On Oct 28, 2005, at 6:49 AM, Kevin Farnham wrote:
>
> My question: is "go little book" really an "ancient phrase"? I had
> not seen such a concept before I read Spenser (actually, I have
> been thinking for the past 20+ years that the concept of sending a
> personified book into the world on a teaching "mission" was my own
> creation -- it's an organizing principle a book of short stories I
> will complete before too long).
Catullus 1.1-2 is the locus classicus for the use libellus (='little
book') in the sense of a small-scale volume of highly-polished verse
under, in his case, the influence of Callimachus:
cui dono lepidum novum libellum
arida modo pumice expolitum?
The neoterics aspired to modest perfection, not the longwinded,
verbose epics that Catullus ridiculed in 95.7-8 as only fit to wrap
mackerel in:
at Volusi annales Paduam morientur ad ipsam
et laxas scombris daepe dabunt tunicas.
All of the Latin examples cited for T&C V.1786 use other verbs for
presenting, giving vel sim. rather than the imperative 'go' as a
direct address. See OLD s.v. 'libellus.'
I know of no critical study for the Latin usage.
----------------------------------------------------------
Steven J. Willett
Shizuoka University of Art and Culture
Department of International Culture Studies
1794-1 Noguchi-cho, Shizuoka Pref.
Hamamatsu City, Japan 430-8533
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 53-457-6142
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