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ЛАТИНСКИЕ ПЕРЕВОДЫ РЕЧЕЙ ДИОНА ХРИСОСТОМА В РЕНЕССАНСНОМ ИЗДАНИИ КАРЛО ВАЛЬГУЛИО
The article is devoted to the history and circumstances surrounding the appearance of the first Latin editions of the political speeches of Dio Chrysostom, produced in the late 15th century by Italian humanists, which marked the beginning of centuries-long study and popularization of the works of this major ancient Greek orator and sophist in Europe. Thus, after the publication in Florence in 1471 by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini of
four of Dio’s speeches “On Royal Power” (Orr. I–IV), translated into Latin by the renowned Greek scholar and bibliophile Gregorio Tifernate and addressed to archduke Maximilian (the future emperor), the second edition
of Dio Chrysostom’s speeches appeared in 1497 in Brescia. This edition
was undertaken by a close friend and associate of Cardinal Piccolomini — the humanist Carlo Valgulio, who served as secretary to Cesare Borgia in Rome during the 1480s–1490s. In this edition, Carlo Valgulio included a number of ancient treatises on moral-philosophical and socio-political themes, and among them — two speeches by Dio on concord (“Oratio ad Nicomedios de concordia cum Nicenis” and “De concordia oratio Niceae habita seditione sedata”), which, given the political situation in Europe on
the eve of and at the beginning of the Italian Wars, was particularly timely. In his speeches, the ancient Greek orator urges his fellow citizens — the inhabitants of the Roman province of Bithynia — to unity and concord, to the cessation of disputes and rivalries, and to peaceful coexistence under the aegis of wise Roman authority. Taking into account the situation in
Italy after the end of the First Italian War, as well as Valgulio’s own
preface to the speeches of Dio Chrysostom addressed to Cardinal Piccolomini, it can be concluded that the appearance of this Brescian edition was prompted by current political circumstances and was regarded
by him as a means of veiled political propaganda, calling upon the rulers and people of Italy to consolidate against a common enemy — France, which at that time sought to subjugate Italy and laid claim to hegemony over Europe as a whole. A detailed comparative analysis of the language and style of Carlo Valgulio’s Latin translations with the ancient Greek
speeches of Dio Chrysostom in the aforementioned edition confirms this
conclusion. Certain, quite numerous cases of Valgulio’s deviations from
the Greek original text suggest a deliberate adaptation of these translations to the contemporary political situation in Italy.