Edmund Garratt Gardner, FBA (12 May 1869 – 27 July 1935) was an English scholar and writer, specializing in Italian history and literature.
[3] His studies were interrupted in 1890 due to health problems that were to persist throughout his life; during his convalescence in Florence, he received his only formal training in Italian from a Florentine bookseller.
He proceeded to contribute to a series of popular travel guides on cities in Italy published by J. M. Dent, while producing a steady scholarly output on Dante, Ariosto and their period.
[5] His academic contributions were recognized with his appointment as Barlow lecturer on Dante at University College London between 1910 and 1926.
A fund was set up in early 1935 to mark his retirement, its main purpose being to finance the Edmund G. Gardner Memorial Prize in Italian Studies, to be awarded every five years by a committee from University College London.