Storia dell’endecasillabo infame. “Sudate, o fochi, a preparar metalli”

Abstract

The incipit of Claudio Achillini’s sonnet, composed in 1629 to pay homage to King Louis XIII of France, is possibly the most renowned verse in seventeenth-century Italian literature. Over the centuries, it has been quoted by all those who attacked Baroque poetry, becoming an anti-exemplum for both aesthetic (pompous style, excessive rhetorical figures) and ethical reasons (servility towards a foreign monarch). This article offers an overview of the writers who have quoted, criticised or parodied Achillini’s verse from its first publication to the first half of the twentieth century.

Keywords

• Barocco
• italian literature