Der Aeneis-Kommentar von Juan Luis de la Cerda (1612)

At the close of an era, in which the foundations of the commentary tradition of ancient authors were laid, on which modern interpreters of these authors still continue to draw, the Spanish Jesuit Juan Luis de la Cerda (1558–1643) composed the most extensive Virgil commentary ever undertaken. He amassed an unrivalled collection of explanatory material from classical sources and took issue in great detail with the views and arguments of countless early modern commentators. The extraordinary breadth of his exegesis makes his commentary into a fundamental reference work even for present-day students of Virgil. De la Cerda’s commentary was widely acclaimed in his own time, but has today largely fallen into oblivion. At the basis of this new analysis of his work lies the fundamental question what kind of interpretative issues and problems were considered indispensable in an early modern commentary on the most prominent and most-read ancient Latin poet, who served from very early on as a paradigm for the theory and practice of poetry. Special attention has been given to the differences between De la Cerda’s approach and the basic assumptions and preconceptions that inform the modern understanding of Virgil’s poetry. This bilingual edition of De la Cerda’s commentary on Book 1 of Virgil’s Aeneid makes available for the first time this section of his exegetical work on Virgil in a state-of-the-art presentation.