Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T13:24:03.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Annibal Caro's After-Dinner Speech (1536) and the Question of Titian as Vesalius's Illustrator*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Patricia Simons  and
Monique Kornell
Patricia Simons
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Putative textual proof for Titian's central involvement in producing illustrations for Vesalius's anatomy book De fabrica (1543) requires reexamination. On the basis of orthographic, literary, and historical evidence, a phrase in Annibal Caro's after-dinner speech, here dated to 1536, is shown instead to refer ironically to a surgeon's notorious execution in 1517. Anatomia was a word in the satirical as well as the medical lexicon. It is important to understand the satirical tone of Caro's speech about a priapic statuette. Delivered during Carnival to the Roman Academy of Virtue, the speech respects neither antiquities nor artists like Michelangelo in its obscene humor.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , Winter 2008 , pp. 1069 - 1097
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors independently arrived at the same conclusion regarding the meaning of a phrase by Annibal Caro, and decided to strengthen the case by joining forces. Monique Kornell is responsible for research on manuscripts of Caro's text and its earliest printed editions of the nineteenth century, Patricia Simons for other research on Caro's writings and their context. The authors wish to acknowledge Antonio Clericuzio, Megan Holmes, Nerida Newbigin, Monika Schmitter, and Jeffrey Spier for their comments and assistance.

References

Bibliography

Manuscripts

Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa del Comendatore Annibal Caro al Re della Virtù.” Bergamo, Biblioteca A. Mai, Cassaforte 1.5, fols. 27r–29v. Cited as Caro, MS A.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa sopra il tributo fatto al sesto Re della Virtù.” Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Fondo Nazionale, II, IV, 623, fols. 1r–3v. Cited as Caro, MS B.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa del Commendatore Annibal Caro al Re della Virtù.” Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Fondo Nazionale, II, IV, 690, fols. 50r–55v. Cited as Caro, MS C.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “La statua della foja, ovvero di Santa Nafissa.” Forlì, Biblioteca Comunale Aurelio Saffi, MS N.603.CR.122, fols. 1r–12v. Cited as Caro, MS D.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa.” Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 13664, misc. 18, fols. 82r–85v. Cited as Caro, MS E.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa Al Sesto Re della Virtù.” Rome, Biblioteca Corsiniana, now Biblioteca dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rossi 94 (45 C 12) Cart., fols. 207r–211v. Cited as Caro, MS F.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa sopra ‘l Tributo fatto al sesto Re della Virtù.” Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Marc. It. X, 40 (=6415), fols. 94r–97v. Cited as Caro, MS G.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Diceria di Santa Nafissa del Comendatore Annibal Caro al Re della Virtù.” Venice, Biblioteca Seminario Patriarcale, 843.2=931.2, fols. 31v–35v. Cited as Caro, MS H.Google Scholar
Aretino, Pietro. Cortigiana. Opera nova Pronostico. Il testamento dell'elefante. Farza. Ed. Romano, Angelo. Milan, 1989.Google Scholar
Aretino, Pietro. Lettere. Ed. Procaccioli, Paolo. 6 vols. Rome, 1997–2002.Google Scholar
Ariosto, Ludovico. The Satires of Ludovico Ariosto: A Renaissance Autobiography. Trans. Wiggins, Peter DeSa. Athens, OH, 1976.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . Posterior Analytics. Ed. and Trans. Tredennick, Hugh. Cambridge, MA, 1960.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . History of Animals. Trans. Peck, A.L. and Balme, D.M.. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1965–91.Google Scholar
Ascarelli, Fernanda. Le cinquecentine romane: Censimento delle edizioni romane del XVI secolo possedute dalle biblioteche di Roma. Milan, 1972.Google Scholar
Barberi, Francesco. Per una Storia del libro: Profili, Note, Ricerche. Rome, 1981.Google Scholar
Barocchi, Paola. Ed. Scritti d'arte del Cinquecento. 3 vols. Milan, 1971.Google Scholar
Barocchi, Paola, and Ristori, Renzo, eds. Il carteggio di Michelangelo: Edizione postuma di Giovanni Poggi. 5 vols. Florence, 1973.Google Scholar
Berni, Francesco. Rime. Ed. Romei, Danilo. Milan, 1985.Google Scholar
Berni, Francesco, et al. Il secondo libro dell'opere burlesche di M. Francesco Berni, del Molza, di M. Bino, di M . Martelli, di Mattio Franzesi, dell Aretino, e di diversi Autori. [Naples], 1723.Google Scholar
Bettica-Giovannini, Renato. La medicina Vercellese nel medioevo e nel Rinascimento. Turin, 1964.Google Scholar
Bober, Phyllis Pray, and , Rubinstein, Ruth. Renaissance Artists & Antique Sculpture: A Handbook of Sources. London, 1986.Google Scholar
Bonfadio, Jacopo. Lettere famigliari. Ed. Sambuca, A. Brescia, 1746.Google Scholar
Breisach, Ernest. Caterina Sforza: A Renaissance Virago. Chicago, 1967.Google Scholar
Brunet, Jacques-Charles. Manuel du Libraire et de l'Amateur de Livres. 4 vols. 3rd ed. Paris, 1820.Google Scholar
Capparoni, Pietro. Giov. Battista. da Vercelli, sifiloiatra squartato sotto Leone X. Reprint from Bollettino dell'Istituto Storico Italiano dell'Arte Sanitaria 1, nos. 1–2 (1921): 3–56.Google Scholar
Cappelli, A. Cronologia, Cronografia e Calendario Perpetuo. 4th ed. Milan, 1978.Google Scholar
Carlino, Andrea. Books of the Body: Anatomical Ritual and Renaissance Learning. Trans. Tedeschi, John and Tedeschi, Anne C.. Chicago, 1999.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. Commento di Ser Agresto da Ficaruolo sopra la prima Ficata del padre Siceo. Rome, 1539.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. Dicerie di Annibal Caro e di altri a’ Rè della virtù. Ed. , Gamba, Bartolomeo. [Venice], 1821.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. Lettere inedite di Annibal Caro. Ed. Mazzuchelli, Pietro. 3 vols. Milan, 1827–30.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “Leggenda di Santa Nafissa, scritta da Annibal Caro.” In La Giulleria: Novella di Ant. Francesco Grazzini detto il Lasca, ed. Grazzini, Antonio Francesco, i–vii. [Florence], 1861.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. “La Statua della Foia.” In Gli Straccioni, commedia. La Ficheide, comento. La Nasea e La Statua della foia, dicerie di Annibal Caro, 183–88. Milan, 1863.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. Scritti scelti. Ed. Spadolini, Ernesto. Milan, 1912.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. Lettere familiari. Ed. Greco, Aulo. 3 vols. Florence, 1957–61.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. Opuscoli del commendatore Annibal Caro: Commento di Ser Agresto da Ficaruolo sopra la prima ficata del padre Siceo. Ed. Romagnoli, G. 1861. Reprint, Bologna, 1967.Google Scholar
Caro, Annibal. The Scruffy Scoundrels (Gli straccioni). Trans. Ciavolella, Massimo and Beecher, Donald. Waterloo, 1981.Google Scholar
Cosentino, Paola. “L'Accademia della Virtù: dicerie e cicalate di Annibal Caro e di altri Virtuosi.” In ‘Cum notibusse et comentaribusse’: L'esegesi parodistica e giocosa del Cinquecento, ed. Corsaro, Antonio and Procaccioli, Paolo , 177–92. Rome, 2002.Google Scholar
Destombes, Marcel. “Nautical charts attributed to Verrazano (1525–1528).” Imago Mundi 11 (1954): 57–66.10.1080/03085695408592059CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dizionario dei tipografi e degli editori italiani: Il Cinquecento. Ed. Menato, Marco, Sandal, Ennio, and Zappella, Giuseppina. 1 vol. Milan, 1997–.Google Scholar
Doni, Francesco. La Seconda Libraria del Doni. Venice, 1551.Google Scholar
Ferroni, Giulio. “Lettere e scritti burleschi di Annibal Caro tra il 1532 e il 1542.” Palatino 12 (1968): 374–86.Google Scholar
Fisher, M. Roy. Titian's Assistants during the Later Years. New York, 1977.Google Scholar
Freccero, John. “Medusa and the Madonna of Forlì: Political Sexuality in Machiavelli.” In Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature, ed. Ascoli, Albert Russell and Kahn, Victoria , 161–78. Ithaca, 1993.Google Scholar
Frey, Karl. Der Literarische Nachlass Giorgio Vasaris. 2 vols. Munich, 1923–30.Google Scholar
Gandini, Clemente, ed. Tiziano: Le lettere. 2nd ed., Pieve di Cadore, 1989.Google Scholar
Goodrich, James T. “The Identification of the Anatomical Illustrators of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543).” The Journal of Biocommunication 5, no. 3 (1978): 26–32.Google Scholar
Graesse, Jean George Théodore. Trésor de livres rares et précieux. 2 vols. Dresden, 1861.Google Scholar
Greco, Aulo. Annibal Caro: Cultura e poesia. Rome, 1950.Google Scholar
Guicciardini, Francesco. Opere. Ed. Scarano, Emanuella. 3 vols. Turin, 1970–81.Google Scholar
Hall, Marcia. “Introduction.” In Michelangelo's ‘Last Judgment’, ed. Hall, Marcia , 1–50, Cambridge, 2005.Google Scholar
Harcourt, Glenn. “Andreas Vesalius and the Anatomy of Antique Sculpture.” Representations 17 (1987): 28–61.10.1525/rep.1987.17.1.99p0422bCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inventario e stima della Libreria Riccardi: Manoscritti e edizioni del s. XV. Florence, 1810.Google Scholar
Janson, H. W. “Titian's Laocoön Caricature and the Vesalian-Galenist Controversy.” Art Bulletin 28, no. 1 (1946): 49–53.Google Scholar
Kornell, Monique. “The Study of the Human Machine: Books of Anatomy for Artists.” In The Ingenious Machine of Nature: Four Centuries of Art and Anatomy, 43–70. Ottawa, 1996.Google Scholar
Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Iter Italicum: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and Other libraries. 6 vols. London and Leiden, 1963.Google Scholar
Lomazzo, Gian Paolo. Scritti sulle arte. Ed. Ciardi, Roberto Paolo. 2 vols. Florence, 1973–74.Google Scholar
Lucian. Lucian in Eight Volumes. Trans. Harmon, A.M., Kilburn, K., and Macleod, M.D.. 8 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1967–79.Google Scholar
Manning, John. The Emblem. London, 2002.Google Scholar
Martin, John. Bibliographical Catalogue of Privately Printed Books. 1865. Reprint, New York, 1968.Google Scholar
Masetti, Zannini, , Gian, Ludovico. Stampatori e librai a Roma nella seconda metà del 500: Documenti inediti. Rome, 1980.Google Scholar
Mazzatinti, Giuseppe, and Pintor, Fortunato, eds. Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia. Vol. 11, Firenze: R. Biblioteca nazionale centrale. Forlì, 1901.Google Scholar
Milesi, Achille Locatelli. “Di un’ Accademia romana del sec. XVI.” Bollettino della Biblioteca civica di Bergamo 6 (1912): 34–38.Google Scholar
Muraro, Michelangelo. “Tiziano e le anatomie del Vesalio.” In Tiziano e Venezia: Convegno internazionale di studi, Venezia 1976, 307–16. Verona, 1980.Google Scholar
Mutini, Claudio. “Caro, Annibale.” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 20: 497–508. Rome, 1977.Google Scholar
O'Malley, Charles D. Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564. Berkeley, 1964.Google Scholar
Pastor, Ludwig. The History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle Ages. Ed. Kerr, Ralph Francis. Vol. 7. St Louis, 1908.Google Scholar
Petrucci, Armando. Accademia Nazionale dei Linci: Indici e sussidi bibliografici della biblioteca 10, Catalogo sommario dei manoscritti del Fondo Rossi, Sezione Corsiniana. Rome, 1977.Google Scholar
Pliny. Natural History. Trans. Jones, W.H.S., Rackham, H., and Eichholz, D.E.. 10 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1958–62.Google Scholar
Pulci, Luigi. Morgante: The Epic Adventures of Orlando and His Giant Friend Morgante. Trans. Tusiani, Joseph. Bloomington, 1998.Google Scholar
Puraye, Jean. Dominique Lampson Humaniste 1532–1599. [Bruges], 1950.Google Scholar
Razzolini, Luigi, and , della Lega, Alberto Bacchi. Bibliografia dei testi di lingua a stampa citati dagli Accademici della Crusca. 4th ed., Bologna, 1890.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Dennis E. “Accertamenti tipografici sulla ‘Formaggiata’ del conte Giulio Landi, 1542.” Bollettino storico piacentino 80 (1985): 210–13.Google Scholar
Rosand, David, and Muraro, Michelangelo. Titian and the Venetian Woodcut. Washington, DC, 1976.Google Scholar
Sanudo, Marin. I diarii di Marino Sanuto. 58 vols. Venice, 1889.Google Scholar
Saunders, J. B. de C. M, and O'Malley, Charles D. The Illustrations from the Works of Andreas Vesalius of Brussels. 1950. Reprint, New York,1973.Google Scholar
Sbaragli, Luigi. Claudio Tolomei, umanista senese del cinquecento: La vita e le opere. Siena, 1939.Google Scholar
Schultz, Bernard. Art and Anatomy in Renaissance Italy. Ann Arbor, 1985.Google Scholar
Schulz, Juergen. “Vasari at Venice.” Burlington Magazine 103, no. 705 (1961): 500–11.Google Scholar
Tietze-Conrat, Erica. “Neglected Contemporary Sources Related to Michelangelo and Titian.” Art Bulletin 25, no. 2 (1943): 154–59.10.1080/00043079.1943.11409183CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tortebat, François, and , de Piles, Roger. Abrégé d'anatomie, accommodé aux arts de peinture et de sculpture. Paris, 1668.Google Scholar
Toscan, Jean. Le carnaval du langage: Le lexique érotique des poètes de l’équivoque de Burchiello à Marino. Lille, 1981.Google Scholar
Vaccaro Sofia, Emerenziana. Catalogo delle Edizioni Romane di Antonio Blado Asolano ed eredi (1516–1593) possedute dalle Biblioteche Alessandrina, Angelica, Casanatense, Corsiniana e Vallicelliana di Roma, dalla Biblioteca Vaticana, dall'Archivio di Stato di Roma e dall'Archivio Segreto Vaticano. 4 vols. Rome, 1891–1961.Google Scholar
Van Mander, Karel. The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German Painters, from the First Edition of the Schilder-boeck (1603–1604). Ed. and trans. Miedema, Hessel. 6 vols. Doornspijk, 1994–99.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori, et architettori. Part 3. Florence, 1568.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori. Ed. Milanesi, Gaetano. 8 vols. 1878–85. Reprint, Florence, 1973.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de piú eccellenti architetti, pittori, et Scultori italiani, da Cimabue inso a’ tempi nostri. Nell'edizione per i tipi di Lorenzo Torrentino Firenze 1550. Ed. Bellosi, Luciano and Rossi, Aldo. 2 vols. Turin, 1991.Google Scholar
Vesalius, Andreas. Epistola, docens venam axillarem dextri cubiti in dolore laterali secandam: & melancholicum succum ex venae portae ramis ad sedem pertinentibus, purgari. Basel, 1539.Google Scholar
Vesalius, Andreas. De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. Basel, 1543a.Google Scholar
Vesalius, Andreas. Suorum de humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome. Basel, 1543b.Google Scholar
Vesalius, Andreas. Andreas Vesalius Bruxellensis, The Bloodletting letter of 1539. Ed. and trans. Saunders, J.B. de C.M. and O'Malley, Charles D.. New York, 1947.Google Scholar
Vignali, Antonio. La Cazzaria. Ed. Stoppelli, Pasquale. Rome, 1984.Google Scholar
Wroth, Lawrence C. The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazano 1524–28. New Haven, 1970.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, T.C. Price. Paolo Giovio: The Historian and the Crisis of Sixteenth-Century Italy. Princeton, 1995.10.1515/9781400821839CrossRefGoogle Scholar