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Italian Literature Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Italian Literature Quizzes, Trivia

Italian Literature Trivia

Italian Literature Trivia Quizzes

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These quizzes cover a variety of Italian authors. If you are interested in quizzes about the writing of a specific author, please look for them under the author's name.
7 Italian Literature quizzes and 75 Italian Literature trivia questions.
1.
An Introduction to Italian Poetry
  An Introduction to Italian Poetry   popular trivia quiz  
Photo Quiz
 10 Qns
With only a few notable exceptions, Italy's literary output is not very well known outside the country. This quiz, focused on Italian poetry from the Middle Ages to the mid-20th century, aims to fill this gap.
Easier, 10 Qns, LadyNym, Nov 28 23
Easier
LadyNym gold member
Nov 28 23
81 plays
2.
  Acclaimed Italian Authors    
Match Quiz
 15 Qns
In this quiz, you will have the opportunity to review a little of the richness of modern Italian literature. This quiz mentions 15 famous Italian writers and one of their works. Your task will be to match each title with its author. Have fun!
Easier, 15 Qns, masfon, Jul 15 24
Easier
masfon gold member
Jul 15 24
137 plays
3.
  Italian Literature    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
I couldn't find any quizzes on Italian literature in this section so I thought I would try and fill that gap! I hope you enjoy playing it.
Average, 10 Qns, al99, May 07 14
Average
al99
672 plays
4.
  Name the Italian Author!    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Test your knowledge of Italian literature and language!
Average, 10 Qns, maria36, Jun 12 04
Average
maria36
611 plays
5.
  Modern Italian Literature    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz deals with, mainly, the internationally or nationally best known novelists that published after the Second World War.- Multiple Choice questions everywhere.- For lovers of la bella Italia.
Tough, 10 Qns, flem-ish, Jun 12 04
Tough
flem-ish
568 plays
6.
  Giacomo Leopardi    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Giacomo Leopardi is surely the most important Italian poet of the 19th century. How much do you know about him?
Average, 10 Qns, SteGallagher, Aug 15 07
Average
SteGallagher
246 plays
7.
  A Peek into Italian Literature    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A collection of interesting facts about Italian literature...
Average, 10 Qns, cadmie, Dec 22 10
Average
cadmie
215 plays
trivia question Quick Question
Who are the poets who created the "Dolce Stil Novo"?

From Quiz "A Peek into Italian Literature"




Related Topics
  Boccaccio, Giovanni [Literature] (3 quizzes)

  Dante [Literature] (18 quizzes)


Italian Literature Trivia Questions
1. Vitangelo Moscarda is the main character of which Luigi Pirandello novel?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: One, No One and One Hundred Thousand

This novel revolves around the protagonist's "illness", which, quite insightfully, consists in the discomfort that he gets when seeing himself from the outside.

2. Giacomo Leopardi is famous as a pessimist. His thought passed through three phases: historic pessimism, cosmic pessimism and...?

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: Titanism

The highest point of his "titanism" is the poem "La ginestra".

3. What was the name of the book Dante wrote before "The Divine Comedy" in which he describes his first sight of Beatrice?

From Quiz Italian Literature

Answer: La Vita Nuova

Dante was aged only nine when he first saw Beatrice. They both married other people but she continued to be his inspiration and famously guided him through Heaven in the third canticle of "The Divine Comedy".

4. Who wrote "Il Visconte Dimezzato"?

From Quiz Name the Italian Author!

Answer: Italo Calvino

'The Cloven Viscount' is the English title of this novel by Italo Calvino(1923-1985).In this divertingly macabre fantasy, a nobleman is neatly bisected by a cannon ball in a battle against the Turks.

5. Though the book was published already in 1923, 'The Confessions of Zeno' is still one of the internationally best received works of modern Italian literature. Who wrote it?

From Quiz Modern Italian Literature

Answer: Italo Svevo

Alberto Savinio (1891-1952) was the brother of painter Giorgio de Chirico. - Gadda (1893 - 1973 ) is known for 'La Cognizione del Dolore' ('Acquainted With Grief') - It has been said that Italo Calvino is much more difficult to translate, and that would account for his slower rise to success. - Svevo was a personal friend of James Joyce 's.

6. Who are the poets who created the "Dolce Stil Novo"?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: Dante, Guinizzelli, Cavalcanti

"But say if him I here behold, who forth Evoked the new-invented rhymes, beginning, Ladies, that have intelligence of love?"

7. Many Italian students have to learn by heart Leopardi's "Il sabato del villaggio" at elementary school. The poet writes about a girl who is holding in her hand a bunch of flowers. What are they?

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: Roses and violets

Roses and violets are a symbol of youth and joy.

8. Who wrote "La Luna e i Falò"?

From Quiz Name the Italian Author!

Answer: Cesare Pavese

'The Moon and the Bonfire' is the English title of this novel written by Cesare Pavese (1908-50), Italian novelist, poet, and translator.

9. In which Italian town did James Joyce reside when he befriended Italo Svevo?

From Quiz Modern Italian Literature

Answer: Trieste

10. What's the name of Machiavelli's most notable piece of work?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: The Prince

It was originally written in Latin; "De Principatibus" was its first title (about principates).

11. "L'infinito" (= the infinite) is probably the most famous poem written by Giacomo Leopardi. Do you remember the last words? "E il naufragare m'è dolce in questo..." (= It's sweet to drown in this...)

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: ...mare (=sea)

In Leopardi's poems the sea is a symbol of infinity.

12. In "The Decameron", how many days of story telling were there?

From Quiz Italian Literature

Answer: 10

Each of the ten characters tells one story a day for ten days making one hundred in all.

13. Who wrote "Il Barone Rampante"?

From Quiz Name the Italian Author!

Answer: Italo Calvino

English title: 'The Baron in the Trees'.It is another example of this brilliant Italian writer's fantasy. Set in the eighteenth century, it tells the story of Cosimo, a young Italian nobleman who rebels against parental authority by climbing into the trees and remaining there for the rest of his life.

14. Though Italo Calvino was brought up in San Remo, he was actually born in another country than Italy. Where?

From Quiz Modern Italian Literature

Answer: Cuba

15. Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron of Italy, is most famous as a preacher, but some people know that he was also a skilled writer. Which is his most famous poem?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: Canticle of the Creatures

Its Latin name was "Canticus" and it was supposedly written in 1226.

16. "Le ricordanze" is another well known poem by Leopardi. What's the name of the girl he writes about?

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: Nerina

Giacomo was secretly in love with Nerina. She's the symbol of pure youth, the youth Giacomo always strove to catch.

17. Which poet wrote about his love for Laura?

From Quiz Italian Literature

Answer: Petrarch

Laura was Petrarch's inspiration as Beatrice was for Dante. He wrote of his love for her in the "Canzoniere". Published in their complete form only when he died in 1374, he had been working on them for years.

18. Who wrote "Il Partigiano Johnny"?

From Quiz Name the Italian Author!

Answer: Beppe Fenoglio

English title: 'The Partisan Johnny' by Beppe Fenoglio(1922-1963)who was one of the few writers to describe WW2 as a partisan without resorting to unnecessary rhetoric.

19. Who was the first Italian Nobel Prize laureate in literature?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: Giosue Carducci

When he won the Nobel Prize, Italy was still a kingdom.

20. "A Silvia" is, of course, dedicated to the memory of Silvia. Like Nerina, her name comes from an older piece of Italian literature. What work is it?

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: "Aminta" by Torquato Tasso

"Aminta" is a play written by T. Tasso in 1573. Aminta is a shepherd, he's in love with Silvia, a nymph, who can't requite his love, because she's devoted to the goddess Diana.

21. Who wrote "The Prince"?

From Quiz Italian Literature

Answer: Machiavelli

For centuries Machiavelli was regarded as evil for what he wrote in this political essay. It was written in the early sixteenth century and dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici.

22. Who wrote "La Ragazza di Bube"?

From Quiz Name the Italian Author!

Answer: Carlo Cassola

Carlo Cassola (1917-1987)is the author of "La ragazza di Bube" which inspired the film directed by Luigi Comencini in 1963. The novel tells the love story between Mara and Bube, a partisan who, at the end of the war, is involved in the murder of a political opponent. Bube is forced to escape and Mara starts a new relation with Stefano. When Bube is eventually arrested Mara, however, decides to go back to him.

23. Who is the British author of adventure stories that inspired Italo Calvino for his trilogy 'Our Ancestors' ,consisting of 1. 'The Cloven Viscount'2. 'The Baron of the Trees' 3. 'The Non - Existent Knight'.?

From Quiz Modern Italian Literature

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

24. In which region is Manzoni's novel "The Betrothed" mostly set?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: Lombardy

Renzo and Lucia both come from an unnamed village near Lecco, on the eastern branch of Como lake, and a few chapters of the novel are set in Milan.

25. When Leopardi wrote the poem "La ginestra" (= The Broom) he got inspiration from an Italian volcano. Which one?

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: Vesuvio

Giacomo spent his last years in Naples and the landscape around the Vesuvio, surrounded by lots of broom, inspired him.

26. What was Machiavelli's first name?

From Quiz Italian Literature

Answer: Niccolò

The name "old Nick" for the Devil is sometimes thought to come from Machiavelli's name.

27. Who wrote "Se Questo è un Uomo"?

From Quiz Name the Italian Author!

Answer: Primo Levi

"If This is a Man" was published in 1947, by Primo Levi(1919-1987), Italian-Jewish writer and chemist, who was arrested during the Second World War as a member of the anti-Fascist resistance and deported to Auschwitz in 1944. His experience in the death camp and his subsequent travels through Eastern Europe were the subject of powerful memoirs, fiction and poetry.

28. Who wrote the successful novel : 'Christ stopped at Eboli'' ?

From Quiz Modern Italian Literature

Answer: Carlo Levi

Ignazio Silone (1900 - 1978 ),anti-Fascist author. Wrote 'Fontamara' , when he was in Switzerland as a refugee, 1930. - Alberto Moravia was famous for such novels as 'the Woman of Rome' 1947 and 'The Empty Canvas' 1960. Combines social realism with the spirit of existentialism. -Primo Levi is a chemical engineer and authored ' Periodic Table' . Was captured as a Jew and a 'partisan' during World War II , deported to Auschwitz , survived and was released from the death camp in 1945 .

29. "Romeo and Juliet" is undoubtedly one of the most famous tragedies written by the Bard... however, few people know that it was inspired by short stories by an Italian writer, which had been translated into French. Who was this writer?

From Quiz A Peek into Italian Literature

Answer: Matteo Bandello

His work also inspired Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Twelfth Night".

30. "Operette morali" are the most important prose works written by Leopardi. Which is the best-known "operetta"?

From Quiz Giacomo Leopardi

Answer: Dialogo della natura e di un islandese (= Dialogue of nature and of an Icelander)

"Dialogo della natura e di un islandese" is a great example of Leopardi's cosmic pessimism: Nature is evil and it creates people in order to hurt them.

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Last Updated Nov 08 2025 5:47 AM
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