Desportes and the “Rime de gli Academici Eterei”: Engaging with a Neglected Petrarchist Intertext

Résumé 0

Building upon the previous scholarship of L.E. Kastner, this article examines Desportes’s imitations from the Rime degli Academici Eterei, an anthology published in 1567 that featured the early work of Guarini and Tasso, alongside more minor figures such as Arlotti. This anthology is distinctive insofar as it demonstrates a remarkable homogeneity in its style and thematic content. The Eterei poets had themselves modeled their poetry on the lofty works of Dante, Petrarch, and Bembo; indeed, they incorporated recognizable formulae from these three masters, engaging with them directly. In his imitations from this small book, Desportes appears cognizant of the canonical Italian heritage behind these modern imitations. Most often, however, Desportes systematically erases traces of these famous Italian subtexts from his own imitation. One set of poems, however, shows Desportes reinscribing this heritage into his text. In either case, Desportes’s rewriting of Eterei poems allowed him to engage with these canonical Italian figures indirectly, while overtly imitating more contemporary poets. Through his recourse to the Eterei, Desportes followed the lead of the Pléiade poets, who often turned to Italian anthologies for material to rework; but by choosing this relatively contemporary and highly specialized anthology, Desportes was simultaneously able to set himself apart from his French predecessors.