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The poetry of
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...
was written towards the end of the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
. It describes the lifestyle of the poet and his friends, as well as, most famously, his love for the woman he calls Lesbia.
Sources and organization
Catullus's poems have been preserved in three manuscripts that were copied from one of two copies made from a lost manuscript discovered around 1300. These three surviving manuscript copies are stored at the
Bibliothèque Nationale
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
in Paris, the
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, and the
Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
in Rome. These manuscripts contained approximately 116 of Catullus's ''
carmina
The ''Odes'' ( la, Carmina) are a collection in four books of Latin lyric poems by Horace. The Horatian ode format and style has been emulated since by other poets. Books 1 to 3 were published in 23 BC. A fourth book, consisting of 15 poems, was ...
''. However, a few fragments quoted by later Roman editors but not found in the manuscripts show that there are some additional poems that have been lost. There is no scholarly consensus on whether Catullus himself arranged the order of the poems.
While the numbering of the poems up to 116 has been retained, three of these poems—18, 19 and 20—are excluded from most modern editions because they are now considered not to be Catullan, having been added by
Muretus
Muretus is the Latinized name of Marc Antoine Muret (12 April 1526 – 4 June 1585), a French humanist who was among the revivers of a Ciceronian Latin style and is among the usual candidates for the best Latin prose stylist of the Renaissa ...
in his 1554 edition
(which identified 113 poems existing in the Catullan manuscripts). Some modern editors (and commentators), however, retain ''Poem'' 18 as genuine Catullan.
[ Furthermore, some editors have considered that, in some cases, two poems have been brought together by previous editors, and, by dividing these, add 2B, 14B, 58B, 68B and 78B as separate poems. Not all editors agree with these divisions, especially with regard to ''Poem'' 68.
Catullus's ''carmina'' can be divided into three formal parts: short poems in varying metres, called '' polymetra'' (1–60); eight longer poems (61–68); and forty-eight ]epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
s (69–116). The longer poems differ from the ''polymetra'' and the epigrams not only in length but also in their subjects: there are seven hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...
s and one mini-epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
, or epyllion
A sleeping Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis">Theseus.html" ;"title="Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus">Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis in Catullus 64, the most famous e ...
, the most highly prized form for the " new poets".
The ''polymetra'' and the epigrams can be divided into four major thematic groups (ignoring a rather large number of poems eluding such categorization):
* poems to and about his friends (e.g., an invitation such as ''Poem'' 13).
* erotic
Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, scul ...
poems: some of them indicate homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
penchants (48, 50, and 99), but most are about women, especially about one he calls "Lesbia
Lesbia was the literary pseudonym used by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus ( 82–52 BC) to refer to his lover. Lesbia is traditionally identified with Clodia, the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and sister of Publius Clodius Pulc ...
" (in honour of the poet Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
of Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Anatolia, Asia Minor ...
, source and inspiration of many of his poems); philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
s have gone to considerable efforts to discover her real identity, and many have concluded that Lesbia was Clodia
Clodius is an alternate form of the Roman '' nomen'' Claudius, a patrician '' gens'' that was traditionally regarded as Sabine in origin. The alternation of ''o'' and ''au'' is characteristic of the Sabine dialect. The feminine form is Clodia.
R ...
, sister of the infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher
Publius Clodius Pulcher (93–52 BC) was a populist Roman politician and street agitator during the time of the First Triumvirate. One of the most colourful personalities of his era, Clodius was descended from the aristocratic Claudia gens, one ...
and a woman known for her generous sexuality, but this identification rests on some rather fragile assumptions. Catullus displays a wide range of highly emotional and seemingly contradictory responses to Lesbia, ranging from tender love poems to sadness, disappointment, and bitter sarcasm
Sarcasm is the caustic use of words, often in a humorous way, to mock someone or something. Sarcasm may employ ambivalence, although it is not necessarily ironic. Most noticeable in spoken word, sarcasm is mainly distinguished by the inflection ...
.
* invective
Invective (from Middle English ''invectif'', or Old French and Late Latin ''invectus'') is abusive, reproachful, or venomous language used to express blame or censure; or, a form of rude expression or discourse intended to offend or hurt; vituperat ...
s: some of these often rude and sometimes downright obscene
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...
poems are targeted at friends-turned-traitors (e.g., ''Poem'' 16) and other lovers of Lesbia, but many well-known poets, politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
s (e.g. Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
) and orators, including Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
, are thrashed as well. However, many of these poems are humorous and craftily veil the sting of the attack. For example, Catullus writes a poem mocking a pretentious descendant of a freedman
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
who emphasizes the letter "h" in his speech because it makes him sound more like a learned Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
by adding unnecessary Hs to words like ''insidias'' (ambush).
* condolence
Condolences (from Latin ''con'' (with) + ''dolore'' (sorrow)) are an expression of sympathy to someone who is experiencing pain arising from death, deep mental anguish, or misfortune.
When individuals condole, or offer their condolences to a part ...
s: some poems of Catullus are, in fact, serious in nature. One poem, 96, comforts a friend for the death of his wife, while several others, most famously 101, lament the death of his brother.
All these poems describe the lifestyle of Catullus and his friends, who, despite Catullus's temporary political post in Bithynia, appear to have lived withdrawn from politics. They were interested mainly in poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
. Above all other qualities, Catullus seems to have sought ''venustas'' (attractiveness, beauty) and ''lepos'' (charm). The ancient Roman concept of ''virtus'' (i.e. of virtue
Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standard ...
that had to be proved by a political or military career), which Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
suggested as the solution to the societal problems of the late Republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
, are interrogated in Catullus.
But it is not the traditional notions Catullus rejects, merely their monopolized application to the active life of politics and war. Indeed, he tries to reinvent these notions from a personal point of view and to introduce them into human relationships. For example, he applies the word ''fides'', which traditionally meant faithfulness towards one's political allies, to his relationship with Lesbia and reinterprets it as unconditional faithfulness in love. So, despite the seeming frivolity of his lifestyle, Catullus measured himself and his friends by quite ambitious standards.
Catullus is the predecessor in Roman elegy for poets like Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. Catullus's focus in his poetry is on himself, the male lover. He writes obsessively about Lesbia; however she is just an object to him. In his writing, the male lover is the important character, and Lesbia is part of his theatrical passion. Catullus's love-poetry offers a superb example of why it is not enough in love to focus exclusively on one's own feelings. It is important to note Catullus came at the beginning of this genre, so his work is much different than his predecessors. Ovid is heavily influenced by Catullus; however, he switches the focus of his writing to the concept of love and Amor, rather than himself or the male lover. This opposing views begin to shape the different types of love and controversies in Roman elegiac poetry.
Inspirations
Catullus deeply admired Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
and Callimachus
Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide variety ...
. ''Poem'' 66 is a quite faithful translation of Callimachus' poem Βερενίκης Πλόκαμος ("Berenice's Braid", '' Aetia'' fr. 110 Pfeiffer) and he adapted one of his epigrams, on the lover Callignotus who broke his promise to Ionis in favor of a boy (Ep. 11 Gow-Page) into poem 70. Poem 51, on the other hand, is an adaption and re-imagining of Sappho 31
Sappho 31 is an archaic Greek lyric poem by the ancient Greek poet Sappho of the island of Lesbos. The poem is also known as phainetai moi (φαίνεταί μοι) after the opening words of its first line. It is one of Sappho's most famous poe ...
. Poems 51 and 11 are the only poems of Catullus written in the meter of Sapphic strophe, and may be respectively his first and last poems to Lesbia. He was also inspired by the corruption of Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
, Pompey
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...
, and the other aristocrats of his time.
Influence
Catullus was a popular poet in the Renaissance and a central model for the neo-Latin love elegy. By 1347 Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
was an admirer and imitator who read the ancient poet in the Verona codex (the "V" manuscript). Catullus also influenced other humanist poets, including Panormita, Pontano
Giovanni Pontano (1426–1503), later known as Giovanni Gioviano ( la, Ioannes Iovianus Pontanus), was a humanist and poet from Cerreto di Spoleto, in central Italy. He was the leading figure of the Accademia Pontaniana after the death of Antonio ...
, and Marullus.[ ]
Catullus influenced many English poets, including Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell (; 31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1678. During the Commonwealth period he was a colleague and friend ...
and Robert Herrick. Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
and Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
wrote imitations of his shorter poems, particularly Catullus 5
Catullus 5 is a passionate ode to Lesbia and one of the most famous poems by Catullus. The poem encourages lovers to scorn the snide comments of others, and to live only for each other, since life is brief and death brings a night of perpetual slee ...
, and John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
wrote of the poet's "Satyirical sharpness, or naked plainness."
He has been praised as a lyricist and translated by writers including Thomas Campion
Thomas Campion (sometimes spelled Campian; 12 February 1567 – 1 March 1620) was an English composer, poet, and physician. He was born in London, educated at Cambridge, studied law in Gray's inn. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques for ...
, William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
, James Methven, and Louis Zukofsky
Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...
.[
Poems 5, 8, 32, 41, 51, 58, 70, 73, 75, 85, 87 and 109 were set to music by ]Carl Orff
Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata ''Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education.
Life
Early life
Car ...
as part of his Catulli Carmina
' (''Songs of Catullus'') is a cantata by Carl Orff dating from 1940–1943. He described it as ''ludi scaenici'' (scenic plays). The work mostly sets poems of the Latin poet Catullus to music, with some text by the composer. ''Catulli Carmina'' i ...
.
Style
Catullus wrote in many different meters including hendecasyllabic
In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and ...
and elegiac couplet
The elegiac couplet is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in Latin many years later. ...
s (common in love poetry). A portion of his poetry (roughly a fourth) shows strong and occasionally wild emotions especially in regard to Lesbia
Lesbia was the literary pseudonym used by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus ( 82–52 BC) to refer to his lover. Lesbia is traditionally identified with Clodia, the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer and sister of Publius Clodius Pulc ...
. He also demonstrates a great sense of humour such as in Catullus 13 and 42.
Many of the literary techniques he used are still common today, including hyperbole
Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...
: ''plenus sacculus est aranearum'' (Catullus 13), which translates as ‘ ypurse is all full – of cobwebs.’ He also uses anaphora e.g. ''Salve, nec minimo puella naso nec bello pede nec…''(Catullus 43) as well as tricolon
Isocolon is a rhetorical scheme in which parallel elements possess the same number of words or syllables. As in any form of parallelism, the pairs or series must enumerate like things to achieve symmetry. The scheme is called bicolon, tricolon, ...
and alliteration
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
. He is also very fond of diminutives such as in Catullus 50: ''Hesterno, Licini, die otiose/multum lusimus in meis tabellis'' – Yesterday, Licinius, was a day of leisure/ playing many games in my little note books.
History of the texts of Catullus's poems
Far more than for major Classical poets such as Virgil and Horace, the texts of Catullus's poems are in a corrupted condition, with omissions and disputable word choices present in many of the poems, making textual analysis and even conjectural changes important in the study of his poems.
A single book of poems by Catullus barely survived the millennia, and the texts of a great many of the poems are considered corrupted to one extent or another from hand transmission of manuscript to manuscript. Even an early scribe, of the manuscript G, lamented the poor condition of the source and announced to readers that he was not to blame:[
Even in the twentieth century, not all major manuscripts were known to all major scholars (or at least the importance of all of the major manuscripts was not recognized), and some important scholarly works on Catullus don't refer to them.][
]
Before the fourteenth century
In the Middle Ages, Catullus appears to have been barely known. In one of the few references to his poetry, Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
quotes from the poet in the seventh century. In 966 Bishop Rather of Verona, the poet's hometown, discovered a manuscript of his poems "and reproached himself for spending day and night with Catullus's poetry." No more information on any Catullus manuscript is known again until about 1300.[
]
Major source manuscripts up to the fourteenth century
A small number of manuscripts were the main vehicles for preserving Catullus's poems, known by these capital-letter names. Other, minor source manuscripts are designated with lower-case letters.
In summary, these are the relationships of major Catullus manuscripts:
* The V manuscript spawned A, which spawned O and X. The X manuscript then spawned G and R, and T is some kind of distant relative.
* O, G, R, and T are known exactly, but V is lost, and we have no direct knowledge of A and X, which are deduced by scholars.
Descriptions and history of the major source manuscripts
*T – ninth-century – contains only ''Poem'' 62.
*V – nothing is known about its creation date, except that it was certainly written in a minuscule script; it became known in the late 13th or early 14th century[ – a manuscript preserved in the ]Chapter Library of Verona 250px, Verona Cathedral (2022)
Verona Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Santa Maria Matricolare; Duomo di Verona) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Verona, northern Italy, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the designation ''Santa Maria Matricolare ...
and also known as the Verona Codex, is said to have been "clearly available to various Paduan and Veronese humanists in the period 1290 – 1310".[ Benvenuto de Campesanis "celebrated the discovery as the poet's resurrection from the dead".][ This manuscript is now lost. V was the sole source of nearly all of the poet's surviving work. It was a "late and corrupt copy which was already the despair of its earliest scribes." Many scholars think this manuscript spawned manuscripts O, X, G, and R.
*A – a scholar-deduced intermediate source of the O and X manuscripts.][ If it existed, it could date from the late 13th to sometime in the 14th century – created from V soon after V was discovered in Verona. Its (disputable) existence is deduced from the titles and divisions of the poems of the O, X, G, and R manuscripts.][
*O – last third of the fourteenth century. It is most probably the oldest of all known MSS. containing the entire Catullan corpus (T is five hundred years older, but it contains only one poem). Its importance was not presented to the public until R. Ellis brought out ''Catulli Veronensis Liber'' in 1867 (Oxford).][
*X – last quarter of the fourteenth century. This manuscript is lost; scholars deduced its existence as a direct source of the later G and R manuscripts. Contrary to the disputable existence of A, the existence of X is not doubted.][
*G – last quarter of the fourteenth century. G and R are two manuscripts with close textual "proximity" that "make it clear that these two descend together" from a common source (X). G bears a date of 19 October 1375 in its subscription, but there is a prevailing opinion of scholars that this date (and the entire subscription) has been copied from X.][
*R – in about 1391, the X manuscript was copied for the humanist ]Coluccio Salutati
Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 – 4 May 1406) was an Italian humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence; as chancellor of the Republic and its most prominent voice, he was effec ...
, the chancellor of Florence. This copy is the R manuscript. Coluccio added some important marginal readings, now called "R2". Some of this material comes from the X manuscript because it is also present in G. The R manuscript, lost through an error in cataloguing, was dramatically rediscovered in a dusty corner of the Vatican Library by the American scholar William Gardner Hale
William Gardner Hale (February 9, 1849June 23, 1928), American classical scholar, was born in Savannah, Georgia to a resident New England family.G.L. Hendrickson, "William Gardner Hale," 24 Classic J. 167-73 (Dec. 1928).
Hale was a graduate of P ...
in 1896. It helped form the basis of Ellis's ''Oxford Classical Text'' of Catullus in 1904, but didn't receive wide recognition until 1970, when it was printed in a facsimile edition by D.F.S. Thompson: ''The Codex Romanus of Catullus: A Collation of the Text'' (RhM 113: 97–110).[
]
In print
The text was first printed in Venice by printer Wendelin von Speyer in 1472. There were many manuscripts in circulation by this time. A second printed edition appeared the following year in Parma by Francesco Puteolano, who stated that he had made extensive corrections to the previous edition.[
Over the next hundred years, ]Poliziano
Agnolo (Angelo) Ambrogini (14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known by his nickname Poliziano (; anglicized as Politian; Latin: '' Politianus''), was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scho ...
, Scaliger
The Della Scala family, whose members were known as Scaligeri () or Scaligers (; from the Latinized ''de Scalis''), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years.
History
Wh ...
and other humanists worked on the text and "dramatically improved" it, according to Stephen J. Harrison: "the ''apparatus criticus'' of any modern edition bears eloquent witness to the activities of these fifteenth and sixteenth-century scholars."[
The divisions of poems gradually approached something very close to the modern divisions, especially with the 1577 edition of Joseph J. Scaliger, ''Catulli Properti Tibulli nova editio'' (Paris).][
:"Sixteenth-century Paris was an especially lively center of Catullan scholarship," one Catullus scholar has written. Scaliger's edition took a "novel approach to textual criticism. Scaliger argued that all Catullus manuscripts descended from a single, lost archetype. ... His attempt to reconstruct the characteristics of the lost archetype was also highly original. .. the tradition of classical philology, there was no precedent for so detailed an effort at reconstruction of a lost witness."][
In 1876, ]Emil Baehrens Paul Heinrich Emil Baehrens (24 September 1848, in Bayenthal – 26 September 1888, in Groningen) was a German classical scholar.
After completing his studies he became ''Privatdozent'' at Jena. In 1877 he was appointed ordinary professor at the Un ...
brought out the first version of his edition, ''Catulli Veronensis Liber'' (two volumes; Leipzig), which contained the text from G and O alone, with a number of emendations.[
]
In the twentieth century
The 1949 Oxford Classical Text by R.A.B. Mynors, partly because of its wide availability, has become the standard text, at least in the English-speaking world.[
One very influential article in Catullus scholarship, R.G.M. Nisbet's "Notes on the text and interpretation of Catullus" (available in Nisbet's ''Collected Papers on Latin Literature'', Oxford, 1995), gave Nisbet's own conjectural solutions to more than 20 problematic passages of the poems. He also revived a number of older conjectures, going as far back as Renaissance scholarship, which editors had ignored.][
Another influential text of Catullus poems is that of George P. Goold, ''Catullus'' (London, 1983).][
]
Readings
File:Catullus 1 in Latin English Cui dono lepidum novum libellum.webm, Catullus 1 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 2 in Latin English Passer, deliciae meae puellae.webm, Catullus 2 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 3 in Latin English Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque.webm, Catullus 3 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 4 in Latin English Phaselus ille, quem videtis, hospites.webm, Catullus 4 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 5 in Latin English Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus.webm, Catullus 5 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 6 in Latin English Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo.webm, Catullus 6 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 7 in Latin English Quaeris, quot mihi basiationes tuae, Lesbia.webm, Catullus 7 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 8 in Latin English Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire.webm, Catullus 8 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 9 in Latin English Verani, omnibus e meis amicis.webm, Catullus 9 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 10 in Latin English Varus me meus ad suos amores.webm, Catullus 10 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 11 in Latin English Furi et Aureli comites Catulli.webm, Catullus 11 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 12 in Latin English Marrucine Asini, manu sinistra non belle uteris.webm, Catullus 12 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 14 in Latin English Ni te plus oculis meis amarem, iucundissime Calve.webm, Catullus 14 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 15 in Latin English Commendo tibi me ac meos amores, Aureli.webm, Catullus 15 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 16 in Latin English Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.webm, Catullus 16 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 17 in Latin English O Colonia, quae cupis ponte ludere longo.webm, Catullus 17 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 21 in Latin English Aureli, pater esuritionum.webm, Catullus 21 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 22 in Latin English Suffenus iste, Vare, quem probe nosti.webm, Catullus 22 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 23 in Latin English Furi cui neque servus est neque arca.webm, Catullus 23 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 24 in Latin English O qui flosculus es Iuventiorum.webm, Catullus 24 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 25 in Latin English Cinaede Thalle, mollior cuniculi capillo.webm, Catullus 25 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 26 in Latin English Furi, villula vestra non ad Austri flatus opposita est.webm, Catullus 26 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 27 in Latin English Minister vetuli puer Falerni.webm, Catullus 27 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 28 in Latin English Pisonis comites, cohors inanis.webm, Catullus 28 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 29 in Latin English Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati.webm, Catullus 29 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 30 in Latin English Alfene immemor atque unanimis false sodalibus.webm, Catullus 30 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 31 in Latin English Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque ocelle.webm, Catullus 31 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 32 in Latin English Amabo, mea dulcis Ipsitilla; Pronunciation Meter Notes.webm, Catullus 32 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 33 in Latin O furum optime balneariorum, Pronunciation, Meter, Vocabulary Grammar Notes.webm, Catullus 33 Latin and English
File:Catullus 34 in Latin English w Pronunciation Meter Notes Dianae sumus in fide.webm, Catullus 34 Latin and English
File:Catullus 35 in Latin English Poetae tenero, meo sodali, velim Caecilio, Papyre.webm, Catullus 35 Latin and English
File:Catullus 36 in Latin English Annales Volusi, cacata carta.webm, Catullus 36 Latin and English
File:Catullus 37 in Latin English Salax taberna vosque contubernales.webm, Catullus 37 Latin and English
File:Catullus 38 in Latin and English.webm, Catullus 38 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 39 in Latin English, Vocabulary, Grammar Notes Egnatius, quod candidos habet dentes.webm, Catullus 39 in Latin and English
File:Catullus 40 in Latin English; Vocabulary Grammar Notes Quaenam te mala mens, miselle Ravide.webm, Catullus 40 Latin and English
File:Catullus 41 in Latin English with Vocabulary Grammar notes Ameana puella defututa.webm, Catullus 41 Latin and English
File:Catullus 42 in Latin English, Vocabulary Grammar Notes Adeste, hendecasyllabi, quot estis omnes.webm, Catullus 42 Latin and English
File:Catullus 43 in Latin English, Vocabulary Grammar Notes Salve, nec minimo puella naso.webm, Catullus 43 Latin and English
File:Catullus 44 in Latin English with Vocabulary Notes O funde noster seu Sabine seu Tiburs.webm, Catullus 44 Latin and English
File:Catullus 45 in Latin English Acmen Septimius suos amores.webm, Catullus 45 in Latin English
File:Catullus 46 in Latin English Iam ver egelidos refert tepores, Vocabulary Notes.webm, Catullus 46 in Latin English
File:Catullus 47 in Latin English Porci et Socration, duae sinistrae Pisonis.webm, Catullus 47 in Latin English
File:Catullus 48.webm, Catullus 48 Latine Anglice Mellitos oculos tuos, Iuventi
File:Catullus 49 in Latin & English- Disertissime Romuli nepotum.webm, Catullus 49 in Latin & English- Disertissime Romuli nepotum
File:Catullus 50 in Latin & English- Hesterno, Licini, die otiosi, Vocabulary notes.webm, Catullus 50 in Latin & English- Hesterno, Licini, die otiosi, Vocabulary notes
File:Catullus 51 in Latin English Ille mi par esse deo videtur, Pronunciation Meter Notes.webm, Catullus 51 Latin and English
File:Catullus 52 in Latin & English- Quid est, Catulle- Quid moraris emori-.webm, Catullus 52 in Latin & English- Quid est, Catulle- Quid moraris emori
File:Catullus 53 in Latin & English- Risi nescio quem modo e corona.webm, Catullus 53 in Latin & English- Risi nescio quem modo e corona
File:Catullus 55 in Latin & English- Oramus, si forte non molestum est.webm, Catullus 55 in Latin & English- Oramus, si forte non molestum est
File:Catullus 101 in Latin w Pronunciation Meter Notes Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus.webm, Catullus 101
See also
* Codex Vaticanus Ottobonianus Latinus 1829
Notes
References
*''Oxford Latin Reader'', by Maurice Balme and James Morwood (1997)
Collections and commentaries
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External links
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Poems of Catullus at ''Project Gutenberg''
Catullus's work in Latin and over 25 other languages at ''Catullus Translations''
Find other Catullus-minded people and discuss his works with them at the ''Catullus Forum''
The complete poems of Catullus at ''The Latin Library''
Short essay on Catullus by Morgan Meis of 3 Quarks Daily
''3 Quarks Daily'' is an online news aggregator and blog that curates commentary, essays, and multimedia from selected periodicals, newspapers, journals, and blogs. The focus is on literature, the arts, politics, current affairs, science, philos ...
Poems of Catullus in Latin/English
CATULLUS PURIFIED: A BRIEF HISTORY OF CARMEN 16
Catullus
text, concordances, and frequency list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poetry Of Catullus
Catullus, Poetry
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...
LGBT poetry
Articles containing video clips