1 The city that was to serve as the capital of unified Italy for six years, starting on 3rd February 1865.
2 Rosi 1984, vol. I: 104, also quoted in Flora in ibid., vol. 1: 27-101.
3 The Tipografia was founded in Rome in 1584 by Pope Gregory XIII, under the patronage of Ferdinando de’ Medici, then cardinal in Rome. Many of the items of the Stamperia ( “printing press”) were later moved to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, where they can still be seen today.
4 The delight at the gift is recorded in his autobiographical work Fibra (De Gubernatis 1900: 62).
5 See for instance Baldissera 1984, vol. 1: 429, where the names and dates of the few Italian works used, consisting mainly of letters of missionaries and travellers, are recorded. Some of them were actually very interesting, but were unknown to the general public.
6 As for instance Bianchi-Giovini, Rovani and Casati (see Baldissera 1984, vol. 1: 430).
7 In Cantù (1843), “Introduction”, Storia Universale, p. 544, taken from the edition and translation (1830) of A. Loiseleur Deslongchamps.
8 This followed the Latin translation of C. Lassen (1832), and the abstracts of H.T. Colebrooke (1827).
9 Storia Universale, 1845 (pp. 34-36), follows Ram Mohan Roy translation (1816), who however calls the Kenopaniṣat “Céna Upanishad”.
10 Storia Universale, 1843, (pp. 27-34), from the Latin translation of A.W. Schlegel (1823).
11 Storia Universale, 1843, (p. 36), follows the English translation by W. Jones (1792).
12 Storia Universale, 1843, (pp. 39-55), from the Latin translation of F. Bopp (1819).
13 Storia Universale, 1843, (pp. 39-55), from the German translation of F. Bopp (1824).
14 Storia Universale, 1843, (pp. 62-71), taken from the appendix to the English translation of Bhagavad Gītā by C. Wilkins (1785), later translated into French by J.-P. Parraud (1787).
15 Storia Universale, 1843, (pp. 73-75), with no mention of whose translation was used.
16 Storia Universale, 1843, (pp. 76-105), from the translation of the Italian poet G. Berchet (1819).
17 Storia Universale, 1843 (pp. 104-114), from the French version A. Langlois (1828) gave of H.H. Wilson’s English translation in Hindu Theatre (1827).
18 Storia Universale, 1838, V (pp. 575-578), from Langlois’ French rendering (1828) of Wilson’s English translation (1826), The Mrichchakati, translated from the original Sanscrit by H.H. Wilson, Calcutta, V. Holcroft at the Asiatic Press.
19 Storia Universale, 1838, I (pp. 306-307), from the Latin translation of A.W. Schlegel (1829).
20 Storia Universale, 1838, I (p. 309), quoting the second (pirate) edition of the private translation from Persian into English by N.B. Halhed of the Sanskrit work, that had been translated into Persian, Vivādārṇavasetu, for the East India Company (first edition, for the private use of the Company, 1776).
21 Storia Universale, 1838, I (p. 319), taken from H.T. Colebrooke (1805), especially from Ṛgveda X, 129.
22 Storia Universale, 1838, I (pp. 324-325), taken from H.T Colebrooke (1805) and W. Jones (1807, XIII, 367).
23 Storia Universale, 1838, I (pp. 325-326), taken from H.T. Colebrooke (1805).
24 Several passages, however, in all his works on Indian themes reiterate the idea that he believes Indian ideas worth knowing.
25 Throughout his works, however, one can find even later several passages against the Catholic Church, that always operated hand in hand with the government.
26 Here De Gubernatis himself decided to employ Indian-style decorations, as well as Greek-style ones. In 1877, when his drama “Savitri, Idillio drammatico in due atti”, was read in Rome at the presence of the Princess of Piedmont, the drama’s booklet recalled that the Turin-born painter Andrea Gastaldi, inspired by the same myth, which he had known in an older French version of 1841, had created a painting of Savitri. See Maggio Serra 1985, vol. II: 463-475.
27 Thanks to De Gubernatis’ discovery and to his 1907 edition of her extant poems, the Italian philosopher B. Croce took an interest in Isabella’s poetry, and wrote about her and her work.
28 This was the second similar show, as the first exhibition of Italian female works had taken place in Florence in 1871, also with little success (see Finocchietti 1871).
29 Esposizione Beatrice -Mostra nazionale di lavori femminili in Firenze, 1890. See also Ciuffoletti, ed., 2014; Soldi 2015, vol. VI, n. 1: 24-36.
30 Carlotta Ferrari, poet and music composer, gave the first idea for this celebration of women activities in honour of Beatrice Portinari in 1889, when she wrote about it in the journal Lettere e Arti. Several important women writers, such as Matilde Serao, however, declined to join.
31 De Gubernatis wrote to the feminist journalist Febea (Olga Ossani, 1857-1933) that he had to sell a castle and several paintings, but that he was quite happy to have had two thousand women exposing their works, of whom five hundred had received prizes; that he had shown ten thousand volumes written by women in the past thirty years, that a hundred and seventy new musical compositions were presented, with five hundred paintings, sculptures and ceramic works. And that three hundred female schools had sent wonderful examples of needlework.
32 De Gubernatis (1873a), Storia comparata degli usi funebri indo-europei, that followed two other similar books he wrote, Storia degli usi natalizi in Italia e presso altri popoli indo-europei (1873b), and Storia popolare degli usi nuziali in Italia e presso altri popoli indo-europei (1873b).
33 Every time he comes across some objectionable Indian practice, De Gubernatis tries to justify it by saying that it actually belonged to tribes or populations that lived in India before (or lived in places far from) “the Aryan conquest”.
34 Explanation in brackets by F. Baldissera.
35 Even later he seems to consider himself akin to a “true” Brahmin: in Italy, a person who had acted treacherously against him falls ill, and De Gubernatis writes: “I never overly marvelled at the superhuman power that Indians attribute to the spiritual power of a wronged Brahmin” (Fibra, p. 277).
36 De Gubernatis 1886, 1887b. In the same year, he wrote also the article “Cronache Indiane” for the Giornale della Società Asiatica Italiana (1887a: 135-152).
37 Ibid.: 714-719, who suggests that De Gubernatis’ proposal of increasing commerce with India, in both Peregrinazioni indiane: India Centrale, and in Peregrinazioni indiane: India Meridionale, was intended as a prelude to colonial expansion. Or, rather, colonial expansion was seen by De Gubernatis as a necessary means to protect Italian commercial rights.
38 See Donati (1887) and Maria Gloria Roselli’s article in this volume.
39 In Croce (1938, vol. 36, fasc. XXXII: 181 note 1: “[The letter] is printed in the book of Zoccoli 1907: 110-11”.
40 Maiello 1989: 710 and note 10, where he quotes De Gubernatis 1887b: 5-6: “India always attracted me as the land of the Aryans […] but, in its southern part, the Aryan element is very scarce, and it would have been difficult for me to preserve the illusion to travel among brothers.” (See also pp. 90 and 93.)
41 This work in fact followed the previous one, Storia popolare degli usi nuziali in Italia e presso altri popoli indo-europei (1873c).
42 Italics by F. Baldissera.
43 De Gubernatis (1883: 9). By “Letteratura Indiana” he explains that he means “Vedic and Sanskrit Literature” (presumably he means “classical Sanskrit Literature”).
44 As in his Memoria sui viaggiatori italiani, op. cit.
45 Della Casa: ibid., reports that the letter was kindly shown to him by its present owner, and that though it showed some mistakes and corrections, it looked more like the final form that was actually sent, rather than a mere draft.
46 The letter (Della Casa 1996: 334) refers to a conversation De Gubernatis had previously had with the queen about the same matter.
47 Della Casa (1996) notes that in De Gubernatis’ letter the name of the Brahmin is spelled in three different ways.
48 Showing again a complete change of political views.
49 Italics by F. Baldissera.
50 Appeared at first in a preliminary article, Murr (1977), “Nicolas Jacques Desvaulx (1745-1823) véritable auteur de ‘Mœurs, Institutions et Cérémonies des peuples de l’Inde’ de l’Abbé Dubois”, Puruṣārtha, III: 245-258; then, after ten more years of research, a different figure appeared, as illustrated in Murr 1987.
51 The idea that Italy should at least increment commercial ties with India is then presented repeatedly in many of De Gubernatis’ works.
52 Flora (1984, note 30) observes that the other two Italian bibliographies on oriental studies in Italy that appeared in that period, that of Predari (1842), and the collective work on fifty years of oriental studies in Italy, 1861-1911, (1913), likewise omit to mention the works of Papi and Sebastiani. Flora however fails to observe that Cantù’s Storia Universale had already mentioned Lazzaro Papi’s Letters.
53 It was staged in 1869, in the Accademia dei Fidenti, at the presence of the Minister of Education and of several poets. Later V. Valla turned it into a four acts melodrama, set to music by A. Smareglia, see Valla n.d. The second part of the trilogy was translated into German.
54 In the Introduction to the play De Gubernatis writes that he took its theme from the story of Sunassepa (sic). It was immediately translated into Polish by count Ladislao Tarnowski, who dedicated it to the son of De Gubernatis.
55 The first public reading, by De Gubernatis, was in Turin in 1878, in the hall of the Palombella, in the presence of the Princess of Piedmont. In Fibra, p. 305, De Gubernatis writes that it was soon translated into German, English and “Guzerati”. This last version was actually staged in the Victoria Theatre of Bombay by a Parsi troupe and De Gubernatis was very happy to report that the actors thought they were performing a real Indian play! The drama was then set to music, on a libretto by Villani (1889).
56 In Fibra (1900: 347-50) De Gubernatis says that he would have liked to become peaceful and able to pardon people like the Buddha before writing about him, and that he had tried (in vain) to rekindle a lost friendship before starting to write it, he also wrote that when Wagner had come to see him in Florence, they had spoken of the possibility of Wagner setting the play to music, though it had not been written yet. It appears however that Wagner had indeed read many German works on Buddhism, and had thought of setting to music the story of Buddha much before meeting De Gubernatis (and in fact had also written some drafts for a composition).
57 See for instance Taddei 1997, vol. II: 231- 291. See also Grossato 1985, vol. II: 423-424.
58 This is a definition De Gubernatis often applied to himself, saying that he was un poligrafo puro ( “a pure polygraph”).
59 Della Casa (1966: 337 and note 15), referring to Windisch 1917-1920: 439-452.
60 The articles by Taddei and Maggi had appeared in the same volume: see Taddei in Id. 1995, ed., vol. 1: 69-86, and then Maggi in ibid.: 87-114. For an assessment of the whole discussion, see Taddei 1998, in Id., ed., 1995- 1998, vol. III: 407-414.
61 See for instance, beside the already mentioned essay of Taddei (1997) Taddei (1995), Malelingue, ciarlatani e vecchi rancori, in Id., ed., vol. I: 229-289, where he recalls also the criticism expressed by Dossi in Le Note Azzurre, that enjoyed only a partial, censored publication in 1910. Taddei noticed that even in the 1912 edition twelve notes are still missing (as most likely somebody, for political reasons, had asked Dossi to spare De Gubernatis).
62 It is most likely for this reason, and because they were colleagues in Oriental Studies in the Regio Istituto in Florence, that they were extolled together by Rosi (1984: 105) who wrote that the flowering of oriental studies in Florence was certainly due to “the activity of great scholars such as Amari and De Gubernatis”.
63 Without mentioning what reading he is using.
64 Italics by De Gubernatis.
65 Throughout this essay all quotations from the Purgatorio lack verse numbers, or the number of the cantos.
66 This time again without mentioning that the verses are in Canto VII (vv. 73-75).
67 Opere di Dante, Società Dantesca Italiana, Firenze 1960 (both italics of F. Baldissera).
68 This is commented in a similar way in the 1564 Venetian edition of Dante.
69 For a discussion of this theme, that considers all the previous studies, see Baldissera & Charvet 2002: 56-57.
70 This is one of the few passages where an Indian Muslim tradition is reputed valuable by De Gubernatis (for his dislike of “Mohammedans” see for instance De Gubernatis 1989: 710 and n. 9).
71 And with only a passing mention of his other works, like that on Isabella Morra, not to speak of all the different Dictionaries and Biografies he wrote.