Giuseppe Furlani
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Giuseppe Furlani | |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 November 1885 Pula, Croatia |
| Died | 17 December 1962 (aged 77) Rome, Italy |
| Known for | founding Italian Assyriology and Hittite studies |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Assyriology and Semitic studies |
Giuseppe Furlani (10 November 1885 – 17 December 1962) was an Italian archaeologist, orientalist, philologist, and historian of religions, and the founder of Italian Assyriology and Hittite studies.
Giuseppe Furlani was born on 10 November 1885 in Pula in Croatia, at the time in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[1][2] His parents were Francesco and Luigia Damiani. In 1908, he graduated in law, and in 1913 in philosophy at the University of Graz.[3][4][5]
Furlani travelled to Munich, Berlin, Paris, and London to pursue his studies in Oriental Philosophy.[5] During the First World War he was secretary of the Italian governmental commission in London; this diplomatic assignment did not stop him from visiting London's libraries. Furlani hand-copied a great quantity of materials contained mainly in little-known Syriac manuscripts of the Near East.[5][4] The study and publishing of his collection of notes occupied him for the rest of his career.[4]
After the First World War he spent a year in Cairo teaching English and Arabic at the city's Italian high school; he thus had the opportunity to explore Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.[5] After his tour in the Near East he returned to Italy where he obtained his degree in Semitic philology from the University of Turin. In 1922 he was hired to teach Semitic languages at the University of Turin, remaining in that position until 1925. In 1924, he taught Arabic and Babylonian and Islamic civilization at the University of Florence; one year later he was engaged by the university to teach Semitic philology and civilization of the classical East. The University of Florence appointed Furlani as associate professor in 1930 and full professor in 1931.[5]
In 1933 he organized the first and only Italian excavation in Mesopotamia at Qasr Shamamuk.[3][6][5]
After 1927, Furlani devoted most of his time to Assyriology. In 1940, he founded the field of academic Assyriology and Oriental antiquities in Italy at the University of Rome and, in 1951, became director of the Institute of Oriental Studies in Rome.[3][4][5] He remained at that post until he reached retirement age in 1960.[5]
