Per un profilo di padre Tommaso Corsetto, tra biografia e lessicografia

Abstract

This contribution aims to shed light on the figure of Tommaso Corsetto, a Dominican cleric who played an active role in the drafting of the Dizionario della lingua italiana by Niccolò Tommaseo and Bernardo Bellini. This paper will analyse the life and work of the 19th-century linguist, philologist, translator and lexicographer, with a view to highlighting the many facets of his character. The investigation is grounded in unpublished documents, including the correspondence between Corsetto and Tommaseo, which is preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence. The documents examined reveal not only his involvement in the revision of Tommaseo's version of the Vangeli, but also and above all his influence on other significant lexicographic works of the 19th century, including Giuseppe Manuzzi's Vocabolario della lingua italiana and the fifth edition of the Vocabolario della Crusca. A thorough analysis of his contributions to Tommaseo-Bellini, which number over five thousand, corroborates his substantial influence on the development and codification of the Italian language during the 19th century.