Cicero’s corpus and Petrarch’s ankle. The theory of imitation and its practices

Rita Maria Marnoto

doi:10.14195/2183-1718_76_4

Abstract

This article focuses on the centrality provided to auctores and texts as corpora, in the framework of Francesco Petrarch and the theory of imitation by the humanists. Initially, animal images from Petrarch and the humanists are analysed, as well as the paths of their diffusion. These were used to express the role of the model, the involvement of the writer, variatio, the election of stilus, and the questions sustained by Ciceronianism. Then, tree main methodological ways to study the relationship between texts as corpora are presented: semiosphere, intertextuality, and reception theory. A critic view point regards static methodologies. Conclusively, the dialogue between Petrarch and Cicero, as text and corpus, is recalled in order to incorporate the auctores contamination.

Highlights

The centrality that Humanism and, more generally, the great epoch of Classicism1 provide to the texts converts the paths of their transmission into
The development of classical studies at the University of Padua and other centres of cultural production in Northeast Italy led to pioneering advances towards the exploration of new routes of interaction
The movement began to emerge by the end of the thirteenth century, with Lovato dei Lovati and Albertino da Mussato as the most representative figures

Summary

Introduction

The centrality that Humanism and, more generally, the great epoch of Classicism1 provide to the texts converts the paths of their transmission into. The reader is challenged to discover the treasures kept in the referred texts of Petrarca’s epistles. The way Petrarca reuses these images from the biological sphere connects the issues and the questions sustained by Cicero to rhetoric, in a way that would last throughout all the Classicist epoch.

Results

Conclusion