The Development of Italic Epigraphy in the 19Th Century: Correspondence Between I.V. Tsvetaev and A. Fabretti in 1875–1885
Sosnina E. B.
Ariodante Fabretti, Professor of Turin University and President of Turin Academy of Sciences, was one of the most eminent Italian classical scholars of the 2nd half of the 19th century with whom I.V. Tsvetaev (Cvetaev, Zvetaev) co-operated in the field of Latin epigraphy and Italic philology. Their correspondence started in November 1875 and, though it was not regular, lasted for ten years. In his numerous linguistic works of 1877–1887 devoted to Italic inscriptions Tsvetaev cited Fabretti’s works not just accepting, but occasionally criticising his views. For Tsvetaev, Fabretti was one of the greatest classical scholars and investigators of Italic dialects whose works he considered fundamental. Fabretti’s biography (which has never been a subject of special study in Russian) reflects all the vicissitudes and contradictions of the epoch when Italy was being unified to form a new state. It shows how thorny the way of an Italian scholar to the classical studies could be. He was not just an influential scholar (historian, archaeologist, philologist, epigraphist), but an outstanding political figure of the Risorgimento. The «Augusta» Library (Perugia) houses Fabretti’s archive including his vast correspondence with historians and philologists (Th. Mommsen, E. Renan, G. P. Vieussieux, P. Villari), political figures of the Risorgimento (F. Crispi, A. Depretis, R. Bonghi, G. Mazoni) and many others. Four letters of I.V. Tsvetaev are also in this collection. Farbetti’s responses to Tsvetaev (of 1879 and 1885) are preserved in the Department of Manuscripts of the State Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. They provide evidence that A. Farbetti highly appreciated Tsvetaev’s works on Italic dialects. The paper includes the publication of the correspondence between Fabretti and Tsvetaev.