Oriental studies in Nineteenth-Century Rome

This article aims to synthetically reconstruct the history of Oriental studies in nineteenth-century Rome. It will also try to situate this history in the widerscenario of the great political changes that implicated Rome and its university in the second half of the nineteenth century. The sphere of politics and that of Oriental studies had large areas of direct overlap: not only various exponents of Oriental studies acted in close contact with political figures, but also various political figures were themselves Orientalists. The Italian government and parliament were constantly involved in the development of Oriental studies, while in turn Oriental studies provided politics with parliamentarians. Oriental studies represented faithfully certain characteristics of Italian university, such as the absolute contiguity of the academic domain with politics. Oriental studies in Rome, which for centuries were driven by missionary activity, after the unifcation of Italy received a major thrust forward from the government plans of colonial growth. Despite the obvious ideological opposition between papal power and Italian government, a sort of ideal continuity was therefore established: Oriental Studies were always motivated by expansion programs, which were of a religious and cultural type in the missionary phase, and of a colonial and commercial type in the colonial phase. Furthermore, the overlap between Oriental studies and the national political scene is crucial for a correct reconstruction of the Italian expansionist policy up to the Second World War.