ABSTRACT
This chapter considers instead Leon Battista Alberti's affinities with and distance from Lucian, charting the differences between the humanist's eulogy of the fly and the Greek satirist's original encomium. It examines the way this Quattrocento predecessor of Giordano Bruno blends comedy, ethics and autobiography in his challenge to epistemological and literary authority. The chapter also examines the structure of the Musca, its relationship to the Canis and the Vita, and its significant areas of difference from Lucian's Encomium muscae. Alberti was inspired to compose the Musca after receiving a copy of Guarino's Latin translation of Lucian's Encomium tnuscae. Most critics follow Grayson's approach in mentioning both the humorous and ethical dimensions that differentiate Alberti's work from Lucian's encomium. One striking element of Alberti's challenge to the Greek writer is an aspect of the Musca not mentioned at all by critics, namely the persistent stress on Roman or Latin culture.
