Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Epistolae seniles »

The following paper is dedicated to the topic of biblical motifs in Francesco Petrarca’s letters, which belong to an ubi leones sphere in historical literary research both in Poland and the whole of Europe. If we are to believe the modest and critical confessions made by Petrarca in his writings, the author of Canzoniere was rather slow in realising the importance of an in‑depth study of the Bible, and he regarded the awareness of this ignorance as gross negligence (damnosa tarditas), which made him blind for the inestimable value of the holy books. References to various biblical passus and pericopes in Familiares and Seniles are rarely used by Petrarca as purely elocutive ornaments or testimonies of his erudition, more frequently playing the role in the area of inventionis of an epistolary structure. From among all the biblical books, Petrarca most frequently and most willingly reached in his letters for The Book of Psalms, which he used (like Saint Augustine) in a very specific argumentation as an authoritative testimony of sapiential character. Biblical characters and motifs, as well as ‘winged words’, derived from prophetic books, the Gospels and Saint Paul’s letters are often found in Petrarca’s letters, which are deeply imbued with thoughts on ultimate matters, painful struggles with one’s own weaknesses, and a dramatical relationship between man and God.

This paper tries to demonstrate that Chaucer in his "Tale ofGriselde" has used, besides Boccaccio's tale, Petrarch's revised verson, as it is found in the Epistolae seniles, Manuscript 1165, and Mézière's translation as it appears in Le Ménagier de Paris.

Cette thèse porte sur le recueil des Res Seniles de Pétrarque, le dernier recueil épistolaire en latin commencé par l’auteur en 1361 et achevé in limine mortis en 1374. Ce travail de recherche se propose d’explorer l’espace macro-structurel des Senili de Pétrarque, en accordant une attention particulière aux paramètres de composition et aux stratégies de connexion interne qui sous-tendent la création du recueil de senilitate. Ma recherche se concentre précisément sur la relation réciproque qui existe entre les textes individuels et la collection conçue pour les accueillir. La thèse se compose de trois parties. La première est structurée en trois chapitres: le premier est consacré à la genèse du recueil des Senili; le deuxième se concentre sur la tradition du texte; le troisième chapitre de la première partie reconstruit l’histoire éditoriale de la syllogue. La section principale de la thèse propose un examen des dix-sept livres des Res Seniles. Pour chaque liber, a été défini une vue synthétique de son contenu, accompagné de données sur la cohérence textuelle, la datation et l’ordre des lettres, le nombre et l’identité des destinataires, et la présence éventuelle de liens intra- et intertextuelles qui permettent de démêler le réseau de renvois à d’autres écrits de Pétrarque.La troisième partie de la thèse rend compte de la solidité de la conception d’ensemble de l’ouvrage, en mettant en évidence la cohérence et la cohésion du macro-texte et en interprétant les logiques organisationnelles qui ont présidé à l’agencement des textes du recueil
This thesis focuses on the collection of Francesco Petrarca’s Res Seniles, the last latin epistolary started by the author in 1361 and concluded in limine mortis in 1374. This thesis intends to delve into the macro-structural space of Petrarca’s Senili, with specific attention toward the compositional parameters and the strategies of internal connection underlying the creation of the collection de senilitate. My research focuses precisely on the reciprocal relationship that exists between the individual texts and the collection designed to accommodate them. The thesis consists of three parts. The first is structured in three chapters; the first one is dedicated to the genesis of the Senili’s collection; the second one focuses on the tradition of the text; the third chapter of the first part reconstructs the editorial history of the sylloge. The main section of the thesis offers an examination of the Res Seniles seventeen books. For each liber, it has been defined a summary prospectus of its contents, accompanied by data on textual consistency, the dating and the ordering of the letters, the number and identity of the addressees, and the possible presence of intra- and intertextual references that allow unraveling the network of cross-references to other Petrarchan writings.The third part of the thesis gives an account of the solidity of the overall design of the work, highlighting the coherence and cohesion of the macro-text and interpreting the organizational logics that presided over the arrangement of the texts in the collection