Doni in Parnaso. La visio in somniis come profezia metaletteraria

Abstract

The present essay aims to investigate the narrative potentialities connected to the dreamlike imagination, using as case-study some “letters-novels” by Anton Francesco Doni, dating back to the ’40s of the sixteenth century. The writer uses the visio in somniis for the creation of hybrid genres, such as the visionary novel and the metafictional prophecy, drawing also ispiration from figurative arts. In this dense intertextual plot we witness the rewriting of classical myths such as the Mount Parnassus.