Academic literature on the topic 'Didactic poetry, Italian'

This paper deals with a neglected subgenre of biblical poetry, namely with epic poems on the life of the Blessed Virgin. After an introduction into the poetic treatment of Mary in early modern latin poetry in general, one single epic poem is discussed in detail, the Mariados libri tres of the Italian-German scholar Giulio Cesare Delfini. As it will be demonstrated, Delfini’s poem included long explanations of medico-theological problems, like the digestion of the Divine Virgin or her intellectual skills, which the poet treated in addition in separate glosses. As result the poem presents itself as hybrid between didactic and epic poetry. In addition the study contains as an Appendix a list of (approximately) all accessible Latin poems, written between 1550 and 1650, on the incarnation and birth of Christ.

Haydn’s Quartet op. 9, no.6, illustrates the application of poetic conventions to music. Viewed as a Capriccio, movement 1 discloses a labyrinthine rhythmic structure both didactic and amusing. A table of musical rhythms and inventory of musical phrase types supplement analyses.

Soon after the Protestant Reformation took place in Livonia in the 16th century, the currents of European humanism came to Livonia. As a result of the historical and religious impact, the level of education increased, enabling an environment for the development of the literature. Soon various Latin poetry texts int. al. 17th-century occasional poetry written by the humanists of Riga started to appear. The aim of the article is to bring to light the components of nuptial (epithalamium, ὑμέναιος/hymenaeus, carmen nuptialis, etc.) poetry written in Riga in the 17th century, as well as by exploring the specific features of occasional poetry to capture readers’ and researchers’ interest in the previously undiscovered cultural heritage. At the beginning of the article, the tradition of nuptial poetry is explained. Then, by examining the basic principles one must take into account in composing occasional poetry based on works of the ancient rhetors – Menander (Μένανδρος Ῥήτωρ, c. 3rd century), pseudo-Dionysius (pseudo-Dionysius/Διονύσιος), Himerius (Ἱμέριος, c. 315–c. 386) and the book “Seven Books on Poetry” (Poetices libri septem, 1561) written by Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558) – a table of the most used topics in nuptial poetry is formed. Afterwards, the poetry written in Riga and its most typical components (didactics, laudation, inducement, foresight, wishes/congratulations and prayers) is compared to the topics offered by previously mentioned theoreticians. Fragments of Latin nuptial poetry written in Riga are included to portray the components of poetry more clearly. All translations of poetry included in the article are made by the author of the article.

Resumen: Uno de los temas principales de la poesía escrita para niños es el imaginario infantil procedente de los cuentos tradicionales. Son muchos los poemas o incluso los libros de versos para niños que reescriben episodios tomados de ellos o que se desarrollan a partir de sus personajes, ya sea de una manera didáctica, lúdica o lírica. Ahora bien, ¿qué ocurre con esas versiones en verso de los cuentos de siempre? ¿Se trata realmente de poesía o son solo narraciones versificadas con más o menos fortuna? En el presente trabajo trataremos de responder a dicha cuestión a través del análisis de tres obras recientes publicadas en tres países distintos – Adivina qué cuento soy (2010, España); Il était une fois… contes en haiku (2013, Francia) and In mezzo alla fiaba (2015, Italia) – en los que se reescriben los cuentos tradicionales de distintas maneras. Palabras clave: poesía infantil; reescritura; culturalismo; cuentos. Abstract: One of the main themes in children’s poetry is the imagery taken from traditional tales. Many poems and even whole books of poems are focused on characters or situations taken from them, in a re-writing exercise that can be didactic, ludic or lyrical as well. But what happens with this kind of adaptations, these poetic versions of old-time tales? Are they truly poetic texts or are they only narrative texts written in verse in order to attract young readers? The aim of this work is thus to answer this question by analysing three examples of poetry books recently published in three different countries – Adivina qué cuento soy (2010, Spain); Il était une fois… contes en haiku (2013, France) and In mezzo alla fiaba (2015, Italy) – in which traditional fairy tales are rewritten in different ways. Key Words: children’s poetry; rewriting; culturalism; fairy tales.

Anders Toftgaard: “Perhaps even this distress it will some day be a joy to recall”. On Giacomo Castelvetro’s manuscripts in The Royal Library, Copenhagen. In exile from his beloved Modena, Giacomo Castelvetro (1546–1616) travelled in a Europe marked by Reformation, counter-Reformation and wars of religion. He transmitted the best of Italian Renaissance culture to the court of James VI and Queen Anna of Denmark in Edinburgh, to the court of Christian IV in Copenhagen and to Shakespeare’s London, while he incessantly collected manuscripts on Italian literature and European contemporary history. Giacomo Castelvetro lived in Denmark from August 1594 to 11 October 1595. Various manuscripts and books which belonged to Giacomo Castelvetro in his lifetime, are now kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Some of them might have been in Denmark ever since Castelvetro left Denmark in 1595. Nevertheless, Giacomo Castelvetro has never been noticed by Danish scholars studying the cultural context in which he lived. The purpose of this article is to point to Castelvetro’s presence in Denmark in the period around Christian IV’s accession and to describe two of his unique manuscripts in the collection of the Royal Library. The Royal Library in Copenhagen holds a copy of the first printed Italian translation of the Quran, L’Alcorano di Macometto, nel qual si contiene la dottrina, la vita, i costumi et le leggi sue published by Andrea Arrivabene in Venice in 1547. The title page bears the name of the owner: Giacº Castelvetri. The copy was already in the library’s collections at the time of the Danish King Frederic III, in the 1660’s. The three manuscripts from the Old Royal collection (GKS), GKS 2052 4º, GKS 2053 4º and GKS 2057 4º are written partly or entirely in the hand of Giacomo Castelvetro. Moreover, a number of letters written to Giacomo Castelvetro while he was still in Edinburgh are kept among letters addressed to Jonas Charisius, the learned secretary in the Foreign Chancellery and son in law of Petrus Severinus (shelf mark NKS (New Royal Collection) 1305 2º). These letters have been dealt with by Giuseppe Migliorato who also transcribed two of them. GKS 2052 4º The manuscript GKS 2052 4º (which is now accessible in a digital facsimile on the Royal Library’s website), contains a collection of Italian proverbs explained by Giacomo Castelvetro. It is dedicated to Niels Krag, who was ambassador of the Danish King to the Scottish court, and it is dated 6 August 1593. The title page shows the following beautifully written text: Il Significato D’Alquanti belli & vari proverbi dell’Italica Favella, gia fatto da G. C. M. & hoggi riscritto, & donato,in segno di perpetua amicitia, all ecc.te.D. di legge, Il S.r. Nicolò Crachio Ambas.re. del Ser.mo Re di Dania a questa Corona, & Sig.r mio sempre osser.mo Forsan & haec olim meminisse iuvabit Nella Citta d’Edimborgo A VI d’Agosto 1593 The manuscript consists of 96 leaves. On the last page of the manuscript the title is repeated with a little variation in the colophon: Qui finisce il Significato D’alquanti proverbi italiani, hoggi rescritto a requisitione del S.r. Nicolo Crachio eccelente Dottore delle civili leggi &c. Since the author was concealed under the initials G.C.M., the manuscript has never before been described and never attributed to Giacomo Castelvetro. However, in the margin of the title page, a 16th century hand has added: ”Giacomo Castelvetri modonese”, and the entire manuscript is written in Giacomo Castelvetro’s characteristic hand. The motto ”Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit” is from Vergil’s Aeneid (I, 203); and in the Loeb edition it is rendered “Perhaps even this distress it will some day be a joy to recall”. The motto appears on all of the manuscripts that Giacomo Castelvetro copied in Copenhagen. The manuscript was evidently offered to Professor Niels Krag (ca. 1550–1602), who was in Edinburgh in 1593, from May to August, as an ambassador of the Danish King. On the 1st of August, he was knighted by James VI for his brave behaviour when Bothwell entered the King’s chamber in the end of July. The Danish Public Record Office holds Niels Krag’s official diary from the journey, signed by Sten Bilde and Niels Krag. It clearly states that they left Edinburgh on August 6th, the day in which Niels Krag was given the manuscript. Evidently, Castelvetro was one of the many persons celebrating the ambassadors at their departure. The manuscript is bound in parchment with gilded edges, and a gilded frame and central arabesque on both front cover and end cover. There are 417 entries in the collection of proverbs, and in the explanations Giacomo Castelvetro often uses other proverbs and phrases. The explanations are most vivid, when Castelvetro explains the use of a proverb by a tale in the tradition of the Italian novella or by an experience from his own life. The historical persons mentioned are the main characters of the sixteenth century’s religious drama, such as Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, Elizabeth, James VI, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and his son, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Gaspard de Coligny and the Guise family, Mary Stuart, Don Antonio, King of Portugal, the Earl of Bothwell and Cosimo de’ Medici. The Catholic Church is referred to as “Setta papesca”, and Luther is referred to as “il grande, e pio Lutero” (f. 49v). Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Petrarca are referred to various times, along with Antonio Cornazzano (ca. 1430–1483/84), the author of Proverbi in facetie, while Brunetto Latini, Giovanni Villani, Ovid and Vergil each are mentioned once. Many of the explanations are frivolous, and quite a few of them involve priests and monks. The origin of the phrase “Meglio è tardi, che non mai” (52v, “better late than never”) is explained by a story about a monk who experienced sex for the first time at the age of 44. In contrast to some of the texts to be found in the manuscript GKS 2057 4º the texts in GKS 2052 4º, are not misogynist, rather the opposite. Castelvetro’s collection of proverbs is a hitherto unknown work. It contains only a tenth of the number of proverbs listed in Gardine of recreation (1591) by John Florio (1553?–1625), but by contrast these explanations can be used, on the one hand, as a means to an anthropological investigation of the past and on the other hand they give us precious information about the life of Giacomo Castelvetro. For instance he cites a work of his, “Il ragionamento del Viandante” (f. 82r), which he hopes to see printed one day. It most probably never was printed. GKS 2057 4º The manuscript GKS 2057 4º gathers a number of quires in very different sizes. The 458 folios in modern foliation plus end sheets are bound in blue marbled paper (covering a previous binding in parchment) which would seem to be from the 17th century. The content spans from notes to readyforprint-manuscripts. The manuscript contains text by poets from Ludovico Castelvetro’s generation, poems by poets from Modena, texts tied to the reformation and a lot of satirical and polemical material. Just like some of Giacomo Castelvetro’s manuscripts which are now in the possession of Trinity College Library and the British Library it has “been bound up in the greatest disorder” (cf. Butler 1950, p. 23, n. 75). Far from everything is written in the hand of Giacomo Castelvetro, but everything is tied to him apart from one quire (ff. 184–192) written in French in (or after) 1639. The first part contains ”Annotationi sopra i sonetti del Bembo” by Ludovico Castelvetro, (which has already been studied by Alberto Roncaccia), a didactic poem in terza rima about rhetoric, “de’ precetti delle partitioni oratorie” by “Filippo Valentino Modonese” , “rescritto in Basilea a XI di Febraio 1580 per Giacº Castelvetri” and the Ars poetica by Horace translated in Italian. These texts are followed by satirical letters by Nicolò Franco (“alle puttane” and “alla lucerna” with their responses), by La Zaffetta, a sadistic, satirical poem about a Venetian courtisane who is punished by her lover by means of a gang rape by thirty one men, and by Il Manganello (f. 123–148r), an anonymous, misogynistic work. The manuscript also contains a dialogue which would seem to have been written by Giacomo Castelvetro, “Un’amichevole ragionamento di due veri amici, che sentono il contrario d’uno terzo loro amico”, some religious considerations written shortly after Ludovico’s death, ”essempio d’uno pio sermone et d’una Christiana lettera” and an Italian translation of parts of Erasmus’ Colloquia (the dedication to Frobenius and the two dialogues ”De votis temere susceptis” and ”De captandis sacerdotiis” under the title Dimestichi ragionamenti di Desiderio Erasmo Roterodamo, ff. 377r–380r), and an Italian translation of the psalms number 1, 19, 30, 51, 91. The dominating part is, however, Italian poetry. There is encomiastic poetry dedicated to Trifon Gabriele and Sperone Speroni and poetry written by poets such as Torquato Tasso, Bernardo Tasso, Giulio Coccapani, Ridolfo Arlotti, Francesco Ambrosio/ Ambrogio, Gabriele Falloppia, Alessandro Melani and Gasparo Bernuzzi Parmigiano. Some of the quires are part of a planned edition of poets from Castelvetro’s home town, Modena. On the covers of the quires we find the following handwritten notes: f. 276r: Volume secondo delle poesie de poeti modonesi f. 335v: VII vol. Delle opere de poeti modonesi f. 336v; 3º vol. Dell’opere de poeti modonesi f. 353: X volume dell’opre de poeti modonesi In the last part of the manuscript there is a long discourse by Sperone Speroni, “Oratione del Sr. Sperone, fatta in morte della S.ra Giulia Varana Duchessa d’Urbino”, followed by a discourse on the soul by Paulus Manutius. Finally, among the satirical texts we find quotes (in Latin) from the Psalms used as lines by different members of the French court in a humoristic dialogue, and a selection of graffiti from the walls of Padua during the conflict between the city council and the students in 1580. On fol. 383v there is a ”Memoriale d’alcuni epitafi ridiculosi”, and in the very last part of the manuscript there is a certain number of pasquinate. When Castelvetro was arrested in Venice in 1611, the ambassador Dudley Carleton described Castelvetro’s utter luck in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, stating that if he, Carleton, had not been able to remove the most compromising texts from his dwelling, Giacomo Castelvetro would inevitably have lost his life: “It was my good fortune to recover his books and papers a little before the Officers of the Inquisition went to his lodging to seize them, for I caused them to be brought unto me upon the first news of his apprehension, under cover of some writings of mine which he had in his hands. And this indeed was the poore man’s safetie, for if they had made themselves masters of that Magazine, wherein was store and provision of all sorts of pasquins, libels, relations, layde up for many years together against their master the Pope, nothing could have saved him” Parts of GKS 2057 4º fit well into this description of Castelvetro’s papers. A proper and detailed description of the manuscript can now be found in Fund og Forskning Online. Provenance GKS 2052 4ºon the one side, and on the other side, GKS 2053 4º and GKS 2057 4º have entered The Royal Library by two different routes. None of the three manuscripts are found in the oldest list of manuscripts in the Royal Library, called Schumacher’s list, dating from 1665. All three of them are included in Jon Erichsen’s “View over the old Manuscript Collection” published in 1786, so they must have entered the collections between 1660 and 1786. Both GKS 2053 4º and GKS 2057 4º have entered The Royal Library from Christian Reitzer’s library in 1721. In the handwritten catalogue of Reitzer’s library (The Royal Library’s archive, E 15, vol. 1, a catalogue with very detailed entries), they bear the numbers 5744 and 5748. If one were to proceed, one would have to identify the library from which these two manuscripts have entered Reitzer’s library. On the spine of GKS 2053 4º there is a label saying “Castelvetro / sopra Dante vol 326” and on f. 2r the same number is repeated: “v. 326”. On the spine of GKS 2057 4º, there is a label saying “Poesie italiane, vol. 241”, and on the end sheet the same number is repeated: “v. 241”. These two manuscripts would thus seem to have belonged to the same former library. Many of the Royal Library’s manuscripts with relazioni derive from Christian Reitzer’s library, and a wide range of Italian manuscripts which have entered the Royal Library through Reitzer’s library have a similar numbering on spine and title page. Comparing these numbers with library catalogues from the 17th century, one might be able to identify the library from which these manuscripts entered Reitzer’s library, and I hope to be able to proceed in this direction. Conclusion Giacomo Castelvetro was not a major Italian Renaissance writer, but a nephew of one of the lesser-known writers in Italian literature, Ludovico Castelvetro. He delivered yet another Italian contribution to the history of Christian IV, and his presence could be seen as a sign of a budding Italianism in Denmark in the era of Christian IV. The collection of Italian proverbs that he offered to Niels Krag, makes him a predecessor of the Frenchman Daniel Matras (1598–1689), who as a teacher of French and Italian at the Academy in Sorø in 1633 published a parallel edition of French, Danish, Italian and German proverbs. The two manuscripts that are being dealt with in this article are two very different manuscripts. GKS 2052 4º is a perfectly completed work that was hitherto unknown and now joins the short list of known completed works by Giacomo Castelvetro. GKS 2057 4º is a collection of variegated texts that have attracted Giacomo Castelvetro for many different reasons. Together the two manuscripts testify to the varied use of manuscripts in Renaissance Italy and Europe. A typical formulation of Giacomo Castelvetro’s is “Riscritto”. He copies texts in order to give them a new life in a new context. Giacomo Castelvetro is in the word’s finest sense a disseminator of Italian humanism and European Renaissance culture. He disseminated it in a geographical sense, by his teaching in Northern Europe, and in a temporal sense through his preservation of texts for posterity under the motto: “Perhaps even this distress it will some day be a joy to recall”.

La thèse étudie le dernier poème écrit par l’humaniste Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503) au tournant du XVIe siècle, le De hortis Hesperidum, une géorgique sur les jardins d’agrumes. Plusieurs chapitres de description de l’œuvre puis une étude historique et pluridisciplinaire s’attachent à jeter de la lumière sur ce testament méconnu de l'humanisme napolitain. Le poème est tout d’abord considéré au regard des diverses lectures qui en furent faites depuis son origine jusqu’à nos jours et, en particulier, de son influence sur la littérature de l’âge classique en Europe. Puis on mène un examen de la versification du poème, de l’histoire du texte et dans l’étude de ses différents témoins, on établit les principes de l’édition qui figure en fin d’ouvrage. Comme le De hortis Hesperidum est le premier texte moderne à suivre la leçon de Virgile en matière de poème didactique, l’étude s’emploie ensuite à dévoiler les ficelles de la recréation du genre géorgique à l’aube de l’époque moderne, en y examinant les formes de narration, le rôle des digressions dans le texte, la présentation du dédicataire et du dédicant. Mais le De hortis Hesperidum est aussi un poème scientifique d’un intérêt précoce pour les agrumes dont il établit les variétés et dont il décrit précisément la culture, avec un tropisme certain pour les jardins d’apparat dont il présage la vogue au XVIe siècle à Naples comme dans toute l’Italie : on y découvre les prémices du jardin maniériste. Ce poème est enfin la peinture d’une vie académique et aristocratique élevée en un idéal que le poète cherche à préserver du tumulte des guerres d’Italie. En complément de l’étude, cette thèse présente la première traduction française intégrale du texte ainsi qu’une nouvelle édition à l’orthographe restituée d’après l’unique manuscrit connu
The present thesis studies the last poem written by the humanist Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503) in the latefifteenth century/beginning of the sixteenth century : De hortis Hesperidum, a georgic on citrus gardens.Some descriptive chapters, followed by a more analytical and multidisciplinary study, cast light on thisoverlooked testament of Napolitan humanism. The poem is at first considered through its various readingsover time and in particular through its influence on the literature of European classical age. Then, theversification and the textual history of the poem are assessed and the principles of the current edition areestablished, thanks to a careful examination of its testimonies. Since De hortis Hesperidum is the first moderntext to imitate Vergil’s way of composing didactic poetry, the study deciphers the recreation of the georgicgenre at the begining of the modern period, by considering narrations patterns, digression’s role, the way ofpresenting the dedicatee or the poet himself. De hortis Hesperidum is also a scientific poem that demonstratesan early interest for citrus trees, by establishing their varieties and describing their culture, with an obviousattraction for ornemental gardens that foreteils their popularity in sixteenth century Naples and Italy,foreshadowing the beginnings of manierist gardens. Finally the poem pictures the aristocratical life of thePontanian academy. It gives the aspect of an ideal time, kept safe from the commotion of the Italian wars,thanks to the poet. In addition to this study, the thesis countains the first complete French translation of thetext and a new edition in which spelling has been corrected on the only known manuscript of the poem

This chapter examines how the French Jesuits influenced the didactic poetic practice of their Italian counterparts. It discusses Niccolò ‘Parthenius’ Giannettasio, an Italian Jesuit who, in spite of his admiration of Rapin, Fracastoro, and other French Jesuit contemporaries, opted to write Latin didactic poetry in a Neopolitan setting. The chapter also discusses Tommaso Strozzi, another Neopolitan Jesuit, who took inspiration from Girolamo Fracastoro's Syphlis. Fracastoro, who was the most famous Renaissance successor of Pontano, had a profound influence on the georgic poetry of his Tommaso, particularly his Praedium rusticum. The chapter also discusses Francesco Eulalio Savastano, a Neopolitan Jesuit didactic poet. His poems were a hybrid of French Jesuit and native Italian strains of neo-Latin georgic. Compared to Rapin and his Neopolitan colleagues, Savastano produced a didactic poem of more ambitious scientific pretensions. His Botanicorium, seu Institutionum rei herbariae libri iv sought to surpass the didactic poetry of Rapin. His Botanicorium was the harbinger of the more self-consciously difficult scientific poetry of the Jesuits working in Rome. It looks not only to Lucretius, Fracastoro, and Virgil but also to rivals such as Giannettasio and, above all, Rapin. This attempt to produce a scholarly difficult poetry was an opportunity for poetic, as well as competitive, display.

During the Enlightenment period, the French Jesuits were busy planting ornamental natural philosophy in the Virgilian soil; however, their counterparts in Rome were tilling rougher grounds and sowing Lucretius's seeds far below the surface. While, in general, French Jesuits are commended for leading Italy intellectually and culturally in the Enlightenment period, it was the Italian Jesuits who produced the most rigorous scientific didactic poems. Indeed, the best-known ‘Lucretian’ poem of the period was written by the Frenchman Cardinal Melchoir de Polignac; however, he was surpassed by the seventeenth-century Italian Jesuit Tommaso Ceva with his Philosophia novo-antiqua, and moreover was debunked by Benedict Stay, a young prodigy who wrote his magnum opus, the Philosophiae recentoris libri x [= Pr]. This chapter discusses the development of scientific poetry in the age of the Enlightenment in Rome. Its focus is on the analysis of some of the exemplary works of Roman poets. The chapter also provides an overview of the contemporary Italian criticism on didactic poetry, particularly those related to scientific subjects.

René Rapin, the father of Jesuit georgic poetry, manoeuvred his intellectual life between the ancients and the moderns with an instinct for conciliation and compromise that made him an effective apostle to the world. He is best remembered for his Horti, a classical-style didactic poem in four books that celebrated the victory of the moderns over the ancients in horticultural art. His poem, which is secular in appearance, is motivated by (mildly concealed) religion and Jesuito-political impulses, and cultural and literary impulses, particularly those of Virgil. This chapter discusses some of the developments in the Italian Renaissance georgic poetry to better understand Rapin's contribution to the early modern Latin georgic. It considers the latter Latin poems on horticulture and sericulture, which bear resemblance to the ancient model yet are considerably shorter than Virgil's. These latter georgic poems predicated on a Nature that is mild and marvellous, and centred on the artistic manipulation of Nature. In the Italian Renaissance, the ‘recreational georgics’ were dominated by pastoral ease, which is ironic, given the prominent thematic of labour in the original georgics. While the georgics were poems that celebrated nature and labour in gardens, by the turn of the eighteenth century, French Jesuits had identified the didactic genre of georgics as a flexible medium for exhibiting their modern Latinity and advertising their honnêteté.

This chapter analyzes Joris Lachaise's documentary approach in Convention: Black Wall/White Holes (2011), in order to identify how, as a Western filmmaker filming ‘Africa’ today, he positions himself vis-à-vis the double cinematic heritage of the French ethno-filmmaker and Italian film poet. This heritage seems of particular interest for contemporary independent documentary films. Indeed, in the context of modern cinema of the 1960s, Paolo Pasolini and Lachaise, in their own particular styles, drew a new path for the documentary film and broke away from the conventions of the genre. Pasolini developed a kind of film project against didactic and close-ended documentaries, while Rouch tried to report (or even adopt) the Other's point of view and thus broke away from colonial cinema, in which the dominating voice of the coloniser always prevailed. More specifically, this chapter will analyse the functions of speech, language and voice in the film Convention, because they are at the core of our interrogations concerning this heritage.