‘Welcome to this countre, can you speke Italian’: encounters, books and practices for Italian language-learning in the Tudor period (1509–1558)

Piscitelli, Michele (2024). ‘Welcome to this countre, can you speke Italian’: encounters, books and practices for Italian language-learning in the Tudor period (1509–1558). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates Italian language-learning in the pre-Elizabethan Tudor period (1509–1558), despite the tendency in the literature to set the beginning of this phenomenon during Elizabeth I’s reign (1558–1603) with Thomas Hoby’s translation from Italian of The Courtier (1561) and the English-Italian manual First Fruits (1578) by the tutor John Florio. This project expands our knowledge of the history of the Italian and English languages, the history of language teaching, the history of linguistics, the history of education, Italian religious reformers and the English Reformation, and, more generally, Anglo–Italian cultural history.

The methodological challenge of this research concerns the scarcity of printed books specifically developed for English learners of Italian (with the exception of Principal Rules (1550) by William Thomas), curricula, manuals for language tutors, and lesson reports. Investigating English students of Italian and deducing their motivations allows me to propose and discuss a collection of personal and textual encounters that favoured learning practices in a multilingual and highly mobile Europe. Chapters in this thesis consider in their inquiry books printed in London, Venice, Rome, and Antwerp of different genres, such as treatises on spelling and pronunciation, a treatise on the Italian questione della lingua (Chapter II), a manuscript Tuscan grammar written in England (Chapter II), polyglot dictionaries (Chapter III), a polyglot religious text (Chapter IV), and an Italian vocabulary (Chapter V).

The results show that English students of the Italian language in the pre-Elizabethan Tudor period had various backgrounds, including women and non-aristocratic individuals. In the absence of formal curricula, individuals relied on self-study and peer-learning that was functional to their professional, social, and private aspirations. Language tutors were both Italians and non-Italians, and sometimes unofficially appointed for this role. Learning practices stemmed from comparative and contrastive approaches coherent with the presence of a prevalent multilingualism in Europe and from the necessity of using the language for effective communication.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):