‘Hinc Habitat Regina Voluptas’: Literary Sources of Book III of Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus’ Zodiacus vitae (1536)

Abstract

Summary This article explores the literary sources of Book III of Zodiacus vitae, a philosophical poem by Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus. Publish in Venice in 1536, it was banned by Inquisition and condemned to oblivion in its native Italy. The infamy of the work in Italy was in stark contrast with the popularity it enjoyed in early modern Europe, including Poland. Book III (Gemini), which contains the work’s best passages, tells the story of the poet’s journey to the Garden of Lust (Voluptas), filled with a series of allegorical figures, where he was lectured on the nature of pleasure and its uses. In this way the garden is turned into Humanist locus docendi. The article tries to explain the main philospohical sources and contexts of this learned debate.