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The Many Lives of Bonaventura Vulcanius 1614–2010 (Exploring Biographies and Introducing This Collection of Papers)*

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The Many Lives of Bonaventura Vulcanius 1614–2010 (Exploring Biographies and Introducing This Collection of Papers)* © 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands (ISBN: 978-90-04-19209-6) THE MANY LIVES OF BONAVENTURA VULCANIUS 1614–2010 (EXPLORING BIOGRAPHIES AND INTRODUCING THIS COLLECTION OF PAPERS)* Hélène Cazes Ter denos docui Leidis binosque per annos Cattigenum pubem Graijugenum ore loqui. Nunc manibus, pedibusque oculisque, atque auribus aeger, Et senio languens, lampada trado aliis.1 [For two and thirty years I have in Leiden Taught the Cattis’ youth to speak the Acheans’ language. Now my hands, feet, eyes, and ears are aching; Drained by old age, the flame I pass to others.] This epitaph—composed for himself by Vulcanius—is the first portrait of the humanist to be collected in this volume of Vulcanius’ studies: the two elegant Latin distiches were given, surely by the author and biographee himself, to the young Joannes Meursius (1579–1639), who was then gathering material for his professors’ biographies, the Icons of illustrious men, which would be published in 1613. We know of several manuscript versions of this poem, now kept among Vulcanius’ papers at the University Library of Leiden: these drafts attest to the * I would like to thank the following persons and Institutes for making this research possible, accurate, and fruitful: the Scaliger Institute of the University Library in Leiden and the Brill Publishers, who granted me a Brill Fellowship for a proj- ect on Bonaventura Vulcanius’ Album Amicorum. I am particularly grateful for the trust, guidance, and support of the curators and staff of Leiden’s library, notably Dr. Anton van der Lem, Mr. Kasper Van Ommen, Prof. Harm Beukers, and Mr. Ernst- Jan Munnik. Papers were read and diligently proof-read by Prof. Gordon Shrimpton, Prof. Jan Just Witkam, Mrs. Annick Macaskill, and Mr. Michael Kyle. Last but cer- tainly not least, I am very much indebted to all the authors of this volume, especially Prof. Thomas Conley, who patiently and scrupulously checked, edited and fostered this paper. 1 Illustris Academia Lugd.-Batava: id est Virorum Clarissimorum Icones, Elogia ac vitae, qui eam scriptis suis illustrarunt (Leiden: 1613) sig. D 1. (See Annex 1). The whole entry dedicated to Vulcanius in this 1613 edition appears verbatim in Melchior Adam’s Vitae Germanorum superiori, et quod excurrit, seculo philosophicis et human- ioribus literis clarorum (Francfort: 1615), 1, 525 (See Annex 2), and in Johannes Meur- sius’ Athenae Batavae. Sive, De Urbe Leidensi et Academia, Virisque, qui utramque ingenio suo, atque scriptis, illustrarunt: libri duo (Leiden: 1625), 105 for the epitaph. All texts commented and quoted in this paper are given in the annexes. 6 hélène cazes authenticity of the poem, as well as to its authorship. Now, this pub- lic self-depiction serves both as the shortest version of Bonaventura Vulcanius’ biography and as a sketch for a self-portrait. Placed at the end of the entry devoted to the philologist, it seems to be a summary of the previous two pages of biographical prose and the first element of the legacy to come, which is embodied, in the next two pages, by a bibliography of Vulcanius’ works: “Works published” and “Works not yet published.” Four lines for a farewell Pivotal in the economy of the bio-bibliography of Bonaventura Vul- canius, the short poem is also pivotal in the life of his author: a ret- rospective portrait and a prospective eulogy, beginning with a perfect tense (‘docui’) and ending with the evocation of the future. The pres- ent of the last line (‘trado’), then, mirrors the ambiguous status of the piece: as the poem reflects on a life lived, devoted to the passing on of texts and knowledge, the poem is itself constructed as a passing moment, from perfect tense to present and future. The torch that is relayed is, thus, the bio-bibliography, referring to the dedication of a life to the service of textual tradition. Furthermore, the youth of the second line has become the old age of the fourth. The epitaph is, down to its smallest details, a miniature life story. Such a mirroring disposition is close to perfect: the professor is shown handing over his teaching, and the epitaph itself passes the legacy of a life into a set of works, at the line of divide between the biographical sketch and the bibliographical inventory. The second line, with the internal rime ending in—genum and with the sophisticated vocabulary choosing periphrastic adjectives over national denomina- tions echoes the mirroring device and links the two worlds of legacies: the body of Greek texts and the Dutch youth, linked together by the teaching of Greek language. Mortuary mask Perfect funeral inscriptions, though, may conceal some deceiving silences. For the apparent symmetry in the transitional instant—when the torch is taken over by the reader—is fallacious: yes, the tetrastichon builds a tension by playing with tenses, conjunctions and echoes. But, instead of past and future, it contrasts recent past and present! The the many lives of bonaventura vulcanius 1614–2010 7 life of Vulcanius seems to begin at thirty-two, with the first words of the poem. Thus, the curtain opens on the Leiden scene, with the professor at the centre of the stage: the last role of Bonaventura Vulca- nius. According to unanimous testimonies, he excelled in this last per- formance and as a professor; he was praised not only by himself but also, publicly and officially, in the funeral oration delivered by Petrus Cunaeus and in his lasting fame within the history of the University of Leiden. The epitaph is thus the first lasting monument of his excep- tional teaching career, in a collection that would later be enlarged with eulogies and portraits on the library walls. Combining personal confidence and address to posterity, the tetras- tichon acknowledges and implies the entrance of Vulcanius into pos- terity, not only within the book of memory drawn by Meursius but also in the world of literature. Most entries in the Virorum Clarissimorum Icones do comprise a final epitaph; Ianus Dousa (I2) Paulus Merula (K2) or Franciscus Junius’ (K4) biographies, for instance, end with the date of their death, a funerary poem and, for Josephus Justus Scaliger, a full page engraving of the funerary monument (L4). The epitaphs are set in the page as on a stage, with borders, capital letters, epigraphic objects and frames done in imitations of Roman inscriptions. The epi- taph of Bonaventura Vulcanius is of a slightly different genre though, as the praised deceased is still alive at the time of the first publication. The sobriety of the page setting, placing the tetrastichon at the top of the bibliography that follows, without any non-textual object, con- veys the text’s ambiguous status: epitaphium and laudatory address, such as those found under the engraved portraits of humanists. In the tradition of self-epitaphs, Vulcanius bids his farewell by depicting his own progressive disappearance and by enumerating his losses, “hands, feet, eyes, and ears”. Reduced to a pure mind, he would already talk from the grave. Or, rather, he would talk from this place of memory and eternity where literature is written, read, edited, and rediscovered. The epitaph is placed beyond time and beyond biographies. As a public self-portrait, the epitaph resembles the signature poem of Vulcanius, used in many circumstances when the Professor was asked to contribute an inscription to an album amicorum.2 In both cases, the public image is one of a talented Greek professor . 2 See, in this volume, pp. 147–165, Elly Ledegang-Keegstra’s contribution, “Vulca- nius et le réformateur Théodore de Bèze”, who counts no less than seventeen known occurrences of this bilingual motto. 8 hélène cazes Θεοῦ διδόντος, οὐδὲν ἰσχύει φθόνος καὶ μὴ διδόντος, οὐδὲν ἰσχύει πόνος. Deo juvante liuor officit nihil, Et non juvante proficit nihil labor.3 [With the help of God, all attack is in vain Without His help, all labor is in vain. With God’s support, no wickedness can prevail Without it, efforts have no effect.] This self-depiction by a poem amounts to a demonstration of skills (the Greek and Latin verses), to a confession of faith4 and to a declaration of poetical and intellectual belief: rather than borrowings or quotations, the distiches are a rewriting of several models, accommodated to Vul- canius’ persona. An adaptation of Gregory of Nazianzus’ maxim, which already was a rewriting of Psalm 127, the Greek distich reproduces the striking parallelism of its source, but it changes a word from its source, replacing πόνος with φθόνος, “effort” with “envy”. Furthermore, the Latin translation substituted God’s help to the fear of God and added the spectacular echo of “officit” and “proficit”. Contemporary readers, interested in proverbs and sentential literature, would have easily and admiringly recognized the discrepancies between models and accom- modations. Now, the modifications brought by Vulcanius to the Greek text, allow him to link the Latin translation to the Biblical text, where “livor” and “labor” are common. They emphasize poetic skills, with the virtuoso effects of echoes and rhymes, whereas the juxtaposition of the two languages displays the translator’s gift. Once more, though, the consistent sophistication of the poem does not fail to leave unan- swered questions. Who would not fear God? Arrogant non-believers? Studious atheists? Members of other congregations? Who would be deprived of His help? But these questions fade behind the shining and colorful coherences brought to the foreground. 3 See, for example, Vulcanius’ Album Amicorum, (Brussels, Royal Library, Ms II, 1166) fol. 1. 4 Both distiches allude to Psalm 127 (“1 Blessed are all they that fear the Lord: that walk in his ways. [. .] 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord”) and borrow from Gregorius of Naziance (Distichae Sententiae, in Carmina I, 2, 32, vs.
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