Giovanni Battista Raimondi and human language: a note in the papers of the Medici Press

Inserted in a collective two-volume work, which is the result of a long-standing research project, this paper presents the transcription and a commentary of an autograph document by Giovanni Battista Raimondi (c. 1536-1614), director of the Typographia Medicea, based in Rome (1584-1614). The document is held in the National Library of Florence and prospects a pioneering praise of the Persian language within a philosophical reflection on the difference between human and animal language. In the commentary, the linguistic, philosophical and political contexts of the writing of this document are discussed.