WANDERING WOODS AGAIN 49
Silvae, poems declaimed as introductions, or praelectiones, as Po-
liziano calls them, to his academic courses. They represent what Po-
liziano calls a Silva, although, in fact, they are far from spontaneous
improvisations, but extremely elaborate and sophisticated critical
works, especially the last one, Nutricia, “Reward for nursing”, a title
which Poliziano himself compared to Statius’ Soteria (1.4). This poem
of almost 800 lines, is an enthusiastic, ambitious, sophisticated cele-
bration of poets and poetry, including a catalogue of ancient and mod-
ern poets in the same vein as Silvae 5.3.^16
As we see, Poliziano’s contribution was fourfold: 1) his literary
criticism of Statius, including definitions of silva which remained
current 2) The imitation of Statius in his poetry. 3) The original com-
positions which were his four Silvae, and 4) extensive work on the
text of the Silvae. Against this background all later work on the Silvae
must be seen, as variations on themes Poliziano had set.
Admiration and imitation of Poliziano’s own, original Silvae was
immediate, but apparently restricted in time and place. They were
studied and annotated in universities: thus Nicholas Bérauld (1473–
1550) in Paris lectured on Politians’ second poem, Rusticus in the year
1513–4,^17 and the early Dutch humanist Johan Murmellius (1480–
1517), headmaster in Münster at the time, lectured on both the Rusti-
cus and its predecessor Manto in 1509, and published commentaries
on both in the next year.^18 In France poems similar to Poliziano’s Sil-
vae were composed in the years 1515–50.^19 The two Dutch instances
known to me are much later: Hugo Grotius’ early Silva in Cuchlinum,
and his mature Silva in Thuanum, to which I will return.
As a result of Poliziano’s designation of single poems as a Silva,
the connection between the title Silvae and Statius’ books of occa-
16 On these important poems, see the editions by Galand-Hallyn, Bausi and Fan-
tazzi, also Godman 1993, who considers Nutricia as more or less the essence of all
Poliziano’s creative work. The first three Silvae were virtually the only Latin or Greek
poems authorized for publication during his lifetime by Poliziano: Fantazzi 2004, xii.
17 Galand-Hallyn 1998, 11–2, n. 7, 2002, xlvi–xlvii.
18 Groenland 2007, 253. Murmellius planned to treat of Rusticus again with his
pupils of 1511: ibid. and 451. He was an admirer of Poliziano: he recommended
Poliziano’s prose for a standard school curriculum, and mocked his superior for com-
posing feeble imitations of Poliziano’s poetry, all around 1510: ibid. 300–1, 222–3,
449.
19 For instance by the Spanish humanist Ioannes Vaccaeus in 1522, see Galand-
Hallyn 2002. The three Silvae by Nicolas Petit, also from 1522, consist of many ele-
ments written in different metres, see Laimé 2007.