The Araldi Manuscript

In 1982 I accepted a NEH grant to do an edition and translation into English of Volume A of Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi's "Missione evangelica nel Regno de Congo" an Italian description of Central Africa completed around 1668. This text is widely known as the "Araldi Manuscript" since it was owned by the Araldi Family of Modena, Italy, and it had first been described by Giuseppe Pistoni in 1969. I managed to complete a transcription of the manuscript, and thanks to the assistance of Maria Luisa Martini and particularly Carolyn Beckingham, a full translation. I also wrote an introduction and annotated the whole text. In this way, I had completed, successfully, all the requirements of the NEH grant.

However, I realized that the next logical step was to publish the results of my work, and here I found myself balking. I realized that between the three of us, there were problems, gaps and difficulties with the translation, and as I began working through the text again, in 1988 this became even more clear. Other material and work intervened and gradually the final production of the Araldi Manuscript moved farther and farther from my thoughts, though it always remained in the back of my mind, and perpetually in New Year's resolutions.

I got a further boost in this from Paul Hair, the well known editor of African history related texts with whom I frequently corresponded by e-mail, then a relatively new phenomenon, and Paul, always up to date on technology had mastered. One day, Paul wrote me an e-mail that said, in effect, "this is the last e-mail I will write to you, please publish the Araldi Manuscript." I thought it a strange message, but the very next day I learned that he had died, and that it was literally a last request.

Even with this boost, however I found myself balking at taking the last step, but since Paul was a great user of new technology, I decided to publish the Araldi MS, not in print form but on the web.

This blog's purpose, at least initially, is to present the Araldi MS, and my translation to the world. My hope is that by publishing it on the web I can allow others to correct, challenge, augment and discuss this very important manuscript. Web technology will allow me to produce and continually update the translation.