Iacopo Sannazaro and the Creation of a Poetic Canon in Early Modern England

This article investigates the circulation and fame of Sannazaro\u2019s Arcadia in early modern England, focusing first on Philip Sidney\u2019s reception of the poem as part of an ongoing pastoral tradition. Sannazaro\u2019s work thus contributed to create a new poetic context and decisively influenced Sidney\u2019s own Arcadia. Significantly enough, after Sidney\u2019s death the name of Sannazaro seems to suffer a deliberate act of ostracism (he does not appear in the works of Sidneian followers and commentators) as if Sidney\u2019s scribal community preferred to exalt the name of their friend and patron by marginalizing one of Sidney\u2019s sources