2018/12/06 by Marco Sgarbi · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Renaissance and Early Modern Studies #Renaissance Literature and Culture #Historical Influence and Diplomacy
paper · doi:10.1080/17496977.2018.1521628
openalex publication_date 2018/12/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
What did it mean to “vulgarize” in Renaissance Italy? Was it simply a matter of translating into the vernacular, or did it mean making a text more accessible to the people – to in some sense popularize it? The answer is far from simple and certainly never one-sided; therefore, each individual case needs to be independently assessed on its own merits. This article seeks to shed some light at least on the major treatments of the theory of vulgarization by the likes of Ludovico Castelvetro, Faustus Longianus, Francesco Robortello, Alessandro Piccolomini, Orazio Toscanella and Girolamo Catena, which were central to the debate from the 1540s onwards.