[1] The article by G. I. Ascoli in the 9th edition of the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, which has been recognized as a classic
account of the Italian language, was reproduced by him, with slight
modifications, in _Arch. glott._ viii. 98-128. The author proposed to
revise his article for the present edition of the _Encyclopaedia_,
but his death on the 21st of January 1907 prevented his carrying out
this work, and the task was undertaken by Professor C. Salvioni. In
the circumstances it was considered best to confine the revision to
bringing Ascoli's article up to date, while preserving its form and
main ideas, together with the addition of bibliographical notes, and
occasional corrections and substitutions, in order that the results
of more recent research might be embodied. The new matter is
principally in the form of notes or insertions within square
brackets.
[2] [In Corsica the present position of Italian as a language of
culture is as follows. Italian is only used for preaching in the
country churches. In all the other relations of public and civil life
(schools, law courts, meetings, newspapers, correspondence, &c.), its
place is taken by French. As the elementary schools no longer teach
Italian but French, an educated Corsican nowadays knows only his own
dialect for everyday use, and French for public occasions.]
[3] [It may be asked whether we ought not to include under this
section the Vegliote dialect (Veglioto), since under this form the
Dalmatian dialect (Dalmatico) is spoken in Italy. But it should be
remembered that in the present generation the Dalmatian dialect has
only been heard as a living language at Veglia.]
[4] As a matter of fact the "velar" at the end of a word, when
preceded by an accented vowel, is found also in Venetia and Istria.
This fact, together with others (v. _Kritischer Jahresbericht uber
die Fortschritte der roman. Philol._ vii. part i. 130), suggests that
we ought to assume an earlier group in which Venetian and
Gallo-Italian formed part of one and the same group. In this
connexion too should be noted the atonic pronoun _ghe_ (Ital. _ci_-a
lui, a lei, a loro), which is found in Venetian, Lombard,
North-Emilian and Ligurian.
[5] [The latest authorities for the Sardinian dialects are W.
Meyer-Lubke and M. Bartoli, in the passages quoted by Guarnerio in
his "Il sardo e il corso in una nuova classificazione delle lingue
romanze" (_Arch. glott._ xvi. 491-516). These scholars entirely
dissociate Sardinian from the Italian system, considering it as
forming in itself a Romance language, independent of the others; a
view in which they are correct. The chief discriminating criterion is
supplied by the treatment of the Latin -_s_, which is preserved in
Sardinian, the Latin accusative form prevailing in the declension of
the plural, as opposed to the nominative, which prevails in the
Italian system. In this respect the Gallo-Italian dialects adhere to
the latter system, rejecting the -_s_ and retaining the nominative
form. On the other hand, these facts form an important link between
Sardinian and the Western Romance dialects, such as the Iberian,
Gallic and Ladin; it is not, however, to be identified with any of
them, but is distinguished from them by many strongly-marked
characteristics peculiar to itself, chief among which is the
treatment of the Latin accented vowels, for which see Ascoli in the
text. As to the internal classification of the Sardinian dialects,
Guarnerio assumes four types, the Campidanese, Logudorese, Gallurese
and Sassarese. The separate individuality of the last of these is
indicated chiefly by the treatment of the accented vowels (_dezi_,
Ital. dieci; _tela_, Ital. tela; _pelu_, Ital. pelo; _nobu_, Ital.
nuovo; _fiori_, Ital. fiore; _nozi_, Ital. noce, as compared, e.g.
with Gallurese _deci_, _tela_, _pilu_, _nou_, _fiori_, _nuci_). Both
Gallura and Sassari, however, reject the -_s_, and adopt the
nominative form in the plural, thus proving that they are not
entirely distinct from the Italian system.]
[6] On this point see the chapter, "La terra ferma veneta considerata
in ispecie ne' suoi rapporti con la sezione centrale della zona
ladina," in _Arch._ i. 406-447.
[7] [There are also examples of Istrian variants, such as _lanna_,
Ital. lana; _kadenna_, Ital. catena.]
[8] [There have been of late years many different opinions concerning
the classification of Corsican. Meyer-Lubke dissociates it from
Italian, and connects it with Sardinian, making of the languages of
the two islands a unit independent of the Romance system. But even he
(in Grober's _Grundriss_, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 698) recognized that
there were a number of characteristics, among them the participle in
-_utu_ and the article _illu_, closely connecting Sassari and Corsica
with the mainland. The matter has since then been put in its true
light by Guarnerio (_Arch. glott._ xvi. 510 et seq.), who points out
that there are two varieties of language in Corsica, the
_Ultramontane_ or southern, and the _Cismontane_, by far the most
widely spread, in the rest of the island. The former is, it is true,
connected with Sardinian, but with that variety, precisely, which, as
we have already seen, ought to be separated from the general
Sardinian type. Here we might legitimately assume a North-Sardinian
and South-Corsican type, having practically the same relation to
Italian as have the Gallo-Italian dialects. As to the Cismontane, it
has the Tuscan accented vowel-system, does not alter _ll_ or _rn_,
turns _lj_ into _i_ (Ital. _gli_), and shares with Tuscan the
peculiar pronunciation of _c_ between vowels, while, together with
many of the Tuscan and central dialects, it reduces _rr_ to a single
consonant. For these reasons, Guarnerio is right in placing the
Cismontane, as Ascoli does for all the Corsican dialects, on the same
plane as Umbrian, &c.]
[9] The Ultramontane variety has, however, _tela_, _pilu_, _iddu_,
_boci_, _gula_, _furu_, corresponding exactly to the Gallurese
_tela_, _pilu_, Ital. _pelo_, _iddu_; Ital. "ello," Lat. _illu_;
_boci_, Ital. voce; _gula_, Ital. gole.
[10] [Traces are not lacking on the mainland of _ng_ becoming _nc_,
not only in Calabria, where at Cosenza are found, e.g. _chiancere_,
Ital. piangere, _manciare_, but also in Sannio and Apulia: _chiance_,
_monce_, Ital. mungere, in the province of Avellino, _punci_, Ital.
(tu) pungi, at Brindisi. In Sicily, on the other hand, can be traced
examples of _nc_ _nk_ _nt_ _mp_ becoming _ng_ _ng_ _nd_ _mb_.]
[11] It should, however, be noticed that there seem to be examples of
the e from a in the southern dialects on the Tyrrhenian side; texts
of Serrara d'Ischia give: _mancete_, mangiata, _maretete_, maritata,
_manneto_, mandato; also _tenno_ = Neap. _tanno_, allora. As to the
diphthongs, we should not omit to mention that some of them are
obviously of comparatively recent formation. Thus, examples from
Cerignola, such as _levoite_, oliveto, come from _*olivitu_ (cf.
Lecc. _leitu_, &c.), that is to say, they are posterior to the
phenomenon of vowel change by which the formula _e-u_ became _i-u_.
And, still in the same dialect, in an example like _grejte_, creta,
the _ej_ seems perhaps to be recent, for the reason that another _e_,
derived from an original _e_ (Lat. _e_), is treated in the same way
(_pejte_, piede, &c.). As to examples from Agnone like _puole_, palo,
there still exists a plural _pjele_ which points to the phase
_*palo_.
[12] We should here mention that _callu_ is also found in the
_Vocabolario Siciliano_, and further occurs in Capitanata.
[13] This is derived in reality from the Latin termination _-unt_,
which is reduced phonetically to _-u_, a phenomenon not confined to
the Abruzzi; cf. _facciu_, Ital. fanno, Lat. _faciunt_, at Norcia;
_crisciu_, Ital. crescono, Lat. _crescunt_, &c., at Rieti. And
examples are also to be found in ancient Tuscan.
[14] [This resolution of -_c_- by _s_, or by a sound very near to
_s_, is, however, a Roman phenomenon, found in some parts of Apulia
(Molfettese _lausce_, luce, &c.), and also heard in parts of Sicily.]
[15] There is therefore nothing surprising in the fact that, for
example, the chronicle of Monaldeschi of Orvieto (14th century)
should indicate a form of speech of which Muratori remarks: "Romanis
tunc familiaris, nimirum quae in nonnullis accedabat ad Neapolitanam
seu vocibus seu pronuntiatione." The _alt_ into _ait_, &c. (_aitro_,
_moito_), which occur in the well-known _Vita di Cola di Rienzo_,
examples of which can also be found in some corners of the Marches,
and of which there are also a few traces in Latium, also shows
Abruzzan affinity. The phenomenon occurs also, however, in Emilian
and Tuscan.
[16] A distinction between the masculine and the neuter article can
also be noticed at Naples and elsewhere in the southern region, where
it sometimes occurs that the initial consonant of the substantive is
differently determined according as the substantive itself is
conceived as masculine or neuter; thus at Naples, neut. _lo bero_,
masc. _lo vero_, "il vero," &c.; at Cerignola (Capitanata), _u
mmegghie_, "il meglio," side by side with _u moise_ "il mese." The
difference is evidently to be explained by the fact that the neuter
article originally ended in a consonant (-_d_ or -_c_?; see Merlo,
_Zeitschrift fur roman. Philol._ xxx. 449), which was then
assimilated to the initial letter of the substantive, while the
masculine article ended in a vowel.
[17] This second prefix is common to the opposite valley of the
Metauro, and appears farther south in the form of _me_,--Camerino:
_me lu pettu_, nel petto, _me lu Seppurgru_, al Sepolcro.
[18] A complete analogy is afforded by the history of the Aryan or
Sanskrit language in India, which in space and time shows always more
and more strongly the reaction of the oral tendencies of the
aboriginal races on whom it has been imposed. Thus the Pali presents
the ancient Aryan organism in a condition analogous to that of the
oldest French, and the Prakrit of the Dramas, on the other hand, in a
condition like that of modern French.
ITALIAN LITERATURE. 1. _Origins._--One characteristic fact distinguishes
the Italy of the middle ages with regard to its intellectual
conditions--the tenacity with which the Latin tradition clung to life
(see LATIN). At the end of the 5th century the northern conquerors
invaded Italy. The Roman world crumbled to pieces. A new kingdom arose
at Ravenna under Theodoric, and there learning was not extinguished. The
liberal arts flourished, the very Gothic kings surrounded themselves
with masters of rhetoric and of grammar. The names of Cassiodorus, of
Boetius, of Symmachus, are enough to show how Latin thought maintained
its power amidst the political effacement of the Roman empire. And this
thought held its ground throughout the subsequent ages and events. Thus,
while elsewhere all culture had died out, there still remained in Italy
some schools of laymen,[1] and some really extraordinary men were
educated in them, such as Ennodius, a poet more pagan than Christian,
Arator, Fortunatus, Venantius Jovannicius, Felix the grammarian, Peter
of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia and many others, in all of whom we notice
a contrast between the barbarous age they lived in and their aspiration
towards a culture that should reunite them to the classical literature
of Rome. The Italians never had much love for theological studies, and
those who were addicted to them preferred Paris to Italy. It was
something more practical, more positive, that had attraction for the
Italians, and especially the study of Roman law. This zeal for the study
of jurisprudence furthered the establishment of the medieval
universities of Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, Naples, Salerno, Modena and
Parma; and these, in their turn, helped to spread culture, and to
prepare the ground in which the new vernacular literature was afterwards
to be developed. The tenacity of classical traditions, the affection for
the memories of Rome, the preoccupation with political interests,
particularly shown in the wars of the Lombard communes against the
empire of the Hohenstaufens, a spirit more naturally inclined to
practice than to theory--all this had a powerful influence on the fate
of Italian literature. Italy was wanting in that combination of
conditions from which the spontaneous life of a people springs. This was
chiefly owing to the fact that the history of the Italians never
underwent interruption,--no foreign nation having come in to change them
and make them young again. That childlike state of mind and heart, which
in other Latin races, as well as in the Germanic, was such a deep source
of poetic inspiration, was almost utterly wanting in the Italians, who
were always much drawn to history and very little to nature; so, while
legends, tales, epic poems, satires, were appearing and spreading on all
sides, Italy was either quite a stranger to this movement or took a
peculiar part in it. We know, for example, what the Trojan traditions
were in the middle ages; and we should have thought that in Italy--in
the country of Rome, retaining the memory of Aeneas and Virgil--they
would have been specially developed, for it was from Virgil that the
medieval sympathy for the conquered of Troy was derived. In fact,
however, it was not so. A strange book made its appearance in Europe, no
one quite knows when, the _Historia de excidio Trojae_, which purported
to have been written by a certain Dares the Phrygian, an eye-witness of
the Trojan war. In the middle ages this book was the basis of many
literary labours. Benoit de Sainte-More composed an interminable French
poem founded on it, which afterwards in its turn became a source for
other poets to draw from, such as Herbort of Fritzlar and Conrad of
Wurzburg. Now for the curious phenomenon displayed by Italy. Whilst
Benoit de Sainte-More wrote his poem in French, taking his material from
a Latin history, whilst the two German writers, from a French source,
made an almost original work in their own language--an Italian, on the
other hand, taking Benoit for his model, composed in Latin the _Historia
destructionis Trojae_; and this Italian was Guido delle Colonne of
Messina, one of the vernacular poets of the Sicilian school, who must
accordingly have known well how to use his own language. Guido was an
imitator of the Provencals; he understood French, and yet wrote his own
book in Latin, nay, changed the romance of the Troubadour into serious
history. Much the same thing occurred with the other great legends. That
of Alexander the Great (q.v.) gave rise to many French, German and
Spanish poems,--in Italy, only to the Latin distichs of Qualichino of
Arezzo. The whole of Europe was full of the legend of Arthur (q.v.). The
Italians contented themselves with translating and with abridging the
French romances, without adding anything of their own. The Italian
writer could neither appropriate the legend nor colour it with his own
tints. Even religious legend, so widely spread in the middle ages, and
springing up so naturally as it did from the heart of that society, only
put out a few roots in Italy. Jacopo di Voragine, while collecting his
lives of the saints, remained only an historian, a man of learning,
almost a critic who seemed doubtful about the things he related. Italy
had none of those books in which the middle age, whether in its ascetic
or its chivalrous character, is so strangely depicted. The intellectual
life of Italy showed itself in an altogether special, positive, almost
scientific, form, in the study of Roman law, in the chronicles of Farfa,
of Marsicano and of many others, in translations from Aristotle, in the
precepts of the school of Salerno, in the travels of Marco Polo--in
short, in a long series of facts which seem to detach themselves from
the surroundings of the middle age, and to be united on the one side
with classical Rome and on the other with the Renaissance.
Provencal and French preparatory periods.
The necessary consequence of all this was that the Latin language was
most tenacious in Italy, and that the elaboration of the new vulgar
tongue was very slow,--being in fact preceded by two periods of Italian
literature in foreign languages. That is to say, there were many
Italians who wrote Provencal poems, such as the Marchese Alberto
Malaspina (12th century), Maestro Ferrari of Ferrara, Cigala of Genoa,
Zorzi of Venice, Sordello of Mantua, Buvarello of Bologna, Nicoletto of
Turin and others, who sang of love and of war, who haunted the courts,
or lived in the midst of the people, accustoming them to new sounds and
new harmonies. At the same time there was other poetry of an epic kind,
written in a mixed language, of which French was the basis, but in which
forms and words belonging to the Italian dialects were continually
mingling. We find in it hybrid words exhibiting a treatment of sounds
according to the rules of both languages,--French words with Italian
terminations, a system of vocalization within the words approaching the
Italo-Latin usage,--in short, something belonging at once to both
tongues, as it were an attempt at interpenetration, at fusion. Such were
the _Chansons de Geste_, _Macaire_, the _Entree en Espagne_ written by
Niccola of Padua, the _Prise de Pampelune_ and some others. All this
preceded the appearance of a purely Italian literature.
Dialect.
In the Franco-Italian poems there was, as it were, a clashing, a
struggle between the two languages, the French, however, gaining the
upper hand. This supremacy became gradually less and less. As the
struggle continued between French and Italian, the former by degrees
lost as much as the latter gained. The hybridism recurred, but it no
longer predominated. In the _Bovo d' Antona_ and the _Rainardo e
Lesengrino_ the Venetian dialect makes itself clearly felt, although the
language is influenced by French forms. Thus these writings, which G. I.
Ascoli has called "miste" (mixed), immediately preceded the appearance
of purely Italian works.
North Italy.
It is now an established historical fact that there existed no writing
in Italian before the 13th century. It was in the course of that
century, and especially from 1250 onwards, that the new literature
largely unfolded and developed itself. This development was simultaneous
in the whole peninsula, only there was a difference in the
subject-matter of the art. In the north, the poems of Giacomino of
Verona and Bonvecino of Riva were specially religious, and were intended
to be recited to the people. They were written in a dialect partaking of
the Milanese and the Venetian; and in their style they strongly bore the
mark of 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. Perhaps this sort of composition was encouraged by the
old custom in the north of Italy of listening in the piazzas and on the
highways to the songs of the jongleurs. To the very same crowds who had
been delighted with the stories of romance, and who had listened to the
story of the wickedness of _Macaire_ and the misfortunes of
_Blanciflor_, another jongleur would sing of 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_.
South Italy.
In the south of Italy, on the other hand, the love-song prevailed, of
which we have an interesting specimen in the Contrasto attributed to
Ciullo d' Alcamo, about which modern Italian critics have much exercised
themselves. This "contrasto" (dispute) between a man and a woman in
Sicilian dialect certainly must not be considered as the most ancient or
as the only southern poem of a popular kind. It belongs without doubt to
the time of the emperor Frederick II., and is important as a proof that
there existed a popular poetry independent of literary poetry. 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 call
the Sicilian school. Vigorous in the expression of feelings, it seems to
come from a real sentiment. The conceits, which are sometimes most bold
and very coarse, show that it proceeded from the lowest grades of
society. Everything is original in Ciullo's _Contrasto_. Conventionality
has no place in it. It is marked by the sensuality characteristic of the
people of the South.
Siculo-Provencal School.
The reverse of all this happened in the Siculo-Provencal school, at the
head of which was Frederick II. Imitation was the fundamental
characteristic of this school, to which belonged Enzio, king of
Sardinia, Pier delle Vigne, Inghilfredi, Guido and Odo delle Colonne,
Jacopo d' Aquino, Rugieri Pugliese, Giacomo da Lentino, Arrigo Testa and
others. These rhymers never moved a step beyond the ideas of chivalry;
they had no originality; they did not sing of what they felt in their
heart; they abhorred the true and the real. They only aimed at copying
as closely as they could the poetry of the Provencal troubadours.[2] The
art of the Siculo-Provencal school was born decrepit, and there were
many reasons for this--first, because the chivalrous spirit, from which
the poetry of the troubadours was derived, was now old and on its
death-bed; next, because the Provencal art itself, which the Sicilians
took as their model, was in its decadence. 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 absolute puerilities. His art, like
that of all the other poets of his court, was wholly conventional,
mechanical, affected. It was completely wanting in what constitutes
poetry--ideality, feeling, sentiment, inspiration. The Italians have had
great disputes among themselves about the original form of the poems of
the Sicilian school, that is to say, whether they were written in
Sicilian dialect, or in that language which Dante called "volgare,
illustre, aulico, cortigiano." But the critics of most authority hold
that the primitive form of these poems was the Sicilian dialect,
modified for literary purposes with the help of Provencal and Latin; the
theory of the "lingua illustre" has been almost entirely rejected, since
we cannot say on what rules it could have been founded, when literature
was in its infancy trying its feet, and lisping its first words. The
Sicilian certainly, in accordance with a tendency common to all
dialects, in passing from the spoken to the written form, must have
gained in dignity; but this was not enough to create the so-called
"lingua illustre," which was upheld by Perticari and others on grounds
rather political than literary.
Religious lyric poetry in Umbria.
In the 13th century a mighty religious movement took place in Italy, of
which the rise of the two great orders of Saint Francis and Saint
Dominic was at once the cause and the effect. Around Francis of Assisi a
legend has grown up in which naturally the imaginative element prevails.
Yet from some points in it we seem to be able to infer that its hero had
a strong feeling for nature, and a heart open to the most lively
impressions. Many poems are attributed to him. The legend relates that
in the eighteenth year of his penance, when almost rapt in ecstasy, he
dictated the _Cantico del Sole_. Even if this hymn be really his, it
cannot be considered as a poetical work, being written in a kind of
prose simply marked by assonances. 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 Benedetti of Todi, known as Jacopone.
The story is that sorrow at the sudden death of his wife had disordered
his mind, and that, having sold all he possessed and given it to the
poor, he covered himself with rags, and took pleasure in being laughed
at, and followed by a crowd of people who mocked him and called after
him "Jacopone, Jacopone." We do not know whether this be true. What we
do know is that a vehement passion must have stirred his heart and
maintained a despotic hold over him, the passion of divine love. Under
its influence Jacopone went on raving for years and years, subjecting
himself to the severest sufferings, and giving vent to his religious
intoxication in his poems. There is no art in him, there is not the
slightest indication of deliberate effort; there is only feeling, a
feeling that absorbed him, fascinated him, penetrated him through and
through. His poetry was all inside him, and burst out, not so much in
words as in sighs, in groans, in cries that often seem really to come
from a monomaniac. But Jacopone was a mystic, who from his hermit's cell
looked out into the world and specially watched the papacy, scourging
with his words Celestine V. and Boniface VIII. He was put in prison and
laden with chains, but his spirit lifted itself up to God, and that was
enough for him. The same feeling that prompted him to pour out in song
ecstasies of divine love, and to despise and trample on himself, moved
him to reprove those who forsook the heavenly road, whether they were
popes, prelates or monks. In Jacopone there was a strong originality,
and in the period of the origins of Italian literature he was one of the
most characteristic writers.
The religious drama.
The religious movement in Umbria was followed by another literary
phenomenon, that of the religious drama. In 1258 an old hermit, Raniero
Fasani, leaving the cavern in which he had lived for many years,
suddenly appeared at Perugia. These were very sad times for Italy. The
quarrels in the cities, the factions of the Ghibellines and the Guelphs,
the interdicts and excommunications issued by the popes, the reprisals
of the imperial party, the cruelty and tyranny of the nobles, the
plagues and famines, kept the people in constant agitation, and spread
abroad mysterious fears. The commotion was increased in Perugia by
Fasani, who represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious
visions, and to announce to the world terrible visitations. Under the
influence of fear there were formed "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 of course they have not any artistic
value. Their development, however, was rapid. As early as the end of the
same 13th century we have the _Devozioni del Giovedi e Venerdi Santo_,
which have some dramatic elements in them, though they are still
connected with the liturgical office. Then we have the representation
_di un Monaco che ando al servizio di Dio_ ("of a monk who entered the
service of God"), in which there is already an approach to the definite
form which this kind of literary work assumed in the following
centuries.
Tuscan poetry.
In the 13th century Tuscany was peculiarly circumstanced both as regards
its literary condition and its political life. The Tuscans spoke a
dialect which most closely resembled the mother-tongue, 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 others; "Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam":
thus writes Antonio da Tempo of Padua, born about 1275. Being very
little or not at all affected by the Germanic invasion, Tuscany was
never subjected to the feudal system. It had fierce internal struggles,
but they did not weaken its life; on the contrary, they rather gave it
fresh vigour and strengthened it, and (especially after the final fall
of the Hohenstaufens at the battle of Benevento in 1266) made it the
first province of Italy. From 1266 onwards Florence was in a position to
begin that 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 afterwards copied by Siena with the Magistrato dei
Nove, by Lucca, by Pistoia, and by other Guelph cities in Tuscany with
similar popular institutions. In this way the gilds had taken the
government into their hands, and it was a time of both social and
political prosperity. It was no wonder that literature also rose to an
unlooked-for height. In Tuscany, too, there was some popular love
poetry; there was a school of imitators of the Sicilians, their chief
being Dante of 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 in the
strongest antithesis to 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 of San Gimignano laughs when in
his sonnets he tells a party of Sienese youths what are 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; laughing and crying, joking and satire,
are all to be found in Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, the oldest "humorist"
we know, a far-off precursor of Rabelais, of Montaigne, of Jean Paul
Richter, of Sydney Smith. But another kind of poetry also began in
Tuscany. Guittone d' Arezzo made art quit chivalrous for national
motives, Provencal forms for Latin. He attempted political poetry, and,
although his work is full of the strangest obscurities, he prepared the
way for the Bolognese school. In the 13th century Bologna was the city
of science, and philosophical poetry appeared there. Guido Guinicelli
was the poet after the new fashion of the art. In him the ideas of
chivalry are changed and enlarged; he sings of love and, together with
it, of the nobility of the mind. The reigning thought in Guinicelli's
Canzoni is nothing external to his own subjectivity. His speculative
mind, accustomed to wandering in the field of philosophy, transfuses its
lucubrations into his art. Guinicelli's poetry has some of the faults of
the school of Guittone d'Arezzo: he reasons too much; he is wanting in
imagination; his poetry is a product of the intellect rather than of the
fancy and the heart. Nevertheless he marks a great development in the
history of Italian art, especially because of his close connexion with
Dante's lyric poetry.
Allegorical poetry.
But before we come to Dante, certain other facts, not, however,
unconnected with his history, must be noticed. In the 13th century,
there were several poems in the allegorical style. One of these is by
Brunetto Latini, who, it is well known, was attached by ties of strong
affection to Alighieri. 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 is
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 _Divina Commedia_. Francesco da Barberino, a
learned lawyer who was secretary to bishops, a judge, a notary, wrote
two little allegorical poems--the _Documenti d' amore_ and _Del
reggimento e dei costumi delle donne_. Like the _Tesoretto_, these poems
are of no value as works of art, but are, on the other hand, of
importance in the history of manners. A fourth allegorical work was the
_Intelligenza_, by some attributed to Dino Compagni, but probably not
his, and only a version of French poems.
Prose in 13th century.
While the production of Italian poetry in the 13th century was abundant
and varied, that of prose was scanty. The oldest specimen dates from
1231, and consists of short notices of entries and expenses by Mattasala
di Spinello dei Lambertini of Siena. In 1253 and 1260 there are some
commercial letters of other Sienese. But there is no sign of literary
prose. Before we come to any, we meet with a phenomenon like that we
noticed in regard to poetry. Here again we find a period of Italian
literature in French. 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 Beatrice of Savoy, countess of Provence, called _Le
Regime du corps_. In 1267 Martino da Canale wrote in the same "langue
d'oil" a chronicle of Venice. Rusticiano of Pisa, who was for a long
while at the court of Edward I. of England, composed many chivalrous
romances, derived from the Arthurian cycle, and subsequently wrote the
travels of Marco Polo, which may perhaps have been dictated by the great
traveller himself. And finally Brunetto Latini wrote his _Tesoro_ in
French.
Next in order to the original compositions in the langue d'oil come the
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 the _Tesoro_ of
Latini. At the same time there appeared translations from Latin of moral
and ascetic works, of histories and of treatises on rhetoric and
oratory. Up to very recent times it was still possible to reckon as the
most ancient works in Italian prose the _Cronaca_ of Matteo Spinello da
Giovenazzo, and the _Cronaca_ of Ricordano Malespini. But now both of
them have been shown to be forgeries of a much later time. Therefore the
oldest prose writing is a scientific book--the _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
superior to the other writers of the time on these subjects, because he
seems to have been a careful observer of natural phenomena, and
consequently many of the things he relates were the result of his
personal investigations. There is also another short treatise, _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 dialect.
The 13th century was very rich in tales. There is a collection called
the _Cento Novelle antiche_, which contains stories drawn from Oriental,
Greek and Trojan traditions, from ancient and medieval history, from the
legends of Brittany, Provence and Italy, and from the Bible, from the
local tradition of Italy as well as from 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 that they 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 than the
others. On the whole the Italian novels of the 13th century have little
originality, and are only 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. Love of antiquity,
of the traditions of Rome and of its language, was so strong in Guittone
that he tried to write Italian in a Latin style, and it turned out
obscure, involved and altogether barbarous. He took as his special model
Seneca, and hence his prose assumed a bombastic style, which, according
to his views, was very artistic, but which in fact was alien to the true
spirit of art, and resulted in the extravagant and grotesque.
New Tuscan School of lyric poetry.
2. _The Spontaneous Development of Italian Literature._--In the year
1282, the year in which the new Florentine constitution of the "Arti
minori" was completed, a period of literature began that does not belong
to the age of first beginnings, but to that of development. With the
school of Lapo Gianni, of Guido Cavalcanti, of Cino da Pistoia and Dante
Alighieri, lyric poetry became exclusively Tuscan. The whole novelty and
poetic power of this school, which really was the beginning of Italian
art, consist in what Dante expresses so happily--
"Quando
Amore spira, noto, ed a quel modo
Ch' ei detta dentro, vo significando"--
that is to say, 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, the first true Italian art, is pre-eminent in this
artistic fusion, in the spontaneous and at the same time deliberate
action of the mind. In Lapo Gianni the new style is not free from some
admixture of the old associations of the Siculo-Provencal school. He
wavered as it were between two manners. The empty and involved
phraseology of the Sicilians is absent, but the poet does not always rid
himself of their influence. Sometimes, however, he draws freely from his
own heart, and then the subtleties and obscurities disappear, and his
verse becomes clear, flowing and elegant.
Guido Cavalcanti.
Guido Cavalcanti was a learned man with a high conception of his art. He
felt the value of it, and adapted his learning to it. Cavalcanti was
already a good deal out of sympathy with the medieval spirit; he
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 the most renowned Platonic
philosophers of the 15th century, such as Marsilius Ficinus and others.
In other poems of Cavalcanti's besides this we see a tendency to
subtilize and to stifle the poetic imagery under a dead weight of
philosophy. But there are many of his sonnets in which the truth of the
images and the elegance and simplicity of the style are admirable, and
make us feel that we are in quite a new period of art. This is
particularly felt in Cavalcanti's _Ballate_, for in them he pours
himself out ingenuously and without affectation, but with an invariable
and profound consciousness of his art. Far above all the others for the
reality of the sorrow and the love displayed, for the melancholy longing
expressed for the distant home, for the calm and solemn yearning of his
heart for the lady of his love, for a deep subjectivity which is never
troubled by metaphysical subtleties, is the ballata composed by
Cavalcanti when he was banished from Florence with the party of the
Bianchi in 1300, and took refuge at Sarzana.
Cino da Pistoia.
The third poet among the followers of the new school was Cino da
Pistoia, of the family of the Sinibuldi. His love poems are so sweet, so
mellow and so musical that they are only surpassed by Dante. The pains
of love are described by him with vigorous touches; it is easy to see
that they are not feigned but real. The psychology of love and of sorrow
nearly reaches perfection.
Dante (1265-1321).
As the author of the _Vita nuova_, the greatest of all Italian poets,
Dante also belongs to the same lyric school. In the lyrics of the _Vita
nuova_ (so called by its author to indicate that his first meeting with
Beatrice was the beginning for him of a life entirely different from
that he had hitherto led) there is a high idealization of love. It seems
as if there were in it nothing earthly or human, and that 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"; but all the
love poems do not refer to Beatrice, while other pieces are
philosophical and bridge over to the _Convito_.
The work which made Dante immortal, and raised him above all other men
of genius in Italy, was his _Divina Commedia_. An allegorical meaning is
hidden under the literal one of this great epic. Dante travelling
through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, is a symbol of mankind aiming at
the double object of temporal and eternal happiness. By the forest in
which the poet loses himself is meant the civil and religious confusion
of society, deprived of its two guides, the emperor and the pope. The
mountain illuminated by the sun is universal monarchy. The three beasts
are the three vices and the three powers which offered the greatest
obstacles to Dante's designs: envy is Florence, light, fickle and
divided by the Bianchi 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.
But the merit of the poem does not lie in the allegory, which still
connects it with medieval literature. What is new in it is the
individual art of the poet, the classic art transfused for the first
time into a Romance form. Dante is above all a great artist. Whether he
describes nature, analyzes passions, curses the vices or sings hymns to
the virtues, he is always wonderful for the grandeur and delicacy of his
art. Out of the rude medieval vision he has made the greatest work of
art of modern times. He took the materials for his poem from theology,
from philosophy, from history, from mythology--but more especially from
his own passions, from hatred and love; and he has breathed the breath
of genius into all these materials. 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, St Peter, are all so many objective creations;
they stand before us in all the life of their characters, their
feelings, their habits.
Yet this world of fancy in which the poet moves is not only made living
by the power of his genius, but it is changed by his consciousness. The
real chastizer of the sins, the rewarder of the virtues, is Dante
himself. The personal interest which 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_ can fairly be called, not only the most life-like drama of the
thoughts and feelings that moved men at that time, but also the most
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_ fixed
and clearly defined the destiny of Italian literature, to give artistic
lustre, and hence immortality, to all the forms of literature which the
middle ages had produced. Dante begins the great era of the Renaissance.
Petrarch (1304-1374).
Two facts characterize the literary life of Petrarch--classical research
and the new human feeling introduced into his lyric poetry. Nor are
these two facts separate; rather is the one the result of the other. The
Petrarch who travelled about unearthing the works of the great Latin
writers helps us to understand the Petrarch who, having completely
detached himself from the middle ages, loved a real lady with a human
love, and celebrated her in her life and after her death in poems full
of studied elegance. Petrarch was the first humanist, and he was at the
same time the first lyric poet of the modern school. 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; he was considered the
first man of letters of his time; he had honours and riches; and he
always bore about within him discontent, melancholy and incapacity for
satisfaction--three characteristics of the modern man.
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 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 canzone
to Italy, 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 Petrarch had formed the
idea of _Italianita_ better even than Alighieri. 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., praised the Visconti; in fact,
his politics were affected more by impressions than by principles; but
above all this reigned constantly the love of Italy, his ancient and
glorious country, which in his mind is reunited with Rome, the great
city of his heroes Cicero and Scipio.
Boccaccio (1313-1375).
Boccaccio had the same enthusiastic love of antiquity and the same
worship for the new Italian literature as Petrarch. He was the first,
with the help of a Greek born in Calabria, to put together a Latin
translation of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. His vast classical
learning was shown specially in the work _De genealogia deorum_, in
which he enumerates the gods according to genealogical trees constructed
on the authority of the various authors who wrote about the pagan
divinities. This work marked an era in studies preparatory to the
revival of classical learning. And at the same time it opened the way
for the modern criticism, because Boccaccio in his researches, and in
his own judgment was always independent of the authors whom he most
esteemed. The _Genealogia deorum_ is, as A. H. Heeren said, an
encyclopaedia of mythological knowledge; and it was the precursor of the
great humanistic movement which was developed in the 15th century.
Boccaccio was also the first historian of women in his _De claris
mulieribus_, and the first to undertake to tell the story of the great
unfortunate 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, but
which contains also many new and valuable observations. Of his Italian
works his lyrics do not come anywhere near to the perfection of
Petrarch's. 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 octave stanza
(which afterwards became the metre of the poems of Boiardo, of Ariosto
and of Tasso), yet he was certainly the first to use it in a work of
some length and written with artistic skill, such as is his _Teseide_,
the oldest Italian romantic poem. The _Filostrato_ 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 the Italian work lies in the analysis of the passion of
love, which is treated with a masterly hand. 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 in a laborious style, and in the most prolix way, 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 unfairly depreciated by some critics, and he gave public critical
lectures on the poem in Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence.
Imitators of the Commedia.
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 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, the limbo, purgatory and heaven. The poet has Pallas
for a companion.
Novelists.
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 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 _Monalisationes_ 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.
The chroniclers.
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, notwithstanding 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 _Istorie 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. Gino Capponi,
author of the _Commentari dell' acquisto di Pisa_ and of the narration
of the _Tumulto dei ciompi_, belonged to both the 14th and the 15th
centuries.
Ascetic writers.
The _Divina Commedia_ is ascetic in its conception, and in a good many
points of its execution. To a large extent similar is the genius of
Petrarch; 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. She was a really
extraordinary woman, who aspired to bring back the Church of Rome to
evangelical virtue, and who has left a collection of letters written in
a high and lofty tone to all kinds of people, including popes. She joins
hands on the one side with Jacopone of Todi, on the other with
Savonarola. Hers is the strongest, clearest, most exalted religious
utterance that made itself heard in Italy in the 14th century. It is not
to be thought that precise ideas of reformation entered into her head,
but the want of a great moral reform was felt in her heart. And she
spoke indeed _ex abundantia cordis_. Anyhow the daughter of Jacopo
Benincasa must take her place among those who from afar off prepared the
way for the religious movement which took effect, especially in Germany
and England, in 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 the
religious literature.
Comic poetry.
In direct antithesis with this is a kind of literature which has a
strong popular element. Humorous poetry, the poetry of laughter and
jest, which as we saw was 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. 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' Oriente_, _Apollonio di Tiro_, the _Bel Gherardino_, &c.
These poems, meant to be recited to the people, are the remote ancestors
of the romantic epic, which was developed in the 16th century, and the
first representatives of which were Boiardo and Ariosto.
Political and amatory poetry.
Histories in verse.
Many poets of the 14th century have left us political works. Of these
Fazio degli Uberti, the author of _Dittamondo_, who wrote a _Serventese_
to the lords and people of Italy, a poem on Rome, a fierce invective
against Charles IV. of Luxemburg, deserves notice, and 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, 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 dei 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 the _Api_, by Bartolommeo Lorenzi in the
_Coltivazione dei monti_, by Giambattista Spolverini in the
_Coltivazione del riso_, &c.
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 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 was living at Padua 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.
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.
Graeco-Latin learning.
3. _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, laborious, indefatigable,
and all intent on one great work. Such were Niccolo Niccoli, Giannozzo
Manetti, Palla Strozzi, Leonardo Bruni, Francesco Filelfo, Poggio
Bracciolini, Carlo d'Arezzo, 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. Palla Strozzi sent into Greece at his own
expense to search for ancient books, and had Plutarch and Plato brought
for him. Poggio Bracciolini went to the Council of Constance, and found
in a monastery in the dust-hole 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 Boetius
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--in 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.
New social conditions.
First of all there was formed a human individuality, which was wanting
in the middle ages. As J. 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, was weakened, was changed,
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.
Literary dangers of Latinism.
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 give Italian Latin forms, to do again,
after Dante's time, what Guittone d'Arezzo had so unhappily done 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.
Influence of Florence.
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 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 colouring of "romanita" to the chivalrous romances. Belcari and
Benivieni carry us back to the mystic idealism of earlier times.
Lorenzo de' Medici.