Terzetti per le «Sorti»
Poesia oracolare nell’officina di Francesco Marcolini
by Lodovico Dolce
cover prize 40 euros
edition and commentary by Paolo Procaccioli
Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche-Viella
Treviso-Rome 2006
304 pages
ISBN 88-8334-208-9
(Ludica, 6)
In 1540 Francesco Marcolini, a printer from Forlì, published his Le sorti intitolate giardino d’i pensieri. This remarkable literary game brought together a set of one hundred visual images and 2,250 terzetti.
Another participant in the venture was the Venetian Lodovico Dolce, a man of letters whom later generations described as the leading editor of his time (though for a long time the term actually used was the somewhat demeaning poligrafo) but who, during his lifetime, had an established reputation as a connoisseur of poetry, especially of the courtly genre.
Dolce responded to Marcolini’s request by writing the tercets reproduced in this volume. In them he followed the interlacing subjects and ideas explored in his friend’s images and enhanced interplay between the visual and the literary with an interminable series of variations on limited number of chosen themes. His subjects were therefore those that then and in all ages embody good or ill fortune: love, faithfulness/infidelity, marriage, children, friendship, beauty, health/illness, good/bad luck, politics, peace/war… The rules of the game, however, dictated not only the questions and answers but the words too had to follow the conventions of oracular poetry and gnomic cyphers. With such insidious constraints the tercets could easily have been banal and boring but the combination of the images and the timeless words in the skilful hands of the poet of the Sorti avoided the risk with lightness and grace.
Contents
Premessa, 7
Introduzione, 9
1. Marcolini e Dolce. Due autori per le Sorti, 9
2. Le firme di Lodovico Dolce, 11
3. Dolce e la tradizione sortesca volgare, 12
4. Il giardino e il suo arredo: le Sorti come contenitore, 15
5. Le parole del 1540 e i ripensamenti del 1550, 24
6. Propheta loquitur, 26
Nota al testo, 29
Le sorti di Francesco Marcolino da Forlì intitolate giardino d’i pensieri, 31
[I] Thalete philosopho (37)
[II] Solone philosopho (43)
[III] Chilone philosopho (48)
[IV] Pitaco philosopho (53)
[V] Biante philosopho (59)
[VI] Periandro philosopho (65)
[VII] Epimenide philosopho (70)
[VIII] Anacarsi philosopho (75)
[IX] Phericide philosopho (81)
[X] Socrate philosopho (86)
[XI] Aristippo philosopho (91)
[XII] Theodoro philosopho (96)
[XIII] Stilpon philosopho (101)
[XIV] Menedemo philosopho (106)
[XV] Platone philosopho (111)
[XVI] Speusippo philosopho (116)
[XVII] Crisippo philosopho (121)
[XVIII] Eraclito philosopho (126)
[XIX] Senocrate philosopho (131)
[XX] Arcesilao philosopho (136)
[XXI] Aristotele philosopho (141)
[XXII] Demetrio philosopho (146)
[XXIII] Eraclide philosopho (151)
[XXIV] Antistene philosopho (156)
[XXV] Crate philosopho (161)
[XXVI] Zenone philosopho (166)
[XXVII] Cleante philosopho (171)
[XXVIII] Pitagora philosopho (176)
[XXIX] Empedocle philosopho (181)
[XXX] Eudoxo philosopho (186)
[XXXI] Democrito philosopho (191)
[XXXII] Protagora philosopho (196)
[XXXIII] Anasarco philosopho (201)
[XXXIV] Euriloco philosopho (206)
[XXXV] Pirone philosopho (211)
[XXXVI] Epicuro philosopho (216)
[XXXVII] Mison philosopho (221)
[XXXVIII] Anaximandro philosopho (226)
[XXXIX] Anaxagora philosopho (231)
[XL] Xenopho,nte philosopho (236)
[XLI] Eschino philosopho (241)
[XLII] Simon philosopho (246)
[XLIII] Polomone philosopho (251)
[XLIV] Cebete philosopho (256)
[XLV] Cleobulo philosopho (261)
[XLVI] Crono philosopho (266)
[XLVII] Euclide philosopho (271)
[XLVIII] Clitomaco philosopho (276)
[XLIX] Diogene philosopho (281)
[L] Momino philosopho (286)
Appendix, 287
Bibliography, 289
Index of names and topics, 295
