Abstract/Summary

In this thesis, I examine why Giuseppe Caterbi‘s translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew into roman vernacular in 1861 is a crucially important document in the linguistic and literary history of romanesco. Caterbi‘s translation of 1861 is a standardised version of romanesco, written as part of wider linguistic project commissioned by Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte. I present the character of Giuseppe Caterbi, and examine his letter to Prince Bonaparte of 28th October 1861, which I bring to light for the first time. My research into Caterbi‘s letter highlights different social and linguistic influences on the romanesco translation and provides new evidence on the debate surrounding romanesco as a clearly definable dialect and its status as a literary entity in the middle of the nineteenth century. The gospel translation is an important literary text because it is the only nineteenth century gospel translation in romanesco that has come to light. Yet my close comparison of Caterbi‘s letter with G. G. Belli‘s introduction to his sonnets shows that Caterbi‘s vernacular translation was in fact influenced by Belli‘s introduction, even though the poet is not mentioned in the letter of 28th October 1861. My research demonstrates that even though Giuseppe Caterbi‘s translation has been largely overlooked by scholars of romanesco who have tended to emphasise the merits of G.G. Belli‘s extraordinary sonnets, his work of 1861 holds a pivotal place in the history of romanesco, as a socio-linguistic record of the language spoken in mid-nineteenth century Rome. Giuseppe Caterbi‘s translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew in 1861 foreshadows the work of later authors in the twentieth century who translated the gospel, the word of God, into roman vernacular, further sealing Caterbi‘s work as a crucially important document in the linguistic and literary history of romanesco.