The French of Italy

Homme Fatal   Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:22 am GMT
The French of Italy

Between the early twelfth and the late fifteenth centuries, a great number of French texts, in varying forms and genres, were written by Italian-speaking authors or in geographic locales where early forms of Italian were the main mode of oral communication. In addition, a great number of French texts written in other French-speaking areas were copied and circulated within Italy during this time. This website aims to expand awareness of these two kinds of French texts—both those composed and those copied in Italy—and the communities in which they were produced, to encourage new scholarly approaches to the literary and historical evidence in the following ways;

* By offering, in the links to the left, a brief introduction to the topics within the field and a growing bibliography of works treating the study of the French of Italy;
* By providing integral links to other websites related to the study of French language use in Italy;
* By serving as a point of contact, via our discussion forum, for scholars working with French texts produced in Italy or by Italians.

Why did Italians write in French from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries? This question remains the most direct pathway towards organizing the material under the “French of Italy” rubric.The French language was read and understood by a varying range of consumers, not only by one narrow economic or social group, and so the answer to this question varies according to time and locale. In some instances, the particular genre of the text required that it be written in French (epic romances in particular), but there are many examples of French texts written by Italian authors in genres that did not normally require the French language, including municipal histories, scientific treatises, administrative documents, and religious texts, among others. Italian writers chose the French language because they wanted to participate in a particular literary community that favored French over the other possible modes of communication—Latin or the vernacular Italian dialect. Knowing the advantages of this linguistic choice over another allows us to understand the reasons behind each text’s or manuscript’s creation, circulation, or proliferation.

Previous scholars working with this repertoire have separated the French texts produced in Northern Italy, in the areas of Emilia Romagna and the Veneto, from those produced during the same time period in areas under Angevin control. French came to these areas in different ways: a tradition of French language use had developed in the Franco-Italian Community, divided into “Franco-Lombard” and “Franco-Venetian,” due in some measure to geographic proximity, while the French use by the Italian Angevins, centered in Southern Italy, was imposed by a wholesale importation of French leadership. The French of “Franco-Fiorentini,” who participated in French language exchange in the areas in and around Florence, was supported by Italians who had lived and worked in French-speaking areas and brought the language and literature back with them when they returned home. This website will organize French language activity in Italy into these three different literary communities, each of which referenced French-speaking powers which had influence within the confines of Italy.

Although this approach to the“French of Italy”offers a typology of French language production, the subject matter itself presupposes both intertextuality and a keen desire for cutural interaction by those who exchanged French texts on Italian soil. The goal of the site is to clarify boundaries but also to suggest how Italian writers and readers crossed these boundaries when they adopted the French language to serve their literary needs.

http://www.fordham.edu/frenchofitaly/
~   Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:46 am GMT
Italian and French are the most beautiful and prestige languages in the world.
lola   Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:48 am GMT
I don't like Italian. I just don't. I prefer French, Portuguese and Spanish, in that order.
~   Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:02 am GMT
I don't like Spanish. I just don't. I prefer French, Italian, and Br.Portuguese in that order.
blanchette   Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:00 am GMT
I don't like Italian

Who cares?! Italian is still one of the best loved languages in the world. The people who choose Italian as a foreing language do it because they love Italy, Art, sports cars like Maserati, Lamborghini or Ferrari, Italian fashion and design, classical music or its unique landscape and romantic cities. If you don't love it, that's ok. Tastes differ, you know. Nobody will force you to learn it, like Spanish in Brazil or in some American States or English all around the world!
PARISIEN   Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:43 am GMT
<< Between the early twelfth and the late fifteenth centuries >>

-- This is right, and often overlooked. French was indeed very infuential at that time in the Mediterranean. This was a side-effect of the Crusades, that were primarily a French endeavour.

But in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth century, with the rise of Turkey and the Italian Renaissance, French was literally wiped out by Italian in the Mediterranean world.
L.A. LAw   Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:35 pm GMT
Italian has no prestige.
It has prestige only if your aim is to join mafia.
rey   Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:39 pm GMT
It has prestige only if your aim is to join mafia.

What an educated statement! You're the king of childish clichés!
guarro   Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:45 pm GMT
It has prestige only if your aim is to join mafia.

English, Chinese, Russian and Colombian Spanish are the real languages of mafia nowadays.
zhizhek   Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:04 pm GMT
Italian has no prestige? who cares?! It's a wonderful language I adore it!
Post a reply   Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:06 pm GMT
"English, Chinese, Russian and Colombian Spanish are the real languages of mafia nowadays."

-- You forgot: Hebrew, Yiddish ('Russian' Mafia is entirely Jewish), Albanian and Turkish.
K. T.   Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:25 pm GMT
Some French/Italian connections

François Ier/Francis I and Leonardo da Vinci
Francis of Assisi/Francesco

The Roman empire gave western Europe a lot of its culture, in my humble and probably dumb opinion.

If you see Italians as simply mafia members, then you are missing a lot.
Post a reply   Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:30 pm GMT
"François Ier/Francis I and Leonardo da Vinci "
- Emblematic of the time when Italian Renaissance lost its momentum in Italy, and when the impulse was picked up beyond the Alps — in France, in England, in the Netherlands, in Germany.

"Francis of Assisi/Francesco"
- Any connection to France I wasn't aware of???

"If you see Italians as simply mafia members, then you are missing a lot."
- Among the twenty most popular operas, two are sung in French and two in German.
All other sixteen are in Italian.
K. T.   Sun Oct 25, 2009 9:55 pm GMT
"Francis of Assisi/Francesco"
- Any connection to France I wasn't aware of???"

I think he was given "Francesco" as his name because of some connection to France. I believe I heard once that it was because French things were in vogue/fashion at the time, but it may have been because his mother had some connection to France.

"Among the twenty most popular operas, two are sung in French and two in German.
All other sixteen are in Italian."

The most popular operas are usually Carmen (in French) and La Boheme (about France, but sung in Italian).

I wonder what the other popular French opera is. Les contes d'Hoffmann? Manon? Faust? R et J? It seems there are at least five popular French operas, plus La fille du R. which is sung in Italian or French.

Don't get me started about opera.
PARISIEN   Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:49 pm GMT
<< I wonder what the other popular French opera is. >>

-- Gounod's "Faust"