Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
Esteemed University of Chicago professor Paolo Cherch donated a trove of books to Casa Italia in Stone Park before he passed away in April. Thanks to the donation, the shelves at the Florence Roselli Library in the Italian Cultural Center at the Casa now contain the 21-volume “Grande Dizionario della lingua italiana,” four volumes of the “Dizionario critico della letteratura italiana” and one volume of “Elementi di storia della lingua italiana.”
Published in Torino from 1961 to 2002, the GDLI exceeds the volume count of the Oxford English Dictionary and almost equals the 600,000 words in the OED. It is the largest and most comprehensive historical dictionary of Italian, documenting words from their origins to the present through extensive literary quotations.
Edited by Salvatore Battaglia and later Giorgio Barberi Squarotti, the GDLI is often referred to as the “Battaglia Dictionary.” It replaces the 19th-century “Dizionario della lingua Italiana” by Niccolo Tommaseo and Bernardo Bellini.
Encompassing more than 183,000 entries and organizing definitions in chronological order of usage, the volumes include comprehensive literary citations, specialized terminology and regional variations.
“The GDLI represents a major achievement in Italian lexicography, and it is often used for studying the evolution of words and their usage in literature,” says Casa librarian Dominic Candeloro.
The volumes can be viewed by appointment through the Casa Italia office. (708-345-5933)
