Benedetto Varchi's L'Ercolano

This is the first translation into any language of one of the most significant treatises of past centuries, Benedetto Varchi’s L’Ercolano (1570). It is designed for anyone curious about what ideas on language were popular in the past. As is true today, people in the sixteenth century had very definite opinions on this unique human characteristic. Varchi’s work, in the form of a lively dialogue, explores such questions as whether we are the only species possessing the ability to communicate; what the oldest variety of speech may have been; and how best to learn a foreign tongue. Another topic important at that time was how to deal with the decline of Latin as a universal language among the educated, and the search for the most suitable Italian dialect to replace it. This brief volume sparkles with the author’s wit, and makes for quite informative and highly entertaining reading.