Du Bellay, poet of Rome, in Rome

This paper examines the representations of Rome in the poetry of Joachim Du Belly. During his stay in Rome from 1553-1557, the poet writes four collections of poetry that he publishes upon his return to France. Du Bellay’s real and poetic persona describes the voyage to an exile in Rome through his own experience and by different means of imitation. The places he depicts are both real and idealized, both sites and sights. Visibility in writing is assured by enargeia, a rhetoric figure that makes readers believe that they see what they read. Du Bellay ostensibly exploits this possibility. He also makes ample use of another rhetoric device, antonomasia. This figure allows the poet to transgress the lines between proper and common names and to expose the quest for “Rome in Rome” by combining images of ancient splendor and present decay. The main objective is to examine how the portrait of Rome, both by fictions and facts, informs the shaping of Renaissance France