Il nome della «forma vera»

Abstract

Rvf 77-78 are examined in relation with Rvf 16, where on the basis of an onomastic pseudo-etymology (Veronica < vera icon < «forma vera») Petrarch creates a new concept essential for future poetry, especially linked to the figurative portrait, during the Petrarchism of the sixteenth century. An intepretatio nominis is therefore the basis for a successful verb phrase (with all its variations: «imagine vera», «imagine viva» etc.) that paradoxically survives the loss of the name referent itself, whilst maintaining associations with Petrarch’s deep theoretical discourse, further enriched by additional meanings through Neoplatonism to the poetry of Michelangelo.