| Old Lombard | |
| Nativename: | lonbardo, lombardesco |
| States: | Italy |
| Region: | Northern Italy, specifically the Lordship of Milan, Crema, Cremona, Lodi, and Bressa. |
| Ethnicity: | Lombards |
| Era: | Evolved into Modern Lombard and Siculo-Lombard in the end of the 14th century. |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Italic |
| Fam3: | Latino-Faliscan |
| Fam4: | Latin |
| Fam5: | Romance |
| Fam6: | Italo-Western |
| Fam7: | Western Romance |
| Fam8: | Gallo-Iberian |
| Fam9: | Gallo-Romance |
| Fam10: | Gallo-Italic |
| Fam11: | Lombard–Piedmontese[1] |
| Ancestor: | Old Latin |
| Ancestor2: | Vulgar Latin |
| Ancestor3: | Proto-Romance |
| Ancestor4: | Old Gallo-Italic |
| Script: | Latin |
Old Lombard (Old) is an Old Gallo-Italic dialect and the earliest form of Lombard. Spoken in the 13th and 14th centuries within the Late Middle Ages, several folks such as the Milanese writers Bonvesin da la Riva and Pietro da Barsegapé in the Duecento wrote in this dialect.
Old Lombard shows precursors to modern Lombard in many areas and thus represents a helpful source for its historical grammar. The distinguishing features include:
Although Old Lombard is well documented, the research is still subject to some limitations. Since the medieval copyists did not use diacritical signs in the sense of modern orthography, the spelling often does not provide immediate information about the sound level. Often there are also Latinized, Tuscan, or Occitan spellings that cannot be reconciled with Lombard pronunciation. Since no elisions were marked in the medieval manuscripts, it is not possible, for example, to conclusively determine whether or in which cases ⟨che⟩ stands for the mere conjunction che '
English translation:
In the name of Jesus Christ, and Saint MaryThis work began in their honor:Who wants to hear a valuable speech,Please listen and understand.
Listening and not understanding would do no good,And whoever understood well would still conclude nothing,If he does not put into practice what he has understood:What you don't put your heart and ingenuity into has no value.
In this book we deal with three types of writing:The first is black and instills great fearThe second is red, the third is beautiful and pure,Also worked with gold, so much so that you would say it is of great refinement.