Elementi orientali nelle lettere di Andrea Berengo (1553–1556)

Abstract The letters of the Venetian merchant Andrea Berengo, written in the mid-16th century, are not only a precious testimony of Venetian commercial history, but also a particularly rich source for linguistic and lexicographic studies on Renaissance Venetian. The present paper examines selected oriental elements of Arabic, Turkish and Persian origin from the point of view of historical lexicography. The special linguistic interest of Berengo's letters is confirmed by the fact that most of the terms studied are early or even first attestations in Italian.