'Transitus' e 'transmutatio personarum' negli 'Schemata dianoeas' di Carisio: il ruolo dell’'exemplum'

In the Roman world, discussions about schemata dianoeas are generally reserved for rhetoricians, with the only important exception being Charisius’ chapter 4.5. Starting from the analysis of a particular figure of thought described by the grammarian – the one realized per transitum sive transmutatione personarum – this paper wants to show how, in this list the literary quotations that explain each figure in practise, help us to better understand their meanings. In order to demonstrate this, in the first part of the contribution we will investigate what Charisius intends with transitus or transmutatio personarum by analysing the literary quotation used as exemplum and likely taken from Ennius’ Thyestes. Then we will look for some possible parallels for this schema in the rest of rhetoric tradition; it will be evident how figures with the same name may have very different meanings and how exempla are a better guide to establish or to exclude similarities among them.