Las Silvae de Angelo Polizianoestudio, traducción y comentario

Abstract

The main objective of the thesis is to offer the first Spanish translation of the Silvae (Manto, Rusticus, Ambra and Nutricia) of Angelo Ambrogini Poliziano, which had not been translated into any of the languages of the Spanish state. These Silvae are four poems written in Latin hexameters, which served as an introduction to the courses taught by the humanist at the Studio Fiorentino. Manto introduces Virgil's Eclogues and Theocritus' Idylls; Rusticus, the Works and Days of Hesiod and the Georgics of Virgil; Ambra presents the Iliad of Homer and the Satires of Juvenal; and Nutricia was also composed as an introduction to Homer's lessons, but it has the original form of a History of Literature from its origins in Greece to the Florence of Lorenzo il Magnifico. In addition, this translation is accompanied by a preliminary study on the life and work of Poliziano within the context of the 15th-century Florence that will be described along with the author's biographical data: he lived in the shadow of the Medici, sharing the glories and misfortunes of their patrons. Specifically, the subsequent fortune of the Silvae in Spain and Europe is analysed. Finally, the text of each silva is widely examined with a section of notes and commentary on those most relevant features of the verses. To translate these four silvae, we started from the direct study of the text, using the methodology of an intertextual analysis. Nevertheless, it is inevitable to resort to external elements in order to understand and comment on the scholar verses of Poliziano; with greater reason if we understand that the Silvae were composed, precisely, as an introduction to the lessons that Poliziano taught on different authors of Antiquity. It includes, therefore, the necessary description of the historical context and, especially in notes, allusions to the sources to which Poliziano refers very often. Also, in the commentary of the poems, we will emphasise the relationship of the humanist with the Greek and Latin writers of the past. Thus, we will also use an intertextual methodology, but without forgetting the text from which it is based. For the translation, we have opted for the juxtalineal form to present the Latin text facing the Spanish and to reflect, as far as possible, the correspondence. It is a poetic translation, meeting, however, the literalness with the Latin source. We have even tried to preserve the mythological images as described by Poliziano, meeting his erudite allusions, sometimes obscures, and the use of unusual names and adjectives. The objective is to show in the translation the precise and thorough style of Poliziano. The proposed objectives have been achieved. We have managed to offer the first translation of the Silvae into Spanish, analysing their verses as a coherent corpus of poems that delves into the same idea and concept. The four poems design a theory of didactics of the correct teaching of classical letters, which is the reason why they had so much fortune in the university curricula of later centuries throughout Europe. In 1515, an edition of the Silvae was printed in Alcalá de Henares. It contains the four poems and, likewise, they were used and republished in the rest of Europe: by Johannes Murmellius, Jacob Thanner or Nicolas Bérault. But, in addition, we have carried a preliminary study to present this author, who is not especially known in our country, and to introduce the Silvae, some scarcely studied poems within the corpus of the humanist and less known than his Orpheus or his Stanze. On the other hand, the wide apparatus of notes and the commentary that accompany each silva allow to notice the game of intertextual allusions to past amd contemporary literature. These introductions are crucial to understand the concept of poetry and the role given to it in the cultural sphere of Italian and European Humanism. For this reason, the thesis fills an epistemological empty, giving Spanish-speaking readers a philological edition, backed by the commentary and detailed annotation, contextualizing the production of the Silvae in the framework of the teachings of Florentine academic circles in general and Studio Fiorentino specifically. Hence, the Silvae had very early commentators to clarify the teachings that Poliziano described in verse form (the comment on the four silves of Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas, Angeli Politianii Silvae Nutricia, Rusticus, Manto, Ambra. Poema quidem obscurum sed novis nunc scholiis illustratum, was written in 1554). Therefore, restarting the study of this work was necessary, barely known in Spain. Our main objective has been to offer the translation of these poems, which, without a doubt, can open numerous ways of analysis and propose new questions concerning the studies of classical languages and their reception during the Humanistic time.