Bridging the Continental divide: neo-Latin and its cultural role in Jacobean Scotland, as seen in the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (1637)

Since, obviously, the team working on the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum (DPS) project cannot edit and translate all the poems included in those two volumes, it rightly prioritizes the works of those poets in this collection whose poems are not easily accessible otherwise. This procedure offers other scholars the opportunity to look at further sections of the DPS and thus to contribute to achieving a better understanding of this anthology and of the role of Latin in Scotland at the time. A key element in this context are the prefatory pieces introducing the DPS, as early modern books of the period generally come with extensive so-called paratextual material. 1 The DPS opens with a letter entitled 'Dedicatio' and a series of short poems called 'Elogia Musarum', both addressed to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit and written by the Scottish poet Arthur Johnston; these are followed by a poem dedicated to Scot by the Dutch scholar Isaac Gruter and two poems by the Dutch humanist Caspar Barlaeus, one for Scot and one for Johnston. 2

Sir John Scot of Scotstarvit's prominent position is not surprising since he was the person mainly responsible for the project of the DPS. Scot (1585-1670), after attending St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, was appointed as a judge and succeeded to the office of director of chancery. In 1611 he acquired lands in Fife, which he named Scotstarvit. In 1617 he was knighted and made a privy councillor by king James VI. In 1629 Scot became an extraordinary, and in 1632 an ordinary, lord of session. In April 1638 he signed the national covenant; consequently, he later declined to sign the rival king's confession. In the following years he was politically active for Scotland; under the Commonwealth he lost the offices both of judge and director of chancery. Scot then returned to Scotstarvit, where he was active as a writer as well as a patron of other poets and as a collector and editor. 3

That the Scottish poet Arthur Johnston (c. 1579-1641) wrote some of the opening pieces is also understandable since he assisted Scot in producing the DPS (although the precise extent of his contribution is debated). 4 Johnston, regarded as the second great Scottish Neo-Latin poet after George Buchanan (1506-1582), came from Aberdeenshire. He enjoyed an education in Scotland and later on the European Continent, studying and teaching at German, Italian and French universities; he received a medical qualification at Padua in 1610. Upon his return to Britain in the early 1620s, he became one of the royal physicians and, in 1637, rector of King's College Aberdeen. 5

What might be more noteworthy is the fact that the opening material includes poems by well-known Dutch humanists. Since this is likely to provide further insight into the role and assessment of this collection beyond a national level, this feature will look at the pair of poems by Caspar Barlaeus and ask what these can reveal about the respective perception of Sir John Scot and Arthur Johnston in the eyes of an outsider. (Transcriptions of the Latin text of both poems edited in line with the conventions of the project, as well as English translations, are provided below; some annotations of the names and metaphorical concepts used, often based on the Oxford Latin Dictionary, are also included.)

Caspar Barlaeus (Caspar van Baerle) was a Dutch humanist, poet and historian (1548-1648). 6 After studying at the University of Leiden and a short spell as a vicar, he was appointed to Leiden University. Because of his involvement in the religious quarrels between different groups of Protestants, he then lost this position. Therefore, for a time he gave private lessons and trained as a doctor. Later he became a professor at the new university in Amsterdam, run by a different religious group. Barlaeus produced Latin poetry, speeches and geographical works, including an account of the Dutch colonial empire in Brazil.

Several of Barlaeus' works were printed by the Dutch cartographer and publisher Willem Blaeu (1571-1638), who also produced the DPS. Scot contributed to an atlas of Scotland published by Willem Blaeu and corresponded with Dutch scholars. Interestingly, Barlaeus also studied medicine, besides being a poet, like Johnston; they may have attended the same French university.

Because of Scot's close connections with the Dutch humanists, 7 it is not surprising that Barlaeus felt inclined to produce a praise of the DPS. More importantly, since apparently not all liminal material offered was eventually printed and Barlaeus was later asked to write a preface to the atlas, Scot seems to have valued a contribution from him more highly than an assortment of poems from his countrymen. Writing as someone not Scottish and not involved in the project, there were none of the tensions for Barlaeus applying to Johnston. Still, that Barlaeus wrote a poem about Scot and a poem about Johnston and both poems were included in the edition may indicate that Barlaeus recognized that, besides Scot, Johnston played a major role in the enterprise and that Scot acknowledged this. At the same time the different style and structure of the two poems by Barlaeus indicate the different roles and responsibilities of the two Scotsmen. This is already brought out by the titles: the title of the poem to Scot identifies him as the addressee and gives him a honorific appellation, whereas the poem for Johnston is a piece about his poems (though he is equally identified as a royal physician). Johnston is described as a great poet, who has achieved fame in Scotland because of Scot's interest in him.

Like Johnston in his prefatory pieces, in the poem to Scot Barlaeus praises Scot for having done a service to Scotland and the Muses. Barlaeus is far more emphatic and underlines that Scot has made Scottish poetry (and only Scottish poetry) public and brought the Muses from their original seat in classical Greece to Scotland. He goes so far as to claim that this northern country has been turned into their main residence and Greece is now 'barbarian', by reversing the standard juxtaposition of learned Greece surrounded by barbarian countries. Scot himself almost becomes the leader of the Muses and appears as a key instrument in this translatio of culture. These ideas are expressed by learned imagery and (sometimes oblique) allusions to Apollo, the Muses and places traditionally associated with the Muses. Scot's cultural deed is also seen as a service and ornament of his country; he is presented as an honour for his country and the Scottish kingdom, since he works for both the king and the Muses.

In the poem to Johnston too Barlaeus focuses on Scotland: he starts by recalling Johnston's move from France back to Scotland, which he connects with Scot's support for him. The main idea of the poem is based on the conceit that Johnston is both a royal poet and a royal physician: he therefore ensures the survival of the king, by looking after his physical wellbeing and by presenting a portrait for posterity, thus granting him 'a double life'. Unsurprisingly, this poem about Johnston provides more details about his poetry than his own pieces and implicitly defines it as of lasting value. This justifies their inclusion in the collection by their quality, rather than for the purpose of setting off those by others, as Johnston himself suggests modestly.

Although he is not a Scot himself, Caspar Barlaeus praises the two Scotsmen emphatically and highlights their achievements for Scottish poetry; equally, he places these poems and the entire enterprise within a broader political context: in both poems he mentions king Charles I (1600-1649; reigned 1625-1649) and the benefit he receives from the work of the two Scotsmen. Such links are possible since Barlaeus exploits the facts that Sir John Scot had an official position in the royal administration and that the poet Arthur Johnston was also a royal physician. This also relates the the piece to a particular point in time since the relations between Scot and the king changed soon after the publication of the DPS. The reverence for the king may be designed to increase the prestige of the DPS and not only to hail it as a literary achievement, which is beyond doubt for Barlaeus, but also to win official acceptance for it. This reference to the reigning monarch is particularly noteworthy since Johnston in his poems refers to the previous king James (James VI and I, 1566-1625: king of Scotland since 1567, of England since 1603) as a supporter of intellectual life. The enlargement of focus and the emphatic praise of the Scottish editors in Barlaeus' poems are given particular weight by their final position within the sequence of prefatory material.

TEXTS