Dantis Eclogae: Ioannis De Virgilio Carmen Et Ecloga Responsiva

by Dante Alighieri

Terwijl de verbannen Dante in Ravenna de laatste zangen van het Paradiso schrijft, krijgt hij een Latijns briefgedicht van een geleerde uit Bologna die het Inferno al had gelezen. Giovanni del Virgilio vraagt Dante waarom hij de Divina Commedia in het Toscaans schreef. Zo’n werk moet toch in het Latijn! De Bolognees wordt zelfs grof: ‘Wees niet zo kwistig, werp geen parels voor de zwijnen.’ Dat de professor ongelijk kreeg, bewijst de hoge vlucht die Dante’s magnum opus heeft genomen. Alighieri, die als dichter uitsluitend in de volkstaal schreef, antwoordde hem in het Latijn met een volmaakt vergiliaanse ecloge. Hun correspondentie kende nog een klein vervolg, tot de vrij plotse dood van de 56-jarige Florentijn op 14 september 1321. Zevenhonderd jaar geleden dus. Reden om een Latijns kleinood te redden van de vergetelheid. Herderszangen, een literair dispuut over volkstaal versus Latijn, reveleert de Latijnse dichter in Dante, een Vergilius redivivus.

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1320

About the author

Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the story-teller, Boccaccio, and the poet, Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry. Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation.

Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois. The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence.

Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321.

Reviews

[Marc Lamot]

"Shepherd Songs". It is a well-hidden gem in the oeuvre of Dante Alighieri: 2 Latin letters that he wrote at the end of his life and in which he - in a very original way - defended his choice to write in the vernacular. Dante was challenged by the Bolognese teacher Giovanni del Virgilio to write poetic works in Latin. Those letters from del Virgilio are also included here. The first one is written in the meticulous style of Horace. Dante responded in the form of a light-hearted eclogue, in the style of Virgil's Bucolica, in which he personally took on the role of Tityrus. Although the answers are also written in Latin, Dante once again brilliantly defends the use of the vernacular. This is a small but beautiful publication (and what a great translation by Patrick Lateur), unfortunately only in Dutch.

[Truls Ljungström]

Det finns formuleringar i denna som är väldigt spetsiga, och som överlever översättning till engelsk prosa. Det finns många andra som tyvärr inte gör det.