On Pontano’s Baiae

Before you read any further, I must warn you that some of the poems discussed in this post are risque and thus not appropriate for younger learners of Latin. High school or middle school students should skip this one.  

Giovanni Pontano, the Renaissance humanist, wrote both prose and poetry in Latin. 

His Baiae are a collection of charming, occasionally hedonistic poems about various pleasures. This includes married love. Despite being a tad shocking in their frankness, they are elegantly-composed and not significantly more explicit, arguably, than Catullus - the poet’s model in terms of both meter and style. I found them amusing, although some do veer into what would be today considered shocking territory. Pontano is unusual in that he portrays himself as an amusingly ribald old man, something that one doesn’t really find in Latin poetry of the classical period. Generally, such a figure is the subject of ridicule, but not in the work of Pontano!

I would argue that in terms of readability these poems, while not exactly easy, are easier than Catullus or equally difficult. The vocabulary used within them is somewhat limited as well as at times rather Catullan, making them a good companion to his work. Perhaps one could read these at home after attending a university course on Catullus. They’re also mostly quite short, at least compared to the elegies of, say, Tibullus or something more epic.

Of Pontano’s poetry, I would also quite recommend his book of poems about his marriage, which contains both romantic poems about his wife and charming lullabies to his young son. This work is unusual in that it is perhaps the first collection of Latin poetry that glorifies not the drama of an adulterous love affair, such as that between Catullus and Lesbia, but the romance between a husband and wife.

There exists an I Tatti library edition of the Baiae as well as On Married Love - these are bilingual editions like Loebs, but for Renaissance Latin. They tend to be more affordable than most scholarly editions and suitable for the non-specialist or student. Many of these poems can also be found on the ever-useful Bibliotheca Augustana.