La invención de un estilo. El poema inicial de los Basia de J. Segundo y Dos elegías de juventud de D. Heinsivs

Abstract

The present paper proposes to study the metaliterary implications of a series of literary fictions in neo-Latin poetry. Special attention is given to the introductory poem in J. Secundus’ Basia and to the youthful elegies by D. Heinsius. Themes such as the birth of the kiss, which is present in these compositions either directly or allusively, are characteristic in the poetics of that time of suavitas and venustas. Examining these compositions from such a perspective reveals the way in which the poet has moulded his own persona and the parallelism between the conception of style and the thematic configuration of literary motifs.