Commentary Par XXVI 130

See P.V. Mengaldo, 'lingua' (ED.1971.3), p. 661b, discussing the source of this verse in Egidio Romano, De regimine principum (III.ii.24): 'It is a natural thing that man should speak, and nature teaches him to do so; but whether the speech should be German or French or Tuscan nature does not instruct him.  On the contrary, a man must himself learn it, either by himself or with the aid of others.'