Marzolo, Paolo

The linguistic work of Marzolo, professor of Grammar and Comparative Linguistics at the University of Pisa from 1862, is an interesting document of the relation between the general theory of language developed by illuminist scholars and the nineteenth-century historical paradigm of linguistic research. Graziadio Ascoli, the most representative historical linguist in nineteenth-century Italy, considered Marzolo a ‘genial heterodox’ who aimed at defining an universal theory of language that however lacked an adequate scientific base. The methodological weakness indicated by Ascoli seems to us to depend on the fact that the questions and the conceptual points raised by Marzolo take up fundamental aspects of the linguistic reflection of illuminist authors, and this in a period in which the prevailing epistemological perspective was historical in character. On the other hand the approach of Marzolo is characterized by a crucial link with the scientific thought of his time and with the conceptual framework of positivism; in particular, the entire reflection of Marzolo is inspired by a naturalistic perspective in the study of language. This article aims at examining the principal aspects of the linguistic analysis of Marzolo by relating them to the scientific framework of the first half of nineteenth century, especially to the new evolutionist ideas which influenced the domaine of natural sciences, anthropology and linguistics.