Italy is the cradle of European capitalism and the birthplace of the Renaissance. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the handicraft industry in many cities in northern Italy was quite developed, and the commerce and banking industries developed rapidly. For example, Venice's merchant fleet sailed regularly in some major cities in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and Florence's banks also had branches in many European cities. The strength of the emerging bourgeoisie is growing day by day. In order to win in the ideological field, they actively promoted literature and art and recruited a large number of talents. This resulted in a flourishing scene in the Italian literary world.
Dante was a great poet in the transitional era from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Famous writers during this transitional period included Petrarch and Boccaccio. They were the forerunners of the Renaissance. In the 15th and 16th centuries, another group of humanist writers emerged, the more famous ones include Angelo Poliziano, Luigi Pulchi, Madeo Boyardo, Jacopo San Nazzaro, Ludovico Ariosto, Toquado Tasso. The latter two writers are among the best.
Francesco Petrarch (1304~1374) was an outstanding Italian humanist poet. He was born into a noble family in Florence. His father was a notary and was exiled with Dante. Petrarch studied law in his early years, traveled to many places in Europe, collected ancient Greek and Roman cultural relics, and carefully studied the works of famous ancient Romans. He loved classical literature and opposed medieval scholasticism and church asceticism. He was the first to propose "human science" to confront medieval theology. The poet wrote many beautiful and moving lyric poems in Latin and Italian, and was once elected poet laureate by the Senate. His original sonnets had a significant impact on European poetry.
Petrarch's "Songbook" written in Italian is his most accomplished work. This is an excellent collection of lyric poems. It is divided into two volumes. The main content of the work is about the poet's deep love for his girlfriend Laura. The first volume describes the poet's inner passion when he first met Laura, the knight's wife, in 1327. Laura has a beautiful appearance like a flower and a noble moral character. The poet fell in love with her at first sight and remained in love with her for the rest of his life. Laura was 20 years old at the time and had been married for 3 years, and the poet was 23 years old. The second volume was written 20 years later, after Lano had died of the plague. The poet expressed his deep pain and sorrow after Laura's death, and the poems were sad and touching. The poet's beautiful ideals are entrusted to Laura, but the poet's love for her shows the humanists' passionate pursuit of personal happiness in real life.
"Songbook" is a true portrayal of Petrarch's inner life, and also reflects the contradictions in the poet's worldview. On the one hand, he passionately pursues love and happiness in this world, but on the other hand, he is still bound by medieval religious concepts; on the one hand, he expresses his ardent patriotic enthusiasm with fire-like poems, but on the other hand, he despises and is separated from the people. He shows the positive side of humanists and the class limitations of the era.
Angelo Poliziano (1454~1494) was a talented writer. He carefully studied the works of Virgil, Morvid, Dante, Petrarch and others, absorbed artistic nutrition from the creations of his predecessors, and formed his own unique style. His representative works are the eight-line narrative poem and the sacred drama "Orpheus".
The work takes Greek mythology as its theme; it tells the adventure story of the singer Orpheus. This is a secular pagan fable, but the author paints it with a dreamy and mysterious color, and is innovative in artistic techniques.
Madeo Boiardo (1441~1494) was also a famous Italian humanist poet. His representative work is "Orlando in Love", in which the protagonist Orlando is the personal guard of Charlemagne of the Carolingian dynasty of the Frank Kingdom.
The work describes his love story with the Oriental Princess Angelica, which is full of legendary color.
Jacopo Sannazzaro (1455~1530) was also a famous Italian humanist writer. His representative work is the autobiographical prose work "Arcadia".
The protagonist Xin Qiluo fell in love with a beautiful girl, but did not have the courage to confess his love to her. In order to relieve his pain, he stayed away from his hometown and went to live in the quiet and beautiful Arcadia. The plot of the protagonist leaving the city and falling into the embrace of nature had a great influence on later European writers.
Vico Ariosto of Luxiang (1474~1588) was an outstanding writer during the Italian Renaissance. He has great achievements in drama and poetry. He wrote 5 comedies and was the founder of Italian comedy of manners. Famous comedies include "Lena" and "The Witch", which are widely circulated in many European countries. His most famous work is the narrative poem "The Madness of Orlando". Judging from the plot, this is the sequel to Boyardo's "Orlando in Love". Since Boyardo was killed in battle before finishing the work, Ariosto continued writing. Using the three original plot threads as a framework, it highlights Orlando's passionate and steadfast love for the Oriental princess Angelica. In order to find this beauty, he traveled all over the world and went through many hardships. Later, Angelica fell in love with Medolo, a Muslim, and married him. Orlando went crazy under this heavy blow.
This work is based on folk literature, showing exquisite skills in art, strict structure, vivid plot, delicate and measured psychological description, and clear and charming verses.
Although the long poem is a legendary story, it runs through the spirit of the times and promotes humanistic ideas. The work not only praises love and nature, but also expresses the author's desire to oppose feudal separatism and realize the reunification of the motherland. It occupies an important position in the history of Italian literature.
Torquado Tasso (1544~1595) was the last poet of the Italian Renaissance. He was born into a family of court poets and studied law, but his interest was in literature. I have carefully studied the poetry writing methods of ancient Greek poets. He had a bumpy road in his life. He once suffered from madness due to mental depression and was imprisoned in a lunatic asylum for 7 years. Throughout his life, he wrote the narrative poem "Linaldo" (1561), the pastoral drama "Aminda" (1573) and the long poem "Jerusalem Liberated" (1575). Because of his great achievements in poetry, the Pope awarded him the title of "Poet Laureate" in 1595.
Tasso's masterpiece is "Jerusalem Liberated". The content of the work describes the events of the First Crusade from 1096 to 1099. The Crusaders leader Fredo de Briuni led the Crusaders to capture the holy city of Jerusalem in the last few months. The author's choice of this theme had practical significance at the time, because at the time when the long poem was written, Europe was facing the threat of Turkey.
The long poem not only describes the heroic and thrilling battle scenes of the Crusaders, but also intersperses many legendary love stories. The plot is tense and relaxed, alternately dense and dense, and connected to form an organic whole. The language of the work is elegant and literary, with a strong lyrical color. The author's thoughts are contradictory, which is reflected in the long poem. He wants to praise Christianity, but in fact the secular love stories and non-Christian spiritual characters he writes leave a deeper impression on readers and have a stronger artistic appeal.