Carlo Caracciolo; publisher co-founded La Repubblica

ROME - Carlo Caracciolo, a leading Italian publisher who was a cofounder of the influential newspaper La Repubblica and who was known as "the editor prince," a nod to his aristocratic birth and elegant manner, died Monday in his home in Rome. He was 83.

A spokesman for La Repubblica did not give a cause of death but said that Mr. Caracciolo had been treated for cancer.

In 1976, with the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, Mr. Caracciolo founded the Rome-based La Repubblica, a left-leaning newspaper that today has a daily circulation of nearly 600,000. He also created one of Italy's most prominent publishing groups, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, which includes the weekly news magazine l'Espresso.

In 2007, a year after he retired from the Espresso group, he became a leading investor in the French paper Liberation.

"He set an example for free and independent editorial content that initially seemed marginal and exclusive and instead became a major force in Italian newspaper publishing," said Nello Ajello, Mr. Caracciolo's biographer and a former coeditor of l'Espresso.

President Giorgio Napolitano praised Mr. Caracciolo Monday as a man "tied to the cause of antifascism and democracy," the news agency Ansa reported.

Mr. Caracciolo was born to a Neapolitan prince, Filippo Caracciolo di Castagneto, Duke of Melitto, and an American woman, Margaret Clarke. His sister, Marella, married Giovanni Agnelli, of Fiat fame.

Mr. Caracciolo fought alongside Resistance fighters during World War II, earned a law degree, and received a postgraduate degree from Harvard Law School. He began to show a serious interest in publishing while in the United States, Ajello said.

"His personal style was aristocratic," Ajello said, "even when operating in a profession that isn't exactly known to be all that refined."