Saturday, March 31, 2012
Girard: Stichostratia
Stichostratia epigrammaton centuriae quinque by Jean Girard (1552)
The first book is full of distichs! (The second book contains epigrams that are four lines long, etc.)
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Kochanowski: Dzieła wszystkie
Dzieła wszystkie by Jan Kochanowski (1884)
This volume of Kochanowski's complete works contains his Latin poetry.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Busk: Roman Legends
Roman Legends by Rachel Harriette Busk (1877)
This quite large book (400+ pages) is a collection of "the fables and folk-lore of Rome," as the subtitle explains. These are not stories of ancient Rome, but instead Italian folktales and fables, divided up into the following categories: Favole, Legendary Tales, Ghost and Treasure Stories and Family and Local Traditions and Ciarpe. This is a delightful book and I am surprised that it has not made its way into Sur La Lune Fairy Tales or some other such website. There are so many good stories here!
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Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Cantimpre: De Apibus
De Apibus by Tomás de Cantimpré (1627)
The book begins with a life of Thomas de Cantimpré, a 13th-century scholar and preacher. The treatise itself is an elaborate allegory (very elaborate!) on the lives of bees - who, as far as Cantimpre are concerned, are ruled by a king bee, not a queen. :-)
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Monday, March 26, 2012
Psalteria Rhythmica
Psalteria Rhythmica ed. by Clemens Blume and Guido Maria Dreves (1900)
As someone who finds rhyming Latin poetry irresistible, this is just my kind of book. Here are the opening lines of the Psalterium Iesu:
Ave, Iesu, beatorum
Spes et salus miserorum,
Dux et via tu iustorum,
Iter spernis impiorum.
Ave, candor purgans mentes,
In quem frustra fremunt gentes,
Invidorum nos rodentes
Et hostiles tunde dentes.
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Sunday, March 25, 2012
Oppian's Halieuticks
Oppian's Halieuticks (1722)
Working on Camerarius' nature emblems, I've been seeing references to Oppian and his work on fishes so I thought it would be fun to include this 18th-century English translation of Oppian by "Mr. Diaper." The translation is into English verse; here are a couple of couplets for your reading pleasure:
For who with all his Skill can certain teach,
How deep the Sea, how far the Waters reach?
Foolish th' Attempt; none can the Space define,
The Depth retires beneath, and mocks the sinking Line.
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Saturday, March 24, 2012
Epigrammatum Delectus
Epigrammatum Delectus (1752)
Here's the full title: Epigrammatum delectus ex omnibus tum veteribus, tum recentioribus poetis, accurate decerptus cum dissertatione de vera pulchritudine & adumbrata in qua ex certis principiis, reiectionis et selection is epigrammatum causae redduntur; adjectae sunt elegantes sententiae ex antiquis poetis parce, sed severiore judicio, selectae: cum brevioribus sententiis ac proverbiis ex autoribus graecis & latinis quibus subjungitur alterius delectus specimen ex nuperis maxime poetis ab electoribus praetermissis. This is another of the books prepared for the schoolboys of Eton: in usum scholae Etonensis. There is a list of authors, and it includes quite a few modern authors. There are notes in Latin accompany the poem, and sometimes a Latin paraphrase is provided as well. The epigrams are arranged by author, with a generous selection from Martial first, followed by the other classical and neo-Latin poets.
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Friday, March 23, 2012
Meyer: Cato Christianus
Cato Christianus by A. de Meyer (1598)
As the title explains: Cato christianus: sive institutio paraenetica ad pietatem, tetrastichis tanquam aphorismis digesta. Maybe after I finish with the distich project, I should move on to tetrastichs!
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Thursday, March 22, 2012
Opitz: Florilegium Variorum Epigrammatum
Florilegium Variorum Epigrammatum by Martin Opitz (1644)
The book contains Greek epigrams rendered in Latin by Opitz, along with Latin epigrams drawn from both classical and neo-Latin authors. There are German translations for all the poems also. I can find some good distichs here, too - here's one by Buchanan I don't think I've seen before!
Frustra ego te laudo, frustra me, Zoile, laedis:
Nemo mihi credit, Zoile, nemo tibi.
Nemo mihi credit, Zoile, nemo tibi.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The Engravings of Albrecht Durer
The Engravings of Albrecht Durer (1904)
The books contains reproductions of some of Durer's engravings along with detailed notes on each one and an essay on Durer in the back of the book. Of course you can find better art images online, but the essays and notes are very useful! One of the plates included is the famous depiction of St. Jerome in his study, accompanied by his famous lion. Here is a detail of Jerome using a high-quality scan of the image at Wikipedia:
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Barisien: Fragmenta poetarum
Fragmenta poetarum by Josephus Ernestus Barisien (1747)
The full title of the book gives a sense of its free-ranging and fun contents: Fragmenta poetarum veterum recentiorumque, ponderosioribus metris: cum laudi, cum vituperio inservituris: nec non intermixtis apophtegmatibus, axiomatibus, variis in- & descriptionibus, sententiis, ac documentis, sacris, atque profanis, interjectisque, metris leoninis, rhythmis, et epigrammatibus, inmodum Polyantheae poeticae proposita per alphabeticos titulos in ordinem disposita, pro erudita legentium utilitate luci publicae exposita. What a delight! Here are the titles of the opening topics: Adversitates, Adulator, Aetas Varia, Ambitio, etc. The verse extracts are generally very short, but also with some longer passages (15-20 lines at most). The "fragments" here are not fragments in the sense of poets whose work survive only in fragments; instead, it is more what we would call something like "excerpts" or "selections."
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Mercier: De officiis scholasticorum
De officiis scholasticorum, sive de recta ratione proficiendi in litteris, virtute et moribus by Nicolas Mercier (1664)
The poetry in this book is accompanied by notes (often very lengthy notes) in Latin explaining sources and poetic turns of phrase. The poems are in elegiac verse, and each of the three books is organized into separate chapters, with each chapter covering a particular theme. The book also reprints Erasmus' De Civilitate Morum Puerilium after Mercier's three books of verse.
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Sunday, March 18, 2012
Germano: Giardino di sentenze volgari e latine
Giardino di sentenze volgari e latine by Antonio Germano (1630)
There is an index of authors at the beginning - and you can see just from scanning that list what a delightful collection that is. The next index is an alphabetical index of the contents (in Italian). The contents consist of prose sayings as well as short passages of verse, with authors indicated, and sometimes with the title of the work. The mixture of classical and neo-Latin poetry is really appealing. There are plenty of epigrams and distichs in here, as well as short excerpts from longer poems and dramatic works. There is more Latin content than Italian - so the book makes great reading even for people who don't know Italian, and if you do read Italian, it is even better!
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
Owen: Epigrammata
Epigrammata by John Owen (1794)
This is a nice, easy-to-read edition of John Owen's epigrams which includes the poems of Michele Verinus, not by Owen at all - "Audoeno falso adiudicata" as the editor notes. There is also an appendix of other epigrams (with no source indicated), as well as a series of poems either about or directed towards Owen himself, which do include a note about the author.
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Friday, March 16, 2012
Georges: Gnomologia
Gnomologia by Karl Ernst Georges (1863)
As the subtitle explains: veterum latinorum sententiae quae aut quid sit aut quid esse oporteat in vita breviter ostendunt. The book is organized by topic, alphabetically in Latin, with quotations from famous authors - complete citations - for each topic. Both prose and verse authors are included. To give you a sense of the types of topics, here are the opening ones: Abstinentia, Adhortatio, Accusator, Admonitio, Adolescentia, Adulatio, Adversae Res, Aegrotus, etc.
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Symbola quaedam moralia
Symbola quaedam moralia (1712)
Each emblem is accompanied by a Latin poem in elegiac verse, along with an essay. The drawings are quite simple, but all the more charming for that reason!
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Taubenhaus: Echoes of Wisdom
Echoes of Wisdom by Godfrey Taubenhaus (1900)
As the subtitle explains this book contains "Talmudic sayings with classic, especially Latin, parallelisms." The author explains his motivations as follows: "In presenting Talmud and Classics together, the object is not to throw the charge of plagiarism at any door, but to bring the Talmud nearer to the understanding of at least some of the many who, lacking all knowledge of the same, profanely disparage it." Each little chapter (usually less than a page, although sometimes longer) begins with an English translation of a Talmudic saying, followed by a commentary and then by classical parallels. Both the Hebrew and Latin texts are included, along with the English translations.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Robert Louis Stevenson: Moral Emblems
Moral Emblems and Other Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson (1921)
I thought it would be fun to look for more contemporary books that play with the idea of 'emblems,' and so I found this little book with poems of Robert Louis Stevenson accompanied by woodcuts and labeled as "moral emblems."
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Monday, March 12, 2012
Thesaurus Patrum Floresque Doctorum, V. 1-7
Thesaurus Patrum Floresque Doctorum by Armand Benjamin Caillau (1827-1830)
- Volume 1: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Abnegatio - Agricultura - Volume 2: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Altare - Christus - Volume 3: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Christus - Ingratitudo - Volume 4: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Inimicitae - Ordo - Volume 5: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Ordo - Respectus - Volume 6: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Resurrectio - Spes - Volume 7: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore:
Spiritus - Zelus
Okay, I found all 7 volumes of this Thesaurus by poking around in the "more editions" link to one of the volumes in Google Books. I sure wish Google Books would do a better job with multivolume works! This is a nice collection of writing; the articles make for good reading in Latin and are filled with all kinds of material from both secular and religious sources!
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Saturday, March 10, 2012
Apophthegmata Graeca
Apophthegmata Graeca (1568)
This is a collection of Greek anecdotes taken from Plutarch and from Diogenes Laertius, with Latin translations. There is an alphabetical index of names at the beginning of the book.
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Friday, March 9, 2012
Theognis: Sententiae
Theognidis Megarensis Sententiae (1603)
This is an edition of the sayings, Greek gnomai, of Theognis in both Greek and Latin, with a commentary in Latin. There is an detailed index of Greek words and an abbreviated index of Latin words.
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Thursday, March 8, 2012
Prometheus Vinctus, Septem Contra Thebas, Persae, & Supplices
Aeschyli tragoediae: Prometheus, Septem, Persae, Supplices, ed. by R. Porson (1806)
This book contains four tragedies of Aeschylus in Greek with a Latin translation: Prometheus Vinctus, Septem Contra Thebas, Persae, and Supplices.
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides
Aeschyli tragoediae: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides ed. by R. Porson (1806)
This book contains three tragedies of Aeschylus in Greek with a Latin translation: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, and Eumenides.
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Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Pettigrew: Chronicles of the Tombs
Chronicles of the Tombs by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1857)
As the subtitle explains, the book is "a select collection of epitaphs, preceded by an essay on epitaphs and other monumental inscriptions, with incidental observations on sepulchral antiquities." This is a fascinating volume in the Bohn's Library series; the Latin epitaphs contained here are accompanied by English translations.
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Monday, March 5, 2012
Leich: Sepulcralia Carmina
Sepulcralia Carmina by Johann Heinrich Leich (1745)
This is a collection of Greek funeral poetry with Latin versions. In general the poems are quite short, although it's not a good source for distichs, alas!
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Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bauhuis: Epigrammata
Epigrammata by Bernard Bauhuis (1620)
This is a collection of epigrams by a Jesuit scholar from Antwerp, and it looks like I can gather some religious distichs here, although the poems are admittedl on the long side (and written in a nice variety of meters, too, I should add). For a distich, here is one right at the beginning of the book:
Peccati Punitio
Ad scelerum poenas ultrix venit ira Tonantis;
Hoc graviore manu, quo graviore pede.
Here's another one - as you can see, this is a Jesuit poet who likes to make use of his classical learning, too:
Disce Mori
Certus ut evites Lethen, Acheronta, Stygemque,
Ne vive, tantum discito semper mori.
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Saturday, March 3, 2012
von Böcken: Epigrammata Miscellanea
Epigrammata Miscellanea by Johann Caspar von Böcken (1705)
The epigrams are organized into seven "decades" with an appendix of poems that the author promises are "metri rarioris." The Google Books scan is unfortunately a bit blurry, but basically readable (I wish they would offer the color scans of these later books as they are doing for the 16th- and 17th-century books!). I'll certainly be able to find some nice distichs here, such as this one:
15. Officium Iudicis
Iudex iustitiae sit sidus et integer index;
Ni faciat, vindex est gravis ipse Deus.
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Friday, March 2, 2012
Pauly: Anthologia poematum latinorum aevi recentioris
Anthologia poematum latinorum aevi recentioris by August Pauly (1818)
The section on Elegica-Epigrammata-Gnomica-Aenigmata begins on p. 141 and runs for almost 150 pages. there is an index of authors with some bibiographical information in the back of the book. Although the poems are on the long side, I might find a few good distichs here, too!
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Thursday, March 1, 2012
Glandorpius: Distichorum liber
Familiae Juliae gentis, item Distichorum liber by Johann Glandorp (1576)
The distichs of Glandorpius (which are titled) begin on p. 303 and run through p. 335. For a modern edition, see Suringar's 1874 Ioannes Glandorpius in zijne Latijnsche disticha.
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