Storia letteraria sub specie narrationis. Tasso, il Barocco e le accademie fiorentine nella ‘Monaca di Monza’ del Rosini

The article aims to reconstruct the vast panorama of all literary and erudite sources used by Rosini in the composition of La monaca di Monza, outlining the declination he gave to the historical novel genre, responding to the primary purpose of educating the reader about the glories of the national literary past of the 16th and 17th centuries. By putting the pages of the novel into dialogue with his critical writings, we will outline his views on the relations between Tasso and the city of Florence, the literary academies of the grand-ducal capital (Fiorentina and Alterati) and the baroque poetry. From the analysis of the selected passages, we see a clear idea of literature based on classicism and respect for tradition. It’s a game of mirrors between past and present which also allows us to highlight the position occupied by Rosini within the cultural panorama of the 19th century, inserting him in the linguistic and literary debates of his contemporaries animated by the reborn Crusca and by the work of Monti