Abstract

This essay examines the reception in seventeenth-century Italian of the biblical poems of G. S. Du Bartas, respectively dedicated to the Creation of the world and to Eden. Starting from the Mondo creato of Tasso, the author reviews the Italian texts of Murtola (La Creatione del mondo), of Passero (L’Essamerone overo l’opra de’ sei giorni), of Semenzi (Il mondo creato diviso nelle sette giornate), of Menzini (Il Terrestre paradiso), and of Angelini (L’Adamo). It also emphasizes the links with the two French works, often mediated by vulgar translations of Ferrante Guisone (La Divina settimana) and of Defendo Amigoni (Le due prime giornate della seconda settimana).