Arcadia (poetry)

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Arcadia is a shepherd poem by Jacopo Sannazaro . He wrote this around 1480, the final version was first published in Naples in 1504 . With his Italian Arcadia , Sannazaro had a lasting influence on the literature of the 16th and 17th centuries ( Shakespeare , Philip Sidney , Margaret of Navarra , John Milton ).

content

The literary pastoral landscape of Arcadia was designed primarily by Virgil ( Eklogen ). Arcadia was described by Virgil with elements of Italian and Peloponnesian landscapes. Sannazaro, on the other hand, uses his Picentino as a mountain and pastoral landscape . The Vivula spring, the Subucula brook and the extensive forest constitute Sannazaros ´locus amoenus´. Against the backdrop of this landscape, the story of a boy (Sincero) is told who hides a poet under his clothes, who fled Naples because of disappointments in love and the political situation to live in an idealized Arcadia. The inhabitants of this landscape are shepherds who represent poets and friends of Sannazaro, although they are called by other names. Meliseus is z. B. to be identified as Pontano, the head of the Accademia Pontaniana ; Antonio Beccadelli , founder of the academy and former board member, bears the name Androgeus . Sannazaro himself as another alter ego next to the figure of the poet calls himself Ergasto . But the stay in Arcadia is not long-lasting: a terrifying dream (allegory of the fall of Naples under Charles VIII in 1494 with the consequent collapse of the political balance, strongly influenced by Naples , Rome , Urbino and Florence by Lorenzo Il Magnifico caused) makes the poet return.

shape

Arcadia by Sannazaro can be called a "prose poem" ( prosimetrum ), i. H. a mixture of prose and verse, to be defined. The shape of the individual parts differs greatly. Some prose parts are only descriptive, others, especially in the second part, are more narrative. Like the prose, the poetic part is also varied. "Frottola", "barzelletta", madrigals and canzons are just some of the poetic forms used by Sannazaro. Because of the treated topic and the prose part, Arcadia is considered a genre of the shepherd novel . Sannazaro with his novel Arcadia can be considered the founder of this genre.

Emergence

The history of Arcadia has two editorial stages. The first stage follows the tradition of manuscripts, which consist of a foreword (proemio) and ten units of prose-averse. Initially this collection was called Aeglogarum liber Arcadius inscriptus , before Sannazaro chose the name Libro pastorale nominato (intitulato) Arcadio ( shepherd's book called Arcadio ). A few years later, Sannazaro edited the work again. Only then was it called Arcadia and now consisted of a dedication, a foreword, twelve units of prose and an epilogue A la sampogna ( To the bagpipe ). Three eclogues of the Arcadia were written by Sannazaro in advance of the plan for the shepherd novel. These are the first, the second, and the sixth. He reworked these when he decided to include them in the novel. The first version of the Arcadia with a foreword and ten units of prose was completed towards the end of 1484 and published in an incorrect edition in Venice in 1501 without the author's permission. This version was published again in 1502 by Bernardino da Vercelli in Naples. The second version was finished by Sannazaro around 1495. This last version was published by Pietro Summonte, humanist and member of the Accademia Pontaniana in Naples in March 1504.

The language

Arcadia represents the first prose in an ex-novo language written outside of Tuscany . Another originality of the work is the choice of the Italian language, instead of Latin, which was common in the 15th and 16th centuries, or a regional dialect. The form of Italian used in Arcadia is a good mix of Boccaccio's prose and Petrarch's poetry.

reception

When Arcadia appeared in the 16th century, the work became a bestseller. More than 66 editions have been published in Italy alone. Inspired partly by classical authors who described the pastoral world ( Virgil , Theocritus , Ovid , Tibullus ) and partly by Giovanni Boccaccio's Ameto, Sannazaro wrote a work that can be considered the first production of the European Renaissance. Arcadia experienced together with Diana by Jorge de Montemayor ( Los siete libros de la Diana , 1559) an intensive reception in literature all over Europe up to the middle of the 17th century. The name of the academy of the same name is derived from the name of this work , founded in Rome at the end of the 17th century.

expenditure

Early prints (digital copies)
Modern editions
  • Iacopo Sannazaro: Arcadia. Introduzione e commento di Carlo Vecce. Carrocci, Roma 2013, ISBN 978-88-430-6623-0 .
  • Iacopo Sannazaro: Arcadia. A cura di Francesco Erspamer. Mursia, Milano 1990, ISBN 88-425-0426-2 .
Online editions
  • Arcadia (PDF; 350 kB). Laterza, Bari 1961.

literature

  • Ulrich Johannes Beil : The hybrid genus. Poetry and prose in the European novel from Heliodorus to Goethe. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8260-4300-0 . (At the same time habilitation thesis Munich, University).
  • Karl AE Enenkel : The Invention of Man. The autobiography of early modern humanism from Petrarch to Lipsius . Berlin / New York 1998.
  • Gianfranco Folena : La crisi linguistica del quattrocento e l 'Arcadia ”di I. Sannazaro . Olschki, Firenze 1952.
  • William J. Kennedy: Jacopo Sannazaro and the uses of Pastoral . Hanover-London 1983.
  • Carol Kidwell: Sannazaro and Arcadia. Duckworth, London 1993, ISBN 0-7156-2477-6 . (Comprehensive overall presentation of Sannazaro's biography and all of his works, strong biographical interpretation of his poems; very rich and well illustrated).
  • Marina Riccucci: Il neghittoso e il fier connubio. Storia e filologia nell'Arcadia di Jacopo Sannazaro. Napoli 2001.
  • Pasquale Sabbatino (Ed.): Iacopo Sannazaro. La cultura napoletana dell'Europa del Rinascimento. Convegno internazionale di studi Napoli, 27–28 March 2006. Olschki, Firenze 2009, ISBN 978-88-222-5847-2 .
  • Gianni Villani: Per l'edizione dell'Arcadia del Sannazaro. (= Quaderni die Filologia e critica. 7). Salerno Editrice, Roma 1989, ISBN 88-8402-024-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl AE Enenkel: The Invention of Man. The autobiography of early modern humanism from Petrarch to Lipsius. Berlin / New York 1998, p. 513.
  2. ^ Karl AE Enenkel: The Invention of Man. The autobiography of early modern humanism from Petrarch to Lipsius. Berlin / New York 1998, pp. 531-533.
  3. ^ William John Kennedy: Jacopo Sannazaro and the uses of Pastoral. Hanover-London 1983, p. 97.
  4. ↑ Marina Riccucci: Il neghittoso e il fier connubio. Napoli 2001, pp. 3-5.
  5. ↑ Pasquale Sabbatino (Ed.): Iacopo Sannazaro. La cultura napoletana dell'Europa del Rinascimento. Firenze 2009, pp. 9-11.
  6. ^ Gianfranco Folena: La crisi linguistica del quattrocento e l 'Arcadia ”di I. Sannazaro. Firenze 1952, pp. 1-4.
  7. ^ Karl AE Enenkel: The Invention of Man. The autobiography of early modern humanism from Petrarch to Lipsius. Berlin / New York 1998, p. 522.