Sur quelques mots et leur parcours dans la lexicographie latine du Moyen Âge et de l’Humanisme

Mediaeval linguistic thought concerning the Latin language produced reference works such as Liber glossarum, Papias' Elementarium doctrinae rudimentum, the Derivationes of Hugutio and John Balbi's Catholicon. These texts do not only transmit the canonical topics of the former grammatical tradition but also act as a source in preserving the Greek and Latin cultural heritage. They represent important steps in the constitution of a monolingual lexicography that, in varying measures and for certain aspects, thanks to the use and elaboration by humanists such as Cristoforo Scarpa, Giovanni Tortelli, Nestore Dionigi Avogadro and Niccolò Perotti, anticipate modern lexicography with its models and uses. The paper aims at illustrating these aspects by evaluating certain Latin words whose treatment in the entries of the abovementioned works from the Middle Ages to Humanism can suggest a typological classification which can also reflect the different ways in which the relationship between grammar and lexicon has been conceived and brought to fruition.

Il contributo illustra, attraverso esempi di lessemi specifici, il percorso di formazione della tradizione lessicografica latina, dal Medioevo fino ai repertori del primo Umanesimo. Il testo è una versione rivista e aumentata dell'intervento tenuto al Convegno della "Henry Sweet Society for the Study of Linguistic Ideas", tenutosi a Gargnano del Garda nel settembre 2015.