Since the dawn of time
Proof if it were needed that the literature of the Marches and Umbria is very early, two of its authors enter the history even before the birth of Christ: Lucius Accius, who was born around -170in Pesaro, and Propertius, who was born around -47 near Assisi. The first one wins posterity - and, obviously, admiration, so much he will be taken up by his peers, from Cicero to Horace through Ovid - notably thanks to his theatrical production, which we can only imagine as sumptuous and fruitful, as only rare extracts have come down to us. It is said in any case that the man wrote in Latin but was inspired by Greek models and that, above all, he innovated in his desire to create a coherent work, by initiating two great cycles inspired by the Seven Chiefs' War and the Trojan War. Having already proved how prolix he was, he would have also written many works of literary criticism, and would have been interested in questions of Latin grammar. His Fragments can be read at Belles-Lettres in a bilingual Latin-French edition. It is easier, nowadays, to discover Propertius whose Elegies were taken up by the same publisher and which is also found in the catalog of the Imprimerie Nationale (Cynthia : élégies amoureuses). Unlike Lucius Accius, the information concerning him, which has managed to escape the sieve of centuries, comes from his pen and has not been reported by others. All the same, these autobiographical elements present him as coming from a well-to-do class which could bring him a good education, in spite of the death of the father and the later confiscation of the family lands on decision of the emperor Augustus. Above all, we catch him as a young man, falling madly in love with a woman, Cynthia, who will become his muse. By giving her a pseudonym (probably inspired by Mount Cynthe in Delos, Greece, on which Apollo would be born), he opened the door to all kinds of rumors, some saw her as married, others as a prostitute, but in any case, she embodied the free, learned and erotic woman who inflamed his poetry.
Writing and religion
Afterwards, it was necessary to wait many centuries before meeting an author as talented as his two predecessors, but the wait proved fruitful. Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone was born in 1181 or 1182, and his birthplace and the religion he joined - which canonized him only two years after his death in 1226! - gave him the name by which he is known throughout the world: Francis of Assisi. One can be called to be a saint and not be conventional, as his rebellious youth seems to show, where his demands against the nobility cost him a year in prison, but illness called him to order and forced him to review his career plans. However, he had dreamed of being a knight, but he was no less chivalrous: he spent the family money on the restoration of an old chapel and multiplied the obols. Such generosity earned him a lawsuit from his own father who, unable to see his fortune squandered, wanted to disinherit him. The Church then assured him protection and welcomed him into its bosom. If, of course, his legend is written by boldly mixing reality and myths, such as that of the wolf of Gubbio whom he convinces to radically change his diet, the texts - once deleted those that had been attributed to him by mistake - remain and finish convincing us that Francis of Assisi was not only a good man (also with the animals whose patron saint he will become: october 4, when he is celebrated, is also the day dedicated to them worldwide since 1931), but also a distinguished writer (who had not, however, done great studies, as in all humility he recalled). Beyond the religious message, his Canticle of the Creatures (also called Canticle of Brother Sun
), composed in the winter of 1224-1225 at the Abbey of San Damiano and whose music is unfortunately lost, is considered by some to be the first modern Italian poem. It was written in the Umbrian dialect, which in the end is quite close to the Tuscan language from which today's Italian was derived, after the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Italy decided to adopt a single language in 1861. In the footsteps of Francis of Assisi are two writers, also men of faith, who marked the thirteenth century: Jacopone da Todi (1236-1306) and Ugolino da Brunforte (1262-1348). The first has some points in common with the saint, that of having had at least two lives: one in the world that saw him become a widower, a tragedy from which he recovered only with great difficulty, one within the Church where his opposition to Pope Boniface VIII sent him to prison. A complex soul that he exalts in his Lauds, written more for himself than to enter into communion with his contemporaries, is the key to his immemorial fame. Although some of his praises are dedicated to Christ or the Virgin, others evoke universal themes, such as illness, death, introspection and mystical ecstasy, a whole program that the Belles-Lettres offer for reading. The second led a more conventional life, even if he also had a run-in with Boniface VIII. His life as a recluse gave him plenty of time to write the collection Les Fioretti (Gallimard) and to express his admiration for Francis of Assisi by describing, in 53 chapters, anecdotes and other miracles attributed to the saint. To complete this religious picture, let us mention Federico Frezzi, bishop of the town of Foligno where he was born in the middle of the 14th century. He wrote dogmatic writings but also composed the Quadriregio, an imitation of Dante.Erudition and talent
The sixteenth century opened in the most beautiful way with the publication of a work that, if it was not written by an author from Umbria or the Marches, took place in the region. Thus, in 1528, Baldassare Castiglione published The Book of the Courtesan, which immediately found its audience well beyond the Italian borders. In the form of a conversation, which takes place in the heart of the very refined Court of Urbino in March 1507 and unfolds over four evenings, friends discuss their definition of the accomplished man who would know how to combine, with grace, a sense of duty and casualness. This text, which has become a classic, has been republished over and over again and is of course still available in French (éditions Flammarion, collection GF). Polydore Virgil, born in 1470 in Urbino, where he died in 1555 after many years spent in England, contributed to the promulgation of new ideas thanks to three publications that ensured his recognition (and a ban on publication): Proverbiorum libellus (1498), a collection of Latin proverbs, Anglica Historia (completed in 1513, printed in 1534), which confirms his qualities as a historian, and especially De inventoribus rerum, written, it is said, in three months and published in 1499. Encyclopedic, this work is certainly, but the author goes beyond the simple referencing of the "origins" - from those of the gods to those of marriage, tools, theaters, etc. - since he allows himself to reflect on the history of the world. - He allowed himself to make reflections and comments, including some on the marriage of priests, among others, which earned him some disagreement with the Church. However, he won many readers to his cause and was translated during his lifetime into most European languages. The taste for elsewhere having decidedly struck writers, it is in China that Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) will find his way, after having gone there as part of his ecclesiastical functions. If his elder and fellow citizen had excelled in producing a well-documented and argued history of England, he would be strong in immersing himself totally in the culture of his adopted country. His mastery of Chinese made him the first European to write a book in that language, and his treatises - in particular De l'amitié, published in 1595 - delighted scholars on both continents. Still in bilingual edition, Les Belles-Lettres has produced a magnificent edition of the Real Meaning of "Lord of Heaven", a major text that has become a reference in which the author endeavors to demonstrate that the two beliefs - Christian and Confucian -
are totally compatible. A fascinating man with an astonishing career, Matteo Ricci is also the subject of numerous biographies. Finally, it is impossible to evoke these erudite centuries without mentioning Francesco Angeloni (1587-1652), a playwright but above all a numismatist, who followed in the footsteps of the writer-analysts opened in the 15th century by Cyriacus of Ancona, an epigraphist who was nicknamed the "father of archaeology. The seventeenth century welcomed the poets Guidubaldo Benemati(La Vittoria navale, Il Trivisano, etc.) and Giovanni Francesco Lazzarelli(La Cicceide legitima), while the very end of the eighteenth century was proud to see the birth, in Recanati in 1798, of Giacomo Leopardi, whose influence was compared to that of Dante! Son of a count and a marquise, the young man dedicated his life, however poor, to literature and its fatal aspirations. a "poet of pessimism", he transformed his disappointments into writings, developing a certain philosophy of the pain of living that will be reflected in his "intellectual journal", the Zilbadone, and in his correspondence. The beautiful editions Allia gave extracts of both: Tout est rien, La Théorie du plaisir, Adieu ma pilule, etc. His most famous poem, L'Infini, has been republished by La Pionnière, in no less than 40 different translations! This short life, full of anguish and melancholy, punctuated by many ailments, will end prematurely a few days before Leopardi celebrates his 39th birthday, but his fame will survive him. Finally, the contemporary era opened with the promise of future writers thanks to the prolific Paolo Volponi, who dug his political ideas into his novels and poems (from Il Ramarro in 1948 to Il Leone e la volpe in 1995), twice awarded the Viraggio Prize and twice awarded the Strega Prize.
