Villerías’ Latin Translation of Alessandra Scala’s Greek Epigram to Poliziano and the Translation Wars in Mexico

Abstract

The Reserved Collection of the National Library of Mexico holds a previously unpublished manuscript (Ms 1594) that contains the Latin and Greek works of a New Spanish poet, José de Villerías y Roelas (1695-1728). It is undoubtedly the most important document known to us, written in Greek and produced in New Spain during the colonial period. To date, no other New Spanish materials containing original compositions in Greek have been located or studied; nor are we aware of any collection of Greek poems anthologised by a New Spanish Hellenist. Hence the manuscript stands as a kind of codex unicus for New Spanish Hellenism. In this paper, I publish and analyse one of the poems, the longest of Villerías' collection of Greek poetry, and his Latin translation. In the manuscript, the epigram in question is attributed to the distinguished and renowned humanist of the Italian Quattrocento, Alessandra Scala, who composed it in response to one of Angelo Poliziano’s poems dedicated to her. Before analysing Villerías’ text and translation, I trace Poliziano's reception in New Spain and explore Villerías’ possible engagement with Poliziano's Liber Epigrammatum Graecorum. Finally, I discuss the various approaches to the translation of Greek texts in Mexico from the colonial period to the present day. The aim is to stimulate debates about classical reception in post-colonial and peripheral contexts and to present the politics in which classicism became institutionalised in contemporary Mexico.