La ‘ieiuna Musa’ : riflessioni di poetica nei Carmina di Balderico di Bourgueil

This article aims to investigate some passages of poetological reflection within the Baldric of Bourgueil’s Carmina. The extracts reveal frequent references to the Horace’s Ars poetica, for example the labor limae, the prescription of sumere materiam and the equilibrium between ars and ingenium. These categories bring out the concept of rusticitas, dear to Balderico, that emerges, in particular, through images that refer to the semantic field of dryness, fasting and aridity. The study wants in particular to select loci where the dualism between the quality of the poetic word and that of the sentiment that animates it emerges, preparing a more systematic comparison with similar tendencies within occitan poetry. This bilateral relationship will have to be related, finally, to the reflections on the poetic word, which are maturing in the 12th century within the main philosophical schools (such as the centre of San Vittore)