Eleven Good Reasons for Learning Arabic in Late-Renaissance Italy: a Memorial by Giovan Battista Raimondi

The scholarly approach to Oriental languages in Renaissance Italy (in particular the Islamic languages – Arabic, Persian and Turkish) is a still little explored field of research into Humanism. A special role has been occupied by the neglected figure of Giovan Battista Raimondi (1535 ca.-1614), director of the Medici Oriental Press. The enterprise, backed by Pope Gregory XIII and financially supported by Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, aimed at the publication of books in Arabic and other Oriental languages. Beneath the surface of the proselytizing project, Raimondi’s editorial work spanned the fields of linguistics, science and literature, revealing a closely woven network of interests and associations in late sixteenth-century Italy. This article presents and publishes hitherto unstudied documents from Raimondi’s archive, which argue in favour of the teaching and learning of Arabic in Rome. These documents not only shed new light on the history of Oriental studies, but also widen our understanding of the Humanistic enterprise in the Renaissance.