Gino Nibbi was born in Fermo, Italy. He attended primary school in Fermo and then the Istituto Tecnico Umberto in Ascoli Piceno, where he obtained the 'Diploma di Perito Commerciale e Ragioniere' [Diploma in Commercial Studies and Bookkeeping] in 1915. After completing his schooling he was called up for military service and he served for most of the war as a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment. After leaving the army he found employment with the Societa` Mulini e Pastifici of Porto San Giorgio as a bookkeeper. His initial visit to Australia was brief, and he returned to settle after a two-year journey in the Pacific. He lived in Melbourne, where he established the Leonardo Art Shop, a bookshop in Little Collins Street which was to serve as a centre for the exchange of ideas and the development of art until it closed in 1947. He then returned to Italy where he opened the bookshop and gallery, Ai Quattro Venti, in Rome, but maintained contact with Australia and its artists. He came back to Australia for a few years and finally left again for Italy in 1963, where he died in 1969.
He is considered one of the most influential figures of the Australian art world of the 1930s. His critical observations of the Australian scene are gathered in his articles for the Italian press and in his two collections of stories and sketches.
Nibbi also wrote two autobiographical works which were published in Italy, as well as publishing in Melbourne a book for students of Italian, Newest Italian-English Reader (1936). Only his works with Australian content are listed here.
