A partial answer only:
>1. When does the term 'Mezzogiorno d'Italia' come to refer to the south of
>Italy?
As for the exact locution "Mezzogiorno d'Italia", the first instance I
found (through LIZ) is Leopardi, Zibaldone, under the date of 7 jan 1827.
It has to be said that, anyway, in older italian, the meaning of
"Mezzogiorno" was simply "South". The earliest occurence I found with this
meaning (in my Duecento archive) is in L'Intelligenza, CLXXXIII, 7 (XIII
cent.)
Today's "Sud" is much later, and anyway was not felt as proper italian.
Obviously it does not appear in Crusca's fourth edition (around 1730); and
still around 1860 Tommaseo-Bellini's dictionary says under "Sud":
Sud: S.m. Voce olandese usata dai geografi che vale mezzodi'.
(South: s.m. dutch word used by geographers that means "mezzodi'")
There is a much earlier use of "sud" by G.B. Ramusio (1485-1557) but in
this case he is quoting a foreign germainc word, toghether with "ost",
"west" and "nort". (btw, Ramusio has a much more interesting record in
european literature, being the first to quote a drink made from leaves of a
plant called "chiai catai", i.e. tea)
The other alternative to mean south would have been "meridione" or
"meridionale", but as far as I have been able to find out in early times
this word had only an astronomical meaning.
I would therefore say that in ancient times, if one was to speak of south
Italy, for lack of other words one could only have spoken of the
"mezzogiorno dell'Italia" ("or mezzodi' dell'Italia"), even if we do not
have very early occurences on the exact locution.
>3. Am I right in thinking that the province Emilia-Romagna was a post 1860
>creation?
As far as I know, the name "Emilia-Romagna" was created only in Italy's
1948 constitution.
I leave the other questions to someone more versed in geography than I am...
Ciao
Francesco Bonomi
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