Silvae Morales (1492)

This chapter provides a close reading of Badius’s commentary methods in an early work, the Silvae morales (1492). This is a compilation of twelve books of poetry excerpts grouped around various moral themes and accompanied by a substantial commentary. Badius’s focus was primarily on the Latin classics (the moral epigrams of pseudo­Virgil, the Odes and Epistles of Horace, the Annales of Ennius, and the satires of Juvenal and Persius); but the later books also contain works by fifteenth­century humanist authors (Mantuan’s Contra poetas, Sulpizio’s Carmen iuvenile) and some of the mainstays of the medieval grammar curriculum (Cato’s distichs and the Parabolae of Alain de Lille). The chapter focuses in particular on the literary techniques Badius used to situate his text within certain traditions, and on his manipulation of ‘silva’ symbolism throughout the work to guide the reader’s encounter with the text.