Medieval and Early Modern Gnomic Literature
Gnomes are frequently to be found in the ancient literatures of Arabia, Persia and India, in Anglo-Saxon/Old English poetry and in the Icelandic staves. Comparable with the Anglo-Saxon examples are the Early Welsh gnomic poems. The priamel, a brief, sententious kind of poem, which was in favor in Germany from the 12th to the 16th century, belonged to the true gnomic class, and was cultivated with particular success by Hans Rosenblut, the lyrical goldsmith of Nuremberg, in the 15th century. Gnomic literature, including Maxims I and Maxims II, is a genre of Medieval Literature in England.
The gnomic spirit has occasionally been displayed by poets of a homely philosophy, such as Francis Quarles (1592–1644) in England and Gui de Pibrac (1529–1584) in France. The once-celebrated Quatrains of the latter, published in 1574, enjoyed an immense success throughout Europe; they were composed in deliberate imitation of the Greek gnomic writers of the 6th century BCE.
With the gnomic writings of Pibrac it was long customary to bind up those of Antoine Faber (or Favre) (1557–1624) and of Pierre Mathieu (1563–1621).
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