Marco Mantova Benavides, amico e protettore dei polacchi, promotore delle traduzioni latine di Petrarca

Abstract

Marco Mantova Benavides, friend and protector of the Poles, promoter of Latin translations of Petrarch The present paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of Latin translations of vernacular works on the example of the Latinisations of Petrarch’s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, contained in the commentary on Petrarch’s work by Marco Mantova Benavides, entitled Annotationi brevissime, sovra le rime di Messer Francesco Petrarca (1566). The Latin translations of Petrarchan texts included in the commentary are RVF 126, Chiare fresche e dolci acque, by Marcantonio Flaminio, RVF 128, Italia mia, and RVF 366, Vergine bella, by Pietro Amato and RVF 291, Quand’io veggio dal ciel, by Francesco Luigini. Marco Mantova Benavides, a humanist from Padua, jurist, lover and collector of antiquities and works of art, and professor at the Studio patavino, had friendly relations with Polish scholars, notably Jan Kochanowski and Andrzej Patrycy Nidecki. The exegetical activity of Mantova Benavides and the Latin translations of Petrarch’s texts belong to the colourful cultural context that Polish students in Padua had to deal with.