The Power of Words: Sarpi’s Use of Language in Making History

Abstract

In the late sixteenth century, when the so-called baroque style spread across Europe, Paolo Sarpi eschewed the contemporary tendency and embraced an innovative narrative using parsimonious prose which, though it appears simple and plain, was a product of a careful selection of words with precise meanings. In my article, I demostrate how Sarpi inaugurated a new way of writing history, avoiding eccentric redundancy and excessive emphasis and originating a style in which thought and form corrisponded completely. My inquiry shows how Sarpi's writing ability became an important weapon in his condamnation of the supremacy of the Church of Rome and how his prose, shorn of adornment, repetition and superficial elements, laid the foundations of modern historiography.