Abstract

This essay examines Giovanni Andrea dell’Anguillara’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1561) through three interpretative keys, which can be briefly indicated as biography, typography, and philology. Thus, it retraces the intellectual biography of Anguillara, highlighting the precarious condition that marked the existence of the writer, which acts as a dynamic element in the composition of his major work. It then sheds light on aspects and moments of the text’s editorial history, showing the role of the printing industry in the process of its shaping and canonization. Finally, it delves into the actual text, focusing on the formal micro- and macrostructures: the ottava rima and the text as a narrative unit, examined in light of the critical debate that surrounded them.