Vita gazette—On a national day dedicated to Dante Alighieri, let’s find out how the great poet brought the Florentine vernacular to everyone’s lips by spreading a language that became Italian only six centuries later.

We are between the 13th and 14th centuries. Linguistic unity was needed in Italy, but linguistic diversity dominated the peninsula. Each city had its dialect, and the standard written language was Latin or French. To trace the steps to a common language, we must return to 1220-1250.

We are at the court of Frederick (1220-1250). Italy had produced its local literature, with Provençal a delay of nearly two centuries relative to France. And he did so using the Sicilian language, now considered a dialect, although it is a literary language heavily influenced by Latin. There were many poets at Federico’s court. The first Italian poetry school also preferred Sicily. The birth and success of the Sicilian school of poetry were influential. If circumstances had developed differently, Sicilian could be our national language today.

But the pope’s aims and the ambitions of the French monarchs were changing the cards: the Pope, unlike the Swabians, asked for help from the French Charles of Anjou, who had landed in Italy and left World War II. He defeated Frederick’s heirs and captured the Southern Peninsula, destroying the magnificent palace that belonged to Stupor Mundi and his successors Corrado IV (1250-1254) and Manfredi (1254-1266).

Classical Latin seemed at first (in literature and diplomacy) to resurface to the detriment of the newborn Italian. This was a transitional stage. Indeed, as early as the second half of the fifteenth century, the use of the vernacular was back in the foreground. This situation turned into a dilemma that concerned the literati of all Italian courts. The dispute over which vernacular standard to adopt, the “language problem”, caused the intellectuals of the Peninsula to argue because no court was willing to give up its vocabulary.

The Stilnovismo school of poetry, born in Florence in the second half of the 13th century, served as an essential language station. Because the poems written in Florence spread to the peninsula. The real turning point in the use of language was Dante’s Divine Comedy, which he composed in the Florentine language. In this work, where he discussed various subjects, the poet brought many new dictionaries and syntactic structures to the national culture. Dante’s timeless work reached many homes, including those of scientists.

Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), a Venetian cardinal, began collaborating with the most important publisher of the time, the humanist Aldo Manuzio (1449-1515). He edited the Commedia and Petrarch’s Canzoniere for himself, combining these activities with the personal work of Boccaccio’s Decameron. The operation proved profitable for both: thanks to Bembo, Manuzio opened up to literature in the local language, printing editions that remained unique for a long time. Thanks to Manuzio, Bembo could fully master the Florentines of the great scientists of the fourteenth century and propose it as a model of a standard literary language. Bembo wrote down his linguistic ideas in the essential text in the history of the Italian language: Le prose della vulgar lingua, published in 1525. Among other things, he offered intellectuals an imitation of Petrarch in the poetry and prose of the Decameron. The operation was successful: the Venetian proposed a concept invaluable to the Renaissance, the idea of imitation of the great writers, which became possible because the writings of Petrarch and Boccaccio could be easily reproduced. After this success, the Florentine of the fourteenth century – now considered Italian for all intents and purposes – established himself in literature without question.

With the Risorgimento, Dante’s patriotic idea, as the father of the Italian language, took root and formed the fundamental canon of our literature by adding Petrarch and Boccaccio. However, as with the recognition of the Italian paternity in Dante, another father appeared in the literary scene. With The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni made a real revolution and produced innovations that still characterise our language today.