«Quod tibi damno est, avertere stude». Enea Silvio Piccolomini e l'amore ricusato

Abstract

Main theme of the epistle written by Enea Silvio Piccolomini to his Milanese friend Ippolito Porro in 1446 is the hominis conditio, which runs through Piccolomini's entire production in various ways as evidence of the constant restlessness of his soul and the deep desire to anchor himself to absolute values. Commonly known by the title De remedio amoris, this epistle is in fact a small treatise in which the particular occasion - the request for a cure to combat the disease of love - suggests to the humanist a broader reflection on a theme dear to the treatises of the time, that of the uncertainty and fragility of the human condition, and thus highlights the cultural, literary and ethical interests of Piccolomini himself. The text is analysed through the filter of the Ovidian source, the Remedia amoris, an expression of the elegiac system with an erotic theme.