The authors of books being considered for the McKay Prize must be members of the Vergilian Society at the time their books are submitted.

A copy of each book to be considered, and an email listing any book sent, should be sent to both members of the prize evaluation committee by October 30. Copies may be submitted in the traditional book form, or preferably in digital form. For the addresses of the prize evaluation committee members and for any questions about the competition, please contact the Vergilian Society President, Professor Zara Torlone <torlonzm@MiamiOH.edu>

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In Virgil and His Translators, Braund and Torlone have produced a feat of international scholarship whose boundaries of time and space are refreshingly far-set. The volume contains twenty-eight papers from three international workshops and conferences held between 2012–14; these papers address the predominantly verse translation of Virgil’s works into some fourteen languages, including Mandarin and Turkish, over the past seven centuries. As such, the volume’s reach goes beyond studies of single translations or single traditions, surely rendering it the most ambitious extant approach to the vicissitudes of Virgil in the vernacular. The papers draw our attention to how translations could contribute to the emergence of these vernaculars. They also draw attention to perennial issues of nationalism and imperialism, the status of women, the anxiety of translation, and more, usually by a careful and granular reading of a given translation. In this regard, Braund and Torlone’s volume is refreshingly solid, focusing on the actual practice of particular poet-translators well situated in their particular milieux. The volume is a welcome, perhaps foundational, contribution to the growing field of reception and appropriation of these canonical texts, especially the Aeneid.  

The editors have structured the volume by dividing it into two thematic groups, ‘Virgil Translation as Cultural and Ideological Capital,’ and ‘Poets as Translators of Virgil: Cultural Competition, Appropriation, and Identification.’ Many of the chapters in the first section draw attention to Virgil’s role in the formation of literary culture across Europe and in China. The authors address the various ways translations are appropriations, rather than their aesthetic qualities; so, for example, Richard H. Armstrong’s essay ‘Dante’s Influence on Virgil,’ addresses a particular 14^th century Castilian translation of the Aeneid whose value ‘is perhaps more like that of an index fossil, helping us to mark a transition between medieval and early modern translation practices’ (37), while Gordon Braden’s essay on ‘The Passion of Dido: Aeneid 4 in English Translation to 1700’ shows how ‘a late medieval soft-heartedness towards Dido [was] rolled back in many later translations,’ including Dryden’s rather harsh treatment of the Punic Queen, cleverly ‘divorced’ by Aeneas to please Virgil’s Roman readers.

Part 2 (chapters 16­–28) turns from nations to individual poets and translators, who offer rich case studies that the critics explore against the background of wider theoretical frameworks. Richard Thomas, for instance, tackles the abiding issue of foreignizing vs. domesticating impulses; he argues via a sampling of English translations of select passages that the latter approach turns out to be the more desirable as an aesthetic necessity. The Virgilian translations of several writers are shown to have had a deep impact on their own development as poets, Leopardi perhaps most striking of all (Scafoglio), but also in important ways for the French authors Du Bellay (Gautier) and Delille (Romani Mistretta), the Brazilian Mendes (Vasconcellos), and the contemporary Italian poet Alessandro Fo, who reflects upon his own engagement with Virgil. While throughout we learn in manifold ways how a translation is embedded in the translator’s culture, Cillian O’Hogan in ‘Irish Versions of Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics’ demonstrates how Heaney and Fallon pointedly combine features of dialect with regional landscapes to render Virgil in terms of Irish identity, and as a resistance to England. The volume concludes with a forward-looking Afterword by the classicist poet Josephine Balmer, ‘Let Go Fear: Future Virgils,’ in which, on the basis of her own ongoing work, she sketches some possibilities for creative transformations, and transgressions, in the context of a ‘feminization of Virgilian reception.’

Braund and Torlone have assembled and shaped an original and wide-ranging collaborative volume that makes a major contribution to Virgilian studies.

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A copy of each book to be considered, and an email listing any book sent, should be sent to both members of the prize evaluation committee by August 1, 2020. Copies may be submitted in the traditional book form or in digital form. For the addresses of the prize evaluation committee members and for any questions about the competition, please contact Barbara Weiden Boyd, Vergilian Society President, at bboyd@bowdoin.edu.

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Few books of poetry are more iconic than Aeneid 2. Daring to give the sequel to the Iliad, Vergil crafted a narrative so powerful and so enduring, that it has eclipsed every other rendition of the conclusion of the Trojan war in literature or art: indelible scenes such as Laocoon and his sons devoured by snakes; the deluded Trojans bring the Horse into their city and joyously dance around it; the Greeks’ stealthy attack on the sleeping, exhausted Trojans; Aeneas’ flight from the burning city carrying Anchises on his shoulders; or Venus saving him from killing Helen. No reader of Vergil is surprised that Dido is madly in love with Aeneas by the story’s end. Not many people in this room would not confess that they, too, have fallen in love with this book.

Taking on a new commentary on—to use Aeneas’ words—Troiae supremum laborem, especially relatively soon after the late Nicholas Horsfall’s extensive volume, would be a daunting task to say the least. But Sergio Casali, the winner of this year’s Alexander McKay prize for Vergilian Studies, like Vergil’s hero, successfully completes his mission while carrying on his shoulders the work of previous generations. His commentary, at once thorough and succinct, informative and original, sets out to meet the needs of a diverse audience—students of Vergil but also seasoned scholars. Casali admirably succeeds in delivering something for everyone: the students will find valuable information on rhetorical figures, textual problems, motifs and themes; the scholar will benefit from the plethora of original interpretations on the book’s famous episodes alongside judicial information on textual problems, intertextuality, and literary analysis. And both will enjoy Casali’s lucid and elegant translation of Vergil’s Latin.

In a world where information is both abundant and ephemeral, Casali’s erudite, careful opus will be of enduring value as it expertly guides a new generation of students and scholars through Vergil’s masterful text.

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A copy of each book to be considered, and an email listing any book sent, must be sent to both members of the prize evaluation committee by June 1, 2018. For their addresses and any questions about the competition please write to James O’Hara, Vergilian Society President.

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Just as in Virgil’s poetry, labor and amor were clearly the driving forces of this remarkable tribute to Virgil. In this labor of love that is the Virgil Enyclopedia, Richard Thomas and Jan Ziolkowski brought together over 350 scholars to cover approximately 2300 entries pertaining to Virgil and to the many creative reactions to Virgil that make up the Virgilian tradition. Speaking of which, I should note that this is Jan Ziolkowski’s second McKay Book Prize: he and Michael Putnam won the inaugural McKay Book Prize in 2009 for their edited volume the Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years. The Virgil Encyclopedia, however, imposes no such time limits on its subject matter, and readers will find fascinating entries on contemporary topics, such as Bob Dylan, Ursula Le Guin, or the September 11^th Memorial and Museum, alongside a comprehensive guide to every aspect of Virgil’s poetry, its context, and its reception in numerous media over the centuries. The Virgil Encyclopedia does not just include chronological diversity but is also characterized by cultural and geographical diversity: there are entries on Slavic Literature, South African Literature, Spanish Literature, the South Pacific—and that’s just the “S’s.” The breadth and depth of knowledge that somehow has been fitted into the encyclopedia’s 3 slim volumes — doctis Iuppiter et laboriosis– is truly an unparalleled achievement and a testament to the bold vision of Richard Thomas and Jan Ziolkowski, as well as the tireless efforts of their assistant editors and editorial board.

If there is one problem with The Virgil Encyclopedia, it’s that once you pick it up, you cannot put it down: like Virgil’s poetry, it obsessively cross-references itself, and one entry inevitably leads you to read many others. But, of course, this is truly a virtue, for also like Virgil’s poetry, The Virgil Encyclopedia never gives you closure but only opens up new questions and avenues of exploration.

Congratulations, Richard and Jan, and thank you for giving all lovers of Virgil an invaluable resource that will surely remain a pillar of Virgilian Studies for many “more than one generation.”

Leah Kronenberg

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Peirano’s study, which reads like the work of a seasoned scholar and not a first book, begins its investigation of Roman “fakes” where traditional studies have tended to end, namely with a declaration that they are forgeries.  But instead of seeing “fakes” as malicious forgeries designed to deceive, Peirano situates them in the literary and educational culture of ancient Rome and treats them as a valuable part of the reception of Vergil and Tibullus.  She shows that the poems are sophisticated literary games in search of a learned audience that can see their ludic intent, and appreciate them as witty homages to their purported author.  The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake vividly demonstrates how these anonymous authors bring renewed life to favorite texts and literally prevent “closure” on the Virgilian book. Our own culture’s obsession with prequels, sequels, and even fan fiction attests to our own inability to let favorite stories and authors go. Peirano’s work allows us to place the Roman fake on a continuum with this sort of creative engagement, as well as with the traditional intertextual strategies of canonical works. 

It might seem paradoxical to award a Vergilian Society book prize to a study of poems that derive their fame from their status as NOT-Virgil.  But The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake succeeds in showing what we can learn about Virgil’s poems and their reception by giving these fakes the attention they so clearly seek through their flagrant affiliation with Virgil (and other poets). In a field dominated by big names and texts, Peirano fully redeems the anonymous “fake.”

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The Vergilian Society is pleased to announce the opening of the next competition for the Alexander G. McKay Prize for the best book in Vergilian studies. The prize, which is accompanied by a cash award of $500 or a life membership in the Vergilian Society (valued at $750), will be awarded every other year to the book that, in the opinion of the prize evaluation committee, makes the greatest contribution toward our understanding and appreciation of Vergil or topics related to Vergil. Works of literary criticism, biography, bibliography, textual criticism, reference, history, archaeology, and the classical tradition are all eligible, provided that Vergilian studies represent a significant portion of the discussion. The current competition will cover books published during the years 2012 and 2013. The winner will be announced at the Vergilian Society session at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association in January, 2015. The authors of books being considered for the McKay Prize must be members of the Vergilian Society at the time their books are submitted.

A copy of each book to be considered must be sent to both members of the prize evaluation committee by April 30, 2014.  Questions about the competition should be directed to Richard Thomas, President, The Vergilian Society, rthomas@fas.harvard.edu.

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            The Vergilian Society is pleased to announce that the 2012 McKay Book Prize has been won by David Scott Wilson-Okamura, for his Virgil in the Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
For many years, people have noted that Virgil played a fundamental role in the development of Renaissance culture, but that there has been no effort to survey how this happened.  The problem is the sheer mass of relevant material:  every schoolboy knew Virgil, so the impact of his poetry was felt everywhere for centuries.  Wilson-Okamura had the courage to wade into this mass of material, and the clarity of vision to make sense of it.  He set out not to provide a complete catalogue of every Virgilian reference over the centuries, but to isolate the basic features of what every educated person in Renaissance Europe thought they knew about Virgil.  Relying on a group of key commentaries, many of them largely unread today, Wilson-Okamura gives us a Virgil who is like the one we recognize now in some ways, but different in others.  Virgil in the Renaissance is an important book, both as a synthesis in itself and as a foundation on which more specialized studies can be built.
We are grateful to Professor Wilson-Okamura for his work, and to Stephen Harrison and Christine Perkell for serving on the McKay Book Prize committee for this cycle.

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