Il concetto di « Latinitas » da Varrone ai grammatici latini

Author: De Paolis, Paolo
Title: Il concetto di « Latinitas » da Varrone ai grammatici latini
Review/Collection: Invigilata Lucernis, 42
Year edition: 2020
Pages: 275-285
Keywords: Rhétorique - Retorica - Rhetorics, Stylistique et genres littéraires - Stilistica e generi letterari - Stylistics and literary genre
Description: The paper deals with the notion of Latinitas in the Latin grammatical tradition; after a short excursus about the prevalence of Latinus, instead of Romanus, to qualify the language spoken in Rome, the paper collect a number of witnesses about the beginning of the use of Latinitas (coined from Greek ἑλληνισμός), starting from the Rhetorica ad Herennium up to Cicero and Varro, who gives a definition of Latinitas and its criteria in a problematic fragment preserved by Charisius and Diomedes. In the Roman grammatical tradition we can observe two different meanings of this term: the first, found already in the Rhet. Her., qualifies the correct use of Latin language and is at the base of the treatises De Latinitate; the second, attested especially in late Latin grammarians, defines just the Latin language, even in relation to its grammatical rules. [Author]
Works:
Link: https://www.academia.edu/96990634/Il_concetto_di_Latinitas_da_Varrone_ai_grammatici_latini
Author initials: De Paolis 2020