L’Egitto di naturalisti, patrioti e religiosi italiani: Figari Bey, Balboni e Monsignor Dalfi
(Egypt as seen by Italian naturalists, patriots and religious figures: Figari Bey, Balboni and Monsignor Dalfi)
in La rivista di Arablit, a. IV, n. 7-8, dicembre 2014, pp. 117-133.
Many are the Italian authors who have written on Egypt, its culture and civilization since time immemorial, and many are those Italians who have visited this rich and beautiful country, thus shedding light on its characteristics, peculiarities and mysteries as well. Two of these authors, the 19th-century pharmacist and naturalist Antonio Figari Bey and Professor L.A. Balboni, can also be numbered among the most distinguished members of the Italian community in Egypt, i.e. a very important community which helped the Arab state recover from its difficult past and enter modernization. This paper focuses on some features of their works about Egypt and/or Italians therein, and also on considerations concerning the same issue(s) in a text by Monsignor Teodoro Dalfi, a Vincentian missionary.
