If we ask you what we inherited from the Italian Renaissance, your thoughts will possibly run to the artworks that fascinate scholars and students all around the world. But, along with material masterpieces, the Renaissance has left us an immaterial legacy, a concept, still dear to our hearts,that has shaped Western culture down the last two centuries: the ‘Universal Man’ [UM]. The UM, Leon Battista Alberti put it, is ‘a woman/man that can do all things, if she/he will’. The UM is an individual eager to learn and willing to dominate the universe thanks to her/his skills and knowledge. Although firmly rooted in the Humanistic idea that we are limitless in our capacities for development, the UM is incredibly close to Western ideals of success and progress, for we have drawn inspiration from the UM when this concept has been re-introduced in our culture at the dawn of the 20th century. Indeed, the Renaissance has influenced us not only because the seeds of the modern world were sown there, but also because the UM has been re-vitalised (by scholars and philosophers) and afterwards spread to the collective imaginary by storytellers. One of the most influential storyteller who chose the UM as a protagonist of his works was Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863-1938). This project focuses on the reception and interpretation of the Italian Renaissance in d’Annunzio and aims at providing the first comprehensive study of the revival of the UM in d’Annunzio’s prose works.