ODYSSEUS GOES TO FLORENCE. NOTES ON THE FIRST ITALIAN TRANSLATION OF HOMER'S ODYSSEY (1582)

This article provides a preliminary textual and contextual study of the earliest Italian translation of Homer's Odyssey, produced by Girolamo Baccelli (c. 1514-c. 1580) and published in Florence by Bartolomeo Sermartelli in 1582. The article is divided into two parts. The first discusses the produc-tion of Baccelli's work. It provides a comparison between the autograph man-uscript of his translation and the printed version, and sets his project against the background of the << questione della lingua >> and the rise in Florence of the Accademia Fiorentina. The second part offers an analysis of specific sections of the text in comparison with the work of other 16th-century Italian translators of Homer, shedding light on Baccelli's linguistic and poetic strategies.