A new sense of the past : the scholarship of Biondo Flavio (1392-1463) PDF
Preview A new sense of the past : the scholarship of Biondo Flavio (1392-1463)
SUPPLEMENTA HUMANISTICALOVANIENSIA XXXIX SUPPLEMENTAHUMANISTICALOVANIENSIA Editors: Prof.Dr.GilbertTournoy(Generaleditor) Dr.GodelieveTournoy-Thoen Prof.Dr.DirkSacré EditorialCorrespondence: SeminariumPhilologiaeHumanisticae Blijde-Inkomststraat21(Box3311) B–3000Leuven(Belgium) Thispublicationwasmadepossiblebythe DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft and PEGASUSLimitedforthePromotionofNeo-LatinStudies SUPPLEMENTA HUMANISTICALOVANIENSIA XXXIX A NEW SENSE OF THE PAST THESCHOLARSHIPOFBIONDOFLAVIO(1392-1463) EditedbyAngeloMAZZOCCOandMarcLAUREYS LEUVENUNIVERSITYPRESS 2016 ©2016LeuvenUniversityPress/UniversitairePersLeuven/PressesUniversi- tairesdeLouvain,Minderbroedersstraat4,B–3000Leuven(Belgium) Allrightsreserved.Exceptinthosecasesexpresslydeterminedbylaw,nopartof thispublicationmaybemultiplied,savedinanautomateddatafileormadepublic inanywaywhatsoeverwithouttheexpresspriorwrittenconsentofthepublishers. ISBN9789462700482 e-ISBN9789461661913(e-PDF) D/2016/1869/8 NUR:635 CONSPECTUSRERUM — Acknowledgements........................................................... 7 — AngeloMAZZOCCO,Introduction........................................ 9 — GiuseppeMARCELLINO,BiondoFlavioeleoriginidelvolgare: unriesamedellaquestione(Deverbis§§108-111).................. 35 — FulvioDELLEDONNE,Lefasiredazionalieleconcezionidella storianelleDecadidiBiondo:trastoriaparticolareegenerale, traanticaemodernaRoma................................................. 55 — AngeloMAZZOCCO,HumanisticHistoriographyinVenice:The CaseofBiondoFlavioandPietroBembo............................. 89 — Fabio DELLA SCHIAVA, Per l’edizione nazionale della Roma instauratadiBiondoFlavio:indaginipreliminari.................. 105 — Marc LAUREYS, Johannes Hinderbach’s Notes on Biondo Fla- vio’sRomainstaurata........................................................ 133 — Paolo PONTARI, ‘Nedum mille qui effluxerunt annorum gesta sciamus’.L’ItaliadiBiondoel’‘invenzione’delMedioevo.... 151 — Catherine J. CASTNER, The Fortuna of Biondo Flavio’s Italia Illustrata.......................................................................... 177 — Jeffrey A. WHITE, Biondo Flavio as Henry James’s Den- combe(?):RevisingtheItaliaIllustrata............................... 197 — FrancesMUECKE,‘Famasuperstes’?SoundingsintheRecep- tionofBiondoFlavio’sRomatriumphans............................ 219 — Bibliography.................................................................... 243 6 CONSPECTUSRERUM — Contributors..................................................................... 277 — Indexcodicummanuscriptorum.......................................... 281 — Indexnominum ................................................................ 283 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The articles, collected in the present volume, are revised versions of pa- persreadinadoublesessionon“BiondoFlavio:Historian,Antiquarian, Chorographer”,organizedbyAngeloMazzoccowiththeaidofMargaret MeserveduringtheAnnualMeetingoftheRenaissanceSocietyofAmer- ica(27-29March2014)inNewYork.Thesixpapers,readonthatoccasion (Castner,DellaSchiava,DelleDonne,Laureys,Muecke,andWhite),are accompanied by three further articles (Marcellino, Mazzocco, and Pon- tari) that broaden the range of topics dealt with in this book. In order to avoidtoomuchduplicationofbibliographicalreferencesthroughoutthis book, one comprehensive bibliography has been compiled and placed at theendofthevolume. With this publication we, the editors, would like to contribute to the renewed scholarly attention for one of the most original and inventive humanists of the Italian Quattrocento. Biondo Flavio always struggled to establish a place for himself in the humanist respublica litterarum of histime,andhisposthumous fortunaprovedtobeastroublesomeashis professionalcareerhadbeen.Thelackofanymoderneditionofbothhis majortreatisesandsmallerworksposedforaverylongtimeaformidable obstacle to in-depth investigations of his work and legacy. The Edizione NazionaledelleOperediBiondoFlavio(ISIME,Rome),whichtodatehas producedsixvolumesandaimsatprovidingacriticaleditionofBiondo’s entire œuvre, is therefore to be welcomed by all students of Italian hu- manism.Thissignificanteditionprojecthasalreadygeneratedawealthof scholarship far beyond the strictly editorial work and continues to stim- ulate research on a humanist whose importance has been recognized by some earlier scholars but is only now being documented and elucidated indetail.Concurrently,all ofBiondo’slargertreatisesandseveral ofhis smaller writings are being edited – partly by the same scholars who are involved in the Edizione Nazionale – and translated into English for the ITattiRenaissanceLibrary,sothatBiondo’sworkwillinduecoursebe- comeaccessiblealsotoanon-Latinatereadingpublic.Weareveryhappy tohavebeenjoinedbymajorspecialistsofBiondoinputtingtogetherthis collectionofarticlesandhopethatthiscollectivevolumemayserveasan exampleforthecurrentresearchonBiondo,atrulypioneeringhistorian. Ourfirstdebtofgratitudeisowedtotheauthorsofthepapersgathered in this volume; it has been a privilege to benefit from their knowledge 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS andexpertiseandtocooperatewiththeminproducingthisbook.Special thanks are due to Jannik Reiners (Bonn) for his most competent and ef- ficient editorial assistance, without which the completion of this volume would have been much more laborious. Last but not least, we gratefully acknowledgethegenerousfinancialsupportoftheDeutscheForschungs- gemeinschaftandPegasusLimitedforthePromotionofNeo-LatinStud- iestowardscoveringtheproductioncostsofthispublication. AngeloMazzocco MarcLaureys January2016 AngeloMAZZOCCO INTRODUCTION Biondo Flavio, one of the most original and prolific humanists of Quat- trocento Italy, is often the subject of much speculation and, at times, of downright misinterpretation. The scope of this introduction is to explore thehistorical,psychological,andphilosophicalfactorsthatinformedhis literaryproduction,notinghowtheydeterminedthetoneandmodeofhis worksandhowtheydrovehimtowriteavastandvariedoeuvre.Thein- troductionwillalsoaddressthemajorissuesandobjectivesoftheauthor’s works,concludingwithsynopsesofthearticlespublishedinthisvolume. I Biondo was born in Forlì, Romagna, in 1392.1 At a relatively young age, possibly in 1405, he moved to Cremona, where he took lessons in grammar,poetry,andrhetoricwithGiovanniBalestreri.2Mostlikelythis training took place between 1405 and 1413.3 Biondo must have acquired a strong educational foundation during his formative years, given his consummate erudition in later life. Unfortunately, as he himself admits, his training lacked one of the more important elements of contemporary scholarship—perfect knowledge of the Greek language.4 Subsequent to his educational training in Cremona, Biondo served the Malatesta of 1 ForBiondo’sfamilybackgroundandforhisdateandplaceofbirthseeNogara,Scritti inediti,pp.XIX-XXVII. Nogara’sworkisindispensableforbiographicalinformationonBiondo.SeealsoFubini, pp.536-559,Defilippis,pp.87-105,andLaureys,pp.53-54. 2 ‘Cremona[…]etnuperhabuitIohannemBalistariumpraeceptoremmeumgramma- ticae,rhetoricaeetpoëseos,quibusadolescensabeoimbutusfui,peritissimum.’Biondo, Italiaillustrata,p.362G.Unlessotherwiseindicated,allreferencestoandcitationsfrom Biondo’sworksarefromtheFrobeneditionof1559. 3 Nogara,Scrittiinediti,pp.XXVIII-XXIX. 4 For example, he tells us that in utilizing Procopius’ Gothic War while writing his Decades, it was necessary to have it translated into Latin, since he had only a limited knowledgeofGreek.‘EamveropartemGraecescriptamnostraindustrianuperhabuitItalia, quam nullus scriptorum Latinorum, qui Iustiniani Imperatoris et nostram intercesserunt aetatem,legissevidetur.NositaquecumperdiscendisliterisGraecisparumfelicesfuerimus, ipsam belli Italici historiarum particulam traduci in Latinitatem curavimus, non quidem mansuram, sed solummodo talem, ex qua Procopii scripta scire possemus in nostram historiamconfundenda.’Decades,p.43C.
The list of books you might like
