Sicco Polenton, Lives of the Famous Latin Authors: A Selection

Offering an anthology of the first history of Latin literature, Sicco Polenton’s Scriptorum illustrium Latinae linguae libri XVIII is a collection of biographies that spans the period from ancient Rome to the 15th century. Compiled between 1419 and 1433, the main focus of the Scriptores illustres is on the life and works of ancient Latin authors, but Polenton also displays a wider interest in the history of Roman culture, institutions and society, which he constantly interlaces with literary issues. This anthology offers the first English translation of carefully selected passages of the Scriptores illustres, in order to provide scholars and students with an accessible overview of the work’s structure and style, as well as its impact on early 15th-century scholarship. It is the first modern edition of Polenton’s work to be annotated, thereby providing an historical context for the work. The commentary sheds new light on the complexity of Polenton’s original research into his classical sources, and the anthology fills a gap in Anglophone scholarship, which has in recent decades paid little attention to Polenton and his intellectual profile.