CentoPagine 2010

In Carolingian poetry there is a strong increase of the frequence of lexemes connected to the book. Writing and reading become a subject of poetical composition both because of the diffusion of paratextual verses (dedications, metrical prefaces, captions) and of poetical praises of the activities, environnements and tools related to the written word, that are perceived and celebrated as a mean for social upward and for recording deeds, so creating an apparatus able to build memory and identity of peoples, families and persons. Even a poetry of the meaning-giving processes is developing, testified by the biblical and grammatical verses by Alcuin, Teodulph, Angelomus, Smaragdus and other poets, that produces a repertory of new images referring to the power of polysemy, especially in biblical texts.

This paper contains a detailed analysis of the final epistle of Tiberius Claudius Donatus’ Interpretationes Vergilianae, addressed to his son Donatianus. Through a comparison with Verg. Aen. VII 641-646 (and Donatus’ interpretation of these lines) it is possible to argue that Donatus was envisioning this epistle as the conclusion of a long work (the commentary itself) and the starting point of a new endeavour: the writing of a thirteenth book covering all the Realien of the Aeneid.

This paper explores the various ways in which Byzantine authors exploit the traditional Greek imagery related to books and writing. If in most cases they just reactivate well-known topics and metaphors, we can single out at least two themes peculiar to Byzantine culture: a bent for spiritualizing every aspect of the book, having even ink and bindings bear a mystical meaning, and the widespread habit of describing both Christ and the Virgin Mary as volumes. In Byzantium, books have completed their process of becoming ‘subjects’ and (very important) persons.

The article deals with the problem of translation, providing some thoughts on how the books of the poet become the books of the translator, through the analysis of the French translation of Ovid’s Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto by Chantal Labre (Ovide: L’ exile et the salut, 1991). Ovid’s reflections on his own poetry become, in Labre’ translation, reflections on translating; Labre emphasizes the autobiographical character of Ovid’s exile poems. One cannot define L’ exile et le salut a literal translation, in the light of translator’s various interventions. Labre, however, provided a translation that is also faithful exactly because it reveals his status of translation: passages where it leaves literalism to introduce the word “libre”,“fidèle” or “traduire” are nods to remind us that we are not reading the original, but another book.

In the poetic texts from the Imperial age (from exiled Ovid to Martial and Statius) the metaphor of poetic lima undergoes a deep transformation: the lima is no longer in the hands of the poet, who has polished his verses for years and years, but (often) in those of a cultivated patron, requested by the author to correct the book before publication. In the Flavian age the lima is then placed within the complex communication system of literary patronage, where it becomes an element of homage and compliment. However, the metaphor never loses its original poetological meaning: both Martial and Statius use it differently, in relation to themselves and in relation to intellectual patrons, thus subtly reaffirming their own different and higher commitment to literature.