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Celio Calcagnini (1479–1541)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2011

Quirinus Breen
Affiliation:
University of Oregon

Extract

Celio Calcagnini's active career falls in a period marked by many men of note and by a number of significant events. He touched some of these directly or indirectly. He was involved in an imperial and in a papal war, in an imperial election, in the controversy stirred up by Luther, in the divorce question precipitated by Henry VIII. He fanned into flame the conflict over the imitation of Cicero. He took an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Independently of Copernicus, Calcagnini made a curious and not altogether ridiculous contribution toward creating an attitude of mind favorable to the new conception of the solar system for which Copernicus was to become famous. He was personally acquainted with the painter Raphael, with Jovius, with Manardi the physician, with Ziegler, the poet Ariosto, the humanist Erasmus. In his home-town of Ferrara he enjoyed a place of honor as university professor, as apostolic prothonotary, as an excellent dinner host. He was considered to be one of the most learned men of Italy. Yet his importance was always that of a bridesmaid rather than of a bride. It has its uses, however, to look at a wedding from a bridesmaid's angle. To see an era reflected in the career of a minor actor may prove rewarding.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1952

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References

1 A basic source for Calcagnini is “Caelii Calcagnini Ferrariensis, Protonotarii Apostolii, Opera aliquot, Basileae (Froben MDXLIIII), hereafter referred to as Opera. Jo. B. Pigna published a collection of Calcagnini's verses in a book of his own: Carmina (Pignae) libri quattuor. His adiunxvmus Caelii Calcagnini Carmina Libri III … Venezia, Valgrisi, 1553. His verses are not included in the Opera. From the letters printed in the Opera a good deal of the life can be reconstructed. They offer many clues to the kind of man he was,—almost invariably friendly, generous, and seeming always either ill with a stomach disorder or happy to be on the mend. The last part of Celio's essay, “Quod Studia sunt moderanda” is autobiographical. It begins with the sentence: “I am a man of moderate gifts and of almost no literary importance …” (Opera, 324–5).

A panegyrical biography is by Calcagnini, Tommaso Guido: Della vita e degli scritti di Monsignor Celio Calcagnini Protonotario Apostolico, Roma, 1818.Google ScholarTiraboschi, G.: Storia della letteratura Italiana, Firenze, 1809Google Scholar, T. VII names Calcagnini in the same breath with Manuzio and Aleiati as erudites (p. III), gives a narrative of the greatness of Ferrara in learning and the arts of Calcagnini's period (pp. 40–48), gives a brief life and works of him (pp. 858–861), and is as usual invaluable for cross-reference.

The most thorough (though not exhaustive) life and works is that by Lazzari, Alfonso: “Un Enciclopedico del Secolo XVI: Celio Calcagnini,” Atti e Memorie della Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia Patria, vol. XXX, Ferrara, 1936, pp. 83164.Google Scholar I am greatly indebted to Lazzari. The same volume of Atti e Memorie … has Virgilio Mattioli's translation of (with introduction to) Calcagnini's treatise “Quod caelum stet, terra moveatur” (pp. 165–192).

As to the spelling of proper names I follow what seems usage: Celio Calcagnini instead of Caelius Calcagni-nus, but Jovius instead of Giovio.

2 Giovanni Manardi had an excellent name as a physician. Like some other physicians of the time, Ant. M. Bras-avolus (see below note 13) and Paulus Jovius (see below note 7), he was also a man of letters. See Tirabosehi, , op. cit., VII, 645647.Google Scholar Celio also enjoyed the services of Vineentius Caprilis, “… a man of letters among your doctor colleagues … and a good doctor.” (Opera, 60) Celio apparently was one of his intimate friends. He could write him of conversations about Ermolao Barbaro, about cucumber seeds for concocting elaterium (a purgative) (Opera, 51–52). A recurring theme of discussion between them was Celio's weak stomach. It seems the two disagreed on the diagnosis. Manardi's son Timoteo now and again gets a letter from Colio, as a sort of mediator in the argument (Opera, 82). Manardi had taught medicine in Ferrara from 1482 till about 1495 when he went to Mirandola. There he stayed some years as Gian-francesco Pico's teacher and physician, also helping him with the publication of Giovanni Pico's work against astrology.

3 The celebrated Guarino Veronese (1370–1460) came to Ferrara in 1429 (or sometime between 1429 and 1436). Though in his sixties his natural force had not abated. In his declining years his son Baptista began lecturing at Ferrara. Voigt, G.: Die Wiederbelebung des classischen Alterthums, Berlin, 1893, I, 467Google Scholar, II, 323–5. Baptista was a teacher of Giovanni Pico. See Tirabosehi, , op. cit., VI, 373.Google Scholar

4 The incumbency of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este as bishop of Eger in Hungary was part of the legacy of Matthias Hunyady Corvinus, King from 1459–1490. Crusading efforts after 1453, stimulated in Hungary in part by the Vatiean, helped introduce the Hungarian court to Italian humanists. In 1471 Matthias began filling Hungarian dioceses with foreigners. Ippolito d'Este was given the archdiocese of Gran at the age of seven (1486). Matthias was a generous Maecenas of learning and the arts. Among those whom he drew to his court was Janus Pannonius, pu-pil of Guarino Veronese at Ferrara. The great Bibliotheca Corvina was founded by Matthias. Voigt, G., op. cit., II, 318327.Google ScholarAldàsy, A., “Hungary,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York, 1910, vol. VII, 552.Google Scholar Celio had found favor with Cardinal Ippolito as diplomatic agent. This post had been held by Ariosto. Celio's favored position was due in part to the cardinal's preference for exact science and art rather than poetry; partly because Celio agreed to become a cleric, while Ariosto refused. In 1517 a noisy rift took place between Ippolito and the poet, when the latter refused the cardinal's request to accompany him on a journey to Hungary. Among others, Celio readily consented to go. Times were critical in Hungary. The Turk was at the door and there was no unity in the face of danger. At the Diet in Bàcs Celio delivered a sermon, De Concordia, to no avail (See Lazzari, , op. cit., 101106.)Google Scholar

Eight years later came Mohàcs. His travels took him as far as Craeow in Poland.

In a number of his letters from Hungary he complains of being in a kind of exile, a note which it was not uncommon for an Italian to strike when away from Italy. “I am far from home, far from my studies … exiled as it were in the middle of Scythia.” (Opera 79) “Thrust out beyond the Danube (Ister) and beyond the borders into Scythia, little better than an exile I do not cease recalling the delights and sweetness of friends. You (Gyraldus) live in the center, in the bright spot (luce) of the human race, think with me how you may bring a light (lumen) to me pushed into this darkness” (Opera 80). “How nice to have you here, dear Bagnus. How will you like it among the barbarians? How will you get along with this vile and sordid race with the elegance you acquired in Italy?” (Opera 83). The Calcagnini family had been in possession of certain benefices in Faenza and elsewhere. While in Hungary, Celio's family rights were being invaded “by the brothers Capo” in Faenza. For the narrative see Opera 76–77. A certain Hector Saeratus owes him money for which Celio's chureh of Sancta Maria Blanca is security. The debtor is bold to the point of indecorum. (Opera 88–89.)

5 Jakob Ziegler was a Bavarian humanist and a scholar in the sciences, mathematics and astronomy. My general information on Ziegler derives from Thorndike, Lynn: History of Magic and Experimental Science, New York, 1941, Vol. V, 359Google Scholar, 370, 387, 409. He was interested in Regiomontanus' study of comets, whose Libellus de cometa he published in 1548. His most notable work was an erudite commentary on the second book of Pliny's Natural History in 1531. Thorndike gives the long title in full (p. 387). One of Calcag-nini'e consuming interests was also in Pliny's Natural History. There can be little doubt that this drew him and Ziegler into a close friendship. See below note (8). Thorndike's bibliography on Ziegler consists of: Schottenloher, Karl: Jakob Ziegler aus Landau an der Isar, Münster, 1910Google Scholar, and Eneström, G.: “Le commentaire de Jakob Ziegler sur la ‘Saphea de Zar-kali (Arzaehel)’Bibl. Math., X (1896) 53 seq.Google Scholar Ziegler sent to Celio a meteoroscope, the subject of some interesting correspondence ( Opera 54–55, 56, 84–85). Ziegler had apparently made some dubious remarks about priests, to which Celio replies: “What you write about the priesthood I do not approve” (Opera, 56).

6 Cardinal Ippolito favored the election of Charles V. Celio was sent to represent him in Frankfort-on-the-Main. Later Celio affected to boast of his success, but it was really Ippolito's determination and energy which stood behind him. (Lazzari, , op. cit., pp. 110111.)Google Scholar

7 See above Note (4).

7a Celio eame to Rome in October, 1519. It seems his relations with Paulus Jovi-us never became pleasant. In his Elogia virorum literis illustrium, 1577, Jovius speaks (p. 209) of Celio's works as “this hodge-podge brought forth laboriously and with much study from an old store-house which seems to the sensitive reader to smell somewhat rank.” Friendlier critics have characterized his style as rough and negligent. Perhaps in part Jovius' bitter words are due to Celio's having criticized Cicero; perhaps the reason is personal. In any case, the story goes that the two were in a company at dinner with Clement VII. Jovius, a disciple of Celio Rodigino, pointedly asked Celio if he considered himself more able and learned than Celio Rodigino. Thus he tried to make our Celio appear arrogant should he say yes, and humiliate him should he admit inferiority. But our Celio smilingly replied: “Monsignore, it is certainly beyond doubt that one does not say the silurus is a sturgeon.” This alluded to a checkmate of Jovius in a polemic with Johannes Manardus. See Lazzari, , op. cit., p. 140Google Scholar, who got the story from Jo. B. Giraldus Cinzius' Ecatommiti, Deca VII, Novella 5a. See also Renier, Alessandro Luzio-Rodolfo: “La coltura e le relazioni letterarie di Isabella d'Este Gonzaga,” 2. Gruppo ferrarese, Giornale storico della letteratura italiana, vol. XXXV (1910), Torino, p. 241.Google Scholar

For Celio's comment on Jovius see the end of this note. In the same letter to Ziegler (Opera, 100–101) Celio writes of meeting Hieronymus Aleander as a man “among everybody held most dear … whom a little before my arrival the Pope of his own accord had made librarian after the death of Zenobius Azaiolus. Aleander daily ransacked the treasures of the Palatine library for me.” Marco Fabio Calvi (whom Celio calls Fabius Rhavennas) is thus described: “An old man of Stoie virtue, a man of such humanity and learning that you would not easily decide which prevails. He translated Hippocrites entire into Latin, and has made him speak without a solecism. He is a most saintly man and he holds to something rare but peculiar to himself, to wit, that he so despises money that he will not take gifts unless in extreme need. Pope Leo gives him a monthly allowance which he usually disburses to friends and kinsmen. He lives, like the Pythagoreans, on small herbs and lettuce and dwells in a hut that you might properly call the dolium of Diogenes. He lingers on with his studies, but more truly he is dying with them. One might even say literally that he is dying, seeing he is already eighty and has contracted a serious and dangerous illness.” This leads Celio to tell about Raphael. He says that Calvi was brought to Rome by Raphael, “a very rich man and in the highest favor with the Pope. He is a most kind-hearted young man and of wonderful genius. He excels in great qualities, is easily prince of all painters whether you mean in theory or in practice. As an architect he has such drive that he finds out and completes things which the most expert despair of undertaking. He not only explains Vitruvius in detail but with the most certain good sense defends or criticises him—yet so charmingly that there is no ill-will. [Was this an example for the future Cicero-critic] Now indeed he is pursuing a wonderful task and to posterity unbelievable. I do not speak here of the Vatican basilica of whose architecture he is prefect, but rather of his plans for largely restoring this city to its ancient appearance, extent and symmetry. By picturing the excavations to be made in the highest hills and down to the deepest foundations and by bringing to mind the ancients' descriptions of methods he so excited the imagination of Pope Leo and of all the Quirites that as it were everybody felt they were entertaining some heaven-sent genius for restoring the eternal city to its pristine majesty. Raphael was so far from being arrogant that he went out of his way to be available to and familiar with everybody. He avoided nobody's advice or conversation. No one more than he enjoys calling his own comments into doubt and dispute. He considers being taught and teaching the reward of life. This man cherishes Fabius (Calvi) as if he were his teacher and father; he defers in everything to him and abides by his advice.” At the very end of this letter to Ziegler, Celio writes of Jovius: “But lest the history of our times should not be recorded, Paulus Jovius—a physician, surprising as it may be—wrote so fine, learned, and elegant a history of our times, of which he just published ten books, that I should be ashamed to write so ineloquently about so eloquent a man.” This last clause is somewhat ambiguous.

Luzio-Renier, , op. cit., p. 240Google Scholar, calls attention to Kuehlen, Fr.: “Marco Fabio Calvi und Celio Calcagnini in Bezug auf Raphael Sanzio,” Kunstblatt, 1844, n. 4647.Google Scholar

Gregorovius, F.: Geschichte der Staat Rom im Mittelalter, Stuttgart und Berlin, 1922Google Scholar, VIII uses the above letter to Ziegler as his source for Calvi (p. 318). The same letter is used to describe in part the enthusiasm of the Romans for Raphael's plans for restoration of the city (p. 319–320). On p. 320 the distiche of Calcagnini celebrating Raphael's plans are printed. See also Symonds, J. A., The Renaissance in Italy, Modern Library, N. Y. 1935, Vol. I, 530.Google Scholar

8. Celio's concern with Pliny's Natural Sistory should be of interest to those attempting to assess the relation of humanists to natural science. In a letter to his nephew Tommaso Calcagnini he defends himself against those who think he spreads himself rather thin in too many fields: eloquence, mores, nature, divinity, and so on. “But this (he says) is precisely what the Greeks meant by paideia, and we by humanitas” (Opera, 23). Celio was more than dilettante in science. This can truly be said of his concern with Pliny. “I burned with an always wonderful love of that author,” he says in another letter to his nephew (Opera, 26). His writings prove this, for they are peppered with serious discussions of and casual references to points in Pliny. It is true that Celio's main object is to make an accurate commentary on Pliny. But this involves establishing a correet text. Now how does he establish a correet text Here is an example. “Pliny notes (Nat. Hist. Bk. XIII, ch. iii) that Cicero (De Orat. III) says an unguent is pleasanter when savoring of earth than of saffron…. There was one who would emend earth to wax because, he said, earth has no odor while natural wax does…. But what the smell is ought to be determined by experiment [my italics]. I think Pliny never said the earth is odorless. In Bk. XV Ch. xxvii he says there are three elements without taste, smell, and flavor: water, fire, air.” For the rest Celio mixes discussion of Cicero, Pliny, and Theophrastus with observations of his own (Opera, 53). To Ziegler he writes inquiring about the attilus which Pliny says is peculiar to the Po River “in the passage discussing fishes proper to certain rapid streams. But I call upon you to attend not only to the testimony of Pliny but to that of your own eyes (my italics). (Opera 68). It is true that the advances of modern science have not come via commentaries on the ancients. On the other hand, one should bear in mind Celio's interest in Ziegler's meteoroscope. Celio is no mere parrot of the ancients. With respect to astronomy he will choose between two classical traditions as he understands them. See below pp. 6–14. As to Celio's expectations of Ziegler's researches on Pliny we have his letter: “Concerning my Pliny of which hopes once ran so high I have concluded that apart from you nothing will come of it…. I hear you now have as your only companion in this study the most excellent Balbus. I do not envy you this but I deplore my fate which has defrauded me of so exceptional a companion. Wherefore, dear Ziegler, I will be obliged to you; I pray, I implore, that if you have run across anything worthy of your genius and learning that you wiU not regard me as unworthy of having the mysteries whispered as to a fellow-celebrant. I look with incredible desire for your studies on the three chapters of the second book…. Whatever you will have said or thought I will forthwith regard as coming from an oracle” (Opera 77).

9 Lazzari, , op. cit., p. 119.Google Scholar Celio seems oftener to have translated comedies for the theater. At least once such labor was criticized. Feb. 15, 1532, Coglia wrote to the Marchesa of Mantua an unfavorable judgment on a comedy translated by Celio, which Coglio called a “carneval.” It was the “commedia de l'omo d'arme furioso.” See Luzio-Renier, , op. cit., p. 241Google Scholar, who cites D'Ancona, , Origini 2Google Scholar, II, 431, n. 2.

10 Luzio-Renier, , op. cit., p. 240Google Scholar, says that in Documenti inediti per servire alla storia dei musei d'Italia, II, 100 seq., is published a catalogue drawn up by Calcagnini of the gold pieces in the Estensian collection. Lazzari, , op. cit., p. 123Google Scholar, dates it at about 1540.

11 The Academy of the Elevati was founded in 1540 by Alberto Lollio. Celio's membership gave it great reputation. When he died the following year (1541) it dissolved. It was reorganized under the name of the Filareti. (Tirabosehi, , op. cit., VII, 162).Google ScholarLazzari, , op. cit., 126Google Scholar, saya the Elevati was the first literary academy of Ferrara.

12 The story of this bequest is one of the inspiring ones in the history of publie libraries. Tirabosehi, , op. cit., VIIGoogle Scholar devotes two pages to it (pp. 236–238).

13 The publication of the Opera was perhaps desired by Celio, though it is likely he had to be coaxed. Brasa-volus intimates that Celio was present when his writings were being brought together from behind benches and chests. The library given to the Dominican eonvent is specifically stated to be for public use. If this is not the first it is an early case of such a provision in Ferrara.

Antonius Musa Brasavolus, in a letter dedicatory (Opera) to Ercole II says: “… there was scarcely an author whose works he had not devoured two or three times, and accordingly he looked down upon his own; neglected and unfinished they were to be found behind benches and chests (post scamna et serinia). If one asked him for something he had written himself he would get sick with the thought that all his own things were unworthy of being read. Nevertheless by the industry of Joannes Hieronymus Monferratus many things have been collected and put in one volume, and they would have perished otherwise.When the Reverend Celio saw all these things brought together into one body of writings he made a decision as to the disposition of the produce of his mind and fortune. Being a very wise man he willed his fortune to his kin, his library to public use (in publicam utilitatem), and he made you, most serene prince, the heir of his own writings…. He designated three men who were close to him as friends—Jacobus Boiardus, Johannes Hieronymus Monferratus, and myself—to do all in their power to execute his wishes.” Brasavolus was a student of Celio, became a much-praised physician. See Tirabosehi, , op. cit., VII, 647649.Google Scholar Joh. Monferratus was also a former student of Celio.

14 For Erasmus-Calcagnini correspond ence see P. 8. Allen, : Opus Epistolar-um Des. Era smi Roterodami, Oxford, 19061947, pp. 1576Google Scholar, 1587, 2869. In Vol. III, 26, Allen erroneously en titles Celio's little work De libero arbitrio. The title is: De libero animi motu ex sententia veterum philosophor-um (Opera 395–399). It was written Jan. 3, 1525. See Lauchert, F.: “Die italienischen literarischen Gegner Luthers.” Erläuterungen und Ergänzungen zu Janssens Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, herausgegeben von Ludwig von Pastor, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1912, pp. 312315.Google Scholar

15 Tirabosehi, , op. cit., VII, 4041Google Scholar, says Bonaventuras Pistophilus of Pohtre-moli, a man celebrated for his devotion to the learned men and poets, was secretary and confidential minister of the Duke of Ferrara. He also tells of Pistophilus' amazing library and of his extensive numismatic collection (Ibid., 254–255). Pistophilus seems to have enjoyed the confidence of Cal-eagnini. His “Quod caelum stet etterra moveatur” was composed in the form of a letter to this remarkable secretary (see below note 31). In Celio's letters there appears a dialogue between the two. In it Celio tells of his regrettable absence in the country because of the pest in Ferrara. Pistophilus replies that Celio [he calls him Celio] had better be glad not to be a secretary: “Others play, joke, have good times, but I must remain in the same spot. I'm completely buried in a mound of business. I'm bound with a chain; it makes no difference whether it is of gold or of brass-a chain it certainly is. I'm tied to this whole days, even nights during which I very often am awake reading and writing letters. Such letters as I get for rewriting; they come to me labored and illiterate. I tell others what to write; the sheets come back to me and I have to erase, interline, and change what is on them. This is often more work for me than if they had dictated them to me in the first place. Then the postmen from practically the whole world seem to converge on me with their solid packets of letters written (I think) by people brought up to use Egyptian hieroglyphics…” (Opera, 59).

16 Opera, 195. This letter is translated in McCrie, Thomas: History of the Progress of the reformation in Italy, Edinburgh 1827, p. 183Google Scholar, from whom Symonds, J. A. borrows Renaissance in Italy, Modern Library, N. Y. 1935, Vol. II, 551–2.Google Scholar For Pellegrino and Curione see Church, F. C., Italian reformers 1534–64, N. Y. 1932, p. 65.Google Scholar

17 Celio expressed this admiration in a letter to Henry VIII (Opera 155–156).

18 Writing to Henry, Celio says (Opera 155) “Biehard Pace once spoke to me in much detail of your wisdom, clemency and gentleness of spirit … when he went through Italy at the time he was regium orator.” This must have been a few years earlier, for Pace was in 1530 too ill to be on a busy mission. See Dictionary of National Biography, New York, London (1908), vol. XV, 22–24.

19 Celio wrote five letters to Riehard Croke (Opera 150–155). Croke “solemnly asserted that he never bought opinions, but admitted that he was as liberal as his means allowed in rewarding those who expressed themselves as he desired. His extant accounts show him to have paid sums to all manner of persons.” (D.N.B., vol. V, 120–121)

20 Opera, 156 (Letter to Henry).

21 Opera, 154 (Letter to Croke).

22 Opera, 153 (Letter to Croke).

22a Opera, 156. In the letter to Henry Celio says that Croke's sudden and unexplained departure is the reason why he (Celio) did not put in final and presentable form his account of the opinions at Ferrara on the divorce.

23 Opera, 269–276. See also Lazzari, , op. cit., 141142.Google Scholar

24 Opera, 251–269. Lazzari, , op. cit., 142Google Scholar, reports that it was printed by Robert Wiener in Basel, 1536.

25 Opera, 253 (Letter to Bendedei).

26 “In Decisionibus XXV quibus M. Tul. Ciceronem ab omnibus Celii Calcagnini criminationibus liberat,” M. Ant. Maioragii Orationes et Praefationes … Coloniae Agrippinae, apud Ioannem Gymnicum, sub Monocerote, MDCXIV. In 1546 Jacobus Grifolus also answered Celio's criticism: M. Tulii Ciceronis Defensiones contra Celii Calcagnini Disquisitiones in eius officia per Jacobum Grifolum Lucinianensem, Aldus, Venetiis, MDXLVI.

27 Jovius, , op. cit., 209.Google Scholar

28 “Marii Nizolii Brixellensis defensiones aliquot locorum Ciceronis in libro De offieiis, contra Disquisitiones Coelii Calcagnini Ferrariensis.” This is printed in Cieeronis De officiis Libri III … cum Petri Marsii, Fr. Maturantii, Omniboni, Martini Philetici, et Ascensii, in haec omnia praestantissimus commentariis. Marii Nizolii … Defensiones … contra Disquisitiones Calcagnini. Venetiis, apud Joan. Gryphium, 1584 (ten columns, pp. 246–248).

29 Marii Nizolii Brixellensis Observa-tionum in M. T. Ciceronem Pars prima [vol. I], Pars secunda [vol. II], ex Prato Albuini, MDXXXV.

30 “De stilo philosophico Nizolii,” G. G. Leibnitii Opera Philosophica, ed. J. E. Erdmann (Berlin, 1840), 55–71.

31 Opera 388–395. An informing and suggestive study of this work is given by Lazzari, , op. cit., pp. 149164.Google Scholar An in-teresting and very attractive discussion is that of Fr. Hipler, : “Die Vorlaüfer des Nikolaus Coppernicus, insbesondere Celio Calcagnini,” Mittheilungen des Coppernicus-Vereins für Wissenschaft und Kunst zu Thorn, IV Heft, Thorn 1882, pp. 4980Google Scholar; pp. 59–68 discuss “Calcagnini und Copper-nieus”; pp. 69–78 reprint the text of Calcagnini's treatise. Hipler reports a German translation of the text by Prof. Dr. Schlüter of Münster, in the journal Natur und Offenbarung, Münster, 1879, pp. 575–602. An Italian version of the text is by Virgilio Mattioli (see above note (1) ). I am indebted to Mattioli for his help. Celio sent the little treatise with a covering letter to Pistophilus (Opera 387), and the treatise itself is put in the form of epistolary discourse.

32 Lazzari, , op. cit., 154155Google Scholar; Mattioli, , op. cit., 170.Google Scholar

33 Thorndike, Lynn discusses “Nicholas of Cusa and the Triple Motion of the Earth” in Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century, New York, 1929, Ch. VII, pp. 133141.Google Scholar From this it would appear that Cusa was not an important figure in the history of astronomy. What Thorndike says does, however, confirm the idea that Calcagnini derived some of his notions via Cusanus. In any case, Calcagnini says he did.

Thorndike disdains the claim of many that the Copernican revolution really began with Nicholas of Cusa. The name of Calcagnini was likewise linked with that of Copernicus. In 1616 Paul Minerva of Bari, moderator and regent of the University of Naples, says that while the theory of Copernicus is to be rejected, it is useful for discussion. He says that it is an opinion of many ancients, and that more recently Celio Calcagnini supported it, and that Copernicus later employed it to establish his hypothesis. (Thorndike, Lynn, History of Magic and Exper. Science, New York, Vol. VI, p. 63.)Google Scholar

34 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a cele brated humanist, defended the method of scholastic reasoning. See my “Gio vanni Pico della Mirandola on the Conflict of Philosophy and Rhetoric,” in the Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. XIII, No. 3, (June, 1952), pp. 384–391 and 394–402.