Kirjahaku

Propertius' Cynthia considers Propertius' metapoetic and intra- and intertextual habits and their relationship with the repetitious amatory discourse that he fashions for himself with his beloved, Cynthia. Where scholarship tends to treat as separate the metaliterary and the amatory aspects of Propertius' poetry, this volume - focussed on Books 3 and 4 - argues that his discussion of his own poetry and of his relationship to it as an author-figure - his metapoetic commentary - is closely married to, and can be clearly mapped onto, his account of his relationship with Cynthia, especially in Books 1-3. Moreover, it demonstrates that the amorous discourse the elegist fashions is constituted of a poetics of repetitiousness that is apt for the articulation of an elegiac relationship that, by its nature, cannot progress. The encounters between Propertius and Cynthia are repetitive, and the poet mirrors these in his recollection of lexical and thematic aspects of earlier poems in later ones. Each poem provides a fragmentary glance at Propertius' relationship and, through repetitions with variation, the elegist shapes his readers' understanding of his amatory discourse. Furthermore, it is argued that, since his beloved is the embodiment of his poetry, Propertius' account of his changing relationship with her allows him to articulate the transformations of his elegiac corpus; this becomes most significant as the close of Book 3 appears to end their relationship and he begins a radical experimentation with the generic bounds of elegy that is expanded in Book 4, where the polyvalent Vertumnus embodies the poet's work.

Offering an anthology of the first history of Latin literature, Sicco Polenton’s Scriptorum illustrium Latinae linguae libri XVIII is a collection of biographies that spans the period from ancient Rome to the 15th century. Compiled between 1419 and 1433, the main focus of the Scriptores illustres is on the life and works of ancient Latin authors, but Polenton also displays a wider interest in the history of Roman culture, institutions and society, which he constantly interlaces with literary issues. This anthology offers the first English translation of carefully selected passages of the Scriptores illustres, in order to provide scholars and students with an accessible overview of the work’s structure and style, as well as its impact on early 15th-century scholarship. It is the first modern edition of Polenton’s work to be annotated, thereby providing an historical context for the work. The commentary sheds new light on the complexity of Polenton’s original research into his classical sources, and the anthology fills a gap in Anglophone scholarship, which has in recent decades paid little attention to Polenton and his intellectual profile.