Alessandro D'Ancona (1892-1900)

A man of letters, D'Ancona was also a politician; he was a senator of the Kingdom of Italy and mayor of Pisa.
He directed historical and literary studies towards the rigorous philological approach that would become a feature of research at the Scuola Normale in the future.
He did his utmost to promote the collegial nature of the Scuola Normale: many years later, one of the Scuola Normale's colleges would be named after D'Ancona.
Among the students of the D'Ancona directorship was Giovanni Gentile.