Giovanni Mazzini is associate professor of Semitic philology. His main interests focus on the Semitic languages of Syria / Levant and the Semitic languages of Arabia. He has been studying the Ugaritic documents with special attention to the linguistic connection with Central Semitic and the cultural relationship with Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the Levant during the late Bronze Age.
Curriculum
1992 Honours Degree, Semitic Philology, University of Pisa, 1991-1992 2 semesters University of Tübingen (Erasmus Project)
1993-1997 PhD Semitic Philology, University of Florence. 1994 University of Tübingen (1 semester) 1994-1995 CNRS, Aix-en-Provence (1 semester) 1995 Oriental Institute, Oxford (2 semesters)
1996-1997 Diploma in Arabic Grammar, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies - Rome
1996 Italian-French Mission to Yemen, Epigraphic survey in Wadi Bayhan, Yemen Italian Mission to Oman, Sultanate of Oman1996 Archaeological excavation.
1999 University of Tel Aviv, Israel Workshop on the Origins of Semitic Scripts (2 months).
1999-2001 University of Pisa, Project on the Corpus of Ancient South Arabian Inscriptions online (CSAI) http//:csai.humnet.unipi.it.
1999-2002 Tecnico Laureato, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche del Mondo Antico
2002 - currently Ricercatore, Dipartimento Civiltà e forme del Sapere
2003 Summer Semester University of Münster, Research Semester at Institut für Altorientalische Philologie und Vorderasiatische Altertumskunde.
2004, 2005, 2006 Sommer Semester, University of Marburg Research Semester at Institut für Orientalistik und Sprachwissenschaft Fachgebiet Semitistik.
2007, 2012 Sommer Semester University of Jena, Research Semester at Institut für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients
2007- 2008 British Museum, MENCAWAR project, teaching and catalogue writing responsibilities (Ancient South Arabian epigraphic collection).
2011-2012 Museo Orientale Roma, Cataloguing the Ancient South Arabian inscriptions in the context of the exhibition: Il trono della regina di Saba. Cultura e diplomazia fra Italia e Yemen (11-10-212 / 13-1-2013).
2018 Corresponding Member of the Deutsches Arachaeologisches Institut / Berlin
Teaching Responsabilities:
2002 - 2012 Semitic Philology, Semitic Epigraphy
2013 - 2016 Biblical Hebrew, 2013 - 2016 Semitic Epigraphy
2017 - currently Comparative Literatures of the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean
2018 - currently Hittite
Accademic Competences
Documentation of Pre-Islamic Arabia
Documentation of Northwest Semitic (II and I Millennium)
Semitic Comparative linguistics, history and culture of the ancient Near East
Cultural interaction between Ancient Greece and the Ancient Near East
Comparative Indoeuropean linguistics
Classical Arabic, Classical Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Classical Greek, Latin, Hittite, Sanscrit
