Padre Attilio Mellone Award (Best Thesis)

An award dedicated to the young graduates of Montesano

The Padre Attilio Mellone Award is the recognition that the Municipality of Montesano sulla Marcellana, in the province of Salerno (Campania), assigns to the best degree thesis presented by young people with ties to the town. This is not a food festival or a variety show: it is a civil and cultural ceremony, sober and well-attended, which every spring brings together families, professors, administrators, and new graduates in the town hall's main hall. As Mayor Giuseppe Rinaldi has noted, the award "recognizes the value of our graduates and the sacrifices made alongside their families to reach this academic milestone."

Who was Padre Attilio Mellone

The award bears the name of Attilio Mellone (Montesano sulla Marcellana, July 19, 1917 – Cava de' Tirreni, November 14, 2005), a Franciscan friar, theologian, and man of letters. After entering the Order of Friars Minor in 1933 and being ordained a priest in 1941, he moved to Cava de' Tirreni in 1951, where he taught dogmatic theology. However, his fame is primarily linked to his Dante studies: he authored eighteen entries for the Treccani Enciclopedia Dantesca and, in 1974, co-founded the Lectura Dantis Metelliana with Fernando Salsano, an institution that has attracted the most authoritative Dante scholars to Cava de' Tirreni for half a century. In 2004, the city of Cava granted him honorary citizenship. For Montesano, Mellone remains a cultural reference point that the award helps pass on to new generations.

The jury and academic disciplines

The submitted theses are evaluated by a jury operating across various academic disciplines, chaired by Marco Galdi, who has long been close to the figure of Padre Attilio Mellone and is tasked with coordinating the evaluation process with rigor and cultural depth. The inclusion of multiple fields of study is a deliberate choice: the award does not favor a single faculty but aims to capture the overall academic journey of a community that sends dozens of students to universities in Salerno, Naples, and beyond every year.

Palazzo Gerbasio, the setting for the ceremony

The award ceremony takes place in the Palazzo Gerbasio town hall, an 18th-century building with a beautiful stone portal, which has been restored and is now municipal property. In addition to offices and representative halls, the building now houses the MuMont Art museum, established in 2026 following the donation of the private collection of Antonio Mazziotti di Celso, featuring sections dedicated to painting, artistic crafts, sacred icons, clocks, and stone artifacts related to the history of the Castle of Montesano. The building's cellars have been repurposed to showcase local traditional products. Attending the ceremony is therefore also an opportunity to discover one of the most vibrant cultural hubs in the Vallo di Diano.

Montesano sulla Marcellana and the Vallo di Diano

Montesano sulla Marcellana is a widespread municipality in the province of Salerno, in Campania, overlooking the Vallo di Diano and included in the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park. The municipal territory is divided into several hamlets, including Montesano Scalo and the well-known spa town of Montesano Terme. It is a setting where cultural initiatives promoted by the Municipality—from the "I Sogni di Rosemary" literary award to the new museum at Palazzo Gerbasio—build a calendar that extends well beyond the summer tourist season.

Why attend

• A free event open to the public, held in the historic town hall.
• A concrete tribute to a nationally renowned scholar born in the town.
• An opportunity to learn about the research work of young people from the Vallo di Diano.
• The chance to visit Palazzo Gerbasio and its collections.