La presenza di Omero nella biblioteca e nelle opere di Aulo Giano Parrasio

The humanist Aulus Ianus Parrhasius (1470-1521) owned a large library, which is partially preserved. Most of his books are currently held at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples. By analyzing the catalogs of his books and the quotations in his works, we can assume that Parrhasius studied Homer's Iliad and Odyssey intensively, and that he had a collection of around ten books related to Homer (including copies of the poems in the original language, Latin translations, commentaries and his own notes). As of today, the corpus of Homeric texts that belonged to Parrhasius, insofar as we can reconstruct it, is very small and not representative of his interest in Homer (for instance, to our knowledge there exists no copy of the Odyssey in Greek attributable to Parrhasius).

Nevertheless, the quotations of Homer in Parrhasius' works testify to a careful study of the ancient poet. Thus, in his commentary on Aeneid 1-2, Parrhasius notes all the Vergilian passages reproducing Homeric expressions, descriptions, and mythology. [Publisher's text]