The Simulacrum Precedes the Truth: Padre Onofrio Branda’s Linguistic Counterfeit

Abstract

In this essay the author discusses the work of Paolo Onofrio Branda (1710-1776) and his idea of simulacrum. Branda, a Milanese scholar, educator, and cohort to members of Il Caffè including Beccaria, endeavored to further his own renown by creating a simulacrum fashioned as a Socratic dialogue that addresses the Tuscan language as a primary didactic and social commodity to be diffused.