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Italian translator and professor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Italo Pizzi (Parma, 30 November 1849 – Turin, 6 December 1920) was an Italian academic and scholar of Persian language and literature. He was the first to establish the academic field of Persian language and literature in Italy.[1]
Italo Pizzi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 30, 1849 |
| Died | December 6, 1920 (aged 71) Turin, Kingdom of Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Persian language and literature |
| Institutions | University of Turin |
From a noble family, at age fifteen Pizzi showed a particular interest in studies of oriental languages and in high school he was encouraged by his Latin and Greek teacher, a Sanskritist, to deepen those studies.
For this he went to the University of Pisa, studying among other things Hebrew and other Semitic languages and Sanskrit, as well as Italian literature.
Already in Pisa – working on the Calcutta edition curated by Turner Macan in 1829 – he began to tackle the immense work of the Persian poet Ferdowsi, the Shahnameh, whose bulk of over 100,000 verses makes it longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey put together. An essay of his was published on Rostam and the Akvān Div, thanks to the active interest of Angelo De Gubernatis.[2]
After graduating in 1871, he began working as a teacher of literature in his native city, without ever abandoning his interest in Orientalism and, more specifically, Iranian languages.
He moved to Florence in 1879 and in 1880 he became deputy librarian of the Laurentian Library, earning a lectureship in Iranian studies at the Royal Institute of Higher Studies.
On 11 May 1885 he obtained a teaching position at the University of Turin, moving to the Piedmontese capital with his wife, who would bring their only son, Carlo, into the world the following year. In 1887 he became an extraordinary professor of Persian and Sanskrit. Among his pupils at the University of Turin was the young Carlo Alfonso Nallino.
During this period, from 1886 to 1888, he published the first (and still the only complete) Italian translation of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh in 8 volumes. He also translated a number of other Persian poets into Italian.
He was appointed Director of the Oriental Institute of Naples (the former name of the University of Naples "L'Orientale"), but remained in Naples for a short time, returning to Turin. Finally he attained the role of full professor on 21 December 1899.
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