Latin Pastoral Poetry

"The lusus pastoralis of two humanist scholars and poets, Andrea Navagero and Marcantonio Flaminio, are included in this volume. The term lusus pastoralis (literally, "pastoral amusement") denotes a light epigram, pastoral in character. Navagero's lusus pastorales are brief and eschew overelaboration, largely confining their attention to a particular act or situation in rural life, though sometimes they reveal a little of the background to it. The themes treated often link the natural and divine worlds. Marcantonio Flaminio is the best known and most important follower of Navagero in the composition of lusus pastorales. His pastoral poems appear in books 3 and 4 of his Carmina. They were for him light diversions from worthier pursuits, such as the study of philosophy, astronomy, or, above all, matters of religion, and by his last decade of life he had entirely abandoned their composition"--