Pope Urban VIII and Pope Alexander VII: Selected Poetry

Urban VIII and Alexander VII each occupied the papal throne during the seventeenth century and were munificent and discriminating patrons of the arts as well as men of conspicuous erudition and imagination. They were also sensitive inspired and highly accomplished poets. The cultural milieu from which they sprang was a halcyon era in which literature and the arts flourished with all the apollonian refulgence of a splendid and sometimes extravagant opulence. The present work of adaptation employing strictly the medium of English heroic verse comprises a choice cornucopia of the lyrical musings of these two baroque pontiffs--compositions of orphic mellifluence and sidereal luster which are both rare literary curiosities and ornately fashioned treasures of virtuosic neo-classical poesy. These adaptations attempt to lift the tenebrous veil of alterity and obscurity which has hitherto concealed these masterworks diligently repolishing their aureate marble or onyx surfaces and humbly offering their nacreous arabesques and argent-spangled trefoils to the discerning eye of the contemporary anglophone reader.