UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations

334 Pages·2013·2.17 MB·English

by  Brittany Asaro

UCLA
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
The Unseen Beloved: Love by Hearsay in Medieval and Early Modern Italian Literature
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67m5x9cj
Author
Asaro, Brittany Kay
Publication Date
2013

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
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The Unseen Beloved:
Love by Hearsay in Medieval and Early Modern
Italian Literature

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
in Italian

by

Brittany Kay Asaro

2013
© Copyright by
Brittany Kay Asaro
2013
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

The Unseen Beloved:
Love by Hearsay in Medieval and Early Modern
Italian Literature

by

Brittany Kay Asaro
Doctor of Philosophy in Italian
University of California, Los Angeles, 2013
Professor Massimo Ciavolella, Chair

In this dissertation, I trace the development of love by hearsay both as a topos in narrative
and as a point of polemic from the origins of Italian literature to the middle of the sixteenth
century. I propose that the idea of love by hearsay occupies a highly significant position in
Italian medieval and early modern thought, both fascinating and perplexing writers for hundreds
of years. I highlight the transition of this theme from a courtly poetic motif, popularized by the
Provençal troubadours, qualified by medieval Italian poets, and satirized by Giovanni Boccaccio;
to a questione d’amore debated in sixteenth-century dialogues, treatises, and lectures. Italian
writers were deeply divided on the subject, torn between, on one hand, cases of love by hearsay
in some of the most influential works in their canon, and, on the other hand, the conflict between
the notion of an “unseen beloved” and the dominant understanding of love as a reaction to a
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visual stimulus, supported by a long philosophical and medical tradition.
This controversy culminates in a dialogue devoted exclusively to the subject of love by
hearsay, Luc’Antonio Ridolfi’s Aretefila (1562). Ridolfi pits courtly ideals and scientific theories
against each other through the ideologies of his two interlocutors. The outcome of the debate in
this dialogue symbolizes the general victory of an academic, humanistic understanding of love
over courtly erotic ideals in Italy by the mid-sixteenth century. At this point in Italian intellectual
history, a kind of love that existed in great love stories but that could not be sustained
scientifically could not be considered a realistic possibility. Ridolfi reinforces the division
between what is poetically and realistically possible, effectively banishing love by hearsay to the
literary realm, and concluding that its occurrence in the natural world would require nothing
short of a miracle. The principal objective of this dissertation is to demonstrate that by tracing
the development of the topos of love by hearsay throughout Italian literary history, we may
analyze the displacement of courtly values by academic and humanistic scholarship as the
supreme authority on eros.

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The dissertation of Brittany Kay Asaro is approved.
Luigi Ballerini
Franco Betti
Peter Stacey
Massimo Ciavolella, Committee Chair

University of California, Los Angeles
2013

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To the Unseen Beloved

“Though you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
1 Peter 1:8 (NIV)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii

VITA xi

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER ONE: LOVE BY HEARSAY IN MEDIEVAL ITALIAN POETRY 11

The Exception That Proves the Rule: Love by Hearsay According to Giacomo da Lentini,
Rustico Filippi, and Cecco d’Ascoli
Love By Hearsay Between Virtuous Men According to Dante, Petrarch, and Their
Sources

CHAPTER TWO: LOVE BY HEARSAY IN THE DECAMERON 43

Love by Hearsay in the Early Italian Short Story
The King of France and The Marchioness of Montferrat (Dec. I.5): A Parody of the Vida
of Jaufré Rudel
Gerbino and the Princess Of Tunis (Dec. IV.4): Boccaccio’s Confrontation with a
Literary Polemic
Lodovico-Anichino And Beatrice (Dec. VII.7): A New Love for a New Society

CHAPTER THREE: LOVE BY HEARSAY AS A QUESTIONE D’AMORE IN THE 88
SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Baldassarre Castiglione’s Libro del cortegiano (1528): Love By Hearsay in Action at the
Court of Urbino
Giuseppe Betussi’s Raverta (1544): A Hybrid Dialogue
Ortensio Lando’s Questiti Amorosi (1552): Literary Authority in a Collection of Dubbi
d’Amore
Benedetto Varchi’s Sopra Alcune Quistioni d’Amore (1554): The Triumph of Logic in
the Academy
Flaminio Nobili’s Trattato dell’Amor Humano (1556): The Question of Love by Hearsay
in a Neoplatonic Love Treatise
Lodovico Domenichi’s Dialogo d’Amore (1562): Tension in the Drawing Room

CHAPTER FOUR: LUC’ANTONIO RIDOLFI’S ARETEFILA (1562) 140

From the Florentine Academy to Aretefila’s Drawing Room
Federigo’s Argument for Love by Hearsay
Lucio’s Argument Against Love by Hearsay
Aretefila’s Judgment and the Miracle of Love by Hearsay

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APPENDIX A: INDEX OF INSTANCES OF LOVE BY HEARSAY IN MEDIEVAL AND 193
EARLY MODERN ITALIAN LITERATURE AND ITS SOURCES

APPENDIX B: DIPLOMATIC TRANSCRIPTION OF LUC’ANTONIO RIDOLFI’S ARETEFILA 195

BIBLIOGRAPHY 311
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In order to manage the great mental (not to mention emotional—and even physical,
considering those long hours slumping at my desk!) challenge of a long-term research project, I
approached my dissertation as a knight would approach the battlefield. Perhaps I had been
reading too much Orlando furioso at the time, but looking at the dissertation as something to
vanquish or be vanquished by helped me to stay committed to it, and to keep plugging along,
even when it became difficult. I would like to now thank my fellow men and women of arms,
without whom I would not have emerged victorious.
First, I give my sincerest thanks to my dissertation adviser and committee chair,
Professor Massimo Ciavolella, who met with me countless times over the two years it took to
complete this project. Although I benefited enormously from Professor Ciavolella’s expertise on
notions of love in medieval and early modern Italy, it is his encouragement and support that I
value above all. Writing this dissertation was much less daunting because I had an adviser that
believed in me and my scholarship. Even when, at the end of our meetings, I left his office with a
to-do list a mile long, I felt empowered to complete every task. I am grateful to have had the
opportunity to work closely with such a knowledgeable and kind person.
I thank Professor Luigi Ballerini, in whose class on early Italian poetry I first became
fascinated by the idea of love senza vedere, after reading Giacomo da Lentini’s “Amor è un
desio che ven da core.” Considering the dynamic way in which Professor Ballerini teaches
poetry, it is no wonder that this sonnet caught my attention.
I thank the other distinguished members of my dissertation committee, Professor Peter
Stacey, for his thoughtful feedback, and Professor Franco Betti. I also thank Professor Remo
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