History
The "Naples Eastern University" (Università degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale) is the oldest school of Sinology and Oriental Studies of the European continent.
The name "Orientale" is a clue to the origins of the institution. In the mid-17th century, the Manchus took over China and started a remarkable period of openness towards the west. This included welcoming Christian missionaries. One such person was the missionary, Matteo Ripa, of the Propaganda Fide, from the kingdom of Naples, who worked as a painter and copper-engraver at the Manchu court of the emperor Kangxi between 1711 and 1723. He returned to Naples from China with four young Chinese Christians, all teachers of their native language; they formed the nucleus of what would become the "Chinese Institute" of Naples, sanctioned by Pope Clement XII in 1732 to teach Chinese to missionaries and thus advance the propagation of Christianity in China. Originally it was also created to educate Indian and Chinese languages experts for the Ostend Company.
After the unification of Italy in 1861, the institution was transformed into the "Royal Asian College" and other languages such as Russian, Hindustani, and Persian were added to the curriculum. The institution then became a secular school for the study of eastern languages in general, and then, over the course of decades, African languages and, indeed, all modern European languages. Today more than 50 languages are taught.
Read more about this topic: Naples Eastern University
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)