Fixity and Fluidity in Pietro Bembo's Prose della volgar lingua

Pietro Bembo’s Prose della volgar lingua (1525) is arguably the most influential text on language from the European Renaissance and is often credited with having established standardized modern Italian. This chapter will explore the idea of literary language presented in the Prose in light of two terms currently being used in critical discussions of sociolinguistics: fixity and fluidity. These terms also function as a conceptual axis for Bembo’s humanist conception of literary language, albeit primarily in reference to historical mutability rather than contemporary practice. The chapter first considers the linguistic education that Bembo received prior to his arrival at the court of Urbino, where he wrote the first two books of the Prose. It then focuses on the metaphors that Bembo employs, and considers how they represent his conception of literary Italian. It is in these metaphors that Bembo most eloquently and carefully explores the implications of fixity and fluidity as he establishes a new linguistic basis for Italian literature. What arises is an understanding of what the ‘Renaissance’ might mean from a linguistic perspective.