Abstract: With Sannazaro’s Arcadia and Eclogae piscatoriae as a departure point, this essay recapitulates the story of the vernacular bucolic in Italy during the sixteenth century highlighting the ways in which the poet’s legacy is mingled with other literary genres. It dwells on two poets belonging to the Neapolitan area, the courtly Luigi Tansillo, who had the eclogue meet drama, and Berardino Rota, who in Sannazaro’s wake turned it into a piscatorial form, the culmination form of an ancient story.
