Visualizing Metamorphosis: Picturing the Metamorphoses of Ovid in Fourteenth-century Italy

Abstract

The present article focuses on the analysis of two manuscripts that seem to be symptomatic of the subtle and variegated reception of the Ovidian Metamorphoses in fourteenth-century Italy: on the one hand, the luxurious copy of the of Ovidius Moralizatus (Gotha, Forschungsbibliothek, MS Membr. I 98) made ca. 1350-1360 for the Milanese aristocrat Bruzio Visconti and intended to be illustrated by 284 miniatures; on the other hand, the humble manuscript preserving the translation in volgare of the Ovidian work by the Florentine notary Arrigo Simintendi (Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Panciatichi 63), whose marginal drawings (added ca. 1360-1370) can be attributed to a group of “interactive readers” who tried to intensify their reading experience by giving visible form to their particular interpretations of the text. Despite their differences, both works betray an unprecedented attention to the representation of nature and witness to the existence of an ongoing debate ‒pervading both the courtly and urban realms‒ over the value of antique myths and the effects of the human passions so memorably described by the classical poet. This particular reception of the Ovidian work may have paved the way to another, new experience of subjectivity and, therefore, to an intensive intellectual engagement with emotions that would have marked a significant step in the history of the “Nachleben der Antike”.