Editing Horace (section)

===Middle Ages and Renaissance===
[[File:Horaz beim Studium.jpg|thumb|Horace in his Studium: German print of the fifteenth century, summarizing the final [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen XV|ode 4.15]] (in praise of Augustus).]]

Classical texts almost ceased being copied in the period between the mid sixth century and the [[Carolingian Renaissance|Carolingian revival]]. Horace's work probably survived in just two or three books imported into northern Europe from Italy. These became the ancestors of six extant manuscripts dated to the ninth century. Two of those six manuscripts are French in origin, one was produced in [[Alsace]], and the other three show Irish influence but were probably written in continental monasteries ([[Lombardy]] for example).<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 285–87</ref> By the last half of the ninth century, it was not uncommon for literate people to have direct experience of Horace's poetry. His influence on the [[Carolingian Renaissance]] can be found in the poems of [[Heiric of Auxerre]]<ref group="nb">Heiric, like Prudentius, gave Horatian motifs a Christian context. Thus the character Lydia in ''Odes'' 3.19.15, who would willingly die for her lover twice, becomes in Heiric's ''Life'' of St Germaine of Auxerre a saint ready to die twice for the Lord's commandments (R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 287–88)</ref> and in some manuscripts marked with [[neumes]], notations that may have been an aid to the memorization and discussion of his lyric meters. ''Ode'' [[:wikisource:la:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen XI|4.11]] is neumed with the melody of a hymn to John the Baptist, ''[[Ut queant laxis]]'', composed in [[Sapphic stanza]]s. This hymn later became the basis of the [[solfege]] system (''Do, re, mi...''){{emdash}}an association with western music quite appropriate for a lyric poet like Horace, though the language of the hymn is mainly Prudentian.<ref>R. Tarrant, ''Ancient receptions of Horace'', 288–89</ref> Lyons<ref>Stuart Lyons, Horace's Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi</ref> argues that the melody in question was linked with Horace's Ode well before Guido d'Arezzo fitted ''Ut queant laxis'' to it.  Ovid<ref>Tristia, 4.10.49–50</ref> does testify to Horace's use of the lyre while performing his Odes.

The German scholar [[Ludwig Traube (palaeographer)|Ludwig Traube]] once dubbed the tenth and eleventh centuries ''The age of Horace'' (''aetas Horatiana''), and placed it between the ''aetas Vergiliana'' of the eighth and ninth centuries, and the ''aetas Ovidiana'' of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Horace was a substantial influence in the ninth century as well, and Traube concentrated too much on Horace's ''Satires''.<ref>B. Bischoff, ''Living with the satirists'', 83–95</ref> Almost all of Horace's work found favour in the Medieval period, with scholars associating Horace's different genres with the different ages of man. A twelfth-century scholar encapsulated the theory: 

<blockquote>"...Horace wrote four different kinds of poems on account of the four ages, the ''Odes'' for boys, the ''Ars Poetica'' for young men, the ''Satires'' for mature men, the ''Epistles'' for old and complete men."<ref>K. Friis-Jensen,''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 291</ref></blockquote> 

It was then thought that Horace had composed his works in the order in which they had been placed by ancient scholars.<ref group="nb">According to a medieval French commentary on the ''Satires'': "...first he composed his lyrics, and in them, speaking to the young, as it were, he took as subject-matter love affairs and quarrels, banquets and drinking parties. Next he wrote his ''Epodes'', and in them composed invectives against men of a more advanced and more dishonourable age...He next wrote his book about the ''Ars Poetica'', and in that instructed men of his own profession to write well...Later he added his book of ''Satires'', in which he reproved those who had fallen a prey to various kinds of vices. Finally, he finished his oeuvre with the ''Epistles'', and in them, following the method of a good farmer, he sowed the virtues where he had rooted out the vices." (cited by K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 294–302)</ref> This schematism involved an appreciation of Horace's works as a collection, the ''Ars Poetica'', ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'' appearing to find favour as well as the ''Odes''. The later Middle Ages, however, gave special significance to ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'', considered Horace's mature works. [[Dante]] referred to Horace as ''Orazio satiro'', and he awarded him a privileged position in the first circle of Hell, with [[Homer]], Ovid and [[Lucan]].<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 293, 304</ref>

Horace's popularity is revealed in the large number of quotes from all his works found in almost every genre of medieval literature, and also in the number of poets imitating him in [[Prosody (Latin)#Two rhythms|quantitative Latin meter]]. The most prolific imitator of his ''Odes'' was the Bavarian monk, [[Metellus of Tegernsee]], who dedicated his work to the patron saint of [[Tegernsee Abbey]], [[Quirinus of Tegernsee|St Quirinus]], around the year 1170. He imitated all Horace's lyrical meters then followed these up with imitations of other meters used by Prudentius and Boethius, indicating that variety, as first modelled by Horace, was considered a fundamental aspect of the lyric genre. The content of his poems however was restricted to simple piety.<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 296–98</ref> Among the most successful imitators of ''Satires'' and ''Epistles'' was another Germanic author, calling himself [[Sextus Amarcius]], around 1100, who composed four books, the first two exemplifying vices, the second pair mainly virtues.<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 302</ref>

[[Petrarch]] is a key figure in the imitation of Horace in accentual meters. His verse letters in Latin were modelled on the ''Epistles'' and he wrote a letter to Horace in the form of an ode. However he also borrowed from Horace when composing his Italian sonnets. One modern scholar has speculated that authors who imitated Horace in accentual rhythms (including stressed Latin and vernacular languages) may have considered their work a natural sequel to Horace's metrical variety.<ref>K. Friis-Jensen, ''Horace in the Middle Ages'', 299</ref> In France, Horace and [[Pindar]] were the poetic models for a group of vernacular authors called the [[Pléiade]], including for example [[Pierre de Ronsard]] and [[Joachim du Bellay]]. [[Montaigne]] made constant and inventive use of Horatian quotes.<ref>Michael McGann, ''Horace in the Renaissance'', 306</ref> The vernacular languages were dominant in Castilia and Portugal in the sixteenth century, where Horace's influence is notable in the works of such authors as [[Garcilaso de la Vega (poet)|Garcilaso de la Vega]], [[Juan Boscán]], [[Sá de Miranda]], [[António Ferreira (poet)|Antonio Ferreira]] and [[Fray Luis de León]], the last writing odes on the Horatian theme ''beatus ille'' (''happy the man'').<ref>E. Rivers, ''Fray Luis de León: The Original Poems''</ref> The sixteenth century in western Europe was also an age of translations (except in Germany, where Horace wasn't translated into the vernacular until well into the seventeenth century). The first English translator was [[Thomas Drant]], who placed translations of [[Jeremiah]] and Horace side by side in ''Medicinable Morall'', 1566. That was also the year that the Scot [[George Buchanan]] paraphrased the [[Psalms]] in a Horatian setting. [[Ben Jonson]] put Horace on the stage in 1601 in ''[[Poetaster (play)|Poetaster]]'', along with other classical Latin authors, giving them all their own verses to speak in translation. Horace's part evinces the independent spirit, moral earnestness and critical insight that many readers look for in his poems.<ref>M. McGann, ''Horace in the Renaissance'', 306–07, 313–16</ref>