Solyman Disguised as Scipio : A Note on Gerusalemme liberata
x 51-52 · In Gerusalemme liberata x 51-52, Solyman suddenly appears and harangues
Aladin and his followers. Among the unacknowledged sources of
these octaves is Petrarch’s Africa iv 179-240, which reworks in turn an episode
narrated by Livy, Ab urbe condita xxii 53-54, in which Scipio, after the
battle of Cannae, crushes an attempt to desert. Because the recognition of
the source is essential to the correct understanding of the episode’s meaning
in the work, particular emphasis is given both to the way the anecdote
was uniquely received and reworked by Tasso and to the central role that
it plays in Petrarch’s historical and moral reflections
