MUNDI — Museo Nazionale dell'Italiano

MUNDI, the National Museum of the Italian Language, is a cultural project within Florence's former Santissima Concezione monastery at Santa Maria Novella. Its preview exhibition in 2022 explored the history of Italian through manuscripts, printed books and multimedia interpretation.

Why it matters

The project treats language as a history of people, places and communication. Its scholarly collaboration brought together the Ministry of Culture, the City of Florence and major linguistic and cultural institutions, with a scientific group coordinated by Luca Serianni.

What to notice

The 2022 preview included the Placito di Capua of 960 on loan from Montecassino, a manuscript associated with Boccaccio's copying of Dante, Pietro Bembo's Prose della volgar lingua and the Crusca dictionary. These examples connected early vernacular writing with literary models and the later recording of vocabulary.

Context and history

The earlier exhibition Dove il sì suona, held in 2003, helped develop the idea of presenting Italian's history to a broad public. The two preview rooms opened on 6 July 2022 as a stage towards the wider museum project. The preview brought manuscripts and printed language into dialogue with contemporary interpretation.