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Language Choice in Enlightenment Europe. Education, Sociability, and Governance

The volume Language Choice in Enlightenment Europe offers a significant contribution to the field of study of “social history of language”. The expression, as it is known, was coined by Peter Burke in the late 1980s, and the key points of the sector were defined in the volume written by Burke together with Roy Porter, Social History of Language (1987). The basic assumption of the work consisted in affirming the need to study language as a factor closely connected with the socio-cultural context examined, adopting a strictly historical perspective. The essays included in the publication edited by Rjéoutski and Frijhoff rigorously adhere to this approach of investigation, and are located within a line of study that is experiencing a growing interest in Europe in recent years, as evidenced – for example – by the works promoted by University of Bamberg and by the annual conferences organised by the Société Internationale pour l’Histoire du Français Langue Étrangère ou Seconde (SIHFLES). All articles in the volume aim to refute “the traditional image of the monolingual character of the world of theAncine Régime by showing the unexpected riches of multiand plurilingualism, the competition between languages and the impact of languages on national consciousness and vice versa” (8). The case studies examined in this book only concentrate on a number of European countries (France; Holland; the Hapsburg Empire, including Hungary, Estonia, and Croatia; the Russian Empire), but nevertheless propose a good exemplification of the linguistic diversity in use in European society during the Enlightenment. In particular, the article by Andrea Bruschi (University of Verona), “Learning vernaculars, learning in vernaculars: the role of modern language in Nicolas Le Gras’s noble academy and in teaching practices for the nobility” (15–38), shows the importance of the French vernacular among French nobility and the nodule role played by a new kind of cultural institution that was not Latin-based (such as collèges and universities): the noble academies. These institutes were focal points for the acquisition and enhancement of native