The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

‘Poeta,’ even in Dante (Vita Nuova, p. 47), means only the writer of Latin verses, while for Italian the expressions ‘Rimatore, Dicitore per rima,’ are used. It is true that the names and ideas became mixed in course of time.

477

Petrarch, too, at the height of his fame complained in moments of melancholy that his evil star decreed him to pass his last years among scoundrels (extremi fures). In the imaginary letter to Livy, Epp. Fam. ed. Fracass. lib. xxiv. ep. 8. That Petrarch defended poetry, and how, is well known (comp. Geiger, Petr. 113-117). Besides the enemies who beset him in common with Boccaccio, he had to face the doctors (comp. Invectivæ in Medicum Objurgantem, lib. i. and ii.).

478

Boccaccio, in a later letter to Jacobus Pizinga (Opere Volgari, vol. xvi.), confines himself more strictly to poetry properly so called. And yet he only recognises as poetry that which treated of antiquity, and ignores the Troubadours.

479

Petr. Epp. Senil. lib. i. ep. 5.

480

Boccaccio (Vita di Dante, p. 50): ‘La quale (laurea) non scienza accresce ma è dell’acquistata certissimo testimonio e ornamento.’

481

Paradiso, xxv. 1 sqq. Boccaccio, Vita di Dante, p. 50. ‘Sopra le fonti di San Giovanni si era disporto di coronare.’ Comp. Paradiso, i. 25.

482

See Boccaccio’s letter to him in the Opere Volgari, vol. xvi. p. 36: ‘Si præstet Deus, concedente senatu Romuleo.’ …

483

Matt. Villani, v. 26. There was a solemn procession on horseback round the city, when the followers of the Emperor, his ‘baroni,’ accompanied the poet. Boccaccio, l. c. Petrarch: Invectivæ contra Med. Præf. See also Epp. Fam. Volgarizzate da Fracassetti, iii. 128. For the speech of Zanobi at the coronation, Friedjung, l. c. 308 sqq. Fazio degli Uberti was also crowned, but it is not known where or by whom.

484

Jac. Volaterran. in Murat. xxiii. col. 185.

485

Vespas. Fiorent. pp. 575, 589. Vita Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 543. The celebrity of Lionardo Aretino was in his lifetime so great that people came from all parts merely to see him; a Spaniard fell on his knees before him.—Vesp. p. 568. For the monument of Guarino, the magistrate of Ferrara allowed, in 1461, the then considerable sum of 100 ducats. On the coronation of poets in Italy there is a good summary of notices in Favre, Mélanges d’Hist. Lit. (1856) i. 65 sqq.

486

Comp. Libri, Histoire des Sciences Mathém. ii. p. 92 sqq. Bologna, as is well known, was older. Pisa flourished in the fourteenth century, fell through the wars with Florence, and was afterwards restored by Lorenzo Magnifico, ‘ad solatium veteris amissæ libertatis,’ as Giovio says, Vita Leonis X. l. i. The university of Florence (comp. Gaye, Carteggio, i. p. 461 to 560 passim; Matteo Villani, i. 8; vii. 90), which existed as early as 1321, with compulsory attendance for the natives of the city, was founded afresh after the Black Death in 1848, and endowed with an income of 2,500 gold florins, fell again into decay, and was refounded in 1357. The chair for the explanation of Dante, established in 1373 at the request of many citizens, was afterwards commonly united with the professorship of philology and rhetoric, as when Filelfo held it.

487

This should be noticed in the lists of professors, as in that of the University of Pavia in 1400 (Corio, Storia di Milano, fol. 290), where (among others) no less than twenty jurists appear.

488

Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 990.

489

Fabroni, Laurent. Magn. Adnot. 52, in the year 1491.

490

Allegretto, Diari Sanesi, in Murat. xiii. col. 824.

491

Filelfo, when called to the newly founded University of Pisa, demanded at least 500 gold florins. Comp. Fabroni, Laur. Magn. ii. 75 sqq. The negotiations were broken off, not only on account of the high salary asked for.

492

Comp. Vespasian. Fiorent. pp. 271, 572, 582, 625. Vita. Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 531 sqq.

493

Vespas. Fiorent. p. 1460. Prendilacqua (a pupil of Vitt.), Intorno alla Vita di V. da F., first ed. by Natale dalle Laste, 1774, translated by Giuseppe Brambilla, Como, 1871. C. Rosmini, Idea dell’ottimo Precettore nella Vita e Disciplina di Vittorino da Feltre e de’ suoi Discepoli, Bassano, 1801. Later works by Racheli (Milan, 1832), and Venoit (Paris, 1853).

494

Vespas. Fior. p. 646, of which, however, C. Rosmini, Vita e Disciplina di Guarino Veronese e de’ suoi Discepoli, Brescia, 1856 (3 vols.), says that it is (ii. 56), ‘formicolante di errori di fatto.’

495

For these and for Guarino generally, see Facius, De Vir. Illustribus, p. 17 sqq.; and Cortesius, De Hom. Doctis, p. 13. Both agree that the scholars of the following generation prided themselves on having been pupils of Guarino; but while Fazio praises his works, Cortese thinks that he would have cared better for his fame if he had written nothing. Guarino and Vittorino were friends and helped one another in their studies. Their contemporaries were fond of comparing them, and in this comparison Guarino commonly held the first place (Sabellico, Dial. de Lingu. Lat. Reparata, in Rosmini, ii. 112). Guarino’s attitude with regard to the ‘Ermafrodito’ is remarkable; see Rosmini, ii. 46 sqq. In both these teachers an unusual moderation in food and drink was observed; they never drank undiluted wine: in both the principles of education were alike; they neither used corporal punishment; the hardest penalty which Vittorino inflicted was to make the boy kneel and lie upon the ground in the presence of his fellow-pupils.

496

To the Archduke Sigismond, Epist. 105, p. 600, and to King Ladislaus Postumus, p. 695; the latter as Tractatus de Liberorum Educatione (1450).

497

P. 625. On Niccoli, see further a speech of Poggio, Opera, ed. 1513, fol. 102 sqq.; and a life by Manetti in his book, De Illustribus Longaevis.

498

The following words of Vespasiano are untranslatable: ‘A vederlo in tavola cosi antico come era, era una gentilezza.’

499

Ibid. p. 495.

500

According to Vespas. p. 271, learned men were in the habit of meeting here for discussion.

501

Of Niccoli it may be further remarked that, like Vittorino, he wrote nothing, being convinced that he could not treat of anything in as perfect a form as he desired; that his senses were so delicately poised that he ‘neque rudentem asinum, neque secantem serram, neque muscipulam vagientem sentire audireve poterat.’ But the less favourable sides of Niccoli’s character must not be forgotten. He robbed his brother of his sweetheart Benvenuta, roused the indignation of Lionardo Aretino by this act, and was embittered by the girl against many of his friends. He took ill the refusal to lend him books, and had a violent quarrel with Guarino on this account. He was not free from a petty jealousy, under the influence of which he tried to drive Chrysoloras, Poggio, and Filelfo away from Florence.

502

See his Vita, by Naldus Naldi, in Murat. xx. col. 532 sqq. See further Vespasiano Bisticci, Commentario della Vita di Messer Giannozzo Manetti, first published by P. Fanfani in Collezione di Opere inedite o rare, vol. ii. Torino, 1862. This ‘Commentario’ must be distinguished from the short ‘Vita’ of Manetti by the same author, in which frequent reference is made to the former. Vespasiano was on intimate terms with Giannozzo Manetti, and in the biography tried to draw an ideal picture of a statesman for the degenerate Florence. Vesp. is Naldi’s authority. Comp. also the fragment in Galetti, Phil. Vill. Liber Flor. 1847, pp. 129-138. Half a century after his death Manetti was nearly forgotten. Comp. Paolo Cortese, p. 21.

503

The title of the work, in Latin and Italian, is given in Bisticci, Commentario, pp. 109, 112.

504

What was known of Plato before can only have been fragmentary. A strange discussion on the antagonism of Plato and Aristotle took place at Ferrara in 1438, between Ugo of Siena and the Greeks who came to the Council. Comp. Æneas Sylvius, De Europa, cap. 52 (Opera, p. 450).

505

In Niccolò Valori, Life of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Comp. Vespas. Fiorent. p. 426. The first supporters of Argyropulos were the Acciajuoli. Ib. 192: Cardinal Bessarion and his parallels between Plato and Aristotle. Ib. 223: Cusanus as Platonist. Ib. 308: The Catalonian Narciso and his disputes with Argyropulos. Ib. 571: Single Dialogues of Plato, translated by Lionardo Aretino. Ib. 298: The rising influence of Neoplatonism. On Marsilio Ficino, see Reumont, Lorenzo de’ Medici, ii. 27 sqq.

506

Varchi, Stor. Fior. p. 321. An admirable sketch of character.

507

The lives of Guarino and Vittorino by Rosmini mentioned above (p. 213, note 1; and 215, note 1), as well as the life of Poggio by Shepherd, especially in the enlarged Italian translation of Tonelli (2 vols. Florence, 1825); the Correspondence of Poggio, edited by the same writer (2 vols. Flor. 1832); and the letters of Poggio in Mai’s Spicilegium, tom. x. Rome, 1844, pp. 221-272, all contain much on this subject.

508

Epist. 39; Opera, p. 526, to Mariano Socino.

509

We must not be misled by the fact that along with all this complaints were frequently heard of the inadequacy of princely patronage and of the indifference of many princes to their fame. See e.g. Bapt. Mantan, Eclog. v. as early as the fifteenth century; and Ambrogio Traversari, De Infelicitate Principum. It was impossible to satisfy all.

510

For the literary and scientific patronage of the popes down to the end of the fifteenth century, see Gregorovius, vols. vii. and viii. For Pius II., see Voigt, En. Silvio als Papst Pius II. bd. iii. (Berlin, 1863), pp. 406-440.

511

Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De Poetis Nostri Temporis, speaking of the Sphaerulus of Camerino. The worthy man did not finish it in time, and his work lay for forty years in his desk. For the scanty payments made by Sixtus IV., comp. Pierio Valer. De Infelic. Lit. on Theodoras Gaza. He received for a translation and commentary of a work of Aristotle fifty gold florins, ‘ab eo a quo se totum inauratum iri speraverat.’ On the deliberate exclusion of the humanists from the cardinalate by the popes before Leo, comp. Lor. Grana’s funeral oration on Cardinal Egidio, Anecdot. Litt. iv. p. 307.

512

The best are to be found in the Deliciae Poetarum Italorum, and in the Appendices to the various editions of Roscoe, Leo X. Several poets and writers, like Alcyonius, De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 10, say frankly that they praise Leo in order themselves to become immortal.

513

Paul. Jov. Elogia speaking of Guido Posthumus.

514

Pierio Valeriano in his Simia.

515

See the elegy of Joh. Aurelius Mutius in the Deliciae Poetarum Italorum.

516

The well-known story of the purple velvet purse filled with packets of gold of various sizes, in which Leo used to thrust his hand blindly, is in Giraldi Hecatommithi, vi. nov. 8. On the other hand, the Latin ‘improvisatori,’ when their verses were too faulty, were whipped. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De Poetis Nostri Temp. Opp. ii. 398 (Basil, 1580).

517

Roscoe, Leone X. ed. Bossi. iv. 181.

518

Vespas. Fior. p. 68 sqq. For the translations from Greek made by Alfonso’s orders, see p. 93; Vita Jan. Manetti, in Murat. xx. col. 541 sqq., 450 sqq., 495. Panormita, Dicta et Facta Alfonsi, with the notes by Æneas Sylvius, ed. by Jacob Spiegel, Basel, 1538.

519

Even Alfonso was not able to please everybody—Poggio, for example. See Shepherd-Tonelli, Poggio ii. 108 sqq. and Poggio’s letter to Facius in Fac. de Vir. Ill. ed. Mehus, p. 88, where he writes of Alfonso: ‘Ad ostentationem quædam facit quibus videatur doctis viris favere;’ and Poggio’s letter in Mai, Spicil. tom. x. p. 241.

520

Ovid. Amores, iii. 11, vs. ii.; Jovian. Pontan. De Principe.

521

Giorn. Napolet. in Murat. xxi. col. 1127.

522

Vespas. Fior. pp. 3, 119 sqq. ‘Volle aver piena notizia d’ogni cosa, cosi sacra come gentile.’

523

The last Visconti divided his interest between Livy, the French chivalrous romances, Dante, and Petrarch. The humanists who presented themselves to him with the promise ‘to make him famous,’ were generally sent away after a few days. Comp. Decembrio, in Murat. xx. col. 1114.

524

Paul. Jov. Vita Alfonsi Ducis.

525

On Collenuccio at the court of Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro (son of Alessandro, p. 28), who finally, in 1508, put him to death, see p. 135, note 4. At the time of the last Ordelaffi at Forli, the place was occupied by Codrus Urceus (1477-80); death-bed complaint of C. U. Opp. Ven. 1506, fol. liv.; for his stay in Forli, Sermo, vi. Comp. Carlo Malagola, Della Vita di C. U. Bologna, 1877, Ap. iv. Among the instructed despots, we may mention Galeotto Manfreddi of Faenza, murdered in 1488 by his wife, and some of the Bentivoglio family at Bologna.

526

Anecdota Literar. ii. pp. 305 sqq., 405. Basinius of Parma ridicules Porcellio and Tommaso Seneca; they are needy parasites, and must play the soldier in their old age, while he himself was enjoying an ‘ager’ and a ‘villa.’

527

For details respecting these graves, see Keyssler, Neueste Reisen, s. 924.

528

Pii II. Comment. l. ii. p. 92. By history he means all that has to do with antiquity. Cortesius also praises him highly, p. 34 sqq.

529

Fabroni, Costnus, Adnot. 118. Vespasian. Fior. passim. An important passage respecting the demands made by the Florentines on their secretaries (‘quod honor apud Florentinos magnus habetur,’ says B. Facius, speaking of Poggio’s appointment to the secretaryship, De Vir. Ill. p. 17), is to be found in Æneas Sylvius, De Europâ, cap. 54 (Opera, p. 454).

530

See Voigt, En. Silvio als Papst Pius II. bd. iii. 488 sqq., for the often-discussed and often-misunderstood change which Pius II. made with respect to the Abbreviators.

531

Comp. the statement of Jacob Spiegel (1521) given in the reports of the Vienna Academy, lxxviii. 333.

532

Anecdota Lit. i. p. 119 sqq. A plea (‘Actio ad Cardinales Deputatos’) of Jacobus Volaterranus in the name of the Secretaries, no doubt of the time of Sixtus IV. (Voigt, l. c. 552, note). The humanistic claims of the ‘advocati consistoriales’ rested on their oratory, as that of the Secretaries on their correspondence.

533

The Imperial chancery under Frederick III. was best known to Æneas Sylvius. Comp. Epp. 23 and 105; Opera, pp. 516 and 607.

534

The letters of Bembo and Sadoleto have been often printed; those of the former, e.g. in the Opera, Basel, 1556, vol. ii., where the letters written in the name of Leo X. are distinguished from private letters; those of the latter most fully, 5 vols. Rome, 1760. Some additions to both have been given by Carlo Malagola in the review Il Baretti, Turin, 1875. Bembo’s Asolani will be spoken of below; Sadoleto’s significance for Latin style has been judged as follows by a contemporary, Petrus Alcyonius, De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 119: ‘Solus autem nostrorum temporum aut certe cum paucis animadvertit elocutionem emendatam et latinam esse fundamentum oratoris; ad eamque obtinendam necesse esse latinam linguam expurgare quam inquinarunt nonnulli exquisitarum literarum omnino rudes et nullius judicii homines, qui partim a circumpadanis municipiis, partim ex transalpinis provinciis, in hanc urbem confluxerunt. Emendavit igitur ‘eruditissimus hic vir corruptam et vitiosam linguæ latinæ consuetudinem, pura ac integra loquendi ratione.’

535

Corio, Storia di Milano, fol. 449, for the letter of Isabella of Aragon to her father, Alfonso of Naples; fols. 451, 464, two letters of the Moor to Charles VIII. Compare the story in the Lettere Pittoriche, iii. 86 (Sebastiano del Piombo to Aretino), how Clement VII., during the sack of Rome, called his learned men round him, and made each of them separately write a letter to Charles V.

536

For the correspondence of the period in general, see Voigt, Wiederbelebung, 414-427.

537

Bembo thought it necessary to excuse himself for writing in Italian: ‘Ad Sempronium,’ Bembi Opera, Bas. 1556, vol. iii. 156 sqq.

538

On the collection of the letters of Aretino, see above, pp. 164 sqq., and the note. Collections of Latin letters had been printed even in the fifteenth century.

539

Comp. the speeches in the Opera of Philelphus, Sabellicus, Beroaldus, &c.; and the writings and lives of Giann. Manetti, Æneas Sylvius, and others.

540

B. F. De Viris Illustribus, ed. Mehus, p. 7. Manetti, as Vesp. Bisticci, Commentario, p. 51, states, delivered many speeches in Italian, and then afterwards wrote them out in Latin. The scholars of the fifteenth century, e.g. Paolo Cortese, judge the achievements of the past solely from the point of view of ‘Eloquentia.’

541

Diario Ferrarese, in Murat. xxiv. col. 198, 205.

542

Pii II. Comment. l. i. p. 10.

543

The success of the fortunate orator was great, and the humiliation of the speaker who broke down before distinguished audiences no less great. Examples of the latter in Petrus Crinitus, De Honestâ Disciplinâ, v. cap. 3. Comp. Vespas. Fior. pp. 319, 430.

544

Pii II. Comment. l. iv. p. 205. There were some Romans, too, who awaited him at Viterbo. ‘Singuli per se verba facere, ne alius alio melior videretur, cum essent eloquentiâ ferme pares.’ The fact that the Bishop of Arezzo was not allowed to speak in the name of the general embassy of the Italian states to the newly chosen Alexander VI., is seriously placed by Guicciardini (at the beginning of book i.) among the causes which helped to produce the disaster of 1494.

545

Told by Marin Sanudo, in Murat. xxii. col. 1160.

546

Pii II. Comment. l. ii. p. 107. Comp. p. 87. Another oratorical princess, Madonna Battista Montefeltro, married to a Malatesta, harangued Sigismund and Martin. Comp. Arch. Stor. iv. i. p. 442, note.

547

De Expeditione in Turcas, in Murat. xxiii. col. 68. ‘Nihil enim Pii concionantis majestate sublimius.’ Not to speak of the naïve pleasure with which Pius describes his own triumphs, see Campanus, Vita Pii II., in Murat. iii. ii. passim. At a later period these speeches were judged less admiringly. Comp. Voigt, Enea Silvio, ii. 275 sqq.

548

Charles V., when unable on one occasion to follow the flourishes of a Latin orator at Genoa, replied in the ear of Giovio: ‘Ah, my tutor Adrian was right, when he told me I should be chastened for my childish idleness in learning Latin.’ Paul. Jov. Vita Hadriani VI. Princes replied to these speeches through their official orators; Frederick III. through Enea Silvio, in answer to Giannozzo Manetti. Vesp. Bist. Comment. p. 64.

549

Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, De poetis Nostri Temp. speaking of Collenuccio. Filelfo, a married layman, delivered an introductory speech in the Cathedral at Como for the Bishop Scarampi, in 1460. Rosmini, Filelfo, ii. 122, iii. 147.

550

Fabroni, Cosmus, Adnot. 52.

551

Which, nevertheless, gave some offence to Jac. Volaterranus (in Murat. xxiii. col. 171) at the service in memory of Platina.

552

Anecdota Lit. i. p. 299, in Fedra’s funeral oration on Lod. Podacataro, whom Guarino commonly employed on these occasions. Guarino himself delivered over fifty speeches at festivals and funerals, which are enumerated in Rosmini, Guarino, ii. 139-146. Burckhardt, 332. Dr. Geiger here remarks that Venice also had its professional orators. Comp. G. Voigt, ii. 425.

553

Many of these opening lectures have been preserved in the works of Sabellicus, Beroaldus Major, Codrus Urceus, &c. In the works of the latter there are also some poems which he recited ‘in principio studii.’

554

The fame of Pomponazzo’s delivery is preserved in Paul. Jov. Elogia Vir. Doct. p. 134. In general, it seems that the speeches, the form of which was required to be perfect, were learnt by heart. In the case of Giannozzo Manetti we know positively that it was so on one occasion (Commentario, 39). See, however, the account p. 64, with the concluding statement that Manetti spoke better impromptu than Aretino with preparation. We are told of Codrus Urceus, whose memory was weak, that he read his orations (Vita, at the end of his works. Ven. 1506, fol. lxx.). The following passage will illustrate the exaggerated value set on oratory: ‘Ausim affirmare perfectum oratorem (si quisquam modo sit perfectus orator) ita facile posse nitorem, lætitiam, lumina et umbras rebus dare quas oratione exponendas suscipit, ut pictorem suis coloribus et pigmentis facere videmus.’ (Petr. Alcyonius, De Exilio, ed. Menken, p. 136.)

555

Vespas. Fior. p. 103. Comp. p. 598, where he describes how Giannozzo Manetti came to him in the camp.

556

Archiv. Stor. xv. pp. 113, 121. Canestrini’s Introduction, p. 32 sqq. Reports of two such speeches to soldiers; the first, by Alamanni, is wonderfully fine and worthy of the occasion (1528).

557

On this point see Faustinus Terdoceus, in his satire De Triumpho Stultitiae, lib. ii.

558