Tre lettere di un mercante calabrese della fine del Trecento

The article provides a critical edition and a linguistic analysis of three letters belonging to the Datini archive (State Archives of Prato). The letters were written at the end of the fourteenth century by a Calabrian merchant, Giovanni Ginoardo. He shows a good knowledge of literary Italian language: the letters syntax, in fact, is linear, with almost no interference by spoken language. There are many Southern characters in the texts, but the most evident phenomena are mitigated. Although it is impossible to identify the exact location of Calabria from which the writer comes, his letters are important for the linguistic history of an area so short of medieval vernacular writings.