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Cino Rinuccini's Risponsiva alia Invettiva di Messer Antonio Lusco*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Ronald Witt
Ronald Witt*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Cino rinuccini's Risponsiva is said to be one of the earliest Florentine works to present a republican interpretation of Roman and Florentine history. While the official correspondence of the Florentine State had been articulating such a concept since the 1370's, Rinuccini's Risponsiva would appear to be one of the first writings by a private citizen to do so. Interestingly enough, this Florentine citizen, who wrote so eloquently of his city, had a very modest public career. Although a member of an old and extremely wealthy Florentine family, his public life did not begin until he was already in late middle age and then it was insignificant. He never attained a major post in the communal government either within the city or in the provincial administration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , Summer 1970 , pp. 133 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1970

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Footnotes

*

This article was written in Florence in the fall of 1968 with the help of a grant from the Old Dominion Fund at I Tatti. I would like to thank the Principessa Elena Corsini for her kindness in allowing me to investigate the archives of the Rinuccini family found in the Palazzo Corsini in Florence. Apart from the testament of Cino's father (preserved under the front cover of the eighteenth-century inventory of the Rinuccini archives), however, I was unable to find any relevant material. The oldest part of the Rinuccini archives passed into the Trivulzio family (G. Porro, Catalogo dei codici manoscritti della Trivulziana, Torino, 1884, n. 1987 and n. 1988) and was destroyed in the bombing of the Castello Sforzesco during the war. I am also grateful to Anthony Molho of Brown University and Randolph Starn of the University of California at Berkeley, who read the manuscript at different stages. Dr. Antonietta Morandini, Director of the Riccardiana Library, and Dr. Filippo Di Benedetto of the Laurenziana greatly facilitated my research in those institutions. For an assessment of Cino Rinuccini's Risponsiva as a pioneering work see below p. 148.

References

1 See my article, ‘The De Tyrannoand Coluccio Salutati's View of Politics and Roman History,’ Nuova Rivista Storica, LIII(1969), 434-474.

2 See Lauro, Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 1390-1460(Princeton, 1963), pp. 110–112 Google Scholar. Aiazzi, G. in his Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal 1282 al 1460 colla continuazione di Alamanno e Neri suoi figli fino al 1506(Florence, 1840), pp. 126–128 Google Scholar, writes that Cino was born ‘poco dopo il 1350’ and died in 1417. Passerini, L. [Bibl. Naz. Fir., Collezione Genealogica Passerini, vol. 8, c. 25 (the second set of pagination in volume)] gives 1352 as the date of Rinuccini's birth without supporting evidence and notes that he died of pestilence in 1417. Martines cautiously gives the date ca. 1355 for his birth (p. 110).Google Scholar

3 I was led to examine the list of consuls for the Medici e Spezialithrough the discovery by Martines (p. 110) that Cino was matriculated in that guild. Cino served as consul in 1404, 1407, 1409, 1411, 1413, and 1415 (Arch. Stato Fir., Arte, Med. e Spez.46, cc. 33, 34, 35v, 36v, 37v and 38v).

4 His office in the Council of the Commune is found as follows: 1404 (A.S.F., Tratte 147, under May 1, 1404); 1407 and 1409 (148, under May 1,1407 and Jan. 1,1409); 1411 and 1413 (151, cc. 2iv and 74); 1415 (152, c. 26).

5 His name as representative of the Gonfalone delle Ruoteappears Tratte151, c. 3 7. While the Rinuccini traditionally lived in the Gonfalone del Bue, Cino seems to have moved to the nearby Ruote area in the first decade of the fifteenth century (cf. Martines, , ‘Nuovi documenti su Cino Rinuccini e una nota sulle finanze della famiglia Rinuccini,’ Archivio Storico Italiano, CXIX (1961), 79)Google Scholar. It would appear that by 1414 he was living back in the Bue:his office as representative of the Bueis found Tratte151, c. 128 (it is shown again for the same period, ibid.152, c. 8).

6 L. Martines, ‘Nuovi documenti,’ p. 85.

7 Ibid., pp. 82-85.

8 Laur., Ashb.1830, cass. II, 138: Padre carissimo, più mi sforza la mia innocentia a vi scrivere chella presuptione di faticare un sì facto huomo. No ritarda la penna, lecta e rilecta la vostra sottile lectera, o(h) malinconia assai! conciosiacosa ch'io vi veggia pertinace a credere quello che per susuroni v'è stato apportato. Che veramente di loro e vero il dreto di scrivere che dice essere certi cani che non per verita ma per usanza abbaiano. Come potrei io parlare d'uno huomo di tanta virtù, di tanta bontà, se no bene? Certo io nol so, nè anche so quello a ch'io vi debba respondere. Et però quanto posso, vi priego, che per littere o a bocca me facciate sentire ciò che i maliloque per male anno seminato. De(h), per amore di me fatelo, ch'io sono certo che loro pensieri a questa volta sarrano vani. Cristo vi guardi. di 20 di maggio Cino Rinuccini vostro.

9 ‘Nuovi documenti,’ p. 84.

10 The Social World, pp. 111-112. The discovery by Anthony Molho that Rinuccini had business relations with Francesco Marco Datini (Arch. Dat., n. 598, cc. 232v-233 and 279v) must be added to Martines’ account of Rinuccini's business affairs.

11 Istorie Florentine scritte da Giovanni Cavalcanti, ed. F. Polidori (Florence, 1838), II, Appendix, 464: Seguitando in questi principii delle cose, troverâne autori tutti i nobili, i quali erano liberi e non servi. E per insino alia vita de’ nostri padri, si poterono comprendere nelle schiatte de’ più nobili, uomini di profonda eloquenza. Ne’ Frescobaldi fu Giovanni … Lambertucci; nei Soldanieri, Niccolò; ne’ Cavalcanti, Guido; negli Alighieri, il babbo degli uomini virtudiosi; ne’ Rinuccini, Cino; in quelli da Quona, Lapo. E simile troverai ne’ Gianfigliazzi, negli Albizzi, ne’ Brunelleschi.’ This statement is found in the two known manuscripts of Cavalcanti's work: Bib. Rice. 2431, c. 247 and Bib. Naz. Fir., Ginori Conti, App. 3, c. 180. For this information on the manuscripts of the IstorieI am grateful to Marcella Grendler of the University of Toronto who is editing portions of the work.

12 The Risponsivain the Moreni 313; the Invettivain the Moreniana as well as in the Laur., Plut. LXXXX sup. 63, cc. 118V-I22V and 135. 1, cc. I53v-155v. Aiazzi (p. 127) is definitely in error when he writes ‘nel codice 118 della già libreria Gaddi leggesi una Responsione alia Invettiva di Mess. Antonio Luscofatta per Cino di Mess. Francesco, Rinuccini, cittadino fiorentino, e traslatata di grammatica in volgare per… .’Menus discusses the Gadd. 118 in his Vita Ambrosii Traversarii(Florence, 1756), p. clxxvi Google Scholar, and identifies the Gaddiana text as the Invettivanot the Risponsiva.The Gadd. 118 became the Laur., Plut. LXXXX sup., 63 ( Bandini, A. M., Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae, v, Florence, 1778, 369, n. 1).Google Scholar

13 J Manoscritti delta Biblioteca Moreniana, ed. C. Nardini (Florence, 1911), 1, 390.

14 See below pp. 142ff.

15 Because Moreni's edition of the work (Invectiva in Antonium Luschum Vicentinum, Florence, 1826, pp. 199-250) entitles it Risponsivaand this usage has been generally accepted, I refer to the tract throughout as Risponsiva.

16 Il Paradiso degli Alberti, Ritrovi e ragionamenti del 1389, Romanzo di Giovanni da Pratoin series ‘Scelta di curiosità letterarie’ (Bologna, 1867), 87, 303-316. The manuscripts utilized for the edition of the Invectivaare said to be (303): ‘Cod. Laur. pi. xc sup. c. 63, conda Barberino; il quale essendo valentissimo Dottore nell'una e nell'altra legge, compose quel libretto, il quale denominò della sua propria originale patria ritmi volgari.” ‘ The seventeenth-century editor simply added punctuation and modernized the spelling. The inventory of the Rinuccini archives in the Palazzo Corsini does not list this manuscript among the possessions of the Rinuccini family in the eighteenth century. Nor does the catalog of manuscripts (Catalogo della libreria del fu m. Renuccini, ed. P. F. Rinuccini [Florence, 1851].

20 Between a discussion of the best form of government and a consideration of the meaning of the terms ‘fate,’ ‘chance,’ and ‘fortune,’ there is a curious passage referring to an event in Florentine-Pisan history which is out of place (pp. 220-223). All quotations from the Risponsivaare drawn from the Moreni edition.

21 Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice(Princeton, 1955), p. 50.

22 Coluccio Salutati in his own response to Loschi, Invectiva in Antonium Luschum, finished in 1403, quoted Loschi's whole work. His method was systematically to present a passage from Loschi and then to refute it. I know of four codices containing Loschi's work alone. Three are cited by Kristeller, P. O., Iter Italicum(London, 1963), 1, 107 and 260, and (London, 1967), n, 81.1 discovered a fourth in the Trivulziana, n. 751 (fifteenth century), cc. 26–33.Google Scholar

23 P. 218. Cino follows up this assertion with the weak point (pp. 218-219) that ‘se il Duca di Baviera, il quale noi mettemo in Italia, avesse la vittoria, che la fortuna gli apparecchi6, conseguito, la quale non seppe seguire, siccome Annibale, e Pompeo, et altri gloriosissimi Duci, in danno gravissimo redundò, sarebbe stata la fine di tanta guerra, conciosiacosachè quasi tutta la Lombardia dal tuo pestifero Duca rebellava.'

24 Pp. 219-220. This republican interpretation of Roman history dates back at least to St. Thomas, ’ De Regimine Principum, 1, 4.Google Scholar

25 Pp. 223-225. Examples of Loschi's references to these concepts are the following: p. 18, ‘fata'; p. 74, ‘casum'; p. 83, ‘fato atque fortuna.'

26 P. 91.

27 Vol. 86, 251

28 Humanistic and Political Literature, p. 50.

29 Compare, for example: ‘… Messer Francesco Petrarca mi si mostra …’ (p. 229); '… Fazio degli Uberti non è da essere fra questi uomini famosissimi occultato …’ (p. 323);'… è da essere connotato lo egregio Cavaliere Mess. Cappa de’ Pazzi…’ (p. 242).

30 It is conceivable that the author has his eye on domestic discussions and utilizes this opportunity to castigate his enemies in Florence. In his Invettiva(Bibl. Rice, Moreni 313, c. I3V) Rinuccini exhibits his concern and annoyance in regard to a group of Florentines who ‘non sano qua regimento si sia miglore, o quel d'uno o quello di più o quello di molti o quello di pochi eletti… .'

31 In the light of Rinuccini's public career which only began in 1404, it could be argued that he was not psychologically prepared for undertaking a work like the Risponsivauntil after that date.

32 Eugenio, Garin, ‘La cultura milanese nella prima meta del XV secolo’ in Storia di Milano, ed. Fondazione Treccani degli Alfieri (Milan, 1955), VI, 581 Google Scholar. See Hans, Baron, From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni(Chicago, 1968), p. 152.Google Scholar

33 Petri Cattdidi Decembrii Opuscola Historica, ed. A. Buti, F. Fossati, and G. Petraglione, 'Rerum Italicorum Scriptores’ (Bologna, 1958), xx, pt. I, fasc. 13, 1013-1025. G. Petraglione published the panegyric for the first time in 1907 as an appendix to his article, ‘Il De Laudibus Mediolanensium Urbis Panegyricus,’ Archivio Storico Lombardo, ser. 4, viii (1907), 27-45.

34 P. 1017.

35 See also Poggio's letter of 1438 replying to Decembrio: quoted in Rubinstein, N., 'Florentine Constitutionalism and Medici Ascendency in the Fifteenth Century’ in Florentine Studies: Politics and Society in Renaissance Florence(London, 1969), p. 448, n. 4.Google Scholar

36 Crisis, pp. 94 and 273. See numerous references to Rinuccini's Risponsivain this work.

37 Baron is responsible for the establishment of the date 1403 /1404 for the writing of Brum's Laudatio.See his masterful summary of the evidence supporting this date in From Petrarch, pp. 102-137. Also see Baron's edition of the work, pp. 232-263. For Salutati's great contribution to the development of this concept, see my ‘The De Tyrannoand Coluccio Salutati's View of Politics and Roman History.’ Bruni's Laudatiosystematized ideas already expressed by Salutati and put them into such a form that they had a tremendous effect on contemporaries and succeeding generations. In my opinion Baron's analysis of Bruni's influence does not adequately recognize the extent to which the individual ideas had been in circulation for decades or more before Bruni.