Chapter III: The Transition

The Church, Chivalry, the Nation--The National Element in Italian Literature--Florence--Italy between 1373 and 1490--Renascent Nationality--Absorption in Scholarship--Vernacular Literature follows an Obscure Course--Final Junction of the Humanistic and Popular Currents--Renascence of Italian--The Italian Temperament--Importance of the Quattrocento--Sacchetti's Novels--Ser Giovanni's _Pecorone_--Sacchetti's and Ser Giovanni's Poetry--Lyrics of the Villa and the Piazza--Nicolo Soldanieri--Alesso Donati--His Realistic Poems--Followers of Dante and Petrarch--Political Poetry of the Guelfs and Ghibellines--Fazio degli Uberti--Saviozzo da Siena--Elegies on Dante--Sacchetti's Guelf Poems--Advent of the _Bourgeoisie_--Discouragement of the Age--Fazio's _Dittamondo_--Rome and Alvernia--Frezzi's _Quadriregio_--Dantesque Imitation--Blending of Classical and Medieval Motives--Matteo Palmieri's _Citta di Vita_--The Fate of _Terza Rima_--Catherine of Siena--Her Letters--S. Bernardino's Sermons--Salutati's Letters--Alessandra degli Strozzi--Florentine's Annalists--Giov. Cavalcanti--Corio's _History of Milan_--Matarazzo's _Chronicle of Perugia_--Masuccio and his _Novellino_--His Style and Genius--Alberti--Born in Exile--His Feeling for Italian--Enthusiasm for the Roman Past--The Treatise on the Family--Its Plan--Digression on the Problem of its Authorship--Pandolfini or Alberti--The _Deiciarchia_--_Tranquillita dell'Animo_--_Teogenio_--Alberti's Religion--Dedication of the Treatise on Painting--Minor Works in Prose on Love--_Ecatomfila_, _Amiria_, _Deifiria_, etc.--Misogynism--Novel of _Ippolito and Leonora_--Alberti's Poetry--Review of Alberti's Character and his Relation to the Age--Francesco Colonna--The _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_--Its Style--Its Importance as a Work of the Transition--A Romance of Art, Love, Humanism--The Allegory--Polia--Antiquity--Relation of this Book to Boccaccio and Valla--It Foreshadows the Renaissance 139