(Re)visiting 'Delie': Maurice Sceve and Marian poetry

This study proposes a new reading of "Delie" and tries to shed a new light on the poet himself. Sceve appears here not only as the humanist we all kno w, but as a Christian poet, a poet as much interested in biblical and other religious sources as in classical and Italian ones. In his "canzoniere", S ceve follows very closely, and even sometimes initiates, a corpus of fixed- form poems - Rondeaux parfaits, Ballades, and Chants Royaux - written by po ets of the two previous generations for poetic contests known as "Puys". An d he constantly expresses his love and describes his idol in terms, images, and symbols directly borrowed from Marian poetry. To the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary corresponds for the Lover the pagan cult of Delie.