About three litotes in the Christian cento Versus ad Gratiam Domini
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Abstract
In the course of no more than 30 lines, the author of the Christian cento Versus ad Gratiam Domini -also known as: Tityrus- utilizes three litotes to specify the qualities of wise Tityrus’ song, which is addressed to his young apprentice Moeliboeus. In all three cases, and by the means of three different negation adverbs, the litotes positively describe the song, whose remarkable features are obliquely alluded through double negations, and never directly denoted. The procedure reflects the complexity of centonary texts, which also deal with the tension between superficial and deep meaning of the words composing them. Thus, these litotes are a metaliterary reflection on the nature of the cento (and of centos in general as well) and they conform to a pair of aesthetic procedures dear to late Antiquity: miniaturization and variatio.
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