Résumés
Abstract
In his Neo-Latin poem Chrysopoeia (1515), the Italian humanist Giovanni Aurelio Augurello often declares to be outdoing the ancients in writing the first alchemical poem in Latin. Is this simply an instance of what E. R. Curtius called outdoing a topos? Or is Augurello’s poem actually venturing onto a metaphorically untrodden path? Based on an analysis of Chrysopoeia, its genesis, and its sources, this article aims to assess the extent of this poem’s novelty. In particular, my interpretation focuses on this text’s poetic transpositions of non-literary sources, and more specifically Geber’s Summa perfectionis and other medieval alchemical texts.
Keywords:
- Intertextuality,
- Neo-Latin Poetry,
- Alchemy,
- Renaissance Humanism,
- G. A. Augurello
Résumé
Dans son poème néo-latin Chrysopoeia (1515), l’humaniste italien Giovanni Aurelio Augurello déclare à plusieurs reprises qu’il surpasse les Anciens en écrivant le premier poème alchimique latin. Est-ce simplement un exemple de ce que E. R. Curtius appelait « surpasser un topos » ? Ou le poème d’Augurello s’aventure-t-il réellement sur un territoire métaphoriquement inexploré ? En se fondant sur l’analyse de Chrysopoeia, sa genèse et ses sources, cet article cherche à évaluer l’étendue de la nouveauté de ce poème. Notre interprétation se concentre en particulier sur les transpositions poétiques de sources non littéraires dans ce poème, et plus spécifiquement sur la Summa perfectionis de Geber et d’autres textes alchimiques médiévaux.
Veuillez télécharger l’article en PDF pour le lire.
Télécharger
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Albert the Great. Book of Minerals. Translated by Dorothy Wyckoff. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
- Albert the Great. Libellus de alchimia. In B. Alberti Magni Opera omnia. Paris: Vives, 1890.
- Albert the Great. Libellus de Alchimia: Ascribed to Albertus Magnus. Translated by Virginia Heines. Berkley: University of California Press, 1958.
- Alberti, Leon Battista. De re aedificatoria. Edited by Giovanni Orlandi. Rome: Il Polifilo, 1966.
- Alberti, Leon Battista. On the Art of Building in Ten Books. Translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988.
- Augurello, Giovanni Aurelio. Ioannis Aurelii Augurelli Chrysopoeia libri tres et Geronticon liber primus. Venice: Da Lovere, 1515.
- Calvet, Antoine. “L’alchimie du pseudo-Albert le Grand.” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 79, no. 1 (2012): 115–60. https://doi.org/10.3917/ahdlm.079.0115.
- Curtius, Ernst Robert. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400846153.
- Dalzell, Alexander. The Criticism of Didactic Poetry: Essays on Lucretius, Virgil, and Ovid. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442673601.
- Fowler, Don. “On the Shoulders of Giants: Intertextuality and Classical Studies.” Materiali e Discussioni per l’analisi Dei Testi Classici 39 (1997): 13– 34. https://doi.org/10.2307/40236104.
- Giraldi, Lilio Gregorio. Modern Poets. Edited and translated by John N. Grant. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
- Hanegraaff, Wouter J., and Ruud M. Bouthoorn, eds. Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447– 1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005.
- Haskell, Yasmine. “Work or Play? Latin ‘Recreational’ Georgic Poetry of the Italian Renaissance.” Humanistica Lovaniensia 48 (1999): 132–59. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23973806.
- Kahn, Didier. “Alchemical Poetry in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: A Preliminary Survey and Synthesis Part I—Preliminary Survey.” Ambix 57, no. 3 (2010): 249–74. https://doi.org/10.1179/174582310X12849808295788.
- Kahn, Didier. “Alchemical Poetry in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: A Preliminary Survey and Synthesis Part II—Synthesis.” Ambix 58, no. 1 (2011): 62–77. https://doi.org/10.1179/174582311X12947034675514.
- Kahn, Didier. “La poésie alchimique dans l’Europe médiévale et modern.” In Alchemie und Poesie: Deutsche Alchemikerdichtungen des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts. Untersuchungen und Texte, edited by Joachin Telle, 85–148. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110290516.85.
- Laird, Andrew. “Politian’s Ambra and Reading Epic Didactically.” In Latin Epic and Didactic Poetry: Genre, Tradition and Individuality, edited by Monica Gale, 24–47. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2004. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1n357vk.7.
- Lazzarelli, Ludovico. Ludovici Lazzarelli Septempedani […] Bombyx accesserunt ipsius aliorumque poetarum carmina cum commentariis de vitis eorumdem Joanne Francisco Lancillottio a Staphylo auctore. Edited by Pietro Paolo Bonelli. Jesi: Bonelli, 1765.
- Loconsole, Mario. “A Theory on the Formation of Minerals: Albert the Great and the Constitution of Scientific Mineralogy.” Quaestio 20 (2020): 369– 87. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.QUAESTIO.5.122865.
- Matton, Sylvain. “L’influence de l’humanisme sur la tradition alchimique.” Micrologus 3 (1995): 279–345.
- Newman, William R. “Alchemical Symbolism and Concealment: The Chemical House of Libavius.” In The Architecture of Science, edited by Peter Gallison and Emily Thompson, 59–77. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb08330.0001.001.
- Newman, William R. “Decknamen or Pseudochemical Language? Eirenaeus Philalethes and Carl Jung.” Revue d’histoire des sciences 49, no. 2–3 (1996): 159–88.
- Newman, William R. “New Light on the Identity of ‘Geber.’ ” Sudhoffs Archiv 69, no. 1 (1985): 76–90. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20776956.
- Newman, William R. Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226577135.001.0001.
- Newman, William R., ed. The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study. Leiden: Brill, 1991.
- Newman, William R. “Technology and Alchemical Debate in the Late Middle Ages.” Isis 80, no. 3 (September 1989): 423–45. https://doi.org/10.1086/355083.
- Nummedal, Tara. Alchemy and Authority in the Holy Roman Empire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226608570.001.0001.
- Petrarca, Francesco. De remediis utriuqsue fortunae. In Opera Omnia, edited by Pasquale Stoppelli. Rome: Lexis, 1997.
- Principe, Lawrence M. “Revealing Analogies: The Descriptive and Deceptive Roles of Sexuality and Gender in Latin Alchemy.” In Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jeffrey Kripal, 209–29. Leiden: Brill, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004168732.i-544.58.
- Principe, Lawrence M. The Secrets of Alchemy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
- Rawski, Conrad H., ed. Petrarch’s Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul: A Modern English Translation of De remediis utriusque fortunae, and a Commentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.
- Soranzo, Matteo. “Giovanni Aurelio Augurello.” The Literary Encyclopedia, 12 November 2020. https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople. php?rec=true&UID=14633.
- Soranzo, Matteo, ed. Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524) and Renaissance Alchemy: A Critical Edition of Chrysopoeia and Other Alchemical Poems, with an Introduction, English Translation and Commentary. Leiden: Brill, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004416161.
- Vergil. Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid: Books 1–6. Translated by H. Rushton Fairclough. Revised by G. P. Goold. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.
- Wendelken, Rebecca Woodward. “Wefts and Worms: The Spread of Sericulture and Silk Weaving in the West before 1300.” Medieval Clothing and Textiles 10 (2014): 59–77.