Other Individual Archives

In the 1950s, the Fondazione Cini set up a large-scale research project, called the Atlante Linguistico Mediterraneo (ALM, Mediterranean Linguistic Atlas), thanks to the longsighted vision of Gianfranco Folena.
The importance of the project is demonstrated by the fact that it immediately attracted the collaboration of eminent specialists in Italy and Europe: Carlo Battisti, Gerhard Rohlfs, Oronzo Parlangeli, Mirko Deanović, Benedek Vidos, Carlo Tagliavini, Manlio Cortelazzo, Giovanni Oman and many others. The lexical and documentary collections were completed and the Foundation published an authoritative international journal, Bollettino dell'Atlante Linguistico Mediterraneo and a cartographic essay. Other equally significant essays were published by several collaborators. The remaining unpublished material is all kept at the Fondazione Cini and it is now essential to offer the scholarly community the results of the academic work of the experts who planned and carried out the linguistic surveys. Moreover, this will underscore the crucial organisational role played by the Foundation.
The material provides an overview of a situation that has become very diversified. It is, therefore, valuable historical documentation of a traditional world, the point of arrival of a long history. The surveys cover the entire Mediterranean and part of the Black Sea coast and highlight hundreds of specific terms related to the sea, seafaring life and marine fauna.
Pursued in conjunction with the Fondazione Cini, the ALM became a new international venture involving all kinds of specialists and academic institutions, coordinated by a scientific and organisational committee.


The ALM takes the form of the first linguistic atlas that systematically examines languages and dialects of different linguistic families (all those present in the Mediterranean area). In 165 coastal locations, from 1960 to 1972, around thirty collectors, experts in linguistics, selected the phonetic transcription of about 850 terms related to the sea, now gathered in several volumes at the Fondazione Cini. (Cini)


The Mediterranean linguistic atlas (ALM) was launched in the late 1950s by Gianfranco Folena and Manlio Cortelazzo. A questionnaire of about 850 items was drafted with the aim of documenting the maritime and fishing terminology in 165 ports and coastal resorts on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (including about fifty in the Italian linguistic domain). This eventually led to the publication of an initial 25 maps in 1971.(Treccani)