The author explains on xxv–xxvi how, in consultation with the board of The I Tatti Renaissance Library, she developed the plan of arranging the letters not chronologically but grouped under nine ...headings, such as “On His Letters” or “His Life and His World.” The event also had a tragicomic sequel when the large tome that Petrarch copied out by hand from the archetype and kept at the doorpost of his library repeatedly fell on him in such a way that he finally had to seek medical treatment (III 15.16–20). In these pages, we find not only Petrarch the zealous book collector and student of ancient texts, but also many interesting details about Petrarch the man, including the correspondence relating to his appointment to, and acceptance of, the poet laureateship (III 2–6) and his comments on topics of the times, such as the Black Death or the state of the Church and the papacy and his desire to see the latter return to Rome from Avignon (“the Babylon of the West,” as he called it).
What was John Lydgate, a Benedictine monk and author of orthodox religious poems, doing translating pagan histories like the Troy Book and Siege of Thebes^ In his late autobiographical poem the ...'Testament of Dan John Lydgate', Lydgate explores whether Christian practice was compatible with humanist reading of classical or pagan texts.1 He does this by engaging with Augustine's Confessions and Petrarch's Secretum, taking some of each writer's approach to reading and memory in order to justify ways in which it was acceptable to read classical or pagan literature. In the 'Testament' he applies Augustine's theory of memory in an unorthodox Petrarchan way in order to establish his own active reading approach and explain the value in humanist texts. 1. Augustines "Confessions' Augustine's 'influence on the literature of the Middle Ages is pervasive' and there was an Augustinian revival' in the later Middle Ages.6 Lydgate had access to the Confessions, amongst many other Augustine texts, in Bury St Edmunds abbey library, Duke Humfrey's collection, and probably in numerous other places.7 The most obvious allusion to the text in the 'Testament' is Lydgate's description of stealing apples and grapes as a child (lines 638-40), considered an allusion to Augustine's theft of pears (Il.iv).8 Whilst the allusion is undoubted, it merits greater caution. Nisse thinks this significant because it was the age that St Edmund died; but it is also likely a reference to the frequent plagues that hit East Anglia and perhaps to a specific incident in Lydgate's life.12 Lydgate imitates Augustine in stating that some texts are more valid to read than others, and in regretting his childhood reading tastes.
Petrarch Celenza, Christopher S
2017, 2017-10-15
eBook
Born in Tuscany in 1304, Italian poet Francesco Petrarca is widely considered one of the fathers of the modern Italian language. Though his writings inspired the humanist movement and subsequently ...the Renaissance, Petrarch remains misunderstood. He was a man of contradictions-a Roman pagan devotee and a devout Christian, a lover of friendship and sociability, yet intensely private. In this biography, Christopher S. Celenza revisits Petrarch's life and work for the first time in decades, considering how the scholar's reputation and identity have changed since his death in 1374. He brings to light Petrarch's unrequited love for his poetic muse, the anti-institutional attitude he developed as he sought a path to modernity by looking backward to antiquity, and his endless focus on himself. Drawing on both Petrarch's Italian and Latin writings, this is a revealing portrait of a figure of paradoxes: a man of mystique, historical importance, and endless fascination. It is the only book on Petrarch suitable for students, general readers, and scholars alike.
The fixed poetic forms of Petrarch’s Canzoniere and the poetical works of the Petrarchist poets who imitated the great Italian master frequently served as texts for 16th century madrigals. In this ...connection, the author of the present article poses the question about the possible impact of the fixed poetic form on the form of the respective musical composition. A preliminary familiarization with madrigals composed on the texts of the sonnets, ballatas and sestinas (Italian: sestine) has shown that imitations of the poetic forms is the most discernible in those cases when the composer turns to the sestina to set it to music. The main material for analysis has been formed by the cyclic madrigals: Là ver l’aurora che sì dolce l’aura by Orlando di Lasso and Non fu mai cervo si veloce al corso, Sola angioletta starsi in trecie a l’ombra and Giovane donna sotto un verde lauro by Luca Marenzio, composed on the full texts of sestinas, as well as a few other similar works. The sestina consists of six stanzas each containing six lines, along with a conclusory stanza of three lines. The special rhyme pattern for the sestina, featuring six words defining the rhythms invariably repeated in the six main stanzas following the scheme, ABCDEF FAEBDC CFDABE, etc., generates the repetition of the end-word of the previous stanza in the beginning of the first line of the following stanza. As it is shown in the article, it is particularly this feature of the sestina that finds resonance with the form of the madrigal. The end of the previous section of a madrigal and the beginning of the following section have a connection established between them, which, as a rule, is achieved by means of repetitions. This concerns the melodic units and the characteristic details of sound, both the harmonic and the melodic varieties. Along with repetitions, a single harmonic construction is used, which begins at the conclusion of one section of a madrigal and concludes at the beginning of the following section.
...I argue that medieval commentators on Aristotle and the specula principům tradition presented these fiscal techniques for the preservation of tyrannies-originally presented as distinct from ...virtuous action- as practices of good kingship in actuality, rather than merely as simulation. ...without getting into the controversy regarding the extent to which Machiavelli directly engaged with the Politics, I show how the problem of liberality permeated thinking on fiscality both in Latin philosophy and Italian vernacular writings. ...he can exercise caution in the physical accumulation of money, important because when he is abroad such a sum could be seized by ministers of the treasury; that would lead to his loss of power. ...he should be seen to collect his revenues as is proper for his household management and extraordinary requirements such as war.
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