Œuvres diverses du Sieur D*** avec le traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours - Boileau Despréaux, Nicolas 1636-1711; Longinus c. 213-273 (Amsterdam Wolfgang, 1683)
Originally published in 1674
see also 01D10
a further, revised edition was published in 1692
On the Sublime (Greek: Περì Ὕψους Perì Hýpsous; Latin: De sublimitate) is a Roman-era Greek work of literary criticism dated to the 1st century AD. Its author is unknown, but is conventionally referred to as Longinus (/lɒnˈdʒaɪnəs/; Ancient Greek: Λογγῖνος Longĩnos) or Pseudo-Longinus. It is one of the great seminal works of literary criticism, and is regarded as a classic work on aesthetics and the effects of good writing. The treatise highlights examples of good and bad writing from the previous millennium, focusing particularly on what may lead to the sublime.
The earliest surviving manuscript, from the 10th century, first printed in 1554, ascribes it to Dionysius Longinus. Later it was noticed that the index to the manuscript read “Dionysius or Longinus.” The problem of authorship embroiled scholars for centuries, attempts being made to identify him with Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Cassius Longinus, Plutarch, and others. The solution has been to name him Pseudo-Longinus.On the Sublime apparently dates from the 1st century ad, because it was a response to a work of that period by Caecilius of Calacte, a Sicilian rhetorician. About a third of the manuscript is lost. Longinus defines sublimity (Greek hypsos) in literature as “the echo of greatness of spirit,” that is, the moral and imaginative power of the writer that pervades a work. Thus, for the first time greatness in literature is ascribed to qualities innate in the writer rather than in the art.The author suggests that greatness of thought, if not inborn, may be acquired by emulating great authors such as his models (chief among them Homer, Demosthenes, and Plato). Quotations that were chosen to illustrate the sublime and its opposite occasionally also preserve work that would otherwise now be lost—e.g., one of Sappho’s odes. Longinus is one of the first Greeks to cite a passage from the Bible (Genesis 1:3–9).
traduit du Grec de Longin. Nouvelle Edition revenë & augmentée de diverses Pieces nouvelles
Keywords: 17th Century (1601-1700); Literature; Correspondence; Satire; Poetry; Sublime; Esthetics; Philosophy