ABSTRACT:  John Florio, an Elizabethan humanist of Anglo-Italian origin, published in 1598 the first edition of an Italian-English dictionary under the title of “A Worlde of Wordes.” This lexicographic work is presented as a bridge between Italian and English cultures in the Renaissance, with the added value that the alleged friendship of its author with William Shakespeare reveals a great influence on his plays. 

It may explain in part why the English playwright par excellence had such a comprehensive knowledge of Italian society. As a first step, this paper will apply Prototype Theory to the analysis of the lexical domain used by John Florio of fauna as an attempt to illustrate how culture can be codified in the form of definitions.

VÍCTORA NDRÉSPEÑABLAS Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha