Born on 7 February 1923, Brand attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge; he joined the college in 1941, but his studies were interrupted by service in the Second World War (including in Italy).
[2] He left Cambridge in 1966 to succeeded Mario Manlio Rossi as Professor of Italian at the University of Edinburgh, remaining in the chair until 1988.
[1] The Scotsman called Brand "one of Britain’s outstanding scholars of Italian literature in the second half of the 20th century".
He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1990 and in 1995 he served as president of the Modern Humanities Research Association.
He was appointed Cavaliere (Knight) of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1975 and promoted to Commendatore (Commander) in 1988.