Page:A translation of the Latin works of Dante Alighieri.djvu/51

32 are Apulia (but not the whole of it), the Duchy [of Spoleto], Tuscany, and the March of Genoa. Those on the left are part of Apulia, the March of Ancona, Romagna, Lombardy, and the March of Treviso with Venetia. Friuli and Istria cannot but belong to the left of Italy, and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, namely Sicily and Sardinia, must belong to, or be associated with the right of Italy. Now in each of these two [60] sides, and those districts which follow them, the languages of the inhabitants vary, as for instance the language of the Sicilians as compared with that of the Apulians, of the Apulians with that of the Romans, of the Romans with that of the Spoletans, of these with that of the Tuscans, of the Tuscans with that of the Genoese, of the Genoese with that of the Sardinians ; also of the Calabrians with that of the people of Ancona, of these with that of the people of Romagna, of the people of Romagna with that of the Lombards, of the Lombards with that of the Trevisans and Venetians, and of these last with that of the [70] Aquileians, and of them with that of the Istrians; and we do not think that any Italian will disagree with us in this statement. Whence it appears that Italy alone is diversified by fourteen dialects at least, all of which again vary in themselves: as for instance in Tuscany the Sienese differ in speech from the Aretines ; in Lombardy the Ferrarese from the Placentines; in the same city also we observe some variation, as we remarked above in the last chapter [80]. Wherefore if we would calculate the primary, secondary, and subordinate variations of the