Metapoetic Remarks in Giovanni Gemisto’s Protrepticon et Pronosticon

In 1516, Giovanni Gemisto publishes his Latin poem entitled Protrepticon et Pronosticon, which is addressed to the Pope Leo X. The Greek poet aims to encourage the Pope to undertake a holy crusade against the infidels and more especially against the Ottomans, in order to avert the Turkish danger in the West, to liberate Byzantium and Greek other lands, and ultimately to establish a state called ‘Graecia’. In this paper, through a close reading of five passages, I aim to reveal Gemisto’s metapoetic self-consciousness. Gemisto is an epic poet and, above all, a doctus poeta.