Selected sonnets, odes, and letters
by Francesco Petrarca, Thomas G. Bergin (Editor), Thomas Goddard Bergin (Editor)
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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, show more 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 show less
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, show more 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 show less
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490+ Works 4,168 Members
Son of an exiled Florentine clerk, Petrarch was born in Arezzo, Italy, but was raised at the court of the Pope in Avignon in southern France. He studied the classics in France and continued his education at the University of Bologna in Italy. Less than a year after his return to Avignon in 1326, Petrarch fell in love with the woman he referred to show more as Laura in his most famous poetry. Although he never revealed her true name, nor, apparently, ever expressed his love to her directly, he made her immortal with his Canzoniere (date unknown), or songbook, a collection of lyric poems and sonnets that rank among the most beautiful written in Italian, or in any other language. Like the major Italian poet Dante Alighieri, Petrarch chose to write his most intimate feelings in his native Italian, rather than the Latin customary at that time. Petrarch used Latin for his more formal works, however. He incorrectly assumed that he would be remembered for the Latin works, but it was his Italian lyric poetry that influenced both the content and form of all subsequent European poetry. Petrarch's sonnet form was prized by English poets as an alternative to English poet William Shakespeare's sonnet form. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Selected sonnets, odes, and letters
- Original publication date
- 1966
Classifications
- Genres
- Poetry, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 851.1 — Literature & rhetoric Italian, Romanian & related literatures Italian poetry Early Italian; Age of Dante –1375
- LCC
- PQ4496 .E23 .B4 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures Italian literature Individual authors and works to 1400
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