Exploring Luigi Bonelli’s (1865–1947) Personal Archive: The Turkologist’s Workshop and Transnational Networks

This article explores the personal archive of Luigi Bonelli, the first Italian professor of Turkish lan- guage and a foundational figure in Italian Turkology. Preserved at the Library of the Pontifical Anto- nianum Institute in Rome and only recently arranged and catalogued, the Fondo Bonelli contains correspondence, teaching materials, research notes, drafts, and documents relating to Bonelli’s long career at the Regio Istituto Orientale in Naples. The article examines the archive as a privileged entry point into Bonelli’s scholarly workshop and into his distinctive method of linguistic inquiry, based on correspondence, conversation, and direct encounters with native speakers. Particular attention is devoted to his Ottoman Turkish correspondence, which reveals patterns of mobility, exchange, and presence of Ottoman subjects in Naples and Italy between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By reconstructing the history of the archive’s acquisition after Bonelli’s death, and by connecting the Fondo Bonelli with other archival fragments preserved in Italy, the article contributes to a broader understanding of Italian Turkology, Orientalist networks, and the circulation of knowledge across the Mediterranean.