I have not provided biographical or bibliographical guides for these authors, since such information is easily accessible. The chief sources are:
The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. G.Watson, vol. I, 600–1660 (Cambridge, 1974) (abbreviated as NCBEL)
The Shorter New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, ed. G. Watson (Cambridge, 1981)
Great Writers Student Library, ed. J.Vinson, vol. II, The Renaissance Excluding Drama, ed. E.S.Donno (London, 1983)
Longman Literature in English Series, ed. D.Carroll and M.Wheeler: G. Waller, English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century (London, 1986); G. Parfitt, English Poetry of the Seventeenth Century (2nd edn, London, 1992)
A New History of French Literature, ed. D.Hollier (Cambridge, Mass., 1989)
The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. M.Drabble (5th edn, Oxford, 1985)
The Oxford History of English Literature: vol. III, C.S.Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (Oxford, 1954); vol. V, D.Bush, English Literature in the Earlier Seventeenth Century (2nd edn, Oxford, 1962)
The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, ed. B.Ford, A Guide for Readers (Harmondsworth, 1984)
Reference Guide to English Literature, ed. D.L.Kirkpatrick (3 vols, 2nd edn, Chicago, 1991)
For details of new editions and secondary works, students should consult the following annual bibliographies:
The Year‘s Work in English Studies (The English Association)
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Modern Humanities Research Association)
and the lists and annual review published in the following journal:
Studies in English Literature 1500–1900
The following are the most useful series containing editions of English Renaissance authors (where a series is now out of print it is marked o.p.):
Doubleday Anchor Seventeenth-Century Series o.p.
Everyman’s Library (London)
Longman’s Annotated English Poets (London)
Muses” Library o.p.
Norton Critical Editions (New York and London)
Penguin Classics (incorporating editions formerly designated as Penguin
English Library and Penguin English Poets) (Harmondsworth)
Oxford Authors (Oxford)
Oxford English Texts (Oxford)
Oxford Standard Authors o.p.
The World’s Classics (Oxford)
Only the more important authors relevant to this book are included (hence the exclusion of e.g. the Greek tragedians). These brief guides, which are not intended to be complete, provide the following information: some biographical notes; a list of the author’s chief works; any important Renaissance English translations, and modern editions of these; the most useful modern translations (where these exist, I have indicated Loeb and Penguin Classics editions); suggestions for further reading, biographical and critical (with easier works asterisked).
The chief reference works are:
Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome, ed. T.J.Luce (2 vols, New York, 1982) R.R.Bolgar, The Classical Heritage and its Beneficiaries (Cambridge, 1958)
NCBEL (see above)
The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: vol. I, Greek Literature, ed. P.E.Easterling and B.M.W.Knox (Cambridge, 1985); vol. II, Latin Literature, ed. E.J.Kenney and W.V.Clausen (Cambridge, 1982)
The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, ed. A.H.Armstrong (Cambridge, 1967)
The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, ed. N.Kretzmann et al (Cambridge, 1982)
The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. C.B.Schmitt et al. (Cambridge, 1988)
A.J.Krailsheimer, ed., The Continental Renaissance 1500–1600 (Harmondsworth, 1971)
H.B.Lathrop, Translations from the Classics into English from Caxton to Chapman (Madison, 1933)
The Macmillan Dictionary of Italian Literature, ed. P. and J.C.Bondanella (London, 1979)
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. N.G.L.Hammond and H.H.Scullard (2nd edn, London, 1970)
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F.L.Cross and E.A. Livingstone (2nd edn, London, 1974)
The Oxford History of the Classical World, ed. J.Boardman et al. (Oxford, 1986) R.Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship from 1300 to 1850 (Oxford, 1976)
L.D.Reynolds and N.G.Wilson, Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature (3rd edn, Oxford, 1991)
E.H.Wilkins, rev. T.G.Bergin, A History of Italian Literature (2nd edn, Cambridge, Mass., 1974)
In addition, two series of short monographs are very useful:
Greece and Rome: New Surveys in the Classics (Oxford)
Past Masters (Oxford)
ALCIATI, ANDREA 1492–1550. Emblemata (1531, many edns), Latin emblem book. G.Whitney, A Choice of Emblems (1586), contains several trans. from Alciati.
H.Green, Andrea Alciati and his Books of Emblems (London, 1872), bibliography; J.Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods (New York, 1961, first pub. in French 1940); R.Freeman, English Emblem Books (London, 1948); M. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery (2nd edn, Rome, 1964; first pub. 1939).
ANAXAGORAS c. 500—c. 428 BC. Greek philosopher and cosmologist, charged at Athens with impiety. Said to have taught that the heavenly bodies are red-hot stones torn from earth. Fragments in G.S.Kirk and J.E.Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers (rev. edn, Cambridge, 1962).
J.L.E.Dreyer, A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (rev. edn, New York, 1953); S.Sambursky, The Physical World of the Greeks* (London, 1956).
APULEIUS 2C AD. Roman novelist. Known in the Middle Ages for work on Plato and adaptation of the magical work Asclepius from the body of Hermetic writing—and for the attack on them by Augustine in the City of God. From the 14C, his novel Metamorphoses was widely read; trans. into English by W. Adlington as The Golden Asse (1566, modern edn in TT, 1893): this forms the basis of the old Loeb trans., rev. S.Gaselee (1915). Modern trans, in PC, by R. Graves, rev. M.Grant (1990); by J.Lindsay (Bloomington, Ind., 1960); and Loeb—2 versions (2nd by J.A. Hanson (1989) in 2 vols).
T.Hägg, The Novel in Antiqulty (Oxford, 1983); J.Tatum, Apuleius and the Golden Ass (Ithaca, N.Y., 1979); P.G.Walsh, The Roman Novel (Cambridge, 1970).
AQUINAS, ST THOMAS c. 1225–74. Medieval philosopher and theologian; Dominican friar; known as the Angelic Doctor. Italian by birth, taught principally at Paris. Attempted to harmonise Aristotelian philosophy and Christianity. His system, Thomism or scholasticism, attacked by humanists and Protestant reformers, but upheld by the Council of Trent. Chief work Summa Theologiae or Theologica (1265–74); modern trans. by Blackfriars (60 vols, London and New York, 1964–6); selections ed. T.Gilby, Philosophical Texts (London, 1951). Also Summa contra Gentiles (1258–63), modern trans. by A. C.Pégis et al. as On the Truth of the Catholic Faith (London, 1955).
F.C.Copleston, Aquinas (Harmondsworth, 1955); D.Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought* (London, 1962). M.D.Chenu, Toward Understanding Saint Thomas, trans. A.-M.Landry and D.Hughes (Chicago, 1964); PM* by A.Kenny (1980).
ARIOSTO, LUDOVICO 1474–1533. Italian poet, in the service of the court of Ferrara. Romantic epic Orlando Furioso (final version 1532), continuation of Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato (1495). Important influence on structure and meaning of Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Trans. by Sir J.Harington with preface (1591, modern eds by G.Hough, London, 1962, and R.McNulty, Oxford, 1972). Modern trans.: prose by G.Waldman (Oxford, 1974), in WC (1983); verse, in PC by B.Reynolds (2 vols, 1975–7).
C.P.Brand, Ariosto* (Edinburgh, 1974); R.M.Durling, The Figure of the Poet in Renaissance Epic (Cambridge, Mass., 1965); G.Hough, A Preface to ‘The Faerie Queene’* (London, 1962).
ARISTARCHUS 3C BC. Greek astronomer. Originated heliocentric theory, i.e. that earth moves round stationary sun and rotates on its own axis. Knowledge of his theory comes from Archimedes and Plutarch.
J.L.E.Dreyer, A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (rev. edn, New York, 1953).
ARISTOTLE 384–322 BC. Greek philosopher and scientist. Born Stagira, hence sometimes referred to as ‘the Stagirite’. Pupil of Plato at his Academy, tutor of Alexander the Great, founder of research institute called the Lyceum and Peripatetic school of philosophy. Worked in many fields; biology, physics, cosmology, logic, metaphysics, politics, ethics, literary theory. Logical and scientific works basis of medieval education; ethical and critical more valued in Renaissance. Poetics virtually rediscovered in 16C, especially influential in Italy. Majority of corpus available in Latin trans. from 13C; largely read in variety of Latin trans. in Renaissance, though Greek text printed. No significant English trans. in Renaissance. Modern trans. in Loeb (23 vols): see especially On the Heavens, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Physics, Poetics, Politics, Rhetoric, On the Soul, On Coming-To-Be and Passing- Away (otherwise On Generation and Corruption). Modern trans, in PC: Ethics (1953); Poetics, in Classical Literary Criticism (1965); Politics (1962). Complete Works in 2 vols, rev. J.Barnes (Oxford, 1984). Nicomachean Ethics in WC (1992).
G.E.R.Lloyd, Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of his Thought* (Cambridge, 1968); J.H.Randall, Jr, Aristotle (New York, 1960). PM* by J. Barnes (1982); C.B.Schmitt, Aristotle and the Renaissance (1983).
ARMINIUS, JACOBUS 1560–1609. Dutch anti-Calvinist theologian. Views summarised after his death in the Remonstrance (1610), condemned at Synod of Dort (1618–19). Some influence on 17C Anglicans and on Milton.
A.W.Harrison, The Beginnings of Arminianism to the Synod of Dort (London, 1926); Arminianism* (London 1937). C.Bangs, Arminius: A Study in the Dutch Reformation (Nashville, 1971); N.Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists: The Rise of English Arminianism c. 1590–1640 (Oxford, 1987).
AUGUSTINE, ST 354–430. Theologian, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, one of the four ‘Doctors of the Church’. Voluminous works, many provoked by controversies with pagans and heretics, notably Pelagians. After Paul, chief formulator of Christian theology. Influence in abeyance 13–14C, but revived 15C and particularly strong in Reformation. Chief works: Confessions (397–401); On The Trinity (399–419); The City of God (413–27). Some important minor works: On Music (387); On the Spirit and the Letter (412); Enchiridion (421–3); On Grace and Free Will (426–7); Christian Instruction (396–426). Several Renaissance English trans.: The City of God, by J.Healey (1610, modern edn in EL, 1945); Confessions, by Sir T.Matthew (1620); by W. Watts (1631, modern edn in Loeb, 2 vols, 1912). Modern trans. in FC, 21 vols; in LCC vols VI, VII, VIII; in Loeb, The City of God, 6 vols (1957–60); in PC, The City of God (1972); Confessions (1961).
R.W.Battenhouse, ed., A Companion to the Study of St Augustine (New York, 1955); P.Brown, Augustine of Hippo (London, 1967); H.Marrou, St Augustine and his Influence through the Ages,* trans. P.Hepburne-Scott (New York, 1957). PM* by H.Chadwick (1986).
AVERROES (Ibn Rushd) 1126–98. Arab philosopher. Commented on Plato’s Republic, and on many works of Aristotle: known in the Middle Ages as ‘the Commentator’, as Aristotle was known as ‘the Philosopher’. Important in the development of philosophy in the West. Modern trans.: Averroes’ Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle’s ‘Topics’, ‘Rhetoric’ and ‘Poetics’, by C.E. Butterworth (Albany, N.Y., 1979); Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, by G.Hourani (London, 1978, first pub. 1961); Averroes on Plato’s ‘Republic’ , by R.Lerner (Ithaca, 1974).
M.Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York, 1970); O.Leaman, Averroes and his Philosophy (Oxford, 1978).
BEMBO, PIETRO 1470–1547. Italian humanist, Neoplatonist poet, admirer of Petrarch, and cardinal. Asolani (1505), dialogue on love. Known in England chiefly through portrait in Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier. Modern trans. of Asolani (Bloomington, 1954).
J.C. Nelson, Renaissance Theory of Love (New York, 1958); N.A.Robb, Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance (London, 1935).
BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI 1313–75. Italian humanist, author of romance and realistic fiction. Friend of Petrarch, admirer of Dante. Earlier works principally narrative in Italian. Teseida and Filostrato basis of Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Troilus and Criseyde respectively. Chief work Decameron, containing a hundred stories; very influential in England as source of plots; complete English trans. by E.Hutton (1620, modern edn in TT, 4 vols, 1909). Later works scholarly, many in Latin. Life of Dante; Genealogy of the Pagan Gods, mythological handbook with defence of poetry (first printed 1472; widely used until displaced by handbooks of Gyraldus and Comes). Modern trans.: Decameron in PC (1972); Life of Dante (New York, 1901); C.G. Osgood, Boccaccio on Poetry, in LLA (1956), contains Bks XIV-XV of Genealogy.
V.Branca, Boccaccio: The Man and his Works, trans. R.Monges (New York, 1976); J. Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods, trans. B.Sessions (New York, 1961, first pub. in French 1940); H.G.Wright, Boccaccio in England (London, 1957).
BOETHIUS, ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS c. 480–c. 524. Roman statesman, scholar, philosopher. Translated much of Aristotle into Latin. Treatises on music, arithmetic and theology. Chief work: The Consolation of Philosophy, written while Boethius awaiting execution; important source of Neoplatonism for Middle Ages. Several English trans.: by King Alfred, Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth. Some of metres trans. by H.Vaughan. Loeb (1918) contains (modified) version of 1609 by I.T.Modern trans.: The Consolation of Philosophy in new Loeb (1973), in PC (1969); The Principles of Music, by C. M.Bower (George Peabody College Ph.D., 1966; contains ch. I of The Principles of Arithmetic).
H.R.Patch, The Tradition of Boethius (New York, 1935). M.Gibson, ed., Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence (Oxford, 1981).
BRUNO, GIORDANO 1548–1600. Italian philosopher; supporter of Copernicanism, pantheism, theory of infinite universe; burnt for heresy by Inquisition. In England 1583–5; friendship with Sidney and Greville. Philosophical dialogues include On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584); The Heroic Frenzies (1585). Modern trans.: On the Infinite Universe in D.W.Singer, Giordano Bruno: His Life and Thought (New York, 1950); Concerning the Cause, Principle, and One in S.Greenberg, The Infinite in Giordano Bruno (New York, 1950); The Heroic Frenzies, trans. P.Memmo, Jr (Chapel Hill, 1964). The Ash-Wednesday Supper, trans. E.A.Gosselin and L.S.Leraer (Hamden, Conn., 1977); The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast, trans. A.D.Imerti (New Brunswick, N.J., 1963).
J.C.Nelson, Renaissance Theory of Love (New York, 1958). H.Gatti, The Renaissance Drama of Knowledge: Giordano Bruno in England (London, 1989). CALVIN, JEAN 1509–64. French Protestant theologian, spent most of life at Geneva. His doctrine and system of church government model for Scottish, English and New England Presbyterianism. Large corpus of treatises and biblical commentaries, many trans. into English 16C. Chief work: Institutes of the Christian Religion, in Latin and French (1536–60). English trans. by T. Norton (1561, many 16C and 17C edns). Modern trans. in LCC (2 vols) by F. L.Battles, ed. J.T. McNeill.
F.Wendel, Calvin: The Origins and Development of his Religious Thought, trans. P.Mairet (London, 1965, first pub. France, 1950). W.J.Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth-Century Portrait (New York, 1988); R.T.Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649 (Oxford, 1979); A.E.McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (Oxford, 1990); M.Prestwich, ed., International Calvinism 1541–1715 (Oxford, 1985).
CARTARI, VINCENZO 16C (dates uncertain). Italian mythographer. The Images of the Gods (1556), in Italian. Latin trans. by A.du Verdier (1581); abbreviated English trans. by R.Linche as The Fountain of Ancient Fiction (1599).
J.Seznec, The Survival of the Pagan Gods, trans. B.Sessions (New York, 1961, first pub. in French 1940); D.T.Starnes and E.W.Talbert, Classical Myth and Legend in Renaissance Dictionaries (Westport, Conn., 1973, first pub. 1955).
CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE 1478–1529. Italian diplomat in service of court of Urbino. The Book of the Courtier (1528), very influential dialogue on education, manners and Neoplatonic philosophy. English trans. by Sir T.Hoby (1561, modern edn in EL). Modern trans. in PC (1968).
W.A.Rebhorn, Courtly Performances: Masking and Festivity in Castiglione’s ‘Book of the Courtier’ (Detroit, 1978).
CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS 106–43 BC. Roman orator, statesman, moralist. Principal transmitter of Greek philosophy to Romans. Republican, opponent of Caesar, put to death by Mark Antony. Writings include orations, philosophical works, rhetorical treatises, letters. Chief philosophical works: The Republic (fragments, including The Dream of Scipio, 54–51); Views of Good and Evil (45); Tusculan Disputations, The Nature of the Gods, Of Old Age, Of Friendship, Of Duties (all in 44). Chief rhetorical works: On the Orator (55); The Orator: to Brutus (46); texts of these recovered early 15C. Enormously popular and influential in Renaissance; many trans. into English. Modern trans. in Loeb (28 vols); in PC The Nature of the Gods (1972); On the Good Life (1971), extracts from several works. Also in PC: Selected Letters (1982); Murder Trials (rev. edn, 1990). On Duties, trans. with commentary by E.M. Atkins and M.T.Griffin (Cambridge, 1991).
T.A.Dorey, ed., Cicero (London, 1965); H.A.K.Hunt, The Humanism of Cicero (Melbourne, 1954); E.Rawson, Cicero: A Portrait (London, 1975; rev. edn, Bristol, 1983); C.B.Schmitt, Cicero Scepticus: A Study of the Influence of the Academica in the Renaissance (The Hague, 1972). COMES, NATALIS (otherwise NATALE CONTI) 16C (dates uncertain). Italian mythographer. Ten Books of Mythology (1568, many 16C and 17C edns); handbook with Neoplatonic interpretations. Very influential in England in Latin and French edns. See secondary works for CARTARI.
COPERNICUS, NICOLAUS 1473–1543. Polish astronomer; initiator of Copernican, heliocentric theory of planetary motion; regarded himself not as revolutionary but as returning to early Greek science. On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543), in Latin. English trans. of Bk I, Perfect Description of the Celestial Orbs, by T.Digges (1576, part in M.Boas Hall, ed., Nature and Nature’s Laws, London, 1970). T.S.Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1975, first pub. 1957), contains modern trans. of BkI.
M.Boas (Hall), The Scientific Renaissance* (London, 1962); F.R.Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England (New York, 1968, first pub. 1927), for Digges.
DANTE ALIGHIERI 1265–1321. Italian poet. Chief works: The New Life (c. 1293), on love for Beatrice; Convivio, or Banquet (c. 1307), didactic philosophical work, influenced by Boethius’ Consolation; Divine Comedy in 3 parts, Hell (Inferno), Purgatory, Paradise (c. 1307–21). Boccaccio lectured on works and wrote eulogistic Life of Dante. Reputation declined in Italy later in Renaissance; read and assimilated by Milton, otherwise little read in England. Modern trans.: complete works in prose trans., Temple Classics edn, by J.A.Carlyle, T.Okey and P.H.Wicksteed (London, 1899–1906, many reprints); in PC, Divine Comedy (verse trans.) by D.L.Sayers and B.Reynolds (1949–62). The New Life by B.Reynolds (1969); Divine Comedy (prose trans.) by C.S.Singleton (Princeton 1970–5). In WC, Vita Nuova by M.Musa (1992); Divine Comedy (verse trans.) by C.H.Sisson (Manchester, 1980).
T.G.Bergin, An Approach to Dante* (New York, 1965); F.Fergusson, Dante* (London, 1966); I.Samuel, Dante and Milton (Ithaca, 1966); C.S. Singleton, Dante Studies I (Cambridge, Mass., 1954) and II (1958). The Cambridge Companion to Dante*, ed. R.Jacoff (Cambridge, 1993); PM* by G.Holmes (1980).
DEMOCRITUS see EPICURUS and LUCRETIUS
(PSEUDO) DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE c. 500. Greek Neoplatonic mystical theologian, wrongly identified in Middle Ages and Renaissance with Athenian of IC converted by St Paul. Works: Celestial Hierarchy (on nine orders of angels), Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Divine Names, Mystical Theology. Great influence on medieval mysticism and Florentine Neoplatonism; Latin trans. by Scotus Erigena 9C, by Ficino 15C. Modern trans.: On the Divine Names and Mystical Theology by C.E.Rolt (London, 1920). The Complete Works by C. Luibheid (London, 1987); The Mystical Theology by J.D.Jones (Wisconsin, 1980).
C.S.Lewis, The Discarded Image* (Cambridge, 1964); D.Rutledge, Cosmic Theology (London, 1964). DU BARTAS, GUILLAUME DE SALLUSTE 1544–90. French Huguenot (Protestant) poet. Two-part epic on creation (1578 and 1584), trans. by J.Sylvester as Du Bartas His Divine Weeks and Works (1605 and 1608, many 17C edns). Modern facsimile edn (Gainesville, 1965). Modern edn of Sylvester by S.Snyder (Oxford, 1979).
G.C.Taylor, Milton’s Use of Du Bartas (Cambridge, Mass., 1934).
EMPEDOCLES 5C BC. Greek philosopher. Only fragments of two long poems survive. Originator of theory of four elements and conflict of Love and Strife.
G.S.Kirk and J.E.Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers (rev. edn, Cambridge, 1962).
EPICTETUS c. 55–c. 135. Stoic philosopher, one-time slave, taught at Rome. Discourses and Manual of selections (in Greek) collected posthumously by historian Arrian. English trans. of Manual by J.Healey (1610). Modern trans. in Loeb (2 vols. 1925–8). Selected trans. in A.A.Long and D.N.Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1987).
F.H.Sandbach, The Stoics* (London, 1975; 2nd edn, Bristol, 1989).
EPICURUS 341–270 BC. Greek philosopher; his school known as ‘the Garden’. Almost all his works are lost; some letters and sayings survive. Taught that philosophy is means to happy life, free from pain and disturbance, whether intellectual, political or emotional. Scientific ideas, totally opposed to those of Aristotle, derived from Democritus and Leucippus: man is mortal, the universe is infinite, there is no divine providence, atoms form the basis of matter. Important influence on Lucretius. Growth of interest in all aspects of Epicureanism 17C. The popular interpretation of Epicureanism as hedonism is false. Modern trans. of surviving works in G.K.Strodach, The Philosophy of Epicurus (Evanston, 1963). Also in A.A.Long and D.N.Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1987).
J.M.Rist, Epicurus: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1972). H.Jones, The Epicurean Tradition (London, 1989).
ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS c. 1466–1536. Dutch humanist, one-time monk; travelled widely in Europe, chief link between Italian and northern humanism; three visits to England, friend of Colet and More; voluminous letter-writer. Favoured reform in Church, but opposed Lutheran Reformation. Numerous works (all in Latin) include Adagia or proverbs (1500, many enlarged edns); Enchiridion or Handbook of the Militant Christian (1503), source of ‘philosophy of Christ’; The Praise of Folly (1509), satire on Church, dedicated to More; Colloquies (1516, many edns); The Education of a Christian Prince (1516); ed. and trans. of New Testament (1516); edns of Church Fathers and Seneca. Very widely read and trans. in England; The Praise of Folly by T.Chaloner (1549, modern edn, London, 1965). Modern trans.: Adages, selection by M.M.Phillips (Cambridge, 1964); Colloquies, by C.R.Thompson (Chicago, 1965), selections in LLA (1957); Enchiridion, by R.Himelick (Bloomington, 1963); The Praise of Folly, by B.Radice in PC (1971); several works in The Essential Erasmus, by
J.P.Dolan (New York, 1964); also in Christian Humanism and the Reformation, by J.C.Olin (3rd edn, New York, 1987); The Erasmus Reader, ed. E. Rummel (Toronto, 1990). Multi-volume trans. in progress, The Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto, 1974–).
M.M.Phillips, Erasmus and the Northern Renaissance* (London, 1949; rev. edn, Woodbridge, 1981). T.A.Dorey, ed., Erasmus (London, 1970); W.H. Woodward, Erasmus Concerning the Aim and Method of Education (New York, 1964, first pub. 1904).L.-E.Halkin, Erasmus: A Critical Biography, trans. J. Tonkin (Oxford, 1993); PM* by J.McConica (1991); B.Mansfield, Phoenix of his Age: Interpretations of Erasmus c. 1550–1750 (Toronto, 1979).
EUSEBIUS c. 260–340. Church historian. Chief work: Ecclesiastical History, culminating with Emperor Constantine. Modern trans. in Loeb (2 vols, 1926–32); in PC (1965).
R.Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (Harmondsworth, 1988, first pub. 1986).
FICINO, MARSILIO 1433–99. Italian humanist and Neoplatonic philosopher. Trans. whole Platonic corpus into Latin (1484), also Plotinus. Chief works: Platonic Theology (1482); Commentary on Plato’s Symposium (1484, both Latin and Italian), very influential in Italy. Not much direct influence in England; English Neoplatonism derived from Pico, Bembo and Castiglione. Modern trans. of Commentary on Symposium, by S.R.Jayne (Columbia, Mo., 1955; 2nd edn, Dallas, 1985); trans. of two other commentaries by M.J.B. Allen, Marsilio Ficino: The Philebus Commentary (rev. edn, Berkeley, 1979); Marsilio Ficino and the Phaedran Charioteer (Berkeley, 1981).
P.O.Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance * (London, 1965); The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino, trans. V.Conant (New York, 1943); S.R.Jayne, ‘Ficino and the Platonism of the English Renaissance’, Comparative Literature, IV (1952), 214–38. M.J.B.Allen, The Platonism of Marsilio Ficino (Berkeley, 1984); J.Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance (Leiden, 1990), vol.I,Pt 4.
GALEN 2C BC. Doctor, philosopher, rhetorician. Works of practical medicine very influential in the Middle Ages; theoretical and philosophical works recovered in 16C. Views on circulation attacked by Vesalius and Servetus in 16C, and finally disproved by William Harvey in 17C. Methodus Medendi trans. by T.Gale (1586). Modern trans. in Loeb, On the Natural Faculties (2 vols, 1916); Three Treatises on the Nature of Science, trans. R.Walzer and M.Frede (Indianapolis, 1985).
V.Nutton, ed. Galen: Problems and Prospects (London, 1981); O.Temkin, Galenism (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973).
GALILEO GALILEI 1564–1642. Italian astronomer, defender of Copernican system, used telescope to observe new phenomena in heavens; ideas condemned by Inquisition (1633), placed under house arrest; visited by Milton (1638). Wrote in Italian as well as Latin to reach non-learned public. Chief works: The Starry Messenger (1610); Letters on Sunspots (1613); Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632). Modern trans.: Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, by S.Drake (New York, 1957); Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, by S.Drake (Berkeley, 1962, first pub. 1953).
A Koestler, The Sleepwalkers* (London, 1959); G.de Santillana, The Crime of Galileo (Chicago, 1955). PM* by S. Drake (1980).
GELLIUS, AULUS c. AD 130–c. 180. Roman author, studied at Athens. Attic Nights, literary and philosophical compendium and commonplace book. Modern trans. in Loeb (3 vols, 1927).
L.Holford-Strevens, Aulus Gellius (London, 1988).
GYRALDUS, LILIUS GREGORIUS (otherwise GIRALDI) 1479–1552. Italian mythographer. On the Pagan Gods (1548), Latin handbook; widely used by humanists and poets. See secondary works for CARTARI.
HERACLITUS 6–5C BC. Greek philosopher. Only fragments survive. Taught that the universe is in constant process of flux; it is a unity through the reconciliation of opposites. Some influence on Florentine Neoplatonism. Modern trans. in Loeb (1931). Trans. and commentary by C.H.Kahn, The Art and Thought of Heraclitus (Cambridge, 1979).
G.S.Kirk and J.E.Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers (rev. edn, Cambridge, 1962); E.Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (London, 1958).
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS Mythical theologian and philosopher. Believed in the Renaissance to be author of a body of supposedly ancient philosophical and magical dialogues: these aimed to teach man to become divine through knowledge, and seemed to indicate the fundamental unity of Platonism and Christianity. They were trans. into Latin by Ficino in the 1460s, and became widely known. In 1614, the scholar Isaac Casaubon proved that they were not older but later than Plato and Christ, but it took some time for the reputation of Hermes to die entirely. English trans. by J.Everard (1650). Modern trans. by B.P.Copenhaver (Cambridge, 1992) (the older trans. by Scott is not very reliable).
W.Shumaker, The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (Berkeley, 1972), ch. V; D.P.Walker, The Ancient Theology (London, 1972); R.S.Westman and J. E.McGuire, Hermeticism and the Scientific Revolution (Los Angeles, 1977); F. A.Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age (London, 1979).
HERODOTUS 5C BC. Greek historian of war of Greece with Persia. English trans. of first 2 bks of Histories by B.R. (1584, modern edn in TT, 1924). Modern trans.: Loeb (4 vols, 1920–4); PC (1954); by D.Grene (Chicago, 1987); Norton (1992).
J.Gould, Herodotus (London, 1989); D.Lateiner, The Historical Method of Herodotus (Toronto, 1989).
HESIOD 8–7C BC. One of the earliest Greek poets. Chief works: Theogony (genealogy of gods); Works and Days (didactic poem, dealing with cosmology, practical ethics, farming; influenced Virgil). English trans. of Works and Days by G.Chapman as Georgics (1618). Modern trans.: Loeb (1914); PC (1973); WC (1988).
R.Lamberton, Hesiod (New Haven, 1988); O.Murray, Early Greece (2nd edn, London, 1993).
HIPPOCRATES 5C BC. Greek physician. The collection of surviving Hippocratic writings is probably not by him. Modern trans. in Loeb (4 vols, 1931).
HOMER Dates unknown; before 700 BC. Greek oral epic poet (or poets, as some scholars maintain), traditionally believed to be blind. Iliad, on Trojan war, anger of Achilles and death of Hector; Odyssey, on wanderings of Odysseus and his return to Ithaca. Important influence on Virgil. Known only in Latin trans. in Middle Ages; Greek text published 15C. English trans. by G.Chapman: Iliad (1598–1612), Odyssey (1614–15); modern edn by A.Nicoll (2 vols, New York, 1956). Many modern trans.: prose by E.V.Rieu in PC (1946 and 1950); verse by R.Lattimore, Iliad (Chicago, 1961), Odyssey (New York, 1967), Two more versions of Iliad in PC, prose by M.Hammond (1987), verse by R.Fagles (1991); WC Iliad verse by R.Fitzgerald (1984); Odvssey by W.Shewring (1980); PC Odysseyrev. D.C.H.Rieu (1991).
C.M.Bowra, Homer* (London, 1972); G.S.Kirk, The Songs of Homer (Cambridge, 1962); E.M.W.Tillyard, The English Epic and its Background (London, 1954). PM* by J.Griffin (1980); J.Griffin, Homer on Life and Death (Oxford, 1980).
HORACE (QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS) 65–8 BC. Roman poet, satirist, critical theorist, celebrator of Augustus. Patron Maecenas gave him Sabine farm. Works: Epodes, Satires, Odes, Epistles (including The Art of Poetry). Very widely read, translated and imitated in England, especially in 17C; see e.g. epistles of Daniel and Jonson. Art of Poetry trans. by Jonson (1640). Modern trans.: Loeb (2 vols, 1914 and 1926); PC Odes (1967); Satires (1973).
S.Commager, The Odes of Horace (New Haven, 1962); L.P.Wilkinson, Horace and his Lyric Poetry (2nd edn, Cambridge, 1951); M.-S.Røstvig. The Happy Man vol. I (rev. edn, Oslo, 1962), for Horatian influence on 17C retirement poetry. H.Erskine-Hill, The Augustan Idea in English Literature (London, 1983); R.O.A.M.Lyne, The Latin Love Poets (Oxford, 1980).
IGNATIUS LOYOLA, ST c. 1491–1556. Spanish founder of Society of Jesus or Jesuits, based in Rome; concerned with education of priests, spiritual life, missionary work, combatting Protestantism. Spiritual Exercises (1548) teaches method of self- discipline and meditation. English trans. (1618). Several modern trans. e.g. by W.H.Longridge (rev. edn, London, 1930).
H.O.Evennett, The Spirit of the Counter-Reformation (Cambridge, 1968); L.Martz, The Poetry of Meditation (rev. edn, New Haven, 1962).
ISIDORE (ISIDORUS) d. 636. Bishop of Seville. Important transmitter of classical learning to Middle Ages. Chief work: Etymologies, influential encyclopedia.
E.Brehaut, An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville (New York, 1964,firstpub. 1912).
ISOCRATES 436–338 BC. Greek orator and teacher of rhetoric. Orations written to be read, not recited. Influential in development of Hellenistic education, and in 16C humanism. Various English trans.: To Nicocles (c. 372) by Sir T.Elyot as The Doctrinal of Princes (1534). Form of Milton’s Areopagitica (1644), as written oration, follows Areopagiticus (c. 354). Modern trans. in Loeb (3 vols, 1954); in PC Greek Political Oratory (1970).
H.I.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, trans. G.Lamb (New York, 1964, first English edn 1956).
JEROME, ST (EUSEBIUS HIERONYMUS) c. 342–420. Roman biblical and classical scholar and controversialist; spent much of life in Near East. One of the four ‘Doctors of the Church’. Struggled to reconcile love of classics with Christianity. Revised existing Latin versions of Scriptures in light of Hebrew and Greek originals; this translation, the Vulgate, became standard in Church until Reformation and was made official by Catholic Church at Council of Trent. Voluminous letter-writer; Augustine among his correspondents. Collected works ed. by Erasmus (1516). Modern trans. of Select Letters in Loeb (1933).
E.H.Harbison, The Christian Scholar in the Age of the Reformation (New York, 1956); J.N.D.Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (London, 1975). E.F.Rice, Jr, Saint Jerome in the Renaissance (Baltimore, 1985).
JUVENAL (DECIUS JUNIUS JUVENALIS) AD 55–130. Roman satirist. Nothing known for certain about his life. His work, fiercer than that of Horace, was influential in the Renaissance; see e.g. satires of Donne and Marston. First complete English trans. pub. by Sir. R.Stapylton (1647); contemporary trans. by B. Holyday pub. posthumously (1673). Individual satires pub. earlier, e.g. Satire X by H.Vaughan (1646). Modern trans. in Loeb (1918); PC (rev. edn, 1974); WC (1992); EL (1992).
M.Coffey, Roman Satire (2nd edn, Bristol, 1989, first pub. 1976); R. Jenkyns, Three Classical Poets (London, 1982), ch. 3.
KEPLER, JOHANNES 1571–1630. German astronomer, Neoplatonist mathematician, developer of Copernican system, assistant to Tycho Brahe. Chief works: Cosmographic Mystery (1596); Harmony of the World (1619). Trans. of New Astronomy (1609) by W.H.Donahue (Cambridge, 1992); of Defence of Tycho in N.Jardine, The Birth of History and the Philosophy of Science (Cambridge, 1984).
M. Boas, The Scientific Renaissance* (London, 1962); J.L.E.Dreyer, A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (rev. edn, New York, 1953); A. Koestler, The Sleepwalkers* (London, 1959).
LACTANTIUS, Lucius COLIUS FIRMIANUS c. 240—c. 320. Latin Christian apologist, tutor to son of emperor Constantine. His theology optimistic, drawing heavily on classical writers; known in Renaissance as the Christian Cicero. Chief work Divine Institutes; modern trans. in FC, vol. XLIX (1964).
C.N.Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture (Oxford, 1940).
LIPSIUS, JUSTUS 1547–1606. Belgian humanist and Neostoic philosopher; attempted reconciliation of Stoicism and Christianity. Works (in Latin) include On Constancy (1584); Guide to Stoic Philosophy, Physics of the Stoics (1604); edn of Seneca (1605). Two Books of Constancy trans. by Sir J.Stradling (1595, modern edn with introduction by R.Kirk, New Brunswick, 1939).
J.L.Saunders, Justus Lipsius (New York, 1955). G.Oestreich, Neostoicism and the Early Modern State, trans. D.McLintock (Cambridge, 1982), Pt 1.
LIVY (LIVIUS), TITUS c. 59 BC—c. AD 17. Roman historian. History of Rome in 142 books; only 35 survive. MSS scattered in Middle Ages; some put together by Petrarch in 14C, some discovered early 16C. Popular among humanist historians; Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (written c. 1513–18), draws on Livy to illustrate contemporary political problems. English trans. by P. Holland (1600). Modern trans. in Loeb (14 vols, 1919–59); in PC (3 vols, 1960–76).
T.A.Dorey, ed., Livy (London, 1971); M.L.W.Laistner, The Greater Roman Historians (Berkeley, 1947). P.G.Walsh, Livy in GR (1974); Livy: His Historical Aims and Methods (2nd edn, Bristol, 1989).
LUCAN (MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCANUS) AD 39–65. Roman Poet. Nephew of Seneca. Former friend to Nero, who forbade him to pub. his work. Joined unsuccessful conspiracy against Nero, committed suicide. Only extant work epic of Civil War (sometimes called Pharsalia). Bk I trans. by Marlowe (pub. 1600); complete trans. by Sir A.Gorges (1614), and T.May (1627). Modern trans. in Loeb (1928, rep. 1969); by R.Graves (London, 1961); by S.H.Braund (Oxford, 1992).
F.M.Ahl, Lucan: An Introduction (Ithaca, 1976); M.P.O.Morford, The Poet Lucan (Oxford, 1967).
LUCIAN 2C AD. Greek satirist. A favourite author of More and Erasmus, who imitated and translated him into Latin; but shunned by some Renaissance writers for his anti-Christian satire. J.Rastell, More’s brother-in-law, trans. Menippus (c. 1530); Select Dialogues trans. by F.Hickes (1634). Modern trans. in Loeb (8 vols, 1913–67); PC (1961).
J. Hall, Lucian’s Satire (New York, 1981); C.Robinson, Lucian and his Influence in Europe (London, 1979).
LUCRETIUS (TITUS LUCRETIUS CARUS) c. 94–55 BC. Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher. On the Nature of the Universe expounds for Roman audience theories of Greek materialist philosophers (see EPICURUS). Not read in Middle Ages, text recovered early 15C. Influence on Bruno. English trans. by L. Hutchinson (1640s, unpub., ms in British Library); Bk I by J.Evelyn (1656); complete by T.Creech (1682). Modern trans.: prose in Leob (1924); in PC (1951); verse by C.H.Sisson (Manchester, 1976).
D.P. and P.G.Fowler, A Companion to Lucretius (Oxford, 1993); E.J. Kenney, Lucretius in GR (1977).
LUTHER, MARTIN 1483–1546. Protestant reformer and theologian. Formulated ideas c. 1515–20; condemned at Diet of Worms (1521). Enormous and varied body of work in Latin and German: biblical commentaries, controversial and didactic works, catechisms, hymns. Three important manifestoes (1520): To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation’, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church; The Freedom of A Christian. Trans. Bible into German (1522 and 1534). Many English trans.: W.Tyndale, Prologue to Romans (1526, modern edn Cambridge, 1848). Modern trans.: Selected Writings, ed. T.G.Tappert (4 vols, Philadelphia, 1967); Luther’s Works, ed. J.Pelican and H.T.Lehmann (55 vols, Saint Louis and Philadelphia, 1958–67); Luther and Erasmus, Free Will and Salvation, ed. E.G.Rupp and B.Drewery (London, 1696). Extracts in A Compend of Luther’s Theology, ed. H.T.Kerr (Philadelphia, 1943), and in E.G.Rupp and B. Drewery, Martin Luther* (London, 1970).
R.H.Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther* (New York, 1950); P. S.Watson, Let God be God! (London, 1947). A.E.McGrath, Luther’s Theology of the Cross (Oxford, 1985); D.C. Steinmetz, Luther in Context (Bloomington, Ind., 1986).
MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO 1469–1527. Italian political theorist; Florentine historian and civil servant. Chief works: The Prince (1532, written 1514); Discourses (1531, written 1513–18). Popularly misinterpreted in England 16C; more sympathetic approach 17C. English trans. by E.Dacres, Discourses (1636). The Prince (1640, modern edn in TT, 1905). Modern trans. in PC: The Prince (1961); Discourses (1970); in EL The Prince (1981); in WC The Prince (1984).
F.Raab, The English Face of Machiavelli (London, 1964). J.G.A.Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton, 1975); PM* by Q.Skinner (1981); Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (1978), vol. I, Pt 2.
MACROBIUS 4–5C AD. Roman Neoplatonist; nothing known of his life. Commentary on the Dream of Scipio preserved this part of Cicero’s Republic; popular source of Neoplatonism for Middle Ages. Saturnalia includes important criticism of Virgil. Modern trans.: Commentary on the Dream of Scipio by W.H. Stahl (New York, 1952); Saturnalia by P.V.Davies (New York, 1969).
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS AD 121–80. Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. Meditations, in Greek. English trans. by M.Casaubon (1634, modern edn London, 1900). The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius, by Lord Berners (from French version of Guevara’s Spanish fiction, 1534, many 16C edns), is not a translation. Modern trans. in Loeb (1916); in PC (1964); in WC (1989).
F.H.Sandbach, The Stoics* (London, 1975, 2nd edn, Bristol, 1989); R.B. Rutherford, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (Oxford, 1989).
MARTIANUS CAPELLA 5C AD. Roman author of The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, allegorical encyclopedia much used in medieval education. Modern trans.: W.H.Stahl and R. Johnson, Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts (2 vols, New York, 1971–7).
MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE 1533–92. French essayist. Early interest in Stoicism, later in scepticism. Essays rev. and enlarged between edns (1580, 1588, 1595). English trans. by J.Florio (1603, several modern edns, 2 vols, London, 1931). Modern trans. by D.M.Frame (Stanford, 1958); in PC by M.A.Screech (1991).
D.M.Frame, Montaigne’s Discovery of Man (New York, 1955). PM* by P Burke (1981); R.A.Sayce, The Essays of Montaigne (Oxford, 1972); M.A. Screech, Montaigne and Melancholy (London, 1983).
NICHOLAS OFCUSA (OR CUSANUS) c. 1400–64. German Neoplatonic philosopher, cardinal. Chief work On Learned Ignorance (1440); truth unknowable except by intuition. Rejected Aristotelian cosmos; influenced Bruno. Modern trans. by G.Heron (London, 1954); J.P.Dolan, ed., Unity and Reform: Selected Writings of Nicholas de Cusa (Notre Dame, Ind., 1962).
E.Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, trans. M.Domandi (Oxford, 1963); A.Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (Baltimore, 1957). P.M.Watts, Nicolaus Cusanus: A FifteenthCentury Vision of Man (Leiden, 1982).
ORIGEN(ES), ADAMANTIUS c. 185–c. 254. Alexandrian Greek biblical commentator and theologian; student of Clement of Alexandria. Some works survive only in fragments or Latin trans. Developed tradition of biblical allegory initiated by Philo. Modern trans. of Commentary on The Song of Songs by R.P.Lawson (Westminster, Md, 1957). Contra Celsum (Against Celsus), trans. H.Chadwick (Cambridge, 1980, first pub. 1953); selections in Ante-Nicene Christian Library, ed. F.Crombie (Edinburgh, 1869–72), vols X, XXIII.
J.Daniélou, Origen (New York, 1955, first pub. France, 1948); R.P.C. Hanson, Allegory and Event (London, 1959); J.W.Trigg, Origen (London, 1985).
OVID (PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO) 43 BC—AD 17. Roman poet. Chief works: Amores (love poems); Heroides (letters of famous lovers); Metamorphoses (collection of mythological stories, linked by idea of continuity in change and order in variety). Very widely read, trans. and imitated in Renaissance. English trans. of Metamorphoses by A.Golding (1567, many edns, modern edn New York, 1965); by G.Sandys (1626, 1632 with allegorical annotation, modern edn Lincoln, Neb., 1970). Much Ovidian narrative poetry in 1590s by Marlowe, Chapman, Shakespeare, Drayton, etc: see E.S.Donno, ed., Elizabethan Minor Epics (London, 1963); N.Alexander, ed., Elizabethan Narrative Verse (London, 1967). Modern trans.: complete poems in Loeb (6 vols); Metamorphoses in PC (1955); in WC The Love Poems (1990), Metamorphoses (1987); in PC Erotic Poems (1982); Heroides, trans. D.Hine (New Haven, 1991); Tristia, trans. A.D.Melville (Oxford, 1992).
F.S.Boas, Ovid and the Elizabethans (London, 1947); D.P.Harding, Milton and the Renaissance Ovid (Urbana, 1946); B.Otis, Ovid as an Epic Poet (2nd edn, Cambridge, 1970); L.P.Wilkinson, Ovid Recalled (Cambridge, 1955). L. Barkan, The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism (New Haven, 1986); G.Braden, The Classics and English Renaissance Poetry (New Haven, 1978), ch. I, ‘Golding’s Ovid’; C.Martindale, ed., Ovid Renewed (Cambridge, 1988); C. and M.Martindale, Shakespeare and the Uses of Antiquity (London, 1990); L.Martz, Poet of Exile: A Study of Milton’s Poetry (New Haven, 1980), Pt 3; J.B.Solodow, The World of Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ (Chapel Hill, 1988). PARACELSUS (THEOPHRAST BOMBAST VON HOHENHEIM) 1493–1541. Swiss physician and alchemist. Rejected theories of Aristotle and Galen, and stressed importance of observation and chemical investigation; his medicine was also mystical, and he believed the Creation to be a work of divine alchemy. Modern trans.: selections in N.Goodrick-Clarke, ed, Paracelsus (Wellingborough, 1990).
A.G.Debus, The English Paracelsians (London, 1965); W.Pagel, Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (2nd edn rev., Basle, 1982); C.Webster, From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science (Cambridge, 1982).
PELAGIUS 4–5C AD. British monk, opponent of Jerome and Augustine, excommunicated by Church for heresy (417). Very few works survive. Theological system known as Pelagianism stresses man’s reason, free will and ability to act independently of God’s grace, and rejects original sin. Pelagius attacked Augustine’s Confessions X xl for undermining moral responsibility; several of Augustine’s later works are attacks on Pelagianism.
R.F.Evans, Pelagius (London, 1968); J.Ferguson, Pelagius (Cambridge, 1956, rep. N.Y., 1978); B.R.Rees, Pelagius: A Reluctant Heretic (Woodbridge, 1988).
PETRARCH (PETRARCA), FRANCESCO 1304–74. Italian poet and humanist. Lived part of life in France, near Avignon. Largely responsible for stimulating humanist interest in classical antiquity, and search for classical MSS, though himself unable to read Greek. Excellent private library; favourite authors included Cicero, Seneca, Livy, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Augustine and Boethius. Crowned as Laureate at Rome (1341) for Latin poem Africa on Scipio Africanus; sometimes regarded as symboiic beginning of Renaissance. Chief works: in Italian, Canzoniere (love poems to Laura); Triumphs (allegorical processions; very popular in Renaissance); in Latin (valued more highly by Petrarch), Secret (dialogues with Augustine); On the Remedies of Good and Bad Fortune; On His Own Ignorance and That of Many Others. Canzoniere much imitated by sonneteers in 1590s e.g. Sidney, Daniel, Drayton, Spenser. A. Mortimer, ed., Petrarch’s Canzoniere in the English Renaissance (Bergamo, 1975), anthology of trans. Triumphs trans. Lord Morley (1555?, modern edn Cambridge, Mass., 1971). Modern trans.: Petrarch’s Secret, by W.H.Draper (London, 1911); selections in Petrarch: A Humanist among Princes, ed. D. Thomas (New York, 1971); short prose pieces in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, ed. E.Cassirer et al. (Chicago, 1948). Africa, trans. T.G.Bergin and A.S.Wilson (New Haven, 1977); Bucolicum Carmen, trans. T.G.Bergin (New Haven, 1974); Lyric Poems trans. R.M.Durling (Cambridge, Mass., 1976); in WC Selections from the Canzoniere (1985).
T.G.Bergin, Petrarch* (New York, 1970); P.O.Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance* (London, 1965); G.Watson, The English Petrarchans (London, 1967, critical bibliography). K.Foster, Petrarch, Poet and Humanist (Edinburgh, 1984); P.Hainsworth, Petrarch the Poet (London, 1988); PM* by N.Mann (1984); S.Minta, ed., Petrarch and Petrachism: The English and French Traditions* (Manchester, 1980).
PHILO JUDAEUS c. 20 BC—c. AD 50. Alexandrian Jewish biblical commentator. Read Old Testament in light of Greek especially Platonic philosophy. Developed allegorical interpretation; strongly influenced Origen and later Christian biblical exegetes. Works (in Greek) include Life of Moses, On the Creation of the World. Modern trans. in Loeb (10 vols, 1929–53); selections in The Essential Philo, ed N.Glatzer (New York, 1971). The Contemplative Life, The Giants, and Selections, trans. D.Winston (New York, 1981).
E.R.Goodenough, An Introduction to Philo Judaeus (2nd edn, Oxford, 1962). J.Dillon, The Middle Platonists (London, 1977); S.Sandmel, Philo of Alexandria: An Introduction (New York, 1979).
PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, GIOVANNI 1463–94. Italian humanist, friend of Ficino. Attempted to create syncretic philosophy by fusing Jewish Cabala with Christian theology and Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. Chief works (in Latin): On the Dignity of Man, On Being and the One, Heptaplus. Life of Pico by his nephew trans. by Sir T.More (c. 1510). Passages from Dignity of Man in H.Reynolds, Mythomystes (1632, modern edn in J.E.Spingarn, ed., Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1908). Commentary (in Italian) on Benivieni’s Canzone on Divine Love trans. by T.Stanley as A Platonic Discourse upon Love (1651, modern edn Boston, 1914); included by Stanley in The History of Philosophy (3 vols. 1655–62), under ‘Plato’. Modern trans. of On the Dignity of Man, On Being and the One, Heptaplus in LLA (1965). Commentary on a Canzone of Benivieni, trans. S.R.Jayne (New York, 1984).
J.L.Blau, The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance (New York, 1944); P.O.Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance* (London, 1965). D.P.Walker, The Ancient Theology (London, 1972).
PLATO c. 429–347 BC. Greek philosopher, disciple of Socrates (executed by Athenians for impiety), founder of Academy (philosophic school). Derived some ideas from Pythagoreans. Approx. 26 works, mostly in dialogue form with Socrates as chief speaker; early works based on Socrates’ teachings, later with Socrates as mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas. Apology (Socrates’ speech at his trial); Symposium (or drinking-party; on theory of love); Phaedo (on the immortality of the soul, and the death of Socrates); Republic (on justice, the ideal state, the education of the ruling class); Phaedrus (on rhetoric and the love of truth); Timaeus (on cosmology). Complete corpus available in 16C in Latin trans. (by Ficino 1484; by Serranus 1578) and in Greek (1513). No dialogues trans. into English till 1675. Platonic political theory influenced humanists; dialogue form rarely imitated (e.g. More’s Utopia). Modern trans.: complete in Loeb (9 vols); several in PC, including Apology and Phaedo in The Last Days of Socrates (1954); Symposium (1951); Timaeus (1965). For Republic see trans. by F.M. Cornford (Oxford, 1941); in EL by A.D.Lindsay (rep. 1992); by R.Waterfield (Oxford, 1993).
J.E.Raven, Plato’s Thought in the Making (Cambridge, 1965); A.E.Taylor, Plato: The Man and his Work (5th edn, London, 1948). PM* by R.M.Hare (1982); R.Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge, 1992).
PLINY THE ELDER (GAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS) AD 23/4–79. Roman historian and encyclopedist. Ended successful military and administrative career by incautious investigation of the eruption of Vesuvius. Only surviving work the enormous Natural History (37 books), compendium of ancient science. Distinguished from his nephew Pliny the Younger (famous for his letters) only in 14C, when commentaries on Natural History began to be produced. Remained standard work of reference, rivalling Aristotle in some universities, until well into 17C. English trans. by I.A. (1566) and P.Holland (1601). Modern trans. in Loeb, 10 vols (rev. edn 1949); selections in PC (1991).
M.Beagon, Roman nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder (Oxford, 1992).
PLOTINUS 205–70. Neoplatonic philosopher. Studied at Alexandria, taught at Rome. Works (in Greek) collected posthumously as Enneads (‘groups of nine’) by Porphyry. Influence largely indirect, through Augustine and Dionysius. Trans. into Latin by Ficino (1492); Greek not printed till 1580. Modern trans. by S.Mackenna, rev. B.S. Page (London, 1969, first pub. 1917–30); selections by A.H.Armstrong (London, 1953); complete in Loeb (7 vols, 1966–88); Mackenna trans. in PC (1991).
A.H.Armstrong, An Introduction to Ancient Philosophy (London, 1947). J. M.Rist, Plotinus (London, 1980, first pub. 1967); R.T.Wallis, Neoplatonism (London, 1972).
PLUTARCH(US), MESTRIUS Before AD 50—after 120. Greek moralist, biographer, essayist. Philosophical bias Platonic and anti-Stoic. Works in two large groups, Moralia (ethical and miscellaneous pieces) and Lives. Very popular as historian, moralist and educator in Renaissance; The Education of Children wrongly attributed to him. Various English trans.: Quiet of Mind by Sir T.Wyatt (1528); The Education of Children by Sir T.Elyot (1535?); The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by Sir T.North (1579, several edns, from the French of J.Amyot; modern edn 8 vols, Oxford, 1928; selections in Shakespeare’s Plutarch, ed. T.J.B.Spencer, Harmondsworth, 1964); The Morals by P. Holland (1603, modern selections in EL, 1911). Modern trans. in Loeb, Moralia (14 vols, 1927–67); Lives (11 vols, 1914–26). Moral Essays (selections) in PC (1971). Many Lives in PC, including Makers of Rome (1965), The Fall of the Roman Republic (1972), The Age of Alexander (1973), On Sparta (1988). Selected Essays and Dialogues in WC (1993).
D.A.Russell, Plutarch* (London, 1973).
POLYBIUS c. 200—after 118 BC. Greek historian of Rome, and theorist of rise and fall of states. Histories in 40 books, of which only I—V and parts of others survive. Part trans. into Latin late 15C. Influence on Machiavelli. English trans. by E.Grimstone (1633). Drawn on by Ralegh for History of the World (1614). Modern trans. in Loeb (6 vols, 1922–7). The Rise of the Roman Empire in PC (1979).
F.W.Walbank, Polybius (Berkeley, 1972). K.Sacks, Polybius on the Writing of History (Berkeley, 1981).
PTOLEMY (PTOLEMAEUS), CLAUDIUS 2C AD. Alexandrian Greek astronomer and mathematician. Chief work. Great Syntaxis (or Mathematical Syntaxis), known as Almagest from Arabic title; provides detailed mathematical account of movement of celestial bodies, based on Aristotelian cosmology. Known in Middle Ages in Latin trans. from Arabic; in 16C Latin trans. from Greek and Greek text published. Copernicus’ work began as attempt to modify Ptolemy’s calculations.
J.L.E.Dreyer, A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler (rev. edn, New York, 1953); T.S.Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1975, first pub. 1957).
PYTHAGORAS 6C BC. Greek mathematician and philosopher, founded religious community in southern Italy. Very little definitely known about him, though many legends persisted. Information about Pythagoreanism derives from Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes Laertius (3C AD; historian of philosophy) and Porphyry (3C AD; Neoplatonist). Carmina aurea (Golden Verses), containing ethical precepts, attributed to Pythagoras; widely read in Renaissance; English trans. by T.Stanley in History of Philosophy (1655–62).
G.S.Kirk and J.E.Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers (rev. edn, Cambridge, 1962); S.K.Heninger, Touches of Sweet Harmony: Pythagorean Cosmology and Renaissance Poetics (San Marino, 1974).
QUINTILIAN(US), MARCUS FABIUS 1C AD. Roman teacher of rhetoric. Chief work Institutio oratoria (Education of an Orator), c. 95. Complete text recovered early 15C. Important influence on humanist educational theory. Passages included in Jonson’s Discoveries (1640). Modern trans. in Loeb (4 vols, 1921–2); Bks I-II in LLA (1965).
H.I.Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, trans. G.Lamb (New York, 1964, first English edn 1956); W.H.Woodward, Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1906).
RABELAIS, FRANÇOIS c. 1492–1553. French writer of satiric and philosophic fantasy; monk, doctor of medicine, humanist. Works: Pantagruel (1532); Gargantua (1534); Third Book (1546); Fourth Book (1548–52); Fifth Book (1564, partly by Rabelais). English trans. of first 3 bks by T.Urquhart (1653–4, 1693); completed by P.Motteux (1694, modern edn London, 1970). Modern trans. in PC (1955).
M.A.Screech, The Rabelaisian Marriage: Aspects of Rabelais’s Religion, Ethics, and Comic Philosophy (London, 1958). T.Cave, The Cornucopian Text (Oxford, 1979); L.Febvre, The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais, trans. B.Gottlieb (Cambridge, Mass., 1982, first French edn 1942); M.A.Screech, Rabelais (London, 1979).
RIPA, CESARE 16C Italian iconographer. Iconologia (1593, illustrated edn 1603), dictionary of classical symbols and images for use by painters and sculptors. No English trans. till 1709, but used by masque writers, esp. Jonson.
D.J.Gordon, The Renaissance Imagination, ed. S.Orgel (Berkeley, 1975). J.Aptekar, Icons of Justice: Iconography and Thematic Imagery in Book V of ‘The Faerie Queene’ (New York, 1969).
SALLUST (GAIUS SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS) c. 86–35 BC. Roman historian. Chief works: The Conspiracy of Catiline; The Jugurthine War. English trans. by T. Heywood (1608, modern edn in TT, 1924). Modern trans. in Loeb (rev. edn, 1931); in PC (1963).
M.L.W.Laistner, The Greater Roman Historians (Berkeley, 1947); R. Syme, Sallust (Berkeley, 1964). D.C.Earl, The Political Thought of Sallust (Cambridge, 1961).
SALLUSTIUS 4C AD. Roman Neoplatonist, friend of the Emperor Julian. On the Gods and the World. Modern trans. by G.Murray in Five Stages of Greek Religion (Oxford, 1925).
SENECA, LUCIUS ANNAEUS c. AD 1–65. Roman Stoic Philosopher, tragedian and politician; Nero’s tutor and minister; last years in retirement, forced to commit suicide. Works comprise 9 tragedies, letters and treatises, including On Providence, On the Firmness of the Wise Man, On the Happy Life, On Tranquillity of Mind, To Helvia on Consolation, Moral Letters (to Lucilius). Prose edited by Erasmus (1515, 1529) and Lipsius (1605). Tragedies much read and trans. 16C; prose more popular 17C. Moral writings trans. T.Lodge (1614). Much paraphrase in Jonson’s poems; passages trans. in Discoveries (1640). Modern trans. in Loeb: Epistulae Morales (3 vols, 1917–25); Moral Essays (3 vols, 1928–35); selections in PC: Letters from a Stoic (1969).
C.D.N.Costa, ed., Seneca (London, 1974); F.H.Sandbach, The Stoics* (London, 1975, 2nd edn, Bristol, 1989); M.T.Griffin, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (Oxford, 1992, first pub. 1976).
SEXTUS EMPIRICUS 2C AD. Greek philosopher; main exponent of radical scepticism or pyrrhonism (so called after Pyrrho of Elis, whose works are lost). Principal work Outlines of Pyrrhonism available in Latin in Middle Ages but ignored. Latin text pub. 1562, major influence on Montaigne, Apology for Raymond Sebond. Greek text pub. 1621. Modern trans.: Loeb (4 vols, 1933); selections by S.G.Etheridge (Indianapolis, 1985), and A.A.Long and D.N. Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1987).
M.F.Burnyeat, ed., The Skeptical Tradition (Berkeley, 1983); R.H.Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza (rev. edn, Berkeley, 1979); C.L.Stough, Greek Skepticism (Berkeley, 1969).
SOCRATES see PLATO and XENOPHON
STATIUS AD 45–96. Roman Poet. Regarded in Middle Ages as crypto-Christian: Dante puts him in Purgatory. Chief work Thebaid, epic on the Seven Against Thebes; also Silvae, collection of occasional pieces. Jonson’s titles Forest, Underwood, and Timber are versions of ‘silvae’. Bks 1–5 of Thebaid trans. by T.Stephens (1648). Modern trans. in Loeb (2 vols, 1928); by A.D.Melville (Oxford, 1992).
D.Vessey, Statius and the Thebaid (Cambridge, 1973); G.Williams, Change and Decline: Roman Literature in the Early Empire (Berkeley, 1978).
SUETONIUS (GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS) c. 69—c. 122. Roman writer of historical biography. Most famous work Lives of the Twelve Caesars. English trans. by P.Holland (1606; in TT, 2 vols, 1899). Modern trans. in Loeb (2 vols, rev. 1951); PC by R.Graves rev. M.Grant (1989).
T.A.Dorey, ed., Latin Biography (London, 1967); A.Wallace-Hadrill, Suetonius: The Scholar and his Caesars (London, 1983).
TACITUS, CORNELIUS 1C AD. Roman historian, castigator of vices of Rome under emperors, admirer of primitive virtues of Republic and German tribes. Largely unknown in Middle Ages; surviving MSS recovered 15C and early 16C. Much admired late 16C and early 17C. Ed. by Lipsius (1574). English trans. of Histories and Agricola by Sir H.Savile (1591). Modern trans. of complete works in Loeb (4 vols. 1914–37); in PC Agricola and Germania (rev. edn, 1970); Annals (rev. edn, 1971); Histories (rev. edn, 1968).
T.A.Dorey, ed., Tacitus (London, 1969). R.Martin, Tacitus (London, 1981).
TASSO, TORQUATO 1544–95. Italian poet and critical theorist. Chief works: Jerusalem Delivered (1581), epic on First Crusade, with allegory attached; recast and moralised as Jerusalem Conquered (1593); Discourses on the Heroic Poem (1594, revision of earlier Discourses on the Art of Poetry). Some episodes from Jerusalem Delivered imitated by Spenser in Faerie Queene; English trans. as Godfrey of Boulogne by E.Fairfax (1600, modern edn by J. C.Nelson, New York, 1963; K, M.Lea and T.M.Gang, Oxford, 1981). English trans. of Aminta by H.Reynolds (1628; modern edn by G.Pursglove, Salzburg, 1991). Modern trans. of Discourses on Heroic Poem by M.Cavalchini and I. Samuel (Oxford, 1973).
C.P.Brand, Tasso (Cambridge, 1965), esp. Pt 2, ‘Tasso in England’. J.A. Kates, Tasso and Milton: The Problem of Christian Epic (Lewisburg, 1983).
TERESA OFAVILA, ST 1515–82. Spanish mystic and reformer of Carmelite order of nuns. Works include The Way of Perfection (1583, English trans. by T. Matthew as The Flaming Heart, 1623); Life (1588). 3 poems addressed to her by Crashaw (1646, 1652). Modern trans. of Works by E.A.Peers (3 vols, London, 1946; Life reprinted New York, 1960). Life in PC (1987, first pub. 1957).
R.T.Petersson, The Art of Ecstasy: Teresa, Bernini, and Crashaw (London, 1970).
TERTULLIAN(US), QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS c. AD 160—c. 220. First Christian Latin apologist and controversialist; ascetic, strongly opposed to Christian assimilation of pagan culture. Large collection of controversial and doctrinal works. Modern trans.: Apology and On Spectacles in Loeb (rev. edn, 1953) and in FC vols X and XL (1950, 1959); The Prescriptions against the Heretics and On Idolatry in Early Latin Theology, LCC, vol. V (1956).
T.D.Barnes, Tertullian (Oxford, 1971). R.Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (Harmondsworth, 1988, first pub. 1986).
THUCYDIDES c. 460—c. 400 BC. Greek historian of war between Athens and Sparta. History of the Peloponnesian War gives idealised portrait of Pericles’ Athens and traces stages of Athenian defeat. Much read by humanists; Latin trans. by L.Valla (1450–2); English trans. by T.Hobbes (1629, modern edn 2 vols, Ann Arbor, 1959). Modern trans. in Loeb (4 vols, 1919–23) and PC (rev. edn, 1972).
J.H.Finley, Jr, Thucydides (Cambridge, Mass., 1942). K.J.Dover, Thucydides in GR (1973); S.Hornblower, Thucydides (London, 1987).
VIRGIL (PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO) 70–19 BC. Roman poet. Works: Eclogues or Bucolics (pastoral poems, based on Greek poet Theocritus); Georgics (on farming and natural philosophy, indebted to Lucretius); Aeneid (epic based on Homer, on Aeneas’ translation of empire from Troy to Italy; prophecy of Rome’s greatness, celebration of Augustus). Works became bible of late pagans in conflict with Christians (in e.g. Macrobius’ Saturnalia). Aeneid widely read as allegory of Christian life, e.g. by Fulgentius in 6C, by Landino in 15C. In The Divine Comedy Virgil is Dante’s guide, but as pagan he cannot take Dante further than the Earthly Paradise. English trans. of Aeneid by G.Douglas (1553, modern edn 4 vols, Edinburgh, 1957–64), and J. Dryden (1697, modern edn Oxford, 1958); several trans. of individual books. Important Virgilian echoes in Paradise Lost. Many modern trans.: prose in Loeb (2 vols, rev. edn, 1934); in PC The Aeneid (1956) and The Pastoral Poems (1949); verse by C.Day Lewis, Eclogues (London, 1963); Georgics (London, 1940); Aeneid (London, 1952). Two further trans. of Aeneid in PC: verse by R.Fitzgerald (1985), prose by D. West (1991). Georgics also in PC (1982). Day Lewis trans. in WC in 2 vols: Eclogues and Georgics (1983), Aeneid (1986). Eclogues trans. G.Lee (Liverpool, 1980); Georgics trans. R.Wells (Manchester, 1982).
C.M.Bowra, From Virgil to Milton (London, 1945); D.P.Harding, The Club of Hercules: Studies in the Classical Background of Paradise Lost (Urbana, 1962); M.Y.Hughes, Virgil and Spenser (Port Washington, N.Y., 1969, first pub. 1929). P.Alpers, The Singer of the Eclogues (Berkeley, 1979); W.A. Camps, An Introduction to Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’ * (Oxford, 1969); PM* by J.Griffin (1986); R.D.Williams and T.S.Pattie, Virgil: His Poetry through the Ages* (London, 1982).
VITRUVIUS, POLLIO 1C BC. Roman architect; author of treatise On Architecture. Influence on Renaissance architects, Alberti and Palladio in Italy, Inigo Jones in England. Modern trans. in Loeb (2 vols, 1931).
R.Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism (3rd edn, London, 1962).
VIVES, JUAN LUIS 1492–1540. Spanish humanist, pupil and friend of Erasmus, taught at Louvain and Oxford, tutor to Princess Mary. Influenced humanist teaching methods. Chief work: The Transmission of Knowledge (1531, extracts trans. by Jonson in Discoveries, 1640). Modern trans. by F.Watson, Vives: On Education (Cambridge, 1913).
R.P.Adams, The Better Part of Valor: More, Erasmus, Colet, and Vives, on Humanism, War, and Peace (Seattle, 1962). C.G.Norena, Juan Luis Vives (The Hague, 1970).
WYCLIFFE, JOHN c. 1329–84. English theologian and philosopher. Questioned doctrine of transubstantiation and papal authority; favoured reading Bible in vernacular, and encouraged translation. Condemned posthumously by Church. Followers known as Lollards. Regarded after Reformation as one of its founders; celebrated in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments. Selection of English works by his followers in A.Hudson, ed., Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (Cambridge, 1978).
PM* by A.Kenny (1985); A. Kenny, ed., Wyclif in his Times (Oxford, 1986).
XENOPHON c. 428—c. 354 BC. Greek soldier, historian, moralist, educational theorist, friend of Socrates. Chief works: Anabasis (the march up country; account of Persian revolt in which Xenophon took part); Cyropaedia (historical romance on education of Persian king Cyrus the Great). English trans. of Cyropaedia by P.Holland (1632, modern edn Newtown, 1936). Modern trans. in Loeb (7 vols, 1914–25), in PC The Persian Expedition (Anabasis) (1949); History of my Times (Hellenica) (1966); Memoirs of Socrates and Symposium (1970); in EL The Education of Cyrus (1992, first pub. 1914).
J.K.Anderson, Xenophon (London, 1974).