Sophonisba

Giovanni Giorgio TrissinoProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 85K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Sophonisba by Giovanni Giorgio TrissinoAuthor: Trissino, Giovanni Giorgio, 1478-1550,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jun 30, 2009

Editor's review

This Sophonisba is a tragedy by the Italian Renaissance playwright Gian Giorgio Trissino, now circulating as a Project Gutenberg e-text with a French interface and an Italian literature classification, a public-domain classical text. Its value is first documentary: readers can engage a primary text of sixteenth-century Italian tragedy and observe how classical material was reworked in a Renaissance context. Second, as a sample of early modern drama it invites comparison with the Sophocles and Seneca traditions, illuminating the continuity and transformation of tragic form in Europe. Being a public-domain e-book, the barrier is not access but language and background knowledge; the text itself offers no modern notes or introduction, so readers must supply the historical context. It suits supplementary material for classical drama research and comparative literature courses, or extended reading by readers prepared in Renaissance drama. The reading setting is the desk and the database rather than light entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of Renaissance drama and Italian literature
Readers who need classical tragedy texts for comparative literature courses
Advanced readers interested in sixteenth-century European dramatic form
Independent learners willing to supply their own historical background and read public-domain originals

Not a good fit for

Beginners hoping for a modern annotated or introduced edition of the play
General readers unfamiliar with Italian or French and without a translation at hand
Casual readers seeking easy, story-driven entertainment
Scholars needing a complete academic apparatus for their writing

Reading tips

Learn about Trissino's life and sixteenth-century Italian tragedy before entering the text.
Compare it with Sophocles or Seneca on related subjects and observe the strategies of adaptation.
Note the chorus sections and dialogue structure and analyze their formal features.
If the language is difficult, read alongside a reliable chapter of literary history.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with no Italian?

The listing gives the e-text's language as French and its classification as Italian literature. Readers unfamiliar with the relevant languages will face major obstacles in reading the original. Confirm the text's language first and use literary histories or translations as support before deciding on close reading.

How does it relate to classical drama on the same subject?

Sophonisba is a common subject in classical history, treated by several European playwrights. Trissino's work is a Renaissance reworking; readers can compare it with the classical tradition and observe changes in characterization and tragic structure, but the plot must be checked against the original text.

Is this a modern edition or the original text?

This is a public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg, distributed as a free electronic text, and it typically contains no modern scholarly notes or long introduction. Treat it as an electronic copy of a primary document, not a study edition with commentary.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Giovanni Giorgio Trissino Author · Italian · 1478–1550

Giovanni Giorgio Trissino (1478–1550) was an Italian humanist and poet of the Renaissance. Active in Italian literary circles in the first half of the sixteenth century, he was both a scholar and a creative writer, and his work both inherited the classical tradition and reflected the humanist concern with language and form. His representative works include the epic poem L'Italia liberata dai Goti and the tragedy Sophonisba. The former takes the liberation of Italy as its subject and has an epic grandeur; the latter draws on an ancient story and is one of the more noted works of early Italian tragedy. Public information about the details of his life is limited, and only one of his works is currently held in the collection. Overall, his writing reflects the Renaissance Italian exploration of both epic and tragedy.