The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy

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.

574

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.

575

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.

576

Here, too, Petrarch cleared the way. See especially his critical investigation of the Austrian Charter, claiming to descend from Cæsar. Epp. Sen. xvi. 1.

577

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.

578

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.

579

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.

580

For the study of Aristotle in general, a speech of Hermolaus Barbarus is specially instructive.

581

Bursellis, Ann. Bonon. in Murat. xxiii. col. 898.

582

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.

583

‘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.

584

Or after those of Bojardo, which are in part the same as his.

585

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.

586

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.

587

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.

588

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.’

589

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.

590

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.’

591

A burlesque picture of the fanatical purism prevalent in Rome is given by Jovian. Pontanus in his Antonius.

592

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.’

593

Paul. Jov. Elogia doct. vir. p. 187 sqq., speaking of Bapt. Pius.

594

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.

595

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.

596

In the ‘Breve’ of 1517 to Franc. de’ Rosi, composed by Sadoleto, in Roscoe, Leone X. ed. Bossi, vi. p. 172.

597