DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17243164
title: CoDIAC [Corpus Diacronico dell'Italiano per l'Analisi dei Connettivi]

description: Description

CoDIAC is a newly developed corpus that enables the study of the evolution of Italian connectives. Including texts spanning from the early 13th century to the end of the 20th century, the corpus is divided by century and into four textual genres (literary prose texts, argumentative texts, mimetic speech texts, and personal texts). 

It contains around 3,526,872 words drawn from 108 texts. 

Due to copyright restrictions, only 98 texts could be included on Zenodo. However, the attached ReadMe file lists all the texts that form part of the CoDIAC corpus, the reference edition and the online resource where the texts (including the missing ones) can be consulted.

CoDIAC is balanced in terms of the words count per century, genre, and, where possible, per individual text. 

It supports both broad diachronic studies and more focused analyses of specific periods in the history of the Italian language.

Scientific reference

Russo, A. 2025. CoDIAC – A diachronic corpus for studying Italian connectives: Design, methodology, and a research application on invece. In LINGUISTICA E FILOLOGIA, 45, pp. 9-48. DOI: 10.13122/LeF_45_p9 

Contents



The corpus is presented as a ZIP folder containing eight sub-folders, each corresponding to one of the centuries represented in the CoDIAC.

Each sub-folder (labeled ‘200’, ‘300’, etc.) contains the selected texts for that century, with files named according to the format ‘Author Name_Title of the Work’ (ex. Marco Polo_Il Milione).


Table 1








Century



Number of texts



Texts



Text genre



Text location





200



10



Andrea da Grosseto, Volgarizzamento del Liber de doctrina loquendi et tacendi di Albertano da Brescia



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Bono Giamboni, Fiore di rettorica



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Bono Giamboni, Trattato di virtù e di vizi



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Brunetto Latini, La rettorica



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Cronica Roncioniana



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Dante, Vita nova



Literay prose



Tuscany





Fiore di filosofi



Literay prose



Tuscany





Marco Polo, Il Milione



Literay prose



Tuscany





Novellino



Literay prose



Tuscany?





Testi toscani di carattere pratico



Personal



Tuscany





300



11



Dante, Convivio (Books 1–2, 4)



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Dino Compagni, Cronica



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Francesco Datini, Lettere alla moglie Margherita



Personal



Tuscany





Franco Sacchetti, Il Trecentonovelle (Proem, Novellas 2–20, 140–160, 216–232, 254–255, 258)



Literay prose



Tuscany





Giordano da Pisa, Prediche (Sermons 1–40)



Mimetic speech



Tuscany





Giovanni Boccaccio, Consolatoria a Pino de’ Rossi



Personal



Tuscany





Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (Proem, Day 1, Day 8)



Literay prose



Tuscany





Giovanni Boccaccio, Lettera a Francesco de’ Bardi



Personal



Tuscany/

Campania





Iacopo Passavanti, Lo specchio di vera penitenza (Distinctions 1–4)



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone (Day 1 Tale 2, Day 2 Tale 2, Day 3 Tale 1, Day 4 Tale 1)



Literay prose



Tuscany





Simone Sigoli, Viaggio al monte Sinai



Personal



Tuscany





400



11 [+1]



Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi, Lettere scelte (Letters from 1447 to 1470)



Personal



Tuscany





Bernardo Machiavelli, Libro di ricordi (Incipit, Memories from 1474 to 1477)



Personal



Tuscany





Bonaccorso Pitti, Ricordi



Personal



Tuscany





Filarete, Trattato di architettura (Books 1–2, 12–13, 24–25)



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Giovanni di Pagolo Morelli, Ricordi (Introduction, Parts 1–3)



Personal



Tuscany





[Giovanni Gherardi, Il paradiso degli Alberti (Books 1–2)]



Literay prose



Tuscany





Giovanni Sercambi, Novelliere (Novellas 2–8, 70–78, 146–153)



Literay prose



Tuscany





Girolamo Savonarola, Trattato sul governo di Firenze



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Leon Battista Alberti, I libri della famiglia (Prologue, Books 1 and 3)



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Lorenzo de’ Medici, Novelle



Literay prose



Tuscany





Masuccio Salernitano, Il Novellino (First part - Dedication, Novellas 1–10)



Literay prose



Campania





San Bernardino da Siena, Prediche volgari (Selected sermons)



Mimetic speech



Tuscany





500



14



Agnolo Firenzuola, Ragionamenti



Literay prose



Tuscany





Anton Francesco Doni, I marmi (Part 1)



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del Cortegiano (Book 1)



Argumentaitve



Northern Italy





Benvenuto Cellini, Vita (Book 1, Chapters 1–64)



Personal



Tuscany





Bernardo Dovizi, La Calandria



Mimetic speech



Tuscany





Francesco Guicciardini, Dialogo del reggimento di Firenze (Book 1)



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Le piacevoli notti (Book 1, Nights 1–3)



Literay prose



Northern Italy





Ludovico Ariosto, Lettere (Letters 1–40, 100–140)



Personal



Emilia Romagna





Luigi Da Porto, Storia di Giulietta e Romeo



Literay prose



Tuscany





Matteo Bandello, Novelliere (Dedications, Part 1, Novellas 1–5)



Literay prose



Northern Italy/ France





Michelangelo Buonarroti, Lettere alla famiglia (Letters 1–126, 142–165, 177–211, 221–249, 269–275)



Personal



Tuscany





Niccolò Machiavelli, Il principe



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Pietro Aretino, La Cortigiana



Mimetic speech



Tuscany





Pietro Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua (Books 1–2)



Argumentaitve



Veneto





600



11



Ferrante Pallavicino, Il corriero svaligiato (Chapters 1–31)



Literay prose



Northern Italy





Flaminio Scala, Il finto marito



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





Francesco Redi, Osservazioni intorno alle vipere



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Galileo Galilei, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (Dedication, Days 1, 3–4)



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Galileo Galilei, Lettere (Letters 1–3, 6–8a, 9–16, 18–24)



Personal



Tuscany





Giovan Battista Andreini, Lo schiavetto



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





Giulio Cesare Croce, Bertoldo e Bertoldino



Literay prose



Emilia Romagna





Lorenzo Magalotti, Lettere odorose (Letters from 1693 to 1705, to marquise Ottavia Strozzi)



Personal



Tuscany





Lorenzo Magalotti, Selected novellas



Literay prose



Tuscany





Paolo Sarpi, Istoria del Concilio Tridentino (Book 1)



Argumentaitve



Northern Italy





Traiano Boccalini, De’ ragguagli di Parnaso (Advertisements 1–6, 10–15, 20–25, 30–35, 50–55, 60–66)



Literay prose



Cantral Italy





700



15 [+2]



Alessandro Verri, La vita di Erostrato



Literay prose



Lombardy





Alessandro Verri, Le avventure di Saffo



Literay prose



Lombardy





Carlo Goldoni, La bottega del caffè



Mimetic speech



Veneto





Carlo Goldoni, La locandiera



Mimetic speech



Veneto





Cosimo Amidei, Discorso filosofico – politico sopra la carcere de’ debitori



Argumentaitve



Central Italy





Ferdinando Galiani, Della moneta (Proem, Books 1–2)



Argumentaitve



Abruzzo





Giacomo Casanova, Il duello



Literay prose



Veneto





Giovanni Gaetano Bottari, Novella



Literay prose



Central Italy





Girolamo Gigli, Un pazzo guarisce l’altro



Mimetic speech



Tuscany





[Giuseppe Marco Antonio Baretti, La scelta delle lettere familiari (Letters 1–30)]



Personal



Northern Italy





Jacopo Nelli, La serva padrona



Mimetic speech



Tuscany





Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Del governo della peste e della maniera di guardarsene (Book 1)



Argumentaitve



Emilia Romagna





Matteo Angelo Galdi, Delle vicende e della rigenerazione de’ teatri



Argumentaitve



Campania





[Pietro Verri, Lettere al fattore di Biassono (Letters 1–42)] 



Personal



Lombardy





Vincenzo Monti, Epistolario (Volume 1, Letters 1–110)



Personal



Northern Italy





Vittorio Alfieri, Della tirannide



Argumentaitve



Northern Italy





Vittorio Alfieri, Vita (Introduction, Periods 1–2)



Literay prose



Northern Italy





800



14 [+4]



Achille Torelli, I mariti



Mimetic speech



Campania





Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi sposi (Introduction, Chapters 1–8)



Literay prose



Lombardy





Carlo Cattaneo, Psicologia delle menti associate



Argumentaitve



Lombardy





Cesare Balbo, Delle speranze d’Italia (Chapters 1–4, 6–10)



Argumentaitve



Piedmont





[Ercole Trotti Estense Mosti, Lettere a Giovanna Maffei (1817–1827) (Letters 1–18, 50–62)]



Personal



Northern Italy





Giovanni Carmignani, Una lezione accademica sulla pena di morte



Argumentaitve



Tuscany





Giovanni Verga, In portineria



Mimetic speech



Sicily





Giovanni Verga, Novelle rusticane



Literay prose



Sicily





Giuseppe Giacosa, Resa a discrezione (Acts 1–3)



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





Giuseppe Giacosa, Tristi amori



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





Giuseppe Pinamonti, La Naunia descritta al viaggiatore



Argumentaitve



Northern Italy





[Ines Testi Pianciani, Lettere a Luigi Pianciani (1872–1890) (Letters 2–23, 47–63, 77–145)]



Personal



Lazio





Luigi Rolando, Saggio sopra la vera struttura del cervello dell’uomo e degli animali



Argumentaitve



Piedmont





Matilde Serao, Tramontando il sole



Literay prose



Campania





Paolo Giacometti, La morte civile



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





[Rosario Bagnasco, Lettere ai patrioti italiani (1849–1874)]



Personal



Sicily





[Teresa Pikler, Lettere alla figlia Costanza (1817–1833) (Letters 1–46)]



Personal



Lazio





Ugo Foscolo, Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis (Part 1)



Literay prose



Northern Italy





900



12 [+3]



Bruno Misefari, Diario di un disertore (Part 1, until 8 September 1915)



Personal



Calabria/

Campania





[Dario Fo, Morte accidentale di un anarchico]



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





[Dario Fo, Non tutti i ladri vengono per nuocere]



Mimetic speech



Northern Italy





Erminio Juvalta, Osservazioni sulle dottrine morali di Spinoza



Argumentaitve



Northern Italy





Ernesto Bonaiuti, Lettere di un prete modernista



Personal



Lazio





Ettore Majorana, Valore delle leggi statistiche nella fisica e nelle scienze



Argumentaitve



Sicily





Federigo Tozzi, Novelle



Literay prose



Central Italy





Giovanni Verga, Dal tuo al mio



Mimetic speech



Sicily





Giuseppe Rensi, Lettere spirituali



Personal



Veneto/Liguria





Grazia Deledda, Cosima



Literay prose



Lazio





Italo Svevo, Senilità (Chapters 1–4, 7–14)



Literay prose



Northern Italy





Ludovico Limentani, La previsione dei fatti sociali (Introduction, Warning, Chapters 1–2)



Argumentaitve



Northern Italy





Luigi Pirandello, Così è (se vi pare)



Mimetic speech



Central Italy





Luigi Pirandello, Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore



Mimetic speech



Central Italy





[Paolo Sylos Labini, Saggio sulle classi sociali]



Argumentaitve



Lazio






 

(Texts in square brackets and in bold are those that could not be uploaded to Zenodo due to copyright restrictions but nevertheless form part of the CoDIAC corpus).



The texts uploaded were sourced from their digitised editions available in online archives or digital libraries, namely:



Biblioteca Italiana: Quondam, A. (Ed.) (2003). Biblioteca italiana. Università “La Sapienza” di Roma. http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it/

Liber Liber: https://liberliber.it/

Biblioteca dei Classici italiani: Bonghi, G.  (Ed.) (1996). Biblioteca digitale di testi classici italiani. https://www.classicitaliani.it

OpenLibrary/Internet Archive: https://openlibrary.org

Archivio del Teatro Pregoldoniano: Carou, J. G. (Ed.) (2012–2025). ArpreGo. Archivio del Teatro Pregoldoniano – Biblioteca Pregoldoniana. https://www.usc.gal/goldoni/      

Raccolta di Edoardo Mori: https://www.mori.bz.it/index.htm

AMS Historica: Università di Bologna (n.d.). AMS Historica. https://historica.unibo.it/home






The texts are in .txt format and have been manually edited to remove the paratextual content (headers, annotations, pagination, and similar elements).

To ensure quantitative balance, only selected portions of larger texts were included (see Table 1). Word tokens were counted using the AntConc software (Version: 3.5.9 [Windows] 2020) for each text.


The table below summarises the structure and size of CoDIAC:

Table 2






 



200



300



400



500



600



700



800



900





Literary prose



117.568



128.030



119.504

[85.124]



123.863



136.883



109.492



131.642



 128.229





Argumentative texts



97.415



125.544



131.473



113.220



139.380



139.625



125.741



117.853

[84.421]





Mimetic speech texts



0



84.831



70.168



95.346



82.699



87.961



85.136



84.489

[52.083]





Personal texts



122.114



119.207



136.210



125.849



98.263



105.704

[50.178]



115.274

[0]



128.159





Total



337.097



457.612



457.355

[422.975]



458.278



457.225



442.782

[387.256]



457.793

[342.519]



458.730

[392.892]





(The numbers in square brackets correspond only to the tokens of texts uploaded to Zenodo, excluding those that could not be included due to copyright restrictions).

Excerpts from the texts were always made in accordance with their original structural divisions, without interrupting the narrative or argumentative flow. For example, novellas were selected throughout the entire collection, one or two books for each treatise, or single dated texts for sermons and letters.

 

Further methodological details and usage guidelines are available in the “ReadMe” file and in the “Licences and releases for use” file attached to the resource.