Bergin, Thomas G (trans.); Wilson, Alice S (trans.), Petrarch's Africa (New York: Yale UP)
Text name(s): Africa
Number of pages of primary source text: 289
Author(s):
Dates: 1338 - 1343
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- Latin
Translation:
- Translated into English.
Translation Comments: Bergin and Wilson follow the critical edition of Festa published in 1926 (Florence: Sansoni).
Geopolitical Region(s):
- Africa
- Tunisia
- Italy
County/Region: Rome
Record Types:
- Literature - Verse
Subject Headings:
- Literature - Epics Romance
- Royalty / Monarchs
- Classics / Humanism
Apparatus:
- Index
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
In 1337 Petrarch first visited Rome. This visit had a profound impact, leaving him speechless but also inspired to take up literary pursuits equal to the grandeur he saw in the Rome that he visited. It should come as little surprise that in the following year he began writing an epic in Latin. Petrarch’s Africa recounts the leadership of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236-183 BCE) in the Second Punic War with a particular focus on the battle of Zama in 202 BCE. The epic concludes in book 9 with a triumphant Scipio returning to Rome.
Petrarch’s love of the classics and humanist spirit pervades through the text in a work that combines features of Livy’s history, Cicero’s philosophical writings and Virgil’s epic poetry. Even so, the literary quality of the Africa has been greatly criticized as dry, unpolished and second rate to other works by Petrarch and the works of those who preceded (e.g. Dante) and followed him (e.g. Renaissance writers). In this edition Bergin and Wilson set these criticisms aside, wishing to make more accessible literature that holds great potential for enriching perspectives on a writer of essential significance to both medieval and renaissance literary traditions.
Readers who are new to Petrarch and especially those who are new to the Africa will find helpful a chronology of the Second Punic War, a map, summary headings, explanatory notes (29 pages worth), and an index of proper names. In addition to these resources, there is also an essential bibliography in the final pages of the book highlight the key scholarship (up to the year 1977) on Plutarch’s Africa.
Introduction Summary:
The introduction (8 pp.) concisely provides a history for the production of the Africa in the time of Petrarch and the subsequent (sparse) publication interest in the epic.
Cataloger: BW
