articles linguistiques
Discussing humanist education in the vernacular
The dialogue Il grammatico and the 16th-century debate on languages
This article contributes to the study of the relationship between Latin and Tuscan vernacular in the 16th century.
We examine a set of almost neglected grammatical works (the Concetti, Supplimento, and Il
grammatico) published between 1557 and 1567, and related to the Italian humanist Aonio Paleario. We adopt
both a linguistic and literary approach to shed light particularly on the humanistic perspectives on language education and
proficiency. After presenting a brief outline of the content of the three works and their problematic authorship, we focus on the
dialogue Il grammatico. We conclude that, within the discussion on method for teaching Latin, the dialogue
defines the humanist as the guardian of the best language for both Latin and vernacular.
Article outline
- Introduction
- 1.
Concetti, Supplimento, Il grammatico: An outline
- 1.1
Concetti
- 1.2
Supplimento
- 1.3
Il grammatico
- 2.Authorship and editions: State of the art
- 2.1
Concetti: Paleario or Bonamico?
- 2.2
Supplimento and Il grammatico
- 2.3Conceptual unity of Concetti, Supplimento and Il grammatico
- 3.Humanist perspectives on language education
- 4.Conclusion: Humanist as a guardian of Latin and the vernacular
- Notes
-
References