«Carum nobis». Stazio in Petrarca tra fortuna e funzioni poetiche

The paper consists of two parts. The first part examines the broad outline of Statius’ life and poetics sketched by Petrarch, the more limited cultural significance and prestige of Statius’ poetry compared to Virgil, and the quotations in Petrarch’s Latin works with a view to verifying how much relevant these quotations are and how much impact they had on Petrarch’s style. The second part reconstructs the phases of the humanistic dialogue surrounding the knowledge of Statius in that period, like the epistolary exchange between Petrarch and Francesco Nelli about the completion of Statius’ Achilleid. In addition, this section of the paper highlights that in the Seniles Statius is often quoted and mentioned as a point of reference for Petrarch. Finally, the hypothesis that Petrarch knew Statius’ Silvae is also confuted. The refutation relies upon the examination of some points of coincidence between Petrarch’s vernacular and Latin works and Statius’ Silvae traced by some previous studies. The author of this paper proves that some Petrarchan expressions, seemengly originated from Statius’ works, could come from various sources instead.