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Some Renaissance Panegyrics of Aquinas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

John W. O'malley
John W. O'malley*
Affiliation:
University of Detroit
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Extract

This year's commemoration of the seven-hundredth anniversary of the death of Aquinas in 1274 continues a tradition of veneration and panegyric which stretches far back into history and reaches considerably beyond the confines of the Dominican order to which the saint belonged. The most famous and provocative panegyric of St. Thomas is certainly that of Lorenzo Valla, delivered in the Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, on the saint's feast day, March 7, 1457. The fame, even notoriety, of this particular panegyric derives from the significant place in intellectual history which the panegyrist holds as well as from his curious treatment of his subject. As has frequently been observed, Valla's oration is almost an antipanegyric, an apologia for his own humanistic style of theology against the scholastic style of Thomas. It is a good illustration of the fundamental antagonisms between these two styles and an instance of the polemic which often marked their confrontation.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , Summer 1974 , pp. 174 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1974

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References

* I wish to thank the American Philosophical Society for a grant-in-aid which made possible the research upon which this article is based.

1 ‘Encomium sancti Thomae Aquinatis,’ ed. Vahlen, J., Vierteljahrsschrift für Kultur und Literatur der Renaissance, 1 (1886), 384–396 Google Scholar, reproduced in the Opera omnia (Turin, 1962), 11, 340-352, and henceforth referred to simply as Valla. On this panegyric, see, e.g., Mesnard, P., ‘Une application curieuse de l'humanisme critique à la théologie: l'Éloge de saint Thomas par Laurent Valla,’ Revue Thomiste, 55 (1955), 159–176 Google Scholar; Gray, Hanna H., ‘Valla's Encomium of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Humanist Conception of Christian Antiquity,’ in Essays in History and Literature. Presented by Fellows of The Newberry Library to Stanley Pargellis, ed. Heinz Bluhm (Chicago, 1965), pp. 37–51 Google Scholar; Fois, Mario, S.J., II pensiero cristiano di Lorenzo Valla nel quadro storico-culturale del suo ambiente, Analecta Gregoriana,174 (Rome, 1969), pp. 456–469 Google Scholar; Giovanni di Napoli, Lorenzo Valla. Filosqfia e religione nell'Umanesimo italiano, Uomini e doctrine, 17 (Rome, 1971), pp. 110-122; Salvatore Camporeale, I., Lorenzo Valla. Umanesimo e teologia (Florence, 1972)Google Scholar, esp. pp. 3-5, 141-142, 304-310.

2 For a refutation of the idea that Erasmus, for instance, was better disposed towards Aquinas than he was towards other scholastics, see Massaut, Jean-Pierre, ‘Éjrasme et Saint Thomas,’ in Colloquia Erasmiana Turonensia (Paris, Toronto, and Buffalo, 1972)Google Scholar, II, 581-611.

3 See Paul Kristeller, Oskar, Le Thomisme et la pensée italienne de la Renaissance (Montreal and Paris, 1967)Google Scholar, esp. pp. 72-79. The lecture was originally delivered at the Conférence Albert-le-Grand, 1965.

4 Valla, p. 393.

5 Vat. lat. 12269, fol. 328v (1510).

6 Valla, p. 393.

7 On Campano, see Hausmann, Frank-Rutger, ‘Giovanni Antonio Campano (1429- 1477). Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des italienischen Humanismus im Quattrocento,’ Römische historische Mitteilungen, 12 (1970), 125–178 Google Scholar. See also Hausmann's thesis, Giovanni Antonio Campano (1420-1477). Erläuterungen und Ergänzungen zu seinen Brief en (Freiburgi- Br., 1968). The panegyric is found in Opera a Michaele Ferno edita (Euch. Silber; Rome, 1495), fols.88-91v, GKW #5939. I used the copy in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Rome, shelf number: Inc. 145.

8 On Carafa, see Franco Strazzullo, ‘II Card. Oliviero Carafa mecenate del Rinascimento,’ inAM dell'Accademia Pontaniana, N.S. 14 (1964-65), 1-24 (estratto); De Maio, Romeo, ‘Savonarola, Oliviero Carafa, Tommaso de Vio e la Disputa di Raffaelo,’ Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 38 (1968), 149–164;Google Scholar and by the same author, Savonarola e la curia romana, Uomini e dottrine, 15 (Rome, 1969).

9 Carafa's blood relationship to Aquinas is mentioned, for instance, by Aurelio Brandolini in the prefatory letter to his Oratio, fol. 1. See below for a complete reference.

10 Both Brandolini, fol. 1, and de Viana, fol. 1, specifically mention that Carafa was the one who invited them to speak. See below for complete references to these orations.

11 Vat. lat. 12269, fol. 3i3v (1510), ‘… causa et origo est huius consuetudinis.’ In quoting from Latin sources, I will standardize the orthography.

12 Oratio pro S. Thoma Aquinate (Euch.Silber; Rome, ca. 1485-90), GKW #5016. I used the copy in the Vatican Library, shelf number: Inc. rv. 54 (32). On Brandolini, see Mayer, Elisabetta, Un umanista italiano della corte di Mattia Corvino, Aurelio Brandolini Lippo, Biblioteca dell'Accademia d'Ungheria di Roma, 14 (Rome, 1938)Google Scholar, and Trinkaus, Charles, In Our Image and Likeness, 2 vols. (Chicago and London, 1970)Google Scholar, 1, 294-321; 11, 601-613. Tommaso Accurti rejects the traditional attribution of this oration to Aurelio in favor of his brother, Raffaelo. See Accurti, Thomas, Editiones saeculi XVpleraeque bibliographis ignotae(Florence, 1930), p. 170 Google Scholar. Central to Accurti's argument is his acceptance of 1482 as the year Aurelio left Rome for Corvino's court. Mayer has shown, however, that Aurelio remained in Rome until 1488. In the light of Mayer's chronological clarification, the evidence again seems best reconciled with the traditional attribution. The GKW dates the sermon between 1485 and 1490, but Accurti questions whether the terminal date could not be protracted even as far as 1498, the year of Raffaelo's (lost) panegyric. I was unable to locate in the Minerva (or in the Biblioteca Casanatense) the manuscript of the panegyric which Mayer (p. 50) indicates is there.

13 Brandolini, fol. 1, ‘Nam cum statuisses hoc anno natalem diem Thomae Aquinatis … maiori quadam diligentia et grauiori laudatione celebrare… .’

14 T. Phaedri Ingheramii Volaterrani Panaegyricus in memoriam diui Thomae Aquinatis Senatui apostolico ad Mineruae dictus (Euch.Silber; Rome, ca. 1495), Hain #9186; H. C. Reichling #9186.1 used the copy in the Vatican Library, shelf number: Inc. IV. 546 (2). Johann Burchard, Diarium sive rerum urbanarum commentarii (1483-1506), ed. L. Thuasne, 3 vols. (Paris, 1883-85), notes two such panegyrics by Inghirami, II, 245 (1495), and m, 23 (1500). One of these, presumably the latter, is lost. On Inghirami, see Rugiadi, Annamaria, Tommaso Fedra Inghirami umanista volterrano (1470-1516) (Amatrice, 1933)Google Scholar.

15 Oratio habita apud Mineruam coram sacro collegio reuerendissimorum cardinalium infesto diui Thomae de Aquino, anno domini MCCCCXCVI (S. Plannck; Rome, 1496), Cop. #6199 and #3900.1 used the copy in the Vatican Library, shelf number: Inc. iv. 54 (21). On de Viana, see Antonio, Nicolás, Bibliotheca hispana noua, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1788)Google Scholar, n, 112. Burchard mentions this panegyric, n, 269.

16 Vat. lat. 3465. See Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter italicum, 2 vols. (Leiden and London, 1965-67), n, 320.

17 On Pucci, see Minnich, Nelson H., ‘Concepts of Reform Proposed at the Fifth Lateran Council,’ Archiuum Historiae Pontificiae, 7 (1969), 163–251 Google Scholar, esp. 192-193, n. 101; and Jedin, Hubert, A History of the Council of Trent, trans. Dom Ernest Graf, O.S.B., 1 (London and New York, 1957)Google Scholar, passim.

18 In particular, I was unable to locate a copy of the panegyric delivered by Bernardus Basinus (Basin) in 1491 (or 1492?), mentioned by Burchard, 1, 448, and presumably printed. See Hain #2705, and esp. GKW m, col. 570.

19 Panegyricus ad illustrem et excellentem Victoriam Columnatn, Avalam Piscariae marchionissam, Vbi de diuo Thoma ex comitibus Apuliae oriundo, Aquini nato deque illustribus Colutnnensibus, Avails, et aliis clarissimis viris pulchra quam pluritna videri possunt (A. Bladus; Rome, ca. 1537-39). Novello is described, fols. 1 and 4, as nobilis Romanus, iuris utriusque professor and jisci Romani procurator. I used the copy in the Vallicelliana, shelf number: l.v.32 (20).

20 Orationes duae in laudem diui Thomae Aquinatis habite (Bernardus de Vitalibus; Venice, 1507). The copy I used is from the Vatican Library, shelf number: Inc. iv. 606 (42-43). The author is described nsfrater, fols. 3 and 9, and he is listed as ‘O.P.’ in Kristeller, Iter, 11, 203. He is not mentioned in Jacques Quetif, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum, 2 vols, in 4 (New York, 1959-61), or in de Altamura, Ambrosius, Bibliothecae dominicanae (Rome, 1677)Google Scholar. A communication to me from the librarian of the Bibhoteca Arcivescovile of Udine dated December 18, 1973, informs me that the orations of Hunacius listed by Kristeller, Iter, 11, 203, are copies made from the printed edition of the panegyrics of 1504 and 1506.

21 Hunacius, fols.2 and 9. We know from Kristeller that in 1436 Aquinas was chosen as the official patron of the arts faculty at Padua and his feast was celebrated with a Mass and sermon, Le Thomisme, pp. 74-75 and notes. See also Gargan, Luciano, Lo studio teologico et la biblioteca dei Domenicani a Padova nel Tre e Quattrocento (Padua, 1971)Google Scholar, p. 79; I am indebted to Professor Kristeller for this reference. For a description of the annual celebration at the university, as it was conducted at least after 1561, see Tomasini, Jacopo Filippo, Gymnasium patavinum (Utini, 1654), p. 214 Google Scholar.

22 Bibl. Naz. Marciana, Venice, Lat. xrv. 12 (4002), fols.113v-115: ‘Oratio adolescentis fratris Petri Lazari ordinis praedicatorum ad honorem diui Thomae.’ See Kristeller, Iter, n, 246. Though he was a Dominican, Lazarus is not mentioned in Quétif or Altamura.

23 Kristeller, Iter, II, 191, 438.

24 Vatican Library: Ottob. lat. 858, fols. 79-80bv. See Kristeller, Iter, 11, 415.

25 Ottob.lat. 858, fol. 8obvand passim. For some indication of Hazardière's Italian connections, see the undated letter to him from Cincius Romanus published by Ludwig Bertalot, ‘Cincius Romanus und seine Briefe,’ Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 21 (1929-30), 209-255, esp. 238-239. See Kristeller, Iter, II, 343.

26 Savona MS. rx.B.2-15, fols. 66-70. See Kristeller, Le Thomisme, p. 73, II. 115, and Iter, II, 148-149, as well as ibid.,1, 239; II, 220.

27 Bibl. Naz. Marciana, Venice, Lat. xi.80 (3057), fols. 352-355, inc. ‘ Romanum mernini magnificum,’ expl. ‘omnes uigilare,’ henceforth referred to as Venice Anon. See Kristeller, Iter, II, 254.

28 Bibl. Mazarine MS. 1068, fols.i64v-i68v, mistakenly given by Renaudet, A., p. 617, as fols. 163v-168, Préréforme et Humanisme à Paris pendant les premières guerres d'ltalie, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar. On Clichtove, see Renaudet, passim, and now especially Jean-Pierre Massaut, Josse Clichtove. L’Humanisme et la réforme du clergé, 2 vols., Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège, 183 (Paris, 1968), esp. 1, 407- 417. Massaut discusses this panegyric in some detail. He dates it at 1513 without indicating his reasons. He also comments on two other panegyrics of Clichtove in honor of St. Thomas; the general approach and line of argumentation of these panegyrics seem very similar to what I discovered in the one I discuss in this article. For the relationship between Clichtove and Erasmus, see Émile V. Telle's introduction to his edition of Erasmus’ Dilutio eorum quae Iodocus Clithoveus scripsit adversus declamationem Des. Erasmi Roterodami suasoriam matrimonii, De Pétrarque à Descartes, 15 (Paris, 1968).

29 See, e.g., Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, III.vii, and Cicero, De oratore, II.lxxxiv-lxxxxv (341-349).

30 Hausmann, ‘Beitrag,’ p. 175.

31 Inghirami, fols. 3-4v. See also de Viana, fol. 3.

32 On the question of the ‘heroic’ nature of Counter-Reformation sanctity, see De Maio, Romeo, Riforme e miti nella Mesa del Cinquecento (Naples, 1973), pp. 257–278 Google Scholar.

33 Inghirami, fol. 2; Brandolini, fol. 12v; Campano, fol. 88.

34 De Viana, fols.2-3.

35 See, e.g., de Viana, fol. 2v.

36 Inghirami, fol. 5v.

37 Inghirami, fols.5 v, 7v-8, 9.

38 Inghirami, fol. 8v.

39 Pucci, fol. 10; Campano, fol. 90; Brandolini, fols. 9v, 10v; Hazardiere, fol. 80av; Traversagnis, fol. 68v.

40 Campano, fol. 90v.

41 Valla, esp. pp. 393-394.

42 Traversagnis, fol. 68v; Venice Anon., fol. 353.

43 Venice Anon., fol. 353v: ‘uerae philosophiae et omnium liberalium artium parentem atque principem.’ See also ibid.,fol. 353.

44 Venice Anon., fols. 353v-354v; Valla, p. 393: ‘Non me fugit quosdam, qui de hac re hoc die ex hoc loco orationem habuerunt, non modo nulli doctorum ecclesiae secundum Thomam fecisse, sed etiam omnibus anteposuisse.’

45 Venice Anon., fol. 354. See also Clichtove, fol. 167, and Traversagnis, fol. 68v.

46 Inghirami, fols.8v, 9v.

47 Inghirami, e.g., fol. 14.

48 Traversagnis, fol. 67v.

49 Campano, fol. 90. See also Venice Anon., fol. 353v.

50 Hazardière, fol. 80a.

51 Hazardière, fol. 80b.

52 Hazardière, fol. 80b v ; Cicero, De officiis, 1.6.19.

53 Hunacius, fol. 16v.

54 Hunacius, fols.13v-14.

55 Hunacius, fol. 5v: ‘Verum ut caligantem ueritatem sua sermonis claritate illuminaret senescentemque philosophiam e tenebris excitaret, ut sua industria eloquentiae campi lugentes funereas pullasque uestes abigerent et explosis erroribus expulsaque barbaria repubesceret philosophia… .’

56 Hunacius, fol. 13.

57 Hunacius, fols. 1 2v - 1 3 : ‘Credo equidem, o tu magne Aristoteles, sepnululum daretur quod reuiuisceres atque iterum aura aetheria fruereris, equidem bene scripsisti de me, Thoma, exclamares.'

58 Hunacius, fol. 6.

59 Hunacius, fol. 7v.

60 Inghirami, fols.1l v-13.

61 Campano, fol. 90v.

62 Traversagnis, fol. 66 v as well as fol. 68 v .

63 Hazardière, fols.79v, 80v, 8oa.

64 Hazardière, fol. 8oa.

65 Hazardière, fol. 79v.

66 De Viana, fol. 6v.

67 De Viana, fol. 3v. See also Venice Anon., fol. 354v.

68 De Viana, fol. 4. On Erasmus, see Allen, III, 363.

69 De Viana, fols.2, 5.

70 See, e.g., Brandolini, fols. 3,12v; Campano, fol. 88; Inghirami, fol. 2; Traversagnis, fol. 67; de Viana, fol. 4v. See also Clichtove, fol. 168.

71 Hunacius, fols.8V, 16v.

72 Inghirami, fol. 7v: ‘Denique per omnes uirtutes honesta cogitando, bene dicendo, recte agendo, et in caelo pietatis thesauros qui nullo fortunae aut casus impetu eripi possunt congregando, ad sapientiam, cui tanto desiderio flagrabat, contendit.’ See Andreas Brentius, In pentecosten oratio (n.p., n.d.) [Rome, 1483], Hain #3778, for almost exactly the same description, fol. 68v: ‘Spiritu namque Deum colimus honesta cogitando, bene dicendo, recte agendo, et in caelo pietatis thesauros qui nullo fortunae aut casus impetu eripi possint reponendo.’ This oration, coincidentally, is dedicated to Oliviero Carafa. The copy I used is from the Vatican Library, shelf number: Inc. Ross. 1882, fols. 67-76v.

73 See Venice Anon., fol. 353.

74 See, e.g., Campano, fol. 89v; Clichtove, fol. 166; Hazardiere, fols. 79v-80v; Inghirami, fols. 5v-6v, 10v-11; Lazarus, fol. 114; Traversagnis, fol. 69; Venice Anon., fol. 354v; de Viana, fol. 5.

75 Campano, fol. 88v.

76 Inghirami, fol. 11.

77 Inghirami, fols.8, 13V, 14V.

78 De Viana, fol. 5; Venice Anon., fol. 354.

79 Valla, pp. 390-391.

80 See, e.g., Brandolini, fols.8v-9v Campano, fols. 88v, 90v-91v; Clichtove, fols. 165, 168v; Hazardière, fols.79v, 80av; Hunacius, fol. 4; Inghirami, fols.iov, 11v , 13; Lazarus, fol. H4v; Traversagnis, fols. 66v, 69 v.

81 Brandolini, fols.10v-11; Hunacius, fol. 7v; Inghirami, fol. 11v ; Lazarus, fol. 114v; Pucci, fol. 14; Traversagnis, fol. 68; de Viana, fol. 5.

82 Gray, Fois, et al.

83 De Viana, fol. 3.

84 Clichtove, fol. 167, as well as fol. 166v.

85 Hunacius, fol. 7.

86 See, e.g., my article, ‘Preaching for the Popes,’ in The Pursuit of Holiness, ed. Charles Trinkaus with Heiko Oberman, soon to be published by Brill, Leiden.

87 Clichtove, fol. 168.

88 See, e.g., my article, ‘A Note on Gregory of Rimini: Church, Scripture, Tradition,’ Augustinianum, 5 (1965), 365-378, esp. 373.

89 The Myth of the Golden Age in the Renaissance (Bloomington, Ind., and London, 1969), p. 145.

90 Inghirami, fol. 6v; de Viana, fol. 6.

91 De Viana, fol. 3.

92 De Viana, fol. 6v.

93 Brandolini, fol. 8V.

94 Brandolini, fols. 11 - 12 v . Brandolini was not the only Roman preacher to use panegyric as a platform for an appeal to reform the Church. See the peroration in Panegyrkus in memoriam sancti Augustini (n.p., n.d.) [Euch. Silber; Rome], Hain #10787, by Pietro Marso. The shelf number of the copy I used from the Biblioteca ValliceUiana: 1. n. 139 (9). A similar passage occurs (fols. 5v-6v) in de Viana's Oratio habita in die cinerum (S. Plannck; Rome, 1496), Cop. #6198. The shelf number from the Vatican Library: Inc. iv. 54 (20).

95 ‘Historical Thought and the Reform Crisis of the Early Sixteenth Century,’ Theological Studies, 28 (1967), 531-548, esp. 542.