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The Vita Longolii: Additional Considerations about Reginald Pole's Authorship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Alvin Vos
Alvin Vos*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Binghamton
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Extract

George B. Parks has recently argued, largely on the basis of internal evidence, that Reginald Pole could hardly have written the biographical sketch that was prefixed to the literary remains (epistles and orations) of the noted Ciceronian Christophe de Longueil (Longolius, ca. 1490-1522). Parks thus challenges the unanimous opinion of Pole's biographers. The young Englishman, he concedes, may yet have been responsible for the ‘Vita Longolii,’ but certain Italian friends (notably Bembo or Leonico Tomeo) and/or English compatriots (Thomas Lupset perhaps) must at least have had a hand in it. The purpose of the following discussion is to bring forth and evaluate additional evidence concerning the authorship of the ‘Vita,’ evidence that, without being conclusive, raises new doubts about the traditional attribution of the ‘Vita’ to Pole.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1977 , pp. 324 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1977

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References

1 ‘Did Pole Write the “Vita Longolii“?' RQ, 26 (1973), 274-285. The volume in which the ‘Vita’ was anonymously published has no collective title; following Parks, we may list it as Orationes (Florence, 1524).

2 Familiares Aliquot Epistolae, in Adolescentulorum Ciceronis Studiosorum Gratiatn (Paris, 1551), pp. 16-17: ‘Quis fuerit author vitae Longolii, neque Egnatius, neque is, qui imprimendis epistolis Longolii praefuit, aliquem certum habent: audivi qui dicerent ab eo ipso Longolio scriptam: quod mihi quidem verisimile non fit. Incidi in nonnullos, qui Villanovanum authorem esse coniicerent. Quod igitur compertum non habemus, pro certo inscribi oportere non sentio.’ Modern typographical conventions are followed. This and subsequent translations are my own. Editor and printer Charles Estienne gives a brief account of Bunel's life, pp. 3-5. See also Samouillan, Alexander, De Petto Bunello Tolosano Eiusque Amicis (Paris, 1891)Google Scholar, and Bohatec, Josef, Budé und Calvin: Studien zur Gedankenwelt des französischen Frühhutnanismus (Graz, 1950), pp. 150–162 Google Scholar.

3 Orationes, fols. 81v-82, 100. See also Simar, Théophile, Christophe de Longueil, Humaniste, Recueil de Travaux … d'Histoire et de Philologie, fasc. 31 (Louvain, 1911), pp. 50 Google Scholar, 52. An excellent account of Baif can be found in the Dictionnaire de Biographie Francaise (Paris, 1933-). He remained in Rome with Longueil for several years, until the latter fled Italy during the tempest over his honorary Roman citizenship. Bunel studied Greek with Baif (Familiares Aliquot Epistolae, p. 13).

4 Etienne Dolet: The Martyr of the Renaissance, 2nd ed. (London, 1899), p. 27. Christie, pp. 27-35, collects most of the information available concerning Villeneuve.

5 Commentariorum Linguae Latinae: Tomus Primus (Lyons, 1536), col. 1178: ‘Symon Villanovanus Latini sermonis puritatem, atque artem rhetoricam Doletum docuit.'

6 Dialogus de Imitatione Ciceroniana, adversus Desiderium Erasmum Roterodamum, pro Christophoro Longolio (Lyons, 1535), p. 14: ‘nemo mihi neque amicior [Longolio], neque charior unquam fuit. Copulavit nos summum amicitiae vinculum, morum similitudo, & studiorum societas.’ See Emile V. Telle's recent facsimile edition, with an excellent introduction and very full commentaries: L'Erasmianus sive Ciceronianus d'Etienne Dolet, Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. 138 (Geneva, 1974).

7 The content of Villeneuve's letter, which has not survived, can be inferred from Longueil's response, Orationes, fols. 101-102. Ph. Aug. Becker, Christophle de Longueil: Sein Leben und sein Briefwechsel, Veröffentlichungen des Romanischen Auslandsinstituts der Universität Bonn, Band 5 (Bonn and Leipzig, 1924), pp. 68ff., provides a helpful calendar of letters by, to, and about Longueil, as well as a summary of each.

8 Orationes, fol. 105-105v.

9 Orationes, fol. 108v.

10 Orationes, fol. 125V, misnumbered 126: ‘non me quidem fugit quam male Galli in Italiam audiant, sed ego tibi Villanovanum praestabo, cum ab omnibus Gallicis uitiis, ineptiisque liberum, turn plane Italica & grauitate, & lingua, & (quod maxime ad rem pertinet) pronunciatione in primis ornatum. Nam quibus potissimum gens ilia virtutibus commendatur, fide, probitate, religione, has quidem nemo in eo desiderarit, non sane magis quam ingenium, judicium, studium, literas, excellentem denique in jure civili prudentiam atque memoriam.’

11 Ibid.: ‘… me dies noctesque excruciat.’

12 Orationes, fol. 121: ‘Ocium illi ad aliquot annos est opus, non quo vel cum Budaeis vel cum Erasmis nostris, quos iam elegantia dicendi & subtilitate vicit, sed cum veteribus illis aliquando contendat.’ The other letters to Ottaviano Grimaldi, like this one, urge him to put pressure on Egnazio, who appeared to be reneging on his oral promise to help Villeneuve (Orationes, fols. 120v, 123v).

13 Orationes, fols. 121v, 122v. During this period Longueil's letters to Grimaldi, a member of a noble family of bankers, harp repeatedly on his own poverty and on Villeneuve's dire need, until at last Longueil is accorded the Venetian's patronage (Orationes, fols. 123, 124v).

14 Orationes, fol. 120-120v, misnumbered 122.

15 ‘Simon Villanovanus Hieronymo Savorniano,’ in Epistolae Clarorum Virorum, Selectae de Quamplurimis Optimae, ad Indicandam Nostrorum Temporum Eloquentiam (Venice, 1556), fols. 71-73v (fol. 72, misnumbered 71). On Savorgnano see Bembo, Pietro, Rerum Venetarum Historiae Libri XII (Paris, 1551), fols. 4, 218v-210, 287v Google Scholar; Donato Giannotti, ‘Vita ed azioni di Girolamo Savorgnano’ (written ca. 1558), in Opere politiche e letterarie di Donato Giannotti, ed. F. L. Polidori (Florence, 1850), II, 175-191; Vincenzo Joppi, ‘Lettere sulla guerra combattuta nel Friuli dal 1510 al 1528 scritte alia Signoria di Venezia da Girolamo Savorgnano,’ Archivio storico italiano, n.s. II, ii (1855), 3-59; III, i (1856), 3-35; IV, i (1856), 13-42.

16 In a letter of March 1522, Longueil thanks Savorgnano for inviting him to visit Osoppo, and in subsequent months he continues to cultivate this potential patron (Orationes, fols. 131v-132, 140v, 152; cf. 144v).

17 Parks, pp. 282-284.

18 Orationes, fol. 7-7v.

19 Orationes, fol. 7v :‘Novi ipse multos quicum a patria absentes & amicorum subsidio destituti, ad eum confugerent, ab eo saepe pecunia sublevatos, cum tamen valde tenues facultates haberet, & aliorum opibus casus suos sustentaret.’

20 When he returned to Italy late in 1519, Longueil was received into the houses first of Bembo, then of Stefano Sauli, and finally of Pole. Grimaldi's support (see n. 13) sustained Longueil after the death of Pope Leo X (December 1521), who had been persuaded by Bembo to grant him an annual pension (Simar, p. 63).

21 Orationes, fol. 2v: ‘… ab amicissimo quodam eius, qui cum eo familiariter vixit.’

22 Orationes, fols. 153, 8. See Parks, pp. 274-275.

23 Becker, p. 202 n., suggests Antonio Francini, editor and corrector for the Junta press. Although he here briefly cites the letter of Bunel under discussion, elsewhere (pp. 66-67) Becker like all modern scholars, Parks excepted, casually assigns the ‘Vita’ to Pole (cf. Simar, pp. 3, 96, 194).

24 Manuzio's comment, in a letter to Guido Fabry, a member of the family of Toulouse that supported Bunel in his later years, regularly appears in Book I of the numerous editions of his collected epistles. It was printed in Familiares Aliquot Epistolae at the end of the editor Charles Estienne's introduction. Henri Estienne in 1581 discussed the letter at length in his Preface, then placed it at the head of his selection of Manuzio's epistles.

25 Bunel, pp. 10-11, 12,18, 22-23, 43, 73. Bunel's inability to make the acquaintance of eminent Italians is reminiscent of Dolet's: see Christie, p. 35. It is characteristic of Bunel that he suspects Villeneuve was the victim of Italian foul play (p. 17).

26 Bunel, pp. 30-32. Sadoleto, , Opera Quae Exstant Omnia (Verona, 1737-38), II, 147 Google Scholar, encourages Bonamico to discuss the position with him ‘qui apud Bayfium est,’ i.e., Bunel; later (Opera, 1, 112) he reports that ‘Brunus [misprint for ‘Bunellus’]’ has accepted a position with de Selve.

27 Calendar of State Papers—Spanish, vol. v, part 1, no. 172. Concerning Pole's intellectual development, see Schenk, Wilhelm, Reginald Pole: Cardinal of England (London, 1950)Google Scholar, chs. MV, and Fenlon, Dermot, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter Reformation (Cambridge, England, 1972), pp. 24ffGoogle Scholar.

28 Bunel, pp. 118-120: ‘Ego … Poli consilium satis laudare non possum, qui omnia humana Christo postponat: cumque philosophandi scientia, & dicendi facultate excellat, eos tamen imitari non velit, qui parum Ciceroniani, si Christum nomine appellent, parum philosophi, si de religione bene sentiant, sibi videntur… . Polus in hoc studio [Christi] totus est, quo doctiorem, suaviorem, probiorem, cognovi neminem.’

29 See, e.g., Fenlon, p. 27.

30 Opera Omnia (Amsterdam, 1969-), 1(2), 679: ‘Ciceronis admirator summus, et aemulator non infelix.’