Les <i>Transformacions</i> del poeta Ovidi segons la versió de Francesc Alegre: el mite de Pigmalió

Abstract

Only in precious incunabula from 1494 has a Catalan version/translation and detailed commentary of Ovid's Metamorphoses ("Transformations") survived, the author of which, Francesc Alegre, is one of the last Catalan humanists. The inaccessibility of the work, which failed to be published in the last century, means that the work and its author remain almost unknown. With reference to this fact, Lola Badia has recently rejected the superficiality of the few, almost exclusively negative judgments about Alegre and his work. The detailed analysis of a small section from this work, namely the Pygmalion myth, and the comparison with the original text (Met. X 238-297) already reveal high linguistic and literary quality: Ovid's art of storytelling does not lose its vividness in Alegre's wordy prose version, and even if the paraphrase, which was still common in the 15th century, determines the rendering of the Ovidian saga, the clear effort to remain true to the content of the original is noticeable; it is not uncommon for individual accurate formulations to be noticed that correspond exactly to the original. Alegre's seemingly modern considerations of the task of translation show that such an approach is thoroughly reflected: emphasizing the peculiarities of the respective languages, he criticizes a purely mechanical "word-for-word" translation in favour of a reproduction that is as true to the original as possible and grasps the meaning. Thus, the fluent reading of the text is not hampered by Alegre's imitation of the Latin syntax, as is a common criticism, but rather by the punctuation of the incunabula, which often appears arbitrary. Analysis of the commentary shows the close dependence of the Catalan author on Boccaccio's mythographic works, the “Genealogie deorum gentilium”, which he in no way conceals. Therefore, his "Allegories and Moral Representations", the second part of the "Transformations", can be seen as excellent testimony to Boccaccio's reception in the Catalan Renaissance. As Menéndez Pelayo lamented, the contempt with which Alegre's work has been treated cannot be justified.