Italian Literature

ITALIAN LITERATURE. One characteristic fact dis tinguishes the Italy of the middle ages with regard to its intellec tual conditions—the tenacity with which the Latin tradition clung to life (see LATIN). At the end of the 5th century the northern conquerors invaded Italy. The political structure of Rome crumbled to pieces ; Goths, Greeks, Lombards and Franks were in turn pre-eminent in Italy. Theoderic the Great, however, who considered himself a lieutenant of the Byzantine emperor, was not averse to learning, and even the Lombard kings, who belonged to a truly barbaric stock, seem to have been compelled by the force of local habits to countenance the existence of lay and ecclesiastical schools. The persistence of lay schools throughout the middle ages is an Italian characteristic. Ecclesiastical schools were founded as a matter of routine ; when the Benedictine insti tutions underwent a period of decadence, Irish monks settled in Italy and helped in reviving religious zeal and interest in learning. If the original output of Italian scholars during the earlier middle ages was comparatively small, there were nevertheless men of outstanding merit practically in every century. Peter of Pisa was at Charlemagne's court together with Paul the Deacon who hailed from Montecassino; Gunzo of Novara migrated to the court of the Saxon emperors; later Lanfranc of Pavia and Anselm of Aosta rose to important positions in France and in England. No doubt the persistence of the classical tradition in the native population was rendered possible by the relatively small number of barbaric settlers and helped by the sight of countless monuments of Roman greatness ; this same persistence greatly hindered that peculiar re-elaboration of classical tradi tion and barbaric legends which gave rise in France to a new literature. Italians were late in the field and they preferred to import French works dealing with the Romans (Faits des Ro mains), Alexander the Great (Roman d' Alixandre) and Trojan legends (Roman de Troie). Likewise the Italians, whose vernac ular dialects must have taken shape very early (there are records of dialectal sentences as early as the 9th century at Verona and in the south), were slow to realize that Latin, the language they were taught at school (grammatica), was no longer their real language ; they were shy to break away from tradition : Gunzo of Novara ( loth century) justified a grammatical slip he had made in a Latin speech by his habit of speaking the Italian vernacular which was similar to Latin, and yet until the 13th century no Italian dialect seems to have been used in writing, with the ex ception of some verses in a poem by the Provencal R. de Vaqueiras, an inscription at Ferrara and the song of a Tuscan jongleur (Salva lo vescovo senato).

The Fashion of French and Provencal.

By the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries Latin had become unsuitable to the expression of everyday feelings, and the courtly society of feudal castles, as well as the people loitering in the squares, wished for some kind of literary entertainment. In many a castle of northern and central Italy Provencal troubadours were welcome guests ; their poems were transcribed in manu scripts which are still extant, and there were many Italians who wrote Provencal poems, such as the Marchese Alberto Malaspina (12th century), Maestro Ferrari of Ferrara, Cigala of Genoa, Zorzi of Venice, Sordello of Mantua, Buvarello of Bologna, Nicoletto of Turin and others. The same courtly circles that appreciated Provencal lyrics greedily read Arthurian romances, at first in French and later in Italian translations. Carolingian poems found favour instead with the less educated people for whose benefit they were recited in the thoroughfares at first by French jongleurs, who must have endeavoured to make them selves more easily understood by italianizing their pronunciation, and later by Italian imitators. As a result there came into being numbers of works written by Italians in imperfect French dur ing the 13th century. Such were the "Chansons de Geste," Ma caire, the Entree en Espagne written by Nicola of Verona, the Prise de Pampelune and some others. Many such works have been lost, among them those which were later rendered into Tuscan can tari dealing with epic subjects, but a good number are still extant in prose as well as in verse, such as Le regime du corps by Aldo brandino of Florence or Siena, a chronicle of Venice written in 1267 by Martino da Canale, a treatise on Falconry translated by Daniele of Cremona (1251), the travels of Marco Polo written down, possibly from dictation,. by Rustichello of Pisa (1298), who had previously lived at the court of Edward I. and composed many Arthurian romances ; the encyclopaedic work Lis livres dou tresor of Brunetto Latini (just after 126o). Several authors Canale, Ennachet, Latini (who wrote in France)—were at pains to state that they were using the French language because it was more pleasant than others and more widely understood. But so artificial an attempt must soon have proved a failure, for while it was in progress, there had begun an active effort at translating from Latin and French into the Italian vernaculars and also at writing original works in Tuscan and other Italian dialects.

It was in the course of the 13th century, and especially from 125o onwards, that the new literature largely unfolded and de veloped itself. This development was simultaneous in the whole peninsula, only there was a difference in the subject-matter of the art. In the north, the poems of Giacomino of Verona and Bon vecino of Riva were specially didactic and religious, and were intended to be recited to the people. Uguccione of Lodi, Bon vecino, Giacomino, Girardo Patecchio and the others no doubt wrote in their local dialects, occasionally adopting words and forms from other dialects with the intention of thus attaining a higher literary standard ; and their genuine forms may at times have been further modified by enterprising copyists who spoke different if neighbouring vernaculars. Some of these religious

works may possibly have been connected with the heretical move ments in Lombardy at the period.

The Sicilian School.

In the south of Italy French lyrics of the langue d'oil and particularly of the langue d'oc enjoyed favour in courtly circles. One of the most ancient poems of the Sicilian School, a name by which the poets of the court of Fred erick II. are indicated whether they hail from Sicily or not, is ascribed to King John of Brienne, and the emperor Frederick, per haps himself a poet, certainly encouraged his friends to cultivate the vernacular muse. Modern critics have pointed out French in fluences in many of these lyrics, and it may be that the famous and much discussed contrasto of Cielo Dalcamo, a poet who had prob ably studied at Salerno, was an attempt at imitating local and French popular or pseudo-popular poems. Despite some vigour, zest and coarseness it cannot rank with real popular poetry. The Provencals, however, had provided models which, being the prod uct of social refinement in a feudal environment, must have proved more congenial to Frederick and his courtiers; and the lyrics of the Troubadours were of ten sheepishly imitated by Pier della Vigna, Enzo, Frederick's son, Jacopo Mostacci, Giacomo da Lentino and the others; among them Giacomino Pugliese and Rinaldo of Aquino occasionally gave signs of genuine feeling, and may have drawn inspiration from popular poetry. As has been noted, several of the poets of the Sicilian School were not Sicilians, but hailed from southern Italy, as Pier della Vigna and Rinaldo, from Tuscany, as Arrigo Testa, or from Genoa, as Percivalle Doria. Moreover Frederick and his courtiers were ever moving up and down Italy as the political situation required; and all of them endeavoured, when writing, to ennoble the language they used by discarding purely local forms and thus unconsciously worked towards a standard literary language. Later scribes may have emphasized such a tendency by altering Sicilian to Tuscan forms. Followers of the Provencals have been traced in Naples and Rome; and farther north, in central Italy, there were other forces at work besides the influence of the Troubadours.

Religious Poetry of the 13th Century.

The religious re vival of the 13th century is connected in central Italy with St.

Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). Around him a legend has grown up and from some points in it we seem to be able to infer that its hero had a strong feeling for nature, and a heart open to the most lively impressions. There is clear evidence of such gifts in his famous Cantico del Sole, which despite rhythmical irregularities is considered the finest religious hymn of early Italian literature.

The Franciscan movement inspired the composition of many religious lyrics ; and when after the saint's death the Order was split by dissensions, one of the upholders of strict adherence to the original rule, Jacopo dei Benedetti of Todi (d. 1306), wrote poems of outstanding merit. He was a lawyer and had probably tried his hand at poetry before his conversion. A vehement passion must have stirred his heart and maintained a despotic hold over him, the passion of divine love. Under its influence he went on subjecting himself to the severest sufferings, and giving vent to his religious intoxication in his poems. There is little art in him, and there is no indication of deliberate effort ; there is only feeling, a feeling that absorbed him, fascinated him, penetrated him through and through. He was put in prison and laden with chains, but his spirit lifted itself up to God, and that was enough for him. The same feeling that prompted him to pour out in song ecstasies of divine love and to despise and trample on him self, moved him to reprove those who forsook the heavenly road, whether they were popes, prelates or monks.

To the religious movement in Umbria is also traceable the origin of the religious drama. In 1258 an old hermit, Raniero Fasani, leaving the cavern in which he had lived for many years, suddenly appeared at Perugia. These were difficult times in Italy. The breaking up of the feudal system, the incidence of economic forces connected with the rise of capitalism, the struggles between popes and emperors kept the people in constant agitation, and spread abroad paralysing fears. Fasani represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious visions, and to announce terrible visitations to the world. Under the influence of fear there were formed "Compagnie di Disciplinanti," who, for a penance, scourged themselves till they drew blood, and sang "Laudi" in dia logue in their confraternities. These "Laudi," closely connected with the liturgy, were among the first examples of the drama in the vulgar tongue of Italy. Their development, however, was rapid. As early as the end of the same (13th) century we have the Devozioni del Giovedi e Venerdi Santo, which have some dramatic elements in them, though they are still connected with the liturgical office. Then we have the representation di un Monaco the ando al servizio di Dio ("of a monk who entered the service of God"), in which there is already an approach to the definite form which this kind of literary work assumed in the following centuries.