Pro patria mori: From the Disticha Catonis to Dante's Cato

31 Pages·2017·0.58 MB·English

Pro patria mori: From the Disticha Catonis to Dante’s Cato
Filippo Gianferrari
Dante Studies, Volume 135, 2017, pp. 1-30 (Article)
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/das.2017.0000
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/686851
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Pro patria mori: From the
Disticha Catonis to Dante’s Cato
Filippo Gianferrari
Fuit enim illi continue spiritus aliqualis, tremulus tamen et
semivivus potius quam virtute aliqua validus, ut in Catone,
Prospero, Pamphilo et Arrighetto florentino presbitero, ter-
minus quorum sunt opuscula parva nec ullam antiquatis
dulcedinem sapientia. Verum evo nostro ampliores a celo
venere viri, si satis adverto, quibus cum sint ingentes animi,
totis viribus pressam relevare, et ab exilio in pristinas revo-
care sedes mens est: nec frustra. Videmus autem, nec te
legisse pigebit, ante alios nota dignos, seu vidisse potuimus,
celebrem virum, et in phylosophie laribus versatum Dantem
Allegherii nostrum [. . .]
—Giovanni Boccaccio, Letter to Iacopo Pizzinga (1371)1
[In Italy there was always a spirit, though tremulous and
but partly alive, rather than strong and vigorous, as in Cato,
Prosper, Pamphilo, and Henry the Florentine priest; all they
accomplished are petty volumes without the sweetness of the
ancient wisdom. Truly, in our own time more illustrious
men came from heaven—if I am not mistaken—who, as
people of magnanimous spirit, aim with all their strengths to
lift the oppressed [Italy] and lead her back from exile and to
her ancient seat, and not in vain. Furthermore, we consider,
before anyone who deserves note, if we can see—and you
would not be unhappy with it—a famous man, well versed
also in philosophy, our Dante Alighieri . . .]
Vol. 135:1–30 © 2017 Dante Society of America
Dante Studies 135, 2017
*
A
s Giovanni Boccaccio’s Epistle to Iacopo Pizzinga reveals, it was
common practice in late medieval Europe to identify the name
“Cato” with neither Cato the Elder nor Cato Uticensis, but
rather with the mysterious author of the Disticha Catonis. The majority
of readers associated the name “Cato” with this text.2 However, dantisti
who have wrestled with the poet’s enigmatic representation of Cato
have seldom taken note of this evidence. John Scott, Betsy Bowden,
and Zygmunt Baran´ski have all considered the Disticha Catonis in their
interpretation of the Purgatorial Cato.3 In particular, Scott concluded
that: “the author of the Commedia was convinced—primarily through
his reading of the Pharsalia and the Disticha Catonis . . . —that Cato
had been granted the grace of implicit faith.”4 These studies, however,
offer no comprehensive analysis of the actual extent and quality of the
Disticha’s influence on Dante’s reception and Christianization of Cato.
The present article, therefore, aims to fill this lacuna and reappraise the
significance of Dante’s Cato in light of the fortune and function of the
Disticha Catonis in medieval education.
Robert Hollander famously argued that Dante’s Christianization of
Cato was unprecedented, and that “whatever rationale we may find
for his salvation by Dante, we must remember that the poet expected
us to be amazed.”5 Hollander’s thesis sprung from the realization that
Dante’s transformation of the ancient suicide into a Christian martyr
elicited the disquiet of some among the ancient commentators on the
Commedia—sometimes stirring up critical reactions, as in Benvenuto
da Imola’s case.6 Dante himself contributes to the suspense surrounding
the destiny of Cato Uticensis. In Inferno 14, when the pilgrim is about
to leave the wood of the suicides and squanderers to enter the fiery
desert of the violent, the poet compares the new landscape to the desert
crossed by Cato:
Lo spazzo era una rena arida e spessa,
non d’altra foggia fatta che colei
che fu da’ piè di Caton già soppressa.
(Inf. 14.13–15)
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Pro patria mori Filippo Gianferrari
Dante names Cato here for the obvious purpose of calling attention to
his absence in the place where one would have expected to find him,
among the suicides.
The hypothesis that Dante’s Christianization of Cato was an unex-
pected slap in the face of any medieval reader still holds sway in cur-
rent scholarship, as consideration of recent studies confirms.7 Scholars
such as Angelo Mangini, however, have recently questioned the core
assumption of this thesis: namely, that Dante’s representation of Cato in
Purgatory would be unproblematic and unambiguous.8 Engaging in a
dialogue with both interpretive strains, I will argue that Dante’s Chris-
tianization of Cato was unprecedented only with regard to the ancient
classical sources considered by the poet, whereas it was a view shared
by some in the context of medieval education.9
As Remigius of Auxerre’s commentary on the Disticha Catonis makes
clear, there were some who believed that in ancient Rome there was a
certain Cato—the author of the Disticha—who was a Christian: “quid-
am eum Christianum esse profitentur” [some openly declare that he
was a Christian].10 The reception of the Disticha paved the way for
the posthumous construction of a Christian Cato. We need to reflect,
therefore, on the possibility that Cato’s salvation might not have repre-
sented a shocking revelation for a medieval reader. Such an observation
may appear to be contradicted by Benvenuto da Imola’s outburst at the
discovery of Dante’s very great mistake, “error satis enormis.”11 Yet, in
his proto-humanist dismay, Benvenuto feels compelled to point out that
the Purgatorial Cato, i.e. Cato Uticensis, is not to be confused with the
author of the Disticha Catonis.12 Benvenuto’s commentary reveals that
late-medieval culture was divided between two traditions of Cato: a
learned one that acknowledged the historical significance of Cato Uti-
censis’s life, and a rather less sophisticated one that associated the name
“Cato” with the ethical universe distilled into the Disticha.
If we are to understand precisely how Dante hoped to surprise his
readers by redeeming Cato Uticensis, we need to take into account the
medieval reception of the Disticha Catonis. The following analysis will
also help reconstruct an aspect of the “cultural literacy” shared by the
poet and his readers: i.e., the “stock of background information that
enables literate people to communicate effectively through reading,
writing and speaking.”13
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Dante Studies 135, 2017
*
The Disticha, or Dicta Catonis, is a four-book collection of distich hex-
ameters that contains moralizing sententiae written by an unnamed father
to his son. The dating and authorship of the work remain uncertain.
Scholars generally date the Disticha to the third century AD, but some
argue that the basic material may date as early as the second.14 As for
the work’s author, the only certainty is that neither Cato the Elder nor
Cato Uticensis could possibly have written the eponymous distichs.
The introduction to the second book of the Disticha specifically refers to
Lucan’s Pharsalia, which neither of the Catos lived to read. Despite this
obvious fact, the name “Cato” was bound to the title of the Disticha as
early as the ninth century.15
Confusion surrounded the identities of the different Catos from
the first century onward.16 Medieval commentators on the Disticha
were usually able to identify at least two different Catos from antiq-
uity—Cato the Elder, also known as the Censor, and Cato Uticensis:
“Duo Catones erant Romae, Censorius Cato et Uticensis Cato [There
were two Catos at Rome, Cato the Censor and Cato of Utica].” But
they seldom possessed a greater knowledge than this, and could barely
distinguish the deeds of one Cato from those of the other: “Ideo Cen-
sorius dicitur Cato, quia bonus iudex erat et bene et iuste de omnibus
iudicabat; ideo autem Uticensis Cato dicitur, quia devicit Uticam”
[Cato the Censor is so called because he was a good judge, and gave
good judgments on all matters. Cato of Utica is so called because
he conquered Utica].17 As for the Disticha’s authorship, they either
attributed it to the Censor (“Sed Censorius Cato cum videret iuvenes et
puellas in magno errore versari, scripsit hunc libellum ad filium suum”
[When Cato the Censor saw that the young men and girls were living
very wicked lives he wrote this book to his son]); excluded both and
argued that a third “Cato” wrote the Disticha (“neuter illorum fuit iste
Cato” [neither of them was this Cato]); or simply admitted their lack of
information on this matter (“vel Cato vel alius—nam auctor incertus
est—” [either one Cato or the other—for the author is unknown]).18
Only Vincent de Beauvais appears to have identified the author of the
Disticha as Cato Uticensis.19
The medieval exegetical tradition on the Disticha displays a contin-
uous but ultimately unsuccessful effort to pin down the identity of the
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Pro patria mori Filippo Gianferrari
author of this work. Lacking the necessary information to distinguish
the lives of the ancient Catos, medieval glossography identified as many
as twelve ancient individuals who bore the name “Cato,” and six pos-
sible authors of the Disticha.20 Some commentators instead suggested
that the Disticha was not by Cato, but by other ancient authors: “solet
dici quod Tullius hoc opus composuit, et nomine persona Catonis hoc
opus intitulavit” [it is often said that Tully wrote this work, and titled it
with the name of Cato].21 The Disticha thus became inseparably linked
to Cato’s name on account of its contents and subject matter, not because
of any firm evidence of its authorship: “alii dicunt quod huic libello
nomen non ab auctore, sed a materia sit inditum: ‘catus enim sapiens
est’ ” [Others say that this book got its name, not from its author, but
from the subject matter. For catus means “wise”].22
Beginning in late antiquity and continuing until the early modern peri-
od, the Disticha became a “bestseller” of the genre of wisdom-l iterature,
and occupied primary place in the elementary reading program.23 From
the ninth to the sixteenth century, most European schoolboys had
read, parsed, and memorized the Disticha Catonis, an indication that its
centrality went unchallenged even as the medieval education system
was upended by Renaissance humanism.24 Examining a selection of
manuscripts dating from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, Marcus
Boas describes the development of a scholastic anthology that he names
Liber Catonianus: in the ninth century this Latin primer comprised only
the Disticha and Avianus, but by degrees other works were added to it:
the Latin Iliad, Theodulus, Maximinianus, and finally Statius’s Achilleid and
Claudian’s De raptu Proserpinae.25 This miscellaneous collection seems,
at least on occasion, to have carried the titles Libri de moribus or Libri
ethicorum. Boas’s conclusions have been substantially revised, as evidence
shows that the medieval grammar curriculum was considerably less
structured and uniform than imagined.26 Nonetheless, the status of the
texts that formed the Liber in medieval education cannot be questioned.
Recent studies have confirmed the relevance of the Disticha Catonis in
medieval Florentine education.27 In Italian schools from the thirteenth
century onward, pupils at the beginning of the language curriculum
were expected to master the Donato (also called Donado, Donà, or Donao)
and the Cato.28 Moreover, among the wealth of Italian translations of the
Disticha that were produced between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries,
seven volgarizzamenti come from Tuscany.29
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Dante Studies 135, 2017
The role of the Disticha was, therefore, to provide an introduction to
Latin literacy, as well as the rudiments of morality. The hundreds of quo-
tations from the Disticha—in both literary and non-literary texts—show
that the work left “an indelible imprint on the minds of the young.”30 A
large number of quotations attributed to “Cato” in thirteenth-century
works are actually drawn from the Disticha.31 The school-text spread
the ancient tradition of an idealized Cato, the embodiment of honesty,
prudence, and human wisdom.32 This symbolic vision of Cato resulted
from an amalgamation of values loosely derived from ancient Stoic and
Christian ethics. The tradition of the “exemplary” Cato reaches back to
the ancient auctores, such as Cicero, Virgil, Valerius Maximus, Seneca,
and Lucan. Furthermore, since antiquity, education played a pivotal role
in the idealization of Cato’s name, as it became the subject of model
sentences for linguistic drill and rhetorical exercises.33 Thanks to the
popularity of the Disticha, as well as to sententiae and proverbia collected in
florilegia and collections of exempla, this idealization of Cato consolidated
during the Middle Ages.34
Most importantly, however, the Disticha Catonis was instrumental
in the full-fledged Christianization of Cato, which distinguishes the
medieval afterlife of this famous figure. Although the morality of the
Disticha Catonis is worldly and with no significant religious dimension,
commentaries reveal its Christianization during the medieval period.
Despite Augustine’s condemnation of Cato’s suicide, which was echoed
by other patristic authors, medieval glossography associated Cato’s name
with biblical characters and even with Christ. In particular, the Disticha
Catonis were often compared to Solomon’s Proverbs, drawing a parallel
between their two authors.35
While medieval commentators strove to identify with precision the
different Catos from antiquity, the practice of quoting the distichs in
medieval texts shows an altogether different attitude. Most medieval
authors cite the Disticha simply as Cato dicit. Such a loose citation prac-
tice contributed to the confusion around the identities of the author
of the Disticha and the two famous Catos. As Delphine Carron states,
“Ces trois Caton [i.e. Cato the Censor, Cato Uticensis, and the author
of the Disticha] ont facilement pu être confondus ou assimilés au Moyen
Âge, ayant en commun leur origine romaine et leur goût de l’intégrité
morale.”36 The different contexts in which the Disticha were quoted
suggests their association of the Disticha with one or the other Cato.
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Pro patria mori Filippo Gianferrari
For instance, Brunetto Latini attributes quotations from the Disticha to
“Cato” at least eleven times in his Tresor.37 The other times in which
Cato’s name appears in the work, however, Brunetto clearly identifies
Cato Uticensis in his opposition against Catiline’s conspiracy. Hence,
Brunetto’s practice of referring generically to “Cato” as both the author
of the Disticha and as Cato Uticensis invites their substantial assimila-
tion.38 Even though Dante never cites the Disticha Catonis, nor attributes
them to Cato Uticensis, most likely the poet knew the content of the
famous school text. Scholars have already pointed to possible echoes
of some of the sententiae from the Disticha Catonis in Dante’s oeuvre:
Fiore 133.2–4, Convivio 1.2–3, Purgatorio 1 and 16.7.39 When considered
against the context of contemporary authors, such as Brunetto, Dante’s
apparent lack of interest on the Disticha in his discussion of Cato rep-
resents a fascinating anomaly—his deliberate choice never to quote the
Disticha as Cato dicit deserves some consideration.
*
The Convivio represents the best place to start investigating Dante’s
interpretation of Cato. In the last book of the Convivio, Dante increas-
ingly exploits this ancient exemplary figure. Compared to the limited
references to Cato in both the Commedia (two mentions) and the Monar-
chia (also two), the eight occurrences in Convivio 4 alone are arresting—
what could be the reason behind Cato’s overwhelming presence?
One way to explore this question is to assess the subject matter of
Convivio 4. Scholars have now recognized that the Convivio is a “textual
hybrid” and that, although its fourth book foregrounds the procedure
of the scholastic quaestio, “other approaches vigorously intrude” on the
text.40 Critical contributions have highlighted the different, yet concur-
rent, features of Convivio 4, but most scholars agree that the Convivio,
and particularly the fourth treatise, serves a practical and education-
al purpose—the poet offers moral guidance to those who have gone
astray from the diritto calle: “propuosi di gridare alla gente che per mal
cammino andavano acciò che per diritto calle si drizzasse[ro]” (4.1.9).41
In particular, the poet hopes to correct some mistaken and deeply
entrenched cultural assumptions about human nobility: “Oh come è
grande la mia impresa in questa canzone, a volere omai così trifoglioso
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Dante Studies 135, 2017
campo sarchiare, come quello della comune sentenza, sì lungamente
da questa cultura abandonato!” (4.7.4).42 Later, in Chapter 24, Dante
clarifies that among the designated readers of Convivio 4 are young men
who would not be able to keep on the right path without the example
offered by older and wiser people: “così l’adolescente che entra nella
selva erronea di questa vita, non saprebbe tenere lo buono cammino, se
dalli suoi maggiori non li fosse mostrato” (4.24.12). Dante sets out to
deal with what was considered “oppinione del vulgo” (4.7.2) in order
to clear away incorrect assumptions and to point his readers to the
right authorities and examples. As Dante argues, misunderstandings of
the nature and source of nobility come from flawed premises, which a
re-education of the reader should attempt to correct, as “molti idioti che
non saprebbero l’a.b.c. e vorrebbero disputare in geometria, in astrologia
e in fisica” (4.15.16).
Some of Dante’s formulations closely recall the dedicatory epistle that
opens the Disticha Catonis—the so-called Epistola Catonis. Here “Cato”
explains to his son that, after seeing so many young people stray from
the path of righteousness, he has made up his mind to help them and
correct their mistaken views:
“Cum animadverterem quam plurimos graviter in via morum errare, succurrendum
opinioni eorum et consulendum famae existimavi, maxime ut gloriose viverent et
honorem contingerent.” (Ep. Cat., emphases mine).
[As I noticed the very great number of those who go seriously astray in the path of
conduct, I decided that I should come to the aid of their belief and take thought for
their reputation, so that they might live with the utmost glory and attain honor.]
Like Dante in Convivio 4, Cato sets out to help those who are being
sidetracked in via morum and take them back to the right path. More
importantly, however, the terms with which the two texts define their
aims are identical: as Dante sets out to reform the “opinione del volgo,”
so Cato writes his distichs in order to succurrere “opinioni eorum.”43
Furthermore, in the last chapters of the Convivio, Dante recommends
several of the moral values also taught by the Disticha Catonis, including
the necessity to discipline the tongue (DC 1.3 : Conv. 4.2.8); the scorn
of wealth and avarice (DC 2.19 : Conv. 4.13.6–17); the requirement to
show deference to fathers, older people, and teachers (Brevis sententia,
DC 4.6 : Conv. 24.18); the necessity for old men to serve as positive
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Pro patria mori Filippo Gianferrari
examples for young people (DC 1.16 : Conv. 4.24.12); and, finally, the
importance of obedience and verecundia (Brevis sententia : Conv. 4.25.10,
4.26.2). Some of these prescriptions were, of course, common features
of the gnomic genre, but the number of moral values endorsed by both
the Convivio and the Disticha is worth noting.44
The more Dante progresses in his treatment of nobility, the more
he refers to auctoritates from the genre of wisdom-literature, such as the
biblical books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the Gospels, Cicero and Seneca,
and finally Aesop.45 Among these authorities, Solomon and his Prov-
erbs feature prominently. Starting with Chapter 16, Dante increasingly
addresses the biblical king as the third major authority of Book 4—the
other two being Aristotle and the Emperor. Dante even identifies with
Solomon: “E però io nel cominciamento di questo capitolo posso parlare
con la bocca di Salomone” (4.5.2).46 As recalled above, in the Middle
Ages, the Disticha Catonis were also seen as a popular auctoritas belonging
to the genre of wisdom-literature, with a particular focus on the conduct
of the virtuous man, which is also the primary subject matter discussed
in Convivio 4. For this reason, medieval exegesis on the Disticha con-
stantly associated Cato with Solomon. Medieval glossography identified
several passages from the Disticha with teachings from the Proverbs and
the Ecclesiastes, and deemed the author of the school booklet “the wisest
of men since Solomon, old Cato.”47 Furthermore, as Dante remarks
in Convivio 4.24.16, Solomon’s purpose in the Proverbs is to correct the
moral conduct of the young in order to make them “glorious”: “E però
scrive Salomone nelli Proverbii che quelli che umilemente e obedi-
entemente sostiene [d]al correttore le sue corrett[iv]e riprensioni, ‘sarà
glorioso’; e dice ‘sarà,’ a dare a intendere che elli parla allo adolescente, che
non puote essere nella presente etade.” The author of the Disticha Catonis
endorses the same purpose in the education system he is proposing—in
the Epistula he maintains that the purpose of his moral reform is to help
young people “ut gloriose viverent.” Both Solomon’s Proverbs and Cato’s
distichs, therefore, equate the goal of perfect moral conduct with the
achievement of glory. This parallel is worth noting even though Dante
and the Disticha most likely invest the term “glory” with radically dif-
ferent meanings. A semantic rewiting of the Disticha’s moral teachings
might have been precisely the poet’s purpose.
The unparalleled wealth of references to Cato that Dante concen-
trates in Convivio 4 summons the celebrated pair of medieval education,
9