Rosario Napolitano
Establishing Baltic Studies in Interwar Italy
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Western powers paid particular attention to the new reality in Europe after the collapse of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, German and Ottoman empires. Germany, Great Britain, and France yearned to reinforce their political and economic positions in Central Europe and regarded the region as an ideal area for prospective trade. The Italian government also tried to compete with these other countries. In 1921, the Head of the Press Office of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amedeo Giannini, in collaboration with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlo Sforza, created an institution for the study of Eastern Europe with the aim of developing new scientific approaches. The institution, called Istituto per l’Europa Orientale (Institute for Eastern Europe, IpEO), aimed to create a connection between the Italian intelligentsia and Russian exiles who had fled the country after World War One, as well as other Eastern European intellectuals. The IpEO also aimed to establish commercial relations with Eastern European countries in order to offer Italians an opportunity to connect with new groups in order to expand Italian reach in the world. Indeed, there was a close connection between Italian cultural and political propaganda and the attempts by Italian financial and commercial circles to challenge Austro-German hegemony in the Danube-Balkan region.
Meanwhile, the IpEO represented a real training ground for young scholars and gave them opportunities to study Eastern European cultures and literatures for the first time. The IpEO also published monographs and periodicals on topics ranging from history to linguistics.
Several sections were created within the IpEO. The Baltic section, directed by scholar of literature and philology Giacomo Devoto, was established only in 1931, 10 years after the creation of the IpEO. One of the reasons for this long delay was linked to the IpEO’s key priorities. Italian political-economic interests encouraged staff at the IpEO to concentrate their efforts in the Danubio-Balkan region, where the Italian government was competing with France and Germany to gain hegemony. The Baltic section of the IpEO published the journal Studi Baltici, with one edition published almost every year from 1931 until 1942. During this period, 102 articles were published.
Summary of the first volume of Studi Baltici (1931)
Both Italian scholars, such as Giuliano Bonfante and Giuseppe Salvatori, and foreign scholars contributed to the success of Studi Baltici. The linguists Max Niedermann (from Switzerland), Jānis Endzelīns and Ernests Blese (from Latvia) appeared in the first issue in 1931. Niedermann published a contribution titled “Gli inizi della linguistica lituana” (The beginning of Lithuanian linguistics), while Endzelīns and Blese respectively published articles entitled “«Tiems» come femminile anche in lettone” («Tiems» as feminine gender also in the Latvian language) and “Svolgimento e stato attuale della linguistica lettone” (The development and current status of Latvian linguistics). In the introduction to the first volume of Studi Baltici, Devoto explained that the IpEO decided to create the new Baltic section because no international institution outside the Baltic states was devoted to the study of Baltic philology.
Early life of Giacomo Devoto
The year 2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Giacomo Devoto. From 1931 to 1944, Devoto was responsible for the Baltic section of IpEO and the editor of the journal Studi Baltici. At that time, Studi Baltici was the only publication focused on Baltic studies outside of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. For the remainder of this post, I will examine Devoto’s role in advancing Baltic studies, both during the interwar period and after the Second World War.
Devoto was born in Genoa in 1897 and spent his youth in the city. Afterwards, he entered the Faculty of Literature at the University of Pavia, but his studies were interrupted because of his participation in the Alpine infantry in the First World War. After the war and the completion of his studies, Devoto went to Berlin in 1920 where he studied under the esteemed linguists Wilhelm Schulze, Julius Pokorny, and Heinrich Lüders, experts in the Lithuanian, Irish, and Sanskrit languages respectively. Three years later, Devoto went to Basel, where he furthered his knowledge of the Lithuanian language, as well as Iranian, Greek, and archaic Latin with Max Niedermann, Günter Jachmann, and Peter v. d. Mühl.
Giacomo Devoto (1969)
Devoto’s visits in the Baltic states
Devoto’s first visit to the Baltic states was in autumn 1933. At that time, he was a professor in the comparative history of classical languages at the University of Padua. Devoto expressed his desire to visit the Baltic states in March 1933, and a formal invitation was issued by the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University, Prof. Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius. Before arriving, Devoto first went to Germany, where he met two specialists of Baltic philology, Prof. Georg Gerullis in Berlin, and Prof. Franz Specht in Halle. After Germany, Devoto stopped in Memel (now Klaipėda) for a few days before continuing to Kaunas. During his stay in Lithuania (where he spent most of his visit), Devoto was supported by the Italian ambassador Giovanni Amadori, who introduced him to the higher authorities of the Lithuanian Government, including President Antanas Smetona. The meeting between Devoto and Smetona, where they communicated in Lithuanian, took place on 25 November 1933 and, by the end of the meeting, the Smetona presented Devoto with the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. As a guest of Vytautas Magnus University, Devoto had the opportunity to teach a 25-lesson course on the origin of the Latin language and ancient Italian dialects, which he conducted in German. The opening seminar was a huge success with the participation of more than 200 people, among them not only students but also faculty members.
During his stay in Lithuania, Devoto travelled to Riga, Tartu, and Helsinki. He arrived in Riga in October 1933 as a guest of the Faculty of Philology and gave a presentation (this time in French at the request of the University of Latvia) entitled “Ce que nous apprend l’histoire de la langue latine” (“What the history of the Latin language teaches us”). This event was reported in the Latvian press. After the seminar, Devoto delivered the third issue of Studi Baltici to Jānis Endzelīns, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Endzelīns was also a contributor to the first issue of Studi Baltici, and this was the first time that the two men met in person. In Finland Devoto gave two presentations about the origin of the Latin language at the University of Helsinki. He also met members of the Dante Alighieri Society, with whom he discussed matters relating to the Italian language. In Tartu, the last stop before returning to Lithuania, he met the German linguist Ernst Kieckers. Devoto left Kaunas on 4 December and arrived in Italy on 10 December, just in time to start teaching his lessons in Padua.
Communication about Giacomo Devoto's lecture at the University of Latvia (6th October 1933) Latvijas Valsts-Vēstures Arhīvs (Latvian Historical-State Archive, LVVA), 7427 f., 6 apr., 30 l., 157lp.
In early 1934, following his visit to the Baltic region, Devoto expressed his desire to intensify cultural relations between Italy and the Baltic states to the Italian Minister of National Education. Devoto outlined several ways in which this might be achieved. Firstly, the IpEO should publish one volume of Studi Baltici each year, a target that was almost achieved between 1931 and 1942. Secondly, he recommended the establishment of scholarships for students from the Baltic states and Finland (one for each country), although this idea was never properly realized. Thirdly, he encouraged the promotion of the Italian language by publishing bilingual dictionaries, which did not exist for any of the Baltic states. In the case of Latvia and Estonia, the preparation of the dictionaries began during 1938 and 1939, but they were never published. Finally, Devoto wanted to organize Italian lecturers in each of the Baltic states to provide practical language training in addition to literary education. Offering Baltic scholars the possibility to publish their works in Italian journals was also encouraged, but Studi Baltici represented the only academic journal where Baltic scholars could publish their work in Italian until the collapse of the Italian Fascist regime in 1943. In 1935, Devoto became a chair at the University of Florence where he taught Sanskrit and historical linguistics until the end of his academic career.
Devoto returned to the Baltic states once more in August 1937, attending the first conference of Baltic historians (Pirmā Baltijas Vēsturnieku Konference) in Riga. Numerous scholars from countries such as Lithuania, Germany, Poland, France, and Finland took part. At this conference, Devoto gave a presentation titled “Come comincia la storia baltica” (“How Baltic history begins”).
The book Lettonia
After his visits to the Baltic states, Devoto took part in editing the volume Lettonia (“Latvia”). Preparation began in 1938 and it was published one year later in 1939 in the book series “Il Mondo oggi”, which also published a volume dedicated to Estonia in 1943. The volume Lettonia collected nine different contributions, aiming “to better understand the historical, political and cultural aspects of a country [Latvia] which is linked with Italy through a true friendship”. It was promoted by Luigi Salvini, translator and literary critic, and included the collaboration of several prestigious Latvian and Italian scholars. Devoto wrote the fourth chapter, entitled “Le origini e la lingua dei lettoni” (“The origins and language of Latvians”), which focused on Baltic linguistics, specifically the Latvian language, as well as historic events concerning the Latvian people. Other notable contributors included Marta Rasupe, lecturer of Latvian language and literature, first at the Istituto Orientale of Naples and then at the University of Rome, and the historian and diplomat Arnolds Spekke, who headed the Latvian Embassy in Rome from 1933 until 1940. Spekke wrote the first chapter, entitled "Storia sintetica del popolo lettone" (A Concise History of the Latvian People). This was to be Devoto’s last contribution to Baltic studies before the Soviet occupation of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which began in summer 1940.
Cover of Storia delle Letterature Baltiche (History of Baltic Literatures), edited by Giacomo Devoto (1957)
The second series of Studi Baltici and Devoto’s death
The end of the IpEO came in 1948, when the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to suspend its financial support. Yet despite the Soviet occupation of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, interest in Baltic studies in Italy did not disappear. A second series of Studi Baltici was published, this time in Florence. Devoto was again involved, but this time the journal did not last as long as its first series. The ninth volume came out in 1952, edited by the philologist Carlo Alberto Mastrelli, while the tenth (and last) was published after a long editorial break in 1969.
Before his death in December 1974, Devoto continued to produce a significant amount of Baltic literature in the Italian language. He edited Storia delle Lettetature baltiche (“The History of Baltic Literatures”, 1957), and Le letterature dei Paesi baltici (“The Literatures of the Baltic States”, 1969), which are still considered the essential works for studying the languages and literatures of the Baltic populations.
Thanks to Giacomo Devoto’s contributions, Baltic studies in Italy experienced two crucial moments, the first during the interwar period – which could be considered the “peak”, thanks to the Baltic section of IpEO and to the journal Studi Baltici – and the second featuring less momentum immediately after the Second World War. Nowadays, Baltic studies heritage and the results of Devoto’s efforts “belong” to the University of Pisa, the only place where the teaching of Baltic philology (and Lithuanian language and culture) has been kept alive in Italy in the present day.
Rosario Napolitano received his Ph.D. in International Studies at the University of Naples "l'Orientale" (2018). Currently he works at the Italian-Latvian Cooperation Centre at Riga Technical University and the Faculty of Humanities of the Art Academy of Latvia. His research interests include Fascist cultural diplomacy in the Baltic states during the interwar period and policies of sovietization in Soviet Latvia within the cultural spheres. His last publications are "A Chapter in Latvian Cinema History: The Process of Cinefication (1940–1941; 1944–1953)" in Acta Historica Tallinnensia (co-authored with Prof. Epp Lauk) and "A Diplomat Between Two Countries. Arnolds Spekke as a Cultural Link Between Italy and Latvia" in Baltic Worlds.
Acknowledgements: The author would like to express his gratitude to the Italian Ambassador in Latvia, H.E. Alessandro Monti and the Deputy Ambassador Federico Palmieri for their support and efforts to stregnthening relations between Italy and Latvia. Great thanks go also to Prof. Pietro Umberto Dini (University of Pisa) and James Montgomery Baxenfield (Tallinn University) for their valuable suggestions.