Carlo Bellini

个人简介

Carlo Bellini (1735 – 1804), frequently anglicized as Charles Bellini, was an Italian–American secretary and educator who was the first professor of modern languages in North America. From Florence, Bellini worked as a secretary in the Grand Duke of Tuscany's tax office before traveling with his wife to the Colony of Virginia in 1774. There, he became acquainted with Thomas Jefferson, who secured Bellini a spot on the faculty of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg in 1779. Bellini became the inaugural head of the college's modern languages department, teaching there until 1803. Bellini maintained a correspondence with Jefferson, advising him regarding art purchases. While serving as a professor at the college, Bellini was selected to also serve as its librarian. He remained in Williamsburg during the Yorktown campaign of the American Revolutionary War. After the war, Bellini reported the loss of the college's 1693 charter, which had been in his care. Despite not having a mastery of many languages, Bellini continued teaching into old age and infirmity, and died in debt to the college. Bellini's relationship with Jefferson has become the subject of folklore, with it erroneously suggested that Bellini had been brought from Italy by Philip Mazzei to assist in Jefferson's viniculture experiments and that the Bellini and Jefferson had become close friends. Bellini's status as the first modern languages professor on the continent is widely recognized. In 1924, a plaque commemorating Bellini was installed in the college's Wren Chapel and the Sons of Italy endowed a memorial room to him in Monroe Hall. A lecture series known as the Bellini Colloquium is held at the college.