Italian for all Tastes: (Hi)Stories of the Italian Language of Food

press release: 7^th Annual “Week of Italian Cuisine in the World,” featuring a lecture by Prof. Giovanna Frosini (University for Foreigners of Siena, Italy)

Welcoming Remarks by Dr. Luca Di Vito, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago, and Prof. Grazia Menechella, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Prof. Frosini’s lecture will focus on central moments and aspects of Italian language and food experience; particular attention will be given to the analysis of turning points from Middle Ages to modern times, followed by a reflection on current language trends in relation to food.

Giovanna Frosini is Professor of History of the Italian Language at the University for Foreigners of Siena (Italy). She is a member of the Accademia della Crusca, and Vice-President of the Ente Nazionale Giovanni Boccaccio. She is co-editor of the journals Studi linguistici italiani and Rivista di studi danteschi. She is a member of the Scientific Committee for the critical edition of Saint Catherine’s Letters, a member of the Steering Committee of the Accademia della Crusca for the Vocabolario Dantesco project, and a member of the Scientific Committee of Casa Artusi. Prof. Frosini is the national coordinator of the project PRIN AtLiTeG (Atlas of the Language and Texts of Italian Gastronomic Culture from the Middle Ages to Modernity). Her research focuses on Italian literary language and the language of food from the Middle Ages to modern times. She has given numerous lectures at universities world-wide, curated exhibitions and she has over 130 publications in Italy and abroad. The volume Dante, l’italiano (co-edited with Giuseppe Polimeni, 2021) was published on the occasion of the Week of Italian Language in the World in 2021. Among her publications are La lingua di Machiavelli (2021), Storia dell’italiano. La lingua, i testi (ed., 2020), “Domestici scrittori”. Corrispondenza di Marietta Sabatini, Francesco Ruffilli e altri con Pellegrino Artusi (with Monica Alba, 2019), Il secolo artusiano (co-edited with Massimo Montanari, 2012), and Storia della lingua e storia della cucina (co-edited with Cecilia Robustelli, 2009). 

For more information, contact Prof. Grazia Menechella at gmeneche@wisc.edu

Sponsored by the Center for European Studies and the Department of French and Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy in Chicago, and Casa Artusi in Forlimpopoli (Italy).