1887
Volume 47, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0302-5160
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Summary

Petrarch’s metalinguistic observations are scattered throughout his work, rare and for the most part elliptical. The present article closely examines Petrarch’s statements about language to arrive at an alternative interpretation to that of previous scholarship. We analyse the ideas, attitudes and beliefs that inform Petrarch’s conception of the difference between Latin and the vernacular languages. The first section provides a critique of the now prevailing view on Petrarch’s metalinguistic thinking. Mirko Tavoni and Silvia Rizzo hypothesize that Petrarch ‘was not conscious of being bilingual’, since he considered Latin and vernaculars as different stylistic varieties of one and the same language. In the remaining two sections we propose an alternative account. Comparing statements made by contemporaries of Petrarch and investigating their origin and rationale, we suggest that Petrarch’s conception and practice cannot be accounted for within a modern perspective of national language and are better captured by the notion of diglossia, in which two linguistic varieties are delimited by the contexts of their use.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/hl.00061.spr
2020-10-16
2024-09-09
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Antonio da Tempo
    Antonio da Tempo 1977Summa Artis Rithimici Vulgaris Dictaminised. by R. Andrews (= Collezione di Opere inedite o rare, 136). Bologna: Collezione per i testi di lingua.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bene Florentinus
    Bene Florentinus 1983Candelabrumed. by G. C. Alessio (= Thesaurum mundi. Bibliotheca scriptorum Latinorum mediae et recentioris aetatis, 23). Padua: Antenore.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Benvenuto da Imola
    Benvenuto da Imola 1887Comentum super Dantis Aldigherij Comoediamed. by J. P. Lacaita , 5vols.Florence: Barbèra.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Boccaccio, Giovanni
    1965Esposizioni sopra la Comedia di Dante ed. by G. Padoan (= Boccaccio Opere ed. by V. Branca; vol 6). Milan-Verona: Mondadori.
  5. Brunetto Latini
    2007Tresored. by P. G. Beltrami Turin: Einaudi.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Dante
    Dante 1995Epistola a Cangrandeed. by E. Cecchini . Florence: Giunti.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Gidino da Sommacampagna
    Gidino da Sommacampagna 1870Trattato dei ritmi volgari da un Codice del Secolo XIV della Bibloteca Capitolare di Veronaed. by G. B. Giuliari . Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Petrarch
    Petrarch 1554Opera quae extant omnia, 4vols. Basel: Henrichus Petri.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Petrarch
    Petrarch 1933–1942Le Familiaried. by V. Rossi , 4vols.Florence: Sansoni.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Petrarch
    Petrarch 1962The Triumphs, transl. E. H. Wilkins . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Petrarch
    Petrarch 1982Letters on Familiar Matters, transl. A. S. Bernardo , 2vols.Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Petrarch
    Petrarch 1992Letters of Old Age, transl. A. S. Bernardo , 2vols.Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Petrarch
    Petrarch 1998Senile V 2ed. by M. Berté . Florence: Le Lettere.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Petrarch
    Petrarch 2003Invectivesed. and transl. by D. Marsh (= I Tatti Renaissance Library, 11). Cambridge Mass.- London: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Petrarch
    Petrarch 2005Invective contra medicum. Invectiva contra quendam magni status hominem sed nullius scientie aut virtutised. by F. Bausi . Florence: Le Lettere.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Petrarch
    Petrarch 2006Le postille del Virgilio ambrosianoed. by M. Baglio , 2vols.Rome-Padua: Antenore.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Petrarch
    Petrarch 2017Selected Letters, transl. E. Fantham , 2vols (= I Tatti Renaissance Library, 76–77). Cambridge, Mass.- London: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Petrarch
    Petrarch 2004–2019Res seniles, ed. by S. Rizzo and M. Berté , 5vols.Florence: Le Lettere.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Pietro Alighieri
    Pietro Alighieri 1978Il “Commentarium” di Pietro Alighieri nelle redazioni ashurnhamiana e ottobonianaed. by R. della Vedova Florence: Olschki.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Pietro Alighieri
    Pietro Alighieri 2002Comentum Super Poema Comedie Dantis: A Critical Edition of the Third and Final Draft of Pietro Alighieri’s ‘Commentary’ on Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ed. by M. Chiamenti . Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Servius
    Servius 1887In Vergilii carmina commentariied. by G. Thilo and H. Hagen , 3vols.Leipzig: Teubner.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Virgil
    Virgil 1999Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid Books 1–6ed. and transl. by H. Rushton Fairclough . Cambridge and London: Loeb Classical Library.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Avalle, d’Arco S.
    1992 “Dalla metrica alla ritmica”. Lo spazio letterario del medioevo, I: Il medioevo latinoed. by G. Cavallo , 5vols, I.i.391–476. Rome: Salerno Ed.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Banniard, Michel
    1992Viva voce: Communication écrite et communication orale du IVe au IXe siècle en Occident latin. Paris: Institut des études augustiniennes.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Bellomo, Saverio
    2015 “L’Epistola a Cangrande, dantesca per intero: ‘a rischio di procurarci un dispiacere’ ”. L’Alighieri41:1.5–20.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Black, Robert
    2001Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511496684
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511496684 [Google Scholar]
  27. Brugnolo, Furio & Zeno L. Verlato
    2006 “Antonio da Tempo e la lingua tusca ”. La cultura volgare padovana nell’età del Petrarcaed. by F. Brugnolo , 257–300. Padua: Il Poligrafo.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Camboni, Maria Clotilde
    2013 “Neologismi? Note su Petrarca e il mutamento linguistico”. “Diverse voci fanno dolci note”. L’Opera del Vocabolario Italiano per Pietro C. Beltramied. by P. Larson , 205–213. Alessandria.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Cardini, Franco
    1978 “Alfabetismo e livelli di cultura nell’età comunale”. Quaderni storici13:38.488–522.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Casadei, Alberto
    2016 “Sempre contro l’autenticità dell’Epistola a Cangrande ”. Studi Danteschi71.215–245.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Celenza, Christopher S.
    2005 “Petrarch, Latin, and Italian Renaissance Latinity”. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies35:3.509–536. 10.1215/10829636‑35‑3‑509
    https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-35-3-509 [Google Scholar]
  32. Contini, Gianfranco
    1951 “Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca”. Paragone2.3–26.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. 1970 “Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca.” Varianti e altra linguistica. 169–192. Turin: Einaudi [originally published in Paragone 2.3-26 (1951)].
    [Google Scholar]
  34. 1994Letteratura italiana delle origini. Florence: Sansoni.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Coseriu, Eugenio
    1952Sistema, norma y habla. Montevideo.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Den Haan, Annet
    . “Translations into the Sermo Maternus: The View of Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459)”. Dynamics of Neo-Latin and the Vernacular: Language and Poetics, Translation and Transfer ed. by T. Deneire (= Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts, 13), 163–176. Leiden-Boston: Brill.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Dionisotti, Carlo
    1967 “Tradizione classica e volgarizzamenti”. Geografia e storia della letteratura italianaed. by Carlo Dionisotti , 103–144. Turin: Einaudi.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Feo, Michele
    1988 “Petrarca”. Enciclopedia virgilianaIV.53–78. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Ferguson, Charles
    1959 “Diglossia”. Word15:2.325–340. 10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702
    https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702 [Google Scholar]
  40. 1996 “Epilogue: Diglossia Revisited”. Understanding Arabic: Essays in Contemporary Arabic Linguistics in Honor of El-Said Badawied. by A. Elgibali , 49–68. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Fishman, Joshua
    1967 “Bilingualism with and without Diglossia, Diglossia with and without Bilingualism”. Journal of Social Issues23.29–38. 10.1111/j.1540‑4560.1967.tb00573.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1967.tb00573.x [Google Scholar]
  42. Folena, Gianfranco
    1973 “ Volgarizzare e tradurre: idea e terminologia della traduzione dal Medioevo italiano e romanzo all’Umanesimo europeo”. La traduzione: saggi e studi, 57–120. Trieste: Lint.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Fubini, Riccardo
    1990Umanesimo e secolarizzazione da Petrarca a Valla. Rome: Bulzoni.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Fumagalli, Edoardo
    2006 “Osservazioni sul De gestis Cesaris”. Francesco Petrarca. L’opera latina: tradizione e fortuna. Atti del XVI Convegno internazionale (Chianciano-Pienza, 19–22 luglio 2004)ed. by L. Secchi Tarugi (= Quaderni della Rassegna, 46), 73–92. Florence: Cesati.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Geertz, Clifford
    1968Islam Observed. Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Godi, Carlo
    1965 “L’orazione del Petrarca per Giovanni il Buono”. Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 8.45–83.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Goldin Folena, Daniela
    1992–1993 “Petrarca e il Medioevo latino”. Quaderni Petrarcheschi9–10 [= Il Petrarca latino e le origini dell’umanesimo. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Firenze 19–22 maggio 1991], 459–487.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Grévin, Benoît
    2005 “L’historien face au problème des contacts entre latin et langues vulgaires au bas Moyen Âge (XIIe-XVe siècle): espace ouvert à la recherche. L’example de l’application de la notion de diglossie”. Mélanges de l’école française de Rome117:2.447–469.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Grondeux, Anne
    2008 “La notion de langue maternelle et son apparition au Moyen Âge”. Zwischen Babel und Pfingsten: Sprachdifferenzen und Gesprächsverständigung in der Vormoderne (8.-16. Jahrhundert): Akten der 3. deutsch-französischen Tagung des Arbeitskreises “Gesellschaft und individuelle Kommunikation in der Vormoderne” (GIK) in Verbindung mit dem Historischen Seminar der Universität Luzern, Höhnscheid (Kassel) 16.11.-19.11.2006 = Entre Babel et Pentecôte: différences linguistiques et communication orale avant la modernité (VIIIe-XVIe siècle : actes du 3ème colloque franco-allemand du groupe de recherche “Société et communication individuelle avant la modernité” (SCI) rattaché à l’Institut historique de l’Université de Lucerne, Höhnscheid (Kassel) 16.11.-19.11.2006ed. by P. von Moos , 339–356. Zurich and Münster: LIT.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Guerini, Federica & Piera Molinelli
    2013 “Plurilinguismo e diglossia tra tarda antichità e medio evo: discussioni e testimonianze”. Plurilinguismo e diglossia nella tarda Antichità e nel Medio Evoed. by F. Guerini & P. Molinelli , 3–28. Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Haugen, Einar
    1966 “Dialect, Language, Nation”. American Anthropologist68:4.922–935. 10.1525/aa.1966.68.4.02a00040
    https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1966.68.4.02a00040 [Google Scholar]
  52. Hudson, Alan
    2002 “Outline of a Theory of Diglossia”. International Journal of the Sociology of Language157.1–48. 10.1515/ijsl.2002.039
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2002.039 [Google Scholar]
  53. Ibrahim, Muhammad H.
    1986 “Standard and Prestige Language: A Problem in Arabic Sociolinguistics”. Anthropological Linguistics28.115–26.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Irvine, Judith T.
    1985 “Status and Style in Language”. Annual Review of Anthropology14.557–581. 10.1146/annurev.an.14.100185.003013
    https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.14.100185.003013 [Google Scholar]
  55. Kahane, Henry & Renée Kahane
    1979 “Decline and Survival of Western Prestige Languages”. Language55.183–98. 10.2307/412522
    https://doi.org/10.2307/412522 [Google Scholar]
  56. Koch, Peter
    1993 “Pour une typologie conceptionnelle et médiale des plus anciens documents/monuments des langues romanes”. Le passage à l’écrit des langues romanesed. by Maria Selig , Barbara Frank & Jörg Hartmann , 38–82. Tübingen: Narr.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. 2008 “Le latin – langue diglossique?” Zwischen Babel und Pfingsten: Sprachdifferenzen und Gesprächsverständigung in der Vormoderne (8.-16. Jahrhundert): Akten der 3. deutsch-französischen Tagung des Arbeitskreises “Gesellschaft und individuelle Kommunikation in der Vormoderne” (GIK) in Verbindung mit dem Historischen Seminar der Universität Luzern, Höhnscheid (Kassel) 16.11.-19.11.2006 = Entre Babel et Pentecôte: différences linguistiques et communication orale avant la modernité (VIIIe-XVIe siècle : actes du 3ème colloque franco-allemand du groupe de recherche “Société et communication individuelle avant la modernité” (SCI) rattaché à l’Institut historique de l’Université de Lucerne, Höhnscheid (Kassel) 16.11.-19.11.2006ed. by P. von Moos , 287–316. Zurich and Münster: LIT.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Kristeller, Paul O.
    1961 “ Un’Ars Dictaminis di Giovanni del Virgilio”. Italia Medioevale e Umanistica4.181–200.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Leonhardt, Jürgen
    2009Latein. Geschichte einer Weltsprache. Munich: C.H. Beck (trans. by K. Kronenberg , Latin. Story of a World Language. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press).
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Lüdke, Helmut
    2005Der Ursprung der Romanischen Sprachen. Eine Geschichte der sprachlichen Kommunikation (= Dialectologia pluridimensionalis Romanica, 14). Kiel: Westensee Verlag.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Manni, Paola
    2003Il Trecento toscano: La lingua di Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio (= Storia della lingua italiana ed. by F. Bruni ). Bologna: Il Mulino.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Mengaldo, Pier Vincenzo
    1976 “Stili, dottrina degli”. Enciclopedia Dantesca, VI.435–438. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana.
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Milroy, James
    2001 “Language Ideologies and the Consequences of Standardization”. Journal of Sociolinguistics5.530–55. 10.1111/1467‑9481.00163
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00163 [Google Scholar]
  64. Morpurgo Davies, Anna
    1987 “The Greek Notion of Dialect”. Verbum10.7–27.
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Norberg, Dag
    1958Introduction à l’étude de la versification latine médiévale (= Studia Latina Stockholmiensia, 5). Stockholm: Almqvist och Wiskell.
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Ong, Walter J.
    1984 “Orality, Literacy and Medieval Textualization”. New Literary History16.1–12. 10.2307/468772
    https://doi.org/10.2307/468772 [Google Scholar]
  67. Paccagnella, Ivano
    2011 “Monolinguismo”. Enciclopedia dell’italiano. Rome: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana.
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Rizzo, Silvia
    1990 “Petrarca, il latino e il volgare”. Quaderni petrarcheschi7.7–40.
    [Google Scholar]
  69. 2002Ricerche sul latino umanistico, I (= Storia e Letteratura, 213). Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
    [Google Scholar]
  70. 2004 “I latini dell’umanesimo”. Il Latino nell’età dell’Umanesimo. Atti del Convegno (Mantova, 26–27 ottobre 2001)ed. by G. Bernardi Perini (= Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana di Scienze Lettere e Arti. Miscellanea, 12), 51–95. Florence: Olschki.
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Romaine, Suzanne
    2000Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Tavoni, Mirko
    1984Latino, grammatica, volgare. Storia di una questione umanistica. Padua: Antenore.
    [Google Scholar]
  73. 1990 “Latino e volgare”. Storia d’Italiaed. by R. Romano . V.1. Milan: Bompiani.
    [Google Scholar]
  74. 1999 “Storia della lingua e storia della coscienza linguistica: appunti medievali e rinascimentali”. Studi di grammatica italiana17.205–231.
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Thomson, D. & J. J. Murphy
    1982 “Dictamen as a Developed Genre: the Fourteenth Century Brevis doctrina dictaminis of Ventura da Bergamo”. Studi medievali3:23.361–386.
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Trudgill, Peter
    1992 “Ausbau Sociolinguistics and the Perception of Language Status in Contemporary Europe”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics22.167–77. 10.1111/j.1473‑4192.1992.tb00031.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1992.tb00031.x [Google Scholar]
  77. Vinay, Gustavo
    1960 “Il De vulgari eloquentia ”. Annali della pubblica istruzione6.685.
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Vitale, Maurizio
    1996La lingua del Canzoniere (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta) di Francesco Petrarca. Padua: Antenore.
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Weber, Max
    2011Methodology of the Social Sciences (trans. by S. Edward & F. Henry ). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers (originally published in 1949 by the Free Press of Glencoe, Illinois).
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Witt, Ronald G.
    2003In the Footsteps of the Ancients: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to Bruni. Boston and Leiden: Brill.
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Ziolkowski, Jan
    1991 “Cultural Diglossia and the Nature of Medieval Latin Literature”. The Ballad and Oral Literatureed. by Joseph Harris , 193–213. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/hl.00061.spr
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error