Un’unità velata: il Cathemerinon liber di Prudenzio

This paper enters the debate about the unity of the Cathemerinon and it proposes a tentative solution to the lack of a clear structural patterning in the second part of the collection. To do that, the author reads the hymns 7-12 from the perspective of the liturgical year and demonstrates that the seventh and the eighth poems are referred to Lent and Easter, while the eleventh and the twelfth ones are undoubtedly linked to Christmas and Epiphany; concerning the hymn “for every hour” (Cath. 9) and the one for “the burial of the dead” (Cath. 10), they both may be related to the Ordinary Time. Lastly, the paper draws attention to symmetries of themes, motifs and metres between the two halves of the Cathemerinon.