Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

imitation of Marino’s Adonis when he was

about twenty. In the same century, but with

a few reservations about the dialect adopted,

one can remember the collection of Sonnets

by Loreto Mattei from Rieti (1623 ─ 1705),

belonging to the linguistic area around

L’Aquila: published posthumously in 1827,

they employ a strongly realistic language,

which is free of the Baroque excesses

prevailing at the time.

To the Eighteenth Century belongs a

singular poem entitled “Zu matrimonio

azz’uso” [Ready-Made Wedding], written by

Romualdo Parente from Scanno (1735-1831),

in collaboration with two fellow-townsmen

who have remained unknown, and

published in Naples in 1765. It is a work of

considerable importance, divided into two

parts: the first describes, in 57 stanzas, “The

wedding between Mariella and Nanno from