19. Petrarch: Selected Sonnets, Odes and Letters by Thomas G. Bergin
published: 1966 (Petrarch lived 1304-1374, and wrote the Canzoniere from roughly 1327 to his death.)
format: 146-page paperback
acquired: Feb 19
read: Feb 19 – May 23
time reading: 7:56, 3.3 mpp
rating: 4
about the author: Thomas G. Bergin was an American scholar of Italian literature, 1904-1987

translators (number translated and approximate publication dates)
[[Thomas Goddin Bergin]] (29, 1954 &1966), [[Albert Compton]] (3, 1898), [[Basil Kennet]] (1, 1879), [[James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont]] (1, 1882), [[C. B. Cayley]] (14, 1879), [[Charles Tomlinson]] (2, 1874), [[Barbarina Wilmot, Lady Dacre]] (2, 1836), [[Edward Fitzgerald]] (1, 1889), [[Francis Wrangham]] (1, 1817), [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], (1, 1483), [[Gilbert F. Cunningham]] (3, 1955), [[Joseph Auslander]] (11, 1931), [[John Addington Symonds]] (3, 1890), [[John Nott]] (4, 1808), [[John Penn]] (1, 1798), [[James Henry Leigh Hunt]] (1, 1860), [[Morris Bishop]] (41, 1932), [[Maria Eugenia Wrottesley]] (1, 1851), [[Richard Garnett]] (18, 1896), [[R. G. Macgregor]] (6, 1854), [[Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey]] (1, 1557), [[Susan Wollaston]] (1, 1841), [[Thomas Caldecott Chubb]] (1, 1933), [[Thomas Wyatt]] (1, 1557), [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]] (1, 1903), [[Warburton Pike]] (2, 1879)

I discovered this oddball anthology from 1966 in the introduction to The Poetry of Petrarch by David Young. It forms something like a cabinet of curiosities. It collects translations of about half of Petrarch‘s full 366 poem Canzoniere. Highlights are the older poets like Geoffrey Chaucer (translating in 1384!), Thomas Wyatt, and Henry, Earl of Surrey. And I really liked all the Morris Bishop and Joseph Auslander. Lowlights are painfully forced rhyming and one where the translator chose the word “blithe” to be used over and over again in a long poem. Overall it has a Victorian feel and very poor translation accuracy. Since i had more accurate translations available I found this great fun.

fuller review on LT here:

2021
https://www.librarything.com/topic/330945#7517869 ( )