Alessandro Barbero (Turin, 1959), writer and professor of Medieval History at the University of Eastern Piedmont, is one of the most renowned Italian historians. He has published numerous books, including the essays *The Battle: A History of Waterloo* (2004) and *The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle of Adrianople, August 9, 1788* (2007), as well as the historical novel *Mr. Pybe's Diary: Adventures and Misadventures of an American Gentleman in the Napoleonic Wars* (1996), for which he received the Strega Prize, Italy's highest literary award.