About famous men or About famous people ( lat. De viris illustribus ) - a genre of ancient Roman biographical literature telling about the life of famous people. The genre received a rebirth during the Italian Renaissance .
Starting from Cicero , works by various authors bore a similar name - De viris illustribus or De hominibus illustribus [1] . An example is the essay “ On famous people ” ( De viris illustribus ) by a Roman historian of the 1st century BC. e. Cornelia Nepot , representing about 16 books, with parallel biographies of Romans and foreigners. More famous is the work of a Roman historian of the 2nd century AD. e. Guy Suetonius Tranquilla " ". Also known is the anonymous compilation composition “On Famous Men” dating from the 4th century and containing 86 biographies of famous people of Ancient Rome, from the legendary king Alba Longa Proca Sylvia to Cleopatra [2] .
In the same IV century, Jerome Stridonsky wrote his book on “ About Famous Men, ” containing biographies of 135 historical figures. In the V century, Gennady Massilia continued the work of his predecessor, composing his own work “ On Famous Men ”.
In the Middle Ages , the genre was divided into two types. The first was the life of the saints , which, along with miracles, told about the lives of martyrs for faith, which were presented as an example of perseverance and obedience. In the 7th century , the works On the Famous Men by Isidore of Seville and On the Famous Men by Ildefons of Toledo appeared .
Another place was occupied by secular moral literature on aristocrats, collected in the most concise form in the images of the “ Nine Worthy ”, serving as an example of virtue and courtesy for the court knighthood , which was reflected visually in illuminated manuscripts and tapestries [3] .
With the onset of the Italian Renaissance, almost simultaneously in various cities, such as Milan , Naples , Siena , Padua [4] , Foligno [5] , Florence , Venice , Perugia and Urbino , a large number of highly educated people appeared, which formed the basis for new stories about outstanding people. In the fourteenth century, examples of such writings were Francesco Petrarch's " " encompassing 36 personalities, as well as the works of Giovanni Boccaccio " ", which set out biographies of 56 men, and " ”containing biographies of 106 prominent women.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the humanist Leonardo Bruni translated Plutarch 's “ Comparative Biographies ” [6] . The Milanese series of “ famous husbands ” portraits made for Atzone Visconti , which Giorgio Vasari mentioned, and the Neapolitan ones were lost, but important early series of portraits of famous husbands were preserved in the former residence of the government of the Siena Republic - Palazzo Publico [7] , as well as in the “Hall famous men ”in the palace of the aristocrat Padua . In the middle of the 15th century, the work “On Famous Men” was written by Pope Pius II .
In 1546, the Italian humanist Paolo Giovio compiled a series of biographies of prominent personalities, including his contemporaries. In his series of images (now lost), he presented 484 portraits of writers, rulers, statesmen and other dignitaries. In 1550, Giorgio Vasari, the Biographies of the Most Famous Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , came out which gained wide popularity.
The Renaissance writings about the " shining men " were more documentary than the ancient Roman ones, because, as noted in his essay "The Book of the Nobles" ( lat. De nobilitate liber ), the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini , the ancient Romans were obliged to imitate their predecessors, because " they believed that the images of people who succeeded in the pursuit of glory and wisdom, if they were to be seen, would help to purify and light the soul ” [8] .
This genre has gradually spread beyond Italy. Already in the middle of the 15th century, the English Benedictine monk, Abbot of St. Alban’s monastery in St. Albans, John of Withamstead composed the historical and biographical work “ Granary of de famous viris ” ( Granarium de viris illustribus ), considered the first humanistic work of English literature [9] .
In 1775, the essay written by the learned French abbot .
The genre was developed in modern times, not only in the form of universal bordering prosopography , but also in special collections of inspirational biographies, such as the book of by US President John F. Kennedy or a satirical book “ James , James Agee , whose name is a reference to the verse in the Book of Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirakhov, “ Let's give honor to the famous men and fathers who gave birth to us. ”
Notes
- ↑ Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, "The Early Beginnings of the Notion of" Uomini Famosi "and the" De Viris Illustribus "in Greco-Roman Literary Tradition", No. 3 (6). 1982. pp. 97-115.
- ↑ “The compilation draws on Livy , through intermediaries such as an epitome and Florus , or on sources such as Nepos and Hyginus ” - Christoph F. Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius : A Historical Commentary . , 1994. p. xlix.
- ↑ Horst Shroeder, Der topos der Nine Worthies in Literatur und bildender Kunst . Göttingen, 1971
- ↑ Theodor E. Mommsen , "Petrarch and the decoration of the Sala Virorum Illustrium in Padua", Art Bulletin 34 (1952) pp 95-116.
- ↑ The early 15th-century frescos of famous men in the Palazzo Trincio, Foligno are discussed by Mario Salvi, "Gli affreschi del Palazzo Trincio a Foligno" // Bolettino d'arte. V. 12 (1919), pp. 139-180 (noted by Joost-Gaugier).
- ↑ Gary Ianziti. The Plutarchan Option: Leonardo Bruni's Early Career in History, 1405-1414 // I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance. Vol. 8 (1999), pp. 11-35.
- ↑ Nicolai Rubinstein, "Political ideas in Sienese art: the frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo Pubblico", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21 (1958) pp 179-207.
- ↑ Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, "Poggio and Visual Tradition: 'Uomini Famosi' in Classical Literary Description" // No. 6 (12). 1985.P. 58
- ↑ Kalmykova E.V. Images of war in historical representations of the British of the late Middle Ages. - M.: Quadriga, 2010 .-- S. 477.