Traces of Bilingualism in Early Medieval Northern Italy: the Evidence from Private Eighth and Ninth Century Charters

This chapter investigates the scattered traces of bilingualism in northern Italy from the beginning of the eighth to the end of the ninth century. The analysis is conducted on original documents written in both the Lombard and Carolingian periods, focusing on their content, writers, and subscribers. The aims of the study are twofold: first, to understand the mentalities of and decisions taken by the authors, and, second, to clarify instances of bilingualism and the linguistic skills of early medieval Italian scribes. At the centre of this analysis are the modalities of the diffusion and survival of a Germanic language, which was introduced in Italy by the Lombards and transmitted through toponymy and onomastics. Northern Italy presents an opportunity to study the relationships between Latin, Italo-Romance, and the persistence of Germanic terminology. The latter was gradually assimilated into local traditions to a lesser or greater extent depending on the region. The use of Germanisms, the quality of written Latin, and the use of numerous terms in Italo-Romance also depended on the scribes’ formal training and social influence, both as notaries themselves and as teachers of subsequent generations of public functionaries. In these cases, substantial differences from regions north of the Alps can be observed. The chapter ends with a case study focusing on the use of a number of words of Germanic origins, such as ferquidem, which are found in the formulae of Tuscan private documents in the second half of the eighth and the first half of the ninth century. This chapter explores how and when these terms began to be employed by notaries in Pisa and Lucca, and how their usage became diffused across the ninth century via both notarial practice and their appearance in formularies.