LITER ATIRK 



311 



poem fixed the destiny of Italian literature 

 ami began the age of the Renaissance. 



Cino da Pistoia (1270-1336), son of a nob'e 

 family, was also a friend and correspondent of 

 Dante. In literature he continued in some sort 

 the tradition of Dante during the interval be- 

 tween him and his successor, Petrarch. His 

 name is found on all lists of early Italian poets 

 an- 1 his love poems are musical and full of sweet- 

 M' -s and quoted by critics as being surpassed 

 only by Dante himself. It has been said that 

 in the writings of Cavalcanto, Dante, and Cino 

 da Pistoia "the psychology of love and of sor- 

 row nearly reaches perfection." 



In histories of literature Petrarch (1304-1374), 

 is classed as one of the four classical poets of 

 Italy, but he is as well known from his interest 

 in the old Latin writers and his influence in the 

 revival of learning in mediaeval Europe. His 

 father was included in the same edict of life- 

 long banishment that sent Dante out of Florence 

 and the boyhood of Petrarch was spent in a 

 little village of Tuscany where he acquired the 

 pure Tuscan idiom that he afterward used with 

 so much skill in odes and sonnets. He lived for 

 many years at Avignon, denouncing the life of 

 the papal court ; he traveled much in Europe 

 and in the year 1341 he received the poet's 

 crown in Rome. He wrote works in Latin, the 

 most important being in the form of letters, 

 known as the "Epistolse," important as a his- 

 tory of his own times as well as an index to his 

 own life and mind. Another work in Latin was 

 a poem, "Africa," in which he recited the wars 

 -ripio. In the year 1327 he is said to have 

 first met Laura, the object of his life-long de- 

 votion and heroine of his poetic writings. That 

 Laura really lived has come to be a belief, but 

 who Laura was cannot be definitely proved; 

 she undoubtedly lived at Avignon. His "Can- 

 /oniere" contains poems written during the 

 life-time of Laura, poems written after her 

 death, and a third part which seems to have 

 been planned after the manner of Dante. While 

 these poems show Petrarch to have been a 

 hologist, he did not, like the poets before 

 him. go into transcendentalism, but kept within 

 human limits. Petrarch had no decided politi- 

 cal idea, but he was a most patriotic Italian, 

 and in his mind connected the Italy of his day 

 with the irreat Home of the days of Cicero. 



Boccaccio (1313-1375) lacked nothing of Pe- 

 trarch's love for antiquity or his interest in the 

 new Italian literature. Great classical learning 

 shows in his "(Jenealoiria Deorum," where he 

 es of the Pagan deities, making an encyclo- 

 I" lia of mythological knowledge. He com- 

 piled, or perfected, works on geography, he 

 touched upon history and wrote some minor 

 things in Latin, besides his Italian lyrics and 

 longer poems. His famous Italian work was 

 the "Decameron," a collection of a hundred 

 Is related by men and women who had left 

 Florence during a year of plague (1384). In 

 this the rude form used in faMr-writing gave 

 place to careful work on classic models and was 

 the ln-i;inmiiu of an artistic -tyle m romance. 

 Ammiu' author! \\lin wrote oouw&QiM of tales 

 in imitation of Boccaccio were Fiorentino, Sac- 



chetli. and Sercaml>i. 



A chronicle of events dating between the 

 years 1280 and 1312 was written by Compagni, 

 which is stijl consulted as important autnority 

 for that period of Florentine history. It shows 

 strong feeling and discusses the reasons of the 

 events which evidentlv came under his own 

 notice. Villani, another chronicler, relates 

 events up to 1347. He traveled in France as 

 well as Italy, and his chronicle includes much 

 valuable knowledge concerning both countries. 

 This was afterwards versified by Antonio Pucci 

 and other versified history was written during 

 this century when every subject was treated 

 under the form of verse. Many minor poets 

 also left political works. In connection with this 

 versification comic poetry was also developed 

 and carried on by Pucci, Orgagna, and their fol- 

 lowers. These poems, comical as well as his- 

 torical, were meant to be recited to the people 

 and in them were the beginnings of the romantic 

 epics of the Sixteenth Century, Ariosto's "Or- 

 lando Furioso," Bojardo's "Innamorato," and 

 others. 



Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), remembered 

 chiefly as a statesman, was a man of letters, and 

 left poems written in the spirit of Dante and 

 older poets, while he was a man of his own time. 

 As a classical scholar he shows the influence of 

 the Renaissance in Italy. During the Fifteenth 

 Century a kind of literature started in Florence, 

 attached to popular festivals held in honor of 

 St. John, the patron saint of the city. Al- 

 though this was in the form of popular poetry 

 the names of some of the most important authors 

 are found in connection with it and it became 

 the foundation of the Italian drama. Against 

 this literary and social movement the friar, 

 Savonarola, appeared, arriving in Florence in 

 the year 1489. He took the line of a prophet 

 and preached against much of the reading of the 

 day and against the classical studies. In his 

 struggle with Lorenzo de' Medici he directed his 

 attack against him as a patron of pagan litera- 

 ture rather than against a political tyrant. 

 Savonarola has sometimes been considered as 

 a forerunner of the Reformation, but his prepa- 

 ration of the way for that great German and 

 English religious movement was no part of his 

 plan. He desired a reform of manners, not of 

 doctrine, and had no great merit as a thinker 

 or writer. He left Italian sermons, hymns, 

 and ascetic and political treatises. 



Machiavelli (1 Ki'. l.'.L'T > and duicciardini 

 were leaders in hi-iory as a science founded on 

 observation. Machiavelli noted facts, studied 

 other histories and sought out reasons, and his 

 principal works are political rather than li 

 cal. His " Princi|>c." the "Prince." called 

 severe accusations ajrain-t him. and has 

 associated his name \\ith unscrupulous fxtlitics. 

 but the book seem* to have been the result of 

 il and moral condition of Italy at that 

 time. Hi- history of Ho-. .11 consulted 



as standard authority The 'Story of Italy," 

 l.y (luicciardini. a history of the time from the 

 death of Lorenxo de' Medici to the year 1.". 

 full of political wisdom, and treats of characters 

 as \\, il .is events. Following these were Nardi, 

 Varchi. and Sc^ni. Tuscan Tiistorian-: I'oraio, 

 who wrote histories covering short periods; 



out 



