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Lettere Caro © 2009 by Metauro Edizioni S.r.l. - Pesaro http://www.metauroedizioni.it [email protected] ISBN 978-88-6156-020-8 ______________________________________________________________________ È vietata la riproduzione, intera o parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche ad uso interno o didattico, non autorizzata. ANNIBAL CARO A fare le lettere col compasso in mano Antologia delle Lettere Familiari introduzione e commento di Marcello Verdenelli metauro Introduzione Che la prosa epistolare rappresenti nel percorso letterario di Annibal Caro un esercizio di una certa rilevanza, avendo scandito, tale esercizio, come una sorta di metronomo segreto le tappe più emblematiche e significative di una vicenda cul- turale dal profilo versatile e “dialogico” (per riprendere una categoria cara alla cultura umanistico-rinascimentale), lo dimostra la persistenza e l’operatività nel tempo di tale esercizio, snodatosi, a rimanere alla forbice temporale delle Lettere Familiari stabilita dall’edizione di Aulo Greco, tra il 1531 (lett. 1 a Benedetto Varchi da Roma del 14 dicembre 1531) e il 1566 (lett. 805 a Giovanni Battista Caro da Frascati del 13 ottobre 1566). Forbice temporale che coincide peraltro con un periodo estremamente importante dell’umanista marchigiano, nato a Civitanova Marche nel 1507 e morto a Roma nel 1566. La continuità e la funzionalità di tale esercizio epistolare devono essere viste come il segno non solo di una più generale curiositas, quale quella che informò, a vari livelli, la stratificata cultura umanistico-rinascimentale, dando notevole impul- so, slancio a inedite e sperimentali ricerche e soluzioni, ma anche di una fisiologi- ca necessità ad accompagnare, assurto ormai foscolianamente quell’esercizio epistolare a «vivente barometro», i momenti, i passaggi, gli umori, i sogni, le delu- sioni di una vicenda certamente tra le più esemplari dell’epoca, soprattutto se letta, quella esemplarità, in certa sua vocazione europea, là dove il Caro, «Marchegiano e di piccola terra» (secondo una felice quanto calzante annotazio- ne del Leopardi presente nello Zibaldone), è riuscito, come pochi, a sintonizzarsi sulla lunghezza d’onda più innovativa della civiltà rinascimentale, facendo in par- ticolare delle lettere, insieme naturalmente ad altri esponenti di punta e di valore di un genere letterario sempre più sulfureo e irriverente (si pensi, per esempio, all’Aretino, che fece della lettera un abile, strategico e temutissimo strumento di satira politico-sociale), il luogo di una scommessa umana e culturale a più ampio respiro. 5 Come dimostra l’ampio e articolato corpus delle Lettere Familiari (ben 805 lettere secondo l’edizione stabilita da Aulo Greco), il Caro, liberatosi di certi in- gombranti impacci retorico-stilistici, è riuscito a riversare su quel genere, guidato sempre da una visione disincantata delle cose e della vita, uno straordinario quan- to sfaccettato movimento di situazioni, di urgenze culturali, storiche, letterarie, umane, riuscendo brillantemente a risolvere il dato più privato e solipsistico della lettera in una dimensione più pubblica e sociale. Pur non rinunciando a certa impaginazione letteraria della sua prosa epistolare, il Caro è riuscito a riversare su quella impaginazione, almeno nei momenti più liberi, disinibiti, spregiudicati, i tratti distintivi di una personalità di assoluto talento artistico-letterario. Per queste ragioni, le Lettere Familiari rappresentano un documento davvero unico ed eccezionale nel loro genere di una civiltà rinascimentale fatta sì di molte e straordinarie luci, soprattutto nella fase di maggior euforia e costruzione, ma anche di molte e dense ombre, soprattutto nel momento, la parte centrale cioè del Cinquecento, anche se la piega involutiva di questo processo si può far risalire al famoso Sacco di Roma del 1527, in cui tutta quell’enorme lezione artistico-lette- raria sembrò declinare verso i territori di una interiorità sempre più ansiogena e sfuggente; insomma una sorta di “dritto”, disegnato da certe tendenze più regolistiche e normative, e di “rovescio”, disegnato invece da spinte più innovative e in un qualche modo più destrutturanti, fermo restando che un elemento lo si può davvero capire nella sua interna dinamica se in rapporto all’altro. Quasi una carta di identità della stessa civiltà rinascimentale, dove alla voce “segni particolari” devono essere ascritti tutti quegli autori e quelle soluzioni letterarie (e il Caro è indubbiamente uno degli esponenti di punta di questa ispirata e folta famiglia)1 che meglio hanno saputo interpretare e intercettare l’esigenza della civiltà rinascimentale a pensarsi in termini ora costruttivi, ora decostruttivi. Per fare il focus su un punto particolarmente vicino alla sensibilità cariana, si pensi solo alla dibattutissima e nevralgica questione della lingua, che ebbe, tra l’altro, più di un positivo riverbero sulla stessa poetica dell’umanista marchigiano, ispirando soluzioni letterarie decisamente innovative per il sistema culturale del tempo. Si vuole qui alludere a quel tratto stilisticamente più irriverente, disinibito e a tratti dichiaratamente persino “osceno” di certa sua produzione. Profilo, questo, maturato soprattutto durante il soggiorno romano, durato, sia pure con qualche breve interruzione, dal 1529 al 1542, allorquando il Caro fu costretto a seguire appunto a Roma monsignor Giovanni Gaddi, anche se prima di questo soggiorno ce ne fu un altro culturalmente non meno importante: quello fiorentino fatto come 1 Per un suggestivo e recente “profilo” cariano: vd. R. Scrivano, Ritratto di Annibal Caro. A cinquecento anni dalla nascita, Prefazione di M. Verdenelli, Con dieci tavole di A. Ciarrocchi, Quodlibet, Macerata 2007. 6 precettore di Lorenzo e Antonio Lenzi, nipoti di monsignor Giovanni Gaddi; sog- giorno che diede al Caro la possibilità di conoscere storici e letterati del calibro di Benedetto Varchi, Piero Vettori, Francesco Berni, destinatari, i primi due, di più di una «familiare». Indubbiamente è stato il soggiorno romano ad aprire la strada al Caro a un fare letterario più disinibito e scanzonato, senza tuttavia rinunciare al rapporto con il potere, tanto che il Caro si può considerare, ante litteram, un intellettuale gramscianamente “organico” al potere, sia ecclesiastico sia politico, anche se occorre dire che questo rapporto non ha mai inibito il suo slancio libertario, ancorché rincorso, quest’ultimo, su traiettorie preferibilmente più culturali e letterarie che a livello di comportamenti umani, là dove solo nella parte finale della sua esistenza, ormai stanco e forse anche un po’ deluso della vita pubblica, di corte e dei tanti condizionamenti che il potere, anche quello apparentemente più permissivo e illu- minato, comunque sia determina, l’umanista marchigiano decise di ritirarsi a vita privata nella sua villetta presso Frascati, chiamata scherzosamente, con evidente allusione al proprio nome, «Caravilla», dove tra il 1563 e il 1566 attese alla tradu- zione, in endecasillabi sciolti, dell’Eneide virgiliana (pubblicata postuma nel 1581 da Giunti a Venezia), e dove in questo ispirato e soprattutto moderno esercizio traduttivo è da leggersi un ulteriore tassello di quella firma, istanza di libertà che nel Caro ha avuto altri significativi passaggi letterari. Firma che il Caro comincia a mettere in campo durante il soggiorno romano, dopo un primo e acerbo esercizio poetico di segno scopertamente elegiaco rap- presentato da quei suoi dodici distici elegiaci pubblicati nel 1524 nella raccolta del suo maestro e poeta teramano Rodolfo Iracinto dal titolo Iudicium Paradis et elegiae. A dare indubbiamente una certa accelerazione a quella firma di segno libertario, è stata senz’altro la frequentazione da parte dell’umanista marchigiano sia della contrada di Banchi, zona di ritrovo di estrosi, versatili e certamente non allineati artisti e letterati, sia di quella effervescente Accademia dei Vignaioli, dove l’esercizio prediletto era quello della poesia burlesca, satirica. Soggiorno romano che risulterà assolutamente determinante per l’ispirazione e la composi- zione di opere, linguisticamente molto sperimentali e trasgressive, come la Nasea, ovvero Diceria de’ Nasi (composta nel 1538), di chiara intonazione “burchiellesca” e “bernesca” e dove il Caro già fortemente ridicolizza il tono paludato e solenne delle orazioni latine di certi epigoni umanisti, il Commento di Ser Agresto da Ficaruolo sopra la prima ficata del Padre Siceo (pubblicato nel 1539), testo percorso da una allusiva e accattivante cifra erotica. E all’ambiente romano riconducono opere anche successive come, per esempio, la commedia Gli Straccioni, scritta nel 1543 su richiesta di Pier Luigi Farnese e ambientata nella Roma del tempo, l’Apologia degli Accademici di Banchi di Roma, scritta nel 1553 (edita a Parma nel 1558) per rispondere ai duri e ingenerosi attacchi mossi- 7 gli da Ludovico Castelvetro, esponente di rilievo, nella sua rigida impostazione aristotelica, di un Rinascimento più tetragono e compassato, la serie di sonetti I Mattaccini e La Corona, dove la scrittura cariana conosce pronunce di tipo più surreale ed onirico, al limite quasi dello “straniamento”. Certo è che guardando anche panoramicamente alla produzione del Caro, sempre in controluce con la scrittura delle Lettere Familiari, si vede chiaramente come questo tratto, in un certo qual senso, più disinibito, disinvolto e graffiante costituisca una cifra importante nel suo percorso, che sembra articolarsi in due tempi: il primo, gli
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