The essay deals with nineteen hitherto unpublished letters by Simone Assemani
to the apostolic nuncio in Vienna, Giuseppe Garampi (1725-1792): they all
stem from 1783, the first of two years Assemani spent in Trieste as an employee of the Belletti-Zaccar company, which ran the trade between the Christian
world of Northern Europe and the Turkish Levant (Egypt). In these texts, Assemani appears as a translator and interpreter from and into Arabic, as well as
the man in charge of the relationships with Cairo's bankers both on land and
for the maritime trade. The tone of the letters is rather atypical if compared to
Assemani's later correspondence: we glean crucial evidence to better understand the moral and material heritage of the Assemani family, who had given
a decisive thrust to Oriental studies in Rome from the beginning of the ISth
century through 17S0. We also get to know important elements concerning
the trading activities in Trieste's outport in 17S3, as well as Simone's lifelong
political and diplomatic activity in the frame of Propaganda Fide, a totally
unexplored field to date.
