Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 12

[130] I may refer to the _Age of the Despots_, 2nd edition, pp. 58-65, for a brief review of the circ.u.mstances under which the Nation defined itself against the Church and the Empire--the ecclesiastical and feudal or chivalrous principles--during the Wars of Invest.i.ture and Independence. In Carducci's essay _Dello Svolgimento delta Letteratura n.a.z.ionale_ will be found an eloquent and succinct exposition of the views I have attempted to express in these paragraphs.

[131] _Revival of Learning._

[132] It is not quite exact, though convenient, to identify Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio severally with the religious, chivalrous and national principles of which I have been speaking. Petrarch stands midway. With Dante he shares the chivalrous, with Boccaccio the humanistic side of the national element. Though Boccaccio antic.i.p.ates in his work the literature of the Renaissance, yet Petrarch was certainly not less influential as an authority in style. Ariosto represents the fusion of both sections of the national element in literature--Italian is distinguished from Tuscan.

[133] See _Age of the Despots_, chap. 2.

[134] See above, p. 138. All that is known about Sacchetti's life may be found in the Discourse of Monsignor Giov. Bottari, prefixed to Silvestri's edition of the _Novelle_.

[135] For Sacchetti's conception of a citizen's duty, proving him a son of Italy's heroic age, see the sonnet _Amar la patria_, in Monsignor Bottari's Discourse above mentioned.

[136] See the Sonnet _Pien di quell'acqua_ written to Boccaccio on his entering the Certosa at Naples.

[137] Here too he mentions a translation of the _Decameron_ into English.

[138] This should also be the place to mention the _Novelle_ of Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca. They have lately been re-edited by Professor d'Ancona, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1871. They are short tales, historical and moral, drawn from miscellaneous medieval sources, and resembling the _Novellino_ in type. Two of them (_Novelle_ ix. and x., _ed. cit._ pp. 62-74) are interesting as forming part of the Legend of Dante the Poet.

[139] For example, the first Novel of the fourth day is the story which Shakspere dramatized in _The Merchant of Venice_, and forms, as every one can see, the authentic source of that comedy.

[140] It must be remarked that the text of _Il Pecorone_ underwent Domenichi's revision in the sixteenth century, which may account for a certain flatness.

[141] See Carducci, _Cantilene e Ballate, Strambotti e Madrigali nei Secoli xiii e xiv_, Pisa, Nistri, 1871. Pp. 176-205 contain a reprint of these lyrics. Carducci's work _Intorno ad alcune Rime_, Imola, 1876, may be consulted at pp. 54 _et seq._ for the origin, wide diffusion, and several species of the popular dance-song.

[142] _Cantilene, etc._ pp. 196, 199, 204.

[143] _Cantilene, etc._ p. 211.

[144] _Cantilene, etc._ p. 220.

[145] _Ibid._ p. 219. Compare _Pa.s.sando con pensier_ in the _Rime di Messer Cino e d'altri_ (Barbera), p. 563.

[146] _Ibid._ p. 233.

[147] _Ibid._ p. 231.

[148] _Ibid._ p. 214 and note. The popularity of this dance-poem is further proved by a pious parody written to be sung to the same air with it: "O vaghe di Gesu, o verginelle." See _Laudi Spirituali_ (Firenze, Molini, 1863), p. 105.

[149] _Ibid._ pp. 217, 218.

[150] See _ibid._ pp. 252-256, 259, 263.

[151] It is enough to mention _Exit diluculo_, _Vere dulci mediante_, _aestivali sub fervore_.

[152] I must briefly refer to Carducci's Essay on "Musica e Poesia nel mondo elegante italiano del secolo xiv," in his _Studi Letterari_, Livorno, Vigo, 1874, and to my own translations from some of the there published Madrigals in _Sketches and Studies in Italy_, pp. 214-216.

[153] Carducci, _Cantilene_, pp. 265-296.

[154] _Op. cit._ p. 298.

[155] _Op. cit._ p. 301.

[156] _Op. cit._ p. 300.

[157] It may be worth mentioning that Soldanieri and Donati as well as Sacchetti belonged to the old n.o.bility of Florence, the Grandi celebrated by name in Dante's _Paradiso_.

[158] See Trucchi's _Poesie Inedite_, and the _Rime Antiche Toscane_, cited above, for copious collections of these poets.

[159] This can be seen in Carducci's _Cantilene_, pp. 115, 116, 150, and in his _Studi Letterari_, pp. 374-446.

[160] _O pellegrina Italia._ _Rime di Cino e d'altri_ (Barbera), p.

318. I shall quote from this excellent edition of Carducci, as being most accessible to general readers. The _Sermintese_ or _Serventese_, it may be parenthetically said, was a form of satirical and occasional lyric adapted from the Provencal _Sirvente_.

[161] _Cino_, etc. p. 342.

[162] _Ibid._ p. 334.

[163] _Cino, etc._ p. 548.

[164] _Ibid._ p. 586.

[165] _Cino, etc._ p. 391.

[166] _Ibid._ pp. 199, 200.

[167] _Ibid._ pp. 384, 389.

[168] _Cino, etc._ pp. 202, 211, 573, 390.

[169] _Ibid._ pp. 504, 535, 498.

[170] In the Discourse of Monsignor Giov. Bottari, Section vi., printed before Sacchetti's _Novelle_.

[171] _Cino, etc._ pp. 445-474, 258-263.

[172] Navone's edition (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1880), p. 56. The date of this sonnet must be about 1315. We have to choose between placing Folgore in that century or a.s.signing the sonnet to some anonymous author. See Appendix II. for translations.

[173] _Cino, etc._ pp. 174-195, 420-441.

[174] _Ibid._ p. 418.

[175] _Ibid._ p. 197, 198.

[176] He was the author of the Ghibelline _Canzoni_ quoted above.

[177] It was composed about 1360. I have seen two editions of this poem, _Opera di Faccio degli uberti Fiorentino, Chiamato Ditta Mundi, Volgare_. Impresso in Venetia per Christoforo di Pensa da Mondelo. Adi iiii. Setembrio MCCCCCI. The second is a version modernized in its orthography: _Il Dittamondo_, Milano, Silvestri, 1826. My quotations will be made from the second of these editions, which has the advantage of a more intelligible text.

[178] Lib. i., cap. 2. Cp. Fazio's Ode on Rome, above, p. 160.

[179] Lib. iii. cap. 9.