24/05/2026
International Conference
"The Universality of Literature"
June 12, 2026 (Leiden University)
Can one person read the world? Can one person organize world literature?
Giacomo Prampolini was the man who tried. Through pocket anthologies and a monumental Universal History of Literature, he sought to bring the literatures of the world into a single intellectual landscape. From his home in Italy, he attempted to make the literary world readable.
Translator, editor, polyglot and cultural mediator, Prampolini shaped world literature through translation and canon formation. His ambition was to read all the literatures of the world in their original languages. Minority languages were central to this vision; he described them as “a tree in springtime”, vibrant, living and unfolding and studied them with particular care.
In recent decades, Prampolini (once celebrated as a linguistic prodigy and translator of more than sixty languages) has largely faded into obscurity in Italy, in the Netherlands and beyond. Yet in the twentieth century he attracted major attention. He was a highly respected figure in Dutch literary circles, received the Nijhoff Translation Prize, and was nominated by the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde. The novelist Arthur van Schendel reportedly preferred no Italian translator other than Prampolini. More than one hundred newspaper articles by writers such as Greshoff, Braasem, Ypes and others testify to this fascination.
Recently, he has been rediscovered through the Mappi-Ned research project (NWO-funded), together with extensive correspondence with Dutch, Flemish and Frisian writers. This has revealed new, unpublished materials and opened fresh perspectives on his work.
His legacy is vast and diverse: 1) miniature anthologies in many languages: from Dutch, Indonesian and Frisian to Afrikaans, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. 2) alongside the "Storia universale della letteratura", a bulky literary history of seven volumes and 3) a three-volume anthology of translations into Italian, covering more than sixty traditions.
Yet no literary history can ever be fully universal or exhaustive. Every representation of world literature depends on selection and interpretation. How did Prampolini choose his materials? Which traditions were included or excluded, and why? To what extent did he rely on networks of informants and collaborators?
These questions will be discussed on 12 June at the Academy Building of Leiden University, in a symposium bringing together scholars of literary history, translation and multilingualism. The day will conclude with a pop-up exhibition of Prampoliniana: rare books, archival documents and recent discoveries.
Registration via QR code. Participation is free. Linguists, literary historians, translators, polyglots, and all interested in literature across borders are warmly invited.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQ7IHgaT1bhzaY9YoMJQQTE2xyU69hQUGRITdiQyIgCXwdNw/viewform
