Giovanni Pontano

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Contemporary bust of Pontano

Giovanni Pontano ( Latinized Io (h) annes Iovianus Pontanus ; * May 7, 1429 (or 1428) in Cerreto di Spoleto , Umbria ; † September 17, 1503 in Naples ) was a leading exponent of Italian Renaissance humanism .

Life

Pontano studied in Perugia and entered 1447 in the army of the Neapolitan King Alfonso I one. He accompanied him on his campaign against Florence and then followed him to Naples, where he gained a position of trust at court through his contact with the humanist Antonio Beccadelli and, after Alfonso I, his successor Ferdinand and the heir to the throne, Alfonso Duke of Calabria, the future king Alfonso II , served in various functions. So he took part in various campaigns and diplomatic missions. Under King Ferdinand, he held the influential position of royal secretary. In August 1486 he signed a peace agreement with Pope Innocent VIII for him.

However, when, after Ferdinand's death in 1494, the French King Charles VIII , who claimed Naples for himself, advanced with an overpowering army and Alfonso II abdicated, his successor drove Ferrandino ( Ferdinand II ) out of the country, it was Pontano's first man in the state of handing Naples over to the French. When Ferrandino returned to Naples, Pontano withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to his studies. He died in Naples in 1503.

Pontano entered into two marriages: in 1461 with Adriana Sassone, who gave birth to three daughters (Aurelia, Eugenia and Lucia Marzia) and a son (Lucio Francesco) before she died in 1491; then with a young woman from Ferrara, who is only known to us under the name "Stella", with whom Pontano immortalized her in his poetry. With her, Pontano had a son who, however, died in childhood.

Pontano as a humanist

Giovanni Pontano, De divinis laudibus , autograph from 1458. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Ms. Aa 318, fol. 2r (beginning) and 17r (end)

Naples was one of the centers of Italian humanism at that time. After Beccadelli's death in 1471, Pontano became the head of the Neapolitan academy founded by Beccadelli, which was named after him Accademia Pontaniana . This humanist circle included Jacopo Sannazaro , who applied for membership in 1478 out of admiration for Pontano.

As a writer of the Latin language, Pontano was extremely productive and versatile and was highly valued by his contemporaries. So he was crowned poeta laureatus by Pope Innocent VII . In addition to poems, there are philosophical and scientific treatises, dialogues and letters. His historical work "About the Neapolitan War", first printed in 1509, is considered a model for later humanistic historiography. Pontano's conception of history as a "rhetorical work" ( opus rhetoricum ), which is intended to grasp and instruct the reader through lively representation, in particular through the speeches of the characters (as presented in the Actius dialogue ), is derived directly from ancient historiography.

Pontano not only worked as a writer, but also had his share in the cultural bloom of Naples in other ways. In 1492 he had the so-called Cappella dei Pontano in Naples built, which served as the burial place of his late wife Adriana Sassone.

The beginning of the treatise De oboedientia in the manuscript Valencia, Biblioteca historica de la universidad, Ms. 52, fol. 26r with illumination by Cristoforo Majorana (second half of the 15th century)

Works

poetry

  • Parthenopeus sive Amorum (1455–58, 2 books of love poems)
  • De laudibus divinis (hymns to saints in the elegiac distich)
  • De amore coniugali libri III (love poem with reference to his marriage, therein in book II: Naeniae , lullabies for his son Lucio)
  • Urania sive de stellis (astronomical-astrological didactic poem in 5 books)
  • Meteora (didactic poem about meteorological phenomena in a book)
  • Eridanus (late love poem about his lover Stella)
  • De tumulis (collection of epitaphs)
  • Hendecasyllabi seu Baiae (2 books Elfsilbler, setting : the seaside resort of Baiae)
  • Jambici (iambic poetry, especially about the death of his son)
  • Eclogae (6 eclogues, the first of which describes the marriage between Parthenope and Sebethus)
  • De hortis Hesperidum ( didactic poem in two books on citrus fruits and their cultivation)

Dialogues

  • Charon (in Lukian tradition)
  • Antony
  • Actius (one of the first renaissance poetics )
  • Asinus
  • Aegidius

Philosophical writings

  • De aspiratione liber. Naples 1481.
  • De fortitudine bellica. Naples 1490.
  • De oboedentia. Naples 1490.
  • De prudentia
  • De liberalitate
  • De immanitate
  • De magnanimitate
  • De sermone libri VI (a theory of jokes)
  • De principe ( Ad Alphonsum Calabriae ducem de principe , a prince's mirror, printed 1490)
  • De beneficentia
  • De magnificentia
  • De splendore
  • De conviventia
  • De fortuna

Astrological writings

  • Commentarii in centum Claudii Ptolemaei sententias (2 books: translation of the pseudo-Ptolemaic centiloquium with commentary on Pontanos)
  • De rebus caelestibus (14 books in which Pontano explains ancient astrology in the succession of Ptolemy 'and Firmicus Maternus')

Historical work

  • Historia Neapolitana ("History of Naples", also De bello Neapolitano "About the Neapolitan War"; full title: De Ferdinando I. rege Neapolitano Alfonsi filio libri VI )

Letters

  • Epistolae

reception

A first complete edition of the works of Pontano compiled by Sannazaro and Pietro Summonte was printed posthumously in 1518/19 by Aldus Manutius in Venice. His works, especially his teaching poetry, had a great influence on the humanists who followed him.

The lunar crater Pontanus is named after him.

Editions and translations

  • Johannes Oeschger (Ed.): Ioannis Ioviani Pontani Carmina. Egloghe - Elegy - Liriche. Laterza, Bari 1948.
  • Rodney G. Dennis (Ed.): Giovanni Gioviano Pontano: Baiae. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2006, ISBN 0-674-02197-5 ( Hendecasyllaborum sive Baiarum libri duo , Latin text and English translation)
  • Tobias Roth (translator): Giovanni Gioviano Pontano: Baiae. Two books of elf silver. German translation, Latin text. Edition Revers # 04, Verlagshaus Berlin 2016.
  • Liliana Monti Sabia (Ed.): Ioannis Ioviani Pontani hendecasyllaborum libri. Portici 1978.
  • Hermann Kiefer et al. (Ed.): Giovanni Pontano: Dialoge (= Humanist Library. Series 2, Volume 15). Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2144-7 (Latin text and German translation)
  • Nikolaus Thurn (ed.): Three Neapolitan humanists on love (= Itinera classica , Vol. 3). Scripta-Mercaturae-Verlag, St. Katharinen 2002, ISBN 3-89590-133-4 (Latin text and German translation by De amore coniugali )
  • Luke Roman (Ed.): Giovanni Gioviano Pontano: On Married Love. Eridanus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2014, ISBN 978-0-674-72866-0 (Latin text and English translation)
  • Rita Cappelletto (Ed.): La 'Lectura Plauti' del Pontano. Con edizione delle postille del cod. Vindob. lat. 3168 e osservazioni sull '"Itala recensio". QuattroVenti, Urbino 1988, ISBN 88-392-0087-8
  • Sergio Lupi, Antonino Risicato (eds.): Ioannis Ioviani Pontani de sermone libri sex.Thesaurus Mundi, Lucca 1954 (critical edition)
  • Dennis Weh: Giovanni Pontano's Urania Book 1. Introduction, edition, translation and commentary. (= Gratia 58) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2017.

literature

  • Bruno Figliuolo:  Pontano, Giovanni. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 84:  Pio VI – Ponzo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2015, pp. 729-740.
  • Walther Ludwig : "Catullus renatus" - Beginnings and early development of the Catullus style in neo-Latin poetry. In: Walther Ludwig: Litterae neolatinae. Munich 1989, pp. 162-194.
  • Annegret Kreutz: Poetic Epicurus Reception in the Renaissance - Studies on Marullus, Pontanus and Palingenius. Bielefeld 1990.
  • Walther Ludwig: The Beginnings of Catullan Neo-Latin Poetry. In: Alexander Dalzell et al. (Ed.): Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Torontonensis. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. Binghamton 1991, pp. 449-456.
  • Carol Kidwell: Pontano, Poet and Prime Minister . Duckworth, London 1991
  • Liliana Monti Sabia: Un profilo moderno e due vitae antiche die Giovanni Pontano. (= Quaderni dell'Accademia Pontaniana 25), Naples 1998.
  • Widu-Wolfgang Ehlers : love, life, spouse. Pontanos "Amores coniugales." In: Middle Latin Yearbook. Vol. 35, 2000, pp. 81-99.
  • Thomas Baier (Ed.): Pontano and Catullus (= NeoLatina 3). Narr, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-8233-5794-8 .
  • Claudio Finzi: Re, baroni, popolo. La politica di Giovanni Pontano. Il cerchio, Rimini 2004, ISBN 978-88-8474-058-8 .
  • Florian Hurka: Sannazaros kiss poem 'Ad Ninam' (Epigr. 1,6): Between Pontano and Catullus . In: Eckart Schäfer (ed.): Sannazaro and the Augustan poetry (= NeoLatina 10). Narr, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-8233-6193-7 , pp. 137-146.
  • Liliana Monti Sabia, Salvatore Monti: Studi su Giovanni Pontano (= Biblioteca umanistica 14 and 15), Naples 2010.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, ed. von Waldemar Kampf, Vol. III, Munich 1988 (Ndr.), p. 137.
  2. ↑ Sannazaro pays tribute to his work in his Elegy 1.9; the humanist Pietro Bembo gives him second place as a poet after the undisputed classic Virgil.
  3. ↑ http://www.comune.napoli.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/1389
personal data
SURNAME Pontano, Giovanni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pontanus, Johannes Jovianus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Representative of Italian humanism
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1428 or May 7, 1429
PLACE OF BIRTH Cerreto di Spoleto , Umbria
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 1503
Place of death Naples