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Friulian (orFriulan)literature is theliterature of the autonomousItalian region ofFriuli, written in the localFriulian language.
The oldest surviving poems in Friulian date from the 14th century. They are songs ofballads:Piruç myò doç inculurit ("Sweet Blush Pear of Mine", before 1380),Biello dumnlo di valor ("Fair Lady of Worth") and theSoneto furlan ("Friulian Sonnet").[1][2] Vernacular Friulian phrases and spellings occasionally made their way into otherwiseLatin documents.Giovanni Frau [it] cites an early example from 1284.[1] Paola Benincà quotes documents from 1355, 1360, 1380 and 1389.[2]
A fuller Friulian literature dates back only to the 19th century, whenFriuli, after theCongress of Vienna, fell entirely under the control of theAustrian empire. This late flourishing had several causes: first, the language of the culture and administration had never been Friulian, butLatin and partlyGerman under thePatriarchal State of Aquileia andItalian, mixed withVenetian under theSerenissima rule. Moreover, Friuli never saw the formation of a literatebourgeoisie that could have fostered the language, in order to have a literary development similar to other European languages. During the 16th century for example, there were only limited poetic forms in Friulian inspired by the works ofFrancesco Petrarca, including the poems ofNicolò Morlupino fromVenzone (1528-1570) andGirolamo Biancone fromTolmezzo (1515-1580). Also, until 1800 there were no printed works inFriulian, so the diffusion of poetry and other works was restricted to a small number of persons.
During this period, the most important Friulian authors wereCiro di Pers (1599-1663), poet and man of letters;Eusebi Stele (Eusebio Stella) ofSpilimbergo (1602-1671), born to a noble family, who composed poems in a playful and ironic style about his life and love adventures; and the countErmes di Colorêt (1622-1692), notable mainly for his use of thekoinè fromUdine, that would become the most notable literary language and the basis of today's standard Friulian. Ermes was educated atMedici's court inFlorence, then took part in theThirty Years' War, worked in the service of theVenetian Republic andLeopold I of Habsburg; in the last part of his life he returned to his homeland to focus on writing poetry, most of which centers on the theme of love.
Ermes di Colloredo: Poesie Friulane, l’Opera Completa". LiteraryJoint Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2019. The complete work of Ermes Earl of Colloredo, full text.ISBN 978-0-359-73730-7ISBN 978-0-359-38863-9
This century was undoubtedly poor in the development of Friulian literature, probably due to the increasing influence of theVenetian language in the city ofUdine. Noteworthy, though, was the publication of the first Friulianalmanac (strolic orlunari in Friulian) in 1742. The almanac contained short stories, poems and agricultural advice, with an item for each day of the year; these kinds of works would be very popular in the following centuries.
The first half of the century was similar to the previous one. The primary Friulian author of the 19th century, and today probably the best known in all of Friulian literature, was Pieri Çorut (Pietro Zorutti, 1792–1867). Çorut's poetry was plain, far removed from the popular romanticism of the period; he devoted himself mainly to the almanacs, calledStrolic furlans, published yearly from 1821 until 1867. His most famous work isPlovisine, composed in 1833. Çorut enjoyed great popularity in Friuli during his life and many tried to imitate his style. Today he is respected mainly for his usage of Central Friulian, which he sought to elevate to a literary language. Another author of almanacs wasAntoni Broili (1796–1876), who achieved better results from the literary point of view.
In the second half of the century, the city ofGorizia was generally more vivacious than that of Udine; there was a different feeling of "Friulanity," and the environment wasmitteleuropean, since the city (part of the county ofGorizia and Gradisca) was under the rule of Austro-Hungarian empire, while Udine was annexed to theKingdom of Italy in 1866. In Gorizia, many tried to use the Friulian language in different fields, such as the applied sciences, with good results; one example from the period is the almanacIl me paîs. Strenna popolâr pal 1855 byFederico de Comelli ofGradisca (1826-1892).Carlo Favetti from Gorizia also published several books of poetry and plays in the local Friulian dialect.
An important literary event, although very late in comparison to other European languages, was the publication of the first Friulian vocabulary, composed by abbotJacopo Pirona and his nephew Giulio Andrea (1871), which is still a valuable language resource today. In 1873,Graziadio Isaia Ascoli published an analysis of Friulian. Ascoli started the so-calledQuestione Ladina.
Also deserving of mention isCaterina Percoto, who has an important role inItalian literature of this century, but who left only a few works in Friulian, mainly regarding popular traditions.
At the beginning of 1900 Friuli seemed far from the numerous avant-gardes of the period, at least in part due to its difficult historical situation; the regional request for autonomy received no response from the Italian authorities, and in 1933 thefascist regime prohibited any publications in Friulian. The most important authors of this time wereVittorio Cadel ofFanna (1884-1917), who composed poems with a sensual background, concealing a deep feeling of sadness and discouragement;Ercole Carletti (1877-1946) ofUdine, author of poems in a style close to Italiancrepuscolarismo; andCelso Cescutti. A rare example of political and civil themes can be found inGiovanni Minut'sRimis furlanis (1921). Minut, born inVisco in 1895, was forced to flee toUruguay when the fascists came to power; he died there in 1967.
In the area ofGorizia,Delfo Zorzut ofCormons composed various collections of short stories (La furlane,Sturiutis furlanis) and gathered many popular legends and traditions, useful to keep alive an interest in the language.
But the most important Friulian work of the 20th century was theAcademiuta di lenga furlana, founded byPier Paolo Pasolini. Pasolini collected a group of writers in order to go beyond the old poetry inspired byPieri Çorut's works, which was still imitated, to create a new and modern Friulian poetry. Other noteworthy figures in the movement include Domenico Naldini (Pasolini's cousin) and Riccardo Castellani. Neither, however, reached the poetical heights of their leader. Their works were in theConcordiese dialect of Friulian, in polemic with the use of Central Friulian as the only literary standard.
Other developments afterWorld War II included the lyrical works ofFranco de Gironcoli, fromGorizia. Gironcoli studied and analysed poems fromErmes di Colorêt and the Pirona vocabulary, and from 1944 on he composed several short lyrics, dedicated mainly to the flowing of time.
Josef Marchet, a priest, began the difficult work of promoting and standardizing the language; he tried to arrange a Friulian grammatic inLineamenti di grammatica friulana, with the purpose of developing a standard variant of the language. In 1950 he also published the collectionRisultive, wherein were gathered the works of several interesting Friulian poets of the time (includingNovella Cantarutti fromSpilimbergo; Dino Virgili, composer of the novelL'aghe dapit la cleve; and Lelo Cjanton (Aurelio Cantoni)).
1971 saw the publication of a translation with the titlePrime di sere of the novelIl vento nel vigneto, written in Italian by the Friulian writerCarlo Sgorlon, which enjoyed a good success.
While poets and song writers in Friuli continue to keep the language alive, Friulan has been used in Toronto, Canada, for many years by immigrants from Friuli. A notable example is the bilingual poem collection,From Friuli: Poems in Friulan, with English Translations, (2015) by Rina Del Nin Cralli and edited by Joseph Pivato. Rina is originally from Codroipo and said she was inspired to write poetry in Friulan by the books,Un Friul vivut in Canada (1977) by Ermanno Bulfon andA Furlan Harvest: An Anthology (1993) edited by Dore Michelut, an Italian-Canadian poet.