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Allegory in Renaissance Literature

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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy
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Abstract

The allegory is not only a rhetorical figure; it is an exegetic, literary, and artistic concept. Grounded in the ancient Greek and Latin traditions, where it is considered as a sustained metaphor, it is developed as a methodology of interpretation in the Patristics and Scholastic Philosophy, becoming an essential notion during the Italian Humanism and the Renaissance.

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References

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Correspondence to Nicolò Cristante .

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Cristante, N. (2020). Allegory in Renaissance Literature. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_381-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_381-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

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