Una Confessio ad angelum custodem pseudomauropodea in dodecasillabi : editio princeps dal Laur. Plut. 9.18

This paper is the editio princeps with a brief introduction, a metrical and stylistic survey and a translation with minima critica of the Confessio ad angelum custodem, a dodecasyllable poem preserved in ms. Laur. Plut. 9.18. The poem is ascribed to John Mauropous, although its lack of prosodic accuracy in some lines makes this attribution unlikely. It is a long prayer (456 lines) dedicated to the guardian angel, inspired by Mauropous’ own hymn to his holy angel. Yet the Confessio is not a strictly liturgical work, nor a mere rearrangement of that hymn. The metrical survey offers some remarks on metrical technique in Mauropous’ works and in other poems attributed to him, especially on caesura and rhythmical patterns, about which the Confessio proves consistent with the standards of Mauropodean dodecasyllables. Besides, it is worth noting the high frequency of three-word dodecasyllables, the incidence of caesura C7 and the syntactical-rhetorical fixed structures within the lines.