Renzo Canestrari (1924-2017) was one of the most eminent Italian psychologists who gave a decisive contribution to the revival of psychology in Italy after World War II. He graduated in both Science of Education and Medicine and Surgery and was a full Professor of Psychology from 1960 to 1999 in the School of Medicine of the University of Bologna. He founded the Institute of Psychology (then Department) in the 1960s where he promoted several lines of research in the domains of experimental, clinical and applied psychology. These lines of research were further developed by his students, who went on to obtain important positions in several Italian universities. On the occasion for the naming of the Renzo Canestrari Department of Psychology, several of his students decided to describe the early steps and subsequent developments of his contributions in multiple areas of psychology. This issue of Ricerche di Psicologia aims to be both a sign of gratitude and a promp for the collection of new documents and for further historical investigation on how psychology was established within universities and other areas of Italian society in the second half of the twentieth century.