Sante Graciotti. On the Studies of Belarusian Tristan in Italy.

The article examines the actual state and the prospects of studying Belarusian Tristan, the mediaeval west European chivalric romance in Old Belarusian translation, in Italy and the wider European academic field. The author offers an overview of publications related to Belarusian Tristan. His studies, done in collaboration with Emanuela Sgambati, revealed a clear link between Belarusian Tristan and its Venetian prototype. He claims that following their research, there was a break in studying this work in Italy.
The author points out how important the Belarusian version is for Slavonic studies as the first-ever proof that secular Belarusian literature was born. It is also important for Romance philology, as its studies reveal the sources and ways of the translation of Romance Tristan into Slavic languages. The article identifies Dalmatia as the place of origin of the Slavic versions of Tristan and the Venetian prototype as their basis. The author encourages Italian researchers and translators to study Belarusian Tristan and translate it, preferably alongside Beuve (Buovo), into Italian. The publication should be accompanied by the corresponding places from Venetian Tristan.