IL CANZONIERE DI GIOVANNI MAUROPODE. NUOVA EDIZIONE CRITICA E COMMENTO DELLE POESIE DI CONTENUTO ECFRASTICO.

My thesis is a new critical edition with commentary of the ekphrastic poems and the epigrams on works of art by John Mauropous. The thesis is divided into four parts. Part I analyses the life and the literary works by John Mauropous. After a complete overview of his biography (I §1) and of his literary production (I §2), the third chapter deals with the corpus preserved by ms. Vat. Gr. 676. Most importantly, I explain how Mauropous collected and structured his own poems. Paragraph I §3 explains how Mauropous applies the «discursive mode» of ekphrasis to his versification and how the ekphrastic purpose affects the structure of the collection, too. The differences between ekphrastic poems and epigrams on works of art are highlighted. Part II includes a comprehensive analysis of the textual transmission of Mauropous’ poetical corpus and a new critical text of the ekphrastic poems and the epigrams on works of art by Mauropous. The Greek text is presented with four apparatus and an Italian translation (Part III). Part IV offers a commentary to the edited poems. Each poem has his own paragraph, with a general introduction on the topic as well as a metric-rhythmical analysis and a commentary that focuses on the inner features of the Greek text, line by line. After the bibliography, two appendices follow: an iconographic apparatus to set Mauropous’ texts within the context of middle Byzantine art; the metrical patterns of the edited and quoted poems.