Prose

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521434928.012

11 - Prose

from The Cinquecento

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Brian Richardson

Edited by

Peter Brand and

Lino Pertile

Show author details

Peter Brand: Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Lino Pertile: Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The forms of literary prose

The expansion of the vernacular

In Cinquecento Italy the vernacular finally asserted itself alongside Latin as a widely used medium for literary prose. Confidence in the vernacular grew as it was cultivated by leading literary figures. Its use was further encouraged by the increase in the number and output of printing presses: this development made more easily accessible the texts which were regarded as models of good usage, and it provided new opportunities for writers of widely differing social and geographical origins to gain fame and fortune from work aimed at readership more varied than that of the age of manuscripts. Vernacular prose was used for all types of subject matter – from fictional narrative to the study of politics, history, social and personal relationships, art, and the vernacular language itself – and for an increasing number of translations from Greek and Latin. As these new horizons were opened up, prose style became more varied. Some writers were indebted to the model of Trecento Tuscan prose; others developed a more agile, informal manner which set out at times to capture the flavour of speech. Prose writing was, however, still by tradition principally the preserve of men, in contrast to lyric poetry, in which women were increasingly finding a voice.

The flourishing of prose was accompanied by a process of standardisation of the literary language during the first half of the century. Around 1500 almost all authors from outside Tuscany were using a type of vernacular which varied to some extent from region to region, indeed from author to author. They owed much to the stable model of the great Trecento Tuscan writers, particularly Boccaccio, but they introduced elements of Latin spelling, syntax and lexis in order to lend greater dignity to the younger language. They were also influenced by the usage of their own region, especially when this usage coincided with Latin spelling.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Italian Literature , pp. 179 - 232

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521434928.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aguzzi Barbagli, Danilo, ‘La difesa di valori etici nella trattatistica sulla nobiltà del secondo Cinquecento’, Rinascimento, 2nd series 29 (1989).Google Scholar

Albertazzi, Adolfo, Il romanzo, Milan, 1902.Google Scholar

Albertini, Rudolf von, Firenze dalla repubblica al principato, Turin, 1970.Google Scholar

Aretino, Pietro, Sei giornate, ed. Aquilecchia, G., Bari, 1969.Google Scholar

Autobiography, trans. Bull, G., Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, 1969.Google Scholar

Barocchi, Paola (ed.), Trattati d'arte del Cinquecento fra manierismo e controriforma, 3 vols., Bari, 1960–2.Google Scholar

Basso, Jeannine, Le genre épistolaire en langue italienne (1538–1622): répertoire chronologique et analytique, 2 vols., Rome, 1990.Google Scholar

Blunt, Anthony F., Artistic Theory in Italy 1450–1600, Oxford, 1940.Google Scholar

Boase, Thomas S. R., Giorgio Vasari: The Man and the Book, Princeton, NJ, 1979.Google Scholar

Bock, Gisela etal. (eds.), Machiavelli and Republicanism, Cambridge, 1990.Google Scholar

Bonora, Elena, Ricercbe su Francesco Sansovino imprenditore libraio e letterato, Venice: Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 1994.Google Scholar

Brognoligo, Gioachino, ‘La vita e le opere di Luigi da Porto’, Studi di storia letteraria, Rome, 1903.Google Scholar

Brown, Peter M., Lionardo Salviati: A Critical Biography, London, 1974.Google Scholar

Bryce, Judith, Cosimo Bartoli, Geneva, 1983.Google Scholar

Caccia, Ettore, Silvan Cattaneo e la novella del Cinquecento, Salò, 1966.Google Scholar

Canace e scritti in sua difesa, ed. Roaf, C., Bologna, 1982.Google Scholar

Castiglione, B., Della Casa, G. and Cellini, B., Opere, ed. Cordié, C., Milan-Naples, 1960.Google Scholar

Cattaneo, Silvan and Grattarolo, Bongianni, Salò e sua riviera, Venice, 1745; rprt Bologna, 1970.Google Scholar

Cerreta, Florindo, Alessandro Piccolomini letterato e filosofo senese del Cinquecento, Siena, 1960.Google Scholar

Cian, Vittorio, Un illustre nunzio pontificio del Rinascimento: Baldassar Castiglione, Città del Vaticano, 1951.Google Scholar

Cicogna, E. A., ‘Memoria intorno la vita e gli scritti di messer Lodovico Dolce letterato veneziano del secolo XVI’, Memorie dell'l. R. Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti 11 (1862).Google Scholar

Cicogna, E. A., Delle inscrizioni veneziane, 6 vols., Venice, 1824–24, vol. 4.Google Scholar

Ciliberto, Michele, Giordano Bruno, Bari, 1990.Google Scholar

Cose fiorentine, ed. Ridolfi, R., Florence, 1945.Google Scholar

Cox, Virginia, The Renaissance Dialogue: Literary Dialogue in its Social and Political Contexts, Castiglione to Galileo, Cambridge, 1992.CrossRef Google Scholar

Coyle, Martin (ed.), Niccoló Machiavelli's ‘The Prince’: New Interdisciplinary Essays, Manchester, 1995.Google Scholar

De Gaetano, Armand L., Giambattista Gelli and the Florentine Academy, Florence, 1976.Google Scholar

De gl'heroici furori, ed. Michel, P.-H., Paris, 1954.Google Scholar

De principatibus, ed. Giorgio, Inglese, Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1994.Google Scholar

Della eccellenza e dignità delle donne, ed. Doglio, M. L., Rome, 1988.Google Scholar

Della ragion di stato, ed. Firpo, L., Turin, 1948.Google Scholar

Devonshire Jones, Rosemary, Francesco Vettori: Florentine Citizen and Medici Servant, London, 1972.Google Scholar

Di Francia, Letterio, La novellistica, 2 vols., Milan, 1924–5.Google Scholar

Dialoghi d'amore, ed. Caramella, S., Bari, 1929.Google Scholar

Dialoghi italiani, ed. Gentile, G. and Aquilecchia, G., Florence, 1958.Google Scholar

Dialoghi, ed. Raimondi, E., 2 vols., Florence, 1958.Google Scholar

Dialogi, ed. Landi, A., Naples, 1983.Google Scholar

Dialogo de' giuochi, ed. D'Incalci Ermini, P., Siena, 1982.Google Scholar

Dialogo e discorsi del reggimento di Firenze, ed. Palmarocchi, R., Bari, 1932.Google Scholar

Dionisotti, Carlo, ‘Tradizione classica e volgarizzamenti’, in Geografia e storia della letteratura italiana, Turin, 1967.Google Scholar

Dionisotti, Carlo, Machiavellerie, Turin, 1980.Google Scholar

Discorso intorno alla nostra lingua, ed. Trovato, P., Padua, 1982.Google Scholar

Donati, Claudio, L'idea di nobiltà in Italia: secoli XIV–XVIII, Bari, 1988.Google Scholar

Eliav-Feldon, Miriam, Realistic Utopias: The Ideal Imaginary Societies of the Renaissance 1516–1630, Oxford, 1982.Google Scholar

Erspamer, Francesco, La biblioteca di don Ferrante: duello e onore nella cultura del Cinquecento, Rome, 1982.Google Scholar

Fahy, Conor, ‘Three Early Renaissance Treatises on Women’, Italian Studies II (1956).Google Scholar

Fiocco, Giuseppe, Alvise Cornaro: il suo tempo e le sue opere, Vicenza, 1965.Google Scholar

Fiorato, Adelin Charles, Bandello entre l'histoire et l'écriture, Florence, 1979.Google Scholar

Florentine Histories, trans Banfield, L. F. and Mansfield, H. C. Jr, Princeton, NJ, 1988.Google Scholar

Fournel, Jean-Louis, Les Dialogues de S. Speroni, Marburg, 1990.Google Scholar

Gilbert, Allan H., Machiavelli's ‘Prince’ and its Forerunners, Durham, NC, 1938.Google Scholar

Gilbert, Felix, ‘The Venetian Constitution in Florentine Political Thought’, in History: Choice and Commitment, Cambridge, MA, 1977.CrossRef Google Scholar

Gilbert, Felix, Machiavelli and Guicciardini, Princeton, NJ, 1965.Google Scholar

Gilmore, Myron P. (ed.), Studies on Machiavelli, Florence, 1972.Google Scholar

Grendler, Paul F., The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press 1540–1605, Princeton, NJ, 1977.Google Scholar

Grendler, Paul F., Critics of the Italian World (1530–1560): Anton Francesco Doni Nicolò Franco and Ortensio Lando, Madison, WI, 1969.Google Scholar

Griffith, T. Gwynfor, Bandello's Fiction: An Examination of the ‘Novelle’, Oxford, 1955.Google Scholar

Guglielminetti, Marziano (ed.), Novellieri del Cinquecento, vol. 1, Milan-Naples, 1972.Google Scholar

Guthmüller, Bodo, ‘Fausto da Longiano e il problema del tradurre’, Quaderni veneti 12 (1990).Google Scholar

Hale, John R., Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy, Harmondsworth, 1972.Google Scholar

Hanning, R. W. and Rosand, D. (eds.), Castiglione: the Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture, New Haven-London, 1983.Google Scholar

Historiae sui temporis, ed. Visconti, D. and Zimmerman, T. C. P., 2 vols. Rome, 1957–85.Google Scholar

I diporti, in Novellieri minori del Cinquecento, ed. Gigli, G. and Nicolini, F., Bari, 1912.Google Scholar

I Marmi, ed. Chiòrboli, E., 2 vols., Bari, 1928.Google Scholar

I mondi e gli inferni, ed. Pellizzari, P., Turin, 1994.Google Scholar

I trattenimenti, ed. Riccò, L., Rome, 1989.Google Scholar

Il conte, overo De l'imprese, ed. Basile, B., Rome, 1993.Google Scholar

Il Galateo, ed. Scarpa, E., Modena, 1990.Google Scholar

Il Galateo, ed. Barbarisi, G., Venice, 1991.Google Scholar

Il libra del Cortegiano con una scelta delle Opere minori, ed. Maier, B., 3rd edn, Turin, 1981.Google Scholar

Il libra del Cortegiano, ed. Cian, V., 4th edn, Florence, 1947.Google Scholar

Il merito delle donne, ed. Chemello, A., Mirano (Venice), 1988.Google Scholar

Il Petrarchista, ed. Bruni, R. L., Exeter, 1979.Google Scholar

Istoria fiorentina, ed. Polidori, F. L., in Archivio storico italiano, 1 (1842).Google Scholar

Istorie della città di Firenze, ed. Arbib, L., 2 vols., Florence, 1842.Google Scholar

King, Margaret L., Women of the Renaissance, Chicago and London, 1991.CrossRef Google Scholar

Kolsky, Stephen, Mario Equicola: the Real Courtier, Geneva, 1991.Google Scholar

Kolsky, Stephen, ‘Wells of Knowledge: Moderata Fonte's Il merito delle donne’, The Italianist 13 (1993).CrossRef Google Scholar

La congiura de' baroni del Regno di Napoli contra il re Ferdinando primo e gli altri scritti, ed. Pontieri, E., 2nd edn, Naples, 1964.Google Scholar

La repubblica immaginaria, ed. Firpo, L., Turin, 1957.Google Scholar

La vita di Castruccio Castracani, ed. Brakkee, R., Naples, 1986.Google Scholar

Larivaille, Paul, Pietro Aretino fra Rinascimento e Manierismo, Rome, 1980.Google Scholar

Le cene, ed. Bruscagli, R., Rome, 1976.Google Scholar

Le cene, ed. Mazzali, E., Milan, 1989.Google Scholar

Le giornate delle novelle dei novizi, ed. Mauriello, A., 2 vols., Rome, 1988.Google Scholar

Le lettere, ed. La Rocca, G., vol. 1, Milan, 1978.Google Scholar

Le novelle, ed. Ragni, E., Rome, 1971.Google Scholar

Le piacevoli notti, ed. Rua, G., 2 vols., Bari, 1927; rprt 1975 with introduction by Pastore Stocchi, M..Google Scholar

Le pistole vulgari, ed. Angelis, F. R., Sala Bolognese, 1987 (rprt of 1542 edn).Google Scholar

Le sei giornate, ed. Bragantini, R., Rome, 1977.Google Scholar

Le vite … nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568, ed. Barocchi, P. and Bettarini, R., 8 vols., Florence, 1966–87.Google Scholar

Legazioni, commissarie, scritti di governo, ed. Chiappelli, F. et al., Bari, 1971–.Google Scholar

Lettere edite e inedite, ed. Roaf, C., Bologna, 1967.Google Scholar

Lettere familiari, ed. Loi, M. R. and Pozzi, M., vols 1–, Alessandria, 1993–.Google Scholar

Lettere storiche, ed. Bressan, B., Florence, 1857.Google Scholar

Lettere, ed. Travi, E., vols 1–4, Bologna, 1987–93.Google Scholar

Lettere, ed. Ferrero, G. G., 2 vols., Rome, 1956–8.Google Scholar

Lettere, ed. Jodogne, P., Rome, 1986–.Google Scholar

Lievsay, John L., Stefano Guazzo and the English Renaissance 1575–1675, Chapel Hill, NC, 1961.Google Scholar

(Life of Francesco Guicciardini, trans. Cecil, Grayson, London, 1967).Google Scholar

(Life of Niccoló Machiavelli, trans. Cecil, Grayson, London, 1963).Google Scholar

L'uomo di corte, ed. Moretti, W., Modena, 1989.Google Scholar

Marazzini, Claudio, Il secondo Cinquecento e il Seicento, Bologna, 1993.Google Scholar

Migliorini, Bruno, Storia della lingua italiana 5th edn, Florence, 1978.Google Scholar

Montevecchi, Alessandro, Storici di Firenze: studi su Nardi, Nerli, Varchi, Bologna, 1989.Google Scholar

Morsolin, Bernardo, Giangiorgio Trissino, 2nd edn, Florence, 1894.Google Scholar

Murphy, James J. (ed.), Renaissance Eloquence: Studies in the Theory and Practice of Renaissance Rhetoric, Berkeley, CA, 1983.Google Scholar

Nelson, John Charles, Renaissance Theory of Love: the Context of Giordano Bruno's ‘Eroici furori’, New York, 1958.Google Scholar

Niccolai, Alberto, Filippo de' Nerli, 1485–1556, Pisa, 1906.Google Scholar

Opere di Folengo, Aretino, Doni, ed. Cordié, C., vol. 2, Milan-Naples, 1976.Google Scholar

Opere in volgare, ed. Marti, M., Florence, 1961.Google Scholar

Opere politiche and Lettere italiane, ed. Diaz, F., 2 vols., Milan, 1974.Google Scholar

Opere, ed. Ferrero, G. G., Turin, 1972.Google Scholar

Opere, ed. Maestri, D., Turin, 1977.Google Scholar

Opere, ed. Maestri, D., Turin, 1976.Google Scholar

Opere, ed. Scarano, E., 3 vols., Turin, 1970–81.Google Scholar

Opere, Trieste, , 1858.

Ossola, Carlo and Prosperi, Adriano (eds.), La corte e il ‘Cortegiano’, 2 vols., Rome, 1980.Google Scholar

Panizza, Letizia (ed.), Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society, Oxford (European Humanities Research Centre), 1998.Google Scholar

Patrizi, Giorgio (ed.), Stefano Guazzo e la ‘Civil conversazione’, Rome, 1990.Google Scholar

Petrocchi, Giorgio, Pietro Aretino tra Rinascimento e Controriforma, Milan, 1948.Google Scholar

Phillips, M., Francesco Guicciardini: the Historian's Craft, Toronto, 1977.Google Scholar

Pieralli, Alfredo, La vita e le opere di lacopo Nardi, vol. 1, Florence, 1901.Google Scholar

Pirotti, Umberto, Benedetto Varchi e la cultura del suo tempo, Florence, 1971.Google Scholar

Pozzi, Mario (ed.), Discussioni linguistiche del Cinquecento, Turin, 1988.Google Scholar

Pozzi, Mario (ed.), Trattatisti del Cinquecento, vol. 1, Milan-Naples, 1978.Google Scholar

Prose di Giovanni della Casa e altri trattatisti cinquecenteschi del comportamento, ed. Di Benedetto, A., 2nd edn, Turin, 1991.Google Scholar

Prose e rime, ed. Dionisotti, C., 2nd edn, Turin, 1966.Google Scholar

Quondam, Amedeo (ed.), Le ‘carte messaggiere’: retorica e modelli di comunicazione epistolare, Rome, 1981.Google Scholar

Raab, Felix, The English Face of Machiavelli: A Changing Interpretation 1500–1700, London, 1964.Google Scholar

Rebhorn, Wayne, Courtly Performances: Masking and Festivity in Castiglione's ‘Book of the Courtier’, Detroit, 1978.Google Scholar

Republica fiorentina, ed. Silvano, G., Geneva, 1990.Google Scholar

Richardson, Brian, Print Culture in Renaissance Italy, Cambridge, 1994.CrossRef Google Scholar

Ricordi, ed. Spongano, R., Florence, 1951.Google Scholar

Ridolfi, Roberto, ‘Sommario della vita di Donate Giannotti’, in Opuscoli di storia letteraria e di erudizione, Florence, 1942.Google Scholar

Ridolfi, Roberto, Vita di Francesco Guicciardini, revised edition, Milan, 1982.Google Scholar

Ridolfi, Roberto, Vita di Niccoló Machiavelli, rev. edn, Florence, 1981Google Scholar

Roaf, Christina, ‘Francesco Sansovino e le sue Lettere sopra le diece giornate del Decamerone’, Quaderni di retorica e poetica 1 (1985).Google Scholar

Robb, Nesca A., Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance, London, 1935.Google Scholar

Rodini, R. J., Antonfrancesco Grazzini, Madison-Milwaukee-London, 1970.Google Scholar

Roskill, Mark W., Dolce's ‘Aretino’ and Venetian An Theory of the Cinquecento, New York, 1968.Google Scholar

Rozzo, Ugo (ed.), Matteo Bandello novelliere europeo, Tortona, 1982.Google Scholar

Ruffo Fiore, Silvia, Niccoló Machiavelli: An Annotated Bibliography of Modern Criticism and Scholarship, New York, 1990.Google Scholar

Salinari, Giambattista (ed.), Novelle del Cinquecento, 2 vols., Turin, 1955.Google Scholar

Santosuosso, Antonio, Vita di Giovanni Della Casa, Rome, 1979.Google Scholar

Sbaragli, Luigi, Claudio Tolomei umanista senese del Cinquecento: la vita e le opere, Siena, 1939.Google Scholar

Scritti della vita sobria, ed. Milani, M., Venice, 1983.Google Scholar

Scritti inediti o rari sulla lingua, ed. Woodhouse, J. R., Bologna, 1971.Google Scholar

Scritti linguistici, ed. Castelvecchi, A., Rome, 1986.Google Scholar

Scritti politici e ricordi, ed. Palmarocchi, R., Bari, 1933.Google Scholar

Scritti storici e politici, ed. Niccolini, E., Bari, 1972.Google Scholar

Snyder, Jon R., Writing the Scene of Speaking: Theories of Dialogue in the Late Italian Renaissance, Stanford, CA, 1989.Google Scholar

Solerti, Angelo, Ferrara e la corte estense nella seconda metà del secolo decimosesto. I Discorsi di Annibale Romei, gentiluomo ferrarese, 2nd edn, Città di Castello, 1900.Google Scholar

Sorrentino, Andrea, La letteratura italiana e il Sant'Uffizio, Naples, 1935.Google Scholar

Spampanato, Vincenzo, Vita di Giordano Bruno, Messina, 1921.Google Scholar

Spini, Giorgio, Tra Rinascimento e Riforma: Antonio Brucioli, Florence, 1940.Google Scholar

Starn, Randolph, Donato Giannotti and his ‘Epistolae’, Geneva, 1968.Google Scholar

Storia d'Italia, ed. Menchi, S. S., Turin, 1971.Google Scholar

Storie fiorentine, ed. Palmarocchi, R., Bari, 1931.Google Scholar

The Book of the Courtier, trans. Bull, G., Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth, 1967.Google Scholar

The Chief Works and Others, trans, by Gilbert, A. H., 3 vols., Durham-London, 1989.Google Scholar

The Discourses of Niccoló Machiavelli, ed. and trans. Walker, L. J., with new introd. and appendices by Clough, C. H., 2 vols., London, 1975.Google Scholar

Trovato, Paolo, Con ogni diligenza corretto: la stampa e le revisioni editoriali dei testi letterari italiani (1470–1570), Bologna, 1991.Google Scholar

Trovato, Paolo, Il primo Cinquecento, Bologna, 1994.Google Scholar

Tutte le opere, ed. Flora, F., second edn, 2 vols., Milan, 1942–3.Google Scholar

Tutte le opere, ed. Martelli, M., Florence, 1971.Google Scholar

Vasoli, Cesare, Francesco Patrizi da Cherso, Rome, 1989.Google Scholar

Villari, Susanna, Per l'edizione critica degli ‘Ecatommiti’, Messina, 1988.Google Scholar

Vita, ed. Bacci, O., Florence, 1901.Google Scholar

Vitale, Maurizio, La questione della lingua, 2nd edn, Palermo, 1978.Google Scholar

Whitfield, J. H., Machiavelli, Oxford, 1947.Google Scholar

Whitfield, J. H., Discourses on Machiavelli, Cambridge, 1969.Google Scholar

Woodhouse, John R., Baldesar Castiglione: A Reassessment of ‘The Courtier’, Edinburgh, 1978.Google Scholar

Zonta, Giuseppe (ed.), Trattati d'amore del Cinquecento, Bari, 1912; rprt 1975 with an introduction by Mario, Pozzi.Google Scholar

Book contents

11 - Prose

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive