Introduction
Notes on the Contributors

1. Renaissance Linguistics
Mirko Tavoni
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Western Europe
Latin grammar
The emancipation of the vernacular languages
The orthography of the vernacular languages
The grammar of the vernacular languages
Diachronic and comparative linguistics in the Romance world
Diachronic and comparative linguistics in the Germanic world
Appendix: lexicography, translation, New World
Notes
Bibliography
1.3 Roman Slavdom
Maria Delfina Gandolfo
The 'language question' and Western models
The emergence of the vernacular languages in the Czech, Polish, Slovak abd Sorbian areas
The success of the vernacular language in the Slovenian and Croat areas
Notes
Bibliography
1.4 Orthodox Slavdom
Silvia Toscano
The beginnings of the linguistic reflection and the treatise. The eight parts of speech (tenth to fourteenth centuries)
Hesychasms and the birth of 'philology' among the Balkan Slavs
Grammatical studies in Russia (fifteenth-sixteenth centuries)
Printed grammars of Church Slavonic (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries)
Notes
Bibliography


2. The Early Modern Period
Raffaele Simone
2.1 The reawakening of a research period
2.2 Fields of evidence, backgrounds, myths and paradigms
Language and theology
Language and knowledge
Language and education
Human language, animals and machines
The misuse of language and its reformation
The origins of language
The unity of language and the diversity of languages
Language change, usage and society
2.3 Bacon
2.4 The description of languages and the accumulation of linguistic data
2.5 The 'original language' and linguistic research
2.6 The Port-Royal Grammar and Logic
2.7 Projects for 'universal' and 'philosophical' languages
2.8 Hobbes and Locke
2.9 Leibniz
2.10 Accumulation of linguistic data
2.11 Vico
2.12 Condillac
2.13 The 'genius' and the specificity of languages. The dispute on word order
2.14 Animals, machines and languages
2.15 Origin, formation and function of language
2.16 The Encyclopedie and linguistic thought
2.17 The 'discovery' of Sanskrit
2.18 Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index