Claudio Manella was born in Italy, but spent part of his life in other European countries (Switzerland, France and Belgium). He is considered to be one of the more noteworthy authors of textbooks for the learning of Italian as a foreign language. Besides working as a teacher and linguist, he is also a writer and historian specialising in contemporary history. On the latter he has published many essays on the history of the cooperative movement and books on the Italian immigration to various parts of the world between the end of the XIX century and World War I; among these are La grande avventura (The Great Adventure), Dadò editore, Locarno, 1993 and Le bande svizzere (The Swiss Gangs), Mursia, Milan, 1998.

In the linguistics he is the author and curator of over 20 textbooks for the learning of Italian as a second or third language (all published by Progetto Lingua Edizioni) and many of his books are already considered as classics for those who learn or teach Italian.

He has been teaching and doing research for over 20 years in one of the more prestigious schools for the learning of the language in Italy, working with learners of various nationalities, Allowing him to apply in his books all the experience he has thus acquired. He lives and works in Florence.