The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

Gasp. Veronens. Vita Pauli II. in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1031. The plays of Seneca and Latin translations of Greek dramas were also performed.

598

At Ferrara, Plautus was played chiefly in the Italian adaptations of Collenuccio, the younger Guarino, and others, and principally for the sake of the plots. Isabella Gonzaga took the liberty of finding him dull. For Latin comedy in general, see R. Peiper in Fleckeisen and Masius, Neue Jahrb. für Phil. u. Pädag., Lpzg. 1874, xx. 131-138, and Archiv für Literaturgesch. v. 541 sqq. On Pomp. Laetus, see Sabellici Opera, Epist. l. xi. fol. 56 sqq., and below, at the close of Part III.

599

Comp. Burckhardt. Gesch. der Renaissance in Italien, 38-41.

600

For what follows see Deliciae poetarum Italorum; Paul. Jov. Elogia; Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De poetis nostri temporis; and the Appendices to Roscoe, Leone X. ed. Bossi.

601

There are two new editions of the poem, that of Pingaud (Paris, 1872), and that of Corradini (Padua, 1874). In 1874 two Italian translations also appeared by G. B. Gaudo and A. Palesa. On the Africa, compare L. Geiger: Petrarca, pp. 122 sqq., and p. 270, note 7.

602

Filippo Villani, Vite, ed. Galetti, p. 16.

603

Franc. Aleardi Oratio in laudem Franc. Sfortiae, in Marat. xxv. col. 384. In comparing Scipio with Caesar, Guarino and Cyriacus Anconitanus held the latter, Poggio (Opera, epp. fol. 125, 134 sqq.) the former, to be the greater. For Scipio and Hannibal in the miniatures of Attavante, see Vasari, iv. 41. Vita di Fiesole. The names of both used for Picinino and Sforza. See p. 99. There were great disputes as to the relative greatness of the two. Shepherd-Tonelli, i. 262 sqq. and Rosmini: Guarino, ii. 97-111.

604

The brilliant exceptions, where rural life is treated realistically, will also be mentioned below.

605

Printed in Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, vol. viii. pp. 488-504; about 500 hexameter verses. Pierio Valeriano followed out the myth in his poetry. See his Carpio, in the Deliciae poetarum Italorum. The frescoes of Brusasorci in the Pal. Murari at Verona represent the subject of the Sarca.

606

Newly edited and translated by Th. A. Fassnacht in Drei Perlen der neulateinischen Poesie. Leutkirch and Leipzig, 1875. See further, Goethe’s Werke (Hempel’sche Ausgabe), vol. xxxii. pp. 157 and 411.

607

De sacris diebus.

608

E.g. in his eighth eclogue.

609

There are two unfinished and unprinted Sforziads, one by the elder, the other by the younger Filelfo. On the latter, see Favre, Mélanges d’Hist. Lit. i. 156; on the former, see Rosmini, Filelfo, ii. 157-175. It is said to be 12,800 lines long, and contains the passage: ‘The sun falls in love with Bianca.’

610

Roscoe, Leone X. ed. Bossi, viii. 184. A poem in a similar style, xii. 130. The poem of Angilbert on the Court of Charles the Great curiously reminds us of the Renaissance. Comp. Pertz. Monum. ii.

611

Strozzi, Poetae, p. 31 sqq. ‘Caesaris Borgiae ducis epicedium.’

612

‘Pontificem addiderat, flammis lustralibus omneis
Corporis ablutum labes, Dis Juppiter ipsis,’ etc.

613

This was Ercole II. of Ferrara, b. April 4, 1508, probably either shortly before or shortly after the composition of this poem. ‘Nascere, magne puer, matri expectate patrique,’ is said near the end.

614

Comp. the collections of the Scriptores by Schardius, Freher, &c., and see above p. 126, note 1.

615

Uzzano, see Archiv. iv. i. 296. Macchiavelli, i Decennali. The life of Savonarola, under the title Cedrus Libani, by Fra Benedetto. Assedio di Piombino, Murat. xxv. We may quote as a parallel the Teuerdank and other northern works in rhyme (new ed. of that by Haltaus, Quedlinb. and Leipzig, 1836). The popular historical songs of the Germans, which were produced in great abundance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, may be compared with these Italian poems.

616

We may remark of the Coltivazione of L. Alamanni, written in Italian ‘versi sciolti,’ that all the really poetical and enjoyable passages are directly or indirectly borrowed from the ancients (an old ed., Paris, 1540; new ed. of the works of A., 2 vols., Florence, 1867).

617

E.g. by C. G. Weise, Leipzig, 1832. The work, divided into twelve books, named after the twelve constellations, is dedicated to Hercules II. of Ferrara. In the dedication occur the remarkable words: ‘Nam quem alium patronum in totâ Italiâ invenire possum, cui musae cordisunt, qui carmen sibi oblatum aut intelligat, aut examine recto expendere sciat?’ Palingenius uses ‘Juppiter’ and ‘Deus’ indiscriminately.

618

L. B. Alberti’s first comic poem, which purported to be by an author Lepidus, was long considered as a work of antiquity.

619

In this case (see below, p. 266, note 2) of the introduction to Lucretius, and of Horace, Od. iv. 1.

620

The invocation of a patron saint is an essentially pagan undertaking, as has been noticed at p. 57. On a more serious occasion, comp. Sannazaro’s Elegy: ‘In festo die divi Nazarii martyris.’ Sann. Elegiae, 1535, fol. 166 sqq.

621

Si satis ventos tolerasse et imbres
Ac minas fatorum hominumque fraudes
Da Pater tecto salientem avito