Classical Legacies in Neo-Latin Poetry

doi:10.1017/9781009424660.012

Chapter 10 - Classical Legacies in Neo-Latin Poetry

from Part II - 1450–1600

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2025

Edited by

Rhiannon Daniels and

Guyda Armstrong: Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Rhiannon Daniels: Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Catherine Keen: Affiliation:
University College London

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Summary

During the Quattrocento and Cinquecento, the Italian peninsula saw a boom in the production of poetry written in Latin, under the impetus of the humanists’ reframing of the relationship between the contemporary and ancient worlds as new texts, authors, artworks and other evidence about the Roman and Greek worlds came to be known in Western Europe. The chapter evaluates how cultivation of ancient models by Neo-Latin (and Neo-Greek) authors reconfigured relationships to the past, while also taking account of how classical studies and the use of Latin had persisted throughout the Middle Ages. It also discusses how Italian poets writing in Latin used the ancient language to express themselves on key cultural themes and debates of their own day. The chapter stresses the abundance and variety of poetic production in Latin produced in every region of Italy, and in genres covering lyric, pastoral, epic, satire, epigrams and didactic verse.

Keywords

Classical literature and education in Renaissance Italy Literary imitation in Renaissance Italy Neo-Latin didactic poetry Neo-Latin epic Neo-Latin epigram Neo-Latin lyric Neo-Latin pastoral Neo-Latin satire Reception of Antiquity Renaissance Humanism

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Type: Chapter
Information: A History of Poetry in Italy
1200–1600
, pp. 333 - 377

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009424660.012 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2026

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