Proemi lucreziani nella poesia italiana del Cinquecento.

As the proem is the special repository of both poetical homage and literary memory, this essay examines the survival of Lucretius’ influence in Humanism and the Renaissance through a detailed analysis of several proems from both neo-Latin and vernacular works of poetry of the Quattro and Cinquecento.
Furthermore, the De Rerum Natura’s own proem had drawn much attention among scholars and humanists for its apparent contradiction with the Epicurean hostility to poetry.
The proems are selected as follows: proems reminiscent of the Hymn to Venus, proems reminiscent of other relevant passages of the De Rerum Natura – especially proems to the other books of the DRN –, proems which contain a mention of Lucretius’ name.
As the essay shows, a mention of Lucretius as philosopher in the proem is shared by key figures of Renaissance unorthodox thought, such as Palingenius Stellatus, Ludovico Parisetti and Aonius Palearius.
Less thought-provoking works such as those by Alamanni and Berni, imitated the Hymn to Venus, stressing its character of pagan prayer.
Bernardo Tasso consecrated both the proem and the ‘proem in the middle’ (Conte) of his Amadigi to Lucretian memory. Bernardo’s proem in the middle - it’s the famous Lucretian simile of the honey and the cup - was later chosen by Torquato Tasso as inspiration for his own proem to the much more famous Gerusalemme Liberata.
At the very end of the century, Marino’s Adone still strikes a Lucretian note, both in the proem (Hymn to Venus) and in the finale (a reworking of the honey-absynth topos).
Overall, the essay demonstrates how Lucretius was read as much as any other major Latin poet, how his verses were read, pondered over, imitated, contradicted if necessary.