Allegorical Mimesis

Abstract

Abstract This chapter gives an overview of twelfth-century conceptions of allegory as integumentum. It also discusses the precedents—both medieval and modern—for reading an epic as an imitation of the allegorical reading of the Aeneid. In particular, this chapter lays out the evidence that allegorical readings of the Aeneid—especially the sixth book—were sometimes cited as structural models for allegorical poems in the Middle Ages. The plot structures of the Anticlaudianus and Architrenius are shown to have only small portions in common with the poems most generally said to be their models, such as Martianus’s De nuptiis, Prudentius’s Psychomachia, and Claudian’s In Rufinum. The chapter concludes with a short discussion of Fulgentius’s overall plot of the allegorical Aeneid and its tantalizing similarities to the plots of the Anticlaudianus and Architrenius.