The article presents a bilingual (Latin with a Polish translation) edition of two Neo-Latin imitations of Ovid’s Heroides, preceded by an introduction and provided with a philological and historical ...commentary. Both poems were written in the first twenty years of the 16th century. The author of the first one is Andrzej Krzycki (Cricius, 1482–1537), who at the time of composing the poem was the secretary of the first wife of Sigismund the Old, Barbara Zapolya. As the queen’s secretary, Krzycki was responsible for the stylistic aspect of her letters, which made it all the easier for him to create a fictional epistolary elegy on her behalf. The elegy commemorates the victorious battle for the Polish-Lithuanian army with the Grand Duchy of Moscow at Orsha (1514). For the poet it was also an opportunity to praise the invincible king and his army.
The author of the second elegy is Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529), known as the author of Il libro del Cortegiano. He wrote a poetic letter on behalf of his wife, Ippolita Torelli, who was waiting for her husband’s return from Rome. Both authors not only refer to the situation of Penelope in Ovid’s first heroide, but also use Ovid’s other letters of heroines and their neo-Latin imitations. Castiglione also evokes one of Propertius’ elegies (IV 3), which seems to be a “proto-heroide”. Krzycki’s “Penelope” seems to be psychologically less complex, while its Italian counterpart consciously employs allusions, rhetorical games and omissions. Both display a wide range of feelings from despair and sadness to hope, and express deep affection for their husbands. The introduction places the poems in their historical and literary contexts, underlining especially Ovid’s Heroides influence on European Renaissance literature. The commentary indicates some similia and explains many details related to the circumstances of creating these works.
Donne, Castiglione, and the Poetry of CourtlinessPeter DeSa Wiggins The influence of The Book of the Courtier on the work of John Donne. John Donne has been described as a "poet of ambition," who ...used his poems as agents in his quest for preferment among the elites of Elizabethan and early Stuart London. Until now the extent of the influence on Donne's work of that era's most influential court text -- Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier -- has never been fully explored. Courtier was Elizabethan England's approved repository of the complex social codes that governed the behavior of those desiring advancement at Court. In these revelatory readings of some of Donne's best-known poems, Peter DeSa Wiggins demonstrates that this book fired Donne's imagination and that, in his secular poetry, Donne applies, adapts, and unfolds to its fullest potential the persona of the courtier. In poems such as "The Canonization," "A Nocturnall upon S. Lucies Day," "Aire and Angels," "The Flea," and "The Exstasie," Donne confronts his elite readers with the most exacting standard of aristocratic conduct while presenting his qualifications for sensitive government posts. By substituting social codes for poetic convention as the formative principle of his art, Donne assumed the voice of a powerful aristocracy, turned it to his advantage, built one political career out of it (which he lost), then built another, and in the process revolutionized his art form. Peter DeSa Wiggins is Professor of English at The College of William and Mary and author of Figures in Ariosto's Tapestry: Character and Design in the Orlando Furioso. ContentsIntroductionThe Satirical Art of the Disabused The Art of Impasse The English Secretary Poets and Lawyers The Future of an Illusion The Looking GlassAesthetic Play Courtly Art "On his Mistris" Modern Instances Courtly ComedySprezzatura
or Transcendence: From Travesty to Palinode Travesty A Lesson in Deportment PalinodeDiscerning Insincerity The Good Courtier The Bad Courtier Sincerity Then and NowConclusion.
Il dibattito sulla corte raggiunse il culmine all’inizio del XVI secolo. Il libro del Cortegiano di Baldassarre Castiglione, pubblicato nel 1528, fu di grande attualità, sia nel contesto europeo sia ...in quello italiano. Il testo della vulgata fu il risultato di un processo di scrittura e riscrittura durato molti anni, attestato da cinque manoscritti in cui si riscontrano varianti significative della versione definitiva, risultato di una sorta di autocensura, che dimostrano che l’autore fu costretto ad adattarsi al clima spirituale della sua epoca. In Spagna il testo si diffuse all’inizio in lingua originale; la versione in castigliano del 1534, tradotta da Juan Boscán, fu la prima in lingua staniera. La storia della censura de Il libro del Cortegiano in Italia, inizia nel 1576 quando Camillo Castiglione, figlio di Baldassarre, chiese alla Congregazione dell’Indice la licenza per pubblicare una versione emendata dell’opera del padre. Dopo molti anni, nel 1584, ne verrà stampata una versione riveduta e corretta dal teologo Antonio Ciccarelli. In questo lavoro, esporremo i primi risultati di uno studio sugli interventi espurgatori applicati alle edizioni che circolarono in Spagna tra il 1534 e il 1581.
The Renaissance world of the court that emerged in the Modern Age responds to the well-known Transition between feudalism and capitalism, XVI-XVIII centuries. The figure of the courtier synthesizes ...the values of the new forms, those ways of relating, thinking, feeling and living inherent to the period. The shift from theocentrism to anthropocentrism could also reflect this change. There is a correspondence between Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier and Machiavelli's The Prince. Our work aims not only to contextualize this new subjectivity, but also, through its symbolism, to approach, above all, a way of looking at and understanding this then emerging ideology, which can only be understood today through its contextualization. Through different historical studies, philosophical relations and anthropological conceptualizations, and with a discursive basis that analyses the sacralized viewpoint of the time, we will observe the Middle Ages from the inside to end up in Modernity, thus colluding with this new prototypical character.
This article explores the introduction and influence of Western art in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, focusing on the role of the Jesuits—especially Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), one of the ...founders of Catholic missionary work in China—and the most famous and influential Western figure in China’s art history, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766). The Jesuits recognized art’s potential in their missionary efforts. The article examines the varied responses of Chinese literati to Western art theories in the 17th and 18th centuries, and how Jesuit-introduced artistic concepts were assimilated within different Chinese contexts. It also investigates how Western art merged into Chinese culture, noting the linguistic integration of concepts like chiaroscuro. In Ricci’s time, Western art intrigued the Chinese, but deep acceptance and conceptual transformation were limited. The assimilation of Western techniques was not as widespread as expected. In the 18th century, due to restrictions on Christianity, the religious role of painting diminished. Castiglione’s hybrid style, though influential in the Qing court, faced challenges in gaining cultural acceptance from the Han literati, leading to more criticism than in Ricci’s era. Despite these challenges and varying receptions, the contributions of Ricci and Castiglione to the Sino–Western art exchange are significant, reflecting the complex interplay of art, religion, and cultural dynamics across these periods.
Le présent article analyse la stratégie de communication de Valignano, grand Visiteur du Japon, lors de l’ambassade Tenshō. Très nourri de l’humanisme renaissant, sensibilisé aux rapports subtils de ...la politique et des comportements de cour par Il cortegiano de Castiglione, Valignano s’applique à entretenir la réciprocité dans l’échange interculturel. Soucieux de l’adaptation du missionnaire aux mœurs de son terrain, il veille à garder la balance entre l’observation attentive mais point trop fascinée des mœurs locales et l’affirmation univoque de la supériorité de la foi et du monde chrétien. Pédagogue, il construit De missione sur la rhétorique du dialogue classique et fait des Japonais, et non pas des jésuites, les vecteurs de l’information sur le Japon. Valignano anticipe ainsi la communication interculturelle.
