De Africa van Francesco Petrarca: een nationaal epos?

Abstract

This article discusses the question whether or to what extent Francesco Petrarca’s epic poem Africa, about the heroic deeds of Scipio Africanus Maior, can be regarded a national Italian epic or was envisaged as such. To that end it introduces the author and the Africa itself, mainly focusing on its place in the epic tradition and the vision of Rome it presents. Especially interesting in that context is the passage in which Petrarca describes a walk through Rome by the Cartaginian Hasdrubal, which is modeled after Aeneas’ visit of future Rome in Aeneid 8. Although Petrarca in many ways follows in the footsteps of Virgil and likewise introduces Rome as the caput mundi, he seems to have had second thoughts about the historical continuity of this image. Instead, he focuses on Rome as a source of moral exempla and presents his literary work as means to revive Rome at least in literature.