Apogeo e fine di Babele: sugli orizzonti linguistici della modernità

This paper provides an overview of the debates on linguistic varieties during the Early Modern Age. Both the access to the still unknown languages of the "New World" and the development of a 'naturalistic' concept of language stimulated a sharp criticism of the myth of Babel, not only in its religious, but also in its philosophical-linguistic content. In most particular way, this was due to scholars such as Richard Simon and G.W: Leibniz, whose linguistic insights consist in a re-elaboration of the Epicurean of language origins.