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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
From the end of 1494 to the spring of 1498 Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara was a prophet with honor in his adopted country. The Florentines believed in his divine mandate and in his message that the French invader, Charles VIII, was the instrument of God, come to punish the corrupt Church and the sinful Italians and to institute a universal reform. Believing, as he told them, that Florence was divinely chosen to lead the way, the Florentines gave Savonarola the opportunity—rare for prophets— of translating his vision into a practical program. From the pulpit Savonarola taught the first city of the Renaissance how to become the first city of the New Age. Florence, reformed by the friar and his followers, was to be the center from which the spiritual light would illuminate the world.
1. See for example the defense of Savonarola by Lorenzo Luotto against the criticisms of Ludwig Pastor, Il vero Savonarola e il Savonarola di L. Pastor (Florence, 1897).Google Scholar
2. There is a good survey of Savonarola interpretations in Schnitzer, Joseph, Savonarola ein Kulturbild aus der Zeit der Renaissance 2 vols. (Munich, 1924)Google Scholar. I cite the expanded and revised Italian translation by Rutili, Ernesto (Milan, 1931) II, chap. 40Google Scholar. See also Teichmann, Alfred, Savonarola in der deutschen Dichtung (Stoff- und Motivgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 16; Berlin, 1937).Google Scholar
3. For an account of the “new piagnonism” of the nineteenth century see Gentile, Giovanni, Gino Cappcni e la cultura toscana nel secolo decimonono (Florence, 1922).Google Scholar
4. The metaphor is used by De Sanctis, Francesco, quoted by Luigi Russo, Machiavelli (3d ed; Bari, 1949) p. 2.Google Scholar
5. Spini, Giorgio, “Introduzione al Savonarola,” Belfagor III, 4 (31 July, 1948) pp. 414–428Google Scholar. See also Cantimori, Delio, “Giuseppe Schnitzer: Savonarola,” Annali della R. Scuola Normaie Superiore di Pisa. Lettere, Storia e Filosafia II (1932) pp. 80–104Google Scholar, and Palmarocchi, Roberto, “Savonarola, Girolamo,” Enciclopedia italiana XXX (1936) pp. 973–5.Google Scholar
6. Ridolfi, Roberto, Vita di Girolamo Savonarola 2 vols. (Rome, 1954)Google Scholar; Schnitzer, op. cit.
7. Spini, op. cit., pp. 418–421; Cantimori, op. cit., pp. 98–100.
8. Of the many works of Eugenio Garin I mention here only the one most pertinent to this specific point: “Girolamo Savonarola,” Address to the Libera Cattedra of Florence (Florence, 1953); Chastel, André, “L'Antéchrist à Ia Renaissance,” Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi Umanistici ed. Castelli, Enrico, L'Umanesimo e il demoniaco nell' arte (Rome, 1952) pp. 177–186.Google Scholar
9. Garin, Eugenio, “Desideri di riforma nell' oratoria del Quattrocento,” Belfagor Quaderno 1, Contributi alla storia del Concilio di Trento e della controriforma (Florence, 1948) p. 9.Google Scholar
10. There are numerous editions in Italian and Latin. I cite that in della Mirandola, Gianfrancesco Pico, Vita R.P. Fr. Hieronymi Savonarola Ferrariensis 2 vols. ed. Quetif, Jacques (Paris, 1674) I, 221–230.Google Scholar
11. Ridolfi, , Vita I, 20–45Google Scholar. See also Ridolfi, , Studi savonaroliani (Florence, 1935) pp. 34–71.Google Scholar
12. See the record of his trial published in Villari, Pasquale, La storia di Girolamo Savonarola e di suoi tempi 2 vols. (2d ed.Florence, 1887–1888) I, cxlix–clGoogle Scholar. This is confirmed by the account of Savonarola's devoted disciple and biographer, Fra Benedetto Luschino (da Firenze), who also reports that Savonarola told him how his first idea of the coming punishment and renovation of the Church came to him through reason and the reading of Scriptures. Vulnera ditigentis Ms. Biblioteca Riccardiana (Florence) No. 2985, Book III, f. 15r.Google Scholar
13. The Latin notes for one of these San Gimignano sermons are published in Ridolfi, Roberto, Gli archivi delle famiglie fiorentine (Florence, 1934) pp. 79–81.Google Scholar
14. Professor Cantimori, in his review of Sehnitzer, observes the absence of any sense of spiritual development in Schnitzer's interpretation of Savonarola, and notes that Schnitzer interpreted Savonarola's early thought on the basis of expressions only found in his later work. op. cit., p. 91.
15. In Ferrara, Mario, Savonarota 2 vols (Florence, 1952) I, 7–9.Google Scholar
16. Ridolfi, , Studi p. 45.Google Scholar
17. Ridolfi, , Vita I, 52–3.Google Scholar
18. Savonarola, Girolamo, “Lezioni sull' Apocalisse,” partly in Villari, Savonarola, I, xv–xviiiGoogle Scholar. The full text is in Sermones sive magis lectiones super Apocalypsim Ms. Biblioteca Nazionale Ceutrale (Florence) Conventi soppressi No. I. VII 25, ff. 53–85.Google Scholar
19. See for example the attack by the hermit Angelo, , Epistola dell' heremita de Valle Ombrosa dello stato della Chiesa (Vallombrosa, 1496) Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Florence) Guicciardini No. 3–10–7.Google Scholar
20. “Vincenzo Ferreri (Ferrer) santo,” Enciclopedia Cattolica (Vatican City, 1954) XII, 1444.Google Scholar
21. In Villari, P., Casanova, E. (ed.) Scelta di prediche e scritti di Fra Girolamo Savonarola (Florence, 1898) p. 15.Google Scholar
22. Ibid., p. 14. On Fra Mariano see Perini, D. A., Un emulo di fr. Girolamo Savonarola: fr. Mariano da Genazzano (Rome, 1917).Google Scholar
23. Girolamo Benivieni tells how his brother Domenico criticized Savonarola for the lack of grace in his style, especially as compared to Mariano, Fra: Lettera mandata a Clemento VII (1530) Ms. Biblioteca Riccardiana (Florence) f. 8 v-r.Google Scholar
24. Pico, Gianfranceaco, Vita I, 27.Google Scholar
25. Savonarola, Girolamo, Prediche nuovamente venute in luce. … sopra il salmo Quam bonus Israel Deus (Venice, 1528) f. LII v.Google Scholar
26. Ibid., ff. LXII r-LXVIII v.
27. Ibid., f. XI r.
28. Savonarola, Girolamo, Prediche italiane ai Fiorentini 3 vols. in 4, ed. Cognasso, F., Palmarocchi, R. (Documenti di storia italiana; Perugia, Florence, 1930–1935) II, 318–19.Google Scholar
29. The social basis of medieval millenarian movements is most recently discussed in Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1957).Google Scholar
30. Savonarola, Girolamo, Sermones quadragesimales super archam Noe (Venice, 1536)Google Scholar. For the dating of these sermons see Bibliografia delle opere del Savonarola ed. Conti, Piero Ginori, Vol. I Roberto, Ridolfi, Cronologia e bibliografia delle prediche (Florence, 1939) pp. 40–6.Google Scholar
31. These events are described in Sehnitzer, op. cit., I, 163–212, and Ridolfi, , Vita I, 116–126.Google Scholar
32. These, make up the first volume of the Prediche italiane ai fiorentine op. cit.
33. Ibid., I, 9–19.
34. Cerretani, Bartolomeo, Storia fiorentina in Joseph, Schnitzer (ed.) Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte Savonarolas III. Bartolomeo Cerretani (Munich, 1904) pp. 15–16.Google Scholar
35. See his letters to Charles, nos. XX, XXVII-XXIX in Le tettere ed. Roberto Ridolfi (Florence, 1933).Google Scholar
36. Prediche italiane I, 55–6.Google Scholar
37. Ibid., p. 64.
38. This is described in Cerretani, op. cit., pp. 26–7; Landucci, Luca, Diario fiorentino ed. lodoco, Del Badia (Florence, 1883) pp. 87–8Google Scholar. The text of the agreement is in Archivio storico italiano 1 (1842) pp. 362–375.Google Scholar
39. “ … però el nostro Noè ehe è nell' area parla a tutti quelli che sono dentro, intra i quali noi siamo da Dio stati eletti a fuggire tanto pericolo.” Prediche italiane I, 107.Google Scholar
40. “Risponde Noè: Si come per el diluvio si rinnovò el mondo, cosi manda Dio queste tribulazioni per rinnovare la chiesa sua con quelli che staranno nell' area.” Ibid., pp. 108–9.
41. Ibid., pp. 114–115.
42. Ibid., p. 184.
43. The point is important in following the development of Savonarola's message. Francesco Guicciardini noticed it: Storie fiorentine p. 109 in Opere ed. Roberto Palmarocchi (Scrittori d'Italia 134; Bari, 1931).Google Scholar
44. Prediche italiane I, 115.Google Scholar
45. Ibid., pp. 195–7.
46. Ibid., pp. 362–3.
47. Ibid., p. 145.
48. Ibid., pp. 170–1.
49. Ibid., pp. 201; II, 324–5.
50. Ibid., pp. 201–214.
51. Ibid., pp. 269–275.
52. For his use of the Biblical unum ovile (e.g. John 10.16) see Prediche italiane III2, 206, 256Google Scholar. For the Papa santo see Ibid., pp. 313–4, 528. The Joachimites also used the terms Papa sanctus and pastor bonus: see Burdach, K., Piur, P., (ed.) Vom Mittelalter zur Reformation; Forschungen zur Geschichte den deutschen Bildung II.5, 307–8.Google Scholar
53. On the Joachimite “Second Charlemagne” Prophecy see especially Reeves, Marjorie E., Studies in the Reputation and Influence of the Abbot Joachim of Fiore, Chiefly in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 1932).Google Scholar
54. Savonarola, , Le lettere, p. 42.Google Scholar
55. On reforming interests in Florence see Garin, , “Desideri,” and the resumé in my thesis, Prophecy and Humanism in Late Fifteenth Century Florence (Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of Iowa, 1957) Chap IIGoogle Scholar. On the astrological predictions of religious reform see Soldati, Benedetto, La poesia astrologica nel Quattrocento (Florence, 1906) pp. 196–7Google Scholar; Chastel, op. cit., passim.
56. See especially Ficino, Marsilio, Della religione christiana (Florence, 1568) pp. 7–8.Google Scholar
57. Garin, Eugenio, L'umanesimo italiano (Bari, 1952) p. 114.Google Scholar
58. Prediche italiane III1, 151, 400.Google Scholar
59. Quoted by Salmi, Mario, “La ‘Renovatio Romae' e Firenze,” Rinascimento I (Florence, 1950) 20–1.Google Scholar
60. Quoted by Schevill, Ferdinand, History of Florence (New York, 1936) p. 228.Google Scholar
61. Baron, Hans, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance 2 vols. (Princeton, 1955) I, 38–60.Google Scholar
62. Rinuccini, Alamanno, Lettere ed orazioni ed. Giustiniani, Vito R. (Florence, 1953) p. 14.Google Scholar
63. Verino, Ugolino, Flametta ed. Mencaraglia, Luciano (Florence, 1940) p. 96Google Scholar. I have so far only been able to see reviews of Welliver's, WarmanL'impero fiorentino (Florence, 1957)Google Scholar. If his thesis is correct Lorenzo de' Medici was responsible for developing a program of Florentine imperialism. This would, it seems to me, strengthen further the bonds between Savonarola's prophecy and Florentine traditions.
64. Ficino, Marsilio, Opera (Basel, 1561) pp. 616–617.Google Scholar
65. See Salutati's, panegyric in Ganin, Eugenio (ed.) Prosatori latini del Quattrocento (Milan, 1952) p. 34.Google Scholar
66. Baron, op. cit., I, 152–3.
67. In Ganin, Eugenio (ed.) Il Rinasoimento italiano (Milan, 1941) p. 371.Google Scholar
68. In explaining the Florentine reception of Charles VIII Comines says, “…les Florentins mal voulentiers estoient contre la maison de France, de laquelle ilz ont esté de tous temps vrays serviteurs et partisans, tant pour les affairs qu'ilz ont en France, pour la marchandise, que pour estre de la part guelfe: … ” Memoires de Philippe De Commynes ed. R. Chantelauze (Paris, 1881) p. 536Google Scholar. I am indebted to Dr. Hans Baron for this reference.
69. Savonarola, Girolamo, Trattato circa il reggimento e governo della città di Firenze ed. de Rians, A. (6th ed., Florence, 1847) p. 13.Google Scholar
70. Savonarola, Girolamo, Prediche sopra Ezechiele ed. Ridolfi, Roberto 2 vols. (Rome, 1955) I, 97.Google Scholar
71. We do know that Giovanni Pico had met Savonarola earlier and interceded with Lorenzo to secure the return of the friar to Florence. La vita del Beato leronimo Savonarola scritta da un anonimo ed. Piero Ginori Conti (Florence, 1937) p. 17Google Scholar. For further evidence see Ridolfi, , Vita I, 43–4.Google Scholar
72. On Savonarola's work for Dominican reform see Schnitzer, Joseph, Savonarola im Streite mit seinem Orden und seinem Kloster (Munich, 1914).Google Scholar
73. As their mutual friend and disciple, Storia dell' Accademia Platonica di de Novo Saeculo (Florence, 1947) b. 4 r.Google Scholar
74. On Domenico see Torre, Arnaldo Della, Storia dell' Accademia Platonica di Firenze (Florence, 1902) pp. 771–2Google Scholar. On Girolamo see Re, Caterina, Girolamo Benivieni fioreatina (Città di Castello, 1906)Google Scholar. On Antonio see Della Torre, op. cit., pp. 780–3. See also my thesis, Chap. IV.
75. “Ferrariensis igitur Socrates,” Nesi, op. cit., b. 5 r.
76. Crinito, Piero, De honesta disciplina ed. Carlo, Angieleri (Edizione nazionale dei classici del pensiero italiano 11.2; Rome, 1955) pp. 104–5.Google Scholar
