Il commento di Francesco da Buti all'Ars poetica di Orazio

The thesis prepared introduces the edition and analysis of the unpublished comment of Francesco da Buti on Horace's Ars poetica. The comment written at the end of XIV century and probably meant for scholarly aims, is to be considered a small, but precious example of the success of the Classics in medieval times and,in particular, of the great esteem granted to Horace's Ars poetica, which was used both by men of letters and by teachers at school education., owing to its contents of regulations. The thesis first focuses on the figure of Francesco da Buti, an experienced grammarian, a good connoisseur of the Classics (Horace, Persio, Terenzio) and of medieval texts (the Commedia and the Dottrinale). Francesco da Buti's exegetical work can be inserted in the context of the medieval interpretation of the Classics and, in particular, of Horace's work. This frame of reference is further analysed through a proper confrontation of a number of comments on Ars poetica written before (and limited to those published for practical reasons). Accordingly, particular attention has been given to the first work (Porfirione's and pseudo-Acrone's), to the comment handed down by codes Par.Lat. 7971,7972,7974, probably written in the late Carolingian Age, to Scholia, handed down by Par.Lat. 17897 dating back to the XI century as well as to other following expositions. The Scholia are the first, known example of the renewed interest in Horace's poetry following the rules of the Auctores, that is, the Scholia Vindobonensia (IX century), the Anonymus Turicensis (XII century) and the Materia (XII, area id Chartres). The main part of the thesis work is devoted to the edition and analysis of the Butian comment. The text is written on the basis of Ambr. E 3 Sup. manuscript, as the other evidence, ms 30 of the Biblioteca Comunale of San Gimignano, is here described. The ample number of notes included, apart from quoting the sources accurately and examining the grammar observations in the comment exhaustively , also appears to clarify the letter of the text, not always clear, and to suggest a possible interpretation of ambiguous settings. In addition, the thesis work carried out an accurate and meaningful comparison with previous comments and as far as possible, with the other exegetical works of Francesco da Buti, so that as to characterize the comment with rapport to the different kinds of medieval comments and to propose its proven position being used in traditional writing genres, mainly those connected with the university milieu and thus aimed at teaching.