Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper is focused on the relations between Inner Mongolia and the West. The Mongols of Inner Mongolia are one of the 56 minorities of China, and their number paradoxically is larger than those of Outer Mongolia. Through the ages, Mongolia was visited by several missionaries such as Giovanni da Montecorvino and Odorico da Pordenone, and in the following centuries by the jesuits A. Thomas, J. F. Gerbillon and others. At the beginning of the 20th century it was crossed by the Italian journalists Barzini, father and son, who described it in their reports.

This paper aims to shed light on the Mongolian studies in Italy from 1861 to the present day. It is mainly focused on the nineteenth century and it analyses the two most important Italian institutions of time for the Oriental Studies, that is the “Regio Istituto di Studi Superiori Pratici e di Perfezionamento” of Florence and the the “Real Collegio Asiatico” of Naples. In these academic institutions there were a number of outstanding scholars interested in Mongolian language such as Carlo Puini, Emilio Teza and Guido Amedeo Vitale.