The article outlines the intellectual biography of Remo Bodei (1938-2019), the Italian scholar that since 1960 gave outstanding contributions both to philosophy and history of philosophy. Aim of the article is to maintain that the philosophy of Hegel was the core of Bodei’s research, moving from his seminal works on Hegel’s thought and on the Hegelian «constellation», i.e. on modern and contemporary philosophers – from Hölderlin to Adorno – that did play a role for our understanding of Hegel. Bodei’s development illustrates – after the book Sistema ed epoca in Hegel (1975) – his never publicly declared conviction that Hegel was for him the most salient philosopher for the adequate comprehension of modern subjectivity. Bodei’s most significant works in this direction are Scomposizioni (an ambitious work which moves from a Hegelian fragment), Geometria delle passioni and Destini personali, three books that Bodei himself considered as parts of a unitary project.