Latinitas Perennis. Volume II: Appropriation and Latin Literature (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 178)

257 Pages·2009·1.46 MB·English

by  Yanick Maes

Latinitas Perennis
VOLUME II
Brill’s Studies in
Intellectual History
General Editor
A.J. Vanderjagt, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
C.S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
M. Colish, Oberlin College
J.I. Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
W. Otten, University of Chicago
VOLUME 178
Latinitas Perennis
Volume II
Appropriation and Latin Literature
Edited by
Yanick Maes
Jan Papy
Wim Verbaal
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
Cover Illustration: Publius Vergilius Maro, Opera cum Servi Donati Christophori Landini
Domitii Calderini commentariis, Nürnberg: A. Koberger, 1492 (Gent, Universiteits-
bibliotheek, Res. 319).
Folium I (from one of the earlier Vergil editions in Germany) illustrates in a beautiful
way the coexistence of diff erent traditions in Latin history: in the centre the classical
text of the fi rst Eclogue (vss. 1–17), enclosed by its Late Antique commentary in the
typically scholastic lay-out (with hand-colossured rubrication, majuscules and a drô-
lerie in the fi rst capital), which is supplemented with the 15th-century commentaries
of Cristoforo Landino and Domizio Calderino, all combined in an incunabulum as a
step towards a new era that looms on the horizon.
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LCCN: 2006048721
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 978 90 04 17683 6
Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
List of Contributors ............................................................................ vii
Chapter One Continuity Th rough Appropriation? By Way
of Introduction ................................................................................ 1
Yanick Maes
PART I
PROGRAMMING APPROPRIATION
Chapter Two Roman Dream Works ............................................. 13
Christine Walde
Chapter Th ree Exemplarity: Between Practice and Text ........... 41
Alessandro Barchiesi
PART II
GENRES OLD & NEW
Chapter Four Th e Language of Grief and the Poetics of
Conjugal Mourning: From Euripides (Alcestis, Transl.
Buchanan) to Joachim Du Bellay (Tumuli [Poematum Libri
Quatuor], 1558) .............................................................................. 65
George Hugo Tucker
Chapter Five Taking Occasion by the Forelock: Dutch Poets
and Appropriation of Occasional Poems .................................... 95
Harm-Jan van Dam
Chapter Six Vergil, the Psalms, and New Poetic Genres in
Medieval Latin Literature .............................................................. 129
Gunilla Iversen
vi contents
Chapter Seven Latin Culture and Oriental Wisdom ................. 163
Pascale Bourgain
PART III
LINGUISTICS & STYLISTICS
Chapter Eight Is Th ere such a Th ing as a Latin Epochal
Style? ................................................................................................. 181
Walter Berschin
Chapter Nine End Game: Humanist Latin in the Late
Fift eenth Century ........................................................................... 201
Christopher S. Celenza
Index Nominum .................................................................................. 245
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Alessandro Barchiesi is Professor of Latin Literature at the University
of Siena at Arezzo.
Walter Berschin is Professor Emeritus at the Seminar für lateinische
Philologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit of the Ruprecht-Karls-Uni-
versität, Heidelberg.
Pascale Bourgain is Professor at the École Nationale des Chartes,
Paris.
Christopher S. Celenza is Professor in the Department of German and
Romance Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore, Maryland.
Harm-Jan van Dam is Associate Professor of Latin at the VU Amsterdam.
Gunilla Iversen is Professor in Latin at Stockholm University.
George Hugo Tucker is Professor of French Studies (Established Chair)
at the University of Reading.
Christine Walde holds the Lehrstuhl für Klassische Philologie/Latinistik
at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz.

CHAPTER ONE
CONTINUITY THROUGH APPROPRIATION?
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
Yanick Maes
Th is book is the second volume in a series of three treating the charac-
teristics of Latin literature throughout the ages. Th e aim of the project,
which we have called Latinitas Perennis, is to open up discussion across
the traditional boundaries of Latin studies. In this way we hope not only
to deepen our understanding of the proper place of Latin literature within
the whole of European literature, but also to enable Latinists to venture
into new territories. Th e conception of each book, initially at least, was the
meeting of the writers invited to Brussels to discuss their contributions.
Th e theme of the second meeting in Brussels of the Latinitas Perennis
project, ‘Appropriation’, suggested itself as a natural sequel to the theme
of the fi rst conference, ‘Continuity’.1
Appropriation is at the very heart of Latin literature. We all know
that the fi rst written records of Latin literature, the works of Livius
Andronicus and Naevius, were adaptations of Greek literature. But
treating them as merely the work of epigones or as derivative is now
well behind us: intertextuality has given rise to an astonishing quantity
of research, in which any idea of simply admiring and somehow pas-
sive reception is no longer dominant. Instead we have a focus on the
1 Verbaal W. – Maes Y. – Papy J. (eds.), Latinitas Perennis 1: Th e continuity of Latin
literature (Leiden-Boston: 2007). Th e second meeting took place at the Koninklijke
Vlaamse Akademie van Wetenschappen en Kunsten van België (Brussels), on 25 May
2007. Th e editors would like to express their gratitude to the Koninklijke Vlaamse Aka-
demie van Wetenschappen en Kunsten van België (KVAB), the Fonds voor Wetenschap-
pelijk Onderzoek—Vlaanderen (FWO), the Faculteit van Letteren en Wijsbegeerte van
de Universiteit Gent (UG), the Faculteit Letteren van de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
(KUL), the departments of Literatuurwetenschap: Latijnse Literatuurstudie (KUL), Latijn
& Grieks (UG) and Romaanse Talen (UG) for their generous fi nancial support. Without
their grants neither the contactforum could have been organised nor would this book
have appeared. Th e editors are equally grateful to Iannis Goerlandt for his translations
into English and to David Seton for his careful reading of the texts.