Wednesday, March 08, 2023
The Boy Cicero Reading, or A Boy Reading Cicero?
Vicenzo Foppa (ca. 1428-1515), The Boy Cicero Reading, or A Boy Reading Cicero:
Howard Jones and Ross Kilpatrick, "Cicero, Plutarch, and Vincenzo Foppa: Rethinking the Medici Bank Fresco (London, the
Wallace Collection, Inv. P 538),"
International Journal of the Classical Tradition 13.3 (Winter, 2007) 369-383, argue convincingly for A Boy Reading Cicero, the boy being Augustus' grandson (i.e. Gaius Caesar, Lucius Caesar, or Agrippa Postumus).
See Plutarch, Life of Cicero 49.3 (tr. Bernadotte Perrin):
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See Plutarch, Life of Cicero 49.3 (tr. Bernadotte Perrin):
I learn that Caesar, a long time after this, paid a visit to one of his daughter's sons; and the boy, since he had in his hands a book of Cicero's, was terrified and sought to hide it in his gown; but Caesar saw it, and took the book, and read a great part of it as he stood, and then gave it back to the youth, saying: ‘A learned man, my child, a learned man and a lover of his country.’Hat tip: Eric Thomson.
πυνθάνομαι δὲ Καίσαρα χρόνοις πολλοῖς ὕστερον εἰσελθεῖν πρὸς ἕνα τῶν θυγατριδῶν· τὸν δὲ βιβλίον ἔχοντα Κικέρωνος ἐν ταῖς χερσίν ἐκπλαγέντα τῷ ἱματίῳ περικαλύπτειν ἰδόντα δὲ Καίσαρα λαβεῖν καὶ διελθεῖν ἑστῶτα μέρος πολὺ τοῦ βιβλίου, πάλιν δ᾽ ἀποδιδόντα τῷ μειρακίῳ φάναι ‘λόγιος ἁνὴρ, ὦ παῖ, λόγιος καὶ φιλόπατρις.’
