Le poète chassé de la ville. Un thème platonicien chez Pétrarque et Boccace

The Platonic Legacy about Poetry is transmitted to the Middle Ages by Boethius : at the beginning of the Consolatio, Philosophy pushes away the poetic Muses, too close to passions, according to Plato’s prescription in Rep. 398 A : the poet « able to imitate every aspect of life » is dangerous for the City and must be kept out of the community. On the one hand Poetry is close to the Revealed Truth ; on the other hand it is close to passions, according to the « melancolic» pattern of Aristotle, Probl. 10.1 : here’s the main Platonic challenge about Poetry herited by the Middle Ages. Petrarch refuses the « melancholic » model of solitude by emphasising the Stoic-Christian solitude purified from the passions. On the contrary, Boccace leads Poetry to meet again contingence.