Methodological elements for the study of the texts of epistles and of the epistolary genre in the vernacular. In-depth knowledge on the history of the epistolary genre. Elements of periodization and literary geography. Development of the fundamental tools for commenting on the text. Specific notions of the history of prose and ancient poetry.

The course includes historical and theoretical elements on the epistolary genre and also applicative readings on the texts of the main selected authors. The medieval epistle and ancient models - Ars dictaminis in the Middle Ages: Dante's epistles - Public epistle and private epistolary writing - The epistle in verse: classical models and the vulgar tradition: the case of Ariosto - Petrarch: the humanistic model in Familiares - Fictitious letters: the case of Boccaccio - Religious letters: Catherine of Siena - Letters of the sixteenth century: Machiavelli, Pietro Aretino

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Course books

A selection of partial texts relating to the authors included in the program will be prepared by the teacher in a special hand-out and, in some cases for the purposes of classroom lessons, prepared on Blended-learning. In addition, a series of readings to be carried out (only in part) on the teacher's instructions are listed here:

Alla lettera. Teorie e pratiche epistolari dai Greci al Novecento, ed. A. Chemello, Milano, Guerini Studio, 1998.

R. Antognini, Il progetto autobiografico delle Familiari di Petrarca, Led, Milano, 2008 (on line too)

Pietro Aretino, Lettere, I, libro I, ed. P. Procaccioli, Roma, Salerno, 1997 - Introduction by P. P.

Le lettere di Dante, edds A. Montefusco e G. Milani, Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter, 2020, pp. 353-369.

C. Dionisotti, Aldo Manuzio, in Id., Gli umanisti e il volgare fra Quattro e Cinquecento, ed. V. Fera, Milano, 5 Continents, 2003.

S. Larosa, Una metamorfosi ridicola. Studi e schede sulle lettere comiche di Niccolò Machiavelli, Manziana, Vecchiarelli, 2008.

S. Larosa, Autobiografia e tradizione letteraria nella giornata di Niccolò Machiavelli, «Interpres», XXII, 2003, pp. 223-275.

Rita Librandi, Le strategie del chiedere nelle lettere di Caterina da Siena, «Quaderns d’Italià», 6, 2001, pp. 83-100.

N. Machiavelli, Lettere, ed. F. Bausi, Roma, Salerno (pdf)

Motivi e forme delle Familiari di Petrarca, ed. C. Berra, Milano, Cisalpino, 2003.

I. Tufano, L’amicitia nelle epistole di Boccaccio, in Échanges épistolaires autour de Pétrarque et Boccace, sous la direction de S. Ferrara, Paris, Champion, 2021, pp. 147-165.

M. Zancan, Lettere di Caterina da Siena, in Letteratura Italiana Einaudi, Le opere, I, 1992, pp. 593-633.