Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/34

* ITALIAN LITERATURE. 22 ITALIAN LITERATURE. equally important with the tale, and the writers ol the t'uriJier are much more numerous than in the first hall of the century, alllumgh by no means so imposing, and they include among their best representatives Matteo Villani (1300-C3), the hrother of (i(]vanni Villani, whose Chionictc he continued. Marchionne Stefani (c. 1320-85). and Donalo Velluti. Travel literature is well represented in the Libra d'oliramare of Xiccolo da Popjrihonsi. The Renaissance, heralded by Petrarch and Boccaccio, becomes all-important in the fifteenth century, when the humanists, aided by the re- cently invented print ing-press, dill'used a knowl- edge of the literature of ancient (Jreecc and Rome through the leiicth and breadth of the land, and ultimately through the whole Occident. Florence is still to the fore in this period, but there are now other important centres of learn- ing and literary productivity, stich as Naples, where the House of Aragon ruled ; Ferrara. where the Dukes of Este were the patrons of men of letters; Rome. Mantua. Venice, Bologna, and Milan. In other words, although the Florentine influence still remained predominant, the litera- ture of this period is more truly a national one in that it is not confined to a single region, but comes into being all through the peninsula. Here we need not enumerate the many writers engaged in translating from Greek and Latin, or writing only in (he latter language. We need only bear in mind that for us their chief importance lies in the fact that they gave to the Italian people those elemeiit.s of culture and humanism which, blended with the more popular and medi.TVal elements already manifested in the preceding periods, were to produce the brilliant and thor- oughly national literatvire of the sixteenth cen- tury. Taking up the works of those who wrote in the vulgar tongue, we find in the Delia famii/Ua of Leon Battista Albert! (e.l4n7-72) a picture of the ideal domestic life of the Renais- sance age. Of a niore popular coloring and espe- cially notable because of their relation to the chivalrous matter, which is approaching nearer and nearer to artistic perfection of treatment. are the prose romances 7 reali di Frnncia and Querino il Mcschino. These were compiled by Andrea da Barberino (1372-1431) and give ver- sions still read by the people at large of the epic traditions formerly %vritten in French and in Franco- Venetian. Likewise popular in their constitution were the burlesque poems of Do- menico Giovanni (c. 1300-1448). surnamed 11 BiirchicUo. Probably of the first half of the fifteenth century was the anonymous poem Orlando, written in ottava rima, which harks hack to the chansons de fieste, as the name Orlando, i.e. Roland, indicates, and which, crude though it be. was a prototype of the chivalrous poem, especially so as it later entered into the composition of Pulci's work. Religious lyrics or laiidi, and profane lyrics, mainly dance songs and stramhotti. were developed along the same lines as in the fourteenth century, until in the verse of I^eonardo Giustiniani (13SS-144r>) they received a more finished treatment, due to his tendency to combine classic and popular elements. Religious dramas or ruppresenta^ioni sacre ap- pear with greater frequency than before. From the middle of the century on. there becomes more decidedly manifest the tendency to elevate popular poetry by infusing into it elements of culture with which Uie Renaissance had endowed the leading spirits of the land. This was the ca.se particularly in three centres of great literary activity — Naples in the south. Ferrara in the north, and Florence in the centre of the country. Many of the writers of the t'ourt of Ferdinand I. at Naples used the Neapolitan dialect, but they tempered it w'ith forms borrowed from Tuscan and Latin. The most famous of their ntiudier was Jacopo Sannazaro ( 14.')8-ir)30), who wrote in the more general speech and in mingled prose and verse his pastoral romance, Arcadia, which, comliiniug factors drawn from Boccaccio's Amcto with others borrowed from classic an- tiquity, soon made its forttnie in the world. It was at Ferrara. one of the various literary centres of the north, that the best work of tin; time was produced, and there, living in close relations with the ducal rulers, Jlatteo Maria lioiardo. Count of Seandiano (1434-94), com- posed his celebrated Orhmdii innaniorato, a poem in octaves which happily blends together elements from two of the chief Old French cycles of legends, that of Charlemagne and that of the maticrc dc Brcta<]nr, and adds to these elements of ))(ipular tradition certain others of classical origin, such as Homeric and Vergilian episodes; so that the Orlando innamorato, the first true romantic poem in Italian, marks the arrival of the chivalrous poem at a stage where it can be said to have a genuine artistic value. As a humanist Boiardo translated classical works, and as a Petrarchist he wrote sonnets and love poems that make him the most successful imitator of the master during this century. .t Florence, Antonio Manetti (1423-07) produced his attrac- tive orclIa del grasso Icifnaiticlo, and Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98) composed poems and ser- mons replete with asceticism. But the most illustrious writers of the Florentine group were Luigi Pulci (1431-87), Lorenzo de' Medici (1449- 92). and Politian (1454-94). To Pulci we owe the Morrjantr Mapfiiorc. He elaborated the mat- ter containe» productions of the ccntur^'. Lorenzo de' Jledici ( i7 Mar/nifico) . a most liberal patron of the arts, wrote love poems, i<lyls. pastorals, satires, dra- matic poems, laudi. and carnival songs, and by these personal efforts exercised a great deal of influence for the better upon the circle of writers about him. In Politian (. gelo .Ambrogini, known as Poliziano from his native place, !Monte- jnilciano) there comes to light the noblest and highest type of the Italian humanist of the fif- teenth century; for in him we find the classic* and modem traditions in perfect union. His Orfeo (1472 or 14S3) was the first profane drama in the language, bis Klanzc per la r/instra are as finished in form as the best works of the six- teenth century, and his Jlime. or love songs, reveal the innience of the culture of the Renais- sance upon lyric forms of popular origin. Poli- tian's death, coming near the end of the century, nearly coincides with the end of the Renaissance period. It is followed by a new classic period in Italian literature — called by the Italians the