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Wiener Studien Band 138/2025Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
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Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
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Wiener Studien 138/2025, pp. 109-150, 2025/07/21
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
This essay traces the development of the use of the ape1 as a term for imitators and imitations from Plautus to Boccaccio, delineating both the contexts in which the simia imitatrix was typically deployed and its connotations. In Latin Antiquity, it was primarily found in literary contexts, denoting the slavish epigone, but it was also deployed with reference to the ape’s superficial similarity to humans as a dehumanizing insult for those who possessed the external accoutrements of office but lack the internal qualities required. In the Middle Ages, the semantic field was greatly expanded, with the ape used to denote anyone and anything, including objects and abstract concepts, perceived as derivative. While still serving as a term of abuse for the hypocrite, the ape gradually lost some of its stigma and it began to function as a value neutral or even baroquely charming term for the imitator. This paved the way for its incorporation into the Renaissance revival of the ancient mimesis discourse and secured the ape a place in the literary history of Europe.