Cristoforo Landino Poems [Latin]

By Cristoforo Landino

Cristoforo Landino (1424-1498), one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance, is best known today for his Platonizing commentaries on Dante and Vergil. His most substantial work of poetry was his Three Books on Xandra , written while still a young man. They consist primarily of love poetry in Latin directed to his lady-love Alessandra, but they also chronicle his life, friendships, literary studies, and the patronage of his work by Piero de' Medici. Inspired equally by the ancient Roman love-elegy and by Petrarch's Canzoniere , the poems illustrate the mingling of classical and vernacular traditions characteristic of the age of Lorenzo de' Medici. Also included in this volume is the Carmina Varia , a collection whose centerpiece is a group of elegies directed to the Venetian humanist Bernardo Bembo. These bring to life the Platonic passion Bembo conceived for Ginevra de'Benci, later the subject of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. This edition contains the first translation of both works into English.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: Latin
• ISBN: 0674031482
• ISBN13: 9780674031487
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.0"