¹ See my article “Ars dictaminis in the time of Dante”, Medievalia et Humanistica , I (1943), 95–108 (cited henceforth as Ars dictaminis). The letter which I discuss here is found in the MS. NA 375 of the. Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence. This MS. represents the most important collection of model letters transmitted to us under the name of Mino da Colle. See Ars dictaminis, p. 96. note 7.Google Scholar

² The passage which is given above in a free English version reads in the MS. (fol. 31^v-32^r) as follows: “Preterea unum vobis dicere non obmitto quod quecumque a vestre inique intentionis presumptione substineam non substinerem quod aliquid diceretis de rotunda tabula regi subiecta magnifico et probis associata militibus. Et cum verba tenuistis (et) ea debebatis facere cineritium ori vestro ut verbo prolato non sic enormiter dicta tabula preciosissima lesa foret. Imponatis amodo vobis de ipsius nominatione silentium, ecce precor.”—The second sentence offers some difficulty to the interpreter especially because of the obscure meaning of cineritium in this context. The word, primarily used as an adjective (but cf. the It. noun cenericcio), means “something similar to ashes” or “something reduced to ashes”. In the free version given above I tried at least to render the meaning of the whole.Google Scholar

³ See Gardner, E.G., The Arthurian Legend in Italian Literature (London, 1930), pp. 47 ff., 64 ff., 114 ff., 152.Google Scholar

⁴ The only information available so far about this master is found in Mino's letters to Federico. In addition to the name of the master's birthplace (Genesio, S., a little town in the lower Arno valley near S. Miniato) we learn that he practised his profession as a schoolmaster in Volterra at the time when Mino, who used to change very frequently his domicile, also taught school in that city (shortly after 1300). At the time of his correspondence with Mino, Federico was absent. But he was supposed to return soon, since Mino threatens to challenge him before a body of schoolmasters (in presentia sapientum, see below, note 18) as soon as Federico would be back in Volterra.Google Scholar

⁵ See note 1.Google Scholar

⁶ See Sutter, K., Aus Leben und Schriften des Magister Boncompagno (Freiburg, 1894), p. 70 and Davidsohn, R., Geschichte von Florenz (Berlin, 1896-1927), IV, iii, 290.Google Scholar

⁷ Gardner, E. G., The Arthurian Legend , p. 9.Google Scholar

⁸ The result of Davidsohn's investigations into the history of these Clubs (loc. cit. pp. 290 ff.) is that after their first prime in the beginning of the thirteenth century they disappeared under the impact of the party struggles raging through the Italian communities. Their re-emerging under the name of brigate in Dante's age is due to the relatively quiet years which the Italian cities enjoyed after Cardinal Latini, in 1280, had established peace between the parties. The brigate have become famous on account of the rôle they play in Boccaccio's Decameron. Google Scholar

⁹ Quarrels about the petty objects of their art must have been frequent with the masters. Under the heading, Peccavistis, each actual or presumed mistake of the opponent was brought out, blamed and corrected, sometimes in the most opprobrious terms conceivable. This militant attitude of their dignified masters naturally aroused the mockery of the students. In the MS. which contains Mino's invectives against Federico, there is a caricature undoubtedly done by a student which shows a schoolmaster equipped as if for war, with shield and sword. And one student concludes a letter to a fellow student with a charming hint to their masters' warlike attitude: “I greet my friends … as often as our masters say to each other Peccavistis!“ Google Scholar

¹⁰ See for instance the impressive sentence: “Nam ego simpliciter ambulo parva petens ut parvulus, vos autem ut magnus magnalia petitis et ad ardua de domine phylosophie gratia pervolatis.” The pun parvus-parvulus and its contrast magnus-magnalia is one of the numerous variations of the “etymological” pun on his name in which Mino abounds. He also uses the “etymological” interpretation of his name in the salutations of his letters, as a protestation of humility, e.g. Mino grammaticorum minimus. Google Scholar

¹¹ See below. The sentence reads as follows: “Et istud sic est notorium universis litteratis de Tuscia quod cum audiunt vestri famam, omnes sunt in vestri commendatione concordes.” Google Scholar

¹² It was through the venia legendi legitimately acquired by public examination and approbation (conventus) that the magistri and doctores of the Faculties of Liberal Arts and of the Schools in which advanced Latin grammar and ars dictandi were offered, distinguished themselves from the elementary schoolmasters—although these latter, too, used to style themselves doctores and magistri (scil. puerorum). See Zaccagnini, G., La vita dei maestri e degli scolari nello Studio di Bologna nei secoli XIII e XIV (Genova, 1926), pp. 89 and 120 ff.Google Scholar

¹³ The document is a will, dated of 1287 and registered in the Memoriali of the City of Bologna under July 10th of the same year. It is published by Zaccagnini, in Guido Guinizelli e le origini del “Dolce stil novo” (Studi Danteschi IV, Bologna, 1921), p. 44, n. 3.Google Scholar

¹⁴ In addition to the letter in discussion, there are two others in which Mino brings up the question of Federico's right to the Doctor's or Master's title (Florence, MS. NA 375, fols. 32^v-34^v). In one he asks his colleague to furnish evidence as to his conventus (“aut probationem de conventu mostrabitis aut” etc., loc. cit. fol. 34^v).Google Scholar

¹⁵ For this and the following observations cf. my Ars dictaminis , pp. 104 f. and 107 f.Google Scholar

¹⁶ It is important that in an earlier period it had been the science of grammar which was identified with the scientia lateralis. For in the twelfth century, grammatical instruction regularly extended to the reading and interpreting of the ancient authors. But after the auctores had fallen into discredit, grammar had to yield in Italy, on account of more practical directions in education, its place of honor in the trivium to rhetoric and its kindred science, ars dictandi. Cf. Ars dictaminis , p. 104. I shall deal elsewhere with the interesting question of the hierarchy of sciences.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See the quotation in note 11.Google Scholar

¹⁸ It may well be that the sapientes to whose judgment Mino refers twice in his letters to Federico (see above, note 4) is only another term for vir litteratus. Google Scholar

¹⁹ See above, note 4.Google Scholar