The New World Mythology in Italian Epic Poetry: 1492-1650
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THE NEW WORLD MYTHOLOGY IN ITALIAN EPIC POETRY: 1492-1650 by CARLA ALOÈ A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Italian Studies School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2015 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT My thesis explores the construction of the New World mythology as it appears in early modern Italian epic poems. It focuses on how Italian writers engage with and contribute to this process of myth-creation; how the newly created mythology relates to the political, social and cultural context of the time; and investigates extent to which it was affected by the personal agendas of the poets. By analysing three New World myths (Brazilian Amazons, Patagonian giants and Canadian pygmies), it provides insights into the perception that Italians had of the newly discovered lands in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, as well as providing a greater understanding of the role that early modern Italy had in the ‘invention’ of the Americas. Italian epic poets domesticated New World myths for their own purposes, using written, visual and material sources as an anchor for their agendas. The study of these myths changes, in some cases completely, our reading of the poems. New World myths are at once an exercise in ekphrasis of the maps, cartouches, engravings and collectible objects they derived from, and a record of the impact the Americas had on the early modern Italians. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisors Ita Mac Carthy and Paolo De Ventura, for their careful guidance, inspiring advice and unrelenting support. Thank you so much. I owe a great deal to both the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and to the College of Arts and Law Graduate School at the University of Birmingham, for their financial support. I am particularly grateful to the AHRC International Placement Scheme that allowed me to spend six months at the Huntington Library in San Marino (California), where I had the opportunity to consult valuable material and work in an international environment. I am indebted to both the Universitas 21, and Paul & Henry Woltmann Memorial Scholarships, that enabled me to spend a period of time at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), and the Houghton Library at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) respectively. I would like to extend great thanks to my tutors in these universities: Daniela Boccassini at UBC, and Elvira Di Fabio at Harvard University. In addition, I would also like to thank the University of Birmingham Postgraduate Research Support Fund, and the Royal Historical Society for having funded the conferences that have crucially contributed to the making of this thesis. I am grateful to many researchers and scholars with whom I had the opportunity to share my ideas during placements, conferences, lunches or online conversations. I am particularly indebted, in strictly alphabetical order, to: Judith Allen, Francesco Marco Aresu, Marco Arnaudo, Tancredi Artico, Kim Beauchesne, Eraldo Bellini, John Brewer, Riccardo Bruscagli, Theodore J. Cachey Jr, Francesca Calamita, Clizia Carminati, Giuseppe Crimi, Elena Daniele, Surekha Davies, Mónica García Aguilar, Lorenzo Geri, Nathalie Hester, Steve Hindle, Stefano Jossa, Erik Koenke, Franco Manai, Peter Mancall, Alfonso Nava, Laurent Odde, Cinzia Scafetta, Federico Schneider, Patricia Seed, Alex Standen, Chet Van Duzer and Clare Watters. I also extend my thanks to the staff of the numerous libraries and archives I have visited who have been extremely patient in fielding my requests. In particular to the staff of the Huntington Library (San Marino, California), Houghton Library (Cambridge, Massachussetts), Koerner Library (Vancouver, Canada), Vatican Apostolic Library (Vatican City State), British Library (London, UK), Cadbury Research Library (Birmingham, UK), Braidense Library (Milan, Italy), New York Public Library (New York City, NY), National Library of Spain (Madrid), the University of Auckland Library (Auckland, New Zealand), the Giuseppe Billanovich Reference Room in the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan, Italy) and the University of Malaga Library (Malaga, Spain). David Brender, Sonia De Amicis and Paolo De Tassis deserve a special mention for having provided me with useful material for this thesis. I would like to express my gratitude to the past and present members of the department of Italian Studies at the University of Birmingham, who have always been incredibly supportive and understanding. My thanks are also extended to the department of Italian studies at the University of Auckland for having welcomed me and provided me with all I needed during the weeks I was with them, especially Daniela Cavallaro. Thank you to my family and friends, for their unremitting encouragement and support. Especially those who hosted me during my frequent ‘vagrancies’, and that were able to cheer me up in the most disconsolate moments. Deserving of special mention is my boyfriend Alex, who I met when I just started working on this thesis, and who has witnessed it evolve from the first title to the last footnote. His scientific background taught me that there are different perspectives from which to view the world, and that “data” is not such a scary word as I believed. Thank you for having been my rock, taking part in conferences that were not your cup of tea just to listen to me speaking, following me in museums and libraries around the world, improving your Italian and knowledge of Italian literature “per disperazione”. Your love and enthusiasm means the world to me. Finally, this thesis owes a substantial debt of gratitude to my parents, who inspired my love of literature and art from a young age. They provided me with the “ali e radici” to write it. My mother started an English course just to be able to read this work, whilst my father will be happy to know that his attempt to take me to the Louvre Museum instead of Disneyland when I was nine did actually have an impact on me (in any case he ‘had’ to take me to Disneyland as well). TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume I Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Primary sources ....................................................................................................................... 7 Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 1. Introducing the New World mythology ............................................................ 36 Bridging the Old World and the New .................................................................................. 38 Bringing the New World mythology back home .................................................................. 46 The New World myths in Italy ............................................................................................. 56 Chapter 2. The queendom of the American Amazons ....................................................... 58 Introducing the American Amazons ..................................................................................... 59 An allegory for America? ..................................................................................................... 63 American Amazons as tools of Italian propaganda .............................................................. 78 The American querelle des femmes ...................................................................................... 90 Chapter 3. “Patagones, vel regio gigantorum” ................................................................. 107 Introducing Patagonian giants ............................................................................................. 109 The cartographic scenario ................................................................................................... 118 Threshold Tasso .................................................................................................................. 127 Tommaso Stigliani’s socchi ................................................................................................ 139 The flight of the roc in Bartolomei’s America .................................................................... 147 Graziani and the hybrid Succarath ...................................................................................... 157 Visualising the Patagonians ................................................................................................ 163 Chapter 4. Canadian pygmies from the cabinet of curiosity to epic poetry ................... 166 Lilliput ante litteram ........................................................................................................... 168 Canadian pygmies at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici ....................................................