Prodesse et delectare: un commento (didattico?) di Piero Vettori a Catull. 64

Abstract

Agnese D’Angelo: Prodesse et delectare: a commentary (for teaching?) on Catull. 64 by Piero Vettori

This paper examines the autograph marginalia of the Italian humanist Piero Vettori found in a printed edition of Catullus (C = München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 2° Inc.c.a. 1043). These annotations spe-cifically comment on Catullus’ poem 64: after an overview of the palaeographical aspects and chronological problems, the paper focuses on the content of the commentary, with a detailed analysis of a sample (the notes to Catull. 64, 1 – 15). Based on this evidence, it is suggested that Vettori commented poem 64 with an educational purpose.
Even though Vettori taught at the Studium Florentinum for almost fifty years, little is known about his teaching activities. To support this hypothesis, Vettori’s marginal notes in C are compared with annotations found in books from his library that he used for university courses and placed in the broader context of Catullan teaching in the Humanism and Renaissance.