This article discusses an unpublished vernacular Italian New World epic of the 1580s, which narrates the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The work was authored by the traveler, diplomat, and Orientalist Girolamo Vecchietti, and it is dedicated to Ferdinando I de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. Vecchietti’s poem is striking as a rare epic in terza rima, and as the sole surviving early modern Italian epic to center on the deeds of Cortés, rather than Columbus or Vespucci. It is also intriguing for its ambivalent attitude toward the Spanish colonizing enterprise, portrayed initially as a heroic evangelizing mission, but later shown in a more compromised light.

中文翻译：

---

未知的早期现代新世界史诗：Girolamo Vecchietti 的《Delle prodezze di Ferrante Cortese》（1587-88 年）

本文讨论了一部 1580 年代未出版的意大利新世界白话史诗，讲述了西班牙征服墨西哥的故事。该作品由旅行者、外交官和东方学家 Girolamo Vecchietti 撰写，献给托斯卡纳大公费迪南多·德·美第奇 (Ferdinando I de' Medici)。Vecchietti 的诗作为 terza rima 中罕见的史诗而引人注目，并且是唯一幸存的早期现代意大利史诗，以科尔特斯的事迹为中心，而不是哥伦布或韦斯普奇。它对西班牙殖民事业的矛盾态度也很有趣，最初被描绘成一个英勇的传福音使命，但后来以更加妥协的方式表现出来。