O alegorii naturalnej w dawnej teorii poezji heroicznej
Natural Allegory in Early Theories on Epic Poetry

Summary/Abstract: This article explores early modern allegorical theories of epics and related questions of hermeneutics. Among these questions, the most important one concerns the harmonious relationship between the epic poem’s mimetic fullness and its perceived figurative dimension. According to early modern artists and theorists of “perfect poetry”, the work’s suggestiveness derives from its mimetic energy, while its virtue lies in its discursiveness. This discursiveness has a particular poetic character, as the reality of moral and spiritual references within the represented world is evoked in the reading process thanks to the simultaneous working of the reader’s humanitas and the poem’s ethical potential. This potential is concealed within the structure of the plot, in the liveliness of the action and in the characters’ imaginative fullness. The early epos’s ideal reader is expected to actualize Virgil’s pattern and therefore must be able to read on various levels at once: diachronic reading, in which the reader follows the chronological flow of the narration, coexists with the synchronic work of the intellect, which constructs a unified vision of human fate, experiences and destiny.

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