Primi influssi culturali italo-veneti sull’inglese: la testimonianza dei venezianismi in Florio, Coryate e Jonson

Abstract

This documentary analysis of seventeenth-century written English highlights the presence of words borrowed into English from Venetian dialect. This research field, hitherto largely unexplored, is beginning to yield important results. These indicate that a significant part of the Italian lexical and cultural heritage in English entered the language via Venetian, with an exceptional con- centration around 1600. Three key works from the period are analysed for their impact in this area: the two editions of John Florio’s dictionary A Worlde of Wordes (1598 and 1611), Coryats Crudities by Thomas Coryate (1611) and Volpone by Ben Jonson (1607).