Wojciech Ryczek

The main purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it presents the edition of a Latin ode written by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski SJ (1595–1640) dedicated to Janusz Skumin Tyszkiewicz (1572–1642), Voivode of Trakai, after the death of his beloved wife, Barbara née Naruszewicz (1580–1627). A new Polish translation of this text and a commentary are also provided. Secondly, the first part of the paper, or the invitation to close reading, aims at giving more detailed information about the rhetorical architecture of the ode, particularly its composition, arguments, and figures.

Sarbiewski, regarded as the most brilliant imitator of Horatian lyrical discourse in early-modern Europe (“Christian Horace”), used the established schemes and formulas to create a Christian consolation based on reinventing the lyrical arguments. The persuasive power of his ode is strongly related to vivid, evocative, and meaningful images. The correlation between divine inspiration and poetic perfection allowed him to refashion the rhetorical patterns of epicedium. Sarbiewski wanted to demonstrate his ability to use various modes of linguistic expression. Thus, in the heart of his consolation there is a story about “the cracks”(rimae) in heaven’s gate and a poet who can take a short glimpse into “the heavenly city”(urbs caelestis).

The consolation is to confirm the belief that, following departure, a deceased can live in the realm of eternal joy and happiness. Paradoxically, he or she can be happier there than during his or her earthly life. Despite its rhetorical refinement and poetical elaboration, it always serves the same purpose. Moreover, its realisation only becomes possible due to literary mediation. The poet appears to be the mediator between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The final verses of the poem bring a moral lesson best epitomized in a brief appeal “do not want more”(nec tu plura velis), addressed not only to Tyszkiewicz, but also to the poet himself and the readers.

The paper consists of two, closely related, parts, a brief introduction to the reading of the poem written by Neo-Latin poet from Cracow, Andrzej Schoen (Andreas Schoneus, 1552–1615), and the transcription of this text and its translation from original Latin into Polish. The ode dedicated to Jerzy Radziwiłł (Oda ad Georgium Radivilum, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem, Episcopum Cracoviensem, Principem amplissimum), bishop of Cracow, fits within the wider context of the imitation (and the emulation as well), concentrating on a literary game with the style of Pindar. Schoen produced his work in a style that mixes a poetic imaginary of the poet from Thebes and Horatian lyric discourse. The poetry created by Pindar is treated in this case as an inexhaustible source of the ideas associated mainly with the concept of a poet and a poetry as well as easily recognizable key-words and phrases taken from his poetic phraseology. The main aim of the perspective adopted in these critical enquiries is to present a variety of intertextual and cross-contextual connections between the lyric of Greek poet and the ode of his early modern imitator.

This paper presents (in the form of transcription and translation) a letter written by a humanist and classical scholar, Iustus Lipsius (1547–1606), which its Cracow editor entitled Epistola erudita (1602). The rhetorical analysis of this text is based on Lipsius’ treatise Epistolica institutio (The Principles of Letter-Writing). The main problem concerns the role of traditional rhetoric in epistolography, especially if the letter is not reduced to a formal document built of template formulas. Early-modern epistolography (Petrarca, Erasmus, Lipsius, Vives) revives the ancient tradition of writing letters, according to which a letter is a kind of written conversation. It gives the sender and the addressee a unique opportunity to meet each other in the symbolic universe of the text.

In this paper, the author presents a critical edition of three chapters on rhetorical de-vices excerpted from the treatise O wymowie i stylu (On Eloquence and Style, Warsaw 1815) written by Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1755–1821), an enlightened man of letters. He begins with a brief introduction to a reading of Potocki’s text on some figurative uses of language. The author explains the circumstances in which Potocki wrote his rhetorical manual (the request of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning) and discusses its most important sources, both classic (Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Cicero’s On the Ideal Orator, Quintilian’s Institutions of Oratory) and modern (César Chesneau Dumarsais’ Traité des Tropes, Paris 1730, Hugh Blair’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin, Edinburgh 1783).

With a few explanatory remarks on the three chapters presenting the nature of figurative language (in particular metaphor, personification, hyperbole and apostrophe) the author examines the connection between the rhetorical considerations on style and the Enlightenment philosophy of language. According to Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the tropes and rhetorical figures, being almost natural expressions of emotions, passions and imagination, should be regarded as the primordial origin of the human language. Thus the Enlightenment, the triumph of analytical (‘pure’) reason over imagination tinged with emotionality, is a period when authors intentionally limited the use of figurative language (although never totally rejected it) in order to reach the simplicity of the linguistic expression.

Iwona Słomak, „Pheonix rhetorum” Jana Kwiatkiewicza. Wprowadzenie – przekład – opracowanie, nakładem Wydziału Polonistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2016.

The paper is the presentation (as the transcription and translation of the text) of the letter written by the humanist and classical scholar, Iustus Lipsius (1547–1606), and entitled by its editor in Cracow Epistola erudita (1602). The rhetorical analyses of this text is based on the Lipsius’s treatise Epistolica institutio (The Principles of Letter-Writing). The main problem concerns the role of traditional rhetoric in the letter writing, especially if the letter is not reduced to a formal document, prepared using repeatable formulas. Early modern epistolography (Petrarca, Erasmus, Lipsius, Vives) recovers the ancient tradition of letter writing, according to which the letter is a kind of written conversation. It gives unique opportunity to meet each other in the symbolic universe of the text.

The paper tries to display the links between a catalogue of metaphors contained in Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski’s handbook entitled Characteres lyrici, seu Horatius et Pindarus and Giambattista Marino’s Canzone delle stelle. Based upon his college lectures (Połock 1626/1627), Sarbiewski’s work offers practical rules for the composition of lyrical poetry and some theoretical considerations. Among many “ornaments related to the lyrical invention”, a very important stylistic device mentioned by the Jesuit poet and theorist is a “definition by accumulation”(definitio conglobata), that is, a series of extended metaphors or other figurative expressions, for example periphrasis, metonymy or allegory. This rhetorical strategy serves as a useful instrument in reintegrating the art of invention with amplification aimed particularly at the accumulation of different words or figures. As the “ornament of the lyric invention”, the definition described by the author appears no to be restricted only to effective searching for ideas and concepts; it is also a valuable tool for achieving unusual power of expression and for exercising composition and style.

Sarbiewski quotes an example concerning the stars, taken, as he says, from „a contemporary Etrurian poet”. In his commentary to the edition of Characteres lyrici, Stanisław Skimina identified this poet as Dante, which was subsequently taken for granted by many scholars. Recently, the poet in question has been proved to be Giambattista Marino, famous for his style characterized by many extravagant conceits, excessive figures, and other complicated rhetorical patterns. The authors analyze Sarbiewski’s catalogue in the context of Canzone delle stelle, dealing with the way the Polish poet understands and changes the original. While translating Marino’s poem into Latin and listing metaphorical “definitions”of stars, he retained freedom of creative interpretation. For this reason, in his catalogue one may find far-reaching textual changes, for example misreading of words, omission of some figures or simplification of meanings.

tłum. i oprac. Wojciech Ryczek 

The paper examines the notion of parrhesia (from Greek ‘to speak everything’) as an exercise in speaking openly and sincerely. Leaving aside Michel Foucault’s treatment of this discursive activity, the main purpose of the article is to describe parrhesia in three domains: rhetoric, philosophy, and literature. As a figure of speech, it remains closely associated with rhetorical simulation and flattery. For many rhetoricians, for instance Quintilian or Jakub Górski, parrhesia may serve as a useful instrument of critical speaking. As a “spiritual exercise” in telling the truth, it plays an important role in transforming philosophy into a general way of life. In accordance with Philodemus’s beliefs on frank speech, one may argue that parrhesia helps in attaining wisdom in a student milieu. And finally, as a discursive strategy, it creates many possibilities for expanding the modes of linguistic expression, for instance in Horace’s ode to Virgil (Carmina I 24) or in Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski’s ode to Publius Munatius (Lyrica III 5). In both texts, parrhesia is involved in the discourse of friendship.

Review:

Gregson Davis, The Interplay of Ideas in Vergilian Bucolic, Leiden-Boston 2012

Review

Kazania pasyjne, wyd. i oprac. J.S. Gruchała i K. Panuś, t. 3: Kazania w kulturze polskiej. Edycje kolekcji tematycznych, Wyd. UNUM, Kraków 2014, s. 590. 

Omówienie:

Humanista sine nomine. (Manfred Welti, Pożegnanie z Giovannim Bernardinem
Bonifaciem, markizem d’Oria (1517–1597), przeł. Anna Marx-Vannini, słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk 2013

The main aim of the paper is to present the major perspectives on some of the most important issues related to contemporary neo-Latin studies. Their status as an autonomous discipline independent from classical philology is still an object of many contemporary disputes and controversies among the philologists and historians of literature, philosophy (ideas) or culture. One promoter of neo-Latin studies in Poland, Maria Cytowska, claimed that these studies are a branch derived from classical philology and aimed at neo-Latin literature flourishing in Europe from the fourteenth century until nowadays. According to this view, strongly related to the estimation and hierarchisation of both disciplines, neo-Latin studies appear to be subordinated to their – metaphorically speaking– ‘older sister’, namely classical philology. The question concerning the perspectives in studies on neo-Latin texts is always involved in a much more complicated question about their disciplinary status and boundaries.

The Renaissance, or the initial period in the history of early modern Europe, also has great significance for the evolution of Latin. Humanists were interested in the rebirth of the stylistic models that they rediscovered in the books of ancient writers, especially Cicero, Vergil, Ovid, Horace, and Livy. As Ann Moss says, it was a Latin “language turn,” a kind of radical reorientation in thinking about Latin. The main object of their observations and interests was language in use, analysed in a wide context (grammatical, rhetorical, and logical) and applied to academic debates, religious polemics, and the art of interpretation. The philological activity of Renaissance humanists (editions, translations, and commentaries of ancient authors) is considered as the inauguration of neo-Latin culture.

Neo-Latin studies, both interdisciplinary and comparative, could be currently a great chance for the revival of classical philology, whose role and significance in the Polish educational system seems to be increasingly marginalised. There are three main fields of studies on neo-Latin literature: monographic researches on neo-Latin authors (e.g. Kochanowski, Szymonowic or Sarbiewski), critical editions of neo-Latin texts, and their translations from Latin into vernacular languages with appropriate commentaries. The studies mentioned above should be practised simultaneously, we believe, to give us a better and more comprehensive understanding of early modern culture in Europe.

This text discusses various possibilities for conducting research concentrated primarily on literary culture in early modern Europe. It brings consideration of issues such as: literary criticism in neo-Latin studies, various aspects of working on critical editions of texts written in Latin, translation studies associated with a variety of methodological approaches (hermeneutics, semiotics, structuralism, deconstruction, cultural studies), and competences – both linguistic and philological – of a perfect neo-Latinist. The paper is treated by its authors as a reference point for further discussions and investigations on neo-Latin culture in early modern Europe and one of its intrinsic parts, namely Poland.

Translated from Polish by Kaja Szymańska

* Publication of this paper was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland under the grant 643/P-DUN/2018. The study was conducted under the Research Grant entitled Politropia: wczesnonowożytne teorie i koncepcje figuratywności (Politropia: Early modern theories and concepts of figuration), financed by the National Science Centre under Decision DEC-2013/11/D/HS2/04529. Polish version: W. Ryczek, “Odrodzenie retorycznego feniksa”, Terminus 19 (2017), issue 2(34), pp. 469–476.

The main aim of the paper is to present the catalogue of epigrams based on tropes and figures, placed in the book Ολβιόπολις, seu civitas beata (Olbiopolis, or a Happy City, Leipzig 1592) by Ulrich Schober (1559–1598), a neo-Latin poet associated with the Gymnasium in Thorun. This tome is a collection of almost five hundred verses written in different metres, rhetorical figures, and styles. Each of them, however, has one thing in common – they are paraphrases of Latin sentence: “Happy is the city that fears war in a time of peace” (felix civitas, quae tempore pacis timet bella), regarded as a variant of well-known Latin adage: “If you want peace, prepare for war” (si vis pacem, para bellum).
The paper consists of three closely related parts. The first section discusses a prefatory letter addressed to Heinrich Stroband, burgomaster of Thorun, in which the author explained the didactic and moralistic purpose of his literary work. The second part brings considerations on epigrams based on tropes and figures as seen from the perspective of rhetorical criticism. And finally, the third part of the study is a transcription of the discussed verses, divided by Schober into four sections: ten tropes and three classes of rhetorical devices: figures related to grammatical order, figures of arousing and expressing of emotions, and figures of amplification or exaggeration.
The ancient sentence concerning the time of war and peace in the life of a human community became the subject of a metrical, conceptual and linguistic paraphrase. Schober’s collection of epigrams might be interesting for an historian of rhetoric for two reasons. Firstly, it provides a remarkable insight into the reception of Melanchthon’s rhetorical theory in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. And secondly, it allows a reconstruction of the teaching of eloquence in the Gymnasium of Thorun by such learning activities as: translation, metaphrase, summary, and imitation. Thus, a student following the example given by his professor was able to create their own catalogues of metrical and stylistic paraphrases.
Schober’s Olbiopolis is a city built with words, figures, and images on the solid foundation of poetics and rhetoric. But his literary work should not be restrictedto a poetical play on words or a rhetorical exercise of language and style. According to the wisdom written in the ancient sentence, peace is only seemingly a time free of war. More attentive readings in epigrams on the ideal city reveal the project of a political Utopia. For the purposes of humanistic pedagogy, Schober turned Olbioplis into the figure of an ideal city.