Notable Writers

Italian Literature
Dante Alighieri

Born: 1265
Birthplace: Florence,
Italy
Died: September
1321 (Malaria)
Best Known As: The
author of The Divine
Comedy
Dante Alighieri (continued)
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 Comedy is 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: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

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

"Divine" to make it La divina commedia.

Giovanni Boccaccio

Born: 1313
Birthplace: Paris,
France
Died: Dec. 21, 1375,
Certaldo, Tuscany
Best Known As: The
author of Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio (continued)

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

of 12 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 of 100 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 for

Renaissance humanism, and through his writings in Italian he helped

raise vernacular literature to the level of the classics of antiquity.

Thomas Aquinas

Born: c. 1225
Birthplace: Roccasecca,
Italy
Died: 7 March 1274
Best Known As: Medieval
Catholic scholar who
wrote Summa Theologica

Name at birth: Tommaso d'Aquino

 Thomas Aquinas (continued)
Foremost philosopher and theologian of the Roman Catholic church. Born of noble parents, he

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

at the University of Paris. His time in Paris coincided with the arrival of Aristotelian science,

newly discovered in Arabic translation; his great achievement was to integrate into Christian

thought the rigors of Aristotle'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).

Petrarch
Born: July 20, 1304
Birthplace: Arezzo,
Tuscany
Died: July 18/19,
1374, Arquà,
Best Known As: The
author of Canzoniere
and the founder of
humanism.

*Francesco Petrarca
 Petrarch (continued)
Italian scholar, poet, and humanist. After 1326 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 or Rime (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

poem Africa (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.
Vittorio Alfieri

Born: Jan. 16, 1749

Birthplace: Asti,
Piedmont
Died: Oct. 8, 1803,
Florence
Best Known As: The
author of Saul
Vittorio Alfieri (continued)

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 other French 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 of 1787 – 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.
Guittone d’Arezzo

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

was the founder of the Tuscan school of courtly
poetry. He was the creator of dolce stil nuovo
("sweet new style").
Italo Calvino

(1923-1985) Italian writer. Italo Calvino was

born in Cuba of Italian parents, and he moved
to Italy while he was still a youth. He later
earned a degree in literature, and is known as a
writer of short stories and novels.
Grazia Deledda
(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."
 Griselda
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 by Apostolo Zeno that was
based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron (X, 10, "The
Patient Griselda"). The opera was dedicated to Prince Maximilian
Karl von Löwenstein, the Austrian governor of Milan, who died
during the opera's world première on 26 December 1718 at
the Teatro Regio Ducal in Milan. Nevertheless, Bononcini's opera
was well received and enjoyed several revivals during the
eighteenth century.
Synopsis
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 of Apulia. 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.

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 his advances. 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.
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.