SOURCE: Delaney, Susan. “Bembo's Maneuvers from Virtue to Virtuosity in Gli Asolani.” Italian Quarterly 27, no. 106 (fall 1986): 15-24.

In the essay below, Delaney argues that while Gli Asolani is ostensibly a philosophical examination of the nature of virtuous love, the work evolves into an experiment in the art of rhetoric, as each speaker presents his or her view of love. This shifting emphasis from a work's content to its formal characteristics, Delaney maintains, significantly anticipates ideas expressed in Bembo's later writings on language, notably Le Prose della volgar lingua.

… queste sono spezialissime licenze, non meno degli amanti che de' poeti, fingere le cose molte volte troppó da ogni forma di verità lontane.

Gli Asolani

Pietro Bembo's most notable contribution to the literature of his time was the justification of form as a primary component of a work of art. Giorgio Santangelo has written, “Col Bembo si pone prima che...