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Vergil

The Roman poet and epic poet Publius Vergilius Maro, also Virgil or Virgilius (70-19 BC) is considered the most important author of classical Roman antiquity and is a classic of Latin school reading. His most famous works Bucolica (Eclogae), Georgica and the unfinished Aeneid revolutionised Latin poetry. Virgil turned to poetry after a comprehensive education in all fields of knowledge of the time and lived mostly in seclusion in Naples or Sicily. Like Horace (65-8 BC), he was a favourite of Emperor Augustus (63 BC to 14 AD). In the multi-volume agricultural didactic poem "Georgica", the laborious rural work and agriculture are described with impressive, brilliant linguistic art. Again and again Vergil praises the blessings, the idyll and the harmony in nature. He manages to combine high poetry with the communication of specialised knowledge. Along with Cicero and Horace, he is one of the most important representatives of "golden" Latinity, the designation for the literary epoch of the period from about 60 B.C. to A.D. 40, in which Roman poetry and prose reached the highest level of perfection in terms of content and language as well as form.

Vergil - Vergilius Romanus; eine illuminierte Handschrift des 5. Jahrhunderts mit Texten Vergils,

The second of the four books deals mainly with viticulture. In it, he reports on the grafting and suitable location of vines, the establishment of vineyards, the care of plants, the cultivation of soil, the characteristics of selected grape varieties, as well as pressing and vinification. He describes about 15 ancient grape varieties and mentions the then famous wines Caecubum, Falernum and Raeticum. He obviously had a preference for sweet wines, for he recommends "leaving the grapes on the vine until November, until they are stiff from frost". He also remarked: "Be the first to dig the soil, but the last to harvest the grapes". The Roman author Columella (1st century) mentions his work in praise. Parts of it are also included in the famous agricultural compilation Geoponika from the 10th century. The picture shows a page of the "Vergilius Romanus". This is the name for an illuminated manuscript of the 5th century with Vergil's texts, which is kept in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana as Codex Vaticanus latinus 3867.

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Egon Mark

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Egon Mark
Diplom-Sommelier, Weinakademiker und Weinberater, Volders (Österreich)

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