Front Matter

Front Matter HL 70.1

El intercambio de invectivas en yambos latinos entre Bonaventura Vulcanio y Franz Nans

This paper consists of the first critical edition and translation of some Latin poems written in iambic meter by the Flemish Hellenists Bonaventura Vulcanius and Franciscus Nansius to attack each other. It also contains a commentary on their historical context, genre, meter, vocabulary and style.

“Nunc eo ingenio sum.” Philologie et écriture de soi dans les Variae lectiones de Marc-Antoine Muret

The collection Variae lectiones by Marc-Antoine Muret (1526-1585), which is part of the humanist tradition of miscellanea, is characterized by the prominent presence of the first person. This article proposes to study the relationship between philology and writing about oneself by examining the different kinds of ‟Iˮ used by Muret. Staking at the outset a claim to auctoritas, the ‟Iˮ of Variae lectiones refers above all to a scholarly and erudite persona, which the French humanist develops with the ambition of consolidating his personal reputation at a crucial period of his career in Italy. Finally, while writing as a philologist, Muret sometimes reveals himself through his readings of the Ancients, and hints at a more intimate ‟Iˮ which emerges in some accounts of episodes experienced.

Erycius Puteanus’ Elogia project, Balduinus Horickius and Chicago, Newberry Library, Wing MS ZW 6465 .H782

This article proposes a study of Chicago, Newberry Library, Wing ms ZW 6465 .H782 and analyses its significance for Erycius Puteanus’ Elogia project to which the author refers often in his rich correspondence, especially in his letters to Guilliam Blitterswyck. The study also links the ms. to two of Puteanus’ minor publications in print, the Podium Philippicum and the Orchestra Burgundica. Lastly, it discusses the lineographic drawings on the background of the calli-graphic tradition in the first half of the seventeenth century and more specifically at the court of the governors of the Southern Low Countries.

Simone Poggi’s Neo-Latin Fables: a Jesuit in the Footsteps of Phaedrus

The Italian Jesuit Simone Maria Poggi (1685-1749) was an outstanding member of the “Academy of Arcadia”, where he was known as Nimesius Ergaticus. He wrote ten books of Latin fables under the inspiration of Phaedrus. These apologues were published posthumously by Giuseppe Boero in 1883. In their composition, the Jesuit from Bologna used iambic senarii, the metre employed by Phaedrus, and tried to adapt the Roman fables to his time and circumstances. In this article, I will offer an overview of Poggi’s Latin fables paying special attention to his prologues, epilogues and programmatic fables, in which, following Phaedrus’ example, our poet gives many clues about his sources and literary interests along with autobiographical issues. I will focus my research on Poggi’s relationship with his predecessors and on his conception of the fable not only as a literary subgenre but also as a very useful educational tool. Summing up, my aim will be to show that Poggi’s fable collection constitutes a remarkable and curious product of Phaedrus’ influence on Neo-Latin literature in the eighteenth century.

The Satellitium sive Symbola of Joan Lluís Vives. Critical Edition with a Short Introduction

The aim of this article is to present the first critical edition of Vives’s Satellitium sive Symbola, a collection of symbols or wise sayings that was first published in 1524. Along with the symbols and the commentary given by Vives, a short introduction is provided, which outlines both the circumstances of composition and the main themes. The novelty of this edition lies in the fact that the number of items has been set to 239, twenty-six more than those contained in the traditional edition published by Gregori Maians (Maiansius) in 1783.

Between Dante and Caesar. The Vernacular Policy of Filippo Maria Visconti

This paper offers a new perspective on vernacular literature in Milan in the 1430s, when Duke Filippo Maria Visconti commissioned from the humanists of his court vernacular translations of ancient histories and commentaries on Dante’s Comedy and Petrarch’s Canzoniere. These works, often dismissed as courtly products, were part of an ambitious cultural project that was carried out by humanists like Filippo Maria’s secretary Pier Candido Decembrio and Guini-forte Barzizza, but their attitude toward the duke’s commissions betrays their uneasiness with vernacular literature. It was the duke of Milan who, having sensed the political impact of promoting vernacular literature in Milan, intended to take over from Florence the role of driving force of Italian literature. Had not the Visconti army been defeated at Anghiari in 1440, Filippo Maria would have further pursued his ambition to politically and linguistically unify Italy under Milan’s rule.