Capta Vitrix: Virgil at the Collegium Romanum

Abstract According to several contemporary sources, the Ottoman success at the siege of Nicosia (September 1570) was completely foiled when the fleet shipping the spoils of war to Constantinople was blown out of the water while sailing from the harbour at Famagusta. It seems that a brave captive chose death rather than dishonor as a slave in the harem of Sultan Mehmed ii and fired the gunpowder magazine on board one of the ships blowing it and adjacent vessels in the flotilla to smithereens. A poetic rendition of this event is given by Famiano Strada (1572–1649) in his massive three-book commentary on ancient literature, intended for use in the Jesuit classroom: Prolusiones et paradigmata eloquentiae (Rome, 1617). Here, the story is retold in Virgillian hexameters as a blueprint of heroic behavior for seminarians as they pursue the Jesuit global mission. This article analyzes three short passages and places them within the larger context of Jesuit pedagogy at the Collegium Romanum.