Apollos of the North : Selected Poems of George Buchanan and Arthur Johnston

George Buchanan had an eventful career. Tutor to Mary, Queen of Scots, and James VI, imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition in Portugal, teacher of Montaigne in France and a leader of the Scottish Reformation, Buchanan was regarded throughout 16th century Europe as the greatest poet of his age.

His poetry ranges from satire to celebration, from elegy to devotional verse, and is full of wit.

However, his choice of Latin as a medium has distanced readers from his work, and his poetry, celebrated across all of Europe during the Renaissance, is now rarely read.

Here, for the first time ever, Polygon presents a selection of Buchanan's work, translated and accompanied by the work of Arthur Johnston, a great admirer and contemporary of Buchanan's, and a fellow Scot.

Johnston is regarded as Scotland's finest Renaissance Latin poet, after Buchanan, but again his work is little known.

Both these poets are internationally-minded writers whose vivacity, strength and inventiveness deserve a modern audience.