Francesco Petrarca ('Petrarch') is often referred to as the 'first Renaissance man', a pioneer of humanism and a poet whose influence was both powerful and enduring. Although the validity of the description has been the subject of intensive debate, the importance which has been attached to his humanistic interests and vernacular poetry continues to shape our understanding of his thought, and has significantly affected the way in which his engagement with moral philosophy is perceived. Comparatively little scholarly effort has been made to analyse Petrarch's moral philosophy, but where his ethical concerns have been addressed, his status as a humanist and poet has led to many of his Latin works being viewed as eclectic and frequently contradictory texts. Concerned more with literary imitation than with philosophical consistency, Petrarch is often held to have equivocated between Stoic and Peripatetic positions recovered principally from Cicero, and a fideistic theology derived from St. Augustine, and to have been influenced by a preoccupation with stylistic interests. In this thesis, I offer a reinterpretation of Petrarch's moral philosophy. Although Petrarch's influence on humanistic practice and vernacular poetry is considerable, his reputation as a poet by no means encapsulates either his own view of himself, or the manner in which his contemporaries perceived him. Petrarch not only saw himself as a 'moral philosopher and poet', but also viewed the practice of eloquence as being indistinguishable from the moral philosopher's task. This corresponds to the distribution of Petrarch's works in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, and also to the opinions expressed by contemporary friends and admirers. Far from being an inconsistent moral aphorist, I show that Petrarch elaborated a coherent system of moral philosophy and I offer a re-evaluation of Petrarch's debt to classical, patristic and medieval thought. Looking first at the Secretum, I argue that, rather than having been a contradictory author motivated primarily by a desire to emulate classical works, Petrarch constructed a consistent notion of virtue based on the early writings of St. Augustine, whose debt to classical literature he knew intimately. I then turn to examine the application of this abstract notion of virtue to a more practical philosophy of living. In chapters dealing with otium, solitude and friendship, Petrarch's treatment of these concepts is shown not merely to have been informed by his assimilation of St. Augustine's theology, but also to have interacted closely with key texts in the history of medieval monasticism. In a final chapter dealing with the relationship between moral philosophy and eloquence, I attempt to demonstrate that, far from having been an unreconstructed 'Ciceronian', Petrarch's rhetorical theory was derived from a more medieval and Christian understanding of the role of oratory, and I offer a new reading of his provocative attacks on the rhetorical claims of contemporary Aristotelians.

My thesis is focused on the philological, historical and cultural significance of Bernardo Ilicino’s fifteenth-century Canzoniere, dedicated to Ginevra Luti, of which I provide a critical and annotated edition. Bernardo Ilicino, a doctor by profession, as well a diplomat, poet, narrator, commentator, was a multifaceted personality in the Italian Renaissance. He came into contact with several culture circles: Siena, where he followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming lecturer of medicine in the Studio and similarly taking an interest in philology, philosophy and literature, and where his lyrical works earned a reputation for contributing to develop the local production of vernacular poetry; Rome, where he performed diplomatic tasks; Ferrara, where he was called by Duke Borso d'Este to teach medicine in the academic year 1468-69. In the same city he worked on the exposition of Francesco Petrarca’s Trionfi, dedicated to Borso d’Este. In the first part of my thesis I examine the fortuna of Bernardo Ilicino’s lyrics among his contemporaries, and the relationships existing between his Canzoniere for Ginevra Luti and the main Canzonieri of the second half of the fifteenth Century. In particular, I focused on the lyrical production modelled on Petrarch’s poems, that was produced in the two geographical areas of Siena and Ferrara over the period 1460-1480. The reason for this choice is twofold: firstly, during that time Ferrara and Siena saw a noticeable increment in the production of Petrarchan Canzonieri. Secondly, while we have scanty information about Bernardo’s life and movements, it is certain his origin by Siena and that he taught in Ferrara. With an eye to the chronology of their lives and works, the poets that offer themselves for suitable comparison are: in Siena, Benedetto da Cingoli, who wrote his Canzoniere in the same years of Bernardo and was his friend and estimator, and Nicolò Angeli; in Ferrara, Ludovico Sandeo and Filippo Nuvoloni, who belonged to the entourage of Alberto d’Este; Matteo Maria Boiardo; and Agostino Staccoli. The comparative study has been primarily conducted on unpublished material preserved in Siena (Biblioteca Comunale) and in Rome (Biblioteca Vaticana). In the second part of my thesis I provide a critical and annotated edition of Ilicino’s Canzoniere with commentary. The copy-test of my edition is that transmitted by manuscript S (Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, MS I XI 24). The apparatus includes the variants attested by manuscript R (Roma, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chigi M.V.102). My study also includes detailed analysis – presented in the ‘‘Nota al testo’’ – of the varia lectio offered by copious emendations to Ilicino’s text, introduced in S by an early-sixteenth-century hand (S1). The analysis in the commentary is developed along the lines of three main direction: 1. Metatextual elements (sources, inter and intratextuality); 2. Textual elements (motifs, themes, images, allegorical figurations); 3. Macrotextual elements (narrative cycles, series, ligaments between different texts).

Michelangelo's poetry, a subject that has only recently enjoyed renewed attention by both Italian and foreign scholars, can be regarded as an invaluable document to the understanding ofthe.artist's personality and religious beliefs. It is well known that Michelangelo's religiosity was always a major source of inspiration for him. Since his youth, he had tried to reconcile pagan Humanism and Christian faith through the Neoplatonic philosophy of the Florentine humanist Marsilio Ficino, whose influential thought dominated the cultural spirit of the time. Also influential in the artist's religious formation was the figure of Gerolamo Savonarola. An advocate of moral reformation, Savonarola's sermons against the corruption of Florentine society and against the Church in general had a profound effect on Michelangelo's spirituality. After attempting to contextualise Michelangelo's poetry in the frame of Renaissance Italy, this research has been concerned primarily with the study of the poetic correspondence the artist shared with Vittoria Colonna, the Italian poetess much celebrated in her times both for her spiritual sonnets and for her religious 'activism'. It is in fact shortly after the beginning of his third and final stay in Rome (1535-6) that Michelangelo's faith seemed to develop towards the same Christcentred religiosity cultivated by the Italian evangelists called Spirituali, the religious 'circle' Vittoria Colonna was acquainted with. Regarded by many recent scholars more as 'a religious attitude' than as a unified movement, the 'circle'~ of the Spirituali was guided by some of the most influential Roman Catholic cardinals, i.e. .. cardinals Gasparo Contarini and Reginald Pole, who sympathised with Luther's doctrine ofjustification and, before the Council of Trent, worked to seek to obtain a reunification with the Protestants. The roots of this very peculiar Italian evangelical movement have been found In the humanism and Neo-Platonism of the preceding century, 'with possible connections to Gerolamo Savonarola and the Spanish alumbrados. Interestingly, the same roots can be traced in both Vittoria Colonna's and Michelangelo's poetic Journey. Far from believing that Vittoria Colonna was the only spiritual 'muse' of Michelangelo, this research will nevertheless outline that the same desire for understanding and for discussing the new theological ideas of the time was the basis of their poetic dialogue. Most important, the deep influence of Colonna's evangelical views and lyrics on Michelangelo's own figurative poetic language and aesthetic conception will finally come to light.

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Campana's Life and Work form the two main sections of my thesis. In the first part, I reconstruct the chronology of Campana's life against the background of his times. There were, hitherto, considerable periods in the poet's life which were either unknown, or reconstructed through hearsay in the absence of original documentation. In the course of my research both in Italy (Marradi, Florence, Bologna, Rome), and Switzerland (Lugano), I was able to discover many unpublished documents, some of which fill in gaps, others which challenge the previously accepted chronology. Some of these documents I have published in two articles (The Modern Language Review, October 1983, and Italian Studies,1985) which I am attaching to this thesis; others I have transcribed in an Appendix. In the study of Campana's work, I examine successive publications of his poems and compare them with some original manuscripts, now in the hands of relatives or in archives and libraries in Italy. I discuss the phenomenon of Variants and other aspects of Campana's method of work which contributed to the many disparities found in successive publications. A comparative table of Il Piu Lungo Giorno and the Canti Orfici is a major part of this thesis. Il Piu Lungo Giorno, lost in 1913 and not found until 1971 has hitherto been surprisingly neglected, although it enables us to trace Campana's poetic development over a crucial phase of his career. I have limited my study of the Canti Orfici to two poems which help to distinguish the various phases of Campana's development and show the emergence of ideas which appear characteristic of his mature art. In conclusion I look at changing attitudes to Campana, from 1914 to the present day.

This thesis focuses on the keyword sospiro (‘sigh’) in the poetry of Guido Cavalcanti. It reads this word in relation to the lyric poetry of Occitania and Italy, and medical literature related to lovesickness. It approaches Cavalcanti’s work in this way in order to avoid the distortion of a Dantean lens, as part of a trend since the anniverary of his death in 2000 towards considering Cavalcanti’s work on its own terms. Inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords, this thesis looks beyond the familiar presence of sospiro in lyric poetry, revealing a word acting as a locus of innovative expression. It finds that while the sigh is generally regarded as a literary commonplace, it can in fact tell us much about the society and culture in which it is used. Sospiro is then traced in medical literature, charting its evolution as a symptom of the disease of lovesickness. Against this backdrop, a reading of sospiro in Cavalcanti’s poetry is given which argues for the need to listen to both the lyric and medical contexts when interpreting the role of this word. As such, this thesis offers a consideration of these two contexts in parallel, through sospiro, for the first time.