HIST30006_Week 4 _Readings_2020

The Renaissance in Italy

SUBJECT READER 
 COMPILED BY CATHERINE KOVESI

WEEK 4

Humanism and Education in the Renaissance 4.1_Petrarch Pertrarca, Francesco. ‘Letter to Posterity’. In The Civilisation of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook, edited by Kenneth R. Bartlett, 17-25. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company, 1992.

4.2_Bruni Bruni, Leonardo. ‘Praises Petrarch’s Rekindling of Antiquity, 1404’. In Major Problems in the History of the Italian Renaissance, edited by Benjamin G. Kohl and Alison Andrews Smith, 26-29. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995.

4.3_Vergerio Vergerio, Pier Paolo. ‘On Liberal Learning, 1403’. In Major Problems in the History of the Italian Renaissance, edited by Benjamin G. Kohl and Alison Andrews Smith, 304308. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995.

4.4_Valla Valla, Lorenzo. ‘On the Elegance of Latin, 1448’. In Major Problems in the History of the Italian Renaissance, edited by Benjamin G. Kohl and Alison Andrews Smith, 310313. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995.

4.5_Guarino Guarino, Battista. ‘On the Means of Teaching and Learning’. In The Civilisation of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook, edited by Kenneth R. Bartlett, 281-289. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company, 1992.

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4.6_Kristeller Kristeller, Paul Oskar. ‘Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance.

In Major Problems in the History of the Italian Renaissance, edited by Benjamin G. Kohl and Alison Andrews Smith, 285-296. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995.

4.7_Grendler Grendler, Paul F. ‘The Coming of the Studia humanitatis’. In Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600, 111-141. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

4.8_Cereta Cereta, Laura. ‘Letter to Bibulus Sempronius: A Defence of the Liberal Instruction of Women’. In The Civilisation of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook, edited by Kenneth R. Bartlett, 291-296. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company, 1992.

4.9_Bruni Bruni, Leonardo. ‘Letter to Battista Malatesta on the Study of Literature’. In The Civilisation of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook, edited by Kenneth R. Bartlett, 276281. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company, 1992.

4.10_Salutati Salutati, Coluccio. ‘Letter to Caterina di Messer Vieri di Donatino D’Arezzo’. In The Civilisation of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook, edited by Kenneth R. Bartlett, 289-291. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Company, 1992.

4.11_Grafton & Jardine Grafton, A. and L. Jardine. ‘Women Humanists: Education for What?’ In From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth and Sixteenth-Century Europe, 29-57. London: Duckworth, 1986.

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SECTION 1

Petrarch, Letter to Posterity INTRODUCTION Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) was born in 1304 in the Tuscan town of Arezzo not far frnm Florence, the son of an exiled Florentine notary who had been driven from his native city by the same series of proscriptions that had exiled the poet Dante in 1302. Petrarch's father took his family out of Italy to Avignon, where the papacy had been established, in order to escape from the dangers and insecurities of Rome. In Avignon, he was granted a position in the Curia, the pope's court.

For his education, Petrarch was sent to the University of Montpellier to study law, but all that young Francesco learned there was an abiding love for the Latin classics, especially Cicero, as well as a deep understanding of and appreciation for Provencal love lyrics. Subsequently, Petrarch was sent to Bologna to pursue his legal studies. Back in Italy, the young man made a number of important and lasting friendships among the wealthy and sophisticated students at the university. Of these, his asso ciation with the great Roman noble family of the Colonna would prove to be the most important.

When back in Avignon, in the church of St. Clare, on Holy Friday 1327, Petrarch saw the woman whose image was to inspire him for the rest of his life: Laura. In this woman Petrarch believed he had encountered perfect, ideal love, and he proceeded, like his compatriot Dante with his Beatrice, to celebrate her and his love in every way, most especially in his lyric poetry.

Eventually, however, in order to receive a benefice from the pope, Petrarch formally entered the Church as a cleric, assisted by the patron age of the Colonna family. Soon after, he traveled to Rome to see the Holy City. While he was there, however, Petrarch was seduced by the ruins of the ancient world, the physical remains of the Roman Empire, already well known to him through his reading of Latin literature, and Petrarch's intuitive and temperamental love of classical antiquity was greatly Strengthened by this personal contact with its remains.

Petrarch returned to Avignon and built a small villa in the Vaucluse, where he produced the greatest part of his work. These writings, especially his Italian love Sonnets to Laura - a genre he perfected made him very famous. Indeed, he became so celebrated as a poet that the Citizens of Rome invited him to the city to be crowned with laurel on the Capitoline like the great Latin poets of the ancient world, the first in 1300 years.

After a number of years of wandering, living at the courts of Italian princes or serving as their envoy, Petrarch took ill OutSide the City of Padua and was taken to a villa he owned in the Euganean Hills at Arqua (now appropriately called ArquĂ Petrarca). There he died in 1374.

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The great importance of Petrarch is as a transitional figure between the older values of the Middle Ages and the new ideals of Renaissance Italy. Because of the very contradictions and confusions that are evident in Petrarch, he can be seen to illustrate the formative period of Renaissance humanism.

What humanism was in essence was the ideology of the Renaissance, a new method of education and thought that was designed to replace the scholastic model of the Middle Ages, which Petrarch so hated.

Whereas Dante had not only accepted scholasticism but even made it his organizing world view, Petrarch detested it.

Petrarch disliked medieval scholasticism for a number of reasons. First, he thought that the style of Latin in which scholastic works were written was barbarous and loathesome and very unlike the style of Latin authors of the Golden Age, such as Cicero, who had become Petrarch's model in his youth. In short, scholastic Latin was ugly and unaesthetic, and Petrarch wished a return to the pure Latin of the classical period. Second, Petrarch disliked what the scholastics wrote. He saw no value in the esoteric arguments about minute-and, he believed, irrelevant points of faith. Educated Christians had, after all, the guidance of the early Fathers of the Church, such as St. Augustine, who required no commentaries or glosses and who wrote, moreover, in a clear, classical Style.

Third, Petrarch was most concerned with man's humanity-who he was and the purpose for which he was born-as he himself remarks in On His Own Ignorance: "What is the use, I beseech you, to know the nature of quadrapeds, fowls, fishes and serpents and not know Or even neglect man's nature, the purpose for which we are born and whence and whereto we travel!" This Central concern with self and with human, earthly experience dominates all of Petrarch's works. He wished to encourage not only the potential power of the individual but also a new relationship with nature and literature and the past; he believed that his experience on earth had validity, value, and significance and that his self was worthy of knowing.

LETTER TO POSTERITY It is possible that some word of me may have come to you, though even this is doubtful, since an insignificant and obscure name will scarcely penetrate far in either time or space. If, however, you should have heard of me, you may desire to know what manner of man I was, or what was the outcome of my labors, especially those of which some description or, at any rate, the bare titles may have reached you.

To begin with myself, then, the utterances of men concerning me will differ widely, since in passing judgment almost every one is influenced not so much by truth as by preference, and good and evil report alike know no bounds. I was, in truth, a poor mortal like yourself, neither very exalted in my origin, nor, on the other hand, of the most humble birth, but belonging, as Augustus Caesar says of himself, to an ancient family.

As to my disposition, I was not naturally perverse or wanting in modesty, however the contagion of evil associations may have corrupted me. My youth was gone before I realized it; I was carried away by the strength of manhood; but a riper age brought me to 209

my senses and taught rn.e by experience the truth I had long before read in books, that youth and pleasure are vanity-nay, that the Author of all ages and times permits us miserable mortals, puffed up with emptiness, thus to wander about, until finally, coming to a tardy consciousness of our sins, we shall learn to know ourselves. In my prime I was blessed with a quick and active body, although not exceptionally strong; and while I do not lay claim to remarkable personal beauty, I was comely enough in my best days. I was possessed of a clear complexion, between light and dark, lively eyes, and for long years a keen vision, which however deserted me, contrary to my hopes, after I reached my sixtieth birthday, and forced me, to my great annoyance, to resort to glasses. Although I had previously enjoyed perfect health, old age brought with it the usual array of discomforts.

I have always possessed an extreme contempt for wealth; not that riches are not desirable in themselves, but because I hate the anxiety and care which are invariably associated with them. I certainly do not long to be able to give gorgeous banquets. I have, on the contrary, led a happier existence with plain living and ordinary fare than all the followers of Apicius,1 with their elaborate dainties. So-called convivia, which are but vulgar bouts, sinning against sobriety and good manners, have always been repugnant to me. I have ever felt that it was irksome and profitless to invite others to such affairs, and not less so to be bidden to them myself. On the other hand, the pleasure of dining with one's friends is so great that nothing has ever given me more delight than their unexpected arrival, nor have I ever willingly sat down to table without a companion. Nothing displeases me more than display, for not only is it bad in itself, and opposed to humility, but it is troublesome and distracting.

I struggled in my younger days with a keen but constant and pure attachment, and would have struggled with it longer had not the sinking flame been extinguished by death-premature and bitter, but salutary.2 I should be glad to be able to say that I had always been entirely free from irregular desires, but I should lie if I did so. I can, however, conscientiously claim that, although I may have been carried away by the fire of youth or by my ardent temperament, I have always abhorred such sins from the depths of my soul. As I approached the age of forty, while my powers were unimpaired and my passions were still strong, I not only abruptly threw off my bad habits, but even the very recollection of them, as if I had never looked upon a woman. This I mention as among the greatest of my blessings, and I render thanks to God, who freed me, while still sound and vigorous, from a disgusting slavery which had always been hateful to me.3 But let us turn to other matters.

I have perceived pride in others, never in myself, and however insignificant I may have been, I have always been still less important in my own judgment. My anger has very often injured myself, but never others. I make this boast without fear, since I am 210

confident that I speak truly: While I am very prone to take offense, I am equally quick to forget injuries, and have a memory tenacious of benefits. I have always been most desirous of honorable friendships, and have faithfully cherished them. But it is the cruel fate of those who are growing old that they can commonly only weep for friends who have passed away. In my familiar associations with kings and princes, and in my friendship with noble personages, my good fortune has been such as to excite envy. I fled, however, from many of those to whom I was greatly attached; and such was my innate longing for liberty, that I studiously avoided those whose very name seemed incompatible with the freedom that I loved. The greatest kings of this age have loved and courted me. They may know why; I certainly do not. With some of them I was on such terms that they seemed in a certain sense my guests rather than I theirs; their lofty position in no way embarrassing me, but, on the contrary, bringing with it many advantages.

I possessed a well-balanced rather than a keen intellect, one prone to all kinds of good and wholesome study, but especially inclined to moral philosophy and the art of poetry. The latter, indeed, I neglected as time went on, and took delight in sacred literature. Finding in that a hidden sweetness which I had once esteemed but lightly, I came to regard the works of the poets as only amenities. Among the many subjects which interested me, I dwelt especially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me, so that, had it not been for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other period than our own. In order to forget my own time, I have constantly striven to place myself in spirit in other ages, and consequently I delighted in history; not that the conflicting statements did not offend me, but when in doubt I accepted what appeared to me most probable, or yielded to the authority of the writer.

My style, as many claimed, was clear and forcible; but to me it seemed weak and obscure. In ordinary conversation with friends, or with those about me, I never gave any thought to my language, and I have always wondered that Augustus Caesar should have taken such pains in this respect.4 When, however, the subject itself, or the place or listener, seemed to demand it, I gave some attention to style, with what success I cannot pretend to say; let them judge in whose presence I spoke. If only I have lived well, it matters little to me how I talked. Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown.

My parents were honorable folk, Florentine in their origin, of medium fortune, or, I may as well admit it, in a condition verging on poverty. They had been expelled from their native city,5 and consequently I was born in exile, at Arezzo, in the year 1304 of this latter age which begins with Christ's birth, July the twentieth, on a Monday, at dawn. My life up to the present has, either through fate or my own choice, fallen into 211

the following divisions. A part only of my first year was spent at Arezzo, where I first saw the light. The six following years were, owing to the recall of my mother from exile, spent upon my father's estate at Incisa, about fourteen miles above Florence. I passed my eighth year at Pisa, the ninth and following years in Farther Gaul, at Avignon, on the left bank of the Rhone, where the Roman Pontiff holds and has long held the Church of Christ in shameful exile.6 It seemed a few years ago as if Urban V was on the point of restoring the Church to its ancient seat, but it is clear that nothing is coming of this effort, and, what is to me the worst of all, the Pope seems to have repented him of his good work, for failure came while he was still living.7 Had he lived but a little longer, he would certainly have learned how I regarded his retreat. My pen was in my hand when he abruptly surrendered at once his exalted office and his life.

Unhappy man, who might have died before the altar of Saint Peter and in his own habitation! Had his successors remained in their capital he would have been looked upon as the cause of this benign change, while, had they left Rome, his virtue would have been all the more conspicuous in contrast with their fault.8 But such laments are somewhat remote from my subject. On the windy banks of the river Rhone I spent my boyhood, guided by my parents, and then, guided by my own fancies, the whole of my youth. Yet there were long intervals spent elsewhere, for I first passed four years at the little town of Carpentras, somewhat to the east of Avignon: in these two places I learned as much of grammar, logic, and rhetoric as my age permitted, or rather, as much as it is customary to teach in school: you know how little that is, dear reader. I then set out for Montpellier to study law, and spent four years there, then three at Bologna. I heard the whole body of the civil law, and would, as many thought, have distinguished myself later, had I but continued my studies. I gave up the subject altogether, however, so soon as it was no longer necessary to consult the wishes of my parents.9 My reason was that, although the dignity of the law, which is doubtless very great, and especially the numerous references it contains to Roman antiquity, did not fail to delight me, I felt it to be habitually degraded by those who practice it. It went against me painfully to acquire an art which I would not practice dishonestly, and could hardly hope to exercise otherwise. Had I made the latter attempt, my scrupulousness would doubtless have been ascribed to simplicity.

So at the age of two and twenty I returned home. I call my place of exile home, Avignon, where I had been since childhood; for habit has almost the potency of nature itself. I had already begun to be known there, and my friendship was sought by prominent men; wherefore I cannot say. I confess this is now a source of surprise to me, although it seemed natural enough at an age when we are used to regard ourselves as worthy of the highest respect. I was courted first and foremost by that very distinguished and noble family, the Colonnesi, who, at that period, adorned the Roman Cu212

ria with their presence. However it might be now, I was at that time certainly quite unworthy of the esteem in which I was held by them. I was especially honored by the incomparable Giacomo Colonna, then Bishop of Lombez,10 whose peer I know not whether I have ever seen or ever shall see, and was taken by him to Gascony; there I spent such a divine summer among the foot-hills of the Pyrenees, in happy intercourse with my master and the members of our company, that I can never recall the experience without a sigh of regret.11 Returning thence, I passed many years in the house of Giacomo's brother, Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, not as if he were my lord and master, but rather my father, or better, a most affectionate brother-nay, it was as if I were in my own home.12 About this time, a youthful desire impelled me to visit France and Germany. While I invented certain reasons to satisfy my elders of the propriety of the journey, the real explanation was a great inclination and longing to see new sights. I first visited Paris, as I was anxious to discover what was true and what fabulous in the accounts I had heard of that city. On my return from this journey I went to Rome, which I had since my infancy ardently desired to visit. There I soon came to venerate Stephano, the noble head of the family of the Colonnesi, like some ancient hero, and was in turn treated by him in every respect like a son. The love and good-will of this excellent man toward me remained constant to the end of his life, and lives in me still, nor will it cease until I myself pass away.

On my return, since I experienced a deep-seated and innate repugnance to town life, especially in that disgusting city of Avignon which I heartily abhorred, I sought some means of escape. I fortunately discovered, about fifteen miles from Avignon, a delightful valley, narrow and secluded, called Vaucluse, where the Sorgue, the prince of streams, takes its rise. Captivated by the charms of the place, I transferred thither myself and my books. Were I to describe what I did there during many years, it would prove a long story. Indeed, almost every bit of writing which I have put forth was either accomplished or begun, or at least conceived, there, and my undertakings have been so numerous that they still continue to vex and weary me. My mind, like my body, is characterized by a certain versatility and readiness, rather than by strength, so that many tasks that were easy of conception have been given up by reason of the difficulty of their execution. The character of my surroundings suggested the composition of a sylvan or bucolic song.13 I also dedicated a work in two books upon The Life of Solitude, to Philip, now exalted to the Cardinal-bishopric of Sabina. Although always a great man, he was, at the time of which I speak, only the humble Bishop of Cavaillon.14 He is the only one of my old friends who is still left to me, and he has always loved and treated me not as a bishop (as Ambrose did Augustine), but as a brother.

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While I was wandering in those mountains upon Friday in Holy Week, the strong desire seized me to write an epic in an heroic strain, taking as my theme Scipio Africanus the Great, who had, strange to say, been dear to me from my childhood. But although I began the execution of this project with enthusiasm, I straightway abandoned it, owing to a variety of distractions. The poem was, however, christened Africa, from the name of its hero, and, whether from his fortunes or mine, it did not fail to arouse the interest of many before they had seen it.15 While leading a leisurely existence in this region, I received, remarkable as it may seem, upon one and the same day,16 letters both from the Senate at Rome and the Chancellor of the University of Paris, pressing me to appear in Rome and Paris, respectively, to receive the poet's crown of laurel.17 In my youthful elation I convinced myself that I was quite worthy of this honor; the recognition came from eminent judges, and I accepted their verdict rather than that of my own better judgment. I hesitated for a time which I should give ear to, and sent a letter to Cardinal Giovanni Colonna, of whom I have already spoken, asking his opinion. He was so near that, although I wrote late in the day, I received his reply before the third hour on the morrow. I followed his advice, and recognized the claims of Rome as superior to all others. My acceptance of his counsel is shown by my twofold letter to him on that occasion, which I still keep. I set off accordingly; but although, after the fashion of youth, I was a most indulgent judge of my own work, I still blushed to accept in my own case the verdict even of such men as those who summoned me, despite the fact that they would certainly not have honored me in this way, had they not believed me worthy.

SOURCE: Excerpts from D. Thompson (ed. and trans.), Petrarch: A Humanist Among Princes.

(New York: Harper and Row, 1971), pp. 1-13. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

1 Proverbial gourmet from the age of Tiberius.

2 While it is tempting to sec here a reference to Laura, there are chronological difficulties. The period of life described (adolescentia) extended from age 15 to 28, but Petrarch's attachment to Laura lasted until her death many years later. Perhaps we must simply accept this as one of those not infrequent instances where Petrarch has altered the account of his life.

3 Though a cleric, Petrarch was the father of two illegitimate children: Giovanni, born in 1337; and Francesca, born six years later.

4 Suetonius, Life of Augustus, p. 87.

5 Petrarch's father, a "White" Guelph, was banished by the victorious "Black" Guelphs on October 20, 1302 (nine months after the expulsion of Dante, whom he had known).

6 The French pope, Clement V (1305-14), had moved the papal court to Avignon in 1309.

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7 Urban V (1362-70) left Avignon in April, 1367; returned there from Rome in September, 1370; and died on December 19 of the same year.

8 Petrarch had sent metrical epistles to Urban's predecessors, Benedict XII ( 1334-42) and Clement VI (1342-52), urging them to restore the papacy to Rome.

9 Petrarch left Bologna in April, 1326, probably on receiving news of his father's death. His mother had died some years earlier.

10 Some thirty miles southwest of Toulouse. Giacomo had been elected bishop in 1328. He died in 1341.

11 It was during this summer of 1330 that Petrarch formed his lifelong friendship with "Socrates" (the Flemish Ludwig van Kempen, chanter in the chapel of Cardinal Giovanni Colonna), who resided at Avignon; and with "Laelius" (a Roman, Lello di Pietro Stefano dei Tosetti), who also resided at Avignon until the cardinal's death in 1348. Many of Petrarch's letters are addressed to these two friends.

12 As a household chaplain Petrarch was an active member of the cardinal's staff from 1330 to 1337, and an occasionally active member for another ten years. This was his first ecclesiastical appointment. On his ecclesiastical career, sec E. H. Wilkins, Studies in the Life and Works of Petrarch (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), pp. 3-32.

13 Petrarch conflates his first stay in Vaucluse 11337-41) with his third 11345-47); for the Bucolicum Carman and the De Vita Solitaria were both begun during the latter period. Petrarch began one or more major works during each of his four periods of residence at Vaucluse.

14 Philippe de Cabassoles, whose diocese included Vaucluse, was about Petrarch's age, and they shared similar tastes for books and country life. Philippe became cardinal in 1368, cardinal-bishop in 1370, and died in 1372.

15 Begun in 1338 or 1339, the Africa was never finished; and aside from a fragment that circulated during Petrarch's lifetime, it was not published until after his death. It proved something of a disappointment to Coluccio Salutati and others after they had seen it.

16 September 1, 1340.

17 Albertina Mussato had been crowned with laurel in Padua in 1315; and Dante had been offered a crown by Bologna but had declined (see Paradiso XXV, 1-9 on his desire to receive the crown in Florence). For the whole complicated question sec E. H. Wilkins, "The Coronation of Petrarch" !The Making of the "Cansoniere" and Other Petrarchan Studies [Rome, 1951], pp. 969), who concludes: "the sum of the matter would seem to be that Petrarch succeeded, after persistent and varied efforts, in getting two invitations to receive the laurel crown; that the specific basis for the invitations was a rather limited amount of published Latin verse, together with the knowledge that he was engaged in the writing of a grandiose epic; that he had convinced the Colonna family and Roberto de' Bardi [Chancellor at the University of Paris, and a Florentine] that he was in truth a great poet; that their sense of his poetic worth was presumably enhanced by their knowledge that he was engaged in the writing of historical works and by the obvious range of his classical scholarship; and - just possibly - that the beauty of some of his belittled Italian lyrics was in their minds" (p. 35).

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SECTION 2

Leonardo Bruni, On the Study of Literature A LETTER TO BATTISTA MALATESTA ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE I am led to address this Tractate to you, Illustrious Lady, by the high repute which attaches to your name in the field of learning; and I offer it, partly as an expression of my homage to distinction already attained, partly as an encouragement to further effort. Were it necessary I might urge you by brilliant instances from antiquity: Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio, whose Epistles survived for centuries as models of style; Sappho, the poetess, held in so great honor for the exuberance of her poetic art; Aspasia, whose learning and eloquence made her not unworthy of the intimacy of Socrates.

Upon these, the most distinguished of a long range of great names, I would have you fix your mind; for an intelligence such as your own can be satisfied with nothing less than the best. You yourself, indeed, may hope to win a fame higher even than theirs.

For they lived in days when learning was no rare attainment, and therefore they enjoyed no unique renown. Whilst, alas, upon such times are we fallen that a learned man seems well-nigh a portent, and erudition in a woman is a thing utterly unknown.

For true learning has almost died away amongst us. True learning, I say: not a mere acquaintance with that vulgar, threadbare jargon which satisfies those who devote themselves to Theology, but sound learning in its proper and legitimate sense, viz., the knowledge of realities-Facts and Principles-united to a perfect familiarity with Letters and the art of expression. Now this combination we find in Lactantius, in Augustine, or in Jerome; each of them at once a great theologian and profoundly versed in literature.

But turn from them to their successors of to-day: how must we blush for their ignorance of the whole field of Letters! This leads me to press home this truth-though in your case it is unnecessary-that the foundations of all true learning must be laid in the sound and thorough knowledge of Latin: which implies study marked by a broad spirit, accurate scholarship, and careful attention to details. Unless this solid basis be secured it is useless to attempt to rear an enduring edifice. Without it the great monuments of literature are unintelligible, and the art of composition impossible. To attain this essential knowledge we must never relax our careful attention to the grammar of the language, but perpetually confirm and extend our acquaintance with it until it is thoroughly our own. We may gain much from Servius, Donatus and Priscian, but more by careful observation in our own reading, in which we must note attentively vocabulary 216

and inflexions, figures of speech and metaphors, and all the devices of style, such as rhythm, or antithesis, by which fine taste is exhibited. To this end we must be supremely careful in our choice of authors, lest an inartistic and debased style infect our own writing and degrade our taste; which danger is best avoided by bringing a keen, critical sense to bear upon select works, observing the sense of each passage, the structure of the sentence, the force of every word down to the least important particle. In this way our reading reacts directly upon our style.

You may naturally turn first to Christian writers, foremost amongst whom, with marked distinction, stands Lactantius, by common consent the finest stylist of the postclassical period. Especially do I commend to your study his works, Adversus falsam Religionem, De via Dei, and De opificio hominis. After Lactantius your choice may lie between Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, and Cyprian; should you desire to read Gregory of Nazianzen, Chrysostom, and Basil, be careful as to the accuracy of the translations you adopt. Of the classical authors Cicero will be your constant pleasure: how unapproachable in wealth of ideas and of language, in force of style, indeed, in all that can attract in a writer! Next to him ranks Vergil, the glory and the delight of our national literature. Livy and Sallust, and then the chief poets, follow in order. The usage of these authors will serve you as your test of correctness in choice of vocabulary and of constructions.

Now we notice in all good prose-though it is not of course obtrusive-a certain element of rhythm, which coincides with and expresses the general structure of the passage, and consequently gives a clue to its sense. I commend, therefore, to you as an aid to understanding an author the practice of reading aloud with clear and exact intonation. By this device you will seize more quickly the drift of the passage, by realizing the main lines on which it is constructed. And the music of the prose thus interpreted by the voice will react with advantage upon your own composition, and at the same time will improve your own Reading by compelling deliberate and intelligent expression.

The art of Writing is not limited to the mere formation of letters, but it concerns also the subject of the diphthongs, and of the syllabic divisions of words; the accepted usages in the writing of each letter, singly and in cursive script, and the whole field of abbreviations. This may seem a trivial matter, but a knowledge of educated practice on these points may fairly be expected from us. The laws of quantity are more important, since in poetry scansion is frequently our only certain clue to construction. One might ask, further, what capacity in poetic composition or what critical ability or taste in poetical literature is possible to a man who is not first of all secure on points of quantity and meter? Nor is prose, as I have already hinted, without its metrical element; upon which indeed Aristotle and Cicero dwelt with some minuteness. A skillful orator or historian will be careful of the effect to be gained by spondaic, iambic, dactylic or other rhythm 217

in arousing differing emotions congruous to his matter in hand. To ignore this is to neglect one of the most delicate points of style. You will notice that such refinements will apply only to one who aspires to proficiency in the finer shades of criticism and expression, but such a one must certainly by observation and practice become familiar with every device which lends distinction and adornment to the literary art.

But the wider question now confronts us, that of the subject matter of our studies, that which I have already called the realities of fact and principle, as distinct from literary form. Here, as before, I am contemplating a student of keen and lofty aspiration to whom nothing that is worthy in any learned discipline is without its interest. But it is necessary to exercise discrimination. In some branches of knowledge I would rather restrain the ardor of the learner, in others, again, encourage it to the uttermost. Thus there are certain subjects in which, whilst a modest proficiency is on all accounts to be desired, a minute knowledge and excessive devotion seem to be a vain display. For instance, subtleties of Arithmetic and Geometry are not worthy to absorb a cultivated mind and the same must be said of Astrology. You will be surprised to find me suggesting (though with much more hesitation) that the great and complex art of Rhetoric should be placed in the same category. My chief reason is the obvious one, that I have in view the cultivation most fitting to a woman. To her neither the intricacies of debate nor the oratorical artifices of action and delivery are of the least practical use, if indeed they are not positively unbecoming. Rhetoric in all its forms-public discussion, forensic argument, logical fence, and the like-lies absolutely outside the province of woman.

What disciplines then are properly open to her? In the first place she has before her, as a subject peculiarly her own, the whole field of religion and morals. The literature of her Church will thus claim her earnest study. Such a writer, for instance, as St Augustine affords her the fullest scope for reverent yet learned inquiry. Her devotional instinct may lead her to value the help and consolation of holy men now living; but in this case let her not for an instant yield to the impulse to look into their writings, which, compared with those of Augustine, are utterly destitute of sound and melodious style, and seem to me to have no attraction whatever.

Moreover, the cultivated Christian lady has no need in the study of this weighty subject to confine herself to ecclesiastical writers. Morals, indeed, have been treated of by the noblest intellects of Greece and Rome. What they have left to us upon Continence, Temperance, Modesty, Justice, Courage, Greatness of Soul, demands your sincere respect. You must enter into such questions as the sufficiency of Virtue to Happiness; or whether, if Happiness consist in Virtue, it can be destroyed by torture, imprisonment or exile; whether, admitting that these may prevent a man from being happy, they can be further said to make him miserable. Again, does Happiness consist (with Epicurus) in 218

the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain: or (with Xenophon) in the consciousness of uprightness: or (with Aristotle) in the practice of Virtue? These inquiries are, of all others, most worthy to be pursued by men and women alike; they are fit material for formal discussion and for literary exercise. Let religion and morals, therefore, hold the first place in the education of a Christian lady. But we must not forget that true distinction is to be gained by a wide and varied range of such studies as conduce to the profitable enjoyment of life, in which, however, we must observe due proportion in the attention and time we devote to them.

First amongst such studies I place History: a subject which must not on any account be neglected by one who aspires to true cultivation. For it is our duty to understand the origins of our own history and its development; and the achievements of Peoples and of Kings.

For the careful study of the past enlarges our foresight in contemporary affairs and affords to citizens and to monarchs lessons of incitement or warning in the ordering of public policy. From History, also, we draw our store of examples of moral precepts.

In the monuments of ancient literature which have come down to us History holds a position of great distinction. We specially prize such authors as Livy, Sallust and Curtius; and, perhaps even above these, Julius Caesar; the style of whose Commentaries, so elegant and so limpid, entitles them to our warm admiration. Such writers are fully within the comprehension of a studious lady. For, after all, History is an easy subject: there is nothing in its study subtle or complex. It consists in the narration of the simplest matters of fact which, once grasped, are readily retained in the memory.

The great Orators of antiquity must by all means be included. Nowhere do we find the virtues more warmly extolled, the vices so fiercely decried. From them we may learn, also, how to express consolation, encouragement, dissuasion or advice. If the principles which orators set forth are portrayed for us by philosophers, it is from the former that we learn how to employ the emotions-such as indignation, or pity-in driving home their application in individual cases. Further, from oratory we derive our store of those elegant or striking turns of expression which are used with so much effect in literary compositions. Lastly, in oratory we find that wealth of vocabulary, that clear easyflowing style, that verve and force, which are invaluable to us both in writing and in conversation. I come now to Poetry and the Poets-a subject with which every educated lady must shew herself thoroughly familiar. For we cannot point to any great mind of the past for whom the Poets had not a powerful attraction. Aristotle, in constantly quoting Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Euripides and other poets, proves that he knew their works hardly less intimately than those of the philosophers. Plato, also, frequently appeals to them, and in this way covers them with his approval. If we turn to Cicero, we find him not content with quoting Ennius, Accius, and others of the Latins, but rendering po219

ems from the Greek and employing them habitually. Seneca, the austere, not only abounds in poetical allusions, but was himself a poet; whilst the great Fathers of the Church, Jerome, Augustine, Lactantius and Boethius, reveal their acquaintance with the poets in their controversies and, indeed, in all their writings. Hence my view that familiarity with the great poets of antiquity is essential to any claim to true education.

For in their writings we find deep speculations upon Nature, and upon the Causes and Origins of things, which must carry weight with us both from their antiquity and from their authorship. Besides these, many important truths upon matters of daily life are suggested or illustrated. All this is expressed with such grace and dignity as demands our admiration. For example, how vividly is the art of war portrayed in Homer: the duties of a leader of men: the chances of the field: the varying temper of the host! Wise counsel, too, is not wanting, as when Hector upbraids Aeneas for too rashly urging the pursuit. Would, indeed, that in our own day our captains would deign to profit by this ancient wisdom, to the security of the commonwealth and the saving of valuable lives!

Consider, again, how fitly Iris, descending upon Agamemnon in his sleep, warns against the sloth of rulers - could Socrates, Plato or Pythagoras more pointedly exhibit the responsibility of a king of men? There are the precepts also, not fewer nor less weighty, which pertain to the arts of peace. But it is time to pass to our own Poets, to Vergil, who surpasses, it seems to me, all philosophers in displaying the inner secrets of Nature and of the Soul: Know first, the heaven, the earth, the main, The moon's pale orb, the starry train, Are nourished by a soul, A bright intelligence, whose flame Glows in each member of the frame And stirs the mighty whole.

Thence souls of men and cattle spring, And the gay people of the wing, And those strange shapes that ocean hides Beneath the smoothness of the tides.

A fiery strength inspires their lives, An essence that from heaven derives, Though clogged in part by limbs of clay And the dull "vesture of decay.�

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Nor can we deny a certain inspiration to a poet who, on the very eve of the Redeemer's birth, could speak of "the Virgin's return" and "the Divine offspring sent down from on High." So thought Lactantius, who held that the Sibyl here alludes directly to the Savior. Such power of reading the future is implied in the name "vates," so often given to the true poet, and we must all recognize in such one a certain "possession," as by a Power other and stronger than himself.

SOURCE: J. Woodward, ed., Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), pp. 123-133.

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Pier Paolo Vergerio, On Liberal Learning (1403) We call those studies liberal which are worthy of a free man; those studies by which we attain and practise virtue and wisdom; that education which calls forth, trains and develops those highest gifts of body and of mind which ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to rank next in dignity to virtue only. For to a vulgar temper gain and pleasure are the one aim of existence, to a lofty nature, moral worth and fame. It is, then, of the highest importance that even from infancy this aim, this effort, should constantly be kept alive in growing minds. For I may affirm with fullest conviction that we shall not have attained wisdom in our later years unless in our earliest we have sincerely entered on its search. Nor may we for a moment admit, with the unthinking crowd, that those who give early promise fail in subsequent fulfillment. This may, partly from physical causes, happen in exceptional cases. But there is no doubt that nature has endowed some children with so keen, so ready an intelligence, that without serious effort they attain to a notable power of reasoning and conversing upon grave and lofty subjects, and by aid of right guidance and sound learning reach in manhood the highest distinction. On the other hand, children of modest powers demand even more attention, that their natural defects may be supplied by art. But all alike must in those early years, ... whilst the mind is supple, be inured to the toil and effort of learning. Not that education, in the broad sense, is exclusively the concern of youth. Did not Cato think it honourable to learn Greek in later life? Did not Socrates, greatest of philosophers, compel his aged fingers to the lute?

Our youth of to-day, it is to be feared, is backward to learn; studies are accounted irksome. Boys hardly weaned begin to claim their own way, at a time when every art should be employed to bring them under control and attract them to grave studies.

The Master must judge how far he can rely upon emulation, rewards, encouragement; how far he must have recourse to sterner measures. Too much leniency is objectionable; so also is too great severity, for we must avoid all that terrifies a boy. In certain temperaments-those in which a dark complexion denotes a quiet but strong personality-restraint must be cautiously applied. Boys of this type are mostly highly gifted and can bear a gentle hand. Not seldom it happens that a finely tempered nature is thwarted by circumstances, such as poverty at home, which compels a promising youth to forsake learning for trade: though, on the other hand, poverty is less dangerous to lofty instincts than great wealth. Or again, parents encourage their sons to follow a career traditional in their family, which may divert them from liberal studies: and the 222

customary pursuits of the city in which we dwell exercise a decided influence on our choice. So that we may say that a perfectly unbiased deci sion in these matters is seldom possible, except to certain select natures, who by favour of the gods, as the poets have it, are unconsciously brought to choose the right path in life. The myth of Hercules, who, in the solitude of his wanderings, learned to accept the strenuous life and to reject the way of self-indulgence, and so attain the highest, is the significant setting of this profound truth. For us it is the best that can befall, that either the circumstances of our life, or the guidance and exhortations of those in charge of us, should mould our natures whilst they are still plastic.

In your own case, Ubertinus, you had before you the choice of training in Arms or in Letters. Either holds a place of distinction amongst the pursuits which appeal to men of noble spirit; either leads to fame and honour in the world. It would have been natural that you, the scion of a House ennobled by its prowess in arms, should have been content to accept your father's permission to devote yourself wholly to that discipline. But to your great credit you elected to become proficient in both alike: to add to the career of arms traditional in your family, an equal success in that other great discipline of mind and character, the study of Literature.

There was courage in your choice. For we cannot deny that there is still a horde-as I must call them-of people who, like Licinius the Emperor, denounce learning and the Arts as a danger to the State and hateful in themselves. In reality the very opposite is the truth. However, as we look back upon history we cannot deny that learning by no means expels wickedness, but may be indeed an additional instrument for evil in the hands of the corrupt. To a man of virtuous instincts knowledge is a help and an adornment; to a Claudius or a Nero it was a means of refinement in cruelty or in folly. On the other hand, your grandfather, Jacopo da Carrara, who, though a patron of learning, was not himself versed in Letters, died regretting that opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of higher studies had not been given him in youth; which sh[o]ws us that, although we may in old age long for it, only in early years can we be sure of attaining that learning which we desire. So that it is no light motive to youthful diligence that we thereby provide ourselves with precious advantages against on-coming age, a spring of interest for a leisured life, a recreation for a busy one. Consider the necessity of the literary art to one immersed in reading and speculation; and its importance to one absorbed in affairs. To be able to speak and write with elegance is no slight advantage in negotiation, whether in public or private concerns. Especially in administration of the State, when intervals of rest and privacy are accorded to a prince, how must he value those means of occupying them wisely which the knowledge of literature affords to him! Think of Domitian: son of Vespasian though he was, and brother of Titus, he was driven to occupy his leisure by killing flies! What a warning is here conveyed of the 223

critical judgments which posterity passes upon Princes! They live in a light in which nothing can long remain hid. Contrast with this the saying of Scipio: "Never am I less idle, less solitary, than when to outward seeming I am doing nothing or am alone": evidence of a noble temper, worthy to be placed beside that recorded practice of Cato, who, amid the tedious business of the Senate, could withdraw himself from outward distractions and find himself truly alone in the companionship of his books.

Indeed the power which good books have of diverting our thoughts from unworthy or distressing themes is another support to my argument for the study of letters.

Add to this their helpfulness on those occasions when we find ourselves alone, without companions and without preoccupations-what can we do better than gather our books around us? In them we see unfolded before us vast stores of knowledge, for our delight, it may be, or for our inspiration. In them are contained the records of the great achievements of men; the wonders of Nature; the works of Providence in the past, the key to her secrets of the future. And, most important of all, this Knowledge is not liable to decay. With a picture, an inscription, a coin, books share a kind of immortality. In all these memory is, as it were, made permanent; although, in its freedom from accidental risks, Literature surpasses every other form of record.

Literature indeed exhibits not facts alone, but thoughts, and their expression. Provided such thoughts be worthy, and worthily expressed, we feel assured that they will not die: although I do not think that thoughts without style will be likely to attract much notice or secure a sure survival. What greater charm can life offer than this power of making the past, the present, and even the future, our own by means of literature? How bright a household is the family of books! we may cry, with Cicero. In their company is no noise, no greed, no self-will: at a word they speak to you, at a word they are still: to all our requests their response is ever ready and to the point. Books indeed are a higher-a wider, more tenacious-memory, a store-house which is the common property of us all.

I attach great weight to the duty of handing down this priceless treasure to our sons unimpaired by any carelessness on our part. How many are the gaps which the ignorance of past ages has wilfully caused in the long and noble roll of writers! Books-in part or in their entirety-have been allowed to perish. What remains of others is often sorely corrupt, mutilated, or imperfect. It is hard that no slight portion of the history of Rome is only to be known through the labours of one writing in the Greek language: it is still worse that this same noble tongue, once well nigh the daily speech of our race, as familiar as the Latin language itself, is on the point of perishing even amongst its own sons, and to us Italians is already utterly lost, unless we except one or two who in our time are tardily endeavouring to rescue something-if it be only a mere echo of it-from oblivion.

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We come now to the consideration of the various subjects which may rightly be included under the name of "Liberal Studies." Amongst these I accord the first place to History, on grounds both of its attractiveness and of its utility, qualities which appeal equally to the scholar and to the statesman. Next in importance ranks Moral Philosophy, which indeed is, in a peculiar sense, a "Liberal Art," in that its purpose is to teach men the secret of true freedom. History, then, gives us the concrete examples of the precepts inculcated by philosophy. The one sh[o]ws what men should do, the other what men have said and done in the past, and what practical lessons we may draw therefrom for the present day. I would indicate as the third main branch of study, Eloquence, which indeed holds a place of distinction amongst the refined Arts. By philosophy we learn the essential truth of things, which by eloquence we so exhibit in orderly adornment as to bring conviction to differing minds. And history provides the light of experience-a cumulative wisdom fit to supplement the force of reason and the persuasion of eloquence. For we allow that soundness of judgment, wisdom of speech, integrity of conduct are the marks of a truly liberal temper.

We are told that the Greeks devised for their sons a course of training in four subjects: letters, gymnastic, music and drawing. Now, of these drawing has no place amongst our liberal studies; except in so far as it is identical with writing (which is in reality one side of the art of Drawing), it belongs to the Painter's profession: the Greeks, as an art-loving people, attached to it an exceptional value.

The Art of Letters, however, rests upon a different footing. It is a study adapted to all times and to all circumstances, to the investigation of fresh knowledge or to the recasting and application of old. Hence the importance of grammar and of the rules of composition must be recognised at the outset, as the foundation on which the whole study of Literature must rest: and closely associated with these rudiments, the art of Disputation or Logical argument. The function of this is to enable us to discern fallacy from truth in discussion. Logic, indeed, as setting forth the true method of learning, is the guide to the acquisition of knowledge in whatever subject. Rhetoric comes next, and is strictly speaking the formal study by which we attain the art of eloquence; which, as we have just stated, takes the third place amongst the studies specially important in public life. It is now, indeed, fallen from its old renown and is well nigh a lost art. In the Law-Court, in the Council, in the popular Assembly, in exposition, in persuasion, in debate, eloquence finds no place now-a-days: speed, brevity, homeliness are the only qualities desired. Oratory, in which our forefathers gained so great glory for themselves and for their language, is despised: but our youth, if they would earn the repute of true education, must emulate their ancestors in this accomplishment.

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After Eloquence we place Poetry and the Poetic Art, which though not without their value in daily life and as an aid to oratory, have nevertheless their main concern for the leisure side of existence.

As to Music, the Greeks refused the title of"Educated" to anyone who could not sing or play. Socrates set an example to the Athenian youth, by himself learning to play in his old age; urging the pursuit of music not as a sensuous indulgence, but as an aid to the inner harmony of the soul. In so far as it is taught as a healthy recreation for the moral and spiritual nature, music is a truly liberal art, and, both as regards its theory and its practice, should find a place in education.

Arithmetic, which treats of the properties of numbers, Geometry, which treats of the properties of dimensions, lines, surfaces, and solid bodies, are weighty studies because they possess a peculiar element of certainty. The science of the Stars, their motions, magnitudes and distances, lifts us into the clear calm of the upper air. There we may contemplate the fixed stars, or the conjunctions of the planets, and predict the eclipses of the sun and the moon. The knowledge of Nature - animate and inanimate the laws and the properties of things in heaven and in earth, their causes, mutations and effects, especially the explanation of their wonders (as they are popularly supposed) by the unravelling of their causes-this is a most delightful, and at the same time most profitable, study for youth. With these may be joined investigations concerning the weights of bodies, and those relative to the subject which mathematicians call "Perspective."

I may here glance for a moment at the three great professional Disciplines: Medicine, Law, Theology. Medicine, which is applied science, has undoubtedly much that makes it attractive to a student. But it cannot be described as a Liberal study. Law, which is based upon moral philosophy, is undoubtedly held in high respect.

Regarding Law as a subject of study, such respect is entirely deserved: but Law as practised becomes a mere trade. Theology, on the other hand, treats of themes removed from our senses, and attainable only by pure intelligence.

The principal "Disciplines" have now been reviewed. It must not be supposed that a liberal education requires acquaintance with them all: for a thorough mastery of even one of them might fairly be the achievement of a lifetime. Most of us, too, must learn to be content with modest capacity as with modest fortune. Perhaps we do wisely to pursue that study which we find most suited to our intelligence and our tastes, though it is true that we cannot rightly understand one subject unless we can perceive its relation to the rest. The choice of studies will depend to some extent upon the character of individual minds. For whilst one boy seizes rapidly the point of which he is in search and states it ably, another, working far more slowly, has yet the sounder judgment and 226

so detects the weak spot in his rival's conclusions. The former, perhaps, will succeed in poetry, or in the abstract sciences; the latter in real studies and practical pursuits. Or a boy may be apt in thinking, but slow in expressing him self; to him the study of Rhetoric and Logic will be of much value. Where the power of talk alone is remarkable I hardly know what advice to give. Some minds are strong on the side of memory: these should be apt for history. But it is of importance to remember that in comparison with intelligence memory is of little worth, though intelligence without memory is, so far as education is concerned, of none at all. For we are not able to give evidence that we know a thing unless we can reproduce it.

Again, some minds have peculiar power in dealing with abstract truths, but are defective on the side of the particular and the concrete, and so make good progress in mathematics and in metaphysic. Those of just opposite temper are apt in Natural Science and in practical affairs. And the natural bent should be recognized and followed in education. Let the boy of limited capacity work only at that subject in which he shows he can attain some result.

"Pier Paolo Vergerio Defines Liberal Learning, 1403," from W. H. Woodward ed. Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1897), pp.

102-109.

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Lorenzo Valla, On the Elegance of Latin (1448) When, as often happens, I compare the accomplishments of our forebears with those of other kingdoms and nations, it seems to me that our compatriots [the ancient Romans] excelled all others not only in the extent of their dominions but also in the diffusion of their language. To be sure, the Persians, Medes, Assyrians, Greeks and many other peoples possessed vast territories for a long time, and although each of these states was inferior in extent to the Roman Empire, still several of these empires lasted longer than Rome's. But none of them was able to spread its language as our [Romans] did. In addition to all of Italy and that part which was called Great Greece and Sicily where Greek was spoken, the Roman language was in a short time spread to almost all of western and northern [Europe] and not a small part of Africa. Called Latin from Latium where Rome was located, this famous and even regal language soon reached all the provinces of Rome, offering to all mortals there the best means of spreading its people. Indeed Latin soon became the most illustrious and attractive means for spreading the power of the Empire. Now those who increase the empire are usually much honored and come to be called emperors, but those who have conferred benefits on all humanity are celebrated with praise worthy not of men but of the gods, because they have not just bestowed glory and grandeur on their own city but have contributed to the welfare and advantage of the entire human race.

Thus, though our forebears [the Romans] surpassed other nations in military prowess and many other matters, they surpassed themselves in the extension of the Latin language, and almost leaving behind their heavenly empire, they attained heaven as the consorts of the gods. If you consider that Ceres probably discovered grain, Bacchus wine and Minerva the olive, and that many other benefits of this sort were bestowed by one or another of the gods, is it any less important to be granted to many peoples the use of Latin tongue, an outstanding and indeed almost divine gift? For this is food, not for the body, but for the soul. Now this language is used to instruct all nations and all peoples in those arts, which are called liberal: it is used to guide them in the best legal system; it will open to them the way of all wisdom; it will even free them from being called barbarians. Therefore, must not any clear-sighted judge of human affairs prefer those who have become illustrious through the cultivation of literature to those given to waging destructive wars? Men will call the latter activity imperial, but the former must indeed justly be named divine. For these did not limit themselves to merely increasing the power and dominion of the Roman people (as is appropriate to human beings); 228

they contributed to the welfare of the whole world (as is the province of the gods). Now the more foreigners came under our dominion, the more they lost their own sovereignty and considered themselves deprived of their former liberty - which they judged, and justly perhaps, a very bitter thing. On the other hand, they understood they were not diminished by using the Latin language but, in a certain sense, enriched by it - just as discovering wine does not make you abandon the use of water, nor silk the use of wool and linen, nor does the possession of gold make you reject the use of other metals - no, this is a good added to other goods. Just as a gem mounted on a gold ring does not diminish but indeed embellishes it, so our speech, added to the vernaculars, increases rather than reduces their splendor. Now Latin does not obtain its dominion through arms, warfare and bloodshed, but with benefits, love and concord.

And these matters, insofar as they can be surmised by conjecture, are, in my opinion, the reasons for their success. First, our forebears cultivated incredibly every sort of study, so that, unless someone was outstanding in the study of literature, he did not seem to excel in military affairs, and this attitude was an important inducement for others to emulate. Next, they clearly offered important rewards to those who professed literature. Finally, they persuaded the citizens of the provinces to speak the language of the Romans in the provinces as well as in Rome. But I have discoursed enough on this subject-indeed I do not want to go on too much, comparing the Latin language with the Roman Empire. For a long time now, nations and peoples have rejected the Empire-as a hateful burden-while they have thought of Latin as sweeter than any nectar, finer than any silk, and more precious than any gold and gems-and they jealously guard it like some god sent down from Heaven.

Therefore, great is the puissance of the Latin language, surely greater is its magicforeigners, barbarians, even enemies [of Rome] have guarded it as something sacred and holy down through the centuries. Thus, rather than grieve the Romans ought to rejoice, indeed to glory, in the fact that Latin is heard spoken throughout the entire world. We have lost Rome, we have lost power and dominion, not from our own faults but through the ravages of time. But yet through this most splendid lordship [ of language J we continue to rule, even now, in a great part of the world. Our language reigns in Italy, in Gaul, in Spain, Germany, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Illyria, and in many other nations. For wherever the Roman Empire used to hold sway, there the language of Rome dominates. Now the Greeks boast a great deal about the wealth of their own language. But one single and (as they would have it) impoverished language is worth more than their five (and as they would have it) very rich languages. Just as many nations have only one law, they have only the language of Rome; only Greece has - and is proud of it - not one but many languages, rather like a commonwealth divided into several factions. Many foreign nations are as one with us in using Latin, but the Greeks 229

cannot come to agreement among themselves, and even less can they hope to convince others to use their languages. Among them, authors use various dialects: Attic, Aeolic, Ionic, Doric, and /wine [the common speech].

Among us, that is, among many nations, everyone uses Latin, and a language that embraces all the disciplines worthy of a free man; but among the Greeks, these disciplines are taught in several tongues. Who does not realize that when the [Latin] language flourishes, all subjects and disciplines flourish and that when it declines, they too decline? For who were the greatest philosophers, the greatest orators, the greatest jurists, and, finally, the greatest authors, if it were not those who were most adept at speaking well [in Latin]? But pain stops me from discoursing further on this subject and moves me to tears and exasperation when I consider from what great heights the faculty for using Latin well has fallen. For what devotee of literature, what lover of the public good could restrain his tears when he perceives that the Latin language has fallen to the same low estate as Rome did when it was sacked long ago by the Gauls?

All was burned, ruined and destroyed so that even the citadel on the Capitoline scarcely survived.

Since then for many centuries, not only was no one able to speak Latin, but in fact, no one even knew how to read Latin. Lovers of wisdom did not study the philosophers, rhetoricians did not study the orators, courtroom lawyers did not study the jurists-there were no competent students of the ancient texts. With the fall of the Roman Empire it was no longer proper to know or speak Latin; thus, it happened that the ancient splendor of the Latin language was covered with rust and mould. Learned men have advanced many various theories as to why this happened-I do not approve or disapprove of any of these. Indeed I have not dared to say anything about this subject. Even more will I not speculate on the reason why those arts such as painting, sculpture, and architecture, which stand very near to the liberal arts and for a long time had also been in decline, so that they seemed to be almost as moribund as literature was-have been aroused to new life and now flourish greatly both because of [the] skill of our craftsmen and the patronage of cultured men. However, the more we can leave behind those earlier ages, when no learned men were to be found, the more we ought to rejoice in our own age, when, if I allow myself to exaggerate a bit, I think that we can claim that we are on verge of restoring to life the language (though not the dominion) of Rome, and all the disciplines associated with its study. Therefore, given my love of our homeland, rather than for all humanity, and given the magnitude of the task, I wish to exhort and call upon, as from a place on high, all those lovers of eloquence to sound-as they say-the battle cry.

For how long, O Quirites - thus I call the true lovers and cultivators of the Latin languages, only these are the true Quirites, the rest are mere foreigners-how long, I say, O 230

Quirites, will you permit our City, which I do not call the capital of the Empire but the mother of Letters, to be occupied by the Gauls? That is, how long will you allow the Latin language to be oppressed by the barbarians? How long with harsh and almost impious gazes will you allow the language to be profaned? Will it be until perhaps not even the foundations remain? It's true that one of you writes history, but he lives outside Rome at Veii; another translates works from Greek, but he resides at Ardea. Others compose speeches and poetry; these truly defend the Capitoline and its citadel. Indeed these are important undertakings, worthy of not indifferent praise, but alone they will not drive out the enemy; they will not liberate the homeland. What we must do is imitate Camillus, Camillus who, as Virgil says, "brought back the victory banner to our homeland" [Aeneid 6.815] and gave it back its freedom. His military prowess was so superior to the others that without his deeds, the defenders on the Capitoline and at Ardea and Veii could not have been saved.

In the same way, at the present time, other authors may derive some profit from one who would compose a treatise "On the Latin Language." Thus, insofar as I am able, I hope to imitate Camillus and take him as my model. With whatever poor power I may possess, I shall assemble an army that, at the first opportunity, I shall lead to take the field against the enemy. Thus, I beg you, join me in the fight, in this most honorable and excellent struggle-not just so that we can recover our home land from the enemy, but also so that in the reconquest it will become obvious to all that we have matched the valor of Camillus. Indeed, it will be very difficult to equal the accomplishments of that man, who was, in my opinion, the greatest of all Roman leaders and was justly called, after Romulus, the second founder of Rome. Therefore, many of us should collaborate in this endeavor so that, working together, we can accomplish what he did all by himself. Still anyone who accomplishes great work in this enterprise will truly and justly be viewed and praised as a new Camillus. For my part, I can only affirm that you should not expect me to carry out all of this great task, since I have assumed the hardest part of the work and taken on its most demanding aspects, so that others may be eager to assume the work that remains. For this reason, my books will contain almost nothing that other authors-insofar as they survive have treated. And now let us proceed to the beginning of our work.

"Lorenzo Valla Identifies Latin Elegance, 1448," from E. Garin ed. Prosatori latini del Quattrocento (Naples, 1952), pp. 595-601. Translated by Benjamin G. Kohl.

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SECTION 5

Battista Guarino, On the Means of Teaching and Learning Battista Guarino, born in Ferrara in 1434, was the son of the great Guarino of Verona. He was educated by his father and eventually joined him as a master in his palace school. In 1455, however, Battista was appointed to the chair of rhetoric at the University of Bologna, even though he was only 21 years old, but he kept this position fm only two years before returning to Ferrara and his father's school.

Battista Guarino began his treatise on education, On the Means of Teaching and Learning, about 1459, probably to recordd his father's pedagogical principles, developed during his many years at Ferrara.

ON THE MEANS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING Battista Guarino to Maffeo Gambara, of Brescia In offering this short Treatise for your acceptance, I am fully aware that you need no incentive to regard the pursuit of Letters as the most worthy object of your ambition.

But you may find what I have written a not unwelcome reminder of our past intercourse, whilst it may prove of use to other readers into whose hands it may fall. For I have had in view not only students anxious for guidance in their private reading, but masters in search of some definite principles of method in teaching the Classics. Hence I have treated both of Greek and of Latin Letters, and I have confidence that the course I have laid down will prove a thoroughly satisfactory training in literature and scholarship. I should remind you that the conclusions presented in this little work are not the result of my own experience only. It is indeed a summary of the theory and practice of several scholars, and especially does it represent the doctrine of my father Guarino Veronese; so much so, that you may suppose him to be writing to you by my pen, and giving you the fruit of his long and ripe experience in teaching. May I hope that you will yourself prove to be one more example of the high worth of his precepts?

Let me, at the outset, begin with a caution. No master can endow a careless and indifferent nature with the true passion for learning. That a young man must acquire for himself. But once the taste begins to develop, then in Ovid's words “the more we drink, the more we thirst.� For when the mind has begun to enjoy the pleasures of learning the passion for fuller and deeper knowledge will grow from day to day. But there can be no proficiency in studies unless there be first the desire to excel. Wherefore let a young man set forward eagerly in quest of those true, honorable, and enduring treas232

ures of the mind which neither disease nor death has power to destroy. Riches, which adventurers seek by land and sea, too often win men to pleasure rather than to learning; for self-indulgence is a snare from whose enticements it is the bounden duty of parents to wean their children, by kind word, or by severity if need arise. Perchance then in later years the echo of a father's wise advice may linger and may avail in the hour of temptation.

In the choice of a Master we ought to remember that his position should carry with it something of the authority of a father: for unless respect be paid to the man and to his office regard will not be had to his words. Our forefathers were certainly right in basing the relation of teacher and pupil upon the foundation of filial reverence on the one part and fatherly affection on the other. Thus the instinct of Alexander of Macedon was a sound one which led him to say that, whilst he owed to his father Philip the gift of life, he owed to his tutor Aristotle an equal debt, namely, the knowledge how to use it. Care must be taken therefore from the outset to avoid a wrong choice of master: one, for instance, who is ill-bred, or ill-educated. Such a one may by bad teaching waste precious years of a boy's life; not only is nothing rightly learnt, but much of that which passes as instruction needs to be undone again, as Timotheus said long ago.

Faults, moreover, imbibed in early years, as Horace reminds us, are by no means easy to eradicate. Next, the master must not be prone to flogging as an inducement to learning. It is an indignity to a free-born youth, and its infliction renders learning itself repulsive, and the mere dread of it provokes to unworthy evasions on the part of timorous boys. The scholar is thus morally and intellectually injured, the master is deceived, and the discipline altogether fails of its purpose. The habitual instrument of the teacher must be kindness, though punishment should be retained as it were in the background as a final resource. In the case of elder boys, emulation and the sense of shame, which shrinks from the discredit of failure, may be relied upon. I advise also that boys, at this stage, work two altogether with a view to encouraging a healthy spirit of rivalry between them, from which much benefit may be expected. Large classes should be discouraged, especially for beginners, for though a fair average excellence may be apparently secured, thorough grounding, which is so important, is impossible. In the case of more advanced pupils, however, numbers tend rather to stimulate the teacher.

2. As regards the course of study. From the first, stress must be laid upon distinct and sustained enunciation, both in speaking and in reading. But at the same time utterance must be perfectly natural; if affected or exaggerated the effect is unpleasing. The foundation of education must be laid in Grammar. Unless this be thoroughly learnt subsequent progress is uncertain-a house built upon treacherous ground. Hence let the knowledge of nouns and verbs be secured early, as the starting point for the rest. The

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master will employ the devices of repetition, examination, and the correction of erroneous inflexions purposely introduced.

Grammar falls into two parts. The first treats of the rules which govern the use of the different Parts of Speech, and is called therefore "Methodice," the second includes the study of continuous prose, especially of historical narrative, and is called "Historice."

Now these Rules can be most satisfactorily learnt from the Compendium written by my father which briefly sets out the more important laws of composition. In using this or a similar text-book the pupil must be practiced both in written and in oral exercises.

Only by rapid practice in oral composition can fluency and readiness be gained. And this will be further secured if the class is accustomed to speak in Latin. Certain general Rules of a crucial nature must be early learnt, and constantly practiced, by the whole class. Such are those by which we recognize the differences between active, passive and deponent verbs, or between those of transitive or intransitive meaning. It is most important that each boy be required to form examples in illustration of the main rules of accidence and syntax, not only with accuracy but also with a certain propriety of style, as for instance with due attention to the order of words in the sentence. In this way the habit of sound and tasteful composition is imbibed during the earliest stages of education. A master who is properly qualified for his work will be careful to use only such transcripts of texts as can be relied upon for accuracy and completeness. The work just referred to has been much disfigured by additions and alterations due to the ignorance or conceit of the would-be emendator. As examples of what I mean you may turn to the rule as to the formation of the comparative of adjectives of the second declension where an inept correction is added in some copies ("vowel before a vowel" is turned into "vowel before -us"); and in another place the spelling "Tydites" is substituted for my father's (and, of course, the correct) form "Tydides."

But to return. Let the scholar work at these Rules until they are so ingrained, as it were, into the memory that they become a part and parcel of the mind itself. In this way the laws of grammar are accurately recalled with effort and almost unconsciously.

Meanwhile rules of quantity and meter have been entered upon. This branch of Letters is so important that no one who is ignorant of it can claim to be thought an educated man. Hence it is significant that so much attention was paid to the subject by the ancients; even Augustine, that great pillar of the Church, did not disdain to publish a tract upon Scansion. In reading the Poets a knowledge of Prosody is indispensable to the enjoyment, nat even the understanding of their works. An acquaintance with metrical structure enables us to enter into the beauties of the rhythm, whilst our only clue to the exact meaning of the writer is not seldom given by the quantity of a vowel. Nor is the artifice of rhythm confined to poetical composition. Orators often shew themselves 234

masters of this art; and in order to duly appreciate the flow of their eloquence, much more to reproduce it for ourselves, we must be skilled in the ordinary laws of meter.

On this ground it is possible to commend the use of the manual of grammar which passes under the name of Alexander; it is founded upon the great work of Priscian, but it is much more readily committed to memory on account of its metrical form. When the rudiments of prosody have been carefully learnt we shall find that proficiency is best gained by the daily reading of the poets. The works of Vergil must be learnt by heart, and recited as a regular task. In this way the flow of the hexameter, not less than the quantity of individual syllables, is impressed upon the ear, and insensibly molds our taste. Other meters may afterwards be attempted, so that no form of ancient poetry be left neglected.

3. I have said that ability to write Latin verse is one of the essential marks of an educated person. I wish now to indicate a second, which is of at least equal importance, namely, familiarity with the language and literature of Greece. The time has come when we must speak with no uncertain voice upon this vital requirement of scholarship. I am well aware that those who are ignorant of the Greek tongue decry its necessity, for reasons which are sufficiently evident. But I can allow no doubt to remain as to my own conviction that without a knowledge of Greek Latin scholarship itself is, in any real sense, impossible. I might point to the vast number of words derived or borrowed from the Greek, and the questions which arise in connection with them; such as the quantity of the vowel sounds, the use of the diphthongs, obscure orthographies and etymologies. Vergil's allusion to the Avernian Lake: O'er that dread space no flying thing Unjeoparded could ply its wing is wholly missed by one who is ignorant of the relation between the name of the lake and the Greek word őƿʋɩð. Or again the lines of Ovid, Quae quia nascuntur dura vivacia caute Agrestes aconita vocant is unintelligible unless we can associate "cautes" with the Greek (àκόνη). So too the name Ciris (κεíρω), and the full force of Aphrodite (äɸρων) are but vaguely understood without a clear perception of their Greek etymologies. The Greek grammar, again, can alone explain the unusual case-endings which are met with in the declension of certain nouns, mostly proper names, which retain their foreign shape; such as "Dido" and "Mantus." Nor are these exceptional forms confined to the poetic use. But I turn to the authority of the great Latins themselves, to Cicero, Quintilian, Cato and Horace: they are unanimous in proclaiming the close dependence of the Roman speech and Roman 235

literature upon the Greek, and in urging by example as well as by precept the constant study of the older language. To quote Horace alone: Do you, my friends, from Greece your models draw, And day and night to con them be your law.

And again, To Greece, that cared for nought but fame, the Muse Gave genius, and a tongue the gods might use.

In such company I do not fear to urge the same contention.

Were we, indeed, to follow Quintilian, we should even begin with Greek in preference to Latin. But this is practically impossible, when we consider that Greek must be for us, almost of necessity, a learned and not a colloquial language; and that Latin itself needs much more elaborate and careful teaching than was requisite to a Roman of the imperial epoch the moral distinction of their characters by which they are rendered specially useful for teaching purposes. Terence has the sanction of Cicero as regards grace and appropriateness of diction; he urged that parts of the Comedies should be committed to memory upon those grounds. If with Terence we couple Juvenal, the greatest of Satirists, we shall find that these two writers afford us a copious and elastic vocabulary for all the needs of ordinary intercourse, and not that alone, but that they provide us with a store of sound and dignified judgments. It is objected, indeed, without sufficient reason, that Juvenal is unsuitable for educational purposes in that he describes too freely the vicious morals which come under his lash. But in the first place this applies to but very few passages, whilst the rest of the Satires must command the admiration of all earnest men: in the second, if we must shew our indignation in the matter we should direct it rather against the vices themselves than against their critic.

Plautus is marked by a flow of eloquence and wit which secures him a high place in Latin literature. That the Muses, if they spoke in Latin, would choose "the Plautine diction" was a common saying; and Macrobius placed the comic poet, in company with Cicero, at the head of the great masters of the Roman tongue. Horace throws unusual light upon the Art of poetry: he has a specially delicate sense of expression; and in his choice of epithets is only surpassed by Vergil. His Satires again form the best introduction to that type of poetry: for Persius is much less clear. There are other poets of literary importance, but their study may be postponed to a later period. It will be of advantage that the reading of the poetical authors should be accompanied by occasional perusal of writers who have treated of Astrology and of Geography: such as Pomponius Mela, Solinus, and Strabo, which latter author has been lately translated from the Greek by my father. A clear conception, too, ought to be attained of the Ptolemaic Geography, to enable us to follow descriptions of countries unfamiliar to us.

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The course of study which I have thus far sketched out will prove an admirable preparation for that further branch of scholarship which constitutes Rhetoric, including the thorough examination of the great monuments of eloquence, and skill in the oratorial art itself. The first work to claim our attention in this subject is the Rhetoric of Cicero, in which we find all the points of Oratory concisely but comprehensively set forth. The other rhetorical writings of Cicero will follow, and the principles therein laid down must be examined in the light of his own speeches. Indeed the student of eloquence must have his Cicero constantly in his hand; the simplicity, the lofty moral standard, the practical temper of his writings render them a peculiarly noble training for a public speaker. Nor should the admirable Quintilian be neglected in this same connection.

It will be desirable also to include the elements of Logic in our course of studies, and with that the Ethics of Aristotle, and the Dialogues of Plato; for these are necessary aids to the proper understanding of Cicero.

The Ciceronian Dialogue, in form and in matter, seems often to be modeled directly upon Plato. None of his works however are so attractive to myself personally as the De Officiis and the Tusculans. The former reviews all the main duties of life; the latter exhibits a wealth of knowledge most valuable-both as to material and expressionto every modern writer. I would add that some knowledge of the principles of Roman Law will be helpful to the full understanding of Latin authors.

A master who should carry his scholars through the curriculum which I have now laid down may have confidence that he has given them a training which will enable them, not only to carry forward their own reading without assistance, but also to act efficiently as teachers in their turn.

SOURCE: J. Woodward, ed., Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (New York: Columbia University Publications, 1963), pp. 161-177.

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SECTION 6

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance The most characteristic and most pervasive aspect of the Italian Renaissance in the field of learning is the humanistic movement. I need hardly say that the term "humanism," when applied to the Italian Renaissance, does not imply all the vague and confused notions that are now commonly associated with it. Only a few traces of these may be found in the Renaissance. By humanism we mean merely the general tendency of the age to attach the greatest importance to classical studies, and to consider classical antiquity as the common standard and model by which to guide all cultural activities. It will be our task to understand the meaning and origin of this humanistic movement which is commonly associated with the name of Petrarch.

Among modern historians we encounter mainly two interpretations of Italian humanism. The first interpretation considers the humanistic movement merely as the rise of classical scholarship accomplished during the period of the Renaissance. This view which has been held by most historians of classical scholarship is not very popular at present. The revival of classical studies certainly does not impress an age such as ours which has practically abandoned classical education, and it is easy to praise the classical learning of the Middle Ages, in a time which, except for a tiny number of specialists, knows much less of classical antiquity than did the Middle Ages. Moreover, in a period such as the present, which has much less regard for learning than for practical achievements and for "creative" writing and "original" thinking, a mere change of orientation, or even an increase of knowledge, in the field of learning does not seem to possess any historical significance. However, the situation in the Renaissance was quite different, and the increase in, and emphasis on, classical learning had a tremendous importance.

There are indeed several historical facts which support the interpretation of the humanistic movement as a rise in classical scholarship. The humanists were classical scholars and contributed to the rise of classical studies. In the field of Latin studies, they rediscovered a number of important texts that had been hardly read during the Middle Ages. Also in the case of Latin authors commonly known during the Middle Ages, the humanists made them better known, through their numerous manuscript copies and printed editions, through their grammatical and antiquarian studies, through their commentaries, and through the development and application of philological and historical criticism.

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Even more striking was the impulse given by the humanists to the study of Greek.

In spite of the political, commercial, and ecclesiastic relations with the Byzantine Empire, during the Middle Ages the number of persons in Western Europe who knew the Greek language was comparatively small, and practically none of them was interested in, or familiar with, Greek classical literature. There was almost no teaching of Greek in Western schools and universities, and almost no Greek manuscripts in Western libraries. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a great number of Greek texts were translated into Latin, either directly or through intermediary Arabic translations, but this activity was almost entirely confined to the fields of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, medicine, and Aristotelian philosophy.

During the Renaissance, this situation rapidly changed. The study of Greek classical literature which had been cultivated in the Byzantine Empire throughout the later Middle Ages, after the middle of the fourteenth century began to spread in the West, both through Byzantine scholars who went to Western Europe for a temporary or permanent stay, and through Italian scholars who went to Constantinople in quest of Greek classical learning. As a result, Greek language and literature acquired a recognized place in the curriculum of Western schools and universities, a place which they did not lose until the present century. A large number of Greek manuscripts was brought from the East to Western libraries, and these manuscripts have formed the basis of most of our editions of the Greek classics. At a later stage, the humanists published printed editions of Greek authors, wrote commentaries on them, and extended their antiquarian and grammatical studies as well as their methods of philological and historical criticism to Greek literature.

No less important, although now less appreciated, were the numerous Latin translations from the Greek due to the humanists of the Renaissance. Almost the whole of Greek poetry, oratory, historiography, theology, and non-Aristotelian philosophy was thus translated for the first time, whereas the medieval translations of Aristotle and of Greek scientific writers were replaced by new humanistic translations. These Latin translations of the Renaissance were the basis for most of the vernacular translations of the Greek classics, and they were much more widely read than were the original Greek texts. For in spite of its remarkable increase, the study of Greek even in the Renaissance never attained the same general importance as did the study of Latin which was rooted in the medieval tradition of the West. Nevertheless, it remains a remarkable fact that the study of the Greek classics was taken over by the humanists of Western Europe at the very time when it was affected in the East by the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire.

If we care to remember these impressive facts, we certainly cannot deny that the Italian humanists were the ancestors of modern philologists and historians. Even a his239

torian of science can afford to despise them only if he chooses to remember that science is the subject of his study, but to forget that the method he is applying to this subject is that of history. However, the activity of the Italian humanists was not limited to classical scholarship, and hence the theory which interprets the humanistic movement merely as a rise in classical scholarship is not altogether satisfactory. This theory fails to explain the ideal of eloquence persistently set forth in the writings of the humanists, and it fails to account for the enormous literature of treatises, of letters, of speeches, and of poems produced by the humanists.

These writings are far more numerous than the contributions of the humanists to classical scholarship, and they cannot be explained as a necessary consequence of their classical studies. A modern classical scholar is not supposed to write a Latin poem in praise of his city, to welcome a distinguished foreign visitor with a Latin speech, or to write a political manifesto for his government. This aspect of the activity of the humanists is often dismissed with a slighting remark about their vanity or their fancy for speech-making. I do not deny that they were vain and loved to make speeches, but I am inclined to offer a different explanation for this side of their activity. The humanists were not classical scholars who for personal reasons had a craving for eloquence, but, vice versa, they were professional rhetoricians, heirs and successors of the medieval rhetoricians, who developed the belief, then new and modern, that the best way to achieve eloquence was to imitate classical models, and who thus were driven to study the classics and to found classical philology. Their rhetorical ideals and achievements may not correspond to our taste, but they were the starting point and moving force of their activity, and their classical learning was incidental to it.

The other current interpretation of Italian humanism, which is prevalent among historians of philosophy and also accepted by many other scholars, is more ambitious, but in my opinion less sound. This interpretation considers humanism as the new philosophy of the Renaissance, which arose in opposition to scholasticism, the old philosophy of the Middle Ages. Of course, there is the well known fact that several famous humanists, such as Petrarch, Valla, Erasmus, and Vives, were violent critics of medieval learning and tended to replace it by classical learning. Moreover, the humanists certainly had ideals of learning, education, and life that differed from medieval modes of thinking. They wrote treatises on moral, educational, political, and religious questions which in tone and content differ from the average medieval treatises on similar subjects. Yet this interpretation of humanism as a new philosophy fails to account for a number of obvious facts. On one hand, we notice a stubborn survival of scholastic philosophy throughout the Italian Renaissance, an inconvenient fact that is usually explained by the intellectual inertia of the respective philosophers whom almost nobody has read for centuries and whose number, problems and literary production are en240

tirely unknown to most historians. On the other, most of the works of the humanists have nothing to do with philosophy even in the vaguest possible sense of the term.

Even their treatises on philosophical subjects, if we care to read them, appear in most cases rather superficial and inconclusive if compared with the works of ancient or medieval philosophers, a fact that may be indifferent to a general historian, but which cannot be overlooked by a historian of philosophy.

I think there has been a tendency, in the light of later developments, and under the influence of a modem aversion to scholasticism, to exaggerate the opposition of the humanists to scholasticism, and to assign to them an importance in the history of scientific and philosophical thought which they neither could nor did attain. The reaction against this tendency has been inevitable, but it has been equally wrong. Those scholars who read the treatises of the humanists and noticed their comparative emptiness of scientific and philosophical thought came to the conclusion that the humanists were bad scientists and philosophers who did not live up to their own claims or to those of their modem advocates. I should like to suggest that the Italian humanists on the whole were neither good nor bad philosophers, but no philosophers at all.

The humanistic movement did not originate in the field of philosophical or scientific studies, but it arose in that of grammatical and rhetorical studies. The humanists continued the medieval tradition in these fields, as represented, for example, by the ars dictaminis [the medieval art of letter-writing-see Chapter 8] and the ars arengandi [the art of oratory], but they gave it a new direction toward classical standards and classical studies, possibly under the impact of influences received from France after the middle of the thirteenth century. This new development of the field was followed by an enormous growth, both in the quantity and in the quality, of its teaching and its literary production. As a result of this growth, the claims of the humanists for their field of study also increased considerably. They claimed, and temporarily attained, a decided predominance of their field in elementary and secondary education, and a much larger share for it in professional and university education. This development in the field of grammatical and rhetorical studies finally affected the other branches of learning, but it did not displace them. After the middle of the fifteenth century, we find an increasing number of professional jurists, physicians, mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians who cultivated humanistic studies along with their own particular fields of study.

Consequently, a humanistic influence began to appear in all these other sciences. It appears in the studied elegance of literary expression, in the increasing use made of classical source materials, in the greater knowledge of history and of critical methods, and also sometimes in an emphasis on new problems. This influence of humanism on the other sciences certainly was important, but it did not affect the content or substance of the medieval traditions in those sciences. For the humanists, being amateurs in those 241

other fields, had nothing to offer that could replace their traditional content and subject matter. ... ... When we inquire of the humanists, it is often asserted that they were free lance writers who came to form an entirely new class in Renaissance society. This statement is valid, although with some qualification, for a very small number of outstanding humanists like Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Erasmus. However, these are exceptions, and the vast majority of humanists exercised either of two professions, and sometimes both of them. They were either secretaries of princes or cities, or they were teachers of grammar and rhetoric at universities or at secondary schools. The opinion so often repeated by historians that the humanistic movement originated outside the schools and universities is a myth which cannot be supported by factual evidence. Moreover, as chancellors and as teachers, the humanists, far from representing a new class, were the professional heirs and successors of the medieval rhetoricians, the so-called dictatores, who also made their career exactly in these same two professions. The humanist Coluccio Salutati occupied exactly the same place in the society and culture of his time as did the dictator Petrus de Vineis one hundred and fifty years before. Nevertheless there was a significant difference between them. The style of writing used by Salutati is quite different from that of Petrus de Vineis or of Rolandinus Passagerii. Moreover, the study and imitation of the classics which was of little or no importance to the medieval dictatores has become the major concern for Salutati. Finally, whereas the medieval dictatores attained considerable importance in politics and in administration, the humanists, through their classical learning, acquired for their class a much greater cultural and social prestige.

Thus the humanists did not invent a new field of learning or a new professional activity, but they introduced a new, classicist style into the traditions of medieval Italian rhetoric. To blame them for not having invented rhetorical studies would be like blaming Giotto for not having been the inventor of painting.

The same result is confirmed by an examination of the literary production of the humanists if we try to trace the medieval antecedents of the types of literature cultivated by the humanists. If we leave aside the editions and translations of the humanists, their classical interests are chiefly represented by their numerous commentaries on ancient authors and by a number of antiquarian and miscellaneous treatises. Theoretical works on grammar and rhetoric, mostly composed for the school, are quite frequent, and even more numerous is the literature of humanist historiography. Dialogues and treatises on questions of moral philosophy, education, politics, and religion have attracted most of the attention of modern historians, but represent a comparatively small proportion of humanistic literature. By far the largest part of that literature, although relatively neglected and partly unpublished, consists of the poems, the speeches, and the letters of the humanists.

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If we look for the medieval antecedents of these various types of humanistic literature, we are led back in many cases to the Italian grammarians and rhetoricians of the later Middle Ages. This is most obvious for the theoretical treatises on grammar and rhetoric. Less generally recognized, but almost equally obvious is the link between humanist epistolography and medieval ars dictaminis. The style of writing is different, to be sure, and the medieval term dictamen was no longer used during the Renaissance, yet the literary and political function of the letter was basically the same, and the ability to write a correct and elegant Latin letter was still a major aim of school instruction in the Renaissance as it had been in the Middle Ages.

The same link between humanists and medieval Italian rhetoricians which we notice in the field of epistolography may be found also in the field of oratory. Most historians of rhetoric give the impression that medieval rhetoric was exclusively concerned with letter-writing and preaching, represented by the ars dictaminis and the somewhat younger ars praedicandi [the medieval art of preaching], and that there was no secular eloquence in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, most historians of Renaissance humanism believe that the large output of humanist oratory, although of a somewhat dubious value, was an innovation of the Renaissance due to the effort of the humanists to revive ancient oratory and also to their vain fancy for speech making. Only in recent years have a few scholars begun to realize that there was a considerable amount of secular eloquence in the Middle Ages, especially in Italy. I do not hesitate to conclude that the eloquence of the humanists was the continuation of the medieval ars arengandi just as their epistolography continued the tradition of the ars dictaminis. It is true, in taking up a type of literary production developed by their medieval predecessors, the humanists modified its style according to their own taste and classicist standards. Yet the practice of speech-making was no invention of the humanists, of course, since it is hardly absent from any human society, and since in medieval Italy it can be traced back at least to the eleventh century.

Even the theory of secular speech, represented by rules and instructions as well as by model speeches, appears in Italy at least as early as the thirteenth century. Indeed practically all types of humanist oratory have their antecedents in this medieval literature: wedding and funeral speeches, academic speeches, political speeches by officials or ambassadors, decorative speeches on solemn occasions, and finally judicial speeches.

Some of these types, to be sure, had their classical models, but others, for example, academic speeches delivered at the beginning of the year or of a particular course or upon conferring or receiving a degree, had no classical antecedents whatsoever, and all these types of oratory were rooted in very specific customs and institutions of medieval Italy.

The humanists invented hardly any of these types of speech, but they merely applied their standards of style and elegance to a previously existing form of literary expres243

sion and thus satisfied a demand, both practical and artistic, of the society of their time. Modern scholars are apt to speak contemptuously of this humanistic oratory, denouncing its empty rhetoric and its lack of "deep thoughts." Yet the humanists merely intended to speak well, according to their taste and to the occasion, and it still remains to be seen whether they were less successful in that respect than their medieval predecessors or their modern successors. Being pieces of "empty rhetoric," their speeches provide us with an amazing amount of information about the personal and intellectual life of their time.

In their historiography, the humanists succeeded the medieval chroniclers, yet they differ from them both in their merits and in their deficiencies. Humanist historiography is characterized by the rhetorical concern for elegant Latin and by the application of philological criticism to the source materials of history. In both respects, they are the predecessors of modern historians. To combine the requirements of a good style and those of careful research was as rare and difficult then as it is at present. However, the link between history and rhetoric that seems to be so typical of the Renaissance was apparently a medieval heritage. Not only was the teaching of history in the medieval schools subordinate to that of grammar and rhetoric, but we also find quite a few medieval historiographers and chronists who were professional grammarians and rhetoricians. Even the Renaissance custom of princes and cities appointing official historiographers to write their history seems to have had a few antecedents in medieval Italy.

Most of the philosophical treatises and dialogues of the humanists are really nothing but moral tracts, and many of them deal with subject matters also treated in the moralistic literature of the Middle Ages. There are, to be sure, significant differences in style, treatment, sources, and solutions. However, the common features of the topics and literary patterns should not be overlooked either. A thorough comparative study of medieval and Renaissance moral treatises has not yet been made so far as I am aware, but in a few specific cases the connection has been pointed out. Again it should be added that the very link between rhetoric and moral philosophy which became so apparent in the Renaissance had its antecedents in the Middle Ages. Medieval rhetoric, no less than ancient rhetoric, was continually quoting and inculcating moral sentences that interested the authors and their readers for the content as well as for their form.

Moreover, there are at least a few cases in which medieval rhetoricians wrote treatises on topics of moral philosophy, or argued about the same moral questions that were to exercise the minds and pens of their successors, the Renaissance humanists. ... ... The humanists did not live outside the schools and universities, but were closely connected with them. The chairs commonly held by the humanists were those of grammar and rhetoric, that is, the same that had been occupied by their medieval predecessors, the dictatores. Thus it is in the history of the universities and schools and of their 244

chairs that the connection of the humanists with medieval rhetoric becomes most apparent. However, under the influence of humanism, these chairs underwent a change which affected their name as well as their content and pretenses. About the beginning of the fourteenth century poetry appears as a special teaching subject at Italian universities. After that time, the teaching of grammar was considered primarily as the task of elementary instructors, whereas the humanists proper held the more advanced chairs of poetry and of eloquence. For eloquence was the equivalent of prose writing as well as of speech. The teaching of poetry and of eloquence was theoretical and practical at the same time, for the humanist professor instructed his pupils in verse-making and in speech-making both through rules and through models. Since classical Latin authors were considered as the chief models for imitation, the reading of these authors was inseparably connected with the theoretical and practical teaching of poetry and of eloquence.

Thus we may understand why the humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries chose to call their field of study poetry and why they were often styled poets even though they composed no works that would qualify them as poets in the modern sense.

Also the coronation of poets in the Renaissance must be understood against this background. It had been originally understood as a kind of academic degree, and it was granted not merely for original poetic compositions, but also for the competent study of classical poets.

History was not taught as a separate subject, but formed a part of the study of rhetoric and poetry since the ancient historians were among the prose writers commonly studied in school. Moral philosophy was always the subject of a separate chair and was commonly studied from the Ethics and Politics of Aristotle. However, after the beginning of the fifteenth century, the chair of moral philosophy was often held by the humanists, usually in combination with that of rhetoric and poetry. This combination reflects the expansion of humanistic learning into the field of moral philosophy. The chairs of Greek language and literature which were an innovation of the fourteenth century were also commonly held by humanists. This teaching was not as closely tied up with the practical concern for writing verses, speeches, or letters as was the study of Latin, and it was therefore more strictly scholarly and philological. On the other hand, since the fifteenth century we find several cases where humanist teachers of Greek offered courses on Greek texts of philosophy and science and thus invaded the territory of the rivaling fields.

Later on the fields of study cultivated by the humanists were given a new and even more ambitious name. Taking up certain expressions found in Cicero and Gellius, the humanists as early as the fourteenth century began to call their field of learning the humane studies or the studies befitting a human being (studia humanitatis, studia huma245

niora). The new name certainly implies a new claim and pro gram, but it covered a content that had existed long before and that had been designated by the more modest names of grammar, rhetoric, and poetry. Although some modern scholars were not aware of this fact, the humanists certainly were, and we have several contemporary testimonies showing that the studia humanitatis were considered as the equivalent of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy.

These statements also prove another point that has been confused by most modern historians: the humanists, at least in Italy or before the sixteenth century, did not claim that they were substituting a new encyclopaedia of learning for the medieval one, and they were aware of the fact that their field of study occupied a well defined and limited place within the system of contemporary learning. To be sure, they tended to emphasize the importance of their field in comparison with the other sci ences and to encroach upon the latter's territory, but on the whole they did not deny the existence or validity of these other sciences. This well defined place of the studia humanitatis is reflected in the new term humanista which apparently was coined during the latter half of the fifteenth century and became increasingly popular during the sixteenth century.

The term seems to have originated in the slang of university students and gradually penetrated into official usage. It was coined after the model of such medieval terms as legista, jurista, canonista, and artista [law professor, Roman law professor, canon law professor, and liberal arts teacher], and it designated the professional teacher of the studia humanitatis. The term humanista in this limited sense thus was coined during the Renaissance, whereas the term humanism was first used by nineteenth century historians. If I am not mistaken, the new term humanism reflects the modern and false conception that Renaissance humanism was a basically new philosophical movement, and under the influence of this notion the old term humanism has also been misunderstood as designating the representative of a new Weltanschauung [worldview]. The old term humanista, on the other hand, reflects the more modest, but correct, contemporary view that the humanists were the teachers and representatives of a certain branch of learning which at that time was expanding and in vogue, but well limited in its subject matter. Humanism thus did not represent the sum total of learning in the Italian Renaissance.

If we care to look beyond the field of the humanities into the other fields of learning as they were cultivated during the Italian Renaissance, that is, into jurisprudence, medicine, theology, mathematics, and natural philosophy, what we find is evidently a continuation of medieval learning and may hence very well be called scholasticism.

Since the term has been subject to controversy, I should like to say that I do not attach any unfavorable connotation to the term scholasticism. As its characteristic, I do not consider any particular doctrine, but rather a specific method, that is, the type of logi246

cal argument represented by the form of the Questio [inquiry]. It is well known that the content of scholastic philosophy, since the thirteenth century, was largely based on the writings of Aristotle, and that the development of this philosophy, since the twelfth century, was closely connected with the schools and universities of France and England, especially with the universities of Paris and of Oxford. The place of Italy is, however, less known in the history and development of scholastic philosophy. Several Italians are found among the most famous philosophers and theologians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but practically all of them did their studying and teaching in France. Whereas Italy had flourishing schools of rhetoric, of jurisprudence, and of medicine during the twelfth and early thirteenth century, she had no native center of philosophical studies during the same period. After 1220 the. new mendicant orders established schools of theology and philosophy in many Italian cities, but unlike those in France and England, these schools of the friars for a long time had no links with the Italian universities. Regular faculties of theology were not established at the Italian universities before the middle of the fourteenth century, and even after that period, the university teaching of theology continued to be spotty and irregular.

Aristotelian philosophy, although not entirely unknown at Salemo toward the end of the twelfth century, made its regular appearance at the Italian universities after the middle of the thirteenth century and in close connection with the teaching of medicine. I think it is safe to assume that Aristotelian philosophy was then imported from France as were the study of classical authors and many other forms of intellectual activity. After the beginning of the fourteenth century, this Italian Aristotelianism assumed a more definite shape. The teaching of logic and natural philosophy became a well established part of the university curriculum and even spread to some of the secondary schools. An increasing number of commentaries and questions on the works of Aristotle reflect this teaching tradition, and numerous systematic treatises on philosophical subjects show the same general trend and background. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, further influences were received from Paris in the field of natural philosophy and from Oxford in the field of logic; and from the latter part of the fourteenth century on we can trace an unbroken tradition of Italian Aristotelianism which continued through the fifteenth and sixteenth century and far into the seventeenth century.

The common notion that scholasticism as an old philosophy was superseded by the new philosophy of humanism is thus again disproved by plain facts. For Italian scholasticism originated toward the end of the thirteenth century, that is, about the same time as did Italian humanism, and both traditions developed side by side throughout the period of the Renaissance and even thereafter.

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However, the two traditions had their locus and center in two different sectors of learning: humanism in the field of grammar, rhetoric, and poetry and to some extent in moral philosophy, scholasticism in the fields of logic and of natural philosophy. Everybody knows the eloquent attacks launched by Petrarch and Bruni against the logicians of their time, and it is generally believed that these attacks represent a vigorous new movement rebelling against an old entrenched habit of thought. Yet actually the English method of dialectic was quite as novel at the Italian schools of that time as were the humanistic studies advocated by Petrarch and Bruni, and the humanistic attack was as much a matter of departmental rivalry as it was a clash of opposite ideas or philosophies. Bruni is even hinting at one point that he is not speaking quite in earnest.

Such controversies, interesting as they are, were mere episodes in a long period of peaceful coexistence between humanism and scholasticism. Actually the humanists quarreled as much among each other as they did with the scholastics. Moreover, it would be quite wrong to consider these controversies as serious battles for basic principles whereas many of them were meant to be merely personal feuds, intellectual tournaments, or rhetorical exercises. Finally, any attempt to reduce these controversies to one issue must fail since the discussions were concerned with many diverse and overlapping issues. Therefore, we should no longer be surprised that Italian Aristotelianism quietly and forcefully survived the attacks of Petrarch and his humanist successors.

But the Aristotelianism of the Renaissance did not remain untouched by the new influence of humanism. Philosophers began to make abundant use of the Greek text and of the new Latin translations of Aristotle, of his ancient commentators, and of other Greek thinkers. The revival of ancient philosophies that came in the wake of the humanistic movement, especially the revival of Platonism and of Stoicism, left a strong impact upon the Aristotelian philosophers of the Renaissance. Yet in spite of these significant modifications, Renaissance Aristotelianism continued the medieval scholastic tradition without any visible break. It preserved a firm hold on the university chairs of logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, whereas even the humanist professors of moral philosophy continued to base their lectures on Aristotle. The literary activity of these Aristotelian philosophers is embodied in a large number of commentaries, questions, and treatises. This literature is difficult of access and arduous to read, but rich in philosophical problems and doctrines. It represents the bulk and kernel of the philosophical thought of the period, but it has been badly neglected by modern historians.

Scholars hostile to the Middle Ages considered this literature an unfortunate survival of medieval traditions that may be safely disregarded, whereas the true modern spirit of the Renaissance is expressed in the literature of the humanists. Medievalists, on the other hand, have largely concentrated on the earlier phases of scholastic philosophy and gladly sacrificed the later scholastics to the criticism of the humanists and their

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modern followers, a tendency that has been further accentuated by the recent habit of identifying scholasticism with Thomism. ...

Thus we may conclude that the humanism and the scholasticism of the Renaissance arose in medieval Italy about the same time, that is, about the end of the thirteenth century, and that they coexisted and developed all the way through and beyond the Renaissance period as different branches of learning. Their controversy, much less persistent and violent than usually represented, is merely a phase in the battle of the arts, not a struggle for existence. We may compare it to the debates of the arts in medieval literature, to the rivaling claims of medicine and of law at the universities, or to the claims advanced by Leonardo in his Paragone [comparison] for the superiority of painting over the other arts. Humanism certainly had a tendency to influence the other sciences and to expand at their expense, but all kinds of adjustments and combinations between humanism and scholasticism were possible and were successfully accomplished. It is only after the Renaissance, through the rise of modem science and modem philosophy, that Aristotelianism was gradually displaced, whereas humanism became gradually detached from its rhetorical background and evolved into modem philology and history.

Thus humanism and scholasticism both occupy an important place in the civilization of the Italian Renaissance, yet neither represents a unified picture, nor do both together constitute the whole of Renaissance civilization. Just as humanism and scholasticism coexisted as different branches of culture, there were besides them other important, and perhaps even more important branches. I am thinking of the developments in the fine arts, in vernacular literature, in the mathematical sciences, and in religion and theology. Many misunderstandings have resulted from the at tempts to interpret or to criticize humanism and scholasticism in the light of these other developments. Too many historians have tried to play up the fine arts, or vernacular poetry, or science, or religion against the "learning of the schools." These attempts must be rejected. The religious and theological problems of the Protestant and Catholic Reformation were hardly related to the issues discussed in the philosophical literature of the same time, and supporters and enemies of humanistic learning and of Aristotelian philosophy were found among the followers of both religious parties. The development of vernacular poetry in Italy was not opposed or delayed by the humanists, as most historians of literature complain. Some humanists stressed the superiority of Latin, to be sure, but few if any of them seriously thought of abolishing the volgare [vernacular] in speech or writing. On the other hand, many humanists are found among the advocates of the volgare, and a great number of authors continued to write in both languages. Again, modem historians have tried to interpret as a struggle for existence what in fact was merely a rivalry between different forms of expression.

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The admirable development of the fine arts which is the chief glory of the Italian Renaissance did not spring from any exaggerated notions about the creative genius of the artist or about his role in society and culture. Such notions are the prod uct of the Romantic movement and its eighteenth-century forerunners, and they were largely foreign to the Italian Renaissance. Renaissance artists were primarily craftsmen, and they often became scientists, not because their superior genius anticipated the modem destinies of science, but because certain branches of scientific knowledge, such as anatomy, perspective, or mechanics, were considered as a necessary requirement in the development of their craft. If some of these artist-scientists were able to make considerable contributions to science, this does not mean that they were completely independent or contemptuous of the science and learning available in their time.

Finally, mathematics and astronomy made remarkable progress during the six teenth century and assumed increasing importance in their practical applications, in the literature of the time, and in the curriculum of the schools and universities. If this development did not immediately affect philosophy, this was due not to the stupidity or inertia of contemporary philosophers, but to the fact that physics or natural philosophy was considered as a part of philosophy and that there was almost no traditional link between the mathematical sciences and philosophy. Galileo was a professional student and teacher of mathematics and astronomy, not of philosophy. His claim that physics should be based on mathematics rather than on logic was not merely a novel idea as far as it went, but it revolutionized the very conceptions on which the curriculum of the schools and universities was based. It is hence quite understandable that he was opposed by the Aristotelian physicists of his time who considered his method as an invasion of their traditional domain by the mathematicians. On the other hand, there is no evidence that Galileo met with any serious resistance within his own field of mathematics and astronomy in which the main chairs were soon occupied by his pupils. If we want to understand and to judge these developments we must know the issues and the professional traditions of the later Middle Ages and of the Renaissance.

Modern scholarship has been far too much influenced by all kinds of prejudices, against the use of Latin, against scholasticism, against the medieval church, and also by the unwarranted effort to read later developments, such as the German Reformation, or French libertinism, or nineteenth-century liberalism or nationalism, back into the Renaissance. The only way to understand the Renaissance is a direct and, possibly, an objective study of the original sources. We have no real justification to take sides in the controversies of the Renaissance, and to play up humanism against scholasticism, or scholasticism against humanism, or modern science against both of them. Instead of trying to reduce everything to one or two issues, which is the privilege and curse of political controversy, we should try to develop a kind of historical pluralism. It is easy to 250

praise everything in the past which happens to resemble certain favorite ideas of our own time, or to ridicule and minimize everything that disagrees with them. This method is neither fair nor helpful for an adequate understanding of the past. It is equally easy to indulge in a sort of worship of success, and to dismiss defeated and refuted ideas with a shrugging of the shoulders, but just as in political history, this method does justice neither to the vanquished nor to the victors. Instead of blaming each century for not having anticipated the achievements of the next, intellectual history must patiently register the errors of the past as well as its truths. Complete objectivity may be impossible to achieve, but it should remain the permanent aim and standard of the historian as well as of the philosopher and scientist.

Excerpt from "Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance" by Paul O. Kristeller from Renaissance Thought and Its Sources, edited by Michael Mooney. CopyrightŠ 1981 Columbia University Press, New York. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

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SECTION 7

Paul F. Grendler, ‘The Coming of the Studia humanitatis’ Curriculum revolutions are rare occurrences. Education resists change so successfully that Western civilization has witnessed only a handful in three millennia. The Greeks and Romans established the earliest known form of Western education. After the ancient rhetorical curriculum fell with Rome, medieval men created a new education based on logic and Christianity which retained a few elements of Greco-Roman education. A third educational revolution occurred during the Italian Renaissance, when pre-university schooling based on a thorough grounding in the Latin and, to a lesser extent, the Greek classics began. The Italian humanists and the northern humanists who followed established the studia humanitatis to train students in eloquence and wisdom. A Latin education based on the classics became the norm for the sons and a few daughters of the elite, and those from the middle class who hoped to rise, in Italy in the fifteenth century and the rest of Europe in the sixteenth century. The humanist educators succeeded so well that the Latin humanistic curriculum lasted until well into the twentieth century.

The early Italian humanists sought in the classics of antiquity an eloquent Latin style and advice on how to live. This moral advice and eloquence for the public life appealed to the intellectual, political, and economic elite of the Italian city-states, just as it had attracted their predecessors in ancient Greece and Rome. The transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance through Petrarch, Bruni, Valla, and others is essentially the development and acceptance of Renaissance humanism. The less dramatic but equally important story is how Renaissance humanism became institutionalized through Italian primary and secondary schools. Between 1400 and 1450 the curriculum of the Latin schools changed from medieval to Renaissance.

The Coming of the Studia Humanitatis THE LATE MEDIEVAL LATIN CURRICULUM Neither the "Renaissance of the twelfth century, " a northern phenomenon, nor the "pre-humanism" or "proto-humanism" prevalent in northern Italian legal circles around 1300 had any discernible impact on Italian schooling, especially preuniversity education. Instead, fourteenth-century Italian schoolchildren followed a normative medieval curriculum that consisted of reading medieval authors and a few ancient poetic classics (or portions of them) and learning to write formal letters according to the principles of ars dictaminis.

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Medieval grammarians and rhetoricians left lists of preferred authors and books, socalled curriculum authors, to be used in the schools.1 These texts taught Latin, imparted rules of grammar, and inculcated Christian morality. Probably no teacher or school used every book on the lists; rather, each teacher constructed a syllabus from them.

The first group of curriculum authors and books consisted of elementary texts.2 Donatus —the Ars minor, an accidence and limited syntax manual to be memorized. It is attributed to Aelius Donatus, the fourth-century Roman grammarian and teacher of Jerome.

Cato or the Disticha Catonis—a collection of moral sayings compiled in late antiquity with additions in the early Middle Ages, but attributed to Cato the Censor (Marcus Porcius Cato, 234-149 B.C.).

Liber Aesopi or Aesopus—Aesop's animal fables, which may have been written by Gualterus Anglicus, chaplain to Henry II of England, in the second half of the twelfth century.

Ecloga Theoduli or simply Theodulus—an anonymous tenth-century work in which "Pseustis" or "Liar" and "Alithia" or "Truth" engage in a poetic contest. Pseustis recites stories from mythology, and Alithia counters with Old Testament examples and, naturally, vanquishes her foe.

This group of books included an elementary Latin grammar and readers that taught good morality.

Next, the student advanced to a series of more difficult grammars, glossaries, and dictionaries. The Doctrinale, an extremely long (about 2,650 hexameter lines) Latin grammar in verse, was written circa 1199 by a French teacher, Alexander de Villedieu.

The most famous textbook of the Middle Ages, the Doctrinale dealt with the parts of speech, syntax, quantity and meter, and figures of speech. A sample verse illustrates its approach and usefulness.

Rectis as es a dat declinatio prima atque per am propria quaedam ponuntur Hebraea, dans ae diphthongon genetivis atque dativis. am servat quartus; tamen en aut an reperimus, cum rectus fit in es vel in as, vel cum dat a Graecus. rectus in a Graeci facit an quarto breviari. quintus in a dabitur, post es tamen e reperitur. a sextus, tamen es quandoque per e dare debes. am recti repetes quinto, sextum sociando.

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The first declension nominative ends in as, es, a, But certain Hebrew proper nouns in am.

The genitive and dative end in the diphthong ae, The accusative in am, but en or an for nominative es or as, Or when the Greek gives [nominative] a (the nominative of the Greek in a makes short an in the accusative).

The vocative is a, but es makes e; The ablatives are also a and e when the nominative ends in es.

But nominative am remains the same in both the vocative and ablative.3 his verse explained the singular endings for all possible first-declension nouns. Indeed, the unrivalled completeness of the Doctrinale helped account for its popularity and longevity—it lasted longer into the Renaissance than any other medieval curriculum text except Donatus and Cato.4 Other books in the second group included the following.

Papias or Elementarium doctrinae rudimentum—a word list in alphabetical order which also attempted to explain genders, declensions, and other grammatical material, written c. 1050 and attributed until recently to a certain Papias from Pavia. Scholars now believe that Papias is part of the title of the work, and the author remains unknown.

Derivationes or Magnae derivationes—an etymological lexicon that included compounds, derivatives, and roots of words, written by Hugutio of Pisa, bishop of Ferrara, who died in 1210.

Graecismus—another metric verse grammar, written by Evrard de Bethune before 1212.

Catholicon—a large glossary with grammar, written c. 1286 by Giovanni Balbi, a Genoese Dominican.

The student also continued to read books that inculcated good morality as well as Latin.

Obias—a verse book of morality written by a French scholar, Matthew de Vendôme, c. 1185.

Prospero or Ex sententiis Augustini—a series of epigrams taken from Augustine's works

by St. Prosper of Aquitaine, c. 400-460.

Chartula —the first word of a verse treatise, De contemptu mundi, attributed to the Cluniac monk Bernard of Morlaix, C. 1140.

Facetus—a verse manual of good manners which may be the work of the Englishman John of Garland in the first half of the thirteenth century.

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Eva columba —the first two words of a Christian morality poem called the Dittochaeum, attributed to the Roman Christian poet Prudentius of the fourth century.

Physiologus—also known as the Tres leo naturas from its first three words, a Christian morality poem by an unknown Italian teacher of the eleventh or twelfth century.

Medieval teachers also taught a few classical authors and books.

Vergil-70-20 B.C., possibly the most famous poet in history and the author of the Aeneid, Eclogues, and Georgics.

Ovid-43 B.C.-A.D. 18, Roman love poet and author of Ars amatoria, Metamorphoses, the Fasti, Tristia, and Epistolae ex Ponto, the last elegies written during his banishment.

Statius—c. 40-96, a Roman epic poet much influenced by Vergil whose best-known work was the epic Thebaid, the story of Thebes told with much reference to mythology.

Lucan-39— 65, Roman poet best known for his Pharsalia, an epic historical poem describing the war between Caesar and Pompey.

Boethius —Roman statesman and author, c. 480-524/25, who wrote De consolatione philosophiae and other works before being executed by Theodoric the Ostrogoth.

Medieval scholars and teachers often called this canon of textbooks collectively auctores (authors), and the teacher who taught them an auctorista ("authorist").5 Sometimes they gathered together in manuscript (and later in print) eight of the shorter works and called them Auctores octo.6 The Auctores octo were Cato, Theodulus, Facetus, Chartula, Liber parabolarum (a book of verse proverbs attributed to Alain de Lille, d. 1203), Tobias, Aesopus, and Floretus, a religious poem.

Although predominantly medieval and Christian, the curriculum authors included a minority of Roman classical authors. Almost all were poetical; Donatus, the Catholicon, and Boethius (half-prose, half-poetry) stand out as exceptions. Medieval teachers and scholars probably preferred poetry for its presumed mnemonic value and because "poetry teaches truth" in the traditional conception. The auctores mixed together pagan and Christian, classical and medieval, Augustan and late classical, original works of imaginative literature and pedagogical manuals, epic poem and glossary, without distinction. Teachers seem to have valued all auctores equally; all taught language and good morality. Many of the auctores written in the Middle Ages exhibited a "manufactured" quality. They were not original works of literature borrowed for classroom use, or even works strongly based on original usage, but texts written to display rules of grammar, etymology, or morality.

Students went on to ars dictaminis, the theory and practice of writing prose letters, a key part of late medieval education.7 Ars dictaminis developed in response to a need.

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As the number of political and religious authorities—emperor, kings, princes, barons, city councils, pope, cardinals, and bishops—grew, the demand for public correspondence expanded. Secretaries had to write more letters to different kinds of authorities, and the letters' composition had to take into account a complex hierarchy of political and social relationships between writer and recipient. Hence, the need for manuals that would instruct secretaries and notaries in the principles of composition and provide them with examples to imitate. Alberic of Monte Cassino, a Benedictine monk, perhaps wrote the first treatise on ars dictaminis about 1087. Numerous other manuals and teachers followed in the next two hundred to three hundred years.

Ars dictaminis took principles for letter writing from Cicero's De inventione (written when he was 19) and the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium, written at about the same time. The manuals taught a highly technical method of writing according to formulas. Letters consisted of five major parts: salutatio or salutation, which had to be very carefully calibrated according to the hierarchical positions of addressee and writer; benevolentiae captatio, the securing of good will by ordering the words in such a way as to win the approval of the recipient; narratio, the presentation of the matter under discussion; petitio or request; and conclusio or conclusion. Discussion of each of the five major sections could expand into numerous subdivisions, especially the discussion of the salutatio, which often occupied the major part of an ars dictaminis course or treatise. The salutatio section considered a very long list of potential recipients; each different higher authority had to be saluted correctly, an essential step in securing the desired end, in the view of the dictatores. An ars dictaminis manual also listed numerous phrases, lines, even entire letters, to be copied; indeed, it might consist entirely of a collection of model letters.

Ars dictaminis exemplified the typical medieval tendency to organize and classify an intellectual activity according to logical and hierarchical principles, and then to supply answers for all possible contingencies. It taught the rhetoric of formal public letters and rejected spontaneous and familiar expression. The dictatores favored a preceptive method based on rules, rather than imitation, which was preferred by the humanists. in similar fashion, fourteenth-century grammarians favored speculative grammar, an attempt to base language on a logic of meaning. Although primarily a university subject, and especially important at Bologna, ars dictaminis was taught in some advanced schools by communally hired masters. More important, ars dictaminis, like speculative grammar, embodied a late medieval Scholastic approach to learning which colored pre-university education, as well.

A few examples illustrate Italian education in the fourteenth century and the first decade of the fifteenth century. In 1326 a Savona father hired a Genoese master to in256

struct his two sons in various auctores, namely the Disticha Catonis, Liber Aesopi, Prospero, Chartula, and "summa," probably the Summa artis notariae (c. 1256) of Rolandino de' Passeggeri (d. 1300).8 Another student, Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna (13 43140 8), who became an important teacher in his own right, described in later life his early training.9 Between 1349 and 1353, when he was 6 to 10 years old, he lived in a boarding school in Bologna. After the primer, he read a group of unnamed poetical works (possibly Aesopus, Eva columba, Physiologus, and Chartula) followed by the Disticha Catonis, Prospero, and Boethius. He read no classics at this stage. In the spring of 1359, when he was 16, Giovanni Conversino went to the University of Bologna, where he heard lectures on the Bononiannatus, a well-known ars dictaminis treatise written by Giovanni di Bonandrea (c. 12 45-13 21), a famous teacher at Bologna. In the second half of his course, the young Giovanni Conversino attended lectures on the Rhetorica ad Herennium.

Giovanni Dominici (1357/8-1419), a Florentine Dominican cardinal, diplomat, and fiery opponent of the emerging humanistic studies, confirmed the curricular pattern.

In his Regola del governo di cura familiare (written 1401-3), Dominici contrasted the wicked learning of the classics with the good learning of the past, by which he probably meant his own schooling in Florence in the 1360s and 1370s. At that time, Dominici wrote, students first learned the primer ("salterio") and "holy doctrine," that is, the standard prayers found in the primer. They then learned the "morality of Cato" (Disticha Catonis), the "inventions of Aesop," the "doctrine of Boethius" (De consolatione philosophiae), "good knowledge of Prospero taken from St. Augustine" (Ex sententiis Augustini), "philosophy from Eva columba or the Tres leo naturas" (Physiologus), "and a little versified Holy Scripture from the Aethiopum terras" (part of Theodulus).10 Although Dominici rejected the classics, late-fourteenth-century Italian schools included those classics beloved by medieval educators, albeit without making a distinction between them and medieval texts. In 1386 the Commune of Chioggia hired a new communal master and permitted him to charge his students supplementary fees on a graduated schedule. Unlike most schedules, this one listed the titles of the classroom texts and their ranking in the syllabus. After the lowest level of elementary Latin grammar came Aesopus, Prospero, Ovid's Heroidum epistulae, and Boethius. Pupils at a higher level studied "tragedies, Vergil, Lucan, Terence, and similar poets and authors," although the fees were the same as for those studying Aesopus and so on.11 Moreover, one suspects that the pupils read only selections, perhaps in florilegia. This fee schedule, repeated in 1397, indicated that late Trecento pedagogues taught certain classics. But the curriculum made no distinction between the classics and medieval textbooks, between Vergil and Prospero. Perhaps most important, poetical works dominated the curriculum. Classical Latin prose, such as in the letters, orations, and philosophical treatises of Cicero, was conspicuous by its absence.12 257

A final example further confirms the pattern. In 1410 the Commune of Faenza advertised for a teacher: "unus bonus magister et expertus in grammatica et in arte dictaminis."13 The combination of grammar and ars dictaminis indicated a typical late medieval curriculum.

The Humanist Alternative The humanists savagely attacked the medieval curriculum authors. Petrarch, as usual, started it: "In my childhood when all the others gaped at Prospero or Aesopus, I pondered the books of Cicero."14 Lorenzo Valla and other humanists followed with sharp attacks on medieval learning in general and the curriculum authors in particular, a well-known polemic that need not be followed here.15 A new group of Italian intellectuals imbued with enthusiasm for classical studies found the intellectual training inherited from the late Middle Ages inadequate and objectionable.

The humanists next offered a new vision in place of the old. In an effort to win elite public opinion to their cause, they wrote pedagogical treatises that advertised the rosy promise of the new studies. Pier Paolo Vergerio (c. 1368-1444) wrote the first and most important of these, De ingenuis moribus et liberalibus studiis adulescentiae (On noble customs and liberal studies of adolescents), in 1402 or 1403 in Padua.16 Born in Capodistria, Vergerio studied at Padua, taught at Florence and Bologna, studied under Manuel Chrysoloras at Florence, returned to Padua at the end of 1399, went to Rome in 1405, and finished his career in obscurity in the service of King Sigismund of Hungary. He addressed the work to Ubertino da Carrara (1390-1407), whom Vergerio probably tutored at one time, the third son of a one-time ruler of Padua.

De ingenuis moribus far transcended its origins, becoming the most frequently copied and reprinted Renaissance pedagogical treatise before the works of Erasmus. More than one hundred fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscripts of De ingenuis moribus can be found in Italian libraries, and more than thirty Italian incunabular printings are known. It enjoyed similar diffusion in northern Europe.17 Vergerio sought to foster good character and learning in youths, and to celebrate education in general and humanistic studies in particular.18 In the first part of the treatise, Vergerio set forth the importance of good character: the son of a prince should be disciplined, active, modest, moderate in pleasure, and free of indulgence and vice.

Vergerio proclaimed an ideal close to the moderate and rational Stoic ethic of antiquity. The longer part of the treatise celebrated "liberal studies, " those studies appropriate to a free man, in the phrase borrowed from Seneca (Epistles 88.2). They developed the individual's mind and body, bringing him to a high pitch of virtue and wisdom. Vergerio mentioned a large group of traditional and new studies. He gave pride of place to history, moral philosophy, and eloquence, a novel and significant emphasis.

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Vergerio strongly praised liberal studies as preparation for the civic life.

Hence, for those with noble minds and those who must involve themselves in public affairs (in publicis rebus) and the community (communitate), it is useful to study history and moral philosophy. . . . From moral philosophy we learn what it is appropriate to do, while from history we extract the examples to follow. The one sets forth the duties of all men and is suitable to each person. The other narrates to us what has been said and done, teaching what we must do and say on various occasions. To these two disciplines, if I am not wrong, comes next a third, eloquence, also part of the civil science (civilis scientiae). . . . With eloquence, instead, one learns to speak gracefully, with gravity, in order to win over the hearts of the multitude.19 Rather than developing further the notion that the studia humanitatis prepared men for the active life, Vergerio went on to the trivium and quadrivium, and then the professional disciplines of law, medicine, and theology. He also recommended and discussed physical training for the future prince. The celebration of traditional subjects along with the appeal for the studia humanitatis underlined the transitional and mixed nature of Vergerio’s treatise—not surprising, given the date of composition.

Nevertheless, Vergerio enunciated themes, especially the link between the studia humanitatis and the civic life, which future humanists and pedagogues approved of and echoed.

Other humanists sought to persuade parents and princes that humanistic studies built character, taught eloquence, and trained future leaders of society. Leonardo Bruni followed with De studiis et litteris liber (1423-26). Then came Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (1405-64) and his Tractatus de liberorum educatione (1444), Maffeo Vegio (140758) and his De educatione liberorum (composed 1445-48), and the De ordine docendi et discendi (1459) of Battista Guarini (1435-1505).20 These and other works offered a very general program of studies and emphasized that humanistic studies prepared students for life.

Pedagogical treatises made very effective propaganda for the emerging new curriculum by stressing the ideology, the purpose and promise, of humanistic studies. Possibly Guarino Guarini of Verona (1374-1460) promised the most. In letter after letter, Guarino told parents, princes, students, and former students that they would become virtuous, eloquent, learned, and successful leaders of society if they devoted themselves to humanistic studies. In 1419 he pointed out to his friend Gian Nicola Salerno (1379-1426), the podestĂ of Bologna, how humanistic studies had prepared him to meet the challenge of his duties.

I understand that when civil disorder recently aroused the people of Bologna to armed conflict you showed the bravery and eloquence of a soldier as well as you had previously meted out the just sentence of a judge. . . . You therefore owe no small 259

thanks to the Muses with whom you have been on intimate terms since boyhood, and by whom you were brought up. They taught you how to carry out your tasks in society. . . . Hence you are living proof that the Muses rule not only musical instruments but also public affairs. . . . How much then must we prize this learning and praise those arts with which one educates the future ruler of the state. And if he possesses justice, benevolence, prudence, and modesty, all will be able to enjoy the fruit, and the benefit, as usual, will be spread among all. But if these philosophic studies train a private citizen, it is not the same thing, for they dry up and help only him alone.21 Guarino skillfully adapted his message to his reader. To an aging Venetian patrician, he praised "liberal studies and disciplines" for the comfort and intellectual stimulation that they brought to old age. 22 To 12 year-old Ludovico Gonzaga, then attending the school of Vittorino da Feltre, Guarino promised that the books of the ancients offered better advice than the adulation of courtiers.23 Guarino spread his message even if he had to flatter the princeling outrageously. Further letters in praise of humanistic studies can be found in the writings of Guarino and other early humanists who sought to win the approval of aristocratic public opinion for their new educational program. Of course, they also believed in their message. princeling outrageously. Further letters in praise of humanistic studies can be found in the writings of Guarino and other early humanists who sought to win the approval of aristocratic public opinion for their new educational program. Of course, they also believed in their message.

An important discovery provided strong ancient support for a new education combining eloquence and moral philosophy for the civic life. In September 1416, Poggio Bracciolini discovered the complete text of Quintilian's Institutio oratoria. Previous scholars had had to make do with partial texts. He immediately communicated the news to Leonardo Bruni, who rapturously hailed the discovery.24 Quintilian became the revered authority behind every humanistic pedagogical treatise through the next century and a half. Quintilian supplied a synthesis of pedagogical practice and rationale which the humanists used to explain and justify their rejection of medieval rhetoric specifically and medieval education generally. 25 In the preface to book i, Quintilian wrote: My aim, then, is the education of the perfect orator. The first essential for such an one is that he should be a good man, and consequently we demand of him not merely the possession of exceptional gifts of speech, but of all the excellences of character as well. For I will not admit that the principles of upright and honourable living should, as some have held, be regarded as the peculiar concern of philosophy.

The man who can really play his part as a citizen and is capable of meeting the de260

mands both of public and private business, the man who can guide a state by his counsels, give it a firm basis by his legislation and purge its vices by his decisions as a judge, is assuredly no other than the orator of our quest.26 Further support came in 1421, when Bishop Gerardo Landriani found at Lodi a manuscript of five Ciceronian works including the complete text of De oratore, missing for centuries. Written circa 55 B. C., some thirty years after De inventione and the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium, De oratore presented Cicero's mature reflections on rhetoric. In it he dismissed De inventione as the imperfect effort of youth.27 Going beyond the didactic prescriptions and disembodied rules of De inventione and Ad Herennium, Cicero wrote a wide-ranging dialogue on character, civic duty, philosophy, and rhetoric.

With the full Quintilian and De oratore, the humanists had an arsenal of ancient support for what they already believed: that fourteenth-century rhetorical teaching and the formulas of ars dictaminis were too narrow in scope and restrictive in content.

They focused excessively on formal hierarchical relationships and the limited subject matter of a letter while ignoring the larger dimensions of the orator in society. In the judgment of the humanists, medieval rhetoric viewed the letter writer as a technician with an ample file of examples to copy; the humanist educators wanted wisdom and variety as well as technique. They now sought ancient prose authors to teach in the classroom.

THE REDISCOVERY OF CICERO The late medieval curriculum did not teach ancient prose authors as models of style.

Medieval instructors taught poetic classics such as Vergil, and used ancient rhetoric manuals such as Cicero's De inventione and the Rhetorica ad Herennium, to inculcate the techniques and terminology of rhetoric. But they did not use an ancient prose author as a standard of excellence to be imitated. Not only did late medieval pedagogues evince no interest in teaching an eloquent Latin style based on ancient prose, but they lacked a suitable model. The letters and other prose works of Seneca were widely available, but medieval scholars mined them for moral precepts instead of imitating their style.28 Perhaps the lack of form, inconsistent style, and experimental nature of Seneca's prose alienated medieval teachers.29 The emerging humanistic curriculum needed a standard of correct and eloquent classical prose to substitute for ars dictaminis and late medieval Latin prose generally. The rediscovery of most of Cicero's letters and orations, either unknown or ignored in the Middle Ages, gave the humanists such a model.

Petrarch made the first Ciceronian discoveries, the oration Pro Archia at Liege in 1333 and the Letters to Atticus in Verona in 1345.30 Boccaccio found the Pro Cluentia in 1355. Above all, Coluccio Salutati instituted the search that uncovered the Epistulae 261

ad familiares in 1392 at Vercelli. This became the most important discovery for the curriculum.

When the papal court moved to Constance for the council there (1414-17), the Italian humanists who accompanied the court had a splendid opportunity to ransack northern monastic libraries for classical texts. They had great success. In 1415 Poggio Bracciolini found in the monastery of Cluny in Burgundy a very old manuscript, perhaps from the eighth century, of Cicero's orations which included the previously unknown Pro Roscio Amerino and Pro Murena, as well as Pro Cluentio, Pro Milone, and Pro Caelio. In the summer of 1416, Poggio found at St. Gall Asconius's Commentary on five of Cicero's speeches, as well as the complete Quintilian and other works. In the summer of 1417, Poggio found in France and Germany eight more previously unknown speeches of Cicero's: Pro Caecina, Pro Roscio comoedo, De lege agraria i—iii, Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo, In Pisonem, and Pro Rabirio Postumo. The Ciceronian discoveries reached a climax in 1421 when Landriani found De oratore and Orator (available before only in partial copies) and the previously unknown Brutus.

The humanists made these discoveries of previously unavailable Ciceronian texts and more complete versions of known ones in less than a century, with the bulk of the finds made between 1392 and 1421. The Renaissance found Cicero with his ornate style, simplified Greek philosophy, conception of the orator, and involvement in the legal and political affairs of the Roman Republic more congenial than any other classical prose author. Petrarch held Cicero in high esteem, although he found Cicero's fatal plunge into political intrigue after the assassination of Caesar (documented in the Letters to Atticus) unacceptable. Later humanists admired Cicero's combination of eloquence and politics. Leonardo Bruni wrote a biography of Cicero, his Cicero novus of 1415, as did Gasparino Barzizza between 1416 and 1421. Humanist scholars spent much time integrating Cicero's works and life into the emerging humanist world view in the early Quattrocento.31 The Ciceronian discoveries and the accompanying flurry of scholarship would have had a major impact on the Renaissance in any case. That they occurred precisely at the moment when educators found the medieval curriculum wanting, and were constructing the new, meant that Cicero permanently shaped the Italian Renaissance. In simplest terms, the humanistic educators substituted the letters and orations of Cicero for the medieval auctores in their schools. Cicero became the orator in the new curriculum of orators, poets, and historians.

Guarino inserted Cicero's epistles and orations into his school at an early stage of his pedagogical career. He commented on Pro Roscio Amerino, praising Cicero as a teacher of life and language, when teaching at Venice (1414-19). He continued to teach the orations when he moved to Verona, where he lectured on Pro Murena. In 262

April or May 1419, when Guarino initiated his independent school in Verona, his prolusion (inaugural lecture) went as follows.

In the same manner, for the first libations of studies to be tasted in these years, I have chosen not difficult orations nor bitter topics of this art, but rather a certain easy and very clear way of speaking which, enticing the reader, may be useful and delightful by its very agreeable order of words and gentle weight of the sentences. I have gathered together some letters of Cicero in which this style of pure and very elegant speech is expressed.32 Indeed, Guarino compiled an anthology of fifty of Cicero's letters and made the Epistulae ad familiares a fundamental part of his lower-division instruction. The term Epistulae ad familiares as a collective title for a large group of Cicero's letters to diverse correspondents (excluding Atticus) came into existence in the first two decades of the fifteenth century and entered common usage about 1430, possibly as a result of the letters' introduction into the school curriculum.

More than thirty years later Guarino looked back and praised the difference that the use of Cicero as a model for Latin style had made. His son Niccola had found some of his father's youthful letters and laughed at their bad Latinity. You linger over some Latin words lacking any suitability for expression, Guarino wrote him in 1452. I am happy for the way you judge your father's style, but not for this reason am I embarrassed at what I wrote long ago. You are fortunate to have grown up in these blessed new times. For until our times, humanistic studies lay prostrate in a dark night, and writing had lost every splendor of elegance. Italy did not have Cicero, "the greatest authority of the Latin language," as a mirror and example for its discourse. But now, the admiration and imitation of Ciceronian language by itself constitutes a notable cause of progress. For, after a long pause, Italy finished saturating herself with Prosperos, Eva columbas, and Chartulas, which had taken Cicero's place, producing a horrible and uncultured barbarity in speaking and writing. In those times, one would have been praised for a happy style if one wrote Vobis regratior, quia de concernentibus capitaniatui meo tam honorificabiliter per unam vestram litteram vestra me advisavit sapientitudo.

I rethank you because your wisdomness advisified me so honorifically through one letter of yours about concerning my captaindom.33 If you find improprieties and errors in my old writings, Guarino concluded, the fault lies in the corrupt usage of former times.

An English translation cannot convey how awful the sentence is, with its grammatical mistakes, artificial suffixes, non-classical usage (capitaniatui, honorificabiliter, sapientitudo), repeated v sounds, and lack of rhythm. Could Guarino really have written such a dreadful sentence before the advent of humanism? Whether he did or not, the sen263

tence vividly conveyed his judgment on late medieval Latin before the adoption of Cicero as a model.

Guarino correctly assessed the importance of Cicero to humanistic education.

Schools need a canon of works and authors to compose the unchanging literature curriculum and to serve as a model for style.34 Cicero's prose, especially the letters and orations, became canonical in Italian Renaissance Latin schools. Students learned to write like Cicero, and Ciceronian style became the standard.35 Eventually it became such a severe and rigid standard, and its proponents became so filled with pedantic excesses, that Erasmus found Italian Ciceronianism an easy target for barbed scorn in his Ciceronianus (1528).

GREEK Greek completed the arch of humanistic studies. Western medieval scholars knew very little Greek. They did not yearn to read Greek masterpieces in the original language, and even had they wished to learn Greek, very few competent teachers existed to instruct them. Petrarch caressed his Homer manuscript but made no great effort to acquire Greek, partly because he loved ancient Latin culture more. On the other hand, Petrarch did proclaim his desire to learn Greek. In this, as in so many other matters, later humanists followed his lead. They also began to realize how much Roman civilization owed to the eloquence and wisdom of Hellas.

The first real opportunity to learn Greek came when Salutati invited Manuel Chrysoloras to come to Florence to teach.36 Mutual needs brought them together.

Chrysoloras (1350-1415), a wealthy and highly placed figure at the Byzantine court, wished to secure Western support for Constantinople against the coming onslaught of the Mongols and Turks. Salutati desperately wanted to bring someone from Constantinople to teach Greek competently. Chrysoloras's trip accomplished Salutati's pedagogical purpose and more.

In his teaching in Florence between 1397 and 1400, Chrysoloras brought to the West the best of Byzantine approaches to Greek. He taught his pupils to abandon the medieval literal translation of Greek to Latin in favor of a literary and rhetorical approach that emphasized fidelity to meaning and style. He wrote a Greek grammar, Erotemata, to help Italians (Guarino prepared an abridgment of it that spread widely).

Finally, the humanists' affection for Chrysoloras's learning and humanity magnified the impact of his teaching. Guarino, in particular, never tired of singing his praises.

Spurred by Chrysoloras's example, Italians went to Constantinople. Guarino was there between 1403 and 1408, his expenses paid by a Venetian noble. Guarino lived in Chrysoloras's household, imbibed Chrysoloras's pedagogical methods, translated Greek to Latin, and perfected his Greek. Upon his return to Italy, Guarino added 264

Greek to his teaching in Florence (1410-14), Venice (1414-19), and elsewhere. The cultural interchange continued. Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) also went to Constantinople, where he married a Greek noblewoman before returning to Italy. In or about 1416, George of Trebizond (1395-1472/3) came to Italy, where he had a long and influential career training future Italian humanists in Greek, rhetoric, and dialectic.

The contributions of Italian scholars expert in Greek to Renaissance learning are well known. In addition, Greek had a symbolic importance: nothing better expressed a commitment to the studia humanitatis than glowing statements about the riches to be unlocked through a knowledge of classical Greek. Communes and parents pledged themselves to the new learning by hiring a master to teach Greek with other subjects. But the number of humanists fluent in Greek—other than the genuine experts—and the number of students learning Greek may have been small. One doubts if many more learned Greek elsewhere in the late fifteenth or sixteenth centuries. However, the call to learn Greek, a talisman promising almost magical benefits, had great power to win converts to the studia humanitatis.

THREE FAMOUS TEACHERS Vergerio, Guarino, and other early humanists rejected medieval auctores and subjects in favor of the studia humanitatis. They looked to Quintilian and Cicero's De oratore for inspiration, wished to substitute Cicero's letters and orations for the ars dictaminis, and insisted on the importance of Greek. These innovations marked a major intellectual change.

The humanists next had to provide new schools and teachers to implement humanistic studies. A trio of pedagogical pioneers won the support of a few political leaders who sent their sons and a handful of daughters to be instructed. The new humanistic schools, especially the humanistic boarding schools, became the schools of choice for sons of princes, nobles, and wealthy commoners in northern Italy. Indeed, the boarding-school experience reinforced the new curriculum. The initial establishment of the studia humanitatis in the schoolroom took approximately twenty-five years, with the key developments occurring between about 1420 and 1430.

The teaching career of Gasparino Barzizza (1360-1430), especially in the Paduan period, between 1407 and 1421, marked a transition from medieval to Renaissance schooling. The son of a minor noble and notary, Gasparino was born at Barzizza, an estate in the hills about eighteen miles northeast of Bergamo. He studied grammar and rhetoric with Giovanni Travesi da Cremona at the University of Pavia between 1387 and 1392, and received his arts degree (laurea) in 1392.37 By 1396 he was teaching at a pre-university level in Bergamo; in 1404 he appeared as a university lecturer in grammar and "authors" (auctores) at Pavia alongside his former teacher. He served 265

as an independent master to several patrician families in Venice for several months in 1407 until appointed in October of that year to teach "in Rhetoricis et Moralibus (Auctoribus)" at the University of Padua at a salary of 120 ducats per annum. For fourteen years Barzizza lectured at the university and taught other students at home, where he lodged and boarded up to twenty youths at a time. In 1421 he returned to the University of Pavia, where he helped edit the Ciceronian manuscripts discovered

by Bishop Landriani in Lodi. He lectured at the University of Bologna from the autumn of 1426 until 1428, and returned to Pavia to die in 1430.38 Barzizza endorsed humanistic scholarship while clinging to medieval authors and methods.39 He showed a keen interest in the prose masterpieces of Latin antiquity, warmly greeted the new discoveries, and helped edit them. He particularly loved and taught the works of Cicero. Although trained in speculative grammar, he rejected it in favor of grammar based on ancient usage. At the same time, much of his teaching remained traditional. He relied on such medieval auctores as Balbi, Hugutius, and Alexander de Villedieu. Although proclaiming the importance of Greek, he learned very little of the language. And he wished to reform rather than discard ars dictaminis.

Even though his teaching did not become completely humanistic, Barzizza communicated his love of the new studies to a large number of influential students who spread his enthusiasm.

After Barzizza came Guarino, whose schools, pupils, and patrons did much to advance the studia humanitatis in these years. Born Guarino Guarini in Verona in 1374, he studied in Verona, Venice, Padua, and possibly elsewhere, before opening his first school in Verona, probably in the 1390s.40 After he returned from Constantinople, he began his second pedagogical career in Florence in 1410. In July 1414 he moved to Venice, where he opened an independent school with boarding students. His pupils included Francesco Barbaro (1390-1454) and Bernardo Giustiniani (1408-89), Venetian patrician statesmen and humanistic scholars. While in Venice, Guarino wrote his Regulae grammaticales, which enjoyed great success (see ch. 7). By the end of 1417 Guarino wished to leave Venice, possibly because the Venetian constitution barred non-Venetians, even very learned ones from nearby Verona, from holding high chancery positions. After angling for a post in the Roman curia and considering a return to Florence, Guarino married a wealthy Veronese woman at the end of 1418 and moved to Verona in the spring of 1419 to open an independent school. He prospered in Verona. Pupils from leading Veronese families filled his school, and his marriage brought him a villa in Valpolicella, a few miles outside of Verona. When the plague arrived in the summer of 1419, Guarino and his pupils retired to Valpolicella, where the region's famous wine helped wash down the lessons.

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The elite of Verona warmly received Guarino's pedagogical efforts. In May 1420 the Commune of Verona appointed him "to lecture in rhetoric, to teach the Epistles and Orations of Cicero, and other means that lead to eloquence, as well as other authors that are pleasing to the listeners and useful to all the adolescents and adults of the city and district of Verona."41 The commune awarded him a five-year appointment at the high salary of iso gold ducats and allowed him to continue to teach independently for additional fees.

The appointment can be seen as the formal inauguration of pre-university humanistic education. Verona's leading citizens appointed a famous humanistic pedagogue to teach Cicero's Epistles and Orations, quintessential texts of the studia humanitatis, at substantial public expense. If a symbolic date for the beginning of Renaissance Latin education is sought, 1420 may be considered to be it.

Guarino taught in Verona for ten years, producing a steady stream of humanistically trained pupils including the Venetian patrician and scholar Ermolao Barbaro (c.

1410 —71), who came to him in 1421. When the commune did not wish to renew Guarino's condotta in 1425, possibly because of the teacher's lengthy absences from the city, a student spoke eloquently on his behalf to the city council and praise flooded in from abroad. The commune renewed the condotta. Guarino moved to Ferrara in 1430 to become tutor to Leonello Este (1407-1450), designated successor to Duke Niccolo III. Just as the Veronese communal appointment of 1420 indicated civic approval, so this post signalled princely approbation for the studia humanitatis.

And when in 1435 Guarino's pupil Leonello Este married Vittorino's student Margherita Gonzaga, humanists must have felt that their efforts to win over the ruling class to the studia humanitatis had been crowned with success.

Guarino's appointment at Ferrara had advantages for both the humanist and the Este rulers. Guarino became the tutor and confidante to a young prince who became ruler in 1441. Guarino also received an impressive salary; in 1435, when he became a public lecturer, his salary was 300 ducats. And he became an academic "star" in the revivified University of Ferrara in 1442. When Guarino died in 1460, Duke Borso and the commune of Ferrara erected a magnificent church monument to Guarino which was intended to rival Bruni's monument in Florence.

Guarino, in turn, conferred distinction on the Este city and court. In the view of Ludovico Carbone (143 5-82), a pupil of Guarino's who delivered the teacher's funeral oration, Guarino single-handedly brought humanistic studies to Ferrara. Before Guarino's arrival, the Ferrarese knew no Cicero, scarcely mentioned Caesar, Sallust, and Livy, lacked the first principles of Latin grammar, could not interpret the poets, and dared not open their mouths for their ignorance of rhetoric, according to Carbone.42 Even if Carbone exaggerated Ferrara's former cultural barrenness, it is 267

clear that Guarino added considerable intellectual luster to the city. He attracted many pupils from Italy and abroad, and induced leading humanists to visit Ferrara.

He graced court marriages with Latin epithalamia and defended princely rule in a celebrated debate (143 5) with Poggio Bracciolini on the subject of Caesar's role in ancient Rome.43 In his long pedagogical career, Guarino taught numerous future princes, civil servants, and teachers. He sought out the powerful everywhere he taught and maintained friendly relations with them after moving on. They, in turn, kept coming to his school. For example, in 1452 a Venetian youth submitted a petition to the Venetian government. He had left his post as a ballot boy in the Great Council in order to go to Ferrara "to study oratory under that most learned man Guarino of Verona."

Having returned to Venice, he wished to regain his former post and to be favorably considered for the first notary vacancy in the chancery. The government granted his request." Guarino also taught several members of the important Strozzi family of Florence, the son of Poggio Bracciolini, Janus Pannonius (Joannes de Csezmicze, 1434-72) and other Hungarians, several English students, and even the famous preacher San Bernardino da Siena for three months in Verona in 1422 and 1423.

Those destined to become humanistic teachers, such as Martino Rizzoni and Gian Pietro da Lucca, also studied with Guarino.

Vittorino (Rambaldoni) da Feltre (1373 or 1378-1446/7) completed the trinity of pioneering humanistic schoolmasters. The son of a notary, Vittorino was born in Feltre, a small town in the foothills of the Dolomites about sixty miles north of Venice.45 Vittorino spent the years from about 1390 to 1415 in Padua, where he sat at the feet of Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna, taught Latin in an independent school, obtained a degree in arts in 141o, became a servant in the house of a mathematics teacher to pay for mathematical instruction, and later tutored in that subject. He went to Venice in 1415 to learn Greek from Guarino of Verona and especially from George of Trebizond. In turn, Vittorino taught Latin to Trebizond and won the undying affection of the volatile Greek.

Vittorino returned to Padua in 1419 to teach independently. In 1421 he succeeded Barzizza in the chair of rhetoric at the University of Padua and also conducted a boarding school in his home. But Vittorino never coveted university or chancery posts, preferring to shape the minds and character of youngsters. Hence, in 1422 he abandoned his chair in order to return to Venice to direct his own independent school with boarders. An unfortunate incident probably caused him to leave: the Venetian government sentenced a cousin of Vittorino's to prison, later exile, for treasonous speech against the state.46 A man of immense rectitude and sensitivity in matters of family honor—later he paid the considerable debts of some worthless rela268

tives—Vittorino must have felt stained by his cousin's disgrace and unable to remain in Venice. Hence, he accepted the invitation of Marquis Gianfrancesco Gonzaga to come to Mantua to establish a school for his several children and others of the court.

Vittorino moved to Mantua in the middle of 1423 and taught at his famous school, the Casa Giocosa (Pleasant or Merry House), for the rest of his life. Vittorino devoted his energies to his students rather than to his own studies. Indeed, his devotion to their best interests led him to support his pupils in the face of princely anger on occasion. Vittorino insisted that all the students, including the Gonzaga children, live in simple surroundings within the Casa Giocosa, thus making it exclusively a boarding establishment (for as many as seventy students at its height). He taught the children of the Gonzaga, other princely, noble, and wealthy commoner students from Mantua and beyond, plus as many as forty poor students (boarded at his own expense) at one time. Vittorino accepted students aged 4 to about 20; they stayed between one and ten years. Possibly the majority entered between the ages of 12 and 14 and studied four to six years, making the Casa Giocosa mostly a secondary school.

Vittorino taught future princes, prelates, humanists, and schoolmasters. Federigo II da Montefeltre (1422-82) studied with Vittorino from 1434 to 1436. Taddeo de' Manfredi, signore of Imola, and Gilberto da Correggio also learned under Vittorino.

The future prelates included Gregorio Correr and Pietro Balbo of Venice, Giovanni Andrea de' Bussi, bishop and commentator on Livy, and Battista Pallavicini from Rimini. Niccola Perotti and Lorenzo Valla studied with Vittorino, as did the lesser humanists and schoolmasters Ognibene Bonisoli and Gian Pietro da Lucca. Guarino Guarini and Francesco Filelfo sent their sons to Vittorino, while Theodore Gaza and George of Trebizond helped Vittorino teach. The Casa Giocosa enrolled at least three girls, two Gonzaga daughters and Barbara of Brandenburg (1422-81), who came to Mantua as the 12-year-old intended bride of Ludovico Gonzaga. Possibly only girls of the Gonzaga family attended, for there is no evidence of other female pupils.

The boarding-school experience compounded the teachers' influence over students and considerably aided the spread of the studio humanitatis. Boarding schools had medieval roots; as noted in chapter 1, a Genoese father sent his 5-year-old son to one in 1221. Professors at the University of Bologna conducted them in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. A student came to the university and lived with a professor. The student attended the professor's public lectures at the university and received private instruction from him at home. Before long, younger students not yet ready for university classes also boarded with a professor.47 By the last quarter of the fourteenth century, the boarding school run by a relatively well known peda269

gogue who did not necessarily live in a university town had become common, although not nearly as common as other forms of schools. For example, Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna conducted boarding schools at Conegliano from 1371 to 1373, at Padua from 1392 to 1404, and in Venice from 1404 to 1406.48 Teachers operated boarding schools for personal financial gain as well as for the education of youths.

To be sure, operating a boarding school involved heavy responsibilities and expenses: a large house, food, domestic assistance for cooking and housekeeping, and teaching assistants who had to be paid. But the financial rewards could be substantial: Barzizza's fees reached the very high figure of forty gold ducats annually (it is not known if this figure was typical). 49 Barzizza probably had a total of about seventy boarding students in his fourteen years at Padua; if each remained three to five years, about twenty resided there simultaneously. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72), who studied with Barzizza between 1415 and 1418 before going on to study law at Bologna, must have been Barzizza's most famous boarder. Barzizza also taught Francesco Filelfo in 1416 and 1417, and George of Trebizond, probably in 1416. But the vast majority of his pupils were not future humanists but northern Italian aristocrats. Carlo Alberti, brother to Leon Battista, boarded with Barzizza, as did boys from the princely Malaspina family, members of the Barbaro, Correr, Loredan, Trevisan, and Zeno patrician families of Venice, boys from the Castiglione and other noble families of Lombardy, some students from the middle class of professionals, and a handful of foreigners, including Alfonso of Portugal. Barzizza's pupils often later studied at a university and then pursued one of three kinds of careers. Some took their places in the ruling circles of government and the church. Others became lawyers and physicians. And a third, nonaristocratic, group of students taught school.50 Barzizza set the example; Guarino and Vittorino made the boarding school an essential component in the lives of the governing class and a prime means of spreading the studia humanitatis. Certainly humanistic boarding schools catered to the elite: sons of princes, nobles, and professionals, plus a few bright but poor students supported by the master, lived with an eminent teacher who trained their minds and shaped their character. The humble Italian term for attending a boarding school, stare a dozzina (to be a boarder), or the casual a dozzina (to board) seemed inadequate to the humanistic educators.51 Barzizza called his school a gymnasium, that is, a Greek public school.52 And Guarino, with his usual mix of classical ideals and shrewd sense of public relations, called his a contubernium, a common dwelling, implying comradeship, intimacy, and intellectual exchange.53 Master and student sought to forge a lifetime bond in the years that they lived and learned under the same roof. The boarding-school experience might generate 270

stronger and more intimate ties than existed between parent and child. A boy of io or 12 left his parental home to live in a pedagogical family. The master corrected the boy's lessons in the classroom, chided his manners at the table, and improved his morals everywhere.

The boarding school also nourished the humanistic curriculum. Contubernium and studia humanitatis complemented each other so well. Renaissance teachers wanted a group of studies to teach good morals and good literature. The boarding school needed a curriculum to train boys for leadership roles requiring wisdom and character more than technical skills. The humanists believed that they could recreate in the boarding school a miniature ancient world whose youthful inhabitants would become responsible and upright leaders of society. The presence of the boarding school as the ideal learning environment helps explain why Renaissance pedagogical literature insisted that the teacher must be good as well as learned, and that an affective bond must unite teacher and student. It also explains the almost pathetic eagerness to believe that these privileged boys would grow up to be just rulers immune to the corrupting influences of power and wealth.

The boarding school became in integral part of the maturation process for the sons of the wealthy and powerful in Western civilization. In this setting the privileged learned Latin and Greek, how to share authority with their peers, and how to command the rest of society. The line from Vittorino's Casa Giocosa to Thomas Arnold's Rugby and the prep schools and highly selective private colleges and universities of North America is a direct one.

During the Renaissance, the boarding school helped propagate the studia humanitatis, for the ethos of the elite quickly becomes the goal of the middle class. Obviously few non-noble parents and not all nobles could afford to pay forty ducats per annum to send their sons to Guarino's contubernium. Nor did many Italian communities have princes with the financial resources to found court schools. But parents and communal councils could hire humanistic schoolmasters to teach the new curriculum in their own household or town. Their sons might study in local independent and communal schools the same studia humanitatis pursued by Gonzaga princelings in the Casa Giocosa, if they had the right teachers. Humanists and parents next had to establish the new Latin curriculum across a broad range of northern Italian towns.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STUDIA HUMANITATIS Guarino and Vittorino founded schools that trained the sons of the ruling class and future humanists. Convinced of the importance of an education based on the orators, poets, and historians, graduates of the schools of Guarino and Vittorino spread the knowledge of the studia humanitatis. When these "old boys" reached positions of authority, they chose other pupils of the famous pedagogues, classmates of lower 271

social rank who had become teachers, to instruct their sons. Guarino and Vittorino helped by recommending their former students for teaching posts. In the way that influence works, humanistically trained masters gained teaching positions and implemented the new curriculum. Humanistic education became established in the 143os, 1440s, and 145os, especially in towns within the orbit of Guarino and Vittorino. The studia humanitatis soon spread throughout northern and north-central Italy.

Numerous fifteenth-century humanists held elementary and secondary school teaching posts. The most ambitious and gifted men went on to become university professors, chancery secretaries, advisers to princes, and curial officials in Rome. Those who published little or lacked the good fortune to win the favor of the powerful remained in the elementary and secondary schools and solidified the triumph of the studia humanitatis.

The careers of students of Barzizza, Guarino, and Vittorino who became teachers illustrate the process. Martino Rizzoni, born circa 1404 in Verona, probably came from the middle ranks of society. He and his brother attended Guarino's school in Verona until their father died in 1424. Because Rizzoni had to earn a living, Guarino found him a post as tutor to a noble family in Venice. When Rizzoni complained that his noble pupils had little interest in studying and that the family treated him like a servant, Guarino encouraged him to persevere. He also persuaded Rizzoni's employer to raise the tutor's salary. Guarino continued to watch over Rizzoni's career, and Rizzoni performed minor scholarly tasks for his mentor. By 1432 Rizzoni had returned to Verona (Guarino having left); there he married and taught as an independent master for the rest of his life. His rising tax payments suggest that his school prospered. He also joined the scholarly circle around Ermolao Barbaro (probably a classmate in Guarino's school), who served as bishop of Verona from 1453 to 1481. Like other humanistic schoolmasters, Rizzoni wrote and delivered a number of nuptial orations and a grammatical work (now lost). He died in 1488.54 Ognibene Bonisoli (Omnibonus Leonicenus) also helped spread the studia humanitatis through his teaching and writing. Born about 1412 in the small town of Lonigo about fifteen miles south of Vicenza and twenty-five miles west of Padua, Ognibene moved to Mantua as a child.55 There he studied with Vittorino da Feltre in the Casa Giocosa, possibly as an indigent pupil supported by the master, from about 1423 to about 1433. His schoolmate Ludovico Gonzaga remained Ognibene's friend long after becoming ruler of Mantua. After completing his schooling, Ognibene went to the Council of Basel, and then to Vicenza, where he ran an independent school and married in or about 1436. He served Ludovico Gonzaga between 1436 and 1438 and taught independently in Treviso in 1440. Ognibene won a communal mastership at the relatively young age of about 29 when the Commune of Treviso ap272

pointed him in January 1441 "to teach grammar and read rhetoric and whichever authors the students require" for five years at a salary of fifty ducats per annum.56 The mention of rhetoric plus his background and scholarly activity confirm that Ognibene taught the studia humanitatis.

Ognibene accepted a communal mastership at Vicenza in 1443. In the next few years he declined offers to join the Venetian chancery and to become the tutor of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, future ruler of Milan (from 1466 to 1476). But when in 1449 Ludovico Gonzaga asked him to come to Mantua to tutor his eldest son and heir, Federico (d. 1484), and to assume leadership of the Casa Giocosa, Ognibene accepted. He remained in Mantua for four years, teaching the historian and humanist Bartolomeo Sacchi (il Platina, 1421-81), among others. Ognibene returned to his post as communal master of Vicenza in 1453 and remained there until his death in 1474. He won the affection of his students for his benevolence and pedagogical skill.

Like Vittorino, Ognibene supported and taught poor pupils at his own expense. Unlike Vittorino, he wrote extensively, becoming a prolific editor, commentator, and translator of the ancient historians, orators, and poets. He translated Plutarch's Lives and works of Xenophon and John Chrysostom from Greek to Latin. A course of study on Quintilian led him to edit the Institutio oratoria (printed in Venice, 1471). He edited and commented on De oratore, De officiis, and various orations of Cicero, plus the Rhetorica ad Herennium. He commented on Sallust and Valerius Maximus among ancient historians, Juvenal, Persius, Ovid, and Lucan among the poets. Finally, he wrote De octo partibus orationis (printed in Venice, 1473, followed by at least three more incunabular editions), a Latin grammar based on Priscian.

By editing and commenting on basic Latin texts used in the schools, Ognibene produced "pedagogical" scholarship. He prepared simple, unadorned paraphrasecommentaries eminently suitable for the classroom. For example, in his commentaries on Sallust and Valerius Maximus, Ognibene briefly identified historical personages, and gave the meaning, often with synonyms, of all nouns and verbs, plus many other words in the text. But he did not present grammatical, rhetorical, etymological, or allegorical explanations. Ognibene gave only enough information to enable teachers and students to read and understand the text literally.

Ognibene's editions, usually ignored by scholars, filled a need at an important point.

Between about 1460 and 1490, humanists produced relatively accurate editions, accompanied by brief commentary, of the classical texts used in the schools. Ognibene and others did the pioneering work of preparing readable versions purged of the worst mistakes of medieval copyists. Although Ognibene's generation knew little of textual criticism, they gave the humanistic movement basic reading editions (soon to be printed) upon which later scholars might improve.

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Ognibene's career typified the way humanism spread. He acquired mastery of his subject and met the political and economic elite of northern Italy in Vittorino's school. He then taught for four years as a court tutor, two to five as an independent master, and almost thirty as communal master. The civic leaders of Treviso and Vicenza hired him to teach; Gonzaga and Sforza princes wanted him as tutor. Ognibene did not forsake local schools for the court, chancery, or university, despite his considerable scholarly accomplishments. Nevertheless, through his teaching, scholarship, and contacts with the powerful, he aided the spread of the humanistic curriculum.57 A strong interest in the humanities for vocational purposes also aided the growth of the studia humanitatis. Over the course of the century, princes and governments, especially the most important in the peninsula, came to want their secretaries and other civil servants to be trained in the humanities. The Venetian Republic founded the Scuola di San Marco in 1446 because La Serenissima wanted humanistically trained secretaries. Rome offers another good example. 58 After a few humanists such as Leonardo Bruni and Poggio Bracciolini found positions in the Roman curia in the first decade of the fifteenth century, many others followed. Applicants with humanistic training had a clear edge in securing employment there from the pontificate of Nicholas V (1447-55) onward.

Thus, a humanistic education helped individuals climb the social ladder. The expanding Roman curia and other chanceries wanted more and more secretaries, abbreviators, and other officials who were well grounded in classical Latin and could write the new humanistic scripts (see ch. II). The posts carried good salaries in their own right and might lead to higher preferment, if the humanist also possessed diplomatic skills and political support. At the very least, a curial or secretarial post offered a secure living and improvement in the family's fortunes.

Such employment and opportunities and the example set by the governments of Florence, Rome, and Venice encouraged parents and communal councils to hire humanistic masters. Parents living far from the metropolitan centers also wanted their sons to have the humanistic training that made advancement possible. One suspects that few youths trained in ars dictaminis and unfamiliar with Cicero's epistles found chancery positions after 145o. Individuals did not need to have law degrees—although such degrees helped—to secure chancery positions, but thorough training in the studia humanitatis beginning in elementary school was a necessity.

As communal councils and parents hired humanistic schoolmasters, the condotte (contracts between employer and teacher) reflected the change in curriculum. The condotte used new terminology to describe the curriculum and listed the teachers who gave effect to it. Masters were expected to teach the Latin orators, poets, and histori274

ans, or grammar, rhetoric, and poetry, plus Greek at times. Eventually the condotte specified which ancient authors and books must be taught. The terminology of medieval learning - auctores, ars dictaminis, speculative grammar, Eva columba, Doctrinale, Boethius, and so on—disappeared. Not being able to sit in their classrooms of long ago, we will never be certain that these teachers taught differently from their medieval predecessors. But a change in terminology indicated a commitment to the new curriculum. And if the new teachers were followers of Guarino and Vittorino, we can be sure that they taught the studia humanitatis.

The lack of a strong ecclesiastical or state presence in pre-university education facilitated the switch to the new humanistic curriculum. Some bishops would have resisted the reading of more pagan authors had they exercised jurisdiction over communal and independent schools. In like manner, church schools, had they been numerous, might have been a formidable force for scholastic inertia. Instead, only a few clergymen (Giovanni Dominici was one) opposed the reading of pagan authors as morally corrupting. Humanists answered that the ancient poets led readers to virtue through their stories of adultery and vice, and humanists carried public opinion (see ch. 9). Since the church as an institution had very few schools and possessed no influence over communal and independent schools, it took no position. The same might be said for princes and republics, who only interested themselves in the few schools and teachers they supported. The lack of overall church and state control over schools allowed individual masters, parents, and city councils to make changes freely and quickly.

The change from medieval to Renaissance schooling can be seen in the extant teacher condotte of towns with ongoing communal schools. In 1376 the Commune of Spoleto (in Umbria) hired a master to teach "correct speech, speculative grammar, logic, and strict rhetoric," a typical late medieval curriculum.59 Spoleto continued to hire masters to teach grammar or in gramaticalibus et poesi in the early fifteenth century (1427). In 1432, a change occurred: the commune hired Pietro da Tolentino to teach grammar, poetry, and oratory (pro scolis in gramaticalibus, poesi quoque et oratoria facultate in civitate gerendis).60 In the absence of additional information we cannot be certain that an unknown teacher in a small town far distant from the humanistic centers of the Veneto or Florence inaugurated a humanistic curriculum at this early date. Nevertheless, the appointment notice signalled the beginning of change.

In 1371 Lucca appointed a certain Antonio da Volterra to teach. The commune described his scholarly accomplishments: he has a doctorate in grammar and logic from Bologna, is an excellent "authorist" (auctoristam optimum), and is expert in philosophy.61 The combination of grammar, logic, auctores, and philosophy indicated a medieval curriculum.

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In 1453 the Commune of Lucca wished to join the humanistic movement by offering a communal mastership to Giovanni Pietro d'Avenza, also called .Gian Pietro da Lucca. Born in 1404 in Avenza, a tiny hamlet about twenty-five miles north of Lucca, Gian Pietro studied with Francesco Filelfo for a short time in Florence, with Vittorino in Mantua, and with Guarino in Ferrara.62 He then taught school, possibly in Brescia, certainly in Verona and Venice. His scholarship included a grammar for school use, orations in which he strongly argued for the studia humanitatis as the key to cultural and civic formation, and extensive study of the works of Caesar and Livy. In 1450 he won the important appointment of master at the Scuola di San Marco, making him the second master to teach there. After an interval of illness in which another master substituted for him, Gian Pietro began at the Scuola di San Marco in 1451 teaching liberal studies (ad legendum studia liberalia).63 Now, in 1453, the Luccans offered Gian Pietro the opportunity to return home.

They offered him one hundred ducats (the same salary he earned in Venice), plus permission to collect supplementary fees, to come to Lucca to teach "oratorical arts, poetry, and letters" ("in magistrum artis oratorie, poesis et literarum").64 Gian Pietro turned them down. The persistent Luccans renewed the offer in 1456, describing the appointment now as "rhetoric and oratorical art, poetry, and Greek and Latin letters" ("rhetoricam et artem oratoriam, poesim et licteras [sic] grecas atque latinas").65 Gian Pietro accepted the offer, but he died in 1457, before he could have had much influence. Nevertheless, Lucca had joined its schools to the humanistic movement.

The Latin schools of other northern Italian towns also became humanistic by the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1446 Foligno appointed a communal master to teach "the rules of grammar, poets, historians, and books appropriate to the ability of the pupils" ("in legendo regulas gramaticales, poetas, historicos et libros convenientes secundum qualitatem auditorum").66 In 1444 or 1449 the Commune of Treviso in the Venetian Dominion hired Filippo da Reggio "to teach grammar to boys and youths in the city of Treviso and to lecture on poetry and rhetoric to all who wish to attend." Moreover, the commune required Filippo "on feast days to lecture publicly on the art of oratory and such authors as his audience desire."67 In 1459 the Commune of Recanati for the first time described the duties of the communal master as "teaching grammar, rhetoric, and poetry" ("legere grammaticam, rhetoricam et poesim").68 And in Modena, also in 1459, a teacher bought a house with the money that he had earned "from lecturing and teaching in schools grammar, the poets, rhetoric, and humanistic authors" ("ex exercitio legendi in scolis et docendi gramaticam, poetas, rethoricam et humanitatis auctores").69

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Foligno, Treviso, and Recanati were not important towns by any definition in the fifteenth century or later. Yet, by the 1450s, they had humanistic communal masters. If such small and obscure towns had adopted the studia humanitatis by the 1450s, it is very likely that the majority, possibly a large majority, of northern and north-central Italian towns taught the humanistic curriculum in their communal schools by the middle of the century. Communal schools had a significance greater than their numbers, because they embodied the educational preference of the town's leaders. Independent teachers could not have been far behind communal masters. The humanists had won. 70 The humanistic curriculum also moved south, although at a slower pace. Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius) recalled his early Latin education in the preface to his Latin grammar of 1501, addressed to teachers. Do not force children to memorize anything except the best authors, Aldo admonished. Of course they must learn inflections by heart, but do not force children to memorize the grammar book. I had to do this as a child, and I forgot everything in a hurry. In the time that students struggle to learn such things as grammar exercises, they could more easily and with greater profit memorize something of Cicero and Vergil. I regret that I could not do this as a child, but had to memorize a stupid work of verses of Alexander on grammar (the Doctrinale of Alexander de Villedieu).7' Manuzio first saw light of day circa 1450, perhaps slightly earlier, in Bassiano, a tiny provincial hill town about fifty miles south of Rome. That Bassiano lacked a humanistic instructor in the late 145os or early 1460s is not surprising. Aldo probably received no humanistic training until he moved to Rome (at an unknown date). There he studied with Gaspare da Verona (c. 1400-1474) and Domizio Calderini (1446-78) either at the University of Rome or in an elementary or secondary school.72 But some provincial towns south of Rome boasted humanistic masters by the early 1470s. Had Aldo been born a few years later in nearby Velletri, twenty-five miles closer to Rome than Bassiano, he could have studied with an excellent humanistic teacher. By 1473 Antonio Mancinelli (14521505), a well-known humanistic pedagogue and author of Latin grammar textbooks, had opened a humanistic school in Velletri.73 Aldo was a little unlucky in his birthplace.

By the end of the fifteenth century, probably nearly all Latin schools in Italy were humanistic and commonly called "schools of oratory, poetry, and grammar" ("scole in arte oratoria, poesi et gramatice").74 Detailed curriculum prescriptions made the humanistic direction even clearer. For example, the Commune of Lucca in 1499 ordered its communal teachers to teach daily "a grammatical author, an historian, an orator or a book of epistles, a poet, and the rudiments of Greek" ("uno autore grammatico, uno historico, uno oratore overo uno libro di epistole, uno poeta et li eroti277

mati greci").75 Lucca renewed these instructions in 1524, 1546, and 1574, in identical or very similar words.76 A few remnants of medieval schooling lingered. In 1498 the Commune of Pistoia instructed its communal master to teach grammar, rhetoric, arte oratoria, poetry, and Greek, but also "something or part or all of speculative grammar," if the pupils so wished.77 In the following year the commune ordered the master to teach daily the Doctrinale of Alexander de Villedieu, in addition to the standard Cicero and Vergil.78 Moreover, almost all humanistic schools retained Donatus and the Disticha Catonis for teaching beginning Latin grammar and reading.

These were small exceptions. Italian pedagogues had effected a curriculum revolution, one of the few in the history of Western education, in the relatively short time of about fifty years - 1400 to 1450. They solidified their triumph by 1500. Boethius, Graecismus, Facetus, Theodulus, and the rest of the curriculum authors gave way to Cicero, Terence, and Caesar. The studia humanitatis replaced ars dictaminis. The auctorista disappeared; the humanist took his place.

Notes 1. The term comes from Curtius, 1963, pp. 48-54.

2. This list is a composite one based on the evidence in Manacorda, 1914, vol. 2:338-77; Thorndike, 1971, pp. 141-43, 169, 246, 304; Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 91-103; Curtius, 1963, pp. 42-45, 48-54, 260-64; Bolgar, 1964, pp. 197-200, 208-23; and Orme, 1973, pp. 88-93, 1025. Baebler, 1885, provides excerpts from and information on many of the grammars and glossaries.

3. Reichling, 1893, ch. 1, p. 8, 11. 29-37.

4. ee Reichling, 1893, for the critical edition. On pp. cixix—ccciii, Reichling lists 267 fifteenthand sixteenth-century printings of the Doctrinale, of which only 46 (17 percent) were Italian imprints. The printing of other medieval curriculum authors, except Donatus and Cato, followed the same pattern. They were often published in the rest of Europe but seldom or never in Italy.

5. Curtius, 1963, pp. 261-62; Billanovich, 1965, pp. 143-55.

6. Garin, ed., 1958, p. 92; Orme, 1973, pp. 103-4.

7. The following is based on Banker, 1971 and 1974; J. Murphy, 1981, pp. 194-268; Faulhaber, 1978; Ward, 1978; and Witt, 1982, 1983a, and 1986.

8. Petti Balbi, 1979, pp. 61-62, 131, 149.

9. The following is based on Giovanni Conversino's autobiography, Rationarium vite (probably written 1396-140o), printed in Sabbadini, 1924, pp. 12-13, 23-24, 132. Garin, ed., 1958, pp.

1o6-11, quotes key sections of the Rationarium vite. See Conversino da Ravenna, 198o, pp.

13-30, for a good summary of Giovanni's life.

10. For the text, see Varese, ed., 1955, pp. 27-28; or Garin, ed., 1958, p. 72. On Dominici, see Denley, 1981.

11. "et volentibus audire tragedias, virgilium, lucanum, terentium, et similles poetas et auctores ultra esopum, prosperum, ovidium, heroidum et boetium duc. IJ in anno pro quolibet." Bellemo, 1888, pp. 49-50.

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12. Although concerned with university level instruction and, perhaps, overstating the importance of the classics in the medieval curriculum, Wieruszowski, 1971, esp. pp. 589-627, contains much useful information on the teaching of the classics in thirteenth- and fourteenthcentury Italy.

13. Zama, 1920, p. 55. For additional information on mid- and late-Trecento Latin schools confirming the above, but without lists of textbooks, see Zanelli, 1900, pp. 9, 16-21, 25, 30 — 32, 115, 118; and Barsanti, 1905, pp. 109, 112, 211, 212.

14. "Ab ipsa pueritia, quando ceteri omnes aut Prospero inhiant aut Esopo, ego libris Ciceronis incubui." Senili XV.I, as quoted in Garin, ed., 1958, p. 91.

15. See Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 91-92, 103-4, for some of the humanistic attacks on the curriculum authors. For one of Valla's attacks, see ch. 7 herein.

16. The fundamental study is Vergerio, 1934, pp. xi—xxx, for his life. For Vergerio and civic humanism, see Baron, 1966, pp. 126-34. On his birth date, see Baron, 1977, pp. 602-4, 614—25.

17. Robey, 198o, pp. 56-57.

18. For the Latin text see Vergerio, 1917, pp. 95-154. Garin, ed., 1959, pp. 57-112, provides an Italian translation, and Woodward, 1963, pp. 93-118, a free English translation. My interpretation depends on my own reading of the text but has been influenced by Garin, 1957, pp. 12732, and Robey, 1980.

19. For the Latin, see Robey, 198o, p. 3o. The translation is mine.

20. For the Latin texts and Italian translation, see Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 146 —69 (Bruni), 198 — 295 (Piccolomini), 434-71 (Battista Guarini). For free English translations of the treatises of Bruni, Piccolomini, and Guarini, see Woodward, 1963, pp. 118 —78. For the text of Vegio's treatise, see Vegio, 1933-36. Also see Horkan, 1953.

21. Guarino, 1967, vol. 1:263, letter of 19 September 1419; also Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 326-29.

For the first half of the quoted section, I follow the English translation of Grafton and Jardine, 1982, p. 53; the rest is mine. On Salerno, see Cavedon, 1983.

22. Guarino, 1967, vol. I, pp. 136-38, letter of 1417; Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 319-23.

23. Guarino, 1967, vol. I, pp. 397-402, letter of 8 June 1424; Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 334-43.

24. Sabbadini, 1914, pp. 381-407.

25. J. Murphy, 1981, pp. 357-63.

26. Institutio oratoria I. preface.9—10, in Quintilian, 1966-69.

27. De oratore I.2.5.

28. Reynolds, 1965, esp. pp. 112-15.

29. Duff, 196o, vol. 2:179-86.

30. The story is still best followed in Sabbadini, 1914, who provides a wealth of extracts from contemporary sources so that the reader can follow the path of discovery and experience the excitement. Also see Sabbadini, 1967; and Reynolds and Wilson, 1974, pp. 116, 118, 12023; and Bracciolini, 1974, for English translation of some of the letters announcing the discoveries.

31. This is a well-known story. See, in particular, Baron, 1938b; Baron, 1966, pp. 121-29; and Fryde, 1980. For Barzizza, see Mercer, 1979; and Pigman, 1981.

32. "Eodem modo ad prima studiorum delibamente his annis propinanda non difficillimas orationes non asperos artificii locos sed facile quoddam et planissimum dicendi genus delegi, quod suavissimo verborum ordine et leni sententiarum pondere lectorem alliciens prosit atque iuvet.

Nonnullas enim decerpsi Ciceronis epistulas, in quibus ille puri et facetissimi sermonis stilus exprimitur. . . ." Sabbadini, 1914, pp. 32, 52-59, quote on p. 58.

33. Guarino, 1967, vol. 2:581-84, quote on p. 582, letter of 30 August 1452; also Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 416-21. I am grateful to Erika Rummel, who suggested this translation.

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34. Curtius, 1963, ch. 14, esp. pp. 247-48, 259. For Guarino's use of Cicero in his school, see Sabbadini, 1964b, pp. 36-37, 59-65, 84-86; and Battista Guarino's De ordine docendi et discendi in Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 452-59, 462-65; and in Woodward, 1963, pp. 169-72.

35. For a recent assessment of the importance of Ciceronian style to the Renaissance, see D'Amico, 1983, pp. 123-43.

36. For this very brief summary of a large topic, I have relied on Cammelli, 1941; Weiss, 1977, esp. chs. I, II, 14, and 15; Setton, 1956; Reynolds and Wilson, 1974, pp. 105-7, 130-41; and Monfasani, 1976.

37. 0n Travesi (c. 1350-1418), see Rossi, 1901.

38. Mercer, 1979, pp. 24-28, 38-39, 44-45, 132-37.

39. Ibid., passim. Pigman, 1981, sees Barzizza as somewhat more humanistic than Mercer.

40. The following is based on Sabbadini, 1964a and b; Woodward, 1968, pp. 26-47; Garin, 1967, pp. 69-106. For an iconoclastic view, see Grafton and Jardine, 1982.

41. ". . . elligerit Rhetoricam legere, Epistolas et Orationes Tullianas et alias facultates que ad elloquentiam pertineant docere et alia que fuerint auditoribus placita et utillia omnibus adolescentibus et maioribus civitatis et districtus Verone." Printed in Garin, ed., 1958, p. 486.

42. Carbone's oration is printed in Garin, ed., 1952, pp. 382-4177 especially pp. 390-91.

43. For Guarino's part of the exchange, see ibid., pp. 314-77.

44. "ad studendum in arte Oratoria sub doctissimo viro Guarino Veronensi." The youth's name was Lodovico fu Giovanni de Bonisio. ASV, Collegio, Notatorio, R. 8, fol. 161r, 18 June 1452. I owe this reference to the kindness of Susan Connell.

45. A large bibliography, which cannot be listed in its entirety here, exists on Vittorino da Feltre. Contemporary biographies and descriptions of his school are found in Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 504-718. Also see Platina, 1948. Good summary accounts are found in Woodward, 1963, pp. 1-92; Mantova. Le Lettere, 1962, pp. 5-52; and the papers in Vittorino e la sua scuola, 1981.

46. Nardi, 1971, p. 48.

47. Zaccagnini, 1926, pp. 72-73.

48. Mercer, 1979, pp. 15-16.

49. Ibid., p. 106. In a letter to a male relative, possibly an uncle, of a student, Guarino seemed to imply that the cost of his boarding school at Verona in 1423 was also "forty pieces of gold [ducats?]." "De re pecuniaria vero parva sane cura; nec me aurei XL movent; vestra imprimis omnium rectissima voluntas movet, cui ut morem geram incredibiliter ardeo." Guarino, 1967, vol. 2:366, letter of I June 1423, Verona.

50. Mercer, 1979, pp. 106-7, 121-24, 168.

51. Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 13 vols. (Turin,1961-86), 4:994.

52. Mercer, 1979, p. 106.

53. For example, on 6 October 1418, Guarino wrote to a friend, Paolo de Paolinis, then a professor at Florence, inviting him to join him in his boarding school in Venice. Guarino promised neither fine food nor luxurious accommodations, but intimacy and companionship with Guarino and his students in the joyful common enterprise of learning. In the middle of his elegant invitation, Guarino wrote: "Utinam tibi tam aurum argentumque polliceri possem, quam iocundum contubernium amoenumque convictum." Guarino, 1967, vol. 1:205.

54. Marchi, 1965-66. Guarino's twenty-four surviving letters to Rizzoni and one of Rizzoni's letters are found in Guarino, 1967, vols. 1 and 2.

55. For the following, see Serena, 1912, pp. 68-72, 142, 327-3o; Sansonetti, 1952, pp. 17174; and Ballistreri, 197o. The fifteenth-century biographers of Vittorino usually mention Ognibene; see Garin, ed., 1958, pp. 604-5, 672, 675.

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56. ". . Grammaticam docere, legereque Rectoricam, ac quoscunque auctores reguisierant audientes. . ." Serena, 1912, p. 68.

57. 0ne might cite other teachers as well. Antonio Baratella (c. 1385 —1448) studied with Barzizza, then taught as an independent and communal master at Padua, Pirano, Venice, Belluno, and Feltre (Ziliotto, 1963). Giorgio Valagussa of Brescia (1428-64) studied with Guarino at Ferrara, became tutor to the sons of Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan, and composed a Ciceronian phrase book with Italian translation for school use and other works (Resta, 1964). Gian Pietro da Lucca, discussed below, was another.

58. For employment and advancement opportunities for humanists in the papal curia, see D'Amico, 1983, ch. 1 and p. 67.

59. ". . . nostrae civitatis pueros et juvenes per excellentes Magistros disciplinarum praesertim recte loquentis gramaticae speculative loycae intentisque rhetoricae volumus erudiri. . . ."

Fausti, 1943, p. 32.

60. Ibid., pp. 34, 106.

61. "Et alias habuit in commissione de conducendo pro lucano cumuni [sic] unum peritissimum virum qui doctoratus est in Bonomia in gramaticalibus et logicalibus, auctoristam optimum et in philosophia peritum et aliis facultatibus. . . ." Barsanti, 1905, p. 212. Antonio da Volterra taught at Lucca from 1371 to 1379, but nothing more is known about him. Barsanti, 1905, p. 240.

62. See Sforza, 1870; Segarizzi, 1915-16a, p. 643; Barsanti, 1905, pp. 122-24, 175, 241; Labalme, 1969, p. 98; Ross, 1976, p. 562; Cortesi, 1981a and b; Marchi, 1981, p. 291.

63. See the document printed in Sforza, 1870, p. 403.

64. Document printed in ibid., p. 404.

65. Document printed in ibid., p. 406.

66. Zanelli, 1899, p. 103.

67. ". . . ad docendum gramaticam pueros et adolescentes in Civitate Tarvisii et legendum poesiam et rethoricam omnibus audire volentibus." "Item dictus magister Philipus singulis diebus festivis teneatur legere publice artem oratoriam et auctores pro libito auditorum." Serena, 1912, pp. 331, 332. For an English translation, see Thorndike, 1971, pp. 339, 340. There is some confusion about the date of the contract and when Filippo began teaching. Serena, 1912, pp. 74, 331, states that he began teaching in 1449; Thorndike gives the date as 1444. The document appears to be a contract of 1449 which repeated the original date and language of an offer that Filippo first declined in 1444.

68. Borracini Verducci, 1975, p. 131.

69. Vicini, 1935, p. 69. Arezzo also appears to have made the transition to a humanistic curriculum at this time. Guglielmo di Giovanni da Francia taught as the communal grammarian there from 1440 to 1447, from 1458 to 1465, and from 1473 until his death in 1477. Guglielmo wrote Latin verse in a humanistic manner and demonstrated a knowledge of classical antiquity.

It is likely that he taught the studia humanitatis. Black, 1987, pp. 218-19.

70. A change in terminology shows that the studia humanitatis came to some universities at about this time. In 1435 students at the University of Pavia petitioned the Duke of Milan to hire Baldassar Rasinus to teach the studia humanitatis: "For in this city there are many youths who are exceedingly eager to cultivate those studies which they call humanist (istis studiis, que humanissima vocant) if they might have a wise preceptor of the art of oratory and the sweetness of sacred poetry. . . . Wherefore, most humane prince, since here in our midst is the eminent man Baldassar Rasinus, most famous in the art of speaking, who from earliest years has devoted himself to humanistic studies (studiis humanitatis). . . ." Codice diplomatico, 1971, vol.

2, pt. I, p. 347; for the English translation, see Thorndike, 1971, p. 312. In 1440-41, the Univer281

sity of Bologna appointed Giovanni Lamola (c. 1407-49), a former student of both Guarino and Vittorino's, "Ad lecturam rethorice et poesie et studiorum humanitatis." Dallari, 1888 — 1924, vol. 1.1 5.

71. "Aldus Manutius Romanus literarii ludi magistris" ofJune 1501, in Manuzio, 1501, sigs.

Ar—A2r and reprinted in all subsequent editions that I have 'examined. The preface also appears in Manuzio, 1975, vol. 1:39-40, vol. 2:224-26.

72. Lowry, 1979, pp. 48-49.

73. Sabbadini, 1878. See ch. 7 herein for more on Mancinelli.

74. From a Luccan communal decree of 1492 in Barsanti, 1905, p. 214.

75. Printed in ibid., p. 215.

76. Ibid., pp. 220, 225-27, 232.

77. "Item accie che gli scolari introducti habbino ridocto et possino volendo come a loro para imparare a fare pistole, versi, arte oratoria, ortografia, grecho e qualunque cosa o parte o tucto di gramatica speculativa, provviddeno et hordinorono che decto Maestro principale sia tenuto fare residentia alla Scuola. . . ." Capitoli for the communal masters of 1498 printed in Zanelli, 1900, p. 145. The rest of the capitoli makes amply clear the humanistic orientation of the Pistoia schools.

78. "Teneatur dictus magister legere in dictis suis scolis doctrinale et nullomodo omictere. . . ."

Capitoli of 1499 printed in Zanelli, 190o, p. 147; also see p. 76. Like the instruction, the document employed medieval rather than classical orthography.

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Laura Cereta, Defense of the Liberal Instruction of Women LETTER TO BIBULUS SEMPRONIUS: A DEFENSE OF THE LIBERAL INSTRUCTION OF WOMEN My ears are wearied by your carping. You brashly and publicly not merely wonder but indeed lament that I am said to possess as fine a mind as nature ever bestowed upon the most learned man. You seem to think that so learned a woman has scarcely before been seen in the world. You are wrong on both counts, Sempronius, and have clearly strayed from the path of truth and disseminate falsehood. I agree that you should be grieved; indeed, you should be ashamed, for you have ceased to be a living man, but have become an animated stone; having rejected the studies which make men wise, you rot in torpid leisure. Not nature but your own soul has betrayed you, deserting virtue for the easy path of sin.

You pretend to admire me as a female prodigy, but there lurks sugared deceit in your adulation. You wait perpetually in ambush to entrap my lovely sex, and overcome by your hatred seek to trample me underfoot and dash me to the earth. It is a crafty ploy, but only a low and vulgar mind would think to halt Medusa with honey. You would better have crept up on a mole than on a wolf. For a mole with its dark vision can see nothing around it, while a wolf's eyes glow in the dark. For the wise person sees by [force of] mind, and anticipating what lies ahead, proceeds by the light of reason.

For by foreknowledge the thinker scatters with knowing feet the evils which litter her path.

I would have been silent, believe me, if that savage old enmity of yours had attacked me alone. For the light of Phoebus cannot be befouled even in the mud. But I cannot tolerate your having attacked my entire sex. For this reason my thirsty soul seeks revenge, my sleeping pen is aroused to literary struggle, raging anger stirs mental passions long chained by silence. With just cause I am moved to demonstrate how great a reputation for learning and virtue women have won by their inborn excellence, manifested in every age as knowledge, the [purveyor] of honor. Certain, indeed, and legitimate is our possession of this inheritance, come to us from a long eternity of ages past.

[To begin], we read how Sabba of Ethiopia, her heart imbued with divine power, solved the prophetic mysteries of the Egyptian Salomon. And the earliest writers said that Amalthea, gifted in foretelling the future, sang her prophecies around the banks of 283

Lake Avernus, not far from Baiae. A sibyl worthy of the pagan gods, she sold books of oracles to Priscus Tarquinius. The Babylonian prophetess Eriphila, her divine mind penetrating the distant future, described the fall and burning of Troy, the fortunes of the Roman Empire, and the coming birth of Christ. Nicostrata also, the mother of Evander, learned both in prophecy and letters, possessed such great genius that with sixteen symbols she first taught the Latins the art of writing. The fame of Inachian Isis will also remain eternal who, an Argive goddess, taught her alphabet to the Egyptians.

Zenobia of Egypt was so nobly learned, not only in Egyptian, but also in Greek and Latin, that she wrote histories of strange and exotic places. Manto of Thebes, daughter of Tiresias, although not learned, was skilled in the arts of divination from the remains of sacrificed animals or the behavior of fire and other such Chaldaean techniques. [Examining] the fire's flames, the bird's flight, the entrails and innards of animals, she spoke with spirits and foretold future events. What was the source of the great wisdom of the Tritonian Athena by which she taught so many arts to the Athenians, if not the secret writings, admired by all, of the philosopher Apollo? The Greek women Philiasia and Lasthenia, splendors of learning, excite me, whο often tripped up, with tricky sophistries, Plato's clever disciples. Sappho of Lesbos sang to her stone-hearted lover doleful verses, echoes, Ι believe, of Orpheus' lyre or Apollo's lute. Later, Leontia's Greek and poetic tongue dared sharply to attack, with a lively and admired style, the eloquence of Theophrastus. Ι should not omit Proba, remarkable for her excellent command of both Greek and Latin and whο, imitating Homer and Virgil, retold the stories from the Old Testament. The majesty of Rome exalted the Greek Semiamira, [invited] to lecture in the Senate on laws and kings. Pregnant with virtue, Rome also gave birth to Sempronia, who imposingly delivered before an assembly a fluent poem and swayed the minds of her hearers with her convincing oratory. Celebrated with equal and endless praise for her eloquence was Hortensia, daughter of Hortensius, an oratrix of such power that, weeping womanly and virtuous tears, she persuaded the Triumvirs not to retaliate against women. Let me add Cornificia, sister of the poet Cornificius, to whose love of letters so many skills were added that she was said to have been nourished by waters from the Castalian spring; she wrote epigrams always sweet with Heliconian flowers. I shall quickly pass by Tulliola, daughter of Cicero, Terentia, and Cornelia, all Roman women whο attained the heights of knowledge. I shall also omit Nicolosa [Sanuto] of Bologna, Isotta Nogarola and Cassandra Fedele of our own day. All of history is full of these examples. Thus your nasty words are refuted by these arguments, which compel you to concede that nature imparts equally to all the same freedom to learn.

Only the question of the rarity of outstanding women remains to be addressed.

The explanation is clear: women have been able by nature to be exceptional, but have chosen lesser goals. For some women are concerned with parting their hair correctly, adorning themselves with lovely dresses, or decorating their fingers with pearls and 284

other gems. Others delight in mouthing carefully composed phrases, indulging in dancing, or managing spoiled puppies. Still others wish to gaze at lavish banquet tables, to rest in sleep, or, standing at mirrors, to smear their lovely faces. But those in whom a deeper integrity yearns for virtue, restrain from the start their youthful souls, reflect on higher things, harden the body with sobriety and trials, and curb their tongues, open their ears, compose their thoughts in wakeful hours, their minds in contemplation, to letters bonded to righteousness. For knowledge is not given as a gift, but [is gained] with diligence. The free mind, not shirking effort, always soars zealously toward the good, and the desire to know grows ever more wide and deep. It is because of no special holiness, therefore, that we [women] are rewarded by God the Giver with the gift of exceptional talent. Nature has generously lavished its gifts upon all people, opening to all the doors of choice through which reason sends envoys to the will, from which they learn and convey its desires. The will must choose to exercise the gift of reason.

[But] where we [women] should be forceful we are [too often] devious; where we should be confident we are insecure. [Even worse], we are content with our condition.

But you, a foolish and angry dog, have gone to earth as though frightened by wolves.

Victory does not come to those who take flight. Nor does he remain safe who makes peace with the enemy; rather, when pressed, he should arm himself all the more with weapons and courage. How nauseating to see strong men pursue a weakling at bay.

Hold on! Does my name alone terrify you? As I am not a barbarian in intellect and do not fight like one, what fear drives you? You flee in vain, for traps craftily-laid rout you out of every hiding place. Do you think that by hiding, a deserter [from the field of battle], you can remain undiscovered? A penitent, do you seek the only path of salvation in flight? [If you do] you should be ashamed.

I have been praised too much; showing your contempt for women, you pretend that I alone am admirable because of the good fortune of my intellect. But I, compared to other women who have won splendid renown, am but a little mousling. You disguise your envy in dissimulation, but cloak yourself in apologetic words in vain. The lie buried, the truth, dear to God, always emerges. You stumble half-blind with envy on a wrongful path that leads you from your manhood, from your duty, from God. Who, do you think, will be surprised, Bibulus, if the stricken heart of an angry girl, whom your mindless scorn has painfully wounded, will after this more violently assault your bitter words? Do you suppose, O most contemptible man on earth, that I think myself sprung [like Athena] from the head of Jove? I am a school girl, possessed of the sleeping embers of an ordinary mind. Indeed I am too hurt, and my mind, offended, too swayed by passions, sighs, tormenting itself, conscious of the obligation to defend my sex. For absolutely everything-that which is within us and that which is without-is made weak by association with my sex.

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I, therefore, who have always prized virtue, having put my private concerns aside, will polish and weary my pen against chatterboxes swelled with false glory. Trained in the arts, I shall block the paths of ambush. And I shall endeavor, by avenging arms, to sweep away the abusive infamies of noisemakers with which some disreputable and impudent men furiously, violently, and nastily rave against a woman and a republic worthy of reverence. January 13 [1488] LETTER TO LUCILIA VERNACULA: AGAINST WOMEN WHO DISPARAGE LEARNED WOMEN I thought their tongues should have been fine-sliced and their hearts hacked to piecesthose men whose perverted minds and inconceivable hostility [fueled by] vulgar envy so flamed that they deny, stupidly ranting, that women are able to attain eloquence in Latin. [But] I might have forgiven those pathetic men, doomed to rascality, whose patent insanity I lash with unleashed tongue. But I cannot bear the babbling and chattering women, glowing with drunkenness and wine, whose impudent words harm not only our sex but even more themselves. Empty-headed, they put their heads together and draw lots from a stockpot to elect each other [number one]; but any women who excel they seek out and destroy with the venom of their envy. A wanton and bold plea indeed for ill-fortune and unkindness! Breathing viciousness, while she strives to besmirch her better, she befouls herself; for she who does not yearn to be sinless desires [in effect] license to sin. Thus these women, lazy with sloth and insouciance, abandon themselves to an unnatural vigilance; like scare-crows hung in gardens to ward off birds, they tackle all those who come into range with a poisonous tongue. Why should it behoove me to find this. barking, snorting pack of provocateurs worthy of my forebearance, when important and distinguished gentlewomen always esteem and honor me? I shall not allow the base sallies of arrogance to pass, absolved by silence, lest my silence be taken for approval or lest women leading this shameful life attract to their licentiousness crowds of fellow-sinners. Nor should anyone fault me for impatience, since even dogs are permitted to claw at pesty flies, and an infected cow must always be isolated from the healthy flock, for the best is often injured by the worst. Who would believe that a [sturdy] tree could be destroyed by tiny ants? Let them fall silent, then, these insolent little women, to whom every norm of decency is foreign, inflamed with hatred, they would noisily chew up others, [except that] mute, they are themselves chewed up within. Their inactivity of mind maddens these raving women, or rather Megaeras, who cannot bear even to hear the name of a learned woman. These are the mushy faces who, in their vehemence, now spit tedious nothings from their tight little mouths, now to the horror of those looking on spew from their lips thunderous trifles.

One becomes disgusted with human failings and grows weary of these women who 286

[trapped in their own mental predicament], despair of attaining possession of human arts, when they could easily do so with the application of skill and virtue. For letters are not bestowed upon us, or assigned to us by chance. Virtue only is acquired by ourselves alone; nor can those women ascend to serious knowledge who, soiled by the filth of pleasures, languidly rot in sloth. For those women the path to true knowledge is plain who see that there is certain honor in exertion, labor, and wakefulness. Farewell. November 1 [1487]

SOURCE: M. King and A. Rabil, Her Immaculate Hand (Binghamton, N.Y.: MARTS, 1983), pp. 81-86. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

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Leonardo Bruni, Praises Petrarch’s Rekindling of Antiquity (1404) [Niccolo Niccoli says] "Now since I have said, I think, enough about Dante, let us say a few things about our Petrarca, although the excellence of such a man would not be satisfied with a few praises. But I beg that you listen to me as to a man insufficiently suited for speaking, especially since, as you all see, I must speak extemporaneously and completely without any consideration beforehand." Pietro replied: "Proceed, Niccolo. We are not unacquainted with your ability, which we have just experienced in your commendation and defence of Dante, for you omitted no topic of praise." Niccolo proceeded: "When, as I said before, I had traveled to Padua to transcribe the books of our Petrarca, not many years after his death, I often met those men who were his good friends while he was alive. From them I obtained such an acquaintance with his character that it was almost as if I had seen him myself although previously I had heard the same from the very venerable and learned theologian, Luigi. They all, then, declared that in Petrarca there had been many things worthy of praise, but three especially; for they said he had been very handsome, and wise, and the most learned man of his age.

All these things they attested with witnesses and reasoned arguments. But let us say nothing of his good looks and wisdom, since they regard his personal life. I do not suppose you have failed to hear of his dignity, moderation, integrity, moral purity and other outstanding virtues; but as I say, let us pass over these as private matters. However, since he left it for us all let us consider his learning and the reasoning by which they showed that our Petrarca excelled in this as well. When they praised his learning, then, they said that Francesco Petrarca was to be set before all the puets who preceded him. Beginning with Ennius and Lucretius they ran on to our own times in such a way that whatever poet they adduced was shown to have been brilliant in some one genre.

The work of Ennius, Lucretius, Pacuvius and Accius consisted of poems, but none of them wrote any prose worth being praised. Petrarca, though, left beautiful poems in elegant verse, and many books in prose. So great was his genius that he equaled the best poets with his poetry and the most learned orators with his prose. When they had shown me his poems-heroic, bucolic, familiar-they brought forth as testimony to his prose many books and epistles; they showed me exhortations to virtue, censures of vice, and many things which he wrote about cherishing friendship, about loving one's country, about the ordering of states, about disdaining fortune, about the cor rection of character. From this it was easy to perceive that he had abundant learning. Moreover, his genius was so accommodated to every type of composition that he did not refrain 288

from the popular sort of writing; in this, as in the others, he appears most elegant and eloquent.

"When they had shown me this they asked me if I had anyone from all antiquity who could prove a match for such praises, to bring him forward; but if I could not do so, and had no one equally proficient in every genre, I should not hesitate to set my fellow citizen before all the most learned men up to this day.

"I do not know how it seems to you, but I have now touched upon just about all the points they used to establish Petrarca's cause. Since their arguments struck me as excellent I agreed with them and persuaded myself that such was the case. But will those foreigners think this way, while we are cooler in praise of our fellow citizen? Shall we not venture to honor him for his merits, especially when this man restored liberal studies, which had been extinguished, and opened the way for us to be able to learn? And perhaps he was the first to bring the laurel to our city. But the book to which he most applied himself is not much approved. Who is so severe a critic as not to approve it? I should like him to be asked on what grounds he does this; although if there were anything in the book which could be condemned, that would be because death had prevented Petrarca's polishing it thoroughly. But his bucolics have no pastoral flavor. I do not think so, however; for I see everything stuffed with shepherds and flocks-when I see you."

When everyone laughed at this, Niccolo added: "I am speaking because I heard some people making such charges against Petrarca: don't think I have any part in them.

But since I had heard them from certain people, I repeated them to you yesterday, for the reason you now know. And so now it pleases me to rebut not myself since I was pretending-but the silly fools who really thought that. What they say, about preferring one poem of Virgil's and one epistle of Cicero's to all the works of Petrarca, I often turn around this way: I say that I far prefer an oration of Petrarca's to all the epistles of Virgil, and the poems of Petrarca to all the poems of Cicero. ‌ "Bruni on Petrarch's Rekindling of Antiquity" in L. Bruni, "Dialogue to Pier Paolo Vergerio" in D. Thompson and A. Nagel, eds. Three Crowns of Florence: Humanist Assessment of Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio, Harper Torch, 1972, pp. 48-51. Reprinted by permission of the editors.

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Coluccio Salutati, Letter to Ceretina di Messer Vieri di Donatino D’Arezzo I know, Caterina, beloved daughter in Christ, that it arouses suspicion when a man writes to a woman, especially to a young one, and, committed to the worldly life as she is, one with whom he might hope to have contact.2 The same slanders have been made about the most holy women when they have written to very devout men. However, not only my age - for I am now in my sixty-eighth year - exempts me from such charges, but more than this a right conscience and a sincere intention. This being so, I do not fear the tongues or depraved thoughts of those imagining evil in everything. Therefore, I write to advise you, so that you might look at yourself; so that I might attempt to recall you to the road of salvation, to reason, and to your God whom you have left at such a distance. If God grants this - and he will if you have not entirely abandoned yourself to perverted ideas - I will be responsible for giving you a holier life, one full of glory and honor.

You may be a bit superior to other women in having some notion of letters; you may have seen Seneca and other, lowly authors and cite them. But do not flatter yourself that you are adorned with eloquence or that you possess secular learning, which in God's eyes is foolishness. Believe me, you are indeed far from both. You can boast of this among simple women and those who are not properly educated in these studies. If you encounter something of moral or poetic significance, do not think that it is automatically a sure basis for truth. For you say: O fortune envious of strong men!

This is not the assertion of the Tragic Poet but rather of the crowd, the chorus!

Why do you, woman, complain about fortune? Why do you blame it for your crime or your guilt as you do? You are badly instructed in the art of organizing a speech according to the nature and condition of the listener. You dare accuse fortune to me? You are not speaking to simple women who follow what you say with sighs, tears, and fawning acquiescence. Divine Providence, which is fortune, ruling and governing all things, and your precious mother, of whom you are unworthy, dedicated you to God, delivered you to him, and consecrated you in the most holy fashion as the bride of Christ. Had you sincerely followed this rule of life as your vow demands, and, laying aside the trifles probably learned with your natural genius in the convent, had you devoted yourself to love of God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your powers as is fitting and as we are commanded-had you done these things you would not have left the cloister. You 290

would not have wandered over the earth, moved by unfulfilled desires, notorious, ridiculed, and despised like the daughter of Inachus who was turned into a cow, according to the poets. Now, however, warned by heaven, as you say, you have returned home, or rather to the cradle of your exile; for if you do not know it, this world is an exile, a way, not a homeland. Rather, our sublime home is Jerusalem, the vision of peace, the eternal and immeasurable fullness of peace that passes all understanding. I want you to long for this true home, to direct yourself toward it, to prepare yourself for it, so that you do not disgrace your bridegroom. You labor in the vain confusion of the world, burdened with passions, fouled by infinite evil deeds.

Hear, I pray, the voice of your bridegroom! For he calls you and others: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you. Bear my yoke upon you and learn from me because I am mild and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is pleasant and my burden light." By returning reconcile yourself with him whom you offended by leaving. See how sweetly he calls you. See how humanely he encourages you. See what he promises: refreshment and rest for your soul!

O if you would decide to return to him! O if you could see the difficulties that await you on your present path! If you do not know, worse than incest, more serious than debauchery is the marriage that you so ardently desire. Although you call it marriage, you cover a crime with this name. You are not able to be the legitimate wife of another.

When you embrace this man, whoever he shall be, you will know that you embrace not your husband but a fornicator, an adulterer. I beg you not to listen to those who advise you badly, with a view to bodily delights. This approval, this flattery will not lead you to peace of mind or serve your honor but, rather, will bring you to infamy, confuse your mind, and vex your body.

Return to your husband, your beloved, your king! Leaving your depraved path of passion, let the winter and rainstorms of your labors pass, so that you will merit hearing His sweetest voice: "Arise, hasten, my love, my dove, my fair one, and come." You will merit being called "love" when, abandoning the world, you shall resolve to follow Christ. You will deserve the name "dove" when it can be truly said that you have vomited the gall of passion. You will indeed be fair when, devoted to the spirit, you do whatever you do for God's sake. Then you will hear what Christ added many words later: "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come, my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the cave under the cliff; show me your face, let your voice sound in my ears; for your voice is sweet and your face comely." Your husband calls for you to show him your face, that is, your works, in the clefts of the rock and the cave under the cliff, that is, in the cloister and in the monastery built of stones. Your voice sounds in his ears with frequent prayers and devotions. Do not enter into the depravity and incest that you call marriage, but allow yourself to be brought back to the cloister, not to the service of a man 291

but of Christ, not to carnal delights but to the joy and happiness of the spirit. Believe me, Caterina, the more things of carnal nature are possessed and known, the more they burden, the more they afflict. Things of the spirit give more pleasure, the more they are possessed; the more they are known, the more they are loved.

I will make an end here although my mind is alive with many thoughts and the subject demands that a good deal more be said. But I must consider my other obligations and you, unless you are otherwise disposed, should not be afflicted further. Farewell and be happy. And you will fare well if you open your ears to my sincere and salubrious warnings and meditate on them. Florence, May 14 [1399].

1. The Latin original of this letter is found in Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati, 3:337-41. I am deeply indebted to Nova ti's detailed notes in making my own.

2. On the death of her father, under strong pressure from her mother, Caterina di messer Vicri became a nun of Santa Chiara in Montepulciano at the age of eleven. Her mother's motives are unclear, but Caterina herself seems to have had no religious vocation. Consequently, when an occasion presented itself she fled the convent and presumably left Tuscany. Because she already enjoyed some reputation for intellectual gifts rarely recognized in women of the time, her flight probably received wide attention. After wandering for a time, however, she resolved to return home, to marry, and to have children. She wrote Salutati, obviously hoping for some kind of approval of her intention from the leading Italian intellectual. Instead the old man roundly rebuked her. Undaunted, Caterina married within a short time and began to raise her family. After a few years, wishing to have her offspring recognized as legitimate, she appealed to the pope to have her childhood vow annulled. A favorable decision was rendered by a papal representative in Arezzo in 1403.

SOURCE: B. Kohl and R. Witt, eds., The Earthly Republic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978), pp. 115-118. Reprinted with permission of University of Pennsylvania Press.

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S E C T I O N 11

Grafton & Jardine, Women Humanists: Education for What?

In the last chapter we examined the way in which the ideals envisaged and propaganda claims made by a charismatic humanist teacher for his educational programme have to be scrutinised carefully before they can serve as evidence of the actual social and political impact of the studia humanitatis in fifteenth-century Italy. In the present chapter we turn from the teacher to the pupil, and specifically to a pupil who fails to meet implicit standards of ‘suitability’ as a candidate for such a training.

From such a case, we shall argue, one gains valuable additional information and the limitations of the humanist liberal arts education as a general education, suitable for any cultivated person.

Somewhere between 1443 and 1448 he distinguished teacher Lauro Quirini,1 a former pupil of Guarino’s, addressed a letter of advice to the humanist Isotta Nogarola of Verona.2 He was responding to a request from her brother for guidance on appropriate reading for an advanced student of the studia humanitatis in the technical disciplines of dialectic and philosophy: Your brother, Leonardo … asked me some time ago if I would write something to you, seeing that at this time you are devoting extremely zealous study (as he terms it) to dialectic and philosophy. He was anxious for me to impress upon you, in most solid and friendly fashion, which masters above all you ought to follow in these higher disciplines.3 Quirini prefaces his detailed suggestions for study with an elaborately dismissive paragraph in which he is at pains to point out that to the learned humanist with a real command of classical Latin (among whom he numbers Isotta, some of whose writing he has been shown), all study of dialectic and philosophy must appear uncouth and clumsy: For you, who have been thoroughly instructed in the most polished and excellent art of discourse, and who find that elegance in orating and suavity of speech come naturally, you are able of your own accord to expect the greatest perfection in eloquent speech. But we semi-orators and petty philosophers have most of the time to be content with mean speech -generally inelegant. 4

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He insists, however, that Isotta Nogarola should not therefore be misled by difficulty for its own sake, even though 'now especially we pursue that philosophy which in no way concerns itself with felicity of expression' (earn enim hoc potissimum tempore philosophiam sequimur, quae nullum sequitur florem orationis). 5 Technical scholastic dialectic is to be vigorously avoided: I absolutely insist, and I place the weight of my authority behind this, that you avoid and shun the new philosophers and new dialecticians as men minimally schooled in true philosophy and true dialectic, and that furthermore you harden your heart against all their writings. For they do not teach the approach to the old tried and tested discipline of dialectic, but they obscure the clear and lucid path of this study with goodness knows what childish quibbles, inextricable circuities and pedantic ambiguities. And. while seeming to know a great deal, they distort the most readily intelligible matters with a kind of futile subtlety. So that, as the comedian would say, 'they find a knot in a bullrush' ['make difficulties where there are none' (Plautus, Terence)]. On which account, having been diverted by these obstacles, they are unable to aspire to the true philosophy, in which indeed, although they wish to seem sagacious debaters, they let slip the truth, as the old saying goes, with excessive cross-examination.6 According to Quirini the source of genuine understanding of dialectic and philosophy remains Aristotle (whose texts veram et elegantem philosophiam continent 'contain true and elegant philosophy'). And for a clear grasp of the sense of Aristotle's philosophical works he directs Isotta away. from the newfangled, towards less pretentious expositors: Let me instruct you which authors you should follow. Read studiously the celebrated works of learned Boethius, easily the most acute of men, and fully the most knowledgeable. Read, that is, all those treatises which he composed with erudition on the art of dialectic, and the dual commentaries he published on Aristotle's Categories and De interpretatione, the first for understanding the texts, the second as an examination of the higher art. In these you will be able to find the pronouncements of almost all the most relevant and reliable of the Greek commentators. 7 Having mastered dialectic with Boethius, Isotta should proceed to Aristotle's moral philosophy, and thence to mathematics, natural philosophy and metaphysics. Since she has no Greek, Quirini suggests the Arab commentators (in their Latin versions), as providing the best access to the nuances of Aristotle's texts. In spite of their 'barbarity', Averroes and Avicenna are preferable in this respect to any of the 'new' philosophers - a sign, incidentally, that Quirini takes Isotta 's intellectual aspirations entirely seriously. 8 To these he adds Thomas Aquinas. However, Quirini concludes, in 294

the end the Roman historians and moralists, and supremely Cicero himself, will add the final gloss and lustre to Isotta 's grasp of higher learning, and the lessons in life it provides.

This leads him to round off his letter with a eulogy of philosophy as the supreme guide to virtuous conduct - bonae artes and right living go hand in hand: For nothing is more seemly than philosophy, nothing more lovely, nothing more beautiful, as our Cicero was wont to say; and I may perhaps add, more properly, nothing more divine in matters human. For this is the single, most sacred discipline, which teaches true wisdom and instructs in the right manner of living. Whence it comes about that to be ignorant of philosophy is not simply to go through life basely, but also ruinously. Accordingly, throw yourself wholeheartedly, as they say, into this one matter. For I wish you to be not semilearned, but skilled in all the liberal arts (bonae disciplinae), that is, to be schooled in the art of discourse, and in the study of right debating, and in the science of things divine and human.9 Quirini's letter articulates a mature humanistic position on the type of rigorous study of language and scientia appropriate to eloquentia. But although the advice is standard, even commonplace, the circumstances in which it is given are unusual. It was not customary for a woman to pursue advanced humanistic studies. Indeed Leonardo Bruni’s well-known letter to Battista Malatesta of some forty years earlier explicitly states that while the bonae artes are an appropriate occupation for a noblewoman (the favourite analogy is that it keeps their fingers out of mischief, like spinning or needlework),10 public proficiency in advanced studies is indecorous: There are certain disciplines which while it is not altogether seemly to be entirely ignorant of, nevertheless to ascend to the utmost heights of them is not at all admirable. Such are geometry and arithmetic, on which if too much time and energy is expended, and every subtlety and obscurity pursued to the utmost, I shall restrain you by force. And I shall do the same in the case of Astronomy, and perhaps in the case of Rhetoric. I have said this more reluctantly in the case of this last, since if ever there was anyone who has bestowed labour on that study I profess myself to be of their number. But I am obliged to consider many aspects of the matter, and above all I have to bear in mind who it is I am addressing here. For why exhaust a woman with the concerns of status and epichiremata, and with what they call crinomena and a thousand difficulties of rhetorical art, when she will never see the forum? And indeed that artificial performance which the Greeks call hypocrisis, and we call prommliatio (which Demosthenes maintained to rank first, second and third, such was its importance), as it is essential to performers, so it ought not to be pursued by women at all. For if a 295

woman throws her arms around while speaking, or if she increases the volume of her speech with greater forcefulness, she will appear threateningly insane and requiring restraint. These matters belong to men; as war, or battles, and also contests and public controversies. A woman will not, therefore, study any further what to speak either for or against witnesses, either for or against torture, either for or against hearsay evidence, nor will she busy herself with loci communes, or devote her attention to dilemmatic questions or to cunning answers; she will leave, finally, all public severity to men.11 'Cultivation' is in order for a noblewoman; formal competence is positively unbecoming. Presumably it is because encouraging her higher studies might be considered improper that Quirini insists at the beginning of his letter of advice to Isotta that it is specifically at the request of her brother (her father being dead) that he offers such advice.

So in the case of Quirini's letter to Isotta Nogarola we have familiar sentiments about the moral desirability of humanistic education, addressed to an unusual student - one of whom it can be said with certainty that full competence as a humanist would probably be construed as unbecoming, if not immoral. It is because this particular conjunction must concentrate our minds so remarkably well on the question of what 'moral' might possibly mean in the context of humanistic education that we choose it as the focus for this second chapter. It gives us striking additional information to bring to the general question (in relation to students of either sex): What was humanist education envisaged as an education for?

As we saw in the last chapter, propaganda documents issued by humanists on behalf of their emerging educational programme (epistles of advice, introductions and prefaces to texts and translations, epideictic orations for deceased humanist pedagogues) consistently (like Quirini 's exhortation above) make the identity of humanist eloquence and moral integrity - right living - automatic and self-evident. Ludovico Carbone's funeral oration for Guarino is a masterly example of the form, and is particularly pertinent to the present consideration of the humanism of Isotta Nogarola, which moves very much in the shadow of the great teacher's influence: 12 It was shameful how little the men of Ferrara knew of letters before the arrival of Guarino. There was no one who even understood the basic. principles of grammar, who understood the propriety and impact of words, who was able to interpret the poets, let alone who was learned in the art of oratory, who professed rhetoric, who was competent to speak gravely and elegantly and dared to do so in public. Priscian was lost in oblivion, Servius was unheard of, the works of Cicero were unknown, and it was considered miraculous if someone mentioned Sallust, or Caesar, or Livy, or if anyone aspired to understand the an296

cient authors. At forty our citizens were still occupied with childish studies, still struggling and embroiled with the rudiments, until the liberal arts had been reduced entirely to ruins. But after a propitious star had brought this divine individual to Ferrara, there followed an extraordinary transformation in competence ... From all quarters they came to listen to that most felicitous voice, so that one might call him another Theophrastus (of whom it is said that his teaching attracted at least two thousand scholars). No one was considered noble, no one as leading a blameless life, unless he had followed Guarino's courses. So that in a short space of time our citizens were led out of the deepest shadows into a true and brilliant light, and all suddenly became eloquent, learned, elegant and felicitous of speech. 13 The equation is unashamedly explicit: Guarino brought literary studies to Ferrara; literary studies transformed men overnight into paragons of virtue. All the detail is about grammar and oratory, all the evaluations concern 'leading a blameless life'.

Good grammarians lead blameless lives.

Quirini's letter of advice to Isotta Nogarola is heavily ornamented with this assumed equivalence of proficiency in humane letters and personal virtue. What makes his insistence on this conventional humanist equation interesting is that, as applied to advanced studies in relation to a woman's life, it lacks the comfortably self-evident quality of equivalent set-pieces addressed to men. Leonardo Bruni's view, in the passage we cited, that the virtuous woman should not pursue indecorously advanced studies, is typical not just of the humanist educators, but of generations of scholars and historians of humanism. Garin's footnote to this passage in his Italian abridgement of the text states firmly that 'the exaltation of ethico-political studies (which are concerned with the vita civile) evidenced in Bruni's treatise is the keynote in all early humanist pedagogy'; he then adds that Bruni would obviously not advocate pursuit of rhetorical studies to a noble woman, since she clearly ought not to be concerned with its 'excessive use, above all in a practical sphere'.14 The Latin letters which make up the two volumes of Isotta Nogarola's Opera testify eloquently to the intriguing social and practical difficulties which arise when it comes to extolling the virtue inseparable from eloquence of a female humanist. In 1436 Guarino was sent some of the Nogarola sisters' compositions (lsotta's and her sister Ginevra's) by Jacopo Foscari. Guarino replied with a letter of studied and effusive praise for their scholarly achievement and their manifest virtuousness. Their learning and their virtue brought glory to their native city, Verona (which happened also to be Guarino's): On this above all I bestow my admiration: such is the likeness of each sister's expression, such the similarity of style, such the sisterhood of writing and indeed 297

the splendour of both their parts, that if you were to remove the names Ginevra and Isotta you would not easily to be able to judge which name you should place before which; so that anyone who is acquainted with either knows both together. Thus they are not simply sisters in birth and nobility of stock, but also in style and readiness of speech.

Oh the glory indeed of our State and our Age! Oh how rare a bird on earth, like nothing so much as a black swan! If earlier ages had borne these proven virgins, with how many verses would their praises have been sung, how many deserved praises from truly unstinting authors would have consigned them to immortality! We see Penelope consecrated in the verses of the poets because she wove so well, Arachne because she spun a most fine thread, Camilla and Penthesilea because they were female warriors. Would they not have honoured these modest, noble, erudite, eloquent women, would they not sing their praises to the skies, would they not rescue them from the clutches of oblivion, by whatever means they please, and preserve them for posterity?15 Here the virtue of the Nogarola sisters is characterised in two ways, neither of them 'civic': first, the sisters are indubitably virgins (Ginevra in fact fades from the scene when she marries);16 secondly, they are represented as sisters in spirit to various magnificent women of classical antiquity. Humanists - male humanists - praising the Nogarola sisters liken them routinely to Sappho, Cornelia, Aspasia, Portia:17 figures also invoked in defence of the education of women by Bruni in his epistle to Battista Malatesta.18 Guarino's figurative selection of 'active' virtuous women is a particularly elegant literary ploy: Penelope and Arachne, spinners of exquisitely fine yarns, Camilla and Penthesilea, seductive Amazons and conquerors of entire male armies, deflect his compliments from any awkwardness over the public visibility of (real) women! The strategy of all such compliments is the same: they shift the focus of praise away from the engaged and civic (women speaking publicly), making figurative purity and iconic Amazon valour the object of attention. These are what brings glory to humanism, and to Verona for nurturing such distinction.

This method of celebrating the Nogarolas' virtue is essentially an evasion of the conventional humanist tactic of identifying the virtue of humanism with morality in the market place. And -as in the case of Bruni - this evasion in the sources is compounded in the scholarly secondary literature. In his Vita di Guarino Veronese, Sabbadini describes how Guarino chose to send Leonello d'Este copies of the pieces he had been sent by Foscari, during an absence from Ferrara, as follows: 19 How should he spend his time away? In correspondence. But Guarino did not want to send an empty vessel, so he included some fruits of the Verona school not those which nourish the body, but rather those which provide fruit for the 298

soul. And those fruits issued from the intellects of two Veronese virgins, the Nogarola sisters, Isotta and Ginevra ... These two women are among the most characteristic products of the Renaissance. In them for the first time, humanism was married with feminine gentility, especially in the case of Isotta, who remained in this respect unsurpassed. With the Nogarola sisters the Guarinian strain of humanist pedagogy reached its culmination. 20 Sabbadini takes it for granted that the glory bestowed by Isotta and Ginevra on the school of Guarino derives from their figurative presence (as emblems of virtue rather than as real female performers on the public and professional stage). This is touchingly revealed in a later comment. Discussing abusive attacks on Isotta (to which we shall come shortly), he says that these were probably the work of jealous women, rather than of men, since 'envy is a peculiarly feminine passion'.21 Real women are not the shining examples into which Guarino transforms the Nogarola sisters.

It proved almost impossible in practice, as it turns out, to sustain the equivalence of Isotta Nogarola's humanistic competence and her supreme virtuousness as a woman.

Two exchanges of letters make this clear. The first is the exchange between Isotta and Guarino, preluded by the letter of praise from which we have just quoted (the exchange for which Isotta is remembered in histories of humanist education). Guarino's enthusiasm for Isotta's and Ginevra's compositions, expressed in a number of letters to male humanist colleagues and pupils, encouraged Isotta to write to him directly. Guarino failed to answer the letter.22 At this point the social precariousness of Isotta's position as a humanist scholar becomes evident. lsotta was driven to write a second letter to Guarino, in which she positively begged for a response from the master. And the reason she gives is that her unanswered letter (publicly sent, publicly unanswered) compromises her as a woman. A woman of marriageable age has written an articulate (even pushy) letter, unsolicited, to a man of distinction. He has ignored her, and by so doing has exposed as illusory the notional 'equality' and 'free scholarly exchange' between them. In her first letter Isotta had expressed in entirely conventional terms her anxiety that, coming from a woman, her writing might be considered presumptuous -garrulous, a woman speaking out of turn: Do not hold it against me, if I have transgressed those rules of silence especially imposed on women, and seem scarcely to have read that precept of Vergerio's, which warns against encouraging articulateness in the young, since in plentiful speech there is always that which may be censured. And Sophocles too called silence a woman's greatest ornament. 23 In the absence of a reply from Guarino, convention has become a reality. Guarino's silence confirms Isotta's forwardness:

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'You have treated me wretchedly, and have shown as little consideration for me as if I had never been born. For I am ridiculed throughout the city, those of my own condition deride me. I am attacked on all sides: the asses inflict their bites on me, the oxen attack me with their horns' [Plautus]. Even if I am most deserving of this outrage, it is unworthy of you to inflict it. What have I done to be thus despised by you, revered Guarino?24 'S[a]epissime ... venit in mentem querifortunam meam, quoniamfemina nata sum' (How often ... does it occur to me to lament my fortune, because I was born a woman), exclaims Isotta. 25 The second epistolary exchange of interest to us here involved Isotta and Damiano Borgo.26 Borgo had apparently challenged Isotta with the familiar claim that women outdo men above all in talkativeness. Isotta responded by claiming that to make such an accusation was to condemn all women on the strength of a few, and she challenged Borgo to maintain this view once he had considered the many examples of women who outdo both other women and all men 'in every kind of virtue and distinction': Consider Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, for eloquence; Amesia, who publicly pleaded to packed assemblies with most prudent speech; Afrania, wife of the senator Lucinius Buco, who argued the same kind of cases in public. Did not Hortensia do the same? Did not Sappho overflow with the perfection of her verses? Portia, Fannia and the rest are celebrated in the verses of countless most learned men. Take note of Camilla whom Turnus so the poet tells, supported with such honour. Did not Tamyris, Queen' of the Scythians, massacre Cyrus, King of the Persians, and his entire army, so that indeed no witness survived to tell of so great a defeat? Did not the Amazons build a state without men? Did not 'Marpesia, Lampedo and Orithia conquer most of Europe and some states in Asia too, without men? For they were so strongly endowed with virtus [valour/virtue] and with remarkable military skill, that to Hercules and Theseus it seemed impossible to bring the forces of the Amazons under their rule.

Penthesilea fought manfully in the Trojan wars in amongst the strongest Greeks, as the poet testifies:

Penthesilea in fury in the midst of her thousands, rages.

Since this is so, I ask you whether you will grant that rather than women exceeding men in talkativeness, in fact they exceed them in eloquence and virtue.27 Here improper talkativeness is replaced by proper 'eloquence and virtue', and Isotta maintains that it is in these latter that women outdo men. But the rhetorical means to this end is an appeal once again to ancient female figurative virtus to displace so300

cial improprieties. Once again, also, the actual precariousness of Isotta's own position is the most obvious feature of such an argument. 'Virile' argumentative ability and 'Amazon-like' independence from men may make nice points in arguing for the appropriateness of female humanistic education. But they can all too readily be seen in a 'real-life' context as a socially indecorous absence of modesty and due deference, if not as a real social threat - the proverbial husband-beating shrew.28 Isotta's Amazon citations are taken almost verbatim from Justin, and it is striking that in incorporating the example of Tamyris she herself tacitly acknowledges the awkwardly threatening possibilities of such illustrations -she stops short where Justin embellishes the story of Cyrus' defeat (exacted by Tamyris to avenge the death of her only son at Cyrus' hands): Having hacked off Cyrus' head, Queen Tamyris hurled it into a vat filled with human blood, at the same time exclaiming with cruel venom: 'Sate yourself with blood, you who were always thirsty and insatiable for it.'29 Triumphant warrior-women all too easily become voracious, man-eating monsters.

As it happens, Isotta's own fortunes poignantly illustrate the awkward 'moral' predicament of the unusually able, educated woman. (And once again, that awkwardness is common to her personal history and to the secondary literature upon it.) In 1438, a year after Isotta's difficult exchange of letters with Guarino, an anonymous pamphleteer addressed an invective against the vices of Veronese women (a popular brand of formal vituperatio). In it, having lashed out in conventionally Juvenalian fashion at female immodesty, vanity and promiscuity, he singled out the women of the Nogarola family for special blame. In a passage now much-quoted by feminist historians, he imputes to Isotta a sexual deviancy to match (according to his account) the grotesqueness of her public intellectual self-aggrandisement: She who has acquired for herself such praise for her eloquence behaves in ways utterly inconsistent with so much erudition and such a high opinion of herself: although I have believed the saying of numerous very wise men, 'the woman of fluent speech [eloquentem] is never chaste', which can be supported by the example of the greatest number of learned women ... And lest you are inclined to condone even in the slightest degree this exceedingly loathsome and obscene misconduct, let me explain that before she made her body generally available for uninterrupted intercourse, she had first submitted to, and indeed earnestly desired, that the seal of her virginity should be broken by none other than her brother, to make yet tighter her relationship with him. By God! ... [What inversions will the world tolerate], when that woman, whose most filthy lust knows no bounds, dares to boast of her abilities in the finest literary studies. 30

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The charge of incest is, of course, pure libellous invention, although, unfortunately, male scholars since the contemporary Veronese humanist Barbo have seen fit to leap to Isotta's defence as if the accusations might possibly be in earnest. The charge that she is unchaste challenges the view that as a woman she can be a prominent humanist and remain a right-living person ('the woman of fluent tongue is never chaste'). It is a studied part of the pamphleteer's contention that in Verona women regularly step out of line (are domineering), and that this is evidence of Verona's general decadence and erosion of morals. When Sabbadini maintains, in his account of the Nogarola sisters' importance, that 'the fruits of the Verona school ... issued from the intellects of two Veronese virgins ... In them for the first time, humanism was married with feminine gentility, especially in the case of Isotta, who remained in this respect unsurpassed', we cannot help thinking that he too bonds Isotta's chastity with her acceptability as a humanist. Isotta is 'unsurpassed', her hymen intact until death; the bastions of Ginevra's humanist competence were penetrated at her marriage.

When a woman becomes socially visible - visible within the power structure - Renaissance literary convention makes her a sexual predator. We need only compare, for example, Boccaccio's influential Renaissance rendering of the story of Semiramis, the ancient Queen of the Assyrians. Boccaccio celebrates Semiramis among 'illustrious' women for successfully ruling in her son's place during his minority, thus preserving his patrimony: It was almost as if she wanted to show that in order to govern it is not necessary to be a man, but to have courage. This fact heightened that woman's glorious majesty as much as it gave rise to admiration in those who looked upon her. 31 Then he deftly topples her manly valour into predatory sexuality: But with one wicked sin this woman stained all these accomplishments worthy of perpetual memory, which are not only praiseworthy for a woman but would be marvellous even for a vigorous man. It is believed that this unhappy woman, constantly burning with carnal desire, gave herself to many men.32 As in the case of lsotta, the heinousness of the sexual offence is intensified by its involving incest: Semiramis, it is claimed, had sexual intercourse with that very son whose power interests she had substituted for (one might remark that as Semiramis seized priority over her first-in-line son, so Isotta publicly obtrudes over her technically 'prior' brother).

So the charge against Isotta Nogarola is conventional. But that charge and the public humiliation of Isotta it effected does direct our attention to the problem of a mature woman who obtrudes herself, in her own right, beyond the bounds of social decorum. Her rank might have entitled her to be a modest patron of learning; it did not 302

entitle her to participate actively within the public sphere.33 When female patrons of this period write to female humanists it is striking how insistently they dwell on the celebratory and decorative nature of their scholarly aptitude - female patron and female scholar alike add lustre (they argue) to male achievement. 34 Isotta and her family were away from Verona for three years from 1439 to 1441. After their return, Isotta no longer corresponds with other scholars as brilliant student of secular learning (virilis animi, learned 'beyond her sex'). Instead she is 'most learned and most religious'; doctissima becomes sane ta virgo, dignissima virgo, pia virgo.35 Her correspondents extol her for her Christian piety, her deep commitment to sacred letters. And they celebrate her celibacy, rather than her chaste purity. Not surprisingly, the 'illustrious women' with whom she is now compared are Mary and her mother Anna, the loved woman of the Song of Songs ('Pulchra es amica mea et macula non est in te').36 Indeed Isotta's later male correspondents insist in a rather depressing and unhealthy way on the special importance in God's eyes (or perhaps their own) of her celibate state as confirmation of the admirable nature of her studiousness. 37 Isotta withdrew entirely from public view and became a virtual recluse in her family home (there are signs that her brothers were not entirely delighted with having to support a deliberately celibate sister as well as an aged mother).38 According to her nineteenth-century biographer Abel, Isotta totally renounced her secular studies, became a mystic and a saint, and devoted the remainder of her life to God. This is a version of events which feminist historians embrace, because it suggests 'thwarted ambitions', and the poignancy of a potentially brilliant career stifled by oppressive patriarchal intervention. But we need to be just as cautious at this point in Isotta's history as at earlier points at which critical prejudice obviously biased its telling. The letter¡ of advice from Quirini on the advanced secular studies of logic and philosophy with which we opened this chapter dates from well after the return to Verona. The letters testifying to Isotta 's asceticism, on the other hand, are all those of her 'mentor', Ludovico Foscarini (lsotta 's letters to him do not survive).39 Foscarini's correspondence with Isotta certainly depends for its propriety on the assumption that there could be no carnal involvement intended, so his insistence on Isotta 's saintliness and spirituality is part of the strategy for 'coping' with a female scholar (even so, Abel claims a passionate love affair between the two).40 The point is, whatever her continuing interest in the studia humanitatis, there was no public outlet for Isotta 's secular training once she became a mature woman, and there never had been, even before the libel of 1438.

So let us return to our general theme: Can we sustain historically the humanist propaganda claim that virtue and right living are the direct products of fifteenthcentury humanist studies? The current view of the English-speaking scholarly com303

munity is that they were not, that a work like Vergerio's De ingenuis moribus 'does not lend itself readily to a civic interpretation as formulated by Saitta and Garin, and followed by many recent historians of humanism'.41 But the critics of Saitta and Garin go on to say that if humanism provided an education in grammar and rhetoric which did not prepare its students morally for civic life, then it must have been a 'pure' intellectual training. When Vergerio writes that liberal studies are a preparation 'for every life' and 'for every kind of man', they argue, he means that studies are an end in themselves, a way of each individual's realising his full potential as a human being.

Isotta Nogarola 's life shows us that this is not in fact the case. Certainly educators like Vergerio (and remember Isotta shows knowledge of Vergerio's treatise in one of the letters we used above) insist on the general civilising effect of the bonae artes without specifying either a moral or a civil context to which their training is attached. In other words, the educational programme of the humanist pedagogues is not job-specific. But the value attached to humanist studies does depend upon a particular ideology, and in this important sense it is firmly tied to its civic context. It is for precisely this reason that Isotta Nogarola failed to 'achieve', in spite of having access to humanist studies, as did others who failed to notice the tight interconnectedness between the status of the bonae artes as a training and the political establishment and its institutions (other women, and those of inappropriate rank). 42 Ad omne genus hominum, 'for every type of person', has to be read out as 'for every appropriately well-placed male individual'. 'Opportunity', that is, is a good deal more than having ability, and access to a desirable programme of study. It is also being a good social and political fit for the society's assumptions about the purpose of 'cultivation' as a qualifying requirement for power.

If humanism has been of its nature tightly 'civic', then as a woman Isotta Nogarola would never have had the support of the community of distinguished humanist scholars and teachers in her pursuit of humanist studies. But equally, if humanism had really set as its highest goal the pursuit of learning for its own sake, she would not have disappeared so decisively from secular scholarly view in the mature years of her life - years in which she continued to excel in those studies. She could continue an excellent student of humanism in private, but she could not be publicly supported as 'virtuous' in doing so.

What we are stressing is that the independence of liberal arts education from establishment values is an illusion. The individual humanist is defined in terms of his relation to the power structure, and he is praised or blamed, promoted or ignored, to just the extent that he fulfills or fails to fulfill those terms. It is, that is, a condition of the prestige of humanism in the fifteenth century, as Lauro Martines stresses, that 304

'the humanists, whether professionals or noblemen born, were ready to serve [the ruling] class. The most apolitical of them could be drawn into the political fray'.43 The fortunes of a gifted woman embarked on the humanist training show vividly how a programme with no explicit employment goals nevertheless presupposes those goals, and how the enterprise of pursuing secular humanist studies can be regarded as morally laudable (a 'virtuous' undertaking) only where achieving that goal is socially acceptable. A woman, as Bruni so eloquently insisted, was not available to be drawn into the public fray to marshal the morality of humanism in the service of the State in the fifteenth century. She could not argue politically in public without appearing indecorous; she could not even pronounce publicly without risking appearing 'threateningly insane and requiring restraint'.44 Study, for her, consigned her to marginality, relegated her to the cloister. Because she could not enter the public arena, by virtue of her sex, Isotta Nogarola withdrew, figuratively and emotionally, from public intellectual intercourse to the nearest thing she could contrive to a secular cloister her 'book-lined cell'.45 Isotta Nogarola, striking as her case is, is by no means unique among female pupils for whom the great fifteenth-century humanists served as teachers or mentors, and whose femaleness set them (and, in the eyes of historians of humanism, has continued to set them) awkwardly apart from their male counterparts. To consolidate our argument that the careers of such women are illuminating for our understanding of humanism as a movement in fifteenth-century Italy, let us turn to another surviving correspondence, this time between the learned Cassandra Fedele of Venice and the distinguished male humanist Politian.46 In about 1491 (47) Angelo Poliziano began a correspondence with Cassandra Fedele, a learned young woman already noted in humanist circles for her ability as a Latinist.48 Fedele initiated this exchange of letters by addressing to Politian a letter of admiration - a suit for the great man's attention, and the established way of laying a claim to a place in the circle of erudite humanist scholars in the period. That letter is now lost, but an equivalent one addressed to Pico in 1489 survives, and gives us a good idea of the tone of Fedele's bid for intellectual recognition:49 Although I had for a long time had the intention of writing to you, yet I was almost deterred by the renown of your divine gifts (described by many, and above all by Lactantius Thedaldus, most distinguished herald of your praises) and had rather determined to remain speechless than to appear deficient in brilliance and merely femininely pleasing when celebrating your achievements. But after your Lucubrationes, most rich in words and ideas, had been brought to me recently by that best of men, Salviatus, and I had often read them avidly, and had become acquainted with your intellectual skill and singular learning from them, 305

I feared lest I might be reproved by many unless I celebrated your unheard-of gifts to the best of my feeble ability to all men, by whom you are held to be a miracle, you are praised and you are revered, especially as a result of the dissemination of your works. Because in those works are contained fine phrasing, most serious meaning, brilliance, divine sublimity of interpretation, and finally, all things cohere harmoniously by divine influence. 50 Fedele here combines a display of Latinity with an indication of her serious and informed scholarship - she has already read Pica's latest theological work - and an extravagantly flattering exclamation of praise (which continues for a further half page), for the virtue, glory and honour of the age which Pica's intellect represents. We may take it she wrote similarly to Pica's friend and colleague Politian.

Politian, who claims already to be familiar with Fedele's work and reputation (he had probably seen the letter Pico had received, and heard of her widely acclaimed performance in a public oration in 1487), 51 replied with an extended, set-piece panegyric on her peculiarly womanly achievement. This letter was followed by a visit to the Fedele household in June 1491, 52 during a trip to Venice with Pico. In public terms, the attention meant that Fedele's accomplishment was recognised in the Florentine humanist community, to which she was admitted, notionally, as a member. 53 What was this group of which she had become a member? Well, essentially, it was a gentlemen's club of noble or nobly-connected scholar-courtiers, who depended upon the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici. 54 When Politian reported back to Lorenzo, after the visit to Fedele's family home, he did so in terms of Fedele's gracious and courtier-like acceptance of an invitation to become part of his entourage (or at least to be associated with his court), an invitation extended by Lorenzo in the form of a greeting: Item. Yesterday evening I visited that learned Cassandra Fedele, and I greeted her, Excellency, on your part. She is a miraculous phenomenon, Lorenzo, whether in the vernacular or in Latin; most modest, and to my eyes also beautiful. I departed stupefied. She is a great admirer of yours, and speaks of you most knowledgeably, as if she knew you intimately. She will come to Florence one day, in any case, to see you; so prepare yourself to honour her.55 Most historians broadly agree that by the later decades of the fifteenth century the continuing support for humanism of the increasingly totalitarian Florentine ruling house tended to push scholarly energies to the margins of real political debate, and into 'contemplative' rather than 'active' studies providing ornamental and propaganda proof of the civility and moral probity of the regime, rather than technical expertise in politics and government. Lauro Martines, who on the whole takes issue with those Italian historians of the school of Baron and Garin who characterise hu306

manism as 'civic' and politically influential in the late trecento and early quattrocento, points out that on the late decades of the quattrocento he and they are in broad agreement. Pooling his own and Garin's views, he comments on Politian himself: 'He lives and works in a time when the new [humanistic] culture is no longer an operative force in the city, in that very Florence of humanistic merchants and chancellors, now transformed into mere courtiers and professors, often courtierprofessors'. The new type of chancellor, still a humanist, lost his political influence during the middle decades of the fifteenth century and became 'a solemnly haughty administrator like Bartolomeo Scala'.56 In this setting, the rhetoric of humanism represents the power of Latinity and eloquence as actual power - as meshed with civic activity in a close and influential relationship. But individual humanists are increasingly pursuing the recondite and arcane in scholarship as an end in itself. We might instance Politian's own dedication to Greek studies and textual problems in the last years of his life as evidence of this increasing tendency of humanists retained in official posts by those in power to busy themselves with erudition for its own sake.

The point of drawing attention to this unsignalled flight from political engagements to grateful courtiership at the time of the exchange of letters between Politian and Cassandra Fedele is that Fedele gained admission to a club which could not afford to recognise the implications of the fact that a woman could become a member. In a period which afforded no power to a woman in her own right, a woman's achievement in a sphere which supposedly stood in some active relation to power could not be allowed to stand as woman's achievement.57 This, at least, is the explanation we offer for the fact that Politian assiduously mythologises Fedele into 'not-woman': into an emblem of humanistic achievement which avoids confronting her sex as a problem.

Politian's first letter to Fedele, his laudatio of female scholarly accomplishment, opens with a passage from Virgil's Aeneid (a passage which becomes, fascinatingly, a virtual synecdoche for the whole of Fedele's surviving reputation in later secondary literature on her):58

O decus ltaliae virgo, quas dicere gratis quasve referre parem (O virgin, glory of Italy, what thanks shall I try to utter or repay).59

In the Aeneid this exclamation of rapt admiration is addressed to Camilla, supremely virtuous Amazon warrior-maiden, whose appearance at the end of the procession of protagonists rallied against Aeneas fills Turnus with rapture:60

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A warrior-maid, never having trained her woman's hands to Minerva's distaff or basket of wool, but hardy to bear the battle-brunt and in speed of foot to outstrip the winds. She might have flown o'er the topmost blades of unmown corn, nor in her course bruised the tender ears ... 61 Politian's celebration of Cassandra proceeds self-consciously to sustain the same tone of wonder. This accomplished practitioner of the studia humanitatis is a latter-day paragon of 'manly' virtue (manly because active and productive; virtuous because employed in those studies associated with probity of character): What an astonishing impact it must make upon us, truly, that it was possible for such [letters] to be produced by a woman - what do I say, a woman? By a girl, rather, and a virgin. It shall therefore no longer be the exclusive privilege of antiquity to boast of their Sybils and their Muses, the Pythagoreans of their female philosophers, the Socratics of their Diotima, of Aspasia; and neither will the relics of Greece proclaim those female poets, Telesilla, Corinna, Sappho, Anyte, Erinna, Praxilla, Cleobulina and the others. Now we shall readily believe the Roman account of the daughters of Laelius and Hortensius, of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, as matrons of surpassing eloquence. Now we know, truly by this we know, that your sex has not after all been condemned to slowness and stupidity. 62 And still in the vein of Camilla he exclaims: But truly in our age, in which few men indeed raise their head to any height in letters, you, however, stand forth as the sole girl who handles books in place of wool, a reed pen instead of vegetable dye, a quill pen instead of a needle, and who instead of daubing her skin with white lead, covers paper with ink. 63 Politian's enthusiasm culminates in an outburst of personal desire actually to confront this paragon of female virtue - a passion which, remember, precedes his ever having set eyes upon her. So vividly has he conjured up the warrior-maiden from her literary productions that her physical person, like her intact virginity, is vividly present to him in them: O how I should like to be transported where I might actually contemplate your most chaste visage, sweet virgin; if I might admire your appearance, your cultivation, your refinement, your bearing; if I might drink in your pronouncements, inspired into you by your Muses, as it were with thirsty ears; so that, finally, infused with your spirit and inspiration I might become most consummate Poet,

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Not Thracian Orpheus, not Linus shall vanquish me in song though his mother be helpful to the one, and his father to the other, Calliope to Orpheus and fair Apollo to Linus.64 Here the personal homage -the cult of the virgin goddess -culminates in the final invocation of the Fates/the poet to the harbinger of the Golden Age (the return of the virgin Astraea, the age of the infant king):

aspice venluro laeienlur ut omnia saeclo! omihi tum longae maneat pars ultima vitae, spirilus et quantum sat erit tua dicere facta (Behold, how all things exult in the age that is at hand! O that then the last days of a long life may still linger for me, with inspiration enough to tell of thy deeds!)

From Camilla, warrior-maiden, Cassandra Fedele (practising Latinist) has become virgin Muse, object of poetic cult, herald of the Golden Age.65 Encouraged by the significant amount of attention accorded by Politian to herself as a female scholar, and on the strength of some verbal commitment made by Politian during his visit to pursue the intellectual contact they had established, Fedele again wrote to Politian. This time he failed to reply. Perhaps the actual exchange of letters and views with the real girl ranked rather low on his list of intellectual priorities.66 After a suitable wait she wrote again, this time a poignant letter of reproach; and in 1493 Politian replied, with a letter which keeps perfect decorum with the topos of 'lament' (woman abandoned) of her second letter.67 Politian claims as his excuse that her intellectual performance on the occasion of his visit has left him absolutely tongue-tied - incapable of utterance. He makes this state allusively vivid with another quotation from the Aeneid, this time a passage from Book Three. Aeneas recounts to Dido the tale of his encounter with Andromache, whom he found passionately weeping and lamenting on her dead husband Hector's tomb. Aeneas' appearance further intensifies her grief, since it reminds her of the Troy that was, and she exclaims passionately to him. Confronted with this spectacle of majestic female fortitude in adversity, Aeneas is struck speechless:

'Hector ubi est?' dixit lacrimasque effudit et omnem implevit clamore lornm. vix pauca furenti subicio et raris turbatus vocibus hisco. ('Where is Hector?' she spake, and shedding a flood of tears, filled all the place with her cries; to her frenzy scarce can I make a brief reply, and deeply moved gasp for broken words). 68

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Aeneas' reaction to Andromache's lament is particularly poignant, since it will soon be followed by Dido's own passionate lament when Aeneas himself abandons her.

The passage encapsulates male admiration 'deeply moved with broken words', faced with the enormity of female grief 'manfully' endured.

In Politian's case it is, supposedly, awe and a sense of his own inadequacy at Fedele's superb Latinity and general cultivation which have left him thus rapt, but the implicit tone of contrition is elegantly appropriate as a response to female reproach. 69 Supposedly, because we must surely feel that the choice of excuse is a choice of literary topos. As we saw, in an exactly similar situation (having made the same social gaffe of failing to reply to a letter), Guarino chose another plausible topos - the exhortation to the woman beset with adversity to remain viritis animi: it was Isotta Nogarola's 'manliness of mind' which persuaded him he could treat her as a man. And even if the vulgar crowd abuses her as a woman, her manly fortitude of spirit should allow her to rise above it: This evening I received your letters, full of complaints and accusations, in which you render me uncertain as to whether I should feel pain for you or congratulate myself. For when I saw fit to give my attention to that outstanding intellect of yours, with its attendant embellishments of learning, I was accustomed besides to express strongly my opinion that you were manly of spirit, that nothing could happen which you would not bear with a courageous and indomitable spirit. Now, however, you show yourself so cast down, humiliated and truly womanish that I am able to perceive nothing which accords with my previous magnificent opinion of you.70 This topos allowed Guarino to reprove Nogarola for allowing social convention (femaleness) any place in her scholarly life - how could a mere intermission in their correspondence threaten her womanly honour?71 Like Guarino's with Nogarola, Politian's relationship with Fedele is established entirely within the world of letters; confronted (physically) with her ability, he responds with the awe appropriate to a Muse or Goddess: For when some time ago I had come to your house for the purpose of seeing and greeting you (which was the chief reason for my visit to Venice), and you had presented yourself after a long wait, clothed beautifully, yourself most beautiful, like a nymph emerging from the woods before me, and when then you had addressed me compellingly with ornate and copious words, and, truth to tell, with a kind of echo of the divine about them, then my soul was of a sudden (as I think you remember) struck senseless at such a miracle and such rarity, so that, as Aeneas reports of himself, 'I gasped with broken words', and could scarcely even apologise for my inability to speak ... When therefore I returned to Flor310

ence, full of these impressions and totally overwhelmed by it all, I received from you your spectacular letters, to which I often tried to reply, but I know not how, my very writing fingers faltered, the very pen dropped from my hands. For I did not dare to submit to the unequal contest, whereby I was obliged to fear more the charge of insolence and baseness if I replied, than that of idleness or lack of courtesy if I remained silent. My failure to reply has not therefore come about out of negligence, but out of bashfulness, not from contempt, but reverence. 72 At this point Politian intensifies 'the 'literary' quality of his celebration of the woman of letters. He introduces the figure of another young, beautiful and learned woman, the Florentine Alessandra Scala. 73 Too awestruck to answer Fedele's letters, Politian tells her, he took them instead to Alessandra Scala, and recreated the experience of Fedele's combination of learning and loveliness by having Scala read them aloud to the assembled company. Bartolomeo Scala, Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola praised their accomplishment.

This effects the metamorphosis of the individual talented woman into a genus of representatives of female worth, and it brings Politian to the substantial part of his letter, the offering, as it were, to Cassandra. On the occasion of a previous visit to the Scala household, he had joined the audience for a private performance, in Greek, of Sophocles' Electra, in which Alessandra Scala took the title role. 74 The central setpiece in Politian's letter is a description of the impression her performance made upon him: But let me return to Alessandra. She busies herself day and night with the study of both Latin and Greek. And the other day, when the Greek tragedy of Sophocles was performed in her father's house, for which the greatest number of learned men had been assembled ... she took the part of Electra, one virgin playing another, and performed with such talent, art and grace, that all fastened their ¡eyes and minds upon her. There was in her words that Attic charm, utterly genuine and native, her gestures everywhere so prompt and effective, so ', appropriate to the argument, so covering the range of the various feelings, that they added greatly to the truth and believableness of the fiction. Nor was she so mindful of Electra that she forgot Alessandra. Altogether humbly and modestly, her eyes were not simply downcast to the ground, but firmly fixed there at all times. To see her you would have said she felt the difference between an actress and a virgin. For though she satisfied the requirements of the stage, yet she was in no way theatrical, as if she produced her gestures not for just anyone, but only for the learned and the upright.75

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Once again, more than Alessandra's competence in Greek is at stake. What Politian celebrates is the spectacle of Alessandra performing as antique womanhood of supreme virtue (as his Greek epigram addressed to Alessandra herself on the occasion of this performance confirms).76 It is the symbolic impact of the woman verecunde omnia et pudenter, non modo ad terram demissis sed pene in terram semper defixis oculis ('With shame and modesty in everything, her eyes not only constantly cast down to the ground, but fixed upon it'). The ideal nature of her performance does not derive from her impeccable Greek grammar and pronunciation (hardly at all, as Politian describes it), but almost entirely from her modesty, the probity of her person, her 'chastity' (that predictable invoking of virginity).77 Alessandra/Electra is beauty/purity itself, a figure talismanic of the revival of Greek learning and culture which Politian and his colleagues are undertaking. And Politian closes his letter to Fedele by joining her and Scala in a single image of the exemplary learned woman: Alessandra Scala alone, therefore, is now talked of here, the Florentine Electra, a girl undoubtedly worthy for you, most learned Cassandra, to call sister, inasmuch as she alone of all our age, I shall not say, attains to your stature, but certainly follows in your footsteps.78 His letter here comes, as it were, full circle. From an encounter with a learned female Latinist, whose reproach allows him to applaud her typical pose of virtuous grief (whether or not expressed in impeccable Latin), he passes to the claim that Alessandra the Hellenist and Cassandra the Latinist are sisters in learning, and thereby sidesteps again the need to assess their real intellectual achievement, while for the time being celebrating 'female humanism' as a phenomenon worthy of the age.79 Now, like Alessandra Scala, Cassandra Fedele was, on the evidence of her published letters and orations, an accomplished humanist and scholar. And the problem which Politian's letters appear both to raise, and astutely to evade, is: What could such accomplishment be for in a woman?

The women humanists are accomplished; their accomplishment is celebrated by their male correspondents in terms of an abstract intellectual ideal (warrior-maiden, virilis animi; grieving spouse, majestic in suffering), or in terms of a social ideal (chastity, obedience, modesty, constancy, beauty). Guarino combines the two when he writes of the Nogarola sisters, Isotta and Ginevra (whom he has never met), on the strength of their display pieces of Latin prose: Why do the poets not honour these modest, noble, erudite, eloquent women? ...

What are you doing, you noble young men of our city? ... Do you not fear that common outburst against you:

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for indeed you young men display a womanish mind; while that virgin displays a virile one [De officiis 1]. 80 On the other hand, humanistic accomplishment in the quattrocento is notionally the means of access to humanism as a profession, leaving aside for a moment whether what is envisaged is a political career, or a teaching career, or even a courtier's. When Isotta Nogarola writes to Guarino and receives a eulogy in reply, or when Fedele succeeds in eliciting a congratulatory response from Politian, they have apparently crossed the threshold from promising student to accomplished practitioner. The same might be said to be the implication of Politian's Greek epigram addressed to Alessandra Scala on the occasion of her performance as Electra: 'You have made it into the ranks of those honoured by society for their achievement as Latinists and Hellenists, those, that is, to whom our society looks as civic leaders and figureheads of the civilised community.' All three women certainly reacted to the great men's attention as zf this had happened: Scala replied (as any male humanist would have done) with a competent Greek epigram praising Politian in his turn;81 Nogarola and Fedele wrote letters in response to their mentors, which assume that an active and fully participating correspondence will now ensue. Fedele and Nogarola reacted to the subsequent rebuff with a personal and passionate intensity which suggests that they themselves had been well and truly deceived -that they had really expected to be treated from now on as equal intellectuals, not as forward women, or amorous encounters.82 It is this confusion on their part that we find deeply suggestive for our assessment of quattrocento Italian humanism as a whole. Within the humanist confraternity the accomplishment of the educated woman (the 'learned lady') is an end in itself, like fine needlepoint or the ability to perform ably on lute or virginals. It is not viewed as a training for anything, perhaps not even for virtue (except insofar as all these activities keep their idle hands and minds busy).83 As signs of cultivation all such accomplishments satisfactorily connote a leisured life, a background which regards the decorative as adding lustre to rank and social standing, and the ability to purchase the services of the best available teachers for such comparatively useless skills. And there is supposed to be an evident discontinuity between such accomplishment and the world of the professional humanist, be he teacher, advisor or holder of public office.

But that discontinuity is in practice, it appears, precariously established - sufficiently precariously for it to cause misunderstanding, puzzlement, uneasiness, textual difficulty in the letters exchanged between accomplished women and professional men, as the one strives for recognition, the other to evade it. Following receipt of Scala's Greek epigram, for instance, Politian addresses a succession of Greek epigrams to 'Alessandra poetess' which transform the exchange from one between Greek virtuosi into a series of formalised lover's addresses to an absent beloved, hoping for some 313

substantial sign of favour ('To me who desire fruit you, however, send only flowers and leaves, signifying that I labour in vain').84 Scala is thus effectively excluded from the exchange altogether, in spite of Politian's continuing protestations of admiration.85 Only if mythologised can the woman humanist be celebrated without causing the male humanist professional embarrassment.

But if the gap between accomplishment (the ability of the noble, leisured pupil) and profession (the learned training of the active civic figure) is problematic in the case of women, might it not be so for men in a comparable position? That is to say, do the exchanges of letters between Guarino and Leonello d'Este or between Politian and Lorenzo de' Medici prove anything more about the noble pupil-patron than that he is accomplished, in currently validating social terms? It seems that for the nobleman also, who did not in practice earn a living or pursue a career, humanist learning provided the male equivalent of fine needlepoint or musical skill: it provided the fictional identity of rank and worth on which the precarious edifice of the fifteenthcentury Italian city state's power structure depended. It read out as 'valour', 'manliness', 'fortitude', 'benevolence', the male equivalents of 'modesty' and 'chastity', but less readily discernible to our modern eye as culturally constructed 'moral' attributes -that, at least, is what we seem to begin to see when we 'look to the ladies' in the humanist case.

Notes 1. On Quirini see Lauro Quirini Umanista, ed. V. Branca (Florence, 1977); Isolae Nogarolae Veronensi's opera quae supersunt omnia, ed. E. Abel, 2 vols (Budapest, 1886), I, xliv, xccii; R. Sabbadini, 'Briciole umanistiche', Giornale slorico della letteratura italiana 43 (1904), 247-50; L. Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists (Princeton, 1963), 97-8.

2. Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466): see most recently M.L. King, 'The religious retreat of Isotta Nogarola (1418-1466); sexism and its consequences in the fifteenth century', Signs 3 (1978), 807-22, which contains a full bibliography in an appendix. See also Abel's introductory essay in the Opera; M.L. King, 'Book-lined cells: women and humanism in the early Italian Renaissance', in Beyond their Sex; learned Women of the E11ropean Past, ed. P.H. Labalme (New York and London, 1980), 66-90; P.O. Kristeller, 'Learned women of early modern Italy: humanists and university scholars', ibid., 91-116; D.M. Robathan, 'A fifteenth-century bluestocking', Medievalia el humanistica, fasc. 2 ( 1944 ), 106-11.

3. All passages are quoted from Abel's edition of Nogarola's works (hereafter' Abel'). 'Leonardus germanus tuus ... iam pridem me rogaral, ut nonnihil ad le scriberem, nam quoniam hoc lempore dia/eclicae el philosophiae acrem, ut is aiebat, operam das, voluit, ut ipse fidelissime ac amicissime le commonerem, quos praecipue magislros in his altioribus disciplinis sequi deberes' (Abel, II, 10).

4. 'Tu enim, quae politissima el exquisitissima arle dicendi edocla es assuela in eleganli oralione, suatilaleque dicendi, tuo iure perornatissimum exposcere poles eloquium, al nos semioratores minutique phi/osophi parvo et illo ineleganti persaepe contenli sumus' (Abel, II, 11).

5. Ibid.

6. 'Cupio, inquam, idque meo iure iubeo, ut novos hos philosophos novosque dialecticos tamquam homines minime verae philosophiae veraeque dialecticae instruclos non modo evites el 314

fugias, verum etiam omnia eorum scripta stomacheris, nam dialecticae quidem non viam disciplinae veteris iam probatae docent, sed nescio quibus puerilibus captionibus, inextricabilibus circuitibus el scrupulosis ambagibus huiusce disciplinae claram el dilucidam semitam obfuscarunt .. Nam ut multa scire videantur, omnia etiam planissimafutili quad am subtilitate corrumpunl el, ut inquit comirns, "nodum in scirpo quaerunl ". Quapropler his impedimentis detenti nequeunt ad veram el solidam aspirare philosophiam, in qua etiam dum acuti disputalores videri cupiunt, veritatem nimium attercando, ut velus senlentia dicit, amisenmt' (Abel, II, 13-14).

7. '[His ergo explosisj q11os sequi debeas, breviter edocebo. Lege igitur studiose Boetii Severini, viri facile acutissimi abundeque doctissimi praeclara monumenla, id est tractalus omnes, quos in arle dialectica erndite confecit, el eius commentarios, quos in Aristotelis Cathegoriis el Periennenias duplices edidit, primos ad lillerae intelligentiam, secundos ad altioris artis indaginem. In quibus nmctornm fere probatissimornm Graecornm commenlalornm senlentias videre pot eris' (Abel, II, 15-16).

8. For an account of the serious use of Averroes' commentaries on Aristotle's texts in the Renaissance which is entirely consistent with Quirini's advice to Isotta Nogarola, see C.B. Schmitt, 'Renaissance Averroism studied through Venetian editions of Aristotle-Averroes (with particular reference to the Giunta Edition of 1550-2)', Convegno interna:::.ionale: l 'Averroismo in Italia, Alli dei convegni Lincei 40 (Rome, 1979), 121-42. Schmitt is, of course, concentrating largely on a later period.

9. ‘Nihil enim philosophia/ormosius, nihil pulchrius, nihil amabilius, ul Cicero nosier dicebal, ego vero forsan reclius, nihil philosophia in rebus humanis divinius. Haer enim unica, sanclissima disciplina est, quae veram sapienliam edocet et rectum vivendi modum inslrnil, ex quo fit, ut ignari huius non modo turpiter sed eliam permnose per vilam obirent. Proinde huic uni rei, toto, ut aiunt, pectore incumbe, volo enim le non semidoctam esse, sed cunctarum bonarum disciplinarum periliam habere, id est et bene dicendi arlem et recte dispulandi disciplinam et humanarum atque divinarnm rerum scientiam noscere' (Abel II, 21-2).

10. See, for example, Erasmus: 'The distaff and spindle are in truth the tools of all women and suitable for avoiding idleness ... Even people of wealth and birth train their daughters to weave tapestries or silken cloths ... It would be better if they taught them to study, for study busies the whole soul ... It is not only a weapon against idleness but also a means of impressing the best precepts upon a girl's mind and of leading her to virtue.' Christiani malrimonii inslitulio (Basic, 1526), ch. 17, unpaginated, cit. .Vol in God's Image: Women in History, ed. J. O'Faolain and L. Ylartines (London, 1979), 194. Politian, writing in praise of another woman humanist, Cassandra Fedele, commends her for having exchanged 'her spinning wool for her books, her rouge for a reed pen, her needle for a quill pen'. Sec Clarissimae feminae Cassandrae Fidelis I’ennelae epistolae et oraliones ... ed. I. P. Tomasi nus (Padua, 1636), 156.

11. 'Sunt enim disriplinarum quaedam, in quibus ut rudem omnino esse non salis decorum, sic eliam ad carnmina illanim evadere nequaquam gloriosum; ut geomelria el arilhmelica, in quibus, si multum temporis consumere pergal et subtilitales ornnes obscurilatesque rimari, retraham manu alque divellam. Quad idemfaciam in astrologia, idem fortasse et in arte rhctorica. lnvitior de hac poslrema dixi, quoniam, si quisquam viventium illi affectus fuit, me unum ex eo numero esse projiteor. Sed multarum rerum habenda mihi ratio est et in primis, rni scribam, videndum. Quid enim statuum subtilitates el epicherematum curae el ilia, quae appellanlur crinomena, el mille in ea arte diflicultates mulierem conterant, quae forum numquam sit aspectura.' lam vero actio ilia artijiciosa, quam Graecz' hypocrisim, nostri pronuntiationem dixere, cui Demosthenes primas et secundas et lertias tribuit, ut actori necessaria, ila mulieri nequaquam laboranda, quae, si brachium iactabil loquens aut si clamorem vehemenlius altollet, vesena coercendaque videatur. lsla quidem virorum sunt; ut bella, ut pugnae, sic elia'm Jori con315

tenliones alque cerlamina . . Non igilur pro testibus neque contra testes dicere addiscet mulier, neque pro tormenlis aut contra tormenta, neque pro rumoribus aut contra rumores, nec se communibus locis exercebit, neque inlerrogationes bicipiles neque responsiones veteratorias meditabitur; totam denique fori asperitalem viris relinquet.' Leonardo Bruni Arelino Humanistisch-Philosophische Schrzften mit einer Chronologie seiner Werke und Briefe, ed. H. Baron (Leipzig, 1928), 11-12. In spite of Bruni's warning, Battista :Vfalatesta delivered a public oration in Latin to the Emperor Sigismund. See Kristeller, 'Learned women of early modern Italy', 93-4.

12. The Nogarola sisters were tutored in humanistic studies by Martino Rizzoni, one of Guarino's old pupils. This allows Sabbadini to claim them as members of Guarino's 'school'. In addition to corresponding with Guarino himself, Isotta Nogarola exchanged letters with a number of humanists of his circle, and received scholarly advice from Quirini, another graduate of Guarino's school.

13. Ludovici Carbonis Ferrariensis, artium doctoris el comilis palalini aposlolici, oralio habila in fimere praeslantissimi oratoris el poetae Guarini Veronensis, in Prosalori latini del quattrocento, ed. E. Garin (Milan and Naples, 1952), 381-417. 'Pudendum erat quam parumper lillerarum sciebant nostri [Ferrarienses] homines ante Guarini adventum .. Verna erat, non dicam qui oratoriam facultatem nosceret, qui rhetoricam profiteretur, qui graviter et ornate diceret et in publico aliquo corventu verba facere auderet, sed qui veram grammaticae rationem cognosceret, qui vocabulorum proprietatem vimque intelligeret, qui poelas interpretari posset. Iacebat Priscianus, ignorabatur Servius, incognita erant opera Cireronis, miraculi loco habebatur, si quis Crispum Sallustium, si quis C. Caesarem, si quis T. Liviwn nominarrt, si quis ad veterum scriptorum intelligentiam aspiraret. Quadragesimus fere annus cives nostros in ludo puerili occupatos invmiebat in iisdem element is semper laborantes, semper convolutos. Usque adeo bona rum lillerarum ruina facta erat. Postea vero quam divinus hie vir dextro sidere Ferrariam ingressus est, sernta est mirabilis quaedam ingeniorum commutatio ... Currebatur undique ad vocem iucundissimam, ut alterwn Theophrastum direres, ad quem audiendum legimus perrexisse discipulos ad duo milia. Nemp putabalur ingenuus, nemo in lauta vitae parte, nisi Guarini esset auditor. Unde brevi de obsrnrissimis tenebris edurti sunt nostri homines in veram et clarissimam lurem, omnes repente diserti, omnes eruditi, omnes limati, omnes in dicendo suaves extiterunt' (390-2).

14. E. Garin, L 'educazione umanistica in Italia (Bari, 1953 ), 32 .

15. Abel, II, 58-9. There is in fact a better text of this exchange of letters in Epistolario di Guarino l’eronese, ed. R. Sabbadini, 3 vols (Venice, 1915-19), II, 292-309, and we have taken the Latin text from there. Sabbadini wrote a magisterial review of Abel's edition of Isotta Nogarola's works, in which he helpfully points out a large number of discrepancies between his versions of the letters and Abel's: 'lsotta Nogarola ', Archivio storiro italiano, 18 (1886), 435-43. He also redatcs some of the letters. 'Quodque praecipua admiratione prosequor, tanta est in utri11sque dictione paritas, tanta stili similitudo, tanta scribendi gerrnanitas et quidem utrobique magnifica, ut si Zinebrae nomen auferas et lsotae, non facile utri utram anteponas iudicare queas, adeo ut "qui utramvis norit, am bas noverit" [Terence]: ita sunt non modo creatione et sanguinis nobilitate sorores, sed etiam stilo atque facundia. O civitatis, immo et aetatis nostrae decus! O "rara avis in ferris nigroque simillima cygno!" [Juvenal]. Si superiora saecula hasce probandas creassent virgines, quantis versibus decantatae, quantas, modo non malignis scriptoribus, laudes assecutae immortalitati traditae Juissent. Penelopen quia optime texuit, Aragnen quia tenuissima jila deduxit, Camillam et Penthesileam quia bellatrices erant, poetarum carminibus consecratas cernimus; has tam pudicas, tam generosas, tam eruditas, tam elo-

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quentes non colerent, in astra laudibus non eveherent, non ab oblivionis morsibus quavis ratione vendicarent et sempiterno donarent aevo?'

16. There is a striking letter from Damiano Borgo to Isotta Nogarola describing how much changed Ginevra is for the worse since her marriage. The letter is preoccupied with virginity and defloration, and one can only take as the sense of the letter that Isotta's purity preserves for her a transcendent beauty which could not survive loss of virginity. Abel takes this quite naturally as an indication that Ginevra had lost her 'flair' for humanistic letters. See Abel, I, 261-7 for the letter, dated the last day of November 1440; Abel, I, xxxi-iii for Abel's verdict on Ginevra's 'Fall'.

17. See Robathan, 'A fifteenth-century bluestocking', for some references to such compliments: Abel, I, 114, 125, 160, 180. Isotta also uses them of herself, for example, Abel, I, 256; I, 76.

18. Leonardo Bruni ... Schriften, ed. Baron, 5-6. See below for a comparable letter from Politian to Cassandra Fedele, written in 1494, which opens with Virgil's O decus ltaliae virgo (Cassandrae Fidelis epistolae, ed. Tomasinus, 155).

19. Guarino's noble pupil replied exactly as he knew he was expected to. He praised the two sisters' work in the same figurative terms as his master: 'Hos igitur ingenii et studiorum Jructus quos e duabus tuae civitatis virginibus collegisti collectosque ad me misisti non admirari non posrnm et summis prosequi laudibus eoque magis quod abs le, qui huiusce rei non neghgendus testis es, mirum in modum probantur extolluntuque ... Illud equidem non parivi facio quod id mulierum genus etsi antea perrarum fuit, hoc tamen tempore perrarissimum esse consuevit' (Epistolario, ed. Sabbadini, II 298).

20. R. Sabbadini, Vita di Guarino Veronese (Catania, 1896 ), 122.

21. Ibid., 126.

22. For Sabbadini's observations on the dating of this series of letters, as Abel presents it, see Sabbadini, 'Isotta Nogarola', 440.

23. 'Neque hoc mihi vitio dare, si tacendi leges mulierihus praesertim impositas praegressa sum illudque Vergerii praeceptum haud legisse videar, qui adolescentihus monel parum loqui prodesse, cum in multo sermone semper sit quod reprehendi possit. Et Sophocles quoque laciturnitatem infeminis singularem ornatum appellavit' (Abel, I, 77: not in Sabbadini).

24. ' "Usa sum le nequiore meque magis haud respectus es quam si mmq11am gnala essem. Per urban enim irrideor, meus me ordo deridel, neutrobi haheo stahile stabulum, asini me mordirns scirulunt, haves me incursanl cornihus" [Plautus] Nam si ego hac contumelia digna eram maxime, tu tamen indignus qui faceres. Quodnam oh factum ita abs le contemnor, Guarine pater?' (Abel, I, 80).

25. Abel, I, 79. Eventually Guarino replied at length, and rebuked lsotta for panicking. A strikingly similar incident occurs in the correspondence between Politian and Cassandra Fedele, see below.

26. On Borgo see Sabbadini, 'Briciole umanistiche', 250-1.

27. 'Volumus in eloquenlia aspire Corneliam Grarhorum matrem; Amesiam, quae Romano roram populo frrquenli connirsu prudentissima oralione causam dixit; Affraniam Lurinii Buconis senatoris roniugem, quae tasdrm causas in faro agitavit. Hortensia nonne hor idem factitavit?

Nonne Sapho mira carminis suavitate manavit.' Portiam, Fanlliam el reliquas quaitis dorlissimorum virorum versibus decantatas legimus? Volumus in bello aspire Camillam, quam Turnus, ut ail poela, tanto honore prosequebatur. Nonne Thomiris regilla Srylarum Cirum Persarum regem cum universo exercitu trucidavit, ut ne nuntius quidem tantae cladis superfuerit.' Amazones notme sine viris auxere rem publicam? Marpesia, Lampedo, Orithia maiorem parlem Europae subiecerunt, nonnullas quoque sine viris Asiae civitales ocupavrunt.' Tantum enim virlute el singulari belIi scientia pollebant, ut Herculi Theseo impossibile uiderelur Amazonum arma 317

regi suo afferre. Pantasilea bello Troiano inter fortissimos Graecos viriliter dimicavit; testis est poeta: "Pantasilea furens mediisque in milibus ardl'I" [Virgil]. Quod cum ita sit, le rogo, ut me cerliorem reddas, si muliert's loquaritale uel potius eloqumlia et virtute viros superent?'' (Abel, I, 256-7).

28. For a general discussion of the way in which Renaissance literature transformed the 'forward' woman into insatiate man-eater and indomitable shrew, sec L. Jardine, Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare (Brighton, 1983), ch. 4.

29. Justinus, Epitome of Trogus, 1.8.

30. For the text of this invective see A. Segarizzi, 'Niccolo Barbo patrizio veneziano del see. XV e le accuse contro Isotta Nogarola ', Giornale storico della letterat11ra italiana 43 (1904), 3954; 50-4. '[Ea] que sibi tantam ex dicendi facultate laudem acquisierit, ea agat, que minime cum tanta eruditione et tanta sui existimatione conveniatl, quamvis hoc a muftis longe sapientissimis viris acceperim: nullam eloquentem esse caslam, idque etiam multarum doctissimarum mulierum exemplo comprobari posse ... Nisi vero hoc nimium sane tetrum atque obscenum scelus sit aliquantulum a le comprobatum quod ante quam corpus suum assiduis connubus divulgaret primo fuerit passa alque etiam omnino voluerit virginitatis sue specimen non ab alio nisi a fratre eripi hocque modo vinclo propiore ligari. Proh deum atque hominum fidem, "quis celum terris non misceal et mare celo" [Juvenal], cum illa, que in tam spurcissima libidine modum sibi non invenial, audeat se tantum in optimis literranim studiis iactare' (53). See also Jardine, op. cit., 57.

31. De claris mulieribus, transl. G.A. Guarino (New Brunswick, 1963), cit. Jardine, op. cit., 182.

32. De claris mulieribus, cit. Jardine, op. cit., 99.

33. The issue of female patrons is an interesting one, and ripe for investigation. Where women were accidentally in control of wealth (through quirks in inheritance law), there appears to have been considerable social encouragement for their directing that wealth towards culture rather than towards power. On the unexpected prominence of noble women with charge of their own wealth in this period sec Jardine, op. cit., ch. 3. On Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, as exemplar of the wealthy woman directing that wealth to cultural manifestations of family power, see M. Brennan, Aristocratic Patronage and Literature 1550-1650: The Herbert Family, Earls of Pembroke (in press); M.E. Lamb, 'The Countess of Pembroke's patronage', English Literary Renaissance 12 (1982), 162-79.

34. W.L. Gundersheimer is mistaken in thinking that a patron like Eleonora of Aragon did not correspond with female humanists ('her surviving correspondence with nonrelatives is with men', Beyond their Sex, ed. Labalme, 56). Cassandra Fedele made a point of corresponding with a number of female heads of state, including Eleonora, and the letters received are to be found in Tomasinus' edition of her letters. See below.

35. Abel, II, 181; II, 96; II, 39; II, 105.

36. Id., II, 25.

37. Id., II, 23-7; 96-7; 98-100.

38. Id., II, 73-87.

39. Id., I, lvii.

40. Id., I, lvii-lviii. Isotta Nogarola's one major published work was an epistolary dialogue between herself and Ludovico Foscarini entitled De pari aut impari Evae alque Adae peccato (a set-piece debate on whether Adam or Eve was the more culpable in the Fall). This, however, does not mean that the case for I sot ta 's later spirituality and asceticism is proven, since the letters of Heloise and Abelard provide an impeccable model for an exchange of letters between a senior man and a secluded woman strenuously debating the relative culpability of mankind and womankind. It is therefore an eminently suitable form for the single public appearance of 318

the work of a female scholar otherwise debarred on grounds of decorum from public display of her intellectual virtuosity. Although the Renaissance fortuna of the Abelard and Heloise letters is cloudy, we do know that Petrarch owned a copy of the medieval 'canon' of their exchange.

Abel takes it for granted (a) that the dialogue between Isotta and Ludovico testifies to the repressed passion between them and (b) that it represents the core of Isotta's later preoccupation with spiritual as opposed to secular learning. But it.is just as appropriate to regard the exchange as a virtuoso exercise by an exceptionally talented woman, in a suitably 'literary' context. For a discussion of some of these problems of' reading' the exchange between Heloise and Abelard, see P. Dronke, Abelard and Heloise in Medieval Testimonies (Glasgow, 1976); P. Dronke, 'Heloise and Marianne: some reconsiderations', Romanische Forschungen 72 (1960), 223-56; P. Dronke, Women Writers of the Middle Ages; A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (t203) lo Margaret Porele (t/310) (Cambridge, 1984), ch. 5, 'Heloise '; M.M. McLaughlin, 'Peter Abelard and the dignity of women: twelfth-century "feminism" in theory and practice', in Peter Abelard-Pierre le Venerable, Collogues lntemalionaux du CVRS no. 546 (Paris, 1975 ). On Isotta Nogarola 's dialogue, see P. Gothein, 'L'amicizia fra Lodovico Foscarini e l'umanista Isotta Nogarola', La Rinascita 6 (1943), 394-413. As well as describing some of the central arguments of the Adam and Eve dialogue and the further exchanges of letters between Isotta and Ludovico to be found in Abel, Gothein also provides a perfect example of how ready a traditional critic can be to read spirituality and intense emotional involvement into every line of an exchange between a distinguished public man and a dependent secluded woman.

41. D. Robey, 'Vittorino da Feltre e Vergerio', in Vittorino da Feltre e la ma scuola: umanesimo, pedagogia, arti, ed. N. Giannetto (Florence, 1981), 241-53; 252.

42. Lauro Martines has been at particular pains to point out the close correlation between social rank and public prominence of the Florentine humanists. See Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, passim; L. Martines, Power and Imagination: City-Stales in Renaissance Italy (London, 1980), passim. See also Chapter One above.

43. Martines, Power and imagination, 295.

44. Having looked at the careers of a number of other fifteenth-century educated women, including Cassandra Fedele and Laura Cereta (see below), it appears that all celebrated public performances by women humanists (orations before Emperors and prelates, disputations in the universities, invited lectures and so forth) are 'occasional' rather than professional. That is, an able woman might be afforded the unusual honour of a public appearance to 'show off' her talent, but it was on the strict understanding that this would not become a regular event. It is striking that we have not come across a single scholar, either of the fifteenth century or of the nineteenth or twentieth, who has suggested that any of these performances by exceptional women were other than outstanding (to us they seem competent but ordinary). That the woman performs is remarkable; what she performs is not to the point. For Fedele's orations, see Cassandrae Fidelis epistolae, ed. Tomasinus. For Laura Cereta's formal pieces see Laurae Ceretae Brixiensis feminae clarissimae epistolae ... ed. I. P. Tomasinus (Padua, 1640).

45. See King, 'Book-lined cells', for references to both Matteo Basso's and Ludovico Foscarini's representations of Isotta Nogarola's study as a 'cell' (74).

46. See below, Chapter 4.

47. G. Pesenti, 'Alessandra Scala: una figurina della rinascenza fiorentina', Giornale slorico della letteratura italiana 85 (1925), 241-67; 248; see also W.P. Creswell, Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Joannes Pirns of Mirandula, etc. (London, 1805), 309.

48. Cassandra Fedele (c.1465-1558). Although this is the date of birth which stands in the standard works, it is clearly incorrect. G. Pesenti, in a footnote to his seminal article on Alessandra Scala, cites Cesira Cavazzana as responsible for suggesting 1465 as Fedele's birth date, and indi319

cates that this is a correction for the even less plausible 1456: 'Cesira Cavazzana, Cassandra Fedele, erudita vene;:iana de{ Rinascimenlo, Venezia, 1906 (estr. dall' Ateneo Veneto). C'e chi crede che la F. nascesse nel 1456; ma la data piu plausibile e ii 1465; certa e invece la data della morte (1558]: cfr. ibid., 13 sg.' (G. Pesenti, 'Alessandra Scala: una figurina della rinascenza fiorentina', Giornale slorico della letteratura italiana 85 (1925), 241-67; 248). In a letter of 1488, Eleonora of Aragon calls Cassandra 'femina adolescens'; she was regarded as extraordinarily precocious when she performed publicly in an oration and disputation in 1487. 1470 is a more plausible birth date. It still leaves her five years older than Alessandra Scala, who certainly treats Fedele as senior to her in their correspondence (Politian also refers pointedly to Fedele's seniority over Scala). See Pesenti, 'Alessandra Scala', 243, for similar comments on the implausibility of the birthdate of 1450 proposed in the earlier literature for Alessandra Scala (see below). For Fedele's extant works, see I. P. Tomasinus, Clarissimae feminae Cassandrae Fidel is venetae epistolae el orationes . . . (Padua, 1636); Pesenti, 'Alessandra Scala' (fn. 1), 266-7 (transcription of an unpublished letter from Fedele to Pico, 1489). On Fedele, see most recently King, 'Book-lin_ed cells; Knsteller, 'Learned women', passim; see also C. Cavazzana, 'Cassandra Fedele, erudita veneziana del Rinascimento', Ateneo Veneto 29 (1906), 2: 73-91, 249-75; Creswell Memoirs, 135-6; Pesenti, 'Alessandra Scala', 248-52.

49. Pesenti, 'Alessandra Scala', 266-7. Politian mentions his close friend Pico in both his extant letters to Fedele.

50. Etsi ad le iamdiu scribere proposueram, tuis tamen divinis virtutibus pene deterrita, percept is a multis et maxime a Lactantio Thedaldo omatissimo tuarumque acerrimo praecone laudum, polius obmutescere destnaveram, quam parum luculenter el femine(e) admodum tuas perlibare virtues. Sed postquam his proximis debus ab optimo oiro Salviato tuae ad me lucubrationes ornatae verborum sententiarumque copioissimae defotae esseut, quas cum saepius leclilassem, ex his lui ingenii dexterilatern ac singularem doctrinam cognovissem, a multis reprehmdi posse verebar nisi pro mei viribus ingenioli tuas inauditas dotes celebrarem, quibus ut miraculum leneris, laudaris ac veneraris, praeserlim tuo opere edilo; cui quoniam insunt dilucida verba, sensus graoissimi, splendor, sublimilas interpretandi divina, omnia denique divinilus quadrant. [Nec mirum; nam in omni disciplinanim genere fulges ac splendes, virtutes ornas, homines ad litteras capessendas incendis, quin immo inflammas)' (267).

51. See King, 'Book-lined cells', 69. For the text of this oration see Cassandrae Fidelis epislolae, ed. Tomasinus, 193-200.

52. The date is fixed by the account of the visit given by Politian to Lorenzo de' Medici in a letter written the following day. See below.

53. Just as I sot ta Nogarola's fame was established in the humanist circle around Leonello d 'Este at Ferrara by the exchange of letters between herself and Guarino. See above.

54. For the characterisation of the Florentine humanists of this period as scholar-courtiers, see Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 5-6.

55. 'Item: visitai ierscra quella Cassandra Fide le litterata, e salutai ec., per vostra partc. E cosa, Lorenzo, mirabilc, ne meno in vulgare che in latino; discretissima, et meis oculis etiam bella.

Partini stupito. Molto e vostra partigiana, e di Voi parla con tanta pratica, quasi le intus el in cute norit. Verra un di in ogni modo a Firenze a vedervi; sicche apparecchiatevi a farli onore' (I. Del Lungo, Prose volgari inedite e poesie latine e greche edite e inedite di Angelo Ambrogini Poliziano (Florence, 186 7), 81). 'Quasi le intus el in mte norit' is surely only decorous as a courtierly comment.

56. E. Garin, 'L'ambiente del Poliziano', II Poliziano e suo tempo, atti del IV corwegno internazionale di studi sul rinascimento (Florence, 1957), 24; Garin, 'I cancellieri umanisti della repub-

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blica fiorentina da Coluccio Salutati a Bartolomeo Scala', Rivista storica italiana 71 (1959), 204; cit. Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 5-6.

57. Female heirs substitute for absent men; they do not hold power in their own right, and the male line is reinstated as soon as possible. See Jardine, Still Harping on Daughters, ch. 3.

58. See, for instance, Del Lungo's footnote against her name in the letter to Lorenzo quoted above.

59. Aeneid 11. 508-9.

60. If O decus ltaliae virgo became a catch-phrase for a female representation of learning or chaste wisdom, that might explain the fact that Botticelli's 'Pallas and the Centaur' was known as 'Camilla' in the fifteenth century.

61. Aeneid 7. 803-17; 805-8. This passage is picked out by Auerbach as the acme of Virgilian 'sublime' - female valour sublimely idealised. E. Auerbach, Literary Language and its Public in Late Latin Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, transl. R. Manheim (London, 1965), 183-6.

62. Mira profecto fides, tales proficisci a femina (quid autem a femina dico?) imo vero a puella, el Firgine potuisse Non igitur iam Musas, non Sibyllas, non Pythias obijciant vetusta nobis secula, non suas Pythagorei Philosophantes feminas, non Diotimam Socratici, nee Aspaciam, sed nee poetrias illas Graeca iactent monimenla, Telesillam, Corinnam, Sappho, Anyte(m), Erinnem, Praxiham, Cleobulinam, et caeteras: credamusque facile Roman is iam Laelij, et Hortensij filias, et CorneIiam Gracorum matrem fuisse matronas quanlumlibet eloquenlissimas. Scimus hoc profecto scimus, nee eum sexum fuisse a natura tarditalis, aut hebetudinis damnatum' (Cassandrae Fidelis epistolae, ed. Tomasi nus, 155-6). Guarino's celebratory letter in praise of Isotta and Ginevra Nogarola which gave rise to the correspondence between himself and Isotta is similarly extravagant in invoking ancient prototypes of outstanding female accomplishment; see above. For further comment on the routineness of such clusters of 'exemplary' women in compliments to living women see Robathan, 'A fifteenth-century bluestocking', 106-11.

63. At vero aetate nostra, qua pauci quoq(ue) virorum caput altius in literis extulerunl, vnicam te tamen existere puellam, quae pro lana lib rum, pro fuco calamum, stylum pro acu tractes, et quae non cutem cerussa, sed atramento papyrum linas' (ibid.). See King, 'Book-lined cells', 76.

64. ‘O, quis me igitur statim sistat istic, vt faciem virgo tuam castissimam contempler, vt habitum, cultum, gestumq(ue) mirer, ut dictata, instillata tibi a Musis tuis verba quasi sitientibus auribus perbibam, deniq[ue] ut afflatusinstinŠtuq(ue) tuo consum(m)atissimus repente Poeta euadam,

nec me carminibus vincat, aut Thracius Orpheus,

aut Linus: huic maier quamvis, atque huic pater adsit,

Orpheo Calliopea, Linoformosus Apollo. (Eclogues 4.55-7)' (Cassandrae Fidelis epistolae, ed. Tomasinus, 157).

65. For an interesting footnote on such 'becomings', see M.R. Lefkowitz, 'Patterns of women's lives in myth', in her Heroines and Hysterics (London, 1981), 41-7.

66. Just as Guarino's correspondence with Isotta Nogarola rated sufficiently low on his list of priorities for him also to overlook replying to her in good time. See above.

67. This is the same pattern as that followed in the exchange of letters between Guarino and Nogarola. Both women claim to have been publicly shamed by their male correspondent's prolonged silence, although undoubtedly such men habitually failed to reply to letters from less distinguished male colleagues. The shame is clearly social - the woman's overture if ignored is deemed forward. Later, in 1494, when she herself failed to answer a letter of Politian's promptly, Fedele wrote a humorous letter excusing her tardiness (libi debeo, ecce persoluo sero. tamen; sed melius sero quam munquam). Cassandrae Fidelis epistolae, ed. Tomasinus, 159-60.

68. Aeneid 3. 312-14.

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69. It should be remarked that contrition was not a character trait in evidence anywhere else in Politian's public career aside from his studied dealings with female scholars; he was renowned for his ability to quarrel with other humanists, for example, with Alessandra Scala's father Bartolomeo and her future husband Marullus. On Politian's life, see F.O. Mencken, Historia vitae et in literas meritorum Angeli Politiani ... (Lipsiae, 1736). On his relations with Bartolomeo Scala see A. Brown, Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: the Humanist as Bureaucrat (Princeton, 1979), 211-19.

70. Hoc vesperi tuas accepi Iitteras querimoniae plenas et accusationis, quibus incertum me reddidisti tibine magis condoleam an mihi ipsi gratuler. Nam cum tuum istud perspexisse viderer ingenium adiunctis doctrinae ornament is insigne, le adeo virili animo el opinari et praedicare solebam, ul nihil accidere posset quad non forti et inviclo ferres pectore. Nunc autem sic demissam abieclam et vere mulierem tele ostenlas, ut nihil magnifico de le sensui meo respond ere le cernam' (Epistolario di Guarino Veronese, ed. Sabbadini, vol. II (Venice, 1916), 306-7.

71. There is, we think, a distinctly hollow ring to Guarino's protestations that Isotta's 'virility' of temperament precludes the possibility of attaching social blame to her actions. 'Cum enim intelligeres hmm in me pro litteraria inter nos necessiludine officium fecisse scriptis ad me tam suavibus tam ornalis lam laudatissimis Iitteris (nam sicut ex studiis arrogans esse non debes, ita bonorum luorum aestimatrix non ingratafias oportet) quid tibi obiectaripotuit quad matronalem conslantiam labefactaret.'' (ibid.)

72. 'Nam cum le olim domi visunis salutaturusque venissem, qua maxime causa profectus Venetias fueram, tuque le diutus [sic] expectanti habitu quodam pulchro pulcherrima ipsa quasi nympha mihi de silvis obtulisses, mox ornatis copiosisque verbis atque ut verissime dicam divinum quiddam sonantibus compellasses, ita mihi animus repente (quod le arbitror meminisse) miraculo illo tanto et rei novitate obstupuit, ut quod de se ail Aeneas, "raris tubalus vocibus hiscerem ", vixque illud saltem meam tibi excusare infantiam potueram ‌ Harum igitur imaginum plenus, atque hac undique rerumfacie circumfusus, ut Florentiam sum reversus, litteras abs le mirijicas accepi; quibus cum respondere saepius tentassem, nescio quo pacto digiti ipsi scribentes haesitabant, ipse de manibus calamus excidebat; nee enim subire impar certamen audebam, quasi magis mihi timendum crimen esset arrogantis et improbi, cum respondissem, quam desidis ac parum officiosi, cum tacuissem .. Von igitur neglegentia factum est ut non rescripserim, sed verecundia, non contemptu, sed reverentia' (G.B. Pesenti, 'Lettere inedite del Poliziano', Athenaeum 3 (1915), 284-304; 299-300).

73. Alessandra Scala (1475-1506). See Pesenti 'Alessandra Scala'. Pesenti's article is a good starting point for work on Scala, in spite of its thoroughgoing sentimentalising of her relationships with all the men among her colleagues and tutors. Naturally all men become Scala's suitors in Pesenti's reconstruction of her life.

74. An ostentatious display of learning on her father's part. He, according to Pesenti, knew no Greek. This performance also provided the occasion for Politian's first Greek epigram addressed to Alessandra Scala. See below.

75. 'Sed revertor ad Alexandram. Dies ea noctesque in studiis utriusque linguae versatur. Ac superioribus diebus, cum graeca tragoedia Sophoclis in ipsius paternis aedibus maxima doctorum conventu virorum exhiberetur ipsa Electrae virgin is virgo suscepit, in qua tantum vel ingenii vel art is vel gratiae adhibuit, ut omnium in se ocnlos atque animas una converteret. Erat in verbis lepos ille atticus prorsum genuinus el nativus, geslus ubique ita promptus el efficax ita argumento serviens, ita per affectus varios decurrens, ut multa inde verilas et fides fictae diu fabulae accederet. Nec tamen Electrae sic meminil ut Alexandrae sit oblita. Verecunde omnia et pudenter, non modo ad terram demissis sed pene in terram semper defixis oculis: sentire illam diceres quid ludiae alicui et mimae, quid ingenuae rursus ac virgini conveniret; nam cum scaenae salis322

faceret nihil de scaena tamen sumebat, quasi non cuilibet, sed doctis tantummodo et probis ederet gestum' (Pesenti, 'Lett ere inedite ', 300-1).

76. "For the epigram see Poliziano: Epigrammi greci, ed. A. Ardizzoni (Florence, 1951; reprinted in A. Politianus, Opera omnia, Turin, 1970), 20 (Italian transl., 56): 'When the girl Alessandra took the part of Electra, she, virgin, the Sophoclean virgin girl, all were struck with utter amazement ... ' 77. Quentin Skinner has suggested to us that in their somewhat bizarre insistence on the virginity of the women humanists, the male humanists are 'doing the best that their moral vocabulary allowed them' by way of praising their virtus - for which chastity is the strict female equivalent.

Virtus, the supposed product of the studia humanitatis, is a quality of a vir; in substituting the more appropriately female 'chastity' in the case of a woman we have gender creating a clear case of textual difficulty.

78. 'Sola igitur mmc in ore omnibus apud nos Alexandra Scala, hoc est florentina Electra, digna nimirum puella quam tu, doctissima Cassandra, sororem voces, utpote quae sola omnium nostra aetate, non dicam tecum contendat, sed tuis eerie vestigiis insistat' (Pesenti, 'Lettere inedite', 301 ).

79. Guarino encouraged a correspondence between Isotta Nogarola and Costanza Varano, as Politian does one between Fedele and Scala, thus actually effecting a kind of merging of the female scholars into a composite figure of intellectual 'worth'. Similarly, women humanists exchanged complimentary letters with women in positions of civic prominence or power (confirming their mutual 'worth'). Fedele corresponded with Queen Isabella of Spain (Cassandrae Fidelis epistolae, ed. Tomasinus, letters 11 (Cassandra to Isabella, n.d.), 12 (Isabella to Cassandra, 1488), 13 (Cassandra to Isabella, 1487), 60 (Cassandra to Isabella, 1492), 66 (Cassandra to Isabella, 1495)); with Beatrice, Queen of Hungary (sister of Eleonora of Aragon and d'Este) (letters 21, 1488; 71, 1497; 78, n.d.); with Beatrice Sforza (letter 57 (Cassandra to Beatrice, n.d.), 58 (Beatrice to Cassandra, 1493)); and with Beatrice Sforza 'smother, Eleonora of Aragon, Duchess of Ferrara, letter 105 (Eleonora to Cassandra, 1488). All these women were notable patrons of the arts, and Fedele presumably approached them with an eye to possible patronage (she was invited to Spain in 1488). Kristeller comments that on the whole patronage was sought for vernacular works from these female patrons. See Kristeller, 'Learned women', 93-4.

80. Epistolario di Guarino Veronese, ed. Sabbadini, II, 293-4. Guarino used this same passage from the De officiis in his complimentary letter to Varano (see R. Sabbadini, l'ita di Guarino l'eronese (Catania, 1896; reprinted in Guariniana, ed. M. Sancipriano, Turin, 1964), 157-8).

81. See above.

82. See above, and King, 'Religious retreat' and 'Book-lined cells'.

83. A point regularly made in favour of education of girls by Erasmus and More. See, for example, More's letter to his daughter Margaret: 'Quaeso te, Margareta, fac de studiis vestris quid fit intelligam. Nam ego potius quam meos patiar inertia torpescere, profecto cum aliquo fortunarum mearum dispendio valedicens aliis curis ac negociis, intendam liberis meis et familiae' ('I beg you, Margaret, tell me about the progress you are all making in your studies. For I assure you that, rather than allow my children to be idle and slothful, I would make a sacrifice of wealth, and bid adieu to other cares and business, to attend to my children and my family'. The Correspondence of Sir Thomas .Wore, ed. E.F. Rogers (Princeton, 1947), letter 69 (134), transl.

E.F. Rogers, St. Thomas More: Selected Letters (New Haven and London, 1961), 109. More makes the explicit point, in writing to Margaret after her marriage, that her learning is intended for no other audience than her father and her husband: 'Sed tu, Margareta dulcissima, longe magis eo nomine laudanda es, quod quum solidam laboris tui laudem sperare non poles, nihilo tamen minus pergis mm egregia ista virtute tua cultiores Iiteras et bona rum artium stu323

dia coniungere; et conscientiae tuae fructu et voluptate contenta, a populo famam pro tua modestia nec aucuperis nec oblalam libenter velis amplecti, sed pro eximia pietate qua nos prosequeris satis amplum frequensque legenti tibi thealnim simus, maritus tuus et ego' (But, my sweetest Margaret, you are all the more deserving of praise on this account. Although you cannot hope for an adequate reward for your labour, yet nevertheless you continue to unite to your singular love of virtue the pursuit of literature and art. Content with the profit and pleasure of your conscience, in your modesty you do not seek for the praise of the public, nor value it overmuch even if you receive it, but because of the great love you bear us, you regard us - your husband and myself - as a sufficiently large circle of readers for all that you write). Rogers, Correspondence, letter 128 (302), transl. Rogers, St. Thomas More, 155.

84. Ardizzoni, Epigrammi greci, epigram XXXII (22) (Italian transl. 58).

85. A number of humanists wrote Greek 'love' poems addressed to Alessandra. O.ne of them, Marullus, eventually married her.

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