Italian Studies 447

DUECENTO AND I DANTE

POSTPONED

DUECENTO AND TRECENTO II (EXCLUDING DANTE)

By JENNIFER PETRIE, College Lecturer in Italian, University College, Dublin

I. GENERAL

Interest in theatre studies has extended to early I tal ian drama, occasioning a number of surveys. S. Sticca, ': liturgy and christocentric spirituality', Simon, Theatre, I 6g-88, gives a full account of recent research on liturgical and religious drama. Doglio, Teatro scomparso, contains surveys of dramatic laudi on the theme of Mary at the foot of the Cross (35-59) and the conflict between soul and body (2I3-27), both seen in the context of medieval and vernacular traditions; medieval Latin 'elegiac comedies' in Italy (I6I-8I); the colourful entertainments at the court of Frederic II (I 83-98); the significance and use of masks and disguises in medieval drama in general (I gg-2 I I). P. Armour, 'Comedy and the origins of Italian theatre around the time ofDante', McWilliam Vol., I-3I, while concerned mainly with Dante, provides a survey of dramatic practices in medieval Italian society as well as attitudes to drama. On and rhetoric, Roberto Gigliucci, Oxymoron amoris: retorica dell'amore irrazionale nella lirica italiana antica, Ro, De Rubeis, Iggo, I37 pp., examines the figure of oxymoron (distinguished from antithesis as involving a sharp juxtaposition of genuinely contradic• tory opposites) in medieval Italian lyric after preliminary chapters on its occurrence in Latin and Provens;al. On prose narrative, Alessan• dro Linguiti, *Sulfa novella italiana: genesi e generi, Leece, Mil ella, I ggo. On Arthurian literature in Italy, Marie-Jose Heijkant, *La tradizione del 'Tristan' in pros a in /talia e proposte di studio sui 'Tristano Riccardiano ', Nijmegen, Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen, Ig8g, is given a detailed review article by F. Zambon, MedRom, I6:247-53; see also Boccaccio section. On religious literature, C. Delcorno, 'Le Vitae Patrum nella letteratura religiosa medievale (secc. xm-xv)', Lltal, 43: I 87-207, provides a general survey of the extensive influence of this work and its Italian versions and adaptations. *Laude florentine, I: II Laudario della Compagnia di San Gilio, ed. Concetto Del Popolo, F, Olschki, I ggo, 2 vols, viii+ 6g6 pp. + I o pis. On travel narrative, Italian Studies *Pellegrini scrittori: viaggiatori toscani del Trecento in Terra Santa, ed. Antonio Lanza and Marcellina Troncarelli, F, Ponte alle Grazie, 1990, 342 pp.; M. Ciccuto, 'Storia e mito del Milione', Lltal, 43:153- 70, contains a survey of encyclopaedic travellers' tales and crusade literature and considers how Il Milione became a book of marvels; F. R. Camarota, 'Dalla Relatio di Odorico da Pordenone al De rebus incognitis', RLI, 95.1-2:31-39, compares the Latin and Italian version of the account of a Franciscan's journey to China: the first having a missionary and ascetic spirit, the Italian having a more secular emphasis on the marvellous. On 14th-c. Rome, Massimo Miglio, *Scritture, scrittori e storia, Manziana, Vecchiarelli, 182 pp.

2. BoccAccw Francesco Bruno, Boccaccio: l'invenzione della letteratura mezzana, Bo, II Mulino, 1990, 521 pp., is concerned with B.'s 'double idea' ofculture, according to which his vernacular aims (a 'letteratura mezzana') differ from his Latin ones. The main emphasis is on the former, and on the Decameron in particular. A shorter introductory study of the Decameron is David Wallace, Boccaccio: 'Decameron', CUP, 128 pp., in the useful 'Landmarks of World Literature' series. Corradina Caporello-Szykman, The Boccaccian Novella: The Creation and Waning of a Genre, NY, Lang, 157 pp., sees the novella as a distinctive medieval and Renaissance genre invented by Boccaccio, who adapted norms of classical rhetoric; an essential feature is the cornice, with its unifying and rhetorical function. Daniela Delcorno Branca, Boccaccio e le storie diRe Artu, Bo, II Mulino, 165 pp., contains three already published articles concerned with the dissemination of Arthurian literature in Italy, B.'s own familiarity with it (not confined to Italian texts), and the presence of this literature in B.'s own works, in particular the Decameron. On manuscripts of the Decameron, Vittore Branca, * Tradizione delle opere di Giovanni Boccaccio, n: Un secondo elenco di manoscritti e studi sul testo del 'Decameron': con due appendici, Ro, Storia e Letteratura, 584 pp. Also on the Decameron, G. Velli, 'Seneca nel Decameron', GSLI, 168:321-34, argues that B.'s classical culture is present in the work, especially in the rhetorical use made of Seneca on such topics as fortune and nature. C. Grassi, 'Di Lippo Topo presunto pittore', ib., 271-73, finds references to this character as proverbial for his laziness, but no evidence that he was a painter.]. Usher, 'Simona and Pasquino: "Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto?" ', MLN, w6 : 1-14, sees the novella as piaying with and subverting a Latin rhyme on the healing properties of sage. N. Jonard, 'Le Decameron et la "legende de la bourgeoisie"', StB, 18, 1989 ( 1990) : 34 7-68, questions the notion of a bourgeois or