Renaissance Encyclopaedism: Studies in Curiosity and Ambition. W. Scott Blanchard and Andrea Severi, eds. Essays and Studies 41. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2018. 468 pp. $49.95.
esty and chastity. He analyzes the connection between literary interpretation and artistic renderings. Tobias Leuker addresses Petrarchan sonnets that are connected with visual arts, noting that these poems are rare and do not describe the works of art they refer to or do so only partially. “Petrarchismo (e manierismo) in Accademia,” by Renzo Rabboni, elucidates the connection between the Accademia Fiorentina and Petrarchism under Nicolò Martelli and Benedetto Varchi in 1544 and 1545. Part 3 opens with Stefano Carrai’s “Petrarchismo e umanesimo.” This essay offers a survey of Latin translations of single texts from the Canzoniere and shows how classical literary forms such as elegy, eclogue, epigram, and ode were introduced into poetry written in volgare. Stefano Jossa writes about the relationship between Petrarchism and classicism, comparing Annibal Caro’s Petrarchism, based on poetry and allegory, with Ludovico Castelvetro’s Petrarchism, based on language and form, and questioning the nature of imitatio. Massimo Danzi analyzes the development of the eclogue, with examples from Sannazaro’s Arcadia and Tasso’s Aminta, and shows how this literary form is capable of establishing a metatextual dialogue within the tradition of Virgil and Petrarch. In section 4, Franz Penzenstadler focuses on the relationship between literary and musical madrigals and Petrarchism, while Florian Mehltretter looks for Petrarchan traces of love poetry in the Mozartian libretti of Da Ponte. On the whole, this book shows that approaching Petrarch and Petrarchism from an interdisciplinary perspective is suitable for the complexity of the matter; it achieves important results in showing why Petrarch has been held up as auctoritas throughout the centuries and which forms of Petrarchism have been generated as a result.