Il "De apparatu Patavini hastiludii" di Lodovico Lazzarelli: introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento

The thesis offers the first critical edition with Italian translation and commentary of De apparatu Patavini hastiludii by Lodovico Lazzarelli (San Severino Marche, 1447-1500). The poem was written by the humanist about on the occasion of a tournament of armed riders with a mythological theme organised in June 1467 by the Universitas iuristarum of Padua. The work provides valuable insight not only into the Venetian city and its prestigious Studium in the 15th century, but also into the history of performative events, book history, and, more broadly, the culture of the time. After a brief overview of the author and his works, the introduction delves into the context of the poem’s production and reception, linking the described hastiludium to a specific type of competition (the open-field team tournament) and show (the mythological-themed ‘momaria’). It also identifies the historical figures mentioned, clarifying their celebratory and propagandistic purposes: the parades of allegorical floats not only commemorated the mythical Trojan roots of Padua but were also imbued with political and moral meanings. The introduction is followed by a survey of the literary genre: the De apparatu Patavini hastiludii, which belongs to the contemporary tradition of descriptions of jousts, is the result of a modernisation of the classical epic poem, blended with other models, especially elegiac ones. An overview of the work’s reception – widely circulated among Italian and foreign students who studied in Padua but soon forgotten – precedes the description of the manuscript witnesses and the editio princeps of 1629. Special attention is given to the history of the tradition and to the modern reception of the poem, which was summarized in an anonymous vernacular translation, possibly dating back to the 17th century. The critical text, with a first Italian translation, is preceded by an extensive chapter that discusses the relationships between the work’s witnesses, with a special focus on the preserved autograph, which sheds light on the author’s working method, influenced by the dynamics of patronage. The primary objective of the commentary is to investigate the literary sources, which are often concealed, blended, and reinterpreted in a conscious and original manner. In addition to the classics (primarily Virgil and Ovid), Lazzarelli undoubtedly read many late antique authors (especially Claudian), medieval ones (notably Petrarch and Boccaccio) and contemporaries such as Tito Vespasiano Strozzi. The notes, approached from a cultural perspective, also aim to investigate the relationship between the iconography of the Paduan parades and the text of the poem, its models and its vernacular adaptation.