Virgil in the Renaissance

by David Scott Wilson-Okamura

• ISBN13: 9780521198127
• ISBN10: 0521198127
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The disciplines of classical scholarship were established in their modern form between 1300 and 1600, and Virgil was a test case for many of them. What became of Virgil in this period - how he was understood and how his poems were recycled - is an example of something that occurs to every classic when it outlives it original context: the words remain but their meaning becomes unsponsored. What did readers assume about Virgil in the long decades between Dante and Sidney, Petrarch and Spenser, Boccaccio and Ariosto? Which commentators had the most influence? What story, if any, was Virgil's Eclogues supposed to tell? What was the status of his Georgics? Which parts of his epic attracted the most imitators? Building on specialized scholarship of the last hundred years, this book provides a panoramic synthesis of what scholars and poets from across Europe believed they could know about Virgil's life and poetry.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xi
Texts and abbreviations	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Method	p. 3
Lacunae	p. 6
Models	p. 8
Plan	p. 10
Publication	p. 13
Virgil with an i	p. 15
Poliziano's proof	p. 15
How they reacted to Poliziano's bombshell	p. 18
The market for Virgil editions and commentaries	p. 20
The state of publishing in England; or Did the Reformation make any difference?	p. 27
Servius and Donatus: the authority of antiquity	p. 31
Landino vs. Badius: originality vs. utility	p. 35
Valeriano: the scholarly argument for i	p. 37
Innovation vs. influence	p. 40
Latin: dead language or living?	p. 42
Reputation	p. 45
Patronage and the Eclogues	p. 47
The idea of Virgil and its ancient sources	p. 47
How Virgil got rich	p. 50
Virgil as counselor to the prince	p. 54
Eclogues as encomia	p. 56
Was Virgil a flatterer?	p. 59
Maecenas as the model patron	p. 60
Darkness invisible	p. 64
Imitating Theocritus: the bookishness of Virgilian pastoral	p. 66
Love among the shepherds	p. 69
Christian prophecy and Epicureanism	p. 70
Variety and the low style	p. 73
Variety and the Georgics	p. 77
The ancient tradition of Virgil's erudition	p. 78
Science or poetry?	p. 81
Labor and the plow	p. 82
Looking for the Georgics in Renaissance poetry	p. 83
"Ille ego qui quondam"	p. 85
Generic substitution	p. 87
A spectrum of styles	p. 89
The myth of Virgil's Wheel	p. 90
Style and genre	p. 91
Style and variety	p. 93
Listing variety	p. 95
Virgil as second Nature	p. 96
Morals and minimalism	p. 101
Virgil the reviser	p. 101
Style and character	p. 103
Virgil's chastity	p. 106
Rumors about Virgil's sex life	p. 108
Nisus and Euryalus	p. 109
Virgil's gay eclogue	p. 113
Defense by forgery	p. 115
Perfect poetry	p. 119
Virgil and Ennius	p. 120
Virgil as imitator of Homer	p. 124
Refining Homer	p. 128
Brevity as chastity	p. 129
Defenders of Homer against Virgil	p. 132
Why brevity is better	p. 134
Style: Virgil's last stand	p. 138
Interpretation	p. 143
Virgil's Odyssey	p. 145
Prioritizing episodes	p. 145
Troy in the Odyssey	p. 146
The weight of the underworld	p. 149
The Gates of Sleep	p. 153
Descent by murder	p. 157
Character by example	p. 163
Pluto's daughter: hell as riches	p. 166
Mourir, c'est facile: hell as habit	p. 170
Life in hell	p. 172
Purgatory	p. 173
"Sinfull mire": the moral status of matter	p. 178
Resurrection	p. 181
Imitation: competition or assimilation?	p. 185
Dynastic prophecy	p. 187
Virgil's Iliad	p. 191
Turnus as tragic hero	p. 191
Modern relativism	p. 194
Defining pietas	p. 196
Weighing anger	p. 199
Organizing interpretation I: classroom Techniques	p. 203
Organizing interpretation II: the ideal man theory	p. 208
Organizing interpretation III: repetition and rereading	p. 212
Six-book readers vs. twelve-book readers	p. 215
The renaissance of Virgil's Iliad	p. 220
Camilla	p. 227
The modernity of romance	p. 230
Dido and Lavinia: the importance of Eneas	p. 233
Vegio's sequel: the missing link with the Middle Ages	p. 237
Vegio's influence	p. 247
Epilogue	p. 248
Virgil commentaries in Latin editions, 1469-1599	p. 252
Virgil commentaries ranked by number of printings	p. 267
Index	p. 282
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.