[1] Language not only expresses ideas, but is a medium that shapes them. This is what Marshall McLuhan expressed when he observed that “the medium is the message”. (McLuhan 3) He meant that the form of communication quietly shapes how people think and act, separate from the content that is communicated.
He explains that the printing press created individualism and nationalism in the 16th century, not because of the content of any single book, but because it changed how ideas could circulate. The railway created new types of cities, work, and leisure, regardless of what cargo it carried or what climate it travelled in. (McLuhan 3)
[2] Like the printing press and the railway, language is also a medium. Language, as a form, can be poetic or analytical. Both have a different effect on a reader and can alter the way in which the message is received.
[3] Take for example the poetic expression of love by Elisabeth Barrett Browning in her Sonnet 43:
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
A systematic way of expressing the same idea of love might be:
I experience an emotional state of affection toward you, which I recognize as love according to my understanding of human attachment.
[4] Both expressions speak of love, but the first moves the heart, while the second simply describes it. The content is the same (both speak of love), but the different forms which deliver the content shape our experience of it.
Vernacular as medium
[5] In an earlier piece, I wondered how Vatican II’s pastoral language as a medium invited renewal. In this reflection, I would like to consider the influence of vernacular language as a medium in both Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Constitutions of Vatican II.
[6] In the 1300s, theological and literary texts were composed in Latin. Dante, however, chose to write the Divine Comedy in the Florentine vernacular. Similarly, before the 1960s, papal encyclicals were composed in Latin, but with Vatican II, the Council encouraged the widespread translation of its Constitutions into vernacular languages.
[7] In reflecting on McLuhan‘s media theory, I wondered what influence the vernacular language itself, independent of content, might have had on people?
[8] In other words:
Did Dante’s medium – the vernacular language of the Divine Comedy – shape religion or culture, even if no one ever read a single verse of the poem?
Similarly, did Vatican II’s medium – the vernacular language – shape religion or culture, even if no one ever read a single section of Lumen Gentium or Gaudium et Spes?
[9] Of course, not everything that changed in religion or culture after Dante’s poem circulated or after Vatican II can be attributed purely to the vernacular medium. Much derived from the content of Dante’s poem and the Council’s Constitutions.
[10] But I’m wondering what effects might have arisen without engagement with the content at all. This might illustrate the power of the medium that McLuhan spoke about.
Possible Effects of the Vernacular
Dante
[11] Perhaps Dante’s choice of vernacular contributed to a sense of shared culture. In the 1300s, Italy as a unified country did not exist. Each Italian city-state had its own dialect. By writing in the Florentine language, Dante may have offered people from different regions a sense of belonging.
[12] Dante‘s vernacular may also have broadened participation in culture, across gender and class. In the 14th century, primarily males and members of the clergy were educated in Latin. By opening spiritual and poetic themes to the general imagination, a space may have been created for women and non-elites to participate in intellectual and cultural life too.
[13] At the same time, by choosing to write his poetic vision in his own Florentine dialect, Dante may have inadvertently reduced the importance or uniqueness of the various dialects of different Italian regions. People may have seen this elevation of the Florentine language as a diminishment of their own dialect. In fact, the Florentine dialect is still considered the “cultural standard” for Italy today.
Vatican II
[14] With Vatican II, the Church moved away from communicating exclusively in Latin in its documents, and started to speak more freely in everyday language. This may have been viewed as an invitation to everyone (not just to theologians and clergy) to contemplate belief and be more involved in religious life.
[15] Another effect of Vatican II’s translation into vernacular languages was that it required translators, educators and publishers – regardless of what the documents actually said.
[16] On the other hand, a Catholic born at the turn of the 20th century, who may have attended a Latin mass for 60 years without understanding a word, may have felt that being invited to speak and participate towards the end of his life was “too little, too late”.
[17] In both cases, the medium acted before the message: it invited participation even before the content was read. As McLuhan said, the medium creates the conditions in which the content is experienced and given meaning. (McLuhan 3) The vernacular language expressed the ideas, but also seemed to help transform culture through its presence alone.
Further Reflection
[18] In what other ways might the vernacular language, as a medium, have influenced or reshaped religious or cultural life, even among those who never read Dante’s poem or Vatican II’s documents? Were all the effects of the vernacular positive, or might some have introduced tensions or losses?
WORKS CITED
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. “Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43742/sonnets-from-the-portuguese-43-how-do-i-love-thee-let-me-count-the-ways. Accessed 28 Nov. 2025.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 1964. Gingko Press, 2013.
Recommended Citation
Miatello, Claudia. “From Dante to Vatican II: The Quiet Influence of the Vernacular” Bibliosofia e Arte, What An Extraordinary Life. Toronto, ON: Claudia Miatello, 2025. https://whatanextraordinarylife.com › blogs › bibliosofia-arte › from-dante-to-vatican-ii-the-quiet-influence-of-the-vernacular<paragraph number>
Comments (3)
Un’eco interessante di questa dinamica si può osservare nella ricezione di Dante al di fuori dell’Italia. Nel mondo anglofono, la Divina Commedia è rimasta in gran parte non tradotta per quasi cinque secoli, con la prima versione integrale in inglese pubblicata solo nel 1802. Da allora, sono state realizzate oltre cento traduzioni. Il volgare non fu un singolo evento storico nella Firenze del Trecento, ma un processo che continua a svolgersi. Ogni nuova traduzione nelle lingue vernacolari contemporanee diventa un nuovo «medium», capace di rimodellare la cultura e l’immaginazione spirituale.
Penso che la religione e la spiritualità siano diventate qualcosa di più interiore quando i testi sono stati resi disponibili nelle lingue volgari. Le persone non dovevano più dipendere dai sacerdoti per interpretare i testi. Però, questa libertà forse ha messo a disagio qualcun altro, perché si sentiva più al sicuro affidandosi ai sacerdoti, che erano considerati esperti. Questa dinamica potrebbe valere sia per il passaggio al volgare nella Commedia di Dante, sia per i documenti del Concilio Vaticano II
I thought of something else: there is a difference in how the vernacular was used by Vatican II and Dante, in that the Church translated its doctrine with authority when it wrote the documents of VII in the vernacular. Dante was theologizing in the vernacular as a poet without church consent in his Divine Comedy. So perhaps it also matters who speaks through the vernacular medium: an authorized expert on the subject matter, or someone who may take creative liberties with it. In the first case (institutional translation), Catholics may feel invited to think; in the second case (creative translation) laypeople may feel they are invited to imagine