The Storia della letteratura italiana (History of Italian Literature) is an essay written by Italian literary critic Francesco de Sanctis, published by Morano in two volumes in 1870 and 1871.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/De_Sanctis%2C_Francesco_%E2%80%93_Storia_della_letteratura_italiana%2C_Vol._I%2C_1912_%E2%80%93_BEIC_1806199.pdf/page1-220px-De_Sanctis%2C_Francesco_%E2%80%93_Storia_della_letteratura_italiana%2C_Vol._I%2C_1912_%E2%80%93_BEIC_1806199.pdf.jpg)
It is considered the first truly complete, organic treatment of Italian literature as a whole.
Subdivision
editThe Storia della letteratura italiana consists of the following 20 chapters (the last two are somewhat shorter and less in-depth, due to pressure the publisher put on De Sanctis to complete the work):
- Volume I
- I–II – Sicilian and Tuscan literature
- III (Lirica di Dante) – poetry of Dante Alighieri
- IV – 13th century poetry
- V ("Mysteries and visions") – primitive chivalry literature and Holy Bible
- VI – 14th century
- VII (La Commedia) – Dante's influence
- VIII – Petrarch's Il Canzoniere
- IX – Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron
- X (Il trecentista) – Franco Sacchetti's work
- XI (Le stanze) – 15th century (Leon Battista Alberti, Angelo Poliziano, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Giovanni Pontano)
- XII – 16th century
- Volume II
- XIII – Ludovico Ariosto's L'Orlando furioso
- XIV – Teofilo Folengo
- XV – Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini
- XVI – Pietro Aretino
- XVII – Torquato Tasso
- XVIII – Giambattista Marino and the Academy of Arcadia
- XIX (La nuova scienza) – Metastasio, Carlo Goldoni, Giuseppe Parini, Vittorio Alfieri, ugo Foscolo and Alessandro Manzoni