Giacomo Albanese studied in Palermo and later in Pisa at the Scuola Normale Superiore where he had as teachers, among the others, E. Bertini and L. Bianchi and he took his degree in 1913. Later he became assitent of Dini and Nicoletti in Pisa and, for a few months, of Severi in Padova. He taught geometry at the Accademia Navale di Livorno (1920-1923), in Catania (1923-26), in Palermo (1926-29) and in Pisa (1929-1936). Starting in 1936 he taught geometry at the University of S. Paulo, in Brasil, where he contributed in a very important way to the development of the mathematical department (as confirmed also by A. Weil, who was his successor in that university). In 1942, because of the World War II he returned to Italy, but at the end of the war, in 1946, he went back to S. Paulo where he stayed until his death in 1947.

Even if he didn't publish too many papers he may be considered as one of the most prominent and original Italian algebraic geometers. His collected works have been published in 1996 in the Queen's University Papers.

Main commemorations and studies: B. Castrucci, Bol. da Soc. de Mat. de Sao Paulo , 2, 1947, 1-5; Ciliberto C.-Sernesi E., in Collected Papers , pp. v – xii.