The Disperata, from Medieval Italy to Renaissance France

Rich with morose invectives, the lyric genre of the disperata builds toward a crescendo of despair, with the speakers damning and condemning their beloved, their patron, their enemy, their destiny, Fortune, Love and often themselves. Although Petrarch and Petrarchism have been amply analyzed as fertile sources for late Renaissance poets in France, the influence of the Italian disperata in this context has yet to receive proper scholarly attention. This book explores the beginning of the dispe…