Poliziano’s letter of consolation to Pontano Angelo Poliziano vigaszlevele Gioviano Pontanóhoz Ferrante király halála alkalmával

Abstract

This article focuses on Angelo Poliziano’s letter written in 1494 to Gioviano Pontano on the occasion of King Ferrante’s death. Among the correspondents, it mainly outlines Pontano’s political and literary activities, and through it also tries to present the historical situation, highlighting the Hungarian aspects. Then the content and style of the letter is analysed to highlight the relationship between the two humanists and the atmosphere that surrounded Poliziano after the publication of his studies in the volume Miscellanea. The exemplary consolation letter follows the rhetorical rules set forth in the Orator of Cicero and the recently rediscovered Institutio oratoria of Quintilianus. Poliziano also weaves his own and his humanist colleague’s glorification into the letter of consolation, and he seeks to strengthen his own position by drawing parallels between them, since they could both understand the coming to power of their disciples. At the end of the study, I will provide my translation and the Latin text of the letter.