Neo-Latin Poet Research Articles

Latin–Greek Code-Switching in Vicente Mariner’s (ca. 1570– 1642) Correspondence with Andreas Schott (1552–1629): A Case-Study

As one of very few authors from seventeenth-century Spain who chose to write in Ancient Greek, the work of Valencian Vicente Mariner (c.1570–1642) offers unique perspectives on the attitudes towards the classical languages in contemporary Iberia. Aside from a handful of published volumes, Mariner’s extensive, multilingual œuvre has been preserved in manuscript form. Mariner’s activity as a translator and Neo-Latin poet has been of interest to scholars from a variety of disciplines since the mid-twentieth century. The author’s deliberations on Ancient Greek, Latin and the vernaculars (Castilian and Valencian/Catalan) have also received the attention of theorists interested in the historical relationships between the classical and modern languages. More recently, Mariner’s poetic production in Greek has become the object of interest within the context of a turn to “Neo-Ancient Greek” literature.While earlier studies invariably reflect on the relationship between Greek and Latin in the author’s work and his attitudes towards them, Mariner’s bilingual correspondence with humanist friends and colleagues has yet to become the object of focused attention. As granular evidence the choices involved in Mariner’s use of Greek and Latin thanks to its numerous moments of code-switching, this paper offers a close-reading of a letter addressed by Mariner to prominent Belgian scholar André Schott (1552–1629) in April 1617. Alongside considerations of the communicative significance of the numerous switches between Latin and Greek in the document, this contribution also compares Mariner’s use of the languages in his letter with his theoretical reflections on Greek and Latin and their relationship in his poetry.

Die frühneuzeitliche Kontrafaktur und ihre geschichtswissenschaftlichen Potenziale

Abstract Recently, there has been a marked increase in the interest in contrafacta among scholars in terms of sources, contexts, and technique, as well as in regard to systematic and terminological approaches. Focusing on the collections of contrafacta published in the second half of the 16th century by Georg Baumann the Elder in Erfurt, the article investigates the relevance underlaying music with new texts can have for historiography. Considering the importance of Italian secular repertory for Baumann’s prints with contrafacta on the one hand, and the wide range of re-texting strategies which – as the contributions of the Lutheran theologian and neo-Latin poet Ludwig Helmbold show – could exceed the pragmatic and pattern-oriented production of contrafacta on the other, the idea and meaning of two concepts prominent in Early Modern History are re-evaluated: Humanism and model-based thinking (the latter, not surprisingly, associated with Fernand Braudel’s famed modèle italien).

Humanism, Transculturalism and Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Jews

This article explores the evidence for Transculturalism and Humanism, in the early modern sense of the concepts, amongst Jews of the Ottoman Empire. In the first part of the article, attention is paid to the growing numbers of humanist European travelers to the Ottoman Empire and their relations with Istanbul Jews. The second section of the article is concerned with Ragusa, part of the Ottoman orbit since the fifteenth century. Here, attention is paid to Didacus Pyrrhus, member of an Ottoman Jewish family and the only great Jewish Neo-Latin poet of his age. The third section focuses on Ottoman Cairo and the discoveries and identifications of fragments of works for the theatre in Spanish in Hebrew characters. They attest to an interest in humanist texts. Finally, by way of conclusion, the article examines a specific case of cultural transfer and common ground between Christian humanists and Jewish traders.

Wąż Miedziany i rzekoma nobilitacja. Przyczynek do biografii Tomasza Tretera

The Brazen Serpent and the Alleged Ennoblement: A Case for Tomasz Treter’s Biography: The article discusses signs of identity (burgher arms) of Tomasz Treter (Treterus, 1547–1610). Treter was a trusted secretary of Cardinal Stanisław Hozjusz (Hosius), but also a draughtsman, a painter, an engraver, a designer of monuments and prints, and a Neo-Latin poet. The texts focuses on Treter’s non-armorial seals, depicting a shield with a winged snake twisted around a cross (the Brazen Serpent) and on Treter’s two supralibros (one with the burgher arms and the other displaying an impresa). The paper also analyses emblematic compositions in Symbolica vitae Christi meditatio, a volume of meditations composed by Treter. These sources are used to undermine the belief that Treter was ennobled by Pope Gregory XIII and that he used the Boncompagni’s coat of arms (Draco).

A VISION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM: THE TEXT OF STRIGGIO’S ECCE BEATAM LUCEM

Striggio’s forty-part motet Ecce beatam lucem survives in a unique manuscript source, dated 1587, in the Ratsschulbibliothek in Zwickau. Its text, first published in 1595, formed part of a Pindaric ode written by the neo-Latin poet and Calvinist Paul Schede Melissus (1539–1602). A closer consideration of Melissus’ biography indicates that he probably wrote it after 1575, long after the wedding festivities with which the motet has habitually been associated (Florence, 1565; Munich, 1568). Its subject matter – a Calvinist vision of the New Jerusalem – also makes it an unlikely wedding text and inappropriate for Catholic festivities. Rather, it was probably used as the text of a contrafactum, for an as yet unidentified occasion, with which Striggio himself had little or no connection.

Entre dépression et ennui. Les étranges mélancolies de Clemens Ianicius (1516–1543)

The purpose of the article is to describe melancholic moods in the elegies of Clemens Ianicius (1516–1543), a prematurely deceased Polish Neo-Latin poet. First, the author recapitulates briefly the poet’s biography (his peasant pedigree, education, studies at the Collegium Lubranscianum in Poznań, interrupted because of his father’s poverty, his fortunes and misfortunes resulting from the ecclesiastical and nobility patronage, his stay and studies in Padua, graduation with doctoral degree, coronation with a laurel wreath, and finally his illness and death). The analysed poems include elegies from two main collections of Ianicius’verses: the Variae elegiae and the Tristia. The author traces the development of the poet’s melancholic temperament, starting with the elegies concerning his favourite patron’s (the Primate Andrzej Krzycki) fever and the mourning after his death, and finishing with the elegies from the Tristia, treating the poet’s disease and sadness.

The Latin Poems of Margareta van Godewijck (1627-1677)

This contribution presents the editio princeps of all extant Latin poems written by the Dutch poet Margareta van Godewijck from Dordrecht. In order to increase the accessibility of these hitherto unpublished texts, the edition is preceded by an extensive preparatory analysis of previous biographical sources and accounts of how her poems were received. These will illustrate the need for the present study. There follow an evaluation of her Latin poems with regard to both form and content and a discussion of her Latinity, textual interaction with other Neo-Latin poets, and the literary merits of her work. It is argued that her Latin poetry had a clear social and performative function and can best be considered within the context of student composition. Finally, an account of the trajectories of the two surviving autographs and an explanation of the editorial principles prepare the reader for the critical edition.

Hernán Ruiz de Villegas y Ravisio Textor: a propósito de las Aesopi fabulae

This paper is a continuation of our studies dedicated to highlight the importance of the poetic Opera of Hernán Ruiz de Villegas, a neolatin poet born in Burgos (1510-1572). The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the hypothesis that our author used quite often the encyclopaedic works of the French humanist Johannes Ravisius Textor, specially, the Epitheta and the Officina, as a source for the composition of his poetic works, and to analyse their influence on his Aesopi fabulae, a collection of 38 fables composed in dactylic hexameter.

Recent Articles

Recent Articles

The Poetics of Exile: Gulielmus Laurus the Recusant

Gulielmus Laurus, a recusant exile and neo-Latin poet from Yorkshire has left a variety of evidence for his existence from 1587 through to the late 1590s, mostly in published verse in which he reflects on his life and experience, protests against the Anglican settlement, and asserts his faith. The article attempts to piece together his biography from the meagre information he gives, and offers two alternative interpretations of the data: one in which he was born around 1565, and one, marginally preferable, which makes him about ten years older. His poems are highly personal documents which reveal his interactions with the ‘republic of letters’ in Belgium, Germany and France, and the intense practical and psychological pressures of life as a friendless exile.

Między tęczą a kryształem. Echo u Macieja Kazimierza Sarbiewskiego jako gatunek odbicia w świetle jego komentarza do Summy teologicznej Akwinaty

Between the Rainbow and the Crystal Glass: Echo in Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski as a Species of Refraction in the Light of His Commentary on Summa theologica by Thomas Aquinas The aim of this essay is to highlight an important gap in the research into the works of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640), Jesuit neo-Latin poet and philosopher, namely the fact that his still unpublished lectures on one God in three persons and on angels, held in Vilnius Academy in the years 1631–1633, have remained largely unexplored by researchers so far. The main thesis is that these thomistic commentaries can considerably deepen our understanding of the dialectical and theological context of Sarbiewski’s poetry. For example, they shed new light on his Marian imagery (inter alia, the usage of the invocation ‘purum sine fraude vitrum’), or on his way of avoiding the danger of the infinite regress of concepts as being similar to mirror reflections. The argument concentrates on the figure of echo in two poems: the praise of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and the ode Secunda leuca seu Vaca as influenced by a new version of the Litany of Loreto (Litaniae Deiparae Virginis Mariae). It makes use of the definition of echo as taught in the Coimbra Jesuit Aristotelian courses. The phenomenon of echo is taken together with other species of refraction: the rainbow and reflection (Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, 98a.24–29), and set against the background of new technologies, such as the production of crystal mirrors.

Mapping the Early Modern World

Around 1490 Cracow saw the development of humanist interests in geography, as well as in the works of Claudius Ptolemaeus (circa 100-147) and other ancient geographers. The stay of the renown German humanist, Conradus Celtes, in Cracow (1446-1495) most likely contributed to this shift. Laurentius Corvinus (circa 1465- 1527), Silesian humanist and Neo-Latin poet, who between 1484- 1494 studied and then lectured in Cracow as docens extraneus non de facultate (his lectures were attended by, for example, young Nicolaus Copernicus), belonged to Celtes’ circle. As a result of his lectures in Cracow, Corvinus wrote the textbook entitled Cosmographia dans nanuductionem in tabulas Ptolemai [...], which was then published in Basel, in 1496. This paper presents the main facts concerning Corvinus’ life and discusses the content of his work. It also presents the circles of contemporary Renaissance humanists in Cracow, in particular scholars of geography and astronomy. This work played an important role in developing geographical knowledge among the humanists of Cracow. It also influenced humanist circles in Basel, Nuremberg and Tubingen. Today, Corvinus’ Cosmographia is a rather forgotten work, not often analyzed by researchers of the history of Polish geography and historians of older literature.

A Newly Discovered Female Neo-Latin Poet: An Analysis, Edition, and Translation of Agatha Wiseman's Prosa on Benet of Canfield

A Newly Discovered Female Neo-Latin Poet: An Analysis, Edition, and Translation of Agatha Wiseman's Prosa on Benet of Canfield

English 18th-Century Women Poets and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski: Adaptation, Paraphrase, Translation

The paper deals with six poems of three 18th-century English women poets—Lady Mary Chudleigh, Mary Masters, and Anne Steele “Theodosia”—inspired by the works of the greatest Polish Neo-Latin poet Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski. The aim of the study is to present the three authors, their biographies and literary oeuvres, and to attempt an analysis of the poems in question within this context. The biographies, social position—Chudleigh was the wife a baronet, the two others belonged to the middle class—and education of the three authoresses differ and yet they all shared the limitations resulting from the fact that they were women in 18th-century England, and were therefore denied access to academic education. The analysis of the texts and biographies has proven that it is highly improbable that either of the three women poets could translate the poems from Latin originals. All of their translations are based on earlier renditions; in the case of Chudleigh it is possible to identify the source text, that is the translation by John Norris. Inasmuch as it can be ascertained from the available biographical and critical sources and the results, the attitudes of the three poetesses towards their work varied. Only Masters acknowledged the source material in her publications. Although the current concepts of translation are different, her two poems: On a Fountain. Casimir, Lib. Epod. Ode 2 and Casimir, Lib. I. Ode 2—qualify as translations by the standards of her times. They are analysed here in detail. Neither Chudleigh nor Steele mentioned Sarbiewski in their publications. Their decision can be justified by the fact that their poems, even if clearly (though most likely indirectly) inspired by his lyrics, must be classified as free adaptations or even original poetry influenced by Sarbiewski or earlier translations and adaptations of his works.

(Noch) Identitätslos

Summary The full-time jurist and gifted Neo-Latin poet Petrus Royzius, born in Spain, came to Cracow in 1541/1542 to teach Roman law at the university. He left for Vilnius in 1551 and died in the Lithuanian capital in 1571. Several scholars have collected observations about Lithuania and the Lithuanians that are scattered over Royzius’s more than one thousand verse texts. This article goes further in closely analysing and interpreting well-known texts, such as the macaronic poem about travelling through the Lithuanian province (In Lituanicam peregrinationem). It also adds new material that has not yet been considered from this point of view, such as Royzius’s poems in favour of the Union of Lublin in 1569. I further analyse the contextual meaning of the terms Sarmatia/n and Lithuania/n. Although the latter is often replaced or subsumed by the superordinate terms Sarmatia/n or Poland/Polish, it occurs frequently in the corpus of Royzius’s writing. However, Royzius’s texts feature little information about a specific Lithuanian historical or cultural identity. Likewise, there is hardly any information about smaller entities such as Samogitia or Russia (Ruthenia). Unlike his contemporary Augustinus Rotundus or later poets like Ioannes Radvanus, Royzius still belongs to a ‘pre-Lublin’ cultural paradigm in which literary representations of regional, non-Polish identity were of little significance.

Guillaume Grumsel and the Poetics of Eucharistic Desire

In this article, I examine a collection of eucharistic elegies entitled Iucundi sacrae synaxeos amores (The Delightful Loves of the Sacred Synaxis, 1659) by the seventeenth-century Neo-Latin poet a...

Nuevos datos sobre la versificación latina de Benito Arias Montano: el libro quinto de los Hymni et secula

Among the many activities developed by the Spanish humanist Benito Arias Montano, perhaps the one he cultivated with more pleasure was that of a Neo-Latin poet. Most of the verses written by Arias ...

Jacob Baldes Batrachomyomachia Homeri Tuba Romana cantata (1637) und der Dreißigjährige Krieg

Abstract One of the most extensive texts of the neolatin poet and Jesuit Jacob Balde is his ›Battle of the Frogs and Mice‹, a Latin version of the Batrachomyomachia, an ancient Greek epic, which for a long time was seen as a work of the founder of European literature, Homer. The pseudo-Homeric Batrachomyomachia was read as a humorous travesty of the Iliad. By assigning the comic text to Homer, scholars implied the appealing, yet wrongful idea that the author of the greatest mythical war was mocking his own work, thereby parodying the respectable genre of heroic epics. With Balde’s creation of a new version of this Greek poem during the Thirty Years’ War, the question arises as to whether his text is no more than an intertextual play on a famous literary genre, or whether it reacts to the recent historical events in early modern Europe - or both.

A Haunting Strain: An Interpretation of Petrus Lotichius’ Elegy 2:4: On the Siege of Magdeburg

This paper offers a new interpretation of the famous elegy written by the Neo-Latin poet Petrus Lotichius on the siege of Magdeburg in 1550–1551, one of the major episodes in the armed conflict between Protestants and the Holy Roman Empire. Taking advantage of recent research on the political doctrine of armed resistance by a lesser magistrate, the paper connects the poem to a treatise composed by Nicolaus Gallus, who defended Magdeburg’s decision to rebel against the empire, and argues that the poem’s enigmatic rooster, which has defied interpretation for centuries, actually represents Gallus and his justification of Magdeburg’s actions. The paper also locates the poem within the larger context of the intra-Lutheran dispute between Philippists and Gnesio-Lutherans and examines the poem’s overall meaning as a plea for a balanced appraisal of each other’s actions and positions in light of the poet’s commitments to both the Protestant and humanist movements.

György Thúri and his Hebrew translation of Paul's Epistles to the Galatians and the Ephesians: Hebrew among the classical languages in the sixteenth century

The paper examines the first Hebrew translation of the Epistles of Paul published in the Christian world: György Thúri's Hebrew translation of the Epistles to the Galatians and the Ephesians published in Wittenberg in 1598. The focus is on the sources used by the author in the production of his translation as well as on his major linguistic and stylistic choices. The paper seeks to place this translation in the context of Thúri's life and his literary productions as a Neo-Latin poet. This case study illustrates the place of Hebrew learning within the Humanist mentality of the sixteenth century.