Iovianus Pontanus
Giovanni Pontano - Latinized Io ( h) annes Iovianus Pontanus - ( born May 7, 1429 Cerreto di Spoleto (Umbria ), † September 17, 1503 in Naples ) was a leading representative of Italian humanism in the 15th century.
Life
Pontano first studied in Perugia in 1447 and entered into the army of the king of Naples, Alfonso. He accompanied him on his campaign against Florence, and then followed him to Naples, where he gained a position of trust with the court by its contact with the humanist Antonio Beccadelli and after Alfonso also his successor Ferdinand and the heir Alfonso Duke of Calabria, afterwards the King Alfonso II, served in various capacities. He participated in various campaigns and diplomatic missions. Under King Ferdinand, he held the influential position of a royal secretary. In August 1486 he signed VIII for that a peace agreement with Pope Innocent
When, however, after Ferdinand's death in 1494, the French king Charles VIII, who claimed Naples itself, was advancing with an overpowering army and Alfonso II to abdicate, his successor Ferrandino ( = Ferdinand II ) drove out of the country, Pontano fell out of favor because he handed over the French in 1495 Naples. As Ferrandino returned to Naples to Pontano withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to his studies. In 1503 he died in Naples.
Pontano included two marriages: 1461 Adriana Sassone, three daughters and a son she bore him before she died in 1491; then with a young woman from Ferrara, who is known to us only by the name "Stella", with the Pontano immortalized in his poetry.
The lunar crater Pontanus is named after him.
Pontano as a humanist
Naples was at that time one of the centers of Italian humanism. After the death Beccadellis 1471 Pontano was the head of which was founded by the Neapolitans this Academy, which was named after him Accademia Pontaniana. This humanist circle was to among other Jacopo Sannazaro, the 1478 applied for the membership of admiration for Pontano.
Pontano was as a writer of Latin language prolific and versatile and was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Besides poems are philosophical and scientific treatises, satirical dialogues and letters. His historical work " About the Neapolitan War ", first printed in 1509, is considered a model for the later humanist historiography. Pontanos conception of history as a " rhetorical work " (opus rhetoricum ) that will take the reader through vivid display, in particular by means of speeches of the characters and teach ( as set out in the dialogue Actius ) is derived directly from the ancient historiography. A first edition of his collected by Sannazaro and Pietro Summonte works was printed posthumously in 1518/19 at Aldus Manutius in Venice.
Pontano acted not only as a writer but had otherwise on the cultural flowering of Naples his share. So he caused in 1492 the construction of the so-called Cappella dei Pontano in Naples, which served as a grave lay his deceased wife Adriana Sassone.
Works
Poetry
- Parthenopeus immersive Amorum libri II ( 1455-58 )
- Eclogues
- De amore libri coniugali III ( therein in Book II: Naeniae, lullabies for his children )
- Eridanus
- Urania sive de stellis libri V
- Lepidina
- De tumulis
- De laudibus divinis
- Hendecasyllabi seu Baiarum libri II
- Jambici
And Others
Dialogi
- Dialogus qui Anthony inscribitur. Naples 1491st
- Dialogus qui Charon inscribitur. Naples 1491st
- Actius
- Asinus
- Aegidius
And Others
Philosophica
- De aspiratione liber. Naples 1481st
- De Fortitudine bellica. Naples 1490th
- De Oboedentia. Naples 1490th
- De prudentia
- De liberalitate
- De immanitate
- De magna imitate
- De sermone libri VI ( a theory of the joke )
- De principe (Ad Alphonsum Calabriae ducem de Principe, a mirror of princes, printed 1490 )
- De beneficentia
- De magnificentia
- De splendore
- De conviventia
- De fortuna
And Others
Astronomica
- Meteora de Hortis Hesperidum libri II ( didactic poem )
- De rebus caelestibus libri XIV
More
- Historia Neapolitana ( "History of Naples " ) (also: De bello Neapolitano ( " About the Neapolitan War ," full title: De Ferdinando I. brisk Neapolitano Alfonsi filio libri VI)
- Epistolae
Modern editions
- Ioannis Iovani Pontani Carmina. Egloghe - Elegy - Liriche. A cura di John Oeschger. Bari 1948.
- Ioannis Iovani Pontani Hendecasyllaborum libri. Edidit Liliana Monti Sabia. Portici 1978.
- Giovanni Pontano, dialogues (Latin - German ). Übers Herrmann Kiefer, among others With an introduction by Ernesto Grassi. Humanist Library Series II, Volume 15 Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2144-7.
- Three Neapolitan humanist about love. Latin and German and annotating of Nicholas Thurn. Itinera classica, Vol 3 Scripta - Mercaturae -Verl., St. Catherine 2002, ISBN 3-89590-133-4.