Francesco De Sanctis interprete del Rinascimento

Abstract

The critics are fairly unanimous in recognizing that De Sanctis had an overall negative judgement of Renaissance. In this essay I propose to reconsider such a common interpretation in the light of the studies De Sanctis made during his exile in Switzerland, examining in particular the attention dedicated to the Republican Machiavelli and the influence that the widespread Swiss Republican culture had on his thought. I will also prove that De Sanctis proposes a bifocal idea of the concept of Renaissance, as it emerges in particular from his Storia della letteratura italiana, presenting an interpretative ambivalence that cannot be reduced to a mere negative evaluation. It is actually necessary to examine the re-evaluation that the author proposes of the philosophical and scientific thought of the main protagonists of modernity, and in particular of Machiavelli.