The Neo-Latin Epigram

Download or read book The Neo-Latin Epigram written by Susanna de Beer and published by Universitaire Pers Leuven. This book was released on 2009 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epigram is certainly one of the most intriguing, while at the same time most elusive, genres of Neo-Latin literature. From the end of the fifteenth century, almost every humanist writer who regarded himself a true "poeta" had composed a respectable number of epigrams. Given our sense of poetical aesthetics, be it idealistic, postidealistic, modern, or postmodern, the epigrammatic genre is difficult to understand. Because of its close ties with the historical and social context, it does not fit any of these aesthetic approaches. By presenting various epigram writers, collections, and subgenres from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, this volume offers a first step toward a better understanding of some of the features of humanist epigram literature.