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A Notice of the Epigrammata of Francesco Patrizi, Bishop of Gaeta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Leslie F. Smith
Leslie F. Smith*
Affiliation:
University of Oklahoma
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Extract

The coming to light of a manuscript of the unpublished Epigrammata of Franciscus Patricius (Francesco Patrizi) of Siena (1413-1494) provides insights into the practical blank which was the history of this humanist from his settling in his diocese of Gaeta in 1465 until his death. For his life up to that point D. Bassi in an article, which is still fundamental, painstakingly gathered the facts. For the years 1461-1464, when Patrizi was governor of Foligno, his own Epistolae are a valuable and interesting source but only a few have ever been printed. Felice Battaglia recapitulated the known facts and added some documentation but, like Bassi, had little to say about the period 1465-1494.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 15 , 1968 , pp. 92 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1968

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References

1 D. Bassi, ‘L'Epitome di Quintiliano di Francesco Patrizi senese', Rivista difilologia e d'istruzione Classica, XXII (1894), 385-470; see in particular pp. 397-403 for the changes in his confino and the fact that it was so modified in December 1459 that Patrizi was free to live anywhere save in Sienese territory.

2 Venice, Marciana, Cod. lat. XI 80 (3057), fs. l79v-209r, microfilm purchased by the Faculty Research Committee of the University of Oklahoma.

3 Felice Battaglia, Enea Siluio Piccolomini e Francesco Patrizi: Due Politici Senesi del Quattrocento (Siena, 1936), pp. 76-100, with extensive documentation in the notes, some of which has been checked in the originals.

4 Pius II, The Commentaries of Pius II, tr. F. A. Gragg, intro. and notes L. C. Gabel, Smith College Studies in History, XXII (1936-1937), p. 57.

5 Francisci Patricii Epistola AdAchillem Petrucium Senensem. Inc. Quamquam tibi plurimum… (The author gives advice to Achille Petrucd, raised to the highest magistracy of Siena at the age of nineteen.) Morellius, J., Codices manuscripti latini Bibliothecae Nanianae (Venice, 1776), pp. 104–117.Google Scholar Nan. lat. 95 is now Mardana, Lat. XI 80 (3057).

6 ‘De casu fulminis ad Achillem Petrucdum', Vatican cod. Chigi j VI 233, fs. 32v-36v; see Leslie F. Smith, ‘The Poems of Franciscus Patridus from Vatican Manuscript Chigi j vi 233', Manuscripta, x (1966), 148-149.

7 The mistaken ascription of a son Gregorio to Francesco Patrizi goes at least as far back as to Mittarelli (see n. 11), who lists a ‘Gregorius Patridus filius’ among the reripients of Francesco's Epistolae. Two manuscripts of this work at Florence list, however, Georgius Patridus. The existence of a son Georgius is also proved by the poem ‘Ad Georgium de corona myrtea', a description of which should appear in a future continuation of the article described in n. 6. For the Florence MSS see Kristeller, Iter Italicum 1,100 and 174.

8 Manuscripta, x (1966), 100, part of the account of the ‘Cantus Fatui de origine Musices, ad Antonium uicinum', fs. l6r-21v, Chigi MS as in note 6.

9 The Epistolae prove that as governor of Foligno Patrizi was a good friend to this man of religion.

10 Marciana, cod. lat. xi 80 (3057), letter to Agostino Patrizi, f. 196v.

11 Mittarellius, G. B., Bibliotheca codicum manuscriptorum monasterii S. Michaelis Venetiarum prope Murianum (Venice, 1789).Google Scholar For cod. 99, see coll. 852-854.

12 Gordan MS. 153 is the gracious gift of the heirs of Dr. Ludwig Bertalot. See C. U. Faye and Bond, W. H., Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New York, 1962), pp. 398–404 Google Scholar, “The Library of Phyllis Goodhart Gordan and John Dozier Gordan Jr.’ The Epigrammata MS. was not in Mrs. Gordan's hands in time for the 1962 census but has since been numbered 153. In addition to telling the writer of the existence of Gordan 153, Professor Kristeller has twice read this article during its preparation making many valuable suggestions. Professor James Hutton has also read the article twice, his unerring eye and ear for meter being of particular help. The writer thanks both scholars for their ungrudging assistance.

13 E. Mioni, ‘I manoscritti greci di S. Michele di Murano', Italia medioevale e umanistica, 1 (1958), 317-342. Fr. Vittorino Meneghin, O. F. M., of S. Michele in Isola, kindly replied to me regretting that he had no idea of the whereabouts of Nanian 99 (letter dated 17 Nov. 1967).

14 Letter from Mrs. Gordan, New York City, 12 Sept. 1967.

15 Falconer Madan, A Summary Catalogue oj Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto Series, III (1895), 24: MS. Auct. F. 4.18 (8886), f. 8(5, ‘Franciscus Patridus de metris (H) oratii', and f. 108, ‘Tabula Odarum per alfabetum'.

15a Fonds Italien, MSS. 1024 and 1026. See Altamura, A., Studi e ricerche di letteratura umanistica (Naples, 1956), p. 55 Google Scholar; T. De Marinis, La Biblioteca Napoletana dei Re d'Aragona (Milan, 1947), II, 123-124.

16 Same letter as in n. 10. For Chigi j VI 233 as the copy of the Poemata presented to Pius n, see Manuscripta, x (1966), 94

17 See the statement justified by n. 10.

18 See two of his Epistolae, Marc. lat. xi 80 (3057), fs. 198r and v, 198v.

19 Chigi MS. f. 147, in a poem ‘De immanitate pestilentiae’ addressed to Goro Lolli, in which ‘plague’ is Patrizi's word for the fate of the exiles,

Est urbis medio Campus quo pulchrior usquam

Non datur in terris cerni mortalibus alter

Hac qua parte sacer Musis argenteus exit

Fons.

Before leaving the subject of the De institutione reipublicae, I wish to state that the result of diligent searches is wholehearted agreement with Vito Giustiniani, R., Alamanno Rinuccini 1426-1490: Zur Geschichte des Florentinischen Humanismus (Böhlau, 1065)Google Scholar when he states that an entry in Hain's Repertorium is a ‘bibliographical ghost'. This is Hain 12467, which says that the De institutione reipublicae was printed in 1494. The error goes back at least as far as Jo. Albertus Fabricius, Bibliotheca Latina Mediae et Infimae Aetatis (1754, reprinted Graz, 1962) and is also to be found in Mittarelli, col. 853.

20 P. O. Kristeller, editor in chief, Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, I (1960); M. E. Cosenza, Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists… 1300-1800, 5 vols. (Boston, 1962).

21 Battaglia, p. 91, n. 1.

22 Bassi p. 402, n. 85, based on a letter from Francesco Tranchedini to his father dated Verona XV Kal. Novemb. 1459 and pp. 441-442 for the journey of the three together.

23 Bassi 402. Niceron, R. P., Mémoires pour servir á I'histoire … , vol. XXXVI (Paris, 1736). This elegy was wrongly attributed to Domizio Calderini by Maffei, Verona illustrata, III (Milan, 1825), p. 230.

24 The picture of a future monk fondled by the Muses offends the taste of one good critic. Does it make it any better to call him Hilarion, which was known to all Patrizi's readers as the name of a monk? In any case, the mental image summoned up by such tags was probably little different from that now summoned up by the statement, ‘He has had a classical education.'

25 Vienna, Lat. 5180.

26 Rino Avesani, ‘Per la biblioteca di Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini', Milanges Tisserant, vi (Studi e Testi 236, Vatican City, 1964), 3-93, specific refs. n. 112 p. 25 and p. 32.

27 For Ilarione da Verona see Scipione Maffei, Verona Mustrata, III (Corr. ed. Verona, 1825), 219-220, and L. Petit, ‘Hilarion', Dictionnaire de Theohgie Catholique, vi (1914), cols. 2464-2465. Both are vague on dates.

28 Willich, ‘Giocondo, Fra Giovanni', Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kiinstler, XIV (1921), 64-68. In his copious bibliography of monographs, handbooks, and periodicals Willich includes E. Percopo, ‘Nuovi documenti su gli Scrittori e gli Artisti de’ tempi Aragonesi', Archivio Storico per le provincie Napoletane, XIV (1894), 376 ff. For Fra Giocondo see pp. 376-382.

29 Marc. lat. xi 80 (3057), f. 194v and f. 195r.

30 Catalogus Translationum etc. 208.

31 Cosenza 5.1828-29 and 4.3544. See Paul Oskar Kristeller, Supplementum Ficinianum, 1, 27, 29, 115. On the geographical terms Pauly-Wissowa, RE and the C.I.L., e.g. the article on Bergomum, v pt. ii, 548, have been consulted.

32 Scipione Maffei, pt. II, Bk. III, pp. 220-230. See also Catalogus Translationum etc. 1, 221.

33 V. Rossi, II quattrocento (1933), esp. pp. 318-319; Girolamo Mancini, Vita di Lorenzo Valla, pp. 273 and 298, n. 1. See also Cosenza s.v. Perotti, N. (many cards) and the biography 5.1365.

34 Ian Thomson, Ph.D. cand., St. Andrews, in his unpublished dissertation, doubts that Perotti was ever a pupil of Guarino.

35 Mancini, p. 273.

36 Eubel, Hierarchia, vol. II.

37 Governor of Viterbo Dec. 1464-Apr. 1469, of Spoleto 1471-1472, and of Perugia 1474-1477. Revilo P. Oliver, Niccolo Perotti's version of the Enchiridion of Epictetus (Urbana, 1954), p. 14. Podesta of Assisi ca. Jan. 1463; see Florence, Bibl. naz. N.A. 382, f. 56v, letter of F. P. to G. Lolli.

38 Mancini, p. 298. See also in the text his self-description as Cornelius Vitellius Corythius.

39 Professor A. Perin, then sindaco of the Comune di Comedo Vicentino told me in a letter dated 8 Nov. 1959 that there was then no Cometo comune in Italy but that perhaps I was looking for ifrazione either of Comune di Toano or of Comune di Rodengo Saiano (Brescia). He cited Istituto Centrale di Statistica in Roma, Dizionario dei Comuni e delle Frazioni d'Italia.

40 R. Weiss, Humanism in England during the 15th Century (1941), p. 173, 2d ed. (1957), pp. 173-174. In a letter dated 21 Nov. 1967 Prof. Weiss was kind enough to give his opinion that Bononius was a very strange appellation for Cornelio Vitelli.

41 Hain, Repertorium *13088. See also British Mus., Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth Century now in the British Museum, Pt. IV (1963), p. 55.

42 Mancini, p. 273, for Calderinus’ attack on Valla, p. 298 n. 1 for Vitellius’ attack on Perottus.

43 Copinger, no. 6267.

44 Tiraboschi, Storia delta Letteratura Italiana, Vol. VI, Pt. VII, Bk. in, par. XIX, based on the Life of Campano writted by Michele Ferno for the editio princeps of the Opera Omnia (Rome, 14.95). See also Eubel, Hierarchia, Vol. n.

45 Bassi, pp. 399-401.

46 Battaglia, pp. 90-91, n. 5.

47 The last printing of the De Regno may be the Strasbourg one of 1594 but the De Institutione Reipublicae was included in Joachimus Joannes Maderus, De Bibliothecis atque Archivis virorum clarissimorum … (2d ed. Helmstedt, 1702

48 William Roscoe, Life of Leo X (7th ed., 1883), I, 40.

49 A. Altamura, Studi e ricerche di letteratwa umanistica (Naples, 1956), pp. 55-56.

50 Actually Alfonso would not have had to be alive in 1533 because the work was edited by his son Emilio (Naples, 1533); see Cosenza 2.1576. Andr. Januarius appears among a number of poets listed in a Naples Bibl. Nazionale MS, described as cart, misc., c. 1600 in Kristeller, Iter Italicum 1, 429.

51 See'Albino, Giov.', Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, II (1960), 12-13. His work was called Degestis regum Neapolitanorum ab Aragonia qui extant tibri quatuor. For Albino as abbot as early as June 1483, ibid., pt. 4 ‘Lettere, istruzioni ed altre memorie de’ re Aragonesi dalle quali si conforma quanto narra Giovanni Albino', specific ref. p. 61

52 Vergil, Eclogue 3.71, modeled on Theocritus, Idyll 3, 10-11, in which, however, the apples are not golden.

53 Victor Hehn and James Steven Stallybrass, The Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their First Home (London, 1888), purporting to be more than a translation of V. Hehn, KulturpflanzenundHausthiere... (Berlin, 1883); see English ed., pp. 336-338, German orig., pp. 364-365.

54 E. Percopo, ‘Gli scritti di Giovanni Pontano', Archivio storico per le provincie Napoletane, LXII (1937), 57-234; see p. 117. The title of Pontano's poemetto was taken as a model by Johannes Baptista Ferrarius, S.J., of Siena, who, long after the sweet orange was known in Italy, published Hesperides, sive de malorum aureorum cultura et usu libri (Rome, 1646).

55 Cosenza 5.371, which says he lived and died in Sessa. Among his writings was a De gestis et sententiis of philosophers, orators, and poets. Reference books on philosophy will be searched in vain for his name. His greatest distinction is that he was one of Pontano's many teachers.

56 See Ludwig Friedlaender, ed. M. Valerii Martialis Epigrammaton Libri (Leipzig, 1886), II, 378-381 for the use of feigned names by one of Patrizi's classical models.

57 Among many works that have been consulted in vain for these four are Indict del Giomale storico della letteratura italiana (C. Dionisotti, Turin, 1948) and Prezzolini, G., Re pertorio bibliografico della letteratura italiana (4 vols., Rome, 1937; New York, 1948)Google Scholar, these two both by Professor Kristeller and by the author, and indices of the Archivio Storico Italiano and indices of the specialized volumes for the Italian provinces such as Siena and the Provinces of Naples.

58 Pliny, Nat. Hist., XIX 2 (II), 33-34, and 3 (12), 37.

59 F. may not stand for Frater. See Kristelkr, Iter ltd. II, 36 for Franc. Miroldus (poems).

60 G. P. Leostello (da Volterra), Ephemeridi de le cosefatte per el duca di Calabria, ed. Prince Gaetano Filangieri; Documenti per la storia, le arti, e le Industrie delle provincie napoktane … (6 vols., Naples, 1883-1891); see 1 (1883). There is no mention of Patrizi in the general index. In this case perhaps something can be deduced e silentio.

61 Battaglia, 96 n. 2 ‘ineptus ad omne obsequium'.

62 Marc. lat. XI 80 (3057), f. 184r, dated 21 Dec. (sc. 1461, a few days after Ammannati's promotion).