ABSTRACT
The topos of violence is pervasive among the comic literature of the Italian Middle Ages. Threats, imprecations, insults, and challenges were routinely hurled against adversaries and friends alike, and authors frequently depicted acts of violence committed against themselves and others. In the literary tradition of Italy, such language appeared in lyrics treating political topics (e.g., Rustico Filippi's “A voi che ve ne andaste per paura”; Pietro de’ Faitinelli's “Veder mi par già quel da la Faggiuola”) as well as occasional poems addressed to specific individuals (e.g., Cecco Angiolieri's I non vi miro perzar, morditori”). 1 In the 1950s, critic Mario Marti published some of the fundamental studies of the Italian comic movement in general, and of Tolomei in particular. To explain the motif of invective, Marti cited the example of Pietro de’ Faitinelli, who had penned a sonnet praising Death for taking his garrulous wife from him, but who historically was survived by her. 2 Marti concluded that such violent language represents purely literary exercises, and not the actual expression of animus on the part of the poets. While Marti's generalization about all Italian comic poets drawn from one particular case is problematic—particularly when dealing with sonnets of political insult where the issues literally had life and death consequences—it did shift the discussion away from the historical figures of the poets and their interpersonal relationships. In other words, Marti's conclusions turned scholarship from the positivistic approach of analyzing the presupposed biographical veracity of the comic sonnets, and instead he induced critics to examine the literary and artistic motivations for such statements. This chapter addresses one such example of the literary representation of violence among Italian comic poets (a movement also labeled as “jocose” by some critics). In the case to be examined, the poet depicts the violent acts committed against him by a family member. It is my intention to demonstrate that his representations of violence serve broader ideological and artistic purposes, and raise social and cultural issues current in his age.
