“In the Guise of History”: History and Poetry in Cinquecento Italy

New translations and commentaries on Aristotle’s Poetics set off an extended debate on the relationship between poetry and history in sixteenth-century Italy. Dionigi Atanagi seriously examined the relationship between poetry and history inspired by Aristotle. In Ferrara, defense of Ariosto’s Orlando furioso led Giambattista Giraldi and Giovan Battista Pigna to write treatises on romance as they explored literary genres. Both also wrote histories of Ferrara. While the influence of literary theory on Ferrarese history writing has been recognized, its influence has been seen as baneful. A closer look at Cinquecento Ferrarese historiography reveals a coherent approach to writing history, especially with respect to the compatibility of history and myth, and influenced in particular by Diodorus Siculus’s Library of History. Both Giraldi and Pigna incorporated into their histories elements of literary theory that both accepted and rejected Aristotelian ideas about history and poetry in creating a uniquely Ferrarese approach to history writing.