This article examines a poetic version in contemporary Italian of canto V of Dante's Inferno, written by Antonio Porta in 1984 and published posthumously in 1991, which is still little known to critics. The genesis of the idea is reconstructed within the context of Porta's poetic production and the Neo-Avant-Garde movement. It then examines the cultural reasons that led Porta to challenge the ban on the linguistic modernisation of ancient poetic texts, offering an interlinear translation in free verse. It then analyses Porta's choices of language and style, in relation to both the false friends of ancient Italian and the most problematic passages of Dante's text. In conclusion, the reasons for a translation that offers a text of immediate comprehensibility and high literary value are affirmed.
This study examines the presence of unadapted Anglicisms within a particular type of formal written medical communication, namely medical reports. The first part of the paper briefly reviews the vexata quaestio of the influence of English on Italian. The second part collects and comments on the various terms used to refer to this variety of Italian, which is strongly influenced by English at various levels, especially lexically. Finally, we present the analysis of unadapted Anglicisms collected in a small corpus consisting of 50 medical reports written between 2009 and 2024. The analysis considers the grammatical category of Anglicisms, distinguishing between collateral (both lexical and morphosyntactic) and specific Anglicisms.
This paper examines possible instances of -ND- > -nn- assimilation in Sicilian texts from the Middle Ages, a period known for a near-total absence of this phenomenon, which occurs only during the 16(th) century. Two forms currently believed to be early instances of assimilation come from Valeriu Maximu, a 14(th)-century text. The analysis demonstrates that these forms derive from etyma different from those traditionally assumed, and should therefore be excluded from the (few) examples of assimilation in medieval Sicilian. The early instances of assimilation from the Contrasto by Cielo d'Alcamo are also (re)discussed: the proposal, made with new arguments, is that these forms are better understood as the result of linguistic contamination during the text's transmission, in line with the current state of the art.
This essay studies the identifying inscription Meretrici 'prostitutes', which appears on a medieval Roman painting housed in the Vatican Museums. This painting also features many other Latin inscriptions, all of which are reproduced. The analysis of the panel (which is signed) and of its context confirms that the work, and therefore its inscriptions, date back to the late 11th century (as proposed by many art historians). It also explains the use of the vernacular term meretrici, which can therefore be compared to the slightly later Inscription of San Clemente.
