Il gran libro della nazione

Abstract

In 1863, when solemnly dedicating the first fascicles of the new edition of the Vocabolario della Crusca to the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II, the academicians described their work as «il gran libro della Nazione». Such a statement would have been unthinkable for the Academy in earlier times, not only because, up until a century prior, the word nation carried a different meaning, but also because the very concept of a "dictionary" and its purpose had been understood differently. Recognizing this lexicographic paradigm shift, which took place between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is essential to identifying a significant turning point in the history of Italian dictionaries.