Among the renderings from Latin figured the Storie de Troia e de Roma, made, seemingly, soon after 1250, the moral distichs of Cato, the Pamphilus de Amore, the Trattati morali of Albertano da Brescia (two Tuscan versions, 1268 and 1275), and the various treatises attributed to the diligent translator Bono Giamboni. These all may belong to the time before 1300. The Æsopic fables were also soon translated and became very popular. Original works in prose began to appear later. All may belong to this time. Noteworthy among them were the letters of Guittone d'Arezzo (1220-94), which display an unmistakable attempt to create a sort of poetical prose in Italian; the didactic works of Guidotto da Bologna (before 1266), of Tommaso Gozzadini (second half of the thirteenth century), of Ristoro d'Arezzo (1282), and especially the Introduzione alla virtù of Bono Giamboni (second half of the thirteenth century); certain chronicles and historical accounts; and, most interesting of all, certain collections of tales. Already in the thirteenth century professional tellers of tales ( favolatori, novellatori) wandered about Northern and Central Italy relating stories derived from all possible sources. Written collections of their tales, or of similar ones, were the Conti di antichi cavallieri (second half of the thirteenth century), consisting at least in part of rather free versions of matter originally French and Latin, and the Novellino, worked over in many versions even before the end of the thirteenth century, and displaying no little skill in the art of story-telling, which Boccaccio was to develop to the fullest before another century had passed.. Having considered Italian literature in its lisp ing, almost wholly imitative childhood, we now approach the period of Italian letters, when the great Tuscans, Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, made their native dialect the predominant one of the Peninsula. The earliest of the three, Dante, stood at the height of a poetic movement which he himself styled the dolce stil nuovo, and which developed the principles already enunciated and illustrated by Guido Guinizelli and the Tuscan and Bolognese poets of the transition period. The idealizing of woman, brought about partly by the rise of the worship of the Virgin in the twelfth century and partly a natural consequence of the development of a philosophy of love and its origin, formed the subject matter of the verse of the dolce stil nuovo poets. Among these were Dante, his friend Guido Cavalcanti (c.12501300), Lapo Gianni (died after 1328), Dino Frescobaldi (died 1313), Gianni Alfani (still alive in 1310), Cino Sigisbuldi of Pistoia (died c.1337), and a number of younger men whose verse forms a link between the lyric methods of Dante and those of Petrarch. During the activity of Dante and the dolce stil nuovo poets there were some poets of a humorous and sarcastic turn of mind, like Cecco Angiolieri (still living in 1319) and Folgore di San Gimignano (flourished c.1315), and others of didactic and allegorizing tendencies, like the unknown authors of the Fiore-an imitation of the Roman de la Rose and possibly the work of Ser Durante (c.1300)—and of the Intelligenza (a work descriptive of Intelligence as a personification of universal knowledge, which was erroneously attributed to the Florentine chronicler Dino Compagni), and like Francesco da Barberino (1264-1348), who composed the Documenti d'amore and a treatise on etiquette entitled Del reggimento e dei costumi di donna. The allegorical methods of the Fiore and the Intelligenza, and of Francesco da Barberino's poems, are present likewise in the Divina Commedia of Dante, who most brilliantly elaborates them. Dante Alighieri (q.v.), who was born in 1265 and died in 1321, probably produced most of his work in the fourteenth century; the Vita Nuova alone seems to belong to the thirteenth century. This latter is a poetical account of the rise and growth of his love for Beatrice, set in an explanatory framework of prose. His abiding fame and excellence must be based on his Divina Commedia, a magnificent vision in which the poet pictures himself as guided first by his master Vergil through Hell, the realm of the damned, and Purgatory, the mount of temporary suffering where sin is purged from the soul, and as led afterwards by his idealized love Beatrice through the spheres of Paradise, where dwell the eternally blessed. The Divina Commedia is the most glorious production of the Middle Ages, of which it is the fullest artistic expression. The vision, a form often used before Dante's time, but with nothing like his skill; the allegory, a vivid portrayal of hundreds of men and women, and an endeavor to epitomize all human knowledge as scholastic philosophy comprehended it; frequent lyric outbursts; and, most striking of all, an autobiography, everywhere present and always grandly-these are the chief inner characteristics of the poem, which in its outer form displays an admirable metrical structure, depending principally upon the use of the terza rima and the hendecasyllabic verse. Another work of Dante's in the vulgar speech, which he now for all time made the norm of Italian, and one especially interesting for his conception of philosophy, is the Convivio (or Convito), a fragment in which the prose commentary and the verse text are intended to present to men a feast of reason. Some more or less doubtful short poems in Italian and certain works in Latin constitute the rest of his literary endeavors. A rival of Dante, Francesco Stabili, known as Cecco d'Ascoli (12571327), who was finally burned as a heretic, wrote the Acerba, a didactic poem in which he sought to sum up all matters of scientific interest, and to heap ridicule upon Dante's splendid creations of fancy. Still another noteworthy represen tative of the allegorical poetic movement, now declining, was Jacopo Alighieri (died probably during the plague of 1348), Dante's son, and the author of the Dottrinale. A number of political ballads, and of laudi that show a continued development of the dramatic form, are to be counted as part of the verse output of the fourteenth century. In so far as prose is concerned, translations from Latin and French still constituted the more important part of that produced during this first period of Tuscan supremacy, as it had done in the earlier periods of the literature. Bartolomeo da San Concordio (1262-1347) and Filippo Ceffi were prominent among the translators of Latin works. Many of the translations remain anonymous-as, for example, the various versions of the sopic fables, and of many legends of the saints, and the translation from the French known as the Libro di Fioravante. Didactic compilations and treatises are frequent enough at this time, many of them being due to Domenico Cavalca (c.1270-1342), author of the Specchio di croce and certain other treatises; to Giordano da Rivalto (c.1260-1311); and to Bartolomeo da San Concordio. This last named wrote first in Latin and then translated into Italian his Ammaestramenti degli antichi. common form of the didactic compilation was that intended for use as popular manuals, and known by the names of fiori, fiorite, or fioretti. A favorite with the people of its own day, and still dear to the Italian heart, is the anonymous collection of Franciscan legends which, with the title of Fioretti di San Francesco, appeared before 1350. This is one of the most beautiful examples of early Italian prose. But far more important than the greater part of the prose works thus far mentioned are the chronicles of the time, and especially those of the Florentines, Dino Compagni (c.1257-1324), in whose Cronica delle cose occorenti ne' tempi suoi (composed 1310-12) the struggles of the Bianchi and the Neri, of Guelphs and Ghibellines, are graphically narrated, and Giovanni Villani (c.1275-1348), who for the twelve books of his history of Florence, by degrees expanded into a universal history, gathered information from all sides, from ancient chronicles, from travelers, and even from official documents, and thus gave his book a vital and enduring interest. The labors of Dino Compagni and Villani were continued by lesser writers. a prose work which tells over again the old French story of Floire and Blanchefleur; the Teseide, a poem from which Chaucer derived the subject matter of his Knight's Tale, and in which was made the first notable use of ottava rima; the A Ninfale fiesolano, a pastoral poem; the Filostrato, the poetical source of Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida; the Rime, consisting of some 124 canzoni, ballads, and sonnets, mostly love poems; the Ameto, in mingled prose and verse; the Amorosa visione, dealing especially with celebrated lovers of past times; the Fiammetta, a veiled account in prose of Boccaccio's love for Maria (Fiammetta), a daughter of King Robert of Naples; the Corbaccio, an invective upon a certain widow and upon women in general; the Vita di Dante; and a commentary upon about half of Dante's Inferno. The love poetry of Petrarch's Canzoniere soon found many imitators, known generally as Petrarchists, of whom attention to exterior form was a prime characteristic. In his Rime, Boccaccio is really one of the first of these Petrarchists, among whom there are also Fazio degli Uberti and Sacchetti, besides very many more. The more original lyric verse of the time, even that appearing in the form of the madrigal or the ballad, or of the more popular caccia and frottola, has a moralizing tone, such as we find in the poems of Beccari (1315, died before 1364) and of Pucci (c.1310, died before 1381). Then, too, didactic poetry of all kinds abounds in the second half of the fourteenth century, and much of it is in the nature of imitations of Dante's great vision, preserving also the Dantesque terza rima. Petrarch's Trionfi and Boccaccio's Amorosa visione were prompted by the Divina Commedia, and now there comes the uncompleted Dittamondo of Fazio degli Uberti (c.1310-c.1370), an excursion through the things of this world intended as an examination of all mundane knowledge, and the Quadriregio of Federico Frezzi (born before 1350, died 1416), a journey through the realms of Love, the Devil, Vice, and Virtue. The narrative poetry of the period deals principally with historical (cf. the Guerra di Pisa of Pucci) and romantic subjects. Of the latter class are poems based on French epic matter, and especially on the Carolingian legends, that mark another step toward the chivalrous epic of the fifteenth century. Such are the Buovo d'Antona, the Rinaldo da Montalbano, the Spagna, and others. Under the head of religious verse there still continued to appear many lyrical laudi, as well as more dramatic devozioni and rappresentazioni sacre. The prose works of the second half of the century are for the most part collections of tales, like the Trecento novelle of Franco Sacchetti (c.1335-1400), the Pecorone of Giovanni Fiorentino (or da Firenze), wherein occurs the story best known to us from Shakespeare's treatment of it in his Merchant of Venice and the tales of Giovanni Sercambi (1347-1424). The imitation of the Decamerone is obvious in these and the other novelistic productions of the time. In the Specchio di vera penitenza (1354) of Jacopo Passavanti we find the tale so adapted to moralizing and religious purposes that it really becomes an ascetic treatise. In the letters of Saint Catharine (Caterina Benincasa, 1347-80) of Siena, the religious and mystic feelings of the time are best expressed. For the history of the prose of the time the chronicle is The first period of Tuscan glory in Italian letters closed approximately with 1348. The second Tuscan period stretches from 1348 to about 1375 (the date of Boccaccio's death), and is marked especially by the advent of Petrarch and Boccaccio. Francesco Petrarca (1304-74), cne of the first and greatest figures in humanism, who did so much to revive classic lore during the period of the, Renaissance, prided himself more upon his works in Latin (e.g. the poem Africa) than upon his Italian verse. For us, however, his fame is founded on his Canzoniere, a collection of poems, mainly sonnets written in honor of his beloved madonna, Laura, some of them before her death, and others, as in the case also of the Trionfi (composed in terza rima), after that event. The artistic conception is carried further in Petrarch than in any poet, except Dante, who had preceded him; he may even be said to surpass Dante in refinement of style and in the ornate qualities of his diction. He likewise gave to the sonnet-a form evolved out of the popular strambotto—the last touch of perfection. A personal friend of Petrarch, and imbued like him with a passionate love for classical studies, was Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75). It was at his instance that Leonzio Pilato made the first translation of Homer into Latin, and Boccaccio even seems to have taken pains to learn Greek himself. Be that as it may, he is now mainly remembered as the first great storyteller in the history of Italian literature. His collection of prose tales, contained in the framework called the Decamerone, enjoys a repute equaled by none unless it be the Canterbury Tales, and the author of these poetical tales owes not a little to Boccaccio. The sources whence Boccaccio drew the material for his tales were many; a number of them were certainly French. Besides his encyclopaedic work in Latin, Boccaccio wrote further in Italian the Filocolo, equally important with the tale, and the writers of the former are much more numerous than in the first half of the century, although by no means so imposing, and they include among their best representatives Matteo Villani (1300-63), the brother of Giovanni Villani, whose Chronicle he continued, Marchionne Stefani (c.1320-85), and Donato Velluti. Travel literature is well represented in the Libro d'oltramare of Niccolò da Poggibonsi. The Renaissance, heralded by Petrarch and Boccaccio, becomes all-important in the fifteenth century, when the humanists, aided by the recently invented printing-press, diffused a knowledge of the literature of ancient Greece and Rome through the length and breadth of the land, and ultimately through the whole Occident. Florence is still to the fore in this period, but there are now other important centres of learning and literary productivity, such as Naples, where the House of Aragon ruled; Ferrara, where the Dukes of Este were the patrons of men of letters; Rome, Mantua, Venice, Bologna, and Milan. In other words, although the Florentine influence still remained predominant, the literature of this period is more truly a national one in that it is not confined to a single region, but comes into being all through the peninsula. Here we need not enumerate the many writers engaged in translating from Greek and Latin, or writing only in the latter language. We need only bear in mind that for us their chief importance lies in the fact that they gave to the Italian people those elements of culture and humanism which, blended with the more popular and mediæval elements already manifested in the preceding periods, were to produce the brilliant and thoroughly national literature of the sixteenth century. Taking up the works of those who wrote in the vulgar tongue, we find in the Della famiglia of Leon Battista Alberti (c.1407-72) a picture of the ideal domestic life of the Renaissance age. Of a more popular coloring and especially notable because of their relation to the chivalrous matter, which is approaching nearer and nearer to artistic perfection of treatment, are the prose romances I reali di Francia and Guerino il Meschino. These were compiled by Andrea da Barberino (1372-1431) and give ver sions still read by the people at large of the epic traditions formerly written in French and in Franco-Venetian. Likewise popular in their constitution were the burlesque poems of Domenico Giovanni (c.1390-1448), surnamed I Burchiello. Probably of the first half of the fifteenth century was the anonymous poem Orlando, written in ottava rima, which harks back to the chansons de geste, as the name Orlando, i.e. Roland, indicates, and which, crude though it be, was a prototype of the chivalrous poem, especially so as it later entered into the composition of Pulci's work. Religious lyrics or laudi, and profane lyrics, mainly dance songs and strambotti, were developed along the same lines as in the fourteenth century, until in the verse of Leonardo Giustiniani (1388-1446) they received a more finished treatment, due to his tendency to combine classic and popular elements. Religious dramas or rappresentazioni sacre appear with greater frequency than before. From the middle of the century on, there becomes more decidedly manifest the tendency to elevate popular poetry by infusing into it elements of culture with which the Renaissance had endowed the leading spirits of the land. This was the case particularly in three centres of great literary activity-Naples in the south, Ferrara in the north, and Florence in the centre of the country. Many of the writers of the Court of Ferdinand I. at Naples used the Neapolitan dialect, but they tempered it with forms borrowed from Tuscan and Latin. The most famous of their number was Jacopo Sannazaro (1458-1530), who wrote in the more general speech and in mingled prose and verse his pastoral romance, Arcadia, which, combining factors drawn from Boccaccio's Ameto with others borrowed from classic antiquity, soon made its fortune in the world. It was at Ferrara, one of the various literary centres of the north, that the best work of the time was produced, and there, living in close relations with the ducal rulers, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Count of Scandiano (1434-94), composed his celebrated Orlando innamorato, a poem in octaves which happily blends together elements from two of the chief Old French cycles of legends, that of Charlemagne and that of the matière de Bretagne, and adds to these elements of popular tradition certain others of classical origin, such as Homeric and Vergilian episodes; so that the Orlando innamorato, the first true romantic poem in Italian, marks the arrival of the chivalrous poem at a stage where it can be said to have a genuine artistic value. As a humanist Boiardo translated classical works, and as a Petrarchist he wrote sonnets and love poems that make him the most successful imitator of the master during this century. At Florence, Antonio Manetti (1423-97) produced his attractive Novella del grasso legnaiuolo, and Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98) composed poems and sermons replete with asceticism. But the most illustrious writers of the Florentine group were Luigi Pulci (1431-87), Lorenzo de' Medici (144992), and Politian (1454-94). To Pulci we owe the Morgante Maggiore. He elaborated the mat. ter contained in the Orlando and the Spagna, and added to this epic matter of French origin sentiments and tendencies of his own of a humorous character. As a poem of chivalry, the Morgante is certainly devoid of the serious spirit that animates Boiardo's work, but it must not be deemed an intentional parody of chivalry. In style and tone it is one of the most charming productions of the century. Lorenzo de' Medici (il Magnifico), a most liberal patron of the arts, wrote love poems, idyls, pastorals, satires, dramatic poems, laudi, and carnival songs, and by these personal efforts exercised a great deal of influence for the better upon the circle of writers about him. In Politian (Angelo Ambrogini, known as Poliziano from his native place, Montepulciano) there comes to light the noblest and highest type of the Italian humanist of the fitteenth century; for in him we find the classic and modern traditions in perfect union. His Orfeo (1472 or 1483) was the first profane drama in the language, his Stanze per la giostra are as finished in form as the best works of the sixteenth century, and his Rime, or love songs, reveal the influence of the culture of the Renais. sance upon lyric forms of popular origin. Politian's death, coming near the end of the century, nearly coincides with the end of the Renaissance period. It is followed by a new classic period in Italian literature-called by the Italians the Cinquecento-an age almost equal in glory to that of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, and one which manifests most clearly the immense artistic benefits that Italy had received from the humanistic movement of the previous century. Although disturbed by foreign domination in certain parts of the land and by the passage of Florence from the state of a republic to that of a duchy, Italy never had a livelier national consciousness than that which actuated her at this time; and the development of art always stands in close relationship with the growth of national sentiment. The period opens with the works of Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), one of its most striking figures, the author of comedies, lyrics, satires, and other poems in Italian and of some Latin verse, but famous for his Orlando furioso. This poem marks the apogee of chivalrous poetry in Italy. Starting where Boiardo's Orlando innamorato ends, and presupposing that the reader is acquainted with the story there unfolded, Ariosto develops still further the love affair of Orlando and Angelica, interweaving with it many other romantic episodes, especially that of Ruggiero and Bradamante. For his subject-matter Ariosto is indebted to French poems and romances of the Middle Ages, to Latin classic verse, and to Italian writers of the Renaissance period; but he is most original in the way in which he has breathed new life into the old material. His style has a charm due in no slight degree to the skill with which he has combined the pomp of classic diction with a simplicity of expression peculiarly his own; and his versification is satisfactory because of the ability with which he has handled the ottava rima. Ariosto had many imitators, but their poems, like that of his predecessor Boiardo, are now little read. Several attempts were made to remodel the Orlando innamorato, the most successful being that of Francesco Berni (c.14971535), a master of style. Seriousness of purpose still persists in the Italia liberata da' Goti of Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550) and in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso (1493-1569), this latter based on the Amadis story told in the Spanish peninsula, but the spirit of parody and burlesque prevails in the Orlandino and the Baldus of Teofilo Folengo (1492-1544), otherwise notable as a macaronic poet. Of rank equal to that of Ariosto was Torquato Tasso (1544-95; the son of Bernardo), the greatest Italian writer of the second half of the sixteenth century. A man of extraordinary genius, which reveals itself in all his works, as well in his masterpiece, La Gerusalemme liberata, as in his lyrics, dramas, dialogues, and letters, he suffered at times from a mental disorder which, though it necessitated placing him under restraint, did not impair his literary productivity. His poem, Rinaldo, is a youthful work of the category of chivalrous poems, dealing with the adventures of the Carolingian hero Renaut de Montauban. But Ariosto had uttered the supreme word in chivalrous story, and Tasso was to gain his laurels by per fecting a new genre, that of the crusading or Christian epic. This he did with his Gerusalemme liberata, a poem of markedly serious intent, primarily concerned with the Crusades in which Godfrey of Bouillon played a part. The author did not disdain to admit as subordinate elements certain features of the chivalrous romance, especially in connection with the love episodes, just as he also drew from his favorite authors of classic antiquity. Like Ariosto, whom he resembles very much in his imitation of passages of ancient writers, he has also the gift of style, and like him he uses the ottava rima with ease and grace. An individual note in Tasso's work is that of melancholy, which is really an echo of the man's personal experience and of his mental anguish. Although contemporaries, like posterity, applauded the Gerusalemme liberata, Tasso was not satisfied with his work, and, yielding to religious impulses of an ascetic nature, he published a remodeled form of it, La Gerusalemme conquistata, which is much inferior to the original poem, and is, therefore, neglected, while the Gerusalemme liberata remains dear to the whole Italian people. In the lyric verse of the sixteenth century there soon declared itself a revolt against the too conventional nature of the Petrarchistic verse of the preceding century. In his Rime, Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) showed how better results could be obtained in lyric song if one would but go directly back to Petrarch for his inspiration, and Bembo's example was followed by a host of poets. Another very noteworthy trait of this author, seen in his Asolani and in his Prose della volgare lingua, is his desire to stress the importance of having a general literary speech for the land, that unity of style may be attained and the character of the literature be made national. In the lyrics of Torquato Tasso, the influence of Petrarch is not absolute, and the same may be said of the verse of the sculptor and painter Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564). Of the other numerous lyric poets of the time, mention need be made only of Francesco Maria Molza (1489-1544, author of the Ninfa tiberina), Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547), and Luigi Tansillo (1510-68). Opponents of the Petrarchists were Niccolò Franco (1515-70) and Claudio Tolomei (1492-1555), the latter of whom sought to introduce Latin metres. In his Rime Francesco Berni develops a burlesque and humorous vein which recalls the methods of Rustico di Filippo and Burchiello, and which he brings into use against the unreasoning Petrarchists. This burlesque manner was adopted by not a few other poets of the time. Among the didactic poets of the period were several who made Vergil's Georgics their startingpoint; such were Giovanni Rucellai (1475-1525, author of Le api), Luigi Alamanni, and Erasmo da Valvassone (c.1523-93). As a result of the Renaissance movement, the old dramatic form known as rappresentazioni sacre, disappeared from the towns in the early part of the sixteenth century, and withdrew to the cloisters and the country districts. Their place was taken by prose translations of ancient dramas, which paved the way for Italian imitations of the works of antiquity. The first Italian tragedy and, in fact, the first regular tragedy in all modern literature was the Sofonisba (1515) of Gian Giorgio Trissiro (1478-1550). This was followed by many tragedies, nearly all of them of but little origi nality and modeled on the works of Euripides. Sophocles, and Seneca; e.g. the Rosmunda and the Oreste of Giovanni Rucellai, the Canace of Sperone Speroni (1500-88), the Orbecche of Gi. raldi (1504-73), the Orazia of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). Torquato Tasso's Torrismondo deals with matter of Germanic origin. Most of the tragedies were composed in blank verse (versi sciolti); the comedies of the time, nearly all based on Plautus and Terence, and a few original, were written sometimes in verse and sometimes in prose. The masterpiece among the comedies was the Mandragola (1513) of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527). Other writers of comedies, which were, unfortunately, often licentious in character, were Dovizi (1470-1520), Agnolo Freinzuola (1493-c.1545), Giovanni Maria Cecchi (1518-87), Ariosto (who was really the first to produce Italian comedies formed regularly ac. cording to the classic models), and especially Pietro Arctino, the most original and realistic of them all. Several popular forms of the drama assumed importance in the first half of the sixteenth century; thus, the satirical comedies, called farse cavaiuole, were performed in Naples, a rustic comedy enjoyed great vogue at Siena, and comedies in dialect were favorites in the Venetian territory. The most widespread of all the popular forms after the middle of the sixteenth century was the so-called commedia del l'arte, a drama of improvisation, in which only the scenario or scenes had a definite written character, for the dialogue of the personages (Pantalone, Arlecchino being conventional personages in the masks) was left to the ingenuity of the actors. It is the existence of this comedy of improvisation that explains the dearth of written comedies of any value until the eighteenth century. The pastoral drama, an outgrowth of the dramatic eclogue, also enjoyed much favor in the second half of the century. Already fully formed in the Sacrificio (1554) of Agostino Beccari (c.1510-90), it reached its height of excellence in the Aminta (1573) of Tasso and the Pastor Fido of Guarini (1537-1612). Production in prose was considerable during the sixteenth century, to which time belong a number of important historical and political works. Generally speaking, the style is somewhat too stilted and labored, following too closely the periods and construction of classical Latin prose. First rank among the better writers of prose must be accorded to Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), to whom we owe the Principe, a treatise on statecraft which has been rather too harshly criticised, because the author disregarded moral considerations in his statement of rules for political conduct; the Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, which reveals Machiavelli's republicanism; the Arte della guerra; and the Istorie fiorentine, a history of the modern type. A great many historians followed Machiavelli, the most important being Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540), who in his Istoria d'Italia put forth the best historical work of the century, and also displayed remarkable powers of observation in his Storia fiorentina, and much political acumen in the Discorsi on the government of Florence and in the two books of the Del reggimento di Firenze, as well as in his letters and memoirs. Of lesser note were Jacopo Nardi (1476-1565), Benedetto Varchi (1503-65), Paolo Paruta (1540-98). A biographical work of much repute is the Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti of Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), and an autobiography most graphically told in a familiar style is that of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-71). Excellent pictures of the manners of the time may be found in the tales of Matteo Bandello (c.1480, died after 1562), Agnolo Firenzuola, Giovanni Forteguerri (1508-82), and others. The ideal life of a courtier is depicted in the Cortegiano of Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529), who also discusses matters of language and art, platonic love, etc. A similar work on the rules of etiquette to be observed by a gentleman is the Galateo of Giovanni della Casa (1503-56). Among the writers of letters, Torquato Tasso is most meritorious for naturalness of tone; other deserving collections of letters are those of Annibale Caro (1507-66), Pietro Bembo, Giovanni della Casa, etc. moralists there may be mentioned Giambattista Gelli, and, above all, Tasso, who, in his Dialoghi, sought to reconcile ancient philosophy with the Christian religion. Not the least industrious of the prose writers of the age were those engaged in translating the classics. Preeminence is here to be given to Annibale Caro for his versions of the Eneid (Eneide), and of Longus's Pastoral Loves (Amori pastorali). Of To the sixteenth century there succeeded a period of decay, the most lamentable in all the history of Italian literature. Political circumstances, and particularly the domination of Spain and the intermeddling of northern nations, tended to suppress the national consciousness that had stirred so many writers of the preceding century. More stress is laid upon outer form than upon the nature of the subject-matter, and there prevails an extreme artificiality of style which revels in plays upon words, antitheses, double meanings, and conceits. The greatest imperfections of the kind belong to the first half of the seventeenth century. From the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century, attempts were made, with but moderate success, to rid the literature of formal and stylistic exaggerations. The Arcadian Academy (founded in 1690) was established to correct the dominant bad taste in poetry, but none of its members attained to real eminence as poets. At the outset there were many servile and trivial imitators of Tasso's epic. A writer who exercised a good deal of influence upon his own time was Giambattista Marini (1569-1625), whose more ambitious mythological poem, Adone, which is hardly more than a tissue of descriptive matter, as well as his lyrics and idyls, is full of empty conceits and other artificialities of style. One of the few who avoided the deplorable tendencies of the age was Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635); he gave forth in his Secchia rapita the first important mock-heroic poem, and had many followers, as, for example, Francesco Bracciolini (1566-1644), who satirized the immoderate use of mythological elements in the literature of the day. In lyric verse there is a manifest endeavor to substitute classic models for the Canzoniere of Petrarch, and Gabriello Chiabrera (1552-1638) imitates the manner and metrical form of the poems of Pindar and Anacreon, and Fulvio Testi (1593-1646) takes Horace for his master. The commedia dell' arte still monopolizes the stage, and true dramatic composition languishes, although imitations of the pastoral drama of Tasso and Guarini appear. We have to note, however, that the melodrama or opera begins with the Dafne, Euridice, and Arianna of Ottavio Rinuccini (1564-1621), and makes its way all over Europe. The prose of historical works exhibits the general formal defects already noted in the verse. Historians of some force were Paolo Sarpi (1552-1623, |