In this study I propose to make what will merely
be a beginning in the investigation of a subject of considerable importance in the history of Renaissance literature
in Italy. By "the Dialogue" I mean that peculiar literary
form which consists in the setting down of a real or
imaginary conversation between two or more persons - exclusive
of dramatic dialogue deliberately written for acting purposes.
This form certainly has always enjoyed some popularity among
the world's writers, from earliest literature down to such
modern authors as Walter Savage Landor with his Imaginary
Conversations, but nowhere at any time has it flourished so
vigorously and so prolifically as it did in Italy in the sixteenth century. Curiously enough, it appears to be in that
century only that it was cultivated to such an extent in
Italian. A number of earlier dialogues were written in Italy,
but written usually in Latin. A few dialogues were written in
Italian later than that century, among the most important being
those of Galileo Galilei and those of Leopardi (the Operette
Morali). But within the limits of the sixteenth century were
published dialogues by many of the most noted writers of
the times, as well as many more by authors who nowadays are
almost or entirely forgotten. It is with this great spate
of dialogues that I wish to deal.Besides this limitation of time, I must impose yet
another limitation on my subject: I shall deal only with the
dialogue in prose. This is a minor restriction, verse dialogues
being rare, but one in which I am upheld by no less an authority
than Tasso, who, in his study of the art of dialogue, recommends
prose as the only fit medium for this form (although he himself
wrote a few dialogues in verse). And if we consider that
dialogue should be a reproduction of conversation, this
recommendation is logical.First of all, then, I present a brief discussion of
the causes and extent and variety of the prose dialogue in
Italian in the sixteenth century; then a list of the writers of
dialogues, their works, and, so far as possible, some indication
of their significance
