Comprehensive Study Guide on the History and Evolution of the Italian Language

The Fundamental Plurality of the Italian Language

The history of the Italian language is defined by a deep-rooted plurality. Unlike many European nations that achieved linguistic and political unification as early as the 16th century, Italy remained divided into various states, preventing the emergence of a single common tongue. However, a significant process of linguistic unification began in the 14th century, driven primarily by the literary contributions of Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarca. This created a unique historical paradox: Italy possessed a prestigious and influential literary tradition long before it had a shared national language for daily or official use.

The course distinguishes between several linguistic channels. The "language of tradition" was the domain of notaries, magistrates, and the highly educated, whereas the "language of use" belonged to merchants and common citizens. An illustrative example of this social mobility through language is Niccolò Tartaglia, a 16th-century mathematician from a poor family. His ability to enter the world of high culture and science demonstrates that the linguistic barrier between the populace and the elite was not entirely impermeable.

Language as a Tool of Power and Science

For centuries, scientific discourse was conducted exclusively in Latin. The revolution occurred with Galileo Galilei, who made the radical decision to write in the volgare (the vernacular). This move served several strategic purposes: it made science accessible to a broader audience, and it purposefully distanced his work from both the traditional university establishment and the Catholic Church, both of which clung to Latin. Consequently, the volgare gained newfound prestige in the scientific community.

In the realm of politics and religion, the case of Menocchio—a miller studied by Carlo Ginzburg in The Cheese and the Worms—highlights the exclusionary nature of Latin. Menocchio criticized Latin as a language used to keep the poor in ignorance. This reinforces the principle that those who command the language command power; access to knowledge was strictly regulated by one's proficiency in the elite tongue. A major turning point in ecclesiastical linguistics occurred during the Council of Tours in $813$. Charlemagne decreed that priests should deliver sermons in the "rustica romana lingua" (the Romance language of the people) or in "theotisca" (German) so the masses could understand. This event is the official birth certificate of the Romance languages, marking the first time the Church formally acknowledged that the people no longer spoke Latin. Similarly, the Second Vatican Council ($1963$-$1965$) fundamentally shifted the liturgy from Latin to national languages, bringing the Church closer to the modern population.

Linguistic Theory in the 20th Century

In the 20th century, several scholars explored the intersection of language, culture, and society. Franco Fortini argued that every significant literary shift is inextricably linked to a linguistic shift. Leo Spitzer, through his study of letters from frontline soldiers during World War I, posited that language is the true reveal of a people's soul. Antonio Gramsci, writing in his Prison Notebooks, analyzed the relationship between language, culture, and political hegemony.

Edoardo Sanguineti, a leader of the Neo-Avant-Garde (Gruppo 63), sought to challenge traditional linguistic structures. He believed conventional language was exhausted and incapable of reflecting contemporary society. His experimental texts utilized unusual words, blended high and low registers, and broke grammatical rules to provoke the reader and demonstrate that language is never neutral. This spirit of rebellion was also present in the Scapigliatura (the Italian Bohémiens). These artists rejected bourgeois conventions and academic elegance in favor of vibrant, colloquial, and experimental language. Gianfranco Contini famously described the Scapigliati as putting "new wine in old barrels," suggesting their content was revolutionary even if their literary forms remained somewhat traditional.

The Evolution of the Florentine Dialect and Early Norms

Before the establishment of a standardized Italian, the language was in flux. The Plague of $1348$ was a catastrophic linguistic event; the loss of approximately $60\%$ of the Florentine population led to an influx of people from the countryside. This shifted the "Golden" Florentine of the early 14th century toward a "Silver" Florentine. Notable changes included the first-person imperfect ending shifting from "io faceva" to "io facevo," and articles changing from "il / i" to "el / e." There was also the closing of vowels, such as "fossi" becoming "fussi."

Debates on the origin of the volgare emerged early. Leonardo Bruni hypothesized that ancient Rome had a diglossic situation similar to his own time, with an elite language and a common one. Flavio Biondo, conversely, argued that the volgare was simply the result of Latin evolving through the corruptive influence of barbarian invasions. Leon Battista Alberti, a central figure of the 15th century, wrote the Grammatica della lingua toscana, the first grammar of a European vernacular. His revolutionary thesis was that if Latin was noble because it had a grammar, the volgare could also achieve nobility through formal rules. He further promoted the vernacular by organizing the Certame Coronario ($1441$), a poetic competition focused on friendship rather than traditional themes of love or war.

The 16th-century Linguistic Question and Pietro Bembo

Pietro Bembo is arguably the most decisive figure in the history of the Italian language. In his seminal work, Prose della volgar lingua ($1525$), he proposed a solution to the lack of linguistic standards. He rejected both contemporary Florentine and the "courtly language" used in administrative centers, instead advocating for the imitation of the great 14th-century masters. He established Francesco Petrarca as the model for poetry and Giovanni Boccaccio as the model for prose. Dante, while respected, was considered too multifaceted and linguistically varied to serve as a stable model.

Bembo's theory provided the stability needed in a politically volatile Italy. Between the Peace of Lodi ($1454$) and the traumatic Sack of Rome ($1527$), Italy transitioned from relative peace to total crisis. For Bembo, the instability of contemporary courts made them unsuitable as linguistic anchors. By rooting the language in the fixed literary excellence of the past, he created a norm that would dominate for three centuries. His collaboration with the printer Aldo Manuzio led to the Aldine edition of Petrarca in $1501$, which utilized the Vaticano Latino 3197 (Bembo's philological working manuscript) to create a corrected, stable text that revolutionized the reach of Italian literature.

Printing, Science, and the Accademia della Crusca

The advent of the printing press was a catalyst for normalization. Economic necessities meant that printers preferred standardized spellings to reduce costs, as noted by Percy Simpson. Aldo Manuzio also introduced "enchirídia" (pocket-sized books), which expanded the reading public beyond monasteries and libraries to a private, bourgeois audience. In $1505$, Bembo published Asolani, a dialogue on love that anticipated his linguistic project by utilizing an elegant, refined vernacular.

Following Bembo's era, the focus shifted to preservation. In $1583$, the Accademia della Crusca was founded in Florence by Vincenzo Borghini and Leonardo Salviati. Its name implies the separation of "flour" (pure words) from "bran" (crusca, or impure words). Their Vocabolario ($1612$) was the first major dictionary of its kind, though highly conservative, excluding modern authors like Galileo. This rigidity prompted Paolo Beni to publish the AntiCrusca, accusing the Academy of ignoring living language. By $1691$, the Academy began modernizing, adding usage marks (crosses) to denote archaic words.

The 18th Century and Modern Linguistic Complexity

The 18th century brought an enrichment of the language through specialized fields like economics, physics, and medicine. Scholars like Antonio Genovesi and Cesare Beccaria began teaching in Italian rather than Latin. Francesco Algarotti even published works explaining Newtonian physics to a female audience, signaling a trend toward scientific popularization. This era also saw the rise of journalism, such as Il Caffè.

Modern linguistics, influenced by scholars like Eugenio Coseriu and Tullio De Mauro, views Italian as a "diasystem"—a system of systems. Language varies across four main axes: Diatopic (geography), Diastratic (social class/culture), Diaphasic (context/situation), and Diamesic (medium of communication). Gaetano Berruto illustrated how a single message (e.g., "We cannot come") can shift from "standard" to "regional" or "popular" depending on these factors. Pier Paolo Pasolini famously observed that the linguistic center of gravity shifted from Florence to the industrial triangle of Turin, Milan, and Genoa in the 20th century.

Post-Unification and the Spread of Italian

When the Kingdom of Italy was founded in $1861$, the linguistic situation was bleak. Following the estimates of Tullio De Mauro, only about $2.5\%$ of the population were Italophones (Italian speakers); the vast majority ($75$-$80\%$) were illiterate dialect speakers. The challenge of the New Italy was to teach a nation to speak its own language. Key legislative efforts included the Casati Law ($1859$), which organized national education; the Coppino Law ($1877$), making elementary school free and mandatory; and the Gentile Reform ($1923$), which emphasized humanistic and standard Italian.

However, schooling alone was insufficient. De Mauro identifies other factors: mandatory military service (forcing soldiers from different regions to communicate), internal migrations (the move from the South to the North), and mass media. The television, specifically programs like Alberto Manzi’s Non è mai troppo tardi ($1960$), played a crucial role in eradicating illiteracy. Morphologically, contemporary Italian (Neostandard) has evolved to be more flexible, favoring "lui/lei" over "egli/ella" and the indicative over the subjunctive in common speech.

The Roots of Italian: From Latin to the Early Texts

Italian did not replace Latin; it "continued" it. Specifically, it evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken tongue of the people. This transition is documented in the Appendix Probi, a list of "correct" and "incorrect" forms (e.g., speculum not speclum). As the administrative and educational structures of the Roman Empire collapsed, regional variations solidified into Romance languages. Documents like the Glosses of Reichenau show the substitution of complex Latin terms with simpler ones (e.g., ager becoming campus).

The earliest surviving texts, known as the "Texts of the Origins," number approximately $40$. Gianfranco Folena compared them to a museum of disparate objects. Key documents include the Indovinello Veronese (8th-9th century), a metaphor comparing writing to plowing a field, and the Placito Capuano ($960$), considered the first official document in the vernacular. The Placito is a judicial sentence regarding land ownership by the monastery of Montecassino. The judge recorded a witness's testimony in the volgare: "Sao ko kelle terre…" because the witness did not know Latin. This represents the official entry of the vernacular into the legal sphere. Later, the Fresco of San Clemente in Rome showed a visual diglossia, where high-status characters speak Latin and servants speak the volgare.

Poetic Foundations: From Sicily to Dante

The first organized poetic school, the Sicilian School ($1230$-$1250$), emerged at the court of Frederick II. These poets, who were actually administrative officials like Giacomo da Lentini (the "Notaro"), adapted Provençal lyrical themes into the Sicilian vernacular. Giacomo da Lentini is credited with inventing the sonnet. Though the original Sicilian manuscripts were lost, their work survived through Tuscanized copies. This sparked the Siculo-Toscano movement, led by Guittone d'Arezzo, whose complex style transitioned into the "Dolce Stil Novo." Founded by Guido Guinizzelli and developed by Guido Cavalcanti and Dante, the Stilnovo viewed love as a spiritual force and the woman as an angelic being.

Dante Alighieri's linguistic contribution is unrivaled. In the Vita Nuova, he justified using the volgare to reach a wider audience, including women. In the Convivio, he used it for philosophy, and in the De Vulgari Eloquentia (written in Latin for scholars), he searched for a "Volgare Illustre" that would be "Cardinale," "Aulico," and "Curiale." He concluded that no municipal dialect was perfect, but rather an ideal common tongue must be cultivated. Finally, the Commedia is the absolute laboratory of the language, employing a "plurilingualism" that ranges from the crudest popular terms to the highest theological Latinisms. This breadth ensured that the volgare could express the entirety of human experience, cementing Dante's role as the father of the Italian language.