Anna-Maria Hartmann
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198807704
- eISBN:
- 9780191845529
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198807704.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Religions
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, there were several collections and editions of earlier mythographies available, but these books often drew attention to the need for new ...
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In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, there were several collections and editions of earlier mythographies available, but these books often drew attention to the need for new mythographies to be written. The first phase of the renewal of the mythographical genre came in humanist miscellanies, in which sophisticated indexes allowed readers to look up all the latest information on a specific god. In the middle of the sixteenth century, there then emerged a series of large-scale, Italian mythographies by Giraldi (1548), Cartari (1556), and Conti (1567). Each of these mythographies specialized in one of the three key aspects of Renaissance mythography: etymology, images, or allegory. Unlike the English works, all of these continental mythographies were educational tools that were designed to be used as reference works, and not to engage in political or religious debatesLess
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, there were several collections and editions of earlier mythographies available, but these books often drew attention to the need for new mythographies to be written. The first phase of the renewal of the mythographical genre came in humanist miscellanies, in which sophisticated indexes allowed readers to look up all the latest information on a specific god. In the middle of the sixteenth century, there then emerged a series of large-scale, Italian mythographies by Giraldi (1548), Cartari (1556), and Conti (1567). Each of these mythographies specialized in one of the three key aspects of Renaissance mythography: etymology, images, or allegory. Unlike the English works, all of these continental mythographies were educational tools that were designed to be used as reference works, and not to engage in political or religious debates
Anna-Maria Hartmann
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198807704
- eISBN:
- 9780191845529
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198807704.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Religions
Abraham Fraunce’s Amintas Dale (1591) is a generic hybrid, half mythography and half mythological poetry. The mythographical elements likely date back to a draft mythography that Fraunce had begun at ...
More
Abraham Fraunce’s Amintas Dale (1591) is a generic hybrid, half mythography and half mythological poetry. The mythographical elements likely date back to a draft mythography that Fraunce had begun at some point before 1588, and which he later drew on to create a work celebrating the fifth anniversary of Sir Philip Sidney’s death. Drawing on symbol theory, France conceives of fables as free-ranging poetic metaphors, which thinly veil their meaning, but are accessible to any intelligent reader. As part of a living tradition of poetry, fables are a form of communication that contemporary writers can draw on and contribute to. In Amintas Dale, Fraunce does just that, by extending Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the late sixteenth century, and weaving Sir Philip Sidney into the mythological narrative.Less
Abraham Fraunce’s Amintas Dale (1591) is a generic hybrid, half mythography and half mythological poetry. The mythographical elements likely date back to a draft mythography that Fraunce had begun at some point before 1588, and which he later drew on to create a work celebrating the fifth anniversary of Sir Philip Sidney’s death. Drawing on symbol theory, France conceives of fables as free-ranging poetic metaphors, which thinly veil their meaning, but are accessible to any intelligent reader. As part of a living tradition of poetry, fables are a form of communication that contemporary writers can draw on and contribute to. In Amintas Dale, Fraunce does just that, by extending Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the late sixteenth century, and weaving Sir Philip Sidney into the mythological narrative.
