Abstract
During the Middle Ages, Virgil is a literary character and his life a matter of fantastic adventures. In this regard Virgil becomes not only the companion of Dante in theInferno, but also the magician who frees the citizens of Naples from parasites and various kinds of danger, the councillor who advises the princes on good government, the sorcerer who comes to terms with the devil. This literary tradition continues throughout the Renaissance and concerns not only biography but also poetry, novels, short stories, and other literary genres. For the Humanists the main problem was that of differentiating history from Virgilian legend: this problem finds, in the XIVth and XVth centuries, at least four different solutions, exemplified respectively by the anonymous compiler of theDonatus auctus, by Petrarch, by Sicco Polenton and by Pomponio Leto.
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