L’immagine della Polonia in Italia tra il XIV e il XVI secolo

Abstract

The image of Poland in Italy between XIV and XVI century. The article analyses the image of Poland conveyed in works – mainly literary and historical – written in Italy, both in Latin and in Italian, over a span of three centuries. The entry of Poland into the Italian collective imagery was slow and gradual, as witnessed by some documents that, in the XIV (by Fazio degli Uberti) and still in the XV century (by Andrea da Barberino, Masuccio Salernitano and Giovanni Sercambi), position it in some distant and wild realm beyond the boundaries of the civilized world. In more complex representations which begin to appear since the middle of the XV century (by Enea Silvio Piccolomini and Ambrogio Contarini), the image of Poland oscillates between diversity and belonging to the same civilization. In a couple of Italian XVI-century literary polonica (by Matteo Bandello and Baldassar Castiglione) Poland appears no more so exotic as it was some decades earlier. By the middle of the XVI century Poland is a powerful state, respected and admired, capable of offering even abroad models of sovereigns and military leaders, as Paolo Giovio’s Elogia clearly demonstrate. In Italy works – especially historical – devoted to Poland multiplied in the second half of the XVI century, showing a peculiar interest for such characteristics of Poland like the state model, the prerogatives of the szlachta and its warrior virtues