Description

The first ever German translation of Virgil's 'Aeneid' is that of the Franciscan, doctor of theology, jurist and poeta laureatus Thomas Murner (1475-1537). Its cultural and literary historical significance is documented on the one hand by its affiliation to the environment of the dedicatee, Emperor Maximilian I, and on the other hand by the deliberately staged humanist gesture of the author: Murner, according to the preface, "has refreshed Vergil's work from Latynschem todt in tütsches leben". The present work fulfils a longstanding desideratum - an edition of Murner's work. It offers the German 'Aeneid' in the historical mode of use intended by Murner: the German text is synoptically juxtaposed with Murner's Latin original. Because Murner's translation of the 'Aeneid' is one of the 'unread' texts of the early modern period, the studies take up a number of thematic segments that can point research in possible directions and pave the way.