The article discusses the relationship between historical lin- guistics and textual criticism in relation to the making in Europe of national linguistic identities, with particular reference to Italy. Since no major European language lacks a written tradition (a process which preserves language by altering its nature) historical linguis- tics should consider as a direct object of study also the processes through which languages acquired a written form – the very form which, in turn, enabled individual languages to function as symbols of cultural identity of multilingual cultural areas.