Bartolomeo e Giuseppe Lagumina e gli Studi storici e orientali in Sicilia fra Otto e Novecento

[Autom. eng. transl.] The volume aims to focus on the cultural climate of Palermo between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, matured on the long wave of interests in the Arab and Eastern world opened by the work of Michele Amari (1806-1889). The center of the reflection is the life and work of Bartolomeo Lagumina (1850-1931), an emblematic character, whose scientific production unfolds in a period of the history of Italian orientalism dominated by the figures of Ignazio Guidi (1844-1935) and Carlo Alfonso Nallino (1872-1938), scholars with a strong scientific personality, with whom Lagumina had relationships oscillating between recognition and denial. Inspector of the National Museum of Palermo, professor of Hebrew and then of Arabic, first at the Seminary and then at the University of Palermo, but also canon of the Cathedral of Palermo and finally bishop of Agrigento, Bartolomeo Lagumina is a trait d'union between environments different cultures, distant and often opposite. His scientific activity touches distinct fields, from Arab-Sicilian epigraphy and numismatics to the study of important Arabic and Hebrew texts (the Martinian Code of Abbot Vella, the Cambridge Chronicle, the Book of the Palm of Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī, the letters of R. 'Ovadya da Bertinoro), reaching up to the reorganization of the main oriental collections of Palermo (the medal table of the Municipal Library and the catalog of oriental codes of the National Library of Palermo). Together with his brother Giuseppe (1855-1931), Bartolomeo Lagumina created the Diplomatic Code of the Jews of Sicily, a long indispensable work tool, which collects over a thousand documents relating to the history of the Jewish communities of Sicily, from Gregory the Great to expulsion of 1492-93. His cultural commitment does not directly involve the city of Palermo but also Agrigento, where Bartolomeo was then able to take care of the restoration of the Cathedral and the reorganization of the diocesan collections at the time of his bishopric. In addition to outlining the climate of an era, the volume intends to propose an assessment of the scientific activity of Bartolomeo and Giuseppe Lagumina, at the same time updating and discussing the fruits of their work.