Chinese Studies in Venice: A Timeline of Change

Chinese studies have historically been shaped by change in political, social, and scientific institutions. Since the ’80s, China’s emergence into the world stage and change in scientific paradigms have spurred debate about the epistemological foundations of the field. Sinologists have been confronted with the need of identifying pathways to ensure that the knowledge they produce is relevant for science and society. The engagement with theoretical and empirical approaches employed by different disciplines, most notably the social sciences, has been a key element to their endeavours. This paper contributes to this on-going reflection, by benchmarking recent changes in Chinese studies at Ca’ Foscari University against global trends of evolution in area studies. Results show that the field has now multi-disciplinary features and has initiated a transition towards inter-disciplinarity. By endorsing the holistic approach to knowledge informing this transition, scholars in the field may strengthen the centrality of Chinese studies in scientific production processes concerned with the sinosphere.

Teaching Asian and African Languages in Ca’ Foscari (1868-1929)

The Commercial High School of Venice was created just when the Suez Canal was opened. Its aim was to prepare young people for international trade or a consular career. Thus, also some languages spoken in the East began to be taught (Arabic, Turkish and Japanese) but the idea was to enlarge this offer with Chinese, Persian and also Amharic. The first years were difficult: courses were opened and closed according to the presence of students or professors who could teach them.

Chinese Studies at Ca’ Foscari: Lionello Lanciotti, Mario Sabattini and Their Legacy

The successful development of Chinese studies at Ca’ Foscari was mainly due to the contribution of two eminent sinologists, professor Lionello Lanciotti (1925-2015) and professor Mario Sabattini (1944-2017). This paper offers a brief overview of their intellectual and academic experience in Venice and of their legacy.

Alberto De’ Stefani: from Ca’ Foscari to China

Alberto De Stefani (1879-1969), one of the most important Italian economists, studied and taught in Ca’ Foscari until he moved to Rome in 1922. Among his personal achievements, it is worth remembering his mission to Republican China in 1937. This essay first looks at De’ Stefani’s connection with Ca’ Foscari and then it gives an account of his trip to Republican China in the context of the history of Sino-Italian relations in that period, aiming at offering some new insights on this important figure in the history of Ca’ Foscari University.

From Academia Armena Sancti Lazari to the Establishment of Armenian Studies at Ca’ Foscari

The Armenian Studies have a very long tradition in Italy. However, the establishment of the official teaching of Armenian at Ca’ Foscari is particularly significant. It is a direct continuation of many Armenian traces present in the lagoon city for centuries, such as the birth of the first Casa Armena in Europe in 1245, the prosperous diplomatic relations between the Republic of Serenissima and the Kingdom of Armenia, the printing of the first Armenian book in 1512, the arrival of Armenian merchants from Julfa, who highly contributed to the economy of Venice, and finally the institution of the Mekhitarist Congregation of the Armenian monks on the island of San Lazzaro, recognised by Napoleon as Academia Armena Sancti Lazari. After an historical excursus, the paper will go on to detail some significant periods of Armenian Studies at Ca’ Foscari.

The Importance of Being Diglottic

Since the ’70s Ca’ Foscari teachers have been facing the challenge of diglossia that typifies the Arab world where the oral use of Standard Arabic is reserved to specific situations, while colloquial varieties of the same language are used for ordinary conversations. Thus, learning Colloquial Arabic is a paramount need to communicate with native Arabic speakers. Moreover, diglottic proficiency is necessary to access several contemporary cultural outputs of the Arab world. This article describes the features of Arabic diglossia and instructional approaches meant to cope with the phenomenon. It then offers a brief account of Colloquial Arabic teaching at Ca’ Foscari, which has been a European vanguard in the field.

‘Ad me’ah ve-hamishim. Notes on the Teaching of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Ca’ Foscari, from ’50 to Today

The teaching of Hebrew at Ca’ Foscari officially began in 1965, under the guidance of Franco Michelini Tocci and continued until today thanks to researchers and professors specialised in Bible Studies, as well as modern Hebrew, Israeli culture and Jewish Studies more generally. Earlier than that, the early ’50s had seen the birth of a short-lived Hebrew lettorato taught by two rabbis, Elio Toaff and Leone Leoni, thanks to an agreement between Ca’ Foscari and the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities. Basing upon archival documents and interviews with some of the people involved, this essay aims to reconstruct the development of the teaching of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Venice, contextualising it within the history of Italian Orientalism and that of the Jews of Italy in the period that goes from 1950 to today.

A cafoscarino in the World: Arturo De Luciano

Arturo De Luciano was first a student at the Royal High School of Commerce (Regia Scuola Superiore di Commercio) of Venice, then active in several commercial enterprises in Lebanon and in Europe. The Historical Archive of Ca’ Foscari keeps a copy with dedication of a singular treatise he wrote on the breeding of silkworms, published in Arabic in Beirut in 1897. This brief contribution intends to present the figure of this cafoscarino, with particular attention to the international dimension of his training and professional activity.

Forty-Nine Years of Aramaic and Semitic Philology at Layard’s Home, Ca’ Cappello

Semitic Philology has been taught at Ca’ Foscari for almost fifty years in the unique setting of Ca’ Cappello, former Venetian residence of the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. There, in a most inspiring environment for Semitists, from 1969 to present, seven specialists have taught Semitic languages and culture to generations of students. The broad scope of the subject represents the appeal of Semitic Philology to Ca’ Foscari students: to those interested in the History and languages of the Ancient Near East and to students who concentrate on modern Semitic languages and contemporary issues.