L'Italie et la France dans l'Europe latine du XIVe au XVIIe siècle: Influence, émulation, traduction (review)

The currency of Latin in Renaissance Europe has been copiously documented, and its presence in Italy and France is hardly disputed. The subject of this collection of essays, then, is neither striking nor revelatory. But let us not judge a book by its cover, for engaging explorations into literary theorizations and practices emerge. The diversity and depth of these perspectives advance appreciation of the Latin Renaissance tradition and will stimulate inquiries into neglected texts, sources, and genres, the reworking of themes, and the art and uses of translation. Original insight trumps accepted commonplace.

Interdisciplinary in focus and scope, the anthology describes aspects of reception, imitation, and adaptation of Latin texts into vernacular literature. Émilie Séris skillfully associates Petrarch's allusions to the Sorgue with the concept of otium that Boccaccio, Lorenzo de Medici, and Poliziano see as a predisposition to the creation of pastoral and amorous verse. Through dazzling detective work Philip Ford determines the source of Poliziano's treatise on Homer as a text by pseudo-Plutarch, De vita et poesi Homeri, that indirectly introduces Homer to Pléiade poets and Montaigne. Impressive learning enables Gilbert Tournoy to reconstruct the career of Francesco Florio in France. Sandra Provini and Colin Fraigneau study Poliziano's presence in France, examining, respectively, texts by Germain de Brie and his circle and Du Bellay's personalization of pastoral themes. In an intricately argued study of iconographic and Italian texts, Hélène Casanova-Robin draws a dialectical portrait of Diane de Poitiers that combines biography and the Château d'Anet with the myth of huntress and locus amoenus. Jean-Frédéric Chevalier details Petratrch's interpretation of Livy's account of Masinissa's heroism that evolves into pathos in later narrative and drama. According to Laurence Boulègue, Gabriel Naudé's political philosophy reflecting seventeenth-century libertinage results from ideals addressed earlier by Agostino Nifo.

Distinctions between influence and imitation are slight but significant. In analyzing Petrarch's Letters, Laure Hermand-Schebat depicts a merging of an idyllic Fontaine-de-Vaucluse and a decadent Avignon into a picture of a politically stable Rome. Brigitte Gauvin identifies this utopian vision as the New World, seeing Pietro Martire d'Anghiera as the first Americanist who praises the morality of the Indians and condemns European artificialities. In an impressively researched article, Jean-Claude Margolin shifts attention to the theories of representation of Gilbert Cousin and Guilio Camillo, who adhere to Erasmus's concept of mimesis in his Ciceronianus, but who distinguish differences between the borrowing of traditional themes and the exposition of personal thought. Through subtle intertextual readings, Virginie Leroux describes Marc-Antoine Muret's assimilation of Ciceronianism in Italy that, introduced to members of the Brigade, reconciles ancient auctoritas with individual insight. Ginette Vagenheim explores the genre of inscriptions, meticulously tracing the epigraphy of Pirro Ligorio conserved by Jean Matal and subsequently disseminated. According to Martine Furno, the object of imitation underlies the organization of material in Theodor Zvinger's Theatrum vitae humanae, which differentiates characteristics between Lorenzo de Medici and François I^er, but which emphasizes their universal humanness. Aline Smeesters examines Gislain Bulteel's love poetry both as erotic verse and praise of married life. According to Sophie Conte, Ciceronianism becomes the rhetorical framework for Carlo Reggio's Pauline oratory and Nicolas Caussin's homilies influenced by St. John Chrysostom.

Translation defines the link between Latin texts and vernacular representations, but literal expression does not necessarily present artistic tastes and cultural temper. Perrine Galand-Hallyn, Marc Deramaix, and Anne Bouscharain probe the translator's license and art, analyzing respectively Guillaume Haudent's renderings of Poliziano's Rusticus, Le Fèvre de La Boderie's interpretation of Sannazar's De partu Virginis, and various French translations of Battista Spagnoli's poetry...