Abstracts
Abstract
I examine a dialogue between the Renaissance Supplements to Virgil’s Aeneid by Pier Candido Decembrio and Maffeo Vegio. I argue that Decembrio’s short poem is not unfinished but instead provides the Iliadic ending to the Aeneid that Virgil withholds, namely a lament over Turnus’s body to match the lament over Hector at the end of Iliad 24. I then argue that Decembrio’s poem presents us with a dangerously unstable situation in Italy, dominated by commemorations of Turnus in such heroic terms that they threaten to displace Virgil’s hero Aeneas from primacy in his own story. Vegio’s response “corrects” this portrayal of Turnus in favour of a more orthodox Virgilian narrative in which Turnus is a tragically misguided enemy of Aeneas’s divine mission to Italy. I conclude with a new edition and translation of Decembrio’s Supplement, drawing on both of the extant manuscripts and addressing several textual difficulties.
Keywords:
- Virgil,
- Aeneid,
- Pier Candido Decembrio,
- Maffeo Vegio,
- Translation,
- Reception Studies
Résumé
Nous examinons un dialogue entre les Suppléments à l’Énéide de Virgile composés par Pier Candido Decembrio et par Maffeo Vegio. Nous avançons que le bref poème de Decembrio n’est pas inachevé, mais qu’il fournit plutôt la fin iliadique à l’Énéide retenue par Virgile, à savoir une complainte sur le corps de Turnus qui correspond à la complainte sur Hector à la fin du chant 24 de l’Iliade. Nous suggérons ensuite que le poème de Decembrio met en scène une situation dangereusement instable en Italie, dominée par les commémorations de Turnus en des termes si héroïques qu’elles menacent de destituer le héros virgilien, Énée, de sa primauté dans son propre récit. La réponse de Vegio « corrige » ce portrait de Turnus en faveur d’un récit virgilien plus orthodoxe dans lequel Turnus, tragiquement dans l’erreur, est un ennemi de la mission divine d’Énée en Italie. Nous concluons en proposant une nouvelle édition et traduction du Supplément de Decembrio, en nous appuyant sur les deux manuscrits existants et en abordant plusieurs difficultés textuelles.
Appendices
Bibliography
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