Orgoglio poetico e lode della patria nelle epistole di Girolamo Muzio al nipote Maurizio

L’Egida, an incomplete poem in hendecasyllabic verses composed by Girolamo Muzio between 1570 and 1572, celebrates the ancient vicissitudes of the land of Istria and, in particular, of Capodistria (formerly called Egida). Muzio defends his poem in some letters addressed to his nephew Maurizio in 1575, in which he counterpoints point by point the reservations on the poem formulated by the Capodistrian scholars. This intervention aims to re-read these Muzio’s epistles, with the aim of highlighting, in them, the poetic pride clearly professed by the writer and his attachment to the land of election, which he always praised and exalted. Moreover, these epistles are rich in references to the classical poetic tradition, in particular Latin (Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Valerius Flaccus), and this key element is an ulterior reason for interest.