‘COME SCULTOR CHE SCOPRA I GRAND'ARTE IN PICCIOL'OPRA’: LUIGI TANSILLO AND A MINIATURECANZONIEREIN THERIME DI DIVERSIOF 1552

Within the broader panorama of Cinquecento Petrarchism, the Neapolitan lyric is regarded by modern critics as possessing a number of distinctive features: the prevalence of elaborate rhetorical devices, a tendency towards concettismo as evidenced in the so-called ‘epigrammatic sonnet’, and, in terms of subject matter, a receptiveness towards realistic portrayals of the natural world. Alongside these predominantly microtextual characteristics, Neapolitan verse in the middle years of the Cinquecento is further singled out for the apparent absence of canzonieri (structured lyric sequences with a narrative element), contrasted with their increasing popularity elsewhere in Italy. Though this thesis has its origins in a more generalized truism, namely that sixteenth-century literary consciousness lacked the concept of the CANZONIERE, its persistence in discussions of the Southern lyric is indicative also of critical neglect. Whilst numerous studies have appeared in recent years discussing canzonieri fro...