Sardinian literature
Of particular importance for the history and anthropology of Sardinia in Roman times, is the text of the table of Esterzili: "The find is of exceptional importance for the inscription of 27 lines with capital letters: it shows the decree by the Proconsul of Sardinia L. Elvio Agrippa March 18 69 A.D. – during the reign of the Emperor Otho – to settle a border between the populations of Patulcenses Campani and Galillenses that have repeatedly violated the limits.
[8][9] The earliest record of an artistic literary production in Sardinia can be found in Latin and Greek carmina, carved in the limestone of the tomb-shrine of Atilia Pomptilla, in the necropolis of Tuvixeddu of Cagliari.
In fact, when already the spirit of Philip was about to melt from his limbs, and he had his soul on his lips, Pomptilla, leaning on his pale groom, Pontilla the life of him with hers exchanged.
And the Gods broke a union so happy, for the sake of her sweet husband died Pontilla; now Philip is living against his will, always longing to be able to confuse soon his soul with that of the bride who loved him so much[10] The carmina in the Grotta della Vipera enshrine the beginning of the literary history of the island.
From the late Roman period we have received the highly polemical writings of St. Lucifer from Cagliari,[11] a staunch defender of Catholic orthodoxy against the Arian heresy.
Some of them have very ancient origins, perhaps dating back to the monastery and religious literature that was created in Cagliari around the figure of St. Fulgence of Ruspe[13] at the time of his exile during the reign vandal Thrasamund.
The early use of vulgar Sardinian date back to the eleventh century: we can find it in the acts of donations of the "Judges" (kings) to various religious orders and in condaxis or condaghes that were administrative documents.
[edit] The final fall of East Roman Empire to the Turks (and their spread in the Balkan-Greek peninsula) in 1453, the expulsion of the Arab-Berber Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula, the geographical discoveries, culminated with the discovery of the New World, and, finally, the focus in one man, Charles V, of a vast empire, carry Europe and with it Sardinia in the modern age.
The Sardinian authors of the sixteenth century as Antonio Lo Frasso, Sigismund Arquer, Giovanni Francesco Fara, Pedro Delitala will be multilingual, multicultural.
But by that time, the penetration of Castilian as a literary language knows no barriers and becomes overwhelmingly in the seventeenth century, while the non-fiction of the period use Latin as in the rest of Europe.
In the second half of the eighteenth century a production of "gender" oratorio (mostly only in manuscript) takes shape in Sardinian who has the highest representative on the priest Giovanni Battista Zonchello Espada from Sedilo.
Giovanni Spano undertook the first archaeological excavations, Giuseppe Manno wrote the first great general history of the island, Pasquale Tola published important documents of the past, Pietro Martini writes biographies of famous Sardinian, Alberto La Marmora runs through the island far and wide, studying in detail and writing a massive work in four parts entitled Voyage en Sardaigne, published in Paris.
Between the 19th and the 20th centuries the birth of Sardinian Philology dates back, or the study on textual productions of the Romance languages historically spoken and written in Sardinia.
Important anthropologists have written about Sardinia, the most recent: Ernesto de Martino, Mario Alberto Cirese, Giulio Angioni, Michelangelo Pira, Clara Gallini.
