Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects comprise the Italiano Meridionale-estremo language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento Sicilian , and is important as proof that there existed a popular, independent of literary, poetry. The
Contrasto is probably a scholarly re-elaboration of a lost popular rhyme and is the closest to a kind of poetry that perished or was smothered by the ancient Sicilian literature. Its distinguishing point was its possession of all qualities opposite to the poetry of the rhymers of the "Sicilian School", though its style may betray a knowledge of Frederick's poetry, and there is probably a
satiricSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
intent in the mind of the
anonymousAnonymity is derived from the Greek word ανωνυμία, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymous typically refers to a person, and often means that the personal identity, or personally identifiable information of that person is not known.More strictly, and in reference to...
poet. It is vigorous in the expression of feelings. The
conceitAside from its common usage, signifying "excessive pride" , in literary terms, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs apoetic passage or entire poem...
s, sometimes bold and very coarse, show that its subject matter is popular. Everything about the
Contrasto is original.
The poems of the Sicilian school were written in the first known standard Italian. This was elaborated by these poets under the direction of Frederick II and combines many traits typical of the Sicilian, and to a lesser, but not negligible extent,
ApuliaApulia is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its southern portion known as Salento, a peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy...
n dialects and other southern dialects, with many words of Latin and French origin. Dante's styles
illustre, cardinale, aulico, curiale were developed from his linguistic study of the Sicilian School, which had been re-founded by
Guittone d'ArezzoGuittone d'Arezzo was a Tuscan poet and the founder of the Tuscan School. In 1256, he was exiled from Arezzo due to his Guelf sympathies....
in
TuscanyTuscany is a region in North-Central Italy. It has an area of and a population of about 3.6 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence.Tuscany is known for its landscapes and its artistic legacy...
. The standard changed slightly in Tuscany, because Tuscan
scrivenerA scrivener was traditionally a person who could read and write. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and history records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities...
s perceived the five-vowel system used by southern Italian as a seven-vowel one. As a consequence, the texts that Italian students read in their anthology contain lines that do not rhyme with each other (sometimes Sic. -i > -e, -u > -o), and that may account for its decrease in popularity through the 19th and early 20th century.
Religious literature
In the 13th century a religious movement took place in Italy, with the rise of the
DominicanThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
and
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
Orders. The earliest preserved sermons in an Italian language are from
Jordan of PisaBlessed Jordan of Pisa or Giordano da Pisa was a Dominican theologian and preacher, the first whose vernacular Italian sermons are preserved. His cultus was confirmed on 23 August 1833 by Pope Gregory XVI and he was beatified in 1838; his day is either March 6 or August 19...
, a Dominican.
Francis of AssisiSaint Francis of Assisi was a Catholic deacon and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans....
, mystic and reformer in the
Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, the founder of the Franciscans, also wrote poetry. Though he was educated, Francis's poetry was beneath the refined poetry at the center of Frederick's court. According to legend, Francis dictated the
hymnA hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek , "a song of praise"...
Cantico del Sole in the eighteenth year of his penance, almost rapt in ecstasy; doubts remain about its authenticity. It was the first great poetical work of Northern Italy, written in a kind of verse marked by
assonanceAssonance is refrain of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. For example, in the phrase "Do you like blue?", the is repeated within the sentence and is assonant.Assonance...
, a poetic device more widespread in Northern Europe. Other poems previously attributed to Francis are now generally recognized as lacking in authenticity.
Jacopone da TodiJacopone da Todi was a Franciscan friar from Umbria, Italy in the 13th century. He wrote several laudi in Italian. Moreover, the famous Latin lyric Stabat Mater is conventionally attributed to him...
was a poet who represented the religious feeling that had made special progress in
UmbriaUmbria is a region of central Italy. Its capital is Perugia. It has an area of 8,456 km² and about 900,000 inhabitants.- Geography :...
. Jacopone was possessed by St. Francis's mysticism, but was also a satirist who mocked the
corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and
hypocrisyHypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy is thus a kind of lie. Hypocrisy may come from a desire to hide from others actual motives or feelings....
of the Church personified by
Pope Boniface VIIIPope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in a circle of Hell in his Commedia, and King Philip IV of France.- Biography :Caetani was born in 1235 in...
, persecutor of Jacopone and Dante. Jacopone's wife died after the stands at a public tournament collapsed, and the sorrow at her sudden death caused Jacopone to sell all he possessed and give it to the poor. Jacopone covered himself with rags, joined St. Francis's
Third OrderThe term Third Order designates persons who live according to the Third Rule of a Roman Catholic religious order. Their members, known as Tertiaries, are generally lay members of religious orders, i.e...
, took pleasure in being laughed at, and was followed by a crowd of people who mocked him and called after him
Jacopone, Jacopone. He went on raving for years, subjecting himself to the severest sufferings, and giving vent to his religious intoxication in his poems. Jacopone was a
mysticChristian mysticism refers to the practice and experiential knowledge of deep prayer involving the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. This approach and lifestyle is distinguished from more "mainstream" forms of Christian practice by its aim and depth of devotion...
, who from his
hermitA hermit is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion from society....
's cell looked out into the world and specially watched the papacy, scourging with his words
Pope Celestine VPope Saint Celestine V , born Pietro Angelerio , also known as Pietro da Morrone, was elected pope in the year 1294, by the Papal election, 1292–1294, the last non-conclave in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Celestine V is recognized by the Church as a saint...
and Pope Boniface VIII, for which he was imprisoned.
The religious movement in Umbria was followed by another literary phenomenon, the religious drama. In 1258 a hermit, Raniero Fasani, left the cavern in which he had lived for many years and suddenly appeared at
PerugiaPerugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber River, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city.Perugia is a notable artistic center of Italy...
. Fasani represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious visions, and to announce to the world terrible visitations. This was a turbulent period of political faction (the
Guelphs and GhibellinesThe Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries...
),
interdictIn the Roman Catholic Church, the word interdict usually refers to an ecclesiastical penalty. Interdicts may be real, local or personal. A personal interdict pertains to one or more persons. A real or local interdict, which is no longer a part of canon law, suspends all public worship and...
s and
excommunicationExcommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
s issued by the popes, and reprisals of the imperial party. In this environment, Fasani's pronouncements stimulated the formation of the Compagnie di Disciplinanti, who, for a penance, scourged themselves till they drew blood, and sang
Laudi in dialogue in their
confraternitiesA confraternity is a lay, Roman Catholic organization created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety.Confraternity may also refer to:*Confraternities of the Cord*Confraternity of Catholic Saints...
. These
laudi, closely connected with the
liturgyA liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Catholic Mass, or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish services...
, were the first example of the drama in the vernacular tongue of Italy. They were written in the Umbrian dialect, in verses of eight syllables, and, according to the 1911
Encyclopædia BritannicaThe Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., a privately held company. The articles in the Britannica are aimed at educated adult readers, and written by a staff of about 100 full-time editors and more than...
, "have not any artistic value." Their development, however, was rapid. As early as the end of the 13th century the
Devozioni del Giovedi e Venerdi Santo appeared, mixing liturgy and drama. Later,
di un Monaco che ando al servizio di Dio ("of a monk who entered the service of God") approached the definite form the religious drama would assume in the following centuries.
First Tuscan literature
Thirteenth century Tuscany was in a unique situation. The Tuscans spoke a dialect which closely resembled Latin - one which afterwards became almost exclusively the language of literature, and which was already regarded at the end of the 13th century as surpassing the other dialects;
Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam ("The Tuscan tongue is better suited to the letter or literature") wrote Antonio da Tempo of Padua, born about 1275. After the fall of the
HohenstaufenThe House of Hohenstaufen was a dynasty of German kings lasting from 1138 to 1254. Three of these kings were also crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1194 the Hohenstaufen also became Kings of Sicily...
at the
Battle of BeneventoThe Battle of Benevento was fought near Benevento, in present-day Southern Italy, on February 26, 1266, between the troops of Charles of Anjou and Manfred of Sicily. Manfred's defeat and death resulted in the capture of the Kingdom of Sicily by Charles....
in 1266, it was the first province of Italy. From 1266 Florence began the movement of political reform which in 1282 resulted in the appointment of the Priori delle Arti, and the establishment of the Arti Minori. This was later copied by
SienaSiena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.- History :...
(with the Magistrato dei Nove), by
LuccaLucca is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
, by
PistoiaPistoia is a city in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence.- History :...
, and by other Guelph cities in Tuscany with similar popular institutions. The
guildA guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade.The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel and a secret society...
s took the government into their hands, and it was a time of social and political prosperity.
In Tuscany, too, popular love poetry existed. A school of imitators of the Sicilians was led by Dante da Majano, but its literary originality took another line — that of humorous and satirical poetry. The entirely democratic form of government created a style of poetry which stood strongly against the medieval mystic and chivalrous style. Devout invocation of God or of a lady came from the
cloisterthumb|250px|right|Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in [[Arles]], [[France]]thumb|250px|right|Cloister of [[Abbaye de Fontenay]], in [[Marmagne]], [[France]]...
and the
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
; in the streets of the cities everything that had gone before was treated with ridicule or biting
sarcasmSarcasm is a form of humor that uses sharp, cutting remarks or language intended to mock, wound, or subject to contempt or ridicule, generally saying the opposite of what the statement really is.-Origin of the term:...
.
Folgore da San GimignanoFolgóre da San Gimignano, pseudonym of Giacomo di Michele or Jacopo di Michele was an Italian poet.He represented mostly hunting scenes, jousts of the citadine bourgesy of Tuscany. 32 sonnets are attributed to him, written around 1308-1316. The most famous ones are the corone dedicated to the days...
laughs when in his sonnets he tells a party of Sienese youths the occupations of every month in the year, or when he teaches a party of Florentine lads the pleasures of every day in the week. Cenne della Chitarra laughs when he parodies Folgore's sonnets. The sonnets of Rustico di Filippo are half-fun and half-satire, as is the work of
Cecco Angiolieri- Biography :Cecco Angiolieri was born in Siena in 1260, son of Angioliero, who was himself the son of Angioliero Solàfica who was for several years a banker to Pope Gregory IX; his mother was Lisa de' Salimbeni, from a powerful Senese family....
of Siena, the oldest humorist we know, a far-off precursor of
RabelaisFrançois Rabelais was a major French Renaissance writer, doctor and Renaissance humanist. He has historically been regarded as a writer of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, and both bawdy jokes and songs.- Biography :...
and
MontaigneMichel Eyquem de Montaigne was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance. Montaigne is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre...
.
Another kind of poetry also began in Tuscany. Guittone d'Arezzo made art quit chivalry and Provençal forms for national motives and Latin forms. He attempted political poetry, and, although his work is often obscure, he prepared the way for the Bolognese school. Bologna was the city of science, and
philosophicalPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
poetry appeared there.
Guido GuinizelliGuido Guinizzelli , born in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, was an Italian poet and 'founder' of the Dolce Stil Novo. He was the first to write in this new style of poetry writing, and thus is held to be the ipso facto founder.At first Guinizzelli followed Guittone's style, and later the...
was the poet after the new fashion of the art. In his work the ideas of chivalry are changed and enlarged. Only those whose heart is pure can be blessed with true love, regardless of class. He refuted the traditional credo of courtly love, for which love is a subtle philosophy only a few chosen knights and princesses could grasp. Love is blind to blasons but not to a good heart when it finds one: when it succeeds it is the result of the spiritual, not physical affinity between teo souls. Guinizzelli's democratic view can be better understood in the light of the greater equality and freedom enjoyed by the city-states of the center-north and the rise of a middle class eager to legitimise itself in the eyes of the old nobility, still regarded with respect and admiration but in fact dispossessed of its political power. Guinizelli's
CanzoniLiterally "song" in Italian, a canzone is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal...
make up the bible of Dolce Stil Novo, and one in particular, "Al cor gentil" ("To a Kind Heart") is considered the manifesto of the new movement which will bloom in Florence under Cavalcanti, Dante and their followers. His poetry has some of the faults of the school of d'Arezzo. Nevertheless, he marks a great development in the history of Italian art, especially because of his close connection with Dante's
lyric poetryLyric poetry usually refers nowadays to a short poem that expresses personal feelings. It need not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics 1447a, merely mentions lyric poetry along with drama, epic poetry, dancing, painting and other forms of mimesis...
.
In the 13th century, there were several major
allegorical poemsAllegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal. An allegory is a device that can be presented in literary form, such as a poem or novel, or in visual form, such as in painting or sculpture...
. One of these is by
Brunetto LatiniBrunetto Latini was an Italian philosopher, scholar and statesman.-Life:...
, who was a close friend of Dante. His
Tesoretto is a short poem, in seven-syllable verses, rhyming in couplets, in which the author professes to be lost in a wilderness and to meet with a lady, who represents Nature, from whom he receives much instruction. We see here the vision, the allegory, the instruction with a moral object, three elements which we shall find again in the
Divine Comedy. Francesco da Barberino, a learned lawyer who was secretary to
bishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s, a
judgeA judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is like an umpire in a game and...
, and a
notaryA notary public is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
, wrote two little allegorical poems, the
Documenti d'amore and
Del reggimento e dei costumi delle donne. The poems today are generally studied not as literature, but for historical context. A fourth allegorical work was the
Intelligenza, which is sometimes attributed to Compagni, but is probably only a
translationTranslation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language...
of French poems.
In the 15th century, humanist and publisher
Aldus ManutiusAldus Pius Manutius , the Latinized name of Teobaldo Mannucci, sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder, to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger, was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice.His publishing legacy...
published Tuscan poets
PetrarchFrancesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
and
Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
(
The Divine Comedy), creating the model for what became a standard for modern Italian.
Development of early prose
Italian prose of the 13th century was as abundant and varied as its poetry. The earliest example dates from 1231, and consists of short notices of entries and expenses by Mattasala di Spinello dei Lambertini of Siena. At this time, there was no sign of literary prose in Italian, though there was in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
. Halfway through the century, a certain Aldobrando or Aldobrandino, from either Florence or Siena, wrote a book for
Beatrice of SavoyBeatrice of Savoy , was the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and Marguerite of Geneva. She was Countess consort of Provence by her marriage to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence.-Family:...
, countess of Provence, called
Le Régime du corps. In 1267 Martino da Canale wrote a history of Venice in the same Old French (
langue d'oïl). Rusticiano of Pisa, who was for a long while at the court of
Edward I of EnglandEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial...
, composed many chivalrous romances, derived from the Arthurian cycle, and subsequently wrote the
Travels of Marco Polo, which may have been dictated by Polo himself. And finally
Brunetto LatiniBrunetto Latini was an Italian philosopher, scholar and statesman.-Life:...
wrote his
Tesoro in French. Latini also wrote some works in Italian prose such as
La rettorica, an adaptation from
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
's
De inventioneThe De Inventione is a handbook for orators that M. Tullius Cicero composed when he was still a young man. Quintillian tells us that Cicero considered the work rendered obsolete by his later writings. Originally four books in all, only two have survived into modern times.-External links:* by C.D....
, and translated three orations from Cicero:
Pro LigarioPro Ligario is a political speech made by Marcus Tullius Cicero in 46 BC in defense of Quintus Ligarius before Gaius Julius Caesar.In this speech Cicero defends Ligarius, who is accused of crimes in Africa. Ligarius' accuser is Tubero, who has himself committed crimes in Africa. Cicero attempts to...
,
Pro MarcelloPro Marcello is Latin for on behalf of Marcellus.Marcus Claudius Marcellus was descended from the most illustrious families at Rome, and had been consul with Servius Sulpicius Rufus; in which office he had given great offence to Caesar by making a motion in the Senate to deprive him of his command;...
and
Pro rege Deiotaro. Another important writer was the Florentine judge Bono Giamboni, who translated
OrosiusPaulus Orosius was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of Augustine of Hippo from Gallaecia. He is best known for his Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII , which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of...
's
Historiae adversus paganos,
VegetiusPublius Flavius Vegetius Renatus was a writer of the Later Roman Empire. Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what he tells us in his two surviving works: Epitoma rei militaris , and the lesser-known Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae, a guide to veterinary medicine.The latest event alluded to...
's
Epitoma rei militaris, made a translation/adaptation of Cicero's
De inventione mixed with the
Rethorica ad ErenniumThe Rhetorica ad Herennium, formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the 90s BC, and is still used today as a textbook on the structure and uses of rhetoric and persuasion....
, and a translation/adaptation of Innocent III's
De miseria humane conditionis. He also wrote an allegorical novel called
Libro de' Vizi e delle Virtudi whose earlier version (
Trattato delle virtù e dei vizi) is also preserved. Andrea of Grosseto, in 1268, translated three Treaties of
Albertanus of BresciaAlbertanus of Brescia , author of Latin social treaties and sermons.-Biography:Albertanus was from Brescia, but little is known of his early life. He had three sons Vincent, Stephen, and John...
, from Latin to
Tuscan dialectThe Tuscan dialect or the Tuscan language is an Italian dialect spoken in Tuscany, Italy. In many respects it wandered less than other Romance dialects from the Latin language and evolved linearly and homogeneously, without major influences from other foreign languages.Italian is in practice a...
.
After the original compositions in the
langue d'oïl came translations or adaptations from the same. There are some moral narratives taken from religious legends, a romance of
Julius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar , , was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, some short histories of ancient knights, the
Tavola rotondaA round table is a table which has no "head" and no "sides", and therefore no one person sitting at it is given a privileged position and all are treated as equals. The idea stems from the Arthurian legend about the Knights of the Round Table in Camelot....
, translations of the
Viaggi of
Marco PoloMarco Polo was a merchant from the Venetian Republic who wrote Il Milione, which introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, voyaged through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for...
, and of Latini's
Tesoro. At the same time, translations from Latin of moral and ascetic works, histories, and treatises on
rhetoricRhetoric is one of the arts of using language as a means to persuade. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public...
and
oratoryOratory is a type of public speaking.Oratory may also refer to:* Oratory , a power metal band* Oratory , a place of worship* a religious order such as** Oratory of Saint Philip Neri ** Oratory of Jesus...
appeared. Some of the works previously regarded as the oldest in the Italian language have been shown to be forgeries of a much later time. The oldest prose writing is a scientific book,
Composizione del mondo by Ristoro d'Arezzo, who lived about the middle of the 13th century. This work is a copious treatise on
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
and
geographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
. Ristoro was a careful observer of natural phenomena; many of the things he relates were the result of his personal investigations, and consequently his works are more reliable than those of other writers of the time on similar subjects.
Another short treatise exists:
De regimine rectoris, by Fra Paolino, a Minorite
friarA friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:Friars differ from monks in that they are called to live the evangelical counsels in service to a community, rather than through cloistered asceticism and devotion...
of Venice, who was probably bishop of Pozzuoli, and who also wrote a Latin chronicle. His treatise stands in close relation to that of Egidio Colonna,
De regimine principum. It is written in the
Venetian languageVenetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. The language is called vèneto or vènet in Venetian, veneto in Italian; the variant spoken in Venice is called venexiàn/venesiàn or veneziano, respectively...
.
The 13th century was very rich in tales. A collection called the
Cento Novelle antiche contains stories drawn from many sources, including Asian, Greek and Trojan traditions, ancient and medieval history, the legends of
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Brittany was previously a kingdom and then as a duchy it was a fief of the Kingdom of France. It was at one time called Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
,
ProvenceProvence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
and Italy, the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
, local Italian traditions, and histories of animals and old
mythologyMythology is the study of myths and or of a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story;...
. This book has a distant resemblance to the Spanish collection known as
El Conde Lucanor. The peculiarity of the Italian book is that the stories are very short, and seem to be mere outlines to be filled in by the narrator as he goes along. Other prose novels were inserted by Francesco Barberino in his work
Del reggimento e dei costumi delle donne, but they are of much less importance.
On the whole the Italian novels of the 13th century have little originality, and are a faint reflection of the very rich legendary
literature of FranceFrench literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak other traditional non-French languages. Literature written by citizens of other nations such as...
. Some attention should be paid to the
Lettere of Fra Guittone d'Arezzo, who wrote many poems and also some letters in prose, the subjects of which are moral and religious. Guittone's love of antiquity and the traditions of Rome and its language was so strong that he tried to write Italian in a Latin style. The letters are obscure, involved and altogether barbarous. Guittone took as his special model
Seneca the YoungerLucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
, and hence his prose became bombastic. Guittone viewed his style as very artistic, but later scholars view it as extravagant and grotesque.
A new literature
In the year 1282 a period of new literature began, developing from the Tuscan beginnings. With the school of
Lapo GianniLapo Gianni was an Italian poet who lived in Florence in the 13th-14th centuries. He was a member of the Florentine circle of the Italian movement called Dolce Stil Novo, and was probably a notary....
,
Guido CavalcantiGuido Cavalcanti was a Florentine poet, as well as an intellectual influence on his best friend, Dante. His poems in their original Italian are available on Wikisource .- Historical Background :...
,
Cino da PistoiaCino da Pistoia was an Italian jurist and poet.He was born in Pistoia, Tuscany. His full name was Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi or, Latinised, Cinus de Sighibuldis. He received his doctorate from the University of Bologna, where he studied under Dinus de Rossonis, and taught law at the universities of...
and
Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
, lyric poetry became exclusively Tuscan. The whole novelty and poetic power of this school, consisted in, according to Dante,
Quando Amore spira, noto, ed a quel niodo Ch'ei detta dentro, vo significando: that is, in a power of expressing the feelings of the soul in the way in which love inspires them, in an appropriate and graceful manner, fitting form to matter, and by art fusing one with the other. Love is a divine gift that redeems man in the eyes of God, and the poet's mistress is the angel sent from heaven to show the way to salvation. This a neo-platonic approach widely endorsed by
Dolce Stil Novo, and although in Cavalcanti's case it can be upsetting and even destructive, it is nonetheless a metaphysical experience able to lift man onto a higher, spiritual dimension. Gianni's new style was still influenced by the Siculo-Provencal school.
Cavalcanti's poems may be divided into two classes: those which portray the philosopher, (
il sottilissimo dialettico, as Lorenzo the Magnificent called him) and those which are more directly the product of his poetic nature imbued with
mysticismMysticism is the pursuit of communion with, identity with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, instinct or insight. Mysticism usually centers on a practice or practices intended to nurture those experiences or...
and
metaphysicsMetaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world...
. To the first set belongs the famous poem
Sulla natura d'amore, which in fact is a treatise on amorous
metaphysicsMetaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world...
, and was annotated later in a learned way by renowned Platonic philosophers of the 15th century, such as Marsilius Ficinus and others. In other poems, Cavalcanti tends to stifle poetic imagery under a dead weight of philosophy. On the other hand, in his
Ballate, he pours himself out ingenuously, but with a consciousness of his art. The greatest of these is considered to be the
ballata composed by Cavalcanti when he was banished from Florence with the party of the
BianchiBianchi, a plural of bianco , is a frequent proper name, and may refer to:- People :*Andrea Bianchi, an Italian film director*Artemio Danilo Bianchi, a current Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana.*Bruno Bianchi...
in 1300, and took refuge at
SarzanaSarzana is a town and comune in the Province of La Spezia, of Liguria, Italy, 15 km east of Spezia, on the railway to Pisa, at the point where the railway to Parma diverges to the north...
.
The third poet among the followers of the new school was Cino da Pistoia, of the family of the Sinibuldi. His love poems are sweet, mellow and musical.
Dante
Dante, the greatest of Italian poets, also shows these lyrical tendencies. In 1293 he wrote
La Vita NuovaLa Vita Nuova is a medieval text written by Dante Alighieri in 1295. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and verse...
("new life" in English, so called to indicate that his first meeting with
BeatriceBeatrice is a name derived from the Latin name Beatrix. It is a feminine form of the late Latin name Viator which meant "voyager, traveler". It was also a common name amongst early Christians, though the spelling was altered by association with the Latin beatus, meaning "blessed". The French form...
was the beginning of a new life), in which he idealizes love. It is a collection of poems to which Dante added narration and explication. Everything is supersensual, aerial, heavenly, and the real Beatrice is supplanted by an idealized vision of her, losing her human nature and becoming a representation of the divine.
Dante is the main character of the work, and the narration purports to be autobiographical, though historical information about Dante's life proves this to be poetic license.
Several of the lyrics of the
Canzoniere deal with the theme of the new life. Not all the love poems refer to Beatrice, however—other pieces are philosophical and bridge over to the
Convito.
The Divine Comedy
The work which made Dante immortal, and raised him above all other men of genius in Italy, was his
Divina CommediaThe Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a...
, which tells of the poet's travels through the three realms of the dead—
HellIn many religious traditions, Hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife, often in the underworld. Religions with a linear divine history often depict Hell as endless...
,
PurgatoryPurgatory is the condition or process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. This is an idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is...
, and
ParadiseParadise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
—accompanied by the Latin poet
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
. An allegorical meaning is hidden under the literal one of this great epic. Dante, travelling through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, is a symbol of mankind aiming at the double object of temporal and eternal happiness. The forest in which the poet loses himself symbolizes the civil and religious confusion of society, deprived of its two guides, the emperor and the pope. The mountain illuminated by the sun is universal monarchy. The three beasts are the three vices and the three powers which offered the greatest obstacles to Dante's designs: envy is Florence, light, fickle and divided by the
Black Guelphs and the White GuelphsThe Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries...
; pride is the house of France; avarice is the papal court. Virgil represents reason and the empire. Beatrice is the symbol of the supernatural aid without which man cannot attain the supreme end, which is God.
The merit of the poem does not lie in the allegory, which still connects it with
medieval literatureMedieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe beyond and during the Middle Ages . The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works...
. What is new is the individual art of the poet, the classic art transfused for the first time into a Romance form. Whether he describes nature, analyses passions, curses the vices or sings hymns to the virtues, Dante is notable for the grandeur and delicacy of his art. He took the materials for his poem from
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, philosophy, history, and mythology, but especially from his own passions, from hatred and love. Under the pen of the poet, the dead come to life again; they become men again, and speak the language of their time, of their passions.
Farinata degli UbertiFarinata degli Uberti was an Italian aristocrat and military leader, considered by some to be a heretic, who appears in Dante's Inferno and is mentioned in C.S...
, Boniface VIII, Count Ugolino,
ManfredManfred is a dramatic poem written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Romantic closet drama...
,
SordelloSordello da Goito or Sordel de Goit was a 13th-century Lombard troubadour, born in the municipality of Goito in the province of Mantua...
, Hugh Capet, St.
Thomas AquinasSaint Thomas Aquinas, O.P. was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis...
,
CacciaguidaCacciaguida degli Elisei was an Italian crusader, the great-great-grandfather of Dante Alighieri.Little is known about his life. He was born in Florence, and two documents from 1189 and 1201 mention his existence; all other details of his biography are those from his most famous descendant's works...
, St. Benedict, and St. Peter, are all so many objective creations; they stand before us in all the life of their characters, their feelings, and their habits.
The real chastizer of the sins and rewarder of virtues is Dante himself. The personal interest he brings to bear on the historical representation of the three worlds is what most interests us and stirs us. Dante remakes history after his own passions. Thus the
Divina Commedia is not only a life-like drama of contemporary thoughts and feelings, but also a clear and spontaneous reflection of the individual feelings of the poet, from the indignation of the citizen and the exile to the faith of the believer and the ardour of the philosopher. The
Divina Commedia defined the destiny of Italian literature, giving artistic lustre to all forms of literature the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
had produced. Dante, some scholars say, began the Renaissance.
Petrarch
Two facts characterize the literary life of
PetrarchFrancesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
: classical research and the new human feeling introduced into his lyric poetry. The facts are not separate; rather, the former caused the latter. The Petrarch who unearthed the works of the great Latin writers helps us understand the Petrarch who loved a real woman, named Laura, and celebrated her in her life and after her death in poems full of studied elegance. Petrarch was the first
humanistHumanism is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to authority...
, and he was at the same time the first modern lyric poet. His career was long and tempestuous. He lived for many years at
AvignonAvignon is a commune in the Vaucluse department in south-eastern France with an estimated mid-2004 population of 89,300 in the city itself and a population of 290,466 in the metropolitan area at the 1999 census.The city is well known for its Palais des Papes , where several popes...
, cursing the corruption of the papal court; he travelled through nearly the whole of Europe; he corresponded with emperors and popes, and he was considered the most important writer of his time.
His
Canzoniere is divided into three parts: the first containing the poems written during Laura's lifetime, the second the poems written after her death, the third the
Trionfi. The one and only subject of these poems is love; but the treatment is full of variety in conception, in imagery and in sentiment, derived from the most varied impressions of nature. Petrarch's lyric verse is quite different, not only from that of the Provencal
troubadourA troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s and the Italian poets before him, but also from the lyrics of Dante. Petrarch is a psychological poet, who examines all his feelings and renders them with an art of exquisite sweetness. The lyrics of Petrarch are no longer transcendental like Dante's, but keep entirely within human limits. The second part of the
Canzoniere is the more passionate. The
Trionfi are inferior; in them Petrarch tried to imitate the
Divina Commedia, but failed. The
Canzoniere includes also a few political poems, one supposed to be addressed to Cola di Rienzi and several sonnets against the court of Avignon. These are remarkable for their vigour of feeling, and also for showing that, compared to Dante, Petrarch had a sense of a broader Italian consciousness. The Italy which he wooed was different from any conceived by the men of the Middle Ages, and in this also he was a precursor of modern times and of modern aspirations. Petrarch had no decided political idea. He exalted Cola di Rienzi, invoked the emperor
Charles IVCharles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and Holy Roman Emperor....
, and praised the
ViscontiVisconti is the family name of two important Italian noble dynasties of the Middle Ages. Two distinct Visconti families are known: the first one in the Republic of Pisa in the mid twelfth century, who achieved prominence first in Pisa, then in Sardinia, where they became rulers of Gallura; the...
; in fact, his politics were affected more by impressions than by principles. Above all this was his love of Italy, which in his mind is reunited with Rome, the great city of his heroes
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.Cicero is generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome...
and
Scipio-People:* Scipio , family of ancient Rome with this name. For a list of members or possible members see the article.* Elmer Scipio Dundy, Nebraska judge* Scipio Africanus, Roman general* Scipio Africanus Jones, African-American educator...
.
Boccaccio
Boccaccio had the same enthusiastic love of antiquity and the same worship for the new Italian literature as Petrarch. He was the first to put together a Latin translation of the
IliadThe Iliad is an epic poem recounting significant events during a portion of the final year of the Trojan War — the Greek siege of the city of Ilion — hence the title...
and, in 1375, the
OdysseyThe Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon. Indeed it is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of...
. His classical learning was shown in the work
De genealogia deorum, in which he enumerates the gods according to genealogical trees from the various authors who wrote about the pagan divinities. The
Genealogia deorum is, as A. H. Heeren said, an encyclopaedia of mythological knowledge; and it was the precursor of the
humanistHumanism is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to authority...
movement of the 15th century. Boccaccio was also the first historian of women in his
De mulieribus clarisDe mulieribus claris is a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, first published in 1374. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature...
, and the first to tell the story of the great unfortunates in his
De casibus virorum illustrium. He continued and perfected former geographical investigations in his interesting book
De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis, et paludibus, et de nominibus maris, for which he made use of
Vibius SequesterVibius Sequester , is the author of an alphabetical list of geographical names occurring in the Roman poets, with special reference to Virgil, Ovid and Lucan...
. Of his Italian works, his lyrics do not come anywhere near to the perfection of Petrarch's. His narrative poetry is better. He did not invent the octave stanza, but was the first to use it in a work of length and artistic merit, his
Teseide, the oldest Italian romantic poem. The
Filostrato relates the loves of Troiolo and Griseida (
Troilus and CressidaTroilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. The play is not a conventional tragedy, since its protagonist does not die. The play ends instead on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between...
). It may be that Boccaccio knew the French poem of the Trojan war by Benoit de Sainte-More; but the interest of his poem lies in the analysis of the passion of love. The
Ninfale fiesolano tells the love story of the nymph Mesola and the shepherd Africo. The
Amorosa Visione, a poem in triplets, doubtless owed its origin to the
Divina Commedia. The
Ameto is a mixture of prose and poetry, and is the first Italian pastoral romance.
The
Filocopo takes the earliest place among
prose romanceAs a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about the marvelous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight errant,...
s. In it Boccaccio tells the loves of Florio and Biancafiore. Probably for this work he drew materials from a popular source or from a
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
romance, which Leonzio Pilato may have mentioned to him. In the
Filocopo there is a remarkable exuberance in the mythological part, which damages the romance as an artistic work, but which contributes to the history of Boccaccio's mind. The
Fiammetta is another romance, about the loves of Boccaccio and Maria d'Aquino, a supposed natural daughter of King Robert, whom he always called by this name of Fiammetta.
The Italian work which principally made Boccaccio famous was the
Decamerone, a collection of a hundred novels, related by a party of men and women, who had retired to a villa near Florence to escape from the
plagueThe Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged...
in 1348. Novel-writing, so abundant in the preceding centuries, especially in France, now for the first time assumed an artistic shape. The style of Boccaccio tends to the imitation of Latin, but in him prose first took the form of elaborated art. The rudeness of the old
fabliauThe fabliau is a comic, But not true often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France in the 12th and 13th centuries. They are generally bawdy in nature, and several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decamerone and by Geoffrey Chaucer for his Canterbury Tales...
x gives place to the careful and conscientious work of a mind that has a feeling for what is beautiful, that has studied the classic authors, and that strives to imitate them as much as possible. Over and above this, in the
Decamerone, Boccaccio is a delineator of character and an observer of passions. In this lies his novelty. Much has been written about the sources of the novels of the
Decamerone. Probably Boccaccio made use both of written and of oral sources. Popular tradition must have furnished him with the materials of many stories, as, for example, that of Griselda.
Unlike Petrarch, who was always discontented, preoccupied, wearied with life, disturbed by disappointments, we find Boccaccio calm, serene, satisfied with himself and with his surroundings. Notwithstanding these fundamental differences in their characters, the two great authors were old and warm friends. But their affection for Dante was not equal. Petrarch, who says that he saw him once in his childhood, did not preserve a pleasant recollection of him, and it would be useless to deny that he was jealous of his renown. The
Divina Commedia was sent him by Boccaccio, when he was an old man, and he confessed that he never read it. On the other hand, Boccaccio felt for Dante something more than love—enthusiasm. He wrote a biography of him, of which the accuracy is now depreciated by some critics, and he gave public critical lectures on the poem in
Santa Maria del FioreThe Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral church of Florence, Italy, begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi...
at Florence.
Imitators
Fazio degli Uberti and Federigo Frezzi were imitators of the
Divina Commedia, but only in its external form. The former wrote the
Dittamondo, a long poem, in which the author supposes that he was taken by the geographer Solinus into different parts of the world, and that his
Commedia guide related the history of them. The legends of the rise of the different Italian cities have some importance historically. Frezzi, bishop of his native town
FolignoFoligno is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clitunno river system...
, wrote the
Quadriregio, a poem of the four kingdoms Love, Satan, the Vices, and the Virtues. This poem has many points of resemblance with the
Divina Commedia. Frezzi pictures the condition of man who rises from a state of vice to one of virtue, and describes hell, limbo, purgatory and heaven. The poet has Pallas for a companion.
Ser Giovanni Fiorentino wrote, under the title of
Pecorone, a collection of tales, which are supposed to have been related by a monk and a nun in the parlour of the monastery Novelists of Forli. He closely imitated Boccaccio, and drew on Villani's chronicle for his historical stories.
Franco SacchettiFranco Sacchetti was an Italian poet and novelist born in the Republic of Ragusa .He was the son of Benci di Uguccione, surnamed Buono, of the noble and ancient Florentine family of the Sacchetti and was born in Dubrovnik , Dalmatia or in Florence about the year 1335...
wrote tales too, for the most part on subjects taken from Florentine history. His book gives a life-like picture of Florentine society at the end of the 14th century. The subjects are almost always improper; but it is evident that Sacchetti collected all these anecdotes in order to draw from them his own conclusions and moral reflections, which are to be found at the end of every story. From this point of view Sacchetti's work comes near to the Monalisaliones of the Middle Ages. A third novelist was Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca, who after 1374 wrote a book, in imitation of Boccaccio, about a party of people who were supposed to fly from a plague and to go travelling about in different Italian cities, stopping here and there telling stories. Later, but important, names are those of
Masuccio SalernitanoMasuccio Salernitano, born Tommaso Guardati, was an Italian poet.Born in Salerno or Sorrento, he is best known today for Il Novellino, a collection of 50 "novelle" or short stories, each prefaced by a letter of dedication to a famous person and with an epilogue containing the "moral" of the...
(Tommaso Guardato), who wrote the
Novellino, and
Antonio CornazzanoAntonio Cornazzano was an Italian poet, writer, biographer, and dancing master.-Antonio Cornazzano:In the city of Piacenza, which was then in the Duchy of Milan, Antonio Cornazzano was born probably in 1432...
whose
Proverbii became extremely popular.
Chronicles
Chronicles formerly believed to have been of the 13th century are now mainly regarded as forgeries. At the end of the 13th century there is a chronicle by
Dino CompagniDino Compagni was an Italian historical writer and political figure.He was born into a prosperous family of Florence, supporters of the Guelphs. He was democratic in feeling, and was a supporter of the new ordinances of Giano della Bella....
, probably authentic.
Giovanni VillaniGiovanni Villani was an Italian banker, official, diplomat, and chronicler from Florence who wrote the Nuova Cronica on the history of Florence. He was a leading statesman of Florence but later gained an unsavory reputation and served time in prison due to the bankruptcy of a trading and banking...
, born in 1300, was more of a chronicler than an historian. He relates the events up to 1347. The journeys that he made in Italy and France, and the information thus acquired, mean that his chronicle, the
Historie Fiorentine, covers events all over Europe. He speaks at length, not only of events in politics and war, but also of the stipends of public officials, of the sums of money used for paying soldiers and for public festivals, and of many other things of which the knowledge is very valuable. Villani's narrative is often encumbered with fables and errors, particularly when he speaks of things that happened before his own time.
Matteo was the brother of Giovanni Villani, and continued the chronicle up to 1363. It was again continued by Filippo Villani.
Piero CapponiPiero Capponi was an Italian statesman and warrior from Florence.He was at first intended for a business career, but Lorenzo de' Medici, appreciating his ability, sent him as ambassador to various courts, where he acquitted himself with distinction...
, author of the
Commentari deli acquisto di Pisa and of the narration of the
Tumulto dei Ciompi, belonged to both the 14th and the 15th centuries.
Ascetics
The
Divine Commedia is ascetic in its conception, and in a good many points of its execution. Petrarch's work has similar qualities; yet neither Petrarch nor Dante could be classified among the pure ascetics of their time. But many other writers come under this head. St
Catherine of SienaSaint Catherine of Siena, O.P. was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the Papacy back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970...
's mysticism was political. This extraordinary woman aspired to bring back the Church of Rome to evangelical virtue, and left a collection of letters written in a high and lofty tone to all kinds of people, including popes. Hers is the clearest religious utterance to have made itself heard in 14th century Italy. Although precise ideas of reformation did not enter her head, the want of a great moral reform was felt in her heart. She must take her place among those who prepared the way for the religious movement of the 16th century.
Another Sienese,
Giovanni ColombiniGiovanni Colombini was an Italian merchant, andfounder of the Congregation of Jesuati.-Life:...
, founder of the order of
JesuatiThe Jesuati were a religious order founded by Giovanni Colombini of Siena in 1360. The order was initially called Clerici apostolici Sancti Hieronymi because of a special veneration for St. Jerome and the apostolic life the founders led...
, preached poverty by precept and example, going back to the religious idea of St Francis of Assisi. His letters are among the most remarkable in the category of ascetic works in the 14th century. Jacopo Passavanti, in his
Specchio della vera penitenza, attached instruction to narrative. Cavalca translated from the Latin the
Vite dei santi padri. Rivalta left behind him many sermons, and
Franco SacchettiFranco Sacchetti was an Italian poet and novelist born in the Republic of Ragusa .He was the son of Benci di Uguccione, surnamed Buono, of the noble and ancient Florentine family of the Sacchetti and was born in Dubrovnik , Dalmatia or in Florence about the year 1335...
(the famous novelist) many discourses. On the whole, there is no doubt that one of the most important productions of the Italian spirit of the 14th century was religious literature.
Popular works
Humorous poetry, largely developed in the 13th century, was carried on in the 14th by Bindo Bonichi, Arrigo di Castruccio, Cecco Nuccoli, Andrea Orgagna, Filippo de Bardi, Adriano de Rossi, Antonio Pucci and other lesser writers. Orgagna was specially comic; Bonichi was comic with a satirical and moral purpose.
Pucci was superior to all of them for the variety of his production. He put into triplets the chronicle of Giovanni Villani (
Centiloquio), and wrote many historical poems called
Serventesi, many comic poems, and not a few epico-popular compositions on various subjects. A little poem of his in seven cantos treats of the war between the Florentines and the
PisaPisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
ns from 1362 to 1365.
Other poems drawn from a legendary source celebrate the Reina d'Oriente, Apollonio di Tiro, the Bel Gherardino, etc. These poems, meant to be recited, are the ancestors of the romantic epic.
Political works
Many poets of the 14th century produced political works. Fazio degli Uberti, the author of
Dittamondo, who wrote a
Serventese to the lords and people of Italy, a poem on Rome, and a fierce invective against Charles IV, deserves notice, as do Francesco di Vannozzo, Frate Stoppa and Matteo Frescobaldi. It may be said in general that following the example of Petrarch many writers devoted themselves to patriotic poetry. From this period also dates that literary phenomenon known under the name of Petrarchism. The Petrarchists, or those who sang of love, imitating Petrarch's manner, were found already in the 14th century. But others treated the same subject with more originality, in a manner that might be called semi-popular. Such were the
Ballate of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, of Franco Sacchetti, of Niccolo Soldanieri, and of Guido and Bindo Donati.
Ballate were poems sung to dancing, and we have very many songs for music of the 14th century. We have already stated that Antonio Pucci versified Villani's
Chronicle. It is enough to notice a chronicle of
ArezzoArezzo or Arretium is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about south-east of Florence, at an elevation of 296 meters above sea level. In 2009 the population was about 99,000 people....
in
terza rimaTerza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three line rhyme scheme. It was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.-Form:Terza rima is a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D...
by Gorello de Sinigardi, and the history, also in
terza rima, of the journey of Pope Alexander III to Venice, by Pier de Natali. Besides this, every kind of subject, whether history, tragedy or husbandry, was treated in verse. Neri di Landocio wrote a life of St Catherine; Jacopo Gradenigo put the Gospels into triplets; Paganino Bonafede in the
Tesoro de rustici gave many precepts in agriculture, beginning that kind of georgic poetry which was fully developed later by
AlamanniThe Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211–17 and claimed thereby to be their...
in his
Coltivazione, by Girolamo Baruffaldi in the
Canapajo, by Rucellai in
Le api, by Bartolomeo Lorenzi in the
Coltivazione de' monti, and by Giambattista Spolverini in the
Coltivazione del riso.
Drama
Albertino MussatoAlbertino Mussato was an Early Renaissance Italian statesman, poet, historian and dramatist credited with providing an impetus to the revival of literary Latin....
of
PaduaPadua is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice , in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c...
wrote in Latin a history of Emperor Henry VII. He then produced a Latin tragedy on
Ezzelino da RomanoEzzelino da Romano was the name of various seignors of fiefs and cities in northern Italy starting from the 12th century AD.*The family was founded by Ecelo , who received the fiefs of Romano, including Romano d'Ezzelino and Onara, near Cittadella, Veneto*Ezzelino II il Balbo*Ezzelino II da Romano,...
, Henry's imperial vicar in northern Italy, the
Eccerinus, which was probably not represented on the stage. This remained an isolated work.
At Florence the most celebrated humanists wrote also in the vulgar tongue, and commented on Dante and Petrarch, and defended them from their enemies.
Leone Battista AlbertiLeon Battista Alberti was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath...
, the learned Greek and Latin scholar, wrote in the vernacular, and
Vespasiano da BisticciVespasiano da Bisticci was an Italian humanist and librarian .Born near Rignano sull'Arno, not far from Florence, he was chiefly a dealer in books, or cartolaio, and had a share in the formation of all the great libraries of the time...
, while he was constantly absorbed in Greek and Latin manuscripts, wrote the
Vite di uomini illustri, valuable for their historical contents, and rivalling the best works of the 14th century in their candour and simplicity.
Andrea da BarberinoAndrea Mangiabotti, called Andrea da Barberino was an Italian writer and cantastorie of the Quattrocento Renaissance. He was born in Barberino Val d'Elsa and lived in Florence...
wrote the beautiful prose of the
Reali di Francia, giving a coloring of
romanità to the chivalrous romances. Belcari and
Girolamo BenivieniGirolamo Benivieni , was a Florentine poet who was an intimate of several great men of the Renaissance.-External links:*http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG2491...
returned to the mystic idealism of earlier times.
But it is in Lorenzo de Medici that the influence of Florence on the Renaissance is particularly seen. His mind was formed by the ancients: he attended the class of the Greek John Argyropulos, sat at Platonic banquets, took pains to collect codices, sculptures, vases, pictures, gems and drawings to ornament the gardens of San Marco and to form the library later named after him. In the saloons of his Florentine palace, in his villas at Careggi,
FiesoleFiesole is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a famously scenic height above Florence, 8 km NE of that city...
and Anibra, stood the wonderful chests painted by
Dello di Niccolò DelliDello di Niccolò Delli , also known as Dello Delli, as Dello di Niccolò and as Dello, was an Italian sculptor and painter. His father was a tailor named Nicholò of Dello, and his mother was Monna Orsa...
with stories from
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
, the
HerculesHercules is the Roman name for the mythical Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength, who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became...
of
PollaiuoloPollaiulo is the name of several people:* Brothers Antonio Pollaiuolo and* Piero Pollaiuolo, artists....
, the
Pallas of
BotticelliAlessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello was an Italian painter of the Florentine school during the Early Renaissance...
, the works of Filippino and Verrocchio. De Medici lived entirely in the classical world; and yet if we read his poems we only see the man of his time, the admirer of Dante and of the old Tuscan poets, who takes inspiration from the popular muse, and who succeeds in giving to his poetry the colors of the most pronounced realism as well as of the loftiest idealism, who passes from the Platonic
sonnetThe sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song". By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme...
to the impassioned triplets of the
Amori di Venere, from the grandiosity of the
Salve to Nencia and to Beoni, from the
Canto carnascialesco to the
lauda. The feeling of nature is strong in him; at one time sweet and melancholy, at another vigorous and deep, as if an echo of the feelings, the sorrows, the ambitions of that deeply agitated life. He liked to look into his own heart with a severe eye, but he was also able to pour himself out with tumultuous fulness. He described with the art of a sculptor; he satirized, laughed, prayed, sighed, always elegant, always a Florentine, but a Florentine who read
AnacreonAnacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...
, Ovid and
TibullusAlbius Tibullus was a Latin poet and writer of elegies.Little is known about his life. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to Tibullus are of questionable origins. There are only a few references to him in later writers and a short Life of doubtful authority...
, who wished to enjoy life, but also to taste of the refinements of art.
Next to Lorenzo comes
PolizianoAngelo Ambrogini, commonly known by his nickname, anglicized as Politian, Italian Poliziano, Latin Politianus was an Italian Renaissance classical scholar and poet, one of the revivers of Humanist Latin...
, who also united, and with greater art, the ancient and the modern, the popular and the classical style. In his
Rispetti and in his
Ballate the freshness of imagery and the plasticity of form are inimitable. A great Greek scholar, Piliziano wrote Italian verses with dazzling colors; the purest elegance of the Greek sources pervaded his art in all its varieties, in the
Orfeo as well as the
Stanze per la giostra.
Epic
Italy never had true
epic poetryAn epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
; but had, however, many poems called
cantari, because they contained stories that were sung to the people; and besides there were romantic poems, such as the
Buovo d'Antona, the
Regina Ancroja and others. But the first to introduce life into this style was
Luigi PulciLuigi Pulci was an Italian poet best known for his Morgante, an epic story of a giant who is converted to Christianity and follows the knight Orlando....
, who grew up in the house of the Medici, and who wrote the
Morgante Maggiore at the request of
Lucrezia TornabuoniLucrezia Tornabuoni was a daughter of Francesco Tornabuoni and Selvaggia Alessandrini. Her brother was Giovanni Tornabuoni.- Biography :...
, mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The material of the
Morgante is almost completely taken from an obscure chivalrous poem of the 15th century, rediscovered by Pio Rajna. Pulci erected a structure of his own, often turning the subject into ridicule, burlesquing the characters, introducing many digressions, now capricious, now scientific, now theological. Pulci raised the romantic epic into a work of art, and united the serious and the comic.
With a more serious intention Matteo Boiardo, count of
ScandianoScandiano is a town in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, administratively part of the province of Reggio Emilia. It had some 24,700 inhabitants as of 31 March 2009.It is the native town of twice Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi...
, wrote his
Orlando innamoratoOrlando Innamorato is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem, written in the ottava rima stanza rhythm, consists of 68 cantos and a half. Boiardo began the poem when he was about 38 years old, but interrupted it for a time because of the Venetian war...
, in which he seems to have aspired to embrace the whole range of
CarolingianThe Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
legends; but he did not complete his task. We find here too a large vein of humour and burlesque. Still Boiardo was drawn to the world of romance by a profound sympathy for chivalrous manners and feelings; that is to say, for love, courtesy, valour and generosity. A third romantic poem of the 15th century was the
Mambriano by Francesco Bello (Cieco of Ferrara). He drew from the Carolingian cycle, from the romances of the
Round TableA round table is a table which has no "head" and no "sides", and therefore no one person sitting at it is given a privileged position and all are treated as equals. The idea stems from the Arthurian legend about the Knights of the Round Table in Camelot....
, and from classical antiquity. He was a poet of no common genius, and of ready imagination. He showed the influence of Boiardo, especially in something of the fantastic which he introduced into his work.
Carnival songs
A completely new style of poetry arose, the
Canto carnascialesco. These were a kind of choral songs, which were accompanied with symbolic masquerades, common in Florence at the carnival. They were written in a metre like that of the
ballate; and for the most part they were put into the mouth of a party of workmen and tradesmen, who, with not very chaste allusions, sang the praises of their art. These triumphs and masquerades were directed by Lorenzo himself. In the evening, there set out into the city large companies on horseback, playing and singing these songs. There are some by Lorenzo himself, which surpass all the others in their mastery of art. That entitled
Bacco ed Arianna is the most famous.
Drama
The development of the drama in the 15th century was very great. This kind of semi-popular literature was born in Florence, and attached itself to certain popular festivities that were usually held in honor of St
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of Baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel...
, patron saint of the city. The
Sacra Rappresentazione is the development of the medieval
Mistero (
mystery playMystery plays and Miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
). Although it belonged to popular poetry, some of its authors were literary men of much renown: Lorenzo de Medici, for example, wrote
San Giovanni e Paolo, and Feo Belcari wrote
San Panunzio,
Abramo ed Isaac, and more. From the 15th century, some element of the comic-profane found its way into the Sacra Rappresentazione. From its Biblical and legendary conventionalism Poliziano emancipated himself in his
Orfeo, which, although in its exterior form belonging to the sacred representations, yet substantially detaches itself from them in its contents and in the artistic element introduced.
Other
History had neither many nor very good students in the 15th century. Its revival belonged to the following age. It was mostly written in Latin.
Leonardo BruniLeonardo Bruni , was a leading humanist, historian and a chancellor of Florence. He has been called the first modern historian.-Biography:...
of Arezzo wrote the history of Florence, Gioviano Pontano that of Naples, in Latin. Bernardino Corio wrote the history of
MilanMilan in Italy, is the capital of the region of Lombardia and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while the urban area is the fifth largest in the E.U. with an estimated population of 4.3 million...
in Italian, but in a rude way.
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
wrote a treatise on painting,
Leone Battista AlbertiLeon Battista Alberti was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath...
one on sculpture and architecture. But the names of these two men are important, not so much as authors of these treatises, but as being embodiments of another characteristic of the age of the Renaissance; versatility of genius, power of application along many and varied lines, and of being excellent in all. Leonardo was an architect, a poet, a painter, an hydraulic engineer and a distinguished mathematician. Alberti was a musician, studied jurisprudence, was an architect and a draughtsman, and had great fame in literature. He had a deep feeling for nature, and an almost unique faculty of assimilating all that he saw and heard. Leonardo and Alberti are representatives and almost a compendium in themselves of all that intellectual vigour of the Renaissance age, which in the 16th century took to developing itself in its individual parts, making way for what has by some been called the golden age of Italian literature.
After the Renaissance
The fundamental characteristic of the literary epoch following that of the Renaissance is that it perfected itself in every kind of art, in particular uniting the essentially Italian character of its language with classicism of style. This period lasted from about 1494 to about 1560; 1494 being the year in which Charles VIII descended into Italy, marking the beginning of Italy's political decadence and of foreign domination over it.
The famous men of the first half of the 16th century had been educated in the preceding century.
Pietro PomponazziPietro Pomponazzi was an Italian philosopher. He is sometimes known by his Latin name, Petrus Pomponatius....
was born in 1462, Marcello Adriani Virgilio in 1464,
CastiglioneBaldassare Castiglione, count of Novilara , was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:...
in 1468, Machiavelli in 1469,
BemboBembo is the name given to an old style serif typeface based upon a face cut by Francesco Griffo, first printed in February 1496 . Griffo worked in the Venetian press of the humanist printer Aldus Manutius. The face was first used in the setting of a book entitled De Aetna, a short text about a...
in 1470, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Ariosto in 1474,
Jacopo NardiJacopo Nardi was an Italian historian from Florence.-Biography:He occupied various positions in the service of the Florentine republic after the expulsion of the Medici in 1494, and even on their return in 1512 he continued in the public service.In 1527 he joined the movement for the expulsion of...
in 1476,
Gian Giorgio TrissinoGian Giorgio Trissino was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet, dramatist, diplomat, and grammarian.-Biography:...
in 1478, and Guicciardini in 1482. The literary activity which showed itself from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the following one was the product of the political and social conditions of an earlier age.
Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini were the chief originators of the science of history. Machiavelli's principal works are the
Istorie fiorentine, the
Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio, the
Arte della guerra and the
Principe. His merit consists in having been the creator of the experimental science of politics in having observed facts, studied histories and drawn consequences from them. His history is sometimes inexact in facts; it is rather a political than an historical work. The peculiarity of Machiavelli's genius lay, as has been said, in his artistic feeling for the treatment and discussion of politics in and for themselves, without regard to an immediate end in his power of abstracting himself from the partial appearances of the transitory present, in order more thoroughly to possess himself of the eternal and inborn kingdom, and to bring it into subjection to himself.
Next to Machiavelli both as an historian and a statesman comes Guicciardini. Guicciardini was very observant, and endeavoured to reduce his observations to a science. His
Storia d'Italia, which extends from the death of Lorenzo de Medici to 1534, is full of political wisdom, is skillfully arranged in its parts, gives a lively picture of the character of the persons it treats of, and is written in a grand style. He shows a profound knowledge of the human heart, and depicts with truth the temperaments, the capabilities and habits of the different European nations. Going back to the causes of events, he looked for the explanation of the divergent interests of princes and of their reciprocal jealousies. The fact of his having witnessed many of the events he related, and having taken part in them, adds authority to his words. The political reflections are always deep; in the
Pensieri, as
Gino CapponiMarquis Gino Capponi was an Italian statesman and historian.The Capponi family is one of the most illustrious Florentine houses, and is mentioned as early as 1250; it acquired great wealth as a mercantile and banking firm, and many of its members distinguished themselves in the service of the...
says, he seems to aim at extracting through self-examination a quintessence, as it were, of the things observed and done by him; thus endeavouring to form a political doctrine as adequate as possible in all its parts. Machiavelli and Guicciardini may be considered as distinguished historians as well as originators of the science of history founded on observation.
Inferior to them, but still always worthy of note, were
Jacopo NardiJacopo Nardi was an Italian historian from Florence.-Biography:He occupied various positions in the service of the Florentine republic after the expulsion of the Medici in 1494, and even on their return in 1512 he continued in the public service.In 1527 he joined the movement for the expulsion of...
(a just and faithful historian and a virtuous man, who defended the rights of Florence against the Medici before Charles V),
Benedetto VarchiBenedetto Varchi was an Italian humanist, a historian and poet.-Biography:Born in Florence to a family that had originated at Montevarchi, he frequented the neoplatonic academy that Bernardo Rucellai organized in his garden, the Orti Oricellari; there, in spite of the fact that Rucellai was...
, Giambattista Adriani, Bernardo Segni, and, outside Tuscany,
Camillo PorzioCamillo Porzio was an Italian historian.He belonged to a wealthy and noble Neapolitan family, and was the son of the philosopher Simone Porzio...
, who related the
Congiura de baroni and the history of Italy from 1547 to 1552; Angelo di Costanza,
Pietro BemboPietro Bembo was a Venetian scholar, poet, literary theorist, and cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, and his writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch...
,
Paolo ParutaPaolo Paruta was a Venetian historian and statesman.-Biography:He was born at Venice of a Luccan family. After studying at Padua he served the Republic of Venice in various political capacities, including that of secretary to one of the Venetian delegates at the Council of Ten...
, and others.
Ariosto's
Orlando furiosoOrlando Furioso is an Italian romantic epic by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
was a continuation of Boiardo's
Innamorato. His characteristic is that he assimilated the romance of chivalry to the style and models of classicism. Romantic Ariosto was an artist only for the love of his art; his epic.
His sole aim was to make a romance that would please himself and the generation in which he lived. His
Orlando has no grave and serious purpose; on the contrary it creates a fantastic world, in which the poet rambles, indulging his caprice, and sometimes smiling at his own work. His great desire is to depict everything with the greatest possible perfection; the cultivation of style is what occupies him most. In his hands the style becomes wonderfully plastic to every conception, whether high or low, serious or sportive. The octave stanza reached in him the highest perfection of grace, variety, and harmony.
Meanwhile, side by side with the romantic, there was an attempt at the historical epic.
Gian Giorgio TrissinoGian Giorgio Trissino was an Italian Renaissance humanist, poet, dramatist, diplomat, and grammarian.-Biography:...
of
VicenzaVicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately 60 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan....
composed a poem called
Italia liberata dai Goti. Full of learning and of the rules of the ancients, he formed himself on the latter, in order to sing of the campaigns of
BelisariusFlavius Belisarius was one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian I's ambitious project of reconquering much of the old Western Roman Empire, which had been lost just under a century previously.One of the defining features of Belisarius' career...
; he said that he had forced himself to observe all the rules of
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
, and that he had imitated
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
. In this again, we see one of the products of the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
; and, although Trissino's work is poor in invention and without any original poetical coloring, yet it helps one to understand better what were the conditions of mind in the 16th century.
Lyric poetry was certainly not one of the kinds that rose to any great height in the 16th century. Originality was entirely wanting, since it seemed in that century as if nothing better could be done than to copy Petrarch. Still, even in this style there were some vigorous poets. Monsignore
Giovanni GuidiccioniGiovanni Guidiccioni was an Italian poet.He was born at Lucca, and died at Macerata.He occupied a high position, being bishop of Fossombrone and president of Romagna...
of
LuccaLucca is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...
(1500-1541) showed that he had a generous heart. In fine sonnets he gave expression to his grief for the sad state to which his country was reduced. Francesco Molza of
ModenaModena is a city and a comune on the south side of the Po valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
(1489-1544), learned in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, wrote in a graceful style and with spirit.
Giovanni della CasaGiovanni della Casa was an Italian poet and cleric.He was born in the Mugello district, in Tuscany. He studied at Bologna, Florence and Rome, and by his learning attracted the patronage of Alexander Farnese, who, as Pope Paul III, made him nuncio to Florence, where he received the honour of being...
(1503-1556) and
Pietro BemboPietro Bembo was a Venetian scholar, poet, literary theorist, and cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, and his writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch...
(1470-1547), although Petrarchists, were elegant. Even Michelangelo was at times a Petrarchist, but his poems bear the stamp of his extraordinary and original genius. And a good many ladies are to be placed near these poets, such as
Vittoria ColonnaVittoria Colonna , marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet.-Biography:The daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, grand constable of the kingdom of Naples, and of Agnese da Montefeltro, Vittoria Colonna was born at Marinoa fief of the Colonna family in the Alban Hills near Rome.Betrothed...
(loved by Michelangelo),
Veronica GambaraVeronica Gambara was an Italian poet, stateswoman and political leader.-Life:Born near Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, Gambara came from a distinguished family , one of the seven children of Count Gianfrancesco da Gambara and Alda Pio da Carpi...
,
Tullia d'AragonaTullia d'Aragona was a celebrated 16th century Venetian courtesan, author and philosopher. She had one daughter, Penelope d'Aragona, born in 1535, and a son, Celio, by Silvestro Guiccardi....
, and
Giulia GonzagaGiulia Gonzaga was an Italian noblewoman of the Renaissance.-Biography:Giulia was born in Gazzuolo in 1512. In 1526 she was married to count Vespasiano Colonna , count of Fondi and duke of Traetto...
, poets of great delicacy, and superior in genius to many literary men of their time.
Many tragedies were written in the 16th century, but they are all weak. The cause of this was the moral and religious indifference of the Italians, the lack of strong passions and vigorous characters. The first to occupy the tragic stage was Trissino with his
Sofonisba, following the rules of the art most scrupulously, but written in sickly verses, and without warmth of feeling. The
Oreste and the
Rosmunda of
Giovanni RucellaiGiovanni Rucellai is the name of a father and son of the Rucellai family of Florentine bankers.The former, Giovanni di Paolo, or Giovanni I, as the effective head of the Rucellai family commissioned the building of the Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti.The latter, Giovanni di...
were no better, nor
Luigi AlamanniLuigi Alamanni was an Italian poet and statesman. He was regarded as a prolific and versatile poet, and is credited with introducing the epigram into Italian poetry.-Biography:...
's
AntigoneAntigone is the name of two different women in Greek mythology. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood" or "in place of a mother" based from the root gonē, "that which generates" Antigone ' onMouseout='HidePop("2158")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Sperone_Speroni">Sperone Speroni
Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar, and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy, Accademia degli Infiammati, and wrote on both moral and literary matters.-Biography:...
in his
Canace and Giraldi Cintio in his
Orbecche tried to become innovators in tragic literature, but they only succeeded in making it grotesque. Decidedly superior to these was the
Torrismondo of
Torquato TassoTorquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
, specially remarkable for the choruses, which sometimes remind one of the chorus of the Greek tragedies.
The Italian comedy of the 16th century was almost entirely modelled on the Latin comedy. They were almost always alike in the plot, in the characters of the old man, of the servant, of the waiting-maid; and the argument was often the same. Thus the
Lucidi of
Agnolo FirenzuolaAgnolo Firenzuola was an Italian poet and litterateur.-Biography:Agnolo Firenzuola was born at Florence. The family name was taken from the town of Firenzuola, situated at the foot of the Apennines, its original home....
, and the
Vecchio amoroso of
Donato GiannottiDonato Giannotti was an Italian political writer and playwright.He was one of the leaders of the short-lived Florentine Republic of 1527. He subsequently wrote theoretical works on republicanism. After the return of the Medicis, he lived in exile, dying in Rome...
were modelled on comedies by
PlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
, as were the
Sporta by
Giambattista GelliGiambattista Gelli was a Florentine humanist man of letters, from an artisan background. He is known for his works of the 1540s, Capricci del bottaio and La Circe, which are ethical and philosophical dialogues...
, the
Marito by
Lodovico DolceLodovico Dolce was an Italian theorist of painting. He was a broadly-based Venetian humanist and prolific author, translator and editor; he is now remembered for his Dialogue on Painting.-Biography:...
, and others. There appear to be only three writers who should be distinguished among the many who wrote comedies: Machiavelli, Ariosto, and Giovan Maria Cecchi. In his
Mandragora Machiavelli, unlike all the others, composed a comedy of character, creating types which seem living even now, because they were copied from reality seen with a finely observant eye. Ariosto, on the other hand, was distinguished for his picture of the habits of his time, and especially of those of the Ferrarese nobles, rather than for the objective delineation of character. Lastly, Cecchi left in his comedies a treasure of spoken language, which nowadays enables us in a wonderful way to make ourselves acquainted with that age. The notorious
Pietro AretinoPietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography.- Life :...
might also be included in the list of the best writers of comedy.
The 15th century did include some humorous poetry. Antonio Cammelli, surnamed the Pistoian, is specially deserving of notice, because of his pungent
bonhomie, as Sainte-Beuve called it. But it was
Francesco BerniFrancesco Berni was an Italian poet. He is credited for beginning what is now known as "Bernesque poetry", a serio-comedic type of poetry with elements of satire.-Life:...
who and satire, carried this kind of literature to perfection in the 16th century. From him the style has been called bernesque poetry. In the Berneschi we find nearly the same phenomenon that we already noticed with regard to
Orlando furioso. It was art for arts sake that inspired and moved Berni to write, as well as
Antonio Francesco GrazziniAntonio Francesco Grazzini was an Italian author.-Biography:He was born at Florence of a good family, but there is no record of his upbringing and education. He probably began to practise as an apothecary as a youth...
, called Il Lasca, and other lesser writers. It may be said that there is nothing in their poetry; and it is true that they specially delight in praising low and disgusting things and in jeering at what is noble and serious. Bernesque poetry is the clearest reflection of that religious and moral scepticism which was one of the characteristics of Italian social life in the 16th century, and which showed itself more or less in all the works of that period, that scepticism which stopped the religious Reformation in Italy, and which in its turn was an effect of historical conditions. The Berneschi, and especially Berni himself, sometimes assumed a satirical tone. But theirs could not be called true satire. Pure satirists, on the other hand, were Antonio Vinciguerra, a Venetian, Lodovico Alamanni and Ariosto, the last superior to the others for the Attic elegance of his style, and for a certain frankness, passing into malice, which is particularly interesting when the poet talks of himself.
In the 16th century there were not a few didactic works. In his poem
Api Giovanni RucellaiGiovanni Rucellai is the name of a father and son of the Rucellai family of Florentine bankers.The former, Giovanni di Paolo, or Giovanni I, as the effective head of the Rucellai family commissioned the building of the Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti.The latter, Giovanni di...
approaches to the perfection of
VirgilPublius Vergilius Maro was a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.The son of a farmer, Virgil came to be...
. His style is clear and light, and he adds interest to his book by frequent allusions to the events of the time. But of the didactic works that which surpasses all the others in importance is
Baldassare CastiglioneBaldassare Castiglione, count of Novilara , was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:...
's
Cortigiano, in which he imagines a discussion in the palace of the dukes of
UrbinoUrbino is a walled city in the Marche region in Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482...
between knights and ladies as to what are the gifts required in a perfect
courtierA courtier is a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together. Monarchs very often expected the more important nobles...
. This book is valuable as an illustration of the intellectual and moral state of the highest Italian society in the first half of the 16th century.
Of the novelists of the 16th century, the two most important were Grazzini, and
Matteo Bandello-Biography:Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona , about the year 1480 or 1485. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem to have been very interested in theology. For many years he lived at Mantua, and superintended the education of the...
; the former as playful and bizarre as the latter is grave and solemn. Bandello was a
DominicanThe Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century in France...
friarA friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:Friars differ from monks in that they are called to live the evangelical counsels in service to a community, rather than through cloistered asceticism and devotion...
and a bishop, but that notwithstanding his novels were very loose in subject, and that he often holds up the ecclesiastics of his time to ridicule.
At a time when admiration for qualities of style, the desire for classical elegance, was so strong as in the 16th century, much attention was naturally paid to translating Latin and Greek authors. Among the very numerous translations of the time those of the
AeneidThe Aeneid is a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter...
and of the
Pastorals of
LongusLongus, sometimes Longos , was a Greek novelist and romancer, and author of Daphnis and Chloe. Very little is known of his life, and it is assumed that he lived on the isle of Lesbos during the 2nd century AD...
the Sophist by
Annibale CaroAnnibale Caro was an Italian poet.-Biography:Born in Civitanova Marche, near Ancona, he became tutor to the wealthy family of Lodovico Gaddi in Florence, and then secretary to Lodovico's brother Giovanni...
are still famous; as are also the translations of
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
's
MetamorphosesThe Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world. Completed in 8 AD, it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of...
by Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillare, of
ApuleiusLucius Apuleius Platonicus was a Latin prose writer remembered most for his bawdy picaresque novel, the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass...
's
The Golden AssThe Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass , is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety....
by Firenzuola, and of
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
's
Lives and
Moralia by Marcello Adriani.
The historians of Italian literature are in doubt whether
Tasso-People:*Torquato Tasso, the famous Italian 16th-century poet, author of Gerusalemme liberata*Bernardo Tasso, his father, also a poet-Places:*Tasso, Corse-du-Sud, a commune on Corsica, France*Tasso River, a river in Mumbai, India...
should be placed in the period of the highest development of the Renaissance, or whether he should form a period by himself, intermediate between that and the one following. Certainly he was profoundly out of harmony with the century in which he lived. His religious faith, the seriousness of his character, the deep melancholy settled in his heart, his continued aspiration after an ideal perfection, all place him as it were outside the literary epoch represented by Machiavelli, Ariosto, and Berni. As
CarducciCarducci is a common Italian surname and may refer to:* Bartolomeo Carducci , Florentine artist* Vincenzo Carducci , Florentine artist and brother of Bartolomeo Carducci* Giosuè Carducci , Italian poet...
has well said, Tasso is the legitimate heir of Dante: he believes, and reasons on his faith by philosophy; he loves, and comments on his love in a learned style; he is an artist, and writes dialogues of
scholasticScholasticism is derived from the Latin word scholasticus , which means "that [which] belongs to the school," and was a method of learning taught by the academics of medieval universities circa 1100–1500...
speculation that would be considered Platonic. He was only eighteen years old when, in 1562, he tried his hand at epic poetry, and wrote
Rinaldo, in which be said that he had tried to reconcile the Aristotelian rules with the variety of Ariosto. He afterwards wrote the
Aminta, a pastoral drama of exquisite grace. But the work to which he had long turned his thoughts was an heroic poem, and that absorbed all his powers. He himself explains what his intention was in the three
Discorsi written whilst he was composing the
Gerusalemme: he would choose a great and wonderful subject, not so ancient as to have lost all interest, nor so recent as to prevent the poet from embellishing it with invented circumstances; he meant to treat it rigorously according to the rules of the unity of action observed in Greek and Latin poems, but with a far greater variety and splendour of episodes, so that in this point it should not fall short of the romantic poem; and finally, he would write it in a lofty and ornate style. This is what Tasso has done in the
Gerusalemme liberata, the subject of which is the liberation of the
sepulchreA sepulchre, or sepulcher, is a type of tomb or burial chamber. In ancient Hebrew practice, sepulchres were often carved into the rock of a hillside.The word is sometimes confused with "sepulture", the act of burying a dead person....
of Jesus Christ in the 11th century by
Godfrey of BouillonGodfrey of Bouillon was a medieval knight who was one of the leaders of the First Crusade from 1096 until his death. He was the Lord of Bouillon, from which he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1087...
. The poet does not follow faithfully all the historical facts, but sets before us the principal causes of them, bringing in the supernatural agency of God and Satan. The
Gerusalemme is the best heroic poem that Italy can show. It approaches to classical perfection. Its episodes above all are most beautiful. There is profound feeling in it, and everything reflects the melancholy soul of the poet. As regards the style, however, although Tasso studiously endeavoured to keep close to the classical models, one cannot help noticing that he makes excessive use of
metaphorA metaphor is a figure of speech concisely comparing two things, saying that one is the other. The English metaphor derives from the 16th c...
, of
antithesisAntithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...
, of far-fetched conceits; and it is specially from this point of view that some historians have placed Tasso in the literary period generally known under the name of
Secentismo, and that others, more moderate in their criticism, have said that he prepared the way for it.
Period of decadence
From about 1559 began a period of decadence in Italian literature.
Tommaso CampanellaTommaso Campanella , baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.-Biography:...
was tortured by the
InquisitionThe term Inquisition can apply to any one of several institutions charged with trying and convicting heretics within the Catholic Church...
, and
Giordano BrunoGiordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno , was an Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer best known as a proponent of heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe...
was burned at the stake.
Cesare BalboCesare Balbo , Count of Vinadio, was an Italian writer and statesman.Balbo was born at Turin on the 21st of November 1789. His father, Prospero Balbo, who belonged to a noble Piedmontese family, held a high position in the Sardinian court, and at the time of Cesare’s birth was mayor of the capital...
says that, if the happiness of the masses consists in peace without industry, if the nobility's consists in titles without power, if princes are satisfied by acquiescence in their rule without real independence, without sovereignty, if literary men and artists are content to write, paint and build with the approbation of their contemporaries, but to the contempt of posterity, if a whole nation is happy in ease without dignity and the tranquil progress of corruption,then no period ever was so happy for Italy as the 140 years from the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis to the
War of the Spanish SuccessionThe War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, principally the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, and the Duchy of Savoy, against the Kingdoms of France and Spain and the Electorate of Bavaria, over a possible unification of the Kingdoms of...
. This period is known in the history of Italian literature as the
Secentismo. Its writers resorted to exaggeration; they tried to produce effect with what in art is called
mannerismMannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
or barocchism. Writers vied with one another in their use of metaphors, affectations,
hyperboleHyperbole is a figure of speech in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....
and other oddities and draw it off from the substantial element of thought.
At the head of the school of the
Secentisti was Giambattista Marino of Naples, born in 1569, especially known for his long poem,
Adone. He used the most extravagant metaphors, the most forced antitheses and the most far-fetched conceits. He strings antitheses together one after the other, so that they fill up whole stanzas without a break.
Alessandro AchilliniAlessandro Achillini was an Italian philosopher and physician.-Biography:He was born and died in Bologna, and is buried in the Church of Saint Martin there...
of Bologna followed in Marino's footsteps, but his peculiarities were even more extravagant. Almost all the poets of the 17th century were more or less infected with Marinism. Alessandro Guidi, although he does not attain to the exaggeration of his master, is bombastic and turgid, while Fulvio Testi is artificial and affected. Yet Guidi as well as Testi felt the influence of another poet,
Gabriello ChiabreraGabriello Chiabrera was an Italian poet, sometimes called the Italian Pindar.He was of patrician descent, and was born at Savona, a little town in the domain of the Genoese republic, twenty-eight years after the...
, born at
SavonaSavona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea....
in 1552. Enamoured of the Greeks, he made new metres, especially in imitation of
PindarPindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, Pindar is the one whose work is best preserved...
, treating of religious, moral, historical, and amatory subjects. Chiabrera, though elegant in form, attempts to disguise a lack of substance with poetical ornaments of every kind. Nevertheless, Chiabrera's school marks an improvement; and sometimes he shows lyrical capacities, wasted on his literary environment.
Vincenzo da Filicaja, a Florentine, had a lyric talent, particularly in the songs about
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
besieged by the
TurksThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, which raised him above the vices of the time; but even in him we see clearly the rhetorical artifice and false conceits. In general all the lyric poetry of the 17th century had the same defects, but in different degrees. These defects may be summed up as absence of feeling and exaggeration of form.
The belief arose that it would be necessary to change the form in order to restore literature. In 1690 the
Academy of ArcadiaThe Academy of Arcadia or Academy of Arcadians was an Italian literary academy founded in Rome during 1690.-History:...
was instituted. Its founders were Giovan Maria Crescimbeni and Gian Vincenzo Gravina. The
Arcadia was so called because its chief aim was to imitate the simplicity of the ancient shepherds who were supposed to have lived in
ArcadiaArcadia refers to a Utopian vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The term is derived from the Greek province of the same name which dates to antiquity; the province's mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic...
in the golden age. As the
Secentisti erred by an overweening desire for novelty, so the Arcadians proposed to return to the fields of truth, always singing of subjects of pastoral simplicity. This was merely the substitution of a new artifice for the old one; and they fell from bombast into effeminacy, from the hyperbolical into the petty, from the turgid into the over-refined. The
Arcadia was a reaction against
Secentismo, but a reaction which only succeeded in impoverishing still further and completely withering Italian literature. The poems of the Arcadians fill many volumes, and are made up of
sonnetThe sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song". By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme...
s,
madrigalsA madrigal is a type of secular vocal music composition, written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Throughout most of its history it was polyphonic and unaccompanied by instruments, with the number of voices varying from two to eight, but most frequently three to six...
,
canzonette and
blank verseBlank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. In English, the meter most commonly used with blank verse has been iambic pentameter ....
. The one whe most distinguished himself among the sonneteers was Felice Zappi. Among the authors of songs, Paolo Rolli was illustrious. Innocenzo Frugoni was more famous than all the others, a man of fruitful imagination but of shallow intellect.
Whilst the political and social conditions in Italy in the 17th century made it appear that every light of intelligence was extinguished, some strong and independent thinkers, such as
Bernardino TelesioBernardino Telesio was an Italian philosopher and natural scientist.Telesio was born of noble parentage in Cosenza, a city in Calabria, Southern Italy. He was educated in Milan by his uncle, Antonio, himself a scholar and a poet of eminence, and afterwards in Rome and Padua...
,
Lucilio VaniniLucilio Vanini, or, as he styled himself in his works, Giulio Cesare , was an Italian free-thinker, born at Taurisano, near Lecce....
, Bruno and Campanella turned philosophical inquiry into fresh channels, and opened the way for the scientific conquests of
Galileo GalileiGalileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism...
, the great contemporary of
René DescartesRené Descartes , , also known as Renatus Cartesius , was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic...
in France and of
Francis BaconFrancis Bacon,1st Viscount St Alban KC , son of Nicholas Bacon by his second wife Anne Bacon, was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
in England. Galileo was not only a great man of science, but also occupied a conspicuous place in the history of letters. A devoted student of Ariosto, he seemed to transfuse into his prose the qualities of that great poet: clear and frank freedom of expression, precision and ease, and at the same time elegance. Galileo's prose is in perfect antithesis to the poetry of his time and is regarded by some as the best prose that Italy has ever had.
Another symptom of revival, a sign of rebellion against the vileness of Italian social life, is given us in
satireSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
, particularly that of
Salvator RosaSalvator Rosa was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" proto-Romantic.-Early Biography:...
and
Alessandro TassoniAlessandro Tassoni , was an Italian poet and writer.- Life :He was born in Modena, to a noble family. In 1597, he began his service for the cardinal Colonna whom he followed to Spain...
. Rosa, born in 1615 near Naples, was a painter, a musician and a poet. As a poet he mourned the sad condition of his country, and gave vent to his feeling (as another satire-writer,
Giuseppe GiustiGiuseppe Giusti was an Italian poet.-Biography:Giusti was born at Monsummano Terme, a small town of the Valdinievole, now in the province of Pistoia....
, said) in
generosi rabbuffi. He was a precursor of the patriotic literature which inaugurated the revival of the 18th century.
Tassoni, a man really quite exceptional in this century, was superior to Rosa. He showed independent judgment in the midst of universal servility, and his
Secchia Rapita proved that he was an eminent writer. This is an heroic comic poem, which is at the same time an epic and a personal satire. He was bold enough to attack the Spaniards in his
Filippiche, in which he urged Duke Carlo Emanuele of Savoy to persist in the war against them.
The revival in the 18th century
In the 18th century, the new political condition of Italy began to improve, under
Joseph II, Holy Roman EmperorJoseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
, and his successors. These princes were influenced by philosophers, who in their turn felt the influence of a general movement of ideas at large in many parts of Europe, sometimes called The Enlightenment.
Giambattista VicoGiovanni Battista ' Vico or Vigo was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist....
showed the awakening of historical consciousness in Italy. In his
Scienza nuova, he investigated the laws governing the progress of the human race, and according to which events are developed. From the psychological study of man he tried to infer the
comune natura delle nazioni, i.e., the universal laws of history, by which civilizations rise, flourish and fall. From the same scientific spirit which inspired Vico came a different kind of investigation, that of the sources of Italian civil and literary history.
Lodovico Antonio Muratori, after having collected in his
Rerum Italicarum scriptores the
chronicleGenerally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler...
s, biographies, letters and diaries of Italian history from 500 to 1500, and having discussed the most obscure historical questions in the
Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi, wrote the
Annali d'Italia, minutely narrating facts derived from authentic sources. Muratori's associates in his historical research were Scipione Maffei of Verona and
Apostolo ZenoApostolo Zeno was an Venetian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters.-Early Life:Apostolo Zeno was born of Cretan Greek descent in Venice in 1669...
of Venice. In his
Verona illustrata Maffei left a treasure of learning which was also an excellent historical monograph. Zeno added much to the erudition of literary history, both in his
Dissertazioni Vossiane and in his notes to the
Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana of Monsignore Giusto Fontanini.
Girolamo TiraboschiGirolamo Tiraboschi was an Italian literary critic, the first historian of Italian literature.Born in Bergamo, he studied at the Jesuit college in Monza, entered the order, and was appointed in 1755 professor of eloquence in the University of Milan...
and Count Giovanni Maria Mazzuchelli of Brescia devoted themselves to literary history.
While the new spirit of the times led to the investigation of historical sources, it also encouraged inquiry into the mechanism of economic and social laws. Francesco Galiani wrote on currency;
Gaetano FilangieriGaetano Filangieri , Italian jurist and philosopher, was born in Cercola, a town near Naples.His father, Caesar, prince of Arianiello, intended him for a military career, which he commenced at the early age of seven, but soon abandoned for the study of the law...
wrote a
Scienza della legislazione. Cesare Beccaria, in his
Trattato dei delitti e delle pene, made a contribution to the reform of the penal system and promoted the abolition of
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
.
The leading figure of the literary revival of the 18th century was
Giuseppe PariniGiuseppe Parini was an Italian enlighted satirist and poet of the neoclassic period.Parini was born in Bosisio in Lombardy...
. Born in a
LombardLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region...
village in 1729, he was educated at Milan, and as a youth was known among the Arcadian poets by the name of Darisbo Elidonio. Even as an Arcadian, Parini showed originality. In a collection of poems he published at twenty-three years of age, under the name of Ripano Eupilino, the poet shows his faculty of taking his scenes from real life, and in his satirical pieces he exhibits a spirit of outspoken opposition to his own times. These poems, though derivative, indicate a resolute determination to challenge the literary conventionalities. Improving on the poems of his youth, he showed himself an innovator in his lyrics, rejecting at once Petrarchism,
Secentismo and Arcadia, the three maladies that he thought had weakened Italian art in the preceding centuries. In the
Odi the satirical note is already heard, but it comes out more strongly in
Del giorno, in which he imagines himself to be teaching a young Milanese patrician all the habits and ways of gallant life; he shows up all its ridiculous frivolities, and with delicate irony unmasks the futilities of aristocratic habits. Dividing the day into four parts, the
Mattino, the
Mezzogiorno, the
Vespero, and the
Notte, he describes the trifles of which they were made up, and the book thus assumes major social and historical value. As an artist, going straight back to classical forms, aspiring to imitate Virgil and Dante, he opened the way to the school of
Vittorio AlfieriCount Vittorio Alfieri , was an Italian dramatist, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy."-Early life:Alfieri was born at Asti in Piedmont....
,
Ugo FoscoloUgo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was a Greece-born Venetian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...
and
Vincenzo MontiVincenzo Monti was an Italian poet and scholar.- Biography :Monti was born at Alfonsine, Ravenna, the son of Fedele and Domenica Maria Mazzari, landowners...
. As a work of art, the
Giorno is wonderful for its delicate irony. The verse has new harmonies; sometimes it is a little hard and broken, as a protest against the Arcadian monotony.
Gasparo GozziGasparo, count Gozzi , was an Italian critic and dramatist.The brother of Carlo Gozzi, he was born in Venice. In 1739, he married the poet Luise Bergalli, and she undertook the management of the theatre of Sant'Angelo, Venice. Her husband supplied the performers with dramas chiefly translated...
's satire was less elevated, but directed towards the same end as Parini's. In his
Osservatore, something like
Joseph AddisonJoseph Addison was an English essayist, poet and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...
's
Spectator, in his
Gazzetta veneta, and in the
Mondo morale, by means of allegories and novelties he hit the vices with a delicate touch, introducing a practical moral. Gozzi's satire has some slight resemblance in style to
LucianLucian of Samosata was an Assyrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.-Biography:...
's. Gozzi's prose is graceful and lively, but imitates the writers of the 14th century. Another satirical writer of the first half of the 18th century was Giuseppe Baretti of Turin. In a journal called the
Frusta letteraria he mercilessly criticized the works then being published in Italy. He had learnt much by travelling; his long stay in Britain had contributed to the independent character of his mind. The
Frusta was the first book of independent criticism directed particularly against the Arcadians and the pedants.
The reforming movement sought to throw off the conventional and the artificial, and to return to truth.
Apostolo ZenoApostolo Zeno was an Venetian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters.-Early Life:Apostolo Zeno was born of Cretan Greek descent in Venice in 1669...
and
MetastasioPietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
(the Arcadian name for Pietro Trapassi, a native of Rome) had endeavoured to make
melodramaThe theatrical genre of melodrama uses theme-music to manipulate the spectator's emotional response and to denote character types. The term combines "melody" and "drama" . While the use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in most cases it is used within a fairly rigid structure...
and reason compatible. Metastasio gave fresh expression to the affections, a natural turn to the dialogue and some interest to the plot; if he had not fallen into constant unnatural overrefinement and mawkishness, and into frequent
anachronismAn anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος —is an error in chronology, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
s, he might have been considered the first dramatic reformer of the 18th century.
Carlo GoldoniCarlo Osvaldo Goldoni was a celebrated Venetian playwright and librettist, whom critics today rank among the European theatre's greatest authors. His works, along with those of the modernist Luigi Pirandello, include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the...
, a Venetian, overcame resistance from the old popular form of comedy, with the masks of
pantalonePantalone is a stock character that is classified as one of the vecchi in Commedia dell'arte. He is a miserly and often libidinous character who is portrayed as a Venetian and often speaks in the Venetian dialect....
, of the doctor,
harlequinHarlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popular of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.-Origins:...
,
BrighellaBrighella is a comic, masked character from the Commedia dell'arte. His early costume consisted of loosely-fitting, white smock and pants with green trim and was often equipped with a battachio or slapstick, or else with a wooden sword. Later he took to wearing a sort of livery with a matching cape...
, etc., and created the comedy of character, following
MolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin, mostly known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
's example. Goldoni's characters are often superficial, but he wrote lively dialogue. He produced over 150 comedies, and had no time to polish and perfect his works; but for a comedy of character we must go straight from Machiavelli's
Mandragora to him. Goldoni's dramatic aptitude is illustrated by the fact that he took nearly all his types from Venetian society, yet managed to give them an inexhaustible variety. Many of his comedies were written in
Venetian dialectVenetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. The language is called vèneto or vènet in Venetian, veneto in Italian; the variant spoken in Venice is called venexiàn/venesiàn or veneziano, respectively...
.
The ideas behind the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
of 1789 gave a special direction to Italian literature in the second half of the 18th century. Love of liberty and desire for equality created a literature which aimed at national objects, seeking to improve the condition of the country by freeing it from the double yoke of political and religious despotism. The Italians who aspired to political redemption believed it inseparable from an intellectual revival, and thought that this could only be effected by a reunion with ancient classicism. This was a repetition of what had occurred in the first half of the 15th century.
Patriotism and classicism were the two principles that inspired the literature which began with
Vittorio AlfieriCount Vittorio Alfieri , was an Italian dramatist, considered the "founder of Italian tragedy."-Early life:Alfieri was born at Asti in Piedmont....
. He worshipped the Greek and Roman idea of popular liberty in arms against tyranny. He took the subjects of his tragedies from the history of these nations and made his ancient characters talk like revolutionists of his time. The Arcadian school, with its verbosity and triviality, was rejected. His aim was to be brief, concise, strong and bitter, to aim at the sublime as opposed to the lowly and pastoral. He saved literature from Arcadian vacuities, leading it towards a national end, and armed himself with patriotism and classicism.
Ugo FoscoloUgo Foscolo , born Niccolò Foscolo, was a Greece-born Venetian writer, revolutionary and poet.-Biography:Foscolo was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...
was an eager patriot, inspired by classical models. The
Lettere di Jacopo Ortis, inspired by
GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and polymath. Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust...
's
WertherWerther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, are a love story with a mixture of patriotism; they contain a violent protest against the
Treaty of Campo FormioThe Treaty of Campo Formio or Peace of Campo Formio was signed on 17 October 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Ludwig von Cobenzl as representatives of France and Austria...
, and an outburst from Foscolo's own heart about an unhappy love-affair of his. His passions were sudden and violent. To one of these passions
Ortis owed its origin, and it is perhaps the best and most sincere of all his writings. He is still sometimes pompous and rhetorical, but less so than, for example, in the lectures
Dell'origine e dell'ufficio della letteratura. On the whole, Foscolo's prose is turgid and affected, and reflects the character of a man who always tried to pose in dramatic attitudes. This was indeed the defect of the Napoleonic epoch; there was a horror of anything common, simple, natural; everything must assume some heroic shape. In Foscolo this tendency was excessive. The
Sepolcri, which is his best poem, was prompted by high feeling, and the mastery of versification shows wonderful art. There are most obscure passages in it, as to the meaning of which it would seem as if even the author himself had not formed a clear idea. He left incomplete three hymns to the
GracesGrâces is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Bretagne in north-western France.-External links:*...
, in which he sang of beauty as the source of courtesy, of all high qualities and of happiness. Among his prose works a high place belongs to his translation of the
Sentimental JourneyA Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is a novel by the Irish-born English author Laurence Sterne, written and first published in 1768, as Sterne was facing death. In 1765 Laurence Sterne travelled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe...
of
Laurence SterneLaurence Sterne was an Irish-born English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics...
, a writer by whom Foscolo was deeply affected. He went as an exile to England, and died there. He wrote for English readers some
Essays on Petrarch and on the texts of the
Decamerone and of Dante, which are remarkable for the time at which they were written, and which may be said to have initiated a new kind of literary criticism in Italy. Foscolo is still greatly admired, and not without reason. The men who made the revolution of 1848 were brought up on his work.
Vincenzo MontiVincenzo Monti was an Italian poet and scholar.- Biography :Monti was born at Alfonsine, Ravenna, the son of Fedele and Domenica Maria Mazzari, landowners...
was a patriot too, but in his own way. He had no one deep feeling that ruled him, or rather the mobility of his feelings is his characteristic; but each of these was a new form of patriotism that took the place of an old one. He saw danger to his country in the French Revolution, and wrote the
Pellegrino apostolico, the
Bassvilliana and the
Feroniade; Napoleon's victories caused him to write the
Pronreteo and the
Musagonia; in his
Fanatismo and his
Superstizione he attacked the papacy; afterwards he sang the praises of the
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
ns. Thus every great event made him change his mind, with a readiness which might seem incredible, but is yet most easily explained. Monti was above everything an artist; everything else in him was liable to change. Knowing little Greek, he succeeded in making a translation of the
Iliad which is remarkable for its Homeric feeling, and in his
Bassvilliana he is on a level with Dante. In him classical poetry seemed to revive in all its florid grandeur.
Monti was born in 1754, Foscolo in 1778; four years later still was born another poet of the same school, Giambattista Niccolini. In literature he was a classicist; in politics he was a Ghibelline, a rare exception in
GuelphThe Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries...
Florence, his birthplace. In imitating
AeschylusAeschylus was an ancient Greek playwright. He is often recognized as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides...
, as well as in writing the
Discorsi sulla tragedia greca, and on the
Sublime Michelangelo, Niccolini displayed his passionate devotion to ancient literature. In his tragedies he set himself free from the excessive rigidity of Alfieri, and partly approached the English and German tragic authors. He nearly always chose political subjects, striving to keep alive in his compatriots the love of liberty. Such are
NabuccoNabucco is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the Biblical story and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornue...
,
Antonio Foscarini,
Giovanni da Procida,
Lodovico il Moro and others. He assailed papal Rome in
Arnaldo da Brescia, a long tragic piece, not suited for acting, and epic rather than dramatic. Niccolini's tragedies show a rich lyric vein rather than dramatic genius. He has the merit of having vindicated liberal ideas, and of having opened a new path to Italian tragedy.
Carlo BottaCarlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta was an Italian historian.He was born at San Giorgio Canavese in Piedmont. He studied medicine at the University of Turin, and obtained his doctors degree when about twenty years of age...
, born in 1766, was a spectator of French spoliation in Italy and of the overbearing rule of Napoleon. He wrote a
History of Italy from 1789 to 1814; and later continued Guicciardini's
History up to 1789. He wrote after the manner of the Latin authors, trying to imitate Livy, putting together long and sonorous periods in a style that aimed at being like Boccaccio's, caring little about that which constitutes the critical material of history, only intent on declaiming his academic prose for his country's benefit. Botta wanted to be classical in a style that could no longer be so, and hence he failed completely to attain his literary goal. His fame is only that of a man of a noble and patriotic heart. Not so bad as the two histories of Italy is that of the
Guerra dell'indipendenza americana.
Close to Botta comes
Pietro CollettaPietro Colletta was a Neapolitan general and historian, entered the Neapolitan artillery in 1796 and took part in the campaign against the French in 1798.-Biography:Colletta was born in Naples...
, a Neapolitan born nine years after him. He also in his
Storia del reame di Napoli dal 1734 al 1825 had the idea of defending the independence and liberty of Italy in a style borrowed from
TacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
; and he succeeded rather better than Botta. He has a rapid, brief, nervous style, which makes his book attractive reading. But it is said that
Pietro GiordaniPietro Giordani was an Italian writer, classical literary scholar, and a close friend of, and influence on, Giacomo Leopardi.- Biography :Born in Piacenza, Giordani originally set out to become a monk...
and
Gino CapponiMarquis Gino Capponi was an Italian statesman and historian.The Capponi family is one of the most illustrious Florentine houses, and is mentioned as early as 1250; it acquired great wealth as a mercantile and banking firm, and many of its members distinguished themselves in the service of the...
corrected it for him. Lazzaro Papi of Lucca, author of the
Commentari della rivoluzione francese dal 1789 al 1814, was not altogether unlike Botta and Colletta. He also was an historian in the classical style, and treats his subject with patriotic feeling; but as an artist he perhaps excels the other two.
Whilst the most burning political passions were raging, and whilst the most brilliant men of genius in the new classical and patriotic school were purists at the height of their influence, a question arose about
purism of languageLinguistic purism is the definition of one language variety as purer than other varieties, often in reference to a perceived decline from an ideal past or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply to an abstract ideal. The decline may take the form of change of vocabulary,...
. In the second half of the 18th century the Italian language was specially full of French expressions. There was great indifference about fitness, still more about elegance of style. Prose needed to be restored for the sake of national dignity, and it was believed that this could not be done except by going back to the writers of the 14th century, to the
aurei trecentisti, as they were called, or else to the classics of Italian literature. One of the promoters of the new school was Antonio Cesari of Verona, who republished ancient authors, and brought out a new edition, with additions, of the
Vocabolario della Crusca. He wrote a dissertation
Sopra lo stato presente della lingua italiana, and endeavoured to establish the supremacy of Tuscan and of the three great writers, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. In accordance with that principle he wrote several books, taking pains to copy the
trecentisti as closely as possible. But patriotism in Italy has always had something municipal in it; so to this Tuscan supremacy, proclaimed and upheld by Cesari, there was opposed a Lombard school, which would know nothing of Tuscan, and with Dante's
De vulgari eloquentiaDe vulgari eloquentia is the title of an essay by Dante Alighieri, written in Latin and initially meant to consist of four books, but abandoned in the middle of the second. It was probably composed shortly after Dante went into exile; internal evidence points to a date between 1302 and 1305...
returned to the idea of the
lingua illustre.
This was an old question, largely and bitterly argued in the
Cinquecento (16th century) by Varchi, Muzio,
Lodovico CastelvetroLodovico Castelvetro was an important figure in the development of neo-classicism, especially in drama. It was his reading of Aristotle that led to a widespread adoption of a tight version of the Three Unities, as a dramatic standard....
,
SperoniSperoni is a surname, and may refer to* Francesco Speroni, Italian politician* Julián Speroni, Argentinian footballer* Sperone Speroni, Italian humanist playwright...
, and others. Now the question was raised afresh. At the head of the Lombard school were Monti and his son-in-law Count Giulio Perticari. This caused Monti to write
Pro pasta di alcune correzioni ed aggiunte al vocabolario della Crusca, in which he attacked the Tuscanism of the Crusca, but in a graceful and easy style, so as to form a prose that is one of the most beautiful in Italian literature. Perticari, whose intellect was inferior, narrowed and exasperated the question in two treatises,
Degli scrittori del Trecento and
Dell'amor patrio di Dante. The dispute about language took its place beside literary and political disputes, and all Italy took part in it: Basilio Puoti at Naples,
Paolo CostaPaolo Costa is an Italian Member of the European Parliament. He was elected on the Olive Tree ticket and sits with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group....
in the
RomagnaRomagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...
, Marc Antonio Parenti at
ModenaModena is a city and a comune on the south side of the Po valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, Salvatore Betti at Rome, Giovanni Gherardini in Lombardy, Luigi Fornaciari at Lucca, and Vincenzo Nannucci at Florence.
A patriot, a classicist and a purist all at once was
Pietro GiordaniPietro Giordani was an Italian writer, classical literary scholar, and a close friend of, and influence on, Giacomo Leopardi.- Biography :Born in Piacenza, Giordani originally set out to become a monk...
, born in 1774; he was almost a compendium of the literary movement of the time. His whole life was a battle for liberty. Learned in Greek and Latin authors, and in the Italian
trecentisti, he left only a few writings, but they were carefully elaborated in point of style, and his prose was greatly admired in its time. Giordani closes the literary epoch of the classicists.
Nineteenth century and after
The romantic school had as its organ the
Conciliatore established in 1818 at Milan, on the staff of which were
Silvio PellicoSilvio Pellico was an Italian writer, poet, dramatist and patriot.-Biography:Silvio Pellico was born at Saluzzo . He spent the earlier portion of his life at Pinerolo and Turin, under the tuition of a priest named Manavella. At the age of ten he composed a tragedy inspired by a translation of the...
,
Lodovico di BremeLudovico di Breme , whose complete name was Ludovico Arborio Gattinara dei Marchesi di Breme, was an Italian writer and thinker, as well as a contributor to Milan's principal romantic journal, Il Conciliatore....
, Giovile Scalvini,
Tommaso GrossiTommaso Grossi , Lombard poet and novelist, was born in Bellano, beside the Lake of Como.He took his degree in law at Pavia in 1810, and proceeded thence to Milan to exercise his profession; but the Austrian government, suspecting his loyalty, interfered with his prospects, and in consequence...
,
Giovanni BerchetGiovanni Berchet, a poet and patriot, was born in Milan in 1783. He wrote an influential manifesto on Italian Romanticism, Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo, which appeared in 1816, and contributed to Il Conciliatore, a reformist periodical. He participated in various nationalist activities,...
, Samuele Biava, and
Alessandro ManzoniAlessandro Francesco Tommaso Manzoni was an Italian poet and novelist.He is famous for the novel The Betrothed, one of the major works of Italian literature.-Biography:...
. All were influenced by the ideas that, especially in Germany, constituted the movement called
RomanticismRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
. In Italy the course of literary reform took another direction. The main instigator of the reform was Manzoni. He formulated the objects of the new school, saying that it aspired to try to discover and express
il vero storico and
il vero morale, not only as an end, but as the widest and eternal source of the beautiful. It is realism in art that characterizes Italian literature from Manzoni onwards. The
Promessi Sposi (
The BetrothedThe Betrothed is an Italian historical novel by Alessandro Manzoni, first published in 1827, in three volumes. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel of the Italian language....
) is the work that has made him immortal. No doubt the idea of the
historical novelHistorical fiction is a genre in which the plot is set amidst historical events, or more generally, in which the author uses real events but adds a fictional character.-Overview:...
came to him from Sir
Walter ScottSir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet, popular throughout Europe during his time....
, but Manzoni succeeded in something more than an historical novel in the narrow meaning of that word; he created an eminently realistic work of art. The reader's attention is entirely fixed on the powerful objective creation of the characters. From the greatest to the least they have a wonderful verisimilitude. Manzoni is able to unfold a character in all particulars and to follow it through its different phases. Don Abbondio and Renzo are as perfect as Azzeccagarbugli and Il Sarto. Manzoni dives down into the innermost recesses of the human heart, and draws from it the most subtle psychological reality. In this his greatness lies, which was recognized first by his companion in genius, Goethe. As a poet too he had gleams of genius, especially in the Napoleonic ode,
Il Cinque Maggio, and where he describes human affections, as in some stanzas of the
Inni and in the chorus of the
Adelchi.
The great poet of the age was
Giacomo LeopardiGiacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist.-Biography:...
, born thirteen years after Manzoni at
RecanatiRecanati is a town and commune in the province of Macerata, Marche region of Italy. Recanati was founded around 1150 AD from three pre-existing castles. In 1290 it proclaimed itself an independent republic and, in the 15th century, was famous for its international fair...
, of a patrician family. He became so familiar with Greek authors that he used afterwards to say that the Greek mode of thought was more clear and living to his mind than the Latin or even the Italian. Solitude, sickness, and domestic tyranny prepared him for profound melancholy. He passed into complete religious scepticism, from which he sought rest in art. Everything is terrible and grand in his poems, which are the most agonizing cry in modern literature, uttered with a solemn quietness that at once elevates and terrifies us. He was also an admirable prose writer. In his
Operette morali--dialogues and discourses marked by a cold and bitter smile at human destinies which freezes the reader—the clearness of style, the simplicity of language and the depth of conception are such that perhaps he is not only the greatest lyrical poet since Dante, but also one of the most perfect writers of prose that Italian literature has had.
As realism in art gained ground, the positive method in criticism kept pace with it. History returned to its spirit of learned research, as is shown in such works as the
Archivio storico italiano, established at Florence by Giampietro Vieusseux, the
Storia d'Italia nel medio evo by Carlo Troya, a remarkable treatise by Manzoni himself,
Sopra alcuni punti della storia longobardica in Italia, and the very fine history of the
Vespri sicilianiThe Sicilian Vespers is the name given to a rebellion on the island of Sicily in 1282 against the rule of the Angevin king Charles I, who, with Papal complicity, in 1266 had taken control of the entire Kingdom of Sicily, which stretched from the southern suburbs of Rome, down the entire Italian...
by
Michele AmariMichele Amari was an Italian patriot, born at Palermo, devoted a great part of his life to the history of Sicily, and took part in its emancipation; was an Orientalist as well; he is famous for throwing light on the true character of the Sicilian Vespers; and served as the Kingdom of Italy's first...
. Alongside the great artists Leopardi and Manzoni, alongside the learned scholars, there was also in the first half of the 19th century a patriotic literature. Vieusseux had a distinct political object when in 1820 he established the monthly review
Antologia. His
Archivio storico italiano (1842) was, under a different form, a continuation of the
Antologia, which was suppressed in 1833 owing to the action of the Russian government. Florence was in those days the asylum of all the Italian exiles, and these exiles met and shook hands in Vieusseux's rooms, where there was more literary than political talk, but where one thought and one only animated all minds, the thought of Italy.
The literary movement which preceded and was contemporary with the political revolution of 1848 may be said to be represented by four writers -
Giuseppe GiustiGiuseppe Giusti was an Italian poet.-Biography:Giusti was born at Monsummano Terme, a small town of the Valdinievole, now in the province of Pistoia....
,
Francesco Domenico GuerrazziFrancesco Domenico Guerrazzi was an Italian writer and politician involved in the Italian risorgimento.Guerrazzi was born on August 12, 1804 in the seaport of Livorno, then part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He studied law at the university of Pisa, graduating in 1824...
,
Vincenzo Giobertithumb|250px|Vincenzo Gioberti.Vincenzo Gioberti was an Italian philosopher, publicist and politician.-Biography:Gioberti was born in Turin....
and
Cesare BalboCesare Balbo , Count of Vinadio, was an Italian writer and statesman.Balbo was born at Turin on the 21st of November 1789. His father, Prospero Balbo, who belonged to a noble Piedmontese family, held a high position in the Sardinian court, and at the time of Cesare’s birth was mayor of the capital...
. Giusti wrote
epigramAn Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
matic satires in popular language. In incisive phrases he scourged the enemies of Italy. He was a telling political writer, but a mediocre poet. Guerrazzi had a great reputation and great influence, but his historical novels, though avidly read before 1848, were soon forgotten. Gioberti, a powerful
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
al writer, had a noble heart and a great mind; his philosophical works are now as good as dead, but the
Primato morale e civile degli Italiani will last as an important document of the times, and the
Gesuita moderno is the most tremendous indictment of the Jesuits ever written. Balbo was an earnest student of history, and made history useful for politics. Like Gioberti in his first period, Balbo was zealous for the civil papacy, and for a federation of the Italian states presided over by it. His
Sommario della storia d'Italia is an excellent epitome.
Political literature becomes less important
After 1850 political literature becomes less important, one of the last poets distinguished in this genre being
Francesco dall'OngaroFrancesco Dall'Ongaro was an Italian writer, poet and dramatist-Biography:Born in Friuli, Dall'Ongaro was educated for the priesthood, but abandoned his orders, and taking to political journalism founded the Favilla at Trieste in the Liberal interest.In 1848 he enlisted under Garibaldi, and next...
, with his
stornelli politici.
Giovanni PratiGiovanni Prati was an Italian poet born in what then was part of the Austrian Empire and educated in law at Padua...
and
Aleardo AleardiAleardo Aleardi , born Gaetano Maria, was an Italian poet who belonged to the so-called Neo-romanticists....
continue romantic traditions. The dominant figure of this later period, however, is
Giosuè CarducciGiosuè Alessandro Michele Carducci was an Italian poet and teacher. He was very influential and was regarded as the unofficial national poet of modern Italy. In 1906 he became the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.-Biography:He was born in Valdicastello, a small town in the...
, the opponent of the Romantics and restorer of the ancient metres and spirit who, great as a poet, was scarcely less distinguished as a literary critic and historian. Other classical poets are Giuseppe Chiarini, Domenico Guoli,
Arturo GrafArturo Graf , Italian poet, of German ancestry, was born at Athens.He was educated at the University of Naples and became a lecturer on Italian literature in Rome, till in 1882 he was appointed professor at Turin....
,
Guido MazzoniGuido Mazzoni may be either of two notables:*Guido Mazzoni , sculptor*Guido Mazzoni , poet and professor...
and
Giovanni MarradiGiovanni Marradi was an Italian poet born at Leghorn and educated at Pisa and Florence. At the latter place he started with others a short-lived review, the Nuovi Goliardi, which made some literary sensation. He became a teacher at various colleges, and eventually an educational inspector in Massa...
, of whom the two last named may perhaps be regarded as special disciples of Carducci, while another,
Giovanni PascoliGiovanni Pascoli was an Italian poet and classical scholar.- Biography :Pascoli was born at San Mauro di Romagna , into a wealthy family....
, best known by his
Myricae and
Poemetti, only began as such. Enrico Panzacchi was at heart still a romantic.
Olindo GuerriniOlindo Guerrini was an Italian poet who also published under the pseudonyms Lorenzo Stecchetti and Argia Sbolenfi....
(who wrote under the pseudonym of Lorenzo Stecchetti) is the chief representative of
verismo in poetry, and, though his early works obtained a
succès de scandale, he is the author of many lyrics of intrinsic value. Alfredo Baccelli and
Mario RapisardiMario Rapisardi was an Italian poet, supporter of Risorgimento and member of the Scapigliatura.-Life:...
are epic poets of distinction.
Felice CavallottiFelice Cavallotti was an Italian politician, poet and dramatic author.- Early career :Born in Milan, Cavallotti fought with the Garibaldian Corps in their 1860 and 1866 campaigns during the Italian Wars of Independence....
is the author of the stirring
Marcia de Leonida.
Among dialect writers, the great Roman poet
Giuseppe Gioacchino BelliGiuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Belli was an Italian poet, famous for his sonnets in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome.- Biography :...
found numerous successors, such as Renato Fucini (Pisa), Berto Barbarani (Verona) and
Cesare PascarellaCesare Pascarella , was an Italian dialect poet and a painter. He was appointed to the Accademia d’Italia in 1930.Pascarella was born in Rome and initially was a painter. His literary activity began in 1881 with the publication of sonnets in Romanesco dialect. In the same period he made friends...
(Rome). Among the women poets,
Ada NegriAda Negri was an Italian poet.She was born in Lodi into an artisan family to Giuseppe Negri, and his wife Vittoria Cornalba, and became a village school-teacher...
, with her socialistic
Fatalità and
Tempeste, achieved a great reputation; and others, such as
Vittoria AganoorVittoria Aganoor was an Italian poet with Armenian ancestry.She was the 7th child of Edoardo Aganoor and Giuseppina Pacini, lots of Italian celebrities, such as Andrea Maffei or Antonio Fogazzaro, visited their home when she was a child.In 1876 she went living to Naples, where she met Enrico...
, A. Brunacci-Brunamonti, and Annie Vivanti, were highly esteemed in Italy.
Among the dramatists,
Pietro CossaPietro Cossa , Italian dramatist, was born at Rome, and claimed descent from the family of Pope John XXIII, deposed by the council of Constance....
in tragedy, Gherardi del Testa,
Ferdinando Martini-Biography:Born in Florence, he worked as journalist and writer. He collaboreated to Il Fanfulla and in 1879 he founded the Fanfulla della domenica literary supplement, which he directed until 1882; he was also editor of La Domenica letteraria from 1882 al 1885 and professor at the University of...
, and
Paolo FerrariPaolo Ferrari , Italian dramatist, was born at Modena. His numerous works, chiefly comedies, and all marked by a fresh and piquant style, are the finest product of the modern Italian drama. After producing some minor pieces, in 1852 he made his reputation as a playwright with Goldoni e le sue...
in comedy, represent the older schools. More modern methods were adopted by
Giuseppe GiacosaGiuseppe Giacosa was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist.He was born in Colleretto Parella, now Colleretto Giacosa, near Turin. His father was a magistrate...
and Gerolamo Rovetta.
In fiction, the historical romance fell into disfavour, though
Emilio de MarchiEmilio De Marchi was a prominent Italian operatic tenor during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1900, he entered musical history as the creator of the role of Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca.De Marchi's voice was discovered during military service...
produced some good examples. The novel of intrigue was cultivated by
Anton Giulio BarriliAnton Giulio Barrili , Italian novelist, was born at Savona, and was educated for the legal profession, which he abandoned for journalism in Genoa. He was a volunteer in the campaign of 1859 and served with Garibaldi in 1866 and 1867...
and
Salvatore FarinaSalvatore Farina was an Italian novelist whose style of sentimental humor has been compared to that of Charles Dickens....
, the psychological novel by Enrico Annibale Butti, the realistic local tale by
Giovanni VergaGiovanni Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in Sicily, and especially for the short story Cavalleria Rusticana and the novel I Malavoglia....
, and the mystic philosophical novel by
Antonio FogazzaroAntonio Fogazzaro was an Italian novelist.-Biography:Fogazzaro was born in Vicenza to a rich family.In 1864 he got a law degree in Turin...
.
Edmondo de AmicisEdmondo De Amicis was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer. His best-known book is the children's novel Heart.-Early career:...
is better known for his moral works and travels than for his fiction. Of the women novelists,
Matilde Seraoframe|Matilde Serao.Matilde Serao was a Greek-born Italian journalist and novelist. She was the founder and editor of Il Giorno, and she also wrote several novels.-Biography:...
and
Grazia DeleddaGrazia Deledda was a Sardinian writer whose works won her a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.-Biography:...
became popular.
Gabriele d'AnnunzioGabriele D'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, dramatist, and daredevil...
produced original work in poetry, drama and fiction, of extraordinary quality. He began with some lyrics which were distinguished no less by their exquisite beauty of form than by their licence, and these characteristics reappeared in a long series of poems, plays and novels.
20th century and beyond
Important early 20th century writers include
Italo SvevoAron Ettore Schmitz , better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was an Italian businessman and author of novels, plays, and short stories.- Biography :...
, the author of
La coscienza di Zeno (1923);
Luigi PirandelloLuigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934,for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and c. 40 plays, some of which are written in...
(winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature), who explored the shifting nature of reality in his prose fiction and such plays as
Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (
Six Characters in Search of an AuthorSix Characters in Search of an Author is the most famous and celebrated play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy...
, 1921) ; and the novelists
Giovanni VergaGiovanni Verga was an Italian realist writer, best known for his depictions of life in Sicily, and especially for the short story Cavalleria Rusticana and the novel I Malavoglia....
(an exponent of
verismo or
NaturalismNaturalism is a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary...
) and
Cesare PaveseCesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator; he is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country.- Early life and education :...
. Poetry was represented by the
CrepuscolariThe Crepuscolari were a group of Italian poets whose work is notable for its use of musical and mood-conveying language and its general tone of despondency...
and the
FuturistsFuturism or Futurist may refer to:*Futurology* Futurists * Futurist architecture* Futurist meals, a gastronomic movement based on Futurism* Futurism , a movement in literature, art, and architecture* Futurism...
; the foremost member of the latter group was Filippo Marinetti. Leading
ModernistModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late...
poets from later in the century include
Salvatore QuasimodoSalvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author. In 1959, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times." Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets of the...
(winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Literature),
Giuseppe UngarettiGiuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. A leading representative of the experimental trend known as ermetismo, he was one of the most prominent contributors to 20th century Italian literature. Influenced by symbolism, he was briefly aligned with...
,
Umberto SabaUmberto Saba was the pseudonym of Italian poet and novelist Umberto Poli. His creative work was hampered by a life-long struggle with mental illness.-Early years:...
and
Eugenio MontaleEugenio Montale was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975.- Early years :...
(winner of the 1975
Nobel Prize in LiteratureThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
), described by critics as "hermeticists".
Dino BuzzatiDino Buzzati Traverso was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for Corriere della Sera. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel Il deserto dei Tartari, translated into English as The Tartar Steppe.-Life:Buzzati was born at San Pellegrino near...
wrote fantastic and allegorical fiction which has been compared to
KafkaFranz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia , Austria–Hungary...
and
BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalist....
.
Italo CalvinoItalo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and America, he was...
also ventured into fantasy in the trilogy
I nostri antenati (
Our AncestorsOur Ancestors is the name of Italo Calvino's "heraldic trilogy" that comprises The Cloven Viscount , The Baron in the Trees , and The Nonexistent Knight ....
, 1952-1959) and post-modernism in the novel
Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore... (
If on a Winter's Night a TravellerIf on a winter's night a traveler is a novel published in 1979 by Italo Calvino. There is a 1981 translation by William Weaver....
, 1979).
Primo LeviPrimo Michele Levi was a Jewish-Italian chemist, Holocaust survivor and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, essays and novels....
documented his experiences in Auschwitz in
Se questo è un uomo (
If This Is a ManIf This Is a Man is a work of witness by the Italian author Primo Levi. It was influenced by his experiences in the concentration camp at Auschwitz during the Second World War...
) and other books. Giuseppe di Lampedusa wrote only one novel,
Il GattopardoIl gattopardo may refer to:*The Leopard, a novel*The Leopard , a film based on the novel...
(
The Leopard, 1958), but it is one of the most famous in Italian literature; it deals with the life of a
SicilianSicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
nobleman in the 19th century. Other novelists include
Alberto MoraviaAlberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle, was one of the leading Italian novelists of the 20th century...
(e.g.
Il conformistaThe Conformist is a novel by Alberto Moravia published in 1951, which details the life and desire for normalcy of a government official during Italy's fascist period. It is also known for the 1970 film adaptation by Bernardo Bertolucci....
, 1951);
Carlo Emilio GaddaCarlo Emilio Gadda was an Italian writer and poet. He belongs to the tradition of the language innovators, writers that played with the somewhat stiff standard pre-war Italian language, and added elements of dialects, technical jargon and wordplay.-Biography:Gadda was a practising engineer from...
, author of the experimental
Quer pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana (1957);
Natalia GinzburgNatalia Ginzburg née Levi was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics, and philosophy.- Life :...
; and the Sicilian
Leonardo SciasciaLeonardo Sciascia was an Italian writer and politician.-Biography:Sciascia was born in Racalmuto, Sicily....
.
Umberto SabaUmberto Saba was the pseudonym of Italian poet and novelist Umberto Poli. His creative work was hampered by a life-long struggle with mental illness.-Early years:...
won fame for his collection of poems
Il canzoniere.
Pier Paolo PasoliniPier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian poet, intellectual, film director, and writer. Pasolini distinguished himself as a journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
was a controversial poet and novelist. More recently,
Umberto EcoUmberto Eco is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
became internationally successful with his novel
Il nome della rosa (
The Name of the RoseThe Name of the Rose, a novel by Umberto Eco, is a historical whodunnit — a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. It is an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
, 1980).
Further reading
Important German works, besides Gaspary, are those of Wilse and Percopo (illustrated; Leipzig, 1899), and of Tommaso Casini (in Grober's Grundr. der rom. Phil., Strasbourg, 1896-1899).
English students are referred to
John Addington SymondsJohn Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as l'amour de l'impossible.-Early life:Symonds was born at Bristol...
's
Renaissance in Italy (especially, but not exclusively, vols. iv. and v.; new ed., London, 1902), and to
Richard GarnettRichard Garnett C.B. was a scholar, librarian, biographer and poet. He was son of Richard Garnett, an assistant keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum....
's
History of Italian Literature (London, 1898).
Original texts and criticism
- AA.VV., Antologia della poesia italiana, ed. C. Segre and C. Ossola. Torino, Einaudi, 1997
- Giudice, A., Bruni, G., Problemi e scrittori della letteratura italiana. Torino, 1973
- Bruni F., Testi e documenti. Torino, UTET, 1984
- Bruni, F. L'Italiano nelle regioni. Torino, UTET, 1997
External links