CULTURE

    Dear friends, how are you ? We are fine and we hope you are , too! Hey, can you understand who is writing ? We are your very dear Italian friends! Do you know anything about Italian literature and art ?

    As first contribution to this project we would like to introduce, some notes on Italian literature from its origin to our days. Italian literature started in the Middle Ages, and exactly in the thirteenth century. It developed through different schools and spread in various regions of our country. The most important schools were the following:

    - THE RELIGIOUS-UMBRA SCHOOL. The representative writers are: S. FRANCISCO D'ASSISI, author of the famous "CANTICO DELLE CREATURE" and JACOPONE da TODI.

    - THE SICILIAN SCHOOL. It flourished in the court of Emperor Frederick II of Swab in the reign of the two Sicilies. It was a fusion of different arts, styles, cultures such as Byzantine, Norman and German (for example architecture, algebra, mosaic and decoration, medicine, astronomy and eventually poetry).

    - THE TUSCAN SCHOOL in Arezzo and DOLCE STIL NOVO in Florence. The latter is a kind of poem with amorous verses where the woman, a "Madonna", is considered like an angel.....falling down the sky!.

    XIV century. It is the century of the greatest playwrights and poets that we hope are well known all over the world: DANTE ALIGHIERI with "DIVINA COMMEDIA", which tells about three kingdoms after death, hell, purgatory and heaven; FRANCESCO PETRARCA with "IL CANZONIERE", a collection of poems dedicated to Laura, the maiden he loved tenderly.....but "the cruel Laura" didn't want to reciprocate his sweet feelings; GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO with "IL DECAMERONE" (a collection of tales).

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO can be compared for the structure and style of his masterpiece to Chaucher's famous work "Canterbury Tales". But of course you have never heard about it "DECAMERONE" .

    Fifteenth/ sixteenth c.. Two centuries which saw the rise of important movements in the history of Italian and European literature and art: Humanism and Renaissance. The fifteenth century is very remarkable for some innovation such as the paper, and the gunpowder.    At the end of this century (onethousandfourhundredninety.......two!) an important Italian genius, CRISTOFORO COLOMBO, discovered new continent: America........and not the Vikings as some people say. In the sixteenth c. three more great writers gave glory to Italy: LUDOVICO ARIOSTO, author of "ORLANDO FURIOUS" (FURIOSO: crazy for love for Angelica); NICCOLO'   MACHIAVELLI,author of "IL PRINCIPE", a play that deals with the political power of an Italian prince; Torquato Tasso, author of "GERUSALEMME LIBERATA", a play that tells about the first crusade with Goffredo di Buglione in the holy land for the holy sepulchre in Jerusalem.

    That is what we have done up to now, presently we will continue and face the study of seventeenth and eighteenth century that is "baroque" and the "enlightenment".

    Here there are some well-known poets, like GIUSEPPE PARINI, author of the celebrated poem titled "IL GIORNO", in which he criticises habits and customs of the nobles of Milan; CARLO GOLDONI, author of theatre, whose comedies take place in Venice; VITTORIO ALFIERI, writer of tragedies. We will have to study the nineteenth century, the "romanticism", and our century with poets such as UGO FOSCOLO and GIACOMO LEOPARDI, ALEXANDRA MANSION, GIOVANNI VERGA, LUIGI PIRANDELLO, ITALO SVEVO, GIOVANNI PASCOLI, GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO, GIUSEPPE UNGARETTI, EUGENIO MONTALE, SALVATORE QUASIMODO. In the next article we will provide you with further information about the last three centuries.

    Before saying GOOD BYE to you let us show you two very famous extracts from our literature: "IL CANTICO DELLE CREATURE" by S. FRANCESCO D'ASSISI and "TANTO GENTILE E TANTO ONESTA PARE" by DANTE ALIGHIERI. The former is also a prayer, in which the Saint addresses his words to human beings and to every creature, inviting them to praise God for all the creatures: it is a message of universal love. The latter represents a portrait of a delicate and kind woman similar to an angel fallen on the earth to inspire noble feelings.

ENJOY YOURS READING AND HEAR FROM YOU SOON.