Quae tandem poterit lingua retexere / laudes, Christe, tuas? Forme di cristianizzazione della lingua poetica latina fra IV e V sec. d.C.

This paper aims at highlighting some trends in the Christianisation of the Latin poetic language in the 4th and 5th c. AD, an epoch which has been also investigated by Alfonso Traina in some of his magisterial contributions. The first section of the contribution will be dedicated to Sedulius’ poetic programme and poetological self-reflection: compared to Juvencus’ Praefatio, the preface and the propositio of the Carmen paschale reveal a generic enlargement of biblical epos, which now also incorporates the languages of epigram, panegyric, and hymnody. The transpositions of the Matthean phrase regnum caelorum in the Euangeliorum libri will then provide an insight into the forms of adaptation of the pagan poetic repertoire in Juvencus and his successors, interpreting them as a part of a more general strategy of Romanisation of the Scriptural language. Finally, the analysis of the structural and compositional architecture of Dracontius’ Laudes dei, strongly modelled upon the Psalter, will point out the growing influence played on Late Latin versification by the biblical tradition, which determines the recodification of Christian Latin poetry in terms of a new language of praise.