Note on Petrarch's Texts

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Note on Petrarch's Texts Note on Petrarch's Texts Unless otherwise stated, all citations from Petrarch's works are taken from the following editions and translations. Petrarch's Works Bucolicum carmen e i suoi commenti inediti. Edited by A. Avena. Padua: Societa cooperativa tipografica, 1906. Canzoniere. Edited by Gianfranco Contini; annotated by Daniele Ponchiroli. Turin: Einaudi, 1964. Collatio laureationis. In Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, edited by Antonietta Bufano. 2 vols. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1975. 2:1255-83. Contra eum qui maledixit Italie. In Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, edited by Antonietta Bufano. 2:1153-1253. De otio religioso. In Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, edited by An­ tonietta Bufano. 1:567-809. De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia. In Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, edited by Antonietta Bufano. 2:1025-115I. De viris illustribus. Edited by G. Martellotti. Edizione nazionale delle opere di Francesco Petrarca, vol. 2. Florence: Sansoni, 1964. De vita solitaria. In Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, edited by An­ tonietta Bufano. 1:261-565. Lefamiliari di Francesco Petrarca. Edited by Vittorio Rossi and Um­ berto Bosco. Edizione nazionale delle opere di Francesco Pe­ trarca, vols. 10-13. Florence: Sansoni, 1933-42. Invective contra medicum. In Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, edited by Antonietta Bufano. 2:817-94I. Posteritati. In Prose, edited by G. Martellotti et ale La letteratura italiana. Storia e Testi. Milan-Naples: Ricciardi, 1955. 2-18. Rerum memorandarum libri. Edited by Giuseppe Billanovich. Edi­ zione nazionale delle opere di Francesco Petrarca, vol. 5. Florence: Sansoni, 1943. XU1 NOTE ON PETRARCH'S TEXTS Rerum senilium liber XlV.Admagnijicum Franciscum de Carraria Padue dominum. Epistola I. Qualis esse debeat qui rem publicam regit. Edited by V. Ussani. Padua, 1922. Secretum. In Prose, edited by G. Martellotti et al. 7:22-214. Sine nomine: Lettere polemiche epolitiche. Edited by Ugo Dotti. Bari: Laterza, 1974. Trionji. In Rime, trionji epoesie latine, edited by Ferdinando Neri et al. Milan-Naples: Ricciardi, 1951. 481-578. Translations Bergin, Thomas G., trans. Petrarch's Bucolicum Carmen. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974. Bernardo, AIdo, trans. Rerum Familiarum Libri I-VIII Albany: State University ofNew York, 1975. --a Letters on Familiar Matters: Books IX-XXIV. 2 vols. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. Bishop, Morris, trans. Epistle to Posterity. In Letters from Petrarch. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966. 5-12. Carozza, Davy A., and H. James Shey. Petrarch's "Secretum," with Introduction, Notes, and Critical Anthology. Series 17. Classical Languages and Literature, vol. 7. New York: Peter Lang, 1989. Durling, Robert M., ed. and trans. Petrarch's Lyric Poems: The "Rime sparse" and Other Lyrics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976. Kohl, Benjamin G. How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State. In The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society, edited and translated by Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, with Elizabeth B. Welles. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylva­ nia Press, 1978.35-78. --a "Petrarch's Prefaces to De viris illustribus." History and Theory 13 (1974): 132 -44. Nachod, Hans, trans. On His Own Ignorance and That ofMany Others. In The Renaissance Philosophy ofMan, edited by Ernst Cassirer, P. O. Kristeller, and J. H. Randall, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948. 49-133. --a '~ Self-Portrait." In The Renaissance Philosophy ofMan, edited by Ernst Cassirer, P. O. Kristeller, and J. H. Randall, Jr. 34-35. XIV NOTE ON PETRARCH'S TEXTS Rawski, Conrad H., trans. Four Dialoguesfor Scholars: The Remedies. Cleveland: Press ofWestern Reserve University, 1967. Wilkins, Ernest Hatch, trans. Triumphs. Chicago: University ofChi­ cago Press, 1962. Zacour, Norman P. Petrarch's Book withouta Name: A Translation ofthe "Liber sine nomine." Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1973. Zeitlin,Jacob. The Life ofSolitude by Francis Petrarch. Urbana: Univer­ sity ofIllinois Press, 1924. xv .
Recommended publications
  • Diego De Moxena, El Liber Sine Nomine De Petrarca Y El Concilio De Constanza
    Quaderns d’Italià 20, 2015 59-87 Diego de Moxena, el Liber sine nomine de Petrarca y el concilio de Constanza Íñigo Ruiz Arzalluz Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea [email protected] Resumen Diego de Moxena, franciscano probablemente castellano activo en el concilio de Cons- tanza, escribe el 9 de julio de 1415 a Fernando I de Aragón una carta en la que le insta a sumarse al concilio y reconsiderar su apoyo a Benedicto XIII. El escrito de Moxena revela un uso del Liber sine nomine de Petrarca —advertido ya por Isaac Vázquez Janeiro— que resulta especialmente llamativo: además de tratarse de un testimonio muy temprano en la historia del petrarquismo hispano, el conjunto formado por el prefacio y las dos primeras epístolas del Liber sine nomine no viene utilizado como un simple repertorio de sentencias, sino que constituye el modelo sobre el que se construye la carta en la que, por lo demás y extraordinariamente, en ningún momento se menciona el nombre de Petrarca. De otro lado, se ponen en cuestión algunas de las fuentes postuladas por Vázquez Janeiro y se ofrece una nueva edición de la carta de fray Diego. Palabras clave: Diego de Moxena; Petrarca; Liber sine nomine; concilio de Constanza; petrarquismo hispano; Dietrich von Münster. Abstract. Diego de Moxena, the Liber sine nomine and the Council of Constance On the 9th of July in 1415, Diego de Moxena, very likely a Castilian Franciscan active in the Council of Constance, wrote a letter to Ferdinand I of Aragon in which he urged him to attend the Council and to reconsider his support to Benedict XIII.
    [Show full text]
  • Ovid's Wand: the Brush of History and the Mirror of Ekphrasis Presented In
    Ovid’s Wand: the brush of history and the mirror of ekphrasis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Reid Hardaway, M.A. Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Ethan Knapp, Advisor Karen Winstead Sarah-Grace Heller Copyright by Reid Hardaway 2017 Abstract The recent work on the manuscript reception of Ovid’s canon and Ovidian commentaries in western Europe has affirmed the author’s significant literary influence in the late Mid- dle Ages. The production and reception of Ovidinia flourished, and Ovid’s poems in- creasingly became read as coherent compositions rather than dissected for bits of moral exempla. In particular, the Metamorphoses profoundly affects the literary landscape of late medieval France and England. Allusions to Ovid’s poem reemerge throughout the late Middle Ages at defining moments of poetic self-consciousness, most often through figures of ekphrasis, the use of poetry in order to portray other media of art. By examin- ing such moments from a selection of influential medieval poems, the mind of the late medieval poet reveals itself in perpetual contestation with the images and figures of an Ovidian lineage, but the contest entails the paradoxical construction of poetic identity, which forces the poet to impose the haunting shadow of literary history onto the mirror of his or her craft. ii Acknowledgements The following work would not have been possible without the considerate and insightful assistance of my advisor, Ethan Knapp, as well as the other members of the dissertation committee, Karen Winstead and Sarah-Grace Heller.
    [Show full text]
  • 2003 Annual Report of the Walters Art Museum
    THE YEAR IN REVIEWTHE WALTERS ART MUSEUM ANNUAL REPORT 2003 France, France, Ms.M.638, folio 23 verso, 1244–1254, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York Dear Friends: After more than three intense years renovating and reinstalling our Centre Street Building, which con- cluded in June 2002 with the opening of our transformed 19th-century galleries, we stepped back in fiscal year 2002–2003 to refocus attention on our Charles Street Building, with its Renaissance, baroque, and rococo collections, in preparation for its complete reinstallation for a fall 2005 opening. For the Walters, as for cultural institutions nationwide, this was more generally a time of reflection and retrenchment in the wake of lingering uncertainty after the terrorist attack of 9/11, the general economic downturn, and significant loss of public funds. Nevertheless, thanks to Mellon Foundation funding, we were able to make three new mid-level curatorial hires, in the departments of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance and baroque art. Those three endowed positions will have lasting impact on the museum, as will a major addition to our galleries: in September 2002, we opened a comprehensive display of the arts of the ancient Americas, thanks to a long-term loan from the Austen-Stokes Foundation. Now, for the first time, we are able to expand on a collecting area Henry Walters entered nearly a century ago, to match our renowned ancient and medieval holdings in quality and range with more than four millennia of works from the western hemisphere. The 2002–2003 season was marked by three major exhibitions organized by the Walters, and by the continued international tour of a fourth Walters show, Desire and Devotion.
    [Show full text]
  • Petrarch and Boccaccio Mimesis
    Petrarch and Boccaccio Mimesis Romanische Literaturen der Welt Herausgegeben von Ottmar Ette Band 61 Petrarch and Boccaccio The Unity of Knowledge in the Pre-modern World Edited by Igor Candido An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. The Open Access book is available at www.degruyter.com. ISBN 978-3-11-042514-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-041930-6 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-041958-0 ISSN 0178-7489 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. For more information, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Igor Candido, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Konvertus, Haarlem Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Dedicated to Ronald Witt (1932–2017) Contents Acknowledgments IX Igor Candido Introduction 1 H. Wayne Storey The
    [Show full text]
  • Locating Boccaccio in 2013
    Locating Boccaccio in 2013 Locating Boccaccio in 2013 11 July to 20 December 2013 Mon 12.00 – 5.00 Tue – Sat 10.00 – 5.00 Sun 12.00 – 5.00 The John Rylands Library The University of Manchester 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH Designed by Epigram 0161 237 9660 1 2 Contents Locating Boccaccio in 2013 2 The Life of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) 3 Tales through Time 4 Boccaccio and Women 6 Boccaccio as Mediator 8 Transmissions and Transformations 10 Innovations in Print 12 Censorship and Erotica 14 Aesthetics of the Historic Book 16 Boccaccio in Manchester 18 Boccaccio and the Artists’ Book 20 Further Reading and Resources 28 Acknowledgements 29 1 Locating Boccaccio Te Life of Giovanni in 2013 Boccaccio (1313-1375) 2013 is the 700th anniversary of Boccaccio’s twenty-first century? His status as one of the Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, either Author portrait, birth, and this occasion offers us the tre corone (three crowns) of Italian medieval in Florence or nearby Certaldo, the son of Decameron (Venice: 1546), opportunity not only to commemorate this literature, alongside Dante and Petrarch is a merchant who worked for the famous fol. *3v great author and his works, but also to reflect unchallenged, yet he is often perceived as Bardi company. In 1327 the young Boccaccio upon his legacy and meanings today. The the lesser figure of the three. Rather than moved to Naples to join his father who exhibition forms part of a series of events simply defining Boccaccio in automatic was posted there. As a trainee merchant around the world celebrating Boccaccio in relation to the other great men in his life, Boccaccio learnt the basic skills of arithmetic 2013 and is accompanied by an international then, we seek to re-present him as a central and accounting before commencing training conference held at the historic Manchester figure in the classical revival, and innovator as a canon lawyer.
    [Show full text]
  • Monuments More Enduring Than Bronze: Boccaccio and Paper Inscriptions
    Heliotropia - An online journal of research to Boccaccio scholars Volume 4 Volume 4 (2007) Issue 1 Issue 1-2 Article 5 2007 Monuments More Enduring than Bronze: Boccaccio and Paper Inscriptions Jonathan Usher University of Edinburgh Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/heliotropia Recommended Citation Usher, Jonathan (2007) "Monuments More Enduring than Bronze: Boccaccio and Paper Inscriptions," Heliotropia - An online journal of research to Boccaccio scholars: Vol. 4 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/heliotropia/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Heliotropia - An online journal of research to Boccaccio scholars by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Usher: Monuments More Enduring than Bronze: Boccaccio and Paper Inscript Heliotropia 4.1 (2007) http://www.heliotropia.org Monuments More Enduring than Bronze: Boccaccio and Paper Inscriptions n 20 October 1374, in almost the last year of his life, Boccaccio fi- nally received in Certaldo the sad news from Francescuolo da Bros- Osano, Petrarch’s son-in-law, that the great poet had breathed his last in his retreat at Arqua, in mid-July. We do not have Francesco’s letter, which presumably touched also upon a tidy bequest of florins to purchase for his old friend a warm garment for nocturnal study and research: in- somnia was a shared affliction.1 Boccaccio’s delayed reply of 3 November, offering his condolences to Francescuolo, far from being a spontaneous outpouring of grief, is a carefully composed piece of consolatory rhetoric, a genre famously essayed in a long letter of 1361 to the exiled Pino de’ Rossi.2 First Boccaccio treats Petrarch’s elevation to a better life, rhetorically balancing the deceased’s tranquil joy in heaven with the letter-writer’s own continued travails in this earthly life, beset as he is by (graphically de- scribed) illness.
    [Show full text]
  • Klasszikus, Bibliai És Középkori Reminiszcenciák Petrarca Sine Nomine-Leveleiben
    ERTL PÉTER Klasszikus, bibliai és középkori reminiszcenciák Petrarca Sine nomine-leveleiben The aim of this study is to identify and analyze some classical, biblical and medieval literary reminiscences in Petrarch’s collection of satirical letters against the Papal court of Avignon, called Liber sine nomine. The examples examined illustrate how the poet combined the classical tradition with the Christian one and, thanks to the passages evoked, provided his own text with a further, political-polemical meaning. Moreover, the identification of an allusion to Virgil’s Aeneid allows a slight correction to be made to the critical text of the ninth epistle.1 „[…] amikor figyelmes olvasás közben hasznos mondásokra találsz […], tégy oda jelzést. Ezek segítségével, mint egy horoggal, visszatarthatod azokat, ha el akarnának távozni emlékezetedből.”2 Petrarca Secretum című dialógusában Augustinus ezt a mnemotechnikai tanácsot adja a költő alteregójának, Franciscusnak, hogy az olvasmányaiban talált hasznos gondolatok, szentenciák segítségével leküzdhesse indulatait, különösen kóros lelki szomorúságát.3 1 A publikáció elkészítését az MTA-SZTE Antikvitás és reneszánsz: források és recepció Kutatócsoport (TK2016-126) támogatta. 2 Secr., II, Francesco PETRARCA, Kétségeim titkos küzdelme (Secretum), ford. LÁZÁR István Dávid, Szeged, Lazi, 1999, 82. A költő műveire végig a „Petrarca del centenario” sorozatban (Firenze, Le Lettere) használt rövidítésekkel hivatkozom. 3 A melankóliába hajló lelki bágyadtságként, különös kéjjel járó szomorúságként, keserűségként
    [Show full text]
  • «Vero Omnia Consonant». Ideologia E Politica Di Petrarca Nel Liber Sine Nomine
    Paolo Viti «Vero omnia consonant». Ideologia e politica di Petrarca nel Liber sine nomine Parole chiave: Petrarca, 'Liber sine nomine', Cola di Rienzo, Curia avignonese, Denuncia Keywords: Petrarca, 'Liber sine nomine', Cola di Rienzo, Avignon Curia, Condemnation Contenuto in: Le carte e i discepoli. Studi in onore di Claudio Griggio Curatori: Fabiana di Brazzà, Ilvano Caliaro, Roberto Norbedo, Renzo Rabboni e Matteo Venier Editore: Forum Luogo di pubblicazione: Udine Anno di pubblicazione: 2016 Collana: Tracce. Itinerari di ricerca/Area umanistica e della formazione ISBN: 978-88-8420-917-7 ISBN: 978-88-3283-054-5 (versione digitale) Pagine: 67-98 DOI: 10.4424/978-88-8420-917-7-07 Per citare: Paolo Viti, ««Vero omnia consonant». Ideologia e politica di Petrarca nel Liber sine nomine», in Fabiana di Brazzà, Ilvano Caliaro, Roberto Norbedo, Renzo Rabboni e Matteo Venier (a cura di), Le carte e i discepoli. Studi in onore di Claudio Griggio, Udine, Forum, 2016, pp. 67-98 Url: http://forumeditrice.it/percorsi/lingua-e-letteratura/tracce/le-carte-e-i-discepoli/vero-omnia-consonant-ideologia-e- politica-di FARE srl con socio unico Università di Udine Forum Editrice Universitaria Udinese via Larga, 38 - 33100 Udine Tel. 0432 26001 / Fax 0432 296756 / forumeditrice.it «VERO OMNIA CONSONANT». IDEOLOGIA E POLITICA DI PETRARCA NEL LIBER SINE NOMINE Paolo Viti Pur non potendo isolare parti troppo limitate all’interno dell’intera produzione petrarchesca, mi sembra utile selezionare alcuni passi contenuti nel Liber sine nomine – collezione di lettere in stretta corrispondenza con le Familiares1 – so- prattutto in rapporto all’altezza cronologica in cui tali lettere furono composte, fra il 1342 e il 1359, ma con alcuni nuclei ben precisi: nel 1342 la I a Philippe de Cabassole, nel 1347 la II e la III a Cola di Rienzo, nel 1357 e nel 1358 le ultime tre (XVII-XIX) a Francesco Nelli.
    [Show full text]
  • Ibi Et Cor Tuum: the Twin Perils of Studium and Otium in English Renaissance Intellectual Culture
    Ibi et cor tuum: The Twin Perils of Studium and Otium in English Renaissance Intellectual Culture By Gertrude Obi A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Joanna Picciotto, Chair Professor James Grantham Turner Professor Timothy Hampton Spring 2016 1 Abstract Ibi et cor tuum: The Twin Perils of Studium and Otium in English Renaissance Intellectual Culture by Gertrude Obi Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Berkeley Professor Joanna Picciotto, Chair My dissertation, “Ibi et cor tuum: The Twin Perils of Studium and Otium in English Renaissance Intellectual Culture,” investigates the ways in which the temptations posed by intellectual labor were conceptualized and navigated by English Renaissance humanists. The competition pitting the vita activa against the vita contemplativa, which every age—including ours—must resolve anew, generated a spate of writings engaging with the mixed legacy of classical and medieval Christian attitudes towards the cultivation of knowledge for its own sake. My first chapter traces the discourse of intellectual labor as leisure from the Aristotelian concept of schole through its transformations in the writings of Cicero, Seneca, Petrarch, and Erasmus. I discuss humanists’ attempts to draw upon traditions of monastic exemption and classical political exemption in order to add cachet and legibility to their “uselessness.” In doing so, I address the difficulties, both ideological and logistical, of integrating intellectual labor into an economic system. Chapter 2 explores the creation of an intellectual realm defined against both the (masculinized) public sphere and the (feminized) domestic sphere in More’s Utopia.
    [Show full text]
  • Francesco Petrarch, Some Love Songs of Petrarch (14Thc)
    Petrarch_0558 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/EBook.php?recordID=0558 [XLVCCXLVCLXXXIXCLXXVICXXVCXLVCLXCCXVCCXLIXCCLCCCCCLXXVCCLXIXCCCXCCCXXCCCXVCCLXXCCCXXXICCCXXVCCCXLCCCXLICCCXLVICCCLXVCCCLXVICXVLXXXIXCXXXVICXXXIVLXXXICCCXICCLXVIICXXIXCXXVICLVICLIXXCCCCXXXIIICCCXLIIICXIXCXXIXCIXCCCXIICCXXXVIIILCCXXIICCCLIIILIVLXXIICCXCIIICCCIILXXVIIICXCIICCXIICXXVIIICVICXIXCIXXXVIIIXXIXXXIILXVIIILXIICXXIIIXXXIIIXXIILXIIIXILIILIIIXIIIIIII]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] ] THE ONLINE LIBRARY OF LIBERTY Chaucer.Hisfriendships.HisSeeksEditionsTheLove religiousfollowers.loveloveHumanist. of Italian fame.ofof hisLaura.antiquity.fame. feeling. unity. works. Netherlands.Channel.Vaucluse.1338.court.Cicero.secretaryship.Petrarch.Tribune.forFlorence.physicians.returnremonstrate.Viscontithemanuscripts.poems.Venetians.toAvignon.Literature. Rome. Italy.succession. to dies. Italy. © Liberty Fund, Inc. 2005 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/index.php FRANCESCO PETRARCH, SOME LOVE SONGS OF PETRARCH (14THC) URL of this E-Book: http://oll.libertyfund.org/EBooks/Petrarch_0558.pdf URL of original HTML file: http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0558 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Francesco Petrarca was an Italian scholar and poet who is regarded by many scholars as being among the first humanists. He contributed to the Renaissance flowering of lyric poetry and literature through his poems addressed to Laura, his idealized beloved. Petrarch’s love of classical authors and learning inspired him to visit men of learning and search monastic libraries for classical texts. His discovery
    [Show full text]
  • Vita Di Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) Francesco Petrarca Nacque Ad Arezzo Il 20 Luglio 1304
    Vita di Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) Francesco Petrarca nacque ad Arezzo il 20 luglio 1304. Il padre ser Petracco, era un notaio fiorentino, esule per ragioni politiche. Nel 1334 ser Petracco si trasferì con la famiglia a Pisa e di là, nell'anno seguente, ad Avignone, dove il papa aveva da poco trasportato la sua sede e la sua corte. Per la difficoltà di trovare un alloggio ad Avignone, il piccolo Francesco con la madre Eletta Carigiani ed il fratello Gherardo furono sistemati nella vicina Carpentas; là nel 1312 il poeta cominciò lo studio della grammatica, della retorica e della dialettica col maestro Convenevole da Prato. Nel 1316 il padre lo mandò a studiare legge a Monpellier e poi dal 1320 al 1326 a Bologna; ma il poeta trascurò ben presto gli studi giuridici per dedicarsi alla lettura dei classici. Tornato ad Avignone nel 1326, dopo la morte del padre, Francesco Petrarca frequentò per un certo periodo il mondo elegante e gaudente della città, dove era assai ricercato per il suo spirito e la sua intelligenza. Assai importante in questo periodo fu l'incontro del poeta con una gentildonna di nome Laura nella chiesa di Santa Chiara, il 6 aprile 1327. I tentativi di dare un'identità precisa a Laura sono stati finora vani, e il poeta stesso ci dà di lei un'immagine vaga; è sufficiente quindi ritenere che l'amore per Laura fu un episodio reale nella vita del Petrarca. Frattanto il poeta abbracciò lo stato ecclesiastico (soltanto gli ordini minori) probabilmente con l'intento di procurarsi un'esistenza onorevole e tranquilla.
    [Show full text]
  • The Shields of Achilles and Aeneas: the Worlds Portrayed by Homer and Vergil
    Vanessa Peters The Shields of Achilles and Aeneas: The Worlds Portrayed by Homer and Vergil The epic simile is a common device in epic poetry; it forms a relationship between two un- likely things and causes one to be viewed through the lens of the other. Unlike a normal simile, an epic simile has a fully developed vehicle that reflects the complexity back on the tenor; that is, an epic sim- ile, in its increased length and depth, can have layers of complexity that a normal simile cannot. The shield of Achilles (Hom. Il. 18.558-709) in Book 18 of Homer’s Iliad and the shield of Aeneas (Verg. Aen. 8.738-858) in book 8 of Vergil’s Aeneid are examples of epic similes, in which the poet takes the role of the god who forges the shield and can comment on society unobtrusively.1 These shields convey different perspectives of Greek and Roman society. Whereas Homer shows the world of peace in con- trast to the world of war to illustrate the tragedy of the Iliad, Vergil expresses Roman triumphalism to glorify Rome and her people. Book 18 of the Iliad marks a turning point in the epic. In it, Achilles decides to return to bat- tle in order to avenge Patroclus’ death by killing Hector. Since he has lost his armour to the enemy, his mother Thetis, knowing that his fate is sealed, beseeches Hephaestus to forge him a new set (Il. 18.534). The god agrees to her request and sets out to work, creating a magnificent shield for Achilles to wear in battle.
    [Show full text]