Only The Middle Ages? A Comparison Between Two Traditions of Romance Lyric Poetry

Abstract

After having noted Romance philology's focus on the Middle Ages in its various historical phases and geographical articulations, as well as its willingness to profitably apply its tools and methods of investigation to subjects from later periods, we will attempt to compare the lyric tradition of the Provençal troubadours (12th-13th centuries), central to the discipline since its inception, and the lesser-known and marginal tradition of the so-called Sicilian Petrarchists (16th-17th centuries). The elements of continuity and diversity highlighted in various aspects of the external and internal physiognomy of the two repertoires allow us to envisage a transfer of the analytical models developed on the medieval tradition to that of the pre-modern era.