Roman Pollak i powstanie włoskich polonistyk
Roman Pollak and the Beginnings of Academic Studies of the Polish Language in Italy

Summary/Abstract: The article highlights Roman Pollak’s contribution to the development of Polish studies in Italy. In 1923, the Polish Ministry of Education sent him, under an agreement with the Italian government, to hold the position of a professor of Polish language and literature at the Sapienza University of Rome and to serve as the Ministry’s delegate to Italy, which he did until 1939. In his lectures in Rome, Pollak emphasised the links between Polish and Italian literature in a comparative perspective and successfully attracted talented scholars to this subject, including Giovanni Maver, who succeed-ed him at the University of Rome in 1929, and Enrico Damiani who would give lectures on the Bulgarian and Polish languages in Naples. As the Minis-try’s delegate, Pollak held conferences in major Italian cities and promoted the foundation of the Attilio Begey Institute of Polish Culture at the Uni-versity of Turin, supporting Cristina and Clotilde Garosci in their transla-tions and Marina Bersano Begey, who became professor in 1935, in her re-search. If Italian studies of Polish are still considered to be among the best in Europe, it can undoubtedly be attributed to the work of Roman Pollak.

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