Ipsissima verba. Essays in honour of Johann Ramminger
Nordic Journal of Renaissance Studies 19 • 2022
Abstracts
Jean-Louis Charlet
Amicus et amicitia dans la lexicographie humaniste: Niccolò Perotti et Calepino
Niccolò Perotti's Cornu copiae [1489] and Calepino's Latin dictionaries from the second half of the sixteenth century are chronologically at opposite ends of humanist Latin lexicography. Though heavily indebted to the Cornu copiae, Calepino adds quotations and Latin and Greek proverbs, but in both authors we see a contrast, based on classical and Christian conceptions, between friendship, a noble and durable feeling, and love, reduced to physical love, shortlived and shameful.
Paolo D'Alessandro
Alla ricerca di un lessico latino della matematica: la traduzione archimedea di Iacopo da San Cassiano
In his translations of Archimedes' mathematical works, Iacopo da San Cassiano cannot use a Latin text belonging to the same literary genre as a model, but he can at least avoid Greek borrowings, amongst other things by resorting to semantic expansion and new derivations. As a result, his mathematical lexicon differs significantly from that of his predecessor, William of Moerbeke.
Šime Demo
Lexical Productivity in Early Modern Latin According to the Neulateinische Wortliste: A quantitative study
In the present paper, the list of dictionary entries of the Neulateinische Wortliste is used as a corpus for an examination of early modern trends in Latin word formation. Only words first attested after the Middle Ages were included in the analysis. The frequency of various groups of lexemes (word classes, morphological types, noun genders) and morphemes (derivational suffixes, prefixes, compound components) is displayed and occasionally compared to the entries in the Lewis & Short dictionary of Ancient Latin. The analysis has revealed which elements were favoured by Renaissance authors and to what extent.
Annet den Haan
The Meaning of Euangelium in the Writings of George of Trebizond (1396-1472/3)
The Byzantine scholar George of Trebizond (1396-1472/3) commented several times on the dangers of tampering with the Gospel (euangelium). However, it is not immediately clear what George meant when he used this word – the original text or its translation, and of which part of the Bible? This article explores how George used the word euangelium, by comparing three texts in which he commented on textual problems in the Bible, as well as a treatise by Cardinal Bessarion (1403-1472) on the same topic. Both authors wrote in Latin, while their native language was Greek.
Julia Haig Gaisser
Philology and Poetry in the Castigationes Virgilianae of Pierio Valeriano
Pierio Valeriano (1477-1558) was a prominent figure in the intellectual and social world of sixteenth-century Roman humanism. In June 1521 he published a textual study on the whole of Virgil, Castigationes et varietates virgilianae lectionis, the first work of its kind and a landmark in the history of Virgilian scholarship. Its criteria are both philological and aesthetic, reflecting Valeriano's own interests as a scholar and a poet. This paper looks at the Castigationes in the context of Valeriano's intellectual biography and life in humanist Rome and considers connections between his textual studies and other contemporary projects, especially the lectures on Catullus at the Studium Urbis that he began just a few months after the publication of the Castigationes.
Neven Jovanović
The Map and the Territory - a digital stylistic index to the funeral oration for Pietro Riario by Nicholas, bishop of Modruš (1474)
I present a stylistic exploration of the Oratio in funere Petri cardinalis S. Sixti by Nicholas, bishop of Modruš, held and printed in Rome in 1474 (and printed six more times until 1484). The digital text of the oration was divided into stylistically notable segments from which a digital index was compiled, to be explored sequentially, reordered, and analyzed quantitatively. In that way, a running stylistic commentary provides a description of the most frequent stylistic features (devices of ordering and repetition , of creating tension through word order and imagery), of especially expressive passages, and of recurring configurations.
Craig Kallendorf
Index verborum, synonyma, dictionarium: writing Virgil in the early modern period
Among the early modern interpretive aids to Virgil's poetry, there is not a single freestanding dictionary, nor can one be found appended to any of the school editions. Instead, there are word indexes and books of synonyms and Virgilian expressions. These works attest to Virgil's place in early modern education, where the principal need was not for basic translation aids but for lists of Virgilian words and expressions to be used in compositions designed to increase the control of Latin as a living language, to be spoken and written at school and beyond.
Roberta Marchionni
Questioni imbarazzanti: la lessicografia latina a confronto con le parole oscene
As in any language, so too in Latin obscene words are inextricably linked to the psychology of the individual. In this article, the focus is shifted from those who simply use the words to those who study their characteristics, the lexicographers. Using obscene words as litmus test, a number of works by ancient, medieval, humanistic and modern lexicographers have been examined to identify any differences over the centuries in approaches and strategies in the treatment of words that force especially scholars to acknowledge their attitudes to certain areas of life.
Outi Merisalo
The Twelfth-century Manuscript of Constantine the African's Theorica Pantegni at the National Library of Finland
A twelfth-century manuscript now at the National Library of Finland, is an early witness of the epoch-making Latin-language medical compendium entitled Pantegni, of which the prolific translator Constantine the African of Monte Cassino (d. c. 1098/9) identified himself as the coadunator ex multorum libris (compiler from books by many authors). This article explores the material characteristics, scripts and history of the Helsinki manuscript, which contains a rare and early version of the Theorica part of Constantine's manual.
Patricia J. Osmond & Robert W. Ulery, Jr.
Pomponius Laetus, Editor of Sallust: corrector vel corruptor?
Johann Ramminger, in his article "Pomponio Leto's Nachleben: a phantom in need of research?", observed that, although Pomponio had enjoyed an "outsized reputation" among his contemporaries, his published works were relatively few and his reception followed unexpected and often obscure directions. Our own essay focuses on the reception of only one work, Pomponio's edition of Sallust's opera (Rome, 1490), and questions that it raises concerning humanist and modern approaches to the editing of classical texts. It is thus a small contribution to the large task of tracing his fortuna (and sometimes sfortuna) through the centuries, but we are grateful to Johann, editor and webmaster of the Repertorium Pomponianum, for creating a forum in which research on Pomponio's work and his circle of humanist friends can be shared by many new Pomponiani present and future.
Florian Schaffenrath
The Title of Basinio da Parma's Epic Poem on Sigismondo Malatesta
The humanist poet Basinio da Parma (1425–57) wrote an epic poem in the mid-15th century to celebrate Sigismondo Malatesta of Rimini, and he gave this poem the title Hesperis. In order to clarify the meaning of this title, we will first examine what Basinio means by Hesperia/Hesperius in his pre-Hesperis poetry, and then analyse what it denotes within the epic. It turns out that in the Hesperis, Sigismondo's opponents, the Spaniards, are named with it in most passages. Basinio's choice of title is explained as one of many aspects of his close imitation of Homer.
Lene Schøsler & Michael Skovgaard-Hansen
Étude sur le mot tempus chez Luther et chez Érasme
Earlier (Schøsler & Skovgaard-Hansen 2022) we have investigated texts written by Luther and Calvin with the intent of testing the hypothesis that lan-guage, society and conceptualisation are interconnected in such a way that societal and conceptual changes are reflected in the language. This article is meant to compare the use of the word tempus in texts by Luther and Erasmus. We ask ourselves the following questions: Do we find significant differences? and if so: are they just due to differences in the context of communication or of text type, or rather to differences in ideological approach?
Keith Sidwell
The Anti-Neologist Neologiser: Henri Estienne II and his Latin Coinages for Hans Ramminger
The famous 16th century printer-scholar, Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne) disapproved of excessive neologising, and satirised Justus Lipsius for this fault. But Estienne did coin new words himself. The principles for his neologisms, however, were in accordance with accepted grammatical formulations. This paper examines a number of these new words or new meanings, taken from works not cited in Johann Ramminger's Neulateinische Wortliste, as well as two instances where solecisms are used. In most cases, Estienne points out his originality of vocabulary or usage by employing an 'excuse' motif. The majority of his neologisms fall in the category of 'the humorous'.
Karen Skovgaard-Petersen
Anti-Swedish Polemics and Protestant history - Echoes of Lucan's Bellum Civile in Erasmus Lætus' Margaretica (1573)
Margaretica is the title of a Latin epic poem written by the Danish poet Erasmus Lætus and published in Frankfurt am Main in 1573. Its protagonist is the Danish Queen Margrete (1353-1412), and it tells of a Danish victory over Sweden in 1389. This victory paved the way for the Nordic Union of Kalmar, which lasted from 1397 until 1523 and was ruled by Danish kings. Written in the wake of another Danish-Swedish war, The Nordic Seven Years War in 1563-1570, Margaretica is a piece of fierce anti-Swedish polemic, painting Swedes and Danes in black and white and hinting at the inferior position of Sweden in the Union of Kalmar.
While the principal literary model of the Margaretica is Virgil's Aeneid, Lucan's Bellum Civile also has an interesting role to play as hypotext, and these echoes of Lucan form the subject of the article. It is shown that Lætus was able to enroll the Bellum Civile as an instrument in his anti-Swedish polemic. Furthermore, it is argued that Lucan's epic with its strong condemnation of civil warfare and its moralizing interpretation of history occupied a place in Philipp Melanchthon's and Joachim Camerarius' historical thought, and that this Protestant reading of the Bellum Civile has left its mark on the Margaretica.
While the principal literary model of the Margaretica is Virgil's Aeneid, Lucan's Bellum Civile also has an interesting role to play as hypotext, and these echoes of Lucan form the subject of the article. It is shown that Lætus was able to enroll the Bellum Civile as an instrument in his anti-Swedish polemic. Furthermore, it is argued that Lucan's epic with its strong condemnation of civil warfare and its moralizing interpretation of history occupied a place in Philipp Melanchthon's and Joachim Camerarius' historical thought, and that this Protestant reading of the Bellum Civile has left its mark on the Margaretica.
Fabio Stok
La lessicografia della scuola di Guarino: il De differentiis vocabulorum di Bartolomeo Facio
The article examines the set of differentiae verborum included by Bartolomeo Facio in his De verborum proprietate, copied in Valencia, Biblioteca Univiversitaria, cod. 839. Facio's lexicography is influenced by Guarino of Verona, with whom Facio had studied, but the set also reveals the knowledge of ancient compilations of differentiae and the plan to develop a vocabulary based on the ancient use.
Peter Zeeberg
Learning Latin: an edition of three sets of Latin exercises from seventeenth-century Denmark
This paper presents an edition of three sets of Latin exercises which are to be found in the account book of the Latin school in Nykøbing Falster, Denmark, now in the Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet). The exercises, which date from 1633, 1636 and 1640, are all translations from Danish to Latin, and for all three sets the Danish original is included. All three sets seem to encompass the entire final class at the school, the headmaster's class. But as the school only had three, later four, classes the spread in proficiency is rather large.