Renaissance Europe 1300-1600: Literature
chapter four
LITERATURE
PhilipM.Soergel
IMPORTANT EVENTS … 118OVERVIEW … 121
TOPICS
Early Renaissance Literature … 122
The Fifteenth Century in Italy … 129
The High and Later Renaissance … 135
The Northern Renaissance … 141
Renaissance Women Writers … 155
Pietro Aretino … 160
Giovanni Boccaccio … 161
Marguerite of Navarre … 162
Thomas More … 163
Hans Sachs … 165
SIDEBARS AND PRIMARY DOCUMENTS
Primary sources are listed in italics
Petrarch Considers the Nature of Poetry (letter from Petrarch to his brother discussing the nature of poetry) … 123
Observations On the Black Death (prologue to Boccaccio's Decameron describing the bubonic plague) … 127
Advice to a Young Lady on the Study of Literature (Bruni advises Baptista Malatesta on the study of literature) … 130
Stanzas For a Jousting Match (Poliziano's work about his pupil romancing a young woman) … 132
The Pazzi Conspiracy (Poliziano comments on the death of his pupil) … 133
A Tribute to Love (example of Bembo's unique poetic style) … 137
A Sonnet Lamenting Art (Michelangelo's poem evaluating his devotion to art) … 139
An Attack On Monks and Scholastic Theologians (Rabelais defends himself against monks and theologians) … 144
Advice On Worldly Engagements (prologue to Marguerite of Navarre's Heptameron) … 145
A Statesman Imagines a Perfect Society (excerpt from More's Utopia) … 150
On Women's Virtues (excerpt from Pizan's feminist Book of the City of Ladies) … 156
Love's Fire (Louise Labé's passionate poem showing the duality of love) … 158