All’ombra dei grandi libri: la selva Andes di Pietro Marso

"Andes Virgilii natale solum", a silva by the Italian humanist Petrus Marsus, was published in Mantua in 1480. The present paper investigates the role of that text as a turning point from Statius’ concept of the silva to the silvae by Politian; it also shows that the silvae were intended by Politian as an introduction to classical texts, exactly in the way of the first printed editions of classical texts, where these texts were accompanied by other poetic compositions, conceived as an introduction to the classical author.