La tentazione del «codico»: movenze trattatistiche negli epistolari di Felice Feliciano

Felice Feliciano's (1433-1479?) vernacular epistolary production is part of the Petrarchan tradition, in which the letter is marked by familiaritas and is intended to be circulated among the inner circle of friends. However, without ever betraying the confidential dimension of the epistolary communication, Feliciano's letters accommodate ways of formulating content that are typical of the treatise genre: the text thus tends to escape the contingency of composition and to assume a general value, above time. This essay proposes an analysis of the stylistic "movements" that testify to the author's treatise vocation, namely: the insistent use of quotations from classical texts; the dialogic tension that makes the epistolary prose a long-distance dissertation between the two interlocutors; the awareness that the author shows in admitting he was tempted by treatise writing.