Maria Pia Pedani (19 October 1952 - 1 March 2019) was an Italian historian and an honorary member of the Turkish Historical Society (Türk Tarih Kurumu).
She was a graduate of Caâ Foscari University of Venice and the University of Trieste. She completed her doctorate in history at the University of Szeged. She worked in the Venetian Archive from 1979 to 1999, after which she earned the position of associate professor in the department of Asian and North African Studies. At this university, she taught courses on Ottoman and Middle Eastern history, focusing mainly on Ottoman-Venetian relations. She was known for her research studies dealing with Ottoman-Venetian relations through peace treaties, descriptions of frontiers, and diplomatic documents. In Turkish, she published such works as In the Name of the Ottoman Sultan: Ottomans Sent to Venice From the Conquest of Istanbul to the Cretan War [Osmanlñ Padià Âahñnñn Adñna: ðstanbulâÂÂun Fethinden Girit Savaà ÂñâÂÂna VenedikâÂÂe Gönderilen Osmanlñlar (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2011)]; Venice, the Port of the East [DoÃÂuâÂÂnun Kapñsñ Venedik (ðstanbul: Küre Yayñnlarñ, 2015) / original title: Venezia, Porta dâÂÂOriente (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2010)]; and The Great Ottoman Kitchen [OsmanlñâÂÂnñn Büyük MutfaÃÂñ (Ankara: Hece Yayñnlarñ, 2018) / original title La grande cucina ottomana (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2012]. Pedani published one article in the Türkiye Diyanet FoundationâÂÂs Encyclopedia of Islam (TDV ðslâm Ansiklopedisi).
Following her death, she was commemorated on 13 October 2019, in a symposium organized by the History Program of Sabancñ University and the Italian Language and Literature Department of the Faculty of Language, History, and Geography (DTCF) at Ankara University.
The Journal of Turkish Studies published a Festschrift on her work.