The minor poets, Francesco Stabile, or Cecco d'Ascoli, burned by the church (1327), and author of L'Acerba, a critical attack upon Dante. and a wonderful mixture of learning, acuteness, and superstition; Francesco da Barberino (1264-1348); and Cino da Pistoja, the learned jurist and poet, whose work on jurisprudence, Il Coniento sill Codice, and pleasing amatory verses, won for him the commendations both of Dante and Petrarch (1270-1336), claim mention before the great name of Francesco Petra rea (q.v.) (1804-1374), the creator of Italian lyrical poetry, and the enricher and perfecter of its language. The luster of Petrarch's fame, however, is not derived from his sonnets alone. Apart from their exquisite beauty and pathos. their classical elegance and simplicity of diction render them an abiding standard of Italian poetry.. Italian. which, in its poetical capacities, we have seen created by Dante, polished and refined by Petrarch, was first molded into a Perfect form of prose by the prince of novelists, Boccaccio (q.v.). The Docame•ne is a series of tales, and Boccaccio's best known work. Boccaccio's style is deeply tinged by his culture of classical literature; and in his straining after the pompous majesty of Latin construction, he frequently exceeds the structural capabilities of his own language, which is naturally direct and simple in the order of its composition. Franco Sacchetti (1335-1400) of Florence, and Ser Giovanni Fiorentino (1348), also composed tales distinguished by the excellence of the language; while Dino Compagni and Giovanni Villani enriched the historical literature of Italy with excellent chronicles, written in a spirit 'of fairness, and with great beauty of style.
'1 he 14th c. was lavishly productive of great original literary creations, the, writers of that age, or I Trecentish% f according to their Tuscan appellation, being as distiu guished or the sublime originality of their genius as those of the 15th c. were famed tor their abstruse erudition and philosophy. Italian was the chosen language of the Treeentisti, and in their writings attained a high degree of refinement and purity. On the other hand, the scholastic writers of the 15th c. almost entirely excluded Italian from their works, substituting for the language of Dante end Petrarch a faulty form of Greek or Latin. To this circumstance may probably be attributed the languid develop ment of literature during a period in which the most magnificent protection was afforded both by the pontifical and sovereign courts of Italy to the literature and art of the century, and when the discovery of printing imparted an impulqi to the intellectual vitality of Christendom. Foremost among the encouragers of literature and art were the Medici at Florence; the Visconti, and, later,•the Sforzas, at Milan; the houses of Gonzaga and Este at Mantua and Ferrara; the house of Aragon at Naples; and the pontiff at Home. Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Leon Battista Alberti, arc sonic of the most distinguished writers who discarded their mother tongue and adopted Latin; while• a host of grammarians, historians, philologists, and theologians openly tm pronounced the itinrious Italian language a vulgar dialect, unfit for philosophical or learned composition. But this debasement of literary taste was happily of brief
duration, and to Lorenzo de' Medici, entitled the "Father of Letters," is owing the literary revival of the Italian tongue. tinder this princely patron of letters, arts, and sciences, public libraries were founded or replenished, learned societies inaugurated, rich antiquarian treasures collected, universities opened, and a true standard of truth and beauty once more set up. His friend and protege, Angelo Poliziano, wrote elegantly both in Italian and Latin, and composed toe first regular dramatic work in the former language, under the title of L'Oifeo. Towards the close of the 15th c. and the opening of the 16th, a taste for the romantic and heroic in poetry began to show itself. This taste was cultivated Du ante da Gualdo, by Luigi Pulci (q.v.) in his _itraggiore, and by the still more famous Malmo Boiardo (q.v.). whose Orlando Innamorato evidently suggested the greatest of all the works of this kind, the Orlando Fe-rioso of Ariosto. But by far the most important historical works of the time were written in Latin—for example. those of Silvio Piccolomini, Marc Antonio Sabellicus (t1.1506), Bernardo Giustinianus (d. 1489), and Georgius Stella (1.1480). During the century of scholastic erudition, the spring of Italian eloquence flowed with course until the impassioned and unstudied oratory of Jerome Savonarola (burned 1498) revived the traditions of ancient Rome, and reminded his hearers that Cicero too was an Italian, The 15th c., though not marked by touch creative genius in literature, unquestion ably exercised an immense influence on the Italian mind. The revival of letters, the invention of printing, the discovery of a new world, and the opening up of a maritime channel to the wealth and traffic of the Indies, co-operated, one may say, in prodncing that wonderful development of art and enterprise which the succeeding age exhibited; while the advancement of learning and science was promoted and systematized by the founding of numerous universities and literary institutions, the aim of these Matte 7 being the diffusion of general knowledge and sound practical science. Many of tie mag nificent typographLal treasures with which the great public libraries of 'Italy rbound, belong to this golden age, and are due to the artistic taste of Aldo Manny a. SCC ALDINE EDITIONS.
The 16th c. is confessedly the Augustan age of Italian letters, art, and scien2e. In a galaxy of splendid names, the brightest are those of Ariosto Tusso (q.v.), Maechiavelli (q.v.), Gnicciardini Raphael (q.v.), Michael Angelo (q.v.), Palladio.