Editing Italian language (section)

=== Renaissance ===
The [[Renaissance]] era, known as {{lang|it|il Rinascimento}} in Italian, was seen as a time of rebirth, which is the literal meaning of both {{lang|fr|renaissance}} (from French) and {{lang|it|rinascimento}} (Italian). Among its many manifestations, the Renaissance saw a reinvigorated interest in both classical antiquity and vernacular literature.<ref>{{Citation |last1= Barzun | first1 = Jacques |last2=Weinstein |first2=Donald | contribution = The Growth of Vernacular Literature |title=Encyclopedia Britannica | url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-growth-of-vernacular-literature}}</ref>

Advancements in technology played a crucial role in the diffusion of the Italian language. The [[printing press]] was invented in the 15th century, and spread rapidly. By the year 1500, there were 56 printing presses in Italy, more than anywhere else in Europe. The printing press enabled the production of literature and documents in higher volumes and at lower cost, further accelerating the spread of Italian.<ref>{{cite journal|year=2011|title=Information Technology and Economic Change: The Impact of the Printing Press|journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics|volume=126|issue=3|pages=1133–1172|last1=Dittmar|first1=Jeremiah|doi=10.1093/qje/qjr035|s2cid=11701054|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Italian became the language used in the courts of every state in the [[Italian Peninsula]], and the [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)|prestige variety]] used on the island of [[Corsica]]<ref>Toso, Fiorenzo. ''Lo spazio linguistico corso tra insularità e destino di frontiera'', in ''Linguistica'', 43, pp. 79–80, 2003.</ref> (but not in the neighbouring [[Sardinia]], which on the contrary underwent [[Italianization]] well into the late 18th century, under [[House of Savoy|Savoyard]] sway: the island's linguistic composition, roofed by the prestige of Spanish among the [[Sardinians]], would therein make for a rather slow process of [[cultural assimilation|assimilation]] to the Italian cultural sphere<ref>Cardia, Amos. ''S'italianu in Sardìnnia candu, cumenti e poita d'ant impostu: 1720–1848; poderi e lìngua in Sardìnnia in edadi spanniola'', pp. 80–93, Iskra, 2006.</ref><ref>«La dominazione sabauda in Sardegna può essere considerata come la fase iniziale di un lungo processo di italianizzazione dell'isola, con la capillare diffusione dell'italiano in quanto strumento per il superamento della frammentarietà tipica del contesto linguistico dell'isola e con il conseguente inserimento delle sue strutture economiche e culturali in un contesto internazionale più ampio e aperto ai contatti di più lato respiro. [...] Proprio la variegata composizione linguistica della Sardegna fu considerata negativamente per qualunque tentativo di assorbimento dell'isola nella sfera culturale italiana.» Loi Corvetto, Ines. ''I Savoia e le "vie" dell'unificazione linguistica''. Quoted in Putzu, Ignazio; Mazzon, Gabriella (2012). ''Lingue, letterature, nazioni. Centri e periferie tra Europa e Mediterraneo'', p. 488.</ref>). The rediscovery of Dante's {{lang|it|[[De vulgari eloquentia]]}}, and a renewed interest in linguistics in the 16th century, sparked a debate that raged throughout Italy concerning the criteria that should govern the establishment of a modern Italian literary and spoken language. This discussion, known as [[questione della lingua]] (i.e., the ''problem of the language''), ran through the Italian culture until the end of the 19th century, often linked to the political debate on achieving a united Italian state. Renaissance scholars divided into three main factions:
* The [[purism (language)|purists]], headed by Venetian [[Pietro Bembo]] (who, in his {{lang|it|[[Gli Asolani]]}}, claimed the language might be based only on the great literary classics, such as [[Petrarch]] and some part of Boccaccio). The purists thought the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' was not dignified enough because it used elements from non-lyric registers of the language.
* [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] and other [[Florence|Florentines]] preferred the version spoken by ordinary people in their own times.
* The [[courtier]]s, such as [[Baldassare Castiglione]] and [[Gian Giorgio Trissino]], insisted that each local vernacular contribute to the new standard.

A fourth faction claimed that the best Italian was the one that the papal court adopted, which was a mixture of the [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscan]] and [[Roman dialect|Roman]] dialects.<ref>This faction was headed by Vincenzo Calmeta, [[Alessandro Tassoni]], according to whom "the idiom of the Roman court was as good as the Florentine one, and better understood by all" (G. Rossi, ed. (1930). ''La secchia rapita, L'oceano e le rime''. Bari. p. 235) and [[Francesco Sforza Pallavicino]]. See: {{cite journal|title=Language and Idiom in Sforza Pallavicino's ''Trattato dello stile e del dialogo''|first=Eraldo|last=Bellini|pages=126–172|url=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004517240/BP000020.xml|journal=Sforza Pallavicino: A Jesuit Life in Baroque Rome|isbn=978-90-04-51724-0|year=2022|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|doi=10.1163/9789004517240_008|doi-access=free|access-date=1 October 2022|archive-date=1 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221001123640/https://brill.com/view/book/9789004517240/BP000020.xml|url-status=live}}</ref> Eventually, Bembo's ideas prevailed, and the foundation of the {{lang|it|[[Accademia della Crusca]]|italic=no}} in Florence (1582–1583), the official legislative body of the Italian language, led to the publication of [[Agnolo Monosini]]'s Latin tome {{lang|la|[[Floris Italicae lingue libri novem|Floris italicae linguae libri novem]]}} in 1604 followed by the first Italian dictionary in 1612.