I dialoghi Della historia di Francesco Patrizi tra latinizzazione e canonizzazione

Abstract

The article examines Francesco Patrizi’s Dialoghi della historia (1560) within the broader sixteenth-century debate on the ars historica and the European circulation of Italian historiographical models. Patrizi moves beyond the traditional rhetorical framework by proposing a new philosophical foundation for history and addressing its definition, aims (the honorable, the useful, and the pleasurable), its relationship to truth, and its methods of composition – including the writing of biography. Closely connected to the experience of the Venetian Accademia della Fama, the work was originally conceived with a pedagogical purpose for future rulers. Particular attention is devoted to the Latin translation published in 1570 in Basel by Johannes Nicolaus Stupanus, which broadened its reception within Reformed intellectual circles and redefined its readership, transforming it into a technical handbook for scholars. Situated within the editorial milieu shaped by Pietro Perna and in implicit dialogue with the historiographical thought of Jean Bodin – first issued in 1576 and later included in the Artis historicae penus (1579) –, Patrizi’s treatise contributed to the European canonization of the ars historica, exemplifying processes of translatio studiorum and cultural recontextualization.