Switching media, shaping language: Ludovico degli Arrighi developing the “questione della lingua” debate

Ludovico degli Arrighi (ca.1475 - 1527), known as Il Vicentino, was a famous copyist in the papal court of Leo X and Clement VII, a scriptor employed in the Segreteria dei Brevi and author of two handwriting manuals: L'Operina da imparare di scrivere littera cancellarescha and Il Modo de temperare le penne. He was also a printer in Rome from 1524 to 1527, producing some of the finest editions of coeval writers. By reason of his dexterity in managing different handwriting styles and printing techniques, he embodies within his career all the practical and cultural peculiarities of the demanding passage from calamus to type. Taking a closer look to the books published by his printing press, one can easily find out that he was involved, slightly more than just a printer, into the vivid debate on the “questione della lingua”, being the voice of and actively contributing to the circulation of the new linguistic theories of Giangiorgio Trissino, Claudio Tolomei and Agnolo Firenzuola in the Roman curia. Trissino decided to promote his language writing reform using the new types made for him by Arrighi and his colleague Lautizio Perugino, including Greek letters into the alphabet to improve the correct spelling of Italian vowels. This paper aims to show the way in which Arrighi reshaped his handwriting for his xilographical manuals, giving notice of some new discoveries recently made about this matter. Some light will be shed on his role in spreading the Trissino language reform among the humanists of the papal court, willing to dignify itself as the new benchmark for the rising of Italian language.