Nancy M Impellizzeri (Università "Kore" di Enna)
Fabio Vigili (1470ca- 1553), a humanist from Spoleto, subject of ongoing research under the aegis of the Italian Ministry of Culture, directs an otherwise undated Latin carmen, namely the De Phasiano, to his dominus sodalis, Blosio Palladio (? – 1550), host and prince of letters in Leonine Rome, whose maxima culpa consists in having eaten a pheasant without inviting his friends.
The literary group or hortus that gives lifeblood to the poem analyzed is that of Johannes Goritz (?- 1527), a magnanimous prelate from Luxembourg invested with the office of apostolic protonotary and secretary under Pope Julius II. T his circle with the ultimate task of a poetic season comes back to life benefitting from all the typical elements of a renovated pax augustea, a revival of the prosperous Latin past staged and concretized also through the organization of these cyclical events reflecting the myth of ancient Rome: laurel leaves and cups of wine recalling the pagan flavour of the ancient convivia and the peculiar onomastics given by the Latinization of the names of baptism were only two of the elements of this societas of men of letters.
The carmen reveals itself to be a burlesque invective between good friends, the perfect combination of virtuosity and laughter, of literary haunts over a good meal. And it is highly interesting not only from the literary point of view tipping, as it does, the status quo for comic purposes carried out there, but also for the careful philological investigation it requires.
The paper intends to explore and deconstruct this convivial satire as it represents an account of both the typical sodalitas of such Roman circles and the relationships between such personalities in the charmingly Renaissance context of Palladio’s villa sometime after the devastating Sack in 1527.