Il presente contributo getta nuova luce sulle effettive conoscenze di Michelangelo del dibattito contemporaneo attorno alla nascente lingua italiana. Nonostante i suoi ripetuti proclami di essere ignaro di fatti linguistici, e nonostante recenti contributi critici sulla lingua delle sue lettere mostrino una spiccata predilezione per il fiorentino cinquecentesco, una nuova lettura di documenti pratici porta a riconsiderare la presunta inconsapevolezza grammaticale dell’artista, e a calibrare meglio il peso che si cela dietro le sue scelte linguistica.
The article aims at shedding light on Michelangelo’s knowledge of the debate about the Italian language. In fact, the artist repeatedly claimed that he was unaware of any grammatical dispute, and all previous scholars have insisted that his written style was an excellent example of sixteenth-century Florentine language. On the contrary, after the reading of practical documents, I argue that he was aware on some level of his linguistic choices, and that his preference for the contemporary language was less inevitable than we thought.