Novus Orpheus lyricus ... Venanzio Fortunato e la lirica

In the praefatio of the first collection of his poems Venantius Fortunatus introduces himself as a novus Orpheus lyricus. Actually the poet almost exclusively uses the elegiac couplet and writes only a few poems in hexameters or in lyric meters. However, in some of his poems, the references to lyric poetry and the reflection on the use of lyric meters, for which the poet seems to show reverence, are not lacking. Such reflections are particularly included in the carm. 9, 7, the only poem in sapphic verses. The definition of himself as novus Orpheus lyricus does not actually imply that Venantius wants to be classed as a lyric poet, since the adjective lyricus may help to identify the poetic activity, as well as with a vocabulary recalling the lyric the poet sometimes indicates even the elegiac poetry. Calling himself a novus Orpheus lyricus, even if in an ironic and playful context such as the praefatio, Venantius takes on himself some considerable credits; with the adjective lyricus, even if it does not designate a genre, he refers in any case to those qualities that he confers to the lyre and to the lyric in other contexts, thus emphasising his refinement as poet and his cultural superiority over the environment in which he is integrated.