Dissertation

Aptum. Retorica ed ermeneutica nel dialogo umanistico e rinascimentale nell'Italia del quattro- e primo cinquecento

Paternoster, Annick Angelina

1994

Overview

The literary dialogue of the humanistic period (Fr. Petrarca, L. Bruni, P. Bracciolini, L. Valla and Cr. Landino) adopts two specific rhetorical figures from its Ciceronian model. On the one hand, the minutio, by which the speaker expresses his humility before the hearers, and, on the other hand, the dissimulatio, by which the speaker hides that he is only uttering a feigned opinion. Both are applications of aptum, the basic rule of rhetoric that aims at the adaptation of the oration to the circumstances. The necessity to adapt one's opinion to another person's view reflects the fundamental relativity of each opinion. The aptum looses these methodological implications in the Italian courtly dialogue of P. Bembo (Gli Asolani) and of B. Castiglione (Il Cortegiano). In The Courtier, which is both a dialogue and a treatise on behaviour, as well as an application of the behaviour codified within the dialogue, the minutio becomes an expression of mere courtesy, an arrivist means to social distinction. However, this arrivism is not allowed to surface and is hidden by means of dissimulatio. This arrivist use of courtesy was attacked by P. Aretino, whose Sei giornate is a parody of the hypocrisy of courtly conduct, but, as a manual for \"distinguished\" social behaviour, The Courtier is the cradle of contemporary western courtesy.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Classical literature / Classical Studies / Romance literature
• ISBN: 9798208902288