Professor Emeritus Ernesto Caserta Dies

Ernesto Giuseppe Caserta, Professor Emeritus of Romance Studies at Duke University, died peacefully at his home in Durham on Saturday, March 6, 2010. He had been in ill health for several years.

Born on March 19, 1937, in Montenero Valcocchiara (IS), Italy, a small village in the southern Apennines, he went to Naples at the age of twelve to attend school, earning the Maturit' Classica from Liceo Genovesi in 1957. Later the same year he immigrated with his parents, Oreste and Elia (Miraldi) Caserta, to Erie, Pennsylvania. He earned degrees at Gannon College (B.A.), Tulane University (M.A.), and Harvard University (Ph.D.). He taught French and Latin for two years at Northwestern High School, Albion, Pennsylvania, before attending graduate school. He taught Italian language and literature at Boston University from 1967 to 1970, and at Duke University from 1970 to 2001. Professor Caserta was the author of numerous books and articles published in Italy and America, notably on the philosopher and literary critic Benedetto Croce, and nineteenth-century writers Alessandro Manzoni and Giacomo Leopardi. As a teacher he had as his goal to enable his students to read, understand, and be enriched by the great Italian writers, from Dante to Machiavelli, from Ariosto to Foscolo, Manzoni, Leopardi, Verga, and Montale.

He is survived by his wife, Jane Caserta, son Vincent Talbot Caserta of Durham, son John Ernesto Caserta and daughter-in-law Sarah Leibel and a grandchild, Lucia Simone Leibel Caserta, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and five brothers and sisters, Clara Pede and husband Clemente, Vincent Caserta and wife Carmela, Antoinette Barboni and husband Livio, all of Erie, Bruno Caserta and wife Barbara of Girard, Pennsylvania, Enio Caserta and wife Armida of Brooksville, Florida, and several nieces and nephews and their children.

Private memorial services are planned, with burial in Maplewood Cemetery. Arrangements by Clements Funeral Home. Memorial contributions may be made to Duke University Library, Box 90581, Durham NC 27708-0581, or to Gannon University, 109 University Square, Erie PA 16541-0001.