Petrarca e a 'imitatio' renascentista

Whereas Petrarch himself hoped to equal his ancient predecessors by composing poems in Latin, and did achieve thus much recognition among his contemporaries, later literary criticism was more reluctant to appreciate these writings, pointing out their linguistic artificiality and ostentatious erudition. In today’s scholarship, however, it is emphasized that this particular segment of Petrarch’s oeuvre requires a closer look, from theoretical and literary-aesthetic viewpoint, focusing specifically on the author’s approach to the question of imitation. It is also stressed that the rule of imitatio antiquorum constitutes the center of his reflection, both meta-literary and historiosophic. Petrarch, in his Latin poetry, explores canonical ancient models, notably Virgil (epic and bucolic) and Horace (verse epistle). But his opus magnum, Africa, reveals compositional as well as stylistic diversity, modeled not only on Vergil’s Aeneid but also on imperial and late antique epic, as well as on historiographic prose and, last but not least, commentary writings. Petrarch’s way of reading and appropriating the classics excludes rigid, one-model imitation, opting for multi-source inspiration, in terms of content, composition, and style.