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Author: ilariaverunelli
My article in ICCC Houston on the story of the food blogger behind’s ICCC’s latest cooking series. Read about Flavia and why her blog is a go to for those interested in Italian Food:
Life
Born in Siena, Italy, in 1260, Cecco Angiolieri is often regarded as the first master of comic verse. However, in spite of how highly he is spoken of nearly 800 years later, Angiolieri was not always so highly regarded during his time.
This was due to the great expectations that were set on his shoulder by both sides of his family, which were each powerful and influential in their own right. Angioleri’s paternal grandfather, Angiolieri Solafica, served as a trusted banker to Pope Gregory IX, while his mother, Lady Lisa de’ Salimbeni, was a member of a Senese family — one of the richest, noblest, and most powerful families in the entire city.
Ultimately, Angiolieri failed to meet his family’s standards throughout his life. At the age of 21, he fought with the Guelphs in Siena, who were besieging their Ghibelline counterparts at the time, but was eventually fined for abandoning the battlefield without permission. This less than heroic behavior resurfaced in 1288, resulting in another subsequent fine. In 1282 and 1291, he was fined for violating the curfew in Siena. Angiolieri was exiled from Siena in 1296 and was not permitted to return until at least 1303.
Angiolieri died in 1312, leaving behind six children — Meo, Deo, Angioliero, Arbolina, Sinione, and Tessa. Because of their father’s poor habit of being fined by the local government, the Angiolieri estate became so indebted that all six children refused to claim their inheritances after his passing.
Poetry
Even during the most tumultuous times of his life, however, Angiolieri managed to create realistic and satirical poetry that would be well-loved by generation after generation. Throughout his life, Angiolieri composed over 110 sonnets, all of which are impudent and light-heartedly blasphemous.
His most notable works — Il canzoniere, S’ì fosse foco, arderei ‘l mondo, and The Sonnets of a Handsome and Well-Mannered Rogue — are still taught, translated, and analyzed in colleges and universities around the globe.
So, although Angiolieri did not meet the great expectations held by his noble families, he certainly made his mark on the art of poetry, which shaped the techniques and writings of the poets for generations to come.
Life
Franco Loi was born in Genoa on January 20, 1930. When he was seven years old, his father moved the family to Milan, Italy’s second-largest city and an important center of the arts and culture. The Milanese dialect of his new hometown would become a great influence on Franco’s later work as a writer, poet, and essayist.
During his childhood and teenage years in the 1940s, Loi witnessed the murders of Italian partisans, the resistance protesters who were opposed to Mussolini and to Italy’s alignment with the Axis powers and Adolph Hitler’s Germany. These early experiences would influence some of the major themes of his writing, which include war, the presence of evil in the world, and regret for a lost paradise.
Loi started out working as an accountant and a bookkeeper. He became a clerk working at the port of Genoa and from there moved into doing public relations work. In 1962, he took a job with Mondadori, Italy’s largest publishing house.
Shortly after entering the world of publishing through the administrative route, Loi began writing poetry in the Milanese dialect, the main language used in his production, even though, we can also find inserts of Genovese, the dialect spoken in his childhood and of colornese, the dialect spoken by the mother from Parma (e.g. L’Angel). He described this early writing as if it were dictated to him from someone else, explaining his prolific output.
Poetry
Loi’s poem “The Cart” was published in a journal in 1973 and attracted some attention, which continued when his “Love Poems” was published in 1974. By 1975 he had gained some positive critical reviews, particularly for his poetry collection Stròlegh (Astrologer), which won him the Bonfiglio Prize and remains his best-known work. Since then, Loi has garnered Nonino, Librex Premio Montale, and Brancati Prizes, which are Italian literary awards. He has also been recognized as a distinguished member of the community of Milan and of Lombardy, the region around Milan.
As an artist, Loi’s style embraces both neologisms and archaic words, particularly archaic words that refer back to Dante’s Divine Comedy. His tone uses a mixture of voices, including street slang, designed to give expression to society’s oppressed and exploited members.
In addition to his poetry, Franco Loi wrote the 2001 short story collection The Breadth of the Sky and several collections of essays. He has been publishing literary criticism since 1980.
Alda Merini is an Italian poet who was born in Milan in 1931. She sparked interest in reading and writing at a very young age. Her father encouraged her and published a booklet of her poems when she was ten. She went to elementary school and made great grades but her family didn’t have money to further her education so she attended vocational school but was unable to get into high school since she didn’t pass the Italian exam.
Career
Alda continued to write poems, devoting herself to it at the age of 15. Giacinto Spagnoletti discovered her poetic talent and invited her into his circle of poets and critics which kicked off her career. She was published in Spagnoletti’s anthology in 1950. She then published her first book, La presenza di Orfeo, in 1953. In 1961 she stopped writing due to mental illness. She was committed to an asylum. She centered much of her poetry about her time in mental institutions dealing with her mental illness as well as the dramatic experiences in the institutions. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize twice and she was awarded the Librex-Guggenheim Eugenio Montale Prize as well as the Premio Viareggio.
Her Works
Alda Merini focused on love in her earlier works and in her later works, illnesss, nature, and myth. A few of her poems and books include:
- Fiore di poesia
- La terra santa
- La presenza di Orfeo
- La pazza della porta accanto
- Uomini miei
- Magnificat: Un incontro con Maria
- Le madri non cercano il paradiso
Quotes:
“ We are hungry for tenderness,
in a world where everything abounds
we are poor of this feeling
which is like a caress
for our heart
we need these small gestures
that make us feel good
Tenderness
is a disinterested and generous love,
that does not ask anything else
to be understood and appreciated.”
“Il dolore non è altro che la sorpresa di non conoscerci.”
“When I raise a toast to madness, I toast myself as well.”
She made significant contributions to Italian poetry and many of her works have been translated and admired in other countries as well. She passed in 2009 from cancer. Her works and words still continue to flourish and inspire many.
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri is hailed as one of the most important Italian authors of all times and has been a major influence in Western culture. His epic poem, La commedia or Divine Comedy is still read and studied today. He is also known for leading the movement to break free of the old standards of publishing works in Latin and instead publishing them in the vernacular language.
His Beginnings
He was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy to a notable family with modest wealth. At twelve years old he was betrothed to Gemma di Manetto Donati but was in love with another girl, Beatrice Portinari, who he would continue to write about including love poems in La Vita Nuova.
Education
Dante studied many subjects that included painting, poetry, and music. He took an apprenticeship with Brunetto Latini, a celebrated poet and prose writer, who helped to expand his knowledge of literature and rhetoric. In addition, he also was mentored by Guido Cavalcanti, Lapo Gianni and Cino da Pistoia who became the leaders of the style Dolce Stil Novo – personal and political passions were the themes behind the poetry. In 1287 he enrolled in University but enlisted in the Florentine Army in 1289.
Works
In 1302, Dante was exiled from Florence since he was a prominent voice for an opposing political party that lost during the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict. This time would be the start of his most productive and artistic period of writing.
- Divine Comedy – this describes Dante’s journey through inferno (hell), purgatorio (purgatory), and paradiso (paradise). This work would become the cornerstone in establishing Italian as an established literary language since most literary works were produced in Latin. It is for this that he is said to be one of the forerunners of the renaissance. It has been praised and critiqued by many scholars.
- Convivo (The Banquet) – this is an encyclopedia (it is 4 books in total) of knowledge on philosophy, politics, linguistics, science, and history.
- Monarchia – This is a treatise of political philosophy on secular and religious power. This work was banned by the Catholic Church.
- La Vita Nuova (The New Life) – this story is about his love for Beatrice Portinari. He uses a sweet new style in his poetry that relates the feeling of love with spiritual revelation.
Dante Alighieri has had a huge influence on many other writers and is considered one the greatest writers to have ever lived. T.S. Elliot once wrote, “ Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third.”
This is Ilaria Verunelli’s first post on her culture site.