Selected Poems and Prose

by Jon Thiem

This is the first book-length collection in English of the literary works of Lorenzo de’Medici, the major poetic voice of the Florentine Resistance. Lorenzo de’Medici (1449-92) was the ruler of Florence and the principal statesman of his time. A contemporary of Columbus, Lorenzo is hardly known in the English-speaking world as a major Quattrocento writer, author of a large and varied body of poetry as well as an important literary treatise. His poetry and patronage were instrumental in renewing the vernacular literature of his age after a period of stagnation. That Lorenzo’s literary writings were for the most part never translated is a fascinating curiosity of history, attributable to the irreverent, bawdy subject matter of many of his poems, objections to his authoritarian politics, and the unconventional features of his poetic realism. Yet Lorenzo is now seen as the most interesting exponent of the cultural renaissance that he encouraged. His longer poems in particular reveal the central concerns, everyday activities, and favorite ideas of his day. No other Florentine writer succeeds in capturing as he does the beauty, seasonal changes, and rhythms of life of the Tuscan countryside. His poetic realism is that which sets him apart from his age, yet makes him such a vivid portrayer of it. The availability of his works in English will serve to modify and enlarge our conception of the Florentine Renaissance.

Genres: Poetry, Italian Literature

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1991

Reviews

[Benito · Rating 4 out of 5]

this wacky cat blew much of his families fortune putting on festivals and patronising artists in Firenze and generally bankrolling the Renaissance... luckily for the family accountant lorenzo's son, who became Pope Leo X, or was it XII, was good at getting the ledgers back up in the black... a fine investment on lorenzo's part nonetheless, and he was a damn fine poet himself, witness the love stories of Ariadne and Adonis, which had all been done before of course, but never with that performance poets sense of rhythm and rock. Yes, Lorenzo The Magnificent used to get up at all the festivals he organised and perform his shtick, and those dagos dug it....

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not from the verdant garden's cultured bound,
That breathes of Paestum's aromatic gale,
We sprung; but nurslings of the lonely vale,
'Midst woods obscure, and native glooms were found:
'Midst woods and glooms, whose tangled brakes around
Once Venus sorrowing traced, as all forlorn
She sought Adonis, when a lurking thorn
Deep on her foot impress'd an impious wound.
Then prone to earth we bow'd our pallid flowers,
And caught the drops divine; the purple dyes
Tingling the lustre of our native hue:
Nor summer gales, nor art-conducted showers
Have nursed our slender forms, but lovers' sighs
Have been our gales, and lovers' tears our dew.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The love poems were a little tedious, but there were enough lovely bits to counter them and make this book a good read. My personal favorites include the first two stanzas of "The Partridge Hunt", "The Novella of Giacoppo", and the letter Lorenzo wrote to his son, Giovanni, when the latter was designated a cardinal and heading off to Rome. Also the "Song of the Village Lasses", which, even though I was reading it in my own home and when I was all alone, still made me laugh and blush. It's funny to imagine upright citizens, elderly aristocrats, and prim matrons listening to this song at a party.

[Mary Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found my self lost in his era; swooned and laughed while reading his poetry. A master. Excellent translation into English.