Original scientific paper

Tranquillus Andronicus’ Dialogus Sylla and Two Poems by Michael Nardinus

Hester Schadee orcid.org/0000-0001-9816-6727 ; University of Exeter

Abstract

This article studies the content, and the political and literary contexts, of Tranquillus Andronicus’ Dialogus Sylla (1527). This text combines a discussion of the careers of Sulla and Caesar with moral-philosophical discourse on the burdens of power, human greed and vanity, and the fickleness of Fortune. The article argues that these themes are linked to the anti-Habsburg alliance between King Francis I of France and the Hungarian voivode János Szapolyai, in the wider context of the Ottoman advance. An examination of the professional and intellectual networks in which Andronicus operated clarifies why he dedicated Dialogus Sylla to the diplomat and scholar Janus Lascaris, while the dedicatory letter bears witness to Andronicus’ careful positioning of himself, his dedicatee, and their respective homelands Dalmatia and Constantinople. Furthermore, this letter makes reference to a certain Michael Nardinus, whom the article identifies as a humanist from Šibenik, known to Lascaris from their shared involvement in the Roman sodality of Johann Goritz (Corycius). For this reason, two poems written for the Coryciana by Nardinus are also presented and translated. In literary terms, the article traces the debts of Dialogus Sylla to four dialogues by Lucian. Additionally, it considers four Quattrocento Underworld dialogues and so demonstrates that Andronicus also drew on Maffeo Vegio’s Palinurus. Finally, the article suggests a potential intertextual connection with the works of Poggio Bracciolini.

Keywords

Caesar; Habsburg; Ottomans; Dalmatia; underworld dialogue; Lucian of Samosata

Hrčak ID:

339021

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/339021

Publication date:

21.11.2025.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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