Prof. Virgilio Ilari was born in Rome in 1948, former Professor of Roman Law and History of Military Institutions at the Catholic University of Milan, is President of the Italian Society of Military History.
He has been consultant for the Italian Army Chief of Staff (SME), the Italian Defense Institute of Studies and Research (ISTRID), the Italian Institute for International Affairs (IAI) and the Italian Society for International Organization (SIOI).
Prof. Ilari also served as Director of Research at the Italian Centre for Military Studies (CeMISS) and as consultant for the Italian Parliament Commission on Terrorism.
Presently he is member of the editorial board of the Italian Review of Geopolitics Limes and collaborates with RISK. Among his numerous publications there are: Il Pensiero militare italiano (con F. Botti, 1984), Storia del servizio militare in Italia (1989-91, 5 voll.), Storia militare della Prima Repubblica (1994) and a series of eight books (14 volumes) on the Italian Military History from the Revolutions Wars to the Empire. Recently (2010 – 2011) Prof. Ilari published the history of the 31th light, an essay on the use of Clausewitz doctrine in Italy and a bibliography of Italian military writers from XV to XVIII century.
In recent times Prof Ilari donated 25.000 volumes on military history to the Civic Bibliotheca of Varallo Sesia (Italy) and his 42.000 digital books collection to the Am Guinsanplatz of Berna (Swiss), to the Italian Senate Bibliotheca and to the Italian Institute of Strategic Studies Niccolò Machiavelli’s digital library.
