Download or read book Boccaccio the Philosopher written by Filippo Andrei and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-07 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the tangled relationship between literary production and epistemological foundation as exemplified in one of the masterpieces of Italian literature. Filippo Andrei argues that Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron has a significant though concealed engagement with philosophy, and that the philosophical implications of its narratives can be understood through an epistemological approach to the text. He analyzes the influence of Dante, Petrarch, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, and other classical and medieval thinkers on Boccaccio's attitudes towards ethics and knowledge-seeking. Beyond providing an epistemological reading of the Decameron, this book also evaluates how a theoretical reflection on the nature of rhetoric and poetic imagination can ultimately elicit a theory of knowledge.
Download or read book Boccaccio the Philosopher written by Filippo Andrei and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dissertation examines the philosophical implications of the Decameron in connection with Boccaccio's minor works and ascertains his attitudes towards philosophy, in order to evaluate how a theoretical reflection on the nature of rhetoric and poetic imagination can ultimately elicit a theory of knowledge. Organized according to different aspects of the nature of the medieval philosophical project, the dissertation argues that the Decameron has a significant philosophical dimension which is concealed in the language and that the philosophical implications of the narratives can be understood in an epistemological approach to the text. The first chapter ("Deified Men and Humanized Gods: The Genealogies and the Hermetic Veil of the Fabula") focuses on aspects of poetics and analyzes the language of literature as theorized in Boccaccio's Genealogie deorum gentilium and Trattatello in laude di Dante. Boccaccio's speculation on the nature of poetry is paramount for the understanding of how knowledge is produced by the text. Both the Genealogie and the Decameron explore the mechanisms of acquisition of knowledge through similar modalities of discourse. The intrinsic obscurity of poetry, as theorized in the context of the Genealogies, refers to the hermetic idea of covert discourse, that is, the kind of literature whose language hides its meanings and the truth without completely denying knowledge and understanding. As Boccaccio maintains, the hermetic nature of poetry originates in the 'womb of God' and is given as a gift to a selected few; moreover, poetic imagination appears to be a cognitive tool that takes advantage of the power of the mind. The second chapter ("Boccaccio's Mountain: The Voyage of the Soul and The Language of Literature") deals with psychology, intended, in the classical way, as the 'study of the soul.' The Decameron can be seen as a journey toward the acquisition of knowledge--be it moral, philosophical, or practical. In the Introduction to the Decameron, the famous simile comparing the interpretation of the text to the climbing of a mountain alludes to Dante's Commedia and justifies the necessity of the plague in eschatological terms, thereby defining the reader's experience as a sort of intellectual and spiritual progression and ascent. The Second Day of the Decameron and the narrative parables of the Commedia delle ninfe fiorentine and the Amorosa visione share the same modality of an allegorical voyage of the soul for the apprehension of knowledge. The third chapter ("The Motto and the Enigma: Rhetoric and Knowledge in the Sixth Day") considers rhetoric as a form of knowledge analyzing the rhetorical devices of the Decameron and the many ways in which Boccaccio establishes a meaningful connection between rhetoric and knowledge. Rhetoric can be epistemic, and in this regard, the characteristics and formal features of the motto, or witty reply, in the Sixth Day of the Decameron show how this metaphorical tool can be considered not only a structuring device of Boccaccio's discourse, but also a 'veil, ' a poetical strategy which is able to both conceal and to reveal philosophical knowledge. Boccaccio's oeuvre engages with several aspects of the relationship between philosophical and literary discourse as they come to him from contemporary debates about literature. In particular, the possibilities offered by epistemology in medieval thought and the role of allegory and mythology as poetical devices of a latent philosophical discourse are critical means to understanding Boccaccio's theory of the nexus between rhetoric and knowledge. The fourth chapter ("The Variants of 'Honestum:' Practical Philosophy and Theory of Action in the Decameron") deals with ethics (the knowledge of the good; moral philosophy) in the Decameron. Here I argue that the characters of the Decameron experience cognitive journeys that embrace an ethical approach to the world. An attentive reading of the frame texts of the Decameron along with a proper understanding of the medieval concept of "honesty" suggests a well-defined model of life that can be traced back to the practical philosophy concerning which Boccaccio--as a reader of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas--had long meditated. The guiding principle of Natural Law evoked in the Introduction to the Decameron is most properly understood in relation to the Thomistic ethical system in which Nature and its earthly manifestations in human instincts are counterbalanced by the action of reason and free will, with the aim of achieving a practical knowledge that eventually leads to a new vision of the world. Finally, the possibilities offered by a reading of the Decameron as a journey toward the acquisition of knowledge elicit a theory of action that has significant implications for the transition from scholastic philosophy to humanism.
Download or read book The Decameron written by Giovanni Boccaccio and published by BoD - Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-07-07 with total page 1040 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the time of a devastating pandemic, seven women and three men withdraw to a country estate outside Florence to give themselves a diversion from the death around them. Once there, they decide to spend some time each day telling stories, each of the ten to tell one story each day. They do this for ten days, with a few other days of rest in between, resulting in the 100 stories of the Decameron. The Decameron was written after the Black Plague spread through Italy in 1348. Most of the tales did not originate with Boccaccio; some of them were centuries old already in his time, but Boccaccio imbued them all with his distinctive style. The stories run the gamut from tragedy to comedy, from lewd to inspiring, and sometimes all of those at once. They also provide a detailed picture of daily life in fourteenth-century Italy.
Download or read book Decameron and the Philosophy of Storytelling written by Richard Kuhns and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005-05-11 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this creative and engaging reading, Richard Kuhns explores the ways in which Decameron'ssexual themes lead into philosophical inquiry, moral argument, and aesthetic and literary criticism. As he reveals the stories' many philosophical insights and literary pleasures, Kuhns also examines Decameronin the context of the nature of storytelling, its relationship to other classic works of literature, and the culture of trecento Italy. Stories and storytelling are to be interpreted in terms of a wider cultural context that includes masks, metamorphosis, mythic themes, and character analysis, all of which Boccaccio explores with wit and subtlety. As a storyteller, Boccaccio represents himself as literary pimp, conceiving the relationship between storyteller and audience in sexual terms within a tradition that goes back as far as Socrates' conversations with the young Athenians. As a whole, Boccaccio's great collection of stories creates a trenchant criticism of the ideas that dominated his social and cultural world. Addressed as it is to women who were denied opportunities for education, the author's stories create a university of wise and culturally observant texts. He teaches that comic, religious, sexual, and artistic themes can be seen to function as metaphors for hidden and often dangerous unorthodox thoughts. Kuhns suggests that Decameronis one of the first self-conscious creations of what we today call "a total work of art." Throughout the stories, Boccaccio creates a detailed picture of the Florentine trecento cultural world. Giotto, Buffalmacco, and other great painters of Boccaccio's time appear in the stories. Their works and the paintings that surround the characters as they prepare to leave the plague-ridden city, with their representations of Dante, Aquinas, and other thinkers, are essential to understanding the ways the stories work with other works of art and illuminate and enlarge interpretations of Boccaccio's book.
Download or read book Petrarch and Boccaccio written by Igor Candido and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Die Buchreihe Mimesis präsentiert unter ihrem neuen Untertitel Romanische Literaturen der Welt ein innovatives und integrales Verständnis der Romania wie der Romanistik aus literaturwissenschaftlicher und kulturtheoretischer Perspektive. Sie trägt der Tatsache Rechnung, dass die faszinierende Entwicklung der romanischen Literaturen und Kulturen in Europa wie außerhalb Europas neue weltweite Dynamiken in Gang gesetzt hat, welche die großen Traditionen der Romania fortschreiben und auf neue Horizonte hin öffnen. In Mimesis kommt ein transareales, die europäische und die außereuropäische Welt romanischer Literaturen und Kulturen zusammendenkendes Verständnis der Romanistik zur Geltung, das über nationale wie disziplinäre Grenzziehungen hinweg die oft übersehenen Wechselwirkungen zwischen unterschiedlichen Traditions- und Entwicklungslinien in Europa und den Amerikas, in Afrika und Asien entfaltet. Im Archipel der Romanistik zeigt Mimesis auf, wie die dargestellte Wirklichkeit in den romanischen Literaturen der Welt die Tür zu einem vielsprachigen Kosmos verschiedenartiger Logiken öffnet.
Download or read book Boccaccio s Decameron and the Ciceronian Renaissance written by M. Grudin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-06-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Boccaccio's Decameron and the Ciceronian Renaissance demonstrates that Boccaccio's puzzling masterpiece takes on organic consistency when viewed as an early modern adaptation of a pre-Christian, humanistic vision.
Download or read book Famous Women written by Giovanni Boccaccio and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giovanni Boccaccio devoted the last decades of his life to compiling encyclopedic works in Latin. Among them is this text, the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted to women.
Download or read book Boccaccio s Expositions on Dante s Comedy written by Giovanni Boccaccio and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 777 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fall of 1373, the city of Florence commissioned Giovanni Boccaccio to give lectures on Dante for the general population. These lectures, undeniably the most learned of all the early commentaries, came to be known as the Expositions on Dante's Divine Comedy. Though interrupted at Inferno XVII, they provide profound, near-contemporary interpretations of Dante's poem and contain, in many ways, some of the most beautiful aspects of Boccaccio's admirable literary production: narrative vignettes worthy of the best pages of the Decameron, insights on the rapidly changing approach to literary commentary, and a heartfelt belief that poetry is the most faithful guardian of history, philosophy, and theology. Michael Papio's excellent translation finally makes the entirety of Boccaccio's often overlooked masterpiece accessible to a wider public and supplies a wealth of information in the introduction and notes that will prove useful to specialists and general readers alike.
Download or read book The Poet s Wisdom written by Timothy Kircher and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2006 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book explores the philosophical thinking of Petrarch and Boccaccio in contrast to the writings of contemporary mendicants. Examining both Latin and vernacular works, it investigates how these humanists poetically express the temporal, subjective, and emotional quality of moral sensibility, in a way that shifts to the reader the weight of discerning the ethical message. The book centers its analysis on a series of paradoxes pondered by these humanists: the self that changes yet persists over time; the awareness of self-deception; the individual's validation of authority; and the ethics of pleasure. This study is valuable to those interested in Renaissance philosophy, literature, religion, and the history of ideas.
Download or read book Petrarch the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters written by Francesco Petrarca and published by New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons. This book was released on 1898 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The World at Play in Boccaccio s Decameron written by Giuseppe Mazzotta and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giuseppe Mazzotta provides both a powerful framework for reading the Decameron and an important contribution to medieval and contemporary debates in esthetics. Originally published in 1986. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Boccaccio and the Invention of Italian Literature written by Martin Eisner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Giovanni Boccaccio played a pivotal role in the extraordinary emergence of the Italian literary tradition in the fourteenth century, not only as author of the Decameron, but also as scribe of Dante, Petrarch and Cavalcanti. Using a single codex written entirely in Boccaccio's hand, Martin Eisner brings together material philology and literary history to reveal the multiple ways Boccaccio authorizes this vernacular literary tradition. Each chapter offers a novel interpretation of Boccaccio as a biographer, storyteller, editor and scribe, who constructs arguments, composes narratives, compiles texts and manipulates material forms to legitimize and advance a vernacular literary canon. Situating these philological activities in the context of Boccaccio's broader reflections on poetry in the Decameron and the Genealogy of the Gentile Gods, the book produces a new portrait of Boccaccio that integrates his vernacular and Latin works, while also providing a new context for understanding his fictions.
Download or read book Women Enjoyment and the Defense of Virtue in Boccaccio s Decameron written by V. Ferme and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing new ways of reading Boccaccio's masterpiece, Decameron , Ferme analyzes the dynamics between the women who rule the first half of the story. Peeling back the many narrative layers within and outside of the framework, this book unearths the complications and trickery surrounding gender and death in Boccaccio's world and culture.
Download or read book The Life of Dante Tratatello in Laude DiDante written by Giovanni Boccaccio and published by Scholarly Title. This book was released on 1990 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Boccaccio s Dante and the Shaping Force of Satire written by Robert Hollander and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fresh views about Boccaccio's reliance on Dante
Download or read book Boccaccio s Corpus written by James C. Kriesel and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2018-12-15 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Boccaccio’s Corpus, James C. Kriesel explores how medieval ideas about the body and gender inspired Boccaccio’s vernacular and Latin writings. Scholars have observed that Boccaccio distinguished himself from Dante and Petrarch by writing about women, erotic acts, and the sexualized body. On account of these facets of his texts, Boccaccio has often been heralded as a protorealist author who invented new literatures by eschewing medieval modes of writing. This study revises modern scholarship by showing that Boccaccio’s texts were informed by contemporary ideas about allegory, gender, and theology. Kriesel proposes that Boccaccio wrote about women to engage with debates concerning the dignity of what was coded as female in the Middle Ages. This encompassed varieties of mundane experiences, somatic spiritual expressions, and vernacular texts. Boccaccio championed the feminine to counter the diverse writers who thought that men, ascetic experiences, and Latin works had more dignity than women and female cultures. Emboldened by literary and religious ideas about the body, Boccaccio asserted that his “feminine” texts could signify as efficaciously as Dante’s Divine Comedy and Petrarch’s classicizing writings. Indeed, he claimed that they could even be more effective in moving an audience because of their affective nature— namely, their capacity to attract, entertain, and stimulate readers. Kriesel argues that Boccaccio drew on medieval traditions to highlight the symbolic utility of erotic literatures and to promote cultures associated with women.
Download or read book Amorous Fiammetta written by Giovanni Boccaccio and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
