Cause of death of Italian saint uncovered

Genoese...Bolognese... Sicilian...ravenna...Paduan...etc. those terms make sense when describing those inhabiting these regions/City states of the Italian peninusla in that time.

Most “journalists” don’t know these things.

But once again gently...Saint Rosa is a Christian saint born in Vitervo. Describing her “Italian” makes almost as much sense as calling Saint Nicholas a Turk (gasp). Ethnicity makes little sense when discussing Christinity.

Interesting discussion.

Words generally have shades of meaning, and if one is to read carefully, one must put them into historical context. Identical spelling of an adjective does not mean that its use in two widely distinct contexts may be presumed to be identical. “Virginian” in 1763 would be related to yet distinct from the same term in 1784 or in 1820 or in 1863 or in 1963. The 19th century unification of the Italian peninsula is responsible for the common modern notion of what Italian means, which is related to yet not identical with past usages. At the time of St. Rosa’s death, Italian identity would be minimal—most of the wars that the governments on the peninsula were involved with were with each other, or at least against each other as parts of complex alliances.

The BBC guy is being sloppy, but given the level of education that his readers have, it is easiest to perpetuate the fiction that the present social/political units have largely existed from time immemorial.

I would say, from the vantage point of the same fact that Italy was not a nation state till 19c, — that you two should not bring the modern assumption about ethnicity needing a state in to medieval contexts.

“Italian” means as much and as little as “Greek”, “English” or “French”. It identifies the country (not the state) of birth, the native language, physiognomy, etc. It has nothing to do with political structures.

It is not the same as describing a Byzantine bishop as a “Turk” because the Turks did not settle in Asia Minor till centuries later.

It would be nice — although a tad pedantic — to identify St. Rosa with greater precision (as what, Lazian?) but it is not necessary. There si nothign wrong with the adentification int he article. Again, the adjective “Italian” as we just saw, existed since at least 1c.

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