L’insegnamento del catalano a Venezia, storia di una consolidata incertezza

Abstract

Catalan has been taught at the University of Venice since 1974 when it was established through a reformation of the range of options previously in force. Giovanni Battista De Cesare was actually the first teacher of Catalan, even though in earlier decades at least two former professors of Spanish language and literature were also familiar with Catalan culture: Marco Antonio Canini (1822-91) and Giovanni Maria Bertini (1900-95). Catalan was offered once again two years later (in 1976) with a more fortunate new start. Carlos Romero Muñoz taught Catalan in Venice from that date until 1998-1999 and helped to make the study of Catalan in Venice less precarious. Following the Bologna process, at the beginning of the new millennium, the Italian degree-courses were adapted to the new cycles, which created some problems for the teaching of Catalan in Italian universities. Despite all that, Catalan is still alive and kicking, and has stalwartly borne itself up against both the competition of the most widely-spoken European languages and the laws for the reformation of the university system.