Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, Correspondence 1927–1958 Numen Book Series Studies in the History of Religions
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Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, Correspondence 1927–1958 Numen Book Series Studies in the History of Religions Texts and Sources in the History of Religions Series Editors Steven Engler (Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada) Richard King (University of Kent, UK ) Kocku von Stuckrad (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) Gerard Wiegers (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) VOLUME 146 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/nus-tshr Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, Correspondence 1927–1958 The Long Friendship between the Author and the Translator of The All-Knowing God With an Appendix of Documents By Domenico Accorinti LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustrations: On the left-hand side: Letter from R. Pettazzoni to H. J. Rose, 9 March 1937 (detail). R. Pettazzoni Archive, Municipal Library ‘Giulio Cesare Croce’, San Giovanni in Persiceto (Bologna). On the right-hand side: Letter from H. J. Rose to R. Pettazzoni, 25 March 1938 (detail). R. Pettazzoni Archive, Municipal Library ‘Giulio Cesare Croce’, San Giovanni in Persiceto (Bologna). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Accorinti, Domenico. Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, correspondence 1927–1958: the long friendship between the author and the translator of The all-knowing God, with an appendix of documents / by Domenico Accorinti. pages cm. — (Numen book series : studies in the history of religions : ISSN 0169-8834 ; Volume 146) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-26684-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-27224-8 (e-book : alk. paper) 1. Pettazzoni, Raffaele, 1883–1959. 2. Rose, H. J. (Herbert Jennings), 1883–1961. 3. Religion—Philosophy. 4. Pettazzoni, Raffaele, 1883–1959. Onniscienza di Dio. I. Pettazzoni, Raffaele, 1883–1959. Correspondence. Selections. II. Rose, H. J. (Herbert Jennings), 1883–1961. Correspondence. Selections. III. Title. BL43.P48A65 2014 200.92'2—dc23 2014009258 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 0169-8834 isbn 978 90 04 26684 1 (hardback) isbn 978 90 04 27224 8 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. 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In loving memory of my aunt, Lidia Molina (1923–2006), whose honesty and wisdom have inspired my life and work ∵ Contents Preface ix Giovanni Casadio Acknowledgements xv List of Figures xviii List of Abbreviations xxv Part 1 Introduction 1 1.1 A Long Friendship and Correspondence 6 1.2 The Major Topics of the Correspondence: The All-Knowing God, the Essays on the History of Religions, and Numen 14 1.3 The Other Topics of the Correspondence: Between Public and Private 18 (a) Data on Books and Papers of Both Scholars 19 (b) Criticisms of Other People’s Work and/or Personality 22 (c) Meetings and Congresses of the IAHR and Other Scholarly Associations 23 (d) Historical Events 24 (e) Personal or Family Information 27 1.4 A Touch of Humour in a Scholarly Exchange 28 (a) The Portrait of Douglas Young 28 (b) ‘Herr Doktor’ 29 (c) A Supper without Translation 30 1.5 Mutual Admiration and Common Interests of the Two Scholars 30 (a) A Common Good Sense 31 (b) International Academic Cooperation 31 (c) Promoting Each Other’s Works 33 1.6 Editing the Correspondence: Letters and Life Stories 33 1.7 Editorial Principles 36 viii contents Part 2 Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, Correspondence 1927–1958 41 Part 3 Appendix: Letters From Various Correspondents (1930–1960) 373 Chronology of the Correspondence 450 Select Bibliography 459 Index of Ancient Sources 491 General Index 492 Preface Giovanni Casadio The value of publishing a correspondence between two (very prominent) scholars lies in providing the backdrop to their lives, that is to say the labours, the joys, the frustrations, more generally the ‘messy and unpredictable circumstances, exposed to contingencies of all kinds, and driven by personal motivations and emotions that are impossible to keep apart from their intellectual pursuits’ (Hanegraaff 2013: 253), in which academic achievements like all other intellectual productions come to light. In the present case we have to do with two giants in their field, the historical study of reli- gions. The two scholars in correspondence are Raffaele Pettazzoni [RP] (1883–1959), virtually the foremost scholar of religion of the twentieth century, and Herbert Jennings Rose [HJR] (1883–1961), a leading Canadian-British expert in Greek and Roman religion and folklore. Being of the same age (RP was the elder being born on February 3, HJR was born on May 5), they maintained their collaboration and friendship for 36 years: from 1923 until RP passed away, in 1959. Through these letters (218, extending from 1927 to 1958) we have glimpses into their scholarly workshop, their critical—sometimes idiosyncratic—inclinations, their private life and—sporadically—their participation in public events. Who was Raffaele Pettazzoni? The question is not rhetorical even at the beginning of a book published in a series for scholars in religious studies, if we take into consid- eration that the name of RP is undeservedly missing from virtually all recent introduc- tory textbooks on the study of religion (on the fortunes and misfortunes of RP in the Anglophone academic world see Rennie 2013). To answer this question we think that the best choice is to refer to the words of a preeminent international scholar who was most close to him in the last ten years of his life: Claas Jouco Bleeker (1898–1983), a Dutch historian of Egyptian religion and leading figure in the field of the phenomenol- ogy of religion. The 160 letters written by Pettazzoni to him and the 202 letters written by Bleeker to RP (all preserved in the archives of the Fondo Pettazzoni in San Giovanni in Persiceto) are the clearest sign of their intellectual intimacy. Death never ceases to rouse a profound sense of awe. It is therefore a meaning- ful custom that, at the beginning of meetings from time to time we remember those who have passed away. One of the first acts of this congress should be to pay a tribute of reverence and gratitude to the memory of Raffaele Pettazzoni, the late president of the I.A.H.R., who after a painful illness died on the 8th of December 1959. It is a privilege to me to say something in his memory. For, throughout a cooperation of nearly ten years with the deceased president, x preface during which we exchanged countless letters, carried on many deliberations, and solved several questions, always in a spirit of mutual understanding, I made his acquaintance in all probability better than anybody else. And, looking back, I say without hesitation that he was a very great scholar. Though he was small in size, all people who met him were forced to acknowledge that, as the Bible says, ‘from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.’ His death there- fore means a more severe loss for our discipline and for the I.A.H.R. than can be realized at the moment. The time has not yet come to assess the importance of his scientific work. Moreover a short in memoriam never could do justice to his merits in this respect. My task is limited to a short description of his significance as president of the I.A.H.R. After the sudden death of Professor G. van der Leeuw in the autumn of 1950 it was quite natural that Professor Pettazzoni should suc- ceed him. For he possessed that extensive knowledge and authority among his colleagues which qualified him to hold this high office. He proved to be a true leader who was wholeheartedly devoted to the cause of the I.A.H.R.; and in this capacity he rendered great services to the Association. Thanks to his incessant devotion and his wise diplomacy the congress in Rome in 1955 proved a great success. Only those inside know how many financial and editorial difficulties he had to overcome before he could edit the extensive Atti dell’VIII congresso inter- nazionale di storia delle religioni and the magnificent work, La Regalità Sacra, The Sacral Kingship, comprising all congress papers on the subject in question. As he was by his studies familiar with the religions of Japan it was the corona- tion of his work that he was able to attend the congress in Tokyo in 1958. It was through his initiative that we now have an international journal for the study of the history of religions which he baptized with its well chosen name ‘Numen’. It was indeed a disappointment to him that the journal did not fully develop as had been planned. However, it will be readily admitted by everyone who knows what it means to edit a journal that Pettazzoni has accomplished a great work in putting Numen on the level it actually has. Even on his sick-bed he continued the editorship of the journal so dear to his heart.