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Venetian literature is the corpus ofliterature inVenetian, thevernacular language of the region roughly corresponding toVenice, from the 12th century. Venetian literature, after an initial period of splendour in the sixteenth century with the success of artists such asRuzante, reached its zenith in the eighteenth century, thanks to its greatest exponent, dramatistCarlo Goldoni. Subsequently, the literary production in Venetian underwent a period of decline following the collapse of theRepublic of Venice, but survived nonetheless into the twentieth century to reach peaks with wonderful lyrical poets such asBiagio Marin of Grado.
The first evidence of the birth of vernacular Venetian (and Italian) is theVeronese Riddle, dating between the end of the eighth and the early ninth century, written in a language halfway betweenLatin and the vernacular.
The first fragment entirely in Venetian, dating to circa 1198, is theRitmo bellunese which deals with events atBelluno in the years 1183 to 1196.
In the thirteenth century, there is an explosion of compositions in the Venetian language designed to meet the literary tastes of the emerging urban classes. Especially remarkable is the production of theVeronese School, withGiacomino da Verona, author of the poem in two parts,De Gerusalem Celesti ("On the Heavenly Jerusalem") andDe Babilonia Civitate Infernali ("On Babylon, the Infernal City"). Published anonymously from this era areLamento della Sposa Padovana orBona çilosia
Throughout the 14th century, the centre of literary production Venetian continued to bePadua. At the end of the 14th century, theCarraresi commissionedBibbia istoriata padovana andLiber agregà of Serapion also called "Erbario Carrarese" (held at the British Library, London), a translation from the LatinCarrara Herbarium, a treatise of medicine originally in Arabic. An important writer from this period isFrancesco di Vannozzo (~1330-1389).[1]
Between 1313 and 1315,Paolino Veneto wroteTrattato de regimine rectoris, amirror for princes dedicated to the Venetianduke of Candia.
Cronaca de la guera tra Veniciani e Zenovesi byDaniele da Chinazzo is a chronicle of theWar of Chioggia between 1379 and 1381.
Original works of the fourteenth century include those that go together under the name ofFranco-Venetian literature characterized by a unique mix of vulgar Venetian with medieval French. Among the best known works are the anonymously authoredEntrée d'Espagne and its continuation,La prise de Pampelune byNiccolò da Verona.
Notable is a manuscript titled "Dialogue ... on the New star" attributed toGalileo (1564–1642).
The language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of theVenetian Republic, when it attained the status of alingua franca in theMediterranean. Notable Venetian-language authors are the playwrightsRuzante (1502–1542) andCarlo Goldoni (1707–1793). Both Ruzante and Goldoni, following the old Italian theater tradition (Commedia dell'Arte), used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, and Goldoni's plays are still performed today. There also were someMorlachist Venetian authors. Other notable works in Venetian are the translations of theIliad byCasanova (1725–1798) andFrancesco Boaretti, and the poems ofBiagio Marin (1891–1985).
Nowadays Venetian is still vigorous even inBrazil, where it is calledTalian. This Venetian language version, spoken by hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Veneto living in Brazil, is written by dozens of writers, especially in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.
