OMERO, IL GESUITA E IL GENERALE: L'ODISSEA DI ANTONIO POSSEVINO TRA CAMILLO CAPILUPI, FULVIO ORSINI E JOACHIM DU BELLAY

This paper presents a hitherto unknown copy of a 1542 Vene- tian edition of Homer’s Odyssey, now preserved in a private collection in Florence. The book once belonged to the Mantuan Jesuit Antonio Possevino, who filled its margins with notes written almost exclusively in Greek. Closer scrutiny reveals that the book also carries the names of the other Mantuan Camillo Capilupi and of the renowned Roman antiquarian Fulvio Orsini – this suggests a date between 1550 and 1554, a time when the three young scholars were all studying Greek in Rome (they all appear in the 1555 edition of Lelio Capilupi’s Virgilian centos, which Possevino dedicated to Joachim du Bellay, also in Rome at the time, and who was of course also fascinated by Homer’s Odyssey). In fact, Possevino’s notes depend not only on the published Homeric scholia, but also on the copy of the Odyssey (now in the Vatican Li- brary) heavily annotated by Fulvio Orsini on the basis of what is now ms. Vat. Gr. 1320; furthermore, Possevino added a number of (sometimes remarkable) Latin parallels for Homer’s lines. The paper embraces a study of Possevino’s notes, some elements on Vat. Gr. 1320, an excursus on Fulvio Orsini’s early years (and on his ex libris), as well as some concluding remarks on the cultural significance of this copy.