The incunabulum Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Rés. G. Yc. 236 transmits Angelo Poliziano’s unpublished hand notes on Virgil’s Eclogues; these notes show the humanist’s interest in the naturalistic aspects upstream of the Virgilian text. In the seventh eclogue, Virgil describes the poetic contest between the shepherds Corydon and Thyrsis. Commenting on this text, Poliziano cites a passage from Pausanias’ Graeciae descriptio (X 17, 13) in order to clarify the meaning of Verg. ecl. VII 41, (Immo ego Sardoniis videar tibi amarior herbis); the passage by Pausanias, which is taken from the digression on Sardinia in the tenth book, dedicated to Phocis, deals with botany and in particular describes the deadly effects caused by the ingestion of a plant indigenous to that island. The aim of this work, which is based on Poliziano’s citations of passages from Greek and Latin authors dealing with botany, is to consider the main accounts of the so-called sardonic laughter and to provide new evidence on the humanist’s reading of Pausanias.
Angelo Poliziano, i classici e la botanica tra le postille inedite alle Bucoliche di Virgilio. Un caso di studio: Sardoniis herbis in Verg. ecl. VII 41
VESPOLI MANTELLI CANEPA L
2023-01-01
Abstract
The incunabulum Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Rés. G. Yc. 236 transmits Angelo Poliziano’s unpublished hand notes on Virgil’s Eclogues; these notes show the humanist’s interest in the naturalistic aspects upstream of the Virgilian text. In the seventh eclogue, Virgil describes the poetic contest between the shepherds Corydon and Thyrsis. Commenting on this text, Poliziano cites a passage from Pausanias’ Graeciae descriptio (X 17, 13) in order to clarify the meaning of Verg. ecl. VII 41, (Immo ego Sardoniis videar tibi amarior herbis); the passage by Pausanias, which is taken from the digression on Sardinia in the tenth book, dedicated to Phocis, deals with botany and in particular describes the deadly effects caused by the ingestion of a plant indigenous to that island. The aim of this work, which is based on Poliziano’s citations of passages from Greek and Latin authors dealing with botany, is to consider the main accounts of the so-called sardonic laughter and to provide new evidence on the humanist’s reading of Pausanias.
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