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Francesco Zambeccari: his Translations and Fabricated Translations of Libanian Letters1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2019
Extract
It is believable that Zambeccari was born in Venice, for he reports that his father, Giovanni, spent his whole life there. Both parents died while he was in early childhood ('infantia’). His birth year is a matter of conjecture, but it could be about 1443, for in 1473 he refers to himself as ‘iuvenis'. The Zambeccari line was known especially for its lawyers. Their fortunes were generally connected with those of the Bentivoglio house. Specifically remembered were Pellegrino, Cambio, and Tommaso. Our Francesco says his father was a lawyer ('iuris scientissimus’); likely he belonged to a branch of the Zambeccaris exiled for politics. As will appear, there were member of the clan enjoying citizenship in Bologna in our Francesco's time.
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Footnotes
This paper grew out of a study of the medieval and Renaissance translations of Libanius (A.D. 314-393) for the Catalogus translationum et commentariorum, under the editorship of Professor Paul Oskar Kristeller, to whose criticism and unfailing help I owe much. An earlier version was read at the Pacific Northwest Renaissance Conference and at the Columbia University Seminar on the Renaissance.
As to the sources of Libanius and the fortunes of his works, well-nigh everything has been provided by Richard Foerster (†923). From his hand we have Opera Libanii (11 vols., Teubner, 1913-1923); the article ‘Libanios’ in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopaedie (24ster Halbband, 1925), cols. 2485-2551; and, especially relevant to the present purpose, Francesco Zambeccari und die Briefe des Libanios. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik des Libanios und zur Geschichte der Philologie (Stuttgart, 1878). The last is referred to as Foerster, Zamb.; its Beilagen A to I, pp. 289-330, have some materials earlier published and others newly found, but none properly edited before. So far as I know, the only new manuscripts now available are those found by Professor Kristeller.
Important is Johann Chr. Wolf's . Libanii sophistae epistolae … Amstelasdami, MDccxxxviii. This contains the Greek text with Latin translation of Wolf's corpus of Libanian letters, pp. 1-728, and on pp. 729-829 (of special use for us) Wolf's reprinting of the first printed edition of Zambeccari's translations and dedicatory letters, whose first editor was Johannes Sommerfeldt (Aesticampianus); it was printed in 1504 at Cracow by Joannes Clymes. See Gustav Bauch, ‘Johannes Rhagius Aesticampianus in Krakau, seine erste Reise nach Italien und sein Aufenthalt in Mainz’, Archiv für Literaturgeschichte XII (1884), 322-325, where Bauch clears up a frequent confusion of Johannes Rhagius Sommerfeldt (Aesticampianus) with our man, viz., Johannes Matthias Sommerfeldt (also Latinized as Aesticampianus). Bauch provides the latter's curriculum uitae. Indispensable is Mario E. Cosenza, Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists and of the World of Classical Scholarship in Italy, 1300-1800 (5 vols., Boston, 1962).
References
2 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Gi, p. 318.
3 Ibid., Beilage G2, p. 320. He would be about thirty.
4 See note 40. Professor P. O. Kristeller has found an autograph manuscript of Zambeccari (dated October 1474) in Bologna, Bibl. Comunale dell’ Archiginnasio Lxxin 20.285. The writer calls himself'Francesco di Zambichari da Bologna'. The manuscript is a receipt to which he affixes his seal ('mio sueto sigillo del mio fondo’).
5 We know of Francesco's connection with Tharsius only from his one letter to him: 'F. Z. suavissimo compatri Nicolao Tharsio. s.’ (Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D5, pp. 300-301). The relation of godfather to godson argues that Tharsius became the little orphan's guardian. The tone of the letter is agreeable to that of a foster son. He says that when his relatives had invited him to return (from Greece) to Bologna he stayed with them but ‘a few days', after which he ‘instantly flew ('advolavi’) to Ferrara', where, as Paolo Vergerio had told him, Tharsius had gone. In vain did he search through the whole city. When at last he inquired at the house of a Simone Malespina, he only met a servant who had never heard of Tharsius. Francesco then resorted to writing him, hoping the letter would find him. He says he writes what it would be more proper and pleasant to report in person. Then he proceeds to tell about a reception the Bolognesi gave him, his meeting Giovanni Bentivoglio, to whom he presented his translation of ‘a hundred Libanian letters,' about which and other things more will be said presently. This is a curious letter. Throughout there is intimacy; the closing words are ‘Farewell to you, my heart's only resting-place'. He reveals his secret of success at Bologna as a tour-de-force of composition and memory in a way that only a parent or a trusted friend might be privy to. Yet, as it stands, more than half of this letter could not have been written till 1473, six years after his return from Greece. To assume that he wrote of his breathless search for his godfather six years after the event is unbelievable. I take it Francesco, or some copyist (see note 7), stitched together parts of two letters. The break is in line 17 of the letter, between the words ‘potuissent. Bononiam'.
The mention of Vergerio, whose Christian names Piero Paolo certainly relate him to two famous Piero Paolo Vergerios (1349-1428 and 1498-1565 respectively), is a help. For this family hails from Capo d'Istria. Ed. von Kausler and Th. Schott (Briefwechsel zw. Christoph, Herzog von Wiirttenberg, u. Petrus Paulus Vergerius, Tubingen, 1875, pp. 1-2) report that P. P. Vergerio (1498-1565), who turned Protestant, was born in Capo d'Istria, but they have no information about his parentage; they say, however, that the family lived with honor and moderate wealth. Our P. P. Vergerio can thus with reasonable cerrainty be held to reside in Capo d'Istria in Francesco's time. We have one letter of Francesco to him (Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D n , pp. 304-305) which in asking a favor presumes on the rights of a long friendship. F. C. Church, The Italian Reformers, 1534-1564 (New York, 1932), and especially M. E. Cosenza, Dictionary, have found much on the Vergerios, but nothing about the Piero Paolo who was Zambeccari's friend. He remains obscure. No help comes from Leonard Smith, Epistolario di Pier Paolo Vergerio (Roma,1934, Istituto Storico Italiano per il medio evo: Fonti per la storia d'ltalia: Epistolari, secolo XIV-XV). Smith says the name Pier Paolo recurs at least twice in the Vergerio family: (i) in the person of a notary (1476-c. 1520) and (2) in that of a writer who prefaced a 1604 printing of De ingenuis moribus. He does not indicate that P. P. Vergerio (yescovo apostata) was of the same family. The friend of Zambeccari seems unknown to him. See also note 8 below.
6 Several considerations point to this. Tharsius is from Capo d'Istria, as also Vergerio. Francesco writes a letter to another Capo d'Istrian, Bartholomaeus Petronius (Foerster, Zamb., Bcilage D2, pp. 298-299). He refers to the very old ('pervetus’) connection with him. For Petronius as a Capo d'Istrian, see M. E. Cosenza, Dictionary, in, 2699; also Foerster, Zamb., p. 10, note 3. Another and warmly appreciative letter is addressed to Victor Rainaldus, for whose Capo d'Istrian citizenship, and connection with Francesco there, we have textual evidence. This is the communication of the praetor (Joannes Maurus) to Francesco, inviting him to teach there ('Ex Iustinopoli VII Id. Februarii MCCCCLXVI’). From this it appears that the city fathers had been moved to invite him on the strength of a letter in his behalf by the hand of ‘probatissimi Civis nostri Rainaldi', who had testified ‘dc ingenuis moribus, et spectatissima tua virtute atque doctrina’ of Francesco. To have written this about one whom he could not have seen for five years would be extraordinary. He may be presumed to have known him fairly well long before (Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Ai, p. 289).
7 Our source is the letter to Tharsius (Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D5, p. 300). That a copyist transcribed it is evident from the blank spaces left where Francesco had used Greek. The first is what he calls a very common Greek proverb, for which a space of 1 % lines is left; a second quotation takes up 3M lines; a third, 1 Vi. In his extant correspondence the only Greek he writes is quotations; see also Foerster, Zamb., pp. 302-303, where **he quotes Libanius.
8 E.g., Gregory Tiphernas, pupil of Chrysoloras, taught in Venice 1455-1464. See Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Aide Manuce et VhelUnisme a Venise (Paris, 1875), p. 23; but see Cosenza, Dictionary, rv, 3412-3414. Baccio Ziliotto, La cultura letteraria di Trieste e delV Istria (Trieste, 1913), is the best account I have seen. See Sabbadini's review in Giornale storico della letteratura Italiana LXIV (1914), 405-407, which is very favorable. It appears that after Vergerio the Elder the most notable fifteenth-century humanist was Raphael Zovenzonius. Cosenza, Dictionary, v, 1940, says he was a friend of Guarino da Verona.
9 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Gi, p. 318.
10 See Deno J. Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice, Studies in the Dissemination of Greek Learning from Byzantium to Western Europe (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), whose chapter ‘Crete and Venice’ (pp. 4-52) is suggestive here.
11 Geanakoplos, op. cit., ch. 4, ‘Michael Apostolos, Byzantine Copyist and Manuscript Collector in Crete’ (pp. 73-110) narrates the career of a scholar who from 1453 to the mid-seventies shuttled between the east and Italy, largely in the service of Cardinal Bessarion. Geanakoplos translates his long ‘Exhortation … to Rome and Italy’ (pp. 101-106), in which he urges the teaching of Greek in Greek. Though the ‘Exhortation' was written years after Francesco's journey east, I take it that the idea was not alien to some Byzantines. For Battista Guarino's contrary view, see pp. 106-107.
12 Aurispa had been the first to make a big success of transporting Greek manuscripts to Italy, as well as to show some skill in preparing them for the market. Instructive reading is R. Sabbadini, Carteggio di Giovanni Aurispa (Roma, 1931, Fonti per la Storia d'ltalia [70]). From his two trips east (1413-1414 and 1421-1423) he returned with 238 codices. Among his successors still living in Zambeccari's time was Francesco Filelfo; see Cent dix lettres grecques de Francois Fileife, publiees integralement pour la premiere fois, d'apres le Codex trivulzianus S37, avec traduction, notes et commentaires par Emile Legrand (Paris, 1892, Pubs, de l'Ecole des langues orientales vivantes, m” ser., xn). Italy's reception of Greek works depended as much on scholarly imaginative men of wealth such as Niccolo Niccoli. See Vespasiano da Bisticci, Vite di uomini illustri del secolo XV (Firenze, T938), p. 503, for his bequest of his rich collection to S. Marco in Florence. Dorothy M. Robathan, ‘Libraries of the Italian Renaissance', ch. xvi, pp. 509-588, of J. W. Thompson, The Medieval Library (Chicago, 1939), is a good guide to the subject, with bibliographical references; on Niccolo Niccoli, pp. 511-512, 578-579; on Vespasiano, p. 512. See further note 57 below.
13 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Gi (ep. to Bentivoglio), p. 319. That this collection of 'more than 1,500 letters’ may be identical with Cod. Vat. Gr. 83 is suggested by the fact that the latter has 1,566 (inclusive of the 21 of the spurious Libanius-Basil correspondence), copied in an eleventh- to twelfth-century hand done in Greece. There is another codex of the same number of letters, Neapolitanus m A 12, which was in the Farnese library; but it was copied in Italy, likely from Vat. Gr. 83. See Foerster, Zamb., pp. 44-45. Foerster had examined 200 codices of Libanian letters, and only this one matches Zambeccari's description of his collection. That Zambeccari possessed Greek manuscripts is known from other evidence than his own claim; see note 55 below.
14 R. Foerster, Jahrbiicher fur Classische Philologie CXIII (1876), 219-225. Tiraboschi (Storia delta letteratura, vi, 923) knew of it. Hindsight says Aurispa would not be exposed for a long time.
15 By Benedictus Bursa of Modena, who translated ‘Defensio Archidami Lacedemonii'. Greek text in Opera Libanii, ed. Foerster, v, 443-461; art. ‘Libanios’ in Pauly-Wissowa, col. 2514. The translation is still in manuscript. Foerster presents its preface and a short page of the translation in Beilage H, pp. 326-327. His source is Biblioteca del Seminario, Padova, codex 87, chart, oct. sec. xv. Bursa was a pupil of either Guarino or Aurispa; his translation was his first effort at turning Greek into Latin.
16 By Lionello Chierigato of Vicenza, also a first effort and still in manuscript. Title, 'Dives imperator superans hostes postulavit in praemium exules in patriam redire Greek text, Opera Libanii vn, 240-259. See also ‘Libanios', Pauly-Wissowa, col. 2516; Foerster, Zamb., Beilage I, pp. 328-330, for the translator's preface and a few lines of histext. Foerster's source is Cod. Vat. Urb. Lat. 336, membr. sec. xv, fF. 2o8-223b. A fuller description is given by Cosimo Stornajola, Codices Urbinates latini, Bibl. Vaticana (Romae, 1902), 1, 308. The declamation is only the last part of the manuscript. The entire codex (pp. 306-308) contains also calligraphers’ copies of the two collections of translations by Zambeccari dedicated to Federigo da Urbino.
17 It seems curious that of all translations this should not only be unprinted but also lost, in view of its obvious interest. Foerster has seen it listed in J. D. A. Janotzky, Specimen catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecx Zaluscianx (Dresdas, 1572), p. 124, codex 430, of the end of the fifteenth century: ‘S. Basilii episcopi et Libanii sophistae epistolae amebeae Io. Argyropulo interprete'; among the manuscripts transferred from the Bibl. Zalusciana to St. Petersburg, this manuscript has been reported missing. See further reference in Krabinger, Bulletin der konigl. Akademie der wissenschaften zu Miinchen (1850), N. 34-36, and Foerster, Jahrbiicher für Classische Philologie cxm (1876), 504 (Foerster, Zamb., p. 44, notes 2 and 3).
18 Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice, p . 121, especially note 43, for references. In Firmin-Didot, Aide Manuce, it is said that Crastoni published a Psalter in 1481 (p. 38), and that he made a Latin version of Lascaris’ Greek Grammar (1495) which Aldus printed. Crastoni also went by the name of Johannes Monachus Placentinus (p. 63 and note 1). Whatever title Crastoni gave the manuscript of his lexicon, Aldus’ printed edition was Dictionarium graecum copiosissimum secundum ordinem alphabeti, cum interpretatione latina (Firmin-Didot, p. 92). Allowing for some ill temper in Henri Estienne, it is worth having his opinion, as setter of a landmark in lexicography, on the Greek lexicons from Crastoni to his own. See his ‘Epistola quae ad multas multorum amicorum respondet, de suae typographiae statu, nominatimque de suo Thesauro linguae Graecae’ (1569), in Theodori Janssonii ab Almeloveen De vitis Stephanorum … dissertatio (Amstelaedami, 1683), pp. 148-212: on p. 156 we read: ‘A certain monk, Joannes Crastonus, a Carmelite of Piacenza, was the first to put his hand to a Graeco-Latin lexicon. But he was content with meager explanations (sometimes he even uses his Italian vernacular), likewise was careless in pointing out the connection ('constructionem’) of words, and so he does not identify the places of the authors from whom we can get the meanings of words. After him many vied to insert excerpts from here and there with no taste or discrimination. At length the ignorant printers vied among themselves to increase the pile of lexicons: thus, what once were skinny interpretations, now are plump and juicy, so that in them we recognize nothing else than a Boeotian sow.’ (For ‘Boeotian sow’ see Erasmus' Adagia', Opera, 11, 369.) Additional information on Crastoni in Cosenza, Dictionary, 11, 1138-40.
19 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage G3 (2d letter to Federigo), p. 325.
20 Filetico is named, first, because as a Hellenist who had been in the east, though largely neglected, he was a good cut above Zambeccari; second, because he is a possible link between Zambeccari and Federigo of Urbino. See below, note 54. A good account of Filetico is that by B. Pecci, ‘Contributo per la storia degli umanisti nel Lazio: Antonio Volsco-Giovanni Sulfezio-Novidio Fracco-Martino Filetico', Archivio della R. Societa Romana di Storia Patria XIII (1890), 451-526. See also Giovanni Card. Mercati, “Tre dcttati universitari dell'umanista Martino Filetico sopra Persio, Giovenale ed Orazio', Classical and Medieval Studies in Honor of E. K. Rand (New York, n.d.), pp. 221-230; also in Mercati, Scritti minori.
21 Foerster, Zamb., p. 121, expresses the same interest. He says that ‘these translations of Zambeccari have no critical value at all [i.e., for establishing the text of Libanius], and have only a historical interest, namely, as material for answering the question of how deep, or rather how shallow, was the knowledge of Greek of many quattrocentists who held positions as teachers of Greek'. While Foerster (op. tit., pp. 272-284) pays more attention to historical interest than our quotation appears to promise, he does say (p. 120) that the translations’ want of critical value caused him to refuse to publish a critical edition of them. So far as his concern for establishing the Libanian text goes, his position is well taken. Another matter, however, is the value of the translations (only the genuine ones, naturally) for illustrating the condition of Hellenism in the great majority of the classrooms of the 1470s. As for Zambeccari's career, see note 56 below.
22 That Capo d'Istria was his first stop is further confirmed by a statement in his letter to Tharsius. Not finding him, Zambeccari says that ‘he had learned from P. P. Vergerio that you [Tharsius] were in Ferrara’ (Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D5, p. 300).
23 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Ai and 2, pp. 289-290. In the Archivio of the Gravisi in Capo d'Istria, Foerster found an ‘Excerpt’ in a record described as ‘Collection of documents regarding the appointment of celebrated professors at the [town's] college'. They were taken from an old book whose terminus a quo is 1461 and terminus ai qucm 1468: (1) there is a ‘Copia litterarum quae missae sunt magistro Francisco Zambechario (Bononiensi)'; the first is the letter inviting Zambeccari to teach, dated vn Id. Februarii MCCCCLXVI. There follow headings under which there is a memorandum about his manners and morals (in Latin), and then (in Italian) a memorandum about stipend, duties, etc. (2) A statement dated 25 April 1466 (in Latin) records Zambeccari's formal acceptance of the appointment (to run two years). The invitation said, ‘delegimus te in publicum urbis huius Rethorem ac Ludi litterarum magistrum'. See Ziliotto, op. tit., pp. 92, 96-97. The interval between 7 February and 25 April suggests that Zambeccari looked about for other positions.
24 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D5, p. 300. Possible period is after 7 February and before 25 April 1466. Zambeccari writes that his relatives had by letters urged him to come; thus we may assume he had kept them briefed about his doings in Greece. He does not say why his people wanted him to ‘return'. However, six or seven years later (1473) they wanted him for Greek in Bologna; so it is believable they might have wanted this already in 1466. It happens that Andronico Callisto had been teaching Greek in Bologna since some time between 1462-1464 and left some time (before 28 August) in 1466. Perhaps most Bolognesi had not responded favorably to Callisto. He likely taught privately; in any case, his name is not on the university rosters. See Giuseppe Cammelli, ‘Andronico Callisto', La Rinascita v (1942), 114-115. Another Greek lecturer about this time was Lionoro Lionori: he taught William of Selling, who in turn taught Linacre. See J. E. Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, n, 255, who cites evidence that Lionoro taught in Bologna 1466-1467.
25 See note 5. If my analysis of the letter to Tharsius is correct, Zambeccari must have found him eventually.
26 See, e.g., Dean P. Lockwood, Ugo Benzi, Medieval Philosopher and Physician 1376- 1419 (Chicago, 1951), who says (p. 2), ‘Most teachers in fifteeth century universities were wanderers.'
27 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Bi, presents information taken (a) from ‘libri delle Cernite del Comune di Fermo', in the Archivio there: (Rubrica Libri 26) Concilia Cernite 1471, 1472,1473; and (b) from ‘libri di Entrata e di Esito del Comune di Fermo (N.) dal 1472, 1473, 1474'. An interesting if vague entry under (a) pertains to Zambeccari's complaint (27 October 1471) about a certain disgraceful act against him by some one in his classroom.
28 Cod. Harleianus 2561, fol. 22ib, printed ibid., Beilage B2, pp. 292-295.
29 See Cosenza, Dictionary, s.v., ‘Marianus Montefalcone'.
30 Foerster, Zamb., pp. 15-19. The poem consists of twenty-one letters exchanged between the lover and a married woman. It is prefaced by a partly versified letter of dedication, which ends with thirty-nine lines promising the prince nigh unbearable excitement as he reads; Foerster reprints all this and also Letter 1, ‘Philochrysus Chryseae’ (ibid., Beilage F, pp. 311-317). That Zambeccari did not get the desired appointment may be due in part to Codro Urceo, who was Ordelaffi's secretary 1469-1480. Codro was a friend of Zambeccari's kinsman Vertunno Zambeccari, but nowhere mentions our Francesco. See ibid., p . 18, where Foerster relates that he had inquired of Codro's biographer Carlo Malagola about this, the answer being that he had come across nothing of the sort. For Vertunno, see C. Malagola, Delia vita e delle opere di Antonio Urceo detto Codro (Bologna, 1878), pp. 171, 181. Zambeccari's poem was later published as Elegiarum liber de amoribus Chrysee & Phylochrisi (Bononiae impressum per Benedictum Hectoris Bonofi. MfflD. octauo Kalendas lanuarii. 111. Io. Bentiuolo. II. P.P.P. foeliciter gubernante). I mention without comment the ‘literary’ love affair of Giovanni n's predecessor, Sante, with Nicolosa, wife of the Count of Porretta. See C. M. Ady, The Bentivoglio of Bologna (London, 1937), pp. 56-57. Curt F. Biihler, The University and the Press in Fifteenth- Century Bologna (Notre Dame, 1958, Texts and Stud, in the Hist, of Medieval Education vn), p. 90, gives a short title and bibliographical data.
31 As head of the Bentivoglio family he was indeed Bologna's ‘princeps'; to the extent that the security of the Bologna ‘liberties’ depended on his person he was her ‘dictator'. Giovanni had his own condotta. However, he could not have continued long in his position without the good will of and service to major Italian powers, especially Milan. See A8y, The Bentivoglio, pp. 74-88; for factors in the development of signoria to despotism, see ibid., pp. 89-102.
32 In his chronicle of Bologna, Burselli says, ‘Andreas Barbatio … had great fame as a lecturer on civil and canon law’ (Muratori, Rerum italicarum scriptores, Bologna, 1929, XXIII, pt. 2, p. 104). F. C. von Savigny, Geschichte des romischen Rechts, vi (1850), 481, gives his dates (c. 1400-1479), says that he spent most of his years in Bologna and that he wrote more on canon than Roman law. He was most famous for his consilia. Curt F. Bühler, op. cit., lists incunabula editions of his writings (pp. 62, 64-66, 68, 87, 95). See Cosenza, Dictionary, 1, 413.
33 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D5, pp. 300-301.
34 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage D9, pp. 303-304.
35 Ibid., Beilage F, pp. 311-312.
36 Ibid., Beilage Gi, pp. 317-319; cf. Johann Chr. Wolf, Libanii sophistae epistolae (Amstelsedami, 1738), pp. 753-754 (Sommerfeldt edition of 1504).
37 For (3) see ibid., Beilage G2, pp. 320-324; cf. Wolf, p. 732. For (4) sec Beilage G3, pp. 324-325; cf. Wolf, p. 762.
38 C. M. Ady, The Bentivoglio of Bologna, ch. xi, ‘The Maecenas of Bologna', especially pp. 161-168, tells of a plethora of men who in one form or other wrote encomiums of Giovanni n and his deeds. See her references.
39 Appointment of professors was in the hands of the Sedici Riformatori, popularly called Reggimento (Ady, op. cit., p. 70).
40 C. M. Ady, pp. 33 (and note 2), 36-37, 92, 136-138.
41 Zambeccari reminds the dictator of a Thomas Zambeccari who ‘suffered a most cruel death together with his [Bentivoglio's] grandfather'. The latter was Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio, whose checkered career extends from c. 1416 to his assassination in 143 5. Intrigue, violence, and exile are descriptive of several Zambeccaris in the first half of the fifteenth century, and more often than not they acted against the Bentivoglio. See Girolamo Burselli's Cronica gestorum … Bononie, ed. Albano Sorbelli, in Muratori, Scriptores, XXII, parte n, pp. 65-67, 74, 79-82, 90. The event referred to in Foerster, Zamb., Beilage G i , p . 319, is described in Muratori, op. cit., pp. 81-82, to wit, that after 15 years in papal service, Martin v gave Antongaleazzo leave to return to Bologna. Joyfully received, he was so honored that some doubted his loyalty. ‘The [papal] legate invited him to his palace, from which upon leaving he was detained at the foot of the steps and there decapitated, on 23 Dec. [143 5]. At the same hour Thomas Zambeccari was detained and hanged in the palace of the podesta.’ Our Zambeccari says (Foerster, ibid.) Antongaleazzo had the degree ‘utriusque iuris'. Ady, op. cit., p. 11, reports that on 3 April 1414 he received the doctorate of civil law and from 1418-1420 was on the list of lecturers in civil law in Bologna (no mention of canon law). He was one of the lawyers of Bologna (a papal city) who went with John xxm to the Council of Constance; upon the pope's imprisonment they left at once for home to proclaim a republic (1416). It is curious that Savigny, op. cit., VI, 479-500, does not put Antongaleazzo in his list of minor lecturers, for a bas-relief on his tomb by Jacopo della Quercia shows him in his classroom. Another contemporary Zambeccari was Cambio, who was exiled 1416 (Burselli, op. cit., p. 74). Lapo the Florentine has extensive praise of him, as a man and as a jurisconsult, in a letter to Guarino (1428): see R. Sabbadini, Epistolario di Guarino Veronese (Venezia, 1915-1919, Miscellanea di s toria veneta, ser. 3, vol. 8,11, 14), in, 636-643. See also Cosenza, Dictionary, v, no. 1919. Professor Kristeller kindly inform sme that Cambio also belonged to the circle of Panormita. Cambio the scholar suggests Pellegrino Zambeccari the humanist and poet. Fausto Ghiberti (art. ‘Umanesimo', Enciclopedia Italiana XXXIV, Roma, 1937, 648) puts the latter in the circle around Petrarch, together with Conversini, Boccaccio, et al.; Cosenza, Dictionary, v, no. 1919, adds ‘friend of Salutati'.
42 Foerster, Zamb., Beilage Gi, p. 319.
43 Curt F. Bühler, op. cit., pp. 23-24; Ady, The Bentivoglio, p. 160.
44 See above note 7. The comparison need not be invidious, for writing a language is no test of competence to teach it. It is credible, however, that Zambeccari shrank from comparison with Filelfo, whose mastery of Greek was extraordinary.
45 Letter no. 10, to Lapo the Florentine (1433), a student of Filelfo, in Cent dix lettres grecques, ed. E. Legrand (see note 12). Lapo had asked him how to translate Iliad 1, 117. Filelfo reports how Traversari and Marsuppini did, then gives his own version (which makes better sense). Also letters 48 (1457), 50 (1457), and 53 (1458) to Argyropoulos; letters 68 (1465) and 94 (1473) to Theodore Gaza.
46 Foerster, Zamb., pp. 128 ff., esp. p. 147.
47 ‘Libanius’ Oration in Praise of Antioch (Oration xi)', translated with introduction and commentary by Glanville Downey, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Soc. cm (1959), pp. 652-686. Professor Downey (p. 654) says Libanius’ ‘Greek is not always easy to read', has ‘linguistic and stylistic difficulties'.
48 P. O. Kristeller, Die italienischen Universitaten der Renaissance (Krefcld, 1953), pp. 20-21. On the ars dictaminis see Helene Wieruszowski, ‘Ars dictaminis in the Time of Dante', Medievalia et Humanistica 1 (1943), 95-108 (with rich bibliography).
49 Foerster, Zamb., pp. 67-84, gives examples of Zambeccari's genuine translations, whose Latinity, Foerster says (pp. 272-273), is ‘stiff, heavy, and ununderstandable'. To appear a credible Hellenist he therefore faked the rest in a Latin that Foerster characterizes as follows (pp. 85-86): ‘His Latin is not distinguished. In general it is closer to that of the early Italian Renaissance (e.g., to the naive lightness of a Petrarch and Gasparino Barzizza) than to the anxious Tullian smoothness of the high Renaissance, the Ciceronianism of a Bembo and Sadoleto … . It is not free from non-Ciceronian, ecclesiastical and medieval Latin [of which interesting examples are given].'
50 E.g., J. A. Symonds, Renaissance in Italy (Modern Library ed., 1935), bk. II, ‘The Revival of Learning', pp. 394-395, does not even mention southern Italy, and on pp. 443-444 says that from Naples down there was ‘no native culture'.
51 Kenneth M. Setton, ‘The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Soc. c (1956), 1-76.
52 Foerster, Zamb., pp. 42-43.
53 See above notes 14, 15, 16, 17.
54 In note 20, Filetico was named as a possible link between our Zambeccari and Federigo. Filetico had been the tutor of Federigo's second wife Battista, daughter of Alessandro Sforza. She was an enthusiastic student of Greek, had performed as a Latin orator, and though more than forty years younger than Federigo was fully worthy of her position as mistress of his house. Battista's sister was Ginevra Sforza, who was the wife of Giovanni Bentivoglio n. Thus Battista would be well known to the Bolognesi, possibly in person and certainly by reputation. According to Pecci's records, she was full of Filetico's praises. Battista died in July 1472. In his letter to Federigo with the first set of translations, Zambeccari recalls that Battista had brought honor to Italian womanhood; he writes especially of the famous funeral (for which Filetico contributed verses, not mentioned by Zambeccari). See Foerster, Zamb., pp. 25-26, Beilage G2, p. 322; Vespasiano, Vite, p. 123 (for Battista's father as ‘litteratissimo’); Pecci, ‘Contributo', pp. 475-499, 510-513. C. M. Ady, The Bentivoglio, gives considerable space to Ginevra, the ‘evil genius' of the Bentivoglio (see especially pp. 188-234); see also C. Ricci, Anime dannate: (Ginevra Sforza …) (Milan, 1918). Burselli, Cronica gestorum … Bononie (note 41), pp. 91, 97, 109-110,has nothing unfavorable to Ginevra (still living when the chronicle was written).
55 In my forthcoming article on Libanius in the Catalogus, I will mention a manuscript discovered by Professor Kristeller which might suggest this.
56 The original of the presentation collection for Bentivoglio has not been found. Foerster located three manuscripts containing only this collection, all of the fifteenth century. The first was made two years after the presentation: Codex Chisianus H. iv, 11 (1140), signed ‘Finis MCCCCLXXV die Aprilis Manu mei petri Ilvannis A (?) sancto Angelo Inundo [sic]'. The other two are not dated: Codex Laurentianus L II , 20; and Codex Bononiensis 2717. (Foerster, Zamb., p. 54.)
57 Vespasiano, Vite, pp. 101-109, gives information about the outstanding works in Federigo's library, for which he spent some 30,000 ducats. He wanted only manuscript, no printed, copies. In Urbino, Florence, and other places he had thirty or forty copyists at work for him; as to bindings, beginning with the Bible ('come capo di tutti’) done most expensively, all the others were still so gorgeously done ‘that it was a rich sight to behold'. Inventories were sent for from all the libraries of Italy, and even Oxford in England, to compare them with Federigo's; upon which Vespasiano remarks, ‘I saw that all were defective in one respect: that they had many copies of one and the same work, but had no writers entire’ in the manner of Federigo's. For a critical discussion of Vespasiano's account, see D. Robathan in J. W. Thompson, The Medieval Library, pp. 537-543. Vespasiano has been described as one of the first modern booksellers; as such he helped build up several notable libraries, and was for fourteen years Federigo's literary agent. Still a most useful all-round work is James Dennistoun of Dennistoun, Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, new edition with notes by Edward Hutton (London, 1909). On Federigo's library see 1, 162-169; for the librarian Federigo Veterani, p. 168 and n, 143-145. Robathan (op. cit., p. 538) says he served under three dukes during the space of'about forty years'. Cosenza, Dictionary, iv, 3656, reports him still living in 1526. Federigo died in 1482. Veterani entered Federigo's service in 1471 (see H. Nachod, ‘Distichs by Librarian Federigo Veterano', Medievalia et Humanistica n, 1944,103). Thus it is unlikely that he supervised the transcription of Zambeccari's translations by the hands of calligraphers. He was himself a master of calligraphy. More important is that he drew up an Inventario “%f the library, published by Guasti in Giornale storico degli archivi toscani vi (1862), 127- 247, vil (1863), 46-55, 130-154. This catalogue (under no. 448) lists Zambeccari's first collection for Federigo. It is now Codex Vaticano-Urbinas lat. 1172, fol. 1-104b . I have not seen this catalogue; see Foerster, Zamb., pp. 54-55; Robathan, op. cit., p. 538-544. On the reliability of the calligraphers’ copy see below note 62. Foerster, p. 55, lists another manuscript: a codex of'Ravenna Scans. 138. ord. I. N. 153', in a fifteenth- to sixteenthcentury hand (fol. 1-43). It was once possessed by a Francesco Giuliano and is marked by carelessness.
58 Giuseppe Ermini, Storia delta universita di Perugia (Bologna, 1947), p. 538, mentions Zambeccari as remaining in Perugia one year (1474). Ermini calls him ‘un buon grecista'. He makes no use of Foerster. Zambeccari appears to have been in Perugia from October 1474 to early spring of 1475. See Foerster, Zamb., pp. 31-36, and Beilage C, pp. 295-296. Our only information on his work there is to the effect that he was extremely occupied with his lectures. See his second letter to Federigo ( Foerster, , Zamb., Beilage G3, p. 325 Google Scholar).
59 If we can rely on Vespasiano's statement (Vite, p. 109) that the duke aimed at having authors entire, it is reasonable to suppose that he wanted Libanius complete, beginning with the letters. That the same calligrapher, ‘Mattheus [de Contugiis] de Vulterris', added Chierigato's translation of a Libanian declamation (see above, note 16) would accord with this. From a letter of Federigo da Urbino to Zambeccari we learn that Zambeccari had sent the duke some Greek codices. They are not identified, but the presumption that they contained Libanian letters is not unreasonable. The letter acknowledges as ‘semper gratissima’ whatever Zambeccari sends him, singling out ‘codices graecos quos etiam misisti'. Federigo adds, ‘Octavianus meus ad te scribet lathis'. See Federigo da Montefeltro: lettere di stato, ed. Paolo Alatri (Roma, 1949), ep. 95, p. n o . For Octavianus see ep. 63, note 3 (p. 77). The editor's information on Zambeccari (p. n o , note 1) needs revision.
60 Assuming that Federigo had no need of Zambeccari as his encomiast—he had enough such—he may have recommended him to Ferdinand of Naples. Relations between this king and Federigo were closer than their disparity in character might promise. After Alfonso the Magnanimous died (1458), Ferdinand retained Federigo as his condottiere. In early September 1474 Federigo went to Naples for induction (as a charter member) into Ferdinand's newly created order of knighthood; in the fall of the same year both were invested as knights of the English Order of the Garter (the ceremony took place in Grottoferrata). See Dennistoun, Dukes of Urbino, I, 115, 222-224, 450-459.
61 See note 58.
62 Codex Vaticano-Urbinas lat. 336, fol. 2-155 (second set), fol. 156-220 (first set). This codex is also listed in Veterani's catalogue, no. 449 (see note 57). Zambeccari's autographs of the two sets are lost, as also of the one presented to Bentivoglio. The Urbino codices are marked more by beauty than accuracy. Foerster remarks, ‘Die Abschreiber waren mehr auf bedacht’ (Zamb., pp. 55-56). See also C. Stornajola (Codices Urbinates latini, Bibl. Vaticana, Romae, 1902, 1, vn-xi), who knew the entire library. He distinguishes between calligraphers more concerned with elegance and those who show some care for accuracy (who, e.g., collated manuscripts). His fuller knowledge of copyists makes him less captious than Foerster.
63 R. Foerster, ‘Zur Schriftstellerei des Libanios. II. Zu den briefen', Jahrbücher für Classische Philologie CXIII (1876), 491-504. Foerster did not in person make all the visits abroad; many scholars helped by examining manuscripts or by making copies for him.
64 Codex Dresdensis D, 9 (one time Elect. 386 and Reg. D, 80), written in one good hand (fol. 1-642). The copyist was Michael Apostolis (on whom, see Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice, pp. 73-111; p. 74, note 2, for spelling of the name). His signature here is curious and his information in character: This codex was till 1758 in Bologna. See Foerster, Zamb., pp. 87-89. Codex Casanatensis G. V. 4. Many Greek manuscripts in the Biblioteca Casanatense came from Calabria; whether this one did cannot be known. The letters are on fol. 41-127 (op. cit., p. 89). Identification of Zambeccari's translations with letters in these codices will appear in my forthcoming article, ‘Libanius', in the Catalogus; also information about Aurispa's forgery (see above note 14).
65 Foerster, Zamb., pp. 105-109.
66 Ibid., pp. 109-121, gives numerous illustrations.
67 Ibid., pp. 150-155.
68 For this and succeeding references an explanation is necessary: Lat. 1, 6=Foerster's reconstruction of the order of the collections: Lat. I (to Bentivoglio), Lat. 11 (first to Federigo), Lat. m (second to Federigo). The Arabic cypher is the letter number. WS 11, 6 = Wolf's edition of Sommerfeldt. The latter's order of the collections is: 1 (first set presented to Federigo), n (Bentivoglio), m (second set for Federigo). W Ep. Gr.=Wolf's edition of Libanius’ letters and translations. F=Foerster's Teubner edition of the letters. I have selected illustrative material both for pertinence and interest. The Sommerfeldt edition (see above, note 1) is uneven in quality. Sometimes it gives only parts of the letters and not seldom the text given is corrupt. Having collated with extant manuscripts, Foerster has mended a good many of the defects (though he has not furnished a full critical edition). By using the Sommerfeldt edition and also (where needed) the Foerster mendings, it was possible to make sense of what was used.
69 Foerster, Zamb., pp. 201-202.
70 This fabrication turns out to be epideictic, in which praise is joined to vituperation. Lynochus (the addressee), whom Libanius ‘loves so very much', has just been made governor ('praeses’) of Bithynia, so now he ‘dearly loves the name, the walls, the houses, the manners and the men’ of the once disgusting place. Such unsubtle flattery is out of character for Libanius; besides, there is no trace of a Lynochus, this dear friend, in any Greek writing of Libanius nor, for that matter, anywhere in the fourth century.
71 Foerster, Zamb., p. 219.
72 G. Downey, ‘Libanius’ Oration in Praise of Antioch', ut supra (note 48), paragraph 129 (pp. 666-667) and note p. 683. See also Libanius’ letter to Marcellinus (W Ep. Gr. 983; F 1063; WS in, 295, is very defective, but part of the compliment to Rome is clear).
73 The Age ofConstantine the Great, tr. Moses Hadas (Garden City, N . Y., 1956), p. 232.
74 See Foerster, Zamb., p. 233, for a quotation from Marsilio Ficino's letter to Paolo Ferobante (Marsilii Ficini epistolae, ed. Anton Koberger, Niirnberg, 1497, lib. vm, 8, f. CLXXIX). P. O. Kristeller, Supplementum Ficinianum (Firenze, 1937), 11, 359, identifies the letter in the Basel Opera (1576), p. 808; Professor Kristeller informs me of its significant heading, ‘Confirmatio Christianorum per Socratica', also that its date is 1484. This is ten years later than Zambeccari's reference, but argues that the idea was current.
75 Foerster, Zamb., p. 332, note 6.
76 Ibid., p. 323.
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