This volume sheds new light on the extraordinary richness and variety of love poetry written in Latin from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. It shows how Latin love poets reworked classical Roman and Greek models, and engaged in dialogue with mediaeval and contemporary vernacular traditions of poetry. They used the poetic language of love in Latin to reflect and comment on wider social, ethical and literary issues, and reconfigured its codes of representation in response to changing conceptions of love in the philosophical and religious spheres. Their poetry often aligned itself with dominant discourses of power and gender, but it could also be subtly subversive or even openly transgressive.
The Poems of Catullus describes the lifestyle of the Latin poet Catullus, his friends, and his lover, Lesbia. Catullus writes about each of his subjects in tones unique to them. With wild stories of the trouble and comradery shared by his friends, Catullus provides insight on more scandalous aspects of high society Roman culture. However, Catullus’ most shocking and compelling subject is his lover, Lesbia, the wife of an aristocrat. The two share a secret and sensual love, taboo not just because of the infidelity, but because Lesbia is many years older than Catullus. Throughout his poems, Catullus depicts their complicated relationship, first in a tender, lustful way, detailing their affairs, then gradually becomes more heated with angst and confusion. In his exploration of their relationship, Catullus embodies the possibility of simultaneously loving and hating someone. With vivid emotion and imagery, The Poems of Catullus provide a clear picture of the poet, his friends, and his lover and invoke a strong impression on its audience. Because of the deep emotions infused with each word and the visceral depictions of ancient Roman life, this collection of poetry is relatable to a modern-day audience, and is an essential educational source. Catullus paved the way and inspired change in the art of poetry, influencing countless poets and poetry styles. The Poems of Catullus also helped create the idea of poetry as a profession. The Poems of Catullus serves a valuable and educational source, enlightening audiences on the culture of the upper-class of the late Roman Republic. However, because Catullus also explores the complex human emotions regarding friendship, sex, and love, The Poems of Catullus have proven to be a timeless testament to the duality of humankind, embracing emotions that lie between the extremes in the spectrum of feeling. Catering to a contemporary audience, this edition of The Poems of Catullus features a new, eye-catching cover design and is reprinted in a modern font to accompany the timeless exploration of human emotion and the humorous, exciting life events of the influential poet Catullus.
Marcus Gheeraerts’s portrait of a ’Persian lady’ - probably in fact an English lady in masquing costume - exemplifies the hybridity of early modern English culture. Her surrounding landscape and the embroidery on her gown are typically English; but her head-dress and slippers are decidedly exotic, the inscriptions beside her are Latin, and her creator was an ’incomer’ artist. She is emblematic of the early modern culture of exchange, both between England and its neighbours, and between Europe and the wider world. This volume presents fresh research into such early modern exchanges, exploring how new identities, subjectivities and artefacts were forged in dialogues and encounters between diverse cultures, nations and language communities. The early modern period was a time of creative interactions between cultures and disciplines, and accordingly this is a multidisciplinary volume, drawing together international experts in literature, history, modern and ancient languages and art history. It understands cultural exchange as encompassing both the geographical mobilities of travel and trade and the transmission of ideas across borders and between languages, as enabled by the new technology of print. Sites of exchange were located not only in distant and unfamiliar lands, but also in the bookseller’s shop and the scholar’s study. The volume also explores the productive and complex dialogues between early modern culture and the classical past. The types of exchanges discussed include the linguistic transactions of translation and imitation; interactions between cultural elites, such as monarchs, courtiers and diplomats; and the catalytic influences of particularly mobile or outward-looking individuals and groups. Ranging from the neo-Latin poetry of an English author to the plays of a nun in seventeenth-century New Spain, from royal portraits exchanged in diplomatic negotiations to travelling companions in the Ottoman Empire, the volume sheds new light
Interdisciplinary in approach and methodologically sophisticated, this book explores the dynamic reception of Latin erotic elegy in Renaissance love poetry.
Modernity has historically defined itself by relation to classical antiquity on the one hand, and the medieval on the other. While early modernity’s relation to Antiquity has been amply documented, its relation to the medieval has been less studied. This volume seeks to address this omission by presenting some preliminary explorations of this field. In seventeen essays ranging from the Italian Renaissance to Enlightenment France, it focuses on three main themes: continuities and discontinuities between the medieval and early modern, early modern re-uses of medieval matter, and conceptualizations of the medieval. Collectively, the essays illustrate how early modern medievalisms differ in important respects from post-Romantic views of the medieval, ultimately calling for a re-definition of the concept of medievalism itself. Contributors include: Mette Bruun, Peter Damian-Grint, Anne-Marie De Gendt, Daphne Hoogenboezem, Tiphaine Karsenti, Joost Keizer, Waldemar Kowalski, Elena Lombardi, Coen Maas, Pieter Mannaerts, Christoph Pieper, Jacomien Prins, Adam Shear, Paul Smith, Martin Spies, Andrea Worm, and Aurélie Zygel-Basso.
I hate and I love.' The Roman poet Catullus expressed the disorienting experience of being in love in a stark contradiction that has resonated across the centuries. While his description might seem to modern readers natural and spontaneous, it is actually a response planned with great care and artistry. It is that artistry, and the way in which Roman love poetry works, that this book explores. Focusing on Catullus and on the later genre of elegy - so-called for its metre, and a form of poetry practiced by Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid - Denise Eileen McCoskey and Zara Martirosova Torlone discuss the devices used by the major Roman love poets, as well as the literary and historical contexts that helped shape their work. Setting poets and their writings especially against the turbulent backdrop of the Augustan Age (31 BCE-14 CE), the book examines the origins of Latin elegy; highlights the poets' key themes; and traces their reception by later writers and readers.
In the late Renaissance and early modern period, man's relationship to nature changed dramatically. An important part of this change occurred in the way that beauty was perceived in the natural world and in the particular features which became privileged objects of aesthetic gratification. This study explores the shift in aesthetic attitude towards the mountain that took place between 1450 and 1750. Based on previously unknown and unstudied material, this volume now contends that it took place earlier in the Latin literature of the late Renaissance and early modern period.
In the late medieval and early modern periods, Scottish latinity had its distinctive stamp, most intriguingly so in its effects upon the literary vernacular and on themes of national identity. This volume shows how, when viewed through the prism of latinity, Scottish textuality was distinctive and fecund. The flowering of Scottish writing owed itself to a subtle combination of literary praxis, the ideal of eloquentia, and ideological deftness, which enabled writers to service a burgeoning national literary tradition.
