Abstract
This essay examins the influence of Aulus Gellius' Noctes Atticae (2nd c. CE) on Angelo Poliziano's Miscellaneorum centuria prima (1489); in particular, it reconsiders that manner in which the aesthetics of varietas are deployed in each as part of the broader literary program. First, by exploring ideas of auctoritas, this essay suggests that Gellius' own preferred categories influenced Poliziano's sense of the canon and contributed to the development of his own authoritative persona throughouth Preface of the centuria prima. Second, in examining the ways in which both authors describe their use of literary diversity, it becomes increasingly evident that both see their prose works as operating within a broader aesthetic of variety. After illustrating how both authors articulate these values, the essay concludes by examining two sets of chapters in the Centuria prima in which variety is put to use for didactic purpose, in a manner similar to the Noctes Atticae. While the influence of Gellius has long been acknowledged, including by Poliziano himself, this essay offers a reading of each author that reveals additional literary purpose underlying their use of the aesthetics of variety.
Highlights
CE) on Angelo Poliziano's Miscellaneorum centuria prima (1489); in particular, it reconsiders the manner in which the aesthetics of varietas are deployed in each as part of the broader literary program
In examining the ways in which both authors describe their use of literary diversity, it becomes increasingly evident that both see their prose works as operating within a broader aesthetic of variety
The influence of ancient miscellanistic literature, and especially the Noctes Atticae of the Antonine author Aulus Gellius, was profound in the Renaissance, with no fewer than fifteen discrete examples of humanists adapting the form for their own uses.[1]
Summary
The influence of ancient miscellanistic literature, and especially the Noctes Atticae of the Antonine author Aulus Gellius, was profound in the Renaissance, with no fewer than fifteen discrete examples of humanists adapting the form for their own uses.[1]. In discussing his own work, he presents a mélange of different references to the Latin literary tradition, subsuming the figures he cites into his own authoritative posture This is evident even at that outset of his preface: he notes that authors are accustomed to protect their favorites and attack their opponents, and claims that these figures are sometimes taunted by slight figures like himself or Cluvienus (“tum saepe a tenuioribus et gregariis velutique postremae notae, qualis ego vel Cluvienus, etiam proceres illi (ut ita dixerim) et antesignani quidam literarum sugillantur”), a direct reference to Juvenal’s first satire that casts Poliziano as a satirist attacking the contemporary scholarly scene, and prepares his reader for the litany of references to come.[36] He suggests that he is not concerned with challenging the authority of the learned per se, but with ensuring that those that follow them in their studies are not led astray (“ac non id quaesivimus, ut aliquam doctis hominibus, veluti labeculam, aspergeremus, sed id cavimus potius, ne sub illorum auctoritate studiosorum fides periclitaretur”).[37] His warning reworks Cicero’s In Vatinium, one of Cicero’s more strongly invective speeches, and its challenges to the word and character of Vatinius.[38] Poliziano openly states his concern is not principally to question the authority of his targets, yet the source text that he refashions here runs counter to that claim: he reworks a canonical text in order to absorb its literary heft. For Poliziano, his scholarly, almost scientific, impulse to read broadly, and to recognize the importance of earlier works on the later, enabled him to begin to reconstruct and explicate with authority a tradition of classical Latin
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