Extractos atribuidos a Virgilio y el canto XIII de La Eneida en los florilegios latinos del siglo XVI

Abstract

Throughout the different ages, several texts attributed to Virgil have circulated apart from his three major works. Some of them are poems included in the Appendix Vergiliana; others are collected in the Carmina XII sapientum; and we even find some anecdotes that Donatus offers in the poet’s life. In this work, we examine a selection of extracts collected in three 16th-century florilegia: the Illustrium poetarum flores (Strasbourg 1538), by O. Mirandula; the Sententiae ueterum poetarum (Antwerp 1541), by G. Maior; and the Versus Sententiosi et eximii (Wittenberg 1565), by B. Schönborn. We also deal with several fragments of the Libri XIII Aeneidos Supplementum by Maffeo Vegio, which is reproduced in Mirandola’s compilation. The presence of texts linked to Virgil in the florilegia could indicate that the prestige he enjoyed in the Middle Ages extended into the Renaissance. In addition, in G. Maior’s work there are doubts about the authorship of the texts presenting a moral and pedagogical tone, implying that moral and didactic interests may have motivated the selection.