Aristofane in Poliziano

A survey of Poliziano’s works has brought to light the fact that he not only read and studied carefully all Aristophanes’ plays transmitted to us (except Thesmophoriazusae) but also the scholia. The first unambiguous traces of direct reading (i. e. through Greek MSS.) of Aristophanes’ plays by Poliziano appear in the commentary on Statius’ Silvae (1480-81: he was twenty-six years old) and increase in number in the following commentaries on the Latin and Greek texts dealt with by Poliziano in his academic courses in Florence. Aristophanic quotations, although to a lesser extent, appear also in other works, for instance in Miscellanea prima, Lamia and Epistolae. To sum up, we can state that from 1480 till his death (1494) Poliziano never gave up reading Aristophanes’ plays and quoting passages from them in his works for the most diverse reasons and purposes. Lastly we may add that the Plutus is the Aristophanic play most read and translated by the XV century humanists