13800 - Italian Literature in the Renaissance

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are expected to acquire: a sound knowledge of a specific cultural context (the Italian Renaissance) through the reading of literary texts in an interdisciplinary perspective; the ability to analyse and interpret literary texts (in linguistic, rethorical and philological perspective)

Course contents

The course is divided in two parts: the first part will be dedicated to a discussion of the 'Renaissance' as a cultural context and historical category as well as to crucial themes and authors of the period, from the end of the XV Century to the end of the XVI Century. The themes that will be pointed out in this first part of the course will be:

• The XV Century roots of the Renaissance;
• The new places of the knowledge, the main characters, the new institutions: the print, the Academies, the courts, the Universities, the censorship;
• The concept of imitation: imitatio/aemulatio;
• The debate about language as example of relationship between classics and moderns;
• The Petrarchism and its variations;
• Storytelling ('novella') after Boccaccio's Decameron;
  
• Courtly and behavioral treatises;
• Political treatises;
• Love treatises;
  
• Epic poems from Ariosto to Tasso;
• The rediscovery of Aristotele’s Poetica and the discussion above epic poem;
• The Counter-Renaissance.

 

the module B will focus on a specific topic: "Universal genes: Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci". In the light of most recent studies, the second module of the course intends to revisit the Burckhardt's category of "universal man", analyzing the two main exponents on which the Swiss historian erected this myth of the Renaissance man. The path proposed by the teacher will highlight the versatile and encyclopedic character of these "very powerful" personalities (Burckhardt), able to exalt themselves in the study of multiple disciplines and to express themselves in different languages, but which however find in writing (literary or otherwise) of their practical and intellectual experiments an indispensable place of sedimentation of their reflection, even before communicating the results of their research.

Readings/Bibliography

MODULE A

For the first part of the course students are expected to know:

 

a The fundamental features of the history of Italian literature of the end of XV and all the XVI Century. Recommended texts:

G. Alfano, C. Gigante, E. Russo, Il Rinascimento, Roma, Salerno ed., 2016 (excluding the final "Schede", which are left to the student's curiosity)

or:

G. Alfano - P. Italia - E. Russo - F. Tomasi, Profilo di letteratura italiana. Dalle origini a fine Ottocento, Milano, Mondadori, 2021, pp. 191-392

 

b Students are required to prepare at least one of the following books (at least two for non-attending students):

1. Jacob Burckhardt,La civiltà del Rinascimento in Italia, Firenze, Sansoni, 2000;
2. Eugenio Garin, La cultura del Rinascimento, Bari, Laterza, 1967;
3. Gian Mario Anselmi, L'età dell'Umanesimo e del Rinascimento. Le radici italiane dell'Europa Moderna, Carocci, Roma, 2008 (capitoli 9-15);
4. Nicola Gardini, Storia e maestri di un’idea italiana, Milano, Garzanti, 2019;
5. Maiko Favaro, Ambiguità del petrarchismo. Un percorso fra trattati d'amore, lettere e templi di rime, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2021 (available in Open Access).
   

 

c Full reading (unless otherwise indicated) of at least one of the following works (two for non-attending students):

- Poliziano, Stanze per la giostra (edited by F. Bausi: Manziana 1997; Utet 2006; Messina 2016);

- Bembo, Asolani (edited by C. Dilemmi, ed. Accademia della Crusca; edited by C. Dionisotti, ed. Utet o TEA) or Prose della volgar lingua (edited by C. Dionisotti, ed. Utet o TEA);

- Machiavelli, Il principe (edited by G. Pedullà, Donzelli 2013) + Ariosto, Satire, edited by E. Cavazzoni, Il Saggiatore, 2021;

- Ariosto, Orlando furioso, (10 cantos chosen by the student; edited by E. Bigi - C. Zampese, Bur, 2016);

- Guicciardini, Ricordi (edited by C. Varotti, Roma, Carocci, 2013);

- Castiglione, Il cortegiano (edited by A. Quondam, ed. Garzanti);

- Folengo, Baldus (edited by M. Chiesa, ed. Utet);

- Bandello, Novelle (suggested edition: edited by E. Menetti, Milano, Bur, 2022);

- Aretino, Sei giornate (Ragionamento-Dialogo, edited by  Bàrberi-Squarotti - Forno, Bur 1988; 2001)

- Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata (10 cantos chosen by the student; edited by F. Tomasi, Bur 2009)

 

MODULE B

Students are required to prepare one of the following two books (both for non-attending students):

• A. Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti: un genio universale, Roma, Laterza, 2003;
• C. Vecce, Leonardo, Roma, Salerno, 2006 (2° ed. aggiornata e rivista).

 

moreover one of the following two anthologies of texts:

• L.B. Alberti, Autobiografia, in Autobiografia e altre opere latine, a cura di L. Chines e A. Severi, Milano, Bur, 2012 (2015 2a ed.);
• Leonardo da Vinci, Scritti, a cura di C. Vecce, Milano, Mursia, 1992.

 

Finally one (two for non-attending students) of the following essays:

• M. Paoli, Leon Battista Alberti, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2007;
• G. Albanese, Leon Battista Alberti nella storiografia letteraria e artistica dell’Umanesimo e del Rinascimento, «Rinascimento», 47 (2007), pp. 49-91;
• C. Vecce, Scritti di Leonardo da Vinci, in Letteratura italiana. Le opere, II (Dal Cinquecento al Settecento), diretta da A. Asor Rosa, Torino, Einaudi, 1993, pp. 95-124;
• C. Dionisotti, Leonardo uomo di lettere, "Italia Medievale e Umanistica", 5 (1962), pp. 183-216.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, supported by ppt files, aimed at fully understanding the texts and discussing interpretative hypotheses with all the course participants.

Assessment methods

Oral exam consisting of a discussion (approx. 40-45 minutes) of both the general and the monographic section. Students are required to show the ability to discuss and interpret the assigned texts clearly and persuasively, relating them to their cultural context. Also the student's ability to express himself with clarity and language properties will be evaluated. The standard of oral expression will also be assessed.

• The lack of ability to orientate itself in the literary panorama of Renaissance culture and to recognize the fundamental characteristics of the major texts of the late 15th and 16th centuries of the program will entail negative voting;
• The student who will grasp the fundamental aspects of the works and authors proposed during the course and will recognize the fundamental questions and the salient features of the most important works of Renaissance literature and its protagonists will achieve a positive evaluation (vote: 26-28);
• An in-depth knowledge of humanistic texts and literature will imply a very good (29-30) and even excellent (30L) evaluation. To achieve excellence, a complete understanding of all the topics covered is required, and also the firm possession of the literary chronology (the dates of the major works' output of the authors treated are important), the use of precise technical terminology (in the rhetorical domain) , philological-literary, etc .. eg: to know being able to say the precise literary genre to which the mentioned works belong, or to indicate the chronological range of composition in the case of very famous works, such as L'Orlando furioso or Il Cortegiano) and, moreover , a personal critical elaboration of the acquired contents.

Teaching tools

Ppt files

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Severi