La poesia epico-storica mediolatina (secc. VI-X). Caratteri generali, consistenza del “corpus” e stato della ricerca

Abstract

The work is concerned with examination of the principal Middle Latin epic-historical poems written between the 6th and 10th centuries, from Corippo to Rosvita of Gandersheim. It is divided into three sections, the first of which is devoted to Corippo (Iohannis and In laudem Iustini Augusti Minoris), which represents the archetypical model of Middle Latin epic-historical poetry; the second then concerns the production of the Carolingian age, through analysis and presentation of four poems (Aachener Karlsepos or Karolus et Leo, De gestis Hludowici Imperatoris by Ermoldo Nigello, De bellis Parisiacae urbis by Abbo of Saint-Germain and Annales de gestis Karoli Magni by the so-called “Saxo Poet”); lastly the third one is devoted to production in the Ottonian age, in this case too two poems being chosen as specimens (the anonymous Gesta Berengarii Imperatoris in Lombardy and Gesta Ottonis by Rosvita of Gandersheim). In the treatment and in the presentation of each single composition an expositional and primarily informative procedure is privileged, aiming, on one side, at presentation of the structure, the content, the compositional characteristics, the historical-political and literary aims and goals of each Middle Latin poem, and on the other side at clarification of the main and above all most recent lines of research. What emerges from it is a very important and significant literary segment in the vast framework of medieval Latin verse production, also for seeing its value as a historiographic testimony (obviously to be considered, like any historiographic testimony, with all due caution).