LA NASCITA DELL’ITALIANO,L’INGLESE ED IL CINESE COME LINGUE LETTERARIE THE BIRTH OF ITALIAN,ENGLISH AND CHINESE AS LITERARY LANGUAGES

ITALIAN The first documents written in Italian as a literary language date back to XIIIth century. The poetic Sicilian school with Iacopo da Lentini and other poets at Federico II’s court contribuited to the spread of a single,national, Italian literary language even if the best results were Dante Alighieri’s in “La Divina Commedia/Divine Comedy”. Dante used the language spoken in Florence to describe his imaginary voyage after death.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) He was the best poet of Italian Middle Ages and the father of Italian language

The “land” Dante goes to

English English as a literary language was born thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer ( 1343-1400 ). He was a page at court and then a diplomat, travelling on the king’s behalf on diplomatic missions all over Europe. In Italy, Chaucer read Boccaccio’s “Decameron” and he copied its structure in his “Canterbury Tales”, about a pilgrimage of a group of different people to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral. Thomas Becket had been the Archbishop of Canterbury until he was murdered in his cathedral, by four knights. All the pilgrims described by Chaucer belong to all English social classes with the exception of the highest and the lowest.

The Pilgrims

Geoffrey Chaucher (1343-1400) He was the best poet of English Middle Ages and the father of English literary language

Chinese The first work written in Chinese as a literary language dates back to the Zhou Dynasty(11th century BC- 6 th century BC). The title of the work is “The Book of Songs”,and it is written in poetry . The work is divided into three parts:farmers’ life,formal poems and poems for a sacrificial ceremony.

The Book of Songs Royal Officials' Collecting poems. Master Confucius Deletes poems：At first,there are more than 3000 poems in book. And Confucius selected 305 poems which he felt best conformed to traditional ritual propriety,thus producing The Book of Songs.

A Chinese girl in The Book of Songs

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