The Pedigree of a Soneto a lo Divino

Abstract

T IS a well-known fact that one of the forms assumed by the reaction to the Canzoniere of Petrarch during the Renaissance took the shape of a spiritualization of the amorous lyrics in the collection. The leader in this movement was Gerolamo Malipiero with his Petrarca spirituale (sonetti et canzoni di Francesco Petrarca divenuto theologo et spirituale), first printed in Venice in 1536 and reprinted at least nine times thereafter. Among the followers of Malipiero were Feliciano Umbruno da Civitella with his Dialogo del dolce morire di Gesu Cristo sopra le sei visioni di M. Francesco Petrarca (1544), Gian Giacomo Salvatorino with his Thesoro de Sacra Scrittura sopra Rime del Petrarca (1547), and Pietro Vincenzo Sagliano with his Esposizione spirituale sopra il Petrarca (1590).1 That in Italy this spiritualization was not limited to Petrarch we may note from the following title: Scielta delle Rime Amorose del Sig. Torquato Tasso. Fatta spirituale dal Cavalier Selva, medico parmigiano (Modena, 1611). A similar reaction spread to Spain. Sebastian de C6rdova wrote Las obras de Boscan y Garcilaso trasladadas en materias christianas y religiosas (1575), and Juan Andosilla Larramendi, Cristo Nuestro Seior en los versos del principe de nuestros poetas, Garcilaso de la Vega, sacados de diferentes partes y unidos con ley de centones (1628).2 In 1580 was published the work of Bartolome Ponce, Primera parte de la Clara Diana, repartida en siete libros,3 a divinization of the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor. There is no literary merit whatsoever in any