A Arte Poética de Horácio por Pedro José da Fonseca

Abstract

Among the several Portuguese authors that, in the second half of the 18th century, have translated and commented on Horace’s Art of Poetry, the author of this article has chosen the pedagogue Pedro José da Fonseca. Apart from illustrating the importance of Horace in the poetic theory of seventeenth-century Portugal, this study aims to prove that the Arte Poetica de Q. Horacio Flacco (...) Traduzida em portuguez e illustrada com escolhidas notas dos antigos e modernos interpretes e com hum commentario critico sobre os preceitos poeticos, liçoes varias, e intelligencia dos lugares difficultosos was the first work to reveal to the Portuguese public Horace’s poetic principles and, at the same time, to epitomise the neo-classical doctrine in Portugal. Through the analysis of excerpts taken from Fonseca’s text several literary topoi will be discussed: the conception of poetry as an imitation of nature, the dialectic skill/art, the imitation of Greek and Latin models, the relentless search for literary and aesthetic perfection, the observance of decorum and the social dimension of literature.