suo mondo (1982, also translated in French, Spanish and English), La vie privée du Maréchal de Richelieu (1993), La civiltà della conversazione (2002, also translated in French, Spanish and English) and recent studies such as Amanti e regine. Il potere delle donne (2005) and Maria Antonietta e lo scandalo della collana (2006). Her main field of research is literature and French culture in the XVII and XVIII century. She has been awarded many honours, among which the ‘Prix du rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature françaises’ of the Académie Française (2006).