Testi allografici: contatti tra lingue e scritture nel Mediterraneo

This paper discusses the creation of a digital scholarly edition and the linguistic analysis of Italo-Romance allographic texts, that is, unique documents written in Italian vernaculars using non-Latin scripts of the Mediterranean area, such as Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac. Although this phenomenon has long been recognized, it has received limited attention in Italian historical linguistic and philological scholarship, primarily because of the interpretative challenges it poses. The MIA (Manuscripta Italica Allographica) project, together with similar initiatives, aims to produce a digital catalogue of these texts by applying the methods of digital philology to their transcription and interpretation. The analysis focuses on their graphic and phonological features, highlighting the influence of the original writing systems on written Italian and offering new perspectives on the linguistic competence of alloglot authors. This research makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the graphic and linguistic diversity of allographic texts while proposing innovative methodologies for their study through the tools and approaches of the Digital Humanities.