DOCSLIB.ORG

Gaspara Stampa's “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio's

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gaspara Stampa's “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio's University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 3-22-2010 The Fiction of The Rime: Gaspara Stampa’s “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta Ellan B. Otero University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Otero, Ellan B., "The Fiction of The Rime: Gaspara Stampa’s “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1733 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Fiction of The Rime: Gaspara Stampa’s “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta by Ellan B. Otero A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Silvia R. Fiore, Ph.D. Giovanna Benadusi, Ph.D. Sara M. Deats, Ph.D. Patrizia La Trecchia, Ph.D. Date of Approval March 22, 2010 Keywords: Renaissance, Women, Petrarch, Bloom, Autobiography © Copyright 2010, Ellan B. Otero Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Fact vs. Fiction in Gaspara Stampa’s Rime .................................................10 Stampa’s Biography: The “Standardized” Version ...............................................12 Documented Facts ..................................................................................................16 Chapter Two: The Fiction of the Rime ..............................................................................21 Critics’ View of (Woman’s) Poetry .......................................................................22 Autobiography: Some Definitions .........................................................................25 Chapter Three: Venice, Music Writing, and the Ridotti ....................................................32 Music and Musicians in Venice .............................................................................33 Writing in Venice ...................................................................................................35 Education of Men ...................................................................................................51 Education of Women .............................................................................................53 Stampa’s Education ...............................................................................................60 Chapter Four: Renaissance Autobiographical Writing and the Rime ................................63 The Renaissance Autobiographical Writing ..........................................................63 Autobiography and the Rime .................................................................................66 Emotional Story-telling ..............................................................................67 Emotional Words .......................................................................................70 Literary Language ......................................................................................72 Petrarch’s Influence ...................................................................................79 Chapter Five: Stampa’s “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Elegy of Lady Fiammetta ....................................................................................................................87 The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta ................................................................................87 The Rime ................................................................................................................90 Parallels and “Swerves” .........................................................................................91 Similarities Between the Elegy and the Rime ............................................96 Stampa’s Swerve From Boccaccio ..........................................................107 Chapter Six: Stampa’s Bid for Fame ...............................................................................116 i Notes ...............................................................................................................................122 References ........................................................................................................................153 Appendix A: Chart of the Original 1554 Edition’s Numbering with Comparison to Abdelkader Salza’s 1913 Edition’s Renumbering ...............................................160 Appendix B: Cassandra Stampa’s Dedication of the Rime to Giovanni Della Casa .......170 Appendix C: Gaspara Stampa’s Dedication Letter to Collaltino di Collalto ...................175 Appendix D: Letters and Dedications to Gaspara Stampa ...............................................180 About the Author ................................................................................................... End Page ii The Fiction of The Rime: Gaspara Stampa’s “Poetic Misprision” of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Elegy of Lady Fiammetta Ellan B. Otero ABSTRACT This study maintains that although Gaspara Stampa’s Rime (1554) appears to straddle two popular literary genres—lyric poetry and autobiography—analysis of the Rime within its cultural context demonstrates that while Stampa (1523-1553) used Petrarchan conventions, she also both borrowed and swerved from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Elegy of Lady Fiammetta (1334-1337) to imagine a non-Petrarchan narrative of an abandoned woman. In the Renaissance, lyric poetry and autobiography were distinguished not only by their style—prose vs. verse—but, more importantly, by the treatment of their distinctive subject matter. Lyric poetry focused on those emotions involving love, whereas Renaissance autobiography shunned emotions. A comparative analysis of the Rime with the Elegy concludes that the Rime is not a lyric version of Boccaccio’s Elegy; however, a consideration of Harold Bloom’s “anxiety of influence” demonstrates that although Stampa borrowed the Boccaccian idea of the woman as narrator to tell the story of love and abandonment, she creatively adapted—or, to use Bloom’s term, swerved from—Boccaccio’s presentation of the abandoned narrator’s psychological pain. Instead, iii Stampa depicts the frustrations and the pain of the narrator whose love is unrequited although her beloved remains nearby. iv Introduction This study maintains that although Gaspara Stampa’s Rime (1554) appears to straddle two popular literary genres—lyric poetry and autobiography—analysis of the Rime within its cultural context demonstrates that while Stampa (1523-1553) used Petrarchan conventions, she also both borrowed and swerved from Giovanni Boccaccio’s Elegy of Lady Fiammetta (1334-1337) to imagine a non-Petrarchan narrative of an abandoned woman. In the Renaissance, lyric poetry and autobiography were distinguished not only by their style—prose vs. verse—but, more importantly, by the treatment of their distinctive subject matter. Lyric poetry focused on those emotions involving love, whereas Renaissance autobiography shunned emotions. A comparative analysis of the Rime with the Elegy concludes that the Rime is not a lyric version of Boccaccio’s Elegy; however, a consideration of Harold Bloom’s “anxiety of influence” demonstrates that although Stampa borrowed the Boccaccian idea of the woman as narrator to tell the story of love and abandonment, she creatively adapted—or, to use Bloom’s term, swerved from—Boccaccio’s presentation of the abandoned narrator’s psychological pain. Instead, Stampa depicts the frustrations and the pain of the narrator whose love is unrequited although her beloved remains nearby. I argue that Giovanni Boccaccio’s Elegy of Lady Fiammetta influenced Stampa’s Rime and that it is a fiction, not autobiography, as traditionally presumed. To support my hypothesis, I review the genre of autobiography written contemporaneously with, or 1 slightly earlier than, the Rime. The differences I find demonstrate that Stampa did not model her Rime on Renaissance autobiography; instead, she wrote a fiction in the Petrarchan manner, as did the poets she respected. These poets constitute Stampa’s literary context and were the authoritative source determining what and how she wrote. Earlier in the century Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) established the poetic modus operandi Stampa inherited. Just prior to her birth, he had convinced the literati of Venice and elsewhere that Francesco Petrarch’s (1304-1374) Rime sparse (1374) should be the sole model for poets (McLaughlin 268) and with his own Rime (1530) popularized the style (Richardson, “Scribal” 684). Moreover, the story of the abandoned woman lover was not unique to Stampa; it had existed for centuries and was well know to her as an educated woman: Ovid’s Heroides was still in circulation, as were the twelfth-century trobairitz poems. Because Bembo had argued successfully that Boccaccio should be the prose model,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Role of Italy in Milton's Early Poetic Development
    Italia Conquistata: The Role of Italy in Milton’s Early Poetic Development Submitted by Paul Slade to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in December 2017 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. Abstract My thesis explores the way in which the Italian language and literary culture contributed to John Milton’s early development as a poet (over the period up to 1639 and the composition of Epitaphium Damonis). I begin by investigating the nature of the cultural relationship between England and Italy in the late medieval and early modern periods. I then examine how Milton’s own engagement with the Italian language and its literature evolved in the context of his family background, his personal contacts with the London Italian community and modern language teaching in the early seventeenth century as he grew to become a ‘multilingual’ poet. My study then turns to his first published collection of verse, Poems 1645. Here, I reconsider the Italian elements in Milton’s early poetry, beginning with the six poems he wrote in Italian, identifying their place and significance in the overall structure of the volume, and their status and place within the Italian Petrarchan verse tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Italian Studies Comp Exam Reading Lists 1&2
    1 University of Texas at Austin Graduate Program in Italian Studies Reading Lists 1 and 2 for the Comprehensive Examination In addition to careful study of the required works listed below, students are expected to acquire general knowledge of all periods, genres, and major movements in Italian literature and cinema. List 1 (1200-1750) Read as widely as possible in the two-volume Poeti del Duecento, ed. G. Contini (Milan: Ricciardi, 1960). Francis of Assisi, "Cantico delle creature" Jacopone da Todi, "Que farai, fra Iacovone" (Contini #2), "Donna de Paradiso (Contini #16) Giacomo da Lentini, "Madonna, dir vo voglio" (Contini #1), "Meravigliosamente" (Contini #2), "Io m'aggio posto in core a Dio servire" (Contini #12) Guittone d'Arezzo, "Gente noiosa e villana" (Contini #3), "Tuttor ch'eo dirò 'gioi', gioiva cosa" (Contini #16) Compiuta Donzella, "A la stagion che 'l mondo foglia e fiora," "Lasciar vorria lo mondo a Dio servire" (both poems in Contini and in Natalia Costa-Zalessow, ed., Scrittrici italiane dal XII al XX secolo [Ravanna: Longo, 1982]). Cecco Angiolieri, "S'i' fosse fuoco, arderei il mondo," "Tre cose solamente m'ènno in grado" Guido Guinizzelli, "Al cor gentil rempaira sempre amore," "Vedut' ho la lucente stella Diana" Guido Cavalcanti, "Chi è questa che vèn, ch'ogn'om la mira," "Donna me prega" Dante Alighieri, Vita nuova, Divina Commedia, De vulgari eloquentia (Italian or English translation) Giovanni Boccaccio, all of Il Decameron, with emphasis on the following novelle in addition to the frame narrative: 1.1-3, 2.4-5, 3.1-2, 4.5, 4.7, 4.9, 5.8-9, 6.7-10, 7.1-2, 8.3-6, 9.2-3, 10.4-5, 10.10.
    [Show full text]
  • The Italian Verse of Milton May 2018
    University of Nevada, Reno The Italian Verse of Milton A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Francisco Nahoe Dr James Mardock/Dissertation Advisor May 2018 © 2018 Order of Friars Minor Conventual Saint Joseph of Cupertino Province All Rights Reserved UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by Francisco Nahoe entitled The Italian Verse of Milton be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY James Mardock PhD, Adviser Eric Rasmussen PhD, Committee Member Lynda Walsh PhD, Committee Member Donald Hardy PhD (emeritus), Committee Member Francesco Manca PhD (emeritus), Committee Member Jaime Leaños PhD, Graduate School Representative David Zeh PhD, Dean, Graduate School May 2018 i Abstract The Italian verse of Milton consists of but six poems: five sonnets and the single stanza of a canzone. Though later in life the poet will celebrate conjugal love in Book IV of Paradise Lost (1667) and in Sonnet XXIII Methought I saw my late espousèd saint (1673), in 1645 Milton proffers his lyric of erotic desire in the Italian language alone. His choice is both unusual and entirely fitting. How did Milton, born in Cheapside, acquire Italian at such an elevated level of proficiency? When did he write these poems and where? Is the woman about whom he speaks an historical person or is she merely the poetic trope demanded by the genre? Though relatively few critics have addressed the style of Milton’s Italian verse, an astonishing range of views has nonetheless emerged from their assessments.
    [Show full text]
  • Cardinal Pietro Bembo and the Formation of Collecting Practices in Venice and Rome in the Early Sixteenth Century
    IL COLLEZIONISMO POETICO: CARDINAL PIETRO BEMBO AND THE FORMATION OF COLLECTING PRACTICES IN VENICE AND ROME IN THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Susan Nalezyty January, 2011 Examining Committee Members: Tracy E. Cooper, Advisory Chair, Department of Art History Marcia B. Hall, Department of Art History Elizabeth Bolman, Department of Art History Peter Lukehart, External Member, CASVA, National Gallery of Art i © by Susan Nalezyty 2010 All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT Il collezionismo poetico: Cardinal Pietro Bembo and the Formation of Collecting Practices in Venice and Rome in the Early Sixteenth Century Candidate’s Name: Susan Nalezyty Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Temple University, 2011 Doctoral Advisor: Tracy E. Cooper Cardinal Pietro Bembo’s accomplishments as a poet, linguist, philologist, and historian are well known, but his activities as an art collector have been comparatively little studied. In his writing, he directed his attention to the past via texts—Ciceronean Latin and Petrarchan Italian—for their potential to transform present and future ideas. His assembly of antiquities and contemporary art served an intermediary function parallel to his study of texts. In this dissertation I investigate Bembo as an agent of cultural exchange by offering a reconstruction of his art collection and, in so doing, access his thinking in a way not yet accomplished in previous work on this writer. Chapter One offers a historiographic overview of my topic and collecting as a subject of art historical study. Chapter Two maps the competition and overlapping interests of collectors who bought from Bembo’s heirs.
    [Show full text]
  • On Beautiful Women, Parmigianino
    On BeautifulWomen, Parmigianino,Petrarchismo, and the VernacularStyle ElizabethCropper Among PietroTesta's notes on painting,which were unsys- Finallyon this side of the sheet Testa shows the back of tematicallycollected after his deathin 1650, is one foliodedi- the neck, which mustbe rosyand white and not too deeply catedto "Particolariperfetioni che fannola donnabellissima" furrowedby the line of the spine. (Figs. 1 and 2).1 It is devoted, as the heading indicates, The diagrammaticnature of the marginalsketches makes it to the artist'sdefinitions of thosefeatures that render a woman quiteclear that they werenot intendedto be perfectacademic mostbeautiful. The notes areunusually clear and precise, and models,nor were they drawnfrom life. They werebrief aids in the marginnext to the writtendescription of eachparticular to Testa'sunderstanding, to help him visualizethe contents featureTesta drew a smallillustrative sketch. The rectoof the of the noteshe wastaking-notes thatwere not hisown formu- sheet (Fig. 1) is concernedwith qualitiesof the head and lationof the idealfemale beauty, but that he madeas he read shoulders.Testa required that the hairbe long, fine, blonde, Agnolo Firenzuola'sDialogo delle bellezze delle donne.2 This and knottedsimply. For the browhe madea diagramof two book, completedin 1542, a centurybefore Testa readit, it- squares,representing its correctwide proportions.In the left self drawsupon the visionsof manyearlier writers, and it is squarehe showshow the browshould curve in an arctowards probablythe most completeexposition of the beautyof the the top. The eyebrowsare to be dark,and they too should ideal woman among the multitude of sixteenth-century curve in perfectarches that tapergently towardsthe ends. treatmentsof the theme, beingconcerned not only with her Beautifuleyes are largeand prominent,oval in shape, and perfectfeatures, but also with her colors, proportions,and blue or dark chestnut in color.
    [Show full text]
  • Torquato Tasso and the Problem of Vernacular Epic in 16Th-Century Italy
    THE TRUMPET AND THE LYRE: TORQUATO TASSO AND THE PROBLEM OF VERNACULAR EPIC IN 16TH-CENTURY ITALY by Christopher Geekie A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Baltimore, Maryland July 19th, 2017 © Christopher Geekie 2017 All rights reserved ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I analyze conceptions of epic poetry in sixteenth century Italy, specif- ically the debates surrounding vernacular poetic language, which ultimately produce the first successful Italian epic, Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata. While scholars have mainly focused on early interpretations of Aristotle’s Poetics and questions of narrative structure, I argue for a shift towards analyzing discourses of language and style, which provide a more concrete framework for understanding Tasso’s poetic innovation. Examin- ing linguistic and literary texts from the 1530s to 1560s, I focus on issues of establishing a stable vernacular poetic language capable of equalling classical forms, specifically that of epic, at a time when the epic genre is defined by an exacting set of aesthetic expec- tations seemingly at odds with a predominantly lyric tradition grounded in Petrarchan love poetry. I argue that an unstable critical moment emerges by the mid sixteenth cen- tury concerning the ability of poets to translate the ideal form of classical epic into the mellifluous Italian language. This tension leads to experimentation with various formal elements that concern sound, notably meter and rhyme. I conclude that Tasso addresses this issue of sound with a radical theory of epic style based on the unconventional aes- thetic qualities of harshness, dissonance, and sonority.
    [Show full text]
  • How Novelle May Have Shaped Visual Imaginations
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Faculty Publications 5-5-2016 How Novelle May Have Shaped Visual Imaginations Patricia A. Emison University of New Hampshire, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/faculty_pubs Recommended Citation Emison, P. A. “How Novelle May Have Shaped Visual Imaginations,” Humanities, 5,2 2016: http : //www.mdpi.com/2076 − 0787/5/2/27 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Article How Novelle May Have Shaped Visual Imaginations Patricia Emison Department of Art and Art History, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA; [email protected]; Tel.: +1-603-862-1409 Academic Editors: Albrecht Classen and Peter Lamarque Received: 9 December 2015; Accepted: 16 April 2016; Published: 5 May 2016 Abstract: Artists figure fairly frequently in novelle, so it is not unreasonable to suppose that they may have taken more than a passing interest in the genre. Although much scholarly effort has been dedicated to the task of exploring how Horace’s adage “ut pictura poësis” affected the course of the visual arts during the Italian Renaissance and vast scholarly effort has been assigned to the study of Boccaccio’s literary efforts (much more so than the efforts of his successors), relatively little effort has been spent on the dauntingly interdisciplinary task of estimating how the development of prose literary imagination may have affected habits of perception and may also have augmented the project of integrating quotidian observations into pictorial compositions.
    [Show full text]
  • Renaissance and Reformation, 1975
    Giovanni Delia Casa and the Galateo On Life and Success in the Late Italian Renaissance* Antonio Santosuosso Giovanni Delia Casa's work on manners, the Galateo, has suffered from many misin- terpretations. Some have maintained that the book was read little; others that it dealt with a most superficial topic—etiquette; still others that Delia Casa and his Galateo were typical of the Renaissance and that the book was a pallid imitation of Baldassare Castiglione's Courtier but from a democratic viewpoint. The evidence we have about the man and the work contradicts these views. The Galateo was a bestseller in the schools and houses of Italy up to the nineteenth century and after. Certainly, it is not a philosophic treatise, but its precepts are much more than rules on how to behave at the table. Furthermore, the book is not a democratic imitation of the Courtier but, rather, a class work directed to aristocrats and, as such, mirroring the rise of the nobil- ity in Italian life during the sixteenth century. Nor is it representative of the Renais- sance, but a contrasting blend of two worlds with different values—Humanism and the Counter Reformation. II The author's nephew, Annibale Rucellai, the heir of Delia Casa's literary compositions and the man responsible for the publication of the Galateo after his uncle's death, had certain grave misgivings about the book. He felt that the work would neither advance nor perhaps even maintain his uncle's reputation. Considerable pressure had to be exert- ed by "relatives" and "friends", and by Erasmo Gemini de Cesis, a trusted secretary of Delia Casa, before Annibale sent Delia Casa's Galateo and the other Italian works to the press in 1558.
    [Show full text]
  • Veronica Gambara Undici Lettere Inedite Edited by Luigi Amaduzzi Guastalla: R
    Veronica Gambara Undici lettere inedite Edited by Luigi Amaduzzi Guastalla: R. Pecorini [p. [5]] Cenni biografici di Veronica Gambara (1) Tre donne vennero in maggior fama di letterate nel secolo XVI; Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa, e Veronica Gambara. Moltissime altre coltivarono le lettere in quel tempo; di esse alacremente oggi si studia richiamare la memoria onorevole e ridonarla al culto dei moderni. Dissi molte altre, ma le tre nominate tennero il primato su tutte. La data della loro nascita varia di pochi anni, quella della morte quasi coincide. La Gambara nacque il 30 Novembre 1485, nel novanta nascerà la Colonna, trentaquattro anni dopo, la Stampa. Nel 1550 morì la Gambara, tre anni dopo, la Colonna; nel cinquantaquattro si spense la Stampa. Erano adunque tre stelle che risplende. vano ad un tempo nel cielo letterario d'Italia. Un luogo assai popolato del territorio bresciano, detto Prato Alboino, che fu feudo della nobilissima Famiglia Gambara, diede i natali alla nostra Veronica. Suoi genitori furono il Conte Gianfrancesco Gambara e Alda Pia da Carpi, personaggi ragguardevolissimi, siccome le istorie mostrano. Veronica ebbe quattro fratelli e due sorelle; Camillo, Uberto, Brunoro, Ippolito, Violante ed Isotta, tutti non meno per azioni che per letteratura illustri. Aveva essa sortito da natura un ingegno assai vivace, penetrante, e molta inclinazione per le lettere, alle quali si diè fin [p. 6] da' più teneri anni. Chi fosse suo maestro negli studi non è chiaro; taluni affermano il Bembo, col quale fu in domestichezza, ma molti dubbî sorgono leggendo alcuni passi delle poesie di lui. Quello che più manifesto appare, si è che della guida e del patrocinio del Veneziano molto profittevolmente si valse la Gambara, come attesta il fatto che a lui per primo mandava ogni suo poetico componimento ed attenevasi al suo giudizio, come a quello che autorevole stimava.
    [Show full text]
  • The Secular Latin-Texted Works of Adrian Willaert
    University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 5-12-2015 The ecS ular Latin-Texted Works of Adrian Willaert Jonathan Harvey University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Harvey, Jonathan, "The eS cular Latin-Texted Works of Adrian Willaert" (2015). Doctoral Dissertations. 798. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/798 The Secular Latin-Texted Works of Adrian Willaert Jonathan Wil Harvey, DMA University of Connecticut, 2015 Abstract In addition to a large body of extant works including masses, hymns, psalm settings, motets, chansons, madrigals, canzone villanesche, and instrumental ricercares, sixteenth-century composer Adrian Willaert (1490 – 1562) also wrote nine settings of secular Latin texts. These nine works can be divided into three categories: five civic motets (Adriacos numero, Haud aliter, Inclite Sfortiadum princeps, Si rore Aonio, and Victor io salve); three settings of excerpts from Virgil’s Aeneid (O socii and two settings of “Dulces exuviae”); and one unique, enigmatic outlier (Flete oculi). These pieces are rarely considered in the existing literature, and many scholars conflate the two “Dulces exuviae” settings as a single work. The texts of six of the nine pieces have never been translated into English before. This study examines these nine pieces through their text, musical material, and cultural-political background in order to determine their function and context. The first chapter of this study consists of a brief summary of Willaert’s life and an examination of the extant sources of his work. In the next chapter, I discuss the genre of the civic motet and examine Willaert’s five contributions to it.
    [Show full text]
  • C9587233972dad1b9500b32c15
    WRITING BELOVEDS Humanist Petrarchism and the Politics of Gender AILEEN A. FENG Writing Beloveds Humanist Petrarchism and the Politics of Gender UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London © University of Toronto Press 2017 Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4875-0077-1 Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. Toronto Italian Studies Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Feng Aileen A., author Writing beloveds : humanist Petrarchism and the politics of gender / Aileen A. Feng. (Toronto Italian studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4875-0077-1 (cloth) 1. Petrarca, Francesco, 1304–1374 – Influence. 2. Italian poetry – 16th century – History and criticism. 3. Petrarchism. 4. Humanism in literature. 5. Politics in literature. 6. Sex roles in literature. I. Title II. Series: Toronto Italian studies PQ4103.F45 2016 851'409 C2016-904897-7 CC-BY-NC-ND This work is published subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivative License. For permission to publish commercial versions please contact University of Tor onto Press. This book has been published with the financial assistance of The Provost’s Author Support Fund at the University of Arizona, and a Book Subvention Award from the Medieval Academy of America. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government
    [Show full text]
  • Martha Feldman, Bonnie Gordon
    MARTHA FELDMAN CHAPTER The Courtesans Voice Petrarchan Lovers, Pop Philosophy, and Oral Traditions COURTING MUSIC Like the donna angelicata (the revered woman) of Petrarch's lyric canon, so i m m e n s e l y popular in the sixteenth century, courtesans were often reproached by abject lovers but also venerated by them. A painting by Parrasio Michel of ca. 1560 (fig. 4.1) condenses this double status of the courtesan by presenting her in a p e r f o r m a t i v e guise. She gazes heavenward as she sings to the lute but with breasts exposed and is attended by a secularized C u p i d who stands in as both son of Venus (herself a stand- in for the courtesan) and the Roman God of Love deployed so prolifically in sacred and secular images. As the site of this doubleness, the courtesan was also the quintessential object of a generalized male way of encountering women. In Petrarchan glosses she was the lyric obsession that marked the poet's lost youth, his sweet error, the cause of his tears and singing and his loss of reason. But more often than other women, she could suffer when the balance tipped toward viewing her as the cruel, unattainable lady. When that happened her reputation could be put on the line. And as a woman who conversed and sang when other women often could not, her voice then became the locus of an irresoluble paradox—madonna or a whore, lady or harlot? Small wonder, then, that as the voice was increasingly added to the courtesans' wares in the sixteenth century, the female voice became a general blazon of courtesan-like disrepute—the more so as singing styles increasingly favored solo virtuosity.
    [Show full text]