Professors Yorick Gomez Gane and Giannantonio Scaglione invited Prof. Joseph M. Brincat and Dr Valeria Vanesio to speak at a seminar on “Lingua e storia. Contatti tra Italia e Malta durante il domino dei Cavalieri” for students of the Dottorato in Studi Umanistici and for undergraduates taking Storia della Lingua Italiana.
Prof. Brincat explained why the Knights adopted Italian as their official language, besides Latin, although the majority of the Knights came from France and Iberia. He stressed that, among the many states of Italy, the Order was at the forefront of the process of Italianisation since 1530. The first grammar had been printed in 1525 and became a tool for non-Tuscan writers, like Ariosto, and for administrators all over the peninsula. The first state to introduce the institutional use of Tuscan was Piedmont in 1560-61. Italian was also spoken among members of different Languages, Maltese administrators abandoned Chancery Sicilian by 1539, and literati adopted Italian as their language of culture for over 300 years.
Dr Valeria Vanesio discussed the topic “I Cavalieri di San Giovanni e la Lingua d’Italia a Malta: Fonti, persone e dinamiche istituzionali.” Her talk focused on the significance of the records of the Italian Langue and their presence across various archives in Malta and Italy. She explored the institutional role of the Langue during the early modern period and highlighted new directions for future research.
