L'altra paideia. Libri di motti, facezie e "detti piacevoli" nell'Italia del Rinascimento

The paradigm of exemplarity is a cornerstone of humanist pedagogy, cultivated through renowned collections of “memorable sayings” and the knowledge of historical "res gestae". In addition to this repertoire, the pupil was educated to a confident use of jokes and quips, merging the Ciceronian "facetia" with the tradition of Italian "novella". So the countless collections of literary jokes published all along the Sixteenth century weren’t only fun readings for the cultivated men, but should be also read as educational texts aimed at building the new language of court life, in order to complete the teachings of traditional rhetoric and make youngsters able to manage social and political situations that classical paideia, even in its universality, couldn’t have forecast or considered.