notable writers
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Italian Literature
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Born: 1265
Birthplace: Florence,
ItalyDied: September1321
(Malaria)
Best Known As: The
author ofThe DivineComedy
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An exiled and wandering figure during his writing lifetime, Dante is now considered Italy's
greatest poet -- so much a literary giant that he is generally known by his first name
alone. The Divine Comedy, by far his most famous work, is the story of a journey
through Hell, Purgatory and finally Paradise. (The journey through Hell is often
referred to independently as "Dante's Inferno.") In the poem the first two stages are
guided by the Roman poet Virgil, and the final visit to Paradise is led by a woman
named Beatrice -- a girl Dante met briefly when he was nine and whom he idolized the
rest of his life. The Divine Comedyis the source of many famous classical images,
inspiring works by William Blake and others, and is famous for its inscription on the
gates of Hell: "A
ll hope abandon, ye who enter here."
Dante named his work La commedia, orThe Comedy. After his death others added
"Divine" to make it La divina commedia.
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Born: 1313
Birthplace: Paris,
FranceDied: Dec. 21, 1375,
Certaldo, Tuscany
Best Known As: The
author ofDecameron
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Italian poet and scholar. His life was full of difficulties and occasional bouts of
poverty. His early works include The Love Afflicted(c. 1336), a prose work in
five books, and The Book of Theseus (c. 1340), an ambitious epic of12
cantos. He is best known for his Decameron, a masterpiece of classical
Italian prose that had an enormous influence on literature throughout
Europe. A group of100 earthy tales united by a frame story, it was probably
composed 1348 53. After this period he turned to humanist scholarship in
Latin. With Petrarch, he laid the foundations forRenaissance humanism,
and through his writings in Italian he helped raise vernacular literature to thelevel of the classics of antiquity.
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Born: c. 1225
Birthplace: Roccasecca,
ItalyDied: 7 March 1274
Best Known As: Medieval
Catholic scholar who
wrote Summa Theologica
Name at birth: Tommaso d'Aquino
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Foremost philosopherand theologian of the Roman Catholic church. Born of noble parents, he studied at
the University ofNaples, joined the Dominicans, and taught at a Dominican school at the University of
Paris. His time in Paris coincided with the arrival ofAristotelian science, newly discovered in Arabic
translation; his great achievement was to integrate into Christian thought the rigors ofAristotle's
philosophy, just as the early Church Fathers had integrated Plato's thought in the early Christian era.
He held that reason is capable of operating within faith; while the philosopher relies solely on reason,
the theologian accepts faith as his starting point and then proceeds to conclusion through the use of
reason. This point of view was controversial, as was his belief in the religious value of nature, for which
he argued that to detract from the perfection of creation was to detract from the creator. He was
opposed by St. Bonaventure. In 1277, after his death, the masters of Paris condemned 219
propositions, 12 of them Thomas's. He was nevertheless named a Doctor of the Church in 1567 and
declared the champion of orthodoxy during the modernist crisis at the end of the 19th century. A prolific
writer, he produced more than 80 works, including Summa contra Gentiles (1261 64) and Summa
theologica (1265 73).
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Born: July 20, 1304
Birthplace: Arezzo,Tuscany
Died:July
18/19,1374
,Arqu,
Best Known As: Theauthor ofCanzoniereand the founder of
humanism.
*Francesco Petrarca
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Italian scholar, poet, and humanist. After1326 he abandoned the study of law for his true interests,
literature and the religious life. He took minor ecclesiastical orders and moved to Avignon, where in
1327 he first saw Laura, the idealized subject of his chaste love and of his celebrated Italian love lyrics;
mainly sonnets and odes written over some 20 years, most were included in
his Canzoniere orRime (1360). The greatest scholar of his age, especially of Classical Latin, he
traveled widely, visiting learned men, searching out manuscripts, and undertaking diplomatic missions.
He strongly advocated the continuity between Classical culture and the Christian message; in
combining the two ideals he is considered the founder and a great representative of humanism. His
Latin works, reflecting his religious and philosophical interests, include On Illustrious
Men (begun c. 1337), the epic poemAfrica (begun c. 1338), the autobiographical treatise Petrarch's
Secret(written 1342 58), De vita solitaria (1345 47; "The Life of Solitude"), and Epistolae
metricae (begun c. 1345; "Metrical Letters"). His influence on European literature was enormous and
lasting, and his deep consciousness of the Classical past as a source of literary and philosophical
meaning for the present was of great importance in paving the way for the Renaissance.
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Born: Jan. 16, 1749
Birthplace: Asti,
PiedmontDied: Oct. 8, 1803,
Florence
Best Known As: The
author ofSaul
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Italian tragic poet and playwright. Through his lyrics and dramas he
helped revive the national spirit of Italy. After a period of travel in
which he experienced English political liberty and read the works
of Montesquieu and otherFrench writers, he left the military and
began writing. His tragedies almost always present the struggle
between a champion of liberty and a tyrant. Of the 19 tragedies that
he approved for publication in an edition of1787 89, the best
are Filippo,Antigone, Oreste, Mirra, and his masterpiece, Saul, often
considered the most powerful drama in the Italian theatre. His
autobiography (1804) is his chief prose work.
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(1235-1294) Italian writer. Guittone d'Arezzo was the
founder of the Tuscan school of courtly poetry. Hewas the creator of dolce stil nuovo ("sweet new
style").
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(1871-1936) Italian writer. Grazia Deledda's novels
depict vividly the life in Sardinia. In 1926, she
received the Nobel prize for Literature "for her
idealistically inspired writings which with plastic
clarity picture the life on her native island and with
depth and sympathy deal with human problems in
general."
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(1469-1527). Italian writer. Niccolo Machiavelli was a
famous Renaissance writerand philosopher, known
for "The Prince" and other discourses.
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Griselda is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed
by Antonio Maria Bononcini. The opera uses a slightly revised version
of the 1701 Italian libretto byApostolo Zeno that was based
on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron (X, 10, "The PatientGriselda"). The opera was dedicated to Prince Maximilian Karl von
Lwenstein, the Austrian governor of Milan, who died during the opera's
world premire on 26 December1718 at the Teatro Regio
Ducal in Milan. Nevertheless, Bononcini's opera was well received and
enjoyed several revivals during the eighteenth century.
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Act one
Years before the action begins, Gualtiero, King of Sicily, had married a poor
shepherdess, Griselda. The marriage was deeply unpopular with the king's
subjects and when a daughter, Costanza, was born, the king had to pretend
to have her killed while secretly sending her to be brought up by Prince
Corrado ofApulia. Now, faced with another rebellion from the Sicilians,
Gualtiero is forced to renounce Griselda and promises to take a new wife.
The proposed bride is in fact Costanza, who is unaware of her true
parentage. She is in love with Corrado's younger brother, Roberto, and the
thought of being forced to marry Gualtiero drives her to despair.
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Act Two
Griselda returns to her home in the countryside where she is pursued by
the courtier Ottone, who is in love with her. She angrily rejects hisadvances. Gualtiero and his followers go out hunting and come across
Griselda's cottage. Gualtiero foils an attempt by Ottone to kidnap
Griselda and allows her back to the court, but only as Costanza's slave.
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Act Three
Ottone still resolutely pursues Griselda and Gualtiero promises him
her hand as soon as he himself has married Costanza. Griselda
declares she would rather die and, moved by her faithfulness,
Gualtiero takes her back as his wife. He reveals the true identity of
Costanza and allows her to marry Roberto.