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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Our knowledge of the life of Francesco Zambeccari, the noted translator and fabricator of the letters of Libanius, is sketchy at best, and the course of his later years is shrouded in mystery. In 1474 he is known to have taught Greek and Latin literature in Perugia, and in the following year to have obtained a position with King Ferdinand I of Naples.
But when Zambeccari left Perugia, probably in April 1475, he went to Rome and not to Naples, for Ferdinand had already come to Rome to take part in the celebration of the seventh jubilee year of that city. While in Rome Zambeccari worked on his translations of the Libanian letters and consulted with Johannes Argyropoulos concerning them. Here every trace of Zambeccari ends. It is not known whether he ever went to Naples; Foerster's investigations of the archives at Naples and of contemporary letters of prominent Neapolitans have produced only negative results.
1 For a study of Zambeccari and his relation to the Libanian letters, see Breen, Q., ‘Francesco Zambeccari: his Translations and Fabricated Translations of Libanian Letters,’ Studies in the Renaissance, 11 (1964), 46–75;CrossRefGoogle Scholar also Foerster, R., Francesco Zambeccari und die Briefe des Libanios (Stuttgart, 1878).Google Scholar
2 Breen, p. 65.
3 Foerster, p. 35.
4 Hirsch IV 1441 in the British Museum. The MS is part of a large collection of early printed music books and manuscripts acquired by the British Museum from the wellknown music bibliophile Paul Hirsch (1881-1951). The sixty-two folios of the MS are devoted to a discussion of speculative music; details of the contents of the MS are not germane to the present article, which is concerned only with the letter of dedication.
5 Fol. 2V. The heading of the letter is: ‘Franchini Gafori laudensis musices professoris pars prima musicae speculationis ad Illustrem et excelsum Don Antonium de Gevara Comitem potentiae musicum clarissimum.'
6 Fol. 62. The poem goes as follows: ‘Antoni siquidem polles virtute Gevara / Editus yspana nobiliore domo / Ferrando regi charus populisque probatus / Quos regis insigni prosperitate comes / Et romana tibi graeca et facundia manat / Nee minus in facili musica corde sedet / Accipe laudensis Franchini paucula scripta / Meque tui fidi parte clientis habe.'
7 This is probably a reference to his position as Count of Potenza, a town and province southeast of Naples.
8 M. E. Cosenza, Dictionary of the Italian Humanists (Boston, 1962), I, 217.
9 Ioannis Iovani Pontani opera omnia (Venice, 1519), III, fol. 280v.
10 Cremascoli, L., ‘Note Storiche sulla Vita di F. Gaffurio,’ Franchino Gaffurio (Lodi, 1951), pp. 60 Google Scholar, 66. In 1478 Gaffurius was a musician at the court of Prospero Adorno in Genoa, and when the latter fled to Naples to escape the invading Milanese troops Gaffurius was in his retinue. In 1480 GafFurius left Naples to avoid the pest and also because of the Turkish sack of Otranto.
11 According to Cosenza, v, 1462, Pontano wrote his De Rebus Coelestibus between 1477 and 1480, so that his dedication of Book xm to Gevara was temporally close to GafFurius’ dedication. Just as Gevara was a friend of Pontano and GafFurius, so it is likely that the latter two men were also acquainted. Although GafFurius had no official position at the Neapolitan court, he was a close friend of Johannes Tinctoris, who was Ferdinand's chief musician and the music teacher of his daughter Beatrice. For other data on Gaffurius’ stay in Naples, see Miller, Clement A., ‘Early GafFuriana: New Answers to Old Questions,’ The Musical Quarterly, 61 (1970), 367–388 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 The text of the printed letter of dedication is the same as that of the letter in the MS; Gaffurius merely substituted the Cardinal's name For that of Gevara and also omitted the reference to Zambeccari. For the letter to Cardinal Arcimboldi, see Cremascoli, p. 63.
13 ‘Gulielmum inter musicos praestantissimum et Franciscum Zambeccarium in omni disciplinarian genere quasi lumen aut sidus virtutum splendore solis’ (fol. 3v).
14 Rubsamen, W., Literary Sources of Secular Music in Italy (Berkeley, 1943), p. 12 Google Scholar. Guarnerius is discussed further in Miller, p. 378f.
15 If Zambeccari was born about 1443 (as Breen, p. 46, suggests), in 1479 he was thirty-six years old, and GafFurius was twenty-eight.
16 Breen, p. 55, prints part of an anonymous letter in which Zambeccari is said to speak Greek like an Athenian and Latin like a native Roman. Since this letter is the only witness to Zambcccari's abilities and since it was written by a friend of his, Breen suggests that it should not be taken seriously. Regardless of Zambeccari's true proficiency in this matter, the comments of Gaffurius tend to support the view that Zambeccari was held in high esteem by his contemporaries.
17 Beilage E2, p. 310.