A new sense of the past : the scholarship of Biondo Flavio (1392-1463)

289 Pages·01.335 MB·English

by  Gilbert Tournoy

SUPPLEMENTA
HUMANISTICALOVANIENSIA
XXXIX
SUPPLEMENTAHUMANISTICALOVANIENSIA
Editors: Prof.Dr.GilbertTournoy(Generaleditor)
Dr.GodelieveTournoy-Thoen
Prof.Dr.DirkSacré
EditorialCorrespondence: SeminariumPhilologiaeHumanisticae
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Thispublicationwasmadepossiblebythe
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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.
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e-ISBN9789461661913(e-PDF)
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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.