Renaissance views of the Medieval vernacular tradition. The lyrical past in Lorenzo the Magnificent’s Florence

Renaissance views of the Medieval vernacular tradition. The lyrical past in Lorenzo the Magnificent’s Florence

The standard historical framework still widely used for European cultural history presents three periods: the classical antiquity, the “dark” Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. This trajectory influences the popular perception of our past, thus shaping our view of ourselves.

This standard framework is inextricable from a value judgement that can be traced back to the Renaissance intellectuals, whose attitude towards the culture of the past is nevertheless a contradictory one. The same past can be seen in different ways, with inconsistencies that are especially apparent when a revaluation of vernacular literature takes place.

After an overview of the issue, this lecture will present a case study. What happens when Lorenzo the Magnificent, the man «who contributed more than anyone to the flowering of Florentine genius during the second half of the 15th century», and other intellectuals of his entourage, extend their rediscovery of the past and their search of models to the lyrical vernacular tradition? To what degree were their assessments and the reasoning behind them, their view of the previous tradition, influenced by other viewpoints and shaped by what they were able to see?

Speaker

Dr Maria Clotilde Camboni

LE STUDIUM RESEARCH FELLOW 

FROM : Département des Langues et Littératures - Domaine Italien, Université de Fribourg, Suisse

IN RESIDENCE AT: CESR (Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance), Université François Rabelais de Tours