Just a month before his 71st birthday — he was born in Livorno on May 24, 1954 — Mario Fiorentini passed away. He was Professor of Roman Law and Foundations of European Law at the Department of IUSLIT of the University of Trieste.

After earning his Law degree with honors in 1981 from the University of Pisa, he joined the first cycle of the PhD program in Roman Law and the Law of the Eastern Mediterranean (University of Rome La Sapienza, 1983–1986), focusing his research on culti gentilizi, the subject of his first monograph (1988). In 1991, he won a national competition for a research position at the Faculty of Law of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he remained until 1996. That year, he transferred to Trieste, where he would later be appointed Associate Professor in the early 2000s, following the publication of Fiumi e mari nell’esperienza giuridica romana (2003).

Though afflicted for some time by a painful illness, he continued his studies until the very end, driven by an unshakable passion for antiquity. A profound scholar, he was able to move effortlessly between legal, archaeological, literary, and historical dimensions. In the last decade, his research activity intensified, resulting in numerous refined essays and two substantial monographs: Il giurista e l’eretico (2016) and Natura e diritto nell’esperienza romana (2022).

Colleagues remember him as courteous to all and always ready with a witty remark; seated in his office, hunched over his computer from late morning into the evening, his door always open to welcome students, with whom he had a bond of total dedication and sincere affection — a sentiment clearly echoed on a Facebook page in his honor: Quelli che amano il Prof. Fiorentini.