Luci e ombre nel Rinascimento europeo

This article aims to analyze characters and evolutions of some of the different (sometimes opposite) meanings and uses acquired by the word and concept of Light (luce) in the mind and texts of Renaissance humanists and poets. Through a front and reverse analysis of sources, Light will be read as an opposite or alternative to Shade, or Darkness, both of which tend to a polysemy of lexical meanings and ethical values during the period. Images of Light and Shade/Darkness somehow result as an attempt to self-represent an Era and a Culture: their respective and relative use being the means for expressing a vision of the World in its present tense, an idea of culture and cultural needs in their actual form and conformation.