Terzetti per le «Sorti»

Poesia oracolare nell'officina di Francesco Marcolini

[Oracular poetry in the officina of Francesco Marcolini]

by Lodovico Dolce

edition and commentary by Paolo Procaccioli
Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche-Viella,
Treviso-Rome 2006

304 pages
euros 40

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, p. 7
Introduzione, p. 9: 1. Marcolini e Dolce. Due autori per le Sorti, p. 9; 2. Le firme di Lodovico Dolce, p. 11; 3. Dolce e la tradizione sortesca volgare, p. 12; 4. Il giardino e il suo arredo: le Sorti come contenitore, p. 15; 5. Le parole del 1540 e i ripensamenti del 1550, p. 24; 6. Propheta loquitur, p. 26
Nota al testo, p. 29
Le sorti di Francesco Marcolino da Forlì intitolate giardino d’i pensieri, p. 31
[I] Thalete philosopho (p. 37)
[II] Solone philosopho (p. 43)
[III] Chilone philosopho (p. 48)
[IV] Pitaco philosopho (p. 53)
[V] Biante philosopho (p. 59)
[VI] Periandro philosopho (p. 65)
[VII] Epimenide philosopho (p. 70)
[VIII] Anacarsi philosopho (p. 75)
[IX] Phericide philosopho (p. 81)
[X] Socrate philosopho (p. 86)
[XI] Aristippo philosopho (p. 91)
[XII] Theodoro philosopho (p. 96)
[XIII] Stilpon philosopho (p. 101)
[XIV] Menedemo philosopho (p. 106)
[XV] Platone philosopho (p. 111)
[XVI] Speusippo philosopho (p. 116)
[XVII] Crisippo philosopho (p. 121)
[XVIII] Eraclito philosopho (p. 126)
[XIX] Senocrate philosopho (p. 131)
[XX] Arcesilao philosopho (p. 136)
[XXI] Aristotele philosopho (p. 141)
[XXII] Demetrio philosopho (p. 146)
[XXIII] Eraclide philosopho (p. 151)
[XXIV] Antistene philosopho (p. 156)
[XXV] Crate philosopho (p. 161)
[XXVI] Zenone philosopho (p. 166)
[XXVII] Cleante philosopho (p. 171)
[XXVIII] Pitagora philosopho (p. 176)
[XXIX] Empedocle philosopho (p. 181)
[XXX] Eudoxo philosopho (p. 186)
[XXXI] Demcrito philosopho (p. 191)
[XXXII] Protagora philosopho (p. 196)
[XXXIII] Anasarco philosopho (p. 201)
[XXXIV] Euriloco philosopho (p. 206)
[XXXV] Pirone philosopho (p. 211)
[XXXVI] Epicuro philosopho (p. 216)
[XXXVII] Mison philosopho (p. 221)
[XXXVIII] Anaximandro philosopho (p. 226)
[XXXIX] Anaxagora philosopho (p. 231)
[XL] Xenopho,nte philosopho (p. 236)
[XLI] Eschino philosopho (p. 241)
[XLII] Simon philosopho (p. 246)
[XLIII] Polomone philosopho (p. 251)
[XLIV] Cebete philosopho (p. 256)
[XLV] Cleobulo philosopho (p. 261)
[XLVI] Crono philosopho (p. 266)
[XLVII] Euclide philosopho (p. 271)
[XLVIII] Clitomaco philosopho (p. 276)
[XLIX] Diogene philosopho (p. 281)
[L] Momino philosopho (p. 286)
Appendice, p. 287
Bibliografia, p. 289
Indice dei nomi e degli argomenti, p. 295

 

Paolo Procaccioli teaches Italian literature at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo. His work has focused mainly on the vernacular literature of the Renaissance, including research around the exegesis of the works of Dante, the post-Boccaccio novella and the “alternative” literature of the 16th century. He edited the CD-ROM I commenti danteschi dei secoli XIV, XV e XVI (Lexis, Rome 1999), and editions of Cristoforo Landino (Comento sopra la Comedia di Dante, Salerno Editrice, Rome 2001), of the Novella del Grasso legnaiuolo (Fondazione Bembo-Guanda, Milan-Parma 1990), of Pietro Aretino (Lettere, ll. 1-6, and Lettere scritte a Pietro Aretino, ll. 1-2, Salerno Editrice, Rome 1997-2002 and 2003-2004), of Ortensio Lando (La sferza de’ scrittori antichi et moderni, Vignola, Rome 1995), and of Anton Francesco Doni (Contra Aretinum, Vecchiarelli, Manziana 1998).