Paolo Bagnoli was born in 1947 in the province of Siena. Professor of the History of Political Doctrines, he taught at the Bocconi University of Milan and at the University of Siena. In 1994 he was elected Senator for the twelfth legislature, held various offices and institutional positions, and was director of the Historical Institute of the Resistance in Tuscany.

He was particularly involved in the political thought of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with specific reference to figures such as Piero Gobetti, Carlo Rosselli, Filippo Burzio and Giuseppe Montanelli. To the latter he dedicated several historiographical contributions: Democracy and State in the political thought of Giuseppe Montanelli (1813-1862), with the complete text of the treaty of G.M.; Of the National Order (1862), presentation of G. Spadolini, preface by A. Agnelli, Firenze, Olschki, 1989; (edited by), Giuseppe Montanelli. Unity and democracy in the Risorgimento, Proceedings of the Conference (Florence, 2-3 December 1988), Florence, Olschki, 1990; The politics of ideas. Giovan Pietro Vieusseux and Giuseppe Montanelli in pre-unification Tuscany, Florence, Polistampa, 1995; (edited), G. Montanelli, Opere politiche 1847-1862, 3 vols. Florence, Polistampa, 1997.