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In:Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A millennium heritage
Edited by Francesco Stella
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIV] 2024
► pp. 15–51

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Chapter 2
Italy

 | Università di Palermo
Published online: 2 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.34.02bis
Abstract
This chapter traces a synthetic picture of Latin literature in Italy between the fifth and fourteenth centuries in its relations with political and cultural history. Generally speaking, the development of medieval Latin literature in Italy is examined with reference to literary genres and geographical areas, with particular attention to auctores and their works. Among the most significant authors are Boethius, Cassiodorus, Venantius Fortunatus, Gregory the Great, Paul the Deacon, Liutprand of Cremona, Peter of Eboli, Salimbene, Iacopo da Varazze, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.
Article outline
  • General features
  • Literary genres
  • Geographical coordinates
  • The age of the Romano-Germanic kingdoms (fifth/sixth-eighth century)
    • Literature and culture in Ostrogothic Italy
    • Ennodius
    • Boethius
    • Cassiodorus
    • Venantius Fortunatus
    • Lombard Italy
    • Gregory the Great
  • The Carolingian Age (ninth century)
    • General characteristics
  • Literati of the first Carolingian generation: Peter of Pisa and Paulinus of Aquileia
    • Paul the Deacon
    • Literature in Italy in the ninth century
  • The Post-Carolingian and Ottonian Age (tenth-eleventh century included)
    • Historical-political and cultural coordinates
    • The tenth century, the “Iron Age”?
    • Literature in Italy in the tenth century
      • Minor writers
      • Liutprand of Cremona
      • Ratherius of Verona
  • The “Renaissance” of the twelfth century
    • Historical-political and cultural coordinates
    • Italian writers in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
    • Literature in Italy in the twelfth century: Histories and Chronicles
    • Alexander of Telese, Falco of Benevento, Romuald of Salerno
    • Epic-historical and epic-encomiastic poetry
    • Peter of Eboli and Henry of Settimello
  • The age of erudite literature and “Pre-Humanism” (thirteenth-fourteenth centuries)
    • Introduction
    • The “artes dictandi”
    • Histories, chronicles, and epic-encomiastic poems
    • The beginnings of Franciscan literature: Thomas of Celano and Bonaventure
    • Elegiac comedy in southern Italy
    • Folk tales: Baldo and Giovanni da Capua
    • Salimbene de Adam
    • Jacobus de Varagine and Bonvesin de la Riva
    • Paduan “Pre-Humanism”
    • Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Francesco Petrarca
    • Giovanni Boccaccio
    • Friends and correspondents of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio
  • Suggestions for further reading
  • References
References (52)
Suggestions for further reading
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