Discussions, overviews and commentaries

Some Reflections on a New Edition of C. Carmignano’s Viaggio della Serenissima S. Bona Regina in Polonia

PixDiscussions, overviews and commentaries, Francesco Cabras, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The article is a review of Andrea Colelli (ed.), C. Carmignano: Viaggio della Serenissima S. Bona Regina in Polonia, con nota introduttiva di Luigi Marinelli. Roma, 2018. While discussing this edition, it includes proposals concerning the intertextual dimension of the poem, drawing attention to the similarities between the first ‘capitulo’ of the poem and Joannes Secundus’s elegy I 8, both texts being denied as epithalamia.

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Tommaso Fiore and the Crows of Warsaw

PixAlessandro Ajres, Discussions, overviews and commentaries, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The book is a commentary on the second trip that Tommaso Fiore made to Poland in 1953. He enthusiastically confronts what he considers to be enormous progress in comparison to his first visit (1948). Moreover, while speaking with some representatives of Polish society, he explores various topics, such as agriculture, the state-religion relationship, or the freedom of intellectuals. The text is a rare and detailed account of what was the Poland of the 1950s as seen from the perspective of a great historian.

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Miron Costin – Chronicler and Poet

PixDiscussions, overviews and commentaries, Heritage of Bona Sforza, Janina Janas, nr 1 (2) 2020

The text is based on the analysis of the historiographic and literary work of Miron Costin, who held positions of primary importance in the military, administrative and political life of the Principality of Moldavia during the central decades of the 17th century. In particular the narrative structures of his chronicles are examined, which are often inspired by the texts of contemporary and earlier Polish historians. Furthermore, the contribution to the affirmation of the Latinity of the Romanian people is clarified, when the question had not yet been put on the agenda. Finally, the echoes of Greek and Latin classicism are identified in the verses of the poem La vita del mondo (The Life of the World), steeped in motifs and modules of the overflowing spirit of the Baroque era.

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Italian History of One Literary Genre

PixDiscussions, overviews and commentaries, Heritage of Bona Sforza, Katarzyna Kowalik, nr 1 (2) 2020

The text is devoted to Giancarlo Alfano and Francesco de Cristofaro’s monograph Il romanzo in Italia published in 2018. The work is an attempt to systematize the information about Italian tradition of the genre which nowadays unquestionably dominates the publishing market. Moreover, it describes the structure of the publication, methodological assumptions adopted by the authors, their objectives, and the way of their realisation. The analysis of these elements shows whether the work discussed can be an important point of reference for future academic works dedicated to Italian novels.

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