Italian Literature. Emotional and imaginative rather than reflective, and therefore at its best in the brilliant and exuberant era of the Renaissance, which first came into full bloom in Italy.
POETRY
Dante
Jacopone
Michelangelo
Petrarch
Tasso
FICTION
Boccaccio
Manzoni
HISTORY
Ferrero
TRAVEL
& BIOG.
Cellini
Pellico
Polo
Villari
PHILOSOPHY
Machiavelli
RELIGION
Jacopone
Mazzini
Thomas of Celano
Spanish Literature. Marked by the dignity that is the predominating characteristic of the nation. Just as Spain has had but one brief period when she was supreme among the European nations, so she has produced but one supreme author, Cervantes. Her literature, for the most part, and notably at the present day, is imitative, behind rather than ahead of the times.
POETRY
Spanish Lit.
FICTION
Cervantes