Il sacro contagio. Papiri antichi e letteratura moderna

Egyptian papyri – Poliziano stated in 1486 – transmit poetic inspiration, like a «holy contagion» (sancta contagia). It is indeed true that the discoveries of the papyri have not only revolutionized our knowledge of the ancient world, they have also influenced modern poets. This essay offers some examples, between the late 19th and early 20th century, of poets who directly dialogued with the most recent discoveries of their time, or by inserting new Greek texts in their works (Pascoli with Bacchylides, d’Annunzio with Sappho) or pretending to have found their own texts in ancient papyri (Pierre Louÿs, Luigi Siciliani, Gian Pietro Lucini). The Appendix contains a digression on the Greek and Aramaic papyri discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni.