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Greek-to-Latin verse translation is a phenomenon entirely absent from the Middle Ages, and which appears only fitfully and tardily in the 15th century, some decades after prose translation becomes a staple of humanist practice. By the end of the 16th century, however, almost the entire corpus of Ancient Greek poetry had been translated into Latin verse, often several times. This dissertation proceeds from the premise that this remarkable phenomenon merits more direct and specific attention than scholarship has hitherto given it. It seeks to define, in literary and historical terms, the characteristics of this development across the geographical and institutional breadth of the European Renaissance. The argument, broadly speaking, is that Renaissance Greek-to-Latin verse translation develops according to a norm of responsion: though not exclusive, the defining tendency is towards a strict identity – of words, sense, character, and meter – between original text and translation. This tendency runs counter to the theory and practice of translation in Roman antiquity, which generally aspires to creative deformation and appropriation, and it is insufficient to see the Renaissance phenomenon as a mere rediscovery of the ancient one. To understand why discourses and practices of translation develop askance from those around creative imitation, this dissertation takes humanist commerce with antiquity as only one of several crucial determinants, the others including the relationship between humanism and scholasticism, the uses of translation in an education system newly accustomed to Greek, and the impetus and effect of the printing industry. These determinants are instantiated through a particular chain of influence, to which Angelo Poliziano is central. The importance of Poliziano’s 1489 Miscellanea in the history of scholarship is widely acknowledged. The “pene ad uerbum” verse translations contained in this work present a similar picture, and were widely read, imitated, and disputed by his successors; the earliest example of a substantial Greek poem’s being printed alongside its Latin translation, they did much to disseminate a responsion model of verse translation. This thesis outlines the development of Poliziano’s thought and practice in relation to earlier 15th- century attempts at translating verse, and explores the wide ramifications of his example in the following century. To demonstrate this, it directs its attention to a corpus of translators who, like Poliziano, tried their hand at translating Callimachus, whilst also arguing for Poliziano’s influence on important figures such as Erasmus, Melanchthon, and Dorat.

The purpose of this note is to draw scholars' attention to a little-known edition of Angelo Poliziano's Nutricia (Leipzig, 1517). One of the only two surviving copies of the volume (Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, 76, 39) contains annotations which constitute indisputable proof of how Poliziano's poems attracted the interest of Renaissance readers.

U latinskoj pjesmi Ilije Crijevića Super comoedia veteri et satyra, et nova, cum Plauti apologia nalazi se sveza stribiligo Illurica. Prikazuju se najvažniji doprinosi tumačenju te sveze u književnoj i općoj povijesti Dubrovnika između 1872. i 2007. Sveza je najčešće shvaćana kao izraz Crijevićeva stava prema upotrebi hrvatskog u Dubrovniku. Pritom je zanemarivana žanrovska pripadnost stihovanog uvodnog predavanja u kolegij o Plautu i okolnost da autor govori o odnosu triju jezika: latinskog, romanskog starodubrovačkog i hrvatskog. Većina interpretatora riječ stribiligo prevodila je netočno; pokazujemo da ta latinska riječ od antike do renesanse označava isključivo "solecizam", nepravilno izražavanje. Sastavljajući Super comoedia... Crijević se inspirirao kratkom pjesmom koju je 1488. spjevao Angelo Poliziano; ondje je Crijević mogao pročitati i riječ stribiligo u opreci prema "čistom maternjem govoru grada Rima". U dodatku donosimo Polizianovu pjesmu i dio Super comoedia... koji se odnosi na Plauta (56–175)., Ilija Crijević, who chose for himself the humanist name Aelius Lampridius Cerva or Cervinus (Dubrovnik 1463–1520; received the title of poeta laureatus at the academy of Pomponius Laetus in Rome in1484; teacher at the local grammar school 1498–1505 and 1514–1520) composed a Latin poem of 175 iambic verses Super comoedia veteri et satyra, et nova, cum Plauti apologia. In 1872, Croatian historian and politician Franjo Rački (1828–1894; first president of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1866–1886) selected 30 verses from the poem to illustrate Cerva's attitude towards the "vernacular language"; Rački interpreted the verses as Cerva's plea for classical Latin and criticism of the contemporary culture based on the native (that is, Croatian) language. The interpretation was supported and further honed by Jireček (1897, 1902) and Medini (1902). They singled out the phrase stribiligo Illurica as a token of Cerva's attitude, in the process separating the phrase from the poem, translating it wrongly as "Illyrian screeching" (Medini), but also realizing (Jireček) that Cerva was writing about three languages: Latin, Romance Dalmatian, and Croatian (or, generally, Slavic). Existence of Romance Dalmatian, however, was not registered in literary history of Dubrovnik, as told by Croatian, Yugoslav, and Serbian historians of literature (Vodnik 1913, Kombol 1945, Črnja 1978, Frangeš 1987, Bojović 2014); literary historians preferred Medini's (anachronistic) vision of Cerva as a brilliant scholar whose Italian education brought him into conflict with his national identity. In 1969, Gortan and Vratović included Cerva in the influential anthology Hrvatski latinisti (Croatian Writers in Latin). They accepted the interpretation of Cerva as an author opposed to the use of Croatian language, but also offered their own translations for stribiligo Illurica ("Illyrian deformity", "Illyrian depravity"); they did not say outright, however, that "screeching" is an impossible equivalent for stribiligo. Almost exactly hundred years after Rački, in 1971, Škunca first recognized the poem Super comoedia... as an academic opening lecture (praelectio), intended for students of the Dubrovnik humanistic grammar school. The poem was fully described and published in its entirety in 1991, by Mrdeža Antonina, with a Croatian translation by Milenko Lončar (who translated stribiligo Illurica as "Illyrian lisping"). A survey of Latin lexicography shows that stribiligo, attested in Gellius and Arnobius, provides strictly the Latin equivalent of "solecism", "a nonstandard or ungrammatical linguistic usage". A number of humanistic dictionaries (Tortelli, Giuniano Maio, Perotti, Calepinus) confirm that the meaning of the word remained the same during the Renaissance. Stribiligo appears, in company with other words used by Cerva in Super comoedia... (insuescere, vernaculus, sermo, pretium), in a 1488 iambic poem by Angelo Poliziano, composed as a prologue for a performance of Plautus' Menaechmi in Florence (the play was performed by Paolo Comparini and his students). Poliziano's poem is a polemic, just as the Super comoedia...; Poliziano's targets are magistri triviales who compose plays in prose, or in bad verse, and Florentine Franciscans scandalized by dramatic performances. Poliziano's magistri triviales infect their students' tender tongues by stribiligo (linguas tenellas polluant stribiligine), that is, they teach unstandard Latin. Poliziano, a professor at the University of Florence, was well known and highly appreciated in Renaissance Dubrovnik; he composed a number of opening lectures, so he could have been Cerva's inspiration for the choice of literary form as well. When Cerva mentions stribiligo Illurica in his poem Super comoedia..., he has in mind "Illyrian solecism", a local unstandard linguistic usage. Because Plautus can correct this usage, it is possible that Cerva is thinking about Latin, which badly educated native speakers of Croatian use improperly. The main context of Super comoedia... is school; the poem addresses students (probably the students of the Dubrovnik grammar school, probably Cerva's own students); it is a praelectio, an introductory lecture for a course on Plautus, and that explains the history of Greek and Roman comedy and Roman satire presented in the first section of the poem; it is a general background necessary to understand Plautus. Cerva also wanted to compete with Poliziano, transferring his theme and metre (Plautus and the iambic senarius) to another genre, and composing a praelectio on an author about which Poliziano never wrote an introductory lecture. The tone of Super comoedia... can also be seen as inspired by Poliziano's polemic. Further interpretations of Cerva's poem should take into account its school setting and the possibility that the poem was not an attack on the use of Croatian in Early Modern Dubrovnik communication and literature, but rather an attack on Cerva's less competent colleagues.

Le Liber Confabulationum, composé par Poggio Bracciolini en 1452-1453, connut un succès européen immédiat. La première traduction en vulgaire italien fut imprimée dès les années 1480 : les deux témoins les plus anciens sont les éditions de Bernardino de Celeri (Venise, 1483) et de Christophorus Valdarfer (Milan, 1483/1484). L’article propose une collation des deux incunables et analyse les choix de traduction du texte italien, qui révèlent l’intention vulgarisatrice du traducteur.

International audience; During the Renaissance, humanists rediscover the original texts of Greek philosophical poems as well as Lucretius’ famous De Rerum Natura. Twoquestions already raised by the Ancients become for them an object of passionate inquiry: “Was Homer really the first philosopher?” and “Was Empedocles a philosopher or a poet?” The Florentine humanist Angelo Poliziano, for example, who during the 1480s devoted his university teachings to the Homeric corpus, develops the theme of Homer’s omniscience. Later, during the second half of the 16th century, the Parisian publisher Henri Estienne prints a volume of Greek epic poets, followed by an anthology of Greek “philosophical poetry”. In refuting the claim that Empedocles, for not having composed a narrative fable should not really count as a poet, Estienne significantly bolsters the legitimacy of scientific poetry. In this way, Renaissance debates over Homer’s omniscience and Empedocles’ status amongst poets greatly facilitated the emergence of a new didactic poetry during the period.; A la Renaissance, les humanistes redécouvrent dans le texte les poèmes philosophiques grecs et le De natura rerum de Lucrèce. Deux questions déjà soulevées par les Anciens les passionnent : Homère est-il le premier philosophe ? Empédocle est-il philosophe ou poète ? Par exemple, le Florentin Ange Politien, qui consacre dans les années 1480 ses cours universitaires au corpus homérique, développe le thème de l’omniscience d’Homère. Dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle, l’éditeur parisien Henri Estienne publie les poètes épiques grecs, puis une anthologie de la « poésie philosophique » grecque. Réfutant qu’Empédocle ne soit pas poète au prétexte qu’il n’a pas composé de fable, il légitime la poésie scientifique. Ainsi, les débats sur l’omniscience d’Homère ou la classification d’Empédocle parmi les poètes ont-ils favorisés à la Renaissance l’apparition d’une nouvelle poésie didactique.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1427-1482), mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent, wrote sacred narratives inspired by biblical figures. Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura (Rome) has recently published the edition of two poems in terza rima, devoted to Hester and Tobias. In the Introduction, the poems are analysed in relation with the cultural and poetic context of the mid-XV century Florence and from a linguistic and metrical point of view. Warburg had the intention to study Lucrezia's poems: a transcription of the Florentine manuscript is now in The Warburg Institute, London.

Resumo Este trabalho tem por objetivo observar o uso do termo Silua para nomear uma composição poética curta, de tom laudatório e de caráter espontâneo, desde os cinco livros de Estácio até os encômios eruditos de Angelo Poliziano. A partir da consideração de alguns dos seus empregos na Antiguidade, em Varrão, Quintiliano e Suetônio, pretende-se discutir as características das Siluae de Estácio conforme recuperadas por Poliziano; por fim, aponta-se para a continuidade e metamorfose do termo na produção poética em línguas vernáculas, através das Silvas de Quevedo. Abstract This paper aims to examine the use of the term Silua to name a short poetic composition, of laudatory tone and spontaneous character, from Statius’ five books to the learned encomia by Angelo Poliziano. Based on some considerations on the uses of the term in Antiquity, in Varro, Quintilian and Suetonius, we aim to discuss the characteristics of Statius’ Siluae as reworked by Poliziano. Finally, the continuity and metamorphosis of the term in the poetic field in other vernacular languages is demonstrated through Quevedo’s Silvas. Resumen Este trabajo tiene por objetivo observar el uso del término Silva para nombrar una composición poética corta, de tono laudatorio y de carácter espontáneo, desde los cinco libros de Estácio hasta los encómitos eruditos de Angelo Poliziano. A partir de la consideración de algunos de sus empleos en la Antigüedad, en Varrón, Quintiliano y Suetonio, se pretende discutir las características de las Siluae de Estacio conforme recuperadas por Poliziano; finalmente, se apunta a la continuidad y metamorfosis del término en la producción poética en lenguas vernáculas, a través de las Silvas de Quevedo.

Author(s): Burch, Karen | Abstract: This paper explores the roles of sexuality and gender in conflicts within fifteenth-century Florentine families by analyzing the dispute between Clarice Orsini (the wife of Lorenzo de’ Medici) and Angelo Poliziano in 1479. Historians have generally framed this incident as the inevitable result of irreconcilable differences between a stubborn humanist tutor and a devoutly Catholic mother, but this neglects the unspoken assumptions that Clarice, Poliziano, and their contemporaries would have had about the erotic politics of the situation. This brief episode of Medicean history provides a fascinating case study for the ways in which homosocial relationships could disrupt family life. By analyzing letters and poetry, this paper utilizes the methodologies of emotions history and queer history to problematize current understandings of Renaissance Florentine families and reframe a well-known narrative in Laurentian history.Questo articolo esplora il ruolo che la sessualita e il genere potevano svolgere nei conflitti famigliari della Firenze del Quattrocento prendendo in esame la disputa scoppiata fra Clarice Orsini (moglie di Lorenzo de’ Medici) e Angelo Poliziano nel 1479. Gli storici hanno solitamente interpretato questo incidente come l’inevitabile risultato di inconciliabili differenze fra un testardo precettore umanista e una devota madre cattolica, ma questa prospettiva trascura le inespresse implicazioni erotiche che la situazione comportava per Clarice, Poliziano e i loro contemporanei. Questo breve episodio della storia Medicea costituisce un esempio affascinante dei modi in cui le relazioni omosociali potevano mettere in crisi la vita familiare. Analizzando lettere e poesie, questo articolo utilizza le metodologie della storia delle emozioni e della storia queer per problematizzare la rappresentazione della famiglia del Quattrocento e rivisitare un importante aspetto della predominante narrativa Laurenziana.

In questo contributo si identifica il manoscritto dei Deipnosofisti di Ateneo di Naucrati (ms. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Laur. Plut. 60) utilizzato da Angelo Poliziano e si dimostra, attraverso lo studio dei riferimenti e delle citazioni reperibili, in particolare, nell’incompiuta Miscellaneorum Centuria Secunda, che l’umanista lesse integralmente l’opera solo nel 1494, pochi mesi prima di morire. Si considerano infine due testimonianze (inc. Firenze, Biblioteca Riccardiana, B. R. 345 e Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 90 sup. 39) che attestano la prima diffusione, verosimilmente entro la cerchia dei suoi allievi, di alcuni tardi studi su Svetonio di Poliziano (1494) nei quali si fa riferimento a un lungo passo del testo di Ateneo (Ath. V 38- 39 [204d-206d]). This paper aims to identify the manuscript of Athenaeus of Naucratis used by Angelo Poliziano (ms. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Laur. Plut. 60). Through the study of references and quotations particularly in the unfinished Miscellaneorum Centuria Secunda, it is possible to assume that he read this work in 1494, just a few months before he died. The final part of the essay considers two witnesses (inc. Firenze, Biblioteca Riccardiana, B. R. 345 and Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 90 sup. 39) attesting a circulation – most likely among his students – of some late studies on Suetonius of Poliziano (1494) in which reference is made to a long passage in the text of Athenaeus (Ath. V 38- 39 [204d-206d]).

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano were two of the most important humanists of the Italian Renaissance. They died suddenly in 1494 and their deaths have been for centuries a subject of debate. The exhumation of their remains offered the opportunity to study the cause of their death through a multidisciplinary research project. Anthropological analyses, together with documentary evidences, radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analysis supported the identification of the remains attributed to Pico. Macroscopic examination did not reveal paleopathological lesions or signs related to syphilis. Heavy metals analysis, carried out on bones and mummified tissues, showed that in Pico's remains there were potentially lethal levels of arsenic, supporting the philosopher's poisoning theory reported by documentary sources. The arsenic concentrations obtained from analysis of Poliziano's remains, are probably more related to an As chronic exposure or diagenetic processes rather than poisoning.

Nel gennaio del 1482 Angelo Poliziano, nella sua qualità di priore della chiesa di San Paolo a Firenze, stipula un contratto con un sacerdote, ser Cherubino di Niccolò Lottini, affinché questo si occupi, in qualità di «ghovernatore e cappellano», di un’ampia serie di incombenze riguardanti la prioria. Il contributo propone, per la prima volta, la trascrizione integrale del documento, autografo di Matteo Franco, e ne analizza il contenuto.

Il saggio si concentra sulla prosa volgare di Poliziano allo scopo di individuare delle tendenze “trasversali” tra Detti piacevoli, Latini e Lettere che permettano di accostarli – per scelte stilistiche ed espressive – al più indagato fronte in poesia. Oltre alla predilezione per le forme brevi, alcuni fenomeni appaiono ricorrenti: l’adesione a un principio di ripetizione e segmentazione interna, la tendenza alla condensazione espressiva e all’irregolarità. Il lavoro indaga poi come la prosa di Poliziano, pur nella sua peculiare originalità, si inquadri in un contesto più ampio in cui il gusto per la metafora, l’espressione proverbiale, la similitudine espressiva accomunano i letterati della cerchia laurenziana.