The unacknowledged exploitation of material from earlier literature appears to have been considered an inalienable feature of the genre of imaginary and imaginative letters right from the beginning. Aelian’s Rustic Letters, written at the end of the second or the beginning of the third century, expropriate incidents, vivid phrases or even whole passages, and character names from a variety of earlier autors. His first letter offers an interesting example of the expansion and diffusion of some topoi peculiar to the Greek and Latin literary praise of the countryside. Aelian Epist. 7 and 8 are an imaginary exchange between a naive rustic Derkyllos and a greedy hetaira Opora who rejects his advances. Aelian’s two letters of Opora and Derkyllos might have derived some of their ideas from Alexis’ lost Opora.

The first part of this article analyzes the precious comments on the art of translation which Giacomo Leopardi has disseminated his Zibaldone: even in this, Leopardi’s thought is extraordinarily modern. The second part focuses on some translation problems in two passages of epistolography: Aristaenet. 2.5.48-50 and Ael. Ep. 15.13-14.

Il volume ripercorre le tappe più rilevanti dell’iter di approvazione dell’ultimo DdL sull’Università, documentando le reazioni suscitate nelle istituzioni e fra le forze politiche e il clima sociale del Paese.

L’articolo propone l’interpretazione di un frammento comico menandreo (inc. fab. *490 K.-A.) alla luce di alcuni topoi consolidati della letteratura erotica greco-latina (ad esempio, quello della sazietà d’amore).

The main character of Aelian’s fifth letter comes from the bucolic poetry. The letter gives evidence of some widespread to poi in Greek erotic poetry.

The article deals with the twenty-seventh letter by Theophylactus Simocates as evidence of the diffusion of some topoi peculiar to the Greek and Latin rhetorical praise of the countryside.

In merito al dibattito sulla utilità e la funzione delle lingue classiche.

Aelian’s collections of fictional letters distinguish as an interesting example of a text re-writing the comic play by Menander.

The main character of the nineteenth letter by Aelianus comes from the Samia by Menander. Thus, the letter distinguishes as an interesting example of a text re-writing the comic play.

L’articolo ritorna sulla discussa questione del rapporto tra la Pharmakeutria teocritea e il ‘mimo femminile’ di Sofrone intitolato Le donne che presumono di scacciare [?] la dea) e segnala la presenza di due elementi di oggettiva convergenza tra alcuni versi dell’idillio e uno dei quattro frustoli papiracei da Ossirinco (fr. 4d K.-A. = 4d Hordern = PSI 1214 = Mertens-Pack3 1482 = LDAB 3961), editi nel 1932 da Medea Norsa e Girolamo Vitelli e attribuiti al mimo di Sofrone.

Once more we need a careful examination of the relationship between Alciphron and Aelian. The parallelism in situation and in incident between Alciphron and Aelian is sometimes devoid of parallels in phraseology and appears to result merely from the limited number of to poi in the genre.