2021 Programme
Event #1
Luca Serianni
Dante and the creation of literary Italian language
Is it true that the Italian language was born with Dante? In fact, various vernacular of the peninsula had already a written representation. And some literary sectors had been developed. But with Dante's Commedia everything changes. A lectio magistralis in the name of the Supreme Poet – 700 years after his death.
Luca Serianni is Professor of History of the Italian Language at Rome’s University ‘La Sapienza’. He is a member of the Accademia dei Lincei and the Accademia della Crusca. He holds an honorary PhD from the University of Valladolid, Spain. He is the editor of two journals, Studi linguistici italiani and Studi di lessicografia italiana. In 1988 he published has written a widely acclaimed Grammar of the Italian Language that obtained many subsequent editions, he studies a variety of aspects of the Italian language, not only literary, since its origins to the present. Together with M. Trifone he is editing the new edition of the Devoto-Oli Italian vocabulary. His latest books are: Prima lezione di grammatica (Laterza, 2006); Italiani scritti (Il Mulino, 2007); La lingua poetica italiana. Grammatica e testi (Carocci, 2009); Scritti sui banchi. L’italiano a scuola tra alunni e insegnanti, written with G. Benedetti (Carocci, 2009).
