Le savant et son époque à travers sa correspondance Seeger A. Bonebakker (1923-2005) et quelques notes sur Ḫalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī (696-764/1297-1363)

This article proposes a survey of two great scholars’ in Arabic literature correspondences: a European of the 20th century, Seeger Adrianus Bonebakker, who is of special interest for us because he bequeathed all of his great library, personal notes and correspondence to Università Ca’ Foscari, and a subject of study of the former, Ḫalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī, great littérateur and scholar of the first century of the Mamluk period. Letters sent and received are preserved in both cases and are primary sources on their network, but also on their personal life, personality and methodology

Tadmorena. Documenti per lo studio della cultura e dell'aramaico di Palmira

More than a century of archaeological investigation has contributed to increase the epigraphic corpus of Palmyrene inscriptions. Many of them are housed in public and private collections in the Near East and in European, North American, South American collections, Australia included. They are more than three thousand inscriptions, with examples of trilinguals ( Palmyrene, Latin and Greek) and bilinguals (Palmyrene and Greek) which contribute to a partial reconstruction of the history and culture of Palmyra, ancient Tadmor

Shaping Letters, Shaping Communities: Multilingualism and Linguistic Practice in the Late Antique Near East and Egypt

Archaeological findings and epigraphic records from Dura Europos and Apamea on the Orontes illustrate the vitality of two Jewish communities in the first centuries CE, centered around their synagogues, where inscriptions, respectively on clay tiles and graffiti at Dura, and on mosaic at Apamea, offer some insights on the two congregations. Comparable archaeological vestiges and similar epigraphic findings are not available from Palmyra, where inscriptions and artifacts documenting the existence of a Jewish community are decidedly fewer in number and, overall, less evident. With the inscriptions from the synagogues of Dura Europos and Apamea as a starting point, the paper focuses on the different epigraphic languages documented, and explores the connections between these two centers and Palmyra, in the context of a wider network of Jewish communities encompassing Syria and Palestine, and in the framework of mobility and interactions of their members

Palmyrene

The rich epigraphic corpus from the Syrian caravan city of Palmyra (first century BCE–third century CE) is an invaluable source for the study of the complex and multifaceted local culture. In addition, Palmyrene epigraphic records come from other Near Eastern sites, for example Dura Europos, and have also been unearthed in Europe, in the UK and elsewhere. The inscriptions are mainly carved on stone and may be classified as honorific, dedicatory and funerary. Among significant documents is the Tariff, a long Greek and Palmyrene record of municipal levies on imported and exported goods. Although many inscriptions have a formulaic, somewhat fixed structure, they contain a lot of information and significant variations and are an invaluable source for the reconstruction of Palmyrene legal language, aspects of religion and culture, of the interaction of various ethnic components at Palmyra and for the study of Palmyrene Aramaic

Forty-nine Years of 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