Talk:Carlo Bellini

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 (talk) 15:14, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

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• ... that Thomas Jefferson pushed William & Mary to hire a man with little linguistic ability as the first modern languages professor in North America?

• Source: Evans, Frank B. (1980). "Carlo Bellini and His Russian Friend Fedor Karzhavin". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 88 (3): 338–354. JSTOR 4248408.

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Daggett Rock
  • Comment: Please add this to the William & Mary set running 8 February.

Created by Pbritti (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 98 past nominations.

Pbritti (talk) 06:04, 6 February 2026 (UTC).

• I take.--Launchballer 06:06, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

@Pbritti: Long enough, new enough, QPQ's done (I left a comment there). Earwig's clean. No reason why it might deserve a maintenance template, though I fixed a couple of things myself. The hook is an exceptional claim and would require exceptional sourcing and a quote from the source per WP:DYKHOOK; one way round the former is to attribute.--Launchballer 06:40, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

@Launchballer: Sorry to ping, but just trying to make sure we get it done in time. See the first sentence of the cited reference: "Carlo Bellini is fairly well known as the first professor of modern languages at the College of William and Mary, and indeed at any college in North America." This statement is also supported across other sources, including Swem 1925. Best, ~ Pbritti (talk) 14:17, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

The Swem source says "After the mos texhaustive research he has substantiated the claim that Bellini was the first full professor of modern languages in an American college, who was a regular member of the faculty"( [sic], emphasis mine). The problem with "first" hooks is that they are so regularly debunked that we need a source that discusses the set in some detail (see WP:DYKFIRST and its hatnote); essentially I'm saying we'd need a list of every such professor in North America, which means this is essentially unverifiable. If you're alright with ALT0a: ... that Thomas Jefferson pushed William & Mary to hire a man with little linguistic ability as its first modern languages professor?, I'll approve it.--Launchballer 14:34, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

Actually, time is tight, so I'll approve ALT0a anyway. @Dclemens1971 and TechnoSquirrel69:?--Launchballer 15:02, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

I’ve taken a break from promotions but in the interest of time I’ll move this one into prep. Everything checks out for ALT0a. Dclemens1971 (talk) 15:13, 6 February 2026 (UTC)

@Launchballer and Dclemens1971: This is a well-established statement that was the subject of multiple studies and absolutely verifiable: no other university had a professor of modern languages prior to Bellini. The only other professor in North America known to have taught a modern language (not be a professor of it, but just to teach it) was Paul Fooks at the University of Pennsylvania, who taught Spanish but was never a professor of that subject (see ). The number of professors in North America during this period was under 500 spread across well-documented institutions, so the claim is not terribly exceptional once established. Thanks for you exceptionally prompt review. I prefer ALT0 over the modified version. Best, ~ Pbritti (talk) 15:15, 6 February 2026 (UTC)