Il Malmantile racquistato

Il Malmantile racquistato (Malmantile Recaptured) is an Italian mock-heroic epic poem by Lorenzo Lippi (1606–65) first published posthumously in 1676.

Il Malmantile racquistato
by Lorenzo Lippi
Title page of Lorenzo Lippi's poem Il Malmantile racquistato. Print by Francesco Zuccarelli[1] after Lorenzo Lippi
Written	1643-1644
First published in	1676
Country	Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Language	Italian
Genre(s)	mock-heroic epic poem
Form	epic poem of 12 cantos
Meter	ottava rima
Rhyme scheme	abababcc
Media type	print: hardback

Plot

The poem is mostly compounded out of a variety of popular tales; its principal subject matter is an expedition for the recovery of the castle of Malmantile by the troops of Baldone, who try to reestablish the righteous reign of Queen Celidora by overthrowing her usurper Bertinella, aided by the witch Martinazza.^[2]

Background

Lorenzo Lippi's Malmantile racquistato was published under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Perlone Zipoli. Il Malmantile racquistato is an Italian mock-heroic romance influenced by Alessandro Tassoni's La secchia rapita.^[3] According to Filippo Baldinucci Lippi intended the Malmantile to be the reverse of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered).^[2]

Lippi began to write the poem in 1644. The manuscript circulated in Florence during the latter years of the seventeenth century; it was first published posthumously in 1676 and re-issued with an extensive commentary by Paolo Minucci in 1688.^[3]

Several members of the Florentine Accademia degli Apatisti, to which Lippi belonged, feature under pseudonym in the poem. The Argomenti, or themes, that precede each canto of the poem were conceived by Antonio Malatesti, a prominent member of the Academy.^[4] During the eighteenth century, Lippi’s Malmantile racquistato enjoyed immense popularity - proven by its five editions. Particularly important is the edition by canon Antonio Maria Biscioni published in Florence in 1731.^[5]

The poem is full of Florentine proverbs, sayings and popular language,^[3] and is counted by the Accademia della Crusca as a testo di lingua.^[6]

References

1. Massar, Phyllis Dearborn (September 1998). "The Prints of Francesco Zuccarelli". Print Quarterly. XV.
2. D'Afflitto, Chiara; Carminati, Clizia (2005). "Lippi, Lorenzo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 65: Levis–Lorenzetti (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
3. Goudriaan 2017, p. 213.
4. De Miranda, Girolamo (2007). "MALATESTI, Antonio". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 68: Malatacca–Mangelli (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
5. Petrucci, Armando (1968). "Biscioni, Antonio Maria". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 10: Biagio–Boccaccio (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
6. Vocabolario della lingua italiana dell’Accademia della Crusca, Firenze 1865, p. 943.

Sources

• Morsolin, Bernardo (1880). Storia della letteratura italiana: il seicento. Milan: Vallardi. pp. 37-39. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
• Pizzorusso, Claudio (2014). Alessandra Giannotti; Claudio Pizzorusso (eds.). "Lorenzo Lippi e la "tradizione dell'ordinario"". Puro, Semplice e Naturale Nell'arte a Firenze Tra Cinque e Seicento. Florence: Giunti Editore: 56–79.
• Di Santo, Lucia (2015). Rinaldo Rinaldi (ed.). "Una citazione settecentesca del "Malmantile racquistato": il "Torquato Tasso" di Carlo Goldoni" (PDF). Parole rubate. Rivista internazionale di studi sulla citazione (12): 119–136.
• Goudriaan, Elisa (2017). "The Shared Cultural World of the Medici Princes and the Florentine Patricians: Musical Performances, European Networks, and Cultural Academies" (PDF). Florentine Patricians and Their Networks. Brill Publishers. pp. 165–225. doi:10.1163/9789004353589_006. ISBN 9789004346529.