Chapter 17

[161]Cino, etc. p. 342.

[162]Ibid.p. 334.

[163]Cino, etc.p. 548.

[164]Ibid.p. 586.

[165]Cino, etc.p. 391.

[166]Ibid.pp. 199, 200.

[167]Ibid.pp. 384, 389.

[168]Cino, etc.pp. 202, 211, 573, 390.

[169]Ibid.pp. 504, 535, 498.

[170]In the Discourse of Monsignor Giov. Bottari, Section vi., printed before Sacchetti'sNovelle.

[171]Cino, etc.pp. 445-474, 258-263.

[172]Navone's edition (Bologna, Romagnoli, 1880), p. 56. The date of this sonnet must be about 1315. We have to choose between placing Folgore in that century or assigning the sonnet to some anonymous author. SeeAppendix II.for translations.

[173]Cino, etc.pp. 174-195, 420-441.

[174]Ibid.p. 418.

[175]Ibid.p. 197, 198.

[176]He was the author of the GhibellineCanzoniquoted above.

[177]It was composed about 1360. I have seen two editions of this poem,Opera di Faccio degli uberti Fiorentino, Chiamato Ditta Mundi, Volgare. Impresso in Venetia per Christoforo di Pensa da Mondelo. Adi iiii. Setembrio MCCCCCI. The second is a version modernized in its orthography:Il Dittamondo, Milano, Silvestri, 1826. My quotations will be made from the second of these editions, which has the advantage of a more intelligible text.

[178]Lib. i., cap. 2. Cp. Fazio's Ode on Rome, above, p. 160.

[179]Lib. iii. cap. 9.

[180]Libro chiamato Quatriregio del Decorso de la Vita Humana in Terza Rima, Impresso in Venetia del MCCCCCXI a di primo di Decembrio. There is, I believe, a last century Foligno reprint of theQuadriregio; but I have not seen it.

[181]"Regno di Dio Cupido," "Regno di Sathan," "Regno delli Vitii," "Regno della Dea Minerva e di Virtù."

[182]Lib. i. cap. 1.

[183]Lib. ii. cap. 2.

[184]Lib. ii. cap. 7.

[185]SeeFicini Epistolæ, 1495, folio 17. If possible, I will insert some further notice of Palmieri's poem in an Appendix.

[186]See Vasari (Lemonnier, 1849), vol. v. p. 115, and note. This work by Botticelli is now in England.

[187]I may refer curious readers to twoLamentiof Pre Agostino, condemned to the cage orChebbaat Venice for blasphemy. They are given at length by Mutinelli,Annali Urbani di Venezia, pp. 352-356.

[188]For instance, "Un Miracolo di S.M. Maddalena," in D'Ancona'sSacre Rappr.vol. i. p. 397.

[189]It would be an interesting study to trace the vicissitudes ofterza rimafrom theParadisoof Dante, through theQuadriregioandDittamondo, to Lorenzo de' Medici'sBeoniand La Casa'sCapitolo del Forno. In addition to what I have observed above, it occurs to me to mention the semi-popularterza rimapoems in Alberti'sAccademia Coronaria(Bonucci's edition of Alberti, vol. i. pp. clxxv.et seq.) and Boiardo's comedy ofTimone. Both illustrate the didactic use of the meter.

[190]Le Lettere di S. Caterina da Siena, Firenze, Barbèra, 1860. Edited and furnished with a copious commentary by Niccolò Tommaseo. Four volumes.

[191]Op. cit.vol. iv. pp. 5-12.

[192]See for example, the passages from Graziani'sChronicle of Perugiaquoted by me inAppendix IV.toAge of the Despots.

[193]SeeAlcune Lettere familiari del Sec. xiv, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1868. This collection contains letters by Lemmo Balducci (1333-1389), Filippo dell'Antella (circa1398), Dora del Bene, Lanfredino Lanfredini (born about 1345), Coluccio Salutati (1330-1406), Giorgio Scali (died 1381), and Marchionne Stefani (died 1385).

[194]Alessandra Macinghi negli Strozzi,Lettere di una Gentildonna Fiorentina del secolo xv, Firenze, Sansoni, 1877.

[195]SeeRevival of Learning, chap. 4, andAge of the Despots,chap. 5.

[196]Istorie Fiorentine scritte da Giov. Cavalcanti, 2 vols. Firenze, 1838.

[197]Besides Muratori's great collection and theArchivio Storico, the Chronicles of Lombard, Umbrian, and Tuscan towns have been separately printed too voluminously for mention in a note.

[198]L'Historia di Milano volgarmente scritta dall'eccellentissimo oratore M. Bernardino Corio, in Vinegia, per Giovan. Maria Bonelli, MDLIIII. "Cronaca della Città di Perugia dal 1492 al 1503 di Francesco Matarazzo detto Maturanzio,"Archivio Storico Italiano, vol. xvi. par. ii. Of Corio's History I have made frequent use in theAge of the Despots. It is a book that repays frequent and attentive reperusals. Those students who desire to gain familiarity at first hand with Renaissance cannot be directed to a purer source.

[199]InStudies in Italy and Greece, article "Perugia," I have dealt more at large with Matarazzo's Chronicle than space admits of here.

[200]Il Novellino di Masuccio Salernitano.Edited by Luigi Settembrini. Napoli, Morano, 1874.

[201]Introduction to Part iii.op. cit.p. 239. "Cognoscerai i lasciati vestigi del vetusto satiro Giovenale, e del famoso commendato poeta Boccaccio, l'ornatissimo idioma e stile del quale ti hai sempre ingegnato de imitare."

[202]For an instance of Masuccio's feudal feeling, take this. A knight kills a licentious friar—"alquanto pentito per avere le sue possenti braccia con la morte di un Fra Minore contaminato" (op. cit.p. 13). It emerges in his description of the Order of the Ermine (ibid.p. 240). It is curious to compare this with his strong censure of the point of honor (pp. 388, 389) in a story which has the same blunt sense as Ariosto's episode of Giocondo. The Italian here prevails over the noble.

[203]See especiallyNov.xi. and xxxviii.

[204]Nov.ii. iii. v. xi. xviii. xxix.

[205]Nov.xxxi.—Masuccio's peculiar animosity against the clergy may be illustrated by comparing his story of the friar who persuaded the nun that she was chosen by the Holy Ghost (Nov.ii.) with Boccaccio's tale of the Angel Gabriel. See, too, the scene in the convent (Nov.vi.), the comedy of S. Bernardino's sermon (Nov.xvi.), the love-adventures of Cardinal Roderigo Borgia.

[206]For example,Nov.vii. xiii. v.

[207]Op. cit.pp. 292, 282, 391, 379.

[208]Nov.i. and xxviii. The second of these stories is dedicated to Francesco of Aragon, who, born in 1461, could not have been more than fifteen when this frightful tale of lust and blood was sent him. Nothing paints the manners of the time better than this fact.

[209]Seeop. cit.pp. 28, 68, 89, 141, 256, 273, 275, 380, 341, 343.

[210]For specimens of his invective read pp. 517, 273, 84, 275, 55, 65, 534. I have collected some of these passages, bearing on the clergy, in anote to p. 458of myAge of the Despots, 2nd edition. No wonder that Masuccio's book was put upon the Index!

[211]Nov.xxvii, xxxiii. xxxv. xxxvii. xlviii.

[212]SeeRevival of Learning, pp. 341-344, for some account of Alberti's life and place among the humanists;Fine Arts, p. 74, for his skill as an architect.

[213]Sacchetti, we have seen, called himselfuomo discolo; Ser Giovanni proclaimed himself apecorone; Masuccio had the culture of a nobleman; Corio and Matarazzo, if we are right in identifying the latter with Francesco Maturanzio, were both men of considerable erudition.

[214]The most charming monument of Alberti's memory is the Life by an anonymous writer, published in Muratori and reprinted in Bonucci's edition, vol. i. Bonucci conjectures, without any substantial reason, that it was composed by Alberti himself.

[215]For theCamera Optica,Reticolo de' dipintori, andBolide Albertiana, see the Preface (pp. lxv.-lxix.) to Anicio Bonucci's edition of theOpere Volgari di L.B. Alberti, Firenze, 1843, five vols. All references will be made to this comprehensive but uncritical collection. Hubert Janitschek's edition of the Treatises on Art should be consulted for its introduction and carefully prepared text—Vienna, 1877, in theQuellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte.

[216]The sentence of banishment was first removed in 1428; but the rights of burghership were only restored to the Alberti in 1434. Leo Battista finished the Treatise on Painting at Florence, Sept. 7, 1435 (see Janitschek,op. cit.p. iii.), and dedicated it to Brunelleschi, July 17, 1436. From that dedication it would seem that he had only recently returned.

[217]A passage in theDella Tranquillità dell'Animo(Op. Volg.i. 35), shows how Alberti had lived into the conception of cosmopolitan citizenship. It may be compared with another in theTeogenio(op. cit.iii. 194) wher he argues that love for one's country, even without residence in it, satisfies the definition of a citizen.

[218]Op. cit.ii. 215-221.

[219]Such phrases asi nostri maggiori patrizii in Roma(i. 37),la quasi dovuta a noi per le nostre virtù da tutte le genti riverenzia e obbedienzia(ii. 218),nostri ottimi passati Itali debellarono e sotto averono tutte le genti(ii. 9), might be culled in plenty. Alberti shows how deep was the Latin idealism of the Renaissance, and how impossible it would have been for the Italians to found their national self-consciousness on aught but a recovery of the past.

[220]Especially the fine passage beginning, "Quello imperio maraviglioso senza termini, quel dominio di tutte le genti acquistato connostri latini auspici, ottenuto collanostra industria, amplificato connostre armi latine" (ii. 8); and the apostrophe, "E tu, Italia nobilissima, capo e arce di tutto l'universo mondo" (ib.13).

[221]An example of servile submission to classical authority might be chosen from Alberti's discourse on Friendship (Famiglia, lib. iv.op. cit.ii. 415), where he adduces Sylla and Mark Antony in contradiction to his general doctrine that only upright conversation among friends can lead to mutual profit.

[222]Alberti's loss of training in the vernacular is noticed by his anonymous biographer (op. cit.i. xciv.). It will be observed by students of his writings that he does not speak ofla nostra italianabutla nostra toscana(ii. 221). Again (iv. 12)in lingua toscanais the phrase used in his dedication of the Essay on Painting to Brunelleschi.

[223]The anonymous biographer says: "Scripsit præterea et affinium suorum gratia, ut linguæ latinæ ignaris prodesset, patrio sermone annum ante trigesimum ætatis suæ etruscos libros, primum, secundum, ac tertium de Familia, quos Romæ die nonagesimo quam inchoârat, absolvit; sed inelimatos et asperos neque usquequaquam etruscos ... post annos tres, quam primos ediderat, quartum librum ingratis protulit" (op. cit.i. xciv. c.). It appears from a reference in Book ii. (op. cit.ii. xxviii.) that the Treatise was still in process of composition after 1438; and there are strong reasons for believing that Book iii., as it is now numbered, was written separately and after the rest of the dialogue.

[224]Note especially the passage in Book iii.,op. cit.ii. 256,et seq.

[225]There is, I think, good reason to believe the testimony of the anonymous biographer, who says this Treatise was written before Alberti's thirtieth year; and if he returned to Florence in 1434, we must take the date of his birth about 1404. The scene of theTranquillità dell'Animois laid in the Duomo at Florence; we may therefore believe it to have been a later work, and its allusions to theFamigliaare, in my opinion, trustworthy.

[226]The pedigree prefixed to the Dialogue in Bonucci's edition would help the student in his task. I will here cite the principal passages of importance I have noticed. In volume ii. p. 102, we find a list of the Alberti remarkable for literary, scientific, artistic, and ecclesiastical distinctions. On p. 124 we read of their dispersion over the Levant, Greece, Spain, France, England, Belgium, Germany, and the chief Italian towns. Their misfortunes in exile are touchingly alluded to with a sobriety of phrase that dignifies the grief it veils, in the noble passage beginning with p. 256. Their ancient splendor in the tournaments and games of Florence, when the people seemed to have eyes only for men of the Alberti blood, is described on p. 228; their palaces and country houses on p. 279. A list of the knights, generals, and great lawyers of the Casa Alberti is given at p. 346. The honesty of their commercial dealings and their reputation for probity form the themes of a valuable digression, pp. 204-206, where we learn the extent of their trade and the magnitude of their contributions to the State-expenses. On p. 210 there is a statement that this house alone imported from Flanders enough wool to supply the cloth-trade, not only of Florence, but also of the larger part of Tuscany. The losses of a great commercial family are reckoned on p. 357; while p. 400 supplies the story of one vast loan of 80,000 golden florins advanced by Ricciardo degli Alberti to Pope John. The friendship of Piero degli Alberti contracted with Filippo Maria Visconti and King Ladislaus of Naples is described in the autobiographical discourse introduced at pp. 386-399. This episode is very precious for explaining the relation between Italian princes and the merchants who resided at their courts. Their servant Buto, p. 375, should not be omitted from the picture; nor should the autobiographical narrative given by Giannozzo of his relation to his wife (pp. 320-328) be neglected, since this carries us into the very center of a Florentine home. The moral tone, the political feeling, and the domestic habits of the house in general must be studied in the description of the Casa, Bottega, and Villa, the discourses on education, and the discussion of public and domestic duties. The commercial aristocracy of Florence lives before us in this Treatise. We learn from it to know exactly what the men who sustained the liberties of Italy against the tyrants of Milan thought and felt, at a period of history when the old fabric of medieval ideas had broken down, but when the new Italy of the Renaissance had not yet been fully formed. If, in addition to theTrattato della Famiglia, the letters addressed by Alessandra Macinghi degli Strozzi to her children in exile be included in such a study, a vivid picture might be formed of the domestic life of a Florentine family.[A]These letters were written from Florence to sons of the Casa Strozzi at Naples, Bruges, and elsewhere between the years 1447 and 1465. They contain minute information about expenditure, taxation, dress, marriages, friendships, and all the public and personal relations of a noble Florentine family. Much, moreover, can be gathered from them concerning the footing of the members of the circle in exile. The privatericordiof heads of families, portions of which have been already published from the archives of the Medici and Strozzi, if more fully investigated, would complete this interesting picture in many of its important details.

[A]Lettere di una Gentildonna fiorentina, Firenze, Sansoni, 1877.

[227]Notice the discussion of wet-nurses, the physical and moral evils likely to ensue from an improper choice of the nurse (op. cit.ii. 52-56).

[228]These topics ofAmicizia, as the virtue on which society is based, are further discussed in a separate little dialogue,La Cena di Famiglia(op. cit.vol. i.).

[229]Age of the Despots,pp. 239-243.

[230]In stating the question, and in all that concerns the MS. authority upon which a judgment must be formed, I am greatly indebted to the kindness of Signor Virginio Cortesi, who has placed at my disposal his unpublished Essay on theGoverno della Famiglia di Agnolo Pandolfini. As the title of his work shows, he is a believer in Pandolfini's authorship.

[231]I use this word according to its present connotation. But such literary plagiarism was both more common and less disgraceful in the fifteenth century. Alberti himself incorporated passages of theFiammettain hisDeifira, and Jacopo Nardi in hisStoria Fiorentinaappropriated the whole of Buonaccorsi's Diaries (1498-1512) with slight alterations and a singularly brief allusion to their author.

[232]Such information, as will be seen, is both vague and meager. The MSS. of theGovernoin particular do not seem to have been accurately investigated, and are insufficiently described even by Cortesi. Yet this problem, like that of the Malespini and Compagni Chronicles, cannot be set at rest without a detailed comparison of all existing codices.

[233]The anonymous biographer expressly states that the fourth book was written later than the other three, and dedicated to the one Alberti who took any interest in the previous portion of the work. This, together with the isolation and more perfect diction of Book iii. is strong presumption in favor of its having been an afterthought.

[234]TheŒconomicusof Xenophon served as common material for theEconomicoand theGoverno, whatever we may think about the authorship of these two essays. Many parallel passages in Palmieri'sVita Civilecan be referred to the same source. To what extent Alberti knew Greek is not ascertained; but even in the bad Latin translations of that age a flavor so peculiar as that of Xenophon's style could not have escaped his fine sense.

[235]SeeOp. Volg.vol. i. pp. lxxxvi.-lxxxviii.

[236]Op. Volg.ii. p. 223.

[237]Op. Volg.i. 10.

[238]It should, however, be added that Vespasiano alludes to Pandolfini's habits of study and composition after his retirement to Signa. Yet he does not cite theGoverno.

[239]It is clear that all this reasoning upon internal evidence can be turned to the advantage of both sides in the dispute. The question will have finally to be settled on external grounds (comparison of MSS.), combined with a wise use of such arguments from style as have already been cited.

[240]Anyhow, and whatever may have been the source of Alberti'sEconomico, the whole scene describing exile and winding up with the tirade against a political career, is a very noble piece of writing. If space sufficed, it might be quoted as the finest specimen of Alberti's eloquence. SeeOp. Volg.v. pp. 256-266.

[241]SeeOp. Volg.Preface to vol. v.

[242]It is greatly to be desired that Signor Cortesi should print thisStudio Criticoand, if possible, append to it an account of the MSS. on which Pandolfini's claims to be considered the original author rest.

[243]Op. Volg.vol. iii. The meaning of the title appears on p. 132, where the wordIciarcois definedSupremo uomo e primario principe della famiglia sua. It is a compound ofοἶκοςandἀρχή.

[244]See pp. 24, 28, 88, and the fine humanistic passage on p. 47, which reads like an expansion of Dante'sFatti non foste per viver come brutiin Ulysses' speech to his comrades.

[245]Op. Volg.vol. i.

[246]He calls itil nostro tempio massimoand speaks ofil culto divino, pp. 7-9.

[247]Op. Volg.vol. iii.

[248]Ibid.p. 160. This enables us to fix the date within certain limits. Niccolò III. of Este died 1441. Lionello died 1450. Alberti speaks of the essay as having been already some time in circulation. It must therefore have been written before 1440.

[249]Like Boccaccio, Alberti is fond of bad Greek etymologies. Perhaps we may translate these names, "the God-born" and "the little pupil." In the same dialogue Tichipedio seems to be "the youth of fortune."

[250]SeeRevival of Learning, p. 339.

[251]Op. Volg.iii. 179.

[252]Ibid.p. 186.

[253]Op. Volg.vol. ii. pp. 320-322.

[254]Il Santo.Probably S. John.

[255]Alberti in a Letter of Condolement to a friend (Op. Volg.v. 357) chooses examples from the Bible. Yet the tone of that most strictly pious of his writings is rather Theistic than Christian.

[256]Op. Volg.vol. iv. See, too, Janitschek's edition cited above.

[257]Bonucci believes it was composed in Italian. Janitschek gives reasons for the contrary theory (op. cit.p. iii.).

[258]Op. Volg.vols. iii. and v.

[259]Passages in the plays of our own dramatists warn us to be careful how we answer in the negative. But here are some specimens of Amiria's recipes (op. cit.v. 282). "Radice di cocomeri spolverizzata, bollita in orina, usata più dì, lieva dal viso panni e rughe. Giovavi sangue di tauro stillato a ogni macula, sterco di colombe in aceto ... insieme a sterco di cervio ... lumache lunghe ... sterco di fanciullo ... sangue d'anguille." All these things are recommended, upon one page, for spots on the skin. I can find nothing parallel in the very curious toilet book calledGli Ornamenti delle Dame, scritti per M. Giov. Marinelli, Venetia, Valgrisio, 1574.

[260]Op. Volg.vol. iii. 367; vol. i. 191, 215.

[261]Op. Volg.v. 233.

[262]Op. Volg.i. 236.

[263]I may refer to the Latin song against marriage,Sit Deo gloria(Du Méril,Poésies Populaires Latines du Moyen Age, pp. 179-187), for an epitome of clerical virulence and vileness on this topic.

[264]Op. Volg.iii. 274.

[265]Op. Volg.v. 352.

[266]Ibid.pp. 355-359, 367-372.

[267]For example the lines beginning "Sospetto e cure."Ibid.p. 368.

[268]Op. Volg.i. lxv. He was not alone in this experiment. Barbarous Italian Sapphics and Hexameters are to be found in theAccademia Coronariaon Friendship, of which more in the nextchapter.

[269]De Re Ædificatoria, Florence, 1485. This preface is a letter addressed to Lorenzo de' Medici.

[270]"Quicquid ingenio esset hominum cum quâdam effectum elegantiâ, id prope divinum dicebat," says the anonymous biographer. This sentence is the motto of humanism as elaborated by the artistic sense. Its discord with the religion of the middle ages is apparent.

[271]Op. Volg.i. 8.

Back to Index Next