Prof. Giuseppe Alberigo (1926–2007) was an Italian Catholic historian and theologian renowned for his pioneering work on the Second Vatican Council. He earned a doctorate in law (1948) from the Catholic University of Milan and studied church history under Hubert Jedin and Delio Cantimori, with theological formation influenced by Giuseppe Dossetti. He served as professor of Church history at the universities of Florence (1951–1954), Modena (1954–1967), and Bologna (1967–2000), where he also held the role of secretary-general at the Giovanni XXIII Religious Sciences Foundation. Alberigo’s most significant contribution was as editor of the five-volume Storia del Concilio Vaticano II, published through the “Bologna School,” introducing the influential “hermeneutics of discontinuity” to Vatican II studies. He received several honorary doctorates (Münster, 1999; Würzburg, 2002) and in April 2007 was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.