Basinio da Parma’s Hesperis. A Homeric–Vergilian Fusion in Text and Paratext

• Simon Smets ^[1]
  1. [1] University College London

     University College London

     Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Humanistica lovaniensia: journal of neo-latin studies, ISSN 0774-2908, Vol. 71, Nº. 2, 2022, págs. 147-180
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • Basinio da Parma’s Neo-Latin epic Hesperis combines two main intertexts: Vergil’s Aeneid and the Homeric epics. This article argues that Basinio high-lighted the tensions arising from this combination of models through the poem’s paratextual features. The article focuses on the title’s implications, on the considerable rewriting of the proem in Basinio’s autograph version, and, finally, on the author’s marginal annotations in the same manuscript. The conclusion is that rather than merely promoting his knowledge of Greek, as previous scholars have argued, Basinio’s paratexts highlight on a meta-poetical level the difficulties of combining two closely related, but conflicting literary models.