Introduzione: sulle tracce di un Rinascimento mediterraneo

On the Alcorano di Macometto by Pier Mattia Tommasino
Introduced by Giuseppe Marcocci, this section provides a discussion of Pier Mattia Tommasino’s L’Alcorano di Macometto. Storia di un libro del Cinquecento europeo (2013). In his highly inter-disciplinary book, Tommasino analyses the first edition of the Quran translated (from Latin) into Italian vernacular by Giovanni Battista Castrodardo from Belluno. Published in 1547 Venice by Andrea Arrivabene, this translation was included in a volume also containing writings about the life of Muḥammad and the history and the customs of the Muslims and the Turks. It was dedicated to the French nobleman Gabriel Luetz d’Aramon on the eve of his mission to the Ottoman court. Three scholars (Vincenzo Lavenia, Paola Molino, and Paolo Procaccioli) comment, from different perspectives on the multiple connections in Tommasino’s volume, between this Renaissance work and the Venetian and Mediterranean contexts, including the influence of the Italian Reformation and the circulation of Machiavelli and Dante.

Parole chiave: Corano; Rinascimento italiano; Venezia; Impero ottomano
Keywords: Quran; Italian Renaissance; Venice; Ottoman Empire