LINGUA E STILE DELLA TRATTATISTICA RINASCIMENTALE: LA TRANSILVANIA DI ANTONIO POSSEVINO (1583)

Abstract

The paper aims to analyse the language and style of an Italian Renaissance treatise, Antonio Possevino’s Transylvania, which the author wrote in 1583 and revised for publication in the following years. Despite Possevino’s self-censorship, the publication of the book was stopped by the internal censorship of the Society of Jesus. The paper focuses on the direct tradition of the work, highlighting the language used by Possevino in the manuscripts studied and in the published editions, following the selection that the author makes at the morphological, lexical and syntactic levels. Its aim is to understand how and why Possevino adapts the form of his work to the informational content of the book.