Virgilian

comparative more Virgilian · superlative most Virgilian · alternative Vergilian

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Virgil (Roman writer).

   Not a single extant Virgilian manuscript survives from the ninth century, despite the number of ninth-century manuscripts of Virgil's works and commentaries on his works.

   2008, Jan M. Ziolkowski, Michael C. J. Putnam, The Virgilian tradition: the first fifteen hundred years, →ISBN, page 439

   2 more examples

   This Virgilian diversion, together with the spectral thoughts incident to All Hallows’ Eve with its Witch-Sabbaths on the hills, produced in me last Monday night a Roman dream of such supernal clearness and vividness, and such titanic adumbrations of hidden horror, that I verily believe I shall some day employ it in fiction.

   1927, H. P. Lovecraft, The Very Old Folk

   Through Mr. Burroughs, he met the other future luminaries of the Beat Generation and became, in the words of Mr. Burroughs's biographer, Ted Morgan, “a sort of Virgilian guide to the lower depths.”

   1990 June 10, Jan Herman, quoting Ted Morgan, “The Beatnick's Beatnick”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

2. Following the agricultural methods described in Virgil’s poem the Georgics.

   3 more examples

   The Precepts of Husbandry, as deliver’d in theGeorgics, are ſo various, that they are adapted to every Country, in one reſpect or other; and if it were to be allow’d that this is not a Book of Inſtruction for any Place but where the whole is proper, it would be of Uſe but to a ſmall Part even of Italy itſelf. I never yet ſaw any Country of Europe which Virgil’s Husbandry was not fit for. I am certain the Husbandry of England in general is Virgilian. This is ſhewn by the Paring and Burning the Surface, by the Manner of Watering Meadows, by the dry Fences, by Raftering or Croſs-Ploughing, and innumerable other Inſtances which could be produced.

   1724, [William Benson], “The Preface”, in Virgil’s Husbandry, or An Essay on the Georgics: Being the Second Book Translated into English Verse. […], London: […] William and John Innys, […], →OCLC, page xvi

   [T]he other having Five Quarters on each of his Five Acres, the Crop of One of them will pay the Rent and Expence of all his Five Acres, and he may keep the remaining Twenty Quarters, till he can ſell them at five Shillings a Buſhel, which amounts to forty Pounds, wherewith he may be able to buy four of his five Acres at twenty Years Purchaſe, out of one Year’s Crop, whilſt the Virgilian Farmer muſt be content to have only his Labour for his Travel; or if he pretends to keep his Wheat till he ſells it a five Shillings a Buſhel, he commonly runs in Debt to his Neighbours, and in Arrear of his Rent; and if the Markets do not riſe in time, or if his Crops fail in the Interim, his Landlord ſeizes on his Stock, and then he knows not how it may be ſold, Actions are brought againſt him, the Bailiffs and Attornies pull him to Pieces; and then our Virgilian Farmer is broke.

   1731, [Jethro Tull], “[Of Differences between the Old and the New Husbandry.] Of the Different Goodness of a Crop”, in The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry: or, An Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation. […], London: […] [T]he Author, →OCLC, pages 147–148

   HITHERTO we have conſidered Agriculture, with regard to the Virgilian, or Old Huſbandry, in managing and cropping the ground; […] In order to this, we muſt again take the different ſoils in their various degrees of goodneſs, ſtiff, loam, and light; deep or ſhallow, ſtony or unſtony; and prepare them for the intended operations; and make ſuch eſtimates, as the nature of the ſubject requires; that the reader may be able to form a judgment of the benefits ariſing from the Virgilian, Drill, Mixed, and this, which, for diſtinction ſake, we ſhall call the Semi-Virgilian Huſbandry.

   1764, J[ohn] Randall, “The Drill and Horse-Houghing Principles Preserved, in Shallow, Stony Soils, without the Necessity of Machines to Sow the Corn: or the Semi-Virgilian Husbandry Applied to Shallow Stony Soils”, in The Semi-Virgilian Husbandry, Deduced from Various Experiments: or, An Essay towards a New Course of National Farming, […], London: […] B[edwell] Law, […] Thomas Field, […] and John Wilkie, […], →OCLC, pages 155–156

alternative Vergilian

1. geographyAn age forming part of the Carboniferous.