Languages and Cross-Cultural Exchanges in Renaissance Italy

Edited by Alessandra Petrocchi Edited by Joshua Brown

Book cover: Languages and Cross-Cultural Exchanges in Renaissance Italy

Extent: 434, 434 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Italian Studies, Language & Linguistics, Medieval Studies

Series: Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Series volume number: 30

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2023)

ISBN: 9782503601816

Price: $144.00

In stock

Provides the first-ever comprehensive account of languages in contact, cultural encounters, and systems of knowledge in Renaissance Italy, bringing together a wide range of approaches and theoretical perspectives.


Although much work has been done in the field of Renaissance Studies, at present there is no book which offers a comparative overview of the linguistic interaction between Renaissance Italy and the wider world. The present volume is intended to fill this void, representing the first-ever collection of essays that deal with multiple types of language contact and cross-cultural exchanges in and with respect to Renaissance Italy (1300-1600). We bring diverse disciplinary perspectives together: literary scholars, historians, and linguists with different regional expertise; we argue for multilingualism and language contact as products of a period of dynamic change which cannot be fully grasped through a single framework. The contributions present a variety of case-studies by often cross-fertilising their approaches with other disciplinary lenses. This book aims to provide a comprehensive picture of a truly global Renaissance Italy where languages, textual traditions, and systems of knowledge from different geographical areas either combined or clashed. It takes a fresh approach to the history of late medieval and early modern Italy by focusing on East/West linguistic and cultural encounters, transmission of ideas and texts, multilingualism in literature (various genres and various forms of multilingualism), translation practices, reception/adaptation of new knowledge, transculturalism and literary exchanges, and the relationship between languages and language varieties.

  • Edited by Alessandra Petrocchi
  • Edited by Joshua Brown