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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 1134: Literary and Pictorial Delights: Pleasure as Cultural Practice in the Late Middle Ages and the Beginning of the Renaissance, II

Wednesday 3 July 2013, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Carlos Rafael Ruta, Escuela de Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de San Martín
Moderator/Chair:Gert Melville, Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (FOVOG), Technische Universität Dresden
Paper 1134-a'Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse' (Dante, Inferno V, 115): Pleasure of Love and Literary Pleasure in Boccacio
(Language: English)
Alessandra Beccarisi, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università del Salento, Lecce
Index terms: Language and Literature - Italian
Paper 1134-bThe Pleasure in Poggio Bracciolini
(Language: English)
Martín José Ciordia, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) / Universidad de Buenos Aires
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin
Abstract

In a Familiar Letter from 1346, Petrarch praised reading as a form of beneficial pleasure. He contrasted that activity with the superficial delight derived from images. Leon Battista Alberti’s thoughts on the matter follow a different path: in De Pictura, he asserted that fruition towards images was also a source of legitimate pleasure. Our panel will discuss the concept of pleasure derived from the contemplation of texts and images, from mid 14th century until the beginnings of the 16th century. We will consider the deviating paths between them, trace possible dialectic relationships through which they strengthened each other, or even analyze the conflicts that arose in this paragon.