Janus Secundus (birth name Jan Everaerts) was born in 1511 in The Hague, Netherlands. He flourished as a so-called Neo-Latin poet from 1528 until his death in 1536. Secundus was a well-known and highly respected author in Europe in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. His most famous work Basia {Kisses} / Book of Kisses {Liber Basiorum} was first published in full posthumously in 1541. Secundus’s Basia shows the vitality of the classical Catullan tradition from Catullus’s time through the sixteenth century.
Medieval literature overcame sex and gender trouble with creativity and tolerance. Our intensely moralistic age needs medieval, rational moral priorities. … Read the post sex & gender trouble addressed with medieval creativity and tolerance
Poems of incarnated love were an unbroken tradition from Catullus in pre-Christian Italy to Secundus in 16th-century Europe. Modern culture dies without it. … Read the post Catullus to Secundus, then fall to ignorance, bigotry & intolerance
In the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and The Carle of Carlisle, Gawain with courtly manners and sexual dynamism transcends gyno-idolatry for redemption. … Read the post Sir Gawain’s courtly manners & sexual dynamism transcend gyno-idolatry