The first centuries of Italian dialect lexicography

Abstract

This article traces the progress of Italian dialectal lexicography from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century. It considers three groups of works corresponding approximately to three centuries of history. The first group has pre-modern traits and consists of various works from the 16th century that precede the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca. The second group represents the 17th century regression back to the medieval system of word lists. Finally, the third group consists of already completed dialectal vocabularies, that were conceived as a complement to the now undisputed model of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca: these works anticipate the great 19th wave of dialectal lexicography.