The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide an exhaustive outline of the Italian literary tradition and its main formal and thematic features from the beginning to the Italian Unity.
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Program

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of Italian literature
Content
Introductory part: presentation of the key moments and authors of Italian literature from its origins to the Unification of Italy, with analysis of exemplary texts.
Second part: Literature, politics and religion of Italian Humanism and the Renaissance.
Introductory part.
Attending and non-attending students will use for the exam the following books: Gino Tellini, Letteratura italiana. Un metodo di studio, Firenze, Le Monnier Università, 2011, pp. 3-336. The volume will be complemented by a choice of texts of the greatest authors of our literary tradition which will be made available to the students on the e-learning platform. The texts to be analyzed will be mentioned by the teacher during the course. Within this choice non-attending students must demonstrate the ability to analyze: Petrarca, Canzoniere: five texts, among them at least one canzone; Boccaccio, Decameron: five novelle; Machiavelli: two chapters of the Principe and one act of the Mandragola; Ariosto, Orlando furioso: one canto; Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata: one canto; Goldoni: one act of a comedy; Parini: one ode or a part of the Giorno; Alfieri: one act of the Mirra or a part of the Vita; Foscolo: two sonnets and a part of the Sepolcri; Leopardi: three Canti and one of the Operette morali; Manzoni: a poetical text or a part of the Promessi sposi.
Second part
The second part of the course will cover the topics of religion and politics in the Italian Renaissance through the analysis of some works: the letter to Muhammad II of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (published in translation in Luca D'Ascia, Il Corano e la tiara : l'epistola a Maometto di Enea Silvio Piccolomini (papa Pio II), introduzione ed edizione, Bologna, Pendragon, 2001 or in other edition; ; il Trattato Circa il reggimento e governo della città di Firenze di Girolamo Savonarola (Torino, Bottega d'Erasmo 1963 or in other edition); the first letter of Alberto Pio from Carpi to Erasmus of Rotterdam (Alberto Pio da Carpi, Ad Erasmi Roterodami expostulationem responsio accurata et paraenetica, 2 volumi, a cura di Fabio Forner, Firenze, Olschki, 2002); the principe by Niccolò Machiavelli (ed. a c. di G. Inglese, Torino, Einaudi, 2013 or other annotated edition).
For a critical analysis I suggest the following studies (not required for attending students): Jacob Burckhardt, La civiltà del Rinascimento in Italia, introduzione di Eugenio Garin ; nota biografica di Marcello Monaldi, Firenze, Sansoni, 2000 o altra edizione; Eugenio Garin, La cultura del Rinascimento, Roma, Bari, Laterza, 2010 o altra edizione; Francisco Rico, Il sogno dell'Umanesimo. Da Petrarca a Erasmo, Torino, Einaidi, 1998; Francesco Bausi, Machiavelli, Roma, Salerno, 2005.
Non attending students will have as well as to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of The Prince of Machiavelli are required to study the essays by Garin and Bausi, mentioned above.

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Examination Methods

Oral examination
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