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Martyn, John R. C.
John Martyn is a Senior Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at Melbourne University.
1998 0-7734-8331-4Resende was a true humanist, religious but free of bigotry, devoted to the Classics, a creative writer and a fine scholar on a very wide range of topics, interested in every aspect of Renaissance life and culture. Besides over 12,000 verses of Latin poetry, in almost every Classical meter, Resende composed biographies of Prince Edward and Friar Pedro in mellifluous Portuguese, of St. Gil in perfect Latin, a definitive history of Évora, an account of the battle of Diu, and various archaeological works. Many letters have survived, and he also published his Latin and Portuguese public orations and theological works. This collection includes a short biography of Resende and a large collection of his Latin poems, from about 1515 until his death in 1573, with both the Latin and the English translation. “John R. C. Martyn offers us an impressive work in this volume, ambitious both in scope and magnitude. . . . the poems are first edited in Latin (with an appended apparatus criticus); the English version follows with endnote apparatus which covers philological commentaries, explanations, etc. Each section of chapter 3 (autobiographical themes, Portuguese themes, Sebastian and Turkish themes, classical themes, nativity themes, religious themes, moralizing themes, and eclogues) is prefaced by an introductory essay which covers a metrical commentary on the poems, an analysis of the theme in relation to Resende’s poetry and to classical and Renaissance Latin poetry, and numerous bibliographical references. . . . Martyn’s work as an editor is of enormous merit, both in editing and commenting on Resende’s poems. . . Martyn’s paramount work is an incentive for future scholarly activity which will contribute to a better definition of the richness and variety of sixteenth-century Latin letters on the Iberian Peninsula.” – Neo-Latin News
1997 0-7734-8538-4
This work is the first to provide an English version of these two Portuguese texts. The biographies of Prince Edward (Duarte), born 1515, and of Friar Pedro Porteiro, were composed by one of Portugal's most illustrious scholars, André de Resende (1498-1573), tutor to the prince. Besides giving a full account of the life and education of the heir apparent, Resende describes the daily life, routines, superstitions, corrupt officials, special events, and choral interludes in Évora's Dominican monastery, where Resende had studied during his early years. Includes a brief biography of Resende in addition to the Portuguese and English texts on facing pages.
1999 0-7734-8181-8
2008 0-7734-5033-5
This work skillfully elucidates a period often misunderstood by historians. The study also explores the use of imitation and the intersections of the political and the religious in medieval times.
2004 0-7734-6506-5
This two-volume book contains an introduction to the rhetorical theories put forward by the most important ancient Greek rhetoricians, followed by a modern English translation of the Latin version of their commentaries in Hermogenes’ seminal work on stasis-theory, the basis for writing any sort of speech for a law-court or for public use. Rhetoric today is extremely important in public life, as any politician’s speech-writer knows, and the work by Syrianus, Sopater and Marcellinus translated in this book remain the foundations on which all theories of public speaking are built. When Pedro Nunes translated the original texts, no doubt from the recently published Aldine text, he was lecturing to the brightest young law students in Lisbon in the 16th century. It is unique in that in Europe at that time all other works on rhetoric were based on Cicero and Quintilian. The modern English translation will be of great use for students, as it will give them access to the basic theories of speech-writing, well exemplified with plenty of apposite quotations from leading Greek orators, especially Demosthenes, and from major events in Greek history. This version contains the original Latin as well as the English translation.
2004 0-7734-6350-X
This two-volume book contains an introduction to the rhetorical theories put forward by the most important ancient Greek rhetoricians, followed by a modern English translation of the Latin version of their commentaries in Hermogenes’ seminal work on stasis-theory, the basis for writing any sort of speech for a law-court or for public use. Rhetoric today is extremely important in public life, as any politician’s speech-writer knows, and the work by Syrianus, Sopater and Marcellinus translated in this book remain the foundations on which all theories of public speaking are built. When Pedro Nunes translated the original texts, no doubt from the recently published Aldine text, he was lecturing to the brightest young law students in Lisbon in the 16th century. It is unique in that in Europe at that time all other works on rhetoric were based on Cicero and Quintilian. The modern English translation will be of great use for students, as it will give them access to the basic theories of speech-writing, well exemplified with plenty of apposite quotations from leading Greek orators, especially Demosthenes, and from major events in Greek history. This version contains the original Latin as well as the English translation.
2003 0-7734-6507-3