Born on 3 October 1932 in Scandiano, in the province of Reggio Emilia, he was one of the nine children of the engineer Mario Prodi and the elementary school teacher Enrichetta Franzoni.
[1] In 1945, at the age of 13, Prodi saw his parish priest killed, accused by the Italian partisans of wartime collaboration with Nazi Germany.
[1] After having won a scholarship at the Augustinianum College, he graduated in political science at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, and then completed his studies at the University of Bonn as a student of Hubert Jedin.
Dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto.
[1] Considered one of the leading experts in the history of law and of the Catholic Church, Prodi founded in 1973, together with Jedin, the Italian-German Historical Institute of Trento [it; de], which he directed for more than two decades.