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LITERATURE
ROMAN: the roots of
ancient Latin literature lie in simple popular songs, religious rites
and official documents. As Latin evolved and the Romans came into
contact with the Greek world, the emerging Empire's upper classes began
to acquire more sophisticated tastes. Plautus (259-184 BC) adapted
classic Greek themes to create his own plays - a step forward from the
translations of Greek literature that had come before.
The classical period did not start until well into the 1st century
BC. The work of Cicero (106-43 BC) stands out during this early early
years of this period as the roman republic collapsed into civil war and
gave way to dictatorial government. Cicero's writing, infused with
political commitment, explored new terrain in Latin prose with works
such as Brutus. More
concerned with affairs of the heart, particularly his own, Catullus
(c.84-54 BC) devoted his creative power to passionate love poetry.
Julius Caesar combined conquest with commentary in recording his
campaigns in Gaul and the disintegration of the Republic.
The reign of Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) marked the emergence of a new
wave of intellectuals. Among them was Virgil, whose epic poem The
Aeneid links the
founding of Rome with the fall of Troy. Some years later Ovid addressed
love in his Amores poems,
annoyed Emperor Augustus with descriptions of lewd lifestyles in Ars
Amatoria after the
emperor's daughter had been banished for vice, and wrote about
transformation myths in Metamorphoses. Horace
commented on military matters while Livy chronicled the emergence of the
new Empire.
Seneca the Younger (4 BC-AD 65), a philosopher from Spain introduced
a more introspective, even existential, note into Latin writing in the
early years of the Christian era. Petronius (died AD 66) conveyed the
decadence of the Nero ear in his Satyricon, although
only a fragment still exists, and it is to Pilny the Younger (AD 62-113)
that we owe first-hand descriptions of the disaster of Pompeii. The
years following the down fall of Nero are detailed in the Histories of
Tacitus (AD 55-120), while his Annales reveal
the astounding court intrigues of the early emperors. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations were
the musings of the last philosopher-king of the crumbled Empire.
THE MIDDLE AGES: From
before the final collapse of the Roman Empire until well into the Middle
Ages, creative literary production declined kept barely alive in Western
Europe by clerics and the erudite people who debated theology, wrote
history, translated or interpreted classical literature and used Latin
as their lingua franca. Above all, however, theology and philosophy were
what preoccupied the great minds of medieval Italy and Europe.
The most outstanding Italian figure in this field was San Tommaso
d'Aquino (St Thomas Aquinas; 1224-1274). He wrestled with Aristotelian
thinking and in works such as De
Aeternitate Mundi (On the
Eternity of the World) sought to expound his vision of our existence. He
was also a gifted poet.
THE BIRTH OF ITALIAN LITERATURE: By
the time Aquinas was penning his theses, Latin had ceased to be a living
language. the genius of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), probably the
greatest figure in Italian literature, confirmed the Italian vernacular
(in its Florentine form) as a serious medium of poetic expression -
particularly in his Divina
Commedia, an allegorical
masterpiece that takes his protagonist on a search for God through hell,
purgatory and paradise. His Latin work De
Monarchia reflects his
desire for a return of imperial power and his vision of a world where
the roles of pope and emperor complement each other.
Another master writer of this time was Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch;
1304-74), son of a lawyer exiled from Florence at the same time as
Dante. Petrarch was crowned poet laureate in Rome in 1341 after earning
a reputation throughout Europe as a classical scholar. His epic poem Africa and
the sonnets of Il
Canzoniere are typical of
his formidable lyricism, which has permanently influenced Italian
poetry.
Completing the triumvirate is Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75). As the
author of Il Decamerone, 100
short stories - ranging from the bawdy to the earnest - which chronicle
the exodus of 10 young Florentines from their plague-ridden city,
Boccaccio is considered the first Italian novelist.
THE RENAISSANCE: The
15th century produced several treatises on architecture and politics,
but perhaps more important was the feverish study, and translation of
Greek classics along with the work if more recent Jewish and Arab
scholars. The advent of the printing press accelerated the spread of
knowledge. In Italy, the industry was most highly developed in Venice,
where Also Manuzio (c.1450-1515) flooded the market with Greek classics
from his Aldine Press, and introduced the octavo book size (half the
size of a standard quarto page and more suitable for printed books) and
italic type (in 1501).
Machiavelli's Il
Principe (The Prince),
although purely political, has proved the most lasting of the
Renaissance works. Machiavelli (1469-1527) was also an accomplished
playwright and his Mandragola is
a masterpiece.
Machiavelli's contemporary Ludivico Ariosto (1474-1533) was arguably
the star of the Italian Renaissance. His Orlando
Furioso is a subtle tale
of chivalry, told in exquisite verse and laced with subplots.
Torquato Tasso (1544-95) continued a strong tradition of narrative
poetry with his Gerusalemme
Liberata, for which he
drew inspiration from Italy's increasingly precarious political
situation towards the end of the 16th century.