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Boccaccio in the Quattrocento: Manetti's Dialogus in symposio

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

David Marsh
David Marsh*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

Acentral issue of Quattrocento cultural history is the reevaluation of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio by Florentine humanists. Yet whereas humanists could finally endorse the accomplishments of Dante and Petrarch, the third of the "three crowns," Boccaccio, seems to have presented a stumbling block to those concerned with affirming the continuity of humanistic studies with Trecento culture. Boccaccio's volgare works suffer from a comparison with Dante's linguistic and poetic achievement, while the Latin compendia of Boccaccio reveal none of the historical erudition of his mentor Petrarch.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1980 , pp. 337 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1980

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References

1 Baron, Hans, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance , 2 vols. (Princeton, 1955)Google Scholar; Thompson, David and Nagel, Alan F., ed., The Three Crowns of Florence: Humanist Assessments of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio (New York, 1972).Google Scholar

2 Bruni's lives of Dante and Petrarch are printed in Leonardo Bruni, Humanistischphilosophische Schrifien , ed. Baron, Hans (Berlin, 1928)Google Scholar; Manetti's lives in Specimen historiae litterariae florentinae, ed. L. Mehus (Florence, 1747).

3 MS, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Magi. VIII, 1311, fol. 1: “Cum saepius mecum egisses ut fabulam illam Boccaccii de Tancredo principe Salernitano eiusque filia Sigismunda vulgari sermone scriptam in Latinum converterem, recepe tandem me id esse facturum ea maxime suasione inductus quod Franciscum Petrarcam virum clarissimum aliam eiusdem libri fabulam, Marchionnis videlicet Montisferrati, in Latinum vertisse cognoveram…. aliam de meo adiunxi fabulam Seleuci et Anthiochi filii contrario penitus exitu eventuque conclusam; earn vulgari sermone scripsi ut unam de vulgo sumerem aliamque pro ea redderem non minus amenam.“

4 On the Tancredi-Ghismonda tale and its fortune, see Alberto Bacchi Delia Lega, Serie delle edizione delle opere di Giovanni Boccaccio latine, volgari, tradotte e trasformate (1875; rpt. Bologna, 1967), pp. 86-91; G. Almansi, “Lettura della novella di Tancredi and Ghismonda,” Il Verri, 27 (1968), 20-35.

5 In Bruni's translation, Ghismonda's defense of Guiscardo has a Senecan flavor, Naz. Magi. VIII, 1311, fol. 5: “Quod vero a te mihi de ignobilitate illius objicitur … in eo falsam oppinionem vulgi secutus es. Nee vides te non Guiscardum sed fortunam accusare, quae frequenter indignos ad alta levat, dignosque humi deprimit atque pessundat. Verum ut omittamus hoc et principia rerum contemplemur, certum est nos omnes ab uno homine originem habuisse. Virtus sola nos equaliter natos distinguit, et quorum opera excellunt eos nobiles et claros reddat et quamvis vulgi oppinio ignara quidem atque indocta aliter sentiat, Veritas tamen suo demoveri loco haudquaquam potest. Itaque is est vere nobilis extimandus cuius preclare opera conspiciunter.“

6 Naz. Magi. IX, 2, fol. 2: “Non si potrebbe dire con lingua quanto gli acerbi casi di quella novella commossoro gli animi di ciaschuno, maxime nelle parole afFectuose et lacrimabili dette sopra il core di Guiscardo, allei per lo duro et infelice padre presentato, et poi per la morte di lei et per lo soccorso del padre già pentuto et afflitto di quello avea fatto. E furonvi donne et giovani assai che non poteron celare lo ‘mbambolar degli occhi et le cadenti lagrime per pietà et comiseratione di sì acerbo et doloroso caso.” All quotations from Bruni's volgare tale are to this manuscript.

7 Naz. Magi. IX, 2, fol. 3: “sentito nella novella letta il crudele et duro core di Tancredi principe di Salerno … me occorre per l'opposito una novella overo historia d'un signor greco molto più humano et savio che non fu Tancredi …“

8 Valerius Maximus, V, 7, ext. 1; Plutarch, Demetrius, 38; Appian, Syriaca, 59-61. That the last is Bruni's principal source was noted by L. Di Francia, Storia dei generi letterari italiani: Novellistka, 2 vols. (Milan, 1924-1925), I, 324.

9 Naz. Magi. IX, 2, fol. 3: “vedendo conturbati gli animi di ciaschuno, per ridurgli a letitia et a festa racontò un'altra novella quasi per l'opposito di quella di prima.” This comic relief follows the model of Boccaccio's Decameron, in which the Tancredi tale is succeeded by the lighter adventures of Fra Alberto (IV, 2).

10 Valerius Maximus, V, 8: “Comicae lentitatis hi patres, tragicae asperitatis illi.“

11 In Naz. Magi. IX, 54, Bruni's lives of Dante and Petrarch are followed by the Seleucus novella; in Naz. Magi. VIII, 1445, Bruni's Latin version of Boccaccio precedes Petrarch's translation of the Griselda tale.

12 For Manetti's attitude towards Bruni, see his oratio funebris in Bruni, L., Epistolae , ed. Mehus, L. (Florence, 1741)Google Scholar; Trinkaus, Charles, “The Beginnings of Hebraic Studies: Bruni versus Manetti,” in his In Our Image and Likeness: Humanity and Divinity in Italian Humanist Thought (Chicago, 1970), pp. 578–601 Google Scholar; De Petris, A., “Le teorie umanistiche del tradurre e l'Apologeticus di Giannozzo Manetti,” Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 37 (1975), 15–32 Google Scholar; “l'AdversusJudeos et Gentes di Giannozzo Manetti,” Rinascimento, II, 16 (1976), 193-205.

13 Manetti, Vitae, in Specimen ed. Mehus, pp. 5-6: “ego his singularissimis civibus nostris atque peregregiis poetis pro virili mea succurrere aggressus novas eorum vitas Latinis litteris mandavi, idque praecipue ea causa adductus feci, ut maximas eorum laudes, quae in plebecula hactenus latere videbantur, ad eruditos et doctos viros tandem aliquando conferrem, qui vulgata cunctorum hominum scripta, qualia pleraque nostrorum poetarum praecipua et habentur et sunt, semper contemnere atque floccifacere consuerunt.“

14 Cf. A. Delia Torre, Storia dell'Accademia Platonica di Firenze (1902; rpt. Turin, 1968), pp. 279-282. An edition of Manetti's dialogue is promised by Giuseppe M. Cagni in his forthcoming Giannozzo Manetti ambasciatore a Venezia, 1448—1450: documenti (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura). I owe this notice to Dr. Arthur Field.

15 MS, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 4V: “nee hebreos neque graecos neque latinos etiam codices ullo unquam tempore studendi gratia volutavi, quamquam huiusmodi voluminibus genitoris mei bibliothecam plena ac referctam viderem … Sed de famoso illo ac ridiculo Bocchaccii nostri facetissimi et elegantissimi poete codice qui Centum fabellarum seu Decameron vulgo inscribi et appellari consuevit, nonnulla ridendi gratia promere et in lucem prodere conabor. Atque pulchram quandam et elegantem hystoriam peregrinam ac graecam a Leonardo Aretino maternis et vulgaribus licteris mandatam oportune admondum adhibebo, que huiusmodi conviviis et his pestiferis et bellicosis temporibus apprime accomoda fore videbantur.” All quotations from Manetti's Dialogus are from this manuscript.

16 On the various traditions of moral debate in the Quattrocento, see Tateo, Francesco, Tradizione e realta nell'Umanesimo italiano (Bari, 1967)Google Scholar and Marsh, David, Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation (Cambridge, Mass., 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 5: “Boccaccius in commemorato volumine suo fabellam illam famosam et celebratam Sigismunde Tancredi Salernitani principis filie elegantissime simul atque copiosissime scribit, quam etsi ego iampridem omnibus vobis notam esse existimem, breviter tamen quantum ad nostrum propositum pertinebit recitare et enarrare tentabo.“

18 Bruni's version of Ghismonda's defiant speech (Naz. Magi., VIII, 1311, fol. 4): “Fateor igitur me amasse Guiscardum, et donee vita suppetet (quod erit perbreve) numquam amare ilium desistam. Quin etiam si post mortem sensus aliquis remanet, tunc quoque ilium amabo. Sed in eius amorem non tarn cupiditas muliebris me impulit quam neglegentia tua.” In Manetti's version, there is a great deal of amplification, and a new emphasis on Tancredi's severity (Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 20, fol. 8): “Guiscardum, fateor, unice adamavi, amo quoque et dum vivam semper amabo, et quod mirabilius est, si apud manes et mortuos amatur, nullo unquam tempore amare desinam. In hos tantos et tarn vehementes amores nimia tua in me severitas ac lapidea durities potius quam muliebris et puellaris fragilitas me ipsam induxit et compulit.“

19 Law. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fols. 13v-14. The text is printed by Delia Torre, Storia dell'Accademia, pp. 280-281.

20 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fols. 16v-17: “Seleucum tamen maioribus laudibus propterea dignum esse censemus quoniam sine crimine et cum voluptate ac perpetua nominis sui gloria unico filio periclitanti ac paulo post morituro providere et consulere voluerit…. circa filii salutem magnaminiter operatus est absque crimine … Stratonicem antequam Antiocho filio in matrimonium traderet per divortium, quod se tempore inter virum et uxorem humanis et divinis legibus permittebatur et iam inveterata consuetudine invaluerat, a sese disiunxisse et separasse.“

21 Valerius Maximus, V, 7, “De indulgentia parentum adversus liberos” (Fabius Rullianus, Caesetius, Octavius Balbus, Antiochus); V, 8, “De severitate patrum in liberos” (Brutus, Cassius, Torquatus, Silanus, Scaurus, Fulvius).

22 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 32v: “Per longum trium circiter horarum spatium … singula queque etiam minutissima propositarum questionum vestrarum diligenter et accurate omnia perpendimus … Unde multis hinc inde et examussim quemadmodum dicitur consideratis ita diversimode se habeant, ut prima in fundamentis sui claudicare ac vacillate … videatur.“

23 See Marsh, Quattrocento Dialogue, chs. 3 and 4, for the intervention of a neo-Augustinian arbiter in Poggio and Valla.

24 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 33v: “Antioci filii ex noverca et uxore, Seleuci nepotes et filii ac etiam uterini fratres simul atque nepotes natorum Seleuci extitissent: que quidem nephanda et scelera communia et pervulgata nature iura nullatenus pati ac ferre posse videbantur, et quod mirabilius est, nulla communis et digna lingua, vel hebrea vel graeca vel latina, huiusmodi loquendi genus admitti posse perhibetur.” The appeal to linguistic usage is common in Quattrocento dialogues; see Marsh, Quattrocento Dialogue, p. 107.

25 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 34, citing Seneca, Phaedra, 142-144: “Quod autem omnia privignus cum noverca, et versa vice quelibet noverca cum privigno concubens comunia nature iura violaret, idem tragicus his versibus palam et apte declaravit, quando Phedram vehementius quam matron eius Pasiphem cum tauro coeuntem ac gravius peccare testatus est: Quo misera pergis? domum infamem gravas superasque matrem; maius monstro nephas: Nam monstra fato, moribus scelera imputes.“

26 RondineUi cites Genesis 2:24 (“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh“), Ephesians 5:28 (“So ought men to love dieir wives as their bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself), and I Thessalonians 4:3—5 (“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in die lust of concupiscence, even as die Gentiles which know not God“).

27 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 36: “Bruti enim liberi… ultimo supplicio una cum Sillani filio … secundum consuetas illorum et nostrorum temporum leges puniri debebant. Idem pene de Torquato diceremus, quoniam filius idcirco morte mulctasset qui contra imperium suum cum hostibus pugnasset, ut discipline militaris severitas et sanctimonia intemerata et inviolata servaretur, in qua quidem disciplina velut in principalissimo quodam et quasi solo reipublicae nervo salus populi Romani remanere ac consistere eo tempore putabatur, nisi eum nimis severum et parum humanum fuisse existimaremus, et Cicero in primo de finibus bonorum et malorum his verbis sensisse videtur: Nollem me ab eo ortum tarn importuno tamque crudeli.” The reference is to Cicero, De finibus, I, 10, 35.

28 Laur. Plut. 90, sup. 29, fol. 36v: “nonne Catonem et Lucretiam sine fine a cunctis veteribus scriptoribus de fortitudine commendatos esse novimus? qui in calamitatibus suis sibi ipsis mortem consistere auderent, et tamen eosdem a beato Augustino in primo de Civitate dei libro de pusillanimitate ac timiditate iure vituperatos et merito accusatos legisse meminimus.” The reference is to Augustine, City of God, I, 19 (Lucretia) and 23 (Cato), Migne, PL, 41, 32—37.

29 Cf. Marsh. Quattrocento Dialogue, pp. 60-66.

30 Laur. Plut., 90 sup. 29, fols. 42v—43v, quoted in Delia Torre, Storia dell'Accademia, p. 282 n.2.

31 Manetti, Vita Boccaccii, in Specimen, ed. Menus, p. 80: “Sed quorsum haec tarn multa de litteris graecis, dicet quispiam? Quorsum? Ut totum hoc, quicquid apud nos Graecorum est, Boccaccio nostro feratur acceptum, qui primus praeceptorem et libros Graecos a nobis per longa terrarum marisque spatia distantes propriis sumtibus in Etruriam reduxit.“