"Adversarii perpetuo clamant: patres, patres, patres". Serve ancora tradurre i Padri? Wolfgang Musculus traduttore dell’or. 2 di Gregorio di Nazianzo.

Gregory of Nazianzus’ fortune in the West is the object of a series of recent studies that are trying to investigate the ways, the intents and the environments in which the author was read and translated. The aim of this contribution is to examine the Latin translation of Gregory of Nazianzus’ oration 2, made by the Protestant scholar Wolfgang Musculus for the Opera Omnia published in 1550 in Basel. This translation is a useful device for understanding, on the one hand, the polemical intent of the translator, convinced that is necessary to win over the Catholic adversaries on the ground of the Fathers, and on the other, the humanistic effort of the translator, capable of a good, but not brilliant, rendition of a rhetorical and complex text. Oration 2 is one of the few of Gregory’s orations translated by Musculus: probably the theme, the figure of the good priest, and the evaluation of the situation of the Church, seemed similar to and consonant with Musculus’ vision. Is it still useful to translate the Fathers for a Protestant scholar? The answer seems to be yes, according to this translation: the high moral standards proposed by Gregory in an elevated manner, the struggle for truth necessary for a good Christian, the pure doctrine, compatible with Protestant war cries, were all appealing characteristics that deserved the effort of a translation.

L'articolo indaga la traduzione dell'orazione II di Gregorio di Nazianzo opera di Wolfgang Musculus, dotto protestante, all'interno degli Opera omnia greci e latini del Padre pubblicati a Basilea nel 1550. La traduzione di Musculus permette di capire come la lezione dei Padri da un lato fosse sentita compatibile con le istanze morali del traduttore, e dall'altro come fosse uno strumento polemico nella guerra confessionale.