See also:

• ITALIAN

This zeal for the study of See also:

• JURISPRUDENCE (Lat. jurisprudenlia, knowledge of law, from jus, right, and prudentia, from providere, to foresee)
• JURISPRUDENCE, COMPARATIVE

Guido was an imitator of the Provencals; he understood French, and yet wrote his own book in Latin, See also:

• NAY, or NEY

See also:

• FERRARA

See also:

• ASCOLI
• ASCOLI, GRAZIADIO ISAIA (1829–1907)

The Contrasto of Ciullo d'Alcamo is the most remarkable relic of a kind of poetry that has perished or which perhaps was smothered by the ancient Sicilian literature. Its distinguishing point was its possessing all the opposite qualities to the poetry of the rhymers of what we shall See also:

• CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

It may seem strange, but it is true, that when the emperor Frederick II., a philosopher, a statesman, a very original legislator, took to writing poetry, he could only copy and amuse himself with See also:

• ABSOLUTE (Lat. absolvere, to loose, set free)

As for the other poems, which for a long time were believed to be by Saint Francis, their spuriousness is now generally recognized. The true poet who represented in all its strength and breadth the religious feeling that had made special progress in Umbria was Jacopo dei See also:

• BENEDETTI, VINCENT, COUNT (1817--1900)

In 1258 an old hermit, Raniero Fasani, leaving the cavern in The which he had lived for many years, suddenly appeared religious at See also:

• PERUGIA (anc. Perusia)

Being very little or not at all affected by the Germanic invasion, Tuscany was never subjected to the feudal system. It had fierce See also:

• INTERNAL

But another kind of poetry also began in Tuscany. Guittone d'Arezzo made art quit chivalrous for See also:

• NATIONAL

One of these is by Brunetto See also:

• LATINI, BRUNETTO (c. 1210-C. 1294)

Halfway on in the century a certain Aldobrando or Aldobrandino (it is not known whether he was of Florence or of Siena) wrote a book for See also:

• BEATRICE

There is also another short treatise, De regimine rectoris, by Fra Paolino, a Minorite See also:

• FRIAR (from the Lat. (rater, through the Fr. frere)

2. The Spontaneous Development of Italian Literature.—In the year 1282, the year in which the new Florentine constitution Prose in 13th centwy. Guido with the medieval spirit; he reflected deeply on his See also:

• CAVE (Lat. cavea, from caves, hollow)
• CAVE, EDWARD (1691–1754)
• CAVE, WILLIAM (1637–1713)

The See also:

• PSYCHOLOGY
• PSYCHOLOGY (>Guxrl, the mind or soul, and X yos, theory)

The See also:

• MOUNTAIN (0. Fr. montaigne; popular Lat. montanea, an adjectival form from the classical mons, montis, whence Eng. " mount," a form usually used along with the name of an individual mountain, e.g. Mt Everest)
• MOUNTAIN, THE (La Montagne)

The real chastizer of, the sins, the rewarder of the virtues, is Dante himself. The personal See also:

• INTEREST

He lived for many years at See also:

• AVIGNON

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 love is real and deep, and to this is due the merit of his lyric verse, which is quite different, not only from that of the Provencal troubadours and of the Italian poets before him, but also from the lyrics of Dante. Petrarch is a psychological poet, who dives down into his own soul, examines all his feelings, and knows how to render them with an art of exquisite sweetness. The lyrics of Petrarch are no longer transcendental like Dante's, but on the contrary keep entirely within human limits. In struggles, in doubts, in fears, in disappointments, in griefs, in joys, in fact in everything, the poet finds material for his poetry. The second part of the Canzoniere is the more passionate. The Trionfi are inferior; it is clear that in them Petrarch tried to imitate the Divina Commedia, but never came near it. The Canzoniere includes also a few political poems—a See also:

• CANZONE

He exalted Cola di Rienzi, invoked the emperor See also:

• CHARLES
• CHARLES (1270-1325)
• CHARLES (1421-1461)
• CHARLES (1525-1574)
• CHARLES (c. 1319-1364)
• CHARLES (Fr. Charles; Span. Carlos; Ital. Carlo; Ger. Karl; derived from O.H.G. Charal,latinized as Carolus, meaning originally " man ": cf. Mod.Ger., Kerl," fellow," A.S. ceorl, Mod. Eng. " churl ")
• CHARLES (KARL EITEL ZEPHYRIN LUDWIG; in Rum. CAROL)
• CHARLES [KARL ALEXANDER] (1712-1780)
• CHARLES, ELIZABETH (1828-1896)
• CHARLES, JACQUES ALEXANDRE CESAR (1746-1823)
• CHARLES, THOMAS (1755-1814)

His sonnets, mostly about love, are quite mediocre. His narrative poetry is better. Although now he can no longer claim the distinction long conceded to him of having invented the See also:

• OCTAVE (from Lat. octavus, eighth, octo, eight)

The Italian work which principally made Boccaccio famous was the Decamerone, a collection of a See also:

• HUNDRED

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—See also:

• ENTHUSIASM

He closely imitated Boccaccio, and drew on See also:

• VILLANI, GIOVANNI (c. 1245-1348)

As See also:

• PRIOR (from Lat. prior—former, and hence superior, through O. Fr. priour)
• PRIOR, MATTHEW (1664-1721)

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 See also:

• MONEY

It is not to be thought that precise ideas of See also:

• REFORMATION
• REFORMATION, THE

Orgagna was specially comic; Bonichi was comic with a satirical and moral purpose. Antonio 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 Pisans from 1362 to 1365. Other poems drawn from a legendary source celebrate the Reina d' See also:

• ORIENTE, OR LA REGION ORIENTALE

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, of Guido and Bindo See also:

• DONATI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1826-1873 )

In the north of Italy, Ezzelino da Romano, with the title of imperial See also:

• VICAR (Lat. vicarius, substitute)

The Renaissance.—A great intellectual movement, which had been gathering for a long time, made itself felt in Italy in the 15th century. A number of men arose, all learned, "a7O' laborious, indefatigable, and all See also:

• INTENT (from Lat. intend ere, to stretch out, extend, particularly in the phrase intendere animum, to turn one's mind to, purpose)

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 See also:

• BRANCH (from the Fr. branche, late Lat. branca, an animal's paw)

Poggio in his dialogue De nobilitate declares that he entirely agreed with his inter- locutors Niccolo Niccoli and Lorenzo de' See also:

• MEDICI
• MEDICI, GIACOMO (1817-1882)

Provincial dialects tried to Ism. 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 See also:

• MODELS

Lorenzo 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 See also:

• COLOURS, MILITARY

Marsilius Ficinus has described the occupations and the entertainments of these academicians. Here, he said, the young men learnt, by way of pastime, precepts of conduct and the practice of eloquence; here grown-up men studied the government of the See also:

• REPUBLIC (Lat. respublica, a commonweal or common-wealth)

It 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 See also:

• REGINA

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 Drama. were usually held in See also:

• HONOUR (Lat. honos or lwnor, honoris; in English the word was spelled with or without the u indifferently until the 17th century, but during the 18th century it became fashion-able to spell the word " honor "; Johnson's and Webster's Dictionaries stereoty

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 See also:

• REPRODUCTION

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 See also:

• LIBERTY (Lat. libertas, from liber, free)

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 See also:

• DOGMA (Gr. Sbypa, from b6aeiv, to seem; literally " that which seems, sc. good or true or useful " to any one)

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 Histories, Arezzo wrote the history of Florence, Gioviano ,per Pontano that of Naples, in Latin. Bernardino Corio wrote the history of See also:

• MILAN
• MILAN (Ital. Milano, Ger. Mailand, anc. Mediolanum, q.v.)

Development of the Renaissance.—The fundamental characteristic of the literary See also:

• EPOCH (Gr. E7roxij, holding in suspense, a pause, from E1rxav, to hold up, to stop)

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 See also:

• WISDOM, BOOK OF, or WISDOM OF SOLOMON (Sept. Io4ia IaXwµwvos; Lat. Vulg. Liber sapientiae)

sole aim was to make a romance that should please Ariosto, the generation in which he lived. His Orlando has 1533). no See also:

• GRAVE

Still, even Giovanni See also:

• GUIDICCIONI, GIOVANNI (1480-1541)

The Italian See also:

• COMEDY

It may be said that there is nothing in their poetry; and it is true that they specially delight in praising low and disgusting things and in jeering at what is noble and serious. Bernesque poetry is the clearest reflection of that religious and moral scepticism which was one of the characteristics of Italian social life in the 16th century, and which showed itself more or less in all the works of that period, that scepticism which stopped the religious Reformation in Italy, and which in its turn was an effect of historical conditions. The Berneschi, and especially Berni himself, sometimes assumed a satirical tone. But theirs could not be called true satire. Pure satirists, on the other hand, were Antonio Vinciguerra, a Venetian, Lodovico Alamanni and Ariosto, the last superior to the others for the See also:

• ATTIC (i.e. "in the Attic style ")

At a time when admiration for qualities of style, the desire for classical elegance, was so strong as in the 16th century, much attention was naturally paid to translating Latin and Greek authors. Among the very numerous translations aoraoas. asatl of the time those of the Acneid and of the Pastorals of See also:

• LONGUS

The poet does not follow faithfully all the historical facts, but sets before us the principal causes of them, bringing in the supernatural agency of God and Satan. The Gerusalemme is the best heroic poem that Italy can show. It approaches to classical perfection. Its episodes above all are most beautiful. There is profound feeling in it, and everything reflects the melancholy soul of the poet. As regards the style, however. Lyric in this style there were some vigorous poets. Monsignore poetry. 908 although Tasso studiously endeavoured to keep close to the classical models, one cannot help noticing that he makes excessive use of See also:

• METAPHOR

The minds of men were day by day gradually losing their force; every high aspiration was quenched. No love of country could any longer be felt when the cotintry was enslaved to a stranger. The suspicious rulers fettered all freedom of thought and word; they tortured See also:

• CAMPANELLA, TOMMASO (1568-1639)

In general, we may say that all the poets of the 17th century were more or less infected with " Marinism." Thus Alessandro See also:

• GUIDI, CARLO ALESSANDRO (1650-1712)

The belief then arose that it would be sufficient to change the form in order to restore literature, in forgetfulness that every reform must be the effect of a change in social and moral conditions. Weary of the bombastic style of the 17th century, full of conceits and antithesis, men said let us follow an entirely different line, let us fight the turgid style with simplicity. In 1690 the " Academy of Arcadia " was instituted. Its founders were Giovan Maria See also:

• CRESCIMBENI, GIOVANNI MARIO (1663-1728)

Whilst the political and social 'conditions in Italy in the 17th century were such as to make it appear that every light of intelligence, all spirit of liberty, was extinguished, symptoms there appeared in the peninsula, by that law of reaction of revival. which in great part governs human events, some strong Scientifk and independent thinkers, such as Bernardino See also:

• TELESIO, BERNARDINO (1509-1588)

He showed independent judgment in the midst of universal servility, and his Secchia Rapita proved that he was an eminent writer. This is an heroic comic poem, which is at the same time an epic and a personal satire. He was bold enough to attack the Spaniards in his Filippiche, in which he urged See also:

• DUKE (corresponding to Fr. duc, Ital. duca, Ger. Herzog)

Muratori's associates in his historical re-searches were Scipione See also:

• MAFFEI, FRANCESCO SCIPIONE, MARCHESE DI (1675-1755)

This, however, was only the beginning of the battle. Parini lived in times of great social prostration. The nobles and the rich, all given up to ease and to See also:

• SILLY

Generally it flows majestically, but without that Frugonian droning that deafens the ears and leaves the heart See also:

• COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

Everything tended to improvement, and the character of the reform was to throw off the conventional, the false, the artificial, and to return to truth. The drama felt this influence of the times. Apostolo Zeno and See also:

• METASTASIO (1698-1782)

,9 LC) external rather than the internal part is depicted. In this respect he is much inferior to Moliere. But on the other hand he surpasses him in the liveliness of the dialogue, and in the facility with which he finds his dramatic situations. Goldoni wrote much, in fact too much (more than one hundred and fifty comedies), and had no time to correct, to See also:

• POLISH

The 17th century might in fact be considered as a new Italian Middle Age without the hardness of that See also:

• IRON [symbol Fe, atomic weight 55.85 (0=16)]

He desired a political reform by means of letters; he saved literature from Arcadian vacuities, leading it towards a national end; he armed himself with patriotism and classicism in order to drive the profaners out of the See also:

• TEMPLE
• TEMPLE, FREDERICK (1821-1902)
• TEMPLE, RICHARD
• TEMPLE, SIR RICHARD, BART
• TEMPLE, SIR WILLIAM, BART

Perhaps it is to this mastery more than to anything else that the admiration the Sepolcri excites is due. There are most obscure passages in it, as to the meaning of which it would seem as if even the author himself had not formed a clear idea. He left incomplete three hymns to the See also:

• GRACES, THE, (Gr. X&panes, Lat. Gratiae)

He had no one deep feeling that ruled him, or rather the mobility of his feelings is his characteristic; but each of these was a new form of patriotism, that took the place of an old one. He saw danger to his country in the French Revolution, and wrote the Pellegrino apostolico, the Bassvilliana and the Feroniade; Napoleon's victories caused him to write the Prometeo and the Musagonia; in his Fanatismo and his Superstizione he- attacked the papacy; afterwards he sang the praises of the Austrians. Thus every great event made him change his mind, with a readiness which might seem incredible, but is yet most easily explained. Monti was above everything an artist; art was his real, his only passion; everything else in him was liable to change, that alone was persistent. Fancy was his tyrant, and under its rule he had no time to reason and to see the miserable aspect of his political tergiversation. It was an overbearing deity that moved him, and at- its dictation he wrote. See also:

• PIUS

Niccolini. In literature he was a classicist; in politics he was a Ghibelline, a rare exception in Guelph Florence, his Alfieri ?1749a 1803). birthplace.. Ir1 ttanslating on-if the expression is preferred, This was an old question, largely and bitterly argued in the imitating Aeschylus, as well as in writing the Discorsi sulla tragedia greca,' and on the Sublime e Michelangelo, Niccolini displayed his passionate devotion to ancient literature. In his tragedies he set himself free from the "excessive rigidity of Alfieri, and partly approached the English and German tragic authors. He nearly always See also:

• CHOSE (Fr. for " thing ")

Carlo See also:

• BOTTA, CARLO GIUSEPPE GUGLIELMO (1766–1837)

At first sight it seems unnatural that, whilst the most burning political passions were raging, and whilst the most brilliant men of genius in the new classical and patriotic school were The purists. at the height of their influence, a question should have arisen about " purism " of language. Yet the phenomenon can be easily accounted for. Purism is another form of classicism and patriotism. In the second half of the 28th century the Italian language was specially full of French expressions. There was great indifference about fitness, still more about elegance of style. Prose then was to be restored for the sake of national dignity, and it was believed that this could not be done except by going back to the writers of the 14th century, to the " aurei trecentisti," as they were called, or else to the See also:

• CLASSICS

This gave Monti an occasion to write Pro pasta di alcune correzioni ed aggiunte al vocabolario della Crusca, in which he attacked the Tuscanism of the Crusca, but in a graceful and easy style, such in fact as to form a prose that is one of the most beautiful in Italian literature. Perticari on the other hand, with a very inferior intellect, narrowed and exasperated the question in two treatises, Degli scrittori del Trecento and Dell' amor patrio di Dante, in which, often disguising or altering the facts, he only makes confusion where there was none. Meantime, however, the impulse was given. The dispute about language took its place beside literary and political disputes, and all Italy took part in it—Basilio Puoti at Naples, Paolo See also:

• COSTA, GIOVANNI (1826–1903)
• COSTA, LORENZO (146o-r535)
• COSTA, SIR MICHAEL ANDREW AGNUS (1808-1884)

It has been said that the first impulse was given to it by the romantic school, Alonzo.). which had as its See also:

• ORGAN

See also:

• DON
• DON (anc. Tanais)

From the manner of Botta and poutrcat Colletta history returned to its spirit of learned re-literature. search, as is shown in such works as the Archivio storico italiano, established at Florence by Giampietro Vieusseux, the Scoria d' Italia nel medio evo by Carlo Troya, a remarkable treatise by Manzoni himself, Sopra alcuni punti della storia longobardica in Italia, and the very fine history of the Vespri siciliani by Michele See also:

• AMARI, MICHELE (1806—1889)

Balbo was an See also:

• EARNEST (probably a corruption of the obsolete arles or erles, adapted from Lat. equivalent arrha, due to a confusion with the adjective " earnest," serious, O. Eng. eornust, cognate with Ger. ernst)

Alfredo Baccelli and See also:

• MARIO, GIUSEPPE, COUNT OF CANDIA (1810-1883)

He began with some lyrics which were distinguished no less by their exquisite beauty of form than by their See also:

• LICENCE (through the French from Lat. licentia, licere, to be lawful)