La ricezione italiana del dibattito sugli Ittiti alla fine dell'Ottocento: Luigi Schiaparelli (1815-1897) e Cesare Antonio De Cara (1835-1905)

The historian Luigi Schiaparelli (1815-1897) from Turin and the Calabrian Jesuit Cesare Antonio De Cara (1835-1905) were the first Italian scholars to deal with the Hittites at the end of the nineteenth century. Their studies are dedicated mainly to the biblical and Egyptological aspects of Hittite history and to the themes of the origin as well as of the great migrations of the ancient populations. They show a profound knowledge of the results reached in these fields by the English, French and German scientific community before the discovery of the cuneiform texts of Boghazköy. But these scholars also have an evident link with their cultural humus. Schiaparelli, a scholar with a more national profile, was deeply involved in both the life of the University and of the city of Turin; De Cara, active and well-known also outside of Italy, belonged to the more international milieu of the Catholic church.