Although many historians of science acknowledge the extent to which Greek and Roman ideals framed eighteenth-century thought, many classical references in the texts they study remain obscure. Poems played an important role not only in spreading ideas about natural philosophy, but also in changing people’s perceptions of its value; they contributed to Newton’s swelling reputation as an English hero. By writing about Latin poetry, we focus on the intersection of two literary genres that were significant for eighteenth-century natural (...) philosophy, but seem alien to modern science. We classify Augustan Latinate scientific poetry by considering the audiences for whom the poems were intended. We distinguish three broad categories. One type of poetry was circulated amongst gentlemanly scholars. A second group comprised poetry written specifically to promote or criticise Newton and his books, particularly the Principia. After Newton’s death, a third type of poetry became increasingly significant, included in collections of poems rather than in texts of natural philosophy. Overall, we show how the classical past was vital for creating the scientific future.Author Keywords: Isaac Newton; Neo-Latin; Lucretius; Oxford and Cambridge verse; Edmond Halley; Queen Caroline. (shrink)

In recent decades, interest in Neo-Latin studies shows a distinct upward tendency. Still, the poetry of Dutch humanists constitutes a literature which is difficult to access. However, much work has been done in the past years to open up the poetry of Hugo Grotius. Within a few years the first phase of the edition in the series De Dichtwerken van Hugo Grotius will have been completed with the publication of the juvenilia, the poetry written between 1591 (...) and 1608. Consequently, a well-rounded whole of Grotius' poetry will have become accessible for research and systematic reference. In the meantime, as no in-depth study of Grotius' poetry as preserved in manuscript form and printed edition has ever been undertaken before, a first attempt of closer research and a systematic inventory of the material provided a mass of new data. This led to the repudiation of quite a few traditional conceptions concerning the nature and merits of Grotius' poetical efforts and the correlation of the respective editions of poems. Some major results of this research are presented here in general outline. They are all enlarged on in full detail in my Grotius Poeta and Inventory of the Poetry of Hugo Grotius . Reference is made to both of these works throughout this article, which has no claims for itself but to offer an overall picture by means of an introductory essay. Therefore footnotes are omitted here altogether. (shrink)

The Prussian Protestant Daniel Hermann is an important Neo-Latin poet. He lived from probably 1543 until 1601. Hermann studied at Königsberg, Straßburg, Basel and Wittenberg. Afterwards he served as a secretary at the Imperial Court at Vienna, later as a secretary of the city of Danzig and permanent ambassador of Danzig at the Royal Polish court during the wars against Russia. After the war he married and settled down in Riga and became the secretary of the Polish governor Cardinal (...) Radziwil and later of the general Georg Fahrensbach. Besides lots of poems on academical, political and private occasions he wrote letters in poetic form as well as theological, philosophical and political poems. This paper provides an overview over Hermann ’s life and his poetry, especially the poems written and published in Riga, and a short summary of the research on this poet. (shrink)

ABSTRACTTo date, neo-Latin studies have been hardly concerned with the nineteenth century, let alone the twentieth century. It would seem that literature written in Latin had completely lost its significance. However, recent research has shown that Latin verses were still quantitatively and qualitatively important, even if they no longer enjoyed the same popularity as in previous centuries. This article is a synthesis of what we know about neo-Latin literature in nineteenth-century Europe. The first section discusses the (...) question of its quantitative and qualitative significance. Section 2 deals with the specific features of the neo-Latin literature in the nineteenth century. Section 3 presents the situation in Germany in order to give a more precise idea of the phenomenon. The aim of this article is to provide an impetus for further investigation in the field and to cast light on a facet of the nineteenth century that has long been forgotten. (shrink)

Critical edition, translation and commentary of an epigram addressed by Arias Montano to Hernando Díaz, from a copy probably made by Juan Moreno Ramírez. Diaz was also gifted with knives made by Lancero in Guadalajara.

The passage is thought to refer to the efforts of the Macedonians to honour the memory of their dead king. Who are meant by reges is not at all clear, and summa nituntur opum ui, as we may infer from other passages where the same or a similar expression is used, can hardly refer to anything but the labour of the hands. Probably we ought to read regis, i.e. Philippi. The lines will then refer to the work of the people.

The passage is thought to refer to the efforts of the Macedonians to honour the memory of their dead king. Who are meant by reges is not at all clear, and summa nituntur opum ui, as we may infer from other passages where the same or a similar expression is used, can hardly refer to anything but the labour of the hands. Probably we ought to read regis, i.e. Philippi. The lines will then refer to the work of the people.

Although it is now fifteen years since G. Williams' thorough-going criticism of B. Axelson's Unpoetische Wörter, his discussion has failed to elicit the adverse response which might have been expected in view of the widespread influence exerted by the earlier work. The reason for this may be that Axelson's theory is so widely accepted that any refutation thereof may be disregarded. Yet surely Williams was right to point to the dangers of total reliance on statistics and to the necessity of (...) considering the contexts in which words occur in Latin poetry. In this respect, he was not so much rejecting Axelson's work as pointing to its inadequacies: whereas Axelson would be content to label a word that occurs only rarely in poetry as ‘unpoetisch’, it is necessary, as Williams demonstrates, to take the further step of determining the effect that such a word has in a given context. This approach will be particularly helpful, for example, in the case of parvulus at Virg. Aen. 4.328, where the heightened pathos achieved by Virgil's use of a diminutive is better appreciated by the reader who is aware of the scarcity of diminutive adjectives in poetry and in epic above all. To recognise parvulus as an ‘unpoetic word’, with Axelson, is the essential first step, but we should proceed a stage further to inquire what effect was intended by the employment of a form not normally found in elevated poetry. Of greater importance is Williams' rejection of the ‘hierarchy of genres’ theory, taken for granted by Axelson, that is, that Latin poetry may be divided into a number of higher- or lower-ranking genres and that the more elevated a genre the less unpoetic vocabulary it is liable to employ. (shrink)

Epitaphium Damonis, Milton's lament for his friend Charles Diodati, is usually described as most strongly indebted to Theocritus? idylls, to Virgil's eclogues, and to Ovid's lament for Tibullus. However, closer examination reveals that Milton was even more closely indebted to Neo-Latin poets such as Sannazaro, Buchanan, Castiglione, Mantuan, and Zanchi. Whereas there are lines in Epitaphium Damonis that resemble those in Virgil and Ovid, there are just as many that resemble those in Neo-Latin poets. Although a pastoral, the (...) tone and atmosphere of the epitaph resemble more its Renaissance contemporaries than its more distant Latin and Greek forebears. This is especially evident in the intimate tone Milton assumes in addressing Damon-Diodati and in the elaborate digression he incorporates into the poem when he confides to his dead friend his plans for a future epic on an Arthurian theme. Milton's attempt to wed a Christian sensibility to a classical form also signals his indebtedness to his Renaissance predecessors, who similarly used classical pastoral to express Christian consolation. (shrink)

While the history of Thomas More as a character on stage is long and varied, the humanist made his most regular appearance in Latin school plays across Catholic Europe throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Still, only a handful of these plays are known to have survived, all of which were performed on the Jesuit stage. This article sheds light on a newly discovered Neo-Latin More play, which, it argues, was staged at the Benedictine college of Marchiennes in (...) the late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century. After a brief contextualization and analysis of the manuscript and the tragedy enclosed, the article offers an edition of the Latin text and a study of its intertextual ties with the dramatic oeuvres of Desiderius Erasmus and George Buchanan. (shrink)