Thursday, July 8, 2010

Latin manuscript poem in a late 17th-century Horace


Q. Horatii Flacci Opera / interpretatione & notis illustravit Ludovicus Desprez ... jussu Christianissimi Regis.
Londini : Impensis R. Clavel, H. Mortlock, S. Smith & B. Walford, 1699.
1 v. ; 20 cm.
Signatures: pi² A⁸-Y⁸ Z⁴2(A)⁸ 2A⁸-2Q⁸ 2RSTU⁸ 2X⁸-2Y⁸ 3A⁸ 3B⁴-3I⁴2*I² K⁴-O⁴
Wing (2nd ed.) H2765

Entitled "Filia Solis," or "Daughter of the Sun," this anonymous manuscript poem graces the endpapers of a late 17th-century edition of Horace's works in the Center's collection. The poem is written in a neat hand, exhibiting the typical "mixed" (between the older secretary and newer italic) script of the period. Here is a transcription of the poem (translations welcome!):

Filia Solis
Aestuat igne novo,
Et per prata juveneum
Mentem perdita quaeritat.
Non illam thalami pudor arcet,
Non regalii honor [?], nei magni cura mariti:
Optat in formam bovis
Convertier vultus suos,
Et proeditas dicit beatas,
Ioque laudat, non quod Isii alta est,
Sed quod Invencae cornua in fronte erigit.
Si quando miserae copia suppetit,
Brachiis ambit fera colla tauri,
Floresque vernos cornibus illigat,
Oraque jungere quarit ori.
Audaces animos efficiunt tela Cupidinis
Illicitesque gaudet:
Corpus includi & tabulii & faciens, juveneam
Et onnorii pudibundi inalesuadis
Obsequitur volii et procreat lieu nefas! bimembrem
Cecropides juvenis quem perculii fractum man[um?]
Filo resolvens Gnossiae tristia tecta domus.

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