Fortuna moderna e marginalità medievale del "Karolus Magnus et Leo Papa" di Modoino d'Autun

The poem variously entitled "Karolus magnus et Leo papa", "Paderborner Epos", Aachener Epos", and finally "De Karolo rege et Leone papa" - as it deals with king Charlemagne meeting pope Leo at Paderborn in 799 - attracted great interest among modern scholars, because of both its relevance as a historical source and its Virgilian style. Conversely, it received scant attention at the time it was written (about 799 or some years later) and exerted little influence on Carolingian poets. Such a disparity in reception provides eloquent testimony of how literary values change over time. The authorship of the text has been a heavily discussed and debated topic. If we are to take recent research into account, it is no longer possible to hold (like Schaller did) that the poem was written by Einhard. As it seems, it was more likely composed by Modoin of Autun. After an introcution about the significance of "anonymity" in medieval literature, this paper recalls the history of the studies about the poem and the evidence about Moduin, providing some further details in favour of his authorship, also by examining the sequencxe of the texts in the Zuerich manuscript and the structure and the language of the poem as it transcribed there.