Lyrical poetry in funeral literature of the seventeenth century Grand Duchy of Lithuania: a story of one work

ABSTRACTIn the late sixteenth – early seventeenth century, works of lyrical poetry appeared in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. One of the areas of literature that contained lyrical poetry was funeral literature, works mainly dedicated to the funerals of nobles or church elites. One of the more interesting works is Funebria (1603), written in Latin by Ioannes Kimbar. This work is dedicated to Isabella Bonarelli (1567–1602), the wife of Theodorus Lacki (1554–1610), an officer (rotmistrz) of the Grand Duchy. This article will focus on the lyrical poems that form the concluding part of Funebria, and will also explain how these lyrical poems stand out in the context of the Grand Duchy’s funeral literature of the time.KEYWORDS: Neo-Latin literaturelyrical poetryfunerary works in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, seventeenth centuryIoannes KimbarTheodorus LackiIsabella Bonarelli Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. See Narbutienė and Narbutas (Citation2002). There are 29 mourning works in the catalog (from 1545 to 1600), of which only four commemorate the death of women: No. 84, 324, 53, and 61. The situation was similar at the beginning of the seventeenth century: by 1610, 13 mourning works in Latin were printed in Lithuania, and only two of them (No. 476 and 141) were directly related with the honoring of women (see Narbutienė and Narbutas Citation1998).2. The publication has been digitized and is available here: http://elibrary.mab.lt/handle/1/282143. At that time, Novellara was a dwarf city-state belonging to a branch of the Gonzaga, one of the most powerful Italian aristocratic families.4. The family is derived from William, son of Richard, Duke of Normandy in the eleventh century. More reliable information comes from the late thirteenth – early fourteenth century. There are three main branches of the family, and Isabella’s father belonged to the youngest of them.5. Pietro was a courtier and official of Guidubaldo II, Duke of Urbino, but after his death he was accused of embezzlement and fell out of favor with the latter’s son, Francis Maria, and was forced to flee. Initially, he took refuge in Ferrara and from 1575 settled in Novellara, which belonged to Kamil Gonzaga, a member of the Novellara branch of the Gonzaga family. Pietro had four sons and three daughters. For more on Pietro’s life, see Barilli (Citation2010, 37-55).6. Compare with Threni in exequias Catharinae Radivilae de Teczyn (Citation1592), IV, 13–14: ‘Non praelustre genus, mores, non inclyta virtus/Ulterius poterunt te retinere mihi?’7. Compare with Threni in exequias Catharinae Radivilae de Teczyn (Citation1592), IV, 23–24: ‘Illa recursabit quoties, non ire tepentes/In lachrymas toties coget amore tui.’8. Compare with Threni in exequias Catharinae Radivilae de Teczyn (Citation1592), IV, 27–28: ‘Ora moves, signasque manu, dare verbo marito/Supremumque “vale” dicere forte paras.’Additional informationNotes on contributorsŽivilė NedzinskaiteŽivilė Nedzinskaitė, PhD (Humanities), is a senior researcher at the Department of Early Literature of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.