Online Encyclopedia

early manifested. At thirteen years of age he began to circulate Latin letters; at seventeen he sent forth essays in Greek versification; at eighteen he published an edition of See also:

CATULLUS, GAIUS VALERIUS (?84-J4 B.C.)

Catullus. In 1470 he won for himself the See also:

TITLE (0. Fr. title, mod. titre, from Lat. titulus)

title of Homericus juvenis by translating four books of the Iliad into Latin hexameters. Lorenzo de' Medici, who was then the autocrat of Florence and the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief See also:

PATRON

patron of learning in See also:

Italy, took Poliziano into his See also:

HOUSEHOLD, ROYAL

household, made him the See also:

TUTOR (Lat. tutor, guardian, tueri, to watch over, protect)

tutor of his See also:

CHILDREN, LAW RELATING TO

children, and secured him a distinguished See also:

POST

post in the university of Florence. Before he reached the age of See also:

THIRTY

thirty, Poliziano expounded the humanities with almost unexampled lustre even for that See also:

EPOCH (Gr. E7roxij, holding in suspense, a pause, from E1rxav, to hold up, to stop)

epoch of brilliant professors. Among his pupils could be numbered the chief students of See also:

EUROPE

Europe, the men who were destined to carry to their homes the spolia opima of See also:

ITALIAN

Italian culture. Not to mention Italians, it will suffice to See also:

RECORD (Lat. recordari, to recall to mind, from cor, heart or mind)

record the names of the See also:

German See also:

REUCHLIN, JOHANN (1455–1522)

Reuchlin, the See also:

ENGLISH

English See also:

GROCYN, WILLIAM (1446?–1519)

Grocyn and See also:

LINACRE (or LYNAKER), THOMAS (c. 146o-1524)

Linacre, and the Portuguese Tessiras.

Poliziano had few advantages of See also:

PERSON, OFFENCES AGAINST THE

person to recommend him. He was ungainly in See also:

FORM (Lat. forma)

form, with eyes that squinted, and a See also:

NOSE (O.Eng. nosu, cf. Dutch neus, Swed. nos, snout; the Aix in Provence. Both at Aix and at Lyons he acquired great connexion with O.Eng. nasu is obscure, cf. Ger. Nase, Lat. pares, distinction by his labours during outbreaks of the plague. In nostrils,

nose of disproportionate length. Yet his See also:

VOICE (Fr. voix, from Lat. vox)

voice was See also:

rich and capable of See also:

FINE

fine modulation; his eloquence, ease of utterance and copious stream of erudition were incomparable. It was the method of professors at that See also:

period to read the Greek and Latin authors with their class, dictating philological and See also:

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

critical notes, emending corrupt passages in the received texts, offering elucidations of the See also:

MATTER

matter, and pouring forth stores of acquired knowledge regarding the See also:

LAWS

laws, See also:

MANNERS, CHARLES (1857– )

manners, religious and philosophical opinions of the ancients. Poliziano covered nearly the whole ground of classical literature during the years of his professorship, and published the notes of his courses upon See also:

OVID [PUBLIUS OvID1us NASO] (43 B.C.–A.D. 17)

Ovid, Suetonius, See also:

STATIUS, PUBLIUS PAPINIUS (c. A.D. 45-96)

Statius, the younger See also:

Pliny, See also:

QUINTILIAN [MARCUS FABIUS QUINTILIANUS] (C. A.D. 35-95)

Quintilian, and the writers of Augustan histories. He also undertook a recension of the See also:

TEXT (Lat. textum, woven fabric, from texere, to weave)

text of the Yandects of Justinian, which formed the subject of one of his courses; and this recension, though it does not See also:

RANK (O.Fr. rant or rent, mod. rang, generally connected with the O.E. and O.H.G. bring, a ring)

rank high in the See also:

scale of juristic erudition, gave an impulse to the scholarly See also:

criticism of the See also:

ROMAN

Roman See also:

CODE (Lat. codex)

code. At the same See also:

time he was busy as a translator from the Greek. His versions of See also:

EPICTETUS (born c. A.D. 6o)

Epictetus, Herodian, See also:

HIPPOCRATES

Hippocrates, See also:

Galen, See also:

Plutarch's Eroticus and See also:

PLATO

Plato's Charmides delighted contemporaries by a certain limpid fluency of Latin See also:

style and See also:

grace of manner which distinguished him alsoas an See also:

ORIGINAL

original writer. Of these learned labours the most universally acceptable to the public of that time were a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of discursive essays on See also:

PHILOLOGY

philology and criticism, first published in 1489 under the title of Miscellanea. They had an immediate, a lasting and a wide renown, encouraging the scholars of the next See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century and a See also:

HALF

half to throw their occasional discoveries in the See also:

field of scholarship into a form at once so attractive and so instructive. Poliziano was not, however, contented with these simply professorial and scholastic compositions. Nature had endowed him with literary and poetic gifts of the highest See also:

order.

These he devoted to the See also:

composition of Latin and Greek verses, which See also:

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

count among the best of those produced by men of See also:

MODERN

modern times in rivalry with See also:

ancient authors. The Manta, in which he pronounced a See also:

PANEGYRIC

panegyric of See also:

Virgil; the Ambra, which contains a beautiful idyllic See also:

SKETCH (directly adapted from Dutch schets, which was taken from Ital. schizzo, a rough draft, Lat. schedium, something hastily made, Gr. oxE&os, sudden, off-hand, axeb6v, near by; Ger. Skizze and Fr. esquisse are from the same source)

sketch of Tuscan landscape, and a studied eulogy of See also:

HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-191o)

Homer; the Rusticus, which celebrated the pleasures of See also:

COUNTRY (from the Mid. Eng. contre or contrie, and O. Fr. cuntree; Late Lat. contrata, showing the derivation from contra, opposite, over against, thus the tract of land which fronts the sight, cf. Ger. Gegend, neighbourhood)

country See also:

LIFE

life in no frigid or scholastic spirit; and the Nutricia, which was intended to serve as a See also:

general introduction to the study of ancient and modern poetry—these are the masterpieces of Poliziano in Latin See also:

VERSE (from Lat. versus, literally a line or furrow drawn by turning the plough, from vertere, and afterwards signifying an arrangement of syllables into feet)

verse, displaying an authenticity of See also:

INSPIRATION (Lat. inspirare, breathe upon or into)

inspiration, a sincerity of feeling, and a command of metrical resources which See also:

mark them out as original productions of poetic genius rather than as merely professorial lucubrations. Exception may be taken to their style, when compared with the best See also:

WORK

work of the Augustan or even of the See also:

SILVER

Silver age. But what renders them always noteworthy to the student of modern humanistic literature is that they are in no sense imitative or conventional, but that they convey the genuine thoughts and emotions of a born poet in Latin diction and in See also:

METRE ((terpuc?, sc. rFxvf, from Gr. Or poi', measure)

metre moulded to suit the characteristics of the See also:

SINGER, SIMEON (1846-1906)

singer's temperament. Poliziano was See also:

GREAT

great as a See also:

SCHOLAR, SCHOLARSHIP

scholar, as a See also:

PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

professor, as a critic, and as a Latin poet at an age when the See also:

CLASSICS

classics were still studied with the See also:

PASSION (post-classical Lat. passio, formed from pati, passus, to suffer, endure)

passion of assimilative curiosity, and not with the scientific See also:

INDUSTRY (Lat. industria, from indu-, a form of the pre, position in, and either stare, to stand, or struere, to pile up)

industry of a later period. He was the representative See also:

hero of that age of scholarship in which students See also:

drew their ideal of life from antiquity and fondly dreamed that they might so restore the past as to compete with the classics in See also:

PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

production and bequeath a See also:

GOLDEN

golden age of resuscitated paganism to the modern See also:

WORLD

world. Yet he was even greater as an Italian poet. Between See also:

BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI (1313-1375)

Boccaccio and See also:

ARIOSTO, LODOVICO (1474-1533)

Ariosto, no single poet in the See also:

MOTHER

mother See also:

TONGUE (O. Eng. lunge)

tongue of Italy deserves so high a place as Poliziano. What he might have achieved in this See also:

DEPARTMENT (Fr. departement, from departir, to separate into parts)

department of literature had he lived at a period less preoccupied with humanistic studies, and had he found a congenial See also:

SPHERE (Gr. vclsa?pa, a ball or globe)

sphere for his activity, can only be guessed. As it is, we must reckon him as decidedly the foremost and indubitably the most highly gifted among the Italian poets who obeyed Lorenzo de' Medici's demand for a resuscitation of the vulgar literature. Lorenzo led the way himself, and Poliziano was more a follower in his path than an initiator. Yet what Poliziano produced, impelled by a courtly wish to satisfy his patron's whim, proves his own immeasurable superiority as an artist.

His See also:

PRINCIPAL

principal Italian See also:

WORKS

works are the stanzas called La Giostra, written upon Giuliano de' Medici's victory in a See also:

TOURNAMENT, or TOURNEY (Fr. tournement, tournoi, Med. Lat. torneamentum, from tourner, to turn)

tournament; the Orfeo, a lyrical See also:

DRAMA (literally "action," from Gr. Snail, act or do)

drama performed at See also:

MANTUA (Ital. Mantova)

Mantua with musical See also:

ACCOMPANIMENT (i.e. that which " accompanies ")

accompaniment; and a collection of fugitive 'pieces, reproducing various forms of Tuscan popular poetry. La Giostra had no See also:

plan, and remained imperfect; but it demonstrated the capacities of the See also:

OCTAVE (from Lat. octavus, eighth, octo, eight)

octave See also:

STANZA (Low Lat. stantia, Ital. stantia or stanza)

stanza for rich, harmonious and sonorous metrical effect. The Orfeo is a slight piece of work, thrown off at a See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat, yet abounding in unpremeditated lyrical beauties, and containing in itself the germ both of the See also:

PASTORAL (from Lat. pastor, a shepherd)

pastoral See also:

PLAY

play and of the See also:

OPERA (Italian for " work ")

opera. The Tuscan songs are distinguished by a " roseate fluency," an exquisite See also:

CHARM (through the Fr. from the Lat. carmen, a song)

charm of half romantic, half humorous See also:

ABANDONMENT (Fr. abandonnement, from abandonner, to abandon, relinquish; abandonner was originally equivalent to mettred banddn, to leave to the jurisdiction, i.e. of another, bandon being from Low Latin bandum, bannum, order, decree, " ban ")

abandonment to See also:

FANCY (a shortened form, dating from the 15th century, of " fantasy," which is derived through the O. Fr. fantasie, modern fantaisie. from the Latinized form of the Gr. cbavraoia, Oavrai'ecv, Oat Pais, to show)

fancy, which mark them out as improvisations of genius. It may be added that in all these departments of Italian composition Poliziano showed how the See also:

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

taste and learning of a classical scholar could be engrafted on the stock of the See also:

VERNACULAR (Lat. verna, dim. vernaculus, a slave horn in his master's house)

vernacular, and how the highest perfection of See also:

ARTISTIC

artistic form might be attained in Italian without a See also:

SACRIFICE (from Lat. sacrificium; sacer, holy, and facere, to make)

sacrifice of native spontaneity and natural flow of See also:

LANGUAGE (adapted from the Fr. langage, from langue, tongue, Lat. lingua)

language. It is difficult to combine in one view the several aspects presented to us by this many-sided See also:

man of literary genius. At a period when See also:

HUMANISM (from Lat. humanus, human, connected with holm)

humanism took the See also:

lead in forming Italian See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character and giving See also:

TONE, THEOBALD WOLFE (1763-1798)

tone to See also:

EUROPEAN

European culture, he climbed with facility to the height of achievement in all the branches of scholarship which were then most seriously prized—in varied knowledge of ancient authors, in critical capacity, in rhetorical and poetical exuberance. This was enough at that epoch to See also:

DIRECT

direct the See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention of all the learned men of Europe on Poliziano. At the same time, almost against his own inclination, certainly with very little See also:

ENTHUSIASM

enthusiasm on his See also:

PART

part, he See also:

LENT (0. Eng. lenclen, " spring," M. Eng. lenten, lente, lent; cf. Dut. lente, Ger. Lenz, " spring," 0. H. Ger. lenzin, lengizin, lenzo, probably from the same root as " long " and referring to " the lengthening days ")

lent himself so success-fully to Lorenzo de' Medici's See also:

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

scheme for resuscitating the decayed literature of Tuscany that his slightest Italian effusions exercised a potent See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence on the immediate future. He appears before us as the See also:

DICTATOR (from the Lat. dictare, frequentative of dicere, to speak)

dictator of Italian culture in a See also:

double capacity—as the man who most perfectly expressed the Italian conception of humanism, and brought erudition into See also:

ACCORD (from Fr. accorder, to agree)

accord with the pursuit of See also:

NOBLE, SIR ANDREW (1832- )

noble and harmonious form, and also as the man whose vernacular compositions were more significant than any others of the great revolution in favour of Italian poetry which culminated in Ariosto. Beyond the sphere of pure scholarship and pure literature Poliziano did not venture. He was See also:

PRESENT

present, indeed, at the attack made by the Pazzi conspirators on the persons of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, and wrote an interesting See also:

account of its partial success.

He also contributed a curious document on the See also:

DEATH

death of Lorenzo de' Medici to the students of Florentine See also:

HISTORY

history. But .he was not, like many other humanists of his age, concerned in public affairs of See also:

state or See also:

DIPLOMACY (Fr. diplomatic)

diplomacy, and he held no See also:

OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")

office except that of professor at Florence. His private life was also uneventful. He passed it as a See also:

house-friend and dependant of the Medici, as the idol of the learned world, and as a See also:

SIMPLE

simple man of letters for whom (with truly Tuscan devotion to the Saturnian country) rural pleasures were always acceptable. He was never married; and his morals incurred suspicion, to which his own Greek verses lend a certain amount of plausible colouring. In character Poliziano was decidedly inferior to the intellectual and literary See also:

EMINENCE (Lat. eminentia)

eminence which he displayed. He died, half broken-hearted by the loss of his friend and patron Lorenzo de' Medici, on the 24th of See also:

SEPTEMBER (Lat. septem, seven)

September 1494, just before the See also:

WAVE

wave of See also:

FOREIGN

foreign invasion which was gathering in See also:

France swept over Italy. For the life and works of Politian, see F. O. Mencken (See also:

LEIPZIG

Leipzig, 1736), a vast repertory of accumulated erudition; Jac. Mahly, See also:

ANGELUS

Angelus Politianus (Leipzig, 1864); See also:

Carducci's edition of the Italian poems (Florence, Barbera, 1863); Del Lungo's edition of the Italian See also:

PROSE

prose works and Latin and Greek poems (Florence, Barbera, 1867) ; the Opera omnia (See also:

Basel, 1554) ; Greswell's English Life of Politian (1805); See also:

ROSCOE, WILLIAM (1753—1831)

Roscoe's Lorenzo de' Medici (loth ed., 1851); J. Addington See also:

Symonds's See also:

RENAISSANCE, THE

Renaissance in Italy, and See also:

TRANSLATIONS

translations from Poliziano's Italian poems in Symonds's Sketches and Studies in Italy, which include the Orfeo.

(J. A.

End of Article: POLITIAN (1454–1494)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
POLISH SUCCESSION WAR (1733-1735)

[next]
POLITICAL