ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS
Medievai.
Texts
and Renaissance and Volumes
Studies S 9
ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS
Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress
of NeO' Latin Studies Cambridge 30 July-5 August 2000
general editor
Rhoda Schnur
edited by
Jean Louis Charlet, Lucia Gualda Rosa, Heinz Hofmann, Brenda Hosington, Elena Rodriguez Peregrina, and
Ronald Truman
Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Tempe, Arizona 2003
A
generous grant from Pegasus Limited for the Promotion
of Neo-Latin Studies has helped meet pubUcation costs of this book.
©
Copyright 2003
Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies (11th 2000 Cambridge, England) Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Cantabrigiensis proceedings of the eleventh International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies, Cambridge, 30 July-5 August 2000 / general editor Rhoda Schnur edited by Jean Louis Charlet [et al.] (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies v. 259) p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. :
:
:
—
.
;
(acid-free paper)
philology. Medieval and
Jean Louis.
III.
Title. IV.
—
—
modern History and criticism Congresses. modern Congresses. I. Schnur, Rhoda. II. Charlet,
Latin hterature, Medieval and
2. Latin
.
;
ISBN 0-86698-302-3 1.
.
Medieval
&
—
Renaissance Texts
&
Studies (Series)
PA8002.I57 2003 477-dc21
;
v.
259.
2003052335
© is made to last. Bembo, smythe-sewn and printed on acid-free paper
This book
It is set
in
to hbrary specifications.
Printed in the United States of America
International Association for Neo-Latin Studies Eleventh International Congress
Cambridge, 30 July - 5 August 2000
PROGRAMME
Res Publica Litterarum: Unity and Diversity Sponsors
The
British
Academy
Cambridge University Press Clare College, Cambridge Classics Faculty, University of Cambridge French Department, University of Cambridge French Embassy, London Girton College, Cambridge Jesus College,
Pembroke
Cambridge
College, Cambridge
Pegasus Ltd.
The Scandinavian Studies Fund, University of Cambridge The Tiarks Fund, Department of German, Cambridge Cambridge Cambridge
Trinity College, Trinity Hall,
Executive Committee Prof Gilbert Toumoy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Past President: Prof Brenda M. Hosington, Universite de Montreal First Vice President: Prof Stella Revard, St. Louis, Second Vice President: Dr. Philip Ford, University of Cambridge Treasurer: Prof Chris Heesakkers, Universiteit Leiden Secretary: Dr. Karl-August Neuhausen, Universitat Bonn Chair of Publications: Mrs. Rhoda Schnur, St. Gallen President:
MO
Advisory Board for the Eleventh International
lANLS
Chair: Professor Stella Revard,
Congress
USA
Professor Charles Bene, France
Professor Judith Rice Henderson,
Canada
Professor Jean-Claude Margolin, France
Professor Outi Merisalo, Finland Professor Colette Nativel, France Professor Fred Nichols,
USA
Professor Fiammetta Palladini, Italy/Germany
Professor Jerzy Stamawski, Poland
PROGRAMME Sunday, 30 July 18.30 Reception in Clare College
Monday,
31 July
08.30 Registration 09.15 Official Opening Ford (Chair of Organising Committee) Anne Lonsdale (Pro- Vice Chancellor, University of Cambridge) Philip
Gilbert
Toumoy
(President,
lANLS)
09.45 Plenary Session
JULIA GAISSER,
I
Allegorizing Apuleius: Fulgentius, Boccaccio,
Beroaldo, and the Chain of Receptions
10.45 Coffee
11.15-12.45 Papers Session
I
1
FRANZ ROMER,
Connubio
stabili:
ein Extremfall habsburgischer Heiratspolitik in
poe-
tischer Darstellung
UELI DILL,
Gilbertus Cognatus
als
Herausgeber und Kommentator von Janus Secundus'
Regina Pecuniae
FIDEL RADLE,
L. Geizkofler:
De
miseriis studiosorum declamatio
(1576)
Session 2
JORG ROBERT, Dichtung
Exults haec uox
ANGELA FRITSEN, The nelia
est:
(Velius, Celtis, Lotichius,
and Ovid's
Ovidische Selbstentwiirfe in der neulateinischen
Du
Bellay)
Renaissance Search for
Roman
Roots:
The Venetian ^e«5
Cor-
Fasti
KATHRYN McKINLEY,
Raphael Regius: The Editor
as
Reader of Ovid's Metamorphoses
Session 3
MONIQUE MUND-DOPCHIE, Traductions et commentaires latins des
Voyages desfrires
aux XVIe et XVlle siecles: tradition ou trahison? LAUREYS, The Unity of Christendom and the Diversity of Europe in Uberto Foglietta's Treatise on the Greatness of the Turkish Empire ROBERT W. CARRUBBA, The Preface of the Amoenitates exoticae
Zeno en
Septentrion (1558)
MARC
Session 4
STELLA RE YARD, Milton and Cambridge MARIO A. Dices ARE, George Herbert's
Latin Poetry and the
Quest
for a Liturgical
Notes FIAMMETTAPALLADINI, Pufendorf on Milton and Divorce Poetics: Introductory
Session 5
RICHARD
I. FRANK, Bude: Humanists and the Republic of Letters INGRID De SMET, The Fourth Man? J. -A. de Thou and the Republic of Letters JOHN CONSIDINE, Philology and Autobiography in Isaac Casaubon, Animadversionum
in
Athenaei Deipnosophistas Ubri XF'(1600)
PROGRAMME 13.00
Lunch
14.00-15.30 Papers Session
n
1
ARNOLD
L.
KERSON,
Fray Alonso de
Spanish Conquest of America
la
Veracruz's Views
Revealed
as
in his
De
on
the Legitimacy of the
dominio infidelium
et iusto
bello
(1553-54)
YASMIN HASKELL, Chocolate and Other Unsavoury Subjects: Jesuit Latin Georgic Poetry about the New World AVELINA CARRERA, ^Por que se prohibieron las Adnotationes de Philipp Melanchthon a
la
obra de Salustio en Mexico
a finales del siglo
XVI?
Session 2
ANNE
L.
SAUNDERS,
Reflections
on Marriage
in Early
Modem Europe:
Giovanni Ne-
vizzano's Sylva nuptialis
JOLANTA MALINOWSKA, The Epithalamium nandiftliae as a
Good Specimen of Petrus
Sigismundi Secundi Augusti
et
Elisabes Ferdi-
Royzius' Epic Poetry
Session 3
ALBERT R. BACA, Apuleius* Tale of Cupid and Psyche in Art and Myth JUDITH DEITCH, Prefacing Axiochus: The Renaissance Plato and the Res publica litteramm GEORGE HUGO TUCKER, Versions of a 'Picture': Giovanni Battista Pio di Bologna's Tabula Cebetis of 496 and Two Other Latin Versions of the Tabula Also Produced 1
-
either in the Circle
of Filippo Beroaldo or
for Isabella d'Este in
1495-97
Session 4
ZLATA BOJOVIC, Humanism in Boka Kotorska JAN OKON, Erasmo da Rotterdam e primo rinascimento il
15.30
in Polonia
Tea
16.00-17.30 Papers HI Session 1
JOSE el
MANUEL RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA, El dialogo en el renacimiento portugues: Duarum
virginum colloquium de Luisa Sigea
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL, sus Epistolarum
libri
VII,
El testamento literario de Juan Gines de Sepulveda:
Salamanca, 1557
JOAQUIN J. sAnCHEZ gAZQUEZ, veda and
his ItaHan
Erasmus'
De
libero arbitno in
the
Reading of Sepul-
Contemporaries
Session 2
ALISON FRAZIER, ments with
Advertising Virtue in the
res
publica litteramm:
Renaissance Experi-
vitae sanctorum
OLGA PUGLIESE,
The Role of
Latin in the Composition of Castiglione's
// libra
del
Cortegiano
MARYANNE CLINE HOROWITZ, vius Piccolomini
Semina virtutum in Early Education for Aeneas Syl-
and Desiderius Erasmus
Session 3
ADRIE VAN DER LAAN, Rudolph
Agricola and the Construction of Self-Image in his
Letters
JEANINE DE LANDTSHEER, Beer: Forty-four Parodies
JAN WASZINK.
Lipsius
In Praise of the Holy on Horace, Odes IV.3
and Cicero
Trinity, Justus Lipsius
and German
PROGRAMME Session 4
MINNA SKAFTE JENSEN,
Nationalism and Internationalism in Danish Latin Poetry of
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
VIBEKE ROGGEN,
Entertainment and Learning in Neo-Latin Rebuses by the Seven-
teenth-Century Norwegian Nils Thomasson
19.00 Dinner 20.15 Concert Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Trumpington
Street
Latin Sacred Songs and Elegies of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Gooding and Ana-Maria Rincon, sopranos Timothy Roberts, organ and harpsichord
Invocation: Julia
Tuesday,
1
August
09.15-11.15 Papers
IV
Session 1
THOMAS LINDNER,
Leonardo Datis Trophaeum Anglaricum Die Rezeption von Vergils Heldenschau
ELISABETH KLECKER,
in der neulateinischen
Habsburg-Epik
lAsZLO SZORENYI,
La poesia epica
di Elias
Berger
Session 2
EVRARD DELBEY,
Pontano elegiaque: I'enonciation de
la
subjectivite dans la
Repub-
lique des lettres
ABBAS MIROUZE, Giovanni Pontano et le modele aristotelicien BEATRICE CHARLET-MESDJIAN, Tito Vespasiano Strozzi et commerce poetique au
Janus Pannonius: un
sein de la Res publico litterarum
Session 3
LUIS
PARRA GARCIA,
gena en tellae et
el
Las fuentes sobre
la
concepcion historica de Alfonso de Carta-
discurso Propositio super altercatione praeminentiae sedium inter oratores regum Cas-
Angliae
in concilia Basilensi
FERRAN GRAU CODINA, in the Sixteenth
Orationes concerning Letters in the University
of Valencia
Century
DANIEL LOPEZ CANETE,
La obra
latina
de Manuel Sousa Coutinho
Session 4
JANBLOEMENDAL, Senecan Drama: Unity and Diversity HOWARD NORLAND, Gager's Meleager. An Inventive Adaptation of Senecan Form VICENTE PICON GARCIA and ANGEL SIERRA DE COZAR, Nuevos textos del teatro jesuitico
JAMES
A.
en Espana
PARENTE,
Historical
Tragedy and the End of Christian Humanism: Nicolaus
Vemulaeus (1583-1649) 11.15 Coflfee
11.45-12.45 Plenary Session 11 L'Accademia Pontaniana e la sua ideologia in alcuni componimenti giovanili del Sannazaro
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA,
PROGRAMME 13.00
Lunch
14.00-15.30 Papers
V
Session 1
CLARE M. MURPHY, Thomas
More's De tristitia Christi as Theo-Drama N. McCUTCHEON, Laughter and Humanism: Unity and Diversity in Thomas More's Epigrammata THOMAS FINAN, Sir Thomas More's Translations and Use of Lucian
ELIZABETH
Session 2
SEBASTIANO VALERIO,
Paolo Palladino, militate e letterato
corte di Federico
alia
d'Aragona
ANTONIO lURILLI, Audor in re publica litteraria: Antonio Galateo e CARLO SANTINI, La versione latina dell'/lwrfc di Giuseppe Pasquali
i
suoi lettori
Mahnelli
Session 3
MARIANO MADRID CASTRO,
Sources for the Commentaries of Jodocus Badius As-
censius
MARIANNE FADE,
and Intention in the Latin Translations of Lapo da
Style
Castigli-
onchio the Younger
GINETTE VAGENHEIM, ca litterarum
du XVIIe
Marquard Gude (1635-1689), citoyen meconnu de en Europe
la res publi-
siecle
Session 4
PETER FISHER, What
is
a
Hippopotomus?
A
Problem
in Renaissance
Taxonomy and
Description
FABIO STOK, L'umanesimo
HANS HELANDER,
scandinavo di Olaus
Magnus
Latin as a Vehicle of Pro-Swedish Propaganda during the Thirty
War
Years'
15.30
Tea
16.00-17.30 Papers VI Session 1
DAVIDE CANFORA,
JOHN
B.
1496:
DILLON,
L'anonimo carme
pastorale intitolato Cinthias
Pontano, the Aqueduct, and the Neapoliun Graces of 1495 and
Towards an Occasion
STEPHEN MURPHY. The
for Eridanus, 2.23
Capilupi, Masters of the
Cento
Session 2
JOSE GONZALEZ-VASQUEZ and en
MANUEL LOPEZ-MUNOZ,
los tratados neolatinos espafioles
JOAQUIN PASCUAL,
El papel de
la
adio
de retorica
Particularidades y coincidencias en
la
obra latina y castellana de
Rodrigo Caro Session 3
MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN, A
Renaissance Treatise on Time: Lilio Gregorio Gi-
De annis et mensibus PHILLIPS SALMAN, Johannes Kepler on Geometry as Language MARIA BERGGREN, New Words for New Findings raldi's
.
.
.
Session 4
PETER
L.
SCHMIDT,
Huttens Loetze-Elegjen: ein humanistisches Gesellenstiick
PROGRAMME
WALTHER LUDWIG,
Der
und der Tyrann:
Ritter
die humanistischen Invektiven des
Ulrich von Hutten gegen Herzog Ulrich von Wiirttemberg
ECKHARD BERNSTEIN, Historical
Bartholomaeus Latomus' Fadio memorabilis ab Sicdngen and
its
Background 18.00 Reception Cambridge University Press
19.30 Dinner
Wednesday, 2 August 09.15-11.15 Papers
VH
Special Session
Autobiographical Self-Representation in the Res Publica Litterarutn
SIEGMAR WALTER DOPP, JAN PAPY,
loannes Fabricius Montanus:
The Two Autobiographies
Correspondence: From Draft Letter to Literary Monument, from Philologist to Philosopher Lipsius's
TOON VAN HOUDT, sions
Writing Letters, Rewriting the of Lipsius' Correspondence
Self:
Psychotherapeutic
Dimen-
Session 2
ZWEDER VON MARTELS,
Influences of Late Antiquity
on
the
Work
of Aeneas
Silvias
Piccolomini C. WOODS, Medieval Latin Rhetoric in a ROBERT GINSBERG, Philosophy and Pedagogy in the
MARJORIE De
JOHN
nostri temporis
R. C.
Neo-Latin Context Rhetoric of Giambattista Vico's
studiorum ratione (1709)
MARTYN, Memory
Training in Renaissance Education
Session 3 Paul MeHssus Schede's Poem to Sir Philip Sidney: A German Humanist at Court of Elizabeth STEPHEN RYLE, A Romano-British Epic: The Reliquiae Eboracenses (1743) of Heneage Dering JOHN BARRY, The Latinity of Richard Stanihurst AUGUST A. IMHOLTZ, Neo-Latin Nonsense: From Carroll's Alice to Nabokov's Lolita
LEE PIEPHO, the
Session 4
GERHARD HOLK, Petrus Martyr de Angleria (Pietro Martire d'Anghiera): A Remarkable Itahan Humanist and Historian of the New World GEOFFREY EATOUGH, Mission to Egypt: What Peter Martyr Saw with his Own Eyes DAG NIKOLAUS HASSE, Die humanistische Polemik gegen arabische Autoritaten
11.15 Coflfee
11.45-12.45 Plenary Session HI
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA, en
la
Espana de Carlos
Lutero y su influencia
V
PROGRAMME Lunch
13.00
14.00 Excursion to Hatfield
House
19.30 Dinner
Thursday, 3 August 09.15-10.45 Papers Session
Vm
1
BENJAMIN GARCIA HERNAnDEZ, ditationes
Los
reflejos plautinos
en
el latin
de Descartes
(Afe-
I— III)
CORINNA VERMEULEN, A
Latin Translation of Descartes
PIET STEENBAKKERS, Philosophy
in the
Republic of Letters: Jean Le Clerc
Session 2
PAUL GERHARD SCHMIDT, Erasmus von Rotterdam, Ratio seu methodus verae theologiae CARL SPRINGER, Arms and the Theologian: Martin Luther's Adversus armatum virum Cocleum
JENNIFER MORRISH-TUNBERG,
Samuel Gott's Nova Solyma and the Tradition of
the Neo-Latin Utopia
Session 3
AGNIESZKA DZIUBA, The
Renaissance Portrait of the Polish King: Sigismundus Bernard Wapowski's Chronica Polonorum
PIOTR URBANSKI, Jan Dantyszek (Joannes Dantiscus) and Italian Neo-Latin JERZY STARNAWSKI, Zamosc: die letzte Redoute der Renaissance in Polen
1
in
Poetry
10.45 Coffee
11.15 Business Meeting
13.00
Lunch
14.00-15.00 Plenary Session
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET, Une la
IV
querelle au sein de
la
Res publica Utterarum:
question de PUne I'Ancien de 1469 au miHeu du
15.00
XVIe
siecle
Tea
15.30-17.30 Papers
EX
Special Session
Neo-Latin Literature in Cambridge and CRAIG KALLENDORF, Exorcism and the Interstices of Language: Ruggle's Ignoramus and the Demonization of Renaissance English Neo-Latin
HILAIRE
JOHN HALE, George Herbert's Oration before King James, Cambridge 1623 DAVID MONEY, Quantity or Quality? A Quick Look at 2000 Cambridge Latin JAMES BINNS,
Victorian Latin at Cambridge
Poets
PROGRAMME Session 2
JOHANN RAMMINGER,
Hermolao Barbaros Corollarium zu Dioskurides und am Ende des Quattrocento
die
hu-
manistische Kommentarliteratur
MICHAEL VERWEIJ, The Cranevelt Letten and Rome NIKOLAUS THURN, Die Disputationes Camaldulertses von
Cristoforo Landino
Session 3
MARIA AURELIA MASTRONARDI, ftcis
omamentis
ELLEN
S.
regie civitatis
urbis
e sistema delle
arti:
Ubellus de magni-
il
GINSBERG, Theory
and Practice of Genre(s) in the French Renaissance la Republique des lettres a la Republique des arts: de Montjosieu
COLETTE NATIVEL, Gallus
Imago
Padue
Romae
hospes
L'Apport de
le
Session 4
JUDITH RICE HENDERSON, Renaissance Epistolary Rhetoric: The Political Phase DIRK VAN MIERT, The Letters of Hadrianus Junius on the Anglican Church HENKJ. M. NELLEN, Hugo Grotius' Correspondence with his Brother Willem de Groot Session 5 C. MIRALLES
JOSE
MALDONADO,
PERRINE GALAND-HALLYN, Jean
Traductio
and
tmitatio in
Salmon Macrin:
Faemo's Neo-Latin Fables comme support d'un
I'ode latine
lyrisme familial dans les recueils de 1537
DIRK SACRE, Some
Technical Aspects of Neo-Latin Echo Poetry
19.00 Dinner 20.15 Performance
George Ruggle's Ignoramus
Friday, 4 August
09.15-10.45 Papers
X
Session 1
DONALD GILMAN, Familiares
and
Petrarch's Poetics:
A
Definition and Defense of Creativity in the
Seniles
JOHNN. GRANT, Domizio Calderini and his Commentary on Suetonius' Vitae Caesarum HANS-ERIK JOHANNESSON, Poetics and Ideology in Neo-Latin Poetry Session 2
RAPHAEL FALCO,
Rupture and Remythicization
in
Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum
gentilium
PHILIP FORD, Syncretism
FRANCOIS ROUGET, les
in the
lUustris
Teaching of Jean Dorat
Bkndelli comparatio Pindari
oeuvres d'Horace et de Pindare en France a
la fin
et Horatii: les
du XVIIe
commentaires sur
siecle
Session 3
ELIA BORZA, Etude de
quelques traductions latines de Sophocle au
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER, neo-latines jusqu'a Jep/jf/jei de
HEIDRUN FUHRER, ground
La 'victime tragique' depuis
les
XVIe
siecle
premieres tragedies
Buchanan
Jacob Balde's
_/ep/jfw5:
A
Christian
Drama on
a Classical
Back-
PROGRAMME Session 4
TERENCE TUNBERG, On the Italian Pronunciation of Latin KLARA PAJORIN, Funzione e importanza dei nomi antichizzanti degli umanisti MARIA PILAR GARCIA RUIZ, Posible influencia de las lenguas vemaculas en el uso
de
diminutivos en textos humanisticos
Session 5
B REND A
HOSINGTON, On
Agrippa's Declamatio de
PIETA
VAN BEEK,
the Glory of Women: English and French Translations of
nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus
Rempublicam
'lus fasque esse in
(1530-1726)
litterariam foeminas adscribi':
Anna
Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) and her European Women's Republic of Letters JOSE MANUEL RUIZ VILA, Personajes femeninos en el De viris illustribus (1779) de Charles Francois
Lhomond 10.45 Coffee
V
11.15-12.15 Plenary Session Die neuen Leiden des jungen Aristaeus: Mythologische Kreativitat in neulateinischer Lehrdichtung
HEINZ HOFMANN,
Lunch
13.00
14.00-16.00 Papers
XI
Session 1
CARMEN
PERAITA,
NIELS W.
BRUUN,
Furio's Bononia:
On
Translating the Bible and the Art o{ Relegere
Soren Kierkegaard and
his Latin Translation
of the
New Testament
Session 2
BROWN, In Praise of the ^/w docta: Elizabeth Weston DONALD CHENEY, Elizabeth Jane Weston as Cultural Icon SYLVIA
JANE STEVENSON,
Martha Marchina
as
and the Female Line
Baroque Poet and Model of Style
ELISABET GORANSSON, The Making of a
Poetess
Session 3
MICHAEL J. HEATH, Confession and Concession: The Texts of Erasmus's TINEKE L. TER MEER, De pueris instituendis and the Apophthegmata: Two Erasmus Dedicated
ARI WESSELING,
Exomologesis
Writings of
William of Cleves The Rhetoric of Adages and Vernacular Proverbs in Erasmus to
Session 4
JUAN MARIA NUNEZ, De Gasparini Barzizii De compositione opusculo KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN, Lusus quidam Westmonasterienses ab
quaestiunculae
oblivione nunc
vindicandi
ISTVAN dAvID LAZAR, De
fontibus historiaque opens Antonii Bonfinii:
16.00 16.15 Meeting of the
Tea
Amici Thomae Mori
19.30 Banquet
De arMtedura
PROGRAMME Saturday, 5 August 9.00 Excursion Eton College and Windsor Castle
Organizing Committee Chair: Prof. Philip Ford Prof. Philip Hardie
Prof Yasmin Haskell Prof David Money
Executive Committee Prof Gilbert Toumoy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Past President: Prof Brenda M. Hosington, Universite de Montreal First Vice President: Prof Stella Revard, St. Louis, Second Vice President: Dr. Philip Ford, University of Cambridge Treasurer: Prof Chris Heesakkers, Universiteit Leiden Secretary: Dr. Karl-August Neuhausen, Universitat Bonn Chair of Pubhcations: Mrs. Rhoda Schnur, St. Gallen President:
MO
ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS GILBERT TOURNOY,
Presidential Address
1
PLENARY PAPERS JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET, la
Une
querelle au sein de la
Res publica
question de Pline I'Ancien de 1469 au milieu du
litterarum:
XVIeme
siecle
7
JULIA HAIG GAISSER, Allegorizing Apuleius: Fulgentius, Boccaccio, Beroaldo,
and the Chain of Receptions HEINZ HOFMANN, Die neuen Leiden
23 des
jungen
Aristaeus:
Mythologische
43
Kreativitat in neulateinischer Lehrdichtung
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA, L'Accademia Pontaniana
componimenti giovanili del Sannazaro ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA, Lutero y Carlos
e la sua ideologia in alcuni
61 su influencia en la Espana de
V
83
COMMUNICA TIONS SYLVIA
BROWN,
In Praise of the Filia Docta: EUzabeth
Weston and the
Female Line
105
DAVIDE CANFORA, L'anonimo canne pastorale iutitolato Cinthias AVELINA CARRERA DE LA RED, ^Por que se prohibieron las Adnotationes de Philipp Melanchthon a la obra de Salustio en Mexico a finales del siglo XVI?
115
121
ROBERT W. CARRUBBA, The Preface to the Amoenitates Exoticae DONALD CHENEY, Elizabeth Jane Weston as Cultural Icon
139
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER, La victime tragique depuis tragedies neo-latines jusqu'a Jep/if/ies de G. Buchanan
145
JOHN CONSIDINE,
Animadversionum
res
premieres
Philology and Autobiography in Isaac Casaubon, in
Athenaei Deipnosophistas
JUDITH DEITCH, Prefacing E.
les
Axiochus:
libri
XV (1600)
The Renaissance
la
Repubhque
155
Plato and the
163
publica litterarum
DELBEY, Pontano elegiaque dans
131
:
I'enonciation de la subjectivite elegiaque
des Lettres
171
ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS SIEGMAR DOPP, loannes Fabricius Montanus: The Two Autobiographies AGNIESZKA DZIUBA, The Renaissance Portrait of the Pohsh King Sigismund I in Bernard Wapowski's Chronica Polonorum PETER FISHER, What is a Hippopotamus? A Problem in Renaissance
Taxonomy and Description RICHARD FRANK, Bude and the Repubhc of Letters MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN, A Renaissance Treatise on Time: Lilio Gregorio Giraldi's De annis et mensibus BENJAMIN GARCIA HERNANDEZ, Los reflejos plautinos en el latin de I.
Petrarch's Poetics:
A
229 (1709)
239
the University
of Valencia in the Sixteenth Century K.
207
Philosophy and Pedagogy in the Rhetoric of
Giambattista Vico's De nostri temporis studiorum ratione FERRAN GRAU CODINA, Orationes concerning Letters at
JOHN
193
201
Definition and Defense of
Creativity in the Familiares and Seniles
ROBERT GINSBERG,
187
217
Descartes (Med. 1-3)
DONALD GILMAN,
181
247
HALE, George Herbert's Oration before King James,
Cambridge 1623
253
MICHAEL J. HEATH, Confession and Concession: The Texts of 263
Erasmus's Exomologesis
GERHARD HOLK,
A
Remarkable
BRENDA
Petrus Martyr de Angleria (Pietro Martire d'Anghiera): Italian
Humanist and Historian of the
M. HOSINGTON,
On
New
World
Translations of Agrippa's Dedamatio de nobilitate
et praecellentia foeminei
279
sexus (1542-1726)
AUGUST
IMHOLTZ, Neo-Latin Nonsense in Nabokov HANS-ERIK JOHANNESSON, Poetics and Ideology in Neo-Latin Poetry HILAIRE KALLENDORF, Exorcism and the Interstices of Language: Ruggle's Ignoramus and the Demonization of Renaissance English Neo-Latin ARNOLD L. KERSON, Fray Alonso de la Veracruz's Views on the Legitimacy of the Spanish Conquest of America as Revealed in His
De
A.
dominio inftdelium
et iusto hello
(1553—1554)
THOMAS LINDNER, Bemerkungen zum
303
311
Soneto de Quevedo y un Epigrama
329 Fuentes para los Comentarios de Jodocus
Badius Ascensius
MARTYN, Memory Training in Renaissance Education ELIZABETH N. McCUTCHEON, Laughter and Humanism: Unity and Diversity in Thomas More's Epigramtnata DAVID MONEY, The PoUtics of Poetry: A Quick Look at Robert Walpole, R. C.
Two
297
321
Un
de Falco
MARIANO MADRID CASTRO,
and
287
Trophaeum Anglaricum von
Leonardo Dati
DANIEL LOPEZ-CANETE QUILES,
JOHN
271
the Glory of Women: English and French
Thousand Other Cambridge Latin Poets
CLARE M. MURPHY, Thomas More's De tristitia Christi as Theo-Drama STEPHEN MURPHY, The Metamorphoses of De vita monachorum
337 345 351 361 371 "ill
ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS H.
J.
M. NELLEN,
Hugo
Grotius's Correspondence with His Brother
Willem de Groot KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN, Lusus quidam Westmonasterienses ab obUvione nunc vindicandi: Appendix sive Contemporaneas res bina per saecula (1704—1905) orbe toto terrarum feUciter gestas quam lepide nonnuUi
395
poetae Londinienses Latinis versibus singulas usque depinxerint
HOWARD
NORLAND, Gager's Mekager: An Inventive Adaptation of Senecan Form JUAN M' NUNEZ GONZAleZ, In Gasparini Barzizzii De compositione B.
409
opusculum quaestiunculae
419
KLARA PAJORIN, La funzione e I'importanza dei nomi umanistici JOAQUIN PASCUAL BAREA, Coincidences and Differences between and the Spanish Poems,
Treatises,
and
Epistles
427 the Latin
of Rudericus Carus
435
(Rodrigo Caro)
VICENTE PICON GARCIA, Nuevos
textos del teatro jesuitico
en
Espaiia,
II:
Las comedias Techmitius y Triunfo de lafe
OLGA ZORZI
PUGLIESE,
Castighone's
II libro
The Role of Latin
443
in the
Composition of
449
del cortegiano
REVARD, Milton and Cambridge VIBEKE ROGGEN, Entertainment and Learning in the Neo-Latin Rebuses by the Seventeenth-Century Norwegian Nils Thomasson FRANCOIS ROUGET, Hlustris BlondelU Comparatio Pindari et Horatii: STELLA
P.
Les commentaires sur
XVIIe JOSE
Urbis
les
oeuvres de Pindare et d'Horace a la fin
Romae
455
463
du 473
siecle
MANUEL RUIZ
CARLO
385
a
VILA, Personajes femeninos en
el
De
viris iUustribus
Romulo ad Augustum (1779) de Charles Francois Lhomond
483
SANTINI, La versione latina deWRiade di Giuseppe Pasquali
493
Marinelli
PAUL GERHARD SCHMIDT, Erasmus von Rotterdam, "Ratio seu methodus verae 503
theologiae"
ANGEL SIERRA DE COZAR, Nuevos
textos del teatro jesuitico en Espaiia,
I:
509
Parenesia y Demophilus
JERZY STARNAWSKI, Zamosc: Das letzte Bollwerk der Renaissance FABIO STOK, L'Umanesimo scandinavo di Olaus Magnus LASZLO SZORENYI, L'epopea di Eha Berger suUa Santa Croce e la storia
in Polen
525
ungherese
NIKOLAUS THURN, Die Aeneis-Allegorese
517
535 in Cristoforo Landinos
545
Disputationes Camaldulenses
PIOTR URBANSKI, Joannes Dantiscus and ItaUan Neo-Latin Poetry SEBASTL\NO VALERIO, Paolo Paladino: mihtare e umanista alia corte
555 di
Federico d'Aragona
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL, Juan Gines de
565 Sepulveda, Epistolarum
libri Septem, Salamanca, 1557: Testamento Literario de un Humanista DIRK VAN MIERT, The ReUgious BeUefs of Hadrianus Junius (1511-1575) MICHIEL VERWEIJ, The Cranevelt Letters and Rome
573 583 595
ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS
ZWEDER VON MARTELS, The
Central Position of the Authors of Late
Antiquity in Humanist Thought:
INDEX
The Case of Aeneas
Silvius
Piccolomini
603 611
ACTA CONVENTUS NEO-LATINI CANTABRIGIENSIS
Presidential Address at the
Opening Ceremony of the Eleventh International Congress for Neo-Latin Studies
GILBERT
Ladies
and gentlemen, dear friends and colleagues,
The theme chosen venity."
We are
Litteraria,"
all
is
common
free
Preface to the first issue
Amsterdam
is
of
"Res Publica Utterarum: Unity and Di-
term "Res PubUca Litterarum" or "Res Pubhca
agreement,
signifies a
and unbiased, exacdy
March
in
for this conference
familiar with the
which, by
communication at
TOURNOY
as
famous Nouvelles de
his
community of scholars where
was envisaged by Pierre Bayle in the la
Republique des
Lettres,
pubHshed
1684:'
Car nous declarons premierement, que nous ne pretendons prejuge ou pour, ou contre
les
Auteun
... Si
pas etablir
nous approuvons, ou
si
aucun
nous re-
futons quelque chose, ce sera sans consequence, nous n'aurons pour but que de
foumir aux S^avans de nouvelles occasions de perfectionner lique.
Nous
abandonnons nos sentimens ne
II
s'agit
point
ici
a la censure
de ReUgion:
il
de tout
s'agit
hommes en
seulement
ils
regarder Ils
le
dans
point dans lequel
la
RepubUque
comme
freres,
monde.
En
d'aussi
.
.
.
differentes factions, et considerer
se reunissent, qui est la
des Lettres.
ou comme
le
quaUte
d'Homme
ce sens-la tous les S<;:avans se doivent
bonne maison
les
uns que
les autres.
doivent dire.
Nous sommes
Comme
'
pub-
de Science: on doit done mettre bas
tous les termes qui divisent les
illustre
I'instruction
declarons en second heu, que nous soumettons, ou plutot que nous
Nouvelles de
la
tous egaux /
Nous sommes
tous parens /
enfans d'ApoUon.
Republique des
par I'Auteur (Amsterdam, 1684),
Lettres.
fols.
Mois de Mars 1684, seconde edition revue
A4r and A6r.
et corrigee
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Looking first
made
its
Fumaroli,-'
by Erasmus.^ According
liber
.
.
apparait
.
pour
premiere
la
comme
en 1417, dans une
fois
A plusieurs reprises dans
dans d'autres occurrences ulterieures de
Barbaro, I'idee d'une
communaute
la
doctissimi
rendre honneur, se
lui
homines ubicumque, unis entre eux par
tate labores (les
inclut
Milan
et
a
The
plume de
et
pour leur
F.
F.
et qui
Barbaro aux pro communi
commun) du Pogge.
Rome,
Pogge
eruditi homines,
la necessitudo literarum (le lien
Boccace, de Boccace a
Padoue, Florence
savants qui I'ont adoptee tion:
la
travaux utiles au bien
que de Petrarque
meme
correspondance de
jour par d'autres formules:
fait
en rendant honunage par
Lettres),
cette
savante transcendante aux frontieres et aux
generations, qui a contracte une dette de reconnaissance envers le
de
lettre
des decouvertes de manuscrits qu'il lui a annoncees, et entre
le fehciter
tions
it
Marc
jeune humaniste Francesco Barbaro a Poggio Bracciolini,
autres de VInstitutio Oratoria de Quintilien.
se doit
to
however,
cette expression
lettre,
attested neither in Classical Antiquity
is
argued nearly a quarter of a century ago that
Fritz Schalk
appearance in the Antibarbarorum
latine adressee par le
pour
which
for the origin of this term,
nor in the Middle Ages,
Voici
trois
genera-
un reseau qui
Salutati, selon
la renovatio literarum a
ideal des liens de sohdarite et
soudain celles-ci prennent un nom: Respublica
des
utili-
cree entre
de collabora-
litteraria.
unity and diversity of this Res Publica have to do essentially with the posses-
sion of a single language
vehicle for
on the one hand, Latin being
communication and education within
hand with the multitude of disciplines pursued
(art,
for
many
centuries the
main
conmiunity, and on the other
this
history, literature, music, philoso-
phy, theology, science, and so on), the nearly infinite choice of topics for discussion,
and the different ways of treating them. In the case of our Association,
specifically,
these topics are reflected in the great variety of themes dealt with during our successive conferences,
all
aiming, however,
namely, to promote by various means
^
Fritz Schalk,
"Von Erasmus'
at
the
Respublica
literaria
idem, Studien zur Franzosischen Aujkldrung (Frankfurt ^
More
Marc Fumaroli, "La Republique
common
1987); Daniel
S.
field
of
zur Gelehrtenrepublik der Aufklarung," in
am
Main, 1977), 143-163.
des Lettres," Diogenes 143 (1988):
Neumeister and C. Wiedemann,
Roche, Les
1988); Franfoise
Republicains des Lettres.
Waquet, "Qu'est-ce que
la
Gens de
eds.,
131-150 (here 137-138).
Commercium
litterarium.
Republique des
La communication dans
la
Zum problematischen
Konzept der Gelehrtenrepublik
es
(Wiesbaden, siecle (Paris,
de semantique histo-
Hans Bots and Francois Waquet, 1600-1750 (Am-
Republique des Lettres
Jaumann, "Gibt
Litteraria
Lumieres au XVIIIe
Lettres? Essai
sterdam-Maarssen, 1994); D. Goodman, The Republic of Letters. lightenment (Ithaca-London, 1994); Herbert
Res Publica
culture et
rique," Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Chartes 147 (1989): 473-502;
raria?
and teaching in the
recent studies in this field include Hans Bots, Republiek der Letteren: Ideaal en Werkelijkheid
(Amsterdam, 1977);
eds.,
goal set out in our Statutes,
interest, research,
A
.
.
.
Cultural History of the French
eine katholische Respublica
in der firiihen Neuzeit," in
En-
litte-
idem,
ed.,
Kaspar Schoppe (1576-1649), Philologe im Dienste der Gegenreformation. Beitrdge zur Gelehrtenkultur des europdischen Spdthumanismus (Frankfurt
am
Main, 1998), 361-379.
GILBERT Neo-Latin. Since the time of
TOURNOY
foundation,
its
our Association has developed out of
now more granum
than twenty-five years ago,
popuby an abundance of birds of multicoloured plumage and varied song and melody, and one can justifiably state that our Association has by now grown to maturity. a small
sinapis into a great tree,
lated
Browsing through the
list
of papen proposed for
eye that the number of scholars
who
this
conference,
it
also
caught
my
Conference make up
participated in the First
among those taking part this time, the vast majority being relanew members who have joined our Association during the last decade. Ameri-
only a small group tively
can scholars continue to be the largest group, but
by the
Spain, a country only recently described
quae
it
is
heartwarming to see that
Jozef
late
IJsewijn** as "Hispania,
Renatarum Litterarum Latinarum admodum inops habebatur,"
terra
quired for
itself in
such a short span of time an important position in the
Neo-Latin
studies.
Equally promising
such
is
of
the fact that contributions from countries
We
Poland, Sweden, and Hungary are rapidly increasing.
as
has acfield
should seriously
consider the possibility of organizing one of our next congresses in one of these countries, not only in order to further this blossoming interest for Neo-Latin, but to
underhne
also the geographical unity
In any case,
Neo-Latin
local
more than
still
this
and diversity of this republic of letters.
geographical expansion, the founding of several
societies, the organisation
of conferences, and the publishing of new
journals and series entirely or almost entirely devoted to Neo-Latin studies are most
promising signs of a bright
fixture.
Let
me
mention, in addition to the American Asso-
of Neo-Latin Studies, the Cambridge Neo-Latin Association, Orbis Neolatinus, and
ciation
the Nederlands Neolatinistenverband, only the recently estabhshed societies in France
and Germany, namely, La and presided over
first
now by
this,
possibilities for
Jean-Louis Charlet, and the
autumn of 1998 and presided over
Deutsche Neulateinische Gesellschaft, founded in the
by Wilhelm Kiihlmann. The greatly
founded in April 1996
Societe fran(aise d' etudes neo-latines,
by Pierre Laurens and
publishing Neo-Latin texts have been
improved by the appearance of no fewer than three new journals
namely the
last
year and
Neulateinisches Jahrbuch, the first issue of which appeared in 1999, Les
Cahiers de I'humanisme, and the Spanish journal Calamus Renascens, both of these
Ushing their
made
it
first
volume
clear that larger
pub-
in 2000. Moreover, the editors of these journals have
Neo-Latin
texts
can find a place in the
new
series
all
they are
planning. Together with the American Library of Renaissance Humanism, the Bibliotheca Neolatina, the ItaUan Parthenias: collezione di poesia neolatina, tatis
Novae, they will help to place
many much-needed
cially
At
this
point
ber the persons their abihties
in the (t 2
*
first
it is
at
our disposal many
critical editions
and the
are
no longer with
and espe-
of Neo-Latin authors.
moment and remem-
only just and equitable to look back for a
who
Bibliotheca Latini-
first-class studies
us but
who
and energy, to the promotion of our
devoted
discipline.
I
all
their
want
to
knowledge,
mention here
place Paul Oskar Kristeller (t 7 June 1999) and Giuseppe Billanovich
February 2000),
who
In the Praefatio to J.
were, each in his
M. Maestre
own
way, shining examples for an entire
Maestre, El Humanismo alcanizano
estudios de latin renacentista (Cadiz, 1990), xi.
del siglo
XVI. Textos y
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS postwar generation; and, beyond them, the Erasmus
tember 1998), Leon-E. Halkin
May
2000).
More
(f
specialists Alois
Gerlo
{-f
3 Sep-
29 December 1998), and Cornells Reedijk
closely associated with
(f 7
our Association were our lifelong members
Jacques Chomarat (f 9 June 1998), Philip Dust (f 3 May 1998), James Mehl (t 16 November 1998), and Virginia Woods Callahan (f 7 December 1999). But above all,
we lament
the passing of the
man who was for nearly all of us the November 1998), founder,
Latin Studies, Jozef IJsewijn (f 27
honorary
member
figurehead of Neofirst
president, and
of our Association. His name will be written in gold in our hearts
and in our memory. Let us observe a minute's
silence in his
honour and
in
honour
of our other deceased colleagues.
At the end of this opening ceremony half and
on behalf of our
versity of Cambridge, represented here dale, for the hospitality
I
am most happy
entire Association, to express
we
by
its
to
be
able,
on
my own be-
our sincere thanks to the Uni-
Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Mrs.
have been offered. Needless to
thanks must go to our Vice-President, Dr. Philip Ford,
who
Anne Lonsword of
say, a special
over the
last
few
years
shown himself to be a paragon of British competence and efficiency. We cannot thank them better, 1 believe, than to do our utmost to make this Conference a major has
success. It
is
in this expectation that
I
declare the Eleventh Conference for Neo-Latin
Studies open.
Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae, Leuven
Plenary Papers
Une de
au sein
querelle
Res publica
la
litterarum:
1469
question de Pline VAncien de
la
XVIeme
au milieu du
siecle
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET
La
reception de Pline I'Ancien a I'epoque humaniste a
Depuis 1980, c'est-a-dire depuis
etudes.
pour le quatrieme volume du Catalogus Translationum etudes de P. Casciano
"Codice parigino
Illustrated Incunable,"
latino 6808,"
torio filologico," "Poliziano,
esegetiche"),
M.
E.
ti,"
"Philippe Strozzi
dans tre
autografo") et pour
la
le Jeune"),
perspective de
h Partenio di Said
la
ma
"La vicenda del Regius antiquus," J.
Monfasani ("The
e PUnio"), P.
le tresor
M.
De Capua
("Fortune
du monde," "Giovanni Andrea
deux
articles
("La lettre de N. Perot-
j'acheve une edition critique la Lettre h
de C. ViteUi, replique
First Call
T. Scaramuzza ("Le note filologiche,"
part, apres
querelle sur Pline
les
Hand-
Sense of PUny"), V. Fera ("Un labora-
Ermolao Barbaro
Boutroue ("PUne ou
Bussi," "Les Annotationes in Plinium"),
"Un nuovo
Commentariorum, on releve
et
"Incunabolo N614"),
M. Davies ("Making
for Press Censorship"),
de nombreuses
ms. Angelicano 1097"), H. Walter ("Studien zur
("II
"An
schriftengeschichte,"
fait I'objet
gros chapitre ecrit par Ch. G. Nauert
le
commentee
qui replace
Guamieri de N. Perotti et
a la lettre
de Perotti.
la Let-
Ici je voudrais,
en
passant tres rapidement sur ce qui est deja connu, faire le point sur cette querelle qui constitue, selon la belle expression de V. Fera,
"un laboratorio
filologico" et ouvrir
de nouvelles perspectives. L'interet des humanistes
pour
le texte
de PUne I'Ancien remonte a Petrarque, au
genois Lodovico de' Guasti et a Guarino de Verone. Mais c'est avec I'apparition de
rimprimerie que va commencer
la
Nous verrons meme, et le document qui lance classiques a Rome.
querelle proprement dite.
ce point n'a pas jusqu'ici ete mis suflSsamment en valeur, que cette querelle est etroitement lie a I'impression des textes
Mais ce
n'est pas a
naturaliSy c'est a
Rome
qu'apparait
la
premiere edition imprimee de VHistoria
Venise, chez Jean de Spire, en 1469.
Nous ignorons
le
nom
de celui
UNE QUERELLE AU
8
qui a prepare cette edition
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
(le curatore).
LITTERARUM
Mais une etude d'H. Walter, publiee en 1983
("Studien zur Handschriftengeschichte"), a jete quelque lumiere sur le travail prepara-
de cette edition.
toire
que tous ceux qui ont H. Walter
travaille
I'importance de cette contribution parce que pres-
depuis sur
la
Or
reception de PUne semblent I'ignorer.
a retrouve le manuscrit qui a servi
Comme
2.'
J'insiste sur
de base a cette edition a partir du
du
ce manuscrit, qui porte des marques
travail
de I'imprimeur
et des
H. Walter
indications a I'intention de ce dernier, a ete ecrit par plusieurs mains,
conclut a I'existence d'une equipe editoriale pour la preparation de cette
livre
editio princeps.
Les humanistes semblent n'avoir jamais cite explicitement cette edition, mais certains d'entre eux Font utilisee sans le dire. la querelle. Imprimee a Rome du mois d'aout 1470, et tres probablement entre le mois d'avril et le debut du mois de juillet, elle est due a G. A. Bussi, VAleriense, avec I'aide de quelques collaborateurs au premier rang desquels on remarque
C'est avec
la
deuxieme edition que va commencer
Sweynheym
par
et
Pannartz avant
la fin
Teodoro Gaza. Les etudes de A. Marucchi ("Note ms. Angelicano 1097"),
P.
Casciano
E.
Boutroue ("Pline ou
("II
le tresor
preparatoires de cette edition.
phase ultime du
de Veditio
travail,
M.
Bussi a
E. Boutroue, en particulier, a
utilise, a
M.
Sense of Pliny"), et
phases
les
montre que, dans
la
un exemplaire
cote de sources manuscrites,
princeps.
trois attaques.
travaille a la hate et
La premiere, chronologiquement,
(Per la cronologia della vita e degli
attire I'attention sur la
cretaire
manoscritto [Vat. Lat. 5991]"),
du monde") ont permis de reconstituer
Selon son habitude, Bussi avait
Mercati
sul
M. Davies ("Making
du
scritti
son edition subit au moins
est celle
de N. Perotti. Depuis G. ont
di Niccolo Perottt), plusieurs critiques
lettre adressee par I'archeveque de Siponto a Fr. Guamieri, se-
cardinal venitien
Marco Barbo, lui-meme neveu du pape Paul
II,
en mon-
trant qu'elle propose un controle, voire une censure, philologique sur I'edition des
textes classiques a
Rome
et S. Prete, lors
du troisieme congres de notre association
Tours, en 1976 ("La lettera di Niccolo Perotti"), avait tique textuelle qu'elle contient. a ouvert
J.
Monfasani ("The
de nouvelles perspectives en precisant
le
insiste sur les principes
de
a
cri-
Censorship")
First Call for Press
concept de censure philologique
et
surtout en corrigeant la datation de cette lettre, qu'U ne faut pas placer au debut de
1473,
comme
le pensait
G. Mercati, mais en 1470.
chronologique compte-tenu de ce que Ton juillet
sait
1470. Perotti voulait obtenir du pape
editions romaines des classiques. Or, en 1470, le plus
important des textes antiques,
du
On
travail
peut preciser
la
fourchette
de Bussi: entre mai
un controle philologique
et
debut
sur toutes les
Rome est encore le centre d'impression
et I'entreprise
de
Sweynheym
en ce domaine un role preponderant. Perotti n'obtint pas
et
satisfaction.
Pannartz joue
Mais son
inter-
vention polemique contribua a destabiliser une entreprise deja chancelante dont
prendra
le
controle scientifique a I'automne 1472.
Pour montrer
la
et
deux pretendues erreurs de
Par.
lat.
6805.
philologique de Bussi.
la Praefatio
Pour Perotti,
si
il
reviendrons.
mauvaise qualite de I'edition Bussi, Perotti a annexe a
commentaire ecdotique
'
Nous y
de Pline qui
Ton denombre
sa lettre
fait ressortir
un
vingt-
autant d'erreun dans
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET un
texte aussi court et aussi facile
(dit-il!), le reste
premier commentaire humaniste a en particulier sur
tro verse,
le
la Praefatio
nom
du
du dedicataire de
le texte des
manuscrits en rem-
pla9ant Vespasiano par Domitiano dans la dedicace de cette lettre-preface. le dedicataire
frere
de I'ceuvre
Domitien. Sur ce point,
erronee de Bussi vient
xieme point, Perotti
tres
et
Perotti,
non son
philologie donnera raison a Perotti, mais la le9on
la
probablement
.
.
.
de V editio princeps venitienne! Sur
croit trouver dans le texte
preuve que Pline I'Ancien
la
Pour
souvent appele Vespasianus tout court,
est Titus,
Ce
I'ceuvre et sur la patrie de Pline
corrompu
I'Ancien. Perotti reproche a Bussi d'avoir
texte doit etre pire encore.
de Pline ouvre plusieurs points de con-
du premier paragraphe de
le
deu-
la Praefatio
non de Come {Guam. 16). une serie de prises de de Come. Nous reviendrons sur certaines
est originaire
de Verone
et
Perotti se trompe, mais son intervention declenchera toute
Ici,
position en faveur soit de Verone, soit d'entre
elles.
Le texte envoye par
Guamieri va
Perotti a
Le manuscrit de Perouse^
venitiens.
est,
circuler dans les milieux humanistes
avec une curieuse
editio princeps
dont nous
parlerons plus loin, le seul temoin direct conserve de ce premier etat du texte; mais les
temoignages de C.
de R. Regio, sur lesquels nous reviendrons, en sont
Vitelli et
des temoins indirects. Perotti apportera ensuite quelques corrections a son texte et en
un manifeste philologique sous
fera
corrigunt errores ueterum librorum
cum
dans I'entourage de Bessarion,
le titre plus general: Epistola aduersus eos qui temere
expositione prohoemii Plyniani,
lie,
comme
I'a
en
le faisant circuler
montre M. D. Feld,
a I'entreprise
Sweynheym-Pannartz. Les deux manuscrits jumeaux qui donnent ce deuxieme etat du texte I'associent a des oeuvres de Bessarion.^ Un dernier manuscrit, provenant de la
bibliotheque d'Urbino,* dont j'ai pu etablir qu'il
mais
non exempte
et corrige
est la
copie probablement directe,
de I'exemplaire de I'auteur, c'est-a-dire du texte conserve
d'erreurs,
par Perotti, represente le troisieme et dernier
etat.
Mais
seuls Perotti,
Fede-
pu y avoir acces, et il deuxieme etat), depuis plus de
rico d'Urbino, et eventuellement certains de leurs proches ont dort,
cinq
que
d'un sommeil presque complet (comme siecles.
Touchante ironie de
la Lettre ^
aussi le
I'histoire, c'est
par I'imprimerie, au coeur du debat,
Guamieri connaitra une grande diffusion et un rayonnement dans toute
I'Europe, mais plus tard, apres
la
mort de Niccolo
etonnantes
et dans des conditions
auxquelles Perotti n'avait surement pas songe.
Pour
le
moment,
1470—1471 pour
restons en
assister a la
seconde attaque contre
I'edition de Bussi. Elle est I'oeuvre d'un eleve de Filelfo, Giorgio Merula. Sur ce
point, je passe vite, en renvoyant a la belle etude de V. Fera ("Poliziano,
Barbaro e Plinio"). V. Fera a retrouve que:
il
s'agjt
d'une
lettre datee
du 28
la
Ermolao
premiere version manuscrite de cette atta-
fevrier 1471 et adressee a Bussi
lui-meme ("o decembre
nostri temporis Aristarche"), apres I'achat de son edition a Venise le 5
1470. Vers 1474, Merula fera imprimer ce texte sous une forme modifiee et en I'adressant a
Antonio Vinciguerra,
2
Perugia, Badia di S. Pietro,
^
Berlin, St. Pr. Kult.,
*
Cite du Vatican, Urb.
lat.
CM
secretaire de I'ambassadeur venitien a
53.
4-566; Mantova, biblioteca comunale,
lat.
297.
H
I
35.
Rome:
il
le
UNE QUERELLE AU
10
charge de transmettre fait
a
pas la
mon
moindre
avis,
sa lettre
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
au
corrector
de I'edition, c'est-a-dire Bussi. Merula ne
allusion a la lettre de Perotti, mais
son silence
est volontaire,
il
LITTERARUM
il
ne
me
semble pas I'ignorer:
ecarte a dessein la Praefatio
a se situer par rapport a Perotti. C'est
que son point de vue
pour
eviter d'avoir
est different: Perotti
en s'effor^ant d'epargner Gaza, son coUegue de I'Academie de Bes-
attaquait Bussi
Merula, au contraire, menage quelque peu Bussi pour attaquer Graeculus
sarion.
aliquis
qui ne saurait etre que Gaza. Les critiques de Merula portent surtout sur I'ignorance des
noms geographiques)
(en particulier les
realia
pour un
Graeculusl
Une
.
.
.
et
du
grec, ce qui est
un comble
allusion desenchantee dans la dedicace de I'edition des Lettres
de Ciceron (anterieure au 29 aout 1470) montre que Bussi a ete atteint par
Mais nous n'avons pas trace d'une reponse de VAleriense
critiques de Perotti.
les
ni a
Perotti ni a Merula.
En
revanche,
une courte
la lettre
de Perotti a Guamieri suscita une replique de C. ViteUi dans
son ami Partenio di Salo. ViteUi y expUque que Partenio donne une copie de la lettre de Perotti, mais que des empechements ont sa reponse. J'ai pu etablir que Vitelli se refere non a I'edition romaine de lettre adressee a
lui avait
retarde
Bussi, mais a sa rendition avec quelques modifications par Nicolas Jenson a Venise
1472.
Comme
du 7 mai 1473,
sa lettre a ete ecrite
en 1472 ou au debut de 1473.
le
soin avec lequel Perotti a corrige certaines fautes de Bussi, mais
sa
rage contre VAleriense, Perotti
lui-meme commis des
non par foi.
En
esprit
realite,
Padoue ou de
fautes
s'est laisse
il
cherche a
a Venise.
La
Vitelli.
II
res
se
il
Vitelli reconnait
estime que, dans
emporter jusqu'a I'aveuglement
de jugement ou d'interpretation.
de denigrement ou pour
carriere universitaire. la lettre
en
par ailleurs Vitelli ne parle pas de I'edition romaine de Perotti, datee
se faire valoir,
et qu'il a
Vitelli les releve, dit-il,
mais pour montrer
sa
bonne
mettre en valeur pour obtenir un poste universitaire a
publica Utterarum etait deja agitee par des preoccupations
est difficile
de dire quelle fut en 1472 ou 1473
Mais on notera qu'a
la fin
de cette
la diffusion
lettre Vitelli institue
de de
juge de
de Partenio, un certain Rafiaele de Bergame qui n'est autre que Regio qui interviendra activement dans une phase ulterieure de la querelle et qui done, des 1472 ou 1473, lisait en manuscrit les deux lettres de Perotti et Vitelli. Mais on ne sait dans quelle mesure le texte de Vitelli a circule alors en dehors de I'ambiance venitienne. Le seul manuscrit qui le conserve, lie au milieu culture! venitien et non, comme le pensait J. Monfasani ("The First Call for Press Censorship"), a la presence de Perotti a Perouse, I'associe au premier etat du texte de Perotti,^ et nous verrons que sa premiere edition imprimee, liee elle aussi au premier etat du texte de Perotti, sera issue de Venise, et nettement posterieure. Nous avons un temoin de la querelle entre Perotti et Vitelli, un poeme de trente-quatre vers compose par I'eveque de Gaete Francesco Patrizi, qui semble vouloir reconcilier les deux adversaires: des savants devraient se respecter et eviter de se battre inutilement pour le texte de Pline. Mais nous ne pouvons dater ce poeme. Toutefois, si Ton cette querelle, a cote
Raffaele
prend qui
Patrizi
laisse
au pied de
la lettre, les
deux protagonistes s'attaquent mutuellement, ce
supposer une replique (perdue) de Perotti.
Perugia, Badia di
S. Pietro,
CM
53.
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET
A
de 1472, Perotti semble avoir
la fin
contre Bussi, puisqu'il prend aupres de
1
au moins en
reussi,
Sweynheym
et
son oflfensive
partie,
Pannartz
la
place de curatore
scientifique laissee vacante par Bussi appele a d'autres fonctions aupres de Sixte IV.
Perotti mettra en application ses principes et ses convictions en supprimant les
longues prefaces dans lesquelles Guamieri,
de philologie pure
de restaurer
ne portent
communaute de
comme
Pour le philologue teur,
meme
en adoptant une ligne editoriale
devant
le texte qu'il
publie
ne repond pas
a
imprime, a
livre
faire partager
lecteurs humanistes le souci d'unir la culture paienne et le
I'avaient fait dans I'antiquite chretienne les Peres
Perotti, le Uvre n'est pas
vm moyen
d'ou I'absence de preface), mais une fin en
marche ne
soi:
notion de
Ce
liber integer.^
il
(il
ne
se
de restaurer
s'agit
de
les livres
I'objet
la
separation de
1473
avril
d'une attaque philologique en regie de
ami Domizio Calderini, on comprend
Sweynheym
de I'entreprise,
la fragilite
et Pannartz
precisement apres
et,
la
et
an-
medie-
et des conditions
de I'entreprise
lui-meme (son Martial du 30
tions preparees par Perotti
I'Eglise.
preoccupe pas du lec-
du lecteur
desinteret
fera qu'accroitre les difficultes financieres
mai 1473) feront de
edi-
Pour lui, un programme ideologique, comme
tiques (= les Belles Lettres) dans leur texte authentique purifie des corruptions vales. C'est sa
(ses
pas son nom!), puisque sa seule tache est
pour Bussi qui cherchait, grace au
cela avait ete le cas
christianisme
les biflfait!) et
chefs-d'oeuvre de I'antiquite dans leur purete originelle.
les
I'edition des textes classiques
par une
ou
et dure: I'editeur doit s'effacer
tions de Martial et Pline
mettait en avant (dans la Lettre h
le curatore (Bussi) se
disait qu'il les arrachait
il
du
comme les edison Pline du 7
la part
de son ancien
on ne s'etonne pas pubhcation du PUne et
de Perotti, destine a remplacer celui de Bussi.
La querelle Calderini-Perotti
a deja ete etudiee (Dunston, "Studies in
Ramminger, "Brotheus
Calderini";
quelques zones
e
Timon"),
d' ombre. Elle eclate a
meme
de critiquer
la
sur Martial au Studio de
ses interventions sur
subsiste a
propos de Martial.
de Perotti qui interviendra plus tard dans
disciple
m^tre que, dans son coun
s'il
ce texte.
Ce
Un
mon
certain
Domizio
avis
encore
Matteo Rufo,
querelle sur PUne, informe son
Rome,
Calderini ne se prive pas
qui nous interesse
ici, c'est
que, dans sa
Defensio aduersus Brotheum grammaticum (imprimee en 1475), Calderini fait intervenir
Phne dans en quatre
en 275
la
controvene.
livres,
passages.
II
declare etre en train de terminer
une oeuvre polemique
dont deux demontreraient que Perotti a corrompu
Pour
le
moment
(et
il
en
restera
la), il
se
le texte
de Pline
contente de refuter neuf
concemant notamment en geograsuppressions, ou deplace-
corrections intempestives de Perotti a PUne, en sus de quelques erreurs
Martial et Juvenal. phie, et
ments
II
commet les
arbitraires).
considere que Perotti est incompetent,
fautes qu'il reproche
Le
chiflSre
Calderini affirme avoir en
marge
ses
aux autres
(ajouts,
de 275 "corruptions" surprend par
main
propres interventions.
le codex
sa precision.
Mais
remis par Perotti aux imprimeurs, avec en
Avec G. Mercati
(Cronologia) et
M. Davies ("Making
Sense of PUny"), je crois que ce codex n'est autre qu'un exemplaire de I'edition Bussi corrige (et
'
Voir
meme
Guam. 6 aussi
et 7.
insuffisamment corrige pour
Voir J.-L. Charlet, Deux pieces de
la Praefatio
la controverse
A. Grafton, "Printers' Corrections," 149-150.
puisque I'edition Perotti
humaniste sur Pline (Paris, 2003).
UNE QUERELLE AU
12
LITTERARUM
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
conserve des erreurs evidentes de Bussi denoncees dans I'intention des typographes.
Sweynheym,
Ce pu
et Calderini a
Lettre ^
la
donne
codex a tres probablement ete
facilement compter
tres
le
apportees par Perotti au texte de Bussi. Calderini conclut que
Guamieril) a
a Calderini par
nombre de retouches quatre cents exem-
les
de cette edition doivent etre bruUs a defaut de pouvoir etre corriges. Mais I'un
plaires
d'entre eux connaitra
un
destin particulier.
La polemique sur Pline rebondit en 1476 avec une troisieme attaque contre
mort en
tion de Bussi, pourtant
Beroaldo public un
naturalis (maintes fois reeditee),
quelques conseils pour
la
petit
a
I'edi-
son edition de VHistoria
commentaire en forme de
changements apportes dans son edition.
lettre qui critique Bussi et justifie les
aussi
En annexe
fevrier 1475.
II
edicte
correction du texte qui ne sont pas sans rapport avec
la Lettre h Guamieri. En ce qui concerne la Praefatio, Benombre de lemons propres a Perotti. Par ailleun, grace a la aUemand Richard Graman,^ on sait qu'il fit un cours sur la
ceux donnes par Perotti dans roaldo reprend
un
certain
recoUecta
de son etudiant
Praefatio
en 1480.
mais
utilisation
de
II
au sens des mots qu'a I'etablissement du texte,
s'y attache plus
sont parfois
ses gloses
la Lettre ^
si
proches de
de Perotti qu'on peut conclure a une
celles
meme
Guamieri,
si
nom
le
de Perotti n'apparait pas.
Cette annee 1480 marque une nouvelle etape dans
1'
etude de Pline et
les
contro-
D'une part, grace a un exemplaire de I'edition Perotti conserve a Oxford,^ nous savons que Politien a fait une premiere lecture critique la plume a la main du texte de Pline durant I'ete 1480, avant de commencer son enseignement venes sur son
texte.
au Studio de Florence. D'autre part,
proprement
dite va reprendre.
de Merula!) son In defensionem
Plinii et
ouvrage fut public a Venise entre I'automne 1482, puisque
14
Romuleio
.
.
la
nom de
lettres
On
de
dedia a E. Barbaro (ami
et
1481 (allusion
I'ete
a la
mort de
juge
utile
pour
de Pline avec
Mais ce
lui
de
la lettre
Vitelli,
faire
Cet
Filelfo) et
son tour attaque par un partisan de Merula, Pao-
aduersus
typographe
de Perotti et de Vitelli? Je ne
peut supposer que
querelle
commentaires de Cal-
les
quendam Comelium
Vitellium apologia [Venise,
novembre 1482]). Vitelli accuse Calderini d'avoir corrompu le texte de Est-ce un hasard si, au meme moment, sont publiees ensemble a Venise,
cretement, sans date ni
le
.
en 1478
Domitii Calderini contra Georgium Merulam.
la fin
Vitelli fut a
{Pro Georgio Merula
au debut des annees 1480 que
avait attaque
remonta au creneau
derini a Martial et a Juvenal. Vitelli
lo
c'est
Merula
le
(.
pense
.
.
comma pour le
pas. Perotti est
libelle
sa
n'est pas cette petite plaquette
et ses partisans, a
premiere intervention pubhque sur
de Perotti sans laquelle de dix
sa
fort dis-
Vitelli!), les
mort en decembre 1480.
en pleine polemique avec Merula
imprimer
de
Pline.
le texte
reponse n'etait pas comprehensible.
feuillets,
de
faible diffusion, qui assurera
succes de la Lettre d Guamieri, d'autant que Vitelli semble, apres cette publication,
avoir quitte Venise pour d'autres cieux plus surtout
Oxford ou U jouera un
manistes, en particulier dans le
domaine
Treves, bibl. munic. 1110/2037,
Bodl. Auct. Q. 1.2.
ou moins favorables (Louvain, Paris, et developpement des etudes hu-
role important dans le
fols.
grec).
245r-246r.
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET
En
1488,
le travail
13
philologique de Beroaldo se concretise paries fameuses Annota-
consacrees en grande partie a Pline I'Ancien, qui imposent dans
tiones centum,
publica litterarum
un genre philologique propose par Calderini avec
la res
ses Obseruationes
inachevees: celui des notes critiques ponctueUes et discontinues, qui sera porte a la perfection par Politien, I'annee suivante, avec la premiere centurie de ses Miscellanea.
Cette
meme
annee 1489 avait vu I'edition posthume, toujours
Comu
oeuvre de Perotti, le
venitienne depuis
copiae.
E. Barfoaro, chef de
file
a Venise,
du grand
de I'ecole philologique
depart de Merula, s'empressa de I'attaquer dans une lettre
le
decembre 1489 adressee
lacopo Antiquario.
a
Ce
texte
flit
remanie
printemps 1490 d'apres V. Branca) a Giorgio Valla, puis imprime avec
On I'appelle
dans I'edition preparee par Brugnolo (Venise, 1508).
du 25
et adresse (au le
Comu
copiae
generalement Ani-
Come d'abondance de Perotti se pretend un PUne I'Ancien y occupe une place tres importante dans mesure ou ce commentaire toume a I'encyclopedie, et les critiques de Barbaro por-
maduersiones in Perotti Comucopiam. La
commentaire la
a Martial, mais
tent souvent sur Phne.
Barbaro attenuera
Mais dans
ses Castigationes, ecrites a
Rome un
en disant que Perotti n'a pas eu
ses critiques
le
peu plus
tard,
temps de pohr son
oeuvre.
A partir de la fin manistes,
non
1489, VHistoria naturalis
plus seulement d'un point de
scientifique qui
donne
est
au centre des debats
et des etudes
vue philologique, mais en
acces au savoir des anciens et dont
il
hu-
tant qu'oeuvre
faut retablir le texte cor-
rompu durant la moyen age avant d'en verifier 1' exactitude scientifique. A Florence, a la demande d'etudiants anglais et portugais, PoUtien fait, d'octobre 1489 a avril 1490, un cours prive sur Pline dont nous avons quelques elements dans une recollecta conservee dans un zibaldone.^
Ce
cours lui
donne
critique de I'edition Perotti deja mentionnee, avec sieurs manuscrits.
Le
travail
1'
occasion d'une nouvelle lecture
une collation systematique de plu-
de Politien sur cet exemplaire continua apres ce cours:
il
y collationna les Castigationes de Barbaro. Et Pline occupe une place importante dans la seconde centurie des Miscellanea.
A Rome,
ou
venu en ambassadeur, Barbaro redigea ses Primae et Secundae du 25 aout 1492 et du 13 Janvier 1493). II y porte a un point jamais atteint la methode exegetique fondee sur I'examen des sources et sur une soUde documentation litteraire, historique et scientifique: il s'agit de reconil
etait
castigationes (dedicaces respectives
stituer la science antique, et c'est I'image
meuse
lettre a Pic
Perotti represente
de
la
Barbaro redige
Sabellico, eleve de Calderini et
Pomponio
' '"
2
de
£a-
1491.^" L'edition de
I'ete
ses Castigationes,
Marcantonio Coccio
resultant d'un cours
donne
dit
Leto, travaille a ses Emendationes seu anno-
Plinium qui ne seront imprimees qu'en 1497, probablement a cause
ces des Castigationes (dedicace anterieure au
comme
la fin
pour Barbaro un point de reference.
Au moment meme ou tationes in
d'un Plinius triumphans qui emerge d'une
Mirandole datee de
du suc-
20 septembre 1493 qui presente I'ouvrage
trois ans auparavant).
On
notera que dans cette
Munich, Clm 754. Lettre de
vols. (Firenze.
la fin
de
I'ete
1943 [1942]),
1491: Ermolao Barbaro: Epistolare, 2:
92.
oratiortes et
carmina, ed. V. Branca.
UNE QUERELLE AU
14
LITTERARUM
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
pousse a achever son
dedicace Sabellico
dit avoir ete
Moreto dont nous
allons tres bientot reparler.
travail
par un certain Antonio
Toujours en 1490 surgit une nouvelle controverse sur Pline. Raflfaele Regio, celui
que
Vitelli avait choisi
1482
a 1486, publie a
comme juge
Venise
en 1472—1473 qua
ses Epistolae Plynii
siano dedicantur enarrationes (23
enseigne a Padoue de
et qui avait libri
Naturalis historiae Tito Vespa-
mai 1490). Ce commentaire de
la Praefatio a
pour but
declare d'approuver ce qui a ete ecrit de juste et de refuter les erreurs de ses predecesseurs.
II
realite,
s'agit done d'une exegese selective et normative, assez souvent polemique. En Regio cherche surtout a critiquer, en sus de Perotti et Vitelli, Tenseignement
de celui qui
lui a souffle
en 1486
la
chaire de rhetorique de Padoue, Giovanni Cal-
fumio. C'est probablement aussi au milieu de 1490 qu'a
commence
le
premier
lologique sur Pline de Francesco Pucci, eleve de Politien arrive a Naples fesseur
en 1483. Le manuscrit de Naples V.
que V. Fera ("Un laboratorio leurs,
Pucci a
=
2 conserve un travail critique sur Pline
main de Pucci. Par ailun exemplaire mutile de I'edition
filologico") estime ecrit de la
aussi collationne le
Palmarius (1497
F.
travail phi-
comme pro-
fameux Regius
sur
1498)."
Cette effervescence autour de Pline a partir de 1490 explique a mes yeux
I'initia-
Moreto qui, charge par Battista de Tortis de preparer la troisieme edition venitienne du Cornu copiae (achevee le 19 octobre 1490) ajoute en appendice la Lettre h Guamieri qui n'avait plus ete imprimee depuis la princeps confidentieUe. Cette publication est precedee d'une lettre ou Sabellico felicite Moreto (retour d'ascenseur!) tive d' Antonio
que dans
et declare
"Latinam linguam reparare,"
I'entreprise de
il
ne trouve personne
omni scribendi genere praeferri possit," et il enchaine un eloge appuye de Perotti. Mais Moreto se rend coupable d'une falsification dont il est coutumier: il change le nom du destinataire de la lettre de Perotti pour se I'adresser "qui Sypontino
a
antistiti in
lui-meme, en modifiant 9a
et la le texte afin
de I'harmoniser avec cette supercherie.
Moreto pour le texte une nouveUe edition integrer massivement le travail de Barbaro. On comprend que d'une pierre deux coups: diffuser le premier commentaire hu-
Nous avons note
plus haut, a propos de Sabellico, I'interet de
de Pline, et
encore Moreto qui poussera Palmarius a
de Pline,
Moreto
la
ait
maniste a
c'est
premiere a
voulu
faire
une
la Praefatio et s'assurer
gloire personnelle en se presentant
destinataire de ce travail. Par cette falsification, lier
de 1470
une venion corrigee de
.
.
.
mais en
que Perotti
un commentaire
elle
comme
le
oblittere le contexte particu-
meme
temps
avait souhaite lui
il
lui
donner en
donne
la
diffusant
une valeur generale dans
le
devient un manuel a I'usage de ceux qui editent
les
Bien entendu, Moreto ne reprend pas
la
cette lettre!
contexte d'autres polemiques: classiques et
Moreto
et deactualise la Lettre ^ Guamieri,
portee methodologique generale
faire
La
lettre acquiert
a la Praefatio.
replique critique de Vitelli. C'est a cette supercherie que la lettre de Perotti doit sa
grande diffusion, puisqu'eUe sera desormais associee au succes de
Comu
copiae.
Quand Aide Manuce
s'apercevra,
en 1499, de
librairie qu'est le
la falsification,
il
retablira
" Possede successivement par Salutad, Bruni, Beccadelli, et le roi de Naples (d'ou son nom), demembre entre I'Oxf. Bodl. Auct. T. 1. 27 et le Par. lat. 6798.
ce manuscrit est actuellement
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET
le
nom
du
ait
Par
la princeps).
cas,
toutes les editions italiennes
bien que
si
Cornu
copiae, sans
rappelle lettre
que
du Cornu
conservera
(il
n'est
une
la falsification
le^on de Moreto centre
la
aussi la replique
en Europe du nord,
copiae, mais,
Vitelli,
le texte retabli
et a Paris,
qu'a partir de
de Moreto sera encore imprimee huit
compter une edition
de
large diffusion. L'aldine sera suivie par
de 1521 (jusqu'en 1536),
a Bale, qu'a partir
1528,
il
Aide Manuce reprendra
ailleurs,
ecartee par Moreto, et lui assurera ainsi
ne s'imposera,
Veditio princeps
trouve cette edition venitienne a Venise), corrigera en partie
par Moreto (en quelques
le texte falsifie
de
de
destinataire veritable et, a partir d'un exemplaire
pas surprenant qu'il
celle
15
fois
avec
le
nous reviendrons. Je texte imprime dont nous parlons correspond au premier etat de la
le
de Perotti
et qu'il faudra attendre
particuliere sur laquelle
un
article
de J. Monfasani ("The
First Call for
pour qu'on prenne conscience des corrections apportees par
Press Censorship")
Perotti a son texte (deux etats
pour Monfasani, qui
un manuscrit;
a neglige
trois
pour
moi).
A I'epoque ou Barbaro pubhe ses
Castigationes, la controverse entre
ceno, professeur de medecine a Ferrare (De
Pandolfo Collenuccio {Pliniana
defensio
.
.
Plinii
[1493?])
.
.
.
.
conceme
les
Niccolo Leoni-
1492), et le juriste
erroribus,
erreun de Phne, en
particulier des confusions facheuses dans I'identification des plantes par
pfehension des sources grecques, notamment Dioscoride,
de confronter
affirmations de
les
novatrice annonce
Dans
la
les
Phne
montre
mauvaise com-
le souci
nouveau
reahtes de I'experience: cette attitude
developpement des sciences experimentales.
nouvelle edition de Pline par
on ht une
(Brescia, 1496),
patrie de
le
Phne avec
et
I'Ancien.
Une
les
fireres
Angelo
et
lacopo Britannici
de Matteo Rufo a I'eveque de Verone Giusto sur
lettre
lettre
hminaire de Giovanni, frere
nous apprend que ces editeurs sont tombes sur ce texte au
d' Angelo et
moment ou
ils
la
lacopo,
avaient deja
imprime une bonne partie de leurs exemplaires. Une troisieme lettre, du medecin de Verone Alessandro Benedetti qui dormera lui-meme une edition de Phne en 1507, adressee a
Matteo Rufo,
comme
de Perotti Guamieri.
Rufo y
sance pour
lui,
I'identification
le felicite
fait
sa
mise au point. La se rattache
un eloge appuye de son maitre
lettre
la patrie
de Phne avec Verone:
de Petrarque, Biondo, Pie
II,
et
il
comme falsifies les teCome et invoque I'autorite
repousse
Macrobe en faveur de
Landino,
ainsi
la
que des temoignages epigraphiques.
sera suivi par A. Benedetti dans I'edition de
1507 que je viens de mentionner.
Mais d'autres decouvertes epigraphiques par Benedetto Giovio,'^ les
la Lettre i
et entreprend, par reconnais-
VaUa, Pohtien (I'aUusion aux Miscellanea prouve que
lettre est posterieure a 1489), et
ruineront
de Rufo, disciple
directement a
de refuter ceux qui ont voulu contredire Perotti, en particuher sur
de
moignages de Suetone, Jerome,
Rufo
pour
nous I'avons vu plus haut,
suivi par Alciato,
pretentions des Veronais.
Comme je I'avais
annonce, la polemique entre Regio et un eleve dalmate de CalMarino Becichemo, reprend au debut du XVIe siecle. Des 1500, Becichemo Regjo sont en concurrence a Venise ou ils enseignent tous deux. Appele au Studio
fiimio, et
*^
Notamment
dans VEnarratio Praefationis Historiae Naturalis C.
deux manuscrits: Cite du Vatican, Vat.
lat.
5896
et
Plinii Secundi,
Milan, Ambr. J 47 inf
conservee dans
UNE QUERELLE AU
16
de Brescia en 1503, apres avoir ete chasse de
Regio
(!),
Becichemo
de dedicace de I'une
primum
In
remonte
LITTERARUM
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
une
et I'autre oeuvre,
de rhetorique a Padoue par
sa chaire
recite alors, peut-etre les
25
et
27 aout,
In C. Plinium
Naturalis historiae librum obseruationum collectanea,
1501
a
un commentaire
et qui constituent
Ton
si
Secundum
dont
a la Praefatio.
se fie
aux dates puis des
praelectio,
composition
la
Ces deux ouvrages
seront publics ensemble a Brescia vers 1504-1505, par Angelo et/ou lacopo Britannici.
Dans
public
la
dedicace,
defendre contre
= Regio!) de
la
Becichemo pu
declare que certains de ses eleves, a son insu, ont
la Praelectio, qu'il n'a pas les
la
corriger
il
I'aurait
voulu
et qu'il doit se
qui s'attaque aux savants et a corrompu Quintilien et surtout Pline, garant
science romaine.
La
Praelectio a
une portee generate
concerne
et
question du dedicataire de Pline et de
est
comme
calomnies d'un Homeromastix (qualifie plus loin de Calpurniomastix
feuillets
et a sa
sont consacres a
la
le
le titre de I'ceuvre. II y de ce dernier. Mais dix-neuf
genre et
la patrie
polemique avec Regio, calomniateur de tous
propre apologie. Becichemo
ce calomniateur impenitent, "ex celeberrimo
Italias
gymnasio."
II
s'est
Venise, a Padoue, et maintenant a Brescia, qui a expulse Regio pour
Becichemo, avec un traitement superieur lectanea,
Regio.'-'
annonces dans
Becichemo
la
les savants,
senex,"
se flatte d'avoir fait chasser ce "fanaticus
Praelectio,
1'
a lui a
engager
con^u
{maiore salario). Aussi a-t-il
comme une
oppose
lui,
ses Col-
refutation des errores pueriles de
affirme avoir eu le temps de corriger les Collectanea, dont
il
souligne I'originalite par rapport a quatre precurseurs qu'il loue dans I'ordre (Politien,
Barbaro, Sabellico, et Beroaldo): son commentaire a I'heure,
il
a declare la guerre {bellum indixi) a
n'est pas selectif.
lui
Tennemi de
la verite,
bien, et des savants (= Regio!). Les Collectanea se presentent
il
explique
explorer
le
la
maniere de Perotti dans
Regio repliquera en publiant Giovanni Badoer. nouvelle
fois
II
Cornu
le
copiae: a partir
contexte historique; mais
le sens, les realia, et le
champ semantique en
Pour
hommes
comme une
I'illustrant
a
Venise
faut dire qu'en
en concurrence, pour
le
il
de
refuta-
du point de vue methodologique, Becichemo
tion des positions de Regio. Mais,
rapproche de
done
des
se
d'un mot du texte,
en profite
aussi
pour
de nombreuses citations. 2 octobre 1508 une Apologia adressee a
1508 Regio
lors a Venise,
et
ou
Becichemo
ils
se
retrouvent une
enseignent tous deux! Regio
defend son propre travail editorial et exegetique sur la Praefatio, en revenant notamment sur certains points de la controverse entre Perotti et ViteUi, et accuse Becichemo de s'etre approprie les travaux de son maitre Calfurnio. Jusqu'ici, nous sommes restes en Italic, mais au XVIe siecle la question de Pline devient europeenne et
il
est
impossible d'en suivre tous
cadre d'une simple relation. Aussi
meneront en France,
me
puis en Espagne, puis a
finalement un grand representant de
En
puer.
developpements dans
le
la
nouveau en
Italic,
mais pour introduire
phUologie germanique.
France, Nicolas Berault donne en 1516 une edition de Pline dont le texte, peu
original, a ete etudie par
'^
les
contenterai-je d'evoquer quatre figures qui nous
Par une inversion de
la
M. M. de
la
Garanderie ("Travaux
italiens et fran^ais").
topique traditionnelle, Becichemo presente Regjo
comme un
senex
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET
17
Mais, ce qui a mes yeux est beaucoup plus original et peut-etre nouveau dans son
recommande par une
projet editorial
prend
la
peine d'editer
commentaires a de Becichemo
Moreto) dans
la
yeux
ses
les
On
et Vitelli.
propre edition (1519) un recueil des quatre
plus importants de la Praefatio de Pline: les
de Perotti (dans
et les lettres
d'Erasme, c'est que ce curatore de Pline
lettre
trois ans apres sa
version
la
peut s'etonner de certaines absences: Berault avait deja repris
preface de son edition le premier commentaire de Beroaldo
cote de Becichemo,
il
deux travaux
mais "normalisee", de
falsifiee,
Quant
a ecarte Regio.
a Barbaro, auquel
il
et, se
rangeant du
voue une grande
admiration,'^ ses interventions sur la Praefatio avaient ete fort limitees en volume.
Ce
livre
composite
Berault doime aussi a
lui-meme
la Lettre h
Comu
edite
le texte
de
la princeps, la
Par
copiae.
pour
Or
de Pline.
la Praefatio
en 1516, mais revient
seule edition des lettres de Perotti
ailleurs,
assez
la
commodite du
lecteur,
ce texte n'est pas celui qu'il
souvent a celui defendu par Perotti dans
Guamieri, ce qui signifie que Berault a lu attentivement les textes qu'il fai-
pubher
sait
en dehors de
est,
independantes du
et ViteUi
et qu'il
en a tenu compte pour I'etablissement du texte de Pline.
C'est encore beaucoup plus ouvertement que Francesco Lopez de ViUalobos,
me-
decin de Charles Quint, rend justice au merite de Perotti, premier commentateur de la
Praefatio
{Glossa
1524). lius
n
a la Preface et au Uvre 2 de VHistoire naturelle (Alcala de Henares,
cite ensuite
C.
mais de fa^on depreciative: "Deinde
Vitelli,
quasdam expositionis Sipontini
est." est
de Pline, dans I'avertissement au lecteur de son propre conmientaire
litteralis)
De
fait,
massive et
le detail
I'utihsation
de
la Lettre h
toume souvent au
des emprunts.
Ce
partes
Comehus
Guamieri dans son commentaire de
meme si
plagiat,
Vitel-
aUquantulum iracunde corrigere professus elle n'est
la Praefatio
que rarement avouee dans
qui est plus etrange, c'est que ViUalobos ne cite dans son
avertissement aucun autre humaniste que Perotti et Vitelli, alors qu'apres 1500 le
point de reference privilegie des philologues pour Pline
edition depuis Aide
copiae, et
Itahe
pour nous attacher
qui ne figure pas, du moins sous son vrai
H. Walter ("La vicenda
la restitution a
de son epoque,
contente des deux pieces annexees a cette
s'est
il
Manuce.
Nous revenons un instant en effet a
Ermolao Barbaro. Mani-
comme la plupart des hommes cultives
festement, ViUalobos disposait,
d'une edition du Cornu
est
FiUppo Strozzi
chef des repubUcains florentins
nom, dans
del Regius antiquus,"
le
Jeune,
et
le
a
un commentateur de PUne
I'etude de Nauert.
"Codice parigino
banquier qui a
la fin
de
On
latino
sa vie
6808")
deviendra
GuiUaume
PeUicier et et I'autre a
pest,
d'un cormnentaire de Pline jusque
mais provenant de Paris, '^ jusqu'a
Carte Strozziane par
M.
la attribue a
la
decouverte
a
'*
Berault achetera en 1534
'*
livres
Par.
3 a
lat.
9).
6808
la
un exemplaire des Castigationes (res. XVI, 896 in-4*).
connu Buda-
Florence en 1998 dans
T. Scaramuzza ("Le note filologjche,"
grafo"), sur les conseUs d'H. Walter, d'un troisieme manuscrit
bliotheque Universitaire de
le
foumira a Musset I'une des grandes figures de Loren-
seulement par deux manuscrits autographes, I'un conserve a Paris
zaccio,
en
doit
Plitiianae
"Un nuovo
les
auto-
en partie autographe
que j'ai
identifie a la
Bi-
Sorbonne
(Praefatio et livres
2
et 10); Bibl.
Sechenyi, cod.
fol. lat.
201,1 {Praefatio et
UNE QUERELLE AU
18
donnant
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
du commentaire
trois etats anterieurs
LITTERARUM
a la Praefatio et
au livre 11/^ dont
propose un classement chronologique dans I'ordre inverse des "Philippe Strozzi
le
feuillets
j'ai
(Charlet,
Jeune"). Le manuscrit de Budapest est une sorte de collation
du commentaire de Beatus Rhenanus (1526) avec lequel j'acheverai mon expose; il est done posterieur a 1526, alors que les trois etats du manuscrit de critique
Florence, qui ne font aucune reference a I'hunianiste rhenan, sont anterieurs a cette date.
Quant au manuscrit de
comme
Paris,
il
mentaire de
T. Scaramuzza
commentaire
le
comme
moi,
a
de nos connaissances, du com-
I'etat actuel
Globalement, pour
F. Strozzi.
M.
apparait, a
redaction ultime, du moins en
la
a la Praefatio, Perotti est,
apres Barbaro, I'humaniste le plus cite. Strozzi ne I'approuve pas toujours, mais
loue explicitement au moins une sorte
de vulgate dont
il
part
pour
comme
considere
fois et le
au
la critiquer
nom
il
le
representant d'une
le
du respect du aux manuscrits.
Strozzi est dans la ligne de Politien et se concentre sur les problemes ecdotiques, alors
que
ou
meme
Perotti,
Praefatio,
dans
la Lettre ^ Guarnieri
dont I'objet
accorde une place plus importante aux
du texte de
la
litteraire.
Mais I'examen du manuscrit de Budapest pour
m'amene
a terminer ce
Pline dans
panorama des
Bale en 1526. Rhenanus
nomme jamais
de et
plus au nord, dans le
semble connaitre
les
cite le
commentaire public a
travaux de Perotti, mais ne
J'ai
Que
etre ses rapports avec F. Strozzi. ait tire profit est
prouve,
Mais deux
faits
comme
Strozzi
le plus interessant, c'est
nous I'avons vu, par
troublants observes
quand je
les
manuscrits de Budapest et
une seance du col-
preparais
F. Strozzi (Charlet,
m'amenent
que des rapports ont peut-etre
a formuler I'hypothese
quier florentin et I'humaniste rhenan avant
A
attineo, atteneo
de Florence eo" ex
propos du paragraphe 30 de
ou
(fols.
uetustis.
rait aussi
attento, Strozzi
95r
"Philippe Strozzi
manuscrit de
les
la Praefatio, la les
ou
les
manuscrits donnent
deux premiers
etats
du manuscrit
au commentaire de Rhenanus, de
editeurs
Paris, qui lui,
lire "ait in
modernes sont
alles
en revanche, ne
dit
chercher cette correc-
mot
sur ce point de
cette le^on s'appuie sur le Mediceus, manuscrit florentin
auquel avait acces Strozzi, qui donne
attineo. Ici,
on peut invoquer une simple
dence: deux grands esprits peuvent, independamment I'un de I'autre, faire
'^
Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Carte Strozziane,
'^
Commentaire
a Plin. praef. 22:
doctissimos affirmatos. Proximos il
s'agit
ban-
Le manuscrit de Budapest, qui mentionne que cette conjecture appa-
Rhenanus, precisent que
autem,
Jeune")
le
existe entre le
publication a Bale du commentaire sur
propose, dans
et 54r) anterieurs
chez Rhenanus (ou
tion), et le
la
peut-
collationne son commentaire et en
ait
loque de Sassoferrato consacree a
Pline (1526).
le
conmie une sorte de vulgate insatisfaisante qu'il retrouve aussi dans son commentaire deux lignes de Vitelli,
cache derriere un pluriel anonyme {inquiunt)}^ Mais
Paris.
Praefatio
et parait le considerer
de corriger.
s'agit
me
a la
monde rhenan
un peu
la res publica litterarum
commentaire
le
querelles, mais aussi des echanges, autour
germanique de Beatus Rhenanus, dont nous avons deja
de
est I'edition
au commentaire linguistique
realia et
Va
serie,
d'une citation exacte de
Vitelli]
Vitelli
12
quasi iureiurando
qui propter doctrinam propius sunt famae.
(mon
meme
1221, vol. 3.
'luratissitnos', inquiunt, uocat Plinius 'litteratos et
autem [uero
coinci-
la
edition).
'
A
part
JEAN-LOUIS CHARLET
19
meme moment. Mais y a plus troublant. A propos du parameme Praefatio (ineptis codd.), Rhenanus conjecture mentis, mais
conjecture presque au
graphe 9 de cette
il
anonymement une autre conjecture, inemptis, retenue par les editeurs modemes en reference a cet anonyme. Or la le^on inemptis est proposee par Strozzi dans le manuscrit de Florence (fol. 27r) avant que ce meme Strozzi ait pris connaissance du travail de Rhenanus et, sur le manuscrit de Budapest (fol. 213v), apres avoir nommerapporte
ment
de Rhenanus
cite la conjecture
sienne, mais sans la reparait
deux
fois
dans
(nos),
rien affirmer dans la mesure F. Strozzi
dans
these qu'il
pu
ait
Res publico
le^on inemptis. Cette le^on
seconde
fois, est
expHcitement re-
ou nous n'avons aucune
s'identifier
donne I'impres-
avec
lui).
Je ne puis
trace d'echange epistolaire avec
correspondance conservee de Rhenanus. Mais Strozzi, par
la
nouer de nombreux
tions bancaires, pouvait
la
la
toujours sans polemique. Strozzi
Rhenanus (ou de
sion d'identifier I'anonyme cite par
comme
reprend expHcitement
il
le Parisinus (fol. 12r) et, la
comme personnelle
vendiquee
(meritis),
moindre polemique avec Rhenanus,
ses rela-
on ne peut exclure I'hyporelations philologiques avec un membre eminent de comme lui au texte de Phne I'Ancien.
entretenir des
litterarum interesse
contacts, et
Sur cette hypothese, je m'arrete pour conclure. La querelle sur PHne, veritable "laboratorio filologico", pour reprendre la belle expression de V. Fera deja citee, a
mis en evidence la
les
grandeurs et
miseres de
les
quete impossible du texte originel, dans
citer
un
Plinius triumphons
petitesses,
les
occupee par
le
les
de cette Res publico
litterarum offre
un champ
Res publico
litterarum:
grandeur dans
la
science antique. Miseres aussi dans les
chamailleries d'univenitaires jaloux de la chaire
"coUegue". Mais, en tout
tiere des efforts lico
pour reconstituer
mesquineries,
la
volonte presque demiurgique de ressus-
la
de cause,
etat
litterarum.
culture occidentale est heri-
la
Et a nous, neo-latinistes, cette Res pub-
d'investigation privilegie
pour ce que je
me
plais a
appeler une "philologie biologique" qui s'inscrit dans revolution des sciences. Le
XIXe
siecle a ete le siecle des
dominante
a partir
du debut du
et cette evolution est
lance de
la
en
conquete du
train
savoir.
mathematiques
XXe de
siecle.
et la
physique
est
devenue
la
science
Mais, depuis quelques dizaines d'armees,
s'accelerer, c'est la biologie qui devient le fer
Le neo-latin
est
particulierement propice a
la
de
mise en
oeuvre d'une philologie biologique, c'est-a-dire une philologie attachee a comprendre et a reconstituer a la fois les processus vitaux
(I'existence
texte
de I'elaboration d'un texte par son auteur
de manuscrits d'auteur ou corriges par I'auteur
— donnees
met souvent de
qui font presque toujoun defaut pour
reconstituer a la fois le
et la vie, parfois
meme
la
ception: dans certains cas privilegies,
vons reconstruire
la vie
mouvement
mutation, de ce texte dans ici la Lettre h
d'un texte dans
les
les
et des etats successifs
auteurs antiques
d'un
— per-
un
texte a la vie)'*
les differentes
phases de sa re-
qui a porte
Guornieri de
N.
Perotti,
nous pou-
decennies qui ont suivi son elaboration.
Universite de Provence (Aix -Marseille
'*
Sur ce point,
Kristeller,
comme
G. Billanovich
et
I'a
rappeie L. Gualdo
Rosa dam
quelques autres nous ont montre
la relation la
voie.
pleniere en italien, P.
I)
O.
UNE QUERELLE AU
20
LITTERARUM
SEIN DE LA RES PUBLICA
Bibliographie Boutroue, Marie-Elisabeth. "Pline ou
le tresor
du monde. Recherches sur quelques
aspects de la transmission et de la fortune de VHistoire naturelle de Pline I'Ancien
(XVe—XVIe
siecles)."
These de I'Universite de
"Giovanni Andrea Bussi
.
A
I'Ancien."
in
Plinium de
Rhenanus
Naturelle a la Renaissance." In Beatus textes anciens, ed.
Casciano, Paola. di
"II
Sweynheym C. Bianca,
ed.
VHistoire naturelle de Pline
et la tradition textuelle
Rhenanus (1485—1547),
de VHistoire
lecteur et editeur des
James Hirstein, 327—375. Tumhout, 2000 [2001]. ms. Angelicano 1097, fase preparatoria per I'edizione del Plinio
e Pannartz." In Scrittura, biblioteche e stampa a
M. Migho
et
al.,
383-394.
N.
Charlet, Jean-Louis. "La lettre de a la Preface
Paris, 1998.
deuxieme edition de
paraitre dans les Actes du seminaire sur Pline. (Paris, 2001).
"Les Annotationes
.
et la
de Pline qui annonce
Roma,
Roma
un commentaire
Perotti a Francesco Guarnieri:
le
Comu
nel Quattrocento,
1980.
copiae." Studi Umanistici Piceni
19 (1999):
38-46. "Philippe Strozzi
.
Deux
-.
C.
le Jeune lecteur
de Perotti dans son commentaire a
la Prae-
de Phne." Studi Umanistici Piceni 20 (2000): 86-107.
fatio
pieces de la controverse
Vitelli, Lettre
Davies, Martin.
(J
humaniste sur Pline: N.
Perotti, Lettre h Guarnieri,
Partenio di Said. Edition critique et commentaire. Paris, 2003.
"Making Sense of Pliny
in the Quattrocento." Renaissance Studies 9
(1995): 240-257.
De
Capua, Paola. "Fortune esegetiche
della Praefatio alia Naturalis historia tra
e Cinquecento." In Filologia umanistica. Per Gianvito Resta, ed.
Giacomo
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Renais-
O. Pecere and M. D. Reeve, 435-466. Spoleto, 1995.
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e Plinio." In Unafamiglia veneziana nella storia:
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de
la
Garanderie, Marie Madeleine. "Travaux italiens et fran^ais sur Pline I'Ancien:
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Prete, Sesto.
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"II
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N
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Piceni 18
Allegorizing Apuleius: FulgentiuSy Boccaccio, Beroaldo,
and
the
Chain of Receptions
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
Apuleius
was a very lucky man.
He
cultivated the arts of
all
the nine Muses,
married a rich widow, defended himself briUiantly against a charge of practicing magic, and, by his
own
account
at least,
achieved fame and fortune
as a sophist
and Platonic philosopher.' His works enjoyed similar good fortune. Most came through the ravages of the Middle Ages unscathed. His novel, the Metamorphoses or Golden Ass, received an allegorical interpretation by Fulgentius in late antiquity and
then went on to slumber peacefully through the centuries in a single manuscript in the great hbrary of Monte Cassino. At the
good luck
to
fall
into the hands of
figures in Italian Hterature,
dawn of the Renaissance, Apuleius had the
one of the
greatest
— and most Apuleian —
Giovanni Boccaccio. At the end of the fifteenth century
Fortune smiled on him again,
when he was
taken up by another kindred
spirit,
the
Bolognese humanist Fihppo Beroaldo. Both encounten were decisive. Boccaccio did not "discover" the manuscript
at
Monte
Cassino,
often maintain, but he
as scholars
two of his stories in the Decameron, and produced an allegorical reading of the story of Cupid and Psyche. Beroaldo, one of the most influential teachers in Italy, lectured on the Golden Ass at the University of Botranscribed Apuleius's works, imitated
logna and interpreted
it
in a
major Uterary and philological commentary. Boccaccio
brought Apuleius to the attention of Florentine humanists and teenth and fifteenth centuries. Beroaldo
My topic
is
reception
— of
made him famous
the Golden Ass, to be sure
all
artists
in the four-
over Europe.
— but
also
of interpretations
two most important stories: the transformation of its hero Lucius into an ass, and the tale of Cupid and Psyche. I will be talking about a chain of receptions (a term I have borrowed from of the Golden Ass, particularly allegorical interpretations of
'
Most of what we know about the
life
of Apuleius
biographical remarks in his Apology and Florida.
(c.
its
A.D. 125-c. 169)
comes from auto-
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
24
Charles Martindale) that stretches from late antiquity through the sixteenth century.^
The major but
It
some more obscure
and the realm of
translations
broken.
It
begins
of the chain were forged by Fulgentius, Boccaccio, and Beroaldo,
links
also has
it
new
has dead ends and
well
links, as
As we
as
offshoots leading into vernacular
will see, the chain
neither tidy nor un-
is
beginnings and a few loose strands along the way.
chain of interpretations of Psyche, but doubles in the fourteenth
as a single
when
century,
art.
allegorical readers turn their attention also to the transformations
of
Lucius.
Our story
begins in the late
fifth
century, with
two
allegorical readers
of the story
of Cupid and Psyche, Martianus Capella and Fulgentius the mythographer.-'
know and
very
little
was
that Martianus
cameo
— except
about either a
pagan and Fulgentius
We
were north Africans
that both, like Apuleius,
a Christian. Martianus gives
Psyche a
work. The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, but not the one told by Apuleius. The main difference for our purposes is
role in his strange allegorical
her story
is
unnamed "king and queen" of fairy tale, while them Apollo and Endelichia (De Nuptiis 1.7). This is an important
that in Apuleius her parents are the
Martianus
calls
point, and
we
return to
shall
it
presently.
on the other hand, does follow Apuleius, even to the point of imitatlanguage and turns of phrase. Yet he tells and allegorizes a story that
Fulgentius,
ing his is
detail,
—
"*
essentially different
both because
from
it is
onstration) and because
Fulgentius
that in Apuleius.
artistic in its it is
the
first
own
—
We must look at
right (a claim that
treatment in some
his
may
require
some dem-
link in our chain of allegories.
the story of Psyche in three parts or sections, each related in a
tells
name never appears in his account. Part 1 is The king and queen of a certain city had three
different style, yet please note that her straight narrative
daughters. that she
and goes
The two
older ones were pretty enough, but the youngest was so beautiful
was believed to be an earthly Venus. The older daughters married, but no
one dared
fell
was worshipped
to court the youngest. Instead, she
prayers and sacrifices.
but he
like this.
like a
Venus was outraged and commanded Cupid
in love with her instead. Apollo
commanded
that she
goddess with
to punish the
girl,
be placed alone on
mountain peak and escorted
as in a funeral procession to her marriage to a winged Zephyr wafted her down into a beautiful golden house, where she was waited on by invisible servants whom she perceived only as voices. Her husband
a
serpent.
^
For "chain of receptions" see Charles Martindale, Redeeming
the Text. Latin Poetry
and the
Hermeneutia of Reception (Cambridge, 1993), 7 and 28. ^
For Martianus see especially Danuta Shanzer,
tianus Capella' s
De
Nuptiis Philologiae
et
A
Merami Book
Philosophical
and Literary Commentary on Mar-
I (Berkeley, 1986).
Shanzer dates the work
to the 470s or 480s: see Commentary, 8-17. For Fulgentius see Bradford Gregory Hays, "Fulgentius
the Mythographer" (Ph.D.
diss.,
Cornell University, 1996). Hays (1-24) dates the Mitologiae after
the 480s, probably during the reign of Thrasamund (496-523), placing
it
in the cultural
world of
Vandal Africa. *
rev. J.
Mitologiae 3.6.
I
cite the Latin text
Preaux (Leipzig, 1898;
from
Fabii Planciadis Fulgentii V. C. Opera, ed.
repr. Stuttgart, 1970).
The
translations are
my
own.
R. Helm,
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
came
The
to her at night,
made
25
love to her in the darkness, and departed at
section ends with a neat Uttle
summary
Habuit ergo vocale servitium, ventosum dominium,
ignotum coniugium.
unseen.
noctumum commercium,
{Mit. 3.6.115)
had voices for
[In short, she
dawn
in very Apuleian style:
an insubstantial domain, nocturnal in-
servants,
and an unknown husband.]
tercourse,
Part 2 continues the narration but adds moralizing
comments. The two
sisters
climbed the mountain and loudly lamented her death. Her husband forbade her to see them, but, as Fulgentius says, "the unbreakable ardor of kindred affection over-
shadowed her husband's command.'* Zephyr wafted the sisten down and she agreed to their poisonous advice to find out what her husband looked Uke. Fulgentius says: "she seized curiosity, a stepmother of her safety, and she seized easy credulity, which is
always the mother of deception, neglecting the voice of caution."^
Her
her that she was married to a serpent. BeUeving them, she planned to hid a dagger under the pillow and a hghted lamp under a bushel.
sisters
When
told
him and
kill
her husband
weapon and uncovered her lamp. She recognized Cupid it is important to remember here that Cupido, "Cupid," also means "erotic desire" and while "she was on fire with the licentious passion of love, "^ she bumed her husband with a drop of oil firom her lamp. Cupid fled, chastising her was
asleep, she
curiosity,
and
armed
— —
left
herself with the
her homeless and a refugee. In the end, after she had been greatly
penecuted by Venus, he accepted her in marriage
much of Cupid who desires
at
The
the urging of Jupiter.
sec-
tion ends with a rush, omitting
the story, and differing from Apuleius's
account, in which
the marriage, and Jupiter
allow
it is
Part 3 summarizes the story
girl's trials
in an elegant praeteritio: "I could
— how she fetched water from the Styx and
Sun and
sorted the seeds and nearly died
when
Having just mentioned these
for herself."*
agrees to
an otherwise
unknown it
is
tell
from the
the whole
flocks of the
she took a bit of Proserpina's beauty
been told
at
them
length by both Apuleius and
author called Aristophontes the Athenian.
Fulgentius's narrative
Psyche," but
stole fleece
matters, Fulgentius declines to relate
in detail, explaining that they have already
'
who
it.
is
often taken
not, for
"tamen consanguineae
as a
mere summary of Apuleius's "Cupid and
he has omitted every
caritatis
detail
invincibilis ardor maritale
connected with Psyche's
obumbravit imperium": Mit.
3.6.115. *
"curiositam, suae salutis novercam, arripuit et facillimam credulitatem, quae semper decep-
tionum mater
est,
postposito cautelae suffi-agio arripit": Mit. 3.6.115.
^
"dum inmodesto
*
"Poteram quidem
amoris torretur afFectu": Mit. 3.6.115. totius fabulae
descenderit et ex Stigiis aquis
germina confusa discreverit Mit. 3.6.116.
et
umulam
ordinem hoc
iibello percurrere, qualiter et
delibaverit et Solis
armenu
ad infemum
vellere spoliaverit et
seminum
de Proserpinae pulchhtudine particulam moritura praesumpserit":
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
26
redemption and
her pregnancy, Cupid's assistance in completing the
final happiness:
by Venus,
tasks set
his plea to Jupiter to
wedding, and the birth of her
child,
and everlasting union with Cupid. last," says
The
of Fulgentius's omissions
one
in Apuleius,
and
final
Apuleius's tale is
that
focused
is
redemption.
"Cupid and Psyche,"
leius's
about the
The
all
we have
is
emblem of her joyous shotgun wedding: "At
a
city
sins
far
and more pessimistic story than that
a darker
is
more on
the
girl's
story, subtly
It is this
he explains in
that
error than
on her subsequent
but surely different from Apu-
his allegory.
We
might allegorize
the story of the union of the Soul with Love. Fulgentius's allegory
as
of the
of the
flesh
girl's
and the
evils
of sexual
The
beautiful because Soul
envied by Venus, that
is is.
is
it is:
and her parents, the king and
three daughters are caro (Flesh), ultronietas
that Fulgentius defines as Free Will),
younger because the body
Here
desire.
birth represents the world,
queen, are god and matter.
word
Instead,
Fulgentius, "at Jupiter's urging, he took her in marriage."^
result
sufferings
allow the marriage. Psyche's divinity and
Voluptas (Pleasure), the
and anima or Psice
made when
already
the soul
placed in
is
it.
who
Whence eats
He
comments also
from the
is
carnal awareness
The
Soul is
expands
is
mar-
if in a
to learn the
explanation with one of the most fascinating and
this
Adam, although he
sees,
does not see that he
is
naked, until he
tree of concupiscence.^^
equivalent to eating the apple: each
and
lust;
each
it
to us to infer that seeing the a
is
fall
from innocence into
a sin.^^
is
allegory continues. Desire urges Soul not to be persuaded
by her sisters
to sat-
her curiosity about his appearance. But terrified by their urging, she takes the
isfy
—
lamp from beneath the bushel
"that is," says Fulgentius, "she reveals the flame of
longing hidden in her heart, sees that
'
it is
sweet, and
falls
in love
with
His
it."'-*
"postea love petente in coniugio accepit": Mit. 3.6.116.
'°
name ''
The name
Psice appean only twice in Mit 3.6: in the
title
and
in the explanation
'"
partial
of the
at 3.6.117.
"unde
et
Adam
nudum
quamvis videat
se
non
videt,
donee de concupiscentiae arbore
comedat": Mit. 3.6.118.
The
parallel
accuracy
—
between
Adam
and Psyche
is
often noted, but usually attributed
— with only
to their sharing in "the sin of disobedient curiosity." See Luisa Vertova,
pid and Psyche in Renaissance Painting before Raphael," Jowrwa/ of the Warburg and Courtauld tutes
is
more
in the allegory:
Fulgentius does not explain the connection, but leaves face of Desire
She
sends Cupiditas or Desire to destroy her. Desire,
—
delights of desire.
very rare
both superior to Free Will and nobler than Flesh. She Lust,
which can be of either good or evil, esteems Soul and joins with her as riage and penuades her not to see his face that is, says Fulgentius, not revealing
(a
(Soul).^*'
"CuInsti-
42 (1979): 104-121, here 104-105. '^
ligit":
"id est desiderii
flammam
in pectore
Mit. 3.6.118. Fulgentius uses the
of Book
1:
Mit. prol. 1.4
and
1.20.
absconsam depalat visamque
taliter
dulcem amat ac
image of Psyche's lamp quite difFerendy
di-
in the prologue
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
heroine sees what has been there
all
27
— her own
along
sexual longing,
its
Hght unfor-
no longer hidden under a bushel. I suspect that some of you are shaking your heads by now, remembering the New Testament and its repeated injunction not tunately
under a bushel. Thus, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
to keep one's hght hidden says:
Neither do
and
it
men,
men Hght
a candle,
giveth light unto that they
may
see
and put
it
under
a bushel,
that are in the house. Let
all
your good works, and
but on a candlestick:
your hght so shine before
glorify
your father which
in
is
heaven. (Matthew 5:15-16)'"
Fulgentius wants us to contrast us.
The
it
with the
remember
this
good Hght, which
flame does double duty in his allegory:
Fulgentius puts
it:
"[Soul]
because every Desire flesh. "'^
He
it is
We might say that the flame bums
Soul's desire.
should be revealed, and to
flame of carnal desire, which should remain hidden from
sinful
said to kindle the flame
is
bums
Soul's desire, but
and damages
much
as
continues: "Therefore,
as it is
loved and
also enflames is
way
the
with the spurting of the lamp fixes the stain
made naked by
as if
it
Here
itself
of sin on
Desire, she
is
own
its
deprived of
her mighty fortune and tossed by dangers and driven fi-om her royal palace."'^ Here the allegory ends us. Soul,
— with
Fulgentius impUcitly keeping the example of Adam before
hke Adam, has succumbed
and hke Adam, she
is
to temptation
and gained forbidden knowledge;
driven firom her Eden.
The next hnks in our chain of allegories appear over eight hundred years later, around the middle of the fourteenth century. The story of Apuleius's reception in this period
is
yet to be understood:
or copied the manuscript fi-om
we know only that someone, at some point, removed Monte Cassino, and the cat (or perhaps we should say,
the Golden Ass) was out of the bag.
Among
the twenty-three fourteenth-century
manuscripts of the novel are three illuminated codices in the Vatican Library: Vat.
2193
(c.
1330-1340), Vat.
2195 gives no hint of illumination
is
2194 (1345), and Vat.
lat.
how
lat.
2195 (1358). »' Vat.
scribe or illuminator interpreted the novel:
its
a cheerful-looking ass
on the
first
foUo.
The other two
its
are
lat. lat.
sole
more
interesting.
'*
"neque accendunt lucemam
onuiibus qui in et glorificent '
domo
Patrem vestrum qui
"Quam
et
ponunt earn sub modio, sed super candelabrum ut luceat coram hominibus, ut videant vestra bona opera
sunt: sic luceat lux vestra in caelis est."
See also Mark 4:21 and Luke 11:33.
ideo lucemae ebullitione dicitur incendisse, quia omnis cupiditas
quantum
diligitur
tantiam ardescit et peccatricem suae cami configit maculam": Mit. 3.6.118. '*
"Ergo quasi cupiditate nudau
expellitur": Mit. 3.6.1 18.
The
et potenri fortuna privatur et periculis iactatur et regia
phrase
I
have translated
as
"made naked by Desire" mig^t
also
domo mean
"denuded of Desire". '^
Twenty-rwo
are listed
by D.
leius," Classical Quarterly 18 (1924):
7.
S.
Robertson, "TTie Manuscripts of the Metamorphoses of Apu-
27-42, 85-99.
The
twenty-third
is
University of Illinois
MS.
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
28
Vat.
who
2193 was owned by Petrarch,
lat.
annotated
the Apuleian works in the manuscript have illuminated in an appropriate character.
At the beginning of De
bearded philosopher, in the Florida
as a
cian.^' In the illumination for the
Golden Ass he
it
each depicts Apuleius
he
deo Socratis
shown
is
busy writer, and in the Apology
shown
is
Four of
in the 1340s. ^^
initials:
as a
magi-
as a
Lucius, the asinine
as
hero of the novel. ^^ The illumination shows Apuleius/Lucius above the bar of the initial
A,
his alter
ego the
nature
as
man and
beast
novel
clearly interpreting the
in the
title
below. (The arrangement perhaps indicates
ass
— human above the as
autobiographical.
he awards Apuleius the praenomen of
The
his dual
The
waist and animal below.)
artist is
same view, for
scribe has the
Apulegii Platonici
his hero: "Lucii
Madaurensis Methamorphoseos Hber primus incipit." Apuleius's actual praenomen manuscripts.^^
Renaissance and
is still
occurrence of
earliest
is
The awarding of
unknown, and no praenomen appears in the oldest the name Lucius, which became general in the
may
frequent today, that
it
I
date from this manuscript, for this
have been able to
find.
The
scribe
is
the
and illuminator
perhaps remembered that Augustine had considered the Golden Ass autobiography
(whether
when
perhaps they arrived
real or fictitious) ,^^ or
they saw that the story
is
told in the
first
at
the idea independently,
person. In any case, Petrarch himself
evidently accepted this identification, for in Ep. fam. 1.4.4 he refers to the hero of
the novel as Apixleius.
In Vat.
lat.
2194 we find
adventures, for the
artist
we
beginning of book 2
'*
hints
of an almost mystical interpretation of Lucius's
shows him protected by divine or angelic see Lucius
waking up on
See Elisabeth Pellegrin, Les manuscrits
his first
forces.^-'
morning
At the
in Thessaly.^*
Vaticane 3.1 (Paris,
classiques latins de la Bibliotheque
1991), 514-517, with earlier bibliography. For the annotations see Caterina Tristano, "Le postille del Petrarca nel Vaticano Lat.
2193 (Apuleio, Frontino, Vegezio, Lm
Umanistica 17 (1974): 365—468. See also A. Petrucci,
248 (Vatican City, 1967), 117-118 and hac, "Manuscrits a miniatures de
25-32; and Marco Buonocore,
mana '^
al tarda
Philosopher: Vat.
^°
Vat.
^'
In Florence,
he
IX and X. For
daurensis
lat.
ed., Vedere
i
classici:
^^
L' illustrazione
lat.
2193,
libraria dei testi antichi dall' eta ro-
2193,
fol.
MS.
fol.
1;
writer: fol. 19v; magician: fol 27r. Fol. 19v
43; illustrated in
Buonocore, Vedere
16v),
and Apuleius Madaurensis
See Augustine,
i
Bibl. Laur. 68.2, the oldest manuscript
De
Civitate
inscripsit, sibi ipsi accidisse, ut
shown
in
Dei 18.18:
".
accepto veneno
(fol. .
.
classici,
269
fig.
192.
of the Apology, Metamorphoses, and
125v-126r). In Brussels,
(fols.
De Deo
called Apuleius Platonicus Madaurensis
(fol.
is
8a.
called Apuleius Platonicus Madaurensis
is
is
Nol-
bibliotheque de Petrarque," Gazette archeologique 14 (1889):
theque royale 10054-56, the best manuscript of
Mundo, he
Studi e Testi
the illuminations see Pierre de
medioeuo ([Rome], 1996), 268-274, with earlier bibliography.
de Nolhac, "Manuscrits," plate
Florida,
la
plates
Palladio)," Italia Medioevale e
scrittura di Francesco Petrarca,
Soaatis, Asclepius,
(fol. 2r),
De
MS.
Platone,
Biblio-
and De
Apuleius Platonicus philosophus
Ma-
60v).
sicut Apuleius in libris,
quos
humano animo permanente
'asini aurei' titulo
asinus fieret, aut in-
dicavit aut finxit."
"
For a description see Pellegrin, Les manuscrits
graphy. For the illuminations see Buonocore, Vedere -*
Vat.
lat.
2194,
fol.
5v;
shown
in
classiques latins, i
classici,
Buonocore, Vedere
i
517-518, with
267-268, with classici,
267,
fig.
eariier biblio-
earlier bibliography.
189.
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
Two
birds (of
ill
omen?) perch
— perhaps
heaven
in the trees,
The
in warning.
and an angelic figure reaches out firom
(Uterally "fear
book 9 shows the ass at a danmay be suffering firom hydrophobia
illumination fi-om
gerous moment: his present owners, thinking he
will
of water"), are about to put him to the
conclude that he
is
29
rabid and put
him
test. If
he shuns the water, they
We
see the pail of water, a
to death. ^''
nervous keeper peering through the door, and an angehc figure complete with halo reaching
down
protectively to the
on the shore in Book 11; here he imminent redemption.^^
ass. is
The last illumination shows a shadowy Lucius human in form, perhaps in anticipation of his
We can only guess at the interpretation behind the illuminations in Vat. lat. since
no explanatory
accompanies them. But
text
we
on
are
surer
2194,
ground with two
other fourteenth-century works that are independent of both the illuminations and
each other: Boccaccio's allegory of Psyche and an anonymous allegory of the story of Lucius.^'
inations
The
we
two
existence of the
in central and northern Italy within a pretative ferment that resulted
understand
tried to
and the manuscript illum-
textual interpretations
have just been considering, aU so different from each other, and
—
when
arising
all
few decades, suggests something of the the early humanists
first
inter-
— and
encountered
Apuleius's novel.
Boccaccio's allegory of Psyche appears in his Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, a massive
encyclopedia of
classical
mythology
that
he began around 1350,
time that he was writing the Decameron and transcribing leius.^* it
He
continued to work on the Genealogy for
few
in the early 1370s, just a
which
different versions,
Neither
own
at
about the same
manuscript of Apu-
many years and was still revising The work exists in two sUghdy
years before his death.
scholars have
fully authoritative,
is
his
dubbed the "autograph" and the "vulgate."
but in the case of Psyche
it
has been estabhshed that the
vulgate supersedes the autograph.-' In both versions Boccaccio makes major corrections to Fulgentius; in the vulgate
"
Vat.
lat.
2194,
fol.
^ Vat.
lat.
2194,
fol.
1270-1340 (Bologna.
"
48v; 65v;
1981),
shown in Buonocore, Vedere i shown in Alessandro Conti, La
fig.
dassici,
268,
fig.
alterations to his
191.
Miniatura Bologtiese. Scuole e hotteghe
293.
Psyche: Boccaccio, Gettealogia deomtn gentilium 5.22:
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale,
^
he makes small but important
MS.
"De Psyce XV'
Apollinis
filia." Lucius:
II.V.2, fols. 2r-15r.
For the chronology see Vincenzo Romano,
ed., Boccaccio: Gettealogia
deomm getitilium
1951), 843-857; Pier Giorgio Ricci, "Contributi per un' edizione critica della 'Genealogia
(Bari,
deorum
gentilium'," Rinascimento 2 (1951): 195-208, here 205-207. Giuseppe Billanovich demonstrated that
Boccaccio embarked on
trarca e
il
his final revisions in
Boccaccio," in Medioevo
1372: "Pietro Piccolo da Monteforte
e Rinascimento. Studi in onore di
Bruno Nardi, 2
tra
il
Pe-
vols. (Florence,
1955), 1:15, 39-40.
^ Dante
See Guido Martellotti, "Le due redazioni delle Cenealogie del Boccaccio," repr. in idem,
daW umanesimo al romanticismo (Florence, 1983), 137-163. I follow which Boccaccio condensed the narration of the autograph and changed his ac-
e Boccaccio e altri scrittori
the vulgate, in
count of Psyche and her
sisters to bring it into conformity with contemporary doctrine on the soul and 42 below). For further discussion of the two redactions, see Romano, ed., Getie789-864 (but note that he favors the autograph); Ricci, "Contributi." See also Billanovich,
(see notes 41 alogia,
"Pietro Piccolo."
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
30
own
earlier treatment in the autograph.
To
put
another way,
it
we might
say that
Boccaccio's allegory constitutes a double link in our chain of receptions. Since Boccaccio repeatedly cites and criticizes
First Fulgentius.
we may assume
the Genealogy,
own radically
that his
almost
all
departs
different treatment,
echoes of his language and
from Fulgentius
at
which
Matter).-''
On the
He
and Endelichia
it is
one
(in Fulgentius, is
the sun
we have from
Her
soul.-''*
they
recalls,
— "the god to
who
of time,"
"the Father of lights" (James
not merely "soul"
sisters are
tells
no other power except god
for
identifies Endelichia as "the fullness
is
He
it.-^"
authority of Martianus CapeUa, he
even in the womb.^-' Boccaccio's Psyche
but the rational faculty of the
in
mention of Fulgentius and
Apollo, according to Boccaccio,
brings to fulfillment the rational soul that
ties
all
was intended to refute or correct
the true light of the world, since
is
create a rational soul."^^
1:17)
which avoids
style,
the outset.
us that Psyche's parents are Apollo
were God and
him elsewhere
he was well aware of Fulgentius's allegory, and
that
as in
Fulgentius,
the vegetative and feeling facul-
of the soul.
In Boccaccio Psyche's marriage divine union with
that
is,
^"
himself
forbids her to
as in
want
B. L. Hijmans,
Jr.
esp.
and V. Schmidt,
33 and 40,
Romano's index
s.n.
eds.,
a
first
causes of
known
to
Symposium Apuleianum Croninganum
n. 8). In the Genealogia
Boccaccio invokes Fulgentius
Fulgentius) and occasionaUy criticises his interpretations as
far-fetched (e.g., at Genealogia 2.52, 4.24, 4.30, 10.10, and 11.7). like Fulgentius,
it is
him:
suggests that Boccaccio in his allegory "opposes" Fulgentius ("Boccaccio's
Psyche," in B. L. Hijmans, Jr.
times (see
of him:
Fulgentius. Rather,
to see
omnipotence, for the good reason that these things are
[Groningen, 1981], 30-45,
many
not with Desire
is
He
she must not wish to see concerning his eternity, or the
things, or his
Amor and
God
But he does not avoid
all
echoes
but unlike Apuleius, he has Psyche hide her lamp under a "bushel" {modio,
the biblical word). Boccaccio says: "novaculam paravit, et lucernam abscondit sub modio": Genealogia, ed. Romano, 5.22 (257); cf. Fulgentius: "novaculam sub pulvinal abscondit lucernamque modio contegit" (Mil. 3.6.115). (The phrasing is very similar in the First Vatican Mythographer, which is based on Fulgentius: "novaculam sub pulvinari abscondit lucernamque modio contegit":
Mythographus primus vaticanus 3.29.9.) In Apuleius Psyche's
sisters tell
her to put the lamp under
"aliquo claudentis aululae tegmine" {Met. 5.20.2). ^'
"Psyches, ut dicit Martianus Capella in libro,
scripsit, filia fuit
ApoUinis
quem De nuptiis Mercurii et phylologie Romano, 5.22 (254). Cf. Mart. Cap.,
et Endilichie": Genealogia, ed.
Nupt. 1.7; Fulg., Mil. 3.6. •'^
"... qui
animam, '^
mundi
vera lux est deus,
is
cum
filia,
qui et
si
nullius alterius potentie
sit
rationalem creare
5.22 (259).
"Endelichia autem, ut dicit Calcidius super
ideo rationalis anima dicitur
tamen
Romano,
nisi dei": Genealogia, ed.
Tymeo
Platonis, perfecta etas interpretatur; cuius
luminum Romano, 5.22
in utero matris illam a patre
eius apparent opera, nisi in etate perfecta": Genealogia, ed.
suscipiamus, (259).
non
Boccaccio
confusing Martianus's Endelichia ("continuous motion") with Aristotelian Entelechia (entelechy),
a confusion that goes
back
at least to
Dronke, Fabula: Explorations
into the
the tenth century. See Shanzer, Commetitary, 68, and Peter Uses of
Myth
1974), 109-110; both with earlier bibliography. ^*
See notes 41 and 42 below.
in
Medieval Platonism (Leiden and Cologne,
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
him
whenever we mortals examine such
alone. For
or rather
we
31
matters,
we
destroy him,
destroy ourselves, by straying from the right path.^^
But the sisters try to persuade her to see her husband, "to see what she loves by means of natural reason, and not to know it through faith. "-^^ When she gives in to their urgings, she sees "a beautiful hkeness of a man," that is, the external works of God, but not his true form or divinity, "since no one has ever seen God."^^
Through the harmful spark of her lamp, which Boccaccio explains as "haughty de"^^ she loses the good of contemplation and is thus separated from her divine sire, marriage. At last, however, all is well. Psyche is penitent and destroys her sisters, thereby overpowering the vegetative and feeling faculties that brought her into disaster.
Here
When
how
is
she
the allegory ends:
purged through
is
suflfering
of her haughty presumption and
obedience she regains the good of divine love and contemplation and to
it
for ever, since leaving
behind transitory things she
dis-
joined
carried to everlasting
and happiness, the child
there gives birth to Pleasure, or eternal joy
glory and
is
is
of love. ^' Fulgentius had suppressed Psyche's happy ending. Boccaccio restores
makes
the difference. Boccaccio, like Apuleius,
all
gentius presents only the
Fall.
produce
family, moreover,
— and
that
of Redemption, while Ful-
Boccaccio's changes to the identity of Psyche and her
more
a
tells
it
religious
and and more overtly Christian reading
than that in Fulgentius. Boccaccio's revisions in the vulgate to his earlier treatment in
work
the autograph
same end, refining and
to the
his allegory. Since Boccaccio's "Christianizing"
graph are similar in kind and
By changing Psyche's
"hoc
soli sibi
est nolit
nota sunt;
quotiens
^'
'*
"videt effigiem
non "et
Romano, ^'
results.
together.
from Fulgentius's
The change allowed him
to
fit
God
and
Psyche into
viri
mortales perquirimus, ilium,
velut naturali ratione videre
ipsos
deviando per-
quod amat,
et
non per fidem cogno-
5.22 (260).
pulcherrimam, id
Deum nemo
bonum
imo nosmet
5.22 (260).
vidit
est extrinseca
unquam":
favillula ledit et vulnerat, id est
sensualitati credula,
ed.
est
Romano,
potest, quia
cum
talia
Romano,
"ut virum videat, id
scere": Genealogia, ed.
videre
two
of
de etemitate sua, de principiis rerum, de omnipotentia videre per causas, que
nam
dimus": Genealogia, ed. ^^
them
will consider
I
parents to Apollo and Endelichia
Matter, Boccaccio achieved
'^
effect,
clarifying the Christian vision
changes to Fulgentius and the auto-
Dei opera, formam,
Genealogia, ed.
id est divinitatem,
Romano,
5.22 (260).
superbo desiderio, per quod inobediens
contemplationis amittit, et
sic a
facta, et
divino separatur coniugio": Genealogia,
5.22 (260).
bonum divine didum perituris dimissis
"et erumnis et miseriis purgata presumptuosa superbia atque inobedientia,
lectionis atque contemplationis
rebus in letitiam
etemam
iterum reassumit, eique
defertur gloriam, et ibi ex
sempitemam":
Genealogia, ed.
amore
Romano,
se iniungit
parturit
perpetuo,
Voluptatem, id
5.22 (260-261).
est
delectationem et
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
32
the genealogical
of Apollo."
scheme of his work,
More
in
which she appears
as
the "fifteenth daughter
important, however, the change brought her birth into line with
God
contemporary teaching on the soul/" This doctrine, which maintained that created each soul ex
made
nihilo,
it
impossible for Psyche to be the daughter of
Matter. Boccaccio makes similar changes in Psyche and her
from one another and
different in kind, but rather three souls:
soul, her sisters the vegetative
cio changes his conception.
and feeling
The
In the autograph
sisters.
they are no longer Fulgentius's Soul, Flesh, and Free Will, entities
somehow
Psyche
is
separate
the rational
however, Boccac-
souls.*' In the vulgate,
of the soul had become an im-
essential singleness
portant point in fourteenth-century theology. Boccaccio's revision conforms to the
orthodox view: the three faculties
of the
now
he
sisten,
explains, are not three souls, but three
soul.''^
In the vulgate Boccaccio also revises his story,
Psyche
in Apuleius,
is
pleting her tasks for Venus, she
and
gate Boccaccio
last
He
through [her husband's] prayers to Jupiter
was brought to
whom
As Hijmans suggested, "Boccaccio's Amor and Psyche," 40 "Sunt huic due sorores maiores natu, quarum una
sensitiva
*^
autem cum
Romano,
illas
excedit, et
vegetativa, altera vero sensitiva,
hoc ideo quia vegetativa anima communicamus
brutis, rationali
quidem cum
quarum una
angelis et
Deo, quo
eam
cum
plan-
pulchrius": Genea-
nil
potentiae,
quoniam prime non animae sunt,
sed
sint,
vegetativa dicitur, altero vero sensitiva, quae
quidam voluerunt, sed huius animae sunt
longe ante
quarum ideo Psyche
dicitur iunior, quia
vegetativa potentia conceditur foetui, et inde tractu temporis sensitiva. Postremo
autem huic Psyche conceditur
on the
ratio": Genealogia, ed.
soul, see Martellotti (note
Romano,
5.22 (855 n.
29 above) 146. Both
145-146, and Ricci, "Contributi," 210-211 use the the three faculties of the soul in his
*^
n. 8.
anima
5.22 (259-260).
potentia utuntur sua,
count
est
"Sunt huic due sorores maiores natu, non quia primo natae
doctrine
pass that she
she bore Voluptas.*^
"*'
sed Psyces pulchritudine
ut
it
into favor with Venus, was received into heaven, and enjoyed her eternal
*°
logia, ed.
her
"official" marriage, or
ends the revised narrative in these words:
marriage with Cupid, to
tis,
as
com-
Heaven by Mercury, made immortal,
makes no mention of her pregnancy, her
being made immortal.
came
In the autograph,
she spies on the sleeping Cupid. After
escorted to
is
condenses the
drastically
details.*^
married to Cupid.*'* Afterwards she gives birth to Voluptas. In the vul-
officially
At
when
pregnant
He
narrative.
but also changes and suppresses some important
fact that
commentary on Dante
2).
Martellotti,
For contemporary
"Le due redazioni,"
Boccaccio gives a similar account of
{Inferno
1
3) to
demonstrate that his ac-
in the vulgate corrects that in the autograph.
Boccaccio's condensed narrative leaves out
the fact that Psyche's
sisters
claim that her lover
some is
details
important for the sense, particularly
a snake. See MarteUotti,
"Le due redazioni,"
143-144. **
"Quam
[i.e.,
Psycen] Mercurius lovis iussu devexit in celum et ibidem, immortalis efFecta,
nuptie celebrate sunt": Genealogia, ed. **
"cuius postremo ad
Romano,
lovem precibus actum
5.22 (259). est,
ut in Veneris deveniret gratiam, et in caelis
assumpta Cupidinis perpetuo frueretur coniugio, cui peperit Voluptatem": Genealogia, ed.
mano, 5.22 (855
n. 2).
Ro-
33
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
The second ending
and metaphysical, where the
abstract
is
and matter of fact; but
it is
also
more
first
had been concrete
overtly Christian, especially in
its
omission of
the awarding of immortahty to Psyche, since in Christian doctrine the soul tal
by definition and
is
immor-
naturally "received into heaven."
is
Boccaccio's treatment had an interesting reception in fifteenth-century Florence.
There,
artists
under Medici patronage painted
his version
of Psyche's story both on
and on panels (which presumably hung on the walls of bridal chambers).** The use of Boccaccio on the cassoni was demonstrated over a hundred marriage chests
years ago
{cassoni)
by Richard
Foerster,
as
however, for the
cassoni
at the
end
well
as
There are esting for
who
noted that they follow Boccaccio in presenting
Apollo and Endehchia.*^ There
Psyche's parents
follow Boccaccio not only
— although with an
several sets
our purposes
is
at
is
more than
interesting "correction," as
of these paintings,
all
that to
we
said,
shall see.**
similar in iconography.*^
the earUest, a pair ofcassone
be
the beginning of the story, but
now
Most
inter-
Berhn that were 1444 of Piero de' Medici and
firontals
in
made by an anonymous master for the marriage in Lucrezia Tomabuoni, the parents of Lorenzo the Magnificent.^" The painter tells Psyche's story in two parts: the first panel takes us from Psyche's conception to Cupid's flight; the *
The
first
second shows her wanderings and the happy ending.^'
frontal
is fioll
of
detail,
but contains three primary scenes: the marriage
chamber of Psyche's parents on the left, the marriage chamber of Cupid and Psyche on the right, and in the center the mountain from which Psyche will be carried to her bridegroom. The chamber on the left shows a woman in bed, and a golden spherical object just above her.
** is
These are the parents of Psyche in Boccaccio's
See Vertova, "Cupid and Psyche," with earlier bibliography.
Paul Schubring, Cassoni.
1923). See also
Graham
Tmhen und Tmhenbilder
definitive study
2
of cassoni
vols. (Leipzig,
Hugjies, Renaissance Cassoni (London, 1997); Cristelle L. Baskins, Cassone
Humanism, and Gender
Painting,
The
der italienischen Friihrenaissatue,
Cassonetafeln mit Apuleius'
in
Early
Modem
Italy
(Cambridge, 1998); P. Schubring, "Zwei
Marchen von Amor und Psyche,"
Zeitschriji
fur bildende Kunst 51
(1916): 315-320. *'
R. Foenter, "Amor und Psyche vor
Raffael,"J<j/jriuf/i der koniglichen preussischen
lungen 16 (1893): 221. Foerster discusses only the panel
Museum **
in
For a
list
di sul Boccaccio *°
The
CXCV;
Sellaio
now
Kunstsamm-
in the Fitzwilliam
Cambridge.
"Cupid and Psyche,"
Pace Vertova,
mythographers and on Boccaccio's *'
byjacopo
112: "the painted narrative draws
De getiealogiis
{edita vulgala)
only
at
on the Christian
the beginning of the story."
see Ellen Callman, "Subjects fi-om Boccaccio in Italian Painting, 1375-1525," Stu-
23 (1995): 57-60.
panels are discussed and illustrated
by Schubring,
422—423,
Cassoni,
plates
CXCIII-
Vertova, "Cupid and Psyche," plates 30, a-b, 33a. For fine color illustrations, see Hughes,
Retiaissatice Cassoni,
134—135. For their association with the marriage of Piero de' Medici, see
Wilhelm Bode, "Zwei Cassone-Tafeln aus dem Besitz des Piero Eduard Simon zu Berlin," Mitteilungeti des kunsthistorischen Institutes
de' in
Medici in der Sammlung
Florenz 2 (1971): 150-151.
Vertova, "Cupid and Psyche," 112, dates the marriage to 1444. ^'
But Vertova argues
that she has identified
that these cassoni also
had
side panels with additional scenes
one showing Psyche's joumey
to
Hades "in
and beHeves
a small painting formerly in the
Lanckororuki collection in Vienna": Vertova, "Cupid and Psyche," 110-112 and plate 31a.
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
34
allegory: her mother, Endelichia,
and her
father,
ApoUo, the
the right Psyche stands over the sleeping Cupid; then he
sun. In the
flies
chamber on
window
out the
as
she
holds on to his ankle.
The second Medici
which shows chapter two of Psyche's story, focuses on On the left side she is scolded by Cupid from his cypress tree, rejected by Ceres and Juno, and scourged by a minion of Venus. On the right, the action is shown in two registers corresponding to heaven and earth. In the frontal,
Psyche's encounters with the gods.
upper right
Cupid
a kneeling
takes place below, but
cated^
pleads with Jupiter for Psyche's hand.
in heaven, as the clouds underfoot are
still
will return to this point presently.) Jupiter
(I
looks for
all
the world like a nice Christian
The marriage
meant
to indi-
performs the ceremony, which
— except
wedding
for the wings
and
nudity of the bridegroom.
The
story of Psyche
obviously an appropriate subject for wedding chests and
is
panels in marriage chambers
— and
much more cheerful than many from women, Lucretia, and Dido, for example,
certainly
the standpoint of the bride. (The Sabine
appear on cassoni with depressing regularity. )^^ But the painter of the Medici cassoni
and
his
ing.
As we have seen,
patron had something
Capella)
is
shown
more
in
mind than just
their adherence to
in the depiction of Psyche's parents as Endelichia
sun — "the god which
is
adherence to Boccaccio
also
is
gory. Psyche, the soul,
But the
and Apollo, the
shown by
omission, for the panel picturing Psyche's
And
to
heaven or drinking the cup
good reason: in Boccaccio's Christian does not need to be made immortal. She already is.
Apuleius.
as in
happy end-
the true light of the world," as Boccaccio says. But their
happy ending does not show her either being escorted of immortality,
a love story with a
Boccaccio (and for that matter Martianus
artist also corrects
for
alle-
or revises Boccaccio. Boccaccio omits the "official" mar-
—
and for an obvious reason: he is Cupid and Psyche; the artist includes it painting the story on a wedding chest. Boccaccio, as we have seen, treats the marriage of Psyche as the union of the soul with God. The cassone presents this allegory riage of
as a
model or symbol
riage of Piero de' riage
for
human
marriage
—
specifically, in this case, for the
Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni.
of Piero and Lucrezia
ness of the soul with
is
To
put
it
mar-
another way, the mar-
an earthly or a mortal reflection of the everlasting one-
God. The fusion or conflation of the divine and human unions
reflected in the placement of Psyche's wedding on the cassone: the members of the wedding party are standing on the ground, but with clouds under their feet, so that the wedding seems to take place in heaven and earth at the same time. After the Florentine cassoni Boccaccio's allegory seems to have no further desis
cendants. Instead, interest returns to Fulgentius,
dominant strand
tative in the editio princeps, and, as
^-
interpretation remains the
we
shall see presently,
room
for
it
in the
upper
was cited
as
authori-
was discussed in Beroaldo's
Vertova, "Cupid and Psyche," 112, suggests that the wedding
painter lacked ^^
whose
in the chain of allegories. Fulgentius's allegory
is
placed
on
earth because the
register.
For a sophisticated discussion of Dido and Lucretia (and other female subjects on
see Baskins, Cassone Painting.
cassont),
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
commentary on the Golden
was taught in
Ass. It
35
schools.^"* It
even made
way
its
into later vernacular poetry. In the middle of the seventeenth century, for example,
Shakerly
Marmion
prefaced his EngUsh version,
end of Cupid and Psyche," with Fulgentius
"A Morall Poem
— adding
details,
Intituled the
Leg-
and making an inter-
Adam. Marmion Hkens her to Eue: made naked through desire, she is cast out of aU hap"Like Eve," he "being "^^ and tost with many dangers. pinesse, exhil'd from her house, esting change. ^^ Fulgentius assimilated Psyche to teUs us,
But we
century allegory of Lucius that in Vat.
We
are getting too far afield.
2194, the allegory
lat.
I
still
have not thought about that fourteenth-
mentioned above. Like the mysterious illuminations
is
unknown
The
to us.
allegory
appears in the margin of a fourteenth-century manuscript of the Third Vatican
ographer
now
though
could have been composed
it
in Florence. ^^
philosophical treatise ry
works
require
For
first
De
Italy;
Myth-
written in a fourteenth-century hand, and al-
It is
fourteenth century for two reasons:
scene in central and northern
and
tantalizing evidence of very early discussions
interpretations of Apuleius's novel that are otherwise
much
first,
earUer,
I
because that
am inclined to place it in when Apuleius bursts on
the the
is
and second, because the author knows Apuleius's
deo Socratis,
which seems to have been joined with the HteraBoth manuscript and allegory, however,
in the fourteenth century.
much more attention than we can give them in the present discussion. now I want to make only two observations. First, the author reads Apuleius's
Apology and Metamorphoses together,
as virtually a single
work, and takes the novel
as
Apuleius's personal testimony of the dangers of magic, written in order to deter
from
others
his mistakes.
phical and equates
readen, he
Lucius
is
is
its
This means, of course, that he sees the novel
hero with Apuleius himself. Second, Uke
able to entertain several meanings at the
transformed into an
ass
cius's asinine
He
tells
A
few
lines later
he
imprisonment symboHses the misery of human existence, from the
asserts that
^ On
the
title
it
that
signifies the
enslavement of the inner
man
On
Caro and Ubertas, more or
less
the names awarded
vile-
the next
to anxious passions
them by
Klibansky and Frank Regen, Die Handschriften der philosophischen Werken
Beitrag zur Uberlieferungsgeschichte.
at
Lu-
page of a German school edition published in Erfurt around 1515 Psyche's
ters are identified as
Raymond
first
says that
ness of conception to the frightening and lamentable finahty of death. ^'
page he
allegorical
us
because he tried to learn about magic and that he
regained his freedom by the grace of heaven. ^^
last
same time.
autobiogra-
as
many
sis-
Fulgentius. See des Apuleius: Eiti
Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften
in Gottingen,
Philologisch-historische Klasse 3.204 (Gottingen. 1993), Tafel VIII. ^^
Shakerly Marmion, Cupid and Psyche, or an Epick Poem of Cupid, and
his Mistress
(London,
1637).
^ Mamiion, *'
Cupid and Psyche, ed. Alice Jones Nearing (Philadelphia, 1944), 105.
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale ms.
Eugenio Garin, "Noterelle 320.
It
II.
sulla filosofia del
was edited by Gian Carlo Garfagnini,
VI. 2,
fols.
2r-16r.
"Un
accessus ad Apuleio e
zo Mitografo vaticano," Studi Medioevali 17 (1976): 306-362. **
Garfagnini,
*'
Garfagnini,
"Un "Un
The work was
first
noticed by
rinascimento," Rinascimento 2 (1951): 319-336, here
accessus ad Apuleio," lines 25-30. accessus ad Apuleio," lines 42—51.
un nuovo codice
del
Ter-
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
36
of the mind, or
transformation
"The
kiss
of Photis
is
caused by
lust,
symbolized by the
the idle delight of this world,
is
human
regains his
which
of
kiss
his mistress, Photis:
human
gives
hands of demons and twists them into the appearance of beasts."*' In
however, Lucius's sufferings
pretations,
going too
far to call
them
a
as
an
ass are a
The author
kind of purgatory.
he endures
much
these inter-
says:
him
it is
hardly
"condemned
for his
human
shape]
to his
trouble and distress."*^ After he has completed his "time of
correction," he receives the rose remedy,
which the author
of lascivious passion and the restoration of his live like
souls into the
all
necessary penance:
mistakes, he cannot eat the fresh roses [which will return until
when
shape
His favorite idea, however, seems to be that Lu-
his lost grace. ^"
cius's
man
and that the
"bestial anxieties,"
he has recovered
human
defines as "the sedation
nature so that he
may no
longer
an animal, but preserve himself in religion and chastity. "^-^
—
This fourteenth-century allegory seems unrelated to other interpretations loose strand, so to speak, in the chain of receptions. Isolated though ever, as
it
we
it
a
how-
appears,
does have some similarities with the readings of Beroaldo and his successors,
shall see presently.
Perhaps these are merely accidental:
prising if different readers looking at Lucius's transformation
But perhaps
spective arrived at similar ideas independently.
— we can imagine an
it
would not be
from
— and
sur-
a Christian perI
confess that
I
find this thought
more
tion: fourteenth-
and fifteenth-century discussions and conversations on the novel
now
attractive
some of whose
lost to us,
ideas
became
underground chain of recep-
part of the written record only in a later
period.
Three principal fifteenth-century discussions of Apuleius have come down to Poggio's brief preface to his 1450 translation of Lucian's (or
First,
I
should
us.
say,
pseudo-Lucian's) Onos {The Ass), in which he concludes both that Apuleius did not
was
invent the story of The Metamorphoses and that
it
Second, Giovanni Andrea Bussi's preface to the
first
printed in 1469.*"* his life
The overworked and impoverished
by Duke Francesco
Sforza,
who
fiction,
not autobiography.
edition of Apuleius,
which was
Bussi had been persecuted
maliciously blocked
all
his ecclesiastical
all
ap-
pointments and income. Not surprisingly, he seems to have interpreted Lucius's story in the light of of his
own
moral terms, but rather
^^
Garfagnini,
^'
"Osculum
"Un
as
experience, not seeing the adventures in rehgious or even
examples of the depravity of human nature. "In
accessus ad Apuleio," lines 79-85.
istud Photis est otiosa deliciositas huius
des brutorum animas pervertit humanas": Garfagnini,
Her
kiss ^"
is
also the kiss
"[Est igitur in
nis oppressus,]
fagnini,
"
"Un
of Judas
(lines
M.
manus demonum
et in fa-
sarcinatus et
mulds anxietatibus
et
erum-
accessus ad Apuleio," lines 246-248.
"correctionis spatium": Garfagnini,
See
in
accessus ad Apuleio," lines 243—245.
241-243).
predam latronum ductus, honeribus
scilicet
"Un
sedationem ardoris
accessus ad Apuleio," line 264. "impetravit habere
lascivi et
bestialiter vivat sed religiose casteque se servet": lines ^^
mundi, que
"Un
nee potest rosas recentes comedere donee plures patiatur damnatus errorum": Gar-
rosarum medelas,
572.
whole
this
reformationem nature humane ne amplius 267—269.
Miglio, "Giovanni Andrea Bussi," Dizionario Biografico
degli Italiani
15 (1972): 565-
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
37
Story," Bussi says, "the attentive reader will clearly see
human nature depicted and re-
and he
vealed,
men
will learn the
unexpected cunning of deceit, by which even cautious
He
are often taken in."**
goes on to say that Lucius regained his
after surviving
and surmounting many
"after passing
through the manifold
much
seems
less
labors,
which has
and
tricks
a nice
human form
moral ring to
and
it,
of treacherous men," which
trials
edifying.^ For Bussi, Lucius's happy ending
is
a matter
not of re-
human
beings can
demption, but of simple survival, of hving through the worst that
no
plot either against each other or against unfortunate asses. His interpretation had
Renaissance antecedents or descendants that
own
in our
The
know
but
of,
has plenty of relatives
it
time.
third fifteenth-century discussion
the massive and influential
gories:
I
the final major link in our chain of alle-
is
commentary of Fihppo Beroaldo, which was
printed in Bologna in 1500.*^ Beroaldo was an important scholar and sure, but
above
all
he was
a teacher,
one of the most famous and
His commentary, written to be promoted and sold to
be
to
critic,
influential in Italy.
his students, brings us into his
classroom to hear his voice and instruction.
At once we find ourselves in Fulgentius, Boccaccio, and the
be writing
a diflferent
He
is
that
of previous interpreters.
vacuum, quite unconcerned with the
in a historical
allegorist
reaUties
own. Beroaldo, however,
all
seem
to
of Apuleius's
historical in
both
passionately interested in the details of Apuleius's world, and even
more
time, and saying very httle about their senses.
world from
anonymous fourteenth-century
interested in those of late fifteenth-century Bologna. His
is
commentary
of infor-
is fiiU
mation on both, and he constantly uses the one to elucidate the other, hnking the
world of everyday experience in the Golden Ass to the Ufe and customs of
his
own
—
time. Laundry methods, time-keeping, medical problems, dowries, baldness
all
draw
his attention
sions
undoubtedly brought the novel to Ufe for Beroaldo's students, but they create
**
"Quo
plicari et
and provide the occasion for Uvely comparisons.*^ These digres-
in toto sermone,
si
quis recte intendat,
vanni Andrea de'Bussi, Prefazioni
Massimo Miglio (Rome, **
mores humanos
effictos liquido perspiciet
ex-
impraemeditatas fallaciarum argutias discet, quibus etiam cauti saepissime capiantur": Gio-
"Tandem
alle
edizioni di
Sweynheym
e Pannartz prototipografi romatii, ed.
1978), 13.
exanclatis multis
aerumnosisque laboribus, ut ipse
ait,
id est
cum sununa
animi
anxietate et corporis molestia superatis ac victis, transcursisque multiplicibus vitae huius fallacium
hominum machinamentis atque excitiis": Bussi, Prefazioni, ed. Mi^o, 14. *^ For Beroaldo see M. Gilmore, "Filippo Beroaldo, senior," Dizionario 9 (1967): 382-384; Ezio Raimondi, Codro
e I'umanesimo a Bologna
nio Garin, "Note sull'insegnamento di Filippo Beroaldo dell'Universita di Bologna n.s.
roaldo
il
vecchio," in Tra
1
(1956): 357-376; idem,
latino e volgare.
il
Biografico degli Italiani
(Bologna, 1950), 90-107; Euge-
vecchio," Studi e memorie per
"Note
in
Per Carlo Dionisotti, ed. G. B. Trezzini et
al.,
(Padua, 1974), 2:437—456. For Beroaldo as a commentator, see Maria Teresa Casella, "II dei
la
Storia
margine all'opeia di Filippo Be2
vols.
metodo
commenutori umanisdci esemplato sul Beroaldo," Studi medievali 16 (1975): 627-701. For his work is Konrad Krautter, Philologische Methode und humanis-
Apuleius commentary the fundamental tisdte
Existenz. Filippo Beroaldo
**
See Krautter,
digressions.
und
sein
Kommentar zum Goldenen
Philologische Methode, passim. Casella, "II
Esel des Apuleius
(Munich, 1971).
metodo," 685-701
lists
Beroaldo's
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
38
modem
an even more interesting effect for the Apuleius's world and Beroaldo's
at
who
reader,
is
given a gUmpse into
the same time.
Beroaldo's down-to-earth contemporary vision
is
evident in his interpretations of
Cupid and Psyche and the transformations of Lucius. At the beginning of the
story
of Psyche he quotes Fulgentius and explains the fourfold system of allegory, using the familiar medieval
on the
Judaea, soul,
on the is
spiritual level
be made
desire to level
example ofJerusalem: on the
much
and obscure matters,
True
to his
as
He
says:
I
"But
I
wiU not pursue
the city of level the
aspire
all
I
and
historical
allegories in the explanation
will explain the
meaning of words
appear a bad philosopher instead of a commentator."™
word, Beroaldo does explain the
plot.
is
For Beroaldo himself, however, the
the historical sense, and
lest
Jerusalem
on the moral
"the heavenly city to which the prayers of
inhabitants."^'
its
quite sufficient.
of this story so
guage and
historical level
allegorical or tropological level the church,
But he does much more,
long digressions relating the story to
for
tale
on "the
his
account with two
own life in present-day Bologna.
his
same way
— by using
of lan-
historical level"
he punctuates
In each case
word from The words he plays on are "soul" (or "Psyche") and "pleasure" (the child of Cupid and Psyche). Here we have time to consider only the second digression, which appears in he
gets into the digression in the
Apuleius
as
the jumping-off point for a
little riff
a significant
or arpeggio on his
own
world.
Book 6, at the end of the story. Here Beroaldo adds to "soul" and "pleasure" a major new theme: marriage. Apuleius's story of Cupid and Psyche ends with these words: "So Psyche was duly married
born
to them,
whom we
Both wisely and
to Cupid,
and
in the fullness
cleverly they say that Pleasure was
Cupid and Psyche,
since pleasure
measure the highest good
of time a daughter was
Pleasure."^' Beroaldo notes:
call
— by which
— comes
into being
born of the marriage of
the most notable philosophers
from the
desire
and love of the
SOUI.^2
He
continues:
^'
"et ut res
exemplo magis
colliquescat,
Hierusalem historice
significat civitatem
tropolim. allegorice. ecclesiam, moraliter animam. spiritaliter celestem civitatem, ad
torum vota in
suspirant, et illius coloni efFici concupiscunt": Filippo Beroaldo, Cotnmentarii
Asinum Aureum '"
mequam cunc-
ludaeae
.
.
.
conditi
Lucii Apuleii (Bologna, 1500), fol. 95v.
"Sed nos non
tarn allegorias in explicatione huiusce fabulae sectabimur,
quam
historicum
rerum reconditarum verborumque interpretationem explicabimus, ne philosophaster magis videar quam commentator": Beroaldo, Commentarii, fol. 95v. sensum,
^'
et
"Sic rite Psyche convenit in
manum
Cupidinis et nascitur
illis
maturo partu
filia,
quam Vo-
luptatem nominamus": Apuleius, Met. 6.24.4. ^^
cum
"Conducenter
et scite
ex cupiditate animae
voluptatem ex connubio cupidinis
et dilectione voluptas progignatur,
losophorum metiuntur": Beroaldo, Commentarii,
fol.
134.
qua
et
psyches natam esse finxerunt,
summum bonum
clarissimi phi-
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
While
39
was writing these things and commenting on
I
happened
and Cupid,
it
beheve.
May
.
.
.
so
.
.
that
marriage
pleasure
it
bom
A page later he proudly announces hope and predict
—
took a wife
this
be pleasure-bringing, Uke that
digression: "I
I
make may be bom.
the gods
from
for us, so that
.
.
.
marriage of Psyche stars,
I
and happy and fortunate
fertile .
this
was fated by the
it
May
the offspring born of us
of Psyche and Cupid. ^^
young wife is pregnant and concludes his memorable jubilee year [1500] a son will
that his
that in this
"''' be bom, to be the pleasure and ornament of his parents.
In this digression Beroaldo's marriage both re-enacts the union of
Psyche and explains does not interpret
about de'
rather movingly,
We could say that he
and experiences.
planations,
—
it
There
it.
no attempts
his discussion,
to
think
I
—
in terms of real
meaning
gives
to Apuleius's fairy tale.
But he
no allegories, no other-worldly or metaphysical exus what it is really about. There «5 something familiar
tell
made
though. Like the cassoni paintings
Medici and Lucrezia Tomabuoni
years earHer,
fifty
it
for the marriage of Piero
links a
contemporary human
The important
difference
Beroaldo makes a direct cormection, not using an allegorical interface to bring
that
together his
own
experience and the world of myth.
Beroaldo does not reject allegory altogether, however
—
and
in down-to-earth moral pecially
— one
century
allegorist,
suspects
he
—
lists
ethical terms applicable to ordinary to the life
which he
most
fully
his
young
human
life,
sees
and
es-
students. Like the fourteenth-
several interpretations without reconcihng them. In each,
however, Lucius's experience his
of
He
just metaphysics.''
quite willingly uses allegory to interpret the transformations of Lucius,
with
feelings
are
marriage to the mythological union of Cupid and Psyche. is
Cupid and
human
is
an allegory of the
human
condition. Beroaldo begins
developed idea, and the one that ultimately emerges
dominant.
as
We turn into asses when we have sunk into bestial pleasures and are so brutish in our asinine stupidity that
reformation from an senses,
The we lack any spark of reason and virtue. man signifies that reason is coming back to its .
.
.
ass to a
having trampled pleasures underfoot and thrown off bodily dehghts, and
that the irmer
man,
who
is
the real man, has
come back
firom that dung-fUled
prison to a shining habitation with the guidance of virtue and religion.'^
" "Condentibus haec nobis decreto factum
est,
ut
ego
.
.
.
et has
psyches ac cupidinis nuptias commentantibus siderali opinor
uxorem ducerem.
.
.
.
Dii faxint, ut hoc
connubium
faustvun ac fortunatum, utque ex eo voluptas gignatur": Beroaldo, Commentarii, ^*
"spero
et
ominor
filium
anno hoc
lubilei
memorando
voluptati futurus et ornamento": Beroaldo, Commentarii, ''^
On
'*
"[Verum sub hoc
this point, see Krautter, Philologische
cescit.
.
immersi Asinali .
.
nasciturum, qui parentibus
sit
Methode, 29-30, 149-151.
admoneremur ex hominibus Asinos
stoliditate brutescimus,
nee
Rursus ex Asino in hominem reformatio
poralibus deliciis rationem resipiscere, et
nobis foelix
134r—v.
135r.
humanos
transmutationis involucro, naturam mortalium et mores
transeunter designate voluisse], ut belluinis
fol.
sit
fol.
hominem
fieri,
ulla rationis virtutisque scintilla in
significat calcatis voluptatibus,
interiorem, qui verus est
quasi
quando voluptatibus
homo
nobis elu-
exutisque cor-
ex ergastulo
illo
ALLEGORIZING APULEIUS
40
Young men, he prone
ticularly
to
resume
continues
to sink into pleasures
The
their humanity.^''
throw off the
— no doubt
bestiality that
—
for the benefit of his students
and turn into
rose cure
but
man and
serve
are par-
they mature they tend
as
wisdom.'^ Having taken
is
deforms the inner
asses,
God
free
it,
one can
of sin, just like
Lucius.''
moves on
In the next breath he
to another idea: that in
or pigs or other beasts, since the world
is
drugs are forgetfulness, error, and ignorance; the rose cure
human
stores
shape, that
metamorphosis
man is
is
transformed almost every day,
and transmigration of
As
I
suggested a
is
But
rational intelligence.
or,
it
by which
more
probably, that Apuleius
as a
good
Pla-
ago, Beroaldo's ideas have
his brief reference to
as a prison.
similarities
with those
But Beroaldo
human
is
unlike his
level (the only
excep-
metempsychosis, which makes no further appearance in
For Beroaldo, Lucius's transformation
from which he can be rescued only by divine that can
some
The most obvious are that both relate the transof human life, imagine an "inner man" trapped in an
allegorist.
predecessor in remaining almost entirely on the moral,
human conduct
the
life,
ahen body, and think of Lucius's asinine shape
his discussion).
says, that
and changes of human
souls.
formation to the vicissitudes
is
knowledge, which re-
is
can also be, he
using the story to set out the doctrine of metempsychosis
moment
of the fourteenth-century
tion
are wolves
toils
caused by the manifold
and Pythagorean
tonist
is,
many men
life
Circe's way-station and her transforming
is
not a necessary purgatory
consequence of foolish
grace, but a
be remedied by human
effort, that
is,
by the acquisition of
wisdom.
The
success of Beroaldo's
print run
commentary was
was twelve hundred copies, and
it
instant
and long-lasting. The
initial
was reprinted ten times in the sixteenth
century. *° In the sixteenth century Apuleius traveled
all
over Europe, principally by
way of Beroaldo, whose commentary was so ubiquitous and so influential that it overshadowed the work of all his predecessors. Boccaccio's treatment of Psyche was available in the many printed editions of the Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, but Beroaldo had ignored it, and later readers did as well. The interpretation of the fourlargely, I teenth-century allegorist was long forgotten. Only Fulgentius remained believe, because his allegory had been incorporated in Beroaldo's commentary, which had become the easiest and most convenient place to find it. We might say that he
—
had been co-opted or subsumed by Beroaldo.
cenoso, ad lucidum habitaculum, virtute et religione ducibus remigrasse": Beroaldo, Commentarii, fol.
2v.
^
Beroaldo, Commentarii,
'*
"ut mystice intelligas
^'
"Qua
vita
[i.e.,
fol.
2v.
coronam rosaceam
serving
God
esse sapientiam": Beroaldo, Commentarii, fol. 266r.
with a pure heart]
nihil beatius esse potest,
ad
quam utinam
nos quoque pervenire possimus sicut Apuleius noster, post exudatos labores multiiugos post exutas terrenas sordes aliquando felicissime pervenit": Beroaldo, Commentarii, ""
See the bibliography in Krautter,
by Krautter was printed
in 1823.
Philologische Methode,
193-194.
fol.
The
266r. last
edition
mentioned
JULIA HAIG GAISSER
So Beroaldo held the
field,
not only for
his text
interpretation of the novel. Readers looked to as for that
German, and English
Interpreters used
misunderstood
new
all
as
to
it.
The
French,
their source,
even when they altered or
views
— reading Apuleius through him, and both
own
time and place. In short, Beroaldo had become the starting
chain of receptions, but that
is
writers through
a subject for another time.
French: Guillaume Michel, Lucius Apuleius de Lasne dore
de Cortegana, Lucio Apuleyo lieblich
first
either cited or plagiarized his ideas.*"
Bryn
*'
also for the
for the allegory of Psyche as well
promoted or subscribed
translators
and regarded Beroaldo
his
the lenses of their
point for a
and commentary, but
of Lucius, often conveniently forgetting that although he had quoted
Fulgentius's interpretation, he had not
Spanish,
him
41
del
Asno de
oro [Seville, c. 1525];
(Paris, 1518);
Spanish:
German: Johann
College
Diego Lopez Ain schon
Sieder,
auch kurtzweylig gedichte Lucii Apuleii von ainem gulden Esel (Augsburg, 1538);
liam Adlington, The xi Bookes of the Golden Asse (London, 1566).
Mawr
En^sh: Wil-
Die neuen Leiden
des
jungen Aristaeus.
Mythologische Kreativitdt in neulateinischer Lehrdichtung^
HEINZ HOFMANN
Wahrend das
lateinische Lehrgedicht
im
Mittelalter durch die 1997 erschie-
nene Darstellung von Thomas Haye eine fuhr,^ hat das neulateinische Lehrgedicht bisher
erste vimfassende
noch nicht
die
Behandlung
er-
Aufmerksamkeit
in
der Forschung auf sich gezogen, die es eigentlich verdiente. Sicher, wir haben an
neueren Studien die 1975 erschienene Monographic von Georg Roellenbleck
Das
iiber
im fiitifzehnteti und sechzehnten Jahrhunder^ und mehrere
epische Lehrgedicht Italiens
wichtige Aufsatze, die in den letzten 25 Jahren veroffentUcht wurden, darunter
Ludwigs Beitrag
iiber "Neulateinische Lehrgedichte
und Vergils
Georgica"
W.
von 1982^
und die 1988 in den Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Guelpherhytani erschienenen Vortrage von Bemd Effe, Fokke Akkerman, Georg Roellenbleck und Mario Di Cesare, die im Rahmen eines Seminars 1985 in Wolfenbiittel gehalten wurden.^ Dazu kommen
'
Dcr vorliegende
2000 wieder,
ledigiich
Beitrag gibt den Text meines Plenarvortragj in
um
einige
Nachweise
in
Cambridge
vom
den Anmerkungen erganzt. Eine
4.
August
ausfiihrlichere
Fassung dieser Untersuchung wird in der Zeitschrift Humanistica Lovaniensia 52 (2003) erscheinen. ^
T. Haye, Das
lateinische Lehrgedicht
im
Mittelalter.
Analyse einer Gattung, Mittellateinische Stu-
dien und Texte 22 (Leiden, 1997). ^
G. Roellenbleck, Das
epische Lehrgedidit Italiens
im jiinfzehnten und sechzehntenjahrhundert. Ein
zur Literaturgesdiichte des Humanismus und der Renaissance, Miinchner Romanistische Arbeiten
Beitrag
43 (Miinchen, 1975). *
W.
Ludwig, "Neulateinische Lehrgedichte und Vergils
Goethe and Grass. Studies
Georgica," in
Honour of Leonard Johnson, and D. Wuttke (Baden-Baden, 1982), 151-180; Ndr. in trarch to
Schrifien
sticker,
in Literature in
zur neulateinischen Uteratur, ed. L. Braun,
W.-W.
From Wolfram and Pe-
Forster, ed.
W.
Ehlers, P.
D. H. Green,
L. P.
Ludwig, Utterae Neolatinae.
G. Schmidt und B. Seiden-
Humanistische Bibliothek 35 (Miinchen, 1989), 100-127 (im folgenden hiemach
zitiert).
H. Hofinann, "Seminar: Das neulateinische Lehrgedicht," mit Beitragen von B. Effe, P. Akkennan, G. Roellenbleck und M. Di Cesare, in Acta Cont/entus Neo-Latini GuelpheHrytani. Pro*
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS
DIE
44
von Yasmin Haskell^ sowie der von
einige neuere Aufsatze
1999 herausgegebene Band
Daneben
und
ihr
Philip Hardie
Poets and Teachers
sind auch neuere
Ausgaben und Kommentare zu verzeichnen: Mario Di von Vidas Scacchia Ludus (1975)* und die seiner
Cesares Edition samtlicher Fassungen
Poetik von Ralph G. WiUiams (1976) und R. Girardi (1982),^ die von Pontanos
von Mauro de Nichilo (1975),'*^ die kommentierten Ausgaben von von Geoffrey Eatough (1984)'' und Aonius Palearius' De animorum immortalitate von Dirk Sacre (1986),'^ dazu seine kritische Edition mit englischer Einleitung von 1992,'^ die zweisprachigen Ausgaben der Rhetoricorum libri IV von Benedictus Arias Montanus durch M. V. Perez Custodio (1994),'* des Zodiacus Vitae von Palingenius Stellatus durch Jacques Chomarat (1996)'^ und von Bernardo Zamagnas Navis Aeria von Diane Bitzel (1997)'^ sowie die 1999 erschienene erste Meteorum
liber
Fracastoros Syphilis
ceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies,
ed. S. P.
Revard,
M.
Radle, and
F.
A. Di Cesare, Medieval
NY: MRTS, 1988), 401^36. Haskell, "Round and Round We Go: The
12
Wolfenhuttel,
&
16 August 1985,
to
&
Renaissance Texts
Studies 53
(Binghamton, *
Y.
Aurelio Augurello," Bibliotheque d'Humanisme
on the
sance Latin Didactic Poetry
"Work
(1998): 495-522; eadem,
et
Alchemical Opus Circulatorium of Giovanni
Renaissance 59 (1997): 583-606; eadem, "Renais-
Wonder, Myth, and Science,"
Stars:
Renaissance Studies 12
or Play? Latin 'Recreational' Georgic Poetry of the ItaHan
Re-
naissance," Humanistica Lovaniensia 48 (1999): 132-159. '
Y. Haskell and P. Hardie,
thority
eds.. Poets
of the Latin Poet from the Renaissance
and Teachers: Latin Didactic Poetry and the Didactic Auto the Present.
Proceedings of the Fifth
Annual Symposium
of the Cambridge Society for Neo-Latin Studies, Clare College, Cambridge, 9-11 September 1996, Kleos
4
(Bari, 1999).
M.
*
A. Di Cesare, ed., The
Verse Translation
lish
and
R. G. Williams,
'
and with
the
ed..
the Text of c
Game
of Chess: Marco Girolamo Vida's "Scacchia Ludus". With Eng-
Text of the Three Earlier Versions (Nieuwkoop, 1975).
The "De
arte poetica"
of Marco Girolamo Vida, Translated with Commentary
1517 (New York, 1976); R.
Girardi, ed., Marco Girolamo
poetica". Introduzione, testo, traduzione e note, Biblioteca di critica e letteratura '"
M. de
Nichilo, ed., / poemi
astrologici di
Giovanni Pontano. Storia
20
del testo.
edizione aitica del "Meteorum liber", Contributi aUa storia della cultura umanistica
" G. Eatough,
ed., Fracastoro's "Syphilis". Introduction, Text, Translation
Vida,
"L'arte
(Bari, 1982).
Con un
saggio di
(Bari, 1975).
1
and Notes,
ARCA
12
(Liverpool, 1984). '^
D.
Sacre, "Aonii Palearii Verulani 'De animorum immortalitate
libri
IW. Kritische
editie
met een
Nederlandse vertaling en toelichtingen, voorafgegaan door een biobibliografie van de auteur," 2 (Ph.D.
vols.
'^
Text,
diss.,
D. Sacre,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1986).
ed.,
Aonii Palearii Verulani "De animorum immortalitate
Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren, Jaargang 54, Nr. 144 '^
M. V.
Perez Custodio, ed., Los "Rhetoricorum
cion, edicion aitica, traduccion '^
J. la
vie
libri
III".
Introduction
and
Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academic voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone
libri
(Brussel, 1992).
quattuor" de Benito Arias Montano. Introduc-
y notas (Badajoz, 1994).
Chomarat, Palingene
("Zodiacus Vitae"). XII
(Pier
Angelo Manzolli,
livres.
Texte
dit
latin etabli,
Marzello Palingenio traduit et annote,
Stellato),
Le Zodiaque de
Travaux d'Humanisme
et
Renaissance 307 (Geneve, 1996). '^
D.
Bitzel, Bertiardo
technischen Fortschritts,
Zamagna "Navis
Aeria". Eine Metamorphose des Lehrgedichts im Zeichen des
Studien zur Klassischen Philologie 109 (Frankfurt, 1997).
HEINZ HOFMANN kritische
45
Ausgabe der beiden Lehrgedichte von Lorenzo Bonincontri (De durch Stephan Heilen.''
rebus natura-
lihus et divinis)
Dennoch bedarf es dringend weiterer Editionen, Kommentare und Studien, um mehr zu erschlieBen, ihre politischen und gesellschaftlichen Funktionen besser verstehen und ihren Platz im literarischen Diskurs ihrer gerade diese Gattung noch
jeweiligen Zeit praziser beschreiben zu konnen. Ein wichtiges Kriterium zur Bestim-
mung
ihres innovativen Charakters
Vorbildem, die
mal
als
sie teils
ist
dabei von jeder ihr Verhaltnis zu den antiken
rezipierend weitergefiihrt,
auch thematisch hinter sich gelassen
dichter sich mit
hat.
transzendiert
teils
und sowohl
for-
So haben die neulateinischen Lehr-
VorUebe jenen Themen zugewandt,
die
von den Alten noch nicht
oder nicht hinreichend behandelt w^orden waren, oder solchen, die
erst
durch die
und gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen der Neuzeit moghch wurden: der Medizin und Pharmakologie etwa, insbesondere der Diatetik, also Fragen der Ernahrung, Gesundheit und allgemeinen Lebensfiihrung, des Badewesens, der Anatomie und einzelnen Krankheiten, femer der Vogelbeize, der Seidenraupenzucht und der neuzeidichen GenuBpflanzen, der Teichwirtschaft, aber auch der Entdeckungen und der Neuen Welt, der Mineralogie und Alchemic, der Zoologie und Elektrizitat, der Musik und der Bildenden Kiinste, der Handwerke und technischen Erfindungen, der Pohtik und Padagogik, des Schachspiels und des Baus von wissenschaftlichen, technischen
LuftschifFen.
Neben Fragen von
Inhalt,
Aufbau und Struktur hat Walter Ludwig
vorhin genannten Aufsatz auch einen kurzen Uberblick iiber die
in
Mythen
seinem
in
jenen
Lehrgedichten gegeben, ohne diese Thematik, die ja nicht sein Hauptanliegen war, erschopfend zu behandeln. Eine erschopfende Behandlung
ist auch nicht mein Ziel, und heute auch gar nicht sein; dennoch mochte ich im folgenden versuchen, die verschiedenen Formen der Einbindung von Mythen in neulateinischer Lehrdichtung voneinander abzugrenzen und Ihnen einen kleinen Eindruck von der
kann
es hier
mythenbildenden Kreativitat neulateinischer Lehrdichter zu vermitteln. Beginnen wir aber, wie es sich gehort, in der Antike und mit Vergil! Vergil hat
am Ende
zum
im Lehrgedicht eine umfangund folgte damit dem Vorbild Lukremit einem EpyUion beschlossen hat: freilich nicht
seiner Georgica
erstenmal
reiche mythologjsche Erzahlung hinzugefiigt zens, der sein Lehrgedicht ebenfalls
einer mythologischen, sondern einer historischen Erzahlung
Athen, die
als
Exempel deutende Funktion
text der falschen
Haltung gegeniiber
Traditionen aufnimmt, delt die
sie
fiir
das
dem Tod
Phanomen
hat
und
als
vom Wiiten
der Pest in
der Krankheit
im Kon-
Epyllion alexandrinische
aber gleichzeitig kennzeichnend umformt. Vergil behan-
Bienenzucht, und auch er spricht dabei iiber Krankheiten der Bienen und
MaBnahmen, die der Imker dagegen ergreifen soil. Fiir den Fall, daB ein ganzes Bienenvolk zugrundegeht, empfiehlt er das von einem Meister aus Arkadien {Arcadii .
.
.
magistri, Georg.
"
S.
4.283) erfundene Verfahren der
Heilen, ed., Laurentius Bonincontrius Miniatensis,
Lehrgedichte an Lorenzo de' Medici
Gewinnung neuer Bienen
"De
rebus naturalibus et divinis".
und Ferdinand von Aragon. Einleitung und
zur Altertumskunde 129 (Stuttgart
und
Leipzig, 1999).
aus
kritische Edition,
den
Zwei
Beitrage
DIE
46
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS ff.), das unter dem BegrifFder Bugonie von Dichtem mehrfach erwahnt wird/® wenn freilich die niemals ernstlich als Mittel zur Wiedergewinnung neuer Bie-
faulenden Kadavern von Stieren (Georg. 4.281 seit hellenistischer
Imker
es in
Zeit
der Praxis
nen erprobt haben diirften. Die nun folgende mythologische Erzahlung (4.317 ff.) berichtet in kunstvoll verschlungener Weise, wie Aristaeus seine Bienen verlor und seiner Mutter, der
Nymphe
Cyrene, den Verlust klagte. Sie
geben, der
ihm weiteren AufschluB
iiber
ihm, sich
rat
zum
Seher Proteus zu be-
den Grund des Bienensterbens geben konne.
Proteus verkiindet ihm, er habe durch groBe Schuld gottlichen Zorn auf sich geladen:
Orpheus habe ihn erzahlt er
ihm
und ziime ihm wegen des Verlusts seiner Gattin. Dann von Orpheus und Eurydike (4.457-527),
so gestraft
ausflihrUch die Geschichte
Meer weiteren Erklarungen.
entzieht sich danach jedoch durch einen Sprung ins
nur Aristaeus, sondern ganze Generationen von Philologen
Damit
hinterUefi er nicht
ratios,
was diese Erzahlung von Orpheus und Eurydike nun im Zusammenhang mit
dem Tod
der Bienen bedeuten soUe.
Doch Cyrene,
weiB
die alles mitgehort hatte,
Losung (jedenfaUs flir Aristaeus): Er trage durch sein Werben um Eurydike Schuld an ihrem Tod; denn als sie sich seinen Zudringlichkeiten entziehen woUte, sei sie auf der Flucht auf eine Giftschlange getreten und an ihrem BiB gestorben. Daher hatten die
Orpheus und die Nymphen zur Strafe seine Bienen getotet; nun miisse er sie durch ein Opfer versohnen, fur das sie ihm genaue Vonchriften gibt. Aristaeus befolgt aUes, und als er nach neun Tagen zuruckkommt, entdeckt er, daB sich in den verwesenden Eingeweiden der getoteten
und
in einer dicken
Stiere ein neues
Traube
vom Baum
Dieser kunstvolle aitiologische Mythos viele
Bienenvolk gebildet
am Ende
Probleme ich hier nicht eingehen kann, wurde
beaugt und
als
hat, das
ausschwarmt
hangt. eines Lehrgedichts, auf dessen
bereits in der
Antike miBtrauisch
Ergebnis einer spateren erzwungenen Umarbeitung der ominosen
Laudes Qalli gedeutet, mit denen Vergil angeblich zunachst die Georgica beschlossen
haben
soll.^' Fiir
Lehrgedicht
die Geschichte der Gattung blieb er folgenlos;
kam nach Vergil
die ganze Spatantike
mythologische Erzahlungen in diesem groBen
und
Stile aus:
kein Nachleben. Dies anderte sich auch nicht,
als
denn
das lateinische
das Mittelalter hindurch
Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts
nische Humanisten mit der Gattung des Lehrgedichts experimentierten
'*
Philitas/r.
krit {Syrittx 3)
vgl. 2.5.5;)
22 Powell und Kallimachos/r. 383.4
nennt
sie
Pfeiffer
ohne
Das Aristaeus-EpyUion hatte
nennen
italie-
und ver-
die Biene ^vr^evf\C„
Theo-
TttUpOTKiTCap, die agyptischen Dichter Archelaos (bei Varro R.R. 3.16.4;
und Nikander
(Ther. 741, Alex.
446
f.)
erwahnen kurz
die Entstehung
von Bienen aus
Rindem und Wespen aus Pferden; vgl. Mynors im Kommentar zu Georg. 4.282 (S. 294 {.). W. Richter im Kommentar zu Georg. 4.284 fF. behauptet, daB bereits Empedokles die Angabe kenne, "daB aus dem Leichnam eines Rindes Bienen entstehen konnten" (S. 370); allerdings ist es fraglich,
ob mit den PoDYEVf^
(!icv5p67ip(ppa
von 31
B
61, 2 D.-K. (aus Aelian, Nat. anim. 16.29)
("KuhsproBlinge mit Menschenvorderteil" iibenetzen D.-K.) dasselbe gemeint
ist
wie mit der Bu-
gonie der Bienen bei Vergil. '^
Vgl. zur Forschungsgeschichte
J.
Hermes, "C. Cornelius Gallus und
der Umarbeitung des vierten Georgica-Buches" (Ph.D.
diss.,
Vergil.
Das Problem
Universitat Munster, 1977).
HEINZ
HOFMANN
47
und Manilius reprasentierte antike Tradition^" und jene Wissensgebiete zu behandeln, welche den Alten noch unbekannt waren oder von ihnen nicht als Gegenstand flir ein Lehrgedicht gewahlt wurden. Erst mit den drei Lehrgedichten des Giovanni Pontano vom Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts finden Erzahlungen antiker Mythen Eingang ins neulateinische Lehrgedicht. Im Gedicht De hortis Hesperidum, das vom Anbau der ZitrusfHichte handelt, sind mehrere Mythen eingestreut, bei denen von den antiken Vorbildem nur die aitiolowie viele andere gische Funktion iibemommen ist. Dabei stiitzt sich Pontano Lehrdichter nach ihm in erster Linie auf Ovids Metamorphosen. Aus ihnen iiberninunt er einzelne Mythen, aber er dichtet auch neue Mythen nach ihrem Vorbild und weist auch mit diesem Verfahren seinen Nachfolgem den Weg. Bekanntestes Beispiel ist seine Version der Sage von Venus und Adonis (1.67 flf.): Im Untenchied zu Ovids Metamorphosen (10.708—739) wird der von einem Eber todHch verwundete Adonis von seiner GeUebten Venus in einen Orangenbaum {dtrisf^ verwandelt, der im Garten der Hesperiden wachst und dessen goldene Apfel Venus geweiht waren. Diese waren es, die Herakles auf seiner letzten Arbeit raubte und auf diese Weise die Orangenbaumkultur in Itahen einfiihrte. Damit geriet Pontano jedoch in Konflikt mit Vergil: denn dieser hatte die Orangen dann ja erwahnen miissen. Doch Pontanos daB namhch List der poetischen Vemunft versteht es, den historischen Sachverhalt der Orangenbaum erst im Mittelalter durch die Araber in Europa bekannt wurde mit seiner Deutung zu harmonisieren (1.168-177): Aus Zom iiber ein ihr vorenthaltenes ErstUngsopfer habe Juno die Orangenkulturen voUig vemichtet. Erst Venus habe viele Jahrhunderte spater den ihr teuren Baum, der ja der verwandelte Adonis war, emeut aus Persien nach Italien eingeflihrt. So kann Pontano das Fehlen des Orangenbaums bei Vergil erklaren und gleichzeitig flir sich den Anspruch erheben, suchten, die durch Lukrez, Vergil fortzusetzen
—
—
—
als erster
dieses
Thema im
—
Lehrgedicht behandelt zu haben. Trotz dieser "Uberbie-
tung" Vergils kniipft aber Pontano
fiir
die
Kenner ganz bewuBt
bei Vergil an, der
im
zweiten Buch der Georgica (2.126—135) bereits eine andere aus Persien importierte Zitrusfrucht,
namhch
Pontano sucht
und
die spielerische
genannt
hatte.
mit Ovid in der Erfindung neuer Metamorphosen
Technik von Anlehnung und Abgrenzung wendet Pontano be-
seinem gegen 1496 abgeschlossen Lehrgedicht Urania
zahlt er bei teils
{citrus medico),
Uberbietung Vergils in der Formulierung des neoterischen Erst-
heitsanspruchs. Diese reits in
die Zitrone
also die aemulatio
an.
Im
erstem
Buch
er-
den Planeten und ihren Gottem gelegenthch die dazugehorigen Mythen
knapp, teUs ausflihrlicher, darunter auch die Sage von Venus und Adonis (1.474—
506), aber
noch ohne
^ Daneben waren
die spatere
natiirlich
Metamorphose
des Adonis in
den Orangenbaum,
auch die anderen lateinischen Lehrdichtungen bekannt, insbeson-
dere die Aratea des Germanicus, die
seit
dem
9.
Jahrhundert reich
iiberliefert sind, spater
haufig
zusammen mit Ciceros und Avienus' Aratea, welch letztere freilich nur in 2 Hss. (s. IX/X und XV^ auf uns gekommen sind und nach der ed. pr. (Venedig 1488, dann 1499 von Aldus Manutius in den Astronomici veteres) bis ins 19. Jahrhundert in Vergessenheit gerieten; daneben wurde auch Horazens Ars poetua als Lehrgedicht gelesen und haufig nachgeahmt. ^' Zur Identifikation der Zitrusfiiichte vgl. Ludwig, "Lateinische Lehrgedichte," 107 mit Amn. 24.
DIE
48
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS
und die Flucht des Saturn nach Latium und sein kulturstiftendes Wirken unter der noch unzivilisierten Bevolkerung (1.711-726), von der bereits Euander dem Aeneas berichtet hatte (Verg. Aen. 8.319 falls
fF.).
Ausflihrliche mythologische Erzahlungen eben-
iiberwiegend aitiologischer Art und mehrfach durch einen Musenanruf besonders
hervorgehoben, finden sich auch in den folgenden Biichern, etwa im zweiten anlaB-
von Krebs (2.578 fF.), Jungfrau (2.805 fF.), Skorpion (2.1070 fF.); dieser war in der antiken Vorstellung der Kentaur Chiron, der Sohn des Saturn und der Nymphe Philyra; denn Saturn hatte sich bekanntlich in einen Hengst verwandelt, um nicht von seiner Gemahlin Rhea beim
lich der Tierkreisbilder fF.)
und
Schiitze (2.1184
Seitensprung erwischt zu werden.^^ Vergil gleich in
den
darauF in einem beriihmten Ver-
spielt
Georgica (3.92—94) an:
talis et
ipse
iubam cervice efFundit equina pemix Satumus et altum
coniugis adventu
Pelion hinnitu Fugiens implevit acuto.
Pontano
arbeitet diese
Anspielung zu einem langen aitiologischen Mythos
Chiron dem Lehrdichter
selbst
erzahlt
(2.1190—1324).^^
Mythen Pontanos gehort der von Andromeda, ihrer
ihrer
Zu den
aus,
den
beriihmtesten
Rettung durch Perseus und
Verstimung (4.181—344), der seine bekannteste Auspragung in Ovids Metamor-
phosen (4.665—5.235) erFahren hatte, der aber auch bei Pontanos Vorbild Manilius ausflihrlich erzahlt
Volkssprachen
ist
(5.538—618) und von spateren Dichtem in Latein und den
bis ins 18.
Jahrhundert
vielFaltig
umgestaltet wurde.
Pontano beschlieBt die Urania mit einer Klage
den Tod seiner Tochter Lucia
iiber
(5.819-911): Diese Klage geht in eine Traumvision ihres Katasterismos iiber
und
Ruhms
der
endet mit
dem
Preis seines eigenen
durch die Nachwelt, in den im
Der WiUe zu einem Schlufi Pontano noch nicht den Weg des
antiken Sphragis eine Bio-Bibliographie eingefiigt
wie bei Vergil
ist
doch hat
deutlich erkennbar,
ist.
Aristaeus-Epyllions eingeschlagen, sondern nur die Sphragis der Georgica gew^ahlt, sie Freilich zu
Mit
Weg
Vorbild
Verwendung von Mythen
hat
Pontano den spateren Lehr-
gewiesen, den aUzu viele allzu Freudig eingeschlagen haben,
darunter auch Girolamo Fracastoro, der das zweite und dritte
zwei aitiologischen Mythen kronte, die
^^
als
einem groBen personlichen Finale von 125 Venen geweitet.
seiner iiberreichen
dichtem einen
Stil
er jedoch
Diese Geschichte wird nicht von Ovid in den Metamorphosen
gen des Kentauren Chiron
der Syphilis mit
erzahlt,
nur
in
den Benennun-
und des Pelion als Philyreia tecta (7.352) spielt Apollonios von Rhodos als Aition flir die Insel Philyra
als Philyreius heros
er kurz darauf an. Ausfuhrlicher erzahlt sie
Buch
— im Gegensatz zu Pontano, der
(2.676)
(2.1231-1241), auf welche Stelle sich Vergil ofFensichtlich bezieht. -*
Spater wird dieser Mythos,
wohl wegen
seines
Vorkommens
Sujet in der Lehrdichtung u.a. bei Vida, Bomhyces 1.397 pulchrae prolis habendae ratione (Leiden 1655, ^1656); vgl.
fF.
fF.
den
Georgica, ein beliebtes
Quillet, CaUipaedia seu de
dazu P. Ford, "Claude Quillet's CaUipaedia
(1655): Eugenics Treatise or Pregnancy Manual?," in Haskell
125-139, hier 133
in
und Claude
and idem,
eds., Poets
and Teachers,
HEINZ HOFMANN
sich
im wesentlichen an
dung
die tradierten
antiker Elemente vollig
neu
49
Vorgaben der Antike
hielt
— unter Verwen-
dichtete.
Am Ende des zweiten Buches erzahlt er die Entdeckung der Quecksilbertherapie durch den Jager
Ilceus,
der von jener neuen Krankheit befallen
QueUnymphe CaUirhoe heit
klagt (2.281
den AbschuB
Strafe Dianas fur
als
Sie erklart
flf.).
eines ihr
ihm
in
ist und sein Leid der einem Traum die Krank-
geweihten Hirsches. Heilung
daflir
ihm genaue Anweisungen fur den Abstieg in die unterirdische Welt (2.310 ff.). Wie Aristaeus und Orpheus im Lied des Proteus, so steigt auch Ilceus in die Tiefe, wo die Nymphe Lipare ihm bei einem Rundgang durch die Unterwelt die Gewinnung des QuecksUbers zeigt und ihn iiber dessen HeUkraft belehrt (2.361 flf.). SchheBlich taucht sie ihn dreimal in den QuecksilberfluB, wodurch er von Krankheit und Aussatz geheilt wird (2.409 ff.), und miisse er unter der Erde suchen; daher gibt sie
endaBt ihn mit Vorschriften
kehr ans Tageslicht
Damit gica als
fiir
ein Opfer an die Oberwelt, das er nach seiner Riick-
ausflihrt.
Fracastoro der erste neulateinische Lehrdichter, der den SchluB der Geor-
ist
ModeU
flir
den SchluB eines Lehrgedichts wahlt.
Ilceus-Mythos einfacher
ist,
so hat Fracastoro
doch
Wenn
auch die Struktur des
die tragenden
Elemente des Aris-
taeus-EpyUions verwendet: das Ungliick des Helden, Klage und Zuflucht bei einer
Nymphe,
Instruktion iiber den einzuschlagenden
—
des Ubels
Unterwelt
eine gekrankte Gottheit
(bei Vergil
Eroffnung des
Wegs
— durch
Weg, Belehrung
iiber die
Ursache
eine wissende Person, Abstieg in die
zweifach [Aristaeus und Orpheus], bei Fracastoro nur einmal),
zur Heilung,
und abschlieBende Opfer zur Reinigung von der
Schuld und zur Versohnung der erziirnten Gottheit.
Eine ahnUche Struktur zeigt das
Bembo,
Pietro
Biichem zu reduzieren, sachen
flir
dritte
Buch der
Syphilis.
Entgegen
dem Rat von
die mythologische Kopflastigkeit der urspriingUchen Fassung in zwei gestaltete Fracastoro es als selbstandiges Epyllion, das die
die Entstehung jener Krankheit
im Kontext der
Ur-
ersten Entdeckungsfahrt
von Christoph Columbus
erzahlt (3.30-404). Fracastoro hat in diesen von ihm konMythos noch zwei weitere Mythentraditionen eingeflochOdysseus- Abenteuer der Biicher 9-12 der Odyssee, die von Vergil bereits
struierten aitiologischen ten:-'*
in
die
Buch
sechsten
III
der Aeneis integriert wurden,
Buch
und
die Geschichte
von Niobe aus dem
der Metamorphosen Ovids. Das RaflSnierte an Fracastoros Mythos
nun, daB die zentralen Motive sowohl der Columbus-Handlung
als
ist
auch der Syphi-
lus-Geschichte verdoppelt sind: Sowohl
Columbus und die Spanier als auch Syphilus femen Vergangenheit, in der die Geschichte spielt, miissen dieselben Stationen durchlaufen wie der vergilische Aristaeus; denn beide haben Schuld auf sich geladen, ohne sich dessen bewuBt zu sein, beide werden daflir gestraft, beide miissen bei Nymphen um Aufklarung und Hilfe bitten, und beide miissen Opfer und Riten vollziehen, um sich von dieser Schuld zu befreien und die erziirnte Gottheit zu versohnen. Doch wahrend von Aristaeus der Bann genommen
und
-*
W.
seine Landsleute in jener
Walter Ludwig hat das Wichtigste dazu gesagt, so daB ich mich hier kurz fassen kann:
Ludwig,
"Julius Caesar Scaligers
Kanon der
vg^.
neulateinischen Dichter," Antike und Abendland 25
(1979): 20-40; Ndr. in idem, Litterae Neolatinae (o.
Anm.
4),
220-241;
hier: 236f.
DIE
50
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS
wird und er neue Bienen
erhalt, bleibt bei
zerstorten Atlantis die Strafe
(und erreicht dadurch
und
ihre
fast
die
den Spaniern und den Ureinwohnern des
den Versohnungsakt hinaus Dimensionen der alttestamentlichen Erbschuld): Sie
flir
ihr Fehlverhalten iiber
Nachfahren werden immer an dieser Krankheit leiden und konnen hochstens davon erfahren (3.174 ff., 343 ff.).
Linderung, nie aber Heilung
Mit Pontanos und Fracastoros mythologischen Kreationen sind zwei Moglichkeiten vorgezeichnet, wie die vergilische Vorgabe jeweils variiert, modifiziert und aktualisiert
werden kann. Im folgenden
will ich die Variationsbreite dieses vorge-
gebenen Grundschemas an einigen bekannten und weniger bekannten Beispielen vorfuhren.
Marco Girolamo Vidas Lehrgedicht
Ich beginne mit
{Bombycum
Mythos wird nicht auf einmal
ein
iiber
unterteilt, die iiber das
ganze
erzahlt,
Werk
d.h.
sondern in verschiedene Erzahlsequenzen
hin verstreut werden und durch Vorausdeutun-
gen und Riickverweise aufeinander bezogen
sind.
Mythen thematisch miteinander verflochten und
Dadurch werden verschiedene
schaffen eine narrative "Superstruk-
Verweisfunktionen die Einheit des Gedichts
tur", die in ihren
Seidenraupenzucht
Vida entwickelt darin eine spezieUe "Fortsetzungstechnik",
libri II).
verstarkt.
Proomien der beiden Biicher wird durch die Anrufung der Seriades, der Seidennymphen, bereits auf den SchluBmythos vorausgewiesen, der seinerseits zwei In den
Buch I und II aufnimmt und sie in das abGegen Ende von Buch I erzahlt Vida den Mythos von
andere mythologische Erzahlungen aus schlieBende Aition integriert. der Liebe des Saturn zur
Nymphe
Philyra,
Kentauren Chiron hatte erzahlen
lassen.
den
sich
Bei Vida
einer "Kulturentstehungslehre" eingebettet (1.385 ankniipft, die iiber
Minerva
lehrt die
schon Pontano in der Urania ist
ff.),
vom
den Kontext
die Erzahlung in
mit der Vida an eine Tradition
Ovid, Vergil und Lukrez auf Arat und Hesiod zuriickgeht:^^
Menschen,
die sich bis dahin
Weben und
nur mit Fellen und Blattem gegen die
sie sich Kleider aus Wolle und Leinen machen konnen, und gibt auch alien Gottinnen solche Kleider bis auf Venus, die ihr wegen ihrer Schonheit verhaBt ist. Venus und ihre Kinder, die Eroten, miissen daher weiter nackt bleiben und verbergen sich aus Scham in den tiefen Waldern. Dort hatte Venus einst Saturn bei seinem Liebesabenteuer mit Philyra geholfen; denn sie war es gewesen, die ihm geraten hatte, sich in ein RoB zu verwandeln. Dafiir schenkte er ihr zarte Samen und lehrte sie die Kunst, daraus die feinsten Gewebe zu wirken, ohne auf Minervas Wolle und Linnen angewiesen zu sein. Mit diesem Geschenk laBt Saturn Venus und Vida den Leser allein, bis im zweiten Buch aus den Samen Seidenraupen ausgeschliipft sind, mit denen die Eroten spielen, aber zu unvorsichtig damit umgehen und ihren Tod verursachen (2.223 ff.). Nun ist Vida gliicklich beim Ausgangspunkt des Aristaeus-Epyllions angelangt dem Verlust von Nutztieren und konstruiert seinen Mythos in analoger, wenn auch vereinfachender Weise: Venus ist nun Aristaeus und Orpheus zugleich und zieht wie diese in die Unterwelt, wo sie von Pluto erreicht, daB die Raupen, deren Seelen in
Kalte geschiitzt hatten, das
Spinnen, so daB
—
—
" Ov. 1011
ff.;
Ars 2.467
Arat. Phaen.
ff.;
96
Met. 1.5 ff.;
ff.,
89
ff.;
Hes. Op. 109
Fasti ff.
4.395
ff.;
Verg. Georg. 1.121
ff.;
Lucr. 5.925
ff.,
HEINZ HOFMANN
51
der Unterwelt sind, wieder lebendig werden. Pluto gibt ihnen zusatzlich
Fliigel,
und in die Unterwelt gehen zu miissen.^^ Auf dieser Weise deutet Vida den Vorgang der halbjahrlichen Verpuppung der Raupen als Tod und das Ausschliipfen der gefliigelten Raupen, d.h. der bindet
sie
aber an das Gesetz, zweimal jahrlich sterben
Schmetterlinge, die auf Griechisch psychai "Seelen" heiBen,
Bugonie
gelingt es sogar, die
selbst in sein
als
Auferstehung. Vida
Gedicht einzubauen, und schildert eben-
Raupen aus den Kadavem von Stieren (2.332—343), "Bombycogonie" losgelost vom eigentlichen Mythos.^^ Dieser wird am Ende des zweiten Buches nochmals aufgenommen und erhalt eine neue aitiologische Wendung. Da Vergil in den Georgica (2.121) die Seide als Produkt der Serer, d.h. der Chinesen bezeichnet hatte,^* laBt Vida im dritten Teil seines Mythos die Seide von einem chinesischen Prinzen nach Europa einflihren (3.387 fF.). Nachdem dieser gehort hatte, daB Phaethusa, eine der Schwestem Phaethons, Tag und Nacht am Ufer des Po ihren Bruder beweine Vida laBt uns im unklaren, ob kurz das Entstehen neuer
falls
doch
ist
diese
—
durch Lektiire Ovids (vieUeicht sogar in chinesischer Ubersetzung!) oder auf andere
Weise
—
Reich und begab sich hohe Pappel verwandelt. All sein Jammem, seine Umarmungen des Stammes fruchteten nichts, und so verbrachte er ein ganzes Jahr unter Klagen und Weinen, bis sein Korper ganz in Tranen zerfloB, sich in Wasser aufloste und zum FluB wurde.^' Dieser FluB miin,
entbrannte er in heiBer Liebe zu
nach Oberitalien. Doch
als
er dort
ihr, verlieB sein
ankam, war
dete in die Adda, die ihrerseits kurz vor Cremona, der (so
eine
sie bereits in
Heimat Vidas,
in
den Po
flieBt
verband Vida etymologisch kiihn den in den Bergamasker Alpen entspringenden
FluB
Serio
mit
dem
nen und
dem
Serius,
Baums benetzen, und
Prinzen aus China). Dort konnte er die Wurzeln des
endlich gelang es ihm, die Liebe der
sich mit ihr in richtiger
Ehe
Baumnymphe
Hochzeitsgeschenk brachte er ihr kostbare Seidenkleider und der Seidenraupe und zeigte
ihr,
spater ihre Tochter, die Seriades
-*
Hier
spielt die
zu gewin-
2.426) zu vereinen. Als
{Ucitisque hymenaeis,
und auch Eier
-stoffe
wie man daraus Seide gewinnt. Phaethusa lehrte
Nymphae, die Seidengewirmung, und diese verbrei-
ovidische Erzahlung
von Ceres und Proserpina
aus
dem
fiinften
Buch der
Metamorphosen mit herein, insbesondere die von Jupiter verfligte Verweildauer Proserpinas von je
einem halben Jahr auf der Ober- und ^'
in der Unterwelt {Met. 5.564
malibus opusatlum (gedruckt in seinen Opera, (Lib.
I,
Rom
1510)
De sere sen
und Nicolo
vgl.
Das chinesische Wort
Ludwig, "Neulateinische Lehrgedichte" si
"Seide" erscheint im Griechischen
als
(o.
de saetivomis
atii-
Perotti in der Cornucopia
Epigr. 2.487; ed. J.-L. Charlet [Sassoferrato, 1991], 2:181. 16ff) die
bycogonie verwandelt:
^
ff.).
Bereits vor Vida hatten Giustolo in seinem Seidenraupengedicht
Bugonie
Anm.
CTTlpiK6v,
in eine
Bom-
4), 112.
im
Lateinischen
als
sericum ('Seidenstoff'). '^
Ahnliche Verwandlungen berichtet Ovid mehrfach in den Metamorphosen: Cyane
in ein stagnum aus sich in
Tranen
Trauer
iiber die
Verletzung ihrer iurafontis durch Pluto (5.409
in eine Quelle auf, weil ihr
Egeria wird aus Schmerz uber den
Quelle (15.547
ff.);
dus". Eingeleitet rich
vgl.
W.
Tod
Gatten
Ludwig, Marcus Hieronymus
1979), 6
ff.
zerflieBt
Byblis lost
Bruder Caunus ihre Liebe verschmaht (9.663 f ), und ihres
und mit der Ubenetzung von Job. Jos.
und Miinchen,
ff.),
Numa
Pompilius zu der gleichnamigen
Vida, Schachspiel der Cotter.
Ign.
Hoffinann hg. von
"Scacchia
W. Ludwig
Lu-
(Zii-
DIE
52
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS und den Maulbeerbaum,
teten in ganz Italien die Seidenraupenzucht
Zweigen
griinen
sich der Dichter
aus dessen
ob seiner Verdienste von den Madchen,
seinem Gedicht in dieser Kunst unterwiesen
die er mit
einen Kranz wiinscht (2.435
hat,
fF.).
In seinem Kunstmythos hat Vida die Hauptstrukturen des vergihschen AristaeusEpyllions geschickt mit
dem
mythologischen Schatz von Ovids Metamorphosen
angereichert, nicht
ohne auf andere Reminiszenzen
Das Ganze verband
er mit einer
aus
im Wunsch nach dem Dichterkranz, womit
nierend
anspielt, die
den Georgica zu verzichten.
Reverenz vor seiner Geburtsstadt Cremona, kulmi-
durch Petrarcas Dichterkronung
deraufgenommen wurde und seitdem
am
er auf eine antike Tradition
Ostersonntag des Jahres 1341 wie-
ein wesentliches
Element humanistischer Dich-
terehrung bildete. Innerhalb dieses von Pontano, Fracastoro und Vida vorgezeichneten
wegen
sich die meisten neulateinischen Lehrdichter, die einerseits
Mythen Erzahlungen,
Rahmens be-
flir
ihre aitio-
Ovid vorgefunden haben, adaptieren oder im Stile der Metamorphosen neu erfinden und andrerseits versuchen, die Grundstruktur des Aristaeus-Epyllions beizubehalten, es aber an Erfindungsreichtum und Originahtat logischen
die sie bei
zu iibertrefFen.
Rene Rapin
hat die vier Biicher seines Lehrgedichts iiber Gartenbau
lagen^^ mit zahlreichen ovidianisierenden
angereichert: Die
Mythen von
Mythen
iiber die
und Parkan-
Entstehung von Pflanzen
Narcissus (1.230-233), Hyacinthus (1.263-272)
und
Cyparissus (2.394-418) hat er mit wortlichen Anklangen, w^enn auch erheblich ge-
Ovid iibernommen,^^
aus
kiirzt,
die der Entstehung des Veilchens (1.234-262)
der Tulpe (1.289-333) sind neu erfundene Metamorphosen nach
und
dem Modell von
Pomona und Vertumnus: Die Nymphe lanthis war Begleidem erotischen Drangen Apollos nur dadurch entgehen, eine Blume (Viola) verwandelt wurde. Tulipa war die Tochter
Apollo und Daphne bzw. terin der
daB der
sie
Diana und konnte
von Diana
Nymphe
in
der Timavusquelle und des Proteus;
Vertumnus und wurde
in die
insofern die Alten iibertrofFen, Tiirkei in
Europa
eingefiihrt
sie
floh vor
den Nachstellungen des
Tulpe verwandelt. Mit dieser Erzahlung hat Rapin auch als
die
Tulpe
erst ein
Jahrhundert vorher aus der
wurde und daher noch auf ihre Metamorphose
aus der
Feder eines neuen Ovid warten muBte.^^
Weitere originelle Neuschopfungen Rapins sind die Aitia von der Entstehung des
von kiinstlichen Wasserfallen in den und anderen Schlossem und Villenanlagen ist ein wichLehrgegenstand im dritten Buch, das den Fontanen und Wasserlaufen gewidmet
Wasserfalls
und
des Springbrunnens. Die Anlage
groBen Parks von tiger ist;
die
•'°
Versailles
Enstehung der Kaskaden wird auf Apollo
Hortorum
lihri
zuriickgefiihrt, der die ungliickliche
IV, Paris 1665; abgedruckt bei F. Oudin, ed., Poemata Didascalica, vol. 2 (Paris,
1813), 225-340. Letzte Ausgabe
von
Irving T.
McDonald mit
der alten englischen Versiiberset-
zung von James Gardiner (fl732) (Worcester, MA, 1932). ^' Narcissus-Narzisse: Ov. Met. 3.339-510; Hyacinthus-Hyazinthe: Ov. Met. 10.162-219; Cyparissus-Zypresse: Ov. Met. 10.106-142 ^^
(vgl. Hort.
2.394b = Met. 10.120b).
Vgl. Augerius Gislenius Busbequius, Vier brieven over het gezantschap naar Turkije.
Turcicae Epistolae Qitattuor", ed. Z.
von
Martels, vertaling door
keningen door Z. von Martels (Hilversum, 1994).
M.
"Legationis
Goldstein, inleiding en aante-
HEINZ Sappho,
sich aus
als sie
Leukadischen Felsens
Liebeskummer
ins
verwandelte (3.510-524).
HOFMANN
um ihren
53
Hohe
untreuen Phaon von der
des
Meer stiirzen wollte, noch rechtzeitig in einen Wasserfall Das Aidon von der Entstehung des Springbrunnens (3.293— und
339) verbindet Rapin in geistreicher Weise mit der Sage von Herakles
schon Pontano in der Urania erzahlt
hatte, die aber in der
Hylas, die
Antike nie mit einer Meta-
morphose verbunden war, so daB Rapin die Alten gleich zweifach iibertreffen kann: In den schonen Knaben Hylas verhebte sich die Nymphe Isis. Als er an ihrem Teich Wasser schopfte, zog sie ihn zu sich herab und wollte ihn fiir immer als GeUebten behalten; doch Hylas weigerte sich, die Liebe der Isis zu erwidem, und versuchte sich
Umarmung
aus ihrer
zu
befreien.-*-'
Die verschmahte
Isis
verleiht Hylas excelsum in-
genium moresque superbos (3.328) und verwandelt ihn in eine Pontine, die hoch will, aber dennoch immer wieder dortund verewigt in diesem vergebhchen Venuch symbolisch den hoch aufschieBenden und dennoch wieder zum Nachgeben gezwungenen Sinn des Hylas. Diese und aUe anderen der knapp vierzig Mythen in Rapins Lehrgedicht sind alte und neue Metamorphosen, die zwar aus der falschen Gattungstradition stammen, aber seinem strengen Klassizismus entsprachen und die antike Wunderwelt des Mythos auch im Frankreich Ludwigs XIV. heimisch machen sollten. Der letzte Mythos des Lehrgedichts im vierten, dem Obstbau gewidmeten Buch basiert dagegen auf dem Aristaeus-EpyUion und behandelt die Erfindung des Spalierobstbaus durch den aus der Odyssee bekannten Phaakenkonig Alcinous (4.606-682). Auch dieser Mythos nimmt seinen Ausgang von einer Naturkatastrophe, namlich der Vemichtung der Garten des Alcinous durch einen Sturm. Sowohl Alcinous, der hier die Rolle des Aristaeus
emporsteigend aus ihrem Teich entkommen hin
zuriickfallt,
iibemimmt,
Sehem don
als
auch die meisten der herbeigerufenen Seher sind
haufig so
ist,
erkermt, daB
iiber die
sie,
die
Unache im
Phaaken
selbst,
sich,
wie das bei
unklaren, bis der Phoebuspriester
schuld sind
und der Sturm eine
Euryme-
Strafe der
dei agrestes fiir den Hochmut des Konigs und die Vemachlassigung ihres Kultes war. Wie Aristaeus seine Mutter Gyrene, Ilceus die Nymphe Lipare und Syphilus die Nymphe Ammerice, so fragt Alcinous die Nymphe Hesperis um Rat. Diese emp-
Jupiter und Phoebus durch ein Opfer zu versohnen. Der Konig befolgt diesen Rat und auch den weiteren, eine Schutzmauer gegen den Nordwind zu errichten und die neuen Baume gegen diese Mauer anzupflanzen, so daB sie gegen Stiirme geschiitzt sind und gleichzeitig durch die Reflektion der warmen Sonnenstrahlen ihre fiehlt,
Friichte besser reifen. Freihch
sondem mit
Epyllion,
mit
dem
Preis
enden die Hortorum
libri
nicht mit
dem
Alcinous-
einer an Georgica 4.559—566 orientierten Sphragis (820-825)
Ludwigs XIV., der nach einer schlimmen Zeit kriegerischer Unruhen
mit seinem Regierungsantritt 166P^ ein neues Goldenes Zeitalter heraufgefiihrt
*'
Hier iibeminunt Rapin Motive aus Ovids Erzahlung von Salmacis und Hermaphroditus in
Met. 4.285
^
ff.
Ludwig,
am
5.9.1638 geboren, wurde nach
Jahre 1643 Konig von Frankreich; solange er Osterreich
dem
und Kardinal Mazarin (1602—1661) fiir ihn im Jahre 1661 im Alter von 23 Jahren
Herrschaft erst
Finale der Hortorum
lU>ri.
friihen
Tod
unmundig war,
seines Vatere
Ludwig XIII. im Anna von
fuhrten seine Mutter
die Regienmgsgeschafte. Er selbst trat die an.
Auf diesen Zeitpunkt
bezieht sich das
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS
DIE
54
habe. Rapins Herrscherlob deckt sich mit der offiziellen Propaganda des Konigshofs,
wonach Ludwigs Herrschaft eine Erneuerung des Prinzipats von Augustus sei und in Frankreich und Paris der politische und kulturelle Glanz des alten Rom neu erstehe. Nach dem Vorbild des Aristaeus-Epyllions ist auch der SchluBmythos im achten Buch des Lehrgedichts iiber Schiflfsbau und Seefahrt (Nautica) des neapolitanischen Jesuiten Nicolo Partenio Giannettasio vom Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts strukturiert, iiber den ich mich kurz fassen kann, da ich bereits an anderer Stelle ausfuhrlicher dariiber gehandelt habe.^^
Nymphe
Hier
ist
es
der junge Columbus, der von seiner Mutter, der
Urania, ungeduldig die Einlosung ihres Versprechens fordert, daB
neue Lander und Volker jenseits des Ozeans entdecken
lassen werde.
sie
ihn
Urania besteigt
mit ihm den hochsten Berg Teneriffas und zeigt ihm den Kontinent, der westlich des
Ozeans sichtbar wird. Sie
ihm
phezeit
erklart
ihm den Bau und
die Gesetze des
Kosmos und
weist
Orte in der neuen Welt an, die er auf seiner Reise entdecken wird, und pro-
die
ihm
dafiir
Ruhm bei der Nachwelt;
bleibenden
ferner gibt sie
ihm
praktische
Technik der Navigation und den Zeitpunkt der Fahrt und instruiert ihn, mit welchen Opfern er vorher die Gotter des Meeres und des neuen Kontinents zu versohnen habe. SchlieBlich warnt sie ihn vor den Strapazen und Gefahren, Hinweise
iiber die
die er erdulden
muB, und
versichert ihm, daB sie
hat freilich nicht nur das Aristaeus-Epyllion
Somnium
hat auch zentrale Teile des
ihm jederzeit beistehen werde. Hier
Vorlage gedient, sondem Giannettasio
Scipionis eingearbeitet
und auf diese Weise zwei
Texte der antiken Literatur zu einer neuen kunstvoUen Einheit verbunden.-'^
zentrale
Weit haufiger dagegen dichten vor allem des 17.
denen
als
solche kunstvollen Gebilde finden sich in den Lehrge-
als
und
sich die Dichter nicht
18. Jahrhunderts einfachere aitiologische
Mythen, mit
nur bemiihten, den neuen, den Entdeckungen und Er-
entnommenen Themen einen antikisierenden Goldsondem auch den Lehrgegenstand selbst in mythologisch-antiki-
kenntnissen ihrer eigenen Zeit
rand zu verleihen, sierender
Das
Form zu
langste
verschliisseln.
und
einfluBreichste dieser
entstandene, in seiner definitiven
Form
Werke
ist
das zwischen 1683
und 1746
16 Biicher umfassende landwirtschaftUche
Lehrgedicht Praedium rustkum des Jesuiten Jacques Vaniere (1664—1759). Es enthalt zahlreiche solcher Mythen: neben Pristera
von Zypem (Buch
kommt, daB
mehr
XIII), die
die Gotter sie in eine
traditionellen
wie
dem Mythos
Taube
(griech. peristerd)
verwandeln, wahrend ihr
Verfolger in einen Raubvogel verwandelt wird,^' hat Vaniere iiber der
15.
Buch
H. Hofmann, "Variations on an Ending:
ff,
Neuerung gegen-
auflockern, darunter die der schonenjungfrau Truta in eine Fo-
Res Publica Litterarum 16 (1993): 227-238; 187
als
Antike einige Fisch-Metamorphosen eingebaut, die das der Teichwirtschaft
gewidmete
^*
der Konigin
den Verfolgungen eines Raubers dadurch ent-
und vor allem Claudia
Scipio, Aristaeus,
vgl. jetzt
auch
and the Dream of Columbus,"
Bitzel, Bernardo
Zamagna "Navis Aeria,"
Schindler, "Nicolo Partenio Giannettasios Naulicorum
libri
VIII.
Ein
neulateinisches Lehrgedicht des 17. Jahrhunderts," Neulateinisches Jahrbuch 3 (2001): 145-176. ^*
Ahnlich verfuhr siebzigjahre vor ihm Giovanni Pietro d'Alessandro in seinem Epos Hieroso-
lymae eversae (1613), woriiber Elisabeth Klecker in Cambridge sprach.
" Vorbilder sind u.a.
Ovids Sagen von Apollo und Daphne,
lo,
Arethusa und Tereus-Progne.
HEINZ HOFMANN
55
den Karpfen,
die des alten Fischers Barbus in die Barbe oder die des Carpus in
relle,
den man, wie die franzosische Anmerkung zu dieser dasee finde: denn
Stelle besagt,
vor allem im Gar-
kam und
Saturn auf seiner Flucht vor Jupiter nach Oberitalien
als
den Gardasee auf dem Boot des Fahrmanns Carpus iiberqueren wollte, versuchte dieihn zu iiberwaltigen und sich in den Besitz seines Goldes zu bringen.
ser,
turn, der
ihm
praesettsit
iniquam),
seinen niedertrachtigen Plan aus
dem
warf ihn und seine SchifFer
Doch
Sa-
Gesicht ablas {mentem ex vultu
ins
Wasser,
wo
sie
zu carpiones
noch heute die Schiffe im Gardasee verfolgen aurique cupidine humana testantur origine cretos.^^ Das tertium comparationis flir dieses
(Karpfen) wurden, die flagrant / seque adeo
Aition
ist
der zu Beginn erwahnte Umstand, daB auch dieser Fisch von Ausoniens
Gewassem stammt, amores;
doch
ramentis
fuhi qui
vescitur auri / atque alio priscos in corpore servat
diese priscos amores sind nicht,
Madchen am
zu glauben, ein schones Interpretation die durch
wie der Leser zunachst geneigt sein konnte
Gardasee,
sondem
den Mythos begriindete
in Vanieres moralisierender
auri sacra fames.
Ebenfalls mit einer alten Liebe erklart der Jesuit
Thomas
Fellon (1672—1759) in
seinem 1696 in Lyon erschienenen Lehrgedicht Magnes die Entstehung des Magnetismus.-*^ Bereits
nach
dem Proomium
bens gesuchten Ursachen
den
zeige, darlegen
suche {amissos
dafiir,
kiindigt er an, er wolle die
daB die Magnetnadel im
und deutet
an,
vielen verge-
daB das Eisen im Norden eine verlorene Liebe
Darauf folgt
scrutatur amores, 95).
von
KompaB immer nach Nor-
bereits vor der wissenschaftlichen
Dar-
legung das mythologische Aition mit der Geschichte der ZwiUinge Siderites und Si-
Sohnen der Ceres und Briider der Proserpina, die sich in gegenseitiger Liebe zugetan waren (97-184): Als Proserpina von Pluto geraubt wurde, jagten sie im Wagen ihrer Mutter Ceres Plutos Gespann hinterher und verfolgten es bis ans auBerste Ende der Welt, wo der Nordwind zuhause ist. Sie hatten Pluto beinahe erreicht, als er mit seinem Stab eine Offnung in die Erde schlug, in der er mit Wagen und Proserpina verschwand und die sich hinter ihm sofort wieder schloB. Also war beiden Briidem der Weg zur Rettung ihrer Schwester abgeschnitten. Ohnmachtig derus,
vor
Wut
^
rief Siderus die
Gotter an und schalt
sie,
daB
sie hart
wie Eisen
Dieses Aition scheint eine Erfindung Girolamo Fracastoros zu sein, der es
um
seien, weil
1535
in einer
poetischen Epistel an den Bischof von Verona, Giovanni Matteo Giberti, erzahlt: Hieronymi Fracastorii
Veronensis
[.
.
.]
Carminum
Editio II (Padova, 1739),
1:117-120,
Carmen V: Adjoannem Mat-
thaeum Gibertum episcopum Veronetisem; spater wird es mit Verweis auf Fracastoros Behandlung noc-
hmals ausfuhrlicher von Georgius lodocus Berganus der
als
Benediktinermonch
den Gardasee
{Benacus,
in S.
Zeno
in
Verona
(d.h.
lebte) in
Georg Jodocus aus Bergen in Brabant, Buch IV (77 ff.) seines Lobgedichts auf
Veronae apud Antonium Puteolum, 1546,
fols.
54r
ff.)
erzahlt.
Ein vollig
anderes Aition bietet Pierius Valerianus (Giampietro Valeriano Bolzani [1477-1558] aus Belluno)
V
in einer Elegie seiner
Amorum
kggenda
Girolamo Fracastoro (Verona, 1966), 10-20; A. Valerini, Le bellezze
del
Carpione
di
libri
(Verona, 1586; Ndr. Verona, 1974), del
Cinquecento,"
in
(Venetiis 1549, 93-100). Vgl. G.B. Pighi, Betiacetisia.
27^4; W.Th.
di
La
Verona
Elwert, "II Lago di Garda nella poesia latina
idem, Aufsdtze zur provenzalischen, fianzosischen und neulateinischen Dichtung,
Studien zu den Romanischen Sprachen und Literaturen 4 (Wiesbaden, 1971), 164—206 (Siegmar
Dopp
[Gottingen] danke ich herzlich
Berganus' '^
fiir
diese
Hinweise und eine Kopie von Georgius lodocus
Bettacus).
Abgedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata
Didascalica,
1:174-202.
DIE
56
sie sich seiner
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS Da
nicht erbarmten.
einefrigida massa, eine starre
erstarrte seine
Zunge, und er wandelte sich in
Masse von Eisen. Wahrend
Bruders Siderus beklagte, wurde er
selbst
Siderites
noch
das Los seines
zu einem harten Felsen (durum saxum); doch
beide Briider bewahrten auch nach der Verwandlung in Stein und Eisen ihre friihere
Liebe und Ziehen sich gegenseitig an. Daher neigt sich der Magnetstein
(Siderites)
noch immer nach Norden zu seinem zu Eisen gewordenen Bruder (Siderus), und das Eisen will noch immer in die Tiefe der Erde dringen und Proserpina von Pluto zuriickfordem.
In der Antike gibt es keine mythologische Erklarung des Magnetismus,'*" nur eine bei Plinius (Nat. riickgefiihrte
Magnes,
der,
hist.
36.128
fF.)
angedeutete und von ihm auf Nikander zu-
Anekdote von der Entdeckung des Magnetsteins durch einen Hirten als er auf dem Berge Ida seine Herde w^eidete, mit den Nageln seiner
Sandalen und seines Speeres Spitze an diesem Stein hangen blieb. Bei Plinius hatte
Wort sideritis bzw. siderites flir den Magnetstein Eigennamen auf den Bruder iibertrug, der in diesen Stein verwandelt wurde, wahrend der andere, Siderus, einfach "der Eiserne" ist. Eine Bemerkung des Plinius mag ihn auch zu seinem Mythos der amissos amores, der verlorenen Liebe, angeregt haben: "Das Eisen," so schreibt Plinius (36.127), "wird vom Magnetstein angezogen, und jenes alles beherrschende Material (domitrix ilia rerum omnium unser Lehrdichter jedenfaUs das
gefunden, den er
materia) lauft
als
auf ein unerklarliches Leeres zu (ad inane
nescio quid currit), springt,
sobald
und hangt in der Umarmung fest (tenetur amplexuque haeret)": eine poetische FormuUerung, die der Sprache der Liebesdichtung entlehnt ist und gleichsam das Grundmotiv formte, aus dem Fellon seinen Mythos entfaltete. Die Bewahrung der Liebe zueinander auch nach der Verwandlung ist schlieBlich ein Motiv, das Fellon verschiedenen ovidischen Metamorphosen entnehmen konnte, vor allem jener von Ceyx und Alcyone, von denen es am SchluB es
ihm naher kommt,
heran, wird festgehalten
ebenfalls heiRv.fatis obnoxius isdem / tunc quoque mansit amor (Ov. Met. 11.742 f).
In ahnlicher Weise verwenden viele andere Lehrdichter des 17. derts zur
gische
Auflockerung und antikisierenden Gestaltung
Mythen,
die
und
18.
Jahrhun-
ihres Lehrvortrags aitiolo-
auch ohne Rekurs auf das Aristaeus-Epyllion zu einem festen
Bestandteil neulateinischer Lehrdichtung
geworden
sind.
Der Jesuit
(1666-1735) schlieBt sein 1692 in Paris erschienenes Lehrgedicht
Francois Tarillon iiber das
SchieB-
pulver (Pulvis Pyrius)*^ mit einem kurzen SchluBmythos, den er mit einer ahnlichen
Frage einleitet wie Vergil das Aristaeus-Epyllion und mit einer sich an die Georgica
anlehnenden Sphragis abrundet (303—333). Im Mythos
stellt
er der
ante lovem die Verschlechterung sub love entgegen, die begann,
als
Goldenen Zeit
Vulkan von Juno
dem Himmel gestoBen wurde. Aus Zorn hieriiber habe Vulkan dem Atna erstmals in der Kunst unterwiesen, fulmineos imitari
aus
die
Kyklopen
unter
sulphure motus
(312);
dadurch wurde der Krater in den Atna gesprengt und wurden das SchieBpulver
und
die dadurch ermoglichten saeuae artes in der
*°
Zum Thema
vgl.
A. Radl, Der Magnetstein
thius 19 (Stuttgart, 1988). *'
Zu
in der
Antike. Quellen und Zusammenhange,
Plinius: Radl, Magnetstein,
Gedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata
Didascalica,
Welt bekannt.
48
1:117-128.
fF.
Boe-
HEINZ HOFMANN
57
Louis Clairambault eroffhet sein 1737 gedrucktes Lehrgedicht iiber die Zucht von
Kanarienvogeln {Acanthides Canariae Acanthis und
dem Jiingling
in treuer Liebe ergeben,
sive Spitti)*^
dem Mythos von
mit
der
Nymphe
Spinus (26—83). Beide waren sangeskundig und einander
doch weigerten
an den ekstatischen Riten der
sich beide,
Venus, die inzwischen auch die Fortunatae Insulae erreicht hatten, teilzunehmen und
obszone Lieder zu Ehren der Gottin anzustimmen. Aus
Amor
befahl Venus,
doch wurden
sie
solle die
Wut
iiber diese
MiBachtung
beiden mit seinen Pfeilen zur Liebesraserei treiben,
auf der Flucht vor
dem
saevus amor
von den Gottem
in Kanarien-
vogel verwandelt.
Der Jesuit Charles Noceti (1694—1759) erzahlt in seinem Lehrgedicht iiber den Regenbogen {Iri$Y^ den Mythos vom Troianer Xanthus (388—443), dem Gehebten der Venus, der sich in die Gottin Iris verhebte und, da er von ihr trotz seines Werbens nicht erhort wurde, sich aus Verzweiflung in jenen FluB
nach ihm benannt
im
Zom
Tranen
ist.
Von Venus
aber
wurde
die vermeintUche
stiirzte,
zu ewiger Jungfravdichkeit verurteUt. Seitdem zerflieBt
iiber ihr Schicksal
und weint vergebens und zu
der seitdem
Nebenbuhlerin sie
immerdar
Iris
in
spat iiber die nicht erwiderte
Liebe des Xanthus. Indes fand auch Vidas Experiment mit seinem Schachgedicht zumindest einen
Nachfolger.
Im
Scacchia
Ludus hat Vida bekannthch das Lehrgedicht in ein mytholo-
EpyUion verwandelt und
gisches
die
Gattung
indem er die Regeln von Herakles und ahnlicher Weise hat der
fiktionalisiert,
anlaBlich der ersten Schachpartie erlauterte, die nach der Hochzeit
Hebe im Olymp von Apollo und Merkur Jesuit Fran9ois-Antoine
Musik
(Musica)** die
Le Febvre
(ca.
gespielt
wurde. In
1670—1737) in seinem Lehrgedicht
iiber die
Entstehung der Musik, der wichtigsten Instrumente und Ton-
arten ganzhch in einer fiktionalen antiken
Welt
lokalisiert, so
EpyUion ist als ein Lehrgedicht. Zusammenfassend konnen wir also festhalten, daB
daB das Gedicht eher
ein mythologisches
als
Modell
flir
einen aitiologjschen SchluBmythos
wurde, namlich erstmals 1530 in Fracastoros
das Aristaeus-Epyllion ent spat
im Lehrgedicht iibemommen
Spatere Mythen, die nach dieRapin und Giannettasio, reduzieren die Komplexitat des vergiHschen SchluBmythos auf einfache Sequenzen und stellen selbst dort, wo es sich wie in Vidas Seidenraupengedicht angeboten hatte, keinen Bezug zur Bugonie her, die bei Vergil bekanntlich der thematische Ausgangspunkt
sem Vorbild
flir
Syphilis.
konstruiert wurden, etwa bei Vida,
das Aristaeus-EpyUion war.
Keiner dieser Lehrdichter hat zudem eine Erzahlung
von Proteus erzahlten Gevon Orpheus und Eurydice entspricht und erst durch eine andere Person in ihrem Bezug zum Anhegen des Geschadigten gedeutet werden muB. Oflfensichthch irmerhalb seiner Version des Aristaeus-EpyUions, die der schichte
hatten jene Lehrdichter die Komplexitat der vergilischen Orpheus-Erzahlung nicht
erkannt
—
darin vielen Plulologen bis in unser Jahrhundert nicht
*^
Gedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata
*^
Erstmals gedruckt Venedig 1729, zweite Auflage
Didascalica,
unahnhch
— und
2:155-166.
Rom
1747; wieder abgedruckt bei Oudin,
Poemata Didascalica, 2:71-88. **
Ersuusgabe Paris 1704, wieder abgedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata
Didascalica,
1:230-243.
DIE
58
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS
daher von vornherein ihr Epyllion linearer und daher meist auch kiirzer angelegt.
Neben ben
es die
diesen an Vergil orientierten Versuchen in mythologischer Kreativitat ha-
Mythen nach dem Vorbild
meisten Lehrdichter vorgezogen, aitiologische
Ovids einzufiigen, die
sie
den Metamorphosen entnahmen oder nach der Struktur der
dort erzahlten Verwandlungssagen neu dichteten. Insbesondere haben
sie sich dabei,
wie wir gesehen haben, bemiiht, neue Metamorphosen zu ersinnen, die
es in der Anund zwar sowohl von den Personen her, die verwandelt wurden, auch von den Lebewesen und Objekten, in die sie verwandelt wurden (z.B.
tike als
noch nicht
gab,
Tulpe, Veilchen, Taube, Wasserfall, Fontane
Fischmetamorphosen,
fiir
Neu sind dabei insbesondere die kaum Vorbilder gibt und die durch
etc.).
die es in der Antike
die
worden
sein diirften
wie
Ausweitung der Eklogendichtung von den Hirten auf andere Lebensbereiche
(ich
ahnliche Bestrebungen, die Alten zu iibertrefFen, angeregt
verweise nur auf die Eclogue
Piscatoriae
von Lorenzo Gambara
di Brescia
und
die Eclo-
gue Nauticae des Nicolo Partenio Giannettasio).
Der erklarende, begriindende oder Ulustrierende Mythos im neulateinischen Lehrseit dem Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts durch andere
gedicht konnte allerdings schon
narrative Einlagen ersetzt werden: Scevole de Sainte-Marthe (Scaevola
1536—1623) schlieBt das
erste
Buch
Kindererziehung {Paedotrophiae
seines
1584
de puerorum
sive
die
(3:16) als Strafe
die Frauen
Kinderschlafzimmer
— namlich
Exemplum
als
Warme
zuviel
libri
wie
in der Genesis
wird in ein mythisches Ambiente
um
das
Kind trauem;
Im
Temperatur im
historische Erzahlung
des einzigen Sohnes des Herzogs der Bretagne (2.156—212). Seine
Bretagne
womit der
Paradies gedeutet wird.
fur eine falsche
— eine
mit einer
IIF)*^
(1.396-510),
verlauft,
wegen Evas Verfehlung im
zweiten Buch bringt Sammarthanus
Tode
educatione
Geburt eines Kindes unter Schmerzen
fiir
Sammarthanus,
gedruckten Lehrgedichts iiber
vom Siindenfall
epischen Paraphrase der biblischen Erzahlung
Umstand, daB
in Paris
vom
Beweinung
dem Oceanus und die Nymphen der Nymphen jedoch trostet die Trauernden
verlegt, in
eine dieser
mit einer Prophezeiung iiber die spatere Hochzeit Annas, der Tochter des Herzogspaares, mit
dem franzosischen Konig Karl VIII.
(1483-1498): dadurch wiirden die fata
diesen schweren Verlust wieder kompensieren reiche
Nachkommenschaft haben
(2.181
fF.).
und werde
Erst das dritte
das
Haus Valois ruhm-
Buch, in
dem die
Kinder-
krankheiten besprochen werden, endet mit einem aitiologischen Mythos, der den
Ursprung der Epilepsie erklaren
will,
von der gerade
befallen werden. Als mythologisches Beispiel
—
Bemerkung
entschuldigt, auch die
mischt
variarunt seria ludo / saepe sacri vates)
{ficto
menta (3.596—598)
—
die hervorragendsten das er sich
am
Manner
SchluB mit der
groBen Dichter hatten Ernstes mit Fiktivem ge-
erzahlt Sammartin,
Nemeischen Lowen von einem
des
fiir
und
die
wie Herakles
Epilepsieanfall
Camenen Uebten einst
solchey?^-
nach der Bezwingung
heimgesucht und von Paeonis, der
Tochter des beriihmten Arztes Paieon, geheilt wurde, die auf seine Fragen ihm (und damit auch
hen
dem interessierten
miisse. Herakles,
sofort in das
**
immer
Leser) erklarte, schnell
fiir
Madchen und verwandelte
Gedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata
sie
Didascalica,
wie man bei solch einem Anfall vorge-
schone Frauen entflammt, verliebte sich
nach vielen Jahren,
2:167-224.
als sie alt
und
er
schon
HEINZ HOFMANN
59
aufgenommen war, in die Paonie, wegen ihrer Breitbandwirkung auch
langst unter die Gotter des Olynips
die beriihm-
teste Heilpflanze des Altertums, die
in der
zin der Folgezeit vor allem
als
Medi-
magisches Mittel gegen "damonische" Krankheiten
wie Epilepsie und Lahmungen hoch geschatzt wurde (3.466-595). Eine historische Erzahlung von der Erfindung des Barometers durch seinen Schiiler Torricelli setzte auch der Jesuit
Loup Thomas
Galilei
und
in seinem 1749 in Paris
erschienenen Lehrgedicht iiber das Barometer (Barometrum)*^ an die SteUe des aitiologischen
hunderts
Mythos (257-399). Eine Anekdote
den Perserkriegen des
aus
5.
Jahr-
im ersten Buch "Erfindung" von Karyatiden
Chr. verwendete der Jesuit Louis Doissin (1727-1753)
v.
seiner Sculpturae
libri
IlP^
als
historisches Aition
fiir
die
und ihrer Verwendung anstelle von Saulen (1.296-352). In seinem Gedicht iiber Orangenbaume {Mala Aurea)*^ von 1692 wahlt der Jesuit Guillaume Veschambez Mittel der Ekphrasis
Park von Versailles gepflanzt
hat, sind
wigs XIV. verziert, die der Lehrdichter
Und
dem
der Proteus aus
gestu et voce
libri 11)*^
dem
Leser ausfiihrUch vorstellt (214-268).
dem Jesui ten Jean
und Vortrag
des
Lucas (1638-1716) in seinem Lehr-
Redners und Schauspielers
{Actio oratoris seu
credula posteritas
gemeint
Schauspieler, der durch seine glanzende theatrahsche Ausbildung
Orpheus und Eurydice Wasser
so wirkungsvoll vortrug
genannten Gestalten
die
all
De
geradezu entmythologjsiert: denn dieser Proteus bei Vergil, so
behauptet Lucas, war kein Gott, wie die
sich in
das
die
Aristaeus-EpyUion, der den Ausgangspunkt meiner Be-
trachtungen bildete, wird von gedicht iiber Gestik
man
Orangenbaume im mit Darstellungen der Heldentaten Konig Lud-
des Mythos: Die Topfe, in die
statt
die
und mit
— Wildschwein,
hat,
sondem
ein
den Mythos von
Hilfe der Biihnentechnik
Tigerin, Schlange, Lowin, Feuer,
— miihelos verwandeln konnte (1.165-197):
eine
flir
das theaterbegeisterte
Barockzeitalter durchaus angemessene Interpretation!
So sind wir
gewesen
sein
am Ende wieder bei Proteus angelangt, der also nur ein Schauspieler Der Obemahme von Mythen im Lehrgedicht, ihrer Adaption und
soil:
Konstruktion nach antikem Vorbild folgt ihre Ersetzung durch Anekdoten, historische Erzahlungen, bibUsche Geschichten, Bildbeschreibungen
und schHeBUch
Destruktion durch den RationaHsmus des ausgehenden 17. Jahrhunderts, das
auch die Aufklarung
spater
mehr
in
den
franca der
war. ten
modemen
—
das Lehrgedicht liebte
Sprachen
als
und
pflegte,^*'
wenn
in Latein, dessen Vormachtstellung
fireihch
als
lingua
Gelehnamkeit und Schonen Literatur schon damals weit zuriickgedrangt
Auf diesem Weg hat uns unser Streifzug eine Fiille von GestaltungsmogHchkeiden Mythos im Lehrgedicht vorgefuhrt, der zwar stets in enger Verbindung
flir
zum
Lehrgegenstand bUeb, dessen Bereich die Lehrdichter jedoch iiber
^ Wieder *' Paris **
*°
abgedruckt bei Oudin, Poanata
Didascalica,
2:341-356.
bei
Oudin, Poemata
Didascalica,
2:33-51.
1675, wieder abgedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata Didascalica, 1:66-116.
VgJ. L.L. Albertsen, Das Lehrgedicht. Eine Geschichte der antikisierenden Sachepik in der neueren
deutschen Literatur, mit einem unbekannten Gedicht Albrecht von Hallers (Aaarhus, 1967),
C.
alle vier
1752, wieder abgedruckt bei Oudin, Poemata Didascalica, 3:28-109.
Wieder abgedruckt
*' Paris
ff.;
ihre
— wie
Siegrist,
Das
Lehrgedicht der Aufklarung, Germanistische
Abhandlungen 43
108
ff.,
132
(Stuttgart, 1974).
60
DIE
NEUEN LEIDEN PES JUNGEN ARISTAEUS
Kontinente ausdehnten: von China im Osten tischen Pol
im Norden
bis
bis
Amerika im Westen,
vom magne-
nach Afrika und zu den Inseln der Seligen im Siiden.
Vergils Vorbild hat die Phantasie der Lehrdichter angeregt
und
sie
doch immer
wieder auf Ovids Geschichten von Liebesfreud und Liebesleid und die neuen Leiden des jungen Aristaeus zuriickgefiihrt.
Universitdt Tubingen
UAccademia Pontaniana
e
sua ideologia in alcuni
la
componimenti giovanili del Sannazaro
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA
Q
uando, nel lontano 1973,^ io
grammi
particolare, particola per
latini del il
testo delle Elegie e degli
unto all'edizione olandese del 1728 la
parlai nel
congresso di
Amsterdam
degli epi-
Sannazaro, potevo contare su pochi sussidi bibliografici. In
Epigrammi
latini,
ben poco
Romanum
e alio Spicilegium
di
era stato aggi-
Angelo
per
Mai,-^
tradizione manoscritta deUe poesie latine, esisteva solo lo studio dell'Altamura,-'
mentre un esame
critico
complessivo dell'opera sannazariana,
tino e volgare, era stato abbozzato solo, in forma assai raffinata dal
Tateo
doppio versante
la-
incompleta,
e dal Dionisotti.'*
Oggi, a quasi trent'anni di distanza,
amo
sul
ma tuttora
innanzitutto
un buon punto pubblicate, tra
il
la situazione e
pUastro dell'edizione critica del
di partenza
U 1528
e
il
anche per
la storia delle
1533, in appendice
al
nettamente migUorata. Abbi-
De partu
Virginis,
che rappresenta
prime raccolte dei carmi
latini,
poema maggiore.' Una promettente
anticipazione di quell' edizione critica dei carmi latini che tutti continuiamo ad auspicate e inoltre la tesi di dottorato di Anita sina, relatore
'
L.
Vincenzo Fera) nel 1994
Di Stefano, presentata
come
e consultabile,
Mes-
all'universita di
tutte le tesi di dottorato.
Gualdo Rosa, "A proposito degli epigrammi latini del Sannazaro," in Acta Conventus NeoAmsterdam 19-24 August 1973, ed. P. Tuynmann, G.-C. Kuiper, and E.
Latini Amstelodametisis,
Kessler -
(Munchen, 1978), 453-476.
Actii Sinceri Sannazahi Opera latine scripta, ex seamdis atrisjani Broukhusii.
Sannazarianae
Carmina
et
Notae
Petri Vlamitigii
inedita," in Spicilegium
Romanum
A. Altamura, La tradizione manoscritta dei "Carmina"
*
F.
italiano
crisi
culturale di
.
.
Vitae
Jacopo Sannazaro,"
del
Sannazaro (Napoli, 1957).
in Id., Tradizione e realta nell'Umanesimo
(Ban, 1967), 9-109, e C. Dionisotti, "Appunti sulle rime di lacopo Sannazaro," Giomale
Storico della Letteratura Italiana *
.
8 (1842): 508—511.
'
Tateo, "La
Aaedunt
(Amstelaedami, 1728), e A. Mai, "Actii Synceri Sannazahi
lacopo Sannazaro,
140 (1963): 61-111.
De partu
Virginis, ed.
C. Fantazzi e A. Perosa (Firenze, 1988).
L'ACCADEMIA PONTANIANA E LE SUA IDEOLOGIA
62
nelle biblioteche nazionali di Firenze e di
metodo
di lavoro del
Sannazaro,
e di altri poeti della sua cerchia
—
la storia del
di
studi condotti da Carlo Vecce sui manoscritti del Sannazaro
elegie ed epigrammi, gli
Giovanni Sambuco
ma
Roma.^ Molto importanti per
anche per quella della tradizione manoscritta
si
che
—
grazie alia
mediazione dell'umanista ungherese
conservano nella Biblioteca Palatina
di
Vienna.^ In questi
anni, un giovane allievo di Alain Michel, Marc Deramaix, ha pubblicato molti
stessi
ad
significativi contributi tesi dall'altro
romano
da un lato
i
precedenti del
poema
significato estetico e religiose del
il
e
De
partu Virginis,
suoi rapporti col classicismo
i
'500.^
primo
del
Questa
illustrare
ripresa di studi sul
Sannazaro (ma anche su Michele Marullo e su
presentanti deH'Accademia pontaniana)
quadro piu ampio
inserisce nel
si
di
altri
plessiva rivalutazione del classicismo in generale, e in particolare del ruolo
questo
movimento
culturale
europeo ebbero
rap-
una comche in
piu importanti maestri della "sodalitas"
i
pontaniana.^ Sull'importanza di questo cenacolo culturale per I'elaborazione di una poetica rario,
—
deW excellentia
mi
e dell'imitazione dei modelli piu perfetti di ciascun
bastera ricordare
lo studio del Ferrau sul
del '400 e sulk
stici
— accanto
Pontano
Roma
del
ai
critico e quelli di
primo
genere lette-
piu recenti saggi del Deramaix e del Vecce
De
Caprio
umani-
sui cenacoli
'500}*^
ampiamente dimostrato
L'interesse attuale per I'opera del Marullo,
dalle tre edi-
Hymni Naturales apparse quasi contemporaneamente in Francia, Italia," non e estraneo al nostro discorso; perche il Marullo fece
zioni dei suoi
Austria e in
come
e
noto
—
il
suo apprendistato poetico a Napoli,
alia
in
—
scuola dell'Accademia pon-
taniana, e a quegli ideali poetici e teorici rimase fedele durante tutta la sua breve
anche quando fu costretto ad allontanarsi da Napoli per andare prima
esistenza,
A. Di Stefano, "Per I'edizione delle 'Elegie' e degli 'Epigrammi' di Jacopo Sannazaro,"
^
di dottorato, ^
C. Vecce, lacopo Sannazaro
sui libri di
Acme
Sannazaro," in Studi
in Francia. Scoperte di codici all'inizio del
Gilles
XVI secolo
(Padova, 1988);
" 'In Actii Sinceri bibliotheca.'
vari di lingua e letteratura italiana in onore di
genese du 'De partu Virginis' de J. Sannazare
de Viterbe," Melanges de
Id., " 'Christias
212;
Id.,
Giuseppe
Velli,
Appunti
Quademi
41 (2000), 301-310.
M. Deramaix, "La
**
tesi
ciclo, Universita degli Studi di Messina, 1994.
Gli zibaldoni di lacopo Sannazaro (Messina, 1998);
Id.
di
VI
a
1513'.
Romaine de Leon X,
I'Ecolefrartfaise de
et trois
eclogues inedites de
Rome. Moyen Age-Temps modemes 99 (1987): 171-
La 'forma antiquior' du 'De partu
Virginis'
de Sannazar
dans un manuscrit inedit de Seville," Cahiers de I'Humanisme
1
et
I'Academie
(2000):
151-
172. '
Per
rivalutazione del classicismo cattolico e controriformistico,
la
Rhetorique
I' eloquence.
A. Michel, Lm parole '°
et 'res literaria'
et la beaute.
G. Ferrau, Pontano
Asor Rosa,
"Roma,"
critico
de
la
Rhetorique
et esthetique
(Messina, 1983), e V.
ed., Letteratura italiana, vol. 1,
II letterato
in Storia e geografia, vol. 2, L'eta moderna,
dans
De
ed,
J.
Text, Obersetzung und
la
Fumaroli, L'age de
la tradition occidentale (Paris,
e le istituzioni 1
1982).
(Torino, 1982), 799-822; e
Id.,
(Torino, 1988), 360-453.
Kommentar (Wien,
die mythologische
1994); Michel Marulle,
Chomarat (Geneve, 1995); Michele Marullo Tarcaniota,
renze, 1995); vedi anche
M.
Caprio, "I cenacoli umanistici," in A.
" Chr. Harrauer, Kosmos und Mythos. Die Weltgotthymnen und hel Marullus,
cf.
Renaissarue an seuil de I'epoque classique (Geneve, 1980), e
Inni naturali, ed.
recensione di P. Laurens, Cahiers de I'Humanisme
1
Hymnen Hymnes
des Micnaturels,
D. Coppini
(Fi-
(2000): 271-274.
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA
Roma
e poi a Firenze.'^
Ed
63
e proprio dal rapporto di stretta solidarieta ed aflSnita
poetica che intercorse tra Sannazaro e Marullo che intendiamo prendere le mosse,
partendo
componimend
neUa
piu significativa
sia assai
nianze rimaste dell'edizione definitiva, anni,
accanto
se,
la
presenza
alle
testimo-
aggiungono quelle espunte, nel corso degli
si
redazione finale dei componimenti accolti neWeditio princeps.
scelta e nella
Questa edizione apparve, come e noto, cinque anni dopo Venezia, nel 1535.'^ Si cardinale
come
Sannazaro e dimostrando
dall'analisi delle liriche latine del
del Marullo in quei
dunque
tratta
di un'edizione
la
morte del poeta, a
postuma, fortemente voluta dal
Girolamo Seripando e da Scipione Capece e curata non tanto e non solo da
Antonio Diaz Garlon, conte
cui la dedica Paolo Manuzio,''* quanto dal
d'Alife,
poeta neolatino Onorato FasciteUi da Isemia.'^
Chiunque sia un manoscritto
stato
il
responsabile deWeditio princeps aldina, egli dovette servirsi di
— perduto — che dava
sposizione assai diversi anche rispetto
epigrammi in un
elegie ed
al
ben noto Vat.
una
testo e in
3361, che e
lat.
la
di-
maggiore
testimonianza dell'instancabUe labor limae esercitato dal Sannazaro sulle sue hriche latine.'*
codice e interamente autografo, ad eccezione dei due indici degh epi-
II
grammi, che
leggono uno
si
consentono ora
'*
di attribuire
63 e
al fol. il
alia
Cf. C. Minieri Riccio, Biograjie degli accademici
(NapoU, 1881;
repr.
gU
I'altro al fol. 83a;
primo indice
mano
di
studi della
alfotisini, detti
poi potttaniani dal
lacobi Sannazarii Opera omnia latine
mense septembri,
Asulani soceri, '*
al
ci
se-
1543
scripta
.
.
.
(Venetiis: in aedibus Aldi
1
(2000): 209-215.
Manutii
et
Andreae
MDXXXV).
L'Aldina e dedicata ad Antonio Diaz Garion, conte d'Alife, che fu uno dei curatori
testamentaii del Sannazaro:
1931), 194.
"A
1442
il
Bologna, 1969), 128-133. Cf. anche L. Gualdo Rosa, "L" Academic Ponta-
nienne' et relaboration d'une poetique du classicisme," Cahiers de I'Humanisme '^
Di Stefano
Antonio Seripando ed
cf.
E. Percopo, Vita dijacobo Sannazaro, ed. G. Brognoligo (Napoii,
Ma per quesu edizione e
per
i
problemi reladvi
alia
sua attribuzione, cf Gualdo Rosa,
proposito degli epigrammi," 456 e note.
Per Timportanza del
'
Fascitelli (e di
Girolamo Seripando e Scipione Capece) come curatori
dell'edizione delle poesie latine del Sannazaro (e dall'erudito napoletano
che
si
conserva
alia
non
solo),
Gian Vincenzo Meola (1744-1814)
in
Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoii (ms. XIII
niensis Opera,
Neapoli, 1776): "Annis vero
Pater fecerat
carminum
MDXXXIV
et
cf
il
fol.
2 delle note aggiunte
cake all'esemplare
B 66
bis
MDXXXV,
=
della sua edizione
Honorati
Fascitelli
Aeser-
iure dedignatis quas Aldus
editiones nostri Sannazarii, et acceptis per litteras quae purgatiora essent
tanri
Poete ab Hieronymo Seripando
et
Scipione Capycio, fere eius a prima aetate fautoribus
esset
NeapoU,
et
lectionem expurgatissimam
prodire latine
fecit,
in
meliorem ordinem
cum hoc
nuper edita
.
.
.";
titulo: Sonetti et
Canzoni
del
Sannazaro,
cf inoltre Vecce, lacopo Sannazaro
in
digessit,
cum
typisque Manutianis
primum, deinde, Sannazarii Opera
Franda, 161-165, e note. Per
un buon
profile biografico del FasciteUi, cf F. Calitti, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (d'ora in poi DBl),
45 (Roma, 1995), 228-231. '*
—
fu
Questo manoscritto donate con
altri
due
— come ha
rilevato
sto codice, oltre a quanto detto dal Vecce, cf
459.
il
Vecce
{lacopo Sannazaro in Franda, 161, n. 10)
autografi sannazariani da Giambattista Crispo a Fulvio Orsini. Per
Gualdo Rosa, "A proposito
degli
que-
epigrammi," 458-
l'accademia pontaniana
64
condo
Angelo Colocci.'^ Accanto
a quella di
componimenti sono
in poi V), in cui alcuni
e le
sua ideologia
a questo importantissimo codice (d'ora scritti
piu volte in redazioni diverse,
piu antica di molti epigrammi ed elegie sembra in molti
fase redazionale
W),
rappresentata dal Vindob. Lat. 9477 (d'ora in poi
Sambuco ed attentamente componimenti
lirici
che nel codice V,
autografi sono
sultare in alcuni casi assai
poco
codice Viennese,
Ma lui
il
torniamo
ma
su
Marullo ed
al
Sannazaro parla con
presenta
suoi
i
al
i
la
114—141
Anche
si
leggono molti
come
qui,
e
ancor piu da
ri-
piu leggibili di questi componimenti,
1842 da Angelo Mai, che
si
basava tuttavia
non
tardo apografo vaticano.^^ sua presenza nell'opera poetica del Sannazaro.
alia
afFetto nelle
due
elegie,
comprese
compagni dell'Accademia pontaniana
poetiche; di queste
remo, e dove
un suo
lo zibaldone raccolto dal
ai fols.
di correzioni e di riscritture, tanto
irti
leggibUi;
rimasti inediti, furono pubblicati nel sul
dove
del nostro, in parte autografi.'^
testi
i
studiato dal Vecce,
la
casi essere
piu antica e
e
ne celebra
le virtu
la 1.11, In maledicos detractores,^^
Marullo sono dedicati
i
vv. 31-32, in cui
si
Di
ncU'editio princeps, in cui
morali e
su cui ritorne-
allude solo alle sue poesie
liriche sull'esilio:
Tu quoque,
quid cessas doctis deflere querelis
Excidium Piu tarda
patriae, culte
— ma comunque non
MaruUe, tuae?
anteriore
deve
essere I'elegia 2.2,"' in cui, in
brare
la
dotta brigata dei suoi sodali.
1501, data della morte di Marullo
al
—
occasione del suo genetliaco, egli torna a cele-
Qui
i
Marullo sono quattro, 25—
versi dedicati al
28:
Nee gemat exHium
Spartani
Musa
Marulli,
Ventura ad nostras ingeniosa dapes.
Verba sed antiqui reddat numerosque
Dum
'^
Cf.
Lucreti,
magnis divos laudibus accumulat,
Di Stefano, "Per
I'edizione,"
27-28
e soprattutto 95-125.
Ma
sul
rapporto Sannazaro-
Colocci dovremo ritornare. "*
Per
il
codice
W,
cf.
soprattutto Vecce, Gli zibaldoni, 9-60, e
Di Stefano, "Per
I'edizione,"
37 e 70-94. ''
Cf
Mai, "Actii Synceri Sannazarii Carmina," 508-511. L'edizione del Mai
dice settecentesco Ottobon.
lat.
3172, per
il
si
fonda
sul
co-
quale cf Altamura, La tradizione manoscritta, 48, e Di
Stefano, "Per I'edizione," 32. ""
Gia r Altamura
(lacopo Sannazaro, con appendke di documenti e
testi inediti
[Napoli, 1951], 172-
175) tentava di dare una data ad ogni singola elegia o epigramma, basandosi su elementi intemi;
per questa elegia egli giustamente proponeva una data anteriore
Giuniano Maio, che qui compare come ben vivo. Letteratura italiana. Gli autori, vol. ^'
L'el.
Cf
per
il
al
1493, anno della morte di
Maio, P. Garbini,
e L.
Asor Rosa,
ed.,
commento, in Poeti latini del Quattrocento, ed. F. Monti Sabia (Milano-NapoH, 1964), 1134-1137. II terminus ante
2.2 e edita, con traduzione italiana e
Amaldi, L. Gualdo Rosa,
in
2 (Torino, 1991), 1110.
quern per questa elegia e proprio la data di
morte del Marullo, e cioe
il
1501.
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA dove e
si
ricordano anche
65
cure filologiche dedicate dal Marullo
le
testo di Lucrezio
al
suoi Hytntti naturales, composti negli ultimi anni di vita del poeta e da lui pubbli-
i
Ma
accanto a questi ricordi affettuosi, pur abbastanza significativi,
cati nel
1497.
MarnUo
era presente,
come
dedicatario, in
una redazione antica
nell'Aldina e neUe edizioni che ne derivano e dedicata
Ad loannem
NeapoUtanum, mentre in tutte
manca
una
L'elegia 1.10 e
redazioni precedenti
le
ad epoca anteriore
me
di titolo.
morte d'amore; composta sicuramente in
e sannazariano, della propria morte, e
Si
Sangrium, patricium
squisita reverie malinconica, sul tema, tipicamente petrarchesco
giovanile, sembrerebbe addirittura salire
il
che
dell'elegia 1.10,
alia
saevus
—
morte
Amor
se
della
si
prende
madre
alia lettera
del poeta,
il
primo
distico
—
eta ri-
MaseUa Santomango:
patriis pateretur in oris
Vivere, vel saltem matre vidente mori."
II
componimento
che in tutte
e cosi bello, e riflette cosi perfettamente la sensibilita del Sannazaro,
le fasi
redazionah e rimasto sostanzialmente immutato; Tunica variante
significativa e quella del dedicatario,
ultime volonta del poeta,
il
immaginato come esecutore testamentario deUe
che ha comportato
W=
successiva riscrittura del v. 17.
V2=
Vind. Lat. 9447, fol.
la
Vat. Lat. 3361,
115 r-v
fol.
llr-v
Aid. 1535
Ad loannem San-
3361,
Vat.
lat.
foil.
54V-55
grium, patricium
Neapolitanum, de
Senza
Senza
titolo
Senza
titolo
suo immaturo
titolo
obitu.
17 At tu, quandoquidem iubet hoc
At
fortuna, Rabiri
fortuna, Marulle,
tu,
quando-
quidem
Lepyri
iubet hoc
corr.
At
ex
quando-
tu,
quidem Nemesis
Marulle
optime
iubet,
Sangri,
Come
W — dove
— come
puo vedere dallo schema, sia nel codice nelle due stesure autografe del codice V,
dedica
legge solo nell'Aldina, e nelle innumerevoli edizioni che ne derivano.
II
si
si
l'elegia
il
testo
non ha
non
e autografo
titolo. II titolo
con
essere il nome accademico di un amico degh un amico non ancora identificato, al quale tuttavia furono dedicate, primitiva stesura, ben due elegie: l'elegia 1.4, e l'elegia 2.10: la prima nel-
primo dedicatario, Rabirio, sembra
anni giovanili: nella loro
I'edizione definitiva ha
il
titolo:
"Ad Lucinam,
parturiente
^ Anche per I'el. 1.10, cf. Poeti latini, 1132-1135. La madre neW Arcadia, col nome di Massilia, sarebbe morta tra il 1474 e il meridionale," in C. Muscetta, ed., Letteratura
Comeha
Piccolominea,
del Sannazaro, pianta
1478;
italiana Laterza, vol.
c{. F.
come morta
Tateo, "L'umanesimo
16 (Bari, 1972), 190-191.
l'accademia pontaniana e le sua ideologia
66
Antonii Garlonii Allifarum domini coniuge";^-^
la
W ha questo
ha dedicatario, mentre nel codice
non
seconda, nell'edizione finale
"Mala punica, ad Rabirium
titolo:
egrotantem."-'*
Ma
qui e opportune aprire una parentesi.
rende essenziale
la
Questa indagine
latine.
II
tra
e
1533. Per
il
componimenti che
e ancora piii importante per quei pochi
appendice
inseriti, in
1527
il
il
poema
al
De
Ma
leggono solo quattro epigrammi.
partu
Virginis nel
1526^^
non
— —
Venezia
sacro, nelle sette edizioni stampate a
testo delle elegie,
princeps
redazionali di tutte le liriche
fasi
suU'onda del successo della doppia edizione del
furono
postumo delTeditw
carattere
ricostruzione delle precedenti
dove
interessa I'Aldina del 1527,
si
nelle successive sei edizioni, e importante stu-
diare la disposizione e la fase redazionale della silloge di cinque elegie (diventate sei a partire dall'edizione dei fratelli Nicolini da Sabbio del 1530),
stantemente, insieme ad
un manipolo sempre piu cospicuo
che
vi
troviamo co-
epigrammi. ^^
di
Ma
sulle
meno tacitamente come la presenza del
redazioni precanoniche delle elegie e suUa loro circolazione, piu o autorizzata dall'autore, ritorneremo.
Rabirio nella prima
sodalis
Qui
nell'elegia 1.4
rimane presente in
rio
precedono
— che
tutte le
un
numerose redazioni
che
V
legge in
si
Ma
testo.
-'
II
2847,
su
-'*
dell'el. 1 .4 si
le^e
ma
De
malo
putiico.
nium Fretiam,"
e
nazaro,
altro
dell'elegia,
del Sannazaro, la
perfettamente leggibile nel
nella
forma piu ampia nel ms. Vat.
Lat.
P.
O.
Kristeller, Iter Italicum,
2 (London-Leiden, 1967),
Odi latine, ad alcuni epiMarco Antonio Flaminio in un'edi-
De
Le
partu,
sei
ma
che
si
puo
Per questa edizione,
senz'altro attribuire ai fratelli Nicolini da Sabbio, col cf.
Di Stefano, "Per
I'edizione."
De partu Virginis fu pubblicato prima a Napoli, nel mese di maggio, "per Antopoi a Roma, nel mese di dicembre, "in aedibus P. Minitii Calvi." Cf. San-
xlv—li.
edizioni
tutte veneziane,
— accuratamente
sono
le seguenti:
Nicolini da Sabbio; 1530,
fratelli
elencate da Perosa-Fantazzi (Sannazaro,
ma
1528, Aldina; 1528, anonima,
sesta, Tel. 2.10,
Le cinque
elegie
si
De
De partu,
xcviii-c)
probabilmente dei
fratelli
Nicolini da Sabbio; 1530, Francesco Bindoni e Maffeo Pasini;
A
1531, Bernardino Stagnino; 1533, Melchiorre Sessa; 1533, Aldina. del 1530, alle cinque elegie, che
una
mano
illustre
ad un
63 della Biblioteca Nazionale di
del Sannazaro e ai carmi latini di Giovanni Cotta e di
il
—
ben piu
seconda stesura
nell'interlinea, di
AA
— Rabi-
Rabirii sodalis parturienti subveniat, precatio." Per questo
— cf
Nel 1526
^*
primo posto
qui, n. 43.
zione veneziana anonima,
-^
al
L'elegia fu pubblicata per la prima volta nel 1529, insieme alle
grammi titolo
nella complessa
di dedicare I'elegia
infatti, nella
Nel ms. XIII
redazione piu antica
"Ad Lucinam ut pueUae cui dovremo ritornare
23b—24a; cf anche
sia,
manoscritte che a stampa che
sia
posto del "MaruUe", cancellato,
al
4v:
—
codice
troviamo
(V-), al fol. 54v,
chi e questo "Lepirio"?
titolo della
fol.
sempre
Sannazaro penso
il
personaggio dai contomi per noi evanescenti;
variante "Lepyri",
non
fatto isolato.
in queste edizioni e
morte del poeta,
la
sottolineare
nell'elegia 1.10 egli e presto sostituito dal
la princeps,
MaruUo. Dopo
premeva
fase redazionale dell'elegia 1.10
stratificazione dell' opera sannazariana,
Mentre
ci
hanno un
testo identico e identico
malo Punico, pubblicata per
la
leggono nell'ordine seguente: 1.4
cunda); 1.3 {Nulla meos); 1.2 {Parde, deats).
prima volta {Ajffer
partire dalla
prima edizione
ordinamento, se ne ag^unge
nell'ed. del
1529 (cf qui
opem); 1.11 (Quid
ruis?);
1.1
n. 24).
{Tefoe-
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA un componimento poetico
Napoli,^'
al fol.
rizzato ad
Antonio Seripando
ha pubblicato
il
22,
si
legge
e finnato "tuus
in endecasillabi faleci, indi-
Hadr.
Lepyrius."
componimento, insieme con
che
altri testi
anche in questo caso
ressante raccolta, pensa che
67
si tratti
Fuiano, che
II
leggono in questa inte-
un nome accademico;
di
non
tavia I'identificazione da lui proposta in via ipotetica
si
tut-
e affatto convincente.-^
L'ultimo dedicatario, Giovanni di Sangro, e sicuramente da identificare con
il
"Sangriolus", caro a Decio Apranio e ad Antonio Seripando, e molto presente nelle
componimenti
lettere e nei
affettuosamente, insieme
poetici dello zibaldone dei Seripando;-^
all'
egH e ricordato
Apranio, anche da Girolamo Carbone in una importante
elegia da lui indirizzata ad Agostino Nifo, in cui
si
da un quadro dettagUato
"seconda Accademia Pontaniana" che nei primi decenni del '500 tentava,
di quella
tra
Roma
e Napoli, di mantenere in vita gU ideali estetico-cortigiani dell'antica "sodalitas".^*^
Cosi
che e
I'elegia 1.10,
sivamente
come un testamento
spirituale del Sannazaro,
matico Lepirio, per approdare infine a quel Giovanni
redazionali, scandisce le diverse tappe di
Tra
le
scazonti,
che
un
catuUiano e
il
-^ Si tratta
di
nale di Napoli,
componimento,
di schietta
un codice composite, che
una raccolta
un
di studi
per
il
mano
fascicolo di
romanza 31 (1989): 324,
M.
Cf.
come
sunt." Per falsario
il
del ms.
VE
53
catuUiano e
mani e formato
Da
questo
Nazio-
"Clarissimonim aevi Caroli Caesaris
in Bibliotheca S. lo. ad
Meola,
cf.
I.
di
Serassi, cf.
V
poe-
Carbonariam, quae nunc
A. Nunziana, "Interrogadvi su Gian
o un erudito perseguitato
Antonio
il
della Biblioteca
dalla sfortuna?"
Rinascimento meridionale 11 (1996): 43-75. Per
Napoli del Rinascimento.
^ ^
33-55
di poesie latine dal titolo:
Regiam Bibliothecam deducUe Nazionale
decisamente
catulliana:
raccoglie lettere e poesie autografe, di
trascrisse, ai fols.
Vincenzo Meola: uno spregiudicato tiene anche
impronta
Antonio e Girolamo Seripando o da loro composte.
tarum carmina, ex schedis Seripandi Cardinalis,
Seziotie
un complesso percorso esistenziale. un epigramma in trimetri gjambici
verso iniziale, che ricorda I'apertura del carme 22,
manoscritto Gian Vincenzo Meola
nella
fanto-
al
gh esecu-
legge solo, autografo, e ricco di correzioni e cancellature, nei codice
si
delizioso
diversi, indirizzate ai fratelli
I'lstituto
tra
poesie escluse dall'edizione definitiva, c'e
W.-'- E'
in
Sangro che fu
di
poeta napoletano:^' questo mutamento di nomi, nelle diverse
tori testamentari del fasi
cambia succes-
suo destinatario, passando da Rabirio a Marullo, e da questi
il
il
anche C. Vecce, "Esercizi
Sannazaro e Pindaro," Annali
Qiiademi
del-
codice, che condi traduzione
dell'lstituto Universitario Orientale,
n. 16.
Fuiano, hisegnatnento e cultura a Napoli nei Rinascimento (Napoli, 1973), 166-167.
Cf. Fuiano, Insegnametito e ailtura, 165—166,
dove
si
le^e un componimento poetico
a lui
dedicato, probabilmente da Antonio Seripando.
^ Cf 1936),
P. de Montera, L'hutnaniste napolitain Girolamo Carbone
30,
el.
w.
61-62:
"Nam
saepe meas?" Per Giovanni, ficato dal
68.
II
degli alia
Montera, cf
nome
di
F.
Giovanni
aaademici aljonsini,
BN
di
^'
Cf
'^
Ms.
figlio di
Campanile, di
ma
W,
fol.
Vita,
ritagli
67-
Minieri Riccio, Biografte
ufiiciale di
del giomale Italia reale del 1880, che
si
conservano
194.
137 r-v,
Cf
demere
Sangro e di Lucrezia Spinelli ed esattamente identi-
40, 37.
trascritto nei
"Actii Sannazarii Carmina," 510-511. nazaro, 170-171.
di
(Napoli,
L'hisloria dell'ilUistrissimafamiglia di Sangro (Napoli, 1615),
legge nei
NapoU, S.Q. XXXIII.C Percopo,
Lucido
Sangro non figura nell'edizione
si
et ses poesies inedites
quis Aprani, qui te, placidissime Sangri, / Ignoret curas
ms. Ottobon. Lat. 3172,
Qualche correzione
anche Altamura, La
tradizione, 48.
fol.
all'ed. del
171 r-v ed edito in Mai,
Mai
in
Altamura, Jaropo San-
l'accademia pontaniana
68
E
cinediorem del v. 30.^^
gramma, sicuramente sodales:
come
soprattutto catulliana e la presentazione che in questo epi-
giovanile, egli fa
can
poetae novi
i
—
ai
vv.
ben consapevoli
Muse. La
modeUo
stessa scelta del
catulliano e
un
a
mentre
17
al v.
il
Napoli da Roma,
do incontrato ne poeti, ne
Aon, identificato con I'Elicona caro
virens
infatti
tuttavia
due
i
un
che
epiteti marzialiani
il
Pochi anni dopo (1482-1486),
una
compagni
lineato
•*^
ilia,
il
De
la
di
pur aven-
non aveva
visto
composizione
leggono qui
al v. 1 1
stati
di
furono
sicuramente di si
la
Accademia, e
Caprio, per tutto
terminus ante
II
prima redazione
Catullo, 22.1:0 "SufFenus
il
1486.
dell'elegia 1.11,
Sannazaro
il
due
secolo
ci
XV
quelle che
nosti"
si
e,
De
che neU'edizione
come abbiamo
da un dettagliato elenco dei
Come
e senz'altro la piu antica.
quem probe
Vare,
iste,
piu tardi
al
quem potrebbe essere
In maledicos detractores ?^ Si tratta,
tra le
il
di Marziale, col
dell'elegia 1.10 (1476c) e dell' epigramma
composizione
due elegie in cui
delle
e
cui esemplare, utilizzato dal Sannazaro e da lui annotato,
coUoca
si
Muse,
commento
molto generico,
titolo,
gia detto, di
suoi
si
epigrammi
Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli. '^
alia
il
Hi
sciocco e borioso, che,
Sannazaro nel suo Repertorium edito dal Vecce e sono
Calderini,
Aldina ha
Priscus,
terminus post quern per la
data della partenza di Marullo da Napoli, e cioe
Prisco
al v.
alle
era circondato di schiamazzanti filosofi e che,
dall'edizione veneziana del 1482 degli
conserva la
si
Abbiamo
oratori.
trascritti dal
Domizio
Veronese.-''*
citazioni preziose di altre fonti. Cosi
paruulus coetus dei pontaniani, dichiarava che a Napoli
il
questo epigramma;
tratti
tempo
Marullo,
al
poeta
al
al
Apollo e delle
pexatus e coccinatus sono due sapienti riferimenti a due epigrammi di
un chiaro richiamo alia Lyra del Pontano.^^ Non mi e stato per ora possibile identificare questo venuto
ma
omaggio
significativo
napoletana
sodalitas
e pronti alio scherzo,
rifaceva esplicitamente
si
non mancano
accanto a Catullo,
rari attributi
Marziale-*^
gruppo dei suoi
del piccolo
membri deUa
il
della loro superiore dignita di poeti, prediletti di
che nel primo libro degli Epigrammi
Ma
—
15—19
anche
a Catullo,
sono presentati qui come dei giovani spensierati stesso
sua ideologia
e le
ha sotto-
sogliono definire accademie
per
il
v. 30, Catullo, 10.24:
"Hie
non ancora
ostile
ut decuit cinaediorem." ^*
Bastera a questo proposito citare
a Marullo,
compose
cesco de' Medici; ^^
Per pexatus,
sono annotate
e
in
Poeti latini,
cf. cf.
Sabia,
202-203
il
Poliziano,
suo protettore fiorentino, Lorenzo di Pierfran-
1;
per
coccinatus,
Marziale, 3.2, v. 11.
Entrambe
Lat.
9477 (W).
Cf
Vecce, Gli zibaldoni,
le
parole
Vecce ha pub167, linn. 118-119
Sannazaro nel Repertorium rerum antiquarum, che
Vindobon.
blicato, traendolo dal ms.
^^
dal
al
1008-1009.
Marziale, 2.58, v.
commentate
(pexatus) e 169, linn.
epigrammi 30 e 31, che
gli
suo onore, dedicandoli
il
[coccinatus).
Per Aon, considerate sinonimo di Elicona, cf Pontano, Lyra, 3.14 e 12.6, in L. Monti
"La Lyra
Rendiconti
di
Giovanni Pontano, edita secondo I'autografo codice Reginense latino 1527,"
dell' Accademia di
^^ Si tratta di
Archeologia, Lettere e Belle Arti di Napoli
un esemplare
(Venezia, 1482), che
si
conserva
dell'edizione di Marziale, col alia
47 (1972): 39, 56.
commento
di
Domizio Calderini
Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli (S.Q. X.D.26).
Cf
Vecce, Gli
zibaldoni, 41, n. 2. ^^
Pubblico
I'elegia in
nazarii Opera, 116-117).
che ha ristampato
le
Appendice,
2,
seguendo
il
testo dell'edizione olandese del
1728 (cf San-
Per questa importante edizione, curata dal filologo belga Peter Vlaming,
note
di
Johann Broekhuizen, cf Sannazaro, De
partu, cxix-cxx.
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA
non avevano
che assumeranno a partire
carattere formalizzato ed organizzato
il
seconda meta del '500. E' certo tuttavia che
69
van cenacoli umanistici
i
ma
finendo non solo in base ad una precisa identita in positivo, tutto, in
funzione polemica nei confronti di
que, un'elegia
come
la 1.11,
gruppi
rivali.
estetici e
moraU deUa
piu che proprio questa elegia, cosi poco elegiaca, e
mazione tici
ed
studio della sua tradizione manoscritta ci
puo
di questa raccolta, e sulla sua circolazione, in
estetici
non
soprat-
In questo senso, dun-
sodalitas
pontaniana. Tanto
secondo posto
appendice
al
uno spiragUo
aprire
ambienti legati
De
partu
sulla for-
agli ideali
poU-
dell'Accademia pontaniana.
La piu antica redazione osservare dall'apparato,
ma con
autografi,
anche, se
stata inserita al
della piccola silloge, pubbUcata, in redazione precanonica, in Virginis: lo
dalla
andavano de-
che e una vera e propria invettiva, ha un significato tutto
gU ideah
speciale, per caratterizzare
altri
si
il
non si legge nel codice W; come si puo Sambuco ci da solo i w. 1—35, che si leggono,
dell'elegia 1.11
codice del
qualche lacuna,
al fol.
130r—v;
essi ci
conservano
la
redazione finale
del testo, accolta nella pn'nceps; lo dimostra la lezione loviani del v. 15 e soprattutto la
presenza dei
w.
NapoU
procuro a
bozzi gjovaniU e a finitiva
V
25—26, che in
celebretque suae, al fol. 7v.
nel suo
leggono solo a margine, con
si
la variante
Con-
Evidentemente U materiale sannazariano che U Sambuco
soggiomo
1562-1563, conteneva, accanto
del
testi rimasti inediti,
anche alcuni specimina
di quella
si
a molti ab-
redazione de-
che fu utihzzata dai curatori dell'Aldina del 1535.^'
Uno dei tramiti tra i pontaniani rimasti a NapoH e i circoli culturaH romani fu indubbiamente I'umanista Angelo Colocci, che fu membro dell'Accademia pontaniana, raccoghtore appassionato di epigrammi neolatini e presente
— anche
nel codice
V.^ E
revoh manoscritti vaticani che il
Vat. Lat.
2836
{A)*^ e
U Vat.
ci
''
2847
(B);
un
terzo codice,
— come erroneamente
*°
ipotizza la
cf.
il
Di Stefano
— ma
il
I'elegia 1.11:
6250
dallo stesso codice
suo fruttuoso
Per Angelo Colocci Qesi, 1474-Roma, 1549),
Rome, Melanges
cf. S.
Lattes,
"Recherches sur
d'Archeologie et d'Histoire
Angela
Colocci. Jest,
zionale in DBl, 27
nome non Per
il
(Roma,
13-14
settembre
1982), 105-111.
1969
Fu
(Jesi,
la
bibliotheque
senz'altro
ritagli dell'/to/ia reale (n. 30), fol.
Vat. Lat. 2836, cf Kristeller,
Stefano, "Per I'edizione," 24. Del Sannazaro
Iter, il
2,
membro
*^
Per
il
Vat. Lat. 6250, cf Kristeller,
1910), 540-541.
con un'appendice
di
Iter,
Accademia pontaniana;
dell
ma come
il
"Colucci <sic>
40.
353a; Altamura, La tradizione, 46-47; e Di
codice contiene solo,
e 1.11, oltre ad una ventina di epigrammi, divisi tra loro in base
blioteca Vaticana,
del convegno
1972), 257-272; cf infine. voce reda-
figura nella pubblicazione piu nota del Minieri Riccio,
Basso Angelo," nei *'
so^omo
48 (1931): 308-344;
A. Campana, "Angelo Colocci conservatore ed editore di letteratura neolatina," in Atti
suo
(C),
delle edizioni
Vecce, Cli zibaldoni, 11-22.
d' Angelo Colocci," Ecole Fratifaise de
di studi su
visto
due piu auto-
Vat. Lat.
non da qualcuna
Per Giovanni Sambuco (Janos 2^samboky, 1531-1584) e per
napoletano,
i
conservano in redazione precanonica
Lat.
e decisamente piu tardo e probabilmente descriptus
precanoniche
— come abbiamo
bibhoteca del Colocci provengono
dalla
2, 339a;
carmi inedid o
M.
al
ai foil.
123-124r,
le elegie 1.2
contenuto.
Vattasso, "I codici molziani della Bi-
rari," in Miscellanea
A. M. Ceriani (Milano,
l'accademia pontaniana e le sua ideologia
70 Airinterno
di questa tradizione precanonica,
frutto dell'assemblaggio di fascicoli di
colo,
fols.
i
1— 9v sono
(foil.
nica,
un
una
anche
mani ed epoche
e
comunque
diverse.'*-*
piu antico
il
B e un codice
composite,
Nel primo
fasci-
che e sicuramente da
bella corsiva calligrafica,
buona e solida formazione: i titoli e qualche nota marginale in un inchiostro rosso assai scolorito. La raccolta si apre lr-2v) con otto epigrammi.'*'* Seguono le cinque elegie della raccolta precanoin una disposizione diversa e con titoli piu ampi e dettagliati di quelli delle
attribuire ad
sono
in
scritti
B
codice
il
Come molti altri zibaldoni colocciani,
ed autorevole.
copista di
mano
scritti dalla stessa
redazioni successive:
2r-3r: "Acci Sinceri Nazarij Neapolitani ad puellam de foe-
foil.
deribus inter se et illam iunctis, elegia prima" (= El. 1.3); foU. 3r—4r: "Eiusdem Accij lo. Pardum philosophum ac poetam clarissimum de animi sui voto ad vitam rusticam" (= El. 1.2); fol. 4r—v "loannis Pardi Hispani philosophi doctissimi ad Accium Sincerum responsio"; foil. 4v— 5r: "Acci Sinceri ad Lucinam ut puellae Rabirii sodalis
ad
parturienti subveniat precatio, Elegia tertia" (= El. 1.4);
5r-6v: "Acci Sinceri ad
foil.
Lucium Crassum Neapolitanum, amicum suavissimum, de mora eius ad Petrinum oppidum" (= El. 1.1); foil. 7r— 8v: "Eiusdem Accii in lividos detractores, Scucchae grammatici alumnos, homicidas furesque nocturnos" (=
*^
La sezione sannazariana del codice
varie raccolte (di
mani ed epoche
gherese Janus Pannonius;
foil.
si
chiude col
bris
mano
1516";
Octobris
alia
176-177:
MDXII"; foil.
228: Galli Epidii
lo. Fr.
191-199:
stemma
Romani De
et
immortalitatem;
Picas Petro
Bembo,
lettera, dat.
commento
come
albero sacro;
el gibelline et
Juhasz, Commentatio
332-334; tini
illustrissimi
173r-174v: epigrammi di vari
"Romae, die XVI octo"Romae, tertio decimo Kal.
fol.
s.
XIV
ipsamm
critica
la storia dell'utilizzazione,
190: splendida raffigurazione di
con ampie
evidentemente
citazioni di fonti classiche;
Viridario Augustini Chisii Patritii Senensis Vera libellus
.
.
foil.
201-
Impressum
.
Anno Domini MDXI;
foil.
229-
ex./XVin.: Magistri Christiani de Camerino Super contiones par-
obiurgatione,
poemetto
in esametri (inc.: al
"Impia
Kristeller
{Iter,
terribili
2,
nunc tem-
23b-24a), cf L.
ad edendasjani Pannotiii Elegias (Szeged, 1929), 16-17; idem, Quaestiones
de epigrammatibus lani Pannonii
e
chiude
12-163 contengono
storico alle illustrazioni precedenti (tese
dei Delia Rovere),
pestate furentum"). Per questo importante manoscritto, oltre
Bembo
foil.
per Stephanum Guillereti et Herculem Nani consocium,
240v: scrittura semigotica,
criticae
si
ed epigrammi dell'umanista un-
180-189: acquarelli simbolici, che illustrano
foil.
celebrazione dello
tium guelfe
foil.
silloge
del Colocci; fol. 175r-v: lettera di Blosius Palladius, dat.
foil.
rinoceronte;
Romae
i
La
164-172: Petri Gravinae Canonici Neapohtani Poema ad
presso diveni popoli antichi, della quercia
un
Iv (bianco);
diverse) di poemetti, elegie,
Consalvi Ferdinatidi Magtii hwidique ducisgloriam autori, di
fol. 1
El. 1.11).
(Roma, 1929), 23-24; G. Santangelo, "La polemica
Gian Francesco Pico intorno
al
principio dell'imitazione," Rinascimento n.s.
M. Dewar, "Encomium of Agostino
Chigi and Pope Julius
II
in the
fra 1
Pietro
(1950):
Suburbanum Augus-
Chigi of Blosius Palladius," Res publica litterarum 14 (1991): 61-68.
De Alphonso, Calabrum duce, exercitum Maximum (1.37); De Diana, love et Amore (2.23); De Luna, Pane et Endimione (1.18); De love et Cupidine (2.50); De Pane, Luna et Syringe (2.1); De Venere et Priapo (2.13); De Cyparisso et Apolline (1.49); De Venere et Pallade (1.17). Nell'ed. Aldina 1527, si leggono solo tre di questi epigrammi (2.13, 1.17 e 1.49) + I'ep. 1.36 (De mirabili '*'•
Ecco, nell'ordine,
gli
epigrammi, con
i
rispettivi titoli:
ducente per Apennini iugum in Xistum quartum Pontificem
urbe Venetiis); in
queUa del 1528
antequam
iret in
exilium).
tolo banalizzato:
De
(fols.
3—4),
+ I'ep. 1.36 Manca solo i'ep.
1.49, 2.56, 2.23, 1.18, 2.7
gli
epigrammi che coincidono sono
e gli epp. 2.10 1.37,
Alphonso, duce Calabriae.
(De Summontii
che compare a partire
pietate) e
sette: 2.13, 1.17,
3.9 {Ad patriam,
dall'ed. Venetiis
1530, col
ti-
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA con una
— pubblicata piu
—B una copia — straordinariamente pacata ed elegante —
manoscritto. Nell'inviare all'amico
come
la risposta
invettive lanciate contro
i
e
il
solo testimone
del Sannazaro alle
non
pontaniani da anonimi KaKoXOyoi. La lettera
deludente a questo scopo e
gli
infami detrattori, paragonati
nenuneno per una datazione
a ragni velenosi o a topi infetti, e
la lettura della
canzone che lo
commenta
copo, che pubbHca e
la
canzone del Chariteo,
precisa. Altrettanto
stile
petrarchesco.
Non
il
anche nel
e questo
secondo
il
Per-
anonimo che aveva
testo
una composizione poetica
suscitato le ire dei pontaniani sarebbe
for-
stesso Chariteo, soUecitato
malivolt), I'elegia del Sannazaro:'*^
li
ci
dall' Altilio
dalla lettera deU'Altilio, scrisse in volgare, parafirasando,
titolo {Risposta del Chariteo contra
umphi", in
volte
dell'elegia sannazariana, I'Altilio la pre-
nisce purtroppo elementi per identificare
evidentemente
commento
che e un vero e proprio
lettera di Gabriele Altilio al Chariteo,
dell'elegia 1.11:^^ di questa lettera
senta
71
dal titolo "Tri-
luogo per un'analisi dettagliata
il
di
queste due composizioni, che abbiamo ricordato perche esse servono a sottolineare
I'importanza dell'elegia 1.11, che
contemporanei apparve come un vero
ai
e proprio
manifesto programmatico deUa poetica pontaniana. terminus ante quern per datare questa elegia e
II
—
tamura si
il
20
aprile 1493, data in cui
— come aveva
da un documento pubblicato dal Percopo/^ Nell'elegia
-ricava
(vv. 15-16), Gabriele Altilio (vv. 17-18), Pietro
20), Ehsio Calenzio,
duca
soprannominato Galluccio
di Atri (vv.
il
venerato maestro
prima sono ricordati
e presentato al centro della dotta brigata (vv. 33—36);
viva,
gia osservato I'Al-
Giuniano Maio era sicuramente morto, come
GoUno,
detto
il
il
Compare
Pontano (vv. 19-
21—22), Andrea Matteo Acqua-
(vv.
23-24), Leonardo Corvino (vv. 27-28), Giovanni Albino (vv.
29-30), e Michele Marullo (w. 31-32).''^ Seguono, con elegante parallehsmo,
*^ ill.
La
8v-9v) ha
lettera (foil.
Campani ab DBl, 2 (Roma,
Principis
Nicolini, tavia
non all'
1960),
"Gabriel
La
— divenne vescovo
505-506
lettera fu pubblicata
per
la
prima
Episcopus Polycastrensis ac
1.2 del Sannazaro, nell'edizione del
De partu
—
di Policastro I'S
nomina
volta, insieme
con
e
che
cf.
il
per
il
quale
cf.
F.
gennaio 1493; tut-
titolo sia stato
la risposta
Virginis del
Sannazarii Opera, 595-596, fra le note di Petrus Vlamingius; il
Altilius,
Chariteo amico charissimo." L'Altilio
e affatto escluso che la lettera sia precedence alia
dal copista.
Pardo
Yinscriptio, in rosso:
Epistolis,
a^unto
poetica di Giovanni
1531 (Venetiis, 1531); poi in
inoltre
Benedetto Gareth, detto
Chariteo, Rime, ed. E. Percopo (Napoli, 1892), app. XI, 192-193; e Gabriele Altilio, Poesie, ed.
G. Lamattina (Salerno, 1978), 145-147. "**
Per
la
*''
Cf
E. Percopo,
canzone,
cf.
Benedetto Gareth, Rime, 355-367.
"Nuovi documenti su gli scrittori e gli artisti dei tempi aragonesi, con un deU'autore," ed. M. Del Treppo, Archivio Storico delle province Napoletane 19 (1894): 756 (rist.
profilo
Napoli, 1997), 127, doc. LIX. Per Giuniano Maio, oltre Garbini, in Asor Rosa, ed., Letteratura **
Per Pietro Golino, detto
Mezzogiomo
d'ltalia.
Storia,
"il
italiana.
Compare"
al
prezioso saggio del Percopo, cf P.
Gli autori, vol. 2, 1110. {Petnis Compater),
bibliografia e testi inediti (Firenze,
cf A. Altamura, L'umanesimo nel
1941), 56-57; per Elisio Calenzio,
detto Galluccio con una curiosa inversione, certificata dal suo testamento, cf S. Foa, "Gallucci
Luigi (Elisio Calenzio)," DBl, 51 di Atri
(1458-1529), cf
(Torino:
Einaudi,
M.
1990),
(Roma,
1998), 743-745; per
Andrea Matteo Acquaviva, duca
Perugini, in Asor Rosa, ed., Letteratura 23.
Leonardo
Cermini
da
Cerbara,
italiana.
detto
Gli autori, vol.
Corvino,
1
"clericus
Barchinonensis," fu vescovo di Montepeloso dal 1491 e poi di Trivento dal 21 febbraio 1498, fino
l'accademia pontaniana e le sua ideologia
72
Benedetto Gareth, detto
il
Chariteo
37—38), Francesco Pucci, che nella redazione
Zenone
cesco Scala (vv. 41-42), Rutilio
(vv.
La
nomi furono
cui
i
non ha
piu ampio, che
si
— come
aggiunti
(vv.
25-26) e Girolamo
solo
che regge
una funzione
sua verga professorale
la
in
come uno
architettonica. Se leggiamo infatti
legge solo in B, vediamo che
il
titolo
"malevoli detrattori" sono definiti
i
"Scucchae grammatici alumnos, homicidas furesque noctumos."
dunque,
Si tratta
un componimento indirizzato contro i grammatici, da accostare due famosi epigrammi 1.66 e 1.67, che il Sannazaro compose contro il Poliziano,
ancora una volta, ai
di
siamo fermati in
e su cui ci
altra sede.^'
II
questa elegia e dunque, senza alcun dubbio,
terminus post quern per la datazione di il
settembre del 1489, data di pubbli-
Qui
cazione della prima centuria dei Miscellanea del Poliziano.
preminente assegnata
al
Maio
filologo, Francesco Elio
indirizzata contro
contrapposizione
Ma
chi e
il
i
Marchese)
ci fa
capire che I'invettiva
grammatici troppo pedanti,
tra
due modi
ma
che
diversi di concepire la
Se
si
leggono
i
16 marzo 1502, quando fu sostituito "per obitum" da sostenuta dal Dionisotti
catalana,
Letteratura Italiana
Che
(cf.
dal
cf.
Per Benedetto Gareth, detto
Percopo,
cf. F.
e chi
un
una precisa
sono
me
si
e netta
la filologia.^^ i
suoi discepoli,
nota che I'unico
Tommaso ombra
con penna
nome
pos-
Caracciolo. La sua origine
di
Qiornale Storico
et
della
dubbio, dalla canzone del
con inchiostro";
ti
mostro
infine per
DBI, 2 (Roma, 1960), 85-86. il
Chariteo (1450c.-1514), oltre
Tateo, L'umanesimo meridionale, 121—133, e
Letteratura italiana. Gli autori, vol. 1,
poeta-
altro
genericamente
Benedetto Gareth, Rime, 367): "Et tu Corvino mio, per ch'io
Giovanni Albino (1456-1 520c.),
"
e
ruoli dei professori di discipline
e confermata, senza
sangue et d'amor son teco giunto, / Park di
di
tratta di
si
("Miscellanea umanistica transalpina,"
110 [1937]: 262-267)
224-226
Chariteo, vv.
non
grammatica e
grammatico che Sannazaro chiama Scuccha
umanistiche che insegnarono a Napoli in quegli anni,
al
tuttavia la posizione
e la presenza del Pucci (poi sostituito da
definiti "assassini e ladri notturni"?
/
—
nota dall'apparato
si
rifacimento.^"
centralita del vecchio maestro,
scettro regale,
39—40), Fran-
Abbiamo volu-
vv. 51—54.'*^
i
tamente escluso dall'elenco Troiano Cabanilla, o Cavaniglia
Carbone (vv. 45—46), un secondo piu tardo
(vv.
43—44), Giovanni Pardo (vv. 47—48), e
cui sono consacrati
fine lo stesso Sannazaro,
alia
(vv.
da Francesco Elio Marchese, zio di Cassandra
finale sara sostituito
M.
alia
preziosa edizione curata
Moschella, in Asor Rosa, ed.,
537-538; per Francesco Pucci (Firenze, 1463-Roma, 1512),
cf Percopo, "Nuovi documenti," 59-78; per Francesco Elio Marchese (1430c.-1517), cf P.
Rocchi,
in
Asor Rosa,
ed., Letteratura italiana. Gli autori, vol. 2, 1137.
Per Francesco Scala o Scales
(m. prima del 1497), cf Minieri Riccio, Biografie, 27-33; per RutiHo Zenone, cf Percopo,
"Nuovi documenti," 98-101; per Giovanni Pardo, cf Percopo, "Nuovi documenti," 173-182,
e
Altamura, L'umanesimo meridionale, 58-59. ^°
Per Troiano Cabanilla (Cavaniglia), conte
Poeti latini,
1137;
cfr.
(1465c .-1528), oltre
di
Troia e Montella, dedicatario dei
inoltre Minieri Riccio, in Italia reale, fol. 27r-v.
alia bella
Salices,
cf
Per Girolamo Carbone
monografia del Montera, cf R. Pastore, DBI, 19 (Roma, 1976),
695-696. ^'
^^
Cf Gualdo Rosa, "L'Academie Pontanienne," 212-215. Cf V. Fera, "11 dibattito umanistico sui Miscellanea," in Agnolo
logo. Atti del
Convegno Internazionale
Martelli (Firenze, 1998), 334-362.
di Studi,
Montepulciano,
Poliziano poeta,
3—6 novemhre 1994,
ed.
scrittore efilo-
V. Fera e
M.
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA Giuniano Maio e
sibile, al di fuori di
73
Francesco Pucci, perfettamente integrati nel
di
cenacolo pontaniano, e quelle del milanese Aurelio Bienato.^-'
grammatica e retorica
Studio di Napoli dal 1470
alio
1480,
al
dopo
aver insegnato
Bienato ottenne di-
vescovo
versi privilegi ecclesiastici, fino a diventare, nel 1485,
favore di cui godette a corte, anche
Dopo
il
di
condanna
Martirano (Ca-
morte del suo AntoneUo Petrucci (1486), e testimoniato dal fatto che egli fu, fino al 1490, precettore di don Pietro d'Aragona, secondogenito del duca di Calabria Alfonso
tanzaro).
II
la
a
protettore
e di Isabella
Maria
Sforza.
Compose un'epitome dei sei commento alle Institutiones
piu volte ristampata, ed un
una parte in un codice napoletano.^*
serva
20 febbraio del 1490, in un grave duca Alfonso "ebbe nova che
fatto di sangue.
mastro
lo
di
non venire
mano
in
duca fece portare
Non
nale.^^ i
uno suo
sappiamo cosa
la
Nova,
alia
il
Don
e
li
U
con-
il
Leostello,
il
Pietro, suo figlio,
fianchi, et, per sospecto
in la gola
con un rasoro."
fece curare dal suo
Certo
il
II
medico perso-
Bienato guari e riconquisto
25 aprile del 1492 ebbe I'incarico
di leggere in Santa
presenza dei sovrani, I'elogio funebre di Lorenzo de' Medici.^^
L'orazione, edita dal Capialbi, e Firenze, considerata
racconta
ci
in
medesmo
prete.
al
Valla,
Aurelio, poeta excellentissimo et docto,
Nuovo
successo
sia
favori della corte, tanto che
Maria
Castel
feriti a
Come
con una sua spada
della Corte, se ferio se
due
i
preite
si
coinvolto, nella notte del
fii
dell'Illustre Signoria
nome M.
che era episcopo et chiamavasi per avea ferito malamente
di Quintiliano, di cui
Bienato
II
deUe Elegantiae del
libri
come
la
un caldo elogio non
ma
solo di Lorenzo,
anche
di
vera e sola madre della rinascita degli studi letterari ed
artistici.
E' ovvio che
un grammatico, seguace
nesimo fiorentino e per dito
ai
di piu
e ammiratore del Valla, esaltatore dell'uma-
commentatore
QuintiUano, non poteva essere gra-
di
nostri pontaniani, impegnati, proprio nel 1490, in un'aspra
Poliziano, che del Valla era considerate
polemica contro
il
piu autorevole seguace. L'ostiHta era sen-
il
z'altro reciproca; basta leggere I'introduzione
all'
EpiVoma del Bienato indirizzata
al
di-
scepolo Sebastiano degU Agostini: accanto all'esaltazione del Valla, vi troviamo tutto il
disprezzo per coloro che
passaggio in cui
si
"Quod si ahqua preter ilHus nihil te
*^
moveant;
non condividono
le
sue teorie. Particolare interesse ha
polemizza contro coloro che studiano
ilia
{scil.
del Valla)
le parole rare
preceptionem in autoribus antiquis
adeo rara sunt, ut potius licentiose cuidam
il
ed arcaiche: legeris,
autoritati ascribenda.
Cf. V. Capialbi, Memorie di Rutilio Zeno e Aurelio Bienato (Napoli, 1848); Percopo,
"Nuovi
documenti," 102-109; M. Mi^io, DBI, 10 (Roma, 1968), 369-370. ^*
ebbe 1480;
Cf. Aurelii Bienati Elegatttiarum epithomata in sex libws Lauretitii Vallae disertissimi. L'opera tre edizioni la
napoletane nel '400;
la
prima, da attribuire a Francesco di Dine, e del 1479/
seconda, di Francesco del Tuppo, del 1488; e
la terza, di
Christian Preller, del 1491.
Cf
M. Santoro, La stampa a Napoli nel Quattrocento (Napoli, 1984), 102-103. II codice, dove si legge il commento parziale del Bienato alle Institutiones oratoriae di Quintiliano, datato 1475/1476, e il ms. della Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli
cum
1
^^
Cf
J.
30,
foil.
34-216, per
P. Leostello, "Effemeridi delle cose fatte per
Documenti per **
VD
il
quale cf Kristeller,
Iter Itali-
(London-Leiden, 1963), 415b.
Cf
la storia,
le arti
il
Duca
di Calabria," in
e le industrie delle province napoletane 1 (Napoli, 1883),
Capialbi, Memorie, 71-86.
G.
307.
Filangieri,
L'ACCADEMIA PONTANIANA E LE SUA IDEOLOGIA
74
quam
ratione
steris
cum hoc
usquam comprobanda {scil.
An
castigatos?
ties
quando
An
col Valla) conferes?
malevole critiche contro
i
igitur
un
E poiche
brutto fatto di cronaca, I'occasione fu colta
agli insulti indirizzati
immersi
Ai vv. 7-8,
contro
i
si
hoc
Stygiis
flens
il
Nocturnisque
le
qui I'aUusione
male
arti
i
suo gesto sconsiderato. Piu
il
reddite,
perque
vias.
cronaca mi sembra molto precisa.
nomi completi
con sicurezza
si
leggono, in un inchiostro rosso
dei pontaniani ricordati nel testo. Cosi possiamo
in Francesco Scala, lo Scala ricordato ai vv. 41—42, che
commento
da Peter Vlaming nel 1728, identificava erroneamente con Scala. ^^ Si tratta dello stesso Scala
membro
tui Marulli"),
essere proprio
^*
si
autorevole funzionario
il
al
seicentesco, pubblicato
fiorentino Bartolomeo
Marullo dedica
I'ep.
I
9 ("Scala,
servizio dei sovrani aragonesi, e
Elegantiarum Epithomata (Napoli, 1479-1480),
Napoli (BN, S.Q. VII
in cui
o Scales, cui
il
dell'Accademia pontaniana.^^
" Aurelii Bienati a
—
urbem
dolis agitate et caedibus
ancorail Broekhuizen Qanus Broukhusius), nel suo
delicium
ma
introdotte dai seguaci dello Scucca
e utile anche perche sui suoi margini
scolorito,
identificare
alia
cure del medico di corte;
alle
Sannazaro aggiunge:
Perque fora infestam
B
Bienato.
il
del resto dice esplicitamente lo stesso Leostello
59—60, nel descrivere
nella pacifica Partenope,
codice
elementi intemi mi sem-
verbera torta timet?
temere una qualche severa punizione per
avanti, ai vv.
molto
Bienato era stato
immersus Scucca lacunis
Eumenidum
improbabile che — come
egli potesse
altri
in cui era stato coinvolto
Bienato era rinchiuso a Castel dell'Ovo, affidato
II
il
volo dal Sannazaro per
al
legge:
Dum
Anche
Bienato (definito
discepoli dello Scucca-Bienato, creature delle tenebre,
sanguinosa
alia rissa
An monet
e
di
al
nella paludi dello Stige, allevati dalle Erinni, contrapposti all'eletta schiera dei
brano alludere
non
Sicche
suoi discepoli "homicidae furesque nocturni." Accanto
i
pontaniani, luminosi seguaci di Apollo e delle Muse,
II
— de po-
satius fuisset tacere?"^^
pontaniani, questi risalirano facilmente
definire globalmente lui e
placet
si
una composizione poetica anonima, plena
dal Leostello "poeta ecellentissimo") e ai suoi discepoli.
coinvolto in
—
Servium, an Priscianum, ab eo merito to-
Papiam, an Marcellum, quibus
Napoli comincio a circolare
a
Quern
videantur.
B
30),
ha
i
fogli
non numerati. Oggetto
Giuniano Maio, che nel 1475 pubblico
attingeva abbondantemente proprio
Cf.
Sannazarii Opera,
ai
a
Napoli
fol.
ii.
L'esemplare che ho visto
delle critiche del Bienato
il
De priscorum
sembra
proprietate verhorum,
grammatici qui cosi aspramente scherniti.
124-125. Per una corretta identificazione,
cf.
Michaelis MaruUi
Camtina, ed. A. Perosa (Turici, 1951), 257. ^'
dice
L'identificazione esatta e gia in Capialbi, Memorie, 19-22.
W
Un
e ai molti pontaniani amici dello Scala nell'introduzione del
Rime, ccxi.
piii
preciso riferimento
al
co-
Percopo a Benedetto Gareth,
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA
Questa identificazione
ci serve
anche per correggere
75
Yinscriptio di
una
bella elegia
("Die mihi tarn grato quid volvis, Scala, recessu?"), ingiustamente esclusa dall'edizione canonica, elegia che nel codice
codice Viennese,
il
Mai
Percopo suggeriva
il
W e dedicata ad un Fulvio Scala non meglio identi-
mentre nell'autografo V, manca come
ficato,
mentare
1'
la
pubblico con
correggere
di
al solito di
intestazione. Basandosi sul
Vinscriptio misteriosa.
Fulvio in Francesco;
il
elegia nella sua monografia sul Sannazaro,
Molto opportunamente
ma
I'Altamura, nel
com-
difendeva I'intestazione del
codice, fondandosi sulla sua presunta autografia.^ Purtroppo per I'Altamura e fortu-
natamente per noi,
W non e
di
aflfatto
la
famosa
"Ad Fulvium Scalam" che
inscriptio
autografa, per cui
si
legge
al fol.
120v
Fulvium puo e deve essere corretto in Fran-
il
suUa base anche della nota marginale di B, oltre che della logica storica e del-
ciscum,
I'analisi del testo.
Abbiamo visto quanto importante e autorevole sia il codice B. A questo punto non mi sembra azzardato avanzare I'ipotesi che la raccolta, che si legge ai foil. Ir—9v, sia stata amorosamente preparata e fatta trascrivere da un esperto copista, proprio per il Chariteo (cui e indirizzata la lettera dell'Altiho, che si conserva solo in B), un
— anche per
poeta che
proprio
al
dei sovrani aragonesi, egli
se,
trasferi a
si
fedele per tutta la vita agli
ricordo nostalgico della dinastia aragonese; e che
Chariteo I'abbia portata con
il
— rimase
sue origini catalane
le
ideah poetici deU'Accademia e
quando nel 1501, dopo
Roma, entrando
la
caduta definitiva
a far parte del circolo del
Colocci.^'
Ma I
il
una
in
(il
fol.
II
dsHl'editio princeps del
due epigrammi, il
titolo
De
primo,
deU'epUho
tibus: si tratta
ha
llv e bianco) contengono
De
al fol.
De partu
^ Cf
Virginis,
dopo
tauro et ursis,
Fabula de
la
salicibus
quinta ecloga.^- Seguono,
mentre neU'edizione
Come
Borgia, Alexandri pontijicisjilio.
si
II
primo e
diversa,
I'ep.
al fol. llr,
1.14 che qui
definitiva avra quello, assai piu
ricava dal contenuto, I'epigramma
morte del padre, nell'autunno del 1503,
la
dove era assediato da quegU
Altamura, Jaropo Sannazaro, 170-171 e n.
stessi
Orsini, che
si
poco
1.
dopo la cacciata definitiva dei Frances! (ma^o 1503), tomo a Napoli, dove aUa morte (1514). Per le vicende biografiche del Chariteo in quegli anni, cf. Percopo,
Benedetto Gareth, Rime, xxxviii-xxxix.
componimenti sannazahani che selettiva, dell'elegia
stesso
la
mano
componimenti sanSamo amni imminen-
Chariteo,
rimase fino in
lOr—v e
entrambi agU anni 1502/1503.
databili
era rifugiato in Castel S. Angelo,
II
da una
dedicato a Troiano CabaniUa, e stampato, a partire
Salices,
quando Cesare Borgia, dopo
£u scritto
"
infatti, scritti
scrittura corsiva e personale e senza titoU rubricati, alcuni
nazariani piu tardi.
banale,
B non si conclude con la lettera dell' Altilio.
fascicolo saimazariano del codice
lOr— llr
foil.
Pardo
(cf.
B,
si
leggono
1.2, indirizzata alio fols.
Che
egli sia I'autore
in B, lo dimostra
il
destinatario della raccolta di
la
presenza, in una silloge cosi
spagnolo Giovanni Pardo e della risposta poetica dello
3r—4v). La poesia del Pardo e
nelle edizioni precanoniche,
o
anche
con Tunica eccezione
—
la lettera dell' Altilio
non furono stampate
su cui bisognera riflettere
—
dell'edizione
del 1531 (cf qui, n. 45). '^ L'epillio al
De partu
fu pubblicato,
Virginis, fin dalle
con
la
Lamentatio de morte Christi e con le Eclogae piscatoriae insieme
due prime edizioni
del 1526.
Cf
Sannazaro,
De partu
Virginis, xlv-lii.
L'ACCADEMIA PONTANIANA E LE SUA IDEOLOGIA
76
tempo prima
ma
Francia, in
aveva perseguitato.^^
egli
con ogni
Si tratta,
lacopo d'Atri, ambasciatore del m,archese
di cui parla
una
lettera inviata
me
cembre 1503: "Sannazaro
Mantova
presso
il
re di
da Lione a Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, e datata 24 di-
ha promesso uno epigramma facto per
composto
nois."^'* L'altro e I'ep. 2.60,
probabilita, dell'epigramdi
Sannazaro per celebrare
dal
il
la
duca ValentibeUezza della
poetessa Camilla Scarampa, da lui incontrata a Pavia nell'agosto del 1502; anche
questo epigramma fu inviato da lacopo d'Atri a Isabella Gonzaga, avidissima di conoscere per prima la produzione poetica del poeta napoletano.^^
B
questo epigramma ha
tutta evidenza
i
precedenti. Tra l'altro
E
il
che
vi
si
pontificato di Giulio
poli, e
accolti nelle edizioni
leggono ha un'identica
il
leggono possiamo arguire che esso fu messo insieme durante 11.^'
circoli umanistici
i
si
non direttamente al Sannazaro, certo ad ambienti a lui codice B e uno zibaldone appartenuto ad Angelo Co-
risalire, se
Sappiamo che
locci; dai testi
due epigrammi non sono
i
tuttavia la redazione dei testi che vi
sembra
vicini.
In quel periodo,
i
contatti tra
i
pontaniani rimasti a
romani, non erano tuttavia assicurati dal solo Colocci.
si
il
stabili
che
il
Percopo
con
—
a partire dal
Roma
lui a
almeno
Na-
Un
— come
ruolo importante lo dovette svolgere anche quel Francesco Pucci che insegna
momento
composti in un
stati
diversa, rispetto alia siUoge, calligraficamente tra-
scritta nei fogli
autorita e
lOr— llr sono
testi raccolti ai foU.
hanno una provenienza
precanoniche.
molto
che e con
Camilla Scalampa Mediolanensi.^^
E' evidente che diverso ed
Orbene, nel codice
titolo In laudem Camillae Scarampae Ticinensis,
solo titolo corretto, visto che a partire dalla princeps, lo leggiamo in
il
De
questa forma:
il
dal
1506 e
li
mori
il
24 agosto del 1512. Sappiamo
Sannazaro mantenne col cardinale una costante corrispondenza, proprio per
tramite del Pucci^^ e che, proprio nel 1512, correva voce che Giulio "far re di
Napoli
il
vicini al cardinale,
Con
cardinal di Ragona."^^ si
dovevano leggere
colare quell'elegia 1.11 che e
ci
1504 fu segretario del cardinale Luigi d'Aragona,
una vera
i
II
il
intendeva
quanta commozione, negh ambienti
componimenti
del Sannazaro ed in parti-
e propria glorificazione
deU'Accademia ponta-
niana e insieme una sapiente esaltazione di quell'ideale puristico e classicistico che fu il
manifesto culturale del pontificato "imperiale" del papa Della Rovere
Poche sono
le
dubbi ancora da
chiarire.
E
tuttavia,
scuola storica del tardo '800 e
come
''*
''''
ci e stato
ci
hanno insegnato
per Sannazaro e
i
i
A. Luzio e R. Renier, "La coltura e
i
grandi maestri della
pontaniani, soprattutto
il
Percopo),
piu di recente insegnato dal Kristeller, dal Billanovich
e,
per
il
(Roma, 1959), 657.
le relazioni letterarie di Isabella
D'Este Gonzaga,"
40 (1901): 307. Renier, "La coltura," 306-307.
Storico della letteratura Italiana
"
Cf. Luzio e
**
Cf. Sannazarii Opera omnia,
" Cf ^^
(e
come
Cf. L. V. Pastor, 5(on<j deipapi dalla fine del Medioevo, trad. A. Mercati, 3
Giomale
!
certezze che abbiamo ricavato dalla nostra analisi, molti sono
Cf
fol.
57v.
Cf
anche Vecce,
lacopo Sannazaro in Francia, 51, 182.
qui, n. 43.
lacobo Sannazaro, Opere
volgari, ed.
A.
Mauro
(Bari, 1961), 311, lettera
3 ad Antonio
Seripando, del 27 giugno 1517. ^'
Cf
F. Stefani,
1887), col. 10.
G. Berchet e N. Barone, edd.,
/ Diarii di
Marino Sanuto, vol. 15 (Venezia,
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA Sannazaro e chista, tutti
i
Marvdlo, soprattutto dal Perosa, se pure
il
tendeva ad eliminare nei suoi autografi titoli!); se
grammi con un lo studio dei
zioni
—
prendere
pure
i
criterio
curatori dell'edizione
documenti
testo in cui
i
soli
Sannazaro, da
postuma hanno ordinate
di archivio, affiancato
— sono
il
riferimenti precisi (in
che non tiene alcun conto ne
e della loro storia il
i
77
della storia
ne
buon petrarV mancano
elegie ed epi-
della cronologia,
da quello dei manoscritti e delle edi-
strumenti che
vero significato dei suoi componimenti
latini,
ci
possono aiutare
a
com-
inquadrandoli in un con-
non solo la storia, ma persino la cronaca contribuiscono ad uno stile e di una poetica assolutamente esemplari.
illuminare
I'evoluzione di
Uniuersiti di
Roma, "La Sapienza'
L'ACCADEMIA PONTANIANA E LE SUA IDEOLOGIA
78
Appendici 1.
1
Priscus, Marulle, Priscus
Sectarum
Prisco
quern
nosti:
dogmatum omnium dicta qui senum septem
ocellus,
Antiqua solus
Omnesque 5
ille
De
cultor,
callet Atticae sales linguae,
Et quicquid
cum
alto
Osor fabarum
silentio dixit
Samius lupinique;
ille
Zenonis haeres Socratisque successor,
idem
Aristotelis
et Platonis auditor.
Cuius per orbem fama iam volat totum; 10
Romam
perosus,
cum Neapolim nuper
Pexatus atque coccinatus intraret,
Et disputantum vocibus sophistarum
Hinc inde 15
septus per theatra, per thermas
supinus et scholas poetarum,
Iret
Occurrit
illi
quidem
parvulus
coetus,
Sed nee Minervae poenitendus aut Musis,
Qualem
biceps Parnasus et virens Aon,
Vix ante natum annis Credunt,
20
fuisse sexcentis
hoc verissimum
et
esse
contendunt.
Hie, post salutes obviosque congressus
Cum iam putaret
Pittacum aut Solonem ipsum
Venisse, miro prosecutus adfectu.
Per templa duxit, per
Nee ullum 25
Utpote malignus, Negavit
vireta,
per fontes;
omisit ofEci genus. At
ille
insolens, inurbanus,
uUum rhetorem poetamve
Vidisse se Neapoli. Sed hi porro
Deos per omneis caelitumque supremum
W = Vindob.
Lat.
9477,
fol.
137r-v;
O
= Ottob.
Lat.
3172,
fol.
171r-v; ed.= Mai, Spicilegium
Romanum, 8:510-511.
6.
Osor]
8.
Idem
18.
Vix add.
.
con. ex Hostis et] con. .
.
W
ex hospes
ille
Samius] con. ex Pythagoras
W auditor]
sexcentis] add. sin.m.]
et exc.
W
Credunt]
Vidisse] con. ex Videre
con. ex
W W
Dicunt
19.
22.
Hie
con. ex adfinis {con.
W
W
ex Vix) ante
natum annos
fuisse sexcentos d.m.
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA lovem parentem,
deierare
non
cessant
Cinediorem hue usque philosophum
30
Nee
79
sese
hie nee alibi praenotasse terrarum.
2.
EL
1.11
In maledicos detractores (da Actii Sinceri Sannazarii Opera latine
Quid
1
scripta, 1 1
6—1 27)
ruis in saeros, temeraria turba, poetas
Saevaque mordaei praelia dente moves? Desine sacrilega eonvieia fundere Lingua, Desine: pro populo
Quis novus in
5
Ite,
furias
Deus
ipse suo. Ite,
profani!
nee immeritas eonseelerate Deas.
An monet hoe
Dum
immersus Seueeha
Stygiis
Eumenidum
flens
lUum ohm
laeunis,
verbera torta timet?
tinetae iuverunt felle sagittae,
Nunc miserum
10
stat
armat dolor?
Per stupra et
faeti
manes
Pareite tarn eari
paenitet usque
sui.
violare parentis:
per eyathosque rogo!
talos,
Ars sua quenque iuvet: non vos Helieona subire,
Non
fas virginei
polluere amnis aquam.
25.
inurbanus] con. ex inhumanus
27.
porro] con. ex prorsus
30-31.
.]
W
m. add.
sin.
Cinediorem] omm.
30.
W
W
O
ed.
hue usque
.
.
.
sese] con. ex se
philosophum nunquam quen-
quam W.
A =
Vat. Lat. 2836,
foil.
124-125v;
130r-v: vv. 1-36;
fol.
V =
V
consensus
=
gnini, 1531; e^
V
et V^; e'
= =
B =
Vat. Lat. 2847,
Vat. Lat. 3361, Venetiis,
foil.
foil.
7-9;
7-8v;
V^ =
W = Vindob.
Vat. Lat. 3361,
apud haeredes Aldi 1528;
Venetiis, ap. haerr. Aldi 1533; e
=
consensus
e^
harum
=
Lat.
foil.
9477,
51-53;
Venetiis, B. Sta-
edd.; Aid.
=
Venetiis
ap. haerr. Aldi 1535. Titulus:
omm.
AWV; Eiusdem Accii in lividos detractores Scucchae grammatici alumnos homici-
das furesque
noctumos B;
Actii Sinceri in lividos detractores
Scucchae grammatici alum-
nos C; Eiusdem dirae in detractores quosdam Scucchae grammatici alumnos e
mente
A
2.
dente]
6.
immeritas] innumeras e
7.
monet] movet
12.
et]
13.
Iuvet] luvat
per
c
e
Ae
l'accademia pontaniana
80
15
hanc sumpto loviani Musa cothurno
Scilicet
magno digna Marone
Hauriat, et
Cui comes,
sonet;
intactae lustrans sacraria sylvae
docto pectore carmen
Altilius,
Nee minus
Musae
et
Compater
20
sua ideologia
e le
repetens
hiet.
monimenta
argutos ingerat ore
comptus florente
Elisiusque, hedera
iocosae,
sales.
capillos,
Rara, sed Aoniis concinat apta choris.
Extendatque armis
titulos
Aquivivus avitos
Et doceat nostras cernere castra Deas. 25
Ipse suae referat Cabanilius ardua Troiae
Moenia et antiques, Appula regna, lares. Quique velut tenera surgit novus arbore ramus, Corvinus quavis aure probanda canat. Et qui
30
Pieriis resonat
non ultimus
Albinus referat principis acta
Tu
quoque, quid
antris
sui.
cessas doctis deflere querelis
Excidium patriae, cuke MaruUe, tuae? Quique tot egregias animas, tot clara virorum Ingenia enixu format alitque suo,
35
Nectat honorata Maius sua dicta corona,
Tamque pias ferulas regia sceptra vocet. Quin et rite suos genio Chariteus honores Praebeat
et festas
concinat ante dapes.
Aelius et blandae fretus dulcedine linguae
40
Facunda totos conterat
Nee
te
arte dies.
iam pudeat venture ostendere
15.
hanc] hinc e^ loviani] Pontani
19.
Monumenta Ve monumenta
24.
cernere] quaerere
25-26. omm.
AB
ABVe
W
iocosae om.
om.
29.
Pieriis] con.
30.
om.
34.
format] firmat
35.
honorata] odorata
37-84. om.
(add.
{add.
Sambucus)
Musarum V^ Sambucus) principis] consulis
e
A e
W
37.
Quin
39.
Aelius
40.
arte]
et rite suos] Ipse et]
ante
Sambucus)
Conlebretque suae Cabanilius ardua Troiae
e
28.
W
(add.
ABe
pula regna, lares laevo marg. add. V'
W
saeclo
Puccius
C
et
suo sacros
ABe
ABVe
fretus] flendus
B
/
Moenia
et antiquos,
Ap-
LUCIA GUALDO ROSA
Eloquii vires, Scala diserte,
tui.
Certent Socraticis Zenonis scripta
At
libellis,
vemos intulit ore favos. Castaliis non inficiande choreis
Cuius 45
81
tu,
apis
Castalidos, Carbo, concine regna tuae.
Te quoque, quern gemina mulcet Parde, iuvet studiis invigilare
Atque 50
alii,
quorum
doctas
it
sapientia lingua,
tuis.
fama per
aures,
Extreme properent vincere fata die. Nos quoque, si magnus non aversatur Apollo, Cantemus Nymphas capripedesque Deos.
Nam bene
Thespiacas, livor licet audiat, undas
Novimus 55
At vos Et
et
dextro pressimus antra pede.
incautis sociis aconita parate,
flirtis
miseras extimulate domos;
Oedipodisque modo, thalamos foedate patemos. Si
modo
dat certum vulgus habere patrem.
Noctumisque 60-
dolis agitate et caedibus
Perque fora infestam
Haec
urbem,
perque
vias.
studia, has artes primis didicistis ab annis,
Non
Nam
reddite,
Aganippaeae tangere
neque CalHope
fila lyrae.
vobis, nee dexter Apollo
Permessi sanctos exhibuere lacus;
65
Dira sed Alecto, gemina comitata sorore,
Pocula coenoso de Phlegethonte
Nimirum
hinc nigro mores
et
tulit.
carmina tabo
Pallent et foedo livor in ore sedet. Pallor,
70
an hos nobis misit gravis Aetna Cyclopas,
Mitis et hanc sentis tu quoque, terra, luem?
Heu, mea Parthenope, quae
42.
Eloquii] Ingenii e
45.
At] Et
45—46. omm.
te contagja laedunt?
V ABe post
v.
38 dextro
vel laevo marg. add.
V
et
V* Carbo concine regna
ex dukes die mihi, Carbo, iocos V*
V
46.
concine) nunc cane
47.
Te quoque] Et
49.
aures] urbes e
50.
Extremo] Extrema
51.
aversatur] adversatur e
53.
Thespiacas] Castalios V* Castalias con. Pierias V* Castalias
58.
patrem] patrum e'e^
64.
sanctos] liquidos e
te
ABVe e
ABe
tuae] con.
L'ACCADEMIA PONTANIANA
82
Talia tu
Dii
patrii,
E LE
SUA IDEOLOGIA
nunquam gignere monstra soles. quorum monitis hue advena classis
Appulit, Euboicas constituitque domos,
75
Littoribus talem nostris avertite pestem,
Moenia
felici si posuistis ave.
Vosque, umbrae insontes, quas iam lethale venenum,
Ante diem Ultrices
80
hue
Stygias ire coegit aquas,
fumoque
ferte faces,
Authores vestrae
sequaci,
sollicitate necis.
Et vos, o vatum certissima numina Musae,
Numina, carminibus non violanda meis, si vestras nunc primum laesimus aures: lusta lacessita sumpsimus arma manu.
Parcite,
74.
constituitque] deseruitque
80.
Authores] Auctores
ABe V
ABV'e
Lutero y su influencia
en
la
V
Espana de Carlos
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA
plenamente consciente de Soy mite un tema como que da
la
el
multiplicidad y diversidad de enfoques que ad-
No
ponencia.
titulo a esta
obstante, en razon del
tiempo del que dispongo, y de mi procedencia del campo de la filologia latina, he decidido centrar mi exposicion fundamentalmente en dos aspectos. Primero analizare
como
en Espana
reflejo la historiografia latina escrita
Alemania. los libros
que estaba sucediendo en
lo
Y despues, como se reacciono desde el seno de la ortodoxia catolica contra
de corte reformista escritos en
obras, entre las
que destaca
el
Defato
el
extranjero
et libera arbitrio
con
aparicion de una serie de
la
adversus Lutherum
de Juan Gines
de Sepiilveda.
1.
Lutero y
el
movimiento luterano en de
epoca de Carlos
la
la
historiografia espanola
V escrita
en
latin
Las dos fuentes historicas espanolas en lengua latina de que estudio son
1525, y
el
el
De
rebus gestis Caroli
nacimiento del Emperador en
contemporaneas,
como
la
K de Juan
el
llega hasta el
ano 1500 hasta su muerte en 1558. Otras
lo hace hasta 1549,
XVII, de Fray Prudencio de Sandoval
las
este
ano
Gines de Sepiilveda, que abarca desde
de Pedro Mejia, que
Alonso de Santa Cruz, que s.
me voy a servir en
Opus Epistolarum de Pedro Martir de Angleria, que
se
extiende hasta
o
la
el
el
historias
ano 1530,
la
completa, pero ya escrita en
de el
desestimare por estar escritas en castellano.
Las figuras de Pedro Martir y de Juan Gines de Sepiilveda son tan conocidas que
cualquier presentacion resulta de todo punto innecesaria. Llama el
hecho de que uno, Pedro Martir,
sea
un
italiano afincado
si
acaso
en Espaiia;
la
atencion
el otro,
Juan
Gines de Sepiilveda, un espaiiol con largos anos de formacion y permanencia en ItaUa. Del Opus Epistolarum de Pedro Martir existen dos ediciones: la primera fue realizada en 1530 en Alcala de Henares por Miguel de Eguia;^
'
Petri Martyris Angjerii
Opus Epistolarum (Compluti:
la
segunda en 1670 en
in aedibus Michaelis
de Eguia, 1530).
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
84
Amsterdam por Daniel Elsevier.- El De rebus gestis Caroli V, por razones que ahora no hace al caso explicar, permanecio inedito hasta que en 1780 la Real Academia de la
Historia procedio a su edicion junto con otras obras del autor.^ Actualmente el
Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Pozoblanco (Cordoba) de
esta financiando
una edicion nueva
obras de Sepulveda, entre otras, de esta Historia de Carlos V, de la que ya han
las
aparecido dos voliamenes.'*
Pues bien, para empezar por dulgencias en la puerta de
el
principio, Lutero colgaba sus 95 Tesis sobre las In-
de Wittenberg
la iglesia del castillo
el
31 de octubre de
1517; daba comienzo con ello a una revolucion religiosa que iba a sacudir no solo a
Alemania, sino tambien a toda
comercio
En
la cristiandad.^
Espafia,
menos, sostiene
que extrae
latinos
de Lutero. Eso,
que
editor de Basilea, Frobenius, escribe a Lutero.
el
Dono
puede que para 1519
aleman hubiese logrado introducir algunas partidas de
editorial
al
L. Pfandl,
En
la noticia
el
los escritos
de una carta
eUa se dice lo siguiente:
dedit mihi Blasius Salmonius, bibliopola Lipsensis, in proximis nundinis
Francofordensibus libellos varios a te elucubratos, quos
.
.
.
typis
meis statim
excudi. Sexcentos in Galliam misimus et in Hispaniam.^
De
otro lado, es mas que probable que los ecos de
las tesis
de Lutero contra
las
indul-
Augsburgo en 1518, y de la disputa atravesaran mantenida en Leipzig en 1519 con Eck los Pirineos tan to por via oral gencias, de la negativa de este a retractarse en
como el
escrita.
que luego
Precisamente hacia
seria
finales
de ese ano,
el
General de Espafia,
se adheria a la
de Lovaina realizaban de
condena que
en febrero de 1520 junto si
el
cargo de Inquisidor
de
la
Universidad
recopilacion de escritos de Lutero Uevada a cabo por
la
a la censura
algun consejo dio ya entonces
cambio,
el
sus antiguos colegas
Frobenius. Su postura antiluterana queda reflejada en
que
cardenal Adriano de Utrecht,
Adriano VI, que por entonces desempenaba
de Lovaina y
la
la
joven Carlos
al
carta-prologo que se publico
de Colonia.^ Esta seria
claro, pues,
de indole represiva.
embajador de Carlos en Roma, D. Juan Manuel, analizaba
la
En
cuestion en
terminos diplomaticos y veia que se podia sacar partido del movimiento anti-papista
^
Petri Martyris Anglerii
* lo.
Opus Epistolarum (Amstelodami:
mm
Genesii Sepulvedae Opera Omnia
edita
regia de la Gazeta, 1780), vols. 1-2 os Epistolarum *
Juan Gines de Sepulveda,
Historia
Peregrina; estudio historico B. Cuart
VI—X, *
ed.
y
trad. E.
de
Moner
lum
libri
Carlos
en
V.
typis Elzevirianis, 1670).
inedita,
4
vols. (Matriti:
ex typographia
el vol. 3.
Libros
I—V, ed. y trad. E. Rodriguez
(Pozoblanco, 1995). Idem, Historia de Carlos V. Libros
Rodriguez Peregrina; estudio historico B. Cuart Moner (Pozoblanco, 1996).
Dos importantes
estudios sobre los origenes del luteranismo espanol son:
J.
Longhurst,
"Luther in Spain (1520-1540)," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 103 (1959): 63-93. A. Redondo, "Luther et I'Espagne de 1520 a 1536," Melanges de la casa de Velazquez 1 (1965): 109-165. *
Cf. L. Pfandl,
"Das spanische Lutherbild des
16. Jahrhunderts," Historisches Jahrbuch
50
(1930): 464-497, 464. ^
Cf. E. de
401-435, 405
Moreau, "Luther ss.
et I'Universite
de Louvain," Nouvelle Revue Theologique 54 (1927):
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA
la
Leon X a abandonar su alianza con Francia y a aproximarse comunica per carta a este cuando en mayo de 1 520 se disCoruna a los Paises Bajos; desconocemos la respuesta que se
la
corte debio entrar en contacto
en Alemania obligando al
85
a
rey de Espaiia. Asi se lo
ponia a marchar desde dio a esta carta.
En
los Paises
por una llarse la
Bajos
parte, la regente Margarita
propaganda reformista,
de Austria,
por
y,
otra,
en
tia
el
con
ideas luteranas, pues,
las
de Carlos, habia dejado desarro-
periodo 1518—1520 los nombres de
Lutero y Erasmo no dejaban de aparecer ligados. La bula Exsurge Domine, publicada
Roma
en
en junio de 1520, aunque era conocida, no se pubUca en los Paises Bajos mes de septiembre. El 8 de octubre, tras la quema de libros de Lutero en
hasta el
Lovaina,
la
y de
se dirige a
Ni
alii
condena de
la
apoyo
donde Carlos
corte se dirige a Aquisgran,
a la Santa
Worms adonde
la
bula
—
llega a final
corria el
—
V
seria
coronado
—
era falsa
habian disminuido
entre eUos, bastantes espaiioles
—
en carta fechada en
despues de
por
Y
calles
cuando
berg,
el
se
y
salir
Worms
a 13
ni la declaracion la
de
simpatia que nu-
Que por
ponen de manifiesto
palabras de Alfonso de Valdes, futuro secretario de Carlos V, a gleria
23 de octubre,
sentian por Lutero.
circulaban ampliamente los escritos de Lutero lo
la corte
el
11 de diciembre de 1520.
aiio, el
rumor de que
Sede efectuada por Carlos
merosos cortesanos
de
las
Pedro Martir de An-
de mayo de 1521:
a la luz los libros de Lutero se
venden
sin cesar
impunemente
plazas.*
supo en
la
corte
que Lutero habia quemado piiblicamente en Witten-
10 de diciembre de 1520,
hecho, poniendo
el enfasis
la
bula del Papa,
no tanto en
la bula,
muchos
espafioles aplaudieron este
cuanto en los otros libros que
la
ha-
bian acompanado. Dice Juan de Vergara en su proceso:
bien hizo Lutero en quemar
los
Ubros de canones y decretos pues no se usa
deUos.'
Lo que vino
despues, el decreto de destierro para Lutero y sus partidarios y la bula de
excomunion, Decet Romanum espafioles
que habian leido
Pontiftcem,
aun condenado, decidieran echar marcha confirma
el
nuncio Aleandro en una
1521 en que
se feUcita
de
la
Hay
carta
Ineditos para la Historia de Espaiia
timos en adelante. Cf.
el, es
Redondo, "Luther
et I'Espagne,"
comun
marranos o judios conversos.
traduccion castellana del Opus Epistolarum de Pedro Martir, realizada por
Toro en Doatmentos '
de que Lutero no habia sido
y permanecer en la ortodoxia. Asi lo probablemente de fecha 14 de enero de
atras
ortodoxia del duque de Alba, que, segiin
a todos los espaiioles, exceptuados los
*
de fecha 3 de enero de 1521, hizo que los
sus obras, sin el pretexto ya
117 n.
4.
IX-XII (Madrid, 1953-1955).
J.
Lopez de
A
ella
remi-
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
86
Los protectores de Lutero lograron, sin embargo, que
a este se le diera
oportuni-
dad de comparecer y explicarse ante la Dieta reunida en Worms, a cuyo objeto se le remitio un salvaconducto con fecha 26 de marzo. Ese mismo dia se publicaba en Ale-
mania un edicto que condenaba papa Leon
al
fuego
los escritos del
X confirmaba la excomunion
revuelto del ambiente,
muchos
fue triunfal y
el viaje
con
la
y entrada de Lutero en
los cortesanos
monje, y dos
bula Tu coena Domini.
que acudieron
Worms
despues
dias
A
el
pesar de lo
16 de abril de 1521
el
a verle durante su estancia
alli,
"especialmente los espaiioles," a decir de Vergara.^^
De
entre
las
que transmiten
diversas fuentes
lo
alli
ocurrido hay que destacar dos
de procedencia espanola: un informe anonimo, en castellano,
gunos
de Carvajal
a Galindez
una
con Luthero en 1521, y
En cuanto
de Angleria.
carta
a las
al
en
latin
lo
que paso
—
al
atribuido por al-
Emperador en Bormes
de Alfonso de Valdes dirigida a Pedro Martir evidente que no ha sido redactado por
es
tono y posicionamiento del mismo. '^ autor del segundo, Alfonso de Valdes, que no puede ser adscrito sin mas
luteranas,
filas
titulado Relacion de
primer informe,
al
ningun partidario de Lutero;
Respecto
—
posicionamiento
delatan
asi lo
por mas que algunos
inicial al respecto
el
lo intenten,
podemos tener una
y de su primera vision de
dos tempranos testimonies, ambos en forma de
carta,
en
los
que informa
los
idea de su
hechos acudiendo a al
humanista
Pedro Martir, y a traves de el a sus compatriotas espaiioles, de lo que esta sucediendo en tierras alemanas. Los dos testimonies aparecen recogidos en las ediciones mencionadas del Opus Epistolamm de Pedro Martir, donde figuran con los numeros 689 y A pesar de haber sido publicados en su momento, estos testimonies pasaron des-
722.
apercibidos hasta que este,
no habia
de Valdes
un par de
siglos
despues Lessing los puso de reHeve: a decir de
sido Johannes Cochlaeus,
como
era opinion generalizada, sino Alfonso
primero que habia hablado de que
el
la
Reforma habia surgido en Alema-
nia de los recelos y disputas entre dos ordenes religiosas.^^
Hay que
decir inmediatamente que los datos cronologicos con que ambas cartas se
presentan en
el
Opus Epistolamm carecen de
obra se publicara cuatro
de participar en
la
de datacion de
cartas.
Alfonso de Valdes
edicion de
—
cartas concernientes al
cluir
que
las
En
la
las
relevancia.
Y
es
que
el
hecho de que
la
despues de muerto su autor sin que este tuviera ocasion la
misma ha
acarreado, en general, multiples problemas
caso concrete de
el
problematica
movimiento luterano atribuir la culpa
escribio efectivamente
en
la
de
las
que aqui nos ocupan
—
mas compleja. El contenido de
es aiin
de indole
es
redacto largo tiempo despues de
— entonces habria que bien
aiios
la
la
tal,
las
la
edicion
datacion erronea a los editores
mismas.
Ambas
de
que o bien hay que con-
fecha con que figuran en
fecha con que aparecen datadas y despues
elaboro con vistas a una publicacion de
las
sus dos
—o
las
re-
hipotesis resultan de dificil
confirmacion, dado que no contamos con manuscrito alguno de esta obra de Pedro Martir.
Hay quien va mas
una ficcion introducida
alia
en
la critica,
a posteriori
Redondo, "Luther
como J.
Bernays, que
por Valdes con motive de
'°
Cf.
"
Cf. Pfandl,
"Das spanische Lutherbild," 472-479.
'^
Cf. Pfandl,
"Das spanische Lutherbild," 482.
et I'Espagne,"
118
n. 2.
la
las
considera sin mas
edicion postuma del
ELENA RODRJGUEZ PEREGRINA Opus
En
Epistolarum,
si
bien no aporta pruebas concluyentes en apoyo de su
cualquier caso, lo cierto es que
escritas
en una fecha mas tardia de
La primera, ella
numero 689,
la
las cartas tal
y
como hoy
a traves
de
nueva
la
de
ser
ellas.
que
En
el
En
el
estado actual
se pasa revista
mediante indul-
canonicos y de
los libros
han Ue-
a el le
informe
se decidio sufragar
quema de
la
noticias
origen, los progresos, y
el
mas destacados desde que
gencias los gastos de San Pedro hasta
las
en Alemania.
los luteranos, nacida
a los acontecimientos
hipotesis.'-*
leemos pudieron
fechada en Bruselas a 31 de agosto de 1520.
esta
de personas fidedignas sobre
secta
las
que aparece consignada en
la
Alfonso de Valdes informa a su amigo acerca de
gado
87
bula de
la
excomunion en Wittenberg en 1520. Valdes considera como primera causa de sucesos
las
La segunda
gencias.
por
los
dominico y el agustino por el asunto de las indulatribuye a la envidia que Federico, duque de Sajonia, siente
disputas entre el fraile la
tambien elector Alberto, cardenal y arzobispo de Maguncia, al que habia oido contar que sacaba gran utilidad de tales indulgencias, segun lo convenido entre el y el
el
Pontifice
Romano.
Este ultimo separa
Lutero se granjea su favor afirmando que
duque de
al
la
la
comunion de
los fieles
y
sentencia del Papa, toda vez que era in-
—
—
no obligaba en conciencia. A partir de ahi dice Valdes empezo a sacar a muchas y muy graves obras impresas contra el Pontifice y la curia romana. Una situacion que vino a agravar el propio Leon X con su negativa a celebrar un concilio
justa,
la luz
como
general,
se le solicitaba
desde diferentes instancias. Valdes aprovecha
para dejar constancia de su opinion
ojala asi se hubiera
cabada en
condenar
el
reunion de
la
en mas su propia
Sinodo general, que
la
romano
imponga
se
ocasion
Pontifice defiende tenazmente su
que
tal
que (hablando con
vez saldria un tanto menos-
salud del pueblo cristiano; mientras desea
de Lutero, manda un legado a
Maximiliano para que procure que con perio
el
los cristianos; mientras
utilidad,
sin discusion los escritos
la
respecto:
hecho; pero mientras
derecho; mientras teme libertad) tiene
al
la
latere al
autoridad del Cesar y de todo
Cesar el
im-
silencio a Lutero.
(Pedro Martir de Angleria, Epistohrio, carta n° 689) Asi pues, en lugar del concilio se celebraron comicios imperiales en Augsburgo,
adonde
se hizo venir a
Lutero para defender sus escritos
firente a
Cayetano, legado del
Papa, que se retiro sin haber conseguido nada. Lutero, despedido con mayores mues-
de alegria que
tras
las
que
se le dispensaron
en su recibimiento, y confiado en
teccion del duque de Sajonia, dio a luz otros nuevos dogmas contra apostolicas.
Entonces
el
Pontifice envio contra
el
las
la
pro-
instituciones
y sus secuaces una energica bula.
De
manera un tanto ingenua y simplista explica Valdes a Pedro Martir de Angleria comienzos de la division religiosa en Alemania. Todavia se le desliza a Valdes un
esta los
error cronologjco
Ueva por
titulo
al final
De
Cf J. Bemays,
la
de su informe. Cree que
el escrito
polemico de Lutero que
cautividad babilSnica de la Iglesia era la airada respuesta
Petnis Martyr Anglerius
und
sein
Opus Epistolarum
de este a
(Strassburg, 1891).
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
88
la
bula de excomunion, cuando en realidad fue consecuencia de
que
se le
Y
no
amenazaba con satisfecho
Y
ella.
aun con
quemo publicamente
esto,
pontificio encontro en Wittenberg, diciendo
rrompido
piedad
la
que
su fuente de informacion era
nos detenemos en
Si
reza
la
primer lugar,
problematica de
la carta se cierra
que sucedio
berg, algo
Epistolario, carta
con
el
quema de
la
el
que mantenia contacto.
datacion de esta carta, aunque en
la
propio texto que
libros
ella
contradicen: en
la
por parte de Lutero en Witten-
20 de diciembre de 1520; en segundo
el
n° 689)
dice nada Valdes, quizas es que en este ultimo punto
Melanchthon, con
31 de agosto de 1520, hay puntos en
el
habian pervertido y co-
cristiana.
excomunion no
bula de
la
primera bula en
cuantos libros de derecho
estos
(Pedro Martir de Angleria,
De
la
concluye:
de
lugar, se habla
la
de 1520,
si
un concilio, cosa que ciertamente bien Bemays la pospone hasta 1523 o
en tercer lugar, Valdes confunde
al
nuncio Aleandro con
exigencia por parte de los alemanes de celebrar
pudo haber ocurrido 1524;''*
tano y traslada
de
Worms
a la
la
a finales
cardenal Caye-
el
experiencia negativa de Aleandro en los preparativos para
actuacion de Cayetano en Augsburgo.
en absoluto puede ser exacta
De
fecha que aparece en
la
todo
lo
la carta;
la
Dieta
dicho se infiere que
mas bien tiene que
fecharse entre finales de 1520 y principios de 1521. La posible objecion de
V
Carlos
estaba en
Worms
desde
tambien Valdes, con lo que efectivamente lo
esta,
no
el
18 de noviembre de 1520 y con
el
que
deberia estar
no podria haberse datado en Bruselas, como objecion, pues Valdes no fiae nombrado secretario
la carta
resulta tal
general hasta 1526, con lo que su presencia en
Worms no
habria sido imprescindible
y habria podido permanecer en Bruselas. Eso explicaria, segiin Pfandl, los errores y confiasiones de la carta, que de haber estado Valdes en Worms resultarian menos explicables.
terior
No
es necesario ir tan lejos
de Valdes en
el
como Bemays y
postular
una intromision pos-
Opus Epistolamm.^^
el referido propiamente a la Dieta de Worms, lleva mayo de 1521, aunque esta vez tampoco haya por que tomar el letra. Mas oportuno parece fecharlo tras el ultimo acontecimiento
El segundo informe de Valdes,
como dato
fecha
al
que en
el
13 de
pie de la
el se narra,
cuando redact© palabras del
en torno, pues,
la carta se infiere
comienzo en que
de
al
la
30 de mayo.
romano, dispuso ante todo
Worms tratar
de
los electores la
estuviera presente o
'*
Cf.
'*
Cf. Pfandl,
Bemays,
Worms
Worms y de
las
no en
los interrogatories a
Petrus Martyr Anglerius,
138-139.
"Das spanische Lutherbild," 487.
y demas ordenes
causa de Lutero.
(Pedro Martir de Angleria,
Que
Valdes estaba en
se dice textualmente:
El Cesar, convocados en esta ciudad de del imperio
Que
propia datacion de esta en
Epistolario, carta
Lutero ya
es
n° 722)
mas cuestionable,
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA puede incluso que
llegara
informe resulta tan
fiable
sencial
de
los
A
hechos.
alli
cuando ya Lutero
y lo que
el,
marchado. Sin embargo, su
se habia
y tan exacto que no puede proceder sino de un testigo predecir de Pfandl, a este informe se le
tres palabras: conciso, claro, veraz.'*
dicho en
Aunque en forma con
se dice coincide
En
el se
a la pregunta de
y
si
mas o menos comienzos de
un salvoconducto.
queria o
que todos
si
los libros
no revocar los libros
lo
el
se le habia
cuyos
ellos
Cesar
tiempo para
le diese
En
largo y prohjo discurso '
1
Emperador proscribiendo
Preparativos de
.
de
las
mayo de con
Dieta,
la
dos sesiones: en
la
1521.
la
con-
primera,
ese
si
habia escrito, respondio:
leyeron a su peticion eran suyos, lo que no
titulos se
hecho, a saber,
hasta el dia siguiente.
esta
que continuamente circulaban bajo su nombre eran suyos
que en
En
queria negar ni lo negaria jamas.
que
con
abril hasta el 8
Transcurso de
2.
caracterizar
todo lo esencial
realidad historica. Abarca desde los pre-
la
distinguen claramente cinco partes:
cesion a Lutero de
puede
sucinta,
parativos de la Dieta hasta la promulgacion del edicto del a Lutero, esto es, desde
89
cuanto a
la
segunda parte de
pregunta
la
queria revocar lo que habia escrito, pidio que
deliberar, lo cual le fue
mismo
dia
.
.
.
que pronuncio ya en
concedido por
Martin Lutero latin,
podia revocar cosa alguna de lo contenido en sus
.
.
.
el
ya en aleman, dijo que escritos,
si
Cesar
despues de
no
el
un no
probaba
se le
doctrina evangeUca y por los testimonies del Antiguo Testamento que habia errado y escrito impiamente que no podia atenerse tampoco a
por
la
.
de
los decretos
habian sido contrarios entre
.
.
Y
.
.
.
toda vez que los mismos concilios alguna vez
los concilios, si.
(Pedro Martir de Angleria,
Epistolario, carta
n° 722)
3. Orden del Cesar de que Lutero se marche y disoluci5n por aquel dia de la Junta. Nuevos y vanos intentos de los electores y otros ordenes del Imperio por Uegar a un
acuerdo con Lutero. 4. Notificacion a Lutero de la orden de proscripcion y edicto del Emperador ordenando quemar los Ubros del hereje. 5. Valdes, muy sagazmente, Uega a la conclusion
evitado
si
era, como algunos querian ver, el final de la trageDe nuevo insiste en que todo aqueUo podria haberse
de que aquello no
dia, sino tan solo su
comienzo.
Papa hubiese atendido mas
el
al
bien de
la cristiandad
que
al
suyo propio
y hubiese convocado un sinodo general. No hay nada en este informe de anecdotico, nada se dice sobre el aspect© de Lutero o el comportamiento de partidarios y detractores.
Todo
anonima de
eso,
lo
en cambio, aparece descrito con todo lujo de detaUes en
que paso
al
una, contando aspectos extemos, y la vienen a complementarse mutuamente.
la
una idea de un momento importante la
Dieta de
Worms. En cambio,
Relacion
otra,
De
sin
haciendo un fino
esta
analisis
de
la situacion,
forma, los espaiioles pudieron hacerse
duda en
la
vida de Lutero,
el
que represent©
sobre los comienzos del movimiento luterano y
razones intemas del surgimiento del
mismo
por no decir nula informacion.
'* Pfiindl.
la
emperador en Bormes, a que antes nos referiamos, de suerte que
"Das spanische Lutherbild." 488.
los espanoles tuvieron
mas bien
las
escasa,
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
90
Mas sorprendente aun siderable
—
treinta libros
V
Caroli
gestis
como en una
resulta constatar
— y dedicada
obra de una extension con-
a relatar la Historia
de Carlos V,
menciona
de Juan Gines de Sepulveda, ni siquiera se
Worms. '^ Hay que
esperar
libro
al
X
De
el la
rebus
Dieta de
para que de forma bastante superflua y con
motivo del viaje de Carlos a Alemania despues de su coronacion en Bolonia se trate de
Dieta de Augsburgo de 1530.
la
Nada
nos ha dicho del Coloquio de Marburgo
se
que Lutero y Zwinglio trataron sin exito de solucionar sus diferencias. La Confesion de Augsburgo no satisfizo ni a catolicos ni a protestantes. La division de estos ultimos hizo creer a Carlos V que podria con ellos, pero no fue asi. Despues de en 1529, en
el
eleccion y coronacion de Fernando
la
fundando
tantes respondieron
sconoce, pues
la
como
Romanos,
rey de
Liga de Esmalcalda en 1531, dato que Sepulveda de-
Tampoco
la situa
en 1534.
XIV
hace referenda a
hace alusion a
se
la
el libro
se
Tunez en 1535
fante a Italia tras la guerra de
vocase
un
gestiones de Carlos
las
—
ante
el
A pesar de lo veda en
—
a su llegada triun-
papa Paulo
III
para que con-
concilio general, llegando este incluso a promulgar una bula convocatoria
2 de junio de 1536.
el
Nuremberg de
paz de
1532.
En
los principes protes-
—
ampliamente que lohannes Sleidanus alemanes
los asuntos
—
trata
de
las
la
fuente principal de Sepul-
conversaciones de Hagenau y
Worms
en
1540, presididas por Granvela y que condujeron a la Dieta de Ratisbona, que se celebro de abril a julio de 1541, Sepulveda las despacha sumariamente en los capitulos
XIX. ^^
finales del libro
uno de
sus servidores a
No
parece que
le
Alemania para que
haya servido de
le
afirma en carta dirigida a Contarini y fechada tulo
en
34 de
tema de
el
XIX
este libro
concepcion de los a relatar
la
mucho haber enviado
mantuviera informado el
se describe la postura
no
con todo
religiosas.
de
la
capi-
muy
en linea con su
Juan Diaz
a
manos de
su her-
Un hecho que dice haberle contado el proesta,
sino en la Dieta
suceso y parece fuera de toda Historia vera de morte sancti viri lohannes Diazii Hispani
de Ratisbona de 1546.^° Sleidanus tambien recoge la noticia
el
tiene inconveniente en dedicar hasta cinco capitu-
pio Alfonso, pero que Sepulveda situa mal, pues no ocurrio en
duda que tomo
En
decididamente catolica de Sepulveda
lujo de detalles el asesinato de
mano Alfonso por discrepancias
a
respecto, segun
12 de junio de 1541.'^
controversia religiosa. Despues de lo cual, y
la historiografia,
al
el
de su amigo Francisco de Enzinas, un protestante burgales, amigo intimo a su vez de
Juan Diaz;-' en muchos Acta martyrum protestantes aparece extractada
"
Sobre
J.
esta historia.
Gines de Sepulveda son fundamentales dos obras: O. A. von Looz-Corswarem,
juan Gines de Sepulveda (Gottingen, 1931) y A. Losada.ywaw Gines de Sepulveda y nuevos documentos (Madrid, 1949; repr. 1973). Sepulveda desvela cuales son sus fuentes de informacion en
a traves de su "Epis-
tolario" '*
la
que
los editores
'^
Es
^°
Cf.
historia
de
la carta 2. I.
J.
la carta
a
Diego de Neila, con
a bien encabezar la Historia de Carlos V.
16.
de Juan Diaz,"
Aunque
Academia tuvieron
Garcia Pinilla,
J. Gines de Sepulveda ^'
la
in
"Un
Adas
del
ejemplo del uso de
las
fuentes en
Congreso Intemacional sobre
el
V
J.
Gines de Sepulveda: La
Centenario del nacimienlo del Dr.
(Cordoba, 1993), 99-106.
Senarclaeus se declara autor de
la
obra,
hoy
dia parece
probado que
el
autor de
la
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA
91_
Juan Diaz se transformo asi en topico literario.^ Tambien sirvio como elemento de propaganda antiespanola y con tal finalidad es resenada esta anecdota por el Thuanus en la Historia sui temporisP el libro XXII se cuenta que bajo la influencia de Bucero se llego a reun texto comun sobre la justificacion por la fe y que nunca el acuerdo habia parecido mas proximo. Pero Contarini fue desautorizado por Paulo III y Bucero por
Bien, en
dactar
Lutero. Despues de este intento de reconciliacion
en 1542
gresos. Solo sus
filas; el
mania,
file
el
duque de Cleves y
duque Enrique de Brunswick,
Emperador y
el
conflicto entre el
duque no fue apoyado por
al
catolicismo en 1543.
la
Carlos, que necesitaba del
la
I
el
duque de Cleves
apoyo financiero de
reunion de un concilio nacional. Paulo
III
a concilio general.
En 1545 propuso
nesio,
una accion
comiin contra
el
en
norte de Ale-
el
a proposito
de Giieldres, en que
Liga de Esmalcalda, este tuvo que someterse y volver
nuevo abrio
luteranismo hizo nuevos pro-
elector Juan Federico de Sajonia. Tras
el
y contra los turcos, prometio en
militar
el
arzobispo de Colonia se inscribieron en
pilar del catolicismo
depuesto por Felipe de Hesse y
el
Francisco
el
la
los principes para luchar
contra
Dieta de Spira de 1544 trabajar para
manifesto su reprobacion y convoco de
Emperador, mediante
al
los protestantes.
el
Finalmente,
cardenal Farel
concilio se
13 de diciembre de 1545 en Trento y estuvo presidido por del Monte, Cer-
vino y Pole. Sepiilveda, bien informado nos ofrece una
completa de
lista
como
los prelados
estaba acerca de los asuntos espafioles,
y teologos que
asistieron al Concilio.
Todo ello en el libro XXIII de la cronica. En lo referente a la Dieta de Ratisbona de 1546 y a la descripcion de la Liga de Esmalcalda, que se hace en el libro XXIV, la fuente utilizada ha sido Sleidanus. Por si
esto parece extrano, aclaro
que Sepulveda,
al referirse
a las flientes utilizadas
en
la
que ha leido a Sleidanus antes de haber sido censurado por la Iglesia catohca, y aunque su estilo desaliiiado, dice en otra carta, le provoca risa, su escrupulosidad le resulta casi excesiva. Sorprendentemente, y en contradiccion con Sleicronica, dice
danus, Sepulveda situa la formacion de
Sepulveda considera
la
como
ya observe Voigt,^*
mente
a los comentarios de Luis de
la
guerra de Alemania,
la
Liga en 1534. Es tambien de resaltar
la
narracion de
la
guerra de Esmalcalda se
AvUa y Zuniga,
cuya edicion principe
ciiie
^ M.
como
fue F. de Enzinas, tambien conocido
trad. F.
estrecha-
esto es, a El primer comentario de
esta realizada
en 1550 en Amberes.^' Se
observa, sin embargo, que Sepulveda extracta sensiblemente la obra de
misma
como
guerra de Esmalcalda una guerra de religion. Por lo general,
que
se sirve.
Dryander. Cf. Francisco de Enzinas, Memorias,
Socas (Madrid, 1992). 39.
Cf.
I.
J.
Garcia
Pinilla,
"Juan Diaz, conquense: humanista, martir y topico literario," in
J. Pascual y L. Charlo, eds. Humanismo y pervivencia del mundo dasico. Homenaje Profaor Luis Gil (Cadiz, 1997), 3:1495-1505.
J.
^
Maestre,
lac.
Augusti Thuani Historiarum
sui temporis libri
CXXV
(Lutetiae:
al
apud Hieronymum
Drouart, 1609-1614). ^*
^
Cf. G. Voigt, Die Geschichtsschreibung
iiber
D. Luis de Avila y Zuiiiga, Comentario
de autores
espafioles. Historiadores
de
den Schmalkaldischett Krieg (Leipzig, 1874), 45—47. la
guerra de Alemania, in
C. Rosell
de sucesos particulares (Madrid, 1852), 1:409-449.
(dir.), Biblioteca
LUTERO Y
92
LA ESPANA DE
CARLOS V
publicando solo lo esencial y omitiendo muchas marchas y escaramuzas de menor importancia, con lo que a menudo se pierden detalles que hubieran dado mas vivaci-
Un dato se permite Sepulveda corregir en el cap. 45 donde un 22 de noviembre, en lugar de un 27, que aparece en Avila. Que Sepulveda manejo estos comentarios lo sabemos por una carta fechada hacia dad y color a
da
narracion.
la
fecha correcta de
la
1548, en
la
que responde
una que habia recibido de Pedro de Avila, dandole
a
por haberle enviado junto
gracias
— —
Esmalcalda de su hermano Luis, un libro que
en su
dice
le
la
guerra contra
las
Liga de
la
ha sido de enorme utilidad
trabajo.-^
XXV esta dedicado
El libro
de Bohemia y Sajonia. La fuente prinde 1547 tenia lugar la victoria de Miihlberg.
a las campaiias
24 de
cipal sigue siendo Avila. El
Son
de
a la carta la historia
abril
interesantes las observaciones
que hace
el
cronista en
cap. 15, relativas a la
el
Emperador estaba decidido a condenarlo a muerte, pero los consejos del juez Munatones le hicieron desistir del empeiio. Asimismo, en el cap. 39 se narra como el Emperador hizo oidos sordos al consejo que muchos le daban de que debia envenenar a Felipe de Hesse. La Liga de captura de Juan Federico, duque de Sajonia. Al parecer,
el
Esmalcalda parecia aplastada. Mauricio de Sajonia recibio en recompensa una parte de
de Juan Federico junto con
los territorios
suficientemente fuerte
como
la
dignidad electoral. Carlos
una Dieta reunida en Augsburgo en mayo de 1548 adoptara restablecia
munion
en todas partes
bajo
autorizo.
las
asi
en
aiios
el
matrimonio de
el
V
el
La Santa Sede
los sacerdotes.
parecio ser
que la
se
co-
lo des-
asi
como
la
el
dueno de Alemania.
esfuerzos de Paulo III por trasladar el con-
muerte de
este,
que
es
sucedido por Julio
III.
consecuencia de una reunion familiar en Augsburgo con Fernando, Maria de
Hungria y
el
principe Felipe se decidio en marzo de 1551 que Fernando, cuando
fuese Emperador, haria elegir a Felipe rey de
mismo con
su
mala gana por
Romanos, y que
la
rama
austriaca. Carlos
mantener
V
penso que era necesario reunir todas
a raya a los protestantes. El
continuacion de los trabajos del concilio de Trento, gracias
anteriormente, se discutieron tubre sobre
la
este a su vez haria lo
primo Maximiliano, una combinacion singular que fue aceptada de
fuerzas de la familia para la
por
bastion del luteranismo. La victoria fue incompleta,
Carlos
XXVI cuenta Sepiilveda los
el libro
de Trento a Bolonia,
Como
el Interim,
creyo lo
Hizo que
catolicismo y ademas se concedia a los luteranos
el
dos especies y
hacerlo, convirtiendose
cilio
se
Del lado protestante varios principes aceptaron; pero Magdeburgo rehuso
pero durante unos pocos
En
V
para arreglar la cuestion religiosa en Alemania.
las
cuestiones dogmaticas, y
el
las
ano 1551 destaco por al
nuevo Papa.
Como
decreto del 11 de oc-
transubstanciacion convirtio en ilusorio todo acercamiento con los
protestantes.
En
el libro
XXVII
Sepulveda sigue a Sleidanus en lo que
Fiirstenreuolution hasta el sitio lles
referentes a obispos espafioles asistentes
nalidad que acompaiiaban se
paso bruscamente
sur.
al
al
se
conoce como
la
de Metz, y unicamente pone de su cosecha ciertos detaal
concilio y caballeros de la
misma nacio-
Emperador. El protagonista fue Mauricio de Sajonia, que
bando opuesto.
A
la
cabeza de un ejercito se lanzo hacia
el
El concilio de Trento debio suspender sus sesiones una vez mas. Carlos, que se
2^
Es
la carta 3. 8.
.
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA
93
encontraba en Innsbruck sin dinero y sin tropas, solo tuvo tiempo de escapar y refugiarse en Villach. Comprendio que la parti da en Alemania estaba perdida y dejo a
Fernando que entablase negociaciones con los protestantes en Passau. Ayudado por A. Fugger pudo reunir tropas para atacar Metz. Fracaso y se retire a los Paises Bajos, donde prosiguio las hostilidades contra Enrique II, dejando de lado los asuntos de Alemania. Mauricio de Sajonia murio en 1553 en combate contra Alberto Alcibiades
de Brandenburgo.
En Fernando
firmo en Augsburgo
se
principio cuius
recayo
carga de preparar la paz definitiva,
la
25 de septiembre de 1555.
el
regio, eius religio,
esto
principe; en el reconocimiento de
el
luteranismo. Tales flieron
las
secularizaciones efectuadas hasta 1552, sin
le
que
la
Emperador.
XXX estan dedicados
Los ultimos capitulos del libro
de Yuste
cual
admision unicamente del catolicismo y caracteristicas de la paz que sanciono el fracaso de la
de Carlos V, su retirada a Yuste y retiro
la
estaba basada en el
subditos debian adoptar la religion de su
es, los
las
pudiesen Uevarse a cabo otras nuevas; y en politica religiosa del
Una paz que
Uegan
mente, en Valladolid y
el traspaso del
noticias sobre
a narrar el final del reinado
Imperio a Fernando. Estando en su
movimientos hereticos en
Espaiia, concreta-
unos movimientos que decide reprimir
Sevilla,
a toda costa. Se-
pulveda describe este episodio sin relacion con ninguna obra anterior. Finalmente y de
forma rapida da cuenta del fallecimiento del Emperador
mencionar siquiera que
sin
tolome de Carranza, que
De ciona
todo lo expuesto el
se
en 1530 no
deduce que Sepulveda en
se
brindaban abundante material. de
los paises del norte ellos,
y aun
asi
su historia, por tanto, lo
de Africa,
por
la
como zona de
la
V selec-
Y
la
—y
es
,
sus fuentes
mas que durante
los
de forma deficiente
componen
—
Sleidanus principalmente
que intencionadamente no
a
el Emperador permamenudo. El verdadero marco de
los paises mediterraneos: Espafia, Itaha
von Ranke, quien
Die Darstellung iibergeht geistiger Erfrischung
Hasta aqui
-^
Cf.
^
Cf. L.
J.
el
I.
le
ocupa de Alemania
se
y
norte
el
influencia espafiola. Aiiadase a eUo su extraordinario cuidado
que encontramos todas
bei historischen
se
periodos en que
muy
las
pulveda, pero en descuidado amontonamiento. percibida a Leopold
—como —
importancia del movimiento luterano
forma, en claro contraste con otras historias de su tiempo,
de Santa Cruz, en
Was
heterodoxia.-'
esta Historia de Carlos
hace mencion alguna a lo que esta ocurriendo en Alemania, y eso que
desprende de su obra contra Lutero
ni
arzobispo Bar-
que dispone y solo publica una parte del mismo. Asi, por ejemcoronacion de Carlos en Aquisgran en 1520 hasta la Dieta de Augsburgo
autor conocia perfectamente
nece en
21 de septiembre de 1558,
sus ultimos
material de
plo, desde la
el
se veria
el
momentos por el despues envuelto en un proceso por en
fiie asistido
vieles;
noticias
Una
como
la
que echamos en
caracteristica
de Alonso
falta
en Se-
que no paso desa-
a este respecto afirma:
aber was
genau
sie berichtet, erzahlt sie
Werken so selten moglich in die Hand nehmen.^*
ist,
man kann
das
.
.
Buch zu
primer piinto.
Tellechea Idigoras, Tiempos
von Ranke. Zur
redos. Inquisiciott
y heterodoxias (Salamanca, 1977).
Kritik tieuerer Geschichtsxhreiber (Leipzig. 1884). 109.
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
94
2.
La reaccion espanola ante El Defato Las ideas de la
et libera arbitrio
el movitniento luterano. de J. Gines de Sepulveda
Reforma habian ido infiltrandose poco a poco en Espafia. En esa un papel importance la imprenta, siempre bajo el punto de mira
difusion habia jugado
de
que habia sido creado para
Inquisicion. Este tribunal,
la
musulmanes y
vigilar a
judios conversos, ejerce pronto su vigilancia tanto sobre los antiguos cristianos sobre los nuevos. Las normas que
impone son cada vez mas
de que libros que habian obtenido anteriormente de nuevo sometidos
a
el
beneplacito de
la
como punto
estrechas, hasta el
censura se van
examen. Hay ediciones que desaparecen por completo o
si
sobre viven es en reducidisimos ejemplares. Resulta, pues, complicado intentar medir el
impacto de
menudo riales,
la
Reforma
a partir del analisis de los libros supervivientes, ya
solo se encuentran huellas de esos libros en
y a
menudo
esas huellas
que
a
notariales o inquisito-
las actas
son bastante vagas y fruto del azar; con mucha frela propia huella de esos libros. Y es que el primer
cuencia ha desaparecido incluso Indice espanol,
aparecido a
la
vez en Valladolid, Sevilla, Valencia, y Toledo, no data
sino de 1551,
si
bien con
el
paso del tiempo experimento varias actualizaciones y
reediciones.
Tan gran a decir
celo desplego este tribunal en
de A. G. Kinder,
la
la
que imposibilito
represion de la
forma protestante en Espafia fue precisamente algunos,
el
hecho de que
a finales del
s.
XV
adoptado diferentes medidas para reformar persecucion por parte de dos,
la
sus
mas
alumbrados tuvieron
al
y principios del
la Iglesia
al
Un
espanola. ^^ el
caso especial de
movimiento de
propio Lutero.
menos conocimiento de
ninguna prueba de lectura directa de
ideas de la Recomo defienden XVI ya se hubiesen las
los
alumbra-
fervientes seguidores, habria surgido antes de
1517, con lo que habria precedido incluso los
ideas reformadoras que,
esta institucion, no,
Inquisicion lo constituye
un movimiento que, segun
las
introduccion de
las
Con
el
paso del tiempo
obras de Lutero,
sus libros. Para el
si
bien no hay
Santo Oficio los calificativos
muy a menudo de la mano. Juan de hermano del Alfonso de Valdes de que hablabamos antes, entra en contacto con uno de estos alumbrados, Pedro Ruiz de Alcaraz.^" En 1529 publica en las prensas de Miguel de Eguia en Alcala de Henares su Dialogo de doctrina Christiana, un tratado de un protestantismo ciertamente muy velado, pero que oblige a comparecer ante el Santo Oficio al impresor y a cada uno de sus censores. La muerte en 1532 de de "alumbrado, erasmiano y luterano" iban
Valdes,
Alfonso de Valdes, conocido erasmista, que habia escrito dos obras realmente para con
la institucion eclesiastica le
sicion.^' Esta ellos,
^*
G.
F. •*"
arremete contra
Juan de Valdes, que
Cf. A. G. Kinder,
Gilmont
(Paris,
"Le
se
el
evitaron
un
posible encontronazo
con
la
criticas
Inqui-
grupo de discipulos de Erasmo en Alcala, entre
ve obligado a huir a
livre et les idees
Italia.
Muchos
teologos formados en
reformes en Espagne," in La Reforme
et le liure,
ed.
1990), 301-326, 305.
Cf. C. Gilly, "Juan de Valdes: Ubersetzer
und Bearbeiter von Luthers
Schriften in seinem
Dialogo de doctrina," Archiufiir Reformationsgeschkhte 74 (1983): 257-306. ''
El Dialogo en que particularmente se tratan
de Mercurio y Caron.
las cosas acaecidas
en
Roma
el
ano de 1527 y
el
Dialogo
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA
95
alii constituyeron un movimiento evangelico, mantuvo en contacto con otro surgido en Valladolid; entre los integrantes del grupo sevillano destacan Juan Gil (el Doctor Egidio) y Constantino Ponce de la
Alcala emigraron a su vez a Sevilla y
que
se
Fuente. Los escritos de este ultimo fueron incluidos en
condenados a
efigie
posesion de
muy
En cuanto
la
hoguera; no obstante,
el
el Indice
y sus huesos y su
inventario de su biblioteca revela
a los libros
de ideas protestantes que
se
introducen en Espana prove-
nientes del extranjero, su infiltracion comienza relativamente pronto;
manifiesto
el
la
pocas obras de caracter netamente protestante.
envio ya en 1521 de sendos Breves del papa Leon
asi lo
pone de
X al condestable y al
almirante de Castilla, entonces gobemadores del reino, pidiendoles que
tomen medi-
das para prevenir la introduccion en Espana de los escritos de Lutero y sus simpatizantes.
Los
por
libros
aiios siguientes
distintas
vienen jalonados por varios apresamientos y quema de la Inquisicion. Es cierto, pues, que los libros
ramas provinciales de
producidos en
el
en cambio, de
diflcil
extranjero lograron
un
cierto grado de difiision en Espana. Resulta,
comprobacion afirmar que
blicaran en Espaiia en traduccion espanola. Y,
libros
aunque
de autores protestantes se pu-
doctrinas verdaderamente protestantes arraigaron durante
en
las
de toda duda que las un corto espacio de tiempo
esta fuera
ciudades de Sevilla y Valladolid, no esta suficientemente probado que estos
protestantes hayan publicado algo en Espaiia.
Por otra
parte,
en
el
bando de
los defensores
de
tacar, entre otros, los siguientes titulos: el inedito
ortodoxia catolica son de des-
la
de Jaime de Olesa Contra
errores
Martini Lutheri; el Monoctium, sive unius noctis opusculum de
Jeronimo Perez, publicado
en Napoles en 1525;
X a su corresponsal, Diego
el
mencionado en una
carta
de Leon
de Muros, fechada en 1522, Adversus Lutherum, desaparecido posteriormente; fato et libera arbitrio de Juan Gines de Sepiilveda, publicado uersus
omnes haereses
libri
en
Roma en
el
De
1526. Los Ad-
XIII de Alfonso de Castro, publicados en Paris en 1534, co-
nocieron hasta doce ediciones,
la
mayoria fuera de Espaiia, salvo una edicion apare-
cida en Salamanca en 1541. Asimismo,
el
traductor de Erasmo, Alonso de Virues,
compone unas
Philippicae disputationes viginti adversus Lutherana dogmata per Philippum
Melanchthonem
defensa,
que
se
publican en Amberes en 1541. Andres Vega concentra
sus ataques sobre la justificacion
XV, que conocieron
por
la fe
sucesivas ediciones:
en
sus
De justiftcatione
doctrina universa libri
una en Venecia en 1546, otra en Alcala en
1564 y otra en Colonia en 1572. Caspar Cardillo de Villalpando escribe un tratado
De
traditionibus Ecclesiae
y unas Disputationes adversus protestationem
trigintaquattuor haere-
ticorum Augustanae confessionis,
que aparecieron en Venecia en 1564, en donde
futa a Lutero y sus discipulos.
Martin Perez de Ayala
protestantismo en su
De
se centra principalmente
divinis Apostolicis atque ecclesiasticis traditionibus,
se re-
en
el
publicada en
Colonia en 1549.
Como hemos
visto,
una de
las
reacciones mas tempranas a Lutero
obra del cordobes Juan Gines de Sepulveda 1526, Juan Gines de Sepulveda, Clemente de Bolonia y un par de aiio
tras
una
afios
De fato
estancia de
en Carpi,
la
constituye
la
En
el
et libera arbitrio libri
se
ocho
aiios
en
encuentra en
el
III}-
Colegio San
Roma junto
Cf. F. Lauchert, Die italienischen literarischen Gegtier Lutliers (Freiburg, 1912), 306-311.
a
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
96
Alberto Pio y continiia Aristoteles.
En
el
confrontacion entre ese
mismo
—segun
afio,
al
las
siendo testigo del
sitio
celebre
de
la
V— ^^
Carlos
de Moncada. Tras
obligado a buscar refugio junto con
el
Y
las pontificias.
la Historia de
Hugo
la
traductor oficial de
mencionada obra en un ambiente de
en union de otros sacerdotes, contempla en
guibelinos capitaneados per
Cayetano,
la
tropas imperiales y
mismo cuenta en
el
como
servicio de la corte pontificia
mes de junio publica
Roma desde una ventana avance de
el
las
Colonna
ciudades del sur de
ciudad de Napoles. Afortunadamente para
Tomas
los
Roma en 1527
el sacco di
corte pontificia en
abierta
que en septiembre de
es
el, el
Vio, lo llama a Gaeta para que colabore con
ve
se
Italia,
cardenal el
en
la
luz en
sus
trabajos exegeticos.
La primera edicion, pues, del Defato
Roma
el aiio
et libera arbitrio
1526. La obra conoceria aiin otras
entonces de unas pretendidas obras completas del autor: officina
Lutherum ve
adversus
pero formando parte
tres ediciones,
en
asi,
la
Simonis Colinaei) aparece en primer lugar, ocupando
de Colonia de 1602
(in officina
duodecimo lugar y ocupa de
la
de Paris de 1541 (ex
los folios
2—56; en
pagina 536 a
la
594; y en
volumen IV
la
de Madrid de 1780 (ex paginas 468 y 541.
typographia regia de
la
Gazeta) aparece en
Al
la
edicion romana aparece una carta del autor, que omitieron
final del texto
de
siguientes ediciones de Paris y Colonia y Epistolario?'*
Va
siguiente de
las
la
Birkmannica, sumptibus Arnoldi Mylii) aparece en
el
que
entre
las
academicos insertaron en
los editores
las
el
Juan Ruiz, canonigo de Cordoba, y esta fechada "el dia nonas de junio." En ella nos dice que Ruiz le habia encargado que, dirigida a
puesto que no podia hacerlo en persona, saludase por carta
Juan de Toledo, pues, segun Ruiz
le
aseguraba,
tener correspondencia epistolar con
el,
el
obispo
ya que era
al
obispo de Cordoba,
se alegraria
muy
mucho de man-
aficionado a los estudios
li-
un elevado concepto del autor. Juan Gines para satisfacer los deseos de su amigo, le envio esta obra para que se la entregase al obispo, a quien iba dedicada. Sabemos, por otra parte, que el autor entrego un ejemplar de esta edicion romana a Hernando Colon, celebre bibliofilo, fiindador de la Biblioteca Colombina de Sevilla, cuando este asistia en 1530 en Bolonia al esperado encuentro entre Carlos V y el papa Clemente VII, si bien no aguarda alii hasta que el 24 de febrero se produzca la coronacion del Emperador, sino que continiia su camino en direccion a Venecia. ^^ Y es que Erasmo, en vista de la gravedad de los acontecimientos de la Reforma y terarios y tenia
los
continuos ataques de luteranismo de que era objeto, habia publicado en 1524 su
De
libera arbitrio, al
que habia replicado Lutero en 1525 con su De
decir de Sepulveda,
Erasmo
se habia
quedado corto en
servo arbitrio.
sus razonamientos, y es
A
por
eso por lo que el se siente en la obligacion de Uenar los huecos dejados por el de Rotterdam y acomete la redaccion de su Defata et libera arbitrio. Dice Sepulveda:
"
Historia de Carlos V, 6. 40.
^*
El Epistolario en Opera
^^
Cf. K.
3:
1-389. Es
la carta 7.
13.
Wagner, "Hernando Colon: semblanza de un
L6pez-Vidriero y P.
M.
Catedra, eds., El
(Madrid, 1992), 475-492, 491.
libro
bibliofilo
antiguo espanol.
Adas
del
y de su biblioteca," in
M.
L.
segundo Coloquio Internadonal
ELENA RODRIGUEZ PEREGRINA
cum
97-
hie [Erasmus] de libero arbitrio librum docte et eleganter ac perinde
quo Lutheranum hunc errorem ac potius fraudem et ille quidem et peracute, sed iusto tamen mone dicam parcius et timidius, insectatur. Qui si totam causam fuisset
religiose conscripsisset,
malitiosam impietatem scienter destius,
complexus nee bonam partem intactam eniditus labori
meo meque
La obra consta de veda en
en
El plan de
y teologicos.
A continuacion,
Por ultimo, en
tal
misma, segun palabras del propio Sepul-
como
exige
las
en un segundo
tesis
libro,
razon de
la
rehgion
los
por separado
a este error, rebatiremos la
con argumentos
expondremos
las
reflitaremos desde el piano de la filo-
Ubro tercero, una vez descubiertos
el
que siguen de ordinario Martin,
la
eloquens et
hberasset.-**
es el siguiente:
I,
razones de los filosofos contrarios y sofia.
reliquisset, consuluisset vir
hoc scribendi munere
confirmaremos primeramente nuestra
esta cuestion
filosoficos
tres hbros.
16 del Ubro
el cap.
gravi
inconvenientes los sofismas
de
cristiana.^'
Pero antes de abordar su objetivo, Sepulveda considera oportuno aclarar cual ha sido el
origen del que se han derivado tan grandes males y pasar revista a las depravadas y costumbres de Lutero. Este aparece no solo como subvertidor de la rehgion,
artes
sino
mas
aiin
como aniquHador de
la
dignidad humana. Resulta interesante a este
respecto comprobar que grado de deformacion alcanza la figura de Lutero a
de im humanista en
la
Roma
de ese momento. El Reformador
es,
la vista
en opinion de
Sepulveda, un desvergonzado y un subversivo, que se aprovecha del descontento existente en nastica
en
Alemania hacia
aras
el
Papado para abandonar las estrecheces de una vida mo-
de otra mas disipada.
fiel
de
Una
cualquiera,
El,
en cambio,
se
reconoce a
si
mismo como
hijo
Lutero antes de exigir santidad de costumbres en Papas y cardenales deberia intentar corregir la conducta de los hombres. No es sino un Catila Iglesia catolica.
mentados por
que
la
se
rodea de hombres de escandalosa conducta, intrigantes y atorsi no el caso de Ulrich von
conciencia de sus crimenes. Ahi esta
Hutten para confirmarlo, quien despues de sumar a las tertnas de Viterbo se vio
mandose activamente evitar el castigo
romanos.
un homicidio junto
de Itaha y refugiarse en Alemania, susecuaces de Lutero, como si es que hubiera huido no para a salir
de su crimen, sino por hastio de
las
costumbres de
los sacerdotes
A este retrato poco favorable de Lutero aiiade Sepulveda la afirmacion cate-
gorica de que ha sido
alemanes
a los
obhgado
a otros dehtos
la aficion a la
a esta ruina fatal.
Mas
les
elocuencia y a
la
Uteratura lo que ha llevado a los
hubiera vahdo, dice.
^ lo. Genesii Sepulvedae Defato et libero arbitrio, 1. 1. " "Primum igitur in hac quaestione turn philosophorum,
turn theologorum rationibus
causam
nostram confirmabimus. Deinde adversariorum philosophorum argumenta secundo libro proponemus, eademque ut phiiosophi refutabimus. Tum in tertio incommodis, quae eiusmodi errorem
communiter consequuntur,
explicatis.
gionis, refellemus" {Defato 1. 16).
Martini captiones privatim, ut ratio poscit Christianae
reli-
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
98
expresar
de sus antepasados con un lenguaje sencillo
las artes liberales al estilo
y claro, que haber adquirido con
perversion los recursos literarios de
tal
totalidad de escritores griegos y latinos.
la
^^
Alios despues Sepulveda suavizaria un tanto esta postura tan radical y en carta a Martin de Oliva, Inquisidor apostolico, de fecha 13 de diciembre de 1547 asegura
que,
si
bien todos los
ordinaria cultura en a la conclusion
de
jerifaltes
el
campo de
la
de que hay que condenar
desde nifio a su estudio,
cias a ello
les
ella.-''
abrirse paso
de los campesinos).
al
pueblo en contra de
Con
De
su libelo
campo
el
general de la
bella joven sacada
no hubiera
de entre
las
virgenes consagradas, en
Por todo
ello
se
la religion
poco
de contrar matrimonio,
sido mancillada por el
mismo
a
el
el
tipicamente humanista saca a detractores del libre albedrio:
caso de que
hacia ya cuatro aiios,
ve obligado a rebatirlo, y lo hace apoyandose fundaSe muestra seguidor al respecto de las tesis de
mas importante comentarista. En un
palestra
la
de
los
en
el
libro
II
a los
estilo
defensores y a los
antiguos filosofos griegos hasta los nuevos
niqueos y a Wyclif. Mas adelante pasa a definir
que creen comunmente todos
^^
.
.
.
Y nada ha sido
sermone
rumque omamenta
ipso
los
la
ley natural
hombres
...
ma-
como
en todo tiempo, en todo
dictaminado con un consentimiento mayor del genero
"quibus [Gennanis] longe optabilius commodiusque
rudi ac simplici
la
mismo
teologos, pasando por los padres de la Iglesia. Lutero aparece alineado junto a los
lugar
y
poco
filosoficos.
Aristoteles y Alejandro de Afrodisias, su
lo
las
refiriendo a la guerra
practicas para llegar
las
la facultad
oido contar a algunos alemanes.'*"
Sepulveda
obispos y los monjes,
de proclamar que ambos sexos estan liberados de
como he
mentalmente en argumentos
los
(se esta
arremete contra toda
servo arbitrio
empezar atacando
obligacion de los votos y de concederles
muy
por
que ha ocurrido
en cambio, dedicado
fuentes originales sin necesidad de recurrir a traduc-
a lo fundamental. Asi, despues
una
el,
las
sus practicas; su intencion era
fuera virgen y
A
ocurre a tantos otros.
Lutero ha enardecido tambien
con
error imperdonable llegar
ambito cristiano del Nuevo Testamento, ya que gra-
consecuencias de lo cual son bien conocidas por todos
lo hizo
un
cultura helenica, pues lo
el
en
ha podido beber en
como
la
ha servido para
le
filosofia y, particularmente,
Alemania han sido hombres de extra-
griegas, seria
un mal uso de
sencillamente es que se ha hecho
ciones,
herejia en
las letras
tractare,
quam
sibi
fuisset
ingenuas artes
more maiorum
cum tanta pernicie omnia omnium Latinorum Graeco-
orationis peperisse" {Dejato 1.5).
'^
Es
*°
"ipse sibi pulcherrimam adolescentulam ex sacris virginibus,
la carta 5. 2.
iam ante quattuor annos, ut quosdam Germanos dicere audio,
copulavit" (Defato
1.
12).
si
tamen virgo
erat et
polluta, sanctissimo
non ab
connubio
ELENA RODRJGUEZ PEREGRINA humano, como el que existen muchos actos en manos accion u omision goza de absoluta y plena libertad/*
De
ese "consenso", pues, de los
Rechaza toda influencia de 18 del libro
el cap.
que
si
no
hace a
los
al
imbuir
en
las
el libre albedrio.
acciones humanas, a pesar de lo cual en
horoscope de Lutero, un Capricornio,
con
la
presencia de otros astros algo mas favora-
naturaleza de los recien nacidos de una falsa religion, y embusteros, simuladores, inconstantes, charlatanes, desleales
la
hombres
lujuriosos.
hombre, para cuya
hombres hace derivar Sepulveda
los astros
esta contrarrestado
bles, suele
y
alude
II
del
99
Ademis
la
oposicion de Marte y Mercuric tnarca
vanidad y
la
el
caracter mentiroso de Martin/^
Por lo demas, no voy y en
a
albedrio va aparejado
nacen con nosotros, por
el
al
En opinion de
concepto persona. Su moral
el alcanzarlas,
en cambio,
si
vista
de Aristoteles
Sepulveda,
el libre
es aristotelica: las virtudes
no
que depende de nosotros, motivo
que con razon son alabados
son necesarias
poner de y
extenderme en su exposicion del punto de
doctrina de los estoicos, contraria a este.
la
las
los buenos y justamente censurados los viciosos, exhortaciones y son convenientes las leyes, al objeto de poder dis-
como normas para vivir racional y feUzmente. Y aun mas, las virtudes dependen de nosotros, porque, una vez formados tales habitos, aiin de-
ellas
los vicios
pende de nosotros biarlos
en
la
posibilidad de rechazarlos o, mediante la conducta opuesta,
los contraries. Las virtudes las
alcanzamos, pues, mediante
cam-
la
dedicacion y
las
veces desple-
el esfuerzo.
El libro
gando una pecado,
fina ironia contra Lutero
como puede compaginarse
bertad humana,
A
ocupa mas de cuestiones teologicas
III se
—
la
mayoria de
pasa revista a temas tales
como que
conocimiento que Dios tiene de todo con
es el la li-
decir de los editores de la Academia, Sepulveda se nos muestra en esta obra
filosofo
teologo y un acerrimo defensor de
conocedor de
anterioridad a
*'
el
;
etc.
como un eximio
docti
—
el.
las
Todo
la religion, a la
vez que profundo
opiniones de todos cuantos habian tratado
ello
el
tema con
hace exclamar a Miguel de Medina:
"quidquid homines in omni aetate, in omni regjone, in omni civiute, docti pariter et incommuniter opinantur, id legem esse naturae Nihil est autem maiore consensu omnium
mortalium iudicatum, quam
.
esse
.
.
multa in potesute hominum, quae ut agendi,
sic
omittendi libe-
ram atque integram habeant facultatem" {Defato 1. 17). *^ "Habuit enim horoscopum capricomum, qui, nisi aliorum astronun benigniore aspectu tempcretur, falsa religione solet nascendum animos imbuere et homines facit simulatores, mendaces, inconstantes, loquaces, infidos, libidinosos. Oppositio Martis et Mercurii vanitatem narsus et
daciutem Martinis confirmat" {Defato
2. 18).
men-
LUTERO Y LA ESPANA DE CARLOS V
100
En
obra encontramos
esta
que
y, lo
El propio Erasmo,
al
de Aristoteles
un corazon
cristiano/^
pasar revista en su Ciceroniano a todos los escritores que imitaron
pueden depositar en
autor de
el
obra de Sepulveda
esta
Una
la misma.'*''
grandes esperanzas que
las
alabanza que, sin duda, satisfizo
—
Sepulveda, pero que estimo insuficiente, pues
a
la filosofia
todavia, la integridad de
comenta en relacion con
a Ciceron, se
elocuencia de Ciceron,
la
mas importante
es
creia el
—
estaba hecha en unos
terminos mas propios para estimular a un joven incipiente que para reconocer los meritos de
en
afios
una
—ya
un autor maduro
carta a
tenia
36
dedicado exclusivamente
Italia
Erasmo exponiendole
encontrar esta carta entre
las
aiios
al
— con una Por
estudio.
sus quejas.
trayectoria de
mas de once
motivo decidio
este
Los editores de
escribir
Academia dicen no
la
A
pesar de no haberse entreun intercambio epistolar entre pueden reducir a tres puntos :1.
editadas por Sepulveda.
vistado personalmente, los dos humanistas mantuvieron los
anos 1532 y 1536."*^ Las relaciones entre
ellos se
Enemistad de Erasmo con Alberto Pio, amigo intimo de Sepulveda, contra
las
Erasmum Roterodamum.*^
Intervencion en
2.
suyo, Lopez de Stiiniga o Ziiniga.
Nuevo Testamento.
A
3.
polemicas con Erasmo de otro amigo
las
Discusion sobre
pesar de sus diferencias con
el
constancia de la muerte de Erasmo en julio de 1536
V en
de Carlos
toria
Este afio
.
de Rotterdam, Sepulveda dej6
que puede creerse
gradas,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
dudaron en considerar como
Sumos
los planes
De
de
**
C(.
no
de
muchos varones
las
sutil,
His-
y festivo mas de
como uno de
los
solo profanas sino tambien sa-
.
.
hispano-latina cldsica, ed. E.
En
La primera edici6n de
por
ellos,
.
no
mientras
sus escritos
publicamente se apartase y estorbase
asi
a los Opera).
Sanchez Reyes, 10
*^
no porque aprobasen
el,
.
Sepulvedae Cordubensis, 14 (un comentario redactado por los edi-
Pelayo, "Apuntes sobre
*^
.
/^
Academia como introduccion
Opera
con
se pasase al reducto luterano abiertamente
la Iglesia
M. Menendez
graves eruditos y religiosos
semillas de las locuras luteranas
evitar que, exasperado
vita et saiptis lo. Genesii
la
las letras,
Pontifices transigian
y doctrinas, sino para de la Iglesia Catolica,
*^
la
y se hubiese abstenido de sembrar peligrosas sos-
pechas; males fueron estos que
tores
de
hubiese tratado de los asuntos sagrados y sus ministros con mayor
si
reverencia y compostura
vivia los
XV
varon esclarecido por su elo-
.
hubiera llegado a ser considerado
.
mas benemeritos de
autores y sabios
del libro
al final
estos terminos:
murio Erasmo de Rotterdam
.
.
de ciertos pasajes del
la exegesis
cuencia y vasta erudicion, de ingenio agudo, copioso y lo
quien defiende
a
acusaciones de aquel en su Antapologia pro Alberto Pio principe Carpensi in
el
ciceronianismo en Espana," in
vols. (Santander,
1950-1953),
3:
Bibliograjia
228-232.
77-97.
3:
Pio Comite Carpensi in
esta
obra Ueva por
Erasmum Roterodamum
titulo: lo. Genesii Sepulvedae
(Lutetiae:
Antapologia pro Alberto
apud A. Augerellum, 1532).
vir eloquentia et multa"Hoc anno Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus decessit rum rerum cognitione clarus, acri ingenio et copioso, arguto et supra quam credi potest festivo '*''
.
.
.
.
Quibus rebus
.
.
.
id erat assecutus, ut
de
litteris
.
non modo
.
.
.
.
profanis, sed etiam sacris ac litterarum
ELENA RODRJGUEZ PEREGRINA
101
Vemos, pues, que Sepulveda, como tantos otros, es de la opinion de que Lutero no habia hecho sino incubar los huevos que habia puesto Erasmo. Pero esto ya es otro tema.*^
Yo me propongo no alargar mas mi
exposicion y finalizar aqui. Pero es que,
dice Sepulveda a Juan de Toledo, obispo de Cordoba,
al final
De fato
del
como
et libera
arbitrio:
In qua quaestione disserenda,
si
tibi forte vel
visus fuero, illud tribues difficultati,
sermoms
angustias
non
longior aliquanto, vel
cum maxima
quae
sit
.
.
iudicio
.
concitatior
omnium
.
.
.
patitur.
Universidad de Granada
studiosis
optime meritus
esse videretur,
reverentia temperatusque disseruisset
quae mala mulci
niarum
fuisse
.
.
.
si
de rebus
postremo,
viri graves, eruditi et religiosi
confirmare
et scripta probarent, sed
.
.
.
Nam
si
sacris ac
eorum
maiore adhibita
ministris
periculosis suspicionibus serendis abstinuisset;
non dubitaverunt seminaria Ludieranarum insaMaximi parcebant, non quod eius mentem
viventi Pontifices
ne exagitatus ab
ipsis
palam descisceret ab
ecclesia catholica et in castra
Lutherana coniectus apertius ecclesiae rationibus officeret" {De rebus gestis Caroli V, 15. 31). **
Cf. Joaquin J. Sanchez Gazquez, "Juan Gines de Sepulveda,
XVI: Lutero y Erasmo", in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini (Tempe, AZ, 2001), 575-583. *' lo.
Genesii Sepulvedae Defato
3. 31.
Un
Abuletisis, ed.
hispano a
R. Schnur
la altura
et
al.,
del siglo
MRTS
207
Communications
In Praise of the Filia Docta:
Elizabeth Weston and the Female Line^
SYLVIA
BROWN
1612
marked the end of the reign of the Emperor Rudolph II. It was also the young EngHshwoman, just thirty-one, died in exile in Bohemia. She had presented herself as coming from a noble EngUsh family, although even her near contemporaries were not sure exactly who that family was or where it had come from.- At some point, her widowed mother had married the notorious alchemist Edward Kelley, who had been at first favored, then imprisoned and ruined by Rudolph II. Edward Kelley himself died in a Bohemian prison in 1597.^ Six years later, his year in which a
'
I
would
like to
thank Susan Bassnett, John Considine, and Paddy Considine for their gener-
ous assistance during the writing of
-John
Fuller's Worthies of
this paper.
England (1662) placed her in Surrey (where there was a family of
Westons) for want of a more certain origin. For tails
tation
this,
and for
a
fiill
version of the biographical de-
A New
Interpre-
of the Life of Elizabeth Jane Weston (Westonia), Based on her Autobiographical
Poem on
summarized
in this paragraph, see
Susan Bassnett, "Revising a Biography:
the Occasion of the Death of her Mother," Cahiers elisabethains 37 (1990): 1-8, here 2; also eadem,
"Absent Presences: Edward Kelley 's Family in the Writings of John Dee," [forthcoming] Dee: InterdiscipUnary Studies
in
EngUsh Renaissance Thought, ed.
grateful to Professor Bassnett for providing ^
in
me
S.
is
diaries for this period).
am
Weston (nee Cooper)
Europe with John Dee's menage (although, no mention of Weston's children, Elizabeth and her brother, in Dee's
that the couple then
problematically, there
moved
John
(I
with an advance copy of this paper.)
Bassnett proposes ("Revising a Biography") that Kelley married a Jane
En^and, and
in
Clucas (Dordrecht, 2000).
across
Louise Schleiner proposed
a different identity for
Westonia's mother in
"Elizabeth Weston, Alchemist's Step-Daughter and Published Poet," Cauda Pavonis: The Hermetic
Text Society Newsletter 11 (1992): 8-16. Schleiner proposed that Jane
Kelley
before
he was married
dent in Bohemia
when
a
Cooper married and
second time to Elizabeth Weston's mother,
who was
Kelley arrived there. In her later book, Tudor and Stuart
left
already resi-
Women
Writers
(Bloomington. 1994), Schleiner revised her account to agree with Bassnett's identification. She plausibly proposed that a
Bohemian wedding between Kelley and
without documenution by Vaclav Kaplicky in
his
a
"Lady Weston," reported
Zvot Alchymistuv [The
Life
of an Alchemist]
106
OF THE
IN PRAISE
DOCTA
FILIA
unfortunate stepdaughter seems to have found some stabiUty in marriage,
of twenty-two, to a lawyer
the imperial court
at
at
named Johannes Leo. But
the age
after
nine
which produced seven children (of whom only three daughters survived), this young wife and mother was herself dead. The woman whose biography I have sketched was, of course, Elizabeth Jane Wesyears of a marriage
known
ton,
to her
male contemporaries
poets of Bohemia (aU
DEA
goddess,
men) poured out
Indeed, during her
docta.
as
"Westonia."
funeral elegies life
On
her death, the principal
which praised her
as a
learned
she was celebrated by an impressive range
of humanists and Neo-Latin poets, whose various discourses of praise have been sur-
veyed and analyzed by Brenda Hosington."* In
made
my
brief sketch of her
Elizabeth
have deliberately
life, I
Weston "Westonia": her
included fluency in English, German,
left
out
of the qualities that
all
impressive linguistic attainments (which
Italian,
and Czech,
as
well
her ambi-
as Latin);
wherein she associated herself with the best Latin poets, including an-
tious poetry,
other poet of exile, Ovid; and,
finally,
her publications, which comprised the two
books of the Poemata (published 1602) and the three books of the Parthenicon (probably
published, according to
first
Weston's
— minus
life
Donald Cheney,
minus the copious output of Neo-Latin verse
bom into
tunate person,
more remarkable,
The
in 1608).^
then,
bare outlines of
woman of the period,
the prodigious learning so unusual for a
— make her sound
like a very unfor-
unpropitious circumstances and dogged by bad luck. All the
we might
say, that
she was able to
rise
above circumstances
and the constraints placed on her by reason of her sex and earn the esteem of her learned contemporaries. It is
my
contention in
however, that her male contemporaries' praise
this paper,
of her exceptional talents was perhaps more constraining, more of a hurdle to over-
come than her
straitened material circumstances, for after
all, it
was her family's mis-
which prompted the majority of her verse epistles. It was not, however, the mere fact of praise which was a problem; rather, it was how Weston was praised. I shall therefore examine some of the terms in which she was praised, arguing that the laudatory comparisons to which she and her poetry were subjected worked not to fortunes
(Prague, 1980), might have been a second
wedding necessary
for the marriage to
be recognized
Women Writers, 96—97. Brenda M. Hosington, "Elizabeth Jane Weston and Men's Discourse of Praise,"
as
Catholic. See Schleiner, Tudor and Stuart * lettree
a
la
27-29 mars 1996, docta" from a ^
ed.
Michel Bastiaensen
poem by Weston's
Bastiaensen, here 120 n. 3.
sington, "Elizabeth Jane
of
(Brussels, 1997),
107-118. Hosington quotes
On
Weston's
linguistic
(Toronto, 2000), 70-73.
this invaluable edition.
will subsequently
I
am
be referred to
as
"DEA
in
Lafemme
The
first
draft
lettree
/De ge-
and poetic learning, see Ho-
Weston," 110-111. For Weston's poem "In 2 Ovidij.
see Elizabeth Jane Weston: Collected Writings, ed. and trans.
M. Hosington fit
Lafemme
patron Georg Martinius von Baldhoven (116).
Donald Cheney, "Virgo Angla: The Self-Fashioning of Westonia,"
leerde vrouw, ed.
Tristia, II)
in
Renaissance /De geleerde vrouw in de Renaissance: Actes du Colloque international, Bruxelles,
Trist."
(On Ovid's
Donald Cheney and Brenda
of this paper was written without the bene-
glad to have been able to consult and benefit
Cheney and Hosington,
from
Weston: Collected Writings.
it
since. It
SYLVIA
BROWN
107
aflSrm her talent, but rather to limit possibilities for
Weston
only for
its
development, and
perhaps more seriously, for other early
herself, but,
not
this
modem women
who might seek to imitate her and estabUsh a tradition of learned female poetry. (Here I am thinking about the discursive reasons why exceptional "learned ladies," Uke Lady Jane Grey or Olympia Morata or Westonia, did not seem
to prepare the
way
for any sort of general "Renaissance" of female erudition.) In the second half of the
paper,
shall
I
turn to Weston's poetry, arguing that she henelf had problems with the
conventional language used to praise the learned
on
resent herself as a poet
those terms.
I
shall
woman and found it difficult to
end by suggesting
poetic career, and perhaps especially with the death of her mother,
Weston began
an alternative, more helpful idiom in which to conceive of herself as In her survey of the
women
with
whom Weston is
concludes that the "Muses, of course, provide the
rep-
the end of her
that, at
a
to find
woman
poet.
compared, Brenda Hosington
and foremost model for a
first
fe-
male poet, with the Graces and Venus close behind."^ The main problem with these is that none of them is human: they deny the possibility of a poetic tradicomposed of and available to women, rather than "learned goddesses." Hosington gives us Jan Dousa's superficially flattering, but ultimately unhelpful, judgement that Westonia produced "writing which it seems no mortal hand could have portrayed."^ Better then, perhaps, are the comparisons of Weston with mortals. Pavel Stransky's poem, AD EUSABETHAM WESTHONIANAM nobilem Poetriam, provides a typical
analogues tion
example. In
Stransky
it,
commands
Perilla as well as
Sappho
Weston: "Cede Perhilla inquam, Nasonis vivida versu,
The comparison with Sappho
cede lyra."* Perilla
is
a less famihar
name, but she was
is
exile,
Ovid pictured
Perilla
{vivida) in
He
recalled
and hoped that
gifts,
putting
Weston
how
he
his fate
first
as
we know
the one
aging father-figure
as
cum
of the
Tristia.
From
his
matre sedentem, / aut inter Ubros Pieridasque
recognized and cultivated his stepdaughter's poetic
would not
deter her
who
his
from continuing
comparison
also places
By company of her
to write venes.
Weston
in a
addresses her, in the position of Ovid: he
well as a patron
who
*
Hosington, "Elizabeth Jane Weston," 114.
'
"Litera, mortalis
Jane Weston," 110.
it.
poet for Stran-
about her because she was
elegies
in Perilla's place, Stransky aptly locates her in the
books, muses, and mother. But
and himself,
shall return to
a particularly apt historical
one of the
Sappho Lesbia
tua
I
enjoying the company of her mother, her books, and her
muses ["aut illam invenies dulci suas"].'
to cede their places to
Cumque
conventional and
sky to invoke. She was Ovid's stepdaughter, and addressed and indeed "Hves"
/
quam non manus ulla The translation is hers.
filial is
position
an encour-
grants her the reward of his praise.'"
videri / Pinxe.
.
.
.":
quoted in Hosington, "Elizabeth
* Cheney and Hosington, Weston: Collected Writings, 98-99 [Parthenicon 1:51], Hnes 13-14. Cheney and Hosington describe Stransky (1583-1657) as a "Bohemian nationalist and defender of the Czech language, historian, political observer, and commentator on Rudolfs court." See also
R.J. W. Evans, Rudolf II and His World: 23 and passim. ' '°
Ovid,
Tristia,
Stransky
is
A Study of Intellectual History,
157&-1612 (Oxford. 1973),
3.7.1-2.
also patronizing in that his praise
is
rather grudging. In his
poem he
admits that
OF THE
IN PRAISE
108
As for Sappho, she
at least
DOCTA
FILIA
was cited for her
own
prodigious talent, not because
she "lived" in another's verses. But she was a prodigy, and herein
problem of praise. Stransky tional early
sees
Weston
modern compliment,
now
a lusus naturae, or, as the
an,
and
In other words, as it
to
is
all
prodigious and unusual
woman
a freak,
is
of another learned
said
wom-
the praise
Weston received assumed
she was exceptional. Nice
be considered exceptional, none of these compliments suggests that Wes-
much
be imitated or reproduced by other women. at
the end of a line of exceptional
comprise an inheritable female tradition
whom Weston, tration of this
as a line
On
poets, she will have
tendency of male praise
is
of unique exemplars
down,
at first hesitated to
successor. '-^
A
is
barren.
strong
illus-
the catalogue of "learned maidens and
women" which was appended to the Parthenicon: A final example from a poem by Vaclav Ripa praise: the closing
no
the con-
women, who do
phoenix-like, replaces and surpasses. In literary terms, she
As the apogee of learned female
he
A
time."
miraculum seu naturae monstrum.^^
her male praisers locate her
not so
at a
French Carmelite Louis Jacob
ton's learned poetry could trary,
the crux of the
again in a conven-
So each exceptionally learned
again.
Anna Maria van Schurman,
lies
is,
the Sappho of her age, with the implicit assumption
one Sappho
that there can only be, at most, talent appears only
replacing Sappho: she
Weston
is
the very
last
serves to illustrate the
name.^*
problem of
rather than the enabling, of a female tradition of learned
believe in the reports of Weston's talent. See
Cheney and Hosington,
Weston: Collected Writings, on lines 5—8.
" Paul Melissus
also said
of Weston
that she
was "equal
in genius to Sappho, or
wholly
exceeds Sappho herself: quoted and translated by Hosington, "Elizabeth Jane Weston," 110.
Westonia
is
also praised as a
second Sappho
naeus, Andreas Calagius, and Matthias
310-311, 388-389, 434-435). Other early include Louise Labe
(c.
(or as surpassing
Sappho) in poems by Balthasar Cami-
Zuber (Cheney and Hosington, Weston:
modem women
1520-1566), Anne Bradstreet
(c.
Collected Writings,
poets praised as equivalents to Sappho
1612-1672), and Sor Juana Ines de
la
Cruz (1648-1695). '^
A
Better Part:
Anna Maria
5.
"Anna Maria van
Jacob, Elogitim (1646), quoted in Mirjam de Baar and Brita Rang,
Schurman:
Historical Survey
of her Reception since the Seventeenth Century,"
van Schurman (1607-1678), ed. Mirjam de Baar et
Bernhard Praetorius addresses Weston
as a
al.
in Choosing the
(Dordrecht, 1996),
"Miracle of nature and of your sex." Matthias Zuber
"You are an illustrious miracle of your sex" and also writes her a dubiously complimentary epigram: "What did Nature deny you, learned Westonia? / Nothing. Aside fi-om your being bom a woman." See Cheney and Hosington, Weston: Collected Writings, 416-417, lines 15-16, and enthuses,
436-437. in praise
It is
because he regarded her
as a
prodigy or curiosity that Justus Lipsius scorned to write
of Westonia. According to him, such female learning was
superficial, just for
show. See
Cheney, "Virgo Angla," 121-122. '^
Perhaps
after she
this
accounts for the odd persistence of the categorization of Weston
had married and borne children. The persistence ofuirgo
is
discussed
as virgo,
even
by Cheney, "Virgo
Angla," 125-127. ''
Cheney and Hosington,
well as the
hoven. (1552),
The
last, first
which
woman
Weston: Collected Writings, 282-307.
fifty-seven entries
itself
Weston
is
the sixty-fifth, as
which was probably put together by her editor Baldreproduce verbatim a list of learned women by Ravisius Textor
in the catalogue,
was based on an earher
Weston: Collected Writings, 282.
list
by RafFaele MafFei. See Cheney and Hosington,
BROWN
SYLVIA
Ripa compares Weston with the
poetry.'^
Ripa admires poetry to
rival
as docta virago,
itable tradition
divino, docta virago, nurus." She thus potentially begins an inher-
of learned female poetry. Weston,
women. Yet Ripa does not
teach other
her counterpart, might similarly
as
allow this productive comparison to stand.
Instead of seeing Sulpicia as the founding as
Roman poet Sulpicia. Sulpicia, whom Roman women to compose divine
did teach other
even that of the Greeks: "Prima haec Romanas docuit contendere
Carmine
Graijs /
109
mother of a female
and Weston
tradition
an inheriting daughter, Ripa decides, some hnes into the poem, to undo the con-
Weston cannot
nection.
after
all
be compared to
Sulpicia,
who was
a vernacular poet.
Vernacular poets avoid imitating the ancient bards because they are sentit WESTONIA virgo,
en Weston
Illos
dum superat
lazy:
"Haec ahter
carmine docta suo" [The maid-
when she learnedly surpasses those poets in her compHment Weston. She is different from vernacular poets;
feels quite differently,
Ripa means
song].'^
Poetas /
to
indeed she outdoes, even vanquishes, them
because she writes in a language
[superai\
other than her own. But in ultimately denying the connection to Sulpicia, Ripa denies
Weston what one might
call
What was Ehzabeth Weston's
"a tradition of her own."
response to
place to look for an answer to this question
The poems by Weston
thenicon.
is
all
of
this
double-edged praise?
in these collections are, for the
deal of evidence for Weston's response to praise. carefril attention to
not only to reconstruct,
most
We
they respond to other poems by her friends and admiren.'^
not been printed,
Even when
part, dialogic:
thus have a great
the praiser's
dressed by
One
Weston
to
poem
has
the language of Weston's response enables us
at least in part,
the original exchange, but also to gauge
Weston's reaction to the recurrent patterns of male praise which would a female prodigy.
One
the poetry of the Poemata and the Par-
response which repays
kind of attention
this
is
isolate
a
her
poem
George CaroUdes, the premier poet of the Rudolfine
as
ad-
court.
When CaroUdes sent Weston venes congratulating her on her poems
on the Nativity of Christ, Weston answered him with another poem.'* Weston's response to Carolides's praise is one of those self-referential poems in which the poet meditates aloud
'^
Cheney and Hosmgton, Waton:
Collected Writings,
composer of elegies, and "a prominent
a poet, a
98-99. Ripa (1579-1616) was himself
figure in Prague, involved in
church disputes in
Cheney and Hosington, Weston: Collected Writings, 99 n. '* The translation is fi-om Cheney and Hosington, Weston: Collected Writings, 99, lines 15-16. " About a third of the ParthenicSn (especially Book III) consists of poems by Weston's admirers, most of which have no printed response by Weston. Conversely, most of Weston's responses are to poems not printed in her collection. '* The religious poems which Carolides praised were likely those bter reprinted at the beginning of Book II of the ParthenicSn. See Cheney and Hosington, Weston: Collected Writings, particuthat city." See
larly
his
100-107. For Carolides, see Evans, Rudolf II and His World, 150.
poem
whether
praising Weston's Nativity poems.
it
expUcidy
& Poette
Dno
Ctesareo.
would
like to
I
have been unable to locate
know whether
it is
extant and, if so,
Weston as "Lesbia." Weston's response is in Cheney and Hosington, 62-66 [ParthenicSn 1:34]. Her poem addresses Carolides deferentially as
refers to
Weston: Collected Writings, Clarissimo Viro,
I
CEORGIO CAROLIDyE a Carlsherga,
Civi Pragensi, artium liberalium Magistro,
110
OF THE
IN PRAISE
on her
art
and ambitions. In doing
of praise which
lary
is
Weston complicates and
rewrites the vocabu-
have been tracing in her male admirers. Subtly but firmly, she
I
refuses the conventional terms refusal
so,
DOCTA
FILIA
with which the imperial poet has praised her. Her
partly disguised as the ritual dance of modesty,
performed in the republic of
whenever compliments were exchanged. But beneath the gesture of self-deprecation is a more distinctive, less pliable voice, telling Carolides that his praise does
letters
not quite
Weston's sense of her
"fit"
self
or her
fiiture as a poet.
Weston begins her poem to Carolides with disarming self-deprecation, declaring her nativity poems to be the "uncertain issue of a female brain."^^ She is nonetheless not at all surprised that Carolides found them agreeable ("At minus admiror consonuisse tibi").
the reasons she finds for Carolides's approval have
Still,
to
little
do
with her personal poetic talent or ambitions: anything put into "numbers" or verse sounds musically to the
moreover, her subject matter
ear;
is
the worthiest that could
be.2o
While the please
more
God
half of her
first
poem
declares a modest, almost self-effacing, wish to
with her poetry ("Vnde placere
on her
directly
DEO
sense of herself as a poet.
valeam"), the second half focuses
Here Weston thinks very
precisely
about her poetic reputation and the terms on which she wishes to be praised. Specifically,
she considers the suitability of the identification of herself with Sappho
woman. She
Lesbia, the Lesbian
been more concerned with
fore
considering
how
she,
poets or bards, the
introduces Sappho into her
how
her verses
Weston, ought
vates.
She declares
to
may
praise Christ
be placed in relation
that she hardly wishes to
ancient poets: "Vatibus haud cupiam dici praelata vetustis." scious of
what
said
is
[them]. That she
quent
lines.
She
is
is
poem (which
and please God) by pagan
to the ancient
be placed before the
Note here
about her: she would hardly wish to be said
thinking primarily about ancient /ema/e poets
content that the reputations of all
— here
has hereto-
that she
[dict\ is
to
is
con-
be before
clear in subse-
women writers who
worship the
Muses of Helicon (including Sappho) should flourish from the fint to the last age: "Floreat a primo postremum Lesbia in aevum, / Ac Heliconiades quae coluere DEAS." While executing the modesty topos, Weston is also paying tribute to an enduring female literary tradition, that tradition
by being known
as
well
as
implying that she does not wish to replace prodigy. She sees herself, in time, joining
as a singular
the ancient line of female poets. She asks CaroHdes to pray to the highest
power
in
order that she might be what Sappho was: not a pagan of course (that would nullify the devout intentions of the
first
part of the
poem), but
deserved reputation, like Sappho's ("Deprecor a /
Vt
sim, qualis erat Lesbia: sorte puto").
mortality like Sappho's:
pro
me
62-63,
Weston
deposcas is
Numine tandem,
fated to achieve an
My
translations
translation
Cheney and Hosington,
im-
carminibus gratabor, Culte Georgi; / Altera tunc
George Carolides
cemis titubare profecta cerebro": Cheney and Hosington, Weston:
line 3.
and Hosington. Any ^^
tibi
if
poet with an enduring and
Lesbia, vota feram" [Then, and only then, cultivated
" "Faemineo ings,
"Tunc
And
a
summo
—
Collected Writ-
and paraphrases of this poem are informed by those of Cheney
of thein quoted verbatim
is
enclosed in quotation marks.
Weston: Collected Writings, 62-65, lines 5-16.
BROWN
SYLVIA
his
thanks until
—
shall I thank you in poems]. In other Weston does become altera Lesbia, another
(note the repetition of tunc for emphasis)
words, he must wait for
111
Sappho. Weston sees herself still learning and developing that she
In this
of the
last
Hne,
George Carohdes,
just as
one day she
oum
her
behalf, pro me.
I
he
impUes
is
another Sappho, she will
Sappho
offer those prayers on
still
Wes-
of the stubborn survival of Ehzabeth
this speaks
she concedes a hypothetical future
as
in the midst
offering to pray for her ftiture as the other
is
beUeve
woman, even
also
Perhaps one day she will offer prayers for
Lesbia.
.
.
.
now. But, even ton, a real
me
find significant the interpolation of the sohd pro
I
significantly split Altera
if
She
poet.
as a
work of enduring fame.
capable of future
is
mythic Sapphic
as a
poet.2'
The
response to CaroUdes
is
one of the few poems by Weston which mention
Sappho. This alone suggests that Weston found figures other
—
her
—
poem
Lymburch,
a reply to Eric
mentions Sappho,
also
who Weston
well as the Greek poet Praxilla and the "learned
as
rinna," but only, again, in order to refiise the
Weston came
think
I
is
commented with
a markedly different ending from the
in Carolides's Parentalia (1601).
there
is
no mention of Lesbia
Such
There the prayers
one printed
expHcit displeasure at
te,
on behalf of Carolides.
Cheney and Hosington,
in the final lines. See
is
arguably Weston's:
it
poem
of the
in an earlier version
are offered pro
Also,
Weston: Collected
Although Weston complained of her editor Baldhoven's tampering with her
Writings, 66.
the revision
Co-
of Sappho's conqueror.--*
to have helped her in her material misfortunes. In a
all,
manuscript addition to the Parthenicon, she
This
title
to find the recurring cHches of praise exasperating.
praise does not seem, after
^'
One
her problematic.—
like
claims had excessively praised
verses,
suggests an increasing self-consciousness about the trajectory
of her poetic reputation. ^^
77ji5
In her essay, "Female Authority and Authorization Strategies in Early
Double
Voice:
Gendered Writing
in
Early
Modem
Clarke (Basingstoke, 2000), 16-40, Jane Stevenson has noted
have been fond of characterizing this identification.
women
vive written by one
is
woman
that she
singular.
Muse It is
^
the
that
lANLS Congress and
In the
for supplying
same poem, Weston
do
also
me
themselves avoided
from a woman's point number of poems sur-
not use this trope." In her
women
auctrices ... a
My thanks to Professor Stevenson for her helpful
across time." at
a difficult figure,
and argues
jected these models, invoking instead "a tradition of
paper
is
women
models of female authorship available to
to "the second Sappho"),
women
succession of
comments
women
[Parthenicon
1:29]
women,
questions
Lymburch's excessive
show
ancient predecessors and their near contemporaries.
quishes"
praises.)
that learned Renaissance
By
deferring to the
poems
the
praising
that they
Cheney and Hosington,
must "yield"
See
poem
work of both
to her. See, for example, Janus
their
Westonia conven-
deny her connection with her learned female contemporaries, declaring
them or
sisters.
Stevenson ("Female Authority")
women knew
contrast,
of this
essay.
Weston: Collected Writings, 58-61 [Parthenicon 1:30]. (The preceding
discusses ParthetticSn 1:30 to
tionally
writers
after the delivery
with an advance copy of her
mentions more recent learned
(for instance,
authors themselves re-
learned "Fulvia" (Olympia Morata) and hoping only to equal the famous Morel
Cheney and Hosington,
Europe," in
modem men may
while early
notable that, while a
Latinist to congratulate another, they
essay she discusses the unsatisfactory
jumping from Sappho
is
that,
poets as "the Tenth Muse,"
Stevenson writes, "the Tenth
of view: the main problem
Modem
England, ed. Danielle Clarke and Elizabeth
Dousa
that she
"van-
to Baldhoven, in
Weston: Collected Writings, 243-245, especially lines 11-14.
how the verses to
OF THE FILM DOCTA
IN PRAISE
112
of others were mixed up with hers in publication:
form these brief
praises into a separate book."^''
"It
would be
better
Although we might appreciate
the glimpse of the social milieu which the mixed, dialogic collections of Weston's
much more independent
verse give, she herself clearly longed for a
expression of
herself as an author. is dated Prague, 16 August 1610, two years before Weston's Sometime in the last half-decade of her Ufe, Weston also published a poem commemorating the death of her mother: In Obitum NOBILIS ET GENEROSyS
This manuscript note
death.
F/EMIN^
Dee loannce?^
shall
I
conclude by suggesting that
autobiographical
this
poem, although founded upon grief and loss, nonetheless offered Weston the possibility of bypassing the problem of the female poet as I have been setting it out in this paper. There are no Muses or Graces, no Sappho, in this funeral poem. The only mythic female
is
Atropos,
The
diminishing family.
much more
write,
who
vividly
poem
this
is
and again against Weston's
very disturbing. But
and sincerely than she
Weston laments
supplications.
exercises her fury again
pain in
is
making the
the loss of her mother's blessing and touch,
forehead and breast; she regrets the
plus maternis
Nee mihi
Non
enables her to
the loss of an intimate relationship of trust and help,
not of the formal and always compromising relations of patron and
Non
it
do in many of her verse
able to
me
client.
She
sign of the cross
regrets
on her
of maternal advice and maternal words.
loss
vocibus
ilia
monebit,
cui dicam, consule mater,
erit.
ea plus soboli benedicens prona mihiq[ue],
Signa dabit fronti, pectoribusq[ue] crucis.
"Non
plus maternis
me
vocibus
with a mother's words, nor er!'"
'^^
think
I
The
it
verses (which are
seum
is
by Connie McQuillen.
reproduced
found
in copies
of the Parthenicon
Library of Prague) are reproduced in
304-307. In them Weston
women,
learned
finding
Parts
in Schleiner, "Elizabeth
items
(e.g.,
will she counsel
me
can say 'Advise me, moth-
I
what language ]ozx\m Weston
in
of the manuscript addition, with McQuillen's
Weston,"
The complete manuscript
14, n. 5.
in the British Library
Cheney and Hosington,
and the National
Mu-
Weston: Collected Writings,
with her inclusion in the catalogue of
also expresses dissatisfaction
some
"No more
whom
be one to
not a frivolous question to wonder
translation
translation, are
monebit":
ilia
will there
the entry for Sappho?)
less
welcome than
others. In
other manuscript additions (Cheney and Hosington, Weston: Collected Writings, 307), she demands that
George Carolides remove
Book cussed ^^
of Parthenicon)
I
—
his verses
from her book
(a series
of his epigrams were printed
in
a considerably less polite attitude than in her response to Carolides dis-
earlier! I
am
grateful to Professor Susan Bassnett for generously sending
me
a
copy of her photo-
poem, which was published only in pamphlet form and together with two smaller epitaphs on Joanna Kelley by Nicolaus Maius and George Carolides. It is undated, but could not have appeared before 1606 since Elizabeth married in April 1603 and had had three children by copy of
this
the time her mother died, as she
tells
us in the
poem. The
but disappeared in the early 1990s. Fortunately, the text ton, Weston: Collected Writings,
335-343.
is
original text
now
was
in the Strahov Library
preserved in
Cheney and Hosing-
SYLVIA
BROWN
113
might have advised her daughter. According to the short epitaph by George CaroUdes,
appended
Weston's mother was herself a learned
to In Obitutn,
vario, Latiaeque idiomate hngvae / Edere,
quod memori
lady:
"Docta
finxerat ingenio" [she
fuit
was
learned in various languages and could give out, in the Latin tongue, what her in-
memory had
genious
We
retained].
do not
know where Elizabeth Weston Edward KeUey supervised the educa-
really
learned her Latin. Susan Bassnett speculates that
tion of both Elizabeth and her brother, and that perhaps the children also benefited firom the tutors hired
me
knee. For, after
memorating
all,
John Dee.^^ It would seem to Latin words at her mother's the poem on her mother's death is com-
by Kelley's notorious
Weston learned
fitting if Elizabeth
what she
doing in
is
a real female hne. In
associate,
at least
Obitum
is
her
very
first
the historical cata-
diflferent firom
logues of learned ladies of every age, in which Westonia herself was included. diflference
is
that
Weston wrote
mother, but also of the particular
As
a necessarily
social
and fanuHal
ties
of her
own
mimetic Neo-Latin poet, she would draw upon
poetry. As a female Neo-Latin poet, she
would use
it
wonder what more Weston might have
time and place.
this to
enrich her
to create an accessibly domestic
rather than a problematically mythic genealogy. This late us to
The
firom her experience}^ of the pain of losing her
poem for her mother leaves
achieved, had she hved longer.
University of Alberta
^
Bassnett, "Revising a Biography," 5-6,
KeUey published
and "Absent Presences." In an essay about Edward
London Review of Books, Charles Nicholl quotes a manuscript by the Czech alchemist Simon Tadeas Budeck of Leslin which gave an account of Elizabeth Weston and her
mother
in the
visiting Kelley
lish to his wife,
on
his
Alchemist to the Emperor," posal that as
Weston learned
well for her mother, ^^
In this
at
poem
Writings,
LRB 23,
Most Casde. Budeck reported that KeUey "spoke Enghis daughter." See "The Last Yean of Edward Kelley,
no. 8 (19 April 2001): 8. This adds weight to Bassnett's pro-
Latin from her stepfather, but
who was
336-337,
&
it
does not preclude a pedagogical role
also praised as docta.
she declares that she speaks "as one
enced" ("laesam / Vulnere, CoUeded
deathbed
and Remish and Latin to
expertam
lines 5-6.
me
who
facit ista loqui").
has been
wounded and
is
experi-
See Cheney and Hosington, Weston:
Uanonimo carme
pastorale iutitolato
Cinthias
DAVIDE CANFORA
La
poesia bucolica e attestata nella storia letteraria italiana a partire dal principio
del
di
XIV
secolo.'
ecloghe latine
Ebbe luogo,
a quel tempo,
Dante Alighieri e
tra
il
il
noto scambio epistolare in forma
maestro bolognese Giovanni del Virgilio.
Anche Petrarca e Boccaccio nutrirono notevole interesse per il genere. Si puo affermare che la produzione pastorale trecentesca si richiamo apertamente al modeUo antico, latino e virgiliano in particolare (i personaggi di Titiro e Melibeo sono appunto i pastori protagonisti deUa prima ecloga dantesca, cosi come deUa prima ecloga di Virgilio). Di questo modello £u valorizzato in primo luogo I'aspetto allegorico,
conformemente all'interpretazione piu tipicamente medievale La lezione dei
genere pastorale volgare.
Tra
tre
del Quattrocento e
sperimentazione awiatasi all'incirca
inascoltata.
in latino e, successivamente,
II
anche in
primi anni del Cinquecento, dopo una ricca
i
alia
del genere bucolico.
non rimase naturalmente
ampiamente frequentato
fii
la fine
grandi del Trecento
meta
del secolo,
si
datano
le
poesie pastorali
in volgare di Boiardo (autore, peraltro, anche di Pastoralia virgihani in latino) e soprattutto Y Arcadia di Sannazaro, che deve considerarsi tiva del genere.
'
Lo
italiana,
Quanto aUa produzione bucolica
studio ancora
o^
fondamentale, con riferimento
rimane E. Carrara, La poesia
men petrarchesco,
il
testo
una tappa
latina, essa
pastorale (Milano, 1909).
al
genere bucolico nella letteratura
Per quanto riguarda
che certo esercito maggjore influenza
sul
genere nel
limito qui a rinviare alia recente edizione diplomatica dell'autografo: D.
carmen"
di Petrarca.
Edizione diplomatica dell'autografo Vat.
anche un'utile concordanza: N. Mann, Per una recente
rilettura del
cultura medievale,
si
poema, con
veda M. Ariani,
bucolico nella letteratura del Kiisteller,
XIV
A
Concordance
lat.
3358
to Petrarch's
bis Petrarca
Venuto,
(Pisa, 1990).
Bucolicum
Il
secolo,
car-
mi
"Bucoliatm
Del carme
esiste
particolare riferimento agji elementi di esso derivanti dalla
Petrarca
(Roma,
1999), 203-213. Sulla riscoperta del genere
secolo rinvio a G. Billanovich, F. Cjda, A.
4 (1961): 181-221; K. Krautter, Die Renaissance
DanU
De
il
XIV
"Bucolicum carmen" (Pisa, 1984).
"Scuola di retorica e poesia bucolica nel Trecento italiano,"
hunderts: von
essenziale e rifonda-
conobbe, dopo Petrarca
Italia
Campana, e
des Bukolik in der Lteinischen Literatur des
(Miinchen, 1983).
P.
O.
Medioevale e Umanistica
XlV.Jahr-
l'anonimo carme pastorale cinthias
116
e Boccaccio,
una
rUmanesimo,
Trecento e soprattutto nel secolo del-
fioritura notevole nel tardo
in particolare presso gli ambienti cortigiani, in cui piu abitualmente
ricorse alia rappresentazione pastorale
con
intenti narrativi ed encomiastici.
si
Ricor-
diamo le ecloghe composte in questo periodo in ambiente mantovano e ferrarese, nonche napoletano. Maestro del genere, nel secondo Quattrocento napoletano, fu Giovanni Gioviano Pontano.
A
Napoli
la
lezione dei grandi autori del Trecento
si
comunque
era
prima del periodo pontaniano. Particolare influenza esercito caccio,
il
quale aveva a lungo soggiornato neUa citta partenopea in giovane eta e
avevafatto esplicitamente riferimento, neH'allegorico BucoUcum Carmen, oino, mettendone in scena
Di un'anonima ecloga Titiro e
afFermata gia
magistero di Boc-
il
Mopso,
in cui
personaggi di maggiore rilievo sotto
i
come
latina napoletana, avente
narravano
si
le
protagonisti
vicende della guerra per
la
al
casato angj-
le spoglie di pastori.
pastori Dafni,
i
successione angioina
(1435—1442), diede notizia Enrico Carrara nel gia citato volume La poesia tratta di
Bandini
una bucolica "forte imperfecta"
—
— secondo
un codice conservato
trascritta su
presso
pastorale. Si
la
descrizione di Angelo Maria
la
Biblioteca
Medicea Lauren-
ziana.
Mi
occupero qui deU'anonimo
datato,
che potrebbe
Di
I'ecloga laurenziana.
Pastorale carmen cuius titulus Cinthias:
come vedremo,
essere,
un
non
testo,
di alcuni anni piu antico rispetto al-
esso rimane, che io sappia, un'unica copia in
un manoscritto,
vergato nella seconda meta del Quattrocento, della Library of the Earl of Leicester,
Holkham
Hall.- Si tratta di
nuto storico-allegorico, racconto ripercorre
II
daUa morte
^
Holkham
bile al
Roberto
di
Hall, Library
XV secolo
ziale, del
at
testi
non agevole
da 295 esametri
latini di
conte-
eventi del regno di Napoli e del casato angioino a partire
gli
Angio
di
fino
almeno
agli ultimi
MS
of the Earl of Leicester
umanistica
(il
483. Si
Ap-
anni del Trecento.^
tratta di
un codice cartaceo datamolto circo-
anonimi e vere lettura.
codice, rinvio
Tyrannus di Senofonte nella traduzione di Leonardo Bruni,
Enea
Historia de duobus amantibus di
e di
costituita
preparando I'edizione.
(I'ultimo foglio reca la data 1486), di contenuto vario: oltre a testi
lanti nella tradizione
manoscritto
una bucolica
della quale sto
e proprie pagine
carme Cinthias e
II
a: S.
De
Ricci,
Holkham Hall (Oxford, 1932), 42;
Esopo tradotto da
Silvio Piccolomini,
P.
A
che sembrano esercitazioni
di scuola, disordinate
118r-124r. Per una descrizione,
comunque
par-
Handlist of Manuscripts in the Uhrary of the Earl of Leicester
O.
nel catalogo manoscritto della Biblioteca:
ai fol.
la
Valla), figurano nel
KristeUer,
Iter, 4:
W. Roscoe
46.
Una
descrizione piu dettagliata e
Madden, Catalogue of Manuscripts
e F.
in the
Library of Holkham Hall (8 ms. vols., 1815-1828). ^
La bibliografia
conto di
essa in
relativa al casato
modo
dettagliato.
Mi
angioino e naturalmente vastissima e non
no medievale: Normanni, Svevi, Angioini, Aragonesi nei
riferimento
ai
rapporti tra
gli
angioini di Napoli e
gli
secoli
XI—XV (Roma,
in generate
intende qui dare
2000).
//
Mezzogior-
Con
particolare
angioini di Ungheria, rinvio a Colloquio
ungherese sul tema: gli Angioini di Napoli e di Ungheria, organizzato d'intesa
Scienze di Ungheria,
si
limitero a segnalare, da ultimo S. Tramontana,
Roma, 23—24 maggio 1972 (Roma,
regno di Giovanna I alia pace di Catania (Napoli, 1936). Si
Leonard, Gli Angioini
di
Napoli, trad.
chiese locali: aspetti e motivi del
R. Liguori (Milano,
Mezzogiomo medievale
delle
1974). Studi ancora vahdi sulla dinastia
sono A. Cutolo, Gli Angioini (Firenze, 1934); V. Epifanio, Gli Angioini
Sicilia: dall'inizio del
italo-
con I'Accademia
di
vedano
Napoli e
altresi
la
E. G.
1967); B. Ruggiero, Potere, istituzioni,
dai Longobardi agli
Angioni (Bologna, 1977).
DAVIDE CANFORA paiono suUa scena in primo luogo due in apertura, invoca
morte per
la
117
Arion e Eschinus,
pastori,
condizioni di salute di Cinzia, figura femminile presentata
varum
memorem
("Quid
femminile secondo
come
tempo
e, al
[.
.
stesso, definita
.]
"Calabri lupi", le fiere della
i
macie vix egros substinet tenebre
pudore;
stigie
artus".
Sicilia,
hanno oscurato
i
— "nee
di
dopo
si
il
nobuona
"ursus atrox".
1'
lamenta Eschinus sfiorite,
di
— "mesta
iacens
collo rimane immobile,
suoi occhi e la casta fronte a stento conserva I'antico
membra sono
iacet"
curat olive [...]: nee
sum
pallide,
madide
e
consume da
— esclama ancora Eschinus con
qualis eram, periit pars
maxima
parole
nostri": e
pastore invita le proprie caprette a rifugiani in luoghi riparati, a fronte
il
imminenti
roseas super ora
e "spes gratissima
"Pelignus aper" e
il
cosi
Le sue gote sono
un turpe veleno. "En virgo moritura oraziane
—
sua peUe e secca e malata, le
la
Quid
un tempo tremato, quando ancora godeva
quale avevano
Passato quel tempo, tuttavia, Cinzia
subito
"sil-
"dea" e ninfa ("nimphas
tantum hec supereminet omnes"); appellata infine "requies" stra", di fironte alia
le
"noster amor",
canoni deUa poesia erotica
i
auratos labi per coUa capillos?
notas tenerumque labellum?")
salute,
quali,
regina", "astrorum decus", "spes unica ruris", "tranquilla quies et grata volup-
tas"; descritta inoltre nella sua grazia
latina
secondo dei
il
paventa immense sciagure a causa delle gravi
se e
Da
e terribiH sventure.
queste ultime immagini usate da Eschinus
come donna
cava con chiarezza che Cinzia, oltre ad essere raflSgurata
si ri-
bella e potente
("dum stabula et montes, silvas et rura regebat") e come ninfa e dea, e altresi descritta come personaggio direttamente partecipe del mondo dei pastori ("nee curat oUve"). Fin qui
estende
si
la
prima parte del carme
che rievoca in
pastorale,
dente I'ambientazione tipica delle bueoUche virgiHane: due pastori attraverso
munque
immagini allegoriche, fanno riferimento
vicine nel tempo, in
gine di Cinzia
non
risulta
cito aleun riferimento
Con articola
il
modo
lettore,
la
notevolmente. Eschinus
—
si
Roberto
in
modo
esph-
seconda parte del componimento. Qui I'ecloga
— dopo
"sed que causa
essersi chiesto
/ et rebus
maU
non equa
si
fuerit?"
diu fortuna
dilunga in un'ampia serie di aUusioni a personaggi che furono a vario
titolo protagonisti della storia del
cento:
e,
o co-
ceh dietro I'imma-
ne emerge ancora
ed esseni anche dato una risposta ("discordia demens secundis")
si
evi-
agh angioini).
104 prende avvio
V.
al
modo
incontrano
a vicende storiche presenti,
invero alquanto oscuro (chi
ancora chiaro
si
di
regno
Angio, re Andrea
papa Urbano VI, Ladislao
di
di
di
NapoU
Angio-Durazzo, Luigi
In questa seconda parte del carme
Trecento e primo Quattro-
tra
Ungheria (marito
non viene meno
di
Giovanna
I
di
Angio),
Angio.
II di
I'oscurita del testo allegorico
e solo grazie ad alcune glosse apposte dal copista sui margini e possibile ricostruire in
modo immediato quaU nus. del
Appare
tempo
figure storiche siano via via evocate nell'intervento di Eschi-
in ogni caso chiaro che siamo di fronte ad
glorioso della monarchia angioina a
deUe vicende che minarono partire dalla
Sempre
morte
di re
alia
Napoh
una nostalgica rievocazione
e ad
una dolorosa ricostruzione
base la sohdita del regno nel corso dei decenni, a
Roberto.
utile potra risultare la consultazione del III
sotto Angioini ed Aragonesi") della btoria
civile del
tomo Regno
("in cui contiensi la politia del di
Napoli di Pietro Giannone.
Regno
l'anonimo carme pastorale cinthias
118
La scomparsa che devastarono
con
Dopo
copista
quell'evento luttuoso,
pascoli dei pastori, fino a quel
i
regno deUe ombre
se nel
con una
avvenuta nel 1343, e descritta
di quest'ultimo,
lugenda per urbem".
il
i
fati
tempo
Andrea
di
di
Angio:
cessa ad
nozze
le
Andrea
Clemente VI
Andrea mori
si
erano celebrate nel 1342;
corona
la
A
una congiura, promossa
in
Ungheria. La guerra Carlo
di
— che conobbe
Durazzo, conte
vanna, di cui aveva sposato
con
il
ritiro dall'Italia
presa per
ben due
Anche
di
Giovanna da papa
forse dalla stessa regina. di
Napoli da parte
il
il
di Luigi di
coinvolgimento anche
quale ambiva a prendere
nipote ed erede Margherita
la
Giovanna
la sorella,
Napoli fu peraltro con-
Andrea; nello stesso anno 1345
alterne vicende e vide
di Gravina,
—
si
il
posto di Gio-
concluse nel 1352,
meridionale delle truppe ungheresi, dopo che Napoli era
I'attacco di Luigi viene allusivamente rievocato nell'ecloga: "tunc quales
Che Argo
fratema morte cruentus."
Illiricis
fatto riferimento
"Argus
et rura regebat",
oris /
rappresenti qui Luigi di Ungheria
ancora una volta dal glossatore del manoscritto, che annota
e chiarito
Ad Argo
margine, in
sul
I'autore del
carme
poco prima, osservando che, quando ancora Cinzia
"silvas
corrispondenza dei versi appena
aveva gia
stata
volte.
sonuere unde qualesque proceUe! / In miserum cecidere gregem, ruit asper ab
Argus
U
chiarisce
quest'ultimo, secon-
solo nel 1345, a seguito delle pressioni esercitate su
e dal re Luigi di Ungheria, padre di
Quest'ultimo episodio causo I'invasione del regno
di
come
I'allusione,
Ungheria.
dogenito del re di Ungheria, re Roberto aveva promesso in sposa I
dies
alle furie,
fiorenti e felici, e trascinarono
duce dei Pannoni:
glossa sul margine, e ad
come "summa
diedero libero sfogo
iratus
"rex Ungarie".
citati:
procul hinc pascebat onagros." Si noti qui incidental-
mente che I'uso di "hinc" rappresenta un ragionevole indizio del fatto che chi scrisse il carme era, se non napoletano, comunque presente presso la corte angjoina. I versi in cui si rammenta la discesa in Italia di Luigi di Ungheria rappresentano un passaggio cruciale del carme, poiche in questa sede per
Cinzia viene associata a
fatti
goriche. L'autore scrive che,
concreti e
tempo
al
non
la
prima volta I'immagine
di
solo a raffigurazioni oscuramente aUe-
dell'invasione ungherese, "quantos
ilia tulit
mi-
seranda tunc labores Cinthia!". Cinzia fu dunque duramente provata dalla guerra scatenata da re Luigi a seguito della congiura contro
prosegue Eschinus
—
"adversis fluxerunt
sione di sventure.
E
xibus heret
Cinthia]." Cinzia e
[scil:
cui abbracci
si
ancora: "sed
nunc
tempora
la
abbandona lascivamente.
sdegnata allusione
al
"vir
essere motivata nel
di
modo
II
—
alia
legata ad
I'avidita di gloria e di denaro.
luce della quale
si
perduta daUa sua adorata Cinzia
seguente: Giovanna
I,
dopo
spiega I'ini-
— potrebbe
I'uccisione del marito Andrea,
era avvicinata a Roberto, principe di Taranto, legandosi successivamente
Roberto, Luigi
di
Taranto, con
il
—
una interminabile succes-
gemino sponsata viro compleun "vir geminus", ai che suggerisce all'autore del carme una
geminus"
ziale riferimento dell'autore alia castita
si
"Ex Ulo"
figho Andrea.
flere libet [...]:
dunque "nunc"
breve e topica invettiva contro I'ambizione umana e Ora,
il
fatis", in
quale
si
al fratello
sposo ventunenne nel 1347. L'odio di
Carlo di Durazzo nei confronti del casato tarantino era stato uno dei motivi da cui lo stesso
Carlo aveva tratto
rona angioina e quella rica dietro cui
si
di
il
pretesto per inserirsi nel gia ricordato conflitto tra la co-
Ungheria. Cinzia potrebbe dunque essere I'immagine allego-
cela la figura di
Giovanna
I
di
Angio.
Si ricordi, in proposito,
anche
DAVIDE CANFORA quanto I'autore del carme aveva precedentemente
119
riguardo
scritto
ai
"labores" toccad
a Cinzia, definita in quel caso "miseranda", a causa della discesa in Italia di Luigi di
Ungheria: nessuno piu sione ungherese.
di
Anche
il
Giovanna, evidentemente, era riferimento
danneggiato dall'inva-
stato
che Cinzia non "curat olive" e in ac-
al fatto
cordo con lo scenario fin qui deUneato: il disinteresse per la pianta dell'olivo, notoriamente simbolo di pace gia per gli antichi, si adatta bene, infatti, ad una regina il cui regno fli funestato da numerose guerre. Attraverso un'ampia serie di altre immagini allegoriche
tando
eventi relativi agli anni successivi
gli
incidentalmente opportuno precisare che
la
il
carme prosegue raccon-
guerra tra ungheresi e angioini. E' qui
alia
narrazione presentata nel carme e diacro-
nella citata fiiase "nunc flere libet, gemino sponsata viro complexibus heret" non fa riferimento al tempo presente, non deve dunque intendersi nel senso di "oggi", bensi segnala una delle varie tappe della nica: percio
"nunc" pronunciato da Eschinus
il
vicenda angioina via via raccontata. persona di papa Urbano VI, uno dei
Si coglie, in particolare, un'allusione aUa
Grande Scisma
responsabili del
Carlo
III di
Durazzo,
il
Occidente. Urbano VI fu uno dei sostenitori di
di
— rivendicando — irruppe
quale
che avevano animate
le stesse pretese
Durazzo
I'azione del fratello Carlo di
Napoli nel 1382, conquisto
in
regno e fece decapitare I'ormai anziana Giovanna. Quest'ultima, prima della
tempo
peraltro in
nominare erede
a
Francia, Carlo V. Luigi
al
Angio,
trono, attribuito da
figlio di
Luigi
trono Luigj
al
Angio mori
di
campo
potersi scontrare sul
erede
I
di battaglia
Giovanna
a Bari di
con
rivale
il
a Luigi
I, si
Angio,
di
I
a
li
fratello del re di
due anni, nel 1384, prima
Carlo
Durazzo.
III di
trasmise a quel
il
fine, fece
II
di
titolo di
punto a Luigi
II
di
I.
non
Alia morte di Cinzia nel carme
si
fa
espressamente riferimento:
si
fa tuttavia
una
riferimento, nel finale, alia fuga disperata dei "coloni" di fi-onte ad
nefasta
invasione straniera ("sic miseros cecus subit furor undique, tandem / dispersi sine lege
ruunt
relinquunt / dulcia, nee cari possunt renovare penates") e
et tecta
altresi in
(Luigi
Angio),
II di
il
primo
— — Cinzia
pastori
alio stesso
e
modo
owiamente
di associare
in cui Giovanna,
carme Cinthias
Andrea
(nel Buaolicum
si
e visto,
si
al
noti, in particolare,
anche nell'anonimo
di pastori presenti
Carmen Argo era ad esempio Roberto
che
il
Angio, Alessi
di
"generosus avis" e "Alexis" rappresentano qui, rispettivamente,
Angio-Durazzo e Luigi
del manoscritto. Ladislao e Luigi del Trecento, fino
al
si
1414 (anno
II di
carme pastorale
Angio, come
contesero della
personaggi entrarono in scena dopo il
come
il
mondo dei prendeva il nome di
personaggj storici
Ungheria).
di
Si e detto
Ladislao di
i
tipico del genere pastorale allegorico:
che in Boccaccio ricorrono molti dei nomi
che
chiamano
Grayo cognomine Fedrus",
definito "generosus avis,
secondo "formosus Alexis". L'uso
era
si
causa le figure di "Ladixlaus" (Ladislao di Angio-Durazzo) e di "Lodovicus"
la
morte
morte
intitolato Cinthias
il
fii
di
regno
ci
di
viene chiarito dal glossatore
NapoH
di Ladislao).
Giovanna
verosimilmente
I
neU'ultimo decennio
Ora, poiche questi due di
Angio,
scritto
si
dopo
ricava da cio
la
morte
della
regina.
Di Ladislao tempesta.
Ne
il
si
dice che "errat periturus in undis"
nome
di Luigi II e associate
come un marinaio
sorpreso dalla
ad immagini benauguranti: "quid terimus
l'anonimo carme pastorale cinthias
120
sermone diem?", so di Eschinus,
minantur
astra
il
si
chiede
al v.
/ et manifesta mali
Arion non e del tutto chiaro.
carme ebbe
del
modo
Non
di seguire
II
un attimo prima;
— Aragona, da 1442 —
personalmente
la
lascia
Ladislao, e forse
Angio
infatti,
mine
anche
al
il
quali "signa" alluda
di riferimenti a
chiamato in aiuto gia nel 1421,
intendere che
carme
lungo discor-
punto I'autore
vicenda del lento e faticoso declino
e precedente
Giovanna
II di
Napoli prima che Alfonso
sorella di Ladislao e ultima regina angioina di lei stessa
A
micuerunt signa futuri."
il
e soggiunge: "sic
e cioe dato di sapere fino a quale
corona angioina a Napoli. L'apparente assenza
della
Angio
II di
228 Arion, interrompendo finalmente
quale aveva nominate Luigi
di
si
impadronisse del regno nel
al
1414, anno della morte di
1411, anno in cui Ladislao prevalse definitivamente su Luigi
e lo costrinse a riparare in Francia.
nel carme, ancora in corso ("non
La guerra
arma iuvant"
post quern deve, per altro verso, considerarsi
il
si
tra Ladislao e Luigi II
legge
al v.
222).
appare
Ovvio
ter-
1389, I'anno in cui ebbe di fatto
inizio la lotta tra Luigi II e Ladislao, all'epoca ancora fanciulli (Ladislao fu ricono-
sciuto
"maggiorenne" solo nel 1393).
Non
e
comunque da
escludersi che
il
riferimento a Ladislao errante "periturus in
undis" consenta una datazione piu precisa. Potrebbe alia
dopo con I'assenso
avere sottratto a quest'ultimo Napoli nel 1399,
e
infatti trattarsi di
spedizione di Ladislao in Ungheria, svoltasi nel 1402-1403: si
periturus in undis"), essa allude, forse,
subito e Ladislao fu
con Luigi
ben
al fatto
II,
Quanto
alia
pessimistica
a proposito di Ladislao ("errat
che I'impresa
presto costretto a rientrare a
un riferimento
rivale di Luigi
mise per mare e sbarco a Zara
dei Veneziani, proclamandosi re di Ungheria.
drammatica espressione usata da Eschinus nel carme
il
di
Ungheria
falli
Napoli per riprendere
quasi
la lotta
II.
University degli Studi di Bari
^Por que
Adnotationes
se prohibieron las
de Philipp Melanchthon a
la
ohra de Salustio
en Mexico a finales del sigh
XVI?
AVELINA CARRERA DE LA RED
prescripciones Son numerosas protestantes las
ideas
las
America;
a
mas tempranas, pues pronto mision de
las
nuevas
libresca oficial,
cuanto a Fechas
se
que
las directrices
la
a la
produccion
y
eclesiasticas representan la
del Concilio de
primeros decretos sancionados por
los
censura
circulacion de libros "sospechosos o pemiciosos."
1554, 1558, 1569, y 1598, anos de celebracion de
las
en
legislacion relativa a la impresion e importacion de libros
Entre
las
la trans-
Trento (1545—1563) en Cortes de Toledo,
La Corufia, Valladolid, y Madrid, marcan los hitos mas destacados en censura en la circulacion de libros. Paralelamente, en Espaiia y America
una
son
literaria
importante funcion del libro en
la
ideas. Disposiciones civiles
que atiende
tratan de neutralizar la llegada de
que afectan
las
comprende
necesidad de limitar
la
como
oficiales
la
el
el
tema de
se regula
la
toda
Nuevo Mundo.^
autoridad real que regulan
la
im-
portacion de libros a America, se encuentra la Cedula que manda que no consientan que se lleuen a las Indias libros de historias pro/anas,
1543, en
la
que
se
prohibe llevar a aqueUas
cedula firmada
tierras libros
el
29 de septiembre de
de materia profana, fabulas
y novelas, "de mentirosas historias," pues de ello "se siguen muchos inconvenientes: porque los Indios que supieren leer, dandose a ellos" dice "dexaran los libros de
— —
,
buena doctrina, y leyendo los de mentirosas historias deprenderan en ellos ."^ La disposicion de 9 de octubre de 1556 insiste en malas costumbres y vicios. sancta y
.
'
Vease
la
introduccion de
.
J.
M. de Bujanda
1559 (Sherbrooke, 1984), 35-37, e Index 17—49.
Numerosa documentacion
a Index de
I' Itiquisition
de I'lnquisitioti Espagnole: 1583.
se encuentra
Espagnole: 1551, 1554,
1584 (Sherbrooke. 1993),
tambien en Antonio Sierra Corella, La cemura de
y papeles en Espaiia y los indices y catalogos espaiioles de los prohibidos y expurgados (Madrid, 1947). Para el tema de la Inquisicion en America, puede consultarse la obra de Juan Blazquez Miguel, La libros
itiquisicion ^
en America
(1569-1820)
([s.n., s.l.],
1994).
de Bujanda, Index de V Inquisition Espagnole: 1551, 36.
^POR QUE
122
que no
SE
PROHIBIERON LAS ADNOTATIONES
envien a America libros prohibidos por
se
la
Inquisicion, y solicita a
ridades civiles y religiosas de Peru vigilar la llegada de navios y ejercer
las
auto-
un control para
incautar los libros que ya estuviesen en aquellas tierras; y ello, "porque en tierra
nueva donde
se planta agora nuestra sancta fee catolica,
conuiene y
que
es necessario
De
arraygue y siembre buena doctrina y no doctrina perjudicial, y escandalosa."-'
se
tales libros se llenan los Indices
los
siglo
orden del Santo Oficio, una censura general contra ediciones de la Sagrada Escritura.
1584.
En America
Prohibitorum y por
ban
el
taran
sen
inquisidor
el
Manuale Qualificatomm Sanctae
de
las
el
que
se
enumera-
En
de Contreras ordeno que cuantos poseyeran libros presen-
mismos ante
los
la
en
Inquisitionis
expurgacion o bien aquellos que debian ser quemados.*
Moya
un catalogo de
las librerias
introducidos en
los errores
Nuevos Catalogos
seran impresos en 1559, 1583, y la censura libresca oficial esta regulada por estos Indices Librorum
los libros sujetos a
1571,
la
XVI. En 1551, impresos en Valladolid y en Toledo, aparecen primeros. Pocos anos mas tarde, en 1554, se publica en Valladolid, por
segunda mitad del en Espana
o Catalogos de libros prohibidos publicados en
el
mando que
Tribunal y
sus funcionarios visita-
ciudad de Mexico para retirar los prohibidos. Los comisarios
tenian instrucciones especiales para que en los puertos vigilasen los navios que pu-
diesen transportar tales libros prohibidos.
En una de
estas revisiones, hacia
de Officiis de Ciceron, con
mismo Ciceron con
las
1573, a Juan Rodriguez se
le
requisan "el libro
anotaciones de Philipo Melanton, y tiene
las
Epistolas
argumentos y Escholias de Crisoforo Engendorfino,^ que son autores cuyas obras estan prohibidas por el cathalogo." En el mismo requeridel
miento, a un
tal
han de recoger,"
los
Rodrigo Maldonado "las Epistolas
se le
requisan
como
libros prohibidos
y Copia verborum con los Comentarios de Bethischio,^ y Salustio, con nes de Philipo Melanton y Horas."'
Un recorrido ponder
Uenas de
la
condena con
la
tiempo que estudiaban
me
doctrina del propio Melanchthon,
como Rodrigo Maldonado
a Salustio. Trato, pues,
bajo historiografico melanchtoniano, para poder
en muchos momentos de
como
sagrada doctrina de errores, y
mala o sospechosa doctrina." Sin embargo,
mitir a todos aquellos jovenes que
la historia
de presentar
asi
de Bujanda, Index de
*
Cf. Francisco Fernandez del Castillo, Libros y
I' Inquisition
1
Fernandez del
el
quiso trans-
de este
tra-
recelos
que
las
la
autoridades frente a
la
poblacion indigena.
Espagnole: 1551, 36-37. libreros
en
el siglo
XVI,
X
500-Liineburgo 1561.
Juan Velcurio (Veltkirchius), m. 1534.
Cf
que
leian sus anotaciones
12.
Cristobal Hegendorf, Leipzig
parece interesante
el espiritu
americana mostraron
^
la
autor de obras
comprender mejor los
enseiianza de la historia de la Antigiiedad, sobre todo entre
^
anotacio-
algunos casos, sus Opera omnia) por ser fruto de uno de los
que han Uenado
"falsa,
contrastar esta
^
las
por decretos y dictados de esta naturaleza parece suficiente para resque encabeza este trabajo. Los libros de Melanchthon aparecen
los Indices (en
recentes haeretici
^
se
a la pregunta
en todos
al
"que
de Ciceron, con Scholias de Xophar Engendorphino
Castillo, Lihros y libreros en
el siglo
XVI, 480 y 490.
ed.
(Mexico, 1982),
AVELINA CARRERA DE LA RED La
historiografia
en America
se desarrolla ante
todo a partir de cronicas contempo-
A
raneas o recopilaciones generales de epoca antigua. la historiografia clasica
con
la
123
comienzos de
hecho historico de
cultura renacentista. El
cion de Catilina, por ejemplo, se conoce y tiene un gran arraigo en
Tambien Jugurta y
cionario americano de algunas epocas.
menudo
encuentran a para
citados entre
elaboracion de sus obras.
la
telectual
del Renacimiento
las
Y
es
y
que
la
presencia de Salustio en
En
junto con algunos fragmentos de
las
como
ediciones alemanas,
Lyon
Anos mas
a la obra
las
general que
el interes
la
de Ciceron,
en 1533, apareceran
tarde,
obra de Melanchthon conocera en
la
y comentario
XVI
obra de Salustio se inscribe
historiador clasico despierta en
el
critica textual, traduccion,
in-
dos monografias de
reediciones sucesivas localizadas sobre todo en la primera mitad del siglo
una labor de
se
de Salustio.' Ademas de algunas
(1536, 1545, 1551, 1561). El interes de este autor por
en
mundo
el
sus Historiae, las Catilinarias
de Mainz en 1544,
la
revolu-
1529, en La Haya, se imprimen unos
in Sallustium.^
Melanchton
Adnotationes de
conjura-
fuentes utilizadas por los cronistas de Indias
es importante.
pseudo-ciceroniana Inuectiua
la
en Lyon
la
el espiritu
Guerra de Numidia
la
breves comentarios de Melanchthon y Hulderichus Huttenus a este autor,
siglo se traslada
Renacimiento. Toda
el
se elabora
en tomo
a su obra.
Motivaciones ideologicas y vitales, ademas de estilisticas, expUcan que Salustio, su ISngua y forma de construir y expresarse atraigan a los escritores renacentistas, quienes durante decadas lo van a considerar uno de los mas destacados guias del arte y del
pensamiento en
historiografia. El
nacimiento de
las
territorio itahano, el sentimiento del patriotismo
epoca,
ciudades a
que
"catilinarismo" que significa que algunos
el
la vida,
sobre todo en
en tantos autores de
aflora
hombres
politicos del
la
Renaci-
miento desarrollen un
y a menudo roza induccion
el
espiritu de Ubertad y de gloria que a veces estalla en exaltacion deUto politico (megalomania, organizacion de conjuras, e incluso,
al tiranicidio),'*^
delos de orientacion de
encuentran en
la filosofia
y de
las
monografias salustianas los mejores
la practica politicas,
que en
rable fuente de informacion historica sobre los acontecimientos
Por
ella se narran.
otra parte, Salustio informa sus escritos de juicios morales. Persigue el descubri-
miento de de
mo-
ademas de una inmejo-
las
causas de los acontecimientos. Estudia la psicologia de los protagonistas
Incluye vivos discursos de los personajes que exphcan por
la historia.
motivaciones en
la accion.
rrupcion, y defiende
el
Condena
patriotismo y
vibrante, a veces coloquial, llena de
*
Ejemplar de
la
a quienes la lealtad al
'
C. Crispi
tionibus
.
.
.
quaedam ex
la
la
unifor-
.
.
In Catilinam atquejugur-
.
.
.
illustrata
.
.
.
[M. T. Ci-
.
.
.
Madrid
(la
Ca-
cum
reliquis ora-
adnotationes. Praeterea Jlosculorum Sallustianorum
(Lugduni: apud Sebastian urn Gryphium, 1533). Utilize
Bibliotheque de Lyon. El linico ejemplar de esta obra que se encuentra en
misma edicion
Cf. Ezio Bolaffi, Sallustio e
sus
de co-
contra Catilinam. Portii Latronis Declamatio contra
accesserunt Philippi Melaruhthonis
blioteca Nacional de '°
.
scholiis
Sallustii de L. Sergii Catilinae coniuratione, et Bello lugurthino historiae,
His
mismos
Historiarum C. Crispi Salustii] (Haganoe: per J. Secerium, 1529).
ac rerum notarum dignarum indices duo
ejemplar de
Salustii
Melanchthonem
Phil.
Ejusdem Orationes libris
si
Roma
Estado. Escribe con una prosa breve,
Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris: C. Crispi
ceronis Oratio contra Salustium.
vida de
la
novedad y variedad, que contrasta con
tham opuscula, per Hulderichum Huttenum atque
tilinam. Orationes
han llenado
la
anterior) esta censurado.
suafortuna nei
secoli
(Roma, 1949).
257ss.
la
el
Bi-
^POR QUE
124
SE
PROHIBIERON LAS ADNOTATIONES
tnidad de Cesar y los simetricos periodos ciceronianos.^' La ensefianza de Salustio
durante
No
Renacimiento
el
en vano,
mente
el
estrechamente a
se asocia
formacion en poetica y
la
retorica.
primer comentarista del historiador clasico fue Lorenzo Valla, precisa-
el
pionero de
la
corriente retoricista en
una forma de
escribir historia es
literatura y,
genero historiografico; para
el
como
ha de ser valorada por
tal,
el,
los prae-
cepta de apte dicendo}^
Hasta America historicas;
en
Nuevo Mundo
Humanismo
italiano.
"En
la
se desarrollo, esplendidamente, la pesquisa filologica
anhelo por lograr un embellecimiento sobrio de
el
de obras
dentro de su originalidad,
los cronistas se inspiran,
discurso que habia inaugurado la historiografia del
el
historiografia del
y
se trasladan estos postulados retoricistas para la creacion
comprueba que
se
alli
la
materia narrativa," dice
En-
rique Pupo-Walker.'^
En
este sentido se orientan las anotaciones
de Philipp Melanchthon a
las
dos
monografias de Salustio, Catilina y Jugurta. Melanchthon situa en los primeros niveles de los estudios la gramatica, la dialectica, la filosofia, y la moral. La ensefianza de la
ha de
historia
dimension lo
que
estar
la gloria
es util
y lo que no lo
privada; es la regla
— "deben
dice
En
general,
ser
es,
de
{ratio)
no
no
ella
que
Artes, enseiia lo
las
permite valorar en toda su esta
bien y lo que esta mal,
deja de lado ningiin aspecto de la vida, publica o
relaciones humanas. "Poetas e historiadores"
las
conocidos por
Adnotationes son
las
tecnica, pero
rigurosamente garantizada, pues universal de
los
jovenes desde
un excelente
el
principio de su formacion.
ejercicio de retorica. Es
—
"'''
una vision
tecnificada, pues el objetivo liltimo de su autor es estimular la
con-
ducta moral de los jovenes adolescentes, principales destinatarios de su comentario, a traves de la belleza literaria de
Melanchthon abre
una obra
clasica.
sus notas al texto
de Salustio con
que podria considerarse
la
declaracion de principios de todo historiador humanista. Ante
prologo de Catilina en
el
que
capitulos esenciales de la historia del pueblo liberarse
de
la
servidumbre que impone
como fides, Los
ejes
la
famoso pasaje del
romano, una vez que habia conseguido
Melanchthon
la politica,
torico potissimum loqueri solet fides, et
riam," una afirmacion en
el
Salustio anuncia su decision de narrar algunos de los
M. Cicero lumen
que hay que subrayar
la
sefiala:
"Nam in his-
ueritatis appellat histo-
humanista union de conceptos
ueritas e historia.
sobre los que se
mueven
las
Melanchthon
apreciaciones de
al
texto de
y moralismo; ambos conforman la retorica-moralizante o el moralismo-retoricista que sostiene el espiritu critico del aleman en toda su obra. Las Salustio son dos, retorica
" Cf Avelina Carrera, "Comentarios humanistas Grau Codina cultural a '^
et
Europa
al., i
al
eds.,
La
Nou Mon
Universitat de Valencia
"Lorenzo
Valla:
zation of History," History and Theory 12 (1973): '^
'*
mogne
del siglo
XVI
a la obra
de Salustio," in
I'Humanisme: Studia Humanitatis
i
Enrique Pupo-Walker, La
The Primacy of Rhetoric and 389^04.
the De-morali-
vocacion literaria del pensamiento historico en America: Desarrollo de la
XVI, XVII, XVIII y
XIX
(Madrid, 1982), 80ss.
Encomion eloquentiae 3:50, citado en Jean-Fran9ois Boisset, Melanchthon. Educateur de (Paris, 1967), 110.
F.
rettovacio
(Valencia, 2003), 383-391.
Cf. Linda Gardiner Janik,
prosa deficcion: Sighs
i
I'Alle-
AVELINA CARRERA DE LA RED que dan forma a
referencias
como
Salustio
las
125
anotaciones de Melanchthon confirman
fuente Uteraria bella, expresiva y de elegante
juicio que este historiador
merece
a
muchos
estilo,
en
el la
texto de linea del
Renacimiento. Ademas
criticos del
esta
fuente literaria es fuente historica, transmisora de valores imperecederos.
En realidad, Melanchthon parece concebir Catilina yjugurta como dos grandes disDe hecho, los famosos discursos pronunciados por los personajes de Salustio
cursos.
se analizan la
en todos
erga
componentes; vease, per ejemplo,
(lug.
A
personae mentis (3);
A
sus
asamblea romana
lugurtham a regni
14):
Exordium ab
necessario cur confugiat
calamitatibus
res
humanae
A
discurso de Aderbal ante
HdQoq
ipso casu (6);
aliis (9);
a beneficiis Micipsae
Ajacili (13); Ampliftcatio
ad Romanos (15); Ampliftcatio
necessario (17); Confutatio (20);
quant instabiles sint
Ah
mentis Jamiliae (5); illius
el
Propositio (2); Confirmatio a suae
officio (1);
sceleris
superioris argumenti
uoto (21); Yl6.Qoc,per apostrophen (22); Id
(23); Peroratio (24).
muy
texto de Salustio tienen unas anotaciones
Pues bien,
las
(14);
(16);
est,
A
ostendo
partes narrativas del
simUares. Las numerosas consideracio-
nes retoricas que subraya en los margenes del texto le sirven
alumno como guia
al
para su interpretacion. Alii se apuntan schemata, captationes beneuolentiae, concessiones, conftrmationes, decorum, loci
communes, exempla, comparationes,
aetiologiae, perorationes, epi-
phonemata, insinuationes, confutationes, apostrophes, ampliftcationes, excursus, 7t69o<;.
Y
incita al
cuando algun
alumno
combinando
a
que
o afirmacion
pasaje, sentencia,
lo lea
la
l!)7lOTl7l6a£l(5,
especialmente,
por medio de breves y pregnantes Uamadas de atencion,
retorica y moral; "collationes egregiae,
parantur," apunta ante
le interesa
presentacion de
las
nam
raro plures diuitiae honeste
virtudes de los primeros
romanos
(Cat.
Cesar elabora en su discurso un magrufico "schema quo eleuat autoritatem aUo-
7.6);
rum, qui contra coniuratos dixerant sententias hberiores" {Cat. 51.10); la batalla de Zama, por ejemplo, se describe en Salustio con una "egregia hypotiposis quae iterum atque iterum
como es
un
est
legenda"
60.3-4);
la
presentacion que la
el clasico
ambicion
hace de Mario
lo llevo a la ruina,
"locus iUe iucundus et plenus eruditionis" {lug. 63).
La fuerza expresiva utilizan para persuadir,
todo,
{lug.
candidato popular, integro y honesto hasta que
al
moldear
joven a quien sus
se asocia a la fuerza del
y aparece entonces se dirigen
un
permeables espiritus en
sinfin
las
contenido. Retorica y oratoria se
al hombre, y sobre de mensajes morahzantes, tratando de
humanista atento
el
virtudes del valor, la honradez,
servicio a los demas, la amistad, la prudencia, el
buen gobierno, o
la lealtad, el
la libertad,
opuestas
a los vicios de la servidumbre, la ambicion, o la envidia tan denostados en el autor de
Amitemo: "Exemplum corruptae
ciuitatis" {Cat. 10.6);
"Ambitio"
{Cat. 11.1);
"Lu-
xus" {Cat. 11.3); "His artibus inescabat adolescentes" {Cat. 14.5); "Seueritas in
Catone"
{Cat. 54.5);
morum"
{lug. 4.7);
modestia est" 10.5);
dam
"Non
{lug. 6.1);
"Magna
est
obnoxius mortaUtati animus"
"Docilitas" {lug. 5.2); "Sine inuidia
"Munimenta regnorum
ingenia aegre ferunt iniuriam"
"Reprehensio
inuenit, quae laus
sunt boni amici, inquit Cicero" {lug.
{lug. 22.3);
libertatem, et est a minori" {lug. 31.11);
{lug. 2.3);
laudem
"Adhortatio ad recuperan-
"Vt discematis bonos
31.28); "Abusi sunt uictoria" {lug. 42.2); "Vtrinque
peccatum
est,
a malis" {lug.
Gracchi nimis
magno motu rem agebant, Senatus nimis crudeHter uindicabat" {lug. 42.5); "Nomen romanum ubique male audiit propter auaritiam" {lug. 43.5); "Neque nimium indulgebat mihti,
quod
est ambitionis,
neque
defatigabat,
quod
est saeuitiae" {lug. 46.1);
^POR QUE
126
SE
PROHIBIERON LAS ADNOTATIONES
"Animus tyranni nunquam quietus aut securus esse potest, timetur enim ab omnibus, contra ipse omnes timet" {lug. 72.2); "Nouus homo qui inclarescit uirtute sua"
et
Romanam" {lug. 91.6); "Parum matrimonium" {lug. 95.3); "Exemplum boni principis" {lug. 100.5); etc. Se comprueban en las notas al texto de Salustio las caracteristicas de la exegesis "Crudelis uictoria. Excusat crudelitatem
{lug. 73.6);
sancte coluit
methodica de Philipp Melanchthon, magnificamente sintetizadas por Kees MeerhofF.
ampUo dominio de la tradiHumanismo italiano, persigue la inter-
El profesor, pedagogo y teologo aleman, partiendo de su
cion clasica y de
las directrices
pedagogicas del
pretacion del texto a traves de retorica,
como
sistema en
el
las reglas
paso previo para
que
el
la
del discurso y de las
elaboracion de
metodo de desarroUo logico
amplificacion oratoria y en
el
que, incluso, los
un
normas que ofrece
texto propio. Es este
tiende a coincidir con
loci
communes
el
se revisten
la
un curioso metodo de
de emocion.
Partiendo de sus convicciones religiosas y de su profundo humanismo, Melanchthon
como
estudia el texto de Salustio, su lengua y su cultura,
un mensaje de
solida y
claro, sencillo
Es
que
el
quiere persuadir
al
transmisor de una doctrina
alumno
utilizando
un metodo
y pregnante.'^
nueva
la
clasicos trae
los
historiografia del
Renacimiento; en
ella, la
nueva forma de ver
consigo una nueva perspectiva historica.'* Autores
a los
como N. Maquia-
velo subrayan que
na en su
relato,
la historia debe ser util moral y politicamente, al tiempo que amedespertando con su ejemplo "un intenso deseo de seguir el ejemplo
del bien," e incentivando la accion politica en
momentos
historicos de tanta calami-
dad y falta de reglas morales, religiosas, civiles, o militares. Lorenzo Valla habia puesto de manifiesto el potencial revolucionario que la historia Ueva consigo. Antes que el,
Leonardo Bruni mostraba como
como
temas
exhorta
al
la libertad
y
el
joven heredero
al
con numerosos
trono de Bohemia y Hungria a que lea a los
toriadores de la Antigiiedad y tiras,
escribir historia politica se relaciona
engrandecimiento del Estado. Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini
no
las
ilustres his-
cronicas medievales, llenas de barbarismos,
y fabulas. Battista Guarini empuja
al
estudio de los historiadores
men-
romanos para
aprender costumbres, leyes, instituciones, y la variabilidad de la fortuna humana.^'' Mai habian de parecerle estas amonestaciones, tan del gusto humanista, a un personaje
como Jeronimo
a traves
de
la
Lopez, quien en 1545 en Mexico denunciaba
lengua latina y por
"de donde procedemos e fe
los libros
como fuimos
de gentiles, e todo lo demas que
como
los indios
que leen han podido conocer nuestra historia,
sojuzgados de los romanos e convertidos a
se escribio
en
este caso,
que
les
la
causa decir que
tambien nosotros venimos de gentiles e fuimos sujetos e ganados e sojuzgados, e fuimos sujetos a
'^
los
romanos
e nos alzamos e rebelamos"; el peUgro de sublevacion
Kees MeerhofF, "Philippe Melanchthon (1497-1560)," in Centuriae
humanistes de
la
Renaissance aux Lumieres
ojfertes
Latinae.
Cent une figures
^Jacques Chomarat, reunies par Colette Native! (Ge-
neve, 1997), 537-549. "'
Cf. Charles G. Nauert,
Jr.,
Humanism and
the Culture of Renaissance Europe, 3" ed.
(Cam-
bridge, 1998), 19ss. '^
Cf. Eric Cochrane, Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance
1981), 266ss.
(Chicago-London,
AVELINA CARRERA DE LA RED que
ejemplo podia provocar parecia claro para este mexicano. '* Ademas, no
este
ponen en cuestion
tan voces criticas que
proporciona
de
de estos autores. Algunos consideran
la lectura
responda del todo
Al hacer balance de
fantasia.
en Mexico
lectuales la
la
que
la falta
cargados de
XVI,
Nueva
Espaiia
la
no
de una autentica base
relacion de libros que, procedentes de
muy
utU.
autoridades civiles y eclesiasticas, los en-
las
de libros que estos transportan
los navios trasladan las listas
estas listas es para nosotros,
un adecuado indice para conocer
como de
una especie
su narracion
comprueba como se mezclan realidad la historia merece entre los inte-
se
de su supervision. El repaso de
senala Elias Trabulse, la
por
lo dispuesto
de
historiador
consideracion que
a finales del siglo
la revision
a los responsables
fal-
morales y esteticos que
aunque
Peninsula, arriban aUi en este tiempo puede ser una fiiente
En cumplimiento de
en
la
al
a sus lectores,
Se denuncia tambien
a la verdad.
epistemologica de esta disciplina, en
y
los supuestos valores
embaucador que propone convencer
falaz
127
como
tanto el estado de la cultura
que adopto
las diversas caracteristicas
la
represion
li-
bresca a lo largo del siglo XVI. '^ Si nos detenemos a comprobar la posicion de historia antigua
en
este
panorama,
lo
primero que llama
atencion
la
es el
muy
la
redu-
cido niimero de libros de esta naturaleza que se mencionan en los envios, comparan-
De
dolo con los pertenecientes a otras materias. a estos: Chronica de Spana, Historia romana de
cuando vino a descubrir
la costa
y
los
1573
a 1599, se limita practicamente
emperadores, Historia de Cristobal Colon,
de Santo Domingo, Varones
la
ilustres.
toda la cristiandad e Gentilidad, Las tierras de Jerusalem, Los Cesares
de Cartago,
La Conquista
Conquista de
Un
Aurelio,
la
Sumario de
en toscano. La
La Araucana, Uno de
de Chile,
India de Portugal, las
La Conquista de
Las Republicas de
de Pedro Mexia, Lo
Historia, Historia del Africa,
esta tierra, Historia de
La
Europa, Marco
Guerras Civiles, Primera parte de la Historia de Paulo Jovio
Descripcion del Africa,
La Rebelion
de Flandes, Luciadas de
Camoes, Des-
drones y linajes de Espaiia, Guerra y entrada del Rey Historia de Guicciardino, Viaje de la Tierra Sancta, Valerio
cubrimiento del Peru, Historia de los
en Portugal, Historia Pontifical,
Maximo, El
descubrimiento de las Indias, Chronica baldiana de Espaiia, Carlomagno, Historia
de Malta, y expresamente vedados
mundo. Morales de Plutarco en lustio con las anotaciones
como
De
de Philipo Melanton,
los estados
La dimension
en paz, y
politica
de
Un pedazo
de
la
de coronicas de todo
las antigiiedades, Justino Historiador,
el
Sa-
Vida de Julio Cesar, Las guerras del Peru,
Gesta Romanorum, Discursos de Nicolao Machiavello para
mantener
Suma
libros prohibidos,
latin, _/o5£;p/io,
la
Chronica de
los textos historicos,
gobemacion de
los
la republica
y
Reyes Catholicos.
temida y rechazada en algunos
cir-
culos de la intelectualidad americana por su caracter de educadora de conciencias, explica
la
prohibicion de
estas obras.
Ademas,
antiguos provocara a lo largo de todo
el siglo
el
caracter paganizante de los autores
XVI
recelos de censores, religiosos y
en America y en toda Europa. Los autores de contemplarse en algunos casos como una amenaza para
la
Antigiiedad comienzan a
la
sociedad cristiana. Juicios
politicos
extremos
se
comprueban en Mexico, como ocurre en 1575, durante
'*
Citado en Lino Gomez, La ediuacion de
los
marginados durante
"
Fernandez del
en
el siglo
186. Castillo, Libros
y
libreros
XVI, 175.
la
la
revision de
epoca colonial (Mexico, 1982),
^POR QUE
128
"La Candelaria", una de se
PROHIBIERON LAS ADNOTATIONES
SE
las
naves que Uegaron
encontraron un Amadts y dos
en latin y romance,
La Vida
mas de
o tres
San
de
al
puerto de San Juan de Ulua, donde Calvario, Flossantomm, Moras
caballertas,
un
Vida de Julio Cesar, "que leia
Francisco y
estudiante llamado San Clemente, y porque le dijeron que por que no leia mejor la vida de San Francisco que era cristiano y no la de Julio Cesar que estaba en el in-
por no
fierno, el
una disputa y
estar bautizado, se suscito
Como
recoge Jill Kraye,
tros, protestantes
en
siste
el siglo
XVI
presencia una reaccion de escritores y maes-
Contrarreforma.
en numerosos representantes de
XVI
del siglo
se
espiritual hasta
tual
la
europea
Si los
conoce aqui
y
mista de Lutero se propone restaurar capas de corrupcion acumuladas en
la Iglesia se
comprende
la fe
de
la
la Iglesia
valor que alcanza
el
de unos y otros.
acercan. Autores y pedagogos ritus a traves
como
cado,
En juego
los
elegantemente adaptado
por
asi
al
la
la historia
Siendo
de
la tradicion al
las
central
el eje
la
servicio de
ocupa un lugar desta-
Fernandez del
el
texto original poniendo en
La conjuracion de Catilina o
en modelos de historia en
los que,
usus latinus, y la historia y geografia
el
y,
por encima de todo,
romanas que
Castillo, Libros y libreros en el siglo
esp.
at
humanismo
los vicios
al
de
el
buen
sentido de la
"creencia en
el criticar la tradicion eclesiastica,"
fondo, todos, humanistas dados
Kraye, ed., Introduccion
la
el
la
ademas de un
que cualidades ha de tener
dignidad personal y colectiva. Era
la vision historica, y
Cabre (Cambridge. 1998), ^^
en su
clasica
alumno puede aprender las consecuencias negativas que
Marcel Bataillon.^^ En
^^
Roma
etema, removiendo
siglos.'^^
Melanchthon aborda
inquietud de vida de un tirano,
libertad y la lucha
Jill
la
como instrumento
que
acarrean, el valor de la virtud y la recta conducta,
^'
espiri-
pasadas, el espiritu refor-
valoracion de
la
unidad
a juicio critico.
Roma pura y
durante
la historia
de sus programas educativos, en
Salustio describe, el
horizonte de
lo largo
fuente de conocimiento y base fundamental de cualquier reforma.
sus Adnotationes a Salustio,
la
cuando a
la tradicional
somete
sus principios religiosos, eticos, e intelectuales.
principe y
los
En el fondo, espiritu humanista y espiritu reformista se como Philipp Melanchthon parecen aunar ambos espi-
guerra de Jugurta se convierten
^"
Cristiandad,
la
acumulado en epocas
confrontacion entre protestantes y catolicos
los intereses
estilo
Europa de
humanistas italianos se habian propuesto recuperar
Iglesia, se
como
Y los recelos se convierten en oposicion
momento en que
vida de
la
pristina pureza, liberandola del lastre
la
la
que probablemente haya sido su mas intensa sacudida
la
epoca moderna, en un
se resquebraja
la
las
que Lutero y Calvino, ineducacion protestante, se opone
igual
a las inclinaciones paganizantes del ciceronianismo, casi tanto
propios representantes de frontal
al
necesidad de mantener este curriculum en
la
firmemente
in
informacion contra
y catolicos, cuyo objetivo era expulsar del curriculo escolar a
obras clasicas.-' El propio Melanchthon, quien,
de
se levanto
estudiante por sospechoso de la fe."^^
los
el
nuevo
que habla
estudio de los poetas y
XVI, 510-511.
renacentista, ed.
espanola Carlos Claveria, trad. Lluis
111-114.
Cf. Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and
Modem
(Chicago, 1983), 166ss.
Marcel Bataillon, "Humanismo, Erasmismo y represion cultural en la Espana del Erasmo y el Erasmismo, trad. cast. Carlos Pujol, 2* ed. (Barcelona, 1983), 163.
siglo
XVI,"
AVELINA CARRERA DE LA RED
129
de la Antigiiedad greco-latina, y reformadores eclesiasticos pretendian "asomarse a problemas humanos permanentes de moral y de politica."-'* Y, como senala Elias Trabulse, el seguimiento contrarreformista de Hbros prohibidos no con-
los historiadores
sigue evitar
que
las
obras censuradas circularan entre los doctos e intelectuales mexi-
canos, atraidos por estos valores.
Quiza
"revueltas entre clerigos y frailes"
deres
como
causa de
las
flieran todavia
que tan
a
mas
nefastas para la ciencia las
menudo son denunciadas por
los
merca-
malas ventas de libros.^^
Universidad de Valladolid
-*
Bataillon,
^^
Cf. Fernandez del Castillo, Libros y
"Humanismo, Erasmismo,"
162.
libreros
en
el
sigb
XVI, 284.
TTze Preface to the
Amoenitates Exoticae
ROBERT W. CARRUBBA
Engelbert
Kaempfer (1651—1716), the German
scholar, physician,
and
traveler,
devoted more than ten years (1683—1693) to exotic investigations in history, culture,
and science.' As secretary of the Swedish mission to the Persian court,
Kaempfer traveled
Moscow, made
to
neyed through Penia
a perilous crossing
When
to Isfahan.
entered into the service of the Dutch East India position afforded
him
the opportunities to
Japan, where he resided for
two
of the Caspian Sea, and jour-
the embassy completed
visit
Company
its affairs,
Kaempfer
(1684) as a physician. This
Arabia, India, Ceylon, Java, Siam, and
years at Nagasaki (1691-1692)
and twice
visited
Edo
(Tokyo) to pay homage to the Shogun. His tour of duty completed, Kaempfer re-
way of Java and the Cape of Good Hope. Before settling in his Germany, Kaempfer was awarded an M.D. by the National University of Lei-
turned to Europe by native
den. His doctoral thesis,
sented a rich
A
Decade of Exotic Observations,^ pubUshed in 1694, pre-
sampHng of Kaempfer's
scientific research
and
discoveries: a discussion
of the fabled plant-animal called the Scythian Lamb; an explanation of the extreme bitterness
of the Caspian Sea; a description of the sources and medicinal properties of
the substance of Persian
mummy;
a first description
Gulf in which Kaempfer likens the
effect
of the
of the torpedo
fish to that
fish
of the Persian
of lightning; a report of
which produces the resin called dragon's blood; a medical analysis of the guinea worm and the method of extracting it firom a patient's body; accounts of two diseases endemic to Malabar, Andrum (hydrocele of the scrotum) and Perical (swellthe tree
ing of the foot); and
lastly,
accounts of the Oriental therapeutic techniques of acu-
puncture and moxibustion. Once estabUshed
'
For an account of Kaempfer's
land, Engelbert Kaempfer ^
1651-1716:
life
A
See John Z. Bowers and Robert
On the Tropical tory of Medicine
Sciences
physician in
Lemgo, Kaempfer
in-
based on the most recent scholarship, see Detlef HaberBiography, trans. Peter
W.
Ho^ (London,
1996).
Carrubba, "The Doctoral Thesis of Engelbert Kaempfer
Diseases, Oriental Medicine,
and Allied
as a
and Exotic Natural Phenomena," Jounw/ of the His-
25 (1970): 270-310.
PREFACE TO THE AMOENITATES EXOTICAE
132
tended to edit for publication
recorded in various languages in
his extensive papers
the course of his travels.
The
were long
the burdens of his duties as physician to the
frustrated
by
(from 1698). In addition,
1700 was pox. a
On
his
marriage to
2 November 1716 Kaempfer himself succumbed
customary year of mourning,
his
his plans
Count of Lippe Maria Sophia Wilstach in December of
with discord and their two daughters and one son
filled
how
Preface to the Amoenitates Exoticae reveals
widow had
all
died of small-
to colic. Before the
remarried.
From
end of
the Preface to the
Hans Sloane (1660—1753), an avid naturalist and collector, learned of the existence of Kaempfer's manuscripts, which he arranged to have purchased and which eventually became the possession of the British Library. Johannes Casparus
Amoenitates^ Sir
Scheuchzer, Sir Hans's secretary, translated a portion of Kaempfer's original
German
papers into an English version entitled The History ofJapan, which was published in
London
in 1727. Like Sir
(1719-1735),
we
too can approach the Preface to the Amoenitates Exoticae for an un-
derstanding of Kaempfer's
amanuensis,
his
I
Hans Sloane, president of the Royal College of Physicians life
and achievements.
And
in the tradition of Scheuchzer,
have endeavored to make available from the Latin original
a first
translation of the Praefatio to the Amoenitates Exoticae.
The
structure of Kaempfer's Preface
domestic
affairs
and
is
quite straightforward. First, he explains that
his duties as a physician to the
Count of Lippe
frustrated his
intention to edit and organize his manuscripts for publication immediately return eighteen years previously. Second,
Kaempfer
relates that recently
upon
his
he had been
some of his duties and had more time available to ready the Amoenitates which represents only a small portion of his research. He intended also to publish a work entitled Japan of Our Time in German with about forty illustrations (this is the manuscript which Scheuchzer translated into English), a Specimen of a Trans-Ganges Herbarium in Latin with about five hundred illustrations, and a Journey in Three Parts with many illustrations and in Latin, German, or Dutch, containing Russo-Tartaric materials, items for Asia this side of the Ganges, and lastly topics from relieved of Exoticae,
Asia beyond the Ganges. Third, Kaempfer reviews his travels of more than a decade, the
initial
and on to
phase of which was from Stockholm to Isfahan.
Upon
Moscow,
across the Caspian Sea,
the dismissal of the Swedish embassy
he considered going to Egypt, accepting of Georgia, or joining the Dutch
fleet
Kaempfer
reports that
a position as court physician in the
country
occupying the Bay of Hormuz. Thanks to the
good counsel of a Capuchin and royal interpreter, Father du Mans, Kaempfer chose Dutch East India Company, in whose employ he visited the Orient and eventually returned to Amsterdam. And Kaempfer reminds his reader that the Amoenitates contains only a few blossoms from his large garden of reports. Fourth, Kaemp-
to join the
fer reveals that
he chose the
title Pleasures
because of the "agreeable variety of subject
matter which merits reading by the cultivator of any discipline."
He
also underscores
the fact that his reports are not embroidered, but present his original research con-
^
Amoenitatum exoticantm poUtico-physico-medicarum, fasciculi V, quibus continentur
observationes ,
& desaiptiones
the Praefatio are not
rerum Persicamm
numbered
&
sequentially.
Ulterioris
Asiae (Lemgo, 1712).
The
variae relatioties,
pages [xi-xx] of
ROBERT W. CARRUBBA ducted with considerable Fifth,
risk to his safety
Kaempfer apologizes
and
at
133
the cost of much labor and expense.
to his reader for the occasional unevenness of the style,
which resulted from the preoccupations of a traveler on land and sea, and for the poor quality of the copper engravings, for which he blames unskilled and peevish engravers. So vexed was Kaempfer with the engravings that he kept back a number of illustrations
and completely omitted
men
Nor did
in Asia.
a sixth fascicle, entitled Letters to Learned Gentle-
the printer escape Kaempfer's disapproval for improperly repro-
ducing certain Chinese characten and for departing considerably from their native elegance and genius. Sixth, Kaempfer records his
words so
that the reader
may
correctly
method of transcription of foreign
pronounce them, and he
the distances
clarifies
represented by the terms "paces" and "parasangs." Lastly, Kaempfer bids his reader a
work may be
farewell, asks that his
of authorship
Year of
"my
as
favorably received, and records the place and date
usefiil to
nitates.
in the
Christ, 1712.""
Before, however, presenting the Preface
be
County of Lippe,
small estate, called Steinhof, in the
and with notes,
itself in translation
review briefly the fascinating contents of the five
Fascicle
it
may
of the Amoe-
of the Persian court, including the person of
treats the present state
I
fascicles
the Shah, his coronation, the mihtary, financial, rehgious, and spiritual leaders, the
splendor of the palace, the royal harem, and a royal audience. Fascicle torical
and
scientific reports
on
presents his-
II
various things, including the mythical whirlpools of
the Caspian Sea, the archaeological remains at PersepoUs, the Christians of
Thomas, the Oriental
ordeals
the Japanese empire. Fascicle
by
fire
St.
and crocodile, and the wisdom of the closing of
III offers
curious scientific and medical observations,
upon the ten topics of Kaempfer's doctoral thesis and including additional observations on the harvesting of asafetida, snake charming with cobras, two reputed antidotes to snakebite (the Mungo root and snake stones), a lengthy treatise on elaborating
Japanese tea and the implements for preparing and serving Indian drugs, and sexual
spells practiced
by the Makassars.^
botanical and historical reports concerning the date
with accounts of
visiting the
palms and the
utility
it,
entire
lustrations, index,
and
errata,
fills
IV
palm growing
of the
many
devoted to
is
in Persia, along
tree. Fascicle
description of various classes of Japanese plants, along with
volume of the Amoenitates
ambergris, Persian and
Fascicle
V
presents a
illustrations.
The
Exoticae, including dedication, preface, fascicles, il-
more than nine hundred
pages. All in
all,
Kaemp-
Amoenitates Exoticae offers a stunning and detailed array of scientific, historical,
fer's
and
cultural discoveries based
on eyewitness observation and placed within
a scholarly
context.^
Fordham University
*
Steinhof in Lieme bei
pleasant rural area, ^
acquired by Kaempfer's father.
Haberland
Curious
Scientific
and Medical
W.
fifty
house, located in a
Carrubba, Engelbert Kaempfer, Exotic Pleas-
Observatiotts
(Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1996).
{Engelbert Kaempfer, 54) observes that in the Amoenitates
than one hundred and
The
exists.
For a translation and commentary, see Robert
ures: Fascicle III, *
Lemgo was
no longer
books by other authon.
Kaempfer
refers to
more
E
PREFACE TO THE AMOENITATES EXOTICA
134
Preface
Eighteen years have passed since the usual returnee,
pages on which
and danger
I
returned to
I
was laden not with the
tion and interrelationships.
I
I
also
needed
a
few months of work on
add
to
illustrations
comprehend without
my
and against
I
will a
landed
when
domestic
Count Regent of Lippe, my most kind
I
buried,
as
and led
me
my spoils were much to my sorrow.
set aside
most renowned
at his I
had hoped for
I
ensnared
had decided to
Lord and
life
humble
Although
seat. it,
But in
my fer-
nevertheless
and
my
duties,
the disposition and resolve to save
I
I
it
leisure time.
and stored in chests where they hitherto
Recently, upon being reheved of a certain part of
them
from
illustrious
was appropriate, the greater and principal part of my
reason
spare hours and with
astray
cares, difficult in this area,
add that the most
consider the appointment a singular honor and
this
from copper engravings,
master, generously appointed this
person to the position of court physician
For
their organiza-
these clarifying aids.
most burdensome medical practice (which
forego for the future) overwhelmed me.
claimed,
me
of duties and impediments confronted
vent plan. Scarcely had
number
intended to publish these immediately in a
since exotica are very difficult to fact a host
Unlike
Indies.
of profit and trade, but rather with
had written exotic reports gathered through much labor, expense,
I
in various regions.
of volumes which were complete except for
me
my native land from the
spoils
regained
lay
some
from destruction
my
papers which were already eaten by roaches and worms, moldy, and in great part
which
erased by sea water decision, ple of
I
my
am
earlier
inundated them in shipwrecks. In keeping with
pleased to offer, in this present
writings through
of my observations.
I
little
this
book, a kind of selection or sam-
which the good reader may have a preview of the range our salesmen who, upon returning from markets,
will imitate
exhibit samples of their wares in order to explore the buyers' pleasures. In the Cyclops
of Euripides, Ulysses asks in
wish to
taste
what
vites a buyer."' If
display itself
I
I
bring
a polite
manner before
first?" Silenus replies:
find that the samples are appealing,
and from
it I
about forty
is I
to Silenus:
"Do you
appropriate, for a taste in-
will
immediately unfold the
will offer to publishen:
Japan of Our Time, to be published in quarto,
1.
wine
selling
"That
as
they
say,
and in German with
illustrations.^
Specimen of a Trans-Ganges Herbarium, in folio and in Latin with about five
2.
hundred
gendeman Rumpf publishes his Hortus work and appear to be carrying wood to
illustrations. If the distinguished
Amboinensis
first,
may
I
not repeat
his
a forest.-'
'
Euripides' play The Cyclops
called a satyr drama. as related in
The
subject
humorous type of ancient
is
the only example extant of the
is
the escape of Ulysses (Odysseus) from the cave of the Cyclops
book nine of Homer's Odyssey.
^
Englebert Kaempfer, The History ofJapan,
^
Georg Eberhard Rumpf (Rumphius, 1627-1706), Herbarium Amboinense, 6
1741-1750).
play
trans. J.
G. Scheuchzer, 2
vols.
(London, 1727). vols.
(Amsterdam,
ROBERT W. CARRUBBA Journey
3.
Three Parts,* in folio, with
in
as
many
135
illustrations as the publisher's
budget will support and giving him the choice of the language
man, or indeed Dutch. At present the work is
recorded
at
random
three parts: the
in
my
is
The work
diaries in several languages.
my
will here very briefly outline
I
Latin,
Ger-
will contain
presents Russo-Tartaric materials; the second presents
first
materials from Asia this side of the Ganges; and the third, beyond the Ganges. This sequence follows my exhausting
know what
—
complete, but unorganized, and
travels for the
from Asia
materials itinerary.
good reader
so that he
may
observations of things and places he can expect from me. In 1682 the
Most Serene King of Sweden^ created
member of which
a secret embassy, as a
I
left
Stockholm and traveled through Finland, Livonia,^ and Russia to the Court of Moscow. When negotiations were concluded there, I journeyed through the expanses of
Kazan and Nagaja
While
in Tartaria,^ crossed the Caspian Sea
the embassy refreshed
capital city
moned
of Shemakha,'
I
to the Persian court,
Palace at Isfahan, within
was frequently At length
free to
itself
undertook
we were
trips to
whose confines we passed two
make
other places.
When sum-
years during
Royal which time I
private excursions.
Egypt, was invited to Georgia'" offers
my own
led through Hyrcania and Parthia to the
separated from the embassy
I
and arrived in Media.^
during a three-month period of leisure in the
as
upon
its
dismissal.
I
considered going to
court physician, and was besieged with various
of positions. The elderly Father du Mans, a Capuchin and royal interpreter,
persuaded
me
Dutch admiral whose
to accept the invitation of the
Bay of Hormuz. After
the delivery of arms,
I
journeyed
to Arabia,
fleet
occupied the
and from there to
the lands of the Great Mogul, the realms of Malabar, Ceylon, and the region of the
Bay of the Ganges. After traveHng along the Coast of Sumatra to Java and proceeding from its capital to the more distant provinces and islands, at length I visited the Court
From
of Siam.
there,
serving, in passing,
Japan lasted for two
*
Titles
two and
I
arrived in Japan, the farthest island of the Orient, after ob-
Cambodia, southern China, and the adjacent regions. friU,
and by no means
idle, years
three (Specimen and Journey)
and
my
My visit to
stay in Asia
were never published;
consumed
original materials are in
the British Library. See Karl Meier-Lemgo, Die Reisetagebiicher Englebert Kaempfers (Wiesbaden, 1968).
who
ruled from 1660-1697, was
among Sweden's
^
Charles XI,
*
Livonia included present-day Estonia and parts of Latvia.
' Tartaria,
greatest kings.
or the region of the Great Khan, extended in upper Asia from the area of the Cas-
pian Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Kazan
is
located
on the Volga; Nagaja
is
found to the
east
of the
Volga and to the north of the Caspian Sea. *
On
pages 134 and 135 of the Amoenitates Exoticae, Kaempfer explains that the whole of the
Persian Empire
or Eastern;
Media
is
divided into five parts:
(3) Occidentalis
(1) Australis (Pars)
(Parthia) or Central.
The city is near to Baku and the Apsheron '° The country on the Black Sea.
'
or Southern;
(2) Orientalis
(Chorasmia)
(Azerbaijan) or Western; (4) Septentrionalis (Hyrcania) or Northern; (5)
Peninsula.
PREFACE TO THE AMOENITATES EXOTICAE
136
ten years.
returned to Holland by a direct route over the ocean.
I
year, except for a
few weeks during which
was
I
at sea for
one
traveled the wilds of the African pro-
I
montory.^'
These,
I
say, are the
ney from which
I
expanses of the globe which
selected
servations of this initial work. This
my journey
nor
is it
describe in the log of my jour-
I
and compiled, in the greater
book does
—
the case that
part, the descriptions
happens in smaller gardens
as
blossoms have been plucked, only stems and leaves remain. If it were
my
vide
complete
travel log into separate reports
book would be expanded
here, this
into very
and ob-
not, as a result, deplete the record of
— when
my
a
few
desire to di-
of this type and to transcribe them
many
how-
fascicles. It is preferable,
ever, to display at a future time the finished artifice itself rather than
rough
its
components.
work with
distinguish this introductory
I
the
title
Pleasures because
of the agreea-
which merits reading by the cultivator of any discipline. I have not reported anything in this book which is the creation of my imagination nor anything which suggests polish or the odor of midnight oil. Nor am I reheating a stew cooked by others (unless methodology or the need for logical sequence re-
ble variety of subject matter
quired
hands
it).
full
Rather, matters reported by others have been omitted. Indeed, describing things
depth or thoroughly.
To be
which
sure, as
gether reports of things not
at all
never tired of traveling for
many
my
safety,
are I
new
traveled,
have
my
had no other goal than to put to-
I
or inadequately
known
to us. Consequently,
I
have
days to out-of-the-way places, even at the risk of
my labor obtained its
provided that
I
or which others have not reported in
reward of some knowledge discovered
about something desirable, memorable, or disputed in the community of learned
men. However
insignificant these Asiatic spoils of
pear to be, they are assuredly the results of
my
mine may have been or may ap-
considerable labors and expenses.
book with whose awkwardillustrations. The style, I confess, is occasionally uneven, and less than appropriate for an historical report. The first deficiency was brought about by the circumstances of the journey, which did not permit the traveler to compose anything with a leisurely hand and tranquil spirit. Kind reader, you have, however, two you may find fault: the style, to be
ness
Who,
when
and certain
indeed, does not understand the tasks of voyagers?
from day bers;
things in this
sure,
to
now
a
crowd of people, gathering
to see the
they have scarcely entered their lodging;
on board, the storms pen of the
in the sky,
sea voyagers.
And
now
European
me
pass
minds with concerns and
begot an unevenness of style for whose correction
my
difficulties.
them
impede the
more entangle
assail
the think-
This variety of activity and disposition, I
now have
I
neither the leisure
studies, the inclination.
Ships sailing to and from Asia
and provisions.
itself
over in silence the conditions which
say,
nor, after long pauses in
guests, disturbs
and the shaking motion of the ship
so let
ers'
'
the baggage must
the insane clamor of the soldiers
us and repeatedly interrupt the course of writing and even
'
Now
day be packed, unpacked, transported and guarded from thieves and rob-
would normally put
in at the
Cape of Good Hope
for rest
ROBERT W. CARRUBBA I
137
whom
blame the second deficiency on certain copper engravers
unskilled and of a peevish disposition.
own hand
They
had drawn carefully and in varying
I
I found to be which with my and which they needed to re-
so distorted pictures, sizes,
duce or enlarge to the proper dimensions, that were these pictures not necessary for clarifying the subject matter,
for this reason that
am
I
I
would
reject
them
as a
Learned Gentlemen in Asia.
The
I
have even held back
which
Letters, indeed, treat matters
standable without illustrations engraved with an accurate
Hence,
hand
illustrations pertaining to Fascicle
me
of Isfahan, painstakingly compiled by
And
disgrace to the book.
my
completely omitting Fascicle Six, namely,
are not under-
my
in
a plan
I:
it is
Letters to
presence.
of the
city
during three months of study; a depiction
of the Royal way, Tsjahaar baag, and the adjacent Gardens, especially the Hadsar dsjeriib,
and the houses situated in them;
of the quadrupeds to be seen in
illustrations
the city and in the royal wildlife preserves; and also
many
views of ancient PersepoUs, which pertain to Fascicle
of Japan and many other
ate geographic table
and IV, which plaint
now retain in the hope of a my printer as I did about
I
concerning
II;
inscriptions
and
as
and particular
new and
well a
accur-
illustrations appropriate to Fascicles III
better occasion.
I
make
the same
He
the copper engravers.
com-
has, indeed,
negligently treated certain Chinese characters, with strokes curved, lengthened or
shortened otherwise than suitable, and others improperly placed, and by
very
this
action he has departed considerably firom the native elegance and genius of the characters.
For the
necessary to inform the reader that with respect to
rest, it is
scription of exotic vocabulary ation: thus,
Greek
I
wish
a to
%, or the Polish
words
be read
as
the Greek 01); g
ch without the guttural, or
must be pronounced with
my
tran-
have adapted myself to Germanic pronunci-
I
a hiss, at other times
as
the French gu; ch like the
the Italian g before
as
more
softly
a; s at
hke the PoUsh
z
times
without
Here we do not have available a double letter, with which we might indicate and so I have expressed in Persian words the letter-*by ds and dsj, which, however, needed to be brought out a little more softiy by the French g beaccent.
such a
diflference,
fore e and
i.
By
the French do
sounds seo,
sio,
in the
sj,
v^rith
Dutch manner,
I
express the Arabic and Penianv-r;
ch, the English with sh,
meo, mio and the
like
and Germans with
ought to be pronounced
the inserted vowel heard sHghtly, and even a Uttle
mjo.
I
as
sch.
one
more lightly than
which
The Japanese syllable,
with
if written sjo
and
have expressed the orthotone native to any people by accents and duplicate
vowels, from which syllables; thus, aa
it is
easy to
must be read
comprehend the lengthening or shortening of the Greek a, ii as I, oo as (0, and so forth. I call
as
when read by nonGermans and people of foreign tongues, may have an authentic sound and may not,
attention to these matters so that exotic vocabulary words,
as
commonly
happens, degenerate into entirely different words. In Persian words, the
whether you pronounce it aan, oon, or 0\)V, since Penian in«^^^Kirmaan (Kerman), *>—-"aasmoon (sky), ""^-"^Dsjehuun
syllable*^ is quite the same, dialects differ
(world),
on
it,
as
and countless other words. Concerning umts of measure, which on various I have used for distances, I very briefly advise: that by paces I do not mean
occasions
the linear ones
with which a
which
man
consist of
two
footprints but
of average height or
a httle taller
my own
simple
common
ones,
than average walks, and which
PREFACE TO THE AMOENITATES EXOTICAE
138
comprise
at
the
minimum two
linear feet.
By
parasangs also shovild be understood
lengths or distances from place to place of such an extent that twenty-two and onehalf of I
them equal one
celestial
degree or fifteen
German
bid the reader thus advised to fare well and to favor
the study of my small estate, called SteinhofF, in the Christ, 1712.
miles.
my
writings.
County of Lippe,
I
wrote firom
in the
Year of
Elizabeth Jane Weston as Cultural Icon
DONALD CHENEY
The
praise lavished
lifetime
on Elizabeth Jane Weston and her Latin
both encourages and
sented to those citizens of the repubUc of letters
that
Western
it
was only during the
scholars learned
why
this
what she repre-
who exchanged compliments
her during her brief period of international fame in the teenth century.' Indeed,
verses during her
frustrates speculation as to just
final
first
with
decade of the seven-
decade of the twentieth century
noble Enghsh maiden,
virgo angla nobilissima,
Rudolph II: her mother had married the alchemist Edward Kelley and accompanied him to Bohemia shordy after the death of her first husband, a certain John Weston described only as "clerk" in his spent her lifetime in and around the court of
burial record of 1582.-
Thus,
we now know what Czech
scholars^
had discovered in 1928 from
copy of her poem on her mother's death, namely
a
unique
Weston apparendy owed any claims of noble origin less to a presumed connection with aristocratic EngUsh Westons than to a title bestowed on her stepfather by the Emperor Rudolph, and to Kelley's
own
dubious prior claim to an
Irish title.
that
And
the earUer assumption of biogra-
phers and biographical dictionaries, that she was the orphaned daughter of a recusant
Enghsh Weston who had fled to Cathohc Prague where he had bankrupted himself hke a good English aristocrat, was a reasonable but mistaken deduction based on the evidence of her pubhshed writings, which avoided
'
Elizabeth Jatte Weston: Collected Writings, ed.
sington (Toronto, 2000). ^
Susan Bassnett, "Elizabeth Jane Weston
ed., Prag
um 1600 (Freren/Emsland,
elisabethains
*
Karel Hrdina,
Donald Cheney and Brenda M. Ho-
and
trans.
the
Hidden Roots of Poetry,"
Intellectual
in E. Fucikova,
Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: Tlte
Age (Leeds, 1990), 110-114, 759
"Dve
mention of Kelley, whose
1988), 9-15, and eadem, "Revising a Biography," Cahiers
37 (1990): 1-8; James Binns,
Latin Writings of the
—
all
(index).
prace z dejin ceskeho humanismu," Listy Jilologicke 55 (1928): 14-19;
Bohumil Ryba, "Westonia," Usty filologicke 56
(1929): 14-28.
ELIZABETH WESTON AS CULTURAL ICON
140
death in prison and in debt around 1598 had
and necessitated her
To summarize
made her an orphan
for the second time
literary career.
the story of Weston
as it
may be most
plausibly
and simply under-
show that John John Francis, was christened 1581. John Weston, husband and fath-
stood today, the parish records of Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire
Weston and Jane Cooper were married
in 1579; a son,
there in 1580, as was Elizabeth, apparently in
was buried on 6
er,
who had been
ley,
May
During the week prior
1582."*
serving
as
Edward KelDee at his house Archangel Michael had told him that he to this burial,
skryer or crystal-gazer to Doctor John
outside London, twice reported that the
must marry; and shortly afterward he reluctantly obeyed
this
injunction, marrying the
widowed Jane Weston.^ The following year, Dee and Kelley set off with their wives and the children of Dee on an extended voyage to Poland and later to Prague, where Kelley was to spend the rest of his life in service to Rudolph. The Weston children apparently stayed with their grandparents at
first
but joined their stepfather's house-
hold subsequently.
Weston
In her elegy for her mother,
states that
Kelley cared for his
new
step-
children "like another father,"^ and this seems borne out by his having provided a
them even
superior education for
as
he
fell
further into debt and out of favor with
the emperor. Elsewhere, Elizabeth gives thanks to a Latin master
mond, who may be the man of that name in 1588.''
Weston's brother was sent to the
later to the university
whom Dr Dee local
named John Ham-
had employed in Trebon
Clementine College in Prague and
of Ingolstadt, enrolling there in the
summer term of 1 598 as Weston
"loannis Westonius Oxoniensis Anglus nobilis," an early instance of the
children's tendency to elide their claims to nobility with their Oxfordshire origins.^
Kelley's fortunes declined after 1591, in a duel;
and
after a series
of prison
stays
when he
killed
one of Rudolph's
courtiers
he died sometime around 1597, leaving
his
John Francis Weston 1600. In an attempt to gain sym-
family destitute and their properties in the hands of creditors.
had been in poor health himself and died in
late
pathy for her plight and that of her newly- widowed mother, Elizabeth turned to the
make her famous. number of factors may have contributed to the exlaments immediately elicited. As a young maiden in
writing of the Latin poetry that would shortly
From our
perspective today, a
travagant praise Weston's elegiac distress,
appealing to the protection of the learned and powerful
men
of her time, she
could capitalize on the very simplicity and monotony of her material. Granted that she had a talent for writing directly and clearly in classical Latin, this was a talent that
was more
*
likely to
Chipping Norton
mous copy of ca. ^
Dee
.
^
^ **
be valued in
.
and Some
young woman than
parish register, typescript
in a sophisticated
man of the
of September 1992 checked against an anony-
1790.
Meric Casaubon, .
a
A
Spirits
.
True and Faithful Relation of What passed for many Years between Dr. John .
.
(London, 1659),
fol.
39v.
Weston: Collected Writings, 336-341.
Weston: Collected Writings, 313.
Annales Ingolstadiensis Academiae, Part 2 (Ingolstadt, 1782), 152; Gotz Freiherr von Polnitz,
Die Matrikel
der
Ludwig- Maximilians- Universitdt (Munich, 1937), 1:1374.
DONALD CHENEY And
worlds of court or academe.
recent feminist approaches to early
modern
have suggested, the position of an orphan can be positively liberating for a
literature
woman who her and
as
141
is
hoping
be heard, for she has neither father nor brother
to
— we have been
we may be somewhat
—
led to beUeve
skeptical of this latter principle, chiefly based as
and famihar collection of examples
to speak for
to silence her in the process.^
like that
of
Nogarola in
Isotta
it is
Italy,
Although
on
a small
there
is
a
from one of Weston's own contemporaries, another learned EUzabeth who signs herself "Elizabeth Albert of Kameneck, Bohemian maiden," who laments that most
letter
Bohemians consider
"not only useless for
letters
shameful," and says that
it
concern but actually
a virgin's
both "grieves and shames" her father to have taught
daughters to write in the classical tongues."' So
Heving that Weston had reason to
we may have some
repeatedly in her
insist
poems and
letters
his
be-
basis for
on the
world of mother and daughter to which she was confined. This was
cloistered
world to which the
men
a
of the greater world could address their compliments with
confidence that their praise could not be taken amiss by some protective male in the virgin's circle.
In
fact,
however, Weston
promoting her
years her senior, edited letters to
the learned
did
have
a
male patron
who
George Martinius von Baldhoven,
writings.
two
men
collections of her writings
of Europe,
who
played a crucial role in
in 1602, and
who
responded in kind.
It
was Baldhoven
Prague around 1608,
and from
her,
which was eventually
to
who am
Frankfurt
at
immediately afterward urged her to assemble a
edition, with letters to
few
a
and forwarded her poems and
brought out the fint collection, Poemata, pubhshed in two books
Oder book
nobleman
a Silesian
fuller,
three-
be published in
as Parthenica.
We may wonder at the precise role played by Baldhoven in promoting his friend's career.
He
seems to have been responsible for persuading Paul MeUssus of Heidel-
berg, the translator of Marot, to send her a laurel wreath, and thereby give her the laureate status enjoyed rather informally
by the Latin poets of the
to have attempted, often rather ineptly, to polish her verses.
hoven was
enough
close
day.
Bom
And he
seems
in 1578, Bald-
in age to have entertained thoughts of marriage with
Wes-
enough for others to have imagined such a thing. When George Weston in 1601 as a virgin "worthy of marriage to a good poet,"''
ton, or at least close
CaroHdes
praises
the line seems to point toward the laureated Baldhoven
though not
whom
necessarily a
Weston
good
(who was
certainly good,
poet) rather than toward the lawyer, Johannes Leo,
did marry in 1603.
fact provoked an oddly awkward letter {Parth. III. 30) to her which she formally informs Baldhoven of her marriage (three months after
Weston's marriage in editor, in
See Anthony Grafton and Lisa Jardine, From Humanism
^
1986), esp. chap. 2,
"Woman
Winfried Schleiner, "Elizabeth Weston:
A Woman
Poet
among
Honor of Barbara Kiefer Thomas Crane (Newark and London, 1999), 185-219.
form
in Rettaissance
'"
to the
Humanities (Cambridge,
England: Essays
in
the Humanists," in Form and Re-
Lewalski, ed.
Amy
Weston: Collected Writings, 402-403.
" Weston:
MA,
Humanists: Education for What?", 29-57; and Louise Schleiner and
Collected Writings,
390-393, "Virgo digna boni toro Poetae."
Boesky and Mary
ELIZABETH WESTON AS CULTURAL ICON
142
the event) "in case
you
are ignorant
of my present
and condition," and expresses
state
some sense of distress. Whether or not Baldhoven was a disappointed suitor, or Weston feared he might have been, it is also true that her marriage had put an end to that image of a virgo angla that he had been so carefully cultivating. Baldhoven may simply or also have felt that his grand surprise that
Baldhoven should have alluded
to
—
—
editorial project
was being undercut by
had been so hugely
successful thus
Weston
In the same letter,
her publishing plans,
as if
his protegee's failing to
keep to the
affirms that she wishes to continue her friendship,
some missing
volume be published he
(since
letters;
in
There
is
in fact published in Prague:
which her husband was now making the
— even though Weston would
Baldhoven wishes
poignancy in the
a certain
new
Weston's
decisions.
fact that the
condition was
At the same time, Baldho-
ven apparently was responsible for labeling the collection writings"
problem of
husband would prefer that the collected
in Prague or Leipzig rather than Leiden as
expanded collection was
one
that her
living there at present).
is
and
nothing had happened; that she has been slow to send on
additional materials only because of the press of other matters and a
locating
script that
far.
Parthenica or
"maidenly
protest in manuscript verses'^ that
some
of the works in the volume were those of a newlywed matron, and that others had
been
we
carelessly proofread to boot.
cannot put
a single
simple
Unquestionably, things had changed, even though
name
to the change.
as well with the death on 24 named Elizabeth. We may wonder just how much the appeal of Elizabeth Jane Weston may have been affected by an implicit allusion to that grander figure at the margins of the Holy Roman Empire. Weston was adroit
Indeed, Weston's marriage in April 1603 coincided
March of another English
virgin
own
in evoking the pathos of her truly "august" his
emperor,
a
literally helpless position,
worth by accepting the prayers of this
circle
A poem like
of his grace and favor.
selor, praises the
and
worthy successor to Caesar Augustus
gardens of a
man who
client
in suggesting that a
himself,
would show
and by bringing her thereby into the
that to
Johann
Barvitius,
Rudolph's coun-
resembles his master in retiring to a flourish-
ing space where he can "hear the prayers of widows and take up the petitions of clients" (Parth. 1.13).^^
Such widows and
clients
can bless and indeed authenticate the
claims of an imperial court. Perhaps those learned scholars and courtiers
ponded
so enthusiastically to
ly articulating
something of their
greater world that threatened visions.
The
Empire,
as
its
who
res-
Weston's laments were recognizing that she was shrewd-
own
them
sense of
dependency and helplessness in the
increasingly with
its
religious
and
republic of letters itself had an uneasy relationship with the
did the Empire with the increasingly fragmented world
nationalist di-
Holy
it still
Roman
claimed
as
own.
It may have seemed all the more apt, then, that Weston could lay claim names not only of orphan and virgin but also to those of Elisabetha and Angla;
'2
Weston: Collected Writings, 304-307.
'^
Donald Cheney, "Westonia on the Gardens of
(1992): 64-67.
to the
for
by
Barvitius," American Notes and Queries 5
DONALD CHENEY
143
doing so she could suggest a further dimension of her ahenated condition, representing a Protestant and insular nation in an imperial court that was eastern fringe of
its
own
What
"suggest," however.
what she
her
own
You You
located
itself
on the
preceding sentence
is
a sugges-
is
of just who she is and where she on Ovid's Tristia {Parth. 1.39), she compares of the poet who was similarly exiled to the savage east:
for
me
both
are troubled
but firom
identification
me
she
is
my
father
and
household are gone.
his
by repeated incunions of Sarmatian hordes;
a furious race steals
lines skilfully conflate
home and
in the
leave your fatherland, but the fiiends there are unharmed;
Here
These
word
represents. In writing
with that
exile
operative
pecuUarly characteristic of Weston's poetry
is
which always eludes expUcit
tiveness stands,
The
empire.
what
it
does not give!^*
two kinds of isolation: she
is
far fi-om
her native English
alienated firom her emperor's grace; but she stops short of identifying
Rudolph's court, or Bohemia in general, with the furious race that has confiscated her family's property. As a distressed damsel she does not need to specify the precise parameters of her exile; nor, in is
a
It is
atigla
is
could she do
England of her origins
so, since the
aspire to return.
remarkable that Weston's presentation of herself before her marriage
is
silent
no appeals in
fact,
world she scarcely knew and one to which she does not
chiefly
to
on the matter of her
Queen EUzabeth
lost
Enghsh home and
An
or her courtiers.
family,
as a virgo
that she
obvious reason for
this
is
makes
that she
concerned to advance her mother's claims for restitution of family properties
Bohemia; she has every reason to avoid suggesting
Norton might
satisfy
fint poetic acts
is
to
the family's needs.
compose an ode
to
Once
James
she
is
that a return fare to
{Parth. III.l)
I
that James or his courtiers
appeal {Parth.
III. 3).
Beyond
this
may have been
we
on the new
harmes Leo, a lawyer representing Anhalt this
his coronation,
and
greatly distressed at a
or contemptuous of this
have
Uttle
evidence of Weston's later
directions of her Hterary career.
her marriage in 1603 and her death nine years
point during
indiflferent
on is
ode, however, and a similarly enthusiastic one ad-
dressed to Rudolph's successor Matthias, writings that might shed Ught
Chipping
married, however, one of her
to affirm her loyalties to her native land; subsequently, she
rumour
and
later,
Between
she bore seven children to Jo-
interests at the imperial court; at
some
time her widowed mother died, and presumably the claims on the
Kelley estate were rendered moot or became less pressing for the new household. Weston and her husband continued to exchange compHmentary verses with members of the inner circle around Prague, as well as some further afield; increasingly, these celebrated the arrival of new, infant muses on the scene; so we might conclude that the phenomenon of the virgo angla had come to a natural conclusion.
'*
Tu Mi
patriam, incolumes patriae sed linquis ainicos: pater
&
patrij hie interiere lares.
Sauromatae infestant crebris £t mihi, quae
non
dat,
tibi
cuncta rapinis:
gens fliribunda
rapit!
ELIZABETH WESTON AS CULTURAL ICON
144
Indeed,
it is
possible to
about Weston without insisting on
a coherent story
tell
the possibility of larger speculative dimensions. Weston's silences are surely explicable
modesty or of the
in terms either of a seemly maidenly
Rudolph and
tion, appealing to
strategic
needs. If she, or her editor, omitted mentioning Kelley
most people would know the
dent;
could show respect for property. Yet nothing bility" attributed to
insisting
completely simple in
Weston
is
inextricable
Kelley and his grand alchemical projects.
my
in general,
by name,
that
was only pru-
identity of this respected "parent" anyway.
him without
is
demands of her posi-
speedy resolution of her family's
his associates for a
She on redeeming his name only his the Prague of Rudolph, and the "no-
—
from the
Edward
prestige associated with
A later century's categorical scorn for alche-
and for the controversial Kelley in
particular, has almost certainly
blinded
us to the potency of the language associated with the grand dreams of the day, of
which the transformation of base metals claim that our
modern
The fact remains may have been seen or
at least
scian
that there as
is
Oswald Croll
evidence to suggest, but only suggest, that Weston
to have a
poem
of hers in the prefatory materials to
reflects a as
ideas
and plans that
usual goes
equally obscure to to
many
which the Anhalt
Leo
to
form
to be an
a
we
union with
unmentioned
in the exchanges
between
to the grand projects of their "parent" in
suggest
— or may have been intended
can only guess
readers at the time.
interest in
his Basilica
high regard for the learned world of the Kelley
CroU and Weston. Similarly, references between Weston and her brother
suggest
can scarcely
figuring in the grander cultural dreams of her place and time,
household, even though Kelley
—
we
trying to exploit them. For instance, the eagerness of the Paracelsan phy-
Chymica of 1609 most likely
letters
to gold was a part. Indeed,
none of these magical, transcendent overtones.
science has
at,
and
that
Nor have we any
may
to
well have been
evidence of the degree
promoting Protestant causes might have led Joannes
his English
maiden.
I
can only conclude that there seems
unbroken continuum between the domestic biography of Weston
that
is
de-
veloped in her collected works and a larger cultural story that her readers and admirers were likely to intuit. Perhaps
it is
only a coincidence that a few months after
the death of Elizabeth Jane Weston, another uirgo angla, the daughter ofJames larly
named
happy years
Elizabeth, was to marry Frederick, the elector palatine, in Heidelberg
come
to
Bohemia
and
I,
simi-
after a
few
for a tragically brief season of rule.
Frances Yates has argued that Rosicrucianism emerged from the cultural ferment in
Bohemia during this period, and that its rhetoric of chemical and moral transformation spoke to a dream of transformation and reconciliation of opposites that the modern world was denying with ever-increasing effect.'^ Edward Kelley brought his wife and stepchildren into a world that was fostering this dream; and
I
think that his
owes much of its power, in its own day at least, to the vividness virgo nobilissima from a distant country who must be allowed to be
stepdaughter's poetry
of the figure of a
a part of the transformative
work
if
wholeness
is
to be achieved.
University of Massachusetts ,
'^
Frances Yates, The Rosicrudan Enlightenment (London, 1972).
Amherst
La depuis
les
victime tragique
premieres tragedies neo-latines
jw5^w'^ Jephthes de G. Buchanan
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER
Les premieres
tragedies neo-latines {Ecerinis d'Albertino Mussato, Achilles d' Anto-
nio Loschi, Progne de Gregorio Correr, et Hiensal de Leonardo Dati) sont caracterisees
par un dechainement de violence du a
monstre. Le furor
la
furieux presentent leurs actes
comme
victime humaine se substitue ainsi a emissaire". Pourtant,
meme
rituel sacre, la place
la
scene du sacrifice de
accordee a
la
la
victime dans
Buchanan
(Jephthes, Baptistes): I'heroisation
riorisation
du
de
la
victime
massacre assimilables a des
'
ou
sacrifice
le
sacrifices.
choeur presente
du modele sene-
les tragedies
Muret
perversion d'un
la
evolue
tres
{luUus Caesar)
nettement
ou de G.
victime s'accroit a mesure de I'inte-
XV' siecles)'
La victime la
presentent des scenes de
est collective
dans VEcerinis d'Alber-
soumission du peuple padouan
comme
ana-
de jeunes taureaux:
Albertino Mussato, Ecerinide, ed. L. Padrin (Bologna, 1900); ainsi que Ecerinide, Epitres
metriques
stir
caria,
teatro umanistico vetteto,
J.
comme
conflit tragique.
Les premieres tragedies neo-latines (XIV' et
logue au
en
heros
d'un animal. La
le sacrifice rituel
tragedies neo-latines, heritieres
si les
les
victime animale et assume le role de "bouc
la
entre les premieres tragedies neo-latines et celles de
tino Mussato,
homme
autant de defis a I'ordre divin. Leurs victimes
sont assassinees dans des conditions qui rappellent
quien, presentent toutes
metamorphose d'un
de cette transformation au terme de laquelle
est I'agent
II
lapoesie, Songe, ed. J.-F.
Chevalier
la tragedia
R. Berrigan, G. Toumoy, "Gregorii
Lovanietisia
29 (1980): 23-99;
ainsi
que
(Paris,
2000). Antonio Loschi, Achilles, ed. V. Zac-
(Ravenna, 1981), 9-96. Gregorio Correr, Progne, ed.
Corrarii Veneti Tragoedia, cui tinalus Progne," Humanistica ed. L. Casarsa, Teatro umanistico veneto.
La
tragedia: "Achil-
les"-"Progne" (Ravenna, 1981), 129-181; et ed. A. Onorato (Messina, 1994), 1:159-218. Leonardo
R. Berrigan, Humanistica Onorato (Messina, 2000).
Dati, Hiensal, ed. J. ed. A.
Lovanietisia
25 (1976): 84—145;
ainsi
que Hyempsal,
LA VICTIME TRAGIQUE
146
Plebe
cum
tota populus subegit
Colla, deuoti ueluti iuuenci
Victimis sacras ueniunt ad
Cette assimilation
confinnee par
est
les
252—254)
aras.^ (v.
propos du tyran, Ezzelino da
Romano:
fumus ad summos polos
A me
litatas
uictimas tales ferat.^
La rage du despote sanguinaire peuple).
Comme
mort
leur
puisque Ezzelino
336—337)
s'abat sur tous les citoyens a la fois (les nobles et le
presentee
Romano
rapproche Ezzelino da lees a Satan
est
(v.
une provocation envers Dieu, ce
telle
de son pere, Satan. Les victimes sont en
s'etait
voue
a
son pere des
le
debut de
la
fait
defi
immo-
tragedie
(v.
86-112).
La victime peut egalement d' Antonio Loschi, se
Quand
Paris accede a la priere de sa mere,
time immolee en
La vengeance d'Hecube, dans V Achilles
etre unique.
concentre sur Achille,
le il
meurtrier de
fait
dans MedSe ou Thyeste de Seneque,
Progne de Gregorio Correr. Itys est se
venger de Teree. le culte
Hector
et Troilus.
dolor pectus inflammat, parens,
Si tantus
brant
fils,
sacrifice:
Peribit hostis, uictima ut templis cadet.**
Comme
ses
revetir a Achille le statut d'une vic-
Au moment
de Bacchus, deUvre
la
oix
(v.
un enfant
206-207)
paie le crime de son pere dans
victime innocente que sa mere immolera pour
Procne, accompagnee de
sa soeur,
eUe
ses
compagnes
cele-
s'ecrie:
Eruite propere carceris duri minas
Atque hos ministros
regii iussus neci
Mandate! Maior uictima
his cadet
Eruite propere: iam
Baccho datum.
Insaniendum La victime annoncee
est
son
est
satis
nunc mihi:
fils.
manibus!
instigat furor.^ {Progne, v.
555—559)
La celebration du culte de Bacchus pourrait per-
mettre a Procne de justifier son geste sacrilege par I'exemple de Penthee dechire par
^
"Les citoyens et tout
le
menu
peuple ont tendu
le
cou au joug,
comme
les
jeunes taureaux
consacres s'approchent des autels des sacrifices." ^ "*
"Que "Si
comme ^
la
une
fumee, jusqu'au sommet du si
profonde douleur,
une victime dans
"Detruisez a
la
hate
ma
le
temple."
les
murs de
ciel,
porte ces victimes par
moi immolees."
mere, enflamme ton cceur, I'ennemi perira;
cette cruelle prison et livrez a la
il
tombera
mort ceux qui ont execute
du roi. Mes mains immoleront une victime plus grande. Nous avons desormais sufFisamment donne a Bacchus. II me faut maintenant perdre la raison. La fureur m'aiguillonne."
I'ordre
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER
les
mains de
Le rappel du corps dechire de Penthee (Ovide, Metamorphoses
sa mere.^
3) prefigure le
147
corps mutile d'ltys, qui sera, en outre, ofFert en banquet sacrificiel a
crime tragique dans le cadre du culte mysdu mythe orphique selon lequel Dionysos, fils tue, depece et mange par les Titans. La longue
son pere. Gregorio Correr, en situant
le
tique de Dionysos, s'inspirait peut-etre
de Zeus
de Persephone, avait ete
et
comparaison au debut de
la
tragedie entre Teree et
Orphee
invite a
une
pareille
lecture.
La vengeance personnelle transforme egalement Jugurtha en meurtrier. La mort d'Hiempsal
et
de
compagnons, dans
ses
d'un
aussi a la celebration
sacrifice.
la tragedie
de Leonardo Dati, ressemble eUe
Les victimes sont renversees a terre. L'emploi du
verbe mactare accentue cette impression de rituel sacre au cours duquel Hiempsal
est
decapite:
Nam
eo ducta
res
Noctu lugurtae
est loci ut satellites
domum
in Hiensalis
dolis
Irruperint illicque diuersi ocius
Regem
fi-equentes quaeritant, intemecant.
Alii oscitantis
Omnis
Mactant
dormientisque obuios
impetu
et
et
mucrone competunt,
et inuersos tenus
Scrutari et
alii
abdita,
alii
stemunt
solo.
diflfringere
Clausa loca non cessant, domusque omnis simul
Cadentium gemitu Plagis
et fiiagore et aspero
tumultu exterrita intus uoluitur.
Tandem repertum Hiensalem
opprimunt, caput
Ferro amputant. Res hunc igitur acta in
Des
la
scene suivante
la
modum
est.' (v.
667-679)
Pythonisse conseUle aux femmes de Libye, en proie zn furor
des Bacchantes, d'offrir des sacrifices a Dis et aux Manes, c'est-a-dire aux divinites de la
mort:
lo Libes, Libes, io parens, parens,
Ditique Manibusque litandum
*
En
'
"La situation en
de nuit
depit des denegations
et par ruse dans la
roi et tuent
du choeur
est arrivee
{Progtie, v.
au point que
les
demeure d'Hiempsal;
un grand nombre d'hommes. Les
par
les
Voila *
lis
ils
les sacrifient et les
fait
irruption
recherchent de tous cotes
le
renversent face contre terre.
fracturent les portes fermees: toute la
gemissements des mourants, par
coups, est sens dessus dessous.
de main de Jugurtha ont
rapidement,
uns, en chargeant I'epee a la main, traquent tous
les recoins; d'autres, sans relache,
terrifiee a la fois par les
696-697)
520-522).
hommes
et la,
ceux qui, sur leur route, somnolent ou dorment, D'autres fouillent
tibi.* (v.
le fracas et le
violent tumulte
trouvent enfin Hiempsal, se jettent sur
lui et le
demeure,
provoque
decapitent.
les faits."
"Io, Libyennes, Libyennes, Io, mere, mere, tu dois ofirir
un
sacrifice a
Dis
et
aux Manes."
LA VICTIME TRAGIQUE
148
Dans chacune des
tragedies neo-latines mentionnees,
d'une victime humaine de
a
perpetrer son sacrilege,
homme
seul
En
perversion de I'ordre sacre du monde.
la
le
fait assassiner
mort du
tient la
assiste a la substitution
sacrifice est ainsi
bouleversant
les lois
victime
de I'univers pour
heros en proie au /wror revendique une liberte totale.
une
des milliers de Padouans (Ecerinis);
plus brillant des heros grecs {Achilles);
un jeune prince
{Progne);
on
une victime animale. La personne
fait
vieille
une mere
Un
femme ob-
assassine
son
fils
decapiter celui qui partage avec lui le pouvoir (Hiensat).
Plus la victime est innocente, plus le heros furiosus apparait
tel
un monstre. L'hyper-
"moi" du heros en mal accentue la revendication de I'instauration d'un monde nouveau, fonde sur les mines de I'ancien. Ezzelino da Romano cherche a obtrophie du
tenir la
mine de
outre
les
Hecube cherche
puissance du Dieu des Chretiens;
la
puissance des Grecs; Procne renonce a
a abattre la
puissance des Hens du sang; Jugurtha passe
la
demieres volontes de Micipsa. Chaque decision
est
un
defi dicte par le res-
sentiment exacerbe du heros. Mais,
meme
s'il
est vrai qu'Achille,
Teree, et Hiempsal ne sont pas des victimes
monstmeux
innocentes, leur chatiment est
parce qu'il
gression d'un rituel sacre. Achille est assassine dans
mariage. Persuade d'epouser
la
princesse troyenne Polyxene,
temple d'ApoUon. La parole donnee par
Dubia sors, inquit:
Hec
dum "Hec
Troyens
les
n'etait
comme
il
se
la trans-
rituel
rend seul dans
du le
que fourberie.
martis labat est prolis Assaraci fides?
iura thalami? Pacis hec false quies?"^
Le choeur des Grecs
presente
est
un temple au cours du
insiste ensuite sur le sacrilege
(v.
672—674)
du sang profanant
I'autel
d'Apollon:
Pelides genitus dea
olim qui timor Ylios sublimis
stetit incliti,
cesus templa rigat suo ferro sanguine ApoUinis.'*^
Le participe associe les
caesus, deja
employe au
deux heros dans le
meme
755-759)
(v.
vers 21
pour designer Hector tue par Achille,
destin. Paris avait d'ailleurs refuse d'assassiner
Achille par traitrise avant de ceder au furor de sa mere. La haine des Troyens se focalise
sur Achille. Considere
comme
le
vient la victime expiatoire. Veritable
responsable des malheurs de Troie, Achille de-
bouc
emissaire, sur lui
retombent tous
les torts
des Grecs."
'
la
"Tandis que
le sort
du combat
hesite et reste incertain,
descendance d'Assaracus? Telles sont
les lois nuptiales?
Tel
il
s'ecrie: 'Telle est la
est le
loyaute de
repos procure par une fausse
paix? '°
"Le
fils
I'illustre Ilion,
" Voir R.
de Pelee
et
d'une deesse, dont
baigne de son sang, frappe par Girard, La violence
la
grandeur depuis longtemps
le fer, le
et le sacre (Paris,
temple d'Apollon."
1972).
suscitait la crainte
de
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER Le ficiel
sacrilege le plus horrible est I'assassinat d'ltys par sa
perverti dans Progne. Gregorio Correr accentue, en
de I'enfant puisque
Itys
non seulement
corps sert a I'accomplissement d'un le role
de
Medee
Teree. Le pere devient
le
tombeau de son
sacri-
faute,
mort
le
mais qu'en plus son
Reprenant simultanement
rite sacrificiel perverti. fils
banquet
sacrilege de la
mere, puis eflfet, le
commis aucune
n'a
Procne tue son
et d'Atree,
149
avant de servir son corps en repas a
fils:
Impiae matris
Victima caesus dirique premis Viscera patris.*- {Progne,
On oii
retrouve I'emploi de il
v.
953—955)
emprunte
caesus,
ici a
passage des Troyennes de Seneque
un
designe Priam:
Magnoque
loui uictima caesus
Sigea premis litora truncus.'^ (Seneque, Les Troyennes,
L'eflfort
accentue
d'intitatio
Priam
sacrilege puisque
le
temple. Procne assassine son
comme une
fils
v.
140—141)
avait ete assassine dans
un
bete sauvage devore sa proie:
Sic fata, Furiis concita, infantem trahit
quem
de more
uituli,
Hyrcana
rigris.'" (v.
aspra lactentem rapit
899-901)
Les circonstances dans lesquelles I'enfant
mis a mort s'ecartent pourtant du
est
dionysiaque dont nous avons deja parle. L'enfant lacere (sparagmos) n'est pas
rituel
devore cru par
les
Bacchantes. L'omophagje,'^ qui marque
remplacee par
est ici
chaudron pour fidelement
le
la
perversion du rituel du sacrifice:
faire cuire
non un
modele ovidien de
animal, mais
la
un
etre
la
le
regression a I'animalite,
recours a la broche et au
humain. Gregorio Correr
suit
preparation du festin de Teree (Metamorphoses 6),
tout en I'enrichissant de nombreuses expressions empruntees au Thyeste de Seneque (v.
760—779).
alors
'^
que
Une
partie des
"Ta mere, impie,
t'a
pere." La formule Tt4mulus '^
membres de
I'enfant
bout dans un chaudron en bronze
I'autre partie est rotie sur des broches:
immole comme une victime est nati
pater apparait
"Immole comme une victime
offerte au
et tu accables les visceres
de ton funeste
au vers 1010.
grand Jupiter, tu reposes sur
qui n'es plus qu'un tronc." L'influence de Virgile {Eneide, 2.557-558)
est
le
rivage de Sigee, toi
vraisemblable;
la
descrip-
du corps mutile de Pompee a egalement pu servir de modele {Guerre Civile, 1 .685 L'atmosphere pathetique du poeme de Lucain est une source importante de toutes les
tion par Lucain et 8.698).
tragedies neo-latines. '*
"A
qu'une '^
ces mots, excitee par les Furies, elle tire a part I'enfant
tigresse
d'Hyrcanie arrache avec cruaute alors
Voir M. Detienne
Dupont, Ixs
et J. -P.
Vemant, La
monstres de Setieque (Paris, 1995).
qu'il tete
cuisine
du
comme
s'il
s'agissait
d'un veau
encore."
sacrifice
en pays grec (Paris, 1979); F.
LA VICTIME TRAGIQUE
150
Pars haec aheno uoluitur, aestu laticem
miscente, at
Fumus
uerubus^^ affixa ingemit.
ilia
penates obsidet totos niger.
Disponit ipsa lancibus diras dapes, parenti. (v. 937-941)'^
gnatum
Le corps partage en deux
{haec
dans un chaudron d'airain, noire envahissant
ment
a
dont
Agave
la prise
d'un II
un
membres qui
les
(Euripide, Les Bacchantes)
Medee
et
les
s'agitent dans I'eau
morceaux du
contenue
fumee
corps, la
est
ou
douloureuse,
Atree sont
a Heracles {Hercule Furieux le sacrificateur
de Seneque)
criminel exulte a
vue
la
modeles de cette mise en scene tragique
ici les
recit ovidien.
arrive
que
celebration d'un sacrifice avec victimes animales annonce la
la
Quand
prochaine d'un heros. a
ilia),
.
.
Penates sont autant de motifs empruntes a Seneque. Contraire-
les
de conscience
de son crime.
.
gemissement emis par
le
sacrifice, des
Hiempsal, dans
prodiges effrayants epouvantent
Ruptisque
uinclis taurus
Ceruice ferro
Cruore
excepto fugax
ipse prodiens
mano
fait
la
regner
face contre terre, tandis
terreur dans
Antoine de Padoue, I'univers.
lapsus gemit.^*
et le sang verse prefigurent la scene sol,
victime tragique plonge la
Padoue
lui rappelle qu'il
Dans chaque
le
A
que
le
et Fra
ou
les
jeune
(v.
583—590)
compagnons d'Hiempsal roi est decapite.
Ezzelino da
Ro-
Luca Belludi, compagnon de
saint
monde
dans
le chaos.
ne peut longtemps bouleverser
les lois
tragedie, les messagers sont frappes de terreur. Paralyses,
peuvent dans un premier temps s'exprimer tant leur pensee.
domo
limiti
Faciem in suam pronus propere
sont immoles sur le
les esprits:
sparsos regios iuuenes suo.
Quin etiam Hiensal
La chute d'Hiempsal
mort
Leonardo Dati, procede
ex ara petens
cessit
PoUice sub iUiso moleste
La mort de
tragedie de
la
le spectacle
du crime
sacrilege
ils
de
ne
obsede
I'imitation des pieces de Seneque, les tragedies neo-latines centrent
leur intrigue sur la violence des passions et la monstruosite des
penonnages rendus
furieux.
'*
La forme uenibus employee par Gregorio Correr
manuscrit de Seneque appartenant a
la
famille
A
alors
est
que
peut-etre I'indice de I'utilisation d'un
le
manuscrit Etruscus presente
la
forme
ueribus. '^
gemit.
"Une partie est remuee dans un chaudron ou I'eau bout; I'autre partie, fixee a des broches, Une fumee noire investit totalement la demeure. Elle-meme dispose sur des plats le funeste
festin, le fils offert a '*
"Alors que
se dirigea vers les
sortant
de chez
son pere."
le fer etait
jeunes
lui, se blessa
premiere, et gemit."
suspendu
rois
en
les
a
son cou, un taureau brisa
ses chaines, s'enfuit
de
I'autel et
aspergeant de son sang. Bien plus Hiempsal lui-meme, en
grievement
le
pied en chemin, tomba en avant lourdement,
la tete la
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER Dans
quatre tragedies neo-latines evoquees, le heros fiirieux est toujours le per-
les
sonnage principal
repose sur
et la tragedie
la
mise en scene du ressentiment exacerbe
qui se transforme en folie furieuse. La place accordee a secondaire: le spectacle tragique of&e
ne
sert
que de
qu'a travers
un
chceurs de
la
victime
tragedie dans VEcerinis. Si Achille hesite a epouser
la
aucun moment la piece une analyse profonde du cceur du heros dans V Achilles d'Antonio Loschi. Le
meme
mere dans reur.
la
du heros. Les Padouans ne s'expriment
qu'il craint la reaction des autres chefs grecs, a
choeur assume cette fonction en se contentant de rappeler
regne
victime est ainsi toujours
dechainement de violence que
tel
faire-valoir a la monstruosite
les
Polyxene parce n'oflfre
151
tragedie de Gregorio Correr tandis
la
Hiempsal
faut attendre le
II
tacle plus intime
sivement
vengeance de
que Procne elle-meme
et Jugurtha sont aveugles par leurs ressentiments
nardo Dati. La souffrance des victimes pression.
puissance de I'amour qui
la
sur les dieux. Itys est reduit au role d'instrument de la
a
est,
chaque
fois,
sa
que fu-
dans Hiensal de Leo-
reduite a sa plus simple ex-
XVP siecle pour que les tragedies latines
oflSrent
un spec-
en permettant aux victimes d'exprimer leur souffrance. Progres-
tragique ne nait plus seulement de I'exacerbation d'un
le
n'est
moi
meurtrier,
mais de I'interiorisation d'une souffirance inouie.
Nous prendrons I'exemple que
le
nom du
qu'au vers 433 alors que sa reviennent dans toute
de G. Buchanan. '^ Alors
le plus significatif: Jephthes
heros guerrier a donne a fille,
la
piece son
84
Iphis, parle des le vers
L'horreur provient,
la piece.
il
Jephte n'entre en scene
titre,
et
que pres de 130 vers
est vrai,
de
la
lui
decision inexora-
ble et cruelle de son pere, mais la beaute tragique de la piece revient integralement
de
a Iphis qui, heritiere
la
I'insistance sur I'heroisme
de
la
grandeur d'Iphigenie ou de Polyxene, offre
de
la
jeune
fille, la
monstruosite d'un pere aveugle. Dans
que nous avons evoquees, jamais
la
sa vie.
Sans
piece n'aurait ete que le developpement
les
quatre premieres tragedies neo-latines
victime n'etait a ce point au coeur de
la tragedie.
Les poetes tragiques du Trecento et du Quattrocento auraient pourtant pu puiser leur inspiration dans certaines tragedies de
principal (Les Troyennes par exemple).
pour eux
I'interiorisation
Seneque ou
les
victimes jouaient le role
La nouveaute du theatre de Seneque
d'une souffrance assumee, mais
le spectacle
formation d'un heros en monstre. G. Buchanan offre une inversion de tragique par rapport aux premieres tragedies neo-latines. La douleur de a
mort
Correr
est
au centre de
etait
toujours
la
piece alors que I'heroisme jusqu'a
un heroisme
assassin et
la
la
la trans-
perspective
condamnee
piece de Gregorio
monstrueux. Le heros
naire qui rejoignait dans l'horreur les grands maudits de la rehgion gie.
la
n'etait pas
de
etait
ou de
un la
tortion-
mytholo-
Dans
la fille.
cette
la piece de G. Buchanan, le heros tragique n'est peut-etre pas le pere, mais Le heros retrouve sa grandeur magnanime. Dans le theatre de langue firan^aise,
meme
femme
voie est exploree. La premiere tragedie de
illustre, la fille
Gamier
s'intitule Porcie,
" George Buchanan Jep/if/ies
.
.
.
,
ed. P. Sharrat et P.
H. Walsh (Edinburgh, 1983). Voir Ph.
Ford, "George Buchanan," dans Centuriae Latinae: Cent une figures humanistes de Lumieres
^
qffertes
a Jacques Chomarat, ed.
Voir R. Gamier,
une
de Caton.^°
C. Native! (Geneve, 1997), 213-220.
Porcie, ed. J.-Cl.
Temaux
(Paris, 1999).
la
Retiaissame aux
.
LA VICTIME TRAGIQUE
152
Les raisons d'un
tel
changement de perspective sont
Chretien a certainement ofFert a G.
multiples. Le martyrologe Buchanan un modele d'heroisme. Le Peristephanon
de Prudence a servi de modele durant tout
Moyen Age
le
a la poesie hagiographique.
Les premieres traductions des tragedies grecques permettaient egalement d'enrichirla personnalite du heros tragique, victime d'une faute (hamartia) dont
Le modele d'Hecube
ble.
qu'Erasme
et d'Iphigenie
propose des 1506 une traduction latine de ces deux pieces. La pre-
avait
miere traduction en fran^ais d'Hecube^^ date de 1544
nan
a ete
compose
vers
1540 avant
d'etre public
Buchanan
pas le Traite du sublime, G.
alors
que Jephthes de G. Bucha-
en 1554.
Meme
ne connaissait
s'il
rejoint I'ideal de grandeur decrit dans cet
ouvrage grace a I'influence conjointe des modeles tragiques grecs grandeur spiritueUe de I'heroine tragique consiste precisement dans
et latins.
les
II
est significatif
subhme
Trecento
a la tragedie des perspectives qui n'avaient pas ete explorees au
de
I'alliance
sobriete de I'acceptation et I'intensite de I'amour eprouve. L'elevation
Quattrocento.
coupa-
n'est pas
il
Aulis d'Euripide est d'autant plus determinant
<J
La la
ofFre
et
au
de remarquer que Polyxene ne s'exprime jamais dans
Troyennes de Seneque alors qu'Iphis, dans la piece de G. Buchanan, depasse tout
sentiment de revoke pour finalement plaindre son pere: "Aeque atque nos aut amplius etiam miser" peuple.
Ce
(v. 1262),-'^ et
prier
Dieu pour
le salut
de
de son
ses parents et
sublime d'acceptation consiste dans l'elevation spirituelle de I'heroine, qui
parvient a la gloire et a I'immortalite par le renoncement et le sacrifice volontaire de sa vie.^^
La victime
du monde
sacrifice assure I'equilibre
bouleversait les lois humaines et divines. Alors que servait auparavant qu'a accentuer la cruaute
permet de mettre un terme
n'est pas
II
en
voeu de Jephte
le
realisant le
le sacrifice d'Iphis
voeu de son pere.
du sublime considere
la definition
d'une grande ame" {Traite du sublime,
que
soufFrance des victimes ne
de leurs bourreaux,
a la crise tragique
L'heroisme d'Iphis correspond a
tandis
la
comme
"I'echo
9.2).
etonnant de retrouver cette heroisation de
la
victime dans une tragedie
neo-latine contemporaine de Jephthes: lulius Caesar de Marc-Antoine de Muret^"*
(composee I'assassinat
sans
doute vers 1545
de Jules Cesar
est,
clame d'etre assassinee par
Secunda
les
et
eUe
publiee dans
aussi, decrite
memes
les luuenilia
comme un
en 1552). La scene de
sacrifice et
Calpurnie re-
bourreaux:
uestras hostia exspecto
manus.
Cupide madentem coniugali sanguine, lugulo mucronem, aut pectore excipiam meo.
Nondum
^'
litasti.
Brute, perficito sacrum,
Voir B. Gamier, Pour une poetique de
humaniste a
la tragedie classique (Paris,
^^
"Tu
^^
Voir A. Michel, "Rhetorique
Revue
es aussi
1
L'Hecube d'Euripide en France de
la
traduction
999)
malheureux que nous,
des Etudes Latines
la traduction:
487-490)^^
(v.
et
et
meme
poetique:
la
plus encore."
theorie
du sublime de Platon aux modemes,"
54 (1976): 278-279.
-*
Marc-Antoine de Muret,
^^
"Et docile victime, / j'en appelle a vos coups. Car j'ai soif et j'ai faim / d'accueillir
dans
ma
gorge ou
mon
lulius Caesar, ed. P.
sein / le poignard ruisselant
Blanchard (Thonon-les-Bains, 1995).
du sang de
mon
epoux. /
Tu
et
meler
n'as pas bien
JEAN-FREDERIC CHEVALIER
153
Et Cesar apparait pour reveler son apotheose dans une scene imitee de I'epilogue d'Hercule sur I'CEta de Seneque:
La renaissance de
la
"Ego ad
alta caeli tecta stellantis feror" (v.
tragedie au debut
du Trecento
manuscrits des Tragedies de Seneque, mais
les
conjuguer I'influence simultanee de I'epopee gique
etait
empruntee
VEneide decrivant
Boece.
On
Seneque, mais
\c furor insuffle
Metamorphoses retra^ant a
a
le furor
retrouve dans
les
est
due
a la
545)?*
decouverte des
poetes humanistes ont toujours su
et
Leur esthetique tra(notamment le livre 7 de Ovide (par exemple le livre 4 des
de
la tragedie.
aussi a Virgile
par Allecto), a
d'Ino et d'Athamas), a Lucain, a Stace, a Claudien, et
premieres tragedies neo-latines
le
surgissement d'un
furor qui s'achame sur des victimes expiatoires, mais I'importance accordee a la victime
ne
de
traduction en
latin, puis
en langue vemaculaire,
des tragedies grecques. Iphigenie et Hecube d'Euripide ont sans
aucun doute marque un
sera grandissante qu'a partir
toumant dans la Poetique
I'histoire
de
la
la
tragedie a la Renaissance, histoire
d'Aristote continuera d'enrichir des la fin
du XVI*
que
la
connaissance de
siecle.
Universite de
encore immole ^^
"Me
ta
voici
Reims
victime, / Brutus, accomplis jusqu'au bout ton sacrifice." Trad. P. Blanchard.
emporte ven
les
hautes demeures / du ciel etincelant." Trad. P. Blanchard.
Philology and Autobiography in
Animadversionum
Isaac Casauhon,
Deipnosophistas
XV
libri
in Athenaei
(1600)
JOHN CONSIDINE
The
citizens
much Uked
of ancient Athens very
variety of edible species of fish,
them. Their desire to eat
fish
and
a
eating
was sometimes pursued
could become something of a mania.
fish.
They knew
wide variety of recipes
The Athenian
at
wide
a
cooking
for
the expense of health;
culture offish-eating
is
it
described
in his Deipnosophistae, a very long dialogue on which was written in the first century A.D., and of which the abridged version which has come down to the present day takes up seven volumes in the Loeb edition. Athenaeus is no longer much in demand by the non-
most
fully
by Athenaeus of Naucratis,
the pleasures of the table,
specialist reader
though the
—
there
is,
for instance,
of
attractiveness
his material
—
alno paperback translation into English is suggested by the recent success of James
Davidson's book Courtesans and Fishcakes, which trawls,
as it
were, in Athenaean
waters.'
The
subject of this paper
He
Casaubon (1559—1614). companied by
a reprint
is
an
of Athenaeus, the philologist
earlier reader
of the Latin translation ofJacques Dalechamps.
The
title
of this edition announced that the editor's notes formed a part of it; however, only in 1600 that Casaubon's Animadversionum appeared.^
'
It
may
at first
Isaac
published an edition of the Deipnosophistae in 1597, ac-
glance
James Davidson, Courtesans and
seem
in
Athenaei Deipnosophistas
surprising that
Fishcakes:
Casaubon of
all
page
was
it
XV
libri
people should
The Cotisuming Passions of Classical Athens (London,
1997). ^
Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistarum
libri
XV.
membranis suppleuit, auxitque. Adiecti sunt eiusdem Casauboni
XF (Heidelberg:
in
eundem
scriptorem
animaduersionum
apud Hieronymum Commelinum [printed Geneva: Paul Estienne], 1597);
Casaubon, Animadversionum 1600).
Isaacus Casaubonis recetisuit, et ex antiquis
in
Athenaei Deipnosophistas
libri
XV (Lyon:
libri
Isaac
apud Antonium de Hany,
PHILOLOGY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
156
have animadverted upon Athenaeus's
folio.
After
text,
— the Animadversiones run
great length
the image of Casaubon
all,
the history of scholarship has
little
or
IN
at least that
ography of 1875.^ There, Casaubon appears
and kept there by
a wife
at
which haunts the imaginations of students of
of the Deipnosophistae. That image comes chiefly from
erty
he should have done so
648 pages plus indexes, closely printed, in
to
common with the
in
CASAUBON
as a
who, with female
happy, fish-loving Athenians
Mark
Pattison's splendid bi-
pov-
rather tragic figure, born into
inconsiderateness, never
seemed
to
stop producing children; groaning under an excessively heavy teaching load; often isolated
from other
longing to turn
scholars; loathing the
of the bladder which could be ascribed to
whom
pagan authors on
his attention to holier writings;
dying
he worked and of a deformity
at last as a result
even
his reluctance to interrupt his studies
him
to urinate, so that the poet Peter Levi has, with poetic licence, called
to the lack of sanitary arrangements in the Bodleian Library.'"*
He
is
"a martyr
also called a
John Sandys, and Rudolf Pfeiffer, an admirer Casaubon as "always in a state of despondency."^
martyr, a "martyr of learning," by Sir
of Pattison's biography, describes
Why,
it is
reasonable to ask, did Pattison's lonely and thwarted Casaubon, Sandys's
martyred Casaubon,
Pfeiffer's
the Deipnosophistae, a big
Some
despondent Casaubon, spend so
book about
much
time working on
the pagan pleasures of the flesh?
answers to that question can be found in the Animadversiones
itself
These
answers not only illuminate Casaubon's interest in one work, but permit a general reassessment of his character and his relationship with his scholarship. This
from the is
specific to the general can
so representative of Casaubon's output. So, for instance,
what Ulrich von Wilamo-
witz said of the whole oeuvre applies perfectly to Casaubon's siones:
who
work on
the Animadver-
expositor, pre-eminently of subject-matter, he specialized in
"By nature an
authors
move
be made because the commentary on Athenaeus
required the widest learning for their elucidation, and whatever author
he tackled the
result
"The
is
learning
aim, working
ancient world
was decisive." So does the point he made
directly afterwards:
own
sake."^ Casaubon's
marvellous, but
it is
not displayed for
on Athenaeus or any other as fully
and carefully
as
text,
was
its
to reconstruct the cultures
he could from the textual sources.
of the
And
that,
indeed, suggests what Athenaeus oflfered him: a mine of cultural information. Eras-
mus's annotations in the margins of
his
copy of Athenaeus show
1559-1614 (Oxford, 1875;
that to him, the
3
Mark
"•
Peter Levi, Eden Renewed: The Public and Private Life ofJohn Milton (London, 1996), 96, just
Pattison, Isaac Casaubon
after a reference to Pattison's 5
John Edwin Sandys,
A
History of Classical Scholarship (Cambridge, 1908), 2:208;
1300-1850 (Oxford,
"a detailed, well-documented, sympathetic
*
Oxford, 1892).
biography.
Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship
scholar" (120 n.
rev. ed.
modem
1976), 121, praising Pattison's
biography such
as
Rudolf work as
hardly exists of any classical
1).
Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, History of Classical Scholarship, trans. Alan Harris (Lon-
don, 1982), 54.
JOHN CONSIDINE
157
Deipnosophistae was a source of proverbs, of historical anecdotes, or interesting lexical
To
items.'
Casaubon,
was something quite
it
different.
This passage, for instance, occurs very early in the Animadversiones:
A most amusing story Gourmand, who, without pain to
by Athenaeus from Clearchus, about Pithyllus the
told
is
in order that he
his tongue,
membrane, but went further than over
might devour
not only wrapped that,
it
his
[his
and put
food
as
hot
as
possible
tongue] up in a protective
a casing or piece
of armour
it.*
The discussion which follows deals with the philological evidence for the precise means by which the greedy Pithyllus did protect his tongue. Athenaeus, Casaubon observes, uses two words to describe those means. The first, the noun periglottis, must mean
"a covering for the tongue," but the second, the verb proselutroun,
hapax legomenon, another, and
its
is
more
second element
be understood to mean,
his
is
a
must elsewhere
certainly the rare verb elutroo. This
is
which
element indicates an action which adds to
Casaubon summarizes
as is done Could Pithyllus have varnished tongue? In Greek, Casaubon continues, the proper word for glazing or varnishing
with earthenware
is
tricky. Its first
as
vases: the
— and
call this uemisser."
this leads
describes the
question in
which
"cover with a coating,
him to a passage in St. John Chrysostom, King of Persia as decorating his beard with petala of gold.^ The Casaubon's mind at present is clearly still the thickness of the protection
a derivative of petalon
which
French
it,
Pithyllus wore:
King of Persia, he
how thick we are
argues,
a covering
is
impUed by
petalon? In the case
of the
surely to imagine an application of gold leaf to his
beard rather than a rigid golden casing. Elsewhere, in an early Graeco-Latin glossary, a derivative of petalon a discussion
by
translated
is
stantio, "I line
or cover with tin." This leads to
of the history of the practice of tinning copper
vessels, especially to
pro-
vide safely inert containers for medical use, which takes in Eustathius of Thessalonica's
commentary on Homer; then
Pliny's natural history; then Dioscorides; then the
Problemata of Alexander of Aphrodisias; and finally the Byzantine anthology of agricultural writings called the Geoponica, before referring to a similar expression in
Hebrew. After
this great
sweep of lexical erudition, Casaubon returns for
to the present day, remarking that there
Erasmus's copy of the 1514 Aldine Library, Oxford, pressmark Auct.
I.
is
no longer any need
editio pritueps
R. inf
of Athenaeus
is
to
make
now
a
moment
vessels
of
in the Bodleian
1.1.
* Casaubon, Animadversiones, 12: "Lepidissima historia est quam refert ex Clearcho Athenaeus, de Pithyllo Ligurritore: qui vt cibos quam feruentissimos posset vorare sine offensione linguae, non
solum membraneo tegmine eam inuoluebat: sed hoc amplius, crustam illi ceu loricam indue ebat." ' Casaubon, Animadversiones, 12, quoting Chrysostom and commenting, "Videtur Persarum rex
non
veris laminis barbae pilos inuoluisse:
conciliasse."
verum
bracteae aureae
illitu
aureum colorem barbae
PHILOLOGY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
158
CASAUBON
IN
tinned copper, since porcelain can be used instead.'" His conclusion, that Pithyllus did indeed protect his tongue with a hard casing,
almost overwhelmed by the vig-
is
our and scope of his argument.
There
is
much
is
the lexi-
field,
working
to be said about this discussion; particularly striking
cographical sophistication with which Casaubon maps his semantic
towards a unified comparative study of the different Greek words for kinds of thin
But the autobiographical elements, both
casing or covering.
more
the passage are even
most of these
is
fascinating than
Casaubon's pleasure in
thyllus in moralizing terms, calling
Casaubon does not moralize:
his greed.
pidissima. It
that
his material.
him
is
he
rather,
demonstration that he has no
commentary
the
implicit,
of
Athenaeus himself speaks of Pi-
calls
on account of
the story "most amusing,"
he liked the story of Pithyllus's revolting greed for
A second respect in which
and
"thrice wretched,"
trisathlios,
read Casaubon's lepidissima here
difficult to
explicit
philological elegance. Perhaps the fore-
its
its
le-
anything but a statement
as
own
sake."
illuminates Casaubon's character
is its
Athenaeus's report of the immoral be-
difficulty reading
havior of a pagan side by side with the words of St. John Chrysostom, "sanctissimus pater"
as
the latter
is.
What
can be seen in the Animadversiones
is
a readiness to use
Christian and pagan authors together, an understanding that both can be read
as part
of the same philology. The legacy of Casaubon's work on Athenaeus can be seen in the eleven references to the Deipnosophistae in his
last
book,
olic
world-history of Cardinal Barono. Athenaeus gives
tary
on
St.
all
the possible senses of the
John the
Baptist ate (was
response to the Cath-
material for a
epiphania, for a discussion
commen-
of what exactly
an account of a spring which supCana by flowing spontaneously with wine, for a his-
really locusts?), for
it
posedly emulated the miracle
word
his
him
at
tory of the practice of saying a prayer before eating, and
much
more.'^ Casaubon's
philology merges seamlessly into his Protestantism: animadverting on Athenaeus
could be a holy activity
Casaubon into
leads
although oblique,
as
well
a reflection
is
as
an amusing one. At one point, indeed, Athenaeus
on the
Gregory of Nazianzen, he quotes from
whom
grace
is
people
"who
readily
'° sit
politics
of contemporary Protestantism which,
courageous: citing uses of the Greek -word psephos, "a vote," in
a matter
change their
sermon
in
which Gregory
refers to those for
fictilia
artificio
this
may mean
For such, in those days, was the
faith itself
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 13: "quo
martiae coctae oblitu,
a
of the reversal of votes, and explains that
hodie non
est
opus:
state
cum incrustatione
porcellanas aemulentur, quibus nullum arguroma,
si
of
ea quae
sapiam prae-
tulerim."
"
It is
in fact the
to this discussion. texts
lepidissima
my
sense
with some moral dimension,
tractive." After '^
in
word
Although
Isaac
Annales,
all,
is
that lepidus
do not think
the connotative range of the
Casaubon, et
I
which opens the chapter of the Animadversiones given over
De
is
that
quite often applied in humanistic Latin to it
ever comes simply to
word can
hardly exclude
rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes
primam eorum partem, de Domini Nostri
XVI ad
its
mean "morally
Catullan
at-
locus classicus.
Cardinalis Baronii Prolegomena
lesu Christi natiuitate, vita, passione, assumtione
(London: ex ofFicina Nortoniana apud loan. Billium, 1614), 186, 247, 278, 590-591.
JOHN CONSIDINE
159
Church of God. "'^ Bearing in mind the pressure put on Casaubon to become at just the time at which he was writing, and the notoriously opportunistic
the
CathoHc
a
recent conversion of Henri IV, "in those days"
A
third point
The
him.
is
that
Casaubon was
discussion of glazed earthenware
ern French
word
but there
much more
is
vemisser, the discussion
of this
evidently pointed.
is
by the
fascinated
daily lives
summarized above
of people around
leads
him
to the
mod-
of tinning to the advantages of porcelain;
sort besides.
For instance, he remarks
that the practice
of adding wine to water (rather than water to wine) to avoid the making of too strong a mixture, reported by Athenaeus, continues in Languedoc.^'*
He emends
statement that wine encourages philosophia to say that
philia,
dry observation that wine does not
of similar examples philological works.
The
make men more
it
encourages
disposed to study. '^
was compiled by Mark Pattison from It
concludes
long
list
as follows:
of the Swiss peasantry; the Spanish almonds he had seen
Lyon; the
at
practice of fixing the antlers of the deer over the gates of the chateau are a
A
number of Casaubon's
a
use of dogs to carry despatches through the enemy's lines; the checked
plaids
*
the
with the
few among many examples, which might be culled from
notes, of his general
remark
that everyday life
is
—
these
his various
constantly reproducing
its
old
incident.'^
What can be is
seen, then, in the Animadversiones
a careful attention to
and other commentaries of Casaubon's
contemporary material culture, and
a readiness to apply
it
in
"How," it has been asked, "can we profess an interest in the hisof peasants when we hate our students?"^^ That readiness to scorn, when it ocin the present, what is loved when it occun in the past is a problem, but it was
philological work.
tory curs
not Casaubon's. This interest in the
lives
of ordinary people
is
matched by the record
in the
Animadversiones of Casaubon's place in an extensive network of friends and fellowscholars.
abound
References to the work, and especially to the friendly cooperation, of others in his text,
had had occasion to
'^
his notes, Casaubon document which pur-
and one in particular stands out. In one of edit the so-called
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 635: "de
pro haeretico haberent: aut qui
facile ipsi
Decree of Timotheus,
lis
qui temere
a
eundem modo pro orthodoxo, modo
fidem mutarent. Ea namque
fuit Ecclesiae
Dei
illis
tem-
poribus conditio." '*
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 495: "Durat hie mos hodieque
a poculis '^
aquam
in
in
Narbonensi
Gallia: vbi pueri
scypho ofFerunt, deinde vinum ex oenophoro aut lagena infundunt."
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 207: "Absurdum dictu
est,
vini
potu
fieri
homines ad
studia phi-
losophi[a]e promotes." '^
Pattison, Isaac Casaubon, 446; cf the materials for this passage in Bodleian Library
MS
Pat-
tison 79. fols. 47v-48r. '^
lar
I
remember
this as
130-149.
Bums, in a conversation arising fi-om the simi"The Dilemma of Popular History," Past and Present 132 (1991):
the formulation of Arthur
questions of Gerald Strauss,
PHILOLOGY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
160
ports to be the official order for the expulsion
he had invented
after
more
subtle
and
less
CASAUBON
from Sparta of Timotheus of Miletus
which, being provided with extra
a lyre
strings,
chaste music than the Spartans liked. If it were, as
contemporaries mistakenly supposed
his
IN
it
to be, authentic,
cient witness to the Laconian dialect of Greek.
It
it
could play
Casaubon and
would be
a very an-
had been transmitted in highly cor-
more familiar with Latin than Greek, in Boethius's on music, and had caused great difficulty to other early modem scholars.'" Casaubon had reason to be pleased with his emendations to it. While he was in Paris early in 1600, making some final notes to be published as addenda to the Animadverrupt form, copied by scribes treatise
he had a surprise. A parcel arrived from Joseph Scaliger in Leiden, containing copy of Scaliger's third edition of the Astronomicon of Manilius one of the notes to which included a beautifully emended text of the Decree of Timotheus.'^ Hav-
siones,
—
a
ing his laborious and original
work so narrowly anticipated by another scholar's publimoved Casaubon to irritation, or at least have cast
cation might understandably have
him
into dignified silence. Instead, he wrote as follows in the addenda:
After
my
material
had been
set
up
on the decree of Timotheus had been
in type
Manilius was sent to Scaliger.
I
looked
at
by the
me by
printer, the
new
written, and after
it
edition of the Astronomicon of
the kindness of its editor, the incomparable Joseph
once and eagerly through
this
splendid work, and found
and accurate scholar had published an emended
that this exceptionally learned
which I had set out more than a little to find that the two of us, setting out at the same time on this byway for different reasons, he at Lugdunum Batavorum and I at Lugdunum Convenarum, should have made very text of this decree or proclamation of the Lacedemonians, to edit, with a
much
commentary.
I
rejoiced
the same judgments, and should have written very
What matters
to
Casaubon here
is
a sense
much
the same.^**
of shared enterprise, and Scaliger's anticipa-
tion of his publication only reinforces that sense.
'**
De
See comments on the manuscripts, and collation, in Boethius,
institutione musica, ed.
De
institutione arithmetica [et]
G. Friedlein (Leipzig, 1867), 175-176 and 182-184, and Glareanus's mar-
ginal collation in Boethius, Opera (Basle: ex officina Henricpetrina, 1570), 1372; for other six-
teenth-century treatments, see Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus, Operum qua; extant omnium tomus secundus (Basle:
per
libri viginti,
Thomam
Guarinum, 1580), 347 and Paulus Leopardus, Emendationum
tomus prior (Antwerp: ex
officina Christophori Plantini, 1568),
et
miscellaneorum
213-216.
'^Joseph Justus Scaliger, Notae, in Manilius, Astronomicon (Leiden: ex officina Plantiniana, apud
Christophorum Raphelengium, Academiae Lugduno-Batauae Typographum, 1600), 425-427. ^^
typis
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 644: "Postquam haec
dudum
a nobis scripta assent, et
expressa, perlata ad nos est Maniliani Astronomici
losepho Scaligero eius auctore muneri missa.
Quod
noua
opus aureum
iam chalcographi
editio, a praestantissimo viro
dum auide
statim percurreremus,
reperimus doctissimum, acuratissimumque virum hoc ipsum Lacedaemoniorum, siue psephisma siue
emendationem eramus hie aggressi, correctum a se publicasse, atque illustrasse. sumus nee mediocriter, eodem tempore ipsum quidem Lugduni Batauorum, nos vero Lugduni Conuenarum, idem, odou parergon occasione diuersa aggressos, idem propemodum sensisse, idem seripsisse."
prosoulemna, cuius
Gauisi
JOHN CONSIDINE This leads to a
is
work which the work which is pre-
the sociable, collaborative scholarly
fifth point:
Animadversiones record
161
matched by
solitary
work
— but
solitary
sented to his readers with great vividness. Flashes of inspiration glitter through the
whole commentary. Casaubon is thinking with his pen in his hand. A solution to a problem "has just now occurred to me for the very first time"; a few pages later, another "now comes into my mind."-' What is evident here is the manner of a great teacher, confident in his
work and
in the participation of his pupils, his readers, in a
shared enterprise of analysis and discovery. Casaubon invites his readers to consider
problems from different angles: "even
if I had not at first remembered which tragedy were taken from," he explains, it would still have been beyond doubt that must be by Euripides.-^ He warns them that the sources are unreliable on a par-
these lines it
ticular point:
"Beware of agreeing with the highly learned men who
identify
Augus-
He invites them to join him in exasperation at the shortcomings of secondary sources: "O human credulity!" he exclaims of those who have accepted an impossible reading in Aristophanes. He tus
himself
as
the originator of this disgraceful practice."-^
whom
remarks on the stupidity of the Byzantine encyclopedist
adding
"why should
the points
where
I
not
call a
analysis breaks
these words," he says at
one
he knows
He
down: "If only
could gloss over the difficulty of
I
even shares
particularly intractable passage,
and
with good-humoured irony, "I have to confess the slowness of
make no
as Suidas,
spade a spade?"^"*
his frustration at
few
a
my
lines later,
intelligence:
All this suggests that the writing of the Animadversiones actually gave great deal of pleasure.
How,
academic wit and panache
—
it
a
might even be asked, did Pattison turn
man whose
wretched greed of Pithyllus, watching
as
Casaubon
this
him laughing over
readers see
on
his
own world
between
and on that of
ancient Athens, enjoying an extensive correspondence, and teaching energetically into the ill-starred is
that
^'
which
Casaubon, Animadversiones,
quod
scholars are
now
are preserved at Canterbury Cathedral,
8:
"Gulielmus Canterus
nunc primulum
venit nobis
in
mentem";
25:
.
.
.
—
acquainted? Part of the
he had been too deeply impressed by Casaubon's fascinating
so-called Ephemerides,
rius
whom
Casaubon with
a
model of
the thrice-
the sparks of interpretation crackle
sacred and profane texts, turning an observant eye
answer
I
sense of this passage. "^^
emendabat,
alia
diaries, the
and had been
pant'apix.
"Sed non dubitamus verum
esse
Puto ve-
quod iam
nobis venit in mentem." ^^
Casaubon, Animadversiones,
Euripidis ^^
tamen
esse
8: "Etsi
non memineram
initio
ex qua tragedia esset hie versus,
non dubitabam."
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 31: "Caue
assentiaris eruditissimis viris
qui infamis huius inuenti
auctorem produnt Augustum ipsum." -*
Casaubon, Animadversiones,
10:
"Fidem hominum!
cea plebiscitorum?"; 14: "Pari stupore, (cur
quis fando audiuit aut legit
enim non dicam ligonem ligonem?)
vsquam
vina-
skolia alibi legjt et
probauit pro askolia." ^*
Casaubon, Animadversiones, 20: "Vtinam
lare"; again,
"Tarditatem ingenij mei necesse
liceret
mihi difficultatem horum verborum dissimu-
est confitear: nihil
enim
hie intelligo."
PHILOLOGY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
162
IN
CASAUBON
published in 1850 in an edition which was reviewed by Pattison.^^
by
a true journal, written day
dent
at
and when Casaubon was feeling
day,
They
tired
constitute
and despon-
the end of the day, he tended to express himself gloomily, and in particular
to question the value of his
We
work.
all
do
that.
But
to say, as PfeifFer does after
reading Pattison, that the Animadversiones "were written with groaning and sighing,
day and night, through more than three years"
to exaggerate,
is
and
to say, as Patti-
son himself does, that to Casaubon "the labour [of writing the Animadversiones] and its
were equally repulsive and disappointing"
result
The
true story
is,
1597, to his devastating
on the day of her
to Athenaeus. Just as
daughter Philippa in
coming
days,
he
to exaggerate quite gravely.^'
beloved daughter Elizabeth died.
grief, his
death; and,
"with
entry, resolved,
is
indeed, vividly apparent elsewhere in Casaubon's diaries. Late in
my
on
that day, at the
soul cast
down by
end of
He
a deeply
the death of my
read the Bible
moving journal
little girl,"
to turn
back
work on Polybius would help him cope with the death of his 1608, so now work on Athenaeus gave him strength; and in the
refers repeatedly to
hard labor on the Animadversiones, and asks
God
him in his labors. ^^ This is not the behavior of a man carrying the burden which Pattison claims the work on Athenaeus was; it is that of one
repeatedly to help repulsive
turning to a
vital
personal resource.
Pattison's unforgettable evocation
happiness,
is
characteristic
—
of Casaubon's gloom, and virtual dismissal of his
for Pattison
was himself a deeply unhappy man.
He was
seeing himself in the mirror of Casaubon; he was, in tremendously powerful and
memorable
prose, putting his
saubon's autobiography
not only in
on the
own
autobiography into
worth the reading
his Ephemerides
Animadversiones their fish
is
and in
his letters,
Deipnosophistae,
as
well
his philological
as Pattison's,
and
work. But Ca-
it is
to
be found
but also in his philological works. In the
among the
convivial Athenians
who
are eating
and drinking their wine and talking so copiously about both, Casaubon
is
to be seen, a cheerful stranger, bright-eyed and observant, trying to understand the
conversation, taking notes at every turn, and, from time to time, unexpectedly, laughing.
University of Alberta
-* Isaac
Casaubon, Ephemerides, ed. John Russell (Oxford, 1850), reviewed by Pattison
Quarterly Review
93 (1853): 462-500.
saubon to George Eliot
" -*
as
It
was
this
she wrote her novel Middlemarch.
Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship
1300-1850, 121; Pattison,
Casaubon, Ephemerides, 37: "jacente animo ex obitu
repetiimus; ac
mane totum
in the
review which suggested the name of Edward Ca-
studiis enkukliois, praesertim
Isaac
Casaubon.
hodie tamen solennia studiorum
Athenaeo impendimus";
Deus, beneficio Athenaei censurae impendimus,
et gratiae
CO die secundum librum recensere absolvimus,"
et seqq.
see Pattison, Isaac Casaubon, 244.
filiolae,
immortales,
cf.
38: "tuo,
mi
O Deus salutis meae, quod
For Polybius and the death of Philippa,
Prefacing
Axiochus:
The Renaissance Plato and
the
res publica litterarum
JUDITH DEITCH
TheAlthough
purpose of this paper
B.C., this short
doctrines,
is
to raise the profile
now known consolatio on how it is
to
of the dialogue entitled Axiochus.
have been composed around the
to die well,
which
first
century
and Epicurean
exhibits Stoic
was quite simply the most popular work by Plato in the Renaissance.
"Popular" means having the widest-ranging appeal, and
this
evident from the
is
bibUographic data. Throughout Europe printers printed and readers bought up suc-
and in collations with
cessive editions of the Latin version of the dialogue, alone
other Platonic
texts.
According to
a tabulation derived
from James Hankins's "Census
of Printed Editions," Axiochus was printed sixty-one times between 1474 and 1600, nearly double the
Amatores dialogues sium.^ It
number of the
nearest Platonic contenders {Charmides, Epistles, and
at thirty-three printings),
we now
and two-and-a-half times
was certainly used
as a
school text; for example, the
Latin edition of 1577 declares the
work
well, in order to fashion the morals
profiting for
'
as
often
consider representative of the essential Plato, such title
some of the
as
as
the Sympo-
page of a Greek-
to contain the "doctrine for living
and dying
of an adult dutifully and honestly, especially
youth in the exercising of both languages."^
James Hankins, Appendix B, "Census of Printed Editions,"
(Leiden, 1990), 738-796.
My tabulation yields
the following
in Plato in the Italian Renaissance
numbers of printings
Timaeus: 31; Phaedo, Hipparchus, Meno, Theages: 28; Republic, Alcibiades
1
for the period:
and 2: 27;
phro, Apology, Theaetetus: 26; Symposium, Sophist, Minos, Laws, Epinomis: 25; the
Crito,
Euthy-
Complete Works,
often including the spuria: 24. ^
"Doctrina recte vivendi ac moriendi ad mores pie ac honeste conformandos etiam
adultis,
ad linguae utriusque exercitia iuuenibus potissimum conducens." (Hankins, "Census," #122.) All translations are
mine
unless otherwise stated.
A
1543 edition, published
Topica (Hankins, "Census," #57), refers to the zealous student
as a
pendant to
Aristotle's
comparing both languages. Padel-
ford reports seeing a copy which "shows the Greek heavily larded with cribs and one of the mar-
PREFACING AXIOCHUS
164
Besides schoolboys and layfolk interested in this hvief praeparatio ad mortem, a steady
stream of Renaissance humanist scholars enjoyed popular success by translating Latin. This started in the fifteenth century
and Antonio Cassarino, whose
coming out
the text started
monograph on
is
through
works.
this
And
Not only
readily dismissed
by scholars
nothing
as
it
much
their enthusiasm
This statement has found
is
1915
apocryphal dialogue that the humanists discovered Plato:
eighty-five years.
there
his
left
and commented on the Axiochus with pas-
read, translated,
they studied and admired tic
As Jacques Chevalier remarked in
the work:
The Renaissance sion. It
into
were already widely disseminated when
translations
in print.-'
it
with Cencio de'Rustici, Rinuccio Aretino,
is
little
as,
was
and more often than, the great authen-
sincere.'*
resonance in Renaissance studies over the past
current awareness of the dialogue low, but
—
as if
once
has
it
been
said that
it is
it is
often
not authentic
to say, except perhaps to smile at the Hellenistic doctrines issuing
from the mouth of Socrates. The question most frequently asked by modern
scholars,
know it wasn't by Plato?," reveals more about our notions of authorship than about how Plato was perceived in the Renaissance. (My answer to that question is that they "knew" it was!) It is thus fascinating and revealing to ponder how and why this particular dialogue came to represent "the Renaissance Plato." Of all Renaissance readers, two of the highest-ranking humanists of the age "Didn't they
showed
great interest in this pseudo-Platonic work, approaching
and respect for
its
Latin but also published
work
listed the
with forethought
it
with other serious works. Although Ficino attributed the
Xenocrates (on evidence construed from Diogenes Laertius,
to Plato's disciple
who
it
content. Ficino and Agricola not only translated the Axiochus into
dialogue
among
the spuria),
it is
important to note that he
still
in-
corporated the Axiochus within the legitimate canon of the Platonic Academy: he did
not see
it as
gins
.
.
.
a forgery or
clumsy imitation.
It
was printed during Ficino's lifetime in
volume of Neoplatonic works headed by lamblichus, and
the 1497
in a
1498 edition
decorated with that type of aimless drawing which a tired schoolboy employs to relieve
the ennui of a weary task": Frederick Padelford, "Introduction," in The Axiochus of Plato Translated
by
Edmund
Spenser (Baltimore, 1934), 17.
See Hankins,
^
century and
is
Plato,
95-97. Cencio de'Rustici's translation was printed in the sixteenth
extant in thirty-eight
MSS;
sixteenth-century vernacular translations were executed
by Etienne Dolet and Philippe de Mornay
in French,
Vincentio Belprato in
Italian,
and
Edmund
Spenser in English. *
"La Renaissance
apocryphe que plus,
que
Etudes
les
lut, traduisit et
commenta VAxiochos avec
humanistes decouvrirent Platon:
ils
passion. C'est a travers ce dialogue
I'etudient et Tadmirent autant, et souvent
grandes oeuvres authentiques. Et leur enthousiasme fut sincere": Jacques Chevalier,
critiques
1915), 117.
les
du dialogue pseudo-platonicien I'Axiochos sur
la
mort
et
sur I'immortalite de I'ame (Paris,
JUDITH DEITCH with Athenagoras's peared with
But
it is
his
De
De
as
of 1511 edited by Peter first
dam.'
Many
with collections of his
Gilles,
poems, and
produced
a school text
at
— had
the Axiochus was that
it
Basil,
Platonic dialogue was
Not
cob Canter's
new humanist
bound with
context,
it
new humanist
seemed
ars moriendi.
volume
traditional Uterature
will
this
at
examine
how
texts,
but both Ficino and Ag-
great adaptabihty of the text
is
as a
apparent in the
transfer,
diflferent
ways res
it
has been pref-
publica litterarum:
and geopoUtical boundaries. These aspects are
phfies the Platonic philosopher-king. Agricola
derives
First, in
terms of pow-
amicitia
where
equals. Second, in terms
of genealogy,
respectively. Ficino translated only
one other spuri-
Definitiones.
Toumoy,
Agricola Phrisius
"Marsile Ficin, Agricola et ieurs traductions de VAxiochos," in Rodolphus ed. F. Akkerman and A.J. Vanderjagt #22 and #53.
1444-1485,
'
Hankins. "Census,"
*
Hankins, "Census," #4.
in 1508,
#18
who exem-
and Canter, on the other hand, con-
of Aristotehan primary fiiendship or Ciceronian
from personal bonds between
Hankins, "Census," #10, #11, and
ous work, the
pub-
Rodolphus Langius, and Ja-
Ficino's dedication emphasizes a patronage relationship with a prince
struct a relationship
res
second preface to Agricola's
Four topics help reveal the respective constructions of the
See G.
codi-
Deventer in which the
of purgatorial visions and
handled quite differendy by Ficino and the Dutch humanists.
^
accomis
the dialogue was presented in three prefaces: Fi-
Johann Rinck which appeared the 1495, 1500, and 1506 editions."
power, genealogy, knowledge
*
to
There
work with mythologization both of self and of the
letter to
translation in
power
in-
ear-
was Janus-faced, looking both forward and back: in addition
cino's dedication to Piero de'Medici, Agricola's letter to
er,
one of the
Leuven.* In yet another edition,
only was the Axiochus printed with important
chose to preface
The
—
'°
lico litterarum. I
aced.
companion volume
and Horace.^ Thus one great appeal of
cological evidence for the latter contention in a
ricola
at
of making Plato conform to the medieval
feat
apparitions.
a
edited by Alardus of Amster-
already been printed in
pubUshed in 1483
to demonstrating compatibility with the
phsh the
dialectica
Deventer, the dialogue was printed amidst a
works by Jerome, Cicero,
was
works, notably in the Opuscula
and the iMcubrationes of 1539, in
translations
hest editions of the Axiochus,
selection of
own
of the works by Agricola which appeared in the 1511 Opuscula
letters,
ap-
frequently, and, almost always
Platonis Opera!" Agricola's Axiochus
complete text of the De inventione
to the
cluding
which appeared most
an addition to Ficino's
also consistendy printed
it
Christiana}
Agricola's translation
from 1518 onward,
1507, eight years after Ficino's death,
resurrectione; in
religiotie
165
One curious
when Jacobus de Breda
reversal
(Leiden, 1988), 211-228.
of the practice widi die Opera Omnia occun-ed
published a collection of works by Agricola without the pseudo-
Platonic text, and published Ficino's translation of Axiochus as a separate item. ' '°
Hankins, "Census," #17.
Deventer Stads- of Athenaeumbibliotheek (SAB) verzamelband 103, originally from the Heer Florenshuis. " Hankins, "Census," #9 and #17; the Deventer edition of 1500 is missing.
PREFACING AXIOCHUS
166
Can-
Ficino establishes a hereditary succession of three generations of Medici rulers. intellectual succession in order to
however, following Agricola, uses
ter,
provide
Northern humanist legitimation of the kind carried on by Erasmus. Third, the fer
of knowledge in Ficino's
making
sitas,
letters
state
Plato accessible to
is
all.
limited to an
elite,
Lastly, Ficino sets
trans-
but Agricola revels in univer-
boundaries for his republic of
within the confines of "patria," one country or homeland; however, because
of their shifting places of residence around Europe, the conceptual community of scholars Agricola
and Canter invoke transcends geopoUtical boundaries.
Ficino's short preface to the Axiochus
Cosimo de'Medici's
and Plato, and on
Aristotle
When
his
Cosimo
for this
at
— he was then
life
is
length on
many
aspiring to the
and when he had made an end of his speaking,
him, "Cosimo,
said to
I
of heavenly
man and beloved disciple of our Plato, has treated book on death." Then he said, "Marsilio, recount
this
he approved.
He
Xenocrates discoursed in Greek." to
The
be
translated;
translated
I
scene of reading
is
narration of
things concerning the
life
crates, a just
ject in his
its
seen ordering translations of
deathbed Ficino reads him the Axiochus:
he had discoursed acutely and
contempt
most widely known for
is
last days. Significantly,
I
recounted
it;
bliss
—
Xeno-
same sub-
in Latin
what
ordered
it
it.^^
programmatic because here in the preface the dying Cosimo
already anticipates and pre-empts doctrines of contemptus mundi and "death as a gain"
which Socrates endorses This dedication
is
in the dialogue.
a species
of that genre famiUar to the
modem
academic: the ap-
plication for funding. In hopes of securing Cosimo's son Piero as a patron for his
scholarly projects, Ficino emphasizes the
Hankins notes,
The need
this in itself
for joining
is
need to join wisdom and power. But,
wisdom
to
power
.
.
.
Ficino regarded
— philosophized — was
tonic teaching; the sententia aurea o{ Republic VII
when
as
Platonic:
philosophers ruled or rulers
as a
that states
peculiarly Pla-
would be
blessed
the most famous of all
Plato's dicta.^^
In the preface this conjunction rived ters:
from learned men;
as
is
handled in two ways.
First,
wisdom must be de-
Ficino wrote in the argument to one of the Platonic let-
"Princes should honor the wise; the wise should willingly consult the interest of
'-
"Ubi per multa
et acute et
supernam beatitudinem Xenocrates
adspiraret.
.
.
Cum
ille
finem dicendi
fecisset:
Haec eadem, Cosme, inquam, de morte tractavit. Turn ille:
vir sanctus atque dilectus Platonis nostri discipulus in libro
referas, inquit, latine Marsili transtuli.
copiose de huius vitae contemptu disseruit: utpote qui iam ad
.":
quae grece Xenocrates
Ficino, "Preface," Xenoaates
"Census," #26])
a.ii.r.
I
De
disputat. Retail; probavit. Transferri iussit:
Morte (Augsburg: Sylvan Othmar, 1515 [Hankins,
have repunctuated and normalized
spelling.
The
the other prefaces are conveniently reproduced by Chevalier, Axiochos. '^
Hankins,
Plato,
304.
text
of this and some of
JUDITH DEITCH Thus
princes."'*
complying with Cosimo's order
in
de'Medici
letters,"
humane
ten books of
learning and things divine," and through-
kept "the fellowship of the Muses even
his Ufe
In old age
translate
his
preface says, he was "wise in both
out
to
own position in the dynamic of power relations which patronage. Wisdom and power are also united in the person of Cosimo himself who exemphfies the Platonic philosopher-king. As the text of the up
Plato, '^ Ficino takes
constitute
167
"when he had given
he called for
when on
the highest business."'*
himself wholly to the study of philosophy and sacred
translations
of Plato, Aristotle, and Mercury
"Hermes
[i.e.,
Trismegistus", the Hermetic Corpus] "in order to be initiated into the sacred service
of philosophy. "'' Cosimo's grasp of learning
is
considerable: he
comprehended them
these translations "carefully and
is
have read
said to
perfectly."'^
Second, with regard to genealogy, Ficino involves three generations in the heredinot mentioned here, in a later
tary descent
of Medici patrons:
letter Ficino
reminds Lorenzo, Cosimo's grandson, that he was present
for,
although he
is
bed.'^ In the preface, although Ficino laments that
academia" are blessed in
Uke
still
having Piero,
who
is
Cosimo must "parenti
Thus a dynasty of philosopher-kings way genealogy is construed in the preface
his father).
other
die,
quam
will herald a is
at
the death-
both "patria
et
simillimus" (most
golden age.^^
The
in the historical descent of
philosophers mentioned. In a broad sweep, the syncretic continuum stretches from
Egyptian hermetic wisdom ("Mercury"), through the Platonists to the Renaissance
— or from
Plato to his disciples Xenocrates and Aristotle, and eventually to Ficino
and thus
himself. Xenocrates, line
The
fits
of this republic of letters, knowledge
third aspect
elite class: is
his dialogue the Axiochus,
perfectly into this direct
of philosophical succession.
members of Ficino's
the
here referred to
transfer,
is
restricted to
Platonic academy, for example. Platonic
an
wisdom
"archana," something to be kept from the vulgar eye and re-
as
vealed only to the initiated.
The
sacred mysteries are
opened
to
Cosimo
as
being an
'*
Quoted by Hankins,
'^
According to Allen, eight of these were spurious; only two were authentic, the Parmenides
and the
Philebus:
M.
Plato,
304.
B. Allen, "Ficino's
J.
Theory of the Five Substances and the Neoplatonists'
Parmenides," in idem, Plato's Third Eye: Studies in Marsilio Ficino's Metaphysics and
its
Sources (Alder-
shot, 1995). 22. '*
"non modo rerum humanarum prudentia, verumetiam
'^
sapientia
divinarum ...
"in senectute praecipue philosophiae studiis sacrisque Uteris totum se tradidit.
mis philosophiae
.
.
summis
.
Deinde
Utque
in pri-
nonnullos Aristotelis libros converti ab lohanne Argyrophylo
sacris iniciaretur,
viro doctissimo voluit:
in
Musarum."
negociis absque consortio
.
.
.
divi Platonis libros decern et
unum
Mercurii e greca lingua
in latinam a nobis transferri iussit." '*
"Haec omnia Cosmus
he was
much
in
et accurate legjt et absolute
advance of modem scholanhip
"
Hankins,
^°
See Hankins on the Medici family
{Plato, 304).
Plato,
{Plato,
comprehendit." As Hankins wryly notes,
268
n. 3).
268, n. 4. as
patrons "acting as local agents for Divine Providence"
:
PREFACING /IX/OCHL/S
168
example of the kind of
who
initiate
correctly regards Plato's philosophy as veiled
truth.-'
Lastly, geopolitical
word
boundaries are inscribed in the
indicates an actual nation within real identifiable borders.
land that
said to bewail
is
This
res
Italy
mentioned
publica
Cosimo's death but affirms
its
hope
the very opening of the preface.-^
at
For the Dutch humanists the cohesive power of their
res
publica litterarum runs
Agricola dedicates his translation to Rodolphus Langius, a
ties.
school friend from his university days; both "Rudolphs" studied
same
riculated in the
home-
in his son as successor.
equivalent to a self-standing and locatable political entity, to the
is
along friendship
which here
"patria,"
the nation and
It is
Langen was
year, 1456.
Erfurt and mat-
at
part of the circle of friends
which
included Alexander Hegius, Wessel Gansfort, and Antonius Liber. ^-^ Agricola's prefatory letter to the Axiochus
somewhat playful tone envoy of Catullus 1
is
in the genre of epistulae ad familiares, although the
is
less like that
have translated into Latin the
I
might object,
would
easily
whom
to
would
of Cicero to Atticus than
little
book of
be able to impose on your kindness,
you would
cept [the book],
protection of a
afford
I
was hoping
in order that, should
not the haughtiness of a
it
like the poetic
Plato entitled Axiochus.
dedicate this piece? But
I
it is
critic,
You that
I
you acbut the
friend.^'*
As opposed to an exchange of intellectual prestige for
financial backing, Agricola in-
vokes a relationship which grants
of ideal reader. Agricola hopes
that Langius will
reader
is
be
his friend the status
a friend to his
work, rather than a
the "sole reader": "Therefore
have dedicated
I
ends the short preface emphatically on dantly
-'
critic.
This attitude of ideal
further evident in the invocation of benevolentia, as well as in the fiction of
make up
the great audience for
"Quibus omnia
vitae praecepta,
to
it
this note: "I
my
you alone". ^^ He consider that you alone abun-
efforts. "^^
omnia naturae
you and
to
His object will be achieved
principia,
if
omnia divinarum rerum mysteria
sancta panduntur." ^-
Cosimo
"^
For basic information on the
ed. P. ^^
rem
is
of Italy, the tag being taken from Vergil, Aeneid, 2.508.
circle see individual entries in
G. Bietenholz and Th. B. Deutscher, 3
vols.
Quod
facillime
eum, amici sinum
illi
sperabam posse
non
The Contemporaries of Erasmus,
(Toronto, 1985-1987).
"Libellum Platonis qui Axiochus inscribitur latinum
occurrebas?
peres
"Italiae decus," the glory
me
feci.
Tuque potissimum
cui
tuae benevolentiae imponere, ut,
eum cum
dicaacci-
iudicis supercilium offeres": Agricola, Axiochus Platonis de con-
temnenda morte, ed. Jacob Canter Phynius (Mainz: Peter von Friedberg, 1495 [Hankins, "Census," #9]), A.iii.r.
have repunctuated and normalized
I
spelling. Agricola's preface
appeared in
new book?
.
.
.
/ Cornelius, to
[Carmina, 1.1-3])
.
— atque adeo uni
^^
"Tibi igitur
-^
"quern solum ego
all
four
Compare Catullus: "To whom shall I dedicate my charming you." ("Cui dono lepidum novum libellum ? / Cornell tibi."
incunables and frequently afterwards.
meorum
tibi
—
.
.
ilium dicavi."
studiorum abunde
magnum
theatrum puto."
JUDITH DEITCH
169
Langen approves the work, "because I delight greatly in your love for me," but it will be a failure if he is displeased.-' It is his friend's opinion and critical judgment ("tuis auribus tuoque iudicio"), not reward or poUtical status, which will deter.
.
.
work as a literary project. two firiends forms the basis for a community of scholars The intimacy between the all. For each reader is invited to identify himself with which is, paradoxically, open to these friends by means of the very specificity of the dedication. Each reader can be mine the
both
success or failure of the
Langen, and producer of
ideal reader, like
texts for friendship
exchange, like
Agricola.
This rhetorical community
also
is
scribed in the additional or second
important for the concept of genealogy, in-
preface, Jacob Canter's letter-dedication to Johann
Rinck. Written in the same intimate tone of amicitia. Canter exphcidy dialogue's importance
worthiest
man of
Erasmus's
eflforts,^'
tation
all
unrestricted
my
we
a standard for
is
on
partially rests
the fact that ."-*
compatriots.
.
as
Northern humanism. This
form of genealogy open
to any
states that the
was translated by Agricola: "the
somewhat predating the man whose intellectual repu-
Thus
.
already have Agricola
it
in 1495,
intellectual succession presents an
Dutch or German humanist who wishes
from the eloquent Frisian. With genealogy and power governed by the construction of
to claim descent
munity, the boundaries of
this
repubhc of
than actual, fluid rather than fixed. In another way, such fluidity
by Canter in the second preface by reference to by
referring to the dialogue as a gift
for a long time.^
many
education
(as
is
from Rinck which has been traveUng with him
around Europe, either for purposes of their
students), or for the education
of others
(as
This connects directly with the topic of knowledge
new
this,
exphcitly inscribed
teachers).
The
nation of the
Rinck were
all
Langen,
transfer. Agricola,
concerned with reforming pubHc education, with open-
schools and incorporating
Agricola sees his translation
new
learning in the classroom. In concert with
as transferring
knowledge of Plato's philosophy
the general pubUc; he dares to pubHsh such a stream in order that the flood be
^'
"Tu
own
conceptual, exceeding geopoUtical borders.
Canter, and
ing
is
For example, he opens
But Agricola, Langius, and other Northern humanists too, occupied
different places of residence
itinerant
his traveUng.
com-
a rhetorical
conceptual rather
letters are necessarily
itaque
amore) quern ego
si
probabis hunc
in causa
meum
laborem,
putabo, qui ut ingenio
meo
erit
to
made
(quod gaudeam magis pro tuo in
blandiar. Sin displicebit haec tibi opera
me mea
perierit."
^ "Rodolpho
Agricola conterraneo
Canter Phrysius, "Letter to Rinck,"
me
viro nestorea, mehercule, vita dignissimo": Jacob
in Agricola, Axiochus (Mainz, 1495), A.i.v-A.ii.r.
I
have re-
punctuated and normalized spelling.
^
Erasmus's
first
reference to Agricola as intellectual predecessor appears in the
"Quid
canis in
balneo" entry of the Adages of 1508.
^
"Axiochum, quern mihi ante annos
tempore
(si
grinantem."
satis
memini) quo
aliquot
in latinum profectus
dono
dedisti,
sum, iam
Joannes suavissime, eo sane
mecum
diu terra marique pere-
PREFACING AXIOCHUS
170
known
to the general public.''^ Instead of veiled truths or sacred mysteries, the
popular reader
invited to be instructed
is
by
this
consolation of philosophy.
Furthermore, such a conception of knowledge transfer
fits
Agricola's overall
of Socrates, and the representation of Socrates in a dialogue by A.
J.
Vanderjagt has observed, Agricola viewed Socrates
most concerned with
ethics.
because he brings philosophy
As he
beings. Agricola believes that in his
of
this
Socrates
things. ^^
who
taught
men
Not only by making
says,
Socrates
down from to
view
his disciple Plato.
as a practical
As
philosopher,
the philosopher par excellence
is
human
the heavens for everyday use by
work he is reiterating the philosophical attitude reflect upon themselves and their way of doing
Plato accessible, but also
speaks those most practical philosophies
by choosing a Socrates
— Stoicism and Epicureanism —
is
who
Agricola,
in his translation of Axiochus, purveying a trenchant representation of the Renaissance Plato.
A Stoic Plato who
fect sense, as
much
provides practical advice on dying a good death makes per-
sense, in fact, as a Neoplatonist Plato
who
conceals truths about
the soul's ascent.^^
In this paper
leged position
as
I
have attempted to
detail
how
an important text in the period.
the Axiochus was placed in a privi-
The
large differences in application
bespeak the remarkable adaptability of the Axiochus. Both Ficino and Agricola esit foundational statements which frame the dialogue Those who inherited the work propagated it widely. from the Surely it is worthy of our serious attention, whether Renaissance readers "knew it wasn't by Plato" or most learned scholar to the most sluggish schoolboy
teemed
it
within a
sufficiently to attach to
res
publica litterarum.
—
—
not. "The Renaissance Plato" is necessarily a much larger conceptual field than the Modern Plato; and the Postmodern Plato may be something yet again. As Derrida cautions, "What we have in the history of philosophy is ... a series of different
accounts that have some
common elements,
but that
should beware of taking any version of the story
all
[as]
also leave
something out.
We
simply authoritative."^''
York University, Canada
^' "ut audeam immensum illud divinumque Platonis dicendi flumen populo meis verbis cognoscendum proponere." ^- A. in Rodolphus J. Vanderjagt, "Rudolph Agricola on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy,"
Agricola Phrisius
1444-1485, 225.
^^
And
^*
Quoted by Catherine H. Zuckert,
the Hellenistic philosophers, just as the Neoplatonists, claimed descent
Derrida (Chicago, 1996), 6.
from
Socrates.
Postmodern Platos: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss,
Pontano elegiaque
Venonciation de
:
la
subjectivite elegiaque
dans
Republique des Lettres
la
DELBEY
E.
Nous
avons choisi de poser
la
question d'une possible esthetique de
tivite, a la fois interiorite et individualite,
la
a la poesie elegiaque de Pontano: enonce-t-elle une prise en consideration du le je
de I'ecriture?
bleme dans
est
Comment
parler de la personnalite litteraire de
moi par
Pontano? Le pro-
d'autant plus important que, par tradition litteraire, I'elegie peut paraitre,
ses artifices
memes
d'expression, impersonneUe; P. Veyne, au cours de son ou-
vrage L'elegie erotique romaine date de 1983, I'aspect
subjec-
par I'analyse d'exemples empruntes
proprement
litteraire
sentiment amoureux toute
s'etait
attache a vouloir demontrer
d'une expression savante de
realite et faisait
de
la
Ovide
et
mythologie
que
interdisait
au
passion I'objet d'un discours represen-
tant I'esthetique alexandrine et callimacheenne dont le
ment qu'un code. Properce
la
code amoureux
seraient les meiUeurs poetes
n'est precise-
de cette
litterature
des "topoi". Pontano, poete elegiaque, entre done au sein d'une Republique des Lettres oCi le style
elegiaque parait etre I'objet d'une esthetique de I'imitation-emulation
plutot que de I'enonciation subjective. Rivaliser avec Properce, Ovide,
ou Tibulle
reviendrait en effet a s'ecarter toujours plus d'une ecriture persormelle des lors que,
par cette pratique de Vimitatio,
abordant
la
matiere elegiaque,
lustres predecesseurs qui
ouvert une voie. le plus
le il
poete neo-latin n'engage de lui-meme que son
la traite sans se laisser arreter
n'ont pas accapare tout ce que
Nous retrouvons
grand bien dans
la lettre
alors
un
art
par
art;
les realisations d'il-
Ton pouvait
dire,
mais ont
de I'invention dont Seneque avait
dit
9.79.6 a Lucihus: "La difference est grande entre une
matiere usee et une matiere deja travaillee par d'autres: celle-ci s'enrichit de jour en
jour
et les
inventions anciennes ne sont pas une gene a qui est
D'autre part,
mieux avantage,
le
d' expressions qui,
Toutefois encore,
la
c'est le dernier
differemment agencees,
offirent
venu.
II
fait
pour inventer.
trouve tout pret un fonds
une physionomie nouvelle."
poesie elegiaque de I'epoque classique peut continuer d'etre lue aussi,
comme
celebration
du
desir et des plaisirs
en relation
etroite avec I'ideal
PONTANO ELEGIAQUE
172
hedoniste de
la liberte
amoureuse;
dans
precieux details"
les plus
ainsi
de
art
composent, apparaissent traverses par
que
I'eros leger et ludique, les textes qui le
corps "de maniere reelle et concrete, jusque
les
M. Onfray
I'ecrit
a la
page 118 de
sa Theorie
du corps amoureux parue en 2000; Catulle, Tibulle, Properce, Ovide sont des individus vivants qui, chacun a sa maniere, enseignent a aimer la vie. Charnelle, I'elegie ro-
maine
done
serait
subjective par
comprendre selon
a
sa seule
dimension d'apparition a
une poetique des sentiments fondee sur une theorie des
corps qu'illustre VArt d'aimer. Des lors elegiaques; le tout est de savoir
Nous nous proposons
ou
la
conscience
souci de soi n'est plus a exclure des
le
du poemes
possibilites
situer ce moi.
d'etudier I'enonciation de
la subjectivite
comme
chez Pontano ele-
mimetique
mise en
giaque en privilegiant I'etude de
I'acte d'ecriture
forme d'une conscience de
Deictiques, premiere personne de I'indicatif present
soi.
faculte
et
sont des marqueurs importants du subjectif comme registre d'expression dans I'elegie classique,
chez Properce par exemple,
notre these sur
ainsi
que nous pensons
I'avoir
poetiques elegiaques (Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1995).
les
demontre dans
Comment Pon-
tano done se pose-t-il en heritier sans renoncer a etre lui-meme?
Repondre
la
n'est pas envisagee par
modeles
sans
s'efforce de velle,
d'abord noter que I'eventualite d'une possible
a cette question, c'est
contradiction entre
technique d'ecriture
Pontano qui
pour autant
se
fait
rendre identique
formuler I'idee d'un
comme
et I'inspiration
element subjectif
preuve du plus grand soin dans I'imitation des
A
eux.
a
difference de Politien, qui
la
preparant ainsi une esthetique nou-
style personnel,
Pontano ne s'engage pas dans un mouvement d'afSrmation de
subjective; alors
aux
sensible
que Politien
s'attache a
de presence subjective qui sont
effets
Pontano, tout en ne contestant pas leurs la
thematique
au centre de
la
une esthetique du caractere
—
astrale
,
situe la faculte
conscience de soi
comme
I'appel de I'epopee gile (v.
la
mimetique
homerique
—
ecrire
meme
si
improvisation,
une nouvelle de
le souci
la
mots qui mettent en valeur
la
—
scene precisement cette
confoit I'auteur neo-latin;
Iliade
—
et I'imitation
la gloire litteraire
prestige de la grande composition epique demeure; nous indiquerons gras les
d'ail-
representer en imitant
Amorum met en
poesie elegiaque teUe que
1—12) ne prevalent pas,
—
1'
— que renforce
poete.
L'elegie 1.18 des Libri Parthenopei siue
force de I'heritage dans
marques de
les
de Vingenium
la specificite
la stylistique
(indoles / ethos),
personnalite litteraire,
il
en
sera
de Vir-
fondee sur
le
en caracteres
de
meme pour
les autres citations.
Scilicet in
magnis quaerenda
est gloria rebus,
hinc ueniant capiti laurea serta
quod
si
forte
meo;
animis respondent carmina nostris,
uel Croesi fuerint uilia regna tnihi (1.18.13—16).
A poete
cet endroit
—
du
jusqu'alors,
texte,
Pontano accumule
pour designer
I'expression nostra scripta au vers 2 la
ses
—
;
les
poemes
references a sa propre personne de
elegiaques,
il
avait
mais I'idee de posterite
perspective elegiaque de I'heritage propertien
(v.
simplement utihse
litteraire s'inscrit
selon
21-24): I'Ombrie pourra s'enor-
gueiUir de compter parmi ses enfants illustres Pontano lui-meme,
si
seulement
la
DELBEY
E.
renommee
173
mort du poete. Ornement de
survit a la
sa terre natale,
Pontano
fait alors
I'eloge de cette patrie de Properce qui perpetue la tradition de I'elegie:
Umbria Pieridum cultrix, patria alta Properti quae me non humili Candida monte tulit II
est a
remarquer I'emploi de Vzdjectif Candida qui biographes notent
les
le
beaute eclatante;
qualifie la
Chez Pontano
possible de le rapporter au style humilis des elegiaques. efFet,
... (v. 25—26).
il
et Sannazar,
est
en
vertu principale des elegiaques classiques,
candor,
expression de leur caractere; a I'ecart du sublime de I'epopee, cette clarte ethique
de
est celle
monic avec
de
la simplicite et les qualites
temperaments
la transparence.
d'un caractere serein:
— ceux de Properce
Ainsi le
la
style entre
— exempts de
de Pontano
et
du
grace
en har-
jugement esthetique porte sur des toute
humeur
melancohque.
Le moi de I'individu
meme poeme penonnage
la
se
confond
alors
avec
de
le je
I'ecrivain. S'ensuit dans le
representation d'une scene idyllique illustrant le
decor en
le
litteraire;
est
moi personnel en
I'Ombrie transformee en "topos" du
locus
amoenus:
Hie ubi tne
uiridi
puerum
audiit irrigui coerula
atque
mecum tu
canentem
loci
"Antra, puer, muscosi fontis et
ait:
tecta petas, si
sub ualle
nympha
hoc
mea
en haec quae tibi
uiridi libeat considere prato,
tu meus ardor
cura, puer,
hanc tibi nos dabimus, ne
quam
ista
serta paro;
sis
modo
eris;
durus amanti,
dederat nobis Delius ante lyram"
29-36).
(v.
Cette campagne ideale, eloignee du tumulte et des vices qui caracterisent n'est pas celle d'un univers revolu, puisqu'elle
Le genre
htteraire.
permet
oil
que peu
Properce observait encore
ment le
(v.
les
la sensualite
le signe
un heu com-
dans
principes esthetiques d'une convenance quel-
Muses du Pamasse. Les
figee par la presence de I'Arcadisme apollinien et des
guirlandes tressees de fleurs que la
poete sont
les cites,
en images du je
pastoral faciHte la representation thematique de I'Eros elegiaque (v.
33—34). Le jeu des references tient a I'expression de
mun
cette mise
nymphe aux yeux
bleus confectionne pour le futur
d'une inspiration erotique a prendre, dont
la
lyre se fera I'instru-
35—36). C'est done par une variation sur des poemes de Properce signifiant
choix de I'inspiration elegiaque
Pontano poete/individu. Afin de d'abord I'elegie 2.30, puissance de VAmor.
quant des
eflfets
oil le
—
Elegies, 2.30; 3.1 et
faciliter la
3
— que
met
se
a exister
comparaison avec Properce nous citerons
poete augusteen declare,
Nous marquerons encore
de mise en scene a propos de
comme
il
le fera
en
par des caracteres gras
la
personnalite litteraire.
Una contentum pudeat me uiuere amica? Hoc si crimen erit, crimen Amoris erit:
3.1, la toute-
les
mots indi-
PONTANO ELEGIAQUE
174
mi nemo
obiciat. Libeat tibi,
mecutn
Cynthia,
rorida muscosis antra tenere iugis. Illic
aspicies scopulis haerere Sorores
canere antiqui dulcia furta louis,
et
ut Semela est combustus, ut est deperditus lo,
denique ut ad Troiae tecta uolarit
Quod
nemo
si
auis.
exstat qui uicerit Alitis anna,
communis culpae cur reus unus Nee tu Virginibus reuerentia moueris
agor? ora:
quoque non nescit quid sit amare chorus, tamen Oeagri quaedam compressa figura hie
si
oUm
Bistoniis
me
rupibus accubuit.
Hie
ubi
tum
capiti sacros patiar
prima statuent in parte choreae
medius docta cuspide Bacchus
et
Nam
nostrum non
sine te
erit,
pendere corymbos. ualet
ingenium
(Properce, 2.30.23-40);
Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philetae, in uestrum, quaeso,
me
sinite ire
nemus.
Primus ego ingredior puro de fonte sacerdos Itala
per Graios orgia ferre choros.
quo
Dicite,
pariter
quoue pede Multi,
Roma,
carmen
tenuastis in antro?
quamue
ingressi?
bibistis
aquam?
tuas laudes annalibus addent,
qui finem imperii Bactra futura canent. Sed,
quod pace
opus hoc de monte Sororum pagina nostra uia.
legas,
detulit intacta
Mollia, Pegasides, date uestro serta poetae:
non
faciet capiti
dura corona
meo (Properce, 3.1.1-6, 15-20);
I'elegie 3.3,
quant a
elle,
represente le
Somnium
Propertii
dont nous mentionnons
elements caracteristiques:
Visas eram molli recubans Heliconis in umbra,
Bellerophontei qua reges. Alba, tuos et
tantum
fluit
regnum
operis,
umor
facta
equi,
tuorum,
neruis hiscere posse meis;
paruaque tam magnis admoram fontibus ora
unde pater
cum
me
sitiens
Ennius ante bibit
Castalia speculans ex arbore
sic ait,
Phoebus
aurata nixus ad antra lyra:
les
E.
"Quid
cum
tibi
DELBEY
demens,
tali,
carminis heroi tangere
Non
hinc
speranda
ulla tibi
175
flumine? quis tc
est
iussit
opus?
fama, Properti:
est
moUia sunt paruis prata terenda rotis, scamno iactetur saepe libellus
ut tuus in
quern legat exspectans sola puella uirum"
sedem tnihi monstrat ebumo,
Dixerat, et plectro
qua noua muscoso semita
Hie
pendebantque
Musarum
orgia
fictilis et
et
facta solo est.
erat aflSxis uiridis spelunca lapillis
cauis
tympana pumicibus,
et Sileni patris
calami.
Veneris dominae uolucres,
mea
Gorgoneo punica
tingunt
nouem
diuersaeque
imago
Pan Tegeaee,
tui;
turba, columbae
rostra lacu;
sortita rura Puellae
exercent teneras in sua dona manus:
haec hederas legit in thyrsos, haec carmina neruis aptat, at ilia
manu
texit utraque rosam.
(Properce, 3.3.1-6, 13-20, 25-36)
Pontano reprend
le
en evidence, parmi
motif du paysage merveilleux, ses
reminiscences
lieu
tiellement erotique. Properce, plutot que de representer
cativement
c'est la coerula
nympha qui apostrophe
d'une revelation; mais
il
met
elements d'un symbolisme essen-
litteraires, les
le
un reve amoureux ou
puer Pontano
signifi-
31—32, 34—35),
(v.
un point de vue autre: celui qui consistait a interpeller lui-meme Cynthie D'ou la dimension didactique de la representation de Vingenium: le territoire des Muses est I'objet d'une description (v. 27) sviivie de I'enumeration de quelques histoires d' amour dont Jupiter est le protagoniste (v. 29—30). Lieu mental pour le poete et surtout lieu de memoire collective, le locus amoenus se donne de avait choisi
(2.30, 25—26, 33, 40).
comme paysage ideal a admirer oii Properce invite Cynthie a penetrer. Pontano prefere decrire une "scene de premiere vue" qui propose d'unir en couple I'exterieur
nympha
voyant pour
le
puer et
la
mise en presence des Muses
peut etre thie
la
la
premiere
de Cynthie;
qu'elle inspire Properce.
traine vers I'elegie
pour
I'ecrivain et I'individu.
le
poete neo-latin;
Callimaque
fois, alors
c'est
la
par
vision
que Properce
la
s'en tenait a
jeune femme que
il
permet la
le
puer
du nemus apollinien que Cyn-
Le mouvement incoercible du
Properce avait menage
suscite ni n'avive le desir, mais lustres:
et
poesie erotique; c'est par
initie a la
comprendra
se
I'illusion
de
desir en-
confusion entre
la
distance elaboratrice
du texte qui ne
rend intense plutot revocation des predecesseurs
et Philetas,
par
la repetition
il-
des interrogatives (3.1.5-6) et la
presence du vocabulaire sacre de I'inspiration (3.1.3-4). Le mythe Utteraire du poete
couronne (3.1.19-20) n'apparait d'une individuahte, mais
comme
pas, dans ces conditions, la
comme
grecque, hellenistique, qu'il latinise en se I'appropriant. L'HeUcon, talie,
Apollon-Phebus
la
revendication
legitimation de son appartenance a
a la lyre d'or sont les elements
la
une culture
fontaine de Cas-
d'un tableau dont Properce lui-
.
PONTANO ELEGIAQUE
176
meme
fait
en
partie par le Songe,
La encore, I'impression dominante
3.3.
est celle
d'une organisation attendue de I'espace symbolique des inspirations (epique/elegiaque)
non
ayant pour figure centrale Apollon et sous I'injonction du dieu, ecrira pour
aime
(v.
19-20);
evoque enfin
il
les orgia
Musarum
cede a I'apparition de
et les Veneris
de Bacchus, celebre
la
le
ton
la
cruche de vin que porte Pan
le
(v.
la
(v.
45—48)
et I'Arcadien,
des Pastes, d'autant plus et les eclats
de
la consuetudo: si la
que tout
se
termine par
de Dionysos
rire
moment, Vingenium
est
fa^onne
lors,
des elements d'heritage a
danus.
semble II
le plus interessant a
la
chute de
A Tapol-
poeme nous importe a
exprimer
les
est ainsi rationalise;
lui-meme.
avec I'utilisation de
fondamentaux dans
55—56);
la
57-64).
nous pensons etre en mesure de pouvoir definir comment
latin concilie sa sensibilite personnelle
nous
reste
(v.
accoutumee au ton elegiaque; pour
s'est
65—72). Le furor poeticus
(v.
Pontano, lecteur reflechi des elegiaques,
Des
(v.
Muse de Pontano repugne encore
accents de I'epopee homerique, c'est qu'elle le
susciter
par son eloge
iucunda uoluptas, les lusus deliciaeque
linisme de Properce repond le dionysisme de Pontano. La fin du
par sa poetique de
pour
29, 31)
cortege dionysiaque, qui suc-
dans une atmosphere de fete profane (1.18.39—44):
blanda uenus,
digne
dominae uolucres
reconnait Pan
il
esseulee, attendant celui qu'elle
lui-meme pour lui-meme; Properce
que Pontano decrit
la nytnpha,
poete regarde ce defile ou
est ovidien,
femme
n'a pas a parler seulement de
I'idee des mysteres d'Eros, alors
le
scene d'une invite a I'amour; Properce,
la
la jeune
la
le
poete neo-
mythologie qui
Republique des
Lettres.
est I'un
Le poeme qui
ce propos est I'elegie 1.17 a Stella, extraite de VEri-
debute par une scene erotique: Nudasti, tnea uita, sinus et sponte papillas
admostique
oraque cum
meatn
sedistique
meo
ceruicem amplexa, concidis in
longaque post
dum
pectora ad ipsa
teneris iunxisti
nostra
sarcina grata
leui
mox
nostrum
manum
labellis
genu;
uicta sopore
languida facta sinum,
fessos suspiria claudis ocellos,
tibi sopitae serpit ad ossa quies.
Ipse tibi tenuem procuro sedulus auram
composita
et
moueo
lenia flabra
manu,
ipse tibi somnos cantu leuo, cantus amores Sarnidis et Fauni dulcia furta refert
.
.
{Eridanus, 1.17.1-12).
La representation Ego /tu domine, avant le
le recit
de
la
legende; celui-ci, organise selon
point de vue de Samis, amplifiera cette premiere representation par I'emploi des
memes
deictiques jusqu'a produire des effets d'echo, aux vers 13-14 et 27-28:
Faune, ueni, tibi Sarnis adest ad flumina nota; ad notas (...)
salices,
candide Faune, ueni.
.
DELBEY
E.
177
unum
Faune, ueni, te Samis amat, suspirat et et parat in
niueo gaudia multa sinu
Cette sequence achevee, Pontano reprend
la
.
.
mise en scene erotique du debut:
His ego mulcebam somnos. Tibi purpura mollis tingebat niueas flore decente genas,
Hebe deducta
qualis ubi ad thalamos
ad cupidi erubuit basia prima
De nombreuses physique de
remet ensuite
At
tour a tour comparee a I'Avirore, a
a parler
tibi
de
Stella et
de
Hebe
—
Dione
puis a Leda, a Helene, a Laodamie,
perque genas roseisque infusa
somno
quotiens blandos
Le poete
cette Uste n'est pas exhaustive.
lui:
ludit et in tenero gratia et
(31—34)
references mythiques s'ensuivent alors, afin de celebrer la beaute
Stella,
aux Graces, a Thetis, a se
mariti
uiri.
amica
labellis
sinu,
recludis ocellos,
crediderim uel te posse mouere deos.
Quosque moues; uerum teque L'enonciation de
meo
figures de couples mythiques; le
du legendaire de
la
abiisse sinu.
(51—56)
par I'entrelacement d'un double registre: celui
et celui
poeme nous
de Sarnis/Faunus auxquels s'ajoutent apparait structure par ce chiasme
Samis /Faunus
(v.
(v.
1-12)
(v.
Hebe /Hercule
33—34) + references legendaires
(v.
Pontano/Stella
meme
du
s'agjt-il?
subjectif?
(v.
31-32) 51-fin du poeme).
La mythologie
Autrement
autobiographique finalement, puisque seules figures reelles
sert-elle
dit, I'elegie
le
de faire-valoir pour
poete et son aimee apparaissent
represen-
comme comme les
d'un poeme sature de fiction? Pour repondre a cette question,
aux mythes que ce texte commen^ait
—
Ariane,
dant jusqu'au vers 7 l'enonciation de
la
premiere personne:
ebria
la
17 a Stella est-eUe a Ure
convient de se souvenir de I'elegie 1.3 de Properce encore. C'est par
Andromede,
mihi mollem spirare quietem Cynthia non certis nixa caput manibus, cum multo traherem uestigia Baccho
tahs uisa
les
reel
13—30)
Pontano/Stella
Mais de quel "reel"
du
fa^on suivante:
Pontano/SteUa
tation
non
la subjectivite se fait
du couple poetique Pontano/SteUa et
custodia nostra tuetur,
patior
la
les
Bacchante
il
references
—
,
retar-
PONTANO ELEGIAQUE
178
et quaterent sera
nocte facem pueri. (Properce, 1.3.7-10)
Or
le texte n'etablit pas
une
d'une separation annoncee constatant que
la
relation
Ego
d'amour n'aura
nuit
songes efFrayants qui agitent
mais une relation Ego /haec, indice
/tu,
le
pas lieu
somineil de
(v.
21—26);
il
sa maitresse (v.
sur le reveil et les recriminations de Cynthie
va jusqu'a imaginer des
27—30); I'elegie s'acheve
35—46), ego et
(v.
confrontation et du dechirement. La rigidite de
la
scene
est
tu
sont
les
mots de
contenue dans
rence a Argus (Properce) surveillant lo (Cynthie). Plutot que de penser que tivite
de Pontano done reside dans revocation d'un "reel" qui
gendaire tout en se trouvant embelli par subjectivite consiste avant tout
que Pontano
dont Properce lui-meme
nous sommes passes d'une ecriture de prenant
une
la
lui, il est
la
subjec-
existait
existe et fait exister Stella
en
du
se distinguerait
preferable de considerer
faisant exister
la
la refe-
que
en une ecriture personnalisee du "topos". La
s'avere toute litteraire, tenant a ce sant a la fa^on
ici
11-12); lorsque Properce s'adresse a Cynthie, c'est en
(v.
le-
cette
realite
en s'oppo-
Cynthie. Desormais
juxtaposition (I'elegie 1.18 de Pontano re-
la
hierarchic des genres litteraires telle qu'elle apparaissait chez Properce) a
ecriture de la difference, qui evite la superposition des motifs.
Cependant, une situation semble originale dans deploration de
la
fantome de Cynthie, mais ceUe-ci
le
Amorum
libri,
tibi
cum
ego
reecriture.
classiques
ne
etait sa puella.
I'a dite;
la
Pro-
Or, dans
les
2.25, le poete s'adresse a son epouse defunte selon le
rythme douloureux des premiere
Quas
Une
poesie elegiaque de Pontano:
mort de I'epouse. Aucun des elegiaques
perce avait evoque Parthenopei siue
la
et
inferias,
seconde personnes: coniunx, quae munera soluam,
lacrimae et gemitus uerbaque destituant?
(...)
Mihi mortua
uiuis,
uxor, et in nostro conderis ipsa sinu,
(uiua mihi ante oculos et
uiua
mecum
domum
cultosque Lares remque ordine curas,
uiua, Ariadna, domi
mecum et
Sic
perque hortos
mecum
mihi uiua ut tua
Haec
noctes,
uiua, Ariadna, toro
mecum
uales, sic est
mors
es,
es,
et culta uireta uagaris
mihi
lasso uita
ipse ad feretrum; at
tecum
imago)
obuersatur
ilia
lusus deliciasque facis,
sit
agis ipsa dies.
grata senectus,
ipsa seni.
tecum mens
ipsa moratur,
post paucos laeta futura dies. (2.25.1-2, 7-18)
Assurement, nous pouvons reconnaitre I'amour de Laodamie pour Protesilas,
Properce I'evoquait en 1.19;
le
poete
s'y
comparait, en
effet,
tel
que
au heros fidele qui ne
pouvait oublier son epouse elle-meme tout entiere dans son desir pour
lui:
E.
DELBEY
179
quidquid ero, semper tua dicar imago:
Illic,
magnus amor.
traicit et fati litora
(Properce, 1.19.11-12)
L'expression tua imago possedait
meme une
concision que n'a pas
9 de Pon-
le vers
latin
Nous pensons egalement au moineau de Lesbie, les vers 8 et 10 du poete neorappelant les vers 1 et 2 du poeme 2 compose par Catulle. Mais le ton de Pon-
tano
est autre:
tano.
ne reprend
il
theme propertien de I'amour fugace
ni le
pathetique de I'amant de Lesbie. C'est que
poeme
le
est a lire
ni le
badinage
comme une
hypoty-
pose: I'image de I'epouse est subjective, a la fois portrait, apparence qui I'illusion
heureuse de
d'exister par les
la vie;
mots du poeme. Le signe
le plus fort,
done, de cette enonciation de
I'absence est la uiua imago, image vive de delicatesse dont le
charme
paradoxe d'une mort feconde pour I'imaginaire. Ariane survit
telle
ne ressemblant
a
aucune
comme
autre,
que hante
familiers, les jardins
reside dans le
qu'en elle-meme,
son poete seul a ecrire ce poeme. Les lieux
un
presence de I'epouse sont autant d'elements pour
la
paysage interieur, qui appartient aussi a un "topoi" d'une inspiration maitrisee, est celui
donne
representation d'une realite personnelle, Ariane continue
le
art
poetique: Ariane evolue parmi
les
motif persormel d'un imaginaire amoureux qui
de Pontano, prend forme parmi des lieux communs. Le
tibi
ego
du debut, qui
separe encore, devient tecum, parce que le propre de I'ecriture elegiaque est de reunir.
Ariane
ainsi
nous apparait
comme une
nienne, des lors que, grace a
mort
et
I'amour de
oubUe, nourrissant
la vie;
la
elle, se
dans
la
qui
sait
en
ponta-
Lettres aussi le passe n'est pas heriter.
Pontano
d' Ariane;
I'inspiration
le passe et le present, la vieillesse, la
Republique des
memoire du poete
nonce I'immortalite dionysiaque
emblematique de
figure
retrouvent
ecrit
Deja Catulle avait an-
en termes humains cette
apotheose.
M. Fuhrmann, avant tout
y a une trentaine d'annees, considerait
il
comme une
"litterature
de I'Antiquite classique
latine
et tardive.
les
methodes
des etudes neo-latines" paru dans Les Cahiers de VHumanisme, (p.
tentative d'imitation
t.
I
et les perspectives
(2000), aux Belles-
12-13), que "la litterature neo-latine ne se limite pas a une
ou d'emulation
de I'Antiquite classique en tant que
a I'egard
modele. Elle aspire plutot a transposer celle-ci dans
sa
propre epoque afin de
server en tant que telle (tout en soulignant sa continuite) et a lui attribuer
tion dans le present actuel." siree
comme
Properce
De
fait,
la faisait a
genres antiques pour mesurer
le
s'inscrit
"dans
(.
.
.)
on fait la cour a la femme deon a recours a I'ensemble des donner ainsi au present une nou-
la
Nous avons vu comment
I'inspiration elegiaque
reception du passe et de
nant actueUe une enonciation ancienne de sait
chez Ponla
presence
Vingenium du poete se fondait sur
candor des poetes elegiaques de la tradition classique et sur la consuetudo.
Pontano
pre-
bref,
Notre analyse de
dans cette double exigence de
vivante du present.
la
une fonc-
les elegies,
Cynthie
present au passe et
velle signification et legitimite."
tano
neo-latine
la litterature
Cependant, plus recemment, H. Hofinann
souHgnait dans un article intitule "Point de vue sur
Lettres/Klincksieck
la litterature
de reception", prolongement de
la subject! vite
le
En mainte-
du sentiment amoureux,
trouver, jusque dans les references a la mythologie,
une
originalite
ou
PONTANO ELEGIAQUE
180
peut transparaitre
le
moi de
I'individu. VActius insiste sur cette
Vars ingenio coniuncta, a propos de Ciceron, d'Ovide,
pas montrer leur
ars; c'est
que
la
1'
poete-individu. La thematique de
d'etre
un
du mot,
la
personne en tant que presence
expression. Sans exces se manifeste la
sentative de cette poetique, puisque sens pathetique
ceux-ci ne veulent
personnalite de I'ecrivain se forme par rassimilation
des techniques d'ecriture, ce qui n'exclut pas ethique, caractere marquant de
complementarite de
meme lorsque
1'
existence
du
souffrance nous a semble particulierement repre-
Pontano y trouve I'occasion d'etre elegiaque, au lui-meme sans faire semblant
c'est-a-dire d'etre classiquement
autre.
Universiti de Nice
loannes Fahricius Montanus:
The Two Autobiographies
SIEGMAR DOPP
Theworked
who
Alsatian loannes Fabricius Montanus,
many
works in
for various
poems.
for
both prose writings on
Latin,
He was close to many humanists
brief autobiography in Latin prose; the
and
bae
of
procellae,
tells
us in his Vita that
Eight months
his time.
later,
on
5
as
Fabricius
tells
at
scientific
is
known
and reUgious subjects and
the age of thirty-eight, he published a
book
is
he wrote
by which he means the
autobiography in 109 elegiac couplets;
from 1527 to 1566,
of his time and sought to support the Refor-
mation in Switzerland.' In March 1565, HaUer. Fabricius
lived
and preacher in Switzerland, and
years as a teacher
us in Unes 211-214.^
autobiography during severe
confessional, political,
November its
dedicated to his cousin Wolfgang
his
and mihtary
1565, Fabricius finished a second
composition too was disturbed by
Both
tur-
conflicts
conflicts,
lives are structured chronologically,
depicting the curriculum uitae of the author firom his birth to the time of writing. In I shall begin by surveying the content of both lives and then describe the which the author draws of himself Lastly, I shall make a brief comparison
paper
this
picture
with other Latin autobiographies firom the Renaissance.
The formed
prose
life
does not
start
with a proem, in which the author might have in-
us about his reason for or intention in writing. Fabricius
Bergheim in Alsace, from which he got Leo Jud, was bom in the same place (§ 1). Fabricius
birthplace:
'
For
a
more
^
1724),
I
first
mentions
name Montanus. His
identifies the year
his
uncle,
of his birth
as
Montanus 's life and works see Siegmar Dopp, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur,
detailed account of Fabricius
loannes Fabricius Montanus,
Mainz
his
(Stuttgart 1998), 5-9.
have had access only to a
373-96
(prose);
396-402
later edition, printed in Miscellanea Ttgurina, vol.
(elegiacs).
This
text,
with some corrections,
Montanus, 34-38 (prose [with division into paragraphs]); 39—45
of both Lives may be found (aus Bergheim
in
Theodor Vulpinus, Der
im Elsass) 1527-1566 (Strassburg. 1894).
(elegiacs).
is
3 (Zurich,
reprinted in
A German
Dopp,
translation
lateinische Dichter Johannes Fabricius
Montanus
MONTANUS: THE TWO AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
182
He also
that of the Sack of Rome.
months before him, though he believes
us that his mother had visited her brother Leo Both day and month of his birth are unknown must have taken place in the autumn. Fabricius
tells
in Zurich six
his birth.
to
that
it
regards his mother's journey to Zurich
brought him for the
who was
His
his parents.
four years older than Fabricius, died before taking up his
studies; the other brother,
became
him: his mother thus would promote him in such a
fateful for
later
no further information about
friendly fashion (§ 2). Fabricius gives eldest brother,
as fatale,
time to the city which
first
who was two
it,
his
way was paved
the
higher education, a fact which he refers to the grace of
Next, the different phases of
go to university and
years older, declined to
a stonecutter. Therefore, as Fabricius sees
God
own
for his
(§ 3).
He
education are described.
singles
out three
where he arrived at the age of seven (§ 4); Basel, where he was suprelative and where he learned Greek; and Strasbourg, where he Uved in
places: Zurich,
ported by a
the house of the humanist and Protestant
of Terence
(§ 5). It
was an
illness that
a comedy him back to his
Reformer Martin Bucer and read
caused
his parents to
bring
hometown, Bergheim. There they did not allow him to go to school for one year, since they feared that he might come into contact with the "papist" rite during the singing lessons. Instead he translated from the Latin Bible, under the supervision of
mother
his
(§ 6).
After his recovery he returned to Zurich, where he took up his
studies again.
worked for a while as a lector him by the city of Zurich, and
After the death of his uncle Leo Jud (1542) Fabricius
school
at a
(§ 7).
he continued
Later a scholarship was awarded to
his studies in
From Marburg
Marburg
(§ 7).
This was during the Schmalkaldic War.
Fabricius travelled to Wittenberg,
where he was expected by the the
whom he knew from Marburg (§ 8). In Melanchthon, with whom he spoke at length (§ 9).
Neo-Latin poet Petrus Lotichius Secundus, Wittenberg he
He
also
met PhUipp
then travelled to Leipzig, where he attended lectures for a couple of days before
he returned
Here he the
first
to
Marburg
(§ 10).
When he
interrupts his account for a confessio.
therefore was unable to distinguish a hexameter
chius
became
his
mentor, and directed
and encouraged him to continue the local cathedral, but also
his poetic
his profession as
worked
as a
at all
a pentameter.
endeavours
at
litotes,
The poet
is
He
Loti-
(§ 11).
He became
zprovisor at the school of
preacher in a place close to Zurich.
which
for
composition of Latin verse
He
fuisse
.
.
sees .
at-
quite characteristic of his style (§ 12).
interrupts his account of his professional career
family he founded.
Marburg
of Latin metre, and
guided by Providence: "quod non sine numine factum
sumus," he writes with a
Here again he
from
his attention to the
Fabricius returned to Zurich in 1548 (§ 12).
testati
had arrived
time some years before, he had had no knowledge
speaks about the early death of his
and
first
tells
us of the
wife, his second
marriage, and about their children, of
whom
then returns to
(1551-1557) he was the head of the cathedral
school for
girls
Chur, where ially
at
his career.
For
six years
only a few were
(Fraumiinsterschule) at Zurich.
stUl alive (§ 13).
Then he took over
He
the diocese of
the time of writing he had already lived for nine years, though init-
he was intended for
this post for three years
autobiography Fabricius depicts
his current
only
(§ 14).
At the end of his prose
mood. The troubled times prevent him
SIEGMAR DOPP from keeping on course with his might turn for help if not to God Three and
As
great care,
berg
is
even
if
described
significant;
know
Vita:
is
whom
to
he
the education Fabricius received in school
meetings with important contemporaries, and
education
far as his
he does not
(§ 14).
dominate the prose
features
at university; his
career.
studies {studia);
183
his professional
concerned, the individual stages are specified with
they were of short duration. In this context his journey to Witten-
at great length.
A
number of his contemporaries he
characterises as
have not yet mentioned Heinrich BuUinger, Joachim Camerarius, and
I
many
Erasmus, but there are
others, twenty-five in
The
all.
prominence
greatest
is
given to Melanchthon. Mentors and benefacton are mentioned with gratitude. Fabricius gives the important data
confessional conflicts
of his professional
career, but
mentioned, and that in the context of the singing lessons
What he
is
reluctant to describe the
by which he was so much absorbed. Only the "papist"
rite
is
at school.
has to say about his education, his meetings with contemporaries, and his
professional career has a
common
tend his knowledge,
unremitting
his
studia. Studia is a central
denominator: Fabricius's constant attempts to exefforts for acquiring learning
term of his prose autobiography. Fabricius
everything that to his great deUght promotes his
He
—
is
in a
word,
his
concerned with
with everything that to
studia,
his
great sorrow distracts
him from
of academic
including the prose writings which he does not specify. Simi-
is
activity,
he does not give the
larly,
titles
shaped by a way of looking
care. In the
sum
his studia.
uses the
term
studia to signify
all
kinds
of any of his poems. Fabricius's description of his Hfe at the
important moments of
world which contains another
his life Fabricius feels
up, in his prose autobiography Fabricius presents himself
as a
God's
feature:
Providence
at
work.
man who
To
enthu-
who feels greatly indebted to important contempowho in times of distress trusts in the guidance of God.
siastically strives after learning,
raries I
whom
he has met, and
now come
elegiac letter.
to Fabricius's poetic autobiography.
It is
written in the form of an
There are overlaps with the prose autobiography, but some
aspects are
omitted, others added.
The
elegy opens with a
whose mind
open
is
proem of six
Hnes. Fabricius addresses himself to a reader
to poetry. Fabricius has this reader (in familiar formulaic fashion)
enquire after the patria and the parentes of the poet, the
way he
in a phrase, the poet's uitae condicio. This reader represents, as ftiture generations,
the veniens
homeland, Alsace (7-14); the section (Unes 15-26)
is
aetas.
rivers
The 111
Sack of Rome
is
starts
we
learn
—
life
from hne
6,
with a praise of the poet's
and Rhine are mentioned by name.
A
larger
hometown, Bergheim. He particularly emplayed in the humanistic movement. Again the
dedicated to his
phasises the important role Alsace has
briefly speaks
description
has spent his
mentioned to define the year of Fabricius's birth (27-30). Then he
about
his family.
His father, about
whom
he had
said
nothing in
his
prose autobiography, was a poor man, but was held in esteem by his community. His
two brothers were
already dead (31-36).
When Fabricius reached the age of seven, his mother brought him to Leo Jud in Zurich. He had already touched upon this event in the prose autobiography, but now it is
will,
characterised as a particularly important turning point of his
but also the wish of his parents and
his
life.
It
was God's
uncle Leo, that he should be educated
MONTANUS: THE TWO AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
184
and
in the ingenuae artes
people and the
He
city
later
go
He
to univcKity (37-44).
of Zurich and expresses
his
apostrophizes the Swiss
attachment to both of them (45—52).
moment when his mother was reunited with when he had to take leave of his mother
describes the
her brother Leo in
—
Zurich (53—60) and
modelled on Ovid's farewell to
his family in Tristia 1.3. In a
cius asks his host country, the hospita
God and
with
his parents,
tellus,
he regards
this
early death (1542) light
mourned
eloquently.
and teacher, has gone, and
from
now
is
At
this loss (v. 84; 89f).
but he excuses
regrets,
his
that
woeful scene,
to indulge
him
country
the third decisive factor in his
as
Leo Jud, Fabricius continues, introduced him
life.
a
second apostrophe Fabri-
in his tears (69—76).
to poetry for the
With Leo, he
first
time. Jud's
guide of his
says, the
Along
life, his
own development as a poet has greatly suffered age he wasted much time in idleness, which he
his teachers, since
they repeatedly warned their pupil to
get things right.
In the next section (103—134) Fabricius describes his
Marburg (from
1545 onwards) and
mentions
particularly
made
already
late
first
meeting with the poet Lotichius.
his
stay at the university
his first attempts at poetry; in this
in the prose autobiography:
when he was
He
of
context he
repeats the confession
he knew nothing
a student,
about dactyls and spondees; in the meantime, however, he had made substantial progress in Latin poetry
—
helped him, but also to ture.
As
his
a success
his
own
which was due
to Lotichius,
models he mentions four
Roman poets:
who most
which belonged
passion for poetry,
kindly
to his very na-
Ovid, Tibullus, Horace, and Vir-
Admittedly, Fabricius concedes, he has not yet reached the top of Mount Parnas-
gil.
sus,
but for
Muses,
is
this
made
shortcoming the
responsible.
He
civil
war, with
all its
confusions inimical to the
then continues with the description of his journey to
Wittenberg, which he undertook in order to speak with Melanchthon (135—168). In lines 169f the poet announces that he
very briefly.
First,
he speaks about
his
work
now in
wishes to survey the rest of his
Zurich (171-174).
life
A longer section is
his two marriages (175—200). Finally, there is a description of his activity Chur (201—210). The poem ends with a reference to the disturbances of the present (211—214) and a glance at the future. God alone knows and determines what fate will be meted out to him (215-218).
devoted to
in
Like the prose version, the poetic Vita addresses the working of God. Both close with the idea that the future
is
in the hands of
constituent parts of the autobiography?
The
lives
God. But what about the other
poetic
Vita also treats
of Fabricius's
meetings with contemporaries, though significantly fewer names are mentioned
now
(only eleven instead of twenty-five in the prose version). Already in his prose auto-
biography Fabricius had expressed
Much
greater emphasis
is
laid
his gratitude to the city
upon
of Zurich for
apostrophe to the urbs Tigurina he shows his close attachment to the
and emphatically
stresses the
importance of the
hospita tellus.
description of the various stages of his education version.
The importance of his
therefore diminished. This verse composition
is
is
studia,
support.
is
clearly
On
civil
community
the other hand, the
reduced in the poetic
which dominated the prose autobiography,
not true, however, for
a notable exception. Indeed, the
stands at the centre of the elegy.
its
the poetic version. In his long
this aspect in
all
branches of the
studia.
is
Latin
development of his poetic work
SIEGMAR DOPP
185
who
In his prose autobiography Fabricius tended to style himself as a person to refine his
knowledge and
himself
poet,
as a
chmb
who
his learning; in the elegy
he
shifts
competes with the great poets of the ancient
Mount
seeks
the accent and portrays
Romans and
way alhim (115—118). It pains him gready that contemporary confusions have prevented him firom finishing his way to the top of the mountain of the Muses. If we compare the two Uves of Fabricius with other Latin autobiographies from seeks to
to the top of
Parnassus (127), with a large part of the
ready behind
the humanistic
person
who
age,''
the following points emerge: Fabricius seems to be the only
wrote an autobiography both in prose and in
prose autobiography
is
some respects the drawn by his friend
verse. In
similar to the autobiographical sketch
Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) by 1545, a work where the studia also play a central By composing a Ufe in verse, Fabricius joins a larger group of writers of the Renaissance.* Some of these follow the literary tradition founded by Ovid, who closed the fourth book of his Tristia, a collection of elegies, with a poem that can be called an epistula posteritati. It is this form of an elegiac epistula posteritati which Fabricius's poetic autobiography adopts. His humanistic predecessors here are Hehus Eobanus Hessus (1488—1540)^ and Clemens lanicius (Klemens Janicki, 1517—1543).* In each of his Uves Fabricius treats topics which number among the traditional part.
-categories of Latin autobiographies: genus, educatio,
and
res
gestae^
He
does so with-
out comparing himself to others and without saying anything about his physical appearance. His intellectual potential, his ingenium,
and then only al
He
briefly (V. 84; 118).
preferences.
Nor does he
is
discussed only in the poetic Vita,
does not get to speak of his habits and person-
give an exphcit analysis, as Petrarch did in his prose letter
to fiiture generations, of his character. Fabricius's autobiographical interest focuses al-
most exclusively on the conditions and the development of his of his learning.
intellectual formation,
in this field that he allows the portrayal of deep emotions.
It is
University of Qottingen
'
See Georg Misch, Geschidite dor Autobiographie, 4.2 (Frankfurt
am Main,
1969), 657-738; Jo-
zef IJsewijn, "Humanistic Autobiography," in Studia humanitatis. Ernesto Grassizum 70. Geburtstag, ed.
Egjnhard Hora and Eckhard Kessler (Munich, 1973), 209-19. *
Presumably the longest one
etfortunae varietate carmett, ed.
vol. 14 (Citta di CasteUo, 1912), *
*
und Deutsdi,
Tristia 7,
"De
by Antonio Astesano (1412-1468
Tallone, in L. A. Muratori, ed.,
Rerum
[?]):
De
ejus vita
Italicarum scriptores,
1005-1187.
vol. 3 (Bern, 1990),
se ipso
tamen
evaserat," in
1966),
48-59 (with Polish
Klemens
Laurens and C. Balavoine, sance, vol. '
that written
Heroides 3.9: Eohanus Posteritati, in Harry Vredeveld, ed., Melius Eobanus Hessus, Dichtungen.
Lateinisch
cio's
is
Armando
476-83.
ad Posteritatem,
cum
in
summo
Janicki, Carmina, ed. Jerzy
351-353
translation); eds.,
Musae
reduces.
vitae discrimine versaretur,
Krokowski
(notes); text
Anthologie de
la
(Breslau,
quod
Warsaw, Cracow,
with French translation also in P. poesie latine de I'Europe de
la
Renais-
2 (Leiden. 1975). 52-61.
Compare
Karl Enenkel, "Modelling the Humanist: Petrarch's Letter
Biography of the Poet Laureate."
in Modelling the Individual.
to Posterity
and Boccac-
Biography and Portrait in the
Renaissame, ed. idem, Betsy de Jong-Crane, and Peter Liebregts, Studies in Literature 23
sterdam, 1998). 11-49.
(Am-
The Renaissance Polish
Portrait of the
King Sigismund I
Polonorum
Bernard Wapowski^s Chronica
in
AGNIESZKA DZIUBA
The
reign of Sigismund
I
(1506-1548) was undoubtedly the time of the flower-
ing of Polish Renaissance
cvilture. It
was manifest not only in many
new build-
ing projects but also in renovation works carried out on the initiative of the Jagiellonian
chapel
wide
monarch
—
scale,
(the rebuilding
of Wawel Casde
in the spirit of the Renaissance
is
— including Sigismund's famous Conceived on dynasty — imitated by the
worth recaUing
here).
the patronage afforded by the Jagiellonian
PoUsh magnates
— was
PoUsh
not only created excellent conditions for
society. It
on the
particularly important for the intellectual
—
a
later
development of
literary activity
and scien-
Conrad Celtis, Peter Roizjusz, and others arriving in Poland in comparatively large numbers but also did so for such talented people of poorer social origins as Klemens Janicki. Polish rulen, like those in Western Europe, placed their most gifted subjects in posts at court. Sigismund I had secretaries such as Jodok Ludwik Decjusz, Andrzej Krzycki, Jan Dantyszek, and, finally, Bernard Wapowski, almost all of them outstanding writers of this time. The fact of being close to the monarch and experiencing his constant care, which itself assured a secure existence, prompted in a number of such people tific
research
the desire to repay
part of foreigners
him
for his favoun.
Filippo Buonacorsi,
That
is
why
Uterature during Sigismund's
reign abounds in eulogistic works, chiefly in poetic form. heritage of eulogistic work,
quaUty, been undertaken so
'
mosdy
iacinski
w
Biograftstyka staropolska
Zygmunta Surego
general account of this its
quantity and
far.'
Only minor observations have been devoted
H. Dziechcinska.
A
written in Latin, has not, despite
Dluzewski, Okolicznosciowa poezja poUtyczna
tret literacki
—
w
to this subject, as in the following:
w Polsce,
w latach 1476-1627 225-234.
Nowak-
(Wroclaw, 1971); A. Budzisz, "Por-
epigramacie polsko-laciiiskim
kulturze Europy (Poznan, 1997),
J.
Part 2: Czasy Zygmutttowskie (Warsaw, 1966);
XVI
w.," in Epigramat grecki
i
SIGISMUND IN WAPOWSKI'S CHRONICA POLONORUM
188
As already indicated, Renaissance prose
as
well
as verse.
eulogistic literature in
Such works were not always
tion of the monarch; indeed, such laudes personae are
teenth century.
The
first
Poland includes works of devoted to the glorifica-
entirely
more
characteristic
half of the sixteenth century gave the reader
of the seven-
works
that
had
of artistic point of view and where eulogistic comment was not of a kind
a precision
to offend a humanist reader sensitive to the artistic principle of decorum. Respect for
the
monarch who was
ical truth.
This
is
also the writer's
patron was combined with respect for histor-
to be seen in over sixty historical
century Poland, and one of the authors of
this
works
that appeared in sixteenth-
kind of historiography
is
Bernard
Wapowski.
Wapowski was born most probably
in
1450 in Radochoiice, near Cracow. In
1493 he and Nicholas Copernicus were pupils of Wojciech from Brudzew, an outstanding Polish mathematician. After finishing his studies
Wapowski law
at
for Italy to study there,
left
Bologna. For the following ten years he stayed
and Leo X. In 1515 he returned
mund
I,
receiving the
afflicted
by
ill
fortune.
other countries. At
Poland and began
at
Rome
the
first
University,
He
its
legacy were
Polish cartographer to gain high esteem in
he worked with Marco de Beneveto on
Tabula Sarmatiae (1526—1528) and Mappa in qua
illustrantur ditiones
— have not been
them which had been discovered were destroyed by
a critical study
him
death, he did not
manage
its
the
fire in
author had been writing
to correct
it
and improve
preciated the value of this piece of writing and secretaries a
work
person
for printing.
who would
—
of his
Regni Poloniae ac
The fragments of Warsaw insurrection.
preserved.
His chronicle covering the history of Poland from pre-Christian times suffered a similar fate. Because
II
of Sigis-
died in 1535.
work and
his
Ptolemy's Geographia. However, the maps of Polish territories prepared by
Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae (1526—1528)
canon
the court of Popes Julius
his career at the court
developed in a traditional way,
He was
Cracow
his doctorate in
of Historiographer Royal in 1522.
title
If his career as a cleric
to
at
and in 1505 received
it
until the
it stylistically.
made an attempt
down to 1535 moment of his
Sigismund
to find
I
among
aphis
undertake the arduous task of preparing Wapowski's
There was nobody, however, who would complete the
so the Chronica Polonorum remained in manuscript form.
One
task,
and
complete copy certainly
remained in the possession of the most famous sixteenth-century historian of Polish
and Lithuanian ented by is,
him
history,
Martin Cromer. However, the manuscript which was pres-
to T. Plaza (the editor of Cromer's works)
was already incomplete; that
the part containing the beginning of the chronicle up to 1480 was missing.
Of an-
other manuscript copy only the folios covering the years between 1380 and 1535 re-
mained. Until now, even the part of the Chronica Polonorum that has been preserved has not
been the object of a
critical edition.
The remarks
based on the text of Chronicorum B. Vapovii pars
z Radochoniec, mujqca, ed.
A
J.
posterior
that follow in this paper are .
.
.
Kroniki B. Wapowskiego
kantora katedralnego krakowskiego, cz^ic ostatnia czasy podiugoszowe obej-
Szujski (Cracow, 1874).
precise analysis of
all
the surviving fragments of the
work provides abundant
proof that Wapowski was familiar with the principles of Renaissance historiography. In an extremely vivid, picturesque
way he
presents events
on
battlefields,
and with
AGNIESZKA DZIUBA
189
the accuracy of a chronicler he quotes royal speeches and narrates events taking place at
the royal court.
The hero of the
history in time of peace and less,
war
Pohnorum
Chronica
alongside this collective hero
—
to
individuals (kings, poUticians, leaders, even influential
resents
as
true creators of history
one of the
— an
for the
is
different in
Wapowski
characters other than kings.
work
that
also the
that
em-
style
found
in his
firequendy paid Uttle attention to
perceives not only the events that took place
who
people
by
are treated
undoubtedly rep-
Wapowski's case from
who
first
there appear outstanding
townsmen) who
aspect of the
predecessors (Dlugosz, Miechowita, Decjusz),
PoUsh history but
—
It is its
Neverthe-
of the Renaissance chronicle. Therefore the
features
ployed in descriptions of events
in
the Polish nation.
some degree anonymous, though
time so reahstically presented in Pohsh historiography
the author
is
that Sigismund's royal historian describes.
influenced them. In the course of reporting
events he introduces brief accounts of the characteristics of the people appearing in his narrative. It
should also be noted that a given type of person tends to receive a certain pat-
The
tern of commendation.
epithets that
quendy remain the same and emphasise
Wapowski
Mikolaj Kamienicki's death in 1515 (he was the history),
he describes him
uses to describe leaders
their military first
skills.
great
most
crown hetman
as tnr bellicis artibus praestantissimus (137),
in Polish
and writes about
one of the PoUsh squads during the war with the Turks: "lacobus Sencignovius bellica laude praeclarus,
fudit fijgavitque" (147).
on the
fre-
Thus, while mentioning
vir
miUe equites Tartarorum post anceps cruentumque certamen Other descriptions of commanders and soldiers distinguished
battlefield are, for
example:
vir bellica
laude farrtigeratissimus (81), vir fortis et
disciplinae militariae peritus (172), vir rei bellicae experientissimus (160),
and
vir fortis et rei
militaris peritus (214).
However, Wapowski devotes most of his Sigismund this ruler as
I.
From
his
very
first
attention to his patron
reference to him,
Wapowski
sets
and employer,
out to write about
only in compHmentary terms, out of which he builds up a picture of him
an ideal
rviler,
Christian faith. directly (brief
wise poUtician, courageous commander, and ardent defender of the
The
king's characteristics are simultaneously presented in
two ways:
remarks by the author about the king's virtues, in which epithets are
mostly used in the superlative) and indirecdy (by descriptions of the monarch's
behaviour in particular situations and by quotations from speeches made by him).
The
first
Wapowskiego
remark about Sigismund czqsc ostatnia
(39—40)
Glogow Duchy. Here Wapowski part of Silesia, a region ravaged
is
that appears in Szujski's edition of Kroniki B.
concerned with
how
he took over the rule of the
presents the prince as a providential saviour for this
by packs of brigands and complete lawlessness. The
Duchy, according to Wapowski, is attributable to Sigismund's fame and courage: "Pax inde ei provinciae et vicinis regionibus negociatorestoration of order in the
ribus Ubere citro ultroque
commeantibus
facta est,
non
sine Sigjsmundi principis
nomen et virtus non sine omnium admiratione, iam inde amplificari ac ore omnium celebrari cepit" (40). Another instance of praise for this prince is found in the description of the ceremony of Aleksander I's election as king. Our writer reminds us here of the support that his younger brother received among the ingenti gloria, cuius
SIGISMUND
190
WAPOWSKI'S CHRONICA POLONORUM
IN
gentry gathered in Piotrkow
— support
that could
be prompted (according
Wap-
to
owski) only by the outstanding features of Sigismund's character: "Sigismundus quo-
que Casimiriades
inter fratres iunior in senatu amicos et fautores habuit
indolem, miramque prudentiae, mansuetudinis,
tum opinionem" his
monarch
(45).
Numerous
attributes
iustitiae
ob egregiam
aliarumque heroicarum virtu-
with which Wapowski generously credits
{e.g.,fortissimus rex [81], prudentissimus rex [102], excelsi atque invicti animi
rex [109], vigilantissimus rex [196], optimus et dementissimus princeps [206]) represent di-
rect evaluations
of Sigismund.
In addition to such direct praise there appear descriptions of situations in
the king
is
which
presented in the most positive fashion. Most frequently, each of these
situations illustrates
one of the
virtues of the ideal
monarch. Thus the account of the
year 1508, during which the Poles were engaged in war with
with words about the king's piety.
Upon
his return to Vilnius
Moscow, concludes he immediately gave
diem
the order to celebrate thanksgiving services: "Sigismundus rex ad Divi Martini
Vilnam tis
ingressus,
ob rem contra Moscovitas
ac Tartaros eo
ad omnia templa et aras supplicationibus,
laudes decantari multa
omnium hilaritate
Deo Optimo Maximo
mandavit"
of Vienna in 1515, lauding
man, and majestic power gress.
Beyond
as
his erudition, political
compared with
gratias egit, et
Wapowski finds particularly account he gives of the Con-
(83).
convenient opportunities for praising Sigismund in the gress
anno bene gestam, indic-
wisdom, dignity
as a states-
Con-
that of other rulers gathered at the
the description of the king's conduct during preparations for that
gathering, the proceedings themselves or the ceremonies at their conclusion, our
chronicler notes the conversations between the king and the in
which the Jagieilonian
tian country:
"Sigismundus
tudine singulari,
nunquam
Rex sententiam rogatus, se in fide et virtute
Se
Regno
se,
quo ille iuberet intrepide, ducturum Wapowski, quoting Sigismund's
"Ad haec Sigismundus Rex
Sigismund's virtues described
ut est prudentia et animi magni-
Maximiliani Caesaris haesitasse
dixit.
Vladislaum fratrem
se
et eius liberos"
[.
.
.]
utterances, emphasises his fluency in Latin .]" [132]). Another of [. which he displayed during the portrayed as the most munificent of the
latino eloquio respondit
.
the royal generosity
is
congress of monarchs at Vienna, rulers:
I,
suo egressum, ut tanti Principis conspectu et colloquio frueretur, iturum
(133). (e.g.,
Emperor Maximilian
presents himself as a prudent and sagacious king of a Chris-
"Muneribus inde Reges
when he
is
inter se certarunt amplissimis, quibus etiam trium
Regnorum Proceres sunt expleti, eorum Regum munificentia. loniae Regis profusae liberalitatis maiestas supra
omnes
In quo Sigismundi Po-
enituit" (134).
We should not be surprised at the strongly eulogistic character of Wapowski's portrayal
of Sigismund,
he followed the route of other humanist chroniclen
as
who
de-
picted their protectors in the most favourable colours, or, in the case of a king, pres-
ented
him
anarchy. that
It
as
an ideal
should
at
comes from our
ruler, a providential
statesman for a country
historian's
pen
is
fairly
schematic in character,
continuing to appear repeatedly in the description of
Wapowski
presented
enthusiasm and
on the verge of
the same time, however, be emphasised that the kingly praise
Zygmunt
as part
I
Stary (Sigismund the Old) without
of the business of only
some
his personality. It
fulfilling his
epithets
seems that
overwhelming
duty towards his
ruler.
AGNIESZKA DZIUBA Although dictated
191
of his Chronicle devoted to the Polish monarch deserve to be seen
parts
by court fashion,
conclusion that
their indisputable
Wapowski makes an attempt
schematism allows us in this
way
significant in the course
as
draw the
his chronicle the
of a higher objectivity. For the beginning of the sixteenth century
was extremely
to
to diminish the importance
of the descriptions devoted to the Jagiellonian ruler and to give traits
still
this
attempt
of Pohsh historiography.
Lublin, Poland
What
A
a Hippopotamus?
is
Problem
Renaissance
in
Taxonomy and
Description
PETER FISHER
should like to take
I
as
ural history section
my starting-point a curious
of the Historia de gentibus
phrase which occurs in the nat-
septentriottalibus
(A Description of the
who wrote this He is describing a strange
Northern Peoples) of Olaus Magnus, the sixteenth-century archbishop
account of his native Sweden and sea-creature in the Baltic,
which he
categorizes
amused reaction
is
hippopotamus and
Then, on
whose
its
surrounding countries.
habits
he compares with those of the hippopotamus,
as piscis Nili Jluminis,^
to smile condescendingly its
habitat,
River Nile. One's
a fish in the
but has very Uttle idea what
it is.
you consider that he has ransacked the ancient classics for a knowledge of animals, and that he must have read, almost certainly
reflection,
great deal of his
in Latin translation, Herodotus's account of this beast^ and Aristotle's,-*
much
the same details, and that of Phny the Elder,*
Aristotle's description
from the
tusks
'
is
snub-nosed.
It
has a
has a
is
which
repeats
based on both. Here
is
mane hke
which just show through, the
Olaus Magnus, Historia de gentibus
a horse,
is
cloven-hoofed Uke an
haunch-bone Uke the cloven-footed animals, tail
of a
septetitrionalibus
1972), 21.38 (767); trans. P. Fisher and H.
Hi^ens. 3
^
Herodotus,
^
Aristode, Historia animalium, 502a, 589a.
pig, the
neigh of a horse and the
(Rome, 1555), vols.
facsimile ed.
(Copenhagen,
(London. 1996-1998), 3:1123.
Historiae, 2.71.
The
Peck: History of Animals, trans. A. L. Peck and D. 1991), 1:101-3. *
which
Historia animalium, in English translation.
The Egyptian hippopotamus ox, and
first
and think that he has heard about the
Pliny, Naturalis historia, 8.39.95.
following translation
M. Balme,
is
based on that of A. L.
3 vols. (Cambridge,
MA,
1965-
WHAT
194
of an
size
must have water
ass. It
A HIPPOPOTAMUS?
IS
not breathe
to live in, but suffocates if it does
air at intervals.
It is
rather doubtful
enough information
Rome
rupeds.^ In
whether
Aristotle
him
to allow
to class
the creature was
had
it
shown
actually seen the animal, but
among warm-blooded, publicly for the
first
he has
viviparous quad-
time in 58 B.C., and
Octavian exhibited one in the arena during the games of 29 B.C.^ Nevertheless Pliny with the added
virtually repeats Aristotle's description,
Just over a century later Aelian classes
it
detail
of its impenetrable skin.
an amphibian, along with otters and
as
crocodiles.'
The
down and
ancient descriptions are passed
the image
becomes vaguer and more
century follows Pliny, calling
it
distorted.
inherited
equusjluminis, a monstrum in oriente of
and height. In the same period the English Franciscan includes under the chapter heading
De
quod ambulandi
friar,
amazing shape
Bartholomaeus AngUcus,
piscibus the information:
Et talium piscium genera sunt antiphidia Isidoro dicta, "eo
by the Middle Ages, but
Vincent of Beauvais in the thirteenth
[i.e.
in terris
amphibia], in Latina dubia, ab
usum
et natandi in aquis
officium
retinet" a natura, ut foce et cocodrilh, castores et hippopotami, id est fluvialis equi, et huiusmodi.*
In
John
Trevisa's rendering,
And
such a manere
latyn, for
fisshe, as
ben water
hors,
as fisshes that
seith,
ben
is
this
becomes:
ycleped antiphidia and dubia in
swymme
yclepid/oce,
in the water,
and holdeth
cocodrilli, castores,
ypotami that
and other suche.'
no doubt here
is
Ysider
he useth to go into the londe and
the office of kynde
There
completed about 1398,
that at the
end of the fourteenth century
seals,
crocodiles,
lumped together under the heading offish. Like botany. Renaissance zoology started as a commentary on classical authors such as Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian, and a good deal of effort was spent in trying to
beavers, and hippopotamuses
were
still all
and animals they had mentioned. Some pursued it as a literary inhke the sixteenth-century Tuscan poet, Paulus Belmissurus of Bologna, who
identify the plants terest,
turned the 1534."^
first
But
two books of Aristode's Historia animalium into elegiac couplets same time people began to collect specimens of plants and
at the
499b.
'
Aristotle, Hist, anim.,
*
Pliny, Nat.
'
Aelian, Historia animalium,
*
from
8.40.96;
Bartholomaeus Anglicus,
Dio 1 1
De
Cassias, Historia
Romana, 51.22.5.
.37.
proprietatibus rerum (Strasbourg, 1505), 13.26; the
quotation
is
Isidore Etym. 12.6.3.
'John '"
hist.,
in
to
Trevisa,
On
the Properties of Things, 3 vols.
Cited in L. Thorndike,
1923-1958),
6:
257.
A
(Oxford, 1975-1998), 1:676.
History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols.
(New York,
.
PETER FISHER Study
fish, birds,
and animals, of
are other accounts
fish to
own
especially of their
each other. Paulus Jovius writes on the
fish to
195
region, and to send examples to
be found
in Italian waters,
and there
be found off Marseille and those to be seen in the
Moselle." In the
Middle Ages Albertus Magnus had recognized
classification
led the
way
by body
to
plan,
vertebrates
i.e.,
Unking structure with the
Aristotle's
system of animal
and invertebrates, and Aristotle had
ftinction
also
of creatures in their environment.
still a long way to go. In his De piscisome attempt is made by GuUlaume Rondelet at a system of classification by appearance, way of Ufe, habitat, and food, and he puts all his salt-water fish in one volume,'^ lumping all the rest into another volume of aquatilia, which includes crustaceans, shellfish, and amphibians, under the last of which are inserted frogs, beavers,
Nevertheless in the Renaissance taxonomy has bus marinis
and crocodiles. '^ Although he writes Pierre
Belon
ter to amphibia quadrupedes vivipara,
Included in gory, and
this section
is
we soon come
monkfish that looks Hke
hippopotamus
a
is
more
a separate
magna ex parte
says are piscium
chap-
consimiles.
the hippopotamus, with seals and beavers in the same cateto the
monk,
amphibious bipeds: all
like a pig or
which
takes
ox than
he has seen
was given
present to the Turkish sultan:
a living
tritons, nereids, naiads,
provided with engaging
right hnes, for as a
and again devotes
aquatilibus,
which he
a monstrum aquaticum,
River Nile, and
in his preface about the different kinds offish,
work of 1553 De
calls his
illustrations.
He
and
calls
a
the
pleasure {gaudere) only in the
its
a horse.
His description
is
now on
the
specimen in Constantinople, which he beheves
Caput huic enorme fiiit, et ad rehqui corporis collationem indecentissimum, quale vaccinum esse diceres, nuUis praeditum comibus, auribus ursinis, brevibus ac subrotundis, oris rictu usqueadeo vasto, ut
num caput aequale potuisset.
leoninum
dentes prorsus equinos, obtusos tamen; oculos ac ut piscibus nullum, aut
superaret: certe
huma-
Patulas habebat nares, labra repanda atque resima,
Unguam
admodum breve: caudam,
dam: reUquum obesissimi cuiusdam porci corpus
praegrandes; collum,
ut porci ac testudines, rotunesse diceres:
pedes
ita
breves,
formam diffissae: quae fundum fluminis inhabi-
ut quattuor a terra digitos vix attolleret; ungulae in porci res
nos inducebant, ut id animal non bene natare, sed
Nih profundo
tare ac passim in
divagari crederemus.'*
[Its head was huge and grotesquely out of proportion with the rest of its body, which you would have said was like an ox's; it had no tusks, but small, roundish ears, Uke those of a bear, and such vast, gaping jaws that they were larger
" Paulus Jovius,
.
.
.
Latinis nominibus piscium,
de Romanis piscibus
appended to
trans,
libellus
gulus, Ichthyologia seu dialogus de piscibus (Cologne,
De piscibus
'^
Gulielmus Rondeletius,
'^
G. Rondeletius, Universae aquatilium
'*
Petrus Belonius,
De
aquatilibus
libri
(Rome,
1524); Petrus Gillius,
of Aelian (Lyons, 1533) 1
540)
(fish in
the Moselle)
marinis (Lyons, 1554), chap. historiae pars altera
duo
De
(fish at Marseille);
1-2 (1-34).
(Lyons, 1555).
(Paris, 1553), 1.4 (22).
Gallicis et
Carolus Fi-
WHAT
196
than a
wide
lion's;
any
its
A HIPPOPOTAMUS?
tumed-up
lips that
its tail
It
had
neck non-existent,
its
like fishes', or at
round, like that of a pig or tortoise; the remainder
of its body you would have said was that of an extremely
fat pig; its feet
were
four toes were only with difficulty lifted from the ground;
its
hooves cloven,
head.
bent back and teeth very like a horse's, but
eyes and tongue very large;
rate quite short;
so short that
human
they would certainly have accommodated a
nostrils,
blunted;
IS
like a pig's. All this leads
not swim well, but
me
on the bottom of the
lives
its
to believe that this animal does river
and wanders about
in the
deep waters of the Nile.]
He
then provides a somewhat fantastic illustration on the opposite page of a hippo
biting a crocodile's
tail.
Significantly, his description caused a
amongst scholars because
it
differed
good
from those of Herodotus and
deal of dispute
Aristotle.
Such was
the tyranny of written authority.
Again in the following year Ippolito Salviani puts certain
work De animalium Pliny, Aelian
totle,
crocodile.
aquatilium historia.
and
However,
their copyists, calling
it
Church
allow
its
list
details
about
it
in his
he has returned to Aris-
just as dangerous to
man
as
the
^^
Because there was some uncertainty about the lic
in his
in the
classification
Middle Ages and Renaissance was
consumption on
fast-days.
in
of the
two minds
seal,
the Catho-
to
whether to
as
According to Grdgas, the corpus of Icelandic law
dating back to the thirteenth century, seal and walrus flesh might only be eaten at the
when meat was allowed as part of the diet.'^ Even so, in some northern commay sometimes have been little else available, and in 1481 we find
times
munities there
Pope
Sixtus
IV granting an application of Magnus Eyolfsson, bishop of
Skalholt, to
allow the Icelanders in his diocese to eat seal-meat in Lent and on other fast-days:
temporibus quadragesime scientie
et aliis
temporibus proprio possint sine scrupulo con-
comedere quendam piscem marinum focam
universaliter dictis temporibus in
[In
Lent and
at
other times they
vulgariter
aliis
diocesibus comeditur.''
may
legitimately,
ence, eat a certain sea-fish, popularly called
seal,
nuncupatum qui
without qualms of consci-
which
is
generally eaten at the
said times in other dioceses.]
Our
Catholic archbishop, Olaus Magnus, discusses
sixteenth century, and, with
what was by now perhaps
this
question in the mid-
a familiar piece
of logic-
chopping, says that although the Church's leaders have constantly brought forward
'^
Hippolytus Salvianus, Aquatilium animalium
tents s.v.
historiae liber
primus
(Rome,
1554), List of con-
Hippopotamus.
"
Grdgas, ed. G. Karlsson, K. Sveinsson,
'^
Diplomatarium Islandicum (Islenzkt fombrevasafn), 16 vols, to date (Reykjavik/ Copenhagen,
1857-
),
9 (1909-1913): 39-40.
and M. Arnason (Reykjavik, 1992), 32.
PETER FISHER reasons for and against
beUeve it
can be regarded
By
its
that if the seal has as fish,
consumption on
197
fast-days,
been caught on land
it
he and other sensible authorities
counts
as
meat, but
and may therefore lawfully be eaten
the latter part of the century
we
the water
if in
such times.**
at
reach the great encyclopaedic natural histories
of Conrad Gesner, pubhshed between 1551 and 1558, and of Ulysse Aldrovandi,
whose massive volumes on
end of the
animals, birds, and fish begin to appear at the
century and continue well into the seventeenth. Both authors supply
known about
each living thing up to their
unicorn or the sea-serpent thrown
in.
own
But there
is
that
all
is
day, with fabulous beasts Like the
no advance
Httle or
in
taxonomy,
and within each major category creatures are merely arranged in alphabetical order. Gesner
still files
pubhshed well
the hippopotamus under aquatilia,^^ though in an edition of 1603,
after his death,
pedes viviparae (because
vandi also includes It
was
left
it
to the
its
it is
correctly
nature designed
in his collection
De
eminent Cambridge
it
removed to
to the class of [bestiae] quadru-
walk rather than swim); and Aldro-
quadrupedibus
naturalist John
digitatis?'^
Ray,
at
the end of the seven-
teenth century, to define fish properly, and to reject squids, crustaceans, molluscs, and, of course, water creatures Uke seals and turtles. So this scholar
produced the two volumes of De
-published under the
name of Francis Willughby,
lected
many of the
fish
formulated. In his introduction
is
on which
notes
previous writers, and gives this
first
it
was based,
Ray
it
was not
his
until 1686,
which he
historia piscium,
deceased fiiend
that a
who had
good working
col-
definition of
deplores the lax use of the term
genuine definition. Fish
when
selflessly
piscis in
are:
ea tantum aquatiha, quae et sanguinea sunt et pinnis natant et pedibus carent, et in aquis
perpetuo degunt, ibidem pariunt, nee
umquam
sponte in siccum
exeunt, aut extra aquas diu vivere possunt.^'
which contain blood, swim by means of fins, have and produce their young there; they dry land of their own accord and cannot hve for very
[only those water creatures
no
feet,
spend
their time in water
all
never come out on to long out of water.]
He specifically excludes firom this family the hippopotamus, tees,
and
all
crocodile, seals,
mana-
other amphibians.
In antiquity there had been several lively and accurate representations of the
hippo, including a frieze
which
on the pHnth of a
statue preserved in the Vatican
Museum, number
depicts seven of these animals in the Nile threatening crocodiles and a
of pygmies in boats. ^ However, since ancient times, until the end of the sixteenth
'*
Olaus Magnus,
" Conradus
^ -'
Historia, 20.7; trans. Fisher
Ulysses Aldrovandus, F.
Willughby,
^ J. M.
and Hi^ens, 3:1038.
Gesnerus, Historia animalium, 3 vols. (Zurich, 1551-1558), 3:495-501.
De
De
quadrupedibus
historia piscium,
C. Toynbee, Animals
in
2
digitalis viviparis
vols.
(Bologna, 1637), 181-94.
(Oxford, 1686),
1.1.
Roman Ufe and Art (London,
1973), 129.
WHAT
198
century few Europeans had seen
A HIPPOPOTAMUS?
IS
this creature,
served in western Europe before 1850,
London Zoo.-^
It is
and no Uving specimen could be ob-
when one
such animal was brought to the
perhaps not then surprising that Belon was taken to task because
account differed from those of Herodotus and Aristotle. In 1531 Vives had con-
his
demned
recommended
the simple acceptance of Aristotle's writings and
a return to
which the Greek philosopher had himself advocated. Yet Gesner and Aldrovandi still gather a huge accumulation of authorities and in medieval
the observational practice
fashion attribute moral qualities to animals. Everything as
piled in: their use as food,
is
medicine, their capture, significance in heraldry, myths and symbolism, synonyms
and etymology; and very
little, if
any, distinction
amphibious monster, voracious and cunning).
(an it is
called a horse),
does
set
down
and in
also the
Fabio Colonna, which
Much find
it
in
stature
it is
shall is
emphasised (which
Its size is
is
why
second only to the elephant. Nonetheless he
come
to shortly.
repeated well into the seventeenth century, and
Robert LoveU's Compleat
we
still
History of Animals and Minerals of 1661, or, as
now
Panzoologicomineralogia, written
it,
rehable and un-
a belua amphibia, uorax et astuta
is
most recent, and most accurate description of this animal by I
of the older lore
prefers to call
made between
is
For Aldrovandi the hippopotamus
reliable authors.
potamus tooth helps with haemorrhoids and
in English:
eases toothache; the ashes
applied with water dissolve spots; a piece of skin from
its
he
wearing a hippoof
its
skin
forehead tied to the groin
of lechery, a remedy we probably have no reason to doubt; its you from being struck by lightning.^* A turning-point however came when two preserved and stuffed hippopotamuses, caught at Damietta in Egypt, were exhibited in Rome in 1601 by the Neapolitan
is
a great discourager
skin also protects
surgeon Federico Zerenghi, and described both by him in
lonna in portrayals
his Ekfrasis de aquatilibus,
and that of Belon only so
observation.
about
detail
He
and appends
he wishes he could have seen
that
he can correct their mistakes from
of it. Nevertheless he
still
it
a realistic
alive
persists in
woodcut
illustration,
However, now
though he
and then he could have drawn
reproducing
much of the
that a trustworthy description
good
for countering
had been it
to Linnaeus to give a scientific description in 1758, and to classify
it as
-^
it
today. Hippopotamus amphibius.^^
Bernhard Grzimek,
ed.,
Someone who
says that
a better picture
people were able to gain a true impression of this curious beast, and
know
own much
his
old medicinal lore, like
Dioscorides' statement that this creature's dried testicles are serpent bites. ^^
and by Fabio Co-
gives an accurate description, including measurements, with
teeth,
its
Italian
published in 1606. Colonna quotes the ancient
circulated,
was only
left
zoologists
apparently did see the
Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 13 vols, to date
(New York,
1972-), 13:116. ^*
R. LoveU,
nANZQOKPYnTOAOriA
sive Panzoologicomineralogia, or
A
Compleat History of
Animals and Minerals (Oxford, 1661), 108-9. ^^
Fabius Columna, Minus cognitamm stirpium
quibusdam paucis -*
libellus
(Rome,
1616),
De
aliquot.
aquatilibus.
.
.
.
hem,
De
aquatilibus aliisque animalibus
Chap. 15 (xxviii-xxxv).
Carolus Linnaeus, Systema naturae, facsimile of fint volume of 10th ed. (1758) (London,
1939), 74.
PETER FISHER
Roman
199
specimens in 1601 was Peter Paul Rubens, for in about 1617 he painted his
Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt, with a very seen from the front, a view which was not lustrations in the
lifelike
shown
depiction of the hippopotamus in
any of the contemporary
il-
books of natural history.^ Anglia Polytechnic University
^ See
A. Balis, Rubens' Hunting Scenes, trans. P.
chard, 18.2
S. Falla,
(London and Oxford. 1986), 72-74, 118-23.
Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Bur-
Bude and
the
Republic of Letters
RICHARD
What
was
it
Kristeller
FRANK
I.
What
that defined humanists?
did they share? In 1955 Paul Oskar
gave an answer: "Thus Renaissance humanism was not
as
such a
philosophical tendency or system, but rather a cultural and educational program
which emphasized and developed an important but limited .
.
.
might be roughly described
as literature
phase in what
derstood
as a characteristic
Western
culture."' Humanists, then,
.
.
.
area of studies. This area
Renaissance humanism must be un-
may be
called the rhetorical tradition in
were students of
Uterature, but with a differ-
ence: "It was the novel contribution of the humanists to add the firm belief that in or-
der to write and to speak well
it
was necessary to study and to imitate the ancients."^
Humanists, then, were part of an old rhetorical tradition, and anything distinctive in short;
it
was an emphasis on Greek and
no more. Such was
Kristeller's conclusion,
if
they stood for
Latin. Educational reformers,
and
his authority has
made
it
the
dominant view today. Humanists, however, would have disagreed. As witness the long letter written by GuUlaume Bude to Erasmus in November of 1516. These two men were, with Juan Luis Vives and Thomas More, the recognized leaders of humanists all over Europe.'
Bude's
letter therefore deserves close attention.
Bude had evaluation.
sent Erasmus a
Erasmus repHed
copy of his new book, De in a letter
considering in this paper gives Bude's response. cisms, the
more
his response
'
24;
P.
first ^
O.
he
so perhaps because they says a great deal
Kristeller, Renaissance
asse,
with some sharp
He
were justified. In any
Its
Sources, ed.
Kristeller, Renaissance
Thought and
Its
Sources,
letter
case, in the
common
a frank
we
MA,
are
criti-
course of
with Erasmus and
M. Mooney (New York,
published in The Classics and Renaissance Thought (Cambridge,
'Juan Luis Vives,
The
was troubled by Erasmus's
about what he had in
Thought and
and asked him for
criticisms.
1955).
24-25.
In Pseudodialecticos, ed. Charles Fantazzi (Leiden, 1979), vii.
1979),
22-
BUDE AND THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS
202
other humanists. Three themes emerge:
aims,
(1) style, (2)
and
(3) friendship.
Let us
consider each.
Erasmus had raised the question of style, arguing that De
(1)
Latin so difficult ty of time for as
could be understood only by readers
it
and were wiUing "to give
it,
the author expended in writing
it.'"*
as
much
asse
who were
effort to
was written in
erudite,
a
had plen-
understanding the text
Furthermore, continues Erasmus, the book
of digressions. They are learned and very interesting, but many a reader will "What does this have to do with the subject?" ("Quid ista ad Assem?")^ (2) Bude answers these criticisms directly, but links the question of style to that of aims, his second theme. Yes, he says, it is true that my book is written in a difficult is full
say,
In
style.
that
it
"enigmatic," but that was done on purpose. "I realized at the time
fact, it is
was to
my
way
in such a
advantage that
that
could deny
I
paucis intelligerer").^
Church
fact that the
when
selves
The is
I
should be understood only by a few, and indeed
mea
it" ("Sic referre
reason for
id temporis existimabam, ut a
continues Bude, was that
this,
instead they should be dedicating themselves to the things
us to Heaven.' In other words, he was saying things that could get
But
point he takes a
at this
I
deplored the
involved in wars, and that priests seek ways to enrich them-
new
tack.
The
which bring
him punished.
controversial ideas he has advanced are
what Erasmus himself has published: "If someone should compare our writings, he might well conclude that I took my ideas from you, for I say almost exactly the same things about these matters as you do ('eadem de re eadem very similar, he
says, to
When I read your essays 'On the Sileni' and 'War Is Sweet To Those Have Not Experienced It,' which you have given as a first installment on your promised book Against War, I find that we express the same ideas, although in differprope dicam').
Who
ent genres."*
Therefore, concludes Bude, the only difference between us things in a controversial and light manner, whereas
—
them
in the
important. For (3)
Next,
manner of an
it is
after a
clear that
few
orator.^ If
my
Paris,
say
is
pleasantries about
Dame
is
them
style:
—
Poverty,
certe
Bude
you
say certain
or, rather,
not to your
our aims are the same: Eodent
third theme: friendship. Francois Deloynes, an
ment de
style
I
I
shout
not
taste, that is
tendimus.^^
abruptly turns to his
eminent jurist, member of the Parle-
and patron of humanists, wiU soon write to Erasmus because,
says
Bude,
I
often
show your
strate to
''
my
letters to
friends that
P. S. Allen, ed.,
Opus
him, and to
we
good
are
many
others as well, so as to
friends, for
^
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum,
''
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum, 2:394,
'
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum,
#493,
*
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum,
#493,
lines
158-160.
'
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum,
#493,
lines
207-209.
Allen,
Opus
by
this
demon-
means
epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami (Oxford, 1910), 2:369,
236-239.
'"
it is
epistolamm,
#480,
#493,
line 259.
#493, lines
lines
lines
124-128.
163-154.
239-240.
that
#480,
I
lines
RICHARD
my
maintain
among
standing
those
FRANK
I.
men who
203
consider you the Varro of our
age."
Another friend
is
mentioned, Louis Ruze,
patron of humanists, and then
also a leading jurist
Bude concludes with
and high
official
and
a remarkable statement:
amicorum coeo, si per te hcet, praesertim cum tuum feceris; ut iam sit illud inter nos pachis verbis bona fide conceptum.'^
Itaque iam tecum societatem
me
etiam ipsum, non meos tantum,
tum non [And
vulgaris amicitiae
so with
your help we form
my
made me
as
ship but
one based on
well
as
this
In what follows
have
bound is
by
to each other
to acquire
European
And
we have wiH be
we
"whatever
clear that
it is
group of scholars
a
is
of fiiends, the more so
friends.
this
is
who
we
firiend-
acquire will be
acquire" refers to knowledge. So what equals ("fiiends"),
as
direct or indirect ties ("fiiends in
and share knowledge. Here
you have
common.]
held in
each other
treat
as
not an ordinary
solemn agreement: whatever
shared, and whatever friends
we
a society
your
friends
we meet
who
the beginners of something
new
emergence of which we celebrate in the theme of
civihzation, the
feel
common"), and whose aim in
this
Congress, the Republic of Letters.
The
origins of the
RepubUc
are connected with the origins of Renaissance
manism, the rediscovery of classical to Poggio BraccioUni to praise
Manilius, as well
assistance than ever
that
is
who
the earUest
other
as
texts.
him
for bringing to light his
classical texts:
and finer ornaments to
known
use of the term.'"
ences to
show
letters";
that not only the
Erasmus writes
that
among
work:
'*
nowhere
"On
" "
Letters."'^
At present
clearly referred to those
term but
printed there are
is
also the
Its
numerous
refer-
group was well estabhshed. Thus
in less esteem than here,
owing
who
to the lack
has asked
the merits of Bude a judgment has long since been
men
of learning."'^ Thomas
Allen,
Opus
epistolamm,
#493,
lines
412-415.
Allen,
Opus
epistolamm,
#493,
lines
432^36.
P.
Gordan, Two Renaissance Book Hunters
So
stated
by Elizabeth
137, n. 287 (citing Gordan, '*
first it
opponents were uneducated. In the volume of
its
the nobility."'^ Later he writes to Bude,
leaders (senatus) of
" "
the
he does not expect advancement in Prince Charles's court be-
cause "good letters are
"
Republic of
this
From
Erasmus's correspondence in which Bude's letter
his
works of Lucretius and
achievements have brought "more
strove for "the revival of ancient learning," in other words, the humanists.'^
members honored "good
tion
hu-
In 1417 Francesco Barbaro of Venice wrote
Kristeller, Renaissance
(New York,
Eisenstein, The Printing Press
Two
More
As
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum,
Allen,
Opus
epistolarum, 2:368,
Its
Sources,
2:255-256, #421.
#480,
lines
136-138.
216-217.
pronounced by the
writes to Erasmus about his
1974), 197, 199.
31-32.
lines
of educa-
to evaluate
an Agent of Change (Cambridge. 1979),
Renaissance Book Hunters).
Thought and
him
BUDE AND THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS
204
work soon even those
be published
Utopia that
as
it
may be approved by men of learning,
whatever their power they have ignoramuses [nebu-
equals and superiors."'^
lones] as
The
to
in high places, "since
association of
was widespread. Thus
res
with
publica litterarum
— with humanism —
classical texts
his good friend, Juan Dream of Scipio, had "labored valiantly for the litterariae reipublicae."^^ By the early sixteenth century humanists formed the New Class of European society. They staffed the embassies, chanceries, and bu-
a
contemporary of Erasmus, and indeed
Luis Vives, said that Macrobius, in preserving the
reaucracies of the Renaissance state, and they trained similar roles. Equally important
is
what they were
men
in the universities to play
Old
Class, the aristocrats
"good
letters," valor rather
not, the
trained for hunting and warfare, valuing birth rather than
Members of the Republic of Letters rejected So they were more than educational reformers.
than philosophy.
above
all.
One
clear indication of
of Pierre Bayle.
When
the old values, warfare
what the humanists stood for comes
he was forced to
flee
later,
from the career
from France by the repressive
of
policies
Louis XIV, he went to Rotterdam and, in 1684, founded a journal to voice opposition to the old regime of kings and aristocrats: and he called that journal Nouvelles de la
Republique des
Lettres.
That publication marks the appearance of a new and impor-
tant force in Europe: civil society.
looked back to the humanists
And
in
choosing the
title
he did, Bayle explicitly
as his precursors.^"
humanists were precursors of civil society, then the significance of that term some attention. It was first used by Hegel in his Philosophy of Right (1821), in which he opposed it to the political society of the state. The state/civil society opposition was adopted by Marx and Marxists, and has recently been revived in poIf the
deserves
litical studies,
in particular
gling to recover Civil society
—
ironically
—
in
connection with the countries strug-
from communist regimes.^* is
important because
it
encompasses the independent institutions
strong enough to prevent the state from dominating and atomizing society. ^^ characteristic
of modern, post-feudal
societies.
Under feudalism
society because the political realm was all-pervasive: as distinct
What
from the
state.
united humanists like Erasmus, Bude, and also a desire to use that
society. Erasmus's Praise of Folly it
Allen,
no
talk
of civil society
More was
not only a passion for
knowledge
to
reform their
violently attacks hunting, the favorite sport of aristocrats and their
Opus
a
civil
epistolarum, 2:372,
own
denounces the cruelty and waste of war; even more
of training for war: "Even the dung of dogs,
'*
is
It is
no
"^'
knowledge of Antiquity, but significant,
"There
there was
#481,
lines
I
am
sure, smells
way
hke cinnamon
to
64-70.
''Juan Luis Vives, Opera Omnia, ed. G. Mayans (Valencia, 1745; repr., London, 1964), 5:107. 2" ^'
D. Goodman, The Republic of Letters (Ithaca, 1994), 12-14. Z. Pelczynski, The State and Ciuil Society (Cambridge, 1984), 1-13; E. Gellner, Conditions
of Liberty (London, 1994), 1-9.
^ ^^
Gellner, Conditions of Liberty, 5. Gellner, Conditions of Liberty, 55.
RICHARD
1.
them." As for More, he decUned to pubUsh
"what
have written
I
is
FRANK his
205
correspondence with Bude because
not suflSciently cautious and guarded to expose
it
to
my
ene-
mies." His Utopia, like the Praise of Folly, sketches a society very different from the
Europe of his
day.^*
So when the humanists created "a society of friends," standing together participants in a cultural project, institutions
and standing apart from the dominant
of their day, they were laying the foundations of a
they fostered the transition in Europe from medieval to takes us ciety
from "the
among but we
fantasies
the sons of
can understand
it
as
of the Middle Ages" and made the
modem
civil society.
modem
back to Jakob Burckhardt's view of the humanists
Italians
equal
which
and
In this
civihzation.
the class
That
led so-
"the first-bom
Europe."" The great Swiss historian had the
better
as
classes
right idea,
now. University of California-Irvine
" R.
P.
Adams. 77k
Better Part of Valor (Seattle. 1962).
45-46 (Erasmus on hunting), 186-187.
141 (sharp contrast).
^ W.
Ferguson, The Renaissance
in Historiad
Thought (Cambridge.
MA.
1948). 189-192.
A
Renaissance Treatise on Time: Lilio Gregorio GiraldVs
De
annis et mensibus
MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN
Leandro Albert! characterized Lilio Gregorio GiIn his Descrittione an exceptionally erudite man with an exceptional memory: "Credo che di tutta Italia,
raldi as
pochi huomini hora (senza adulatione io dico) cognitione, tanto di lettere Grece
come
se ritrovano
da eguahare a
Oltre di cio,
latine.
lui nella
tanta tenacita di
e, di
memoria (che penso) che queUo havera letto una volta sempre gU sia presente" ("I that few men today (and I say this without adulation) can equal him in knowledge of Greek as well as Latin letters. In addition to this, he possesses such a
beheve
tenacious
memory
that
(I
think) that if he has read something once,
it is
on ancient rehgion,
is
works
for his dialogues discussing his contemporaries, his other scholarly
attention for the originality of their subjects. partibus Dissertatio facilis et expedita, una is
a case in point, highly
Andrea
sought
three letters asking a friend to send
it
copy.^ Giraldi's book, a bewildering science, treatise
is
•
annis
Leandro Alberti,
was cited
own
in Giraldi's
See Alciad's
et
et
also merit
mensibus, caeterisque temporis
Romano
et
Graeco (Basel, 1541)
time but largely forgotten today. it
that
he wrote
to him. Francois Rabelais heavily annotated his
compendium of ancient philosophy,
not merely a discourse on calendars,
De
annis
calendario
its
on the ancient experience of time,
Before
'
cum
after in
De
example, was so anxious to procure a copy of
Alciati, for
forever with
mosdy known today to historians of art for his discourse De dels gentium, and is mosdy admired by historians of literature
him.")' Although Giraldi
it is
as its tide intimates.
lore,
Rather,
and as a
unique in Renaissance scholarship.
mensibus, essentially three types of
Descrittione di tutta Italia (Bologna, 1550),
works took time
313
v. Alberti's praise
as their
of Giraldi
Opera Omnia.
letters to
Bonifacio Amerbach in Gian Luigi Bami, ed., Le
ato giureconsulto (Florence, 1953), nos. 124, 127, 134. Rabelais' ello, Storia del calendario
(Turin, 1994), 81-82.
copy
is
lettere di
discussed
Andrea AUi-
by Francesco Mai-
A RENAISSANCE TREATISE
208 main
subject.
The
longest tradition
that of the
is
ON TIME computus, a type of
how
veloped in the early Middle Ages which explained
computus provided not only astronomical formulas and mathematical of relevant units of time such
also explanations
of the day. The most important of these read by Giraldi, though he certainly late in date to
the genre.
Mainly in the thirteenth century, totle's analysis
principles,
but
by Bede, was probably not
Most computuses were too
"•
be taken seriously by Giraldi, though he
Macrobius, Dionysius Exiguus, and Isidore of
de-
the year, month, day, and fractions
as
treatises, that
knew
treatise
reckon the calendar.' The
to
cites their sources,
including
Seville.
a philosophical literature
of time in the fourth book of the
developed around Aris-
Physics, read
through the
filters
of
Averroes and Avicenna. Thomas Aquinas contributed to
this literature, as
ham. Duns Scotus, Bonaventure, and Roger Bacon. The
scholastic philosophers ad-
how it relates
dressed questions such as whether time exists,
movements measure time in
time.^
and
his Confessions,
They were
when
viewed these
movement, and which
refuting Augustine's analysis of
it
evidenced by his intromeaning of tempus. Curi-
is
discussing the
to include Augustine's point
haps because he did not consider to have
to
Ock-
especially his contention that only present time exists.
duction of these theoretical questions
he neglects
upon
with such Aristotelian commentaries
Giraldi's familiarity
ously,
intent
did
of view (which he surely knew), per-
representative of any ancient doctrine.
He appears
scholastic questions as pertinent to ancient Aristotelian philoso-
phies of time.
A third type of time discourse which came of age in the Renaissance derived from antiquarian literature attempting to explain the Greek and
among
these efforts
is
Theodore Gaza's De mensibus
before Giraldi was writing.
When
discussing the
Roman
Greek
calendars.
Notable
published several times
atticis,
calendar, Giraldi cites
Gaza
him on most points, though always supplying the ancient other modern treatise on ancient calendars is cited, though
repeatedly, agreeing with
No
sources Gaza used.^
he
refers to
to the
other antiquarian works such
works of modern poets such
as
as
Poliziano's Miscellanea, and occasionally
Antonio Tebaldeo and Giovanni Pontano
(in
particular his Urania).
^
On
the computus, see Faith Wallis's introduction in Bede. The Reckoning of Time. (Liverpool,
1999); and the critical edition of the
same
1943), updated as Bedae Venerabilis Opera
CCSL 123B
Jones, •
Although he
text 6,
by Charles Jones, Opera de Temporibus (Cambridge, 2: De Temporum Ratione, ed. C. W.
Opera Didascalia,
(Turnhout, 1977). Wallis and Jones both cites
Bede, he seems to have
known
cite
most
earlier bibliography.
only Bede's world chronicle (chapter 66
of Bede's computus which had been published separately
in
Venice
in
1
505) and his
De
rerum
natura. ^
On
questions of time in scholastic philosophy, see Anneliese Maier, Scienza e filosofia net
medioevo (Milan, 1984), 155-267, and Helen
S.
Lang,
Aristotle's Physics
and
its
Medieval
Varieties (Al-
bany, 1992). '
Gaza
On
estimation, Gaza, "vir ret."
John Monfasani, "L'insegnamento di Teodoro Marco Bertozzi (Ferrara, 1994), 5—17. In Giraldi's cum Graece tum Latine erudissimus elaboravit, ut eorum ordinem ostende-
Theodore Gaza's
activities in Ferrara, see
a Ferrara," in Alia corte degli
De
mensibus
atticis
estensi, ed.
had been published
cently in Basel in 1536.
several times before Giraldi
began
his treatise,
most re-
MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN drew from
Giraldi
computus
method
his
scope
grand sense of
is
and
much
his task to
he may be closest to Aristotle and his commentators, though and antiquarian rather than philosophical. The third-century
parts,
its
historical
is
work De
author Censorinus, with his single
though
closest to the antiquarians,
is
it is
speculative definitions
a single text or a single calendar. In his overall
define time and his
any of them. In organization,
which often include
treatises
etymologies. In approach, he
wider than
How-
of these sources for both content and organization.
all
ever, his treatise does not share a purpose with closest to the
209
die natali,
perhaps provides Giraldi's closest
model, but even he concentrates on calendrical
and
units,
his
book
contains
all
kinds of other material.
Composed
1539 and
in
was part of his
eflfort
book on time
fint published in 1541, Giraldi's antiquarian
to reintegrate himself into Ferrarese society.
Having
sought
first
his fortvmes outside of his native city, Giraldi suflfered several tragedies: first the death
of his patron. Cardinal Ercole Rangone, during the Sack of Rome of 1527, and second, the murder of his dear friend Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola in 1533. At the time Giraldi had been living in Pico's house and barely escaped with his Ufe.
Having thus
everything
lost
turned to Ferrara. cole
II
Upon
De
d'Este.'
— including
his
books
—
a
second time, Giraldi re-
his return, his first serious publications
annis
et
mensibus was
dedicated to Ercole's heretical wife,
Giraldi's dedication stresses his book's general utility for
authors.
He
notes that his appendix
were dedicated
on ancient
all
to Er-
Renee.
readers of the ancient
calendars could aid chronologers
and
calendar reformers Uke Johannes Stoeffler and Johannes Lucidus Samotheus. Giraldi's
De
annis et mensibus
his
is
only book which could conceivably have been of direct
relevance to the church, then in the throes of reforming the JuUan calendar.
author remains
distant,
does not even offer the coherent synthesis of information promised by his
gies.
He
title.
Seeking to
and
citations,
without
draw
his
The
however, firom the actual production of historical chronolo-
clarify the
he
analysis.
or her
own
reader
as
world through examples
is
silently invited to
pursue the problem
fiirther
and to
conclusions.*
Giraldi seems to have
what he viewed
in the ancient
pieces of evidence, often contradictory, and usually
many
offers
The
meaning of time
been
less
interested in the history of ideas than in presenting
the simultaneous divergence of ideas
the ancient experience of time.
He
which
collectively illustrate
begins with a long philosophical discourse
concepts of aevum, eternity, and time. Noting that
on the
other parts of time flow firom
all
He may
these notions, Giraldi attempts to describe time's essential character.
have
gotten the idea of framing his discourse in these speculative philosophical terms firom
Censorinus, whose
^
phy
Much
is
De
of Giraldi's
by Gian Andrea
life
Giraldi quotes at length
first
text
he
story can be gleaned
from
his dedications.
die natali
Barotti,
is
Memorie
the
cites.
previous biographers. See also Girolamo Tiraboschi, Storia
*
Study
A
La
storia
rinasdta del sapere, ed. Patrizia Castelli (Ferrara, 1991),
nice example of Giraldi's approach has been cited by
in the History
substantial biogra-
1777),
who
della Letteratura Italiana
7:1133-1142 and 1853-1854 and Claudio Moreschini, "Per una Ferrara," in
The only
istoriche di letterati ferraresi (Ferrara,
also cites
all
(Venice, 1824)
dell'umanesimo latino a
168-188.
Anthony Grafton, Jw«p/«
of Classical Scholarship (Oxford, 1993) 2:168-169.
from
Scaliger.
A
ON TIME
A RENAISSANCE TREATISE
210
Censorinus on the concept o{ aevum: future to give to the past) and
its
limitlessness,
its
incomprehensibility.
its
mobility
Wearing
(it
"steals"
from the
his philological hat,
terms such as aeternitas, though the extent of the evidence which he beyond ordinary philology. Also beyond philology is his incorporation of ancient symbolism. In the case of the snake biting its tail, a combined aevum, he mentions several Egyptian figures hieroglyph of the sun and moon, and the self-sufficient phoenix which feeds from its own flesh and one Greek figure which he reproduces. This Greek figure, which Giraldi claims to have found in old Greek manuscripts, is a circle divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant is marked by a line protruding inward. As in the case of
he discusses offers
sister
well
is
—
—
many of
the passages he quotes, Giraldi does not offer an interpretation of these
symbols.
His discussion of the relationship between eternity and time Again, he includes widely diverging opinions but soever to
this chaotic
is
equally delphic.
reluctant to give any order
is
mass of philosophical commentary.
He
what-
does not even distin-
guish between literary genres, treating poetry, philosophy, science, and visual symbols equally and in direct relation to one another. "pars
quaedam
aetemitatis."^
He
cites
He
cites
Posidonius, for
Cicero, for
whom time was
whom
time
is
an incorporeal
movement. He notes that the mythological figure of Saturn, from celestial (eternal) movement. After more fragmentary definitions, Giraldi launches into a long-argued scholastic problem taking Aristotle's Physics IV as its point of departure: would time still exist even if heavenly motion stopped? Narrative examples from the Bible and ancient history would argue that time cannot be defined as the motion of celestial bodies. Many more philosophical fragments follow, from Plato for whom time is eternity's moving
interval of the world's
child of Caelus, implies time's derivation
image, to Jerome for cident:
whom time
"tempus item per
se
non
amends and est."'*'
preserves, to Lucretius's time as an ac-
Although they remain unordered,
Giraldi's
and diligence in amassing these divergent opinions about time and eternity are
zeal
also unparalleled.
tradition,
The
Many
of these statements, while
existential sections are
— and moving on
early medieval writers.
He
to scholars of the classical
a single treatise.
followed by discourses on segments or "spaces" of
time, beginning with Varro's three epochs historical
known
had never before been brought together in
— the
antediluvial, the mythical,
and the
to other kinds of epochal divisions used by ancient and
discusses various opinions about the world's age as well as
the smaller divisions of time
which can be
identified with greater precision.
These
include the era, age, century. Jubilee, indiction, lustrum, year, the tempus or season,
month, day {including fasti and hour. Treating each division the
nefastt),
as a separate
hour,
moment, and other
fractions
problem, Giraldi proceeds by
first
of the
defining
discussed. The more complicated and muddled the more diverging quotations he gives. His often conflicting quotations
meaning of the term being
concept, the
point to problems in calculation and comprehension
'
"*
Giraldi, Giraldi,
as
well
as
to disjunctures in
De annis et mensibus, 4 (from Cicero's De inventione 1.26). De annis et mensibus, 1 (from Lucretius, De remm natura 1.459-60).
MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN
we
philosophy." As
he has
after
have seen in the case of tempus, he
satisfactorily
etymological evidence. horae, the
211
cites
many
authors.
explained the range of meaning of the concept does he
Many
terms receive no etymology. Mostly,
as in
Only oflfer
the case of
etymological material serves to enrich the mystical texture of the word.
Macrobius horas
appellatas
&
Serapidi dicatum,
quod horus
ait,
vero Victorinus Trismegistus
ait,
sol dicatur, a
quo horae. Marius
cum esset in Aegypto sacrum quoddam animal urinam
in toto die duodecies
fecisset, pari
semper
inter-
diem dimensum
esse, coniecisse,
& exinde hunc
horarum numerum emanasse, atque ideo horae
dictae ab urina,
hoc
posito tempore, per XII. horas
.
.
Ahi horas
.
ita
est, [owro^]
inventas tradunt. Coeli, ajunt, quadraturam in partes
duode-
cim pro ratione musica dividi, & inde horarum manasse rationem, & aquam quae ex tenuissima cavema diffluebat, cum per totum diem excepissent, hanc in
duodecim partes
am
However,
some
in
diviserunt, ex quibus horis
cases such as
aevum (from "aetate
Varro), the etymology merely reinforces the
A pels
unique sHce of the ancient world and
him back
nomen impositum,
quibus horas dimetiebantur, clepsydrae
vasis ipsis,
into his
own
times.
When
omnium annorum"
meaning already
its
terminology, Giraldi's topic also pro-
—
view that the world was crebetween those of Varro, Plato, and Cicero. Since he is writ1539, this epoch had lasted 6739 years. '^ Similarly, when discussing
ated in 5200 B.C.
book
in
according to
discussed.
discussing epochs and the age of the world,
for example, Giraldi inserts the canonical Christian
ing the
atque inde eti-
& hydrologia nuncupata.'^
—
in
the concept ofJubilee, he compares the Christian hundred-year version to the earlier
Hebrew one of fifty secula
years,
noting that the Christians had rationalized theirs with the
He
describes various changes in the length of the Christian
of pagan origin.
Jubilee, ending with Paul
was that few
men
II's final
attain age fifty,
Giraldi mentions the
change to twenty-five
years.
The
official rationale
but the ulterior motive was to increase revenues.
two Jubilees he himself celebrated, under Alexander VI in 1 500 this personal note with a mention of
and under Clement VII in 1525, concluding Charles V's sacking the the insertion of these
Besides informing posterity about his
city.
comments on contemporary
time and time reckoning are
human
own
chronology,
practices reinforces the notion that
inventions with no great mystery or divine sanc-
tion behind them. It is
precisely because these ideas
and definitions of time are human inventions
that they risk being lost or misunderstood.
By
the time Giraldi was writing, for
example, the fractional divisions of the hour were in the process of revision.
" Discussing the
Janus 's
Romulan
first
'^
Giraldi,
'^
Giraldi,
De De
atinis et
mensibus, 183-184.
annis et mensibus, 9-10.
(specifically the Christian era, 66)
composition.
old
calendar which had only ten months, Giraldi argued that January
month, because Janus was around before Saturn. He two faces representing the old and new yean as support.
was the
The
and
At two other points
epacta (129)
—
uses the graphic evidence
— when
of
discussing the term aera
Giraldi also notes the date
of the
treatise's
A RENAISSANCE TREATISE
212
medieval divisions (probably created gradually being replaced by the
how
as
ON TIME
analogies to other measuring systems)
modem
sixty-minute hour. Giraldi did not
the ancients measured small units of time, and assumed that the medieval divi-
sions in
some way
ancient measuring systems.*''
not been preserved, and then
still
His discussion
reflected earHer traditions.
contentment in what he perceived
as his culture's
It also reflects his
awareness of the
his
suspicion that
modem
duntur.
much
information has
minute, the use of which was
restricted to the astronomical sciences.
"Tempora momentis,
tum."'^
a certain
reflects
preservation of some parts of these
Giraldi begins his discussion of the fractions of the list:
were
know
hour with Isidore of
Seville's
horis, diebus, mensibus, armis, seculis aetatibusque divi-
Momentum est minimum atque angustissimum tempus a motu siderum dicTwo more Hsts of the hour's subdivisions follow, both of which ultimately
derive from computus treatises: "Alii tempus distinguunt: seculum, aetas, annus, mensis, hebdomas, dies, quadrans, hora, punctum, divisions
were
still
He
dirimunt."'*
to his is
list
momentum, uncia, atomus." The common: "sunt ex nostris qui ita
that
then explains the lengths of these units without citing ancient
adding the indiction
Rome) and
though probably not
in use,
(a fifteen-year
the lustrum
(a
segment used for tax purposes in
texts,
late antique
four-year or five-year segment deriving from the Greeks)
during the explanations, probably because the antiquity of these quantities
undisputed.
primum, quam mille annorum esse dicunt. Deinde in seculum, quod centum annorum. In indictionem, quam XV annorum statuunt. In lusIn aetatem
trum, quae Graecis in
annum
dividunt,
in tres menses.
quem
Menses
in quadrantes quatuor.
puncta.
olympias, quae perfectos quatuor annos continet.
est
in
in quatuor horas vel
hebdomadas quatuor. Hebdomadas
Quadrans in sex horas
Tum
tempora distinguunt. Tempus
dividitur.
in dies VII. Dies
Porro hora in quatuor
Punctum in decem momenta. Momentum, quod
& momen apud anti-
quos vocitatum videmus, in uncias duodecim. Uncia in XLVII atomos. Atomos vero, ut
'^
vox
ipsa indicat, dividi ac secari in partes
Paul Tannery, "Sur
iques 11
les
non
potest.
'^
subdivisions de I'heure durant I'Antiquite," in idem, Mhnoires
scientif-
(Toulouse, 1912), 517-526, also believed that some of these medieval units had distant
antique roots. Tannery also discusses the Greek circular symbol reproduced in Giraldi.
De annis et mensibus, 11. Isidore's definition (Etymologiae 5.29) was partly lifted fi-om De doctrina Christiana 2.22: 20-21: "neque enim ad rem pertinet, quod dicunt ipsum momentum minimum atque angustissimum temporis, quod geminorum partum disterminat, mul'^
Giraldi,
Augustine,
tum
valere in
"
rerum natura atque caelestium corporum rapidissima
velocitate."
De annis el mensibus, 11. After Giraldi, these units appear in a 1569 Venetian Sacerdotale and in Tomaso Garzoni's Piazza Universale of 1585. By 1795 they were no longer even Giraldi,
comprehensible,
as is attested in
G. B.
Gallicciolli, Delle
(Venice, 1795), 357.
"
Giraldi,
De
annis
et
mensibus, 11-12.
memorie venete antiche profane ed
ecclesiastiche
MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN
To
213
further support the antiquity of these temporal divisions, Giraldi presents yet
another
with a somewhat different array of small units which he claims to have
list
found in an old book on weights and measures.'"
As
other points in his
at
treatise,
the evidence does not
no
sense of these tiny units of time that in his day had
from
Giraldi cites passages
Good
atom.
authorities
earlier authors
who
all
make
cohere. Trying to
practical or measurable value,
use the words momentum, punctum, and
Uke Lucretius, Terence, Cicero, and Jerome only provided
moment
support for Isidore's definition of the
simply a very brief length of time,
as
though they confirm the shortness of the punctum and atom. According to Boethius, a
minute
shorter than a punctum, but his text
is
classical sources.
Realizing that the texts
moves on
Giraldi
dem LX the
first
ence.^"
at his disposal
to the tiny divisions
astrologi dicunt
other systems. In
—
is
late in
comparison with
horam
would not yield more precise definitions, used by astrologers: "Minutis nunc qui-
now
constare," implying that not so long ago they used
backhanded way, Giraldi was one of the
this
hour in a text aimed up these tiny subdivisions
to refer to the sixty-minute
When
Giraldi's
'^
Giraldi again brings
first
at a
— and perhaps
humanistic audi-
in the context of ex-
plaining equinoctial or "clock" hours, he again contrasts the non-scientist's temporal
XXIIII quae in puncta
divisions with those of the scientists: "naturalis diei pars est IIII
& XL momenta vel ut passim Astrologi loquuntur,
viditur."-' total the
While
in minutias vel
been aware
Giraldi could not possibly have
how
minuta
LX di-
quickly and
how
change-over to the modern sixty-minute hour would be once clocks
became accurate enough to record minutes, he clearly had some sense of the direction in which his culture was moving. In 1539, most were familiar with the punctum, and a few
still
used the uncia and atom,
as
today some scholars
stUl
use mechanical
typewriters. Giraldi was not
opposed to innovations.
He
was fascinated by clocks and in
fact
ends his treatise with a description of a small portable clock in an eyeglass holder.
This clock,
'*
Giraldi,
owned by Leo X, accompanied
De annis et
ex XII mensibus,
his
mensibus, 12:
"Annum & mensum
"
Giraldi,
De
""
is
hunts and
his
horamque
diei
travels.
libram utrumque dici posse,
secundum
soils
X
quod
^^
ille
minutis,
cunum quinque
puncta
lunam quatuor duntaxat." annis et mensibus, 13. Boethius 's
measured one-tenth of the hour.
minute
on
ex XII horis constet; porro horam constare ex quinque punctis,
XV partibus, XL momentis, & LX ostentis: habere, juxta vero
the pope
It is
clear
from
minute was probably the medieval one which Giraldi's discourse that
he assumes Boethius's
the astronomical one, even though his "ancient treatises" give the medieval definition.
Giraldi,
De
annis
et
mensibus, 13.
He
mentions Ptolemaic degree minutes: dividing the
also
twenty-four hours of the day into three hundred and sixty degree minutes, or each hour into
fif-
teen parts. ^'
Giraldi,
century, they
De
annis
et
do not make
mensibus, 186. their
way
Although astronomers used minutes in the
fifteenth
into humanistic texts until the mid-sixteenth century in
authors like Nicolo degli Agostini and Alessandro Citolini, Tipocosmia (Venice, 1561). ^^
gium
Giraldi,
De
annis
et
mensibus, 196:
"Ego
in specilli oculari capulo Leonis
mirabiliter horas ostentans saepe conspexi,
quo
ille
X. Pont, horolo-
in venationibus itineribusque utebatur."
A RENAISSANCE TREATISE
214
Naturally Leo X's clock
is
contextualized within a mini-history of timekeepers and
their terminology including the
clocks. Giraldi
first
was fascinated by
sundials,
all
own
time. For example, one
water clocks, gnomons, and automatic
of these ingenious devices, but he was perhaps
even more excited by the sense of wonder its
ON TIME
that each
new
type of clock aroused in
wondrous mechanism was owned by Nicephorus
Gregoras:
lUa
quoque Nicephori Gregorae instrumenta, quibus
rarum noctis ex stellarum cursu
And more
traditur,
ratio
cognoscendarum ho-
miranda videri possunt."
recently:
Quo non
ilia
miracula referendant:
Quae hodie ex
diverso metallo confecta,
velut automata, sua sponte aguntur, haec donatus supra infraque rotuhs, assidue
circumactis ponderibus quibusdam ficiuntur, in quibus
non
horas
lestiumque signorum ortus
As
in
many of his
&
ad
diurnas
stati
motus temperamentum con-
& nocturnas, sed & errantium cae-
occasus conspiciuntur
.^* .
.
discourses, his analogies with the present serve to demonstrate
continuity and disunity with the past. at
libratis,
modo
Even
if his
nocturnal astrolabes, these objects had once had this awe-inspiring
the end of his book, Giraldi' s mini-narrative of important and that
both
contemporaries no longer marveled effect.
Placed
at
wondrous clocks shows
even familiar terms for these objects would have had different resonances in the
ancient world than in his own.
While
Giraldi might have written a treatise
Ufe, his decision to
on time
undertake the project several years
at
any point in
his
troubled
after returning to Ferrara
is
probably not accidental. Since the Quattrocento, the university and the d'Este court
had demonstrated pects of time,
a sustained interest in antiquarian
though no one had undertaken such
and symbolic disquisitions on a
as-
broad and ambitious project
as
Theodore Gaza's De mensibus atticis, so highly praised by Giraldi, was written while he was at the university in Ferrara. A few years later, Borso d'Este commissioned his celebrated and learned cycle of months for Palazzo Schifanoia, and Giraldi's.^^
Bernardo Lapini wrote
his influential
triumph was allegorized
as a
commentary on
Petrarch's Trionji in
which each
successive stage in man's existence. In the early sixteenth
century, Ariosto allegorically described time, fate, and immortality in the famous
lunar episodes of his Orlando furioso. In 1551, Vincenzo Cartari dedicated his ItaUan translation
of Ovid's
Fasti to Ercole II d'Este.
During the 1540s and 1550s various
De annis et mensibus, 195. De annis et mensibus, 196. ^' Giraldi may originally have planned to dedicate his treatise on ancient time to Ercole. De Herculis vita (1539) and De re nautica (1540) had been dedicated to the duke. These books were being prepared for press just as Giraldi was composing his De annis et mensibus. Should they not ^^
Giraldi,
^*
Giraldi,
achieve their desired patron.
effects, Giraldi
would be
in a position to direct his
hopes towards
a different
MAIA WELLINGTON GAHTAN images of time were commissioned by Ercole
artistic
Night, Day,
and Dawn, Girolamo da Carpi's
Patience,
represented Patience.-'" Finally, under Ercole
"au lieu
et
including Dosso Dossi's
II,
and Ercole
son, Alfonso
II's
temps"^, Bastianino and Camillo
215
II's II
medals which also
(whose motto was
Filippi frescoed the ceiling
of the
bedroom with Father Time, the Fates (or Hours), and the four times of day. In many of these Ferrarese musings on time, as in the plays of Giambattista Giraldi Cinthio, humans are permitted only a passive role. Tending towards arcane antiquar-
master
works emphasize time's general cychcahty and the role
ian learning, these Ferrarese
of fate in
human
emblem of Patience
Ercole's
aflfairs.
is
a case in point. It represents
Patience chained to a stone next to a water clock. As time passes, water drains from the clock onto the chain, eroding the metal. Intendy watching the clock. Patience
waiting until is
not
and
really
its
water will
comparable to
De
passivity.
nowhere does
its
annis
et
her free from her bonds. While Giraldi's learned
set
this allegory, it shares a certain
is
work
combination of curiosity
mensibus described and divided time in
many
ways, but
author present the popular Ovidian monster, "tempus edax rerum"
{Metamorphoses 15.234). Giraldi's time
rem" encapsulates
Dum nos
is
not in competition with man; his
somewhat detached yet
this
menses metimur
secla, dies,
"Ad
lecto-
deterministic point of view:
&
annos,
Obrepit tacito mors inopina gradu.
Quae
feret
aethereamve diem, noctemve profiindam.
Acta
tibi qualis, talis
Although not an sibus
by considering time
De
annis et men-
of Renaissance scholanhip. Developed within
tinctly Ferrarese context, Giraldi's
poraries
dies.
original contribution to philosophy or science,
a highly original piece
is
agenda
work goes beyond
as a historical construct.
a dis-
those of his Ferrarese contemSelf-consciously writing in a
period of intense research to reform the calendar and historical chronology, Giraldi
may have been concerned
that these advances or alterations to the present system
would make earher systems must have reasoned
—
that
much more
—
remote. In the next century, Giraldi
no one would still use the momentum or the uncia. Maybe these units would become like Romulus's ten-month year that still puzzles classicists. Giraldi expected his work to elucidate the ancient experience of time by clarifying terminology and by making ancient philosophical ideas available for
modem
of even the
it
in an age
tiniest fractions
when not
related allegory
this material
on time may
only the calendar but also the perception
of time were changing for good. Although Giraldi did
See Rudolf Wittkower, "Patience and Chance:
of the Warburg and Courtauld
"
that
consumption, but a second purpose in collecting
have been to preserve
^
correctly
Institutes
1
The
Story of a Political
Emblem," Journal
(1937-1938): 171-177. Wittkower also discusses another
of Oaasio for which he believed Giraldi supplied iconographic advice.
Ariosto provided the motto, "Loco et tempore." See Paolo Giovio, Dialogo deU'imprese
(Rome,
1555), 51.
A RENAISSANCE TREATISE
216
not succeed time.
at this
Through
tice, Giraldi
character,
second
task,
ON TIME
he did produce the
first
general historical
demonstrated that the ancient experience of time had
and
work on
quotation, commentary, and juxtaposition with contemporary prac-
thus,
more
its
own
distinct
was
culturally
Baltimore,
Maryland
generally, that the experience of time itself
relative.
Los
rejlejos
plautinos en
el latin
(Med. i-3)
de Descartes
BENJAMiN GARCIA HERNAnDEZ
El
latin era la
lengua por excelencia del humanismo
Descartes lo habia aprendido a fondo en
tifico.
Inanera que se expresaba en
en
matema. El
la
latin era
lengua del Lacio con
la
no
la
y ciencolegio de La Flecha, de
literario, filosofico,
el
naturalidad con que lo hacia
solo el vehiculo ideal para la expresion de
las
grandes
cuestiones filosoficas, sino una lengua de cultura capaz de moldear y dar forma a su
pensamiento. Por ejemplo, Descartes se atiene rigurosamente a cion latina mens /corpus y rechaza
las
materialidad aerea; en su opinion,
hombre
sustancia inmaterial del
arcaico
sum
al
verbo
la
unica palabra que representa con propiedad
es mens, sustantivo
Sin embargo, en
tantum
res cogitans,
espiritu
ingles
'
Adam
id est, mens. (C.
la
mayor
parte de
las
traducciones de
una palabra que corresponda exactamente
esprit, se
paiiol,
intimamente unido desde
la
el latin
et P.
Tannery,
Oeuures de Descartes, 11 vols. [Paris, 1996], 7:27.13)
concepto cartesiano de mens aparece falseado; tiene
importante oposi-
cogitare-}
igitur praecise
eds.,
por
la
palabras anitna y spiritus por su connotacion de
la
las
Meditaciones metajtsicas el
lengua francesa, en particular, no
a la latina;
y cuando se traduce mens hacen quienes en es-
traiciona el pensamiento del filosofo; otro tanto
pese a disponer de
la
palabra mente, siguen la pauta del frances traduciendo por
o peor aiin por alma. Mens encuentra tambien mejor correspondencia en
mind que en
soul
y
Cf. B. Garcia Hernandez,
y mens en
las
"La necesidad de volver
tion of Descartes."
Sobre
el latin cf.
al latin
de
los filosofos: el caso
de anima
De Roma al sigh XX, ed. A. M. Aldama, 2 vols. (Made este mismo Congreso C. Vermeulen, "A Latin Transla-
Meditaciones de Descartes," in
drid, 1996), 2:710ss.
el
spirit.
LOS REFLEJOS PLAUTINOS DE DESCARTES
218
Del sistema
filosofico
de Descartes
han senalado numerosos precedentes, en
se
lo
pensamiento y tambien a su expresion, y ninguno de ellos ha pasado tan desapercibido como el del comediografo latino Plauto. Sin embargo, no hay autor an-
que toca
a su
tiguo, medieval, o renacentista
de
la filosofia
sistema, a su
que haya ejercido una influencia mayor sobre
moderna. Esa influencia afecta
tono dramatico,
Como hemos
y,
demostrado en nuestro
mantuvo
Cuando
sus lectores
y contradictores
fuente autentica; pero no dio
de su
libro Descartes y Plauto,^ el filosofo frances
argument© de
el
la
tragicomedia Amphitmo de
silencio absoluto sobre el origen de su inspiracion.
admitio que se hubiera inspirado en la
padre
consiguientemente, se hace notar en su expresion.
construye su sistema filosofico sobre Plauto. Sin embargo,
el
a los conceptos fundamentales
le seiialaron ciertas
esa fue
el;
con san Agustin, no
analogias
una ocasion
clara para
un paso que requeria gran humildad
habria supuesto ante sus contemporaneos desautorizar
la
haber revelado cientifica
y que
base de su pensamiento.
Cabe sospechar que, asi como se sentia halagado por la relacion con san Agustin, no mismos sentimientos respecto de la fuente plautina; y es que la autoridad literaria del gran comico latino debia de distar mucho, a ojos de sus contemporaneos, tenia los
del prestigio filosofico y teologico del padre de la Iglesia; la
necesidad de guardar celosamente
asi
que Descartes
se vio
en
secreto de su inspiracion.
el
Ese secreto ha perdurado por mas de
tres siglos
y medio. El nombre de Plauto ha hemos hallado dos referen-
estado siempre ausente de los estudios cartesianos; tan solo
de
cias
la
Una
tragicomedia Anfttrion?
Discurso del Metodo* y llega incluida en
cluye
como
la
el
comentario de E. Gilson
al
de Justo Lipsio; en elk Alcmena con-
loa de la victoria militar de su marido ponderando la excelencia de
—
uirtus
Virtus
la uirtus
omnia in sese habet, omnia adsunt / bona quern penest
(Amph.
Descartes la glosa en las
cita
fuente de todos los bienes:
AL.
de
vemos en
la
una
virtudes sigue
pour acquerir
la la
652s.);
tercera parte del Discurso,
donde dice como
a la adquisicion
posesion de los demas bienes:
toutes les uertus,
&
ensemble
tous les autres biens,
qu'on puisse ac-
querir. (Oeuures, 6:28.11—13)
La otra referencia plautina noli irritare crabrones,
que
la
dan
este usa
de Descartes a proposito del proverbio
los editores
en una
carta del 31
de julio dirigida a Huygens
(Oeuures, 3:752.51), cuya formulacion arranca de la expresion plautina inritabis crabrones
-
{Amph. 707). Aunque
es posible
que
el filosofo
conociera
el
proverbio por
al-
B. Garcia Hernandez, Descartes y Plauto: La concepcion dramdtica del sistema cartesiano (Madrid,
1997). ^
Cf. Garcia Hernandez, Descartes y Plauto, 130s.
•
Cf. E. Gilson, ed., Rene Descartes, Discours de
261.
la
Methode: Texte
et
commentaire (Paris, 1976),
BENJAMIN GARCIA HERNAnDEZ gun repertorio de
la
219
epoca, lo mas seguro es que lo hubiera leido varias veces desde
su juventud en la tragicomedia de Plauto.
el
Por otra parte, el Genio maligno y
G. B. Vico
filosofo italiano
Mercuric y entre primera escena de Amphitruo:
Sosia en la
el
dios
Quare primum uerum aperit non aliter, ac Stoici, a
ipso adductus, an
id esse Renatus: "Cogito: ergo
Mercurio, qui sit,
sorprendente analogia entre
cartesiano y el
a genio fallaci Carthesii, aut a
Plautinus Sosia
immisso
sefialo la
el cogito
que pronuncia
sum." Et uero
somnio
diuinitus
imaginem sumpserat, in dubium de se meditabundus huic primo uero acquiescit.
ipsius
ad idem instar
Certe edepol, quom ilium contemplo, et formam agnosco meam, quemadmodum ego saepe in speculum inspexi, nimis similis mei.
Sed
quom
cogito,
equidem
certo
sum
(Giambattista Vico, Le orazioni inaugurali, ed.
G. Gentile e
Pero Vico no llego
F.
ac
H De
semper
fui.
Italorum sapientia e
le
Polemiche,
Nicolini [Ban, 1968], 139)
a sospechar
que habia una relacion de dependencia entre Des-
y Plauto y luego su certera comparacion ha sido menospreciada por cartesiana, mientras la critica viquiana no ha sabido explotarla.^ cartes
1.
Dependencia argumental y tono dramatico Descartes asume
el
papel del siervo Sosia enfrentado a su doble divino,
Mercurio, que lo despoja de su ser de su identidad, hasta que
en
la critica
dios
la
de su pensamiento:
la realidad
SO.
de
al final
el
y de su experiencia psiquica y le hace dudar larga primera escena afirma su ser apoyandose
fisico
—
sed
quom
cogito,
equidem
certo
idem sum qui semper
fiii.
(Amph. 447) Esta es la fiiente genuina del cogito ergo sum, la primera verdad en
cimiento; pero Descartes divinas. El
Genio maligno
falaz (Deusfallax) es
ponsable de
la
el
orden del cono-
toma ademas directamente de Amphitruo es trasunto del dios
asimismo
el
trasunto de Jupiter
confusion que reina en
sus tres figuras
Mercurio como doble de
la casa del
como
Sosia; el
Dios
doble de Anfitrion y res-
general tebano. Incluso
el
Dios no
{Deus nonfallax), garante de toda verdad y de todo conocimiento posterior a la formulacion del cogito, tiene las trazas de ser un deus ex machina, como el Jupiter falaz
'
Cf. Garcia Hernandez, Descartes y Plauto, 191ss.; y, para
del cogito de Descartes Giambattista Vico y
y Plauto:
la cultura
Mucho mas que una
europea, ed. E.
mayor
detalle,
idem, "Vico acerca
simple analogia," in Pensar para
Hidalgo-Serna
et
al.,
el
nuevo sigh:
3 vols. (Napoli, 2001), 1:155-174.
LOS REFLEJOS PLAUTINOS DE DESCARTES
220 plautino que en
miembros de
desenlace de
el
la
tragicomedia revela
La caracterizacion del Genio maligno y
como
suficientes para mostrar
de
la figura del
verdad de lo ocurrido a los
la
de Anfitrion.^
la familia
la
formulacion del
Descartes se inspira en Plauto.
He
cogito serian
pruebas
aqui la presentacion
Genio maligno:
Supponam igitur non optimum Deum, fontem ueritatis, sed genium aliquem malignum, eundemque summe potentem & calUdum, omnem suam industriam in eo posuisse, ut
7:22.23—26)
mefalleret. {Oeuvres,
La maldad como cualidad mas destacada,
mismas
caracteristicas
ME.
con
las
que
— Quando imago
la astucia
se presenta el dios
est huiius in
y
voluntad de engafio son
la
Mercurio como doble de
me, certum
est
hominem
las
Sosia:
elu-
enim uero quoniam formam cepi huius in me[d] et statum, / decet et facta moresque huius habere me similis item. / Itaque me malum esse oportet, callidum, astutum admodum, / atque hunc telo suo sibi, malitia, a foribus pell ere. {Amph. 265-269) dere. / Et
Estas cualidades
de
la
comedia
no son exclusivas de
El Genio maligno une a el
Sosia, sino caracteristicas
plautina, el sentus malus et callidus,
dios Mercurio,
al
ellas
arrogarse
que
un sumo poder, que no la
persona y
la
de un personaje tipico
se distingue es
por su funcion
otro que
falaz.
manifestado por
el
experiencia de Sosia.
El famoso principio cartesiano ha sido extraido directamente del verso pronunciado por Sosia, citado anteriormente:
SO.
— sed quom
cogito,
equidem
certo
idem sum qui semper
fui.
{Amph. 447)
Ahora ellas se el,
bien, la formula consabida cogito ergo
presenta de forma
una vez que
se halla
mucho mas
sometido a
que Sosia por obra de Mercurio,
se
la
Cogitate}
Como el
si
Hie inuenio:
certum
est.
'
Un
avance con
le
los
accion impostora del Genio maligno;
cogitatio est;
momento
haec sola a
se
Adas
del I
en
al
igual
pregunta por su pensamiento:
me
diuelli nequit.
la
violencia que ejerce el
puede
ser arrancado;
elementos sustanciales de
por
Ego sum,
ego
la
Genio maligno, concluye que solo
eso,
en
el
consiste su esencia:
inspiracion plautina de Descartes lo
ya en B. Garcia Hernandez, "La huella profunda e inexplorada de Plauto en siano," in
Meditaciones;
{Oeuvres, 7:27.7—9)
respondiera a
pensamiento no
las
ve despojado de su naturaleza corporal e incluso
de su experiencia animica; pero en ese
existo;
sum no tiene lugar en
dramatica. El filosofo trata de averiguar que es
el
dabamos
pensamiento carte-
Congreso Andaluz de Estudios CIdsicos (Jaen, 1982), 208-214.
BENJAMJN GARCJA HERNANDEZ sum
tantum
igitur praecise
Se ha dicho que general {qui cogitat
el cogito es
segunda Meditacion;
la
doble divino
todo
el
y,
como
.
este,
.
?
Genio maligno como Sosia
formvda en primera persona no solo su
me
saltem ego aliquid sum} Sed iam negaui
ullum corpus. Haereo tamen;
Nonne ego .
intensamente en numerosos parrafos
se percibe
el filosofo se enfirenta al
cogito
a su
y sum, sino
proceso de su duda:
Nunquid ergo
&
una premisa de caracter
le falta
de una reaccion dramatica; de ahi su expresion
silogistico, sino
en primera persona. EI tone dramatico de
que
al
pero su formulacion esta condicionada por su origen; no surge
est);
de un razonamiento
(27.13)
res cogitans.
un entimema,
221
sum qui iam
ipse
.
.
.
habere uUos sensus,
{Oeuvres, 7:24.24—26)
duhito fere
de omnibus
.
.
.
qui
.
.
.
nolo decipi
(27.24SS)
Y la duda no
esta
provocada por
la
posibilidad de caer en el error, sino por la de ser
enganado y sometido al error por un impostor. Hay, pues, en las Meditaciones una clara actitud de enfrentamiento, desafio, y violencia entre el filosofo, que se expresa en primera persona, y sus antagonistas divinos, en particular el Genio maHgno; ese tono dramatico es reflejo del conflicto que viven los personajes plautinos, Sosia y Anfitrion, frente a sus dobles divinos, Mercuric y Jupiter.
Las tres primeras Meditaciones constituyen todo
un drama. ^ En
la
primera
el filo-
sofo recorre la escala de la duda que afecta a la percepcion de la realidad y a la identidad de su ser.
£n
engaiio, esto
con
es,
duro combate que hbra con
el el
Genio mahgno y
las figuras
Dios burlador,
el
divinas inductoras del
el filosofo
esencia mental, gracias a la conciencia de su pensamiento, esto
Este es
el
la tercera
nudo dramatico que cuenta con
el
se desarrolla
auxUio del Dios no
en
la
falaz
es,
segunda Meditacion.
que,
como un
rantiza la verdad de toda idea clara y distinta y le asegura el
logra afirmar su gracias al cogito.
En
cambio, en
deus ex machina, le ga-
conocimiento del
mundo
extramental.
2.
Dependencia expresiva
A
la
dependencia argumental
se
une
la
dependencia expresiva, de manera que
muchos
el
un calco del de Plauto; en particular las paginas 21—22 de la primera Meditacion, 24—29 de la segunda, y 34—36 de la tercera, siempre de la edicion de Adam y Tannery, contienen una fiierte relacion intertextual, hasta el punto que el texto cartesiano es en ellas una especie de pahmpsesto, en el sentido Uterario del ritulo de G. Genette.* Muchas de las exprelatin
de
las tres
primeras Meditaciones es en
aspectos
siones de origen plautino afectan a la concepcion filosofica cartesiana y otras carecen
de interes doctrinal;
las
primeras constituyen evocaciones directas del modelo de
'
Cf. Garcia Hernandez, Descartes y Plauto, 152ss.
*
G. Genette, Palimpsestos: La
literatura
en segundo grado (Madrid, 1989).
:
LOS REFLEJOS PLAUTINOS DE DESCARTES
222
que son reminiscencias quizas involuntarias, vienen
inspiracion, y las segundas,
firmar
la
P. -A.
deuda inspiradora del
Cahne ha senalado que Descartes
indiferente a
y
armonia
la
bando como transforma
en
artistica,
que
parentesis.'" Esto es algo
en
filosofo para
la
un
con-
a
latino.'
tipo de frase compleja, correcta e
acumulan subordinadas,
se
incises
confirma siguiendo su proceso creativo y comprosintaxis plautina, en general mas simple, o como la imita
He
aqui una larga dubitacion de Sosia, en
oraciones simples introducidas por
las
— Quid, malum, non sum
SO.
crea
que a veces
la
comico
el
se
ciertas estructuras complejas.
predominan
con
la
ego seruos
la
que
anafora de nonne o non:
Amphitruonis Sosia? /
nonne hac noctu nostra nauis [hue] ex portu Persico / uenit, quae
me
aduexit? nonne
me
hue erus misit meus?
homo modo me
non uigilo? nonne hie hercle:
ego
Y
he aqui
nam
dubito}
nonne ego nunc sto
/
manu?
ante aedis nostras? non mihi est lanterna in
/ non loquor?
pugnis contudit? / fecit
etiam [mi] misero nunc malae dolent. / Quid igitur
{Amph. 403-409)
la replica cartesiana,
en
la
que
la particula
y se sustituye por la anafora del pronombre de subordinadas de relative
inicial
qui,
nonne se reduce a su empleo
constituyendo
un gran periodo
nonne ego ipse sum qui iam dubito fere de omnibus, qui nonnihil tamen inteUigo, qui
unum uerum
hoc
esse affirmo,
nego
caetera, cupio plura nosse,
multa uel inuitus imaginor, multa etiam tanquam
nolo decipi,
a sensibus uenientia
animad-
uerto? {Oeuvres, 7:28.24-29)
El gusto de Descartes por
cion de
dem
la
la
oracion de relative se pone de manifieste en
formula de identidad que sigue
certo
idem sum qui semper
al cogito
de Sosia ("sed
quom
la repeti-
cogito, equi-
fui"):
idem sum qui imaginor (Oeuvres, 7:29.7s.);
idem ille
en cambio,
si
.
.
.
sum
qui sentio (29.11);
idem qui nunc sum (73.9);
si
los
verbos aparecen en infinitivo, prefiere
supponam me
forte semper fuisse ut
nunc sum
la
estructura comparativa:
(48.25s.);
perfectioTem futurumfuisse quam nunc sum. (61.18s.)
'
Para
la
distincion entre estos dos tipos de manifestaciones intertextuales, cf A. Alvar Ez-
querra, "Tipologia de los procedimientos intertextuales en
Congreso Espafiol de Estudios Clasicos, V: Literatura
la
poesia latina antigua," in
latina, ed. J. L.
Adas
13s. '"
P.-A. Cahne,
Un
autre Descartes:
Le philosophe
et
del
IX
Vidal y A. Alvar (Madrid, 1998),
son langage (Paris, 1980), 35, 245.
BENJAMfN GARCIa HERNANDEZ
En
223
disputa que mantienen Mercuric y Sosia por poseer la persona de Sosia,
la
Plauto emplea primero una oracion completiva con quin y luego una consecutiva con la
misma
particula:
ME. SO.
— Tu me uiuos hodie numquam — Certe edepol me tu
facies quin sim Sosia.
alienabis
numquam
quin noster siem.
{Amph. 398s.) Descartes,
que manifiesta un tono desafiante en completivas con
ligno, las transforma
&
fallat
fallat
quantum
me
potest,
nunquam tamen
at seu fato, seu casu, seu
efficiet
la existencia
continuata rerum
quod sum peruenisse supponant.
engano del Genio ma-
ut nihil sim {Oeuures, 7:25.8s.); ut nihil sim. (36.15s.)
disyuntiva seu para desgranar
la
propio origen, en caso de negar
las
diversas posibUidades del
de Dios:
serie, seu
quouis alio
modo me
ad id
{Oeuures, 7:21.20-22)
Este uso polisindetico nos hace recordar variante seu,
efficiet,
nunquam tamen
quisquis potest,
El filosofo recurre a
similar frente al
ut:
la
repeticion de la particula siue y de su
que Plauto pone en boca de Mercurio, para presentar una
similar dentro de la aplicacion parodica al
mundo
teatral
casuistica
de una ley de
sobomo
electoral:
ME. tifici
—
siue qui
ambissent
-seu per scriptas
nuntium—
;
palmam
histrionibus / seu
litteras / siue [ipse]
quoiquam
ar-
ambissit seu per inter-
/ siue adeo aediles perfidiose quoi duint (Amph. 69-72);
o bien nos hace pensar en
la detallada
amenaza de Anfitrion, despues de enfrentarse
a su doble, esto es, a Jupiter:
AM.
— Certumst,
aspexero, /
si[ue]
/ seu patrem, siue
intro
rumpam
auom uidebo,
Hay una formula de prosecucion Sosia, para manifestar
que
in aedis: ubi
ancillam, seu seruom, siue
quemque hominem
uxorem,
siue
adulterum,
optruncabo in aedibus. (1048-1050)
(pergam, perge: "continuare," "continua")
esta dispuesto a llevar adelante las
Anfitrion, para expresar su voluntad de seguir la
su mujer:
— Nunc pergam imperium exsequi me domum capes{Amph. 262) AM. — Nunc domum ibo atque ex uxore hanc rem pergam exSO.
sere. /
quirere. / (1015)
eri
que usa
ordenes de su dueno, y investigacion de los hechos cerca de
et
LOS REFLEJOS PLAUTINOS DE DESCARTES
224
—
AM.
perge porro dicere. (803)
Descartes recurre a elk para indicar
pergamqac porro donee aliquid
En una
prosecucion de su indagacion de
la
certi
pregunta de Mercuric y en
traposicion temporal, marcada por
.
.
la
verdad:
cognoscam. {Oeuvres, 7:24. 7ss.; 34.15)
.
la reflexion posterior
las particulas
de Sosia vemos una con-
nunc y antehac.
— Quid uincon argumentis, non Sosiam? (Amph. — Nam hicquidem omnem imaginem meam, quae
ME. SO.
esse
te
nunc"?
433)
antehac
fuerat, possidet. / (458)
Esa misma contraposicion
que era antes de
Quidnum
igitur antehac
Quid autem
se
observa en
hallar el cogito y
nunc, ubi
me
que
las
Supponam
la
sometido
al
poder del Genio maligno:
esse putaui? {Oeuvres, 7:25.25)
suppono deceptorem aliquem
El use recurrente de los indefinidos en
que ha llamado
preguntas que se hace Descartes acerca de
es ahora,
atencion de
la
.
.
.
me
presentacion de
la critica cartesiana."
delusisse? (26.24ss.)
las figuras
genium aliquem malignum. {Oeuvres, 7:22.23s.) Suppono deceptorem aliquem potentissimum. (26.24s.) Nunquid est aliquis Deus, uel quocumque nomine ilium uocem. Veniebat in
.
.
divinas es algo
Helos aqui:
.
mentem
forte aliquem
Deum
(24.21s.)
talem mihi naturam indere potuisse.
(36.5ss.; 22; 24)
Sed
est
Fallat
deceptor
me
nescio quis,
Pues bien, ese empleo
como
summe
potens,
summe
callidus. (25.5ss.)
quisquis potest. (36.15)
refleja el
que hace Plauto en relacion con
los dobles divines,
personajes desconocidos e innominados, para sus doblados. Desde
Sosia manifiesta el
SO.
temor de que
los dioses le
— Aliquem hominem
principio
el
envien a alguien para zurrarle
la
badana:
adlegent, qui mihi aduenienti os occillet
probe. / {Amph. 183)
"
J. L.
Marion, Sur
la theologie
blanche de Descartes (Paris, 1981), 343s.; idem, Sur
physique He Descartes (Paris, 1986), 223ss.; idem,
"The
Essential
tion of Divinity," in Essays on Descartes' Meditations, ed. A.
300$.
le
prisme mita-
Incoherence of Descartes' Defini-
O. Rorty (Berkeley, 1986), 297-338,
BENJAMIN GARCIa HERNANDEZ Mercurio, sabiendo que
es Sosia
quien
225
se acerca, se refiere a el
en aparte con
el
indefinido nescioquis:
ME. el
mismo
— Certe enim
adjetivo aplica Anfitiion
—
AM.
Y
hie nescioquis loquitur (331);
al
embaucador de su mujer:
Nescioquis praesdgiator
banc
fiiustratur
mulierem. (830)
despues de habene encontrado con su doble, esta dispuesto a hacerle frente,
quienquiera que
sea:
Numquam edepol me
inuitus
istic ludificabit, quisquis est.
(1041)
Descartes destaca sus dos certezas primordiales, la conciencia de su ser y cia
de Dios, mediante
& quamuis,
el
la
existen-
sentido exclusivo de praeter en fiase negativa:
ex quo de omnibus uolui dubitare, nihil adhuc
praeter
me &
Deum
existere certo cognoui.
trata de un uso comun de esa preposicion, probablemente inspirado en Amphitruo, donde Sosia se presenta ante Mercurio como siervo exclusivo de Anfitrion:
Se
Nee
nobis praeter me[d\ aiius quisquam est seruos Sosia. {Antph. 400)
La contraposicion entre placer y sufirimiento, caracteristica del pensamiento epicuhallamos en parecidos terminos en la tragicomedia de Plauto y en las
reo,'- la
Meditaciones:
AL.
—
Satin parua res est uoluptatum in uita atque in aetate agun-
praequam quod molestum
da, /
aetate
hominum;
comes consequatur si
optigit quid. /
est? ita
quoiqu' comparatum
est in
/ ita di[ui]s est placitum, uoluptatetn ut maeror /
Quin incommodi plus mo/ique ilico
adsit,
boni
{Amph. 633-636)
sensique hoc corpus inter aha multa corpora uersari, a quibus uariis commodis uel incommodis affici potest,
moda sensu
'^
doloris
&
commoda
ista
sensu
quodam
uoluptatis,
&
incom-
metiebar. {Oeuvres, 7:74.20-23)
Cf. B. Garcia Hernandez, "Trasfondo filosofico
y fondo precartesiano en Amphitruo de M. Aldanu et al. (Madrid,
Plauto," in La filologia latina hoy: Actualizacion y perspedivas, ed. A. 1999). 2:995-1007. 1001s.
LOS REFLEJOS PLAUTINOS DE DESCARTES
226
El verbo depromere indica tras
camina de noche, teme
—
SO.
accion especifica de sacar de
la
Ind' eras quasi
e
promptaria
cella
la
despensa. Sosia, mien-
de donde lo sacaran para trincharlo:
a parar al calabozo,
ir
depromarzd flagrum. {Amph.
156)
Descartes lo aplica a
accion de extraer ideas de
la
puede menos de hacernos recordar
lam uero
si
la
la
mente, pero
este
uso abstracto no
descripcion grafica de Sosia:
ex eo solo, quod alicuius
rei
ideam possim ex
cogitatione
mea
depro-
mere {Oeuvres, 7:65.16s.);
sobre todo cuando
el
ablativo de origen va precedido de
una
particula comparativa:
tamen de ente primo & summo libet cogitare, atque eius ideam tamquam ex mentis meae thesauro depromere. [cf. Matt. 12:35, 13:52, Luc. 6:45] quoties
(67.21-23)
Aunque hay los plautinos, ellos, el la
que merecen ser cotejadas con sus paralemencionando el uso de ciertos adverbios; entre
otras expresiones cartesianas
vamos
a concluir aqui
arcaismo noctu {Oeuvres, 7:19.9) que Plauto emplea
como
variante de node en
larga dubitacion de Sosia {Amph. 404), citada antes, y en tres ocasiones mas (272,
412, 731);
el
doblete aliterante
satis
superque {Oeuvres, 7:25.10s.;
pleo restrictivo de saltem en frase interrogativa;
asi,
bajo
la
Amph.
168); y el
em-
presion del Genio maligno,
Descartes se pregunta:
Nunquid ergo con
el
saltem ego aliquid suml {Oeuvres, 7:24.24s.);
mismo tono con que
Sosia inquiere a su doble divino,
al
verse desposeido de
su persona:
SO.
— Quis
ego
sum
saltem,
La influencia de Amphitruo no ellas resalta
mucho mas
su
si
non sum
Sosia?
{Amph. 438)
se limita a las tres primeras Meditaciones,
pero en
marca dramatica y su huella expresiva. Leyendo que conozca a fondo la tragicomedia plautina, no
esas tres
Meditaciones en latin, cualquiera
dara en sacar
la
impresion de que Descartes debia de conocerla
casi
de memoria
menos, debia haberla leido muchas veces desde su juventud. La clave que asiduo contact© con el filosofo
el
texto plautino reside en
tuvo en 1619; en
el
habla de
el
tercero de
los
aclara este
famosos Sueiios que
un Corpus poetarum que conocia muy
bien. Se
trata de la voluminosa obra editada por Pierre de Brosses (Petrus Brossaeus) en
(1603) y en Ginebra (1611). Livio Andronico y de Ennio,
No la
tar-
o, al
Lyon
es casualidad que, despues de unos fragmentos de
primera pieza completa que contiene sea
el
Amphitruo
de Plauto. Sin duda, este era libro de cabecera del joven Descartes; debia de tenerlo
BENJAMIN GARCIA HERNANDEZ desde
la
etapa escolar de La Fleche;'-* no en vano proceden de el otras
de poetas latinos diseminadas en
las
en que
se
produce
el
momento de
sistema filosofico de la epoca
citas
inspiracion entusias-
concepcion dramatica de lo que un dia
la
muchas
obras del filosofo. El episodio de los Suenos, rela-
tado por su biografo A. Baillet,'* recoge ademas tica,
227
seria el
primer gran
modema. Universidad
Autonoma
de Madrid
Bibliografia
Alvar Ezquerra, Antonio. "Tipologia de latina antigua." In tina, ed. J. L.
Adas
del
los
IX Congreso
procedimientos intertextuales en
poesia
la
Espahol de Estudios Clasicos, V: Literatura
Adam,
Charles, and Paul Tannery, eds. Oeuvres de Descartes. 11 vols. Paris, 1996.
Baillet,
Adrien. La
vie de
Monsieur
Brossaeus, Petrus. Corpus et
quinque
libris
Descartes.
2
vols. Paris,
omnium veterum poetarum
distinctum.
Cahne, Pierre- Alain. Un
1691; repr. Hildesheim, 1972.
latinorum secundum seriem temporum,
2 vols. Lugduni, 1603; Aureliae
autre Descartes:
Le philosophe
AUobrogum, 1611.
son langage. Paris, 1980.
et
Garcia Hernandez, Benjamin. "La huella profunda e inexplorada de Plauto en "
la-
Vidal y A. Alvar, 3-16. Madrid, 1998.
samiento cartesian©." In Actas
del I
el
pen-
Congreso Andaluz de Estudios Clasicos, 208—214.
Jaen, 1982.
"La necesidad de volver
.
las
al latin
Meditaciones de Descartes." In
de
de anima y mens en
los filosofos: el caso
De Roma
al siglo
XX,
ed. A.
M. Aldama, 2
vols.,
2:707-717. Madrid, 1996. Descartes y Plauto:
.
La
concepcion dram&tica del sistema cartesiano.
Madrid, 1997.
"Trasfondo filosofico y fondo precartesiano en Amphitruo de Plauto." In La
-.
Jilologta latina hoy: Actualizacion
y
perspectivas, ed.
A.
M. Aldama
et al.,
2 vols.,
2:995-1007. Madrid, 1999.
"Vico acerca del
.
cogito
analogia." In Pensar para
Hidalgo-Sema
et
al.,
el
de Descartes y Plauto.
nuevo
siglo.
Mucho mas que una
Giambattista Vico y
la cultura
simple
europea, ed. E.
3 vols. 1:155-174. Napoli, 2001.
Genette, Gerard. Palimpsestos: La
literatura en
Gilson, Etienne. Rene Descartes, Discours de
segundo grado. Madrid, 1989. la
Methode: Texte
et
commentaire. Paris,
1976.
Marion, Jean-Luc. Sur .
.
Sur
le
"The
la theologie
blanche de Descartes. Paris, 1981.
prisme metaphysique de Descartes. Paris, 1986. Essential Incoherence of Descartes' Definition of Divinity." In Essays
on Descartes' Meditations, ed. A. O. Rorty, 297-338. Berkeley, 1986. Plautus, T. Maccius. Amphitruo, ed. Ettore Paratore. Firenze, 1967.
Vico, Giambattista. Le orazioni inaugurali,
G. Gentile e
F.
"
Cf.
'*
Cf. A. Baillet,
1:81-86.
U De
Italorum sapientia e
le
Polemiche, ed.
Nicohni. Bari, 1968.
Garcia-Hemandez,
La
vie
Descartes y Plauto, 270ss.
de Monsieur Descartes, 2 vols. (Paris, 1691; repr. Hildesheim, 1972),
Petrarch's Poetics:
A
Definition and Defense of Creativity
and Seniles
in the Familiares
DONALD OILMAN
At
the beginning of his epic Africa (1339-1343), Petrarch invokes the
inspire within
him
Scipio Africanus the Elder. is
Such
a prayer,
he recognizes,
consciously imitating the structure and style of
is
a rhetorical trope,
Homer,
Statius,
Muse
to
to sing of marvelous things,
and he
and Lucan.' For
Petrarch, though, convention and conviction converge; for, in caUing
tance of the
Muse
the capacity to express in song the accomplishments of
upon
the
assis-
he acknowledges the need of a divine
force to discover and convey the material of his verse. Poetry, then, combines the
of experience and the fiction of expression. But Petrarch does not see himself
fact
solely as a rhetor-historian. In
an invocation to Christ that follows
Muse (1.15—25), he hopes to adapt historical event to may relate to moral teaching. Thus the rhetorician is bining the
gifts
a fictional
his address to the
form
that, in turn,
also a theologian
who, com-
of both Helicon and Parnassus, transmits a sacred vision through
secular form.
As
a historian, rhetorician,
and moral philosopher, Petrarch
and responsibihties of the poet. Certainly,
view
this
conflicts
as
Marjorie
with the picture of the persona of the Rime
vernacular verse, the aspirations and anguish of a
'
is
defining the role
O'Rourke Boyle
lustfiil
sparse
has argued,
who
details, in
siimer.^ Rather, the writer
Francesco Petrarca, L'Ajrica, ed. Nicola Festa, Edizione nazionale delle opere di Francesco
Petrarca (Florence, 1926),
1:
69-72. All subsequent book and verse numbers correspond to
diis
edition. ^
Marjorie O'Rourice Boyle,
Petrarch's
Angeles, 1991), 1-10. According to Boyle, obsession with Laura
amounted
Genius: Pentimento and Prophecy (Berkeley critics
of the Rime
Durling, "Petrarch's 'Giovene donna sotto un verde
and Los
have stressed that Petrarch's
Thomas M. Greene, The (New Haven, 1982). 114-115; Robert lauro'," Modem Language Notes 86 (1971):
to the sin of idolatry. See, for example,
Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry
M.
sparse
PETRARCH'S POETICS
230
of the Africa and the Bucolicum carmen
poet-humanist who, according to Charles
a
is
Trinkaus, practices both a theologia poetica and a theologia rhetorica? Fictional forms and
means
rhetorical techniques, then, represent the fiction to the strictures
to adapt historical fact or narrative
of a truth allegorically expressed and interpreted. Besides
Boyle and Trinkaus, Aldo Bernardo, Concetta Greenfield, Kenelm Foster, Pietro Paolo Gerosa, Craig Kallendorf, Nicholas Mann, and Carol Quillen have described this aspect
of Petrarch's humanist
In spite of the accuracy of this research,
poetics."*
though, three questions in the defining of poetic creativity require consideration: the source of Petrarch's object of imitation; (2) the process abstract insight into concrete expression; society.
and
(3)
(1)
whereby the poet converts
the place of the poet and his
craft:
in
Furthermore, previous scholarship has taken into cursory account statements
on the poetic process throughout his letters. However, such analyses have been indiwith emphasis centered upon his poetry or his evolution as a humanist.^ Both
rect,
the Familiares and Seniles deserve separate attention; and, through an examination of Petrarch's thoughts
study
may
on the poetic process recorded in these collections of letters, this more fully his theory on the process and purpose of poetic
perhaps explain
creativity.
The Material of Mimesis In a letter written late in his
complete definition of poetic quid ergo officium eius
life {Seniles
12.2), Petrarch proposes a concise
est fingere, id est
componere atque omare,
et veritatem
rerum, vel mortalium, vel naturalium, vel quarumlibet aliarum
adumbrare coloribus,
1-20; John Freccero,
et velo
amoenae
"The Fig Tree and
fictionis
in
artificiosis
obnubere.
the Laurel: Petrarch's Poetics," Diacritics 5 (1975): 34—40;
Giuseppe Mazzotta, "The Canzoniere and the Language of 271-296. However,
but
creativity:
Self," Studies in Philology
Boyle seeks to define
in studying Petrarch's rhetorical tradition,
75 (1978):
his
poetry not
moral but in humanist terms. Charles Trinkaus, In Our Image and Likeness: Humanity and Diuinity
^
in Italian
Humanist
Thought, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1970), chap. 15; idem, The Poet as Philosopher. Petrarch and the Formation
of Renaissance Consciousness
and the Latin Middle Ages, ^
Aldo Bernardo,
(New Haven, 1979), chap. 4. See also E. R. Curtius, W. R. Trask (Princeton, 1967), 214-227.
Petrarch, Scipio,
Pietro Paulo Gerosa, Umanesimo
and the "Africa" (Baltimore, 1962), especially chaps. 9 and 10;
cristiano del Petrarca
(Turin, 1966), chaps.
Greenfield, "Studies in Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Poetics" (Ph.D.
North Carolina
at
Chapel
Hill, 1971),
73-87; Kenelm Foster,
burgh, 1984); Craig Kallendorf, In Praise of Aeneas: Renaissance (Hanover,
NH,
and
Petrarch, Augustine,
6; ^
Carol Quillen,
themes and structure of the
numerous Mann, and Boyle.
46, 48-49; and kaus,
1989), chap. 2; Nicholas
and
the
Virgil
and
Mann,
Petrarch: Poet
letters;
1
and diss.,
15;
Concetta
University of
and Humanist (Edin-
Epideictic Rhetoric in the Early Italian
Petrarch
(Oxford, 1984), esp. chaps. 2
Language of Humanism (Ann Arbor, 1998).
See, for example, Greenfield, "Studies," 81—82; Gerosa, Umanesimo
discusses the
European Literature
trans.
cristiano,
chap. 7,
who
Kallendorf, In Praise of Aeneas, 20, 28-30, 43-44,
references scattered throughout the studies of Bernardo, Foster, Trin-
DONALD OILMAN compose and adorn, and
to sketch
with
artful colors the truth
of things, whether mortal or natural or whatever
else,
and
veil
[Their function
to
cover
is
to invent, that
with a
it
to
is,
of neat
fiction.]*
For Petrarch, the process of invention involves that, al
231
drawn from the
a search for
an object of imitation
poet's earthly surroundings, reflects the truth of reahty. In sever-
preceding sentences he affirms that poets do not misrepresent. Rather, fiction
hterary vehicle that conveys but
coven
truth.
As
a
means
to express a reaUty
hterary ornamentation, poetry occupies a place in the arts distinct firom stresses correctness
is
a
through
grammar
that
of speech, and different fi^om rhetoric that enables the orator to
persuade. Although the poet employs the resources of the grammarian and the rhetorician, his task
of perceiving and presenting "the truth of things" ("veritatem rerum")
through a "veil of deUghtful fiction" ("velo amoenae
who
diary role of the ancient poet-seer
transmits to
fictionis") recalls the
man
divine insight in verse.
Unlike Homer's unlettered bard, though, Petrarch's practicing poet, composes, and adorns a particular subject,
is
interme-
who
invents,
not an unconscious agent of the gods.
Nevertheless, poetry, in spite of a fictional fiamework, enables the reader to discover
Thus,
truth.
seminal statement becomes a defense of an art that requires the use
this
of allegory in
writing and interpretation.
its
According to Petrarch in FamiUares 10.4, "poetry in fact, "theology
becoming the
is
is
not contrary to theology";'
the poetry of God."* Truth, then, proceeds from God, thereby
poet's object of imitation. In this firequently cited letter to his brother
Gherardo, Petrarch demonstrates that the signified and the verge. For example, the single identity of Christ
may emerge
signifier
sometimes
in discourse as a
di-
hon or
lamb; and Christ employed narrative parables to describe the unfolding of divine purpose. According to Petrarch, Aristotle, too, sees the
first
theologians
as
poets
who,
as
Varro, Suetonius, and Isidore affirm, praise the deities and describe the divine design.
The
are therefore poets
prisci theologi
who
perceive and transmit the secrets of the
heavens.' Conversely, Ambrose, Augustine, and
*
Jerome
are theologians
who
rely
Francesco Petrarca, Opera omnia, 3 vols. (Basel: Henrichus Petrus, 1554), 1001. All page
references to the Seniles correspond to this edition.
Petrarch, Letters of
Old Age,
Aldo
trans.
(Baltimore, 1992), 2:455. Subsequent
S.
The En^ish
translation
is
taken from Francis
Bernardo, Saul Levin, and Reta A. Bernardo, 2 vols.
En^ish
translations
from the
Seniles will
correspond to
this
edition. '
"theologie
.
.
minime
.
adversa poetica est": Francesco Petrarca, Le Familiari, ed. Vittorio
Rossi, 4 vols., Edizione nazionale delle opere di Francesco Petrarca (Florence, 1933-1942), 2:301.
volume and page references to the FamiUares correspond to this edition. English from the FamiUares correspond to those in Letters on Familiar Matters, trans. Aldo S. Bernardo, vol. 1 (Albany, 1975), vols. 2-3 (Baltimore. 1982 and 1985), here 2:455. All future
translations
*
"dicam theologiam poeticam
'
In his discussion of the
Isidore
of Seville, Etymologiae, ed.
8.7.1-3,
where
latina, ed.
and
de Deo,"
W. M.
Familiari, 2:301; trans.
Petrarch was probably drawing
Bernardo, 2:455.
upon two
passages
from
Lindsay, 2 vob. (Oxford, 1911), 1.39.11 and, especially,
from Suetonius's De poetis. See also Varro, who in his De lingua Roland G. Kent, 2 vols., Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, N4A, 1938), vates. See also Augustine, De civitate Dei, ed. and trans. Eva Matthews Sanford
Isidore quotes trans.
7.36, briefly defines
esse
prisci theologi,
PETRARCH'S POETICS
232
upon
the resources of language and
and
rhythm
poet becomes a sort of seer who,
cases, the
to
as
earthly, poeticizes a truth intelligible to
convey Christian doctrine. In both
an intermediary between the spiritual
man
but often expressed by different
modes of discourse. Theological truth, then, becomes an appropriate topic of humanist verse. Through allusions to various ancient poet-seers {Familiares 24.12),
tween Apollo and Christ
and through analogies beof the
(Familiares 10.4), Petrarch suggests the possibility
poet's perception into the heavenly mysteries.
Such
visions are often divinely infused.
In countering criticisms lodged against Nicola di Lorenzo, Petrarch refers, in Familiares 13.6, to
Cicero's defense of the inspired poet Archias. Unfortunately, the truth
revealed through inspired verse
is
condemned
often unappreciated, for Virgil was
for
necromancy, and Petrarch himself recalls accusations of divination. The importance of divine inspiration, though, cannot be discounted. In specifically discuss poetic creativity.
God,
for poets, like
all
he stated in an earUer
works must conform Poetic imitation
human letter.
to
may
affirm
man
as
does not
an agent of
beings, respond to the call of their creator. In fact, as
Christian truth cannot be overlooked, and
all
Uterary
(Familiares 6.2).
it
also derive
from natural phenomena. In seeking an appropri-
of imitation, the poet may
ate object
Seniles 7.1 Petrarch
However, he does
select
images in his surroundings. However,
such topics are frequently metaphors that conceal a truth and require interpretation.
For example, on first reading, But the description of horses
Familiares 9.4 appears to
be
a vituperation against lust.
in heat reflects a higher meaning: the inconstancy of
may
physical love. Sexual intercourse, Petrarch continues,
take the
form of
incest
depicted in the relationship between Semiramis and her son. Again, a particular
image conveys a more universal significance collected firom earthly experiences. Vicissitudes exist in
life,
and images and legends become the material to depict
suffering,
delusion, and destruction. History also provides the material for the inventive process.
In Seniles 2.1 Petrarch defends his portrayal of Mago in the Africa that, in turn, he borrowed from an incident included in Livy's account of the Second Punic War.'** According to Petrarch, critics saw this account of the regrets of a dying man as an
expression
and
W. M.
more
Green, 4
gione 1.1-2, in
PL
Christian than pagan. Mago's recognition of his
vols.,
1;
Classical Library
on the
Ficino to Campanella
Gerosa, Umanesimo
tradition, see especially
cristiano,
chap. 15;
S.
(Milan, 1955), 674-677.
However,
of Christian
Africa
D.
libri,
ed. V.
P. Walker, Spiritual and
De
vera
Romano
reli-
(Bari,
Demonic Magic.
CA,
1974), and idem, Sidney and Spenser. The Poet 3. Further,
Petrarch alludes to these poets in
medicum, in Prose, ed. G. Martellotti, P. G. Ricci, E. Carrara, and E. Bianchi
trarch, lacks the validity '"
1965), 18.14, and
K. Heninger, Jr., Touches of Sweet Harmony- Pythagorean
Maker (University Park, PA, 1989), chaps. 2 and
his Invectiva contra
MA,
is
(London, 1958), 18-24, and The Ancient Theology (London, 1972), chap.
Cosmology and Renaissance Poetia (San Marino, as
(Cambridge,
34. 121—123; Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium
1951), 14.8. For studies
From
Loeb
though,
sins,
6.885-918; Livy,
Ah
in spite
of their divine
inspiration, their verse, according to
Pe-
poets'.
urbe condita, ed.
Sage, and A. C. Schlesinger, 14 vols.,
Loeb
and
trans.
B.
Classical Library
O.
Foster, F.
(Cambridge,
30.18.1-19.6. For a literary explication of this passage, see Gerosa, Umanesimo
G. Moore, E. T.
MA,
1922—1959),
cristiano,
21-23.
DONALD OILMAN
233
hardly limited to a particular time, place, or creed. Historical fact
is
indeed an impor-
and the commonality of death, the awareness of human
tant touchstone;
the search for salvation are equally serious subjects for
classical, biblical,
error,
and
and contem-
porary Christian writers. Both sensory perceptions and recorded happenings
become
therefore viable objects of poetic imitation that represent exemplary virtue {Familiares
Thus,
6.4).
as
Petrarch deduces later in Familiares 9.4, poetry conforms to nature,
more
thereby assuring that "nothing
natural can be imitated, nothing truer can be
said" {Familiares 9.4)."
Mimesis
an early
also extends to literary texts. In
Horace and Seneca,
like
letter, Familiares 1.8,
produce wax and honey from flowers, poets express in of earher poets and philosophers.'^ Further, in a
and poets
historians, rhetoricians,
it
must
also
be Hmited in
its
23.19 seems especially pertinent.
their
series
{Familiares 24.2—12),
By
defends the reading of hterature.
but
eflfective
fact,
own words
the thoughts
of imaginary letten to past
he praises ancient learning and
extension, the imitation of Uterary texts
is
vahd,
apphcation. His advice to Boccaccio in Familiares
A poet, he notes, is not an ape. must
ating another author's thoughts and language, the poet
rephcation. In
Petrarch,
sees invention as an eclectic process. Similar to bees that
Rather, in approprirefrain
originahty appean to Ue in a selection and an
images, genres, techniques, and tropes.
artistic
The metaphor of the
from
slavish
mingling of
bees illustrates
again the inventive process, for bees, like poets, do not gather flowers but construct
honeycombs
that reflect,
through labor and blending, a single and better unity.
Invention, then, requires the identification of an appropriate object of imitation
derived from natural phenomena,
human
truth, or Uterary texts. Further, the
poet serves
cosmic mysteries, but form.
A
who
poetic process
is
experience, inspired vision, theological
who attains insight into the man in an inteUigible, artistic
as a seer
conveys these visions to
therefore clearly implied, for the poet must discover and
interpret the material of his proposed
vene and, subsequently, accommodate
his per-
ceptions to the restrictions of accepted literary conventions. Nevertheless, any con-
version of abstract thought to concrete expression raises questions that Petrarch anticipated but does not always
A
frilly
answer in
his letters.
Poetic Process
As
we
tion of
have seen, Petrarch indicates that poetic practice
sensibilia.
In
fact,
material. Like the unskilled bard
who
A
not a mindless replica-
seems removed from social concerns, Petrarch's
poet seeks in seclusion a contemplation that ares 10.5).
is
motivation prompts the poet to discover appropriate
results in the finding
of wisdom {Famili-
disposition to create, moreover, extends to attitude. In lamenting the
death of Tommaso Caloiro in Familiares 4.10, he notes the purgative powers of writ-
" "nichil
fingi naturalius, nichil
" Horace,
hoc verius
dici posse": Fcanilian, 2:222; trans.
1914), 4.2.27-32; Seneca, Epistulae morales, ed. and trans. Richard Classical Library trans.
Bernardo, 2:1
Carmina, ed. and trans. C. E. Bennett, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge,
(Cambridge,
MA,
M. Gummere, 3 vols., Loeb De rerum nature, ed. and
1917), 84.3-10. See also Lucretius,
Maitin Ferguson Smith, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge,
1.
MA,
MA,
1924), 3.9—11.
PETRARCH'S POETICS
234
of the need to compose
when sorrow and
the regret
mind. Petrarch does not directly
relate the creative
impuse to
ing and, in Familiares 4.12,
of rejection oppress
his
tells
melancholy, thereby leaving
it
with a temperament
to later theorists to link creativity
previously described by Aristotle. ^^ As he explains in Familiares 9.5, grief is alleviated
by writing and, by extension, ends in an expression of eloquence. Writing is a labor but it stimulates and sustains a healthy mind, whereas pleasure characterizes a sick soul {Seniles 2.3).
Intentionality also affords the poet an opportunity to select a suitable subject. all human action {Familiares may end in pleasure or pain {Familiares 21.9). Certainly, his acof Mont Ventoux {Familiares 4.1) attests metaphorically to the
According to Petrarch, human intention motivates 19.12), and free will
count of
his ascent
importance of the recognition of virtue and of the use of intention and
overcome
effort to
earthly temptations to find eternal redemption. Petrarch returns to this
theme throughout
his letters
Familiares 7.17,
(e.g.,
11.3,
12.16) and suggests
its
application to poetic creativity in Familiares 12.3. Adherence to grammatical rules, he
As
observes, does not assure effective writing. conflicts
and must
one of two
select
a
human
being, the poet confronts
roads: earthly errors or spiritual satisfaction.
Pythagoras and Virgil rejected the easier path of pleasure and, by respecting Nature as their
guide, endured the narrow, thorny road that culminated in spiritual salvation
{Familiares 12.3). In spite
of Petrarch's numerous allusions to
role of intention in the attainment of virtue
thoughts on the relationship of directly recorded in his onstrated,'''
De
human
sui ipsius et
and poetic
will
errors
and to the
multorum ignorantia
seem
creativity
to
his
be more
As Trinkaus has dem-
liber.
both Christian writers and rhetorical authors seek to identify and convey
various aspects of wisdom. Writing, though,
is
not simply a description of virtue.
Rather, the author, in striving to appreciate and actualize qualities and,
through the use of words,
As Petrarch views
vice.
human
and heavenly happiness, most of
become
poetry, but literature does
Thus poetic
thought in Familiares
this
creativity
is
a
means
hardly an
this ideal, assimilates its
incites the reader to love virtue
ars
3.1,
and detest
redemption may not reside in
to attain salvation.
from
mechanica}^ Although poetry results
the use of rhetorical resources, Petrarch advises aspiring poets, in the opening letter
of the
Familiares, to meditate
subject to be conveyed. In spite of the signifi-
on the
cance of inspiration, Petrarch's practicing poet does not conform to the picture of
'^
Aristotle, Problems
Classical Library
Raymond
I-XXXVIII,
(Cambridge,
MA,
ed.
and
trans.
H. Rackham and
W.
S.
Hett, 2 vols.,
Loeb
1937), 954a20. For the origins and tradition of this idea, see
Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies
in the
History
of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art (London, 1964). '"
Trinkaus, The Poet as Philosopher, 107-1 12. See also Foster, Petrarch: Poet and Humanist, 149-
''
Petrarch elaborates
150.
upon
this idea in his Invectiva contra
medicum. For an analysis of his view
of the place of poetry within the sciences, see Greenfield, "Studies," l(y-ll Foster, .
Petrarch: Poet
and Humanist, 144-145, notes that Petrarch does not see himself as a passive agent of the gods, and that,
although his poetry originates in the reading of Holy Scripture,
verse. Rather,
it
records a
human wisdom
it
consistent with divine truth.
is
not divinely inspired
DONALD OILMAN
235
Homer's blind poet or the Venerable Bede's account of the unskilled shepherd-bard Caedmon. A practicing poet may appear mad, but, in reaUty, he must consciously determine and select a moral quality to be expressed
copy randomly collected sense-impressions;
Thus he does not employment of reason that is
(Seniles 5.5).
for, in his
required in the inventive process, the writer determines consciously and morally the subject to be interpreted and expressed.'^ Eloquence, though, (Familiares 21.10),
and the poet must exercise
complements wisdom
a similar judgment in his use
priate forms. In Seniles 2.3, Petrarch alludes to Augustine's thoughts
on
of appro"the
art as
of things experienced and enjoyed. "^^ But the poet must also appreciate
memory
the significance of effective craftsmanship, for, "if experience really makes practice begets, nourishes, and
makes
then
art,
art perfect" (Seniles 2.3).'*
The Place and Purpose of Poetry Philosophy and eloquence are therefore interdependent (Familiares and, just as the poet
may
of verse comphes with the rhetorical process of talent, 6.7).
Seniles 3. 1);
1 .9;
discover his object of imitation in Uterary texts, the writing skill,
and practice
(Familiares
Petrarch does not seem to refer directly in his letters to the imitation of classical
genres, but he does praise, in Familiares 24.4, Cicero and Virgil for their writing in prose
and poetry
respectively. Further, in
two frequently
skills
cited letters, Familiares
10.4 and Seniles 4.5, he refers to his adoption of pastoral and epic forms in the
writing of the Bucolicum carmen
precedence over
style,
1
and the
Africa.
Substance, though, seems to take
and eloquence becomes the means to convey a moral message.
Cicero and Virgil deserve admiration, but the psalmist David
is
the greatest poet for
the beauty of his poetry's simplicity and the learning of its purity (Familiares 22.10).
In spite of the importance of substance, Petrarch affirms the essential role of form that provides a fiction to cover lo's
and convey
a
moral message.'^ Fables, such
as
Apol-
rape of Daphne, transmit truth (Familiares 11.6) that describes the violence and
pain caused by passion. Similarly, he defines his Bucolicum carmen that contrasts the virtuous shepherd
" Grahame
Castor, Pleiade
Poetics:
A
Monicus with
Study
a didactic
poem
companion
Thought and Terminology
employed by poets
memoriam
"artem renim expertarum, placitarumque
1 as
pleasure-seeking
in Sixteenth Cetitury
bridge, 1964), chap. 12, describes a similar process '^
his
(Cam-
in sixteenth-century France.
diffinivit": Seniles,
841; trans. Bernardo
etal., 1:63. '*
trans.
"
"Experientia siquidem artem
Bernardo
et
Besides the
al.,
letters,
to
is
undentand
autem artem
gignit, nutrit, ac perficit": Seniles,
Petrarch emphasizes in his Africa the significance of allegory.
of the poet's inspiration, he notes, the material
usus
facit,
841;
1:62.
concealed by a
veil
lies in
human
The
source
experience, history, and nature (9.97-100), but
of fiction (9.100-101). The reader,
in turn,
must make an
a message that will lead to his satisfaction (9.95-97). For a discussion
effort
of this passage,
see Bernardo, Petrarch, Scipio, and the "Africa," 264, as well as his analysis of Petrarch's use of alle-
gorization throughout this study. Similarly, in the Invectiva contra medicum, ed. Martellotti et
669-670, Petrarch underscores the significance of literal and figurative interpretations,
work of the poet of allegory
as
one of allegorizing
in his Africa
and
fiction.
Eclogues, see Gerosa,
lendorf, In Praise of Aeneas, 21-22;
and Boyle,
al.,
stressing the
See Greenfield, "Studies," 81. For Petrarch's use
Umanesimo
cristiano,
318-319 and 321-323; Kal-
Petrarch's Genius, chaps.
2 and
3.
PETRARCH'S POETICS
236
Silvius.^"
As he explains the narrative meanings of this poem in
name Monicus evokes
moral rectitude. However,
Fatniliares 10.4,
him
the image of a single eye that enables
the
to follow a path of
denizen of the woods, wanders and enjoys his
Silvius, as a
surroundings.
The name and
that promises
redemption for Monicus and condemnation for
of the
narrative, then, present a picture
human
situation
Silvius. Similarly,
Pe-
trarch describes, in Seniles 4.5, Virgil's Aeneid as a story that, through a series of allegories, depicts the
journey of
a perfect
man. Through an
burning of Troy and Dido's banquet, he
of the use of reason over passion and
result
analysis
of two scenes, the
of the hero's journey
sees the success
as a
culmination of the triumph of virtue
a
over vice.
As Petrarch remarks
in the concluding
book of his Africa,
a
sweet and varied struc-
ture (9.126—127) veils the foundation of truth. Poets, then, neither misrepresent nor
mislead. In fact, at the beginning of Seniles 4.5, he defends Virgil's
"gems wrapped
in the Aeneid are
in a napkin. "^^
philosophy nor poetry, but literature does inform and instruct
Mago
in Livy's history
and in Petrarch's
of the repentant Christian vances knowledge and
Africa
(Seniles 2.1). Critics
instills
is
art,
for the stories
MUitary leaden may need neither {Seniles 4.4).
And,
if
pagan, his death shares characteristics
may
virtue (Seniles 1.5).
attack (Seniles 2.1), but poetry ad-
Thus the
reader, in
mantle of fiction, discovers a truth that becomes even more welcome
removing the
after a difficult
quest (Seniles 12.2).
In his creation of fiction, though, the poet study, he ruminates
upon
ideas, structures,
and Christian authors. Tradition and
is
and
originality
not a
plagiarist.
particular perspective to established form. Virgil, then,
was hardly
Familiares 1.8, the poet's
aim
is
a slavish imitator:
and of his individual voice
in fact, he deserves a defense of his veneration for the past that resonates in the present (Familiares 4.7).
Through reading and
employed by ancient, biblical, coexist, for he must accommodate a
styles
As Petrarch indicates in an early
to express in one's
own
letter,
thought and speech ideas
borrowed and reworked from others. This shaping of present perspective to accepted form also implies the transcendent nature of poetry. In his final letter. Seniles 18.1, Petrarch reviews various stages of human development, and he sees the commingUng of past and present perspectives as a fusion into a fiiture vision to be appreciated by posterity. Likewise, creativity requires a
knowledge of experience and poetic prece-
dents that, adjusted to contemporary contexts, flection
of eternal
become through
allegorization a re-
truth.
Conclusion For Petrarch, then, the individual expression of poetry universal
wisdom
that transcends time
and
affords
an insight into a
place. Like the Lord's face depicted
on
Veronica's veil or on church walls (Familiares 9.13), poetic-philosophic themes culled
^^
For analyses of this poem, see Aldo
cations of the
Modem
S.
Bernardo, "Petrarch's Attitude toward Dante," Publi-
Language Association 70 (1955): 500-517; Gerosa, Umanesimo
cristiano,
Kallendorf, In Praise of Aeneas, 19-22; and Boyle, Petrarch's Genius, 13-15 and 26. ^'
"gemmas
lintheo obvolutas": Seniles, 868; trans. Bernardo et
al.,
1:139.
318-319;
DONALD OILMAN from
scripture, theology,
human
237
experience, literary texts, or inspired vision provide
the material to be selected and imitated in poetry. As an intermediary
who
fashions
eternal truths to temporal forms, Petrarch's poet recalls characteristics of the poetvates.
tor,
However, he
is
not a passive agent of the gods,
he recognizes the significance of study
UnUke
sage inteUigibly and eloquently.
for, in
that enables
him
serving as such a mediato
convey
medicum, though, the poet does not practice a scholastic science based
and
style; in
expressing a
wisdom
and the
rhetor's exercise
ing reason in his search for appropriate material, and expressing a
ate
on
upon
syllogism
in artistic form, he adheres to a rhetorical process
reconciles the philosopher's search for truth
Although
moral mes-
of invention, disposition, and expression. Thus he
that requires the successive steps
to society.
a
the physician attacked in the Invectiva contra
later theorists will
borrow
of art, employ-
wisdom
beneficial
ideas of faculty psychology to elabor-
the use of judgment in the poetic process,^ Petrarch aflSrms the role of study
and thought in the creation of Allegorization
a text that illustrates
becomes one of the means
poet also suggests a defense of a
and
instructs a
Thus
to attain this end.
craft that teaches a truth
moral meaning.
his definition
of the
through a fiction created
from the resources of talent and artifice. At the end of his Familiares (24.13), he describes his letters as trifles that weave together many things in a variety of styles.-" In spite of the statements
on
poetic creativity scattered throughout the letters,
Petrarch does depict and defend the poet-humanist
as a
Uke Homer, conceals "with a splendid and transparent
phy"
seer
and shaper of truth who,
veil a
very beautifiil philoso-
{Familiares 24. 12).^*
Ball State University
^
See, in particular,
Murray Wright Bundy, The Theory of Imagination
in Classical
and Mediaeval
Thought, University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature 12 (Urbana, 1928), 179-198,
225. 230, 265; Castor, Pleiade Poetia, chap. 14.
"
"librum e meis nugis multa rerum ac verborum impaiitate contextum":
^*
Trans. Bernardo, 3:347, of the following passage: "pulcerrimam philosophiam
ac tenuissimo velo," Familiari, 4:260.
Familiari, 4:264.
omadssimo
Philosophy and Pedagogy in the Rhetoric of Giambattista Vico's
De
nostri temporis
studiorum ratione
(t
709)
ROBERT GINSBERG
service as Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Naples
Giambattista Vice's
included an annual address composed in Latin year.
The seventh such
oration,
De
nostri temporis
at
the opening of the academic
studiorum ratione, had the special
conditions of being dehvered, in 1708, in the presence of the Vice-Regent and the
which pubUcation
Cardinal, with the intention of being published by the university,
occurred the following year.'
The
oration
is
the fint major statement of Vice's inno-
vative and imaginative system of philosophy.
Vico
may
to
come.
learn
from
It is it
contains keys to most of the works of
It
a world-class contribution to the philosophy
and academic
in our struggles with students
a remarkable oratorical
performance in the high
spirit
of education;
institutions.
And
we it is
of humanism.
propose to examine the educational core of Vico's vision and the highlights of
I
his philosophical thought, especially as the oration fulfills his
mission in teaching the
students before him. Higher education and the pursuit of advanced scholarship are
not matters of simply transmitting. They require participation.
of teaching
consists in
effective activation
its
The
of the imagination and
heart of the art intellect
of the
To awaken the scholar's fiill powers of mind and heart is to win over the person. To educate in this sense is to persuade. Not so much doctrinal as directional, the teaching draws the student onto the path of self-development. While much of learner.
our work
'
as scholars takes
Giambattisu Vico,
"De
the form of academic exercises, such as papers presented
nostri temporis
studiorum ratione" (1709), in Opere, ed. Benedetto
Croce, Giovanni Gentile, and Fausto Nicolini, 8 rali,
ed.
Giovanni Gentile and Fausto Nicolini.
numbers
NY,
identified parenthetically,
1990), with preface by
I
pts. (Bari:
will
by Elio Gianturco,
Donald
Phillip
Verene.
1914-1941),
pt. \,
be citing the Eng^sh
On
the
Le Orazione inaugu-
translation,
with page
Study Methods of Our Time (Ithaca,
RHETORIC OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO
240
at congresses
and
published in specialized journals and proceedings, our hope
articles
someday, somehow, our work
that
is
Vico's discourse
built
is
move
will
the heart of someone.
around the celebrated topic of the quarrel of the ancients
and moderns. Every student
European university heard about
at a
and every
this,
great figure of letters throughout the eighteenth century said something about
present form, this recurrent
lar
terms of a return to
Vico greets the students
understand Vico
as
"On
title as
by Donald
Phillip
study is
Vico has opened
at
A
limits
has
of their
— and our — ways of knowledge
that
wise piece of instruction to the assembly
How we are to
the beginning of their academic year!
stacles to learning
method of studies
on the cautionary note
his consideration
limited because of human imperfection.
of students
Our Curriculum."
as to their
expanding knowledge. Learn more than the
admonishes Vico, but recognize the
(5).
as
study of ancients and moderns
direct practical value to the student in ancients,
Methods of Our Time" has been "The Method of Studies." We can
the Study
Verene
introducing students to "The Plan of
The comparative
In
formal occasion with an orientation to academic studies.
at a
Gianturco's rendition of the judiciously corrected
it.
theme is being debated by our universities in curricuthe great books versus an expansion of contemporary interests.
its
deal with the
ob-
draws the learnen into the inquiry. Vico does not hold in suspen-
sion the resolution of the quarrel.
He
gives his answer at the outset (6): the
modems
more knowledgeable than the ancients. So he is not primarily engaged in debating the merits of ancients versus modems; instead, he is using their differences as an organizational theme for his critique of modem education. The problem is not only to recognize the merit of current pursuits of knowledge but to overcome their obstacles as well. We have to learn about learning. Vico is ofare
fering a learned approach to that task.
more and
to
know
better.
Vico
Knowing how we may know
helps us to
know
bringing to awareness self-consciousness about
is
knowledge; thereby he shows the student's responsibility for higher education. The student
is
not a recipient of education but a seeker.
vision of the student as an
empty head, knowledge
How
as a pile
different this
is
from the
of subject matter, and the
professor as a big shovel.
Vico draws the distinction study. His interest aids,
is
how we
(6)
between new subject matters and new ways of
are to study, involving three
and aims. Instruments are prerequisite
supposed by physics. These
modern
times, ranging
new methods
disciplines,
components: instruments,
such
as
mathematics
as
pre-
of study have led to dazzling discoveries in
from physics and chemistry
to pharmacology, medicine,
and
anatomy, and on to astronomy, geography, and even military science. In a couple of
Vico introduces the student
to the exciting range of advances in
knowledge,
including those due to the microscope, telescope, and mariner's compass.
A great part
pages,
of the oration then consists of in-depth study.
Something
is
bound
critical discussion
to interest every student in
paraded, and the point of the presentation
is
cussed, the student should
a
fall
asleep.
This
is
not
lost
model
of each of the
fields
one or another of the
if,
while some
for lecturing
of
fields
fields are dis-
which many of my
colleagues have learned to follow.
Aids to learning include cultural conditions. Vico signals the invention of the printing press as the opening of "a multiple, diversified, almost boundless
domain of
ROBERT GINSBERG
241
culture" to scholars. Universities too are are institutions that aid
"the repositories of all hnguistic abilities
opened as a
of men may
to the student
human
our sciences and
arts
.
where the
by the univenity and by books
being. Vice's eloquent w^ay of putting
the professor, and this
for, intimates
The
.
of the oration
explicit structure
is
it
to
modem
learning:
and
intellectual, spiritual,
be brought to perfection"
intimate connection between learning and
here
.
(12).
The door
been
has
complete self-development
inspires the student to relish the
becoming cultured. This is what you what we as a university exist for. a model of effective organization:
are
is
Statement of the theme Its
relevance to the audience
Goal of the speaker Tripartite division of the approach
Reminders
(for the inattentive student)
Examination of each
of the three prongs of the attack
field
Summary Closing disclaimers Farewell.
This
is
the outer shell of convention.
But we must look to the inner
principles of
persuasive organization.
In concentrating
on methodology, Vico confronts the contributions of both Bacon is mentioned from the first sentence, but
and Descartes. The Lord Chancellor strangely enough, Descartes's
name
is
absent, although this
is
a
powerful critique of
Cartesianism. Vico takes a stand against Descartes's exclusion of probabilistic
edge
as
lacking the sought-after certainty. Instead,
ceptions based
on
verisimilitude" (13).
foundation upon which to construct tional
all
"common
knowl-
sense arises fi-om per-
Whereas Descartes was seeking the perfect knowledge, Vico
is
attentive to the educa-
We might say that Vico approves the pragmatic
development of young people.
value of probabiUty in the growth of individuals, whereas Descartes rejected
candidate for indubitable truth. Vico cartes
is
it
as a
considering the practice of pedagogy; Des-
was considering the foundations of epistemology. Descartes cooks up the hard-
boiled ego; Vico prepares the ego omelette. In 1710, Vico was to tackle Descartes
head-on in
The
a critical
monograph, "De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia."
rhetoric professor
on common
sense.
losophical criticism
He
makes the
case (13) that the practice of eloquence depends
cautions against the "danger that instruction in advanced phi-
may
lead to an abnormal
growth of abstract intellectuaUsm, and
render young people unfit for the practice of eloquence" rigorous philosophical training, especially in
symbohc
logic
(13).
I
have often seen a
and language
analysis, for
which Cambridge University must take much credit, lead to disaster for students as they turned to practical Hfe where effective communication is required. Vico, in effect, is defending his students against the injudicious apphcation of method. He praises the distinctive
become
power of
the
young
people's imagination. Imagination
the backbone of Vico's masterpiece, the
New
Science, first
is
to
published in 1725.
Vico, the teacher, offers a nice mixture of caution and encouragement
as
the fuel
RHETORIC OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO
242
He
of education.
has been establishing his character as sympathetic and learned. His
good rapport between teacher and student that facihis more than the authority of the orator. He exof oratory the relationship between speaker and Ustener is of the
persuasive presence creates that
of learning. This
tates the pleasure
plains, "in the art
essence" (15).
with
imagine that
I
He
his listeners.
at this
point Vico
is
in eye-contact as well as ear-contact
has recognized the Aristotelian grounding of rhetoric in the
audience.
Vico
offers this educational plan: (1) First strengthen the
young. This will have good
and speech.
effect in character
common
sense of the
Next strengthen
(2)
imagination and memory, which will give them access to the imaginative law.
The
will
not lose these treasures which are to be
first
two
stages give credit for
what students bring fortified. (3)
their
arts
and
to the university; they
Then
teach
them
philo-
whereby they can be good judges of their own education. The crionly when the student is ready for it. The educated person becomes
sophical criticism
comes
tique
in
responsible for the education of that person. Instead of dismantUng access at the start
of knowledge, the critical
critical
examination.
The
method comes
into the
best of modem critique
life is
of the educated person
as self-
conjoined to the best of ancient
practice.
For students to hear that they are to become judges of their
own
education must
be exciting, especially when Vico magnificently sums up their prospective accomp-
"Were
lishments:
this
done, young students
.
.
would become exact
.
in science, clev-
er in practical matters, fluent in eloquence, imaginative in understanding poetry or
and strong in memorizing what they have learned in
painting,
They
(19).
will also get well-paying jobs,
Vico's principal criticism of Cartesianism applied to
fields,
such
where only
as physics,
their legal studies"
he might have added. is
its
insistence
on deductive method
probabilities arise (22-23).
Vico intro-
duces the image of a splendid house into which physics moves (21), though the foundations lition
may be
may be an
faulty (22). This
and construction from
allusion to Descartes's
fresh foundations.
image of demo-
But the habit of mind inculcated by
deduction inhibits the development of "the student's specifically philosophic faculty": the
power
to detect analogies in
which
in metaphor,
speech"
what appear
as disparate.
This power expresses
itself
"the greatest and brightest ornament of forceful, distinguished
(24).
my
In
is
academic experience,
I
have observed that Vico's aesthetic critique of the
deductive mind-set was borne out by the excessive training of the mind in symbolic logic that
stifles
the imagination. In the search for the deductive connections, the
and the teacher, missed the big connections. Vico
student,
is
correct that the narrow
deductive training of the mind leads to weakness in expression.
sody
still
affects
letters. It is
American philosophic writing
infected
Vico returns to
by
to
keep
it
A lifeless,
from serving
literal
as a
pro-
branch of
a dry-rot of discourse.
his professorial specialty
of eloquence (24—25). In the midst of a
discussion of physics and geometry, he manages to defend eloquence in an eloquent
passage with a flourish of several parallel tasks for the orator facing an uncultured audience.
home
The
by concentration on a point to be taken Vico has been practicing what he preaches, though
diverse efforts are to be topped
in the soul of the listener.
ROBERT GINSBERG with an audience becoming cultured. is
just
what he next
says the orator
He
has
must do
made
243
the students feel the point. This
(25). Participation in the thinking and
subsequent emotive development brings pleasure to the Hstener.
The
quently turns the question of the best approach to studies into what
is
its
oration fre-
best for orator-
ical skill.
Even
in the practice of medicine, Vico, joining Bacon, warns against the preva-
lence of deductive thinking. Medical judgment
on the changing
"Nor am
particularity (32).
the same individual
I
was but
a
probabilistic because
is
he
I,"
minute ago while talking of the
centered
it is
the present
asserts, "at
moment, Ufe-
sick: countless
(32), one of the most startUng things that any student one of the most troubUng insights of modem professor and a hear from might
instants
have already passed by"
thought. Vico
at this
performance. But he
point
is
talking about his talking: the temporality of discursive
also talking
is
about the existential identity that
with each moment. This obhges the hstener to
making and ponder how
it
upon
reflects
itself.
If the
speaker
may open the And
scious about the speech, then the listener
about the Ustener's role in the speech-transaction.
doubt about the continuity of the Ustener's
own
question which Vico gets the student to raise
upon
reflect critically
identity.
this
speech-
confessedly self-con-
is
portal of self-consciousness
the Ustener
Who am I?
—an unsettUng
thrown into
is is
the unspoken
experience, but
cushioned about midway in the oration so that the student will calm
through the
may change
it is
down and
sit
rest.
moment. He
In any case, Vico has spoken only of himself as changing each
takes
on the burden of this shocking condition for his Usteners. They are both sharers in his predicament and separated from it, participants and observers. Vico has sown the seed of reflection whereby the student
How will be
the lecture?
Vico
is
I
may ask, How am I diflferent at this point in What will I become during my education?
different after it?
not making the commonplace observation that
that in senior years
we
are not quite
who we were
we
change with time so
That would be an
in youth.
easily
accepted observation by the young students listening to the forty-year-old professor.
from minute to minute. This is not the Between who I am as now writing and who I was a moment ago, innumerable moments have intervened at which I may have been different persons. At each moment of my Hfe, I address my life anew. Not that I am becoming someone through stages, arriving at my true self. I become myInstead,
he claims that he
is
a different person
process of aging but the process of being.
self at
Or better, each moment, am when I am each moment.
every stage.
am who
I
rather than a becoming,
is
my
being.
I
We have here the germ of a wonderful philosophy of the moment. is
The moment The moment is the
not a mere momentary interval between stages of selfliood.
dweUing ground of my fullness
of
my moments
But innumerable
selfliood.
I
exist
Ufe-instants arise for
are not endless, as
only in the moment. If
of Ufe that would be the momentous
me
in
which
Vico soberly remarks, for they
all
to
renew
I
could reahze the
fiilfillment
my
of my
existence.
lead to death.
I
Hfe.
Yet they
am a momentary
being, passing away.
"But the great drawback of our educational methods,"
asserts
Vico,
"is that
we
pay an excessive amount of attention to the natural sciences and not enough to
RHETORIC OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO
244
ethics" (33). This complaint
echoed throughout the academic
we
mistakenly rank
human
higher than efforts to understand
it
during the second
halls
knowledge of nature
half of the twentieth century. Because scientific
phenomena, unlike natural phenomena, are subject is that human-centered subjects, especially politics,
is
freedom of the
to
more precise, The human
nature.
The
will.
result
are neglected in the education
of
the young. This hinders their Ufe in society, including speechmaking.
Notice
how Vico
in an orientation lecture to university studies
of the shortcomings of education. Like
all
good
faculty
icism with the aim of improving the curriculum.
and
—
his colleagues
He
is
a vigorous critic
members, he
offers this crit-
—
instructing the students
is
ought to change in
that the university as cultural institution
order to advance knowledge. As a dispenser of knowledge, the university has an ob-
of knowledge-seeking.
ligation to study the historical context
present-day views of methodology nesses in education as well as is
a self-corrective culture
that
strengths.
its
of discovery.
by means of discourse. The
vision,
us
tells
how we
arrive each day.
are to teach
The
well
as
university
In the course of illustrating
The
its
would
I
say,
how
quotes a passage from Terence (37) about
that interfered
representing
conducts
it,
re-
its
not a given structure
we
begin afresh
how
humorous touch
men who
as
we
is
humor
between constriction of the
sities, is
on the young women, though the
The
following upon a burst of eloquence. passage
effect
is
a
laugh, as usual in univer-
a striking description
is
He
are shaped
girls
with eloquence and constriction of the body, but the
burst of
in the
are his audience.
the figures of virgin
mothers (Eunuchus 313—314). The transition
their
is
is
it
prudence may be garnered from judicious obser-
work, something sure to be appreciated by the young
mind
of
critical
a self-discovering process.
vation of cases taken from drama, Vico introduces the only
by
Vico
aims, and
but a dialogue that
learn,
must be
It
must seek out the weak-
It
university, as
advances
It
university,
and
is
of old ones.
as
of the
roots of anorexia nervosa.
Vico takes an unexpected turn
more (40).
He
revene.
follows the view that the language
What
does
excunion into
this
theme? Because of the
proclivities
accused, of inventing the very has
to analyze the
French language, which he
suitable for abstract reasoning than for "stately prose [or] for
been opposed
we
how we
speak shapes
cultural linguistics
and
in this oration. In contrast, Italian
linguistic pride
trarch, Ariosto,
is
a
dynamic language
that
look
question: "Shall
at
up
his hearers'
to that of Virgil's.
Vico's style in the passage.
we
then not cultivate
a
The
He
We forget that this
torical skill in Latin. It
to his Latin hears Italian,
and
modes of style
in
which
language possessing such felicitous qualities?" "si!"
expressed by the sea of Italian
quintessential Italian experience
as if Vico has
is
lauds six
passage culminates with a rhetorical
can hear with your reader's ear the sub rosa
youth.
stirs
by parading the names of Guicciardini, Boccaccio, Pe-
five Italians are related to eight ancients.
You
not that
who are compared favorably to both Greek and Roman for much expansion and substantiation by Vico, especially
The passage calls when he equates Tasso's verse let us
if
and deduction
criticism
and Tasso,
writers.
But
think, not the
of their language, the French are credited,
method of philosophical
finds
verse"
have to do with the central
evokes images and makes metaphorical connections (40—41). Vico patriotic
subUme
made
his Latin
later the reader
is
evoked by Vico's rhe-
speak Itahan so that the listener
of his Latin will hear
Italian.
Yet, for a
ROBERT GINSBERG
245
He
long time, Vico did not practice what he preached.
academic language of Latin until he published the his first
work of substance
The wont part of the cessively long account his
oration, firom the point of the student-Ustener's ear,
of the history of law, given in section
later in the cultural history
But on the present occasion,
needed doze. In
fairness to Vico,
we must
we
of his
legal accounts
his listeners likely fell into a
much-
recognize that the printed version of the
We
stuff it to the extent
risk in analyzing Vico's rhetorical
know
all
a different kind of academic exercise than
In the case of the former,
been taking a
an ex-
displays
epochs. This will be
and the
oration was likely padded with things that were not spoken. is
Science,
is
Vico
xi (47-58).
diflferent
New Science
of his
Uniuersal Right.-
pubUcation of a paper
New
in Italian, sixteen years later.
broad knowledge of the cultural function of law in
developed
continued to write in the version of the
initial
allowed by the page
performance
as if
that the
presentation.
its
limit.
I
have
book were
the
the
speech.
As to the fevored
discipline
of eloquence, Vico
the legal realm. Vico makes a great effort to
of appositions that take the form, "In the 59).
Twelve of these pithy comparisons
interest in the ancient practices, interest
about what ness.
is
done today. Vico redeems
A professional
is
made.
.
.
;
.
WhUe
diminished role in
its
by
his hearers
law was
past,
are
showing
is
wake up
is
.
.
."
(58-
may have lost home the point
the student
awakened by driving
his historical
a startUng string
Today, law
account by
this
pointed timeli-
would have asked him to cut half the legal material firom or else build it up into a separate volume. The discussion is
editor
the printed version,
studded with technical terms, references to authors and schools of jurists, and fine points of social and poHtical order.
But Vico
is
through
sifting
to offer guidehnes for pursuing present-day studies in law. justifies its inclusion, for at the university the
all this
A
rich substance
curricvilar tie in part
study of eloquence
is
prerequisite to the
study of law. Yet the disproportionateness and detail of the legal matter
wonder in law.
if
Vico
He
was
make
us
trying to convince parties other than the students of his expertise
is
later to
throw himself into the competition for the chair of law
at
Naples, though with heartbreaking disappointment.
In the oddest turn in this academic welcoming speech, Vico arrives, a few pages
before closing,
at
the failure of the university.
the curriculum with a unity in
Throughout the
entirety of
harmony with
my
He
upon the
calls
religion
academic career,
I
and the
professors to reform
state.
have heard
calls
for reforming
a curriculum that offers only pieces for higher education while neglecting the educa-
tion of the
whole person. The method of studies
in
our universities
is
to fiagment
rather than integrate knowledge, to advance learning in disparate disciplines at the
expense of developing the responsibility and wisdom of the student center of learning.
many fields by make sufficient
^
While we
are gifted with a multipUcity
scholars
of considerable
effort to
work
is
at
the
members of our faculties do not They are not memben of
together as teacher-scholars.
See Giambattista Vico, Univenal Right,
and Atlanta, 2000).
talent, the
who
of methods exercised in
trans.
Giorgio Pinton and Mai^aret Diehl (Amsterdam
RHETORIC OF GIAMBATTISTA VICO
246
a Republic of Letters even within the walls of
over a
speciality.
No
one can presume
one
Each of
university.
us
is
tyrant
to teach the teachers.
After this extensive introduction to the academic values offered by the university to
its
students,
education
Vico throws such values in doubt by warning students that here their
may be "warped and
perverted" (77).
selves against the very education they are
Yet therein
professors.
Vico in introducing
modern
the
sity as
all
lies
How can the students protect them-
on hand
the danger. This
is
to receive?
They must
trust their
the most sobering lesson taught by
the fields of higher education to the student body: the univer-
which makes such study possible is deficient. In its it may harm students as much as benefit them. Revithe professional responsibility of faculty members. Vico is
institution
present organization of studies, sion of the institution
is
taking this student-centered public occasion to exercise his responsibility
member
making the
in
This right to
criticize the university as
an educational institution
demic freedom. Such freedom has been too narrowly defined
member is
on matters
to speak out
as faculty
case to his colleagues for change.
every faculty member's
in that expert's field.
as
is
But the university
as a
whole
we may be ob-
In the interests of our student body,
field.
integral to aca-
the right of a faculty
and spirit of our academic institution. While Vico's colleagues might not have savored this critical turn, the students
liged to speak against the structure, procedure,
should have learned something about academic taste.
The paradox
in
which they
are
life
of which Vico's performance
is
a
being encouraged to learn in an institution that
them to open their minds. They have to They thereby will take responsibility away from this speech a critical openness to the
nonetheless disserves their learning teaches
learn about the shortcomings of their education.
They
for their education.
many
will take
days of learning ahead.
Drawing to a conclusion, Vico calls the attention of listeners to his practice: "As you saw" (79). He praises "the intelligence of this assembly of hsteners, every member of which knows how to reason with his own head and is fully conscious of his right to ability
judge any author
as
he thinks best"
of the audience to judge
Vico has pursued
how we know. case for the
(79).
Such affirmation of the
abundance of knowledge
we may
learn
by turning
accessible to the
human
Vico exercises the educational
But we must
art
method and
is
readers
— by what he
is
on
also
come
to
know
A
We may
fine justification
the defects of our
know-
of the university.
of rhetoric in the act of discussing
engaged in educating in
Neo-Latin performance, he
a critical eye
understanding.
develop our natural faculties in order to seek further knowledge.
ing, including the deficiency
and
the academic occasion, he makes an eloquent
spirit befitting
for university education!
right
the fundamental principle of higher education.
inquiry into what
this
In the
is
is
winning over
his discussion
exemplifies
— and subsequently
his listeners
doing and by what he embodies,
He
it.
of education. In
as
well as by what he
is
this
his
ar-
guing. This pedagogical, rhetorical, academic, styUstic, and philosophical tour de force
is
as
winning
at
the beginning of the twenty-first century as
it
was
at the
be-
ginning of the eighteenth.
The Pennsylvania
State University
-
Orationes concerning
Letters at
the University of Valencia
Century^
in the Sixteenth
FERRAN GRAU CODINA
me introduce LetWestern Education"
this
bridge,
pubhshed
paper with some words from the
by J.
W. Headlam,
in 1915. This article
is
article
"The Unity of
once Fellow of King's CoUege
included in the
book
entitled
Cam-
The Unity of
Western Civilization, edited by F. S. Marvin.
The School stand
the
its
first
goes back to the very origin of our civihzation;
nature,
we must
transfer ourselves in
if
we
are to under-
thought to those early days
missionaries planted in the Somerset valleys and
when
on the stem North-
Wherever they came, among their to train men who would succeed them. (. .) It was by the school that the boys were initiated into the common system of Western Christendom, and were made citizens of the greater world, the centre of which was in Rome.' umberland coast the Cross of Christ.
first
duties
(.
.
.)
was to found schools in which
.
— of western
—
I
Headlam outhnes the history the unitary history would call it, instruction. Some pages later, Headlam
'
This paper has been
de autores valencianos de
assisted los
s.
by the research project "Estudios de textos
XVI
al
W.
Headlam, "The Unity of Western Education,"
tern Civilization *
latinos humanisticos
mismos en el contexto europeo" thanks to David Martinez Matallin, Laura
XVIII. Relevancia de
(PB 97-1389 Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura). My Ulzurrun de Asanza, and Paul Hamill for their revision of -J.
education, or as
says:
(Oxford, 1915), 180-197.
Headlam, "Unity of Western Education." 181-82.
los
this text.
in F. S.
Marvin,
ed..
The Unity of Wes-
LETTERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA
248
That
institution that
was for so long the
home of European
unity has
become
the most useful agent for the perpetuation and exaggeration of national ences.
way
.
.
.
The
national culture and national authors have
at
into the schools, and the result has been that institutions
in reality,
of the
diflfer-
length forced their
which
originally
and for so long in appearance, were the vehicles for the expression
common European
have been almost entirely
civilization,
won
over to
the cause of the national expression/
Headlam poses the question: "Is the The provisional answer is not an
Finally,
older union of thought to be permaoptimistic one, because he does not
nently lost?"
believe in "a spiritual and intellectual unity of the nations established
Why?
scientific education."^ scientific progress
the advance in is,
but
may
find,
That time,
a
it is
it
Because
which almost
inevitably
knowledge the more
deeper unity than
"now
be true."^ "None the
was published together with others on
In 1942, T.
S. Eliot
Roman
in
crisis
delivered a lecture
of the Classical Association at
as
of life and
different aspects
Europe April.*
and languages was of
He
Here we
spirit."'
of unity,
early in the Great
the Presidential Address
Cambridge on 15
civilizations
at
at a
War.
the meeting
argued that the study of
a different nature for native
Europeans from, for instance, that of Chinese antiquity or Egyptology. His point that "a great literature
is
is
essential to
though made up of different national ity are
it is
necessary to
Against
is,
know
its
greatness."
literatures,
the whole.
European
Uterature,
makes a related whole.'
The
ideas of community
To
even
under-
and continu-
the basis of his argumentation. These ideas were also presented in the middle
of an even deeper
ferent,
is
more than the sum of a number of great writers" and that
"the continuity of a hterature
stand a part,
of
a unity there
less,
the unity inherited from the past.
this. It is
basis
becomes most prominent, and the greater
will this
must not be forgotten, of deep
on the
the technical side of
it is
a superficial uniformity, but a real unity
not indeed
article
Greek and
in education
this
crisis
in Europe,
background
I
when
would like
his
words seemed to be
to set
and our
own
by
total war.
in contrast our present-day world
of course, from that of Headlam and Eliot but
a partial education)
refiited
still
(dif-
shaped by a national, that
past.
Res publica litteramm implies unity of instruction in Europe. Different and diverse languages and nations were integrated in the past mainly by religion and education.
So Res
publica litteramm implies the function
of school or university. But that ex-
pression, as well as Res publica Christiana, has a special connotation.
^
Headlam, "The Unity of Western Education," 192.
'
Headlam, "The Unity of Western Education," 193.
*
Headlam, "The Unity of Western Education," 194.
'
Headlam, "The Unity of Western Education," 197.
*
T.
S. Eliot,
Association '
Eliot,
"The
Classics
and the
Man
of Letters," Presidential Address to the
Classical
on 15
April 1942, in To Criticise the Critic and Other Writings (London, 1965), 145-61.
"The
Classics
and the
Man
of Letters," 147, 150.
FERRAN GRAU CODINA
249
Res publica Christiana means the Church, but impUes the community of Christians,
who
are citizens of such a spiritual repubUc. Res publica litterarum
of letters, that
a
is,
community of discipUnes
of professors, students, and
or ecclesiastical authorities
civil
community. The history of such expressions, although
that
ject of this paper, but
is
impUed
means
a
and
a
{universitas studiorum)
who
community community
have to look
interesting,
is
after
not the sub-
deUvered in the Univer-
in the contents of orations
of Valencia in the sixteenth century.
sity
The
who
orations in defence of letters in Spain have
has suggested that they
owe
humanism of the
ian philological
been studied by
Fr. Alcina,'"
J.
both Erasmus of Rotterdam and the
a debt to
late Quattrocento, the latter
Ital-
represented mainly by
Angelo Poliziano, and brought into Spain by Antonio de Nebrija, and implanted in Valencia by disciples of Nebrija such
as
Juan Andres Estrany, Cosme Damian
Savalls,
or Miguel Jeronimo Ledesma, or other humanists Hke Francisco Decio, or physicians
hke Pedro Jaime Esteve. All the orations share also
so
and make use of the commonplaces of hvunanism, but they
have pecuhar features that throw
I
light
on the
particular context
think); they also deal with recurrent topics
glimpse of the political and academic
Cosme Damian
-are: (1)
through which
of Valencia.
life
The
of Valencia (or
we
orations
can catch a
examined here
Savalls' Oratio paraenetica de optima statu reipublicae literariae
constituendo , Valentiae habita ad patres iuratos, senatumque Valentinum turn publicum, turn literarium
mense
octobri
De
ciscus Decius's
re
1531
(St.
Luke's
Day being
Uteraria asserenda oratio
1534 (published in 1535);
Lucalibus ipsis publice habita Valentiae anno
Decius's
De
the course opening day);
(2)
scientiarum et academiae Valentinae laudibus, ad Patres Iuratos
(3)
Franciscus
Senatumque
erarium oratio, per Onofrium Clementem discipulum non poenitendum, publice habita.
1547.
I
mention the dedicatory
shall also
Fran-
ad Patres Iuratos Senatumque literarium
epistles written
lit-
Anno
by Pedro Jaime Esteve and
Miguel Jeronimo Ledesma."
The
three orations are exhortatory in character and have a similar structure and
arrangement of subjects, and the same addressees: the ties),
of Valencia
lurati
university professors, and students. Their exhortatory character
that the orator
reminds the addressees of their duties in so
far as
the achievements of the University and are responsible for their best.
orations
Each
diflfer
part of the
in tone, intensity,
which the audience
The
J.
is
appealed
its
members working
at
others. Despite these similarities, the
and the degree of bitterness and even virulence with to.
Let us see
now
the
main
in her doctoral thesis in order to estabUsh the
Fr. Alcina,
in the fact
they are involved in
features of each oration.
Oratio paraenetica de optimo statu reipublicae literariae constituendo has
by H. Rausell
"*
body depends on the
(city authori-
lies
"Poliziano y los elogios de
las letras
been studied
Erasmianism of its author
en Espana (150O-1540)," Humanistica
Lovaniensia 25 (1976): 198-222.
" Hippoaatis Coi medicorum omnium
principis Epidemi(j)n liber secundus a Petro lacoho Steve medico
Latinitati donatus, et fusissimis commentariis illustratus, adiecta et singulis sententiis Craeca ueritate, facilius diligens lector
quanta
sit
1551) (B.N.M. /R. 26874);
seruata fides intelligere possit (Valentia,
GRAECARVM
apud loannem
Institutionum competidium a Michaele
Valentino medico conscriptum (Valentiae, excudebat Joannes
Mey
quo
Flandrum,
Hieronymo Ledesma
Mey, 1545) (B.N.M. /R. 19072).
LETTERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA
250
So Rausell
(Savalls).'^
says that the sources
Vives addressed to the
De
Erasmus's
lurati,
which
of the
oratio are a
vernacular letter that
he has translated into Latin, and
Savalls states
pueris statim ac Uberaliter instituendis. In the oration
we
find also highly
favourable words relating to Erasmus, Vives, and other humanists such
Rudolf Agricola, Hermolao Barbaro, Antonio de Nebrija, is
of
right,
fact
we
but
whom
to
we
they furnish what
distinguishes Savalls that practice
is
is
he devotes great
same kind of
find the
that
can
call
ideas in
G. Bude,
and Andres Estrany. Rausell
praise,
many
other
treatises,
humanistic features. In
he mentions
becoming unusual,
as
Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, and, of course,
if not
all
these authors
and
this sense,
by name in
a
as a
matter
what
really
context where
dangerous, although he condemns Luther for
dividing Christendom.
Moreover, there
is
an insistence on the importance of the university for the good
good professors because they are as imporbody and the intellect to the soul. Places of learning are not living community. The purpose of the professor is to sow virtue
health of society, so that lurati must elect tant as the eyes to the
dead buildings but a in the students, sor than a
and in
this sense it
competent but
fessors, since
a
is
better to have an intellectually mediocre profes-
morally irresponsible one. Students should love their pro-
they are their models to imitate.
In Decius's virulence with
De
re literaria
asserenda oratio, there
very similar approach, but the
a
is
which Decius reprimands mainly the
lurati
and professors stands
out.
In the dedicatory epistle his patron, Johannes Beruegalius, praises Decius's eloquence
and makes
be found aU over the forewords of other works, and
a claim that will
in amplified
form in Decius's oration of 1547: Valencia
mean and smaU-minded
to
its
own
citizens,
of speech and figures
—
the artijicium
pares his audience: although he
they are hoping
contempt for First
for,
is
because he
letters instead (so
is
also
generous to foreigners, but
its sons.'''
In the exordium (there are marginal notes parts
is
through the text that indicate the
all
—
in a very didactic way),
Decius pre-
not saying anything new, nobody wiU hear what
not so
the oratio
much is
praising letters as talking about the
more
a uituperatio than a laudatio).
of all, Decius questions the pride of the audience.
He
has seen with his very
Germans and the Dutch, not because of their genius, but hard work. So, by comparing Valencian people with North Euro-
eyes the preeminence of the
because of their
peans, he appeals to their pride and spirit of emulation. Professors are the dressed,
two
and accused of the harm suffered by the University. This harm
sorts
of envy.
The
first
divides students into factions.
The second
cure audiences of students. Decius addresses himself to the harsh invective, accusing
'^
(Pavall
them of corruption
See Helena Rausell Guillot,
lurati in
is
"Una aproximacion
al
erasmismo valenciano:
ad-
strives to se-
terms of very
in the election of professors,
y Pedro Antonio Beuter, catedratricos, sacerdotes y erasmistas", Ph.D.
first
caused by
and re-
Cosme Damian
diss.,
Universitat de
Valencia (1999). '^
"Debet itaque Valentino Decio Valentia non minus;
pro tanto in patriam officio
quam Romanus Populus
celebratissimis. Nisi plane filio
Valentia"
(p. 5).
Deciis
suo aspera nouerca esse
uult,
at
quid minus dixi? imo multo magjs
illis
Romanis multorum iam encomiis
quae ut
alienis
blanda parens esse solet
FERRAN GRAU CODINA minds them about
their duties as lurati.
virulence in facing the
and
We
Decius
What
and
future, forebears
must be worthy of our
draws attention here
really
Decius's
is
same tone for students, whose
also uses the
and somnolence contribute
laziness, carelessness,
Past
lurati.
251
to their inferiority.
posterity, are always present in his argumentation.
forebears' legacy
community moves on from generation
and transmit
it
to posterity.
to generation, including the
Thus the res
publica
litterarum.
In the third oration, Decius's
twelve years
De scientiarum
et
Academiae Valentinae laude delivered
1547, by a good disciple of his (Onofre Climent / Onofrius
later, in
Clemens), the structure, subject, and circumstances of the oration are the same the previous speeches, but a praise of learning
is
added
at
as in
the beginning: the Uberal
and medicine, law,
grammar,
dialectic, rhetoric,
and mathematicae
and theology. Decius
asks the lurati for
money and
support and, of course, the ap-
professors. Nevertheless the
Univenity of Valencia can be
arts,
that
is,
pointment of the best
compared
now
quatuor,
with the best univenities: the humanities are taught, in part thanks to
Mencia de Mendoza, Ledesma, and other professors; a man can be cultivated in Valencia. However, among his praises, Decius criticizes Valentinorum mutabile semper in-
And
genium.
the bitterest complaint
now about professors,
is
not talking
a
commonplace
that excluditurfilius, admittitur peregrinus.
De
oratione
libri
Valencian people are fond of novelty, and
makes people
superficial. All
and lovely
among
of
this
is
(I
novelties
is
attributed to the Valencian people. All the
is
The same lations
of P.
Non
protest
J.
dubito
commonplaces about
envy and jealousy among
human
and the Res
letters is
a particular
epistle
of the trans-
Esteve, he complains about the jealousy of his colleagues:
Bemarde
magnifice, quin multi nos leuitatis ac petulantiae, no-
stramque hanc operam temeritatis,
sint
damnaturi, quos tamen partim liuore,
partim uero maleuolentia idipsum facturos certo
pemodum animum, bonorum hominum Similarly,
to
envy of equals
equals.
found in other writings. In the dedicatory
is
the fashion for
due both generally
be found in these exhortatory orations, but there
feature: the protest against
A. Llull
take this to be Castilian/
nature, and particularly to the Valencian ethos. In the second instance,
publica litterarum can
(as
septem [Basel, 1558]), but not to their
preaching by foreign preachers in a foreign language Spanish). That
Decius
but about preaching. Perhaps that has to do with
that describes Valencian people as hospitable
describes their ethos in his citizens.
is
scio.
(.
.
.)
labentemque pro-
ad firmam reuocasti spem, iUud quidem egregie monens,
uirtutem imitatione, non inuidia dignam
Ledesma beUeves
that for letten to flourish, sophistae
esse.
must be ehminated
from the University:
Atque ut
id certius
sit,
ac firmius
Gymnasium celeberrimum
in nostra hac
urbe
construere machinaris, in quo poUtiores Utterae floreant, exulantibus sciHcet nugis ac sophismatibus in hoc usque tempus cuncta tyrannide sua opprimentibus.
Nam
si
scires
tempore, quo
quae hactenus scommata, quos cachinnos ac ronchos ex eo
primum ex academia Complutensi
in patriam remeaui tolerare
LETTERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA
252
solus a sophistis coactus sim, esset
praebente Stranei nostri
me P. J.
esse
unum
quod
stupesceres,
non parum
illis
semper
uiri absolutissimi factione barbaris
occasionis
inuisa, cuius
intelligebant.
Nunez adopted
plaining of incomprehension
onimo Zurita which
among academics
De com-
of 1553 (published in 1554),
a different style in his oration
causis ohscuritatis Aristoteleae et de illarum remediis.
But he
Valencia in 1556,
left
He
in Valencia.
wrote a
letter to Jer-
said:
La aprobacion que
me
m. ha hecho de mis estudios
v.
para passarlos adelante, porque
esso
si
no
muy
da
fuesse, desesperaria
grande animo no teniendo aqui
persona con quien poder comunicar una buena correccion, o explicacion, no
porque no aya en peor
dios, y lo
humanas, por los enda
el
esta
Ciudat personas doctas, pero siguen
es desto,
peligros,
que querrian que nadie
como
eUos pretenden, que en
humanista un lugar de Ciceron,
de
quitan muchas veces
cada
A tions
y otras semejantes necedades
la Iglesia; estas,
dia,
viendo
distance,
I
la
las
do not know
v.
is
European
culture? That
be the sum of different national Headlam's and of a vast
Eliot's
battlefield.
I
among
mismo de
citizens
rivalry
and neighbours).
if
las
still
quales cobrare
publica litteramm could
.
separates
.
yo de
.
our different nabut
not so well established. For some,
may
is
I
it
began, were like flowers in the middle
envy was the cause of such
may be nourished by
We
real, as
(and for the world), which will be,
res
y di-
doctores
tienen tan desatinado, que
have the
past,
where
an inspiration, and as it
I
be
a
deep discord
destructive a
as
we
envy (stronger
community of culture,
think of a future for Europe
were, a Europe of towns, and citizens, a Eu-
rope of humanity, not a Europe (or a world) of nations and
newed
los
cultures, but history oflfers us different exemples.
do not know
reUgion and language was
como emi-
We all know that we belong to Europe,
words, with which
have seen, but a fearsome
de
la escritura,
m. haze de mis estudios
insurmountable,
if it is
and the education of their people.
what exactly
me
ganas de pasar adelante,
aprobacion que
diferentes estu-
ellas ay,
emendara uno de
assi
ziendo mal de comentadores de Aristoteles, que hara lo
me
muy
se aficionasse a estas letras
states, in
which
a re-
possible.
Universitat de Valencia-Estudi General
George Herbert's Oration before King James,
Cambridge 1623^
JOHN
K.
HALE
This paper seeks to answer three related questions about the oration deHvered by George Herbert as University Orator to welcome the king and his heir in October 1623. How did Herbert please his audience by the Latin he performed? How far did the speech have a further purpose than pleasing, namely to advise his royal hearers about foreign policy? These two questions are "related" in a third: was
meant
the pleasing
to assist the advice, as
generate and judge answers
we
jam on
a potentially unpalatable pill?
To
must fint grasp several contexts of the 1623 event:
biographical, political, ceremonial, and oratorical.
George Herbert, the eminent "Metaphysical" poet, was bom in 1593 and rose up the career ladder he had chosen as a younger son from a noble family.
swiftly
After becoming a Fellow of his Cambridge college, Trinity, he was
1619.
He became
an
MP as well in
made Orator^
1624 and 1625, but then advanced no
in
further, his
patrons having died.
1623 was made
Politically,
the fixture
King Charles
I.
a year
When
he
of
crisis
by the actions of the Prince of Wales,
set off for
Spain to
woo the King of Spain's He set off in disguise,
daughter, this was in accordance with his father's peace policy.
however, and since only
apparent —
The
a
few knew of the
plan, the
kingdom seemed
to lack
its
heir
a security nightmare. In Spain, his courtship created equal uncertainty.
Spanish court and the British Resident were unclear about the extent of
Charles's bargaining authority, there was the difference of religions to exacerbate negotiations,
'
and
besides, Charles acted in a whimsical
The paper was conceived
and completed
for the session
In addition to these
two
as a tribute to
on Cambridge
originators
heard a draft and helped improve ^
This
is
the correct
A
quite unsuited to
university's Public Orator,
Habsburg
Colin Gibson,
Latin arranged by Craig Kallendorf for the
must thank the Otago
Classics
lANLS.
Department Seminar, which
it.
name of the
Cambridge Orations 1982-1993.
I
my own
way
office, as
explained by another former Orator, James
Seledion (Cambridge. 1994), x-xi.
Di^e,
HERBERT'S ORATION BEFORE KING JAMES
254
The King of Spain stalled, valuing harmony with the Papacy above humouring an eccentric young stranger. Months later, then, Charles came home, with
formality.^
now
nothing settled but feeling slighted. Through hurt pride he was
ready to put
England behind the anti-Habsburg, anti-Catholic cause in Europe. There were good
why he
reasons, too,
kingdom, and many
would
itary action
Queen of Bohemia might recover her
should: his sister the
felt that
flatly
Habsburg power needed curbing. And yet any such mil-
with Protestants
home,
at
poUcy of peace.
contradict his father's long-standing
Into this tension a cross-current intrudes.
War with
Spain would be very popular
AngUcan
despite their normal dissatisfaction with the
church settlement. They indeed turned out in jubilation to celebrate Charles's return. Charles found himself the hero of the hour and the saviour of his people,
by
failing!
The sums of expenditure on
fireworks and street parties
The ceremonial
— broke
the rituals of pubUc joy
—
all
achieved
bonfires and bells,
records.*
all
by Cambridge University took place on 8 October,
celebrations
only three days after Charles landed. Thus the gathering which heard Herbert's
speech of congratulation ("Oratio
Reditum ex ing. as
Qua
auspicatissimum Serenissimi Principis Caroli
Hispanijs celebrauit") was one of the earliest expressions of public feel-
Herbert addressed England's
What would he
Cambridge's.
ears as well as
present
the subjects' response, amidst the cross-currents created by Charles's startling exit
Would he uphold
and sudden return?
new
Prince's
the King's desire for peace with Spain, or the
something
desire for war, or
else?
Would he
diplomatically use well-
chosen words to say nothing?
The
final
context needed
is
the oratorical.
The
ways been to represent the University in good
A
number of such note would not
—
letters
by Herbert
surprise.
surviving orations.^
But
He must
survive, so
clear
^
which the lady of his
was with some
sort
affections
difficulty that the prince
leave the place." See S.
now back to at
if that
were
his
key-
most ambitious of his
such a
our
crisis?
first
how
did
rise to
the
question:
That he did
specially printed
R. Gardiner,
was walking. The poor
See David Cressy, Bonfires and
girl
shrieked and fled, and
was persuaded, by the suppUcations of her guardian, to
History of England from the Accession ofJames I
of the Civil War, 1603-1642, 10 vols. (London, 1883), *
far the
For example, on a fancy he "startled the rigid propriety of the Spanish Court, by leaping
into a garden in it
by
al-
or speeches.
by the University Press in and range and register of Latin he did it, by
from the speech's being
To show by what
the same year.^
is
—
letters
have sought to say something out of the ordinary, to
he welcome and entertain the nation's royalty is
whether by
diplomacy
instead, his speech
voice for his alnta mater a hero's welcome. So
occasion
Cambridge had
Orator's role at
Latin,
Bells.
National
to the
Outbreak
5: 52.
Memory and
the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan
and Stuart England (London, 1989). ^
1
2 pages, compared with
ed. F. E.
1
,
2,
and
1
in the edition used here.
Hutchinson (Oxford, 1941), 445-455, hereafter cited
as
The Works of George
Herbert,
"Hutchinson." Reference
is
to
page and line of Hutchinson. *
"Ex
Officina
CANTRELLI LEGGE, Almae Matris Canubrigiae
reproduced facing Hutchinson, 444).
Typographi.
1623"
(title-page
JOHN
K.
HALE
255
0%ATIO Qua
SereniTsimi
aufpicatiTsimum
P
R
I
N C
I
P
I
C A Ro L
S r,
^editum ex Hifpanijs cehbrauit
Georgivs Herbert Cancabrigicnfis
/^cademids
O
"ExOffidna
R A T O ».
Cantrelli Legge, Mttix
OKAtrit Cintabrigix Tjf^gnjfhi^
1623
title
page of Herbert's speech of congratvilation.
HERBERT'S ORATION BEFORE KING JAMES
256
what tone and conceits and jokes,
is
my
next
task, in this
pioneering account of the
work's originality.
The opening is self-assured: "Veneranda Capita, The court, the teachers, and the pupils come
sima."
ant phonetic patterning in the vs and
which
rs
/ Viri grauissimi, /
Pubes
lectis-
in descending order, with pleas-
of "Viri grauissimi," or the syntactical one
places the honorific adjectives before the "Capita" ("chief persons") but after
the other groups listening. Such assurance might
Another prominent
Greek words,
larding.
phrases, lines,
quent. But Herbert tosses in
proverb. Whilst
all this
instill
of the whole speech
feature,
confidence but hardly rapture.
this time,
some German etymology and
could be seen
is its
multilingual inter-
and passages (sometimes with as a display
(of
all
variants) are fre-
things) a Spanish
of linguistic erudition normal to the
moments of display, comparable for instance with its verse anthologies replete with compositions in (say) Welsh or Persian, the amount of the Greek is unusual, the German is unexpected, and the Spanish (in the circumstances) audacious. University in
its
Audacity excused by joy but Herbert's conceit
complimentary.
he not take us
non
cur
When
all
fills
much
Now the
Charles to an elephant.
is
more
of the speech. For example, Herbert compares
elephant
is
doubtless a noble and sagacious animal,
sprightly and preposterous as well as obvious
Charles went to Spain,
vt elephanti turres, ita tu
did he go alone,
why oh why
and did
non nos omnes tecum? patriam tecum portasti?" (451.7—8) The passage
along with him: "siccine
catches the fancy in several ways,
why
abijsti solus?
cur
from the engaging sound-pattern of the
dentals
through the quixotic image of Charles reversing the march of Hannibal to the em-
blem or cartoon of the prince carrying the nation on his back, like a howdah. A serious point and a compliment are being made too: the heir- apparent does carry the nation's well-being on his back, and does it with ease. In this image a rather special witty histrionics is on show. Herbert follows up this flashy conceit with another one, less whimsical and more dramatic, in which he secretes a stronger public emotion: "Sic tunc omnes strepebant:
huiusmodi lamentis
&
quiritationibus plena erant fora, nundinae, conciliabula,
narrow
angiportus, Maeandri" ["Public places, marketplaces, places of assemblies, lanes,
winding ones"] (451.9—11). The asyndeton
onically, but the
imaging
is
certainly exaggerates, again histri-
a beautiful arching, aural as well as conceptual. Just as the
Latin words progress from shorter to longer and from simpler to grander, then diminish
and fade away (from two
rhythm from trochaic
to three to six syllables, then four then three,
and in
to dactylic then aside into molossus), so the progression of
ideas has equal lucidity:
from
gether, to their journeying
places
where people congregate,
home. This they do
sell
and decide to-
in small groups, then alone. Herbert
making vivid pictures of the nation discussing its absent prince and ends plangently on their dispersal homewards, still obsessed, perplexed, deprived of their beloved
is
prince.
tion
The
exaggeration, and the conscious
by cloaking the
serious thrust.
not likely to displease Charles, and anyway his
artistry,
enhance the emotional implica-
The thought "How we missed you!" this
is
after
all
was exactly the anxiety with which
absence had afflicted his ailing father.
A further sample bears onics: the passage
out
where he
this
claim that Herbert
teases his colleagues
is
deploying
a
disarming
histri-
en route to making a joke about
JOHN
He
Charles's beard.
K.
HALE
257
rather careful about addressing Charles directly. In the "ele-
is
phant" passage, for instance, he was talking to
not to
his colleagues about Charles,
him (445.24—27). He seldom speaks to Charles: the clearest ment (451.27-34). In a further instance he is again addressing (445.14 and 22), and again in teasing tones, but he
case
is
wholly compli-
his fellow
"Academici"
them "bookworms," "tineae estis helluones chartacei" (18-19). It is on the back of that wave that he compares the Prince's beard with that of a previous Charles, Charlemagne no less: "date mihi CAROLVM alterum, quamlibet Magnum, modo detis eum in flore, in vagina, in herbescenti viriditate;
much
cence of beard,' but so is
an escapology,
as
nondum ad
match Charlemagne
(19-21).' Charles cannot
teasing them: he calls
is
spicam barbamque adultum"
for achievement, yet, nor for magnifi-
on
the better, because he has youth
The
his side.
fancy
Herbert escapes from a possibly damaging comparison through a
clever (and truthful) compliment.
Nor
has he finished with beards. After next insisting that he
is
not merely speech-
making nor tinkling emptily ("Non rhetoricor, Academici, non tinnio," 445.21-22), and has indeed foresworn all such immaturity, he declares: "ego vero sentio, & quis sum ipse (barbam, hui, tarn grauem) & apud quos dico, viros limatae auris atque tersae,
quorum grauitate
ac purpura
non
abutar."
The
parenthesis,
I
think, deprecates his
own beard, which to judge by one portrait was indeed scrawny. He does this ate his colleagues, who may not all have enjoyed being termed bookworms it
was done to please the Prince): he
their grave Still
is
serious,
he
not rating
is
his pitiful
to plac-
(even
if
beard above
berobed wisdoms ("gravitate ac purpura," 445.27).
another tonal point emerges here. Whilst in general Herbert
huge Latin
idiolect, as
if caviare
to the general),
erudition. "Hui!"
is
was and
no
is
is
displaying a
expected of a University Orator (the mot juste, even
locally
he
is
amidst prevaihng
off fireworks
letting
dignified word, but an exclamation of astonishment, frequent
Roman comedy. Its use in context suggests spontaneity. Indeed, a clue to his whole stance may be present here, because the indicative mood in place of the usual in
subjunctive with indirect question ("sum," "dico")
How much further,
in.^
is
another feature of comic Lat-
comedy go?
then, does this echoing of
Herbert posing
Is
as
a Plautine clever slave?
Such speculation
aside,
Herbert does act
laugh or ignore (or doze).
this just before
The typography of the
printed version
all,
silly,
so
silly
denies juvenility yet
he does
cism.
'
Above
He
he
is
talks
is
about
that his listeners could either
relying
really
on
it,
to disarm criti-
dangerous topics, such
reproduced here to show that
it calls
as
the attention
of readen to the comparison, and so possibly suggests the emphases of the spoken oration hereabouts. *
A
bushy one, "spicam Barbamque," where "spica" means
magne's beard, trim and bushy, can be seen in such
effigies as
a
growth round an
axis:
Charle-
the reliquary from the Cathedral
Treasury, Aachen. '
"There are many examples
indicative in
is
in early Latin (Plautus
retained in questions of fact
Syntax (London, 1959), 134.
which
and Terence), and
are clearly indirect": E.
in the poets,
C. Woodcock,
where the
A New Lat-
HERBERT'S ORATION BEFORE KING JAMES
258
royal marriage-alliances and the question of
the serious plea, and so mitigates
moving
In
consider the context again and
so autocratic an age,
its
rather
complex
probabilities. In
and in the presence of two touchy royal personages,
would
unlikely that he
for
our second question, whether Herbert had any purpose beyond
to
we must
pleasing,
war or peace. The fooling prepares
it.
offer advice, since foreign
and
it
may seem
ecclesiastical policy
were in-
volved together in any war against the Habsburgs, and both matters were in the
when monarchs made a formal entry into a city or went on progress they would always be receiving speeches of welcome, which might inking's domain. Nonetheless,
clude requests, and might verge onto advice too
if
expressed with sufficient generali-
Even preachers might advise unpunished, as Peter McCuUough's study shows.'" depended on what the advice was, and how conveyed, how timed, how strenuous-
ty. It
and with what degree of
ly pressed,
particularity.
Accordingly,
we
can approach
Herbert's speech with an open mind, since examples of expression and suppression
can both be found.*'
Two
of the very few published mentions of the speech will provide a starting-
One
point.
on war.
.
.
.
was no
historian said that "it
From
our to expect."'^
secret that the prince
had come back bent
Charles, rushing headlong into war, the lover of peace had
And
no
fav-
Herbert's editor, F. C. Hutchinson, declared that "Apart from
the extravagant adulation of Charles, the most striking feature of Herbert's oration
Hutchinson's statement, by giving such precise line-references,
Herbert it.
is
vehement indictment of war (447.26-449.11)."'^
the
This
shall
moved suddenly is
not
so,
may
suggest that
vehement indictment and equally suddenly out of however. The jam and the pill are nothing like so separate, and I into the
argue that the transitions are more in keeping with the performance of the
mixed persona that is being projected. Here is how Herbert first mentions peace. He praises royal marriages in general, then Charles's wooing-joumey in particular because he went to see for himself in such a vital dynastic matter. Short- and long-term interests alike are bound up in this marriage (447.21—26), "dum pacem, qua tot iam annis impune fruimur, hoc pacto
dum?"
(28-31).'''
points to the
'"
&
perpetuam; quod quidem vbi gentium si non ab Hispano speranReminding everyone why the wooing was undertaken, Herbert absence of war throughout James's twenty-year reign. On that basis he
fundatam cupit
Peter E. McCullough, Sermons
Preaching,
" In
Cambridge Studies this
connection
it is
in Early
at
Court. Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean
Modem
worth remarking
than Elizabeth had done, and also
less as
British History
(Cambridge, 1998).
that the Stuarts relished progresses
and
entries less
time went on. Contrast the magnificence of the construc-
first royal entry into London in 1604 with Charles's order in 1626 to put a stop London entry that had been planned (and paid for!). This struck witnesses as churlish. See David M. Bergeron, English Civic Pageantry 1558-1642 (London. 1971), 4-5 and 107-108.
tions for James's
to a
'^
Gardiner, History of England, 7:266-267.
'^
Hutchinson, 601.
'^
A
with.
perceptive a priori:
if
England wished
for peace
it
was indeed Spain they had to
treat
JOHN goes on to say the sweet Prince "desires"
&
HALE
K.
259
to continue ("[Princeps]
it
fundatam cupit
perpetuam") Although the "Princeps" could be James, Charles could make the .
wish
own
his
peace
if
he chose. Herbert
if
wanted,
is
warmongers
is
imputing, by a tactful ambiguity.
must be peace with
it
listening that
(for the passage
comprises reasoning, in which he gives war
It
is
tacitly
And
certainly
warning any
peace which royal policy favon.
it is
Now ensue two pages in favor of peace names).
Spain. Herbert
longer than Hutchinson
is
due, but then eulogy of
its
peacetime in a heightened register contrasted with wartime; then reasoning again, and
back into a grateful praise of the prince
so
risk for his people.
And
prince
this
who
has so nobly sought peace at personal
Charles, just as if he
is
were not the chief belliger-
ent of the hour, but rather were being tacitly incorporated amongst the peace-lovers,
meaning of his wooing-journey.
since peace was the real
man, so much the
and especially in
theme: "certe fatendum
& mundus solitudo"
est,
cem
as
plangent.
he buried Charles
to his
4)
War as procella,
"commotion" or "hurricane," comes
a
and Virgil {Aeneid
594), the best of classical authors.
1.
The emotional temperature
rises
higher: "Pace,
filij
sepeliunt pa-
patres fiHos: pace, aegre sanantur; beUo, etiam sani intereunt" (8—15).
ordered antitheses
become
in this
"soUtudo" adapts from Tacitus the mot "ubi solitudinem faciunt, pa-
appellant."'^
tres; bello,
his transitions.
anteferendam beUo pacem, sine qua omnis vita procella,
(448.7—8)
from Cicero {De Har. Resp. Likewise, war
bemused the young
power which Herbert exerts Here is where he warms
Selections will best demonstrate the rhetorical crucial passage,
If this
better, rhetorically.
may be They
standard topoi, but
honed thus
aging James thought back to 1619
strike strongly if the
Prince Henry, or ahead to the time soon coming
his eldest son,
would bury him. Herbert
when when
gives another three such antitheses,*^ then caps
the rising series of five with a couplet in Greek.
want only pleasure can enjoy the
The
to dense expression they
It is
stylish expression,
so finely said that those
but those
who
who
are prepared to
be
persuaded, through their ears and in their hearts, will be.
Or again,
at
448.32—449.16,
timate peace (or take to proclaim that
still,
it
after a cautious, thoughtful
for granted after twenty years of
war
is
a mutilation
of God's
own
modas, truncata corpora, mutilatam imaginem Dei" stalls, .
.
.
bodies, God's
own
vrbium incendia
emittentes"
—
.
.
.
image"].
stupratas virgines
Next,
"Quam
lest
he be thought a weak
Agricola 30, fin.
Not
(449.12):
.
.
threesome: "butchers'
infantulos plus lactis
cruenta gloria
"pace, securitas in agris
tubae ac tympana: pax
pacifist
est,
He
quam
cruoris
ends the paragraph
quae super ceruicibus homi-
we do
est; bello,
nouum orbem
or blinkered ideologue he concedes that
"Non nego bellum aliquando necessarium esse."
the same point, but
one: "let us hang onto the real peace
"
.
[a rising
plunges onward, into "pauxillum vitae
erigitur?" (449.9-10).
war is sometimes necessary
'*
series
Herbert climbs higher
image: "Ecce lanienas omni-
heavily forensic, emotionally manipulative.
with the exclamatory gnome,
num
The
reminder not to underes-
it),
empowering Herbert's
stronger,
more
disinterested
enjoy."
neque
apeniit;
intra
muros: pace, auium cantus expergefacit; bello,
bellum destruit veterem" (448. 10-13).
HERBERT'S ORATION BEFORE KING JAMES
260 Yet
once he
at
"gratas" to
qualifies the
whom,
ex continentibus house-fires initiate
est nostri
sententia: "prudentissimus
and then
to,
who
is
incendium"? The analogy of neighbors'
And now comes
prospiciet" and wages
gnomic:
this
is
not
a clinching
war only when he has
wisdom of kings. So perhaps
the
because the passage then modulates back
feel slighted, either,
by the end of the paragraph mirari possumus,
But
not yet a king?
is
That prince need not ism: "Illud autem,
est
bellum indicere."
Rex mature
"Rex" here
terribly.
of a prince
not
"belli que miserias gratas."
a side-glance at the Thirty Years War.*' Surely then, let us
non
war, "Sed
adding
too close to us already, "praecipue vbi velut
is all
ad nos traiecturum
tectis
must be
itself by
concession
seeing that war
to Charles's
own splendid wisdom and farsighted patriot-
quod cuiuis clarissime patet, etiam lusco, nunquam intueri satis vel nimirum infinitum Principis in suam gentem amorem, cui pacem
quaesiuit suo capite, periculis suis" (449.34—37).
Even
this
may
in retrospect that the preceding
Herbert performed
his
words were aimed elsewhere, whether
is
We
a subtext
of this appeal for peace.
of
he spoke, but
as
how
this transi-
on the him hear" in the later altering register, its moves between
traveling about, before settling safely
"who
And its
does seem
it
to the entire
cannot reconstruct exactly
words, or where he was looking
which had been
tion entails a gaze
Academici. There
turn the page
Academici,
explicitly to the
audience, or to James then Charles in especial.
stages
when we
not be a direct adjuration to Charles; but
and find that the next words are addressed
has ears to hear, let
deUberately
ratiocination or concession and emotional hupsos, look like an appeal not merely for
applause (for the rhetorical pleasure which ancient exemplars
would
its
figures
but an attempt to
give),
and rhythms and revivified imaginations in
enlist the hearers'
the cause of peace.
Herbert
make him
reminding Charles of
is
feel
good about the
why he had gone
to Spain,
mission, not resentful about
and
failure:
its
is
seeking to
he has sought
for peace, this valuable wonderful achievement of the all- wise James, at the risk of his
own
life.
Elsewhere in the speech, Herbert urges on Charles the
fact that
by not
having joined himself to the Infanta he can make a better aUiance, perhaps across the
Channel
in France. This
moving Charles
And whether
is
not only putting a good face on the recent
failure,
but
in imagination forward into fresh opportunities for dynastic aUiance.
embellishing the present or past or future,
of the young Prince. His imagination
is
it is all
construed into praise
being levered away from hurt pride, back
into self-respect.
Herbert's
combined
strategy can
be seen
praise to an alternative marriage alHance'*
" There might be
a
at
where he joins elaborate
the close,
and to the threat of war.
pun on "continentibus"
(adjacent houses)
And
here, at
and "continens
last.
[terra]" (the
mainland, the Continent of Europe). '*
Charles
is
implored never to leave
his
land again ("precemur
Princeps optimus nulla secunda itinera meditetur," 454.38-455.1). the shortest route inuenit viam,
him
now he
proximo
("Quod si necesse 455.7-8.) The meaning is
has discovered
itinere facial,"
it
sit
Or
Deum
if he
must,
iterum exire
immortalem, vt let
him do
patria,
it
obscure, perhaps deliberately:
use this experience? or not go so far again? go to France not Spain?
Could any or
by
qui nunc
all
let
of these
JOHN I
HALE
K.
find the conceits forced, as if the three things
261
would not quite come
my own
the peroration exudes goodwill, and self-forgetful joy. Let refer to the strained conceit,
I
which
Charles's love will
positis radijs
Daphnen
now
of the Infanta
change into a
deperijt, at
ilia
mutata
Daphne and Charles
as
as
Apollo, in
oUm de-
one of triumph: "Apollo
laurel, est in
together; yet
reader judge.
arborem triumphantem propriam:
Noster etiam Princeps habuit Daphnen suam, cuius amor deinceps in triumphos laurus mutabitur," 455.8—11.
call this strained
1
Daphne being
objective in the secondary discourse.
when
the primary discourse
Charles's passion.
which
people
object of Apollo's desire, whereas
reached the laurel becomes subjective and represents
is
Then, by another
will shelter his
&
because for one thing the "amor" was
till
shift,
Charles metamorphoses into a laurel tree,
the cloud of war passes over, and for
good measure
be the laurel awarded to composers of excellent words: "Nos vero, Auditores,
will
diu iam peregrinati
vmbra adeo
cum
Principe,
commode peruenimus
eius pauhsper requiescamus: praesertim
infestat: hie
enim
sumus
securi
a pluuia,
donee
imo
ad laurum hanc, vbi sub
transeat nubes iUa,
quae vicinos
Obsecremus eum tan-
a fulmine:
tum vt permittat nostram hanc Inter victrices hederam sibi serpere Lauros." The final possible allusion 1 detect is to the sufferings of Germany in the Thirty Yean War, already severe after only a few of those years. These are now being brought back into view by Herbert.*' Against that black backdrop of war-clouds Herbert insinuates a pleasing, thunderbolts beneath
The
third question
I
between answen given
grateftil
prince
its
as a
raised in
image of a nation sheltering firom war's rain and
patron of the
my
arts
of peace.
introductory paragraph was about the relation
to the fint two.
I
suggested there
performance might be jam surrounding the
pill
first
that the pleasure
of the advice against war.
has hitherto been read aright, and if the reader agrees that
we
mixed, altering persona,
can characterize the speaker
tone
changes project a
its
At times he
as follows.
harmlessly naive, but witty clown. These times tend to occur
of the
If the
is
a
when he is approaching
or broaching the contentious matter of peace. At other times he
is
the earnest ad-
vocate of peace. These times are fewer, being limited to the two pages
we
have
examined and the peroration. During the rest of the oration, which has not been examined but which comprises a dispened half of the whole, he is the mouthpiece of communal, even national joy. These adulations are spoken both as an academician and
a loyalist.
The
triple
persona and
firom the audience: pleasure,
foohng; attention, with
its
fluctuations seek a triple,
mixed response
and the laughter of harmless delight for the wit and
recall to fiindamentals
of royal poUcy and
social truth, the
thoughts about war and peace; and a glad complacency for the ample congratulations.
The three come together in the peroration, that image of The whimsy is shaky, but even that fact may disarm.
be hinted cess
at
by the vagueness? (One
of France just over a year
later.
is
Charles
as a laurel tree.
of course influenced by hindsight; Charles married a prin-
However, presumably
alternatives
were
now
being discussed,
and had already been.)
" 448.8-33, porary ones.
448.34, 455.14;
moving from
generality or ancient instances towards
contem-
HERBERT'S ORATION BEFORE KING JAMES
262
Charles
most
as
Apollo
flatteringly,
blesses the arts, including oratory.
with the
laurels
And
he
finds himself linked,
of peace.
The combined persona can be
seen humanistically,
"ridentem dicere verum."^" (Compare
"Many
a true
of Horace, seeking
as that
word
is
spoken in jest.") More
exactly, the persona practises a series of deflections. His chameleon-like persona-shifts
are not so
much drawing
attention to himself as deflecting any hostility
from the
message to the unimportant messenger. Similar deflections are being deployed
he
talks to
the Academici about the Prince, or
who may be
ceps"
either the father or the son.
dramatization and other
skills,
to persuade
when he
He
by
is
when
implants the ideal of a "Prin-
seeking, obliquely, through self-
pleasure. Pleasure
is
both end and
means.
University of Otago
^°
Horace,
Satires, 1.1.
olim dant crustula blandi the-pill
is
given here in
24—25,
"(Quamquam ridentem
/ Doctores,
its
dicere
verum
elementa velint ut discere prima.)"
Horatian expression.
Quid vetat? ut pueris The cliche of jam-on-
/
Confession and Concession:
The Texts of Erasmuses Exomologesis
MICHAEL
J.
HEATH
Take a good look at the sort of people who will confound heaven and earth if anyone warns against the over-eager practice of confession; you will see men who are ravenous, covetous and devoted to their beUies. They make all this fuss
because confession fuels their extravagance, their greed and their
enough holy
for the
work
heahng
of souls to sport a
cowl or
a
lust. Is it
shaven head? Should
this
be done by a bleary-eyed drunkard who's just stumbled out of an
orgy? (156D)>
Surprisingly, tonishingly, critics. It is
not a passage from Erasmus's
Praise of Folly or Colloquies; as-
this
is
it is
Erasmus trying to be magnanimous and concUiatory towards
one of many passages added when
his
in 1530 Erasmus revised his contro-
book on confession, Exomologesis sive Modus Conjitendi, first published in 1524. At our Copenhagen congress, Erika Rummel presented evidence that Erasmus cared Uttle about revising his own texts, usually complaining that he had no time to do so. She argued that Erasmus's natural eloquence and rhetorical skills amply comversial
pensated for exception.
this self-confessed reluctance to revise.- Exomologesis
Its
textual history
is
thus immediately interesting as a
conscientiously revised, largely in
But
it is
'
also interesting as
-
68 of the
Collected
Works of Erasmus
Desiderii Erasmi
Rummel, "With no Thougjit of Publication?
1994). 179-186.
Erasmus critics.
Opera omnia, ed.
The English versions are adapted from my {CWE) (Toronto, forthcoming). Erasmus's Manifesta Mendada
ple of Spontaneous Writing," in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Hqfhiensis,
NY,
httle-known that
an example of Erasmus's accumulative method, in that he
References to Exomologesis are to the Latin text in
Erika
a
response to (or goaded by) contemporary
Clerc (Leiden, 1703-1706 [LB]), 5:145-170. in vol.
is
book
MRTS
J.
Le
translation
as
an
Exam-
120 (Binghamton,
ERASMUS'S EXOMOLOCESIS
264
added about
fifty
percent to his original
text, but, like his
admirer Montaigne, deleted
almost nothing.
For Montaigne, of course, maintaining the original venion enabled him to present a true if sometimes contradictory portrait
what were Erasmus's motives
of himself at different stages of his
for using an accumulative
method?
A
But
life.
possible affinity
with Montaigne was their sceptical sense that on many topics one could never be sure that the
last
word had been
books for humanist and
Most often, however, Erasmus expanded his The Adagia were allowed to balloon almost
said.
literary reasons.
out of control in the interests of scholarly completeness, o£copia, and also because the
genre of the book
itself gradually
changed, from a rhetorical handbook to a compen-
dium of moral philosophy. Elsewhere Erasmus enlarged give fuller treatment to a
earlier writings in
complex
order to clarify his position or to
examples are
subject; pertinent
the relatively brief Encomium matrimonii into the massive and Hani matrimonii
institutio,
which he worked up
or the
paragraphs on crusading in his pacific writings, hello Turcis
however, Erasmus rewrote himself in original books.
Another kind of accretion
many
expansion of
his
controversial Chris-
into the remarkably comprehensive Consultatio de
inferendo? In these cases,
ings, his
little
still
is
evident in Erasmus's very numerous apologetic writ-
Responsiones and Apologiae,
where
replies to critics are
developed from
the original passages at issue. But again these writings tend to take the form of separate and self-contained pamphlets or books.
The same might have happened with Rummel's paper was her pub-
the controversy over confession; the occasion of Erika
hcation of a
and De guess
book
called Manifesta mendacia, Erasmus's reply to critics of Exomologesis
But Manifesta mendacia was not published, for reasons we can only more discreet method of revising his original
esu carnium.
In this case Erasmus chose the
at.
book; so discreet was he that the
1530
title
page.
book lacked breathing
a
One minor
fact
artistic
of the revision
proper conclusion. Erasmus wrote
down
his
ished; certainly in
is
not even mentioned on the
reason for the expansion
may be
neck, demanding the next best-seller before
1530 Erasmus supplied,
mary and envoi. But the enlargement of the
at length,
original Exomologesis
that the
in Basel, perhaps with
it
it
was properly
the rhetorically desirable
was above
all
sage quoted at the beginning of this paper satirises critics of those
1524
Froben
polemical. (i.e.,
The
Erasmus)
fin-
sumpas-
who
suggest that the practice of confession requires reform. Erasmus declares that their
motives are materialistic and self-serving. This was clearly a response to opponents, and in another bly he
satirical
addition he
came
close to
his
own
naming them. Ostensi-
discussing the sort of commercial fiddles that require restitution to be made:
is
These
days,
from Spain
what wine-merchant is
actually
will not pretend to the uninitiated that
from Beaune; or
that
Louvain wine
is
actually
wine
Rhenish?
(165B)
'
See
my
translations
tiani matrimonii, trans,
of the longer works: The
and annotated by Michael
ronto-BufFalo-London, 1999), 203-438; and in
J.
Institution
of Christian Matrimony:
Institutio chris-
Heath, in Collected Works of Erasmus, 69 (To-
CWE 64
(forthcoming).
'
MICHAEL J. HEATH Apart from showing that ill-informed wine-snobbery
bad wine comes from Spain and Louvain
monks and
Spanish its
is
265
is
nothing new, the
an obvious gibe
the Louvain theologians
who had
fact that the
opponents, the
at specific
attacked Exomologesis ;oon after
publication.*
The
do suggest
passages quoted so far
repentant and unwilling to compromise. versial writings are explored, the
more
that
on confession Erasmus was himself un-
The more
clearly
his previously
he emerges
vituperative debater, rather than the fence-sitting master of
portrayed in the
However,
it
neglected contro-
and sometimes compromise so often
as a resolute
past.
would be an
Erasmus simply stood
his
over-simplification to say that in revising Exomologesis
ground. In writing
his
pioneering
work on Erasmus and
the
sacraments, John B. Payne was clearly (and understandably) unaware that the text had
been
revised,
and thus accused Erasmus of hedging, of inconsistency, and of a lack of
candour.* Eugenie Droz, also looking only
had pursued
a
at
the final text, suggested that Erasmus
"tactique de la double verite,"^ doubdess the Franco-Scholastic
equivalent of our British bureaucrat being "economical with the truth." For example,
Erasmus added a paragraph on the much-debated origin of conwhich includes the sentence: "I am more inclined towards the party that beHeves that it was instituted by Christ" (147A). Payne righdy pointed out that this was early in his revision
fession
at variance
with Erasmus's view on the subject
with Edward Lee and others. But
new
servable elsewhere in the critics. Similarly,
it
as
expressed in his earUer polemic
does represent a
shift in
emphasis which
is
ob-
Exomologesis and in Erasmus's subsequent replies to his
an inserted passage on the beneficial
and ceremonies" (149D) hardly sounds though, perceptively, he Hkened
it
like
Erasmus
effects
to a passage in Erasmus's
noted a number of these apparent inconsistencies,
of "certain external
at all; it certainly
as
1533 De
rites
puzzled Payne, concordia.
Payne
well as an occasional softening
of tone within the book, without of coune being able to attribute them to Erasmus's confiising reluctance to sacrifice the text already pubUshed.
The
divine origin of confession was one of the doctrinal issues
was prepared to
New
on the
from the extreme position he had adopted
"we do not
read that private
Edward
on which Erasmus in the Annotations
where he had bluntly confession was instituted by Christ."'
Testament in 1519 and in his reply to
asserted that
Whereas
retreat
Lee,
in this polemic of 1520 he had exploited history to demonstrate the
com-
parative modernity of auricular confession, in 1530, expanding the Exomologesis, he cited
somewhat dubious
historical parallels to suggest,
on the
contrary, a
hnk with
apostoUc practices.
On
issues
CathoUc
*
such
critics.
as these, it
does appear that Erasmus
made an
effort to placate his
Indeed, on the theory of confession he arrived eventually
Erasmus had already replied to
his
Spanish
critics in
1528: see
LB
*
John B. Payne, Erasmus: His Theology of the Saaametits (Richmond, 1970), 181-213. Eugenie Droz, Chemins de
'
LB
9:255C.
I'heresie: textes et
a
9:1062-1064; Manifesta
mendacia was a direct reply to four Louvain theologians.
*
at
documenU (Geneva, 1970), 1:84.
ERASMUS'S EXOMOLOGESIS
266
relatively
orthodox position, going so
ments
"passing remarks."*
as
An
far as to describe his controversial earlier state-
way to demonstrate this is to construct many passages recommended for dele-
interesting
another version of Exomologesis by excising the tion
by the Tridentine Index;
this
produces
a text consisting
of perfectly harmless and
orthodox pastoral advice, including an unblemished eulogy of confession. Erasmus
had added
passages,
on the
question,
which
him from the Reformers' stance on the on its sacramental status (145A),'
clearly distanced
necessity of confession (147 A),
and on the requirement to confess
thoughts
sinful
which, for example, Luther had denounced
as
as
well
as sinful
deeds (148A),
an innovation introduced by "avarici-
ous, inquisitive or tyrannical prelates."'" Erasmus
went
Luther's teachings admit that [confession]
is
salutary
Re-
so far as to accuse the
who
formers themselves, perhaps teasingly, of inconsistency: "Even those
and not
defend
be despised"
at all to
(145B).
Teasing or not, the suggestion that
common ground
by other inserted passages which appear decidedly sceptical parenthesis "if in fact
sin:
God
added to
was to be found
is
echo some of Luther's views. a passage
borne out
A brief and
on the pope's power
to define
any mortal can make another guilty of sin" (158B)." Similarly, a
pointed question lieve that
is
to
is
is
added to
false
and
a passage
on
the necessity of confession:
will not fulfil his promises?" (161C),
"Do you
quently used by Luther to demonstrate the inutility of formal confession, or to question the
need for
a priest as
Catholic
at least
mediator in penance.'^ Towards the end (167E)
Erasmus inserted an attack on the logic of indulgences to which characteristic eclecticism (or
be-
an argument fre-
we shall
return.
Such
broad-mindedness) was unlikely to soothe Erasmus's
critics.
when
picking of the Louvain theologians' criticisms.
came to responding to the most nitThey complained that he had enumer-
ated only eight advantages of confession
against nine evils or disadvantages. In
Erasmus's irony was given
full
Manifesta mendacia Erasmus had
rein
as
been prepared
it
to argue, rather lamely, that the confu-
sion arose from his indiscriminate use of the terms mala and incommoda.
But he was
more than ready in 1530 to supply the all-important ninth "advantage" of confession, which he identified as readmission to the Christian fellowship, like a new baptism.
*
In a letter to Lorenzo
Campeggi
a
few months before the publication of Exomologesis: Ep.
1410 {CIVE 10:157). '
as
As "part of a sacrament" [of Penance];
later in the treatise
Erasmus consistently describes
it
"sacramental penance." '"
Confttendi ratio (1520), translated in Luther's Works, ed. J. Pelikan
and H. T. Lehmann
(St.
Louis, 1955-1986), 39:32-33.
" The implication is that, like Luther (Luther's Works, ed. Pelikan and Lehmann, 39:31), Erasmus would define sin only as an offence against divine law, whereas in the early Church (and more recently, by implication), sin was regarded as an offence against the Church, with which the sinner must be reconciled. '"
See for example Sermon von dem Sacrament
and Lehmann, 35:12-14.
der Pusz, translated in Luther's Works, ed. Pelikan
MICHAEL
J.
HEATH
267
brought about by a confession properly made (153A).'^ The irony
was about to embark on
a largely
mockery of
confessing. His
is that Erasmus unorthodox exposition of the "proper" method of
pedantry was reinforced by a
his accusers' arithmetical
parting shot about the "principal advantages of confessing,
my
case innumerable" (153C;
Predictably, fession that
it
know
I
was Erasmus's views on the procedure prescribed for auricular conhis CathoUc critics and was to provoke the heaviest snip-
ping of the censor's scisson. In exposing abuses arising from
and pastoral
his satirical
treatise turns into
as that
element, and
something of
of the scrupulous priest
it is
human
a tabloid expose,
who
faihngs
unhealthy interest in
his flock's sex Uves,
which the
the prurience to
right that a
institution
man who
with such colourful
refused to celebrate mass with a
who
where Erasmus's frank language
exposed
has seduced a
committed adultery with someone's
its
woman
wife, or
himself too frank?
tor actually bowdlerised
It is
them wider
The Louvain
conveys
should specify whether he has
committed
incest
with a nun, or a virgin,
more prudish French translaon the grounds, that to name some sins was akin
interesting that his
some of the more graphic
noted by Erasmus himself elsewhere in the to giving
also
rem-
took an
practitioners:
whored with a prostitute, or fornicated with a single girl, or ravished but he has no need to describe all the details of the act. (162C)
Was Erasmus
and foUies
here that the sober theological
nant of diimer lodged in his hollow tooth (158D), or that of the pastor
It is
are in any
most enraged
Erasmus was of course in anecdotes
which
itaUcs).
passages, perhaps
treatise,
currency.'*
theologians had bristled particularly at the following anecdote in the
work:
original
Many
people no doubt get complacent about their sins when they compare them with worse sins ... I heard a certain theologian, himself no stranger to ladies
of easy virtue, say that he had heard that a certain
spiritual director to a
convent had confessed to debauching two hundred nuns. The man teUing the tale was so pleased with himself that apparently it would never have crossed his
mind
to consider practising chastity. (154A)
Erasmus had already justified teUing
on the grounds
that
this story, in the
unpubUshed Manifesta
mendacia,
he had named no names and, more cogently, that he had wished
" Thomas Tender was impressed by ing that
it
the positive tone of this ninth advantage, without realiswas an interpolation: "Forgiveness and Consolation in the Religious Thought of Eras-
mus," Studies noted
its
in the
Renaissance 12 (1965): 116. Payne, Theology of the SaaametiU,
"traditionalism
and concern
for
Church
204-205
also
unity."
** In La Meniere de se confesser (1524), reprinted in Droz, Chemins de I'heresie, 1:10-41, Claude Chansonnette (Claudius Cantiuncula) rendered cum incubonibus aut cum brutisfoedos congressus (154 A) as "compaignies des incubes et aultres non a nommer" (20), and omitted fornication from the list
just
quoted
(34).
ERASMUS'S EXOMOLOGESIS
268
to prove that carnal sins
need not engender
mologesis itself Erasmus generally
bellished the satire
by adding ironic but
Exo-
despair.'^ In the additions to the
eschewed such
abstract justifications,
fairly gratuitous passages
and indeed em-
aimed
at a
wider
range of targets, including lustful courtiers, evil councillon (162D—E), and, most provocatively, "abbots",
whom he inserted in a list of those in authority who
waste their time whoring, drinking, and telling dirty
new
the
sinfully
Again, part of
conclusion focusses on the dubious practices of restitution, with Erasmus
raging not only against capitalists their conscience
and
little
more
a small fee will provide the
who
stories (163A).
who
enjoy their ill-gotten gains
at small cost to
Church which for necessary compositions and dispensations: "Even those to their purse, but also against a
have robbed churches or monasteries can
settle their
conscience for a few coins"
(165A). It is
thus
no accident
that the subtitle of Erasmus's
book
is
Modus
became more orthodox, but
tion
subtitle recalled the
Escobar's century,
Modus it
its
his posi-
There was some irony here, too,
practice.
sug-
conjitendi,
on which
gesting that his principal concern was not the theory of penance,
as
the
most famous and popular of confessional manuals, Andres de
confttendi.
One
of the most firequently printed books of the fifteenth
often appeared in abridged form
simple one-page "shopping
as a
list"
of
on the "scrupulosity" encouraged by those unscrupulous confessors who caused their flock needless anxiety by insisting on completeness of confession and thus on the disclosure of the most trivial possible sins.'^ In
1530 Erasmus strengthened
his attack
The Louvain theologians had accused him of near-blasphemy in calling modern form of confession more burdensome than the whole of Moses' law;
peccadilloes.
the
rather than delete this hyperbole, Erasmus replied with an oblique scriptural defence,
pointing out that in Acts 15
St.
Peter lifted the burden of the
Old Law from the
Gentiles and even from the Jews (155B).
Erasmus did not spare the confessors in either version; having already described the most enthusiastic in the head and portrait
as "dirty,
many
ignorant, fiivolous, worthless,
with the passage quoted
en orgies to perform their holy
However, was
at least as
a notable feature
severe
some of them not
right
the worse for drink" (156B), he embellished this delightful at
the beginning, where they reel
away from drunk-
task.
of Exomologesis
is
that Erasmus, unlike the
on the behaviour of penitents
sense of a conspiracy of malpractice
is
as
on
that
Reformen,
of confessors, and
again reinforced in the additions.
this
Having
some penitents' obsession with confessing trivia, observing sadly no shortage of priests who will pander to such people, or at least connive with them" (155E), he interpolated a passage to underline both the base motives of the priests "because they value the income that the recital brings more highly than the salvation of souls" and also the insouciance of the penitents: "Hence the joke you originally deplored
that "there
'^
See the translation by Erika
Rummel
Thomas N. Tentler, Sin and Tentler's book is the essential study '*
40;
is
See
in
CWE 71:119.
Confession on the in this field.
Eve of the Renaissance (Princeton, 1977),
MICHAEL
HEATH
J.
269
many people make as they return from the priest: 'I've got rid of that load; I dumped the lot in a monk's cowl'" (155F). However, in exposing the antics of wayward penitents, Erasmus was aiming at more than a mere reform of procedure; he was also making a plea for moral reform. hear
In a remarkable catalogue of misdemeanours added in 1530 (164E— 166B), he denounced such instandy recognisable figures as the shyster lawyer who will never
admit incompetence, the trucker
and the workman
route,
crooked
who
who
manage
will
make
will
a
councillon and shady second-hand
city
their moral faihngs as
mere
hone
all
conscience to play a role in pubhc
salesmen. All of
this rather life
of this
ideal,
he
also
made
obvious
nmnber of evangeUcal
a
them excuse
satire illustrates the
need for
and in business; for Erasmus, naturally, the
most important element in true penitence was a humble and suit
some of the cargo en
four days, not to mention
last
of the trade" or "rules of the profession" which,
"tricks
they claim, everyone accepts. But
to "lose"
one-day job
a contrite heart. In
pur-
additions to his prescription
for true confession, contrasting the benefits of Bible study, prayer, faith,
and charity
with those external works of satisfaction which too often lead only to complacency or hypocrisy.
The much expanded Luther has
of
no
"On
role to play in
satisfaction in
reject
point
this
much
section I
am
on
satisfaction
penance" (167E). Very
Une with
his
commitment
ecclesiastical precedent.
patristic basis
prefaced by an obvious allusion to
is
who
not seeking a fight with those true;
say that satisfaction
what he did was
to Christian charity,
For example, he
cast
to redefine
works
and in so doing to
doubt on the
scriptvural
or
of indulgences, and was outspoken on the pope's power to condone:
"Where there is no charity, what use is a bull? Where charity is suflScient, the document is superfluous" (167E). He recommended spiritual and moral rehabihtation, drawing a parallel with the sort of community service practised (he claimed) by the more enHghtened prison regimes in the secular world. Erasmus's
mous nine
new
conclusion
incommoda,
is
equally provocative.
condemned by
the papal censors. Erasmus proposed
It is
a recapitulation of the
still
more remedies
for the perceived abuses
procedure, from the moral to the severely practical. But the tone here stripped of satirical exaggeration and defects in procedure traditional tial
fii-
the Louvain theologians and later excised by
eamesdy intent on
— many of which were
is
of
modest,
rectifying the notorious
also addressed,
it
has to be said,
by the
manuals of confession. His overriding concern was to promote the essen-
pastoral
and consolatory
fianctions
of the sacrament of penance and sacramental
from retreating into indecision and compunued what can best be called an Erasmian Une. On theoretical questions, he made concessions to the authority of the Church; but on procedural matters he made few concessions and, if anything, hardened his stance against contemporary confession. In the additions as a whole, far
promise, he
abuses.
Here, some of his additional proposals demonstrate Erasmus's characteristic attention to detail.
He recommended,
for instance, that a sickroom be fiimigated before
the confessor enter to perform the portrayal, in the original text,
last rites
of the health
(169C). This refers back to the graphic risks
rvm by confesson, unable to avoid
ERASMUS'S EXOMOLOGESIS
270
the stinking, disease-ridden breath of their penitents, or forced to enter the sickroom
where It
a plague victim has just emptied his bowels or
has
been suggested
experience
vomited (155A).
that such disturbing images derive
as a confessor.'^
from Erasmus's personal
Whether or not that is true, in 1530 Erasmus's personal was made clear in another way. There comes a poignant
involvement with
his topic
moment when we
realise that the
ageing scholar's interest in confession
is
not merely
academic. Already in the liminary epistle of 1524 Erasmus had hinted that his
him
own ill
upon the need for a clear conscience as his last day approached. In 1530 the personal note is still more apparent, and suggests that near the end Erasmus saw little harm and a great deal of benefit in confession as currently practised. In a tone which foreshadows the hopeful resignation of De praeparatione ad health predisposed
to reflect
mortem, published four years
Those
[sc.
later,
the Reformers]
Erasmus
who
says:
teach that confession
is
not a necessity must
decide for themselves whether they are well advised to do
were burdened with ble,
nor to await
a mortal sin,
my last day,
I
so.
But
if
my mind
should not dare to approach the Lord's ta-
without being reconciled to
God through
a priest
according to the long-accepted custom of the Church. (146A)
It
may be
that the ultimate explanation for Erasmus's unpublicised revision
was an all-too-human
fear
of his text
of eternal damnation. King's College London
is
'^ Richard L. DeMolen, The no documentary evidence for
Spirituality this.
of Erasmus of Rotterdam (Nieuwkoop, 1978), 58. There
Petrus Martyr de Angleria (Pietro Martire d'Anghiera).
A
Remarkable
Italian
of the
Humanist and Historian
New
World
GERHARD HOLK
My
first part,
like
life.
If
we do
commenting on
background,
Petrus's career, has to include biographical facts
his studies, special circumstances,
not consider these, Petrus's humanistic
bom
Petrus Martyr,
was descended firom
in 1457,
wealth and cultural background
who was
assassinated in
Italy.
1252 and
his
fully appreciated.
a reUgious family
Arona on Lake Maggiore,
at
Petrus Martyr after an Inquisitor
and turning points in
cannot be
efforts
He
of some
was named
later canonized.
his huwell-known huwhere the manistic education at the school of the court of Milan, knowledge, was active. Because his excellent classical manist Franciscus Philelphus of he was encouraged to go to Rome, the very centre of humanism, but also an habitual place of resort for jealous or mahcious soldiers of fortune. The centre of Christendom
Petrus was talented, ambitious, and
was
at that
of great learning capacity,
and received
time also a centre of worldly power, luxury, and above
Petrus tried hard to get
on
there, but
all
nepotism.
without the right connections there was no
chance. Five years passed by and he had to content himself with an unpleasant teach-
ing job outside
Rome
Negro, governor
pond
first
at Rieti.
A
of Perugia, then of Rome. Although
to his high level of learning,
cles at
Rome
and
year later he got the job of secretary to Francesco
it
finally led to his
philologist, historian, archaeologist,
this
post did not corres-
helped him to make contacts with cultural cir-
admission into the circle of Pomponius Laetus,
and head of the
Laetus's enthusiasm for various aspects of antiquity
Roman Academy. Pomponius
and
his
humanity made
a lasting
impression on Petrus. In particular he was led to the meticulous examination of historiographical evidence, to philological precision of textual criticism, and to securing
rehable geographical and scientific information.
He made
fiiends with various
hu-
manists and influential penonalities, but a career was not in the offing, although his interests
and abihties were many-sided, extending to the poUtical and diplomatic
sphere. His current
working conditions under the governor were bad, with
slanderers
PETRUS MARTYR DE ANGLERIA
272
and
him to
omnipresent. His poetic talent helped
rivals
counter-attack, and his sarcas-
On
epigrams, of course written in Latin, did not prove ineffective.
tic
cultivated the exchange of encomiastic and
top of that he
humorous epigrams appropriate
for
win-
ning or strengthening friendships.
Because of
He
how
his instinct for politics,
he realized the precariousness of life in
Italy.
war between Pope Innocent VIII and King Ferdinand I of Naples was taking its toll on the population of Rome and threatened to provoke an intervention by the King of France. When, all of a sudden, the Spanish Count of saw
the current
Don
TendiUa,
Lopez de Mendoza,
Ifiigo
and succeeded in persuading the Pope
sent to
by the Catholic Kings, arrived in
come
to terms with Naples
pretty dramatic circumstances), Petrus reacted by writing a in praise of the Spanish count
an admirer of
Ifiigo,
Italian culture,
So he offered
it
poem
as a
hero of peace in a
to take Petrus to Spain in order to present
Italy
this in
entitled "Inachus"
conveyed
to him.'
was pleased to be honoured by
humanist, and pleased to be presented
Italian
Latin.
and took care to have
(all
him
a
Don
well-known
poem written in Queen Isabella
to
of Castile and to King Ferdinand of Aragon, for the count was well aware that the
Queen
especially
wanted
to keep pace with her
to
promote
classical studies
and culture
European neighbours. Petrus accepted the
at
her court in order
invitation, although
him not to leave Italy, pointing out that a distinguished would be out of place in a country of uneducated people where the nobility appreciated only wars and despised culture, where hardly anybody knew Latin, and where excessive pride would never acknowledge any merits in a foreigner. his friends urgently advised Italian scholar
Petrus,
however, had
faith in the future
and was looking forward
to
new
prospects
which he could not find in a country divided into a variety of more or less minor states, at times torn by wan and threatened by foreign intervention. Before leaving, in 1487, he promised to maintain his ties of friendship by writing letters from Spain and letting his friends know all about his experiences there. We should add that the "genus epistolare" especially was the form most congenial to him. maintain close a
way
with
ties
his friends
It
his
was objective, functional, concise, speedy, and from a
that
view independent of literary
form of his
later
Don
Petrus,
and patrons and to write in
major work,
obligations.
These
his Decades de
characteristics
enabled him to
own
way, that
styhstic point
is,
of
were decisive for the
Orhe Novo.
Inigo's guest at his Spanish residence,
where the court was
also stay-
was introduced to the Catholic Kings. Watching the courtiers he realized that
ing,
there was
little
interest in learning
and antiquity, but he noticed
a certain
"magnitudo
animi quasi Romana", that enabled them to go ahead with great enterprises and operations.
among
Meanwhile, he succeeded
others with
Isabella, a
learned
Hernando de
in
man who had been
manca. However, the time of Petrus's
'
due
making
friends
with influential personalities,
Talavera, bishop of Avila and confessor to
arrival in
Spain was not favourable.
"Inachus" contains a comparison between the suffering of war and the lovely
to
Don
Inigo's intervention.
Queen of Sala-
a brilliant scholar at the University
The war
fruits
of peace
GERHARD HOLK against
Moorish Granada had been dragging on for
273
with ever-changing for-
six years
tune. Petrus was fortunate to be admitted to the court and to get enrolled in the
When
Queen's entourage.
swered that he would
asked what kind of service he wanted to render, he an-
Moors. His wish
like to participate in the fight against the
caught everybody by surprise, but was well thought out. His religious shared by the Queen, was by a scholar
particularly as the
way
front hne. In a
upon
Court was going
move
to
felt
zeal,
also
that his position as
to Andalusia to
that corresponded to traditions of ancient
courtiers in the Italian dynasties of his time, he
that a high level of learning
Royal Guards, where he had to humanists, e.g.,
Moorish people.
He
also
ob-
to demonstrate
to endure great hardship
contempt of
common
and fatigue. His wartime overcome some prejudices com-
to
people in general and intolerance of
sympathy with the suffering of the
felt
wanted
wish and had him assigned to the
Isabella granted his
mind and helped him
experience broadened his
be near the
Rome and was
and military service were not incompatible, but com-
plemented each other. Queen
mon
He
only motive.
his
amid the belligerent high nobility of the Court would be awkward, perhaps
even absurd,
ligatory
no means
civil
population during
Whenever he could, he documented the events in letters to his friends, included in his "Opus Epistolarum". The trustworthiness and accuracy of his
the long war. later
presentation, and his consideration of various matters such as the nature of battlefields,
and the
state
by contemporary As as
a
of mind
among commanders and
combatant Petrus had risked
he had been
a volunteer,
his life
the metropolitan cathedral of Granada under
The
esteemed today
its
we
find
a military
him among
newly appointed archbishop,
which was
his
new
to lead
him on
spiritual life in
to dignities
and benefices
as
time went on.
conquered Granada was, however,
intolerable.
of the crowds and the corresponding insecurity in town, the Christian clergy
kept inside their locked cathedral (converted from the mosque). In Petrus wrote to six influential Spanish friends to ask
immediate return to the Court which he had of his four years of military
left
them
of the sovereigns, and
and witnessed
among them
this situation
him
title
"maestro en
as
at
las artes liberales
the court,
the Queen's chaplain, he obtained a position
the triumphant reception of Columbus returning firom his
sational expedition. Petrus interviewed
Columbus and
Rome, of his De
to his friends in
time he began writing the
first
a
among
important events the CathoUc Kings were involved
all
communicating the news
to obtain his
during long intervals in the course
As an instructor of the young noblemen residing
relatives
trust
to help
The Queen consented. In order to make a lasting made canon of the cathedral of Granada, then chap-
of the Queen's chapel, and was granted the
los nobles".
them
service.
position at court possible, he was
of
his friend
honorum
subjected Moorish population tried to hold to their old beliefs. Considering the
hostility
lain
rank or re-
the clergy of
Talavera. This was the beginning of a career, of a "cursus
ecclesiasticus",
For Petrus
still
and had received a war decoration, but
he had to leave without achieving
ceiving a tide of nobility. Immediately after the war,
Hernando de
troops, are
historians.
chapters
his
first
in,
and sen-
companions and sent letters
Milan, and Granada. At the same
Orbe Novo Decades.
He
was
fasci-
nated and was looking forward to more news and information that could enlarge the
knowledge of our world
in
many
fields.
Because of his manifold
interests
and the im-
PETRUS MARTYR DE ANGLERIA
274
mediate notes he used to take, covering various aspects of the discoveries and of the
New World, Under
he became an expert on the Indies and was appointed Royal Chronicler.
V
the emperor Charles
a special
Council for the Spanish colonies, called
"Council for the Indies", was created. Petrus was appointed chronicler to this body, then full member and Imperial Senator, and he participated in drawing up laws and regulations for the
American
colonies.
the peak of his ecclesiastical career
Approximately
at
the same time he reached
Prior of Granada, Prior of Ocana, and
as
Abbot of
Jamaica.
under
All the sovereigns
whom
he served made use of
his skill in negotiations,
even sending him on precarious diplomatic missions^ which partly were in the interest
of popes: hence
tivities for
appointment
his
as
ApostoUc Protonotary. Throughout these ac-
Crown he remained
the Spanish
responsible for the Latin version of the
diplomatic correspondence sent to the courts of Europe.
Some
Major Work De Orbe Novo Decades Octo
Characteristics of His
on the Purpose and Value of His Reports
First Personal Statements
In a letter written in 1494 {Op. Epist. 143) Petrus for the
he has straint
books about the discoveries of the
started to write
noteworthy. His aim
is
to provide scholars
is
with an enormous quantity of a
new
to Spain,
as
time mentions that
World. His
self-re-
intend to write major works
type of material. In Decade
chapter 10, Petrus defines his position
Thanks
who
first
New
I
of De Orbe Novo,
being that of a reporter of the
New World.
he remarks, Europe has become acquainted with myriads of
new
peoples and scholars have been provided with ample material to write about. His
own
part
is
that of an intermediary
and collector of information.
He
calls his
reports
and adds: "without elegance of style and Hterary embellishment." Although the alleged stylistic simplicity of his reports does him less than justice, he is
"nuda
collecta"
basically right to refrain
of his work
is
from any
literary
ambition in
in the service
idea of writing a historical work, particularly
ongoing
^
affairs,
Under Queen
Isabella
treatment of the defeated places in Palestine. Petrus
of mental
illness.
of Castile Petrus Martyr was entrusted with
Moors
in
mediate (1505).
(1517).
a delicate
in
and dangerous
power resented
the bad
Spain and took reprisals against Christian pilgrims to the holy
Martyr succeeded in dissuading the Sultan from hostile actions against
at last
with some govemmental
Queen
Isabella,
had been excluded from the succession,
allegiance.
The Mohammedans
Petrus Martyr had to support her, enduring her
also declared successor to
want
the discoveries and conquests are
and evaluation would be out of the
1504 Joanna, the declared successor to Queen IsabeUa, showed more and more signs
induce her to deal
did not
as
so that a historical description
diplomatic mission to the Sultan of Egypt (1502).
Christians. In
because the content
his Decades,
enough and speaks for itself, particularly as his assignments of the Crown leave him only little time. That is why he rejects the
sensational
When
Charles
V
and
duties.
When
his father-in-law,
started arguing
was taking over the
fits
of madness and trying to
her husband, Philip of Burgundy,
King Ferdinand of Aragon, who
about supremacy, Petrus Martyr had to
reins in the different
kingdoms of Spain, he of
to appear in person in front of the "Cortes" of Valencia in order to take the oath
But Valencia demanded
his presence.
So Petrus Martyr had
to negotiate
and mediate
GERHARD HOLK question.
The
275
current reports, however, offer the opportunity of correcting doubtful
information and of adding addenda whenever
it
seems appropriate. Finally he
lets
"per epistolas raptim scriptas" those whose
drop the remark that he wants to
satisfy
wishes could not be ignored,
alluding to high-ranking recipients of his reports,
this
mostly popes. For a clergyman
was appropriate to dedicate and send
it
parts
of
his
Decades to the pope in office, for the head of Christendom was directly concerned in Christianizing the natives of the New World. This kind of communication with the Holy See was of course equally in the interest of the Catholic Kings. Apart from these more formal reasons there are also personal ones. Petrus wants to get in touch
and to keep in touch with ItaUan
dignitaries at the highest level in order to find help
and support
or should have
if
he should wish
or possibly also
if
to,
leave Spain for whatever reason,
he should get into trouble with the Spanish Inquisition,
nando de Talavera,
who had
to,
received parts of his
work were
thrilled,
The
eight Decades de Orbe
from 1493
Novo were written over
to his death in 1526, with
respectively, mainly
Her-
passed on the news to their cardi-
and diplomats, and asked him to continue to convey the
nals
as
and archbishop of Granada, had been. The popes
his best friend
two long
news.
latest
a period
of thirty-three years,
breaks, lasting six
and nine years
due to the prohibition of publication imposed by the
Crown
for
^reasons of secrecy.
In Dec. 5.1 (159), written in 1521, Petrus mentions the principles of his writing:
"summa
fides et integritas, brevitas et Veritas",
and
calls his
reports "commentarii",
obviously following Caesar's "Bellum GaUicum". Petrus dedicated his
De
Orbe Novo Decades
Tres,
printed in 1516, to the emperor Charles
V
first
edition of
(38), dissociat-
who meanwhile had started writing about the disHe speaks "[de] historicis Hispanis, egre-
ing himself from Spanish historians
coveries and the colonization of the Indies.
quippe
giis
remember
viris,
de generaUbus tantum harum rerum inventis curam habentibus."
that Petrus has
been trying to cover more than general
grasp the special and unique
he
feels
obhged
nis fauces
traits
demena
to Establish the
New
by contemporary
historians
about. For this reason he
Uke Fernandez de Oviedo,
who stressed the
spot. Petrus anticipated reproaches like that
and referred to authorities Uke Aristotle and Pliny the Elder
never have been able to write their works
ments or reports of others.-*
A passage Uke
lect information, his procedure,
and
if
Petrus refers
among
who would
they had not reUed on competent state-
Dec. 2.7 demonstrates his authority to col-
his evaluation
special position at the Spanish Court, almost
*
obUvio-
Truth
World he was writing
importance of personal experience on the {Dec. 7.7)
to his vivid sense of history,
latuissent."
Petrus had never seen the criticized
Due
We
trying to
to take note of "miranda novaque, quae forte ahas in voraces
Working Methods and Endeavours
was
in various areas.
facts,
all
of
all
reports.
Because of
his
famous explorers, among them Co-
other examples to Aristotle's Historia animalium in which Aristotle also
adopted what had been observed by others
who had been
ordered by Alexander the Great to ex-
plore and investigate the animal world in remote parts of Asia.
PETRUS MARTYR DE ANGLERIA
276
Nunez de
lumbus,
Balboa, Magellan, Cortes, and Vespucci, had to give
nal account of their discoveries, usually as guests at his hospitable
him
they had to give self to reports
a written version
him
a perso-
home. After
of their accounts. But he did not
restrict
that,
him-
He listened also to selected repwho came from remote areas of the New World in
of explorers or of those in command.
resentatives of Spanish colonists
order to present their grievances to the authorities in Spain; he interviewed private ship-owners, and ordinary people returning from the West Indies.
travellers,
terviewing people of various social descriptions, opinions,
and
conflicts
The next procedure was
There was
was
criterion for the adoption of reports
historical, geographical,
and
scientific
were helpful
les, tail,
for his
because they were
tunity to
own
im-
called in.
in various fields. first
maps of the
Columbus, Vespucci, and Mora-
orientation, but could not
classified as
The
at his disposal.
New World drafted by discoverers Uke the brothers
were
their contribution to cultural,
knowledge or understanding
another category of documents
also
in-
of interests.
sorting out irrelevant, contradictory, unlikely, or
plausible statements. In order to clarify contradictions, eyewitnesses
An important
By
he took into consideration a variety of
classes,
be publicly presented in de-
top secret. In addition Petrus seized every oppor-
examine objects and products brought by discoverers and presented to the
Sovereigns,
exotic plants, spices, fruit, rock samples, nuggets of precious metal,
e.g.,
and commodities
like tools,
weapons, and
also idols
and treasures of various kinds.
Petrus 's Objectivity
Petrus could not refrain from criticizing those
worthy events
he thought
if
it
necessary. For
of discoverers and conquerors, and for belief in the Indies,
and the
laziness
responsible for note-
admiration of the achievements extension of Christian
criticizing, for
example, the
especially the
inhuman
exploitation and even geno-
practised.
The Scope of Petrus 's Coverage In line with his open-mindedness and manifold himself to presenting specific events in
phenomena of the
New
detail.
He
World and
interests, Petrus
also deals
does not confine
with reported botanic and
their potential usefulness for
consumption and medical treatments. Moreover, he takes into consideration and geographical phenomena earth, calculations
of ethnology he life,
like
treats the
and ethnic matters
ocean currents, climate, the circumference of the
and
stress
field
customs and religious ideas of the natives, their emotional
like craftsmanship, trade,
and means of transport. This kind
his extensive
linguistic questions.
the inhabitants of the Antilles, compiled
noted their
human
scientific
of degrees of latitude, and measurements of distances. In the
of universal coverage, characteristic of also philological
rivalries
of Spanish noblemen, and the ruthless actions of the conquistadores
which they
zoological
who were
his
his satisfaction at the
he had reason enough for
and colonists against the Indians, cide
all
all
He all
humanistic erudition, includes
dealt for instance
with the language of
the Indian words he could find out, and
and pronunciation. For experts in
this field Petrus's
notes are an
important document of an idiom that died with the extermination of the original inhabitants about
two decades
after the arrival
of Spanish colonists.
GERHARD HOLK Petms's References Petrus's
to the
numerous
277
Ancient World and Their Purpose
references to classical
pletely misunderstood. In an article about
mythology
nowadays sometimes com-
are
De Orhe Novo
Decades Octo in Kindler's
Neues Literaturlexikon published in 1990 (11:277), B. Scharlau picks out a number of references to ancient myths indiscriminately and without considering the specific
Greek and
contexts, and says that the references are a projection of the
mythical world onto the newly discovered parts of the declares that Petrus's
work
tion, mythical tradition
that the Decades
is
That
Roman why
is
she
mixture of fantasy and empiricism, of exotic projec-
a
and true
story. Finally she
seems to be
over the
at a loss
fact
have enjoyed a long and continuing reception and many translations
numerous languages. As
into
New World.
and expressiveness of
a humanist, Petrus
classical
mythology.
code or a keyword that invokes
A
is
aware of the uniquely rich imagery
suitable
mythologem
him
serves
as a
a mythical archetype metaphorically transferrable to
corresponding everyday situations. For instance, in Decade 7.4 (222), Petrus describes the royal decrees requiring just treatment of the native Indian population and the
ensuing
He
reality.
writes: "Spanish colonists,
home, were
far
away from
left
hke gentle lambs changed
-decrees.
their judges at
after
who came
to the
New World Men who had
remote
seized with greed for gold.
landing into rapacious wolves and forgot the royal
A lot of them were reprimanded and punished."
Petrus continues:
"Quanto
The ineflfectiveness and more briefly than by
dihgentius hydrae capita scinduntur, eo plura pullulare videntur."
of laws and punishment cannot be expressed more clearly the chosen mythologem.
For characterizing the uniqueness of the West Indian 3.7) the
myth of
exactly the Oceanides),
who
sents Haiti or Hispaniola as isles.
He
writes:
"Habeat
ditesque Nereides
islands Petrus
[sc.
"domina atque genetrix", the Nereids the surrounding Hispaniola] miUe atque iterum mille formosas, comptas
nymphas quae ipsam, Fanquam Tethym alteram dominam
mild climate, the remarkable
fertility
of some
as a
islands,
he repeatedly
& gene-
Then, describing the well-balanced
areas, the
multiformity and beauty of
landscapes, lakes, bays and inlets, describing too the botanical
and novelties of the
more
represent the islands he wants to describe. Tethys repre-
tricem, circumsaepiant, comantique decentes."
quoted
invokes {Dec.
the sea goddess Tethys and her daughters, the Nereids (or
refers to the
and zoological variety
mythical metaphor already
kind of leitmotiv in order to convey the magic and charm of this tropical
paradise.
To sum
up,
three purposes:
and
it
may be
first,
stressed that Petrus used his humanistic learning strictly for
of course, to enter upon a career that corresponded to
learning; second, to play his part as an
respondent in discussions with
Italian
ecclesiastical patrons; third, to
explore
New
Worid.
He crowned
his
and Spanish humanists, scholan, and
new
fields,
humanism with
sympathy with those deprived of their
rights
his abilities
esteemed and inspiring participant or cor-
thus
his
becoming the
humanity,
first
his sense
or abandoned to their
his secular
historian
and
of the
of justice, and
his
fetes.
Hildesheim,
Germany
PETRUS MARTYR DE ANGLERIA
278
Literature Pietxo Martire d'Anghiera (Petxus Martyr de Angleria). Opera {Legatio Babylonica,
Novo Decades
Octo,
Opus Epistolamm). Alcala de Henares, 1530;
De
Orbe
Graz
facsimile repr.
1966. Lunardi, E. "Prospetto dei documenti
relativi a
Pietro Martire." In Pietro Martire d'Anghiera
nella storia e nella cultura. Atti del secondo convegno intemazionale di studi americanistici,
De
Bemardis, L.
Bemecker,
Ge-
599-654. Genova, 1980.
neva, 1978,
M. "Le
dignita ecclesiastiche di Pietro Martire." In Pietro Martire, 75-80.
and Pietschmann, H. Geschichte Spaniens, 3rd ed.
L.,
Stuttgart, Berlin,
Koln,
2000. Boscolo, A. "Pietro Martire Consigliere delle Indie e Abate di Giamaica." In
Pietro Martire,
143-147. Burckhardt,
Cantu,
F.
J.
Die Kultur
der Renaissance in Italien, 1 1th ed. Stuttgart, 1988.
"Ideologia e storiografia in Pietro Martire." In Pietro Martire, 225-239.
Delia Corte,
F. I "
'Carmina' di Pietro Martire." In
Pietro Martire,
187-194.
Ferro, G. "Interessi geografici nell' opera di Pietro Martire." In Pietro Martire, 485-493.
Lunardi, E. "Contributi
alia biografia di
Lunardi, E., E. Magioncalda, and Pietro Martire.
Klingelhofer,
H.
Roma,
Pietro Martire." In Pietro Martire, 3-62.
R. Mazzacane. La
Scoperta del
Nuovo Mondo
negli scritti di
1988.
Peter Martyr von Anghiera,
Acht Dekaden
tiber die
Neue
Welt. Darmstadt,
1972.
Lynch,
J.
Spain 1516-1598: From Nation State
Ponte, G. "Pietro Martire scrittore." In
Repken,
K.,
and R.
to
World Empire. Oxford, 1991; repr. 1998.
Pietro Martire,
151-174.
Elze. Studienbuch der Geschichte, Bd. 2: Friihe Neuzeit 5th ed. Stuttgart,
1999; repr. 2000.
Wagner, H. R.
Peter Martyr
and His Works.
New
York, 1946.
On
the Glory of
Women:
English and French Translations of Agrippa's
Declamatio de nobilitate
et praecellentia
foeminei sexus (1542—1726)
BRENDA
HOSINGTON
M.
Henricus Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim delivered a Latin declamatio Inon1509 the University of Dole, in the nobility and preeminence of women at
Franche-Comte, where he had been appointed
lecturer. His text served as a
troduction to a series of lectures on Johann Reuchlin's kabbahstic dialogue, mirijico,
from
which were
his post.
work
for
As
twenty
a result,
Agrippa himself tells
us,
De
verba
and end in Agrippa's removal
he held up the pubUcation of the
years.
In his Letter to
which
to incur the wrath ofJean Catilinet
long in-
prefaces the
MaxirmHan Transsylvanus,
De
Secretary to the
nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus,
Emperor Charles V,
Agrippa explains
how
he
had dedicated the Reuchlin lectures to Princess Margaret of Austria,' and dehvered the declamatio
on women
in praise of her, "a unique
and nobihty." The phrase
non parum
that follows
is
example of women's excellence
revealing: "vt se praeside ac teste Ubellus Ule
authoritatis caperet aduersus eos qui in
foemineo sexu vituperando,
nihil
faciunt reliqui" (46). Agrippa, then, was aware that the declamatio presented views
women
with which many, especially those "whose sole occupation
female sex," would disagree. These views, in a nutshell, were
The De of the soul
nobilitate, a
women
station accorded gy, the Bible
'
The
d'apres
le
and
men
are equal, in are superior.
classics, history,
"woman
Latin text quoted
texte d'Anvers
on
to criticize the
as follows.
strongly polemical work, argues forcefully that, while in terms
by God, they
and the
that discuss the
is
question."
throu^out
is
name, order,
place, created material,
and
Agrippa appeals to etymology, physiolo-
the natural world, and contemporary writings
When he
De
borrows exempla of bad
women from
Nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus. Edition critique
1529, ed. R. Antonioli et
al.
(Geneva, 1990).
ON THE GLORY OF WOMEN
280
many
the
anti-feminist writings available, he subverts their traditional
prove feminine
he
virtue. Finally,
meaning
to
the oppression of women, supported by
asserts that
and lawyers, rests on custom, and all Such oppression cannot be justified. Moreoever, the supporting
physicians, philosophers, the Bible, theologians,
customs are
arbitrary.
arguments, being flawed, can be used to demonstrate quite the opposite of what
women
intended: that
is
are in fact superior.
How serious was Agrippa in this defense of women, and how seriously did he take his
De
nobilitate}
In his Letter to Maximilian, he asserts that he wants his
published with his other writings, "etiam nulla elegantia dicendi reddita."
He
si
calls it a
work
to
be
quam sit exigua, et qua "hbellum hunc quondam in pueritia mea videam
res
haec
conscriptum" and promises to present Margaret with more profound and serious
works
that will better represent his talents than "his pueritiae
meae nugis" (46—47).
may simply be an example of the well-worn modesty topos. On the may also be a means of defending himself against criticism. His preface
This of course other hand, to
De
it
its
comments on
defines the genre as
one of mixed
very role, and
incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum plays that
De
declamatio also pertain to the
nobilitate.
He
between playfulness and seriousness, between truth and fable: "non non dogmatizat, sed quae declamationis conditiones sunt, alia joco, alia serio,
modes,
shifting
judicat,
alia false, alia
saeve dicit." Declamatio, he adds, expresses the opinions of both author
and other commentators, yet sometimes
offers
arguments that are
invalid.^
own mixed feelings towards his defense of women appear in his dedicatory letter to Margaret. He wavers between feeling audacious at being the first or so he claims to assert women's superiority over men and feeling shame at having Agrippa's
—
—
taken such a position.^
of the
first six lines
The word "pudor"
letter,
en pre-eminence over
occurs no fewer than three times in the
and Agrippa even goes so
men is
far as to say that to
accord
womHe
to denote "ingenii euirati," an "emasculated spirit."
wavers similarly between fearing to appear ungrateful for women's virtues should he
remain
silent
and feeling shame
at extolling
them
in print.
This ambiguity was not always understood by Agrippa's contemporaries or those
who
followed in his footsteps, nor
critics.
text.
Some
interpret his
Others see
it as
De
is it
nobilitate
always taken into consideration by
purely
at face value, as
modem
an avant-garde feminist
an example of Renaissance paradox, an exercise in rhetoric, a
which Agrippa's arguments run counter to popular antiMost early commentators took him seriously and read the text
flourish of epideixis, in
feminist conventions.'*
^
"Henrici Cornelii Agrippae
tate scientiarum,
&
.
.
.
apologia adversus calumnias propter declamationem de Vani-
excellentia verbi Dei, sibi per aliquos Lovanienses Theologistas intentatas," in
Opera, 2 vols. (Lugduni per Beringos fratres: n.d.), 2.2:326-327. ^
Agrippa was not actually the
Camara did
first
to assert female superiority.
so in his 1430 Triunfo das Donas, translated into French
Rodriguez
del
Padron da
by Femand de Lucena
or 1460, and thought by Antonioli (De Nobilitate, 22) to be one probable source for the tate.
Two
other texts suggesting that
know: Bartolomeo Gogio's De Equicola's
women's *
A
De
mulieribus, possibly
inequality
on
women
laudihus
are superior in
some
muliemm, composed
in
in
De
1459
nobili-
aspects Agrippa probably did not
1487 but never printed, and Maria
published in 1501, in which the author, like Agrippa, blames
social customs.
range of opinions on
this score
is
represented by, amongst othen, Barbara
Newman,
^
BRENDA vigorous defense of
as a
women.
It
HOSINGTON
M.
281
greatly influenced the querelle des
France, while authors everywhere between 1400 and 1800
femmes in
drew upon Agrippa's
in-
terpretation of Genesis and other biblical sources. In the sixteenth century alone
was translated into
and many more
five languages,
present study examines seven of these, four done into
which cover the
years
pects of the text
and
1542
to 1726.
It
would
translations
EngUsh and three into French,
discusses the liminary materials, various as-
and their overall tone. In so doing,
translations,
it
attempts to
how the translators, working in very different contexts and periods,
ascertain
it
The
follow.
their original: as a serious feminist text, a witty
interpret
and erudite example of rhetorical
paradox, or a mixture of both.
The
A
first
English translation appeared in 1542 and was reissued in 1545. Entitled
and
Treatise of the nobilitie
who
Clapam,
in 1540
woman
excellency of
had already
kynd,
it
De
translated Agrippa's
was the work of David
sacramento matrimonii decla-
Clapam was a Cambridge graduate and well-connected proctor in the eccleThe second is in verse. The Glory of Woman, or a Lx)oking-glasse for published in 1652. It is by Hugh Crompton, known to Winstanley as a minor
mation
siastical courts.
Ladies,
who
poet
^
dedicated one of his collections to Mary, Duchess of Richmond and Len-
The same
nox.^
Women;
Edward Fleetwood published
year,
discovered
little
about the
translator,
George Fleetwood who was one of the Female Pre-eminence or
known of the
the Dignity
regicides
was
condemned in 1660.^ The fourth It is by Henry Care and entitled
and Excellency of that Sex above
the Male.
Care
is
the
four English translators, having been a poUtical writer suspected of
popish sympathies, a "petty fogger"
who
have
I
except that he was probably the brother of
translation appeared eighteen years later, in 1670.
best
a prose version. The Glory of
and preeminence of women above men.
or a Treatise declaring the excellency
who
wrote against the Church of England, and
of religious and medical works.
also a translator
"Renaissance Feminism and Esoteric Theology," Viator 24 (1993): 337-356; Marc van der Poel, Cornelius Agrippa, the Humanist Theologian and his Declamations (Leiden, 1997); Ian
MacLean, The
Woman (Cambridge, 1980); and Constance Jordan, Renaissance Feminism: Litand Political Models (Ithaca, NY, 1990). For a definition of Renaissance paradox see
Renaissance Notion of erary Texts
Rosalie L. Colie, Paradoxia epidemica. The Renaissance Tradition of Paradox (Princeton, 1966), points to Agrippa's exploitation of paradox in his adversus calumnias although she does
agrees that the
De
nobilitate
to Agrippa in his defense '
A
is
not mention
his
incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum
De
nobilitate
(400-401). Linda
who
and Apologia
Woodbridge
an example of Renaissance paradox, yet attributes a certain sincerity
of women: Women and
Treatise of the nobilitie
De
and
the English Renaissance
(Urbana, IL, 1984), 34—44.
excellencye of woman kynde, translated out of Latine into englysshe by
David Clapam (London, Thomas Berthelet, 1542).
It is
reissued
by Berthelet
in
1545 along with
a
second edition of Clapam's The Commendation of Matrimony, not as The Commendation of Matrimony as James Turner asserts in One Flesh, Paradisal Marriage and Sexual Relations in the Age of Milton (Oxford, 1987), 109. *
See
WiUiam Winstanley,
ton published
one year
A
Lives of the
Most Famous English Poets (London, 1687), 191. Cromp-
Medley of Music and epigrammes in 1657 and
Pierides or the
Muses' Mount possibly
later.
^
See the entry for Sir George Fleetwood in the Dictionary of National Biography 7:265-266.
*
See the Dictionary of National Biography 3:954-955; and Anthony a
Wood,
Athenae Oxonienses
ON THE GLORY OF WOMEN
282
The is
three French translations under consideration span a shorter period.
anonymous:
par dessus
Traite agreable
&
Curieux de
I'homme, pubUshed in
celui de
Noblesse
la
The Hague
& Excellence du in 1686. It
The
first
Sexe de lafemme
followed by the
is
work of Jean nephew of a famous theologian and himself the author of two religworks. ^ The last is Nicolas Gueudeville's Sur la noblesse & excellence du sexefemi-
1713 De
la
grandeur
de I'excellence desfemmes audessus des hommes, the
et
d'Arnaudin, the ious nin,
published in Leiden in 1726 with, in the same volume, a translation of Agrippa's
De
Sacramento matrimonii and
De
incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum.
Gueudeville, a
French Benedictine, forsook France and Catholicism for Holland and Calvinism. translated a great Folly
and
The
number of books, including More's
Colloquies,
and wrote several polemical works.'"
liminary materials in the
De
his dedicatory epistle to Margaret,
They appeared
Beliaquetus."
He
Utopia and Erasmus's Praise of
in
nobilitate
and a
all
comprise Agrippa's
poem by
a mysterious
Maximilian,
letter to
and unidentifiable
L.
the editions available to our seven translators:
Antwerp 1529, Cologne 1532 and 1598, two with no place of publication in 1567 and 1568, Grenoble, late sixteenth century, and the Lyon Opera of c. 1600 and its subsequent reprints. They are dealt with in various ways in the translations. Clapam ignores them and so, not surprisingly, does Crompton, since he says he has followed not the Latin text but an English prose translation, most certainly Clapam's. Fleet-
wood
and English versions of the
gives the Latin
L. Beliaquatus
poem and
translates
the letter to Maximilian very closely but omits the dedication to Margaret. Care
own
simply alludes to the dedicatory epistle to Margaret in his
meaner
princess, Katherine" [wife
a similar
II].
The 1686 anonymous
independence.
poem by
of Charles
L. Beliaquetus,
which he
translator gives a
places after the text of the
dedication to "no
demonstrate
translators
French version of the
De
nobilitate.
Arnaudin,
Clapam, ignores the liminary materials completely. Gueudeville, on the contrary,
like
translates
them
all.
Perhaps of equal interest are the translator's
am
The French
own
prefatory materials.
Crompton, Fleetwood, and Care have dedications
has none,
Crompton's dedicatee
is
his wife.
He
tells
her he has chosen verse for his translation
because, although he found the text "consonant in
"dissonent" (A2).
He
has
"lascivious" in praising
While Clap-
to various ladies.
been encouraged by the
itselfe
and reason",
fact that
tone was
its
although poets seemed
women, they were well-intentioned. So much the more upon this so famous Tract, which is real and true." In
then, should he "paraphrase letter to the
"Ingenious Reader" (A4), he declares himself ready to
en's glory" despite "the lash of
many
"illustrate
so,
his
wom-
tongues," perhaps an echo of Agrippa's anxiety
2:469, as well as Macaulay, History of England (London, 1858), 2:218, n. 221. '
See the Biographic
M. Michaud. 45 '"
universelle ancienne et moderne.
See the Biographic
universelle,
18:69-70 and La France
ed. J.-M. Querard. 11 vols. (Paris, 1827-1857), 1:94.
Dialogue de
"
M.
Nouuelle edition publiee sous
la direction
de
vols. (Paris, 1843-[65]), 2:246.
le
baron de
The French
la
Hontan
el
litteraire
The work
ou Dictiomiaire bibliographique,
against the Catholic
church
is
d'un sauuage d'Amerique (Amsterdam, 1704).
editors suggest that L. Beliaquetus
might well be a pseudonym
could perhaps be Agrippa himself: both "L. Beliaquetus" and he
call
the
De
(45).
The
author
nobilitate a "libellus."
BRENDA in his letter to Maximilian.
He
M.
HOSINGTON
also confesses to
283
omitting philosophers
who do
not
support Agrippa's behef in women's superiority. Crompton's rather cavalier attitude
towards
his text
by
representative of the school of very free translation, represented
is
Denham and Cowley, and which inspired Dryden's disdain. It also demonstrates, however, how keen he was to put across Agrippa's defense of women and how seriously he took
it.
Fleetwood dedicates the
his translation to "the
Common-Wealth of England."
only that Agrippa
"because
when
I
is
We
Vertuous and BeautifuU Female Sex of
are told nothing
a "judicious learned
Author" with
of his translating methods,
whom
he agrees completely
behold your splendor and gUttering beauty,
confirmation of [Agrippa's] opinion"
—
a not
I
take
it
whoUy convincing reason
as a great
(A3).
Yet
he,
too, obviously takes Agrippa's treatise seriously.
Henry
Care's translation
of women but in
fact
is
preceded by a fiiend's three poems, ostensibly in praise
lauding Care and exhorting them to be grateful to him. There
follows an "Epistle Dedicatory" to
Queen Katherine in which Care reassures her that work no longer be thought too lavish
Agrippa's tide will no longer scandalize and his in praise of
women
because of her
convincing and chched reason. In 'Agrippa for revealing to
own
preeminence and excellency
his "Preface to the
(3)
— an un-
Reader," however, he thanks
women's worth, although he gives the greater palm of victory describes the De nobilitate as a "sally of the same Generosi"that dehghts to engage on disadvantages, and bravely to assist
women themselves. He
ty" as the
De
vanitate,
the weaker party" (A2). Lastly, he praises Agrippa for his courage in defending
en against men's calumnies. Again, the translator reads
his
source text
tioned and convincingly argued. This nevertheless does not prevent
some "Additions, and
variation, to render
Age." In other words, he has taken the "improving" the
The French
it
more smooth and
liberties that
as
wom-
well inten-
him from making
graceful! to the present
most translaton of his age did
in
original.
translators'
own Uminary
tudes towards Agrippa's defense. translation praises
Agrippa for
materials demonstrate rather different atti-
The "Avant Propos"
his erudition
to the
1686 anonymous French
and courage in revealing to
women how
hommes." Note the word "egaler," "to equal," and not "surpasser," "to surpass." The final sentence leaves us in no doubt as to the translator's opinion of Agrippa's encomium: it is likened to Apuleius's eloquent praise of an ass they can "egaler
and Erasmus's rhetoric but
les
brilliant praise
of folly. In other words,
one not to be taken
this
agree with "saine rehgion," and has added
a very clever piece is
why
of
he confesses he
removed some statements some of his own (3b).
has not followed the original too closely, has
Amaudin,
is
seriously (3a). Perhaps this
that did not
in his very long "Preface," confesses his conversion to Agrippa's cause.
women was based on grammar: as the masculine gender men superior to women (a iii). He adds an argument to Agrippa's that he modesdy calls "more convincing": men seek happiness in perfection and nobility; since they seek women's company, women must be perfect His previous attitude towards
is
superior to the feminine, so are
and noble typical
(a vi).
of his age.
Amaudin
He
also tells us a
has taken
some
Utde of
liberties
his translating practices,
with the
text,
which
are
removing tiresome and
"unchaste" sentences here and there, making them more "poUte," and changing the meaning in one place because "theologically unsound" and therefore damaging to the
ON THE GLORY OF WOMEN
284 cause of women.
Our
He
On
cause of
women.
criticism
of Agrippa
the text
as zeal,
Agrippa
Nicolas Gueudeville, admits to no similar conversion to the
good or
God
is
biting.
If,
he
Agrippa had argued with
says,
men;
for
created
women
on our
side."
Men
last.
women
and
of doing
are equally capable
is
hallmark in translating: absolute freedom to rework the text and insert
very firmly held political and reUgjous views.
Hminary
materials.
wood, who
It
to the
De
the trans-
nobilitate in
remains to be seen whether these are traceable in the
Crompton, who
translations themselves.
translate
truth "is
is,
his
soundness
Gueudeville remains unconvinced by Agrippa's text and
We have seen a variety of attitudes and reactions lators'
as it
which
in
much
as
of "pitiful sophistry" in arguing that female superiority resides in the
evil (6). Finally,
faithful to his
own
du traducteur"
the contrary, he offers a "Preface
would have been humiliating
guilty
is
fact that
his
has also provided marginal notes to explain certain statements.
last translator,
called the
work
"real
and true," and Fleet-
asserted that Agrippa's arguments are fully supported
with the fireedom typical of their time, but their
texts
by Genesis, both
have a more subdued
ring than Agrippa's. Neither achieves the playful tone of the original, probably
because the translators did not understand serious work. Care,
much
on the other hand,
as
thinking the
it,
De
nobilitate
of the wit and social banter" and even adds "reassurances of playfulness."*^
Arnaudin,
who
him
confessed the text converted
to Agrippa's cause, adds footnotes
suggesting that he has misunderstood Agrippa's teasing. For example,
when women
states that
("ut
si
an entirely
James Turner has pointed out, "expresses
casu fortuitove
fall
cadendum
sit,
mulieres fere semper in tergum decidant"), a
joke often found in medieval anti-feminist writings, Arnaudin indigne du serieux
d' Agrippa" (37).
et
comments on
females' ability to conceive without a
accompanying statement
that
we
criticizes the
Another footnote
being "puerile
despite his
when Agrippa
unexpectedly they nearly always do so on their backs
man
"faux
author for
calls
Agrippa's
et abusifs"
cannot accept virgin births
(44),
as true,
ex-
cept in the case of the Virgin Mary.
Three
translators
do appear to read the De
nobilitate as a text
containing elements
of paradox. In rendering Agrippa's claim that the Scholastics can only prove the contrary of what he calls
his
the
is
saying by resorting to allegories, the 1686 French translator
work "ce paradoxe"
(34).
argument "ratum firmumque
tion,
Henry Care
erit":
and extravagently Paradoxical"
simply "deinde a religione, a natura,
"This
mistranslates Agrippa's statement that
may
at first
perhaps seem an odd Asser-
At the end of the text, where Agrippa says ab humanis legibus, a uaria autoritate, ratione et (17).
exemplis promiscue demonstrauimus" (89), Gueudeville adds:
quement, demonstrativement, invinciblement,
Of all
the translators,
seriously. This text,
is
made
it is
mon
indeed Gueudeville
"J'ai
prouve geometri-
paradoxe."
who
takes the
De
nobilitate
the least
evident in several ways: humorous statements added to the
hyperbolic elaborations of some arguments, mostly those dealing with sexual
matters,
and
sarcastic
or mocking comments added about
the original supports such an interpretation.
"Turner, One
Flesh, 110.
women where
nothing in
BRENDA Sometimes Agrippa himself is
M.
HOSINGTON
285
clearly tongue-in-cheek.
For example,
after praising
women in speech, he states as proof: "ut vix uspiam muher muta He is obviously responding ironically to one of the traditional criti-
the superiority of reperiatur" (64).
cisms of women found in misogynist texts, namely female garrulousness. This curately rendered by
all
ac-
is
mocking
the translators, but GueudevUle continues in
tone:
"et la moindre harengere est plus forte sur ce chapitre-la que le plus habile avocat"
[and the least fishwife
is
too, adds to Agrippa's
comment:
abler in that
domain than the most
"How sweet and
skilful
lawyer] (65). Care,
insinuating are their compliments?
How sudden their Answers? How ingenious their Retorts? How ready their Excuses? How neat their Evasions? How irresistible their Intreaties?" Thus he maintains the comic tone, even heightening it by hyperbole, yet without indulging in Gueudevillehke sarcasm. This is
tone
sarcastic
never used
the contrary,
when it is
is
reserved in Agrippa's text for those
speaking of
women
who
criticize
women;
it
on
themselves. In Gueudeville's translation,
directed almost solely against them. For example, after Agrippa's hst
womwoman
of cures associated with menstrual blood, Gueudeville adds acidly that even a an's is
excrement can be
a reUc
signaUng a miracle
called "notre femelle," or "notre
(63).
Throughout
beau sexe." Neither term
his text,
used by Agrippa.
is
Gueudeville's final sentence sums up his attitude to the text. Agrippa's sober
ergo opus ipsum in nimis
lowed by
a wish for "joie, et ce qui vaut
ne I'avez"
one
magnum uolumen
[joy,
exeat, hie iUius finis esto" (89)
mieux que tout
and what's better than anything
else, a
le reste,
woman
une femme,
—
if
"Ne
is
fol-
si
deja
you don't have
already].
which they are created, related to the modes and social mores of their time as well as to ideological factors. This is amply proved by the translations under consideration. For example, Agrippa's text Translations are a product of the context in
cultural
contains detailed references to subjects Uke menstruation, procreation without male assistance,
and the
genitals.
he often skips over the either completely
translates
The
later
omit or severely
Amaudin
genitalia.
Clapam
details.
says clearly that
some of these
fairly accurately,
curtail the references to
eussent entendues avec horreur" [which ears
would hear with
decorum
horror] (e
Even
left
& que les
in our language ii).
ou
salir
would not permit on Adam and
the passage
taste
One
is
in keeping with eighteenth-century preoccupations
ideological factor that influences the translation of Agrippa's
also refers as
oreUles
and correctness.
rehgion. Agrippa uses the Bible and
Mary
les
I'imagination" [in order not to shock circumspect ears or sully
the imagination] (25). This
with
out certain
oreilles chastes
Eve's nudity has been translated only partially "pour ne pas choquer circonspectes,
all
menstruation and the
he has changed, sweetened, or
expressions "que la poHtesse de notre langue ne souffre pas,
and which chaste
although
English and French translators, however,
many
Church
De
nobilitate
Fathers for arguments and exempla.
is
He
times to the Cathohc church and often praises the Blessed Virgin
the "perfect and noblest example of the perfect and noble female sex."'^
" Gueudeville "sophistry" (5b).
also rejects this
notion but not on theological grounds.
He
calls it
simply
ON THE GLORY OF WOMEN
286
Arnaudin, nephew of a theologian, is
responsible for original
proved by theologians.
he
is
is
He
troubled by Agrippa's assertion that
he
sin, a not,
Adam alone
very orthodox view that could be dis-
says,
even distances himself from the statement by pointing out
only the translator, not the author (55).
Other
working
the translations concern Catholicism and Protestantism. Clapam,
shifts in
in the early 1540s, retains
all
references to the Catholic church and the
Blessed Virgin Mary's immaculate conception and
title as
"mother of God", although
he does omit Agrippa's assertion that she suffered no pains in childbirth because she
was subject fact that
to
no laws of nature. Despite the Schism
William Cecil, Secretary of State
Clapam
feels
no need
to
CathoUc church" and all
decade
earlier,
and the
to the equally ardent Protestant
Edward
VI,**
change Agrippa's text consistently, leaving references to "our
The
so on.
"Ecclesia catholica"
do.
a bare
he was highly thought of by both the ardent Protestant John Bale and
three later English translators,
consistently
on the other hand,
becomes "Christian church" or simply
Mary is not once called the made to her being born without sin, Fleetwood "(as some divines confirm)" and "(As some affirm)."
"church." "Nostra ecclesia" becomes "the church."
mother of God. Where reference and Crompton add, respectively,
is
are too many examples of such changes for this to be accidental. The mingling ofjudicious and at times facetious arguments in De nobilitate suggests that Agrippa was anxious to display his ability to create a work in the same vein as
There
other humanist paradoxes. His espousing of the defense of
was well aware of the his
mind was
his desire to placate
fallen in the years
also suggests
he
Margaret of Austria out of whose favor he had
between 1509 and 1529. The
ambiguities and subtleties that translators render, others they
wood, and Arnaudin seem
women
desfemmes and changing humanist attitudes. But also in
querelle
still
tease the
resulting declamatio
modem
critic.
is
one of endless
Some of these
Agrippa's
omit or misinterpret. While Clapam, Crompton, Fleet-
to have interpreted the text as a serious defense of women
and, indeed, in the case of
Crompton and Arnaudin have even made changes to anonymous French translator, and Gueude-
strengthen Agrippa's arguments. Care, the ville
perceived the text's playful tone. Yet even their response to
this feature
of the
text varies. Care, although praising Agrippa for his courage in defending the superiority
of women,
tor, in
calls it a "sally like
comparing the work
it as satire,
earlier,
his
the
De
uanitate."
The anonymous French
The Golden Ass and The
is
transla-
Praise of Folly, clearly
although he too praises Agrippa's courage and erudition.
interpretation there
because
to
views
Of Gueudeville's
no doubt. Agrippa has not convinced him of female superiority
arguments are not sound. Despite these differences,
all
three, as
we
said
perceive the paradoxical elements in the work. These seven translations, then,
represent the same wide range of tone as Agrippa's text of 1529, and they pose the
same
tantalizing questions. Universite de Montreal
'•
See the Dictionary of National Biography, 4:371; and also John Bale, Index Britanniae scriptorum
quos ex
uariis hibliotheis
non parro
labore collegit lonnes Baleus,
Other Writers, ed. Reginald Lane Poole with the help of
cum
aliis.John Bale's Index of British
Mary Bateson (Oxford,
1902), 60.
and
Neo-Latin Nonsense
AUGUST
A.
Nabokov
in
IMHOLTZ
To
the question, what do Lewis Carroll and Vladimir Nabokov have mon, most people would probably answer something to the eflfect
in
com-
that the
latter most infamously, about little girls. HumHumbert, the nymphet-obsessed narrator and anti-hero of Nabokov's novel Lotita,^ was the cause of much moral outrage in America directed against its author
former wrote most famously, and the bert
some ninety
years after the publication of Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
But what Carroll and Nabokov games with words: and
a
really
have in
common
is
"logodaedaly"
— playing
few of those Latin and Neo-Latin word games we
shall
examine here.
At the end of chapter 8 of Part hta,
I
ferent levels.
novel Bend
The
I
of Lolita, Humbert Humbert
have only words to play with"
phrase:
What Nabokov
Sinister for the
(34).
And
"Oh, my Loon several dif-
says
play he does, often
says in expUcating a particularly diflScult passage in his
Dutch
translator Charles
Timmer
illustrates his
technique.
"from the twinned night of the Keeweenawatin and the horrors of the
Laurentian Revolution" means, according to Vladimir and Vera Nabokov's reply to
Timmer: this
is
a hard passage. It develops simultaneously
"Keeweeanawatin" (name of a
wan"
schist
is
a telescopic
of the Archaeozoic
on
several planes.
The word
combination of two terms "Keewatin"
—
the oldest
—
period) and
"Keewana-
(subdivision of the Protoerozoic). Laurentian belongs to the Archaeozoi,
Permian to the Paleozoic
... In
other words, from the dimmest past into the
present.^
'
All citations
by Alfred Appel,
from Jr.
Lolita are to 77ie
(New York,
Annotated LoUta, ed. with preface, introduction and notes
1970). Page
numben of the Nabokov
text are cited in paren-
theses following the quotation. 2
Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years (Princeton, 1990). 316.
NEO-LATIN NONSENSE
288
The Nabokov
bibliography
ence and echoes, to which
I
NABOKOV
quite a large one, with the paper chase for influ-
is
am
IN
not unwittingly about to add, encompassing
deal of the world's literature. Critics have
a
good
found in Nabokov's Lolita influences from
myth of lo to Melville's Moby Dick and from the Sumerian Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn? However many strata of texts and
the ancient Greek
epic
Gilgamesh to
lev-
of experience might be buried in the novel,
els
Roman
Nabokov
fireworks
let us
consider
some of the
verbal
sets off.
A
Neo-Latin Passage in Lolita At a nearly climactic point in the novel, at least in Humbert is overcome with passion as he holds Lolita on
Humbert
the sexual sense, his lap.
Word
control
is
the
thing to go. "What's the katter with misses?" he mutters into her hair as he
first
moan and
about to
"If
you must know,"
"Show wight
ray,"
replies Lolita,
"you do
it
the
wrong way."
— another spoonerism. "spoonerette" — manufactured word
Humbert answers
good time," responded the a Lolita were the object of Humbert's spoonerisms.
"All in
is
die (a clear sexual reference).
as
though
Then comes
the following macaronic Neo-Latin outburst:
Seva ascendes, pulsata, brulans,
kitzelans, dementissima. Elevator clatterans,
pausa, clatterans, populus in corridoro.
Juncea
To
puellula, jo
continue sketching the scene
bathroom "where he
it
listens to Lolita's
takes
him
I
should add that
quite
nisi
some time
mors mihi adimet nemo!
nihil
bought
(i.e.,
quidquam. (122)
Humbert Humbert
retires to the
to shift back into normal gear" while
"oo's" and "gee's" of girlish delight
and presents in the "treasure box" phrase) that he has
Hanc
pensavo fondissime, nobserva
she looks at the garments
as
the suitcase, but again a sexually charged
for her. Lolita's cries ironically
echo those of Humbert
Humbert's barely averted orgasm. This may be the most sexually
explicit passage in
the whole novel, but being in Latin and a macaronic mixture of other words
other languages
it
from
has been overlooked, not only by the morals police and censors in
the United States but also by most of Nabokov's literary commentators.
What we
have here in Humbert Humbert's abruptly terminated stream of consciousness cres-
cendo
is
Here
a kind of Joycean verbal "coitus interruptus." is
Annotated
^
E.
S.
Literature
Charles
the translation provided by Alfred Appel, Jr. in his
commentary
in The
Lolita:
Sweeney,
"lo's
Metamorphosis:
Classical Subtext for Lolita," Classical
and
Modem
10 (1990): 143-151; Laurie Clancy, The Novels of Vladimir Nabokov (London, 1984), 110;
Rowan
Beye, "Gilgamesh, Lolita, and Huckleberry Finn,"
9 (1989): 39-50.
Classical
and
Modem
Literature
AUGUST The
A.
IMHOLTZ
sap ascendeth, pulsates, burning, itching,
one away from me! Slender
little girl, I
most insane, elevator
No
pausing, clattering, people in the corridor.
289
clattering,
one but death would take
this
thought most fondly, observing noth-
ing at all/
At
best that
I
but
allusions,
poor
a
is
serves better.
Uteral crib and, in fact,
cannot promise to reveal us look at the passage
let
all
is
even
more
Nabokov de-
a bit inaccurate.
the levels and interpret
all
of the possible
closely.
"Seva ascendes": "seva" comes from the French word "seve" meaning "sap" or "life force. "^ It derives
from the Latin "sapa." In English
and strength of flavor proper to any particular wine, I
suggest "seva" be taken in
its
refers to the firmness
it
mouth.
a taste that lingers in the
"semen." In Chapter 17
sap sense as a figure for
Humbert Humbert drinks his favorite concoction of gin and pineapple juice to fortihim for a sexual encounter with Charlotte, Lohta's mother, and as he waits he
fy
mows
the lawn, deflowering the dandeUons, and notes the reek of "sap mingled with
pineapple. "(75) "Ascendes"
is
ending
"Seve ascendante"
term
is
also a botanical
"Pulsata": "having paused"
form of the Latin present
best taken as a mistaken
participle "ascendens" or, if the "es"
may
as
is
retained, as direct address to the sap.
noted above.
refer to the sap in
Humbert's engorged member.
"Brulans": a Latinized present participle from the French verb "bruler" meaning
bum, which
to
"briilant
is
often used figuratively in the sense of possessed by passion (e.g.,
d'amour" and "brulant du
"Kitzelans":
we
desir").^
shall return to this interesting
word
"seva," the
life's sap,
which
is
not
at all a
moment.
in a
"Dementissima": "most insane." Appel does not see that
this,
I
reasonable entity. This
is
believe, modifies
about Humbert's
passion for his nymphets.
in
"Elevator": "the deliverer, one who rises up." (Note, as Humbert might have said one of his frequent apostrophes, it is hard not to get carried away with this.) For
2 Kings 22:3 in the Vulgate.
this sense see
bert Humbert's
The
reference
is
probably to
also
Hum-
member.
"Clatterans": another Latinized present participle, this time
made from the EngUsh made by the
verb "clatter," which can have the sense, relevant here, of "the noise coUision of two sonorous bodies" (LoUta allusion here
is
that their bodies are
is
on Humbert's
lap).^
Perhaps the indirect
not yet ringing.
"Pausa": halt or stop, and then "clatterans" again.
"Populus in corridoro": Appel corridor," but
it is
*
Appel, The Annotated
*
"Seva ascendante"
tionnaire de la latigue
correct that this Uterally
du
is
Lolita,
that "populus"
is
means "people in the
related to the verb
XIXe
et
du
XXe
Siecle,
1789-1960
Emile
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. prepared by J. A. Simpson and E.
leaves
Littre, Dictionnaire de la languefratifaise (Paris, 1964).
earliest reference to "clatter" in this sense
which could
scarcely
la languefratifaise.
Dic-
(Paris. 1974), 1:431.
'
The
"popu-
375.
a botanical technical term: PavJ Imbs. Tresor de
*
1989), 3:284.
pen
is
worth remembering
is
1:1290
from Lyte
be considered sonorous bodies.
S.
in
C. Weiner (Oxford.
1578 and
refers to as-
NEO-LATIN NONSENSE IN NABOKOV
290
lor"
which means "to spread
"Hanc
out, spoil, or despoil" while "corridor" of course
— another
"the main passage"
mors mihi adimet nemo": This
nisi
it
does he translate
correctly,
should be a future indicative rather than a subjunctive: "only Death
shall take
Its
John Ray
titious
use
is
ironic in that although death does claim Lolita, as the fic-
reveals in the novel's foreword,
double whose name to some
bert's
who
Richard
will take Lolita
Clare Quilty (Humbert
on the phrase
play
from Humbert Humbert,
The whole
on Humbert's own
a little bearing
it is
critics indicates a
Hum-
"clearly guil-
husband,
as will also Lolita's
Except for Nabokov's substitution of "mihi" for "mi,"
Schiller.
quotation from Terence.
his
Nor
it
her from me."
ty")
from
in fact a quotation, a half-Une,
is
Terence's Andria, a point not grasped by Appel." for
is
possible sexual reference.
it is
a direct
passage in the Andria (lines 694—697) has at least
Pamphilus
situation.
speaking to Mysis, maid of
is
beloved Glycerium: per omnis adiuro deos
non
si
numquam eam me
hanc mi expetivi:
contigit;
conveniunt mores: valeant
qui inter nos discidium volunt: hanc
And
in Betty Radice's translation for the
By all knew
deserturum,
capiundos mihi sciam esse inimicos omnis homines.
nisi
mors mi adimet nemo.'
Penguin Terence:
I swear to you that I will never desert her, not if I would make the whole world my enemy. I sought her out and won her; we were made for each other. To hell with those who want to part us! Nothing shall take her from me except death.'"
the gods in heaven,
that
I
Has Humbert Humbert find out that they are not. philus,
he
is
an unhappy wretch
Humbert Humbert knows least
won
really
Are
Lolita?
Humbert Humbert that
— "miser"
their hearts
the
is
one?
not reahze
also does
word
the slave
He
is
Davos
who
Pam-
uses.
And
he must face the enmity of the whole world, or
the outrage of 1950s middle America for his nympholepsy passion.
critic
about to
that, like
has noted the Andria quotation
is
David H.
J.
Larmour.
at
The only
He makes
the
which is so obvious that it must be the reason why Nabokov chose the line: "Humbert's situation is superficially similar to Pamphilus's: he is involved in a liaison which society finds unacceptable."" Unfortunately, he has nothing else to say about the "Seva" passage except to call it "a whole passage of linsame point
as
I
do,
guistic confusion." It
may be
a little
more than
that at the hands of the master Vladi-
mir Nabokov.
*
Appel, The Annotated
'
Sidney G. Ashmore,
•"
Betty Radice,
" David H.
Modem
J.
Literature
Lolita,
ed.,
375.
The Comedies of Terence
trans., Terence:
Larmour, "Nabokov Philomelus: The
10 (1990): 145.
(New York,
1960), 35.
Phormio and Other Plays (Baltimore, 1967), 55. Classical Allusions in Lolita," Classical
and
AUGUST
A.
IMHOLTZ
"Juncea puellula": a slender (bullrush-like)
291
The words "juncea" and
little girl.
"puellula" occur in both Terence and Catullus.'^
"Jo pensavo": Itahan past tense, "I thought." This the passage in Canto situation in
which Humbert
will
as
come
finds himself
beUeve must vex them
as I
—
Inferno
Here
may be
a
tenuous reference to
context not inappropriate to the
a
are Dante's Unes in Singleton's trans-
they have been fooled because of
lation: "I thought:
mockery
XXIII of Dante's
greatly. If rage
us,
and with such hurt and
be added to their malice, they
than the dog to the leveret he snaps
after us, fiercer
up."'-*
"Nobserva quidquam": Humbert Humbert may mean "nonobservans quidquam," Appel suggests in his translation, "not observing anything." The point is that
LoUta
is
not noticing what
Now let us return to
happening sexually
is
to Humbert.'''
the key word: "kitzelans." According to the Deutsches Wort-
German word "kitzeln" primarily means "to tickle" or "to titillate." The synonyms given by the Wbrterbuch are "titillare" and "prurire." The word defrom the Althochdeutsch "chizilon" and "chuzilon," which in Mittelhoch-
erbuch, the
Latin rives
deutsch becomes "kitzeln" with an "i" or "kiitzeln" with an umlauted addition to
seem
its
particularly relevant to
Nabokov's depiction of Humbert's excited
Occasionally, for example, "kitzeln" sexual intercourse": "Leyrmatz
windbrommert im
is
It also refers
arouse strongly," even "to excite oneself' reflecting these senses
delight"
— which
euphemism
as a
is
In
state.
for "coire," "to have
einer jungfer, so einen hollandischen
kiitzeln in die weite welt streichen Uesze, befraget,
cher blasianer so schrie?"'^
Nouns
used
wurde von
"ii."'^
meanings and usages of "kitzeln" that
ticklish sense, there are several
to the sensual side of joy
— "mit
warumb
sol-
and means "to
fleischlicher liebe sich kutzelt."''
of the word include: "Kitzelfreude"
—
"love's sensual
the equivalent of "liebesgenusz" and "Kitzeljagd" or "pursuit
of love." The adjective "kitzelgierig" means "lusting, pruriently desiring."'^ The noun "Kitzler" is also derived from "kitzeln" and means "cUtoris."'^ Nabokov uses the word with special eflfect later in the novel. Quilty, like Nabokov himself, is well versed in logomancy. When Humbert is examining hotel registers in his search for Quilty's pseudonyms, he says "[his] fiendish conundrum would ejaculate in my face." (252) The conundrum is one of Quilty's fictitious registered names. Dr. Kitzler, address: Eryx, Miss.; or, to translate: Dr. Chtoris,
Appel correctly notes, "a reference to the
" "Juncea"
cult
Venus, Miss, "Eryx" being,
of Aphrodite with
its
as
practice of
in Terence. Eunuchus 316. "Puellula" in Terence, Phormio 81; Catullus 55.9; 57.9;
59.57. '^
Dante
Alighieri,
The Divine Comedy:
Inferno,
trans,
widi
comm.
Charles
S.
Singleton
(Princeton, 1970), 235. **
Appel, The Annotated
Lolita,
"Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, " Grimm, DW, 5:878. " Grimm. DW, 5:881. " Grimm, DW, 5:875.
" Grimm. DW,
5:884.
375. Deutsches Worterbuch (hereafter
DW)
(Leipzig: 1873), 5:876.
NEO-LATIN NONSENSE IN NABOKOV
292
Elymian settlement on
religious prostitution, an
tern Sicily.
a
mountain above Drepana
in
wes-
"^°
The erotic German meanings of "kitzeln" are taken over wholesale in the Yiddish word "kitzln"^' (pronounced "keets-lehn") and the Latinized present participle form with clamation
but
I
"ans" ending could sound like a Yiddish form. But
its
at the
would
height of Humbert Humbert's sexual reverie?
like to suggest that
tute,
bert
with
you
climax of the book, for that as
what
is
why a Yiddish exmay be outrageous,
Yiddish word uttered
this single
see
It
at
the sexual
think these macaronic lines consti-
I
Nabokov reveals what is only hinted at elsewhere throughout the novel: HumHumbert is Jewish. There are many allusions to such an identification, some of
which were not seen even by Appel: •
Charlotte asks
Humbert
Humbert whether he had in his family "a certain strain," to which by asking whether she would want to marry him if his maternal
replies
grandfather had been, say, a Turk. She says
ever found out
commit female •
I
did not matter a
it
bit;
but that "if she
Christian God, [italics added] she
suicide." (76—77) Racial identity for the
Jews
is
would
conveyed through the
line.
John Farlow, parent of one of Lolita's schoolgirl "Far too many of the tradespeople here are Italians, but on the other
At the end of the same friends, says,
hand we fears
Our
did not believe in
he
chapter,
—
are at least spared
" "I wish," interrupted
Jean [Farlow's wife
who
about to say "Jews"] with a laugh, "Dolly and Rosalie were spending
is
•
summer together." (81) Humbert Humbert is described
•
When Humbert
the
opean origin." (107) and Lolita check clerk gives
•
as a
Humbert
a
"brand
in at the
is
described
as
Enchanted Huntress Hotel, the desk
"a displaced
Rita, a late replacement for Lolita,
beauty "that
who had "some
silly
of obscure Eur-
Jewish-sounding name, Humberg, which he firmly,
["Displaced persons" in the post- World
•
citizen
dently, and overly nervously rejects. (120) Eva Rosen, another friend of Lolita's, and the only one who
verted Humbert,
•
new American
is
War
little II
stri-
interests the per-
person firom France." (192)
period usually meant Jews.]
described
dark-haired, pale-skinned
as a
Spanish or Babylonian blood." (260)
cocker spaniel had perhaps been
a baptized
one." (263—264)
Humbert
wonders, Appel notes, whether in a hotel that advertised "near Churches" and
"no
dogs"
accommodate
"would
CHURCHES'
was commonly used
only (circa
Christian
1940-1960)
as a
-"
Appel, The Annotated
^'
Personal communication from Mr. Zachary Baker, 7 July 2000.
Lolita.
of Aaron LebedefF, "Khapt a Yiddish Dictionary Sourcebook:
coc^
'NEAR
sign, a discreet
379, 416.
kitsl in
A
because
dogs,
der
shtil."
Transliterated
See also
Guide
to the
He
quotes a Yiddish
German Galvin and Yiddish Language
lyric
Stan Tamarkin, The
(Hoboken, 1986), 207.
AUGUST
A.
IMHOLTZ
293
Why would Humbert worry way unless he were not a Gentile? Again, Humbert Humbert describes himself with "French epithets, a Dorset yoindication that only Gentiles were accepted."^ either
•
kel's knuckles,
mean an
And
•
finally,
German
an Austrian
tailor's flat fingers."
(276)
An
Austrian
does
tailor:
this
Austrian Jewish tailor?
Quilty in his befiaddled
state says:
"You
are either AustraUan, or a
Must you talk to me, this is a Gentile's house you know." (299) means "Austrian" for "AustraHan" while the racial point is made
refiigee.
Quilty surely
quite clear in the next sentence.
keyword unlocking the suggested correct, it is but one more example of Nabokov's gamesmanship. Nabokov himself, of course, was fiercely intolerant of any form of anti-Semitism both in his works and in his life. For example, he walked out of an American restaurant that served Gentiles only, threw out of his If the supposition that "kitzln"
but never openly stated
house a guest Brian ^
Boyd
V. D. rights
who had made
says,
is
racial origin
speaking
the Yiddish
of Humbert
is
an anti-Semitic remark, and, of Nabokov's
first
as
Nabokov's biographer
father:
Nabokov eventually became the most outspoken defender of Jewish among all Russian gentiles trained in the law. His son [the author of Lo-
hta] in turn
would marry
a
Russian Jew, denounce anti-Semitism in
works, and would escape Hitler with -Russian Jewish emigres
still
his wife
his
own
and son only with the help of
gratefiil for his father's
sterUng defense of their
people.^
Now to
return to Classical Latin and Neo-Latin in LoHta, of which there
be divided into the following somewhat overlapping
a lot. It can
tations; puns; translations
is
quite
classes: direct
quo-
of American phrases into Latin; use of Latin words chosen
to express additional levels of meaning; and
Nabokov's wonderfully rich and often
recondite Latinate EngUsh vocabulary.
In addition to the Terence quotation previously discussed, Nabokov's currite noctis equi"
is
"O
lente
both a pun [night mares and nightmares], which the author
immediately glosses with
"O
softly run,
nightmares," and a quotation.
It
occurs in
Marlowe's Tragedy of Doctor Faustus (14.11.82) with an additional "lente," and Marlowe in turn is (as Proffer and Larmour note but Appel does not) echoing Ovid's Amores 1.13.40.2* Latin called
Usher.
names and
And
^ Appel, " Boyd, ^*
31.
adjectives also play an important role in Lolita. Quilty 's estate
"Pavor Manor,"
a
name which with
its
description parodies Poe's
is
House of
"pavor" conveys not only fear but also sexual longing; Ukewdse with
The Annotated
Lolita,
423.
Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, 27. See also Appel, The Annotated Lolita, 424.
Larmour, "Classical Allusions," 145. Also Karl Proffer, Keys
to Lolita
(Bloomington, 1968),
NEO-LATIN NONSENSE IN NABOKOV
294
"pavor noctumus." Sometimes he glosses
some
Dolores's name: "Delectatio morosa.
her
John Ray notes
first
book
Humbert Humbert
name "Dolores"
to allow
one
is
that
says:
on the fascinum, the
Humbert
my
spend
I
"Foreword"
in the
plays as well
is
are
ivory in
with Lohta's, Dolly's,
doleful days in
"Haze"
"Here
virile
dumps and
dolors"
not Lolita's real surname, but
"too closely interwound with the inmost fiber of the
to alter it."
means "not only
lor,"
arcane terms. In a potted history of
girls
brides of ten compelled to seat themselves
the temples of classical scholarship" (21).
(45).
his
between old men and young
sexual relations
Larmour
'grief,' 'pain,'
..
.
points out that "dolores," the plural of "do-
but also 'indignation,' 'resentment,'
... all
of
which Lolita displays towards Humbert. "^^ Nabokov's vocabulary throughout his English language works, by which I mean those written in English rather than translated from Russian into English, is full of Latin- and Greek-based words. Here is a small list from Lolita: finactuate, favonian, nictitating, ululations, pederosis, olisbos, lentigo, instar, lanugo, viatic,
natorium,
leporine, pavorine, matutinal, crepitating, tessellated, ancilla, and vibrissa.
Appel be-
Nabokov invented many of them,
lieves
and the others
tic"
listed
above are
like "viatic,"
but such
is
not the
"Via-
case.
rare but legitimate English words.
Taxonomic Latin Nabokov learned well. Only in the past year has his "amateur" work as a lepidopterist, including many years of research in Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, undergone entific
acumen. In
I
his
found
in
it
a reevaluation
"Discovery" Nabokov writes:
and
named
I
it,
describer
butterfly
word,
"On
a
his skill
and
sci-
being versed
taxonomic Latin; thus became
godfather to an insect and
The
which recognizes
poem
is
— and
I
Lycaeides sublivens
Book
its first
want no other fame.^*
Nabokov, and toward the end of Nabokov's
after-
Entitled Lolita" he says he thinks of Dolly Schiller, his Lolita,
capital town of the book), or the tinkling sounds of the town coming up the mountain trail on which I caught the first known female oi Lycaeides sublivens Nabokov." (318) Where did Nabokov learn his Latin? At his family's home in St. Petersburg and at their country estates of Vyra and Rozhdestveno, Nabokov was taught from a very
"dying in Gray Star (the
valley
early age
by an English governess and
a stream
of private
his father enrolled
him
most modern, and
liberal schools in Russia. Since the
he and
his
one of the
finest,
Tenishev curriculum was di-
rected to the sciences, classical languages were not studied.
nothing in
At the age of eleven
tutors.
in the Tenishev School in St. Petersburg,
At
least
Nabokov
says
autobiography Speak, Memory about Latin and Greek instruction. After
his family in
1918
fled
Russia for the Crimea,
"^
Larmour, "Classical Allusions," 146.
2*
Vladimir Nabokov, Poems (London, 1961), 15.
Nabokov
hired in Yalta a tutor
AUGUST
A.
IMHOLTZ
295
him Latin." Perhaps he was thinking of matriculating at Oxford, would have been necessary. After he arrived in England, however,
which
to teach
for
Latin
his friend
Gleb Struve persuaded him interest in lepidoptery. 1
to try
Here
Cambridge on the
at Trinity College,
October 1919, he read Russian and French
gy
— he seems
class
to have preferred
honors and
left
Cambridge
basis
after briefly
where
developed
his highly officially
admitted on
experimenting with zoolo-
Pushkin to ichthyology.
for Beriin,
of
where he was
He
his family
finished with second
had
end
settled, at the
of June of 1922.
however, has only the most tenuous association with Cambridge. John may be a nominal echo of the brilliant sev-
Lolita,
Ray,
Jr.,
the author of the "Foreword,"
enteenth-century Cambridge biologist and father of natural history in Britain, John
Ray,
whom Nabokov
Nabokov
first
Alice's Adventures in
Berhn
in 1923.
evidence for
'
There
"A
Wonderland,
we is
it
it
may have been
his brilliantly idiosyncratic
Anya
Alice; in fact,
constitute a
is
Cambridge
that
which was published
in in
Carroll's influence
whole other topic unto
at
Russian translation of
one of the many references
v Stranye Chudes,
breeze from Wonderland" (133)
Lewis Carroll's
Lolita to
clude, as
greatly admired. Also,
began working on
itself
on Nabokov and the
In any event,
let us
con-
began, with reference to Lewis Carroll.
very Uttle Latin per se in the Alice books, and, unlike
Nabokov with
his
armorium of polysyllabic Latinate words, Carroll's style is almost entirely firee of them.'^* Toward the end of his life, however, Carroll contributed a poem en-
styhstic
titled
"A Lesson
in Latin" to The Jabberwocky, the
School in Boston, Massachusetts. In
newspaper of the
Girls' Latin
some length upon the similarity between "amare," the infinitive of "amo," and the adjective "amarus" which means "bitter." The final lines of verses one and two are, respectively: "We've learned 'Amare' means to love!" and "'Amare! Bitter One' we cry." The third verse combines the two in its concluding lines:
Our
Latin lesson
We've There
is, I
a lot of
is
it
he plays
at
complete:
learned that Love
think, a Uttle of Charles
is
Bitter-SweetP
Lutwidge Dodgson himself in that sentiment and
Humbert Humbert. Beltsville,
^ Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, 150. ^ For discussion of Latin in Carroll, see the following: August Ablative and the Search for Alice's Brother's Latin
idem, 'Jam Sempiteme:
A
Note on Time
Grammar,"
A. Imholtz,
Classical Bulletin
Jr.,
Maryland
"The Absent
55 (1979): 46-47;
in Through the Looking-Glass," Jabberwocky:
The Journal
of the Lewis Carroll Society 8 (1978-1979): 13-15; idem, "Latin and Greek Versions of 'Jabber-
wocky': Exercises in Laughing and Grief," Rocky Mountain Review of Literature 41 (1987): 21-28. ^ Lewis Carroll, The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll, with an Introduction by Alexander
Woollcott (London, 1939), ^1&-%11.
Poetics
and Ideology
in
Neo-Latin Poetry
HANS-ERIK JOHANNESSON
'Immature poets imitate, mature poets
steal'
(T. S. Eliot)
With
Italian
Humanism the development of Latin language and literature was The humanists returned to the sources of antiquity, adfontes,
interrupted.
and were inspired to create poetry
The humanist poets were it
as their ideal.
distance,
of a
sciousness
But with
tude to archaic and
Humanism
there was also a
new
his
time between the present and a great, proud
up
The
ancient rhetorician Dionysius of Halicamas-
of the
fifth
century B.C. more than the poets of his
way ideal
rules for speech;
the Humanists valued the
Virgil
saw
It
had described
New
it
had
its
made
Roman
was
its
origin in
Roman
own
poets higher than their imitatio.
humanitas, a concept coined
by Ci-
the basis of the rhetorical ideal. Rhetoric not only set
also the
this into a cultural
and reUgious.
con-
their atti-
classical poetry.
cero and by Quintilian
transformed
past, a
and poets and
medieval successors. This evaluation had consequences for Uterary
The Humanist
contemporaries.
consciousness of historical
a parallel in the Hellenistic philologists
sus appreciated the "classics"
time; in a similar
and
obsessed by the richness of Roman poetry: they recognized
diflference in
which has
in the language of Virgil
foundation of culture and education.
paradigm with a
set
ideal reaUzed in the age
Humanism
of implications, Uterary,
political,
of Augustus, in the form in which
it.
studies of the Uterary practice of
Roman
poets have given us a deeper
—
knowledge both of the inteUectual play and of the ideological meaning of not least Virgil's Aeneid and Georgics. Virgil's works have been studied in relation to those
—
of other
Roman
echo chamben.
and Greek poets and have been shown to be veritable intertextual
Virgil's transformation
of the
literary tradition
by means of
allusion
IDEOLOGY
298
models
textual references to different
been
"polyphonic epic"."
little
It is
in the epic tradition. It
worth noticing
results in
all
what Conte
on
and so neglected
its
much
on the
stress
do not think you could say
I
rhetorical aspect of
is
manner
that has
sometimes
Neo-Latin poetry was uniformly
that
subordinated to the demands and rules of rhetoric. that the distinctive features of poetry
Ren-
Poetry was surely "rhet-
specific literary aspects.
oricized" in certain ways, but not always in the reductive
been claimed;
which
ancient, especially Virgilian, poetry.
think scholars have often laid too
aissance poetry
have
that these interesting aspects
applied to the study of Renaissance, especially Neo-Latin poetry,
so dependent I
Gian Biagio Conte has shown
Italian critic
makes use of "the epic code" and transforms the epic by means of inter-
Virgil
calls a
NEO-LATIN POETRY
been recognized; the
("arte allusiva")' has
how
IN
On
were emphasized
the contrary,
some
in
you could
say
poetics, for instance
humanist Hieronymus Vida. And Vida did so in an effort to more complex way than has usually been understood. Vida was famous all over Europe for his Poeticorum libri tres, which was first printed in 1517 (in Cremona), then in a revised edition in 1527; but his fame also rested on his epic Christias,^ in which he emulated Virgil in the process of creating a Christian counterpart to the pagan Aeneid. The contemporary evaluation of Vida was mixed: some considered that he had written a poetics ad usum mortuorum, while others in those of the Italian
imitate Virgil in a
praised him,
among
these Julius Caesar Scaliger and Johannes Sturm; their
were influenced by Vida's poetic programme. They considered Vida's
etics
to be
even better than those of both Aristotle and Horace
poetics
shows
(as a
of an influence from Aristotle's poetics in
traces
own
po-
ars poetica
matter of fact Vida's his definition
of the
concept o{ decorum).
Vida wrote and
his poetics as
would expect
is
respect to the latter
By "model"
a poet takes as
I
it
I
of two models: Horace's Ars poetica in hexameters;
and
as a cultural
a literary
work or
imitatio
a
a
(whether
this
is
'
^
to poetic technique (in
programme of Quintil-
a servile imitation or creative
I
also think that
it
can be more productive to interpret and
On Vida's
mixture of models, with the Virgilian model
and adapts
one
title
a superficial
corpus of texts by the same author that
explain Renaissance and Humanist poetry in this way. is
is
here agree with the view that ancient poetry was fashioned accord-
ing to models, not genres.
there
from the that
paradigm or "ideology." With
exemplifies the educational/rhetorical
mean
an object of
transformation).
is
main model both with reference
the
particular the technique of allusion)
ian.
imitatio
Horace was the most important model, but
that
impression. Virgil
an emulative
Like these, Vida's work
Virgil's Georgics.
Virgil's art
of allusion to the
See Giorgio Pasquali, Orazio
lirico
as
the
part this
means
that
main one. Vida adopts
literary tradition, in itself characterized
by
(Florence, 1920).
Gian Biagio Conte, The Rhetoric of Imitation. Genre and
Poetic
Memory
in Virgil
and Other Latin
Poets (Ithaca, 1986). ^
See The
ian
De
arte poetica
of Marco Girolamo Vida, trans, with
comm. and with
by Ralph G. Williams (New York, 1976); Mario A. Di Cesare, Epic (New York and London, 1964).
edited,
the text of c. 1517
Vida's Christiad and Vergil-
HANS-ERIK JOHANNESSON multiple allusion,
where often there
a
is
299
hidden element. Thus you could
Vida's writing (with several models in mind)
also say that
part of his technique of allusion: the
is
mixture of models forms a kind of "extended allusion." Another consequence
that,
is
you accept this theory of models, it wUl be more difficult to put Renaissance poems into a genre system. As a matter of fact we also see in the Renaissance the rise if
new poetic forms ("genera The main model for Vida's "an
of many
stubbornly didactic
mixta").
poetica"
is
not, as
poem,
poetica,
as is
but rather another
Virgil's Georgics.
Saepe mihi placet antiquis alludere
Atque
dictis,
aliud longe verbis proferre sub iisdem.
Nee mea tam
sapiens per sese prodita
Furta redarguerit, quae
mox
Et
nascentur ab
natorum,
nati
(Vida,
Vida's Poetics
one might expect, and
maintained by some scholars, Horace's Ars
still
De
et qui
arte poetica
quisquam
manifesta probabunt illis.
3.257-261)
first Latin Renaissance poetics that in the form of didactic poetry model and at the same time accomplishes this with a literary techmeant to accord with, and even outdo ("out- Virgil") Virgil himself.
the
is
-takes Virgil as a
nique that
is
Vida's poetry includes
many references
he disguises an imitation of
his
to Virgil (quotations
and
allusions).
3.146f, a reference to the Fourth Eclogue). This disguised imitatio
which
theft,/MrrMm, "theft": just
is
Vida's speciality. Vida has
go on stealing but be
the word-order in the stolen
mended /witMrn have not realized that
Vida
is
Sometimes
work, for instance by changing a line-ending
carefiil
is
(e.g.,
close to Uterary
some recommendations
for successful
not to be detected, for instance by changing
lines. Critics
who
have been troubled by Vida's recom-
noticed his tongue-in-cheek approach here; they have not
so delighted with
what we nowadays
call
the "intertextual" play
with words. I
think
allusion.
I
it is
hard not to see Vida's sort of
also think
it is
which confines
parative analysis
imitatio as
an equivalent to Virgil's
easy to agree with critics of that itself to
all
art
of
too usual kind of com-
detecting sources of a locus and gives up any
attempt to decide the meaning of an allusion, quotation, or other reference. Ralph
G. Williams (Vida's commentator) has some good remarks on that point:
With
authors of the subtlety of Vida, however, one's task
is
just
begun when
[one] has recognized the model: the writer assumes that his readers will have
the ancient text
as
well in
mind
the poet has used his source
may be
best
Williams,
as he.
The mark of excellence
and the meaning of the
De
arte poetica,
169.
is
how
artfully
later passage or
— and sometimes may be only — understood
earlier one.*
*
,
poem
in relation to the
IDEOLOGY
300
The
idea that the
two
(or
nique,
more)
meaning of a
texts
which he
is
IN
(part
NEO-LATIN POETRY
of a) text
"rhetoric of imitation" and
calls a
where
allusion has the character
of metaphor. Williams has not himself seen the extent of
tween Vida and
by the tension between
constituted
is
the vital point in Conte's understanding of Virgil's poetic tech-
Virgil,
but once you have seen
it, it
this
correspondence be-
both obvious and
stands out as
intended. Vida's imitatio of Virgil does not concern poetical technique alone. Vida also
where
transforms Virgil's cultural paradigm and puts forward a humanist programme, the poet has a unique position:
Just as for Quintilian the best type of citizen
pate most for
in the civic
fvilly
and cultural
Vida the best and most exalted
poet,
who
one
can exercise
open powers
life
his
all
is
who
he
is
prepared to partici-
about him, that
life
to
youth
is,
the orator, so
humanist
that of the
is
Rome's function of
in fulfilling
teaching the nations, since her ability to rule the world has gone.^
The greatest task for a humanist poet according to Vida was to create a Christian epic poem. Vida saw such an epic as the third peak in the literary history of Europe, the first being Greek epic (Homer) and the second Roman epic (Virgil); finally, with the Medici in Florence, tions for cultural
a letter to the patres his
view
that
literary greatness,
corresponding to the ancient
of Cremona Vida expresses
with the
new
long period of European decline there were
after a
and
Roman
his
condi-
Roman ideal.
opinion of Virgil
as a
In
model and
poets imitatio was meant to be a transformation and
improvement of Greek models:
how much ornament
[the students] will realize, too,
on
this art
through
his
and
ing not of our Latin authon only, but of the Greeks easily the
first.
For,
light Virgil conferred
preeminent genius; indeed, of all poets (and
most noble
Fathers, each time
I
as well)
I
I
am
speak-
consider
read his divine
him
poem I am
struck by the idea that this preeminent poet was not simply writing history, but
wished quite beyond to demonstrate
this to
how much
give instructions the Greeks, from
were themselves wanting, and
to
show
that
on the poetic
whom we
art itself,
doing so
received this study,
whatever might be claimed for
all
other nations in this pursuit, our poets, for their part, always transformed and
improved what they received firom Like the Georgics Vida's
poem
is
others.*
less a
handbook than
a panegyric to
its
subject;
it
contains a political design and artful digressions from the poetic subject to underline
the poUtical message. has
its
Rome
The
prayer in the Georgics to Augustus for peace (1.466—514)
counterpart in Vida's is
gone and the wish
Williams, Williams,
De De
poem
(2.588fi)
with the statement that the leadership of
that the city will at least maintain a leading position in
arte poetica,
xxxvii.
arte poetica,
213.
HANS-ERIK JOHANNESSON
.
301
the arts. The hope for poUtical and reUgious power is directed Pope Leo X. There is a strong emphasis on the patriotic theme
to the
Medici and
(laus Italiae) in this
panegyric. In 1577 Vida's Poeticorum
by students
libri tres
the Collegium
at
said before that
it is
etry has paid almost
was printed in Stockholm, probably to be used
Regium which King John
had recently founded.
III
no
attention to the significance of Vida's work.
poem with
the neglect might be the assumption that a poet and a
Vida's poetics printed in Stockholm in 1577?
I
shall
now
discuss
One
reason for
such a strong Cath-
could not have influenced Northern, Lutheran poets.
olic character
I
remarkable that criticism of Northern European Neo-Latin po-
Why
some
then was
aspects of the
importance of Vida's work for some of this poetry.
The not
discuss the conditions
but only poetry.
amount of Neo-Latin
sixteenth century saw an increasing
now
state that there
The
is
epithalamia.
will
I
and reasons for the frequent use of this kind of poem,
a special decorum, a certain set of rules, regulating this
general aesthetics that the Swedish poet Ericus Jacobi Skinnerus followed
when he composed
his Epithalamion for the wedding of John III and Gunilla Bieike which Henricus Mollerus applied in a wedding poem for Gustav Vasa's daughter Katarina in 1559, seems to be the same for all those European poets address-
in 1585, or
ing a panegyrical poem to a prince. But there is also another side to this noble addressee have
community
—
tioned above
— beside the
The
issue.
epithalamia for a Swedish royal or
they belong to the European cultural
fact that
The Swedish poets men-
also a strong patriotic character {laus Sueciae).
stress
the fact that Gustav Vasa and
John
III
are Swedish kings while
Gunilla Bieike belongs to a Swedish noble family.
The
patriotism of these
and celebrates the increase of the Swedish
state
and the pohtical and
flects
ambition of the Swedish kings.
We
pohtical themes in Virgil and Vida
might observe the
and
also notice the strong di-
which connects the poems with Vida's work.
dactic emphasis,
re-
cultural
parallel in the patriotic
We
mentioned above.
poems
prefer not to call the
I
poem characterized by certain themes and many respects the epithalamia are quite difierent
epithalamia a genre but rather a kind of
motifs connected with marriage. In
from one another. in hexameters
My point,
and with
briefly stated,
is
that
some of these
a noble or royal addressee,
epithalamia, written
have characteristic features that
connect them with Vida's poetics and didactic poetry. The epithalamia mentioned
above show both
a general resemblance
and
a specific similarity to Vida's
Medici to the Swedish royal court, the to models Christias.
Uke
The
Virgil, Lucretius,
laus Sueciae motif, the
and Quintihan, and even
Vida). Probably
of fact there
is
"Rome" had very strong imphcations
an element of anti-Cathohcism in the
manitas of Itahan
humanism
a stable combination; in I
will
is
multitude of allusions
specific references to Vida's
patriotism of Mollerus and Skinnerus, however,
of Vida. In Mollerus's homage to Gustav Vasa there
Georgjc
theme transposed from the
poetics: the didactic form, cultural paradigm, patriotic
is
different
no reference
to
of Cathohcism, and
poem
(e.g., v.
from
Rome as a
that
(as
in
matter
866). In the Ro-
the veneration of Virgihan poetry and of Cathohcism was
Reformation Europe
this cultural
conclude with some reflections on Skinnerus's
paradigm caused problems.
poem
(1585) and the fact that
Vida's poetics was actually there in Stockholm, printed in 1577.
1
will
show
in fiirther
IDEOLOGY
302
detail in a
IN
NEO-LATIN POETRY
forthcoming book that the type of poem
dactic panegyric) has a lot to
In the 1570s
John
Oskar Garstein recently in a
in his
have discussed (Neo-Latin di-
founded the Stockholm school (Collegium Regium) which
III
was
for a couple of years
I
do with Vida.
to
be the centre of the Counter-Reformation in Sweden.
Rome and
posthumous book,
the Counter- Reformation in Scandinavia (1992),
esting figure, Laurentius Norvegus,
who wanted
to
win Scandinavia back
cism and in a short time gained the students' interest for
seem
to
treatise
have converted,
was introduced.
secretly,
"Klosterlasse"
— had
It
we do know
was here, in
lost his influence
poem
for the
and
political
that Skinnerus
and
left
this
miheu, that Vida's
beyond the
it
(who
Sweden)
CathoU-
to
doctrine (some of them
fact
in the 1580s
— was
—
of its after
a professor at the
wedding of John III, demonstrating some of the themes promoted by Vida, but at the same time on the Pope and Catholicism. The irony of that is worth a mass.
Collegium, wrote a
characteristic features
with fierce attacks
of course).
this
We do not know much more about
being printed there, but
and
Klosterlasse (1998),^ has vividly described the inter-
Qoteberg University
''
Oskar Garstein, Rome and
1553-1622
the Counter- Reformation in Scandinavia. Jesuit Educational Strategy
(Leiden, 1992); idem, Klosterlasse (Oslo. 1998).
Exorcism and the
Interstices
of Language:
Ruggle^s Ignoramus and the Demonization of
Renaissance English Neo-Latin^
HILAIRE KALLENDORF
Renaissance Neo-Latin is
demonized
in
George Ruggle's 1615 play Ignoramus.
Like other plays of the early seventeenth century which include episodes of exorcism, this play focuses on ic polyglossia,
some of the symptoms of demonic
possession.
Demon-
the devil's dark parody of the early Christian experience of speaking in
tongues, was one of these symptoms. However, the fact that Neo-Latin for parody amidst other hnguistic registers normally associated with
is
singled out
demonic posses-
sion makes this play stand apart from other dramas about exorcism written during this period. Its
in
university setting
March 1615 — and
— the its
play was performed before
of the
satire
Latin instead of Greek, "Chaldean" or other
playwright choose exorcism to
mere
I
at
Cambridge
on "demonic" languages. But why did the
satirize Latin instead
of hmiting the play's scope to
and lawyers?
ridicule of pedants
The answer is
King James
legal profession explain the play's focus
that exorcism, while itself a "hot topic" at this time in England, also
provided a battleground for various competing languages and jargons.
It
was the per-
who understood Latin and who did not, and who possessed cultural power and who did not. Exorcism provided Uminal spaces or interstices between languages at a time when a whole culture was in hnguistic transition. fect arena for the struggle
As an extreme
over
case of the linguistic anxiety felt in the culture as a whole, exorcism
provided a forum for discussing issues of linguistic competence and authority.
'
The author
Symposium,
wishes to thank the Folger Institute for the opportunity to participate in
"British Political
of Political Exchange
Thought
in the Sixteenth
Library in Washington,
DC,
in
May
of some of the ideas which were
in Early
and Seventeenth Centuries," held
2000.
later
its
Modem Europe: Mapping Networks and Practices
The Symposium provided
incorporated into
this paper.
a
at the
forum
Folger Shakespeare for testing the seeds
DEMONIZATION OF RENAISSANCE ENGLISH NEO-LATIN
304
The w^hose
other characters in the play claim to hear the voice of the devil in Ignoramus, Latin
facility in
is
presented
addition to physical symptoms, the
one of the
as
signs
of
his
demonic
possession. In
of demonic possession was characterized in
state
the culture of Elizabethan and Jacobean England by either extraordinary speech or
two
extraordinary absence of speech. These Scot's Discourse upon divels and
by two
tation
And
diflferent
be
if it
kinds of demons:
a subterrene diuell,
speaketh by him, using the fugus possesseth a
be they that are
spirit
it
out
.
.
.
by
onelie
bow
doth writh and
of the patient
fasting
and
the possessed, and
instrument
as his
man, he maketh him dumbe, and
cast
explained in Reginald
possibilities are
the different conditions resulting from inhabi-
spirits as
as it
.
.
.
when
Luci-
were dead: and these
praier.^
The second condition, involving the extraordinary absence of speech, is not altogether unknown in the comic drama genre. Troilus speaks of "a still and dumb-discoursive devil / That tempts most cunningly" in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida?
Gammer
Likewise, in in the
street, /
Gammer Gurton
Gurton's Needle,
As though they had been taken with
and Tib fairies,
"sit as still as
stones
some
or else with
ill
sprite.'"*
More
often,
however, silence
possession. Usually, in fact,
of extraordinary speech
(as
not the problem in comic drama about demonic
already mentioned, a parody of speaking in tongues), in-
comic drama with
fuses the
is
the opposite affliction prevails: an abundance of speech,
Often
hilarious vitality.
this
demonic
proliferation of
speech involves multiple foreign languages, to the point that the association of possession with polyglossia
becomes
a
commonplace.
in Marston's The Malcontent ("Phew! the to speak
Devil
is
all
We see this association,
devil: let
him
languages most readily and strangely")^
an Ass, where
Fitzdottrel feigns
as
for example,
possess thee; he'll teach thee
well
as in
Ben Jonson's The
demonic possession by speaking Greek, Span-
and French.*
ish,
This association
is
developed further in Ignoramus. Ignoramus presents the story of
whose father is Theodorus, and Rosabella, whose custodian is Theodorus sends Antonius from Bordeaux to London to bring family, whom he has not seen in nearly twenty years: his mother
the lovers Antonius,
Torcol
(a
back the
^
pander).
rest
of his
Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of
Witchcraft.
With
a Discourse
philosophers opinions, also the maner of their reasoning hereupon;
and
the
upon
divels
and
spirits,
and first of
same confuted (London: William
Brome, 1584), 496. ^
William Shakespeare, The History of
Troilus
and Cressida, in The Riverside Shakespeare, ed.
G. Blakemore Evans (Boston, 1974), 4.4.90-91. *
Gammer
Needle hy Mr.
Gurton's Needle (1575), in Three Sixteenth- Century Comedies: S.,
Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall,
York, 1984), 1.2.25-26. "Mr. S." 5
*
is
The Old
Gammer
Gurton's
Wife's Tale by George Peele
(New
thought to be William Stevenson.
John Marston, The Malcontent (London, 1975), 1.3.30-31. Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass, ed. Gamini Salgado, in Four Jacobean City Comedies (New
York, 1985), Act
5,
Scene
3.
.
HILAIRE KALLENDORF
Dorothea, his twin brother Antoninus, and
been
stepsister has
305
his stepsister
Catherina
the help of his father's servant, Trico, he escapes from the ship
His purpose in doing
this
is
to prevent the
bound
for
London.
pander Torcol from giving
his love
Rosabella in marriage to Ignoramus, an English lawyer
who
speaks only in
Cupes and
Latin legal jargon. Antonius and Trico enlist the help of trick the
remaining
(his
during childhood). Antonius, however, has other plans: with
lost
silly
Neo-
Cola to
Friar
pander and Ignoramus. Following the idea of Polla, Cupes's wife, they con-
vince other characters that Ignoramus
is
by
really possessed
demon and
a
need of
in
exorcism. During the exorcism ritual Ignoramus continues to pour forth jargon, so that each time
name of a he
will
he uses
familiar
mistake
a legal phrase, the "exorcists" deliberately
demon.
be tortured with
Finally the "exorcists"
fire
— presumably
remove him
a continuation
it
for the
monastery where
to a
of the exorcism
the
ritual,
which remains undetermined. Antonius's long-lost family arrives firom London, and they end up helping him to achieve his goal: they recognize that Rosabella is really his long-lost adopted sister, who had been promised to him in marsuccess of
riage so
many
years ago.
The good
servant Trico
is
rewarded, and Ignoramus
is left
in disgrace.
The main that
point of interest for us here
Ignoramus
phrases for the
language and
is
names of demons who
its
Daemon,
Riota
& Rowta.
Ignoramus: Et praeter juncturam, Cola: Profuge
sis
Cola: Conjuro
te,
si
estis, .
.
si
cum
te
me, habuisset Francum Bancum.
Francum Bancum.
dagarias capio,
rumpam
Ruggle's Ignoramus
is
level,
calvas coronas vestras.
it
Ruggle's play
— opposed — and
—
obvious difference between
George
.
.
simply another play involving exorcism which
Yet on another
from the othen. For one thing, it singles out Latin or "Chaldean" to be an object of satire. Secondly
^
& Rowta.
vestra Riota
prodi dagarias.'
exploits the topos of polyglossia.
it is
his legal
ridiculous
.
maritasset
Francum Bancum, separa
Ignoramus: Ignis ardeat vos:
—
Some examples of his
deliberate misapprehension are the following exchanges:
Cola: Duplex
cism
They mistake
his Latin.
possess him.
Ignoramus: Descedite vos, nebulones ut
On one level,
that the other characters are persuaded
is
demon-possessed because of
as
this
and most other plays written
is
very different
to Greek, Aramaic,
is
of course the most
at this
time about exor-
written in Latin, not the vernacular, and thus utiHzes the very language
Ru^e,
Carttabrigienses habita:
Ignoramus: comoedia coram regejacoho
mm
et
Totius
AngUae magnatihus per academicos
eorum supplemento quae, causidicorum municipalium
derabantur {\6\S), 3rd ed. (London, 1658), 111, 112, 113 (Act 4,
of the scene may be found
in
Robert Codrington,
Scene
trans.. Ignoramus: a
11).
reveretitia,
An
comedy
hactenus desi-
English translation
as
it
was
several times
acted with extraordinary applause before the Majesty of King James: with a supplement which, out of respect to the students
of the common law, was hitherto wanting (London: For
Qlr, Q2r. Further references to both these books
will
be placed
W.
Gilbertson, 1662),
in the text.
sigs.
P4v,
DEMONIZATION OF RENAISSANCE ENGLISH NEO-LATIN
306
What
it satirizes.
answer
sort
of complex
this question,
what the
religious
and
game
linguistic
explore both
shall
I
late
singled out
Neo-Latin and
of his choice are for our understanding
political ramifications
of the linguistic battleground that was
going on here? In an attempt to
is
why Ruggle
Renaissance England. at least
two
satire against lawyers.
To
Ruggle's choice of Neo-Latin in particular must be understood within contexts: the university setting and the
ongoing English
address these points,
understanding the content of
examine
its
it
essential for
is
of the university and
context within the larger culture
this play to
academic drama.
its
on Giambattista Delia Porta's La Trappolaria!^ Performed before the learned scholar/king James I at Cambridge on 8 March 1615 (1614 in the old style), this five-hour play drew an audience of two thousand to Trinity CoUege. This Ignoramus was based
performance England;
we
is
perhaps one of the best-documented to have occurred in Jacobean
even have the report of King James's reactions to the play from
temporary witness: "his
was
mai'e^tie
much
ceedingly and offentymes with his handes and by wordes applauded berlain reported in a letter that
performance and, in
this
King James found
it
con-
it.
"^
John Cham-
impossible to forget the play after
he requested an encore
fact, that
Royston on 6 May of the same
a
delighted with ye Playe and laughed ex-
at
town of
the nearby
had been not merely
year.'" Evidently the play
college production, but a political event designed to represent the
whole
a
university;
students at Cambridge's major rival, Oxford, soon produced a torrent of satirical
about the play."
ballads
What
can
this university
minimum, we may assume
who
context
tell
us about Ruggle's play in particular?
that the play
was written for
At the
a well-educated audience
could understand the language and appreciate the amount of effort that must
have gone into writing such a long specimen of it. The use of Latin in
makes
a statement
about
who
is
educationally
empowered and who
is
this
not,
context
and
it
also
valorizes the Latin language as the language of dramatic art as well as of humanistic
learning.
*
On
the Neo-Latin university drama in England, see
bethan and Jacobean England: The Latin
Moore
Smith, College Plays Performed
mus and
its
relation to
La
in the University
Trappolaria, see Louise
(Princeton, 1965), 284; and Justin tatejacobi Regis Angliae.
Writings of the
An
W.
Binns,
Intellectual
Culture in Eliza-
of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1923).
On
Ignora-
G. Clubb, Giambattista Delia Porta: Dramatist
Loomis Van Gundy, "Ignoramus": Comoedia Coram Regia Maies-
Examination of Its Sources and Literary Influence with Special Reference
Relation to Butler's "Hudibras" (Lancaster,
Its
J.
Age (Leeds, 1990), 120-140; and G. C.
PA, 1906). La
Trappolaria, in turn,
to
was modeled on
Plautus's Pseudolus.
in
' Alan H. Nelson, ed.. Records of Early English Drama: Cambridge (Toronto, 1989), 542, quoted Robert C. Evans, "Contemporary Contexts ofJonson's The Devil is an Ass" Comparative Drama
26 (1992): 140-176, here 166. '"
The Utters ofJohn Chamberlain,
ed.
Norman
Egbert McClure (Philadelphia, 1939), 1:597-
598, quoted in Evans, "Contemporary Contexts," 166.
" law
Two
lies
of the ballads were Ignoramus, an
a bleeding
(London:
gotten ([London?]:
noramus," 65—98.
s.n.,
excellent
new
song: to the tune
1681), and The Ignoramus ballad:
to the
tune
of,
Lay by your pleading,
of,
Let Oliver
now
be for-
For N. T., 1681). Literary responses to Ignoramus are treated in Van Gundy, "Ig-
HILAIRE KALLENDORF
The second
we mentioned
context
is
307
the English tradition of legal satire.
literary tradition
of demon-possessed lawyers would soon include such figures
tore in Jonson's
Volponi^ and Tangle in Middleton's The PhoenixP John
contemporaneous
berlain's
mentions the
the
legal satire
King went again
epistolary account
to
Cambridge
The Vol-
Cham-
of King James's reactions to Ignoramus
contained and the responses
it
as
it
provoked:
to see the play Ignoramus
which hath so
netled the Lawiers that they are almost out of all patience, and the Lord Chiefe Justice [Coke] galled
both openly
and glaunced
of court
the Kings
at
at schollers
men have made
swered sharply enough.
The Master of Magdalene
Bench and
much
with
divers other places hath
bittemes, and there be divers ynne
rimes and ballades against them, which they have aun...'"'
College, Barnabe Googe, likewise reported that the play
had "woonderfuUy discontented the Lawyers," and he urged the Vice-Chancellor of
Cambridge "to take som coune for the staye of these bitter inuectives."'^ What were all the lawyers, including Lord Chief Justice Coke, so upset about?
And why
the proliferation of ballads (clear adaptations of the play's subject,
Avhich have survived to at least in part as a
which
a
his
the legal establishment?
The
many of
play was written
response to a local dispute in Cambridge (settled in 1612) in
lawyer had offended the university. Edward Tucker has called Ignoramus
the seminal tion.
this day) against
work of Uterature
molding of the
in the
Greedy, lecherous, maUcious yet
easily
advocatus diaboli
conven-
duped, proud of his eloquence and
barbarous law jargon, educationally deficient, and firequently associated with
the Devil, the lawyer's characterization follows a standard and predictable,
though never tiresome, formula.'*
The it
play clearly devalorized Latin as the language of the lawyers at the same time as
upheld the tradition of university plays written in Latin to demonstrate erudition
and
a
connection to humanism.
" Ben Jonson,
Volpone (1607), ed. Philip Brockbank
(New York,
1969), Act 5, Scenes 10 and
12. '^
5,
Thomas Middleton, The
Scene '^
Phoenix (1607), ed. John Bradbury Brooks
(New York,
1980), Act
1.
The
Letters
ofJohn Chamberlain, 1:597-598, quoted in Evans, "Contemporary Contexts,"
166.
"
Records of Early English
Drama: Cambridge, 552, quoted in Evans, "Contemporary Contexts,"
166.
" Edward
F. J.
Tucker, "Ignoramus and Seventeenth-Century Satire of the Law," Harvard
Library Bulletin 19.3 (1971): script
329-330. Tucker has
of the play (Hildesheim, 1987). See
also
of scenes from Ignoramus on 3 August 2000
also
prepared the facsimile edition of a
David Money's program
in Peterhouse Theatre,
Congress of the International Association for Neo-Latin Studies.
essay for the
Cambridge,
at
manu-
performance the Eleventh
DEMONIZATION OF RENAISSANCE ENGLISH NEO-LATIN
308
These two contexts, the university
setting
and the
anti-legal satirical tradition, help
us to see both the positive and the negative valorizations of Neo-Latin within culture at this time.
merely those choose
who
But why does Ruggle demonize the language
use
specifically the
And why
namely, scholarly pedants and lawyers?
it,
exorcism
Enghsh
instead of
itself
does he
ritual as a vehicle for this satire?
Ruggle's self-deprecating posture of demonizing the same language he
utilizes
is
intimately connected to the religious resonance of Latin in a Protestant country. For
many
Anglicans, Latin was
the Jesuit exorcists 1586.^'
These
who
Writing only a with
it
in the
little
more than
Officially
Act
fills
He
England of 1615.
("monachorum
bear telling names that
"Black-fryers," is
"Croched
exorcism in the middle of
perform exorcisms
satire.
at this
own
his
time, but
play.
Ruggle
stress
friars in
the scene are obvi-
and the exorcized demons in
the anti-Catholic tone of the scene: "Gray-fiyers,"
fryers" (113), then "porridge-bellied Fryers" (114).
and ropes, exorcized
would
salt,
fast,
exorcizing priest in Ignoramus finally, in a
The hooded
cucullis indutis," 107),
performed with props that only
sanctioned exorcism
And
to
Scenes 10 and 11 with specific references which underscore the fact that
ously Catholic
a chair
Ruggle
addresses the Catholic connotations directly and
Anghcans were not allowed
4,
exorcism
^^
baggage that the choice of Neo-Latin brings
satirical
Catholics are the precise targets of his
fact
an expose
a decade after Harsnett's publication,
political
by staging an absurdly
forcefully
to
his Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures.
cannot escape the religious and
the language of
still
Denham in 1585 and by Samuel Harsnett, who in
their rituals covertly at
were subjected
exorcists
1603 published
the language of the papacy and
still
had performed
key phrase
and hallowed pray,
and ask
commands
that
a Catholic priest
shows
stood these scenes, the Latin mummatis
the
fire.
The
holy water,
to depart
on
demons, but the
his
own
authority.
early translator of the play
& moppatis (trans.
use:
Anglican performing an un-
to cast out the
demons
how one
ming, and mopping, and such a moing"
An
God
would
(114)
is
expanded into "a
Codrington,
sig.
under-
mum-
Q2r) with the
two gerunds echoing the "mopping and mowing" of Harsnett's account of the
last
secret
Jesuit exorcisms.''
The exorcism in this play is, of coune, much more than simply a satire The exorcism ritual becomes an arena in which Latin and the
Jesuits.
engage in sophisticated linguistic
battle.
See
F.
W. Brownlow,
vernacular
Supernatural knowledge of Latin was one of
the surest signs that a person was possessed by the devil, particularly
'^
against the
Shakespeare, Harsnett, and the Devils of Denham
when
that person
(London and Toronto,
1993). '*
Samuel Harsnett,
speare, Harsnett,
" Brownlow,
Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), in
Shakespeare, Harsnett, 308. Harsnett describes
her eyes, wrie her mouth, gnash her teeth,
"role
[sic]
hands
stiffe,
this
A
Brownlow, Shake-
191-416.
make
anticke faces, gime,
startle
how one
of the demoniacs would
with her body, hold her armes and
mow, and mop like an Ape." Shakespeare also appropriated Tom: "Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once: of
phrase in one of Edgar's lines as Poor
lust, as
Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness;
bertigibbet,
of mopping and mowing,
who
Mahu, of stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibchamber-maids and waiting-women"
since possesses
(King Lear, in The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans [Boston, 1974], 4.1.58-63).
HILAIRE KALLENDORF
was uneducated or scholar
who
able to recite a passage
when
This
illiterate.
concluded that a
from
seen in an example from a 1638 treatise of a
is
common
Virgil.-"
309
A
person was demon-possessed because he was
was reported in Granada in 1650
similar case
man was
the Jesuit exorcist Diego Tello concluded that a
possessed because he
could speak Latin inteUigibly.-' In essence, then, the "miracle" of polyglossia and the use of language as a litmus
demonic possession were a painful reminder to high-cultvure humanists that knowledge of Latin was beginning to recede into the collective cultural past. Knowl-
test for
edge of Latin was not emphasized sion and exorcism because daily Ufe. It
is
a sign
ofjust
it
It is,
much
how much
assumed to have no Latin unless
it
in
medieval accounts of demonic posses-
that Latin
permeated even the language of
things had changed that
it
most demoniacs were
was by miraculous or diabolical means.
of course, a sad statement about the educational
time to say that
this
as
was assumed
was the Catholic
exorcists
who
of affairs in Europe
state
wielded
this linguistic
at
power
and authority in one of the most highly-pubUcized ways. Sometimes these exorcists
knowledge of Latin very pubhcly
displayed their
in order to build their ethos as
capable demon-expeUers. In one case in 1637—1642, the Spanish exorcist Luis de
Concepcion recounts how 'he confronted a
at
demon with
the church of Nuestra Senora de Latin syllogisms after the
demoniac proposed to the exorcist a syllogism proved
as self-evident.
The
that
la
la
Regla in San Lucar
manner of the
scholastics.
The
an "inexperienced" bystander ap-
to the contrary. The demoniac know how to give a response; the exorcist from his own knowledge and reUed on the knowl-
exorcist
however argued
claimed in Latin that the exorcist did not
responded that he
knew nothing
edge of God. The exorcist then proceeded to prove the demoniac's argument to be
by
false
stating the
ever.^ This case scholastic,
Perhaps loss
and it
major and minor premises in Latin "according to the manner of
The demon was
the schools."
thus defeated and forced to leave the
a fascinating
is
example of an exorcism presented
woman
for-
as a rhetorical,
linguistic battle.
would even be no exaggeration
of CathoUc Latin learning
at
to say that
the same time as
it
England was mourning the
was celebrating the Protestant
new-found freedom of conscience. The Cathohc Church and its writers such as St. Thomas Aquinas had been responsible for the medieval flowering of scholastic learning. Perhaps the EngUsh Protestants, especially in their Puritanical or Iconoclastic varieties, were somewhat chastened to discover that by rejecting Popery, they were also losing some Cathohc Latin learning as the modem proverb says, they were
—
throwing out the baby with the bath water. Linguistic anxiety finds expression in
many forms
within a culture in transition
from one dominant mode of communication or instruction
*•
Merle Casaubon,
Of Credulity
and
Incredulity (1668), intro.
to another.
Evidence of
David G. Lougee (Delmar,
NY,
1976), 149.
a
^' Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (New York, 1907), 4:350. manuscript in the Library of the University of Halle, Yc, 20, T. XVII.
^
Fray Luis de
la
Concepcion,
Practica de conjuror (1673), fees. ed.
Alexandre Venegas (Barcelona, 1983), 18-21.
He
cites
with preliminary note by
DEMONIZATION OF RENAISSANCE ENGLISH NEO-LATIN
310
may be
anxiety
this
found, for example, in manuscript notes found in the margins of
printed texts, where readers from this period translated (perhaps even with the aid of
English the Latin words and phrases interspersed through a pri-
a dictionary) into
marily vernacular printed edition.^
The much-discussed Renaissance others
by claiming
a greater proximity to the original Latin.
book of Baldassare
Hoby
in 1561,
topos in Romance-language countries of the
was an attempt by various vernaculars to take precedence over
questione delta lingua
Tuscan over other
of appropriating the Latin
was
who were
Sir
first
Thomas
and
classics
primacy of
specifically, the
much one
England the question was not so
Italian dialects.^'' In
of tracing a national linguistic heritage
tions. It
by
Lodovico (Lewis) proclaims to Federico (Fredericke) the primacy of
over other vernacular languages and, even more
Italian
For example, in the
Castiglione's The Courtier, translated into English
was one, particularly in the Renaissance,
as it
their medieval scholastic versions
distressing to English humanists
and adapta-
and university scholars such
as
Ruggle
interested in keeping the Latin learning tradition alive that Catholics in
By
writing a satire
about Catholic exorcists in Latin, Ruggle was staking a claim to
this linguistic
some way "owned" Latin territory.
whom,
He
as their
province of ritualistic dialogue.
was attempting to distance himself from the Catholic
incidentally,
were not very well educated and spoke
macaronic Latin) while
at
as
The
to earn
The
it
trajectory of
as interstices
Neo-Latin
Ruggle appropriated
remain neither mysterious nor
wanted many more
uerba to
between the
functioned
also
iUiteracy,
as a cultural
for
this
as interstices
commodity
as
and the
Latin
scripta in
still.
between high
far-ranging
enough
"miraculous" and "diaboUcal."
at this
time and in
elusive. In principio erat Verbum,
be
natural
between Neo-Latin and lack of
commodity was
such contradictory descriptive adjectives
fact that
and
between where the divine could intrude into the
spaces in
human. In the linguistic realm, exorcisms and low culture, between education and Latin.
medium
life.
Exorcisms functioned in the Renaissance
—
(some of
a notoriously corrupt
the same time appropriating the language as a
English drama and university
supernatural worlds
priests
They
this
way need
and Neo-Latin authors
did not
want
cultural bag-
gage surrounding the use of Latin to stand in their way.
By
writing his play in Latin and including in
tempted to exorcize Neo-Latin of successfvil,
when
its
it
a
mock
exorcism, Ruggle at-
Popish connotations. The exorcism was not
and Neo-Latin remained in some way demonized. The problem disappears
texts are written in the vernacular,
and
this,
of course,
is
the solution that has
prevailed in English literary history. Princeton University
^^
In Folger Shakespeare Library 17854a, copy 2 of S. Michaelis, The Admirable Historie of the
Possession
(who
and Conversion of a Penitent Woman,
signs the title
page "Rbts Sctgr")
the margins; he also writes mottoes
trans.
translates
on the
title
all
W.
B. (London, 1613), a very early reader
the Latin in the text and enters English into
page: "In
omni
sacrificio offeres Sal.
Leu. 2." and
"Accipe, Redde, Time." ^*
Baldassare Castiglione,
(1561), ed. Drayton
II
Cortegiano, trans, as
Henderson (New York, 1928),
The Book of 54.
the Courtier
by Thomas Hoby
Fray Alonso de
Veracruz's Views on
la
the Legitimacy of the Spanish as Revealed in
Conquest of America
De dominio
His
et iusto bello
ARNOLD
infidelium
(1553-1554)
L.
KERSON
bom
Alonso Gutierrez
in
Caspueas
(Guadalajara), Spain, studied at the Universities of Alcala de Henares
and Sala-
Fray Alonso
de
la
manca. There he was
Veracruz (1507—1584),
a disciple
of the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria (1492/3—
1526), the distinguished political and legal philosopher and theologian, considered
many
as
tiones,
that
the founder of international law, and is,
whose most
summaries or popularizations of ordinary
inventis relectio prior (1532)
posterior (1532),
and De
lectures,
Indis, sive de iure belli
both pubUshed for the
first
time in 1557.
the legitimacy of the Spanish authority in the
by
influential works, or relec-
were De
Indis recenter
hispaniorum in barbaris
The former
New World,
while the
relectio
latter
relectio
discusses
completes
the discussion by dealing with just and unjust wars, mainly in a theoretical sense.
Fray Alonso de to the priesthood,
la
Veracruz took
his
theology degree
and held a teaching position
the Augustinian Fray Francisco de
did with enthusiasm, and
upon
la
at the
Cruz persuaded him
arriving at Veracruz,
Salamanca, was ordained
at
University of Salamanca to
when
go to Mexico. This he
from which he assumed
his
new
name, he entered the Augustinian Order. Important for an understanding of Fray Alonso's character, in the cultural
soon
as
fasted
as
well as his key role
development of sixteenth-century Mexico, are the following
he became master of novices in
more than
his order,
the rule required, and slept
facts.
As
he began to wear coarse clothing,
on hard boards
for only four or five
hours each night in order not to waste time. Extremely serious, he urged his students
not to waste
it
either,
constandy repeating to them, "Habete rationem temporis," and
objecting, for example, to chess-playing, saying that the time saved could be used to discuss St.
Thomas's Summa. In
his
"free" time, he founded four hbraries, and
preached in Tarascan, the language of the people of Michoacan, in various Indian
VERACRUZ'S VIEWS ON THE SPANISH CONQUEST
312
His
villages.
activist
fame reached Charles V,
Nicaragua. Fray Alonso ("Salva
me
is
said to
who
appointed him Bishop of Leon in
have exclaimed, paraphrasing both Psalm 22:22
ex ore leonis") and the Offertory of the Mass for the Dead ("liberas eas
me Domine," and
de ore leonis") and subtly punning "Ab ore leonis, libera
flatly
refusing this and any other administrative appointment.
Veracruz became the
Prime Professor of Philosophy
first
at
the
Royal and Ponti-
number of v^^orks in Among them are: Recognitio sum-
University of Mexico, inaugurated in 1553, and produced a
fical
Latin intended
as basic texts for
university students.
mularum (1554), a resume of the elementary principles of
logic; Dialectica resolutio
among other things, deals with Porphyry's Introduction to Aristotle's known as the Isagoge, a work which laid the foundations for all subsequent
(1554), which, Categories,
formal logic; and Physica Aristotle's Physics. iusto hello,
speculatio (1557),
However,
his
most
which had been known
until the Jesuit Father Ernest J. cal edition
an explanation of and commentary on
to exist in manuscript form, did not
Burrus discovered
Thomas Aquinas
St.
quaestiones
tions
in
it
inftdelium et
come
Mexico, and published
of the Latin text with an English translation in 1968, under the
fense of the Indians: Their Rights} Fray Alonso's
of
work, the De dominio
significant
Summa
in his
(synonymous terms, in
De
Theologica,
effect)
which
to light a criti-
title
De-
dominio, following the procedure is
divided into eleven dubia and
deal with various aspects of the rela-
between the Spaniards and the indigenous population of the New World. My on the ideas expressed in quaestiones 10 and 11 of the De dominio, which
study focuses
concerned with the legitimacy of the conquest, and which bear a close
are
to ideas expressed in Vitoria's
De
Indis.
The
question
cruz derived his ideas from Vitoria, and the answer tigation.
tended
As
his
arises as to
would require
similarity
what extent Veraa
thorough inves-
student in Salamanca, he was exposed to Vitoria's teachings and at-
his relectiones.
However, when
Vitoria read his
De
Indis
and De
iure belli, in
1539, Fray Alonso was already in Mexico. Veracruz's
De
dominio consists of 374 pages of printed text,
paragraphs or sections. Because of space limitation,
document of
this
it is
which includes 945
not possible to do justice to
great importance for the history of the Spanish conquest
and col-
My main purpose is to reveal the existence and the essence of the content of this Neo-Latin work, which must be considered a product of the sixteenth-century School of Salamanca, and which was totally unknown until Father Burrus pubhshed it in 1968. The School of Salamanca was headed by Vitoria, and onization of America.
consisted of such notables as the star disciple,
who was
Dominican Domingo de Soto (1494—1560),
Vitoria's
very active in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, and
the great Jesuit theologians Luis de Molina (1535-1600) and Francisco Suarez (15841617).^
What makes Veracruz unique
is
that
he was the
first
philosopher-theologian
The Writings of Alonso de la Veraauz: II. Defense of the Indians: Their Rights. Latin Text and and Studies for the History of the Americas (Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1968). For the history of the discovery of the manuscript, see Prometeo Cerezo de '
English Translation. Sources
Diego, Alonso de ^
la
Veracruz y
el
Derecho de Gentes (Mexico, 1985), 45-48.
The members of the School of Salamanca, whose main
center of activities was the University
ARNOLD of the Salamanca group course, provided
An
who was
him with
important tradition
was the
relectio,
L.
KERSON
an eyewitness to the American
a perspective diflferent
at
313
from
that
reality,
and
this,
of
of his co-reUgionists.
the University of Salamanca, strongly upheld by Vitoria,
or "re-reading," sometimes
known
as
the
repetitio.
This consisted of
at the comon one of the more important themes dealt with in his course. One of the innovations implemented by Vitoria was that the relectio be written prior to its deUvery so that none of the important passages could be lost by a memory lapse. The University of Mexico, whose en-
an unwritten lecture that each university professor was obligated to give
pletion of each academic year, before the entire university,
tire
system was a replica of that of Salamanca, immediately incorporated the practice
of the
Fray Alonso's
relectio.
relectio,
which
originally
was
end of the 1553-1554 academic term, contained the
untitled,
basis
of
and was read
his
De
each speaker was allowed no more than two hours, the present text of the are considering
would
is
an obvious significant expansion of the original
take about ten hours to read
it
aloud.
One may wonder why
never appeared in print during Fray Alonso's Ufetime.
the
at
dominio. Since
work we
relectio,
the
De
since
it
dominio
The theory of scholars
is
that
the nature of the content was too sensitive, given the heated polemics of the time,
when,
for example, the impassioned Fray Bartolome de las Casas (1474—1566) condemned, with some exaggeration, the abuses committed by the Spaniards, while his
opponent, Juan Gines de Sepulveda (1490P-1573), a distinguished humanist fi-om
Cordoba, in
his Democrates alter, sive de iustis belli causis
traditional arguments, to justify the conquest. It
must
apud also
indos,^
sought, by citing
be noted that the Arch-
bishop of Mexico firom 1553 to 1572, Alonso de Montufar, a Dominican, annoyed relectio by Veracruz, namely the De decimis, in which the Augustinian method of collecting tithes fi-om the Indians as unjust, prohibited the pubUcation of the De dominio.* The first six "doubts" of the De dominio are of a practical nature, dealing with administrative matters.* "Doubts" 6 through 9 question whether the emperor is the
by
a
previous
criticized the
master of the world, and whether the pope enjoys supreme authority, the conclusion
being "no." The tenth and eleventh "doubts", or unjustifiable,
and
valid,
quaestiones, discuss the invahd,
or
or justifiable, causes, respectively, for the waging of war
against the natives of America.
The
tenth quaestio consists of 140 paragraphs and eight corulusiones.
of Salamanca, had St.
common
as their
It
begins:
goal a revitalization of traditional scholasticism, derived firom
Thomas. *
This work was
Bolelm de *
la
first
Academia de
published, translated, and edited by Marcelino
la
The manuscript of
Historia
the Relectio de decimis habita
MagistTo Alphonso edita anno
of the De dominio
Bumis, ^
S.J.,
The
in
1555
infidelium. It
2:92-227.
in scholis publice in
relegenda sed non relecta
was published,
The Writings of Alonso de
Writings,
Menendez y
Pelayo, in
Universitate
Mexicana a
22 (1898): 257-369. was found together with the manuscript
translated into English,
la Veracruz.
and edited by Ernest
Defense of the Indians
(Rome,
1976), 4.
J.
.
VERACRUZ'S VIEWS ON THE SPANISH CONQUEST
314
[U]trum imperator vel rex Castellae potuit iustum bellum indicere
istis
barbaris.
(606)^
Following scholastic procedure, Veracruz
points out opinions justifying
first
against the natives that are contrary to those that he will support.
He
war
refers to the
concept of the universal sovereignty of the emperor over the entire world, the just deprivation of the dominium of the Indians and their possessions, their mental inferiority,
and their practices of idolatry and human
wage war.
A
number of
sacrifice as unjustifiable reasons to
Christian followers of such jurisconsults
the
as Hostiensis,
cardinal of Ostia (ca. 1200-1271),^ maintain with him:
Hodie non
est iurisdictio,
nam
infideles;
nee dominium, neque honor, neque potestas penes
per adventum Christi, translata sunt in christianos; transfertur,
enim, regnum de gente in gentem propter ultima,
Veracruz
c. si
iniustitias suas, 23,
totally rejects this concept,
namely
he declares they have no and jurisdiction. Empire,
rebel;
on divine and
master of the world,
America of their dominion
right to deprive the natives of
bases himself
is
natural law,
and the law of nations,
church authorities (632-635). Had the unbelievers been subjects of the
citing various
who
He
have the right of
that only Christians
dominion. Concluding that neither the emperor nor the pope
Roman
quaestione paen-
de rebus. (624)
as
but the
some
falsely claim, the
New World was
emperor could wage war
never part of the
Roman Empire:
against those
therefore
war
is
not justified against the unbelievers of this territory (636). According to Veracruz,
if
missionaries
had been
first
sent to preach to the Indians,
and the
latter
them, they might be justified in waging war. But such was not the rived
first,
justified.
a Bible,
owed
and plundered and
Veracruz
states that
was not enough for the
and say that there was only one
allegiance,
Necque
if
quod unus
quod
ipsi milites
unum solum credendum Deum
esset pontifex
show
pontiff to
the natives
whom they
they resisted:
sufficienter dicitur ad iustificationem
terram, et
soldiers to
God and one supreme
and then attack the Indians
erent Bibliam, vel dicerent
which reason war cannot be
killed native peoples, for it
had repulsed
case. Soldiers ar-
summus, Dei
armati ostend-
qui fecit caelum et
vicarius in terris cui praesta-
rent oboedientiam. (684-685)
This appears to be a veiled refutation of the requerimiento,
literally
"requirement",
drawn up by the famous jurist Juan Lopez de Palacios Rubios (1450P-1525), and which required each Spanish conquistador to have read by a notary, through an inter-
*
The numbers
in parentheses following the citations
graphs in Burrus's edition, cited in note ^
Hostiensis (Henry of Segusio, Enrique Bartolomei),
law in the thirteenth century.
from the De dominio
refer to the para-
1
whose
writings greatly influenced
canon
ARNOLD preter, to the Indians. In a
Spain, indicating that they
word,
were
KERSON
315
document was a message
this
now
L.
and
his subjects,
if
firom the king of
they should
resist this re-
quirement, which began with the bibUcal creation of the world and was legal technicalities, they
would be
confiscated. History has
shown, however,
lated,
much
filled
with
and their goods often the requerimiento was not trans-
enslaved, their wives taken away, that
to the detriment of the totally bewildered natives. If they Ustened peace-
and
ftjly to the preachers,
still
refused to accept the Christian faith, they could not
be forced "Patet: nullus debet ad fidem cogi"
(689). This in fact
was the shared opin-
ion of the theologians of the School of Salamanca.
Regarding the
sins
of the Indians against natural law, such
as idolatry,
promiscuity, adultery, polygamy, sodomy, and cannibaUsm, there were those
sexual
who
in-
voked the theocratic theory, derived firom medieval thought, that these sins appHed to all men, and therefore justified war. To the contrary, others, many of whom followed Thomistic
scholasticism, maintained that pagans
were not subject
to these pre-
cepts of Christian law. Veracruz states:
Ab hoc quod
incolae huius
isti
Novi Orbis
idola colerent et plures haberent
deos, et in eis essent adulteria aut fomicationes simphces aut ebrietates, etiam si ista
vitia frequentissima,
non ea
ratione iustum
bellum ad eos subiectan-
fiiit
dos et suo legitimo dominio exspoHandos. (693)
Veracruz,
faithfial
to the School of Salamanca, gives a detailed
concluding that these that neither the tians
sins
number of "proofs,"
do not justify war or the seizure of property.
emperor nor the sovereign pontifi"may wage just war
It is
obvious
against Chris-
because of adultery, depriving them for that reason of their dominion; hence
may not do so against unbehevers. The deduction is logical, since adultery is a sin among Christians, and is more scandalous and detrimental to their common good than among unbehevers. Nowhere do we read that such a sin is a cause for war. As for theft, usury, and drunkenness, no action can be taken among the natives, since they
they were never subjects of the emperor either de jurisdiction over
As for the deprive
or de facto, hence he has no
cultural
and mental backwardness of the Indians adduced
them of their dominion and subjugate them. Fray Alonso
of the School of Salamanca
who knew
the Indians at
vinced of the mental backwardness of the Indians.* a high
iure
them (694-696).
opinion of the Indians' rationahty.
first
is
as a
reason to
the only
member
hand. Vitoria appears con-
On the contrary.
Fray Alonso has
He speaks of their orderly governments
and
laws before the arrival of the Spaniards. In effect.
*
Vitoria writes: "Sed videtur
aut paulo plus, valent ad
quantum ad hoc eadem
gubemandum
seipsos
quam
ratio
de
amentes":
De
in Obras de Francisco de Vitoria. Relecciones Teologicas, ed. Teofilo
724.
illis
et
de amentibus, quia
nihil,
indis recetiter invetitis releaio prior,
Urdanoz, O.P. (Madrid, 1960),
VERACRUZ'S VIEWS ON THE SPANISH CONQUEST
316
tales
huius Orbis incolae
non solum non
sunt pueri aut amentes, sed suo
modo
praestantes et saltern ex ipsis aliqui qui suo
modo
praestantissimi sunt. (716)
The argument that the Indians are simple-minded, similar to children, and therefore may be subjugated, holds no validity, since St. Paul states in Galatians that children can enjoy true dominion, and have rights over property.'
The
last title,
God
or "doubt", Quaestio 10, denies that since
has
abandoned the
Indians, the Spaniards have a right to subjugate them. Veracruz alludes to a "vir gravis et religiosus"
who
defends
this position, citing
reference to the Canaanites and the
[Deus]
.
.
.
ob ipsorum peccata
manibus tradere
quidam
et
eo
the
Old Testament, wherein,
in
Israelites,
velit eos (i.e., Indos) destruere et
modo quo ohm Chananaeos Deus
alias vir gravis et religiosus
Hispanorum
ludaeis dedit, sicut
ausus est probare. (720)
Ernest Burrus has no doubt that this "otherwise high-minded and conscientious per-
son"
is
none other than Juan Gines de Sepiilveda.'" Fray Alonso goes to great numerous church authorities and the Bible, to refute this concept.
length, citing
non sumitur argumentum ad probandum quod sic licitum suo dominio privare; in quo valde aberrant qui putant utrobique eandem causam. (745) Quapropter ex
illo
alios infideles debellare et
We now turn
to quaestio 11, the valid causes for the subjection of the Indians
means of force. This
part consists of 199 paragraphs
and 15
conclusiottes.
by
The opening
paragraph reads:
Utrum
detur aliqua causa iustificans bellum contra huius
Novi Orbis
incolas.
(747)
In answer to
this question,
guably be judged
reason for sustaining ously,
Veracruz begins by saying that the conquest could ar-
as unjustified. it.
He
But
since
maintains that
it is
if
a.
fait accompli, there
the faith
is
a justifying seri-
with adequate proofs and reasons which they understand, then they are obli-
gated to accept the
faith.
Cerezo de Diego
faults
Veracruz,
who
sionary zeal, confusing natural law with supernatural law, goes
the School of Salamanca by affirming that the Spanish
on the Indians." Says Veracruz,
'Gal. 4:1. ">
may be
proposed to the Indians
The Writings, 2:513. n. 95. " See Cerezo de Diego, Veracruz, 308.
with excessive mis-
beyond the hmits of
monarch may force conversion
ARNOLD Si
istis
L.
KERSON
317
barbaris insulanis sufficienter fuerit proposita fides ita ut ipsi credere
teneantur, a suo superiore compelli possunt bello ad fidem suscipiendam de
se,
nee retrocessio timeatur. (759) This contradicts
St.
Thomas, who
of the individual (ST
will
writes that the act of faith depends
possibly deprive of their rights the Indian rulers
ing the faith (809). Also,
which follows
a
The pope,
II-II q. 10, art. 8).*^
long tradition in medieval
human
an impediment to spread-
political thought,
sacrifice
fi-ee
could
an Indian king or ruler should exercise tyranny,
if
In addition, cannibaHsm and
who were
on the
says Fray Alonso,
would justify war
this,
(815).
provide a legitimate cause for a just war.
Says Fray Alonso:
comedebant cames humanas,
Si barbari
sacrificabant, Hcite bello si
non
innocentium, sive nocentium, quos
et
dominio suo legitimo ahas
privari
desisterent. (824)
Veracruz ally
sive
potuerunt subici
also states that if one native nation
is
at
war with another, Christians may
themselves with the injured party, thus waging war against their adversary (847).
community is without a king or leader, the said combecome subjects of the Spanish authorities. This is evident from natural law and from the law of nations (857). Also, if a commonwealth were ruled poorly by a legitimate but inept king, the Spaniards would have the right to replace that king by force (867). If some unbelieven should not allow Spaniards who meant no harm to move fireely among them, war might be justified (901). Veracruz According to him,
munity could
if a native
elect to
then maintains that the Spaniards have the right of
right of
travel,
on unowned
ploitation of precious minerals that are
communication. Granted that the Indians of the
to their rights as
men
commerce, and the ex-
No one can impede the New World were entitled
land.
of perfect republics, they then however become subject to the
obligations of the international
community. Veracruz
sees the right to travel in a
foreign territory as a natural right, or at least under the ius gentium, since poUtical animal, and travel
This derives from
St.
is
Augustine and
School of Salamanca. Should
man
is
a
consequence of the human condition (903).
a natural
Thomas, and
St.
peacefiilly
is
accepted by
all
those of the
travehng Spaniards be attacked by Indians,
they are justified in defending themselves (908). Cerezo de Diego sees Veracruz, regarding the right of communication,
which can be
called "proto-liberaUsmo
as
proposing a
new
theory of free markets,
economico intemacional,"
mercantile theories of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.'^ vors one's
own
as
opposed to the
The
old system fa-
country over another's, thus resulting in an unfavorable trade balance
for the latter.
As Veracruz comes
to the
end of the
rationale for the legitimate justification for
the conquest, he goes firom theory to reaUty, by saying that the conquest must be
'^
Cerezo de Diego,
Veracruz, 315.
" Cerezo de Diego,
Veracruz, 348.
VERACRUZ'S VIEWS ON THE SPANISH CONQUEST
318
accepted
cum
on
He
trade.
it
explains:
Indorum
rebus stantibus ut nunc sunt, et cognita conditione
et
eorum
in-
cum non posset Hispanorum natio manere pacifice, neque posset ha-
stabilitate,
bere incolatum, neque
alia
inquam, quod
sequitur,
would make
the unstable situation of the Indians
as a fait accompli, since
difficult to carry
Catholicum, quidquid
exercere negotia honesta
de iure
sit
si
nunc dominium videtur
iuste
et iustitia a principio;
dominarentur incolae,
apud imperatorem
esse
modo tamen non
Hcet
dubitare. (930)
However, he maintains
may not be deprived of their
that the legitimate native lords
legitimate dominion, nor are private individuals to be despoiled of their personal
property. In conclusion, unbelievers
New
may
not be warred against solely because they
nor may they be coerced
are unbelievers,
World must
to believe.
And
respect the basic tenets of the ius gentium,
of the conquered peoples must
As Cerezo de Diego
also
since the peoples of the
follows that the rights
it
be respected (945).
one compares the
rightly concludes, if
unjustifiable causes of
Veracruz in the De dominio with the illegitimate tides of Vitoria in is
an evident
fiable causes
parallel,
views of both
men
part of
De
De
iure belli
Indis,
is
hispanorum
appears at
just cause for war,
ever, there
titles
there
of Vitoria. This was logical, since the
first
all
his disciples.'''
in barbaros, relectio posterior,
the sequel or second
glance to be an abstract theory on what constitutes
with no direct reference to the American Indian problem.
the implication
as to
whether the conquest was
sion consists of three canones, or rules, as to
Indis,
derived from principles shared with the scholastic-Thomist doc-
introduced by Vitoria and accepted by
Vitoria's
De
of Veracruz, although he shows a certain degree of independent thought,
he coincides basically with the legitimate
trine
his
although not a complete correspondence. Regarding the justi-
which obviously apply
justified.
to the Indians as well
wars between Christian princes. Vitoria begins by deploring war
manitatis", that
is,
of the worst kind of savagery, to be avoided
to just cause, then the
aim of the
victors should
How-
The conclu-
as
"ultimae in-
if possible. If not,
due
be peace and not the destruction of
the enemy. Moderation and Christian humility must prevail.'* These sentiments definitely coincide
with those of Alonso de
la
Veracruz.
While Veracruz's De dominio lacks the concision, ground of Vitoria's De Indis, it affords an eyewitness,
precision,
and theological back-
direct study of the ethical
norms
of the colonial administration, something which the other members of the School of
Salamanca could not provide.
Robledo, Veracruz was
"el
Finally, to
World.'*" In effect, both Veracruz
Conquest
'^
as
quote the Mexican scholar Antonio
Gomez
primer catedratico del Derecho de gentes" in the
and
an irreversible historical
New
Vitoria, judicial speculation aside, see the
fact, to
which there
is
a positive side. In
view
Cerezo de Diego, Veraauz, 362.
'^
See Obras de
'*
"El problema de
Vitoria, title la
60, 857-858.
Conquista en Alonso de
la
Veracruz," Historia Mexicana 23 (1974): 407.
ARNOLD
KERSON
L.
319
would dominion over accrue to them, no one could sensibly suggest that Spain abandon it. What both men made the New World, even if a legal case could be made against of the
instability
of the Indians' situation,
as
well as the civilizing benefits that its
very clear
is
that the Indians
must be treated
fairly
and under Christian humanitarian
principles.
The European enemies of Spain were
responsible for the creation of the concept
of the "Black Legend" ("La leyenda negra") which,
among
other things, accused her
of destroying the great Indian civihzations. The respected historian Hubert Herring felt that
Spain did not topple the Indian peoples fi-om an Elysian
one
He
the "Black Legend" required a "necessary rebuttal."
of abysmal misery, despite the lyricists
who
dwell
state
upon
the
writes, in part:
of perfection to
communal hap-
piness of the Incas and the democratic joys of the Aztecs. Spain did not destroy great Indian popvdations: there never
Spain, in
eflfect,
were great populations."
was the only colonial power that sustained the "Great Debate" ("El
gran debate") concerning the legitimacy of the conquest. This debate produced such defenders of Indian rights 'other cruz.
as
Las Casas, Vasco de Quiroga (1470-1565), Vitoria, and
members of the School of Salamanca, which included Fray Alonso de Although not
regard
him
as
as
well
one of the
known
truly
as
the distinguished
eminent
men just
cited,
many
la
Vera-
scholars
figures of sixteenth-century Spanish America.
Trinity College, Hartford
" Hubert Herring.
A
History of Latin America
(New
Yoric. 1972), 152-153.
Bemerkungen
zum Trophaeum Anglaricum von Leonardo Dati
THOMAS LINDNER
Der
friihhumanistische italienische Dichter Leonardo Dati
gessenheit
und
literarhistorischer
MiBachtung
ist
nach lingerer Ver-
in letzter Zeit wieder etwas
mehr
in das Licht der Oflfentlichkeit geriickt, insbesondere durch die erst jiingst er-
folgte
Neuausgabe seiner Tragodie Hiensal}
Leben und Werk Leonardo Dati (bzw. Leonardus/Lionardus Dathus) wurde
in Florenz
um
1408
(bzw. nach den Angaben seines Epitaphs im Herbst 1407) geboren.^ Nach den
iib-
hchen Grammatik- und Rhetorikstudien wurde er zunachst Notar und nach 1435 "legum doctor." Durch Freundschaften und Kontakte zu den florentinischen Humanisten kam er auch in klerikale Kreise, wo er seine ersten Hterarischen Ambitionen pflegen konnte. In der Folge UeB Dati sich zum Priester weihen, ging nach Rom und wurde enger Vertrauter von Kardinal Giordano Orsini. Als die Kurie aber im Juni 1434 wegen der andauemden Kriege in Latium nach Florenz zog, kehrte auch Dati wieder in seine Heimatstadt zuriick. Nach Orsinis Tod im Mai 1438 kam er in die Dienste von Kardinal Francesco Condulmer und war auch bei den Vorbereitungen des KonzUs von Florenz im Jahr darauf beteiUgt. 1441 nahm er am beriihmten certame coronario teil, einem Dichterwettbewerb in volgare, der von Leon Battista Alberti organisiert wurde, und reiissierte mit seiner scena De amicitia. Doch er zerstritt sich oflfenkundig mit seinem Gonner Condulmer, was auch ein Zerwiirfiiis mit Papst Eugen IV. nach sich zog und ihn fiir etUche Jahre in MiBgunst von seiten der Kurie brachte. Doch Dati UeB sich nicht entmutigen und versuchte, sich auch weiterhin als
'
zudem an den humanistischen Vorbildem von
Correr. Vgl. die durchaus kontroversiellen Editionen
Albertino Mussato
von J. R. Berrigan {Humanistica
25 [1976]: 85-145) und A. Onorato (Messina. 2000). -
Dramas und und Gregorio
Hiensal (auch: Hiempsal, Hyempsal) steht in der Tradition des Senecaschen
orientiert sich
V^.
Ristori, in
DB/ 33
(1987). 44f. (Viu); 51f. (QueUenangaben).
Lovanietisia
BEMERKUNGEN VON LEONARDO DATI
322
Dichter zu profilieren. Er schrieb zu Beginn der vierziger Jahre des 15. Jahrhunderts
zwei vergilianisierende Eklogen
{Mirilta
und
und vor allem Durch dieses kam
Chirlo)
das es in der Folge geht, Trophaeum Anglarkum.
Protektor Kardinal Ludovico Scarampi naher, sohnte sich
das Gedicht,
um
neuen mit der Kurie aus und er seinem
wurde in den flinfziger Jahren papstlicher Sekretar, sodann, unter Paul II., prima segretario und 1467 schlieBlich Bischof von Massa Marittima in der Kirchenprovinz Siena. Eine Emennung zum Kardinal und Erzbischof von Florenz miBlang, was seine letzten Lebensjahre verbittern soUte; Leonardo Dati starb in den ersten Jannertagen 1472.^
Wertung Datis als Dichter ist durchaus ambivaund den Spateren infolge des renommierten certame coronario als guter Poet, der vor aUem durch seine Volgare-Gedichte ein breites Echo unter den Gebildeten hatte, w^urde er von der deutschen Humanismusforschung des 19. Jahrhunderts diskreditiert und von Georg Voigt etwa als armseliger DichterHng bezeichnet.* Eine Neubewertung hat gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts Francesco Flamini versucht, indem er die Inedita, eben die Handschriften, miteinbezogen hatte und somit in seinem eingangs erwahnten Artikel zu einer ausgewogenen Einschatzung kommen konnte: zu einer im groBen und ganzen recht positiven Bewertung, indem er in Dati den groBten lateinischen Dichter der Toskana im 15. Jahrhundert sieht: "Le sue poesie sono tutte, come dicono, d'occasione; spesso anzi dettate a penna Die Einschatzung und
lent.
literarische
Gait er seinen Zeitgenossen
corrente (che Leonardo doveva essere facile verseggiatore) per gratificare a
sonaggi e per accattare favori principeschi
[.
.
.]
Leonardo Dati non ha
illustri
per-
scritto, ch'io
poemi d'argomento mitologico o biblico o storico; non crea, non innon favoleggia [. .] II Dati, in ogni modo, fu per la Toscana nella prima meta
sappia, vasti
venta,
.
del secolo del
Rinascimento quello che
nella
seconda
il
Poliziano:
il
mighore
de' suoi
und noch 1976 kann man Quattrocento von Contini lesen, daB Datis Prosa und
poeti latini."^ Dieses Urteil blieb allerdings eher isoliert, in der Literaturgeschichte des
Poesie "atte a interessare unicamente
gli
eruditi" seien.^
Nichtsdestoweniger bestatigt sich die Einschatzung von Flamini bei einer detaillierten Lektiire
und Analyse
Es handelt sich hierbei metern, in
um
welchem Dati
eines
Denkmal seines
^
'
von exakt 500 Hexa-
vom
29. Juni
1440
und dabei vor allem seinem Gonner Ludovico Sca-
siegreicher Feldherr eine maBgebliche Rolle spielte, ein literarisches
setzte.
Die
viel niichterneren geschichtlichen Ereignisse
und Neri Capponis
Fiir eine ausfuhrlichere
Darstellung
von
Ristori, "Dati,
Geschichte der Florentinischen Republik
konnen anhand
im
einzelnen rekon-
und literarischen Gesamtwerks sei auf die von Mehus (Florentiae, 1743) sowie vor allem auf
Darstellung seines Leben
Salvini in der Briefedition
die maBgebliche Studie
von
Hauptwerken, des Trophaeum Anglaricum.
Epos sowie vor allem durch die Schilderungen in Machiavellis Geschichte von
Florenz
alte
als
Datis
die Schlacht bei Anghiari (Anglaricum)
schildert, sie poetisch iiberhoht
rampi, der
von
ein heroisches Kurzepos (EpyUion)
von Flamini, "Leonardo
di Piero Dati,"
und den umfanglichen
Leonardo," verwiesen.
*
Zusammenfassend dazu Flamini, "Leonardo
^
Flamini, "Leonardo di Piero Dati," 81f
*
Contini, Letteratura
italiana,
118.
di Piero Dati," 81.
Artikel
THOMAS LINDNER
323
stmiert werden; es sei hier auf den historischen Beitrag battaglia d' Anghiari" verwiesen. In dieser
von Mansetti-Bencini "La
Auseinandenetzung ging
um die Vorherrschaft von Florenz iiber die Toskana,
es
hauptsachlich
von Mailand aus von Filippo Maria Visconti und seinem General Niccolo Piccinino den Florentinem streitig gemacht werden sollte. Zu dieser Zeit hielt sich auch, wie bereits festgestellt, Papst Eugen rV. in Florenz auf, und gemeinsam mit den papstlichen Milizen gelang es den Florentinem unter dem Oberbefehl von Kardinal Ludovico Scarampi, dem Patriarchen von Aquileia, in der entscheidenden Schlacht bei Anghiari in der Toskana nahe die
der umbrischen Grenze die Soldateska Piccininos verheerend zu schlagen, die
Medici zu
An-
Toskana zunichte zu machen und damit die Macht der
spriiche der Visconti auf die starken.
Das Trophaeum Anglaricum Dieses Kurzepos
ist
meines Wissen nur in einem einzigen Textzeugen iiberUefert,
von Datis poetischen Werken, dem Codex Riaardianus 47v—58r, der in einer zeittypischen italienischen Bastarda ge-
in einer Sammelhandschrift
1207 aus
dem
schrieben
15. Jh.,
f.
wurde/
Fiir die Erstpublikation
dort,
wo
1994 habe ich einen Lesetext des Trophaeum
und
erstellt
der iiberlieferte Text fur mich keinen Sinn ei^b, eigenstandig konjiziert;
haufig sind das einfache Emendationen, wie z.B. V. 415 tonaces -^ teruues "zah, aus-
dauemd"
485
tonantes Flamini), V.
(cj.
sepollit
(was Flamini mit einem Fragezeichen
valat
-^
sepellit
im Text
(immerhin mit
—>
stehen lieB)
-//-!),
V. 488
von
volat "eilt
dannen."
Die Interpunktion habe ich nach den Lesehilfen des Manuskripts eingerichtet, bin wo syntaktisch oder stiUstisch erforderHch, des ofteren davon abgewichen -
aber,
Interpunktion
ist
ja
immer schon
die Orthographie nach
einzelnen c;
th;
c,
ein Teil der Textinterpretation.
Sodann habe ich
Standard der klassischen Texte vereinheithcht, d.h.
wurden normaUsiert:
hyperkorrektes
^
dem
e,
a, c(c)h;
e caudata, ae, oe; u, v;
tt,
t
hyperkorrektes
sowie hyperkorrektes y
;
-ct-; xs,
im
x;
t,
Eine textkritische
i.
Manuskripttitel: Tropheum anglancum. Eine Beschreibung dieser Handschrift findet sich in S.
Morpurgo,
/ manoscritti della reale biblioteca di Firenze (Prato, 1900), s.v.; eine
tellers Iter italicum
von Flamini zur
brachte keine weiteren Manuskripte
Illustration
und
zum
Vertiefiing seiner Einschatzung
im genannten
habe 1994 eine voriaufige Edition mit deutscher Ubersetzung
selbst
Nachpriifung in Kris-
Vorschein. Etwa 185 Verse wurden Artikel ediert; ich
und plane nunmehr
erstellt
gemeinsam mit Kurt Smolak eine umfassende kritische Edition und korrigierte Ubersetzung mit Kommentar, was insofem schwierig ist, als die einzige bisher bekannte Handschrift, der zitierte Riccardianus, voller Fehler
ist
und manchmal ganz merkwiirdige Korruptelen
aufweist, die ich
bisher nicht emendieren bzw. konjizieren konnte. Dariiber verzweifelte auch Flamini, der ja nur
einen kleinen Teil leider mit etlichen Lesefehlem publizierte, indem er in einer FuBnote klagt:
"Ma
in piu luoghi e scorretto
(101).
[il
manoscritto], e
Ein weiterer wichtiger Punkt wird auch
schichte
im
15.
non
sein,
arrivo a
indoviname
la
lezione genuina"
einen Spezialisten fur toskanische Landesge-
Jahrhundert zu konsultieren, der die lokalen Gegebenheiten aus eigener Forschung
kennt; in der vorlaufigen Ubersetzung finden sich daher noch zahlreiche Liicken aufgrund
und Realien dieser Zeit und Gegend; Personen- und Ortsnamen.
gelnder Detailkenntnisse der Ereignisse fiir
noch nicht
identifizierte
dies gilt
manvomehmlich
BEMERKUNGEN VON LEONARDO DATI
324
machen oder
Edition wird diese Standardisierungen entweder wieder riickgangig
entsprechend kennzeichnen bzw. rechtfertigen.
Einzelprobleme
Im folgenden zuwenden und
will ich
mich ein paar sprachlichen und textuellen Schwierigkeiten
einige Problemfalle diskutieren. Trivial sind Hyperkorrektismen wie
etwa
-ct- fiir
bzw.
actoUere (V. 129) fiir attollere, die sich in alien italienischen
genuines
z.B. mictit (V. 33)
-tt-,
actonitum (V. 62) fur attonitum
fiir mittit,
Handschriften der
Zeit finden. Dies resultiert aus den bekannten italienischen Dubletten^Wo
Ebenso sehr haufig
tininextes facto. inclytus
sowie der Wechsel
tt
t,
:
ist
hyperkorrektes
etwa V. 455
littora
y,
~
rela-
etwa in tryumphus, tryumphat,
neben einfachem
litora etc.
In V. 22ff.
Pars desperat
Quinam
opem, tamquam
si
nesciat usque,
orbe cavendum
distineant hostem, pars intus in
Subtrepidat vitium, pars tunc in plebe
Censet ieiuna
(.
.
.)
Syntagma intus in orbe als ein Beispiel fiir schwer verGanze muB wohl heiBen (es handelt sich um die Schilderung der Note der Florentiner, als sie von Piccinino bedrangt wurden): "Die einen geben die Hoffnung auf Hilfe auf, gleichsam ohne zu wissen, wie sie den Feind aufhalten
findet sich das unscheinbare
standliche Realien; das
—
innen im Kreis wiederum meinten, man
konnten, die anderen Verrat), andere
Was genau
hungrigen Volk."
bedeutet
—
fiirchten ein vitium (Fehler, Schande,
miisse sich da hiiten
im
(bzw. vor dem)
intus in orbe? Ist das ein "Teil
der inneren
Fiihrungsschicht," also des inneren Kreises, der einen Fehler, d.h. einen Verrat flirchtet?
Man sollte
aber wohl doch mit Flamini intus
in urbe lesen (o/m- Wechsel sind
aus palaographischer Sicht ja nichts Ungewohnliches), was das Verstandnis insofem erleichtern wiirde,
als
eben nunmehr ein TeU
renz einen Aufstand fiirchtet
{scil.
des Senats) inmitten der Stadt Flo-
und somit im hungrigen Volk Vorsorge
treffen
muB.
In V. 32f.
Sforsa
comes proprias
acies
f etnutilat ac
se
Deserit et Venetos mittitque accurrere Flori:
findet sich ein lat;
vom
fiir
Sinn her
sich "emutiliert,"
mich noch nicht
muB
identifizierbares,
deutUch so geschriebenes
etnuti-
Herzog Sforza die eigenen Scharen und stationiert war, und sich anschickt, Trup-
die Stelle lauten, daB
Venezien
verlaBt,
wo
er
pen nach Florenz zum Entsatz zu entsenden.* Ein ahnliches Problem findet
*
Wenn man
Dehnung
in
hier commutilat
Kauf nehmen
liest,
sich in V. 163f.
"er splittete die
(mutilare klassisch
Truppen
mit kurzem
u).
auf, "
muB man
eine metrische
THOMAS LINDNER
325
opem stringique arta obsidione Tifemum, Ac regnum fexperie iamiam se offerre Senensi. Mittere
Das Wort
—
—
lesbar, ergibt aber fur mich zumindest keinen Sinn: werden geschildert, Furcht hatte sich in Florenz breitgemacht, die offene Schlacht wurde untersagt, nach Hilfe wiirde geschickt, Tifernum (das ist Citta di Castello) werde durch einen dichten Belagerungsring zermurbt und er, also
eindeudg
ist
Piccininos Kriegstaten
Piccinino, biete schon jetzt die Herrschaft der experie Senensi, den Sienesem also.
Aber was
experie? Ist hier vielleicht in imperio "der Obrigkeit"
ist
Manchmal kann man monstros anmutende Gebilde
zu emendieren?
recht einfach entscharfen. Das
grazisierende athicem in V. 265f.
(.
.
.)
Ille
fathicem
Et vincat nihilum
ist
wo hi
(.
.
Schlachtreihen
warum
hoste,
.)
adem. Piccinino feuert seine
Mannen
mustem und wird nicht
und
zur Schlacht an
Ludovicus, moge,
detrectator Ludovici: "Jener, d.h.
Vor;
nunc eminus
lustret
wenn
siegen." Acies
gibt sich dabei
der Feind noch fern
ist,
als
seine
kommt im Text freiUch sehr oft
gerade an dieser Stelle pseudograzisierendes athicem steht, bleibt immer-
hin merkwiirdig. In V. 463ff.
(.
.)
.
fragor undique crescit
Armorum, Ignarum
saevit
finis,
ferrum gaudetque cruore
cum fintemictio summa,
Cvunque hebetant
caede
vires fessis in
lacertis.
wird das Kriegsgetiimmel geschildert: "der WaflFenlarm wachst immer noch auf alien Seiten, die Schwerter wiiten
denken,
die Knifte
als (bis)
Vielleicht intemictio-
ist
intemictio
(fiir
und ergotzen
den durch
am
Blut,
ohne an ein Aufhoren zu
das Niedermetzeln
miiden Handen wichen."
sich
intemecio/intemicio)
Hiat eine Neuableitung auf
-tio,
mit
dem
um
metrisch aufialligen cum
die Kiirze
von
-necio / -nicio
\
|
zu
umgehen.
Im groBen und ganzen ist der Text aber metrisch einwandfi-ei und nach den klassiMustem gebaut. Trotzdem taucht auch eine zasurbedingte
schen, d.h. vergilischen productio
von auslautendem kurzen
(.
.
.)
Ille
De
libertate
autem
eine aufiaUige
und
neu
ast habeat,
fiir
85) auf:
caduca
83
timuit, latebras atque oppida
Intentat capere,
Uigeat,
e des Infinitivs capere (V.
circum
sese in faucibus ipsis
quotiens remearit, asylum,
das Trophaeum
ungewohnhche, nichtsdestoweniger aus dem
Mittellatein her durchaus iibliche Lizenz. Es geht hier wieder
das unbestandige Kriegsgliick fiirchtet
und
um Piccinino,
sich anschickt, Schlupfwinkel
der
um
und
die
BEMERKUNGEN VON LEONARDO DATI
326
um sich in
Stadte ringsum einzunehmen, nicht
den Engpassen aufzuhalten, sondem,
wenn notwendig, ein Riickzugsgebiet zu haben. Manchmal finden sich ganz merkwiirdige Neupragungen und Hapax legomena: In V. 328 etwa ein Verbum andrivorat 'Manner verschlingen', in V. 470 ein laterones fiir und nicht
die Flanken des Heeres,
selten
ist
die Syntax
und
Stihstik
dunkel und
verworren.
Aber
man doch der Kurzeinschatzung Rossis in II Quattrocento Werk sei "un carme eroico in cui descriveva con virgiliana eleganza immagini la battaglia d'Anghiari" (245). Dies gilt umso mehr, wenn man
grosso
modo kann
zustimmen, Datis di stile e di
schone Gleichnis zu Gemiite
sich das nachfolgende
fiihrt:
Ac veluti pastor, si forte ulularit et instet Pone lupus, caulas, ne iam sub nocte latenter
73
Impetat, obducit trepidus fidusque tuetur
Submissis canibus lucemque exspectat amicam; lUe fame et terrore simul stans haesitat anceps
Atque avet atque
timet;
dum tandem
opemque animumque
Pastor
postera lux
est.
capit furque exulat ultro,
Sic exsanguis erat toto Florentia vultu.
At soUers tamen,
et spe
pascebatur in horas.
Salzburg
Literatur (in Auswahl):
Vorlaufige Gesamtedition: Th. Lindner, "Leonardo Dati, Trophaeum Anglaricum (neulat. Renaissance-Epos): Textkritische Revision der Handschrift Cod. Riccard. 1207, f 47v-58r sowie deutsche Erstiibersetzung," in F. Piel, Leonardos Disegnio der Anghiarischlacht. Materialien
und Dokumente zur Tavola Doria (Falkenberg, 1994),
114-23.
R. Berrigan, "Leonardo
J.
Dati: Hiensal Tragoedia.
lation," Humanistica Lovaniensia 25 (1976): L. Bertolini, ed.,
G.
(di
De
vera amicitia. I
testi
del
A
Critical Edition
with Trans-
85—145.
primo Certame coronario (Ferrara, 1993).
Neri) Capponi, Geschichte der Florentinischen Republik {Storia
H. Diitschke), 2 Bde. (Leipzig, 1876). Chevalier, "Dati, Leonardo (1408-1472)," in Centuriae
della repubblica di
Firenze, iibers. J.-F.
Marie-Madeleine de
la
G. Contini, Letteratura F.
Garanderie (Genf, 2001;
italiana del Quattrocento (Firenze, 1976).
Flamini, "Leonardo di Piero Dati poeta latino del secolo letteratura italiana
Latinae: Festschrift fiir
im Druck).
XV," Giomale storico
delta
16 (1890): 1-107.
O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, 6 Bde. (London/Leiden, 1963-1997). N. Machiavelli, Geschichte von Florenz (Istorieftorentine / Historiae Florentinae, P.
V. 1.
Reumont) (Wien,
iibers.
A.
delle biblioteche e degli archivi
18
1934).
Mansetti-Bencini, "La battaglia d'Anghiari," Rivista (1907): 106-27.
L.
Mehus,
ed., L.
Dathi Epistolae
XXXIII
(Florentiae, 1743).
THOMAS LINDNER S.
Morpurgo,
327
/ manoscritti delta reale biblioteca di Firenze (Prato, 1900).
A. Onorato, ed., Hyempsal,
Quademi
di filologia
medievale e umanistica 4 (Messina,
2000).
R.
Ristori, "Dati,
Leonardo," in Dizionario
biograjtco degli italiani
33 (Roma, 1987),
44-52. V. Rossi,
n
Quattrocento, 5. ed. (Milano, 1953).
G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung
Humanismus, 2 Bde.,
des classischen Alterthums oder das erste Jahrhundert des
3. ed. (Berlin,
1893; Nd. 1960).
Un
Soneto de Quevedo y
un Epigrama de Falco
DANIEL LOPEZ-CANETE QUILES
Hace del
sence
diez anos, en el
Mundo
una comunicacion
La comparacion de
I
Simposio Intemacional sobre
titulada
los dos
"Un al
segundo.
los
de
esta lejos
ser
dos campos de estudio,
pero
el
conocimiento de
Espafia, es siglo
XVI
epigrafe queria demostrar la huella
proposito era,
asi,
ampliar
la
nomina
y tambien ilustrar la influencia de la literatura neoproduccion poetica castellana de los Siglos de Oro. Esta
la
relacion entre ambas literaturas constituye
pero que
el
Mi
fiientes quevedescas,
Renacimiento en
latina del
y Pervivencia
epigrama de Falco y un soneto de Quevedo."'
poemas aludidos en
modeladora del primero respecto de lecturas y
Humanismo
Clasico, celebrado en Alcaniz, provincia espanola de Teruel, pre-
hoy una
realidad
que no admite dudas,-
conocida en toda su dimension. La intercomunicacion de neolatino y
el
el
romance,
es
ciertamente cada vez mayor,
la literatura latina renacentista, al
aim incompleto e
interino: toda via
menos de
en impresos antiguos que duermen, polvorientos,
latentes
producida en
la
hay muchos especimenes latinos del el
sueno de
los
y quien sabe cuantos de eUos pueden desmentir, si expuestos a la ciencia acla presimta originalidad de, supongamos, unos versos gongorinos. De ahi que los
justos, tual,
estudios de conjunto que abordan esta cuestion tienen por necesidad el caracter de
balances provisionales y de estimulo urgente para
la
Y a tal fin quiere
cuyo objeto y
contribuir
ticos al presentado
diadas,
y tambien
el trabajo
que
sigue,
aportacion de nuevos resultados.
hace diez anos; cambian, naturalmente,
orden de
el
analisis,
que
se
las
titulo
son
casi
iden-
composiciones estu-
ocupara en primer lugar del soneto de
Quevedo. Su texto dice
'
In
J.
asi:
M. Maestre
Maestre y J. Pascual Barea,
eds.,
Humanismo y
Pervivencia del
Mundo
Clasito
(Cadiz, 1993), 1:557-564. ^
eds..
Vease
La
J. F.
Alcina, "El latin hununistico y la cultura vemacula," in A.
Filologta Latina, hoy: Actualizadon
M. Aldama
y perspectivas (Madrid, 1999), 2:729-746.
et al.,
QUEVEDO Y FALCO
330
InscripciSn de la estatua augusta
Quinto en Aranjuez
del Cesar Carlos
Las selvas hizo navegar, y
el
viento
Al canamo en sus velas respetaba,
Cuando,
Con
la
coites, su anhelito tasaba
necesidad del movimiento.
Dilato su victoria
Por
Cayo La
vencimiento
el
Danubio
lava;
Africa ardiente; gimio esclava
en
falsa religion
Vio
el
que
las riberas
Roma
en
Si
no
Y
de Espafia
la
fin sangriento.
desorden de su gente,
piadosa, ardiente valentia, el
rumor sosego
ausente.
Retire a Soliman, temor de Hungria,
Y, por
ser retirada
Se retiro a
si
La primera cuestion que le
fue adjudicado por
es la "estatua
el
mas
mismo se
editor
el
valiente,
postrer
dia.-'
nos plantea tiene que ver con
el titulo
del
poema, que
postumo de Quevedo, Jusepe Gonzalez de
augusta" de Carlos
V a la que
sirve
de "inscripcion"
el
Salas.
Cual
presente soneto?
A esta pregunta respondio uno de los maximos especialistas de Quevedo, James Crosby. Estas fueron sus palabras textuales:
El epigrafe que coloco Gonzalez de Salas a este soneto nos dice que se trata de
una
estatua de Carlos
gusta.
V que estuvo en Aranjuez, y que se puede calificar de au-
Del texto del poema
se
desprende que
un aspecto
la estatua tendria
fuer-
pero cortes, y que en elk estarian representados algunos de los enemigos vencidos por el Emperador. Estos datos sugieren que se trata de una
temente
militar,
famosa estatua que
se titula
una traduccion
libre
domitus furor."
En
las
de
las
la
"Carlos
ocho cuadran
vencida, figura que en
dominando
el
Furor," lo que no es sino
el plinto:
"Caesaris uirtute
dos fotos que reproducimos, se observara no solamente
semejanzas ya mencionadas entre
versos siete y
V
inscripcion que se lee en
la
el
soneto y
la estatua,
sino tambien
muy bien con la representacion
primera mitad del
siglo
XVII
plastica
de
que
los
la figura
fue llamada por Cardu-
cho "La Herejia," y tambien, en uno de los inventarios de Palacio, "El turco prisionero" (Eduardo Barron, Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura: Catalogo de la
'
214.
Escultura [Madrid, 1908], 200,
num.
273).
Francisco de Quevedo, Ohra Poetica, ed. Jose
Por
otra parte,
sabemos que en
Manuel Blecua (Madrid,
el
1969), 1:418-419, n°
DANIEL l6pEZ-CAN1ETE QUILES mismo
siglo
XVII estuvo por algun tiempo en Aranjuez,
estatua es obra del escultor italiano
Pompeo, y
su hijo
flie
Leone Leoni,
terminada en
Jose Manuel Blecua, autor de
la
el
331
entre otros lugares. La
quien probablemente ayudo
a
ano 1564/
edicion canonica de
la
poesia quevedesca, cita
la
explicacion de Crosby dandole su asentimiento,^ tambien parecen mostrarse de
acuerdo Ignacio Arellano y Lia Schwarz en su edicion mas reciente del mismo poema/ Yo, sin embargo, encuentro problematica la propuesta de la estatua de Leoni como modelo inspirador de los versos analizados. Estos ensalzan la figura de Carlos V como conquistador y como caudillo militar, enumerando de manera mas o menos expUcita algunas de sus gestas belicas. Quevedo se demora en el primer cuarteto celebrando, de manera tan pomposa como abstracta, las empresas navegadoras organizadas por Carlos V, tal vez las que tuvieron como destino y objeto la ampliacion de los territories conquistados en el Nuevo Mundo; este habia sido, al fin
y
un argumento recurrente en
cabo,
al
heroica
V
de Carlos
durante
comparacion, favorable para Carlos Uego mas
en
alia
iconografia y
la
la
de
el
creacion y
la
siglo
la
propaganda de
XVI, ya que permitia
las
panegirica imperial.^ Desde
el
segundo cuarteto hasta la
alabanza anterior de
Elba contra los protestantes, culminadas en
aparecen en los la
w.
5—6; la expedicion triunfante contra
las
el final se las glorias
campanas en
la batalla
al
Saco de
Roma y
"valentia ardiente, es sugerida
ausente";
por
el
el
si
cautiverio del Papa
no piadosa";
la
Tunez de 1535, en
el v. 7;
9-10
Clemente VII en 1527, exhibicion de
sofocacion del levantamiento de
asordinado, casi eufemistico
12 apunta a
el
de Miihlberg
represion de la revuelta de los moriscos de 1525-1526 en los vv. 7-8; los vv.
aluden
una
emperador, entre sus navegaciones y las de Hercules: columnas del Alcida, y asi, plus ultra fue lema recurrente
navegadoras, escuetas menciones de glorias belicas especlficas: el
imagen
el
suceden, en llamativo contraste de extension con
Danubio y
la
establecer
v. 11:
la retirada del sultan
"y de Espaiia
las el
comunidades
rumor sosego
turco Soliman en Viena ante los
ejercitos imperiales el aiio 1535; los dos ultimos versos exaltan la abdicacion
de Carlos en favor de su hijo y su retirada a Yuste en 1556 como un acto de aun mayor valentia que, como tal, se alinea con las anteriores gestas y les sirve de culminacion.'
Que relacion existe entre, por un lado, el contenido de este poema y la presentacion de ese contenido, y por otro, el objeto referencial de la estatua de Leoni y la manera en que este se plasma? El conjunto escultorico' tiene dos figuras: una es la del emperador,
*
*
que aparece erguido y firme en atuendo guerrero, y
James O. Crosby, En tomo a
Quevedo, Obra
Poetica, ed.
la
poesia de
la otra, la del
Quevedo (Madrid, 1967), 67-68.
Blecua, 418-419.
' Francisco de Quevedo, Un HeracUto Cristiano: Canta sola a Lisi y otros poemas, ed. y estudio preliminar de Lia Schwarz e Ignacio Arellano (Madrid. 1998), 91-92, 715. ^
Vease Fernando Checa Cremades, Cartas
V y la
imagen del heroe
eti el
Renadmiento (Madrid,
1987), 196ss. '
La explicacion de
estos
w.
esta
en Quevedo, Un Heradito
Cristiano, ed.
Schwarz y Arellano,
91-92. 715. '
Una
fotografia frontal y posterior
puede verse en
la
obra y lugares ciudos de Crosby.
QUEVEDO Y FALCO
332
Furor, que yace en cadenas rendido a los pies de Carlos V. La obra de Leoni presenta, si,
poema de Quevedo: ambas exaltan el triunfo del emperami entender, sin embargo, las diferencias entre ambas obras
una coincidencia con
dor sobre
el
son mas llamativas que
las
enemigos particulares e
me
este es abstractor
Quevedo neto,
el
A
enemigo.
semejanzas.
historicos;
cuesta concebir que esa
enumeracion de todos
la
Quevedo conmemora
y abdicar:
cuestionado
es decir, el
— uno de
los
propio Carlos
la
que en
el siglo
con
escultura
V
que encontramos en su so-
— desde
seria
enemigos representado por
el
V
sobre
mismo
si
punto de
el
Furor, pero eso
al
vista aqui
me
parece
intenciones encomiasticas del poeta. Es
las
XVII, como recuerda Crosby,
la victoria
Furor, y
el
figura alegorica le inspirase a
los triunfos especificos
quiza poco decoroso y consonante con cierto
mera
ultimo de los cuales, no olvidemos, lo obtuvo Carlos
el
retirarse
na
diversas victorias sobre
Leoni nos presenta un solo enemigo,
en Tunez y que
una tradicion que
existe
relacio-
"no duda en traducir
esa tradicion
la
V
dominando el furor turco',"'" y la victoria sobre el turco en Tunez es aludida por Quevedo; como tambien es verdad que en el mismo siglo XVII se interpretaba, diversamente, esa figura del Furor como una alegoria de la herejia protestante, y este es otro enemigo cuya derrota celebra el soneto. Ahora bien, aun en el caso de que Quevedo conociese esas interpretaciones, la estatua reflejaria uno solo de los adversaries debelados por Carlos V, mientras que el soneto despliega a nueve de ellos. Por lo demas, si Quevedo se hubiera inspirado en la obra inscripcion del plinto por 'Carlos
de Leoni, esperariamos quiza en sus versos dente en
todo
lo
de
la
mencion
la escultura: esa palabra, sin
esta perspectiva, el titulo del
sirvio
si
poema
otro
modelo con
Me
circulo y, sobre todo, de
la
obra de
una obra poetica
poeta
cuadratura del
y diversa. Su
didactico y la epopeya; pero ante todo,
y la satira, asi como el quiza su produccion epigramatica
la lirica, la elegia, la egloga,
fiindamento principal de su reputacion
Asi Checa, Carlos V, 138ss.; vease 139, para
fiae
como
mas
recordemos que Baltasar
escritor:
interpretaciones sobre
de su produccion, vease E. Plon, Les
maitres Ualiens au service de la
Pompeo Leoni
el
proposito de
misma obra de
tatua y su posible inspiracion en Virgilio Eneida 1.291-296. Sobre la
sculpteur de Charles-Quint et
la
latina relativamente extensa
poema
y venusta cultivo
mode-
el
que presenta mas semejanzas y que no es de indole refiero a unos versos del poeta valenciano Jaime Juan
facil
en
si
el
pluma
citada
O
embargo, que
muerto en 1594, autor de un tratado sobre
Falco, nacido en 1522 y
ria
es central y evipor su ausencia en
parece inadecuado."
libertad. Sin descartar esa filiacion, creo, sin
escultorica sino literaria.
'"
que
brilla
de fiaente a Quevedo, hay que reconocer que Quevedo trato a su
con evidente
tuvo ante
el
del furor,
embargo,
soneto.
el
Desde Leoni
el titulo
la
es-
y la histoMaison d'Autriche: Leon Leoni
sculpteur de Philippe II (Paris,
arte
1887) (obra que conozco
de Checa).
el libro
" Para otros casos de inadecuacion en
los titulos
de Gonzalez de
Salas,
cf.
R. Alvarez
Hernandez, "Fuentes y originalidad de un soneto de Quevedo consagrado a Roma sepultada en si misma," Canente 6 (1989): 15-27 (sobre el titulo del soneto "A Roma sepultada en sus ruinas"); Francisca
Moya,
"Salas,
un humanista
al
trabajo," in J.
Humanismo y pervivencia 1997), 2:455-478, esp. 470 y n. 62.
Charlo Brea,
eds.,
del
mundo
M. Maestre
clasico II:
Maestre,
Homenaje
J.
Pascual Barea, y L.
al Profesor
Luis Gil (Cadiz,
DANIEL LOPEZ-CANETE QUILES Gracian lo celebrara en valenciano."
XVII otorgandole
el siglo
el
333
honorable
titulo
de "el Marcial
Y entre sus epigramas precisamente esta la composicion que nos interesa: VII
TVMVLVM CAROLI QVINTI IMPERATORIS
IN
nudos iam reddere montes,
Parcite, mortales, et
Carolo tantas aedificare pyras.
Sit labor artificum solas
ostendere palmas
Caesaris, et tumulus Caesare dignus erit.
Prima triumphato
stupefiat Gallia rege,
procumbat supplex Caesaris ante pedes.
Ad dextrum
Roma latus,
stet
Carthago sinistrum,
altera capta tuis, altera capta tibi.
Sint alibi Turcae uertentes signa retrorsum, et iam iam pereant, ni ferat Ister opem. Ante Deos iaceant exuti Saxones armis,
Caedeque Parte
alia
decolor Albis
terribili
Alcidem
sistat
eat.
sua meta, tibique
terra suos fines augeat,
unda
suos.
Vltima de seipso uictoria magna sequatur, sitque ahter
His
ita
Octauum El epigrama,
comio de una
magnus qui modo magnus
erat.
compositis, crescent miracula mundi:
Caroli nobile funus
como vemos,
serie parecida
tiene
como tema
erit.'^
central el
de triunfos de Carlos
V
en
mismo que la
que
el
soneto:
se incardina, a
el
en-
modo
mismo nivel, si no superior, que las victorias rruliun poeta a otro. En Falco, la enumeracion de las victorias es el contenido de sus instrucciones para un tumulo adecuado en honor del emperador: su poema es exhortativo. En el narrative Quevedo, por el contrario, no existen semejantes recomendaciones funerarias. Ahora bien, estas tampoco tienen de remate,
tares.
la
abdicacion, puesta
al
Cierto: la presentacion varia de
sentido cuando
el
madrileiio escribe,
tal
vez medio siglo despues de muerto Carlos V:
su omision, pues, estaba justificada. Es cierto tambien que, en apariencia, los hechos
celebrados pertenecen
de Carlos
V
triunfos imperiales
supremo.'-'
'-
al
acervo
comun de
la historia,
y que en
hallamos, igualmente, ejemplos que consisten en
No
coronado por
he encontrado,
sin
el
elogio de
la
la
panegirica anterior
el
despliegue de los
abdicacion, considerada
el
triunfo
embargo, ningun poema que concentre ese con-
Jaime Juan Falco, Obras Completas,
I:
Obra PoetUa, ed.
critica, trad.,
troductorio de Daniel Lopez-Canete Quiles (Leon, 1996), 1.7, p. 34. Vease
notas y estudio inla
introduccion para
aquellas y otras noticias sobre la vida y obra de Falco. '^
en
Cf., e.g., el
"Epigrama a
Varias Poesias. ed.
de L.
la
muerte del Emperador Carlos Quinto" de Hernando de Acuna,
F. Larios
(Madrid, 1982), 355:
QUEVEDO Y FALCO
334
un numero de
tenido en
de Falco (observese que 16], solo
versos parecido
de Quevedo,
al
este desgrana las gestas del
como
si
ocurre en
emperador en 12 versos
dos menos que los 14 del soneto). Por otra parte,
al
margen
las
de Falco, un poeta admirado por otros grandes genios espanoles de
latinas
caso
del caso pre-
de que Quevedo leyo con provecho para su obra
sente, existen indicios
el
[del 5 al
poesias
los Siglos
de Oro.
En
mencionado al comienzo de esta comunicacion trate de ilustrar esa comparando otro epigrama de Falco y otro soneto quevedesco, que pueden alli; he aqui mas textos convergentes de ambos autores cuyo parangon interesa. el trabajo
hipotesis leerse
Un
soneto
tumulo del Duque de Lerma
al
No
he de decirte
Que Toda Por su
parte,
Escorial dice
el
nombre de
lo sabes, parecerte
si
se
remata del
modo
siguiente:
su dueiio,
ha poca
aquesta grandeza a sus despojos.^*
un breve epigrama de
Falco sobre
el
monasterio de San Lorenzo de El
asi:
DE TEMPLO
O
DIVI LAVRENTII
tu qui palles hac uisa mole, uiator,
ingredere ulterius, plusque stupebis opus.
Autorem
taceo,
Y
hubo
al fin
Que
la
mas
Cuando
Gano
el
Comparense tambien y
letreros
tibi
dixero nomen,
senseris esse nihil.'*
otra vitoria
el
vencedor
su grandeza y valor, del
humano
Despreciando
historias
si
clara escurece
Pues fue solo
De
nam
rem tantam
iUico
el
estado,
summo
grado,
Imperio mayor.
estos
venos de
J.
C. Calvete de
Hie ubi uix Atropos potuit perscindere
Cum
Se pronus uincens,
N°
'*
1.16, ed.
filum,
prius in Belgis, nato tot regna Philippo,
cum
tot superauerit hostes,
Deponens etiam Imperium sponte '^
Estrella,
y epitaphios (Valladolid, 1570), 14:
219, ed. Blecua, 1:422^23.
Lopez-Canete, 46.
ipse dedisset.
El Tumulo Imperial, adomado de
DANIEL LOPEZ-CANETE QUILES Asimismo, en
de Quevedo leemos
los Sueiios
el
Y acogime donde me senalo, y tope muchos y
muchos
confesores y
para
la
tirosas
demonios en
poblacion del
Pregunte que por que
letrados.
camino, con palos
el .
.
.
muchos malos
los queria
echar del in-
un demonio porque eran de grandisimo provecho infiemo en el mundo: las damas, con sus caras y sus men-
a aquellos solos,
y dijo
hermosuras y buenos pareceres,
los letrados,
y
siguiente pasaje:
echando del infiemo muchas mujeres hermosas,
lanzas,
fiemo
335
con buenas
los confesores
y malos pareceres.
caras
con vendidas absoluciones
Y que asi los echaban porque
trujiesen gente.'*
Comparense
estas lineas
con
el
siguiente epigrama de Falco contra Lutero:
DE LVTHERO Ad
caeh portam fertur uenisse Lutherus, sed
Petrum
cemens de
hie
Per loca purgandi noxas
non tamen
fore uertit
iter.
uestigia fecit;
agnouit,
nam comes
error erat.
Venit ad infemas fauces, sed ianitor inquit:
"Aduena,
siste
pedem, non
Plus nobis lucri uiuus
tibi
quam mortuus
porta patet. affen.
Viue iterum ut ueniant miUia multa uirum."'' El parecido entre los pasajes comparados es evidente y no necesita mas comentario.
No
puedo afirmar con total certeza que los textos de Quevedo deriven de los de si no aceptamos este extreme, si estaremos obUgados a admitir la
Falco; pero incluso
afinidad existente entre los ingenios de
tuye un capitulo,
no voluminoso,
ambos
autores. Esta afinidad,
en
fin,
consti-
conexiones y puntos de comunion entre literatura latina y literatura vemacula en el Renacimiento, un vasto campo a cuyo estudio las paginas anteriores esperan haber aportado alguna contribusi
si
ilustrativo
de
las
cion y estimulo.
Universidad de Sevilla
'*
F.
de Quevedo, Los
suet'ws, ed.
137-138. '^
1.85, ed.
Lopez-Canete, 146.
de Ignacio Arellano (Madrid, 1991), "Sueno del Infiemo,*
Fuentes para
Comentarios de
los
Jodocus Badius Ascensius
MARIANO MADRID CASTRO de Badius (1462—1535) suponen un enorme volumen en Losde comentarios Constituyen mas importante despues de su obra.
cales.'
la
Tienen su origen en
y en Lyon
(antes
las
el total
sus trabajos gramati-
parte
explicaciones de clase, cuando enseno latin en Valence
de 1492—1499).- Continue escribiendolos durante toda su vida.'
Sus trabajos sobre Baptista Mantuano Entre
la larga lista
dedicado a
las
monografica de la
los
obra poetica del
manistas,
'
de obras que comenta Badius/ un capitulo importante
como Murrho
1462-1535
Renouard,
"
(1452-1494),* Brant (1458?-1521)7 o Bruchterius (primera
(Paris,
1908; repr.
o bien
et des
Hasta 1529, en que
como
compone
el
oannes dejosse Badius Ascensius, imprimeur
algunos datos cronologicos seguros
en Gante. Realize un viaje a
o despues de
ellos.
En 1492
se
la
ultima, a
Italia,
al
respecto:
que hay que
encontraba en Lyon
y,
profesor en Valence (Renouard, Bibliographie, 1:9).
ultimo, a
las Filtpicas
de Ciceron (Renouard,
1:143, 156; 2:322—324). Siguio editando Commentarii familiares hasta 1532,
de impresiones anteriores;
et
York, 1965), 1:140.
se hallaba
antes de los meses indicados
ya para esa epoca, habia ejercido ^
New
Bibliographie, 1:10, 140. Existen
en diciembre de 1488 y enero de 1489 situar
es el
1513^ edito en Paris una obra
poemas de Spagnuoli. En ella se encuentra recogida gran parte de Mantuano, a la que acompaiian comentarios suyos y de otros hu-
Ph. Renouard, Bibliographie des impressions
humaniste,
En
de Baptista de Mantua (1447-1516).
Aulo Geho (Renouard,
si
Bibliographie,
bien son revisiones
Bibliographie, 1:156; 2:468).
Las propias obras o sus autores se relacionan en Renouard, Bibliographie, 1:326: Terencio,
*
Boecio, Juvenal y Persio, Ciceron, Horacio, Ovidio, Virgilio, Expositiones Pierre
Bury o de Bur, Philippo Beroaldo,
F.
Otuvio,
al
uso de Salisbury,
Salustio, Navis StuUifera (Sebastian Brant),
Lucano, Valerio Maximo, Seneca, y Quintiliano. * Numero 232 del catalogo de E. Coccia, Le edizioni
delle opere del
Mantovano (Roma, 1960),
Die Matrikel
der Universitdt Basel (Basel,
55. *
Mor, Murr o Morer. Cf. Hans G. Wackemagel,
1951), 1:54. Cf. Renouard, Bibliographie, ^
1:
147:
ed..
Murr oder Morer.
La denominacion vemacub del nombre, Brant,
es
b
mas
usual. Inciuso persiste
cuando
se
LOS COMENTARIOS DE ASCENSIUS
338
De
mitad del siglo XVI).*
Mantuano,
en
se incluyen
ciento veintisiete titulos que Coccia atribuye'
los
los tres
volumenes de
esta
monografia un
total
al
de ochenta
y cuatro.
Segun en
las
investigacion llevada a cabo, existen en Espana tres bibliotecas piiblicas
la
que
se
conservan ejemplares de esta edicion: Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid,
En
Biblioteca Universitaria de Salamanca, y Biblioteca Universitaria de Valencia. '°
concreto,
hemos
Nacional y con
dificil
Biblioteca
la
comentarios de Badius incluidos en esta edicion nos revela multi-
los
tud de fuentes explicitas. Respecto a cundarias."
en
los dos ejemplares disponibles
de Salamanca.
el
La lectura de
con uno de
trabajado
Tambien
se
habria que diferenciar entre primarias y se-
ellas
encuentra informacion dispersa que apunta a fuentes de mas
determinacion y que requieren un estudio especifico.
£1 corpus analizado Se ha limitado a los comentarios correspondientes a
De
tuano: Contra poetas impudice loquentes y fuentes que se cita en ellos se acerca
nombre de
latiniza su
al
centenar.'^ Las
pila, e.g., Collecta Sebastiatii
aleman Das
navis (traduccion latina del original
las
siguientes obras del
numero
calamitatihus temporum. El
Brant
mas
Man-
total
de
nombradas por
recurridas,
opus Baptistae Mantuani (n. 14). Stultifera
in
Narrenschiff) es su
obra mas conocida, que
le
pro-
porciono fama internacional. Jean Brouchier. Los datos biograficos de
*
mas importante para determinar del
Mantuano Defortuna
los afios
Francisci
al., s.a.),
que recogen todas
como termino
la
referencia
comentario a
la
obra
En
los Archives biographiques frangaises (ed. S. Bradley,
XVII
obras biograficas francesas de los siglos
al
XX,
London
se establece
mencionada publicacion. Las ultimas obras de referencia son comenta-
ante quern la
Lucianus Scaphidius, Erasmo, y Simon de Colines en 1528. Esta informacion proviene de
rios a la
las
son escasos. Precisamente,
es la publicacion del
Gonzagae, editado por vez primera en Paris en 1512 (n° 210 del
catalogo de Coccia, Le edizioni, 52). et
este autor
en que vivio
obra de
Cf
'
J.
C. F. Hoefer, Nouvelk biographie generale, 46
vols. (Paris, 1855), 7:516.
Coccia, Le edizioni, 109-129.
Solo uno de los tres voliimenes y mutilado. " Entendiendo por ellas las que recibe a traves un autor intermediario. '°
En concreto, se han contabilizado un total de ochenta y ocho. El nombre empleado, asi el numero de veces que aparecen se indica a continuacion: Vergilius (209 veces), Ovidius Servius (49), Vulgata (41), Plinius (33), Horatius (32), luvenalis (21), Homerus (20), Lucanus
'^
como (57),
Augustinus
(14), Strabo (13), lustinus (12), Statins (11), (9),
Persius (9), Diodorus
Lucretius (4),
(6), Sallustius (6),
Festus (4),
Catullus
(3),
Curtius
Martianus Capella (1),
Aristarchus
Boethius (1), II
Plutarchus
Cato
(1),
(1),
(6),
(8),
Tibullus
Valerius
Macrobius
(4),
(3),
Lactantius
(3),
Propertius
(3),
Alexander (de Villedieu)
(1),
(Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini)
(1),
Probus
Q. Serenus (1),
Plato
Dioscorides
Pacuvius
(1), Ps.
(1), (1),
Acron
(3),
(3),
Apuleius
(2), Silius
(1),
Livius
(5),
Donatus
Mantuanus
(3),
Nonius Marcel-
(2),
losephus
(2),
Apollonius
(1),
Bergomensis chronographus
(1),
Ephorus
(1),
Sappho
(1),
(1),
Euphorion
Philostephanus
(1),
(9),
Itahcus (2), Varro (2),
Antipatros Sidonius
Badius Ascensius
(1),
Herodotus
Gellius (6), Hesiodus (6),
(6), Aristoteles (5),
Quintilianus
Avicenna
Dionysius Thrax
(10),
(7),
Medicus Tertius Ponticus
(3),
(1),
Manlius Theodorus
Cicero
Seneca
Maximus
(1),
(1),
(10),
(8),
Tortellius (4), Valla (4), Baptista
Martialis (2), Petrus Burrus (2),
(2),
Ausonius
Fabius Pictor
(4),
Ennius
Agathyrsides
(1),
(1),
(3),
Terentius
Solinus
Hieronymus
lus (3), Plautus (3),
Afranius
(8),
(1),
(1),
Pindarus
Simonides
(1),
Eusebius (1),
Pius
Siponti-
MARIANO MADRID CASTRO orden de frecuencia son Virgilio (209 veces), Ovidio
Horacio
(41), Plinio (33),'^
Juvenal (21),
(32),
(13), Justino (12), Estacio (11),
339
(57), Servio (49), la
Homero
(20),
Lucano
Agustin (10), Ciceron (10), Herodoto
(9),
Vulgata
Estrabon
(14),
Livio
(9),
y Persio (9). A partir de este autor, la frecuencia con que aparecen los demas es algo menor. Entre los no nombrados aqui (vease n. 12) se encuentran autores coetaneos,
como
propio Mantuano (en obras diferentes a
es el caso del
comentada, logica-
la
mente), o de Valla.
Badius y otros comentaristas La aludida edicion de 1513 incluye piezas del Mantuano comentadas por mas de
un humanista, pecialmente
que nos brinda
lo
poema
util el
la
posibUidad de cotejarlas. Para este
fin, resulta es-
Contra poetas impudice loquentes, que dispone de dos
comen-
de Badius y Murrho. Ello permite contrastar el uso de las fuentes en ambos. Respecto a De calamitatibus temporum, ha habido que recurrir a fragmentos con una tarios, los
como
extension suficiente
Algunos de
para posibilitar
la
obtencion de resultados
veniente de estar incompletes. Asi ocurre con
y
de Brant
el
De
al
libro
Han
1.
sido, pues, los
Su numero
Hace
zado.
De
muy
superior
al
incony
2'^
al libro
2
el
Theocritus
(1),
comentario
Contra poetas
al
(1),
un
autores'^ entre los
Theophiastus
(1),
el
otro comentario anali-
que ocupa un lugar pre-
Valerius Flaccus
referimos a C. Plinio Segundo,
Le sorprendio calamitatibus.
la
el
Leemos
(fol.
relinqui.
35v):
videbitur aut
Nee
el
comentario correspondiente
potuit Sebastianus et castigare.
Murrho primae
Quod
si,
ut
mienza propiamente
quod non aeque
el
y en
el
iba siguiendo
" Vid.
Mantuani quod Calamitatum
el
En
el fol.
al
quedan unas
32v). Igualmente,
(fol.
absolutum aut ter-
lineas
commentarii Sebastiani
de Murrho
el
el
Mur-
primer fragmento del
al final
del libro
48 y 52) compuestas, con toda seguridad, de forma anticipada
redactar
mor-
siguiente (36r) co-
siguiente encabezamiento: Collecta
inscribitur post
Antes de este encabezamiento, no obstante, ya se inseito
libro 2 (fols.
libro
est, in historiis, fabulis, [sic]
quadret, celeritati et indigesto labori vique dirae
comentario sustitutivo de Brant con
Sebastiani Brant in opus Baptistae
a]
Parthenices et Secundae
humanum
absque Murrhonis infamia candidi lectores tribuere dignentur."
trabajo de Brant
Vitru-
"Coegjt heu inexorabile fatum interpretationem banc
geographia, astronomia abstrusi sensus interpretationem erratum miniusve
rhonis defectum.
(1),
Viejo.
muerte cuando no habia concluido
commentariolos revidere, recognoscere
sum quiddam
Vegetius
(1),
(1).
abrumpi imperfectamque
tis
el
a los libros 1
comentarios de Badius y Brant
promedio que presenta en
referencia a cincuenta y
y Zoilus
" Nos '*
es
Suetonius
(1),
vius (1),
1
de Murrho'^
el
calamitatibus los elegidos para estudiar las relaciones entre ellos.
Fuentes citadas por Badius en
nus
satisfactorios.
comentarios a esta ultima obra que Badius adjunta presentan
los
al
1
(fol.
42v)
orden que
comentario.
el fol. 48, algo mas de una pagina en el fol. 52. En este nombre de Murrho, pero el fragmento presenta todas las trazas de pertenecer a este comentarista. En efecto, se repiten expUcaciones que se ban leido anteriormente en Badius. El comentario siguiente esta encabezado por el nombre de su autor: Brant. " Vergilius (44 veces), Ovidius (16). Servius (12), Horatius (11), Homerus (9), PUnius (6),
n. 14. Presenta
ultimo pasaje no
Strabo
(5),
esta
Terentius
7 lineas en
indicado
(5),
el
Cicero
(4),
luvenalis (4), Tibullus (4), Augustinus (3), Lucretius (3),
LOS COMENTARIOS DE ASCENSIUS
340
eminente
que
empleado cuarenta y cuatro veces. Es precise recordar al respecto de reducidas dimensiones.'' Otros autores citados tambien en gran
Virgilio,
obra
la
es
numero son Ovidio Estrabon
(5),
Homero
(16 veces), Servio (12), Horacio (11),
y Terencio
Plinio (6),
(9),
(5).
Fuentes citadas por Badius en el comentario al libro 2 De calamitatibus Su numero (29)'* esta en consonancia con el pro medio habitual que presentan
los
comentarios del celebre impresor. Es cierto que en algunos pasajes aporta abundancia
de fuentes, pero eUo no ocurre con regularidad. Normalmente, da gran cantidad de informacion de caracter didactico sin aludir a autores,'' lo que explica
extension
la
de sus trabajos.
Los autores a
que acude con mas frecuencia en
los
comentario
el
Horacio
Virgilio (22 veces), Plinio (11), Vulgata (10), Juvenal (6),
Lucano
(4),
y Servio
libro 2
son
Ovidio
(5),
al
(5),
(4).
Fuentes citadas por Murrho en el comentario al Contra poetas El panorama en este autor es bastante diferente. EUo se pone de manifiesto en el recuento, que arroja un resultado mas bajo que en Badius respecto a la misma obra comentada (39
autores).^"
Ademas,
preferencias son otras. Para confirmar esto
las
ultimo, basta con hacer recuento de los autores mas citados: Plinio (12 veces),
Nonius Marcellus
(3),
Ennius
Pompeius
(2),
Festus
(2),
Quintilianus
Avicenna
(1),
Manilas Theodoras (1),
Theocritus
" Veinte tuano y '*
el
(1),
Hesiodus
(2),
Varro
(2),
Donatus
(2),
Livius
Vulgata
(2),
Herodotus
(1),
Plaatas
Theophrastus
(1),
y Valerius Maximus
tamano octavo, incluyendo
la
Servius
(4),
Hieronymus
Diodorus
(3),
Livius
(1),
Petrus
Bumis
(2),
(1),
lenguaje poetico es ordo
mentarios). Vid.
fols.
Lactantius (1), Lucanus (1),
(1),
Suetonius
(1), Statias (1),
(1).
presentacion de
la
obra,
el
texto del
Man-
(3),
Augustinus
Apuleius
(2),
Cicero
(1),
Philostephanus
(1),
Horatius
(6),
Q. Curtius
Ovidius
(5),
Fabius Pictor
(1),
Seneca
(5),
Gellius (2), lusti-
(2),
Herodo-
(1),
Strabo
(1), Statius (1),
(1),
Nunca
est
el
orden usual de
La formula bajo
la
que
los
elementos de
la
al
que
(que en ocasiones se senala en los escolios impresos de los co-
es
lo utiliza Brant, al
oracion,
se explica este aspecto particu-
objeto de comparacion,
menos en
el
e.g.,
comentario a
en
el
del libro
los tres libros
De
1
De
Murrho
calamitatibus,
calamitatibus.
Plinius (12 veces), Strabo (11), Silius Italicus (9), Ovidius (7), Statius (7), Vergilius (7).
Pompeius
Catullus
(2),
(5),
Cicero
Martialis (5),
(2),
Homerus (1),
(1),
Nigidius
Rhodium
(1),
Hugucione da (1),
Diodorus Siculus
Gellius (2),
lus (2), Plautus (2), Propertius (2),
bius
Gellius (1),
(1),
42v, 48r, 48v, 49r et passim. Este recurso es utilizado alguna vez por
(en comentarios diferentes
(1),
Afranius
(1),
alterados tan frecuentemente por los poetas.
fol. 9v).
Propertius
(2), Martialis (2),
(1),
Solinus
(1), Sallustias (1),
y Tortellius (1). " E.g., continua es su preocupacion por mostrar
Festus
Josephus
(1),
(1),
hojas en
Acron
comentario de Badius.
(4),
Terentius
^
Macrobius
Pacavias
(1),
Persius (2), Solinus (2), Sallustius
(2),
tus (1),
lar del
(2),
(2), Ps.
Vergilius (22 veces), Plinius (11), Vulgata (10), luvenalis
Lucanus nus
Seneca
(2),
Cato
(1),
Persius (3), Plato (3), Valla (3), Aristoteles (2), Catullus (2), Diodorus (2),
Hieronymus
Vulgata
Pisa (1),
Persius (1), Plato
Servius (1), y Varro
(1).
(2),
(2),
luvenalis (4), Priscianus (3),
Horatius
Aristophanes
Hyginus
(1),
(4),
(1),
Plutarchus
(2),
(1),
Lactantius
Ptolemaeus
(1),
(1),
SoUnus
(3),
Nonius Marcel-
Diogenes Laertius
lohannes lanuensis (1),
(2),
(1),
Labeo
Hesiodus
(1),
Macro-
Scholia ad Apollonium
MARIANO MADRID CASTRO Estrabon (11), Marcial
(5),
Ovidio
Silio Italico (9),
(5),
Diodoro Siculo
(7),
Estacio
y Juvenal
(4),
(7),
341
Pompeyo
Virgilio (7), Festo
(4).
Fuentes citadas por Brant en el comentario al libro 2 De calamitatibus Son cincuenta y ocho en total. ^' El autor mas citado es Virgilio, que aparece el doble de veces que el segundo en frecuencia, Ovidio. A ellos hay que anadir como fuentes mas empleadas la Vulgata (31 veces), Servio (29), Plinio (21), Lucano (18), Estrabon (16), Justino (13), Solino (10), Diodoro (7), Livio (7), y Flavio Josefo (6).
tomo
Consideraciones en
a los comentarios de Badius y
Murrho
al
Contra poetas impudice loquentes
La nota mas llamativa de Badius firente a
ocupa
dius,
es la referencia
7 en Murrho. Ovidio, en cambio,
el
cuarto lugar en frecuencia en
el
continua a Virgilio: 44 veces,
segundo autor mas empleado por Ba-
el
comentario de Murrho. Los dos
uientes autores en Badius son Servio (que aparece doce veces; citado solo
Murrho) y Horacio Badius aporta
por su
Este,
el
(11 veces;
Consideraciones en
y
De
al libro 2
—
sobre todo,
En
bajos.
quince que no aparecen en
al
tomo
a los comentarios de Badius al Contra poetas
a
Badius consigo mismo, esto
Contra poetas y
la diferencia
el
comentario
De
al
numerica en
Lucanus
(21),
que
el
fuentes que emplea en sus co-
Gellius
(3),
explicitas
sigue: Vergilius (64 veces),
en
el
Ovidius
un
(2),
Plato
(2),
(1),
Aratus
(1),
Cornelius Celsus
lanua
(1),
y Tibullus
^ vius,
Sutius
Aristobulus (1),
(1), Martialis (1),
Prudentius (1),
(1),
(3),
Appianus
(2),
(1),
(2),
Valerius
(1),
Apuleius
Maximus
Athanasius
Eusebius
de cincuenta y un
Diodorus
Augustinus
(1),
(1), Sallustius (1),
Aeneas
(1),
(1),
(1),
(7),
(3),
Boccaccio
Piccolomini
Baptista
Mantuanus
Hesiodus
(1),
2 De
Livius (7), Josephus (6),
Homerus
Silvias
Philostephanus
Suetonius
libro
al
Vulgata (31), Servius (29), Plinius
(2), Aristoteles (2),
(2),
Fabius Pictor
Persius (1), Philelphus
Quintilianus
total
comentario de Brant
(33),
(18), Strabo (16), lustinus (13), Solinus (10),
Pomponius
atencion,
la
uso de fuentes y testimonios en ambos tra-
Festus (5), Herodotus (5), Horatius (4), Seneca (4), Cicero (3),
Lactandus
— llama
temporum 2
mas de 14 fohos en formato de octavo.^* Ello
La relacion compleu de fuentes
^'
es, las
calamitatibus
Contra poetas se encuentran
al
autores citados, recogidos en algo
calamitatibus es la
Murrho.^
comentario de Badius.^
el
calamitatibus
comparamos
Si
mentarios
en Murrho 2 veces).
testimonio de veinticuatro autores no empleados por
parte, presenta
sig-
una en
Tacitus
Hyginus
(I), (1),
Plautus
(1),
luvenalis (5), (2),
(1), (1),
(1),
(2),
Claudianus
Johannes de
(1),
Terentius
Florus
Ambrosius
Priscianus (1),
(1),
Thucydides
(1).
Afranius, Aristoteles, Gellius, Avicenna, Cato, Donatus, Ennius, Herodotus, Josephus, Li-
Lucanus, Lucretius, Manlius Theodorus, Pacuvius, Quintilianus,
Sallustius,
Seneca, Suetonius,
Maximus, y Valla. Pompeius, Gellius, Hieronymus, Hugucione da Pisa,
Terentius, Theocritus, Theophrastus, Tibullus, Valerius
" Aristophanes, Diogenes Laertius,
Festus
Hyginus, lohannes lanuensis, Labeo, Nigidius, Plutarchus, Priscianus, Ptolemaeus, Scholia ad
Apllonium RJiodium, y ^*
El texto poetico
Silius Italicus.
comentado ocupa unos
incluye dedicatoria, index rerum
et
tres folios. El
volumen
verborum, texto y comentario es de
20
total del
fols.
del
opusculo, que
tamano
referido.
LOS COMENTARIOS DE ASCENSIUS
342
frente a los veintinueve correspondientes
comentario
al
al
libro 2
De
calamitatibus
temporum, escrito en 10 folios aproximadamente,^^ tamano cuatemon, con lo que
vienen a resultar Si
casi el
doble de extensos.
hay coincidencia en relacion
a los auto res
son Virgilio (en Contra poetas 44 veces, en Ovidio, que ocupa ciende
Viejo
el
el
que ocupa
el
citados.
En ambos comentarios De calamitatibus 22);
analizado
segundo lugar en Contra poetas (16 veces mencionado), des-
sexto lugar en
al
mas
el libro
el
De
calamitatibus, libro 2.
segundo
En
este
comentario
es Plinio el
lugar.
Consideraciones en torno a los comentarios de Badius y Brant al libro 2 De calamitatibus No son de la misma extension: Badius ocupa algo menos de 13 folios,^^ Brant algo mas de 4. El primero recurre a un total de veintinueve autores, el segundo justamente al doble: cincuenta y nueve. Es, en cambio, curiosa la coincidencia de ambos en 64.
por delante de
citar a Virgilio
Ovidio y
las
mismo modo, Servio, Lucano, y ambos comentaristas. Badius Este,
fuentes. Badius lo
que no
se
hace referencia a treinta y
parte,
las
emplea 22 veces, Brant primeras fuentes." Del
ocho primeros en
Plinio se encuentran entre los
cita solo cuatro autores^*
por su
demas
Vulgata se encuentran tambien entre
la
encuentran entre tres
los
que aporta Brant.
que no aparecen en
el trabajo
de
Badius.29
Conclusiones Los datos que ciones. los
ofrecen estan, naturalmente, abiertos a multitud de interpreta-
se
Por nuestra
parte,
hemos
creido detectar algunos aspectos que se concretan en
puntos que siguen: 1)
A lo
largo del comentario, Badius aporta gran cantidad de informacion en dis-
tintos niveles: gramatical, historico, literario, religioso, etc. las
orienten
al
lector.
frente a treinta y
de Badius
^^
del
La utilizacion que hace de
fuentes tiene la finalidad de enriquecer la explicacion, aportando testimonios que
En
casi
Al abordar
el
Contra poetas hace cincuenta y
nueve que hace Murrho;
duplica a
esta edicion,
la
unos 4
sin
embargo,
la
un
alusiones a autores
extension del comentario
de Murrho. La inquietud principal de Badius parece ser
fols.
contienen
el
comentario de Brant y algo mas de
la
tres el texto
Mantuano. ^*
Por ambas
^ En
caras, se entiende.
Brant en segundo y tercero, con 33 y 31 veces respectivamente.
con 5 y 10 referencias respectivamente. Hieronymus, Petrus Burrus, Q. Curtius, y
En
Badius en sexto y
tercero, ^*
^'
Aeneas
Silvius Piccolomini, Valerius
Tortellius.
Maximus,
Tibullus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Suetonius,
Quintilianus, Prudentius, Priscianus, Pomponius, Plautus, Plato, Philelphus, Martialis, Lactantius,
Josephus, Johannes de lanua, Hygjnus, Homerus, Hesiodus, Florus, Festus, Eusebius, Cornelius Celsus, Claudianus, Boccaccio, Baptista Mantuanus, Athanasius, Aristoteles, Aristobulus, Aratus,
Appianus, y Ambrosius.
MARIANO MADRID CASTRO atencion
no dar muestras de
lector,
al
achacanele a Brant, que en ocasiones 2)
que
La eleccion de fuentes para
erudicion.-'" Este aspecto, cita autores
comentario no
el
Al menos no solamente. En
se explica.
como
rio del comentarista,
343
por contra,
si
puede
desmesuradamente." condicionada
esta
ello interviene
al
tipo de texto
de forma decisiva
el crite-
parece desprenderse del uso diverso de fuentes que hacen
Badius y Murrho cuando comentan la misma obra, el Contra poetas. Los autores que preferentemente maneja Badius se repiten en los dos comentarios
Vienen
analizados.
a ser Virgilio, Ovidio, Plinio el Viejo, Horacio,
muy empleados
primeros son
gorica de sus pasajes.
Con
comentarios.^^
A
en
y Servio. Los dos
comentarios medievales por la interpretacion ale-
los
Ciceron y su obra
los
nombra en cinco ocasiones en
los
dos
razon se podria decir que Badius no era propiamente un "cice-
roniano". Este dato no parece baladi, sobre todo cuando se considera su situacion en la controversia surgida entre
Erasmo y Bude
a raiz
de
la
publicacion en 1528 del
Ciceronianus, sive de optimo genere dicendi dialogus. 3) La disparidad de las fuentes presentadas por Badius y Murrho apoya la tesis del desconocimiento que cada autor tuvo del comentario del otro al Contra poetas, cues-
tion esta tratada en otro lugar.''
^ Hay que suponer que como alumnos
universitarios (vid.
Comenius,
los receptores
de ordinario,
se refieren
Hay en
con menos
general, pues,
Erasmo y Bude Scio
(vid.
Badium non
las
Bibliographic, l:26ss.).
esse prorsus ftfiouaov,
nostris hactenus probavit ut quoties
"escuela latina"
menos
ss.),
o gymnasium
de edades com-
fuentes citadas en los comentarios
creacion del topico respecto
la
recriminaciones que se
Renouard,
como
de lo que lo hacen Murrho y Brant. Este hecho
detalle
debe de haber influido de manera notable en
dado de simple, a juzgar por
comentarios de Badius no son tanto estudiantes
los
Lopez Peces [Madrid, 1986], 272
Didactica magna, trad. S.
prendidas entre los 14 y 17 anos. y,
de
ya avanzados de lo que se conocia
verum
le dirigen
Germain
una vez Brice,
al latin
abierta la
amigo de Bude,
qualis qualis est, talem se certe
de doctis sermo inter doctos
de Badius,
incidit,
til-
polemica entre escribe:
hominibus
de Badio plane
oii5el5 XCrfoc,.
Toussain, por su parte, le dedica este epigrama:
Desine mirari quare postponat Erasmus
Budaeum
Badio; plus favet
ille pari.
(En Renouard,
Tambien posteriores,
los propios
aunque
graphic, 1:140 ^'
E.g.,
Bibliographic, 1:27)
comentarios fiieron denostados por sabios y eruditos contemporaneos y con fines didacticos en multitud de ocasiones (Renouard, Biblio-
se plagiaron
ss.).
en
el fol.
53r de
la
edicion manejada
(Paris, 1513), se
viene a citar una media de un
autor por linea. ^"
Frente a
las
" M. Madrid
66 en que remite
a Virgilio
o
las
Castro, "Badius* and Murrho's
R. Schnur (Tempe. AZ, 2000), 397-402.
poetas impudicc loquentcs," in
et
al.,
eds..
21 a Ovidio.
Commentaries on Baptisu Mantuanus* Contra
Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Abulensis,
MRTS 207
LOS COMENTARIOS DE ASCENSIUS
344
se
4) Hay evidencias de que Brant utilize y completo desprende de que Brant repite practicamente todos
No
en vano,
el trabajo
de Badius
se
el
comentario de Badius,
los autores
publico siete aiios
antes.-''*
UNED
^
Brant manifiesta en su comentario
(fol.
48r): Astra indicant
primera edicion del comentario de Badius hay que suponerla en 1:146).
De
hecho, en
el
comentario de Brant
comentario de Badius a este mismo libro
1
al
(fol.
libro 40r).
1
De
como
que nombra Badius.
1
Motril
annum Domini MCCCCCVI. La 499 (cf. Renouard, Bibliographie,
calamitatihus aparece
como
fiiente el
Memory
Training in
Renaissance Education
JOHN
R. C.
MARTYN
modem education, students seem to be almost incapable of memorizing anyInthing, and Classics students now expect to be allowed to take in dictionaries and grammars for exams. By
day there were no dictionaries, no
contrast, in Cicero's
grammars, and almost no encyclopaedias, and the papyrus to read. Their capital letters ation.
Finding a particular passage in a
roll
all
the early Greeks, invented a system of mnemonics to
At
on,
many
slaves,
were
able to read the
remedy
this
brilliant
problem,
similar
tion struggled with the
and hnked with well-trained memories.
oral skills,
works appeared on
this topic, as
generation after genera-
problem of absorbing and remembering an ever-growing
body of knowledge. Mind you, today most eight-year-olds can obtain almost their knowledge as they surf the net. But what one does with it all, and the CD full
of encyclopaedias,
of
late in
that time, the transmission of Uterature, history, science,
music depended almost entirely on
From then
no punctu-
According to Cicero, Simonides, one of the most
facility.
the sixth century B.C.
virtually
of text must have been extremely time-
consuming. Only a few scholars, and the better educated roUs with any
were extremely hard
rolls
were unseparated, and there was
is
the
modem
all
of
racks
problem.
In the fourth century B.C., Diogenes of Sinope was captured by pirates and sold to a Corinthian, Xeniades, as a tutor for his sons.
Relying on
his
memory, the Cynic
many long passages of poetry and history, and aphorisms own works, and made them memorize these passages in order to train their
philosopher taught them
from
his
own
memories. Bear in mind that papyrus roUs containing the works of the Greek
authors
would have helped
a scholar
Uke him. By 167
Perseus of Macedonia had been brought over to to
Aemihus
B.C., the entire Ubrary
Rome,
of King
after the King's capitulation
Paullus at the battle of Pydna.
This influx of Greek texts had a dramatic
eflfect
on indigenous
Roman
culture,
bringing in a new, Greek system of education and Greek models for philosophy, pohtics, rehgion, drama, also,
and remained Greek
and
literature.
thereafter.
Science and medicine were Greek imports
Only law was
a
Roman preserve. The
so-called
MEMORY TRAINING
346
"Scipionic Circle" had
full
access to this library of PauUus
patron of the
lianus, a great
arts.
members of the
circle, like
Roman law.
who
shared with
In
philosophy to
Aemi-
Mucins Scaevola and
satire,
major part in codi-
Laelius, played a
This extraordinarily talented group was greatly admired by Cicero,
them
a passion for
one of Cicero's main
fact,
his son, Scipio
and the historian Polybius. Other
Lucilius, the dramatist Terence, the Stoic Panaetius,
fying
and
His friends included the inventor of Roman
culture.
was
his publisher, Atticus,
who
of Greek
his adaptation
new
works, for which he often had to coin
his Latin
with the assistance of
Greek
services to posterity
words,
at
times
was an expert in the Greek lan-
We know that Cicero covild quote from almost all the Greek and Latin works
guage.
and he was extremely accurate, except for an odd connective or
available in his day,
He
adjective.
quotes, for example, from the thirty books of Satires
composed by Lu-
written over a hundred years before, and although only forty verses appear,
cilius,
they cover most of the poems, and are used in eight of his works, including speeches
and
and are almost word-perfect.' Aulus
letters,
from memory
a six-line passage
about A.D. 160, quoted
Gellius, in
from book 8 of Ennius' Annals, with
just
one
slip.
knew over one hundred and fifty speeches of old Marcus Cato, delivered two centuries before his day. And Quintilian, the first professor of education in Rome, in Cicero
about A.D. 100, expected
and
his students to learn speeches
But he condemned other
scripts.
who
teachers
to
caned children
memorize
when
their
their
own
memories
them down.^ Another writer who knew the Satires of Lucilius well was Lactantius, the "Christian Cicero", who quoted from memory a six-line passage attacking superstition.
let
(One or two words and
is
still
differ
from the version
The
in Nonius.)
passage
relevant, with the popular love today of horoscopes,
is
quite striking
and of witchcraft.
Potter-style:^
man
This
trembles
at
Numa Pompiliuses, beHeve false
that
all
bronze
dreams are
true,
test
and believe that
and
real
a heart beats in
'
There
^
when ^
and
as
many
are four in in
De
so those fools think that
bronze
statues.
as
De
the sword replaces
same time
are
as
we
Oratore, four in
De
shall see.
Finibus,
Atticae, 20.10.1.
Others from
one each
us that
feat
and
reappeared in
classical
times with
in the Tusculan Disputations, in
Letters to Atticus (6.6.7, 13.21.3, 16.11.1).
Cicero, Pro Murena 14.30,
wisdom and violence
tells
to four secretaries,
seven secretaries simultaneously. This
Natura Deorum, and three in his
Aulus Gellius, Nodes
starts
Wit^ proeliis promulgatis,
takes over rational debate.
In Lactantius's great defense of Christianity, Divinae Institutiones, 1.22.13.
Lactantius
They
of memory was simultaneous dictation. The Elder Phny
medieval and Renaissance times,
Brutus,
men,
real, all fictitious.
Julius Caesar used to dictate four letters at the
sometimes used
baby boys
that they are all-important. Just as
statues are alive
nothing
painters' galleries,
Another
scarecrows and witches, established by our Fauns and
and he thinks
was professor of rhetoric under Diocletian and became a Christian
Bom
in Africa,
late in his life.
JOHN
MARTYN
R. C.
proverbial memories were Cyrus of Penia,
347
who was
believed to
know
the
name of
every soldier under him, Cineas, ambassador to Pyrrhus, and Marcus Cato himself,
who
on medicine, jurisprudence, and military scibooks on Roman history. All these works were stored in Cicero's memory-bank. In his old age, Cato exercised his mind by running over everything which he had said, heard, or done during the day; to him they were his "intellectual gymnastics," the "race-courses of his mind" rather Uke Kim's game today. Any child at school in ancient Greece or Rome had a slate, and very little else. Long hours of rote learning was the only means of acquiring a wide knowledge. And most teachers used a cane to prod the memory, even though Quintilian recommended little cakes and incentives.* In medieval times, httle had changed. There were small collections of manuscripts in the scriptoria of monasteries, and a few well-stocked hbraries, like the Pope's. But books were still very rare and costly, even when they replaced the papyrus rolls. In the third century A.D., with the growing demand for Bibles in particular, books (cowrote an encyclopaedia,
ence, plus a major
work on
treatises
agriculture and seven
—
began to appear, using foHos of vellum, or sheets of papyrus, or thin boards of
dices)
white acacia. But words were very slow to be separated, and Latin scribes used capitals until
case
the
fifth
Carohngian
century, and uncials until the eighth. script
appeared in the
late eighth
was only when the lower-
It
century that words were properly
separated and punctuated, and book-production was encouraged by the emperor.
This allowed the better-educated priests and lay people to read the holy
texts.*
With the great shortage of texts, certainly until about A.D. 900, erudite monks had to memorize any works which were available to them personally, or on loan to their monastery. To achieve this, various mnemonic devices were developed, adapted firom those of the Greco-Roman experts. Ironically, the increase in printed books led to an equal increase in works on memory training. This fact has been well documented by Mary Carruthers, in her important recent work on Memory in Medieval Culture. She rightly ai^es that no monastery had enough Bibles, or bibhcal commentaries or important classical texts, for ordinary monks or nuns to have more than a very small collection of their own. And so mnemonic techniques had to be used to help the monks memorize those many religious works which they were expected to know by heart.*
A well-known work in the field is the early eleventh-century treatise on memory by Hugh of Saint Victor, designed to
*
For Cato's words, see Cicero, De
tutio Oratoria,
train
Senectute,
memories
1 1
.38.
1.3.14—17, and 1.1.36: maxime necessaria
based on Cicero's
De
Oratore
and the
specifically to
understand and
For caning children, see Quintilian, Imti-
est oratori
Rhetorica ad Herennium,
is
memoria. His treatment of memory, in
1
1.2.1-51 (pmnis disciplina memo-
ria constat). *
Gregory the Great donated valuable manuscripts from
his library to
monasteries and nunneries, and to missionaries like Saint Augustine,
as
many newly-founded
can be seen in his Registmm
Epistolarum. *
1999)
Carruthers, The Book of Memory. A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge, which Elisabeth van Houts, Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe 900-1200 (Toronto,
Mary
1990), to is
very
much
indebted.
MEMORY TRAINING
348
interpret the Bible, without the aid of the text
gratitude the daily
by
alone,
exercises said to
John of Salisbury
itself.
be given to him and
Bernard of Chartres. But for great
their teacher,
memory
memorizing
no one could
surpass
feats
of creative writing from
Thomas Aquinas, whose
he too could dictate to three or four
recalled with
his fellow pupils
secretaries claimed that
Caesar had
secretaries at once, just like Julius
done.'
The invention of printing needed if
to be wealthy to
certainly
own
a lot
rich.
The
he or she was lucky or
productions were very pricey. In
were almost
as
in just five years,
Despite
this
And
monastic
yet
texts,
but only
libraries
one
of monks,
priests,
printed editions of Virgil's Georgics as
the finest and most
editions of the Georgics appeared clear that there
it
was a very
and the rich could afford them.
and scholars
still
A
really retentive
memory
remained
still
priest or scholar, or for that
the eminent Scottish humanist George
Ren-
on well-endowed and widen their theo-
relied
or on those of wealthy patrons, to establish
classical learning.
still
dozen or so
were extremely labor-intensive, and
first
no fewer than ten
quirement in the training of any
articles
the
half a
increased availability of reUgious and classical texts during the
libraries,
and
early presses fact,
between 1467 and 1472.* This made
new
aissance, the vast majority
logical
self-education far easier, but
A scholar might have
ornate in their lettering and illuminations
expensive manuscripts.
strong thirst for
made
of books.
Buchanan was found
a vital re-
matter lawyer.
guilty
When
of deviations on
of faith by the Inquisition in Lisbon, in July 1551, he was placed under house
arrest in the
monastery of Sao Bento. The prior claimed that
totally unsuitable for a guest like
Buchanan,
a scholar
his little
monastery was
and friend of the queen, but the
Scot was forced to spend seven uncomfortable months there in isolation, until he was
pardoned and literary
work,
expected to
left
for France.
While
his Latin paraphrases
know
all
Even when teaching
in his cell,
his
most all
successfiil
monks were
the Latin psalms by heart, and the same applied to Buchanan. in
Coimbra, he owned only
colampadius's Excerpts from Greek Literature,
six
or so books,
Stifelius's Arithmetic,
among them Oe-
and Cicero's Defense
two edited by Melanchthon, which could have proved dangerous. He few other speeches by Cicero. But he took none of these books with monastic ceU. And yet, while he was buried away there, his memory pro-
ofMilo, the also
owned
him
to his
last
a
vided the framework and substance for
were soon
Buchanan prepared
of the Psalms. In medieval times,
his paraphrases.
With some
revisions, these
to astound the literary and religious circles in Paris with the beauty
elegance of their poetry.
Over
a
hundred editions of these poems have been
and dis-
covered, and their early publishers were none other than Henri Estienne and Plantin.
Some of them were
set to
Buchanan was introduced
'
The
music.
Through
to the vivacious
year of John of Salisbury's birth
is
these poems, and friends in the Pleiade,
Mary, soon
uncertain, but if
1 1 1
to
5
is
be Queen of France and
accepted, Bernard could not
have taught him (he died in 1130). *
Andreas 1467, 1471; de Spira 1470. 1471; Mentelin 1470; Ahayes 1472; Bartol 1472; Fiviz-
zano 1472; Gering 1472; and Girardanus 1472.
JOHN foUowed her
Scotland, and he that's
another
More
R. C.
MARTYN
to the Highlands, to
349
become her
personal tutor. But
story.'
mnemonics is an episode in the life of Prince Edward of Andre de Resende, in 1541. When the prince was he showed great originality and writing abihty, and an amazing
interesting for
Portugal, described by his teacher, a teenager,
still
memory. The eminent Louvain
scholar Nicolas Clenardo was attracted by a princely
salary to the royal court to tutor
boy
the
fluent Latin oration. thereafter for
young Edward.
On
his arrival,
King John was
so impressed that he
university classes. Later on, the prince
all
Resende. They were reading the
his other tutor,
Clenardo addressed
was surprised to be welcomed by him with an equally
in fluent Latin, and
made
Latin compulsory
was studying
principia to the
dialectics
with
Ars Rhetorica of
Johannes Caesarius, printed in Louvain in 1539, and they then turned to
Aristotle, for
His elder brother and a future king, Prince Henry, visited the
light relief, presumably!
two of them one day during their siesta, and Resende suggested that Edward should show his elder brother how well he was progressing. The young Prince closed his book, and gave
his
brother a resume in Latin of Porphyry's
He
De
Praedicabilibus, Aris-
Henry was De Officiis with the young prince, and -they had just read chapter 7, De lustitia. Edward recited this chapter from memory, word for word, and then recited all the critical notes. He then started at the last word and
totle's Categories,
Plato's Parmenides.
did so with such fluency that
astounded. Resende was also studying Cicero's
of the chapter, and recited the text backwards, right to the very a pause.
According to Resende, he often did
been studying.
knew ly,
admired
Incidentally, Augustine
and could
also recite
ward was
their
Resende
and Resende proved
to
tinuity, as if dictating just
one
and so on,
letter,
his
secretaries simultaneously,
Edward dictated one and then jumped back to
his tutor,
He
a passionate
clause to
the
first,
maintained perfect con-
without stopping. As well
memory and fluency in Latin, Edward showed under
who
apposite-
be outstanding teachers, and Ed-
saw the grown-up prince dictating to four and Aquinas. According to
shirt
them most
student.'"
secretary, the next to another
rough hair
Simphcianus,
his fellow-student,
without a pause, and with every word in the right place.
a
word, without
books of Virgil's poems both forwards and backwards with
most briUiant
also
just like Caesar
first
with other texts which they had
the works of Cicero and Virgil off by heart, and could use
great accuracy. Clenardo
one
this
as
his
amazing
devotion to God, wearing
blouse and worshipping regularly in his private chapel.
His elder brother, Alphonso, died early in the year, and Edward was very hkely to
'
Philip
For a J.
reliable
biography of
this great
man, see
I.
D. McFarlane, Buchanan (1981). See
were many selections and translations, mostly into English. See McFarlane, They were published by Estienne and Plantin in 1556.
tions, there
247, 263. '"
also
Ford, George Buchanan: Prince of Poets (Aberdeen, 1982). For his psalms, besides the edi-
For the remarkable
Biographies of Prince
life
and death of Prince Edward, see
Edward and
Friar Pedro by
and Marcus Cato, mentioned above, were
Andre de Resende
all
my
Bttchanan,
edition and translation of the
(New York,
picked out by Resende in
1997). Cyrus, Cineas,
his
biography of Prince
Edward. For a nearly contemporary expert on mnemonics, with an equally prodigious memory, see
Rene Hoven,
Specimen
artis
memoriae
.
.
.
de Lambert-Thomas Schenckels (1978): 121-126.
MEMORY TRAINING
350
succeed John on the throne of Portugal, but he did not tion, like
Alphonso, just
six
months
last
long, dying of consump-
October 1540, when barely twenty-five
later, in
years old.
Memory er they
training played a major part in the preservation of oral traditions,
were
sagas built into the Iliad
ordinary families,
women
and Odyssey of Homer,
tales
especially, vital for the social history
wheth-
of monks and
of medieval and
Renaissance times, or explanations of the world around them, sung by Aboriginal ders.
The
great oral poets
and
story-tellers
countless phrases and tales plucked sagas
were the
basis
but kept alive in
his
of a boy's
from
five
of the
side
memories. For the Aboriginals, these
on the shifting sand, condemned as works of antiSome have now been preserved on tape, as
memory. Few of them
throughout the country. In
on one
their
initiation, illustrated
Christ by the early English missionaries.
have just four or
six
fact,
el-
could adapt and enrich a narrative with
still
on
trees or
survive,
hundred or so Aboriginal languages once spoken
when
the whites
first
arrived. Aboriginal tribes living
of Sydney Harbor could not understand those on the other, like the bel-
ligerent tribes
on opposite
sides
of the English Channel. Family
stories are
most
important for medieval and Renaissance history, but they are even more important for the preservation of more ancient cultures, like that of the Aboriginals.
most family tion,
histories,
was one of the
which explained cruellest results
their
own myths
as part
The
loss
of
of the world's crea-
of the 'stolen generation'. But
that's
another
story also.^'
University of Melbourne
" For living epics, see D. C. Rubin, Memory
in
Oral Traditions (Oxford, 1995).
Laughter and Humanism:
Unity and Diversity
in
Thomas Morels Epigrammata
ELIZABETH
Thomas More's Epigrammata Diversity" ism.
The
theme
McCUTCHEON
N.
of the "Unity and
a particularly telling instance
is
in the Res publica Utterarum of Northern Renaissance
Utopia and a collection of epigrams by Erasmus, and printed in a separate years later, in each instance
otherwise a disparate and
by the
difficult
and
Fewer than
sixty in the
a quarter
1518
(as
to
the humanists
would put
it)
because
so
it is
of the poems included in the collection (two hundred
two hundred and
editions,
epigrams from 1518 and adds eleven
sixty-nine in 1520,
new poems)
been written over a twenty-year or so period on that their tides often emphasize.' translate
volume two
Johann Froben.' The Epigrammata is describe. In some sense, indeed, it is a
press of
work
miscellany that deUghts and instructs varied.
human-
collection was twice printed in 1518, together with the third edition of the
are datable.' all
More's sources are
sorts
which omits two
But they seem to have
of occasions
also varied.
—
He was
occasions
the
first
to
and pubUsh many of the epigrams from the Planudean Anthology in Western
Europe, and over one hundred poems are translations of or variations upon epigrams
from the Greek material
text.*
But he
also adapts traditional jests
and Aesopic
fables,
reworks
from any number of classical writers (including Plutarch, Seneca, Cicero, Di-
ogenes Laertius, Plato, Aristode, Lucian, Plautus, and Martial), weaves in bibhcal
'
Thomas More,
Latin Poems, vol. 3, pt. 2 of the Complete Works of St.
Thomas More, ed.
Clarence H. Miller, Leicester Bradner, Charles A. Lynch, and Revilo P. Oliver 1984), 3-9. All ciutions of More's Latin ^ I
am
poems and English
using the count supplied by More, Latin Poems,
included at the end of
translations are 9,
11.
An
from
(New Haven, this edition.
additional ten
poems
are
this edition.
'
More, Latin Poems, 10-11.
*
More,
Latin Poems, 61, 12. See also Alan
Planudes (Oxford. 1993), 182-185.
Cameron, The Greek Anthology from Meleager
to
THOMAS MORE'S EPIGRAMMATA
352
two near contemporaneous English love lyrics.^ Even so, this summary over-emphasizes what More borrowed and blurs the freshness and originality of the collection as a whole. More was a pioneer; the epigram did not become a popular form in Britain until after 1540.^ and
texts,
translates
Formally and rhetorically, too, there
writing variations
upon
theme or motif
a
one blind and one lame,
gars,
variety
is
—
the collection includes an ode,
and verse epistles, for instance, in addition to epigrams, and
lyrics,
who
—
as in his
More
delights in
seven epigrams upon two beg-
are each other's support.
And
there
is
wide
a
range of addressees, including King Henry VIII, potential patrons, humanist friends,
More's children, the anonymous "Candidus," the French poet Brixius,
woman More
and sophisticated), and, in some
instances, himself, along
monologues. The topics are equally diverse
and
way
a
a fat priest, a
loved long ago, unidentified readers (almost invariably male, learned,
bad breath
to eliminate
— from
with dramatic dialogues and
foolish astrologers
after eating leeks (by eating onions,
and cuckolds and so on) to
upon kingship, government, and death. In mood, too, the epigrams and poems vary. There are jokes, slapstick comedy, scatology, satiric jabs, expres-
reflections
other
sions of friendship, encomia, ironic reflections, aphorisms,
and epitaphs; a
run of epigrams on a similar topic will be interrupted; and
jests
cluster or
and gnomic
treat-
ments of mortality can follow one another in rapid succession. The epigrams are not nailed in place, either
— indeed,
made many subsequent What, Carlson
if anything,
calls
tains that
historically,
they proved easily detachable, and have
appearances, which literary historians are
holds a miscellany like this together?
One
still
discovering.^
answer is what David
the self-promotion or "magnification" of Thomas More.^ So he main-
once "Each of these poems was
.
.
.
deracinated from
its
original context of
personal circulation and immediate occasion, and was reinscribed in the Epigrammata
monument to the poems' author," "the collecMore and his mental and verbal dexterity."^ This is 1959 H. A. Mason pointed out that the humanists "constituted
within an impersonal,
strictly
public
tion's ultimate subject
matter
is
not a
new
claim: in
a uast mutual-admiration society,"
^
J.
two English songs
from Greek
W.
self-
Binns, "Latin Translations
27 (1978): 128-159; idem,
Culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Latin Writings of the
"The Shorter
Latin
Poem
in
26 (1977): 101-131. See too Ann Baynes Coiro, Robert Tradition (Baltimore, 1988),
^
J.
in the English Renaissance," Humanistica Lovaniensia
2-6; and Lawrence Ryan,
later
was
startling.
Standard treatments of the Renaissance epigram include
lectual
activities
B. Trapp, Erasmus, Colet and More: The Early Tudor Humanists and Their Books (London,
1991), 42, finds More's use of these '
and that "one of their principal
45-77, which
situates
Age
Intel-
(Leeds, 1990), chaps.
Tudor England," Humanistica Herrick's "Hesperides"
More's epigrams between
Lovaniensia
and the Epigram Book classical
models and
English epigrammatists. In this connection see
744, and the
many
notes
"Appendix
D" by
Charles Clay Doyle in More, Latin Poems,
on sources and analogues
that
695-
have appeared in Moreana and other
journals. *
David R. Carlson,
English Humanist Books: Writers and Patrons, Manuscript and Print,
1475-
1525 (Toronto, 1993), 162. '
David R. Carlson, "Reputation and Duplicity: The Texts and Contexts of Thomas More's
Epigram on Bernard Andre,"
English Literary History 58 (1991):
261-281, here 265.
ELIZABETH But Carlson's
praise."'"
case
a very different answer.
Mary Thomas Crane
is
McCUTCHEON
N.
353
Another
closely, if selectively, argued.
Emphasizing the humanists'
argues that
More and
critic has
given
and teachen,
roles as advisors
other humanist epigrammatists set out to
"create a serious version of the epigram as a vehicle for humanist political and social
What
aims.""
and admonitory elements of
interests her, then, are the aphoristic
collection designed for authoritative moral instruction
—
a
primarily for More's su-
periors and inferiors.
The
self-praise
undeniably there, and the epigrams were, in part, intended to
is
although rarely
instruct,
as didactically as
Crane
But
posits.
either position overstates
much more nuanced and complex collection and seems to ignore the part that laughter or humor plays in a collection that is neither monumental, pace Carlson, aspects of a
nor the sober educational experience Crane describes.
I
see the Epigrammata rather as
often simultaneously serious and comic.
an open-ended, polyphonic collection that
is
What
often ambiguity, ambivalence, or equivo-
Carlson
cation
—
calls
dupUcity, then,
is
more
strategies that destabilize the epigrams,
comphcate attempts to derive
a
simple moral, and protect the author, while providing innumerable opportunities for joco-serious play and poUtical and social commentary. In any case, their cleverness
does not just demonstrate More's mental and verbal dexterity, but ftmctions rather -a principle of coherence that serves
chological purposes
— the more
many of these epigrams expressions
many,
albeit
complex,
so because the wit
social, poHtical,
and humor
as
and psy-
that characterize so
some extent, culturally determined: that is, they are of the code by which More and his fellow humanists operated in preare, to
Reformation Europe. Like other forms in
one
this collection,
is, itself,
an inherently social form,
tion was itself a cooperative venture:
were
all
and More often empha-
addressee by using a direct address or a vocative.'^ Moreover, this collec-
sizes the
More, Erasmus, Beatus Rhenanus, and Froben
meant to appeal to and in some community of humanists that could be defined, in part,
participants in the production of a collection
sense create an international
by
the epigram
that almost invariably requires an addressee or audience,
attitudes
and values
that evolved firom
ticipation in a reading experience that
and were sustained by
thanks to More's inimitable wit and humor.
UnUke many of the
tions of epigrams in the fifteenth century, then, or Erasmus's
votional collection, More's are the product of
'"
their
common
proved particularly appealing and
Harold Andrew Mason, Humanism and Poetry
someone who
forgettable collec-
more
sober, often de-
has rethought the na-
Early Tudor Period:
in the
par-
effective,
An
Essay (London,
1959). 28.
" Mary Thomas Crane, Framing Authority: Sayings, (Princeton, 1993), 146.
Compare and
sizes the political aspects
Self,
and Society
in
Sixteenth-Century England
contrast Coiro, Robert Herrick's "Hesperides,"
of More's epigrams by way of a
far
more nuanced
which empha-
reading.
'* In The Latin Epigrams of Thomas More, ed. and trans. Leicester Bradner and Charles Arthur Lynch (Chicago, 1953), xxiv-xxv, Bradner and Lynch note that this is More's "most frequent deviation from his Greek originals": xxiv.
THOMAS MORE'S EPIGRAMMATA
354
more
ture of the epigram and achieved something far
entertaining, aculeate,
and
memorable.'^ Beatus Rhenanus makes comparable points in his prefatory letter to WiUibald
whom
Pirckheimer, to
He
the collection of More's epigrams was dedicated.
by introducing the two men, speaking about that they shared as lawyers
who
and writers
begins
many things Greek as weU as
stressing the
are learned, adept in
honored by
Latin, heavily involved in public duties,
and
friendship,
their respective sovereigns, well-
to-do, generous, and able to appreciate the peculiar blend of wit, brevity, pleasure,
and point
learning,
that constitutes a learned epigram.'''
These same
could
attributes
characterize other readers of the epigrams as weD, and indirectly define the nature of
much of More's
how as
moved from law
they
Rhenanus
humor and
pure
jest,'
"'^
and study.
office to court
even more attention to the epigrams themselves, emphasizing
gives
their
claiming that
a claim that
it
would "be proper
1518 edition of the epigrams, which includes also returns to the
the epigrams.'^ cantly
to
more
Both More's
humor and
serious
title
the purposes
More
as
'He
is
every inch
page for the December
of a fool and
on
a satyr
pillars
deleted in the 1520 edition,
page that appeared in the
first
edition of signifi-
addition, Rhenanus's claim runs the risk of trivial-
deHcate balance of a collection that
of
is
title
and Western Europe's had changed
situation
it
More's blend of the jocular and the
earlier description
figures
Rhenanus's remark
between 1518 and 1520. In
izing More's
to say of More
echoed by the decorated
is
in the borders.'^ Interestingly,
which
They also illustrate just More and Pirckheimer were
reading public, a humanist coterie.
initial
multiple and complex the allegiances of men like
one
is
serves. It
does a disservice, in other words,
and misrepresents the dynamic and
serious,
so frequently joco-serious.
who
I
prefer Erasmus's
played the role of Democritus, the laughing
philosopher.'*
Rhenanus
is
these epigrams
hyperbolic, in any case; while laughter takes
— from
urbane wit, various
coarse and
ists.^"
was recognized
'^
And
many
as a
different
forms in
barbs to black comedy,
— not every poem
a psychologist has recently called "a universal
fundamental property of humankind by the human-
Ryan, "The Shorter Latin Poem," and Clarence H. Miller on "The Epi-
More and Erasmus"
in
Latin Poems, 38-56.
More,
More, Latin Poems, 73—75.
'^
More,
'^
This
o/Moreana
Latin Poems,
title
page
to the
is
320 (note
reproduced
Year 1750,
Thomas More:
A
for
St.
'*
See Desiderius Erasmus, The
Rhen. Pref §
in St. Tliomas More:
comp. R.
'^
W.
51).
A
Preliminary Bibliography of His
Gibson (New Haven, 1961),
Works and
11.
Preliminary Bibliography, 8, 77. Praise of Folly, trans.
Clarence H. Miller
(New Haven,
2.
" Robert R. Provine, "The Laughing Species," Natural History 109 (2000-2001): M. A. Screech, Laughter at the Foot of the Cross (London, 1997), 1.
^^
is
human
can be especially helpful in establishing a close relationship between an
See, for instance,
grams of '''
it
satiric
of irony, and the gentlest of smiles
sorts
humorous. But laughter, which signal,"*'
homely jokes and
72.
1979),
ELIZABETH
The group
author and his or her readers.^' were.
More
specifically, laughter
Beatus Rhenanus's
—
word
and people aUied in
ship
European
trans-national
a
minded
that
is
flexible
common
gaged in batde
(real
that laughs together stays together, as
enough
cause. This
— they were
able to create
whom
met
rarely
and
own
even
principles
it
to appropriate
crucial for the humanists. in person,
sustain a
but
A
—
group of like-
soUdarity was imperative as they en-
or imagined) with those they thought of
sought to promote their
—
both personal friend-
to include
was
community, they
and administrators for
scholars
355
can establish a bond of friendship
intellectual
thanks to the printing press
McCUTCHEON
N.
as
as barbarians,
and
they struggled to balance loyalties (to
God, king, profession, family, and self) that were not necessarily congruent. This means that laughter has programmatic, social, and psychological relevance, connecting
More with
community and
the larger humanist
vice versa, and reinforcing shared
perceptions at the same time that (for better and worse)
it
excludes those with a dif-
whom More
carried on a war of With this in mind, I should hke to turn to More's collected epigrams and consider some instances of the kinds of laughter that were generated and the many
ferent mind-set and opponents like Brixius, with
words.
diflferent
•
needs
shall start
I
it
met.
by mentioning a few of the epigrams
that
seem
to
be included largely
to entertain, and thus serve a purpose similar to the kind of banter and table-talk that
might occur
at a
dinner or in a garden or other setting where friends meet.
Among
these are four (116, 167, 235, and 245) that the Yale edition calls "sexually indeU-
which was based on the 1518
edi-
having a more pious audience and a different agenda in mind.^
The
cate" and that the Louvain edition of 1565-1566, tion, deleted,
two
that deal with rape unfortunately rely
of the lawyer,
also exposes the chicanery
ing the young
woman. But both
membership
new
in a
sexist notions,
at
More and
work, which
(and eHte)
although one of them
can defend the rapist only by humihat-
passed muster with
of a kind of sixteenth-century bonding aflSrm their
upon
who
his friends, indicative
male audience
let a clearly
RepubUc of Letters.
In other instances, however, More's jokes and entertainments have a different and
deeper resonance, and the er
"On
humor is conjoined with something more serious. ConsidMore translated from the Planudean
a Fool" (106), a traditional joke that
Anthology.
It is
an example of a popular form (the "noodle") that reappears in a later
humanist work, Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, although not attributed there to More.^ The Yale translation renders More's version this way: "When the fleas bite
Morio, he puts out
preserving
with
^'
his
some
own
his light
part of More's
name.^* But
if
and
says,
word
See Audrey Bilger, Subversive Comedy
in
is
in Frances
of this function
More,
fleas will
not see
which connects the
More's version
(Detroit, 1998), for an acute analysis
^ More, Latin Poems, 9. ^ Doyle, "Appendix D,"
'These
play,
self-promoting,
me
now,' " nicely
fleas that it is
"mordent"
also self-depre-
Bumey, Maria Edgeworth, and jane Austen
in a later
group
setting.
Latin Poems, 697-744; Elizabeth
McCutcheon, "Robert
Burton/Democritus Junior and Thomas More," Moreana 35, no. 135-136 (1998): 55-74, here 60. " More, Latin Poems, 161, and the commentary to 106.3, 362.
THOMAS MORE'S EPIGRAMMATA
356 catory and thus even
more univenalizing than Burton's more
abstract, less dramatic
version of "that stupid fellow [who] put out the Candle, because the biting
fleas
should not fmde him."^^ Both versions, though, reflect major humanist preoccupations with folly
and the nature of perception and self-deception that Democritus
Junior's Preface to Burton's Anatomy, Erasmus's Moria, and
Here,
as
elsewhere.
More
relies
upon
his
More
share.
mastery of narrative and dialogue. In
connection, consider another popular epigram (133), about the guest
at a
this
banquet
from the wine-bowl before he drank and put them back afsome of you may like flies; but then, I do not know hke them."-^ A joke, yes, which surprises by the incongruity between speech and act, but one that also plays ambiguously with questions of taste, decorum, and the na-
who removed some
flies
terwards, explaining, "I
ture of court
one
who
is
—
do not
For who, or what,
life.
is
the butt of the joke: the speaker (seen
as
some-
which the speaker
is
quasi-
trying his best to be pohte), or the situation,
Where do we position ourselves when we laugh, in other words? number of More's epigrams, in particular those about kingship, are potentially even more subversive and often ambiguous, on account of More's choice of classical examples and his double-edged comments; as a result, the humor and the irony cut
poUtely mocking?
A
very deeply. More's version of the story about the peasant a case in point.
It
seems that a
rustic
who
sees the
king (201)
is
and very naive peasant came to town, and
as a huge crowd of people lined the street and shouted "The king is comBut the poor peasant cannot see the king, even though one of the bystanders points to a man "resplendent with gold" on a tall horse. "I think you are making fun of me," he says; "To me he looks Hke a man in fancy dress."" According to a jest-
watched ing."
version of this joke, printed circa 1532, the joke is on the peasant, for not being "well nourished up and virtuously endoctrined."^^ So interpreted, the epigram
book
reinforces the status quo.
Yet
insinuating that the king, too,
a subversive is
a
reading that deflates the royal presence by
man, however costumed, and/or that laughs
populace for being taken in by the king's appearance, seems more
likely,
the
at
given
atti-
tudes expressed elsewhere in this collection.
Consider, for instance, the Aesop-Hke fable (180) about the smooth-tongued lion
who
offers to heal a sick
do not
know
the
fox by Ucking him, ingenuously explaining politely demurs: "
power of my tongue." The fox
said the fox, 'has healing
neighbors.' "^^ This
is
powers; but the trouble
only one of
is
at least three
that such a
-*
Tudor monarchy, and More made
Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy,
and Rhonda
L. Blair, 3 vols.
ed.
"You just
'Your tongue,'
good tongue has bad
epigrams (compare 162 and 181)
that involve Hons. Traditionally considered the king of beasts, the associations with the
that:
Hon had heraldic King Henry
the link between
Thomas C.
Faulkner, Nicolas K. Kiessling,
(Oxford, 1989-1994), 1:56.
^^
More,
Latin Poems, 175.
^^
More,
Latin Poems, 233.
in More, Latin Poems, 392. Compare David Rundle, "A New Golden Age? More, Skelton and the Accession Verses of \5Q9," Journal of the Society for Renaissance Studies 9 ^*
Commentary
(1995): 58-76, here 58.
^ More,
Latin Poems, 215.
ELIZABETH N. McCUTCHEON
comment
VIII and the lion explicit in a
about the dangers of royal power, addresses a courtier
who
a
by exploiting
good king?
He
is
Here More's analogy becomes lical
a
is
three are
all
in 162,
whom
the bad king?
is
He
is
which
the epi-
even more aculeate in
a seemingly naive pattern
What
a very
of question
who by
the wolf.""
— one of po— while the compression and the bib-
powerful indictment of tyranny
themes that he makes pecuharly his"
echoes encourage a kind of black-comic
pohtical cartoon) that
think that
watchdog, guardian of the flock,
a
barking keeps the wolves from the sheep.
htical
I
becomes almost overt
And More
grammatist compares to a "tamed" Hon.-"
is
Cromwell.^
to
a point that
boasts about the fun he has with the king,
short epigram (115) that stings
and answer. "What
357
humor
several
(think of Babe in the City or a
makes the transformation from watch-dog
to
wolf particularly
horrifying.
More wrote many other satires,
like the epigram on the Frenchified courtier, Lalus which both Rhenanus and a later humanist, Julius Caesar Scaliger, singled out for special praise.^^ Here More seems to have touched a particularly responsive chord, and the epigram anticipates similar satiric thrusts by Shakespeare, John Donne, and Ben Jonson. Relying on description and the much repeated jingle of LaUus, Gal(95),
Ucus, and Gallus, the speaker
-everything French
— even
mocks
who
and fellow Englishman
a "friend"
affects
mistreating his servant, a Frenchman, as the French do
Once
but can only speak French with an EngUsh accent.
—
again More's epigram de-
puncturing the affectation and pride that he elsewhere locates in characten like
flates,
the
fat priest;
his
own
the astrologer
thought of
as
studies the stars but
sophisticated versions
is
blind to what
is
happening in
From one point of view, these could be of the man in a top hat who slips on a banana
though, the humor, which
peel. In these instances,
upon an
who
house; and the greedy miser.
actual
fall,
surdities or abuses
is
verbal, rather than
dependent
seems to extend beyond the individual case to adumbrate the abof social systems that are typified by the feminized courtier, the
cuckolded astrologer, or the ignorant or lazy
priest.
A very different kind of laughter or wit is at least as important in More's collection
— the wry smile of the leveler, so that the
worse off
ironist
king
is
no
who
claims, for example, that death
(40, 45, 46, 80, 107, 108, 110),
although these epigrams
them) could be read in a rather different way
*"
I
am
grateful to
Rhoda Schnur
for
reminding
see William Roper, The Ufe of Sir Thomas More, in
and Davis ^'
P.
More,
—
me
Two
as
a
some of
evidence of frustration,
if
not
of English heraldry. For More's remark,
Early Tudor Lives, ed. Richard S. Sylvester
Harding (New Haven. 1962). 228. Poems, 165.
introduction in Bradner and Lynch 's edition and in Latin
Robert Merrick's "Hesperides," and
Idiom," Parergpn:
the
commentary
Bulletin of the Australian
in
Poerrts,
Damian Grace, "Thomas More's Epigrammata: and
New
More,
see Coiro,
Political
Theory
Zealand Association for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies n.s. 3 (1985): 115-129.
^ See
(at least
is
may be
Latin Poems, 205.
" More, Latin " Besides the in Poetic
and/or sleep
better off than the beggar, Irus, and, in fact,
Latin Poems, 358, for 95.1-53.
THOMAS MORE'S EPIGRAMMATA
358
rage,
on the
So they may function
speaker's part.
peace of mind in
vival or
a
world where,
"Death Unassisted
for instance, 80,
"who have been
urges those
as a strategy for
men"
cruelly persecuted at the hands of unjust
down from man once so
cast
"The tables are turned: the / lam ridendus erit, qui metuendus
cludes, grimly, that
— attempts
that are often evidence
Form of Government"
the Best
whom
upon
And
ate?"^'' it
were
this
yourself, is
just the
a little treatise
and
stable,
you
populus")
by your
it
the same time that
it
actual results.
plays with a favorite
and complicates an old proverb. Normally In this case, though, the cat outwits
it
to the cat.
would have "died saved
—
it
lection.
some
and ironies
tions:
this
Mouse"
a
the trap,
and
as it in-
with a mouse and
httle
More
mouse
escapes
further compli-
took the mouse from a trap to begin
it
mouse
had not protected and
apparently slight epigram, then,
and laughter
that
his
is
a stance
hover over or behind the col-
Moria to
much
of
life as
More and compared him
we
experience
story seems to have
comment about both
it,
whether
we be
a
even deeper implica-
the equivocal nature of political
life
clever.
More, iMtin Poems, 145, 144.
More,
Latin Poems, 231. Latin Poems, 230. See the brilliant
commentary by Clarence H.
Poems, 50. ^*
and the
ordinarily destroys
More, or whoever. For the
could well be a
^ More, ^'
or of mys-
a disarmingly "simple,"
a cat first plays itself,
it
Cat and
unusually sensitive and responsive to the multiple absurdities
that characterize so
a cat, a
it
is
a
begs the question of the narrator's complicity and
part of the wit
and the dangers of being too
^^
what
Embodied in even an
More
and turns from
concludes with a reverberating irony: the
As Erasmus noted when he dedicated
to Democritus,
mouse,
But
a cat."^^
that generates
He
in the trap if
frustrated intentions.
is
"On
reaches a safe hiding place. But
cates this story; the speaker (a narrative "I")
with and gave
a
Morean metaphor,
eats
paw and
as if
more complex, unpun ("Est ne usquam
our attempts to control
resists
then
the cat's outstretched
people
king or a sen-
Hfe.'*'
verts
it.
a strong a
into something far
epigram added to the collection in 1520,
which
a
deflates the speaker's pretensions
between our intentions and the
equivocal, instance,
anywhere
impose either
More's Utopia by way of
Similar epigrams hint of a world that
(262), an
about the
a dialogue
of several questions that transform what began
first
theory to the ambiguities of pohtical
terious gaps
decision, can
upon good government
startling that alludes to at
were
The speaker makes
interrupts himself: "Is there
own
or pre-
life
of misplaced pride, metaphoric
(198), begins as if
But suddenly he
con-
erat].^^
advantages or disadvantages of a republic or a monarchy. case for the former.
it
fearsome deserves only
A particularly well-known epigram, "What
blindness, or an exaggerated sense of self Is
to "take
high place,
his
Related to these verses are those that ponder our attempts to control dict the future
Consider,
rules.
Tyrants" [Sola Mors Tyrannicida Est], which
Kills
hope." Insisting that the tyrant too will be
a laugh" [uicissim
psychological sur-
too frequently, power
all
More,
Latin Poems, 275;
compare commentary, 412.
Miller, in Latin
ELIZABETH N. McCUTCHEON
his
359
More ended his 1518 collection with an unusually personal poem that celebrates own marriage (or marriages), although it is not usually thought of as a marriage
poem, since it is the epitaph he wrote for his first wife's tomb, which was supposed to be his second wife's and his own, as well. It is uniquely Morean and almost metaphysical in its comic wit, which disturbs readers who expect a more conventional epitaph. In fact, the Louvain edition of 1565—1566 deleted it perhaps because it
—
was seen
as
theology.''
and
ate
More
"sexually indelicate"
On
firuitfiil
the other hand, relationship that
(as
read
I
it
his
how happily we Thus death
poem
celebrating both the intim-
wife experienced
daughters — and the
— which made
different,
his four children. Indeed,
which wife was
(or
is)
but no
More
the "charior," the
less
repre-
more
could have Uved aU three together," he concludes, "if
and reUgion permitted. But the grave
unite us too.
love
his first
second wife and
sents himself as unable to decide
beloved. "O,
as a
More and
the father of one son and three
happy relationship with
fate
the Yale edition posits) or because of its strange
will give
will unite us,
and
what Ufe could not" [At
I
pray that heaven will
societ tumulus, societ nos
non potuit quod dare uita, dabit.]*" So More celebrates bond that death normally severs, by imagining a menage h trots that will endure beyond death, both here on earth and, he prays, in heaven. obsecro coelum. / Sic mors,
marriage, a
-
Simultaneously personal and
most pervasive concerns
who
cared for his
them; for once, death for
life,
epitaph touches several of the collection's
with death, with
— even noting how most stepmothers
havior Alice,
social, the
— with
what More hopes
is
first
human
are very unlike
wife's children so well.
But
relationships
and be-
More's second wife,
teUingly,
it
also transforms
neither the terminus nor the leveler, but an unwitting agent
will
be an even more loving hfe together in heaven. Obviously
and remains, occasional:
was written for the family tomb. But
this
epigram
also
an open-ended and witty ending for an otherwise disparate collection that dar-
is,
it
ingly transforms a powerfiilly charged symbol in heaven, a Hfe that, in characteristically
— the marriage —
Morean
tie
it is
to imagine Ufe
terms, will be a societal one,
where
laughter will surely aboimd.**
University of Hawaii, Emerita
" More,
Latin Poems, 9.
*•
More, Utin Poems, 271-273; 272.
*'
M.
laugjiter
Rabelais.
A. Screech's Laughter
by way of
its
at the
Foot of the Cross provides a useful context for this sort of
treatment of laughter in two other Renaissance humanists, Erasmus and
-
The
A
Politics
Quick Look
at
of Poetry:
Robert Walpole, and
Two Thousand Other Cambridge
Latin Poets
DAVID MONEY
This paper considers genre
from
is
a
quite widely
a Uterary, as
few aspects of university conunemorative poetry. The known, but has rarely received very thorough attention
opposed to
more about Oxford The two universities
other universities in the British institutions
I
produced
its
from the
origins of the genre in
demise, for whatever reason,-' after 1763.
Isles participate
a vast mass
rather
here concentrate on Cambridge writers.
in fact follow a similar pattern,
the later sixteenth century until
tal
Having written
a bibHographical, perspective.'
verses in the past,
The
only sporadically, and while continen-
of Neo-Latin,
I
am not
aware of any comparable
continuous tradition of commemorative anthologies, appearing in a regular format
over a period of two centuries.^ The numbers involved are considerable, representing a large proportion of active Neo-Latin writers; there were certainly the round figure of two thousand. Yet they are
'
more than
D. K. Money, The English Horace: Anthony Alsop and
statistics:
more than
each single con-
the Tradition of British Latin Verse
(Ox-
ford and London, 1998), esp. chap. 9; also, most recently, idem, "Free Flattery or Servile Trib-
ute?" in 66.
J.
Both ^
Raven,
Cf D.
ed., Free Print
and Non- Commercial Publishing
on
further bibliography
list
the
H.
Forster,
"The Rise and
Cambridge Bibliographical Society ^
A number of reasons may be
ally for original
and academic *
I
1700 (Aldershot, 2000), 48-
K. Money, " 'A Diff rent-sounding Lyre': Oxford Commemorative Verse in English,"
Bodleian Library Record 16 (1997): 42-92; for especially
since
the topic.
Cambridge volumes, see Money,
English Horace,
and
of the Cambridge Muses (1603-1763)," Transactions of 8 (1982): 141-172. Fall
suggested: e.g., gradual decline in the primacy of Latin, especi-
composition; a paucity of things worth celebrating, after 1763; changing political
fashions.
would be very
interested to
be proved wrong on
this point,
or to learn
more of com-
parable traditions elsewhere; individual occasions throughout Europe, whether private or academic, regularly led to small collections.
Oxford and Cambridge attempted something
bigger.
TWO THOUSAND CAMBRIDGE
362
tribution,
in
however
Neo-Latin
alphabetical
small or unoriginal,
culture.
We
may
is
LATIN POETS
evidence of another person's participation
illustrate this
point by starting
at
the beginning of an
list.
Jonathan Acklom, of Clare Hall, wrote an accomplished Horatian ode, in fourteen
commencing
alcaic stanzas,
George
II's
"Veris sodales aequora temperant
from the
successful return
which he was,
as it
turned out, the
last
War
British
.
.",
.
celebrate
to
of the Austrian Succession (1748), in
monarch
to lead his troops into action.
Acklom became a lawyer, was appointed Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1754, and died in 1806. The next poet, William Acton, made a smaller contribution, eight lines of elegiacs, to the volume on the death of WilHam III and accession of Queen Anne (1702); he too attended Clare Hall, having
January 1700/1, a year before cance in public coast, in is
life,
elected
his short
Member
been admitted
poem; he too was
a
fellow-commoner of some
a person
of Parliament for Orford, a town on the Suffolk
1722 and 1729, and High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1739. (Orford,
itself a politically significant location.)
Adam of Trinity, who
The
third in our alphabetical
wrote forty Hnes of elegiacs for the
the manuscript presented to
Queen
Elizabeth
I
on her
first
visit
we
will see,
list is
Thomas
as
major verse collection,
in 1564.
Edward Adams
subsequently offered sixty-two hexameters on the Peace of Utrecht (1713)
as a
newly
graduated B.A. and fellow of King's; he died, insane, in college forty-two years
So
too,
no doubt,
at
The
all.
four poets of the previous paragraph share one
they only once ventured into print. Others were further
down, we meet John Adams
(father
man
(in exactly his son's later position),
with
a shorter piece, in 1713,
common
more adventurous.
of Edward); he wrote in 1683,
and then again alongside
feature:
Two as a
his son,
places
young though
by which time he was Provost of King's and Doctor of
Canon of Windsor,
Divinity; as a
later.
would you, if we continued with the full two is a whole minute of our attention; and many are
lector benevole,
thousand,^ though even the dullest
not dull
in
signifi-
royal chaplain to William III and to
Anne, and
among his contemporaries. His two poems come at times of personal significance: as a new graduate, and newly appointed head of his college. In each case, they may be gestures aimed at gaining atfriend of Swift, he was another figure of substance
tention and support in an unstable world, whether of academic
The purpose of these poems, like the authors' varied. Some probably stemmed from the pure emotion rather
at
this respect
Neo-Latin verse
pose by practical a
men
as
is
talents
a useful
I
suspect that fame, or
and future employability, was the spur. In
accomplishment, cultivated for a practical pur-
well as learned amateurs. University verse
Neo-Latin genre, with Enghsh
Hebrew, and occasionally more
as a
or pubhc poUtics.
pleasure of versifying, or genuine
the event being celebrated. For most, however,
modest recognition of one's
life
biographies, will undoubtedly have
is
overwhelmingly
minority language (and a small place for Greek,
learned, unreadable, tongues): the vernacular could
'
Biographical details fromj. andj. A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge, 1922); listing
fi-om
D. K. Money, Database of British Latin Poets: work in slow progress (with very much still to I have assembled a basic listing of Cambridge, and some Oxford, writers; a Bio-
be done, though graphical Register
should appear, in print or electronic form, in due course).
DAVID MONEY
363
of
form of
this
collective literary self-advertisement; but
and formal continuation suggests
regular, frequent,
We cannot, in general,
was rejected by the majority of writers.
usually be chosen, but
assess the effectiveness
that
both by the university authorities and by the students (of all
who composed the poems. What criteria are appropriate for
was
it
felt
its
to be of value,
social classes)
and college
fellows
torical significance
a whole.
Or we may
may have been
studying the genre?
We
may
consider the his-
of individual authors, of particular collections, or of the genre look for Uterary merit. Yet a
a poUtical success, helping to
Latin occasional poetry
—
in
much
poem
cement
way
the same
its
that
fails
Much Neo-
author's career.
as similar
as
in aesthetic terms
—
vernacular writing
is
open to the criticism of having httle to say, and saying it in duU and conventional ways (sometimes with pointless reworking of classical forms, for a Umited readership).
Two
thousand Cambridge poets would disagree.
well be appropriate, bearing in tions of time task
was not
mind
A
and subject-matter within which they were forced even for young
easy,
themes; in the circumstances,
men
Such
to operate.
with rigorous training in composition on
a
set
and elegance, rather than their for-
their variety
it is
may
sympathetic reassessment
the poets' original aims, and the severe Hmita-
mulaic quahties, that are surprising.
The
topics of
commemorative
verse
may seem
unexciting to a
pubHc, united voice predominates over private emotion. that the authors themselves
Why
modem
should
we
critic.
read
A
work how-
may not have cared much about? Their subjects, more than we may think, especially in the seven-
ever, probably did matter rather
teenth century.
A
royal marriage could spell
— but soon
ample, in the triumphant
life
tragic
or death for a
kingdom
for ex-
(as,
— union of 1613 between James
I's
daughter EUzabeth and the Elector Palatine); princely births and deaths could bhght
new monarch's pubHc pohcy would
or raise the poUtical hopes of thousands; a
affect
the rehgion of the nation, and thus the personal careers of virtually every academic poet,
whether in the church or secular
politics,
both
at a local level or, for
the
ambitious, in a wider sphere. External war and peace, even the risk of civil war,
on the events publicly commemorated by university Neo-Latin writers. Minor or occasional writers provide both a readership and a context ones, whatever criteria
we may
those surrounding lesser figures university poets
show
use to confer privilege
we
on
a
for
more hung major
chosen canon. Without
have a distorted view of the centre. Few,
if any,
the quaHty, originaUty, and reasonably prolific production of
"major" authors. Collectively, however, the university venes outweigh any "major" author for sheer quantity, and contain enough moments of skill to stand alongside the
more modest productions of While
it is
their
famous colleagues,
if
not their greater works.
the firmly "minor" poet, contributing just once or twice,
whelmingly
typical,
more
serious
commitment
who
is
over-
to the genre did regularly occur: take,
Beaumont, Master of Peterhouse, an active royahst, professor, EngUsh and Neo-Latin). Beaumont contributed regularly fi-om 1635 to
for example, Joseph
and poet
(in
1695, appearing in fifteen volumes. flourish in 1697.
Was he
too infirm
of Trinity College, the most separate volumes.
to his
life.
Another
prolific
He
died in 1699, missing the chance for a final
at last,
or sceptical of the cause? John Laughton
composer, sent in over a thousand
scholar's short
epigram might
still
lines, to
ten
have made a difference
TWO THOUSAND CAMBRIDGE
364
Many volumes
could
fruitfully
LATIN POETS
be chosen for examination, to
illustrate political at-
titudes or poetic responses to them. In the latter part of this paper,
I
will focus
on the
1697 volume, for the Peace of Ryswyck that ended the Nine Years War, the severe test of Britain's Revolution settlement. In 1697
we
genre, established for over a century, and with two-thirds of a century
For comparison,
we may
deserved commemoration. In 1623,
wed, from Spain: an event lic
some other
briefly consider
orator.^ Fifty-nine poets
years
was Prince Charles's
it
when
wrote for the
still
to run.
peaceful events
safe return, thankfully
by George Herbert,
also celebrated
as
initials
and
colleges.
Oliver Cromwell's victorious peace of 1654, after an external rather than a
war having somewhat last royalist
eased,
Oliver's olive-branch of peace (Oxford
eight poets contribute,
many with
past.
There
made
is
punning
the same point in Greek).
one
Duport
(a
Two
like the
stressing
At least forty-
substantial offering.
A
wanted
to
the loyalty of themselves and their colleges to the side that
fered by James
title,*
appear. Senior figures will have
favoured, whatever their private aspirations.
God
currently
pages of Latin hexameters are of-
major writer in Greek and Latin, especially of
paraphrase), and similarly long sets of hexameters
civil
Oxford), the tensions of civil
a nice
several pieces, or
number of well-known Cambridge names stress
(as also in
and the traumatic ejections of many academics,
volume, being well in the
un-
Cambridge's pub-
volume,^ one sending nineteen
official
poems. Unusually, the poets are identified only by war, could fittingly be praised in Cambridge
first
find a fully mature literary
by four
others.
biblical
Ralph Cudworth,
then Master of Clare Hall, has a page of scazontes (limping iambics). William Dilling-
ham
of Emmanuel,
King's
at
Neo-Latin poet and anthologist,^ sent
later a significant
alcaic ode, eight sapphic stanzas,
Cudworth. Several poets were
the Restoration six years later) precedes
inspired to long alcaic poems, of twenty stanzas or more: William
Wray of Trinity
Christopher Chalfont of King's; John stanzas,
one hundred and eight
of St John's managed ten (in a
a short
and hexameters. Benjamin Whichcot (ejected from
lines);
and
alcaic stanzas.
W. Croone
Bagge of Caius;
(the longest, at
twenty-seven
of Emmanuel. Jabez Bridecake
These, and other Horatian odes of the period
genuine Horatian form, rather than a pale vernacular imitation), may perhaps
provide some context for Marvell's justly celebrated "Horatian
Return from Ireland" of a few
Ode on Cromwel's
years previously.
And so to the Peace of 1697, coming like that of 1654 a few years after RevoluSome poetic loyalties had been confused, with a pre-Revolutionary volume of
tion.
1688 cancelled out by the opposite sentiments of 1689.'" Cambridge's phasises William's
Academiae Cantabrigiensis
* ^
title
page em-
achievement in restoring the peace of Europe: "GRATULATIO / /
De Reditu
See the paper by J. K. Hale in
this
/ Serenissimi
REGIS / GULIELMI
III. /
post
volume.
Gratulatio Academiae Cantabrigiensis de Serenissimi Principis Reditu ex Hispaniis exoptatissimo
(Cambridge, 1623). *
Oliva Pads ad illustrissimum celsissimum Oliverum
(Cambridge, 1654). ' •"
Money, English Horace, 39—42. Money, English Horace, 244-245.
.
.
.
De
Pace cum foederatis Belgis feliciter sancita
DAVID MONEY /
& Libertatem / EUROPAE
Pacem
/ Feliciter /
Cantabrigiae: Typis Academicis."" There
XIV's ambition. The
foiling of Louis
spirited, sarcastic, splenetic
bera". ter
Some
is
365
Restitutam
much
glee, as
./
John Laughton
prolific
Anno
N4DCXCVII. //
one might expect,
epode against Louis ("Lodoix"),
fills
Qui
Mas-
much the shortest oflfering from a head of house, a single Deum & Regent GULIELMUM affatur Ludovicus Magnus":
gram, entitled "Sic
the
entitled "Indignatio Li-
poets can give a distinctive twist to this theme. Gabriel Quadring,
of Magdalene, has
epi-
possunt, obstant ingentibus ausis,
soli
Tu Deus Omnipotens, The
at
four pages with a
and author's name and
et
Tu Rex Maxime Regum.
more words than the entire poem. weak or lazy eflfort. It is simple, with a striking conceit. The great Louis is forced to concede that only two greater powers can stand in his way: God, and the greatest of kings, WiUiam. The idea that Louis might actu-
Yet
title,
am
I
position, contain
not sure that Quadring's
ally say so
is
is
a
ludicrous; but Quadring's
compliment to William
is
apt, recognising the
magnitude of his achievement in stopping so great an adversary. Like most of the volumes, that of 1697 has an impressive variety of Uterary forms.
Robert Read of St John's eschews metre
poem
(or irregular inscription).'^
He
altogether, writing in the genre of the prose
begins by justifying this choice of form: joy
must not be restrained by the bounds of metre: "Fuge Musa, modis refraenare titiam
omnivagam,
quae /
et
(Si
quae unquam) nescia
est
/ Lae-
modi." Correct formal ap-
pearance, however, clearly exercised the minds of the volume's editors. Unusually,
they banish
all
the Greek
teresting explanation:
cum
superioribus
poems
to a separate section at the end,
alias
habitura, ideo
hue
exprimenda; quod Typi novi Academici, pervenerint."
match the
Owing
as
well
as
They
are led
could
excudendis
by the hugely dash
" In transcription,
poems
nondum
nitidis
ad nos
Greek type
to
the university can be proud in every respect, good-look-
learned. Despite the smaller type,
easily
Formis non aeque destinati,
of neatness override normal scholarly considerations. The
Greek (and one Hebrew)'^ poets
who
rejici placuit, iis
to the delayed deUvery of larger, suitably elegant
Latin, reasons
book must be one of which ing
preceded by an in-
"Pauca quae sequuntur Carmina, commodiorem quidem locum
off"
capitals
will
prolific,
a page of
and subordinate position, the seven
have been proud of their substantial pieces.
and equally eccentric. Professor Joshua Barnes,
Homeric hexameters
to Basileus Hermos before
used only for lai^r sizes of capital on original
title
page. Page
C2r (Quadring), Dl-2v (Laugjiton), Klv-2r (Bigot), M2v-Nlr (Read). Q2r (Walpole), Aa2v-Bblv (WyUys), Hh2v-Kk2r (Greek). '^ To be distinguished from the irregular variety of Pindaric ode, which retains (but mixes) references for
traditional metre.
MSS
discussed below:
sig.
For a vicious anti-Williamite prose poem, see Christ Church, Oxford,
Money, English Horace, " Hebrew by Thomas Bennett (orientalist; 18.
514 (quoted
death, 1694/5): D. K. the
at
Wake
206).
St John's; also wrote Hebrew on Queen Mary's Money and J. Olszowy, "Hebrew Commemorative Poetry," Transaaions of
Cambridge Bibliographical Society 10 (1995): 549-576. here 572.
TWO THOUSAND CAMBRIDGE
366
breakfast.^'*
more
Others, no doubt
LATIN POETS produced anacreontics, or more
laboriously,
hexameters, including an extended pastoral dialogue from Samuel Cobb, a Theocrit-
ean
idyll to
A typical
match the Latin eclogues
He
got, of Clare Hall.'^
ferring to dwell in
brought about by is
that regularly grace these volumes.
example of a sapphic ode is,
as
it
is
provided by the splendidly named Isaac Bi-
happens, one of the
"ille
Gallorum timor,
ille
not a highly original piece of poetry; but
magnae it is
bigoted contributors, pre-
less
charming Horatian fashion on the
rural blessings
/ Caesar
sapphic ode was written by Benjamin Wyllys, fellow of King's.
copying
and
his first line
Nonum
a half directly
his
King's College
would
A rather longer
borrows shamelessly so on.'^ After
surpass a Sabine farm. His
detail; naturally,
first
the high table
adonic, "Mitius uvis",
diflfer-
ent in sense, cleverly echoes the sound of "est hederae vis". Horace's original ode fairly risque,
young Telephus)
asking Phyllis (who unwisely lusts after
celebrating Maecenas's birthday. it,
more than doubling the
as
"Caesar", victorous at the
It is
not a poHtical
length, and introducing
Mitte
civiles
Urbe
super
to join
him
is
in
poem at all; but Wyllys can adapt much Augustan praise of WilHam
Boyne and Namur, or
of Orange supporting the tottering kingdom. In another direct Horatian borrowing to good
It
model, Wyllys allows some inter-
more
esting variation, praising his variety of wines in at
It
annum," and
superantis
from
as
well expressed, with attention to ele-
gance of phrase, and appropriate modernising of classical terminology.
from. Horace, starting "Est mihi
of peace,
Europae moderator."
the "Auriacus Atlas", the Prince
his
fourteenth stanza, Wyllys puts
effect:
curas,
Occidit fusum Mahumedis agmen. Ipse Sultanus fugit et Sabaudi
Signa Gradivi.
The
defeat of the Dacians, in Horace,''
the same general region. In that feated the Turks at
same
is
concern for the whole European
There may
also
be
a
C(.
situation to that of
to
William to compare
Augustus or Maecenas.'*
He makes much
reference to heavy drinking (a
toasts to
William, even to Louis), to Bacchic orgies ("Orgiis adsis", "Sanius
made
Most
bacchor")
'*
ally; it is flattering
shocking penonal element to Wyllys's poem, defensible only
by reference to Horatian convention. hundred
Eugene of Savoy had de-
Zenta. Thus William's (and later Marlborough's) colleague had
reduced a threat to the Empire, Britain's his
transferred to a highly topical victory in
year, 1697, Prince
Money,
Frandad, ed. D. K.
legitimate by William's victory.
English Horace, 94-98;
Money and R.
'^
Perhaps a Huguenot name?
'*
Horace, Carmine
4. 11
'^
Horace, Carmina
3. 8.
'*
William had a leading role
work on
A. Kennedy,
He
is
is
disgracefully, for a
Barnes's Latin epic
young
on the Black
col-
Prince, the
in progress.
something of a mystery, not
listed in
Venn's Alumni.
1-2.
.
17-18. in building coalitions; the
England's Troubles (Cambridge, 2000); 1995): detailed, but eccentric.
cf.
European angle
is
stressed in J. Scott,
B. Cox, King William's European Joint Venture (Assen,
DAVID MONEY
367
lege fellow and bachelor of arts (of course obliged by statute, like
lowships, to remain single), he has his praeter
omnes
Cara Belinda." Dear to
/
Cambridge's looser
Whether
own
ladies,
whom
of
Phyllis, "Belinda, /
all,
all
holders of fel-
Cara permultis, mihi
me: she sounds
especially to
like
one of
Wyllys's Provost will scarcely have approved.
some daring fun, under
she existed, or he merely imagined her, he can have
the cloak of patriotic celebration and classical respectability. Wyllys himself had been
King's since 1690,
at
an Eton scholar, and fellow (1693); he was ordained in
as
1698/9, became an usher (junior schoolmaster) in Maidstone, Kent (1701), then was for
many
years a vicar in Northamptonshire, until his death in 1748. This lively piece
of poetry seems the high point of an otherwise ordinary eighteenth-century career.
The most the 1697 politics
and
of the hundred and twenty-nine contributors to Robert Walpole, who was for many years to dominate British
historically interesting
volume
is
often called the
is
first
"prime minister". Like Wyllys, though a few years
younger, he came from Eton to King's, where he was a scholar from 1696 to 1698;
volume was his best chance to pubUsh Neo-Latin, and he took it. In on the death on his older brother, Edward, Robert Walpole became heir to his
thus the 1697
1698,
father's estate,
tion that
I
and withdrew unwillingly from college,
shall
x)f a scholar, possessed a learned library,
Bacon's works); the young Walpole was learning about
management and
politics
with Latin full
Cambridge had probably been the
of enthusiasm for study: nevertheless,
As (and it
far as
is
I
am
A promising academic carA memorable part of his years
took precedence.
sight
elegiac lines) in the university's presentation
Walpole, Coll. Regal.
(and almost aU Francis
classics
eer was interrupted and a political career was launched. at
"my father holding his resoluwho had a been something
not any more reside here."'^ His father,
of
his verses in print, a full
volume, with
his
name
page (forty
at its foot:
"Rob.
Alumn."
aware,
this early
Neo-Latin work of Walpole's has not been studied
generally ignored) by historians and English scholars.-"
also has implications for the discussion
of Walpole's
Of interest
in
itself,
later career, particularly his tur-
bulent relations with authors. During his long period of power, he was noted
as a
poor patron of letters in general, favouring those whose writing was politically useful.^' Many prominent poets attacked him, whether as Tories (or crypto-Jacobites) or members of the so-called "patriot opposition". ^^ tent patronage of King's
sons."^
"
He
clearly
men
remembered
Letter of resignation, 19
man (London,
and Etonians was
May
On
his early associations;
1698:
J.
H. Plumb,
the other hand, his "consis-
a source
of annoyance to many per-
and the culture of Eton and
Sir Robert Walpole:
1956), 88. Library: Plumb, Walpole, 82. Cf. B.
H.
The Making of a
States-
Hill, Sir Robert Walpole: "Sole
Prime Minister" (London, 1989), 18-24: "[a] seat in Parliament [was]
now
and
virtually his inheri-
tance", at twenty-four.
^ There
is
however
a vast
gest for this paper (as well as
secondary literature on Walpole, which
numerous MSS,
etc.);
apologies if
I
I
have not attempted to di-
have missed a discussion of the
poem. Standard biographies noted above do not seem aware of it. -'
^
B. A. Goldgar, Walpole and the Wits (Lincoln,
C. Gerrard, The
" Quoted
Patriot Opposition to
at Dictionary
NE, and London,
1976), 9-14.
Walpole (Oxford, 1994).
of National Biography 59 (London, 1899), 180.
TWO THOUSAND CAMBRIDGE
368
King's was a Neo-Latin one, where such poetry
LATIN POETS
own 1697 contribution was He may even have felt, as a
as his
highly esteemed, and considered of practical value.
former Neo-Latin poet himself, some scorn for the vernacular bards clamouring for state
handouts. Latin remained of real use to him: his son Horace wrote in 1742,
"You know
the Earl [by
now
he was ennobled,
as
Earl of Orford] don't speak a
word
of any language but English and Latin." As prime minister, he had no way of conversing with his employer, George
Walpole's
poem
fraud, savagery,
I,
"but very imperfectly in Latin. "^^
begins by stressing Europe's fears
and famous pride (an
at
French preparations: their
eflfective tricolon, in
the third line):
Viderat instructos Europa in praeUa Gallos,
tandem permetuisse sibi. quo nota superbia tendat, Cura, timor populis omnibus unus erat. (1-4) Coeperat
Quo
fraus,
quo
et
feritas,
Yet Britain herself had a treacherous leader (James II), who would not help to oppose Louis XIV; hke the wicked pastors of Milton's "Lycidas", he aims to betray his flock: Horruit ante omnes Britannia moesta, tueri
Quod quae deberet dextra negaret opem. Intremuit, cum (quo non infelicior alter) Ipse suas vellet prodere Pastor oves. (5-8)
Walpole then has
The
alliteration
"g" in
15),
but
a striking rhetorical flourish.
may seem heavy-handed young
reflects the
Quisnam
Who can save us from present danger?
prominent "p"s in hne
poet's forceful
9; also
"v" in 14,
enjoyment of the medium:
igitur praesens propiora pericula pellat?
Quem Quem?
(5
nisi,
vocet Heroum,
quem
vocet
ilia
Deum?
qui potuit toties fulcire ruentem,
Victrici et toties reppulit
WiLHELMUM.
.
.
.
arma manu,
(9-13)
Thus William saves Europe, and teaches Louis a lesson: a point made, in their different ways, by Quadring, and by Wyllys, from Walpole's own college. Walpole's sense of the urgency of the crisis; of Britain's catastrophic poUcy under James II, reversed by William's revolution; and of the nation's gratitude on the king's return, are all fitting for a future poUtician.
Jam
rediisti igitur,
Princeps Optate; tuorum
Spes exples, praesens gaudia nostra foves.
2*
Mrs. P. Toynbee,
ed., Letters of Horace Walpole
(Oxford, 1903), 1:258.
DAVID MONEY Semper
grata Dies, nostris
Quae ciun pace
The
classical
quae Te
369
attulit oris.
ferat, gratior ilia Dies.
(23—26)
language of a longed-for prince, ironically, echoes the terms regularly
used by Jacobite Latin poets, hoping for their Utical anniversaries
were
own
restoration.^*
day of peaceful return will
crucial; this
For both
rival that
sides,
po-
of Glorious
Revolution. Walpole, soon to be in ParUament, anticipates the pleasure of voting aimual subsidies:
Quam laete
As in Cromwell's case
"Quam laete
fiilgebit
Marte gravem Te excepimus olim.
vel
Annua
testantur
munera voce patrum. (27—28)
connection not exphcitly made, but possibly impHcit),
(a
Honos
et frontis
OHva"
from the
either cease complaints or abstain
(29).
Let opponents, "vos infesti" (33)
of WiUiam's peace. The
blessings
poem
ends with a promise of enthusiastic loyalty:
Ibimus, haud mora, confestim nos ibimus omnes,
Quocunque It is
no
typical
He
surprise,
ille
vocat,
quam jubet
viam. (39-40)
of course, to find loyalty in a loyal verse collection. Walpole's
poem; he too
is
Cambridge author, except
a typical
is
a
in his later prominence.
writes powerfully and effectively, with an eye to the chief purpose of the genre:
to attract favourable attention to the author.
found est
ille
a friend
naval victory in the
bite
Soon
after, as a
young
and patron in Edward Russell, Lord Orford, admiral
Nine Years War, the batde of La Hogue
poUtician, he
at Britain's great-
(1692),
when Jaco-
hopes of an early revenal of the Revolution had been shattered. ^^ (As Britain's
leading statesman,
bridge verses
was
it
this first patron's title
— whether or not
Russell read
he was to adopt.) Walpole's
them
— demonstrate
Cam-
exactly the quah-
would have approved. Neo-Latin could be highly poUtical, as Walacumen undentood. It also required some learning and skill; one hesitates to imagine more recent politicians attempting to foUow suit." As I hope these few poems of 1697 suggest, there is much of value in these university poets, even if two ties
the admiral
pole's early
thousand others from
his university
were not
as influential as
Walpole.
Wolfson College, Cambridge, and University of Sunderland
^ E.g., Latinitatis
Archibald Pitcaime: see
Money,
English Horace,
and edn. by J. MacQueen (Bibliotheca
Novae: forthcoining).
^ Plumb.
Walpole, 97; cf P. Aubrey.
The Defeat ofJames
Stuart's
Armada, 1692 (Leicester.
1979).
" One Oxford
—
gathers that
Tony
Blair,
perhaps the cultural,
if
prime minister
not
at the
time of writing, was in a pop band
intellectual, equivalent.
at
De
Thomas Morels
Christi
tristitia
Theo-Drama
as
CLARE M. MURPHY
Thomas More's randula,
first
which was
also the first
er-in-law John Rastell, in 1510.
chose to pubHsh a
life
work was his Life ofJohn Picus, Earl of Mibook to issue from the press of More's brothnot unusual that the greatest EngUsh humanist
printed English
It is
of the Renaissance proto-humanist, especially since Giovanni
nephew Gianfirancesco had some years earUer written the Latin vita which More now translated. That More may have to some extent identified with Pico I have shown elsewhere,' particularly as regards the similarities between what More wrote of Pico and what Erasmus was later to write of More in his letter of 23 July 1519 to Ulrich von Hutten (Allen, Letters, 999). And, the received wisdom tells us. More having definitively decided to embrace not the priesthood but rather a wife Pico's
— — sought
a lay model,^ a role
the age Pico was
when he
ble discomfort he
writing
may
which the
briUiant Florentine could perhaps
conversion. At the time of preparing this
least after his
felt at
died. Certain similarities
life.
between
Pico's sudden death at the age
help to explain why,
when More comes
More was their lives
More was
fulfil, at
not far from
and the possiat
the time of
to write of Pico's death,
he
lets
the great humanist's attachment to Girolamo Savonarola carry the emotion of his narrative.
The Solution The
Picus
tristitia tedio
London by
'
C.
in
pavore a
De
tristitia
was More's
man
first
pubUshed English work. What about
et oratione Christi
ante captionem eius
awaiting certain death.
M. Murphy, "Humanist
Values in
his final
work? De
was written in the Tower of
Now there was no other figure to carry the
Thomas More's
dola," in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bariensis, ed.
J.
Life
F. Alcina et
of Giovanni Pico al.,
MRTS
della
Miran-
184 (Tempe, AZ,
1998), 419-425. -
The Ufe of SIR
(London, 1726);
ed.
THOMAS MORE,
By His Great Grandson Kennedy (Athens, GA,
Knight
and modernized by J.
L.
CRESACRE MORE, 1941), 11.
Esq.
THOMAS MORE'S THEO-DRAMA
372
More
emotion.
stands like
journey for which there
O'Connor's short
Everyman
no traveUing companion,
is
at least
"A Temple of the Holy Ghost"
story
who must go on
in the medieval drama,
no
the
earthly one. Flannery
features a
half brat
little girl,
and half serious thinker: "She thought she could never be a
saint,
but she could be
was because of
their
former friendship
a
martyr
that
if
they killed her quick." Perhaps
Henry VIII had More
might be awaiting
it
More
killed "quick," but
he
that
hanging followed by drawing and quartering. Christ's "sad-
partial
and "fear" were More's own,
ness", "weariness",
Tower knew
in the
was
as
Christ's "prayer", his
Agony
in the Garden.
More
always had a sense of drama,-' from his days
Canterbury) Morton's household
and took
a part, until at the foot
coming down he could
cause
greatest drama, the Passion
when he chmbed upon
one
at least
page in Archbishop (of
the stage with the players
of the scaffold he asked for help going up, only be-
shift for
himself In the
and Resurrection of
Tower he turned
Christ. In
McCutcheon describes the three Mores who figure in he plays in De tristitia, the number of masks he wears, of us play
as a
role in the Passion of Christ.
My
Utopia.*
Dear
to history's
Elizabeth
Peter,
The number of roles
considerably larger, but
is
By
its
nature,
De
all
tristitia is
a
highly theological work.
Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) gy: "All theology
is
singles
an interpretation of divine revelation. Thus, in
only be hermeneutics." This hermeneutics
human
out the hermeneutic nature of theolo-
is
himself is the
and in
detail, his
hermeneutics. This
first
second hermeneutics,
his
first,
God
interprets himself
The
plan for the world."
however,
plan for the world
totality
it
can
played out in the Trinity and in the
being, for, in revealing himself in Christ,
gives "in broad outline
its
—
is
"for
and thus
revelation of
oriented and regulated by the
God
does not play the world
on his own; he makes room for man to join in the acting," and it is through the Holy Spirit that God's language becomes intelligible to the human being. All this von Balthasar calls Theo-drama, theological dramatic theory. But Theo-drama is not played upon a stage for an audience to watch. As More did in Archbishop drama
all
Morton's household, and
in the Elizabethan
drama
in
there
Sir
to
is
as he does for the play-within-a-play Thomas More, human beings must involve themselves
The Focus of De
tristitia
The work opens
at
See for example
hymn and went
Howard
B. Norland,
out to the
Drama
in
1485-1558
Early Tudor Britain:
(Lincoln,
1995), 111-127. Norland notes that More's father had served as Master of the Revels at
NE,
Lincoln's Inn in *
E.
*
1488-1489
McCutcheon,
gen, 1983), 17
in
(112).
My Dear Peter:
The "Ars Poetica" and Hermeneutics for More's "Utopia" (An-
ff.
Hans Urs von
Mensch tis
"When Jesus had said these Mount of Olives," and ends with
the conclusion of the Last Supper:
things, they recited the
^
God's drama "if
be an integrated interplay."*
Balthasar, Theodramatik, Zweiter Band:
Die Personen
Gott (Einsiedeln, 1976); Theo-Drama: Theological Dramatic Theory,
Personae:
Man
in
Cod,
trans.
Graham Harrison
des Spiels,
Volume
(San Francisco, 1990), 91.
II,
Teil
1,
Der
The Drama-
CLARE M. MURPHY "only then,
manus after
after
iniectas in
all,
373
on
these events, did they lay hands
all
demum primum
Jesus, turn
lesum."^ There was joy as well as anguish at the Last Supper.
meal among
a Passover
which Christ
friends, at
was,
It
and
instituted the Eucharist,
some views also the priesthood by the words "Do this in memory of me." Christ showed the necessity and beauty of service to others in the washing of the feet; Holy Thursday in Henry VIIl's court still included the Mandatum or "Maundy", i.e., the washing of beggan' feet. For these reasons, Holy Thursday liturgies tend to be joyful, and are often followed by parties. Yet More avoids all this to focus on Christ's agony and through it on his own. in
—
More
has a twofold imperative: to face the
could be, but most of
his death
strength to do.
the Eucharist, prayer.
Among all is
firom
me, yet not
Luke
22:42).
Agony
my
he
this hypostatic
prays,
More
to have the
are the Trinity,
tristitia
and the necessity of
faith,
in the
union may well be found in Christ's possible, let this
it is
but yours, be done" (Matthew 26:39; cf
prostrate
is
De
— divine and human —
in the Garden: "Father, if
will,
Here Christ
-14: 145), since
what he hoped
divine mercy, the quality of one's the union of the two natures
person of Christ. The crux of prayer during the
agony of fear of the possible torment
to find a reason for
the theological subjects treated in
firee will,
But above
all
cup
Mark
"not only in soul, but also in body"
says,
on the ground. (One
is
pass
14:36,
(CW
reminded of the ordinand, or
the rehgious at final profession, prostrate during the Litany of the Saints, symbolically
down
laying
their Uves to rise
have been ignorant of
their crosses.)
The Son of God could not as God could have Him by an immuta-
even though the Father
the cup of the Passion "if He had not imposed
him
spared
and take up
his Father's will,
on
it
own will "might not be granted, if something seemed better to His Father's will, which is absolutely best" (CW 14: 149). As God, Christ knows what will happen to him and for what cause. Why then does he
ble decree." Christ also asked that his else
pray that that
on
not happen? His purpose, according to More,
it
Fatherhood proceeds from the
all
earth
which
is
—
that
a sort
The human
God
but
God
the Father
is
so in a double sense: he
151-153).
father
who
begot us was in
heaven and
a virgin
"My
'
his Father, Christ
"my
trans.
ences to this
father"
(CW
14: 179).
14: 177). It
More
singles
it
also
"Our
As man, Christ can
will
be given
body of the
text as
CW
is
"my"
(as
clear that
the father of all
say "our"; as
14.
14:
drink-
Father," but only he can
Works of St. Thomas More, (New Haven and London, 1976), 3,
in the
makes
(CW
my
out the pronoun
denotes affection, but
Edition of die Complete
Clarence H. Miller
work
acknowledges
he had no other father on earth
cup cannot pass away without
but also by nature. Christ taught us to pray
The Yale
and
by God, explains More,
on
the father of Christ not only by creation, through which he
is
pray to
ed.
his turn created
mother, but without male seed, therefore firom nothing
father," says Christ, "if this
it, let your will be done" (CW Matthew) for its twofold effect.
things,
remind us
Father also by Creation,
signifies as well that
ing
God
instructive: to
is
creates firom nothing. In caUing twice
— bom of
is
Person of the Trinity, both in heaven and
of fatherhood (149).
his natural father in
in
first
vol. 14,
God, "my."
De
tristitia
Christi,
625. All subsequent refer-
THOMAS MORE'S THEO-DRAMA
374
When Christ asks
Father to
his
let
the cup pass, he shows the "certain, immutable,
unconstrained decision of His Father concerning His death" the only basis
on which Christ
(CW
14: 179a). This
something possible or impossible.
calls
is
saw
If Christ
himself as "ineluctably and necessarily destined to die," something determined by the or by
stars
then
fate,
would have been "completely
it
pointless" for
him
to
add
"let
your wiU be done." The addition shows that he did not consider the Father's decision to
be out of
his control
(CW
179a— 181).
14:
Two
matters then for consideration:
"humbly sub-
Christ "begged His Father to avert His death" and at the same time he
mitted everything to the will of His Father." While
More, "we must man,
also constantly
[Christ] said
man
mature
all
mind
that,
God, but
these things not as
young More once
181). If the
bear in
we
consider these two, writes
though
insofar as
He was both God and He was man" (CW 14:
identified himself with his literary subject Pico, the
waiting for death has found integrity of self and soul and pen in identifi-
cation with the
God who became man and
let
himself endure the sufferings
human
beings can face.
The analogy More is
uses to indicate the undivided nature of the hypostatic
that
we
heaven when they
other hand of the proud, 183).
who
are
that of willing
we mean
but
die,
still
Again the personal identification
reveals
itself.
it
to
whose
say that martyrs
We
why he
that his
may be
classed only
we need
less closely
familiar /mwm^
is
made
than His immortal soul was united to a body which could die.
Abraham came
"The Father
et
refused to praise the late king's worldly glories.'
Because he was divine Christ could say "before
man
only to look to the son of
In the omnipotent person of Christ humanity and divinity were joined and
one no
go
speak on the
(CW 14: A prominent theme of De tristitia
sermon Bishop John Fisher evoked the
funeral
union
points out
be in the former. As for the proud
(eventually to be) turned to ashes in his grave,
VII, in
we
only their souls.
and reluctant martyrdom. More fearing
umbra theme in explaining
He
one human being.
only "dust and ashes" in their graves
group while he would wish
in the latter
Henry
in
sometimes speak of the one rather than the other:
straight to
is
body
the favorite patristic one, that of soul and
to be,
I
am"
"I
and the Father are one" [John 10:30] and
[John 8:58]. Because he was
greater than I" [John 14:28] and
"A
little
while
I
human he could
am
say
with you" [John
7:33, 13:33] (185).
The Drama of the Hypostatic Union
Why is hypostasis question
is
[= the Person] so important to
inseparable
from
a second: for
More
at this
ultimate stage? This
what did More give
his life?
Clarence
Miller ponders this question. For the "integrity of the self? Yes. For "the irreducible
freedom of the individual conscience"? Yes. For papal supremacy
"as a sign
of the
supra-national unity of Western Christendom, past and present"? Yes. All these "are true as far as they go."
"But
any principle, or idea, or
^
The English Works ofJohn
269-270.
in the last analysis," he continues,
tradition, or
Fisher, coll.
"More
did not die for
even doctrine, but for a person, for Christ"
John E. B. Mayor, Part
1
(London, 1876;
repr. 1935),
CLARE M. MURPHY
(CW same
One
14: 775).
man who
Christ
is
might say
made
it
and
sadness, weariness,
that the
God who
fear as
is
man,
bearable. This
375
made the death exigent; penon Christ, experienced
Christ
this
More, prayed the same agonized prayer
the
the
More.
as
Von Balthasar writes of the hypostatic union: "When God says to a spiritual subject who that subject is for him, the eternally and abiding true God, when God says to it in the same breath why it exists thus bestowing on it its divinely attested
—
mission —
at that
point
can be said of a
it
took place once, archetypally
spiritual subject that
says the Swiss theologian,
nition" by his Father at his baptism by John: "This
well pleased" (Matthew 3:17,
knowledge of who Christ from
tian derives
that
is
Mark
1:11, cf
is
3:22).
penon."
a
after sitting a
—
turned out
—
said to his daughter Margaret's husband,
the field
won."' Perhaps
whom I am
son, in
There
is
thus precise
13 April 1534
this
is
while in
his
his final leave-taking
boat
of that
"Son Roper,
I
they
as
home
the Lord that
have been able to make that decision." In the
I
left
as it
thank our Lord
More's strongest statement of personhood:
"I
cannot sign the Oath of Succession. Whatever comes of that decision,
I
All this
and of his mission, and the personhood of every Chris-
of Christ.* More,
home on
that
it is
Christ was given "defi-
my beloved
Luke
their Chelsea
is
when
I
know thank
Tower More must
cling to that personhood, to that definition of self in a "divinely attested mission,"
by
'sustained
his
concentration on Christ's mission. In the very same paragraph
know what
himself confides that he did not
"conjectured afterwards, tually that
it
was
that the love
conquered aU carnal
it
his father-in-law
he had to
affections
[i.e.,
Roper
meant, but that he
God wrought in him so
effec-
worldly feelings and emotions]
utterly."
Where More's meditation concentrates on Christ's experience, von Balthasar deAgony in the Garden as the choice between two images of the Father, that of the all-powerful and good Father, who could let the cup pass from his son who is both God and man, and the image of the severe God of justice as seen
scribes the
through the heart and eyes of of
result
his sacrifice will
perform what
Father
is
is
is
demanded."'" In De
He
as a
concludes finally that the martyr's witness of whichever
in itself a cause for our gratitude
blood. "Only a conflict between
Von
who
Father in the defence of sin-
More's struggle with the will of the
tristitia
(CW
14:
Like More, von Balthasar discusses the singular
*
appearing to the Son,
this
perhaps best demonstrated in his anxious distinguishing between the willing
and the reluctant martyr. nature
now
is
agony, says Balthasar, Jesus experiences "the terrible fear of not being able
ners. In his
to
and
sinners,
be able to mediate with
God
Balthasar, Theodramatik II/2, 190,
von Balthasar
.
.
Kehl, SJ. and
.
Lesebuch (Freiburg
Werner
im
in
239 and elsewhere).
phenomenon of Christ's sweating
heaven and
206-209,
God
the representative of
repr. in In der Fiille des Claubens:
Hans Urs
Breisgau, 1980), and The Von Balthasar Reader, ed.
Losser, SJ., trans.
Robert
J.
Medard
Daly, SJ. and Fred Lawrence (Edinburgh,
1982), 132. '
ter
William Roper, The
Life of Sir Thomas More, in Tuv Early Tudor Lives, ed. Richard S. SylvesHarding (New Haven and London, 1962), 238. H. U. Von Balthasar, Der dreifache Kranz: Das Heil der Welt im Mariengebet (Einsiedeln,
and Davis '"
1977),
45^7;
P.
Reader, 147.
THOMAS MORE'S THEO-DRAMA
376
on earth" can explain
sinners
cause Christ
as
man
it.
The redemption, he
was accompUshed be-
writes,
freely chose to accept his Father's will that
he be "God the repre-
on earth,"" and, as Eucharistic Prayer II of the Roman Catholic liturgy states, "he was given up to death, a death he freely accepted." This death is freely accepted when Jesus allows "them" "to lay hands on him." sentative of sinners
And scholar
so
More
who
is
allows the same.
Von
Balthasar writes that, like Jesus, "the artist or
possessed by his or her mission
he or she can pursue
knows himself or
only
who
personally handled the Valencia holograph and thus saw More's
of
his
if
manuscript, shows
need to find
how
and
sustain others in that
own
More's revisions indicate that he subsumed
from emotional
relief
this
distress into the
later times
and to-
herself freely
most personal mission."'^ Clarence Miller,
tally
(CW
his
own
production of a text that would
748
14:
revisions
ff.).
More
as artist
could
know
himself "freely and totally" in pursuing "this most personal mission," identifying his
own agony
with
beginning the
Christ's,
Word
More loved not
and expressing
(John
The
is
present and
fledgling
who
is
Church More contemplates
around himself More
also finds
scathing: viciously sinful priests
who
church
made up of
constitute the mystical
cludes the betrayer Judas, toward
bishops
word, as Christ himself is
only the person Christ, but also Christ's church
tions Miller, "only insofar as the
Christ
by the
it
1:1).
whom
contemporary betrayers,
who
have betrayed Christ
(CW
in his long meditation is
— however, cau-
Christian persons in
body of Christ"
his disdain
from the
14:
whom
775—776).
on the Passion
(CW for whom his
scathing
in-
14: 277).
Yet
disdain
also
is
administer the Eucharist unworthily, somnolent as surely as
Judas did. Finally, in the fledgling
Church are the apostles, sleeping away as Christ implores his Father and asks them to stay awake with him (Matthew 26:40, Mark 14:37-38, Luke 22:45-46). '^ More writes particularly of Peter, a warning against presumption, protesting that he will
never deny Christ and then doing so three times in a row thasar says that the apostles,
sent the
Church
in
its
one day be martyrs of the same Christ
"faith
is
as
(CW
14: 217).
he probably would
More knew
be.
that the apostles
Whether wiUing or
Bal-
would
reluctant, they
average, supported into their complete witnessing
who
Von
not awake and prayerful enough, repre-
average condition."''' Yet
all,
would no longer be
whose
by the grace
had called them into "definition" and personhood.
Moreanum Universiti
"
Von
profundis,
Balthasar,
Der
dreijache
John Fisher admonishes
CathoUque de I'Ouest
Kranz, in Reader, 147. In his sermon on Psalm 129/130, the sinners to "... call
De
unto Jesus Christ our advocate in heaven
unto the father ..." (English Works, 1:218). '^
Von
'^
For a study of both the sleeping apostles and the somnolent bishops, see Brenda Hosington,
Balthasar, Theodramatik, in Reader, 133.
" ^Quid dormitisV: More's
Use of Sleep as a Motif in De Tristitia," in Miscellanea Moreana: Essays for M. Murphy, Henri Gibaud, and Mario A. Di Cesare, MRTS 61
Germain Marc'hadour, ed. Clare
(Binghamton, '*
Von
NY,
1989), 55-69.
Balthasar,
Der
dreijache
Kranz, in Reader, 148.
The Metamorphoses of
De
monachorum
vita
STEPHEN MURPHY
To
a considerable extent,
will not dwell
on the
pieces of a previous one; nor
on the
first
what follows
will develop the figure
definition of cento, a
new
of
reticentia.^ I
made from rearranged
text
on the long popularity of the Virgilian verse cento; nor where Proba and Ausonius are the let alone the theoretical and formal discussions, which
flourishing of cento in late antiquity,
most important practioners;
belong most prominently to Ausonius and Henri Estienne^ (not to mention cant contributions si
signifi-
from Giulio Roscio Hortino and Antonio Possevino) .' Non mihi
linguae centum, sint oraque centum.
More
important,
I
what? The traditional
end up begging the natural question: namely, so contempt for cento as an inevitably minor
will probably
(modem
critical)
genre and a sure sign of decadent
taste
is
not something to be attacked
directly.
But
the following discussion of the most notorious text by the poet considered by his
sixteenth-century contemporaries
as
the greatest
of the interest of the poem, and of the form. icality, in
then
my
the extremeness with
subject,
which
LeUo Capilupi's De
it
vita
modem
centonist
may
of cento
If the interest
give an idea
lies
in
pushes the intertextual relation to
monachorum and
its
its
rad-
limit,
textual fortune, holds a
its
privileged place. First, a
sketch of the editorial history of De
vita
monachorum.
It
may be
best to pro-
ceed, not simply chronologically, but by the type of publication. In the editio princeps
'
^
I
have profited firom suggestions by George
Ausonius, preface to Cento
nuptialis;
Hugo Tucker
and, especially, Helene Cazes.
H. Estienne, Centonum veterum &parodiarum
tUriusque lin-
guae exempla (Geneva: H. Estienne, 1575). ^
ex
Antonio Possevino, dedicatory
Virgilio
otti,
(Rome: Valerio Dorico,
letter to
1555),
A
1590), 155-157; Possevino, Bibliotheca
catius, 1603), 2: ch. 24;
tinus S.P.D."
Joachim
Du Bellay,
in
both Lelio Capilupi, Centones
3-4, and Capilupomm carmina selecta
de ratione studiomm
"Camillo ac Prospero Capilupis
(Capilupomm carmina, 389-394).
clariss.
[.
.
.]
(Rome: Giovanni
Gigli-
(Venice: Altobellus Sali-
adolescentibus Julius Roscius
Hor-
DE
378
(Venice, 1543),
The same is
De
vita
monachorum
paired with another cento by Capilupi, Gallus.
is
1550/ Otherwise, De
texts reappear together in
pubHshed only outside
MONACHORUM
VITA
monachorum by
vita
[Zurich, ] around the same date; Wittenberg, 1545; Edinburgh, 1565; and
Two
(= Geneva), 1575.^
Rome,
"Rome"
collective editions of Capilupi's centos appear,
The
in 1555 and 1590.
itself
Protestant territory: [Basel,] probably niid-1540s;
Italy, in
both in
Capiluporum carmina, comprises not
latter, entitled
only Lelio's centos, but also his non-cento Latin verse,
well
as
as
the centos and verse
of his nephew Giulio and the verse of his three brothers Ippolito, Alfonso, and Camillo. The last sort of publication in which De vita monachorum appears is anthologies or anthology-like works. The first of these that can be dated is the volume edited by Varia doctorum piorumque virorum de
Mathia Flacius lUyricus in Basel (1557), entided
an adequate idea of the ideological
corrupto ecclesiae statu poemata, a title that gives
About the same time the cento appears
slant.^
carminum
in nostri temporis corruptelas
De
entire text of
vita
[.
monachorum in
in a similar polemical anthology Sylva
.]? In 1575, Henri Estienne includes the
.
Centonum veterum
his
Meibom
exempla} In 1597 in Helmstadt, Heinrich
linguae
&
parodiarum utriusque
prints Lelio's cento along
with a number of others, including several by Giulio Capilupi.^ Finally, a volume of
Koln
Virgilio-Centones published in
including a version of
The other tions
De
"Venetiis, 1550."
late
it
had to be
Italian edi-
1557, "Laelii Capilupi Cento ex Virgilio"
index of forbidden books." In order for De
to appear again in Italy,
*
^'^
must be mentioned explains the absence of
between 1555 and 1590. In
Roman
1601 contains collected centos by Lelio,
monachorum.
vita
basic fact that
placed on the
in
revised.
And,
However, Dennis Rhodes claims
vita
in fact, the editor of the
was printed
that this edition
is
monachorum
in
Jean Pullon. See idem, "Lelio Capilupi and the 'Centones ex Virgilio'," The Library,
1590
Lyons by set. 6,
16
(1994): 208-218. '
For the identification of the Basel and Zurich
Aureliemis (Baden-Baden, rather than * ''
Rome De
355-370:
for the vita
1965-
),
prima
pars,
editions,
tomus
which
are both n.p.n.p.n.d., see Index
457. For the identification of
6:
Geneva
1575 edition, see Rhodes, "Lelio Capilupi," 214.
monachorum.
Sylva carminum in nostri tempore corruptelas, praesertim
diversis hinc inde autoribus collecta,
N.p.n.d., 112-127:
De
»
104-118.
'
Virgilio-Centones auctorum notae optimae antiquorum
religionis,
vita
&
quam
sane
falsa
& /estiva,
ex
monachorum.
recentium
[.
.
.]
(Helmstadt: Jacobus Lu-
cius, 1597). '"
P.
Virgilii
Maronis Opera
[.
.
.]
Quibus
Bernardus Gualtherius, 1601). Second Latin anthology of Giovanni Matteo
part:
adiecti
67-76:
sunt Virgilio-Centones variorum Auctorum (Koln:
De
Toscano {Carmina
aetate aurea illustrium
A. Gorbinus, 1577]) includes the contents of the 1555 Centones ex
minus De vita monachorum. " See G. Hugo Tucker, "Mantua's 'Second Fortune of Lelio Capilupi's Centones ex Neo-Latin Literature
264-291,
esp.
in
Virgilio
Honour ofjozef Ijsewijn,
284-289.
Virgil':
Du
Virgilio
Bellay,
(Romae, 1555),"
ed. Gilbert
& ferrea.
Toumoy
The important Neo-
poetarum Italorum, 2 vols.
in
[Paris:
and more (2:308-340),
Montaigne and the Curious Ut granum
sinapis: Essays
on
and Dirk Sacre (Leuven, 1997),
STEPHEN MURPHY
379
Capiluporum carmina says explicidy that revision was undertaken by Giulio Capilupi,
accommodate his uncle's centos to the different cHmate.'^ I would like to make three main points about the textual fortune of De vita monachorum (and, to varying degrees, about that of other centos by LeUo), although I make no pretense to an exhaustive treatment of any of them. First, the changes undergone to
by Leho's cento include important paratextual elements. Second, the most important textual revisions of De vita monachorum are those
made
1590 edition by GiuUo
for the
Capilupi, but those are not the only revisions of interest. Third, to call Giulio's re-
writing an expurgation related
poem, and one
Among
is
He has
insufl&cient.
created a diflferent, though an obviously
posed by cento.
that intensifies the intertextual relationship
paratextual changes figures
first
the order of poems.
centos originally printed separately, Callus and
De
vita
in the collected edition of 1555. In the section of the
become
ing Leho's centos, they
The two
notorious
monachorum, are the
first
two
1590 collected edition contain-
respectively the sixteenth
and the eighteenth (out of
nineteen).
There first
is
also the
matter of
titles.
Although Callus and De
only by a numeral. In 1590 both poems are again given has
vita
in 1555, they are the only ones of the thirteen centos to lack
become De cetate aurea etferrea. The next element is typographical
that
but
rather than paratextual.
De
The
text of
emphasize or images to elucidate for panegyric purposes.'^ In the 1555
They
monachorum
1555 and
italics.
chorum, capitals are used
from
being headed
vita
However, both editions also use small roman capitals words. In 1590, this occun mainly with proper names the poet wants to
of 1590 are both in
for certain
titles,
monachorum come
titles,
alert the
more
often
reader to the fact that a
that in Virgil: thus/rafr«
and
vita
mona-
word is being used in a much different sense mean friars and nuns, claustra means cloister.
sorores
This semantic use of typography occurs in Callus, where a reader
De
an aid to interpretation of corrmion nouns.
as
is
often clarified by marginal notes.
may be
One example
puzzled by the poet's use of the
name
Cacus,
before understanding from a marginal note that LeUo derives the Italian cazzo firom
Cacus
(naturally,
only in the 1555 edition).'* While marginalia are numerous in
both collected editions, the two "Itahan" editions of Callus and De (Venice, 1543 and "Venice" [Lyons], 1550) lack any glosses. tions of
De
vita
monachorum printed in Protestant
cities
poem
ricordia,
'^
stress
on the one hand on the other
mocked
{Matutini, Missae descriptio,
with an occasional cry of editorial indignation {Mise-
Proh pudor).
Capiluporum carmina, 154.
" For example, "Arduus "Insignes Regis Galliae, **
edi-
{Propositio, Invocatio, Narratio, etc.),
the elements of monastic routine and ritual being Transubstantiatio , Confessio, etc.),
monachorum
share a tradition of polemical
marginaha. Starting with the Basel edition, the marginal notes the ordered structure of the
vita
On the other hand,
Centones ex
&
insurgens
&
grandia LILIA quassans," ^ossed in the margin thus:
familiae Estensis," 232.
Virgilio, 7.
.
DE
380
A large,
MONACHORUM
VITA
particular kind of marginalia present in several editions, as is
the identification of Virgilian sources. Typically, to the
line
(when each hemistich comes from
the
title
is
the case from the
is
printed an abbreviation of
first
1597.
The
Virgilian
loci
estant countries.
et
vita
do not appear with the
text of
De
vita
monachorum in Henri
parodiarum exempla (1575), nor in the editions printed in Prot-
may be
It
that the identification of sources draws attention to the
and so
centonist's virtuosity
De vita monachorum, in poem in his anthology of
edition of Callus and
1543, through Heinrich Meibom's inclusion of the latter
Estienne's Centonum
for centos at
and right of each
and the number of the book (never the verse
(Aeneid, Georgics, Eclogues)
number). This
a different place)
it is
left
distracts
from the subversiveness of
De
a cento such as
monachorum. In contrast, the Protestant stripping away of references would be a
way of focusing
A
on the
attention
final paratextual
striking examples.
On
element the
title
is
satire in the text itself
the title-page illustration.
I
mention only two
will
page of the Basel and Zurich editions of
nachorum a horned centaur wears a papal
tiara
and holds
flaming manuscript (maybe a papal bull) in the other
a
sword
in
De
mo-
vita
one hand and a
he tramples upon books. The on the verso or by the polemic
as
reader will not be surprised by the anti-papal epigram marginalia.*^
Upon
opening the
Centones ex
Virgilio,
collected edition, the 1555
first
one
finds
no information about the
Roman
Lcelii
Capilupi
place, publisher, or date.
[.
.]
One
does find the image of an hourglass emerging from clouds and, more prominently, a bearlike or wolflike animal in the wilderness urinating and defecating. Since several
centos refer to the Capilupi family Lelio Capilupi.
At the very
ginning of a collection that
De
vita
genus luporum, the figure
starts
an image of
startling
may be an emblem of
impertinence
texts, the
whole volume, but on
My second point
is
at
the be-
with Lelio's most controversial centos. Callus and
monachorum. Surprisingly, in the 1590 Capiluporum carmina, with
up of troublesome the
as
least, it is
same image reappears. Here
a separate
it is
all its
not on the
title
tidying-
page of
page preceding the section with Lelio's centos.
De vita monachorum are not Hmited to the be reprinted in 1590.'^ This is too vast a topic
that the revisions to
extensive changes that allowed
it
to
to be covered adequately here; the following
example
will
have to serve.
A
line in-
which occupies troduces a new character Asylas, a minor monachorum. is given the name the first part of De vita He the entire Une interpres." In fact, as "hominum divumque in the Aeneid described character into the narrative of moral decline and strife
from the Aeneid (10.175)
vumque That
is
used here, starting in 1543: "Tertius
hominum
di-
interpres Asylas." is
the reading of
all
editions until that of 1555,
another Virgilian Une, beginning
'*
ille
In both editions, the
woodcut
"Ille
is
where we
find substituted
quidem," which makes the whole
line read:
accompanied by the same epigram, "In Pontificem vel
Minotaurum." The Wittenberg edition reproduces the venes but not the woodcut. '*
It
would be more
pear to be at least five
accurate to speak of different versions of the 1555 edition, since there ap-
diflferent printings
of the collection. See Rhodes, "Lelio Capilupi," 215-
217; Tucker, "Mantua's 'Second Virgil'," 278-284.
STEPHEN MURPHY "Ille
quidem
hominum divumque
ille
small change?
The answer appean
"Rome"
Zurich, Edinburgh, tertius
Papa."
The same
original
figures.
Une
is
(Basel,
glossed thus: "Paulus
Mei-
true of Mathias Flacius Illyricus's 1557 anthology.
is
but he makes the same identification,
glosses,
with references, in an endnote. Leho's use of the word (as
diflference lies in that
margin of the "Protestant" editions
where the
bom's 1597 anthology has no marginal the poem's narrative
What
interpres Asylas."
in the
[1575]),
381
we
will see); Asylas
is
Tertius has
an internal logic in
the third in a series of individuahzed
But the use of the number corresponding
to the
pope of the time (Paul
Ill's
long papacy lasted until 1549) must have seemed too good an opportunity to miss for the Protestant appropriators of LeUo's text.
As things stood
mid- 1550s,
in the
change must have been
a
Lelio, or the fiiends responsible for the
first
collective edition
felt
necessary. Either
of his centos (Antonio
Possevino and Fulvio Orsini), or the pubUsher Valerio Dorico made the accommodation. This comprises
new
of a
marginal
not only substitution of a vaguer
gloss. Asylas
of Asylas in LeUo's poem,
is
at first
now
quidem for
Ille
identified as Bernardino
presented favorably, then
condemned
as
Capuchin order and renowned preacher
was LeUo's.'^
that
On the
other hand, the flight
of "Ule Paris
cum semiviro
some of the contemporary condemnation of Paul
The 1590 as
comitatu," which
However, even
this officially
fits
easily
this
bne as a
III,
settle
Lelio's centos,
but in
De
vita
the polyse-
and so when in 1601 an
anthology of centos was pubUshed in Koln under Jesuit supervision
1590 venion of
with
approved insistence on Asylas
continued to refer to Paul
text. Protestants
accusa-
as
nepotism.'*
Ill's
condemnation of Bernardino Ochino was apparently not enough to of the
1542
in the
Capiluporum carmina has the same reading and the same gloss for
the 1555 edition.
my
and this
Gonzaga circle of Asylas modulates somewhat mur-
tions of heresy gathered about him, he caused a
kily into a representation
fled Italy in
commotion
flees
When
he
sows discord, could plausibly correspond to the great Sienese reformer. general of the
but also
Tertius,
Ochino. The figure
followed the
it
monachorum simply omitted the entire
Asylas episode.
My third point concerns GiuUo's rewriting of De vita monachorum. On the reading of the Une introducing Asylas the editions of 1555 and 1590 agree, but there
on which they do so. Perhaps the these two versions, or these two poems, else
versions of
De
half of the
first
is
way
to
show
the differences
'^
See
Gonzaga '*
A
series
poem
{fratres)
and addresses Cardinal IppoUto
follows a diachronic scheme.
of three figures plays key
Edmondo
di
The
et
al.,
2
vols.
(Rome,
Ochino secondo
senese di storia patria 15 (1908):
1983).
this subject in Pasquinate
i
d'Este.
Then
narrative begins with
roles in this process.
Solmi, "La fuga di Bernardino
Mantova," BuUettino
See the numerous epigrams on
Marucci
Uttle
to set out the structure of each. All earlier
primitive humanity, and traces the corruption that overtakes those
monks.
is
between
monachorum through 1555 proceed in the same way. The invoca-
vita
tion declares the subject matter
the
best
The
who become first is
documenti
dell'
a pri-
Archivio
23-98.
romane
del Cinquecento, ed.
Valerio
DE
382
who
mordial lawgiver
them. After the
Vana
superstitio,
above,
first
organizes humanity into monastic orders and thus civilizes
corruptions of leisure have set
an infernal plague that plunges
bemoaning again the
Asylas. After
is
poet appeals to
Italy in particular, the
Another invocation
new
MONACHORUM
VITA
all
in,
the second figure to appear
of Europe into
with
monks, but
crucial
its
moments
—
as
is
seen
and
Duke of Mantua.
time to Calliope, marks the beginning of a
at this point, this
their mores,
Third,
sad state of the contemporary world,
protector Ercole Gonzaga,
his
section. This part corresponds to a roughly synchronic
history of
strife.
what
their daily life
is
scheme: no longer the
Hence
Uke.
offertory, elevation, Eucharist
— then
a
matins, mass
sermon, then
monks' mealtime, presided over by their prior, followed by and outdoor games. There follow begging, funeral ceremonies, then the evening meal, followed by sleep and sex. In a concluding apostrophe, the poet contrasts the monks' happy otium with the grimness of contemporary wars. confession. Next, the exercises
Now,
we assume
if
what Giulio had
that
to
republication was eliminate the anti-monastic
impossible task. In the double sense of
what
it is
now
—
same way
in the
Virgil's
poem
poem
the
that
LeHo
words, so Giulio
seems
retains
do
make
its title
poem
the
acceptable for
might seem that he faced an
— what monastic
life
has been, and
of its subject from beginning to end.
full
And
yet,
nothing of the plots of Virgil's poems while using
able to avoid adding
is
to
satire, it
(and what he adds, of course,
much
that
not already in Lelio's
is
VirgiUan too), while coming up with some-
is
thing quite different.
Giulio retains the same invocation, and the same division into diachronic, the second synchronic. But in the
initial
two
changes the original "Fratres rerum dominos, gentemque togatam,
laborum" to "totiusque ex ordine gentis / virosque." In other words, the subject
is
Mores
parts,
et studia et
a story
is
of human
first
generalized from
monks
[.
.
.]
corda oblita
populos, matresque
Rath-
to humanity.
er than a narrative of the foundation and corruption of monastic orders,
larger
the
declaration of subject matter, he
GiuHo
offers
progress from barbarism to civilization to decadence. Naturally, the
view was already
latent in Lelio's account.
By
his
anthropological turn, Giulio
able to maintain the three figures introduced in this section (the primordial law-
giver,
Vana
ficity.
They become
superstitio,
and
Asylas).
But
less allegorical, or veiled, referents
After paying the same attention to cation sets in
motion the synchronic
displaces the subject,
and, a
more
little
in doing so he empties
from fortia facta
Italy's
them of their
speci-
and more mythical.
sad contemporary state, the second invo-
section, as in Lelio's cento.
But again Giulio
Patrum (where Patres= Fratres) to
concretely, iuvenes. In this
Ulustres
animos
way, Giulio preserves the narrative of
worldly pastimes, transformed into the amusements of lively youth: mealtime, exercise,
evening meal,
fortunatae gentes,"
war
rages
much
all
of the
sleep, sex. It
which
is
is
at this
Lelio's final
point that Giulio inserts the apostrophe
movement. Youth
is
enviable in
its
"O
quies as
around. But then comes the metamorphosis that enables Giulio to use liturgical section
from De
vita
monachorum. Inventus goes to church, not
to matins but morning mass. We find the same moments of the mass (although with an important revision of the elevation of the Eucharist), then the same sermon; confession leads finally to a prayer to Jesus Christ which ends the poem on a note both penitential
and apocalyptic.
STEPHEN MURPHY The
of the
different thrust
new poem
youth and humanity for monks, and in ironic praise of otium.
383
should be apparent in its
For Giulio, the temporal scheme
is
as
gentes
he mocks, and
them
satirical.
serious
he
such Virgihan phrases in a
sets
Giulio's context
and laudatory weight in
is
also
irony in GiuUo's text through a declaration of
dictum." Naturally, no such note
poem
is
makes
it
how much
Leho
new
calls
Fortunatae
context he makes
we
can see a sign of the absence of
presence.
Next
to the speech pre-
mealtime, a marginal note declares: "Ironice
exists in the
new
1555 edition because Lelio's entire
version, of
one limited and glaring
case
irony has been emptied out. finally
without irony,
it
because of the saving power of religious practice. This recuperation of Lelio's
hturgical section
is
doxy of the 1590
only one of the obvious signs of the Counter-Reformation ortho-
edition.
Even more than
the panegyrics to the powerful that
that edition, Giulio's accommodatio of his uncle's
aurea
cento
et ferrea
itself
opposition
a
poem
and the
also
flexibility
— between,
poem is
instructive.
It
makes De
cram cetate
about the salvation of Lelio's cento, about the power of I would like to avoid any High Renaissance textuality and a
of writing from writing.
for example, a playful
pressive post-Tridentine rappel I
its
humanity GiuHo represents can be praised
If the youthful is
at
ironic. This isolation, in the
clear
head.
its
new, but he returns to the phrases' original
Virgil. Ironically,
ceding the description of gluttony
stood on
between the two poems can be
the presence and absence of irony. Those as
is
anthropological, not religious. In the synchronic
section, the representation of mores, the difference
simply
of
Although both poems share the same division between dia-
chronic and synchronic sections, the sense of these perspectives
summed up
this substitution
conclusion with liturgy rather than an
(J
I'ordre;
or casting Lelio
have evoked questions not just of intertextuality and
as
Ariosto to Giulio
editorial ideology,
as
pat re-
Tasso.
but of the
nature of censorship and hterary compromise; questions that must be pursued else-
where. Non omnia possumus omnes.
Wake
Forest University
Hugo
Grotius's Correspondence with
His Brother Willem de Groot"^ H.
Over
dence with
bom, Hugo
his
Grotius (1583—1645) kept up a correspon-
When Willem
brother Willem de Groot (1597-1662).
It
was not long before Hugo became a prominent
scholar,
1621 in particular, enjoyed great fame because of his Neo-Latin poetry his juridical studies
mained
was
was already thirteen years old and a third-year law student at the Univer-
of Leiden.
sity
Hugo
of many years
a period
M. NELLEN
J.
as
who, well
after as for
and exegetical works. Willem de Groot, by contrast, was and re-
He
a secondary figure.'
wrote a couple of juridical
dabbled in the same disciphnes
studies,
brother was beyond his reach.
On
10 August 1611,
Hugo, and
as
but he always realised that the
when he was
status
also
of his elder
fourteen,
Willem
matriculated in the Faculty of Arts at Leiden University; later on, probably in Sep-
tember 1614, he began to study law.
On
pro gradu" in Leiden and five days
tatio
29 November 1616 he defended
later,
a "dispu-
on 3 December 1616, he took
his
doc-
torate in law.^ Willem also collaborated with Gerardus Joannes Vossius in order to
pubhsh a
large selection of the
Neo-Latin poetry written by
Hugo
in the Poemata
Collecta?
* at
I
my '
would
like to express
my
gratitude to Steven Surdel
and Gerard Huijing
for
having a look
text.
M. Ahsmann, "Willem de Groot (1597-1662) en
ven van
zijn
broer Hugo,"
"Willem de Groot," 2:198-199; H.
J.
zijn studie te
Tijdschrifi voor Rechtsgeschiedenis
Leiden in het
licht
van brie-
50 (1982): 371—401; R. Huybrecht,
in Biograjisch Woordenboek van Nederland, ed. J. Charite
M. NeUen, "Hoe Willem de Groot (1597-1662) een
(Amsterdam, 1985)
carriere in Delft misliep.
Dagboeknotities van een pensionaris in spe," Uas 25 (1998): 231-256. ^
Ahsmann, "Willem de Groot." 398-401.
^
Hugonis Grotii Poemata, coUecta
et
magttam partem nunc primum
edita
a Jratre Guilielmo Grotto
Willem de Groot, dated 1 SepDiermanse, Bibliographie des ecrits imprimis de Hugo Gro-
(Leiden, 1617) [= September 1616], with a dedication written by
tember 1616. See J. tius
ter
Meulen and
(The Hague, 1950)
after
ARA),
Eerste afd.,
(hereafter
P.
J-
J.
BG), no.
Aanw. 1911 XXIII
1; cf.
MS. The Hague, Algemeen
(Coll.
H. de Groot). no. 32,
W.
Rijksarchief (here-
de Groot to
M. C.
^
^
HUGO GROTIUS'S CORRESPONDENCE
386
May
In
ment
Hugo
1619
Grotius was sentenced to
in the politics of Grand Pensionary Johan
however, he managed to escape in
and soon
Castle,
make
tried to
after
imprisonment for
book-chest from the
a
after settled in Paris.
of the Swedish Crown,
Willem
life
state prison at
Here, from 1635, he served
enduring the bitter hardship of a long
a career for himself
He
his
involve-
van Oldenbarnevelt. In March 1621,
v/as
sworn
as
Loevestein
the ambassador
exile.
Meanwhile,
in as a lawyer in
October
1618* and underwent further training in legal practice, and was soon able to earn
keep
his
The Hague.
at
Hugo and Willem
de Groot usually wrote to each other in Latin. They discussed
of subjects, such
a variety
many
dren, and
as
Willem's law studies, the upbringing of Grotius's chil-
other problems he had to cope with during his exile, theological
debates in the churches of Holland and France, the reception of Grotius's works,
recent publications of his colleagues and other events in the world of learning, and,
but not
last
least,
contemporary
political
developments and the way in which these
affected the private lives of the brothers. Their correspondence, a mixture of personal
and general news, gradually grew in importance. In the loneliness of his
exile in Paris,
letter-writing offered Grotius a continuous stream of information
on events
What
home.*"
is
at
more, from the middle of 1637 our scholar managed to carry out a of
full-scale plan for the publication
works, including poetry, historical
his
treatises,
and commentaries on the Bible. This, however, had to be done in Holland, where he
felt
the political climate was
period, therefore, Willem's
more conducive
main
task
was
to
to such an enterprise.
Over
a
long
advance the publication of Grotius's
may be considered his literary agent. The earliest letters date from the spring of 1614, the last few from August 1645, the month in which Hugo Grotius, the driving spirit behind the correspondence, died. So Hugo and Willem wrote to each other for more than thirty years. At first works. In that sense he
they wrote irregularly, whenever
1621 they exchanged
letters
suited them, but after Grotius
it
more
frequently,
Santenus, 28 September 1616. See also A. C. G. dichterschap
M.
went
into exile in
and from 1639-1640 onwards, when
EyfBnger, Grotius poeta. Aspeden van Grotius's
(The Hague, 1981), 171-174.
Ahsmann, "WiUem de Groot," 374-375. Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius, ed. P. C. Molhuysen, B. L. Meulenbroek, P. P. Witkam, H.J. M. Nellen, and C. M. RidderikhofF, 17 vols. (The Hague, 1928-2001) (hereafter BW), 17 iam Hagam addiscendae praxeos (Supplement), no. 599A, from W. de Groot, 2 April 1620: ". " Cf. MS. The Hague. ARA, Eerste afd., Aanw. 1911 XXIII, no. 32, Wilgratia commigravi •
See
^
.
lem de Groot to
moved
mon
to
cousin
his
The Hague:
".
.
.
De
Bye, 14 April 1620. In
je vous
fais
Willem
This applies also to the weekly correspondence between Grotius and
Nicolaes van Reigersberch, although
BW
printed
is
8,
no. 3135, to
concluded
rum meorum non
this letter
reports that he has
que j'ay entierement transporte depuis peu de jours
domicile a La Haye. ..."
'
'
sfavoir
.
perire."
esse
it
his
brother-in-law
was primarily focused on the exchange of political news.
Willem de Groot, 26 June 1637, where a list of works due to be "Horum omnium te non tantum fratrem, sed et fautorem studio-
as follows:
nescium nolui, ut videas etiam, quae negotiis publicis superfluunt, tempora mihi
H.
J.
M. NELLEN
387
the preparation of Grotius's works for the press called for a continuous exchange of information, even once a week.* Confidentiality
one of the most
is
period from 1618 to 1621,
on recent events
when
firom his family
of letten had to be organised after Grotius
ing as
at
in
striking features of this correspondence. In the
the incarcerated Grotius was receiving information
and
friends, this
was
Nor
did this change
escaped firom Loevestein: although our learned ex-prisoner was
hberty, he could not freely
communicate with
his family
and friends
the controversial content of his letters was hkely to threaten their safety.
lication in
exchange
clearly necessary: the
an atmosphere of strict secrecy.
now Uvat
home,
The pub-
1622 of the Verantwoordingh, the book in which Grotius defended the poli-
cy of Johan van Oldenbamevelt,^ put Willem de Groot in an awkward position.
was arrested when the judicial authorities in Holland managed to
which Grotius informed
letters in
his
seize
He
one of the
brother about the printing in Holland of
this
highly controversial work. Willem could not deny that he had been in the possession
of the manuscript of Grotius's Verantwoordingh; a "seditious libel" earned
him some
this
comphcity in the publication of
days of distress in a cell at the Gevangenpoort in
The Hague.'" I
will
now
-his brother's
dwell on one aspect of the services rendered by Willem de Groot. At
Willem kept
request
poetry. Every
now
a file
which contained
all
recent Latin and
Greek
and then Grotius sent poems he had composed on the occasion
of events which had touched him. These poems were meant to be published in a vol-
ume entitled Poemata Nova}^ One fine example of such
a poem, written in Greek, denounced the dismissal of Ludwig Camerarius, the Swedish ambassador in The Hague, from the diplomatic ser-
vice.'^ Grotius
very
much
regretted that, after a long dispute over areas of respon-
sibihty, his learned colleague
Camerarius, scion of a famous family of humanists, had
to cede his position to the upstart Petter Spiring SUvercrona, a rich entrepreneur
*
Even
of their
if
task.
they were short of matters to report, both correspondents acquitted themselves well
Cf
BW %,
no. 3393, from Willem de Groot, 21
scribenda occurrunt, officio tamen
quae
me
and
meo
December 1637:
deesse nolui, ut vicissim a te saepiuscule
"Etsi pauca litteras
iam
accipiam,
valde delectant."
The Verantwoordingh van de wettelijcke regieringh van Hollandt (Hoom, 1622) appeared in November 1622. Some months before, in August 1622, Grotius had published a Ladn translation, Apologeticus eorum qui Hollandiae praefuerunt (Paris, 1622) {BG nos. 872 and 880). '» BW 17 (Supplement), nos. 775A and 827A, diary notes by W. de Groot, 2 August 1622 '
.
.
and 18-21 April 1623. " 10, no. 4346, to
BW
poetry lae
is
lost.
quotquot
W.
.
.
.
de Groot, 22 October 1639. The original
Only the poems which Grotius happened
reperiri
.
potuerunt (Amsterdam, 1687;
BG
file
containing Grotius's
to cite in the letters printed in the Episto-
no. 1210) have been preserved.
finger. Inventory of the Poetry of Hugo Grotius (Assen, 1982), xliii—li.
A
Cf
A. Eyf-
survey of the poetry to be
published in the Poemata Nova: Eyffinger, Inventory, 54, 57-58; cf 221-233.
BW
'^ 12, nos. 5340 and 5375, to Willem de Groot, 31 August and [21] September 1641. On Ludwig Camerarius see O. Schutte, Repertorium der buitenlandse vertegenwoordigers, residerende in Nederland 1584-1810 (The Hague, 1983), 488-489, and F. H. Schubert, LuduHg Camerarius (1573-
1651). Eine Biographic (Kallmiinz, 1955), esp. 387-409.
HUGO GROTIUS'S CORRESPONDENCE
388
financier notorious for his arrogance and impetuousness,
who
took advantage of his
wealth to get ahead:
KXate Aarmoat!>vri Kajxep&piov eiaopdwoa, riAoDToq (3x1 <|)pevo7tA,Ti4 eio nXtov 6l3vaTai.
Willem confirmed
After a Httle while
receipt of the
poem.
He
even translated
it
into
Latin:
Doctrina aspectu Camerari percita plorat, Vis sua
He
quod
realised that publication
gazis est
would
illicibus.
of the Greek epigram could not but harm the reputation
of Spiring. Therefore he thought
Whereupon
minor
wise to keep
it
it
'^ to himself until further notice.
Grotius told Willem that Spiring had no knowledge of Greek; neither
there be anyone to translate
it
for him. Nevertheless,
he agreed to postpone
on publication until the Poemata Nova was ready for the press.''' Another poem sent to Willem was on Cardinal Jules Mazarin(i). It stressed the power and influence of the king's minister, who in a short period of time had manthe decision
aged to get France firmly in
his grip
and thus follow in the footsteps of his
illustrious
namesake:
Ut
Gallos domuit
Romanus
Romanus Julius
armis,
Gallos Julius arte domat.'^
Honorific poems addressed to Grotius were also put in letter dated
this file.
At the end of a
12th June 1637, Grotius quoted a panegyric presented to
French gentleman, whose identity
(Galli nobilis
Gallia,
is
unknown
him by
a
to us:
epigramma:)
Scaligerum dederas male sana Batavis,
Grotiaden reddit terra Batava
tibi.
Ingratam expertus patriam venerandus uterque
est,
Felix mutato erit uterque solo.
Like a second anonymous etic articulation
" ''
of an idea
poem first
in the
same
vein, the lines
BW 12, no. 5394, from Willem de Groot, 30 September 1641. BW 12, no. 5412, to Willem de Groot, 12 October 1641: "Sensum epigrammatis abs te vi-
deo bene perceptum. pretetur.
lUe,
quern innuis, Graeca non
intelligit et
vix puto fore qui
ei id inter-
Sed edine hoc epigramma an inter nos clausum teneri debeat, videbimus, ubi edentur
poemata." '^
quoted above are the po-
put into words by the French scholar Nicolas-Claude
BW 14,
no. 6543, to
Willem de Groot, 21 November 1643.
H.
M. NELLEN
J.
389
Fabri de Peiresc." Grotius was very pleased with the subject of the
moment he was tired
serving
Crown
the ambassador of the Swedish
as
poem. At
in Paris
of stressing that by entering Swedish service he had renounced
Some
country. '^
he cited in a
years later
Willem'* the
letter to
that
and never
his old native
of a eu-
first lines
logy by Lucius Gary, second Viscount Falkland, published in the Enghsh translation
of the Christus
pattens, a bibhcal
drama
Our Ages wonder, by
Of Belgia,
thy birth the
had
first
pubhshed in 1608:'^
Fame
by thy banishment the Shame.
Grotius even elaborated on self in 1641. After his
that Grotius
this
death
he had long since broken
off"
in a fiinerary
relations
Hugo
Grotius hie
theme
poem that he composed for himwho passed his grave that
should be clear to everyone
it
with Holland:
Batavum
est,
captivus et exul,
Legatus regni, Suedia magna, tui.^
Willem
collected
all
Hugo's poems, but publication
in a
was never achieved. Compared with the other pubUshing poetry was of minor importance. That
'*
BW8,
no. 3114, to
tius avec I'histoire
is
why an
volume of Poemata Nova Neo-Latin
projects, this
outsider like the famous
Dutch poet
Willem de Groot. 12 June 1637. Cf Levesque de Burigny,
de ses ouvrages
.
.
.
Vie de Gro-
(Amsterdam, 1754), 1:140-141, 2:203. Burigny gives another
poem, written by A. Buchnerus, cited in Vind[iciae] Grotpanae] (= Hugonis Grotii, Belgarum PhoetiiManes ah iniquis obtrectationibus vindicati [Delft, 1727], 1:237) (with a reference to Augustus
cis,
.
.
Buchnerus, Poemata
selediora,
num primum
.
edita
.
.
.
[Leipzig and Frankfiirt, 1694;
2nd
ed. 1720],
616): Gallia
magnanimis dedit exorata Batavis Dis geniti
Fallor an
aetemum
Scaligerum
See also Pierre Gassendi, in idem. Opera tanti ilium '^
Cf.
magno
Gallis
reddidit in Grotio?
Viri illustris Nicolai Claudii Fabricii de Peiresc, senatoris Aquisextiensis, vita,
Omnia (Lyon, 1658;
repr. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1964),
BW 8,
nos. 2991
and 3148, to .
.
J.
.")
".
.
.
BW 10,
" Hugo [a5v]-[a7v]:
.
.
no. 4405, to Willem de Groot, 26
Grotius, Christs passion.
"To
the author."
A
tragedie.
BW 12,
Grotius, 2:77.
.
.
.
regno Suedico
.").
November
1639.
With annotations (London, 1640)
{BG
no. 43)
On Viscount Falkland (1610?-1643) see Dictionary of National Biogra-
phy 9 (London, 1887), 246-251, and J. Tanner, Lucius Cory, (Ilford, Essex, 1974), esp.
me dedi, me sine ex-
Witten, 12 March 1637 ("Suediae totum
and 3 July 1637 ("Ego
ceptione, sine ullo alio versum respectu tradidi
"
5:289 (year 1621):
[Grotium] ducebat, ut in vicem Scaligeri affertum Galliae diceret. ..."
Suedus sum adoptione animoque toto '*
ingenium.
Scaligeri
humanis male dura Batavia
Viscount Falkland, Cavalier
and Catalyst
5-6.
no. 5084, to Willem de Groot, 2
March 1641.
Cf. Levesque de Burigny, Vte de
HUGO GROTIUS'S CORRESPONDENCE
390
Constantijn Huygens will not have had any knowledge of Grotius's poem.^' In 1644 Huygens presented Grotius with a copy of his own collection, entitled Momenta desultoria. At that time the relationship between the two poets was rather tense, as Huygens had twice attacked Grotius in anonymous poems. And then, suddenly, Grotius was praised as the best of Batavians, as can be seen from the following epigram:
(Ad Grotium cum Infimus haec dono
Grotius was not impressed by
We,
hand.
we were
libro:)
summo Batavorum
Grotiadae,
this
Belga Batavum
dat, dicat
He
eulogy.
reacted with an epigram in his
editing the letters dating
from
period in his Hfe.
this
saying that he could not understand
own
no knowledge of this poem when
the editors of his correspondence, had
the other hand, must have had a chance to see letters,
Hugenius.^^
WUlem
since he referred to
it,
why
poem
this
de Groot, on
it
in
one of his
of Grotius's contained
such a sad farewell.-^
As
I
discovered recently, the poem, unfortunately not complete, has been pre-
served by sheer coincidence.
It
will surprise
no one
that
Willem
poem
under which the
part in the story of the circumstances
has
plays an important
come down
to us.
Willem's readiness to help did not come to an end with Grotius's death in 1645. Unfortunately,
it
was possible for
how Willem coped
cannot be established
loved brother. While
still
residing in
with the death of his be-
The Hague, he managed
to get
by
as far as it
of one of the most controversial statesmen of the
a close relative
Re-
meantime he was constantly reminded of Hugo Grotius, as the correspondence shows. At one point somewhere about 1616 one of his correspondents, public.^'*
In the
Janus Casparius Gevartius,-^ had been given the opportunity to look
^'
The
own
his
Rivet, Grotianae dolos mediatores
.
.
.
from Swedish service
version, alluding to Grotius's dismissal
discussionis
AIAAYZI2.
situs est,
Regni
Siue Vindiciae Apologetici sui, pro vera pace
Batavum
Constantijn Huygens, Momenta
magna,
desultoria,
poematum
libri
XI, edente Gaspare Barlaeo (Leiden,
stantijn
Huygens, naar zijn handschrift uitgegeven (Groningen, 1892-1899), 3:299. dichter over 'de Delftse Cicero'.
Constantijn Huygens,"
De
Zeventiende
BW 15, no. 6984, dated 30 July
illud vale contineat nescio, et
Eeuw 3 1644:
C{. Schutte, Repertorium, 551.
•^
From 27 September 1621 onwards Janus
27. 29.
He was
A.
Worp, De gedkhten
Cf
H.J.
van Con-
M. Nel-
Grotius in de brieven en gedichten van
(1987): 125-137.
quid hoc responsi
registrar ("graphiarius," "griffier")
Hugo
J.
"Tuum epigramma Hugeniano
''*
ber 1621.
sub-
tui.
BW 15, no. 6977, from Willem de Groot, 25 July 1644;
"Een Haags
in 1645: A.
ecclesiae, contra
captivus et exul,
exlegatus, Suedia
1644);
"
manu-
(Rotterdam, 1646), 11:
Grotius hie
len,
the
court preacher Andre Rivet must, however, have been acquainted with the text, since
he published
""
at
sit
oppositum cur
triste
ignoro."
Casparius Gevartius (Jean-Gaspard Gevaerts) was
of Antwerp; cf
BW2,
no. 711, from
the son of Jean Gevaerts, secretary ("secretaris") of
W.
de Groot, 15
Tumhout:
Decem-
see below, nn.
H.
of Grotius's Annates
script
appearence of the
What is quite remarkable is the who years before had assisted
approached Willem de Groot in
from 8 April
April 1656, that
later, in
now
Epistolae ad Gallos,^ fact that
1637,^'
1661-'**
classic
"Vandahca
et
Gothica", a collection of texts by Procopius
thorum,^^ appeared in
De
which had been pubUshed meanwhile
was in
testified to the ancestry
a posthu-
Epistolae ad Belgas.^
iure belli ac
pads,
with the request to explain a passage in a
It
this passage that
before the
another correspondent, Dirck Graswinc-
Gallos (468).-'^ his
is,
he sent a correction,^'
be called
to
Grotius in editing his
kel,
letter
Much
by Grotius which were to be published in
letters
hke the
collection
et Historiae.-^
391
edition of this historical work,
first
together with copies of
mous
M. NELLEN
J.
in the Epistolae ad
Grotius had reminded Fabri de Peiresc of
among
others,
which
of the Swedish kingdom. This work, entitled Historia Got-
1655
the prompting of Isaac Vossius.
at
served a polit-
It clearly
purpose: ancient roots of a state were an important criterion in determining
ical
position in the diplomatic hierarchy of Europe. In his letter Grotius
was preparing
onem dedi, in the
Twelve
son for
us that he
me
in adopti-
of historical sources "in honorem gentis, cui
this edition
a patria ter venundatus. Nosti
its
tells
legem XII tabularum." According
to a rule
Tables, a father should lose his paternal rights once he has offered his
sale three times: "Si pater
fihum
ter
venum
duuit [duit], fihus a patre Hber
esto."^
^ Amsterdam ^ The editors
1657
{BG
no. 741).
of the Annates
the description "scriba
et Historiae
Tumotanus"
ignored the correction. Gevartius proposed to change
{Annates
et
Historiae
father Jean Gevaerts, into "iurisconsultus." Jean Gevaerts
[Amsterdam, 1657], 501), given to
was involved
in the negotiations
his
con-
nected with the Twelve Years' Truce (1609-1621).
^ Leiden 1648. second edition Leiden 1650 (BG nos. 1213-1214). ^ MS. The Hague, ARA, Eerste afd., Aanw. 1911 XXIH, no. 33, Janus
Casparius Gevartius
Willem de Groot, Antwerp, 24 April 1656: "Doleo equidem ob praefestinum ex hac urbe discessum tuum non licuisse mihi diutius frui optatissima consuetudine tua, in qua fratemam Hugonis Magni agnovi. Mitto eiusdem ad me epistolarum apographa. Si litterae eius ad Belgas quandoque to
prodibunt, perhonorificum mihi
puubo
rum
fundamentis
tum
ibi esse
agjt, et parentis
ac
,
circa finem, ubi
— quam
ante annos
de primis Duodecennalium Inducia-
D. Waliavi Wittenhorstii mentionem
facit,
memini
scrip-
'Joannes Gevart[i]us, scriba Tumotanus.' Vellem obiter mutari et substitui: 'Joannes
Gevartius, iurisconsultus'." ter
mei
et istas ibi legi. In Historia Belgica,
—
quadraginta Roterodami mihi exhibuit
Cf MS.
Leiden, University Library,
BPL
214,
fol. 9,
Gevartius to [Pie-
de Groot], 7 February 1650.
* MS. The Hague, ARA.
Eerste afd..
Graswinckel. 26/27 August 1661. unncleet.
On
Aanw. 1911 XXIII, no.
Geschiedenis van een Detfts brouwers- en regentett-gesladtt
^'
BWS,
^^
Graswinckel consulted the
33,
from Dirck (Theodorus)
Graswinckel (1600-1666) see D. P.
M.
Graswinckel, Gras-
(The Hague, 1956), 90-117.
no. 3016. first
BG
edition of the Epistolae ad Gallos (Leiden, 1648;
no.
1213).
"
Historia Gotthorum, Vandatorum et Langobardorum
Blok. Isaac Vossius en zijn
1655 (Groningen. 1999). 466-469. ^ Fonta iuris Romani antiqui, 1:
Leges
et negotia,
1909), 22, cited in Ulpian {Fragmenta in Digestis tiones 1.132).
(Amsterdam, 1655)
kring. Zijn teven tot zijn afscheid
{BG no.
735).
Cf
F. F.
van koningin Cliristina van Zweden 1618-
ed. C.
G.
Bnms
et
aliisve cotteaionibus servata
al..
7th ed. (Tubingen,
10.1)
and Gaius
{Institu-
HUGO GROTIUS'S CORRESPONDENCE
392
Now, demned
WiUem
in 1661,
He
venundatus".
de Groot was asked by Graswinckel to explain
1619 to lifelong imprisonment and that he had been forced,
in
this "ter
himself could only think of the fact that Grotius had been conafter a short
return from exile, to flee from Holland in 1632 because a price had been put
A
head.
however, was
third case,
allied
himself to Sweden.
letter
by Grotius
in
to
By way of proof he
He
knew
only
Momenta
of the
part. Instead
his
had
then cited a distich taken from a lost
to the donation of the
only in
it
on
that Grotius
Joachim de Wicquefort.-*^ Without any doubt
which Grotius reacted
Graswinckel cited
a puzzle to him.
first syllables
this
is
the
poem
but unfortunately
desuUoria,
of the pentameter he
placed only a few dots, perhaps because he had trouble deciphering Grotius's cramped
handwriting:
Grotius
est
Suecus, neque iam plus Belga, Batavis
longum Huygenioque
vale.^*
We do not know what answer Willem de Groot gave to Graswinckel. he did not
fill
in the dots himself, he
must
in
any case have
Supposing that
tried to explain the
passage "ter venundatus" by mentioning that Grotius had been
condemned
three
^'Joachim de Wicquefort (1596-1670), resident of Hessen-Kassel in the Dutch Republic, was involved in the distribution of Huygens's Momenta quefort. Cf.
De
desultoria.
(The Hague, 1915), 33-34, H. Bruno to C. Huygens, Pieter
Comeliszoon Hooft,
Hooft
III
to C. Barlaeus, 12
Grotius's
poem
W.
(1638-1647), ed. H.
August 1644; according to
in response:
Grotius received a copy from
Huygens (1608-1687), 4 (1644-1649),
briefmsseling van Constantijn
August 1644, and
11
De
ed. J. A.
Wic-
Worp
briejwisseling
van
van Tricht (Culemborg, 1979), 605, P. C.
this last letter,
Huygens had already received
"T'onzer eerste bijeenkoomste verwacht
ik ujt
U.Eed.
te
hooren, oft
de H. van Zuilichem zelf zijne gedichten aan den H. de Groot heeft gezonden, en wat U.Eed. gevoelen
is
van de twee veirskens daarop
^ The
te
rug gekoomen."
passage in Graswinckel's letter (above, n. 30) reads
probent ipsae hae importunae nostrae, quibus molestiam
memoriae
defectus.
familiaris, in
Ut autem ne cum
humanitate tua positum
simae memoriae
—
fratris tui, nostri
tibi
as follows:
oggerit
"Si vales, valeo;
cum mea
Plautino servo [Plautus, Epidiais 2] odio hie
nosti. Curiositas
cognati. Sic
ille
mea
versatur circa
locum ex
ad Nicolaum Peirescium
quod
vel
tum et ne nimium sim
curiositas,
epistola beatis-
— habetur
in Epist. ad
honorem gentis cui me in sununa adoptionem dedi ter venundatus. Nosti legem XII tabularum.' Bis venundatum et, cum quidem cum iniuria eam tulere sententiam quae nee illo nomine digna sit, scio, cumque item ofFerentem ab omni reipub[licae] administratione segregem vitam agere in patria non admisere, habitum pro reiectaneo, at tertio venum datus quod sit, nee factum scio, nee factum fuisse dici melius; si placet, exquo tempore potuerit aut possit, assequor. Scies tu id me non dubito plica. Quod se Suecis adoptandum dederit, colligere potui ex illo quod sua manu ad Vicofortem Gall. p.
468
:
'Verti in
Latinum sermonem Gothica
et Vandalica, in
—
—
—
—
seripsit:
Grotius
est
Suecus, neque iam plus Belga, Batavis
longum Huygenioque
vale.
Non
inaudivi tamen obtinuisse eo nomine diploma aliquod illius coronae aut reginae. Alterum est, quod nee teneam, cum ad manum hie non habeam [habeatur?] l[eges] XII tabularum, in quam
legem verba
ista
intendantur. Sodes, et hoc
me
fasce leva."
H.
from
times: apart
demned
a third
his
J.
estate
conviction in 1619 and his expulsion in 1632, he was con-
of Constantijn Huygens, but as a
response, the
Grotius
est
I
full
Of course,
I
have looked for
have not been able to find
November 1622 popm in the If this poem was
this
it.
version might have been the following:
Suecus neque iam plus Belga, Batavis
[Nunc
I
393
time in a proclamation by the States-General of 24
for publishing the Verantwoordingh?^
indeed meant
M. NELLEN
reddit]
would be very much obUged
longum Huygenioque to
anyone
who
could
vale.-**
oflfer
me
Grotius's authentic
version.
Constantijn Huygens Instituut
^ The text
in C.
Brandt and A. van Cattenburgh,
Historic van het
Cf BG no. 885 me to fill in the
(Dordrecht and Amsterdam, 1727). 1:302-303.
^
Professor Dirk Sacre (Leuven) helped
suggested the following altematives: 'lam
Harm-Jan van
Dam
mittit',
'Nunc
su^ested: 'Dicit iam' and 'Dicit
dicit',
levm des heeren Huig de Groot
rem.
2.
missing words; he furthermore
'Nunc
mittit',
per'. Dr. A. Eyffinger
and 'Exul
'Die
igjtur'.
ait'.
Dr.
Lusus quidam Westmonasterienses ab ohlivione nunc vindicandi: Appendix Contemporaneas
hina per saecula
res
orbe toto terrarum feliciter gestas
sive
(1704—1905)
quam
lepide
nonnulli poetae Londinienses Latinis versihus singulas usque depinxerint
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN
Neo-Latinam poesin,
quam saeculis decimo sexto septimoque in cunctis Briquoque regionibus reviruisse et deinde Cantabrigiae simul Oxoniique milibus poetarum esse constat excultam, ne vicesimo quidem ineunte
tanniae a
duobus
fere
vigere saeculo desiisse
imbuti
litteris
cum
testantur auctores
alii
Anglicanarum Victoriana floruerunt
quam
comprobatur, quod plus
las in St.
alteri
Westmonasterienses sive Prologi
Petri Collegia actas collecti et iusta et
Carminum
multi, qui Musarum tum eo volumine carminum
quadringentas et viginti pagjnas continens
Londinii prodiit inscriptum Lusus
grammatum
admodum
aetate,
delectus. Pars tertia
annorum
serie ordinati.
et
a.
1906
Epilogi adfabu-
Quibus
accedit
Epi-
(1866—1905). Etenim copiosissima versuum
haecce collectio claudit agmen iUud uniforme coUectaneorum trium, quibus duo per saecula deinceps inde ab
a.
1704 usque poemata
in collegio Westmonasteriensi cele-
berrima praeter Etonensem schola Britannorum publica Latino sermone condita com-
prehenduntur quonimque hodie paene prorsus oblitteratorum fiindamenta iam bertus Prior iecerat,
cum
a.
Ro-
1730 primus Lusus Westmonasterienses divulgavit.
Est igitur hac mihi relatione propositum exemplis illustribus demonstrare selectis alterius
Lusuum Westmonasteriensium
— quod quidem opus coUectaneis
editionis tertiam
prioribus singulis
quadriennio post erat emissum) ambitu praestat, vi
temporanea
serie talium
partem eandemque postremam
(quorum unum
momentoque
textuum Latinorum, quales in utraque
Angliae notissima compositi
tum
exstitisse traduntur,
haud
a.
1863, altera
vix cedit
— con-
universitate totius
esse minoris
putandam.
LUSUS QUIDAM WESTMONASTERIENSES
396
Quoniam haec eadem oratio die 4° m. Aug. a. 2000° inter eum habita conventum, quem undecimum Societas Internationalis Studiis Neolatinis Provehendis Cantabriapud Britannos curaverat celebrandum, iam
giae
profecto nunc
—
ibidem promisi
ut
nimis obtuli decurtatos, tentur,
quam tum
quam
—
est publici facta iuris,'
selectos textus
eosdem, quos
illo
expedit
tempore
integerrimos hue afFerre, quo facilius fusiusque retrac-
propter suppeditati mihi
spatii
dem, quaecumque Anglica voce carminibus
penuriam
licuit.
Nam primum qui-
florilegii Latinis aut inseri
tores aut addi notis seorsus adiectis, necesse
me
voluerunt edi-
fuit praetermittere singula.
Deinde
trium in Plauti Terentiique fabulas epilogorum, quos e ducentis iisdemque excellenti-
unum
bus fere tunc eligendos decrevi,
dumtaxat
et id
quidem anni 1872 exemplar
paene totum potuit Latino saltem incolumi velut tenore praeberi, sed utriusque
tantummodo
qui lusus exordium
typis rursus
excusum
reli-
est.
illius speciminis secundam partem, cuius medium obtinet locum CaMarx vir famosissimus, immutatum hue transferre constitui; ceteros autem duos lusus, quorum posterior est ultimus epilogorum totius anthologiae Westmonasterien-
Itaque primi
rolus
sis, ita
illo
citabo, ut exhibeatur litterarum tanta congeries,
quantam
in
conventu quidem
Cantabrigiensi neglegere debui, sed in eiusdem Actis hisce permissam editoris H.
Hofmann
benignitate
denique evanescerent
dem commentarii quae documenta
summa sum situs praesentare, ne parum niterent aut omnino cum ilia Latinae poeseos ipsius vigentis exemplaria tum eorun-
perpetuis insignes adnotationibus vernaculo sermone confectis,
doctrinaeque
artis
tam splendida
litterariae
tot auctores Britannici
colenda posteris tradidissent.
Exemplutn Textus: Lusus
alteri
I:
Epilogus in Adelphos (1872)
Westmonasterienses, pars 3 (1906),
38—43
Dramatis penonae: Demea; Micio; Aeschinus; Ctesipho; Syrus; Sannio; Hegio; Sostrata
(cum Anna); Canthara; Geta; Dromo; Parmeno
Secunda pars (41
s.)
addito tertiae partis initio:
{Enter three Internationals with Phrygian caps and paper and penny ink-pots.)
DEM. Isti
Ohe!
sceptrigeri praedones terga dederunt!
Nos
vacuas
sellas
Tempestive actum!
De Reges
soliis
sumimus!
nam nostrum
Omen est
inest!
munus
avitis
reges trudere legitimos!
ac leges nos pellimus, ab-que-rogamus;
Sunt pestes ambo.
PAR.
Tertia
Rehgio
est.
Sartores tres en! convenimus! Internationales,
'
Commentationem banc
necnon KoanO7ioXiT-(i0eoi
ipsius praelectionis vice
continent Humanistica Lovaniensia 50 (2001).
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN Quantum
DEM.
nosmet nebulones
inter
Non
multis opus est dicere.
397
distet et illos
SYR. Non opus
est.
Conventus noster toto hinc memorabilis orbe Dicetur; nos et poster! honore colent.
Karl Mag. notus erat
Notior in
DEM.
— Karl Marx,^ mihi PAR.
terns.
Nostra TioXixetac; nova fundamenta
De
SYR.
Audi jam
DEM.
paucis dubito.
— Imprimis omnis
Principio irmixa est
DEM.
Si
proprium, quid habes,
tenetis.
Clarius expediam.
tibi
Res
crede, futurus
Imperitare cupit?
(aside).
simplice et
Socialis!
fiir rite es
uno
PAR.
habendus
Ita est.
et exlex;
— sum — mea non mea — Domina Respublica. SYR. Quam Parva haud mei Non, inquam — rerum
SYR.
Vix capio
DEM.
est
casa
DEM.
sunt?
tiro
Nil qviicquam
juris,
quaeso, futura
pretio emi,
est?
ttudus permittitur usus:
Possideas aliquid, fortiter id vetitum!
Est
modus
in censu: sunt fines denique: acervus
Crescit? at extemplo diminuendus
Cur
dives
quisquam
existat
me
erit.
paupere? juris
Hoc est commums; vox ea sacra valet. Omnino ex oculis hominum, descripta "meum" "Atque tuum" quondam,
Quippe
agri,
inter
linea disperiit.
fundique, molae, fabricaeque, fodinae,
Consolidatum
aes, et
quicquid ubique lucri
est,
Conflentur norma, quae wilgo dicitur Hotchpot;
Divisum
id cives
convenienter
alet.
PAR.
Audito hoc, ingens Gracchi laetabitur Umbra,
DEM.
Immo
Se vinci tandem
—
fassa,
dabitque manus.
{enter three Policemen).
PAR.
Extra licitam
sic
an potabitis horam,^
Audaces? moniti jam
estis!
abite cito!
excipiat "Cavum et Angulus",* Jam "caupona"! move te ocius!
Vos propria
ut vocitatur.
{Exeunt, foUou/ed by Police. Enter three strong-minded females in masculine
^
Heinrich Karl Marx, one of the chief exponents of
modem
Socialism,
bom
attire.)
at
Treves in
Jew who was converted and had his family bapti2ed as Christian Protestants. The first volume of his work on Capital Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Okonomie was published at Hamburg in 1867. He lived mainly in London during the latter part of his life 1818, was the son of a
and died ^
—
in 1883.
The
Licensing Act which required public-houses to be closed at midnight was passed this
year. *
—
The Hole and Comer.
LUSUS QUIDAM WESTMONASTERIENSES
398
Salveto!
ANN.
et tu!
Nos
SAX.
et tu!
SOS. Anna soror, SOS. Placet aula haec; prorsus
Exetnplum Textus: Lusus
II:
alteri
Epilogus in
Geta
Phormionem
(1902)
Westmonasterienses, pars 3 (1906),
Scene:
Dramatis personae
arnicas
hie conventus, colloquiumque juvant.
A University
243-250
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN Et ferrum Si
{Exit
399
cames: ego cur, acquirere pauca
et
possum, invideor? conicio, haec
mea
sunt.
PHORMIO.)
O
GET.
fortunatos nimium, sua
si
loca norint,
Americos! caelum mox, ut opinor, ement:
lam pridem
O {Enter
in
dolor!
DEMIPHO
Tamesim Americus
O
hominum
CHREMES
HEGIO, CRATINUS, and CRITO.) me introducere claros Ductores.' Tu die, Hegio. HEG. {holding out his hat). Mene rogas? quid quaeris? HEG. Quaerenda pecunia primum est. Nil das? Nonne luis vota? CHR. Age, fare, Crito. and
Attat!
CP^. CHR.
De
CP.A.
De
lare,
with
CHR.
Hei mihi, quos video?
GET.
Ohio.
defluxit
credula simplicitas!
Sine
de fundis manet anxia cura perustis.
Ultima nunc tecum verba, Cratine, manent. vetita nobis
O HEG.
nunc Ubertate querendum
GET. Tu mihi
cives, cives.
civis?
est,
CR^.
Ego.
CRI. Germanus apud Germanos. vos igitur nonne Brittannus ero?
Gallus apud Gallos.
CR
Inter
GET.
Hem, quot
HEG. Omnia
sunt homines, tot gentes.
Omnibus.
DEM.
At mos
est,
Sunt qui dant nummos, sunt qui dant verba. Sed
Armaque pro
{DEMIPHO
res nostra
ite,
patria sumite fida nova.
bows the Advocates
Nunc
fio
Hegio, cuique suus:
out.)
manet.
CHR.
{climbing on to a fence)
De muro
dicere
malo.*
Sum
DEM.
Tune? ubi
Libertatis verus sis
nescis.
GET.
Privata est haec
Rem
defendere.
Te
amicus ego. {aside)
lis {exit).
DEM.
partes mavis?
Hie iam locus
CHR.
Sit
est
mihi cura
mihi nullus:
meam
Abi, defensor! iungere ad utras
CHR.
{aside)
Improbus
ille abiit
Deseruitque tabemaculum: quo denique vertar? Illuc me Imperium, hue Anglia parva DEMIPHO) Sed nostrum sub ovile, oro
{to
DEM.
Numquam:
A
te
sum
{Re-enter
te,
nonne
redibis?
tute phylacteria solus habe.
definite disiunctus: at et
Libertas cara
CHR.
vocat.
est,
mi
sed simul Imperium.
PHORMIO.) At saltem maneo dux
hie.
PHO. Mi
ignosce, ego
dux sum;
Veni, vidi, emi; haec sunt mea, tuque meus.
{CHREMES falls from fence
at
PHORMO's feet.)
leaders (Botha, De Wet, and Prinzloo) came to London this year on Henry Campbell-Bannerman was described as "sitting on the fence."
'
Three Boer
*
Sir
a mission.
LUSUS QUIDAM WES TMONA S TERIENSES
400
DEM.
Humptius in muro residebat Dumptius olim; Humptius at praeceps Dumptius hinc cecidit. Non dux sum, at maneo hie orator publicus. CHR. Nescimus;
Emergens subito
DEM.
Id
non
surgis saepius atque ululas,
veluti loannis ab area.
Publica privatus iam loquor ex cathedra: Strenuitas' rebus
sit
in omnibus;
omnia quisque
PHO. Ventus, praetereaque nihil. Purgatis tabulis demum efEcientia fiet. Non opus est mihi te. DEM. Non opus? ergo abeo, Quo possim solus solum mihi findere sulcum. (Exit.) EflSciat.
DEM. PHO.
CHR.
Ut
{Re-enter
doleo
PHAEDRIA
non
te
posse manere: vale.
GETA
with DORIO.) PHA. Academiam hanc intrare
and
PHO.
Quid
DOR.
Quaero equidem; athletis aptus hie esse locus Dicitur. PHO. Egregiam laudem et spolia ampla reportes! En Academiae gloria! PHO. At unde venis? Cuius
DOR.
tibi vis?
et auspiciis?
Vieit delectos
PHA.
MoraHs
DOR.
PHA. Me
Hie iuvenes nostros
—
et
Sunt quibus in
satira
Non equidem Debemur Marti
CHR.
Tu
tollite ludos:
et placet acer eques.
PHA.
fatui!
Sic.
PHO.
ludere folle
DOR.
Scribere
Viva voce
bonum.
Lanigeri
stulti! lutulenti^"
Audire hunc non operae pretium
Explorare velim quid noveris.
PHO.
est.
at istis
morigerare volo.
athletis
nos nostraque:
fallor, tibi erit
Folle mihi!
O PHA.
PHO. Bene
videor nimis acer;
moderaris equos qui non moderaberis irae?
Ni
DOR.
esse scholaris.
mihi magna.
Sed laudo pedites
PHA.
ad vos Australia misit.
nobilis arte pilae
iam cupit
virtus est
scholaris
non possum.
GET. Heus,
DOR.
igitur tibi fac respondeat.
Discipulus probus
GET.
est.
cape chartam. est!
Esto:
PHA. Plusve minusve. GET. Duo PHA. Quinque. DOR. Satisne Sanus es? GET. EucHdes quis fuit? PHA. Id facile est: Repperit is lusum Pontis, quem ludimus omnes." Scisne mathematieam?
Et duo quot faeiunt? responde.
'
the
Lord Rosebery was
at this
time proclaiming the need of "efficiency" in the management of
state. '"
ballers
"
"Flannelled fools" and
by Rudyard Kipling
Now
"muddied
in a
poem
oafs",
that Euclid has almost disappeared
that the difficult proposition Euclid 1.5
the
contemptuous names applied to cricketen and foot-
lately published.
game of Bridge, then much
was
in vogue.
from English schools
called
it is
worth while to record
"pons asinorum". The reference
shifts
thus to
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN
DOR.
Tu,
Nonne
PHA.
non compos
pol,
erat Euclidis
mentis.
GER.
Inepte puer!
famosus pons asinorum?
Quattuor, ecce, sumus! ludere visne? (to
DORIO)
401
Divide tu
chartas.
DOR.
PHO. Volo. PHO. Placet
Linquo.
esse
triumphos
An ducam? GET.
NuUos. PHA.
Scilicet.
Quattuor en unae; reges quoque quattuor,
PHA.
Interii!
et tres
GET. Lusum est: vincimur. PHA, O facinus! punctum qui chartas miscuit. Actum est: Sum fractus: quid agam nescio. GET. Novi equidem:
Reginae!
Omne
tulit
DORIO) Educat PHAEDRIA) Me
{indicating
DOR.
{to
Doctrina ut {Enter
desit,
tamen
hie pueros, ut
mox
educat in Afros.
sequere, atque armis fac cito des operam.
est
laudanda voluntas.
ANTIPHO.) nempe cavendus
Inspector vobis
{Exeunt
erit.
DORIO and PHAEDRIA.)
ANT.
Inspicienda mihi nunc est schola vestra;
Num Unde
tua id refert?
De
An
ANT.
bene discipulos edoceatis.
videndum
PHO.
est
Eho,
ANT. Mihi lata rogatio nuper PHO. Ast hie nil ditionis habes.
doctrina.'-
tu dissentis?
CHR.
Nobis mens conscia
recti est;
PHO. Atque mihi ANT. Qui credita? PHO.
Nonconformistae nos sumus. Credita iam haec Academia
est.
ANT.
nummis vis posita Americis? Mercatura mihi non curae est; rebus in istis Infans sum:'^ sed non vestra probanda schola
PHO.
Arthure
Quanta
sit
O princeps,
DEMIPHO
{Re-enter
Non sum
erit,
tu Scoticus infans.
iuvenes coUigam ut exagitem. {Exit.)
Irritor:
DEM.
eritis:
CHREMES)
Scoticus hie infandus
ANT.
SOPHRONA.) CHR. Quantum PHO. Sed haec, quaeso,
with
quahs eram.
Oratore!
mutatus ab iUo puella, quis est?
SOP.
Hunc monui palmam
DEM. DEM.
Est depressa agri cultura, et gaudia desunt
"
cussion.
am
a child in
est.
SOP.
1902.
such matters," a fiunous saying of Mr. A.
Mr. Balfour, then Prime Minister, was depicted
Blunderland."
Fata redire iubent.
solus sulcus praebuit; ergo iterum
The Education Act of "I
inspiciens quae fata manerent.
Ah, nimium verum
Quae
'^
est.
seu Clara libentius audis,
Infans es sane: nobile par {pointing to
Nescis
in
J.
Balfour in a financial dis-
in the Westminster Gazette as "Clara in
LUSUS QUIDAM WESTMONASTERIENSES
402
Orator
cupio.
fieri
Quae me {Re-enter
HEG.
PHO. Me
sors
forte docebis
maneat. Sed quis hie
HEGIO, CRATINUS,
and
CRITO
est strepitus?
with volunteers.)
aciem duplicate! in frontem! lumina dextra!
State!
Lumina
prae! placidi
sistite!
SOP. Macte,
senex,
Macte nova virtute armisque! HEG. Attendite! praesint Anna! inclinate arma! accelerate gradum! State! SOP. Ut vos metuent hostes, pavidisque cadet cor!'"* Arripite hunc. CRI. {trying to arrest PHO.) Res est magna. PHO.
CHR.
Goliath adest. {to
CHREMES) An
tu barbaricis rationibus uteris ipse,'^
Qui mala miHtibus
CHR.
Mene
dicere probra soles?
ea quae dico facere!
Atque Academiam
at
removere tyrannos
rursus habere volo.
PHO.
Sed mea dicatur fortuna. SOP. Age, porrige palmam.^^
PHO.
Caelum, non patriam, mutant qui
GET.
Palmistarum artem lex
Americus tu non amplius
Sum
dives;
non
lex
eadem
esse potes.
vetat.
mare currunt. SOP. Haud timeo.
trans
stat ditibus
atque
PHORMIO) Quid tu? numquid inesse PHO. Mirum est! iam me esse Brittannum
Pauperibus. {To
Mente
tua sentis?
Sentio, et
novi
exclamo "Surge, Brittannia," ego.
Ergo novum civem nos accipiamus, amici, Immemores veteris nunc inimicitiae.
GET.
OMNES
{singing)
Nam, quamvis Natio non
PHO.
{advaruing) Sic
fuerit temptatio
magna, tenebat
hunc uUa; Brittannus hie maneam, maneatque Brittannia alia
Et sumat partes haec schola nostra
Iam post
est.'''
tota Brittannis,
suas.
annos renovamus ludicra; rursus
tres
Percurrunt nostri pulpita nota pedes. Interea subiere vices; bella, horrida bella
Ceperunt finem; Pax sua regna novat:
Iam schola
nostra novi iurare in verba Magistri
Est assueta; novus deinde Decanus adest:
'•
A
'^
Sir
cadet corps, attached to the Inns of Court R.V., was established at Westminster in 1902.
Henry Campbell-Bannerman had
said that the British troops in
South Africa were using
"methods of barbarism." '*
sionals
Palmistry was a
good
deal in fashion.
There were amateurs
at charity bazaars,
and profes-
sought for custom by advertisements. Various devices were tried to elude the law against
fortune-telling.
" For
To He
in spite
of all temptations
belong to other nations
remained an Englishman." (W.
S. Gilbert's
H.M.S.
Pinafore)
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN Dicimus
his "salvete":
Domus
sit
403
cura fovere
Antiquam famam, quam sine sorde gerat. lamque novum regem schola regia nostra salutat, Cui morti erepto "vivat" in Aede sonat: Septimus Edwardus fama super aethere notus Vivat, et hie finis rite coronat opus: Ilh
diun fidos cives producit alumnos.
aetemum
Floret, et
Exemplutn HI: Epilogus Textus: Lusus
alteri
ahna Domus.
floreat,
in
Adelphos (1905) 273—279
Westmonasterienses, pars 3 (1906),
The Westminster Golf Links. The
Scene:
Flag marked XVIII
last
hole.
"Domus".
Dramatis personae
Demea
A
Micio
Another
Geta
A caddie
Syrus
golfer
golfer
Canthara
A Japanese Admiral A constable A motorist and Book Club Agent A Rugby football-player A simple-liver, of the Hatless Brigade A lady swimmer
Sarmio
An
Hegio
The
Personae mutae
(A golf caddie and the ghost of an EngUsh Navy Captain)
Dromo Aeschinus Ctesipho Sostrata
enthusiastic
Frenchman
ghost of an Enghsh Admiral
Postquam Geta cum altero caducifero ni
Demea Micioque
DEM. MIC.
{unping his
pUamalleatores
eorundem domi-
lips)
Sic
meUus. Mihi certamen renovare videtur.
Et mihi. Sed pueri quonam abiere duo? Et portare pares
MIC.
discessit,
redeunt, ut ludere continuo pergant.
et
— DEM. respondere
Arcades ambo. Heus, heus!
GET.
parati.
Adsumus. DEM. {to MICIO). Est tibi honor.
{running up).
MIC. {to GETA). Da ferrum; armatus ferro tutissimus ibo. GET. Dirige nunc ictum: lumina fige pilae. {MICIO drives off) MIC. A, nimium in dextram. Varium et mutabile semper Acdpiter.^*
The "Hawk"
golf-baU.
dubiumst quo
sit
itura pila
LUSUS QUIDAM WESTMONASTERIENSES
404
Ilia.
{A
shriek of pain
heard behind the stage: enter
is
SYRUS
SYR. Per imperium nostrum,
in a fury.)
Solisque Orientis
Terrain magnificam, perque meos proavos,
Quis
me
tundit pilulis? in
sic
nomine Shinto
Die mihi. MIC. Peccavi: tu mihi da veniam:
Factum improvisost. Sed Nuntius
SYR.
Ille
es,
ego: quin veni hue, istum
Victorem (Waves a
Nonne hoc
Dum
novistis?
est
nobis ludere tempus
(Hocce
Da numerum Quinque
(effusively)
SYR.
nunc ludos
venit,
tenes?)
{A horn sounds from behind:
Sed ne
erat, tali
pro laribus pro patriaque mori.
Sed nunc pax
(Exit
turbae "golfa" profanae
nomine "goffa" placet. numnamst tam barbara tellus?
minitabatur bellum: discrimine
Cura
(sternly).
MIC. Quod
habet, nobis
Immo non
SYR.
DRO.
homo?
quod amicus amicum,
victor, sic decorare volo.
ludis?
Nomen
DRO.
nonne Mikadi
laurel wreath.)
Sed quid tu
DEM.
quis tu?
nostri Nelsonis instar
goffam
cura mihist.
DROMO.) DRO. Sola per horam (indignantly). Non potui.
AESCHINUS pursued
enter et
discere multos,
et cetera,
nomen. AES. Quid
by
feci?
AES. aurum accipe densum. Accipio. AES. Currum fac tueare, precor.
me
et triginta milia.^'
appelles in ius,
DROMO.) Sed
qualis tibi currus?
AES. Habet dupUcem
ille
cylindrum;
Viginti validos viribus aequat equos:
Nomen
"Mors" dictumst
vere;
nam morte
peremit
Feles tres, pullos quattuor, octo canes:
Quin
equos usque ad mortem perterruit
et
acres,
Et pavefecit anus decrepitosque senes.
O
DEM.
monstrum! quid non motoria pectora
cogis,
Cursus sacra fames praecipitisque rotae?
SYR.
Sed quid
fers?
Nunc Quot
quis
AES.
Libros: libros
cumque
(seeing
" The Motor Car ^" ^'
seys
distribuisse
team of New Zealand
were
black,
fides,
argentea nigrast.^'
genus Antipodeum.
Act, 1903, fixed the speed limit at 20 miles an hour.
The Times had established a lending
A
domos.
CTESIPHO approach). Sed quis adest? in veste filix Quam sese ore ferens pectora quanta movet!
Credo equidem, nee vana
AES.
ulla legendi
cupit gratis: mihi ferre laborist,
Inque suburbanas
SYR.
non
Tempora suppeditant,^"
finis: libros
footballers
and were adorned with
library.
had
visited
a silver fern.
Great Britain with
much
success.
Their jer-
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN Degeneres omnes arguet {Enter
CTESIPHO,
CTE.
Die
qualis ludus
Nam
leges et
Hune CTE.
hand.)
"Octavae quinque"? ubi "Tergum"?
est sit
tuus
illi
unde
Rugbia
precor.
MIC.
venis, qui neseis talia!
non
Assoeiata mihi
voeatur;
constituit.
gens nobis assoeiata
tibi
fuit
semper eritque meus.^
OMN.
voltis?
Mittit
fide.
cordist formula: ludus
Hie semperque Ludere sed
iste,
Ruga
per gentes hie ludus
Sed quis
to
Experientia adest.
Sic, sic, "tres partes"!
Ast ubi, per Ditem,
Omnes
manus.
running and passing a football from hand
o comites, follem mihi passibus acquis.
Traicite,
SYR. CTE.
ille
405
Volumus. CTE. Bene. MIC. to caddie)
Haec Omnibus
CTE.
referes: nobis arbiter
Clubs
Tu, puer, arma
eris.
in partes abeundumst. Sie tibi follem
E medio Hoe
aequus
(giving his
pepuli: tu eape, deinde nota.
elama! o tardus
nimium
data turbast!
tu! sie
Advenit in dextram! peUite ealee pilam! {to
AESCHINUS
at half-back,
Traiee nune in
who gets
"Dimidium tergum!"
Ut
the ball from the scrum.)
o traiee follem,
tres partes,
(getting the ball)
iam mihi meta
capio, ut eurro! {He fumbles the ball and
SYRUS gets
patet.
it.)
Ut mi malus abstulit error
Follem! nune tecum res mihi tota manet. {trying to collar
SYRUS.)
Ter sum conatus Ter
O
SYR.
{throwing him)
fiiscate
En
collo dare brachia circum,
Pone pilam! en habeo. nimium ne erede colori.
fixistra refiigis.
puer,
iaeet
en vietus victor
MIC.
Cambria, non sine
SYR.
Arte
dis infans
et
omniniger!
animosa, corona^
Ipsa triumphali te deeorare volet.
mea hoc
feci;
quam
si
vos discere
voltis,
Letalem amplexum cunetaque vos doeeo.
CTE.
lupiter! ut iuvenes luiitsu^^ iure iuvantur!
(getting up)
Hae
Namque
non metuam
arte instructus
agere et
mere
et rapere et
Frangam crura modis,
^ This
refers to die
two
other of which football was
" The
sets
of rules
commonly
—
Americos:-^^
prostemere possim;
brachia, eolla bonis.
the
"Rugby" and
the "Association"
— under one or
played.
New Zealanders was the Welsh method of fighting without weapons; pardy
only team that had beat the
^*
"Jiu-jitsu", a Japanese
^
Football in America was a violent and dangerous game.
Fifteen. striking, partly
wresding.
LUSUS QUIDAM WESTMONASTERIENSES
406
DEM.
sum
Defessus
currendo, foUemque sequendo
Eminus. (Enter
(panting)
—
SOSTRATA.) At quaenam
haec femina, nuda caput,
Nuda pedes? SOS. Nocuumst operire caputque pedesque:^* Mens Sana in sano sit capite. GET. Et pedibus. SOS.
Vivere naturae nos convenienter oportet:
Maiorum (She treads on a
Hem,
in
mores nempe redire
decet.
nail.)
AES. Quidnamst? numnam punctura? SOS. Necessest
perii!
Multa Simplex
pati,
vita
si
mihi
vis
vivere simpliciter.
GET. Par
placuit.
Cuius simplicitas
vivit in ore
Simplex Hie Simo cuidam
fuit
ilia
Simoni,
virum:
obvius
imo
Portanti ad festum crustula.
DEM. Nonne
mane novo, pontem non Rimarumque casam plenam
ludere velle,-^
SOS.
Surgere
DEM.
Ista
taces?
habitare iuvat.
mihi quoque vita placebat rustica quondam.
(sympathetically)
Non
SOS.
nolo rursus nubere:
Sum
(Engagingly)
(firmly).
(Enter
sum
vidua,
DEM. (alarmed). At non est tibi bissextilis Non est. Uni homini tristitia una sat est.
sola.
hie annus.
CANTHARA.) Ecce autem hoc aliud monstrum!
num
balnea quaeso,
Liquisti nuper? cur tegis ipsa caput die, sodes. CAN. Nuper ab undis Anglorum semianimis venio:^* menses semper noctemque diemque
Manteli in tanto?
Absque
freto
Nam per tres
Sustentata cibo, vi bovis et nucibus^'
Uvarum, dum
saevit hiemps,
DEM.
Scilicet
is
dum marmora
— nee tamen advenio.
In Gallos tendo
generi labor est nunc curaque
rident,
talis
Femineo. CTE. Grator. Macta pueUa tua
(shocked)
Virtute, et tibi Fors fortunam det meliorem,
Ut nando Burgen
GET.
(to
CANTHARA). Haec
(Singing
is
exsuperare queas.
SimpUcitasne
ioca; certe
tibi vitae placet?
habeo
sat
nimiumque
CAN.
I,
tibi
narra
salis.
heard behind the stage.)
"Eia age nunc, cives, bellandi tempus: ad arma!
^*
See Punch for some ridicule of the attempt to "live a simple
life,"
going bareheaded and
barefooted.
^ The game of Bridge was ^*
A
named ^'
very
rife in society;
cf note 7 to
Exemplum
II.
Miss Kellerman, from Australia, had attempted to swim the Channel in rivalry of a
Burgess.
"Bovril" and "Grape Nuts" were
much
advertised foods.
man
KARL AUGUST NEUHAUSEN
-
407
Sanguinolento nos ense tyrannus agjt."^ (Enter
SAN.
Intend corde,
Haec
{effusively)
a,
laeto sic
SANNIO.)
imus ad Anglos,
nostra ut iungat pectora fausta dies.^'
Vivat et Edvardus, Praetor quoque Londiniensis,
Et Ludi vivant atque Pretense Cavum!'-
Vos hominum generi quot quantaque dona
MIC.
man
Vina
Redditis et scenae ioca vos et
seria:
Gallina" e vobis vestraque Sara
SAN.
At nos
inter nos
nunc amplectamur,
Vemast dea.-*^
amici.
{SOSTRATA A, bene
O
SYR.
si
venisti.^^
nunc Nelso
dedistis,
femineoque modos:
sexu,
advances.)
SOS. Tu quoque, dulce
caput.
vitales carperet auras,
Heroi vestro gaudia quanta
forent!
(HEGIO suddenly appears with one of his captains.) HEG. Adsum. SAN. O nautarum dux invictissime, salve. SYR. O salve magni nominis umbra. HEG. Quis es? MIC.
Aemulus
hie laudisque tuae studiosus amator
Hostilem classem mersit in ima maris: Ipse dedit
signum par
isti
"Patria nostra
munera quisque sua:" Est socius noster. HEG. (to SYRUS). Sociis o digne Salve: nos inter sit diutuma fides. Mortuus es numquam: te, non moriture, saluto: Postulat ut faciat
SYR.
Brittannis,
Vivit adhuc nobis visque vigorque tuus.
HEG.
(advancing). Mirari nolite,
mihi quod linquere visumst
Elysias sedes; haec
mihi causa
viae:
(pointing to his companion.)
Hie, cui parebat navis Temeraria Pugnax,-**
Me
O
voluit vestram nosse
praeclaram illam lucem,
Agmen Primus ego;
suamque
in oppositas, acer uterque, rates; hie,
parvo mihi proximus intervallo,
Hostilem proram vinxit utrimque
**
de
"Aux
Domum.
cum duximus una
suae.
amies, citoyens! Fomiez vos bataillons!" etc. Refrain of the "Marseillaise" by
Rouget
L'Isle. ^'
L'Entente Cordiale, a friendly feeling that had grown up between France and England.
The project of a tunnel under the Straits of Dover. " The "Spring Chicken", a musical comedy adapted from the French. ^ Sarah Bernhardt, the famous tragic actress, bom in Paris, October, 1844. '^
^*
J.
^
Benvenisti played Sostrata.
Sir Eliab
Harvey; referring to the ship named the "Fitting Temeraire."
LUSUS QUIDAM IVESTMONASTERIENSES
408
Nunc agimus Anglia,
grates
nunc
pro tot tantisque triumphis.
vatis te
meminisse decet,
Grandia qui cecinit resonanti carmine verba;
"Haec ante
Non
olim
Ni
hostiles
iacuit,
Anglia nostra pedes
numquam
summissa
prius intulerit volnus et ipsa
iacebit,
sibi."-''
Patria sic vigeat, sic vis virtusque noventur, Sic
semper vobis
floreat
alma Domus! Universitdt
" King John, Act
V
Sc. 7.
Bonn
Gager^s Meleager:
An
Inventive Adaptation of Senecan
HOWARD First
NORLAND
B.
acted at Christ Church, Oxford, in February 1582, Meleager was William
Gager's fint dramatic success.
apparently was so well received that
It
lected for a repeat performance three years later Leicester,
accompanied by
Sir
January 1585, was marked by poet Sidney
is
a
PhiHp Sidney,
when
the Earls of
age,
it
as a
it
curse for
its
se-
First
Gager adds the
printed in Janu-
a rising star in Eliza-
Sidney came to an early end. Whether one interprets potential patrons or the author's
this
bad luck in seeking patron-
remains a memorable example of Latin neoclassical drama.
Gager in that
was dedicated by Gager to the Earl of Essex,
who hke
was
epilogue, in the latter of which the
identified with the tragic hero of the play; ironically
ary 1593, the play beth's court,
it
Pembroke and
visited the univenity. This revival, in
new prologue and
wish that Sidney will escape the regrettable end of Meleager.'
tragedy
Form
was
his dedicatory letter to Essex calls Meleager his
his first
"primogenitus," implying
completed dramatic composition. Closely following
his
Senecan
model, Gager appropriates and adapts many scenes and Hnes from the tragedies cribed to Seneca, especially Medea and Hercules Oetaeus,
However,
as
Dana Sutton
in transforming Ovid's 270-line narrative version of the Meleager
firom Metamorphoses (8:270-546) into
some 1800 Unes of drama, Gager made
choices. His decision to follow the general outhne of Ovid's story
considerable latitude, and, while Gager incorporated
introduced several
new
elements into the plot.
It is
many Ovidian
as-
points out.-
still
motifs,
myth
critical
allowed
he
also
in his inventive expansion of the
Ovidian narrative to nearly twice the length of the typical Senecan tragedy that
Gager demonstrates
'
his creative skill.
William Gager: The
CompleU Works,
ed.
logue, 1920-1925. This foreboding epilogue inal
form when the play was
is
Dana
F.
Sutton
(New York,
1994), Meleager, Epi-
generally assumed to have been printed in
later published. (All further references to the text
translation are to this edition unless otherwise indicated.) ^
See especially Sutton's notes to Acts
I
and
II
in his edition, 1.167-189.
its
orig-
of the play and
its
G ACER'S MELEAGER
410
By
noting in his letter to the Academic Reader variants in different versions of the
Meleager myth recounted by Homer, Ovid, and Antiphon, Gager justifies tion of the classical
Following Seneca, Gager begins
tale.
her in his
sacrifices to the
As in the Senecan duced by
with an explanation
his play
of the provocation of the tragedy: the goddess Diana's anger
Oeneus
at
his adapta-
for ignoring
heavenly powers, an anger expressed by the Fury Megaera.
Agamemnon and Thyestes, the motif of revenge is introfigure who demands retribution for a perceived wrong; how-
tragedies,
a supernatural
ever, in this instance the irrationality of revenge
emphasized by the Fury.
is
Oeneus, the object of Diana's wrath in Ovid's version,
is
much more
fully
de-
veloped by Gager. Going beyond Ovid's explanation that in celebrating Ceres and
Oeneus simply forgot Diana, Gager makes Oeneus an arrogant
atheist
regards himself as equal if not superior to the gods. Perhaps the classical
model
Bacchus
who
first
Oeneus was Oedipus, though
for
Tamburlaine,^
who
fero" lofty
[I
appeared on the public stage in 1587, some five years after
Oeneus
Gager's Meleager. speech: "par
first
Boas points out, he more strikingly anticipates
as
establishes his perspective in the
opening
walk along, the equal of the prideful gods, and among other
head
image of hubris
to the sky] (2.472-473). This
that follows, as
Oeneus stubbornly
refuses to
is
heed the
his first
arduum caput
superbis gradior, et caelo tenus, / inter tyrannos
diis
of
lines
rulers
I
raise
ef-
my
expanded in the dialogue
wisdom of
traditional
Senex and the prophetic vision of Althaea. His character remains
the
he
static until
is
informed of the death of Meleager, whereupon he blames himself for marrying a
woman who
has killed her son, though he never appears to grasp the fact that his im-
piety toward the gods led to the tragic outcome. Atalanta's role
warrior
who
is
also
much expanded
evokes Meleager's
desire,
in the play.
Ovid
describes her as an epicene
but in Gager's tragedy she
compared
is
to the
goddess Diana and to Jason's golden fleece. Her eagerness to prove her courage expressed by her impatience to begin the hunt, but
of the womanly
tasks
more
definitive
of spinning and weaving for the masculine
is
skills
of the hunter.
This preference links her, of course, to Diana, though her single-minded valor
remind us of
also
men
Virgil's
female warrior Camilla
who
is
her rejection
may
in the Aeneid outshines the
in battle.
Atalanta's repudiation of both beauty
and Philemon's attempts to persuade her onstrates her
independence of
must be exploited before physical
it
charm and "nomine
spirit.
and marriage in her response to Meleager's to adopt the conventional female role
When
reminded
that beauty
passes, Atalanta declares that she
is
arridet magis / fortis vocari" [take[s]
being called stout-hearted] (1.319-320). Being
a
is
dem-
transitory
and
ashamed of her
more
pleasure in
"daughter" of Diana, Atalanta natur-
though in the dialogue between her and the besotted Meleager, drawn from CatuUus's poetry, she characterizes virginity as a fragile rose which is valued only while it remains intact (1.355-364), and she represents marriage as a form ally prizes chastity,
of violation comparable to the pillaging of
^
Frederick
S.
Boas, University
Drama
in the
a city:
Tudor Age (Oxford, 1914), 171.
HOWARD quae gravior
B.
NORLAND
411
nocte nox caelo exeat,
ilia
castam puellam quae viro prodit
truci,
gremioque matris virginem teneram trepidam puellam matris amplexu
eripit,
eripit?
quid peius hostes urbe iam capta patrant?
quod ab hoste
peius virgo patiatur nefas?
[What night can descend in the sky wone than that which gives over a chaste harsh man, tearing a gentle maiden from her mother's lap, tearing a frightened girl from her mother's embrace? What fouler deed can enemies commit during the sack of a city? What worse thing can a maiden undergo at girl to a
the hands of a foeman?] (1.380-385)
Atalanta's
to
view of men
extremely negative, to say the
is
Meleager before leaving the stage appear to
triste vitabit
iugum.
enim plerumque
/ vel sunt
domini graves" [A wise
zelotypi
avoids the sorry yoke.
girl
least,
and her parting words
him no hope: "pueUa
offer
viri, /
Men,
sapiens
vel dissoluti, vel nimis
for the
most
part, are jeal-
ous, dissolute, or harsh taskmasters] (1.405-407).
Queen EUzabeth with
Identifying
Atalanta in his Epilogue for Academics, Gager
notes Ehzabeth's harsh treatment of her suitors and praises her victory over a greater
boar than the Calydonian, a possible allusion to the Catholic conspiracy in 1581 led
by Campion and Parsons.^ Gager tractet fera, / seu pacis artes" [a
plying the
of peace]
arts
(Epil.
describes the
queen
as a
"stupenda virgo, bella seu
marvellous virgin whether waging harsh battles or
1903-1904), and concludes that
all
that
is
lacking
is
a
poet to celebrate her deeds. This challenge appears to have been taken up by several poets in the
two decades that followed, though clearly the most memorable identifiqueen carrying on Atalanta's role as a militant champion of chastity is
cation of the
Spenser's portrayal of Britomart in The Faerie Queetie.
Giving the major players in the myth of the Calydonian boar more sions,
Gager represents Meleager
win Atalanta with words, he
both persistent and impulsive.
as
threatens to take her
by
force.
human dimen-
When
he cannot
Burning with passion, he
resembles the unrequited lover created by contemporary poets imitating Petrarch, including Sidney who,
we noted
as
tragedy in 1585. Meleager
is,
above, attended the second performance of the
however,
also a
brave and skilled hunter
the heroes of ancient Greece in delivering the death offer
who
first
blood,
may
at first
his action.
Meleager may be
Gager's representation he nature. In the
is
his
impulsive murder of his uncles
essentially a victim
a victim
of
fate in
had
when
they challenge
Ovid's rendering, but in
of his passion for Atalanta and
wake of Atalanta's unremitting
See Boas, University Drama, 177.
who
magnanimous act, but his His questionable honor is even
glance appear to be a
motivation to buy her favor undercuts his generosity.
more seriously jeopardized by
outshines
to the ravaging boar. His
of the victor's trophies, the head and hide of the boar, to Atalanta
drawn the
*
blow
his
own
impulsive
rejection of his suit, his attempt to
win
gager's meleager
412
won
her hand by offering her the glory he has
In individualizing the major figures in the often
drew on
classical
dilemma
thaea discusses her place a
is
of a mother and a
loyalties
sister's
nowhere
precedents;
who
terization of Althaea,
is
in the
hunt seems especially
foolish.
myth of the Calydonian boar, Gager this more apparent than in his charac-
only lightly sketched by Ovid. Faced with the divided
Meleager has
sister after
killed her brothers, Gager's Al-
length with the Nutrix
at
who
questions her decision to
revenge above a mother's love. Following the tenor of the Senecan
Medea's internal debate over her love for her sons and her desire for revenge on Jason {Medea, 895—977), Althaea argues:
mors
pianda morte, funus funere,
est
furor furore, scelere
pensandum
est scelus.
cruenta mater, at soror dicar pia,
domusque
nomen
nostra vindicis
feram.
[Death must be expiated by death, kiUing by
crime must be repaid by a crime. loyal sister,
I
shall
bear the
...
I
shall
killing,
be called
name of champion of
a
this
madness by madness, bloody mother, but a house] (4.1231—1232,
1236-1237).
Her placement of revenge over
love does not, of course, resolve her dilemma but
represents instead a further step in the progression of the tragedy. Rather than es-
caping retribution for her revenge like Seneca's Medea, Althaea in both Ovid and
Gager goes mad
after causing
herself with her son's
sword
her son's death, and she takes that
had
upon Medea, Gager does not allow
killed
final
vengeance by
killing
her brothers. While modeling Althaea
own creative
the Senecan precedent to stultify his
spirit.
Gager's relationship to the tation of particular
action to
come
is
Roman
tragedian
is
further demonstrated
by
his
adap-
Senecan motifs in the dramatization of the myth. Forewarning of
a
common
device in both Greek and Latin drama, but Seneca in
reworking his Greek sources frequently emphasizes prophetic visions and supernatural signs that heighten or intensify the role
of fate. In Gager's Meleager the Fury Megaera
begins the action by expressing hatred for Oeneus, which she promises will reach fruition in "minae, caedes, furor" [menaces, murder, madness] (1.91). This establishes
the tragic
mood, but
it
also implies a supernatural direction
the conditions for tragedy are beginning to emerge, ings are expressed.
The
first is
the prophetic vision,
of the action. In Act 2
as
two further supernatural warnwhich Althaea describes, of her
mother's ghost entering her chamber and telling her of a dire catastrophe involving Althaea, her brothen, husband, and son. After the hubristic threat of portending fate as anxiety inspired
of the rampaging boar but
also alludes to
by
fear,
Oeneus
dismisses this
the Soothsayer predicts the death
an unnamed horror that causes
his limbs to
quake. As in Seneca, these direful anticipations intensify the atmosphere of gloom
as
they emphasize the inevitability of a tragic end.
Another
classical
dramatic device that Gager appears to have learned from Seneca
HOWARD is
B.
NORLAND
413
the addition of interlocutors to reveal the thoughts and motivations of the principal
figures in the tragedy. In the
first
Philemon appears
act
in order to clarify Meleager's
obsession with Atalanta; here Philemon's quiet reason contrasts with Meleager's impulsive nature. In addition,
woman's
role in society;
Philemon represents the conventional
he argues that
women
should take up the
He
serves a
somewhat
and leave hunting and war to men. 4
as
Meleager begins to
suffer
when
mon's lack of understanding of what
on how
the fateful log is
is
attitude distaflf
toward
and loom
different ftinction in
placed in the
fire.
happening to Meleager, and
to deal with the fatefialmalady, heighten the confusion
his
Act
Here Philelame advice
and emphasize
Me-
leager's victimization.
Similarly,
Oeneus
is
accompanied by the Senex and Althaea by the Nutrix to elab-
orate the emotional and intellectual
The Senex
Act 2
in
is
a
penonify reason in instructing foohsh arrogance.
his
tragedies,
components of the
sounding board for Oeneus's
The
his
but he also seems to
master about the imphcations and ramifications of
interlocutor regularly serves a similar fianction in Seneca's
though in Gager's Meleager the Senex
in earher educational
issues that lead to tragedy. hubris,
also
reminds us of the good counselor
and pohtical moraHties. FaiUng in
his
attempts to dissuade
Oeneus from impiously threatening the gods, the Senex highlights Oeneus's atheism and arrogance which provoke divine vengeance. In the last act when Oeneus laments change of fortune and the
his
to be learned early death as
human
made Fortune a god, and he directs the disOeneus to fiilfil his responsibihties as a father by giving Meleager a proper When Oeneus considers the punishment that awaits him after death, he suc-
ignorance and error that have
traught funeral.
cumbs
loss of his son, the Senex emphasizes the moral lesson by Oeneus's example. After offering the traditional consolation of an an escape from the miseries of old age, the Senex goes on to decry the
to his delusions in a suicidal
lesson to be learned last
ending added by Gager. The Senex sums up the
from the mad Oeneus just before the two leave the
stage for the
time: "en, ut superbos ultor insequitur deus, / et in furorem destinit nimius
tumor!" [See
how
an avenging god pursues the arrogant, and
how
excessive pride
ends in madness!] (5.1767-1768). Althaea's Nutrix kill
is
added by Gager to
flesh
her son. Although the Nutrix role here
Nurse
out the reasons the mother chose to
may
superficially
remind us of Phaedra's
in Seneca's Hippolytus, in fact her fimction in Gager's tragedy
Rather than abetting her
mistress's
immoral judgment
as
is
very different.
Phaedra's Nurse does, the
Nutrix questions Althaea's priority of values; in a stichomythic dialogue reminding us of Seneca, the Nutrix
registers the conventional view that a son is dearer than a which emphasizes the unnaturalness of Althaea's insistence on placing her brothers' honor before her son's life. Another important aspect of the Nutrix role is
brother,
She prepares the audience for Althaea's entrance at the beginning of Act rV by describing the pain and anger that have brought her mistress to madness, and she returns in the last few minutes of the play to decry the costs of killing the boar by noting the deaths that followed, before providing the details of the suicides of Althaea and Oeneus. Like the other interlocutors modeled on Senecan precedents in as narrator.
Gager's play, the Nutrix serves a valuable fimction in interpreting and judging the principal characters' attitudes
and
actions.
G ACER'S MELEAGER
414
Because
much
of the action in Senecan and neoclassical tragedy
than represented, a witness's account of events
narrated rather
is
central to the tragic development.
is
In Meleager the Nuntius provides a detailed account of the hunt for the Calydonian
boar before the hunters appear on stage with the boar's head and hide. Elaborating
upon Ovid's rendering such famous warriors leager's roles.
Noting
Nuntius indicates that
messenger alludes to the attempts of
in Metamorphoses, Gager's
as
Jason and Nestor but then focuses upon Atalanta's and
was the
first
to
prowess by single-handedly killing the boar with
sequence of the action ers assemble.
his spears.
This description of the
when
important to the events that occur on stage
the hunt-
Meleager's determination to share with Atalanta the glory that he has
it elicits
it
may win
contempt from Meleager's uncles
the maiden warrior's grati-
who interpret their nephew's
prompted by love rather than honor. This report may not
ture as larly
is
earned appears arbitrary in the context:
clearly
tude, but
Me-
draw blood from the boar, the her arrow only grazed the animal, while Meleager proved his
that Atalanta
Senecan, but
effectiveness in setting the stage for the crucial event firom
its
ges-
strike us as particu-
the remaining tragic actions inevitably derive demonstrates Gager's dramatic
which skill.
More noticeably Senecan is Gager's employment of the chorus at the end of each comment on the preceding dialogue and to prepare the audience for what follows. Not interacting with the principal characters in the tragedy, the chorus is an extra-dramatic device designed to serve as a moral commentator, which may give more act to
weight to the didactic nature of the tragedy than as a
disembodied voice that
is
found in Seneca, but in
directs audience response,
Although Gager modeled Meleager upon Senecan
it
its
role
follows the Senecan model.
tragic form,
he
also
introduced
elements from contemporary stage practice, which resulted in a modification of neois perhaps most evident in Gager's repreWhile focusing the action of the play on a single crisis, the menace of the Calydonian boar and its consequences, in sound neoclassical fashion, Gager portrays the key events in the natural order in which they occur rather
classical characteristics.
Such an adaptation
sentation of the tragic plot.
than in retrospective narratives of previous incidents. This progression of the action is
structured in a cause-effect relationship that emphasizes individual responsibihties
for crucial developments.
The provocation of the
tragic pattern,
Oeneus's impiety in
ignoring the goddess Diana, prompts her to send the Calydonian boar to ravage the
kingdom. This
leads to the
results in the quarrel
to
kill
hunt that brings Atalanta and Meleager together, which
between Meleager and
his uncles,
which
in turn provokes
him
them. This action causes Althaea to revenge their deaths by killing Meleager,
and the death of Meleager provokes the suicides of both Althaea and Oeneus. While Gager maintains a unity of action observed in classical tragedy, his representation of the plot as a progressive chain of events follows popular stage practice.
Another contemporary innovation classical
in traditional neoclassical fashion, as difficult to as
well
is
tragedy was generally narrated.
enact
as his
on
stage.
Gager's staging of violence that in Seneca and
The
Nuntius's account of the hunt
noted above, but
it
also
However, Meleager's stabbing of his uncles
painful suffering induced by his mother. This revenge
graphic in the simultaneous staging of Althaea's burning of the brand the stage, while
on the other
side the effects
of the
fire
is
narrated
would have been very
on Meleager
is
is
represented, particularly
on one
side
are expressed
of
by
HOWARD his physical sensations
B.
NORLAND
of burning.* The emotional
temporarily removing the brand from the
415
moment is prolonged by
and then thrusting
fire
it
back
Althaea's
in,
but the
who, beUeving that he is pursued by the Fury Megaera, desperately runs oflf the stage. Gager returns to conventional neoclassical form in the final act by having the deaths of Althaea and Oeneus audience
is
spared the final death throes of Meleager
narrated.
Perhaps Gager's most significant departure from Senecan tragedy tianizing of
Senecan themes. Following the precedent of Senecan
collected edition
pubhshed in 1581 frequently added
Gager
reinterprets Seneca's portrayal of fate
tragedies,^
resenting fate as a malevolent force imposed
who
cious goddess
on
his
Chris-
translators
whose
is
dimension to
a Christian
his
and fortune. Rather than rep-
helpless
man and
fortune
as a capri-
deUghts in man's crushed expectations, Gager emphasizes man's
responsibihty for the actions that lead to tragedy. Oeneus's impiety and arrogance,
which cause him
forewamings of tragedy, are compounded by Meand Althaea's misplaced sense of duty to revenge her brothers'
to scorn the
leager's impulsiveness
deaths.
According
destiny or
reahze
is
may
to Gager,
man may
that divine
giiming of Act
own
Providence shapes our ends,
errors,
of his
but what he must
the Senex explains at the be-
as
5:
humana
fecit inscitia caelo
fortvmam, et error
numen
non praevidentem
si
omne
id
hubristically consider himself in control
fooUshly blame fate or fortune for his
sit
sacrum,
quid adversi opprimat,
sorti ascribitur, est,
alma
inane nomen.
si sit,
fortvma nulla
deam affinxit
vanae deae.
nisi
et
prudentia
curam
gerat
numen, nil temere nobis venit. quaecunque miseros fata mortales premunt, caeleste
ea crede
divum nutu
[Human ignorance vented her it,
this
has
et arbitrio regi.
made Fortune a goddess in heaven, and error has insome reversal oppresses a man who has not foreseen
as a divinity. If
is all
ascribed to the false goddess Fortune.
fostering Providence
is
an empty word.
There
is
no Fortune,
If Providence exists,
and
[if
enly divinity [has a care for us], nothing occurs to us at random. fates
the]
unless
heav-
Whatever
oppress us poor mortals, you must beHeve occur by divine will and judg-
ment.] (5.1525-1533)
*
Boas su^ests that an inner stage was used for the dialogue between Althaea and the Nutrix Drama, 172-173), but this staging would unnecessarily complicate the production; si-
{University
multaneous action on the two ''
See
Howard
sides
of the
stage
seems
much more
likely.
B. Norland, "Adapting to the Times: Expansion and Interpolation in the Eliza-
bethan Translations of Seneca,"
Classical
and
Modem
Literature
16 (1996): 241-263.
GAGER'S MELEACER
416
This view of Fortune, which Gager also expressed in separate poems included in his
notebook of miscellaneous works,'
is,
of course, not unique; in fact
it
expresses
Gager's Christian faith in providence and divine judgment that underlies his moralinterpretation of the characters' actions in the tragedy.
istic
Gager was very conscious of the kind of tragic effect he meant to convey. In his letter addressed to the Academic Reader that prefaced his published edition of the play,
he
says that
marriage and Oeneus's arrogance, impiety, and suicide
cum
tum, maiore
— — "ut
he introduced elements not found in Ovid
tum
varietate,
Atalanta's aversion to
tragoediae argumen-
atrocitate pertexeretur" [so that the tragedy's plot
might be embroidered with greater variety and horror]; but he goes on to explain that he excluded the metamorphoses of Meleager's sisters into birds lest this miraculous action detract from the tragic effect at the end of the play. Gager clearly seeks to enhance the tive,
tragic
dimensions of the events in
his adaptation
of the Ovidian narra-
but he sidesteps the pessimism of his Senecan model in which Stoicism provides
the only solace in the tragic end. Rather, Gager turns the play into a didactic lesson
about the
fruits
of arrogance and impiety creating the
tragic conclusion.
choral ode includes the Stoical truism that the higher one's position in
vulnerable one
is
though
to danger,
it
life
The
final
the
more
most emphatically declares that the impious are
destroyed by divine vengeance. Therefore, "deos vereri discite" [Learn to fear the gods] (5.1868).
This didactic tone
is
registered throughout the play
by the moralizing interlocutors
by the chorus. In the epilogue written for the performance given for Sidney and the Earls of Pembroke and Leicester the message may be directed particularly at Queen Elizabeth, but it also may be applied to men of authority and finally to us as
well
as
aU:
quicunque sceptro
fretus ac solio
tumens
aureus avito spiritus altos gerit,
nimiumque fidens, caelites temnit deos, te videat, Oeneu, videat eversam domum
modo hinc
prepotentem, gentis Aetolae decus.
quemque
par est facere
documentum
sibi,
hoc quisque secum reputet exemplum domi. [Whoever, relying on
his scepter and, gilded, swells
because of his ancestral
throne, arrogant in spirit and overconfident, scorning the gods, let
you, Oeneus,
let
of the AetoHan self, let
'
him
see
race. It
is
every one ponder
See especially CVII,
British Library
MS
"De
Add.22583
your overthrown house, fair for
every
man
to take this as an
this as a lesson for his
Fortuna", and CIII,
fols.
53-54.
him
see
lately all-powerfiil, the glory
own
example for him-
house.] (Epil. 1909-1915)
"De Cupidine"
in
Poems of William Gager,
HOWARD
B.
NORLAND
417
Gager's didacticism at the end of the play
may seem
ing should not distract us from his
accomplishment. His inventive appUcation
artistic
of Senecan form to Ovid's mythical academic playwright explored by his
at
artistic
a bit overdone, but his moraliz-
tale established his
Oxford and generated an
reputation
interest in Uterary
as
the foremost
themes more
fiilly
contemporaries.
University of Nebraska
In Gasparini Barzizzii
De
compositione
opusculum quaes tiunculae
JUAN
Gasparino
M""
NUNEZ GONZAlEZ
M.
Barzizzio Bergomensi codicis
De
Fabii Quintiliani
Institutione
non multo post illos libros retectos. Quorum lectione permotus opusculum (cui titulus De compositione exstat)' exarauit. Nam libros Quintiliani qui incuria temporum diutissime non exstiterant et in TransOratoria integri fiiiendi facultas contigit
alpina GaUia ea tempestate reperti erant, diligenti cura et studio euoluit exhausitque,
quibusdam Ciceronis' Latine
ac Comificii Martianique
componendi an
CapeUae
additis, ea
mente
ut uetus
renasceretur.
Cum omnis rhetorica Gasparini opusculi doctrina ex eis auctoribus sumpta uiderenonnulla tamen tractatus Medii Aeui de dictandi siue dictaminis arte cognomi-
tur,
natos redolent. Quibus de locis igitur materiam disputandi dare inceptum est nobis
hoc commentariolo. In hac arte
quidem componenda Gasparinum ex soUs
eiusque aequalium hausisse iure credideris,
modo
puris fontibus Ciceronis
ut hanc exordii
primam periodum
perlegeris.^
Cum omnis commodae, et perfectae elocutionis praeceptio in tres partes sit distributa, scilicet
'
Consut
titulus
compositionem, elegantiam,
idem qui
in capite quarto libri
et dignitatem;
Ulud genus, quod ad
noni codicis Ambrosiani Latin!
E 153
sup.
apparet. -
Quamquam Gaspahnus primus fliit etiam qui reppererit ac perlegerit integerrimos tres libros De oratore, Brutum et Oratorem ad Bnitum; tamen dubium est si cogniti ei sint ante quam
Ciceronis
De
compositione
opus
in
lucem
dederit. Cf.
R. Sabbadini, La
scuola e gli studi di
Guarino Guarini
Veronese (Catania, 1896), 7. ^
Locos Gasparini laudauimus ex hac editione: Gasparini Barzizzii Bergomatis
opera, pars
prima (Romae.
MDCC XXIII).
et Guiniforti Jilii
GASPARINI BARZIZZII DE COMPOSITIONE
420 compositionem quae
attinet, tribus in
nisi diligenter
rumque
ilia
rebus
est
positum, ordine, junctura, numero:
ab Oratore sint considerata, splendor pene omnis, uerbo-
concinnitas tota intereat, necesse
est.
Cuius enim comprehensionis uerba sententiasque esse:
primum
scilicet
e Rhetoricis scriptis ad Herennium,*
(De compositione,
e tribus locis
p. 1)
mutuatus uidetur
elocutionem diuisam in partes
dignitatem, elegantiam, compositionem; deinde ex Institutionibus
Quintiliani^
compositionem
postremum ex
in
ordinem, iuncturam atque
Oratore ad Brutum^
numerum
oratoriis
tres,
Fabii
distributam;
Marci Ciceronis "concinnitatem" quo uocabulo
unus Cicero ex ueterum rhetorum numero usus
est.
Nam nuUo modo
fieri
potest at
"concinnitas" dictio in Comificii aut Quintiliani operibus inueniatur.
Compositio enim non auctore et
libri Rhetorici
numerum
sub
est in partes tres distributa a
ad Herennium compositi
distributam docet. Porro
ilia
in
Comificio
(si
quidem ab hoc
neque Cicero ordinem, iuncturam
nomine compositionis complexus
coUocationem (pro "compositione")
rum
sint)
est.
Enimuero Arpinas' uerborum
compositionem, concinnitatem atque nume-
dictio, "concinnitas", quasi
concentus e
figuris*
quae Gorgias Leontinus primus inuenisse fertur ab uno Cicerone (ex antiquis rhetoribus) usurpata
Qua
disputat
ita
est.
definitione constituta Barzizzius Quintilianum secutus de ordine ut ipse inconsulte lapsus in turbidis
riuulis
uerborum
(ex iUis sane ueteribus
profluentibus) esse uideatur:
"Ordo
igitur est," inquit Barzizzius, "apta
quaedam uerborum
inter se naturalis
uel artificialis dispositio." {De compositione, p. 1)
Quibus tiora
e uerbis uestigia
doctrinarum quae ab infima antiquitate usque in recen-
tempora ueterem dicendi artem turbarunt nobis apparent. Etenim "dispositio"
quod "compositio" in ueteribus de elocutione libris nominascilicet "uerborum dispositionem" in antiquis de arte oratoria scriptis reperire nullo modo possis usque in secundum nostri aeui saeculum, cum lulius Victor, rhetor e latinorum minorum agmine (ut ita laudem qui post Quintilianum de dicendi arte disseruerunt) de compositione uerborum rettulisset haec uerba: usurpata est hie pro
Hanc
tur.
phrasin
illo
autem
quod ad uerborum dispositionem pertinet satis plene docetur, cum de elocuDe rerum uero dispositione per singula membra orationis, id est cum prooemio et narratione et ceteris traditum accepisti. (ed. Halm, 431.9) tione tractatur.
*
Rhet. ad Her. 4, 17.
^ Inst.
9, 4, 22.
*
Orat. 201.
'
Cf. Ciceron, L'Orateur, ed. et trad. A.
*
Haec
Yon
(Paris,
1964), cxiii sqq.
sunt: similiter cadens, parison, contraria seu antitheta. Cf.
Cic,
Orat.
164
sq.
JUAN M^ NUNEZ GONZALEZ
Cum
421
dispositionem rebus argumentisue tantum, compositionem
uerbis seu
solis
dictionibus collocandis adhibitam apud antiques reperires, lulius Victor
tamen de uer-
borum rerumque
Cicero tamen
dispositione aeque loquitur.
semel "compositorem" sitor",
inquam,
et
non
Vt
res ita se habeant,
pro agendi nomine "dispositorem" declarante.
dicit
"Compo-
"dispositor", ut coniici nobis liceat (sed nota ut "dispositor"
non
in scriptis rhetoricis antiquis
appareat):
"quem hoc uno excellere," inquit Cicero, "id est oratione, cetera in eo latere nomen ipsum. non enim inuentor aut compositor aut actor haec
indicat
complexus
est oimiia,
sed et Graece ab eloquendo rhetor et Latine eloquens
dictus est." {Orat. 61)
Haec Ciceronis uerba nomina, id
est,
declarant agentia ofBciorum oratoris siue rhetoricae partium
inuentorem qui
res inuenit,
actorem qui orationem dispositam bis licuit
compositorem qui
res inuentas disponit,
Sed nunquam quidem inuenire no-
agit, et cetera.
compositionem pro dispositione seu dispositionem pro compositione in Ci-
ceronis, Comificii, Quintilianique scriptis de arte dicendi. lulius Victor
autem
mus, ut supra diximus, hac phrase "uerborum dispositione" usus uidetur
esse.
pri-
Aha uerba autem ex ilia ordinis definitione quam supra memoraui, ilium eruditissimum uirum, Gasparinum, in sermocinandi uel dictandi artibus Medii Aeui uersatum
Nam ilia
esse declarant.
usu Aureae
sententia "naturahs seu artificiahs dispositio" ex illo dicendi
infimam antiquitatem
aetatis recedit et
redolet.
dispositionem uocauit ipsam quae artificiosa ab auctore ad
hbro secundo De
oratore
et
quam
adfert natura causarum, altera,
prudentia comparatur:
natura ipsa praescribit. (De
cet,
—
,
orat.
quae oradein-
nostris praesidiis confirmandis,
concludamus atque
contrariis refutandis, deinde ut
Eandem
relata est. In
nam ut ahquid ante rem dicamus,
de ut rem exponamus, post ut eam probemus
detur
Herennium
legimus ea uerba:
cuius ratio est duplex; altera,
torum iudicio
Etenim Cicero naturalem
ita
peroremus, hoc dicendi
2.307)
sententiam auctoris ad Herennium uerba declarant
sed Comificius grammatico
more ilium tritum
— ut mihi quidem
dispositionis
ordinem,
ui-
scili-
principium seu exordium, narrationem, diuisionem, confirmationem, confutatio-
nem,
et
Ex
conclusionem seu perorationem ex institutione
institutione artis disponemus,
primo hbro exposuimus, hoc
cum sequemur eam
est,
ut
utamur
artis
disponi asseuerat:
praeceptionem,
quam
in
principio, narratione, diuisione,
confirmatione, confutatione, conclusione. {Rhet. ad Her. 3.16)
In sequenti
quidem
capite
cederit, nos certiores facit. Is
aham dispositionem ordo qui ab
narratione necessitatis causa et
Est
autem
alia dispositio,
toris iudicio
artis
non ab exordio
quae,
cum
esse,
quae ab ordine
artificioso re-
reguhs recedit arbitrio oratoris
ab ordine artificioso recedendum
ad tempus adcommodatur; ut
fit si
incipiamus:
si
est,
ora-
ab narratione dicere incipiamus
ab
GASPARINI BARZIZZII DE COMPOSITIONE
422
aut ab aliqua firmissima argumentatione aut litterarum aliquarum recitatione; aut
secundum principium confirmatione utamur, deinde narratione aut si ordinis faciemus; quorum nihil, nisi causa pos-
si
quam eiusmodi permutationem
ad Her. 3.17).
tulat, fieri oportebit. (Rhet.
Et haec quidem uerba eandem uim habent atque
quae oratorum iudicio
nis laudata: "altera
naturalem dispositionem uocat eandem
mirum
Quam
recte uterque dixit.
Cornificiique sententiam
cum
Montanus,'
[sc.
quam
De
oratore
Cicero-
comparatur." Arpinas autem
artificiosam Cornificius docet.
Sed ni-
prudenter enim intellexit germanam Ciceronis
eruditissimus saeculi sexti et decimi uir, Benedictus Arias
ille
caneret:
Aemula naturae Partibus
ex secundo
ilia
et prudentia
quam
ratio,
orationis] his
dicimus artem
etenim
(vv. 3.67);
bis ter persoluerat
omnem
dicendo effigiem quisquis iam rhetoris artem, natura monstrante
Quidam'° autem
modum,
didicit retulitque. (vv. 3.94—96)
existimarunt confiisam atque discordem
uiri docti nostri aeui
hanc doctrinam inter ueteres rhetores
Ciceronem
(sc.
et
diximus, ordo orationis partium naturalis redigi in artem
Comificium),
sed, ut supra
non repugnat. Atqui
Sulpi-
Victor," Fortunatianus,'^ ac Martianus Capella eisdem Ciceronis Cornificiique
tius
paene uerbis
usi,
rebus tamen scholastic©
naturalem atque artificialem
more
speciem dispositionis dupUcem
mixtis,
ita distinxerunt, ut
ab
illis
infimae antiquitatis rhetoribus
non
recte intellecta doctrinae uis esse uideatur. Conferte exempli gratia
tiani
locum:
quae pars dispositio uocitatur, qua quid dicendum quoue loco, inspicimus.
Duplex
igitur huius partis est ratio; aut
oratoris artificio comparatur: naturalis,
cum
enim
(.
.
.)
hunc Mar-
prudenter
naturalis est
ordo aut
post principium narratio, partitio,
propositio, argumentatio, conclusio epilogusque consequitur: artificio oratoris,
cum per membra orationis
*
In Rhetorkorum
libris
quae dicenda sunt digerimus. Et hoc ex causae
quatttwr (Antuerpiae,
MDLXIX), nuper
critice instructis
utili-
atque Hispane
conuersis a Maria V. Perez (Pace Augusta, 1984). "*
Vt
unum
e pluribus laudem,
" "In dispositione plus
moment!
est ea,
cf.
artis est,
Maria V. Perez, Rhetoricorum
quod tertium
quae inuenta sunt, aut utilitatem
disponere. In dispositione haec sunt: ordo
cum
ea,
libri
quattuor, 105, n. 4.
esse oratoris ofFicium dixeramus: plurimi et uictoriae
enim
effectum digerere in ordinem atque
quae Graece appellatur olKOVOfita, dehinc elo-
secundum textum naturalem singula persequamur, primum in partibus elocutionis, ut si scilicet primum exordium, tum narratio, tum partes argumentationis, peroratio demum extrema (. .) Artificiosus ordo est, ut hunc ipsum ordinem, si ita causa poscit cutio,
tum
pronuntiatio.
Ordo
est,
ut
.
plerumque uertamus. penda '-
(ed.
narratio,
"Quot
Nam
ex parte ponenda et imperfecta argumentatione reddenda."
sunt generales
Halm, 120)
aliquando omittenda principia, aliquando subdiuidenda et interrum-
modi
dispositionis? duo.
Qui?
(ed.
Halm, 320)
naturalis et artificialis, id est utilitatis."
JUAN M* NUNEZ GONZAlEZ
423
non ex tempoiis serie coaptamus, ut pro Milone factum, cum quaestiones quasdam ante narrationem, ut praeiudicia refutaret, induxit, quod non ex or-
tate,
dine naturae, sed ex causae
utilitate
mutauit. {Nupt. 5.30)
His uerbis igitur Martianus Capella sententias Ciceronis Comificiique scholastico
more plane
quidem ordinem
permiscuit. Cicero
orationis partium sicut
omnia ad
di-
cendi artem pertinentia esse naturae obsequentem passim uidetur dictitare. Oratorem
enim ad Brutum scripsit Cicero eo consilio ut tanto uiro modulandae periodi obtrecnumerus siue rhythmus e natura ductus aperte ostenderetur. Itaque
tatori oratorius
narrat
mare,
tertio libro De oratore atque in Oratore ad Brutum theatra tota exclaunam syllabam aut breuiorem aut longiorem pronuntiauerit; et addidit
TuUius in si
histrio
multitudinem pedes non nouisse nee
illud
quod aut cur
aut in
longarum breuiumque syllabarum discrimen in auribus
gere;
quo offendat
intelle-
nostris collocauisse
naturam.*^ Illud autem praeterea considerare oportebit ut Gasparinus in
illo
ipsam
Martiani
Capellae quinto libro (scUicet de rhetoricis) strenue uersaretur, praesertim ad oratorios
numeros declarandos, ut ipse iUic'^ memorauit. Sed redeamus ad rem. Ordo quidem naturalis a Martiano CapeUa cognominatus idem est qui regulis artis non obsequens, sed propter utUitatem ab ordine artificioso, iadicio oratoris monstrante, recedere dicebatur, atque eo igitur artificiosus hie ordo
non
—
—
quod regulis bene dicendi non obtemperaret. lUud igitur memorandum est, ut nunquam apud antiquos dispositionem, secundam rhetoricae partem, in naturalem atque artificialem speciem inuenire possis distinctam, sed passim apud recentiores laudatos. Ea de erat
artis a
uero Ciceroni Comificioque credimus
si
natura dictatis
causa'* forsitan, uir eruditus nostri aeui multisque in doctrinis uersatus,
Henricus
Lausberg, in artem cui titulus Handbuch der Uterarischen Rhetorik. Eine Grundlegung der Literaturunssenschaft,^^ quasi
ueterem regulam, hanc duplicem speciem
non recte. Hac quidem uerborum rerumque permixtione moti,
redigit, sed, ut
supra uidimus,
nouam
ut opinor, rhetores iuniores
uocabulorum turbationem incesserunt, qui hac phrasi "uerborum dispositione" ordinem uerborum declarante usi sint.'^ Ad hanc calcem tamen non eos
in
'^
artis
De oral.
3.195s:
communibus infixa sensibus nee earum rerum quemquam non solum uerbis arte positis mouentur omnes, uerum Quotus enim quisque est qui teneat artem numerorum ac modonim?
"quod ea sunt
in
funditus natura esse uoluit expertem. Itaque
etiam numeris ac uocibus.
At
in eis
si
paulum modo ofFensum
est,
ut aut contractione breuius fieret aut productione longius,
quidem
theatra tota reclamant." Orat. 173: "in uersu
theatra tota exclamant,
fuit
si
una
breuior aut longior; nee uero multitudo pedes nouit nee uUos numeros tenet nee illud dit aut
sicut
eur aut in quo offendat
intellegit; et
tamen omnium longitudinum
aeutanim grauiumque uoeum iudieium
" De
compositione,
1 1
:
dilueidior
" '*
" satis
Intellige:
sit,
&
ad intelligendum
ipsa natura in auribus nostris eolloeauit."
faeilior,
quia rhetores Latini minores
offen-
breuitatum in sonis
"Martianus uero quinto libro de nuptiis Philologiae
&
Mereurii, Ciee-
numeronim instituit; (. .) eujus doctrina hoc loeo a me primum eommemonibitur."
ronis omissis, Quintilianique praeeeptis, aliam rationem
eum
et
syllaba aut
quod
.
sic distinxerunt.
Miinchen. 1960: §§ 446-452. Sie
enim
lulius Victor, cuius
plene doeetur,
eum
haee uerba sunt: "quod ad uerborum dispositionem pertinet
de elocutione traeutur.
De rerum
uero dispositione per singula
membra
GASPARINI BARZIZZII DE COMPOSITIONE
424
demorauit inuitus Quintilianus noster, qui in capitulo uigesimo noni
libri
Institutionis Oratoriae
de compositione in
numero) disputando,
iunctura,
alium naturalem ordinem'^
esse
post ipsum ordinem rectum appellauisset.
dine uerborum non locutus
esset,
dixisset'^ et
paulo
Cum Fabius de artificioso seu artificiali or-
tantum de
tamen libris eae secundam rhetoricae par-
naturali, sed in rhetoricis
sententiae "ordo naturalis seu artificialis" ad dispositionem
tem
tertio, capitis quarti,
triplice specie distincta (sc. ordine,
pertinentes afFuissent, uia igitur impedita
non
erat ut "dispositio"
pro "compo-
sitione" et retrorsum usurparetur. Sed nota ut in antiquis scriptis de dispositione,
secunda rhetoricae parte, "ordo" dispositionis coUocationem orationis partium significet, in scriptis
uero de compositione continuationem uerborum
referat.
Aldus quidem
Scaglione, uir eruditissimus, doctrinam compositionis per medioaeuales dictaminis seu dictandi artes persecutus
est,-"
"uerborum compositione"
uerum etiam
a lulio
men auctorum
— pro
attamen non solum earn uerborum tralationem
scilicet
"dispositionem"
— non
perspexerit, nisi fallor,
Victore ea uerba olim usurpata esse non animaduertit. Loci ta-
eam turbationem inspicere possis in Aldi Scaglione opere launon desunt. Sic "ordo artificialis" et "dispositio" fieri synonyma affirmare possis, in quadam Summa dictaminis arte saeculo decimo tertio ineunte ab ignoto uiro exaquibus
dato ut
rata, apparet.
Quo
ualde optatum
si
ordinem uel dispositionem
in loco asseueratur artificialem
quando
fieri
partes proprie transponantur et pulchrius ordinentur, ut
"Petrum sincera dilectione prosequor et amplector."^'. Exemplum quidem hoc est uerborum ordinis, sed huius artis auctor "dispositionem" quasi "artificialem ordinem" nuncupauit. In
alia
autem Summa
dictaminis,
Guido Faua
siue
Faua Bononiensi
(ca.
1200-
1250) auctore, possis legere:
ca.
In constructione duplex est ordo, scilicet naturalis et iUe qui pertinet ad expositionem,
precedit et
uerbum
sequitur
artificialis.
Naturalis est
quando nominatiuus cum determinatione sua
cum
sua, ut
EGO AMO
TE.
Artificialis
ordo
est
compositio que pertinet ad dictationem, quando partes pulcrius disponun-
ilia
tur,
qui
sic a
Tullio diffinitur: "Compositio
artificialis est
constructio dictaminis
equabUiter perpolita.""
orationis, id est '*
Haec
ortum
et
cum prooemio
et narratione et ceteris
traditum accepisti." (ed. Halm, 431.9)
eius uerba sunt: "est et alius naturalis ordo, ut 'uiros ac feminas,
occasum' dicas potius
quamquam
retrorsum."
et
diem
"
Quintilianus tamen de artificioso seu
-"
In opere accuratissimo cui titulus The Classical Theory of Composition from
Present. ^'
A
Historical Survey
Apud Ch. Thurot, Moyen Age
cales
an
The
Classical ^-
Apud
opere The
(Paris,
(Chapel
artificiali
ordine
ac noctem,
9.4.23)
{Inst.
non
locutus
est. its
Origins to the
Hill, 1972).
Extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir i I'histoire des doctrines grammati-
1868; repr. Frankfurt
am
Main, 1964), 343s.,
loc. laud,
ab A. Sca^ione,
Theory of Composition, 117.
A. Gaudenzi,
Classical
II
Propugnatore
23
n.s.
3 (1890): 338.
Theory of Composition, in adnotatione ad
(loc. laud,
pedem paginae
ab A. Scaglione, in 117).
JUAN M* NUNEZ GONZALEZ Nimirum enim penpicere nium deprompta
425
ex
possis ut compositionis definitio
libris
Ad
enim sunt uerba Comificii ad locum
Heren-
sit.
Haec
laudatum
perti-
dictionibus "artificiali" scilicet ac "dictamine" aucta
eis
a medioaeuali dicendi magistro
nencia:
Compositio
uerbonun
est
"Dispositio" ergo, "compositio
nyma
Mediae
in
partes orationis aequa-
artificialis",
atque
"artificialis
ordo" quasi syno-
uerborum declarant. hunc uerborum ordinem deprendis-
Aetatis artibus collocationem rite Latineque
"Artificiale" igitur usi sunt quia ex dictandi arte sent.
omnes
constructio, quae facit
ad Her., 4.18)
biliter perpolitas. {Rhet.
Etenim qua lege uerba
esse eis uiderentur,
in natiuis
eorum Unguis
ordinentur,
cum a
natura dictata
hanc grammatici iuniores naturalem uerborum collocationem de-
creuerunt.
Vt
tamen
fit
uiris
illis,
qui totam uitam cura et studio ad
Latinas instau-
litteras
randas egerunt atque tot tantosque aureae aetatis auctores diligenter perlegerunt, quasi inuitis heredibus, eas barbaras foeditates (ut
licuit,
eorum
uerbis utar)
non non
mutuari. *
Nam Barzizzius cum bonis atque antiquis Latine dicendi doctrinis operam studiose
dedisset,
Fortunaque audacem uirum iuuasset ut in primis codicem integrum Quinti-
liani Institutionis Oratoriae legeret, oculis
quiit.
Vt uerborum
artificialem nuncupauit.
hanc dictionem,
scilicet
Hoc
tamen
offusis
ordinem naturalem
sui linguae
accedit ut ipse ad
deturpationem illam uitare ne-
credidit Gasparinus, sic Latinae
uerborum
ordinis
uim declarandam
"dispositionem", usurpet, sicut in huius disputationis exordio
memoraui.
Hanc autem compositionis speciem duplicem, "naturalem", scilicet et "artifiquoddam sigillum doctrinae Petri Rami Audomarique Talaei et qui
cialem" quasi
eos" secuti sunt decemere
possis.
Nam
Petrus
Ramus
compositionem deputarunt quae orationem modulans iudicibus auris superbissimis inueniretur; artificialem
discipulique naturalem esse
eorum Unguis
in uemaculis
autem quae numeros uemacuUs
et ea de causa a natura non praedictos rhythmos concinnaretur. Sed renascentes aures de correptione seu de productione syUabarum non iudicabant,
sermonibus ignotos
ut de Aftis infimae antiquitatis auribus Augustinus Hipponensis^^ rettuUt.
Ciceroni ueteribusque oratoribus
ilUs
Namque
naturaUs erat hie numerus siue rhythmus
ideoque Oraror populum in theatro reclamare histrionibus male numeros concinnantibus memorauit
(cf.
supra loc. laud.).
AUos autem locos laudare possim quibus lasticae
"
Cf. K. Meerhoff, Rhetorique
(Leiden, 1986). Juan
Christ.
Poetique au
4.10.
XVle
doctrina de
Intertiacional de
Hispania, in manibus impressohs).
Doa.
et
M. Nunez, "La
ento," in Actas del III Congreso
-*
inuito atque imprudente Barzizzio scho-
grammaticae regulae exciderunt pessum dedertmtque eius Latinitatem renas-
la
siecle eti
France.
Du
Bellay,
Ramus
et les autres
elomtio en la retorica espaiiola del renacimi-
Humanismo y
Pervivencia del
Mundo
Clasico (Alcaniz,
GASPARINI BARZIZZII DE COMPOSITIONE
426
Cum Quintilianus enim dixisset Domitium Afrum soluisse in clausulas uerba
centem.
tantum asperandae compositionis
traicere
continue" (ex oratione pro
gratia,
exemplis duo propositis "gratias agam
Cloatilla), et "eis utrisque
apud
iudicem
te
periclitatur
Laelia" (ex oratione pro Laelia) addidissetque adeo refugisse teneram delicatamque
modulandi uoluptatem ut currentibus per
numeris quod eos inhiberet obiceret,^^
se
tamen Gasparinus noluisse Domitium periodos cum
intellexit
finali
uerbo concinnare
eo consilio ut Quintiliani regulae-^ "uerbo cludere optimum esse" declarantis non
At mihi quidem uidetur Fabius Quintilianus
pareret.
sed tantum orationi ordinem rectum
tria,
cum
(sc.
testari
uerbo
rhythmos, qui sine indusseruanti accederent,
finali)
Numeros igitur, non ordinem rectum, si recte inteUexi, commouere uoluisse Domitium rettulit Quintilianus. lucundum est autem quo modo Gasparinus exemplum Cornificii ad hiperbata il-
Domitium
turbauisse compositionis asperandae causa.
lustranda propositum interpretatus
.
.
.
et
si
sit.
Hie
est
Ad
locus auctoris
Herennium:
uerborum transiectionem uitabimus, nisi quae erit concinna, qua de re quo in uitio est Caelius adsiduus, ut haec est: "In priore
posterius loquemur;
libro has res ad te scriptas, Luci, misimus, Aeli" {Rhet. ad Her., 4.18).
Conferte hunc locum
cum
ubi ipse, uersiculo
illo Barzizzii,
illo
Annalium Enni
brum" memorato, ut opinor, interpretauit Coelium scripsisse ad Lucilium (nomen), non Lucium (praenomen) atque detraxisse ultimam nominis syllabam (scilicet "li") et primam verbi "emitto" (sc. "e"), unde "E" "li" pro hoc praenomine quod "Aeli" in uocandi casu est: "saxo cere comminuit
Quo
in vitio Caecilium quarto ad
Herennium
quit:
"Has
misimus e
res
ad
te scriptas, Luci,
verbo "misimus"
et
orationem quae ex reddit.
hac syllaba extrema se dilucida erat
(De compositione 10 ,
Illud etiam redolet
fuisse testatur
li";
"li"
Cicero
cum
in-
ubi "e" vocali ablata ex hoc
dempta ex hoc nomine
Lucili,
atque aperta confusam atque obscuram
sq.)
Medii Aevi ludos scholasque quod Gasparinus Barzizzius (ut reCiceroni Rhetoricos ad Herennium Ubros auctori tribuit.
liqui uiri docti sui aetatis)
Uniuersidad de Oviedo
-^
Inst.
9.4.31: "Solebat Afer
tionis gratia, et
utrisque
apud
maxime
te
Domitius
traicere in clausulas uerba
in prohoemiis, ut pro Cloatilla: 'gratias
iudicem
periclitatur Laelia.'
Adeo
refugit
tatem ut currentibus per se numeris quod eos inhiberet ^*
Inst.
9.4.26:
enim sermonis
"Verbo sensum cludere multo,
uis est."
si
agam
tantum asperandae composicontinuo', et pro Laelia:
'eis
teneram delicatamque modulandi uolup[et]
obiceret."
compositio patiatur,
optimum
est:
in uerbis
La funzione dei
e
Vimportanza
nomi umanistici
klAra pajorin
Una
delle caratteristiche tipiche del
movimento umanistico e che una gran parte un nome umanistico, anticheg-
degli autori aveva I'abitudine di scegliersi giante, per dimostrare di tale usanza fu
nome la propria appartenenza spirituale. II precursore il suo nome non assomigliasse ai nomi successiva. Egli infatti, dal nome di suo padre, ser Petracco (una anche col
Francesco Petrarca, sebbene
umanistici dell'epoca
nome Pietro) si creo un nome, che aveva un significato in latino: Pe+ area.' La creazione del nome di Petrarca rimase per lungo tempo senza seguaci, ma gia all'inizio del '400 appaiono nomi che anticipano nomi umanistici, come queUi di Antonio BeccadeUi, di Leonardo Bruni, o di Antonio Averhno. Si sa che il Panormita creo il suo nome dal nome greco della sua citta nativa, Palermo, mentre Leonardo Bruni formo il suo nome d'arte {Aretinus) dal nome latino di Arezzo; AverUno invece muto radicalmente il suo nome in una parola (Filarete), variante del
trarca
=
Petra
i
che aveva un preciso significato in greco. Dalla meta del '400 nei nomi di due ele-
menti compaiono sempre piu spesso dei nomi noti neU'antichita; successivamente nelI'accademia romana di
GiuHo Pomponio Leto nascono
i
nomi
anticheggianti di tre
elementi, ricalcati sul modello romano. Alia fine del '400 e all'inizio del '500
anticheggiante era ormai una vera in tutti
i
moda
tra gli umanisti, e
nome
ceti della societa.-
La formazione dei nomi umanistici coincide col periodo dei
il
cominciava a diffondersi
nomi modemi
di
due elementi,
costituiti
da un
nome
iniziale della
di
formazione
battesimo variabile e da
un cognome, o nome di famiglia fisso. Gli umanisti, adeguandosi alle esigenze della societa modema, piii che modificare il loro nome o ad adattarlo a modeUi antichi, erano portati a ricrearlo; cosi, con la creazione dei loro nomi d'arte, contribuivano notevolmente alia difiiisione dei nomi modemi di due o tre componenti. Come ben
'
-
Francois Rigolot, Poetique Cf.
40-41.
et
otiomastique. L'exemple de la Renaissance
Adolph Bach, DeuUche Namenkunde,
1.2.
(Geneve, 1977), 107.
Die deutschen Personennameti (Heidelberg, 1953),
NOMI UMANISTICI
LA FUNZIONE DEI
428
sappiamo, I'uomo medievale aveva generalmente un quello avuto nel battesimo, accompagnato da
teva cambiare volta per volta per distintivo occasionale,
oppure casi,
si
la stessa
usava a volte
Franciscus Petri); a volte, per
i
il
un
il
non
persona, e
nome
magnati,
quello del luogo di nascita o di residenza,
politico,
nome
fisso di
un
solo elemento,
epiteto attributivo. Quest'ultimo ereditava.
si
del padre (p. il
la
nome
po-
Come nome
es. Franciscus, filius Petri
del feudo familiare, in altri
professione,
il
titolo ecclesiastico
o
cosiddetto aggettivo d'onore, una vistosa caratteristica personale, ecc? La
cognome fisso ed ereditario divenne indispensabile per lo sviluppo moderna e per I'aumento del controllo e dell'attivita amministrativa della Chiesa e deUo stato/ Nella formazione dei nomi di due componenti I'ltalia ebbe il primato. II primo caso conosciuto risale al IX secolo a Venezia, il secondo al XII secolo a Firenze. Dall'Italia, I'uso di nomi di questo tipo giunse prima in Francia, dove attorno al 1300 i nomi di due elementi erano gia frequenti tra i nobili,^ e in seguito si diffuse anche in Germania e in Boemia. Nel XV secolo apparve anche in Ungheria,^ ma per la sua difFusione generale ci voUe molto tempo; si tratto di un nascita e I'uso del sociale dell' eta
processo lento, che
si
propago per
secoli in ogni regione europea.
Germania dell'Ottocento c'erano ancora
Per esempio, nella
delle localita, in cui le autorita ftirono co-
nomi di famiglia ereditari con la forza7 Nel XV secolo I'uso del non era ancora generalmente difFuso neanche in Italia. Guarino Veronese p. es. aveva un solo nome (Guarino), e il suo nome distintivo gli venne dal luogo di nascita, mentre suo figlio Giovanni Battista portava come cognome il patronimico, nella forma del genitivo Guarini. II nostro modo di concepire i nomi puo portarci ad errori, nelle ricerche prosopografiche nel medioevo e nella prima eta moderna. Padri e figli, con loro relativi parenti, spesso figurano con cognomi diversi nei documenti scritti del XV secolo o di eta anteriori, e questo e un fatto importante strette a
introdurre
cognome
i
ereditario
i
da considerare nelle ricerche.
Ma troviamo esempi anche per
il
contrario. Janos Vitez,
arcivescovo di Strigonia, "padre dell'Umanesimo ungherese," p.
es. si
chiamava loan-
cognome da noi usato (Vitez) e sconosciuto nelle fonti del XV secolo. Galeotto Marzio noto che uno dei suoi nipoti (il futuro princeps della Sodalitas Litteraria Danubiana; I'altro, come si sa, fu Janus Pannonius), si chiamava Janos Vitez.* nes de Zredna;
il
Sulla base di quest'unico dato, gli studiosi ungheresi
cominciarono
a
chiamare Janos
Vitez anche lo zio, e cosi lo chiamano fino ad oggi.
'
Cf. Paul
Lehmann,
"Mittelalterliche
Beinamen und
Ehrentitel," Historisches Jahrbuch
49
(1929): 215-239. *
Sandor Mikesy, "Miert alakultak
gnomi?]" Magyar Nyelv 83 (1959): ^
Cf. Bach, Deutsche
tual in Renaissance Italy
chiamato
la
vezetekneveink? [Perche
si
sono prodotti
i
nostri co-
Namenkunde, 36, 80; Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family, and Ri-
(Chicago-London, 1985), 283-284. Ringrazio Karl Schlebusch per aver
mia attenzione su questo
A
ki
5.
mondo
^
Bela Kalman,
^
Bach, Deutsche Namenkunde, 76.
*
Galeottus Martius Narniensis,
nevek uilaga
slausjuhasz (Leipzig, 1934), 26.
[II
ri-
libro.
De
dei
nomi] (Budapest, 1973), 62-63.
egregie, sapietiter, iocose dictis acfactis regis
Mathiae, ed. Ladi-
KLARA PAJORIN
Uno
dei
modi
un nome
di creare
ne abbiamo
tino:
429
cognome
fu la Craduzione del
gia visto alcuni esempi. Si creo cosi
il
o in
la-
nome Melanchthon
da
in greco
Schwarzerden, luogo di nascita deU'umanista. Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus creo il
proprio
nome
umanistico interpretando erroneamente
(Geert Geerts) e traducendolo in latino e in greco. dalla traduzione
nome
deUa prima meta del suo
proprio
il
nome
II
nome
originale
Cuspinianus nacque
di
originario (Spiessheimer: Spiess
=
un'analoga origine ebbe il nome del poeta Stephanus Taurinus d'Ungheria dal nome originale (Stierochsel). Anche il nome Canisius si creo dalla traduzione del nome Hundt. Spesso il nome umanistico fii la traduzione di una parola che esprimeva una pecularieta (p. es. Curtius, Paulus, ecc.).' Si sara formato cosi anche il nome di cuspis);
suo
Georgios Gemisthos Plethon. Costituiscono un varianti greche
natus,
o latine
gruppo
altro
nomi beneauguranti; questo
di
e
il
di
nomi
umanistici le
caso di Matthaeus Fortu-
filologo di origine ungherese, studioso del testo di Seneca,
il
oppure
di
Georgius Polycarpus (Georgius de Kostolan, Kosztolanyi Gyorgy), umanista unghe-
genero
rese,
di
Giorgio Trebisonda.
riformatore della Chiesa, ebbe
Com'e
vm nome
di
noto,
nemmeno
famigha
fisso;
il
Doctor Martinus, grande
cognome Luther de-
suo
riva infatti dalla parola greca eleutheros}^
Molti nomi umanistici
si
formarono attraverso
paronomasia o Y adnominatio^^
la
tecniche derivate dalla retorica antica. Cio vuol dire che rola), trasferendo
si
somighanza del suono.'- Anche
il
nome
di Petrarca
si
Questa figura retorica nel medioevo era conosciuta col e forse era la figura piu spesso adoperata.
Del suo uso
si
un nome
usa
suo significato ad un'altra cosa o persona
il
sulla
(o
una pa-
base deU'identita o
formo con questo metodo.
nome
diftgura etimologica,^^
potevano trovare numerosi
esempi nelle Etyntologiae
mentah,
usati
sive Origines di Isidore di SivigUa, uno dei manuali fondaanche dagU umanisti. L'adnominatio o figura etimologica aveva un ruolo
speciale nella forma mentis etimologica del
tramite essa
il
medioevo, perche
si
pensava di trovare
vero significato delle cose e dei fenomeni.'* Possiamo trovare degU
esempi del suo uso nella creazione dei nomi perfino nella seconda meta del colo.
Ad
(cioe
sambuco)
esempio Janos Zsamboki (loannes Sambucus) dal
nome
del suo luogo di nascita
Giovarmi Pontano modifico in
Gioviano
'
{lovianus),
il
nome
si
creo U
Samboc (Zsambok). con il metodo dell'
di battesimo
ottenendo cosi vm
nome
XVI
se-
cognome Sambucus
antico. Probabilmente
adnominatio
con
lo stesso
Bach, Deutsche Namenkunde, 120-121.
'"'
Bach, Deutsche Namenkunde, 82.
^^
Ad
'"
Cfr.:
Her. 4.21.29.
"ad idem verbum
dissimiles similia verba
" Rigolot, '*
Poetique
et
nomen
acceditur
adcommodentur" {Ad et
commutatione vocum aut
litterarum, ut ad res
Her. 4.21.29).
onomastique, 16.
Sulla mentalita etimologica del
medioevo
cf.
piu dettagliatamente Ernst Robert Curtius,
Europdische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter, 2. Aufl. (Bern, 1954), 486-490; Friedrich Ohly,
"Vom
geistigen Sinn des Wortes," Zeitschrift Jiir deutsches Altertum und deutsche Uteratur
89 (1959):
1-23; Ilona Opelt, "Etymologic," in Reattexikon fur Antike und Christentum (Stuttgart, 1966),
6:797-844; Roswitha Klinck, Die lauinische Etymologie
des Mittelalters
(Miinchen, 1970).
.
LA FUNZIONE DEI
430
NOMI UMANISTICI
metodo si formo il soprannome Corvinus del re ungherese Mattia I. Suo padre Giovanni Hunyadi figura nei diplomi con il nome del podere della famiglia (Hunyad), oppure con il suo titolo supremo {loannes gubernator). Suo figlio maggiore Ladislao "vulgariter" si nomina Ladislaus Wajdafy (= il figlio del voivoda).'^ Peter Kulcsar ha dimostrato in italiani, dal
modo
num)}^ Questa
stemma
convincente che Mattia ebbe
luogo d'origine scelta
era importante anche che
storia antica, e cosi gli Italiani, si derarlo
di
come uno
figlio naturale
di loro.
che fossero proprio
.
nome
presente nello
(coruus),
ben noto
Corvinus era
nella
II
nome II
Corvinus figura per la prima volta in una lettera
re stesso
non
lo usava,
ma
divenne
cognome
il
del
al
trono del Sacro Impero
umanisti
gli
gia nel
1476
italiani
Romano. Non
e impossibile
ad incoraggiare questa sua aspirazione.
scrive apertamente di questa attesa:
"Utinam
dies iUa
Romanorum regem, imperatoremque Matthiam videamus. /. quemadmodum super Matthiam apostolatus sortem cecidisse novimus, ita de al-
cito adveniet, /.
il
Giovanni, nato nel 1473.*^ L'origine romana poteva servire a le-
gittimare I'ascesa di Mattia
Ludovico Carbone
Corvinus dagli umanisti
facendo discendere Mattia dai Romani, potevano con-
Bartolomeo Fonzio del 1472.
suo
nome
il
suo padre, Kovin, in ungherese antico Keve (Covi-
poteva esser influenzata anche dal corvo
ma
di famiglia,
di
.
qua
.
tero Matthia nobis sperare conceditur fore aliquando, ut ei sors imperatoria contingat ."^^ .
Possiamo presumere che anche
.
il
nome
Corvinus potesse condizionare le aspi-
razioni e le azioni successive di Mattia.
nomi
I
umanistici finora
citati
loro portatore. All'accademia risalire l'origine della
moda
sono
legati in
romana
nomi
dei
qualche
di Giulio
modo
umanistici'^
—
si
vetustatis,
nome
originale del
— aUa quale
sceglievano invece
personaggi famosi dell'antichita. Secondo Bartolomeo Platina,
namque
al
Pomponio Leto
si
nomi
fa
di
Pomponio Leto "amore
antiquorum praeclara nomina repetebat quasi quaedam calcharia
quae nostram iuventutem aemulatione ad virtutem incitarent."^" Pomponio Leto fu figlio naturale,
nome
non ebbe un cognome
assunto."'
Prese
il
suo
nome
dal padre, e
anche
suo
il
nome
lulius fu
un
umanistico probabilmente dal poeta antico
Pomponius, che complete con I'aggettivo Laetus. Philippus Callimachus Experiens (FUip-
po Buonaccorsi) adotto
il
nome
del poeta greco, e probabilmente voile esprimere
il
suo carattere personale con I'aggettivo Experiens. L"'Asclepiades" dell'accademia
'^
Gregorius Gyongyosi, Vitaefratrum eremitarum Ordinis Sancti Pauli Primi Eremitae, ed. Francis-
cus L. Hervay (Budapest, 1988), 109. '*
tia],
Peter Kulcsar,
ed. '^
"A Corvinus-legenda
[La leggenda di Corvinus]," in Matyas kiraly
[Rex Mat-
Gabor Bartha (Budapest, 1990), 17-35.
Bartholomaeus Fontius, Epistolarum
libri III,
ed. Ladislaus Juhasz (Budapest, 1931),
1.
16. 26,
p. 12. '*
Lodovicus Carbo, Dialogus de laudihus rebusque
Htnigariae historicorum literariorum
maximum
inedita,
1,
gestis
r.
Matthiae, in Analecta
ed. Franciscus
Toldy
(Pest,
monumentorum
1862; repr. ed.
Geisa Erszegi, Budapest, 1987), 194.
" Francesco
Saverio Quadrio, Delia
Michele Scherillo, Le -"
Lo
^'
Zabughin, Pomponio
cita
storia e della ragione d'ogni poesia,
origini e lo svolgimento della letteratura italiana
Vladimir Zabughin, Giulio Pomponio Leto, 6.
Leto. Saggio
1
(Bologna, 1739), 48;
(Milano, 1919), 96.
critico,
1
(Roma, 1909),
4.
KLArA PAJORIN
nome
431
RomanusP Presumibilmente era d'orinome dal triumviro Marco Antonio. Niccolo Lelio Cosmico ebbe il secondo elemento del suo nome probabilmente da Cuius Laelius, retore romano, conosciuto nell' opera intitolata Laelius sive De amicitia membri dell'accademia si identificassero in di Cicerone. Possiamo presumere che qualche modo con i portatori originali dei loro nomi. Gli umanisti come anche gli portava
il
umanistico Marcus Antonius
gine romana e trasse
i
primi due elementi del suo
i
— credevano indeboli — anche
uomini antichi e medievali Questa credenza
gnomi
ma
quali
i
nomi
I'uso dei
demie, e nelle cerchie di
ponio Leto (verso
e nel potere
non indicavano piu un
sembravano in genere una
Sembra che
omen
se solo in parte
si
ereditari,
portatore,
—
nell'
— con
carattere
la
magico dei nomi.
formazione dei co-
importante del loro
serie di suoni senza alcun senso particolare.
umanistici diventasse frequente soprattutto nelle acca-
scienziati,
la fine degli
dopo
la nascita
aimi '60 del '400).
romana
dell'accademia
di
Pom-
Pomponio Leto ebbe una grande
influenza sul celebre umanista tedesco, Conradus Celtis Protucius (Konrad Bickel, o Pickel), i
nomi
non
solo nell'organizzazione delle accademie,
ma
anche per quanto riguarda
umanistici. L'umanista tedesco formulo addirittura
dovevano avere
nomi.-" Tra
tre
i
letterati tedeschi infatti
il
principio che
divenne frequente
i
il
poeti
nome
umanistico di tre elementi. Ci bastera ricordare HeHus Eobanus Hessus, Henricus
"Comehus Agrippa (von Nettesheim), Nella diffusione del di
nome
ecc.
umanistico ebbero un ruolo notevole
la
scuola ferrarese
Guarino Veronese e un suo famoso discepolo, loannes de Chesmicze, cioe lanus
Pannonius. Pare che tra
vero
nome
mento
gli
umanisti fosse lui
il
antico. Descrisse quest'evento in
primo
a
cambiare nome, scegUendo un
un epigramma,
in cui
motivo
cambiato
il
il
nome con il fatto che divenne poeta, dicendo indirettamente suo antico nome nobUe in un nome ancor piu Ulustre:
del suo
loannes fueram, lanum
Admonitum ne
Non
quem
te,
pagina
cambiadi aver
dicit,
lector amice, neges.
ego per fastum sprevi tam nobile nomen.
Quo
nullum totum
CompuHt invitum mutare
orbe sonat.
clarius
vocabula
cum me
Lavit in Aonio, flava Thalia, lacu.^^
Dall'
epigramma
Vadnominatio.
A
capisce chiaramente che
si
Ferrara
i
compagni
di studio
il
nuovo nome
di Janm
si
formo tramite
ungheresi dovevano pronunciare spesso
nome ungherese del poeta, Janos, che doveva ricordare a Guarino e ai suoi disceil nome del dio lanus, essendo la forma fonica delle due parole quasi identica. II cambiamento del nome dovette accadere prima del 1 ottobre del 1450, quando Tito
il
poli
^
Gioacchino
Paparelli, Callimaco Esperiente (Filippo Buonaccorsi), 2. ed.
(Roma, 1977), 70 e
passim.
^ -*
"Poetas esse trinomes." latii
Pannonii
1784), Ep. 1.130.
.
.
.
Lo ciu Bach,
Deutsche Namenkunde, 116.
poemata omnia, ed. Jozsef Teleki e Sandor Kovasznaj (Traiecti ad RJienum,
LA FUNZIONE DEI
432
Vespasiano Strozzi I'autore
chiama
del suo
nome,
il
fini
nome
lanus.
II
Nostro cambio
gia in quest'opera il
primo elemento
nome in questa forma anche nelle sue poesie. II nome come nome distintivo, ma egli stesso non lo uso mai. Si
suo
il
deW Erotica,^^ perche
primi due volumi
i
nostro poeta col
e uso
NOMI UMANISTICI
Pannonius lo ebbe a Ferrara
nome unico, che fu piu romano, piu antico e piu illustre del nome di tutti gli altri, e portato solo da lui: egli cambio il nome cristiano di Giovanni col nome del dio piu antico di Roma. Questo fu evidentissimo per conoscitoii accontento del suo
i
dell'antichita,
nome
come per
poeti suoi
i
compagni
di Ferrara,
i
quali identificarono
il
nome del dio lanus.^^ II dio lanus, con il suo nome ricco di significati, potrebbe anche essere il simbolo del movimento umanistico. Con questo nome il poeta pannonico trovo il suo vero nome come umanista, ma anche come persona e come poeta. II nostro poeta sapeva con
del poeta
il
tutto del dio di cui portava
riguardavano.
I
romani (Varrone,
nome, poiche conosceva
il
Ovidio,
Fasti di
il
De
ciuitate
Dei
di
s.
tutte le fonti letterarie
Agostino,
i
poeti e
Virgilio, Servio, Orazio, Stazio, ecc.) costituivano
che lo
gli scrittori
una parte im-
portante delle materie di studio della scuola di Guarino,^' e Janus conosceva bene
anche
le
due opere famose
di
Macrobio, fonti importantissime delle conoscenze
sul
dio Giano.^^ Nelle epistole poetiche scambiate con Giovan Battista Guarini, accetta
una forma semiseria
in
I'attributo di bifronte (lanus Bifrons) del dio Giano.^'
del dio era adatto ad esprimere anche I'orgoglio de Nostro di essere latino dell'antico Barbaricum, poiche egli sapeva di essere
poeti neolatini d'ltaUa. Giano,
il
dio del principio, aveva
e anche nelle poesie del Nostro, accanto L' epiteto e
sempre legato
alia
nome
al
sua poesia. In
un
II
nome
primo poeta
il
valido emulatore dei
come
epiteto fisso Primus,
del poeta figura quest'espressione.
un suo epigramma
ferrarese
il
poeta
esalta
suoi meriti:
i
Quod
legerent omnes, quondam dabat Itala tellus, Nunc e Pannonia carmina missa legit. Magna quidem nobis haec gloria, sed tibi major,
Nobilis ingenio, patria
"^
Die Borsias
des Tito Strozzi.
Ein
lateinisches
facta, meo.-*"
Epos der Renaissance, hrsg. Walther
Ludwig (Miin-
chen, 1977), 18, n. 33.
^
Cf.
repigramma
rarttm spectantia .
.
.
di
Roberto
poemata omnia, Ep. 2.5, -'
degli Orsi, in Analecta ad historiam renascentium in Hungaria
.... ed. Jeno Abel (Budapest, 1880), 106 e 11.
Remigio Sabbadini, La
la
litte-
poesia dello Strozzi in lani Pannonii
25-26. satola egli studi di
Guarino Veronese (Catania, 1896) 36, 52, 84, 105-
108.
^ Geza vinus and
Vadasz, "La pensee pythagorienne dans
Humanism
la
poesie de Janus Pannonius," in Mathias Cor-
Central Europe, ed. Tiber Klaniczay
in
and Jozsef Jankovics (Budapest, 1994),
235-240. ^'
^
Cf. Analecta ad historiam, ed. Abel, 120. Cfr. lani Pannonii
.
.
.
poemata omnia, Ep.
1 .61.
Tepigramma
di B. Guarini, 148.
KLARA PAJORIN In
un
epigramma
altro
Nel 1464 Janus segui
re Mattia
il
seconda volta contro
la
un'elegia quest'esperienza e
1—56
Janus chiama se stesso
ferrarese,
la
prima gloria
della
Pannonia
ego Pannoniae, gloria prima, meae").''
("Ille
per
433
i
il
che stava per partire con
Turchi.
poeta
II
dolore di dover lasciare
dell'elegia tibulliana detta di Corcyra^^
Come
lavoro di tono personale. finisce
con un
epitaffio, in cui
primus per se stesso,
ma
suo esercito in Bosnia
il
al
campo, e
descrisse in
imita
la vita. L'elegia
i
versi
nonostante Timitazione, e un capo-
quella di Tibullo, anche l'elegia del poeta umanista
Janus immortala
come nome
fissa
ammalo
si
proprio no me, e usando I'epiteto
il
distintivo quest'unico "titolo" importante del
suo nome:
Hie
situs est lanus,
Duxit
La poesia
anche
citata e
la
prima gioventu
gia dalla
patrium qui primus ad Histrum
laurigeras,
ex Helicone, Deas."
testimonianza si
era
intitolata Pro pacanda Italia, scritta in
mento che diedero fermo durante
il
un
poeta che portava
il
anche da
precatio pro paceY^
fosse
—
del suo desiderio di pace. Janus
Ne
pace.
Federico
gennaio
significato del
il
Quando
nome
il
in occasione del ricevi-
1452),-'^
altri
fatto,
il
del dio della pace.
Non
dove I'imperatore
Roma.
si
Alia poesia do-
che venne recitata proprio dal
e impossibile
due epigrammi contro
che U pacifismo del
guerra {Pro pace;
la
Ad Martem,
confermato anche da questa componente essenziale del
suono del suo nome induava che Janus apparteneva
mentre
e testimonianza la poesia
III,
nome.
significato del suo II
di
a Ferrara (17
significato particolare
nome
attestato
poeta
onore
onore
la
viaggio di ritomo dalla sua incoronazione a
vette aggiungere
—
in suo
commovente
impegnato per
nome
umanistico
si
lo aiutava a
diffuse
alia
comunita degli umanisti,
conoscere se stesso e ad autoidentificarsi.
dovunque come una moda, venne
proprio quest'ultima sua fianzione; divento superflua anche
la
a
mancare
dimostrazione del-
I'appartenenza, perche la cultura umanistica era ormai accolta generalmente tra
Anche
letterati.
nome
il
lanus divento di uso
comune
Aulus lanus Parrhasius, lanus Secundus, ecc), usato da
Giovanni (loannes), non pensando piu umanistico
fix
criticata
al
lani Pantionii
^^
V. piu ampiamente Klira Pajorin, "Janus Pannonius es
.
.
V.
di
si
chiamavano
moda
del
nome
da Ludovico Ariosto e
poemata omnia, Ep. 1.340.
Man
in fGamczay-emlekkotiyv. Tanulmatiyok Klatticzay Tibor tiszteletere
memoria
queUi che
come per esempio
^'
.
tutti
suo significato originate. La
da diversi autori,
i
(per esempio lanus Vitalis,
Hungaricus
[Memoria
(J.
P. e
di Klaniczay.
M.
H.],"
Sa^
in
Tibor Klaniczay], ed. Jozsef Jankovics (Budapest, 1994), 62.
^^
lani Pannonii
.
.
.
^
lani Pannonii
.
.
.
poemata omnia, Ep.
I.
9,
11.
117-118.
poemata omnia, Silva panegyrica
III.
Per
la
datazione e
I'analisi
deUa poesia
Jozsef Huszti, Jam/i Pannonius (Pecs, 1931), 84-85. ^*
lani Pannonii
Pannonius
es
.
.
.
poemata omnia, Ep.
Mars Hungaricus," 65-66.
II.
8. e
Ep.
I.
7.
Cf
piu difflisamente Pajorin, "Janus
LA FUNZIONE DEI
434
NOMI UMANISTICI
Francesco Maturanzio.^^ Queste critiche basate su una considerazione moderna del
nome
(che abbiamo anche noi) contribuirono
anche dell'ultimo requisite
nome
della mentalita
al
processo, che porto alia scomparsa
medievale onomastica" cioe dell'uso del
umanistico.
MTA
Irodalmi Intezet
(Institute for Literary Studies
of Hungarian
Academy of Sciences) Budapest, Hungary
^
"II
aqua, e
nome che
non
Giovanni
d'altro
/ in lano
o
quel meglio t'abbia a citato da Scherillo,
di apostoio
d fenno,
/ in
in lovian far
Le
ti
denno
Cosmico,
/
o d'alcun minor santo
in
Pomponio
vai
va riconciando; / quasi che
'1
i
padri,
mutando;
nome buon i
poeta / che non fara lo studio de molti anni"
origini e lo suolgimento, 77).
Per I'epigramma
quando
/ cristiano d'
/ altri Pietro in Pierio, altri
giudici inganni / e che
di
(L. Ariosto, Sat.
VI,
53-66,
Francesco Maturanzio,
cf.
Huszti, Ja«i« Pannonius, 300.
"
Sul
cambiamento
del
nome
nel
Medioevo,
c(.
v.
Gertrud Thoma, Namensdtiderungm
Herrscherfamilien des mittelalterlichen Europa (Kallmiinz, 1985).
in
Coincidences and Differences between
and
the Latin Treatises,
and
Poems,
the Spanish
Epistles of Rudericus
Cams
(Rodrigo Caro)
JOAQUIN PASCUAL BAREA
Rudericus Cams (Utrera,
1573— Seville, 1647) was an outstanding archaeologist
and poet of the Spanish Golden Age, and he treatises
Song
and the poems
to the
is
well
known
for the historical
he wrote in Latin and in the vernacular, particularly the
He also used both languages in his letters and in his proOf course, this biUngual condition is not rare among other human-
Ruins of Italica}
fessional writings. ists.^
that
But Carus adopted the legacy of Renaissance humanism more
any other writer of
However, he
is
appeared. This
his time, particularly a sensibility
than
faithfully
and enthusiasm for antiquity.
aware that the genuine principles of the Renaissance had already is
from the following words written
quite clear
scholar Andres de Ustarroz
dis-
to the Aragonese
on 23 May 1642:
Lastima tenga vm. de los que vivimos en esta ultima Betica, que siendo madre
en todas
las
prostrada,
edades de tan
que en
se hallaran tres
'
by T.
This
poem was and M.
Vifias
ilustres ingenios, se halla
esta gran ciudad, lunbrera del
que traten
estos estudios,
translated into English
A. Caro. Cf.
Tomas
1927), xxix— xxx; Miguel Antonio Caro, La tina
y
si
en
este infelice
mundo nuevo
alguno
los trata, es
by the American poet Vinas,
Candon
Versiottes latinos
a las minas de
W.
tiempo tan
y viejo, no
and Ancient Rome,"
in Latin
and Vernacular
in
si
C. Bryant, and into Latin
de poesias hispanas (Barcelona,
Italica.
Introduccion, version la-
y notas (Bogota, 1947). • Cf Joaquin Pascual, "Bilingual Cultures: The Learned Language and the Vernacular
aissance Seville
se
o con vana
in
Ren-
Renaissance Spain, ed. Barry Taylor
and Alejandro Coroleu, Cafiada Blanch Monographs 3 (Manchester, 1999), 113-119.
LATIN AND SPANISH POEMS OF RUDERICUS CARUS
436
ostentacion y sin provecho publico, o con ignorancia de los verdaderos principios,
que
en
es exercitarse
glorioso polvo de
el
la antigiiedad.-'
Humanistic Latin had already overcome the obsolete and concerning Ciceronianism/ and elegance of the
classics, as
much
a cultivated elite
tried to
still
useless
in the choice of words as in the variety of expression
and the pleasant sonority of speech.
Latin, besides
being the
of academic educa-
basis
continued to be a language of hterary prestige. In a Memorial written a few years
tion,
before his death. Latin, but
Cams mentioned
he omitted
his
poem
and
Baetis urbs
a
few other works in
poetry and some books written in the vernacular, since they
his
He
did not have such a high reputation.
missions trying to institute
new
also
used Latin in some of
feasts in Seville, as
well
as in a
few
Cintado, Franciscus de Bilches, and Josephus Fernandez de Retes, also
his official
letters to
among
the practice of a few people Carus's Latin prose
is
who
Johannes
others
who
It
was rather
sought to prolong the literary habits of humanism.
both natural and elegant.
the style of one of his Latin books by calling the influence exercised by authors such
as
it
One
of his correspondents praised
"Flemish Latin". This
Erasmus and
Lipsius, as
is
partly
much
due to
in a direct
through the teaching and works of Garcia Matamorus, Arias Montanus, and
as
other Spanish humanists. Carus
knew
of communication for academic and
he
sub-
wrote to him in the same language.^ This use of Latin was not actually due to
the need for communicating with learned scholars from other countries.
way
controvenies
emulate in Latin the
tried to use ancient
that Latin
scientific
would continue being the language among European scholars, and
purposes
words even to describe things
that did not exist in antiquity.
For instance, he suggested the name thermopolium for the chocolate shops that were already popular in Seville in the seventeenth century, since this Plautus's comedies, a place
where hot and generally sweet drinks
word means,
in
are sold.^
treatise on the ancient gods of Spain and Porsome annotations on the Spanish part of Nubiensis' Geography, and a commentary on his own edition of the History of pseudo-Dexter and other spurious texts. All these works deal with the whole Iberian Peninsula and have a European scope. His annotated edition of the History of pseudo-Dexter, which had been written in fact by a Jesuit from Toledo, might have been printed in France by Johannes Bellerus, in the
Carus wrote in Latin an interesting
tugal,
new
Bibliotheca veterum patrum,
work
Veterum Hispanie Deorum Manes
printed.
^
But
this
manuscript got
el siglo
XVII y
el cronista
Juan M. Nunez, El
*
Cf.
'
Carus wrote most of
tains the
*
lost,
sive Reliquiae to
it first.
the
and only the original
Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Ms. 8.389,
paiiola en
292,
but Franciscus Vivarius did
f.
In 1642 he sent his
Low
MS
Countries to be
version of 1628 has
203; Ricardo del Arco y Garay, La erudiciSn
es-
de Aragon Andres de Ustarroz (Madrid, 1950), 336.
ciceronianismo en Espaiia (Valladolid, 1993).
The Biblioteca Capitular of Seville (BCS) conMSS. 57-6-22 and 58-1-9, fols. 206, 236-252. 276-277, 290-
his letters in Spanish.
copy of many of them
in
etc.
On
3
May
1641, his friend Hieronymus Pancorvus told
to chocolate, since he was very fond of
it
him
(BCS, Ms. 58-1-9,
fol.
that
he had written a panegyric
189r).
JOAQUIN PASCUAL BAREA been preserved in the Bodleian Library was bound together with
gins.' It
at
437
Oxford, including
his Latin notes
on
mar-
his additions in the
names
several Spanish place
in
Nubiensis' Geography, following a Latin translation from Arabic which had been printed in Paris. His mythological treatise does not the contrary, this literary and scientific
It
is
foUow the
on
allegorical tradition;
based on the study of Latin inscrip-
as well as on the texts of the ancient some interesting comments on comparative religion, etyThis book was therefore a pioneer work among modem studies
and other archaeological remains,
tions, coins,
authors.
work
also contains
mology and
folklore.
of the ancient gods of Europe.
When a book
was expected to be read by more people
Rudericus did not even need to explain
ish,
with
also
it
was written in Span-
if it
that way.* This
is
the case
or to the illustrious figures of Seville and the ancient games, or dealing
with local and contemporary folklore. Since the ancient sources of these works
were hardly undentandable by most of
them
Spanish verse too.'
He
Dios quiso bien, en
who had
Arceus,
book
We
When
more than
forty authors firom anti-
the original was written in verse, he rendered
Sevilla le dio
it
into
"A quien
also translated into Latin verse a vernacular proverb,
de comer", following the practice of Ferdinandus
translated a collection of Castilian proverbs into Latin,
in Salamanca in 1533,
know
readen, he translated most of
his potential
into Spanish. These include Latin texts of
quity to the Renaissance.
his
did
devoted to the antiquities of Utrera and the ancient Conventus
his treatises
Hispalensis,
why he
and
also
and printed
of Joannes de Mai Lara.'"
fifty poems of Rudericus Cams. The number and range of his poems are similar, and they share the same Uterary theory, genres, They also use the same rhetorical and poetic procedures to achieve the
nearly
Latin and Spanish
and
subjects.
'
Five days before his death in August 1647,
to the marquis of Estepa (j"1658).
belonged to the Dutch philologist and poet Jacob Philip d'Orville
auction of his books in 1702,
it
(tl751), and his friend Pieter
Burman was
from
this
manuscript in
Cf Joaquin
able to publish an epigram
his Anthologia Veterum Latinorum
sterdam, 1773), 2:458, where he printed.
Cams bequeathed the manuscript of this work ("flTOl) owned it around 1676; after the
Juan Lucas Cortes
recommended
(now Anth.
Epigrammatum
Carus's treatise
la
Riese 873)
(Am-
vols.
on the ancient gods of Spain
Pascual Barea, " Veterum Hispaniae deorum maties sive
tado de Rodrigo Caro sobre
Lat.
Poematum, 2
et
reliquiae: noticias
religion antigua en Hispania," paper at the
III
to
be
del tra-
Congreso de
la
So-
ciedad de Estudios Latinos (Lugo and Santiago de Compostela, 2000), forthcoming. '
In 1540, Francus Leardus wrote an epigram for Petrus Mexia's Silva de varia
that the author preferred to write
it
in Spanish so that
it
Joachim Pascual Barea, "Le Banquier genois Franco Leardo, un poete premiere moitie du
MRTS
XVI™" siecle,"
translated into Latin '
Cf. Luis
poem
by Mambrini de Sabrino, and published
Gomez
latin
in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bariensis, ed.
184 (Tempe, AZ. 1998). 475-483 (here 483,
Canseco, Rodrigo Caro, un humanista en
leccion
to explain
could be read by more people. Cf.
VI). Mexia's at
Lyon
de
Seville dans la
Rhoda Schnur
et al.,
book was eventually
in 1556.
la Sevilla del seisdentos (Seville,
1986),
164-166. '"
Cf Antonio
Serrano Cueto, Los Adagiorum Quinquagenae quinque de Fernando de Arce, Al-
caiiiz,
unpublished.
We find that proverb among the Rejranes mas famosissimos de Mai Lara (Seville,
1568),
fols.
5v-7r.
1959), 1:157-161.
Cf J.
de Mai Lara,
Filosofia Vulgar, ed.
A. Vilanova, 4 vok. (Barcelona, 1958-
LATIN AND SPANISH POEMS OF RUDERICUS CARUS
438
necessary elegance of poetry.
We
many
find therefore
Due
mutual influences between them.
similarities,
to the older tradition
connections, and
of Latin
literature,
it is
not surprising that the structure, procedures, images, topics, and even some phrases
and words of the Spanish poems had been used
first
in the
Neo-Latin
literature.
Carus's Latin poems, closer to ancient poetry in their language while contemporary in their subject-matter, frequently served as a bridge to adapt the classics to vernacular
poetry. This
also true in the case
is
of many other Renaissance poets, which
between the poetry written
the relationship
illustrates
in each language at that time.
Carus was aware of being a bilingual poet, and he collected some of his poems in
"quademo
a
[.
.]
.
de sus versos en romance y en latin"." Marcelino Menendez Pe-
layo was eager to see the publication of Carus's Latin and Spanish poetry, relating
Some of
did to a great variety of genres of the humanistic tradition.'^
it
and vernacular
verses celebrated ancient ruins
which come
life
"Song
to
to the
Ruins of
of "La MembrUla".
Italica",
and other archaeological remains,
in the naenia of "Cupido Pendulus", in the
and in the humorous
The last-named poem
from 1595, which was
in distichs
way
in a very special
poem
about the ruined tower
an autobiographical
is
also addressed to his friend
story, a Latin epistle
Joannes de Robles, a
Latin poet and a Castilian writer and theorist. Carus wrote four religious
hymn
the vernacular and three in Latin: an ode and a
epigram about a miracle by the Virgin; the ode Veredas of his native
village,
and the
as
his Latin
hymn
poems
in imitation of Horace,
in
and an
dedicated to the Virgin of Las
is
to the skull of Euphrosyne, a relic of one
of the eleven thousand martyrs of Cologne brought from the convent of the Beghards in Maastricht
There
genre of the to Seville,
same
by the Spanish governor.
many
are
coincidences in his Latin and Spanish
laus urbis. Baetis urbs sive Vtricula shares
poems belonging
Carmona, and Utrera, and even with the poem on the
structure, literary resources,
and contents, with
ruins of Italica, the
slight variants
depending on the
particular features of each place. After the initial apostrophe, the five
the
name and
the foundation of each city, and
ous
men and
their martyrs
the situation of the three
and
While the
saints.
modem
all
cities,
the
to the
with the Spanish "silvas" devoted
finish
deal with
their illustri-
main topic
ruins are the
fertility
poems
by mentioning
in
Italica,
of their lands and their other
commendations of cities. Also 79—122 of the comic poem Membrilla include some of these elements: name and
valuable products, are the central points in the other lines
origin, natural wealth, patron saints
In Baetis urbs, the a
and
emulation of the
men, genius of the
illustrious
classics
is
very
who had been
grammarian from the University of Salamanca,
condemned
city,
carefially practised,
the syntactic construction /raw Jafa colonos.
and so
forth.
even though
the pupil of Sanctius,
Through
these three
hundred
" BCS, MS. 58-1-9, fol. 72v. They might be those copied in 1645 from the autograph in MS. 57-3-24, fols. 45-57, under the title of Carmina CI. V. Ruderici Can. '^ M. Menendez Pelayo, "Programa de Literatura Espanola. Leccion 82. Conservadores del
buen gusto y de
la
tradicion literaria del siglo
XVI
en
sus poesias latinas y castellanas: la cancion a las ruinas
en
el
XVII,"
in Estudios
y Discursos de
Critica Historica
Obras Compktas (Santander, 1941-1942), 1:60, 71.
la lirica.
de y
Escuela sevillana. Rodrigo Caro,
Italica, escrita
Literaria, ed. E.
en
el siglo
XVI, corregida
Sanchez Reyes, 7
vols., in
JOAQUIN PASCUAL BAREA and seven hexameters of his
hometown. But the might be indeed
(3.2.1)
classical elegance,'-'
city
of
misreading of
a
Rudericus
mentioned
Baetis
used the language of Virgil to describe
Greek
poem on
names. In that case, the author of the best Spanish
remember
tried to recover the past
transcription of these
the ruins of Itahca also
natural wealth {Baetis,
its
w.
the exiling of the native Andalusian population and the
brought by the
[.
.
Roman .]
new
splendour
Caesar ademptam
priscis ruricohs
Huic
65—146), and to
according to Strabo (w. 200-215):
settlers
quam
of
in the text of Strabo's Geography
in the
Italica
439
Romano
mihte complet.
diuisus ager ueteri migrante colono
domus ahos
diuisaeque
uidere Penates.
Plebs, ciues, equites imitataque curia patres,
mores,
iura,
forum cedunt
et sacra
Totaque iam Baetim resonabat exiguam,
nam magna
decent
urbis patritiae
dum
moenia Balborum
per
urbem
te, Baetis,
alunma
praecellis
honore
Aeneadum, aetemo quae iam
Romuleam priscumque
Quirino.
Roma
audes ambire decorem
Gaditana
lacessis
toties decorata trophaeis.
Hinc proceres uenere
pii,
hinc clara uirorum
mihtia atque toga praestantum fluxit origo,
quos non Cecropiae dedignarentur Athenae, suspexit
Carus's laudatory
nam Roma poems
suos
[.
.
.]
in Latin belong to the genres of the Latin epicedium, epi-
gram, and epitaph; they were also written for portraits and to
of some authors of his time. In quatrain,
who
grams in
all
these Latin and vernacular poems.'*
I
is
one of the most
The following
the books
esparsa,
the
common
passage from
considered Gongora and Juan de Salinas the best authors of Spanish epi-
his time,
proves that literary theory concerning the Latin epigram was
appUed to the sonnet and other forms of vernacular
"
recommend
he used the soimet, the
and the song to praise different people. Wit
features in
Carus,
his Castilian verses
have commented on some
peculiarities
verse:
of Carus's hexameters, pentameters, iambi, and
Sapphics in "Algunas particularidades de prosodia y metrica ladnas del Renacimiento," in Estudios de Metrica Latitia, ed. Jesus
Luque Moreno and Pedro Rafael Diaz y
Diaz, 2 vols. (Granada. 1999),
2:747-766. '*
Cf. Juan F. Alcina, "Entre latin y romance:
lana," in
Humanismo y
pervivencia del
Mundo
modelos neolatinos en
Pascual Barea, 2 vols. (Cadiz, 1993), 1:3-27 (here 5);
la
creacion poetica castel-
M. Maestre Maestre and Joaquin Carmen Guzman Arias and Jose I. Andujar
Clasico, 1, ed.
Jose
Canton, "El tratado de N. Mercerius sobre teoria epigramatica," and Daniel Lopez-Caiiete, "Sobre epigrama religioso en el Renacimiento," in Humanismo y pervivencia del Mundo Clasico, 2: Home-
el
naje al profesor Luis Gil, ed. Jose
M. Maestre
Maestre, Joaquin Pascual Barea, and Luis Charlo Brea,
3 vols. (Cadiz, 1997), 2:865-870, 871-882 respectively.
LATIN AND SPANISH POEMS OF RUDERICUS CARUS
440
En la poesia se incline que
dos,
es cifrar
de manera
la
que comunmente
[Salinas] a lo
propiedad de
son inclina-
los espaiioles
con viveza un conceto o muchos en pocos
versos, ajustando
voces que ninguna este ociosa. Asi lo pide
las
el
y esta virtud resplendece en el principe de los poetas epigramatarios, Marco Valerio Marcial, tambien espanol de la Celtiberia, a quien admiro la arte,
Antigiiedad romana y admiraran los
Nuestra edad conocio
siglos.
a
D. Luis de
Gongora, hijo de aquella madre de eternos ingenios, Cordoba. Siguioles Juan de Salinas con tanta propiedad y rior,
estrechando su
bien
espaiiol,
en
Musa
las
la
3 de
[.
.
alusiones y equivocos, en
pureza de
la
genero no
el
Dr.
les es infe-
que enseno Quintiliano, tam-
muchas
gracias
que mas resplendecio su agudeza fue en
lo
que no [.
este
las Institutiones oratorias: 'dijo
En
.].
habla castellana
Some of Carus' own
que en
a aquellos preceptos
el lib. 6, c.
pero sin agravio de nadie'
sales,
es inferior a los
demas, antes superior en
.].^^
.
epigrams have these
and Peter Burmann considered
qualities,
one of them very elegant and comparable to those written in the finest age of these things {Anthologia Latina, Riese 873). The painter Francisco Pacheco asked him to write the epigrams for the portraits of
two of the chief poets of the Spanish Golden
Age, Fernando de Herrera and Fray Luis de Leon.'^
For ca,
a
work of Francisco Tamayo now preserved
Carus wrote a
tents.
There
poem
are consequently
many
the Hispanic Society of Ameri-
(Among
same con-
coincidences and points of dependence between
them. The sonnet has the same structure the final play of words.
at
in Latin and another in the vernacular with the
as
the Latin epigram, and they even share
others. Arias
Montanus and Mai Lara had written
such preliminary poems.) Again, the contents of a Latin distich and a Spanish quatrain
by Carus praising Pancorvus
are very similar, this being the result
of a reciprocal and
simultaneous poetic translation:
IN
HIERONYMI PANCORVI LAVDEM DISTICHON
— Panem coruus habet Cur mel — Ingenio redditur ore rostro.
panis
'^
'*
et
May
1646,
is
quoted by Henry Bonneville, Le poke
oeuvre (Paris, 1969), 4.
Francisco Pacheco, Libra de descripcion de verdaderos
Sevilla, ed.
inde?
fauus.
This praise for Salinas' poems, dated 16
seuillanjuan de Salinas (1562P-1643): vie
fluit
retratos de ilustres
Pedro Pinero Ramirez and Rogelio Reyes Cano
"Para cumplimiento de su elogio y de mi deseo, no
me
(Seville,
y memorables varones de
1985) wrote about Fray Luis:
contente con menos, en honra de tan
Rodrigo Caro, y los castellanos de encarecen bastantemente" (69-71). In praise of
insigne varon, de que los versos latinos fuesen del licenciado
Lope de Vega en su
Laurel de Apolo,
con que
se
Herrera, this father-in-law of Diego Velazquez wrote: "aunque
ron versos en su alabanza, ser persona a
quien estimo
me
mucho Fernando de
as a
Latin poet, since he certainly
Luis also wrote Latin poems.
aventajados ingenios hicie-
Herrera, despues desta epigrama latina que
cenciado Rodrigo Caro ofrecio a su retrato, digna de
Carus only
muchos
parecio poner aqui parte de un elogio de Pablo de Cespedes, por
knew
la
erudicion de su autor" (179).
He
el li-
praised
other good Spanish poets. Herrera and Fray
JOAQUJN PASCUAL BAREA
441
REDONDILLA A JERONIMO PANCORVO Cuervo trae
en
y pan
es
Su ingenio lo
que
celestial
pico, ijcomo es miel?
el
que con
es tal,
es pan,
el
hace panal.
Many Latin poets wrote laudatory poems for Carus's own books
we
too.
Among them
can mention the professor of Antequera Joannes Aquilarius, Joarmes Corderus
Chamizo from ViUamartin, Laurentius de
Castillejos,
Joannes Baptista Porcellus from
Medina, Petrus Amador de Lazcano, the cosmographer Antonius Morenus, Joannes Ximenius, the Jesuit Bemardus Carus, and Ferdinandus Bajo Orihuela.
There were many other authors of Latin poems in had already reached
a decisive maturity,
few
bers of rehgious orders and a
Seville.
But
Castilian poetry
and writing Latin was relegated to the
scholars. Latin hardly kept a place
the hterary competitions organized in Seville
from 1531 onwards.
mem-
of privilege in
First as a
Spanish
poet, and later with a Latin inscription, Rudericus took part in the SeviUian
compe-
1610 and the proclamation of Mary's
titions celebrating St. Ignatius's beatification in
Many
Immaculate Conception in 1616.
EngHsh College, wrote poems
teachers of the
guages and in different
few other
graduates, bachelors, as well as students
geru-es.
for these competitions in
Among them we
find the poet
and
both lan-
Thomas Barton and
a
Richard Curtis, Henry Salkeld, Robert Smith, Ed-
British names, such as
ward Hopton, William Ashton (Aston), Nicholas Hannington, WiUiam Maurice, Andrew Barnes, and perhaps also Francis GuiUaude, Thomas Piget, and Henry Vahnger.'^
Their presence in Seville was due to the pohtical exile imposed on CathoUcs
by the reUgious persecution of the EngHsh Crown. Rudericus Carus was prevailed. This explains
a Latin
why
humanist
who
lived at a time
he used both languages in
when
CastiHan already
his writings. In prose
he
preferred the vulgar tongue in his biographical and historical treatises about Utrera
and
Seville,
or about the ancient games, thus interesting a pubUc
He
part did not understand Latin. in
works of
interest to other
used Latin
European
as
who
for the
most
an international language of culture such
scholars,
as his treatise
on the ancient
gods of Hispania, the History of pseudo-Dexter, and Nubiensis' Geography. As for his
poems, he preferred Latin in the
fianeral
compositions, but he used both languages in
the commendations of cities and people,
as
well
as in his
poetry with a biographical,
archaeological, or reUgious content. Carus also used Latin
the Cathohc
Church when he had
Latin was also a humanistic entertainment in arly
when
" glorioso
this
language better
Cf. Francisco de
San Ignado
.
.
.
Luque
Fajardo, Reladon de
la fiesta
idem, Reladon de
Pedro ad Vincula celebradas en su parroquial
the official language of
some of his poems and
fitted the subject or the
(Seville, 1610);
as
to write a submission to the Vatican.
iglesia
purpose in view. His case
que se hizo
las fiestas
de Sevilla a
la
Writing in
letters, particul-
de
eti
is
Seville a la beatificadon del
la cofradia
de sacerdotes de San
Punsima Concepdon
(Seville, 1616).
LATIN AND SPANISH POEMS OF RUDERICUS CARUS
442
certainly an interesting
example of the situation of the Respublica
litterarum in
seven-
teenth-century Spain.
University of
Cadiz
Rudericus Carus's Works Quoted Antigiiedades y principado de
la ilustrissima
ciudad de Seuilla y Chorographia de su convento
antigua chancillerta (Seville, 1634), facs. Seville, 1982, 1998.
jurtdico
Dias geniales
o ludicros, ed.
Flauii Luci Dextri V. C.
Maximi,
et
Cari Baetici
Jean-Pierre Etienvre (Madrid, 1978).
Omnimodae
Historiae, quae extant Fragmenta,
cum Chronica M.
Helecae, ac S. Braulionis Caesaraugustanorum Episcoporum, Notis Ruderici illustrata (Seville,
1627).
Memorial de Utrera, in Obras de Rodrigo Caro, 2
vols. (Seville, 1883), vol. 2.
Poesta castellana y latina e inscripciones originales. Estudio, edicion critica, traduccion,
notas e indices de Joaquin Pascual Barea (Seville, 2000). Varones en
letras
Montoto Canseco
naturales de la ilustrisima ciudad de Sevilla.
(Seville, 1915);
Varones insignes en
letras
[.
.
.]
Epistolario, ed.
Santiago
de Seuilla, ed. Luis
Gomez
(Seville, 1992).
Veterum Hispaniae deorum manes
sive reliquiae
Nubiensis, qui vacatur Relaxatio ford, Bodleian Library,
Animi
(1628) and Excerpta ex
curiosi,
Ms. D'Orville 47.
ab
libro
Nuba quodam Arabe
geographiae
composito.
Ox-
Nuevos
textos del teatro
Espaha,
jesuitico en
II:
Las comedias
Techmitius y Triunfo de
la fe^
VICENTE PICON GARCIA
El
objetivo de este trabajo, que se complementa con el del Profesor A. Sierra
aparecido en este
jesuitico
ninguno de
un
mismo volumen,
que pemianecen aun
ineditas y
es presentar estas
no han
en Espaiia sobre
los catalogos existentes
legajo de la Coleccion de Jesuitas de la
(R.A.H.) con
la
Me
signatura 9/7262.
dos obras de teatro escolar
sido estudiadas ni figuran siquiera este teatro.
Real Academia de
en
Se hallan tambien en
la
Madrid
Historia de
limitare a senalar los datos y aspectos funda-
mentales, que apareceran completados y estudiados con mas profundidad en la edicion
que de eUas estamos preparando. La comedia Techmitius ocupa 28 el
la
folios (Ir— 28r) del
manuscrito que
la
contiene, en
que figuran tambien composiciones en versos castellanos de algunos pasajes que en comedia aparecen en prosa (33v—34v) y algunos borradores interesantes para la fija-
cion del texto (35v-36v; 37r-38v).
En
el
manuscrito no figura
nombre
el tltulo
de
en
pero, a juzgar por
la pieza,
las
formas en que
Techmitium con que se
aparece
el
inicia el
primer prologo) debia ser Techmitius, con pronunciacion asibilada Techmisius.
Tampoco se
del protagonista
figuran
la
fecha ni
Techmisio, presenta
la figura del
Quijote de Cervantes: Frau.
lugar de representacion. Sin embargo, la primera
el
puede deducir por un pasaje de
latin (e.g., el acusativo
la
escena 2.4, donde Fraudencio,
Tiempo
— "Ola
ola
al
el
antagonista de
personaje Donaire con esta alusion
su rocin, a fee de quien soy." Si la primera edicion del Quijote aparecio
1604,
como
se sabe
composicion de
la
con
certeza, se
al
Sor Donayre, encontradose ha Sancho con
deduce que
el
termino post quem para
obra y de su representacion se puede situar en ese
en
la
mismo
el aiio
fecha de
afio
1604
marco de un proyecto de investigacion (PB97-0053)
finan-
o despues.
'
El trabajo ha sido realizado en
cado por
la
DGICYT.
el
titulado "El teatro escolar latino
en Espaiia (1550-1650)."
TEXTOS DEL TEATRO JESUJTICO EN ESPANA
444
El argumento basico es
Techmisio, que se halla confundido por
el siguiente:
males y los enganos que reinan en
mundo, quiere
el
II
librarse
de
los
conse-
ellos y, para
companeros Bellerfo y Discurso. Este le elogia la astucia de ello, Techmisio le encarga que vaya a consul-
guirlo, pide consejo a sus
Fraudencio, de ahi que, incitado por
medio mejor para salir de su zozobra y librarse de los enganos; pero los conles sumen en mayor confusion. Discurso entonces, por mediacion
tarle el
de Fraudencio
sejos
une como compafiero, acude
a un historiador (Fileto) que le un fisiologo (Cosme Trapesunda) que le hace adivinaciones de alto vuelo, pero tampoco les sacan de sus dudas. Por eso se dirige finalmente al sabio Logiteo que le aconseja que Techmisio escuche el Consejo divino, por medio del cual alcanza la luz y vence a Fraudencio.
de Donaire que
propone
se les
como
la historia
leccion de vida y a
Los interlocutores son Techmisius,
el
protagonista confundido por los enganos y
males del mundo; BeUerfus y Discursus, dos compaiieros suyos; Fraudentius,
de engafios;
Philetus, historiador; Philologus, el astrologo;
Donaire, un joven que colabora de Discursus;
Domingo Ramos, un
su discurso lecciones de vida; Democritus y Heraclitus, filosofos el
acontecer: reirse o llorar;
Lxigiteus,
la ley clasica
de
los
cinco actos
adivino;
labrador,
que in-
con
actitudes y consejos
sabio consejero; y Consilium
diuinum, descubridor de la luz y el camino para triunfar sobre
La comedia no sigue
tramador
que propone ver en
terna enganar astutamente a Techmisius; Tempus, figura alegorica
contrapuestos ante
el
Cosme Trapesunda,
como
el
mal.
preferian los primeros
autores del teatro escolar, sino que solo contiene cuatro, con distinto
numero de
escenas (1=5; 2=5; 3=3; 4=8), dos prologos en latin y casteUano respectivamente para explicar
argumento, otros
el
tambien en casteUano para Se
trata
mezcla la
la
tres
en casteUano para
los actos 2, 3
y 4, y un epilogo
despedida.
la
de una comedia tipica de colegio, de caracter moralizante, en
prosa y
el
verso, el latin y el casteUano.
La presencia del
latin
la
que
se
en eUa, para
fecha en que se compone, es destacada. Contiene en total 144 versos latinos y 200
lineas
en prosa
latina.
Ademas,
los dialogos
frases latinas, aforismos, sentencias, etc.,
dito.
Los tipos de versos que
tos (20),
se utilizan
hexametros dactilicos
(29),
y
en casteUano
que
les
se salpican
con frecuencia de
confieren cierta gracia y sabor eru-
son senarios yambicos
dimetros anapes-
(81),
disticos elegiacos (7).
El autor distribuye estas partes compuestas en prosa o verso latino de peculiar, de
manera que
la
mayoria de
versos latinos de
buena
factura,
casteUanos, y
cierra
con prosa
las
las
cuyo sentido parafrasea luego o latina,
escena que se extiende entre ambas partes.
el
casteUano (1.2; 2.3; 2.4; 3.3; 4.6 y el
habla vulgar y
Fraudencio que
(fol.
4v)
el
la
Act.
—
1
las
un modo abre con
ampUa con el
versos
contenido de
escenas que utiliza exclusivamente
que confiere gran reaUsmo
Domingo.
calidad del latin de la pieza, vease la presentacion de
autor pone en sus propios labios:
Tech. Dis. Fraud.
En las
destaca la 3.3 a la
caracter astuto del labrador
el
Para hacerse una idea de
7),
lo
desarroUando en casteUano
la
reflejando
escenas que contienen latin
See 4 Bell.
Frau
Fraudibus instructus regnat Fraudentius orbe atque regit regum celsa theatra
dolis.
VICENTE PICON GARCIA nunc
Ipse per insidias ast alios
nunc
hos,
445
dej icit illos
technis sidera ad alta vehit.
Montiuagus custos ouium
moderor
ipse meis
me
pectore gestat
ampla fora
legibus
Incultos habito saltus et compita et vrbes et
penetro
Dulces blandicie
latitans aulica tecta risus Bdlacia
obsequiumque
ducum
verba
maK venenum
capit nescia corda
Indicat haec vultus tegitur sed corde
corde latent fraudes dulcia verba patent.
(fol. 5r)
Hinc
fit
vt
immensum
teneat Fraudentius
orbem
i[n]numere ac gentes numina nostra col{l}ant.
El Triunfo de
tinuacion con
la
Fe ocupa 32
folios (Ir— 32r) del
un coloquio sobre
la
vida
solitaria.
manuscrito que
En
el se
la
pieza en la rubrica que
la
circuncision del entendim" y de los cinco sentidos [y
taria]."
Tampoco en
que
expresa expHcitamente
cartel
de
encabeza: "Triunfo de
este caso se
sentacion, pero sabemos asi lo
la
en que
se
autor en
anunciaba aquella
la jllse [ilustre]
la fee div*
(fol.
la
en Cadiz,
completa
sobre
la
el
el 1
la
vida soli-
de enero de 1573, porque
Iv: [en el] "estudio la
con-
lugar y la fecha de repre-
informacion que nos da sobre
y antigua ciudad de cadiz") y
a
razon hum* con
un coloquio de
recoge en dicha rubrica
se represent© el
se
da este titulo completo de
de
la
la
firma del
compafiia de Jesus
concesion de los premios
(fol.
31r:
"in hoc collegio societatis lesu anno domini millesimo quingentessimo septuagessimo [sic] tertio
Kalendis februarii").
El argumento de la obra es
el siguiente: el
por Philoteoro va en busca de
los
Entendimiento o Razon representado
cinco sentidos y
el
sentido
comun
representados
por cinco pastores y su mayoral para que le den contentamiento, lo que logra al hacer caso a un rustico y otros compaiieros que le encaminan con sus buenos consejos para encontrarse con aquellos. La Fe, que busca
fieles
para
la Iglesia, se
encuentra con
Entendimiento y contienden ambos por determinar cual de los dos tante, poniendo como jueces para dirimir la cuestion a las virtudes de la
el
es
mas impor-
la
Prudencia y
Simplicidad. Mientras estas se retiran a deliberar cuatro pastores y su mayoral reah-
zan un entreacto para entretenimiento. Concluida
la
deUberacion,
veredicto, proclamando la supenoridad de la Fe. Pero
acepta
el
cristianismo,
no
se
somete del todo
cerdote a predicar a los sentidos
la
a la Fe,
el
las
virtudes dan su
Entendimiento, aunque
de ahi que saiga a escena un Sa-
necesidad de circimcidarse. Reahzada
la
circunci-
realistas
que bus-
sion de estos, se proclama el triunfo completo de la Fe.
La obra, de marcado caracter alegorico, can
el
esta
adobada con escenas
entretenimiento. Los personajes principales, reales y alegoricos, son pocos (Fe,
Entendimiento = Philoteoro, cinco sentidos y sentido comun, SimpUcidad, Prudeny Curiosidad, Sacerdos
dei, el Licenciado Medinilla, y el Bacluller Aretino, cuay su mayoral, y los pastores Glauco, Narciso, Audon); pero los actores que participan en ella son muy numerosos, para conferir asi mayor suntuosidad a la cia,
tro pastores
accion y hacer intervenir en eUa a mas escolares. El manuscrito enumera hasta 67, detallando con precision
el
papel asignado a cada uno y su indumentaria (5r-6r).
TEXTOS DEL TEATRO JESUJTICO EN ESPANA
446
II
La pieza consta de cuatro actos y escenas, cinco argumentos, uno general y otro el argumento del triunfo
para cada acto, prologo y epilogo, con esta peculiaridad: que
propiamente en
de
la
Fe
de
la
circuncision, para adaptarse a otras
se desarroUa
pudiendose suprimir
tres actos, fiestas.
Ademas,
el
acto cuarto
esta accion basica
de
la
obra
complementa con otros elementos dramaticos que le confieren gran variedad: un entremes como comienzo entre el Licenciado Medinilla y el Bachiller Aretino "para se
retardar la action tan esperada," segiin el autor;
mera
una egloga como interlocucion
recitado del prologo y del argumento antes de
comenzar
acto
pri-
y otra segunda interlocucion representada por cuatro pastores y su mayoral antes del 3 "para tras el
el
1;
entretenimiento" del auditorio.
La pieza tiva
en
compuesta en su mayor parte en
esta
de
varias partes
— En
ella la
presencia del
prologo, que lo comienza a pronunciar
el
equivoca, siendo rectificado por latin,
el
pero
castellano,
es
tambien
significa-
latin:
un nino
que
al
se le olvida
y
se
maestro de retorica que lo comienza tambien en
pero acaba exponiendolo en castellano
7v):
(fol.
— Cyrus Xenophontius qui rerum gestarum gloriam cum — no, haze que inquam, Xenophontius, cum —
disciplina et
Puer.
cognitione rerum vniuersarum coniunxit, humanissimi spectatores, Cirus, aqui
cum
no, sino
.
que dezir y se de la action.
— En
.
me
a
ydo jmal pecado! de
como
las letrillas,
cena y que recoge
autor
el
la siguiente, al final
ftdes sine operibus mortua
la
mas obrada da
la
la
seiiores, las palabras
memoria
el
(fols.
non quecum^
est.
mas
vida
verum
—
que traya
prologo y argumento
que iba sembrando
comedia
obras es muerta
la fee sin
con
de
sino
se le oluida
pobre de mi!, volauerunt,
jo
.
la
Fe
aparecer en es-
al
31v— 32r): vultis faciatis
fiierte es
aquel que vence
sus viciosas aficiones
£ el
gratia y gloria cumplida
que doma
los leones
— En cada que Sacerdote hace en en y en tambien en en uno de que responden — En uno de hace con de en medio que hacen izquierda en de de derecha en una octava — En premios concesion de sanciona solemnes con que mejores — Y, sobre todo, en egloga que precede inmediatamente accion el
acto 4,
las platicas
los sentidos, a las
real, el
parte
estos
los tres epilogos,
las
castellano a
latin
el
latin.
lo
tres niiios: el
latin, el
la
palabras
castellano (28v).
la
se
a los
los
la
acto res (31r).
(9v— llv), cuyo genero, forma,
hazerse [ha]
al
prouecho de zagales,
fin
y
modo
de representarse el autor precisa
asi:
prin^ipio vna egloga pastoril y en lengua latina por exer9i9io y
los rrepresentantes della,
que seran
tres scholares
en que trataran por su rrecrea^ion, de cosas del
profe^ion y entre los estudiantes
central
a la
la
estas
jugaran vn poco a hecharse versos
en alabansas del nino
jesus.
en habito de
campo conforme al
modo que
a su
suelen
VICENTE PICON GARCIA £1 pastor Glauco canta unas coplas en castellano. darle Narciso y
con
canta en hexametros
el
A
447
condnuacion
la alegria del
el
descanso del
Audon
se
asoma desde
ganado, con ecos virgilianos, sentados en un lugar bucolico.
dentro con cision.
hasta
el
nino Jesus en brazos y recita dos
estrofas saficas para celebrar la circun-
Los pastorcillos sin hacerle caso celebran
que Audon, remedando
55 de
el v.
las
estaciones del aiio en hexametros,
Egloga 3 de Virgilio en
la
se acerca a salu-
campo y
la
que Palemon
Menalcas y Damoetas a iniciar su amebeo, invita tambien a sus dos compaiiedejar su certamen y a cantar sentados:
invita a ros a
Audon.
—
Mittite pastores
hec discutenda
alijs
unanimes quando conse[n]dimus omnes.
difite^^
Verg.
(cf.
quandoquidem
Eel. 3.55: P. Dicite:
Glauco acepta, y el autor indica tras certamen los tres pastorcillos.
in molli consedimus herba).
ceremonial con que deben
sus palabras el
realizar el
— Eta
Glauc.
age sed perdet qui nullum carmen habehit
cada distico de los
"tras
que El propio
Audon comienza
la
^ acaba
sigt*' el
se sigue el niiio Jesus
con
egloga con
de dezir
la letra final
un
distico
en
el
suyo da
nombrandosela
el
que saluda
al
alto."
al nifio,
hijo
de Dios hecho hombre:
Audon.
—
Salue sancte puer patris generosa propago
mundopifex nostra crimine factus homo.
Y
a continuacion la completan los tres cantando por
Jesiis
y expresandole
sus peticiones
Importancia excepcional posee sobre el
la
representacion de
la
disticos las loas al nifio
el
conjunto de noticias que nos ofrece
el
autor
pieza antes y despues de lo que constituye propiamente
texto del argumento dramatico (7v—29r), y la multitud de acotaciones que tambien
hace en este sentido a lo largo de Antes de dicho texto caracteristicas
la
el
ella.
autor indica que se debe poner en
la
concesion de premios y
"emulacion
al
exercicio de
el
puertas tras
un
cartel
exponer
con
la finali-
sentido de estas representaciones para entre los autores y el "prouecho e doce condiciones que deben figurar
las letras"
consuelo del auditorio", explica con detalle el cartel
las
bien precisas para que sea conocido por todos, y
dad pedagogica de fomentar
en
tumo en
y deseos.
las
para que sean observadas por los actores y los doce premios que les seran
otorgados por orden riguroso, de acuerdo con
la calidad
de su respectiva actuacion
(2r-4v).
Acabada la pieza, tras el valete y plaudite de la despedida, el autor describe la solemne ceremonia de la distribucion de los premios (29v— 31r) exponiendo pormenorizadamente la forma como se debia engalanar el local en el que se distribuian, como debia
ir
vestida la personalidad
instrumentos,
etc.), lo
que
los
otorgaba y su acompaiiamiento (miasica,
que dicha penonalidad debia decir (aludiendo de nuevo
a la
TEXTOS DEL TEATRO JESUJTICO EN ESPANA
448
necesidad de
insistir
en
la
discurso que pronunciara al
dar los premios, con
"emulacion" y
al
el
"provecho") y como debia decirlo en el ademas las palabras que se debian repetir
efecto, senalando
el fin
de hacer una clara distincion entre los
galardonados y los siguientes. Las acotaciones que acompaiian a lo largo
de
la
II
obra indicando tambien con precision
la
tres
primeros
texto se multiplican
al
forma de representarla
(vesti-
do, voz, movimientos, etc.).
Constituye
de
la
asi esta
pieza
uno de
importancia que se daba en
que en eUa
existia
por
los la
documentos mas preciosos
Compafiia de Jesus a
suscitar la participacion
rar su
formacion y del cuidado exquisito que
de
representaciones.
las
de
se
del teatro jesuitico,
esta actividad, del interes
los escolares
en
las
obras para mejo-
observaba por ello para
la
Estos son a grandes rasgos los datos y caracteristicas fundamentales de
preparacion
las
dos obras
AutSnoma
de Madrid
senaladas.
Universidad
Role of Latin
77ze
of Castiglione' s
in the
Composition
libro del cortegiano
II
OLGA ZORZI PUGLIESE
Like many other early sixteenth-century ItaHan authon who were well versed in the Latin language, having had the benefit of a formal humanist training,
Baldesar CastigUone opted, nevertheless, for the vernacular language the majority of his writings.
He
adhered to Latin for a few of
the vehicle for
as
secondary works,
his
letters, including the longer epistle on Guidubaldo da Monduke of Urbino. Possibly following the example of Pietro Bembo in his Gli he chose ItaUan instead for his undisputed masterpiece, II libro del cortegiano,
namely some poetry and tefeltro, asolani,
the treatise in which he portrays courtier.
life at
CastigUone was to devote
work before
it
went
court and deUneates the concept of the ideal
at least fifteen years to revising
of style and language. In the
final stages
of his dialogue on the issue of language which form of the vernacular was to be that appears relatively
As
far as the use
and expanding the
to press in 1528, and in the process he often focused
of composition he inserted in
Book
1,
preferred,
a
on matters
lengthy section
debating mainly the question of
and presenting an
eclectic theory
open and comprehensive.
of Latin in the text goes, any reader of the definitive printed ver-
sion of the treatise will quickly realize that
it is
at best
minimal.'
Only
a
few phrases
in Latin are to be
found and these are mainly in Books 2 and 3. They are for the most part well-known sayings (e.g., "Si non caste, tamen caute", 3.20. 284), or witty remarks and puns, like that on the initials of pope Nicholas V, NPV, which are inter-
preted
as
An Itahanate greeting that an unskilled bonum sero" (with the intended meaning of
"Nihil papa valet" (2.48. 192).
speaker of Latin utten, "Deus det vobis
"evening", but actually meaning "late"), produces an ambiguous phrase which eUcits from the interlocutor in the repartee a witty retort, in essence a curse: "Tibi malum cito" (2.63. 210).
The edition cited here is the Amedeo Quondam (Milan, 1981). '
following: Baldassar Casti^ione,
// libro
del cortegiano, introd.
450
CASTIGLIONE'S
On
the other hand, in his letters written in the vernacular,^ Castiglione, like
other contemporaries
— MachiaveUi,
concluding formalities and such
as
LIBRO DEL CORTEGIANO
IL
example
for
— used
Latin for the opening and
words, mainly prepositions and adverbs,
also for single
cum, continue, and tandem. In certain cases these are merely chancery terms or
graphic Latinisms, a kind of shorthand perhaps, that did not always reflect the actual
pronunciation or enunciation, which was in
likelihood Italianized.
all
Leaving aside the minor writings, the bilingual or rather multilingual aspect that characterizes the text of
del cortegiano
II libra
quential and substantial, though,
went
as
Castiglione drafted and revised
it
traces the
still
it.
I
work under-
have been studying
the autograph fragments in the
is,
in the private archive of the Castiglioni family
(MS.
Man3 b),
II
some of the more complete versions of the first the Vatican, especially MSS. 8204 and 8205, conventionally re-
traditionally designated as
redaction housed in ferred to as
becomes more conse-
It
changes that the
before publishing
the early drafts of Castiglione's treatise, that
tuan manuscript
very limited.
is
when one
B and C
A, and
also
respectively.
produced interesting
My
collation of these manuscripts A, B,
and
C
has
many of which had Amedeo Quondam's recent
has revealed significant variants,
results. It
not been noted in published studies,
not until
at least
The revisions that I have been examining pertain to the thematic content of the work (Castiglione's treatment of the topics of women, humour, and the court), and also to its formal structure, as U libro del volume on the
cortegiano
drafts
of //
libro del cortegiano?
evolved into an elaborate dialogue
zation of Latin,
which
I
focus
on
In the early manuscripts of different purposes, the
the linguistic side, the vari-
made of Spanish"* and
also to the utili-
here.
// libro
of which
first
On
treatise.
ants relate to the peculiar use that Castiglione
Castiglione resorts to Latin for
del cortegiano is
editorial. In the
documents consulted one
finds the occasional autograph marginal or interlinear note that the author
himself: vacat (B,
fol.
72r) marks a section to be canceled;
21r—v, 93v) indicate a passage that
C
manuscript. In
a
- I
letters
its
way
into the
wish to thank Gae Pitman
'
Amedeo Quondam,
*
Since 1996
and
hie
wrote to
ponatur (A,
fols.
be shifted from one point to another in the fol.
228r bears the phrase "hie interpo-
a reminder concerning an insertion to be made.
as
who
body of the
prepared a
included in Baldassar Castiglione, Le
I
to
marginal annotation on
nendus sermo Ottaviani" Latin also found
is
alibi
lettere,
text itself in the
list
of the Latinisms used by Castiglione
ed.
Guido La Rocca (Verona,
"Questo povero Cortegiano": Castiglione,
have presented some of the
results
il
libro,
of my research
ous occasions in North America, Europe, and Africa. "L'evoluzione della struttura dialogica del Libro
spoken phrases and
Two
in
la storia
in the
1978).
(Rome, 2000).
many venues and on
vari-
published essays are the following:
del cortegiano," in // sapere delle parole: Studi sul
dialogo latino e italiano del Rinasdmento, ed.
Walter Geerts, Annick Paternoster, Franco Pignatti
(Rome, 2001), 59-68; "Time and Space
in the
d'italianistica
Composition of
//
lihro
del cortegiano,"
Studi
nelV Africa australe/ Italian Studies in Southern Africa, vol. 14, no. 2 (2001). Special issue:
"Time and Space
in Italian Culture
velopment of Dialogue
in
// libro
and Beyond," 17-32.
del cortegiano:
From
A
third essay
sion," in Printed Voices: The Renaissance Culture of Dialogue, ed. Vallee, 93-108.
is
forthcoming:
"The De-
the Manuscript Drafts to the Definitive Ver-
Dorothea Heitsch and Jean-Franfois
OLGA ZORZI PUGLIESE
451
maxima
witticisms already alluded to; for example, the phrase "furiarum
cubat", uttered by a "gentleman" to criticize his shrewish wife (2.61),
32v, and the words "oremus pro hereticis" (2.62) include bishops and other prel-
fol.
on
ates,
such
treatise, as his letters
On
phrases.
as
these are
more and more
consulted
puns on the
33r; similarly, the
fol.
told, instances
all
me
iuxta
found in A,
is
titles
few
still
in
of two popes are in B,
151v. But
fol.
number. Even when Castiglione
later
the completion and elaboration of his
classical texts for
and Ubrary inventories show,^ he did not add further Latin
the contrary, he tended to eliminate them. Just
phrases in Spanish in
as
the early drafts were eventually replaced by Italian equivalents, so too the Latin
phrase referring to the "aurea
.
.
.
secula" in connection with the virtue of princes (A,
90v) becomes "eta d'oro" on
fol.
91r of the same manuscript.
fol.
vernacular only in subsequent versions
some of the few examples of Latin
C
fol.
remains in the
It
198r). Perhaps, in eliminating
was conforming which would be refined and understood by all the
originally introduced, Castiglione
to his theory of a courtly language,
The criterion of elegance and sprezzatura, so fundamental to his may well have been the overriding one, even on the question of
educated nobility.
program,
cultural
(e.g.,
medium. Although he praises the study of other which might result from the use B, fols. 58v-59r, of the errors of many who, when
selecting an appropriate Unguistic
languages, Castighone does
of foreign terms.
He
warn
speaks in
against affectation,
speaking to persons they wish to impress, use affected language, "tirando latino
from
.
.
.
modo
di
Latin,
che per parere troppo
savij
si
fanno tenere bestie"
parole dal
words
and thus wishing to appear too learned, they end up looking foohsh].
Another document throws Ught on the topic under examination and functional use that Castiglione notes,
le
[lifting
made of
namely the tauuino or notebook
the Latin language.
now
Some of
illustrates
his
the
autograph
located in the State Archives of Mantua,
were examined and published by Guido La Rocca
in 1980.^ This critic claimed,
quite accurately, that the notes, sketchy as they are, constituted the nuclei of the
major
treatise.
Written in Latin and consisting mainly of lists of names and words,
upon
they touch
topics relating to
women,
tute important sections of the treatise.
are several series of single statements
love,
Among
—
and language
topics that consti-
the notes studied by La
Rocca
dialogue form involving Cesare Gonzaga, Bernardo Bibbiena, and others
Other annotations tivus" (La
Rocca,
this
"Un
taccuino autografo," 370), for instance,
annotation must have preceded,
than in the ending of the vulgate
be guarded cussion
*
is
told
it is
text, that the
like a fugitive" for fear, that
is
a note
is,
that
much more
concerning fol.
321 v),
expHcitly and clearly
misogynist Caspar PaUavicino
he might indeed
flee
is
"to
before the dis-
completed.
See Guido Rebecchini, "The
^onc" Journal '
as speakers.
consist of references to the narrative plot: "Custodiatur ut fugi-
the ending of the treatise. In the earlier redactions of the treatise (see C,
which
there
and brief phrases. Some have already assumed
Book
Collection and Other Possessions of Baldassarre Casti-
of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 61 (1998): 17-52.
Guido La Rocca, "Un taccuino autografo per
(1980): 341-373.
il
Cortegiano," Italia medioevale e umanistica
23
452
CASTIGLIONE'S
LIBRO DEL CORTEGIANO
IL
notebook represent the preparatory
All together these fragments in the Archive
Some
phase of composition for Castiglione's masterwork.
come
worked out
fully
parts
lingua etruscha" (La Rocca, section
on language
of the definitive version:
"Un
e.g.,
what were
reflect
to be-
the phrase "Disputatio de
taccuino autografo," 370) announces the lengthy
inserted in the final stages of the revisions. Similarly, the note-
contains the following brief synopsis in Latin of the exemplary story of Camma:
book
"Camma
Sinorigem amantem, qui virum suum Sinatum
gallicana se et
simulachrum Diane veneno absumpsit"
simulatis nuptiis, ante
fleshed out to
become
(363);
The
a full chapter in the vulgate text (3.26).
interfecerat,
eventually
it is
Ficinian defini-
"amor" as "desiderium fruendi pulchrum" (367) is the nucleus of the later worked-out section on Platonic love.^ On the other hand, some Latin phrases
tion of fully
listed in the
notebook do not find corresponding passages in the
treatise; clearly
they
remained undeveloped and were discarded. Similar lists of themes and concepts, some enunciated in Latin, are to be found suis victoriis notis et aliis
the beginning of B
at
bonis condicionibus
(fol. 3r).
non loquatur"
is
The
phrase "de
developed into the
discussion of the courtier's discreet praise of himself in 1.18 and 2.6—7.
What had been overlooked by
the few readers of the early manuscript drafts in the
Mantua (that is, until Amedeo Quondam volume on the Cortegiano drafts, "Questo povero Cortefragment which is perhaps of greater importance than those in
private archive of the Castiglioni family in
published
it
recently in his
giano," 247—248),
a
is
the Archive studied by La Rocca.
of a
of A
folio
84r).*
(fol.
The
in Latin, not in the vernacular;
and
occupying
a brief passage in Latin,
It is
passage
is
it is
acephalous,
part missing;
its first
a single side it is
drafted
expressed in expository prose that has not yet
been completely transformed into dialogue, although the interlocutors Caspar and Ottaviano
become Bembo and Ottaviano)
(later to
are
named.
It is
clear that the
author eventually re-elaborated the passage, but he did not discard the original sheet, using the verso of it instead for a successive stage of composition and elaboration in the vernacular. Despite the brevity of the passage in question,
of the core of Castiglione's theory of
from Plutarch and
means
— — sketch
those courtly
arts
he
to teach the prince justice
is
virtutes").
just as
^
he
He who who does
thus
and use adulation and
and other virtues ("ad
makes the prince good
in
uses the
curialis is
is
conviuium Platonis,
most worthy, Castiglione
De
amore,
Raymond
if
manner of evil. Rather, docendum iustitiam et alias
I,
Marcel
2:
is
most
states,
evil.'"
"Cum amorem
Cas-
dicimus
(Paris, 1956), 142.
wish to thank Professor Gian Carlo Alessio of the University of Venice for
transcribing the '
who
all
the opposite and poisons the public fountain
Manilio Ficino, Commentarium
I
curialis
— something which might come about
pulchritudinis desiderium intelligjte," ed. and trans. "
of the
The purpose of the
in order to gain the prince's ear.
to instil strange passions,
an outline
probably specified in the missing introduc-
not the ruin of the prince and the people
he were
clearly
it is
and incorporates concepts borrowed
Plato. ^ In this text Castiglione speaks
at his disposal
tion to the
politics
his help in
document.
The documents
published by Rebecchini,
"Book
Collection,"
show
that Castiglione
had
copies of Plutarch and Plato in his library. '"
Plutarch, in his treatise 53
on moral
virtue dealing with the question
why
philosophers
OLGA ZORZI PUGLIESE
453
do not wish
tiglione adds that princes tend not to listen to reason since they
any superior. Therefore the courtier, under
—
a veil
—
that
using his
is,
art
to serve
of cour-
must teach him justice, prudence, and temperance. In this role he wUl be deemed most worthy. Referring to the fable of Jupiter who, through Mercury, sent tiership
the
gifts
of modesty and justice to humanity," Gasparo objects that these are intrin-
no one
sic virtues that
the need to study and learn.
feels
To
observation Otta-
this
viano, the principal interlocutor, replies that, although they are intrinsic, and
admits to being
because
evil,
otherwise one tends to go
astray.'^
This passage constitutes,
as
I
have been able to determine, and
Quondam's anon
as
has confirmed {" Questo povero Cortegiano," 248), the heart of the discussion
alysis
pohtics,
which eventually found
treatise.
In
one
it
bonum
facit
degna opera che
place in
Book IV of the
malum" becomes
in Italian the
"meritara molto maior laude e premio che per qual
mente giovi come
il
mal principe"
85v).
of the
For example, "nam nemo tam bene meretur de multis quam
far potesse al
(fol.
definitive version
were then elaborated in the vernacular
principem, sicut etiam male qui
who
"corteggiano"
its
finds the basic concepts that
in the subsequent folios.
qui
no one
contrary to nature, the virtues must be cultivated;
it is
bon
mundo, perche non
e
bene alchuno che
principe, ne male che cosi universalmente noccia
Many
ing from Aristotle, are added
ideas
later:
still
si
come
some of them
missing in the passage,
voglia
cosi universalel
deriv-
the reference to the classification of governments,
the analogy of the father—son relation to describe the prince and his subjects, the con-
God, the discussion on war and peace and the conon the relation of the prince to his counselors, advice on of government, and comments relating to the importance of religion
cept of the prince
as
vicar of
templative and active Uves, the structure
and wealth. Sketchy though
it
may
his discussion
on
of composition. jotted
down
section of his Castiglione's
359)
as
is
poUtics. Furthermore, It
Mantua manuscript A, described still be documented of reveals, I beUeve, the author's method
be, the passage in the
here, represents the earliest phase that
it
extant and that can also
enables us to deduce that Castiglione gathered information and
his ideas, in Latin,
and then proceeded
to reformulate
"un processo aperto
di
aggregazione tematica" (an open process of grouping
together related topics). This procedure, interestingly enough,
of a traditional ciples
treatise format, if
it is
assumed
is
at
the opposite pole
that treatises are built
on
basic prin-
through logical deduction. During the extended period of writing and revising,
Castiglione appears to have elaborated and fused single units, a
method which
should deal especially with the powerful (Maxime cwn principihus philosopho
of the great good achieved by one the contrary, those adulators lethal
and compose the
work in the vernacular. It certainly reflects La Rocca's conclusion about method of composition, which he described ("Un taccuino autografo,"
who
who makes good
the person
on
corrupt kings and tyrants are punished
poison into the public fountain from which
"
Cf
'^
In chap. 13 Plato deals with acquired good.
Plato, Protagoras, chaps. 11-12.
all
esse disserendum),
whom
so
as
led to
speaks
many depend. On
though they poured
persons must draw water.
CASTIGLIONE'S
454
certain discrepancies
IL
LIBRO DEL CORTEGIANO
and to some unevenness
definitive text. In the case of
one
set
that
undeniably present in the
is still
of the fragments that he examined, La
does conclude correctly that they represent the preparatory
Guidubaldo da Montefeltro, which was written in the
does not seem to have grasped the
critic
Latin.
work
But
some of the
for
Rocca on
for the Epistola
others
the composition of
full significance for
The Book of the Courtier; at one point he hypothesizes that they were to be used at a by the author for other works to be written in Latin. He did not reaUze
later date
perhaps,
as
the passage
on
politics in the
seems to indicate, that
also
composing
his vernacular
it
may
works
Mantua manuscript
drafts
of the Cortegiano
very well have been Castiglione's custom to begin
— including down
bly collecting, listing, and jotting
// libro
materials
—
del cortegiano
which he then
in Latin, proba-
fitted into the struc-
ture or else completely discarded.
What
the passage in the
show then
is
Mantua manuscript, together with
the taccuino materials,
that the Latin language played an important role in the very
first
con-
ception and formulation of works eventually written in the vernacular. This role
is
not limited to the insertion of Latin words and sayings interspersed in Italian prose, as the Vulgate text might lead one to believe. Nor was it for Castiglione just a yardstick for
The
measuring the validity of language and single words,
formulation of sections (perhaps of
all
sections) of the
as
one
critic
put
it.'-'
major work that Castigli-
one was writing in the vernacular probably began with phrases and then non-dialogic prose passages in Latin. Thus the drafts examined here, and especially the Latin passage
on
politics,
enable us to observe
unsuspected one,
of the major
as
at close
hand the main
role of Latin, perhaps an
a compositional tool of fundamental significance adopted by one
Italian writers
of the Renaissance.
University of Toronto
" Mario
Pozzi, "II pensiero linguistico di B. Castiglione," Giomale
156 (1979): 197n.,
mine
refers to Latin as
di controllo linguistico."
being for Castiglione, on
storico della letteratura italiatia
linguistic matters, "il principale ter-
Milton and Cambridge
STELLA
REVARD
p.
John Milton entered Christ's College, Cambridge in the spring of 1625 at age sixteen and spent seven years of his Ufe there.
The
ful
undergraduate and also helps us trace his development
and poetry. Already an accompUshed
com-
Latin prose and poetry he
posed while attending Cambridge University provides insight into Milton
as a
youth-
writer of EngUsh prose
as a
School in London, he per-
Latinist at St. Paul's
fected his Latin style in prose and poetry at the university, writing the Latin prose essays that
were
part of his univenity training
and composing
poetry that he was to print in 1645 in his collected Poems. that
It
much
was
of the Neo-Latin
as a
Neo-Latin poet
he was received into the academic academies in Florence, Rome, and Naples
when he journeyed bridge
as a
intellectual
to Italy in the late 1630s.
won him
writer of Latin prose
community
in the 1650s.
Those
skills
that
he honed
at
Cam-
even greater recognition in the European
Engaged by Cromwell
as
Latin secretary, he
conducted the correspondence with foreign governments and defended the newly
formed English Commonwealth. As for the
first
a polemicist
he was
known throughout Europe
and second defenses of the Enghsh people, composed in Latin prose. In
the second defense. Pro Populo AngUcano Defensio Secunda, he includes an autobiographical section in
which he looks back on
his career at
success at the University against an attack that he
Latin had served Milton well during his
and
intellectual discourse,
'
Milton writes: "after
I
and
Cambridge
years as a
[my
a proficiency in various languages,
father] sent
me
its
later.
and had made
to the University of Cambridge.
a
...
of my
own
stain
upon
my
accord retired to
most of the fellows of the
character,
my
college,
this edition.
York, 1957], 828).
I
took the degree of Master of Arts. After
whither
I
All
in Complete
I
good this
I
was accompanied by the regrets of
who showed me no common
("Second Defense of the English People,"
Hu^es [New
till
father's house,
con-
Here
passed seven years in the usual course of instruction and study, with the approbation of the
and without any
his
walls.'
medium of personal
continued to serve him well years
it
had acquired
siderable progress in philosophy,
Cambridge, proclaiming
had been expelled from
marks of fiiendship and esteem"
Poems and Major
Prose, ed.
Merritt Y.
ciudons of Milton's work, unless otherwise noted, are to
MILTON AND CAMBRIDGE
456
at Cambridge Milton must have been among its luminaries However, the attitudes toward the university he expresses in both poetry and prose are at best ambiguous. Although he defends his university career in Defensio Secunda, he clearly experienced some difficulties at the beginning. In a Latin prose letter written in 1625 to his tutor Thomas Young he speaks of Cambridge as the "haunt of the Muses" where in peace and quiet, surrounded by his books, he de-
During
his
seven years
intellectually.
votes himself to study. ^
he
is
less enthusiastic,
A
year
however, in
later,
himself to his books, to the theater, and to his first tutor,
a Latin elegy to Charles Diodati,
having enjoyed a sojourn in
his native
girl- watching.
London
He
free to
devote
did not get along with
William Chappell, and they were to part company soon afterwards,
when Milton was
assigned to a second tutor.^ Elegy
Milton
tionship, providing, as
1
glances sideways at this rela-
characteristically does in his Latin elegies, a realistic,
personal, and down-to-earth view.
He
refers in fact to his dishke
of Cambridge and
his reluctance to return.
lam nee arundiferum mihi cura
Nee dudum
Nuda
me
revisere
Camum,
angit amor.
laris
nee arva placent, umbrasque negantia moUes,
Quam Nee
vetiti
male Phoebicolis convenit
ille
locus!
duri libet usque minas perferre magistri
Caeteraque ingenio non subeunda meo. (Elegia
[Now 1 have no concern to see Nor does love of the forbidden The
bare fields with
How
badly that place
not
It is
And
no
fitting to
to
Cam
again.
quarters there constrain
pleasant shade
me.
do not please me.
the worshippers of Phoebus!
suits
endure the threats of a harsh tutor
other indignities forced
However, he did return
the sedgy
11—16)
1.
upon my
Cambridge and,
for his proficiency in Latin poetry,
spirit.]
setting his stakes
embarked on an ambitious
on being recognized
series
of Latin poems.
Four of these commemorate the deaths of older men who had or had had nections with Cambridge University.
though
all
these
poems
as
command
commemorate
rather than
close
con-
mourn,
for
offer expressions of grief, they are basically poetic exercises in
the art of the Neo-Latin funeral onstrate his
I
say
poem, which
offer
Milton the opportunity to dem-
of mythological lore, his proficiency at Neo-Latin wit,
as
well
his mastery of Neo-Latin poetic forms: elegy, iambics, and ode.
-
See Milton, Private Correspondence and Academic
comm. ^
A
E.
M. W.
letter to
Exercises, trans. Phyllis
B. Tillyard, intro. and
Tillyard (Cambridge, 1932).
Alexander Gill
Jr.,
dated 2 July 1628, also expresses dislike for Cambridge and a
lack of congenial fellow students there. See Private Correspondence and Academic Exercises, ed. Till-
yard and Tillyard, 7-80. Shawcross argues that Shawcross,
"The Dating of Certain Poems,
Language Notes 2 (1965): 261-266.
this letter
should be dated 2 July 1631: see John T.
Letten, and Prolusions Written by Milton," English
STELLA
Two
P.
REVARD
457
of the poems commemorate the deaths of bishops (Lancelot Andrewes and
Nicholas Felton), the two others the deaths of the Beadle of Cambridge University,
Richard Ridding, and the Vice-Chancellor, John Gostlin. Although
at
the time of
Andrewes and Felton were bishops of Winchester and Ely respectively, both men had important ties with Cambridge University. Close friends, they had been in turn undergraduates, fellows, and finally masters of Pembroke Hall. Although the verses to Andrewes and Felton make no mention of their university connection, their deaths
Milton's audience
would have been well aware
he was commemorating the poems he exploits neo-classi-
that
deaths of two of its most distinguished alumni. In both cal
conventions, lamenting the cruelty of Death, excoriating Proserpina and the forces
of
a
pagan underworld, and arriving
lution,
finally at a semi-Christian, semi-classical reso-
wherein he depicts the bishops received into an Elysium-Uke heaven.
poems to the Vice-Chancellor and Beadle, also written in the fall of no less classical in his references, but he also connects the men comtheir university positions. John GostUn was a popular man, twice
In the funeral
1626, Milton
memorated
is
to
elected to the post of Vice-Chancellor, and was also noted as a physician.*
how Gosthn
ton praises his as
the leader
tae cui
RecaUing Cambridge in 1626, Milone of Apollo's devotees. At the same time he remembers him
had saved many firom the plague skills as
who
that ravaged
gave order to the "togaed society"
regimen datum"
(30)
— and wishes
that
at
Cambridge
— "Gentis
toga-
he yet were present to lead the flock
of Pallas. With a somewhat hghter touch, he office as university beadle, a post
also remembers Richard Ridding in his which he had held for twenty years.^ Beginning
with a typical Neo-Latin witticism, Milton remarks that the super-beadle Death has
He compares Ridding to the messenAgamemnon to Achilles. But he also pictures university processions and at the command of
gathered the university beadle to his company. ger Mercury and to the heralds sent by
him his
carrying his gUttering
mace
in the
"Apollo" (Gosthn) rousing the Cambridge assembUes, here
"togas": "tu
and Felton
si
iussus erat acies accire togatas" (11).
oflfer
Although
also pictured in their
Andrewes poems for the
his funera for
expressions of personal grief, Milton chooses in his
Vice-Chancellor and Beadle to make himself the spokesman for the university. calls
upon
the academic
community
Vestibus hunc igitur
to
pullis,
mourn
Academia, luge,
Et madeant lacrimis nigra Fundat
et ipsa
feretra tuis.
modos querebunda
Personet et
totis
He
for Ridding:
Elegeia
tristes,
naenia moesta schohs. (21—24)
[Therefore, grieve, University, for this man, and wear
mourning
vestments.
*
He
John Gostlin was master of Gonville and Caius College and
was Regius Professor of Physics.
He was
is
buried in the college chapel.
popularly chosen over the appointee of James
I
to be
master, and was twice Vice-Chancellor. *
Ridding took a degree from
St.
John's College, Cambridge, during the reign of Elizabeth.
MILTON AND CAMBRIDGE
458
May May
be wet with your
his black hearse
plaintive Elegy herself
and may aU the schools resound with Milton's
skills as a Latinist
low of Christ's College
Commencement. He
We
verse.
nium,"
to
his
behalf a set of verses to be read
do not know whether the poem
Both
fit
They
Latin correspondence in 1674.*
which he expressed both
quam
"De
attacks Plato's theory of ideal
scholastic debates in prose
and
verse.
published with his private
Prolusiones, survive,
give us another view of his relationship with
men
his
Cambridge and
in
he published in 1644. In Prolusion
7,
in the Latin prolusions written at
a tract written in English that
"Learning makes
were
which
Pati Se-
not subject to old age, or
Milton had very definite views on the educational practices of
his university.
Of Education,
is
the occasion and both are closely connected with
Cambridge of writing
Seven of Milton's prose debates, the
time,
the July
at
Non
was "Naturam
in question
that argues that nature
poems would
these
the practice at
lamenting song.]^
duly complied, producing a scholastic disquisition in Latin
Idea Platonica," another debate in verse, one form.'
a
did not go unnoted. In 1628 Milton was asked by a fel-
compose on
hexameter exercise
a
tears.
pour forth sad laments,
happier than does Ignorance" [Beatiores reddit
Homines Ars
he attacks scholasticism, maintaining that while the universities
Ignorantia],
He
also at-
method of teaching
arts" to
in the grip of scholasticism nothing but ignorance prevailed (624).
Of Education,
tacks scholasticism in
stating that "the usual
be "an old error of universities not yet recovered from the scholastic grossness of barbarous ages." Scholastic practices, he
asserts,
make
acquisition of learning difficult
(632). In Prolusion 3, "Against Scholastic Philosophy,"
he expresses the opinion that
pursuit of inane arguments and of futile and barren controversies
is
vain and does
nothing for the good of society and the honor of country. At Christ's College, how-
he
ever,
fulfilled the
orally the
and 5 demonstrate, tious
requirements of the university by composing and delivering
kind of exercise that was based on the old scholastic debate. Prolusions 4 as E.
methods of his
M.
Tillyard has observed, Milton's ability to use the disputa-
scholastic training.^
the prolusions and in
Milton
is
quite emphatic, however, both in
Of Education about the university's faulty
methods of teaching.
In Prolusion 7 he points out the errors in teaching grammar, logic, metaphysics, law,
and mathematics. In mathematics, for example, he notes
that if the
empty glory of
demonstrations and other things which are of no value were eliminated, whole years
*
As John Hale remarks, the poems for Ridding and Gosdin, as was the university custom, to the heane cloth at the funeral. See John Milton, Latin Writings, a
may have been pinned Selection, ed. '
and
trans.
John K. Hale,
MRTS
191 (Tempe,
Idea Platonica" was the
poem Milton
described in a letter to
"Naturam" and "De Idea Platonica" were written tain
AZ,
1998), 11.
See John Carey in Complete Shorter Poems (Burnt Mill, 1971), 66. Carey believes that Gill.
"De
Shawcross argues that both
in 1631. See Shawcross,
"The Dating of Cer-
Poems," 261-266. *
Milton himself gave these undergraduate exercises to the printer to take the place of the
official
Latin correspondence for
saved these university essays
all
Cromwell
his life,
that
he was forbidden to
before his death with his personal correspondence in '
See E.
M. W.
print.
Though he had
clearly
they might not have survived had they not been published this
volume.
Tillyard, "Introduction," in Private Correspondence and Academic Exercises, xix.
STELLA
would be gained
P.
REVARD
in the process of learning (627). In
459
Of Education he
inveighs against
compose themes, verses and orations, which are the acts of ripest judgment and the final work of a head filled by long reading and observing with elegant maxims and copious invention" (631). He deplores the fact that students are forced to memorize what they do not understand. the practice of "forcing the
He
empty
wits of children to
advocates that the best Latin texts be read, starting with reading the easy authors
and saving logic and metaphysics
first,
when
until later
students had matured and
could cope better with intellective abstractions. In that way students would not form the
habit
"ill
idiom with
which they
get of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and
be
their untutored Anglicisms, odious to
out a well-continued and judicious conversing they scarce taste" (631). Suffice
to say,
it
among pure
Greek
be avoided with-
read, yet not
authors digested,
Milton avoided such barbarisms in
and poetry. In the 1640s when he himself was a schoolmaster, tutoring
which
his prose
nephews
his
and other young men, Milton had the opportunity to put into practice the program of educational reforms that he
first
devised
Cambridge and which he advocated
at
in
Of Education. The methods of argument throughout
that
as
Milton mastered in
his Latin prolusions lasted
him
one of England's leading polemicists. The prolusions
his relationship to his fellow undergraduates.
Although
cannot date precisely or determine the order of composition of Milton's seven
prolusions, is
long career
something about
also tell us
we
his
it is
more
the
Prolusion
last.'"
1, "Whether day or night on "Learning and Ignorance" the
probable, as Tillyard argues, that Prolusion
excellent,"
is
the earhest. Prolusion 7
records an uneasy relationship of speaker to audience. Milton re-
1
marks on the hostihty evident in many eyes, caused, he
regrets,
by the
rivalry
among
proponents of different studies and different methods of study. However, by the time
he dehvers Prolusion fellow students
6,
seem
to
which
from the summer of 1628,
dates
his relations
have ameUorated. Unwittingly reveaHng
with
how much
his
their
disapprobation had stvmg him, he begins by remarking that he has lately perceived signs
of favor, even firom those previously most hostile to him.
he had given some months previously had received plause. Therefore,
chosen by
prolusion,
The
'"
members of his own
summer hoHdays
were
men
prolusion
is
of the university,
divided into three parts.
See Tillyard. Milton
xxx).
tells
us
office
college." That he had
Not as
by the
been speci-
speaker for the oration to be deUv-
by
this
time
only members of his college, but
Milton writes in the headnote to the
refers to his
he employs
in
all
audience
The
— proves
that
he was by
first is
this
an introduction in which he
as Auditores (hearers)
of the prolusions.
" Tillyard remarks: "That Milton was chosen to give
he
— warm ap-
present.
students), formal terms
as
academic oration
proves, as Tillyard remarks, that
a popular or at least respected person.
most of the young
also
fi-om
his fellow students as principal
ered at the time of the
he was
An
to his surprise
he was strongly induced to undertake the present
newfound friendhness fically
—
it
and
— before almost
as
Academici (fellow
the entire imiversity,
time a popular and respected person" ("Introduction,"
MILTON AND CAMBRIDGE
460
defends with considerable earnestness the practice of these vacation exercises, arguing
"That sportive exercises are occasionally not adverse to philosophic studies." The main body of the exercise is, as TiUyard describes it, "an elaborately comic entertainment" (xxx), complete with off-color jokes and the usual "ribbing" of college porters, tutors (conveniently absent for the occasion), and his fellow students. The final section concludes with an excursus into English verse and a promise to deliver such delights as are appropriate to EngUsh.
This part-Latin, part-English exercise presents a profile of Milton the undergrad-
who
uate,
at
the end of his third year
at
Cambridge was
his earnest scholarly habits to share in a little fun.
pains to defend his reputation
down
tling
called
as
a serious student.
to a course of extended literary
upon
At
able to quit for a
He
explains that he was just set-
and philosophical studies when he was
to devote himself instead to foolish trifles
and inventions of new jests,
though, he exclaims, there were not fools enough already in the world! play the fool, he says, he will be a wise fool, for wise
before played the fool.
And
folly itself
moment
he seems, however, to take
first
men
such
as
If
he
is
as
to
Junius Brutus have
can have commendable uses,
by
as its praise
Erasmus had demonstrated. In praising folly, Milton
fellow students
ment
who
is
not simply endeavoring to win the good will of those
have called him to
this exercise.
True, he launches
into hyperbolic praise of his audience as equal to those
Athenian orators such taking of his
humble
as
He
Demosthenes and Aeschines. of jests to the gods
feast
who
who
at this
mo-
flocked to hear
even compares those par-
have sometimes deigned to share
the banquets of mortals. But he also remarks seriously that sportive occasions are im-
portant occasions for cementing friendships. Friendship aspects of
human
life,
is
one of the most important
argues the scrivener's son from London,
paired of winning friends
at
Cambridge, but
who now
who had
embraces
this
earlier des-
occasion
as
the
from those who had previously shunned him. We must examine carefully, however, Milton's disclaimer that he is unsuited to the task of praising mirth. Is this not the very poet who a few years later will neatly sign of offered camaraderie
balance the opposing claims of Mirth and Melancholy in his twin poems, "L' Allegro"
and
"II
Penseroso"? Indeed,
necessary to
human
life as
as
he goes on
to
prove in
sober contemplation.
The
this
very prolusion, mirth
is
as
aspiring epic poet of Paradise
Homer could divert his audience with comic mock epic, The Battle of the Frogs and Mice, a piece
Lost points out that even the divine subjects, as
included gifts
as
he demonstrated in
his
authentic in most Renaissance editions of Homer. Jest and JoUity
of Milton's future goddess Mirth
for to banish light-heartedness
is
—
are freely to
The
exercise of wit,
making it lively
rather than dull.
also to banish serious study.
Milton argues, sharpens the brain for other
exercises,
Conversely, no one can be the master of fine and clever wit to
behave
seriously.
Having composed and
There
is
as
comic counterparts of the
Although Milton's
on the deaths of bishops,
he penned two witty EngHsh epitaphs,
Carrier," in 1631. These verses describe
and serve
who
has not
first
learnt
evidence also that Milton practiced what he preached.
serious Latin epitaphs
a beadle in 1626,
— the
be admitted into the academy,
talent for the
how Death
has laid old
elegies for great
a Vice-Chancellor,
"On
the Univenity
Hobson
in the dirt,
Winchester and noble Ely.
comic has often been underestimated, he demon-
STELLA
P.
REVARD
the sixth prolusion that he could play
sciates in
Commanding
Apollo's lyre.
his
461
on the
Pan
pipes of
as
well as
on
audience, "Plaudite et ridete," he concludes the fint
section of the exercise, excusing whatever
comic excesses he
is
about to commit on
the grounds of the hcense due the occasion.
of what he has
Little
and biting jests of the
said so far prepares us for the scurriHty
central section of the prolusion.
Assuming the post of Dictator of the
tottering
Com-
monwealth of Fools, Milton immediately launches into a comic send-up at the expense of a now departed Sophister, who, he says, better deserves than he the post of Dictator of Fools. The Sophister mentioned had engaged in a recent student prank and led a band of students across Barnwell fields to destroy the town aqueduct. Milton next asks his audience to imagine that they are celebrating the
Mother of the
sacred to the
gods, or a festival dedicated to the
In order to incite the appropriate laughter from his audience, he color puns (the grossest of which ant).
The
porters
is
he and
flaming brethren cause to
them
Such occasional humor has a short
modem a
restrain the
coming-together of the comic
he puns on the name of one such porter. Sparks, and the
his
attending students by alluding to
amusement for fered up before
himself.
a series of oflf-
oflfers
the victims of Milton's college humor. Imagining that the
a fiery furnace,
httle sparks that
of Hilaria,
an Oedipal play on the words sphinx and sphincter
is
have attempted to
become
assembly next scene
who
feast
god Laughter
as
span.
life
readers, they
fly
about.
He
then lampoons the
the dishes in the banquet that awaits them.
Although these
tidbits
provide
little
must have been the choicest of fare when of-
group of like-minded undergraduates attendant
at
the so-called feast
of Hilaria.
The master of ceremonies on such of the
occasions at
Milton willingly takes on the
Feast.
opportunity to requite those jesting classmates
Cambridge was
of Father, since
title
called the Father it
him
offers
the
who had dubbed him the "Lady" or says Milton, in mock surprise, have I
College. Good heavens, woman to man, just hke the fatefiil Tiresias or the mythic Caehow much the epithet "Lady of Christ's" must have irked Milton is
"Domina" of Christ's changed sex fi-om neus? Exactly
shown by linity.
the forcefiilness with
Was
called a
I
I
that those
asks,
because
I
it
and claims
his rightfiol
lacked the aptitude for
mascu-
downing
because my hand is imcallused by the plow, or my virihty by visits to the brothel? I wish, he concludes, who named me woman could as easily leave off being asses as I quit the
bumpers of drink Uke an because
which he repudiates
woman, he
athlete, or
have never shown
feminine. After this personal aside, Milton proceeds with his task, taking
up the
role
of
Father and addressing his sons. True to the academic occasion and the scholasticism that fostered
it,
he describes the Father
as
the Aristotehan Ens (Being) and his sons as
the Aristotehan categories or accidents of Ens: Substance, Quantity, Quahty, Relation, Place,
Time, Posture, Possession, Action, and Passion. But before he introduces
his sons to the audience,
he requests the hcense to move from Latin prose into Eng-
Ush verse. Launching into Enghsh pentameter couplets, Milton greets his native language: "Hail native Language!"
ton has prose.
made
his
Now he
It is
claim of eminence
moment. Up to this moment, MilCambridge by his expertise in Latin verse and Enghsh verse the language of Shakespeare,
a significant at
openly courts favor in
—
MILTON AND CAMBRIDGE
462 and
language of Milton. But not yet in 1628. Apart from some
yes, in the future, the
psalm paraphrases and some occasional lish
poems
that celebrates
the Latin
Milton had composed few of the Eng-
poems had
Cambridge
already
life,
The
his Latin poetry.
mask Comus, and
"L' Allegro" and "II Penseroso," the
monody
verses,
he would publish in 1645 with
that
Nativity ode,
finally "Lycidas," the
had yet to be written. In
been composed. So the "Lines
at a
contrast,
English
many of
Vacation Exercise"
promise much. Milton longs to soar in thought "above the wheeling poles, and Heav'n's door /
Look
throne doth
lie,
/ Listening to
wires, while
Hebe brings
and see each bhssful Deity
in,
what unshorn Apollo
sings /
Immortal Nectar to her Kingly
/
he proclaims, can he play "wise Demodocus"
at
at
How he before the thunderous
/
"King
To
th'
touch of golden
sire" (34—39)
But not
yet,
Alcinous' feast" (48—49): the
achievements of the blind bard are forty years ahead in the future. Milton has only
begun
his apprenticeship as
troduces his sons,
an English poet. So he resumes the role of Father and in-
who round
out the entertainment with their speeches in English
which has been lost. Prolusion 6 shows Milton in his most expansive role at Cambridge, the spokesman for his college before the entire university. Nine years later Cambridge was to call upon him once more to contribute a poem to a volume intended to commemorate the death of Edward King, a fellow student whom Milton had known in his days at prose, the text of
Christ's College.
The
animosities of old forgotten, Milton responds, producing the
most idealized representation of Cambridge, once more employing guage
— and not Latin —
college
life,
as
the
for praise.
describing himself and his friends
flocks (in pursuit of their studies)
university
medium
life,
like fauns
and
and
satyrs
who
as
He
shepherds
who
same monody, Milton, forgetting
charm of
daily drive afield their
nightly enjoy the games and pastimes of
dancing to the sound of
lighting their idealized tutor, a neo-classical Damoetas, this
his native lan-
depicts the rustic
who
rustic pipes
and de-
listens to their song. In
on "reedy" or "sedgy Cam,"
his previous slur
portrays the river as a pastoral representation of the university, a reverend sire with
mantle hairy and bonnet of sedge. Milton
with a warmth not often found in
by 1637 he was
fast
rememben
the Cambridge of his youth
his Latin prose exercises
becoming one of Cambridge's most
poetry and prose he produced while
and personal development during a
at
or Latin poetry. But then
illustrious
alumni.
The
Latin
the university give us insight into his poetic
crucial period of his
Southern
life.
Illinois University,
Edwardsville
Entertainment and Learning in the the Seventeenth- Century
Neo-Latin Rebuses by
Norwegian Nils Thomassen
ROGGEN
VIBEKE
Nils Thomasson was bom Oslo, in
Thomas
in
1605 or 1606
as
the youngest son of the vicar of
Lageson. Like his brothers, Nils was well educated: he studied
Copenhagen, Rostock, Leiden, and Wittenberg, and took
the age of twenty-five he was called
of his
home
city,
a city
home
which had changed
since his childhood. After a
Christian IV, had taken the opportunity to
Akershus, and
named
the
was not an independent
new town
state
capital
Neither had
Norway
move
town
the king.
fire,
closer to the fortress of
rule; thus the
of its own; the few young
start their studies in
At
Norway name the
that time
king whose
his position as
men who were
pursuing
Copenhagen.
After a quarrel with one of the most powerfial
enough
the
Christiania after himself.
but under Danish
a university
higher education had to
km
At
bore for three hundred yean was not Norwegian but Danish.
Norwegian
had to leave
his Master's degree.
to take over as headmaster of the school
men
of Christiania, Nils Thomasson
headmaster in 1635. But the following year he was lucky
to get a position as vicar of Toten, a rich parish in the countryside,
north of Christiania. His portrait
is still
some 120
preserved in the parish church there. Ex-
cept for a short period of suspension because of a controversial leaflet he had written. Nils
Thomasson remained
From
the sources,
as vicar
we know
of Toten for the
that Nils
most of which, however, were not printed and which caused his suspension, and which in fact was
leaflets,
let
rest
have
is
a gratvilatory
poem, printed
of his
are
life.
He
died in 1662.
number of books and lost today. Even the leaf-
Thomasson wrote
a
printed,
is lost.
What we do
in the catechism of a contemporary. Christen
Staphenson Bang,' and one major work, Cestus
sapphicus.
The
latter
work
is
the sub-
ject of this study.^
'
Christen Staphenson Bang,
-
See Vibeke Roggen, "Intellectual Play:
Postilla Catechetka,
8 vok. (Christiania, 1650-1662), 2:48.
Word and
Picture.
A
Study of Nik Thomasson's
NEO-LATIN REBUSES OF NILS THOMASS0N
464
Cestus sapphicus Cestus sapphicus
is
a pretty little
book with
hundred and
a varied content. It has a
Thomas-
ten pages measuring 16.2 centimetres in height and was printed by Michael
son in Christiania in 1661.
The
subject of Cestus sapphicus
marriage and married
is
The word
translated "a love-belt in Sapphic stanzas".
the Iliad 14.214flf.,
life,
and the
or KEax6c,
cestus
where Hera borrows Aphrodite's magic
taken from
girdle in order to
back the love of her unfaithful husband Zeus. Nils Thomassen writes in
name of this book
duction that the girdle
is
a
may be
title
is
been chosen for various reasons: because the
has
symbol of the connection between husband and wife in marriage, and
because the Greek word Keaxdc,
is
also
connected with the verb KEVxelv, to prick or sting
The most important element of
(referring to embroidery).
win
his intro-
Cestus sapphicus
is
thirty-
one copperplate engravings giving graphic expression to a rebus poem. The artist who made the copperplates was the unemployed Norwegian priest Didrik Muus (1633-1706).
The Content of the Poem The
central part of Cestus sapphicus
as its subject.
strating
how
Included in the book
The scheme all
is:
persons of
all
poem
in thirty-one stanzas with marriage
in the
form of a
logical table,
demon-
been constructed.
has
who
asked:
is
a
scheme
has ten major parts. Part
In Part 4, the question
answer
poem
carefully the
is
a
is
is
1 is
a definition, namely:
the subject, that
is,
who
nations and ages, and both sexes.
what
is
marriage?
wants to marry?
Other
The
parts contain a
description of the advantages of marriage, the enemies of marriage, and rules for the
married couple in order that their marriage should be happy.
As
a
whole, the scheme
is
a curious
element of Cestus
uncommon
sapphicus,
and
a highly
poems and other kinds of works in the form of tables. For instance, the Danish professor Aders Krag analysed Horace's Ars poetica in this way.^ Rosemond Tuve identifies elements derived from logic in English Renaissance poems, for example, definitions of love.* Tuve infers from her material that the poets used the logic they had learned at school for composing poetry; in Cestus sapphicus we have an example of a scheme which has intellectual one. In that period,
it
was not
to analyse
been published along with the poem in question.
An Example: What most
is
Stanza 23
regulated by the scheme
striking
element of
this
is
poem
the content and structure of the
is its
form, or,
Latin
Rebus Book
diss.,
Oslo University, forthcoming). In the following,
Cestus sapphicus.
and to the 1661 edition with *
folio
Andreas Kragius, Q. Horatii
With
more
Edition, Translation and a I
refer to
poem. But the
precisely, the rebuses.
my
The
Corpus of Sources" (Ph.D. edition with page numbers
numbers. Flacci
Ars
Poetica,
ad P.
Rami
dialecticam
&
rhetoricam resoluta
(Basle, 1583). *
Rosemond Tuve,
tury Critics
Elizabethan and Metaphysical Imagery: Renaissance Poetic and Twentieth-Cen-
(Chicago and London, 1965), 301-302.
ROGGEN
VIBEKE
shows one of the
illustration
Eve — Eva — through
give the
a picture, partly
and
plant, scylla, a squill,
we
two female
most usual name for figures.
The
three figures
last
together in
firont
Of these
common
show an
see, a
cork-oak. There
word
is
is
+
the picture of
presented partly
The
axle of
have one
ape, simius or simia, but cluna. is
More-
characterized by
woman is an allegorical figure: Hope woman holding an anchor. Personifi-
other
in Protestant churches in the
wagon,
a
We
an ape; the solution
also
Eve from the Old Testament
or, in Latin, Spes, traditionally depicted as a
were
letters "sa"
letters.
the tempting apple and the fig leaf
cations of this type
As we
find different kinds of rebus figures.
a tree, suber, a
involves, however, not the
over, there are
saeva, "wild".
through
In this stanza, stanza 23,
For instance, the
stanzas.
word
465
form of paintings.
and three horses harnessed
a mortar,
of a wagon.
figures,
some
pretation of the figure,
and easy to
are concrete
interpret, others are not.
of the rebuses
sary condition for a successfial solving
knowledge of at
least
is
the
skill
one Latin word
A neces-
of combination: interfor the object,
and
as-
sociation with the surrounding text.
The
dred rebuses in the form of pictures. Problems might
not manage
which
more than two hun-
reader of Cestus sapphicus meets with a challenge to solve
to solve the rebuses? In that case,
what
he might look
are included in Cestus sapphicus. If there
own
solved through the reading of the author's
arise:
were
still
at
if
the reader could
the rebus solutions,
problems, these might be
commentaries.
The Rebus Genre The
rebus genre was popular in the Renaissance period, but mostly in vernacular
Uteratures.
Examples are found in French,
e.g.,
"rebus de Picardie"; in Dutch, used
made by artists and members of hterabroadsheets, published as propagansocieties; and German, for instance, used on ry in War. example of a Latin rebus is found in Denmark, da during the Thirty Years' An over the entrance of the Round Tower in Copenhagen. But according to IJsewijn and Sacre in their Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, rebus poems in Latin are rare.* The only example they mention is, in fact, the Cestus sapphicus.
by the Rederijkers;
What
is
the
in Italian, artificial rebuses
Meaning of Such Rebuses?
In addition to
word and
picture, a rebus includes the elements
guessing, and also of game and entertainment.
ator of the rebus as well as the reader.
Both
of thinking and
These two elements motivate the cre-
parties
want
to demonstrate their inteUi-
gence, wit, quick mind, and sharp thinking. Friedreich emphasizes in his description
of riddles from 1860 the intellectual challenge connected with
riddles:
Da das Aufgeben und Losen von Rathseln einen bestimmten Grad von Wissen, von Verstand und Scharfsinn
'J. IJsewijn
and D.
Sacre,
voraussetzt, so erscheint das Rathsel nicht allein
Companion
Lovaniensia 14) (Leuven, 1998). 130.
to
Neo-Latin Studies, Part 2 (Supplementa Humanistica
NEO-LATIN REBUSES OF NILS THOMASS0N
466
um die
kann auch dazu dienen,
We
und
ein Sinnbild der Weisheit selbst,
als
ist
auch selbstbelehrend, sondern
geistigen Fahigkeiten eines
Andern zu
es
priifen.^
get even closer to our rebuses through Dick Higgins's definition of "puzzle
poem"
By
in his Pattern Poetry. Guide
a puzzle
poem, one
usually
to
an
Unknown
means
Literature
a piece in
of 1987:
which the poet
reader to play a game, to solve the problem of what the
invites the
poem means
not by
learned allusions or such-like, but by taking only the evidence given in the
poem and working through
it
Higgins's definition of the puzzle as
we
words and expressions
see,
And both Higgins and trying one's own wit as well
ure".
Nils
Thomass0n on
From
so as to give pleasure/
poem
— including the rebus poem — emphasizes,
like "play a
game", "solve the problem" and "pleas-
Friedreich emphasize the game, to obtain pleasure by as
the wit of others.
Cestus sapphicus
and Genre
Nils Thomasson's description of his
poem,
it
is
evident that he did not
known from France in the sixteenth century). He uses the expression picturatum carmen, which may perhaps be translated "poem with figures". Cestus sapphicus is dedicated to the hereditary prince of Denmark—Norway, Chris-
know
the
word
rebus (first
King Christian V. In connection with an address to the Prince, Nils Thomasson modestly characterizes his work as ludicrum exercitium, which I translate as
tian, later
"playful literary work":
Non ausus eram,
Serenissime Princeps,
dedicare ni animo
vim
hoc ludicrum exercitium
doctiores addidissent
[.
In this connection, ludicrum exercitium expresses modesty: this
work" (and not
literary
as
we
gued in
understand, he does dedicate the
earlier parts
poem
a weighty, serious one, befitting a prince).
son concludes otherwise: he explains that more learned
and
Vestrcs Celsitudini
.].*
.
book
men have
given
He
to the prince.
is
essential for
^
J.
.
.]
"playfiil
him
courage,
himself has ar-
human beings. word lusus of his work, and
In his introduction, the author uses the "[.
only a
of the introduction that such playful exercise, like other types of
meaningful entertainment,
with ingenium:
is
But Nils Thomas-
figurae
potissimum sunt in hoc ingenii lusu
[.
.
connects
it
.]."^ Ingenii lusus.
B. Friedreich, Geschichte des Rdthsels Presden, 1860), 84.
Pattern Poetry. Guide to an Unknown Literature (Albany, 1987), 184. would not have dared, Most Serene Prince, to dedicate this playful literary work to Your .]" {Cestus sapphicus, p. 7, fol. a4v). Highness, if more learned men had not encouraged me ' "The very best part of this intellectual game is the rebus figures" {Cestus sapphicus, p. 13, fol. ^
Dick Higgins,
*
"I
[.
Av).
.
VIBEKE
ROGGEN
STROPHA
467
23.
mxnlus sd
ick
#c
vando
1^
SchoiioH,
SCli^
The twenty-third
stanza of the rebus
poem
in Cestus sapphicus.
Transcribed Latin text, stanza 23:
Vt maritus sa{eva}
pericla {Scylla}e
So{spes} evitet, Deus alme, f{axis},
Atqve {cluna}cluin, {Sagana}m s{triga}sqve
Qvando
{suber}rant!
English translation:
Let the husband avoid Scylla's raging dangers
unharmed, merciful God, and the
when
sacrificial knife,
Sagana, and other witches
they are wandering around.
NEO-LATIN REBUSES OF NILS THOMASS0N
468
"intellectual
game",
which
a description
is
is
rather close to Higgins's definition of
puzzle poem. In the
commentary on the
last stanza,
of "genre". The author finds that Isocrates,
who
says that
"There
the concept "genus"
a point
is
is
used in the meaning
about time to stop, quoting in
it is
of
connection
this
satiety for everything".'" Nils
Thom-
asson adds:
[.
.]
.
hasc litant veritati in
qvidni in
seriis,
quale hoc fere carminis genus
ludicris,
propter figuras}^
Here Nils Thomasson characterizes the genre of his poem with the words in ludicris, which I translate as "in playful (matters)", and puts this in contrast to in seriis, in serious matters.
The Rebus Rules
in Cestus sapphicus
The element of entertainment which
quality
in Cestus sapphicus
seen by the author
is
is
connected with the rebuses,
the core and the best part of the book. But the
as
rebuses in Cestus sapphicus do not only entertain: they are also connected with learn-
One
ing.
learned element
author gives
poem
own
his
in itself
is
is
the commentaries: to each of the thirty-one stanzas the
explanations, with suggestions for further reading.
also highly intellectual in character, a fact
by the scheme in the form of rules: a list
1.
The motif should belong
rule
we
to the category
debet esse in praedicamento substantias
The meaning of this
is
is
essential for us
The
.
.
shall
rebus
proved primarily
here are the rebus
rules for the rebuses, presented as a part
often "requisita" or formal
introduction to the book. In what follows,
Rule
But
a logical table.
which
of the
concentrate on these rebus rules.
nouns" [Res
"concrete
quam
figura notat
.].
that the motif should
be apt for
the pictures in Cestus sapphicus have concrete nouns
as motifs.
a picture.
Almost
all
Exceptions in stanza
23 are the personified virtue Hope, and Eve from the Old Testament.
Rule
2.
The is
The motif cannot
effect
of this rule
is
to
make
it
meant, not the general concept
see that the
cork-oak,
'"
be a kind, but a species
same
is
true for trees
[Non
potest esse genus
.
.
.
sed species
clear that in the case of, e.g., birds, the species avis, bird.
From
and flowers.
An
Nils Thomasson's practice
we
example from stanza 23
the
is
suber.
"TKiVTUV eatl TtXria^ovt^,
Omnium
rerum
est satietas", Cestus sapphicus, p. 106, fol.
M4r;
Isoc. 1.20.
" "This as this
is
true
where
serious matters are concerned;
why
not then in playful (matters), such
kind of near-poetry in representations" {Cestus sapphicus,
p. 106, fol.
M4r).
VIBEKE
Rule
The noun
3.
469
that the figure depicts should be as remote as possible from the significance
of the word into which
it is
quantum
jecta, debet
ROGGEN
[Nomen
placed
seu
vocabulum quod notat
possibile distare ... a significatione vocis in
figura oculis sub-
qua eadem ponitur].
This rule means that a figure word cannot have etymological connection with the
poem of which
it forms a part. One example is the above-mentioned poem, this figure forms the prefix and the first part of the verb in suberrant, wander about. This rule makes the task a lot more difiBcult for the rebus composer, since
word
in the
suber in
many
our
stanza; in the
possible rebuses cannot be used, and
it
makes the
task
reader too, since the obvious cannot be correct: the picture
mean
Latin) does not
meaning is
— but but
a heart in the text
—
more
difficult for the
of, e.g., a
heart
(cor
in
neither in a direct nor in a transferred
rather stands for the string of letters "cor". This very figure
used in stanza 20, forming part of the adjective cordo (aftermath). This rebus rule creates a need for commentaries, explanations, and refer-
ences to learned works, in order to establish the etymology of
example
is
clepsydra
name of an
and Clepsydra: the figure of an hourglass
actual fountain in
Athens (stanza
is
derived firom
raritate
is
He
pairs.
used to form part of the
commentary, Nils Thomasson
dentium.
word
One
used to present the
14).
In stanza 19, the picture of a rake, rastrum, serperastrum (knee-splints). In the
is
refers to Martinius,
word
states that rastrum
who
quotes an older
authority:
Papias: Rastri ferramenta culture a raritate dentium aratra dicuntur.
We
Idem meUus:
see that in this case Nils
Martinius finds best, but the authority
who
says that
dicti.
hoc nomine
&
Rastri a radendo terram}^
Thomassen does not follow the etymology which good one. It seems that his motive is to find an
less
"rastrum"
is
not derived fi-om the same root
as
the
last
element of serperastrum; otherwise, he could not use the picture of a rastrum here. Rule
4.
Usually, one or more
letters
should accompany the picture [Litera
figurx latine reddendae directrix adsit
The meaning of
this rule
is,
as it
.
.
homonyms
scylla
and
ing "squill", a plant, the
word
in the
that
And
of the
the letter "e"
which
is
make
seems, to
terpret the picture: "in gratiam Lecturi". is
una vel
An
{Scylla}e.
it
easier for the reader to in-
example firom the twenty-third stanza
While the
poem means
figure
word
has the
mean-
the monster by the same name.
added gives the genitive case of the word in the
poem.
'-
Quoted from Matthias
altera
.].
Martinius, Lexicon phihlogicum
(Bremen 1623),
s.u.
Rastrum.
.
NEO-LATIN REBUSES OF NILS THOMASS0N
470
Rule 5a. The same figure should not be
non
mum ibidem An
effect
rule
of this rule
is
to
twice, in stanzas 2 and 21. za 17). is
saepius potent;
are allowed
[Eadem
figura
modo vocabulum Homony-
repertum, plures figuras subministret]
make
it
much more
broken once, in the case of
is
homonyms
repeated, but
semel pingatur; vox vero eadem
nisi
One
iris,
difficult to
compose
This flower
lily.
We find also the homonym
iris
iris
is
takes care to use the reader.
Ama,
poem.
Of these four, two
(stan-
that another object
in Plautus's CaptiviP
homonyms, but
homonyms
figure
as a
poem,
Nils Thomasson's practice, as demonstrated in this rebus
clear that he not only allows
The
rebuses.
used
is
meaning rainbow
possible explanation for the "illegal" repetition
meant, perhaps a hedgehog, called
From
blue
uses as
way
in such a
many
that they will
it is
Besides, he
as possible.
be noted by the
for instance, has been used four times with different meanings in the are in the
same
and both times included in forms
stanza,
of the verb amare.
Rule 5b. Every
verse should contain at least one picture [Singuli versus
tineant figuram
.
.
is
saltim con-
.].
The meaning of this This
unicam
rule
is, I
a difficult rule for the
think, to preserve the character of the rebus
author to obey:
it
must have been
invent one rebus or even two for the short versus Adonicus. But there
without a picture in Cestus
From stanza stanzas
is
this rule,
we
six
more
or
is
no
verse
sapphicus.
see that the
minimum number
four. In Cestus sapphicus, the lowest
have
poem.
especially hard to
figures.
The
highest
of figures allowed per
number found is five, while most number of figures in one stanza is
twelve (stanza 22).
Rule [Si
6. If the figure
vox
There such
word has
three syllables, the accent
figurae est notata trisyllaba, accentus
are in Cestus sapphicus a
cases, the
means
number of
figure
in both instances
est ratio
words with three
.
.
.].
syllables. In
accent "in both instances" must be considered. ("In both instances"
in the figure
word
as
well
of the figure words in stanza 15 part of the
must be considered
utrobique habenda
word
is
as
in the
word
in the
lucanus, "beetle".
is
solved, the rebus forms
with the meaning of "early in the
antelucanus, an adjective
morning". In both these words, the "a"
poem.) For example: one
When
long, and consequently the syllable
is
stressed.
'^
V. 184.
Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1968),
form of the word extant
in later Latin).
A
s.v. iris^:
hedgehog."
"N.B.: perh. better written
er-
(the
u O
6 Pi H
u
^
5
f/3
^
.s
s s o
1 £
^ 1
J X
X
u
cu
o
E 3 re
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.^
O
c
E
5:
> ^
at
bo
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t
9
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e*
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ec^i
at
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g «> o o
jc
«»
%;
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(D :^
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> ^ crK 5 ;3
?«5
-o
^o
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^ «
5;
-? UJ
r£
c
->
f '
f
xi
•'^
^ u c, ^
g :3 <> s r^ u ^ k. S;
-5
•?
NEO-LATIN REBUSES OF NILS THOMASS0N
472
Rule
The figure ought
7.
It is
not
use
fair to
ognized, because
to
be simple, not obscure [Figura
motifs objects
as
this will
make
sit facilis,
non obscura
.
.
.].
which can hardly be depicted, or hardly rec-
the reader's task too difficult and prolong
it.
The
author gives some examples of words which are almost impossible to solve.
Rule
Two
8.
constituere
.
words
may make one figure [Duo vocabula mutua ope possunt figuram
.].
.
Each
figure
word must have
text.
When
space between words
tion: if
the same spelling is
one figure word "participates"
to separate the
words and add
as
the actual part of the
word
in the
concerned, however, rule 8 allows an excepin
two words
in the
poem, the reader has
One example
a space himself
is
the figure Atlas in
sat lassus (stanza 4).
Rule
9.
The
Method.
method
ninth rule describes the author's
Rule 10. The figures should be of high
for
composing the rebus poem.
quality.
Surely this rule has been obeyed by Nils Thomasson: the figures are beautiful,
demonstrating the motifs in an
artistic
way.
Conclusion I
have tried to demonstrate that our rebus book
ture in Latin. is
also
We have
the author's
word
what makes excuses necessary
for this,
is
a piece
of entertainment
litera-
and the element of entertainment
in his eyes. His excuses are, primarily, that
all
people have to relax sometimes. Moreover, there are meaningful kinds of entertainment, like his book, which points the
onwards.
It
way
to
European Uterature from
does so through the rebuses themselves,
as
Homer
well as through the learned
commentaries.
The
rebus
to be solved;
To
Nils
is
seen historically
it is
as a playful
genre.
The entertainment
lies
in the task
entertaining to try one's brains, and try other persons' brains as well.
Thomasson,
and more challenges
this
—
was not enough:
strict
rebus rules represent
more
learning
to his readers and, not least, to himself
Oslo University
Blondelli Comparatio Pindari et Horatii.
Illustris
Les commentaires sur
et d' Horace
de Pindare
XVIIe
a la fin du
oeuvres
les
siecle
FRANgOIS ROUGET
On
sait
Siecle.
race,'
a consacre a
Ho-
I'instruction delivree au college et dans le
gout
Depuis I'ouvrage de reference que Jean Marmier
on connait son importance dans
litteraire
de I'epoque.
Pourtant, une figure interessante de
France a ete negligee jusqu' a present:
Ton
doit
Grand
quelle place les Anciens occupent dans le paysage culturel du
une Comparaison
il
la
transmission de
s'agit
et d' Horace
de Pindare
Barbin) et reeditee en 1686 (Amsterdam,
W.
en
la tradition classique
de Francois Blondel (1617—1686), a qui
pubUee en
fran^ais
en 1673
(Paris, CI.
Abraham), avant de connaitre une
diffu-
sion europeenne.^
Get ouvrage meriterait un long examen. Blondel y resume deux poetes
lyriques.
commente
II
leurs textes et enrichit ses
la vie et I'oeuvre
remarques par
mediaire de QuintiUen, Scaliger, Turnebe et Heinsius, entre autres. Pourtant,
du modele de
spire de ces critiques et
Rapin), Blondel
Dans
les
sait
comparaison (comme
la
pages suivantes, nous aimerions rappeler les
enjeux
et les limites
Horace. Enfin, nous voudrions resituer
fait
le
pour
rehabiliter Pindare et
paraitre la traduction
du
Horace en France au dix-septieme
Ed. anglaise (Londres, Bennet, 1696); latine
J.
Kritikon
[.
.
.],
siecle (Paris,
sive
le
contexte
et
litteraire et le
Gar au moment ou Blondel
promouvoir I'image d'Horace, Boileau,
Traite
'
Le Paulmier,
R.
parcours bio-bibliographique
Comparaison dans
sa
^
dans
s'in-
et
de son commentaire sur Pindare
climat intellectuel de son temps et montrer son impact.
de son cote,
s'il
G. Scaliger
depasser ses modeles et s'en ecarter.
de Blondel, puis indiquer
edite son parallele
J.
des
I'inter-
du sublime du pseudo-Longin, et VArt
1962). {Illustris
Blondelli comparatio Pindari et Horatii),
Pro Lucano Apologia (Lyon, 1704, 1707;
Amsterdam, 1709).
474
LES
ou
poetique
meme
COMMENTAIRES SUR PINDARE ET D'HORACE
prend
il
la
defense des Anciens. Les deux ecrivains frequentent alors le
salon, partagent la
recoupent, jusqu'a
meme
ferveur pour le lyrisme antique et leurs ceuvres se
de Blondel peu avant que n'eclate publiquement
la disparition
"Querelle des Anciens
et des
la
Modernes".
Fran9ois Blondel: sa vie et son ceuvre
Rappelons d'abord
les
grandes dates qui ont marque I'existence et
Francois-Nicolas Blondel, cet humaniste verse dans
la carriere
confondre avec son homonyme, Francois Blondel, medecin, avec lequel
gout de
la science.
Mais
seur de botanique, est
la
comparaison
connu pour
s'arrete
telisme a la Faculte et contre I'introduction il
de commentaires
est I'auteur
de
lui
et
la.
de
Boileau.
Ne a Ribemont en
maitre des requetes de techniques,
paux ports Mazarin,
il
il
la reine
de
et
semble avoir joue un role dans
la galere
le
"La Cardinale"
C'est a cette date que sa carriere prit
peen pendant pres de quatre
ans.
De
la
solde de
depen-
la
de I'expedition de Sicile
son retour,
il
fut charge
de
Provence (1650—1651).
un nouveau tournant. II devint d'abord celui-ci un grand tour euro-
entama avec
a Berlin (1657), et a Constantinople (1658),
s'accomplit fort bien de sa tache.
Des
lors, sa
reputation ira grandissant.
pont
et la porte
les fortifications
il
la ville
il
a 1668, le
fut directeur
et
de construire I'arsenal de Rochefort
nomme professeur de mathematiques au
de Paris (1672-1674), marechal de camp (1675),
Voyageur
Amsterdam
la
il
II
mourut
le
Blondel
commenfa
son
esprit d'inlassable
par composer des vers {La Solitude
Paru anonymement en 1671. Voir Boileau, (Euvres
A
de
meme ou
et d' Horace.
se distingue aussi par
Relation de voyage de Berlin h Constantinople (1658), des entretiens
1966), 325 et suiv.
College
et enfin professeur
21 Janvier 1686, I'annee
Comparaison de Pindare
infatigable, Francois
curiosite. Eclectique,
le
de I'Academie d'architecture, charge des ouvrages publics
mathematiques du Dauphin (1683). fut reeditee a
Roi en personne
leva les cartes marines des Antilles (1667-1669). Associe a
I'Academie des Sciences (1669), puis royal (1671),
De 1662
de Dunkerque, du Havre (1662), de restaurer
romaine de Saintes (1665),
(1666). Cartographe,
^
plan des princi-
exterieures de la France,
les affaires
A
aine d'un
sciences et
retour en France, Henri de Lomenie, secretaire
en mission diplomatique
chargea de renforcer
une
et
le
fils
les
revoke du Portugal contre
la
et se distingua lors
gouverneur de Louis-Henri de Brienne
de
moque
au contraire proche de
au Portugal. Espion habile, a
deuxieme due de Richelieu en 1647.
d'Etat, I'envoya
ici, est
marine, et charge de lever
la
en Espagne
dresser le plan des fortifications sur le littoral de
le
I'aristo-
Boileau se
mere, annobli en 1654. Verse dans
fut re^u ingenieur
et places militaires
commanda
menee par
il
latin.
1618, F. Blondel, sieur des Croisettes, est le
dance espagnole en 1640. Toujours implique dans
ou
reforme de
la
dans V Arrest burlesque.^
Francois-Nicolas Blondel, celui qui nous interesse
il
partage le
du quinquina. Conservateur convaincu, de medecine en
traites
il
de
ne pas
Le medecin (1609?-1682), profes-
joua contre
le role qu'il
A
les arts et les sciences.
completes, ed.
A.
Adam
noter que I'index de cette edition ne discrimine pas
les
royalle,
en
1653),
latin sur la
et F. Escal (Paris,
deux hommes.
FRANCOIS ROUGET physique de Galilee, deux
475
qui firent autorite {Rholution des quatre
traites d' architecture
principaux problemes d' architecture, 1673, et Cours d' architecture, 1675—1683),
du calendrier remain (1682), deux ouvrages de technique bombes,* Nouvelle maniere de fortifier
les places,
1
683) et
une
histoire
militaire (L'Art dejetter
(1683). Fin stratege et technicien competent, F. Blondel
les
Cours de mathematiques
le
partager son
fit
immense
erudition en prive, en tant que precepteur, mais aussi en public, lors des seances qui
beaux
reunissaient les Paris,
du temps chez
esprits
le
Guillaume de Lamoignon. C'est dans
chercher I'origine de
Comparaison de Pindare
la
Premier President du Parlement de
les
discussions de ce cercle qu'il faut
et d' Horace,
sur laquelle nous allons a
present nous pencher.
La Comparaison Dans
de Pindare et d 'Horace
rimprimeur
sa preface,
rappelle au lecteur les circonstances de presentation,
de redaction, puis de publication du parallele de Blondel. La frequentation assidue de
Lamoignon, puis
I'assemblee de savants, se reunissant une fois par semaine chez
"commandement" ordonne deux grands
des
comme
lyriques, furent le point
le precise
Blondel,
Reproduisant d'abord
le
par son president* de coucher par ecrit la comparaison
fiit
de depart de cet ouvrage. La comparaison,
retouchee plusieurs
les citations
fois
aux
de
fins
la publication.
de Pindare et d'Horace dans leur langue d'origine,
fiit amene finalement a les accompagner de traduction en fian^ais afin d'atun plus large lectorat. La vocation pedagogique apparaitra plus nettement encore a la mort de Blondel puisque la Comparaison sera associee aux Comparaisons de Rene Rapin et reUee dans le meme volume edite par Wolfgang Abraham. Rapin et Blondel appartenaient a I'entourage de Lamoignon et les deux hommes oeuvraient a
I'auteur
teindre
difiuser les Belles Lettres
en France
s'etaient raUies a I'enseignement
et
en langue vernaculaire, depuis que
en langue
vulgaire.*
Ceux-ci,
d'aillevu:^,
cepte de Quintilien, pla^aient dans I'etude des poetes anciens
Mais quelle dare,
si
etait la situation
les editions
qu'il s'agit
de Pindare
base de I'education.
la
d'Horace au XVIIe
et
siecle?
ne manquent pas jusqu'en 1623, on peut quand
de reeditions. C'est
a travers celles
de
F.
les Jesuites
selon le pre-
Pour Pin-
meme
Morel (1582, 1623),
et
preciser
de P. Es-
Huet et Racine decouvrent le poete thebain. Passe le premier du siecle, Pindare se fait plus discret dans la production editoriale. Pour Horace, il en va tout autrement, et Marmier a bien souUgne le role qu'Ho-
tienne (1599), que quart
race joue dans I'enseignement, en particulier chez les Jesuites,^ et la fortune de ses textes dans I'edition tout au
*
long du XVIIe
Public a Paris (1683 et 1699),
sente au
Roi
des 1675, de
meme
Amsterdam
que L'Art
siecle. Virgile
(1690), et La
de fortifier
les
Haye
places
mis a
part,
Horace
(1685), le manuscrit en
est le
flit
en 1673. La publication en
pre-
fut re-
tardee afin de preserver le secret des techniques militaires fi-anfaises. *
Cf
Comparaison de Pindare
et
d'Horace (Amsterdam, 1686), fol
A2
r,
et p. 5.
Toutes nos refer-
ences renvoient a cette edition. '
Voir Marmier, Horace en
^
Voir
aussi F.
M. Compere
France, 23.
de Dainville, L'Education
(Paris, 1978),
168-170.
des Jesuites
(XVIe-XVIIIe
siedes), textes
reunis par
M.-
476
LES
COMMENTAIRES SUR PINDARE ET D'HORACE commente.
principal poete latin etudie, traduit, et
theques, est inscrit a tous
les
reeditees. Jusqu'en 1670, les
programmes
II
figure dans toutes les biblio-
des colleges, et ses oeuvres sont sans cesse
commentaires de Turnebe
editions savantes de Muret, d'Estienne, ont encore
la
et
de Lambin dominent, et
faveur des
lettres.
les
Lorsque parait
Comparaison de Blondel en 1673, on peut done dire qu'eUe repond a un interet
la
constant pour le poete
parce qu'elle remet clipsee par ceUe
une ferveur generale. Mais
latin, a
elle se singularise
d'Homere.
Francois Blondel
sait alors fort
bien que
c'est la, sans
doute, que reside I'un des
attraits de son ouvrage. Mais avant d'en preciser le contenu, rappelons-en la
sition.
surtout
a I'honneur I'ceuvre de Pindare, generalement et largement e-
Apres un court prologue
compo-
une dedicace a Lamoignon, Blondel rappeUe
(5),
la
vie des deux lyriques (leurs origines, 5-7; leur pays, 7-9), et decrit leurs mceurs (leur
9—12; leur education, 12-14; leurs qualites morales et leur temperament, 14—29;
foi,
leurs amours, 30—31).
leur
epoque (36—39),
race).
Blondel souligne
aussi leur destin
et detaiUe leurs oeuvres
Et de conclure sur
le
exceptionnel (31—35), eclaire
genie respectif de chacun d'entre eux (76—78).
Cette breve analyse comparee du lyrisme antique se signale par erudition et
la
passion dont
Ho-
(40—64 pour Pindare; 64—76 pour
fait
paraison et tente de souHgner
preuve
les
la
precision de son
commentateur. Blondel procede par com-
le
merites et
defauts de
les
chacun d'entre eux.
Ses idees sur Pindare sont nourries de ses lectures nombreuses. Blondel s'appuie sur
Quintilien, Pausanias, Elien, sur
Horace
meme
qui avoue sa dette a I'egard du
bain {Odes, 4.2). Le portrait qu'il trace du poete
cerne les
sa
personne
et ses moeurs. Fils
est
d'un joueur de
peuples ont toujours passe pour grossiers"
(7),
oeuvres illustrent sa vertu et sa devotion aux dieux. paien! Blondel croit
Testament
meme
The-
nuance, mesure, en ce qui conflute, originaire
de Beotie "dont
Pindare fut pourtant pieux et
Ce
qui est deja tres bien pour
ses
un
percevoir dans son oeuvre des reminiscences de I'Ancien
poete
(15). Ainsi christianise, ce
est
rendu plus proche de nous, plus ac-
ceptable aussi. Face a I'adversite, Pindare adopte en outre une attitude toute chre-
tienne de comprehension et de pardon (22), et (22). Bref,
un
portrait elogieux
que
seul le
il
n'a "jamais
mal parle de personne"
gout demesure de I'argent semble nuancer
(26). Car Pindare etait cupide et il a vendu sa poesie au plus ofFrant. Autre exces, son penchant pour I'amour, en particulier "I'amour des Carbons" (Theoxene, 31), que
Blondel tente de comprendre d'apres
les
moeurs de I'Antiquite. Heureusement,
il
se
rachete par son oeuvre (malgre ses detracteurs) et sa gloire posthume.
Blondel
est fascine
et par I'etendue
par
temoignages de louanges qui sont parvenus jusqu'a
les
de son genie. L'examen de
ses oeuvres
lui
n'occupe pas moins de 25
pages d'un parallele qui en compte a peine 73. Blondel s'efForce de mettre en valeur
beaute des vers, leur musicalite, leur variete,
la
profite aussi
pour donner un bref aper9u de ce
la
grandeur de leur elevation.
qu'etait le lyrisme officiel
II
en
en Grece,
de son caractere national. Les quinze demieres pages de cet examen visent a souligner les
plus
beaux passages
seduit par la
et les reussites lyriques
douceur de
ses vers,
ebloui par
de I'Etna dans
la 1'"
la
de Pindare. Blondel
se sent
richesse des vocables (52).
description qu'il
II
renvoie a "mille autres beaux endroits" (55), savoure "I'austerite de
ses sentences,
de
ses figures
[.
.
.]" (56).
(51),
juge que
Pythique "a quelque chose de divin" (53).
la
fait
emu
II
Quand Blondel note
sa diction,
certains defauts,
il
ne
de fait
FRANCOIS ROUGET
comme
alon que reprendre des critiques generales
477
n'osait se dissocier totalement
s'il
du jugement commun. D'autant qu'il prend sa defense en avan^ant I'argument qu'il nous faut toujoun essayer de comprendre Pindare d'apres son epoque et non pas en fonction du gout de la notre.* A chaque reproche avance, celui-ci retorque et le rejugement ici toume a I'eloge a peine camoufle. Et Blondel se du pseudo-Longin pour faire valoir que les rares defauts releves
duit a neant.' Bref, le
range dans
le sillage
chez Pindare (de "petites taches", des "negligences", 62—63) ne font que rehausser
la
valeur de ses reussites.
L'examen d'Horace suit le meme cheminement. Mais soit parce qu'il est mieux connu du public, soit que son genie procede en partie de I'oeuvre de Pindare, Blondel lui accorde moins de place (12 pages). D'origine modeste, Horace est pourtant diflferent de moeurs et de caractere: impie, libertin, mais loyal et fidele a I'autorite
Horace
comme
du
Pindare furent "de treshonnestes gens eu egard aux moeurs et a
niere d'agir des temps
ou
ils
ont vecu" (14), mais
ils
amoureux
furent
pere.
ma-
la
et vaniteux.
Pourtant, Horace se singularise par sa liberte d'esprit, son independance a I'egard de ses protecteurs.
et
il
11
prone dans
ment
est
en a conscience
il
lascives, voluptueuses, detestables;
Son
(20).
Comme
comme
Pindare en ce qu'il "a eu a I'humeur oii
jugement qui
de choisir
la liberte
du
les tons,
de Quintilien,
il
reprend son
ses satires
touchent Blondel plus que
10.1.
[Instil, oral.
ses
odes adoptent
charment
plus eleve au plus melancolique. Ses epitres, au contraire,
ses satires et I'epitre
predecesseurs
au
de Juvenal, contre
celles
aux Pisons,
les raisons
qui ont
et
pu
en aide pour expliquer contre
pousser a decrier Plaute (73—75).
que Blondel veut pardormer a Horace:
Meme
s'il
Blondel attaque avec virulence
huy"
lui vient
il
le
jugement d'Horace au goust de son
vaises bouffonneries" (75).
et se
(69—70). Blondel n'a pas assez de mots pour louer
la Poetique
nom de I'histoire
attribuer ce
siecle,
les
"II faut
qui estoit
nie vouloir "deffendre
la
A
ses
nouveau,
bien plustot
ennemy
des
mau-
reputation d'Horace"
jugements des "s^avants critiques d'aujourd'-
(76).
Au
total,
Blondel tente de sauvegarder
lyriques, bien qu'il retablisse I'equilibre
plus surprenant qu'Horace, et tend
Cf.
"De
vouloir neanmoins tout
drop viste, et faire
comme
Voir 61-62, entre
autres.
le prestige
de chacun des deux poetes
en faveur de Pindare qui "a quelque chose de
pour
ainsi dire,
condamner
ceux qui n'estant jamais
aucun habillement etranger" '
d'Horace sur
propres a son genie et
d'Horace un poete moins sublime mais plus egal
demarquer de I'auteur de
rire
etait
il
eut des de-
de Scaliger. Sur ce point, Blondel va defendre Horace pour s'opposer
I'avis
'
il
la superiorite
les sujets les plus
se trouvoit" (65). Suivant I'autorite
il
fait
par leur humilite, et
(75),
Pindare,
lui aussi,
94—96). Son "style mediocre" (moyen) "a des charmes inimitables",
c'est
se corriger,
desinteresse-
mais sa gloire eut raison de leurs medisances.
Passons a l'examen de ses oeuvres (64—76). Blondel note
tous
de
et tente
ven une conduite morale irreprochable
admirable, sa generosite eclate partout (26—27).
anime de pensees tracteurs,
a certes des defauts mais
ses
au divin"
(76).
Mais Horace,
sur ce principe, ce seioit, ce sortis
(58); voir aussi 59.
de leur
Ville,
me
semble,
ne s^auroient
lui.
aller
souffiir sans
478
COMMENTAIRES SUR PINDARE ET D'HORACE
LES
"a bien plus d'etendue, de s^avoir et de connoissance que Pindare, plus d'egalite, plus
de douceur
d'enjouement
et
rejoindre le jugement
examen les
et
commun
beaucoup moins de qui prefere
On
defFauts".
poete
le
voit alors Blondel
au grec, mais au terme d'un
latin
des oeuvres qui rehabilite Pindare et la notion de sublime,
importante dans
si
debats de I'esthetique classique vers 1670.
Blondel montre aussi qu'il connait son histoire litteraire greco-latine et que son jugement pretend a I'independance. A partir des commentaires et des editions anterieurs,
il
batit
un examen
tarque,
Son
solide et personnel.
exercice rhetorique classique pour
le
du pseudo-Longin (que Boileau
traduit
pour
A
I'instar
en 1673), de Scaliger, mais
contemporains (G. de Balzac, R. Rapin, puis Ch. parallele
un
originalite consiste a reprendre
marquer de son empreinte.
pour
de
aussi
ses
Blondel emploie
Perrault),'"
analyser, juger, et prendre position. Mais,
de Plu-
premiere
la
fois,
il
le
re-
dige une comparaison en forme des deux grands lyriques antiques, ce qui manquait
chez
ses predecesseurs.
ne pouvait
aux coUegiens par
Blondel concretise done un projet
un ouvrage dont
I'ignorer, les
manuels de Jesuites,
tel la
Pindarum Horatio posthaberes ex
Virgilio,
presence insistante de Quintilien tion en 1686 a
la suite
doit
et
latent.
II
redige aussi, et
Ratio de 1586:
"Qua
Comparaison de 1673,
la
un exercice pedagogique,
beaucoup au pseudo-Longin'^
oratoire, dicte par le
La
sa reedi-
gout mondain.
(par I'intermediaire de Boileau?),
pourtant une certaine liberte de pensee qui I'amene parfois a s'ecarter de a contredire Scaliger (69, 72—75), a le depasser (35, 53, (65).
Homerum
in re
Scaligeri Critico et Hypercritico?""
de Scaliger dans
il
parmi ceux qui etaient proposes
des Comparaisons de Rapin, semblent conforter I'hypothese que
ce livre correspondait a S'il
le sujet figure
On voit ainsi que la
55)'-*,
et
il
revele
la tradition,
meme
a I'ignorer
un simple exercice rhetorique, concela pour tenter de definir I'esthetique
Comparaison, loin d'etre
du lyrisme antique,
tribue a reevaluer la place classique contemporaine.
'"
Voir respectivement
le parallele d'apres
comme
Parallelon,
les Paralleles
Plutarque:
".
.
.
il
se
Amyot, qui
definit ainsi
meit a escrire caste oeuvre excellente des Vies,
qu'il appella
ou Vies des hommes
illustres,
trad. J.
qui diroit d'accouplement ou assortissement pource qu'il accouple un Grec avec
un Romain, mettant
leurs vies I'une devant I'autre, et les conferant ensemble, selon qu'ilz se sent
trouvez avoir entre eux conformite de nature, de mcEurs et d'adventures, en examinant ce que I'un
eu de meilleur ou de
a
paraitre
pire,
de plus grand ou de plus
une nouvelle traduction en 1663-1665,
Voir J. C.
Scaliger, Poetices
lihri
septem, 1561, livre 5;
ions sur la poetique d'Aristote et sur les ouvrages des
Entretiens (1657), 31 .
.
.
,
ainsi
(Malherbe
et
petit,
que
I'autre ..."
que La Serre en 1681
L'abbe Tallemant et
R. Rapin, Comparaisons (1664-1671);
pokes anciens
et
fit
Dacier en 1694. Reflex-
modemes (1674); G. de Balzac, Les
Ronsard); Ch. Perrault, ParalUle des Anciens
et des
Modemes
1688-1694.
" Cite par de Dainville, L' Education des Jesuites, 177. '^
Voir
le
chap. 27 dans
la
traduction de Boileau, "Si
sublime qui a quelques defauts", dont
le titre
Ton
doit preferer le mediocre parfait au
resume bien I'enjeu esthetique qui separe Pindare
d'Horace. Pourtant, finalement, Blondel s'ecarte du pseudo-Longin pour preferer
au sublime. '^
Voir
Poetices libri septem, 5.7,
"Horatii et
Graecorum comparatio".
le
"mediocre"
FRAN<;OIS
Blondel
On
1667, on note
A
la
presence de Boileau, de Rapin, de Gui Patin (pere de celui-ci), de
membres qui
se reunissent tous les lundis
interrompus par
ses
ses courts sejours a
missions en province et a I'etranger, pour y participer.
qu'au debut de
est-il
la
decennie 1660-1670, on remarque
raisons
Comparaison, R.
fait paraitre sa
{Demosthene
et Ciceron,
Rapin
1670; Homere
a
entame
Mais surtout, en 1674, on voit paraitre V Art poetique
publication de ses Compa-
la
1664;
et Virgile,
(le
texte
de Rapin. Les questions du sublime, du genie
re^es, parcourent I'ensemble de ces textes tout II
s'agit a
chaque
fois
Virgile, Pindare et d'esprit
comme
1671). '^
Platoti et Aristote,
en
avait ete revele par-
tiellement des 1673) et le Traite du sublime par Boileau, et les Reflexions sur d'Aristote
predomi-
la
Au moment ou
nance des questions de poetique au programme de cette academie. Blondel
de 5 a
membres presente une de Lamoignon? II est difficile
sujet savant est choisi et I'un des
A quelle date Blondel a t-il rejoint le cercle
Toujours
academies
et dans les salons et
mais on peut supposer que Blondel dut profiter de
le dire,
Paris,
Cour
retrouve ainsi dans racademie de Guillaume de Lamoignon. Des
chaque seance, un
dissertation.
de
la
le
I'abbe Fleury, parmi les dix-huit 7.'^
479
et Testhetique classique
Francois Blondel etait bien introduit a parisiens.
ROUGET
et
de
I'art,
poetique
la
du naturel
et des
Comparaison de Blondel.'^
la
de definir qui I'emporte entre Aristote
et Platon,
Homere
et
Horace. Malgre quelques divergences d'opinion, une communaute
semble reunir ces savants. Tous sont convaincus du principe de I'imitation, du
genie naturel de
I'artiste, et
de
la superiorite
Modemes.
des Anciens sur les
A cet egard, le corpus des textes publics par ces lettres s'oppose aux revendications de leurs contemporains. Meme faut attendre la lecture du Siecle de Louis Le Grand s'il
par Perrault a I'Academie en 1687, puis
1694) pour voir eclater
la
la
parution de son Parallele (1688, 1690, 1692,
"Querelle des Anciens et des
debats entre les partisans des
deux
Saint-Sorlin en 1670 avait public sa Comparaison de lagrecque et etfranfais.
la latine,
Ce
le
flit
la
langue
et
debut des
poetique. C'est pourquoi traite
il
hostilites. la
Comme
grandeur
ceux de
ses
des poetes grecs , latins
emules, I'ouvragc de
et la force dans I'inspiration et I'ecriture
rehabilite Pindare et son sens
Du grand
verite les
Des Marests de
de la poesie frangaise avec
qu'U reedita en 1673 avec un Traite pour juger
Blondel a pour but de proner
Rapin compose son
Modemes"," en
clans etaient apparus des 1669.
ou du sublime dans
les
du sublime. De leur
cote,
mceurs et Boileau traduit le
pseudo-Longin.
A lire
la
Comparaison de Blondel, on per^oit quelques allusions ou insinuations a
ces debats houleux.
commentateurs il
ne polemique
''•
Cf. A.
'*
ett
persifle certains
"Grammairiens"
Scaliger (69), Juste Lipse (69, 73),
pas, a I'inverse
Adam,
Marmier, Horace
II
comme
de Boileau.
Ce
Hisloire de la litteraturt franfmse du
n'est
XVIIe
(64), s'en
prend
Tumebe meme
done pas sur ce
siecle (Paris,
a certains (73).
terrain
Mais
que
les
1962), 3:15 et suiv., et
France, chap. 5.
La premiere publication en volume date de 1684
(Amsterdam).
" Cf. Marmier, Horace en France, " Cf Adam, Histoire, 3:143-50.
88.
(Paris),
et
sera
reprise
en
1686
480
COMMENTAIRES SUR PINDARE ET D'HORACE
LES
deux
erudits se rejoignent, mais sur le plan des idees et de radmiration
en particulier pour Pindare, Horace
ciens,
et le
pour
les
Adam
genre de I'ode. Antoine
An-
a bien
montre que VArt poetique de Boileau devait beaucoup a la frequentation de ses contemporains, a Claude Fleury et a I'abbe Cotin. II doit sans doute aussi a la lecture de Comparaison de Blondel. Celui-ci, par exemple,
la les
odes pindariques ("les Jeux,
au chant
II
liste la
Ris, les Graces et
les
lorsque Boileau decrit
les sujets
qui trouvent
de I'ode: "EUe peint
et les ris" (v. 67). Ailleurs, c'est la traduction
semble avoir influence Blondel. Celui-ci
variete des sujets traites dans
TAmour")
que Boileau
cite le Traite
fit
un echo
les festins, les
danses
du pseudo-Longin qui
du sublime a plusieurs reprises
(50—52), et ses remarques sur Pindare sont sans doute nourries des commentaires du
rheteur grec sur Pindare au chapitre 27 ("Si
sublime qui a
Mais
Blondel reprend
lele (61-62), la
ses defauts").'*
la
Ton
doit preferer le mediocre parfait au
comparaison ne
les critiques faites
s'arrete pas
Dans son
la.
paral-
par certains de ses contemporains a
premiere Olympique de Pindare: "Je voy des personnes sf avantes qui trouvent a recommancement de la premiere Ode de Pindare. C'est une chose excellente
dire au
que
I'eau.
Et qui n'approuvent pas qu'ayant de
soit servy
de
celle
une comparaison
a faire
I'eau, qui est trop vile et trop basse
de grandeur dans nostre
esprit.
[.
.
.]".
Et d'expliquer au lecteur que
I'image de I'eau est voulu de Pindare qui s'adresse "a suivoit la doctrine
d'Empedocle
[.
Ce
.]"
.
qui considerait
donne
cipe qui leur [aux Siciliens] avoit
fort relevee,
il
se
pour produire aucune idee recours a
le
un Tyran de Syracuse, ou Ton "cet Element comme le prin-
I'Estre".
On
debat semble done remonter au debut des annees 1670 au moins.
avec curiosite que cette querelle sera reprise par Perrault au livre
constate
de son ParalUle
I
(1688)^' et par Boileau retorquant a Perrault dans ses Reflexions critiques sur quelques passages du rheteur Longin (1694). Perrault reproche a Pindare son "galimatias" et ridiculise par
avance toute tentative pour expliquer
Olympique}^ Et Boileau poete thebain, ni de ne
"On
sera
s'inspire
done
le
debut audacieux de
la
en I'accusant de ne comprendre ni
convenablement
le traduire
comparaison pindarique ans plus tot:
lui replique
directement de
assez surpris icy
premiere
I'esprit
du
{Reflexion VIII). Sa defense de la
la justification
de Blondel, quinze
de voir que cette bassesse
et ce galimatias
appartiennent entierement a Monsieur P. qui en traduisant Pindare, n'a entendu ni le
Grec, ni
le Latin, ni le
Fran9ois. C'est ce qu'il est aise de prouver. Mais
faut s^avoir, que Pindare vivoit peu de temps apres Pythagore, Thales,
fameux Philosophes NaturaUstes
[...].
'*
chose plus loin qu'eux
la
Voir
" On
la
[.
.
pour
cela,
Empedocle
Sicilien
[.
.
.]
il
Anaxagore,
L'opinion de Thales, qui mettoit I'eau pour
principe des choses, estoit surtout celebre.
pousse
et
le
avoit encore
.]".^'
Comparaison, 62—63.
se souvient
Lamoignon, ou
le
que dans ce dialogue Perrault met en scene
les
personnages du cercle de
President tente de convaincre son epouse des charmes de
-"
Voir
^'
Voir CEuvres
le Parallele, livre
I
(Paris,
completes, 528.
1688), 27-30.
la
poesie pindaiique.
FRANgOIS ROUGET Mais
toute
c'est
la Rijlexion
VIII qu'il faudrait citer tellement elle semble le de-
calque des remarques de Blondel. Malgre
de Perrault
et
la
Boileau concemant Pindare,
publication tardive des textes polemiques il
n'est pas interdit
ouvrages n'aient rendu publique une querelle qui Bref,
on
le voit, I'apport litteraire
contribue a mieux aussi
faire
joue un role dans
posthume puisque
481
etait
de supposer que leurs
notoire des 1670.^^
de Francois Blondel n'est pas negligeable.
connaitre Pindare a ses contemporains (dont Boileau),
la
a
S'il il
a
"Querelle des Anciens et des Modemes", un role surtout
celle-ci n'eclate
publiquement
a
I'Academie que I'annee suivant
la
disparition de Blondel (1686).
Ce les
savant, verse dans les humanites, les sciences, et les techniques, implique dans
debats de son temps, a cherche a imprimer sa
nait.
marque dans tout ce
qu'il entrepre-
Sa Comparaison permet d'eclairer I'histoire des idees poetiques et theoriques, et
joue un role sous-estime par
la critique, a
La posterite garde pourtant comparaison
fut traduite
ment curieux que
le
I'image de son redacteur.
souvenir de
sa
reputation europeenne puisque sa
en plusieurs langues au debut du XVIIIe
ce Francois Blondel, a la fois sensible a
la
siecle. Esprit vrai-
musicalite des rythmes
antiques et passionne par la trajectoire des obus!
Queen's University, Canada
^ ou
Perrault, d'ailleurs, continuera cette querelle jusqu'en
les
Jlexions
merites d'Horace et de Pindare sont compares.
en 1694 mais
les
neuf premieres avaient
De
1692
(Parallele,
J partie,
son cote, Boileau
ete redigees entre
1692
et
fait
1694.
160
et suiv.),
paraitre ses Re-
Personajes femeninos en
De
viris illustribus
el
Romae
Urbis
a
Romulo
ad Augustum (1779)
Lhomond
de Charles Frangois
MANUEL RUIZ VILA
JOSE
Antes de abordar
el estudio de los personajes femeninos en una obra titulada De expondremos brevemente cual es su contenido.' Se trata de un compendio de historia romana escrito para facilitar el aprendizaje del latin; no debemos olvidar que Lhomond dedico la mayor parte de su vida a la ensenanza. Pero viris illustribus,
no solo modelo
tambien lograr una correcta educacion tomando
este era su fin, sino las
virtudes de los grandes
hombres de Roma. Esto no nos tiene que
pensar que en esta obra solo aparezcan los mas notables personajes romanos
Romulo
o Regulo;
al
contrario, figuras historicas
como
de Tarquinio
la
el
como
llevar a
como
Soberbio,
Roma, sirven igualmente como modelo de comportamiento a evitar. En cuanto al modo de narrar todos los acontecimientos de la historia de Roma, Lhomond en cierta medida se disculpa por su estilo quizas no muy elevado. El mismo ultimo rey de
llega a justificarse
de conocer
argumentando que solo
la historia
dran tiempo despues para puhr
^Que
'
podemos
Hacemos
latinas del
De
los
Lhomond menciona, en
Maximo, y
Floro.
rastrear testimonios
No
Urbis
el latin,
ya ten-
Romae
a
el
prologo
al
De
viris,
obstante, en su catalogo de
tres
hom-
de otras dos obras mas no mencionadas: un
aqui un resumen de lo ya expuesto en
viris illt4Stribus
alumnos, aparte
el estilo.
fuentes utiliza? El propio
autores: Tito Livio, Valerio
bres ilustres
de conseguir que
trata
romana, adquieran un minimo de soltura con
J.
M. Ruiz
Vila,
"Fuentes historiograficas
Romulo ad Augustum (1779) de Charles Francois Lho-
mond," Cuademos de Filologia Clasica: Estudios Latinos n.s. 16 (1999): 423-448. A el remitimos para un estudio en mayor profundidad sobre el De viris, su contenido, su estructura y sus fuentes.
PERSONAJES FEMENINOS EN EL DE VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS
484
Liber de
Urbis Romae atribuido falsamente a Aurelio Victor y el BreRomanae de Eutropio. De estos cinco autores van a ser Tito Livio y
viris illustribus
viarium historiae
Pseudo Aurelio Victor a los Facta
muy
siones
con
el
sus fuentes principales, remitiendose solo al Epitome
de Floro,
Maximo, y al Breviarium de Eutropio en ocafuentes las hemos sefialado en el aparato de fuentes
memorabilia de Valerio
et dicta
puntuales. Todas estas
que acompaiiamos
con
los textos latinos
idea de ver
la
como
de sus
se sirve
modelos, que datos omite y cuales destaca en fiincion de sus intenciones didacticas. Hemos marcado en negrita aquellos pasajes que Lhomond tomo al pie de la letra, re-
han sido motivo de adaptacion o
saltando por su parte en cursiua aquellas partes que simplificacion
con
fines escolares.
Personajes femeninos en
Abordamos en
de Livio, pero no
dita
De
el
Roma
de
historia mitica
anonimo,
viris
el
De
viris
presente trabajo
el
estudio de diez personajes femeninos, de la
el
en su mayor parte. Todos en todos
asi
los
Breviarium de Eutropio, o
el
ellos
aparecen en
compendios sucesivos que
aparece, sin embargo, en los Facta de Valerio
cipal fuente
Vamos
Ab
Urbe con-
como
Epitome de Floro. La mayoria
el
Maximo. Curiosamente, todos
que Lhomond selecciona tienen cabida tambien en
sonajes
el
se realizaron
el
De
viris
si
los per-
anonimo, prin-
de su obra junto con Livio.'
que tratamiento da Lhomond
a ver
a las mujeres
en un
libro que,
como
su
muy
en
titulo indica, esta
dedicado por entero a
los varones.
Hay que
cuenta
al
que estaba dedicada
la obra: los
alumnos del colegio parisino en
publico
el
que ensenaba
el
porque no por
tros,
Uno
le
de
reflejado
van a tener entidad propia, como
los aspectos
en
mas destacados
los retratos
aparecen en Livio,
ejemplo en
el
los personajes
femeninos aparecen citados
quedaba mas remedio, dada su importancia en
contrario,
el
La mayor parte de
latin.
femeninos,
la
es la falta
suprime),
el las
caso de
del estilo de
asi
como
tener tambien
la historia
es el
de
Roma. O-
caso de Cloelia
Lhomond, y que
se
ve
virgo.
muy
bien
de opiniones personales (cada vez que la
ausencia de dramatismo,
Todo elemento
violacion de Lucrecia.
como por
sangriento y cruel ha
sido retirado o, por lo menos, mitigado, pensando siempre en sus jovenes lectores.
Textos La primera mujer
a la
que Livio hace mencion, Lavinia,
Lhomond, dado que no forma parte propiamente de tampoco aparece do
la
"
la
pauta del
Sobre
la
la figura
De
de Eneas. El relato comienza en
viris illustribus
autoria de esta obra,
esta ausente del relato
la historia
de
de
Roma. Asimismo
Romulo
y
Remo
siguien-
anonimo.
cf. el
prologo a
la
edicion de Fr. Pichmayr (Leipzig, 1966) en
Bibliotheca Teubneriana. '
A
proposito de estudios sobre
la
mujer en
tacar varios articulos; sobre Tito Livio, historia
romana de Tito Livio,"
in
cf.
las
La mujer en
el
mundo
cado Mendez, "La mujer en Tito Livio," Estudios a Aurelio Victor,
cf.
H.
Journal 78 (1982): 44-48.
W.
fuentes utilizadas por
Lhomond, podemos
C. Gallardo y A. Sierra, "Topicos sobre antiguo (Madrid, 1986),
Clasicos
Bird, "Aurelius Victor
on
la
des-
mujer en
la
299-306; R. Deli-
113 (1998): 37-46; por lo que respecu
Women
and Sexual Morality,"
Classical
MANUEL RUIZ
JOSE
Rhea
Silvia
La primera mujer que aparece en
Remo. Su
aparicion en
que
sufrio
No
En
el
mismo
Lhomond omite
sentido
por vender su cuerpo
del
parecia
ganado
deliberadamente
antigua mas hasta Petrarca* en su lupa
viris es
episodio de
rencia, esposa de Faustulo, pastor del
melos.
Rea Silvia, la madre de Romulo y encontramos una omision con respecto y por parte del dios Marte. En este fiiagmento
De
Pseudo Aurelio Victor
sutilmente a Marte compressa (1.1). parte de sus alumnos.
el
el relato es fligaz,
a todas las fuentes: la violacion la fiiente principal es
mada
De
el
que toma el pasaje literal pero omite un buen dato a tener en cuenta por
Rea
real,
Silvia aparece
que
rumor que
viris illustrihus)
se
tambien Acca Lau-
encarga de cuidar a los ge-
ofrece Livio (y ninguna fuente
de que esta Laurencia fuera
{volgato corpore dice Livio [1.4.7])
y no una
11a-
lupa
en
real.
Como
vemos, pues, dos omisiones relacionadas directamente con
tamos ante una obra que debe
servir
la
moral. Si es-
de exemplum, no parece logico que hechos
una violacion y acusaciones de prostitucion, tengan Proca, rex Albanorum, duos
filios,
cabida.
Numitorem
habuit. / Numitori, qui natu maior
5
485
VILA
erat,
et
regnum
Amulium
reliquit; sed
Amulius, pulso fratre, regnavit, / et ut eutn sobole privaret, Rheam Sylviam eius filiam Vestae sacerdotem /ec/r, quae / tamen Romulum et Remum uno partu edidit. / Quo cognito,
Amulius ipsam
in vincula
coniecit,
parvulos alveo impositos
abiecit in Tiberitn, / qui tunc forte super ripas erat efiusus; sed, relabente flumine, eos iis
aqua in sicco
locis solitudines erant. (1.24)^
1-2
Vir.
ill.
1.1
reliquit.
Vastae turn in
como
PERSONAJES FEMENINOS EN EL DE VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS
486
intento por enganar a los sabinos pidiendo lo que llevaban en
armas) a cambio de entrar en traidora.
En
este caso,
la
Lhomond, intentando
para sus alumnos, termina
el
brazo izquierdo
el
(las
ciudad, cayo en su propia trampa y fue asesinada por
convertir esta leyenda en
episodic de forma sentenciosa con la
un exemplutn
frase: "sic
impia
proditio celeri poena vindicata est," frase de su propia cosecha.
Romanos
Sabini ob virgines raptas helium adversus runt, et
cum Romae
nacti sunt, quae aquae causa rat.
sacrorum hauriendae descende-
Huius pater Romanae praeerat
arci.
Titus Tatius Sabinorum
dux Tarpeiae optionem muneris dedit,
5
sutnpse-
appropinquarent, Tarpeiam virginem
exercitum
si
quod Sabini
Capitolium perduxisset. Ilia petiit
suum in ma-
in sinistris
nibus gerebant, videlicet annulos et armillas. Quibus dolose arcem perduxit, ubi Tatius
promissis, Tarpeia Sabinos in
eam
rant. Sic impia proditio
10
1-10
Nam
scutis obrui praecepit.
Vir.
ill.
celeri
scuta in laevis habue-
et
poena vindicata
est.
(2.30)
2.4-14
Horatia
De viris se encuentra dentro del capitulo de Roma. Vamos a referirnos aqui al famoso epi-
La tercera mujer que aparece en dedicado
a
sodic de
la
Lhomond
Tulo
Hostilio, tercer rey
el
lucha entre Horacios y Curiacios. La lucha entre unos y otros la resume muy brevemente, siendo en este pasaje Livio su fuente principal. En el
episodic siguiente de esta histcria,
el
asesinatc de la hermana, las similitudes son,
cabe, todavia mayores, a pesar de lo cual
probamos come Lhomond,
al
de
la
adaptacion de
Lhomond
que Livic atribuye
Lhomond acercar del
Ab
poco
a
poco
tento de suavizar califica
a
mencs
las
la
a los
alumnos
la
caracteristica
medida de
de Livio.
al estilo
vivique
En
lo posible, el
Vemos
aqui,
arriba: intento a la historia
Princeps ibat Horatius,
justifica
De
viris
el
en un in-
Horacio. Livio lo
en funcion de
la virtus
Lhomond de Roma.
toda costa de
exigible
trium fratrum spolia
suavizar el dramatis-
prae se gerens.
fuit sorer,
animum comploratio
de
clara:
por tanto, un ejemplo practice de lo que
mitica de
ipsa confecerat, flere et crines 5
Ho-
per dialogcs
quae desponsa fuerat uni ex Curiatiis, visoque super humeros fratris paludamento sponsi, quod
Cui obvia
del
fundamental
patriae quizas
duras palabras que profiere a su hermana
de algunas escenas de
en
si
Com-
este caso concrete, del texto
conservando solo
de crimen atroz, aunque mas tarde lo
mencionabamos mas
Una
omite).
en
hermana
mencs, con escascs cambics. La intencion parecia
omite mortuorum
todo ciudadano romano.
mo
al
es el respeto,
la
a los perscnajes historicos. Suelen aparecer
sin adaptar o, al
urbe condita
que Aurelic Victor, despoja a
igual
racio de su condicion de virgo (c
queremos comentar
ciertos aspectcs.
solvere coepit.
Movit feroci iuveni
sororis in tanto gaudio publico: stric-
JOSE
MANUEL RUIZ
487
VILA
to itaque gladio transfigit puellatn, simul earn verbis incre-
cum immaturo amore
pans: "Abi hinc
ad sponsum; oblita
fratrum, oblita patriae. Sic eat quaecutnque
hostem."
bit
1-9
Romana
luge-
(4.40)
Liv. 1.26.2-5
Tanaquil
Abordamos ahora
varios personajes
que en Livio aparecen marcados como sim-
bolos de ambicion, capaces de hacer caer
al
mas honrado de
los varones.
incluye en su relate, pero mitiga esos aspectos tan negatives que
Lhomond las
imprime Livio. La primera que vemos es Tanaquil, esposa de Tarquinio Prisco, de la que Lhomond solo se atreve a decir que era auguriorum perita, pero sin mencionar esa ambicion que dice Livio, aunque la caracterizacion del personaje no es muy positiva dejando entrever en varias ocasiones su caracter ambicioso y manipulador,
en
la
que oculta
niiio al
la
muerte de su esposo para propiciar
el
les
como en
ascenso
al
la
ocasion
reino de Servio,
que habian adoptado. Additur haec fabula: lit, et
scilicet ei
advenienti aquila pilleum sustu-
super carpentum, ubi Tarquinius sedebat,
cum magno
gore volitans, rursus capiti apte reposuit; inde sublimis
clanabiit.
Tanaquil coniux auguriorum perita regnum ei portendi invirum complexa iussit eum alta sperare. Has
5
tellexit: / itaque
spes cogitationesque .
.
.
secum portantes, urbem ingressi sunt
Servius Tullius matre
domo
nobili, sed captiua, natus est.
Cum
/
in
Tarquinii Prisci educaretur, ferunt prodigium visu
eventuque mirabUe
accidisse.
Flammae
species pueri dormientis
caput amplexa est. Hoc viso Tanaquil summam ei dignitatem portendi intellexit; coniugi suasit ut eum non secus ac
10
liberos suos educaret.
assumptus lata eius
est; et
morte,
Is
postquam adolevit, a Tarquinio gener
cum Tarquinius occisus esset,
populum
gem, gravi quidem, sed non
15
ut,
interim
dum
Tanaquil, ce-
ex superiori parte aedium allocuta, ait reletali
vulnere accepto, petere,
convalescit, Servio Tullio dicto audientes
essent. Servius Tullius quasi precario regnare coepit, sed
recte
imperium
administravit. (6.48-7.52)
1-5
Vir.
5-6
Liv. 1.34.10
7-18
Vir.
ill.
ill.
6.3-4
7.1-5
Tullia
De
acuerdo con
la
tradicion
las hijas
de Servio Tulio se casaron con los hijos de
Tarquinio Prisco. Se trataba de dos hermanas de caracter bien
distinto.
Aurelio Victor
PERSONAJES FEMENINOS EN EL DE
488
una de ferox y
califica a
mismo
dotados del
Aurelio Victor: "ut
como
Lhomond
omite:
"malum malo
diversitate leniret,
ahi que,
ferocem
como
mueren de forma un
dice
mitem
miti,
embargo, ^casualmente quizas?,
mites
un crimen y da
vio asegura que se trata de
puesto,
De
de Servio.
las hijas
(7.15). Sin
yuges que habian sido calificados
Los hijos de Tarquinio parecian estar
mitis.
omnium mentes morum
matrimonium dedit"
feroci in
como
a la otra
caracter opuesto de
VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS
c6n-
los
tanto extrana. Li-
opinion tan misogina que, por su-
esta
aptissimum; sed initium turbandi omnia a fe-
est" (1.46.7). Por su parte, el De viris de Pseudo Aurelio se muestra mas comedido y dice que murieron "seu forte, seu fraude" (7.16) dejando al lector la eleccion. Lhomond toma estas palabras al pie de la letra sin anadir nada, pero omiti-
mina ortum
endo, eso
si,
ferox Tullia.
las
En
opiniones misoginas de Livio, que atribuye claramente
romanos, no aparece Livio por ninguna parte, y
los
por connotaciones peyorativas hacia vio atribuye a \z ferox Tullia: "si tu
gem lus.
appello; sin minus, eo
Quin
la
is
mujer,
es cui
que
es
autoria a la
este pasaje esta
como por ejemplo
nuptam
nunc peius mutata
la
dedicado a Servio Tulio, sexto rey de
este pasaje, tornado del capitulo
esse
res est
me
quod
las
arbitror, et
istic
cum
marcado
palabras
que Li-
virum
et re-
ignavia est sce-
accingeris?" (1.47.3—4).
Servius Tullius filiam alteram ferocem bat.
Duo quoque
Tarquinii Prisci
filii
mitem alteram
habe-
longe dispares moribus erant:
Tullia ferox Tarquinio miti nupserat; Tullia vero mitis Tarquinio feroci; sed
mites, seu forte, seu fraude, perierunt: feroces
morum similitudo coniunxit.
5
Statim Tarquinius superbus a
regnum paternum
Tullia incitatus, advocato senatu, coepit:
qua
re audita, Servius
dum
domum
iussu Tarquinii gradibus deiectus, et .
10
repetere
ad curiam contendit, refugiens in-
forum properavit, virum prima regem salutavit: a quo iussa a turba
terfectus est. Tullia carpento vecta in e curia evocavit, et
decedere,
nem
cum domum
rediret, viso patris corpore,
mulio-
evitantem super ipsum corpus carpentum agere prae-
cepit.
1-13
Unde Vir. iU.
vicus
Sceleratus dictus est. (7.54-56)
ille
7.15-19
Lucretia
Estamos, sin duda, ante uno de la
historia mitica
de Roma:
Soberbio, hecho que puso fin a las
fuentes principales de
de
Lhomond
la finalidad
Livio
al
resulta
eum
la
Lhomond: la obra.
el
Ab
urbe condita
violent© que
Por ejemplo,
in corde deftgit (1.58.11) se
vez de Pseudo Aurelio
(9.4).
livianos, tan habituales
en otros
de mayor crueldad y dramatismo de
monarquia en Roma. En
mucho menos
educativa de
escribir
los episodios
violacion de Lucrecia por parte de Tarquinio
la
el
la
y
el
De
punto dos van
viris illustribus.
de Livio; no
es
el
a ser
El texto
de extranar dada
escena tan sanguinaria que ofrece
ve mitigada en
Es curiosa aqui, sin embargo, capitulos. El
este
la
se occidit,
tomado
a su
ausencia de los dialogos
famoso pasaje que comienza con
las
no
JOSE
menos conocidas moriere,
si
MANUEL RUIZ
489
VILA
" 'tace, Lucretia,' inquit; 'Sex. Tarquinius sum; ferrum in
emiseris
vocem*"
(1.58.2)
queda reducido
a Lucretiae
vim
manu
attulit.
cum
unusquisque suam laupetunt. Regias nurus in convivio et luxu deprehendant. / Pergunt inde CoUatiam. / Lucredam Collatini uxoretn inter ancillas in Incidit de uxoribus mentio: /
daret, placuit experiri. Itaque equis
5
lanificio inveniunt.
Ea
ergo caeteris praestare
interiectis diebus, Sextus Collatiatn attulit.
iudicatur. / Paucis
rediit,
/ et Lucretiae
nia postero die, advocatis patre et coniuge,
posuit, et se cultro,
quem
clamant vir paterque, / et in
1
Rotnam
sub veste texerat, occidit.
exitium regum
vim
rem ex/
Con-
coniurant. (8.58)
est;
PERSONAJES FEMENINOS EN EL DE
490
novo genere honoris,
VIRIS ILLUSTRIBUS
statua equestri, donavere. In
summa
via sacra, fuit posita virgo insidens equo. (12.70)
1
Vir. iU. 13.1
7
Vir.
2
Liv. 2.13.6
7-9
Liv. 2.13.9
3-4
Vir. iU. 13.1
9-11
Vir.
4-7
Liv. 2.13.7-9
4-13
Liv. 2.13.11
ill.
ill.
13.3
13.3
Veturia et Volumnia
Siguiendo en
la linea
de
las
mujeres
mos con Veturia y Volumnia, madre y con
sus ruegos
ilustres
de
la historia
de
Roma nos
encontra-
esposa de Coriolano respectivamente. Ambas,
y suplicas, consiguen que Coriolano desista de asediar Roma, su patria, Lhomond es extremadamente breve y se omite todo elogio
cual traidor. El relato en
hacia estas mujeres, a diferencia de Livio, que dice de
fendere
5
urbem non
ellas:
"quoniam armis
Tum
Veturia
filios
secum
Volumnia uxor duos parvos hostium petierunt. Ubi matrem aspexit Coriolanus: "O patria," inquit, "vicisti iram meam admotis matris meae precibus, cui tuam in me iniuriam condono." Complexus inde suos castra mouit, et exercitum ex agro Romano Coriolani mater, et
trahens,
castra
abduxit. Coriolanus postea a Volscis,
(17.86)
1
viri
de-
possent, mulieres precibus lacrimisque defenderent" (2.40.3).
ut proditor, occisus
dicitur.
JOSE
MANUEL RUIZ
VILA
491
Unus ex iis Appius Claudius virginem plebeiam adamavit, quam cum Appius non posset / pretio ac spe pellicere, clienti suo negotium
5
cum
rus
dedit, / ut earn
deposceret: facile victu-
in servitutem
ipse esset et accusator et iudex. / Lucius Virginius
puellae pater tunc aberat militiae causa. Cliens igitur virgini veni-
forum
enti in
manum,
iniecit
affirmans
suam
esse servant: earn se-
minatur se cunctantem
qui se iubet; I ni faciat,
vi abstracturum.
Pavida puella stupente, ad clamorem nutricis fit concursus. / Cum ille puellam non posset abducere earn, vocat in ius ipso Ap-
10
pio iudice. Interea missi nuntii ad Virginium properant. Is
luce
Romam
advenit,
cum iam
civitas in foro
erecta staret. Virginius statim in forum lacrimabundus
civium
et
opem implorans filiam suam deducit. / Appius obstinatum gerens animum in tribunal ascendit, et Virginiam clienti suo addixit. Tum pater, ubi nihil usquam auxilii vidit; "Quaeso," inquit,
15
**Appi, ignosce patrio dolori, sine
Data venia, pater filiam 20
trum
arripit,
facit, et
me
filiam ultimo alloqui."
et pectus puellae transfigit. /
respersus cruore
Ab lanio cu\Tum ferro sibi viam
secretum abducit.
in
ad exercitum profugit. (19.86—90)
3-4 4-5
Vir. iU. 21.2
10
Liv. 3.44.7
Liv. 3.44.4-5
12-15
Liv. 3.47.1
5-6
Vir.
7-9
Liv. 3.44.6
Hemos de
prima
expectatione
visto
la historia
ill.
en
21.2
este
mitica de
17-20
Liv. 3.48.4-5
21
Vir.
breve estudio
Roma. En
la
el
ill.
21.3
tratamiento que
mayoria de
Lhomond
da a
las
mujeres
los casos, salvo la virgen Clelia, los
personajes femeninos aparecen tratados rapidamente sin detenerse en sus virtudes o sus defectos. historia,
Clelia que,
altura
Lhomond
los cita
porque
se
hacen imprescindibles para
el
curso de la
pero no porque deban figurar por meritos propios. Caso aparte
con un capitulo para
ella sola,
de figurar en un catalogo exclusivamente masculino. Pero de
que decimos que hay que dejar
las
muy
describe con trazo rapido, sin entrar en
claro que,
en
la
es la virgo
ve como, por su valor y valentia, esta a
mayoria de
los casos,
mayor
la
la
misma manera
detalle,
tambien
omite cualquier tipo de con-
notacion peyorativa o misogina.
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
La
versione latina delVl\i2ide
Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli
di
CARLO SANTINI
Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli (PM), nato
Sulla biografia del poeta neo-latino merano
in provincia di
Ancona
zione piu aggiomata e rappresentata dal di
PM
resta
sono
comunque
un congresso
tribuito
liamo qui, accanto
alia
delle Institutiones juris
Ca-
tuttora del tutto sconosciuta, ne a renderla piu nota ha con-
tenutosi a
Camerano
nel 1993, perche gli atti dei lavori
PM
pubblicati. L'opera in versi di
stati
a
morto nel 1875, la documentasaggio recente di Massimo Monro ni;' 1' opera
nel 1793 e ivi
e assolutamente
versione latina dei due
civilis, la
poemi omerici,
non
monumentale: segnaI'esposizione in versi
versione di buona parte del Vecchio Testamento, della
Divina Commedia, dei Sepolcri del Foscolo e della Messiade di Klopstock, nonche tre
poemi
epici sulla battaglia di Castelfidardo
{De pugna ad Nomentum) e il
sulla presa di
{De pugna ad Castmmftcardum)
Roma
{Romae
expugnatio),
suo lealismo nei confronti dello Stato Pontificio e quindi
processo di unificazione nello stato italiano unitario.
decine di migUaia di esametri e edita,
di alcune
comunale
presso la biblioteca
Dopo un
ma
nel
tiene dietro quella
1869 presso
Mentana
PM esprime
sua avversione per
Buona parte
resta
di
,
di detta
il
produzione
una parte rilevante
di inediti
Camerano.
periodo di gestazione di venti anni
Ancona
luce ad
di
la
dove
la
versione latina
dcW Hiade vede
la
un anno dopo gli con il primo premio
la tipografia degli eredi Baluffi;
deW Odissea. Le due versioni sono segnalate Ancona del 1872 con la seguente motivazione: "perche
all'Esposizione Provinciale di dettate in elegante latinita,
Lingua
Lo
concorrono
a
mantener vive
la
tradizione e la coltura della
latina."^
stesso
PM
un componimento tuttora inedito (il n. CXVII dell'autoComunale di Camerano) deUa genesi della traduzione; qui avuto una visione in cui "umbra est Maeonidae sic mihi visa loqui"
parla in
grafo presso la Biblioteca
immagina
'
^
di aver
M. Morroni, Le Cf.
il
mondiale
di
eti di
un poeta. Biographia
literaria
catalogo deil'Esposizione Provinciale di
Vienna
(Ancona, 1993).
Ancona 1872
preparatoria all'esposizione
del 1873. Relazione dell'UflScio di Presidenza dei Giurati (Ancona: 1873), 82.
LA VERSIONE LATINA DELL' ILIA DE PI MARINELLI
494
invitando proprio
poemi
cultore del latino "inimica aetate," all'opera del tradurre
lui,
epici "Eja age, canninibus
cipe et Iliaden";
PM e stato,
etica in latino gia in piena eta di
Omero
un
significa aprire
A
della storia del tradurre.
secolo con
deUa
vertere nostram / suscipe
certo coeflSciente di
non
mondo
nome
inizia nel
di
Leonzio
circa) dietro richiesta di
errori,
dovuti
tennero poi seguito partire dalla di
meta
Eoban Hesse
Pilato,
duzione in
XVI
discorso sul
accenno
al
nome
di
modo
un catalogo con
sia
conclude nel ricco di
vari fraintendi-
a questa
prima prova
meno
Raimondo
il
proposito della tra-
messicano Francisco Javier
di quella del gesuita
(Roma 1776). Omero implica
Cunich''
migliore di tradurre
nel
XVIII secolo un
Melchiorre Cesarotti. Cesarotti ha ben presente quanto
noso nel caso specifico
il
per cui inizia nel 1786
dilemma
La morte
tra
sia spi-
traduzione letterale e traduzione poetica, ragion
pubblicazione di una versione letterale in prosa italiana
la
dcWUiade, terminata nel 1794 intitola L'Hiade o
che traduce si
versione poetica deWUiade
la
comincia tuttavia a venir
con I'eccezione
Alegre e del gesuita raguseo
Ogni
dopo
secolo, e precisamente
(Basilea 1540),
versi latini
ma
anche
versioni parziali di alcuni grandi umanisti (Valla, Poliziano); a
le
del
lingua latina,
alia scarsa perizia della
ma
classico, I'eta delle
Boccaccio, e
quasi cinquanta lemmi.^ Quella del Pilato fu versione letterale
menti ed
una versione po-
solo di storia dell'Umanesimo,
Didotiana sul testo di Dindorf attraverso
la editio
due
i
Odysseam, sus-
filologia positivista. Parlare delle traduzioni latine
capitolo
(1358—62
un
credo, I'ultimo tentativo di
prescindere dagli esempi del
poemi omerici
versioni latine dei
Vlliade sia VOdissea
XIX
jam
racconto, pur aneddotico, implica tuttavia
il
perche quelle di
autenticita,
latiis
alia
un rifacimento
quale affianca
da buon filologo,
di Ettore. Cesarotti,
in versi sciolti che
come dimostra
la
sua
versione letterale che rappresenta una vera e propria enciclopedia omerica con molte ricche annotazioni
le arti, le
bilita di
opinioni,
i
puo
costumi,
le usanze,")^
di una: la
—
—
scrive
prima in verso
si
potra servire di Testo a chi
Sempre nell'ambito
"di dar
mi
miei
alle
minute
al
delle versioni in italiano
senso e
due
^
A. Pertusi, Leonzio Pilato Sulla figura del
*
Cfr. L'lliade o
la
al
210.
cf.
valor preciso dei termini
casi
M.
opposti agU inizi del
Monti (1810—1811)
Foscolo nel corso di II
XIX
e dagli
tre lustri dal
primo, "portato ad ammirare
(Venezia-Roma, 1964), 521-529.
Vigilante,
"Cunich, Raimondo," in Dizionario
31 (Roma, 1985), 378-380.
Morte
di Ettore.
tomo IV [= Ragionamento L'lliade,
tra Petrarca e Boccaccio
Cunich (1719-1794)
biograftco degli Italiani, vol.
Ugo
degli ultimi anni (1822-1826).
"
due Traduzioni in
la lingua."^
Esperimenti di traduzione dell'Iliade attuati da
1807 fino
lettori
fu possibile originate, questa schiava della
che quanto
non intende
a'
seconda in prosa ed accuratissima,
secolo sono quelli rappresentati dalla versione di Vincenzo
^
riferisce
rende perfettamente conto dell'impossi-
e Poetica, la
quella libera, disinvolta, e per quanto lettera fino alio scrupolo, e tale
rotti,
si
ridursi a sei capi, vale a dire la Mitologia, la Geografia,
dar vita ad una traduzione d'arte, che rispetti rigorosamente I'originale; in
questa prospettiva "risolsi"
cambio
Critica filologica abbraccia tutto cio che
al testo ("la
all'Erudizione antica, che
Poema omerico
storico-critico]
ridotto in verso italiano dall'abate
(Venezia, 1795), 321.
M. Cesa-
CARLO SANTINI grande favola
la
che
punto da perdeme
iliaca al
erano connessi,"' trascorre veloce
vi
di vista
495
guarda
problemi
Cunich, ed
italiane,
mentre
problemi del tradurre, soprattutto per quanto
PM, che con grande
di
i
determinazione ha
scritto solo in versi latini,
progetto di una traduzione poetica e una scelta obbligata.
Non
nome
di
Cunich
a
lui gesuita e
di
e traduttore latino, a sua volta,
del
e
conceme
La versione
la ratio vertendi.
dove
la
PM
Cunich
di
espone
"Maeonidae
Iliaden
mandare Camoenis
latiis
Lo-
suo pensiero per quanto
modello, che avrebbe
rango
di
come
quello di
al
lavori in questa direzione,
altri
il
era stata infatti valutata dai critici dei
suoi tempi con particolare favore, tanto da assurgere reso inutih ulteriori
ragu-
in versi
in distici elegiaci al cardinale
la
renzo Barih nella prolusio in esametri,
il
che
e quindi casuale
— unito quello Bernardo Zamagna, anche seo nonche discepolo primo deWOdissea (Venezia Siena 1777) — compaia dopo dedica il
il
ri-
patrimonio formulare.
la resa del
Nel caso
i
tale e
greco basandosi sostanzialmente
sulle versioni latine, tra le quali in particolare quella di
secondo sente quanto siano ardui
quanto
testo in
il
sul testo
/ aggrederis?
PM
(w. 1—3:
nonne haec eadem vulgata
tradurre in
La critica di PM nei Cunich muove da una considerazione generale che colloca la tecnica del una dimensione letteraria sua propria, ben diversa quindi dalla sempHce
padronanza
linguistica* (vv.
Latinis / Cunichii est numeris, plausuque excepta secundo?").
riguardi del
quam
linguam
Ungua
20—23: "qui
callere et vertere recte").
non
garantisce a priori
entrare in sintonia
con
modello
il
linguae, / indohs eflSciet paritas
—
PM — che
scrive
una
scito a riservarsi
un
sorta di
palesemente
lato, rivela
diluisce, proprio
per
tale
passando di tremila versi
gore
(v.
sione deWniade.
primo dei
^
24-26: "ut
verum
interpres,
autonomia
si
puo
nam
distant,
PM, ma
dire per
vertas, potius
quam
la
docta scientia
/ conveniant"). Se e
dunque
il
ipse videbitur auctor") per essere riu-
nella sua sfera linguistica,
peso del modello (gravem
soggezione, testo greco,
il
Cunich invece, da
se ferre catenam) e dall'altro
Maeonidae generosum ac nobile vinum, oltre-
con
la
conseguenza che I'originale ha perso vi-
s.:
pleraque laxe
ratio
diceret; v.
67: Jluxam poesim).
che anche Cunich aveva dichiarato propositi ana-
eidem CI. V. ab interprete reddita, che precede la sua ver-
Qui ammette
infatti
i modi di tradurre sono sostanzialmente due, "verbum e verbo convertunt, singulas voces
che
"Introduzione," in Vincenzo Monti, Bade
pensiero di
da una sua nota
una
/
successo, che dipende invece daUa capacita di
(vv.
quali e quello di quanti
M. Man,
* II
multum
notevole competenza neUa
come vedremo, non il
qua scriptor uterque
tuttavia abbastanza singolare
loghi nell'ampia Operis
il
di
60: sine nervis, v. 67: elumbem) e lo stile e divenuto prolisso (v. 60: carmine
praeduro prolixoque; v.66
E
il
hercule:
traduttore deve essere riconosciuto lo stesso ruolo del-
al
"haud tamen
I'autore (v. 39:
utrasque / Unguas, ex qua vertit, et in
— non
Cunich da prova
greca, circostanza questa che,
sua dottrina
vero
callet
vertit oportet, / aiunt, egregie vertat.
di
Omero, vol.
alia prolusio,
da
Tommaso
(Milano, 1990), 29.
dal fratello Cristoforo [Christophoro
Latina Torquati Tassi, 54
ss.]
ne celebra
come
risulu anche
Ceva, gesuiu e letterato milanese (1648-1737) che in
delle Sylvae (Mediolani, 1718) dedicata alia traduzione in latino della
tau a compimento
1
PM in merito al concetto di traduzione dipende a sua volu,
la perfetta
Cevae
Gerusalemme
e socieute Jesu
De
corrispondenza contestuale con
liberata
por-
eiusdem versione il
modello.
LA VERSIONE LATINA DELL' ILIADE PI MARINELLI
496
adeo superstitiose adnumerant, nihil eo, quo positum
religiose, atque
audent"
(xx),
puo scopo
ma
est loco,
questo genere di traduzione, se risulta idoneo per opere
consiste nel fornire
ed informazioni, appare invece ina-
lettore notizie
al
mutare
cui preci-
il
datto e spiacevole {injucundum, ineptum) per la versione d'arte ("si quis transferat ad oratores, aut ad poetas, qui
non magis rerum pondere, quam verborum splendore
comxnendantur"). Cunich sembra quindi perseguire riesca a conservare
livello
il
il
miraggio di una traduzione che
formale del modello, vale a dire ne riproduca
contesto
il
stilistico.
Come si
vede entrambi propongono come
di far rivivere in
scrive di
una versione
quando
I'originale,
versione
la
con non minor
non sembra
maggiori problemi per
che e sempre
come
i
forza, eleganza e fluidita di verso.
versione,
quantunque renda
Flammini nel caso
sicche si
della Odissea^^
modello ("neve
come
La
5.57%
scelta di
presa d'atto
anni dopo. di
II
in
PM
alia
economia
sit
conseguendo
puo
quale
rispetto al
uno dei formuper quanti hanno la-
e dinnanzi ad
scopo
in piu di
Ri-
proporzioni
di rispettare le
testo greco, cioe in termini
Cunich (18790
versi).
essere considerata in certa qual misura anticipatrice di
la critica si
accingera con
il
sistema formulare quale appare in (esiste
lo
una
sola
saggio di
Milman Parry
Omero, proprio
in virtu dei principi
formula per ogni idea essenziale in una determinata
di esaustivita (esiste
una formula per ogni idea risulta essere nel
expression qui est regulierement employee, dans
pour exprimer une certaine idee codice formale
una
solo sessanta
essenziale ed
moment©
ottimale del
processo di trasmissione orale dell'epica greca. La definizione di formula les
memes
essentielle"'- implica infatti
(stilistico, linguistico, e
come "une
conditions metriques,
che proprio perche
metrico) del testo le formule
sultino quindi virtualmente intraducibili per I'impossibilita di familiarizzare al
vi
I'originale."^ Gli esiti
si
di fronte alia formularita."'"
15692 del
ai
19.74%
ogni condizione metrica) che lo governano,
al
che
ottiene
uberior copia neu brevior") e addirittura di ridurlo in scala mi-
meno
condizione metrica) e
funzionali
si
osserva L. E. Rossi: "sarebbe interessante
sono comportati
nore. Si tratta infatti di 14917 versi rispetto il
efFetto
Cio
modulo fondamentale PM, difFerentemente da quanto ha fatto Custrada della sostanziale omissione, cosi come e stato ben illustrato da
nich, sceglie la
statistici
quando
per altro un parametro di classificazione
Omero,
singoli traduttori
spetto a questo
del
poetico dell'originale;
traduttore della Kunstsprache omerica, vale a dire la
il
stata
vorato sul Fortleben di
vedere
sorta di "calco" neU'intento
mondo
19 giugno 1872 che "primo e sostanziale pregio
rischiano tuttavia di apparire controversi soprattutto
larita,
una il
che produca neU'animo del lettore quel medesimo
e
si
finalita
nella traduzione
PM in una lettera del
appunto
produce
modo autonomo
il
ri-
lettore
rapporto nome-epiteto.'^
'
"*
Morroni, Le
eta di
L. E. Rossi, "I
un poeta, 79.
poemi omerici come testimonianza
di poesia orale," vol.
1
di Storia e civilti
(Milano, 1989), 136.
dei Greet
" G. Flammini, "Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli traduttore dell'Odissea," Studi in memoria di A. Valentini (Pisa-Roma, 2000), 131-165. '^
M.
'^
Parry, L'epithete traditionelle, 215.
Parry, L'epithete traditionelle dans
Homere
(Paris,
1928), 16.
in S. Baldonicini, ed.,
CARLO SANTINI
A queste considerazioni greca'^ di
PM, che
per consiglio, per la
la
si
aggiunge anche I'accertata scarsa conoscenza della lingua
induce
lo
biblioteca del seminario di J.
Osimo, dove
H. Lederlin
minorita linguistica
di
don Marino
a ricorrere di volta in volta a
Marinelli'^
revisione degii elaborati, e anche per indagini e verifiche presso
sione letterale latina di
condizione
497
era disponibile
il
testo greco
con
la
ver-
e S. Bergler'^ assai diffusa in quei tempi. Tale
non ha
tuttavia distolto dall'impresa
il
PM,
che
invece porta avanti questo lavoro secondo alcune precise scelte di metodo. La prima di queste e rappresentata dalla sostanziale equivalenza di
circostanza che lo induce ad attenersi agli stessi
sione deW' Odissea, che consistono
degh
epiteti
sia nella
fissi,
il
Se quindi gU epiteti sono sovente la
traduzione letterale della
un
owero
tralasciati (e al
editio Didotiana),
non
riguardo e evidente
che
e detto
ovunque come dimostra la presenza costante di Deumque oppure di galea insignis (KOp\)0ai6Xo(^.
Accanto
modello,
per
la
ver-
nella "resa misurata""
due esametri
solo verso di
il
dell'originale"
primo dipenda da qualche espressione formulare.'"
rire e
que
dimensioni con
criteri gia evidenziati
neU'omissione
sia
"fusione in
laddove, in contesto dialogico,
due
essi
il
contrasto
con
debbano sempre spa-
espressioni
come
rex
hominum-
come vedremo con qualche esemnon irrilevanti al testo
a questo criterio e per altro evidente,
pio, I'intenzione di creare, tramite modificazioni e aggiunte
greco, ai
un sistema
ponderazione e
di
di colores,
codici del genere epico, quali sono
inutile aggiungere a questo
che rappresenti un costante riferimento
stati fissati
nel contesto della
punto che tah modificazioni
Ungua
e accrescimenti
latina'^
—
dipendono
in larga misura dal dettato epico deU'Eneide. II
primo assaggio
relativo alia tecnica della traduzione in
versi incipitari della propositio dcWIliade, proprio
citabihta
mnemonica come anche per il
PM
all'intera opera;
li
diva, cane;
damna ante
PM
corrisponde
ai sette
loro riconosciuta e coUaudata
carattere esemplare
ed esemplificativo rispetto
natus concepit Achilles,
exitialem iram, quae plurima Grajis
tuht,
diem
la
porta ad otto:
quam Peleo
Iram,
per
multasque virum provolvit ad
Orcum
fortes animas, ipsosque reUquit
aUtibus diris canibusque voracibus escam. Sic
Superum
Patri visum,
cum, Ute coorta,
indociles flecti, discordia discidit ardens
i^aciden divum regumque
'^
Morroni, Le
'*
Sulla figura di
eta di
Agamemnona regem
un poeta, 48.
Marino Marinelli (Ancona, 1820-1884), presenza costante
PM, cf. Morroni, Le eta di un poeta, 25 e n. 235. " Homeri Opera quae extant omnia Grece et Latine vano
[.
.
.],
nell'epistolario di
curante Stephano Ber^ero, Transil-
(Patavii, 1791).
'^
Flammini, "Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli traduttore dell'Odissea," 141.
'*
Flammini, "Giuseppe Pasquali Marinelli traduttore dell'Odissea," 138.
"
Cf. quanto scrivo su Virgilio e
Santini.
D.
Poli.
Una
la
definizione della lingua epica classica in P. Poccetti, C.
storia della lingua latina
(Roma,
1999), 279-282.
LA VERSIONE LATINA DELL' ILIA DE PI MARINELLI
498
conservando
ne
posizione incipitaria di quella che e "la prima parola del Poema,
la
e I'elemento,"
come
due segni determinanti
gli altri
come
rimprovera-'
modificato arbitrariamente
Musa furorem")
,
li
i
come
mantenere nel primo verso meritato invece, sempre
secoli per questo verso. "^'^
Cunich al contraEoban Hesse di avere sinonimi ("Die mihi magnanimi Pelidae
predecessore cinquecentesco
al
tali
tutti
a
come avrebbe
9e(X e &ei5e,
per Foscolo, "la venerazione di rio, cosi
ma rinunciando
chiosa Foscolo,
segni
con
dei
colloca tutti nel primo verso ("Irarn, diva, trucem Pelidae concine
Achillei").
PM ha notato anche la marcatura per enjambement di oiiAon^vriv che conserva in qualche misura nella ripresa in epanalessi ("Iram
.
.
exitialem iram"). Alcune ag-
.
giunte corrispondono invece a sue scelte individuali:
la
motivo
(7tpota\i/ev),
morte prematura dei giovani guerrieri
della
stato senza
dubbio recepito
modello
dal
componet Vesper Olympo," che
dalla versione italiana del
/ generose travolse
pia
alites diri
ponderale,
si
come anche
testo latino al posto dei
1,
con
— ed
due contendenti
contesa." Viene anche rovesciato I'ordine dei
deUa struttura ad anello del verso greco: ripetizioni verbali tipica dell'epica latina disc idit e gli altri riscontri fonici
Per
il
sintagma e
al
di
Didone),
"molte anzi tempo all'Orco
di colores e rappresentata dalla
nome
dalla scelta di personificare discordia,
il
il
morte prematura
vv. 3—4:
I'aggettivo per ogni
nosciuta I'influenza esercitata dal testo di Monti,
regem che realizza con
ma
Aen. 1.374: "ante diem clauso
cf.
riferisce alia
Monti, cf
alme d'eroi." Un'accentuazione
e canes voraces
ante diem accentua
nella stessa posizione metrica, e 4.697 "sed misera ante
diem subitoque accensa furore" (che qui oltre
virgiliano,
forma
cop-
in virtu dell'equivalenza
che diviene soggetto nel
riguardo va ancora una volta rico-
cf.
"primamente disgiunse aspra
1.8:
nomi
propri che stanno agli estremi
'Axptibr\c,
.
.
appartengono
'AxiA.A.e'O^. Alia sfera delle
.
la
come I'omoteleuto divum
coppia allitterante
regurnque e
il
disco rdia
poliptoto regum
Agamennone. puo qui valere un
genitive enfatico I'epiteto (Sva^ AvSpdiv di
la definizione della specifica qualita della traduzione di
PM
assaggio di indagine che analizza alcune divaricazioni dal testo greco, che risultano essere tanto piu significative
quanto piu paiono configurarsi come
il
fhitto di
una
scelta di gusto.
L'incontro di Ettore con Paride e Elena a lita di
Z 312-368 PM. Ai
trasformazioni interpretative realizzate da
offre lo spettro delle possibi-
vv.
307
sg. del testo latino la
marcatura moralistica nei confronti di Paride "invenit hie fratrem, studio fulgentia vano /
versantem arma manu" e
esplicitata dalle notazioni sia del brillare delle armi, sia
deUa vanita del personaggio, notazioni che risultano entrambe aggiunta e specificazione rispetto
6aMnq)
alia
tenuta impassibile nell'esposto omerico, cf
TiepiKoXXfea T8t3xe' tnovxa.
II v.
310
zdevzt, famulabus pensa ministrans" trasforma I'etnico in
a 'ApyetT] 5' della scena
con
'EXfivrj di
Z
323, proponendo
Epya k6X8\)V. Infine
-°
Esperimenti di traduzione dell'Iliade di
2'
Cf.
XXIX.
altresi
I'iperarcaico dativo rispetto a [lEx'
6H(|)i7i6Xoiai TiepiK^DTd
Ugo
Z
321 idv 8'e'5p' tv
della redazione latina "juxta Argiva
un richiamo
allusivo rispetto
I'intenzionale romanizzazione
&pa Sucoljai y^vai^lv
a v.
330
la
/ f^ato,
Kal
redazione latina con
le
Foscolo, ed. G. Barbarisi (Firenze, 1961/1967), 13.
CARLO SANTINI parole di Elena "Levir care mihi, quae tot
corazione rispetto
sum
499 malorum" rappresenta un'edul-
causa
forma esplicitamente intensa del greco SAep tuEio KDVdq
alia
KaKonTix(ivo\) 6Kpi)o€a
PM ai fenomeni linguistici e stilistici del testo greco
L'aderenza di
d^XOvTO^T'
caso di
A 83
6XA.i)u£voix; T£ di
oppure ueiAixtoic; tntzaaw. ftuetXiKTOv S "verbis altri
sic
molUbus
PM
casi
illi
tradotto "cedentes atque cadentes" (11.83)
ftKODaav
Oti'
di
come
buxum
oppure una voce del tutto generica, come
\)<|)flm
versatile,"
KaBfi^ETO
7ii5Tiga
diviene I'anodino
137, che viene reso
greco un'altra di
specialistica del
categoria analoga,
a
A
mollia rettulit heros" (11.136—137); in
una voce
preferisce utilizzare per
A
'
non
orabant flentes:
/
appare talvolta
conoscenza della lingua, come ad esempio nel
elevata, nonostante la sua imperfecta
147 OXjiOV, "a round smooth stone," che diviene "ut
dove
"praecelsae
A
a
183 'I6r|q tv Kop-
I'attributo TiiSfjeic; "rich in springs" della
montagna
che solo per acrofonia potrebbe essergU
Idae,"
accostato.
Ho
che
gia osservato
i
PM
connotati virgiliani della venione di
ben
risultano
riconoscibih. La glossa di Servio segnala le varie occasioni in cui Vir^iho utihzza in
modo
ragionato e cauto
moduli
i
abbia mai avuto accesso a Servio,
omerico.
espressivi del testo
ma
Non
sappiamo
costruire per la sua versione dcWIliade alcune delle riprese virgiUane. Cito vari casi
come
PM
1.510
Olympus" (A 528: 'H
s.
"per tempora divae
/
Mwfavere
Kttl KDav^TiCTiv tn' 6(j)pt3ai
PM
5.119
comae
:
al
oculos, tiubem eripui" (E 127: Ax^T^v 5'
a^
TOi An'
ri-
riguardo
fremuit concussus jifiyav 5'
totum nutu
tremefecit
"praeterea, quae mortales tibi densa tegebat /
s.
PM
veOae Kpovtwv, 530
fiAiXi^eiv 'OXDpiTCOv) da correlare a Aen. 9.105, "adnuit et
O/ympMm," oppure
se
sua conoscenza di Virgjho gH consente di
la
6<)>0(xXn(I)V
£Xov,
f\
mox
Tiplv tTtf\e\)
ss. "namque omnem, quae nunc obducta tuenti / umida circum / caUgat, nubem eripiam" e ancora PM Diomedis, et ipsum I steme solo ad Scaeas" (Z 306—307: d^ov
che corrisponde ad Aen. 2.604 mortalis hebetat visus tibi, et
6.291 "/range manu telum
5f| tfxoc, A\.o\it\beoc„ i\bt
Kal aiyi6v
/ npr]y/ta
Sdq neafieiv SKauftv TcpoTwipoiGe
manu
KoXCLOiv) da confrontare con Aen. 11.484 "/range
ipsum /
pronum
in horto / demittit, foetu ac
con Aen. 9.435
PM 8.275
steme solo," e ancora
ss.:
vemo
caput
kokA
imbre gravatum" (Q 306—307) da confrontare
PM 22.87,
"mala gramina pastus" (X 94
riprese
che potremmo definire come riprese
in ogni
modo
virgiliano di episodi omerici che pure testo diegetico e figurale dal quale
Anche qui
abbastanza evidente e
non dipendono direttamente
sono desunti,
ma
stas?
rumpe moras:
te te
con parole analoghe
a quelle
con
his ait eripe tectis"
age rumpe moras,
I'ombra
me
cf.
le
si
a 23.73
(Y
71:
dallo stesso
con-
rivolge a Paride invi-
\it\
tectis
/
quam
tAxcx ftoTD Ttupdq
quah Virgilio
fa svegliare
Enea
2.289: "heu fiige, nate dea, reque
di Patroclo invita Achille a seppeUirlo
conde sepulcro"
di se-
travestimento
prius eripe
succensa super procumbant moenia Troiae" (Z 331: AAA' &va,
dal fantasma di Ettore nell'ultima notte di Troia,
il
che ad esso in qualche misura
bastera produrre alcuni esempi: Ettore
tandolo a combattere, 6.316: "quid
5t)(oio dtpr\xa\)
et
papauera
(JxipiiaKa) identico a Aen. 2.471, "mala gramina pastus."
Ma, a prescindere da queste condo Uvello, quello che appare
alludono.
veluti /lorcntc
"purpureus veluti cum/los succisus aratro / languescit moriens las-
sove papauera collo / demisere caput" e infine PeppoJKdx;
telum Phrygii praedonis
"purpureum
s.
QAnxE
[iS
con
la
formula "eja
Otti tAx^^^OC) che tro-
LA VERSIONE LATINA DELL' ILIADE PI MARINELLI
500
viamo anche
in Aett. 4.569 "heia age rumpe moras,"
due contest!
e analoga (Patroclo appare in
sogno ad Enea)
e
dove
la
situazione parenetica dei
di Achille
~ Mercurio
anche Aen. 9.13, "rumpe moras omnis"
ricordi
si
sogno
(Iri
appare in appare a
Turno). Un'ulteriore testimonianza su luce
alia
testo virgliano appare
PM
come
lavora sul testo omerico modificandolo
gusto formale dell'epica latina
sia degli stilemi e del
anche in un passo propriamente
per
sia
i
suggerimenti del
descrittivo, quale e la descri-
zione del 0(5pa^ ofFerto in dono da Cinira a
e descritto a
A
momento che
preferisce al
numerale
Agamennone Qui (11.24—29) PM
I'eroe lo sta indossando.
forma composta dell'avverbio numerale con tina
anche perche suggerita daUa
dei metalli (xoO 5
f^xoi SfiKa
'
ratio
distributivo,
25—28
che e detla lingua epica
metrica e varia scambiando abilmente
olnoi Eaav ueXavoq KDCivoio,
Kal elKOCTi KaaaiTfipoio ~ "hanc cyani
/ 8(i)8eKa bt
il
picti
dei
citazione virgiliana di Georg. 4.13,
la
tanto piu pertinente visto che le lucertole sono
picti squalentia terga lacerti,"
esse rettili e presentano
colori
denae, bis senae divitis auri, bisque decern stanni,
KUdcveoi SpdKOVxeq, che ha per presupposto "absint et
la
la-
xpDaolo
variabant undique zonae"), inserisce inoltre a v. 27 una nota, squalentia tergora
anche
i
al
come
dorso screziato e squamoso
i
serpenti della
corazza ageminata.
Un infine
ultimo angolo prospettico il
confronto con
la
canonizzato e daUa quale, nonostante
un
Soltanto I'approntamento di
evidenziare in dettaglio volta
i
il
luce del quale valutare la versione di
alia
versione d'arte del Cunich, che le critiche
mossele,
di
dipendenza
di
PM
PM
resta
grande successo aveva
PM in varia misura dipende.
index uerborum, attualmente
grado
il
non
disponibile, potrebbe
da Cunich, che segue a sua
modelli di Virgilio e Ovidio; tuttavia anche questa modesta campionatura puo
servire da esempio,
pavorem
/ mitte:
"Dardanide, confide sortis," e
come 24.210—211 Cunich: "Dardanide, confide animo, gelidumque tibi namque hue nuncia sortis" ~ PM 168—169: animo, moestumque timorem / abjice: non adsum crudelis nuntia
malae haud venio
ancora 24.585—587 Cunich: "quem/ortasse premunt infenso pectore circum /
finitimi nee adest qui
premunt nunc
infesto
cladem ac
agmine
triste repellat
~
/ exitium"
PM
circum / ftnitimi nee adest qui
465—467: "Ulum forte
vim
tristemque repellat /
perniciem." In conclusione I'interrogativo sulla qualita del progetto letterario che presiede a questa traduzione e sul tipo di lettore evidenziare
un ambito
culturale,
al
quale
PM
pensava di rivolgersi sembra
presumibilmente non vasto, ne
sofisticato,
ma
de-
terminato a mantenersi tenace custode di queUa produzione neo-latina che e frutto dell'istruzione seminariale e gesuitica.
disfano
PM,
anche
Cunich
e Monti, che dal
nella pubblicistica del
Iliade di
Omero
grandi modelli,
Cunich
e Monti,-^
anzi la straordinaria inventiva di Monti, che ricerca la
clamatoria anche a costo di alterare
^-
I
primo
testo
omerico purche I'opera divenga
era stato largamente influenzato,
tempo, come
estratte fedelmente dalle
I'altra italiana del
il
sta a illustrare la
due piu
non sod-
magniloquenza de-
celebri versioni,
Cav. Vincenzo Monti (Roma, 1830).
"la piu
sono congiunti per
altro
Collezione delle similitudini contenute nella I'una latina del p.
Raimondo Cunich
[.
.
.]
CARLO SANTINI completa espressione della nonostante viene
alia
le riprese
luce in
do tradusse Mi
civilta
che abbiamo
un punto
napoleonica"" visto.
specifico,
in
prima battuta un
In definitiva proporrei ficina artigianale
lezza e tare
La
dove
la
al
nome
gli
critica di
quando
scrive
sostanzialmente estranea,
e
PM
nei confront! del
che "molto erro
il
modo
il
Monti
Monti, quan-
ad Q, 499—501, perche, cosi
restava Ettorre, I'unico Ettorre"
gia notato Chateaubriand, in questo
Priamo
501
come aveva
traduttore itahano faceva proferire a
che AchiUe sicuramente aborriva.-*
riguardo per questa traduzione
dell'//«<j
formula di of-
traduzione e realizzata con grande impegno, pari consapevo-
anche quella dose
che guarda a soluzioni plurime^^ per evi-
di gusto letterario
ogni trasposizione meccanica nel rapporto
tra
due hngue.
Universith di Perugia
" Man, ^*
"Introduzione,"
5.
Cf. le Osservazioni sopra alcuni passi delta versione delVIliade fatta dal Monti che stanno in alle-
gato all'edizione della versione latina dcWIliade di
^
Si
vedano
Marinelli e
le
in proposito
anche
le
PM,
conclusioni
464.
alle quali
sue parafrasi bibliche in esametri latini," in
Torraca (Napoli, 2002), 497-523.
giunge anche Scritti in
onon
F. Stok, di
I.
"G. Pasquali
Gallo, ed. Luigi
Erasmus von Rotterdam, 'Ratio seu methodus verae theologiae
PAUL GERHARD SCHMIDT
Fidel Radle
Sie kennen
alle die
unfreundliche
nachsagt, sie hatten ihren
Bemerkung iiber bestimmte
Beruf nur deshalb gewahlt, weU
unfahig seien. Dieses Verdikt lautet: "Those
Oder, auf Philologen bezogen:
Methode."
Wer sich
zum
"Wer von
who
can, do, those
65.
Geburtstag
Lehrer, denen
sie
man
zu allem anderen
who
cannot, teach."
der Sache nichts versteht, spricht iiber
mit Texten beschaftigt, kann in der Tat solche Methodiker be-
nennen, die vor der miihsamen kleinteiligen Textarbeit in das Reich der hohen Theorie fliichten,
wo man
unbekiimmert
um die
storende Realitat entaunliche Einsich-
und Zusammenhange konstruiert, die in immer kiirzer werdenden Zeitabstanden durch immer erstaunhchere Betrachtungsweisen abgelost werden, die sich in einer ten
rasch veraltenden Terminologie prasentieren.
Gehort Erasmus,
als
Herausgeber des griechischen Neuen Testaments ein text-
naher Philologe, in diese Kategorie der Thesenritter? Gemeinsam mit der Edition des
Novum Testamentum graece
erschien 1516 seine "Methodus", drei Jahre spater bei der
NT die "Ratio seu Methodus".
Die "Methodus" von 1516 und Methodus" von 1519 stimmen in ihren Grundgedanken und auch in manchen Formuherungen iiberein. Der auch in der Titelform erkennbare Unterschied zwischen beiden Texten besteht in ihrem Umfang. Die "Methodus" ist eine unter dem Diktat der Ungeduld entstandene kleine Schrift von ca. 20 Druckseiten, die "Ratio seu Methodus" ist fast zehnmal so umfangreich. Erasmus hat das Verhaltzweiten Auflage des die "Ratio seu
nis
der beiden Texte, iiber die ich
gleich aus der Kiiche verdeutlicht.
vom Vortag unter
die
neu zubereiteten Speisen mischen,
durch Wiirzen eine Einheit eingehen
lassen.
im folgenden sprechen werde, mit einem Ver-
So wie sparsame Wirte
herstellen, so
Wir kennen
diesem Rezept, gestehen
es
das iibriggebliebene Essen sie
sozusagen strecken und
habe er den alteren Aufsatz in den neuen
alle diese Praxis,
greifen selbst vielleicht
manchmal zu
aber selten so souveran ein wie Erasmus, der sich beim
Herstellen seines Textes bereitwillig iiber die Schultem schauen laBt.
ERASMUS VON ROTTERDAM
504
Erasmus kannte
als
guter Rhetor die Regeln fur eine gute Darlegung,
wonach
man zunachst dem Horer und Leser unbedingt das ihm Bekannte in Erinnerung rufen muB, ehe man ihn mit neuen Gedanken konfrontiert. Es ist eine subtile Form der Captatio beneuolentiae: der Adressat wird nicht direkt angesprochen
mehr oder minder unverhohlen
als
und auch nicht
kompetent bezeichnet; man erinnert ihn vielmehr
gemeinsame Kenntnisse und Denkformen. Auf diesem Weg steUt sich Einvernehmen zwischen dem Autor und seinem Publikum ein; der Leser wird an unstrittige Fakten und Einsichten erinnert und sieht keinen AnlaB zum Widerspruch. Ist diese Harmonie stabilisiert, kann der Autor die ihm wichtigen neuen Wege einschlagen und Gedanken auBern, die ein unvorbereitetes Publikum a limine zuriickweisen wiirde. Bei der Suche nach Konsens laBt sich das Institut der Tradition vorziiglich instrumentalisieren. Leser und Autor haben zwar nicht dieselben Plane fiir die Zukunft, aber ein gemeinsames geistiges Erbe. In der "Methodus", vor aUem aber in der "Ratio" greift Erasmus deshalb zur Harmoniestiftung auf die Kirchenvater und sehr diskret an ein
auf das lateinische Mittelalter zuriick.
Es fehlt leider immer noch eine umfassende Studie iiber sein Verhaltnis telalter.
Soweit ich bisher sehe, hat Erasmus
— Schultexte und Alcher von
men
— anders
als
zum Mit-
viele seiner Zeitgenossen
Schriften des Mittelalters nicht pauschal verurteilt. Er hat ja selbst
Liittich ediert
und war bereit,
mittellateinischen
Texten unvoreingenom-
zu begegnen. Kritisch stand er vielen Formen der Hagiographie gegeniiber.
Lobreden auf Heilige
astimierte er nicht,
Texten, die ihn erbauten,
Hymnen gehorten nicht zu den literarischen
und geradezu verhaBt war ihm
eine Sonderform der mittel-
alterlichen Hymnik, die Sequenz. Er bezeichnete sie als argerlich und lacherlich zugleich und hatte den Konzilsvatern von Trient begeistert seine Zustimmung signalisiert, als sie wenige Jahre nach seinem Tod von den fast 5000 Sequenzen des Mittelalters nur noch eine Handvoll akzeptierten, die dann in das Missale Romanum unter
Papst Pius V.
genkultes
aufgenommen wurden. So
und auf
das
reizbar Erasmus auf Auswiichse des Heili-
Reliquienunwesen
reagierte, so positiv stand er mittellatei-
nischen Texten gegeniiber, die lexikalische und grammatische Fragen behandeln. Je
mehr
antikes Sprachgut sie boten, desto lieber
waren
sie
ihm. So zog er Isidor
dem
Johannes de Garlandia vor, und er verschmahte nicht den Gracismus. Der hermeneutische
Zugang
des lateinischen Mittelalters zur Bibel, besonders die allegorische
Schriftauslegung, stieB auf seine in der Nachfolge
Zustimmung. Er sah
von Augustins De
"Methodus" und "Ratio" bekundet. Methode, Thomas von Aquin,
das Mittelalter
doctrina Christiana,
Selbst
und
sich selbst
wie er an vielen Stellen von
den Hauptvertreter der scholastischen Methodenlehre so an, daB er bei
fiihrt er in seiner
keinem seiner zeitgenossischen Leser AnstoB erregte. Als moderner Leser, der die Entwicklung des Schriftverstandnisses und der Schriftauslegung nach Erasmus kennt, wird man bei seinen einfuhrenden und um Einverstandnis werbenden Textpartien immer starker von der Spannung und Neugier gepackt, wie es Erasmus gelingen wird, seine eigenen Gedanken den Lesem so zu ver-
Warum ist es denn notwendig, fragt Erasmus sie, neText des Neuen Testaments auch den griechischen zu kennen? doch die Vulgata. Warum denn Griechisch und sogar Hebraisch
mitteln, daB sie folgen konnen.
ben dem
lateinischen
SchlieBlich existiert
lernen?
Ohne Hieronymus
direkt zu kritisieren, setzt
sprachspartner auseinander, daB es idiomatische
Erasmus einem fingierten Ge-
Redewendungen
gibt, die sich nicht
PAUL GERHARD SCHMIDT
505
von einer Sprache in die andere iibertragen lassen. Dem Einwand, daB Eriemung der heiligen drei Sprachen zeitaufwendig und schwierig sei, halt er literaliter
die die
Fortschritte der Didaktik entgegen, die es ermoglichten, in relativ kurzer Zeit zu
einem ausreichenden Kenntnisstand zu gelangen. Der Theologe soUe ja nicht in alien ihren Feinheiten beherrschen; es geniige, die Texte in
ihrem fremden Charakter zu
ren Lebensalter
sei
Augustin hatten mit 40 Jahren die
fiir
man
erst
dem
erfassen
und zu
wenn
diese Sprachen
verstehen. Selbst
noch Griechisch zu erlemen; der
in der Lage,
Lage
er in der
alte
sei,
im hoheCato und
nach der Lebensmitte Griechisch gelemt, Rudolf Agricola sich
Hebraischen zugewendet.
einen Theologen notwendig
und
satzen in die Irre zu geraten
Thomas von Aquin seien laufen. Durch unachtsame,
sei,
Wer
aber diese leichte Miihe scheue,
laufe Gefahr, mit falsch iibersetzten Lehr-
Irrtiimer zu verbreiten. Bei allem
Respekt vor
derartige Irrtiimer auch diesem uir diligentissimus unter-
nachlassige
und ungebildete Abschreiber und Ubersetzer sei von diesem VerfallsprozeB nicht ausge-
wiirden Texte depraviert, selbst die Bibel
nommen.
Um sich nicht
Neuerer
als
darzustellen, erinnert
Erasmus seine Leser daran,
daB diese Erkenntnis der mittelalterlichen Kirche nicht fremd war. Er hatte die Bibel-
im
korrektorien, die
13.
Jahrhundert von franzosischen
Dominikanem
revidierte so-
genannte Pariser Bibel nennen konnen; er verweist dagegen auf einen KonzilsbeschluB, der seinen Intentionen
noch
besser entspricht. Es handelt sich
Sprachenkanon des Konzils von Vienne aus die Einrichtung
von Lehntiihlen
flir
dem Jahr
1312.
um
Der BeschluB
den
forderte
Arabisch und Hebraisch an den Universitaten
Oxford, Bologna und Salamanca und an der Kurie: eine Forderung, die aus
Paris,
Mangel an geeigneten Lehrem nicht verwirkUcht werden konnte. Der KonzilsbeschluB hatte im iibrigen andere Motive, als Erasmus sie unterstellt. Die Kermtnis der Sprachen sollte die christhche Mission befbrdem, nicht den bibUschen Text revidieren helfen. Man nimmt derartige eigenmachtige Deutungen des Erasmus mit leichtem Schmunzeln zur Kermtnis; terial,
die Tradition der mittelalterlichen Kirche bietet
das er sich in seinem Sinn aneignete. Es
umformen kann. Obwohl Augustin mit der
ist
die
Wachsnase der
ihm Ma-
Auctoritas, die
ein jeder
hatte
und
Kenntnis dieser Sprachen flir
griechischen Sprache nur oberflachhche Bekanntschaft
die hebraische nicht verstand, hat er
zum Verstandnis und
unentbehrlich gehalten
selbst nicht
was er
kenntnisse definiert: Er
worden. Erasmus Weisheit erlangt
doctrina Christiana die sacri codices
forderte, aber
ist
dank seiner Kenntnis der Sprachen in der Lage,
Der wahre Theologe wird nicht nur durch Sprachzugleich durch sein Studium zum besseren Menschen ge-
Hest.
ist
zitiert in
diesem Zusammenhang den Jakobusbrief
hat, soil sie
(3:17):
Wer
die
freundhch und sanftmiitig verkiinden, nicht besserwisse-
und hartnackig disputieren, nicht streitlustig und rechthaberisch sein; die Weisvon Gott stammt Erasmus macht daraus: die Weisheit der Theologen
—
—
heit, die
bescheiden, friedfertig, umganglich, voll Erbarmen,
stellt
De
einzulosen vermochte, bietet ein anderer, ich nenne ihn "einen zweitem
das zu verstehen,
ist
in
— mit anderen Worten, was Augustin zwar
Augustin". Dieser zweite Augustin
risch
dennoch
zur Wiederherstellung der
sich nicht
und
sie verurteilt nicht.
eine teuflische Weisheit, die auch
sie zeitigt
gute Friichte,
sie
ver-
Es gibt daneben auch eine irdische, ja sogar
im Jakobusbrief erwahnt
wird, aber Erasmus
verzichtet darauf, aus dieser BibelsteUe einen polemischen Seitenhieb gegen seine
theologischen Gegner abzuleiten. Es liegt
ihm bei "Methodus" und "Ratio" ja
daran.
ERASMUS VON ROTTERDAM
506
sich
dem
Leser nicht
als
gefahrlichen Neuerer, sondern
als
Theologen
friedfertigen
bzw. Philologen darzustellen, der den Beschliissen der Kirche und den Worten der Heiligen Schrift
folgt.
Denn Erasmus
dem
verlangt
Leser seiner Bibelhermeneutik viel ab.
Wer zum
wahren Schriftsinn vordringen will, muB nicht nur den Text, sondern vor allem den Kontext beachten.' Er muB sich vergegenwartigen, wer spricht, flir wen etwas gesagt wird, in welcher Zeit und bei welcher Gelegenheit, was vorher gesagt wurde und was anschlieBend folgt. Manche Worte richtete Jesus an seine Jiinger, andere an das Volk. Er antwortete anders den Pharisaern, die ihm eine Falle stellen woUten, anden denen, die in vielen
Frage an ihn richteten. Der Theologe muB die Neuen Testaments bedenken, wenn er den Sinn einer Er muB sich fragen, ob Christus einen Satz als Mensch oder in
aller Schlichtheit eine
Tropen und Figuren
Aussage erfassen
will.
seiner gottlichen
Denkweise
Natur ausspricht oder beim Gesprach mit der Kananaerin aus der
eines Juden heraus spricht; d.h. der
beachten, es geht
Ebenso
des
muB
um
Theologe
muB
die Rolle der Sprecher
die observata ratio personarum}
der Theologe die Zeit beriicksichtigen. Analog zur observata
sonarum steht hier die observata
varietas
temporum.
Testaments iiber die Juden ausgesagt wurde,
ist
Was
zur Zeit des Alten
ratio per-
und Neuen
nicht automatisch auf die Christen zu
iibertragen,
sondern kann nur allegorisch gedeutet werden. Als Beispiel nennt Eras-
mus
Polygamie. Uber den in diesem
u.a. die
Zusammenhang zentralen Begriff der
ac-
commodatio hat mein Freiburger Kollege Peter Walter in seiner Habilitationsschrift das
Notige
gesagt;^ es handelt sich
um das paulinische omnia omnibus factus,
die
Verwand-
lungsfahigkeit des pfifEgen Paulus, wie Erasmus sagt, der proteusartig oder wie ein
Chamaleon
die
notwendige Anpassungsfahigkeit an seine Umwelt aufweist.
Erasmus, so habe ich bisher gezeigt, will in erster Linie die philologische Interpretation der Bibel patristischen
und
als
genuin theologische Aufgabe
darstellen, sich als Fortsetzer der
scholastischen Traditionen ausgeben
und von der Tatsache ablen-
ken, daB er die Bibel wie jeden anderen weltlichen Text interpretiert. Die Zeitge-
bundenheit der Bibelsprache prasentiert sich in seiner
kontextuell gebundene
Erasmus
spielt in
seinen Ausflihrungen eine groBe Rolle; der Text
Auslegung nicht
als
das zeitlose
AuBerung von Menschen,
Wort
Gottes, sondern
als
die
die sich menschlich verhielten.
mehreren Teilen der "Ratio" solchen Zeitstromungen. Er von Christus selbst unterwiesenen Jiinger und ihr Hirtenamt nach Christi Tod mit der Ausbildung der Priester seiner Zeit. Aus der Gegeniiberstellung von Bibelstellen iiber Reichtum und Armut, etwa iiber den reichen Mann und den armen Lazarus, leitet er Folgerungen iiber das sittliche Verhalten der Geistlichen selbst erliegt in
vergleicht die
seiner Zeit ab.
Erasmus ware nicht Erasmus, wenn er bei dieser Gelegenheit darauf
verzichtet hatte, in aller Vorsicht die Lebensweise der Pralaten seiner Zeit zu kriti-
'
Schriften, hrsg. Werner Welzig. 3. Band: In Novum Teszum Neuen Testament. Ratio. Theologische Methodenlehre, iibers., einund mit Anmerkungen versehen von Gerhard B. Winkler (Darmstadt, 1967), 178-179.
Erasmus von Rotterdam, Ausgewdhlte
tamentum geleitet
Prae/ationes.
Vorreden
2
Erasmus, Ratio, 184-185.
^
Peter Walter, Theologie aus dem Geist der Rhetorik. Zur Schrijiauslegung des Erasmus von Rotter-
dam (Mainz, 1991), 46-47.
PAUL GERHARD SCHMIDT Nach Lastem geordnet werden
sieren/
—
fiihrt
Berichte aus
Zebedaus Christus darum
daB ihre Sohne im
bittet,
25ff).
dem Neuen Testament
Himmel zu
Denn
sie
sagt,
leiden besonders unter der Geltungssucht
dienen zu
ist,
die aber auch,
wie
Im
amhitio.
sondern
lassen,
um zu
ist.
und dem Ehrgeiz, dem studium
Blick auf die Pralaten der spateren Zeiten
habe Christus zu seinen Jiingem gesagt, der Menschensohn sich
Rechten und
schon im BUck auf die Pralaten der christlichen Kirche gegeben
und dem morbus der
honoris
seiner
Christus gibt eine Antwort, die
zunachst auf den Geltungsdrang dieser beiden Jiinger bezogen
Erasmus
aufge-
daB die Mutter der Sohne des
z.B. die gloria inanis, die sich darin auBert,
zu seiner Linken sitzen diirfen (Matt. 20:
507
ist
nicht
gekommen,
dienen, ja sein Leben hinzugeben fur viele
um .
.
.
quantum haec oratio discrepat ab ambitionis affectu!" Die Interjektion "papae" wird von unseren Lexika gem mit "Potztausend" iibersetzt; der Satz des Erasmus lieBe sich auf deutsch etwa mit den Worten wiedergeben: "Potztausend, wie wenig hat dieser Satz Christi mit dem Streben nach Ruhm zu tun" oder "Welten Uegen zwischen diesem Satz und dem Streben nach Ruhm." In der Ubertragung von Gerhard B. Winkler wird der Passus "Papae, quantum haec "ut
animam suam
det pro multis. Papae,
"Wie Worte dem Papst in Verwechslung von papai und p&pae, bietet
oratio discrepat ab ambitionis affectu" etwas anders wiedergegeben, namlich so:
ganz anders
als
AuBerung
die
des Geltungsdranges miissen diese
den Ohren klingen."^ Winklers ein schones Beispiel
Schiffbruch
dafiir,
lapsus, die
daB eine theologische Vorerwartung zu philologischem
flihrt.
Erasmus mag sicher an dieser SteUe den Papst im Auge gehabt haben, aber er gumentierte nicht so direkt. Der Leser wird
angezogene
Neuen Testaments
Stelle des
aufgefordert, eine
stets
ar-
von Erasmus her-
selbstandig auf seine Zeit zu iibertragen.
Unter Verzicht auf die reiche kommentierende Literatur geht Erasmus jeweils adjontem; er fordert
den Leser
auf: "Blattere das
du eine Vorschrift finden,
wirst
Wort
iiber Speisen
nennt
allein die
Was
als
oder Kleidung,
Liebe
gen, durch Liebe
als
zum
ganze
die sich auf die
wo
sein Gebot.
Neue Testament
Zeremonien
durch, nirgends
bezieht.
Wo gibt es ein
Erwahnung des Fastens? Christus Zeremonien kommt es zu Spaltun-
irgendeine
Durch
die
Frieden."^
Apologie und Werbeschrift begann, wird allmahlich zu einer wohldosier-
ten Anklage. Erasmus
wuBte nur zu
gut,
daB nur eine methodologische Schrift nicht
zu einer grundlegend neuen hermeneutischen Methode wiirde fiihren konnen. So greift er haufig
auf vertraute VorsteUungen zuriick. Er
Weise zur Disposition;
lichen Gesellschaft in die Stande der laboratores,
nimmt stellt,
er wortlos
wie
aber jeweils auf subtile
menschund oratores? Zwei Stande beim Priesterstand die Frage
bellatores
gegebene Fakten hin, wahrend er
ob denn die Privilegien
ableiten lassen, greift
als
stellt sie
z.B. referiert er die mittelalterliche Dreiteilung der
es die
dieser
Gruppe
sich wirklich so eindeutig aus der Bibel
Tradition der Kirche bis zu seiner Zeit unaufhorlich
keineswegs den Text der Bibel
*
Erasmus, Ratio, 268-269.
*
Erasmus, Ratio, lll-TTi.
'
Erasmus, Ratio, 302-303.
^
Erasmus, Ratio, 194-195.
als
vielmehr die
ratio
ihrer Ausleger an,
tat.
Er
und
er
ERASMUS VON ROTTERDAM
508
zeigt auf,
daB diese Hermeneuten
neue Ausleger und
ihrerseits
Theologen einwirkten. In
hatten, die jeweils auf andere
bis
Interpreter!
gefunden
zu zehnfacher Brechung
werden die Worte Christi gedeutet; der Grundtext geht verloren, die Kommentatoren kommentieren nur noch ihre Vorganger. Uber die Beschaftigung mit der Sekundarliteratur und iiber den fehlenden Bezug auf den Originaltext auBert sich Erasmus
mehr als verbittert. Er nimmt einzig die Theologen in Cambridge und die in Lowen von seiner Kritik aus; sie verhalten sich moderat, wahrend man in Paris verantwortungslos interpretiert.^ Um das zu demonstrieren, berichtet er von der Predigtreihe eines Theologen in Paris. Bisher ist diese Anekdote nicht verifiziert worden. Es konnte sein, daB Erasmus sie erfunden hat, um die von ihm nicht geliebte Sorbonne der Lacherlichkeit preiszugeben.
Ein Theologe, der
Thema
iiber das Gleichnis
vom
Verlorenen Sohn predigte, habe dieses
an 40 aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen behandelt,
um die gesamte
40 Tagen damit zu fuUen. Natiirlich reicht eine so kurze
Fastenzeit
Bibelstelle nicht
fiir
von
40 lange
Der geistliche Herr sei daher auf den Gedanken verfallen, den verlorenen Sohn auf seiner Reise in die Fremde zu begleiten. An jedem Tag habe er einen Tag
Predigten.
der Reisestation des jungen Verschwenders beschrieben: die Wirtshauser, in denen er abgestiegen, was er dort gegessen, welchen Eastern er sich hingegeben, wie er an
einer Wassermiihle
vorbeigekommen usw.,
anderen Kontexten stammten oder Predigtserie nichts
mehr zu tun
Was hier als Auswuchs
frei
jeweils mit BibelsteUen garniert, die aus
erfunden waren. Mit der Bibel habe diese
gehabt.^
einer ausufemden
Methode bibelfreier Theologie gebrand-
markt wurde, wird die Zustimmung von Erasmus' Horern gefunden haben, die dadurch dann auch auf seine Forderung eingestimmt wurden, daB einzig die QueUen zu befragen seien.
"Methodus" und "Ratio"
sind zunachst
als
Apologie und Werbeschrift konzipiert,
verwandeln sich aber zunehmend in Kampfansagen und bereiten den Bruch mit einer Jahrhunderte hindurch bestehenden Tradition einer BibeUnterpretation vor, die den
Text auf die Funktion eines Stichwortgebers reduzierte. Indem Erasmus die Auswiichse
kritisiert, stellte er die patristische
irritate, "'"
non
risaer aufweise:
omne malum guitat
und
mittelalterliche Bibelexegese
zwar mit der beschwichtigenden Formel "docere
satzlich in Frage; stets
aber doch mit
"Habent enim
oritur"^ ^
—
dem Hinweis et nostra
est
grundanimus,
auf die eigene Zeit, die auch ihre Pha-
tempora suos Pharisees ac rabbinos.
eine fur Erasmus eindeutige
und Angstlichkeit wird man Erasmus nach der
werfen konnen, seinen persuasiven Diskurs wird
Ab
illis
und kiihne Aussage. Ambi-
Lektiire der "Ratio" nicht vor-
man bewundern.
Seminar fiir Lateinische Philologie des
Mittelalters
der Universitdt Freiburg
*
Erasmus, Ratio, 488-489.
'
Erasmus, Ratio, A22-A2S.
'"
Erasmus, Ratio, 214-215.
" Erasmus,
Ratio, S.
338-339.
Nuevos
textos del teatro
Espana,
jesuitico en
I:
Parenesia y Demophilus
ANGEL SIERRA DE COZAR
El
objeto de este trabajo, juntamente con
en
este
mismo volumen, la
el
presentado por
profesor V. Picon
el
dar a conocer cuatro nuevos manuscritos de otras
de colegio de
tantas piezas del teatro
Real Academia de
es
los jesuitas
en Espana, que
conservan en
se
la
Historia (BJU^), de Madrid.' Se trata de dos testimonies nue-
vos de obras ya conocidas, Parenesia y Demophilus, y otros dos de obras de hasta ahora no se tenia noticia, tituladas Techtnisio y El triunfo de la Fe.
las
que
Las cuatro piezas fonnan parte del legajo 9/7262 (signatura antigua 11-11-2/42)
de
la
seccion de Jesuitas de
Lecina en su catalogo
nido del legajo.
En
al
las
la
Biblioteca de
la
RAH. De
su existencia informaba el P.
anotar escuetamente "varios dramas" en su reseiia del contepaginas que siguen
me
ocupare, sucintamente, de
las
dos
primeras.-
En
principio, la informacion sobre nuevos testimonios de
un texto ya conocido
deberia partir de su comparacion con los antiguos. Por suerte o por desgracia, cierre temporal
de
la
seccion de manuscritos de
la
No obstante,
imposible
la
los textos
conocidos, que estos de ahora, supuestamente repetidos,
'
Este trabajo se Integra en
financiado por ^
Cf.
y
la
el
PB97-0053, "Teatro
es tan sucinto lo
escolar latino en
Espana (1550-1650)",
S.J.,
Real Academia de
Catalogo de la
los
116
legajos existentes en la seccion titulada jesuitas de la
Historia (Madrid, 1895).
La rareza de
este catalogo explica
indicacion de su autor haya pasado hasta ahora inadvertida. Por otra parte, el
aspecto descuidado y desordenado de los textos explica que
leccion de Cortes, cuenta.
publicado sobre
podemos conside-
DGICYT.
Mariano Lecina,
Biblioteca de la la
realizacion de este trabajo.
el
Biblioteca Nacional (BN) ha hecho
que agrupa
a
la
mayor
el
el
recopilador de
parte del teatro de colegio conservado,
que
caracter unilario, la
no
conocida Colos tuviera
en
TEXTOS DEL TEATRO JESUJTICO EN ESPANA
510
en
— y en
como nuevos
rarlos
Los textos "antiguos" de hace no muchos
lina
como veremos, aun
parte realmente lo son,
que posiblemente fueron
detalle los
dos piezas que nos ocupan,
las
significativas
detallado de
las
y
es
nuevos datos
los
contenido de un manuscrito de
MS.
.
.
.
.
.
,
nuevos
en
castellano, multitud
zante cuyo nucleo es
.
dejando para un estudio posterior
— anade
a
del el
al
de personajes, efimera y
la
goce de una paz eterna
a
menudo
modo
de resumen
XVI
celestial.
Son con
alegoricos
un tema
teatro de "instruir a los
a
pues,
consta que
el
.
el
—
las
"las obras
el
alumnos y educar al vulgo." autor de ese primer acercamiento
— con latin
y
y una tematica alegorilos bienes terrenales
se insertan
que
comun
la
notas
examen
en eUas hallamos
.:
plenamente
iniciara a
a
mediados
ambas comedias:
uso del latin junto
el
re-
al
caste-
doble fmalidad de aquel
a estas
comedias haya
lle-
examen detallado que las circunstancias le obligaban a aplazar. Veamos, examen de los nuevos textos permite anadir algo a lo ya conocido.
cabo
si
que
obras, pues,
en razon de
edificante,
.
.
fines didacticos
uso de un segundo prologo dialogado para defender
llano y la eleccion de
vado
.
Padre Acevedo."'* Por ultimo, destaca un dato
el
No me
.
que proporcionan
falsa felicidad
un
y en especial
—
tipo de teatro alegorico-simbolico
el
textos,
mezcla de prosa y verso, latin y castellano, entreactos y pasatiempos que tanta fortuna tendria prologos explicativos en
tipico sabor popular
en
M. MoBN, pro-
particularmente breve, limitandose "a
obras." "Por lo demas"
el
frente
la
15.404), anadiendolo a
los
presentan los rasgos caracteristicos de este teatro de colegio coros
conocer
dos comedias fueron dados a conocer por
estas
afios, al describir el
cedente del Colegio de jesuitas de Cordoba (BN,
mas
sin
modelos.
sus
cuento general del teatro neolatino en Espana.^ Sobre sobre
I
el
Con respecto de una obra
a "nuestra" Parenesia,
nada tendriamos que decir aqui, ya que
totalmente en castellano. Sin embargo,
escrita
el
analisis
se trata
puramente
externo de su desarrollo da pie a algunas observaciones de interes en relacion precisa-
mente con
el
uso del
de
rrollo dramatico
la
latin
y de
la
lengua vernacula en
obra podria sintetizarse en
el
el
teatro de colegio. El desa-
siguiente esquema:
Parenesia 6v
Acto Prim°
V
Amartano
(verso)
cena 2*
Dificultad
Amartano
scena
7r
s
8r
scena
9v
s^ena 3'
^
M. Molina
su estudio," in
J.
M. Maestre
Demophilea, de vera Acolastus, Dialogus
Cupedio Aleator DeTractor Dilacion Letheo
los jesuitas
et al., eds., la
.
.
en
la
Humanismo y
Parenesia
et ementitajcelicitate (fols. .
(verso y prosa)
Dilaijion oluido Difficultad Amarta. (prosa)
Sanchez, "El teatro de
1993), 2:643-654. Aparte de
*
2*
•3-
(fols.
provincia de Andalucia: nuevos datos para perviuencia del
lr-42v) y
82r-127v),
el
el
mundo
clasico,
2 vols. (Cadiz,
Demophilus, este bajo
el titulo
los jesuitas," 650, 653.
de
MS contiene otras cuatro piezas teatrales:
de praestantissima scientiamm eligenda, Z£nonia, y Gadirus herculanus.
Molina, "El teatro de
(p.)
ANGEL SIERRA DE COZAR lOu
511
TEXTOS PEL TEATRO JESUJTICO EN ESPANA
512
Por de
la
alii,
si
BN
esto fuera poco, dos diferencias en relacion
Uevan
indefectiblemente a la
aqui tenemos 50, y en
el
con
la Parenesia del
misma conclusion:
prologo dialogado de
la
I
manuscrito
frente a las 84 paginas de
nueva no
se plantea
si
sera
en
castellano o en latin.
En
el
manuscrito de
la
BN
ambas obras estan fechadas:
la
fecha del Demophilus
el texto nuevo, no 1580. manuscrito de la RAH Cordoba en El hace al caso; la Parenesia se represent© en abandono del latin tal vez el contendria por tanto una version posterior, reflejando
(Granada, 1584), que coincide con
que
se generalizaba a
En cuanto
al
datos presentes tambien en
comienzos del XVII.
contenido de
las
dos comedias, sus semejanzas y diferencias podrian
plasmarse en los dos esquemas siguientes:
Parenesia
Amartano
ANGEL SIERRA DE COZAR
513
En uno y otro caso, las figuras que dan nombre a la comedia constituyen el centre de una constelacion de personajes que se distribuyen a izquierda y derecha en torno segun su pertenencia
a ellas,
en
el
al
bando
del bien o del mal. Las dos comedias consisten
enfrentamiento de estos dos contingentes por
cuanto
la
posesion de
desarroUo argumental, estos conflictos recuerdan
al
Schema" de
las batallas
luego
quis viribus,
en Livio: entablado
frente
el
romano
el
combate
se
fuerzas del bien)
(las
el
la figura central.
En
viejo "Nissens'ches
mantiene por un tiempo
comienza
ac-
y cuando
a ceder,
ya se encuentra a punto de ser derrotado, reacciona, se recupera y termina aniquial enemigo. Solo que aqui el papel activo corresponde a la "presa" en inter-
lando
accion con sus enemigos o con su Salvador.
Poco mas se puede anadir a partir de la comparacion de uno y otro esquema, salvo mayor complejidad, variedad, y cohesion del Demophilus, y ejemplificar con
seiialar la
determinados grupos de personajes lo apuntado antes del empleo exclusive del o del castellano para determinados contenidos o escenas:
Timon—Ambitianus— Cressicus se sobre
la felicidad;
que comparece
expresa en latin sobre
el
latin
nucleo formado por
un tema academico:
la filosofia
en cambio Honor-Dives—Experientia forman un tribunal ante
la felicidad
para ser juzgada,
un
tribunal
que
se recrea
el
en un juego de
metaforas en clave juridica, intraducible
al latin, destinado a dibujar sonrisas complaacomodados burgueses entendidos en leyes padres de alumnos. Echemos finalmente una ojeada a la Hterariedad/latinidad del texto de Demofilo.
cidas
en
el
auditorio,
Tenia mucha razon M. Molina en subrayar de
—
los entreactos 1°,
2° y ultimo
tado en
en
y pasatiempos.
el
latin.
—
manuscrito
En
el
parasite Tristan
,
En
como
la
viveza
como 3°,
tales
presen-
ultima escena del acto, seguramente por estar parcialmente
intervienen Demofilo con los suyos (= los criados de Foelicitas) y
el
en lo que puede valer para nosotros como un documento pedagogico:
—Pero q.
importancia de los prologos y
y en mi opinion, por su contenido, un entreacto
ACTVS Hon.
la
Demofilo hay tres entreactos senalados
^es posible
despues
que no
q. salistes
SCENA VLTIMA
3
teneis otro entretenimj'" sino ese?
Auianme dicho
de casa de aquel bachiller de grammatica soys grande
poeta latino.
Trist.
— jBueno
es
eBo!
de andar entre
Nacieronme
los dientes ela fuente cabalina, y estoy harto Helicon o del Parnaso ^y vieneme agora con
los laureles del
eso?.
Hon. Trist.
—Aora dezidnos —Vna epigrama pues,
le dire
algo de lo q. aueis
en verso elegiaco
mi capote y quexandome de
la fortuna.
compuesto q.
estos dias.
hize lamentando la perdida de
Escuche, y despauil[e
el
enjtendi-
m[iento] Est fallax fortuna mihi, temer[ar]ia ceca preceps inconstans lubrica Jluxa uaga
Aprenda: exordium sumptum ab antiqua pictura. Vestis versicolor contexit serica corpus
heu pictam clamidem cartula picta
Narracion descriptiua: pictam y picta ti)one ponuntur jque tambien tiene
f. la
.
.f
tulit.
paululum inmutata atque deflexa in or(a-
persona sus puntillos de rethorico!
TEXTOS DEL TEATRO JESUJTICO EN ESPANA
514
Aurea commifii
prcetiosa
I
nomismata ludo
sed mansit numis nuda crumena meis. Periphrasis: illustris tropus
galano
modo
cum
quod [uno] verbo
id
dici poterat pluribus dicitur. jq.
de hablar! Para dezir jugue y perdi dixe: aurea
etc.
Reieci ex humeris lasurus pulchril lusums amictu atq. itidem fuerunt
inuidafata mei.
apud
claros poetas,
Sylio ytalico: terruerunt pauidos accensa ceraunia nautas, n(uest)r6 lyrico:
dij tibi diuitias
Conclusion. Fuerunt c6
la
penult" breue; figura sistole frequens
dederunt arteq. fruendi y finalm" el poeta latino: Obstipuit steteruntque. comce bus
Noteme
hcesit.
(jQue
era
quenta de mi perdida,
un Ovidio de auaritia
La
su alma seiior
Tristibus, y
si
—
"Tii
:
me
Demofilo, y esto
no
si
uoxfauci-
si
succederas en
no remedia
bastara
me
oyera en mis tiempos,
escriuia!
Deciame
el bachiller
la catedra, hijo."
el dafio, sin
Dado he
duda hara Tristan
haremos un Juvenal en
satiras
contra su
comica del fragmento residia, sin duda, en su valor de reflejo burlesco de
dos de enseiianza o textos escolares
al
breve epigrama de ocho versos
se
mo-
uso, herederos en parte de la impostacion reto-
comentario transmitida a traves de
rica del
et
.
lageria.
y
1^/5
.
muchacho: con que agudeza hablaba y
— Dios haya
mi amo
.
parece? Abobados los he dexado. jOh, pues
les
cuando yo
esos sp(irit)us poeticos
commenta ad Terentium. Aqui en un
los
enfoca bajo
optica de
la
un
discurso: exordium, na-
rracion, conclusion.
Tonos mucho menos amables presenta expuesta a
la figura del
gramatico en
entreacto 2°,
ironia y el desprecio del personaje Discurso, interpretado, segun se de-
la
duce del propio texto, por un muchacho de 14 anos. El Gramatico se queja,
el
es
un necio que
en un lenguaje ridiculo, del desprecio en que yace su ciencia: "estan
las
de oi supeditadas, digo oppresas y aspernadas, et ut uno uerbo dicam, assis, jlocci, pili non Jaciunt" que esta orgulloso de tener su ejemplar de los Adagia
letras el dia teruncii,
;
de subrayados, notas, ilustraciones, escolios, glosematas, y apendices; autoridad de nueve gramaticos pero que de Varron a Nebrija
ilegible a fuerza
que apela
a la
—
preguntado por Discurso sobre donde encontrar
En
el
anadiendo en un alarde de erudicion superflua
la
que mandarlo
al
diccionario: ^Felicidad?
prosper y felix. Sintomaticamente el
—
la felicidad,
no
se le
,
ocurre otra cosa
Calepino, letra F con diptongo
oe,
distincion establecida por Valla entre
muchacho (Discurso) manifiesta su desprecio al mismo nivel de locura al gramatico y al as-
mediante refranes casteUanos que ponen
trologo de los entreactos anteriores: "jotro que bien bayla! jTopado se ha Sancho con su rocin!"
.
.
.
,
etc. Filosofia
recogida por Erasmo. El latin del Demofilo general
un
escrito para
'
Entre
latin bastante
que
los
de versificacion
— excepcion hecha de algunos
latina
la
la
versos logrados^
tradicion
—
es
en
pobre, reiterative y esquematico, a veces casi se diria que
los actores
meritos de
vulgar frente y por encima de los adagios de
tengan algo que decir. Unicamente en un par de escenas
comedia hay que colocar
el
esfuerzo del autor por ofrecer ejemplos
en distintos ritmos y medidas, sobre
el
modelo de Seneca.
.
ANGEL SIERRA DE COZAR
515
del acto cuarto la semejanza de las situaciones le lleva a recuperar algo de la tradicion
de
la
comedia rotnana con ecos
terenciano
o
(cf.
nota
directos de Terencio, pero
en una
6) se incruste
frase
que tiene un
no
sin
aire algo asi
que
lexico
el
como
biblico
eclesiastico.
En rotos:
Demophilus y
4.4
el idilio
con
lagrimas, indignacion y reproches:
entre
Actus
Fcelicitas se
rompe; y acaba como
los idilios
4 Sc^cn. 4*
— Hem fallacem ementitam inanem! — Proh, nugacem foeminam! — maleficam! — famulorum interuentus noui cuiuspiam maJi index
Disc.
Foelicitatem,
Phil.
Desid.
Fa[s]cinatricem
Demo.
Praeceps hie
est,
.
.
quid inclamatis, pucfi .?
— me dolose fiaudem — Vobiscum etiam actum — PromiBa ab impia
Disc
induxit Fcelicitas; sed ego
in
Satis
Demo.
me
in pedes.
est fi-audulenter?
Desid.
fides illam
non
cogitatione
reflexit
neque
a scelere
repreBit vlla infzmice suspicio.^
— Alieno ergo animo — Res
Demo. Desid
a nobis est FoeUcitas.
ipsa indicat.^
Esto se ponia sobre los escenarios de los colegios en 1584. Veinte anos antes Ace-
vedo habia estrenado su Oaasio, una obra versas,
un verdadero centon
literario,
tejida
con
"intertextualidades"
las
ciones escenicas.* La edicion critica traducida y anotada de
Acevedo
a cargo
entre los que ese prejuicio
de un equipo de
mas
di-
capaz de inspirar a Cervantes por sus innova-
latinistas
de
la
las
Universidad
obras dramaticas de
Autonoma de Madrid,
me
cuento y a cuyo firente se encuentra V. Picon, debera hacer revisar heredado sobre la nula entidad de este teatro, moralista y simbolico
desde sus comienzos, es cierto, pero tambien en sus comienzos mas proximo y abierto a la recepcion e interaccion cristiano,
mucho mas de
lo
con
los clasicos
y
al ideal
estos
de
la
segunda genera-
cion de maestros de latinidad entre los jesuitas, cuando, aparte de diferencias de capacidad
y estudios entre autores,
el
humanismo
educativo de un
que muestran ejemplos como lema
las
naturales
virtus versus litteras se
habia
hecho mas combativo.' Universidad
*
Cf. Ter. Ad. 306-307: "quern
'
Ter. Ad. 338: "lam
*
Cf. A. Sierra de Cozar. "El posible
primum
de Acevedo," Cuademos de '
V. Picon,
neque
fides
ilium alieno
neque iusiurandum
animo
modelo de Cervantes en
et al., Teatro escolar latino del
s.
XVI: La
.
.
/ repressit
neque
reflexit."
a nobis esse res ipsa indicat."
Filologia Clasica: Estudios Latinos, n.s.
fer Jurens, Occasio, Philautus, Charopus (Madrid, 1997).
.
Autonoma de Madrid
las
comedias del P. Pedro Pablo
15 (1998): 561-571.
obra de Pedro Pablo de Acevedo, S.I.,
I:
Luci-
Zamosc: Das
letzte
Bollwerk
der Renaissance in Polen
JERZY STARNAWSKI
Oberfeldherr und Zamoyski (1542-1605), der Jan Polen sein Leben beendete, war in seiner Jugend Student der Universitat Padova,
GroBkanzler des Konigreichs
als
wo
Wiirde des Rektors bekleidet hatte und
er ein Jahr lang die
tion
De
senatu
Er war mit
Romano
dem
wo
er die Disserta-
(Venetiis 1563) fertigstellte.
groBten Dichter der polnischen Renaissance, Jan Kochanowski
(1530-1564), befreundet. Als Zamoyski seine zweite Frau, Krystyna Radziwiilowna, heiratete, dichtete
Kochanowski
flir
fertigung der griechischen Gesandten.
am
12.
diese
Hochzeit ein bedeutendes Drama, Die Ab-
Die Vorstellung fand wahrend des Hochzeitsfestes
Januar 1578 in Jazdow bei
Wanchau
statt.
Der
Spielleiter
(1537-1599) hat seine Aufgabe in erstaunlicher SchneUigkeit
den Text des Schauspiels
Nach die das
erst
am
23. oder 24.
Dezember
Wojciech Oczko
erledigt,
denn
er hatte
erhalten.
der Inszenierung der Abfertigung der griechischen Gesandten, einer Tragodie,
Thema
der
Ilias
entlehnte,
wurde
ein lateinisches
Poem von Kochanowski,
Orpheus Sarmaticus, zur Leier gesungen, das die Idee der letzten Worte des Schauspiels weiterfuhrte, namlich die
Wamung
vor
dem
Kriege.
Die Abfertigung der griechischen Gesandten wurde noch im Jahre 1578 in Warschau
diesem Jahrjagte der Konig Stefan Batory in Zamech, dem Landgut von Zamoyski. Aus diesem AnlaB verfaBte Kochanowski zwei lateinische Gedichte: Dryas Zamchana, zu dem auch eine polnische Ubersetzung erschien, und Pan Zamchanus. Beide wurden am 8. Mai 1578 in Anwesenheit des Konigs vorgetragen. Die veroffentlicht. In
Wilder in der Gegend von Zamech hat der Dichter in seiner Einbildungskraft mit Faunen und Satym bevolkert und die Jagdgottin Diana gepriesen. Pan Zamchanus war ein Waldgott, der in Zamech wohnte. Das Gedicht ist ein Monolog, eine Apostrophe an den Konig, eine Glorifikation des Monarchen. Die zweite Frau von Zamoyski ist am 28. Februar 1580 gestorben. Der Kanzler heiratete am 13. Juni 1583 Gryzelda Batory, die Tochter des Fiirsten von SiebenNichte des Konigs. Zu der Hochzeit, die im KonigsschloB Wawel gewurde, schrieb Kochanowski zwei lateinische Gedichte, die beide 1583 in Kra-
biirgen, eine feiert
DAS LETZTE BOLLWERK PER RENAISSANCE IN POLEN
518
kau herausgegeben wurden: In Bathorreae
/.
.
./ Epithalamion
Mischo debellato
et
nuptiis Ulustriumjoan/nis/ de
Zamoscio
und Ad Stephanum Bathorreum, Regem
Livonia recuperata Epinicion. Das zweite Gedicht
ist
/.
.
./ ac Griseldis
Poloniae inclytum,
nicht das einzige,
in dem Kochanowski den Konig als Sieger des Krieges 1579-1580 verherrlicht hat. Im Feldzug gegen Moskau hat Zamoyski teilgenommen und drei Stadte erobert. Der
dem
52. Duodenarius in
Epinicion hat ihren Sieg gepriesen.
Der Chronist der Hochzeit war Reinhold Heidenstein (1553-1620), regius, /.
.
Verfasser der
De
Zamoscio /
nuptiis illustrium Joannis de
./ epistola (Cracoviae, 1583).
Thema
Es war auch das
.
historiographus
./ ac Griseldis Bathorreae
.
der lateinischen
und pol-
nischen Dichtungen.
Imjahre 1560 hat Jan Zamoyski ster hat er aus Italien Bernardo
Zamosc
die Stadt
Morando
geholt. In
eine "ideale Renaissance-Stadt" werden.
gegriindet. Als
Hauptbaumei-
den Planen des Kanzlers
sollte sie
Die Stadt hat wahrend der Bauzeit der
Dichter Sebastian Fabian Klonovic (um 1545-1602) besichtigt, der seine lateinischen
Werke unter dem Namen Acernus
veroffentlichte. In
dem Gedicht Roxolania
(Craco-
viae, 1584, wahrscheinlich 1581 entstanden) wandte sich Acernus in der Invokation
an die
Musen
mit den Worten:
Dicite,
quod
Dicite,
Der neuen
surgit coelo arridente
nam
vobis nascitur
"Hie mihi cara quies Parcite
iam
gewidmet
(V. 13—14)
1281-1300). Er schrieb
(V.
Qua nunc
—
et
metuenda
dixit
quondam incunabula
als
nostrae.
has moles surgere forte vides."'
Einige Jahre spater war Klonovic-Acernus in er in Lublin
dedit.
— mea cura Zamoscum,
vestro, Martia bella, deo.
Urbis adhuc fuerant
wohnte
domus.
bellator Gradivus ahenea iecit
Hostibus adversis
1295
ilia
Stadt hat der Dichter 20 Verse
Moenia
Zamoscum,
Zamosc
Schulleiter (1589-1592), spater
Biirgermeister.
sich zu einem polnischen Padova mit dem schonen dem Renaissance-Rathaus und einigen Kirchen und Gebauden im Renais-
Die Stadt Zamosc entwickelte Ringplatz,
sance-Stil. Georg Braun (Georgius Braunius Agrippinus, gest. 1616) hat in seinem Hauptwerk Theatri praecipuarum totius mundi orbium libri (1512 fF.) im 6. Buch Novum Zamoscium geschildert und begann seine Beschreibung mit folgenden Worten:
loannes de Zamoscio,
tuum Dux,
'
illustri
Magnus
Polonici
genere sed virtute
Vgl. Sebastian Acernus, Roxolania, hrsg.
et
Regni Cancellarius rebus gestis multo
et Generalis exerci-
illustrior, ut
Mieczysbw Mejor (Warszawa,
Elzbieta Kolbus, Humanistica Lovaniensia 47 (1998): 175-211.
de patria
1996), 22-96; hrsg.
JERZY STARNAWSKI bene mereretur,
in
omnes
partes
animum
earn nova civitate augere constituit
[.
.
.]
519
magno
versans,
nomen, egregie munire novisque substructionibus exomari
ipsi
Georgius Dousa, der 1597 durch Polen nach Konstantinopel lateinischen
Werk De
schaften Zamoyskis,
itinere
indem
Worten der
er mit solchen
quam haec ipsa civitas, quam propriis
Die
ist
kam und
Cancellarius (1628),
ger Lewel
[.
.
.]
dem
isti
solebat,
amorem
am Ende
Polen entstand
die Sodalitas
bezeugt, daB es in seiner
und Gelehrte
Zamosc gedachte: declarare possit
impetum validissimis munivit,
moe-
et a
gab.
Umgebung
viele
Rutger zur Horst schrieb
des 15. Jh.,
Vistulana begriindete.
litteraria
ben keinen Beweis, da6 Jan Zamoyski etwas AhnHches jedoch
Stadt
suo
appellavit.^
erste literarische Gesellschaft in
rad Celtis nach Krakau
schrieb in seinem
sum(p)tibus a fundamentis extruxit,
nibus et propugnaculis adversus hostium
nomine Zamoscium
reiste,
curavit.^
suo ConstantinopoUtano epistola iiber die guten Eigen-
Nihil autem magis innatum eius erga patrios lares
steller
sed laudabili ausu
arcem suam Zamoscium unde gentile
KonWir ha-
als
Leben zu rufen versuchte, hochbegabte Manner, Schrift-
in
ins
seinem parenthetischen
Werk
daB David Hilchen, Reinhold Heidenstein, Simonides und Rut-
Kanzler Zamoyski nahestanden:
quattuor Zamoscio erant famiharissimi, his in mensa aHquid proponere
tandem post longas pro
et contra disputationes et discursus
summa cum
gravitate concludebant.^
David Hilchen kam zu Zamoyski
um das Jahr
1588
als
Botschafter
von Riga und
Zamosc gebUeben. Dort hat er manche Werke veroffentUcht, u. a. Clypeus innocentiae et veritatis (1604) und ein Beileidsgedicht Paregoria (1605) fiir Jan Lipski aus Goraj, einem nicht weit von Zamosc entfemten Stadtchen. Der schon genannte Reinhold Heidenstein schrieb iiber Zamoyski in einigen seiner historischen Werke; nach dem Tode des GroBkanzlers war er dessen erster Biograph und verfaBte die Schrift De vita loannis Zamoscii (1606), die unter Benutzung ist
in
einer Handschrift des 18. Jahrhunderts erstmals imjahre 1861 verofFendicht wurde.
Den groBten Dichter der neuen Stadt Zamosc, Szymon Szymonowic der sich Simonides nannte, hat Zamoyski
um
1588 nach Zamosc eingeladen; doch kam er
(1558—1629),
1586 kennengelemt und ihn imjahre
erst
1598 nach Zamosc. Er wohnte
frii-
her in Lemberg und stand mit Zamoyski in Korrespondenz. Er hatte schon mehrere lateinische
-
Dichtungen
publiziert,
zu denen sich ab 1588 einige iiber Zamoyski ge-
VgJ. Georgius Braunius, Theatri praedpuarum
totius
mundi urbium
libri
VI (Coioniae Agrippinae.
1618), K. 53r-v. ^
tiis.
Vgl. Thesaurus Craecarum atttiquilatum, contextus
et
designatus abjacobo Gronovio,
Bd. 6 (Vene-
1725), 3364. *
Vgl.
Leon Szypenki, De Simonis Simonidae
vita, ingettio, poesi (Vratislaviae,
1875), 15.
DAS LETZTE BOLLWERK PER RENAISSANCE IN POLEN
520
(Cracoviae, 1558), ein Zyklus
sellten, z.B. Flagellum livoris
von 19 Oden zur Verherr-
lichung Zamoyskis nach seinem Sieg bei Byczyna, und Aelinopean (Leopoli, 1589),
von 16 kleinen Gedichten, auch zur Verherrlichung des Kanzlers nach dessen Sieg in den siidostlichen Gegenden des Konigreiches. Zamoyski hat Simonides als Nachfolger Kochanowskis betrachtet. Er wandte sich an ihn, da er die Dichtungen der Dichter Andrzej ZbyHtowski, Joachim Bielski und des schon genannten Acernus schatzte. So entstand in Zamosc eine "docta sodaHtas", ein Zyklus
die
jedoch nicht streng organisiert war. Dafiir entstand eine Akademie, die in der
vom 29. Oktober 1594 genehmigt wurde. Sie wurde von dem Kanzler einberufen, jedoch erst am 23. September
Bulla des Papstes Klemens VIII. erstmals
imjahre 1595
1601 von Konig Sigismund
III. bestatigt.
Die Academia Samoscensis wurde
als
eine Erganzung der Academia Cracoviensis ange-
sehen. Die weltlichen Unterrichtsgegenstande
wurden hier ausfiihrlicher behandelt als
und es wurde hier eine andere Konzeption realisiert: die jungen Knaben, Zamosc ihre Ausbildung begonnen hatten, konnten sie an der Akademie fort-
in Krakau,
die in
Ausbildung
setzen, d.h. die ganze
zum
bis
Universitatsstudium konnte
man
in der-
selben Schule durchlaufen. Die Unterrichtsanstalt wurde in erster Linie fiir die adelige Jugend aus dem Ritterstand begriindet; die Knaben wurden auch im Reiten unterrichtet, daher wurde sie auch Hippeum genannt. Bei der Besetzung der Lehrstiihle stiitzte sich Zamoyski auf die Vorschlage des Si-
monides, der
an den
als
Erzieher des Sohnes des Kanzlers,
Hof in Zamosc kam, doch
selbst
Tomasz Zamoyski (1594—1635),
keinen Lehrstuhl
erhielt.
Die vornehmsten
Gelehrten der Academia Samoscensis waren Laurentius Stamigel (ab 1595,
Joannes Ursinus (ab 1595,
und Adam Bursius reichlich
(ab
Versorgung
gest. 1613),
Melchior Stephanides
1596, gest. 1611).
zuteil
Der GroBkanzler UeB den Professoren
werden, was Szymon Starowolski in seinem
rum Polonicomm Hekatontas (1625,
2. ed.
gest. 1639),
(ab 1595, gest. 1638)
Werk
Scripto-
1627) bescheinigt; er schrieb iiber Joannes
auctoritatis et gratiae locum apud Ducem Zamoscium obti.]."^ Jeder Professor erhielt ein non contemnendis invitatus Haus auf dem Ringplatz. Auf dem Plan der Stadt Zamosc, der sich im dortigen Museum befindet, konnen wir noch heute sehen, welches Haus Adam Bursius gehorte. Bei der Inauguration der Akademie hat Zamoyski einen Aufruf unter dem Titel Ad Cives Polonos de Academia Zamoscensis Prophasis (1594) veroffentlicht. Aus dem
Ursinus: nuit, a
"[.
quo
.
.]
magnum
stipendiis
[.
.
Betrieb der Academia Samosciensis entstand das Lehrbuch Grammaticae methodicae
/F von Joannes
libri
Ursinus, das 1619 gedruckt, aber schon friiher in den Vorlesungen
verwendet wurde. Bedeutende Leistungen wurden im Kreis von Zamosc in der Philologie erbracht. In der Epoche, in der die ersten gedruckten
Ausgaben
(editiones prin-
war der Anteil polnischer Humanisten an diesen Untemehmungen nicht groB; denn erstens haben die Romer niemals die Karpaten iiberschritten und daher in unserem Lande keine Handcipes)
der griechischen
schriften hinterlassen,
^
88.
und romischen
Schriftsteller erschienen,
und zweitens konnten
Vgl. Simonis Starovolsci, Tractatus
tres
in unseren Breiten keine Papyri so viele
(Vratislaviae, 1733); Scriptorum
Polonicomm Hekatontas,
JERZY STAR.NAWSK1 Jahrhunderte iiberdauem.
Doch zwei Namen
521
der polnischen Philologen aus der Zeit
der Renaissance sind in der ganzen Welt beriihmt: Andrzej Patrycy Nidecki (1522fF.) und mit Zamoyski in und Adam Bursius, der Verfasser der Dialectica Ciceronis (Samosci, 1604). Das Werk von Bursius war nicht das einzige aus dem Gebiet der Philologie, das in der Academia Samoscietisis vorbereitet wurde. Szymon Birkowski (Professor
1587), der Ciceros Fragmente herausgegeben hat (1561
Korrespondenz
stand,
ab 1607, gest. 1616) hatte, bevor er den Lehrstuhl iibemahm, die Schrift tione verborum
De
colloca-
von Dionysios von Halikamassos (1602) herausgegeben. Simonides ver-
suchte sich ebenfalls an editorischen Tatigkeiten (Pseudo-Herennius, der heilige Epiphanius), jedoch hat er die
Ausgaben nicht zu Ende
gefuhrt.
Simonides hat wahrend seines Aufenthalts in Zamosc (oder in Czemizcin,
von Zamoyski ein Landgut erhalten
hatte)
wo
er
dem GroBkanzler manche Dichtungen
gewidmet, namlich Repotia Zamosciana (Leopoh, 1592), ein Gedicht aus AnlaB der
Tamowska, und
Heirat des Oberfeldherm mit der vierten Frau, Barbara
1592 entstanden, jedoch
Imagines
zehn Jahre spater (1602) gedruckt. Im ersten Gedicht wurde das Lob Zamoyskis mit den Worten des Flusses dietae Zamoscianae, ebenfalls
Wieprz
wobei
ausgedriickt,
sich die
Nymphen, Vepriades
Stroms erheben. Die zweite Dichtung Portrats
im
erst
ist
genannt, aus der Tiefe des
ein Zyklus emblematischer Verse
entstanden, sind: Hercules Prodiceus (1602), iiber Herkules, der den nicht des Lasters gewahlt hat; Pentesilea (1618), ein
Drama
(als
von
Verfasser
Zamoyskis Freude
Georg Braun
die
zum polnischen
Weg der Tugend,
iiber die verderblichen
Folgen der weibhchen Leidenschaft, und vor allem die polnischen schonsten in unserer Literatur, in denen er Vergil
fiir
Die beriihmtesten Dichtungen von Simonides, die in Zamosc
SchloBsaal.
Idyllen (1614), die
Theokrit und polnischen
BucoUca) wurde.
iiber das
Hippeum
dauerte nur zehn Jahre.
Der schon genannte
schrieb iiber ihn:
Quocirca huiusmodi laudum praecones prae Myrone
illo statuario,
Phidia et
Apelle pictoribus, et Praxitele sculptore, admiratione digni videntur. Caeterum
quum tot huius imperatoris erga Regnum Poloniae extent merita, cum quonam eum conferam? Cum Cyrone Persarum iUo laudatissimo? An cum Atheniensium Duce Themistocle? Cum PhiHppo Macedone an Pericle? Sed cum nuUo mehus eum conferri posse, quam cum Magno Constantino arbitror.^ potius
Man
kann diesen Worten ein Fragment aus der Biographie Zamoyskis in Staro-
wolskis Scriptorum Polonicorum Hekatontas zur Seite stellen:
In tantum deinde profecerat, ut philosophiae tam plane gnarus Plato;
geometer quasi Boethius;
in
Demosthenes; agriculturam quam VergiHus novit; in raeo par visus; in
bellis
gerendis lulio Caesari.'
'
Braunius. Theatri
'
Starovolsci, Hekatontas, 37.
.
.
.
urbium.
esset,
quam
numeris Macrobio simihs; in dicendo politicis
vero
ipsi
alter
Stagy-
DAS LETZTE BOLLWERK PER RENAISSANCE IN POLEN
522
Beide Zitate sind
Der groBe Thuanus,
im
freilich Banalitaten
1617) hat in seinem Riesenwerk Historiarum
gest.
Band nach dem Tode
5.
[.
.
.]
De Thou
sui temporis libri
(lateinisch
CXXVIII
und Oberfeldherm eine kurze Notiz paar Worten auch au das Hippeum erinnerte:
des GroBkanzlers
ihn eingefiigt, in der er mit ein
iiber
der Renaissance.
franzosische Geschichtsschreiber Jacques-Auguste
insignem Academiam in urbe cognomine
a se condita in Belsensi praefec-
tura VIII a Leontopoli Russiae Poloniae metropoli niiliarib[us] instituit et
MDXCIV
Id[ibus] Maiis
earn Cracovia invitatis
Der genannte Bursius
Rede
eine
hat
[.
.
ludum
[.
.
.] Joannis
anno
eximio stipendio ad
.]."
wahrend der
dem
gehalten, die er unter
Ulustrissimi
aperuit, professorib[us]
ersten jahrlichen Gedachtnisfeier in
Zamosc
Titel Oratio funebris in anniversario depositionis
Zamoscii (1606) veroffentlicht hat.
Uber
das
Hippeum
sagte
er darin folgendes:
.] sapientissimus Zamoscius instituit in eadem urbe sua Academiam, cultissimum seminarium omnium bonorum, artium optimarum, scientiarum, virtutum, seminarium Ecclesiae Dei sacerdotum, seminarium Reipub[licae] bonorum civium, seminarium omnis generis hominum, omni ordini, conditionique huius imperii utiHum, lucem sapientiae quae non solum huic Roxolaniae parti sed ubique gentium dux sit honestae vitae, magistra morum, officium virtutum.' [.
.
dem Tode des GroBkanzlers fiir die Besetzung der LehrSzymon Birkowski wurde schon genannt; auBer ihm kamen Tomasz Drezner (ab 1610, gest. 1617), Wojciech Nowopolski (ab
Simonides sorgte nach stiihle in
der Academia.
folgende Gelehrte:
1610, gest. 1644), und Kaspar Solski (ab 1616,
gest. 1653).
Simonides widmete den
Kollegen und Freunden Gedichte, darunter Ursinus, Ciekliiiski und Hilchen. Piotr
war der zweite begabte polnische Dichter im Zamosc-Kreis und Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts. Er hat eine polnische Bearbeitung der Komodie Trinummus von Plautus verofFentUcht (1597). Die Handlung wurde in Polen, genauer in Lemberg, lokalisiert. Das Schauspiel wurde wahrscheinlich am Hofe des Jan Ostrorog in Busk, nicht weit von Zamosc entfemt, aufgefiihrt. In Zamosc entstand auch die Ubersetzung einer Komodie des Aristophanes, entweder von Simonides oder von Cieklinski. Auf Veranlassung des schon genannten David Hilchen, der seit 1591 noch als Syndikus in Riga mit Zamoyski mehrere Begegnungen hatte und der 1603 nach dem Streit mit seiner Stadt in Zamosc Schutz gefunden hatte, schrieb Daniel Hermann Cieklinski (1558-1604)
am Ende
(gest.
*
des 16.
1601) ein Gedicht
De
Marte cum Musis
in
nova Academia Samosciana coniuncto
Vgl. Jacobus Augustus Thuanus, Historiamm sui temporis, Bd. 5 (Coloniae
AUobrogum,
1630),
1179-1780. '
Adam
Vgl.
illustrantia
[.
.
.]
Tytus Dzialynski,
ed.,
(Posnaniae, 1861), 207.
Collectanea
vitam resque gestas loannis
Zamoscii
[.
.
.]
JERZY STARNAWSKl
523
Carmen (1594). Die Einleitung dazu hatte Hilchen geschrieben. Der Verfasser forderte darin,
daB die Jugend von Livland und PreuBen nach Zamosc gehen
studieren
("si
soil,
um
dort zu
qui ingenium praeclaris quibusque artibus excolere volunt, et linguam
Polonam
Ladnam
Samosciam Urbem
Hermanns und "eruditus" geriihmt. In seiner Vorrede bewunderte er auch den GroBkanzler und Oberfeldherm als Begriinder der Akademie und schickte ihm Wiinsche fiir erfolgreiche Untemehmungen. Daniel Hermann, der Verfasser des Gedichts, hat das Hippeum mit den antiken Unterrichtsanstalten, aber auch mit den firanzosischen und italienischen Hochschulen vergUchen, er schatzte jedoch die Academia Samosciensis hoher; deim dort wiirden die simul
et
discere cupiunt,
Gedicht wurde von Hilchen,
gelehrten
Musen mit Mars
dem
Verfasser der Vorrede,
als
petant").
"copiosus, varius"
vereinigt.
Unter dem Mazenatentum des GroBkanzlers ist die Ubersetzung von Ovids Metamorphosen von Jakub Zebrowski entstanden, die zum ersten Mai nach dem Tode von Zamoyski, 1636, veroffentlicht wurde. Szymon Starowolski, ein Polyhistor und Verfas-
war in
seiner Jugend Hofinann des GroBkanzlers und Oberfeldherm. Zamosc existierte bis 1784, jedoch ihre Bliitezeit lag in den letzten Jahren des 16. und den enten Jahrzehnten des 17. Jahrhunderts und dauerte letztlich nur bis zum Tode von Simonides, der die Plane des Begriinders treu ausgeser vieler Biicher,
Die Akademie
fiihrt hatte.
in
Unter Simonides' Leitung entwickelten
sich die anderen Dichter, die
einen wirklichen Kreis bildeten. Der groBte von ihnen wurde im Jahrhundert von
Angelo Maria Durini Pindar Latinus genannt. Stanislaw Grochowski, der Herausgeber des Gedichts Divus Stanislaus (1604), schrieb an Bernard Maciejewski iiber fasser:
"magni ingenii
et excellentis doctrinae vir." Stanislaw
Simonides: "Josepho tuo nihil vidi nil
castius,
Divo
den Ver-
Reszka schrieb direkt an
Stanislao nil maturius,
AeUnopeane
vehementius."'" Der beriihmte Justus Lipsius spendete Simonides folgendes Lob:
"Macte, spondeo
tibi,
paucos, inquam, qui
weniger beriihmt,
paucos in Europa esse
meo quidem
pries
sensu
den GroBkanzler
(et est
sic
als
ingens poetarum copia, ut apum),
scribant."" Scaliger, vieUeicht nicht
Dichter, der "ecrit fort bien,"'-
und der
schon genannte Dousa ehrte Simonides mit den Worten, daB er "quanto orchestrae plausu Pamassi collem institerit."''
Zamosc war
also zur Zeit des
GroBkanzlers und
Oberfeldherm Zamoyski und zur Zeit des lateinischen Dichters Simonides wirklich das letzte Bollwerk der polnischen Renaissance.'*
Universitdt
'"
Lodz
Vgl. Simonis Simonidae Opera omnia procurante Angelo Maria Durini (Varsoviae, 1772),
252, 332-333. Simonides hat in seiner Jugend das ims Stanislaus
Drama und Aelinopean warden schon genannt.
Castus loseph herausgegeben (1587). Di-
" Vgl. Simonidae Opera, 41.
La
'^
Vgl. Jozef Kallenbach,
'^
Kallenbach, Les humanistes polonais, 37.
'*
So hat der groBe polnische Gelehrte Stanislaw Lempicki Zamosc genannt.
humanistes polonais (Fribourg, 1891), 35.
UUmanesimo
scandinavo di
Olaus Magnus
FABIO STOK
Olaus Magnus (Olaf Mansson) e una delle figure piu rilevanti dell'Umanesimo svedese.
Nato
Germania
studi in
(a
nel
1490
Rostock
Linkoping (Ostergotland), dopo aver ultimato
a
Dopo
per qualche anno, con Gustavo Vasa. luterana (1527) segui in esilio
scovo
Uppsala
di
rimasto fedele marina,^
prima
la
il
fratello
(titolo ricoperto,
alia
Partecipo in seguito
con Sten Sture
e in altri centri) collaboro
il
Giovane
I'adesione di quest' ultimo alia
al
e,
Riforma
Johannes (Jons Mansson, 1488—1544), arcive-
dopo
la
morte del
anche da Olaus),
fratello,
Chiesa romana. Nel 1539 Olaus pubblico a Venezia importante
gli
rappresentazione
cartografica
Concilio di Trento e trascorse
gli
della
la
Carta
Scandinavia.
ultimi anni di vita a
Roma,
un monumentale trattato sulla geografia e sulle popolazioni dell'Europa settentrionale.^ Mori nel 1557. L'opera ebbe un grande successo editoriale e costitui per un paio di secoli la prindove dette
alle
ciple fonte
meta del
sec.
di
stampe VHistoria de gentibus
conoscenza
septentrionalibus (1555),
della Scandinavia nella cultura europea:-* fino verso la
XVII ne vennero
pubblicate oltre venti edizioni, oltre a divene tradu-
zioni in italiano, firancese, neerlandese, tedesco ed inglese.
R. Knauer, Die "Carta Mariua"
'
Cf. E.
^
Cf.
^
Sulla diSusione delle opere dei fratelli
J. Ijsewijn,
postillate di
Companion
to
des
Giovanni e Olaus Magnus
Magnus, cf
.
.
ed. P.
J.
1994), 13-20.
G. Foote, 3
Cf
vols.
inoltre
—
in
sonda^o
di
E. Hankins, "Milton
.T. W. Baldwin (Urbana, 1958), 305-310; A.
quato Tasso's Torrismondo," in Tra Testo
(Roma,
il
A. Maranini, "Edizioni
in alcune biblioteche emiliane," Classiconorroena
5-6. Sull'utilizzazione letteraria deWHistoria, cf Studies
Olaus Magnus von 1539 (Gottingen, 1981).
Neo-Latin Studies, vol. 2 (Leuven, 1998), 353.
Perelli,
(London, 1989)
—
A
C. Santini
Description of the Northern Peoples, 1555,
P. Cherchi,
Magno," 21-32; A. Perelli, "Olao Magno a Ferrara: Vecce, "Olao Magno e Jorge Luis Borges," 411—423.
in
"Olaus Magnus' History and Tor-
e Contesto. Studi di scanditiavistica medievale, ed.
Olaus Magnus,
2 (1993):
and Olaus Magnus,"
"Antonio de Torquemada e Olao
YAlfeo di Orazio Ariosd," 209-244; e C.
L'UMANESIMO SCANDINAVO
526
MAGNUS
PI
In epoca recente V editio princeps deWHistoria venne riproposta in edizione anastatica
da John Granlund/ che aveva pubblicato gia un ampio
gua svedese.^ Negli ultimi anni sono
commento
una
state pubblicate
dell'opera, in lin-
parziale traduzione in spa-
gnolo^ e una traduzione annotata in inglese.^ Le opere di Olaus hannes) sono state
il
tema
un convegno
di
(e del fratello
internazionale svoltosi a
Nella prefazione deWHistoria Olaus colloca
la
Roma nel
Jo-
1996.*
propria opera nella tradizione dei
grandi geografi ed esploratori dell'Antichita ed accenna ad una propria personale esperienza di esplorazione, in riferimento probabilmente
Norvegia
e nella Svezia settentrionale nel
dell'opera rivela pero che essa zioni dell'autore,
ma un
non
complesso
e affatto
ne che
22
non
libri
ma
dall'esperienza diretta deU'autore;
la
nel quale sono citati numerosis-
mondo
tuna
parte nettamente preponderante dell'opera e
L'insistente accostamento fra fonti classiche e nella sua Historia risponde ad
analizzato
forma
di centoni.'
deve molta della sua for-
piu che di tradizioni locali Olaus risente del modello classico costi-
per questo aspetto, soprattutto dalla Naturalis
propone
di carat-
derivate cioe dalla conoscenza e
le notizie relative ai mirabilia, alle quali VHistoria
letteraria,
tuito,
del Settentrio-
anche notizie
fatta di citazioni e di parafrasi di fonti libresche, spesso raccolte in
Anche per
superficiale
resoconto delle esplora-
il
attinenti a quel
un esempio),
oltre
lui efFettuata in
esame anche
e I'oggetto del libro. L'Historia contiene, va precisato,
documentario (ne vedremo
tere
missione da
Un
una cronaca o
trattato in
simi autori antichi e medievali, per lo piu
alia
1518—1520.
con precisione, e che
dell'Umanesimo europeo
historia di
mondo
un progetto
culturale che
connesso all'atteggiamento
e
e quindi di quella
Plinio
Vecchio.''*
il
del Settentrione che Olaus
Res publica
di
non
e stato ancora
Olaus nei confront!
litterarum di cui ci
stiamo
occupando.
Converra Olaus. La
da Johannes Magnus,
partire, nella nostra esplorazione,
Gothorum Sueonumque
sua Historia de omnibus
regibus,
il
fratello di
pubbUcata da Olaus nel
1554, ebbe un'influenza considerevole nella storiografia svedese successiva, per
I'af-
fermazione di quell'ideologia "goticistica" che sara in auge soprattutto negli anni delI'espansionismo svedese di Gustavo Adolfo.'' Nella costruzione storiografica di Jo-
•
Cf. Olaus
Magnus,
Historia de gentibus Septentrionalibus,
Romae 1555,
intro. J.
Granlund
(Copenhagen, 1972). Cf. Olaus
^
Magnus,
1909-1925; Kommentar: *
Olao Magno,
^
Olaus Magnus,
* Ifratelli
Historia J.
om
de Nordiska Folken
i
Suensk dversdttning, utg. av Michaelisgillet,
Grandlund, 4 vol. (Uppsala, 1951;
Historia de las gentes septentrionales, ed. J.
A
rist.
Ostersala, 1976).
D. Teran Fierro (Madrid, 1989).
Description of the Northern Peoples, ed. Foote.
Giovanni e Olao Magno. Opere
e culturafra
due mondi. Atti del Convegno internazionale:
Roma-Farfa, ed. C. Santini (Roma, 1999). '
beis,
Per
i
primi capitoli del libro
vol. 6, ed. S. Pittaluga '"
Cf R.
Scarcia,
1,
cf
F. Stok,
"Olao Magno
e la scoperta del
Nord,"
in
Colum-
(Genova, 1997), 105-124.
"La tradition de
in Tra Testo e Contesto, 55-66; L.
De
la
paradoxographie classique dans Toeuvre d'Olaus Magnus,"
Anna, "Mostri e
alterita in
Olao Magno,"
in Ifratelli,
101-
115.
"
Cf J.
Svennung, Zur
aissance of the as
Goths
Geschichte des Coticismus (Stockholm, 1967); K. Johannesson,
in Sixteenth- Century
Sweden, trad.
Vision and Propaganda in Swedish History," in
J.
Larson (Berkeley, 1991); idem,
Ifratelli,
157-166.
The Ren-
"The Goths
FABIO STOK
hannes,
dopo
gli
Svedesi sono
discendenti del Goti,
i
Romano,
caduta dell'Impero
la
Questa operazione consentiva
a
la
527
popolazione germanica
Johannes da una parte
Goti (analoga a quella effettuata nella
stanziatasi,
nei Balcani, in Italia e nella penisola iberica.
stessa
la
rivalutazione dei "barbari"
epoca, sulla scorta di Tacito, per
Ger-
i
mani), descritti quale popolazione eroica e moralmente integra chiamata a salvare
Cristianesimo zionale
dopo
alia politica
da Johannes
si
la
caduta dell'impero;
dall'altra la
il
nobilitazione degli Svedesi, fun-
nazionale ed antidanese di Gustavo Vasa. L' operazione promossa
modema
configura, nel complesso, quale versione
di
un genere che
aveva avuto notevole fortuna nella tarda Antichita e nel Medioevo, quello dell'on^o ^en/t5:'^
Johannes, del resto,
si
riallacciava dichiaratamente a
che avevano proposto un'operazione L'adesione di Olaus
questo tipo per
di
progetto storiografico del
al
prefazione della sua Historia, dove egh dehnea
comprende Saxo Grammaticus, Cassiodoro,
alle
posizioni del
firatello:
Cassiodoro e a Jordanes,
Goti.
firatello
un canone
e rilevabile gia nella
storiografico "gotico" che
lordanes, Paolo Diacono, Procopio,
contemporanei Albert Krantz e Francesco Irenico e nella definizione di questo
i
lo stesso
canone Olaus evidenzia pero una certa autonomia
mi
riferisco alia
rispetto
presenza in esso, in posizione di rihevo, del
danese Saxo Grammaticus, autore dal quale Johannes, nella sua Historia, prende
quentemente Goticismo.
I
per I'orientamento anti-danese che caratterizza
distanze,
le
Gesta
Danorum
i
Johannes Magnus. Gia
di Saxo, pubblicati a Parigi nel 1514,
erano
stati
fi-e-
suo
il
del resto
utihzzati, negli anni successivi, a favore delle rivendicazioni danesi sulla Svezia.'^
Analoghe altro
sono
riserve
degU autori
rilevabiH, nell'opera di Johannes,
anche nei confi-onti
di
un
da Olaus, Albert Krantz, autore di una Cronica regnorum aquilo-
citati
dopo la morte di Johannes, ma della quale quest'ultimo possedeva, un esemplare manoscritto." L'atteggiamento nazionalistico non e owiamente estraneo ad Olaus: esso e rileva-
narium pubbUcata fin dal 1525,
bile,
come
e stato osservato, gia nella Carta marina, nella collocazione decentrata
assegnata alio lutland rispetto alia penisola scandinava.'^ Nella piu tarda Historia,
pero, Olaus assume una prospettiva piu meditata, che lo porta a trattare
regno
di Svezia, su cui verteva I'opera del firatello,
tentrionales,
e ad adottare una prospettiva che
e suU'esclusivita, sulla alia stirpe gotica,
mondo
comune appartenenza
ma anche
a quella
ma piu
non
del solo
in generale delle gentes sep-
pone I'accento, piu che
sulla particolarita
delle popolazioni settentrionaU
non
solo
germanica e (come vedremo), piu in generale,
al
antico.
Nell'elaborazione di questo progetto Olaus tenne certamente conto della gia citata
Germaniae
exegesis,
pubbUcata nel 1518 da Francesco Irenico (Franz Friedheb, 1495-
1549) e largamente utihzzata
neW Historia.
Irenico aveva eflfettuato un'operazione nei
confi-onti delle fonti antiche per diversi aspetti analoga a quella di Johannes, volta a
'^
Revue
Cf.
— anche per
la
bibliografia precedente
beige de philohgie et d'histoire
— H. Wolfram, "Le genre de I'Origo
68 (1990): 789-801.
'^
Cf. Johannesson, The Retiaissance of the Goths, 103-105.
'*
M.
'*
Cf. Johannesson, The Renaissatue of the Goths, 180.
E. Ruggerini, "Gli idoli del
tempio
di
Uppsala," in
IJratetli,
281
n.
gentis,'
l'umanesimo scandinavo
528
pi
magnus
nobilitare I'antichita germanica emersa, nei decenni precedenti, soprattutto in seguito alia
riscoperta della Germania di Tacito.'^
comprendesse
nella propria rivalutazione
Di notevole anche
la
interesse e
il
fatto
che Irenico
tradizione "gotica", includendola
nella piu generale cultura germanica.
Olaus, con
la
sua Historia, estende ulteriormente la riscoperta della tradizione
comprende non solo i popoli del SettenRomani, accomunati da analoghi valori civili e
"gotica" e delinea una civilta "antica" che trione, Goti e
Germani,
ma
gli stessi
morali. Questa operazione, di cui mostrero alcuni esempi, e connessa ovviamente agli obiettivi
che Olaus
di Furstenspiegel stesso
si
proponeva con
accumulo
sua opera. Johannesson ha insistito sul ruolo
di citazioni classiche terrebbe
zione nella Svezia dell'epoca).'^
E
le classi dirigenti svedesi (lo
conto detla
scarsita di libri in circola-
difficile, tuttavia, ricostruire
che Olaus poteva avere, negli anni
almeno
la
che VHistoria avrebbe dovuto avere, per
con sicurezza
presuppone un pubblico intemazionale (queUo che
in parte la sua Historia
fettivamente ebbe). VHistoria esprime, pero, I'idea che Olaus aveva svedese: un'idea nella quale I'antica solidarieta fra il
fondamento
di
I'idea
'50, della difFusione svedese della propria opera;
i
Goti e
un Umanesimo europeo fortemente
classica (oltre che, nella visione dei frateUi
il
mondo
ef-
deU'Umanesimo
classico costituisce
integrate, unificato dalla cultura
Magnus,
dalla centralita della
Chiesa
cattolica).
In questa prospettiva VHistoria enciclopedico,'^
come
si
trascrivere integralmente, in la
si
evince gia
configura quale una
daW inscriptio
summa
culturale di carattere
deW'editio princeps,
che vale
la
pena
quanto evidenzia anche I'attenzione con cui Olaus euro
stampa della propria opera:
'"^
Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus,
earumque
diversis statibus, conditioni-
bus, moribus, ritibus, superstitionibus, disciplinis, exercitiis, regimine, victu, beUis,
Opus
instrumentis, ac mineriis metallicis,
structuris,
necnon
universis
ut varium,
phs extemis,
pene animalibus
&
rebus mirabilibus,
in septentrione degentibus,
eorumque
natura.
plurimarumque rerum cognitione refertum, atque cum exem-
tum
expressis
rerum internarum
picturis iUustratum, ita delecta-
maxima lectoris animum voluptate facile perfundens. Avctore Olao Magno Gotho archiepiscopo Upsalensi Suetiae & Gothiae primate. Cum indice locupletissimo. Cautum est privilegio lulii III Pont. Max. tione iucunditateque plenum,
ne quis ad decennium imprimat. Alia cura tipografica del testo e delle annesse xilografie corrisponde I'elaborata struttura formale delVHistoria, che rinvia da
'^
una parte
al
modello pliniano,
dall'altra
Cf. G. Cordes, Die Quellen der Exegesis Germaniae des Franciscus Irenicus (Tubingen, 1966).
'^
Cf. Johannesson, The Renaissance of the Goths, 163-168.
'*
Cf. F. Stole, "Enciclopedia della comunicazione nella Historia di
Olao Magno,"
in Ifratelli,
387-410. ''
Cf
309-331.
C. Santini, "Strategic della comunicazione nella Historia di Olao Magno," in
Ifratelli,
FABIO STOK
Ambrogio e Anche
air Hexaemeron di
numero
al
dei libri, 22.-°
De
civitate
di assegnare
navia. Ispirandosi citato
Dei
Agostino, del quale replica
di
simmetrica suddivisione in due parti
la
ciascuna) obbedisce all'esigenza di integrare
tando
529
i
diversi aspetti dell'antichita nordica, evi-
un ruolo eccessivamente marcato
all'evangelizzazione della Scandi-
probabilmente all'analoga operazione proposta per
i
Danesi dal
Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus propone una visione fortemente integrata
dei popoli settentrionali, parallela e contigua a quella del
precedente
alia
Cerchero
mondo
della storia
antico in epoca
difFusione del Cristianesimo.
di avvalorare questa lettura dell'opera di
deW Historia,
capitoli
il
11 libri
(di
14 ("De
tratti tutti dal libro
variis
Olaus con I'esame
di alcuni
conditionibus Aquilonarium
populorum"), che e dedicate a quella che oggi chiameremmo I'antropologia delle popolazioni settentrionali: Olaus esamina in particolare I'abbigliamento (capp. 1-2), famiglia e
il
matrimonio (capp. 3—16),
la giustizia
la
(capp. 17—25), e I'educazione (capp.
26-28).
Nella praefatio Olaus anticipa quella che e
principale dell'intero libro, cioe
la tesi
impor-
I'originaria moralita delle popolazioni scandinave. In apertura egli cita le piu tanti
testimonianze di autori antichi e tardoantichi suUa Scandinavia:
Mirari quispiam
non
debet, in amplissimis Septentrionalium
terris,
praesertim
peninsulae Scandianae (quam Plinius ob incompertam magnitudinem alterum
orbem
&
lordanes ac Paulus Diaconus vaginam sive ofBcinam gentium appel-
lant), diversi tatem fore
habituum ac vestimentorum pariter
tionum, circa incolarum convictum
narum
ac iudicia utriusque,
&
& quam
& mo rum ac condi-
cohabitationem adventantium alienigesyncera tranquillitate veteribus institutis
olim adhaerentes singuli concorditer vivere dicebantur.
La definizione che Olaus quest'ultimo
attribuisce a Plinio
da parte sua Plinio ritiene
appellat;
Hist. 4.96).
La definizione
Paolo Diacono
si
e in realta attribuita da
la
Scandinavia un'isola inconpertae magnitudinis (Nat.
di vagina gentium e del solo lordanes (Get. 4.25),
(Hist. Lang. 1.1).
evidenziano anche H non sempre
come ha
Vecchio
limita ad indicara la Scandinavia quale luogo d'origine di
popolazioni emigrate
tato,
il
popolazione degli Hilleviones, quae alterum orbem terrarum eam
alia
osservato Johannesson,
mente "ciceroniano"
II
brano
citato, e gli altri
facile latino di si
Olaus,
differenzia
il
cui
che propongo
stile
il
oltre,
nervoso e conci-
notevolmente da quello pacata-
del fratello Johannes.-' Isacson, sulla base di
fettuato sul libro 15, ha definito
mentre
numerose
un sondaggio
ef-
suo latino "clumsy and unidiomatic."^-
All'originaria moralita delle popolazioni scandinave Olaus contrappone, nelia. praefatio, la
^ ^'
corruzione introdotta recentemente dai Luterani:
Cf. Johannesson, The Renaissance of the Goths, 205-206. Cf. Johannesson, The Renaissance of the Goths, 163.
^ Cf
K. Isacson,
"A Study of Non-Classical
Features in
de gentihus septentrionalihiis 1555," Htimanistica Lovaniensia
Book
XV of Olaus
38 (1989): 189.
Magnus'
Historia
L'UMANESIMO SCANDINAVO
530
MAGNUS
PI
ubi nunc crescente discordia paucissimi sua orte content! videntur. In
mirandum non
rursus
que suae destructionis
&
dum
est,
factus
sit
eo processit astuta
hominum pemicies,
quo
ut quis-
artifex ingeniosus, foris scilicet habitu discissus
mente corruptus, foris legibus parere simulans & ubique disseminans Quorum tandem efFectu & exitu ad ultimum infamiae plenus &: omnibus
intus in
dolos.
odiosus e vita discedet.
La polemica antiluterana
affiora
che Olaus recepi, negli anni ficativo,
correntemente
dell'esilio, dal
per questo aspetto, e
il
ne]l' Historia, e riflette
I'orientamento
Concilio di Trento. Particolarmente signi-
passo in cui Olaus,
dopo aver lodato
naturale vere-
la
cundia delle popolazioni settentrionali, rimprovera agli haeretici Lutherani I'introduzione raffigurazioni pittoriche
di
AfFrontando nel cap. 3
il
castis
tema
Nobilium personarum"), Olaus doro (una
comunque "numquam tamen
nudae mulieres, che
di
naturalem candorem in gente
moribus
dei
instituta extinguere valuerunt" (13.50).
matrimoni
nobiliari
nuptiis Illustrium ac
delle citate auctoritates "gotiche"), relative al
matrimonio
di re
Theidahadus
10.3 del 534). SuUa base di queste notizie, relative ovviamente agli Ostrogoti del
(cf.
VI, egli formula
sec.
matrimoniale,
le
un
giudizio suUa "moralita" che caratterizzerebbe, in ambito
popolazioni della Scandinavia:
Vera autem ornamenta matronarum non aestimantur.
Nee visum
umquam
est
vestes sed pudicitia (Pythagora teste)
in Septentrionalibus regnis ut mulieres
pendentibus margaritis in auribus ornarentur, quia in milite
II
("De
fornisce alcune notizie ricavate dalle Variae di Cassio-
&
rinvio a Pitagora ed
che
il
leggesse Giustino direttamente,
una
turpe in foemina, turpe
relativo contesto derivano da Giustino,
matronarum pudicitiam, non
vera ornamenta
4.5),
ibi
turpissimum in Principe reputaretur.
ma
tramite
il
De
delle fonti piu utilizzate delY Historia.
correntemente da Olaus, per
la
quale
E
vestes esse.
alia realta
II
che a 20.4.12 scrive
peraltro probabile che
institutione di
passo evidenzia
sono
tematiche. Questa operazione e fondata su quello che costituisce di Olaus, la solidarieta
la
(cf.
tecnica utilizzata
scandinava sono attribuiti contesti che
nelle fonti (nel nostro caso Cassiodoro e Giustino/Patrizi)
mentale dell'opera
non
Francesco Patrizi
che legherebbe
relativi a tutt'altre il
postulato fonda-
I'antichita nordica e quella
classica.
Questo postulato e evidenziato, nel passo
propone nel
fra le
mondo Insuper
classico
&
alligaret,
in esame, daU'opposizione che Olaus
antiche popolazioni scandinave, rispettose di una moralita testimoniata
da Pitagora, e
fatuus diceretur
&
le
popolazioni "selvagge" del
esset qui labiis
gemmas
Nuovo Mondo:
aut margaritas pro
omatu
prout Petrus Martyr in descriptione novi orbis meminit, videlicet
quod Reges
&
magnates Indorum in populo talem ornatum certatim gestant in
labiis suis.
Per
la notizia relativa alle
di Pietro
Americhe Olaus dovrebbe
Martire d'Anghiera (1530), dove pero non
si
essersi basato sul
park
di gioielli
De
ma
novo orbe
solamente
FABIO STOK
di perle.
A
531
un
prescindere da questa imprecisione, I'operazione di Olaus e di
certo
interesse quale testimonianza dell'atteggiamento della cultura dell'epoca nei confronti
Nuovo Mondo. Nel
del
contesto dell'Hi5rond I'opposizione Scandinavia/ Americhe e
chiaramente finalizzata ad avvalorare quell'accostamento
fra antichita
scandinava ed
andchita classica che Olaus penegue nella sua opera.
Un
buon esempio
altro
Olaus e offerto dal cap.
della tecnica compilatoria di
&
("De rigore pudicidae
relativo alle doti
fomito alcune notizie ricavate
armorum
Danorum
dalle Gesta
Dopo
interpretatione").
di
4,
aver
Saxo Grammaticus, Olaus
si
soflfenna sul particolare per cui la dote nuziale e costituita, nella tradizione nordica,
da armi:
Dos quidem
a
marito offertur, sed non ad muUebres deHcias aut novae nuptae
comptum
vel fastum, ut significatione intervenientium
clararetur
quod
(sicuti in hasta,
armorum
violenta ex raptu) eriam uxores fortibus
&
minime effoeminatum sed
magna operando
virilem cultum
hastam lunoni consecratam
plurimum nobUi
esse veteres
stirpe (ut
consummatis
&
cum
palatii nuptialis, in
&
eius statuae ut
significat nuptias
scutum ut feminae meminisse debeant ex
eam communiter cum
& Nam &
probarent.
existimabant
enim
oUm fiiisse
coniunctae severum
bellicosis
Romani
hastae innixae cemuntur. Hasta
diremptas: framea vero
in nuptiis de-
quae signal prima veterum connubia
olim ferro iUustri seu
marito defendant) prodiisse. Hisque
pactione dotis hasta solemni ritu eiicitur extra fenestram
signum mutui
foederis
&
perpetuae cohabitationis.
Dell'antica pratica del rapimento a scopo nuziale Olaus tratta piu dettagUatamente nel cap. 9,
dove
essa e attribuita
pero
alle
che negativa, come rivela gia ratto delle
Nel none e
il
parallelo
del
che egH propone, in queU'occasione, con
capitolo in esame, la notizia relativa alia lancia dedicata dai
(1489)." L'accostamento che Olaus propone
"nam" che introduce
dentemente a confermare I'appartenenza
La notazione
in dote, sembra
delle
successiva, sul significato
deUo
stesso Olaus.
due
fra
realta
modo
a
Giu-
copiae di
Niccolo
realta
classica
e
ad una
che avrebbero
realta
stessa
dimensione
le diverse armi assegnate
sull'uso di gettare la lancia
documentata da fonti seicentesche, e costituisce
piu antica testimonianza su questa consuetudine.
gmficativo del
il
Romani
Comu
questa notizia, che e volta evi-
La successiva notizia
extra fenestram palatii nuptialis e invece la
il
Sabine ad opera di Romolo.
scandinava e ben evidenziato dal
quindi
propone
ricavata da un'altra delle fonti correnti dell'H/5ron<j,
Perotti
etica.
Anche in questo fenomeno e tutt'altro
popolazioni baltiche e slave.
contesto, va osservato, la valutazione che Olaus
E
questo un esempio
si-
in cui Olaus tende a sovrapporre notizie disparate, ricavate in
parte da fonti in parte da testimonianze dirette, in termini
non sempre
ricostruibili
con precisione. I
capp. 15 e 16 sono dedicati all'advilterio ("De adulteris ac
"
Cf.
N.
Perotti.
F. Stok, "Perotti e
Comu
copiae, 1.123. ed. J.-L.
Olao Magno," Studi
Umanistici
Charlet e Picetti
altri
poena eorum") e ve-
(Sassoferrato. 1989).
16 (1996): 123-136.
Cf
anche
L'UMANESIMO SCANDINAVO
532
dono
anch'essi giustapposte notizie suUa realta
PI
MAGNUS
contemporanea
e notizie tratte da fonti
classiche. Significativa, in questo senso, appare gia I'apertura del cap. 15,
richiamo
grandi poeti latini e
ai
Quemadmodum
alle
con
il
suo
loro citta di origine:
praeclarae urbes Italiae ob exceUentissima
hominum
ingenia
eorum perpetuanda memoria ingentes statuas posuere, ut VePlinii, Mantua Virgilii, Roma Herculi, ita & Germanicae ac
vel facinora pro
rona
suis
Gothicae cis
[sic]
civitates
ob heroica
gesta statuas
apponere non dubitarunt, ut Brema
virorum excellentium in
sui
Rolandi
&
locis publi-
Scheningia vetustissima
urbs Ostrogothorum sui Thuronis longi, qui duobus concatenatis saxis rationabili causa ad
iustum
iUi
clavam in humeris descendentibus pingitur, quia honestum
visum
est lege
&
multare vel caede corripere qui matrimonialem pudi-
citiam spurca oppressione defoedare praesumebant.
Ho
riprodotto
il
passo delV editio princeps, curata dallo stesso Olaus, che contiene pero
forse qualche errore di stampa il
plurale
"suis",
(non sono
chiari, nella
che potrebbe essere
riferito
ai
costruzione sintattica del brano,
due
Plinii,
e
I'isolato
dativo
"Herculi"). La difFusione delle statue di "Rolando" nella Germania settentrionale e
ben documentata: una prima
statua di
"Rolando"
1181; quella esistente all'epoca di Olaus risaliva
aU'amministrazione della
Skanninge,
neW editio
rafFigurata
giustizia,
nella
aveva anche
xilografia
che
di
attorno
al
la statua di
"Ture Lang" il
capitolo
esistente a
dcWHistoria
princeps.
buita anche qui in questo caso
un
Brema
1404. Funzione analoga, legata
accompagna
Seguono un ennesimo riferimento polemico (con
era stata eretta a al
la
e,
con
il
consueto
riforma luterana,
alia
quale e
salto
comunque
bassa degli adulteri nella citta
temporale con cui Olaus accosta correntemente
fonti antiche e testimonianze
modeme,
trato fra le fonti deWHistoria,
il
il
rinvio ad
un autore che abbiamo
gia incon-
"gotico" Cassiodoro, ancora per un passo delle Variae
(9.18.9, del 533-534), relativo questa volta ad
una legge
di Athalaricus:
Sed tractu temporis Lutheranorum impunita libidine haec statua deleta vel signo vel terrore vel
attri-
responsabilita di aver introdotto costumi immorali
significativo inciso suUa frequenza
Skanninge)
alia
poene metu
a scelerato
est,
ne
opere vel proposito eius as-
pectu revocarentur impuri. Nullibi tamen in toto Septentrione severius puniri
generum malefactores, maxime adulteri (rarissime licet reperIX in edicto Alarici Regis Goimpium est iudices illis esse remissos, quos coelestis pietas non
solent diversorum ti),
quam
thorum
in hac urbe. Quia, ut Cassiodorus lib.
asserit,
patitur impunitos.
Analoga commistione antico/moderno
e rilevabile,
sempre
a proposito della re-
pressione dell'adulterio, nel cap. 16, dove Olaus cita di seguito una legge municipale del re
Magnus Erikson
(sec.
XIV) ed un brano
di Plutarco:
Mulier adulterans testimonio sex virorum deprehensa perdit dotem
secum
tulit in
cohabitationem
viri
qui ea suscipiet,
immo
& quicquid
vitae utriusque potes-
FABIO STOK
533
& haereditatis eorundem vigore municipalium legum patriae Go& Sueonum Ne autem hoc solum in gentibus his praticari videa-
tatem habet
thorum
[.
tur, simile
.
.].
apud Plutarchum Problemate centesimo quintodecimo de Cumaeis,
quomodo Onobotim muUerem
sic
appellatam in adulterium repertam in forum
& saxo impositam, omnibus spectandam proponebant, inde super asinum collocatam & circa urbem pervectam in eundem locum restitui oportebat, unde infamis reddita est, & ab eodem tempore lapis tamquam impurus & deductam
delectabilis vitabatur.
Con
il
titolo Problemata
Romanae
Olaus
due dei Moralia plutarchei,
riferisce a
si
con questo
e le Quaestiones Graecae, pubblicate
titolo e
le Quaestiones
numerazione conti-
nua, nella traduzione latina, di Giampietro di Lucca (1477).-" L'episodio citato da
Olaus e a Mor. 291 F:
la mulier
"Onobotis"
di cui egli parla, va precisato, e frutto di
un'erronea interpretazione che eredita dall'edizione a stampa, dove
"che cavalca somiglianza
Ad
antica. scritti
un nome
I'asino", e diventato fra le
due
Germani
terza, relativa ai
Praetera legislatore Tuiscone prioribus seculis inter
ut refert
Gomel.
del
I
sec. d.
la
romana C. de-
(cf.
egU descrive
che e
Tacito,
(e
ma al cap.
spiega con le riprese
il
scelestorum poenas una
alias
uxori maritus abscisis crinibus nudae verbera iniiceret,
Tacitus.
Nella Germania
ma
6vo36ti^,
da Tacito:
fuit levior, ut adulterae
si
fj
notizie, tratte dalla storia svedese recente e da quella
egU ne aggiunge una
esse
gr.
il
proprio. Olaus segnala, in questo caso,
non
cap. 19) Tacito
2,
fatto
attestata peraltro
attribuisce
pero
a
Tuisto
la
consuetudine che
anche da fonti longobarde): Tuisto e
citato da
genericamente come legislatore dei Germani. La sovrapposizione
che Olaus non ha utilizzato direttamente
che ne aveva
fatto
quest'ultima opera egH riprende
la
Germania di Tacito,
Francesco Irenico nella sua Germaniae
il
rinvio a Tacito che
exegesis:
da
propone neW Historia.
Gli esempi proposti sono sufficienti, direi, ad evidenziare la tendenza di Olaus ad assimilare consuetudini, usi e valori
Germani)
a
comuni
quelle dell'Antichita classica,
alle
popolazioni settentrionali (Goti e
ricorrendo spesso ad attribuzioni e a
sovrapposizioni che possono anche suscitare qualche perplessita. Esse rivelano una tecnica di compilazione, mediante
con
culturale
dell'Umanesimo
esso
la
quale Olaus utihzza per
non presentavano alcuna
fonti che
attinenza,
ma
il
mondo
Cf. F. Stole,
il
progetto
di Olaus.
University di
^*
settentrionale
insieme anche
"Olao Magno e Plutarco,"
Classiconorroena
Roma
6 (1995): 12-14.
Tor Vergata
Uepopea
di Elia Berger sulla
Santa Croce
e la storia ungherese
LASZLO SZORENYI
Elia (in ungherese,
Berger (1562—1645) e una delle figure piu significative
Illes)
della letteratura neolatina ungherese, e nello stesso sciute.
Cio non dipende
rispetto all'umanesimo
solo dal
minore
ungherese del
interesse
il
Kulcsar,
U piu fondato)
mente perdu ta. In
—
re
che
tanti titoU,
i
effetti,
d'Ungheria col
predecessori
1603
nel
come Antonio
Berger aveva chiesto
il
Rodolfo
di
I
—
di
il
un modesto
La sua
suo successore Mattia
stipendio,
II
e nel
I'opera,
sappiamo
mentre anche
il
Bibhoteca Universitaria
i
mantenne questa
Cf. Eleonore
'
a
III. II
Budapest, alia
la
gU fu con-
Berger, in cambio
scadenze regolari determinate parti
1641 ormai
tre grossi
volumi erano pronti
Gesuiti per essere sottoposti la
al
fii
controUo
pubbhcazione del-
rimaneva sepolto e ignorato da
dove
tutti nella
ritrovato, solo cinque anni
riscoperta segua in tempi brevi la
fa,
da
pubbhca-
Novotny. >/M«no Sambucus (1531-1584), Leben und Work (Wien, 1975);
D. Caccamo, "Gian Michele Bruto," 1517-1592," 1972), 730-734. Peter Kulcsar, "Berger
d'llles
II
carica sia sotto
titolo di storiografo reale
motivi che impedirono di fatto
Peter Kulcsar.^ Ci auguriamo che
'
ai
testo manoscritto di
II; il
doveva consegnare
per essere stampati e fixrono consegnati
Non
Rodolfo
di altri illustri
richiesta, grazie all'appoggio dell'arciduca
1637 da Ferdinando
della sua opera storiografica; all'inizio del
della censura.
all 'imp era tore
secondo
definitiva-
Bonfini, Johannes Sambucus, e Gian Michele Bruto) sto-
fermato anche da Ferdinand© di
e,
comunque
nominarlo (sull'esempio
Mattia, fu accolta dal sovrano nel 1604; Berger sia sotto
Chronologia cum sua Isa-
incompleta e che fosse
fosse rimasta
nome
videlicet
leggono neUa redazione manoscritta, questo
si
riografo reale della corte ungherese.'
Rodolfo,
meno cono-
XV, o alia produzione poetica e storiografica ma anche dalla convinzione generale che la
s.
sua principale opera storica, Tria volumina Historiarum, (tra
delle
studiosi per I'eta rodolfina,
degU Scolopi in Ungheria,
dei Gesuiti e
goge
tempo una
degU
Illes
torteneti
in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, 14
muvei" (con
estratto francese,
Berger"). Magyar Konyvszemle 110 (1994): 245-259.
(Roma,
"Les oeuvres historiques
L'EPOPEA pi ELIA BERGER SULLA SANTA
536
zione di un'opera, che finora e
stata citata
La perdita
della sua opera principale
dubitare — ha messo
persino a
1924), che e
uno
Prima
della storia della storio-
studiata.
della cui stessa esistenza
era giunti
si
tutta I'altra vasta e varia
produzione
Vilmos Fraknoi (1843—
del Kulcsar solo
dei piu attenti studiosi della storia culturale ungherese, dedico
Berger.^ In esso tuttavia
al
—
ombra anche
in
del Berger, sia in versi che in prosa.
saggio
come una leggenda
che merita di essere finalmente conosciuta e
grafia e
CROCE
Fraknoi
il
si
con grande
dell'opera storica perduta, trattando deUe altre sue opere
superficialita. Alia
base di tale atteggiamento, vi era senza dubbio una condanna globale di tutta
pro-
la
insieme manieristica o pre-barocca. In
dell'eta rodolfina, giudicata nel suo
duzione
un
limitava ad una ricerca sulla genesi
seguito, pur essendosi progressivamente modificato questo giudizio cosi tendenzioso,
nessuno
La
si
e finora
occupato della produzione del Berger. opere "minori" mi ha indotto invece a considerare
lettura delle sue
come un
autore particolarmente interessante, che
— aveva meritato
corte
anche queUo
—
a parte
di poeta laureatus
il
Berger
il
titolo di storiografo di
o poeta Caesareus. L'intera
raccolta della sua produzione in latino meriterebbe di essere letta ed analizzata;
per
far
centesche delle sue opere solo in alcune
fi:a
le
non sono
un poema epico
rimasti che pochi esemplari, che
maggiori biblioteche europee.
zione mi sembra possa essere di
in
I'analisi
poema
— seguendo
il
diviso in tre
Regum Jaelicissimis: secundum fidetn
pro nomine Christi
riae,
tot seculis
,
libri,
primo passo
che
— ha un
costume dell'epoca
de Cruce, insigniis Regni Hungarici sanctissimis
Hungariae
Un
si
conservano
in questa dire-
deUa prima opera pubblicata dal Berger.
3000 esametri,
da Giorgio Handelius, nel 1600. II
ma
questo bisognerebbe cominciare col ristamparla, visto che delle edizioni sei-
et
fia
Si tratta
stampato ad Olomouc,
titolo lunghissimo: Rapsodiae
de gestis pro Cruce Christi inclutorum
historicam pro Immortalitate Gloriae
Pugnantis ("Rapsodie sulla Croce,
Hunga-
emblema santissimo
del regno di Ungheria, e suUe gesta gloriosissime degli incliti sovrani ungheresi fatte
per
la
Croce
di Cristo, narrate suUa base della verita storica,
deU'Ungheria, che per
tanti secoli
per
ha combattuto a difesa del
la gloria
nome
immortale
di Cristo").
ruolo di sottotitolo e svolto da una citazione dalla lettera di San Paolo (6:14):
da
me
"Nobis il
absit gloriari, nisi in
vantarmi in
gnore Gesu Cristo").
nome II
di
ogni
leggiante
il
Cruce Domini Nostri Jesu Christi" ("Sia lontano altra cosa, all'infiaori della Croce del Nostro Si-
contenuto, fortemente ideologico, del
emblematicamente nell'incisione
cosmo pone cinque
cerchi minori: nel cerchio centrale al
un globo imperiale simboleggiante di Cristo,
una croce
di
dell'Alfa e dell'Omega, costituiscono
gli
Vilmos Franki (Frakn6i), "Berger
Illes
il
il
simbo-
crocifisso
con
imperi, a destra una croce con le la sovranita;
in alto
il
Sant'Andrea, e un'ancora, che, insieme
simbolo della
dell'emblema nazionale ungherese, che simboleggia
^
e sintetizzato
posto delle piaghe di Cristo, a sinistra di
estremita allargate in una corona d'aUoro, simboleggiante
gramma greco
poema
del firontespizio interno, che nel cerchio
citazioni di brani evangelici collocate
questa figura
II
Galati
ai
magyar
monoai
gloria; infine la duplice
la vittoria.
Alia base
si
segni
croce
colloca
il
kiralyi historiographus" ("Ella Berger, storio-
grafo reale ungherese"), Szazadok 6 (1873): 373—390.
lAsZLO SZORENYl motto collegato
et
Omega,
emblenutica, che
all'illustrazione
logogrifo combinati tra di loro
— puo
Crux
vincit in imperiis,
I'omega, vince sugli imperi,
II
—
decifrata
come
essere ricostruita
come
rebus e
come
segue: Christus Alpha
che e
Christi regnat triumphatque ["Cristo,
I'alfa
e
croce di Cristo impera e trionfa"].
la
non numerate, comprende una prefazione
L'opera, nelle sue 161 pagine e circa tremila esametri.
537
in prosa
destinatario della dedica e I'arcivescovo di Strigonio
(Esztergom) Giovanni Kutassi (1545—1601), cancelliere di Rodolfo
luogotenente
II,
dell'Ungheria, noto mecenate.* La prefazione e in sostanza un'analisi araldica, in cui
Berger elenca e mette a confronto
modeme.
nazioni
emblemi dei popoli il Marte dei Traci,
gli
freccia dei Persiani,
— con riferimento
U
flilmine degli Schipetari, I'ariete degli
—
all'epoca piu recente
Spagnoli, la fascia argentea in
campo
la stessa
gU Ungheresi
Santa Croce, assegnata dal papa
sulla via della
al
conversione cristiana
degh Ungheresi
successiva consacrazione
Armeni i
la
per converso
e,
leoni azzurri degli
piii
nobile dell'Ungheria:
— che ha guidato — come simbolo primo
re santo
profetico della
a cavaUeri, destinati a
combattere
Croce. Per questo nella sua epopea, suddivisa in rapsodie,
della Santa
quelli delle
Romani,
leone ceco. La conclu-
il
sione e prevedibile: nessuna nazione possiede un'insegna questa e
I'aquila dei
I'aquila polacca,
rosso dell' Austria, e
con
antichi
Egli passa in rassegna
il
i
nemici
poeta intende
descrivere gH antecedenti e la storia di questa lotta durata per secoli. Ispirandosi alle
opere
di
Antonio Bonfini^
e dei suoi continuatori, sua fonte principale per la storia
come
ungherese, egU vuol dimostrare
ungherese
sempre
sia stata
la lotta
persino due re martiri: Wladislao
Mohacs
I,
il
conduttore della storia della nazione
filo
contro
nemici deUa Croce,
i
lotta
che ha avuto
caduto nella battagha di Varna (1444), e Luigi
morto
nella battaglia di
mezza
luna, la lotta continua ancora, e i'arcivescovo dedicatario dell'opera e
promotori
Non
(1526).
Contro
i
II,
Turchi, inorgogUti dall'insegna della
uno
dei
di questa guerra santa.
dubbio che l'opera abbia
v'e
mossa da Rodolfo
II,
tratto ispirazione
da quella guerra antiturca pro-
detta "guerra dei tredici o dei quindici anni" e dall'ideologia
dominante in quegH anni (1591—1606). L'idea dominante
alia
quella avrebbe dovuto essere I'ultima guerra; di fatto
successi iniziali ottenuti da
Rodolfo
e dai suoi alleati,
avevano difiuso
la
i
corte absburgica era che
speranza che I'impero ottomano potesse
essere sconfitto definitivamente.* Quest'ideologia poteva tuttavia essere formulata in diversi
modi. Berger ha deciso
della dinastia Absburgica,
particolare I'intera II
Rodolfo
umanita,
hbro
1
ma
di
non porre
di considerare
— come gh
in
esecutori testamentari di
la cui storia risale addirittura
(1—43)
si
primo piano
gh ultimi eredi
il
punto
di vista imperiale
di quella dinastia
una missione
—
e in
salvifica del-
aUa prima origine della specie umana.
divide in quattro rapsodie. La prima rapsodia celebra le lodi
*
Cf. Memorabilia Basilicae Strigpniensis (Budapest, 1856), 88.
*
G.
Rill. "Bonfini.
Antonio, 1427/1437-1502/1505," in Dizionario
(Ronu,
1970): 28-30;
cf.
Istvan
David Lazar, Antonio
biografico degli Italiani,
12
Bonfini storia) umanista ascolano (Ascoli
Piceno, 1993). *
Alexander Randa, Pro
Universalmadiu
republica Christiana.
1593-1609 (Miinchen.
Die Walathd im "Langen"
1964).
Tiirkenkrieg der Katholischen
^
L'EPOPEA pi ELIA BERGER SULLA SANTA
538
Croce, in parte con riferimento
della Santa
Secondo
la
simbolica araldica deUa prefazione.
alia
poema la nascita mistica della croce si riconduce naturalmente sacro come un microcosmo avrebbe unificato in se i
finzione del
dove
all'Eden,
CROCE
—
I'albero
—
quattro elementi originari. Questo albero va identificato con quello del paradiso terrestre, di cui
mangiarono lonta di
Dio
—
Segue
frutto proibito.
I'albero
Satana incita
i
propri diavoli contro
momento
romane, ed della
morte
insegna imperiale
—
al
contro
la
il
alia
la reliquia della
modo
dall'autore
Santa Croce; segue
Questo evento
come la
La sua morte e
notte di nozze, e
la
Roma, ma
domare
riusci a
Berger identifica II
infatti
secondo libro
Conuersio
come
setta di
—
la
il
terrore in
loro violenza.
con
i
Italia,
questo libro
il
di
per vendicare
il
gli
nella
degli
sua morte;
Ungheresi
prima
Magiari pagani,
ma
Carlo
di Bonfini,
Avari, annientati da Carlo
primo
Magno.
— ha per
titolo
Croce"). In
alia
re
che ha convertito
come
la santita
il
tramandato
dalla
protomartire Stefano che le predice
la nascita, la
futura del figlio; proprio per questo
C(. Attila egli Unni, ed. Silvia Blason Scarel
(Roma,
Peter Kulcsar, Bonfini magyar tortenetenekforrasai
S.
Ungheresi.
di santo Ste-
a.
e genesi della storia
e
gli
madre
*
il
la
bambino, che aveva in
1995).
es keletkezese
(con estratto italiano, "Fonti
ungherese di Bonfini") (Budapest, 1973).
Stephani regis maior et minor, atque legenda ab Hartvico episcopo conscripta,"
Emma Bartoniek,
2:361-440;
I
papa
mura
poeta introduce dei cambiamenti interessanti nella tradizione relativa
santo Stefano (967 o 977),
^
"Legenda
pagano ritenuto
allontana dalle
diviso anch'esso in quattro rapsodie (43—61)
fano, Sarolt, a vedere in sogno
'
re
commessi
la
Hartvicus (Cartuizio).^ Nella versione originale, e
grandezza, e
si
infemale.'
In primo luogo, egli trasforma U motivo del "sogno", cosi
leggenda
il
di fironte all'intervento del
mondo
Hungaromm ad Crucem ("La conversione
alia figura di
il
visione
leggenda della Santa
Seguendo I'imprecisa cronologia
Magiari/Unni
come
Maometto. Nella quar-
peccati da lui
i
sua anima sprofonda nel
discendenti di Attila, sparsero
Magno
orribile,
la
auspicio della successiva lotta contro
genesi della
e soprattutto atterrito daH'apparizione miracolosa della Croce, della citta sacra.
il
Persiani, riportando
i
della
ultima rapsodia del primo libro, Berger canta I'unno Attila,
I'antenato dei Magiari che vuole occupare
ed.
Grande, narrando
il
in cui la croce (u scelta
quale egli riesce a sconfiggere
rislam; percio egli narra a questo punto ta e
trionfato suU'impe-
posto delle aquile. La terza rapsodia invece narra
deU'imperatore Eraclio, grazie
Cri-
i
Cristiani. Pero,
i
sua sconfitta. La seconda rapso-
ritorna a Costantino
trionfante la reliquia nella propria capitale.
Croce viene interpretato
trionfo finale su Satana.
il
Croce ha praticamente
ponte Milvio e
Cosroe avrebbe rubato
re persiano
vo-
riunione neU'Avemo, in cui
ispira le persecuzioni
muore confessando
alia battaglia di
la
la
e convertita alia fede cristiana e piu tardi persino
si
arretrando nella cronologia
sogno antecedente
come
—
Santa Croce. Prima vuol far annientare
di Cristo, la
I'imperatore Giuliano I'apostata
—
la
che
e lui
Roma
ratore Tiberio; in seguito
dia
peccato originale, per
il
trasforma in croce per simboleggiare
si
—
consiglio infemale del serpente
il
Immediatamente dopo
in corrispondenza ai canoni dell'epica
stiani dalle aquile
fin dal
— seguendo
nostri progenitori
i
il
in Scriptores
sulle vite dei re
Rerum Hungaricarum,
ungheresi
v.
ed.
Laszlo Makkai,
Emericus Szentpetery (Budapest, 1938),
"The
History of Hungary until 1849," in
Information Hungary, ed. Ferenc Erdei (Budapest, 1968), 175-250.
lAszlo szorenyi
origine e
il
nome pagano
il
In
figlio.
tal
Vajk, fu battezzato Stefano. Nella versione di Berger, invece,
Geza, che sogna
flituro padre,
modo
539
Stefano nasce
II
— mandata secondo
Corona
— con I'emblema
a Stefano
della nascita del
e proprio portatore di croce {cruciger).
Inoltre Berger pretende di identificare la Santa
zione dal papa Silvestro
come annunzio
Santa Croce,
la
come vero
la tradi-
della croce in essa raflSgurato.
E* proprio questo che simboleggia I'apparizione della Croce: essa vuole "fidanzare" (cioe impegnare) gli Ungheresi
—
Croce. Percio anche
per comunicargli
vocazione
manda
Dopo
la
primo
a partire dal loro
dati consacrati della
al
papa Silvestro
II
re cristiano
— come
appare in sogno
Ungheresi; per questo
di Stefano, re degli
la
sol-
Croce
papa gU
il
doppia croce apostolica, da cui derivera lo stemma della nazione ungherese!
la
questa dupUce visione
in poi saranno proprio
poeta
il
proniinziare
fa
gU Ungheresi ad assumersi
al
la
re Stefano
un
discorso: d'ora
missione, che anticamente era
degh imperatori Costantino il Grande ed EracUo. Essi lotteranno nel segno della Croce contro gU infedeU e, se sara necessario, adotteranno come insegna quel simbolo
stata
gh Ungheresi giurano
sacro. In seguito a cio 11 si
terzo hbro
deduce
non
a caso e
il
sulla
ungheresi da Stefano
In esso
si
Rodolfo
(o santo Stefano) a
I
della personaUta di ciascun sovrano.
Cosi
la
sull'imperatore Enrico
che ta,
i
come un
I.
Owiamente
il
ma
tradizione
— sarebbe
I
la vittoria del re
aver rapidamente passato in
successori diretti, coinvolti in conflitti dinastici,
— secondo una
I'estensione dei di-
anche del diverse rihevo
poeta interpreta
Dopo
patto di alleanza.
settimo sovrano dopo santo Stefano, Ladislao
e solo la
unghe-
narrazione deUe imprese di santo Stefano
diventa una vera e propria apoteosi; in particolare
al
dell'argomento, che
narra in ordine cronologico la storia dei re
seconda delle fonti a disposizione,
versi capitoli varia a
rassegna
la vastita
dal sottotitolo: Gesta Crucigerorum regum Hungariae ("Imprese dei re
resi portatori della croce").
buito
Croce.
piu esteso (61—161), data
un grande riUevo
prima Crocia-
stato eletto condottiere nella
morte prematura ^i avrebbe impedito
e attri-
o san Ladislao (1040-1095),
di partecipare all'impresa.
La gran-
dezza di Ladislao e accentuata dall'interpretazione assolutamente negativa della personahta del suo successore, re assegnato ad Andrea
II
Colomanno (1085—1116).
Un
ruolo di primo piano e
(1176/77-1235), che partecipo dawero ad una crociata, occu-
pando trionfalmente Damietta
e portando
con
se diverse
reUquie daUa Terra Santa in
Ungheria; per queste imprese egU e paragonato all'imperatore EracUo.
Andrea
ma
si
II,
va sottoUneato un episodic, che non ha alcun rapporto con
Santa Croce,
collega invece alia concezione tradizionale dell'aristocrazia ungherese.
Berger, Andrea
II
avrebbe emanato
il
di opporsi
legittimamente
Leopoldo
questa
base di riferimento di tutte
la
I;
durante
burgiche.'" Particolare rihevo
De
Mauhzio
Bulla Aurea II
regis
la
nobilta ungherese avrebbe
agli atti illegittimi del re,
clausola fu canceUata alia fine del secolo
tore e re
il
Secondo
decreto chiamato "Bolla d'Oro," in base
quale (secondo un'interpretazione tendenziosa)
""
A proposito di la
XVII
U
al
diritto
da essa Uberamente eletto. Questa
dalla
Dieta di Sopron, sotto I'impera-
Seicento, anzi, persino all'inizio del Settecento e stata le
insurrezioni e guerre d'indipendenza antiabs-
assumono
Hungariae
in questa parte del
MCCXXII
Pedrazza, Gorieo (Verona, 1999).
poema
le
imprese del re
Andreae, ed. Lajos Besenyei,
Geza Erszegi
e
L'EPOPEA pi ELIA BERGER SULLA SANTA
540
Bela IV (1206—1270) che ha ricostruito
lamentazione posta in bocca
tesa
il
CROCE Mongoli
paese devastate dai
nel 1241. L'es-
re riassume tutti quei ricordi funesti delle
al
deva-
Mongoli e Turchi, che daU'umanesimo ungherese in poi sono diventati un vero motive topico della letteratura ungherese. Interessante notare che il fiume Danubio e definite qui per la prima volta (a quante ci e date cenescere) come stazione di Tartari,
la
lacrima deUa patria:
tale
immagine peetica rimarra viva
fine
letteratura
alia
ungherese del Nevecento." In seguito all'estinzione del
viene qui messa in particelare figura di Carlo
rame maschile risalto
Roberto d'Angio
—
ancer piu quella
e
prepesite di quest' ultimo, viene attribuite sua devoziene per
Croce persino
la
dei re della casa degli
in relaziene
alia
al
motive
sue
di
II
Arpad (1301) Crece la
Luigi
figlie,
—
Grande.
il
sua fedelta nei confronti del re e
fatto di aver espulso dal
il
che nen avevano volute cenvertirsi.
della
Berger
sue paese quegli ebrei
anche
esalta
A
alia
figura del re, poi
la
imperatore, Sigismondo di Lussemburgo, benche egli fosse state sconfitto a Nicepoli
Turchi
dai
Wladislae
sue titele di merito
infedeli. Egli censidera
eretici Ussiti, I
che in sense
late egli interpreta
come
come une
dei maggieri erei:
prima volta dei parageni omerici. Tuttavia giuramenti di pace conclusi con
poeta utilizza qui per
il
condanna
egli
il
— avevano
cristiani
infiranto
il
che
fii i
V
(1440-1457)
di
giustiziato Ladislae, figlie sity esalta la dinastia
stesse
di
Varna, che
a lui attribuite,
pepelare nel periedo della Riforma, che identificava
di
— che
il
cordare eternamente dalla Chiesa
legge in
papale
preprio giuramento
egli inserisce tra
in realta era solo governatore
papa avrebbe inserite nel calendario
si
epigramma
la fallacia
Giovanni Hunyadi, mentre con
prime luege
dei Cervini. In
Giovanni Hunyadi
— violando
Absburge, che
maggiore
censiglio
Berger giudica invece del tutto negativamente
perfidi censigli del cardinale.'^
Ladislae
i
lore giuramente suUa Croce.
epigramma cempesto da Giano Pannenie, o
moke
il
la
Murad
sultano
il
— seguende
che
Berger segue qui fedelmente I'interpretaziene della sconfitta
con
re per aver violate
Turchi a Szeged; giustamente
i
Die per aver punito quei
(Amurathes) ringrazia
del cardinale Giuliane Cesarini
celebre
gli
Crece.
Jagellone (1424-1444), re di Ungheria e di Polenia, caduto a Varna, e
interpretate naturalmente
un
condotta centre
la letta
letta a difesa della Santa
la festa della
la vitteria di
—
i
la stessa
— ha
inten-
re ungheresi lo
e aggiunge che
il
"Transfiguratio Christi" per far ri-
Hunyadi centre
i
Turchi a Belgrade
(1456). II
capitolo dedicate a Mattia
ta I'epera.
ma
Tutte
le
imprese
anche quella centre
Hunyadi
di Mattia,
gli Ussiti e
(e
nen
perfine
Corvine) (1443-1490) e I'apoteosi
sole le la
campagne
trienfaU centre
di tut-
Turchi,
riconquista di Vienna settratta agli Abs-
burge, nell'impestazione del poeta dimestrano che Mattia ha servite nel illustre la
i
mode
piu
Santa Crece (impostazione serprendente da parte di un poeta che peneva
tutte le sue speranze di carriera in
" Cf. Amore
e liberta.
un imperatore
absburgico).
II
Danubio trasformato
Antologia di poeti ungheresi, ed. Marta Dal Zuffo e Peter Sarkozy
(Roma,
1997). '^
Cf.
Robert C. Jenkins,
Tlie Last Crusader, or the Life
House of Cesarini (London, 1861).
and Times of Cardinal Jullian, of the
lAszlo szorenyi
541
in lacrime nel periodo deU'invasione tartara ora viene ritrasformato nel
che
innalza la testa dalle
Da
Ungheresi.
schiume e decora
santo Stefano in poi Mattia e
U Grande
dal poeta a Costantino
con
la testa il
Dio Danubius
corona della gloria per
la
primo che viene
di
gli
nuovo paragonato
e ad Eraclio. Nell'esaltazione di Mattia arriva persino
ad esclamare:
Maior
Te
capit,
sei
il
fra
Dopo la morte di to
i
mondo,
croce
Mattia,
come emblema. Berger
tratta di
la rivolta
i
(130)
non
e tuo
racchiude: tu
ti
Wladislao
I,
II
Jagellone (1456—1516), sot-
come
un'ofFesa nei confronti della
rottura della pace, confermata col giuramento sulla
che ambedue
e considera
gli atti
vendetta divina. La grandezza del re Mattia
gura accanto a quella dei due Wladislao
poeta esprime
ille es
dei contadini di Dozsa, che adottarono la
considera questo alia
croce, nel periodo di Wladislao la
maximus
U mondo che
Mattia,
poeta
il
Santa Croce, comparabUe solo
mente provocato
A, nee tuus orbis
sovrani di Europa"]'^
regno del quale scoppio
il
I
EVROPE Regum tu
["Eri piu grande del
piu grande
MATH
mundo,
eras
— viene
ancor
cosi
propri lamenti nei confronti di Luigj
II,
avevano giusta-
— ponendo
sua
fi-
di piu accentuata.
II
la
caduto nella battagUa di
—
Mohacs contro SoUmano il Grande, ed esalta sua moglie appartenente alia casa degh Absburgo come annunciatrice degli eventi futuri. Nella lamentazione soggettiva inserita in seguito alia morte di Luigi, il poeta riassume Tenorme sacrificio di
—
sangue versato dagli Ungheresi in difesa della Croce. Berger
mente
di re
Giovanni (1487—1540)
tratta piuttosto rapida-
Szapolya o di Scepusio, incoronato dopo
di
la
battaglia dal partito nazionale; infatti in definitiva egli e diventato alleato dei Turchi.
In questo contesto
non manca neanche uno sfogo
protestanti, contro
mente
era stato
ha consegnato frate
il
un
frate paolino,
la capitale del
dopo
i
divenuto poi cardinale e che
mano
paese in
cappuccino (1482—1551).
stante e solo
con
anticlericale,
forti
connotazioni
govematore Giorgio Martinuzzi (1482—1551) che originaria-
E
ai
— secondo
Turchi, grazie
alia
poeta
il
menzogna
di
— un
importante notare che Elia Berger era nato prote-
suoi studi effettuati ad Heidelberg
si
era convertito alia fede
cattolica.
Particolarmente significativa e I'esaltazione della figura di Ferdinando proprio questo re rese permanente
ungherese. di aver
Con un
concluso
cacciati da
il
il
dominio
colpo di scena audace,
"matrimonio"
della
Croce con
alio stesso
tori della croce. In altre parole, la loro
le aquile,
a queste
vocazione
al
" Cf Tibor
sono descritte
le gesta degli
il
come emblemi
govemo
trono
sul
nozze simboliche,
tempo diventano pure
non deriverebbe dagU imperatori romani, ma
Con questo spirito
dato che
I,
Absburgo
poeta attribuisce a Ferdinando
Vienna poco prima da Mattia. Grazie
burgo, diventando re dell'Ungheria,
cristiano
il
della casa degli
merito
araldici, gli
Abs-
autentici porta-
universale del
mondo
dai santi sovrani ungheresi.
imperatori Ferdinando e Massimiliano;
Klaniczay, Mattia Corvino e I'umanesimo ilaliano
(Roma,
1974).
L'EPOPEA pi ELIA BERGER SULLA SANTA
542
poiche
il
poeta
un accenno
concentra solo
si
morte eroica
alia
di aver ucciso sotto le tolici, cosi
modo
considerarla
nemmeno
di Szigetvar
il
merito
diavolo incarnate (come Lutero per
il
come
nozze
frutto di
il
i
cat-
diaboliche),*"* arre-
I'irresistibile
di Berger,
come
— secondo
burgo
senza
Niccolo Zrinyi attribuisce a Massimiliano
avanzata dei Turchi. Ora tutti, anche i potenziali conoscevano in Europa I'impresa eroica di Zrinyi;'^ e dovevano comprendere il valore allegorico di questa interpretazione e
poema
tuttavia essi
non
sulle imprese compiute dai sourani, egli
sultano e qui considerate
il
stando in questo lettori del
mura
di
CROCE
un'esaltazione adulatoria degli Absburgo, visto che
poeta
il
— erano
gli
Abs-
eredi diretti della missione storica assegnata ai
gli
sovrani ungheresi dalla stessa Croce. Questa interpretazione della morte del sultano
morto il maggiore alleato del demonio, a Rodolfo non rimaneva che compimento quella vittoria, ricevendo in premio la corona della gloria. In questo modo, la conclusione del poema si ricoUega alia sua parte iniziale, dove dopo un prologo in Cielo avevamo trovato I'assemblea infemale dei demoni e la e significativa;
portare a
—
—
loro decisione di condurre un'eterna lotta contro bile,
Rodolfo
la
il
potere di Satana, fondando
il
Paradise in terra.
il
dominio
della
La brevita del mio saggie mi impedisce bra tuttavia di peter afFermare che
il
di
Croce
epice perduto che
il
Sambuce
come
e prevedi-
Turchi, egli sconfiggera anche
i
e riportando in tal
modo
procedere eltre in quest'analisi.
poema
di fatto
Mi sem-
Berger rappresenta una vera svolta
di
nell'ambito della letteratura neolatina ungherese.
poema
Santa Croce. Se,
riuscira a sconfiggere definitivamente
Infatti, a partire dagli
attribuiva a
Giane Pannonio
—
Annales
—
il
I'aspiraziene
costante degli umanisti ungheresi e stata quella di creare un'epepea nazionale.'^ Ber-
ger e state
mente
il
prime
centrastanti,
burgica.
EgU ha
a realizzare questo ideale,
come
la tradiziene
magiarizzato
non
unendo
sole I'intera storia ungherese,
steria dell'umanita, interpretata in sense cristiane.
epepea barocca
sara fondata
tra lore
elementi apparente-
ungaro/magiara e quella della dinastia abs-
ma
addirittura tutta la
In lingua ungherese
da un pronipote dell'eree
di Szigetvar,
Zrinyi. Le sue fonti epiche sono in parte identiche a quelle di Berger: lio,
Lucano, Claudiano, Girelamo Vida, ecc. Li accemuna
zione universahstica della lotta centre
vanza cosmica e da
farla
i
Turchi in
mode
il
da
la
grande
Miklos (Niccolo)
Omero,
Virgi-
tentative dell'imposta-
farle
diventare parte della lotta etema tra
assumere una
Die
e Satana. '^
rile-
Ma
asselutamente peculiare e I'illusione di Berger di peter integrare e fondere, in una linea di continuita, le gleriese tradizioni magiare
'^
Cf.
Aby Warburg,
con
le glorie della dinastia
Heidnisch-antik Weissagung im Wort urid Bild
imperiale
zu Luthers Zeiten (Heidelberg,
1920).
"
Sulla popolarita del
tema
della
morte eroica
di Zrinyi nell'epoca, v. la collana poetica
Anno Christi M.D.LXVII obsesso et expugnato Excudebat Matthaeus Vvelach, M.D.LXXVII; ristampa anastatica Budapest,
Sigetho Hungariae propugnaculo a Turca
bergae, '^
Cf. Laszlo Szorenyi, Arcades ambo. Relazioni
letterarie italo-ungheresi e cultura
[.
.
.]
De
(Wite-
1987).
neo-latina (Catan-
zaro, 1999), 79-99.
" Cf Amedeo Di Francesco, "Concezione di
Miklos Zrinyi," in Venezia
1970), 351-370.
etica e modelli epici italiani neU'Assedio di Sziget
e Ungheria nel contesto del Barocco europeo, ed.
V. Branca (Firenze,
LASZLO SZORENYI absburgica. Questa illusione ebbe la stesura
dolfo.
del
poema
—
Da allora in poi,
la
543
una durata brevissima. Gia nel 1604
raristocrazia ungherese
si
ribello
contro
il
— poco dopo
dominio
di
Ro-
tradizione storica ungherese, da Attila a Mattia Corvino, di-
venta patrimonio nazionale e
non puo
essere associata alle imprese di
una
dinastia
straniera.'*
Per concludere vorrei aggiungere che di
Maurizio Jokai (1825—1904)
ossia nell'epopea in prosa
tradizione dei re santi
si
—
il
Romatizo
del secolo Juturo
(A jovo szhzad
XX secolo.
In quel secolo in cui
nazione e dinastia diventa ormai superato, perche
comunista.
regenye)
che
—
la
ricongiunge con quella degli Absburgo, naturalmente pro-
iettandosi nel "secolo futuro" e cioe nel tra
sara solo alia fine dell'Ottocento, nell'utopia
maggior romanziere romantico ungherese
il
il
contrasto
diavolo e chiamato russo e
.*' .
.
MTA
Irodalmi Intezet
(Institute for Literary Studies
of Hungarian
Academy of Sciences) Budapest, Hungary
'*
Cf. Attila, the
Man
and
his
Image, ed. Franz
Bauml
e Marianna D.
Bimbaum
(Budapest,
1993).
"
Cf. Anthologie de
la
Prose Hongroise, ed. Jean Hankiss e
Leopold Molnos
(Paris,
1938), 87-92.
Die Aeneis-Allegorese
in
Cristoforo Landinos
Disputationes Camaldulenses
NIKOLAUS THURN
Landinos Disputationes Camaldulenses sind in der Fonchung
Cristoforo
haufig bearbeitet worden,' handelt es sich doch bei ihnen
phisch
und
sozialgeschichtlich bedeutsames
Werk,
um
gem und
ein philoso-
das in einer Zeit des angeblichen
Ubergangs von jenseits-gewandtem Mittelalter und diesseitsbezogener Neuzeit die Frage nach soil
dem
Primat von
jedoch nicht
vita activa
und
Landinos beobachtet werden, noch soU das
Werk
Zur
VgJ. u.a. E. Grassi, Humatiismus und Marxismus.
'
schaft
Im folgenden
vita contemplativa aufgreift.
der, bereits hinlanglich untersuchte, neuplatonische
(Hamburg, 1973), 120-129;
Hintergrund
aufgrund der historischen
Um-
Kritik der Verselbstdndigung von Wissen-
P. Laurens, "Pius Aeneas, heros de la vie contemplative dans les
Disputationes Camaldulettses," in Les
loisirs et I'heritage
M. Andre,
de
la
adture classique. Actes du Xllle Congres de
Demont, Collection Latomus 230 (Briissel, 1996), 441—451; M. Lentzen, "Zur Problematik von vita activa und vita contemplativa in den Disputationes Camaldulettses von Cristoforo Landino," in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Torontotiensis, ProceedI'Association Bude, ed. J.
ings
J.
Angel
et P.
of the Seventh International Congress o/Neo-Latin Studies, ed. Alexander Dalzell, Charles Fantazzi,
and Richard J. Schoeck, Alberti
und
die
MRTS 86 (Bin^amton,
Cristoforo Laitditto, Schriften
Activa
Vita
1991), 429-437; E. Miiller-Bochat, Leon Battista
Vergil-Deutung der Disputationes Camaldulettses. Zur allegorischen Dichtererkldnmg bei
und
Vita
und Vortrage
Contemplativa
bei
des Petrarca-Instituts 21 (Koln, 1968); Cristoforo
Landino (Stuttgart,
"Cristoforo Landino's Allegorization of the Aetieid: Books tions"
(Ph.D.
diss.,
III
1991);
U. Rombach,
Th. H. Stahel,
and IV of the Camaldolese Disputa-
Johns Hopkins University, 1968); A. Vallone, "La linea esegetica: Benvenuto,
Landino, VelluteUo," in Ricerche dantesche (Lecce, 1967); J. B. Wadsworth, "Landino's Disputatiottes Camaldulenses, Ficino's (1952): 23-31;
(Miinchen, 1981); E.
1998),
XV-XIX;
Felicitate
and
L'Altercaziotte
Cristoforo Lattditto.
Wolf "Die
biicherfiir das klassische
buch
De
R. Weiss,
of Lorenzo de' Medici," Modent
Das Metaphorische
in
Philology
50
den Disputatiottes Camaldulettses
allegorische Vergilerklarung des Cristoforo Landino," Naiejahr-
Altertum (1919): 453-479; C. Zintzen, Itidex zu Cristoforo Lattditto (Koln,
idem, "Zur /4CTim-Interpretation des Cristoforo Landino,"
20 (1985): 193-215.
Mittellateittisches Jahr-
LANDINGS DISPUTATIONES CAMALDULENSES
546
stande, aus
denen
es
erwachsen
werden. Mein Blickwinkel wird ein vor-
erklart
ist,
von Landinos Dante-Allegorese sollen auf die gesamte Aeneis iibertragen werden, um damit herauszuarbeiten, wie eine Interpretation der Aeneis als Ganzes angelegt ist. Dabei mochte ich dem formalen Vorgehen der
wiegend formaler
sein: die Eckpfeiler
allegorischen Entwicklung folgen
und
ein Prinzip aufdecken, das meines Wissens fur
Landinos Vergildeutung noch nicht beachtet wurde. In einem zweiten Schritt werde ich versuchen, ebenfalls formal die zweite Halfte der Disputationes Camaldulenses mit
den ersten beiden Biichern zu verbinden. Jener zweite Teil der Disputationes
ist
Landino durch sein Sprachrohr Leon
immer
pretation vortragt, die, in deutlicher Tradition
MaB
aufs
neue untersucht worden, in
dem
Battista Alberti eine allegorische Aeneis-lntcx-
von Fulgentius und Bernardus
Silves-
Form aufweist, daB in ihr die humanistische, allegorische Interpretationsweise zur Bliite gekommen zu sein scheint. Der SchluB lag auf der Hand, daB die Vergil-Allegoric im 3. und 4. Buch die exemplarische Durchfiihrung des im 1 Buch besprochenen Problems vom stehend,
tris
dennoch ein
an Geschlossenheit und ansprechender
.
Verhaltnis zwischen
vita
adiva
und
vita contemplativa darstellt,
tiges Verstandnis der Allegorese das richtige
und
aus
dem
und daB damit
ein rich-
ersten Teil der Disputationes
nicht eindeutig erschlieBbare Verstandnis der Position Landinos in dieser Frage klaren
konnte.
wurden wohl 1472 fertiggestellt, gedruckt aber erst Buch findet sich ein Disput zwischen Leon Battista Alberti, der die vita contemplativa, und Lorenzo de' Medici, der die vita activa vertritt. AbschlieBend finden wir in den Worten Albertis so etwas wie eine Versohnung der beiden Lebensprinzipien: sie bedingen einander. Im zweiten Buch wird das summum honum nach einer Repetition der antiken philosophischen Antworten christlich in der AnDie
um
Disputationes Camaldulenses
1480.
Im
ersten
naherung an Gott
Buch flinf und
definiert.
wo
Die Vergil-Allegorese der beiden folgenden Biicher
die ersten vier Biicher der Aeneis,
sich in das
3,
Biicher
sechs gedeutet werden.
Die Renaissance hat die Aeneis vornehmlich
Werk
gelesen.'^
kontrastierend getadelt. in Landinos
Buch
das
4,
wo
teilt
die
ein panegyrisch ausgerichtetes
Gelobt wird jedoch kein sterbhcher Mensch, sondem im jeweiUgen
Tugenden an
Protagonisten werden stellvertretend die
ist
als
und
Auch
der Aeneas Landinos
Augen der Mensch,
der sich zuerst
ist
sich gelobt
und
die Laster
solch ein Protagonist. Aeneas
von den Verlockungen der Siinden civilis nicht erUegt und so
freimacht, dann in Karthago der Verlockung der vita schlieBlich
nach
Italien gelangt,
wo
er das
summum bonum
tionen und Personen der Irrfahrten des Aeneas werden
Tugenden
verstanden: so
ist
findet.
als
Einzelne Orte, Sta-
Symbole
fiir
Siinden und
Troia das korperhafte und Karthago das aktive Leben.
Die bisherigen Interpretationen haben diese Deutung recht gut herausgearbeitet. werden im groBen und ganzen einheUig folgende grobe
Als Eckpfeiler der Allegorie Schritte anerkannt:
Aeneas entsagt der
laBt die vita activa in
-
sance
Vgl. C. Kallendorf, In Praise of Aeneas.
(London, 1989).
vita
voluptuosa mit seiner Flucht aus Troia, er
Karthago hinter sich und gelangt im sechsten Buch durch seine
Virgil
and Epideidic Rhetoric
in the
Early Italian Renais-
NIKOLAUS THURN Unterweltsreise zur
547
und dem summum bonum. Diese Deutung
vita speculatiua
keine selbstverstandliche: Landinos Interpretation hort zwar mit
dem
aber
ist
sechsten
Buch
soil man sich nun vorstellen, bliebe Aeneas da doch den Ort der Kontemplation bereits erreicht hat?-* Wozu muB er da noch die Kampfe in Latium durchstehen? Landino selbst hat diese Frage im vierten Buch der Disputationes {Cam. 4.209-211) anhand der Prophezeiung der Si-
auf, die Aeneis aber
noch zu
wenn
tun,
geht weiter. Was, er
bylle in Aen. 6.83—84
genau so formuliert, und er gibt darauf als Antwort eine Kurz-
Kampfe
interpretation seiner Allegoric der
Aeneas mit den Worten sed
terns graviora
in Itahen.
— wenn man
diesen handeit as sich aber nicht
Zwar
verheiBt die Sibylle
manent noch groBere Kampfe in ItaHen, bei
— um exteme
sie allegorisch auslegt
Kampfe im praktischen Leben, sondem um interne des Geistes:* "Cum enim a communi vita ac hominum coetu te in soUtudinem vindicaveris, tunc acriores quasdam veluti faces earum rerum, quas rehquisti, memoria admovet et illarum desiderio acerrimo insurgunt morsus." Das heiBt, Aeneas kampft in Italien deutet
—
um
Geistes,
gessen: er
Kampf im
nicht einen wirkHchen die Erinnerung an das
wie ein Einsiedler,
ist
praktischen Leben,
—
allegorisch ge-
sondem einen
des
Leben und die MogHchkeit der Begjerde zu ver-
noch von den
der, in der vita contemplativa befindlich,
Phantasien des Lebens geplagt wird.^ also im sechsten Buch zwar das summum bonum insofem erreicht haim Elysium zu sehen bekommt; aber er hat damit nicht das hochste, dem Menschen mogUche Sein erreicht. An die von mir eben zitierte Passage schlieBt
Aeneas wird
ben,
er dies
als
Landino eine kurze Skizze seien ein zweiter
nem Achilles; lien das
hen
*
sondem
Rombach,
ac
um
eine Frau
seien. Sie
und wiederum mit
ei-
—
als victor
flie-
triumphansque parto regno redeat.
also die ersten sechs Biicher nicht eine abgeschlossene Einheit,
Vita Activa
und
Vita Contemplativa, 149; S.
159 sieht im zweiten Teil der Aeneis
er aber dieses hochste Ziel des
als
Menschen
erreicht, verheiBt
die bisherigen. Sie deutet voraus auf die
Kampfe
in
La-
den hochsten Akt der Erkenntnis hinaus und zuhick in die Praxis." Cam. 4.209: "Quae omnia gravia ac periculis plena cum perpessus fuerit, quonam modo iiber
duriora passurus est?
hominum
quas
ich zitiere
noch hartere Proben
tium und damit *
—
Leben verwirklicht: "Als
die Sibylle
Italia
wiederum
aber wahrend Troia das korperhafte Leben bedeutet habe, bedeute Ita-
Landino sind
das praktische
ihm
wie deim die Biicher 7—12 zu verstehen
Troia,
Leben in der speculatio; und so wiirde Aeneas hier nicht unterUegen und
miissen,
Fiir
an,
Kampf um
tamen procul
a veto aberrat Sibylla.
Cum
enim
a
communi
in
vita
coetu te in solitudinem vindicaveris, tunc acriores quasdam veluti faces earum rerum,
reliquisti,
Italiam Aeneas,
penitus expiata
adversus
Non
memoria admovet et iUarum desiderio acerrimo insurgunt morsus. Venit in verum eo virtutxun genere, quae purgatoriae appellantur, a quibus antea quam sit mens necesse est, ut acerrimum bellum, quem admodum nostri aiunt, spiritus
camem
.
gerat. ... In Italia vero,
valeat animus, bella excitantur, aspera
cum nondum
ilia
cupiditatem rerum
quidem, sed non
.
.
humanarum deponere
in quibus veluti
apud Troiam suc-
cumbat, sed unde victor triumphansque parto regno redeat." *
niam
Vgl. et
Cam. 4.210:
"Humanam enim
socieutem
cum
deserimus, aut in ferinam vitam per insa-
atram bilem degeneramus aut heroico robore supra
hominem
erigimur."
LANDINGS DISPUTATIONES CAMALDULENSES
548
die
man
allegorisch deuten kann,
wahrend
die folgenden Biicher lose
und ohne Sinn
darauf folgen; er prasentiert ein Gesamtkonzept von der Aeneis.
Landino behauptet bekanntlich, Homer, Vergil und Dante hatten in derselben
Werke aufgebaut und zum selben Ende gefiihrt: Homers Werk sei nichts Lob der Tugend;*" Vergil habe dieses gewuBt und mit Aeneas den Menschen schildern wollen, der sich von den Lastern entsiihnt, mit Tugenden ausstattet und schlieBlich zum hochsten Gut gelangt/ In diesem wiederum sei ihm Dante gefolgt.^ Weise als
ihre
ein
Um auf ein
Gesamtverstandnis der /lenew-Interpretation zu
kommen, muB man
die Worte Landinos emst nehmen, daB seiner Meinung nach Dante Vergil minutios
gefolgt
sei:
in
diesem Sinne
muB
die Interpretation der Diuina
dino mit der Interpretation der Aeneis in sichtlich
deren erster Halfte oder
Kommentar
Commedia durch Lan-
ihrem Gesamtkonzept und nicht nur hin-
allein des sechsten
der Diuina Commedia gibt damit den
Buches deckungsgleich
Schliissel
Der
sein.
zu einem Verstandnis der
Allegorie in der Aeneis.
Landino hat in seinem Dantekommentar nun die gesamte Diuina Commedia be-
den Gedanken der
handelt. Dabei hat er
drei
bzw. vier Tugendstufen, wie ihn
zum Somnium Scipionis (1.8.4fF.) verbreitete, auf den Weg Fegefeuer und Himmel angewendet.^ Mit Hilfe der uirtutes ci-
Macrobius im Kommentar Dantes durch Holle,
gelangt Dante unversehrt durch die Holle, mit Hilfe der
uiles
im
er sich purgati
Aufstieg iiber den Lauterungsberg,
vermag
er sich
zum Himmel
im
Notwendigkeit der Unterweltschau
die
Landinos Deutung des sechsten Buches
fiir
wenn Aeneas
hinter sich gelassen hat. Landino erklart
Mensch
uirtutes purgatoriae reinigt
Hilfe der uirtutes animi iam
aufzuschwingen.''^
Diese Konstruktion konnen wir auch der Aeneis wiederfinden, auch
und mit
eigentlich mit Karthago die uirtutes 4.
flir
Buch der
ciuiles
Disputationes {Cam. 4.212fF.)
die Perfektion
von Aeneas: damit der
muB
in der uita contemplatiua dazu bereit wird, die Laster voUig zu besiegen,
er sich auf der Schwelle zu ihr (in limine contemplandarum rerum positus) die Laster
*
Cam. 3.118:
^
Cam. 3.119: "ut idem
"[sc.
opinor] totam in
Homeri poesim laudem
vitiis
est
virtutis continere."
suo Aenea efFicere voluerit, quod
propter pulcherrimis poeticisque figmentis
eum
ille
antea in Ulixe finxerat.
paulatim expiatus ac deinceps miris virtutibus iUustratus
.
Qua-
nobis virum informavit, qui plurimis ac maximis id,
quod
quodque nisi sapiens nullus assequi potest, tandem assequeretur." * Cam. 4.190: "... Dantem habemus, qui eius itineris, quo .
und
.
summum
homini
bonum
mundum omnem
ab imis
supremum usque caelum peragrat, in eo sibi ilium ducem fingit, in quo summum hominis bonum perquirens miro quodam ingenio unicam Aeneida imitandam proponit, ut, cum pauca omnino inde excerpere videatur, nunquam tamen, si diligentius inspiciemus, ab ea discedat Tartaris ad
'
M.
Lentzen, "Cristoforo Landinos Dantekommentar," in Der Kommentar
(Boppart, 1975), 167ff. '''
Vgl. Lentzen, "Landinos
Dantekommentar,"
174.
in der
Renaissance
NIKOLAUS THURN die
kommenden Gefahren im
reits
Geiste vergegenwartigen." Er befindet sich zwar be-
in der contemplatio, nicht aber
sondem
im
volligen Besitz der zweiten Tugendstufe,
Weg dazu. Nachdem Aeneas
auf dem
erst
549
die Laster auf seinem
Weg mit der
von ihnen theoretisch und mit Hilfe der Erkenntnis. Landino faBt Aeneas' Gang im vierten Buch der Disputationes (Cam. 4.253. 19flf.) zusammen: "Hac igitur ratione impulsus Maro, cum ad summum kennengelemt
Sibylle kontemplativ
hat, reinigt er sich
bonum perducere hominem veUt, ita Aeneam instituendum curat, ut primo vitia omnia edoceat, deinde illis eum expiatum ad campos Elysios perducat." Der Weg zum Elysium beginnt mit einer Waschung, d. h. mit der expiatio vom Schmutz der Siinden,
und
ist
gestaltet
— ganz wie
Buchstabe, das Y, Symbol
Weg setzt
wird damit zur quid
die Aeneis auf Dantes Divina
Danthes, qui
sibi velit
emergens nuUam aliam viam
nisi
—
als
der pythagoreische
Tugend und
Reinigung von den Siinden. Lorenzo
purgatio, zur
nun im Gesprach
mum perspicio,
in Dantes Purgatorium
die Entscheidung zwischen
fiir
Laster.
Der
Medici
de'
Commedia um: "Nunc enim de-
primum ad
inferos descendat atque inde
per purgatoria loca ad caelum inveniat."
An den
im Elysium kann Aeneas nun exemplarisch den Weg und das Ziel des Menschen erkennen: nun erst ist er ganz im Besitz der virtutes purgatoriae; er tritt so in die Ebene der nachsten Tugendstufe ein. Dies ist zwar das summum bonum, aber nun gUt es, dieses mit den virtutes animi iam purgati zu bewahren, und damit muB Seelen
Aeneas ihrer
erst
einmal iiberhaupt voUig inne werden.'^
In Landinos Interpretation findet sich die Diuina Commedia aber nicht nur auf das
Buch, sondem auch auf die Aeneis als Ganzes angewendet. Aeneas' Weg in den Biichem 1—4 ist der Weg von der Siinde bis zur Erreichung der virtutes civiles. sechste
Auch im Erwerb der zivilen Tugenden kann man erkennen, daB Landino eine Dreighederung vor Augen hatte: zuerst befindet sich Aeneas in Troia (allegorisch die vita voluptuosa), das untergeht. Hier, wie nicht anders im sechsten Buch, erwahnt Landino den pythagoreischen Buchstaben, diesmal lische, Paris fiir die fleischliche
um zu
zeigen, daB sich Aeneas
Venus entschieden habe. Auf seinem
thago besiegt Aeneas die Laster. In Karthago endlich lemt er die positiven Verwirldichung kennen. ein Sich-Reinigen
Laster,
Aeneas von den Tugenden
" 219.7:
"Quod cum petit,
scendere. Vult '^
So
ist
enim
Auch
hier
kann man
also ein
ostendit
mentem
die see-
vita civilis in
ihrer
Kennenlernen der
und Gereinigt-Sein beobachten, das damit und sich auf die nachst hohere Stufe
erfiillt ist
fiir
Weg nach Kar-
endet, daB begibt, mit
praemonstrante ipsa doctrina in sensualitatem de-
quae ab ea sunt, penitus cognoscere."
vitia,
auch Landinos Bemerkung zu verstehen, daB Dante den ersten sechs Biichem der
M.
Lentzen, Studien zur Dante-Exegese Cristoforo Landinos [Koln—Wien, Dante-Kommentar zitiert: "Ma tutta questa e fictione d'Homero, el quale niente altro per quella dimostra, se non chome L'huomo trascorrendo per molti vitii e dipoi purgandosene arriva al sommo bene. II che imito Virgilio ne' primi sei libri de' Eneide, et Danthe Aeneis gefblgt sei (v^.
1971], 154, der Landinos
in queste tre cantiche sequito Vergilio."
die ersten sechs Biicher
sechs Biicher
als
eine
fiir
in dieser
Nachahmung
Man
Weise
sollte hier nicht hineirdesen,
interpretierbar hielt:
daB Landino lediglich
Er schreibt, Vergil habe die ersten
der Odyssee verfaBt und Dante
sei
wiederum Vergil
gefolgt.
Dies schlieBt nicht aus, daB Vergil der gesamten Aeneis eine einheidiche Allegorie zugrundegelegt habe.
LANDINOS DISPUTATIONES CAMALDULENSES
550
im
der er nach Italien gelangt. Die Spiele, die Aeneas
von Landino dabei
Buch
funften
unwichtig und lediglich zur
selbst als
ausgeklammert {Cam. 4.199); seine Uberfahrt wird aber
abhalt,
des Lesers
delectatio
durch die
bereits
werden
gehorend
uirtutes
pur-
gatoriae ermoglicht.
Die Erinnerung an das Fleischliche Gegenstand der Kampfe
Sibylle der
ist
in Landinos Interpretation des Orakels der
in Italien: dies entspricht seiner Definition der
Erinnerung an die Laster ganzlich loschen
dritten Tugendstufe, die ja die
man
dino hat sich entschieden, nicht aufzuzeigen, auf welche Weise
beim Erwerb der
soUte, daB sich die erste Stufe
lernen dessen, von
dem man
Turnus der mit den
waren dann
in Italien
endgiiltige Sieg,
Worten
animi iam purgati, das
sich zu befireien wiinscht,
hatte er die Volkerkataloge in Aen.
Kampfe
uirtutes
die
dem
8-9
als
Lan-
Kennen-
voUziehen konnte. Vielleicht
ein solches
Reinigung
soll.'^
sich vorstellen
Kennenlernen gedeutet. Die
in dieser Tugendstufe, der
Tod von
— auBerhalb der Aeneis gelegen, aber von Landino Errichtung anfangs angelegt —
eines
die
triumphans parto regno gleich
Konigreiches der Troianer und Latiner folgen milBte.
Man sieht,
w^ie
zumindest auf den ersten Teil der Aeneis
in die uirtutes duties 1-4
und
die uirtutes purgatoriae in
gleichzeitig jede einzelne Tugendstufe dreigeteilt
digen drei
actus: cognitio uitiorum, purgatio
und
ist
einerseits eine
Buch
in die
illustratio.^^
6 erfolgt
Gliederung
ist,
und wie
flir
ihren Erwerb notwen-
Sie
wiederum korrespon-
dieren auffallig init den drei Tugendstufen. In seiner Konstruktion in
Makro- und Mikro-Ordnung,
den porphyrischen
also
Tugendstufen und den zu ihrem Erwerb jeweils neu ablaufenden,
De
gangen, scheint mir dies Konzept verwandt mit der Schrift
stets
gleichen Vor-
coelesti hierarchia
des
Dionysius Areopagita, deren Inhalt langst allgemeines Kulturgut geworden war.'^
Hier gibt
neun Arten von Engeln, die in drei Ordnungen untergebracht sind. AufOrdnungen jeweils vornehmlich flir eine andere Tatigkeit zuerst "reinigen" die einen (purgatio), dann "erleuchten" die nachsten (j7-
es
steigend sind die drei zustandig: lustratio),
und
die dritten bringen schlieBlich zur
VoUendung
(perfectio).
In jeder ein-
zelnen Stufe aber findet sich dasselbe Schema wieder: von den Engeln der unteren
Ordnung sind die Angeli die den Menschen "reinigenden", die Archangeli die den Menschen "erleuchtenden", die Principatus aber die zur Perfektion bringenden Krafte. Ahnliches bewirken die Engel der zweiten Stufe flir die mittleren, und so fort. Noch ein weiterer Punkt ist beim Erwerb der Tugendstufen zu beachten: sie laufen chronologisch aufeinanderfolgend ab. Das ergibt sich natiirlich einmal aus der
Tatsache, daB
" Cam.
rum
man
3.154f.:
die nachst hohere nicht erreichen kann,
"Verum
labe procul absint.
Hi
terrenis praeferant, sed ut
ilia
autem temperantiam, non ut titudinis. Ilia ofFerri, ''
non
audi iam tertium illud
igitur in
ohne im Besitz der vor-
eorum genus, quorum animi ab omni
eo prudentiam exercent, non ut delectu
sola noscant solaque, veluti nihil aliud
cupiditates coerceant, sed
enim perturbationes non
illas
vincit, sed ignorat.
ut victoriam assequatur, sed ut in
Diese drei Stufen finden sich sogar im
sit,
penitus ignorent.
Quin
fiir
intueantur. Adhibent
Eadem
ratio erit for-
firmitate perduret."
die GroBinterpretation weniger wichtigen
dem Gang zur Sibylle: vgl. Cam. 4.206. etwa Thomas v. Aquin, Summa Theologiae, l.l.quaest. 108; Dante
Betrachten der Bilder vor '^
Vgl.
vitio-
habito divina
optabit dura atque horrenda sibi
eorum oblivione perpetua
—
quodam
par. 28.
—
NIKOLAUS THURN ausgegangenen zu
sein.
Es
551
aber zu bemerken, daB diese zeitliche Abfolge es Lan-
ist
dino leicht macht, neben einer allegorischen Deutung der Aeneis
den Enverb dieser Tugendstufen
aufzeigt,
als
eines
Werkes, das
auch gleichzeitig die Deutung des Fulgen-
Menschen
einzubeziehen, in der Aeneis wiirden die einzelnen Lebensalter des
tius
dargestellt.'^
Insofem handelt
es sich nicht
um
die
Darlegung eines philosophischen
Wertekanons, sondem, bedingt durch die Koppelung an einen zeitgebundenen Vorgang,
um
einen auf den einzelnen Menschen Aeneas zugeschnittenen Lebenslauf.
Eine richtig verstandene Deutung der Allegorese Landinos wiirde
Aeneas durchlauft die drei Tugendstufen der
(Buch
purgatoriae
und
6)
virtutes
virtutes
civiles
animi iam purgati (Buch 7—12).
also lauten:
(Buch 1-4),
Buch
5
ist
virtutes
vor allem
der Erquickung des Lesers gewidmet. Dabei lernt Aeneas in der jeweiligen Tugendstufe erst die Laster
kennen, reinigt sich dann von ihnen und
vollen Besitz der Tugenden. In
Vermutung
Buch
kommt am Ende
12 der Aeneis hat er sich
— aber
— wohl gerade mit dem Toten von Tumus von den Lastern
das
in
den
pure
ist
in der letz-
ten Tugendstufe gereinigt; der Triumph, das Erringen des Konigreiches werden aber
von Vergil nicht mehr
explizit erzahlt. Gleichzeitig altert
Tugendstufen ebenso, wie
Triumph bedeutet 608 beschrieben
es
deshalb letztlich seinen Tod; oder, wie es
Ganz
frei
von Coluccio Salutati in De vera von Widerspriichen ist Landinos
dem
purgatoriae in der vita contemplativa statt. Ist 6.
Karthago nach
Buch der
nobilitate darlegt.
man
Interpretation aber nicht: folgt civiles als vita activa,
aber
so,
Doch
Aeneis gekoppelt sein.
wird von Landino mit den
Italien
Noch
gebracht.''
Heimkehr im
in Met. 14.581-
Vergottlichung wiederum fande Deutung von Herkules auf dem Berg Oeta, die er
seiner stillschweigenden Gleichung der virtutes
hch an das
Ovid
hatte, seine Vergottlichung. Aeneas'
so ihre Entsprechung in Landinos in Nachfolge
Aeneas im Erv^erb der
Fulgentius dargelegt hatte. Seine endliche
finden die
virtutes
miiBte ihr Erwerb ausschheBbereits Aeneas' Uberfahrt
virtutes purgatoriae in
von
Zusammenhang
groBere Schwierigkeiten waren mit einer Erklarung der zweiten
Halfte der Aeneis verbunden gewesen.
Landino endete mit dem sechsten Buch der Aeneis wohl deshalb, weil mehr zum Thema der vita activa und contemplativa nicht zu sagen war. Einer minutiosen Deutung der zweiten Halfte der Aeneis hatten sich grundsatzliche Probleme in den stellt:
Erstens hatte Landino eine so groBe Fiille an Details
die Spiele
—
fragwiirdig
geworden ware. Zweitens
daB
sen,
'*
Vg^.
um
'^
Cam. 3.120: "Troiae
Cam. 4.203:
— nam
non
"Nam sit
hatte er
immer wieder darauf hinweisen
igitur oritur Aeneas, per
cum
quam urbem
adhuc omnis consopita
ratio
recte, ut puto,
sit,
miis-
non tamen earum virtutum, quae sunt animi iam
iam proponeretur
—
,
primam
solus sensus regnat."
adventus in Italiam ostendit habitum virtutum iam contractum
discessurus Aeneas,
nihil sibi di£Eicile
ge-
Buch
eine pagane Konstruktion handele, die ein Christ nicht in
hominis aetatem inteliigimus, in qua, proposita viu
5.
daB die Giiltigkeit der Allegorie an sich
beiseite schieben miissen,
es sich hier
Weg
— ahnlich wie im
sed earum, quas dicunt purgatorias."
ita,
ut a
purgati
LANDINOS DISPUTATIONES CAMALDULENSES
552
Und
alien Details gelten lassen konne.'"
am
Dialog beteiligten Personlichkei-
ten weder verkorperte noch verkorpem wollte, ja die so singular
wohl
als Ideal,
kaum
aber
als
De
Vita SoUtaria
Tugendstufen erwahnt, in Bezug aufjene
zu schreiben: "Hec perfectorum sunt, qui ubi solitudinem amarunt, et
si
quis
daB
ist,
man
sie
annehmen konnte. Ein dazu, als er im ersten Buch
aus eigener Kraft erreichbar
ahnlicher SchluB brachte auch Petrarca in (1.4) die
Tugend-
drittens bezieht sich die hochste
Mensch, die keine der
stufe auf eine Kategorie
unquam
superest,
Tugendstufe desillusioniert
dritte sint
sed et qui fuerunt,
nescio;
quamvis hoc virtutum gubernaculo
portum amet." Grundsatzlich laBt sich am Leben der Heiligen, am Einsiedler- und Monchswesen bemerken, aber man sollte nicht vergessen, an welchen Ort Landino die Disputationes verlegt hat und welche Tradition tutus in alto naviget, puto
tamen
solitudinis
damit schon bei Petrarca das Schwinden des Interesses
natiirlich
gerade das Kloster Camaldoli verkorpert.'^
Sind nun Landinos Biicher 3—4 lediglich eine Veranschaulichung des ersten
Buches? Auf diese Frage, die die verschiedensten Losungen erhalten eine 1
Antwort geben, die aus dem formalen Aufbau des Werkes
widmete
sich der vita activa
Versohnung beider bensart.
Buch 2
als
und
contemplativa
als
kann man
hat,
abgeleitet
Buch
ist:
zweier Pole und endete mit der
einander bedingenden Krafte bei der Ausfiihrung jeder Le-
zeigte auf,
was
man
zu erstreben
hat: das
summum bonum
naherung an Gott. Buch 3—4 dagegen zeigen an einem
Beispiel,
ist
wie
eine
An-
es erstrebt
werden kann. Insofern teilen sich die Disputationes Camaldulenses in drei Arbeitsschritte: eine
Gliederung der Lebensarten im ersten Buch, ein Aufzeigen der Zweckbezogenheit des Lebens
im zweiten Buch, und ein Beweis der Moglichkeit, Beispiel von Aeneas:^" ahnlich findet man sie im
dem
leben, in
Tuskulanen, denen doch Landino "ad unguem"-' gefolgt sein Tusc.
'*
5.68-72 die drei
partes auf,
denen
ein solches 5.
Leben zu
Buch von Ciceros
soil:
Cicero zahlt in
sich der Philosoph, der ja allein die vita beata
Ahnliche Bemerkungen finden sich in Landinos Kommentar der Divina Commedia einerseits
auf Homers Odyssee und andererseits,
torium
um
zu erklaren,
warum
Virgilio
Dante nur
bis
zum
Purga-
begleitet. Vgl. Lentzen, Studien, 129f.
" Wahrend
Widmung sich an einen in beiden Werk ja mit Lorenzo de' Medici Erziehenden besaB, von denen man
bisher stets darauf hingewiesen wurde, daB die
Lebensarten sich auszeichnenden Fiirsten richtete oder daB das einen Protagonisten und in seinem Bruder Piero einen zu
kaum
ein Bekenntnis zur reinen vita contemplativa erwarten konnte,
ist
meines Wissens bisher noch
nicht hinreichend darauf aufmerksam gemacht worden, daB Landino das Gesprach in einem Kloes nach ihm benennt, das Zentrum eines Einsiedlerordens war. Zusammenhang muB bemerkt werden, daB die Person Aeneas die einzige mythodie in der Exemplasammlung von Valerius Maximus als Exemplum auftaucht: Val. GewiB handelt es sich bei der Aetieis um Dichtung, und Landino betont dies ja auch
ster spielen laBt ^^
logische
Max.
und
In diesem ist,
1.8.7.
mehrfach. Aber nichtsdestoweniger wird in Aeneas ja den Menschen ein Vorbild vorgefuhrt. -'
153,
von Lentzen,
Studien,
L667: "Ciceronis dialogos imitatur ad unguem, felicem virum
fabricat
So Marsilio Ficino
Anm.
felicissime."
48), op.
in
einem Brief an Bartolomeo
Scala (zitiert auch
NIKOLAUS THURN kennt, widme: der Physik, Ethik
553
und Logik.^ In 5.83-88 nennt
er
dann die fines,
welche die verschiedenen philosophischen Schulen der vita zugesprochen haben, damit sie beata zu nennen sei.^ In 5.88 beginnt dann der letzte Teil, wo Cicero vieler historischer Beispiele aufzeigt, daB die angeblichen Ubel wie Armut und Verbannung einem Weisen nicht schaden konnen. 1st auch Ciceros Darstellung verschlungen, und mag eine heutige Interpretation diese Gliederung nicht im selben MaCe gelten lassen, fiir einen Leser des 15. Jahrhunderts sind im 5. Buch der Tusku-
anhand
lanen deutlich diese drei Schritte auf eine Quaestio iiber die vita beata partes, fines
und
angewendet:
exempla.
Inhalt der Disputationes
ist
damit nicht vomehmlich die Frage nach
dem
Primat
von vita activa und contemplativa, sondem eine Untersuchung uber das tugendhafte Leben schlechthin, dessen Teile, Ziele sowie ein Beispiel, wie man es erreichen konnte, aufgezeigt werden. So wie bei Cicero Logik, Physik und Ethik Teile der philosophischen Betrachtung sind, so haften Lebens. Die Frage einer denfalls
insofem
man
sie als
natiirhch auch die vita activa Teil des tugend-
ist
vita composita
oder mixta
—
Medici oder Federigo da Montefeltro versteht ihre hochste Stufe geht, als
Einsiedler oder
—
stellt
sich damit nicht
—
je-
Zugestandnis an die Interessen etwa eines Lorenzo de' ,
da die Lebensarten,
werm
es
um
iiberwunden werden durch das Leben des Vollendeten, der
in aUerhochster
VoUendung
—
als
wahrer Heiliger in die Stadt
wie das Schaf "mitten unter die Wolfe" (Matt. 10:16) geschickt, sich dieser Polaritat entzieht. Doch dies bleibt ein femes Ideal, das Landino selbst in der Allegorese nur mit kurzen Worten skizziert
hat.^*
Universitdt Rostock
~
Cic. Tusc. 5.68: "ex
quo
triplex
ille
animi fetus
in explicatione naturae, alter in descriptione
Vivendi, tertius in iudicando quid cuique rei
cum subtilitas disserendi tum Veritas ^ Cic. Tusc. 5.84: "Sunt autem •*
BeeinfluBt
existet,
unus in cognitione rerum positus
expetendarum fiigiendarumque rerum sit
consequens, quid repugnans, in quo inest omnis
iudicandi."
haec de finibus, ut opinor, retentae defensaeque sententiae:
von Cristoforo Landinos
Allegoric hat sein Schiiler Ugolino Verino sein
CaHias konzipiert. Vgl. meinen soeben erschienen Kommentar: N.
Humanistische Bibliothek, Reihe
des Ugolino Verino,
wird der
Weg des
Helden wirklich
II:
allegorisch bis hin
Thum, Kommentar zur
bemericenswert, daB sich in Marginalien und
habe
in
darstellen wollen: vgj.
den Protagonisten den
M.
Behr, Rotnanzi
Status eines Heiligen verfolgt.
Kommentaren
Weg
Epos
'Carlias'
Texte, Bande 33 (Miinchen, 2002). Hier
zum
"Verwirklichungen" des hier skizzierten allegorischen Konzepts sind mir nicht bekannt;
findet, Ariost
et
ratione
<et in
des Orlando Furioso die
Weitere
es
ist
aber
Behauptung
zur Vollendung iiber die drei Tugendstufen
di Cavalleria
(Rom,
1987), 12.
Joannes Dantiscus and
Neo-LMtin Poetry
Italian
PIOTR URBANSKI
Joannes
Dantiscus lived between 1485 and 1548, and was an eminent Polish
aissance poet, diplomat,
and bishop. In
which were popular
genres
threnody, epinicion, itinerary, there are
the Renaissance:
in
satire, letter,
many borrowings from
Virgil,
output he used almost
his hterary
and
Ovid,
Propertius, Martial, Ausonius, and Prudentius.
epigram,
elegy,
liturgical
Ren-
all
the
epithalamion,
hymnody. In
his
poetry
Claudian, Tibullus, Horace,
Statius,
He employed
eleven kinds of classical
metres. His Latin was pure and clear, quite similar to rhythmical prose.'
The
classical
background of Dantiscus's poetry was described by Stanislaw Skimina
shown in his 1950 edition.- He carried out his work, however, in manner of traditional philology, that is to say by investigating verbal similarities and lexical borrowings from Roman authors as well as by analyzing prosody. This method does not suffice for contemporary Neo-Latin studies, as there are three in
1948 and
fully
the
important but completely overlooked questions:
'
I
would
search, for
its
cially
like to
thank the Andrew
W.
and the Harvard University Center
hospitality in 1999.
am
I
(1)
the
Mellon Foundation
way of using
for a grant in support
for Italian Renaissance Studies, Villa
deeply grateful to
all
the
the classical
members of the
I
Tatti
I
of my re-
Tatti, Florence
community, espe-
the Director, Professor Walter Kaiser, Dr. Nelda Ferace, the Librarian, Dr. Michael Rocke,
and Professor Salvatore
I.
Camporeale, for creating an excellent
intellectual
atmosphere and for
their help.
The
best introduction to Dantiscus
humanisty [Joannes Dantiscus
—
Portrait
Harold B. Segel, Renaissance Culture don. 1989), chap. also
7:
in
is
Zbigniew Nowak.Jan Dantyszek
of a Renaissance Humanist]
Poland: The Rise of Humanism,
W.
Bracke,
eds.,
portret renesatisouvgo
1470-1543
"At the Courts of Kings and Emperors: Dantiscus
Jozef IJsewijn and
—
(Wroclaw, 1982). In English, see
as
(Ithaca
and Lon-
Diplomat and Poet." See
Joannes Dantiscus (1485-1548): Polish Ambassador and
Hu-
manist (Brussels, 1996); this includes a nineteenth- and twentieth-century bibliography. ^
Stanislaw Skimina,
(Krakow, 1948). Also,
Tworczosc poetycka Jana Dantyszka [The Poetry of Joannes Dantiscus]
loannis Dantisci Poetae Laureati Carmina. Edidit, praefarione instruxit,
tionibus illustravit Stanislaus Skimina (Cracoviae, 1950). All quotations are taken
from
annou-
this edition.
JOANNES DANTISCUS AND NEO-LATIN POETRY
556
of poetry;
tradition; (2) the cultural context
(3)
the relationship
between Dantiscus's
output and earlier and contemporary Neo-Latin poetry, considered by using what
now
called the concept
we may say that the questions posed above are the main problems of who have been educated primarily as classicists and come from such a
Generally,
Neo-Latinists
background;
tonomous dent
it
is
often very difficult to perceive Neo-Latin literature as an au-
which indeed
collection of texts
context
as far as their cultural
is
imitate classical authors but are indepen-
concerned. In the
two main opinions concerning
studies there are
Latin literature, and that
Neo-Latin
is
reasons
(2)
why we
(1)
very important
"concordia discors"
Neo-Latin literature
.
should be interested in
an international, cross-border
if
we want
to see Early
The second
literature as a part
set
of Polish Neo-Latin
field
the position and function of Neo-
literature;
may be called Modern Europe
English, and Polish literatures do. This view is
is
of intertextuality.
of scholars argues that
of national
literature.
We
it
it.
Some
scholars say
exists just as
French,
the "Curtius view" and as a cultural
it is
unity, as a
necessary to consider
could not understand Polish
without carefully reading both Pohsh and Latin works written in Poland.
Of course,
it is
true if we
remember
that
about
fifty
percent of Polish literature of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was written in Latin.
Undoubtedly
in the case of Dantiscus only the
first
task needs to
be undertaken,
mainly owing to the lack of high hterary Pohsh in the time of the poet's poetry and literary activity should be examined
movement.
My
case study
is
(1)
man
culture.
sent
by
this
is
origins the poet
At the age of fourteen he decided
was deeply rooted in Ger-
to join Polish political life
and was
school in Grudzi^dz to improve his Polish. Next he began
to study in the University of Greifswald in
into close contact with
His
difficult for various reasons.
German
of Dantiscus's
his father to the
activity.
of the European humanistic
therefore carried out against the background of Italian
Neo-Latin poetry. Paradoxically,
On account
as a part
German and
Pomerania (1499) and thereafter came
other north European (especially Netherlandish)
humanists. Furthermore, Erasmus was his main master. Dantiscus joined Erasmian circles
Pohsh
Erasmus was
felt
followers. Dantiscus not only perceived the Uterary-philological values of
Erasmian bonae
and
we must remember that the by the poet more keenly than by many other of his
both in Cracow and in Spain. Moreover,
inspiration of
Utterae
but also noticed and understood
all
their
deep moral tendencies
implications.^
(2) It is
quite easy to describe Dantiscus's
least say that
it
was
typical for his period.
demonstrated the poet's
classical
knowledge of the
classics.
We
can
at
Moreover, the research done by Skimina
background;
at
our disposal
we
also
have a Ust of the
on the other hand, we can say classical books that were poetry. We can ask whether he Neo-Latin almost nothing about his knowledge of authors, or rather fifteenth-century and knew, for example, the main fourteenthin Dantiscus's possession. Yet,
^
See Maria Cytowska, "Erazmianizm
w literaturze polskiej XVI wieku"
teenth-century Polish Literature"], in Studia porownawcze o ies in
Old-Polish Literature], ed. Teresa
["Erasmianism in six-
literaturze staropolskiej
Michaiowska and Jan
Slaski
[Comparative Stud-
(Warsaw, 1980),
19.
PIOTR URBANSKI
557
with poets contemporary with him. What Neo-Latin poets own in his hbrary? (3) Even if we were sure that Dantiscus knew, for example, poetry by Poliziano or Pontano, we might ask whether they were the poet's literary masters. The cases of
whether he was
familiar
did he read and
PoUziano and Pontano are
ones because Jan Harhala and Stanislaw Skimina have
real
argued that Dantiscus borrowed two genres from them: the
De profectione
Sigismundi,
Sigismundi,
De
silva (Siluula de victoria
hendecasyllabion {Hendecasyllabi ad Georgium Sabinum). But claim Dantiscus
borrowed
we
sides,
as
Pohziano's and Pontano's follower?
from
inspiration directly
and the enough to
nostrorum temporum calamitatibus siluaY
classical
sources
I
really
it
is
do not think
(i.e..
and
Statins
so.
Perhaps he
Catvillus).
Be-
was possible for Dantiscus to have read Poliziano, Pontano,
are not sure if it
or other Neo-Latin poets.
He
studied at the univenity for such a short time and then
was engaged in so many poHtical
affairs that it is
impossible to estabhsh his reading
Ust.5 (4)
The problem of the
imitation of Neo-Latin authors
can thus formulate the next question.
and borrowings
larities
time ago
started to
I
as
Is it
upon
in the case of classical texts? Again,
work on
very compHcated.
is
possible to settle
I
We
true verbal simi-
do not think
so.
Some
the imitation and emulation of Sarbievius's poetry in
It was very satisfying as far as poems in English were concerned, different from what was the case with the Latin ones. While reading poems by Anthony Alsop I was quite sure that I was looking at Hnes borrowed from Sarbievius. Also, the mood
England.
of some of the verses was quite famiHar to me. But
Did Alsop
race?
When
later
I
imitate
Horace
in this
consulted the excellent
poem
I
book and
similarities
I
am
afraid
it is
way
—
larities
— by
that
is,
authors.
So
we
if
we
are
I
did not
Sarbievius.
going to estabhsh the "Neo-
should achieve
reference to the classical tradition
— but
it
that could
not
in a
by an indication not only of real sources but
and analogies
Money,^
between Alsop and
completely useless to search for lexical or phraseological
between Neo-Latin
Latin tradition" in Dantiscus's poetry,
used to do
Ho-
through Sarbievius's poem?
edition by David
find there any suggestions of possible connections
Therefore
asked myself: Sarbievius or
directly or
as
the philologists
modem,
also
intertextual
of all possible simi-
have been in the consciousness of a contemporary ht-
erary audience.
Moreover,
as
some
scholars argue, Dantiscus
was very independent
as a
the exception of his very early poems, such as the Epithalamium Sigismundi
*
According to Harhala, Poliziano's
Silvae are the direct source
See Jan Dantyszek [Joannes Dantiscus], Utwory poetyckie [Poems], Dantiscus by Ryszard Ganszyniec *
On the knowledge of Italian
(Lwow,
of the
trans.
fint
poet, with et
Barbarae
poem, not
Jan Harhala, with a
Statius. life
of
1937), 20 (commentary).
authors in
Cracow
see (in English) Jacqueline Glomski, "Italian
on Early Humanist Educational Theory at Cracow (1495-1530)," in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bariettsis, MRTS 184 (Tempe, AZ, 1998), 285-292; eadem, "The Italian Grammarians and Early Humanism at Cracow," Studi Umanistici Picetii 19 (1999): 47-53. Influences
*
David K. Money, The English Horace: Anthony Alsop and
(Oxford, 1998). See also the review by Colin Burrow,
the Tradition of British Latin Verse
"A Pickwick among
Poets, Exiled in the
Fatherland of Pickled Fish," London Review of Books (19 August 1999): 21-22.
JOANNES DANTISCUS AND NEO-LATIN POETRY
558
(1512),
where he followed Paulus Crosnensis.
It is
show
also possible to
when he abandoned the imitation of classical sources.' So what can we do if we are interested in describing the
a turning
point
Dantiscus and the Italian Neo-Latin poets and their poetry?
I
between
relationship
would
like to signal the
following questions:
(1)
Are there any Neo-Latin poets mentioned by Dantiscus himself?
(2)
What
could
we
say about his personal
knowledge of contemporary ItaUan
Was this knowledge on a literary level as well? which poems might we suspect that Dantiscus joined the contemporary
poets and humanists?
In
(3)
discussion
on poetry
(that
the problem of literary relationships at the
is,
level of literary genre)?
Are there any poets whose
(4)
attitude
were
similar
These questions constitute will
be only
a
method
literary
as
well
as
choice of cultural
and/or analogical to those of Dantiscus? a starting point for the next part
of
preview of a research project necessary for preparing
this paper,
a
modern
which edition
of Dantiscus's poetry, which will include intertextual and intercultural relationships.
Are there any Neo-Latin poets mentioned by Dantiscus himself? The first place where we could hope to find some names of contemporary poets Virtutis et Fortunae differentia somnium (1510). Here there is a is the poem De description of Virtus's retinue where we find mentioned many names of poHticians, rulers,
and philosophers. As regards poets, Pascua qui cecinit, qui rura
we
read:
et grandia bella,
Subsequitur, primus laurea serta gerit.
>
Hunc
sacri
longo comitantur in ordine
Quos
noscis; frustra nota referre
vates,
veUm. (427—430)
So, poets whom you know; it is vain to mention their names. Of course these names could be very interesting for us: perhaps among them there were not only classical authors.
In tiscus
fact,
there
himself
is
only one well
as his
Quodsi
'
forte licentia Catulli et
utimur MamlU,
See Jan Harhala, "Przedmowa tfiamacza" ["Translator's introduction"], in Dantyszek [DantisUtwory poetyckie [Poems], xii-xiv. Harhala argues that Dantiscus's imitation
in that he imitated only
themes and
possible to define their themes
141.
poet directly mentioned by Dan-
source. Let us quote:
Interdum vel
cus],
known Neo-Latin
and
literary
is
rather external,
form; but through a close reading of his
stylistic unity.
Cf
poems
it is
Skimina, Tworczo ^poetycka [Poetry], 140-
PIOTR URBANSKI
Fit,
cum
559
copia largior negatur
Intento gravibus subinde rebus.
Georgium Sabinum
(Hendecasyllabi ad
Dantiscus menrions Michael Marullus
(c.
[1539], 2.59—62)
1453-1500) for only one reason (besides
the marvellous rhyme). Marullus, like Catullus in antiquity, used to decasyllable and that
when
Dantiscus
as a
is
why
his
poems could be
bishop was involved in
a kind
affairs
employ the hen-
of useful pattern, especially
more important than poetic
inventio.
Also in the HendecasYllabi, Pietro
Bembo
(1470-1547)
is
mentioned,
of
as a friend
both Sabinus and Dantiscus. Obviously they knew each other personally:
Quod
porro quereris, gemis dolesque
Mortem coniugis optimique Bembi, Tecum condolui, piis utrisque, Orans, Manibus ut quies beata
Detur
cum
superis
[.
.
.]
(3.31—36)
In Dantiscus's poetry the relationship with Riccardo BartoHni tiated one.* It has
is
the best substan-
been recently described by Barbara Milewska-Wazbiiiska,^ so
it
be enough to summarize. In the course of the Congress of Vienna (1515) Dantiscus wrote three poems which involved BartoUni: De profectione Sigismundi, Ricardo will
BdrthoUno, and
Ad
lectorem Hodoeporici.
The
first is
a
kind of a poetic competition, a
response to BartoUni's Hodoeporicon, pubHshed together with contains an explanation of
both humanists.
And
some current moral and
the third
is
a eulogy
it
in Vienna.
The second
poUtical problems discussed
of Riccardo's poem.
The
praised for his very reahstic and detailed description of contemporary events.
poems
are
reflection
Bartolini's opinions
about the aim of poetry.
is
AH these
unique examples of the intimate humanistic dialogue which, here,
on Dantiscus's and
by
Itahan poet
It is
is
a
a real
dialogue of texts and ideas.
What we could
say about Dantiscus's personal knowledge of contemporary Italian poets and humanists? Was this knowledge on a literary level as well? think Petrus de Ravenna, a professor of law
I
the
first
Itahan Neo-Latin poet
whom Dantiscus
at
the University of Greifswald, was
met
in person.
However, Dantiscus
was a student in Greifswald for only a few months, so we do not know whether he had the chance to read Petrus's poems or to become famihar with his Uterary tastes.
*
See his biography in Dizionario
bibliografico degli italiani,
6 (Rome, 1964), 626-627,
s.v.
"Bartolini, Riccardo." '
B. Milewska-Wazbinska,
"The Poetry of Joannes Dantiscus
in the Diplomatic Service," in
Joannes Dantiscus (1485-1548): Polish Ambassador and Humanist, 109-1 14. See also Skimina, Tworczosc poetycka [Poetry],
33-37.
JOANNES DANTISCUS AND NEO-LATIN POETRY
560
(Unfortunately an edition of Petrus's Carmina, Liibeck 1499, has been unavailable to
me up met
to
now.) At any
has been proven by Skimina),
— whom Dantiscus probably
Paulus Crosnensis
rate, as
—
also
Cracow was Dantiscus's master as a poet (this would be interesting to attempt to confirm the same
in Greifswald, but surely did in it
role in the case of Petrus also.
In 1505, at the age of twenty, Dantiscus was in Italy for the
although he arrived there to study culture,
he stayed in
Italy
only for a very short time
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. So
come
On the
return journey from the
and Rome. In 1524 he and Bologna. her cultural haps only Italian
(at
However,
Venice) and then went on a
Of course,
later
Holy Land he stayed
Venice and Ban, and
visited
time.
very unlikely that he had any opportunity to be-
Neo-Latin poets then.
familiar with the Italian
several times.
it
first
the university and to refine his humanistic
at
he visited
Italy
in Sicily, Naples,
five years later
Genoa, Mantua,
We certainly know that he became familiar with Vittoria Colonna and
circle, as
well as with Lasarius
when he came
Bonamico and Francesco Bemi. But per-
to Spain did Dantiscus have the best opportunity to read
Neo-Latin poetry. The
fact
overlooked
is
that,
while staying in Spain and
performing the functions of an ambassador of the Polish King (1524—1530), Dantiscus
met two
Italian Latin poets, Baldassare Castiglione
performing similar
duties.
and, perhaps, literary masters.
between the
gies
and Andrea Navagero,
who were
We can be quite sure that they were Dantiscus's colleagues I
believe
it is
secular poetry written
necessary to try to analyze possible analo-
by Dantiscus and Castiglione,
as
well
as that
by Navagero.
At
this point, brief
mention should be made of some points proposed by previous
students of Dantiscus. In his
first
piece of poetry, the
De
Virtutis et
Fortunae
differentia
somnium, there are some similarities to Dante's Diuina Commedia and Petrarch's remediis utrius que fortunae. Unfortunately, these similarities
poem
described. Otherwise, this
has a prefatory verse
Greek Johannes SUvus Amatus who had taught Dantiscus
in
by the
Cracow
De
have not been sufficiently Italian professor
since 1504.
Amatus
of
praises
Tibullan poet,'" but the text has nothing to do with TibuUus.
as a
Next, in the description of Voluptas's Palace in the Carmen paraeneticum ad Con-
some
stantem Alliopagum (1539),
observed. (This
Unfortunately,
is
the
first
this has
similarities to Palingenius's Zodiacus vitae
alleged
have been
example of Polish famiUarity with Palingenius.)
not been explained in
detail,
but has only been given
as a
very general observation that does not offer any proof
Much
information about Dantiscus's relations with Italian humanists and poets
could be found in the huge collection of his
letters
kept in the Centre for Studies on
the Classical Tradition in Poland and East-Central Europe, at the University of Warsaw; however,
it is
not certain that one could find there records concerned with
of Dantiscus's colleagues.
To
PhiUppo Archinto. Though day,
we
'°
their correspondence has not survived
can be sure that they both were in close contact. There
Archinto's Christiana de Fide
The
text
is
et
all
give an example, one could mention the archbishop
Sacramentis explanatio
available in Skimina's edition
up is
to the present
no doubt
that
was published by Dantiscus and
of Dantiscus, Carmina, 306.
PIOTR URBANSKI
561
recommended in his pastoral letter as a catechism for the diocese of Warmia (Ermbook emerged from the trend of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, which led to the Council of Trent. Moreover, in the spirit of the programme of ministry being developed in Italy at that time, and, even more significant, on the
land). This
of cultural and hterary programmes prompted by the reformist trend, Dantiscus
basis
composed
Hymni
his
1548)."
aliquot ecclesiastici (printed in
In which poems might -we suspect that Dantiscus joined the contemporary discussion on poetry (that is to say, the problem of literary relationship at the level of literary genre)? I think that Hymni, the book mentioned above, could be the answer. A proposition suggested by Ann Moss should be the starting point for future investigation: This negation [of mythological
hymnody
expressed in the beginning of the
Hymni\ separates the hymns of Dantiscus from the
classicising
language of a
whole universe of Christian humanist poetry, elaborated with particular enthusiasm by the Italians (G. F. Pico, Sannazaro, Mantuan, and their hke). Dantiscus parodies the language of the Latin humanists in order to refiise their verbal style and, imphcitly, their
dated to pagan
taste.
He
compromising vision of
a Christianity
accommo-
parody recognisable to
also rejects, again in styHstic
the "hterary" reader, the cruder style of contemporary vernacular
hymn-
writers.'^
So
important to compare Hymni to some central example of Itahan Latin hu-
it is
manist hymnography. olivarum
I
think that a comparison of Hymni with Meditatio in hebdomada
by Lancino Corti and other poets minorum gentium, would be
Zaccaria Ferreri (1479-1524),
thor of the
Hymni
who was
his
aim
(his
in the Poetry
i
"HymNy Jana Dantyszka
(Kielce, 1996), chap.
1:
at Interpretation"].
Ann
'-
the
more
w poezji pobkiego
iaska
Moss, "Johannes Dantiscus,
amicis collegis disdpulis oblata, ed.
'^
be
so as replacing the old Breviary
X and approved by Clement VII).
baroku (okres potrydencki): Studia o tekstach
of the Polish Baroque (Post-Trent Period): Analysis of Literary Texts]
tiscus
— an Attempt
all
book was inspired by Pope Leo
" See Piotr Urbanski, Nature [Nature and Grace
entirely fruitfiol
nuncio in Poland (1520-1521) and the au-
novi ealesiastici iuxta ueram metri et Latinitatis normam,^* seems to
an especially interesting comparandus,'^
hymns was
a
— proba
Hymn-Writer,"
interpretacji"
in
Munera
["Hymni by Joannes Dan-
Philologica Geotgio
Krzysztof A. Kuczynski, Zbigniew J.
Stamawski ah
Nowak, and Hanna Tadeus-
iewicz (Lodz. 1992), 158.
"
Studies by
Ann
Moss: "The Counter-Reformation Latin
Latini Sanaandreani, ed. Ian gical
Hymns and
D. McFarlane,
their Early Printing History,
112-137; and "Latin Liturgical niensia
MRTS 38
Hymn,"
in
Ada
Conventus Neo-
(Binghamton, 1986), 371-378; "Latin Litur-
1470-1520," Humanistica Lovaniensia 36 (1987):
Hymns of the Reformation
Crisis
(1520-1568)," Humanistica Lova-
40 (1991): 73-111.
'*
Published: In aedibus L. Vincentius et A. Perusia,
'^
See Dizionario
biografico degli italiani,
Romae,
1525, 1549.
46 (Rome, 1996), 809-811,
s.v.
"Ferreri, Zaccaria."
JOANNES DANTISCUS AND NEO-LATIN POETRY
562
Marcantonio Flaminio rum
libellus
tiscus
was pubUshed
is
another important author. Although
a Httle later than Dantiscus's Hymtti,
became acquainted with
it
before
it
Carminum
sacro-
possible that
Dan-
his
it is
was printed.
Are there any poets whose literary method as well as choice of cultural attitude were similar and/or analogical to those ofDantiscus? This is the most complicated problem, and names only: lacobo Sadoleto and
his
so
would
I
like to give
programme of Christian humanism and
some
suggestions
participation in the
preparation for the Council of Trent.
who
Celio Calcagnini, the concept of
A
relationship Italian poets
was very close to Erasmus,
especially in the consideration
of
human freedom.
between Dantiscus's concept of Christian culture and the circle of and humanists that produced the Coryciana (Giano Vitale, Francesco
Franchini, and others).
Marcantonio Flaminio and Dantiscus: the
of their biographies and their
similarity
understanding of poetry. Both Flaminio's and Dantiscus's
were completely
these poets
Baptista Spagnoli called
different as far as
Mantuanus (1447-1516):
pared with Dantiscus's
De
Uves
literary
vided into two periods, secular and religious (hymnography)
.
On the
may be
di-
other hand,
Ciceronianism was concerned. his
De
calamitatibus
nostrorum temporum calamitatibus
temporum
com-
important to
silva. It is
note that Mantuanus was praised by Dantiscus's master Erasmus and called the
Mantuanus's poems were reprinted
Christianus Maro. In the sixteenth century
many
times
Christianity
all
over Europe. His presentation of a humanistic reformist type of
made him
especially popular
North of the
Alps.
possible that
It is
know Mantuanus's poems. In addition, Mantuanus belongs to a group of Neo-Latin poets well known for a long time after their death. For
Dantiscus did small
instance, in seventeenth-century
schools
(as
England he was
still
widely read in grammar
Sarbievius and sometimes Castiglione were).
This paper has been concerned with possible relationships ending,
I
De nostrorum temporum calamitatibus silva,
this
poem {Ad
expression of Dantiscus's consciousness about changes
was
his
really
poem
well
as influences.
printed in Bologna (1529—1530).
ing statement from the very beginning of
It
as
In
should like to quote two passages from one of Dantiscus's best poems, the
something
in Italy
Cum
new that
a
on the
cultural
and perhaps find an audience
there:
nova delectent, nova,
Sarmata vates
non
alia,
The follow-
evidence and
map
in his time.
poet from Sarmatia (read "Poland") should publish
lector,
nonne placent? placeant novitate, quod ante
Edidit in Latio carmina; Si re
lectorem) is
In Latio vates Sarmata rarus
erat.
(1-4)
PIOTR URBANSKI Later
we
563
read:
Hos modo
praecipites numeros ne speme, quod atrum Squalorem vultus temporis huius habent,
Samiata vel Latios quod perstrepit inter olores
Sub gelido
natus,
qua
Hie ubi Sarmaticum vagus Et tuta portum
cum
riget Ursa, polo,
Istula fertur in
aequor
statione beat. (509—514)
University of Szczecin
Paolo Paladino: militare e umanista alia corte di Federico
d'Aragona
SEBASTIANO VALERIO
La
figura e I'opera di Paolo Paladino, militare e letterato di origine dalmata, rap-
presentano un capitolo poco noto deUa storia civile e letteraria del
aragonese. Si e a lungo creduto che
mezzogiomo
Paladino fosse pugliese, originario deUa Lesina
il
garganica, mentre egli proveniva dall'isola di Lesina (poi detta Pharos), allora sotto
dominio di
di Venezia.'
questo autore,
A
generate I'equivoco fU colui che per primo segnalo
De Marinis,
che nella descrizione dell'unico codice manoscritto che
conserva I'opera del Paladino ipotizzo questa provenienza,^ lamentando
una grande
diflScolta di reperire notizie certe e affidabUi sul
conosceva,
De
Valencia,
un
Marinis lo apprendeva dal codice 60 della BibUoteca Universitaria di
NapoU,
due sezioni omogenee:
la
dicata a Federico, su cui si
comunque
suo conto. Tutto quanto
bell'esemplare, integro anche nella rilegatura, proveniente dalla Biblio-
teca Aragonese di
cui
il
la figura
altemano
di cui
aveva seguito
la dispersione.^
Risulta composto di
prima conserva un'orazione pronunciata dal Paladino e de-
mi
mentre
soflfermero,
distici elegiaci e sonetti volgari,
la
seconda una raccolta di hriche in
sempre dedicata all'Aragonese.
Sulla base del titolo attribuito a Federico d'Aragona, luogotenente generale del
regno, e stato facile datare
gennaio e
'
E
i
il
codice ad un periodo ragionevolmente compreso tra
il
primi di ottobre del 1496, lasso di tempo in cui Federico assunse questa
questa
la
nocizia hportata da
N.
De
Blasi e A. Varvaro,
Letteratura Italiana. Storia e Geograjia: 2. L'eta modenta, ed.
"Napoli e
I'ltalia
meridionale," in
A. Asor Rosa (Torino, 1993), 1:285:
"Alio stesso ambiente cortigiano prossimo a Federico va ricondotta anche I'opera del rimatore
Paolo Paladino da Lesina, che raccolse per latini
il
'suo illustrissimo principe' una serie di
componimenti
e volgari (questi ultimi una quindicina)."
•
Cfr. T.
^
M.
De
Marinis, La
biblioteca
Napoletana dei
Gutierrez del Cafio, Catalogo de
Vdenza (Valencia, 1930), 2:4-5
(§
las
re
d'Aragona (Milano, 1952), 2:120-121.
manusaiptos existentes en
1720-1721).
la Biblioteca universitaria
de
PAOLO PALADINO ALLA CORTE
566
prima
carica,
noto,
il
di diventare re alia
FEDERICO
PI
morte del nipote Ferrandino, sopraggiunta, come
e
7 ottobre di quell'anno.
che pur non numerose si occupano del Paladino, fanno emergere un giovane, colto e sensibile condottiero, distintosi in particolar modo come marinaio e morto prematuramente. Poco e noto invece della sua attivita di let-
Le
fonti erudite,
la figura di
terato,
mentre Agostino Fortunio ricorda
un "omnis
di
Universitaria di Spalato
XVIII, un'opera dal
si
titolo
De
la
Biblioteca
M 10, risalente
codice
finali del
al sec.
Nicolai Palladini Pharii equitis aurati Paulique eius
"historiola" possa corrispondere
al
caratteri del
i
padre di Paolo, Nicolo Paladino, autore
conserva nella carte
militiaeque memorabilibus gestis Historiola}
I'opera possiede tutti
il
commentariolum," rimasto inedito/ Presso
gestae rei
Non
so dire
con estrema certezza
"commentariolum" commentario
di cui scriveva Fortunio,
anche
e in tal senso
la
ftlii
se questa
ma
narrazione in
terza persona da parte dell'autore rientrerebbe nella topica del genere. L'opera e
interamente dedicata
con toni
partire dal cellens; la
alle figure dei
1474 fino
1499. Di Paolo
al
Aragonesi.
agli
che coniugata
lui
al
legge che fu
importanza per
pesantemente litani la
si
efacundia ex-
poi, dall'anno in
la
a dar
dote deWhumanitas,
sofFerma con compiaciuta attenzione sul comportamento
i
le sorti della guerra;
Veneti
la citta;
si
aveva
Paolo Paladino, secondo
I'historiola, preferi
sua parte del bottino, conquistandosi cosi
di difendere
impressione con quanta forza
fatto
fossero impossessati del porto pugliese, saccheggiando
rendere
ai
Monopo-
enorme riconoscenza.
In sostanza Paolo sembra avere vissuto, accanto
vita
1494 in
viene riconosciuta anzitutto
guerra condotta per mare dai Veneziani contro
gli
padre, le vicende salienti della
al
non mancando
invasori firancesi,
pericolo turco. Egli fu a seguito della flotta del Grimani
le coste dal
Cfr. A. Fortunio, Historiarum Camaldulensium Hbri
rumque
corporis praepotens
coraggio e all'intelligenza bellica ne faceva un esempio da lodare e
determinazione
•
e Paolo, e riporta spesso
Turchi avvenute nell'Adriatico, a
tenuto in occasione della conquista di Monopoli (1496). L'impresa fu di par-
ticolare
e
i
Antonio Grimani scendono nel mezzogiomo
A Paolo
seguire. Vhistoriola infatti
da
si
con
carriera militare del giovane Paladino e seguita dal
cui le truppe venete guidate da
manforte
due Paladino, Nicolo
enfatici episodi di battaglie navali
tres.
Ubi aliamm quoque religionum,
&
vera inserta est suis locis origo. In fine vera Ambrosii generalis,
interpretis
militia-
Graeci eximij habetur
(Camaldoli, 1575).
Cfr. P. O. KristeUer, mi ha gentilmente fornito ^
Iter Italiaim
la
5 (Leiden, 1990), 446. Ringrazio
riproduzione fotografica del manoscritto.
il
II
prof.
D. Novakovic che
codice contiene una rac-
colta di scritti vari sulla cultura dalmata: Oratio Fratris Vincentii Priboevii O.P. de origine successibusque
Slavorum, Venetiis sis in vigilias
MDXXXII
(fol. 1);
Encomium Thomae Nigra
Magistri Vincentii Priboevii O.P.
(fols.
alias episcopi Scradonensis et Tragurien-
lv-2). Priboevius, orazione ad Petrum Vitaleum
MDXXV (fol. 2v); Leonardus Ales, epigramma; Nicolai Dominei Arbensis carmen, Venetiis per Joannem Antonium et fratres de Salis MDXXXII; Dell' origine et successi de gli Slavi oratione di M. Vincenzo Pribevo da Lesena gia recitata da lui nella medesima citta et hora tradotta dalla lingua latina nell' italiana
da Bellisario Malaspalli da Spalato, datata Spalato
da Manuzio nel 1545, da cui sono
tratte le notizie biografiche sul
Priboevio, orazione a Pietro Vidali; rabilibus gestis historiola per Joannem
De
Nicolai Palladini Pharii
Perlotum
edita.
.
.
.
MDXCV
(e
il
testo, gia edito
Paladino riportate da Gliubich); Paulique eiusjilii militia ac
memo-
SEBASTIANO VALERIO anche in uno dei passaggi piu per tutto
trasse
1496.
il
vista diplomatico, I'assedio di
che a lungo
L'historiola,
che questa circostanza dimostro si
vuoi dal punto
delicati e complessi di quella spedizione,
vuoi dal punto di
di vista militare,
567
la lealta
si
Taranto, che
pro-
si
sofferma suU'awenimento, ricorda
nei confronti degU Aragonesi dei Veneti, che
rifiutavano di occupare Taranto, disposta a cedere a loro piuttosto che alle truppe
di Federico.
Fu dunque
nel corso di questo assedio che Paolo Paladino pronuncio
I'orazione conservata nel codice valenziano. La fama e I'importanza del giovane Pala-
dino nel firattempo crescevano, tanto che note
sul
a partire
Paladino nella seconda meta di quell'anno
confermato anche da
mente apprezzato per
le
che
flotta veneta,
ranto quando
si
si
affollano le
sue doti poUtiche e per di
come
allontano da Taranto assediata,
VHistoriola: qui
dice che fu particolar-
si
sua saggezza, tanto che divenne,
la
Bartolomeo Giorgio, proconsole
awalse del suo consigho proprio in occasione dell'assedio
della
di
Ta-
Paladino entro nel merito di questioni relative ad rempublicam bene
il
non
gerendam, che poi altro Vincipit e
si
quah
altre fonti, tra le
sempre in quel tempo, un fidato consigUere
il
proprio dal 1496
suo conto nei Diari del Sanudo. Grazie a questa fonte sappiamo che Paolo
e che
tema
il
dell'orazione.
dominato da un primo e immediato paragone
re persiano Artaserse, citato nei
Regum
et
tra
il
principe Federico e
imperatorum apophthgmata:
il
principe
avrebbe dovuto seguire I'esempio che Plutarco aveva gia portato a Traiano e accettare di
buon grado anche quel modestissimo dono che ora Paolo Paladino gli offriva. Si tratta di un vero e proprio panegirico, in cui I'opera di Federico viene esaltata
da molti punti di
vista, a
cominciare proprio dai numerosi paragoni con grandi re
Un
dell'antichita proposti in apertura.
massiccio dispiegamento di elementi eruditi
sommato breve, eccedendo la stessa topica della "falsa modestia", e creando, volutamente, un contrasto stridente tra raffermazione della modestia del dono offerto e il ricorso tanto ostentato a testi classici spesso rari e preziosi. Accanto a questo un altro topos caratterizza Vexordium: la contrapposizione tra lettere caratterizza questo esordio tutto
e armi, anche qui con una preziosa variante. riorita delle lettere
con successo
averle
non
significa
interrotto
mente
o
praticate entrambe,
comunque una
un impegno
gratificante
Non compare una discussione suUa supe-
oppure una rivendicazione da parte dell'autore
delle armi
ma piuttosto
classificazione di merito.
letterario
che altrimenti sarebbe
anche dal punto
tuum non
mansisse et circa
tuum domi
modo succinte tamen versandum est." Che cosa intenda Paolo Paladino per domi nasce ne per se ne per
difendere e mantenere
i
propri
il
cari; la
dominio
denuncia un'aperta
la
continuo e maggjor-
sic circa
mansisse e presto detto:
della propria dinastia sullo stato di
come
un principe non alia dinastia e a
deve essere
spesa.
quanto in esso aflfermato
nel mito pagano di Prometeo, Paolo Paladino accostava finemente
guendo
illo
duo haec tantum-
sua vita appartiene alio stato e
ambito cristiano e quello elaborato
di
che
Paolo Paladino quindi
sua trattazione: "Et nobis in
mansisse et
Citando indirettamente Genesi 1:26 e trovando conferma ni elaborato in
alterita
La guerra sembra pero avere stato piu
di vista dei risultati poetici.
enuncia apertamente I'o^etto attomo a cui vertera circa
si
il
mito delle origi-
nella mitologia pagana, e prose-
su questa strada di conciliazione tra classicita e cristianesimo, riconosceva
nell'animo
umano
spirasse
un
afflato divino,
dell'anima che poteva leggere in Agostino,
De
riportando civitate
la
dottrina neoplatonica
Dei 10.2. Anche Cicerone
PAOLO PALADINO ALLA CORTE
568
FEDERICO
PI
{Paradoxa 1.14.6) e chiamato in causa in questa discussione sulla natura dell'anima cui fine e distinguere tra principi che
che lasciano che
si
fanno guidare dagli
loro azioni siano mosse da quanto di piu nobile risiede nell'anima
le
umana: naturalmente Federico appartiene ha mostrato in passato
hominum
la
interesse,
perche
non mansisse ha consentito
il
modeUi
di stato,
di vita,
sullo stato ideale,
apprezzare per
tonio, "sit unus imperator,
testimonianza di
come un
Nerone
sit
ma
tratta dal Thyestes,
a cui
regnare,
il
sia
con
388 ("rex
Federico avrebbe potuto essere re
la tirannide, e cosi gli
exempla nega-
veniva attribuito
detto, riportato in Sve-
il
non
rendere piena
che
chiamato a svolgere questo ruolo.
I'esplicito
ma non
lo
II
.
.
.")
ha voluto e
un regno
servono a ricordare che se era gia cosa divina
era in potere della sorte, rinunciarvi era
di libero arbitrio.
Quindi Paladino, riprendendo
convergere verso
il
vero cuore del "panegirico",
capacita di mediazione di Federico e
vismo avevano dato
i
frutti
frutto di
quanto
il
i
le fila del discorso, la
la coltre
Non manca
ancora
in Paradoxis Tullius: 'tu
il
con
il
suo
la realta storica,
ricono ad una
cum
tibi sive
fittissima
Deus,
Reges
et
la
la
atti-
fino a
nave proveniente
erudizione anche in questo passo: "Inde et
sive natura (ut ita et
dicam) mater
deinde continual:
'sic te abiicies
2.204-205.
atque pro-
interesse nihil putes?', veluti serenissime Prin-
Monarchae plurimi non putaverunt de quibus ad difFerentiam ge-
circumcisius de plaerisque uterque tamen latissime dissertantur": 6v.
ita
omnium rerum
nerositatis tuae in libris Cosmographiae suae Strabo et in historiis Polybius, hie diffusius
Uiade,
atto
principe aragonese aveva seminato in gioventu e qui coglie
animum praestabilius nihil est aut divinius' tamquam inter hominem et quadrupedem
ceps, vulgarioris animi
un
dell'erudizione: la presenza delle truppe venete
I'occasione di ricordare che della flotta veneta faceva parte anche
Omero,
il
pare finalmente
guerra in atto, in cui proprio
rapporti politici da lui fondati
piu concreti. Pian piano, emerge
questo punto paludata dietro
' fol.
egli, vit-
sacrificio
richiamo zlT Hercules furens, Fafferma-
qui metuit nihil
est
a
e certo casuale
potere regnare e rifiutarlo lo era a maggior ragione, perche se avere
I'opportunita di governare
*
ad una
altro rispondere, in conclusione,
principe debba essere e
del "re iniquo" gradito a Giove,
ille
i
importante discussione
unus rex."* Proprio Seneca e chiamato
tima del potere dispotico di Nerone,
dederit
le straordinarie
principato proposti erano Giulio Cesare, che riteneva che regnandi causa fosse
lecito violare ogni regola, e
sternes
tanto di accu-
da un re "filosofo."
retta
Paolo Paladino rifiutava senza mezzi termini
*
non
conoscere e confi-ontare
di
nella quale pare di sentire tutti
cominciare da una breve
che qui sembra piu che
monarchia illuminata,
farsi
una lunga digressione
topoi degli specula principum, a
il
degens."
democrazie, oligarchie, aristocrazie e addirittura di avere
doti di umanita. Si apre qui
e
mondo,
il
aulis et auleis
principe aragonese
al
quanto piuttosto
avuto a che fare con tiranni, riuscendo ovunque a
zione
per
mollezze della
lode fin troppo manierata lascia spazio ad una considerazione di estremo
mulare una generica esperienza
tivi di
La capacita "po-
vidit et urbes,"^ rifiutando le
rinunziando a restare "ut coeteri regum pueri in
Qui pero
diversi
schiera.''
evincerebbe proprio dalla volonta che
si
di viaggiare, di conoscere, di farsi apprezzare
novello Ulisse, "qui mores vita di corte e
seconda
a questa
Federico, secondo I'oratore dalmata,
litica" di
il
animali e principi
istinti
fol.
5rv.
de aliquo,
SEBASTIANO VALERIO "ex pharia insula (quae nunc Lexina Paladino, coadiuvato dal giovane
Sembra che
cosi
si
Nicolo
era ancora
voglia sottolineare I'importanza del ruolo svolto "in obsidione
hanno coadiuvato
Paladino,
comando
dicitur),"' al cui
figlio.
tarentinorum"'" dalle truppe venete che
ista
569
non
solo in questa circostanza, ricorda
I'azione di Federico,
cui merito maggiore e proprio
il
com-
quello di avere coinvolto le truppe della Serenissima in questa guerra, azione
piuta proprio grazie alle sue peregrinationes, novello Bacco, Perseo, Ercole o Ulisse, eroi
un
o dei che conquistarono
perche costoro talvolta nita. L'esercizio di si
la
fama proprio visitando
ma con
terre e popoli diversi,
certo gusto per I'iperbole, Paolo Paladino riconosce la superiorita di Federico efferarunt,
hanno nei
e gia detto,
mentre
il
fatti
salvato
U regno e
come
poter parlare dell'invasione di Carlo VIII
liquidando
uma-
principe aragonese agi sempre con
queste virtu, I'esercizio di quella mitezza, di c^eWhumanitas, di cui la dinastia.
di
L'umanista dalmata
una vicenda
di cui
ormai
sa di
stavano
si
ultimi fastidiosi strascichi; perche se Federico, viaggiando ha assicurato
gli
quel reticolo di relazioni intemazionali che hanno permesso di congregare una forte
armata per Uberare
il
regno, bisogna rimarcare
capacita di rinunciare agU "strata
moUia"
all'aragonese anche la stima dei provinciales e quistato la stima
degU
contro
osteggiato
il
i
niva portata
ma
Nei
al
per
fatti la
di
E
sola azione
vincendo
gh invasori
aveva con-
con
cosi, anzitutto
la patria
alia
questione posta in capo all'ora-
tanto viaggiando, quanto
questo genere deve ancora indurre
cospetto di una
citta,
soggiomando
alia riflessione
Taranto, asserraghata
retorica celebrativa del panegjrico cela
non per
in essa.
perche essa ve-
respingere
i
Vene-
il
una situazione
giovane Paladino sembra preoccupato,
come
di
estrema delica-
molti del resto a
un un po'
coglie altresi tutto I'imbarazzo del mihtare "veneziano" in Puglia,
si
egli stesso invasore,
Federico
non
come dimostravano
piuttosto che di
modi
di agire e di i
botii
i
fatti di
Monopoli. La celebrazione
delle doti
ripercorre semplicemente una diffiisa topica comportamentale,
tratta,
destia e
la
e la battaglia, per certi versi piu
po' soldato dell'esercito di Ferrandino impegnato contro I'invasore fiiancese e
di
la
ha guadagnato
non cedere agU Aragonesi.
tezza pohtica di cui
quell'epoca.
— che proprio
nemici intemi della monarchia, quei baroni che da sempre avevano
zione, Federico ha servito
ziani,
dunque con una
potere regio. Cosicche, per tomare
Un'affermazione
sostiene Paladino
stranieri e quella dei sudditi,
raccolta di consenso, la battaglia contro difficile,
—
e alle "domesticae dehciae"
una pura "celebrazione",
govemare: combattere
mores era quanto di
la
di
un
guerra
ma
si
invito a predUigere determinati
piii
che con
maggiormente auspicabile
si
le armi,
con
la
mo-
potesse immaginare
nella situazione di fatto, nell'assedio di Taranto.
Per mesi
infatti la citta
aveva
resistito
merosissimi e sanguinosissimi scontri."
' "*
ad un durissimo assedio, costellato di nu-
Quando
i
Tarantini compresero di
non poter
fob. 9v-10r. fol.
lOr.
" Cf. G. C. Speziale,
primo comandante
Storia militare di Toronto (Bari, 1930),
delle truppe veneziane,
45-54.
Marco Cizeno (ma
Si narra
ad esempio che
il
Speziale erroneamente scrive
Zeno), fu duramente sconfitto dopo un maldestro tentativo di sbarco e che a seguito della scon£tta
PAOLO PALADINO ALLA CORTE
570
FEDERICO
PI
piu contare sull'apporto dei francesi, ormai in rotta, cercarono di evitare in ogni
modo la vendetta degli Aragonesi. mente
intensi
una
trattare
con
fecero
si
i
Nella seconda meta di quell'anno (1496) particolar-
rapporti diplomatici tra Taranto, Venezia e
resa indolore.
Sappiamo che a
partire da settembre
i
gli
Aragonesi, per
Tarantini chiesero
insistenza di potere cedere le armi ai Veneziani ed essere da loro amministrati,
come
gia altri porti pugliesi e che se la Serenissima
non
avesse accettato, avrebbero
Venezia in Puglia
preferito darsi ai Turchi.'^ Nelle note inviate da
I'imbarazzo dei Veneziani di fronte ad una proposta allettante reso ancora piu tesi
i
con
rapporti
gli
Taranto
due
a la
"imporre" a Federico
populo
di rispettare
coglie tutto
si
di certo
avrebbe
Aragonesi. La risoluzione che fu presa da Vene-
zia fu quella di rifiutare la richiesta di
fronti per "indure quel
ma che
ma
di
devution
impegnarsi diplomaticamente dil re
Taranto, concedendo
Federico"" e
sui
d'altro canto
alia citta ribelle
"immunita
et exemptione."''*
deW humanitas
L'esaltazione
un
risponde ad
Federico cosi piu che ad un atto di dovuta lode
di
consiglio estremamente pratico,
gia aveva fatto in altre circostanze
con
Sic advolutae civitates ante pedes tuos
constitutae
queUo
di risparmiare
Taranto,
come
altre citta ribelli:
tanquam divina quadam maiestate coram
veniam postulaverunt, utque ignosceres utque expectatus
occu-
eas
omnes umbra
patas reciperes, rogaverunt. Recepisti, ignovisti, pepercisti atque
tua invictissima protexisti.
Se I'orazione fu pronunciata del titolo di re,
dunque prima
pronunciamenti
ufficiali
cospetto di
al
un Federico che non si fregiava ancora quando ancora non vi erano stati
dell'ottobre 1496,
riguardo
alle richieste dei tarantini a
per chi assediava ormai da tempo
ancora prima che fosse ufficialmente posta. D'altro canto ceva, senza
mai
in maniera
non generica con
citare Taranto, su
derico divenuto
E
cosa in
la
cadde
ma fu
re,
efFetti
per
il
Venezia, e pur vero che,
la citta, quella situazione
come
regolare
i
la
rapporti
doveva
con
i
provinciales,
coincide
quella che poi Venezia avrebbe fatto ufficialmente a Fe-
tramite di Andrea Zancan, nel dicembre dello stesso anno.
fu poi messa in pratica quando, nel febbraio del 1497, Taranto
risparmiata dal saccheggio.
Ad
ogni
modo I'orazione dovrebbe
essere da-
come concordecomando della nave
ad un periodo precedente all'agosto 1496, perche in quella data,
tata
mente
riportato da piu fonti,
paterna, a segviito di
il
Paladino prese direttamente
una malattia che
costrinse
il
Nicolo a rientrare a Lesina, mentre
nell'orazione Paolo fa intendere di essere ancora in compagnia del padre.
fu costretto a rientrare in patria. Cfr. libri
ben nota
essere
proposta che Paladino fa-
octo '-
Cf.
Marin Sanuto,
tamente coinvolti nelle la
questa
antiquitate, et varia Tarentinorumfortuna,
(Napoli, 1589), 8.3: 128-133. I Diarii, ed. F. Stefani (Venezia, 1879), 1:704. Nell'ottobre del
mandanti delle truppe veneziane
mere
anche G. Giovane^ De
Dopo
questione.
'^
Diarii, 1:378.
'*
Diarii, 1:380.
trattative.
in Taranto,
1496
i
co-
Melchiorre Trevisan e Antonio Grimani, sono diret-
Quindi, verso
la fine dell'aiino
fu inviato
Antonio Zancan a
diri-
SEBASTIANO VALERIO
vicenda, nell'aprile 1499,
i
Diarii di
Sanudo ricordano Paolo accanto
ottantenne e malato e quindi tacciono VHistoriola
che
si
conclude con
trebbe rafforzare I'ipotesi che dino.
Non
la
571
altre notizie al
suo riguardo,'^
sia
padre, ormai
come
fa
anche
narrazione di vicende avvenute nel 1499. Cio po-
si tratti
proprio del commentario scritto da Nicolo Pala-
e dato di conoscere le circostanze in cui trovo la
probabile che
al
morte
il
Paladino,
ma
e
rimasto coinvolto nella rotta della flotta veneziana agli ordini di
Antonio Grimani, avvenuta
il
12 agosto 1499 per
mano
dei Turchi presso le isole
Sporadi nel mar Egeo.'*
University di Bari
'*
Diarii, 2:
venuto per
621
nome
di
(§ 246): "Item fo aldito la diferentia di
suo padre miser Nicolo,
el cavalier, stato
do
liesignani,
zoe
di
Polo Paladin,
7 volte soracomito, et per
la gratia
e exente et ha privilegjo fato per pregradi che ogni volta volesse andar soracomito per Liesna
potesse andare,
tamen
e vechio: per questo suo fiol diceva voler andar; a I'incontro
Barbichii over de Barbis electo
mandati
fiiora fo ditto
terminato per '*
Cfr. S.
la
al
presente soracomito, per
il
Michiel Nicolo Paladin haver anni 80, e sordo
et
non vol
signoria in favor di raltro."
Romanin,
Jacomo
consejo, diceva voler andar
Storia documentata di Venezia (Venezia, 1856), 5:138.
lui; et
andar; et fo
Juan Gines de Sepulveda, Epistolarum
Sep tern,
libri
Salamanca, 1557: Testamento Literario de
un Humanista
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL
La
practica epistolar de Francesco Petrarca, condicionada,
mente, por
descubrimiento en 1345 de
el
las cartas
aunque no exclusiva-
de Ciceron a Atico, a Quin-
to, y a Bruto, dio una orientacion nueva a un genero literario, el epistolar, que estaba llamado a ser, en tanto que instrumento propagandistico de las corrientes ideologicas
y espirituales y receptaculo de los avances cientificos y de las novedades literarias, un elemento activo fundamental en el abandon© de fonnas de pensamiento tipicamente medievales y en
En
la
conformacion de una ideologia modema.'
efecto, el papel
evidente con
genero
el solo
literario.
fundamental que jugo
hecho de considerar
Pensemos, por ejemplo, en
ultimas decadas del siglo
tres
otros autores latinos griegos.-
como
XV, no Plinio
Pensemos tambien en
el
la epistola
las
'
entre otros:
Cf. C. H. Clough,
los siglos
Joven o Seneca,
d'Erasme
et I'epistolographie
naissance et de
las Elegantiolae
-
humaniste,
Cf. Clougji,
las
Travaux de
de algunos autores
e incluso
movimiento
Letters
and Letter Collections,"
modeme
R.
in
Giustiniani,
de revue,"
I'lnstitut Interuniversitaire
(Bruxelles, 1985), 109-133.
"The Cult of Antiquity," 43-44.
cultural imperante
de Agostino Dati (Colonia, 1470), los
des humanistes et Tarticle
I'Humanisme 8
este
de preceptiva teorica, que intentaban
los tratados
"The Cult of Antiquity:
les lettres
con
solo del epistolario de Ciceron, sino tambien de
Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance (Manchester, 1976), 33-67; V.
munication erudite:
XV y XVI resulta
librera relacionada
numerosas ediciones aparecidas en
orientar dentro de los margenes eticos y esteticos del la practica epistolar,
en
produccion
la
in
La
idem, ed..
"La com-
correspondance
pour I'etude de
la
Re-
SEPULVEDA: TESTAMENTO DE
574
Rudimenta grammatices de Nicolo Perotti (1473),^ (Venecia, 1488), los
UN HUMANISTA
el
Ars epistolandi de Francesco Negri
de Konrad Celtis (Ingolstadt,
el Tractatus de condendis epistolis
1492),''
Commentaria epistolarum conficiendamm de HeinrichBebel (Tubingen, 1500), redacciones del tratado de Erasmo sobre
tintas
la
composicion de
epistolas,
las dis-
como
la
Breuissima maximeque compendiaria conficiendamm epistolarum formula (Erfurt, 1520, edi-
cion esta no reconocida por
el autor),^ el Libellus
de conscribendis epistolis (Cambridge,
1521, aparecido tambien en una edicion pirata), y finalmente
con
el titulo
de Opus de
en 1534),^ o para
Y pensemos,
conscribendis epistolis (Basilea,
finalizar el
por ultimo, en
De las
conscribendis epistolis
la
version autorizada
1522; luego revisada y corregida
de Luis Vives (Amberes, 1534)7
colecciones de cartas y miscelaneas, realizadas por los
propios autores o por sus allegados y discipulos, que fueron apareciendo por toda
como
geografia europea,
las
de Petrarca, Leonardo Bruni, Francesco
Silvio Piccolomini, Marsilio Ficino,
mas
formacion eminentemente
Cf. C. G. Alessio, "II
^
los italianos;^ o, sin ir
un humanista de
caso que aqui nos ocupa, el de Juan Gines de Sepiilveda,
el
la
Eneas
colecciones del propio Erasmo.^
lejos, las
En
Angelo Poliziano, entre
Filelfo,
De
italiana,
nos encontramos con una coleccion de cartas que
componendis
N.
epistolis di
Perotti e I'epistolografia umanistica," Res
Publica Litterarum 11 (1988): 9-18. ''
C{. F.
J.
Worstbrock, "Die Brieflehre des Konrad
als
mann
(Gottingen, 1987), 242-269.
et
al.
Textgeschichte und Autorschaft,"
Celtis:
Kulturmssenschaft: Festschrift fur Karl Stackmann
in Phihlogie
zum
65. Geburtstag, ed. L.
Grenz-
Cf. A. Jolidon, "Histoire d'un opuscule d'Erasme: La Brevissima maximeque compendiaria conft-
'
ciendarum epistolarum formula," in
MRTS *
I.
D. McFarlane,
ed.,
Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Sanctandreani,
38 (Binghamton, 1986), 229-243.
Cf
Erasmus,
De
Omnia (Amsterdam,
conscribendis epistolis, ed. J.-C.
1971), 1.2:581-709; A. Gerlo,
and the Tradition of the
ars epistolica," in
R. R. Bolgar,
A.D. 500-1500 (Cambridge, 1971), 103-114; Writing," in J.
J.
Murphy,
De
de conscribendis epistolis
R. Henderson, "Erasmus on the Art of Letter-
J.
ed., Renaissance Eloquence: Studies in the Theory
conscribendis epistolis,"
Composition of Erasmus' Opus
and
Practice
Res Publica Litterarum 10 (1987): 93-99;
de conscribendis
epistolis:
hamton, 1991), 147-154; H. Vredeveld, "Towards ^
Cf
of Renaissance
J.
R. Henderson, "The
Evidence for the Growth of a Mind," in A.
Dalzell, C. Fantazzi, R.J. Schoeck, eds., Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Torontonensis,
epistolis,"
of Erasmus
on European Culture,
ed., Classical Influences
331-355; H. Funke, "Epistolographie und Rhetorik: Beobachtungen zu
Rhetoric (Berkeley, 1981),
Erasmus'
Margolin, in Des. Erasmi Roterodami Opera
"The Opus
a Critical Edition
MRTS 86 (Bing-
of Erasmus's De
conscribendis
Humanistica Lovaniensia 48 (1999): 8-69. J.
L. Vives,
De
consaibendis
epistolis,
ed.
C. Fantazzi (Leiden, 1989);
"Defining the Genre of the Letter: Juan Luis Vives'
De
J.
R. Henderson,
conscribendis epistolis," Renaissance
and Refor-
mation 19 (1983): 89-105. *
cf D.
Cf Clough, "The Cult of Antiquity," 36-43. A proposito W. Bleznick, "Epistolography in Golden Age Spain," in
de S.
la epistola
Bowman
en suelo peninsular,
et
Honor of Gerald E. Wade (Madrid, 1979), 11-21;
J.
N. H. Lawrance, "Nuevos
apuntes y observaciones sobre
la
epistolografia en el primer
generos
literarios:
panol," in V. Garcia de
Academia '
Cf
la
Concha,
literaria renacentista 5
ed., Literatura en la epoca del Emperador,
al.,
eds., Studies in
lectores y
nuevos
Renacimiento
es-
Acta Salmanticensia:
(Salamanca, 1988), 81-99.
Des. Erasmi Roterodami Opus epistolamm, ed. P.
rod, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1906-1958), 1:593-602.
S. Allen,
H. M. Allen, y H.
W.
Gar-
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL el
mismo
selecciono de entre
las
575
que formaban su correspondencia y que con
de su amigo Diego de Neila entrego
la
ayuda
a la imprenta.
La coleccion, compuesta por ciento tres documentos epistolares (ochenta y nueve de Sepulveda, y los catorce restantes remitidos a el por sus corresponsales), ha llegado hasta nosotros en tres ediciones distintas que enumeramos a continuacion:'" 1.
loannis Genesii Sepuluedae Cordubensis, artium et sacrae theologiae doctoris,
historici Caesarei Epistolarum
cum
septem, in quibus
libri
alia
multa quae legantur dig-
nissima traduntur, turn uarii loci grauiorum doctrinarum eruditissime et elegantissime
apud loannem Mariam da Terranova
tractantur (Salmanticae:
et
lacobum Archarium,
1557). 2.
roli
loannis Genesii Sepuluedae Cordubensis, sacrosanctae theologiae doctoris,
V imperatoris
historici
Opera quae
reperiri
studio in Hispania, Itaha et Gallia ad publicam utilitatem
lucem Uj,
Ca-
nunc primum singulari conquisita et iam simul in
potuerunt omnia,
Amoldi My-
edita (Coloniae Agrippinae: in oflScina Birckmannica, sumptibus
1602), 119-289. 3.
rante
loannis Genesii Sepuluedae Cordubensis Opera omnia cum edita tum inedita, accu-
Regia Historiae Academia, 4
vols. (Matriti:
ex typographia regia de
la
Gazeta,
1780), 3:72-389.
Claro que ademas de aislada,
ediciones algunas epistolas se han transmitido de forma
estas
unas veces en manuscritos origjnales o copias," otras veces en colecciones
impresas.'- Pero para entender esa decision de Sepulveda de epistolario,
creemos que
es
pubUcar parte de su
oportuno recordar, aunque sea someramente,
circuns-
las
que precedieron y que, al margen de cualquier moda, creemos que determinaron la pubHcacion de los Epistolarum libri septem.
tancias vitales
Cuando
encontraba en
se
cima de su carrera como traductor de
la
cuando por su trabajo como exegeta
mas influyentes de
demandaba
la
como
de 1536. Recien llegado de
con
ganado
admiracion de
Aristoteles,
los personajes
los
historiador imperial, y volvio a la patria alia por
el aiio
gozo del favor y del respeto de los nobles y prinque convivia alia donde la corte estuviera asentada. Pero SeItalia
pulveda no llego a adaptane por completo a
*"
la
corte pontificia, Sepulveda acudio a la llamada de Carlos V, que
sus servicios
cipes espanoles,
se habia
la
vida de la corte espaiiola. Eso se
Cf. A. Losada, Juan Gines de Sepiilueda a traves de su «Epistolario» y nuevos documentos (Madrid,
1949; repr. Madrid, 1973), 336-341, 371-374. Citaremos
aparecen en nuestro trabajo:
J. J.
las cartas
segun
la
numeracion con que
Valverde Abril, "lo. Genesii Sepuluedae Epistolarum
libri
septem,
Introduccion, edicion, traduccion, notas e indices" (Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Granada, 2001).
" El
original
cuentra en
la
se halla en
la
'"
la carta
enviada a Erasmo con fecha de 23 de
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana,
MS.
El Escorial,
de
Biblioteka Uniwersytecka Wroclaw,
J-II-22,
fols.
MS.
MS. 3904,
R 254.69, fol.
Las Epistolae clarorum uirorum
libri
el
310r-v (hay copia en
(1.6) se
de
la
la
en-
carta 3.6
Biblioteca de
.
.
.
a loanne Michaele Bruto comprehetisae atque nunc
nueve
cartas
de
las
primum
que aparecen en
in
los
septem (1.9; 1.12; 2.12; 2.13; 2.14; 3.17; 3.18; 3.19; y 3.20). Otra recopilacion de
cartas, las Epistolae
Gymnicum,
65r-66v;
176v-178r).
lucem editae (Lugduni: haeredes Seb. Gryphi, 1561) recogen
Epistolan4m
mayo de 1534
fols.
Clarorum uirorum
1586), recoge
las
selectae de
quamphmmis optimae (Coloniae Agrippinae: loannem
cartas 1.12; 2.13;
y 2.14.
UN HUMANISTA
SEPULVEDA: TESTAMENTO DE
576
desprende del hecho de que prefiriese abandonarla por temporadas, que con
tiempo
del
van haciendo cada vez mas
se
llevar
una vida
aislada
el
paso
en su finca
largas, y y en su Pozoblanco natal. peor a partir de 1545, cuando intento publicar su Democrates
del Gallo, en Sierra Morena,^^
La situacion fue
a
secundus y se encontro
con
la
oposicion de algunos circulos de poder y de intelectua-
encabezados por fray Bartolome de
les,
las
Casas.
picada de polemicas, unas mas agrias que otras,
compensacion de
secundus o sobre la pasajes del
Nuevo Testament©.
los pecados,
Desde entonces su vida
como
en torno
esta
o sobre
se vio sal-
a su Democrates
interpretacion de algunos
la
Sus enemigos se valieron en dichas polemicas de todos
de que dispusieron y no dudaron en levantar contra el el rumor de que Inquisicion estaba estudiando sus escritos para acusarlo de hereje.''' A la vista de
los recursos la
estas circunstancias
no
es
de
su verdadera personalidad y atajar
contra
por tanto, que
extrafiar,
su correspondencia, su obra literaria
el.
Asi pues, Sepulveda solicit© permiso de impresion a
autoridades y lo obtuvo
las
con fecha de 30 de agosto de 1553.^^ EUo indica que entonces ya debia liber epistolarum;
la
de suponer, en atencion a
es
y
coleccion, que ese
liber
pueda datar con posterioridad
se
volumen, cuatro
definitiva del
otros dos libros
durante esos
Una
efecto,
en
a esa fecha. *^
aiios hasta
plan original de
al
cronologia de
la
las cartas
un
existir
incluidas en
constaba unicamente de cinco libros, los cinco primeros de
que luego aparecieron en prensa. En
los siete
que
de
se decidiese a publicar parte
mas personal; y asi, dar a conocer al gran publico las calumnias que sus enemigos habian lanzado
ellos
Pero
no hay ninguna en
el retraso
la
epistola
aparicion
1557, debio permitir a Sepulveda incluir
la obra, el
6 y
con
el 7,
cartas enviadas
o recibidas
afios.
vez concluida esta breve descripcion de
publicacion de los Epistolarum
libri
las
que rodearon
circunstancias
septem de Sepulveda, se
impone un
la
estudio intrin-
Con tal fin y dentro de los multiples detalles de un epistolario atencion del lector, nos limitaremos a dos aspectos que nos parecen
seco de los mismos.
que merecen
la
fundamentales para entender esta coleccion de creacion la
obra y tipologia epistolar; y segundo,
En
lo
que respecta
que incluyo en de
la
"
obra
(la
la
cartas
como
lo
que
primero, los criterios de seleccion aplicados en
literaria:
a los criterios
el
la
una obra de
es,
constitucion de
estUo epistolar de Sepulveda.
que Sepulveda siguio en
la seleccion
de
las cartas
coleccion, y, en definitiva, a la finalidad que presidio la publicacion
de ofrecer a
la
comunidad un
retrato fidedigno de
si
mismo como
Cf., e.g., las epistolas 4.10; 6.6.
•"
Cf.
'^
La cedula de impresion aparece en
"
A
las epistolas
6.11; 7.2. la
primera edicion de
los Epistolarum
libri
septem, fols.
2r-
3v.
proposito de
la
"Sepulvedae Epistolarum
cronologia de libri,"
las epistolas
LXX-LXXXVI.
que conforman
la
coleccion, cf Valverde Abril,
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL individuo de sabiduria e integridad moral contrastadas
deben
estos
mismos que venian operando en
ser los
lecciones de epistolas formadas desde la
sentido
no
o
estilo
es
las
de extranar que scan
En
mas
las cartas
cion del modelo ciceroniano con toda
bonus dicendi peritus
vir
—
),
formacion de antologias y coAntigiiedad hasta el Renacimiento.'^ En ese
mas notables por su contenido
incluyan en una coleccion de este tipo.
—
577
A la
la
brillantes
desde
el
punto de
o doctrinal
historico, moral,
razones debe anadirse otra:
estas
vista del
que
las
se
emula-
la
diversidad de cartas que este ofrece.
principio estan ausentes de la coleccion de Sepulveda todos los prefacios de sus
obras publicadas hasta
que adoptaron, eran au-
epistolar
mismos.'" Asimismo Melchor Cano,'^ que Sepulveda consideraba como otra apologias que escribio con motivo de la defensa de su Democrates
faltan las cartas
mas de
forma
fecha, que, pese a la
la
con todos
tenticos prologos
las
que envio
elementos constitutivos de
los
los
a
secundus.'^
Entre
que
las cartas
tuvieron cabida en sus Epistolamm
si
caben destacar
libri
de
las
tono privado que envio a sus amigos y colegas a proposito de las vicisitudes (unas veces positivas, y otras bastante negativas) que le tocaron vivir. En este sentido
meramente
algunas cartas son
informativas,
como
que escribe
la epistola 1.10,
a
Gian
Matteo Giberti informandole de que ha sido nombrado historiador imperial; o como aquella otra (5.5)
que
relata los
debatio la pertinencia de
Siguiendo
como
el
la
acontecimientos de
la
Junta de Valladolid en
pubUcacion de su Democrates
ejemplo de Ciceron,
se incluyen
la
que
se
secundus.
tambien
de recomendacion,
cartas
Miquel Mai en favor de Juan Sora (3.3); cartas de felicitacion y agradecimiento, como la enviada a Rodolfo Pio (3.4); cartas de exhortacion a jovenes la dirigida a
como
para que se apUquen a sus estudios,
Guzman
Alfonso
la dirigida a
que nos informan de Mencia de Mendoza
que remitio
de
la
que envio
a Sebastian
proposito de su trabajo
como
Simon de CoUnes
pubUcacion de su traduccion de
de Leon (3.11), o coleccion a cartas
esta
como
actividades literarias de nuestro autor,
las
(3.1) a
a los impresores parisinos
(5.13; 5.14) acerca
la
Tambien da cabida en
(3.14).
la
que envio
historiador imperial; o
a
las
Michel de Vascosan
(3.10) y
la PoUtica
de Aristoteles.
En
breve recuento que estamos realizando no deberiamos olvidar aquellas epistolas
este
amigos por
escritas a
Mendoza
(2.3),
en
el
mero
que
la
placer de escribir,
relata
en ausencia del pontifice Clemente; o tria (6.6),
en
la
que pondera
Pero, sin duda,
epistolae disputatoriae.
" '*
las
Como
como
la epistola
el
Mayo, El prologo
en
el
citar algunas
The
Roma
las
de
que cabe denominar
las dirigidas a
Erasmo
(Tumhout, 1976), 60.
Rmadmiento
espaiiol
(Madrid, 1965); T. Janson, Latin
Prose Prefaces: Studies in Literary Conventions (Stockholm, 1964), 116;
Letter as a Genre:
enviada a liiigo de
remitida a Leopoldo de Aus-
grupo mas numeroso son
ejemplos podemos
Cf. G. Constable. Utters and Letter-Collectiotis Cf. A. Porqueras
la epistola
excelencias de su finca de Sierra Morena.
que forman
las
como
unos escabrosos acontecimientos ocurridos en
M.
Pade,
"The Dedicatory
Prefaces of Guarino Veronese's Translation of Plutarch," in Acta Conventus
Neo-Latini Torontonensis, 559—568.
"
Las cartas se conservan en
Aparecen editadas en
^ Cf
lo.
epistola 5.9.
la
Biblioteca Nacional de
Madrid (MS. 5785,
Genesii Sepulvedae Opera Omnia, 3:1-71.
fols.
291-308).
UN HUMANISTA
SEPULVEDA: TESTAMENTO DE
578
en
(aquellas
que
las
las epistolas a
Hernan Nunez,
das a
debate
se
la
interpretacion de algunos pasajes biblicos, 1.4 a 1.8);
Contarini acerca de el
reforma del calendario (2.13 a 2.15); o
la
Pinciano, en
las
que
se discuten
las
remiti-
algunos problemas de critica
textual concernientes a la obra de Plinio el Viejo, y otros asuntos relatives a la filosofia
natural (3.15 a 3.19).
en
tin Olivan,
gunos
en
la
imputaban de
le
que afronta
la
Tambien
que defiende
el
etica es
digna de mencion
es
estudio de
ser el origen
de
la epistola 5.2, dirigida a
griegas de la acusacion
las letras
O
la herejia luterana.^^
problema doctrinal de
como
Mar-
que
al-
la epistola 7.1,
salvacion de los paganos a traves del
la
y aplica esta teoria al caso particular de Aristoteles, a juicio de Sepulveda perfectamente compatible con la ideologia cris-
cumplimiento del derecho cuya
el
natural,
tiana y catolica.
Pero Sepulveda era consciente de que
modo que
la
edicion, siguiendo
el
libros.^^
ejemplo de
autem longiores de rebus
quis
Si
como
autor habia concebido
el
logo a
este tipo
de cartas contravenia en cierto
preceptiva teorica epistolar, que no consideraba propiamente cartas aqueUas
la
nominari contendat,
is
quibusdam Hieronymi
poterit
De
ello se
las cartas
excusa Sepulveda en
el
pro-
de san Jeronimo:
conunentationes epistolas inepte
literatis
equidem per me eosdem
libros epistolares, ut a
epistolae inscribuntur, appellare. {Praef. 21)
n Asi pues,
si
Sepulveda
desde
se
derivado de
cartas
patente
si
el
punto de
ve atenuado por
vista la
de
la
tipologia epistolar el "ciceronianismo" de
inclusion en los Epistolarum
consideramos
la fraseologia
y
el
libri
de cierto tipo de
"ciceronianismo" se hace
la practica epistolografica cristiana, ese
empleado por Sepulveda en
estilo
sus
epistolas.
Si
del
por algo
mismo de
se caracteriza el discurso literario epistolar es
ciertos topica epistolares
y que lo diferencian de otros discursos tan cercanos a
el
como
el
de
que pueden literarios
la oratoria.^^
recientes sobre epistolografia se preste
mos por
los topica
de
Esa
la
es la
el
por
la
de ideas
aparicion dentro
como de lengua
devenir historico resultaron
razon de que en los estudios mas a estos detalles.^''
Comence-
ideas.
concepcion teorica de
amigos ausentes. Sepulveda
^'
que en
mayor atencion
El primero y mas importante, porque delata basa
ser tanto
la epistola, es el
se dirige a
Cf. L. Gil Fernandez, Panorama
uno de
los
fundamentos en
de considerarla
Gasparo Contarini en
social del
Humanismo
espaiiol,
como un
los
que
se
dialogo entre
los siguientes terminos:
1500-1800,
2* ed. (Madrid,
1997), 210-211. ^^
Demetr.
Eloc.
231;
"The Cult of Antiquity,"
cf.
Henderson, "Erasmus on the Art of Letter-Writing," 344; Clough,
49.
^^
Cf. P. Cugusi, Evoluzione e forme
-*
Cf,
ham,
e.g.,
Salutatio Formulas in Latin Letters to
Mediavistik
dell' epistolografia latina
(Roma, 1983), 73-104.
K. Thraede, Grundziige griechisch-romischer Brieftopik (Miinchen, 1970); C. D. Lan-
1200: Syntax,
Style,
und Renaissance-Forschung 22 (Miinchen,
and Theory,
1975).
Munchener
Beitrage zur
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL Mihi enim suauissimum
modi
Y
a
tecum
.
.
.
per
literas,
quando coram negatur huius-
conferre sermones. (2.12.11)
Mencia de Mendoza
Ex
est
579
Uteris quas
.
.
.
dice:
quando coram negatur, non ingratum
misisti intellexi tibi,
fore ut per literas colloqueremur. (3.1.2)
En numerosas repetida en
Sepulveda de
las
ocasiones se hace alusion a
preceptivas teoricas
se siente
que ha
la epistola
decimos son sendas las
que
en
la
obligacion de excusarse cuando entiende que
tan
la carta,
En
la practica. la
efecto,
extension
Ejemplos paradigmaticos de lo que
Martin de Olivan y a GuiUermo van Male, en
cartas, dirigidas a
escribe:
pluribus uerbis scripsi. (5.5.22) te pluribus fortasse
a sus interlocutores.
Nolim
A
respetada en
quam
oportuit
commemoraui.
otros tantos lugares pide nuestro autor excusas por el retraso
ponde
te
pretendida brevedad de
escrito supera ciertos limites.
Haec ad te Haec apud
En
la
como poco
.
.
.
ulla
mea
Dice
al
el
que
res-
mismo van Male:
uel obliuione
tui,
uel negHgentia factum fuisse putes ut ad
tam sero scriberem deque meis rebus certiorem facerem.
Gian Matteo Giberti
con
(7.9.12)
(7.9.1)
dirige estas palabras:
Quod tam longo
interuallo ad te scribam noli mea uel obliuione uel negligentia commissum existimare, sed quod diu mihi ad scribendum nullum satis idoneum argumentum in mentem uenit. (1.11.1)
Y
a Francesco Florido Sabino:
Accepi .
.
.
,
ad te darem
literas
Por
lo
supone,
nemo
que respecta
un
utilizacion de
como
la
quominus ante rescripserim non obUuio meae occupationes fuerunt in causa, partim quod
... ad quas
literas tuas
sed partim multae
Demetr.
Eloc.
a los topica
de lengua, esa misma preceptiva teorica impone
sermo cotidianus, con
las
epist.
9.21.1; Rhet. min. p.
juicio sobre el estilo epistolar de Sepulveda,
nismo en Espana y sobre
la
cf.
la
implicaciones lexicas y sintacticas que eso
de evitar periodos excesivamente largos o
229; Cic.
cui
erat. (2.9.1)
descuidado y desprovisto de ornatusr^ Asi se debe entender
-^
tui
la
de cultivar un
estilo
empleo de formas
589 (Halm); Vives
M. Menendez
influencia de Ciceron en
la el
Conscr. 71. Para
Pelayo, "Apuntes sobre
el
del
un
ciceronia-
prosa latina de los humanistas espanoles,"
.
como
imperativo
scito (1.1.5; 1.4.3;
1.10.3; 3.1.3; etc.); la aparicion de la expresion
o
crede mihi (1.3.4; 1.15.4; 3.4.1; 3.17.8; 3.19.1); la
UN HUMANISTA
SEPULVEPA: TESTAMENTO DE
580
lengua hablada
mismo
la
debemos
sentido
risticos,
como
de los que
de haheo
+
uso de construcciones propias de
el
participio: exploratum
habemus
(1.4.1).
interpretar el recurso a imprecaciones y expedientes
Francisco de Toledo (2.11) ofrece
la epistola dirigida a
En ese humo-
un buen
em-
ejemplo. Este personaje se habia burlado de que Sepulveda no hubiese querido
prender un viaje en barco por temor a un posible naufragio y le habia recordado el caso de Trebacio, del que Ciceron se burlaba por parecidas circunstancias. A eso re-
pone Sepulveda:
Quern
tu mihi
Trebatium
nificare uoluisti,
homo
narras?
uafer,
me
.
.
.
lUud
igitur
haud dubie (nee
nihilo magis in Ligustico mari .
Sin embargo,
empleado en
Por eso no
la
tematica en
es
de extranar que
como
distintos
la epistola
es
que
Epistolamm
al
tema y
al
libri
ofrezcan
de
las cartas
los destinatarios
punto de
vista
formal y lo exclusive
literario abierto
por unas formulas
y cerrado por otras de despedida (subscriptio) No este un aspecto carente de importancia, pues los cambios producidos en esas for-
Por
lo
que respecta
normal en
el
mas
genero
sencillos y escuetos al
nombre
la frase
Y
del remitente
el
posesivo suus en
en esto no hay
grandes personalidades. Nuestro autor saluda
en nominative
al
trato
que dedica
las
a Sebastian
siga
de afecto o
el
ti-
de preferencia para
las
sefial
principe Felipe (3.6) con unas palabras
Genesius Sepulueda Philippo, Hispaniarum principi, S.P.D.) que difieren
{lo.
las cartas
de inspiracion ciceroniana. Lo
en tercera persona: S[alutem] P[lurimam]
nombre pueden acompafiar
conio muestra de respeto.
epistolar.
complicados y farragosos saludos de
caso de Sepulveda es que
A dicho
tulus honoris
la historia del
mas
a otros
del destinatario en dativo,
D[icit].
.
a Sepulveda, los
medievales ceden paso
de
nivel lingiiistico
(inscriptio)
mulas marcan en cierta medida
el
el
de un discurso
se trata
estereotipadas de saludo es
los
talia
ellas tratada.
Pero, desde luego, lo mas definitorio desde
de
son
el
debe adaptarse
segiin el principio del decorum,
espectro estilistico tan variopinto
y diversa
.
admite y aconseja igualmente que
la tratadistica
las cartas,
destinatario de la carta. ^*'
un
.
sig-
nuper natare
quam iUum olim in oceano Britannico. Sed heus tu, dum memento etiam in iocis retinere aliquam aequitatem. (2.11.3—4)
uoluisse ludis,
me fallis)
de Leon (3.11), uno de sus secretaries
(lo.
muy poco
Genesius Se-
pulueda Sebastiano Leoni S.P.D.)
En
cuanto a
la
despedida Sepulveda sigue igualmente
sus dos variantes, la breve:
ama
(3.12.3).
Eso
si,
cuando
in Bibliograjia Hispanolatina ^*
Cic.
(Smolak).
epist.
15.21.4;
clasica,
lul.
el
procedimiento clasico en
Vale (passim); o la ampliada: Vale facilita la
ed. E.
Vict.
fecha de
la carta,
Sanchez Reyes, 10
rhet. p.
et
me, quod mutuo facts,
suele recurrir a giros pro-
vols. (Santander,
1950-1953), 3:262.
105 (Giomini-Celentano); Erasmus Conscr. pp. 36-38
JUAN JESUS VALVERDE ABRIL piamente
No
cristianos
como: anno
o sencillamente anno
(1.6.19),
581
anno a Christo nato
Christi nati (1.3.6; 1.4.19; etc.),
Christi (1.9.11; 1.11.10; etc.).
podemos
obstante y en contra de lo que pudiera parecer,
afirmar que dichas
formulas no resultan en absoluto acartonadas, sino que cobran nueva vida a manos de nuestro autor, que se vale de eUas, y de variantes de
mas para expresar valores
te
y
el respeto.
Del principe Felipe
se despide
Vale, princeps humanissime, cui
Y
las
mismas,
de
filofroneticos caracteristicos
omnia
como
como otro expediencomo la amistad
la carta,
sigue:
laeta feliciaque precor. (3.6.17)
de su amigo Juan de Toledo lo hace del siguiente modo:
Vale et primo quoque tempore uolente deo profecturis bene precaberis. (2.10.8)
Otro rasgo destacado de la
de Sepulveda, igual que de
las cartas
utUizacion del griego,-' que se puede entender
hablada de
la clase alta
romana
del siglo
como
obstante, ese caracter y se utUizo
cion del modelo. Tal veces lo emplea para
fenomenos
es el
I
a.C.
En
ciceronianas, es
mas de
naturales:
no
caso de Erasmo;'^ y tambien de nuestro autor, que unas
TKDYCOVto^
y Hesiodo; dichas
lengua
la
los autores posteriores perdio,
nombrar con su denominacion tecnica conceptos napf\Xio<;
(2.7.6);
mayor brillantez: K(JtjioO cruvEpyoOvTCx; mismo modo son relativamente frecuentes Kttl
las
rasgo
otro procedimiento estilistico mas de imita-
a<)TapKeta (4.7.17); y en otras otras ocasiones lo
Homero
como un
T^KTOVi t6kt(0V (5.10.12;
cf.
filosoficos
eiietripta
utiliza para dotar a la
o
(4.7.16);
expresion de
kohik6<; Qr\ai (3.19.2). Del
(3.9.1);
(be,
las citas
de poetas griegos, principalmente
son unas veces
citas
(2.7.9);
literales:
Kepa^etx; Kepanet KOtfeei,
Hes. Op. 25); otras reelaboradas ad artem: La frase
'AXkA xi ae anet>do\xa Kal atxdv 6Tpt3v(0 (3.17.3) esta inspirada en unos versos de Wada (8.293-294). Retomando, en fin, las ideas que hemos venido esbozando a lo largo de nuestro estudio, podemos decir que Sepulveda siguio una costumbre ampliamente extendida
la
entre sus coetaneos cuando publico parte de sus epistolas. Estas, por razones propias a su naturaleza, se
mostraban
munidad como un individuo dimiento para defenderse de las
como
el
medio mas fehaciente de mostrarse ante
sabio y probo. las
Que
Sepulveda supo
utilizar este
la
co-
proce-
calumnias que sus contrincantes (Fray Bartolome de
Melchor Cano, entre otros) habian lanzado contra el, es algo que no escapa Desde el punto de vista formal se muestra como un ciceroniano, pero en la
Casas,
a nadie.
^^
Cf.
R. B.
Steele,
"The Greek
in Cicero's Epistles,"
American Journal of Philology 21 (1900):
387—410; Cugusi, Evoluzione e forme, 83-91; B. Baldwin, "Greek
35 (1992): 1-17; G. O. Hutchinson,
Cicero's Correspondence:
A
in Cicero's Letters," Acta Classica
Literary
Study (Oxford. 1998), 13-
15.
*
Cf. E.
57-92.
Rummel, "The Use of Greek
in Erasmus' Letters," Hutnanistica Lovaniensia
30 (1981):
SEPULVEDA: TESTAMENTO DE
582
concepcion de dera ello
la carta
UN HUMANISTA
sigue postulados propiamente cristianos, puesto
que
la
consi-
un instrumento privilegiado para la comunicacion cientafica y doctrinal. En todo podemos ver otro reflejo mas del eclecticismo de Sepulveda, fruto de la asimila-
cion que nuestro autor obro de todas
en su singladura
las
corrientes esteticas y filosoficas
que conocio
vital.
Universidad de Granada
The Religious
Beliefs of
Hadrianus Junius (1511— 1575)
DIRK VAN MIERT
Historical the
research into the effects of the Reformation schism
Repubhc of Letters
has in the past focused
ences in religious beliefs produced centuries. This
is
not surprising
closely
interwoven with
on the
influential
if
among humanists one looks
political interests,
on the
in the sixteenth
at their position.
became spokesmen
and seventeenth
Religious matters were
and humanists were frequently dependent
and powerful figures of their time in order to make
fore humanists often
on members of which differ-
conflicts
for the
men
a living.
There-
they served, and thus their posi-
were polarised. However, today we tend to focus less on the differences than on the similarities between the humanists.' It is sometimes fairly difBcult actually to map the personal tions
religious beliefs
of some of them unless they made their position clear in
On
the subject of reUgion. different beliefs
were aware
the eve of the that they
had
Dutch Revolt a great deal in
a
treatises on number of humanists of
common
with their fellow
humanists, even though they refrained from stressing that in public. Here
I
will pres-
Dutch humanist Hadrianus Junius as an example of the fact that, were not as black-and-white and in opposition to each other as they
ent the case of the in reahty, things
might seem. As regards sources, shall discuss his position as a
I
will
Umit myself mainly to
Catholic during his
first
stay in
his
correspondence.
England and analyse
defence against the allegation of his being a Protestant, taking into account the plicating circumstances of the historical context. This discussion will difficult to
ond
'
conclude anything about Junius's religious
half of this paper,
A
recent example
Amoldus
Buchelius
is
I
shall try to
do
beliefs.
show
I
his
com-
that
it is
Nevertheless, in the sec-
so.
Judith Pollman, Religious Choice
(1565-1641) (Manchester. 1999).
in the
Dutch Republic. The Reformation of
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF HADRIANUS JUNIUS
584
Junius in England: 1543-1550^ Junius had come to England at the invitation of the conservative Catholic Ed-
mund as his
whom
Bonner, Bishop of London,
When Junius
had crossed the Channel,
it
he had met in
patron. Instead, therefore, Junius began to serve
poet and son of the
Duke of
Paris in the early 1540s.
turned out that Bonner was unable to act
Henry Howard,
who
tutor to his children. Norfolk was part of the Catholic group
the execution of Thomas
Earl of Surrey,
Norfolk, England's premier nobleman, in the role of
Cromwell
in
1540 for having arranged
had brought about
between
a marriage
Henry VIII and the Protestant daughter of the German Duke of Cleves, a marriage which turned out to be unhappy as well as politically useless. Norfolk, together with Bishop Stephen Gardiner, counteracted the Protestant forces ner himself had been tutor to Henry Howard, so during
this
at
Henry's court. Gardi-
period in England Junius
was in the midst of a powerful conservative Catholic group. What, then, did Junius think about the Protestantising of the Anglican Church, carried through under the
young Edward VI, who succeeded
his father in
February 1547?
At the request of his correspondents, Junius reported on some of those changes in letters
of that period.
They banish
the images of the saints and votive tablets from the churches;
God knows
and walls speak the word of God. Only
Oh,
if
altars
men.
only they would speak in their conduct and in reality what their tongues
Sermons addressed
utter!
the hearts of mortal
gy, cast
to the people take place almost daily.
out for a time, has recovered
taken to see that,
when Mass
communion. The
service
is
is
former place, though
its
offered, there should
The holy as a rule
litur-
care
is
be someone to receive
Communion
sung in the vernacular. Holy
is
re-
ceived very reverently, though in both kinds by everyone, and frequently,
though in
this
matter those
who
remain attached to the old order of things and
The same goes for confesdone away with, as are cerethe dead. The use of lamps, torches, and Hghts has
those from abroad are allowed to do sion,
whether public or
monies and Masses for ceased, except for
However
wish.
-
For
a detailed
lent chapter Portrait ^
on him
two
candles
on the main
things stand, everyone
is
altar. Priests
are free to
allowed to have
his
marry
own
if
they
opinion.^
account ofjunius's whereabouts in England, and of his contacts, see the excelin M. Aston, The King's Bedpost. Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group
(Oxford, 1993), 176-199.
"Templis exulant Divorum imagines
et tabulae votivae: arae et parietes
quuntur: corda mortalium solus novit Deus; o sonant. Conciones tantum
tinum locum
recepit, id
re arbitrio.
fere cavetur, ut
moribus
cum
cantatur. Sacra Synaxis pie
idque frequenter,
Idem observatur
et Sacra
tus, praeter
si
non quotidianae ad populum
tamen
Eadem vernaculo sermone versis percipitur,
moniae
they wish.
as
private. Processions are
et in
at relicto
et re ipsa
fiunt.
verbum Dei loquod linguae
loquerentur,
Res divine semel explosa nunc
sacrificio sit qui
admodum,
communionem
sed tamen duplici specie ab uni-
tamen antiquum tenentibus exterisque
confessione vel publica vel auriculari.
pro defunctis antiquata. Lychnorum, facum
et
pris-
participet:
Pompae
lucemarum
libero hac in
abrogatae, Cere-
in templis usus extinc-
binas in princip[ali] ara: sacerdotibus patent connubia volentibus.
Utcunque
res se
ha-
DIRK VAN MIERT
The measures undated
this
passage
Edwardian Injunctions of 1548, so
referred to here clearly reflect the
may well date from that year. The letter from which the following may well belong to the same year, as Junius uses almost exactly the
letter
taken
is
585
same words:
On the whole
I
would have you think
God,
does nearly everyone, so
as
lives did
not
differ
from
the case
as
is
their walls speak the
that their
someone
the priest. Similarly,
it
was stipulated that the Host should set
and the old usage restored, since the Emperor's settlement with Germany
aside
the Augsburg Interim of 1548]
daily. Priests are free to
hold
marry and
ecclesiastical office.
vicars
Almost
and pastors of the Church
Paraphrases, together "Postils"),
all
its
became known. There are sermons almost Uttle honour is paid to them unless they church
all
are
obHged
reUgion
rites
have
intact.
(as
they
say);
Everyone
is
out of use.
fallen
to possess the Bible
with the homilies appointed for
rendered into EngUsh. There
ceived under both kinds
maintain '
is
to receive
not be elevated higher than the head of the celebrant, but that has been
[sc.
re-
Their services are conducted in the ver-
regards not saying Mass unless there was
communion with
Would
concerned.
is
word of
weeks these were rather more severely controlled than
nacular. In recent
now
all
far as talking
their tongues!
of Martin [Luther]
that the school
stored here. Statues are banned from churches,
feast days (they call
one Holy
The
and Erasmus's
them
Communion for all,
but every foreign "nation"
freely enjoys the right to
make
is
re-
free to
confession
either privately or pubHcly.*
The
following fragment
divina"
The to
is
hturgy,
its
beat, sua
may
well be from the same period,
spoken of as having been restored to
whose
authority
its
*
rite
of the "res
on the whole was weak,
has
been restored almost
former respect by the bishops, save that they have done away with the
cuique libera manet sententia" (Junius to Nicolaus Poelenburgius, in Hadrianus Junius,
Epistolae, quibus accedit ejusdem vita et Oratio de artium liberalium dignitate: indice
the
as
former place:
numquam
antea edita.
Cum
[Dordrecht, 1652], 19-20).
"In universum Martinianam scholam revocatam hue velim existimes. Imagines templis exu-
omnes verbum Dei loquuntur, atque ore tenus plaerique omnes, ac utinam a lingua vemaculo sermone obeuntur: fuitque in iis paulo severior disciplina superioribus hebdomadis, quam nunc est, non sacrificare, nisi esset qui cum sacerdo[te] simul communicaret, non allevare supra caput panem sacratum fas erat: id nunc obliteratum, in pristinum lant, parietes
non
dissentiret vita. Sacra
ritum
abiit,
posteaquam
cum Germania
concors Caesaris rescriptum innotuit. Conciones sunt
prope quotidianae. Sacerdotibus conjugia patent; iisque
templorum exolevere pene omnes. concionibus in Dies Festos
(Postillas
Ecclesiae vicarii
&
nisi Ecclesiasticis
pastores Biblia,
&
nullus est honos. Ritus
Erasmi Paraphrases
cum
nominant) omnia Angjico sermone reddita habere coguntur.
Sacra Synaxis cunctis mortalibus una est sub duplici (ut vocant) percepta specie: sua tamen cuiUbet nationi exterae
manet
integra rehgio. Confessionis sive auricularis sive publicae liberum jus
bus" (Junius to Rogerus Beverovicius)
{Epistolae [1652], 23-24).
omni-
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF HADRIANUS JUNIUS
586
more weight
Elevation [of the Host], giving
Furthermore, the sacraments and
rites
instead to the
Holy Communion.
of Baptism, Matrimony, Confirmation,
Churching of Women, Holy Unction,
have
Burial, etc.,
all
been restored
regards the heresies of the Anabaptists and Libertines, enquiry since,
but
I
[.
is
said,
it is
little
the desire
completed;
is
many
to root
words,
them
.]
the
new
face of the British
is
being made,
much
however,
right out:
is
done
action.^
little
conclude these citations with a small phrase from another .
to
former position, except that they are to be performed in English. As
their
letter: "I also
send you
Church, or rather the changed form of worship that
taking root here, this hastily translated out of the vernacular" (Junius to Cornelius
Joannes, 19 September [1548]).^
Attack and Defence therefore surprising that Junius, in 1548, dedicated his Greek-Latin Dictionary
It is
to the
young King Edward, addressing himself to him
uardo Angliae
regi, fidei defensori,
in the terms: "Serenissimo
This dedication caused Junius considerable trouble in later
life.
In the 1564 Tridentine Index Ubrorum prohibitorum, Junius's
among
the "authors of the First Class",
tirety.^
He
was
of the
However,
Duke of Alba
in
in the
Appendix
cation to
Edward VI
is
brought out
to this Index,
drawn up
1569 and published together with
the writers of the "Second Class", and
name
is
whose works were condemned
so listed in the reissue of this Index
Plantin in 1570.
Ed-
& supremo Anglicanae Ecclesiae a Christo capiti".
now
it,
mentioned in their en-
Antwerp by
at
at the instigation
Junius
is
listed
among
only the heading of his Dictionary's dedi-
condemned: "Hadriani
lunii
nempe medici
titulus Praefationi
praefixus in nonnullis exemplaribus lexici Graecolatini: eo titulo excepto, caetera eius
^
"Rei
Episcopos,
divinae, cujus tenuis nisi
admodum
quod elevationem
abrogarint,
erat authoritas, pristinus fere
communionem
honos
assertus est per
vero sacrosanctam magis sanxerint,
propterea sacra ritusque Baptismi, Matrimonii, Confirmationis, Lustrationis a puerperio, Sacrae Unctionis, Sepulturae, placuit. In haereses
quod
etc., in
gradus restituta sunt omnia,
Anabaptistarum
eas radicitus sublatas velint,
et
nisi
quod Anglicana
lingua obiri
noXkCt
)ii£v
TtoloOvTE^, dA-tya bt 5iaTeA,oOvTe(;, (iTm&TWV (tXiq,
Epytov bt anaviioc," (Junius to Martinus Petreius, in Hadrianus Junius, Epistotae
primum *
editae, ed.
ilia
Libertinorum, qui hie suppullulascere incipiebant, anquiritur,
selectae,
nunc
P. Scheltema [Amsterdam, 1839], 13).
"Mitto itidem
meam Echo
de Germaniae rebus mense Majo biduo absolutam. Et t6v vecoTE-
piofidv Tf^^ tK\<:Xr\m&i; BpextaviKf^q
f^
Tf|v nexCiXXaL,iv
Kat ^ftXXov (it^wcnv
xf\c,
aiiT66i
6pTiaKetaq tumultuario studio obiter conversum e lingua vernacula" (Junius, Epistolae [1652, 45]). ^
Probably because the Appendix
Bibliothecae Gesneri (Ziirich, 1555) already
Greek-Latin dictionary was dedicated to Edward VI. See Biicher.
366.
Ein Beitrag zur Kitchen- und Uteraturgeschichte, Bd.
F. 1
mentions that
H. Reusch, Der Index
his
der Verbotener
(Bonn, 1883; repr. Darmstadt, 1976),
DIRK VAN MIERT
587
opera legi possunt, quod nihil contra sanam doctrinam habeant,
et
auctorem ipsum
constet Catholicam fidem profiteri."*
What The
name
action had Junius undertaken to get his
demnation reduced so first
thing he did was to ask Benito Arias
bibhcal scholar had
come
Polyglot Bible project.
cleared and the original con-
drastically?
to
Antwerp
Montano
in the spring of
The Spanish
for advice.
1568 to advise on the Antwerp
A year later, the compilation of a new Index of Forbidden Books
Appendix already mentioned) was entrusted to Montano, who had to form a team that included theologians from the University of Louvain. It was pubUshed in (the
February 1570, and in a
Montano
letter to
the following
The problem
May Junius
expresses his
him was that even the books issued by those pubUshers were condemned, yet he needed some of these because he was busy writing a historical work. He could judge for himself which books were good and which were not: did he not have a doctorate in philosophy and medicine?' Strangely enough, in this letter nothing is said about Junius's own name apsurprise at finding so
many
pearing in this Index.
It is
regarding Junius
1570
refers to:
it.
therefore not completely clear
made by
whether
publishers in
for
name being
to Junius's
cleared or to his having
permission to consult forbidden books;*" yet, in a letter of 10 in 1573, according to
Rekers
"the removal of false suspicion
people you told
*
cum
me
—
Junius thanks
[...].
positive comment Montano on 20 July
what the
Cardinal Granvelle writing to Arias
Montano
November
been given
—
written
for his help in achieving
Trusting to your advice,
I
have written to the
to write to.""
See Index libromm
prohibitondtn
[.
.
.]
auctoritate Santiss.
D.N.
Pij IIII. Pont.
Max. comprobatur
Appettdice in Belgio, ex mandate Regiae Cathol. Maiestatis confecta (Antwerp: Plantin, 1570), 28,
63. See also Reusch, Index der Verbotener Biicher, 1:366,
who
mistakenly dates Junius's defence to
before 1564. '
"Periectus est a
me prohibitorum librorum
primi nominis impressores, e stat,
damnatos legam,
licitum
me
cum
facti tanta vis
quorum
officinis,
quibus pariter
omnigenum
et
Index operosus, in quo miriBce
me
torquet,
quod
optimos utriusque linguae authores prodiisse con-
authorum ipsorum
abolitio sanciri videtur: deinde sol-
scriptorum, qui (ut de Fuchsio alii[s]que medicis, quibus in-
[...]. Neque veto ita cavum me, aut a judicio inopem existimem, ut nequeam capitis atque inguinis discrimina nosse: neque ita sum puer, ut gladius mihi (juxta paroemiam) committi non debeat. Quin jam degustatus mihi est arboris scientiae boni malique succus. Quorsum haec omnia, nimirum ut si ra-
suevimus, taceam) historiam scribenti mihi materiam suppeditare possent cerebri
tione ulla phia,
fieri
tum
in
queat, ut
quum anno
abhinc tricesimo Bononiae Doctoratus titulos
medicina acceperim, dau legendi quidvis
beneficioque concedatur usus lectioque librorum mediae
cum
in philoso-
nunc tua ope Alias Montano, 1 May
et profitendi authoritate, classis" (Junius to
1570) (Junius, Epistolae, ed. Scheltema, 45). '"
"El negocio del Sr Adriano lunio tracte de
muy
buena gana con Su Santidad por
la
aficion
mismas causas que v.m. apunta, y aiin mas especialmente por ver la cuenta que v.m. del tiene y el juicio que del hace" (cited in B. Reken, Benito Arias Montano (1527—1598) [London-Leiden, 1972], 150 [no. 67]).
que
le
tengo por
las
" "Postquam singulari tua benignitate tuenda justa mei purgatione Arias
[-..].
et
incomparabili candore uti frui mihi licuit in insti-
Itaque tui consilio fretus scripsi ad quos jusseras" (Junius to
Montano, [10 November 1572])
(Junius, Epistolae [1652], 252-253).
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF HADRIANUS JUNIUS
588
This remark must refer to the defence Junius wrote to the congregation of cardi-
Here Junius
nals.'^
the condemnation of his books in the Index of Pope Paul
calls
(Junius mistakenly writes "Paulus Tertius") a false accusation ("falsum crimen").
IV
He
had always been innocent of any scandalous deed ("flagitii purum"). Junius was especially affected by the fact that all his books were forbidden; and this only because he had addressed Edward VI bility
on
his
own
in the terms cited here earlier. Junius
he had had doubts about the right
part:
title
first
to
disowns responsi-
employ
in address-
ing the king but had acted on the advice of his friends. Thus Charles V's ambassador, Franciscus Dilfus or Franfois van der Dilft,
should use the the king's
warned him more than once that he a bad place to be at that time,
England was
official title.
still very young and uncorrupted. In fact, Junius had on the advice of influential men of unquestioned loyalty. Besides, he continued, the Council of States in the Low Countries itself did not refrain from using this title in letters to the King of England. To stress further that he had no personal responsibihty in the matter, Junius added that not to use the proper title would have been
Junius adds, but the king was acted
considered a capital offence. After this
refutatio,
he
The Pope had been
misled by slanderers and would he not have known that by Mother Church on returning to his own country?
starts his attack.
miserable backbiters. If he, Junius, were a Protestant,
he risked persecution and In fact the reason in
which
exile
why he had left England in 1550 was found
that country
precisely the religious turmoil
itself.
Junius could have added another powerful argument. After the untimely death of
'"Etsi nihil ambigam P.C. non defuturos in sanctissimo isto conventu, qui absentis rationem omnino non habendam, aut certe pensi nullius ducendam existimaturi sint, in spem tamen certam erigit me vestra cum aequitas, tum prudentia, ut arbitrer vos non passuros tantae labis vel
aut
solam suspicionem in vobis residere, ut caussa incognita cadat, qui
quae certe ignorata, ut
nemo
omnibus innocentia nostra
rite
condemnari
in tuto statuatur.
quam lugubrem
tarem judiciorum literam,
potest, ita cognita
Cui enim
illam malit?
se
pro criminis exorte
non dubium quin ab
tanta vecordia innata fuerit, qui
Quod
si
tantum mihi
gerit:
aequissimis
non
esset ingenii
salu-
flumen,
tanta dicendi vis, tantaque copia, ut pro loci consessusque dignitate verba facere, expectationique
aurium
satisfacere
me
posse considerem,
facilis
explicandi
mei
foret ratio:
nunc tanto
me commo-
quod nee usu satis, nee ingenio valeam, ut in hac luce delectissimorum virorum, reique publicae columinum digne caussam meam tuear: illud tamen unum me recreat, quod sit quaedam ita perspicua Veritas, quae nulla re infirmari queat. Velut ignis aquae immersus, e vestigio restinguitur, ita et falsum crimen, in opinionis integrum flagitiique purum coUatum, mox aboletur atque corruit. Quod quale sit, succincta oratione explicabo, sed ita, ut non tam brevitate veri
animo magis par
oratiunculae meae, pienter dictum
est,
quam
rei veritate
est) Veritas
simplex
P.C. ut tribus verbis, quicquid seriem
rei pariter et vitae
crimen intentatum ponderetis, siquidem (quod
est, et
est rei,
ambagium
fugitans sermo.
Vos interim
a veteribus sa-
obstestatos velim,
explicaturo mihi auribus favere tantisper dignemini,
rationem obiter delibem. Districtum
est a
Sacrorum Rege,
dum
sive Pontifice
in meum nomen, quo librorum meorum, qui varii in lucem exierunt, non alia de causa, uti reor (neque enim sinistrae alicujus opinionis ac diversae a communi Orthodoxorum persuasione mihi sum conscius) quam quod Angliae Regi Edovardo, quos praeferebat titulos, in epistola quadam nuncupatoria Lexici Graeci, a me evulgati, attribuerim,
Max. Paulo Tertio fulmen lectione interdicitur,
quae
res
ad hunc
modum
habet." {Epistolae [1652], 390-392)
DIRK VAN MIERT Edward
in 1553, his successor,
Mary Tudor, married
considerable pains to write an epic
now because
poem
on the occasion of
to be presented
of the
composition of the
painfiil
589
their
wedding. Perhaps he did not refer to
memory of having incurred
poem and
went to which was
Philip of Spain. Junius
in praise of the Catholic couple
twice
as
traveUing to England to present
it
much as
this
expense in the
the whole project
brought him: he complains on different occasions about the low reward he received
from the Spanish think, Junius
king.*''
patron. His maecenas,
Henry VIII
before
This anecdote indicates the most important reason why,
had dedicated
his earlier
work
to
Edward:
I
his desperate search for a
Henry Howard, had been executed in January 1547, only days When Howard was arrested a few weeks earher, his Ubrary
died.
had been pillaged and Junius's
own
had suffered serious
loss.'*
Close Contact with Non-Catholics At
first sight,
no reason
there was
for the scrupulous compilers of the
1569 Ap-
pendix not to beheve Junius. But had they taken a closer look, things could have turned out more itself.
diflScult for
our humanist. In the
place, there
first
is
the dedication
Junius praises not only the great talents of Edward but also those of his royal
father,
Henry
VIII,
whose
he
virtues,
declares,
Edward
has inherited, and includes a
two-page eulogy of the boy-king's uncle and "governor". Protector Somerset, celebrating his successfiil campaign of 1547 against the Scots. tionary appeared, Somerset was
By
the time Junius's Dic-
becoming the driving force behind the Protestantising
of the Church of England. Furthermore, during
letter to
his stay in
men who were
dence with
England, Junius maintained a fiiendly correspon-
new rehgion. There is a man of letters, Neo-Latin
outspokenly supportive of the
Walter Haddon, distinguished academic lawyer,
poet, and fiiend of the influential Protestant reformer, Martin Bucer, explicitly asking
him to
on
greet
behalf Thomas Smith, another academic lawyer
his
Protestant scholar, just as
was to take
Haddon
was.'*
er
" See C.
put
Conventus Neo-Latitti
"Absente
rianus, pars
an
me
R. Schnur
ed.
et
is
yet another letter
procul in Nordfolkia,
addressee; date
MRTS
dum
Vulcanius; date
See C.
to
and had, that
is
as
Ju-
to say.
in
207 (Tempe, AZ, 2000). 325-332.
capitis arcessitur
Musaeo
istius
Maecenas tum meus. Comes Sur-
adservabatur, direpta fuit" (Junius to
unknown, presumably 1548) (Junius, Epistolae, ed. Scheltema, 4). See edam biblioteca haud contemnanda" (Junius to
"Direpta mihi praeter locuples stipendium
'*
—
which Junius defends the Dutch shopkeep-
of die Tenth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies, al..
bona bibliothecae meae, quae
unknown
also:
in
"The Ambassador of the Republic of Letten at the Wedding of Queen Mary of En^and: Hadrianus Junius and his Philippeis," in Acta
Abulettsis. Proceedings
4-9 August 1997,
'*
—
at Cambridge and John Cheke, who
L. Heesakkers,
Prince Philip of Spain and
Avila
also a letter to
who had pubhshed several theological translations much effort into "promoting evangehcal truth":
Walter Lynne, it,
is
abroad during the reign of Mary. There
refiige
Nicholas Wotton, Secretary of State
nius puts
There
unknown)
L. Lees,
(Junius, Epistolae [1652], 179).
The Poetry of Walter Haddon (The Hague, 1967), 22-23.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF HADRIANUS JUNIUS
590
Protestantism.*^ Finally, in a letter to his
on
Coster], he says he has greeted
his
long friend Martinus Aedituus [Martin
life
behalf John a Lasko, Bernardino Ochino,
Petrus Alexandrius and Walter Delenius (Delen), people
been Protestant reformers
Of course,
who found
fact that
particularly
are
mean
itself
known
to have
the reign of Edward
that Junius himself
he wrote in defence of Walter Lynne does indicate
was not
that Junius, at the personal level,
who
London during
writing letters to Protestants does not in
was a Protestant; but the was not
shelter in
hostile to every Protestant,
fond of Protestantism in general,
even though he
from the
as is clear
of his
letters
work The makers of the 1569 Appendix perhaps did not mention Junius's dedication of his De anno et mensibus commentarius to Edward a dedication where he highly praises the King's tutor, John Cheke because our humanist reworked the dedication (and parts of the treatise) in 1556 so as to make it suitable to be dedicated to Queen Mary Tudor. Though the cardinals eventually accepted that Junius had always been a good Catholic, they had more reason to distrust him at the time he wrote in his own dequoted above. Lack of party
Edward
to
made
zeal
the easier for
it all
him
VI.
to dedicate his
—
—
fence than during his Enghsh period in the 1540s.
The 1560s and 1570s were an extremely important time the Northern
Low
undergone
regards religion.
tant.
At
as
this
During the 1570s one
The
latter
'^
quam
cum
exemplum
ad
veritatis profectu,
quantam
illorum
vires paterentur,
the Libellus Supplex, attached to his letter of 8
met Wotton
in 1543,
Oratio de obsidione Louaniensi.
how Junius came
Polet,
Une
Together with
He
1547-1550. a
shop
[.
.
.]
this
his
con-
Lynne
He
opis oninis in-
to
componere fas est) ita in promovendo
sibi
him
duceret
who was
Wotton,
34-36
[.
.
.]"
(Junius in
Secretary of State
[p. 34]).
Junius had
the dedication of Petrus Nannius's
Bishop Bonner. This
is
proba-
London. (Both dedications are given
in A.
Nannius 1500-1557 [Louvain, 1936], 279-281.)
England before 1540 and published theological books
was mainly a
in St. Paul's
Petrus
pusilla
work, Junius carried with him Nannius's Orationes
into contact with this bishop of
settled in
to
adventu, with a dedication to
Gloire de I'humanisme beige.
Walter Lynne had
had
by
omnemque operam
(see Epistolae [1652],
when he handed over
duae gratulatoriae defelid Caesaris
magnis
(si
poriendam
March 1550
from 15 October 1549 to 5 September 1550)
A
a libertarian, a free-thinker,
Serenissima Regia Majestas tuaque Illustrissima Celsitudo ceu ex uberrimis fontibus
Evangelicae
bly
the change
regarded, in religious terms, as a "perfectist".'^
is
comparaverit hactenus, ut studium, diligentiam, curam,
already
is
another turned Protes-
"Illustrissimae tuae Celsitudinis genibus supplex advolvitur Gualterus
affluenter prestare possunt: qui se
city after
Heemskerk and the poet-philosopher Dirck Volckertsz
was accused of being
temporaries, though today he
digus,
for the emancipation of
of the major features of those years
time Junius lived in Haarlem, where he had contacts with people like
the painter Maarten van
Coornhert.
One
Countries.
translator into English
and did not
Churchyard. Possibly, Junius
print
knew him from
in the period
any books by himself this
He
shop. See E. G. Duflf,
Century of the English Book Trade (London, 1905), 95-96. ''
See Junius to Aedituus, 21 January [1548] {Epistolae [1652], 152). Cranmer was instructed
by Protector Somerset
to invite learned refugees to his palace at
Lambeth, where Norfolk
also kept
a household. '*
According to "Perfectism",
it is
possible for a Christian, after great effort
and by the grace
DIRK VAN MIERT
591
much criticism of the CathoUc Church but also loathed the doctrines of CalvinHe was first and foremost the champion of rehgious fireedom. Other important contacts of Junius were with Plantin and Arias Montano, both of whom are known
had
ism.
to have
been members of the Family of Love or at least to have co-operated with the From 1565 onwards, all Junius's works were pubhshed by the Antwerp The correspondence between Junius and Plantin consists of a large number
Famihsts.'*'
printer.
of relatively short but intimate
more than once. The
tano
clasm of the 1560s in the
troduced to the
circle
letters,
Low
where Junius brings
in the
name of Arias Mon-
servant of the Spanish king, detested the icono-
latter, as a
Countries, but
when he came
to
Antwerp he was
in-
of Plantin, which included people of a Familist stamp. Brought
Rome's opposition to the pubUcation of the Antwerp Polyglot Bible on the one hand, and with the harsh way in which the Spanish troops tried to suppress Protestantism in the Low Countries, on the other, he began to doubt the merits of Mother Church.^ In 1565 Junius became acquainted with the young and talented Dutch humanist
face to face with
in 1572,
Janus Dousa, to letter
whom
not known, but in
of 'rehgious
I
of England
in a
liberty' (not 'Protestantism').-^
In 1568 Junius dedicated one of his
Eunapius's Lives of the Philosophers. title
of Martial in 1568. Junius wrote a
his edition
minor embassy.-* The exact status of this "legatiuncula" a poem to the Queen Dousa warned her of the approaching end
when he was engaged is
he dedicated
of recommendation to introduce the young Dousa to Elizabeth
referring to her as
own works
Though
to the
Queen:
his translation
of
time he did not employ any sort of
this
"Defender of the Faith" or "supreme Head of the Church in
England", he could have chosen another,
less suspect,
sovereign
as
patron for the
work. Cathohcs in England were exposed to persecution in 1568. Furthermore, Juson of Thomas Howard, fourth nius wrote a fiiendly letter to Phihp Howard
—
of God, to be able to obey,
New Testaments.
in spite
of original
sin, all
the
commandments given by God
in the
Coomhert, Op zoek naar het lioogste goed, Uitgegeven, ingeleid en van aantekeningen voorzien door H. Bonger (Baam, 1987), 17. For the contacts between Junius and Coomhert, see B. Becker, Bronnen tot de kettnis van D. V. Coom-
Old and
hert
(The Hague, 1928),
werp, 1565): see Jtmius,
See, for example, Dirck Volckertsz
14. Junius
wanted Coomhert
Epistolae, ed.
to be the translator
of his Emblemata (Ant-
Scheltema, 63. As for the contacts between Junius and
inscriptions for engravings by Maarten van HeemsHarmen Muller and Philippus Galle. See I.M. Veldman, "Maarten van Heemskerck and Hadrianus Junius: The Relationship between a Painter and a Humanist," in Si-
Heemskerck, Junius produced a number of kerck and his copiers
35-54.
miolus. Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 17 (1974):
" See Rekers, Arias Montano, 71, 77. For further examination of the issue of whether Plantin was a member of the Family of Love, see P. Valkema Blouw, "Was Plantin a Member of the Family of Love? Notes on His Dealings with Hendrik Niclaes," Quaerettdo. the
Low
^ -'
Countries devoted to Manuscripts and Printed Books
A
Quarterly Journal from
23 (1993): 3—23.
See Rekers, Arias Montano, 38. See C. L. Heesakkers and
Neolatijnse dichter Janus
~ The
phrase
is
W. M.
S.
Reinders, Genoeglijk bovenal zijn mij de muzen.
De Leidse
Dousa (1545-1604) (Leiden, 1993), 31.
that
ofJ. A. van Dorsten,
Poets, Patrons
and
Rogers and the Leideti Humanists (Leiden-London, 1962), 28.
Professors. Sir Philip Sidney,
Daniel
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF HADRIANUS JUNIUS
592
Duke
— who was
of Norfolk
been more of
prising that Junius has
then are
we
unstable in his religious allegiance but seems to have
a Protestant than a Catholic." In
by some
scholars
on
to think about Junius's opinions
Junius as Philologist and Scholar Junius never engaged much in religious position
view of
it is
not sur-
non-Catholic.-"*
as a
What
religion?
He
aflfairs.
Catholic, but in the years of Edward
as a
these facts,
all
been categorised
Rome
wrote to
defending
his
VI he kept on corresponding with
from the University of Cambridge, which was inclined towards Protestantism
scholars
them very
in the 1540s, sending
polite,
not to say begging,
letters. It
may be
that
Junius did have personal objections on religious grounds against those correspondents,
but what could he do?
—
a scholar
He
was desperate for
— with whom he could was
scholars: Junius
a
Uteraria". In order to
well-known and keep things
political or religious matters.
upon
We
a
patron and sought someone influential
identify himself. His correspondents are mainly
member of the "Respublica many
greatly respected
way, he tried not to get involved in too
this
see a focus
on
scholarly
affairs:
hide his personal feelings
if it
was better for him to do
There
so.
he would touch
and even then would
religious issues only at the request of his correspondents,
is
a striking parallel
here with what one finds in his most important work: the Batavia, a piece of cultural
which he wrote
history
in discharge of his office as historiographer to the States of
Holland and which was to form the
Though
it
first
part of a trilogy
gave every opportunity for references to
Junius avoids touching
on the
history of Holland.
politics or religion, in the Batavia
upon
political or religious current affairs
more
interest in philological subjects. His
and focuses solely on
scholarly subjects.-^
He had
always had
numerous
editions
and
translations
libri
sex (Basel, 1556); his Greek-Latin dictionary; his famous dictionary in eight lan-
of ancient writers;
his philological
annotations in his Animadversorum
guages (the Nomendator omnium rerum propria nomina his
Adagiorum Centuriae VIII cum dimidia
.
.
indicans
.
(Basel, 1558), a
[Antwerp, 1567]);^^
supplement to Erasmus's
Adagia; his edition of Ravisius Textor's Epitheta; and his plan to prepare an edition of Suidas's Lexicon:
these things
all
show
that Junius
was
more
far
interested in scholarly
subjects than in religion.
He
is
about religion in only two
explicit
a sarcastic satire
by Junius
against the Anabaptist
the passage in a letter from
-^
M.
F. S.
Hervey, The
(Cambridge, 1921), ^*
Delft, ^^
For example,
Humanist /
cases.
which
Life,
it is
clear that
Ari Wesseling published in 1991
David Joris: we have already cited he had
Correspondence and Collections of
sympathy for
this sect.
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel
4.
P.
Noordeloos, Cornelius Musius [Mr.Comelis Muys], Pater van Sint Agatha
Priester / Martelaar
Mundo
te
(Utrecht-Antwerp, 1955), 261.
See D. van Miert, "Adriano Junio y su Batavia," in Actas
pervivencia del
little
Clasico, Alcaiiiz, ed. J.
del III
M. Maestre Maestre and
Simposio sobre humanismo y J.
P. Barea (Cadiz, forth-
coming). -''
See G. de Smet,
"De Nomendator van Hadrianus Junius,"
Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde 8 (1954): 61-73.
Handelingen van de Zuidnederlandse
DIRK VAN MIERT
593
supplement to Erasmus's Adagia, he attacks the Ragellants.^ His other references to controversial matters in his Adagia are summed up by
Second, in
his
Wessehng,
who comments: "Whether it
— very few — and
was
fear
of getting into trouble with secular
or rather a conciliatory attitude that held
ecclesiastical authorities,
we
voicing his opinion on poUtical and reUgious matters,
know."^ Though was
I
cannot prove anything,
I
But was
Junius an opportunist?
I
do not think
money and it
just the
1568
so. In
never
wish to make a suggestion here. If it
the fact remains that Junius's need for
fear,
cate a dictionary to a Protestant king.
him back from
will probably
his
a patron led
him
to dedi-
need for money that made
need for money was
less
than
now, and though we do not know of where he acted as physician to Haarlem, to his earnings at document testifying any better oflf than during his EngUsh was financially that he may be assumed the city, it wife had brought him a good 1559 that his second states Besides, in period. Jimius it
He
had been.
was an
official
historiographer
dowry. In 1568 he apparendy had the resources to cross the Charm el to present translation of Eunapius to Elizabeth
in 1553.
It
Moreover,
was not a case of Junius's being deterred by fear of getting into trouble. with enemies of the Spanish King indicate merely that
his close contacts
he supported the Dutch Revolt that there
puts
is
reason to assume
like a
number of other
that Junius
Catholics. Therefore
had "a conciliatory attitude",
as
I
think
Wesseling
it.
A Tolerant In hert, start
my
Catholic
view, Junius belonged to the kind of enhghtened people who, hke
were in favour of of
his life;
religious tolerance.
he learned
it
may have a
Low
Coom-
did not have this attitude from the at
the end of his
hometown of Haarlem and
life
by the
destroyed his Ubrary, he
got to the point of repudiating zealous Cathohcism, just like
many
other
no indication whatsoever that he had member of the Family of Love. His fierce attack on the Anabaptist David Joris
Catholics in the
been
He
by experience. Sickened
Spanish armies, which sacked his
Countries.-^
There
makes such a suggestion very unHkely. so
his
in contrast to his deplorable financial situation
I,
much about
taking sides.
He must
I
is
prefer to conclude that he did not really care
have spoken about the subject of rehgion with
people like Coomhert and was bound to share their conclusions on reUgious freedom (let
us not forget that Junius did not actually
pubUsh
his attack
on David Joris). Only
such a tolerant attitude can explain the seemingly contradictory pattern of his dedications
^
and
his unwillingness to address controversial matters.
"Junius
is
apparendy dunking of Italian Flagellant
rituals,
However, when con-
which he may have watched dur-
An Unpublished
ing his suy in that country": Ari Wesseling, "David Joris, 'Son of God'.
by the Dutch Humanist Hadrianus Jimius," Nederlands Ardiiefvoor
^ Wesseling, "David Joris," 57. ^ "Doleo certe ejus [Pulmanni] vicem
et doctis
hominibus suam spem
potius bta tempestate deploro, quae ut ingemiscenda, [1569]) (Epistolae, ed. Scheltema, 37).
ita
Satire
Kerl^esdtiedaiis 71 (1991): 53.
tolli
Iberia aut barbara
nirsus ferenda est" (Junius to Plantin
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF HADRIANUS JUNIUS
594
fronted with the hmits iniposed on
no
him by
hesitation in putting forward his case
We
religious or poUtical authorities,
he had
and defending himself.
between the everyday reality of the world of power and which humanists were forced to choose a side in a polarised political and religious situation, and, on the other hand, the enlightened attitude of some members of the Republic of Letters. There was diversity and conflict at the official level, and unity at the personal level. I hope I have shown that Junius focused on the latter. see here a gap
politics, in
Universiteit
van Amsterdam
The Cranevelt and
Letters
Rome
MICHIEL VERWEIJ
At
is
the heart of Leu van University Library
is
preserved a collection of letters that
considered one of its main treasures. This collection consists of private
letters
Van Cranevelt (1485-1564), Doctor of Laws, penand from 1522 member of the Mechlin Parliament.' Apart from
sent to Franciscus Craneveldius or
sionary of Bruges, his
busy legal
activities,
a correspondence with
he devoted himself to the study of bonae
many
leading humanists.
Among these
Utterae as
rank
first
well as to
and foremost
especially Juan Luis Vives. They are paralleled by a from the Leuven circle, such as Adrianus Barlandus, Gerard Geldenhouwer, Johannes Borsalus, and Petrus Curtius, as well as from the Bruges circle, such as Cranevelt's best firiend Johannes Fevynus or his protege Leonardus Clodius. The letters date from the 1520s and were discovered in the twentieth century in two
Erasmus,
Thomas More, and
pleiad of humanists
'
tion
Cf H.
de Vocht,
Literae virorum eruditorum
ad Frandscum Craneveldium 1522—1528.
of Original Letters Ediud from the Manuscripts and
manistica Lovaniensia
1
Illustrated with
(Louvain, 1928) {=Litt.Cran.);}. Ijsewijn, D. Sacre, G.
Verweij, "Litterae ad Craneveldium Balduinianae.
A
Collec-
HuToumoy, and M.
Notes and Commentaries,
A Preliminary Edition," Humanistica Lovaniensia A definitive
41 (1992): 1-85; 42 (1993): 2-51; 43 (1994): 15-68; 44 (1995): 1-78 (=Litt.Bald.). edition odJtt.Bald.
is
being prepared. The newly found
letters fi-om
Thomas More have
edited separately by H. Schulte Herbriiggen, Morus ad Craneveldium
More
to Cranevelt:
New
Baudouin
Schulte Herbriiggen gives
respondence.
A
On
on
pp.
litterae
been
also
Balduinianae novae I
Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 11 (Leuven. 1997). 40—44 a general evaluation of Cranevelt as a collector of his cor-
letters,
Cranevelt see P. G. Bietenholz and T. B. Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus.
Biographical Register of the Renaissance
87) (hereafter C£), 1:354-355;
and Reformation, 3 vols. (Toronto-Buffalo-London, 1985-
an extensive biography can be found in de Vocht,
xxxiii-lxxxvii (overlooked in C£); a shorter survey
ad Craneveldium, 30-33.
A
is
also
detailed study of the relation
prepared by the present author
(this
between Cranevelt and Erasmus
is
study will also discuss the relations between Erasmus and
other correspondents of Cranevelt mentioned below, such
denhouwer, and Hezius).
Litt.Cran.,
provided by Schulte Herbriiggen, Morus
as
being
some
Fevynus, Borsalus, Barlandus, Gel-
THE CRANEVELT LETTERS AND ROME
596
Two bundles of letters from 1522 to 1528 were rescued from the 1914 sack of Leuven and edited by Henry de Vocht in 1928, while a new bundle was discovered at a London auction by Hubert Schulte Herbriiggen, subsequently bought by the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation, and published by the late Josef IJsewijn and his team. The subjects discussed in this correspondence are of great variety: apart from parts.
and scholarly questions are raised and
strictly private matters, literary
debated. While the great age of discoveries did not leave
Reformation of
did: this in fact
much admired
is
one of the main
persons such
Erasmus
as
fill
Hnes, as
politics are
traces, the
Apart from
topics.
many
many
we
this,
will
Lutheran
the activities
have some oc-
casion to see.
The
on one
present paper intends to focus attention
namely, relations with, and the significance
As most
we know,
far as
The
information about his journey.^
interest
himself However, one of his
although
did,
Countries,
we do
much
not gather
of the present subject
lies
elsewhere.
surmised that one of Cranevelt's professors in Leuven was Adrian Floris
It is
who
Boeiens of Utrecht,
later
was
to
be elected pope, taking the name of Adrian VI
1522-1523).^ Another possibiUty
Leuven
until 1515,
University:
it is
met the
well
became counsellor
future
known
that
to Charles
V
is
pope
that Cranevelt,
more
in a
who must
have remained in
exalted official position at
Leuven
Adrian was a very important person there before he
and regent of Spain. However that may be,
A poem
Cranevelt reacted enthusiastically to Adrian's election.
fact that
composed by himself has survived among the
mentioned
collection of letters
it is
a
probably earlier
new era, which, however, was not to last long and poem may have been written shortly after news of the
celebrates the beginning of a
and
would achieve
^
On
found used
little.''
Fevynus see CE, 2:26;
De
Vocht, Litt.Cran., general introduction, xci-xcix; the newly
some new details about his life and personality which could not have been Fevynus went to study in Italy and visited Bologna, Pavia, and Rome. He returned
earlier.
is
it is
not
known
mentioned only once, when he
In Litt.Bald., 30, he
graphy, ^
This
Liu. Bald, furnish
a iuris utriusque doctor, but visit
Rome
Johannes Fevynus,
faithful correspondents,
(reg.
of,
Cranevelt never visited
impor-
specific aspect of this
Humanism in the Low the city of Rome.
tant source for the study of early sixteenth-century
as
wonders
why
at
which univenity he obtained his degree. His Roman Nicolaus Petri as his companion in Litt.Cran. 64.
refers to a
See on Adrian
CE
1:5-9;
J.
Coppens and M.E. Houtzager, Paus Adriams
1523)," in Hochrenaissatice im Vatikan. Kunst und Kultur im 1999), 48-54
;
P. Nissen, Adrianus VI. Eeri biografte
church of S. Maria dell'Anima:
and possible
about
Italian
topo-
VI. Herdenkingsten-
visitor to
Rome
his
can
tomb may be
still
Tijdschrift voor
Rom
der Pdpste,
I.
1503-1534 (Bonn,
(Amsterdam, 2000). Adrian was buried
in the
the most concrete object a reader of this article
find with regard to this subject; cf
gestie voor de Romereis: de Santa Maria dell'Anima.
Het
Rome
M.
Verweij, "Een sug-
van de 'Leuvense' paus Adrianus
oude talen en antieke cultuur 29 (1999-2000): 16-27.
poem was pubhshed as Litt. Bald. Cranevelt's own handwriting. The fact that "
a question
Cedenkboek, Catalogus (Utrecht-Leuven, 1959); L. Altringer, "Hadrian VI. (1522-
toonstelling:
VI," Kleio.
him on
Cranevelt did not consult
he had been there himself.
This
choice had not yet been made, and
so, that
100.
The
text
is
dated
ca.
three versions are given
15
may
March 1522 and
is
in
suggest that the final
Cranevelt was indeed the author of the
poem
himself
597
MICHIEL VERWEIJ
election reached Bruges. Furthermore, part of an attempt to attract attention
moment when
celebrated as well, at a
new it is
position.*
rate,
that writing this
V
poem was
poem which summa-
was greeted warmly. Another
and maybe even with some pride,
this
is
vital for
are
Cranevelt appean to have been looking for a
him ex-
the events of 1522 mentions Adrian's election as well and refen to
pUcitly,
equally
whose triumphs
himself,
notwithstanding the possibihty of an additional purpose,
clear that Adrian's election
rises
and
At any
may be
it
from Charles
our undentanding in
"one of our country"
as
this matter,
{nostras).^
Adrian was considered
Indeed, as
"one
of us" and he enjoyed a sympathetic and keen interest on the part of the Cranevelt circle.
That appears
from
also
a curious reference
used to use in Leuven, which
he can see
as
to a chair Adrian
humorously
"a pontif-
as
Cranevelt should not torment himself about visiting Peter's chair at some
ical chair":
point
made by Fevynus
referred to informally and
is
one
this
home.'
at
seems to have been quite a handy chair
It
moving on wheels from one desk to another and spinning round on an axis, as is shown by a sketch in the letter. The casual and to a certain extent almost joking tone shows that Fevynus and Cranevelt considered Adrian really as someone capable of
known
to themselves, as a valued acquaintance.
Possibly the most interesting evidence of this attitude towards Adrian certain
way
the culmination of Cranevelt's
Cranevelt to the pope himself*
It is
a
Roman contacts is
somewhat belated
Adrian's election. As Cranevelt also mentions his years,
it
seems justified to assume that they
really
own
VI and
in a
a draft letter written
letter
by
of congratulation on
activities
over the past few
had been acquainted personally in
Leuven. However, they seem not to have been regular correspondents or
really close
The tone of the letter is respectful, but certainly not servile. From Fevynus's letter about the chair it may be deduced that Cranevelt might
fiiends.
even once have wanted to go to likely that
moment,
as so
to Adrian, but
*
*
one of the
March
by Cranevelt exploring Utt.Cran.
1
1.9:
denhouwer or Clodius, '
characteristics
Cf
his
do
in
in this case
Rome
is
the reply by a
hi^
is
had
his letter
the high percentage
Guelders
official to a lost
chances with the duke of Guelders.
November
Utt.Cran. 21 (by Fevynus, early est]
seems un-
in Adrian's reign. Cranevelt
whose hand the surviving document
ferream, sed pontificiam; n[ec
it
at that particular
few months before he wrote
"Nostratem lanus Pontificemque dedit." The poem
in
domi] videris." The text
However,
new job
of Adrian's pontificate
which
1522),
a
tried to
to a higher position himself a
Cf. Liu. Bald. 103 (6
Cf
himself.
many of his countrymen
been appointed
letter
Rome
he would have thought of seeking
quur
te
1522?):
is
is
attributed to Gel-
written.
"[nempe
ut mihi effingas] sedem, sed
maceres ob aliquando visendam Petri sedem,
cum
h[anc
some points, but the reference to Adrian's chair is dear enou^. Of course, domi is a su^estion by the editor, and it may stand either for Cranevelt's own house or for Adrian's former residence. Cf. T. Padmos and G. Vanpaemel, eds., De geleerde is
rather mutilated at
wereld van keizer Karel. Catalogi4S tetttoonstelling Wereldwijs. Wetensdiappers rond keizer Karel (Leuven,
2000). 62-63, n. 26. *
Viz. Utt. Cran. 25 (12
November
1522).
THE CRANEVELT LETTERS AND ROME
598
of officials appointed from the dents belonged to this
One
of these
is
Low
Countries,^ and
some of Cranevelt's correspon-
class.
Conrad Vecerius of Luxembourg, who
Court of Maximilian and Charles
V
and
who
left
originally
Rome
for
belonged to the
early in 1523.*°
He
de-
Clement VlVsfamilia and Chapel on Ash Wednesday 1525. He published
livered Adrian's funeral oration. Later he was admitted to
delivered the sermon in the Sistine
both orations in
as
Rome. He
well as an account of Adrian's journey to
died in
1526 or 1527. Vecerius was Cranevelt's most important personal contact
during Adrian's pontificate and immediately afterwards: three Vecerius in
Rome
in
Rome Rome
written by
letters
survive," and Vecerius refers to letters by Cranevelt himself
which have been lost. He also provided some news of the events just before Adrian's departure from Spain. '^ Vecerius was in Spain himself at the time, so naturally this topic of news presented itself, but in view of what we have already seen, it may have been even more gratifying for Cranevelt than Vecerius thought it. However, Vecerius was not the only or even the most important source of information for the Cranevelt
circle as such.
Fevynus, a
member of the Chapter of St.
Donatian in Bruges and well acquainted with Marcus Laurinus, Erasmus's trusted friend, also received
news from sources which most of the time cannot be
Often he transmitted
it
identified.
autumn of 1522 Cranevelt had
to Cranevelt. Since the
lived
in Mechlin, while Fevynus remained in Bruges, and thus their correspondence lost
some of
its
daily informality, but
change of important news
a more suitable instrument for the exway Fevynus announces an expected meetpope in November 1522, though it in fact never
it
became
features. In this
ing between the emperor and the
took place. '^ The question of Luther was to have been
ways interested the Cranevelt had
fled to
circle.
Viterbo during a plague.*^
the same Vecerius: Fevynus refers to
'
C(.
W.
A.
J.
It
may be
that
subject, a topic that al-
rumour
that
Adrian
one of Fevynus's sources was
some documents he would
receive,
and
it is
Munier, "Nederlandse curialen en hofbeambten onder het pontificaat van Ad-
riaan VI," Mededelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut •"
its
Later Fevynus repeats a false
See on Vecerius Utt. Cran. 12
intr.,
which has
to
te
Rome,
3. reeks,
10 (1959): 199—226.
be supplemented by the
new
information
from Utt. Bald.: d. Utt. Bald. 10 intr. " Viz. Utt. Cran. 68 (5 August 1523), 73 (18 September 1523), and 77 (15 October 1523). '^ Cf Utt. Cran. 12 (7 August 1522): "Quum etiamnum in portu ageremus, scripsit ad Caesa-
rem Hadrianus priusquam
eque rian
'^
September 1522). The
partially a conjecture
Cf
Italicae;
gratum habiturum
si
last letter is
heavily
damaged and the
allusion to
Ad-
by de Vocht.
Cf. Utt. Cran. 22, tentatively dated to the attulit,
first
days of
November
1522:
"Qui hec secum
profectus est in [aulam] apud Principem Margaretam; post audiemus congre[ssum]
Pontificis et Imperatoris '•
iampridem accinctum navigationi
convenire in certum locum deque communibus rebus coram colloqui statuer-
possit"; 17 (30
is
nova
pontifex, sese
solvat,
si
modo
quid possint in L[utherum]."
December 1522): "Hie nihil est novi, nisi quod quidam adfirmabant venisse liter[as] ex Venetiis Turcam obiisse mortem. Pontifex, Urbe relict[a] diei itinere, agjt Viterbii." Possibly both pieces of news were transmitted in the same letter from Venice, but the news Utt. Cran.
29
(4
immediately following about a Leuven vacancy makes this matter.
it
impossible to obtain any certainty about
599
MICHIEL VERWEIJ
may be
suggested that this
That he had
his
own
on Adrian's journey written by Vecerius.*^ a reference in a letter from April, where
the report
contacts
clear
is
from
he repeats news he has just received from the Eternal
From
men
and acquaintance with
evident that personal interest in Adrian VI
like Vecerius
were the most important stimuli and char-
of Cranevelt's contact with
acteristics
City.'^
it is
the material discussed so far
Rome.
Besides,
clear that there
it is
must have
been some regular exchange of news, the exact amount of which, however, remains hidden in darkness to
us.
Adrian's pontificate did not
ber 1523, not
much
and rumours of
this illness
Four days
notes
on
he died on 14 Septem-
As could be expected, news of
soon reached Bruges and Mechlin. In
rumour of Adrian's
a
this letter,
among which
is
it
in Utt.Cran. 73.
part of the
the pope.'^ Cranevelt passed a copy of Vecerius's letter to Fevynus,
he made on the back of Fevynus 's next
a note
passed Vecerius's letter also to other friends, it tis
as
letter.'' It is
was
first
epitaph on
appears from
as
assumed that Cranevelt
custom, and that in
his
fact
pope
the day before the
illness
death Vecerius wrote about
after Adrian's
made some
Cranevelt
Roman people.
result
its fatal
Fevynus seems to mention died.''
long. After a short illness,
last
regretted by the
could have been an important source for the chapter on Adrian in the
De
this
way
rebus ges-
ducum Brabantiae by the Leuven professor and Erasmian humanist Adrianus Barlanof letters
dus. This circulation
an essential element in the spread of information in
is
this period.
As
'*
mentioned in
a very important piece of information, Adrian's death was also
other letters dating from these weeks. ^
Cf. Utt.
Nothing
33
Crati.
certain can
be
(6
said
January 1523):
about
"cum
this matter,
was considered worthwhile to report and
We
that
by Fe-
are also kept informed, mostly
accepero Apostolicas tunc rescribam
except for the obvious fact that news from
Fevynus had
his
own
latius."
Rome
contacts.
" Cf Litt. Cran. 53 (17 April 1523): "Ex Urbe intelligo Urbini ducem profectum Pontificis nomine cum Colunnensi Cardinal! in Pannoniam." This fact was connected with the danger from the Ottoman Empire, news about which was eagerly collected. This danger was one of Adrian's constant worries.
"
Cf.
Cran. 72 (13 September 1523): "[De
Litt.
morbo Romani
Pontificis] ac [isthic]
ramur rumorem sparsum, sed nunc vanum de extrema valetudine." Again the reference rests
on '*
a conjecture
by de Vocht.
On the fourth page,
quam quod
impera[ret]."
but there
no evidence
is
ally preserved.
preceded by a pointing hand: "Hie
De Vocht
for this: in
one of Fevynus's
that the text
of the epiuph did
Viz.
Litt.
*
where the word Viz.
me
mi^t
cannot be found in any his
letter
from Fevynus,
by Fevynus actu-
correspondence, the absence of any positive
be considered an argumentum ex
sUentio to the effect
reach Cranevelt by Fevynus.
ex Urbe
Rhoma."
Ludii
is
XXa
Octobris et misi
an allusion to the contents of Vecerius's
theatmtn repeatedly occurs.
by Martinus Dorpius
Cran. 75 (2
this text
Cran. 75 (2 October 1523). Cranevelt's note, "Rescripsi
epistolam Ludii Vegerii ad letter,
fiict,
letters tiot
nihil sibi infelicius duxit esse in vita
suggests that Cranevelt received this epitaph
As Cranevelt meticulously collected
indication in
"
admi-
to Adrian
in Litt. Cran.
October 1523) and 76
(4
lA (30 September 1523) and by Fevynus in Utt.
October 1523),
Cranevelt and a supplement to Fevynus's
letter
this last letter
of two days
earlier.
being a reply to a
letter
by
THE CRANEVELT LETTERS AND ROME
600
vynus, of such events
the conclave for the election of Adrian's successor' and the
as
of Nicolaas van der Poorten, executor of Adrian's
flight
Roman
pected by the
Fe vynus apparently paraphrases
this last letter
A
special
item in the Cranevelt
Clement VII
respectively,
much admired by both
pope
of two
letters consists
letters
both concerning Erasmus, the cope with
to
critics
Church of Rome, but had
loyal to the
the
all
from Adrian VI and
princeps
from both
of the humanists,
tant value that the papal briefs
Erasmus had been anxious
Erasmus himself re-
sides.
to seek protection
in order to silence fervent Catholic critics. ^^ In fact this
from the reigning
was the most impor-
had for Erasmus, but they had only moderate
after Adrian's election
out a chance of being heard, but in
fact received
(Allen 1324 and 1338, answering Allen appraisal
get.^^ In
Cranevelt and Fevynus. After the beginning of the Lutheran
Reformation Erasmus had
mained
w^ho was unjustly sus-
will,
money he could news direct from Rome.
populace of having stolen
two
of protection from
letters
1304/1310 and 1329
of the relation between Adrian and Erasmus
is
respectively).
The
was
Erasmus to be
prime candidate for undertaking the Catholic defence and
a
him
exact
not relevant here: suffice
of interest between them,
to say that there
a certain difference
success.
about possible condemnation with-
as
it
Adrian thought tried to
secure his co-operation, while Erasmus mainly needed Adrian's confirmation of support.^"*
keen
On
the other hand, the question of Erasmus's position was followed with a
interest
by the Cranevelt
circle.
Cranevelt had been used on previous occasions
defence in the
Low
could distribute
among
same way Erasmus Apart from er, a
Cf
now
Liu. Cran.
Litt.
^^
humanists or use against
sit,
which Cranevelt
opponents.-^ In the
first letter
to himself.^^
made by Gerard Geldenhouw-
and secretary to the bishop of Utrecht, and remained
intrasse; Gallos
tamen
certi
item
statu
Romano, accepimus
illius collegii treis
quisnam pontifex
by Fevynus; 30 November 1523).
is
See,
Deus
ut
is
aut melior
fuerit."
on Van der Poorten, dean
Cran. 81 intr.
See on Erasmus's position in general E.
Rummel, Erasmus and
his Catholic Critics,
Bibliotheca Humanistica et Reformatorica 45 (Nieuwkoop, 1989). See on Erasmus and general also J. IJsewijn, "I rapporti tra Erasmo, I'umanesimo Italiano,
nisme
i
Cardi-
equis desultorii[s] et in-
futurus: faxit
aut certe neutri partium favens, quisquis
Cran. 81 (again Litt.
letters
his
sent to Cranevelt a copy of Adrian's
sperato supervenisse; nihildum
Cf.
an essential agent in Erasmus's
78 (by Fevynus; 31 October 1523): "De
sanctiorque Hadr[iano] *^
as
Erasmus had sent him some
copy, another one survived which was
36 Conclave (quod vocant)
of Eindhoven,
as
his fellow
close friend of Cranevelt
^'
nales
this
Countries,
literatura neollatina. Escrits seleccionats, ed.
(Valencia, 1996), 87-103;
J.
coUeccio
B. Trapp, "Erasmus
J. L.
und Rom,"
Roma
2
vols.,
Rome
e Giulio II," in
in
Huma-
Barona, Colleccio honoris causa 12 in Hochrenaissance im Vatikan,
407-
411. -''
^^
Cf Verweij, "Een suggestie voor de One bundle of such a collection has
have been more (cf 2*
Litt.
Viz. Utt. Cran. 28.
Bald.
Romereis, 2," 66-76. survived
80 and 82 or
Litt.
{Litt.
Cran. 3-9, 14—36),
Cran. 139).
though there must
MICHIEL VERWEIJ
among
his collection
of notes on contemporary
established with absolute certainty, his
copy of this
trates
how
time with
letter
certain far
601
events.^'
Although
situation,
never be
from the one Cranevelt had received. In any case, it again illushow information was transmitted at a
documents circulated and
fewer possibiHties of communication than
we
which was
now.
are used to
rumoun of this
After Adrian's death attempts to slander Erasmus started again and
it
will
it
seems highly probable that Geldenhouwer made
it
positively threatening for Erasmus, reached Bruges. In this case
appears that Fevynus's superior, the Bruges dean Marcus Laurinus, received a letter
of a highly confidential nature written by Erasmus himself. Generally, Fevynus was allowed to read Erasmus's
but in
letters,
told only in general terms about the
wrote twice
to Cranevelt
about
this case things
Roman intrigue.
were
In the end, however,
this matter.-*
and he was
different
Fevynus was very worried and all
was well and
Erasmus obtained papal protection once again. As in the case of the
copy of the
letter to survive in the
form
Cranevelt was being informed about as
well
as a possible
of Cranevelt's
as it
relations these copies
ologian and had been invited to
Cranevelt from his Leuven period.
up
way
Countries. In the story
Rome
and
it
Eras-
lessened,
of Adrian introduced himself, namely
town of Kampen.^" He by Adrian.
However
interest in
is
that
also
He may
may
was
a
Leuven the-
have been
be, Pigge
known
to
and Cranevelt kept
correspondence from 1524 to 1527, when, subsequently upon the Sack of
a
Rome,
Low
Pigge must have returned to the
Rome
See on Geldenhouwer
•^
Countries. In this period Pigge was
main contact in Rome and ensured Pigge must have met Nicolas Herco
Cranevelt's
In
Low
the focus of attention here
as
oflScial
Rome
this
of Roman poUtics, and he was used
mus rather than the pope or Rome. With Adrian's death the amount of news from Albertus Pigge from the Overijssel
the only
of letters from Adrian VI and Clement
VII to Erasmus form a category of their own,
but it did not disappear. Another former
is
was received by Erasmus.^ In
this aspect
defender of Erasmus's interests in the
Roman
from
letter
Adrian, he sent a copy of this one from Clement VII to Cranevelt, which
CE 2:82-84;
I.
a continuation of
news from
there.
Florenas, a former acquaintance of
Bejczy, S. Stegeman, and
M. Verweij, Gerard GeldenThe collection of notes is
hot4weTvan Nijmegeti (1482-1542). Historische werketi (HiJversum, 1998).
commonly known
as the Collectanea
and was edited by J. Prinsen
in 1901 {Collectanea van Gerardus
on pp. 133-137). See on this letter also M. 1520-1530, of Gerard Geldenhouwer (1482-1542)," Uas 25
Geldenhauer Nouiomagus; the letter can be found
Verweij, "Erasmus in the Collectanea, (1998): 31-41. here 38.
^ Cf weij,
Utt. Cran.
89 (24 January 1524) and 91
(2
February 1524).
On these letters see M.
"Fevynus and Some Dark Rumours on Erasmus, Bruges Jan .-Feb. 1524," Viz. Allen 1438
=
Litt.
on
this
mian Correspondence," Humanistica
^ On
Pigge see
97
CE 3:84-85;
(9 April 1524),
July 1526). 208 (9
Ren-
Cran. 101 (30 April 1524). Allen dates this letter according to the
Vatican minutes to 3 April. See
Utt. Cran.
Ver-
22 (1998): 5-9.
aissance Mitteilungen
^
Wolfenbiitteler
November
question
Lovaniensia
Utt. Cran.
97
M.
Verweij, "Remarks on
intr.
The
letters
So-called Eras-
written by Pigge from
108 (15 June 1524), 114 (10 July 1524). 192 1526). and 220 (5 January 1527).
to Pigge (but apparently never sent) has
Some
46 (1997): 114-126, here 121-122.
come down
One
(2
Rome are
June 1526). 197
letter written
to us as Utt. Cran. 196 (27
(7
by Cranevelt
June 1526).
THE CRANEVELT LETTERS AND ROME
602
Cranevelt,
who
visited
Rome
in
1526 and
also
wrote one
letter to
Cranevelt from
Grand Tour.^' between Rome and Bruges or Mechlin were more frequent than might be expected at first sight, especially if one takes into the Eternal City: he was a humanist
account the
way
this
a
Rome
fact that
is
the only city outside the
in the Cranevelt letters. Cranevelt,
he would have met in Leuven and Adrian
ment
is
the central
Low
Countries figuring in
however, apparently did not
were with men from Leuven University
Italian humanists: his contacts
fact,
on
thus appears that epistolary contacts
It
who
followed Adrian after
his election as
theme of this correspondence. The most
in this perspective, perhaps,
is
Cranevelt's
own
letter to the
show how news was
interesting
however,
is
and in
this light it this
The most important
this
Rome is
news was valued and
during and immediately following the pontificate of Ad-
generally considered a leading characteristic of his pontificate,
may be
interesting to note that in the Cranevelt letters interest
group almost
entirely. It
Countries had any real influence on
was perhaps the only period when the
Roman
matters, and the
was conspicuous. Interest in personal acquaintances
who
Leuven presence
the
was
Low in
it
had made their way in
Rome, at
in this
now, of the Nether-
This presence
focused on
Rome
transmitted from a considerable circulated.
landish presence in rian.
how
docu-
that they illustrate an aspect, neglected until
distance and equally fact,
whom
pope. In
pope.
Apart from furnishing some information on a few Netherlanders in period, the Cranevelt letters
know any
circles
together with sympathy for Pope Adrian and the expectations of his bottom of Cranevelt's Roman connection.
reign, lay
Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae
KULeuven
^'
March
On
Herco Florenas
1526).
see
Litt.
Cran. 154
intr.
His
letter
from
Rome
is
Litt.
Crati.
181 (21
The Central
Position of the
Authors of Late Antiquity
The Case of Aeneas
Humanist Thought:
in
Silvius Piccolomini^
ZWEDER VON MARTELS Or do you which
to
hgion
think
so
itself
right that the learned should allow the
it
many
excellent branches of learning
— have been
entrusted,
[.
.]
.
—
to
Roman tongue
[. ..]
which the Christian
re-
to die out in order not to give of-
fence to the ignorant conceit of these individuals? Surely you do not judge
be
to
right that
you should be the cause
that great writers
—
I
shall
not
it
men-
tion Cicero, Quintihan, and others of this sort, but rather Cyprian, Jerome and
Augustine
— should
perish,
and
that in in their place the CathoUcon, Holcot,
Bricot and Gorra should be read?-
This quotation from Erasmus were wont to
illustrative
is
of the central importance humanists
attribute to the Christian authors
of Late Antiquity, the long
period of cultural efflorescence following the political turmoil and the wars of the
'
made ^
I
am
MacDonald who
grateful to Professor Alasdair
corrected the English of this article and
valuable suggestions.
Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami,
sterdam, 1971), 219—220:
"An aequum
1.2:
De conscribendis epistolis, ed. J.-C. Margolin (Amromanam linguam, cui tot egregiae dis-
censes, vt docti
ciplinae, cui christiana religio concredita est, sinant intermori,
arrogantiam?
Nam
par esse iudicas committere vt intereant,
ne quid offendant istorum indoctam
non dicam Cicero,
Quintilianus, et
huius generis caeteri sed Cyprianus, Hieronymus, Augustinus, vt pro his legatur CathoUcon, Holcot, Bricot et Gorra." In result
my
translation
of his changes of word order and
I
follow only in part that of Charles Fantazzi, which as a
no longer reflects Erasmus's meaning. "Surely you do not think it fair that mention Cicero, Quintilian, and others like them
a too free rendering
See Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto, 1985), 25:17, Cyprian, Jerome and Augustine
— not
to
esp.:
—
should be condemned to oblivion so that in their place the Catholicon, Holcot, Bricot, and Gorra
may be
read?"
THE POSITION OF AUTHORS
604
middle of the third century A.D., and
hope mini
to
—
show is
in this article
and
taking
my main
as
we do wrong
that
example Aeneas
I
less familiar
suspect that this
is
I
Silvius Piccolo-
are not to
be regarded
names such
precisely
what many of
names of Virgil, Cicero,
to the great
as Solinus, Isidore
The undervaluing of such
of Church Fathers.
"What
set in.
to overlook Renaissance references to
do when we encounter, next
Seneca, and Tacitus, other a plethora
Middle Ages
lasting until the
authors of that earlier period. However, us are inclined to
HUMANIST THOUGHT
and other authors of Late Antiquity
that Christian
as a quantite negligeable,
—
IN
writers
is
of Seville, and the result of a
long-lasting process, which, as far as the Christian authors are concerned, started with
the Reformation,
when
the former organic coherence of the western cultural tradi-
The
tion began to disintegrate. general, unsuitable for the
my
In
age of Classicism and
encouragement of any
its
ensuing influence was, in
authors of Late Antiquity by Neo-Latin authors
many
But
cases not escaped notice.
Antiquity for the Renaissance
is
can be attained. However,
this
it
a full understanding
lacking,
may be
and
much work
forty
from
this
of the importance of Late still
has to be
done before
now been
reached,
various circumstances in the
the study of Late Antiquity,
change. As a consequence,
students of Late Antiquity and those of the Renaissance will
or
pagan and Christian
that a turning point has
new broadening of interests precipitated by years or so. The study of Neo-Latin, but also
has immensely benefited
to
— beginning with Petrarch — have
thanks to a last
classical ones.^
opinion, the relation between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance has not
been studied adequately, although, of course, the references in
than
interests other
it is
now inevitable
that
meet each other sooner
later.
In outline, the following subjects will be treated in this paper. explain why, in studies
is
my
essential for the future
turn to Aeneas Silvius, in connection
First,
I
briefly
view, the integration of Late Antiquity into the whole of Latin
first
development of (Neo-)Latin
calling to
mind some of the
with the theme of this paper.
I
studies. Thereafter,
decisive
moments of his
I
life
then give an impression of the specific
and authors which he recommended to young students, and of his vision of the development of the Latin literary tradition. The final part of the paper consists of a
texts
two examples showing
brief treatment of
Antiquity. Before difficult to stay
I
from Christian authors of Late
influences
begin with these points,
I
should Uke to enter a caveat:
within the boundaries of each consecutive historical period.
orous modern division into epochs such
Middle Ages and so on
more problematic,
is
as Classical
a relatively late invention,
it
will
Our
be
rig-
Antiquity, Late Antiquity, the
and
is
now becoming more and
since students are less inclined to keep within such traditionally
prescribed areas. For Aeneas Silvius, at any rate, the separating lines between historperiods were always rather vague.
ical
^
On
this subject, see
wee en wel van len voor
Z.
Von
Martels, "Begrafenis en wederopstanding: een studie naar bet
het Neolatijn in de negentiende en twintigste eeuw," in Limae labor
Fokke Akkerman
ter
et
mora: opstel-
gelegenheid van zijn zeventigste verjaardag, ed. idem, P. Steenbakkers,
A. Vanderjagt (Leende, 2000), 220-232.
and
ZWEDER. one often
Still,
defined
quity spring to mind: are
With
it.
names such
a
is
AUertums,
as
by the circumscribing
the
title
as Virgil,
of truth in
among
(a)
may seem
these
modem
As compared with
is
to imply that
times of ours,
only a shadow
and used
ourselves, the humanists read
the authors of the past in a quite diflferent way, and for quite other purposes. In
they did
this
not so
rather in order to
into public
much
make
fact,
for the sake of intellectual studies within small circles, but
way
a
fa-
Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, and Tacitus. These
pagan antiquity. Unfortunately, there
(c)
this supposition.
for-
of Georg Voigt's
authors of pagan Anti-
that, in essence, the great
convenient and pleasant similarity
the Renaissance, and
(b)
des classischen
the authors taught at our schools today, and this fact
still
there
605
finds the Italian Renaissance designated
mulation of Die Wiederbelebung
mous book once
VON MARTELS
for themselves outside the walls of the university
and
Furthermore, the canon of authors studied by the humanists was not
life.
by the normative and aesthetic ideas of the nineteenth century, but was one which had grown out of the Middle Ages. In general terms we may say that the
constricted
present
volved
is
to a great extent
first
determined by
its
immediate
past:
we
ourselves are in-
and foremost in an ongoing debate with the views of our parents and our
not too distant forebears;
generous reckoning,
at a
or three centuries. If this rule doing, therefore, was
bound
Middle Ages. This means
is
to
conceded,
this dialectic
much of what
goes back a mere
be in reaction to the culture and tradition of the
that they
Uved
two
the Italian humanists were
in a Christian world,''
late
and one which had
an intellectual basis in Late Antiquity. Moreover, the ItaUan humanists were wont often to read about the esteemed authors of the classical age through the eyes of the
had helped to shape the
writers of Late Antiquity, while the latter, in their turn,
Middle Ages. Hence the
tend most readily to perceive that which
bUnd I
from SoUnus,
and ft-om commentators such
bius, Boethius,
we
firequent citations
to elements that are
unknown
as
we
Isidore of Seville,
have been taught, and
or strange to
us.
With
we
are often
these thoughts in mind,
attempt to bring a few corrections to the traditional perception of Aeneas
shall
Silvius Piccolomini, and, in so doing, try to direct attention
named by him
as
Petrarch, Salutati, also studied
bom
back to Late Antiquity.
which was later resome time Piccolomini studied under Filelfo, but Uke Bruni, Valla, Rudolf Agricola, and many other early humanists, he
Aeneas SUvius Piccolomini was
had
Macro-
Donatus and so on. Unfortunately,
in 1405, in Corsignano,
Pienza. For
law for
a couple
of
years. This fact
should not be underestimated,
even though, Uke many other humanists, he does not speak with enthusiasm about his
law
studies.
with
texts
both
Roman
Nonetheless,
it
of the Corpus Juris
of Justinian, and also with canon law based on
law and Christian doctrine. Both kinds of law had some of their main should also be noted that humanists could benefit firom
roots in Late Antiquity.
It
combination of studies,
as
dors, or those
was the study of law which brought them into contact Civilis
they sought careers for themselves
performing other public
fiinctions.
Some
as secretaries,
this
ambassa-
insight into the juridical
and
theological compHcations of the dealings of society was required in such professions.
*
and
See, in fact, Paul
its
Sources, ed.
Oskar
Michael
Kristeller,
"Paganism and Christianity," in idem. Renaissance Thought
Mooney (New
York, 1979), 66-81.
^
THE POSITION OF AUTHORS
606
and
this
proved to be no
less useful
IN
HUMANIST THOUGHT
than proficiency in Latin and
skill
in writing ele-
gant letters and orations. Thanks to their study of literature, humanists had sharpened
and
their historical perspective
new
themselves to
knowledge of law
interesting
famous
his
example of Piccolomini's intimate
letter to his father
concerning the
baby to
impecunious and aged parents,
his
of complaint. In appeasing
his father
had written him
derived from Boccaccio's Decameron, and also some
The
of the
skilful
letter in
way
which
these arguments appear
which Piccolomini used
in
of what he thought was prudent and
A
more
serious ones, firom the
name
Pius
tion with
II.
A
priest.
therefore, an excellent
is,
example
tradition in order to convince a reader
life
was
Fourteen years
his decision in
later,
was the unbending determina-
Already before the
his goal.
1444 to renounce the
he was elected pope, taking the
characteristic feature of his character
which he pursued
Teuto-
right.
sensational event in Piccolomini's
world and be ordained
letters
Piccolomini used some delightful arguments,
his father,
Bible, classical authors, and natural law, as found in the glosses of Johannes nicus.
ille-
which he had begotten by an English woman. After Piccolomini had
gitimate son sent the
be found in
to
is
and with ease to adapt
their ability to relativise
An
situations.
of Constantinople, in
fall
1453, he had decided that a crusade against the Turks ought to be organized, but, after the refusal
that
of
all
kings and princes to take up the cause, he,
he would have to lead the crusade himself
his crusader ship in 1464,
What more
still
keeps referring. In a letter of 5
Ancona
waiting in
did Piccolomini read?
One
deep love of Virgil, to
for imitation."
He
then recommends
Livy, Caesar, Virgil, and Pliny.
and Solinus, he
bius,
it.
also
As well
whom he
to Sigismund, king of Austria, Picco-
lomini gives us an idea of the other authors he valued.
be learned so that one has to unlearn
pope, decided
for departure.
recalls his
December 1443
as
he died on board
Fulfilling this duty,
He
states that
"nothing should
But we must always assume the best things
classical
authors such
as post-classical
as
ones such
mentions Christian ones such
Quintilian, Cicero, as
Vegetius,
as Isidore,
Macro-
Augustine,
Am-
brose, Gregory, and Lactantius, and he adds suggestions for specific disciplines such as
geography and agriculture. Greek writers are absent, except for
works and Plutarch's educational
no medieval
both in Latin
writings,
authors: according to Piccolomini,
'
own
time
as a
on the
relation
list
However, he
regards the culture
Siluio Piccolomini
und
1967), 103—108. For
die Jurisprudenz (Basel,
between law and humanism, see R. G. Witt,
The Origins of Humanism from Lovato
to
Bruni, Studies in Medieval
Briefwechsel des Eneas Silvius Piccolomini, Pontes
Rerum
191, esp. 189; for Johannes Teutonicus, see Gratian,
una cum
glossis
(Turin, 1620), col. 4,
s.v.
"Quid
sit
cussed in a separate article by the present author.
more
lit-
In the Footsteps of the Ancients:
and Reformation Thought 74
(Leiden, 2000), 92. For Piccolomini's letter to his father of September 20, 1443, see
Der
contains
Peter of Blois, and
continuation of Classical and Late Antiquity. This becomes clear
See G. Kisch, Enea
erature
The
Thomas Aquinas,
others should not be imitated, for they cannot teach.
of his
Aristotle's poUtical
translation.
R. Wolkan,
Austriacarum 61 (Vienna, 1909), 188-
Deaetum emendatum
et
notationibus illustratum,
ius naturale." Piccolomini's letter will
be
dis-
ZWEDER VON MARTELS when he recommends letter
on education
to
607
Francesco Barbaro's book on marriage, and
King
— other contemporary
Ladislaus
Piccolomini praised these ancient authors for the
fact that
—
in Piccolomini's
authors.*
they had laid the foun-
dations for various discipUnes; as such, they are the best teachers. For Piccolomini,
Antiquity forms a continuum, coming to an end only after the transformations ing Latin had
things past recovery. This picture
left
the development of the Latin language. Piccolomini, in his viris illustribus,
ment
of,
and
had attained
of Bruni in the De
life
notes that Latin has undergone continuous changes.
greatest fulness,
The embeUish-
had increased untU Cicero's time. At that point
interest in, Uterature its
aflfect-
corroborated by his sketch of
is
and was unable to grow any further;
it
this situation,
moreover, lasted until the time ofJerome and Gregory, though not without some diminishment;
Under
however,
after that,
perished completely.' As a result, Ciceronian
it
much looser and more
Latin was a
relative
concept for Piccolomini than for us today.
we
the influence of later developments,
are
accustomed to take the term "Ci-
more general tradition. The canon of authors mentioned by Piccolomini was meant for students and their teachers. He himself, however, followed another course. Twice he quotes Pliny the Elder's view that even the most foolish book contains something of value.*^ We should therefore not be surprised to find in Piccolomini's works many (often hidden) borrowings fi-om writings of contemporaries, and a considerable number of medieval ceronian Latin" Uterally, and not
authors
as well.
There was
a
He
as a
designation for a
often used these authors
as a
source of inspiration!
continuous debate in the Renaissance about the important question
of whether Christians should be allowed to read pagan authors. After he had become a bishop,
Piccolomini did not avoid
approach to
life,
his
this issue in his letters
might
historical
same what one
things, and, at the
armed him
time, in the permanent value of particular virtues, had
against
ideological philosophers and theologians. Rather, he followed eclectic
call
thinkers
and orations. His
beUef in the changing nature of material
Uke Cicero and Phny the Elder, and in so doing he sought advice from the
Christian defenders of these
Romans,
Jerome, Ambrose, and
These great men had allowed pagan
Basil.
only with a discerning mind.
The
for example, the
Church
Fathers such as texts to
Sts.
be read,
if
reason for this permission was that pagan literature
could also help one to distinguish between vice and virtue.' Such passages show that
'
Letter of Aeneas Silvius to
Briejwechsel,
222—236,
vius's letter to wechsel, pt. 2, '
King
esp.
Duke Sigismund of Austria, of 5 December
228-231. For
Ladislaus entitled
a
De
more
1443, in Wolkan,
extensive educational programme, see Aeneas Sil-
liberorum educatiotie,
of February 1450,
in
Wolkan,
Briej-
103-158.
E. S. Piccolomini,
De
viris illustribus,
ed. A.
van Heck, Studi e
testi
341 (Citta del Vatican©,
1991), 34. *
For Pliny the Elder's
attitude, see Pliny the
quotation, see Aeneae Syluii Pii 11 scriptionem praefacio in
non
afferat aliquid
Pontificis
Maximi
Younger,
Opera omnia (Basel, 1571; repr.
emolumenti." In
his letter to
Epistulae, 3.5.10.
in historiam
Frankfiirt, 1967),
King
Ladislaus
adds that Pliny's words do not apply to children (see Wolkan, '
See Aeneas Silvius's
letter to
For Piccolomini's
rerum ubique gestan4m locorumque de-
"nee
liber tarn ineptus, qui
of February 1450, Piccolomini
Brieju>echsel,
103-158,
Zbigniew Olesnicki of 27 October 1453
in
esp. 144).
Wolkan,
Brief-
THE POSITION OF AUTHORS
608
Piccolomini, after his ordination, had led out
from
Moral
tradition.
become more
much
reasons, as
arguments in the defence of pagan
HUMANIST THOUGHT
IN
selective in
as practical ones,
what was to be singbecame the decisive
literature.
The Bible, Church Fathers, and ecclesiastical literature had an ever greater effect upon Piccolomini's mind as he grew older and wiser; the Commentarii, composed during his papacy, are proof of this. Philological studies have been made of passages such
mentioning the boat race
as that
Virgil's Fifth
Book of the
drawn any
authors have hardly
to integrate elements
time and again
strikes us
much
his Christian conviction, tries, as
from the pagan and Christian
by Christian
passages inspired
Two
traditions.
that Pius,
is
as possible,
may
examples
Piccolomini was fascinated with the idea of personal glory, which had
suffice. First,
preoccupied Cicero and before his election
Sallust,
but
after
them many ambitious men
pope, Piccolomini was aware
as
form of the idea of
Fathers, the classical
Christian belief that one's soul lives
company of blessed
joining the
numerous
What
attention.
without distancing himself from
model of
the Lago di Bolsena after the
at
Aeneid,^" but the
on
Long
fame was incompatible with the
earthly
after death, either suffering a
spirits, as
as well.
according to the Church
that,
wretched
a consequence of which we, in
our
lot or
actions,
should be preoccupied with the future of our soul and not with temporary fame on
But
earth.
in the preface to his Commentaries,^^ Pius, with a sense of realism,
bines the best of both ways of thinking.
He
death souls do not benefit from the reputation they the other hand, he adds that
may have enjoyed on
cannot be denied that while
it
com-
confirms the Christian beUef that after
men
earth.
On
live they take pleas-
ure in the glory of the present, which they hope will continue after death. So glory
becomes
—
seems, in the footsteps of Augustine'^
as it
—
for brilliant intellects, and, as Pius emphatically adds, an
hope of heavenly
the
endure
whom almost
wechsel, pt. 3,
all
men
315-347,
Orationes politicae
The thought of
life.
This
criticism.
is
342
et ecdesiasticae,
'"
(Pius
II.),
"
mum
see, Kristeller,
Norbert Seeber,
ff.;
For the
.
D. Mansi,
ed., Pii
II.
For the importance of
"Paganism and Christianity,"
easier for
but praise
P.M. olim Aeneae
Basil's
esp. 73,
such
spirits
to
Pope of Rome,
when he
is
dead.
Piccolominei Senensis ff.
{Oratio II Habita
defence of the reading of the
272
(n. 25).
"Kommentaren"
des
Enea
Silvio Piccolomini
Commentationes Aenipontanae 30 (Innsbruck, 1997). ed. A.
van Heck, 2
translation, see
memorabilium que temporibus vols., Studi e testi
The Commentaries of Pius
Gabel (Northampton, 1937-1957), '^
J.
among them,
Eriea Vergilianus: Vergilisches in den
Pii II commentarii renim
editi,
it
3 vols. (Lucca, 1755-1759), 1:38-54, esp. 48
Basileae in Divi Ambrosii celebritate)
pagan poets,
glory makes
especially true, Pius continues, for the
abuse while he lives
esp.
a psychological incentive
even greater incentive than
For Augustine,
who
II:
suis contigerunt
ad codicum ftdem nunc
pri-
(Citta del Vaticano, 1984), 1: Praefatio.
Books I-XIII,
trans. F.
A. Gragg, intro. L. C.
9.
regarded glory
as a
reward and a compensation for the burdens con-
Vermeulen, The Semantic Development of Gloria in Earlychristianorum primaeva 12 (Nijmegen, 1956), 49. For the classical concept
nected with public responsibility, see A. Christian Latin, Latinitas
312-313
J.
oi gloria see A. D. Leeman, "Gloria: Cicero's waardering van de roem en haar achtergrond in de wijsbegeerte en de
Romeinse samenleving" (Ph.D.
diss..
University of Leiden, 1949).
ZWEDER VON MARTELS In this example, then,
we
609
witness the happy reconciliation of two formerly contra-
dictory views.
My
second example of the influence of Christian ideas on Piccolomini's thought
concerns the responsibihty and duty of princes. this issue
An
early formulation
of his views on
be found in the oration which he gave before Pope Nicholas
to
is
June 1452. There, on behalf of the German emperor, he asked the pope sion to organize a crusade against the Turks.
Cicero's
De
Combining
we
are told
were
5
three short passages of
worthy of
princes. It
the sake of enjoying the benefits of justice that the kings of the fore, as
on
the orator stated:
officiis,
Princes, says the [Prophet], should think things
lieves,
V
for permis-
by Herodotus, and the kings of
created, as the
men who ward
all
was for
Medes hereto-
peoples, as Cicero be-
who,
off injuries, and
if
they are
willing to hsten to the right precepts of the great Plato and other philosophers, will try to direct the
that
of those
who
management of the
are entrusted to
In other words, the king
and second, the king
is
is
state
not to their
own
interest
but to
them."
chosen by the people to protect the
not chosen to benefit from the
state,
latter
from
but the
injustice;
should
state
benefit firom the actions of the king.
From
his later actions, it
the duties of the emperor
He
cardinal and pope.
Turks. His
De Asia
chose
describes
is
as
clear that Piccolomini
of
as his
own
his
main
Europe. Only a crusade could redress at
task the defence
first
his thinking,
much
of as
constantly been threatened
this situation.
The
which Piccolomini show the evolution of
orations
which eventually led to his bold decision around 1462 that he himself army against the Turks, since otherwise no prince would
the Christian
be prepared to cardinals, in
as
bishop, later
been pushed back within the boundaries of
Frankfurt and Mantua, and on various other occasions,
would head
as
of Christemdom against the
how the Christian world had
since the rise of Islam and had finally
gave
was here thinking
responsibiHties,
fight for this holy goal. Interestingly, in his last great oration to his
November
1463, Pius
still
clung to his old conviction that the leader
is
responsible for his people; the leader should stand up for justice. This time, as he
spoke to
"
his cardinals,
he could not use Cicero's words, but he found assurance and
A. F. Kollarius, Analecta monumentomm omnis aevi Vindobonetisia, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1762), 1:76:
Aeneae
Silvii Episcopi Senetisis, qui postea
esp. 308: "Principes, inquit Sapiens,
Herodotus
inquit,
propulsatores,' qui
apud omnes, ut Cicero si
Platoni
obedire, 'procurationem
magno
single quotation marks. in
in TuTcos
from
Mansi,
A
Friderici III Imperatoris;
see
sensit,
justitiae
fruendae causa' sunt creati, 'injuriarum
voluerint auscultare, caeterisque Philosophis recta monentibus
Words
derived from Cicero's
slightly different (but
ed., Orationes politicae,
De
officiis,
sibi
commissi sunt,
2.41, 3.74
probably incorrect) version of
1:164 {Oratio X.
passagium parantem modis omnibus adjuvare
Isaiah 32:8 [Vg.].
remm
Rei Publicae non ad suam, sed ad eorum, qui
tem' convertere conabuntur."
found
Pius Papa Ilfuit, Historia
quae sunt digna Principe cogitabunt. 'Reges apud Medos,' ut
Ad Nicolaum
velit).
The
utilita-
and 1.85 are
this text
is
in
to be
V. PP. ut Caesarem Frideriatm
introductory words here are taken
THE POSITION OF AUTHORS
610
IN
HUMANIST THOUGHT
He
support in the traditional language of the church.
defend
his
Church from bad
spoke of the need to
who had
Christ,
The
just.'''
his papal
given
his life for the
a great
duty to
people in order to preserve what was right and
Church
from the pagan world of Cicero to the world of the
step
was not such
mentions
which he saw creeping in from all sides; he follow the martyrs of the Church, and of his desire to imitate influences,
one for
the European tradition
as a
man who was wont
a
Fathers
to extract the best elements
from
whole.
What has been said about the influence of the Christian authors of Late Antiquity on Piccolomini can easily be extended to non-Christian writers of that era. Solinus, for instance, a writer today almost unanimously reviled on account of his style and subject matter, was cited at least thirteen times in Pius's
him elsewhere
as a
confident that with some effort is
required, however,
is
we
to Latin literature during the last classical
As
far as
Piccolomini
as
is
he had called
his "Liebling"!"'
Friihrenaissance wie
.
the exclusive standard, to the detriment of
I
all
concerned, one should perhaps constantly keep
—
as
this
humanist
— whom,
in
one of his
let-
someone who "dem Normalmenschen der
wenige andere nahe kommt."'' In these words Burckhardt ex-
way
in
which Piccolo-
accordance with the intellectual culture of his time.'"
his talents in
This culture was grounded upon the as
he praised
the traditional approach taken
pressed his deep admiration for the harmonious and natural
mini had used
Asia; indeed
.
centuries, where, generally speaking, the great
mind how Jacob Burckhardt described
ters,
.
move away from
two
authors have been regarded
later periods.
in
shall easily find
the will to
De
non futilis auctor").'^ I am many more such examples. What
"not unreliable author" ("Solinus
have tried to demonstrate
many
layers
of the long Latin tradition, and
— Piccolomini, with
great
common
sense, left
—
none
of these layers unused.
''
Pit II commentarii rerum,
About
his role, see
2:764-775; The Commentaries of Pius
R. Vaughan,
Philip the
gundy (London, 1970). For a discussion of this period of Pius's G. Jongkees, "Pie et varia:
Keuze
uit
II
et Philippe le
trans.
Gragg, pp. 817-827.
A
life,
History of Valois Bur-
from
a different angle, see A.
Bon, deux protagonistes de I'union chretienne,"
de verspreide opstellen van prof.
zijn tachtigste verjaardag, ed. E.
II,
Good: The Apogee of Burgundy.
dr.
A. G. Jongkees hem aangehoden
O. van der WerfF, C. A. A.
Linssen,
ter
in Burgundica
gelegenheid van
and B. Ebels-Hoving (Hil-
versum, 1990), 172-190. '^
Josephus Cugnoni, Aeneae
chisianis vulgavit notisque illustravit '^
Ludwig von
'^
J. '*
Silvii Piccolomini Senensis
(Rome,
.
.
.
opera inedita descripsit ex codicibus
1883), 280.
Pastor, Tagehikher, Briefe, Erinnerungen, ed.
Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance
in Italien,
W. Wiihr
(Heidelberg, 1950), 273.
Gesamtausgabe 5
For an evaluation of Burckhardt's utterances, see B. Widmer, Enea
sittlichen
(Basel, 1930), 215. Silvio Piccolomini in der
und politischen Entscheidung, Basler Beitrage zur Geschichtswissenschaft 88 (Basel-Stuttgart,
1963), 1-3.
Index
Adrian VI, pope, 84, 596—602 passim
Aquinas, Thomas, 208, 309, 311, 312,
AeUan, 194, 196, 476
317, 318, 348, 349, 504, 505, 550n., 606
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II),
15, 116n., 126, 338n., 341n.,
342n., 574, 604-10 passim
Aratus, 50, 341 n., 342n.
Montano, Benito, 422, 436, 440,
Arias
Aesop, 116n., 351, 356 Agricola,
Rudolf,
587, 591
164-66,
168-70,
Ariosto, Orlando furioso, 214, 244, 383,
250, 505, 605
Agrippa,
433, 553n.
Heinrich
Cornelius,
von
Nettesheim, 279-86 passim, 431
Aristophanes, 161, 340n., 341n., 522 Aristode, 96, 98, 99, 163n., 193-94,
Leon Battista, 321, 545n., 546 Albertus Magnus, 195
196, 209, 231, 234, 242, 252,
Alberti,
275, 338n., 340n., 341n., 342n.,
alchemy, 105, 144
351, 575
Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 197, 198
Categories, 312, 349,
Aldus Manutius, 14-15, 17, 65, 66,
Ethics, 165,
68, 566n.
animalium,
Historia
Alexander VI, pope, 211
461
578 193-95,
26-27, 29-32, 34-41 pas-
Physics,
208, 210, 312
118-19, 231, 284,
Poetics,
153, 298, 478n.,
332, 343, 382, 445, 504, 506,
Politics,
453, 577, 606
allegory, 24,
sim, 115, 117,
510, 542, 545-53 passim Ambrose of Milan, 231, 34 In., 342n., 529, 606, 607
America,
see
New
Athanasius of Alexandria, 341n., 342n.
Athenaeus,
World, discovery
of,
Deipnosophistae,
Augustine of Canterbury, 347n.
317, 338n., 339, 340n., 341n.,
115-20, 540
349, 425, 505, 603, 606, 608
Anne, queen of England, 362
City of God, 231-32n., 432, 529,
567
Antipater of Sidon, 338n.
Antiphon, 410
Confessions,
Apollonius Rhodius, 338n., 340n., 34 In.
De
Appian, 34 In., 342n. Apuleius,
23-^1,
340n., 341n.
155—62
Augustine of Hippo, 218, 231, 235,
and conquest of Anjou, house
479
passim
Columbus, Christopher;
Mexico;
198,
275n.
283,
doctrina
208 Christiana,
212n.,
425,
504, 505
286,
338n.,
Aulus GeUius, 337n., 338n., 340n., 341n., 346
612
INDEX
Aurelius Victor
(ps.-) (historian),
484-
Boethius, 153, 213, 337n., 338n., 605
De
88 Ausonius, 377, 555 Mosella, 55, 338n.
Averroes (Ibn Rushd), 208 (Ibn
160
Boileau, Nicolas, 474, 478, 479, 480,
autobiography, 161-62, 1S1-S5 passim
Avicenna
musica,
Boiardo, Matteo Maria, 115
208,
Sina),
481 Bonaventure, 208
338n.,
Brant, Sebastian, 337, 339, 341,
342-
44
340n., 341n.
Bruni, Leonardo, 126, 427, 574, 605
Bacon, Francis, 241, 243, 367
Buchanan, George, 151—53, 348
Bacon, Roger, 208 Badius
Ascensius,
Bude, Guillaume, 201-5, 250, 343 Jodocus,
337—44
Bussi,
Mantuanus, 337—44 passim,
Baptista
Giovanni Andrea, 8-12, 36-37
Byzantine
passim
literature,
161,
351, 429,
275,
346,
592
561, 562
Barbaro, Ermolao, 12, 13, 17, 18, 250
Caesar, Julius,
128,
Baronius, Cardinal, 158
Callimachus, 171, 175
Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 194
Calvin, John, 128, 591
Bartolini, Riccardo,
559
Barzizzio, Gasparino, Basil
Capilupi, Lelio,
419-26 passim
of Caesarea, 165, 607
Bayle, Pierre,
1,
Carroll, Lewis, 287,
204
de
357
Casas,
las
295
Bartolome, 313,
Isaac,
155-62 passim
Cassiodorus, 527, 530, 532
Pietro, 49, 449,
559
Castiglione, Baldassare, 560,
n
Berger, Elias, 535-43 passim
Bernardus
Silvestris,
546
Beroaldo,
Filippo,
12,
cortegiano,
562
310, 449—54 passim
Cato the Elder, 340n., 34 In., 346, 13,
16,
17,
347, 505 Catullus, 67-68, 158n., 168, 171, 179,
337n.
commentary on Apuleius,
23, 24,
34, 36, 37-41 passim
291, 338n., 340n., 410, 557 Celtis,
Conrad, 187, 431, 519, 574
Bessarion, Cardinal, 9, 10
Censorinus, 209-10
Bible, 27, 122, 182, 210, 235, 279-80,
Cervantes, Miguel de,
285, 316, 338n., 339, 340, 341,
342, 351-52, 493, 501n., 503-8, 536, 576, 578, 587, 591, 606, 608; see also Genesis
Blondel,
319,
576, 581
Casaubon,
Bede, 208, 235
Bembo,
377-83 passim
Caro, Rodrigo, 435—42 passim
Beatus Rhenanus, 18-19, 353, 35455,
348,
349, 388, 568, 606
Barbaro, Francesco, 2
Franfois-Nicolas,
passim
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 21, 23, 24, 29-
I,
king of England, 253—54,
256-62, 364 II,
icing
of England, 282
Charles V, emperor, 17, 83-101, 211, 274, 275, 279, 312, 330-34, 575, 588, 596, 597, 598
33 passim, 40, 115-16, 119, 233,
Christian V, king of
244, 341n., 342n., 494
Christianization,
Decameron, 606
Quixote,
443, 515 Charles
Charles
474-81
Don
Norway, 466
literary,
11,
26—27,
31-33, 36, 38, 165, 229, 231-32,
INDEX
236, 415-16, 447, 457, 476, 546,
613
Dantiscus (Dantiszek), Jan, 187, 555—
551-52, 561, 567, 578, 582, 605, 607-8, 610
63 passim Leonardo,
Dati,
Delia Porta, Giambattista, 306
338n., 339, 340n., 341n., 343,
Descartes,
604, 605, 606, 607, 608, 610
Herennium
(ascr.),
Amicitia, 165,
10,
122,
168,
346n., 573, 577, 578, 579n., 580
419-26 passim
337n.
Siculus, 338n., 340n.,
Diogenes
Laertius, 164, 340n., 341n.,
poem,
1 1
552—53
Dionysius of Halicamassus, 297, 521
Donatus (grammarian), 338n., 340n., 341n., 605
Donne, John, 357
24—25, 43—60 pas-
145— 53pfl55«m, 175, 177,
Dousa, Janus, 591 drama, 145—53 passim, 303—10 passim,
371-76
passim,
457, 479-80, 515, 526, 527, 530,
409-17
passim,
532-33, 561, 567, 569, 604
509-15
Claudian, 153, 341n., 342n., 542, 555
Duns
Clement VI, pope, 118 Clement VII, pope, 96, 211, 331, 561,
Edward
577, 598, 600, 601 VIII, pope,
395—408 443—48
520
passim,
passim, 517, 521
Scotus, 208
elegiac
king of England,
VI,
286,
poetry,
171—80 passim, 184,
194, 332, 555, 565
Coluccio Salutati, 2, 551, 605 Columbus, Christopher, 49, 54, 273, 275-76 Constantine, emperor, legend
of,
538,
539, 541
Elizabeth
Franciscus,
I,
queen of England, 362,
409, 411,416, 591, 593
England, Latin
in,
253—62 passim, 303—
10 passim, 361—69 passim, 395—
408
Copernicus, Nicholas, 188
passim,
409—17
passim;
595—602
Ennius, 338n., 340n., 341n., 346, 426
Eobanus Hessus, Helius,
Cromwell, Ohver, 364, 369 Cyprian of Carthage, 603
185,
Dante Ahghieri, 115, 291, 493, 548-
431,
494, 498 epic poetry, 229, 298, 300, passim, 332, 366n., 460,
560
see
also individual authors
passim
49, 550n., 552n.,
passim,
584-85, 586, 588, 589, 590, 592
Colonna, Fabio, 198
van Cranevelt,
550
Dionysius Thrax, 338n.
179, 277, 366, 367, 436, 438,
Clement
(ps.-),
Dionysius Exiguus, 208
5—20 passim
Clairambault, Louis, 57 classicism, literary,
341
Doissin, Louis, 59
Tusculan Disputations,
sim, 62,
Diodorus
Dioscorides, 157, 198, 338n.
Pro Milone, 348, 423
Cinthias,
235,
passim,
299, 301, 302, 332
Dionysius the Areopagite
(Epistulae),
Philippics,
passim, 241,
351
210
Oratorical works,
43—60
poetry,
didactic
349, 609
Officiis,
Inventione,
Letters
431
Rene, 217-27
242
420-22, 425-
26, 521
De De De
150-51,
147,
213, 232, 235, 252, 259, 297,
345-46, 351, 521, 567-68, 603,
Ad
145,
321—26 passim
Cicero, 100, 122, 123, 165, 180, 211,
passim,
537—43
passim,
322-26 493-501
558
Epicureanism, 163, 170, 225
INDEX
614
epigram, 66, 332-34, 351-59 passim,
361-69 passim, 388, 438, 439-41,
epistolography,
352,
573-82
passim, 555,
pas-
100-1, 152, 156-57, 166, 169, 183, 201-5, 249-50,
351,
Francesco, 9, 12, 271, 341n.,
342n., 574, 605 in,
23,
33—34,
166-68, 321, 323 Florus (historian), 483, 484
555, 557-58, 589
Erasmus of Rotterdam, 94, 96—97,
343,
Filelfo,
Florence, scholarship
epithalamium, 301, 302, 517-18, 521,
sim,
338n.,
(historian),
545n., 552n., 574
274—75,
272,
595—602 passim
sim,
Pompeius
340n., 341, 342n. Ficino, Marsilio, 164-65, 166-67, 452,
513, 555
Epiphanius of Salamis, 521
385-93
Festus
263-70 pas429,
353,
436,
404-5
football, in Latin, 400,
48—
Fracastoro, Girolamo, Syphilis, 44, 50, 53, 55n., 57
Frederick
III,
emperor, 433
556, 562, 577, 585, 596, 598,
Frederick of Aragon, 565—71 passim
600, 603
Fulgentius, 23, 24-27, 30, 34-35, 38, 40, 41, 546, 551
Adagia, 514, 592, 593 Antibarbari, 2 Colloquies,
Gager, William, 409-17 passim
282
epigram.s, 351,
Exomologesis, Letters, 17,
353
Gambara, Lorenzo, 58
201-4, 371, 574, 580n.,
581, 595, 600-1 Ratio
.
.
.
verae
59
Galileo,
263—70 passim
Gaza, Theodore,
book
Genesis,
theologiae,
503—8
8, 10,
of,
as
208, 214
model, 26, 27,
35, 58, 281, 284, 285, 538,
Praise of Folly, 282, 283, 286, 356,
George
II,
king of England, 362
George of Trebizond, 429
358, 460
ethnography, 525-33 passim
Gesner, Conrad, 197, 198
Eton College, 367, 395
Giannettasio,
(sophist), 591,
Nicolo Parthenio, 54,
57, 58
Eugenius IV, pope, 321, 323 Eunapius
567
Geoponica, 157
passim
Gilbert and Sullivan, in Latin, 402
593
Euripides, 134, 150, 152, 153, 161
Eutropius (historian), 484
Giovio, Paolo
(Paulus Jovius),
195,
215n.
Eusebius of Caesarea, 338n., 341n.,
342n.
Giraldi, Lilio Gregorio, golf, in Latin,
207-16 passim
403-4
Greek Anthology, 351, 355 Fabricius
Montanus, loannes, 181—85
passim
332—35 passim
Fellon, Thomas, 55-56
Ferdinand and
court
304,
Isabella,
and
of,
427, 429, 504-5, 578, 581
Gregory
monarchs of
I
(the Great), pope,
272-73,
Gregory Naziazen, 158 Grotius, Hugo, 385-93 passim
208-15,
431-33,
Guarini, Battista, 126 Guarini, Guarino, 7, 419n., 428, 431,
525n. Ferrara-Florence, Council
347n.,
606, 607
Castile,
274n., 275 Ferrara,
as cultural factor,
345-46, 351, 354, 362, 365, 388,
Falco, Jaime Juan, 329,
Aragon
Greek language,
of,
321
432, 577n.
INDEX
Gustav Vasa, king of Sweden, 301,
615
Isocrates,
468
525, 527
James Heinsius, Daniel, 473
Henry
VIII,
icing
of England, 352,
356-57, 372, 373, 584, 589
James
Herodotus, 193, 196, 198, 338n., 339,
542 340n., 341n., 342n., 504-5, 578,
338n.,
340n.,
603, 607
341n.,
342n., 581
Jesuits,
historiography, 123-24, 126-27, 128-
188-91, 271, 535-36, 575,
29,
577, 592, 593
Homer,
157,
339,
341n.,
342n.,
365,
410, 460, 542, 548, 581
581
493-501 passim
552n., 568
497
2,
III,
king of Sweden, 301
John Chrysostom, 157, 158 Jonson, Ben, 304, 307, 357 Josephus, 338n., 340n., 341, 342n.
Juhus
II,
Juhus
III,
127
pope, 70n., 76, 188 pope, 92, 528
341, 530 Juvenal,
473-81, 555, 557 poetica,
59, 443-48,
Justin (historian), 338n., 339, 340n.,
340, 341, 343, 366, 432, 438,
Ars
57,
John, king of Portugal, 349-50
Horace, 165, 184, 233, 338n., 339,
humanism,
56,
Antiquitates Judaicae,
Odyssey, 49, 53, 350, 548n., 549n.,
in Latin, 493, 496,
55,
Jordanes, 527, 529
Uiad, 172, 350, 464, 517, 568n.,
in Latin,
54,
475, 478, 495n., 509-15, 535
John
176, 229, 234, 338n.,
340,
king of England, 368
Jerome, 15, 165, 210, 213, 231, 338n.,
340n., 341, 609 50,
II,
Janus Pannonius, 428, 431-33, 540,
Herbert, George, 253—62 passim, 364
Hesiod,
king of England, 258-60, 303,
I,
306, 307, 363
11,
12,
337n.,
338n., 339,
340, 341, 477
298, 299, 464, 477 11, 12, 13, 69,
72-73,
Kaempfer, Engelbert, 13 1-3S passim
124, 126, 128, 165-70, 183, 185,
201-5,
232,
239-46,
249-52,
Lactantius, 338n., 340n.,
34 In., 342n.,
346, 606
271, 277, 297, 300, 301, 307, 310, 321, 351, 352, 353-55, 356,
Landino, Cristoforo, 15, 545— 53 passim
427-34, 435-36, 494, 515, 525-
Latin language, as cultural factor, 14,
33, 556-62, 583, 594, 595-96,
303-10, 329, 335, 354, 361-69,
603—6;
435-38, 441, 444, 446, 449-54,
see also individual localities
Hungary, scholarship
in,
428-31, 433,
535-43
510-13, 606, 607
605-6
law, study of,
Huygens, Constantijn, 390
Le Febvre, Fran^ois-Antoine, 57
hymnography, 555, 561-62
Leo X, pope,
85,
86,
87,
95,
188,
213-14, 301, 561 lamblichus, 164
Innocent VIII, pope, 272 Inquisition, 94-95, 121-22, 127, 275,
309, 348, 576 Isidore of Seville, 194, 208, 212, 231,
429, 504, 604, 605, 606
Leto,
Pomponio (Pomponius Giulio,
13,
Laetus),
271, 341n., 342n.,
427, 430, 431
Lhomond, Charles
Francois,
passim Lipsius, Justus, 436, 479,
523
483—91
INDEX
616
On
"Longinus",
the Sublime, 152, 473,
Mexico, scholarship
311-19
477, 478, 479, 480
in,
passim,
121— 29 passim,
494
Lotichius Secundus, Petrus, 182, 184
Middleton, Thomas, 307
Louis XIV, king of France, 53, 59,
Milton, John, 368, 455-62 passim
204, 365, 368 338n.,
236,
232,
Livy,
340n.,
339,
341, 483, 484-91 passim,
513,
606 Lucan,
More, Thomas, 201, 203-4, 205, 595 De tristitia Christi, 371-76 passim Epigrammata, 351-59 passim Letters,
De
229,
Bella
Civile,
149n.,
153,
339,
340,
338n.,
337n.,
595n.
Utopia, 282, 351, 358,
372
Muret, M.-A., 152-53 Muslims, war against, 272—73, 274n.,
341, 342, 542 Lucas, Jean, 59
330, 331, 332, 333, 366, 433,
Lucian, 36, 351
537, 538, 540, 541, 542, 566,
Lucilius,
571, 599n., 606, 609
346
Lucretius, 45, 50, 65, 203, 210, 213,
233n., 338n., 339n., 341n.
Luther,
83-101,
Martin,
128,
250,
266, 269, 335, 429, 598
Machiavelli, Nicolo,
Nabokov, Vladimir, 287—95 passim Nebrija, Antonio de, 249, 250, 514 Netherlands (Low Countries), scholarship in the, 385-93 passim, 583— 94 passim, 595—602 passim
127, 322,
126,
New
450 Macrobius, Commentary on Scipio,
54,
15,
the
Dream of
208,
204,
211,
338n., 340n., 432, 548, 605, 606
Magnus, Olaus, 193-99 passim, 525—33
World, discovery and conquest of, 45, 49, 54,
Noceti, Charles, 57
Marius Victorinus, 211
Norway,
Marmion, Shakerly, 35
sim,
11,
12,
341,
13,
scholarship in,
193—99 pas-
463-72 passim
68, 333, 338n.,
351,
342n.,
440,
Martianus Capella, 24, 30, 34, 338n., 419, 422-23
of,
208
Ovid, 50, 171-72, 180, 184, 337n., 338n., 339, 340, 341, 342, 343,
Marullus, Michael, 62-68 passim, 74,
558-59
410, 411, 412, 416, 500, 555,
605
Mary I, queen of England, 589, 590 Mary Queen of Scots, 348-49 Mary, Virgin, veneration
Ockham, WiUiam
onomastics, 427—34 passim
555, 591
77,
Columbus,
Nicander, 56
Manilius, 48, 160, 203
340n.,
also
Christopher
Nicholas V, pope, 449, 609
passim
Martial,
273-77, 311-19,
331, 530—31; see
of,
285—86,
438, 441
Amores, 293
Ars Amatoria, 172 Fasti,
176, 214, 432
Metamorphoses, 47-48, 49, 51n., 52,
de'Medici, Cosimo, 166—68
54n., 56, 58, 60, 147, 149, 153,
de'Medici, Lorenzo, 546, 553
213, 409, 414, 416, 417, 523,
Melanchthon, Philipp, 121-29 passim, 182, 183, 184, 348, 429
Merula, Giorgio, 9-10, 12, 13
551 Tristia,
514
106,
107,
143,
184,
185,
INDEX
617
Paladino, Paolo, 565—71 passim
Pliny the Younger,
Pasquali Marinelli, Giuseppe, 493—501
Plutarch,
passim
351,
115-20, 173, 175-76, 235-
pastoral,
558
36, 462, 521,
patristics, see individual authors
Patrizi,
PaulII, pope,
Paul
8,
211, 322
Poggio Bracciohni,
2,
Poland, scholarship
in,
16,
73,
72,
18,
12,
172,
13,
208,
Polybius, 162, 346, 568n.
Pontano, Giovanni, 47—48, 50, 52, 53,
476
68, 71, 116, 17
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, 83-84, 85,
429, 557
86-88, 271-78 passim, 530-31 Petrarch (Petrarca), Francesco, 15, 28, 52, 115, 182, 214,
"sodahtas" 7,
Porphyry,
229-
Isagoge,
2,
37 passim, 244, 411, 427, 429, 560, 573, 574, 604, 605 viris illustrihus,
485
of,
208,
61—82 passim
Praedicabilibus,
349
312
printing, impact of, 7-8, 11, 94,
Priscian, 74, 340n.,
240-
34 In., 342n.
Procopius, 391, 527
humanism;
see
De
ISO passim,
41, 347, 348, 355
552
vita solitaria,
philology,
187—91 passim,
555—63 passim
passim,
Persius, 337n., 338n., 339, 340n., 341n.
De De
36, 203
249, 250, 322, 494, 557, 574
Paul the Deacon, 527, 529 Pausanias,
567,
577n., 606
15,
Paul IV, pope, 588
34 In.,
532-33,
Pohtian (Angelo Poliziano),
pope, 90, 91, 92, 381
III,
573, 607n.
340n.,
478,
452,
517-23
Francesco, 10, 530
Letters,
338n.,
127,
textual
Propertius,
173—79 passim,
171, 172,
338n., 340n., 555
criticism
Pico della Mirandola, Gianfirancesco,
561
Protestantism, 83-101 passim,
121-29
passim, 143, 144, 158-59,
Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 13, 250, 371, 374
181-
82, 250, 254, 266, 282, 286, 301,
302, 308, 309, 310, 331, 332,
Pindar, 338n., 473—81 passim
378, 379, 380, 381. 525, 529-30,
Pirckheimer, WiUibald, 354
532,
Pius V, pope, 504
596, 600; see also Luther, Martin
Bartolommeo, 430 163-70 ;ja55JfM, 210, 211, 338n.,
578,
541,
583-94
passim,
Platina,
Prudentius, 152, 341n., 342n., 555
Plato,
Ptolemy, Geographia, 188, 340n., 34 In.
340n., 341n., 342n., 351, 452,
458, 609
Protagoras,
Plautus,
Quevedo, Francisco 349
Parmenides,
453n.
217-27
470, 477, 522
157,
298,
300,
301,
337n.,
473, 475, 476, 477, 478, 603,
Elder, Historia naturalis, 7—21 56,
297,
338n., 340n., 341n., 342n., 346,
347, 419-21, 424, 425, 426, 440,
Plethon, George Gemistus, 429
passim,
329—33, 334,
Quintilian, Institutiones oratoricae, 2, 73,
passim, 306n., 338n.,
340n., 341n., 342n., 351, 436,
Phny the
de,
335
193-94,
196,
606 Quintus Curtius, 338n., 340n., 342n.
275, 338n., 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 346, 526, 528, 529, 578,
606, 607
Ramus, Petrus 425
(Pierre de la
Ramee),
INDEX
618
Rapin, Rene, 52-54, 57, 473, 475, 478, 479 see
Martin;
Luther,
Reuchlin, Johann, 279
242-
43, 249, 251, 253-62, 297, 298,
300, 349, 419-26, 429, 478, 504,
513-14 596, 597-602 passim
emperor, 105, 109, 139,
II,
435-42 509-15
142,
535-36,
143,
537,
542-43
573-82
121-29
passim, 337n., 338n.,
340n., 341n., 608
passim,
153, 229, 338n., 339, 340n.,
Stephen
king of Hungary, 537, 538—
I,
39, 541
Stoicism, 99, 163, 170, 346,
339,
338n.,
340,
416 341,
439,
568n. Strozzi, Filippo, 17, 18
Sannazaro, Jacopo, 61— S2 passim, 115,
Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano,
431-32
Suda, the, 161, 592
173, 561
Sanudo, Marino, 567, 570n., 571 Sappho, 107, 108, 110-11, 112, 338n. satire,
passim, 556, 560,
341, 432, 555, 557
Strabo, Sallust,
passim,
passim,
passim Statins,
7, 8, 13,
247—52 443—48
Spain, scholarship in,
rhetoric, 44, 124-26, 201, 241,
140,
Solinus, 338n., 340n., 341, 604, 605,
606, 610
Protestantism
Rudolf
pope, 196
I,
Sixtus IV, pope, 11
Reformation,
Rome,
Sixtus
303-10,
332,
352,
356-57,
Suetonius,
15,
339n.,
231,
340n.,
341n., 342n., 568
Sweden, scholarship
in,
193— 99 passim,
301-2, 525—33 passim
380-83, 513-14, 555
Saxo Grammaticus, 527, 529, 531 Scaevola (Scevole), 58—59 Scaliger,
Tacitus, 259, 341n., 342n., 527, 528,
533, 604, 605
Joseph Justus, 160
Scaliger, Julius Caesar, 298, 357, 473,
477, 478, 479, 523
Tasso, Torquato, 244, 383, 495n., 525n.
science, 45, 193-99, 271, 276,
Seneca,
145,
146,
149-51,
Tarillon, Francois, 56
578
152-53,
Terence,
182,
233, 337n., 338n., 340n., 341n.,
346, 515
351, 409-17 passim, 514n., 568,
Andria, 290
604, 605
parodies
Sepulveda, Juan Gines de, 83, 89—101 passim, 313, 316,
573-82 passim
Servius, 74, 338n., 339, 340, 341, 342,
343, 432, 499
Shakespeare, William, 308n., 357, 461
408
in Latin, Troilus
and Cressida, 304
Sigismund Sigismund
king of Poland, 187-91
I,
passim,
557—58
III,
Silius Italicus,
king of Poland, 520 338n., 340n., 341, 514
Simonides, 338n., 345
244,
290,
291,
of,
396—408
passim, 515
textual criticism, 7-21, 128, 156—62,
171, 573
Letters,
213,
337n., 338n., 339n., 340, 341n.,
271, 494, 503-8, 520-21, 578,
592 Theocritus, 339n., 340n., 341n., 366,
521 Theophrastus, 339n., 340n., 34 In.
Thomas, Loup, 59 Thucydides, 34 In., 342n. Tibullus, 171, 172, 184, 338n., 339n.,
341n., 342n., 433, 555, 560 tragedy,
145— 53 passim, 409— 17 passim
Trent, Council
of,
91, 92, 121, 504,
525, 530, 561, 562, 586
INDEX
Urban VI, pope,
619
Vice, Giambattista, 219, 239-46 passim
117, 119
Marco Girolamo,
Vida,
Maximus,
Valerius
337n.,
338n.,
340n., 341n., 342n., 483, 484,
Lorenzo,
116n.,
124,
341n.,
494,
73,
15,
340n.,
339,
126,
On
298,
514, 605
the
Art of Poetry /De Arte
Chess, 44, 57
Silkworm Raising, 50—52, 57
Rhetorica,
44
Vincent of Beauvais, 194 visual art, 33-34,
Vaniere, Jacques, 54—55
Poetica,
298-301
On On
552n. Valla, Giorgio, 13 Valla,
Christias,
300, 301, 542
Valerius Flaccus, 339n.
197, 199, 214-25,
236, 330-32, 465, 521, 536-37
Varro. 210, 211, 231, 338n., 340n.,
Vitoria,
Francisco
de,
311,
312—13,
315n., 318, 319
432, 514 Vegetius, 339n., 606
Venice, printing
at,
Vitruvius, 339n.
7—8, 13
Veracruz, Fray Alonso de
Vives, Juan Luis, 198, 201, 204, 250,
la,
311—19
574, 579n., 595
Vergil (Virgil), 50, 184, 234, 235, 244,
297,
309,
326,
337n.,
338n.,
339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 349, 377, 379, 382, 383, 432, 439, 542, 555, 604, 605, 606 Aeneid, 48, 49, 149n., 153, 168n.,
236, 259, 297, 298, 332n., 380,
410, 497, 498, 499-500, 545-53
king of England, 362,
writers,
105-13, 140-41
Xenophon, 116n.
380, 447, 521
52,
45—47
53,
56,
passim, 48, 49, 60,
297, 298,
299, 300, 348, 380, 500
legend
III,
364-65, 366, 368
115, 117, 172, 299, 322,
Georgics, 43,
51,
William
women
608
passim, Eclogues,
Walpole, Robert, 367-69
Wapowski, Bernard, 187-91 passim Weston, Elizabeth Jane (Westonia), 105-13 passim, 139-44 passim Westminster School, 395—408 passim
of,
232, 532
Veschambez, Guillaume, 59
Zamoyski, Jan, 517—23 passim Zoilus, 339n.
Zwingli, Ulrich, 90
