Longinus’ treatise Peri hypsous (On the Sublime) has been interpreted in a multitude of ways since its rediscovery in Renaissance Italy. This dissertation shows that early modern scholars... Show moreLonginus’ treatise Peri hypsous (On the Sublime) has been interpreted in a multitude of ways since its rediscovery in Renaissance Italy. This dissertation shows that early modern scholars adapted their readings of Peri hypsous to their own views by highlighting aspects of the treatise that were most relevant to their arguments. Daniel Heinsius adapted parts of Peri hypsous to defend the primordial sublimity of Homer and Hesiod in his Prolegomena on Hesiod (1603). Hugo Grotius was among the first to use Longinus’ reference to Genesis in the context of Biblical scholarship. Franciscus Junius used Peri hypsous in his De pictura veterum (1637) as part of his reconstruction of ancient art theory. Isaac Vossius studied manuscripts of Peri hypsous to establish a critical text of Sappho’s fragment 31 (Peri hypsous 10.2). Jacobus Tollius, aided by Vossius’ notes, published an edition of Peri hypsous and wrote a series of essays that used Peri hypsous to reflect on the ancient literary canon. These often creative adaptations of Longinus’ treatise gave rise to an interpretation that exerted great influence on later criticism through Nicolas Boileau’s French translation of the treatise (1674), but which, as this dissertation shows, has traceable roots in seventeenth-century Dutch scholarship. Show less
