Hermann W. Haller

The Hidden Italy is the first bilingual English edition of some of the best Italian dialect poetry written over the past two centuries. The selection of more than four hundred poems in Piedmontese, Venetian, Milanese, Romagnol, Roman, Neapolitan, Sicilian, and other dialects illustrates the impressive variety of Italy's literary and linguistic civilization. Italian dialect literature originated in the Renaissance, after Tuscan had won its preeminence as the officially sanctioned Italian literary language. Despite the official victory of Tuscan, however, many writers consciously preferred and chose their own regional or local dialects as their medium of literary expression. This departure from Tuscan became a particularly significant phenomenon in the 18th century and has continued up to the present day. Much of the poetry is characterized by its realistic portrayals of the lower classes, their suffering from social injustice and poverty, the simplicity of their approach to life, particularly to earthy, sensual experience. Many poets use or create a language that is mimetic, expressive, often unabashedly obscene and irreverent. The dialect becomes the language of pain and anger, of biting satire or political rebellion, of humor and meditation. It is also the language which reveals the spirit of Italy's diverse regional civilizations. Haller's literal prose translations and commentaries are aimed at leading the reader back to the original text. and its intrinsic flavor. Thus the book has appeal and importance both for poetry lovers in general and for people with a special interest in Italian linguistic and literary culture.

A Bilingual Edition of Italian Dialect Poetry

The Hidden Italy

A Worlde of Wordes

John Florio

A Worlde of Wordes, the first-ever comprehensive Italian-English dictionary, was published in 1598 by John Florio. One of the most prominent linguists and educators in Elizabethan England, Florio was greatly responsible for the spreading of Italian letters and culture throughout educated English society. Especially important was Florio's dictionary, which – thanks to its exuberant wealth of English definitions – made it initially possible for English readers to access Italy's rich Renaissance literary and scientific culture. Award-winning author Hermann W. Haller has prepared the first critical edition of A Worlde of Wordes, which features 46,000 Italian entries – among them dialect forms, erotic terminology, colloquial phrases, and proverbs of the Italian language. Haller reveals Florio as a brilliant English translator and creative writer, as well as a grammarian and language teacher. His helpful critical commentary highlights Florio's love of words and his life-long dedication to promoting Italian language and culture abroad.

Italy possesses two literary canons, one in the Tuscan language and the other made up of the various dialects of its many regions. The Other Italy presents for the first time an overview of the principal authors and texts of Italy's literary canon in dialect. It highlights the cultivated dialect poetry, drama, and narrative prose since the codification of the Tuscan literary language in the early sixteenth century, when writing in dialect became a deliberate and conscious alternative to the official literary standard. The book offers a panorama of the literary dialects of Italy over five centuries and across the country's regions, shedding light on a profoundly plurilingual and polycentric civilization. As a guide to reading and research, it provides a compendium of literary sources in dialect, arranged by region and accompanied by syntheses of regional traditions with selected textual illustrations. A work of extraordinary importance, The Other Italy was awarded the Modern Language Association of America's Aldo and Jean Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies. It will serve scholars as an indispensable resource book for years to come.

Hermann W. Haller

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