Un imperfetto capitano nell’epica barocca: il Boemondo di G. L. Sempronio come antitesi di Goffredo
A Faulty Condottiere in the Baroque Epic: G. L. Sempronio’s Boemondo in contrast with Goffredo

Summary/Abstract: This article considers the heroes’ literary form in the epic of the 17th century and their cultural and literary value since the case of Boemondo, one of the most important poems written after the Gerusalemme liberata. The study of the text’s narratology and its topoi shows that the lack of confidence in the politician, as a consequence of a diffuse feeling of disillusion, affects the way of organizing the narration. Even in the epic context, the narration follows centrifugal principles that are close to Marino’s Adone and tends towards the condottiere’s distinctive features, without the ethical traits of Tasso’s Goffredo. The case of Sempronio is emblematic because it testifies that the historical and cultural change of the heroin courtier is present not only in the comic and parodic writing, but in the epic one, as well. Thus, the latter takes distance from those positions confident in the prince’s rectitude, typical of the 16th century.

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