It should occasion no surprise that Catullan studies are alive and well in Italian classical scholarship. What is remarkable about this collection is the quality of scholarship, which – unusually for some edited volumes – is uniformly high. By this I refer not only to the great perspicuity of the interpretations, all of which are illuminating and most of which I found persuasive, but also and more fundamentally to the impressive scope and precision of the scholarship. I therefore recommend the volume for how its chapters might serve to model ways of approaching classical literary scholarship more generally as well as for its authors' particular insights into Catullus.
Scholars and advanced students of Catullus will find much of interest here, centring on ‘il rapporto che intercorre tra il lepos (l'eleganza, lo humour e la doctrina della poesia catulliana) e la caratterizzazione dell’ethos dell'ego, dei destinari e delle altre personae all'interno del Liber' (p. 9). The chapters foray into many neighbouring areas while always keeping that central location in sight. I would therefore be surprised if most academic readers of Catullus were not engaged by more than one of the chapters, which as a rule focus on certain poems – ‘soprattutto (ma non solo) nelle sezioni nugatoria ed epigrammatica’ (ibid.) – while also shedding useful light on more, in some cases many more, poems, Catullan and other. (Some chapters also refer to prose writings.)
Beyond the interest of individual chapters, the volume as a whole is to be recommended for how it represents approaches to the study of classical literature that are exemplary in their clarity and rigour. As someone who has written intensively about Catullus (Silence in Catullus [2013]), I was impressed by the chapters' arguments and methods. It was particularly inspiring to see careful attention being paid to matters philological and textual as they must guide critical engagement with scholarship as well as interpretation of the poems. It is well known that attention to the text is especially important in Catullan studies, given his manuscript tradition. From this perspective, virtually any of the chapters, no matter its specialised scholarly interest, could serve as a ‘masterclass’ in fundamental methods of classical literary scholarship, at least on Latin texts.
It is therefore to be hoped that the volume's publication primarily in Italian (front- and back-matter plus five of the seven chapters, the remaining two chapters being in English) will not hinder its reception by readers who work primarily in English. In the context of internationalism in scholarship, it is especially exciting to see the volume include an example of the deepening engagement with classical scholarship on the part of Chinese scholars. (Readers may wish to be aware of Prof. Li Yongyi's complete translation of Catullus into Chinese (2008), discussed at APA 2013; cf the panel on ‘Classics and Reaction: Modern China Confronts the Ancient West’ at APA 2014.) This is the chapter by Li Song-Yang, which as M. puts it ‘qui vede la luce e che nasce in realtà come intervento sulla [sua] relazione intorno ai cc. 69 e 71: ho continuato a discutere (di persona e per via telematica) con il prof. Li anche dopo il convegno e alla fine l'ho invitato a presentare una sua nota su Catull. 71,4’ (p. 7). It is heartening to know that this sort of discussion is taking place, across boundaries both national and linguistic, and exciting to see it having an impact on published scholarship.
Beyond Li's later addition, the volume comprises the acta of an international conference held at Cassino, 27 May 2010. M. supplies a brief preface and introduction. F. Bellandi, ‘Amour-passion e amore coniugale nella poesia di Catullo: qualche considerazione’, considers ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ perspectives on amour-passion to argue that what is interesting in Catullus' approach is ‘il suo non voler rinunciare all'elemento dell’amour-passion, il che lo porta a conferire al suo concetto di matrimonio delle inedite sfumature di passionalità sensuale' (p. 66). S. Lorenz, ‘Versiculi parum pudici: the Use of Obscenity in the liber Catulli’, argues that ‘Catullus us[es] different obscenities to deceive his readers and to play with their expectations’ (p. 88), and as a result of this ‘poetic “game”’ (p. 77) ‘it is likely that the readers also detected obscene meanings between the lines of (seemingly) harmless poems’ (p. 93).
M., ‘Invenustus amator: una analisi di Catull. 69 e 71’, argues that Catullus develops ‘una sorta di “ritratto paradossale”’ in which Caelius' ‘venustas così urbana è gravemente inficiata da un vizio all'insegna della più becera rusticitas’ (p. 109) but in which, too, ‘la bestia scontrosa e irriducibile del c. 69 si trasforma da una parte in animale “sacro”, dall'altro, sicuramente, in emblema della foia animalesca dei personaggi’ (p. 131). This focus on ethos and individuals reappears in L. Watson's ‘Catullus, inurbanitas and the Transpadanes’, which explores how Catullus ‘programmatically overturn[s] the literary commonplace that it is necessary for a writer to escape to the country, freeing himself from the distractions of life in the city, in order to attain inspiration’, focusing on ‘inurbane ways, particularly as these relate to individuals, practices, and linguistic usages associated with Catullus’ homeland of Gallia Cisalpina' (p. 153).
Li, ‘Catullo 71, 4: a te oppure autem?’, argues that 71.4 should be read as including not a te but autem, for reasons both thematic (‘ci sembra che il bellissimo carme, per colpa di a te, rischi di perdere non solo tutta la sua vis comica, ma addirittura la sa ragione di esistere’, p. 140) and philological (pp. 141–8). A. Agnesti in ‘Lepos, mores, pathos, furor, risus … Per una “ri-sistemazione” di alcuni carmina catulliani’ seeks to specify how it is that Catullus has been able to be classified in a wide range of ways: ‘si è cercato di mostrare come non l'adesione a una poetica, ma la prassi di un personalissimo agire poetico, sia alla base del proteiforme carattere del liber’ (p. 199). Personhood, and the circle of persons surrounding the poet, likewise play crucial roles in the final chapter, L. Gamberale's ‘Aspetti dell'amicizia poetica fra Catullo e Calvo’. Gamberale argues that, ‘[g]li amici a volte si trovano, o si scelgono, non perché sono uguali a noi ma perché sono diversi, per quanto sia necessario che condividano alcuni valori, alcuni ideali, alcune tendenze di vita’ (p. 209).
Gamberale's conclusion, although somewhat particular to those poems linking Catullus and Calvus, may nevertheless serve to exemplify the volume's methods and insights. In Gamberale's words, Catullus ‘usa largamente la lingua dell'amicizia propria dei contemporanei (specie di Cicerone), lingua che è poi quella delle relazioni sociali e che, nei suoi aspetti affettivi, è in parte indistinta (ancora) da quella dell'amore: si pensi alle affermazioni ciceroniane sul fatto che le due parole hanno la stessa radice’ (p. 242). It is a measure of the high quality of this volume that such a statement is, in the context of its supporting arguments, not an overgeneralisation but a rich suggestion of how we might continue to build new readings of an ancient poet on rigorous scholarly foundations.
The volume includes a comprehensive bibliography for all the chapters (edited by S. Sparagna) and an index nominum et rerum notabilium (edited by A.L. Fetto). It is handsomely produced, especially in light of its relatively low cost. I noticed no typographical errors.
