Nebrija's Grammar of the Castilian Language
Gramática de la lengua castellana de Nebrija
- Date
- 1492 · confidence high
- Place
- Salamanca, Castile and León, Spain
- Credited to
- Antonio de Nebrija
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
The first printed grammar of a European Romance language: it describes the spelling, prosody, etymology and syntax of Castilian on the model of Latin grammar. Nebrija presented it to Isabella the Catholic with the idea that language was “the companion of empire”.
It is the first printed grammar of a Romance language; Alberti's Regole della lingua fiorentina (c. 1440) and other texts are earlier but survive in manuscript.
What it led to
- standardisation of Castilian and the Hispanic grammatical tradition
- missionary grammars of American and Asian languages
- a model for other Romance grammars
Built on
- Latin grammar of Donatus and Priscian