Abstract

The schema of ‘Chiare, fresche et dolci acque’ is by far the most imitated in the history of Italian literature. This leading position makes Rvf, 126 into a rhyming prototype that some authors of the second half of the 16th century seem only to imitate from a formal point of view. This article examines the “canzoneµ, reconstructing the history of its reception through critical literature and ancient and modern commentaries. At the same time, a number of 16th-century texts adopting the schema of Rvf, 126 are analyzed, with the aim of highlighting similarities and differences in imitative methods, in retrieval, in reformulation, and in the avoidance of certain conventional motifs (whether of a formal nature, or content-related).