Italian literature began in the 12th century, when in different regions of thepeninsula the Italian vernacular started to be used in a literary manner. TheRitmo laurenziano is the first extant document of Italian literature. In 1230, theSicilian School became notable for being the first style in standard Italian.Renaissance humanism developed during the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries.Lorenzo de' Medici is regarded as the standard bearer of the influence ofFlorence on the Renaissance in theItalian states. The development of thedrama in the 15th century was very great. In the 16th century, the fundamental characteristic of the era following the end of the Renaissance was that it perfected the Italian character of its language.Niccolò Machiavelli andFrancesco Guicciardini were the chief originators of the science of history.[2]Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of theItalian language. In 1690, theAcademy of Arcadia was instituted with the goal of "restoring" literature by imitating the simplicity of the ancient shepherds withsonnets,madrigals,canzonette, andblank verses.
In the 18th century, the political condition of the Italian states began to improve, and philosophers disseminated their writings and ideas throughout Europe during theAge of Enlightenment. The leading figure of the 18th century Italian literary revival wasGiuseppe Parini.[3] The philosophical, political, and socially progressive ideas behind theFrench Revolution of 1789 gave a special direction to Italian literature in the second half of the 18th century, inaugurated with the publication ofDei delitti e delle pene byCesare Beccaria. Love of liberty and desire for equality created a literature aimed at national objects. Patriotism and classicism were the two principles that inspired the literature that began with the Italian dramatist and poetVittorio Alfieri.[3] TheRomantic movement had as its organ theConciliatore, established in 1818 at Milan. The main instigator of the reform was the Italian poet and novelistAlessandro Manzoni. The great Italian poet of the age wasGiacomo Leopardi. The literary movement that preceded and was contemporary with thepolitical revolutions of 1848 may be said to be represented by four writers:Giuseppe Giusti,Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi,Vincenzo Gioberti, andCesare Balbo.[4]
A depiction ofBoethius teaching his students (1385). Boethius, a 6th century Christian philosopher, helped keep alive the classic tradition in post-Roman Italy.
The later establishment of the medieval universities ofBologna,Padua,Vicenza,Naples,Salerno,Modena andParma helped to spread culture and prepared the ground in which the newvernacular literature developed.[5] Classical traditions did not disappear, and affection for the memory of Rome, a preoccupation with politics, and a preference for practice over theory combined to influence the development of Italian literature.[6]
The beginning ofRambertino Buvalelli'sD'un saluz uoill m'entremetre, with a decorated initial D, and Rambertino's name (Lanbertin de Buualel) at top
The earliest vernacular literary tradition in Italy was inOccitan, spoken in parts of northwest Italy. A tradition of vernacularlyric poetry arose inPoitou in the early 12th century and spread south and east, eventually reaching Italy by the end of the 12th century. The firsttroubadours (trovatori in Italian), as these Occitan lyric poets were called, to practise in Italy were from elsewhere, but the high aristocracy of the northern Italy was ready to patronise them.[7] It was not long before native Italians adopted Occitan as a vehicle for poetic expression.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the Italian troubadour phenomenon was the production ofchansonniers and the composition ofvidas andrazos.[9]Uc de Saint Circ undertook to author the entirerazo corpus and a great many of thevidas. The most famous and influential Italian troubadour wasSordello.[10]
At the same time, epic poetry was written in a mixed language, a dialect of Italian based on French: hybrid words exhibited a treatment of sounds according to the rules of both languages, had French roots with Italian endings, and were pronounced according to Italian or Latin rules. Examples include thechansons de geste,Macaire, theEntrée d'Espagne written by Anonymous ofPadua, thePrise de Pampelune, written byNiccolò of Verona, and others. All this preceded the appearance of purely Italian literature.[14][15]
The French and Occitan languages gradually gave way to the native Italian. Hybridism recurred, but it no longer predominated. In theBovo d'Antona and theRainaldo e Lesengrino,Venetian is clearly felt, although the language is influenced by French forms. These writings, whichGraziadio Isaia Ascoli has calledmiste (mixed), immediately preceded the appearance of purely Italian works.[6]
There is evidence that a type of literature already existed before the 13th century: theRitmo cassinese,Ritmo di Sant'Alessio,Laudes creaturarum,Ritmo lucchese,Ritmo laurenziano,Ritmo bellunese are classified byCesare Segre, et al. as "Archaic Works" ("Componimenti Arcaici"): "such are labelled the first literary works in the Italian vernacular, their dates ranging from the last decades of the 12th century to the early decades of the 13th".[5] However, as he points out, such early literature does not yet present any uniform stylistic or linguistic traits.[5]
This early development, however, was simultaneous in the whole peninsula, varying only in the subject matter of the art. In the north, the poems ofGiacomino da Verona andBonvesin da la Riva were written in a dialect ofLombard andVenetian.[16][17] This sort of composition may have been encouraged by the old custom in the north of Italy of listening to the songs of thejongleurs.[18]
The year 1230 marked the beginning of theSicilian School and of literature showing more uniform traits. Its importance lies more in the language (the creation of the first standard Italian) than its subject, a love song partly modelled on the Provençal poetry imported to the south by theNormans and theSvevs underFrederick II.[19] This poetry differs from the French equivalent in its treatment of the woman, lesserotic and moreplatonic, a vein further developed byDolce Stil Novo in later 13th century Bologna andFlorence. The customary repertoire ofchivalry terms is adapted to Italianphonotactics, creating new Italian vocabulary. These were adopted byDante and his contemporaries, and handed on to future generations of Italian writers.[19]
To the Sicilian school belongedEnzio, king ofSardinia,Pietro della Vigna,Inghilfredi,Guido andOdo delle Colonne,Jacopo d'Aquino,Ruggieri Apugliese,Giacomo da Lentini,Arrigo Testa, and others. Most famous isIo m'aggio posto in core, by Giacomo da Lentini, the head of the movement, but there is also poetry written by Frederick himself. Giacomo da Lentini is also credited with inventing thesonnet, a form later perfected by Dante,Petrarch andBoccaccio.[20] Thecensorship imposed by Frederick meant that no political matter entered literary debate. In this respect, the poetry of the north, still divided intocommunes orcity-states with relatively democratic governments, provided new ideas. These new ideas are shown in theSirventese genre, and later, Dante'sCommedia, full of invectives against contemporary political leaders and popes.
Though the conventional love song prevailed at Frederick's (and laterManfred's) court, more spontaneous poetry existed in theContrasto attributed toCielo d'Alcamo. TheContrasto is probably a scholarly re-elaboration of a lost popular rhyme and is the closest to a type of poetry that perished or was smothered by the ancient Sicilian literature.[19] The poems of the Sicilian school were written in the first known standard Italian.[21] This was elaborated by these poets under the direction of Frederick II and combines many traits typical of the Sicilian, and to a lesser extent,Apulian dialects and other southern dialects, with many words of Latin and French origin.
Dante's stylesillustre, cardinale, aulico, curiale were developed from his linguistic study of the Sicilian School, whose technical features had been imported byGuittone d'Arezzo inTuscany. The standard changed slightly in Tuscany because Tuscanscriveners perceived the five-vowel system used by southern Italians as a seven-vowel one. As a consequence, the texts that Italian students read in their anthology contain lines that appear not to rhyme, a feature known as ″Sicilian rhyme" (rima siciliana) which was widely used later by poets such as Dante or Petrarch.[22]
The earliest preserved sermons in the Italian language are fromJordan of Pisa, a Dominican.[23]Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscans, also wrote poetry. According to legend, Francis dictated thehymnCantico del Sole in the eighteenth year of his penance.[24][25] It was the first great poetical work of northern Italy, written in a type of verse marked byassonance, a poetic device more widespread in Northern Europe.
Jacopone da Todi was a poet who represented the religious feeling that had made special progress inUmbria. Jacopone was possessed by St. Francis's mysticism, but was also a satirist who mocked thecorruption andhypocrisy of the Church.[26] The religious movement in Umbria was followed by another literary phenomenon, the religious drama. In 1258 a hermit,Raniero Fasani, represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious visions, and to announce to the world terrible visitations.[27] Fasani's pronouncements stimulated the formation of theCompagnie di Disciplinanti, who, for a penance, scourged themselves until they drew blood, and sangLaudi in dialogue in theirconfraternities. Theselaudi, closely connected with theliturgy, were the first example of drama in the vernacular tongue of Italy. They were written in theUmbrian dialect, in verses of eight syllables. As early as the end of the 13th century theDevozioni del Giovedi e Venerdi Santo appeared, mixing liturgy and drama. Later,di un Monaco che andò 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.[24]
Page of the Banco Rari Code in which it is containedAl cor gentil rempaira sempre amore byGuido Guinizelli
13th century Tuscans spoke a dialect that closely resembled Latin and afterwards became, almost exclusively, the language of literature, and which was already regarded at the end of the 13th century as surpassing other dialects.[28] In Tuscany, too, popular love poetry existed. A school of imitators of the Sicilians was led byDante da Majano, but its literary originality took another line—that of humorous and satirical poetry.[29] The entirely democratic form of government created a style of poetry that stood strongly against the medieval mystic and chivalrous style. The sonnets ofRustico di Filippo are half-fun and half-satire, as is the work ofCecco Angiolieri of Siena, the oldest known humorist.[30][31]Another type 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 prepared the way for the Bolognese school. Bologna was the city of science, andphilosophical poetry appeared there.Guido Guinizelli was the poet after the new fashion of the art. In his work, the ideas of chivalry are changed and enlarged.[30] Guinizelli'sCanzoni 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 that bloomed in Florence under Cavalcanti, Dante, and their followers.[32] He marks a great development in the history of Italian art, especially because of his close connection with Dante'slyric poetry.
In the 13th century, there were several majorallegorical poems. One of these is byBrunetto Latini: hisTesoretto is a short poem, in seven-syllable verses, rhyming in couplets, in which the author is lost in a wilderness and meets a lady, who represents Nature and gives him much instruction.Francesco da Barberino wrote two little allegorical poems, theDocumenti d'amore andDel reggimento e dei costumi delle donne.[30] The poems today are generally studied not as literature, but for historical context.[33]
In the 15th century, humanist and publisherAldus Manutius published Tuscan poetsPetrarch andDante Alighieri (Divine Comedy), creating the model for what became a standard for modern Italian.[34]
Italian prose of the 13th century was as abundant and varied as its poetry.[35] Halfway through the century, a certain Aldobrando or Aldobrandino wrote a book forBeatrice of Savoy, calledLe Régime du corps. In 1267Martino da Canale wrote a history of Venice in the same Old French (langue d'oïl).Rustichello da Pisa composed many chivalrous romances, derived from theArthurian cycle, and subsequently wrote theTravels of Marco Polo, which may have been dictated by Polo himself.[36] And finallyBrunetto Latini wrote hisTesoro in French.[30] Latini also wrote some works in Italian prose such asLa rettorica, an adaptation fromCicero'sDe inventione, and translated three orations from Cicero. Another important writer was the Florentine judgeBono Giamboni, who translatedOrosius'sHistoriae adversus paganos,Vegetius'sEpitoma rei militaris, made a translation/adaptation of Cicero'sDe inventione mixed with theRethorica ad Erennium, and a translation/adaptation ofInnocent III'sDe miseria humane conditionis. He also wrote an allegorical novel calledLibro de' Vizi e delle Virtudi.Andrea of Grosseto, in 1268, translated three Treaties ofAlbertanus of Brescia, from Latin toTuscan.[37]
After the original compositions in thelangue d'oïl came translations or adaptations from the same. There are some moral narratives taken from religious legends, a romance ofJulius Caesar, some short histories of ancient knights, theTavola rotonda, translations of theViaggi ofMarco Polo, and of Latini'sTesoro. At the same time, translations from Latin of moral and ascetic works, histories, and treatises onrhetoric andoratory appeared. Also noteworthy isComposizione del mondo, a scientific book byRistoro d'Arezzo, who lived about the middle of the 13th century.[38]
Another short treatise exists:De regimine rectoris, byFra Paolino, aMinoritefriar of Venice, who wasbishop of Pozzuoli, and who also wrote a Latin chronicle. His treatise stands in close relation to that ofEgidio Colonna,De regimine principum. It is written inVenetian.[30]
The 13th century was very rich in tales.[39] A collection called theCento Novelle antiche contains stories drawn from many sources, including Asian, Greek and Trojan traditions, ancient and medieval history, the legends ofBrittany,Provence and Italy, theBible, local Italian traditions, and histories of animals and oldmythology.[30]
On the whole the Italian novels of the 13th century have little originality, and are a faint reflection of the very rich legendaryliterature of France. Some attention should be paid to theLettere 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 modelSeneca the Younger,Aristotle,Cicero,Boethius andAugustine of Hippo.[40] Guittone viewed his style as very artistic, but later scholars view it as extravagant and grotesque.[30]
Painting on the gallery of portraits from the castle of Beauregard inCellettes representingGuido Cavalcanti
With the school ofLapo Gianni,Guido Cavalcanti,Cino da Pistoia andDante Alighieri, lyric poetry became exclusively Tuscan.[41][42] 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.[43] This a neo-platonic approach widely endorsed byDolce 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-Provençal school.[44]
Cavalcanti's poems fall into two classes: those that portray the philosopher (il sottilissimo dialettico, asLorenzo the Magnificent called him) and those more directly the product of his poetic nature imbued withmysticism andmetaphysics. To the first set belongs the famous poemSulla natura d'amore, which in fact is a treatise on amorousmetaphysics, and was annotated later in a learned way by renowned Platonic philosophers of the 15th century, such asMarsilius Ficinus and others. On the other hand, in hisBallate, he pours himself out ingenuously, but with a consciousness of his art. The greatest of these is considered to be theballata composed by Cavalcanti when he was banished from Florence with the party of the Bianchi in 1300, and took refuge atSarzana.[43][45]
First page of an early printed edition of Dante'sDivine Comedy
Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest of Italian poets, also shows these lyrical tendencies.[46] In 1293 he wroteLa Vita Nuova, in which he idealizes love. It is a collection of poems to which Dante added narration and explication. Everything is sensual, aerial, and heavenly, and the real Beatrice is supplanted by an idealized vision of her, losing her human nature and becoming a representation of the divine.[47]TheDivine Comedy tells of the poet's travels through the three realms of the dead—Hell,Purgatory, andParadise—accompanied by the Latin poetVirgil. An allegorical meaning hides under the literal one of this great epic. Dante, travelling through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, symbolizes mankind aiming at the double object of temporal and eternal happiness. The forest where the poet loses himself lost symbolizes sin.[48] The mountain illuminated by the sun is the universal monarchy.[43] Envy is Florence, Pride is the house of France, and Avarice is the papal court. Virgil represents reason and the empire.[49] Beatrice is the symbol of the supernatural aid mankind must have to attain the supreme end, which is God.[43]
The merit of the poem lies 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 fromtheology, philosophy, history, and mythology, but especially from his own passions, from hatred and love.[50] TheDivine Comedy ranks among the finest works ofworld literature.[51]
Petrarch was the firsthumanist, and he was at the same time the first modern lyric poet.[52][53] His career was long and tempestuous. He lived for many years atAvignon, 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.[43] Petrarch's lyric verse is quite different, not only from that of the Provençaltroubadours and the Italian poets before him, but also from the lyrics of Dante.[54] 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.
TheCanzoniere includes a few political poems, one supposed to be addressed toCola 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.[55]
Giovanni Boccaccio had the same enthusiastic love of antiquity and the same worship for the new Italian literature as Petrarch.[56] He was the first to put together a Latin translation of theIliad and, in 1375, theOdyssey. His classical learning was shown in the workDe genealogia deorum; asA. H. Heeren said, it is an encyclopaedia of mythological knowledge; and it was the precursor of thehumanist movement of the 15th century.[57] Boccaccio was also the first historian of women in hisDe mulieribus claris, and the first to tell the story of the great unfortunates in hisDe casibus virorum illustrium. He continued and perfected former geographical investigations in hisDe montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis, et paludibus, et de nominibus maris, for which he made use ofVibius Sequester.
He did not invent theoctave stanza, but was the first to use it in a work of length and artistic merit, hisTeseide, the oldest Italian romantic poem. TheFilostrato relates the loves of Troiolo and Griseida (Troilus and Cressida). TheNinfale fiesolano tells the love story of the nymph Mesola and the shepherd Africo. TheAmorosa Visione, a poem in triplets, doubtless owed its origin to theDivine Comedy. TheAmeto is a mixture of prose and poetry, and is the first Italian pastoral romance.[58]Boccaccio became famous principally for the Italian work,Decamerone, a collection of a hundred novels, related by a party of men and women who retired to a villa near Florence to escape theplague in 1348. Novel writing, so abundant in the preceding centuries, especially in France, now for the first time assumed an artistic shape.[59] The style of Boccaccio tends to the imitation of Latin, but in him, prose first took the form of elaborated art. Over and above this, in theDecamerone, Boccaccio is a delineator of character and an observer of passions. Much has been written about the sources of the novels of theDecamerone. Probably Boccaccio made use both of written and of oral sources.[58]
Fazio degli Uberti andFederico Frezzi were imitators of theDivine Comedy, but only in its external form.[60]Giovanni Fiorentino wrote, under the title ofPecorone, 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.[61] He closely imitated Boccaccio, and drew on Villani's chronicle for his historical stories.Franco Sacchetti wrote tales too, for the most part on subjects taken from Florentine history. The subjects are almost always improper, but it is evident that Sacchetti collected these anecdotes so he could draw his own conclusions and moral reflections, which he puts at the end of each story. From this point of view, Sacchetti's work comes near to the Monalisaliones of the Middle Ages. A third novelist wasGiovanni 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.[62] Later, but important, names are those ofMasuccio Salernitano (Tommaso Guardato), who wrote theNovellino, andAntonio Cornazzano whoseProverbii became extremely popular.[63]
Chronicles formerly believed to have been of the 13th century are now mainly regarded as forgeries.[64] At the end of the 13th century there is a chronicle byDino Compagni, probably authentic.[65]
Giovanni Villani, born in 1300, was more of a chronicler than a historian.[66] 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, theHistorie Fiorentine, covers events all over Europe.[65] Matteo was the brother of Giovanni Villani, and continued the chronicle up to 1363. It was again continued by Filippo Villani.[67]
StCatherine of Siena's mysticism was political.[68] She aspired to bring back the Church of Rome to evangelical virtue, and left a collection of letters written to all types of people, including popes.[65][69]
Another Sienese,Giovanni Colombini, founder of the order ofJesuati, 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.[70]Bianco da Siena wrote several religiously-inspired poems (lauda) that were popular in the Middle Ages.Jacopo Passavanti, in hisSpecchio della vera penitenza, attached instruction to narrative.Domenico Cavalca translated from the Latin theVite de' Santi Padri. Rivalta left behind him many sermons, andFranco Sacchetti (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.[65]
Many poets of the 14th century produced political works.Fazio degli Uberti, the author ofDittamondo, who wrote aServentese to the lords and people of Italy, a poem on Rome, and a fierce invective against Charles IV, deserves notice, as doFrancesco di Vannozzo,Frate Stoppa de' Bostichi andMatteo Frescobaldi. It may be said in general that following the example of Petrarch many writers devoted themselves to patriotic poetry.[65]
From this period also dates that literary phenomenon known under the name of Petrarchism.[73] 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 theBallate of SerGiovanni Fiorentino, of Franco Sacchetti, ofNiccolò Soldanieri, and ofGuido andBindo Donati.Ballate were poems sung to dancing, and we have very many songs for the music of the 14th century. We have already stated that Antonio Pucci versified Villani'sChronicle. It is enough to notice a chronicle ofArezzo interza rima byBartolomeo Sinigardi, and the history, also interza rima, of the journey of Pope Alexander III to Venice, byPier de Natali.[74] Besides this, every type of subject, whether history, tragedy or husbandry, was treated in verse.Neri di Landocio wrote a life of St Catherine;Jacopo Gradenigo calledil Belletto put the Gospels into triplets.[65]
Renaissance humanism developed during the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval scholastic education, emphasizing practical, pre-professional and -scientific studies.Scholasticism focused on preparing men to be doctors, lawyers or professional theologians, and was taught from approved textbooks in logic, natural philosophy, medicine, law and theology.[75] The main centers of humanism wereFlorence andNaples.[76]
Rather than train professionals in jargon and strict practice, humanists sought to create a citizenry (including, sometimes, women) able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity. This was to be accomplished through the study of thestudia humanitatis, today known as thehumanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy.[77] Early humanists, such asPetrarch,Coluccio Salutati andLeonardo Bruni, were great collectors of antique manuscripts.
In Italy, the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th century, many of the upper classes had received humanist educations. There were five 15th century Humanist Popes,[78] one of whom,Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II), was a prolific author and wrote a treatise on "The Education of Boys".[79]
Leone Battista Alberti, the learned Greek and Latin scholar, wrote in the vernacular, andVespasiano da Bisticci, while he was constantly absorbed in Greek and Latin manuscripts, wrote theVite di uomini illustri, valuable for their historical contents, and rivalling the best works of the 14th century in their candour and simplicity.Andrea da Barberino wrote the beautiful prose of theReali di Francia, giving a coloring ofromanità to the chivalrous romances.Belcari andGirolamo Benivieni returned to the mystic idealism of earlier times.[80]
But it is inCosimo de' Medici andLorenzo de' Medici, from 1430 to 1492, that the influence of Florence on the Renaissance is particularly seen.[81] Lorenzo de' Medici gave to his poetry the colors of the most pronounced realism as well as of the loftiest idealism, who passes from the Platonicsonnet to the impassioned triplets of theAmori di Venere, from the grandiosity of theSalve to Nencia and to Beoni, from theCanto carnascialesco to thelauda.[82]
Next to Lorenzo comesPoliziano, who also united, and with greater art, the ancient and the modern, the popular and the classical style. In hisRispetti and in hisBallate the freshness of imagery and the plasticity of form are inimitable.[83] A great Greek scholar, Poliziano wrote Italian verses with dazzling colours; the purest elegance of the Greek sources pervaded his art in all its varieties, in theOrfeo as well as theStanze per la giostra.[84]
A completely new style of poetry arose, theCanto carnascialesco. These were a type of choral songs, which were accompanied by symbolic masquerades, common in Florence at the carnival. They were written in a metre like that of theballate; 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 entitledBacco ed Arianna is the most famous.[84][85]
Italy did not yet have trueepic poetry, but had, however, many poems calledcantari, because they contained stories that were sung to the people,[86] and besides there were romantic poems, such as theBuovo d'Antona, theRegina Ancroja and others. But the first to introduce life into this style wasLuigi Pulci, who wrote theMorgante Maggiore. The material of theMorgante is almost completely taken from an obscure chivalrous poem of the 15th century, rediscovered byPio Rajna. Pulci erected a structure of his own, often turning the subject into ridicule, burlesquing the characters, and 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.[84][87]
Piero Capponi, author of theCommentari deli acquisto di Pisa and of the narration of theTumulto dei Ciompi, belonged to both the 14th and the 15th centuries.[65]Albertino Mussato ofPadua wrote in Latin a history ofEmperor Henry VII. He then produced a Latin tragedy onEzzelino da Romano, Henry's imperial vicar in northern Italy, theEccerinus, which was probably not represented on the stage.[80]
The development of drama in the 15th century was very great.[93] This type of semi-popular literature was born in Florence, and attached itself to certain popular festivities that were usually held in honor of StJohn the Baptist, patron saint of the city. TheSacra Rappresentazione is the development of the medievalMistero (mystery play). Although it belonged to popular poetry, some of its authors were literary men. From the 15th century, some element of the comic-profane found its way into the Sacra Rappresentazione.[94] From its Biblical and legendary conventionalism Poliziano emancipated himself in hisOrfeo, 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.[84]
The fundamental characteristic of the literary epoch following that of the Renaissance is that it perfected itself in every type of art, in particular uniting the essentially Italian character of its language with the classicism of style.[95] This period lasted from about 1494 to about 1560[2]—1494 being when Charles VIII descended into Italy, marking the beginning of Italy's foreign domination and political decadence. Literary activity that appeared from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 16th century was the product of the political and social conditions of an earlier age.[2][95]
Baldassare Castiglione wroteIl Cortegiano orThe Book of the Courtier, acourtesy book dealing with questions of the etiquette and morality of thecourtier. Published in 1528, it was very influential in 16th century European court circles.[96]The Book of the Courtier is a lengthy philosophicaldialogue on the topic of what constitutes an idealcourtier or (in the third chapter) court lady, worthy to befriend and advise a Prince or political leader. Inspired by theSpanish court during his time asAmbassador of the Holy See (1524–1529),[97] Castiglione set the narrative of the book in his years as a courtier in his nativeDuchy of Urbino. The book quickly became enormously popular and was assimilated by its readers into the genre of prescriptivecourtesy books or books of manners, dealing with issues ofetiquette, self-presentation, and morals, particularly atprincely, or royal courts, books such asGiovanni Della Casa'sGalateo (1558) andStefano Guazzo'sThe civil conversation (1574).[98] TheBook of the Courtier was much more than that, however, having the character of a drama, an open-ended philosophical discussion, and an essay. It has also been seen as a veiled politicalallegory.[99]
Niccolò Machiavelli andFrancesco Guicciardini were the chief originators of the science of history.[100] Machiavelli's principal works are theIstorie fiorentine, theDiscorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio, theArte della guerra and thePrincipe. His merit consists in having emphasized the experimental side of the study of political action by having observed facts, studied histories and drawn principles from them. His history is sometimes inexact in facts; it is rather a political than a historical work.[101]
Guicciardini was very observant and endeavoured to reduce his observations to a science.[102] HisStoria d'Italia, which extends from the death ofLorenzo 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. Machiavelli and Guicciardini may be considered distinguished historians as well as originators of the science of history founded on observation.[2][103]
Ludovico Ariosto, detail of vintingMadonna with Saints Joseph, John, Catherine, Louis of Toulouse and Lodovico Ariosto byVincenzo Catena, 1512
Ludovico Ariosto'sOrlando furioso was a continuation of Boiardo'sInnamorato. His characteristic is that he assimilated the romance of chivalry into the style and models of classicism. Romantic Ariosto was an artist only for the love of his art;[2] his epic.[104]
Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of theItalian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, and his writings assisted in the 16th century revival of interest in the works ofPetrarch.[105] As a writer, Bembo attempted to restore some of the legendary "effect" thatancient Greek had on its hearers, but in Tuscan Italian instead. He held as his model and as the highest example of poetic expression ever achieved in Italian, the work of Petrarch and Boccaccio, two 14th century writers he assisted in bringing back into fashion.
In theProse della volgar lingua, he set Petrarch up as the perfect model and discussedverse composition in detail.[106]
The historians of Italian literature are in doubt whetherTorquato Tasso 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.[107] InRinaldo, he tried to reconcile the Aristotelian rules with the variety of Ariosto. He later wrote theAminta, a pastoral drama. He explains his intentions in the threeDiscorsi, written while he composed theGerusalemme: 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 would 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. TheGerusalemme is the best heroic poem of Italy. As regards the style, however, although Tasso studiously endeavoured to keep close to the classical models, he makes excessive use ofmetaphor, ofantithesis, of far-fetched conceits; and it is especially from this point of view that some historians have placed Tasso in the literary period generally known under the name ofSecentismo, and that others, more moderate in their criticism, have said that he prepared the way for it.[108][109]
Among the most influential authors of Late Renaissance Italy, the Ferrarese poet Giovanni Battista Guarini is best known for the immensely popular pastoral dramaIl pastor fido (1589-1602). Written in emulation of Tasso'sAminta, it had a considerable vogue throughout Europe in the 17th century, and was translated many times, notably in English bySir Richard Fanshawe in 1647. Guarini also wrote an influential defence oftragicomedy, theCompendio della poesia tragicomica (1601) and an important collection of lyrics (1598).
Many tragedies were written in the 16th century, but they are all weak. The first to occupy the tragic stage was Trissino with hisSofonisba. TheOreste and theRosmunda ofGiovanni di Bernardo Rucellai were no better, norLuigi Alamanni's translation ofAntigone.Sperone Speroni in hisCanace andGiraldi Cintio in hisOrbecche tried to become innovators in tragic literature, but provoked criticisms of grotesquerie and debate over the role of decorum.[114] They were often seen as inferior to theTorrismondo ofTorquato Tasso, especially remarkable for the choruses, reminiscent of theGreek tragedies.[115]
The Italian comedy of the 16th century was almost entirely modelled on Latin comedy. They were almost always alike in the plot. Thus theLucidi ofAgnolo Firenzuola, and theVecchio amoroso ofDonato Giannotti were modelled on comedies byPlautus, as were theSporta byGiambattista Gelli, theMarito byLodovico Dolce, and others.[116] The best comedy writers were Machiavelli, Ariosto, andGiovanni Maria Cecchi, and possiblyPietro Aretino.[115]The 15th century included humorous poetry.Antonio Cammelli, surnamed the Pistoian, is especially deserving of notice, because of his pungentbonhomie, asSainte-Beuve called it. But it wasFrancesco Berni who and satire, carried this type of literature to perfection in the 16th century. From him, the style has been called "Bernesque poetry". Bernesque poetry is the clearest reflection of that religious and moral scepticism that was a characteristic of Italian social life in the 16th century, and that showed itself in most of the works of that period—a scepticism[117] that stopped the religiousReformation in Italy, and which in its turn was an effect of historical conditions. Pure satirists, on the other hand, wereAntonio Vinciguerra, Lodovico Alamanni and Ariosto, the last superior to the others for theAttic elegance of his style.[115]
In the 16th century, there were not a fewdidactic works. In his poemLe ApiGiovanni di Bernardo Rucellai approaches the perfection ofVirgil. The most important didactic work, however, is Castiglione'sCortigiano, in which he imagines a discussion in the palace of the dukes ofUrbino between knights and ladies as to what gifts a perfectcourtier requires.[118] 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.[115]
Of the novelists of the 16th century, the two most important were Grazzini, andMatteo Bandello. Bandello was aDominicanfriar and a bishop, but that notwithstanding his novels were very loose in subject, and he often held up the ecclesiastics of his time to ridicule.[115]
TheTreaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559 ushered in centuries of foreign domination over Italy.[119] This period is known in the history of Italian literature as theSecentismo.[120] Its writers deployed complex, far-fetched comparisons, paradoxes, and paralogical statements (acutezze) in order to exhibit the writer's genius and ingenuity (ingegno), and provoke wonder (meraviglia) in the reader.[121]
The main theorist of ItalianSecentismo was the philosopherEmanuele Tesauro. His main work wasIl cannocchiale aristotelico, first published in 1654 and reprinted at least ten times in the 17th century. Developing ideas adumbrated in Renaissance poetics, and using the Aristotle of theRhetoric rather than of thePoetics, Tesauro builds up a vast theory of metaphor andconcettismo. His theory depends on a distinction betweenintelletto andingegno:intelletto apprehends facts and communicates them via literal signs directly and unadorned to the mind;ingegno apprehends facts and transforms them, through processes of analogy and lateral thinking, into pleasing, witty rhetorical conceits. Tesauro is conscious of the dangers of slippage between truth and language, but he appreciates the sensuous and intellectual pleasure and wonder that non-literal, non-transparent words and signs can create. For him, all language is inherently metaphorical in that it involves transference from thought to the senses. The role ofingegno is to investigate the hidden connection between all things, treating the world as a storehouse of potentially marvellous analogies. Metaphor is central to this metamorphosing process; and Tesauro shows how in kaleidoscopic fashion one metaphor can generate an infinite number of others in such a way that the scope of poetic and rhetorical analogy is extended, in theory, as never before. In this way he subverts Aristotle while paying lip-service to him, and opens up a new literary world which is akin to the new scientific and geographical worlds of the early 17th century.
At the head of the school of theSecentisti[122] wasGiambattista Marino, especially known for his epic poem,L'Adone. Marino himself, as he declared in the Preface toLa lira, wished to be a new leader and model for other poets. Second, he wished to surprise and shock the reader through the marvellous (meraviglioso) and the unusual (peregrino). The qualities he and his followers most valued wereingegno andacutezza, as demonstrated through far-fetched metaphors andconceits, often ones that would assault the reader's senses. This meant being ready, in fact eager, to break literary rules and precepts. Marino and his followers mixed tradition and innovation: they worked with existing poetic forms, notably thesonnet, thesestina, thecanzone, themadrigal, and less frequently theottava rima, but developed new, more fluid structures and line lengths. They also treated hallowed themes (love, woman, nature), but they made the senses and sensuality the dominant element. The passions, which had attracted the attention of Paduan writers and theorists in the mid-16th century as well as of Tasso, take centre stage, and are depicted in extreme forms in representations of subjects such as martyrdom, sacrifice, heroic grandeur, and abysmal existential fear. The Marinists also take up new themes—notably the visual and musical arts and indoor scenes—with a new repertoire of references embracing modern scientific advances, other specialized branches of knowledge, and exotic locations and animals. There are similarities with Tasso, but the balance between form and content in Tasso is deliberately unbalanced by Marino and his followers, who very often forget all concerns about unity in their poems (witness theAdone). The most striking difference, however, is the intensified role ofmetaphor. Marino and his followers looked for metaphors that would arrest the reader by suggesting a likeness between two apparently disparate things, thus producing startling metamorphoses, conceits (concetti), and far-fetched images that send sparks flying as they create a friction between two apparently diverse objects. The extent to which this new metaphorical freedom reveals a new world is still open to critical debate. In some ways it seems to make poetry a form of intellectual game or puzzle; in others it suggests new ways of perceiving and describing reality, parallel to the mathematical measures employed by Galileo and his followers in the experimental sciences.
Almost all the poets of the 17th century were more or less influenced by Marinism. Manysecentisti felt the influence of another poet,Gabriello Chiabrera. Enamoured of the Greeks, he made new metres, especially in imitation ofPindar,[123] treating of religious, moral, historical, and amatory subjects.Carlo Alessandro Guidi was the chief representative of an early Pindarizing current based on imitation of Chiabrera as second only to Petrarch in Italian poetry. He was extolled by both Gravina and Crescimbeni, who edited his poetry (1726), and imitated by Parini. Alfieri attributed his own self-discovery to the power of Guidi's verse.Fulvio Testi was another major exponent of the Hellenizing strand of Baroque classicism, combining Horatianism with the imitation of Anacreon and Pindar. His most important and interesting writings are not, however, his lyrics (only collected in 1653), but his extensive correspondence, which is a major document of Baroque politics and letters.
Marino's work, with its sensual metaphorical language and its non-epic structure and morality, stirred up a debate over the rival claims of classical purity and sobriety on the one hand and the excesses of marinism on the other. The debate went on until it was finally decided in favour of the classical by theAccademia dell'Arcadia, whose view of the matter prevailed in Italian criticism well into the 20th century.[124] The Accademia dell'Arcadia was founded byGiovanni Mario Crescimbeni andGian Vincenzo Gravina in 1690. TheArcadia was so called because its chief aim was to imitate the simplicity of the ancient shepherds who were supposed to have lived inArcadia in the golden age. The poems of the Arcadians are made up ofsonnets,madrigals,canzonette andblank verse. The one who most distinguished himself among the sonneteers wasFelice Zappi. Among the authors of songs,Paolo Rolli was illustrious.Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni was the best known.[121] The members of the Arcadia were almost exclusively men, but at least one woman,Maria Antonia Scalera Stellini, was elected on poetical merits.[125]Vincenzo da Filicaja had a lyric talent, particularly in the songs aboutVienna besieged by theTurks.[121]
During the 17th century, Italy witnessed the development of the Baroque novel, whichAlberto Asor Rosa has suggested came about through the secularization of chivalric poetry and the increasingly literary character of thenovella.[126] There were a few developments in other directions. Giovanni Ambrogio Marini presented an idealization of aristocratic life in his highly successfulCalloandro fedele (1640–1), and, in a radical move,Girolamo Brusoni'sTrilogia di Glisomiro (1657–62) replaced the lives and loves of the aristocracy with those of the contemporary bourgeoisie. Italy in the 17th century produced several distinguished novelists, notablyGiovanni Francesco Biondi,Bernardo Morando,Luca Assarino andPace Pasini. Biondi wrote a celebrated trilogy of novels—L'Eromena (1624),La donzella desterrada (1627), andIl Coralbo ( 1632). Morando'sRosalinda (1650) enjoyed over twenty reprints and was translated into French and English. Luca Assarino's extremely successful novels includedLa Stratonica (1635), which was translated into French, English, and German, andL'Almerinda (1640), later expanded and completely reworked inI giuochi di fortuna (1655). Pace Pasini'sL'historia del cavalier perduto (1644), which combines chivalric, picaresque, and political themes, was likely a source forAlessandro Manzoni'sThe Betrothed.[127]
Federico Della Valle was the most important Italian Baroque dramatist. He worked at the court ofCharles Emanuel I of Savoy in Turin, and was active also in Milan. He has been rediscovered only in the present century. He composed a youthfultragicomedy,Adelonda di Frigia (publ. 1629), but his best plays aretragedies on religious themes,Judit (1627) andEster (1627), on Biblical subjects, andLa reina di Scotia (1628) on the fate ofMary Stuart, who is presented as a Catholicmartyr. They show the dynamic influence of religion on conduct, not through abstract rhetoric but with real poetic feeling for the tragic in human situations. The direct forcefulness of his writing is little touched by the baroque grandiloquence of theSeicento.
Like other tragedies of the period Della Valle's plays followed theclassical model. A few playwrights revolted against the classical rules of unity of place, time, and action, and conspicuous among the new kind of plays produced was theCromuele (1671) ofGirolamo Graziani, a powerful if unhistorical presentation ofOliver Cromwell whose utterances are full of Machiavellian statecraft.
Anti-Spanish satire begins withTrajano Boccalini'sRagguagli di Parnaso, and continues with Fulvio Testi'sFilippiche. The Renaissance epic becomes satire inAlessandro Tassoni'sLa secchia rapita, which reduces a real dispute of 1393 betweenGuelphs and Ghibellines to farce. More wide-ranging was the Neapolitan Italian painter and poetSalvator Rosa, whose seven long satires follow in the footsteps of Ariosto. Arcadians such as Gian Vincenzo Gravina and Paolo Rolli used satire to attack the excesses of Marino's followers; Rolli also edited an anthology of Italian satire in London. On stage,Carlo Maria Maggi'sMilanese dialect satires ushered in a genre continued by the Sienese playwrightGirolamo Gigli.
The philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poetTommaso Campanella is an interesting albeit isolated figure in 17th century Italian literature. HisPoesie, published in 1622, consist of eighty-nine poems in various metrical forms. Some are autobiographical, but all are stamped with a seriousness and directness which bypasses the literary fashions of his day. He wrote in Latin on dialectics, rhetoric, poetics, and historiography, as well as the ItalianDel senso delle cose e della magia, composed in 1604 and published in 1620. In this fascinating work, influenced by the teachings ofBernardino Telesio, Campanella imagines the world as a living statue of God, in which all aspects of reality have meaning and sense. With its animism and sensuality this vision foreshadows in many ways the views ofDaniello Bartoli and Tesauro.[130] Campanella's theological work, closely connected with his philosophical writings, includes theAtheismus triumphatus and the thirty-volumeTheologia (1613–24). His most famous work, and the one that brings together all his interests, isLa città del sole, first drafted in 1602 in Italian and then later translated into Latin in 1613 and 1631. In it a Genoese sailor fromChristopher Columbus' crew describes the ideal state of the City of the Sun ruled over in both temporal and spiritual matters by the Prince Priest, called Sun or Metaphysician. Under him there are three ministers: Power (concerned with war and peace), Wisdom (concerned with science and art, all written down in one book), and Love (concerned with procreation and education of the citizens of the Sun). The life of the citizens is based on a system ofcommunism: all property is held publicly, there are no families, no rights of inheritance, no marriage, and sexual relations are regulated by the state. Everyone has his or her function in the society, and certain duties are required of all citizens. Education is the perfect training of the mind and the body, and it is radically opposed to the bookish and academic culture of Renaissance Italy: the objects of study should be not ‘dead things’ but nature and the mathematical and physical laws that govern the physical world. There are links here with the burgeoning modernism of theQuerelle des anciens et des modernes, and with the methods and scientific aspirations of Galileo, whom Campanella defended in writing in 1616.
TheLyncean Academy, the first and most famous of the scientific academies in Italy, was founded in 1603 in Rome byFederico Cesi. The academy dedicated its activities to the study of the natural and mathematical sciences and to the use of the experimental method associated with Galileo. The European dimension of the Academy was characteristic of the founders' foresight and perspective: elections were made of foreign corresponding members, a practice that continues to this day. Members includedClaudio Achillini,Pietro Della Valle, Galileo (from 1611),Francesco Sforza Pallavicino,Giambattista Della Porta (from 1610 ), andFilippo Salviati. Their work involved the large-scale publishing of scientific results based on direct observation, including Galileo's work on the moon's surface (1610) and hisAssayer (1623). The Academy defended Galileo at his trial in 1616, and played a crucial role in the early diffusion and promotion of his method.
The successor of the Lynceans was theAccademia del Cimento, founded in Florence in 1657. Never as organized as the Lynceans had been, it began as a meeting of disciples of Galileo, all of whom were interested in the progress of the experimental sciences. Official status came in 1657, when cardinalLeopoldo de’ Medici sponsored the academy’s foundation. With the motto ‘provando e riprovando’, the members, includingCarlo Roberto Dati,Lorenzo Magalotti, andVincenzo Viviani, set seriously about their work. Unlike Galileo, who tackled large-scale issues, the Cimento worked on a smaller scale. One of the legacies of the Cimento is the elegant Italian prose, capable of describing things accurately, that characterizes theSaggi di naturali esperienze edited by Magalotti and published in 1667.
Galileo 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.[121][131]Paganino Bonafede in theTesoro dei rustici gave many precepts in agriculture, beginning that type of georgic poetry later fully developed byLuigi Alamanni in hisColtivazione, byGirolamo Baruffaldi in theCanapajo, byRucellai inLe Api, byBartolomeo Lorenzi in theColtivazione de' monti, and byGiambattista Spolverini in theColtivazione del riso.[65]
In the 18th century, the political condition of Italy began to improve, underJoseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, 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 calledThe Enlightenment.[132]
Giambattista Vico showed the awakening of historical consciousness in Italy. In hisScienza nuova, he investigated the laws governing the progress of the human race, and according to which events develop. From the psychological study of man, he tried to infer thecomune natura delle nazioni, i.e., the universal laws of history.[133][134]
Lodovico Antonio Muratori, after having collected in hisRerum Italicarum scriptores thechronicles, biographies, letters and diaries of Italian history from 500 to 1500, and having discussed the most obscure historical questions in theAntiquitates Italicae medii aevi, wrote theAnnali d'Italia, minutely narrating facts derived from authentic sources.[135] Muratori's associates in his historical research wereScipione Maffei of Verona andApostolo Zeno of Venice. In hisVerona illustrata Maffei left a treasure of learning that was also an excellent historical monograph. Zeno added much to the erudition of literary history, both in hisDissertazioni Vossiane and in his notes to theBiblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana of MonsignoreGiusto Fontanini.Girolamo Tiraboschi and CountGiammaria Mazzucchelli of Brescia devoted themselves to literary history.[133]
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.Ferdinando Galiani wrote on currency;Gaetano Filangieri wrote aScienza della legislazione.Cesare Beccaria, in hisTrattato dei delitti e delle pene, made a contribution to the reform of the penal system and promoted the abolition oftorture.[133][136]
The reforming movement sought to throw off the conventional and the artificial, and to return to truth.Apostolo Zeno andPietro Metastasio had endeavoured to makemelodrama 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 frequentanachronisms, he might have been considered the most important writer ofopera seria libretti and the first dramatic reformer of the 18th century.[133][137]
Carlo Goldoni overcame resistance from the old popular form of comedy, with the masks ofpantalone, of the doctor,harlequin,Brighella, etc., and created the comedy of character, followingMolière's example. Many of his comedies were written inVenetian.[138][139] His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Goldoni also wrote under thepen name and titlePolisseno Fegeio, Pastor Arcade, which he claimed in his memoirs the "Arcadians of Rome" bestowed on him.[140] One of his best-known works is the comic playServant of Two Masters, which has been translated and adapted internationally numerous times.
The leading figure of the literary revival of the 18th century wasGiuseppe Parini.[141] 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. Improving on the poems of his youth, he showed himself an innovator in his lyrics, rejecting at once Petrarchism,Secentismo and Arcadia. In theOdi the satirical note is already heard, but it comes out more strongly inDel giorno, which assumes major social and historical value. As an artist, going straight back to classical forms, he opened the way to the school ofVittorio Alfieri,Ugo Foscolo andVincenzo Monti. As a work of art, theGiorno is sometimes a little hard and broken, as a protest against the Arcadian monotony.[133][142]
In the second half of the 18th century, the Italian language was especially full of French expressions; a question arose aboutpurism of language.[143] 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 theaurei trecentisti, as they were called, or else to the classics of Italian literature. One of the promoters of the new school wasAntonio Cesari, who republished ancient authors, and brought out a new edition, with additions, of theVocabolario della Crusca. He wrote a dissertationSopra lo stato presente della lingua italiana, and endeavoured to establish the supremacy of Tuscan and of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.
To this Tuscan supremacy, proclaimed and upheld by Cesari, there was opposed a Lombard school,[144] which with Dante'sDe vulgari eloquentia returned to the idea of thelingua illustre.[145] At the head of the Lombard school were Monti and his son-in-law CountGiulio Perticari. This causedVincenzo Monti to writeProposta di alcune correzioni ed aggiunte al vocabolario della Crusca, in which he attacked the Tuscanism of theAccademia della Crusca.[146] The dispute about language took its place beside literary and political disputes, and all Italy took part in it:Basilio Puoti at Naples,Paolo Costa in theRomagna, Marc' Antonio Parenti atModena,Salvatore Betti at Rome,Giovanni Gherardini in Lombardy,Luigi Fornaciari at Lucca, andVincenzo Nannucci at Florence.[145]A patriot, a classicist and a purist all at once wasPietro Giordani, born in 1774; he was almost a compendium of the literary movement of the time. Learned in Greek and Latin authors, and in the Italiantrecentisti, he left only a few writings, but they were carefully elaborated in point of style, and his prose was greatly admired in its time.[147] Giordani closes the literary epoch of the classicists.[145]
Gasparo Gozzi's satire was less elevated, but directed towards the same end as Parini's. Gozzi's satire has some slight resemblance in style toLucian's. In a journal called theFrusta letteraria he mercilessly criticized the works then being published in Italy.[148] TheFrusta was the first book of independent criticism directed particularly against the Arcadians and the pedants.[133]
Giovanni Battista Niccolini was a classicist; in imitatingAeschylus, as well as in writing theDiscorsi sulla tragedia greca, and theSublime Michelangelo, Niccolini displayed his 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.[149] Such areNabucco,Antonio Foscarini,Giovanni da Procida,Lodovico il Moro and others. He assailed papal Rome inArnaldo da Brescia. 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.[150]
Carlo Botta wrote aHistory of Italy from 1789 to 1814; and later continued Guicciardini'sHistory up to 1789.[151] Close to Botta comesPietro Colletta; he also in hisStoria del reame di Napoli dal 1734 al 1825 had the idea of defending the independence and liberty of Italy in a style borrowed fromTacitus.[152]Lazzaro Papi of Lucca, author of theCommentari della rivoluzione francese dal 1789 al 1814, was not altogether unlike Botta and Colletta. He also was a historian in the classical style and treats his subject with patriotic feeling, but as an artist, he perhaps excels in the other two.[145]
The ideas behind theFrench Revolution 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 aimed at national objects, seeking to improve the condition of the country by freeing it from the double yoke of political and religious despotism.[154] 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.[3]
Patriotism and classicism were the two principles that inspired the literature that began withVittorio Alfieri. 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.[155] 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.[3] It is to his dramas that Alfieri is chiefly indebted for the high reputation he has attained. The appearance of the tragedies of Alfieri was perhaps the most important literary event that occurred in Italy during the 18th century.[156]
Vincenzo Monti was a patriot too, and wrote thePellegrino apostolico, theBassvilliana and theFeroniade; Napoleon's victories caused him to write thePrometeo and theMusagonia; in hisFanatismo and hisSuperstizione he attacked thepapacy; afterwards he sang the praises of theAustrians.[157] Knowing little Greek, he succeeded in translating theIliad in a way remarkable for its Homeric feeling, and in hisBassvilliana he is on a level with Dante. In him classical poetry seemed to revive in all its florid grandeur.[3]
Ugo Foscolo was an eager patriot, inspired by classical models. TheLettere di Jacopo Ortis, inspired byGoethe'sThe Sorrows of Young Werther, are a love story with a mixture of patriotism; they contain a violent protest against theTreaty of Campo Formio, and an outburst from Foscolo's own heart about an unhappy love-affair of his. His passions were sudden and violent.[158] To one of these passionsOrtis owed its origin, and it is perhaps the best and most sincere of all his writings. TheSepolcri, which is his best poem, was prompted by high feeling, and the mastery of versification shows wonderful art. Among his prose works a high place belongs to his translation of theSentimental Journey ofLaurence Sterne, a writer by whom Foscolo was deeply affected.[159] He wrote for English readers someEssays on Petrarch and on the texts of theDecamerone and of Dante, which are remarkable for when they were written, and which may have initiated a new type of literary criticism in Italy. The men who made therevolution of 1848 were brought up in his work.[3]
The main instigator of the reform wasAlessandro Manzoni. He formulated the objects of the new school, saying that it aspired to try to discover and expressil vero storico andil 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.[145]I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) is the work that has made him immortal.[161] ThePromessi Sposi is generally ranked among the masterpieces ofworld literature.[162] The novel is also a symbol of the ItalianRisorgimento, both for its patriotic message[162] and because it was a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unifiedItalian language.[163]
The great poet of the age wasGiacomo Leopardi. He was also an admirable prose writer. In hisOperette Morali—dialogues and discourses marked by a cold and bitter smile at human destinies that 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.[4] He is widely seen as one of the most radical and challenging thinkers of the 19th century[164][165] but routinely compared by Italian critics to his older contemporaryAlessandro Manzoni despite expressing "diametrically opposite positions".[166] The strongly lyrical quality of his poetry made him a central figure on the European and international literary and cultural landscape.[167]
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 theArchivio storico italiano, established at Florence byGiovan Pietro Vieusseux, theStoria d'Italia nel medio evo byCarlo Troya, a remarkable treatise by Manzoni himself,Sopra alcuni punti della storia longobardica in Italia, and the very fine history of theVespri siciliani byMichele Amari. Alongside the great artists Leopardi and Manzoni, alongside the learned scholars, there was also in the 19th century patriotic literature.[168] Vieusseux had a distinct political object when in 1820 he established the monthly reviewAntologia. HisArchivio storico italiano (1842) was, under a different form, a continuation of theAntologia, which was suppressed in 1833 owing to the action of the Russian government.
The literary movement that preceded and was contemporary with the political revolution of 1848 may be said to be represented by four writers—Giuseppe Giusti,Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi,Vincenzo Gioberti andCesare Balbo. Giusti wroteepigrammatic satires in popular language. Guerrazzi had a great reputation and great influence, but his historical novels, though avidly read before 1848, were soon forgotten. Gioberti was a powerfulpolemical writer; thePrimato morale e civile degli Italiani will last as an important document of the times, and theGesuita moderno is the most tremendous indictment of theJesuits ever written in Italy.[169] Balbo was an earnest student of history. 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. HisSommario della storia d'Italia is an excellent epitome.[4]
After theRisorgimento, political literature became less important. The first part of this period is characterized by two divergent trends of literature that both opposed Romanticism. The first trend is theScapigliatura, that attempted to rejuvenate Italian culture through foreign influences, notably from the poetry ofCharles Baudelaire and the works of American writerEdgar Allan Poe. The second trend is represented byGiosuè Carducci, a dominant figure of this period, fiery 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.[170]
The influence ofÉmile Zola is evident in theVerismo.Luigi Capuana but most notablyGiovanni Verga and were its main exponents and the authors of a verismo manifesto. Capuana published the novelGiacinta, generally regarded as the "manifesto" of Italian verismo.[171] Unlike French naturalism, which was based onpositivistic ideals, Verga and Capuana rejected claims of the scientific nature and social usefulness of the movement.
InsteadDecadentism was based mainly on theDecadent style of some artists and authors ofFrance andEngland about the end of the 19th century. The main authors of the Italian version wereAntonio Fogazzaro,Giovanni Pascoli, best known for hisMyricae andPoemetti, andGabriele D'Annunzio. Although differing stylistically, they championed idiosyncrasy and irrationality against scientific rationalism. Gabriele d'Annunzio produced original work in poetry, drama and fiction, of extraordinary originality.[172] He began with some lyrics 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.[4]
Edmondo de Amicis is better known for his moral works and travels than for his fiction. Of the women novelists,Matilde Serao andGrazia Deledda became popular.[4] Deledda was awarded the 1926 Nobel Prize in Literature for her works.[173]
In fiction, the historical romance fell into disfavour, thoughEmilio De Marchi produced some good examples. The novel of intrigue was cultivated bySalvatore Farina.[4]
Important early-20th century writers includeItalo Svevo, the author ofLa coscienza di Zeno (1923), andLuigi Pirandello (winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature), who explored the shifting nature of reality in his prose fiction and such plays asSei personaggi in cerca d'autore (Six Characters in Search of an Author, 1921).Federigo Tozzi was a great novelist, critically appreciated only in recent years, and considered one of the forerunners of existentialism in the European novel.
Grazia Deledda was aSardinian writer who focused on the life, customs, and traditions of theSardinian people in her works.[176] In 1926 she won the Nobel Prize for literature, becoming Italy's first and only woman recipient.[177]
Sibilla Aleramo published her first novel, Una Donna (A Woman) in 1906. Today the novel is widely acknowledged as Italy's premier feminist novel.[178] Her writing mixes together autobiographical and fictional elements.
Pitigrilli was the pseudonym of Dino Segre who published his most famous novel (cocaine) in 1921. Due to his portrayal of drug use and sex, the Catholic Church listed it as a "forbidden book". It has been translated into numerous languages, reprinted in new editions, and has become a classic.
Maria Messina was a Sicilian writer who focused heavily on Sicilian culture with a dominant theme being the isolation and oppression of young Sicilian women.[179] She achieved modest recognition during her life including receiving the Medaglia D'oro Prize for "La Mérica".[179]
Anna Bantiis most well known for her short story IlCoraggio Delle Donne (The Courage of Women) which was published in 1940.[180] Her autobiographical work, Un Grido Lacerante, was published in 1981 and won the Antonio Feltrinelli prize.[180] As well as being a successful author, Banti is recognized as a literary, cinematic, and art critic.[180]
Elsa Morante began writing at an early age. One of the central themes in Morante's works is narcissism. She also uses love as a metaphor in her works, saying that love can be passion and obsession and can lead to despair and destruction.[180] She won the Premio Viareggio award in 1948.[181]
Alba de Céspedes was a Cuban-Italian writer from Rome.[182] She was an anti-Fascist and was involved in the Italian Resistance.[182] Her work was greatly influenced by the history and culture that developed around World War II.[182] Although her books were bestsellers, Alba has been overlooked in recent studies of Italian women writers.[182]
Alberto Moravia, one of the leading figures of Italian Neorealism in literature
Neorealism was a movement that developed rapidly between the 1940s and the 1950s. Although its foundations were laid in the 1920s, it flourished only after the fall of Fascism in Italy, as this type of literature was not welcomed by Fascist authorities because of its social criticism and partially because some of the "new realist" authors could hold Anti-Fascist views. For example,Alberto Moravia, one of the leading writers of the movement, had trouble with finding a publisher for his novel which brought him fame,Gli indifferenti (1929), and after he published it, he was "driven into hiding";Carlo Bernari'sTre operai (1934,Three Workers) was unofficially banned personally by Mussolini who saw "communism" in the novel;[183]Ignazio Silone publishedFontamara (1933) in exile;Elio Vittorini was put in prison after publishingConversazione in Sicilia (1941). The movement was profoundly affected by the translations of socially conscious U.S. and English writers during the 1930s and 1940s, namelyErnest Hemingway,William Faulkner,John Steinbeck,John Dos Passos and the others; the translators of their works, Vittorini andCesare Pavese, would later become acclaimed novelists of the movement. After the war, the movement began rapidly developing and took the label "Neorealism"; Marxism and the experiences of the war became sources of inspiration for the postwar authors. Moravia wrote the novelsThe Conformist (1951) andLa Ciociara (1957), whileThe Moon and the Bonfires (1949) became Pavese's most recognized work;Primo Levi documented his experiences inAuschwitz inIf This Is a Man (1947); among the other writers wereCarlo Levi, who reflected the experience of political exile in southern Italy inChrist Stopped at Eboli (1951);Curzio Malaparte, author ofKaputt (1944) andThe Skin (1949), novels dealing with the war on theEastern Front and in Naples;Pier Paolo Pasolini, also a poet and a film director, who described the life of the Romanlumpenproletariat inThe Ragazzi (1955);[184][185] andCorrado Alvaro.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote only one novel,Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1958), but it is one of the most famous in Italian literature; it deals with the life of aSicilian nobleman in the 19th century.[186]Leonardo Sciascia came to public attention with his novelIl giorno della civetta (The Day of the Owl, 1961), exposing the extent ofMafia corruption in modern Sicilian society. More recently,Umberto Eco became internationally successful with the Medieval detective storyIl nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose, 1980).
Dacia Maraini is one of the most successful contemporary Italian women writers. Her novels focus on the condition of women in Italy and in some works she speaks to the changes women can make for themselves and society.[187]
Aldo Busi is also one of the most important Italian contemporary writers. His extensive production of novels, essays, travel books and manuals provides a detailed account of modern society, especially the Italian one. He is also well-known as a refined translator.
Italy has a long history ofchildren's literature. In 1634, thePentamerone from Italy became the first major published collection of European folk tales.[190]: 7 ThePentamerone contained the first literary European version of the story ofCinderella. The author,Giambattista Basile, created collections of fairy tales that include the oldest recorded forms of many well-known European fairy tales.[191] In the 1550s,Giovanni Francesco Straparola releasedThe Facetious Nights of Straparola. Called the first European storybook to contain fairy tales, it eventually had 75 separate stories, albeit intended for an adult audience.[192]Giulio Cesare Croce also borrowed from stories children enjoyed for his books.[193]: 757
In 1883, Carlo Collodi wroteThe Adventures of Pinocchio, the first Italian fantasy novel. In the same year,Emilio Salgari, the man who would become "the adventure writer par excellence for the young in Italy"[194] published for the first time hisSandokan. In the 20th century, Italian children's literature was represented by such writers asGianni Rodari, author ofIl romanzo di Cipollino, andNicoletta Costa, creator of Julian Rabbit and Olga the Cloud.[195][196]
Italian women writers have always been underrepresented in academia. There has been an increase in the inclusion of women in academic scholarship in recent years, but representation is still inequitable. Italian women writers were first acknowledged by critics in the 1960s, and numerous feminist journals began in the 1970s, which increased readers' accessibility to and awareness of their work.[197]
The work of Italian women writers is both progressive and penetrating; through their explorations of the feminine psyche, their critiques of women's social and economic position in Italy, and their depiction of the persistent struggle to achieve equality in a "man's world", they have shattered traditional representations of women in literature.[198] The page played an important role in the rise ofItalian feminism, as it provided women with a space to express their perspectives. Reading and writing fiction became the easiest way for women to explore and determine their place in society.[199]
Italianwar novels, such asAlba de Céspedes'sDalla parte di lei (1949), trace women's awakenings to political realities of the time. Subsequent psychological and social novels of Italian women writers examine the difficult process of growing up for women in Italian society. Examples include Maria Messina'sLa casa nel vicolo (1989) and Laura Di Falco'sPaura di giorno (1954).[198] After the public condemnation of women's abuse in Italian literature in the 1970s, women writers began expressing their thoughts about sexual differences in novels. Many Italian novels focus on facets ofItalian identity, and women writers have always been leaders in this genre.[200]
Italians awarded with the Nobel Prize for literature
"Not only in consideration of his deep learning and critical research, but above all as a tribute to the creative energy, freshness of style, and lyrical force which characterize his poetic masterpieces."[201]
"For her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general."[202]
"For his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions."[205]
^Beryl Smalley, Review of Carlo Delcorno,Giordano da Pisa e l'antica predicazione volgare (Florence: Olschki, 1975),The English Historical Review,91:359 (1976), pp. 412–413.
^Craig W. Kallendorf, introduction toHumanist Educational Treatises, edited and translated by Craig W. Kallendorf (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002) p. vii.
Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of theMiddle Ages, not merely provided the oldTrivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. Thestudia hunanitatis excluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group. —Paul Oskar Kristeller,Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965), p. 178.
See also Kristeller'sRenaissance Thought I, "Humanism and Scholasticism In the Italian Renaissance",Byzantion 17 (1944–45), pp. 346–74. Reprinted inRenaissance Thought (New York: Harper Torchbooks), 1961.
^SeeHumanist Educational Treatises, (2001) pp. 126–259. This volume (pp. 92–125) contains an essay byLeonardo Bruni, entitled "The Study of Literature", on the education of girls.
^Burke, Peter.The Fortunes of the Courtier: The European Reception of Castiglione's Cortegiano. Penn State University Press, 1995
^Castiglione, Baldesar (1901). Eckstein Opdycke, Leonard (ed.).The Book of the Courtier: The Scribner's Sons Translation. Translated by Singleton, Charles S. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 319.
^Courtesy literature can be traced back to 13th-century German and Italian writers."courtesy literature",Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2008.
^See: W. R. Albury,Castiglione's Allegory: Veiled Policy in The Book of the Courtier (1528) (Routledge, 2014).
^Migiel, Marilyn. "Grazia Deledda." Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. By Rinaldina Russell. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. 111-117. Print.
^Amoia, Alba Della Fazia. 20th-century Italian Women Writers: The Feminine Experience. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1996. Print.
^Pickering-lazzi, Robin (1995).Mothers of Invention: Women, Italian Fascism, and Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 137–165.
^abLombardo, Maria Nina. "Maria Messina." Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. By Rinaldina Russell. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. 253-259. Print.
^abcdAricó, Santo (1990).Contemporary Women Writers in Italy: A Modern Renaissance. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
^abcdNerenberg, Ellen. "Alba De Céspedes." Italian Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook. By Rinaldina Russell. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. 104-110. Print.
^Lawson Lucas, A. (1995) "The Archetypal Adventures of Emilio Salgari: A Panorama of his Universe and Cultural Connections New Comparison",A Journal of Comparative and General Literary Studies, Number 20 Autumn
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