Su nel ciel altro Elicona: Versifying the life of Christ on either side of the Alps

Religious poetic composition in ancient Greek – as opposed to Latin – was rare in Italian humanism, but quite widespread during the Reformation since the 1540s, particularly – though not exclusively – in Germany. While concentrating primarily on narrative poems on the life of Christ, this chapter will deal with some marking episodes of this phenomenon (from Ledesma to Castellio, from Gothus to Reusner and Jamot), with all their aesthetic and ideological purport, especially as regards the so-called ‘Nonnus-Renaissance’ in the Ilfeld School, Martin Crusius’ attempt to a dia- logue with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the literary and cultural background to Lorenz Rhodoman’s Palaestina. In comparison with this state of affairs, the chapter will examine the case of Tito Prospero Martinengo, the only – if exceptionally skilled – author of religious Greek poetry in Catholic Rome: his Poëmata varia are published under Pope Gregory XIII, at the time of the foundation and early activity of the Collegio Greco di Sant’Atanasio.