«Zum Tod des großen Pan», once again. A Forgotten 16th-century Source

The Brescian Benedictine monk Tito Prospero Martinengo can perhaps be consi- dered as the most talented and learned Italian author of ancient Greek verse after Poliziano. After a brief overview of his relationship with the Roman milieux of the late Cinquecento, this paper examines a passage in the account of the Passion in his Greek Hymn to Christ. The overt reference to the famous account of the death of Pan in Plutarch’s De defectu oraculorum builds a striking parallel between Pan and Christ, one that needs to be understood in the lignée represented by Paolo Marsi, François Rabelais, Guillaume Postel, and Guillaume Bigot. A close reading of the passage against its ancient poetic sources (including Bion of Smyrna, Proclus and the Orphic Hymns) leads to a deeper understanding of Martinengo’s syncretistic attitude and humanistic pietas – not an obvious thing in the capital of Counter- reformed Italy.