The catholic Church, its saints and preachers in the consolidation of the Italian language in the 14th and 15th centuries

Abstract

The Italian sociolinguistic and historical scenario is a fertile field of investigation, since the varied socio-historical and linguistic events that formed the country known today as Italy are quite relevant. Our discussion is centered on the hypothesis that the unification of the Italian language, dating back to the 19th century, was influenced by various events from centuries before, which were fundamental to the 19th century romantic process of creating a country, a nation and a language. In this text, in a special way, we discuss how Fiorentino, driven by the action of the Catholic Church, its saints and preachers, had been, since the 14th century, Trecento Italian, emerging as a language of common use, whether written or spoken, in the territory of the Italian peninsula. Thus, by analyzing these aspects in an interdisciplinary way, we hope to contribute to the construction of a mosaic that allows, from many small – and sometimes disregarded or forgotten – pieces, to retell the history of the pre-united Italian language.