“Descrivere il corpo dell’amata”: Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, Parthenopeus I 2 tra disinibizione giovanile e senile compostezza

The paper focuses on Parthenopeus sive Amorum libri byGiovanni Pontano, a collection of poems that was his real debut as poet at the Aragonese court of Naples. The analysis of transgressive eroticism in Parthenopeus’ ‘antiquior’ form (London, British Library, ms. Burney 343) reveals the models and poetic programs of the young Pontano, including Priapeia, Catullus, Martial, and even praeceptores amorum (Ovid, Propertius, Tibull) re-read, though, in a strictly erotic key. Pontano’s reviewed this early work, re-reading especially those compositions that – coming from an older collection entitled Pruritus – had foul-mouthed intonations. The paper intends to show that Pontano’s revision is not moralistic censorship, but expresses a stronger classical militancy