Notes about the controversy of styles in historic genre: the debate concerning asian style x attic style in “Dell’Arte Historica” (1636), by Agostino Mascardi

Abstract

The sixteenth century discussion about acute style, as applied to oratory and historical prose can be thought of as appropriations and particularizations of stylistic rivalries and of powers which recycle the roman dispute for style; further, the so-called “renaissance” feuds that are unique and specific developments in its catholic seventeenth century interpretations. The Dell’Arte Historica (1636) is part of the Italian controversy about acute style included in the discussion of ciceronian versus anti-ciceronian styles applied mainly to the sacred oratory and to the historic genre of the seventeenth century. At the time, there are also catholic particularization of the controversy in Portugal, Spain and France, as demonstrated in this paper. The debates regarding style and the power of representations regarding the historic genre can be interpreted as a history of long or very long duration, because the so-called ciceronian / anti-ciceronian “humanism” of the centuries XV / XVI goes back to the ancient roman discussion about Attic x Asian style.