La Bibbia riportata da Caterina da Siena

The author takes the study of language beyond a single author in an attempt to establish a specific lexicon common to a certain circle of people, in this case, Catherine of Siena and her circle. Here we look at a set of terms, all of them translations of specific Latin terms, shared among this group: fatica for passio, tramezzatore for mediator. Not direct influence, but a general shared lexical environment – an environment coming out of vernacular translation. Catherine of Siena, who was not a translator herself, nonetheless uses language similar to what we can find in the volgarizzamenti of devotional texts. The author’s contribution gets at a specific “textual community” by looking at lexical similarities that suggest the use of similar Biblical translations or vernacular devotional texts and similar techniques of translation.