Fordham University            The Jesuit University of New York

Terms and Background Bibliography


The terms and bibliography listed below provide an entryway into the current state of the study of the French of Italy


Charles of Anjou- The brother of Louis IX of France (St. Louis), Charles was known as an ambitious and pious prince. He was made duke of Provence in the late 1250s, and was called upon by the pope to intervene as his champion in the struggle against the Empire for control over Northern Italy in the mid-1260s. His arrival and that of his army into Florence in 1267 signaled the end of Ghibelline rule in the city, and ushered the Guelf party into power. In return, the pope made Charles his pacis conservator in Northern Italy, then granted him rule over a kingdom in Southern Italy, at first encompassing both Naples and Sicily, and then only Naples and the Mezzogiorno after the Sicilian Vespers of 1282. Charles and his descendants brought French culture and ruling styles to Southern Italy, including the use of the French language for diplomatic and literary purposes. He was an author in his own right, accomplished in both Occitan and Old French poetic styles.

Franco-Fiorentini - A community of Northern Italian readers and writers of French, who were based in Florence and cities in the surrounding regions. They served as both producers and consumers of French texts, and as interlocutors between the French communities in Northern and Southern Italy.

Franco-Italian - a linguistic form used in some written texts in Northern Italy, based primarily on French, but with many elements that resembled the earliest version of Italian written dialects.

Franco-Venetian - the form of Franco-Italian written in the areas in and around Venice

Franco-Lombard - the form of Franco-Italian written in the courts of Northern Italy, particularly in the areas of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagnia.

Angevins- the descendants of Charles of Anjou who ruled in Southern Italy from the late 1260s until 1348, then intermittently until the late fifteenth-century.

Mercanti scrittori - A community of readers and writers, drawn largely from the merchant class, active in Italy from roughly the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The literary tastes of this class varied from those of the language professionals of the time, due to largely to differences education, training, and approach towards the utility of the written word.

Chivalric humanism - A literary genre which brought together traditional elements of chivalric literature with the new humanistic approaches to text and material. The notion of chivalric humanism suggests a continuity between popular “medieval” genres and the changes brought about by the humanist movement.

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General Background Bibliography

Avalle, D'Arco Silvio. “Richerche di letteratura medievale francese in Italia.” In Convegno Letterature straniere neolatine e ricerca scientifica (18-20 may 1978, Accademia della Crusca), 221-229. Rome: Bulzoni, 1980.

Bertozzi,Gabriele-Aldo and Marie-Jose Hoyet, “La cultura francese in Italia: contributi editoriali piu recenti.” In La cultura italiana in Francia, la cultura francese in Italia,166. Rome: Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, 1986.

Bec, Christian. Les marchands écrivains, affaires et humanisme à Florence, 1375-1434. Paris, La Haye: Mouton & Co, 1967.

Branca, Vittore, ed. Mercanti scrittori: ricordi nella Firenze tra Medioevo e Rinascimento: Paolo da Certaldo, Giovanni Morelli, Bonaccorso Pitti e Domenico Lenzi, Donato Velluti, Goro Dati, Francesco Datini, Lapo Niccolini, Bernardo Machiavelli. Milan: Rusconi, 1986.

Busby, Keith.“The Geography of the Codex. Italy.” In Codex and context, 596-635. New York: Rodopoi, 2002.

Cigni, Fabrizio. “Manoscritti di prose cortesi compilati in Italia (secc. XIIIXIV): stato della questione e prospettive di ricerca.” In La filologia romanza e i codici (Atti del convegno, Messina, Università degli studi, Facoltà di lettere e filosofia, 19-22 Dicembre, 1991), 2 vols.. Edited by Saverio Guida and Fortunata Latella,vol. 2, 419-424. Messina: Sicania, 1993.

Folena, Gianfranco. “La cultura volgare e ‘l’umanismo cavalleresco’ nel Veneto.” In Culture e lingue nel Veneto medievale, 377-394. Padua: editoriale programma, 1990.

Meyer, Paul. “De l’expansion de la langue française en Italie pendant le Moyen Âge,” in Atti del congresso internazionale di scienzestoriche (Roma, 1-9 aprile, 1903), IV, Atti della Sezione III: Storia delle letterature, 60-104. Rome: Tipografia della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1904.

Petrucci, Armando. Writers and readers in medieval Italy: studies in the history of written culture. Edited and translated by Charles Radding. New Haven: Yale Universtiy Press, 1995.

Ruggieri, Ruggero.L'umanesimo cavalleresco italiano: da Dante all'Ariosto. 2nd ed., Naples: Fratelli Conte, 1977.

Segre, Cesare. “La Letteratura Franco-Veneta.” In Storia della Letteratura Italiana. Edited by Enrico Malata, 631-647. Rome: Salerno Editrice, 1995.

Wunderli, Peter and Günter Holtus. “La ‘renaissance’des études fanco-italiannes. Rétrospective et prospective.” In Testi, cotesti e contexti del franco-italiano, 3-23. Edited by Holtus, Krauss and Wunderli. Tübingen: Niermeyer, 1989.

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