“Arabic Manuscripts of the Bologna University Library Online” is a project that envisages the revaluation of one of the most important
and richest collections of Islamic manuscripts: the Oriental Manuscript Fund of the University Library of Bologna. The project aims to digitalize and catalogue all its manuscripts contents. Bologna University Library hosts 479 Arabic manuscripts - now digitalized and in the process of being catalogued by Valentina Sagaria Rossi - belonging to the collection of Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (1658-1730). The codices are in Arabic and date between the 13th and the second half of 17th century (a.D.). Their focuses are: astronomy, religion, law, grammar, lexicography, metrics, geography, medicine, biographical dictionaries and Korans, while numerous works are miscellaneous. The manuscripts were collected during Marsili’s travels in Turkey, between 1679 and 1692, and during the First Siege of Buda in 1684.
The "Annotated Dictionary for Comparative Juridical Studies” is a project promoted by the King Abdulaziz Chair for Islamic Studies of Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna aiming to analyze the European and Islamic legal system, their legal principles and meanings, in connection with the different traditions, histories and cultures. The project addresses scholars, researchers, but also politicians and diplomats. The first and second volumes have been edited in 2019 and 2024 by Daniele Donati.
In the second volume, published in 2024, the following words have been discussed:
Public interest, as the interest taken into consideration and care by public bodies, differentiated by those left in the care of individuals, or market, Transparency, as the principle of open knowledge (and its limits) of documents held and produced by public bodies, Autonomy, as the capacity of a public body to decide and act in its own terms, under a number of different perspectives (technical, scientific, administrative, organisational, budgeting), and reaching in some cases the level of self regulating with laws, Responsibility/accountability, as the principle of responding to citizens for choices made by a public servant, or a political body, Citizenship, as the status of being a member of a legal system and therefore having rights and duties in that same system.