Tullio De Mauro was born in Torre Annunziata (Naples) in 1932. He taught Philosophy of Language in his native city and General Linguistics at the La Sapienza University of Rome, where he is currently professor emeritus. With UTET he published a major Dictionary of Italian Usage (in 8 volumes). His works published by Laterza include: Introduction to Semantics (1999); Understanding Words (n.e. 2002); Little Dictionary of Future Words (2006); Masterclass on Language (2011); Basic Linguistics (n.e. 2011); Minisemantics (2013).

Francesco De Renzo is a sociolinguist. He works with the Italian Linguistic and Cultural Observatory of the University of Rome «La Sapienza». He has also contributed to the Lessico di frequenza dell'italiano popolare-LIP (Etas Libri, 1993) and is author, together with Tullio De Mauro, of Le lauree brevi (Il Mulino, 19963).