italian

Italian, or italiano, is spoken by about seventy million people mainly in Italy, and southern Switzerland. The language is a descendant of Latin. The Roman Empire declared itself a Christian state in AD 380. The Italian Catholic Old Testament includes the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic tradition. The classic Italian evangelical Protestant translation of the Bible (la Sacra Bibbia), was translated by Giovanni Diodati and printed in 1607, and revised many times. It was revised by Giovanni Luzzi as the Versione Diodate Riveduta (Luzzi Bible) in 1924 and as the Nuova Riveduta (Revised Luzzi) in 1995. Most Italian speaking Christians are Catholic, with a historic Protestant minority, dating back to the Waldensians of the twelfth century. Bible work in Italian is done by the Bible Society in Italy (Società Biblica in Italia). La Bibbia in lingua corrente (Italian Good News Bible) was produced in 1985. The New Testament Traduzione Interconfessionale in Lingua Corrente (ICL) was produced in 1985 and revised in 2008. Bibles are printed in Protestant and Catholic editions.