Szymon Szymonowic's Ioel Propheta as an Example of the Renaissance Biblical Paraphrase

Abstract

Szymon Szymonowic's Ioel Propheta, dedicated to Pope Clement VIII, is the second example, aside to Jan Dantyszek's Ionas Propheta, of the Polish-Latin Biblical poetry in the sixteenth century, a poetry that imitated the prophetic books of the Old Testament. The poetic paraphrases of the biblical books in the Renaissance are a particular and frequent type of writing, although the Renaissance literary theory was rather not occupied with this phenomenon and the majority of authors of poetical theories keep silent about paraphrase. The paper quotes in short what the ancient (Quintilian and Cicero) and Renaissance (Erasmus of Rotterdam and Nicodemus Frischlin) authors said as regards the essence and function of paraphrase. These authors emphasize the emulative character of literary paraphrases, and aemulatio is one of the basic (apart to imitatio) principles of poetic writing, those that were binding in the Renaissance. Quintilian quotes two very general ways of paraphrasing: breviare, that is summary, abbreviation of the original text, and exornare – ornament (which most often is also a development of the text under paraphrase). Giving a new literary form to the well-known biblical themes, one may be free in selecting proportions, skillfully laying emotional stresses and thus making use of paraphrase for an appropriate goal. Prophecy as a literary genre has been found to be similar to speech, in particular to genus deliberativum, the essence of the oratory style being, according to Quintilian and Cicero, amplification and ornamentation. One can see therefore, that amplification is a characteristic feature of both speech and paraphrase. Our analysis of Szymonowic's work shows that the poet extended the theme from the Bible through his amplification in the stylistic layer. In the work Ioel Propheta by Szymonowic the amplification serves to characterize a figure, and expresses various feelings. Above all, it has been used to demonstrate the author's workshop skill, and thereby to evoke the reader's admiration for his talent and erudition. The evident particular amplification of some parts of Joel's prophecy can make us assume that it was caused by a definite goal, for which Szymonowic made his paraphrase. This goal was to direct Pope Clement VIII's attention to danger that threatened Christian Europe on the part of the Turkish empire. This is not, however, a kind of persistent anti-Turkish propaganda. For sure, Szymonowic's work, especially his dedication of the initial part, is also a panegyric to honour Pope Clement VIII. Thus, apart from imitative and emulative effort, one may stress in Szymonowic his skilful use of paraphrase to broaden the interpretative range of a work.