Pope Urban VIII and Pope Alexander VII: Selected Poetry
Lyrical Musings of Two Baroque Pontiffs
by Pope Urban VIII and Pope Alexander VII
Translated by Robert Nixon
Imprint: Resource Publications
Urban VIII and Alexander VII each occupied the papal throne during the seventeenth century, and were munificent and discriminating patrons of the arts, as well as men of conspicuous erudition and imagination. They were also sensitive, inspired, and highly accomplished poets. The cultural milieu from which they sprang was a halcyon era in which literature and the arts flourished with all the apollonian refulgence of a splendid, and sometimes extravagant, opulence. The present work of adaptation, employing strictly the medium of English heroic verse, comprises a choice cornucopia of the lyrical musings of these two baroque pontiffs--compositions of orphic mellifluence and sidereal luster, which are both rare literary curiosities and ornately fashioned treasures of virtuosic neo-classical poesy. These adaptations attempt to lift the tenebrous veil of alterity and obscurity which has hitherto concealed these masterworks, diligently repolishing their aureate, marble, or onyx surfaces, and humbly offering their nacreous arabesques and argent-spangled trefoils to the discerning eye of the contemporary anglophone reader.
Robert Nixon is a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity, New Norcia, Western Australia, and a Catholic priest. His roles include director of the New Norcia Institute for Benedictine Studies, as well as dean and liturgy coordinator for the monastic community. He has contributed articles on medieval Latin poetry to the Revue bénédictine and the American Benedictine Review.
“A wonderful achievement. The Latin poetry of Baroque popes has never been so readable. Nixon’s heroic couplets and lexical pyrotechnics bring this verse, on topics high and low, within easy reach. Here is translation as creation, at a high level, and what delights it offers.”
—John J. Kinder, University of Western Australia
“Maffeo Barberini (1568–1644) and Fabio Chigi (1599–1667), Popes Urban VIII and Alexander VII respectively, embracing everything from a humorous poem on the gift of a cat to devout meditations on the Lord’s Passion, then let translator Dom Robert, a true master of English prosody of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, be your very able impresario.”
—Anna Silvas, University of New England, Australia
“Walking in the footsteps of his Benedictine forebears, Dom Robert Nixon has rendered an immense service to classical education. These exceptional translations of two great popes both convey the meditative aura of the originals and incite to return to them. May they help rediscovery of Latin as part of a living tradition—vehicle of history, culture, and faith—especially through its use in the liturgy.”
—Pius Mary Noonan, OSB, Notre Dame Priory, Tasmania
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