Genealogia deorum gentilium
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Genealogia deorum gentilium by Giovanni Boccaccio was started around 1351, the year he met Francesco Petrarch in Florence, Italy. This is better known in English as On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles, which is a collection of classical mythology in fifteen books (libri). After this fruitful meeting in 1351, Boccaccio and Petrarch were very close friends and stayed in communications for the rest of their lives. From this period in time Giovanni Boccaccio turned instead to Latin and devoted himself to humanist scholarship rather than to imaginative or poetic creation.
His encyclopaedic De genealogia deorum gentilium was medieval in structure but humanist in spirit and probably begun in the very year with his meeting Petrarch. Boccaccio's on the genealogy of the gods of the gentiles is a scholarly interpretive compendium of classical myth.
The first edition was completed in 1360 and this would remain one of the key reference works on classical mythology for over 400 years. It was the first ever in a very long line of Renaissance mythographies. Boccaccio continuously corrected and revised his poem until his death in 1374. It is an encyclopedia of mythology chosen largely from Ovid.
Contents |
[edit] Gods of the Gentiles
- Sol
- Ether
- Ceres
- Jupiter
- Juno
- Vulcan
- Mercury
- Venus
- Oceanus
- Saturnus
- Neptune
- Pluto
- Dardanus
- Illyrius
- Caeculus
- Quirinus
- Nester
- Vesta
- Fortuna
- Diana
- Apollo
- Mars
[edit] Books on the Genealogies
Various genealogies of the mythological Gods are described in the fifteen books.
Genealogia deorum gentilium libri
- The First Book
- The Second Book
- The Third Book
- The Fourth Book
- The Fifith Book
- The Sixth Book
- The Seventh Book
- The Eighth Book
- The Ninth Book
- The Tenth Book
- The Eleventh Book
- The Twelith Book
- The Thirteenth Book
- The Fourteenth Book
- The Fifteenth Book [1]
[edit] References
- ^ English version with introductory essay and commentary by Charles G. Osgood (Princeton Univ. Press 1930, reprinted in the Library of Liberal Arts, Bobbs-Merrill, 1956) for only the Fourteenth Book and Fifteenth Book of the complete series. All others are in Latin only at this point in time.
- Primary Sources: Humanism and Political Thought - Boccaccio on Poetry by Charles G. Osgood
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Humanism by Robert Grudin
- Greek Mythology resource
- Georges Dumézil, Archaic Roman Religion. ISBN 0-8018-5481-4.
- Georges Dumézil, Mitra-Varuna. ISBN 0-942299-13-2.
- Musei Capitolini
- Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, (London: Oxford University Press) 1929: "Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini"
- Michael Best, "Medieval tragedy"
- Ovid, Metamorphoses. In the Latin original text only at the Latin Library.
- Theoi Project, Guide to Greek Mythology biographies of characters from myth with quotes from original sources and images from classical art
- Library of Classical Mythology Texts translations of works of classical literature
- Timeless Myths: Classical Mythology provides information and tales from classical literature.
