1 See Walser, Ernst, Poggius Florentinm, Leben and Werke (Leipzig and Berlin, 1913)Google Scholar, the best biography.

2 For the revolutionary character of this criticism, the way in which structures whose elaboration had, for so long, been uncritically accepted came, suddenly, to seem unnatural and undesirable, see the classic discussion of Haller, J., Papstum und Kirchenreform (Berlin, 1903)Google Scholar.

3 For evidence of Poggio's vulnerability to contemporary criticisms on account of his uninhibited way of life, see his Epistolario, ed. Tomasso di Tonelli, I (Florence, 1832), 107, where an English emissary characterizes the secretary as a ‘vile, ribald ass.’ For a modern Catholic historian whose sternness in these matters surpasses even that of the fifteenth century, see Von Pastor, L., The History of the Popes, from the End of the Middle Ages, I (London, 1923)Google Scholar. Pastor considers Poggio ‘as a man, one of the most repulsive figures of the period’ (p. 29).

4 On the humanist secretaries and their functions in the late medieval church see Hoffman, W., Forschungen zur Geschichte der kurialen Behörden (Rome, 1914)Google Scholar. Poggio's short, angry Invectiva in delatores, written in 1426, shows the tensions to which, increasingly, the humanist secretary was subjected in a reforming age (Poggio Bracciolini, Opera Omnia, ed. R. Fubini, 4 vols. [Turin, 1964-69], II, 709-717). For the career and writings of Antonio Loschi, who deserves more careful study, see Schio, Giovanni da, Sulla vita e sugli scritti di Antonio Loschi vicentino (Padua, 1858)Google Scholar. On Loschi's role in the curia see Voigt, G., Il risorgimento dell'antichità classica, 2 vols. (Florence, 1890), II, 19–22 Google Scholar.

5 There is no good study of the Osservanti. See Origo, Iris, The World of San Bernardino (London, 1963), pp. 205–228 Google Scholar.

6 See Epistolario, 1, 296. Also, Origo, World of San Bernardino, p. 220.

7 ‘Haec igitur cum ita decreta essent, mihique nota, qui ilia edideram, essem autem in patria, audiremque silvas cedi, locum designari, aedificia tolli; dixi statim id fieri non posse propter novas leges.’ Epistolario, I, 299.

8 See Brucker, Gene, Renaissance Florence (New York, 1969), pp. 190–194 Google Scholar.

9 ‘Frater Bernardinus homo doctus, et prudens affert ad suos sermones summam moderationem, summamque in dicendo diligentiam: unum, quod videbatur in eo paulo reprehendendum, magna cum aequitate animi omisit, atque ita versutus est plurimis in locis, ut nullius erroris, aut commotionis in populo causam pnebuerit.’ Epistolario, I, 297.

10 ‘Nam quod mentio fratris Bernardini displicit, eaque in Dialogum introductio; id ego non feci ad eum laudandum, sed ad exagitandum paulisper hos molestos latratores, ac rabulas francos. Simul per eorum ineptias visum est apte subjici posse quibus in rebus delinquant, cum non reprehendant ea vitia, quae magis vulgo nocent.’ Ibid., p. 279. A critical text of this letter has been published by Helene Harth in her article ‘Niccolò Niccoli als Literarischer Zensor: Untersuchungen zur Textgeschichte von Poggio's De Avaritia,’ Rinascimento, 2nd ser., 7 (1967), 35.

11 See Origo, World of San Bernardino, p. 228: ‘It was Saint Francis’ own spirit that he renewed.’

12 See Garin, E., L'umanesimo italiano, 2nd ed. (Bari, 1965), pp. 47–48 Google Scholar, on the relationship between Bruni and the mendicants.

13 Canfini, Gustavo, ‘San Bernardino da Siena, perfetto predicatore popolare,’ in San Bernardino da Siena: saggi e ricerche pubblicati nel quinto centenario della morte (Milan: Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, 1945), pp. 203–245 Google Scholar.

14 Ilarino da Milano, ‘San Bernardino da Siena e l'Osservanza Minoritica,’ ibid., p. 387: ‘Il balzo dalle humiles aediculae della prima età agli elegantia coenobia, dai tuguri e dalle cappelle all'arte sobria e decorosa delle chiese stilizzate ed ornate come templi e dei conventi spaziati e luminosi, segna esteriormente l'ingresso dell'Osservanza nel mondo della Rinascita.’

15 See Veggio's life of Bernardino in Luke Wadding, Annates Minorum, 25 vols. (Rome, 1731-1886), x, 8: ‘tantum apud animas hominum valet ut nihil plus eo valere maximi oratores attestantur.’

16 See Joseph Bernard, ‘San Bernardino of Siena: His Relation to the Humanist World of the Early Italian Renaissance’ (PH.D. diss., Yale University, 1972).

17 By Roover, Raymond De, in his San Bernardino of Siena and Sanf Antonino of Florence: The Two Great Economic Thinkers of the Middle Ages (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)Google Scholar.

18 Published in San Bernardino da Siena, La fonte della vita, ed. G. V. Sabatelli (Florence, 1964).

19 It is first mentioned in November 1428 in a letter to Francesco Barbaro: ‘Ego enim nonnihil tibi excudi, sed edere non audeo propter tempora: est enim contra avaritiam.’ Epistolario, 1, 260. Helene Harth has traced the inspiration of Poggio's On Avarice to a series of Roman sermons of 1429 in her ‘Niccolo Niccoli,’ p. 260. Whether the content of the Roman sermons differed significantly from that of the Sienese one is another, open question, but it seems unlikely.

20 San Bernardino da Siena, La fonte della vita, pp. 412ff.

21 This was to be San Bernardino's last major point, as he outlined the contents of his sermon: ‘El settimo ci agognamo, che è di Scoto, che per lo ben comune si dìe esercitare la mercantia.’ Ibid., p. 371.

22 ‘Tu hai veduto diciotto modi di peccato sopra de le mercantie, dove puoi avere compresi i modi di poterli esercitare senza peccato al mondo e al modo che ci amaestrano e sacri dottori.’ Ibid., p. 406.

23 Ibid., p. 371.

24 See die article by Baron, Hans, ‘Franciscan Poverty and Civic Wealth as Factors in the Rise of Humanistic Thought,’ Speculum, 13 (1938), 1–37 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 See Schreiber, Edmund, Die Volkswirtschaftlichen Anschauungen der Scholastic seit Thomas von Aquin (Jena, 1913), p. 154 Google Scholar: ‘Fast mit einer gewissen Warme wird die industria, diligentia und sollicitudo des Kaufmanns hervorgehoben…. So bezeichnet Duns Scotus den Handel als ein ehrenhaftes und nützbringendes “servitium communitatis”.’

26 ‘legislator autem Justus deberet conducere operas transferentium res, quibus indiget Respublica, ergo et ipsi possunt suos labores, industriam, pericula, et reliqua pretio aestimabilia vendere.’ Quaestiones in Quartum Librum Sententiarum, dist. 15, question 2, in Scotus, Joannes Duns, Opera Omnia, XII (Paris, 1904), 318 Google Scholar.

27 Roover, Raymond De, San Bernardino of Siena and Sant’ Antonino of Florence, pp. 9–16 Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., pp. 16-23.

29 Ibid., p. 7.

30 McGovern, John F., ‘The Rise of New Economic Attitudes—Economic Humanism, Economic Nationalism—during the Later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, A.D. 1200-1500,’ Traditio, 26 (1970), 232 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. McGovern, in his useful survey, argues that humanist attitudes parallel those of the mendicants on economic questions. I am going to argue the reverse: that humanists began to write on economic matters in reaction against this sort of preaching. My argument, however, only applies to a particular work, On Avarice, in a particular setting, that of curial humanism.

31 San Bernardino and Sant'Antonino, p. 41.

32 See Poggio's dialogue Contra hypocritas, in his Opera Omnia, II, 45-80. Leonardo Bruni composed another attack on the mendicants, with the same title.

33 ‘Eice ergo tu, mercator et artifex, hanc ancillam et filium eius [i.e., avarice and her ‘son,’ usury] de corde tuo. Quos tunc illos vere eicies, cum secundum rectitudinem et iustitiam ilia perficies… .’ San Bernardino da Siena, ‘De mercationibus et artificibus,’ Quadragesimale de Evangelio Aeterno, Sermon 33 (San Bernardino of Siena, Opera Omnia, IV [Florence, 1956], 141).

34 ‘in mercatione concurrunt multa pro reipublicae servitio et utilitate.’ Ibid., p. 142.

35 ‘Primo quidem probatur via naturae licitam esse mercationem.’ Ibid., p. 142.

36 ‘insuper addi potest quod cum antedictis industriis, sollicitudinibus, laboribus et periculis non semper lucrosis haec exercent; et quia ex his omnibus reipublicae sunt utiles et opportuni… inde possunt et debent rationaliter reportare.’ Ibid., p. 143.

37 See De Roover's more extended discussion in his San Bernardino and Sant'Antonino.

38 ‘De mercationibus et artificibus,’ p. 143.

39 Though, according to Raymond De Roover, he did elsewhere. See San Bernardino and Sant'Antonino, p. 10.

40 ‘contra tales loquitur Chrysostomus, 88 dist., in can. Eiciens… . Tales quidem, secundum Chrysostomum et Scotum, de patria deberent esterminari atque expelli et in exilium dari, quia duo vel tres in una civitate magna corrumpant totam multitudinem mercatorum.’ ‘De mercationibus et artificibus,’ p. 150.

41 ‘Hanc Bernardinus tuus, Antoni, quem adeo laudas, nunquam tetigit, semel dixit in usurarios, magis movens populum ad risum, quam ad horrorem tanti criminis. Avaritiam vero quae foenus persuadet, intactam reliquit.’ Opera Omnia, 1, 4.

42 ‘Quod si cui forte aut planum nimis atque humile videbitur dicendi genus, aut non satis explicata ratio muneris suscepti, is intelligat primum me delectari ea eloquentia, in quo non maior existat intelligendi, quam legendi labor.’ Ibid., p. 1.

43 Once on page 2: Bemardinus was in Rome: ‘Quern cum Antonius, qui eum frequens audierat, maiorum in modum commendaret,’ etc. Again, on page 3 (see above, n. 41).

44 ‘Non solum eos prodesse reipublicae qui assunt aliis, qui tuentur reos, qui de pace belloque censent, sed illos quoque qui virtute instituunt animum, qui in luxuriam pecuniamque currentes prestant ac retrahunt. Quare tentemus et ipsi, si quid possumus prodesse hoc sermone nostro, et si non caeteris, at saltern nobis.’ Ibid., p. 5.

45 Of the speakers in On Avarice only Poggio himself has been the subject of a fullscale, modern study, by Ernst Walser. He came to the curia in 1402, became a secretary in 1413, under John XXIII, and only definitively broke with the clerical milieu in 1453, though retaining until his death in 1459 the title and privileges of a secretarius. On Antonio Loschi, see above, n. 4. He came to the curia in 1406, at the age of about thirtyeight, and died in 1441 after some thirty-five years of service. Voigt credits him with attempting, like Salutati in Florence, a reform of the curial style of letter writing (Il risorgimento, II, 21). Bartolomeo da Montepulciano seems to have been associated with the very vice of avarice which we find him criticizing in Poggio's dialogue. A close associate of Poggio, Bartolomeo was the epitome of a professional curialist, coming from a family of papal functionaries. His death in 1429 was itself an occasion for controversy and criticism directed at his supposedly ill-gotten wealth and the ostentatious tomb constructed in his honor—a symbol of the pride of a papal secretary. (See Bruni, Leonardo, Epistolamm Libri VIII, ed. L. Mehus, 2 vols. [Florence, 1741], II, 45–48 Google Scholar). Cincio de’ Rustici, a pupil of Francesco da Fiano, was a classical scholar, an occasional anti-cleric, and a Roman patriot, all roles which he seems to embody in Poggio's dialogue. For all these personalities and for the little that can be known about Andrea of Constantinople as well see the notes to Phyllis Goodhart Gordan's Two Renaissance Book Hunters: The Letters of Poggius Bracciolini to Nicolaus de Niccolis (New York and London, 1974).

46 ‘Faciam quod iubes ille inquit, non tarn disserendi causa, quam aut te, aut hunc provocandi… dummodo ego te audiam.’ Ibid., p. 6.

47 ‘Quam ob rem est hie dignus communi odio mortalium, veluti publicus omnium hostis, amovendusque ab hominum consortio tanquam seminarium malorum. Nam quomodo amari eum decet, qui ut caetera omittam, haec duo, scilicet amorem et benivolentiam, humanae societatis vincula, sine quibus nulla, neque privata, neque publica res consistit, aufert a nobis? Quod quid est aliud quam delere funditus humanum genus? At ipse potius delendus esset. Ipse aqua et igni interdicendus, inutilis civitati, reipublicae pernitiosus. Iniquum est enim ei locum esse in civitate, quern si omnes imitaremur, nullas omnino civitates haberemus.’ Ibid., p. 8.

48 Andrea himself accuses Antonio of levity: ‘non ex animi sententia, sed gratia aliorum reor Antonium disseruisse’ (ibid., p. 17). His position, not Antonio's, will be supported by all the other secretaries (ibid., p. 27), and in the closing passages of the dialogue Antonio as much as admits to Andrea his intention to provoke: ‘Laetor inquit Antonius me pro avaris sensisse, quo ista a te audiremus’ (ibid., p. 31).

49 ‘Ego sane multos audivi, neque contemnendos homines, qui nulla ratione unquam cum Bartolomaeo sentirent, qui et rem mea sententia gravissimam reddidit leviusculam verbis suis: et item rem non admodum magni ponderis, nimium depressit mole sermonis, ut si iretur in suflragium populi, non dubitarem quin ferme omnes aliter ac nos essent iudicaturi, cum in luxuriam multa sint illius arbitrio, ac legibus constituta iudicia, in avaritiam nulla.’ Ibid., p. 10. See Noonan, John T., Jr., The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), p. 2 Google Scholar: ‘The scholastics are disciples of Roman law, and from the earliest revival of medieval culture canon law and moral theology are impregnated with the concepts of Roman jurisprudence.’

50 For a different opinion, which sees in Antonio's presentation the true message of the dialogue, see E. Garin, L'utnanesimo italiano, pp. 54-55. Garin has been followed by many others.

51 ‘Est enim peroportuna ad usum communem, et civilem vitam pecunia, quam necessario Aristoteles inventam tradit ad commercia hominum, resque mutuo contrahendas.’ Opera Omnia, 1, 12. Poggio, in fact, sent Bruni a copy of his dialogue, but he was a little nervous about his reaction: ‘Quamquam vereor, ne se offensum putet hoc sermone propter avaritiae suspicionem.’ Epistolario, 1, 274.

52 ‘Non enim ex istis inertibus et larvatis hominibus, qui summa cum quiete feruntur, nostris laboribus sunt nobis civitates constituendae, sed ex his qui sint accommodati ad conservationem generis humani, quorum si unusquisque neglexerit operari quicquid excedat usum suum, necesse erit ut omittam reliqua, nos omnes agrum colere.’ Ibid., p. 13.

53 ‘Nulla in re nocuit avaritia. Adde quod afferent persaepe magnum ornamentum et decorem suis civitatibus. Quot enim (ut Vetera omittam) nostris diebus fuerunt magnificae domus, egregiae villae, templa, porticus, hospitalia avarorum pecuniis constructa, ut nisi hi fuissent carerent omnino urbes maximis ac pulcherrimis ornamentis.’ Ibid., p. 15.

54 ‘Multa insuper vitia in avari vitam contulisti. Non eadem est ut dixi causa avarorum omnium sicuti caeterorum. Reperies ex eis multos beneficos, humiles, mansuetos, benignos, probos, minime molestos.’ Ibid., p. 16.

55 ‘Sunt quidem quamplures, quos ego etiam reprehendo, non avari illi quidem, sed stipites, stupidi, plumbei, miseri, truculenti, tenaces, ex infima hominum sorde ac fece, qui mores duros atque asperos sortiuntur, non ab avaritia, sed ex naturae malignitate. Avaros vero cognovi multos lautos, splendidos, ornatos, sumptuosos, humanos, perfacetos, quorum domus plena esset hospitibus et amicis.’ Ibid.

56 Ibid., p. 28, where Andrea admits his debt to Chrysostom and regrets that the available translations of his works should be so poor.

57 See the article on Chrysostom by Harkins, P. W. in the New Catholic Encyclopedia (Washington, D.C., 1967), VII, 1041-44Google Scholar.

58 See Seigel, J. E., Rhetoric and Philosophy in Renaissance Humanism (Princeton, 1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 ‘Quo sit ut non tantum naturalem, sed utilem et necessariam rem quandam constet esse in homine avaritiam.’ Opera Omnia, 1, 17.

60 ‘Hanc secundum naturam dicere hominis est (pace tua dixerim) parum naturae munera atque opera inspicientis.’ Ibid., p. 18.

61 See above, n. 35.

62 In fact, none of the ancient philosophers had much to say about economics or considered it worthy of note. The scholastics—perhaps because of their link to the law— were more tolerant. See the article by Divine, T. F. on ‘Usury’ in the New Catholic Encyclopedia (Washington, D.C., 1967), XIV, 498–500 at 499Google Scholar.

63 ‘aperte affirmaverim, neminem philosophum fuisse unquam avarum, qui quidem esset dignus philosophi nomine.’ Opera Omnia, 1, 20.

64 ‘Dixisti, quod mihi quidem inter loquendum ridiculum visum est, avaros prodesse civitatibus, quod et multis opitulentur suis pecuniis, et reipublicae sint adiumento.’ Ibid., p. 22.

65 ‘Verum excutiamus paulum hanc avarorum utilitatem.’ Ibid., p. 25.

66 ‘avari est et nocere omnibus, et communem utilitatem odisse.’ Ibid.

67 ‘Ita ego si tamen hi mecum sentiunt, avaros omnes decreto meo eiiciendos sentio e civitatibus, quorum non verbis, sed factis, non doctrina, sed exemplo civium animi corrumpuntur.’ Ibid., p. 27.

68 For another critic, in addition to Garin, who takes this position, see Holmes, George, The Florentine Enlightenment, 1400-50 (London, 1969), pp. 147–148 Google Scholar. Holmes does not think that any of the speakers, however, can really be taken seriously. For a more extreme position, see Saitta, G., Il pensiero italiano nell'umanesimo e net Rinascimento, I (Bologna, 1949). 317 Google Scholar: ‘Poggio Per bocca di Lusco accarezza con visibile compiacenza … il principale motore delle operazioni umane … ; l'utilitarismo inglese dell'epoca moderna e tutto preannunciato.’

69 Xenophon, , Memorabilia et Oeconomicus, tr. E. C. Marchant (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1938), p. 455 Google Scholar (Oeconomicus, XI, ix).

70 Thus, even for Bruni, riches are not good in themselves: ‘Sunt enim utiles divitiae, cum et ornamenta sint possidentibus et ad virtutem exercendam suppeditent facultatem.’ Epistolarum Leonardi Aretini Libri Octo (Basel, 1535), p. 209.

71 This, however, is what Hans Baron tries to do in the article cited above on ‘Franciscan Poverty.’ He argues that humanism emerges, in the Trecento, in an atmosphere dominated by Franciscan social ideals, notably the exaltation of poverty, but that, in the course of time, it outgrows these, to take a new and ‘more mature’ attitude toward thisworldly goods. Whereas Baron considers the humanist tradition to be dynamic and changing, his view of that of the Franciscans seems to be that it is fixed and static. His view thus takes little account of such a figure as San Bernardino or of the general complexity of the Franciscan tradition. In fact, the parallelism for which Baron argues in the Trecento—when both humanists and mendicants idealized poverty—can be extended into the following century when both groups praised wealth, though with careful qualifications. There is, I think, a more general issue involved here: that of humanism and its environment. The humanist movement grew up in the same environment as that of many other traditions: Franciscanism, Roman law, scholasticism. On many points— simply because it is a product of the same milieu—it parallels these traditions. On the other hand, it never merges with any of them—that is, it never loses its own identity. Scholarship is, it seems to me, often confused on this point.