Not much is currently known about Vincenzo Polidori (1876–1968), a Latinist and Franciscan Tertiary from Arezzo. Before the First World War, he was a teacher at an elementary school in Bibbiena, but having finished his Master’s degree in 1918, he went on to teach literature at the high school level (Polidori and Morabito 1973: 45) and became headmaster of the Liceo Classico in Cortona (van Binnebeke 2020: 258n52). During the ventennio fascista, he frequently participated in the Certamen Hoeufftianum, submitting at least 63 pieces between 1923 and 1943, twice receiving magna laus from the Amsterdam jury. Additionally, he won the Certamen Ruspantinianum in 1934 (van Binnebeke 2020: 277). Polidori also translated Lucretius’ De rerum natura into Italian verse and rendered several modern, Italian poems into Latin (Gionta 2006: 195n1). In 1926, he gave autobiographical notes to Alfredo Bartoli, possibly at Bartoli’s request (Polidori and Morabito 1973: 45). For an overview of Polidori’s Latin literary output, see IJsewijn (1961: 180-181). More research on Polidori is needed.

Bibliography

Latin texts

Polidori, Vincenzo. 1923. Gallus et Lycoris: carmen Vincenti Polydori corythi in certamine poetico Hoeufftiano magna laude ornatum. Amsterdam: Academia Regia disciplinarum Nederlandica.

———. 1929. Mater et filiola. Catanzaro: Typis Franco & Pedullà.

———. 1933. “Redeuntes Ex Urbe Coloni.” Il Mondo Classico 3–4: 346–48.

Secondary literature

Binnebeke, Xavier van. 2020. “Hoeufft’s Legacy: Neo-Latin Poetry in the Archive of the Certamen Poeticum Hoeufftianum (1923–1943).” In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta, 245–325. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Gionta, Daniela. 2005. “I Certamina di poesia e prosa latina nell’ Ottocento e nel Novecento.” In La poesia latina nell’area dello stretto fra ottocento e novecento, edited by Vincenzo Fera and Elena Morabito, 195–240. Messina: Centro interdipartimentale di studi umanistici.

IJsewijn, Jozef. 1961. “Conspectus poetarum Latinorum saeculi vicesimi.” Euphrosyne 3: 149–90.

Polidori, Vincenzo, and Giuseppe Morabito. 1973. ‘Un ricordo autobiografico di Vincenzo Polidori’. Edited by Emilio Frangella. Calabria letteraria 10–12: 44–45.

Erlend Myklebust