Journal Article

La postérité d'Ovide: \Tristes\ 4, 10 et l'autobiographie en vers de l'humaniste Johannes Fabricius Montanus

Amherdt, David

2006

Overview

The famous poem which seals the fourth book of Ovid's Tristia is a piece on the poet's vocation and sacred character, in which Ovid wants to make an understanding friend of his reader, thanks to whom he will achieve immortality. When the humanist and reformer Johannes Fabricius Montanus is writing his verse autobiography, he has the poem of his ancient predecessor clearly in mind : the borrowings and literary echoes are numerous. The poem's theme, as that of its model, is the poet's vocation, which plays an essential role in the life of our humanist. Although the problematic is the same, the answers are different. Montanus uses the ancient model in a subtle way to support new thoughts, often opposed to Ovid's. In giving the reader the example of his life, Montanus's aim is to show the superiority of Christian humanist thought which resolves the existential problems shared with the Roman poet. Montanus' autobiography is undoubtedly an example of a successful partial assimilation of an ancient model. - This article is concluded with a continuous French prose translation of Montanus's verse autobiography.

• Publisher: Transaction Periodicals Consortium