The Period from 1300 to 1530-Its Division into Three Sub-Periods- Tardy Development of the Italian Language-Latin and Roman Memories-Political Struggles and Legal Studies-Conditions of Latin Culture in Italy during the Middle Ages-Want of National Legends-The Literatures of Langue d'Oc and Langue d'Oil culti- vated by Italians-Franco-Italian Hybrid-Provençal Lyrics-French Chansons de Geste-Carolingian and Arthurian Romances-Forma- tion of Italian Dialects-Sicilian School of Court Poets-Frederick II.-Problem of the Lingua Aulica-Forms of Poetry and Metres fixed-General Character of the Sicilian Style-Rustic Latin and Modern Italian-Superiority of Tuscan-The De Eloquio-Plebeian Literature-Moral Works in Rhyme-Emergence of Prose in the Thirteenth Century-Political Songs-Popular Lyrics - Religious Hymns-Process of Tuscanisation-Transference of the Literary Centre from Sicily to Tuscany-Guittone of Arezzo-Bolognese School -Guido Guinicelli-King Enzio's Envoy to Tuscany-Florentine BETWEEN 1300, the date of Dante's vision, and 1530, the date of the fall of Florence, the greatest work of the Italians in art and literature was accomplished. These two hundred and thirty years may be divided into three nearly equal periods. The first ends with Boccaccio's death in 1375. The second lasts until the birth of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1448. The third em- intervened the studies of the humanists. In the third, these studies were carried over to the profit of the mother tongue. The first period extends over seventy-five years; the second over seventy-three; the third over eighty-two. With the first date, 1300, we may connect the jubilee of Boniface and the translation of the Papal See to Avignon (1304); with the second, 1375, the formation of the Albizzi oligarchy in Florence (1381); with the third, 1448, the capture of Constantinople (1453); and with the fourth, 15.30, the death of Ariosto (1533) and the new direction given to the Papal policy by the Sack of Rome (1527). The chronological limits assigned to the Italian Renaissance in the first volume of this book would confine the history of literature to about eighty years between 1453 and 1527; and it will be seen by reference to the foregoing paragraph that it would not be impossible to isolate that span of time. In dealing with Renaissance literature, it so happens that strict boundaries can be better observed than in the case of politics, fine arts, or learning. Yet to adhere to this section of literary history without adverting to the antecedent periods, would be to break the chain of national development, which in the evolution of the Italian language is even more important than in any other branch of culture. If the renascence of the arts must be traced from Cimabue and Pisano, the spirit of the race, as it expressed itself in modern speech, demands a still more retrogressive survey, in order to render the account of its ultimate results intelligible. THREE PERIODS OF LITERATURE. 3 The first and most brilliant age of Italian literature ended with Boccaccio, who traced the lines on which the future labours of the nation were conducted. It was succeeded by nearly a century of Greek and Latin scholarship. To study the masterpieces of Dante and Petrarch, or to practise their language, was thought beneath the dignity of men like Valla, Poggio, or Pontano. But toward the close of the fifteenth century, chiefly through the influence of Lorenzo de' Medici and his courtiers, a strong interest in the mothertongue revived. Therefore the vernacular literature of the Renaissance, as compared with that of the expiring middle ages, was itself a renascence or revival. It reverted to the models furnished by Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and combined them with the classics, which had for so long a while eclipsed their fame. Before proceeding to trace the course of this revival, which forms the special subject of these volumes, it will be needful to review the literature of the fourteenth century, and to show under what forms that literature survived among the people during the classical enthusiasm of the fifteenth century. Only by this antecedent investigation can the new direction taken by the genius of the combined Italian nation, after the decline of scholarship, be understood. Thus the three sub-periods of the 230 years above described may be severally named the medieval, the humanistic. and the renascent. To demonstrate their connection and final explication is my purpose in this last section of my work on the Renaissance. In the development of a modern language Italy showed less precocity than other European nations. The causes of this tardiness are not far to seek. Latin, the universal tongue of medieval culture, lay closer to the dialects of the peninsula than to the native speech of Celtic and Teutonic races, for whom the official language of the Empire and the Church always exhibited a foreign character. In Italy the ancient speech of culture was at home; and nothing had happened to weaken its supremacy. The literary needs of the Italians were satisfied with Latin; nor did the genius of the new people make a vigorous effort to fashion for itself a vehicle of utterance. Traditions of Roman education lingered in the Lombard cities, which boasted of secular schools, where grammarians and rhetoricians taught their art according to antique method, long after the culture of the North had passed into the hands of ecclesiastics.1 When Charlemagne sought to resuscitate learning, he had recourse to these Italian teachers; and the importance of the distinction between Italians and Franks or Germans, in this respect, was felt so late as the eleventh century. Some verses in the Panegyric addressed by Wippo to the Emperor Henry III. brings the case so vividly before us that it may be worth while to transcribe them here 2: Tunc fac edictum per terram Teutonicorum, 1 See Giesebrecht, De Litterarum studiis apud Italos primis medii ævi sæculis, Berolini, 1845, p. 15. 2 See Giesebrecht, op. cit. p. 19. Wippo recommends the Emperor to compel his subjects to educate their sons in letters and law. It was by such studies that ancient Rome acquired her greatness. In Italy at the present time, he says, all boys pass from the games of childhood into schools. It is only the Teutons who think it idle or disgraceful for a man to study unless he be intended for a clerical career. ROMAN BIAS OF THE ITALIANS. Litterulis, legemque suam persuadeat illis, Ut doceant aliquem nisi clericus accipiatur. 5 No While the Italians thus continued the rhetorical and legal studies of the ancients, they did not forget that they were representatives and descendants of the Romans. The Republic and the Empire were for them the two most glorious epochs of their own history; and any attempt which they made to revive either literature or art, was imitative of the past. They were not in the position to take a new departure. popular epic, like the Niebelungen of the Teuton, the Arthurian legend of the Celt, the Song of Roland of the Frank, or the Spanish Cid, could have sprung up on Italian soil. The material was wanting to a race that knew its own antiquity. Even when an Italian undertook a digest of the Tale of Troy or of the Life of Alexander, he converted the metrical romances of the middle ages into prose, obeying an instinct which led him to regard the classical past as part of his own history.1 In like manner, the recollection of a previous municipal organisation in the communes, together with the growing ideal of a Roman Empire, which should restore Italy to her place of sovereignty among the nations, proved serious obstacles to the unification of the people. We 1 See Adolfo Bartoli, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. i. pp. 142-158, and p. 167, on Guido delle Colonne and Qualichino da Spoleto. |