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Giovanni Ferrerio, Humanist: His Influence in Sixteenth-Century Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John Durkan
John Durkan*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
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Extract

Most scholars, one imagines, of sixteenth-century Scotland will think that Giovanni Ferrerio was a fairly marginal figure at the remote edge of Scottish life, his interest confined to his brief sojourn as tutor to the Cistercian monks at Kinloss and his work as continuator of Hector Boece’s history covering the reign of James III. Whether he might have had any say in Scottish ecclesiastical or educational policies or any wider contact with the court or leading Scots of the time and whether indeed he may have acted as a vehicle for the entry of Italian ideas, are questions that so far have scarcely been broached.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 17: Religion and Humanism , 1981 , pp. 181 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1981

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References

1 Martene and Durand, Collectio 6 cols 319-27; Stuart, J., [Records of the monastery of Kinloss with illustrative documents] (Edinburgh 1872) pp xiii–xxiii Google Scholar; [Ferrerii], historia abbatum [de Kynlos] (Edinburgh, Bannatyne club 1839)Google Scholar preface; Durkan, J., ‘The beginnings of humanism in Scotland’, IR 4 (1965) pp 4–16 Google Scholar. The Rome ms of the Historia abbatum, formerly in Vatican Queen Christina of Sweden collection, is now Vatican Ottoboniani MS 2598, and a duplicate also in Ferrerio’s hand is National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 35.5.5B.

2 Stuart, pp 52-3, 63.

3 Ibid pp 52-3; Begey, M. B. and Dondi, G., Le cinquecentine piemontesi (Turin 1966) 3 vols,Google Scholar see under Bremio, Carearía and Maccaneo in indices; also under same names in Cosenza, M. E., Biographical and bibliographical dictionary of the Italian humanists 2 edn 6 vols Boston USA 1962-7)Google Scholar; and for their relationship to Curione, Church, F. C., The Italian reformers 1534-1364 (New York 1932) pp 62-3Google Scholar.

4 Stuart, pp 50,53. A ‘Dominus Ioannes Ferrarius’ of Turin diocese incepted at Paris in 1536, Paris [Bibliothèque] nationale] MS Lat 9953 fol 75r.

5 For Zampini, Brown, [P. H.], [George] Buchanan, [humanist and reformer] (Edinburgh 1890) p 376 Google Scholar; for Medulla, Paquier, J., Jérome Aléandre (Paris 1900) p 105 Google Scholar and Catalogue des actes de Francois ler ed Marichal, P. (Paris 1896) 5 p 282 Google Scholar previously counsellor to the parlement of Dijon.

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8 Stuart, p 50; Richardson, R., Commentary on the rule of St Augustine ed Coulton, G.G Edinburgh, Scottish history society 1935) p vii Google Scholar, in which Coulton identifies him as Richardson, , a future Protestant refugee in England; further details in my ‘Robertus Richardinus and STC 21021’, Edinburgh bibliographical society transactions (1952) 3 pt 1 pp 83–4 Google Scholar.

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11 Knox, J., History of the reformation in Scotland ed Dickinson, W. C. (Edinburgh, London 1949) 1 p 29 Google Scholar.

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13 Stuarr, p 61.

14 Ibid pp 53-6, but the library had new editions of Jerome, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine and Bernard, Ibid p 36. Macrin’s, Samon Naeniamm libri tres de Gelonide Borsala uxore (Paris, Vascosan 1550)Google Scholar carries lines by Ferrerio on the religious nature of Macrin’s verse so that Plato’s objections to poetry were inapplicable.

15 Stuart, pp 17, 42.

16 Prefaces to Ferrerio, Auditum and his Cicero poeta [etiam elegans nedum ineptus fuisse, contra vulgatam grammatistarum opinionem] (Paris, Vascosan 1540)Google Scholar.

17 Cicero poeta, dedication.

18 Erasmus, D., Opus epistolarum edd , P. S. and Allen, H. M. (Oxford 1934) 8 ep 2283 Google Scholar.

19 Stuart, pp 62-3; for some evidence that Ferrerio’s education of Elder was not wasted, see excerpts from the monk’s chapter discourses Ibid pp 66-91.

20 Durkan, [J.] and Ross, [A.], [Early Scottish libraries] (Glasgow 1961) pp 27-8Google Scholar (nos 37, 38, 40, 41, Beaton) and p 170 (no 37, Reid) where the monogram is only recorded for the last item.

21 Stuart, p 63.

22 He was legate 1537-41, Acta nuntiaturae gallicae: correspondence des nonces en France, Carpi et Ferrerieo ed Lestocquoy, J. (Paris, Rome 1961)Google Scholar.

23 Stuart pp 53, 59, 159; Historia abbatum p 9.

24 McNeill, W. A., ‘Scottish entries in the Acta Rectoria Universitatis Parisiensis 1519 to c 1635’. ScHR (1964) p. 70 Google Scholar.

25 Io. Francisci Pici Mirandulae domini de animae immortalitate docta et arguta digressio nunquam prius in Gallia excusa (Paris, J. Roigny 1541) preface to Reid. A precise reference to Ferrerio’s duties as corrector is not found thus early, but see his preface to Chrysostom, John, Opera ed. Montanus, Philip (Paris 1570)Google Scholar where he complains of his arduous and often unacknowledged duties as castigator. It can also be deduced from his letters which mention works due from Vascosan.

26 [Ferrerio, ,] Academica [de animorum immortalitate, ex Sexto M. T. Ciceronis de Republica libro] (Paris, Vascosan 1539) fol 34 Google Scholar.

27 Farge, J. K., Biographical Regisier of Paris Doctors of Theology 1500-1536 (Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies 1980) pp 337-339Google Scholar.

28 Auditum dedication to Reid.

29 Contra parva logkalia was one of the treatises he was preparing at Kinloss, Stuart, p 56.

30 Cicero pocta and G. F. Pico’s treatise cited above.

31 Plato Phaedo and Timaeus, both translated by Ficino (Paris, Calvarin, P. 1536) prefacesGoogle Scholar.

32 Brown, Buchanan p 376.

33 He was, however, at work on a treatise on the Platonic ideas, Stuart p 56.

34 Academica fob 28 v; 25 where he also cites in favour Gregory on Job; his knowledge of Gregory’s text is celebrated by his editor, Gillot, Jean, in Gregory I pope, Opera (Paris, J. Dupuy 1586)Google Scholar in a preface of uncertain date, certainly before Ferrerio’s death in 1579. For Steuco’s concordism, see Schmitt, C. B., ‘Prisca theologia e Philosophia perennis: due temi del rinascimento italiano e la loro fortuna’, pp 211-36 esp 221-4 in Tarugi, G. ed Il pensiero italiano e il tempo nostro (Florence 1970)Google Scholar.

35 See n 25 above.

36 Schmitt, C. B., Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola 1469-1533 and his critique of Aristotle(The Hague 1967) p 207 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Useful also is Garin, E., Italian humanism (Oxford 1965) pp 135-5Google Scholar.

37 Busson, H., Le rationalisme dans la littérature française de la renaissance 1533-1601, 2 edn (Paris 1957) pp 222-3Google Scholar. Hay has lines prefacing Martino’s edn of Proclus De motu (Paris 1542). Busson, p 222 cites from Martino’s Dialogus de entelecheia (Paris 1543) a reference to Ferrerio as their learned colleague. On Vimercato, see Gilbert, N. W., ‘Francesco Vimercato of Milan: a bio-bibliography’. Studies in the renaissance 12 pp 188–217 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Busson, p 224.

39 Auditom, fols 10v, 13v, 14.

40 Cicero poeta, fob A2, 5v, 18v, 20v. Busson, H., ‘Ronsard et l’entéléchie’, Mélanges d’histoire litteraire de la renaissance offerts à Henri Chamard (Paris 1951) pp 91-5Google Scholar.

41 De vera significatione, fols 9, 10.

42 Scotorum historiae (1574), fol 392v.

43 De vera significatione, fols 3, 4.

44 Milan, Biblioteca ambrosiana P243 Sup (3), ‘De officiis non uulgaribus uitae religiosa id est Christianae libellus, Joanne ferrerio Pedemontano authore nunc primum editus’. A note on the MS says, ‘Donato dal signore Consigliere fogliarri 111. Agosto 1800’. It is mentioned as having been written at Kinloss, Stuart, p 55 and is said to have been printed in Rome in 1540, for which see Lycosthenes, C. Simler, -J., Epitome [Bibliothecae Conradi] Gesneri (Zurich 1555) fol 97 Google Scholar.

45 Durkan and Ross, p 180.

46 R[egistrum] s[ecreti] s[igilli regum Scotorum] (Edinburgh 1908-) 3 no 1243 Google Scholar gives his royal safe-conduct for July.

47 Coyecque, E., Histoire générale du Paris: Recueil des actes notariés relatifs à l’histoire de Paris et ses environs au XVIe siècle (Paris 1905) 2 nos 4346 Google Scholar, 4599, 5081, 5610, 6246.

48 J. Durkan and W. S. Watt, ‘Adam Mure’s Laudes Gulielmi Elphinstoni’, Humanistica Lovaniensia, (1980), pp 199-233.

49 Aitken, pp xxxvi, 118-9.

50 Published by Roigny (Paris 1549), prefatory letter of Ferrerio to Lizet. For some subsequent editions, see Maffci, A., Alessandro d’Alessandro giureconsulto umanista 1461-1523 (Milan 1956) p 175 Google Scholar.

51 Archives du château de Léran: inventaire historique et généalogique des documents de la branche Lévis-Mirepoix, ed. Olive, S. and Pasquier, F. (Toulouse 1927) 5 p 314 Google Scholar; Campardon, E. and Tuetey, A., Inventane des registres des règnes de François 1er et de Henri II: Insinuations du Châtelet de Paris (Paris 1906-), no 4169 Google Scholar.

52 Scottish Record Office, Protocol book of James Harlaw, fols 61, 75v. Cagnioli was something of a bookman, owning the Lettere volgari, Venice 1544 and Nicolo Tartaglia, Venice 1556, both in Edinburgh univ. library.

53 Printed at Paris by Jacques Dupuys, Io. Carionis Chronicorum ab orbe condito libri 3 and subsequently reissued with additions till 1563.

54 Rudimenta artis grammaticae per Io. Vaus Scotum selecta, revised by Stewart, Theophilus, Vaus’s successor (Paris, Masselin, R. 1553)Google Scholar.

55 Epitome Gesneri fol 97.

56 Totius phUosophiae humanae in tres partes, riempe in rationalem, naturakm et moralem digestio, Hieronymo Wildenbergio Aurimontano dissertare (Paris, Roigny, 1555)Google Scholar. The triple division of philosophy into rational, moral and natural is used by the monk Adam Elder, Stuart, p 66.

57 Part summaries and part transcripts of Ferrerio’s two fragments of letter-book are given in Pollen, J. H., Papal negotiations in the reign of Queen Mary 1561-7 (Edinburgh, Scottish history society 1901)Google Scholar but I have supplemented these from a full transcript of Paris, BN MS Moreau, fols 45-57. Part of another letter is printed in my ‘Cultural background in sixteenth-century Scotland’, in McRoberts, [D.], Essays [on the Scottish Reformation 1513-1625] pp 330-1Google Scholar (this not in letter-book) and a translation of the bishop Gordon letter in IR 1 (1950) p 65. Eight such letter-books are mentioned in 1544, Stuart, p 61 and at one time several of his letters to cardinal Beaton were said to be extant in the Scots college, Paris, in Nicolson, W., The English, Scotch and Irish historical libraries (London) 1707 edn and p 62 Google Scholar of Scottish section; original edn 1702.

58 Moreau epp 5, 9 and two unnumbered (to Gordon and cardinal Cervini).

59 Ibid ep 6. Bog died 1 April 1554, Commentaires de la faculté de médecine de l’université de Paris (Collection des documents inedits sur l’histoire de France) , ed Concasty, M.L (Paris 1964) p 520 Google Scholar n 3.

60 Ep 12.

61 Epp 7. 8; RSS 4 no 513. Ferrerio, described as ‘clericus Taurinensis diocesis’ was a witness on 1 January 1552 at archbishop Beaton’s Paris house near the city walls at the gate of S. Marcel, Edinburgh univ. Laing MS div 3 321 fol 10.

62 Epp 10, 15.

63 Epp 10, II; Watt, D., Fasti ecclesiae Scoticatine medii aevi ad annum 1638, second draft (Edinburgh, Scottish record society 1969) p 150 Google Scholar.

64 Durkan and Ross, pp 24-8, 169 (Beaton); 34-40 (Gordon); 44-7, 170 (Reid); 49-60 171 (Sinclair).

65 M. Connat, , ‘Documents inédits du minutier central’, Bibliothèque d’humanisme et renaissance 12 (1950) p 100 Google Scholar, where Ferrerio is described as a native of Scotland.

66 La navigation du roy d’ Escosse Jacques cmquiesme du nom autour de son royaume (Paris 1583)Google Scholar, dedicatory preface.

67 Scotorum historiae (1574) fol 384rv. Some Sinclair materials later reached the Scots college in Paris and are referred to in the Thomas Innes transcripts as St Cl or St C, Edinburgh univ. MS Laing div 3 513(1). On 10 June 1557, Sinclair in Paris presented Ferrerio with a copy of John Bellenden’s translation of Boece, Durkan and Ross, p 54.

68 Historia abbattuti pp 5-9. For Reid’s scheme, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland (Edinburgh 1877) 1 p 472 Google Scholar.

69 Ep 16; RSS 4 nos 3144, 3268 (for lectures of Alexander Syme and Henryson); Accounts of the lord high treasurer of Scotland (Edinburgh 1877-) 10 pp 354, 401. Edinburgh records: burgh accounts ed Adam, R. (Edinburgh 1899) p 177 Google Scholar show a ‘pulpit’ being mounted for Syme’s lectures in Magdalene chapel, Cowgate, at the town treasurer’s expense.

70 Parent, A., Les métiers du livre à Paris au XVIe siècle (Geneva 1974) p 158 Google Scholar.

71 But he probably helped to further abbot Malin’s reforms at Glenluce as he was a friend of his, see preface to Auditum. On Malin, see A. Ross, ‘Some notes on the religious orders in pre-reformation Scotland’, in McRoberts, Essays pp 217-8.

72 For influence at Glasgow, Durkan, J. and Kirk, J., The university of Glasgow 1451-477 (Glasgow 1977) pp 214-7Google Scholar. Ferrerio’s death year is given as 1579 in Erasmus, , Adagiorum chiHades (Paris, Sonnius, M. 1579)Google Scholar where the editor, J. Gillot, introducing an extra sixty proveibs by Ferrerio, says he was in his eightieth year, though actually he was seventy seven.