Table Of ContentTWO
RENAISSANCE
BOOK
HUNTERS
THE LETTERS OF
POGGIUS BRACCIOLINI TO
NICOLAUS DE NICCOLlS
Translated from the Latin
and annotated by
Phyllis Walter Goodhart Gordan
~
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
INTRODUCTION
The first half of the fifteenth century was a time almost as full of
change and upheaval as our own. Wars and social change were
going on everywhere. Values were being questioned, and estab
lished governments allover Europe were faced with rebellion.
In Eastern Europe the menace ofthe Turks was so serious that
the Byzantine Emperor traveled from Constantinople to Italy,
France, and England from 1399 to 1402 seeking financial and
military help. He found none because the rulers whom he visited
were themselves in a precarious position. The Hundred Years
War had already lasted for over sixty years. The rightful king of
England, Richard II, had been dethroned by a rebellious noble
man, his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. A great area of France had
fallen into the hands of the English, andthe king of France was
at odds with his most powerful vassal, the duke of Burgundy.
The emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was kept out of his
capital by the Hussites for sixteen years. In Italy in many cities
the families which had ruled during the fourteenth century had
been overthrown and exiled by new groups of citizens who de
rivedtheirpowerfrom the guilds and from the increasing strength
of the artisan class.
Nowhere was government at a lower ebb than in the papacy.
In 1377 Gregory XI returned to Rome after the popes had spent
nearly seventy years in Avignon. Within two years ofthe Pope:Js
return to Rome, two factions ofthe College ofCardinals elected
popes or anti-popes and the schism so begun lasted for almost
forty years.
It is difficult to say whether the spirit of questioning, research,
and political debate which characterized the Italian humanists
of the early fifteenth century was the cause or the result of the
disturbances around them. Humanists became passionately
interested in historical ·accounts of ancient times and devoted
to the study of ancient political theory. They studied the texts
which were available to them and argued about their own sys-
2 Introduction
terns ofgovernment in the light oftheirknowledge ofCicero and
Caesar. As they grew more concerned with their own responsi
bilities as citizens, they became ever more eagerfor the works of
Livy and Tacitus, for the lost orations of Cicero, and for trans
lations from the Greek ofthe works ofPlato, Aristotle, Xenophon,
Demosthenes, and Plutarch.
The humanists of the early fifteenth century built on the work
already done by Petrarch and Boccaccio to revive the knowledge
of Latin literature and history. By 1400, through such successors
of these great men as Coluccius Salutatus, Chancellor of Flor
ence, a starthad been made on locating and copying lostclassical
texts.
The next generation of humanists, many of them his friends
and pupils, were surprisingly successful in finding texts which·
had been lost for many centuries and were known only through
quotations and anthologies. Among the humanists most devoted
to the search for manuscripts and most eager to apply the ideas
ofancient authors to the problems oftheir own time were two of
Salutatus' pupils who were much later his successors as chan
cellor of the republic of Florence: Leonardus Brunus Aretinus
and Johannes Franciscus Poggius de Bracciolinis.
Poggius (1380-1459) left a total offive hundred and fifty-eight
letters, addressed to one hundred and seventy-two friends, foes,
acquaintances, and strangers. By far the largest single group of
letters, ninety-two in all, were written between 1406 and 1436
to his dearest friend, Nicolaus de Niccolis of Florence. These
ninety-two letters are the collection which Poggius himselffirst
chose to gather into a volume, with the help ofthe recipient, and
to circulate among his friends and admirers. The present book
contains Poggius' letters to Nicolaus, translated from the Latin
into English, unabridged, and annotated to explain all the per
sonalities and events mentioned.
Although Poggius himself chose this particular collection, it
gives a very incomplete picture of his correspondence. In it he
deals largely with his personal affairs and with th.e discovery and
copying of lost classical texts. This enterprise was a major inter
est of both Poggins' and Nicolaus'. To them we owe a very siz-
Introduction 3
able fraction of the classical Latin literature which has survived
to our era. Before the discoveries made by the Italian humanists
and predominantly by Poggius, and fostered, supported, and
copied by Nicolaus, as well as by the searchers individually, the
authors of ancient Rome were known by name, but their works
had in large measure not been seen for centuries. It is extraor
dinary that Poggius and a few other humanists should have had
sufficient knowledge and the quick-witted percipience to recog
nize the texts of Quintilian, Lucretius, Vitruvius, Petronius, and
Cicero, as well as many lesser authors, when they explored the
monastic libraries ofeastern France, the Rhineland, and Switzer
land in the decade of 1410-1420. Once he was established as the
chiefliterary scout ofhis period, Poggius became the focal point
ofthe literary discoveries made by others; they were reported to
him and offered to him for purchase or for copying. His letters to
Nicolaus are primarily concerned with this shared occupation.
Because some of the most exciting letters about the rediscovery
of classical texts were written by Poggius to friends other than
Nicolaus de Niccolis, or by them to him, or even by them to each
other, and so do not properly belong in this series, they are in
cluded in an appendix.
"Poggio, the son of Cuccio Bracciolini, was born on the
eleventh day of February, in the year 1380, at Terranuova, a
sInal1 town situated in the territory of the republic of Florence,
not far from Arezzo." Poggius received his early education in
Arezzo. When sixteen or seventeen years old, he moved to Flor
ence to study the profession ofnotary. There he came under the
influence ofthe distinguished and famous chancellor, Coluccius
Salutatus, himself a pupil of Petrarch, who was noted for his
splendid Latin style and his interest in the revival of classical
studies, both Creek and Latin. During Poggius' early years in
Florence, Salutatus introduced him to the search for lost texts.
Salutatus also trained Poggius in the copying of newly found
texts. He encouraged Poggius to study Greek, which was taught
in Florence in 1397 by Manuel Chrysoloras under the auspices
of Salutatus and Nicolaus de Niccolis.
In 1403, Poggius followed another distinguished and success-
4 Introduction
ful pupil ofSalutatus, Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, into the serv
ice of the Papacy in Rome. He and Leonardusbecame lifelong
friends and had similar literary and civic careers, Poggius follow
ing in Leonardus~footsteps most of the way. Poggius was very
successful in his service at the Curia, as is attested by the letter
ofcongratulation written him by Salutatus in February 1404, and
quickly became an apostolic secretary. He served in that capacity
for fifty years, except for an interlude offive years in the service
of Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and later Cardinal of
England. This interlude, 1418-1423, is copiously documented in
the letters in this volume. Poggius left the Curia in 1453, for the
sake ofthe future financial welfare ofhis young children. He left
his lifelong position because he was invited, atthe advanced age
of seventy-three, to become chancellor of the republic of Flor
ence after the death ofhis friend Carolus Marsuppinus Aretinus,
who is frequently mentioned in his letters to Nicolaus.
It must be remembered that Poggius worked in the Curia in a
very disturbed and stormy period. Between 1403 and 1417, when
Martin V was elected Pope at the Council of Constance, there
were three anti-popes. Poggius belonged to the Curia during the
reign of the anti-pope John XXIII (Baldassare Cossa) and ac
companied him to the Council of Constance, where he was de
posed. It was this period of turmoil for the Church which gave
Poggius his great opportunity to visitthe monasteries ofLangres,
Cluny, Fulda, and St. Gall and to make the great textual dis
coveries that made him famous and gave his letters value.
The reign of Martin V was relatively tranquil in regard to
factions within the Church, but Poggius~ letters testify to the
ruined condition ofRome, physically and financially, in the early
1420s. During the first two years ofhis reign, conditions in Rome
and in the Papal states were so disrupted that Martin V was
forced to stay in Florence, where he was mocked and made to
feel unwelcome. After he reached Rome in September 1420, his
government was in constant danger of attack by the mercenary
general Braccius de Montone, who was in the pay of Naples.
He remained a danger to the Pope until he was killed near
Aquila in May 1424. Martin was also in danger from Alfonsus of
Introduction 5
Aragon, who wanted to become king of Naples, and from Philip
pus Maria Vicecomes (Visconti), the duke of Milan, who fre
quently changed si~esand attacked states thought to be his
allies. Numerous cities which belonged to the papal states and
-were governed by papal legates rebelled during the 1420s,
notably Bologna and Perugia. By the tenth year of his reign
Martin V, by a combination ofdiplomacy and severity and a skill
ful use of the soldiers in his family, the Colonna, had overcome
most of his rebellious subjects and belligerent neighbors. His
financial troubles did not grow less. His military costs were high
and he had great difficulty in persuading the churches of Eng
land, France, and Germany thathe should receive the taxes, such
as the annates, which he expected from them. His troubles were
compounded by the Hussite heretics in central Europe, espe
cially Bohemia, who believed in national and local control ofthe
church and had so little intention of obeying the rule of Rome
that in 1426 Martin V sent a crusade against them.
Shortly after Martin's death, in the reign of Eugenius IV, the
troubles worsened. The controversy about where the real and
ultimate power belonged (to the pope or to the council of
cardinals, bishops, and other churchmen} had been only ap
parently settled at Constance. The dispute had already revived
early inthe reign of Martin V and was a matter for discussion at
the Council of Siena in 1424. It had split the Church during the
great schism of 1378-1417 and split it again, though less danger
ously, in the reign ofEugenius IV, for the duration ofthe Council
of Basel, sixteen years, 1431-1447. During the long years ofthe
Council of Basel, the wanderings of the Pope and his entourage
began again when he escaped in disguise from Rome in 1434.
Indeed the last letter in this volume was written from Bologna,
where the Curia was temporarily settled after two years in.
Florence; they returned to Florence for the Council of union
with the Greek Church in 1439 and were absent from Romefor
almost ten years.
All these matters and anxieties are covered in letters which
Poggius wrote to other friends, both lay and clerical, in the years
when he was writing to Nicolaus. From the period beforethe end
6 Introduction
of his correspondence with Nicolaus, who died on 4 February
1437, we have about one hundred letters to other friends. Some
three hundred and fifty letters exist which belong to the twenty
two years between the death ofNicolaus and Poggius' own death
in October 1459.
These letters cover literature, politics, religion, domestic
felicity and his marriage very late in life, child-raising, quarrels,
scandal, and catastrophes of nature. Some letters are particu
larly interesting for the view they give of the problems of the
Church in the fifteenth century which led to the Protestant
reform movement of the sixteenth. Poggius was never in holy
orders but was a papal bureaucrat. It was in his interest for the
Church to have temporal, military, and financial security and his
letters reflect that. Yet they also reflect his concern that the
material prosperity of the Church and its hierarchy was contrary
to the religious principles upon which it was founded. The let
ters in which he ratherfumblingly discusses his anxiety overthis
contradiction make very interesting reading in the twentieth
century.
Poggius wrote letters very widely, in Italy and abroad, to men
of all ranks of society. Some of them he met at the Council of
Constance and addressed with familiarity thenceforth. This is
true of Cardinal Beaufort and two other English clerics. We still
have a letter (IX, 7; Vol. 11,308-315) written by Poggius to Beau
fort in 1446, seeking money for a crusade against the Turks,
which contains all the cliches used in a fund-raising lettertoday.
The letter which Poggius wrote to Prince Henry the Navigator,
whom he never met, is much more in the spiritofa modern letter
to the press. Poggius, by then a recognized stylistand influential
member ofthe papal bureaucracy, wrote to Henry in praise ofhis
expeditions to Africa, to encourage him to spread Christianity,
by force or by peaceful means.
This accounts for Poggius' personal correspondence, selected
by him or by his surviving friends to be preserved for posterity.
There is also the vast bulk of Poggius' official correspondence
preserved in the Vatican Archives, which has scarcely been
studied at all and certainly not in relation to Poggius and his
Introduction 7
other activities. This consists of hundreds of the Vatican and
Lateran Registers which contain copies, very often in Poggius'
well-known hand, of his official correspondence for the popes
whom he served. These letters were written to kings, princes,
bishops, abbots, and even lowly clerics, and to secular civil
servants alloverEurope. Theycovereverythingfrom far-reaching
moral pronouncements to individual safe conducts for travel in
papal territory. For instance, Poggius wrote the documents per
mitting Henry VI to found Eton College, which began its ex~
istence as a religious foundation ofthe Roman Catholic Church.
There are even registers wholly 'in Poggius' own hand, which is
easy to recognize if one is familiar with the copies of classical
texts written by him and preserved in the Vatican and the
Laurentian libraries. These official letters and any letters which
.may have survived in the Florentine archives from his short
tenure as chancellor would certainly reward further and exten
sive study.
Poggius' letters have come down to us mainly through three
great manuscripts: Cod. Riccardianus 759, Cod. Laurentianus
47,20, and Cod. Pragensis 94 (Prague: University Library Cod.
I.C.3). These manuscripts contain the letters which were
originally collected on three separate occasions. First there are
those in this volume, Hpublished" by Poggius himself in 1436.
Then there is a second collection which he first made in 1438
comprising letters to his many other friends, which he dedicated
tothe Archbishop Loisius, identified by Wilmanns as Ludovicus
Scarampus-Mezzarota. Poggius himself revised and augmented
this second collection in 1445. The third collection ofletters was
put together by Poggius in six Hbooks" in 1455. After Poggius'
death, his friends added a seventh book·, his letters of1455-1459.
Items 87 and 88 of the inventory of Poggius' books made when
he died are the first and second volumes of his own letters,
written on paper, and the first volume bound in green leather.
Some of Poggius' letters, included in these three major manu
scripts and forming part of the three collections, appear in
numerous manuscripts with letters of other humanists. This is '
particularly true ofLetter III in this volume, which describes his
8 Introduction
visit to the baths at Baden, and ofhis famous letter to Leonardus
Brunus Aretinus from Constance, describing the trial and execu
tion of the Hussite, Jerome of Prague. There are a few letters
which have been located individually or in groups in isolated
manuscripts; the most rewarding ofthese is the three-way corre
spondence between Poggius and Philelphus, who were at each
other's throats for many years·, and the man who succeeded in
reconciling them, the Venetian physician Petrus Thomasius.
These letters were unknown until found by Ernst Walser in
Bergamo in Cod. AII,32. .
Poggius' .practice of issuing his letters, long after they were
written, in book form has createdconsiderable controversy about
their authenticity. Some modern critics have gone so far as to say
that none of his letters were actual correspondence but were all
written purely as examples of stylistic effect. This seems im
probable because oftheir great number and great variety ofcon
tent and recipient as well as the fact that so many of them deal
with matters that were of immense importance to him. The
opinion of his very thorough and inquiring biographer, Ernst
Walser, seems more reasonable: that the letters were indeed
written by Poggius originally and primarily for the eye of his
particular correspondent but also written from the outset with
deep concern for style and then much revised when Poggius
prepared them for publication.
Long after Poggius' other writings were available in print and
reprinted in nearly every century, his letters were mysteriously
a rarity. They were edited in the nineteenth century by Thomas
· de Tonellis of Florence from the manuscript in the Riccardiana,
and printed in three volumes: Volume I in 1832, Volume II in
1859, and Volume III in 1861. Volume I is moderately available
in the big libraries ofthe United States and Europe, butVolumes
II and III inexplicably vanished, except for three sets in the
Vatican, a set reported before 1914 to be in Berlin, and a set also
then reported to be in Florence, which in 1935 was found at
Harvard. The rarity ofthese volumes made it necessary for every
one working on Poggius' letters to use photostats or microfilm
until these three volumes were reissued photomechanically by
Introduction 9
Riccardo Fubini in his edition of Poggius' complete works, as
Volume III, in 1964.
Poggius circulated his letters with no biographical intent,
apparently, but because his contemporaries.wanted them forthe
study of rhetoric and style. They have not come down to us
copied in chronological order, though we cannot be sure that
Poggius did not originally intend that they should. Our only ex
planation of their utterly jumbled order in the Codex Riccardi
anus, from which Tonelli derived his text, is an interpretation of
Poggius' letter, VI, 7 to the dedicatee, Franciscus Marescalcus.
In it he says: "If you want the gatherings, unbound as they are,
I shall arrange to have them sent to you; but ifyou want to wait
for the volume to be finished and bound, do as you please."
Tonelli did a masterly job of dating a great mass ofundated and
even, occasionally, quite clearly misdated letters which he pub
lished in chronological order. In a very few instances his dating
seems to be wrong, and a different date, derived from internal
evidence, is supplied in this edition. For thatreason this volume
has a concordance of its order with Tonelli's.
It may seem strange, in an English translation ofLatin letters,
to annotate the many phrases quoted from classical authors,
especially since so many ofthem are embedded in the textwith
out any indication of being quotations. That is the very reason
for their being annotated: they were so much a part of Poggiusl'
mental furniture. They indicate what came most readily to his
mind, what he had most recently and frequently been reading,
what he had been copying. He quoted constantly from Terence,
with whomit is natural for the author ofthe Facetiae to have had
an affinity. He quoted a great deal from the various orations of
Cicero which he himself had found at Langres and Cluny. In
times of special adversity, he quoted from the Bible and the
Church Fathers. In a few of his letters there are sentences or
paragraphs which areaveritable mosaic ofquotations(see Letter
III, notes 18....21; LetterXLVIII, notes 11-14; andLetterLXXXIII,
notes 10-13, 15) from three or four Latin authors in succession.
One wonders whether he wrote this way because the phrases
flowed so easily into his mind or whether these sentences are
