Organização editorial e aemulatio no Epodon Liber, de Antonio Geraldini

The Epodon liber, by Antonio Geraldini, is a Latin composition of religious nature, printed between 1485 and 1487 in Rome. In this work, the Italian poet laureate at the Aragonese court imitates Horace’s Epodes in 17 poems divided into two sections (1-10; 11-17), following the ancient book. In the first part, there are paraphrases of Psalms in various meters; in the second, hymns, in Sapphic stanzas, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and saints. We investigate, in this article, the relationship between editorial organization and aemulatio in the Epodon liber, refuting the hypothesis – based on the apparent absolute thematic discrepancy between the two books of epodes and on the Christian foundation of Geraldini’s poetic – that the fifteenth-century verses result from a merely formal imitation of Horace (cf. Früh, 2016; 2017). To this end, we draw on medieval and quattrocento commentaries on Horatian compositions; on other writings by Geraldini; on the treatise De imitatione, by Gasparini Barzizza; and on a close reading of epode 1 from the corpus. We contend that Geraldini’s imitatio a contrario of the editorial features of Horace’s Odes and Epodes constitutes an ars, or aemulatio, in the Epodon liber, underscoring the superiority of the sacrae res.