Echi e riflessi storico-politici nella letteratura franco-veneta: il caso della Pharsale di Niccolò da Verona

The purpose of this article is to restart the researches on the echoes of historical and political events which characterize some medieval Franco-Venetian texts. Aiming at this goal, the author analyses one of them, Niccolò da Verona's Pharsale, as exemplar case. This poem, relating to the ancient Roman Civil War, was composed in 1343 in honour of Niccolò I, marquis of Este. This article deals in particular with the anachronisms of this poem, which appear to have been neglected by former scholars, except for Joachim Leeker, whose interpretation is here drawn on and developed through a deeper analysis of the historical and political context. It follows that the anachronisms are most probably echoes of current affairs, specifically of the conflict for the imperial throne which opposed first Frederick of Habsburg and Louis of Bavaria between 1314 and 1322, then the latter and the papacy. The poem seems therefore to reflect the political point of view of his patron, who formed a new alliance with the papacy just in 1343.