Greeks, Books and Libraries in Renaissance Venice

413 Pages·2021·10.847 MB·English

by  Rosa Maria Piccione

Greeks, Books and Libraries in Renaissance Venice
Transmissions
Studies on conditions, processes and dynamics
of textual transmission
Edited by
Rosa Maria Piccione
Volume 1
Greeks, Books
and Libraries in
Renaissance Venice
Edited by
Rosa Maria Piccione
This publication was made possible through funding provided by the Università degli Studi di Torino.
ISBN 978-3-11-057520-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-057708-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-057529-3
ISSN 2625-4018
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020936124
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover image: Salone Sansovino © Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Editor’s Preface
The present volume, entitled Greeks, Books and Libraries in Renaissance Venice, is
the first one in the new series Transmissions. Studies on conditions, processes and dy­
namics of textual transmission. This series proposes to be a place for documentation,
theoretical and methodological reflection, as well as critical discussion regarding the
transmission of texts, in particular of the Greek and Latin tradition. With this prima-
ry goal in mind, close attention is paid to the social and cultural environments and
scenarios in which the journeys of books and texts occur. This will be achieved by
observing morphological shifts and ways of use both in textual products and in their
material witnesses, as well as in the role of the actors in the practices of writing and
reading and of institutions in the production, circulation and conservation processes
of written culture.
All my gratitude goes to the publishing house De Gruyter for the trust placed
in this project. I owe special thanks to the Marciana National Library in Venice for
their permission to provide a visual frame for Transmissions through an image of
the sumptuous ceiling of the Salone Sansovino, the very place of books of the an-
cient Libreria di San Marco. Built between 1537 and 1553 in the context of a project by
Jacopo Sansovino to host Cardinal Bessarion’s huge book collection, the Libreria is
characterized by an iconographic cycle with Neoplatonic inspiration, alluding to the
idea of an ascensional procession of the spirit. The visitor is guided along an allegoric
path of ethical formation and ascension to wisdom, where knowledge is in the service
of the realization of the common good.
The spaces of the ancient Libreria di San Marco and the allegories of the Salone
Sansovino are perfect settings for this first volume of the series Transmissions, as its
focus is on the dynamics of production and use of Greek books and book collections
within the Venetian context between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, with
special attention being paid to the practices and the actors involved in these proces-
ses.
Some of the contributions presented in this volume discuss material presented
previously during the workshop Biblioteche private e produzione di libri manoscritti
greci a Venezia nel Cinquecento (“Private libraries and production of Greek manuscript
books in sixteenth-century Venice”) held in Turin on 29th–30th June 2017, organized
within the research project Collezionare libri greci nella Venezia del Rinascimento: le
biblioteche private di Gabriele Severo e di Guillaume Pellicier (“Collecting Greek books
in Renaissance Venice: Gabriel Severos’ and Guillaume Pellicier’s private libraries”),
and funded by the University of Turin. The workshop gathered experts from different
fields – philologists, palaeographists and codicologists, book and library historians,
library scientists and librarians, archivists – with the aim of tackling the underly-
ing research questions using different methodological approaches. The meeting took
place at the National University Library (Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria [BNU])
of Turin, in the halls kindly made available by the Fondazione Firpo. I would like
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110577082-202
VI   Editor’s Preface
to thank Guglielmo Bartoletti, BNU Director, and Franca Porticelli, Head of the Rare
Books and Special Collections Department, as well as the Fondazione Firpo for their
hospitality and generosity.
Based on the results of this workshop, the present volume aims at providing
an update on ongoing research, offering reflections on methodology and outlining
some paths of investigation worthy of further developments, without claiming to be
exhaustive. The contributions in this volume are organized in three sections, preced-
ed by an introductory essay (R. M. Piccione). The first section focuses on Greeks as
book owners, patrons and actors in the process of book production, with particular
emphasis on the library of Gabriel Severos, first Orthodox bishop in the lands of the
Diaspora (E. Elia and R. M. Piccione). The following essays are devoted to contem-
porary intellectuals and/or leading figures in the world of the Greek book, such as
Nikolaos Choniates (R. Montalto) and Emmanuel Glyzounis (I. Papadaki); a further
contribution of particular relevance to the reconstruction of the cultural context of
this period is devoted to the scholar and theologian Maximos Margounios and his po-
etic production (F. Ciccolella). This first section is opened by an essay portraying the
cultural, linguistic, sociopolitical and confessional reality of the flambojant Venice at
Severos’ time, thereby providing the vibrant sociocultural setting for the following
studies (C. Carpinato).
In the second section of the volume, the scope of the observation is extended to
collections of Greek books originating from the interests of Western scholars, such as
the well-known libraries of the ambassadors Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (T. Martínez
Manzano) and Guillaume Pellicier (R. M. Piccione). Furthermore, this section features
an investigation into several private libraries, in some cases less known but likewise
of remarkable historical and cultural importance, from the neighbouring Padua, the
intellectual capital of the region (C. Giacomelli). Finally, the last essay of this sec-
tion retraces the adventurous journey of a manuscript from Venice to the National
University Library of Turin (E. Elia).
The third section gathers essays on the history of books and book collections
on the basis of documentary and archival sources, which in many instances help to
reconstruct practices of book production and use, such as in the case of the Loan
Registers of the Libreria di San Marco (O. Mazzon). In addition, another contribution
presents interesting cases of reconstructing book collections from evidence deriving
from the Marciana National Library’s database of provenances Archivio dei Possessori
(O. Braides and E. Sciarra). The volume concludes with an essay presenting practi-
cal examples of archival research and documentary sources which yield useful infor-
mation for the reconstruction of private libraries of the Greeks in sixteenth-century
Venice (Ch. Zampakolas).
Finally, I would like to thank several institutions and individuals whose support
have been crucial in the creation of the new series Transmissions and the preparation
of the present volume. At the De Gruyter publishing house, I am indebted to Serena
Pirrotta, Editorial Director of Classical Studies and Marco Michele Acquafredda,
Editor’s Preface   VII
Project Editor of Classical Studies for their confidence, patience, and assistance in all
stages of this project. Furthermore, I am grateful to my colleagues and friends Rodney
Ast, Daniele Bianconi, Caterina Carpinato, Paolo Eleuteri, Gerlinde Huber-Rebenich,
Stefano Martinelli Tempesta, Juan Pedro Monferrer, Raphaële Mouren, Matthias
Perkams, Elisabetta Sciarra, and Sofía Torallas Tovar for having agreed to become
members of the Advisory Board of the series.
Above all, I owe heartfelt thanks to the StudiUm Department (Dipartimento di
Studi Umanistici) of the University of Turin for its trust and generous financial sup-
port of my research project Collezionare libri greci nella Venezia del Rinascimento and
of the publication of the first volume of Transmissions. By thanking the authors, who
were willing to share their considerations and first results of their ongoing research, I
now entrust this book candidi Lectoris iudicio.1
1 During the preparation of the present volume, a particular challenge presented itself in the trans-
literation of Modern Greek proper names using Latin characters, as well as in the adoption of the
monotonic or polytonic system. Concerning the transliterations of proper names, an attempt has been
made to make use of the generally accepted forms as much as possible. However, authors were free
to deviate from the standard system, e.g., when transliterating according to phonetic criteria, and in
their choice of the monotonic or polytonic systems.

Contents
Editor’s Preface   V
Rosa Maria Piccione
Greek Books in Renaissance Venice: Methodological Approaches and Research
Perspectives   1
1 Greeks and Greek Books in Renaissance Venice
Caterina Carpinato
Venice in the Time of Gavriil Seviros (before 1540–1616): People, Books, Languages
and Images. Dialogue with Greeks (and with Greek)   15
Erika Elia and Rosa Maria Piccione
A Rediscovered Library. Gabriel Severos and His Books   33
Riccardo Montalto
Anonymous Collaborators of Nikolaos Choniates’ atelier in Manuscripts from
Achilles Statius’ Library   83
Irene Papadaki
Manolis Glyzounis, Greek Publisher and Copyist in Venice in the Second Half of the
Sixteenth Century   115
Federica Ciccolella
Maximos Margounios and Anacreontic Poetry: An Introductory Study   147
2 Western Intellectuals, Books, and Book Collections
Teresa Martínez Manzano
Towards the Reconstruction of a Little-Known Renaissance Library: The Greek
Incunabula and Printed Editions of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza   163
Rosa Maria Piccione
The Greek Library of Guillaume Pellicier: The Role of the Scribe Ioannes
Katelos   177