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Interpreting Oedipus’ Hamartia in the Italian Cinquecento: Theory and Practice (1526–1570)

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Translating Ancient Greek Drama in Early Modern Europe
This chapter is in the book Translating Ancient Greek Drama in Early Modern Europe

Abstract

Building on Hartmut Bohme and Johannes Helmrath’s concept of reception as ‘mutual transformation’, which emphasises the interdependency between antiquity and early modern cultures, the present chapter contributes to exploring the mutual influence between ancient Greek tragedy, Aristotle’s Poetics and 16th-century tragedies and theoretical treatises. More specifically, it investigates the multiple facets of the notion of hamartia in the mid-16thcentury translations of Aristotle’s treatise - from Pazzi de’ Medici’s Latin translation of the Poetics (1536), to Robortello’s commentary (1548), and Castelvetro’s first Italian commentary of the Poetics (1570) -; debates about vernacular tragedies, such as the literary quarrel around Speroni’s Canace; and early modern Oedipus plays, such as Pazzi de’ Medici’s Edipo Principe (1525-26) and Anguillara’s Edippo (1565). Shedding new light on the precarious balance between conservation, rejection, and recombination of the ancient sources, this approach thus highlights the active role of the receiving culture in appropriating and reconstructing the classical past.

Abstract

Building on Hartmut Bohme and Johannes Helmrath’s concept of reception as ‘mutual transformation’, which emphasises the interdependency between antiquity and early modern cultures, the present chapter contributes to exploring the mutual influence between ancient Greek tragedy, Aristotle’s Poetics and 16th-century tragedies and theoretical treatises. More specifically, it investigates the multiple facets of the notion of hamartia in the mid-16thcentury translations of Aristotle’s treatise - from Pazzi de’ Medici’s Latin translation of the Poetics (1536), to Robortello’s commentary (1548), and Castelvetro’s first Italian commentary of the Poetics (1570) -; debates about vernacular tragedies, such as the literary quarrel around Speroni’s Canace; and early modern Oedipus plays, such as Pazzi de’ Medici’s Edipo Principe (1525-26) and Anguillara’s Edippo (1565). Shedding new light on the precarious balance between conservation, rejection, and recombination of the ancient sources, this approach thus highlights the active role of the receiving culture in appropriating and reconstructing the classical past.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Foreword VII
  4. Contents XI
  5. List of Figures and Tables XV
  6. Abbreviations XVII
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Part I: Translating Comedy
  9. Aristophanes’ Readers and Translators in 15th-Century Italy: The Latin Plutus of MS Matrit. Gr. 4697 17
  10. From Translating Aristophanes to Composing a Greek Comedy in 16th c. Europe: The Case of Alciato 37
  11. The Sausage-Seller Suddenly Speaks Vernacular: The First Italian Translation of Aristophanes’ Knights 53
  12. Part II: Translating Tragedy
  13. II.1: Scholarly Networks: Translation Models and Functions
  14. An ‘Origin’ of Translation: Erasmus’s Influence on Early Modern Translations of Greek Tragedy into Latin 69
  15. Imitation, Collaboration, Competition Between English and Continental Translators of Greek Tragedy 91
  16. Why Translate Greek Tragedy? Melanchthon, Winsheim, Camerarius, and Naogeorgus 115
  17. II.2: Proto-National Dynamics and Vernacular Translating
  18. Translating Ancient Greek Tragedy in 16th- Century Italy 135
  19. The Italian Translation of Euripides’ Hecuba by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (1568–1647) 159
  20. Sophocles in 16th-Century Portugal: Aires Vitória’s Tragédia del Rei Agaménom 175
  21. Translating Ancient Greek Drama into French, 1537–1580 189
  22. Part III: Beyond Translation
  23. Translation Ad Spiritum: Euripides’ Orestes and Nicholas Grimald’s Archipropheta (1548) 207
  24. Interpreting Oedipus’ Hamartia in the Italian Cinquecento: Theory and Practice (1526–1570) 227
  25. Coda: Dramaturgy and Translation
  26. Early Modern Iphigenias and Practice Research 253
  27. Afterword: Prospects for Pan-European Translation History 293
  28. List of Contributors 305
  29. Bibliography 307
  30. Index Nominum et Rerum 335
  31. Index Locorum 341
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110719185-013

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Acknowledgements V
  3. Foreword VII
  4. Contents XI
  5. List of Figures and Tables XV
  6. Abbreviations XVII
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Part I: Translating Comedy
  9. Aristophanes’ Readers and Translators in 15th-Century Italy: The Latin Plutus of MS Matrit. Gr. 4697 17
  10. From Translating Aristophanes to Composing a Greek Comedy in 16th c. Europe: The Case of Alciato 37
  11. The Sausage-Seller Suddenly Speaks Vernacular: The First Italian Translation of Aristophanes’ Knights 53
  12. Part II: Translating Tragedy
  13. II.1: Scholarly Networks: Translation Models and Functions
  14. An ‘Origin’ of Translation: Erasmus’s Influence on Early Modern Translations of Greek Tragedy into Latin 69
  15. Imitation, Collaboration, Competition Between English and Continental Translators of Greek Tragedy 91
  16. Why Translate Greek Tragedy? Melanchthon, Winsheim, Camerarius, and Naogeorgus 115
  17. II.2: Proto-National Dynamics and Vernacular Translating
  18. Translating Ancient Greek Tragedy in 16th- Century Italy 135
  19. The Italian Translation of Euripides’ Hecuba by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (1568–1647) 159
  20. Sophocles in 16th-Century Portugal: Aires Vitória’s Tragédia del Rei Agaménom 175
  21. Translating Ancient Greek Drama into French, 1537–1580 189
  22. Part III: Beyond Translation
  23. Translation Ad Spiritum: Euripides’ Orestes and Nicholas Grimald’s Archipropheta (1548) 207
  24. Interpreting Oedipus’ Hamartia in the Italian Cinquecento: Theory and Practice (1526–1570) 227
  25. Coda: Dramaturgy and Translation
  26. Early Modern Iphigenias and Practice Research 253
  27. Afterword: Prospects for Pan-European Translation History 293
  28. List of Contributors 305
  29. Bibliography 307
  30. Index Nominum et Rerum 335
  31. Index Locorum 341
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