TRAGEDIA DELLA LIBERTA' E UTOPIA DI PACE. LA SOFONISBA DI GIANGIORGIO TRISSINO

Abstract

In the conflict of interpretations that affected Sofonisba, the first regular tragedy in Italian by Vicenza's Giangiorgio Trissino (1478-1550), two different interpretative lines were clearly distinguished. While agreeing on the importance of the work in the context of the renewal of the tragic form of the early sixteenth century, however, particularly disagree on one point, in recognizing or deny her the presence of a political ideology, of an intimate conflict. If, in fact, Marco Ariani underlines the diplomatic and political commitment made by Vicenza, an exponent of the pro-imperial feudal aristocracy, supporter of the policy of the Curia of Leo X, Giulio Ferroni, on the other hand, denies the presence in the tragedy of any slight conflictual ripple and brings the work back to the bed of the most reassuring early Renaissance classicism. The two different readings of the Trissinian text are of interest as well as for the radical polarity of the critical perspectives, also because, evidently, they testify to the multiple aspects, cultural, literary and ideological, contained in the work and urge to retrace its textual paths, returning to certain elements that are certainly not overlooked by critics but still worthy of attention.