Alessandro Piazza

Alessandro Piazza (20 July 1915 – 16 September 1995) was an Italian biblical scholar and the Bishop of Albenga.

Alessandro Piazza was born on 20 July 1915 in Genoa. He studied at the Minor Archdiocesan Seminary and later at the Major Archdiocesan Seminary of his hometown. On 11 July 1938, at the age of 22, he was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of Saint Lawrence in Genoa. The Archbishop of Genoa, Pietro Cardinal Boetto, sent him to continue his studies in sacred scripture and theology at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. There, he received the licentiate degree and was assigned as a teacher of Hebrew and Scripture at the Archdiocesan Major Seminary.

On May 18, 1965, he was appointed the Bishop of Albenga and consecrated in the Genoa Cathedral on June 24. The principal consecrator was Giuseppe Cardinal Siri. As Bishop, he oversaw the complete restoration of the Cathedral of Saint Michael of Albenga, restoring it to its original Romanesque style. He also founded the Institute for Religious Sciences in the diocese and favored the cultural reinvigoration of the clergy and laity in light of the Second Vatican Council, of which he was a member and participant in its last session.

As a biblical scholar, he served as the secretary of the episcopal committee and as a member of the editorial board of Bible of CEI, the official Italian translation of the Bible for liturgical use published in 1971. Along with biblical scholar Enrico Galbiati, he wrote the book Difficult Pages of the Old Testament (Italian: Pagine difficili della Antico Testamento), of which many Italian editions were released and translations into English, Spanish, Polish, and Russian were made.