This paper attempts to explain the impressive success enjoyed in France by the anonymous satirica... more This paper attempts to explain the impressive success enjoyed in France by the anonymous satirical libel Il Divortio celeste (1643). The latter tells us that Jesus has decided to divorce the Catholic Church. Sent on Earth to gather evidence against the unfaithful spouse, Saint Paul confers with several characters representative of contemporary Italian society who unanimously denounce the corruption of the Roman Court and the cupidity of pope Urban VIII. Nowadays the libel is currently ascribed to the writer Ferrante Pallavicino, that the pope had executed in 1644. Il Divortio was quickly translated into French, with to two different versions in 1644, of which the article stresses the “vehicular” essence, before questioning the temporal relationship between political information and its satirical elaboration, namely with regard to the War of Castro (Il Divortio's last chapter). The article concludes on the 1696 translation of the libel. Indeed, the author of this translation, belonging to Pierre Bayle’s circle, attempts to mask the anticlerical charge of Il Divortio by prudently presenting it as a defamatory libel rooted in the past. Quite the contrary, in its ultimate version dating to the year III of the French Revolution (1794-1795), Il Divortio is openly presented as a timeless work, since the vices of the clergy are “all the time almost the same”.
D'après le père jésuite François Garasse, auteur du traité anti-libertins La doctrine curieus... more D'après le père jésuite François Garasse, auteur du traité anti-libertins La doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps (1623-1624), le libertin peut être individué à partir de ses lectures. En effet, la bibliothèque idéale du libertin se compose, écrit Garasse, de trois rangs: au premier, on trouve les livres de Pietro Pomponazzi (le Pomponace) et Machiavel; au deuxième, Girolamo Cardano (Cardan), Pierre Charron et Giulio Cesare Vanini, alors que sur le troisième on voit des ouvrages d'..
Fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem ('presque le monde entier joue la comédie') écrivai... more Fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem ('presque le monde entier joue la comédie') écrivait Jean de Salisbury (mort en 1180) à propos du Satyricon. En effet, la composante théâtrale est bien présente chez Pétrone : l’hypocrisie caractérise ses personnages, qui bien souvent assument les postures sublimes des figures de la grande littérature, rien que dans le but de tromper les autres. D’après certains critiques (voir par exemple Setaioli 2001), dans le poème placé en correspondance de Sat...
Devise sur le frontispice de l'éd. 1709 de la traduction du Satyricon par François Nodot. Le ... more Devise sur le frontispice de l'éd. 1709 de la traduction du Satyricon par François Nodot. Le motto en latin contient un jeu de mot: 'Les nœuds (nodi) sont dénoués par le nœud (nodo = Nodot)'. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, cote: 8-BL-32764 (2). En 1690, François Nodot (1650-1710), officier de l'armée française, écrit à l'Académie Française pour annoncer d'avoir la copie d'un manuscrit contentant un texte du Satyricon plus complet que celui jusqu'alors connu. Le manuscrit original aurait été acq..
The article deals with the success of Petronius' <em>Satyricon</em> in the first ... more The article deals with the success of Petronius' <em>Satyricon</em> in the first half of the 17th Century, when the text was still lacking of the well-known episode of Trimalchio's Dinner. Firstly, the article focuses on the reception of the <em>Satyricon</em> as an Epicurean work among the circles of the so-called "erudit libertines". However, Petronius' success was not exclusive to the elites as proved by the high number of <em>Satyricon</em> editions (22 beetween 1596 and 1654), as well as the circolation of a clandestine translation (into Italian) within a public of popular readers. The suggested explaination is that, besides its erotic contents, the large public too could enjoy the Satyricon parodic component that subverts the ideology imposed by the established order. Further, the theatrical element inherent to Petronius' novel can be read as a merciless rappresentation of mankind, particularly suitable to libertine...
History of education & children's literature, 2011
The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores d... more The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) of Father Bartolomeo Beverini (1629-1686) from Lucca. The latter belonged to the Order of Clerks Regular of the Mother of God that in Lucca provided to elementary and high education. Beverini’s work is a collection of Latin quotations for humanities class. The quotations, which are derived from Plautus, Terentius and Petronius, have been translated by Beverini into a surprising lively Italian. It is evident that the Selectiores dicendi formulae clashes with tradition and mainly its use of Petronius’ Satyricon implies a critics against “pedantry”. Beverini’s work rather belonged to experimental culture, in particular it seems to be inspired by the Latin grammar Teatro della latinità of the Piarist Giovan Francesco Apa. In the Eighteenth Century the Selectiores dicendi formulae was reprinted by Father Giambattista Bisso of the Society of Jesus who originally reproduced Beverini’s method. In fact Bisso didn’t hesitate to make use of the Sicilian dialect to better render the liveliness of Beverini’s translation.
ABSTRACT L’articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyr... more ABSTRACT L’articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyricon di Petronio in italiano. La traduzione è anonima e ci è giunta in forma manoscritta, trasmessa da un unico testimone (Ang). Nell’articolo si sostiene l’ipotesi che Ang rappresenti un manoscritto clandestino destinato a fruitori popolari e che la traduzione possa aver conosciuto una certa diffusione, essendo stata copiata in luoghi e tempi diversi. Sulla base di documenti inquisitoriali, viene discussa la nozione di ‘libro proibito’ in riferimento al Satyricon e, in generale, alle opere dell’Antichità. Vengono quindi esaminati i motivi che verosimilmente hanno decretato la fortuna di Petronio nel Seicento presso il largo pubblico, individuati nei temi libertini dell’irreligiosità, della trasgressione sessuale e dell’ipocrisia sociale. Nelle conclusioni, si sottolinea l’estrema deperibilità delle pubblicazioni clandestine, fattore che potrebbe aver determinato la sopravvivenza di un unico esemplare della traduzione petroniana.
L’articolo prende in esame un manoscritto seicentesco (Ang) recante la traduzione in italiano del... more L’articolo prende in esame un manoscritto seicentesco (Ang) recante la traduzione in italiano del Satyricon di Petronio, opera dell’Antichità celebre per i suoi contenuti osceni. La traduzione è anonima e si ipotizza di origine settentrionale (Venezia?). Ang non è autografo e probabilmente rappresenta una pubblicazione clandestina. Il confronto sistematico del testo di Ang con le edizioni del Satyricon (in latino), pubblicate fra Cinque e Seicento, ha mostrato come l’autore della traduzione fosse del tutto alieno da preoccupazioni di natura filologica. Quest’ultimo mostra tuttavia una buona padronanza dell’italiano letterario. Il copista che ha materialmente redatto Ang, più che verosimilmente su commissione, rivela invece di non padroneggiare pienamente la norma dello scritto. Inoltre, la punteggiatura, l’organizzazione del testo, così come il particolare uso del richiamo, suggeriscono che Ang possa essere stato espressamente realizzato per essere letto ad alta voce. Il testo della...
Changing satire, Transformations and continuities in Europe, 1600–1830, 2022
In its introductory section, the chapter deals with the early modern definition of Petronius’ Sat... more In its introductory section, the chapter deals with the early modern definition of Petronius’ Satyricon as ‘Menippean’, suggesting its strict connection with political and social events (namely, the massive production of satirical writings during the French Wars of Religion). The chapter then examines the anti-Jesuit elements of John Barclay’s Euphormionis Satyricon (1605–7) and points out how to Barclay Petronius’ Satyricon offered a model of formal satire to be imitated. A less traditional approach to classics can be found in Kaspar Schoppe’s Satyricon (1602–3), an imposing treatise on youth education. Like Barclay, Schoppe attacked the Company of Jesus inspired by Petronius’ polemics against rhetoric schools; however, his definition of Petronius’ Satyricon and, more broadly, of satire was elaborated not in formal but rather in modal terms. The final section of the chapter presents a surprising schoolbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) by Bartolomeo Beverini, a work that at the same time mocks Jesuit didactics and seriously teaches Latin using Petronius as a linguistic model of purity and elegance.
The paper presents a 17th-century translation of the Satyricon into Italian transmitted in manusc... more The paper presents a 17th-century translation of the Satyricon into Italian transmitted in manuscript. The translation is anonymous and presumably was intended for the illegal market of clandestine manuscripts. Material evidence shows that the translation actually circulated across time and among popular readers. The comparison between the Italian translation and 16th – and 17th editions of Petronius has revealed that the translator started his work on the obsolete text of the excerpta brevia (that is, the Satyricon as published before1575) and then shifted to the the excerpta longiora tradition, likely using the Satyricon edition published in 1601 (reprinted in 1608). Such a mixture of source texts proves the translator’s total lack of philological accuracy. In addition, he made several translation errors. However, surprisingly enough, the Italian translation underpins an excellent work of textual criticism on Petronius’ text. The suggested explanation is that the translator or a l...
L'articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyricon di P... more L'articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyricon di Petronio in italiano. La traduzione è anonima e ci è giunta in forma manoscritta, trasmessa da un unico testimone (Ang). Nell'articolo si sostiene l'ipotesi che Ang rappresenti un manoscritto clandestino destinato a fruitori popolari e che la traduzione possa aver conosciuto una certa diffusione, essendo stata copiata in luoghi e tempi diversi. Sulla base di documenti inquisitoriali, viene discussa la nozione di 'libro proibito' in riferimento al Satyricon e, in generale, alle opere dell'Antichità. Vengono quindi esaminati i motivi che verosimilmente hanno decretato la fortuna di Petronio nel Seicento presso il largo pubblico, individuati nei temi libertini dell'irreligiosità, della trasgressione sessuale e dell'ipocrisia sociale. Nelle conclusioni, si sottolinea l'estrema deperibilità delle pubblicazioni clandestine, fattore che potrebbe aver determinato la sopravvivenza di un unico esemplare della traduzione petroniana.
This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Successi di Eumolpione (Naples, 1678) pre... more This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Successi di Eumolpione (Naples, 1678) previously considered a simple translation of the Satyricon of Petronius. Instead, the Successi di Eumolpione is a sophisticated roman a cle which hides several references to the Neapolitan society of the 1670s. In particular, the Successi di Eumolpione must be read in the frame of the dispute between its dedicatee, Giovan Giacomo Lavagna, and the group of the Investiganti (namely, Leonardo Di Capua). Moreover, the novel seems to be not only a satire against the Investiganti but also a satire of the Satyricon itself.
The DiaCORIS project aims at the construction of a diachronic corpus comprising written Italian t... more The DiaCORIS project aims at the construction of a diachronic corpus comprising written Italian texts produced between 1861 and 1945, extending the structure and the research possibilities of the synchronic 100-million word corpus CORIS/CODIS. A preliminary in depth study has been performed in order to design a representative and well balanced sample of the Italian language over a time period that contains all the main events of contemporary Italian history from the National Unification to the end of the Second World War. The paper describes in detail such design processes as the definition of the main subcorpora and their proportions, the type of documents inserted in each part of the corpus, the document annotation schema and the technological infrastructure designed to manage the corpus access as well as the web interface to corpus data.
Author(s): Onelli, Corinna | Abstract: This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Su... more Author(s): Onelli, Corinna | Abstract: This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Successi di Eumolpione (Naples, 1678) previously considered a simple translation of the Satyricon of Petronius. Instead, the Successi di Eumolpione is a sophisticated roman a cle which hides several references to the Neapolitan society of the 1670s. In particular, the Successi di Eumolpione must be read in the frame of the dispute between its dedicatee, Giovan Giacomo Lavagna, and the group of the Investiganti (namely, Leonardo Di Capua). Moreover, the novel seems to be not only a satire against the Investiganti but also a satire of the Satyricon itself.
The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores d... more The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) of Father Bartolomeo Beverini (1629-1686) from Lucca. The latter belonged to the Order of Clerks Regular of the Mother of God that in Lucca provided to elementary and high education. Beverini’s work is a collection of Latin quotations for humanities class. The quotations, which are derived from Plautus, Terentius and Petronius, have been translated by Beverini into a surprising lively Italian. It is evident that the Selectiores dicendi formulae clashes with tradition and mainly its use of Petronius’ Satyricon implies a critics against “pedantry”. Beverini’s work rather belonged to experimental culture, in particular it seems to be inspired by the Latin grammar Teatro della latinità of the Piarist Giovan Francesco Apa. In the Eighteenth Century the Selectiores dicendi formulae was reprinted by Father Giambattista Bisso of the Society of Jesus who originally reproduc...
This article is devoted to the treatise Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl’insetti (‘Experi... more This article is devoted to the treatise Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl’insetti (‘Experiments on the generation of insects’) published in 1668 by Francesco Redi. The latter is today celebrated as the first scientist to have experimentally disproved the thousand-year belief in spontaneous generation, a theory commonly attributed to Aristotle. In the introduction, I present Redi and his treatise: Redi spent his whole life at the Medici court as personal physician of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and attended the Accademia del Cimento (‘The Academy of Experiment’), the scientific society founded by the Grand Duke Ferdinand II and his brother Leopoldo to make Galileo&#39;s legacy revive. The Esperienze is not written in Latin, but in the vernacular, while the introduction to the treatise displays a plea for experimental method that is today considered a manifesto of New Science. I start analysing Aristotle’s definition of ‘spontaneous generation’, pointing out how, according to the Stagirite, spontaneous generation is an exceptional sort of generation, exclusively due to material principles and occurring by chance, that is, without a formal principle (semen, egg). Then, I remark that Redi’s target is not Aristotle’s explication for spontaneous generation. In fact, no critic has ever noticed that in his treatise Redi polemically hints (albeit in very allusive manner) to contemporary theories on spontaneous generation, namely the ones by Fortunio Liceti and Pierre Gassendi. Redi is mostly known for the experiment of the sealed jars with which he would have demonstrated that rotten meat doesn’t breed maggots and, more broadly, that living beings are always generated by parents. However, I stress some important inconsistencies in Redi’s experimental accounts. For instance, he claims that eggs laid by flies on rotten meat are perfectly visible to the unaided eye. They look exactly like small bird eggs, complete with shell and albumen. He even reports that, after the hatching, one will find the empty shells of fly eggs. I suggest that with his narration Redi is not giving us an objective scientific account, but rather trying to disproof the most advanced theories on spontaneous generation of his time. As for the above-mentioned example, I think that Redi’s insistence on the visibility of fly eggs was dictated by the desire to contrast Gassendi, according to whom spontaneous generation is due to invisible primordial seeds floating in the air. In the second part of his treatise, Redi deals with parasites that apparently originate from living beings (plants, animals). Redi argues that in this case it is the soul of the host organism that generates the insects (zoogenetic theory). For instance, as for gall-flies, he considers galls as eggs laid by plants and gall-flies as the genuine offspring of the plants. Critics have suggested different explanations to justify such a shocking stance supported by the man today celebrated as ‘the father of experimental biology’. I examine Redi’s theory on gall-flies and come to the conclusion that, again, to fully understand Redi’s treatise we need to situate it in the context of the contemporary debate on spontaneous generation. More specifically, we need to concretely situate it in the context of the Medici court. Thanks to Redi’s private correspondence, we know that Leopoldo de’ Medici endorsed the zoogenetic theory – that actually is not even an original elaboration by Redi. Further, by thoroughly analysing Redi’s version of the zoogenetic theory, I show how the Tuscan naturalist tried to accord it with the principle of parental generation that he had firmly asserted in the first part of his treatise. In fact, Redi tries to establish a regular correspondence between plants and insects, that is, that each plant has its specific parasite. Moreover, he insists on the non-casual nature of such generations. In this manner, he presents the generation of insects from plants as perfectly regular from an Aristotelian point of view, that is, as non-spontaneous. In the conclusions, I underline Redi’s ability in fashioning himself as a modern scientist, a posture he assumed in all probability to appeal the taste of his patrons. However, I also underline how historiography has tended to focus on Redi’s aspects that are best suitable to our scientific culture, neglecting the polemical essence of the Esperienze as well as Redi debt towards the Aristotelian tradition.
This paper attempts to explain the impressive success enjoyed in France by the anonymous satirica... more This paper attempts to explain the impressive success enjoyed in France by the anonymous satirical libel Il Divortio celeste (1643). The latter tells us that Jesus has decided to divorce the Catholic Church. Sent on Earth to gather evidence against the unfaithful spouse, Saint Paul confers with several characters representative of contemporary Italian society who unanimously denounce the corruption of the Roman Court and the cupidity of pope Urban VIII. Nowadays the libel is currently ascribed to the writer Ferrante Pallavicino, that the pope had executed in 1644. Il Divortio was quickly translated into French, with to two different versions in 1644, of which the article stresses the “vehicular” essence, before questioning the temporal relationship between political information and its satirical elaboration, namely with regard to the War of Castro (Il Divortio's last chapter). The article concludes on the 1696 translation of the libel. Indeed, the author of this translation, belonging to Pierre Bayle’s circle, attempts to mask the anticlerical charge of Il Divortio by prudently presenting it as a defamatory libel rooted in the past. Quite the contrary, in its ultimate version dating to the year III of the French Revolution (1794-1795), Il Divortio is openly presented as a timeless work, since the vices of the clergy are “all the time almost the same”.
D'après le père jésuite François Garasse, auteur du traité anti-libertins La doctrine curieus... more D'après le père jésuite François Garasse, auteur du traité anti-libertins La doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps (1623-1624), le libertin peut être individué à partir de ses lectures. En effet, la bibliothèque idéale du libertin se compose, écrit Garasse, de trois rangs: au premier, on trouve les livres de Pietro Pomponazzi (le Pomponace) et Machiavel; au deuxième, Girolamo Cardano (Cardan), Pierre Charron et Giulio Cesare Vanini, alors que sur le troisième on voit des ouvrages d'..
Fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem ('presque le monde entier joue la comédie') écrivai... more Fere totus mundus exerceat histrionem ('presque le monde entier joue la comédie') écrivait Jean de Salisbury (mort en 1180) à propos du Satyricon. En effet, la composante théâtrale est bien présente chez Pétrone : l’hypocrisie caractérise ses personnages, qui bien souvent assument les postures sublimes des figures de la grande littérature, rien que dans le but de tromper les autres. D’après certains critiques (voir par exemple Setaioli 2001), dans le poème placé en correspondance de Sat...
Devise sur le frontispice de l'éd. 1709 de la traduction du Satyricon par François Nodot. Le ... more Devise sur le frontispice de l'éd. 1709 de la traduction du Satyricon par François Nodot. Le motto en latin contient un jeu de mot: 'Les nœuds (nodi) sont dénoués par le nœud (nodo = Nodot)'. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, cote: 8-BL-32764 (2). En 1690, François Nodot (1650-1710), officier de l'armée française, écrit à l'Académie Française pour annoncer d'avoir la copie d'un manuscrit contentant un texte du Satyricon plus complet que celui jusqu'alors connu. Le manuscrit original aurait été acq..
The article deals with the success of Petronius' <em>Satyricon</em> in the first ... more The article deals with the success of Petronius' <em>Satyricon</em> in the first half of the 17th Century, when the text was still lacking of the well-known episode of Trimalchio's Dinner. Firstly, the article focuses on the reception of the <em>Satyricon</em> as an Epicurean work among the circles of the so-called "erudit libertines". However, Petronius' success was not exclusive to the elites as proved by the high number of <em>Satyricon</em> editions (22 beetween 1596 and 1654), as well as the circolation of a clandestine translation (into Italian) within a public of popular readers. The suggested explaination is that, besides its erotic contents, the large public too could enjoy the Satyricon parodic component that subverts the ideology imposed by the established order. Further, the theatrical element inherent to Petronius' novel can be read as a merciless rappresentation of mankind, particularly suitable to libertine...
History of education & children's literature, 2011
The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores d... more The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) of Father Bartolomeo Beverini (1629-1686) from Lucca. The latter belonged to the Order of Clerks Regular of the Mother of God that in Lucca provided to elementary and high education. Beverini’s work is a collection of Latin quotations for humanities class. The quotations, which are derived from Plautus, Terentius and Petronius, have been translated by Beverini into a surprising lively Italian. It is evident that the Selectiores dicendi formulae clashes with tradition and mainly its use of Petronius’ Satyricon implies a critics against “pedantry”. Beverini’s work rather belonged to experimental culture, in particular it seems to be inspired by the Latin grammar Teatro della latinità of the Piarist Giovan Francesco Apa. In the Eighteenth Century the Selectiores dicendi formulae was reprinted by Father Giambattista Bisso of the Society of Jesus who originally reproduced Beverini’s method. In fact Bisso didn’t hesitate to make use of the Sicilian dialect to better render the liveliness of Beverini’s translation.
ABSTRACT L’articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyr... more ABSTRACT L’articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyricon di Petronio in italiano. La traduzione è anonima e ci è giunta in forma manoscritta, trasmessa da un unico testimone (Ang). Nell’articolo si sostiene l’ipotesi che Ang rappresenti un manoscritto clandestino destinato a fruitori popolari e che la traduzione possa aver conosciuto una certa diffusione, essendo stata copiata in luoghi e tempi diversi. Sulla base di documenti inquisitoriali, viene discussa la nozione di ‘libro proibito’ in riferimento al Satyricon e, in generale, alle opere dell’Antichità. Vengono quindi esaminati i motivi che verosimilmente hanno decretato la fortuna di Petronio nel Seicento presso il largo pubblico, individuati nei temi libertini dell’irreligiosità, della trasgressione sessuale e dell’ipocrisia sociale. Nelle conclusioni, si sottolinea l’estrema deperibilità delle pubblicazioni clandestine, fattore che potrebbe aver determinato la sopravvivenza di un unico esemplare della traduzione petroniana.
L’articolo prende in esame un manoscritto seicentesco (Ang) recante la traduzione in italiano del... more L’articolo prende in esame un manoscritto seicentesco (Ang) recante la traduzione in italiano del Satyricon di Petronio, opera dell’Antichità celebre per i suoi contenuti osceni. La traduzione è anonima e si ipotizza di origine settentrionale (Venezia?). Ang non è autografo e probabilmente rappresenta una pubblicazione clandestina. Il confronto sistematico del testo di Ang con le edizioni del Satyricon (in latino), pubblicate fra Cinque e Seicento, ha mostrato come l’autore della traduzione fosse del tutto alieno da preoccupazioni di natura filologica. Quest’ultimo mostra tuttavia una buona padronanza dell’italiano letterario. Il copista che ha materialmente redatto Ang, più che verosimilmente su commissione, rivela invece di non padroneggiare pienamente la norma dello scritto. Inoltre, la punteggiatura, l’organizzazione del testo, così come il particolare uso del richiamo, suggeriscono che Ang possa essere stato espressamente realizzato per essere letto ad alta voce. Il testo della...
Changing satire, Transformations and continuities in Europe, 1600–1830, 2022
In its introductory section, the chapter deals with the early modern definition of Petronius’ Sat... more In its introductory section, the chapter deals with the early modern definition of Petronius’ Satyricon as ‘Menippean’, suggesting its strict connection with political and social events (namely, the massive production of satirical writings during the French Wars of Religion). The chapter then examines the anti-Jesuit elements of John Barclay’s Euphormionis Satyricon (1605–7) and points out how to Barclay Petronius’ Satyricon offered a model of formal satire to be imitated. A less traditional approach to classics can be found in Kaspar Schoppe’s Satyricon (1602–3), an imposing treatise on youth education. Like Barclay, Schoppe attacked the Company of Jesus inspired by Petronius’ polemics against rhetoric schools; however, his definition of Petronius’ Satyricon and, more broadly, of satire was elaborated not in formal but rather in modal terms. The final section of the chapter presents a surprising schoolbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) by Bartolomeo Beverini, a work that at the same time mocks Jesuit didactics and seriously teaches Latin using Petronius as a linguistic model of purity and elegance.
The paper presents a 17th-century translation of the Satyricon into Italian transmitted in manusc... more The paper presents a 17th-century translation of the Satyricon into Italian transmitted in manuscript. The translation is anonymous and presumably was intended for the illegal market of clandestine manuscripts. Material evidence shows that the translation actually circulated across time and among popular readers. The comparison between the Italian translation and 16th – and 17th editions of Petronius has revealed that the translator started his work on the obsolete text of the excerpta brevia (that is, the Satyricon as published before1575) and then shifted to the the excerpta longiora tradition, likely using the Satyricon edition published in 1601 (reprinted in 1608). Such a mixture of source texts proves the translator’s total lack of philological accuracy. In addition, he made several translation errors. However, surprisingly enough, the Italian translation underpins an excellent work of textual criticism on Petronius’ text. The suggested explanation is that the translator or a l...
L'articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyricon di P... more L'articolo presenta un documento del tutto inedito: una traduzione seicentesca del Satyricon di Petronio in italiano. La traduzione è anonima e ci è giunta in forma manoscritta, trasmessa da un unico testimone (Ang). Nell'articolo si sostiene l'ipotesi che Ang rappresenti un manoscritto clandestino destinato a fruitori popolari e che la traduzione possa aver conosciuto una certa diffusione, essendo stata copiata in luoghi e tempi diversi. Sulla base di documenti inquisitoriali, viene discussa la nozione di 'libro proibito' in riferimento al Satyricon e, in generale, alle opere dell'Antichità. Vengono quindi esaminati i motivi che verosimilmente hanno decretato la fortuna di Petronio nel Seicento presso il largo pubblico, individuati nei temi libertini dell'irreligiosità, della trasgressione sessuale e dell'ipocrisia sociale. Nelle conclusioni, si sottolinea l'estrema deperibilità delle pubblicazioni clandestine, fattore che potrebbe aver determinato la sopravvivenza di un unico esemplare della traduzione petroniana.
This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Successi di Eumolpione (Naples, 1678) pre... more This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Successi di Eumolpione (Naples, 1678) previously considered a simple translation of the Satyricon of Petronius. Instead, the Successi di Eumolpione is a sophisticated roman a cle which hides several references to the Neapolitan society of the 1670s. In particular, the Successi di Eumolpione must be read in the frame of the dispute between its dedicatee, Giovan Giacomo Lavagna, and the group of the Investiganti (namely, Leonardo Di Capua). Moreover, the novel seems to be not only a satire against the Investiganti but also a satire of the Satyricon itself.
The DiaCORIS project aims at the construction of a diachronic corpus comprising written Italian t... more The DiaCORIS project aims at the construction of a diachronic corpus comprising written Italian texts produced between 1861 and 1945, extending the structure and the research possibilities of the synchronic 100-million word corpus CORIS/CODIS. A preliminary in depth study has been performed in order to design a representative and well balanced sample of the Italian language over a time period that contains all the main events of contemporary Italian history from the National Unification to the end of the Second World War. The paper describes in detail such design processes as the definition of the main subcorpora and their proportions, the type of documents inserted in each part of the corpus, the document annotation schema and the technological infrastructure designed to manage the corpus access as well as the web interface to corpus data.
Author(s): Onelli, Corinna | Abstract: This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Su... more Author(s): Onelli, Corinna | Abstract: This article suggests a new interpretation of the novel Successi di Eumolpione (Naples, 1678) previously considered a simple translation of the Satyricon of Petronius. Instead, the Successi di Eumolpione is a sophisticated roman a cle which hides several references to the Neapolitan society of the 1670s. In particular, the Successi di Eumolpione must be read in the frame of the dispute between its dedicatee, Giovan Giacomo Lavagna, and the group of the Investiganti (namely, Leonardo Di Capua). Moreover, the novel seems to be not only a satire against the Investiganti but also a satire of the Satyricon itself.
The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores d... more The aim of this paper is to analyse an innovative seventeenth-century textbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) of Father Bartolomeo Beverini (1629-1686) from Lucca. The latter belonged to the Order of Clerks Regular of the Mother of God that in Lucca provided to elementary and high education. Beverini’s work is a collection of Latin quotations for humanities class. The quotations, which are derived from Plautus, Terentius and Petronius, have been translated by Beverini into a surprising lively Italian. It is evident that the Selectiores dicendi formulae clashes with tradition and mainly its use of Petronius’ Satyricon implies a critics against “pedantry”. Beverini’s work rather belonged to experimental culture, in particular it seems to be inspired by the Latin grammar Teatro della latinità of the Piarist Giovan Francesco Apa. In the Eighteenth Century the Selectiores dicendi formulae was reprinted by Father Giambattista Bisso of the Society of Jesus who originally reproduc...
This article is devoted to the treatise Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl’insetti (‘Experi... more This article is devoted to the treatise Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl’insetti (‘Experiments on the generation of insects’) published in 1668 by Francesco Redi. The latter is today celebrated as the first scientist to have experimentally disproved the thousand-year belief in spontaneous generation, a theory commonly attributed to Aristotle. In the introduction, I present Redi and his treatise: Redi spent his whole life at the Medici court as personal physician of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and attended the Accademia del Cimento (‘The Academy of Experiment’), the scientific society founded by the Grand Duke Ferdinand II and his brother Leopoldo to make Galileo&#39;s legacy revive. The Esperienze is not written in Latin, but in the vernacular, while the introduction to the treatise displays a plea for experimental method that is today considered a manifesto of New Science. I start analysing Aristotle’s definition of ‘spontaneous generation’, pointing out how, according to the Stagirite, spontaneous generation is an exceptional sort of generation, exclusively due to material principles and occurring by chance, that is, without a formal principle (semen, egg). Then, I remark that Redi’s target is not Aristotle’s explication for spontaneous generation. In fact, no critic has ever noticed that in his treatise Redi polemically hints (albeit in very allusive manner) to contemporary theories on spontaneous generation, namely the ones by Fortunio Liceti and Pierre Gassendi. Redi is mostly known for the experiment of the sealed jars with which he would have demonstrated that rotten meat doesn’t breed maggots and, more broadly, that living beings are always generated by parents. However, I stress some important inconsistencies in Redi’s experimental accounts. For instance, he claims that eggs laid by flies on rotten meat are perfectly visible to the unaided eye. They look exactly like small bird eggs, complete with shell and albumen. He even reports that, after the hatching, one will find the empty shells of fly eggs. I suggest that with his narration Redi is not giving us an objective scientific account, but rather trying to disproof the most advanced theories on spontaneous generation of his time. As for the above-mentioned example, I think that Redi’s insistence on the visibility of fly eggs was dictated by the desire to contrast Gassendi, according to whom spontaneous generation is due to invisible primordial seeds floating in the air. In the second part of his treatise, Redi deals with parasites that apparently originate from living beings (plants, animals). Redi argues that in this case it is the soul of the host organism that generates the insects (zoogenetic theory). For instance, as for gall-flies, he considers galls as eggs laid by plants and gall-flies as the genuine offspring of the plants. Critics have suggested different explanations to justify such a shocking stance supported by the man today celebrated as ‘the father of experimental biology’. I examine Redi’s theory on gall-flies and come to the conclusion that, again, to fully understand Redi’s treatise we need to situate it in the context of the contemporary debate on spontaneous generation. More specifically, we need to concretely situate it in the context of the Medici court. Thanks to Redi’s private correspondence, we know that Leopoldo de’ Medici endorsed the zoogenetic theory – that actually is not even an original elaboration by Redi. Further, by thoroughly analysing Redi’s version of the zoogenetic theory, I show how the Tuscan naturalist tried to accord it with the principle of parental generation that he had firmly asserted in the first part of his treatise. In fact, Redi tries to establish a regular correspondence between plants and insects, that is, that each plant has its specific parasite. Moreover, he insists on the non-casual nature of such generations. In this manner, he presents the generation of insects from plants as perfectly regular from an Aristotelian point of view, that is, as non-spontaneous. In the conclusions, I underline Redi’s ability in fashioning himself as a modern scientist, a posture he assumed in all probability to appeal the taste of his patrons. However, I also underline how historiography has tended to focus on Redi’s aspects that are best suitable to our scientific culture, neglecting the polemical essence of the Esperienze as well as Redi debt towards the Aristotelian tradition.
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A less traditional approach to classics can be found in Kaspar Schoppe’s Satyricon (1602–3), an imposing treatise on youth education. Like Barclay, Schoppe attacked the Company of Jesus inspired by Petronius’ polemics against rhetoric schools; however, his definition of Petronius’ Satyricon and, more broadly, of satire was elaborated not in formal but rather in modal terms. The final section of the chapter presents a surprising schoolbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) by Bartolomeo Beverini, a work that at the same time mocks Jesuit didactics and seriously teaches Latin using Petronius as a linguistic model of purity and elegance.
A less traditional approach to classics can be found in Kaspar Schoppe’s Satyricon (1602–3), an imposing treatise on youth education. Like Barclay, Schoppe attacked the Company of Jesus inspired by Petronius’ polemics against rhetoric schools; however, his definition of Petronius’ Satyricon and, more broadly, of satire was elaborated not in formal but rather in modal terms. The final section of the chapter presents a surprising schoolbook: the Selectiores dicendi formulae (1666) by Bartolomeo Beverini, a work that at the same time mocks Jesuit didactics and seriously teaches Latin using Petronius as a linguistic model of purity and elegance.