The Castle and the Seasons

Loris Jacopo Bononi and the Geometaphor of Castiglione del Terziere

Abstract

This article develops the concept of the “geometaphor” by considering the life and work of Loris Jacopo Bononi, poet-doctor-collector-inventor, through two elements of his landscapes: the castle of Castiglione del Terziere with its contents (a desire of eternity) and the fleeting seasons in the surrounding woods (the astonishment of the ephemeral). Two are the main lenses: Bononi’s relationship with his castle in Lunigiana and with specific objects preserved there (the contents of his bedroom and library, especially the incunabula collection); and his poetic production spanning the last years of his life, in the first decade of the XXI century. This is the first article that deals with Bononi’s poetic production in English.