Mulleres na Lexicografía / Women in Lexicography

Carolina Coronedi (Berti)

Italian, Bolognese (Northern Italian dialect)

1820 (Bologna, Italy) – 1911 (Bologna, Italy) Carolina Coronedi was born in Bologna, a city in Northern Italy. When she married her husband, Leonida Berti, she decided to begin to sign her documents and works adding the name of her husband, Berti. This is the reason why all her works are under Coronedi Berti. Together, after marrying, they decided to move to Ferrara (Italy) and they had four children: Achille Alfonso Berti, Maria Virginia Berti, Maria Assunta Berti e Anna Maria Berti. Carolina Coronedi Berti was one of the most important women of the Bolognese culture. Unfortunately, she is not very famous and from what little we know about her, she was an erudite, nice, and witty woman.

During her career, she devoted herself to the study of the customs and traditions of her city, trying to develop works able to represent the most characteristic aspects of her culture. Carolina Coronedi Berti represents one of the rare exceptions of her time, of a woman who had the opportunity to undertake philological studies.

•Coronedi Berti, C. (1872): “Di alcuni usi popolari bolognesi”. Firenze •Coronedi Berti, C. (1873)"Grammatica del dialetto bolognese premessa al vocabolario”. Firenze. A brief introduction to “Vocabolario dialettale bolognese”, in which the most interesting features of the Bolognese grammar are presented. • Coronedi Berti, C. (1875). "Raccolta di novelline popolari bolognesi". Firenze. •Coronedi Berti, C. (1874)"Usi nuziali del contado bolognese". Firenze. • Coronedi Berti, C. (1875). "Appunti di botanica popolare bolognese". Firenze. •Coronedi Berti, C. (1876)."Appunti di medicina popolare bolognese". Firenze. •Coronedi Berti, C. (1876). “Alcuni usi popolari bolognesi”. Firenze. It contains a letter to Giuseppe Pitrè, in which she replies to one of his articles:"Sulle costumanze della Sicilia". •Coronedi Berti, C. (1869-1877). "Vocabolario dialettale Bolognese” Bologna. A two-volume dialect dictionary, whose aim was to provide a collection all the expressions, idioms and proverbs related to the Bolognese dialect.

In her Vocabolario Bolognese italiano (included as a work excerpt in the following section), Coronedi Berti highlights: «Formai adunque l'idea di compilare un vocabolario, che al possibile racchiudesse in sé tutto il dialetto; di un vocabolario, cioè, che non solo facesse tesoro delle voci, ma ancora di proverbi e motteggi, non che di nostre maniere di dire, facendo così conoscere il maneggio di certi costrutti, il reggimento de' verbi, degli aggettivi, che danno per così dire, una fisonomia tutta propria a ciascuna lingua». <<I vocabolari non sono mai perfetti, e sempre ci è da osservare, da levare, da aggiungere, da mutare>>. https://archive.org/details/vocabolariobolo00bertgoog/page/n13/mode/2up

Carolina Coronedi Berti has been member of the prestigious “Commissione per i testi di lingua” (a committee for language texts), an organization established in Bologna, whose purpose was to publish the works of Italian writers.

-Al Sît Bulgnaïs / Il Sito Bolognese (2023/01/23). Carolina Coronedi Berti. https://www.bulgnais.com/carolina-coronedi-berti.html -Wikipedia (2023/30/01). Carolina Coronedi Berti. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Coronedi_Berti -Foto: https://www.bulgnais.com/carolina-coronedi-berti.html

Francesca Barozzi

Iván Arias Arias