DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0289
ETIENNE DOLET
247
Cicero and Plato, life and death—according to the philo-
sophers—were discussed with untiring eloquence. Eminent
among the disputers, when Dolet came to Padua, was the
Latin professor, Simon Villovanus, a broad and beautiful
spirit, enamoured of Cicero. With him Dolet formed a
friendship so romantic that it satisfied even his stormy and
questioning soul, and the early death of Villovanus, in these
opening days of Dolet’s manhood, was an enduring grief
overshadowing the rest of his life. It confirmed his natural
inclination and made him retire more and more into the
pleasures of the mind.
As an undergraduate he quickly distinguished himself
and plunged, with an almost savage courage, into the
scholarly disputes that disturbed the town. These corre-
sponded more or less to the differences which had already
appeared in the literature of France—the feud between
Ancients and Moderns—the Classical and the Natural. Later
in the century it re-appeared in England and stirred up
the English stage, where Ben Jonson as a Classic and Shake-
speare as a Modern fought out the issue between them.
In Italy the Ciceronians were the counterpart of the
Ancients. Cardinal Bembo and Villovanus, who had a
large and metaphysical mind and a grasp of Cicero’s ideas,
represented the best side of them, and Dolet became their
partisan. “Let others choose other masters,” he said, “I
approve only of Christ and Tully; Christ and Tully are
enough for me.” He and his friends confined themselves
to admiration of Cicero’s thought and to fervent imitation
of his style. Unfortunately they were not typical of their
party. The Ciceronians, as a rule, were narrow and pedan-
247
Cicero and Plato, life and death—according to the philo-
sophers—were discussed with untiring eloquence. Eminent
among the disputers, when Dolet came to Padua, was the
Latin professor, Simon Villovanus, a broad and beautiful
spirit, enamoured of Cicero. With him Dolet formed a
friendship so romantic that it satisfied even his stormy and
questioning soul, and the early death of Villovanus, in these
opening days of Dolet’s manhood, was an enduring grief
overshadowing the rest of his life. It confirmed his natural
inclination and made him retire more and more into the
pleasures of the mind.
As an undergraduate he quickly distinguished himself
and plunged, with an almost savage courage, into the
scholarly disputes that disturbed the town. These corre-
sponded more or less to the differences which had already
appeared in the literature of France—the feud between
Ancients and Moderns—the Classical and the Natural. Later
in the century it re-appeared in England and stirred up
the English stage, where Ben Jonson as a Classic and Shake-
speare as a Modern fought out the issue between them.
In Italy the Ciceronians were the counterpart of the
Ancients. Cardinal Bembo and Villovanus, who had a
large and metaphysical mind and a grasp of Cicero’s ideas,
represented the best side of them, and Dolet became their
partisan. “Let others choose other masters,” he said, “I
approve only of Christ and Tully; Christ and Tully are
enough for me.” He and his friends confined themselves
to admiration of Cicero’s thought and to fervent imitation
of his style. Unfortunately they were not typical of their
party. The Ciceronians, as a rule, were narrow and pedan-