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Sąd Parysa. Widowisko pantomimiczne (w relacji filozoficznego osła)

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Wasyl A. M.

Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae

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2020

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vol. 30

EN

This paper focuses on the description of a pantomimic spectacle given by Apuleius in the 10th book of his Metamorphoses. Set in a theater in Corinth and narrated by Lucius the ass, this performance relates the story of the judgment of Paris. Lucius, as the viewer of the performance (and, from our perspective, its main teller), styles himself as an objective ‘connoisseur’ of the art of pantomime. Upon a closer look, however, one realizes that he has been absorbed by the scenic illusion and takes it for his own reality. Consequently, despite his penchant for philosophizing, he turns out to be not merely Lucius the ass, but an asinine philosopher, indeed.

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Plus ratio quam vis. Od mimochodem rzuconej sentencji do dewizy uniwersyteckiej

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Wasyl A. M.

Terminus

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2013

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vol. 15

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issue 1(26)

PL

Plus ratio quam vis, or, the career of a sentence Although the Jagiellonian University was established as early as in 1364, its widelyrecognized motto was chosen and inscribed on the portico leading from the Assembly Hall to Copernicus Hall much later, only in the mid-twentieth century. In 1952, Professor Karol Estreicher Jr., the head of the University Museum, came across a sentence which he considered “worth being the Jagiellonian University’s motto” (the inscription was eventually carved on the portico in 1964). Apparently, all that Estreicher knew was that the phrase plus ratio quam vis was “a part of a Latin proverb.” He had no idea whatsoever of its author or the original context in which it had been used. Frequently (still too frequently, in truth) the phrase is quoted as coined by Cornelius Gallus, usually labeled, after Ovid, the first of the elegiac poets of Rome. The mistake is justifiable, at least to some extent, as the actual author of the poetic work in which the hemistich appears was for quite a long time mistaken for Cornelius Gallus. After Pomponius Gauricus’s edition of Cornelii Galli Fragmenta (Venice, 1501 die. XII. Ianuarii, which actually means 1502, as the date is indicated more veneto), the elegiac oeuvre by Maximianus, an author active in sixth-century Italy, was, so to speak, redefined as Gallus’s. Until the late eighteenth century the false attribution continued to be repeated by many other editors, who in fact very willingly published collections of the Roman love poets, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and ‘Gallus’ (= Maximianus). It is to some point ironic that in the modern era Maximianus was so easily deprived of the ‘copyright’ to his own poetry, considering that earlier, in the Middle Ages, he was an author (relatively) well-known (under his real name) and even read in and recommended for schools. This aspect brings us back to our main topic here, i.e. the choice of Maximianus’s phrase as the motto of the Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world. Karol Estreicher himself was presumably not aware of this but Maximianus was indeed studied in the Kraków Academy in mid-fifteenth century (as two manuscripts, BJ 1954 and 2141, preserved in the Jagiellonian Library, clearly indicate). He was studied for his vivid descriptions of old age (for which he was celebrated among many medieval commentators and theorists of teaching, who apparently were not at all embarrassed by the fact that their students, when reading Maximianus, might have also read a laus Mentulae) and for his sententiositas. What is more, the Jagiellonian Library possesses a considerable collection of incunabula and old prints containing Maximianus’s (or ‘Gallus’s’) work. So paradoxically, Karol Estreicher could not have chosen better. The motto of UJ is related to its history, in the sense that it is taken from an author whose work was on the reading list in the Academy in the later Middle Ages, it is concise, intelligent, significant, and ‘decent,’ even though it was originally expressed by a poet who was not less efficient when coining memorable sententiae than when singing the praises of Mentula, the embodiment of human corporeality.

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Marcjalis wśród Wandalów. Epigram skoptyczny Luxoriusa a tradycja gatunku

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Wasyl A. M.

Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae

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2010

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vol. 20

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issue 1

95-108

EN

This paper is devoted to scoptic epigrams of Luxorius, the so-called Carthaginian Martial, active in Carthage during the last decades of the Vandal occupation of North Africa in the sixth century A.D. I focus first on the question of the genre as understood ad employed by the poet, most probably the first conscious follower of the Martialian model of the epigram in Latin literature. In the second part of my paper I propose a comparative reading of a few scoptic themes by Martial and Luxorius, namely: 1) a lover of ugly girls (L. 329 R2; M. I 10, III 76); 2) an old man trying to hide his age (L. 343 R2; M. III 43, VI 57); 3) an aged woman and sex (L. 301 R2; M. X 67); 4) a blind man pleased with his handicap (L. 357 R2; M. VIII 51). As I show, Luxorius's elaboration of certain epigrammatic motifs can be considered not less successful and interesting to read than Martial's.

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Quemlibet dehortari ne … senectutis vicia desideret. Maximianus’s Elegy on Old Age and a Few Examples of Its Medieval Reception.

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Wasyl A. M.

Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae

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2014

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vol. 24

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issue 2

135-152

PL

The present paper is devoted to Maximianus, and in particular to the motif of mala senectutis as developed by this late antique (6th cent. A.D.) Latin elegiac poet. After discussing some particularly informative passages, I focus on Maximianus’s interpretations and reinterpretations by Columbanus (543 – 615), Eugenius of Toledo († 657), and the anonymous author of the ninth century Imitatio Maximiani. I also point out his presence in vernacular medieval literature, namely English. Last but not least, I demonstrate how Maximianus’s image of an old man praying to Mother Earth inspired one of medieval scribes copying his text (in ms BJ 2141).

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Sąd Parysa. Widowisko pantomimiczne (w relacji filozoficznego osła)

Plus ratio quam vis. Od mimochodem rzuconej sentencji do dewizy uniwersyteckiej

Marcjalis wśród Wandalów. Epigram skoptyczny Luxoriusa a tradycja gatunku

Quemlibet dehortari ne … senectutis vicia desideret. Maximianus’s Elegy on Old Age and a Few Examples of Its Medieval Reception.