The "Descriptio puellae" in the Italian and Spanish Petrarchism: the examples of Giusto de’ Conti and Garcilaso de la Vega

Abstract

Due to its aesthetic characteristics of perfection and harmony, but also of repetition and homologation, Renaissance love poetry has often been object of limited attention by the critics, who have briskly labelled it Petrarchism. The practice of the imitatio, nevertheless, is responsible for the birth of the European literature. In fact, it does not limit itself to being the typical feature of a certain culture, but it has also influenced the development of Western literature. Hence, it is necessary to delve into the Renaissance literature with studies which prove the presence of specific stylistic characteristics, useful to understand the structural and organizational principles behind poetry itself. This article investigates the practice of the descriptio puellae, agreeing with Muñiz Muñiz on the shortage of philological studies aimed at reconstructing the morphology of the topos. The comparison is developed through the analysis of significant texts from Italian and Spanish classicism, highlighting similarities and differences of both movements in relation to the reception of Petrarca’s legacy.