Short Epics

maffeo vegio michael c.j. putnam james hankins

Maffeo Vegio (1407-1458) was the outstanding Latin poet of the first half of the fifteenth century. This volume includes Book XIII of Vergil's Aeneid , Vegio's famous continuation of the Roman epic, which was extremely popular in the later Renaissance, printed many times and translated into every major European language (and even into Scottish). It also contains three other epic Astyanax , based on an episode in the Iliad ; The Golden Fleece ( Vellus Aureum ); and Antonias , a short epic based on the life of Saint Anthony of Egypt. Antonias is the first Christian epic of the Renaissance, a precursor of Milton's Paradise Lost . This volume contains the first modern editions of the Latin text of Antonias and Astyanax .

Genres

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30,2004

This edition

Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
Published: July 30, 2004 by Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674014831
ASIN: 0674014839
Language: English

About the author

maffeo vegio

Maffeo Vegio (1407–1458) was an Italian poet who wrote in Latin; he is regarded by many as the finest Latin poet of the fifteenth century.
Born near Lodi, he studied at the University of Pavia, and went on to write some fifty works of both prose and poetry.
His greatest reputation came as the writer of brief epics, the most famous of which was his continuation of Virgil's Aeneid, known variously as the Supplementum (Supplement) or Aeneidos Liber XIII (Book 13 of the Aeneid). Completed in 1428, this 600-line poem starts immediately after the end of Virgil's epic, and describes Aeneas's marriage to Lavinia and his eventual deification. Its combination of classical learning and piety made it very popular in its day; it was often included in editions of the Aeneid in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An electronic text can be found at the Latin Library.
Vegio also wrote an epic, Astyanax (1430), on the death of the son of Hector, prince of Troy, and a four-book epic, Vellus Aureum (the Golden Fleece) (1431). During 1436–37 he completed his epic on the life of the Christian Anthony the Great, the Antoniad. Michael C.J. Putnam edited and translated Vegio's Short Epics for the I Tatti Renaissance Library (Harvard University Press).
Vegio flattered his way into the papal court, and was made canon of St. Peter's Basilica in 1443; it was an office he held until his death in 1458.
Some of Vegio's poems were later set as motets by renaissance composers – an example being Huc me sidereo, set by Josquin des Prez, Jacobus Vaet, Orlando Di Lasso and the first motet of Adrian Willaert's 1559 Musica Nova collection.

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 1 votes)

5 stars

0(0%)

4 stars

1(100%)

3 stars

0(0%)

2 stars

0(0%)

1 stars

0(0%)

1 reviews All reviews

lillar

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 1,2025

The 13th book of the Aeneid is really good fun. Vegio takes the elements left incomplete such as building Lavinium, marrying Lavinia and apotheosis and adds them in. He does try to rework the killing of Turnus too with a move away from the famous act of furor that closes the Aeneid.

0 0 Reply

Leave a Review

You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.

Short Epics

maffeo vegio michael c.j. putnam james hankins

This edition

More editions

About the author

maffeo vegio

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews