Mario Salmi (San Giovanni Valdarno, 14 June 1889 – Rome, 16 November 1980) was an Italian art historian and art critic who specialized in Romanesque architecture, Tuscan sculpture and the early Italian Renaissance.
He was appointed professor of art history first at the University of Pisa, where he established the Istituto di Storia dell'Arte, which opened in 1929,[1] then at the University of Florence, where he founded the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in 1937.
He was also supervisor of the 15-volume Enciclopedia Universale dell'Arte, published from 1958 to 1967, which was soon translated into English as The Encyclopedia of World Art.
Salmi influenced many of his students at the universities of Pisa, Florence and Rome, including Alessandro Marabottini, Enzo Carli, Umberto Baldini, John Carandente, Mirella Levi D'Ancona,[3] among them.
His papers and photographs collection are held at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California.