Translating the Qur'an in 17th Century Italy: the Use of Quranic Exegesis in the Recenty Discovered Manuscripts by Ludovico Marracci - A Lecture by Roberto Tottoli

Tuesday, April 29

Time: 6:30 pm

Location: 501 Hamilton, Department of Italian

 Fifteen manuscripts written by, or belonging to, Ludovico Marracci were discovered in 2012 in Rome, in the Library of his Religious Order (Mother of God, Piazza dei Campitelli). This material includes a grammar of Arabic, a dictionary Latin-Arabic, a pair of other treaties, and above all the preliminary versions of his translations and introductory parts to his major work: the translation and commentary of the Qur'ān, which was published in Padua in 1698. There are four complete versions of his translation, which attest his work on the Qur'ān. These versions further attest the use of Quranic commentaries in his work and bears testimony to the Arabic and Islamic literature he had at disposition and circulated in 17th century Rome, along with his painstaking work on the Latin remaking paralleled by a growing knowledge of the Islamic exegetical interpretations.

Roberto Tottoli is Professor at the Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale. He is Chair of the Department "Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean". His publications include Biblical Prophets in the Qur'ān and Muslim literature and The Stories of the Prophets of Ibn Mutarrif al-Tarafi.

For any further information, contact Pier Mattia Tommasino, pmt2114@columbia.edu