Italian literature: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

St. Francis of Assisi

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli by Santi di Tito shows Machiavelli in black and red robes, holding a document, against a plain background.

Baldassare Castiglione

Commedia dell'arte

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Benedetto Croce

Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carra, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, and Gino Severini, founders of the Futurist Movement, stand side by side in coats and hats.

Luigi Pirandello

Why has Dante's Inferno been important to Irish writers and artists?

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

Neorealism Today in History—January 27: Dante’s Divine Justice Hermeticism verismo crepuscolarismo scapigliatura Marinism stracittà fidenziana Tuscan school English literature French literature African literature American literature Arabic literature German literature Spanish literature Japanese literature Latin American literature Chinese literature

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

default image

Giovanni Guareschi

Italian journalist and novelist

Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Italian artist

Dante

Dante

Italian poet

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli by Santi di Tito shows Machiavelli in black and red robes, holding a document, against a plain background.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Italian statesman and writer

Engraving of Petrarch wearing a laurel wreath and a robe, holding a closed book in his left hand.

Petrarch

Italian poet

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

Italian poet and scholar

Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno

Italian philosopher

Pope Leo XIII seated in formal papal robes and cape, wearing a cross necklace, facing forward, in a black and white portrait from 1878.

Leo XIII

pope

Luigi Pirandello

Luigi Pirandello

Italian author

Painted terracotta bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, attributed to 15th or 16th-century Florentine artists, showing a stern man in a red cap and draped garment.

Lorenzo de’ Medici

Italian statesman

Italian poet Torquato Tasso

Torquato Tasso

Italian poet

Ariosto, woodcut after a drawing by Titian from the third edition of Orlando furioso, 1532.

Ludovico Ariosto

Italian author

Gaia Girace and Margherita Mazzucco sit on a couch in front of a painting, with Mazzucco holding an open book, in a scene from the HBO series My Brilliant Friend.

Elena Ferrante

Italian author

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Gabriele D’Annunzio

Italian writer and political leader

default image

Poliziano

Italian poet and humanist

Umberto Eco

Umberto Eco

Italian author and literary critic

default image

Giambattista Basile

Italian author

Rossi, Aldo: Quartier Schützenstrasse

Aldo Rossi

Italian architect

Pietro Metastasio.

Pietro Metastasio

Italian poet

Leopardi, Giacomo

Giacomo Leopardi

Italian poet and philosopher

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Part of a fresco showing Dante Alighieri and view of Florence by Domenico di Michelino located at the Duomo (Italy).

Literature of Italy Quiz