Journal of Italian Translation

Book Reviews 301
historian states very clearly that the secularization of culture defended by
Bruni, Bracciolini and Valla must not be interpreted as a condemnation of
religion, but rather as a criticism of the principle of authority dogmatically
imposed by the Church and by its cultural institutions. According to
Fubini, secularization consists both in a strong reaction, begun with
Petrarch, against the late-medieval Aristotelism and in a criticism of the
medieval Christian tradition and its rigid scholastic method: “Such insistence
on Petrarch’s influence also requires the explanation of an important
term in the title of this collection, that is, the concept of “secularization”.
This term is not intended to denote any kind of an all-embracing
Weltanschauung. Still less is it to be understood as the opposite of “religiousness,”
even though in the sphere of secularized culture religious devotion
seems weakened and at times even absent. This investigation is
not concerned with religious sentiments (or even with those irreligious),
but rather with indirect cultural aspects. The opposite of “secularization,”
as it is defined here, would be “prescriptive,” to be understood in the
sense of a culture that obeys canons established by the common agreement
of ecclesiastical, ethical, and educational institutions” (pp. 2-3).
In other words, Humanism and Secularization from Petrarch to Valla
describes and documents the rise of “an avant-garde culture, establishing
itself outside a definite institutional base, conscious of its separate existence
and marked by the refusal of age-old scholastic and ecclesiastical
traditions” (p. 44). Each of the five essays in the English version (which, as
we will see, is different from the Italian edition) is devoted to a particular
episode that represents a significant moment of discussion of the idea of
authority. In the first chapter “Consciousness of the Latin Language among
Humanists. Did the Romans Speak Latinî”, the debate between Leonardo
Bruni and Flavio Biondo on the true nature of Latin spoken and written in
ancient Rome shows that the humanists had a pragmatic idea of language
that was opposed to the grammatical and rhetorical categorizations of the
scholastic tradition. The second chapter (“Humanist Intentions and Patristic
References. Some Thoughts on the Moral Writings of the Humanists”) is devoted
to the innovative use of classical authors and of the Church Fathers’
writings shown in the works of Petrarch, Bruni, Bracciolini and Valla.
Chapters Three and Four are on Poggio Bracciolini’s production (“Poggio
Bracciolini and San Bernardino. The Themes and Motives of a Polemic”; “The
Theater of the World in the Moral and Historical Thought of Poggio
Bracciolini”). In the first essay, Fubini analyzes the individualism of Poggio
and his polemic – witnessed in the dialogue De Avaritia – against the rigid
morality of the Observant movement and, in particular, against the teaching
of the Franciscan Observant preacher Bernardino da Siena. In the second
essay, Fubini composes a complex and articulate portrait of Bracciolini
and his literary and historical production, with special attention paid to
the dialogue De variegata fortune. The last chapter “An Analysis of Lorenzo
Valla” De Voluptate. His Sojourn in Pavia and the Composition of the Dia-