«Quante soffisticherie». Tracce della fortuna secentesca di Petrarca negli inediti danteschi (e non) di Alfonso Gioia

Abstract

The 17^th century was a period of declining fortunes for Petrarch. In order to give substance to this vulgate of literary historiography (and in part to refute it) we propose here the analysis of some autographs of Alfonso Gioia from Ferrara, in search of his Petrarchan frequentations. The study of the poet’s traces in his Spositione to Dante’s Inferno makes it possible to certify his recourse to Petrarch as a term of comparison on a stylistic and formal level. The reading of some of Gioia’s replies to an anonymous slanderer of the poet, on the other hand, allows us to grasp the importance of the scholar’s attempt to become a defender of Petrarch’s authority.