This work is a guide to J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary 1982. Adams examined the express... more This work is a guide to J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary 1982. Adams examined the expressions speakers and writers used to communicate about bodily functions during the first thousand years for which we have recorded Latin (roughly 500 BCE to 500 CE). The outline and definitions are intended for (adult) scholars not only of Classical Latin texts, but also of those written in the Italian Renaissance period (c. 1450-1600). Books by Giovanni Battista Folengo (1490-1559) for example, show a further evolution of the Latin sexual vocabulary.
Chaos del Triperuno (Venice, Fratelli da Sabbio), 1527
Digitized copy of Teofilo Folengo's Chaos del Triperuno, a remarkable polemical and poetic autobi... more Digitized copy of Teofilo Folengo's Chaos del Triperuno, a remarkable polemical and poetic autobiography in Italian, Latin and Macaronic Latin provided by the Bibliothèque nationale de France for non-commercial use only.
Sample passages with explanations and translations from the works of Giovanni Battista Folengo (1... more Sample passages with explanations and translations from the works of Giovanni Battista Folengo (1490-1559). His four core publications, some 2,000 pages, may be cited briefly as: Pomiliones [1533], Psalms [1543], John [1546 and 1555], James and Peter [1555]. For more information on the editions, please see https://verbalmask.hcommons.org/.
In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Divine... more In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Divine Comedy that has often passed for linguistic and cultural criticism, yet might be better understood as satire.
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code wa... more Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code was adopted by dozens and dozens of writers in Italy, and presumably understood by tens of thousands of readers in Europe. A most helpful text for decoding the erotic lexicon was written by Jean Toscan: Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l'équivoque de Burchiello à Marino (XVe-XVIIe siècles), Lille, Presses Universitaires, 1981; thesis 1978, 4 vols. The text was transcribed from Motti inediti e sconosciuti di M. Pietro Bembo edited and annotated by Vittorio Cian (Venice, I. Merlo, 1888)
This article presents the critical editions of two texts: a letter by the Duke of Milan Filippo M... more This article presents the critical editions of two texts: a letter by the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti (but written on his behalf by Pier Candido Decembrio) sent to Poggio Bracciolini on 28 July 1438; and the response written by Poggio on 15 September. Poggio's letter contains a brief treatise in praise of Florence and of the Florentina libertas. The documents illuminate a crucial episode in the history of Italian Humanism. The article opens with the discussion of these two letters in their wider historical and intellectual context: on the one hand, the characteristically Florentine «civic humanism» which constitutes the background of Poggio's positions; on the other, the political and cultural competition between Florence and Milan during the first half of the 15th century.
Ludovico Ariosto faced a cultural landscape peppered with explosive issues, yet he managed to pur... more Ludovico Ariosto faced a cultural landscape peppered with explosive issues, yet he managed to pursue a path to posterity. In the midnineteenth century, statesman Vincenzo Gioberti extolled Ariosto's praises, declaring him divine, the prince of heroic poetry second only to Dante. 1 How Ariosto attained his status as the best-known poet of the Italian Renaissance has been explored by Daniel Javitch, who traced how the Orlando Furioso became legitimized throughout the sixteenth century. Here, I would like to explore aspects of Ariosto's writings, which would seem to create impediments to his glory but do not. The focus will be on matters of religion, and language as it relates to the burlesque code so popular in its day; I will cite other writers of the era, Pietro Bembo, Teofilo and Giovanni Battista Folengo, to provide context for the positions taken by Ariosto. Religious matters One could say that in the fictional realm of the Orlando Furioso, Ariosto took a traditional stance on religion: he set his epic in the time of Charlemagne when Moors had invaded France and throughout the work Christian knights battle pagan knights. The author insists that Christian knights should try to win back the Holy Lands, which are in the hands of dogs (OF 17.73.8; OF 15.99.7-8). These Christian knights 1 "Prossimo all'unico Dante (e chi potria pareggiarlo?), e a niun altro secondo, per la grandezza dell'ingegno, la sublimità e varietà delle imagini, la ricchezza, la spontaneità, la grazia maravigliosa dello stile e della poesia, è Lodovico Ariosto, cui la patria unanime chiamò divino e salutò come principe della cantica eroica," see Vincenzo Gioberti, Introduction to Orlando Furioso, 1854.
The works of Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) intrigue readers approaching them from various angles. Crai... more The works of Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) intrigue readers approaching them from various angles. Craig Kallendorf has put together a helpful annotated bibliography of many of these approaches, available at Oxford Bibliographies (last modified June, 2017). To the studies he lists, one could add a few recent works, like Marco Faini's illustrated biography available in Italian and English, Pietro Bembo: A Life in Laurels and Scarlet, 2017. And an article I wrote, "Bembo's Attack on Dante," which contextualizes the Venetian's harsh condemnation of the Commedia in his Prose della volgar lingua, 1525, (www.academia.edu). Here, my aim is modest: to highlight passages in Bembo's literary texts which exploit the erotic lexicon so popular in his day.
This is a translation into English of the Table of Contents of Jean Toscan's 40-page Table of Con... more This is a translation into English of the Table of Contents of Jean Toscan's 40-page Table of Contents from his monumental work, Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l’équivoque de Burchiello à Marino, Lille: Presses Universitaires, 1981).
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code wa... more Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code was adopted by dozens and dozens of writers in Italy, and presumably understood by tens of thousands of readers in Europe. A most helpful text for decoding the erotic lexicon was written by Jean Toscan: Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l'équivoque de Burchiello à Marino (XVe-XVIIe siècles), Lille, Presses Universitaires, 1981; thesis 1978, 4 vols. The text was transcribed from Motti inediti e sconosciuti di M. Pietro Bembo edited and annotated by Vittorio Cian (Venice, I. Merlo, 1888)
Oversized volume of biblical commentary published in 1543 (and again in 1549, 1557, 1585, 1594) t... more Oversized volume of biblical commentary published in 1543 (and again in 1549, 1557, 1585, 1594) that is actually a parody which features the erotic lexicon popular in its day
The first section of the text of the unusual 1533 volume published by both Giovanni Battista and ... more The first section of the text of the unusual 1533 volume published by both Giovanni Battista and Teofilo Folengo: dialogues and prose pieces, inclduing the first of the Psalms commentaries published, together with a translation into English and annotations.
Giovanni Battista Folengo, Companion Pieces 1533-1585 , 2022
Almost all the pieces which accompany the publications of GB Folengo from 1533 to 1585, written b... more Almost all the pieces which accompany the publications of GB Folengo from 1533 to 1585, written by him, sometimes under the guise of friends, family and diginitaries, 168 pages.
This is the third collection of samples, translations and comments on the works of GB Folengo off... more This is the third collection of samples, translations and comments on the works of GB Folengo offered on my site. .For most readers, the Commentaria in primam d. Ioannis epistolam, Io. Baptista Folengio monacho Mantuano auctore, (Commentary on the First Epistle of John by Giovanni Battista Folengo: Mantuan, author, monk) will be his most accessible work... An accessible, but shocking work, these John Commentaries, because no matter how simple and sing-songy the biblical text, Folengo manages to transform the message into parody and humorous erotica.
An astonishing list of the copies available in librairies and online of GB Folengo's parody, Comm... more An astonishing list of the copies available in librairies and online of GB Folengo's parody, Commentaries on the First Epsitle of John.
The 411 entries from the thematic Index at the beginning of GB Folengo Commentaries on the First ... more The 411 entries from the thematic Index at the beginning of GB Folengo Commentaries on the First Epsitle of John 1546
In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Co... more In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Comedy that has often passed for linguistic and cultural criticism, yet might be better understood as satire.
This work is a guide to J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary 1982. Adams examined the express... more This work is a guide to J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary 1982. Adams examined the expressions speakers and writers used to communicate about bodily functions during the first thousand years for which we have recorded Latin (roughly 500 BCE to 500 CE). The outline and definitions are intended for (adult) scholars not only of Classical Latin texts, but also of those written in the Italian Renaissance period (c. 1450-1600). Books by Giovanni Battista Folengo (1490-1559) for example, show a further evolution of the Latin sexual vocabulary.
Chaos del Triperuno (Venice, Fratelli da Sabbio), 1527
Digitized copy of Teofilo Folengo's Chaos del Triperuno, a remarkable polemical and poetic autobi... more Digitized copy of Teofilo Folengo's Chaos del Triperuno, a remarkable polemical and poetic autobiography in Italian, Latin and Macaronic Latin provided by the Bibliothèque nationale de France for non-commercial use only.
Sample passages with explanations and translations from the works of Giovanni Battista Folengo (1... more Sample passages with explanations and translations from the works of Giovanni Battista Folengo (1490-1559). His four core publications, some 2,000 pages, may be cited briefly as: Pomiliones [1533], Psalms [1543], John [1546 and 1555], James and Peter [1555]. For more information on the editions, please see https://verbalmask.hcommons.org/.
In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Divine... more In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Divine Comedy that has often passed for linguistic and cultural criticism, yet might be better understood as satire.
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code wa... more Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code was adopted by dozens and dozens of writers in Italy, and presumably understood by tens of thousands of readers in Europe. A most helpful text for decoding the erotic lexicon was written by Jean Toscan: Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l'équivoque de Burchiello à Marino (XVe-XVIIe siècles), Lille, Presses Universitaires, 1981; thesis 1978, 4 vols. The text was transcribed from Motti inediti e sconosciuti di M. Pietro Bembo edited and annotated by Vittorio Cian (Venice, I. Merlo, 1888)
This article presents the critical editions of two texts: a letter by the Duke of Milan Filippo M... more This article presents the critical editions of two texts: a letter by the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti (but written on his behalf by Pier Candido Decembrio) sent to Poggio Bracciolini on 28 July 1438; and the response written by Poggio on 15 September. Poggio's letter contains a brief treatise in praise of Florence and of the Florentina libertas. The documents illuminate a crucial episode in the history of Italian Humanism. The article opens with the discussion of these two letters in their wider historical and intellectual context: on the one hand, the characteristically Florentine «civic humanism» which constitutes the background of Poggio's positions; on the other, the political and cultural competition between Florence and Milan during the first half of the 15th century.
Ludovico Ariosto faced a cultural landscape peppered with explosive issues, yet he managed to pur... more Ludovico Ariosto faced a cultural landscape peppered with explosive issues, yet he managed to pursue a path to posterity. In the midnineteenth century, statesman Vincenzo Gioberti extolled Ariosto's praises, declaring him divine, the prince of heroic poetry second only to Dante. 1 How Ariosto attained his status as the best-known poet of the Italian Renaissance has been explored by Daniel Javitch, who traced how the Orlando Furioso became legitimized throughout the sixteenth century. Here, I would like to explore aspects of Ariosto's writings, which would seem to create impediments to his glory but do not. The focus will be on matters of religion, and language as it relates to the burlesque code so popular in its day; I will cite other writers of the era, Pietro Bembo, Teofilo and Giovanni Battista Folengo, to provide context for the positions taken by Ariosto. Religious matters One could say that in the fictional realm of the Orlando Furioso, Ariosto took a traditional stance on religion: he set his epic in the time of Charlemagne when Moors had invaded France and throughout the work Christian knights battle pagan knights. The author insists that Christian knights should try to win back the Holy Lands, which are in the hands of dogs (OF 17.73.8; OF 15.99.7-8). These Christian knights 1 "Prossimo all'unico Dante (e chi potria pareggiarlo?), e a niun altro secondo, per la grandezza dell'ingegno, la sublimità e varietà delle imagini, la ricchezza, la spontaneità, la grazia maravigliosa dello stile e della poesia, è Lodovico Ariosto, cui la patria unanime chiamò divino e salutò come principe della cantica eroica," see Vincenzo Gioberti, Introduction to Orlando Furioso, 1854.
The works of Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) intrigue readers approaching them from various angles. Crai... more The works of Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) intrigue readers approaching them from various angles. Craig Kallendorf has put together a helpful annotated bibliography of many of these approaches, available at Oxford Bibliographies (last modified June, 2017). To the studies he lists, one could add a few recent works, like Marco Faini's illustrated biography available in Italian and English, Pietro Bembo: A Life in Laurels and Scarlet, 2017. And an article I wrote, "Bembo's Attack on Dante," which contextualizes the Venetian's harsh condemnation of the Commedia in his Prose della volgar lingua, 1525, (www.academia.edu). Here, my aim is modest: to highlight passages in Bembo's literary texts which exploit the erotic lexicon so popular in his day.
This is a translation into English of the Table of Contents of Jean Toscan's 40-page Table of Con... more This is a translation into English of the Table of Contents of Jean Toscan's 40-page Table of Contents from his monumental work, Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l’équivoque de Burchiello à Marino, Lille: Presses Universitaires, 1981).
Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code wa... more Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) wrote and published in an era in which a highly developed erotic code was adopted by dozens and dozens of writers in Italy, and presumably understood by tens of thousands of readers in Europe. A most helpful text for decoding the erotic lexicon was written by Jean Toscan: Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l'équivoque de Burchiello à Marino (XVe-XVIIe siècles), Lille, Presses Universitaires, 1981; thesis 1978, 4 vols. The text was transcribed from Motti inediti e sconosciuti di M. Pietro Bembo edited and annotated by Vittorio Cian (Venice, I. Merlo, 1888)
Oversized volume of biblical commentary published in 1543 (and again in 1549, 1557, 1585, 1594) t... more Oversized volume of biblical commentary published in 1543 (and again in 1549, 1557, 1585, 1594) that is actually a parody which features the erotic lexicon popular in its day
The first section of the text of the unusual 1533 volume published by both Giovanni Battista and ... more The first section of the text of the unusual 1533 volume published by both Giovanni Battista and Teofilo Folengo: dialogues and prose pieces, inclduing the first of the Psalms commentaries published, together with a translation into English and annotations.
Giovanni Battista Folengo, Companion Pieces 1533-1585 , 2022
Almost all the pieces which accompany the publications of GB Folengo from 1533 to 1585, written b... more Almost all the pieces which accompany the publications of GB Folengo from 1533 to 1585, written by him, sometimes under the guise of friends, family and diginitaries, 168 pages.
This is the third collection of samples, translations and comments on the works of GB Folengo off... more This is the third collection of samples, translations and comments on the works of GB Folengo offered on my site. .For most readers, the Commentaria in primam d. Ioannis epistolam, Io. Baptista Folengio monacho Mantuano auctore, (Commentary on the First Epistle of John by Giovanni Battista Folengo: Mantuan, author, monk) will be his most accessible work... An accessible, but shocking work, these John Commentaries, because no matter how simple and sing-songy the biblical text, Folengo manages to transform the message into parody and humorous erotica.
An astonishing list of the copies available in librairies and online of GB Folengo's parody, Comm... more An astonishing list of the copies available in librairies and online of GB Folengo's parody, Commentaries on the First Epsitle of John.
The 411 entries from the thematic Index at the beginning of GB Folengo Commentaries on the First ... more The 411 entries from the thematic Index at the beginning of GB Folengo Commentaries on the First Epsitle of John 1546
In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Co... more In 1525, Pietro Bembo in his Prose della volgar lingua published a condemnation of Dante's Comedy that has often passed for linguistic and cultural criticism, yet might be better understood as satire.
The 43-page original French and Italian Table of Contents combined with my 1st Draft English tran... more The 43-page original French and Italian Table of Contents combined with my 1st Draft English translation of Jean Toscan's monumental study, Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l’équivoque de Burchiello à Marino, Lille: Presses Universitaires, 1981
A collection of examples from the parodies of GB Folengo, chosen to accompany the talk Giovanni B... more A collection of examples from the parodies of GB Folengo, chosen to accompany the talk Giovanni Battista Folengo: Laughing at and with Scripture by Ann E Mullaney, March 11, 2023
Giovanni Battista Folengo (1490-1559) may be the most interesting Renaissance author with whom yo... more Giovanni Battista Folengo (1490-1559) may be the most interesting Renaissance author with whom you are not yet familiar (assuming you already know his brother, Teofilo Folengo). And the funniest: if your sense of humor extends to sexual and scriptural word-play, GB Folengo will make you laugh out loud.
Chaos del Triperuno, Venice, Frat. da Sabbio, 1527, 2009
Extraordinary autobiography of three selves (Tri-per-uno) of Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544) as they ... more Extraordinary autobiography of three selves (Tri-per-uno) of Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544) as they share their experiences and try to form a cohesive self, in verse, prose and dialog, in Italian, Latin and Macaronic Latin.
Digitized copy of Teofilo Folengo's Chaos del Triperuno, a remarkable polemical and poetic autobi... more Digitized copy of Teofilo Folengo's Chaos del Triperuno, a remarkable polemical and poetic autobiography in Italian, Latin and Macaronic Latin provided by the Bibliothèque nationale de France for non-commercial use only.
This is a digitized version of the 40 page Table matières (Table of Contents) from Jean Toscan's ... more This is a digitized version of the 40 page Table matières (Table of Contents) from Jean Toscan's monumental study, Le carnaval du langage: le lexique érotique des poètes de l’équivoque de Burchiello à Marino, Lille: Presses Universitaires, 1981.
Dissertation 1984
Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544), although the author of several very popular volume... more Dissertation 1984 Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544), although the author of several very popular volumes, remains largely unknown today. His lack of fame is partially due to his extensive use of pseudonyms: he is better known as Merlin Cocaio or Aquario Lodola than as Teofilo Folengo. The web of biographies which Folengo wove around his pseudo-personages caught the attention of too many positivist critics. These scholars have executed valuable studies on Folengo’s “real” life, but in doing so they have discarded his intricate play of authorial figures. In addition to the dozen prefatory pieces and the myriad cameo appearances of authorial names and authorial personalities within the texts, there is one entire volume, the Chaos del Triperuno which is dedicated to the evolution of one self from the interaction among Folengo’s leading pseudo-selves. This work especially merits the consideration of scholars who are not intent upon proving the Catholic or the unorthodox nature of the Benedictine Folengo’s writings.
Giovanni Battista Folengo, a Benedictine monk from Mantua, published a massive commentary on the ... more Giovanni Battista Folengo, a Benedictine monk from Mantua, published a massive commentary on the psalms in Latin that is not actually exegesis but parody filled with erotica. He later published similar parodies on letters of the apostles. Perhaps Folengo disguised erotica as earnest biblical commentary so that his fans – if interrogated – could pretend they did not get the joke. Or perhaps Folengo used erotic humor to draw readers to his social criticism.
Uploads
Papers by Ann E Mullaney
Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544), although the author of several very popular volumes, remains largely unknown today. His lack of fame is partially due to his extensive use of pseudonyms: he is better known as Merlin Cocaio or Aquario Lodola than as Teofilo Folengo. The web of biographies which Folengo wove around his pseudo-personages caught the attention of too many positivist critics. These scholars have executed valuable studies on Folengo’s “real” life, but in doing so they have discarded his intricate play of authorial figures. In addition to the dozen prefatory pieces and the myriad cameo appearances of authorial names and authorial personalities within the texts, there is one entire volume, the Chaos del Triperuno which is dedicated to the evolution of one self from the interaction among Folengo’s leading pseudo-selves. This work especially merits the consideration of scholars who are not intent upon proving the Catholic or the unorthodox nature of the Benedictine Folengo’s writings.