ANNIVERSARY GALA - National Italian American Foundation

Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library Project, cont.
Currently, the Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library collection includes nearly 20 books
(published by University of Toronto Press) on a wide array of subjects, from 19th-century
Italian gastronomy and the history of 15th-century Florence to essays on crime and
punishment in Western civilization. Among several soon-to-be-published books is “A
Worlde of Wordes,” the first comprehensive, large-size, bilingual, Italian-English dictionary
published in 1598 by John Florio, one of Elizabethan England’s most prominent linguists
and educators. This edition of “A Worlde of Wordes” shows Florio at work at the time of
great popularity of the Italian language in England, highlighting his love of words and lifelong
dedication to promoting Italian language and culture abroad.
The series’ editors are Ciavolella and Luigi Ballerini, distinguished professor of Italian at
UCLA. Throughout each project, Ballerini and Ciavolella have worked closely with UCLA
graduate students, training them in the painstaking translation process. “This series is
unique because it’s breathing new life into some of the lesser known Italian works,” says
Ballerini, “and even though it’s Italian material, it has international perspective.”
Ciavolella added, “And through this process we are equipping the next generation of
graduate scholars with vital skills to translate often complex texts from different periods.”
B
“We have no empire, such as did
the Romans, so powerful that
subject cities spontaneously sought
to emulate their rulers’ speech....
Nonetheless it can clearly be seen
how, in our present times, many
diverse people of intelligence and
refinement, outside Italy no less
than within Italy, devote much
effort and study to learning and
speaking our language for no other
reason than love.”
Giovan Battista Gelli,
“Ragionamento sulla lingua,” 1551
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The 2011 NIAF Gala