Oltre Spitzer: «La bellezza artistica dell’antichissima elegia giudeo-italiana»

Oltre Spitzer: «La bellezza artistica dell’antichissima elegia giudeoitaliana »
The Judeo-Italian Elegy La ienti de Sion represents one of the first well structured Italo-Romance literary monuments. Preserved in three Machzorim in Hebrew characters, it is a kinah, an elegy associated to the religious services of the ninth day of the month of Av. The language is a Jewish koiné of Central Italy with southern linguistic features. It is datable XIIIth ex.-XIVth in. The peculiarity of the work consists in its being an Italian poem on a Hebrew theme, which bends a Romance language within a Hebrew metrical form. The antiquity and originality of the text have enticed scholars’ interest since its discovery. The present contribution offers a new interpretation of it on the strength of Spitzer’s observations, attempting a stylistic examination and adopting some rhetorical reading strategies, without losing sight of the more recent critical input from Cassuto and Sullam Calimani.