Giovanni Spadolini (Florence, 21 June 1925 – Rome, 4 August 1994) was a liberal Italian politician, the 65th Prime Minister, newspaper editor, journalist, and a noted historian.

Before entering politics, he was editor of Il Corriere della Sera from 1968 to 1972. He served as Ministro dei Beni e delle Attività culturali (Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities) from 1974 to 1976.

He was leader of the Italian Republican Party (PRI) from 1979 to 1987. He served as Prime Minister of Italy from 1981 to 1982, the first in the post 1945 Republic to do so who was not a member of the Christian Democrat party.

From 1987 to April 1994 he was President of the Italian Senate. Following the electoral success of Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms, he lost the chairmanship of the Senate to Carlo Scognamiglio Pasini by a single vote. He died four months later, on 4 August 1994.

As a journalist, he sometimes used the pseudonym Giovanni dalle Bande Nere.