Poetic Rewritings in Late Latin Antiquity and Beyond

‘Rewriting’ as the reworking of narrative material based on conscious strategies of composition plays a significant role in much of the Latin poetry of Late Antiquity. This book, resulting from the conference Riscritture poetiche nell’Occidente latino tra tarda antichità e medioevo, which was held on 9-11 May 2022 at the Department of Human Sciences (DSU) of the University of L’Aquila, looks at the range of practices and purposes that inform this procedure, with particular regard to the processes of transcodification enacted – in different historical and cultural contexts – by the recasting of authoritative prose texts into a classicising poetic idiom. The contributions present a multifaceted approach to rewriting, cover a variety of authors, genres, and texts, and cast a glance also at medieval Latin literature. In short, the essays in this collection, by reflecting on the interpretative contribution of the critical category of ‘rewriting’, not only add further tesserae to the mosaic of literary studies on Late Latinity, they also invite to grasp the difference between secular and Christian rewritings.

Introduction (Stefania Filosini)

Late Latin Antiquity: Secular Rewritings

Poetic Rewriting of Hylas: Dracontius, Romul. 2 (Salvatore Costanza)
La réécriture d’Ausone par Luxorius: enjeux et poétique (Florence Garambois-Vasquez)
Forms of Martial’s reception in the Aenigmata Symposii (Marco Onorato)

Late Latin Antiquity: Christian Rewritings

1. Biblical Poetry
Poetic Rewritings between Literature and Doctrine: Prudentius, Cathemerinon 5 (Fabio Gasti)
La réécriture à visée argumentative de la Bible. Le cas des médaillons bibliques du poème d’Orientius et du Carmen adversus Marcionitas (Ps.-Tert.) (Lucie Martin)
Rewriting the Miracles: The Healing of the Man Blind from Birth in Sedulius (carm. pasch. iv. 251-270) (Stefania Filosini)
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Avitus of Vienne, carm. iii. 220-310 (Franca Ela Consolino)
Réécriture des discours des Actes des Apôtres chez Arator: technique de la réécriture et visée pragmatique du texte (Bruno Bureau)

2. A Case Study On Biblical Poetry: The Heptateuchos Poem
The Heptateuch Poet as a Battalist: Strategies of Epicisation in Battles Scenes and Military Speeches (Donato De Gianni)
Per grandia tempora: Time and Temporal References in the Poem of the Heptateuchos (Francesco Lubian)
Structures of the Narrative Sequences and Intratextual Links in the Heptateuchos Poem (Luciana Furbetta)
Costruzione di una formularità epica interna nel poema dell’Heptateuchos. Studio di casi dell’Exodus: la teofania sul monte Horeb (Michele Cutino)

3. Hagiographic Poetry
La réécriture poétique de Paulin de Périgueux au miroir des genres littéraires antiques (Sylvie Labarre)
Réflexions sur un exemple de réécriture poétique: Paulin de Périgueux, Vie de Saint Martin, v. 398-487 (Vincent Zarini)
Poetic Paraphrase with an Audience: Venantius Fortunatus’ Life of St Martin and the Ladies of the Abbey Sainte-Croix in Poitiers (Lorenzo Livorsi)

Beyond Late Antiquity

Un siriaco tardoantico in riscrittura carolingia. L’attualizzazione dell’armonia evangelica di Taziano nel Heliand anticosassone (Wolfgang Haubrichs)
Riscrivere i vangeli in volgare: il Liber evangeliorum e la tentazione di Cristo (Chiara Clementina Maria Staiti)
Isidore and the Wisdom of Gildas in the Vita Merlini (Francesco Marzella)

Index
The Authors