[1] After working as a liceo classico teacher and a voluntary university assistant, in 1980 he became a full professor in his Alma Mater, and later was nominated head of the Department of Modern Philology and president of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy.

[1] The main object of Mineo's studies was Dante Alighieri, to whom he dedicated a large number of essays and studies, notably a Dante monograph first published in 1970 and which had numerous new editions over the years.

[1][3] He was a founding member of the Société dantesque de France, and the founder of the Lectura Dantis association.

[1] Mineo was also regarded as a major scholar of Giovanni Verga and Verismo.

[1] A former Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity member, between 1998 and 2004 Mineo served as Councillor for Culture and Education in Giarre.