Virgil in the Renaissance

by David Scott Wilson-Okamura

Overview

The disciplines of classical scholarship were established in their modern form between 1300 and 1600, and Virgil was a test case for many of them. What became of Virgil in this period – how he was understood and how his poems were recycled – is an example of something that occurs to every classic when it outlives it original context: the words remain but their meaning becomes unsponsored. What did readers assume about Virgil in the long decades between Dante and Sidney, Petrarch and Spenser, Boccaccio and Ariosto? Which commentators had the most influence? What story, if any, was Virgil's Eclogues supposed to tell? What was the status of his Georgics? Which parts of his epic attracted the most imitators? Building on specialized scholarship of the last hundred years, this book provides a panoramic synthesis of what scholars and poets from across Europe believed they could know about Virgil's life and poetry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521198127
Publisher:	Hitachi
Publication date:	08/12/2010
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Scott Wilson-Okamura received his PhD from the University of Chicago. He is an Associate Professor of English at East Carolina University.

Table of Contents

Illustrations x

Acknowledgements xi

Texts and abbreviations xii

Introduction 1

Method 3

Lacunae 6

Models 8

Plan 10

Part I Publication 13

1 Virgil with an i 15

Poliziano's proof 15

How they reacted to Poliziano's bombshell 18

The market for Virgil editions and commentaries 20

The state of publishing in England; or Did the Reformation make any difference? 27

Servius and Donatus: the authority of antiquity 31

Landino vs. Badius: originality vs. utility 35

Valeriano: the scholarly argument for i 37

Innovation vs. influence 40

Latin: dead language or living? 42

Part II Reputation 45

2 Patronage and the Eclogues 47

The idea of Virgil and its ancient sources 47

How Virgil got rich 50

Virgil as counselor to the prince 54

Eclogues as encomia 56

Was Virgil a flatterer? 59

Maecenas as the model patron 60

Darkness invisible 64

Imitating Theocritus: the bookishness of Virgilian pastoral 66

Love among the shepherds 69

Christian prophecy and Epicureanism 70

Variety and the low style 73

3 Variety and the Georgics 77

The ancient tradition of Virgil's erudition 78

Science or poetry? 81

Labor and the plow 82

Looking for the Georgics in Renaissance poetry 83

"Ille ego qui quondam" 85

Generic substitution 87

A spectrum of styles 89

The myth of Virgil's Wheel 90

Style and genre 91

Style and variety 93

Listing variety 95

Virgil as second Nature 96

4 Morals and minimalism 101

Virgil the reviser 101

Style and character 103

Virgil's chastity 106

Rumors about Virgil's sex life 108

Nisus and Euryalus 109

Virgil's gay eclogue 113

Defense by forgery 115

Perfect poetry 119

Virgil and Ennius 120

Virgil as imitator of Homer 124

Refining Homer 128

Brevity as chastity 129

Defenders of Homer against Virgil 132

Why brevity is better 134

Style: Virgil's last stand 138

Part III Interpretation 143

5 Virgil's Odyssey 145

Prioritizing episodes 145

Troy in the Odyssey 146

The weight of the underworld 149

The Gates of Sleep 153

Descent by murder 157

Character by example 163

Pluto's daughter: hell as riches 166

Mourir, c'est facile: hell as habit 170

Life in hell 172

Purgatory 173

"Sinfull mire": the moral status of matter 178

Resurrection 181

Imitation: competition or assimilation? 185

Dynastic prophecy 187

6 Virgil's Iliad 191

Turnus as tragic hero 191

Modern relativism 194

Defining pietas 196

Weighing anger 199

Organizing interpretation I: classroom Techniques 203

Organizing interpretation II: the ideal man theory 208

Organizing interpretation III: repetition and rereading 212

Six-book readers vs. twelve-book readers 215

The renaissance of Virgil's Iliad 220

Camilla 227

The modernity of romance 230

Dido and Lavinia: the importance of Eneas 233

Vegio's sequel: the missing link with the Middle Ages 237

Vegio's influence 247

Epilogue 248

Appendix A Virgil commentaries in Latin editions, 1469-1599 252

Appendix B Virgil commentaries ranked by number of printings 267

Index 282

Editorial Reviews

"Scholars will appreciate Wilson-Okamura's panoramic overview and his synthesis of previous criticism, and less-experienced readers will have no difficulty following his arguments, even when he refers to poets and epics they have not yet read...Highly recommended."
-B. E. Brandt, South Dakota State University, Choice

"I wish more academic books were like Virgil in the Renaissance. It is learned, urbane, full of nice details, perceptive readings, and many more good things that will repay a second, and undoubtedly a third and fourth, reading. The book is well-written and there are numerous turns of phrase that reveal the author to be an astute literary critic as well as an accomplished scholar, a rare combination in any age. Professor Wilson-Okamura has a good eye for the demotic to place against more exalted concerns and he knows how concerned the ancients were with the stuff of everyday life. He can also be quite funny when he wants to be. He often alludes to a second book he is writing. This shows that he has worked hard on a major subject that merits further publication, and it will be obvious to readers that his current book is based on a depth of reading that is far from exhausted by what we see in this volume. I have enjoyed reading Virgil in the Renaissance as much as any academic book I have read for a long time."
-Andrew Hadfield, PN Review

"...a fine book that should be required reading for all students and scholars of Renaissance literature or culture...well-written, carefully controlled, accessible, and unobtrusively scholarly. Commendably easy to read, it nevertheless offers a synthesis of a great deal of invaluable primary research—the tables of Virgil commentaries and their dates of printing, with which the book concludes, are probably worth the cover price alone — and the generous and authoritative footnotes throughout the volume offer rich pickings, exemplarily well-organized....Virgil in the Renaissance is that rare thing: a straightforward but subtle and enjoyable work of reference relevant to a wide range of students and scholars. For those with expertise in Virgilian reception specifically, little that Wilson-Okamura says will come as a surprise; but the systematic approach, generosity of reference, and consistently telling use of examples makes Virgil in the Renaissance an invaluable resource even for the (relatively) expert...it is hard to imagine a more useful starting point for any graduate student or scholar wondering about the presence of Virgil in a Renaissance text."
-Victoria Moul, King’s College London, Renaissance Quarterly

"In the final pages of this landmark study, David Scott Wilson-Okamura writes: ‘Virgil in the Renaissance was a style as much as an idea’ (p. 250). This encapsulates much of the originality of the book: by exploring the commentarial tradition from Servius onwards, Wilson-Okamura reviews The Faerie Queene and Gerusalemme liberata through the filter of the Aeneid, thus nudging the reader back to the works of Virgil himself.
-Richard Danson Brown, Modern Language Review

"There has long been a need for a comprehensive examination of Virgil’s place in the various European Renaissances (plural deliberate). Wilson-Okamura’s volume attempts to address that need. There is much in this book that will be a delight to those who are interested in the reception of Virgil in these periods of intense literary and artistic creativity."
-Lee Fratantuono, Ohio Wesleyan University, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011

"Virgil in the Renaissance is that rare thing: a straightforward but subtle and enjoyable work of reference relevant to a wide range of students and scholars."
-VICTORIA MOUL,King's College London

From the Publisher