fifteenth century, partly no doubt because these were chiefly men of the people, appear to have developed their manner out of the material of the trecento in general, modified by contemporary usage. This is manifest in the Reali di Francia, a work of considerable stylistic power, which cannot probably be dated earlier than the middle of the fifteenth century. The novelist Masuccio modelled his diction, so far as he was able, on the type of the Decameron, and Alberti owed much to the study of such works as the Fiammetta. Yet, speaking broadly, neither the excellences nor the defects of Boccaccio found devoted imitators until the epoch when the nation at large turned their attention to the formation of a common Italian style. It was then, in the days of Bembo and Sperone, that Boccaccio took rank with Petrarch as an infallible authority on points of language. The homage rendered at that period to the Decameron decided the destinies of Italian prose, and has since been deplored by critics who believe Boccaccio to have established a false standard of taste.1 This is a question which must be left to the Italians to decide. One thing, however, is clear; that a nation schooled by humanistic studies of a Latin type, divided by their dialects, and removed by the advance of culture beyond the influences of the purer trecentisti, found in the rhetorical diction of the Decameron a common model better suited to their taste and capacity than the simple style of the Villani could have furnished. 1 See Capponi's Storia della Repubblica di Firenze, lib. iii. cap. 9, for a very energetic statement of this view. CLOSE OF THE TRECENTO. 137 Boccaccio died in 1375, seventeen months after the death at Arquà of his master, Petrarch. The painter Andrea Orcagna died about the same period. With these three great artists the genius of medieval Florence sank to sleep. A temporary torpor fell upon the people, who during the next half century produced nothing of marked originality in literature and art. The Middle Age had passed away. The Renaissance was still in preparation. When Boccaccio breathed his last, men felt that the elder sources of inspiration. had failed, and that no more could be expected from Heaven and hell, the spirit of the previous centuries. the sanctuaries of the soul, the garden of this earth, had been traversed. The tentative essays and scattered preludings, the dreams and visions, the preparatory efforts of all previous modern literatures, had been completed, harmonised and presented to the world in the master-works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. What remained but to make a new start? This step forward or aside was now to be taken in the Classical Revival. Well might Sacchetti exclaim in that canzone which is at once Boccaccio's funeral 1 See Rime di M. Cino da Pistoja e d'a'tri del Secolo xiv (Firenze, Barbèra, 1862), p. 528. It begins: Ora è mancata ogni poësia E vote son le case di Parnaso. It contains the famous lines : Come deggio sperar che surga Dante Che già chi il sappia legger non si trova ? E Giovanni che è morto ne fe scola. Not less interesting is Sacchetti's funeral Ode for Petrarch (ibid. p. 517). Both show a keen sense of the situation with respect to the decline of literature. dirge and also the farewell of Florence to the four teenth century: Sonati sono i corni D' ogni parte a ricolta; Se tornerà non so, ma credo tardi. CHAPTER III. THE TRANSITION. The Church, Chivalry, the Nation-The National Element in Italian Literature Florence - Italy between 1373 and 1490-Renascent Nationality Absorption in Scholarship-Vernacular Literature follows an obscure Course-Final Junction of the Humanistic and Popular Currents-Renascence of Italian-The Italian Temperament -Importance of the Quattrocento Sacchetti's Novels-Ser Giovanni's Pecorone-Sacchetti's and Ser Giovanni's Poetry-Lyrics of the Villa and the Piazza-Nicolò Soldanieri-Alesso Donati-His Realistic Poems-Followers of Dante and Petrarch-Political Poetry of the Guelfs and Ghibellines-Fazio degli Uberti-Saviozzo da Siena -Elegies on Dante-Sacchetti's Guelf Poems-Advent of the Bourgeoisie-Discouragement of the Age-Fazio's Dittamondo-Rome and Alvernia-Frezzi's Quadriregio-Dantesque Imitation-Blending of Classical and Medieval Motives-Matteo Palmieri's Città di Vita -The Fate of Terza Rima-Catherine of Siena-Her Letters-S. Bernardino's Sermons-Salutati's Letters—Alessandra degli StrozziFlorentine Annalists-Giov. Cavalcanti-Corio's History of Milan— Matarazzo's Chronicle of Perugia-Masuccio and his Novellino-His Style and Genius-Alberti-Born in Exile-His Feeling for Italian— Enthusiasm for the Roman Past-The Treatise on the Family-Its Plan-Digression on the Problem of its Authorship-Pandolfini or Alberti-The Deiciarchia—Tranquillità dell' Animo—Teogenio— Alberti's Religion-Dedication of the Treatise on Painting-Minor Works in Prose on Love-Ecatomfila, Amiria, Deifiria, etc.—Misogynism-Novel of Ippolito and Leonora-Alberti's Poetry-Review of Alberti's Character and his Relation to the Age-Francesco Colonna-The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili-Its Style-Its Importance as a Work of the Transition-A Romance of Art, Love, Humanism -The Allegory-Polia-Antiquity-Relation of this Book to Boccaccio and Valla-It Foreshadows the Renaissance. THE two preceding chapters will have made it clear that the Church, Chivalry, and the Nation contributed their several quotas to the growth of Italian literature.1 The ecclesiastical or religious element, so triumphantly expressed in the Divine Comedy, was not peculiar to the Italians. They held it in common with the whole of Christendom; and though the fabric of the Roman Church took form in Italy, though the race gave S. Francis, S. Thomas, and S. Bonaventura to the militia of the medieval faith, still the Italians as a nation were not specifically religious. Piety, which is quite a different thing from ecclesiastical organisation, was never the truest and sincerest accent of their genius. Had it been so, the history of Latin Christianity would have followed another course, and the schism of the sixteenth century might have been avoided. The chivalrous element they shared, at a considerable disadvantage, with the rest of feudal Europe. Chivalry was not indigenous to Italian soil, nor did it ever flourish there. The literature which it produced in France, became Italian only when the Guidi and Dante gave it philosophical significance. Petrarch, who represents this motive, as Dante represents the ecclesiastical, generalised Provençal poetry. His Canzoniere cannot be styled a masterpiece of chivalrous art. Its spirit is modern and human in a wider and more comprehensive sense. To characterise the national strain in this complex 1 I may refer to the Age of the Despots, 2nd edition, pp. 55-60, for a brief review of the circumstances under which the Nation defined itself against the Church and the Empire-the ecclesiastical and feudal or chivalrous principles-during the Wars of Investiture and Independence. In Carducci's essay Dello Svolgimento della Letteratura nazionale will be found an eloquent and succinct exposition of the views I have attempted to express in these paragraphs. |