Raffaele Pettazzoni

Raffaele Pettazzoni (3 February 1883, in San Giovanni in Persiceto – 8 December 1959, in Rome) was an Italian anthropologist, archaeologist, professor, and historian of religion. He was one of the first academics to propose a historical approach to the study of religions. He was editor-in-chief of the academic journal ''Numen'' published by Brill Academic Publishers, and president of the International Association for the History of Religions from 1950 to 1959.

During his career as a historian of religion and scholar of Religious studies, which spans more than thirty years, Pettazzoni conducted several extensive researches on the Prehistoric religion of the ancient Italic peoples, Greek and Roman polytheism, Iranic religions, and the evolutionary origin of religions. Provided by Wikipedia