Articles

Inverting the Hierarchy. Greek and Latin in a Sixteenth-Century Poetical Encomium of Antwerp

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Abstract

In 1565, the Bavarian Georg Schregel published a city encomium of Antwerp, titled Elegia ἐγκωμιαστικὴ in clarissimam et praestantissimam Belgarum urbem Handoverpiam Georgii Schroegelii Boii, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Antwerp city hall. The laudatory poem is written in Greek, and preceded by three Latin paratexts: an introductory letter, a poem to the city council, and a laudatory poem by English diplomat Daniel Rogers. This paper investigates the forms of code-switching in this city encomium. I argue that Schregel inverted the usual language hierarchy by writing his main text in Greek, and relegating Latin to the paratexts. An analysis of the three paratexts and the titles of the publication shows that the Latin texts were written to serve the Greek main poem. Next, I analyze examples of linguistic transfer from Latin to Greek in Schregel's Greek poem. These examples of transfer indicate that Latin applied pressure on Schregel's usage of Greek. With his city encomium, Schregel tried to obtain a reward from the members of the city council. By writing in Greek, he tried to surpass earlier authors that had written Latin city encomia of Antwerp and had received rewards.

Keywords: Code-switching, City encomia

How to Cite:

Demuynck, A., (2024) “Inverting the Hierarchy. Greek and Latin in a Sixteenth-Century Poetical Encomium of Antwerp”, Journal of Latin Cosmopolitanism and European Literatures 10. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/jolcel.89653