Notable Writers

8/8/2019 Notable Writers

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Italian Literature


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Born: 1265

Birthplace: Florence,

ItalyDied: September1321

(Malaria)

Best Known As: The

author ofThe DivineComedy


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An exiled and wandering figure during his writing lifetime, Dante is now considered Italy's

greatest poet -- so much a literary giant that he is generally known by his first name

alone. The Divine Comedy, by far his most famous work, is the story of a journey

through Hell, Purgatory and finally Paradise. (The journey through Hell is often

referred to independently as "Dante's Inferno.") In the poem the first two stages are

guided by the Roman poet Virgil, and the final visit to Paradise is led by a woman

named Beatrice -- a girl Dante met briefly when he was nine and whom he idolized the

rest of his life. The Divine Comedyis the source of many famous classical images,

inspiring works by William Blake and others, and is famous for its inscription on the

gates of Hell: "A

ll hope abandon, ye who enter here."

Dante named his work La commedia, orThe Comedy. After his death others added

"Divine" to make it La divina commedia.


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Born: 1313

Birthplace: Paris,

FranceDied: Dec. 21, 1375,

Certaldo, Tuscany

Best Known As: The

author ofDecameron


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Italian poet and scholar. His life was full of difficulties and occasional bouts of

poverty. His early works include The Love Afflicted(c. 1336), a prose work in

five books, and The Book of Theseus (c. 1340), an ambitious epic of12

cantos. He is best known for his Decameron, a masterpiece of classical

Italian prose that had an enormous influence on literature throughout

Europe. A group of100 earthy tales united by a frame story, it was probably

composed 1348 53. After this period he turned to humanist scholarship in

Latin. With Petrarch, he laid the foundations forRenaissance humanism,

and through his writings in Italian he helped raise vernacular literature to thelevel of the classics of antiquity.


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Born: c. 1225

Birthplace: Roccasecca,

ItalyDied: 7 March 1274

Best Known As: Medieval

Catholic scholar who

wrote Summa Theologica

Name at birth: Tommaso d'Aquino


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Foremost philosopherand theologian of the Roman Catholic church. Born of noble parents, he studied at

the University ofNaples, joined the Dominicans, and taught at a Dominican school at the University of

Paris. His time in Paris coincided with the arrival ofAristotelian science, newly discovered in Arabic

translation; his great achievement was to integrate into Christian thought the rigors ofAristotle's

philosophy, just as the early Church Fathers had integrated Plato's thought in the early Christian era.

He held that reason is capable of operating within faith; while the philosopher relies solely on reason,

the theologian accepts faith as his starting point and then proceeds to conclusion through the use of

reason. This point of view was controversial, as was his belief in the religious value of nature, for which

he argued that to detract from the perfection of creation was to detract from the creator. He was

opposed by St. Bonaventure. In 1277, after his death, the masters of Paris condemned 219

propositions, 12 of them Thomas's. He was nevertheless named a Doctor of the Church in 1567 and

declared the champion of orthodoxy during the modernist crisis at the end of the 19th century. A prolific

writer, he produced more than 80 works, including Summa contra Gentiles (1261 64) and Summa

theologica (1265 73).


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Born: July 20, 1304

Birthplace: Arezzo,Tuscany

Died:July

18/19,1374

,Arqu,

Best Known As: Theauthor ofCanzoniereand the founder of

humanism.

*Francesco Petrarca


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Italian scholar, poet, and humanist. After1326 he abandoned the study of law for his true interests,

literature and the religious life. He took minor ecclesiastical orders and moved to Avignon, where in

1327 he first saw Laura, the idealized subject of his chaste love and of his celebrated Italian love lyrics;

mainly sonnets and odes written over some 20 years, most were included in

his Canzoniere orRime (1360). The greatest scholar of his age, especially of Classical Latin, he

traveled widely, visiting learned men, searching out manuscripts, and undertaking diplomatic missions.

He strongly advocated the continuity between Classical culture and the Christian message; in

combining the two ideals he is considered the founder and a great representative of humanism. His

Latin works, reflecting his religious and philosophical interests, include On Illustrious

Men (begun c. 1337), the epic poemAfrica (begun c. 1338), the autobiographical treatise Petrarch's

Secret(written 1342 58), De vita solitaria (1345 47; "The Life of Solitude"), and Epistolae

metricae (begun c. 1345; "Metrical Letters"). His influence on European literature was enormous and

lasting, and his deep consciousness of the Classical past as a source of literary and philosophical

meaning for the present was of great importance in paving the way for the Renaissance.


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Born: Jan. 16, 1749

Birthplace: Asti,

PiedmontDied: Oct. 8, 1803,

Florence

Best Known As: The

author ofSaul


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Italian tragic poet and playwright. Through his lyrics and dramas he

helped revive the national spirit of Italy. After a period of travel in

which he experienced English political liberty and read the works

of Montesquieu and otherFrench writers, he left the military and

began writing. His tragedies almost always present the struggle

between a champion of liberty and a tyrant. Of the 19 tragedies that

he approved for publication in an edition of1787 89, the best

are Filippo,Antigone, Oreste, Mirra, and his masterpiece, Saul, often

considered the most powerful drama in the Italian theatre. His

autobiography (1804) is his chief prose work.


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(1235-1294) Italian writer. Guittone d'Arezzo was the

founder of the Tuscan school of courtly poetry. Hewas the creator of dolce stil nuovo ("sweet new

style").


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(1871-1936) Italian writer. Grazia Deledda's novels

depict vividly the life in Sardinia. In 1926, she

received the Nobel prize for Literature "for her

idealistically inspired writings which with plastic

clarity picture the life on her native island and with

depth and sympathy deal with human problems in

general."


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(1469-1527). Italian writer. Niccolo Machiavelli was a

famous Renaissance writerand philosopher, known

for "The Prince" and other discourses.


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Griselda is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed

by Antonio Maria Bononcini. The opera uses a slightly revised version

of the 1701 Italian libretto byApostolo Zeno that was based

on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron (X, 10, "The PatientGriselda"). The opera was dedicated to Prince Maximilian Karl von

Lwenstein, the Austrian governor of Milan, who died during the opera's

world premire on 26 December1718 at the Teatro Regio

Ducal in Milan. Nevertheless, Bononcini's opera was well received and

enjoyed several revivals during the eighteenth century.


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Act one

Years before the action begins, Gualtiero, King of Sicily, had married a poor

shepherdess, Griselda. The marriage was deeply unpopular with the king's

subjects and when a daughter, Costanza, was born, the king had to pretend

to have her killed while secretly sending her to be brought up by Prince

Corrado ofApulia. Now, faced with another rebellion from the Sicilians,

Gualtiero is forced to renounce Griselda and promises to take a new wife.

The proposed bride is in fact Costanza, who is unaware of her true

parentage. She is in love with Corrado's younger brother, Roberto, and the

thought of being forced to marry Gualtiero drives her to despair.


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Act Two

Griselda returns to her home in the countryside where she is pursued by

the courtier Ottone, who is in love with her. She angrily rejects hisadvances. Gualtiero and his followers go out hunting and come across

Griselda's cottage. Gualtiero foils an attempt by Ottone to kidnap

Griselda and allows her back to the court, but only as Costanza's slave.


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Act Three

Ottone still resolutely pursues Griselda and Gualtiero promises him

her hand as soon as he himself has married Costanza. Griselda

declares she would rather die and, moved by her faithfulness,

Gualtiero takes her back as his wife. He reveals the true identity of

Costanza and allows her to marry Roberto.

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