Miltonathon – 350-Year Commemoration of John Milton’s Death

Pupils and staff in the modern languages department are taking part in a Miltonathon to commemorate the 350th anniversary of Milton’s death, on Friday 8 November 2024.

This event is a 24-hour shared reading of Milton’s key works organised by Milton’s Cottage in Chalfont St Giles, taking place online with partners around the world.  It’s scheduled to launch at 11am on Bread Street, where Milton was born, and culminate at St Giles Cripplegate, where he’s buried. In between, viewers will travel to a range of locations with Miltonic connections and collections, including Piazza Gaddi in Florence where Milton studied at the Accademia degli Svogliati in 1638. Milton’s connection with St Paul’s will feature in the event, with readings of Psalms 114 and 136 (which he wrote at the age of 15 while studying at St Paul’s) by Shiv Ahluwalia (Sixth Form) and Arié Sabbah (Sixth Form). Readings in Italian from the six poems that Milton wrote while studying in Florence will be read by Mr Tofts (Head of Faculty: Languages) and Mr Edward Williams (former Head of Faculty: Creatives and former Head of Modern Languages at St Paul’s).

Milton in his Second Defence, wrote of his journey to Italy:

Taking ship at Nice, I arrived at Genoa, and  afterwards visited Leghorn, Pisa, and Florence. In the latter city, which I have always more particularly esteemed for the elegance of its dialect, its genius, and its taste, I stopped about two months; when I contracted an intimacy with many persons of rank and learning; and was a constant attendant at their literary parties; a practice which prevails there, and tends so much to the diffusion of knowledge and the preservation of friendship. No time will ever abolish the agreeable recollections which I cherish of Jacob Gaddi, Carlo Dati, Frescobaldo, Buonmattei, Clementillo, Francisco, and many others.

He would meet these worthies in the grand Palazzo owned by Jacopo Gaddi as part of the Accademia degli Svogliati (the Academy of the Disinclined) and where it is said that he read some of his Latin poems to great acclaim.

And in a letter penned  to Buonmattei while in Florence in September 1638 he expressed his love for Florence, the Tuscan language and its writers:

I can often partake with eagerness and delight of the feast afforded by the great Dante, by Petrarch, and by many another of your writers. Not Attic Athens herself, with her clear stream of Ilissus, nor ancient Rome, beside the Tiber, have had the power to make me lose my affection for your Arno and the hills of Fiesole, or cease to visit them with joy.

Anyone who is interested in following can either join the event via Zoom on Friday 8 November or watch it on the organisers’ website.