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The period of the sixteenth century is characterized throughout Europe as a key moment in the process of the legitimization of vernacular languages as vehicles of culture and knowledge able to perform the same function as Latin, Europe's lingua franca for many centuries. The progression of the struggle between Latin and vernacular languages can be illustrated, for instance, in the sphere of diplomatic international relations. If during the first half of the sixteenth century Latin continued to be the most widely used language for diplomatic purposes, in the second half of the century Italian gained prominence, at least at a spoken level and at court (Cáceres Würsig 2002: 49). Thus, at the beginning of the seventeenth century knowledge of Latin became less widespread than in 1500 and it was in the seventeenth century when it began its decline as the language of diplomacy — with the exception of negotiations with Turkey or countries of Eastern Europe, where it was the official language of the administration (Hungary and Bohemia, for instance) (Cáceres Würsig 2002: 49). Within the English context, Baugh and Cable (2003: 200–2) enumerate a number of factors that from 1500 onwards make English more widely used than Latin in the written form: the introduction of the printing press in 1476 by William Caxton, which meant that the book was no longer a luxury commodity; the rise of literacy and therefore the growth of a wider readership;¹ the increase in commercial exchange and the improvement of means of transport; the increase in specialized knowledge and a growing tendency to publish scientific works in English; and a social linguistic consciousness.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137310057_6

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