Abstract of "The Letters of Bernardo Tasso (1549) with an Annotated Translation" by Christine F. Andrade, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2011This is the first translation of the editio princeps of Le Lettere di M. Bernardo Tasso which was published in Venice by the printer Valgrisi in 1549. Letter collections were published in abundance during the Renaissance, in Italy especially, and they constituted a separate genre that helped establish a literary Italian language. Bernardo Tasso's letter collection is a leading example of the genre which has been established as existing principally during the sixteenth century. The explosion of the genre, sparked by the publication of Pietro Aretino's letters in 1538, coincided with the establishment and growth of the printing industry in Italy and the consequent growth in the reading public. Renaissance letter collections, or libri di lettere, in vernacular Italian were based on the humanist model of epistolography in Latin as established by Petrarch after his rediscovery of Cicero's Letters to Atticus in 1345. Epistolary collections were a literary construct, intended for wide circulation and aimed at providing an imitable model of a literary Italian language. In fact, although Bernardo Tasso was primarily known as a lyric and epic poet, his letter collection was republished frequently during the course of the sixteenth century precisely because it was successful as a letter-writing formulary. The letters chosen for inclusion in the collection also reflect a carefully constructed public image of the author in his role as a courtier / secretary, first to Count Guido Rangone, a military captain in the Army of the Papacy during the Battle of Pavia and the Sack of Rome, and later to the Prince of Salerno, a powerful baron in the Kingdom of Naples who participated in the Battle of Ceresole. This facet of the collection offers a fascinating perspective on the history of these cataclysmic events of the Italian Wars and the role of a humanist intellectual in Renaissance Italy.
Andrade, Christine Frances,
"The Letters of Bernardo Tasso (1549) with an Annotated Translation"
(2011).
Italian Studies Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0CF9NC5
