ὁ Ἔρως μέγας δαίμων. Platonic Love in Selva de Aventuras, by Jerónimo de Contreras
Selva de Aventuras, by Jerónimo de Contreras, is a novel with a striking trajectory: whereas the first version, published in 1565, recounted a tale of earthly detachment through the figure of a lover who, being unable to marry his beloved, becomes an eremite and devotes his life to God, the version published in 1583 changed the ending drastically, finalizing the tale with a happy marriage. The causes behind such modification are object of academic controversy. In this essay I will study the reasons behind this change and link the concept of love present in the novel to that of Renaissance Neoplatonism.
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The eclectic Novo-Hispanic Aristotelianism in the botanical work of the humanista Francisco Hernández de Toledo and its adaptation to the autochthonous context
With the discovery of the New World, the challenge of classifying a totally unknown biota began. In this context, Francisco Hernández de Toledo (1515-1587) led the first exclusively scientific expedition to the Americas (1570-1577) at the behest of Philip II. He can be defined as a leading exponent of a new and genuine natural and moral Aristotelianism. In his Compendio de Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, he applies the ‘organic’ vision of Aristotelian epistemology and Plinian Natural History, integrating medicine and botany in the same treatise. His methodological mixture led him to keep in his records the names of native botany in Nahuatl, together with the Latin and Spanish translations, thus pioneering the forging of a scientific-technical language in the Americas. Unfortunately, his botanical work is better known for the beauty of its illustrations, which obscures the essential scientific value of this work for modern science.
Presentación. Una mirada plural sobre el humanismo
Quotations from Plutarch in the Second Part of the Mystical Monarchy by fray Lorenzo de Zamora
In the Second Part of the Mystical Monarchy, by fray Lorenzo de Zamora, the presence of Plutarch’s works stands out. There are numerous citations, by direct and indirect transmission, that are studied, edited and identified in this paper. It analyzes the routes through which the Cistercian author accessed the works of Plutarch and the most cited works are classified. This allows to reach conclusions about the degree of knowledge of the work of the author of Chaeronea on the part of fray Lorenzo de Zamora.
Morean translations of Lucian’s Dialogues
This paper proposes to analyze some passages of the Latin translations made by Thomas More of Lucian’s dialogues in order to observe and study the peculiarities of the Morean versions. The interest of this analysis responds to the need, recently stated by some scholars (Pawlowski, 2010; Cabrillana, 2022), to explore the causes of the deviations made by More in his translations from the Greek text insomuch as they could have some repercussions on the interpretation of the Morean thought.
The quotations and references to contemporary authors in the Methodus oratoria (Valencia, 1568) of Andreu Sempere
The humanist from Alcoy, Andreu Sempere, justified the writing of his manual of rhetoric by the lack of any treatise, ancient or recent, with which the art of rhetoric could be properly taught. Nevertheless, the use of both is very important in his work. We analyse the presence of ‘recent’ authors and Sempere’s debt to them through the textual quotations and explicit references present in his Methodus oratoria. Among the authors mentioned are Giovita Rapicius (Ravizza), Luis Estrebeo (Jacques-Louis d’Estrebay), both authors widely used in the chapters on oratorical rhythm, one of the most developed and singular parts of the Methodus, Petrus Ramus and Omer Talon, Juan Luis Vives and Julius Caesar Scaliger (Poetices libri VII). In many cases, Sempere mentions them in order to criticise them and express his differences with them; in others, he qualifies and praises their theories.
Politics as a science in 17th-century Spain. Principles of governmentality in the Spanish Tacitus of Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos
Baltasar Álamos de Barrientos’ Tacito español, ilustrado con aforismos (1614) can be interpreted through a Foucauldian framework to explore shifts in early modern political thought. Álamos translates and organizes Tacitus’ works into aphorisms and pioneers Spanish Tacitism by emphasizing politics as a pragmatic discipline informed by historical experience and elements of Aristotelian practical science. He links Tacitus’ insights to concepts of reason of state, sovereign power, and governmentality, anticipating themes later articulated by Michel Foucault in Security, Territory, Population (1977-1978). Álamos translates Tacitus’ historical narratives into a political template that balances authority with political stability. His work fosters the Shift from transcendental ideals to practical governance and contributes to the evolving discourse on statecraft in early modern Spain. By joining classical principles with emerging political strategies, Álamos foreshadows aspects of modern political rationality by bridging classical authority with early-modern governance.
Greek rationality and Christian humanism in the political thought of Pedro de Valencia: the Discurso sobre materias del Consejo de Estado
Pedro de Valencia’s Discurso sobre materias del Consejo de Estado allows us to analyse the dilemma between reason and faith, between Greek rationality and Christianity, in the humanist’s political thought. Pedro de Valencia approaches the politics of the time from a biblical perspective, taking Arias Montano’s Liber generationis et regenerationis Adam, sive De historia generis humani as a basis. To this he adds reflections on morality, individual behaviour and its projection on the collective, following the philosophy of Socrates and Epictetus.
Tommaso Campanella and the grammatica philosophica: a heuristic point of view on his Grammaticalium libri III
Until some recent studies, linguistic and philosophical historiography have overlooked Tommaso Campanella’s Grammaticalium libri III (1638), in which the philosopher, better known for his political philosophy, composed a philosophical grammar of the Latin language that presented his main linguistic ideas. With this short work, we aim not only to draw attention to this piece but also, more specifically, to one of its fundamental features: its relationship with the philosopher’s logical ideas, presented in his Dialectica (1638). As a result, we also pose some questions about the problematic relationship and composition of both works, accompanied by possible explanations that ultimately call for a modern study of the Dialectica.
Classical references in Andreu Sempere’s Methodus oratoria: Virgil
The main classical sources of the Methodus oratoria of the humanist Andreu Sempere are, quite logically, rhetorical works: Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria and Cicero’s Orator and De oratore. The most frequently quoted classical texts are the Arpinate’s speeches, with particular reference to In Verrem and the Philippicae. Among the other autors Virgil is by far the most quoted autor, mostly The Aeneid. Of the other classics, quotations are scattered and occasional, with the exception of the comedies of Terence, which are cited thirteen times. In this paper we list all the Virgilian quotations in Sempere’s rhetoric. This paper lists all the Virgilian quotations in the Sempere’s rhetoric. The use of these quotations and the sections of the Methodus in which they are included are studied.
The bibliographic catalog of Alfonso Chacón: the Bibliotheca
Among the numerous works of the humanist Alfonso Chacón we find handwritten, printed and lost once. Much of the cataloging of the work that he left unsigned has been possible thanks to his work Bibliotheca, a bibliographic catalog in which he tried to bring together in alphabetical order the works and authors from Antiquity to 1583, in addition to including his “auto-bibliography”. We will stop at the main data of this work and discuss the importance it had for the dissemination of the works contained therein, as well as the problems for its publication and its different editions.
The Humanist Presence at the Convent of Jesus and Mary of the Discalced Carmelites in Isfahan from 1608 to 1621
In 1604, the Discalced Carmelite friars established their first mission in Persia, highlighting their impact on humanism and the exchange of knowledge across cultures. Upon their arrival in 1608, these missionaries focused their efforts on education and intercultural exchange, guided by the teachings of Mother Teresa of Jesus and Father Juan de Jesús María. They developed linguistic skills in Persian, Turkish, Armenian, and Chaldean, essential for their work in translating religious and scientific texts, and for the creation of a convent library rich in diverse works, including European literature and ancient Oriental manuscripts. This activity fostered an interreligious and cultural dialogue. Thus, the Carmelites acted not only as evangelizers but also as cultural mediators in a context of political and religious tensions, significantly contributing to the legacy of humanism and global understanding through the exchange of books between Europe and Persia and vice versa.
Panxit/ pinxit: humanistic tradition in the text of Ennius’s Epitaph
This paper is a defense of the reading pinxit, not panxit, in Ennius’s Epitaph. Panxit, a humanist conjecture generally accepted in editions to this day, does not take into consideration, however, the early identification between visual and poetic representations, which would become famously formulated by Horace in his Art of Poetry: ut pictura poësis (Ars 361).
The heroic epistle of Francesco Mario Molza on Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII
The heroic epistle was used as a literary model by Renaissance authors. Heroic themes are now replaced by national themes. The same thing happens in neo-Latin literature. An interesting example given the relevance of the characters are the epistles about the history of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. In one of them titled Ad Henricum Britanniae regem uxoris repudiatae nomine, composed around 1534 by Francesco Maria Molza (1489-1544), Catherine of Aragon, as an abandoned heroine, accuses her husband Henry VIII. The author does not resort to a historical event from the past but to something that has just happened, the king’s betrayal of his wife and the break with the Church of Rome. In this work we study Molza’s letter, highlighting the Italian poet’s allusive use of sources, mainly from the Aeneid and Ovid, to understand the personality and motivations of the characters.
Physical Activity in the Treatises of Princes in the Fifteenth Century: Portugal, the Livro de Montaria del Rey Don João I
The Princely Treatises of the 15th and 16th centuries were conceived as manuals to guide the training of the good ruler. This was no easy task, as it covered the many areas in which the future monarch was expected to have complete mastery and skill. Among these areas, pedagogy, physical training and health were of particular importance in the humanistic training of a good regent, which required knowledge and experience in the main facets. The humanistic characteristics of Spain and Portugal in this area were practically identical, apart from a few minor connotations, and led the Portuguese King João I to write the Livro de Montaria a for this educational purpose. In general terms, the aim of this study will be to delve into the characteristics of this work in relation to Humanism and the different aspects of Motricity, and to make these sources known from the physical part and their particularities that led it to be a highly representative work of the humanistic panorama of Portugal.
Elements of stoic ethics in the second part of the Monarquía mística by Lorenzo de Zamora
From very early on, Christianity in its evangelizing desire not only adopted many of the teachings of the different philosophical schools, especially those coming from academics, Neoplatonists and Stoics, but also strove to present itself as true philosophy. In this way, theoretical precepts and vital attitudes became perfectly integrated into Christian doctrine in its diferente manifestations. Monasticism inherited, without a doubt, everything related to the interior life and the praxis of philosophical exercise. We propose in this work to demonstrate that issues such as self-knowledge and contemptus mundi reached the work of Brother Lorenzo de Zamora entitled Monarquía mística not only through the use of anthologies but also through the monastic rule of the monastic order to which he belonged, the Cistercian.
Nihil enim tam iniustum quod loquendo non fiat uerisimile: sources in Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo’s Tractatus de neutralitate
The Tractatus de neutralitate from Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo, unedited until today, is an extremely valuable testimony to know and understand the crisis that the Catholic Church faced in the turbulent schismatic context developed at the Council of Basel (1432-1445). To demonstrate his rejection towards german’s neutrality and defend the legitimacy of a single and unquestionable pope, Arévalo uses numerous textual quotations and paraphrases a whole plethora of authors and authorities, such as Latin Fathers of the Church and the Sacred Scriptures, but also pontiffs and classical sources like Aristoteles. Among them, the works of biblical exegesis (Lyra’s Postilla and the Glosa ordinaria) and the compendium of canon law Summa Aurea stand out, both absolutely unusual in Arévalo’s production. Our aim is to analyze what were the sources that fed Arévalo’s discourse, how the different literary, philosophical, theological and legal influences and references converged in this figure and context, in order to understand the role that tradition and transmission of these authors played in the birth of Castilian Humanism in the 15th century.
Benito Arias Montano and peninsular hebraism: a poetry for the Song of Songs
This paper examines the rhetorical strategies employed by Benito Arias Montano in his Paráfrasis en tono pastoril (1552), one of the first Spanish poetic versions of the Song of Songs that adopts the Garcilasian tone. At a key moment for the literary and exegetical tradition of the Song, Arias Montano combines elements of the pastoral canon with the Renaissance poetic model, influenced by Petrarch aesthetics. The first part of the study contextualizes the work in relation to the commentaries and translations of contemporary authors, such as Cipriano de la Huerga (Commentaria In Canticum Canticorum, 1580) and Fray Luis de León (Triplex Explanatio, 1580, and his Castilian commentary of 1561). The second part focuses on the analysis of the diegetic procedures of the Paráfrasis, its correspondence with the biblical verses, and the integration of Petrarchan motifs, with special attention to lemmas and toponyms. Based on these analyses, the article offers a new perspective regarding originality and relevance of the paraphrastic method undertaken by Montano in Renaissance exegesis and literary production.
A força inquietante dos objectos na Máquina Infernal de Jean Cocteau
Hailed by some as a great poetic spirit of our time, labelled by others as a mere juggler, Jean Cocteau has remained an unexplained writer up to this day. However, if we heed his dramatic work, and more precisely his play The Infernal Machine, we realise he is a deeply modem author and has participated actively in the dramatic renewal of the 20'h century. By renewing the classical myth of Oedipus according to Sophocles, the writer intends to express his `poetry of theatre', thus denying it its form to preserve the message. Conceived as a dynamic space, the charm of his play lies in the interplay of music, light, gesture, sound, word and objects, Cocteau's theatrical poetry deriving from this conjugation. Among a]l these theatrical components, we have chosen to deal with the disturbing power of objects, since all of them, from the scarf to the mirror, help Oedipus's destiny to be fulfilled. Far from being reduced to mere stylistic or ornamental accessories, they are assigned an important role in the action, by confirming the oracle and leading Oedipus to mutilate himself and Jocaste to hang herself.
La Muse plaisante dans les Dialogues de Platon
We have attempted to analyse the place of ‘comic’– taking the word in a broad sense – in Plato’s Dialogues as everything that provokes laughter. I will firstly try to show that the ‘comic’ so defined is present in several ways in Platonic texts, whether through words expressing it, or through types of discourse where it emerges (pastiche, comedy, fable, satire, pantomime), or characters embodying it. However, as we know, it isn’t good to provoke laughter or getting pleasure out of it because, at the best, that implies becoming a ‘clown’ (bômolochos) or an ‘author of comedy’ (kômôidopoios) and, at the worst, it means enjoying and rejoicing over what one ought to hate because of its perversity: vice (to kakon) and nonsense (to aphron). We should therefore ask ourselves about this apparent contradiction while trying to account for it.
Dinheiro e sociedade (Teofrasto, Caracteres)
Leaving aside all the ambiguities pertaining to the relationship of Theophrastus’s Characters with other conventional models in Greek literature, they are beyond all doubt related to 4th century B.C. Athenian society, thus portraying the behaviour and attitudes of some characteristic human types. Bearing in mind the importance of money within the life of the social community of the time we will seek to pin down expressive flashes in most of the thirty portraits that make up Theophrastus’s catalogue: relevance of financial status, forms of acquiring economic benefits, the meaning of money in establishing social distinction, the behaviours it determines, the external signs that give it away, the rhetoric it encompasses. From the large repertory of money references the evolution undergone by Athens, upon which years of war and crisis had imposed a more individualistic and pragmatic lifestyle, becomes evident.
A paródia literária no Corpus Priapeorum
The Corpus Priapeorum is indisputably the most daring collection of poems in Latin Literature due to its explicit sexual content, which some argue appears to be closer to pornography than to eroticism. Notwithstanding, the author’s creative talent is undeniable, if we take into account the poems’ literary quality, both on an individual stylistic level and as far as collective composition is concerned. It’s no wonder, then, that the names of such renowned authors as Ovid, Petronius or Martial have been suggested as presumable authors. In this paper, the author will attempt to, by resorting to close translation in rhymed verse as well as stylistic commentary, analyse the ways in which the literary game of allusion and intertextuality with other authors and genres, used in some poems, is put into practice, so as to increase humorous effect.
Mordacidade nos discursos de Cícero: ioci, facetiae et dicacitates ao serviço da oratória
In his six major treatises on oratory, Cicero deals with the question of humour in speech, naming some of the orators that had excelled in exercising their jestful spirit, pointing out some of the processes of provoking laughter amidst the audience and emphasising its purpose and usefulness for the orator. His own texts (both his letters and philosophical treatises and his judicial and political speeches) reveal, with more or less intensity, his playful nature, be it aimed at his political antagonists, his professional peers or at individuals intending to sue his clients.
As symbol of real people or positive or negative characteristics, animals come up, since ancient times, in popular wisdom and in literature as aphoristic and caricatural figures standing for certain human behaviours. Valued for its simplicity in eloquence and depth of content, animal imagery has served Horace’s playful and moralizing purposes, in some cases, and parodic in others. But, above all, animals have been turned into a funny and wise lesson of life to men who often laugh at themselves when laughing at animals.
La sátira latina en la Poética de J. C. Escalígero
The imitatio veterum and the theories handed down by Aristotle, Horace and the rhetoricians were central in shaping Renaissance aesthetic and literary ideas, as well as works of imaginative literature. In his Poetices Libri Septem Scaligerus the main references to satire are found in three of the seven books: Book I, Historicus, Book III, Idea, and Book VI, Hypercriticus. In the first, the author analyses the origin of the genre and its types; in the third he deals with satire from the viewpoint of inventio, and in the sixth he organises satirical authors into five ages, from Antiquity to the Renaissance. In footnotes we provide the Latin text of the passages referring to passages mentioning the satirical genre, as well as the translation, commentary and analysis of the interpretations put forward by the author who, widely known and quoted by his contemporaries and followers, sets the limits of the satirical genre, putting Juvenal before Horace himself.
In this paper, we focus on caricature and parody in Martial’s Epigrams through reference to gods and mythological heroes, as well as historical Roman characters. The analysis will deal particularly with epigrams II 89, XI 15, 43 e 104.
Maria Cristina de Castro-Maia de Sousa Pimentel
Sátira e paródia em textos medio-latinos
Medieval Latin poetry, particularly that which can be associated with the rise of university life during the 12th and 13th centuries, takes on a variety of forms, rhythms, inspiration and themes, ranging from the elevated forms of mystical and religious poetry to the boundless eulogy of the pleasures of gluttony and reckless behaviour, both of them composing a mirror effect through which we are presented with an antithetical and multifarious vision of the same culture, the same terrors, aspirations and anguishes. One of the key characteristics of this type of poetry is that it is closely linked with the religious texts they often parody, whether through the vocabulary, the rhythm or even through music itself. The literary processes of satire and parody will be analysed.
A herança dos satíricos: Horácio e Pedro José da Fonseca. Tópicos horacianos na Invectiva contra os máos poetas
Horace’s fame and genius have won him several admirers and followers. In Portuguese culture, during the second half of the 18th century, Pedro José da Fonseca has also recuperated topics developed by Horace’s Sermones, when composing the Invectiva contra os máos poetas, a text that was erroneously ascribed to Correia Garção by Téofilo Braga.
“Louvado seja Deus que não sou bom”: Alberto Caeiro, São Francisco de Assis e o menino Jesus
There are those who argue that Alberto Caeiro’s poetry is very simple: seeing and not thinking is enough. However, Caeiro is a compulsive thinker. By resorting to an apparently unsophisticated poetic discourse, the Master challenges some certainties assumed by western culture, such as the view of nature popularised by Saint Francis of Assisi.
Presença de Marcial em Os Dias Inventados de Luís Filipe Castro Mendes
In this paper we intend to present an overall characterization of the literary work of L. F. Castro Mendes and analyse in detail the presence of Martial in his collection of poems entitled Os Dias Inventados. In fact, the poet from Bilbilis represents an outstanding influence on the poet, which can be tracked down both on the themes he handles and on his option for the epigram’s formal model.