From an ancient family of Venetian origin, Feliciano Benvenuti was born in Padua in 1916. He graduated in law at the University of Padua with a thesis on The succession between territorial autarchic entities, supervisor Enrico Guicciardi; then he became assistant in the faculty of political science of the same university. During the war he served as a naval officer, and later spent two years in a concentration camp in Germany. In 1951 he obtained the chair in administrative law, and later held the chair of administrative law in the Faculty of Political Sciences of Padua (1951-56), then in the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Milan (1956-72) and finally in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (1972-83) where he also taught public law. In 1974 he has been elected Rector of Ca’ Foscari, renewed for three mandates. He contributes to the foundation (1959) of the Institute for the Science of Public Administration (ISAP) in Milan, which he directs until 1972; he also acted as president in many cultural and economic entities and institutions. He died in Padua on July 16, 1999.