Abstract: A collection of bucolic poems, Eclogae Factae ad Consilium Mexicanum, is but one example of the corpus of Latin literature written in colonial Latin America. As their title suggests, these eclogues were written in Mexico City in 1585 to celebrate the end of a major ecclesiastical council. After an overview of the context in which these poems were written, this talk will describe the transformation of three pastoral topoi in the Americas: historical allegory, the locus amoenus, and the relation between town and country. In so doing, this talk will highlight the ways in which Virgil's Eclogues shaped the Eclogae Factae ad Consilium Mexicanum, as well as contexts which mediated Virgil's poetry in the Iberian Atlantic.
Speaker bio: Erika Valdivieso works on Latin humanism in the Americas, with a particular focus on the reception of Roman poetry. Recognition of this mainstream legacy of Spanish and Portuguese America rehabilitates some important currents of colonial literature and thought, in which the European classical tradition gave way to creole, African and indigenous influences. Her training in classical Greek and Latin literature, as well as methods from book history and the history of education, informs this research.
