‘Dum patriam laudat, damnat dum Poggius hostem,
Nec malus est civis, nec bonus historicus.’
[571] Benedictus: _Caroli VIII. Hist._ in Eccard, Scriptt. vi. col.
1577.
[572] Petrus Crinitus deplores this contempt, _De honesta disciplina_,
l. xviii. cap. 9. The humanists here resemble the writers in the decline
of antiquity, who also severed themselves from their own age. Comp.
Burckhardt, _Die Zeit Constantin’s des Grossen_. See for the other side
several declarations of Poggio in Voigt, _Wiederbelebung_, p. 443 sqq.
[573] Lorenzo Valla, in the preface to the _Historia Ferdinandi Regis
Arag._; in opposition to him, Giacomo Zeno in the _Vita Caroli Zeni_,
Murat. xix. p. 204. See, too, Guarino, in Rosmini, ii. 62 sqq., 177 sqq.
[574] In the letter to Pizinga, _Opere Volgari_, vol. xvi. p. 38. With
Raph. Volaterranus, l. xxi. the intellectual world begins in the
fourteenth century. He is the same writer whose early books contain so
many notices--excellent for his time--of the history of all countries.
[575] Here, too, Petrarch cleared the way. See especially his critical
investigation of the Austrian Charter, claiming to descend from Cæsar.
_Epp. Sen._ xvi. 1.
[576] Like that of Giannozzo Manetti in the presence of Nicholas V., of
the whole Papal court, and of a great concourse of strangers from all
parts. Comp. Vespas. Fior. p. 591, and more fully in the _Commentario_,
pp. 37-40.
[577] In fact, it was already said that Homer alone contained the whole
of the arts and sciences--that he was an encyclopædia. Comp. _Codri
Urcei Opera_, Sermo xiii. at the end. It is true that we met with a
similar opinion in several ancient writers. The words of C. U. (Sermo
xiii., habitus in laudem liberalium artium; _Opera_, ed. Ven. 1506, fol.
xxxviii. _b_) are as follows: ‘Eia ergo bono animo esto; ego graecas
litteras tibi exponam; et praecipue divinum Homerum, a quo ceu fonte
perenni, ut scribit Naso, vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis. Ab Homero
grammaticum dicere poteris, ab Homero rhetoricam, ab Homero medicinam,
ab Homero astrologiam, ab Homero fabulas, ab Homero historias, ab Homero
mores, ab Homero philosophorum dogmata, ab Homero artem militarem, ab
Homero coquinariam, ab Homero architecturam, ab Homero regendarum urbium
modum percipies; et in summa, quidquid boni quidquid honesti animus
hominis discendi cupidus optare potest, in Homero facile poteris
invenire.’ To the same effect ‘Sermo’ vii. and viii. _Opera_, fol. xxvi.
sqq., which treat of Homer only.
[578] A cardinal under Paul II. had his cooks instructed in the Ethics
of Aristotle. Comp. Gaspar. Veron. _Vita Pauli II._ in Muratori, iii.
ii. col. 1034.
[579] For the study of Aristotle in general, a speech of Hermolaus
Barbarus is specially instructive.
[580] Bursellis, _Ann. Bonon._ in Murat. xxiii. col. 898.
[581] Vasari, xi. pp. 189, 257. _Vite di Sodoma e di Garofalo._ It is
not surprising that the profligate women at Rome took the most
harmonious ancient names--Julia, Lucretia, Cassandra, Portia, Virginia,
Penthesilea, under which they appear in Aretino. It was, perhaps, then
that the Jews took the names of the great Semitic enemies of the
Romans--Hannibal, Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, which even now they commonly bear
in Rome. [This last assertion cannot be maintained. Neither Zunz, _Namen
der Juden_, Leipzig, 1837, reprinted in Zunz _Gesammelte Schriften_,
Berlin, 1876, nor Steinschneider in his collection in _Il Buonarotti_,
ser. ii. vol. vi. 1871, pp. 196-199, speaks of any Jew of that period
who bore these names, and even now, according to the enquiries of Prince
Buoncompagni from Signer Tagliacapo, in charge of the Jewish archives in
Rome, there are only a few who are named Asdrubale, and none Amilcare or
Annibale. L. G.] Burckhardt, 352. A careful choice of names is
recommended by L. B. Alberti, _Della familia_, opp. ii. p. 171. Maffeo
Vegio (_De educatione liberorum._ lib. i. c. x.) warns his readers
against the use of _nomina indecora barbara aut nova, aut quae gentilium
deorum sunt_. Names like ‘Nero’ disgrace the bearer; while others such
as Cicero, Brutus, Naso, Maro, can be used _qualiter per se parum
venusta propter tamen eximiam illorum virtutem_.
[582]
‘Quasi che ‘l nome i buon giudici inganni,
E che quel meglio t’ abbia a far poeta,
Che non farà lo studio di molt’ anni!’
So jests Ariosto, to whom fortune had certainly given a harmonious name,
in the _Seventh Satire_, vs. 64.
[583] Or after those of Bojardo, which are in part the same as his.
[584] The soldiers of the French army in 1512 were ‘omnibus diris ad
inferos devocati!’ The honest canon, Tizio, who, in all seriousness,
pronounced a curse from Macrobius against foreign troops, will be spoken
of further on.
[585] _De infelicitate principum_, in Poggii _Opera_, fol. 152: ‘Cujus
(Dantis) exstat poema praeclarum, neque, si literis Latinis constaret,
ullâ ex parte poetis superioribus (the ancients) postponendum.’
According to Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, p. 74, ‘Many wise men’ even
then discussed the question why Dante had not written in Latin.
Cortesius (_De hominibus doctis_, p. 7) complains: ‘Utinam tam bene
cogitationes suas Latinus litteris mandare potuisset, quam bene patrium
sermonem illustravit!’ He makes the same complaint in speaking of
Petrarch and Boccaccio.
[586] His work _De vulgari eloquio_ was for long almost unknown, and,
valuable as it is to us, could never have exercised the influence of the
_Divina Commedia_.
[587] To know how far this fanaticism went, we have only to refer to
Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temporis_, _passim_. Vespasiano
Bisticci is one of the few Latin writers of that time who openly
confessed that they knew little of Latin (_Commentario della vita di G.
Manetti_, p. 2), but he knew enough to introduce Latin sentences here
and there in his writings, and to read Latin letters (_ibid._ 96, 165).
In reference to this exclusive regard for Latin, the following passage
may be quoted from Petr. Alcyonius, _De exilio_, ed. Menken, p. 213. He
says that if Cicero could rise up and behold Rome, ‘Omnium maxime illum
credo perturbarent ineptiae quorumdam qui, amisso studio veteris linguae
quae eadem hujus urbis et universae Italiae propria erat, dies noctesque
incumbunt in linguam Geticam aut Dacicam discendam eandemque omni
ratione ampliendam, cum Goti, Visigothi et Vandali (qui erant olim Getae
et Daci) eam in Italos invexerant, ut artes et linguam et nomen Romanum
delerent.’
[588] There were regular stylistic exercises, as in the _Orationes_ of
the elder Beroaldus, where there are two tales of Boccaccio, and even a
‘Canzone’ of Petrarch translated into Latin.
[589] Comp. Petrarch’s letter from the earth to illustrious shades
below. _Opera_, p. 704 sqq. See also p. 372 in the work _De rep. optime
administranda_: ‘Sic esse doleo, sed sic est.’
[590] A burlesque picture of the fanatical purism prevalent in Rome is
given by Jovian. Pontanus in his _Antonius_.
[591] _Hadriani (Cornetani) Card. S. Chrysogoni de sermone latino
liber_, especially the introduction. He finds in Cicero and his
contemporaries Latinity in its absolute form (_an sich_). The same
Codrus Urceus, who found in Homer the sum of all science (see above, p.
249, note 1) says (_Opp._ ed. 1506, fol. lxv.): ‘Quidquid temporibus
meis aut vidi aut studui libens omne illud Cicero mihi felici dedit
omine,’ and goes so far as to say in another poem (_ibid._): ‘Non habet
huic similem doctrinae Graecia mater.’
[592] Paul. Jov. _Elogia doct. vir._ p. 187 sqq., speaking of Bapt.
Pius.
[593] Paul Jov. _Elogia_, on Naugerius. Their ideal, he says, was:
‘Aliquid in stylo proprium, quod peculiarem ex certâ notâ mentis
effigiem referret, ex naturae genio effinxisse.’ Politian, when in a
hurry, objected to write his letters in Latin. Comp. Raph. Volat.
_Comment. urban._ l. xxi. Politian to Cortesius (_Epist._ lib. viii. ep.
16): ‘Mihi vero longe honestior tauri facies, aut item leonis, quam
simiae videtur;’ to which Cortesius replied: ‘Ego malo esse assecla et
simia Ciceronis quam alumnus.’ For Pico’s opinion on the Latin language,
see the letter quoted above, p. 202.
[594] Paul. Jov. _Dialogus de viris literis illustribus_, in Tiraboschi,
ed. Venez. 1766, tom. vii. p. iv. It is well known that Giovio was long
anxious to undertake the great work which Vasari accomplished. In the
dialogue mentioned above it is foreseen and deplored that Latin would
now altogether lose its supremacy.
[595] In the ‘Breve’ of 1517 to Franc. de’ Rosi, composed by Sadoleto,
in Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, vi. p. 172.
[596] Gasp. Veronens. _Vita Pauli II._ in Murat. iii. ii. col. 1031. The
plays of Seneca and Latin translations of Greek dramas were also
performed.
[597] At Ferrara, Plautus was played chiefly in the Italian adaptations
of Collenuccio, the younger Guarino, and others, and principally for the
sake of the plots. Isabella Gonzaga took the liberty of finding him
dull. For Latin comedy in general, see R. Peiper in Fleckeisen and
Masius, _Neue Jahrb. für Phil. u. Pädag._, Lpzg. 1874, xx. 131-138, and
_Archiv für Literaturgesch_. v. 541 sqq. On Pomp. Laetus, see _Sabellici
Opera_, Epist. l. xi. fol. 56 sqq., and below, at the close of Part III.
[598] Comp. Burckhardt. _Gesch. der Renaissance in Italien_, 38-41.
[599] For what follows see _Deliciae poetarum Italorum_; Paul. Jov.
_Elogia_; Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temporis_; and the
Appendices to Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi.
[600] There are two new editions of the poem, that of Pingaud (Paris,
1872), and that of Corradini (Padua, 1874). In 1874 two Italian
translations also appeared by G. B. Gaudo and A. Palesa. On the
_Africa_, compare L. Geiger: _Petrarca_, pp. 122 sqq., and p. 270, note
7.
[601] Filippo Villani, _Vite_, ed. Galetti, p. 16.
[602] _Franc. Aleardi Oratio in laudem Franc. Sfortiae_, in Marat. xxv.
col. 384. In comparing Scipio with Caesar, Guarino and Cyriacus
Anconitanus held the latter, Poggio (_Opera_, epp. fol. 125, 134 sqq.)
the former, to be the greater. For Scipio and Hannibal in the miniatures
of Attavante, see Vasari, iv. 41. _Vita di Fiesole_. The names of both
used for Picinino and Sforza. See p. 99. There were great disputes as to
the relative greatness of the two. Shepherd-Tonelli, i. 262 sqq. and
Rosmini: Guarino, ii. 97-111.
[603] The brilliant exceptions, where rural life is treated
realistically, will also be mentioned below.
[604] Printed in Mai, _Spicilegium Romanum_, vol. viii. pp. 488-504;
about 500 hexameter verses. Pierio Valeriano followed out the myth in
his poetry. See his _Carpio_, in the _Deliciae poetarum Italorum_. The
frescoes of Brusasorci in the Pal. Murari at Verona represent the
subject of the _Sarca_.
[605] Newly edited and translated by Th. A. Fassnacht in _Drei Perlen
der neulateinischen Poesie_. Leutkirch and Leipzig, 1875. See further,
Goethe’s _Werke_ (Hempel’sche Ausgabe), vol. xxxii. pp. 157 and 411.
[606] _De sacris diebus._
[607] E.g. in his eighth eclogue.
[608] There are two unfinished and unprinted Sforziads, one by the
elder, the other by the younger Filelfo. On the latter, see Favre,
_Mélanges d’Hist. Lit._ i. 156; on the former, see Rosmini, _Filelfo_,
ii. 157-175. It is said to be 12,800 lines long, and contains the
passage: ‘The sun falls in love with Bianca.’
[609] Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, viii. 184. A poem in a similar
style, xii. 130. The poem of Angilbert on the Court of Charles the Great
curiously reminds us of the Renaissance. Comp. Pertz. _Monum._ ii.
[610] Strozzi, _Poetae_, p. 31 sqq. ‘Caesaris Borgiae ducis epicedium.’
[611]
‘Pontificem addiderat, flammis lustralibus omneis
Corporis ablutum labes, Dis Juppiter ipsis,’ etc.
[612] This was Ercole II. of Ferrara, b. April 4, 1508, probably either
shortly before or shortly after the composition of this poem. ‘Nascere,
magne puer, matri expectate patrique,’ is said near the end.
[613] Comp. the collections of the _Scriptores_ by Schardius, Freher,
&c., and see above p. 126, note 1.
[614] Uzzano, see _Archiv._ iv. i. 296. Macchiavelli, _i Decennali_. The
life of Savonarola, under the title _Cedrus Libani_, by Fra Benedetto.
_Assedio di Piombino_, Murat. xxv. We may quote as a parallel the
_Teuerdank_ and other northern works in rhyme (new ed. of that by
Haltaus, Quedlinb. and Leipzig, 1836). The popular historical songs of
the Germans, which were produced in great abundance in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, may be compared with these Italian poems.
[615] We may remark of the _Coltivazione_ of L. Alamanni, written in
Italian ‘versi sciolti,’ that all the really poetical and enjoyable
passages are directly or indirectly borrowed from the ancients (an old
ed., Paris, 1540; new ed. of the works of A., 2 vols., Florence, 1867).
[616] E.g. by C. G. Weise, Leipzig, 1832. The work, divided into twelve
books, named after the twelve constellations, is dedicated to Hercules
II. of Ferrara. In the dedication occur the remarkable words: ‘Nam quem
alium patronum in totâ Italiâ invenire possum, cui musae cordisunt, qui
carmen sibi oblatum aut intelligat, aut examine recto expendere sciat?’
Palingenius uses ‘Juppiter’ and ‘Deus’ indiscriminately.
[617] L. B. Alberti’s first comic poem, which purported to be by an
author Lepidus, was long considered as a work of antiquity.
[618] In this case (see below, p. 266, note 2) of the introduction to
Lucretius, and of Horace, _Od._ iv. 1.
[619] The invocation of a patron saint is an essentially pagan
undertaking, as has been noticed at p. 57. On a more serious occasion,
comp. Sannazaro’s Elegy: ‘In festo die divi Nazarii martyris.’ Sann.
_Elegiae_, 1535, fol. 166 sqq.
[620]
Si satis ventos tolerasse et imbres
Ac minas fatorum hominumque fraudes
Da Pater tecto salientem avito
Cernere fumum!
[621] _Andr. Naugerii, Orationes duae carminaque aliquot_, Venet. 1530,
4^o. The few ‘Carmina’ are to be found partly or wholly in the
_Deliciae_. On N. and his death, see Pier. Val. _De inf. lit._ ed.
Menken, 326 sqq.
[622] Compare Petrarch’s greeting to Italy, written more than a century
earlier (1353) in _Petr. Carmina Minora_, ed. Rossetti, ii. pp. 266 sqq.
[623] To form a notion of what Leo X. could swallow, see the prayer of
Guido Postumo Silvestri to Christ, the Virgin, and all the Saints, that
they would long spare this ‘numen’ to earth, since heaven had enough of
such already. Printed in Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, v. 337.
[624] Molza’s _Poesie volgari e Latine_, ed. by Pierantonio Serassi,
Bergamo 1747.
[625] Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, p. 36.
[626] Sannazaro ridicules a man who importuned him with such forgeries:
‘Sint vetera haec aliis, mî nova semper erunt.’ (Ad Rufum, _Opera_,
1535, fol. 41 _a_.)
[627] ‘De mirabili urbe Venetiis’ (_Opera_, fol. 38 b):
Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis
Stare urbem et toto ponere jura mari:
Nunc mihi Tarpejas quantum vis Juppiter arceis
Objice et illa tui mœnia Martis ait,
Si pelago Tybrim praefers, urbem aspice utramque
Illam homines dices, hanc posuisse deos.
[628] _Lettere de’principi_, i. 88, 98.
[629] Malipiero, _Ann. Veneti, Arch. Stor._ vii. i. p. 508. At the end
we read, in reference to the bull as the arms of the Borgia:
‘Merge, Tyber, vitulos animosas ultor in undas;
Bos cadat inferno victima magna Jovi!’
[630] On the whole affair, see Roscoe, _Leone X._, ed. Bossi, vii. 211,
viii. 214 sqq. The printed collection, now rare, of these _Coryciana_ of
the year 1524 contains only the Latin poems; Vasari saw another book in
the possession of the Augustinians in which were sonnets. So contagious
was the habit of affixing poems, that the group had to be protected by a
railing, and even hidden altogether. The change of Goritz into ‘Corycius
senex’ is suggested by Virgil, _Georg._ iv. 127. For the miserable end
of the man at the sack of Rome, see Pierio Valeriano, _De infelic.
literat._ ed. Menken, p. 369.
[631] The work appeared first in the _Coryciana_, with introductions by
Silvanus and Corycius himself; also reprinted in the Appendices to
Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, and in the _Deliciae_. Comp. Paul. Jov.
_Elogia_, speaking of Arsillus. Further, for the great number of the
epigrammatists, see Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, l. c. One of the most biting
pens was Marcantonio Casanova. Among the less known, Jo. Thomas
Muscanius (see _Deliciae_) deserves mention. On Casanova, see Pier.
Valer. _De infel. lit._ ed. Menken, p. 376 sqq.; and Paul. Jov.
_Elogia_, p. 142 sqq., who says of him: ‘Nemo autem eo simplicitate ac
innocentiâ vitae melior;’ Arsillus (l. c.) speaks of his ‘placidos
sales.’ Some few of his poems in the _Coryciana_, J. 3 _a_ sqq. L. 1
_a_, L. 4 _b_.
[632] Marin Sanudo, in the _Vite de’duchi di Venezia_, Murat. xii.
quotes them regularly.
[633] Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._ (Graev. thes. vi. 11, col.
270), names as the inventor a certain Odaxius of Padua, living about the
middle of the fifteenth century. Mixed verses of Latin and the language
of the country are found much earlier in many parts of Europe.
[634] It must not be forgotten that they were very soon printed with
both the old Scholia and modern commentaries.
[635] Ariosto, _Satira_, vii. Date 1531.
[636] Of such children we meet with several, yet I cannot give an
instance in which they were demonstrably so treated. The youthful
prodigy Giulio Campagnola was not one of those who were forced with an
ambitious object. Comp. Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._ in Graev.
thes. vi. 3, col. 276. For the similar case of Cecchino Bracci, d. 1445
in his fifteenth year, comp. Trucchi, _Poesie Ital. inedite_, iii. p.
229. The father of Cardano tried ‘memoriam artificialem instillare,’ and
taught him, when still a child, the astrology of the Arabians. See
Cardanus, _De propria vita_ cap. 34. Manoello may be added to the list,
unless we are to take his expression, ‘At the age of six years I am as
good as at eighty,’ as a meaningless phrase. Comp. _Litbl. des Orients_,
1843, p. 21.
[637] Bapt. Mantuan. _De calamitatibus temporum_, l. i.
[638] Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _Progymnasma adversus literas et literatos_.
_Opp._ ed. Basil. 1580, ii. 422-445. Dedications 1540-1541; the work
itself addressed to Giov. Franc. Pico, and therefore finished before
1533.
[639] Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _Hercules_. The dedication is a striking
evidence of the first threatening movements of the Inquisition.
[640] He passed, as we have seen, for the last protector of the
scholars.
[641] _De infelicitate literatorum._ On the editions, see above, p. 86,
note 4. Pier. Val., after leaving Rome, lived long in a good position as
professor at Padua. At the end of his work he expresses the hope that
Charles V. and Clement VII. would bring about a better time for the
scholars.
[642] Comp. Dante, _Inferno_, xiii. 58 sqq., especially 93 sqq., where
Petrus de Vineis speaks of his own suicide.
[643] Pier. Valer. pp. 397 sqq., 402. He was the uncle of the writer.
[644] Cœlii Calcagnini, _Opera_, ed. Basil. 1544, p. 101, in the Seventh
Book of the Epistles, No. 27, letter to Jacob Ziegler. Comp. Pierio Val.
_De inf. lit._ ed. Menken, p. 369 sqq.
[645] _M. Ant. Sabellici Opera_, Epist. l. xi. fol. 56. See, too, the
biography in the _Elogia_ of Paolo Giovio, p. 76 sqq. The former
appeared separately at Strasburg in 1510, under the title Sabellicus:
_Vita Pomponii Laeti_.
[646] Jac. Volaterran. _Diar. Rom._ in Muratori. xxiii. col. 161, 171,
185. _Anecdota literaria_, ii. pp. 168 sqq.
[647] Paul. Jov. _De Romanis piscibus_, cap. 17 and 34.
[648] Sadoleti, Epist. 106, of the year 1529.
[649] Anton. Galatei, Epist. 10 and 12, in Mai, _Spicileg. Rom._ vol.
viii.
[650] This was the case even before the middle of the century. Comp.
Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temp._ ii.
[651] Luigi Bossi, _Vita di Cristoforo Colombo_, in which there is a
sketch of earlier Italian journeys and discoveries, p. 91 sqq.
[652] See on this subject a treatise by Pertz. An inadequate account is
to be found in Æneas Sylvius, _Europae status sub Frederico III. Imp._
cap. 44 (in Freher’s _Scriptores_, ed. 1624, vol. ii. p. 87). On Æn. S.
see Peschel o.c. 217 sqq.
[653] Comp. O. Peschel, _Geschichte der Erdkunde_, 2nd edit., by Sophus
Ruge, Munich, 1877, p. 209 sqq. _et passim_.
[654] _Pii II. Comment._ l. i. p. 14. That he did not always observe
correctly, and sometimes filled up the picture from his fancy, is
clearly shown, e.g., by his description of Basel. Yet his merit on the
whole is nevertheless great. On the description of Basel see G. Voigt;
Enea Silvio, i. 228; on E. S. as Geographer, ii. 302-309. Comp. i. 91
sqq.
[655] In the sixteenth century, Italy continued to be the home of
geographical literature, at a time when the discoverers themselves
belonged almost exclusively to the countries on the shores of the
Atlantic. Native geography produced in the middle of the century the
great and remarkable work of Leandro Alberti, _Descrizione di tutta
l’Italia_, 1582. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the maps in
Italy were in advance of those of other countries. See Wieser: _Der
Portulan des Infanten Philipp II. von Spanien_ in _Sitzungsberichte der
Wien. Acad. Phil. Hist. Kl._ Bd. 82 (1876), pp. 541 sqq. For the
different Italian maps and voyages of discovery, see the excellent work
of Oscar Peschel: _Abhandl. zur Erd-und Völkerkunde_ (Leipzig, 1878).
Comp. also, _inter alia_: Berchet, _Il planisfero di Giovanni Leandro
del’anno 1452 fa-simil nella grandezza del’ original Nota illustrativa_,
16 S. 4^o. Venezia, 1879. Comp. Voigt, ii. 516; and G. B. de Rossi,
_Piante iconogrofiche di Roma anteriori al secolo XVI._ Rome, 1879. For
Petrarch’s attempt to draw out a map of Italy, comp. Flavio Biondo:
_Italia illustrata_ (ed. Basil.), p. 352 sqq.; also _Petr. Epist. var.
LXI._ ed. Fracass. iii. 476. A remarkable attempt at a map of Europe,
Asia and Africa is to be found on the obverse of a medal of Charles IV.
of Anjou, executed by Francesco da Laurana in 1462.
[656] Libri, _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques en Italie_. 4 vols.
Paris, 1838.
[657] To pronounce a conclusive judgment on this point, the growth of
the habit of collecting observations, in other than the mathematical
sciences, would need to be illustrated in detail. But this lies outside
the limits of our task.
[658] Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 174 sqq. See also Dante’s treatise, _De
aqua et terra_; and W. Schmidt, _Dante’s Stellung in der Geschichte der
Cosmographie_, Graz, 1876. The passages bearing on geography and natural
science from the _Tesoro_ of Brunetto Latini are published separately:
_Il trattato della Sfera di S. Br. L._, by Bart. Sorio (Milan, 1858),
who has added B. L.’s system of historical chronology.
[659] Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._ in _Graevii Thesaur. ant.
Ital._ tom. vi. pars iii. col. 227. A. died in 1312 during the
investigation; his statue was burnt. On Giov. Sang. see op. cit. col.
228 sqq. Comp. on him, Fabricius, _Bibl. Lat._ s. v. Petrus de Apono.
Sprenger in _Esch. u. Gruber_, i. 33. He translated (a. 1292-1293)
astrological works of Abraham ibn Esra, printed 1506.
[660] See below, part vi. chapter 2.
[661] See the exaggerated complaints of Libri, op. cit. ii. p. 258 sqq.
Regrettable as it may be that a people so highly gifted did not devote
more of its strength to the natural sciences, we nevertheless believe
that it pursued, and in part attained, still more important ends.
[662] On the studies of the latter in Italy, comp. the thorough
investigation by C. Malagola in his work on Codro Urceo (Bologna, 1878,
cap. vii. 360-366).
[663] Italians also laid out botanical gardens in foreign countries,
e.g. Angelo, of Florence, a contemporary of Petrarch, in Prag.
Friedjung: _Carl IV._ p. 311, note 4.
[664] _Alexandri Braccii descriptio horti Laurentii Med._, printed as
Appendix No. 58 to Roscoe’s _Life of Lorenzo_. Also to be found in the
Appendices to Fabroni’s _Laurentius_.
[665] _Mondanarii Villa_, printed in the _Poemata aliquot insignia
illustr. poetar. recent._
[666] On the zoological garden at Palermo under Henry VI., see Otto de
S. Blasio ad a. 1194. That of Henry I. of England in the park of
Woodstock (Guliel. Malmes. p. 638) contained lions, leopards, camels,
and a porcupine, all gifts of foreign princes.
[667] As such he was called, whether painted or carved in stone,
‘Marzocco.’ At Pisa eagles were kept. See the commentators on Dante,
_Inf._ xxxiii. 22. The falcon in Boccaccio, _Decam._ v. 9. See for the
whole subject: _Due trattati del governo e delle infermità degli
uccelli, testi di lingua inediti_. Rome, 1864. They are works of the
fourteenth century, possibly translated from the Persian.
[668] See the extract from Ægid. Viterb. in Papencordt, _Gesch. der
Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, p. 367, note, with an incident of the year
1328. Combats of wild animals among themselves and with dogs served to
amuse the people on great occasions. At the reception of Pius II. and of
Galeazzo Maria Sforza at Florence, in 1459, in an enclosed space on the
Piazza della Signoria, bulls, horses, boars, dogs, lions, and a giraffe
were turned out together, but the lions lay down and refused to attack
the other animals. Comp. _Ricordi di Firenze, Rer. Ital. script. ex
Florent. codd._ tom. ii. col. 741. A different account in _Vita Pii II._
Murat. iii. ii. col. 976. A second giraffe was presented to Lorenzo the
Magnificent by the Mameluke Sultan Kaytbey. Comp. Paul. Jov. _Vita
Leonis X._ l. i. In Lorenzo’s menagerie one magnificent lion was
especially famous, and his destruction by the other lions was reckoned a
presage of the death of his owner.
[669] Gio. Villani, x. 185, xi. 66. Matteo Villani, iii. 90, v. 68. It
was a bad omen if the lions fought, and worse still if they killed one
another. Com. Varchi, _Stor. fiorent._ iii. p. 143. Matt. V. devotes the
first of the two chapters quoted to prove (1) that lions were born in
Italy, and (2) that they came into the world alive.
[670] _Cron. di Perugia, Arch. Stor._ xvi. ii. p. 77, year 1497. A pair
of lions once escaped from Perugia; _ibid._ xvi. i. p. 382, year 1434.
Florence, for example, sent to King Wladislaw of Poland (May, 1406), a
pair of lions _ut utriusque sexus animalia ad procreandos catulos
haberetis_. The accompanying statement is amusing in a diplomatic
document: ‘Sunt equidem hi leones Florentini, et satis quantum natura
promittere potuit mansueti, depositâ feritate, quam insitam habent,
hique in Gætulorum regionibus nascuntur et Indorum, in quibus multitudo
dictorum animalium evalescit, sicuti prohibent naturales. Et cum leonum
complexio sit frigoribus inimica, quod natura sagax ostendit, natura in
regionibus aestu ferventibus generantur, necessarium est, quod vostra
serenitas, si dictorum animalium vitam et sobolis propagationem, ut
remur, desiderat, faciat provideri, quod in locis calidis educentur et
maneant. Conveniunt nempe cum regia majestate leones quoniam leo græce
latine rex dicitur. Sicut enim rex dignitate potentia, magnanimitate
ceteros homines antecellit, sic leonis generositas et vigor
imperterritus animalia cuncta praesit. Et sicut rex, sic leo adversus
imbecilles et timidos clementissimum se ostendit, et adversus inquietos
et tumidos terribilem se offert animadversione justissima.’ (_Cod.
epistolaris sæculi. Mon. med. ævi hist. res gestas Poloniæ illustr._
Krakau, 1876, p. 25.)
[671] Gage, _Carteggio_, i. p. 422, year 1291. The Visconti used trained
leopards for hunting hares, which were started by little dogs. See v.
Kobel, _Wildanger_, p. 247, where later instances of hunting with
leopards are mentioned.
[672] _Strozzii poetae_, p. 146: _De leone Borsii Ducis_. The lion
spares the hare and the small dog, imitating (so says the poet) his
master. Comp. the words fol. 188, ‘et inclusis condita septa feris,’ and
fol. 193, an epigram of fourteen lines, ‘in leporarii ingressu quam
maximi;’ see _ibid._ for the hunting-park.
[673] _Cron. di Perugia_, l. c. xvi. ii. p. 199. Something of the same
kind is to be found in Petrarch, _De remed. utriusque fortunae_, but
less clearly expressed. Here Gaudium, in the conversation with Ratio,
boasts of owning monkeys and ‘ludicra animalia.’
[674] Jovian. Pontan. _De magnificentia._ In the zoological garden of
the Cardinal of Aquileja, at Albano, there were, in 1463, peacocks and
Indian fowls and Syrian goats with long ears. _Pii II. Comment._ l. xi.
p. 562 sqq.
[675] _Decembrio_, ap. Muratori, xx. col. 1012.
[676] Brunetti Latini, _Tesor._ (ed. Chabaille, Paris, 1863), lib. i. In
Petrarch’s time there were no elephants in Italy. ‘Itaque et in Italia
avorum memoria unum Frederico Romanorum principi fuisse et nunc Egyptio
tyranno nonnisi unicum esse fama est.’ _De rem. utr. fort._ i. 60.
[677] The details which are most amusing, in Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, on
Tristanus Acunius. On the porcupines and ostriches in the Pal. Strozzi,
see Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, iv. chap. 11. Lorenzo the Magnificent
received a giraffe from Egypt through some merchants, Baluz. _Miscell._
iv. 416. The elephant sent to Leo was greatly bewailed by the people
when it died, its portrait was painted, and verses on it were written by
the younger Beroaldus.
[678] Comp. Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, p. 234, speaking of Francesco Gonzaga.
For the luxury at Milan in this respect, see Bandello, Parte II. Nov. 3
and 8. In the narrative poems we also sometimes hear the opinion of a
judge of horses. Comp. Pulci, _Morgante_, xv. 105 sqq.
[679] Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, speaking of Hipp. Medices.
[680] At this point a few notices on slavery in Italy at the time of the
Renaissance will not be out of place. A short, but important, passage in
Jovian. Pontan. _De obedientia_, l. iii. cap. i.: ‘An homo, cum liber
natura sit, domino parere debeat?’ In North Italy there were no slaves.
Elsewhere, even Christians, as well as Circassians and Bulgarians, were
bought from the Turks, and made to serve till they had earned their
ransom. The negroes, on the contrary, remained slaves; but it was not
permitted, at least in the kingdom of Naples, to emasculate them. The
word ‘moro’ signifies any dark-skinned man; the negro was called ‘moro
nero.’--Fabroni, _Cosmos_, Adn. 110: Document on the sale of a female
Circassian slave (1427); Adn. 141: List of the female slaves of
Cosimo.--Nantiporto, Murat. iii. ii. col. 1106: Innocent VIII. received
100 Moors as a present from Ferdinand the Catholic, and gave them to
cardinals and other great men (1488).--Marsuccio, _Novelle_, 14: sale of
slaves; do. 24 and 25: negro slaves who also (for the benefit of their
owner?) work as ‘facchini,’ and gain the love of the women; do. 48 Moors
from Tunis caught by Catalans and sold at Pisa.--Gaye, _Carteggio_, i.
360: manumission and reward of a negro slave in a Florentine will
(1490).--Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, sub Franc. Sfortia; Porzio, _Congiura_,
iii. 195; and Comines, _Charles VIII._ chap. 18: negroes as gaolers and
executioners of the House of Aragon in Naples.--Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, sub
Galeatio: negroes as followers of the prince on his excursions.--Æneæ
Sylvii, _Opera_, p. 456: a negro slave as a musician.--Paul. Jov. _De
piscibus_, cap 3: a (free?) negro as diver and swimming-master at
Genoa.--Alex. Benedictus, _De Carolo VIII._ in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii.
col. 1608: a negro (Æthiops) as superior officer at Venice, according to
which we are justified in thinking of Othello as a negro.--Bandello,
Parte III. Nov. 21: when a slave at Genoa deserved punishment he was
sold away to Iviza, one of the Balearic isles, to carry salt.
The foregoing remarks, although they make no claim to completeness, may
be allowed to stand as they are in the new edition, on account of the
excellent selection of instances they contain, and because they have not
met with sufficient notice in the works upon the subject. Latterly a
good deal has been written on the slave-trade in Italy. The very curious
book of Filippo Zamboni: _Gli Ezzelini, Dante e gli Schiavi, ossia Roma
e la Schiavitù personale domestica. Con documenti inediti. Seconda
edizione aumentata_ (Vienna, 1870), does not contain what the title
promises, but gives, p. 241 sqq., valuable information on the
slave-trade; p. 270, a remarkable document on the buying and selling of
a female slave; p. 282, a list of various slaves (with the place were
they were bought and sold, their home, age, and price) in the thirteenth
and three following centuries. A treatise by Wattenbach: _Sklavenhandel
im Mittelalter_ (_Anzeiger für Kunde der deutschen Vorzeit_, 1874, pp.
37-40) refers only in part to Italy: Clement V. decides in 1309 that the
Venetian prisoners should be made slaves of; in 1501, after the capture
of Capua, many Capuan women were sold at Rome for a low price. In the
_Monum. historica Slavorum meridionalium_, ed. Vinc. Macusceo, tom. i.
Warsaw, 1874, we read at p. 199 a decision (Ancona, 1458) that the
‘Greci, Turci, Tartari, Sarraceni, Bossinenses, Burgari vel Albanenses,’
should be and always remain slaves, unless their masters freed them by a
legal document. Egnatius, _Exempl. ill. vir._ Ven. fol. 246 _a_, praises
Venice on the ground that ‘servorum Venetis ipsis nullum unquam usum
extitisse;’ but, on the other hand, comp. Zamboni, p. 223, and
especially Vincenzo Lazari: ‘Del traffico e delle condizioni degli
schiavi, in Venezia nel tempo di mezzo,’ in _Miscellanea di Stor. Ital._
Torino, 1862, vol. i. 463-501.
[681] It is hardly necessary to refer the reader to the famous chapters
on this subject in Humboldt’s _Kosmos_.
[682] See on this subject the observations of Wilhelm Grimm, quoted by
Humboldt in the work referred to.
[683] Carmina Burana, p. 162, _De Phyllide et Flora_, str. 66.
[684] It would be hard to say what else he had to do at the top of the
Bismantova in the province of Reggio, _Purgat._ iv. 26. The precision
with which he brings before us all the parts of his supernatural world
shows a remarkable sense of form and space. That there was a belief in
the existence of hidden treasures on the tops of mountains, and that
such spots were regarded with superstitious terror, may be clearly
inferred from the _Chron. Novaliciense_, ii. 5, in Pertz, _Script._
vii., and _Monum. hist. patriae, Script._ iii.
[685] Besides the description of Baiæ in the _Fiammetta_, of the grove
in the Ameto, etc., a passage in the _De genealogia deorum_, xiv. 11, is
of importance, where he enumerates a number of rural beauties--trees,
meadows, brooks, flocks and herds, cottages, etc.--and adds that these
things ‘animum mulcent;’ their effect is ‘mentem in se colligere.’
[686] Flavio Biondo, _Italia Illustrata_ (ed. Basil), p. 352 sqq. Comp.
_Epist. Var._ ed. Fracass. (lat.) iii. 476. On Petrarch’s plan of
writing a great geographical work, see the proofs given by Attilio
Hortis, _Accenni alle Scienze Naturali nelle Opere di G. Boccacci_,
Trieste, 1877, p. 45 sqq.
[687] Although he is fond of referring to them: e.g. _De vita solitaria_
(_Opera_, ed. Basil, 1581), esp. p. 241, where he quotes the description
of a vine-arbour from St. Augustine.
[688] _Epist. famil._ vii. 4. ‘Interea utinam scire posses, quanta, cum
voluptate solivagus et liber, inter montes et nemora, inter fontes et
flumina, inter libros et maximorum hominum ingenia respiro, quamque me
in ea, quae ante sunt, cum Apostolo extendens et praeterita oblivisci
nitor et praesentia non videre.’ Comp. vi. 3, o. c. 316 sqq. esp. 334
sqq. Comp. L. Geiger: _Petrarca_, p. 75, note 5, and p. 269.
[689] ‘Jacuit sine carmine sacro.’ Comp. _Itinerar. Syriacum, Opp._ p.
558.
[690] He distinguishes in the _Itinerar. Syr._ p. 357, on the Riviera di
Levante: ‘colles asperitate gratissima et mira fertilitate conspicuos.’
On the port of Gaeta, see his _De remediis utriusque fortunae_, i. 54.
[691] _Letter to Posterity_: ‘Subito loco specie percussus.’
Descriptions of great natural events: A Storm at Naples, 1343: _Epp.
fam._ i. 263 sqq.; An Earthquake at Basel, 1355, _Epp. seniles_, lib. x.
2, and _De rem. utr. fort._ ii. 91.
[692] _Epist. fam._ ed. Fracassetti, i. 193 sqq.
[693] _Il Dittamondo_, iii. cap. 9.
[694] _Dittamondo_, iii. cap. 21, iv. cap. 4. Papencordt, _Gesch. der
Stadt Rom_, says that the Emperor Charles IV. had a strong taste for
beautiful scenery, and quotes on this point Pelzel, _Carl IV._ p. 456.
(The two other passages, which he quotes, do not say the same.) It is
possible that the Emperor took this fancy from intercourse with the
humanists (see above, pp. 141-2). For the interest taken by Charles in
natural science see H. Friedjung, op. cit. p. 224, note 1.
[695] We may also compare Platina, _Vitae Pontiff._ p. 310: ‘Homo fuit
(Pius II.) verus, integer, apertus; nil habuit ficti, nil simulati’--an
enemy of hypocrisy and superstition, courageous and consistent. See
Voigt, ii. 261 sqq. and iii. 724. He does not, however, give an analysis
of the character of Pius.
[696] The most important passages are the following: _Pii II. P. M.
Commentarii_, l. iv. p. 183; spring in his native country; l. v. p. 251;
summer residence at Tivoli; l. vi. p. 306: the meal at the spring of
Vicovaro; l. viii. p. 378: the neighbourhood of Viterbo; p. 387: the
mountain monastery of St. Martin; p. 388: the Lake of Bolsena; l. ix. p.
396: a splendid description of Monte Amiata; l. x. p. 483: the situation
of Monte Oliveto; p. 497: the view from Todi; l. xi. p. 554: Ostia and
Porto; p. 562: description of the Alban Hills; l. xii. p. 609: Frascati
and Grottaferrata; comp. 568-571.
[697] So we must suppose it to have been written, not Sicily.
[698] He calls himself, with an allusion to his name: ‘Silvarum amator
et varia videndi cupidus.’
[699] On Leonbattista Alberti’s feeling for landscapes see above, p. 136
sqq. Alberti, a younger contemporary of Æneas Silvius (_Trattato del
Governo della Famiglia_, p. 90; see above, p. 132, note 1), is delighted
when in the country with ‘the bushy hills,’ ‘the fair plains and rushing
waters.’ Mention may here be made of a little work _Ætna_, by P. Bembus,
first published at Venice, 1495, and often printed since, in which,
among much that is rambling and prolix, there are remarkable
geographical descriptions and notices of landscapes.
[700] A most elaborate picture of this kind in Ariosto; his sixth canto
is all foreground.
[701] He deals differently with his architectural framework, and in this
modern decorative art can learn something from him even now.
[702] _Lettere Pittoriche_, iii. 36, to Titian, May, 1544.
[703] _Strozzii Poetae_, in the _Erotica_, l. vi. fol. 183; in the poem:
‘Hortatur se ipse, ut ad amicam properet.’
[704] Comp. Thausing: _Dürer_, Leipzig, 1876, p. 166.
[705] These striking expressions are taken from the seventh volume of
Michelet’s _Histoire de France_ (Introd.).
[706] Tomm. Gar, _Relaz. della Corte di Roma_, i. pp. 278 and 279. In
the Rel. of Soriano, year 1533.
[707] Prato, _Arch. Stor._ iii. p. 295 sqq. The word ‘saturnico’ means
‘unhappy’ as well as ‘bringing misfortune.’ For the influence of the
planets on human character in general, see Corn. Agrippa, _De occulta
philosophia_, c. 52.
[708] See Trucchi, _Poesie Italiane inedite_, i. p 165 sqq.
[709] Blank verse became at a later time the usual form for dramatic
compositions. Trissino, in the dedication of his _Sofonisba_ to Leo X.,
expressed the hope that the Pope would recognise this style for what it
was--as better, nobler, and _less easy_ than it looked. Roscoe, _Leone_
X., ed. Bossi, viii. 174.
[710] Comp. e.g. the striking forms adopted by Dante, _Vita Nuova_, ed.
Witte, p. 13 sqq., 16 sqq. Each has twenty irregular lines; in the
first, one rhyme occurs eight times.
[711] Trucchi, op. cit. i. 181 sqq.
[712] These were the ‘Canzoni’ and Sonnets which every blacksmith and
donkey-driver sang and parodied--which made Dante not a little angry.
(Comp. Franco Sachetti, Nov. 114, 115.) So quickly did these poems find
their way among the people.
[713] _Vita Nuova_, ed. Witte, pp. 81, 82 sqq. ‘Deh peregrini,’ _ibid._
116.
[714] For Dante’s psychology, the beginning of _Purg._ iv. is one of the
most important passages. See also the parts of the _Convito_ bearing on
the subject.
[715] The portraits of the school of Van Eyck would prove the contrary
for the North. They remained for a long period far in advance of all
descriptions in words.
[716] Printed in the sixteenth volume of his _Opere Volgari_. See M.
Landau, _Giov. Boccaccio_ (Stuttg. 1877), pp. 36-40; he lays special
stress on B.’s dependence on Dante and Petrarch.
[717] In the song of the shepherd Teogape, after the feast of Venus,
_Opp._ ed. Montier, vol. xv. 2. p. 67 sqq. Comp. Landau, 58-64; on the
_Fiammetta_, see Landau, 96-105.
[718] The famous Lionardo Aretino, the leader of the humanists at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, admits, ‘Che gli antichi Greci
d’umanita e di gentilezza di cuore abbino avanzanto di gran lunga i
nostri Italiani;’ but he says it at the beginning of a novel which
contains the sentimental story of the invalid Prince Antiochus and his
step-mother Stratonice--a document of an ambiguous and half-Asiatic
character. (Printed as an Appendix to the _Cento Novelle Antiche_.)
[719] No doubt the court and prince received flattery enough from their
occasional poets and dramatists.
[720] Comp. the contrary view taken by Gregorovius, _Gesch. Roms_, vii.
619.
[721] Paul. Jovius, _Dialog. de viris lit. illustr._, in Tiraboschi,
tom. vii. iv. Lil. Greg. Gyraldus, _De poetis nostri temp._
[722] Isabella Gonzaga to her husband, Feb. 3, 1502, _Arch. Stor._
Append. ii. p. 306 sqq. Comp. Gregorovius, _Lucrezia Borgia_, i.
256-266, ed. 3. In the French _Mystères_ the actors themselves first
marched before the audience in procession, which was called the
‘montre.’
[723] _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 404. Other passages
referring to the stage in that city, cols. 278, 279, 282 to 285, 361,
380, 381, 393, 397, from which it appears that Plautus was the dramatist
most popular on these occasions, that the performances sometimes lasted
till three o’clock in the morning, and were even given in the open air.
The ballets were without any meaning or reference to the persons present
and the occasion solemnized. Isabella Gonzaga, who was certainly at the
time longing for her husband and child, and was dissatisfied with the
union of her brother with Lucrezia, spoke of the ‘coldness and
frostiness’ of the marriage and the festivities which attended it.
[724] _Strozzii Poetæ_, fol. 232, in the fourth book of the _Æolosticha_
of Tito Strozza. The lines run:
‘Ecce superveniens rerum argumenta retexit
Mimus, et ad populum verba diserta refert.
Tum similes habitu formaque et voce Menæchmi
Dulcibus oblectant lumina nostra modis.’
The _Menæchmi_ was also given at Ferrara in 1486, at the cost of more
than 1,000 ducats. Murat. xxiv. 278.
[725] Franc. Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 169. The passage in the original
is as follows: ‘Si sono anco spesso recitate delle tragedie con grandi
apparecchi, comporte da poeti antichi o da moderni. Alle quali per la
fama degli apparati concorrevano le genti estere e circonvicine per
vederle e udirle. Ma hoggi le feste da particolari si fanno fra i
parenti et essendosi la città regolata per se medesima da certi anni in
quà, si passano i tempi del Carnovale in comedie e in altri più lieti e
honorati diletti.’ The passage is not thoroughly clear.
[726] This must be the meaning of Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 168, when
he complains that the ‘recitanti’ ruined the comedies ‘con invenzioni o
personaggi troppo ridicoli.’
[727] Sansovino, l. c.
[728] Scardeonius, _De urb. Patav. antiq._, in Graevius, Thes. vi. iii.
col. 288 sqq. An important passage for the literature of the dialects
generally. One of the passages is as follows: ‘Hinc ad recitandas
comœdias socii scenici et gregales et æmuli fuere nobiles juvenes
Patavini, Marcus Aurelius Alvarotus quem in comœdiis suis Menatum
appellitabat, et Hieronymus Zanetus quem Vezzam, et Castegnola quem
Billoram vocitabat, et alii quidam qui sermonem agrestium imitando præ
ceteris callebant.’
[729] That the latter existed as early as the fifteenth century may be
inferred from the _Diario Ferrerese_, Feb. 2nd, 1501: ‘Il duca Hercole
fece una festa di Menechino secondo il suo uso.’ Murat. xxiv. col. 393.
There cannot be a confusion with the Menæchmi of Plautus, which is
correctly written, l. c. col. 278. See above, p. 318, note 2.
[730] Pulci mischievously invents a solemn old-world legend for his
story of the giant Margutte (_Morgante_, canto xix. str. 153 sqq.). The
critical introduction of Limerno Pitocco is still droller (_Orlandino_,
cap. i. str. 12-22).
[731] The _Morgante_ was written in 1460 and the following years, and
first printed at Venice in 1481. Last ed. by P. Sermolli, Florence,
1872. For the tournaments, see part v. chap. i. See, for what follows,
Ranke: _Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie_, Berlin, 1837.
[732] The _Orlando inamorato_ was first printed in 1496.
[733] _L’Italia liberata da Goti_, Rome, 1547.
[734] See above, p. 319, and Landau’s _Boccaccio_, 64-69. It must,
nevertheless, be observed that the work of Boccaccio here mentioned was
written before 1344, while that of Petrarch was written after Laura’s
death, that is, after 1348.
[735] Vasari, viii. 71, in the Commentary to the _Vita di Rafaelle_.
[736] Much of this kind our present taste could dispense with in the
_Iliad_.
[737] First edition, 1516.
[738] The speeches inserted are themselves narratives.
[739] As was the case with Pulci, _Morgante_, canto xix. str. 20 sqq.
[740] The _Orlandino_, first edition, 1526.
[741] Radevicus, _De gestis Friderici imp._, especially ii. 76. The
admirable _Vita Henrici IV._ contains very little personal description,
as is also the case with the _Vita Chuonradi imp._ by Wipo.
[742] The librarian Anastasius (middle of ninth century) is here meant.
The whole collection of the lives of the Popes (_Liber Pontificalis_)
was formerly ascribed to him, but erroneously. Comp. Wattenbach,
_Deutschland’s Geschichtsquellen_, i. 223 sqq. 3rd ed.
[743] Lived about the same time as Anastasius; author of a history of
the bishopric of Ravenna. Wattenbach, l. c. 227.
[744] How early Philostratus was used in the same way, I am unable to
say. Suetonius was no doubt taken as a model in times still earlier.
Besides the life of Charles the Great, written by Eginhard, examples
from the twelfth century are offered by William of Malmesbury in his
descriptions of William the Conqueror (p. 446 sqq., 452 sqq.), of
William II. (pp. 494, 504), and of Henry I. (p. 640).
[745] See the admirable criticism in Landau, _Boccaccio_, 180-182.
[746] See above, p. 131. The original (Latin) was first published in
1847 at Florence, by Galletti, with the title, _Philippi Villani Liber
de civitatis Florentiae famosis civibus_; an old Italian translation has
been often printed since 1747, last at Trieste, 1858. The first book,
which treats of the earliest history of Florence and Rome, has never
been printed. The chapter in Villani, _De semipoetis_, i.e. those who
wrote in prose as well as in verse, or those who wrote poems besides
following some other profession, is specially interesting.
[747] Here we refer the reader to the biography of L. B. Alberti, from
which extracts are given above (p. 136), and to the numerous Florentine
biographies in Muratori, in the _Archivio Storico_, and elsewhere. The
life of Alberti is probably an autobiography, l. c. note 2.
[748] _Storia Fiorentina_, ed. F. L. Polidori, Florence, 1838.
[749] _De viris illustribus_, in the publications of the _Stuttgarter
liter. Vereins_, No. i. Stuttg. 1839. Comp. C. Voigt, ii. 324. Of the
sixty-five biographies, twenty-one are lost.
[750] His _Diarium Romanum_ from 1472 to 1484, in Murat. xiii. 81-202.
[751] _Ugolini Verini poetae Florentini_ (a contemporary of Lorenzo, a
pupil of Landinus, fol. 13, and teacher of Petrus Crinitus, fol. 14),
_De illustratione urbis Florentinae libri tres_, Paris, 1583, deserves
mention, esp. lib. 2. Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio are spoken of and
characterised without a word of blame. For several women, see fol. 11.
[752] _Petri Candidi Decembrii Vita Philippi Mariae Vicecomitis_, in
Murat. xx. Comp above, p. 38.
[753] See above, p. 225.
[754] On Comines, see above, p. 96, note 1. While Comines, as is there
indicated, partly owes his power of objective criticism to intercourse
with Italians, the German humanists and statesmen, notwithstanding the
prolonged residence of some of them in Italy, and their diligent and
often most successful study of the classical world, acquired little or
nothing of the gift of biographical representation or of the analysis of
character. The travels, biographies, and historical sketches of the
German humanists in the fifteenth, and often in the early part of the
sixteenth centuries, are mostly either dry catalogues or empty,
rhetorical declamations.
[755] See above, p. 96.
[756] Here and there we find exceptions. Letters of Hutten, containing
autobiographical notices, bits of the chronicle of Barth. Sastrow, and
the _Sabbata_ of Joh. Kessler, introduce us to the inward conflicts of
the writers, mostly, however, bearing the specifically religious
character of the Reformation.
[757] Among northern autobiographies we might, perhaps, select for
comparison that of Agrippa d’Aubigné (though belonging to a later
period) as a living and speaking picture of human individuality.
[758] Written in his old age, about 1576. On Cardano as an investigator
and discoverer, see Libri, _Hist. des Sciences Mathém._ iii. p. 167 sqq.
[759] E.g. the execution of his eldest son, who had taken vengeance for
his wife’s infidelity by poisoning her (cap. 27, 50).
[760] _Discorsi della Vita Sobria_, consisting of the ‘trattato,’ of a
‘compendio,’ of an ‘esortazione,’ and of a ‘lettera’ to Daniel Barbaro.
The book has been often reprinted.
[761] Was this the villa of Codevico mentioned above, p. 321?
[762] In some cases very early; in the Lombard cities as early as the
twelfth century. Comp. Landulfus senior, _Ricobaldus_, and (in Murat.
x.) the remarkable anonymous work, _De laudibus Papiae_, of the
fourteenth century. Also (in Murat. i.) _Liber de Situ urbis Mediol._
Some notices on Italian local history in O. Lorenzo, _Deutschland’s
Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter seit dem 13ten Jahr_. Berlin, 1877; but
the author expressly refrains from an original treatment of the subject.
[763] _Li Tresors_, ed. Chabaille, Paris, 1863, pp. 179-180. Comp.
_ibid._ p. 577 (lib. iii. p. ii. c. 1).
[764] On Paris, which was a much more important place to the mediæval
Italian than to his successor a hundred years later, see _Dittamondo_,
iv. cap. 18. The contrast between France and Italy is accentuated by
Petrarch in his _Invectivae contra Gallum_.
[765] Savonarola, in Murat. xxiv. col. 1186 (above, p. 145). On Venice,
see above, p. 62 sqq. The oldest description of Rome, by Signorili
(MS.), was written in the pontificate of Martin V. (1417); see
Gregorovius, vii. 569; the oldest by a German is that of H. Muffel
(middle of fifteenth century), ed. by Voigt, Tübingen, 1876.
[766] The character of the restless and energetic Bergamasque, full of
curiosity and suspicion, is charmingly described in Bandello, parte i.
nov. 34.
[767] E.g. Varchi, in the ninth book of the _Storie Fiorentine_ (vol.
iii. p. 56 sqq.).
[768] Vasari, xii. p. 158. _V. di Michelangelo_, at the beginning. At
other times mother nature is praised loudly enough, as in the sonnet of
Alfons de’ Pazzi to the non-Tuscan Annibal Caro (in Trucchi, l. c. iii.
p. 187):
‘Misero il Varchi! e più infelici noi,
Se a vostri virtudi accidentali
Aggiunto fosse ‘l natural, ch’è in noi!’
[769] _Forcianae Quaestiones, in quibus varia Italorum ingenia
explicantur multaque alia scitu non indigna._ Autore Philalette
Polytopiensi cive. Among them, _Mauritii Scaevae Carmen_.
‘Quos hominum mores varios quas denique mentes
Diverso profert Itala terra solo,
Quisve vinis animus, mulierum et strenua virtus
Pulchre hoc exili codice lector habes.’
Neapoli excudebat Martinus de Ragusia, Anno MDXXXVI. This little work,
made use of by Ranke, _Päpste_, i. 385, passes as being from the hand of
Ortensio Landi (comp. Tiraboschi, vii. 800 to 812), although in the work
itself no hint is given of the author. The title is explained by the
circumstance that conversations are reported which were held at Forcium,
a bath near Lucca, by a large company of men and women, on the question
whence it comes that there are such great differences among mankind. The
question receives no answer, but many of the differences among the
Italians of that day are noticed--in studies, trade, warlike skill (the
point quoted by Ranke), the manufacture of warlike implements, modes of
life, distinctions in costume, in language, in intellect, in loving and
hating, in the way of winning affection, in the manner of receiving
guests, and in eating. At the close, come some reflections on the
differences among philosophical systems. A large part of the work is
devoted to women--their differences in general, the power of their
beauty, and especially the question whether women are equal or inferior
to men. The work has been made use of in various passages below. The
following extract may serve as an example (fol. 7 _b_ sqq.):--‘Aperiam
nunc quæ sint in consilio aut dando aut accipiendo dissimilitudo.
Præstant consilio Mediolanenses, sed aliorum gratia potius quam sua.
Sunt nullo consilio Genuenses. Rumor est Venetos abundare. Sunt perutili
consilio Lucenses, idque aperte indicarunt, cum in tanto totius Italiæ
ardore, tot hostibus circumsepti suam libertatem, ad quam nati videntur
semper tutati sint, nulla, quidem, aut capitis aut fortunarum ratione
habita. Quis porro non vehementer admiretur? Quis callida consilia non
stupeat? Equidem quotiescunque cogito, quanta prudentia ingruentes
procellas evitarint, quanta solertia impendentia pericula effugerint,
adducor in stuporem. Lucanis vero summum est studium, eos deludere qui
consilii captandi gratia adeunt, ipsi vero omnia inconsulte ac temere
faciunt. Brutii optimo sunt consilio, sed ut incommodent, aut perniciem
afferant, in rebus quæ magnæ deliberationis dictu mirum quam stupidi
sint, eisdem plane dotibus instructi sunt Volsci quod ad cædes et furta
paulo propensiores sint. Pisani bono quidem sunt consilio, sed parum
constanti, si quis diversum ab eis senserit, mox acquiescunt, rursus si
aliter suadeas, mutabunt consilium, illud in caussa fuit quod tam duram
ac diutinam obsidionem ad extremum usque non pertulerint. Placentini
utrisque abundant consiliis, scilicet salutaribus ac pernitiosis, non
facile tamen ab iis impetres pestilens consilium, apud Regienses neque
consilii copiam invenies. Si sequare Mutinensium consilia, raro cedet
infeliciter, sunt enim peracutissimo consilio, et voluntate plane bona.
Providi sunt Florentini (si unumquemque seorsum accipias) si vero simul
conjuncti sint, non admodum mihi consilia eorum probabuntur; feliciter
cedunt Senensium consilia, subita sunt Perusinorum; salutaria
Ferrariensium, fideli sunt consilio Veronenses, semper ambigui sunt in
consiliis aut dandis aut accipiendis Patavini. Sunt pertinaces in eo
quod cœperint consilio Bergomates, respuunt omnium consilia Neapolitani,
sunt consultissimi Bononienses.’
[770] _Commentario delle più notabili e mostruose cose d’Italia et altri
luoghi, di Lingua Aramea in Italiana tradotta. Con un breve Catalogo
degli inventori delle cose che si mangiano et beveno, novamente
ritrovato._ In Venetia 1553 (first printed 1548, based on a journey
taken by Ortensio Landi through Italy in 1543 and 1544). That Landi was
really the author of this _Commentario_ is clear from the concluding
remarks of Nicolo Morra (fol. 46 _a_): ‘Il presente commentario nato del
constantissimo cervello di M. O. L.;’ and from the signature of the
whole (fol. 70 _a_): SVISNETROH SVDNAL, ROTUA TSE, ‘Hortensius Landus
autor est.’ After a declaration as to Italy from the mouth of a
mysterious grey-haired sage, a journey is described from Sicily through
Italy to the East. All the cities of Italy are more or less fully
discussed: that Lucca should receive special praise is intelligible from
the writer’s way of thinking. Venice, where he claims to have been much
with Pietro Aretino (p. 166), and Milan are described in detail, and in
connexion with the latter the maddest stories are told (fol. 25 sqq.).
There is no want of such elsewhere--of roses which flower all the year
round, stars which shine at midday, birds which are changed into men,
and men with bulls’ heads on their shoulders, mermen, and men who spit
fire from their mouths. Among all these there are often authentic bits
of information, some of which will be used in the proper place; short
mention is made of the Lutherans (fol. 32 _a_, 38 _a_), and frequent
complaints are heard of the wretched times and unhappy state of Italy.
We there read (fol. 22 _a_): ‘Son questi quelli Italiani li quali in un
fatto d’armi uccisero ducento mila Francesi? sono finalmente quelli che
di tutto il mondo s’impadronirono? Hai quanto (per quel che io vego)
degenerati sono. Hai quanto dissimili mi paiono dalli antichi padri
loro, liquali et singolar virtu di cuore e disciplina militare
ugualmente monstrarno havere.’ On the catalogue of eatables which is
added, see below.
[771] _Descrizione di tutta l’Italia._
[772] Satirical lists of cities are frequently met with later, e.g.
Macaroneide, _Phantas._ ii. For France, Rabelais, who knew the
Macaroneide, is the chief source of all the jests and malicious
allusions of this local sort.
[773] It is true that many decaying literatures are full of painfully
minute descriptions. See e.g. in Sidonius Apollinaris the descriptions
of a Visigoth king (_Epist._ i. 2), of a personal enemy (_Epist._ iii.
13), and in his poems the types of the different German tribes.
[774] On Filippo Villani, see p. 330.
[775] _Parnasso teatrale_, Lipsia, 1829. Introd. p. vii.
[776] The reading is here evidently corrupt. The passage is as follows
(_Ameto_, Venezia, 1856, p. 54): ‘Del mezo de’ quali non camuso naso in
linea diretta discende, quanto ad aquilineo non essere dimanda il
dovere.’
[777] ‘Due occhi ladri nel loro movimento.’ The whole work is rich in
such descriptions.
[778] The charming book of songs by Giusto dei Conti, _La bella Mano_
(best ed. Florence, 1715), does not tell us as many details of this
famous hand of his beloved as Boccaccio in a dozen passages of the
_Ameto_ of the hands of his nymphs.
[779] ‘Della bellezza delle donne,’ in the first vol. of the _Opere di
Firenzuola_, Milano, 1802. For his view of bodily beauty as a sign of
beauty of soul, comp. vol. ii. pp. 48 to 52, in the ‘ragionamenti’
prefixed to his novels. Among the many who maintain this doctrine,
partly in the style of the ancients, we may quote one, Castiglione, _Il
Cortigiana_, l. iv. fol. 176.
[780] This was a universal opinion, not only the professional opinion of
painters. See below.
[781] This may be an opportunity for a word on the eyes of Lucrezia
Borgia, taken from the distichs of a Ferrarese court-poet, Ercole
Strozza (_Strozzii Poetae_, fol. 85-88). The power of her glance is
described in a manner only explicable in an artistic age, and which
would not now be permitted. Sometimes it turns the beholder to fire,
sometimes to stone. He who looks long at the sun, becomes blind; he who
beheld Medusa, became a stone; but he who looks at the countenance of
Lucrezia
‘Fit primo intuitu cæcus et inde lapis.’
Even the marble Cupid sleeping in her halls is said to have been
petrified by her gaze:
‘Lumine Borgiado saxificatur Amor.’
Critics may dispute, if they please, whether the so-called Eros of
Praxiteles or that of Michelangelo is meant, since she was the possessor
of both.
And the same glance appeared to another poet, Marcello Filosseno, only
mild and lofty, ‘mansueto e altero’ (Roscoe, _Leone X._ ed. Bossi, vii.
p. 306).
Comparisons with ideal figures of antiquity occur (p. 30). Of a boy ten
years old we read in the _Orlandino_ (ii. str. 47), ‘ed ha capo romano.’
Referring to the fact that the appearance of the temples can be
altogether changed by the arrangement of the hair, Firenzuola makes a
comical attack on the overcrowding of the hair with flowers, which
causes the head to ‘look like a pot of pinks or a quarter of goat on the
spit.’ He is, as a rule, thoroughly at home in caricature.
[782] For the ideal of the ‘Minnesänger,’ see Falke, _Die deutsche
Trachten- und Modenwelt_, i. pp. 85 sqq.
[783] On the accuracy of his sense of form, p. 290.
[784] _Inferno_, xxi. 7; _Purgat._ xiii. 61.
[785] We must not take it too seriously, if we read (in Platina, _Vitae
Pontiff._ p. 310) that he kept at his court a sort of buffoon, the
Florentine Greco, ‘hominem certe cujusvis mores, naturam, linguam cum
maximo omnium qui audiebant risu facile exprimentem.’
[786] _Pii. II. Comment._ viii. p. 391.
[787] Two tournaments must be distinguished, Lorenzo’s in 1468 and
Guiliano’s in 1475 (a third in 1481?). See Reumont, _L. M._ i. 264 sqq.
361, 267, note 1; ii. 55, 67, and the works there quoted, which settle
the old dispute on these points. The first tournament is treated in the
poem of Luca Pulci, ed. _Ciriffo Calvaneo di Luca Pulci Gentilhuomo
Fiorentino, con la Giostra del Magnifico Lorenzo de’ Medici_. Florence,
1572, pp. 75, 91; the second in an unfinished poem of Ang. Poliziano,
best ed. Carducci, _Le Stanze, l’Orfeo e le Rime di M. A. P._ Florence,
1863. The description of Politian breaks off at the setting out of
Guiliano for the tournament. Pulci gives a detailed account of the
combatants and the manner of fighting. The description of Lorenzo is
particularly good (p. 82).
[788] This so-called ‘Caccia’ is printed in the Commentary to
Castiglione’s _Eclogue_ from a Roman MS. _Lettere del conte B.
Castiglione_, ed. Pierantonio Lerassi (Padua, 1771), ii. p. 269.
[789] See the _Serventese_ of Giannozzo of Florence, in Trucchi, _Poesie
italiane inedite_, ii. p. 99. The words are many of them quite
unintelligible, borrowed really or apparently from the languages of the
foreign mercenaries. Macchiavelli’s description of Florence during the
plague of 1527 belongs, to certain extent, to this class of works. It is
a series of living, speaking pictures of a frightful calamity.
[790] According to Boccaccio (_Vita di Dante_, p. 77), Dante was the
author of two eclogues, probably written in Latin. They are addressed to
Joh. de Virgiliis. Comp. Fraticelli, _Opp. min. di Dante_, i. 417.
Petrarch’s bucolic poem in _P. Carmina minora_, ed. Bossetti, i. Comp.
L. Geiger, _Petr._ 120-122 and 270, note 6, especially A. Hortis,
_Scritti inediti di F. P._ Triest, 1874.
[791] Boccaccio gives in his _Ameto_ (above, p. 344) a kind of mythical
Decameron, and sometimes fails ludicrously to keep up the character. One
of his nymphs is a good Catholic, and prelates shoot glances of unholy
love at her in Rome. Another marries. In the _Ninfale fiesolano_ the
nymph Mensola, who finds herself pregnant, takes counsel of an ‘old and
wise nymph.’
[792] In general the prosperity of the Italian peasants was greater then
than that of the peasantry anywhere else in Europe. Comp. Sacchetti,
nov. 88 and 222; L. Pulci in the _Beca da Dicamano_ (Villari,
_Macchiavelli_, i. 198, note 2).
[793] ‘Nullum est hominum genus aptius urbi,’ says Battista Mantovano
(_Ecl._ viii.) of the inhabitants of the Monte Baldo and the Val.
Cassina, who could turn their hands to anything. Some country
populations, as is well known, have even now privileges with regard to
certain occupations in the great cities.
[794] Perhaps one of the strongest passages, _Orlandino_, cap. v. str.
54-58. The tranquil and unlearned Vesp. Bisticci says (_Comm. sulla vita
di Giov. Manetti_, p. 96): ‘Sono due ispezie di uomini difficili a
supportare per la loro ignoranza; l’una sono i servi, la seconda i
contadini.’
[795] In Lombardy, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the nobles
did not shrink from dancing, wrestling, leaping, and racing with the
peasants. _Il Cortigiano_, l. ii. fol. 54. A. Pandolfini (L. B. Alberti)
in the _Trattato del governo della famiglia_, p. 86, is an instance of a
land-owner who consoles himself for the greed and fraud of his peasant
tenantry with the reflection that he is thereby taught to bear and deal
with his fellow-creatures.
[796] Jovian. Pontan. _De fortitudine_, lib. ii.
[797] The famous peasant-woman of the Valtellina--Bona Lombarda, wife of
the Condottiere Pietro Brunoro--is known to us from Jacobus Bergomensis
and from Porcellius, in Murat. xxv. col. 43.
[798] On the condition of the Italian peasantry in general, and
especially of the details of that condition in several provinces, we are
unable to particularise more fully. The proportions between freehold and
leasehold property, and the burdens laid on each in comparison with
those borne at the present time, must be gathered from special works
which we have not had the opportunity of consulting. In stormy times the
country people were apt to have appalling relapses into savagery (_Arch.
Stor._ xvi. i. pp. 451 sqq., ad. a. 1440; Corio, fol. 259; _Annales
Foroliv._ in Murat. xxii. col. 227, though nothing in the shape of a
general peasants’ war occurred. The rising near Piacenza in 1462 was of
some importance and interest. Comp. Corio, _Storia di Milano_, fol. 409;
_Annales Placent._ in Murat. xx. col. 907; Sismondi, x. p. 138. See
below, part vi. cap. 1.
[799] _F. Bapt. Mantuani Bucolica seu Adolescentia in decem Eclogas
divisa_; often printed, e.g. Strasburg, 1504. The date of composition is
indicated by the preface, written in 1498, from which it also appears
that the ninth and tenth eclogues were added later. In the heading to
the tenth are the words, ‘post religionis ingressum;’ in that of the
seventh, ‘cum jam autor ad religionem aspiraret.’ The eclogues by no
means deal exclusively with peasant life; in fact, only two of them do
so--the sixth, ‘disceptatione rusticorum et civium,’ in which the writer
sides with the rustics; and the eighth, ‘de rusticorum religione.’ The
others speak of love, of the relations between poets and wealthy men, of
conversion to religion, and of the manners of the Roman court.
[800] _Poesie di Lorenzo Magnifico_, i. p. 37 sqq. The remarkable poems
belonging to the period of the German ‘Minnesänger,’ which bear the name
of Neithard von Reuenthal, only depict peasant life in so far as the
knight chooses to mix with it for his amusement. The peasants reply to
the ridicule of Reuenthal in songs of their own. Comp. Karl Schroder,
_Die höfische Dorfpoesie des deutschen Mittelalters_ in Rich. Gosche,
_Jahrb. für Literaturgesch._ 1 vol. Berlin, 1875, pp. 45-98, esp. 75
sqq.
[801] _Poesie di Lor. Magn._ ii. 149.
[802] In the _Deliciae poetar. ital._, and in the works of Politian.
First separate ed. Florence, 1493. The didactic poem of Rucellai, _Le
Api_, first printed 1519, and _La coltivazione_, Paris, 1546, contain
something of the same kind.
[803] _Poesie di Lor. Magnifico_, ii. 75.
[804] The imitation of different dialects and of the manners of
different districts spring from the same tendency. Comp. p. 155.
[805] _Jo. Pici oratio de hominis dignitate._ The passage is as follows:
‘Statuit tandem optimus opifex ut cui dari nihil proprium poterat
commune esset quidquid privatum singulis fuerat. Igitur hominem accepit
indiscretae opus imaginis atque in mundi posito meditullio sic est
allocutus; Nec certam sedem, nec propriam faciem, nec munus ullum
peculiare tibi dedimus, O Adam, ut quam sedem, quam faciem, quae munera
tute optaveris, ea pro voto pro tua sententia habeas et possideas.
Definita caeteris natura inter praescriptas a nobis leges coercetur, tu
nullis augustiis coercitus pro tuo arbitrio, in cujus manus te posui,
tibi illam praefinies. Medium te mundi posui ut circumspiceres inde
commodius quidquid est in mundo. Nec te caelestem neque terrenum, neque
mortalem neque immortalem fecimus, ut tui ipsius quasi arbitrarius
honorariusque plastes et fictor in quam malueris tute formam effingas.
Poteris in inferiora quae sunt bruta degenerare, poteris in superiora
quae sunt divina ex tui animi sententia regenerari. O summam dei patris
liberalitatem, summam et admirandam hominis felicitatem. Cui datum id
habere quod optat, id esse quod velit. Bruta simulatque nascuntur id
secum afferunt, ut ait Lucilius, e bulga matris quod possessura sunt;
supremi spiritus aut ab initio aut paulo mox id fuerunt quod sunt futuri
in perpetuas aeternitates. Nascenti homini omnifaria semina et omnigenae
vitæ germina indidit pater; quæ quisque excoluerit illa adolescent et
fructus suos ferent in illo. Si vegetalia, planta fiet, si sensualia,
obbrutescet, si rationalia, coeleste evadet animal, si intellectualia,
angelus erit et dei filius, et si nulla creaturarum sorte contentus in
unitatis centrum suae se receperit, unus cum deo spiritus factus in
solitaria patris caligine qui est super omnia constitutus omnibus
antestabit.’
The speech first appears in the _commentationes_ of Jo. Picus without
any special title; the heading ‘de hominis dignitate’ was added later.
It is not altogether suitable, since a great part of the discourse is
devoted to the defence of the peculiar philosophy of Pico, and the
praise of, the Jewish Cabbalah. On Pico, see above, p. 202 sqq.; and
below; part. vi. chap. 4. More than two hundred years before, Brunetto
Latini (_Tesoro_, lib. i. cap. 13, ed. Chabaille, p. 20) had said:
‘Toutes choses dou ciel en aval sont faites pour l’ome; mais li hom at
faiz pour lui meisme.’ The words seemed to a contemporary to have too
much human pride in them, and he added: ‘e por Dieu amer et servir et
por avoir la joie pardurable.’
[806] An allusion to the fall of Lucifer and his followers.
[807] The habit among the Piedmontese nobility of living in their
castles in the country struck the other Italians as exceptional.
Bandello, parte ii. nov. 7 (?).
[808] This was the case long before printing. A large number of
manuscripts, and among them the best, belonged to Florentine artisans.
If it had not been for Savonarola’s great bonfire, many more of them
would be left.
[809] Dante, _De monarchia_, l. ii. cap. 3.
[810] _Paradiso_, xvi. at the beginning.
[811] Dante, _Convito_, nearly the whole _Trattato_, iv., and elsewhere.
Brunetto Latini says (_Il tesoro_, lib. i. p. ii. cap. 50, ed.
Chabaille, p. 343): ‘De ce (la vertu) nasqui premierement la nobleté de
gentil gent, non pas de ses ancêtres;’ and he warns men (lib. ii. p. ii.
cap. 196, p. 440) that they may lose true nobility by bad actions.
Similarly Petrarch, _de rem. utr. fort._ lib. i. dial. xvii.: ‘Verus
nobilis non nascitur, sed fit.’
[812] _Poggi Opera, Dial. de nobilitate._ Aristotle’s view is expressly
combatted by B. Platina, _De vera nobilitate_.
[813] This contempt of noble birth is common among the humanists. See
the severe passages in Æn. Sylvius, _Opera_, pp. 84 (_Hist. bohem._ cap.
2) and 640. (_Stories of Lucretia and Euryalus._)
[814] This is the case in the capital itself. See Bandello, parte ii.
nov. 7; _Joviani Pontani Antonius_, where the decline of energy in the
nobility is dated from the coming of the Aragonese dynasty.
[815] Throughout Italy it was universal that the owner of large landed
property stood on an equality with the nobles. It is only flattery when
J. A. Campanus adds to the statement of Pius II. (_Commentarii_, p. 1),
that as a boy he had helped his poor parents in their rustic labours,
the further assertion that he only did so for his amusement, and that
this was the custom of the young nobles (Voigt, ii. 339).
[816] For an estimate of the nobility in North Italy, Bandello, with his
repeated rebukes of _mésalliances_, is of importance (parte i. nov. 4,
26; parte iii. nov. 60). For the participation of the nobles in the
games of the peasants, see above.
[817] The severe judgment of Macchiavelli, _Discorsi_, i. 55, refers
only to those of the nobility who still retained feudal rights, and who
were thoroughly idle and politically mischievous. Agrippa of Nettesheim,
who owes his most remarkable ideas chiefly to his life in Italy, has a
chapter on the nobility and princes (_De Incert. et Vanit. Scient._ cap,
80), the bitterness of which exceeds anything to be met with elsewhere,
and is due to the social ferment then prevailing in the North. A passage
at p. 213 is as follows: ‘Si ... nobilitatis primordia requiramus,
comperiemus hanc nefaria perfidia et crudelitate partam, si ingressum
spectemus, reperiemus hanc mercenaria militia et latrociniis auctam.
Nobilitas revera nihil aliud est quam robusta improbitas atque dignitas
non nisi scelere quaesita benedictio et hereditas pessimorom
quorumcunque filiorum.’ In giving the history of the nobility he makes a
passing reference to Italy (p. 227).
[818] Massuccio, nov. 19 (ed. Settembrini, Nap. 1874, p. 220). The first
ed. of the novels appeared in 1476.
[819] Jacopo Pitti to Cosimo I., _Archiv. Stor._ iv. ii. p. 99. In North
Italy the Spanish rule brought about the same results. Bandello, parte
ii. nov. 40, dates from this period.
[820] When, in the fifteenth century, Vespasiano Fiorentino (pp. 518,
632) implies that the rich should not try to increase their inherited
fortune, but should spend their whole annual income, this can only, in
the mouth of a Florentine, refer to the great landowners.
[821] Franco Sacchetti, nov. 153. Comp. nov. 82 and 150.
[822] ‘Che la cavalleria è morta.’
[823] Poggius, _De Nobilitate_, fol. 27. See above, p. 19. Ænea Silvio
(_Hist. Fried. III._ ed. Kollar, p. 294) finds fault with the readiness
with which Frederick conferred knighthood in Italy.
[824] Vasari, iii. 49, and note. _Vita di Dello._ The city of Florence
claimed the right of conferring knighthood. On the ceremonies of this
kind in 1378 and 1389, see Reumont, _Lorenzo_, ii. 444 sqq.
[825] Senarega, _De Reb. Gen._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 525. At a wedding of
Joh. Adurnus with Leonora di Sanseverino, ‘certamina equestria in
Sarzano edita sunt ... proposita et data victoribus praemia. Ludi
multiformes in palatio celebrati a quibus tanquam a re nova pendebat
plebs et integros dies illis spectantibus impendebat.’ Politian writes
to Joh. Picus of the cavalry exercise of his pupils (_Aug. Pol. Epist._
lib. xii. ep. 6): ‘Tu tamen a me solos fieri poetas aut oratores putas,
at ego non minus facio bellatores.’ Ortensio Landi in the _Commentario_,
fol. 180, tells of a duel between two soldiers at Correggio with a fatal
result, reminding one of the old gladiatorial combats. The writer, whose
imagination is generally active, gives us here the impression of
truthfulness. The passages quoted show that knighthood was not
absolutely necessary for these public contests.
[826] Petrarch, _Epist. Senil._ xi. 13, to Ugo of Este. Another passage
in the _Epist. Famil._ lib. v. ep. 6, Dec. 1st, 1343, describes the
disgust he felt at seeing a knight fall at a tournament in Naples. For
legal prescriptions as to the tournament at Naples, see Fracassetti’s
Italian translation of Petrarch’s letters, Florence, 1864, ii. p. 34. L.
B. Alberti also points out the danger, uselessness, and expense of
tournaments. _Della Famiglia, Op. Volg._ ii. 229.
[827] Nov. 64. With reference to this practice, it is said expressly in
the _Orlandino_ (ii. str. 7), of a tournament under Charlemagne: ‘Here
they were no cooks and scullions, but kings, dukes, and marquises, who
fought.’
[828] This is one of the oldest parodies of the tournament. Sixty years
passed before Jacques Cœur, the burgher-minister of finance under
Charles VII., gave a tournament of donkeys in the courtyard of his
palace at Bourges (about 1450). The most brilliant of all these
parodies--the second canto of the _Orlandino_ just quoted--was not
published till 1526.
[829] Comp. the poetry, already quoted, of Politian and Luca Pulci (p.
349, note 3). Further, Paul. Jov., _Vita Leonis X._ l. i.; Macchiavelli,
_Storie Fiorent._, l. vii.; Paul. Jov. _Elog._, speaking of Pietro de’
Medici, who neglected his public duties for these amusements, and of
Franc. Borbonius, who lost his life in them; Vasari, ix. 219, _Vita di
Granacci_. In the _Morgante_ of Pulci, written under the eyes of
Lorenzo, the knights are comical in their language and actions, but
their blows are sturdy and scientific. Bojardo, too, writes for those
who understand the tournament and the art of war. Comp. p. 323. In
earlier Florentine history we read of a tournament in honour of the king
of France, c. 1380, in Leon. Aret., _Hist. Flor._ lib. xi. ed. Argent,
p. 222. The tournaments at Ferrara in 1464 are mentioned in the _Diario
Ferrar._ in Murat. xxiv. col. 208; at Venice, see Sansovino, _Venezia_,
fol. 153 sqq.; at Bologna in 1470 and after, see Bursellis, _Annal.
Bonon._ Muratori xxiii. col. 898, 903, 906, 908, 911, where it is
curious to note the odd mixture of sentimentalism attaching to the
celebration of Roman triumphs; ‘ut antiquitas Romana renovata
videretur,’ we read in one place. Frederick of Urbino (p. 44 sqq.) lost
his right eye at a tournament ‘ab ictu lanceae.’ On the tournament as
held at that time in northern countries, see Olivier de la Marche,
_Mémoires_, _passim_, and especially cap. 8, 9, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, &c.
[830] Bald. Castiglione. _Il Cortigiano_, l. i. fol. 18.
[831] Paul. Jovii, _Elogia_, sub tit. Petrus Gravina, Alex. Achillinus,
Balth. Castellio, &c. pp. 138 sqq. 112 sqq. 143 sqq.
[832] Casa, _Il Galateo_, p. 78.
[833] See on this point the Venetian books of fashions, and Sansovino,
_Venezia_, fol. 150 sqq. The bridal dress at the betrothal--white, with
the hair falling freely on the shoulders--is that of Titian’s Flora. The
‘Proveditori alle pompe’ at Venice established 1514. Extracts from their
decisions in Armand Baschet, _Souvenirs d’une Mission_, Paris, 1857.
Prohibition of gold-embroidered garments in Venice, 1481, which had
formerly been worn even by the bakers’ wives; they were now to be
decorated ‘gemmis unionibus,’ so that ‘frugalissimus ornatus’ cost 4,000
gold florins. M. Ant. Sabellici, _Epist._ lib. iii. (to M. Anto.
Barbavarus).
[834] Jovian. Pontan. _De Principe_: ‘Utinam autem non eo impudentiae
perventum esset, ut inter mercatorem et patricium nullum sit in vestitu
ceteroque ornatu discrimen. Sed haec tanta licentia reprehendi potest,
coerceri non potest, quanquam mutari vestes sic quotidie videamus, ut
quas quarto ante mense in deliciis habebamus, nunc repudiemus et tanquam
veteramenta abjiciamus. Quodque tolerari vix potest, nullum fere
vestimenti genus probatur, quod e Galliis non fuerit adductum, in quibus
levia pleraque in pretio sunt, tametsi nostri persaepe homines modum
illis et quasi formulam quandam praescribant.’
[835] See e.g. the _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat. xxiv. col. 297, 320,
376, sqq., in which the last German fashions are spoken of; the
chronicler says, ‘Che pareno buffoni tali portatori.’
[836] This interesting passage from a very rare work may be here quoted.
See above, p. 83 note 1. The historical event referred to is the
conquest of Milan by Antonio Leiva, the general of Charles V., in 1522.
‘Olim splendidissime vestiebant Mediolanenses. Sed postquam Carolus
Cæsar in eam urbem tetram et monstruosam Bestiam immisit, it a consumpti
et exhausti sunt, ut vestimentorum splendorem omnium maxime oderint, et
quemadmodum ante illa durissima Antoniana tempora nihil aliud fere
cogitabant quam de mutandis vestibus, nunc alia cogitant ac in mente
versant. Non potuit tamen illa Leviana rabies tantum perdere, neque illa
in exhausta depraedandi libidine tantum expilare, quin a re familiari
adhuc belle parati fiant atque ita vestiant quemadmodum decere
existimant. Et certe nisi illa Antonii Levae studia egregios quosdam
imitatores invenisset, meo quidem judicio, nulli cederent. Neapolitani
nimium exercent in vestitu sumptus. Genuensium vestitum perelegantem
judico neque sagati sunt neque togati. Ferme oblitus eram Venetorum. Ii
togati omnes. Decet quidem ille habitus adulta aetate homines, juvenes
vero (si quid ego judico) minime utuntur panno quem ipsi vulgo Venetum
appellant, ita probe confecto ut perpetuo durare existimes, saepissime
vero eas vestes gestant nepotes, quas olim tritavi gestarunt. Noctu
autem dum scortantur ac potant, Hispanicis palliolis utuntur.
Ferrarienses ac Mantuani nihil tam diligenter curant, quam ut pileos
habeant aureis quibusdam frustillis adornatos, atque nutanti capite
incedunt seque quovis honore dignos existimant, Lucenses neque superbo,
neque abjecto vestitu. Florentinorum habitus mihi quidem ridiculus
videtur. Reliquos omitto, ne nimius sim.’ Ugolinus Verinus, ‘de
illustratione urbis Florentiae’ says of the simplicity of the good old
time:
‘Non externis advecta Britannis
Lana erat in pretio, non concha aut coccus in usu.’
[837] Comp. the passages on the same subject in Falke, _Die deutsche
Trachten- und Modenwelt_, Leipzig, 1858.
[838] On the Florentine women, see the chief references in Giov.
Villani, x. 10 and 150 (Regulations as to dress and their repeal);
Matteo Villani, i. 4 (Extravagant living in consequence of the plague).
In the celebrated edict on fashions of the year 1330, embroidered
figures only were allowed on the dresses of women, to the exclusion of
those which were painted (dipinto). What was the nature of these
decorations appears doubtful. There is a list of the arts of the
toilette practised by women in Boccaccio, _De Cas. Vir. Ill._ lib. i.
cap. 18, ‘in mulieres.’
[839] Those of real hair were called ‘capelli morti.’ Wigs were also
worn by men, as by Giannozzo Manetti, _Vesp. Bist. Commentario_, p. 103;
so at least we explain this somewhat obscure passage. For an instance of
false teeth made of ivory, and worn, though only for the sake of clear
articulation, by an Italian prelate, see Anshelm, _Berner Chronik_, iv.
p. 30 (1508). Ivory teeth in Boccaccio, l. c.: ‘Dentes casu sublatos
reformare ebore fuscatos pigmentis gemmisque in albedinem revocare
pristinam.’
[840] Infessura, in Eccard, _Scriptores_, ii. col. 1874: Allegretto, in
Murat. xxiii. col. 823. For the writers on Savonarola, see below.
[841] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 152: ‘Capelli biondissimi per forza di
sole.’ Comp. p. 89, and the rare works quoted by Yriarte, ‘_Vie d’un
Patricien de Venise_’ (1874), p. 56.
[842] As was the case in Germany too. _Poesie satiriche_, p. 119. From
the satire of Bern. Giambullari, ‘Per prendere moglie’ (pp. 107-126), we
can form a conception of the chemistry of the toilette, which was
founded largely on superstition and magic.
[843] The poets spared no pains to show the ugliness, danger, and
absurdity of these practices. Comp. Ariosto, _Sat._ iii. 202 sqq.;
Aretino, _Il Marescalco_, atto ii. scena 5; and several passages in the
_Ragionamenti_; Giambullari, l. c. Phil. Beroald. sen. _Garmina_. Also
Filelfo in his Satires (Venice, 1502, iv. 2-5 sqq.).
[844] Cennino Cennini, _Trattato della Pittura_, gives in cap. 161 a
recipe for painting the face, evidently for the purpose of mysteries or
masquerades, since, in cap. 162, he solemnly warns his readers against
the general use of cosmetics and the like, which was peculiarly common,
as he tells us (p. 146 sqq.), in Tuscany.
[845] Comp. _La Nencia di Barberino_, str. 20 and 40. The lover promises
to bring his beloved cosmetics from the town (see on this poem of
Lorenzo dei Medici, above, p. 101).
[846] Agnolo Pandolfini, _Trattato della Governo della Famiglia_, p.
118. He condemns this practice most energetically.
[847] Tristan. Caracciolo, in Murat. xxii. col. 87. Bandello, parte ii.
nov. 47.
[848] Cap. i. to Cosimo: “Quei cento scudi nuovi e profumati che l’altro
di mi mandaste a donare.” Some objects which date from that period have
not yet lost their odour.
[849] Vespasiano Fiorent. p. 453, in the life of Donato Acciajuoli, and
p. 625, in the life of Niccoli. See above, vol. i. p. 303 sqq.
[850] Giraldi, _Hecatommithi_, Introduz. nov. 6. A few notices on the
Germans in Italy may not here be out of place. On the fear of German
invasion, see p. 91, note 2; on Germans as copyists and printers, p. 193
sqq. and the notes; on the ridicule of Hadrian VI. as a German, p. 227
and notes. The Italians were in general ill-disposed to the Germans, and
showed their ill-will by ridicule. Boccaccio (_Decam._ viii. 1) says:
‘Un Tedesco in soldo prò della persona è assai leale a coloro ne’ cui
servigi si mattea; il che rade volte suole de’ Tedeschi avenire.’ The
tale is given as an instance of German cunning. The Italian humanists
are full of attacks on the German barbarians, and especially those who,
like Poggio, had seen Germany. Comp. Voigt, _Wiederbelebung_, 374 sqq.;
Geiger, _Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und Italien Zeit des
Humanismus_ in _Zeitschrift für deutsche Culturgeschichte_, 1875, pp.
104-124; see also Janssen, _Gesch. der deutschen Volkes_, i. 262. One of
the chief opponents of the Germans was Joh. Ant. Campanus. See his
works, ed. Mencken, who delivered a discourse ‘De Campani odio in
Germanos.’ The hatred of the Germans was strengthened by the conduct of
Hadrian VI., and still more by the conduct of the troops at the sack of
Rome (Gregorovius, viii. 548, note). Bandello III. nov. 30, chooses the
German as the type of the dirty and foolish man (see iii. 51, for
another German). When an Italian wishes to praise a German he says, as
Petrus Alcyonius in the dedication to his dialogue _De Exilio_, to
Nicolaus Schomberg, p. 9: ‘Itaque etsi in Misnensi clarissima Germaniæ
provincia illustribus natalibus ortus es, tamen in Italiae luce
cognosceris.’ Unqualified praise is rare, e.g. of German women at the
time of Marius, _Cortigiano_, iii. cap. 33.
It must be added that the Italians of the Renaissance, like the Greeks
of antiquity, were filled with aversion for all barbarians. Boccaccio,
_De claris Mulieribus_, in the article ‘Carmenta,’ speaks of ‘German
barbarism, French savagery, English craft, and Spanish coarseness.’
[851] Paul. Jov. _Elogia_, p. 289, who, however, makes no mention of the
German education. Maximilian could not be induced, even by celebrated
women, to change his underclothing.
[852] Æneas Sylvius (_Vitae Paparum_, ap. Murat. iii. ii. col. 880)
says, in speaking of Baccano: ‘Pauca sunt mapalia, eaque hospitia
faciunt Theutonici; hoc hominum genus totam fere Italiam hospitalem
facit; ubi non repereris hos, neque diversorium quaeras.’
[853] Franco Sacchetti, Nov. 21. Padua, about the year 1450, boasted of
a great inn--the ‘Ox’--like a palace, containing stabling for two
hundred horses. Michele Savonarola, in Mur. xxiv. col. 1175. At
Florence, outside the Porta San Gallo, there was one of the largest and
most splendid inns then known, but which served, it seems, only as a
place of amusement for the people of the city. Varchi, _Stor. Fior._
iii. p. 86. At the time of Alexander VI. the best inn at Rome was kept
by a German. See the remarkable notices taken from the MS. of Burcardus
in Gregorovius, vii. 361, note 2. Comp. _ibid._ p. 93, notes 2 and 3.
[854] Comp. e.g. the passages in Sebastian Brant’s _Narrenschiff_, in
the Colloquies of Erasmus, in the Latin poem of Grobianus, &c., and
poems on behaviour at table, where, besides descriptions of bad habits,
rules are given for good behaviour. For one of these, see C. Weller,
_Deutsche Gedichte der Jahrhunderts_, Tübingen, 1875.
[855] The diminution of the ‘burla’ is evident from the instances in the
_Cortigiano_, l. ii. fol. 96. The Florence practical jokes kept their
ground tenaciously. See, for evidence, the tales of Lasca (Ant. Franc.
Grazini, b. 1503, d. 1582), which appeared at Florence in 1750.
[856] For Milan, see Bandello, parte i. nov. 9. There were more than
sixty carriages with four, and numberless others with two, horses, many
of them carved and richly gilt and with silken tops. Comp. _ibid._ nov.
4. Ariosto, _Sat._ iii. 127.
[857] Bandello, parte i. nov. 3, iii. 42, iv. 25.
[858] _De Vulgari Eloquio_, ed. Corbinelli, Parisiis, 1577. According to
Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, p. 77, it was written shortly before his
death. He mentions in the _Convito_ the rapid and striking changes which
took place during his lifetime in the Italian language.
[859] See on this subject the investigations of Lionardo Aretino
(_Epist._ ed. Mehus. ii. 62 sqq. lib. vi. 10) and Poggio (_Historiae
disceptativae convivales tres_, in the _Opp._ fol. 14 sqq.), whether in
earlier times the language of the people and of scholars was the same.
Lionardo maintains the negative; Poggio expressly maintains the
affirmative against his predecessor. See also the detailed argument of
L. B. Alberti in the introduction to _Della Famiglia_, book iii., on the
necessity of Italian for social intercourse.
[860] The gradual progress which this dialect made in literature and
social intercourse could be tabulated without difficulty by a native
scholar. It could be shown to what extent in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries the various dialects kept their places, wholly or
partly, in correspondence, in official documents, in historical works,
and in literature generally. The relations between the dialects and a
more or less impure Latin, which served as the official language, would
also be discussed. The modes of speech and pronunciation in the
different cities of Italy are noticed in Landi, _Forcianae Quaestiones_,
fol. 7 _a._ Of the former he says: ‘Hetrusci vero quanquam caeteris
excellant, effugere tamen non possunt, quin et ipsi ridiculi sint, aut
saltem quin se mutuo lacerent;’ as regards pronunciation, the Sienese,
Lucchese, and Florentines are specially praised; but of the Florentines
it is said: ‘Plus (jucunditatis) haberet si voces non ingurgitaret aut
non ita palato lingua jungeretur.’
[861] It is so felt to be by Dante, _De Vulgari Eloquio_.
[862] Tuscan, it is true, was read and written long before this in
Piedmont--but very little reading and writing was done at all.
[863] The place, too, of the dialect in the usage of daily life was
clearly understood. Gioviano Pontano ventured especially to warn the
prince of Naples against the use of it (Jov. Pontan. _De Principe_). The
last Bourbons were notoriously less scrupulous in this respect. For the
way in which a Milanese Cardinal, who wished to retain his native
dialect in Rome was ridiculed, see Bandello, parte ii. nov. 31.
[864] Bald. Castiglione, _Il Cortigiano_, l. i. fol. 27 sqq. Throughout
the dialogue we are able to gather the personal opinion of the writer.
The opposition to Petrarch and Boccaccio is very curious (Dante is not
once mentioned). We read that Politian, Lorenzo de’ Medici, and others
were also Tuscans, and as worthy of imitation as they, ‘e forse di non
minor dottrina e guidizio.’
[865] There was a limit, however, to this. The satirists introduce bits
of Spanish, and Folengo (under the pseudonym Limerno Pitocco, in his
_Orlandino_) of French, but only by way of ridicule. It is an
exceptional fact that a street in Milan, which at the time of the French
(1500 to 1512, 1515 to 1522) was called Rue Belle, now bears the name
Rugabella. The long Spanish rule has left almost no traces on the
language, and but rarely the name of some governor in streets and public
buildings. It was not till the eighteenth century that, together with
French modes of thought, many French words and phrases found their way
into Italian. The purism of our century is still busy in removing them.
[866] Firenzuola, _Opera_, i. in the preface to the discourse on female
beauty, and ii. in the _Ragionamenti_ which precede the novels.
[867] Bandello, parte i. _Proemio_, and nov. 1 and 2. Another Lombard,
the before-mentioned Teofilo Folengo in his _Orlandino_, treats the
whole matter with ridicule.
[868] Such a congress appears to have been held at Bologna at the end of
1531 under the presidency of Bembo. See the letter of Claud. Tolomai, in
Firenzuola, _Opere_, vol. ii. append. p. 231 sqq. But this was not so
much a matter of purism, but rather the old quarrel between Lombards and
Tuscans.
[869] Luigi Cornaro complains about 1550 (at the beginning of his
_Trattato della Vita Sobria_) that latterly Spanish ceremonies and
compliments, Lutheranism and gluttony had been gaining ground in Italy.
With moderation in respect to the entertainment offered to guests, the
freedom and ease of social intercourse disappeared.
[870] Vasari, xii. p. 9 and 11, _Vita di Rustici_. For the School for
Scandal of needy artists, see xi. 216 sqq., _Vita d’Aristotile_.
Macchiavelli’s _Capitoli_ for a circle of pleasure-seekers (_Opere
minori_, p. 407) are a ludicrous caricature of these social statutes.
The well-known description of the evening meeting of artists in Rome in
Benvenuto Cellini, i. cap. 30 is incomparable.
[871] Which must have been taken about 10 or 11 o’clock. See Bandello,
parte ii. nov. 10.
[872] Prato, _Arch. Stor._ iii. p. 309, calls the ladies ‘alquante
ministre di Venere.’
[873] Biographical information and some of her letters in A. v.
Reumont’s _Briefe heiliger und gottesfürchtiger Italiener_. Freiburg
(1877) p. 22 sqq.
[874] Important passages: parte i. nov. 1, 3, 21, 30, 44; ii. 10, 34,
55; iii. 17, &c.
[875] Comp. _Lorenzo Magn. dei Med., Poesie_, i. 204 (the Symposium);
291 (the Hawking-Party). Roscoe, _Vita di Lorenzo_, iii. p. 140, and
append. 17 to 19.
[876] The title ‘Simposio’ is inaccurate; it should be called, ‘The
return from the Vintage.’ Lorenzo, in a parody of Dante’s Hell, gives an
amusing account of his meeting in the Via Faenza all his good friends
coming back from the country more or less tipsy. There is a most comical
picture in the eighth chapter of Piovanno Arlotto, who sets out in
search of his lost thirst, armed with dry meat, a herring, a piece of
cheese, a sausage, and four sardines, ‘e tutte si cocevan nel sudore.’
[877] On Cosimo Ruccellai as centre of this circle at the beginning of
the sixteenth century, see Macchiavelli, _Arte della Guerra_, l. i.
[878] _Il Cortigiano_, l. ii. fol. 53. See above pp. 121, 139.
[879] Caelius Calcagninus (_Opere_, p. 514) describes the education of a
young Italian of position about the year 1506, in the funeral speech on
Antonio Costabili: first, ‘artes liberales et ingenuae disciplinae; tum
adolescentia in iis exercitationibus acta, quæ ad rem militarem corpus
et animum praemuniunt. Nunc gymnastae (i.e. the teachers of gymnastics)
operam dare, luctari, excurrere, natare, equitare, venari, aucupari, ad
palum et apud lanistam ictus inferre aut declinare, caesim punctimve
hostem ferire, hastam vibrare, sub armis hyemen juxta et aestatem
traducere, lanceis occursare, veri ac communis Martis simulacra
imitari.’ Cardanus (_De prop. Vita_, c. 7) names among his gymnastic
exercises the springing on to a wooden horse. Comp. Rabelais,
_Gargantua_, i. 23, 24, for education in general, and 35 for gymnastic
art. Even for the philologists, Marsilius Ficinus (_Epist._ iv. 171
Galeotto) requires gymnastics, and Maffeo Vegio (_De Puerorum
Educatione_, lib. iii. c. 5) for boys.
[880] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 172 sqq. They are said to have arisen
through the rowing out to the Lido, where the practice with the crossbow
took place. The great regatta on the feast of St. Paul was prescribed by
law from 1315 onwards. In early times there was much riding in Venice,
before the streets were paved and the level wooden bridges turned into
arched stone ones. Petrarch (_Epist. Seniles_, iv. 4) describes a
brilliant tournament held in 1364 on the square of St. Mark, and the
Doge Steno, about the year 1400, had as fine a stable as any prince in
Italy. But riding in the neighbourhood of the square was prohibited as a
rule after the year 1291. At a later time the Venetians naturally had
the name of bad riders. See Ariosto, _Sat._ v. 208.
[881] See on this subject: _Ueber den Einfluss der Renaissance auf die
Entwickelung der Musik_, by Bernhard Loos, Basel, 1875, which, however,
hardly offers for this period more than is given here. On Dante’s
position with regard to music, and on the music to Petrarch’s and
Boccaccio’s poems, see Trucchi, _Poesie Ital. inedite_, ii. p. 139. See
also _Poesie Musicali dei Secoli XIV., XV. e XVI. tratte da vari codici
per cura di Antonio Cappelli_, Bologna, 1868. For the theorists of the
fourteenth century, Filippo Villani, _Vite_, p. 46, and Scardeonius, _De
urb. Pativ. antiq._ in Graev. Thesaur, vi. iii. col. 297. A full account
of the music at the court of Frederick of Urbino, is to be found in
_Vespes. Fior._ p. 122. For the children’s chapel (ten children 6 to 8
years old whom F. had educated in his house, and who were taught
singing), at the court of Hercules I., see _Diario Ferrarese_, in Murat.
xxiv. col. 359. Out of Italy it was still hardly allowable for persons
of consequence to be musicians; at the Flemish court of the young
Charles V. a serious dispute took place on the subject. See Hubert.
Leod. _De Vita Frid. II. Palat._ l. iii. Henry VIII. of England is an
exception, and also the German Emperor Maximilian, who favoured music as
well as all other arts. Joh. Cuspinian, in his life of the Emperor,
calls him ‘Musices singularis amator’ and adds, ‘Quod vel hinc maxime
patet, quod nostra aetate musicorum principes omnes, in omni genere
musices omnibusque instrumentis in ejus curia, veluti in fertilissimo
agro succreverant. Scriberem catalogum musicorum quos novi, nisi
magnitudinem operis vererer.’ In consequence of this, music was much
cultivated at the University of Vienna. The presence of the musical
young Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan contributed to this result. See
Aschbach, _Gesch. der Wiener Universität_ (1877), vol. ii. 79 sqq.
A remarkable and comprehensive passage on music is to be found, where we
should not expect it, in the Maccaroneide, Phant. xx. It is a comic
description of a quartette, from which we see that Spanish and French
songs were often sung, that music already had its enemies (1520), and
that the chapel of Leo X. and the still earlier composer, Josquin des
Près, whose principal works are mentioned, were the chief subjects of
enthusiasm in the musical world of that time. The same writer (Folengo)
displays in his _Orlandino_ (iii. 23 &c.), published under the name
Limerno Pitocco, a musical fanaticism of a thoroughly modern sort.
Barth. Facius, _De Vir. Ill._ p. 12, praises Leonardus Justinianus as a
composer, who produced love-songs in his youth, and religious pieces in
his old age. J. A. Campanus (_Epist._ i. 4, ed. Mencken) extols the
musician Zacarus at Teramo and says of him, ‘Inventa pro oraculis
habentur.’ Thomas of Forli ‘musicien du pape’ in _Burchardi Diarium_,
ed. Leibnitz, pp. 62 sqq.
[882] _Leonis Vita anonyma_, in Roscoe, ed. Bossi, xii. p. 171. May he
not be the violinist in the Palazzo Sciarra? A certain Giovan Maria da
Corneto is praised in the _Orlandino_ (Milan, 1584, iii. 27).
[883] Lomazzo, _Trattato dell’Arte della Pittura_, &c. p. 347. The text,
however, does not bear out the last statement, which perhaps rests on a
misunderstanding of the final sentence, ‘Et insieme vi si possono
gratiosamente rappresentar convitti et simili abbellimenti, che il
pittore leggendo i poeti e gli historici può trovare copiosamente et
anco essendo ingenioso et ricco d’invenzione può per se stesso
imaginare?’ Speaking of the lyre, he mentions Lionardo da Vinci and
Alfonso (Duke?) of Ferrara. The author includes in his work all the
celebrities of the age, among them several Jews. The most complete list
of the famous musicians of the sixteenth century, divided into an
earlier and a later generation, is to be found in Rabelais, in the ‘New
Prologue’ to the fourth book. A virtuoso, the blind Francesco of
Florence (d. 1390), was crowned at Venice with a wreath of laurel by the
King of Cyprus.
[884] Sansovino, _Venezia_, fol. 138. The same people naturally
collected books of music. Sansovino’s words are, ‘è vera cosa che la
musica ha la sua propria sede in questa città.’
[885] The ‘Academia de’ Filarmonici’ at Verona is mentioned by Vasari,
xi. 133, in the life of Sanmichele. Lorenzo Magnifico was in 1480
already the centre of a School of Harmony consisting of fifteen members,
among them the famous organist and organ-builder Squarcialupi. See
Delecluze, _Florence et ses Vicissitudes_, vol. ii. p. 256, and Reumont,
_L. d. M._ i. 177 sqq., ii. 471-473. Marsilio Ficino took part in these
exercises and gives in his letters (_Epist._ i. 73, iii. 52, v. 15)
remarkable rules as to music. Lorenzo seems to have transmitted his
passion for music to his son Leo X. His eldest son Pietro was also
musical.
[886] _Il Cortigiano_, fol. 56, comp. fol. 41.
[887] Quatro viole da arco’--a high and, except in Italy, rare
achievement for amateurs.
[888] Bandello, parte i. nov. 26. The song of Antonio Bologna in the
House of Ippolita Bentivoglio. Comp. iii. 26. In these delicate days,
this would be called a profanation of the holiest feelings. (Comp. the
last song of Britannicus, Tacit. _Annal._ xiii. 15.) Recitations
accompanied by the lute or ‘viola’ are not easy to distinguish, in the
accounts left us, from singing properly so-called.
[889] Scardeonius, l. c.
[890] For biographies of women, see above, p. 147 and note 1. Comp. the
excellent work of Attilio Hortis: _Le Donne Famose, descritte da
Giovanni Boccacci_. Trieste, 1877.
[891] E.g. in Castiglione, _Il Cortigiano_. In the same strain Francesco
Barbaro, _De Re Uxoria_; Poggio, _An Seni sit Uxor ducenda_, in which
much evil is said of women; the ridicule of Codro Urceo, especially his
remarkable discourse, _An Uxor sit ducenda_ (_Opera_, 1506, fol.
xviii.-xxi.), and the sarcasms of many of the epigrammatists. Marcellus
Palingenius, (vol. i. 304) recommends celibacy in various passages, lib.
iv. 275 sqq., v. 466-585; as a means of subduing disobedient wives he
recommends to married people,
‘Tu verbera misce
Tergaque nunc duro resonent pulsata bacillo.’
Italian writers on the woman’s side are Benedetto da Cesena, _De Honore
Mulierum_, Venice, 1500, Dardano, _La defesa della Donna_, Ven. 1554,
_Per Donne Romane_. ed. Manfredi, Bol. 1575. The defence of, or attack
on, women, supported by instances of famous or infamous women down to
the time of the writer, was also treated by the Jews, partly in Italian
and partly in Hebrew; and in connection with an earlier Jewish
literature dating from the thirteenth century, we may mention Abr.
Sarteano and Eliah Gennazzano, the latter of whom defended the former
against the attacks of Abigdor (for their MS. poems about year 1500,
comp. Steinschneider, _Hebr. Bibliogr._ vi. 48).
[892] Addressed to Annibale Maleguccio, sometimes numbered as the 5th or
the 6th.