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History
The Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ enjoys the distinction of being the oldest Modern Languages program in the United States. The Department traces its beginnings to Thomas Jefferson's establishment of a professorship in 1779. His curricular reform transformed Â鶹Æƽâ°æ into a university with Schools in Law, Grammar, Medicine, Fine Arts, and Modern Languages.
The first Professor of Modern Languages was Carlo Bellini, a native of Florence, Italy, and a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. Bellini served for thirty-three years, teaching Italian and French. during his professorship, classes were suspended for two years due to the Revolutionary War (they reopened in October of 1782). Â鶹Æƽâ°æ was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers during those years. Bellini was the only professor to stay in residence at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ. He stayed behind to 'attempt to protect the library and scientific apparatus.' In his honor, our Department has established the Bellini Colloquium for faculty to share their research and teaching interests.
Upon his resignation in 1803, Bellini was succeeded by Louis Hue Girardin. Born Louis Francois Picot, Girardin studied law in Paris and was a moderate royalist during the French Revolution. During the war, he escaped the country on a French man-of-war and came to the United States in 1793. At Â鶹Æƽâ°æ, he taught French, history, geography, and botany until 1807. The Modern Languages Department was then left to a part-time French instructor, A. Plunkett.
The Department managed with part-time faculty until 1828 when Spanish Colonel C. de la Pena was hired as Chair. Under his direction, the Department expanded to include French, Spanish, Italian and Latin. Professor Pena worked at W&M for two years without pay. After he left in 1830, the Department of Modern Languages was suspended for nearly 30 years. It was revived in 1858 and expanded to two professorships with course offerings in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek and Latin.