About me

Oronzo Cilli is a member of the English Tolkien Society and an independent scholar specializing in the life and academic work of writer J. R. R. Tolkien.

He has collaborated with Arden Smith, Patrick Wynne, John Garth, Jay Johnstone, Christina Scull, Wayne G. Hammond, John Howe, Brian Sibley, Verlyn Flieger, and Tom Shippey.

He is the editor of the second Italian edition of The Annotated Hobbit (Bompiani, 2004) and author of J. R. R. Tolkien: La Prima Bibliografia italiana dal 1967 a oggi (L’Arco e la Corte, 2013), as well as J. R. R. Tolkien l'Esperantista. Prima dell'arrivo di Bilbo Baggins (Cafagna Editore, 2015), published in both Italian and English (2017), co-authored with Arden R. Smith and Patrick H. Wynne, with a foreword by John Garth.

In 2016, he published Tolkien e l'Italia (Il Cerchio, 2016), with a foreword by Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond, a detailed reconstruction of Tolkien’s publishing history in Italy based on unpublished documents found in Italian and English archives, which also includes the previously unpublished Italian translation of Tolkien’s diary from his trip to Venice and Assisi in August 1955.

In 2019, his book Tolkien's Library: An Annotated Checklist was published in the United Kingdom by the Scottish publisher Luna Press, featuring a foreword by Tom Shippey. The book won the "Best Book" award at The Tolkien Society Awards 2020 and was a finalist in the Mythopoeic Awards 2021 shortlist—both milestones marking the first and only time for an Italian scholar. The book was updated in a second edition in 2023, with a new afterword by Verlyn Flieger. In 2022, he published Guida complete al mondo di Tolkien with Vallardi, featuring an introduction by John Howe and a afterword by Brian Sibley.

A scholar, speaker, and promoter of Tolkien-related initiatives, among his most significant contributions is the curation of Tolkien. Uomo, Professore, Autore Tolkien. Man, Professor, Author—the major exhibition commissioned by the Italian Minister of Culture, and curated by me in collaboration with the COR of Rome. The exhibition is supported by the University of Oxford and benefits from the scholarly contribution of two close friends and fellow researchers, Giuseppe Pezzini and Adriano Monti Buzzetti. Launched in Rome (National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nov. 2023 – Feb. 2024), the exhibition then traveled to Naples (Royal Palace, Mar. – Jul. 2024), Venaria Reale (The Venaria Reale, Oct. 2024 – Feb. 2025), Catania (Palazzo della Cultura, Mar. – Aug. 2025), and finally Trieste (Salone degli Incanti, Sept. 2025 – Jan. 2026).

On Academia.edu, he has published works such as The Educational Value of Esperanto, The Word of Tolkien in The British Esperantist, J. R. R. Tolkien, the Linguaphone and Italy 1930–1950, and essays on Aldo Ricci, "pioneer of Anglo-Saxon studies in Italy," 1944: Michael H. R. Tolkien and the Soviet Mania, Tolkien, trains and two discoveries: Meccano and Hornby, "The leaves were long the cover was green". A reply to Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond, and Tolkien, John Henry Newman, and József Mindszenty.

His articles have been translated into English, French, Japanese, Portuguese, and Esperanto. He is considered the most important Italian collector of books by and about J. R. R. Tolkien. For Cafagna Editore, he curates the study series on the life and works of Tolkien titled Il mondo di Tolkien (The World of Tolkien).