Italian Literature

Italian literature is Literature written in the Italian Language , particularly by citizens of Italy . It may also refer to literature written by people living in Italy who speak other languages. The collective works have a long, influential history. Prominent authors include Dante Alighieri , Machiavelli and Petrarch . For works from Ancient Rome see Latin Literature .

ORIGINS

Italian literature with a foreign basis

As the Western Roman Empire declined, the Latin tradition was kept alive by writers such as Cassiodorus , Boethius , and Symmachus . The liberal arts flourished at Ravenna under Theodoric , and the Gothic kings surrounded themselves with masters of Rhetoric and of Grammar . Some lay schools remained in Italy, and noted scholars included Magnus Felix Ennodius (a pagan poet), Arator , Venantius Fortunatus , Felix The Grammarian , Peter Of Pisa , Paulinus Of Aquileia , and many others.

Italians who were interested in Theology gravitated towards Paris . Those who remained were typically attracted by the study of Roman Law . This furthered the later establishment of the medieval universities of Bologna , Padua , Vicenza , Naples , Salerno , Modena and Parma . These helped to spread culture, and prepared the ground in which the new Vernacular Literature would develop. 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.

Unlike other countries, Italy lacked legends, tales, epic poems, and satires, so their literature originally came from foreign sources. The ''Historia de excidio Trojae'', attributed to Dares Phrygius , claimed to be an eyewitness account of the Trojan war. It provided inspiration for writers in other countries such as Benoît De Sainte-Maure , Herbort Von Fritzlar , and Konrad Von Würzburg . While Benoît wrote in French, he took his material from a Latin history. Herbort and Konrad used a French source to make an almost original work in their own language. Guido Delle Colonne of Messina , one of the Vernacular poets of the Sicilian school, composed the ''Historia destructionis Trojae''. Guido was an imitator of the Provençal s; he understood French, but wrote his own book in Latin, converting the romance of the Troubadour into serious history.

Much the same thing occurred with other great legends. Qualichino Of Arezzo wrote Couplet s about the legend of Alexander The Great . Europe was full of the legend of King Arthur , but the Italians contented themselves with translating and abridging French romances. Jacobus De Voragine , while collecting his '' Golden Legend '' (1260), remained a historian. He seemed doubtful of the truthfulness of the stories he told. The intellectual life of Italy showed itself in an altogether special, positive, almost scientific form in the study of Roman law. Farfa , Marsicano , and other scholars translated Aristotle , the precepts of the school of Salerno , and the travels of Marco Polo , linking the classics and the Renaissance.

Latin did not disappear in Italy. The use of the vernacular in Italian literature was initially rare, preceded by two periods of Italian literature in foreign and French languages. There were many Italians who wrote Provençal Poems , such as the Marchese Alberto Malaspina (12th century), Maestro Ferrari Ferrara , Cigala Of Genoa , Zorzi Of Venice , Sordello , Buvarello Of Bologna , Nicoletto Of Turin , and others. Their poetry of love and war accustomed the people and the courts to new sounds and new harmonies.

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. In short, the language of the epic poetry belonged to both tongues. Examples include the '' Chansons De Geste '', '' Macaire '', the ''Entre en Espagne'' written by Niccola Of Padua , the ''Prise de Pampelune'', and others. All this preceded the appearance of a purely Italian literature.

The emergence of purely Italian literature

The French Language gradually gave way to the native Italian. Hybridism recurred, but it no longer predominated. In the ''Bovo d'Antona'' and the ''Rainaldo e Lesengrino'' the Venetian Dialect is clearly felt, although the language is influenced by French forms. These writings, which Graziadio Isaia Ascoli has called ''miste'' (mixed), immediately preceded the appearance of purely Italian works.

There is evidence that a kind of literature already existed before the to the early decades of the 13th" (Segre: 1997). However, as he points out, such early literature does not yet present any uniform stylistic or linguistic traits.

This early development, however, was simultaneous in the whole peninsula, varying only in the subject matter of the art. In the north, the poems of Giacomino Da Verona and Bonvicino Da Riva were specially religious, and were intended to be recited to the people. They were written in a dialect of Milanese and Venetian; their style bore the influence of French narrative poetry. They may be considered as belonging to the "popular" kind of poetry, taking the word, however, in a broad sense. This sort of composition may have been encouraged by the old custom in the north of Italy of listening in the Piazza s and on the highways to the songs of the Jongleur s. The crowds were delighted with the stories of romances, the wickedness of Macaire , and the misfortunes of Blanziflor , the terrors of the ''Babilonia Infernale'' and the blessedness of the ''Gerusalemme celeste'', and the singers of religious Poetry vied with those of the ''chansons de geste''.

THE SICILIAN SCHOOL

See Also: Sicilian School

The year 1230 marked the beginning of the Sicilian School and of a 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 modeled on the Provençal poetry imported to the south by the Normans and the Svevs under Frederick II . This poetry differs from the French equivalent in its treatment of the woman, less Erotic and more Platonic , a vein which further developed by '' Dolce Stil Novo '' in later 13th century Bologna and Florence . The customary repertoire of Chivalry terms is adapted to Italian Phonotactics , creating new Italian vocabulary. The French suffixes ''-ière'' and ''-ce'' generated hundreds of new Italian words in ''-iera'' and ''-za'' (for example, ''riv-iera'' and ''costan-za''). These were adopted by Dante and his contemporaries, and handed on to future generations of Italian writers.

To the Sicilian school belonged Enzio , king of Sardinia , Pietro Della Vigna , Inghilfredi , Guido and Odo Delle Colonne , Jacopo D'Aquino , Ruggieri Pugliese , Giacomo Da Lentini , Arrigo Testa , and others. Most famous is ''No 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 the Sonnet , a form later perfected by Dante and Petrarch . The Censorship imposed by Frederick meant that no political matter entered literary debate. In this respect, the poetry of the north, still divided into Commune s or City-state s with relatively democratic governments, provided new ideas. These new ideas are shown in the Sirventese genre, and later, Dante's Commedia : his lines are full of invectives against contemporary political leaders and popes.

Though the conventional love-song prevailed at Frederick's (and later Manfred 's) court, more spontaneous poetry existed in the ''Contrasto'' attributed to Cielo D'Alcamo . This ''contrasto'' (dispute) between two lovers in the Sicilian Dialect is not the most ancient or the only southern poem of a popular kind. It belongs without doubt to the time of the emperor Frederick II (no later than 1250 ), and is important as proof that there existed a popular, independent of literary, poetry. The ''Contrasto'' is probably a scholarly re-elaboration of a lost popular rhyme and is the closest to a kind of poetry that perished or was smothered by the ancient Sicilian literature. Its distinguishing point was its possession of all qualities opposite to the poetry of the rhymers of the "Sicilian School", though its style may betray a knowledge of Frederick's poetry, and there is probably a Satiric intent in the mind of the Anonymous poet. It is vigorous in the expression of feelings. The Conceit s, sometimes bold and very coarse, show that its subject matter is popular. Everything about the ''Contrasto'' is original.

The poems of the Sicilian school were written in the first known standard Italian. This was elaborated by these poets under the direction of Frederick II and combines many traits typical of the Sicilian, and to a lesser, but not negligible extent, Apulia n dialects and other southern dialects, with many words of Latin and French origin. Dante's styles ''illustre, cardinale, aulico, curiale'' were developed from his linguistic study of the Sicilian School, which had been re-founded by Guittone D'Arezzo in Tuscany . The standard changed slightly in Tuscany, because Tuscan Scrivener s perceived the five-vowel system used by southern Italian as a seven-vowel one. As a consequence, the texts that Italian students read in their anthology contain lines that do not rhyme with each other (sometimes Sic. -i > -e, -u > -o), and that may account for its decrease in popularity through the 19th and early 20th Century .

RELIGIOUS LITERATURE

In the 13th century a religious movement took place in Italy, both due to and resulting from the rise of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders. In addition to being a great mystic and a powerful reformer of the Catholic Church , Francis Of Assisi , the founder of the Franciscans, also wrote poetry. Though he was educated, Francis's poetry was beneath the refined poetry at the center of Frederick's court. According to legend, Francis dictated the ''Cantico del Sole'' in the eighteenth year of his penance, almost rapt in ecstasy. Though the Hymn is attributed to him, doubts remain about its authenticity. It was the first great poetical work of Northern Italy, written in a kind of verse marked by Assonance , a poetic device that was more widespread in Northern Europe. Other poems previously attributed to Francis are now generally recognized as lacking in authenticity.

Jacopone Da Todi was a poet who represented the religious feeling that had made special progress in Umbria . Jacopone was possessed by St. Francis's mysticism, but was also a strong satirist who mocked the Corruption and Hypocrisy of the Church personified by Pope Boniface VIII , persecutor of Jacopone and Dante. Jacopone's wife died after the stands at a public tournament collapsed, and the sorrow at her sudden death caused Jacopone to sell all he possessed and give it to the poor. Jacopone covered himself with rags, joined St. Francis's Third Order , took pleasure in being laughed at, and was followed by a crowd of people who mocked him and called after him ''Jacopone, Jacopone''. He went on raving for years, subjecting himself to the severest sufferings, and giving vent to his religious intoxication in his poems. Jacopone was a Mystic , who from his Hermit 's cell looked out into the world and specially watched the papacy, scourging with his words Pope Celestine V and Pope Boniface VIII, for which he was imprisoned.

The religious movement in Umbria was followed by another literary phenomenon, that of the religious drama. In 1258 a hermit, Raniero Fasani , left the cavern in which he had lived for many years and suddenly appeared at Perugia . Fasani represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious visions, and to announce to the world terrible visitations. This was a turbulent period, full of political factions (the Guelphs And Ghibellines ), Interdict s and Excommunication s issued by the popes, and reprisals of the imperial party. In this environment, Fasani's pronouncements stimulated the formation of the Compagnie Di Disciplinanti , who, for a penance, scourged themselves till they drew blood, and sang '' Laudi '' in dialogue in their Confraternities . These ''laudi'', closely connected with the Liturgy , were the first example of the drama in the vulgar tongue of Italy. They were written in the Umbrian dialect, in verses of eight syllables, and, according to the 1911 '' Encyclopædia Britannica '', "have not any artistic value." Their development, however, was rapid. As early as the end of the 13th century the ''Devozioni del Giovedi e Venerdi Santo'' appeared, mixing liturgy and drama. Later, ''di un Monaco c/fe ando al servizio di Dio'' ("of a monk who entered the service of God") approached the definite form the religious drama would assume in the following centuries.

Tuscan literature

Thirteenth century Tuscany was in a unique situation. The Tuscans spoke a dialect which closely resembled Latin - one which afterwards became almost exclusively the language of literature, and which was already regarded at the end of the 13th century as surpassing the other dialects; ''Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam'' ("The Tuscan tongue is better suited to the letter or literature") wrote Antonio Da Tempo of Padua , born about 1275 . Being largely unaffected by the Germanic invasion, Tuscany was never subjected to the Feudal System , and internal struggles did not weaken its cultural life. After the fall of the Hohenstaufen at the Battle Of Benevento in 1266 , it was the first province of Italy. From 1266 Florence began the movement of political reform which in 1282 resulted in the appointment of the Priori Delle Arti , and the establishment of the Arti Minori . This was later copied by Siena (with the Magistrato Dei Nove ), by Lucca , by Pistoia , and by other Guelph cities in Tuscany with similar popular institutions. The Guild s took the government into their hands, and it was a time of social and political prosperity.

In Tuscany, too, popular love poetry existed. A school of imitators of the Sicilians was led by Dante Da Majano , but its literary originality took another line — that of humorous and satirical poetry. The entirely democratic form of government created a style of poetry which stood strongly against the medieval mystic and chivalrous style. Devout invocation of God or of a lady came from the Cloister and the Castle ; in the streets of the cities everything that had gone before was treated with ridicule or biting Sarcasm . Folgore Da San Gimignano laughs when in his sonnets he tells a party of Sienese youths the occupations of every month in the year, or when he teaches a party of Florentine lads the pleasures of every day in the week. Cene Della Chitarra laughs when he parodies Folgore's sonnets. The sonnets of Rustico Di Filippo are half-fun and half-satire, as is the work of Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, the oldest humorist we know, a far-off precursor of Rabelais and Montaigne .

Another kind of poetry also began in Tuscany. Guittone d'Arezzo made art quit chivalry and Provençal forms for national motives and Latin forms. He attempted political poetry, and, although his work is often obscure, he prepared the way for the Bolognese school. Bologna was the city of science, and Philosophical 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; he sings of love and of the nobility of the mind. The reigning thought in Guinizelli's '' Canzoni '' is nothing external to his own subjectivity. His poetry has some of the faults of the school of d'Arezzo. Nevertheless, he marks a great development in the history of Italian art, especially because of his close connection with Dante's Lyric Poetry .

In the 13th century, there were several major Allegorical Poems . One of these is by Brunetto Latini , who was a close friend of Dante. His ''Tesoretto'' is a short poem, in seven-syllable verses, rhyming in couplets, in which the author professes to be lost in a wilderness and to meet with a lady, who represents Nature, from whom he receives much instruction. We see here the vision, the allegory, the instruction with a moral object, three elements which we shall find again in the ''Divine Comedy''. Francesco Da Barberino , a learned lawyer who was secretary to Bishop s, a Judge , and a Notary , wrote two little allegorical poems, the ''Documenti d'amore'' and ''Del reggimento e dei costumi delle donne''. The poems today are generally studied not as literature, but for historical context. A fourth allegorical work was the ''Intelligenza'', which is sometimes attributed to Compagni, but is probably only a Translation of French poems.

EARLY PROSE

Italian prose of the '', '' Pro Marcello '' and '' Pro Rege Deiotaro ''. Another important writer was the Florentine judge Bono Giamboni , who translated Orosius 's ''Historiae adversus paganos'', Vegetius 's '' Epitoma Rei Militaris '', made a translation/adaptation of Cicero's ''De inventione'' mixed with the '' Rethorica Ad Erennium '', and a translation/adaptation of Innocent III 's ''De miseria humane conditionis''. He also wrote an allegorical novel called ''Libro de' Vizi e delle Virtudi'' whose earlier version (''Trattato delle virtù e dei vizi'') is also preserved.

After the original compositions in the ''langue d'oïl'' came translations or adaptations from the same. There are some moral narratives taken from religious legends, a romance of Julius Caesar , some short histories of ancient knights, the '' Tavola Rotonda '', translations of the ''Viaggi'' of Marco Polo , and of Latini's ''Tesoro''. At the same time, translations from Latin of moral and ascetic works, histories, and treatises on Rhetoric and Oratory appeared. Some of the works previously regarded as the oldest in the Italian language have been shown to be forgeries of a much later time. The oldest prose writing is a scientific book, ''Composizione del mondo'' by Ristoro D'Arezzo , who lived about the middle of the 13th century. This work is a copious treatise on Astronomy and Geography . Ristoro was a careful observer of natural phenomena; many of the things he relates were the result of his personal investigations, and consequently his works are more reliable than those of other writers of the time on similar subjects.

Another short treatise exists: ''De regimine rectoris'', by Fra Paolino , a Minorite Friar of Venice, who was probably bishop of Pozzuoli , and who also wrote a Latin chronicle. His treatise stands in close relation to that of Egidio Colonna , ''De regimine principum''. It is written in the Venetian Language .

The 13th century was very rich in tales. A collection called the ''Cento Novelle antiche'' contains stories drawn from many sources, including Asian, Greek and Trojan traditions, ancient and medieval history, the legends of Brittany , Provence and Italy, the Bible , local Italian traditions, and histories of animals and old Mythology . This book has a distant resemblance to the Spanish collection known as ''El Conde Lucanor''. The peculiarity of the Italian book is that the stories are very short, and seem to be mere outlines to be filled in by the narrator as he goes along. Other prose novels were inserted by Francesco Barberino in his work ''Del reggimento e dei costumi delle donne'', but they are of much less importance.

On the whole the Italian novels of the 13th century have little originality, and are a faint reflection of the very rich legendary Literature Of France . Some attention should be paid to the ''Lettere'' of Fra Guittone d'Arezzo, who wrote many poems and also some letters in prose, the subjects of which are moral and religious. Guittone's love of antiquity and the traditions of Rome and its language was so strong that he tried to write Italian in a Latin style. The letters are obscure, involved and altogether barbarous. Guittone took as his special model Seneca The Younger , and hence his prose became bombastic. Guittone viewed his style as very artistic, but later scholars view it as extravagant and grotesque.

THE SPONTANEOUS DEVELOPMENT OF ITALIAN LITERATURE

A new literature

In the year 1282 a period of new literature began, developing from the Tuscan beginnings. With the school of Lapo Gianni , Guido Cavalcanti , Cino Da Pistoia and Dante Alighieri , lyric poetry became exclusively Tuscan. The whole novelty and poetic power of this school, to some the beginning of Italian art, 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. The Tuscan lyric poetry is pre-eminent in this artistic fusion, in the spontaneous but deliberate action of the mind.

Gianni's new style was not free from some influence of the old associations of the Siculo-Provencal school. He wavered between two manners, not fully ridding his work of the empty and involved phraseology of the Sicilians. At times, however, his poetry draws freely from his own heart, and the subtleties and obscurities disappear, and his verse becomes clear, flowing and elegant.

Cavalcanti reflected deeply on his own work, and from this reflection he derived his poetical conception. His poems may be divided into two classes: those which portray the philosopher, (''il sottilissimo dialettico'', as Lorenzo The Magnificent called him) and those which are more directly the product of his poetic nature imbued with Mysticism and Metaphysics . To the first set belongs the famous poem ''Sulla natura d'amore'', which in fact is a treatise on amorous Metaphysics , and was annotated later in a learned way by renowned Platonic philosophers of the 15th Century , such as Marsilius Ficinus and others. In other poems, Cavalcanti tends to stifle poetic imagery under a dead weight of philosophy. On the other hand, in his ''Ballate'', he pours himself out ingenuously and without affectation, but with an invariable and profound consciousness of his art. The greatest of these is considered to be the ''ballata'' composed by Cavalcanti when he was banished from Florence with the party of the Bianchi in 1300, and took refuge at Sarzana .

The third poet among the followers of the new school was Cino da Pistoia, of the family of the Sinibuldi . His love poems are sweet, mellow and musical, surpassed only by Dante.

Dante

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See Also: Dante Alighieri

Dante, the greatest of Italian poets, also shows these lyrical tendencies. In '' La Vita Nuova '', written in 1321 , (so called by its author to indicate that his first meeting with Beatrice was the beginning of a new life) Dante idealizes love. The poem has nothing earthly or human, and the poet had his eyes constantly fixed on heaven while singing of his lady. Everything is supersensual, aerial, heavenly, and the real Beatrice is always gradually melting more and more into the symbolical one, passing out of her human nature and into the divine.

Several of the lyrics of the ''Canzoniere'' deal with the theme of the new life. Not all the love poems refer to Beatrice, however—other pieces are philosophical and bridge over to the ''Convito''.

''The Divine Comedy''

The work which made Dante immortal, and raised him above all other men of genius in Italy, was his '' and Neri ; pride is the house of France; avarice is the papal court. Virgil represents reason and the empire. Beatrice is the symbol of the supernatural aid without which man cannot attain the supreme end, which is God.

The merit of the poem does not lie in the allegory, which still connects it with Medieval Literature . What is new is the individual art of the poet, the classic art transfused for the first time into a Romance form. Whether he describes nature, analyses passions, curses the vices or sings hymns to the virtues, Dante is notable for the grandeur and delicacy of his art. He took the materials for his poem from Theology , philosophy, history, and mythology, but especially from his own passions, from hatred and love. Under the pen of the poet, the dead come to life again; they become men again, and speak the language of their time, of their passions. Farinata Degli Uberti , Boniface VIII , Count Ugolino , Manfred , Sordello , Hugh Capet , St. Thomas Aquinas , Cacciaguida , St. Benedict , and St. Peter , are all so many objective creations; they stand before us in all the life of their characters, their feelings, and their habits.

The real chastizer of the sins and rewarder of virtues is Dante himself. The personal interest he brings to bear on the historical representation of the three worlds is what most interests us and stirs us. Dante remakes history after his own passions. Thus the ''Divina Commedia'' is not only a life-like drama of contemporary thoughts and feelings, but also a clear and spontaneous reflection of the individual feelings of the poet, from the indignation of the citizen and the exile to the faith of the believer and the ardour of the philosopher. The ''Divina Commedia'' defined the destiny of Italian literature, giving artistic lustre to all forms of literature the Middle Ages had produced. Dante, some scholars say, began the Renaissance.

Petrarch

See Also: Petrarch

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Two facts characterize the literary life of , and he was at the same time the first modern lyric poet. His career was long and tempestuous. He lived for many years at Avignon , cursing the corruption of the papal court; he travelled through nearly the whole of Europe,; he corresponded with emperors and popes, and he was considered the most important writer of his time.

His ''Canzoniere'' is divided into three parts: the first containing the poems written during Laura's lifetime, the second the poems written after her death, the third the ''Trionfi''. The one and only subject of these poems is love; but the treatment is full of variety in conception, in imagery and in sentiment, derived from the most varied impressions of nature. Petrarch's lyric verse is quite different, not only from that of the Provencal Troubadour s and the Italian poets before him, but also from the lyrics of Dante. Petrarch is a psychological poet, who examines all his feelings and renders them with an art of exquisite sweetness. The lyrics of Petrarch are no longer transcendental like Dante's, but keep entirely within human limits. The second part of the ''Canzoniere'' is the more passionate. The ''Trionfi'' are inferior; in them Petrarch tried to imitate the ''Divina Commedia'', but failed. The ''Canzoniere'' includes also a few political poems, one supposed to be addressed to Cola Di Rienzi and several sonnets against the court of Avignon. These are remarkable for their vigour of feeling, and also for showing that, compared to Dante, Petrarch had a sense of a broader Italian consciousness. The Italy which he wooed was different from any conceived by the men of the Middle Ages, and in this also he was a precursor of modern times and of modern aspirations. Petrarch had no decided political idea. He exalted Cola di Rienzi, invoked the emperor Charles IV , and praised the Visconti ; in fact, his politics were affected more by impressions than by principles. Above all this was his love of Italy, which in his mind is reunited with Rome, the great city of his heroes Cicero and Scipio .

Boccaccio

See Also: Giovanni Boccaccio

Boccaccio had the same enthusiastic love of antiquity and the same worship for the new Italian literature as Petrarch. He was the first to put together a Latin translation of the '' Iliad '' and, in 1375, the '' Odyssey ''. His classical learning was shown in the work ''De genealogia deorum'', in which he enumerates the gods according to genealogical trees from the various authors who wrote about the pagan divinities. The ''Genealogia deorum'' is, as A. H. Heeren said, an encyclopaedia of mythological knowledge; and it was the precursor of the Humanist movement of the 15th century. Boccaccio was also the first historian of women in his ''De claris mulieribus'', and the first to tell the story of the great unfortunates in his ''De casibus virorum illustrium''. He continued and perfected former geographical investigations in his interesting book ''De montibus, silvis, fontibus, lacubus, fluminibus, stagnis, et paludibus, et de nominibus maris'', for which he made use of Vibius Sequester . Of his Italian works, his lyrics do not come anywhere near to the perfection of Petrarch's. His narrative poetry is better. He did not invent the Octave Stanza , but was the first to use it in a work of length and artistic merit, his '' Teseide '', the oldest Italian romantic poem. The '' Fiostrato '' relates the loves of Troiolo and Griseida ( Troilus And Cressida ). It may be that Boccaccio knew the French poem of the Trojan war by Benoit De Sainte-More ; but the interest of his poem lies in the analysis of the passion of love. The '' Ninfale Fiesolano '' tells the love story of the nymph Mesola and the shepherd Africo. The '' Amorosa Visione '', a poem in triplets, doubtless owed its origin to the ''Divina Commedia''. The '' Ameto '' is a mixture of prose and poetry, and is the first Italian pastoral romance.

The ''Filocopo'' takes the earliest place among Prose Romances . In it Boccaccio tells the loves of Florio and Biancafiore. Probably for this work he drew materials from a popular source or from a Byzantine romance, which Leonzio Pilato may have mentioned to him. In the ''Filocopo'' there is a remarkable exuberance in the mythological part, which damages the romance as an artistic work, but which contributes to the history of Boccaccio's mind. The ''Fiammetta'' is another romance, about the loves of Boccaccio and Maria d'Aquino, a supposed natural daughter of King Robert, whom he always called by this name of Fiammetta.

The Italian work which principally made Boccaccio famous was the '' Decamerone '', a collection of a hundred novels, related by a party of men and women, who had retired to a villa near Florence to escape from the Plague in 1348. Novel-writing, so abundant in the preceding centuries, especially in France, now for the first time assumed an artistic shape. The style of Boccaccio tends to the imitation of Latin, but in him prose first took the form of elaborated art. The rudeness of the old '' Fabliaux '' gives place to the careful and conscientious work of a mind that has a feeling for what is beautiful, that has studied the classic authors, and that strives to imitate them as much as possible. Over and above this, in the ''Decamerone'', Boccaccio is a delineator of character and an observer of passions. In this lies his novelty. Much has been written about the sources of the novels of the ''Decamerone''. Probably Boccaccio made use both of written and of oral sources. Popular tradition must have furnished him with the materials of many stories, as, for example, that of Griselda.

Unlike Petrarch, who was always discontented, preoccupied, wearied with life, disturbed by disappointments, we find Boccaccio calm, serene, satisfied with himself and with his surroundings. Notwithstanding these fundamental differences in their characters, the two great authors were old and warm friends. But their affection for Dante was not equal. Petrarch, who says that he saw him once in his childhood, did not preserve a pleasant recollection of him, and it would be useless to deny that he was jealous of his renown. The ''Divina Commedia'' was sent him by Boccaccio, when he was an old man, and he confessed that he never read it. On the other hand, Boccaccio felt for Dante something more than love--enthusiasm. He wrote a biography of him, of which the accuracy is now depreciated by some critics, and he gave public critical lectures on the poem in Santa Maria Del Fiore at Florence.

Others

Imitators

Fazio Degli Uberti and Federigo Frezzi were imitators of the ''Divina Commedia'', but only in its external form. The former wrote the ''Dittamondo'', a long poem, in which the author supposes that he was taken by the geographer Solinus into different parts of the world, and that his ''Commedia'' guide related the history of them. The legends of the rise of the different Italian cities have some importance historically. Frezzi, bishop of his native town Foligno , wrote the ''Quadriregio'', a poem of the four kingdoms Love, Satan, the Vices, and the Virtues. This poem has many points of resemblance with the ''Divina Commedia''. Frezzi pictures the condition of man who rises from a state of vice to one of virtue, and describes hell, limbo, purgatory and heaven. The poet has Pallas for a companion.

Ser Giovanni Fiorentino wrote, under the title of ''Pecorone'', a collection of tales, which are supposed to have been related by a monk and a nun in the parlour of the monastery Novelists of Forli. He closely imitated Boccaccio, and drew on Villani's chronicle for his historical stories. Franco Sacchetti wrote tales too, for the most part on subjects taken from Florentine history. His book gives a life-like picture of Florentine society at the end of the 14th century. The subjects are almost always improper; but it is evident that Sacchetti collected all these anecdotes in order to draw from them his own conclusions and moral reflections, which are to be found at the end of every story. From this point of view Sacchetti's work comes near to the Monalisaliones of the Middle Ages. A third novelist was Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca, who after 1374 wrote a book, in imitation of Boccaccio, about a party of people who were supposed to fly from a plague and to go travelling about in different Italian cities, stopping here and there telling stories. Later, but important, names are those of Massuccio Salernitano (Tommaso Guardato), who wrote the ''Novellino'', and Antonio Cornazzano whose ''Proverbii'' became extremely popular.

Chronicles

It has already been said that the ''Chronicles'' formerly believed to have been of the 13th century are now regarded as forgeries of later times. At the end of the 13th century, however, we find a chronicle by Dino Compagni , which, not least withstanding the unfavourable opinion of it entertained especially by some German writers, is in all probability authentic. Little is known about the life of Compagni. Noble by birth, he was democratic in feeling, and was a supporter of the new ordinances of Giano Della Bella . As prior and ''gonfalonier'' of justice he always had the public welfare at heart. When Charles Of Valois , the nominee of Boniface VIII, was expected in Florence, Compagni, foreseeing the evils of civil discord, assembled a number of citizens in the church of San Giovanni, and tried to quiet their excited spirits. His chronicle relates the events that came under his own notice from 1280 to 1312. It bears the stamp of a strong subjectivity. The narrative is constantly personal. It often rises to the finest dramatic style. A strong patriotic feeling and an exalted desire for what is right pervade the book. Compagni is more an historian than a chronicler, because he looks for the reasons of events, and makes profound reflections on them. According to our judgment he is one of the most important authorities for that period of Florentine history, notwithstanding the not insignificant mistakes in fact which are to be found in his writings. On the contrary, Giovanni Villani , born in 1300, was more of a chronicler than an historian. He relates the events up to 1347. The journeys that he made in Italy and France, and the information thus acquired, account for the fact that his chronicle, called by him ''Historie Fiorentine'', comprises events that occurred all over Europe. What specially distinguishes the work of Villani is that he speaks at length, not only of events in politics and war, but also of the stipends of public officials, of the sums of money used for paying soldiers and for public festivals, and of many other things of which the knowledge is very valuable. With such an abundance of information it is not to be wondered at that Villani's narrative is often encumbered with fables and errors, particularly when he speaks of things that happened before his own time. Matteo was the brother of Giovanni Villani, and continued the chronicle up to 1363. It was again continued by Filippo Villani. Piero Capponi , author of the ''Commentari deli acquisto di Pisa'' and of the narration of the ''Tumulto dei Ciompi'', belonged to both the 14th and the 15th centuries.

Ascetics

The ''Divine Commedia'' is ascetic in its conception, and in a good many points of its execution. Petrarch's work has similar qualities; yet neither Petrarch nor Dante could be classified among the pure ascetics of their time. But many other writers come under this head. St Catherine Of Siena 's mysticism was political. This extraordinary woman aspired to bring back the Church of Rome to evangelical virtue, and left a collection of letters written in a high and lofty tone to all kinds of people, including popes. Hers is the clearest religious utterance to have made itself heard in 14th century Italy. Although precise ideas of reformation did not enter her head, the want of a great moral reform was felt in her heart. She must take her place among those who prepared the way for the religious movement of the 16th century.

Another Sienese, Giovanni Colombini , founder of the order of Jesuati , 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. Passavanti , in his ''Specchio della vera penitenza'', attached instruction to narrative. Cavalca translated from the Latin the ''Vite dei santi padri''. Rivalta left behind him many sermons, and Franco 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.

Popular works

In direct antithesis with this, is a kind of literature which has a strong popular element. Humorous poetry, largely developed in the 13th century, was carried on in the 14th by Bindo Bonichi , Arrigo Di Castruccio , Cecco Nuccoli , Andrea Orgagna , Filippo De Bardi , Adriano De Rossi , Antonio Pucci and other lesser writers. Orgagna was specially comic; Bonichi was comic with a satirical and moral purpose. Pucci was superior to all of them for the variety of his production. He put into triplets the chronicle of Giovanni Villani (''Centiloquio''), and wrote many historical poems called ''Serventesi'', many comic poems, and not a few epico-popular compositions on various subjects. A little poem of his in seven cantos treats of the war between the Florentines and the Pisa ns from 1362 to 1365. Other poems drawn from a legendary source celebrate the Reina d'Oriente, Apollonio di Tiro, the Bel Gherardino, etc. These poems, meant to be recited, are the ancestors of the romantic epic which was developed in the 16th century and whose first representatives were Boiardo and Ariosto .

Political works

Many poets of the 14th century produced political works. Fazio Degli Uberti , the author of ''Dittamondo'', who wrote a ''Serventese'' to the lords and people of Italy, a poem on Rome, and a fierce invective against Charles IV, deserves notice, as do Francesco Di Vannozzo , Frate Stoppa and Matteo Frescobaldi . It may be said in general that following the example of Petrarch many writers devoted themselves to patriotic poetry. From this period also dates that literary phenomenon known under the name of Petrarchism. The Petrarchists, or those who sang of love, imitating Petrarch's manner, were found already in the 14th century. But others treated the same subject with more originality, in a manner that might be called semi-popular. Such were the ''Ballate'' of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, of Franco Sacchetti, of Niccolo Soldanieri , and of Guido and Bindo Donati . ''Ballate'' were poems sung to dancing, and we have very many songs for music of the 14th century. We have already stated that Antonio Pucci versified Villani's ''Chronicle''. This instance of versified history is not unique, and it is evidently connected with the precisely similar phenomenon offered by the Vulgar Latin literature. It is enough to notice a chronicle of Arezzo in '' Terza Rima '' by Gorello De Sinigardi , and the history, also in ''terza rima'', of the journey of Pope Alexander III to Venice, by Pier De Natali . Besides this, every kind of subject, whether history, tragedy or husbandry, was treated in verse. Neri Di Landocio wrote a life of St Catherine; Jacopo Gradenigo put the Gospels into triplets; Paganino Bonafede in the ''Tesoro de rustici'' gave many precepts in agriculture, beginning that kind of georgic poetry which was fully developed later by Alamanni in his ''Coltivazione'', by Girolamo Baruffaldi in the ''Canapajo'', by Rucellai in ''Le api'', by Bartolomeo Lorenzi in the ''Coltivazione de' monti'', and by Giambattista Spolverini in the ''Coltivazione del riso''.

Drama

There cannot have been an entire absence of dramatic literature in Italy in the 14th century, but traces of it are wanting, although we find them again in great abundance in the drama of the 15th century. The 14th century had, however, one drama unique of its kind. In the sixty years (1250 to 1310) which ran from the death of the emperor Frederick II to the expedition of Henry VII, no emperor had come into Italy. In the north of Italy, Ezzelino Da Romano , with the title of Imperial Vicar, had taken possession of almost the whole of the March of Treviso , and threatened Lombardy . The popes proclaimed a crusade against him and, crushed by it, the Ezzelini fell. Padua then began to breathe again, and took to extending its dominion.

There lived at Padua a man named Albertino Mussato , born in 1261, a year after the catastrophe of the Ezzelini; he grew up among the survivors of a generation that hated the name of the tyrant. After having written in Latin a history of Henry VII he devoted himself to a dramatic work on Ezzelino, and wrote it also in Latin. The ''Eccerinus'', which was probably never represented on the stage, has been by some critics compared to the great tragic works of Greece . It would probably be nearer the truth to say that it has nothing in common with the works of Aeschylus ; but certainly the dramatic strength, the delineation of certain situations, and the narration of certain events are very original. Mussato's work stands alone in the history of Italian dramatic literature. Perhaps this would not have been the case if he had written it in Italian.

Prelude to the Renaissance

In the last years of the 14th century we find the struggle that was soon to break out between the indigenous literary tradition and the reviving classicism already alive in spirit. As representatives of this struggle, of this antagonism, we may consider Luigi Marsilio and Coluccio Salutati , both learned men who spoke and wrote Latin, who aspired to be humanists, but who meanwhile also loved Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, and felt and celebrated in their writings the beauty of Italian literature.

THE RENAISSANCE

Leading intellectual figures of the 15th century were Niccolò Niccoli , Giannozzo Manetti , Palla Strozzi , Leonardo Bruni , Francesco Filelfo , Poggio Bracciolini , Carlo D'Arezzo , and Lorenzo Valla . Manetti buried himself in his books, slept only for a few hours in the night, never went out of doors, and spent his time in translating from Greek, studying Hebrew, and commenting on Aristotle. Strozzi sent into Greece at his own expense to search for ancient books, and had Plutarch and Plato brought for him. Bracciolini went to the Council Of Constance , and found in a monastery Cicero 's ''Orations''. He copied Quintilian with his own hand, discovered Lucretius , Plautus , Pliny , and many other Latin authors. Guarino went through the East in search of codices. Giovanni Aurispa returned to Venice with many hundreds of manuscripts. What was the passion that excited all these men? What did they search after? What did they look to? These Italians were but handing on the solemn tradition which, although partly latent, was the informing principle of Italian medieval history, and now at length came out triumphant. This tradition was that same tenacious and sacred memory of Rome, that same worship of its language and institutions, which at one time had retarded the development of Italian literature, and now grafted the old Latin branch of ancient classicism on the flourishing stock of Italian literature. All this is but the continuation of a phenomenon that has existed for ages. It is the thought of Rome that always dominates Italians, the thought that keeps appearing from Boethius to Dante Alighieri, from Arnold Of Brescia to Cola Di Rienzi , which gathers strength with Petrarch and Boccaccio, and finally becomes triumphant in literature and life, because the modern spirit is fed on the works of the ancients. Men come to have a more just idea of nature: the world is no longer cursed or despised; truth and beauty join hands; man is born again; and human reason resumes its rights. Everything, the individual and society, are changed under the influence of new facts.

First of all there was formed a human individuality, which was wanting in the Middle Ages. As Jakob Burckhardt has said, the man was changed into the individual. He began to feel and assert his own personality, which was constantly attaining a fuller realization. As a consequence of this, the idea of fame and the desire for it arose. A really cultured class was formed, in the modern meaning of the word, and the conception was arrived at (completely unknown in former times) that the worth of a man did not depend at all on his birth but on his personal qualities. Poggio in his dialogue ''De nobilitate'' declares that he entirely agreed with his interlocutors Niccolo Niccoli and Lorenzo De Medici in the opinion that there is no other nobility but that of personal merit. External life was growing more refined in all particulars; the man of society was created; rules for civilized life were made; there was an increasing desire for sumptuous and artistic entertainments. The medieval idea of existence was turned upside down; men who had hitherto turned their thoughts exclusively to heavenly things, and believed exclusively in the divine right, now began to think of beautifying their earthly existence, of making it happy and gay, and returned to a belief in their human rights. This was a great advance, but one which carried with it the seeds of many dangers. The conception of morality became gradually weaker. The ''fay ce que vouldras'' of Rabelais became the first principle of life. Religious feeling was blunted, weakened, and changed, and became pagan again. Finally the Italian of the Renaissance, in his qualities and his passions, became the most remarkable representative of the heights and depths, of the virtues and faults, of humanity. Corruption was associated with all that is most ideal in life; a profound scepticism took hold of people's minds; indifference to good and evil reached its highest point.

Besides this, a great literary danger was hanging over Italy. Humanism threatened to submerge its youthful national literature. There were authors who laboriously tried to Literary give Italian Latin forms, to do again, after Dante's dangerous time, what Guittone d'Arezzo had so unhappily done of Lalia in the 13th century. Provincial Dialects tried to reassert themselves in literature. The great authors of the 14th century, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, were by many people forgotten or despised.

It was Florence that saved literature by reconciling the classical models to modern feeling, Florence that succeeded in assimilating classical forms to the vulgar art.

Still gathering vigour and elegance from classicism, still drawing from the ancient fountains all that they could supply of the good and useful, it was able to preserve its real life, to keep its national traditions, and to guide literature along the way that had been opened to it by the writers of the preceding century. At Florence the most celebrated humanists wrote also in the vulgar tongue, and commented on Dante and Petrarch, and defended them from their enemies. Leone Battista Alberti , the learned Greek and Latin scholar, wrote in the vernacular, and Vespasiano Da Bisticci , whilst he was constantly absorbed in Greek and Latin manuscripts, wrote the ''Vite di uomini illustri'', valuable for their historical contents, and rivalling the best works of the 14th century in their candour and simplicity. Andrea Da Barberino wrote the beautiful prose of the ''Reali di Francia'', giving a coloring of ''romanità'' to the chivalrous romances. Belcari and Benivieni carry us back to the mystic idealism of earlier times.

But it is in Lorenzo de Medici that the influence of Florence on the Renaissance is particularly seen. His mind was formed by the ancients: he attended the class of the Greek John Argyropulos , sat at Platonic banquets, took pains to collect codices, sculptures, vases, pictures, gems and drawings to ornament the gardens of San Marco and to form the library afterwards called by his name. In the saloons of his Florentine palace, in his villas at Careggi , Fiesole and Anibra , stood the wonderful chests painted by Dello with stories from Ovid , the '' Hercules '' of Pollaiuolo , the ''Pallas'' of Botticelli , the works of Filippino and Verrocchio . De Medici lived entirely in the classical world; and yet if we read his poems we only see the man of his time, the admirer of Dante and of the old Tuscan poets, who takes inspiration from the popular muse, and who succeeds in giving to his poetry the colors of the most pronounced realism as well as of the loftiest idealism, who passes from the Platonic Sonnet to the impassioned triplets of the ''Amori di Venere'', from the grandiosity of the ''Salve to Nencia'' and to Beoni, from the ''Canto carnascialesco'' to the ''lauda''. The feeling of nature is strong in him; at one time sweet and melancholy, at another vigorous and deep, as if an echo of the feelings, the sorrows, the ambitions of that deeply agitated life. He liked to look into his own heart with a severe eye, but he was also able to pour himself out with tumultuous fulness. He described with the art of a sculptor; he satirized, laughed, prayed, sighed, always elegant, always a Florentine, but a Florentine who read Anacreon , Ovid and Tibullus , who wished to enjoy life, but also to taste of the refinements of art.

Next to Lorenzo comes Poliziano , who also united, and with greater art, the ancient and the modern, the popular and the classical style. In his ''Rispetti'' and in his ''Ballate'' the freshness of imagery and the plasticity of form are inimitable. He, a great Greek scholar, wrote Italian verses with dazzling colors; the purest elegance of the Greek sources pervaded his art in all its varieties, in the ''Orfeo'' as well as the ''Stanze per la giostra''.

As a consequence of the intellectual movement towards the Renaissance, there arose in Italy in the 15th century three academies, those of Florence, of Naples, and of Rome.

The Florentine academy was founded by , Angelo Poliziano, and Leon Battista Alberti; and that of disciples, who were youths anxious to distinguish themselves in philosophical pursuits. It is known that the Platonic academy endeavoured to promote, with regard to art, a second and a more exalted revival of antiquity. The Roman academy was founded by Giulio Pomponio Leto , with the object of promoting the discovery and investigation of ancient monuments and books. It was a sort of religion of classicism, mixed with learning and philosophy. Platina , the celebrated author of the lives of the first hundred popes, belonged to it. At Naples, the academy known as the Pontaniana was instituted. The founder of it was Antonio Beccadelli , surnamed Il Panormita, and after his death the head was Il Pontano , who gave his name to it, and whose mind animated it.

Romantic poems were the product of moral scepticism and artistic taste. Italy never had true Epic Poetry ; but had, however, many poems called '' Cantari '', because they contained stories that were sung to the people; and besides there were romantic poems, such as the '' Buovo D'Antona '', the '' Regina Ancroja '' and others. But the first to introduce life into this style was Luigi Pulci , who grew up in the house of the Medici, and who wrote the '' Morgante Maggiore '' at the request of Lucrezia Tornabuoni , mother of Lorenzo The Magnificent . The material of the ''Morgante'' is almost completely taken from an obscure chivalrous poem of the 15th century, rediscovered by Pio Rajna . Pulci erected a structure of his own, often turning the subject into ridicule, burlesquing the characters, introducing many digressions, now capricious, now scientific, now theological. Pulci raised the romantic epic into a work of art, and united the serious and the comic.

With a more serious intention Matteo Boiardo , count of Scandiano , wrote his '' Orlando Innamorato '', in which he seems to have aspired to embrace the whole range of Carolingian legends; but he did not complete his task. We find here too a large vein of humour and burlesque. Still the Ferrarese poet is drawn to the world of romance by a profound sympathy for chivalrous manners and feelings; that is to say, for love, courtesy, valour and generosity. A third romantic poem of the 15th century was the ''Mambriano'' by Francesco Bello (Cieco of Ferrara). He drew from the Carolingian cycle, from the romances of the Round Table , and from classical antiquity. He was a poet of no common genius, and of ready imagination. He showed the influence of Boiardo, especially in something of the fantastic which he introduced into his work.

The development of the drama in the 15th century was very great. This kind of semi-popular literature was born in Florence, and attached itself to certain popular festivities that were usually held in honor of St John The Baptist , patron saint of the city. The '' Sacra Rappresentazione '' is in substance nothing more than the development of the medieval ''Mistero'' ( Mystery Play ). Although it belonged to popular poetry, some of its authors were literary men of much renown. It is enough to notice Lorenzo de Medici, who wrote ''San Giovanni e Paolo'', and Feo Belcari , author of the ''San Panunzio'', the ''Abramo ed Isaac'', &c. From the 15th century, some element of the comic-profane found its way into the Sacra Rappresentazione. From its Biblical and legendary conventionalism Poliziano emancipated himself in his ''Orfeo'', which, although in its exterior form belonging to the sacred representations, yet substantially detaches itself from them in its contents and in the artistic element introduced.

From Petrarch onwards the Eclogue was a kind of literature that much pleased the Italians. In it, however, the Pastoral element is only apparent, for there is nothing really rural in it. Such is the '' Arcadia '' of Jacopo Sannazzaro of Naples, author of a wearisome Latin poem ''De Partu Virginis'', and of some piscatorial eclogues. The ''Arcadia'' is divided into ten eclogues, in which the festivities, the games, the sacrifices, and the manners of a colony of shepherds are described. They are written in elegant verses, but it would be vain to look in them for the remotest feeling of country life. On the other hand, even in this style, Lorenzo de Medici was superior. His ''Nencia da Barberino'', as a modern writer says, is as it were the new and clear reproduction of the popular songs of the environs of Florence, melted into one majestic wave of octave stanzas. Lorenzo threw himself into the spirit of the bare realism of country life. There is a marked contrast between this work and the conventional Bucolic of Sannazzaro and other writers. A rival of the Medici in this style, but always inferior to him, was Luigi Pulci in his ''Beca da Dicomano''.

The lyric love poetry of this century was unimportant. In its stead we see a completely new style arise, the ''Canto carnascialesco''. These were a kind of choral songs, which were accompanied with symbolic masquerades, common in Florence at the carnival. They were written in a metre like that of the ''ballate''; and for the most part they were put into the mouth of a party of workmen and tradesmen, who, with not very chaste allusions, sang the praises of their art. These triumphs and masquerades were directed by Lorenzo himself. In the evening, there set out into the city large companies on horseback, playing and singing these songs. There are some by Lorenzo himself, which surpass all the others in their mastery of art. That entitled ''Bacco ed Arianna'' is the most famous.

Girolamo Savonarola , who came to Florence in 1489, arose to fight against the literary and social movement of the Renaissance. Some have tried to make out that Savonarola was an apostle of liberty, others that he was a precursor of the Reformation. In truth, however, he was neither the one nor the other. In his struggle with Lorenzo, he directed his attack against the promoter of classical studies, the patron of pagan literature, rather than against the political tyrant. Animated by mystic zeal, he took the line of a prophet, preaching against reading voluptuous authors, against the tyranny of the Medici, and calling for popular government. This, however, was not done from a desire for civil liberty, but because Savonarola saw in Lorenzo and his court the greatest obstacle to that return to Catholic doctrine which was his hearts desire; while he thought this return would be easily accomplished if, on the fall of the Medici, the Florentine republic should come into the hands of his supporters. There may be more justice in looking on Savonarola as the forerunner of the Reformation . If he was so, it was more than he intended. The friar of Ferrara never thought of attacking the papal dogma, and always maintained that he wished to remain within the church of Rome. He had none of the great aspirations of Luther . He only repeated the complaints and the exhortations of St Catherine of Siena; he desired a reform of manners, entirely of manners, not of doctrine. He prepared the ground for the German and English religious movement of the 16th century, but unconsciously. In the history of Italian civilization he represents retrogression, that is to say, the cancelling of the great fact of the Renaissance, and a return to medieval ideas. His attempt to put himself in opposition to his time, to arrest the course of events, to bring the people back to the faith of the past, the belief that all the social evils came from a Medici and a Borgia , his not seeing the historical reality, as it was, his aspiring to found a republic with Jesus Christ for its king; all these things show that Savonarola was more of a fanatic than a thinker. Nor has he any great merit as a writer. He wrote Italian sermons, hymns (''laudi''), ascetic and political treatises, but they are roughly executed, and only important as throwing light on the history of his ideas. The religious poems of Girolamo Benivieni are better than his, and are drawn from the same inspirations. In these lyrics, sometimes sweet, always warm with religious feeling, Benivieni and with him Belcari carry us back to the literature of the 14th century.

History had neither many nor very good students in the 15th century. Its revival belonged to the following age. It was mostly written in Latin. Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo wrote the history of Florence, Gioviano Pontano that of Naples, in Latin. Bernardino Corio wrote the history of Milan in Italian, but in a rude way.

Leonardo Da Vinci wrote a treatise on painting, Alberti one on sculpture and architecture. But the names of these two men are important, not so much as authors of these treatises, but as being embodiments of another characteristic of the age of the Renaissance; versatility of genius, power of application along many and varied lines, and of being excellent in all. Leonardo was an architect, a poet, a painter, an hydraulic engineer and a distinguished mathematician. Alberti was a musician, studied jurisprudence, was an architect and a draughtsman, and had great fame in literature. He had a deep feeling for nature, and an almost unique faculty of assimilating all that he saw and heard. Leonardo and Alberti are representatives and almost a compendium in themselves of all that intellectual vigour of the Renaissance age, which in the 16th century took to developing itself in its individual parts, making way for what has by some been called the golden age of Italian literature.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE RENAISSANCE

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The fundamental characteristic of the literary epoch following that of the Renaissance is that it perfected itself in every kind of art, in particular uniting the essentially Italian character of its language with classicism of style. This period lasted from about 1494 to about 1560; 1494 being the year in which Charles VIII descended into Italy, marking the beginning of Italy's political decadence and of foreign domination over it.

The famous men of the first half of the 16th century had been educated in the preceding century. Pietro Pomponazzi was born in 1462, Marcello Adriani Virgilio in 1464, Castiglione in 1468, Machiavelli in 1469, Bembo in 1470, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Ariosto in 1474, Jacopo Nardi in 1476, Trissino in 1478, and Guicciardini in 1482. The literary activity which showed itself from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the following one was the product of the political and social conditions of an earlier age.

Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini were the chief originators of the science of history. Machiavelli's principal works are the ''Istorie fiorentine'', the ''Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio'', the ''Arte della guerra'' and the ''Principe''. His merit consists in having been the creator of the experimental science of politics in having observed facts, studied histories and drawn consequences from them. His history is sometimes inexact in facts; it is rather a political than an historical work. The peculiarity of Machiavelli's genius lay, as has been said, in his artistic feeling for the treatment and discussion of politics in and for themselves, without regard to an immediate end in his power of abstracting himself from the partial appearances of the transitory present, in order more thoroughly to possess himself of the eternal and inborn kingdom, and to bring it into subjection to himself.

Next to Machiavelli both as an historian and a statesman comes Guicciardini. Guicciardini was very observant, and endeavoured to reduce his observations to a science. His ''Storia d'Italia'', which extends from the death of Lorenzo De Medici to 1534, is full of political wisdom, is skillfully arranged in its parts, gives a lively picture of the character of the persons it treats of, and is written in a grand style. He shows a profound knowledge of the human heart, and depicts with truth the temperaments, the capabilities and habits of the different European nations. Going back to the causes of events, he looked for the explanation of the divergent interests of princes and of their reciprocal jealousies. The fact of his having witnessed many of the events he related, and having taken part in them, adds authority to his words. The political reflections are always deep; in the ''Pensieri'', as Gino Capponi says, he seems to aim at extracting through self-examination a quintessence, as it were, of the things observed and done by him; thus endeavouring to form a political doctrine as adequate as possible in all its parts. Machiavelli and Guicciardini may be considered as distinguished historians as well as originators of the science of history founded on observation.

Inferior to them, but still always worthy of note, were Jacopo Nardi (a just and faithful historian and a virtuous man, who defended the rights of Florence against the Medici before Charles V), Benedetto Varchi , Giambattista Adriani , Bernardo Segni , and, outside Tuscany, Camillo Porzio , who related the ''Congiura de baroni'' and the history of Italy from 1547 to 1552; Angelo Di Costanza , Pietro Bembo , Paolo Paruta , and others.

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Ariosto's '' Orlando Furioso '' was a continuation of Boiardo's ''Innamorato''. His characteristic is that he assimilated the romance of chivalry to the style and models of classicism. Romantic Ariosto was an artist only for the love of his art; his epic.

His sole aim was to make a romance that would please himself and the generation in which he lived. His ''Orlando'' has no grave and serious purpose; on the contrary it creates a fantastic world, in which the poet rambles, indulging his caprice, and sometimes smiling at his own work. His great desire is to depict everything with the greatest possible perfection; the cultivation of style is what occupies him most. In his hands the style becomes wonderfully plastic to every conception, whether high or low, serious or sportive. The octave stanza reached in him the highest perfection of grace, variety, and harmony.

Meanwhile, side by side with the romantic, there was an attempt at the historical epic. Gian Giorgio Trissino of Vicenza composed a poem called ''Italia liberata dai Goti''. Full of learning and of the rules of the ancients, he formed himself on the latter, in order to sing of the campaigns of Belisarius ; he said that he had forced himself to observe all the rules of Aristotle , and that he had imitated Homer . In this again, we see one of the products of the Renaissance ; and, although Trissino's work is poor in invention and without any original poetical coloring, yet it helps one to understand better what were the conditions of mind in the 16th century.

Lyric poetry was certainly not one of the kinds that rose to any great height in the 16th century. Originality was entirely wanting, since it seemed in that century as if nothing better could be done than to copy Petrarch. Still, even in this style there were some vigorous poets. Monsignore Giovanni Guidiccioni of Lucca (1500-1541) showed that he had a generous heart. In fine sonnets he gave expression to his grief for the sad state to which his country was reduced. Francesco Molza of Modena (1489-1544), learned in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, wrote in a graceful style and with spirit. Giovanni Della Casa (1503-1556) and Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), although Petrarchists, were elegant. Even Michelangelo was at times a Petrarchist, but his poems bear the stamp of his extraordinary and original genius. And a good many ladies are to be placed near these poets, such as Vittoria Colonna (loved by Michelangelo), Veronica Gambara , Tullia D'Aragona , and

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