“O Roman, Spare this God!”

In the dominant tradition of Christian epic poetry, Pilate’s judgement of Jesus is not explained by his brute political calculations. Rather, Pilate is literally conquered by Caiaphas and his Judaean allies. In this Christian tradition, the Roman trial of Jesus has not one but two judicial victims—Pilate and Jesus. For instance, in Marco Girolamo Vida’s Renaissance epic, Christiad, the dramatization of Pilate’s inner life permits the legal reality of his judgement to be recognized, and its moral reality to be denied. For many Christian writers, the Roman magistrate who interrogates Jesus is (virtually) guiltless. It is thus not only in pagan, Judaic, and Islamic traditions, but in early and august Christian traditions that Pilate has enjoyed—in many circles—twenty centuries of innocence.

Artistic Expression of the Translatio imperii Concept in the Latin Epic Poetry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th Century and the European Literary Context

In this article the author analyzes how the Renaissance epic poetry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth approaches the theme of translatio imperii, which is a concept and a political stereotype of transfer of metaphysical world domination from country to country. After the fall of Constantinople (1453), the concept of translatio imperii gradually lost its universal character and was interpreted within the confines of a nation. Among the analyzed poems are: Bellum Prutenum (1516) by Ioannes Visliciensis and Radivilias (1592) by Ioannes Radvanus. The artistic expression of both the “Jagiellonian” and Lithuanian (i.e., Grand Duchy of Lithuania) patriotism, which incorporated the concept of translatio imperii, had an enormous impact on the formation of the national identity of the Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Polish peoples.

Walter Scott and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso

Walter Scott proclaimed Ariosto his favourite Romance poet and Orlando Furioso his preferred epic. Byron subsequently called him the Ariosto of the North, and Ariosto the southern Scott. For Scott, the power of words to ‘make a ladye seem a knight’ or transform a sheeling into a palace associates Scottish folk culture with necromantic tales from medieval Italy and France. His life’s work shows the influence of the Italian Renaissance epic tradition to which the Furioso belongs. Scott’s collected ballads, narrative poetry, and novels demonstrate a complex response to Ariosto’s signature techniques of imitatio and entrelacement. His interest in oral literary history also connects him to improvisatori traditions. Scott’s interest in Ariosto extended beyond his writing career. Reading Orlando became a self-prescribed palliative for ‘mental and bodily fever’. The prospect of an ‘Orlando cure’ for frenzy is intriguing. This chapter explores the connections between Scott and Ariosto’s Furioso.