1934 prizes awarded by the Accademia d’Italia. Despite being among his first books published, it remains probably the best known of his books. In 1936 he participated in the nationwide competition organised by the University of Messina to fa the vacancy that had arisen at the for an extraordinary professorship in Italian literature. There were no fewer than 29 candidates for evaluation by the ad hoc appointments commission, of whom no fewer than 13 were already well established in their university careers. The appointments commission included Senate President Federzoni, indicating the political importance attaching to the job. Natalino Sapégno was one of three candidates shortlisted for an interview session in Palermo. The upshot of this was that he was offered and accepted the extraordinary professorship, based not at Messina but along the coast at the University of Palermo. Rome As matters turned out, Natalino Sapégno's first full-time university appointment lasted only a year. At the end of 1937 he succeeded Vittorio Rossi, by now in the final months of his illness, with a professorship at the Sapienza University of Rome. The alternative candidate, Luigi Russo, was almost a decade older than Sapégno and came with what was almost certainly a more conventional background in the universities sector. Sapégno's appointment triggered lasting bitterness on Russi's part. However, the university authorities were persuaded to prefer Sapégno, based on a decision communicated from the Education Minister, Giuseppe Bottai. Public government support for the appointment might lead to the assumption that Sapégno might not remain in post after the fall of fascism in 1943, but in fact he continued to teach at the Sapienza till 1976. During the early years of his long incumbency he taught courses on Poliziano, Dante, Boccaccio, Ariosto and Pulci, thereby cementing his reputation as an authority on the fourteenth and fifteenth century Italian literary dawn. On 16 December 1939 he was promoted to a full professorship ("... nominato ordinario"). Maria Elisabetta Posta Natalino Sapégno married Maria Elisabetta Posta, his second wife, in 1938. The marriage was followed by the births of the couple's two daughter, Simonetta and Silvia. War years Between 1938 and 1943 Sapégno had links to the Roman anti-fascist movement, which was well represented among the academics at the Sapienza. Partisan activists to whom he was close included Pietro Ingrao and Carlo Muscetta, along with several of his students, such as Carlo Salinari and Mario Alicata, who