Michele Ronnick, Wayne State University
John Milton arrived in Rome in October 1638 as part of his tour of France and Italy. He was 29 years old and expanding the nexus of his “multiple cultural connections with Italy” managed to meet many persons of importance including Antonio Malatesti, Benedetto Buonmattei, Galileo Galilei, Lucas Holstenius, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, Giovanni Battista Manso and Giovanni Salzilli. Salzilli, senior to Milton in age, was a learned member of the Fantastici, a distinguished academy patterned after Cosimo de Medici’s Platonic Academy. An epigram Salzilli wrote titled Ad Joannem Miltonem Anglum shows how highly Salzilli esteemed his international visitor:
Cedes, Meles; cedat depressa Mincius urna;
Sebetus Tassum desinat usque loqui:
At Thamesis victor cunctis ferat altior undas;
Nam per te, Milto, par tribus unus erit.
Milton’s response to Salzilli’s words came in the form of a forty-line poem titled Ad Salsillum Poetam Romanum Aegrotantem which was a get-well message to an ailing Salzilli. In it, Milton adopted the same nominative case noun (Milto) that Salzilli had given him. He identified himself as: alumnus ille Londini Milto (“that pupil, Milto, from London”). It is hard to determine what the declension of the noun, Milto, is. Salzilli later uses the accusative form Miltonem indicating that it is from the third declension, (i.e., Milto, Miltonis). But other sources provide variations in the spelling of Milton’s name in the accusative case forms Miltonum and Miltonium, both of which suggest the second declension noun, Miltonus or Miltonius. No one however has yet examined the nominative form, Milto. I here suggest that it comes from Aelian. Here is why.
In Aelian’s Varia Historia, XIII.14 we meet Μιλτῶ, the orphaned daughter of Hermotimus who has been placed by a satrap in Cyrus’s seraglio and whose virtues, modesty and good looks will make her one of Cyrus’s favorites. She is described as παρθένος (a maiden) καὶ οὔλη τὰς τρίχας ἠρέμα (with smooth hair), τὴν κόμην ξανθὴ (light in color), having ἠρέμαὀφθαλμοὺς δὲ εἶχε μεγίστους (large eyes), δέρμα ἁπαλόν (tender skin) and ἐῴκει δὲ ἡ χρόα ἡ κατὰ τοῦπροσώπου ῥόδοις (a face the color of roses). The words that Giovanni Battista Manso, the Marquis of Villa and patron of the arts in Naples, used in a witty little poem he addressed to Milton shortly after Milton paid him a visit echo Aelian’s. They highlight similar qualities, namely mens (mind), decor (grace), forma (beauty) and mos (character), which granted a change in religion (pietas) would elevate the Anglo Milton an angel.
Ut mens, forma, decor, facies, mos, si pietas sic,
Non Anglus, verum hercle Angelus ipse fores.
These details match the descriptions we have of Milton as a youth at Cambridge where he earned a B.A. from Christ’s College in 1629. He was, according to his contemporary John Aubrey, known as the “Lady of Christ’s College” because of his fair complexion, delicate features, sensitive manner and light-colored hair. Thus, by creating his own Greek loan word, Salzilli has made an amusing and cosmopolitan display of his classical learning. By dubbing Milton “Milto,” Salzilli found a way to compliment his multilingual English friend on both the international and intercultural level.