Renato Poggioli (April 16, 1907 in Florence – May 3, 1963 in Crescent City), was an Italian academic specializing in comparative literature.[1] After 1938, he lived in the United States. At the time of his death, he was the Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at Harvard University.[2] A prolific writer and translator, who was fluent in five languages, he is considered one of the founders of the academic discipline of comparative literature in the United States.[3]