Ricerc@Sapienza

The project proposes an articulated study of the last two centuries of the history of Oriental Studies in Rome. That of Oriental Studies in Rome is a unitary tradition, also known as the Oriental School, which has continued uninterruptedly from the 14th c. to the present day. This tradition constitutes a fundamental part of the history of the University of Rome and, more generally, of the Italian university. The project will focus on three thematic areas related to this tradition, taken into consideration from the first decades of the 19th c. until today: the events, the prominent figures, and the manuscript and book collections. The area of the events will include an investigation into the history of the chairs of Oriental languages in a period of great transformations, which encompass, among other things, the transition from papal to royal government and the era of Italian colonialism. It was during this period that the denomination of the Oriental School, which was already in use informally, was officially adopted by an association of chairs of the University of Rome (1903). Subsequently, this association assumed the configuration of the Department of Oriental Studies, then that of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and finally that of the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (2010). This area of investigation will also include an examination of the influence that the School has suffered from the cultural context, and, more importantly, the influence that the School has exercised over the Italian cultural and political scene. The area of prominent figures will include in particular the bio-bibliographic study of scholars, whose work, despite its scientific relevance, is not yet sufficiently known within the international academic sphere. The third area will include the description and history, which cannot be separated from that of the School, of extremely important manuscript and book collections preserved in Rome, and in particular in the library of the ISO.