In margine al Lazzaretto Vecchio di Venezia. Le scritture epigrafiche di Francesca Malagnini

The article is focused on some recent textual and linguistic acquisitions contained in the volume by Francesca Malagnini, Il Lazzaretto Vecchio di Venezia. Le scritture epigrafiche (Venice: Marcianum Press, 2018). In particular, the edited epigraphic writings in Latin and in vernacular are resumed and commented with reference to their different functions. In this context, the importance of the texts that convey the language of use emerges as a fundamental item for the reconstruction of the history of Italian.

Ulisse a Venezia Odissea (V, 219-224) nella Rodiana di Andrea Calmo

The comedy Rodiana (Venice 1542), written by Andrea Calmo, opens with a quote in Greek from a passage of the Odyssey, uttered by a doctor from Rhodes. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the historical, linguistic, and cultural context of Venice in the mid-sixteenth century, during which Greeks and Greek language (ancient and spoken) played quite an important role. The analysis of the text allows to identify, albeit under the literary guise, some elements to understand several aspects of daily life in Venice in the age of Tintoretto.

Giuliano Scabia, Una signora impressionante

Recensione di: Scabia, G. (2019). Una signora impressionante. Bellinzona: Casagrande.

Le riflessioni di Albertino Mussato sulla poesia nelle Epistole scientifico-erudite

Among the twenty metric Epistles ascribable to Albertino Mussato, a line of scientific texts can be recognised, arising from the occasion of curious natural events that had caught the erudite interest of the Paduan poet or some of his contemporary interlocutors. These five epistles, although drawing inspiration from unusual physical-natural or astronomical phenomena and starting from an occasional pretext, very often open to topics other than the main one: these simple curiosities, as a matter of fact, are the starting point for digressions around the themes that were most traditionally dear to humanistic disputes on poetry, triggering metaliterary considerations by the poet, who exposes and defends his own conception of poetic art on the basis of the model of the ancient poets, of whom he aims to retrace the footsteps with humanistic fidelity. Thus, it may happen to find arguments traditionally developed in the epistles in defence of the veracity of poetry even among the unsuspected zoological ruminations to which the epistle on the birth of a lioness, intended for the Venetian grammar master Giovanni Cassio, is dedicated, or to find programmatic declarations of poetics within an epistle on astronomical questions solicited by a curious Dominican friar from the convent of Sant’Agostino in Padua.

«Che volete mo’, ch’io guasti un libro?» La rappresentazione di Filippo Mocenigo come vescovo filosofo nella Perfettione della vita politica (1579) di Paolo Paruta

The Venetian political writer Paolo Paruta presented Filippo Mocenigo, the last Catholic Archbishop of Nicosia (Cyprus) before the Ottoman conquest, as an important character of his 1579 dialogue Della Perfettione della vita politica. Mocenigo, a most prominent member of the contemplative party, is depicted by Paruta as a sort of bishop-philosopher, very optimistic about the fact that Aristotelian philosophy (as it was still taught in the University of Padua in the mid-16th century) could help the search for human reason. Yet, Mocenigo was persecuted by the Roman Inquisition for his not-fully orthodox religious beliefs. In the essay, a comparison between Mocenigo as historical man and Mocenigo as Perfettionez/em>’s fictional character is developed.

L’autobiografia di Liberale Medici Aspetti linguistici, espressioni idiomatiche e metafore

This paper aims at providing a first research on the autobiography of the Venetian farmer Liberale Medici (1922-2016). The Medici’s work crossed the boundaries of private writing by winning the Premio Pieve in 1988, and, consequently, with its first publication, entitled Schola cantorum (Rome: Edizioni Live, 1989). Recently, it has been also comprehended in the anthology La vita è sogno (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2016). After highlighting the main linguistic features of this autobiography, the analysis focuses on its metaphorical devices, in order to survey its figurative language.

«Solo cante barbare, eredità dell’altra guerra» Canti alpini e resistenziali nei Piccoli maestri di Luigi Meneghello

The aim of this paper is to highlight the quotations and allusions to World War I and Resistance songs in I piccoli maestri, the second novel by Luigi Meneghello published in 1964.

Presentare Buzzati (in tema di comunicazione letteraria)

Pubblico qui il testo di un’intervista realizzata per un programma televisivo, un documentario dedicato a Dino Buzzati. Testo inedito che coniuga (si propone di coniugare) l’esigenza di correttezza e singolarità di un’interpretazione critica con quella di sintesi chiarezza e brevità richiesta dalla divulgazione di un argomento letterario.