Ars photographica
| Author | Pecci, Vincenzo Gioacchino (Leo XIII) |
|---|---|
| Full title | Ars photographica |
| In | Bach, Joseph (ed.): Leonis XIII. P. M. carmina, inscriptiones, numismata, Cologne 1903, 48. |
| Year | 1867 |
| Place | |
| Publisher/Printer | |
| Era | After 1800 |
| Form/Genre | Panegyric poem |
| Discipline/Content | Other (see description) |
| Digital copies | |
| Original | not available |
| Digital sourcebook | not available |
| Description | Although by the second half of the 19th century, Latin poetry had become a niche literature, scientific and technological innovations remained fascinating subjects. Exploring the tensions between the ancient language and the modern topics, Neo-Latin poets wrote on electricity, photography, trains, bikes or Zeppelins. Many, but not all of these pieces were submissions to the Certamen Hoeufftianum (1844–1978), a prestigious contest for Neo-Latin poetry (cf. Wiegand 1984, 39–42).
Pope Leo XIII (Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci) wrote Neo-Latin poetry throughout his life, especially hymns, occasional and didactic poems (cf. Giustiniani 1979, 55–57). His poems were published in a printed edition with an Italian translation in 1883 (with supplements in 1898 and 1902) and in a printed edition with an English translation in 1902. Another edition of the pope's Latin poems was produced in Cologne in 1903 (a German translation followed the next year). Pecci composed his panegyric poem on photography in 1867 (before he became pope), when the new technology was just a few decades old. Consisting of two stanzas of four iambic dimetres, it expresses wonder over a portrait photograph: Expressa solis spiculo "O shining image, depicted by a sunbeam, how well do you display the beauty of the forehead, the power of the eyes and the grace of the mouth! O wonderful virtue of talent, o new marvel! Apelles, the rival of nature, would not paint a more beautiful image!" This poem is composed as a hymn of two Ambrosian strophes, drawing on a classical form of Christian poetry. While the title Ars photographica exhibits the technical term for the new technology, the poem itself consists only of classical vocabulary. Throughout the hymn, photography is cloaked in ancient language, metres, rhetorical figures and points of reference. At the beginning of the first stanza, the photograph (imago) is addressed and therefore elevated as the object of the hymn. The enumeration of the single features of the face (a tricolon with two chiasms) highlights the poet's fascination with the portrait and seems to correspond to the detail and accuracy of the photograph. In the second stanza, the wonder of photography is emphasised in another exclamation. At the close of the text, the fineness of the image is highlighted once again, this time by a reference to Apelles, the ancient paragon of a painter, who is not able to produce a more beautiful picture than the sunbeam. |
| References | Bach 1903; Giustiniani 1979, 55–7 |
| Cited in | |
| How to cite this entry | Pecci, Vincenzo Gioacchino (Leo XIII): Ars photographica, in: Noscemus Wiki, URL: http://wiki.uibk.ac.at/noscemus/Ars_photographica (last revision: 20.02.2022). |
| Internal notes | |
| Internal notes | As the sunbeam might be equated with Apollo as painter, the superiority of the sunbeam's painting is not that surprising. The sun as painter also appears in poems on the rainbow, maybe also in the poem on the camera obscura.
Neither the 1883 edition nor the Bach edition (1903) or the German translation are available online. Bach calls the Ars photographica in his effusive introduction "das allerliebste, vielbewunderte Gedicht" (p. 5). This is taken from Baumgartner's books (see below). Alexander Baumgartner SJ, Die lateinische und griechische Literatur der christlichen Völker, Freiburg 1905 (3.+4. Auflage), p. 684–5: "Allgemeine Bewunderung, auch in nichtkatholischen Kreisen, hat das allerliebste jambische Epigramm auf die "Photographie" (Ars photographica, vom Jahre 1867) gefunden: [lat. Text]. Vom scharfen Sonnenstrahl gemalt / Wie gibst du wieder voll und treu / O herrlich Bild, der Stirne Glanz, / der Augen Licht, der Züge Huld. / O Menschengeist, so wunderbar, / O neuerfundnes Zauberwerk! Apelles lauschte der Natur / Fürwahr ein schönres Bild nicht ab." |
| Of interest to | MK, IT |
| Transkribus text available | |
| Written by | IT |
