The First Museum of Italian Language

On July 6, the world’s first National Museum of Italian (MUNDI) was inaugurated in Florence, Italy, with a temporary exhibition of two rooms within the building in Santa Maria Novella. The temporary introduction of these two rooms offer free admission until October 6th and will serve as a prelude to the full museum, which is expected to be opened to the public in 2023.

The name MUNDI plays with the Latin tongue where mundi is derived from the word mundus, which translates to ‘world.’ This evokes an image symbolizing how Italian is the language of the world. The name perfectly outlines the purpose of the this museum: to recognize the evolution of Italian over the course of centuries and its link between with different cultures and its presence in the global world.

The inauguration of the museum was attended by the Italian culture of minister, Dario Franceschini, and the Florence mayor, Dario Nardella, to witness the museum, officially recognized as Museo Nazionale dell’Italiano or  MUNDI for short.

The museum will display a combination of different mediums such as paintings, books, manuscripts, and any artifact related to the history of Italian. A few of these objects include a Pompeian inscription and the infamous Italian poet, Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy. The museum is a near-completion project in collaboration with different institutions of linguistics that received €4.5 million funding from the culture ministry to offer a range of activities from book presentations, educational activities, talks, seminars and concerts.

-Juliet Reyes