Miasto w bukolice. Na przykładzie eklogi szóstej ze zbioru Adolescentia Baptysty Mantuana
The City in the Pastoral. A Case Study of the Sixth Eclogue from the Adolescentia by Baptista Mantuanus

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the image of the city in the sixth eclogue from Adolescentia, a collection of eclogues by the Renaissance poet Baptista Mantuanus. This image is set in the context of the earlier bucolic tradition and the traditions of other genres. The violent depreciation of urban space in Mantunan’s idyll could be interpreted as a manifestation of the famous bucolic city-countryside opposition. Thus, the first part of the article focuses on bucolic poetry created before Mantuan: ancient, medieval and Renaissance idyll. The analysis shows no explicit rejection of urban space in the aforementioned texts, so Mantuan’s depiction of the city cannot be understood as a result of the natural development of the bucolic genre in the Renaissance. The second part of the article focuses on searching for extra-bucolic sources that inspired the Italian poet to include the invective against the city in the idyll. The relationship of the sixth eclogue to the rhetorical and satirical traditions is analysed. Satire three from the collection by the Roman satirist Juvenalis is recognized as the direct source of the attack on the city. The way in which the Italian poet received this satire may have been mediated by the medieval tradition.

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