Italo Pizzi (

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, 30 November 1849 –

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, 6 December 1920) was an Italian academic and scholar of

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. He was the first to establish the academic field of Persian language and literature in Italy.

Biography

From a noble family, at age fifteen Pizzi showed a particular interest in studies of

oriental languages Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, ...

and in high school he was encouraged by his

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

teacher, a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

ist, to deepen those studies. For this he went to the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

, studying among other things

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and other

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

and Sanskrit, as well as

Italian literature Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, including ...

. Already in Pisa – working on the

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

edition curated by Turner Macan in 1829 – he began to tackle the immense work of the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

poet

Ferdowsi Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...

, the ''

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

'', whose bulk of over 100,000 verses makes it longer than the

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

and the

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

put together. An essay of his was published on

Rostam use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Kabulistan , death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a we ...

and the Akvān Div, thanks to the active interest of Angelo De Gubernatis."Storia di Rustem e di Akvân", ''Rivista Orientale'', Florence, 1868. After graduating in 1871, he began working as a teacher of literature in his native city, without ever abandoning his interest in Orientalism and, more specifically,

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

. He moved to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

in 1879 and in 1880 he became deputy librarian of the

Laurentian Library The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...

, earning a lectureship in

Iranian studies Iranian studies ( '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It is a part of the wider field ...

at the Royal Institute of Higher Studies. On 11 May 1885 he obtained a teaching position at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

, moving to the

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

ese capital with his wife, who would bring their only son, Carlo, into the world the following year. In 1887 he became an extraordinary professor of Persian and Sanskrit. Among his pupils at the University of Turin was the young

Carlo Alfonso Nallino Carlo Alfonso Nallino (18 February 1872 – 25 July 1938) was an Italian orientalist. Biography Nallino was born in Turin, and studied literature under Italo Pizzi at the University of Turin. From 1896 he taught in the Istituto Universi ...

. During this period, from 1886 to 1888, he published the first (and still the only complete) Italian translation of Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh'' in 8 volumes. He also translated a number of other Persian poets into Italian. He was appointed Director of the Oriental Institute of Naples (the former name of the

University of Naples "L'Orientale" The University of Naples "L'Orientale" () is a university located in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1732 by Matteo Ripa, it is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies of the European continent. It is organized in three departments, and is ...

), but remained in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

for a short time, returning to Turin. Finally he attained the role of full professor on 21 December 1899.

Works

* ''Storia di Sohrab. Episodio del Shahnameh di Firdusi recato dal persiano in versi italiani. Con altre brevi traduzioni'', Parma, Fiaccadori, 1872. * ''Racconti epici del Libro dei re di Firdusi recati per la prima volta dal persiano in versi italiani con un discorso d’introduzione sull’epopea persiana'', Turin, Ermanno Loescher, 1877. * ''La morte di Rustem. Episodio del Libro dei re di Firdusi recato in versi italiani'', Florence, Tip. del Vocabolario, 1882 (extracted from ''Il Fanfani'', I (1881), pp. 267–270, 277–280, 300–303, 330–334, 348–351, 363–367). * ''Avventure di un principe di Persia. Episodio tratto dal Libro dei re di Firdusi recato dal persiano in versi italiani'', Florence, Successori Le Monnier, 1882. * ''Manuale della lingua persiana. Grammatica, antologia e vocabolario'', Leipzig, W. Gerhard, 1883. * Firdusi, '' Il libro dei re. Poema epico recato dal persiano in versi italiani'', 8 vol., Turin, Vincenzo Bona, 1886–88 (then a revised and summarized edition, 2 vol., Turin, UTET, 1915). * ''Letteratura persiana'', Milan, Hoepli, 1887. * ''I Nibelunghi. Poema epico germanico'', Translation in Italian verse, 2 vol., Milan, Ulrico Hoepli, 1889. * ''Letteratura persiana'', 2 vols., Turin, 1894. * ''Chrestomathie persane avec un abrégé de la grammaire et un dictionnaire'', Turin, Vincenzo Bona, 1889. * ''Storia della poesia persiana'', 2 vols., Turin, 1894. * ''Grammatica elementare della lingua sanscrita'', con temi, antologia e vocabolario, Turin, Clausen, 1896. * ''Grammatica elementare dell’antico iranico (zendo e persiano antico) con antologia e vocabolario'', Turin, Clausen, 1897. * ''Miro e Naida: romanzo orientale'', Turin, 1901. * ''Elementa grammaticae hebraicae, cum chrestomathia et glossario'', Augusta Taurinorum, Tipografia Salesiana, 1899 (2nd edition 1904; 3rd edition 1909). * ''Letteratura araba'', Milan, Hoepli, 1903. * ''Islamismo'', Milan, Hoepli, 1903. * ''Il Roseto di Saadi'', 2 vol., Lanciano, Carabba, 1917.

Notes

Bibliography

* F. Gabrieli, ''Arabeschi e studi islamici'', Napoli, Guida, 1973, p. 247.

External links

* «Italo Pizzi» (Carmela Mastrangelo), in ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Vol. 84 (2015

* "Un orientalista dimenticato", in ''Eurasia'

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pizzi, Italo 1849 births 1920 deaths Italian orientalists Academic staff of the University of Turin Iranologists Italian translators

Biography

Works

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links