Abstract

The study analyses two syntactical principles that shape the prose of Guicciardini's "Storia d'Italia". On one hand, Guicciardini seeks to employ the greatest cohesion and fusion among textual elements and parts (the 'legato effect', after a musical metaphor coined by Giovanni Nencioni). On the other hand, he uses syntactic strategies which generate disjunction, separation and 'staccato effects'. In the paper these two opposite strategies are explained and illustrated by Mengaldo on the basis of a broad text sample.