Michele Kerbaker, Naples and India

Francesco Sferra; Giuliano Boccali

Michele Kerbaker, Naples and India: Studies in memory of Michele Kerbaker a hundred years after his disappereance

Authors

Francesco Sferra

University of Naples ‘L'Orientale’

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7835-2829

Giuliano Boccali

University of Milan

Keywords:

Kerbaker, history of indology, philology, linguistics, sanskrit

Synopsis

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Matteo Ripa

Pages: 162

Language: Italian

NBN: http://nbn.depositolegale.it/resolver.pl?nbn=urn:nbn:it:unina-27409

Abstract: This volume collects the contributions to the Conference held at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” (21^st November 2014) and dedicated to Michele Kerbaker (1835-1914), one hundred years after his death. The personality of this distinguished scholar’s is investigated throughout the range of interests and works that characterized his long and varied scientific activity. The introductory writings focus, on one hand, on the scholar’s dedication to scientific research and on the exemplary value that in this sense his work still represents for younger generations (Sferra), and on the other, on drawing a picture of the «humanistic» perspective with which Kerbaker turned to indological studies (Boccali). Andrea Kerbaker, the scholar’s great-grandson, outlines a biographical profile of Kerbaker while also including family memories. The historical and cultural context and the numerous relationships between the scholar and the cultural figureheads of his time are analysed by Crisanti; in her paper, she also investigates Kerbaker’s relationship with his many students. The essays of Sani and Piano are dedicated to Kerbaker’s work as a translator of, respectively, Ṛgveda and Mahābhārata, and to the peculiar approach with which he turned to these. Pelissero focuses on the reasons of the scholar’s choice to adopt the ottava rima for the poetic rendering of Indian epic and on the features of Sanskrit metre. Piro’s paper examines, from Italian language historian’s perspective, the linguistic and lexical choices made by Kerbaker in his translations, while also illustrating the dialogue with Italian literaty texts. The volume closes with the reproduction, by Dovetto, of some pages published by Kerbaker in appendix to his University prolusion (1875).

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Author Biographies

Francesco Sferra, University of Naples ‘L'Orientale’

Allievo di Raniero Gnoli, Corrado Pensa e Raffaele Torella, Francesco Sferra (1965) è dal 2017 professore oridnario di lingua e letteratura sanscrita presso l'Università di Napoli “L’Orientale", dove insegna dal 1998. Nel 2007 e nel 2011-2012 è stato visiting professor (Numata-Professor für Buddhismuskunde) presso l'Asia-Africa-Institut (Hamburg Universität). Dal 2006 dirige un progetto di ricerca internazionale per la edizione critica e lo studio di testi buddhisti inediti. Tra le sue principali pubblicazioni ci sono l'edizione e la traduzione in inglese dello Ṣaḍaṅgayoga dal Anupamarakṣita con il commento di Raviśrījñāna (Roma 2000) e l'edizione critica del testo sanscrito del Paramārthasaṃgraha di Nāropā (Roma 2006). Insieme a Harunaga Isaacson ha pubblicato il testo sanscrito e tibetano della Sekanirdeśapañjikā di Rāmapāla (Napoli 2014). Traduttore dal sanscrito e dal pāli per la serie "I Meridiani. Classici dello spirito" della casa editrice A. Mondadori Editore (Milano 2001, 2004), ha curato per la stessa serie un volume sull’induismo antico (2010). Autore di saggi sulle speculazioni linguistiche di alcune scuole filosofico-religiose della tradizione hindū, la sua ricerca si concentra principalmente sulle tradizioni tantriche indiane, tra cui, in particolare, la tradizione buddhista del Kālacakra.

Giuliano Boccali, University of Milan

Giuliano Boccali (Milano 1946) former professor of Indology and Sanskrit at Venice University Ca’ Foscari and after at State University of Milan, is the author of Michele Kerbaker’s biography in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 62,Treccani 2004. Among his recent publications: Il silenzio in India. Un’antologia (Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2017); the Italian edition of Kālidāsa, La storia di Śiva e Parvatī (Kumārasambhava) (Marsilio, Venezia 2018); Passioni d’Oriente. Eros ed emozioni in India e Tibet, edited by G. Boccali and R. Torella (Corriere della sera, Milano 2018); “Introduzione” and Dualità e unificazione nello Yoga di Patañjali, in Yoga e Advaita, edited by F. Freschi and F. Fabbro, pp. 9-14 e 15-31 (Carocci, Roma 2019).Giuliano Boccali is honorary chairman of the Associazione Italiana di Studi Sanscriti (A.I.S.S.; Italian Association of Sanskrit Studies).