I classici latini e greci nel carteggio inedito fra Saverio Bettinelli e Angelo Mazza,

Despite their divergent views on the value of Dante’s and Petrarch’s verse, and consequently on the pre-eminence of the two Corone, Saverio Bettinelli and Angelo Mazza establish a fruitful long-distance collaboration. This article demonstrates that what unites Bettinelli and Mazza is a shared attitude of caution towards foreign poets, together with a constant recourse to the models provided by the works of the great writers of classical antiquity. Although Bettinelli’s and Mazza’s approaches to antiquity are not identical, it can be argued that, for both correspondents, it is precisely the ongoing dialogue with the works of ancient authors that defines the essence of Italian poetry. The correspondence is partly interwoven with Greek and Latin quotations; the poetic production of antiquity, alongside references to Dante and Petrarch, is frequently taken up in the process of close analysis to which the two men of letters subject their own verses prior to publication.