Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Virgilian Elements in José Rodrigues de Melo's De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (1781)

  • Article
  • Published:
International Journal of the Classical Tradition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This brief survey of the context, structure and content of the De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (1781) highlights various aspects of Virgil's influence on José Rodrigues de Melo's four-book didactic poem.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Y. A. Haskell, Loyola’s Bees. Ideology and Industry in Jesuit Latin Didactic Poetry, Oxford, 2003, pp. 315–20.; A. Laird, ‘Colonial Spanish America and Brazil’, in The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin, ed. S. Knight and S. Tilg, Oxford, 2015, pp. 525–40 (529).

  2. E. A. Fonda, ‘Um canto das geórgicas brasileiras’, Revista de Letras, 19, 1977, pp. 117–25; A. de Brito Mariano, ‘Da mandioca ao açúcar: as Geórgicas no novo mundo’, Sapientia. Repositório da Universidade de Algarve, 2010, http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/2911.

  3. Information on Melo’s life and works are from M. Russo and A. J. Limpo Trigueiros, SJ, I Gesuiti dell’Assistenza Lusitana esiliati in Italia (1759–1831), Padua, 2013, pp. 645–6.

  4. Carmen in nuptiis Joannis Ricci et Faustinae Parraciani, nobilium Romanorum, Rome, 1778; Excellentissimo D. D. Eusebio Aloysio Maria de Meneses, primi ordinis inter Lusitanos proceres optimati Rome nato 19 kal. Sept. Anni 1780. Josephus Rodrigues de Mello Lusitanus D. O. C. carmen genethliacum, Rome, 1780; Vita Emmanuelis Correa, Soc[ietatis] J[esu], in fano S. Martini, 1789. The Aeneid translation is still in manuscript. See Russo and Trigueiros, I Gesuiti, (n. 3 above), p. 645.

  5. Fonda, ‘Um canto’ (n. 2 above), pp. 118–19.

  6. José Rodrigues de Melo and Prudêncio do Amaral, Temas rurais do Brasil, transl. and ed. R. J. Sozim and S. Monteiro Zan, Ponta Grossa, 1997.

  7. Information on Book III is from Fonda, ‘Um canto’ (n. 2 above), pp. 118–19; Book IV: José Rodrigues de Melo, De cultura herbae Nicotianae in Brasilia. A cultura do fumo no Brasil, transl. S. Bélkior, Rio de Janeiro, 2004.

  8. José Rodrigues de Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus carminum libri IV. Accedit Prudentii Amarali Brasiliensis de sacchari opificio carmen, Rome, 1781, p. iii. I use the spelling ‘Melo’ (instead of ‘Mello’), which was adopted from the second edition onwards and is the standard form of his name.

  9. The genethliacum had already been published separately in 1780; see n. 4 above.

  10. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), pp. iv–v.

  11. All translations of Melo are my own.

  12. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), p. 116, n. (a).

  13. The second edition of the De rusticis Brasiliae rebus has caused confusion on this matter because the editor or publisher extracted the ‘magne puer’ verses and printed them on the unmarked pages between the title page and the beginning of the poem. He dedicated the edition to Queen Maria I and King João VI, conveniently using the verses dedicated to the ‘prince of Brazil’ as if João VI were the original addresee; see José Rodrigues de Melo, De rebus rusticis Brasilicis carminum libri quatuor. Quibus accedit Prudentii Amaralii de sacchari opificio singulare carmen, jussu, et auspiciis regiae suae celsitudinis, Brasiliae principis, domini nostri denuo typis mandati, curante fr. Josepho Mariano a Conceptione Velloso, strictioris observantiae S. Francisci Fluvii Januarii, Lisbon, 1798. Cf. Fonda, ‘Um canto’ (n. 2 above), p. 120.

  14. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), pp. 168–9.

  15. For more on Melo’s depiction of slaves, see Haskell, Loyola’s Bees (n. 1 above), pp. 315–20.

  16. A detailed conspectus of this book can be found in Fonda, ‘Um canto’ (n. 2 above), pp. 120–22.

  17. E.g., Silva Bélkior regards De rusticis Brasiliae rebus as consisting of three separate poems; see Melo, A cultura (n. 7 above), p. 14. Separate editions of single books are also indicative.

  18. Laird, ‘Colonial Spanish’ (n. 1 above), p. 529.

  19. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), p. 116.

  20. Mariano, ‘Da mandioca’ (n. 2 above), pp. 12, n.32, and 7, Haskell, Loyola’s Bees (n. 1 above), p. 316.

  21. Haskell, Loyola’s Bees (n. 1 above), p. 316.

  22. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), p. 87.

  23. Ibid., p. 115.

  24. Ibid., p. 151.

  25. I.e., the tobacco plant, which was named after Jean Nicot (1530–1604), who first brought it to France.

  26. Citations from Virgil, Opera omnia, ed. R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford, 1969.

  27. All English translations of the Georgics from Virgil’s Georgics: A New Verse Translation, transl. J. Lembke, New Haven and London, 2005.

  28. See also Ausonius, Cento nuptialis, 130.

  29. Appendix Vergiliana in Latin and English cited from Virgil, Aeneid VII–XII. Appendix Vergiliana, transl. H. Rushton Fairclough, rev. ed. G. P. Goold, Cambridge MA and London, 2000.

  30. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), p. 169.

  31. All English translations of the Aeneid cited from Virgil, Aeneid, transl. F. Ahl, Oxford, 2007.

  32. All English translations of the Eclogues cited from Vergil’s Eclogues, transl. B. Hughes Fowler, 1997.

  33. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), pp. 101–5.

  34. Ibid., p. 101: ‘Atque hoc nectar erat, quo non jucundius ullum / Brasiliae populis: hoc scilicet ibat in orbem, / Hoc inter fremitus, atque horrificos ululatus / Largiter effusum hauribant, cum publica pagus / Festa dabat. Sed nusquam alibi solemnior usus, / Vis major nusquam, atque immundi copia Bacchi, / Quam circo in magno, quoties de more triumphum / Dux ageret patrio, et mactato pasceret hoste / Excitam ad pompae spectacula barbara turbam’ (II.274–82). [‘And this was the nectar that the Brazilian tribes found most enjoyable; they would pass it around and drink it, poured in generous quantities, amidst the noise and terrifying cries during village feasts. But on no other occasion was the use of the filthy drink more common, and its force and abundance greater, than in the great circle, whenever the chief celebrated his triumph in the traditional manner and fed the crowd, brought out to the savage public procession, with the slaughtered enemy.’]

  35. Ibid., p. 105: ‘Hoc genti fuit ingenium moresque, priusquam / pulsa superstitio nigro caput abderet Orco; at Christo lustrata, sacrisque imbuta Latinis / quae pars cunque fuit, quamquam ejuravit aviti / barbariem ritus, vescendique hostibus usu / horrendo abstinuit crudelique, haud tamen omnes / dedidicit penitus mores, ardorque bibendi / perstat adhuc idem ...’ (II.353–60). [‘This used to be the disposition and the custom of the people before superstition, having been expelled, hid its head in the black underworld; but whatever part had been purified by Christ and instructed in the Latin rites, although it abandoned the ancient savage rite and abstained from the horrifying and cruel custom of eating one's enemies, still did not completely forget all practices, and the passion for drinking remains the same ...’]

  36. Melo and Amaral, Temas (n. 6 above), pp. 19–20 (Sozim and Zan’s introduction).

  37. D. Forsyth, ‘The Beginnings of Brazilian Anthropology. Jesuits and Tupinamba Cannibalism’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 39, 1983, pp. 147–78.

  38. D. Forsyth and H. Staden, ‘Three Cheers for Hans Staden. The Case for Brazilian Cannibalism’, Ethnohistory, 32, 1985, pp. 17–36.

  39. João Daniel, Tesouro descoberto no máximo Rio Amazonas, I, Rio de Janeiro, 2004.

  40. Ibid., p. 13 (Vicente Salles’s introduction).

  41. Ibid., pp. 305–9.

  42. Forsyth, ‘The Beginnings’ (n. 37 above), pp. 164–6.

  43. Daniel, Tesouro (n. 39 above), p. 308.

  44. Melo, De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (n. 8 above), p. 104.

  45. In an online discussion of this passage, M. Dinter and A. Khoo, ‘Eat Thy Neighbour: What Can Cannibalism Teach Us About Reading Neo-Latin Texts?’, https://medium.com/in-medias-res/eat-thy-neighbour-what-can-cannibalism-teach-us-about-reading-neo-latin-texts-7f014b9ba4fd Nov 1, 2018, accessed on 11 January 2022, offer a different interpretation, arguing that ‘The model behind De Melo’s description of cannibalism might ... not be sought in the Old World’ and that Melo ‘moves away from classical models in favor of Jesuit accounts’. I would like to thank the one of the anonymous peer reviewers for drawing my attention to this discussion.

  46. See A. Gerbi, The Dispute of the New World, Pittsburgh, 2010, p. 233 n. 341; and Laird, ‘Colonial Spanish’ (n. 1 above), p. 529.

  47. Landívar openly expressed his fondness for Guatemala City in some introductory elegiac verses; see A. Laird, The Epic of America. An Introduction to Rafael Landívar and the Rusticatio Mexicana, London, 2006, pp. 120–21.

  48. In this way, it would parallel the epic De invento novo orbe inductoque illuc Christi sacrificio by José Manuel Peramás; see D. Arbo and A. Laird, ‘Columbus, the Lily of Quito, and the Black Legend: The Context of José Manuel Peramás’ Epic on the Discovery on the New World: De invento novo orbe inductoque illuc Christi sacrificio (1777)’, Dieciocho 38, 2015, pp. 7–32.

  49. I would like to thank Andrew Laird and Florian Schaffenrath.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Zagreb, Ivana Lučića 3, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Petra Matović

Authors
  1. Petra Matović
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petra Matović.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Matović, P. Virgilian Elements in José Rodrigues de Melo's De rusticis Brasiliae rebus (1781). Int class trad 30, 381–394 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-022-00621-x

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-022-00621-x

Search

Navigation