Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Tibor Wlassics, #12835, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was a gift from Luciana Wlassics to Special Collections on January 14, 2003.

Biographical/Historical Information

Tibor Wlassics was born in 1936 to an aristocratic and well-educated family in Hungary. After secondary school, he was forbidden to attend the University because of the communist take-over and his family ties to the aristocracy. He worked as a laborer but was able to find work as a translator due to his linguistic abilities. In 1956 he began his Italian studies at the University in Genoa, Italy. He married Luciana Giovannetti and accepted a job with his uncle who was a chemist in Rhode Island. He attended Columbia University, settled in New Brunswick and received his doctorate in 1967. Dr. Wlassics then obtained a position at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was promoted to Full Professor. In 1981 he became Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia, and was offered a permanent position in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese the following year. In 1988 he was named the William R. Kenan Chair for Italian Studies. He recreated the B. A. program and established an M. A. program in Italian Studies. He wrote more than one hundred articles and was an expert on authors such as Alighieri Dante, Galileo Galilei, Giovanni Verga, and Cesare Pavese. In 1986 Tibor Wlassics was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1989 the Torquato Tasso Prize from the Academy of Sciences of Bergamo, Italy, for his study on Galileo. He lectured in America and Europe and organized the Lectura Dantis lecture series for scholars all over the world. He edited the Lectura Dantis, and facilitated the Tenth Annual International Congress of Italian Studies at the University of Virginia. He was a powerful force in the field of Italian Studies in the United States. In 1997 the American Association of Italian Studies elected Tibor Wlassics as its Honorary President. Tibor was also adored by his students for his interesting and witty stories and his "difficult quizzes" that were given every day. His wife, Luciana Wlassics earned her library degree at the University of Pittsburgh and became a beloved member of the senior cataloging staff at the University of Virginia Library. (Source of biography is based on information from William R. Kenan Professor of Spanish, Javier Herrero)

Scope and Content

The collection contains the papers of Tibor Wlassics, the William R. Kenan Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Virginia from 1981 to 1998. The collection is composed of course readings, quizzes, and translation exercises from his classes in Italian and Italian Literature. There is also worldwide correspondence from colleagues at other universities offering support for Professor Wlassics Masters Program in Italian at the University of Virginia. There are also student evaluations in which the students expressed how much they liked the story telling, and humor that Wlassics used in his teaching methods. The courses were taught using Italian Literature such as Alighieri Dante's "Inferno," "La Suora Giovane;" La Novella del Buon Vecchio e della bella fanciulla;" "Gli Indifferenti;" "La Casa in Collina;" "Da Pascoli a Sanguineti: Antologia della poesia del Novecento;" (Opere consulatate; Introduzione biografica; Gli interpreti del Tasso; Temi e problem della critica) "Leggere Verga;" Dante's Divine Comedy Introductory Readings; "Difesa Dell' Orlando Furioso Dell Ariosto;"and Italian College textbooks compiled by Tibor Wlassics. The compilation of his own grammar books and Italian textbooks, the articles that he wrote, along with the collection of articles for his classes, which were often hand-pasted onto paper and photocopied show the enormous time and passion that Professor Wlassics gave to his students and his profession. The collection is 356 items, 6 hollinger boxes, and 2.5 linear feet.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged alphabetically by topic.