The Italian Language

Learn about the Italian language, grammar, vocabulary and culture

Updated 21 July 2008

The XVI Century

Following the spread of Johannes Gutenberg's invention, the printing press, at the end of the XV century, Aldo Manuzio set up in Venice the first commercial printing workshop in Italy. Not limiting himself to reproducing the Classics, Manuzio had friendships with many contemporary writers, being thus able to publish the best works of the times. Soon publishing houses were flourishing in Milan, Florence and Rome, as well as increasing in number in Venice, which had by the end of the century 200 workshops, capable of printing 1500 books a year.

		The poet who best expresses the Renaissance ideal is Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533): he hopes for Man's complete harmony with himself and with the world; he believes in reason and in dignity and he must be full involved in worldly affairs. Ariosto's masterpiece, the narrative poem Orlando Furioso, tells fantastic tales of brave knights and of their paramours, of battles and duels, incredible journeys, monsters, sorcerers, enchanted castles, friendship, love, betrayal and deceit. The works of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) are the first attempt to establish political science as an autonomous branch of learning, separate from morality and religion. In his works The Prince, Discourses and The Art of War, Machiavelli argues that history is a human creation, there being no space for Divine providence. He focuses on the problems of the State: its efficiency, military organisation and laws. He envisages the creation of a new kind of State, giving as well as teaching the prince the tricks necessary to retain power. Machiavelli has been much maligned, as his prince is perceived as being amoral, prepared to do evil if, as a consequence, good is to be the end result.



A portrait by Titian, believed to be that of Ludovico Ariosto

Francesco Guicciardini's (1483-1540) philosophy followed the same principles as Machiavelli's: Man, with his passions and actions, is the driving force of history. He believed that political analysis should be free from all moral and religious considerations. Guicciardini believed the State was a rational human creation possessing its own morality. The faith in an ideal that transcends the interests of the individual is absent in Guicciardini, making his work skeptical and pessimistic. This is evident in his major work, The History of Italy.

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) is remembered as the first writer of a history of art, in the form of biographies of the great painters: The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. The first edition dates from 1550 followed by an enlarged and corrected edition in 1568.

Torquato Tasso’s (1544-1595) first important poem was the pastoral drama Aminta which speaks of a simple and happy life guided by tender love. However, in his major work, Gerusalemme liberata love is treated as the temptation of earthly happiness in conflict with spirituality. Tasso tells many stories in this long poem, one of them being the episode of the Battle of Tancredi and Clorinda. They are lovers, but he is a Crusader, while she, a Muslim, dresses as a warrior and, unbeknown to him, fights with him a duel. When he wounds her mortally he realises whom she is.

Other writers are Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), the Venetian who first suggested Tuscan be adopted as the standard Italian Language; Giovanni della Casa (1503-1556) and Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) who regarded grace, harmony and decorum as the crowning glories. Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), was a man of the theatre, while Michelangelo Bunarroti (1475-1564), the sculptor and painter, wrote sonnets. The satirical poet Teofilo Folengo (Merlin Cocai and Limerno Pitocco)(1491/6-1544) and the poetess Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), the friend of Michelangelo, also deserve mention.

The Italian Language

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