Category: Translation

Santelia Translates Carmina minora

Another milestone in Sidonius scholarship has been reached: the first complete Italian translation of the Carmina minora by Stefania Santelia, with her text and explanatory notes. Silvia Condorelli wrote the introduction. Full title: Sidonio Apollinare. Carmina minora. Testo, traduzione e note a cura di Stefania Santelia. Saggio introduttivo di Silvia Condorelli, Studi latini n.s. 97, Naples: Paolo Loffredo, 2023.

Available here.

Out Now: Hindermann’s Book 2

Judith Hindermann has published her translation and commentary of Book 2 of the Correspondence: Sidonius Apollinaris’ Letters, Book 2: Text, Translation and Commentary, Edinburgh Studies in Later Latin Literature, Edinburgh: EUP.

There is a 30% launch discount (NEW30) for anyone purchasing.

This book issues from the SA xxi project (Sidonius Apollinaris for the 21st Century) and begins the ESLLL series (Edinburgh Studies in Later Latin Literature), edited by Gavin Kelly and Aaron Pelttari.

Ágnes Horváth Translates the Letters

Ágnes T. Horváth has published her translation into Hungarian of the Letters: Caius Sollius Modestus Sidonius Apollinaris levelei, Szeged: JGYF Kiadó, 2022. Item in publisher’s catalogue here.

She provides the following explanation:

The volume consists of two parts. The first part contains the Hungarian translation of the letters and their explanation in footnotes. It is primarily a literary translation. The accompanying and detailed notes of commentary are not concerned with the Latin text, but rather with the content of the letters and the Hungarian wording. Mythological and other explanations in the commentary aim to help a general audience but also to facilitate further intertextual research. The translation and the notes are based on authoritative editions.
The second part of the volume contains some studies. The purpose of the author is to help Hungarian readers to get to know Sidonius better. The biographical section contains an overview of Sidonius’ life and a reconstruction of his family history. The biographical part includes secondary literature. The reconstruction of the history of his family starts with the analysis of his name and focuses on the investigation of the gens Sollia. It is based on published inscription material by means of which the author attempts to outline the rise of this gens (an article is forthcoming in English).
The final essay of the volume is the reception of Sidonius in Hungary. Sidonius was used as a generic example (speculum regis, personality sketch, panegyricus, propemptikon, epithalamium). Specific quotations of Sidonius can be traced back to the 15th century. Since the 19th century, his works have been used as historical sources, mainly due to his knowledge of the peoples of the Migration Period, especially the Huns and the city of Aquincum. Besides, the researchers of Hungarian prehistory (historians, archaeologists, phrenologists) also used his works. His descriptions and informations can be found in fiction as well, mainly in historical novels and in popular historical writings. The last subsection of the study is a brief summary of Hungarian research on Sidonius.
Appendices include a prosopography of Sidonius, the bibliography of the sources and secondary literature, and an index of names.

Fernández López Translates Pervigilium

Conchita Fernández López has published a new translation into Galician and Castilian, with Latin text, of the Pervigilium Veneris. She opts for a date of Summer 475/476 and the probability of Sidonius’ authorship:

Perviligum Veneris. Alborada de Venus. Vísperas de Amor. Texto y traducciones gallega y castellana de María Concepción Fernández López, Lugo: AXAC, 2020.

Item in catalogue Axac here.

Green, Sidonius Complete Poems

Now announced by Liverpool University Press for publication on 1 November 2021:

Roger P.H. Green, Sidonius Apollinaris. Complete Poems, Translated Texts for Historians 76.

Description

Sidonius Apollinaris was an inhabitant of southern Roman Gaul in the mid fifth century AD, when it was threatened by invasions from beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire and by competing warlords. His many poetic works include three panegyrics to emperors at the beginnings of their reigns; these are carefully translated and annotated, and provided with comment and synopses.  His multiple shorter poems, in a variety of metres, are translated into appropriate English and given separate introductions and notes of various kinds, historical and literary. There is an extensive and informative introduction to the whole work.

This book by Roger Green, a lifelong expert in Late Antiquity, gives a firsthand account of the political strife and manoeuvring of the times but also a vivid picture of the lives of his like-minded friends in an almost post-Roman episode of Rome’s existence. Sidonius was read widely in the Middle Ages, with a golden age in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and also in the fifteenth century revival of Late Antique literature. Today his poetry will awaken new study and interest, without the archaism of many older translations and with a fresh and updated approach to many issues.