Italian Scholars on India, Vol. III: Languages and Literatures

One of the reasons for Italy's excellence in the studies on India can be traced back to the activities of merchants, missionaries, and travelers during the Italian Renaissance. Later, the splendid Rome of the eighteenth century was the world capital of knowledge about India, well before the development of English scientific activities in the subcontinent. It is on this basis that a rich tradition of Italian scholarship on Indian languages and literatures has developed. Taken as a whole, the essays collected in the present volume constitute a rich, though not exhaustive, illustration of the elaborate trajectories and path-breaking methodologies of the contemporary Italian research on modern and early modern Indian languages--with a focus on Hindi in its diverse regional, literary, and socio-linguistic varieties. At the same time, they are intended as a tribute to the illustrious scholars who, during the last decades, variously contributed to spreading knowledge of--and love for--this field of study in Italy and abroad.