The Arcadia of Jacopo Sannazaro
A New Translation with Commentary
Seiten
2025
The University of Michigan Press (Verlag)
978-0-472-13357-4 (ISBN)
The University of Michigan Press (Verlag)
978-0-472-13357-4 (ISBN)
Translating the foundational text of pastoral fiction and poetry into English for the modern scholar and reader
Five hundred years ago, working from hints in classical Greek and Latin poets, the young author Jacopo Sannazaro crafted the book called Arcadia, a narrative in richly descriptive Italian prose interwoven with elegant and passionate poems. A young man—transparently a stand-in for the author—leaves his home in Naples to join a community of shepherds in the remote Greek region of Arcadia. Yet he finds that this seemingly idyllic land is as fraught as the homeland he fled. Like the author’s humanist community in Naples, ravaged in the fifteenth century by invasion and regime change, the eloquent shepherd-poets of Arcadia are driven to distraction and depression by the frustrations of desire and the social unrest that threatens their pastoral lives. Amidst all that, they tell each other their personal histories and share their sorrows in song.
Sannazaro’s Arcadia is widely recognized as a foundational text of pastoral poetry, humanism, and Italian literature. But the book itself has been largely inaccessible to English-language students and readers. This new translation uses contemporary American English to convey Arcadia’s youthful vigor, narrative energy, and poetic inventiveness. The extensive introduction and commentaries place Arcadia in the context of late fifteenth-century humanist thought and writing, as well as the complicated crisis of Naples in the years just before 1500. This translation is designed to facilitate the re-entry of Arcadia into scholarly discourse and general readership while outlining its lasting cultural influence on poetry, drama, art and music.
Five hundred years ago, working from hints in classical Greek and Latin poets, the young author Jacopo Sannazaro crafted the book called Arcadia, a narrative in richly descriptive Italian prose interwoven with elegant and passionate poems. A young man—transparently a stand-in for the author—leaves his home in Naples to join a community of shepherds in the remote Greek region of Arcadia. Yet he finds that this seemingly idyllic land is as fraught as the homeland he fled. Like the author’s humanist community in Naples, ravaged in the fifteenth century by invasion and regime change, the eloquent shepherd-poets of Arcadia are driven to distraction and depression by the frustrations of desire and the social unrest that threatens their pastoral lives. Amidst all that, they tell each other their personal histories and share their sorrows in song.
Sannazaro’s Arcadia is widely recognized as a foundational text of pastoral poetry, humanism, and Italian literature. But the book itself has been largely inaccessible to English-language students and readers. This new translation uses contemporary American English to convey Arcadia’s youthful vigor, narrative energy, and poetic inventiveness. The extensive introduction and commentaries place Arcadia in the context of late fifteenth-century humanist thought and writing, as well as the complicated crisis of Naples in the years just before 1500. This translation is designed to facilitate the re-entry of Arcadia into scholarly discourse and general readership while outlining its lasting cultural influence on poetry, drama, art and music.
Nicholas R. Jones taught English at Oberlin College for over forty years, specializing in Renaissance literature. Now living in Berkeley, California, he is a translator and scholar, as well as a reviewer of classical music. Jones’s translation of the madrigals of Giovanni Battista Guarini was published by the University of Michigan Press in 2018.
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Introduction
Arcadia
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Glossary of Characters
Commentary
Bibliography
Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 14.01.2025 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 7 illustrations |
| Verlagsort | Ann Arbor |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter |
| Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-472-13357-8 / 0472133578 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-472-13357-4 / 9780472133574 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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