1. Etymology and use before the 15th century
At least two etymologies are proposed for the term aria (also air/ayre, Italian aria, French air, German Arie), and their meanings often overlap in practice. The Late Latin aer (pl. aera) is found in vernacular authors of the 13th and 14th centuries (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio) in the sense of “air,” “wind,” “sky.” This sense found its…