“Ascolta, ragazzo, il mio consiglio”: l’acrostico parenetico di Ignazio Diacono, e un altro acrostico di incerta attribuzione

Abstract

“Listen to my advice, my boy: the paraenetic acrostichon by Ignatios the Deacon, and another one uncertain”: The paper offers a new critical edition of the dodecasyllabic acrostichon by Ignatios the Deacon based upon the seven extant manuscripts written within the 16th century. The brief paraenetic poem is a combination of form and function: the twenty-four lines have a mnemonic purpose directed to both listeners and readers, and the sententiae which every line is constituted of are the moral vademecum for any good Christian, whether a pupil or a reader. The appendix offers a new, if provisional, critical text of the acrostichon Ἄνω πτέρωσον (Anō pterōson)—whose ascription to Ignatios is rather uncertain—in the light of a new witness, i.e., Marc. Gr. Z. 491 of the 13th century.