Papers by Valentina Bella Lanza
Judeo-Arabic is a linguistic variety that emerged during the 8th century as a natural consequence... more Judeo-Arabic is a linguistic variety that emerged during the 8th century as a natural consequence of the mutual contact between Hebrew and Arabic-Islamic cultures. Because of its multifaceted nature, the Judeo-Arabic language attracts worldwide interest. This variety, however, is not taught in any Italian university. In the present work we will reflect on the possible teaching of this language, considering educational pathways for arabists learners. Paying specific attention to the most representative features of this ethnolect, we will consider which educational tools would be most useful in a potential teaching programme.
Eurasian Studies, 2020
Judeo-Arabic is a religiolect that developed as a result of the great Arab-Islamic conquests duri... more Judeo-Arabic is a religiolect that developed as a result of the great Arab-Islamic conquests during the 7th century. This linguistic variety shares some of those features common to Neoarabic dialects; nonetheless, it preserves its own uniqueness, such as the almost absolute use of Hebrew characters and the occurrence of Hebrew and Aramaic lexical and grammatical elements within the texts. The writing system of Judeo-Arabic was affected by the socio-political changes that occurred during its development. In particular, Judeo-Arabic was subjected to a dramatic change during the 15th century, as a result of the increasing isolation of the Jews. In this period the so-called ‘Hebraized’ orthography became more prevalent and turned out to be representative of the šurūḥ, i.e. Judeo-Arabic translations of Hebrew sacred texts. In this contribution, we will focus on the issue of Judeo-Arabic graphic adaptation, through the linguistic analysis of an unpublished manuscript from the 15th century...
Le stelle degli altri, 2021
Valentina Bella Lanza racconta i dettagli dell’opera principale dell’astronomo arabo del X secolo... more Valentina Bella Lanza racconta i dettagli dell’opera principale dell’astronomo arabo del X secolo al-Bāttāni, pubblicata con una nuova edizione commentata a cavallo del XX secolo dall’arabista Carlo Alfonso Nallino in collaborazione con l’astronomo Giovanni Schiaparelli.
Rivista degli Studi Orientali, n.s. XCIV, 1 (2021), pp. 141-154, 2021
Al-Battānī sive Albatenii Opus astronomicum is a three-volume work by Carlo Alfonso Nallino publi... more Al-Battānī sive Albatenii Opus astronomicum is a three-volume work by Carlo Alfonso Nallino published between 1899 and 1907 on behalf of the Astronomical Observatory of Brera. The publication was so crucial that it consecrated Nallino as a scholar and an expert in astronomical sciences and Arab-Islamic studies, both in Italy and abroad. The masterful work resulted from a long period of study and research, which involved Nallino as well as Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, who was his mentor. A portion of the correspondence exchanged between the two during the years in which they collaborated is preserved at the Historical Archive of the Astronomical Observatory of Brera and is largely unpublished. In our contribution, we aim to present some original behind-the scenes details about the edition, providing an excursus of the main stages of the work, through the written words of the scholars involved. The information included in the correspondence concerns not only private confidences and shared knowledge, but also significant exchanges of research-related material, such as astronomical calculations, observations on the solution of numerical equations, names of ancient and contemporary astronomers to be taken into account, and scientific works worth (or not worth) reading. We believe that the distribution of this kind of knowledge is precious in order to shed light both on the edition itself and on the modus operandi of these two great scholars, at a time when postal correspondence was an integral part of the transfer of scientific knowledge.
Eurasian Studies 18 (1), pp. 134-148, 2020
Judeo-Arabic is a religiolect that developed as a result of the great Arab-Islamic conquests duri... more Judeo-Arabic is a religiolect that developed as a result of the great Arab-Islamic conquests during the 7th century. This linguistic variety shares some of those features common to Neoarabic dialects; nonetheless, it preserves its own uniqueness, such as the
almost absolute use of Hebrew characters and the occurrence of Hebrew and Aramaic
lexical and grammatical elements within the texts. The writing system of Judeo-Arabic
was affected by the socio-political changes that occurred during its development. In
particular, Judeo-Arabic was subjected to a dramatic change during the 15th century, as
a result of the increasing isolation of the Jews. In this period the so-called ‘Hebraized’
orthography became more prevalent and turned out to be representative of the šurūḥ,
i.e. Judeo-Arabic translations of Hebrew sacred texts.
In this contribution, we will focus on the issue of Judeo-Arabic graphic adaptation,
through the linguistic analysis of an unpublished manuscript from the 15th century
containing a šarḥ. Peculiarities and potential inconsistencies are discussed according
to the wider and renowned Judeo-Arabic orthographic classification.
Didattica dell’arabo e certificazione linguistica: riflessioni e iniziative, 2018
Projects by Valentina Bella Lanza
The aim of this project is the building of an open-access digital edition of the Old Testament bo... more The aim of this project is the building of an open-access digital edition of the Old Testament book Song of Songs. The text is trilingual and contains the Song of Songs, an Aramaic translation, and a Judeo-Arabic (the Arabic variant written by Jews in Hebrew script) translation and commentary. The text is part of a 15th-century Yemenite manuscript, a miscellaneous containing several biblical books ad commentaries. It is unpublished so far, and we aim at releasing an electronic, queryable, interactive version of it. We will avail of the Edition Visualization Technology, a software that allows the users to visualize, explore, and study digital editions through a user-friendly interface. Although the text is intended to be published in its entirety, special attention will be focused on the Judeo-Arabic portion of the text. In particular, we will investigate the foreign (non-Arabic) occurrences (mostly lexical elements and biblical quotations) incorporated within the text. This analysis will be conducted in conjunction with (and in the light of) a study of the references regarding this literary phenomenon (the so-called Parabiblical or "Rewritten Bible" literature). Relevant linguistic information will be provided and made available in the digital edition alongside a transcription of the text in Arabic script with the aim of making the text more accessible to Arabic readers. Indeed, we believe that making this resource accessible is important for contributing to the field of Parabiblical literary studies as well as shedding light on Judeo-Arabic religiolect, especially when used in translations of and commentaries on sacred texts
The variegated cultural program of Alfonso X is characterized by a strong interest in science, sp... more The variegated cultural program of Alfonso X is characterized by a strong interest in science, specifically in astronomy, notably due to the recovery and translation of texts performed by the School of Toledo at his court. The “Libro de Saber de Astronomía” (henceforth, the Libro de Saber) is an example of such interest: it is a collection, in Castilian, of treatises on scientific subjects, including the study of the so-called “fixed stars”, the heavens and instruments. There is a general agreement concerning the dependence of the Libro on a large number of Arabic sources.
Because of its vastness, the Libro has been studied discontinuously: the only complete critical edition is by Rico y Sinobas (1863-1867), which does not include fragmentary manuscript witnesses. Nonetheless, the Libro is not only a crucial compendium of the astronomical lore of its time, but also an indirect witness of the Arab-Islamic scientific tradition, which is worthy of a complete discussion. For these reasons, there is renewed interest in the Libro.
This project aims at studying the tradition of the Libro on a number of aspects: notably the sampling of its witnesses in their different versions, and the investigation of Arabic sources by detection of intertextual cross references. Thus, the focus will be on the translation methods adopted among the scribes at Alfonso X’s court, and the comparison of stellar coordinates and of the magnitude scale of the Alfonsine Tables, also by detecting and considering the inhomogeneities of the original data.
Our intention is to shed light on the cultural milieu of the Libro and to improve our knowledge of both the textual tradition and the history of science, as well as of the Romance and Arab-Islamic framework, taking advantage of convergences between traditionally distant disciplines. The output of the project will be the publication of the proceedings of an international congress and a website which will illustrate the development of the work
Conference Presentations by Valentina Bella Lanza
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Papers by Valentina Bella Lanza
almost absolute use of Hebrew characters and the occurrence of Hebrew and Aramaic
lexical and grammatical elements within the texts. The writing system of Judeo-Arabic
was affected by the socio-political changes that occurred during its development. In
particular, Judeo-Arabic was subjected to a dramatic change during the 15th century, as
a result of the increasing isolation of the Jews. In this period the so-called ‘Hebraized’
orthography became more prevalent and turned out to be representative of the šurūḥ,
i.e. Judeo-Arabic translations of Hebrew sacred texts.
In this contribution, we will focus on the issue of Judeo-Arabic graphic adaptation,
through the linguistic analysis of an unpublished manuscript from the 15th century
containing a šarḥ. Peculiarities and potential inconsistencies are discussed according
to the wider and renowned Judeo-Arabic orthographic classification.
Projects by Valentina Bella Lanza
Because of its vastness, the Libro has been studied discontinuously: the only complete critical edition is by Rico y Sinobas (1863-1867), which does not include fragmentary manuscript witnesses. Nonetheless, the Libro is not only a crucial compendium of the astronomical lore of its time, but also an indirect witness of the Arab-Islamic scientific tradition, which is worthy of a complete discussion. For these reasons, there is renewed interest in the Libro.
This project aims at studying the tradition of the Libro on a number of aspects: notably the sampling of its witnesses in their different versions, and the investigation of Arabic sources by detection of intertextual cross references. Thus, the focus will be on the translation methods adopted among the scribes at Alfonso X’s court, and the comparison of stellar coordinates and of the magnitude scale of the Alfonsine Tables, also by detecting and considering the inhomogeneities of the original data.
Our intention is to shed light on the cultural milieu of the Libro and to improve our knowledge of both the textual tradition and the history of science, as well as of the Romance and Arab-Islamic framework, taking advantage of convergences between traditionally distant disciplines. The output of the project will be the publication of the proceedings of an international congress and a website which will illustrate the development of the work
Conference Presentations by Valentina Bella Lanza
almost absolute use of Hebrew characters and the occurrence of Hebrew and Aramaic
lexical and grammatical elements within the texts. The writing system of Judeo-Arabic
was affected by the socio-political changes that occurred during its development. In
particular, Judeo-Arabic was subjected to a dramatic change during the 15th century, as
a result of the increasing isolation of the Jews. In this period the so-called ‘Hebraized’
orthography became more prevalent and turned out to be representative of the šurūḥ,
i.e. Judeo-Arabic translations of Hebrew sacred texts.
In this contribution, we will focus on the issue of Judeo-Arabic graphic adaptation,
through the linguistic analysis of an unpublished manuscript from the 15th century
containing a šarḥ. Peculiarities and potential inconsistencies are discussed according
to the wider and renowned Judeo-Arabic orthographic classification.
Because of its vastness, the Libro has been studied discontinuously: the only complete critical edition is by Rico y Sinobas (1863-1867), which does not include fragmentary manuscript witnesses. Nonetheless, the Libro is not only a crucial compendium of the astronomical lore of its time, but also an indirect witness of the Arab-Islamic scientific tradition, which is worthy of a complete discussion. For these reasons, there is renewed interest in the Libro.
This project aims at studying the tradition of the Libro on a number of aspects: notably the sampling of its witnesses in their different versions, and the investigation of Arabic sources by detection of intertextual cross references. Thus, the focus will be on the translation methods adopted among the scribes at Alfonso X’s court, and the comparison of stellar coordinates and of the magnitude scale of the Alfonsine Tables, also by detecting and considering the inhomogeneities of the original data.
Our intention is to shed light on the cultural milieu of the Libro and to improve our knowledge of both the textual tradition and the history of science, as well as of the Romance and Arab-Islamic framework, taking advantage of convergences between traditionally distant disciplines. The output of the project will be the publication of the proceedings of an international congress and a website which will illustrate the development of the work