Returning to Italy in 1966,[3] Fabbri taught at the University of Florence's Faculty of Architecture alongside
Umberto Eco;[1][3] Fabbri inspired the character of "Paolo da Rimini" in Eco's debut novel, The Name of the Rose (1980).[3][5]
In 1967,[3] Fabbri moved to the
University of Urbino as Professor of
Philosophy of Language. In 1970, he cofounded the university's International Centre of Semiotics and Linguistics (CiSS) with
Carlo Bo and Giuseppe Paioni, one of the earliest schools of semiotics.[1][3] He was the principal collaborator of Greimas, his former teacher, and collaborated with
Erving Goffman in the mid-1970s.[4]
Fabbri moved to the
University of Bologna in 1977, teaching the Semiotics of Arts course in the degree for Arts,[3] Music and Entertainment, over which he presided from 1997 to 2001. From 1990 until 2003, he was part of the Department of Visual Arts of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy.[5]
Fabbri taught at the
University of Palermo's Faculty of Education between 1986 and 1990. Between 2003 and 2009, he was Professor of Semiotics of Art and Artistic Literature at the
IUAV University of Venice's Faculty of Design and Arts.[3]
In 2013, Fabbri became director of CiSS. In 2017, Fabbri was made honorary professor at the universities of
Santiago and
Lima.[3]
Fabbri is remembered more as an educator than his writings.[4] He developed a reputation for not publishing his research in the semiotic field, leading to his nickname of abbas agraphicus (the abbot who does not write),[3][5] to which Fabbri replied that "the professor is oral", transmiting more knowledge through meeting than texts.[5] Fabbri eschewed "-ism" labels.[4]
Cultural activities
During his life, Fabbri sat of the committee of several cultural institutions, including the
Fellini Museum in
Rimini,[3] and the 400th anniversary of the
Biblioteca Civica Gambalunga,[6] to which he donated fifty philosophical works and manuscripts in April 2019.[7]
Fabbri's appointments to other cultural entities included as:[3]
Director of Rimini's Federico Fellini Foundation (2011–13)
Personal life and death
In December 2019,[6] Fabbri was awarded the Sigismondo d'Oro, the highest civic award offered by Rimini's municipal government, alongside
Marco Missiroli.[3][8]
Fabbri owned a villa on the Covignano hill outside Rimini.[5] His brother, Gianni, was the owner of Rimini's Paradiso nightclub.[9]
Fabbri died on 2 June 2020.[1] Among those releasing public condolonces were
Andrea Gnassi, Rimini's municipal mayor,[6]Stefano Bonaccini, President of the Emilia-Romagna Region, and regional councillor
Emma Pettiti [
it].[10]
Publications
Pertinence et adéquation (1992) – a critical response to Greimas[11]
Tactica de los signos. Ensayos de Semiotica (Gedisa Editorial: Barcelona, 1996)[12]