The vindication of a Galician dictionary in the 19th century

In the vindication of a Galician dictionary in the second half of the 19th century coalesced the main currents of the "Rexurdimento" movement initiated around 1850, in connection with the multiple interest to which this movement tried to respond. Only in the context of the "provincialist" and "regionalist" ideologies articulated by the Galician intelligentsia of the time is feasible to understand this demand for lexicographical compendia. The philological framing of a "Galician identity", and the recognition that publishing in Galician was the most unequivocal sign of its vitality, represent two key elements of the lexicographical movement that saw in the "Dictionary" an ideal instrument to secure the future of the Galician language and to legitimize a related collective identity.