James Hankins - The Baron Thesis

8/13/2019 James Hankins - The Baron Thesis

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The "Baron Thesis" after Forty Years and Some Recent Studies of Leonardo BruniAuthor(s): James HankinsSource: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Apr., 1995), pp. 309-338Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709840.

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The BaronThesisafter orty ears ndsomeRecent tudies fLeonardo runi

JamesHankinsItwas entirelyppropriatehat hedeath f Hans Baron nNovember f1988 shouldhave become heoccasionfor number f tributeso hisworkand influence s a Renaissancehistorian;nd since Princeton niversityPress,only fewmonthsarlier, ad issued a collection f hispapers ndarticles, retrospectiveook athiscontributionso Renaissance tudieswasmade all the moreobligatory.' mongthe moreperceptive ccountsofBaron's workwas a review-essayyJohnNajemy,whichmadesomeverylargeclaims for he mportancef Baron's work.2 It is by now common-place, wroteNajemy, thatwhatBurckhardt as to nineteenth-centuryRenaissancehistoriography,aron s to its twentieth-centuryounterpart:eachprovided iscentury'smost nfluential,ompelling,nddebatednter-pretationfthe ignificancefthe ultural evelopmentsf taly etween heend of the MiddleAges and the modem era. And again: In recoveringBruni and the civic humanism f the early fifteenthentury, aron didnothingess thanrecastthe entireRenaissancefrom etrarch o Machi-avelli. Largeclaims ndeed,yet t is difficulto quarrelwith hem, spe-cially oming rom scholar fNajemy's uthority.aronwas surely ne ofthe hree rfourmost nfluentialnterpretersftheRenaissancenthe econdA primitiveersion f thispaperwas discussed t a roundtable n HansBaronheld n

November f 1992 attheHarvardUniversity enter or talianRenaissance tudies VillaI Tatti).Thanksforhelpful riticisms oWilliamConnell,Arthurield, RiccardoFubini,and particularly obert Black, and (fora laterversion)to AnthonyMolho, R. BurrLitchfield,nd otherparticipantst the Workshopn Late Medieval and Early ModemItalianHistory t BrownUniversityspring1994).1Hans Baron, n Search ofFlorentine ivicHumanism: ssays on theTransitionromMedieval to ModernThought2 vols.; Princeton, 988).2 JohnM. Najemy, eview ssayof Baron'sEssays,RenaissanceQuarterly,5 (1992),340-50.

309Copyright995 yJournalftheHistoryf deas,nc.

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310 JamesHankinshalf of the twentiethentury,articularlyn Italy and America, nd hisstudies f thehistory frepublicanismparked broadrevival f nterestnthis opicamong tudents f earlymodemhistory; heterm civichuman-ism s now as widelyused among tudentsf eighteenth-s of fifteenth-centuryolitics.His lifelong ampaigno nterpretiterarynd philosophicaltextsn their istoricaletting-amethod tillunusual nBaron'syouth-istodaynormalpractice and rightlyo) among ntellectual istoriansndhistoriansf political hought.What s more ontroversial,owever,s anotherlaimmade nNajemy'sreview-essay:Recentworkhas byand largeconfirmed aron'sview thatcivic humanismuccessfully romoted distinctiveultural rogramndpolitical utlook hat eshaped lorentine,oman, nd Italianhistory,ede-fined otions f citizenshipnd iberty,ndcreated ew expectationsboutthe oleof ntellectualsnd educationnsociety. tcouldbe argued-as thisessaywill argue-that n fact hetendencyf recent tudies f Florentineintellectual istory,nd particularlytudies fLeonardoBruni, as been torevise revenunderminearon's viewof thenature nd significancef thephenomenone called civichumanism. 3Itmaybe useful or urposes f expositiono recapitulatehegenesis ndchieffeaturesf whathas becomeknown s the Baron thesis. Baron'spoint fdeparture,yhis own ccount, as Burckhardt'snterpretationftheRenaissance, speciallyhis view ofthe ndividualismf Renaissancetal-ians.4Burckhardt amously aw the Renaissance s a periodwhen menceased submergingheir dentitiesn collectivitiesf variouskinds andsoughtikeartistsoshape hemselvesnto eautiful,owerful,irtuous,ndwise individuals, singas models dealizedversions f theirGreco-Romanforebears. orBurckhardthis mplied loosening fallegiances ofamily,guild, tate,ndreligion, newwillingnesso treathese atter ot s givensof traditionut as Menschenwerke,lasticto thehandsof theirhumanmakers.twas thismorethan nythinghatmade Renaissancemen first-born mong he onsofmodernurope. orBurckhardt,fcourse, hiswasnot an unqualified ompliment:he ndividualismf theRenaissance ouldsometimesssue n an amoral goism,ndifferentothegoodof the ommu-

3 Baron's civic humanism nd the so-called Baron thesis firstgained widecurrency fter he publicationof his Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: CivicHumanismnd Republican ibertynanAge of Classicism nd TyrannyPrinceton,955).Furthertudies elating othe amethemes ppeared nthe ame year n Baron'sHumanis-tic and PoliticalLiteraturen Venice nd Florenceat theBeginning f theQuattrocento(Cambridge,Mass., 1955).A revised dition n one volumeof theCrisiswas published yPrinceton niversityress n 1966; an Italianversion fCrisiswithfurtherevisionswaspublishedas La crisi del primo Rinascimento taliano. Umanesimocivile e libertarepubblicanan un'etadi classicismo di tirannideFlorence,1970).4 Baron,Essays, I, ch. 16 and 17.



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312 JamesHankinsThese concerns repared heground orBaron's majordiscoveries s aRenaissance istorian.ometimen the ate 1920sBaron'sresearch egan odisclose n fifteenth-centurytaly-supposedlyhehomeland fthedetached

individual urturedn classicizing ulture-a traditionfhumanisticit-erature hathad shown tself olitically ommitted,nd committed, ore-over, o republicanism.7twas the expression f civic-minded,epublicanculturesnVenice andFlorencenwhich itizens nd scholars ad workedtogethero serve hebonumommune-a far ry rom he ulture vokedbyBurckhardt,world f rootless ntellectuals anderingmong hecourts fillegitimateyrants. his discovery f a civic humanisticradition as forBaron the germof his famous thesis. As Baron himself elieved thatscholarship hould servethepublic good, it was importantor him tounderstand ow Italian intellectualshad made the transition rom notherworldlyo a this-worldly utlook, rom rivate opubliccommit-ments, nd from worldin which ntellectual nd moral effort imedprimarilyt salvationn thenext ife oa worldnwhich he ivilcommunitybecame hefont fvalue. He wanted otmerelyo describe ivic humanismbut o explainhow thadcomeabout, or oexplain ts genesiswouldbe toexplain hegenesis f modern ttitudeso thestate ndtowhatwouldnowbe calledthe public sphere.Baron's researchesntothe origins f civic humanism t length ookshape n hisgreatwork,The CrisisoftheEarly talian Renaissance:CivicHumanismndRepublican ibertynanAge ofClassicism ndTyranny.nthis ookBaron schewed nternalistxplanationsor he ppearancefwhathe calledcivichumanism.hecivichumanismfQuattrocentolorencewasnota natural utgrowthf Trecento umanism uta newdepartureo beexplainednterms f newpolitical onditionsround heyear1402. Before1402 humanists ad generallyacked seriouspolitical ommitments;heirscholarshipad served imited, ersonal oals; their hilosophy,nsofar sthey ad one,was Stoicorotherworldly;heir utwardiveshad beenthat frootless ourtiersr quietist itizens. he Florentineivic tradition,n theother and,while thadpreservedhehealthy oliticalifeof the hirteenth-centuryommune,tood part romhe earned ultural raditionshatmighthave givenit nurture.t was onlythe long strugglewithGiangaleazzoViscontin the1390sthat adbroughthese wotraditionsogether,reatingthehybrid ulture fpolitically-committedildung hatBaron called civichumanism.n the crisisof theMilaneseWars,whenFlorence'svery xist-encewas threatened,rivate cholarshipf the Petrarchanarietyeemedselfish ndtrivial. lassical earning,o retaintsrelevance,would have tosubordinatetself o the ideologicaland educationalneeds of the state.LeonardoBruni-for Baron the embodimentf civichumanism-quickly

7 The termBu7rgerhumanismus,ranslateds civic humanism, aron first sed inthe introductiono his Leonardo BruniAretino.Humanistisch-philosophischechriftenr(Leipzig, 1928).



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Hans Baron 313outgrewhis youthful ttraction o pure classicism -symbolized byNiccoloNiccoli-and forged new kindof classicismwhose aim was tonurturend celebrate he traditions f Florentine epublicanismnheritedfrom hecommunal ge.Florence's ictoryn theViscontiwars nd thenewkind fhumanismtengendered ad,forBaron, esults fworld-historicalmportance.tmeant,firstf all,that talywould notbe united nder single yrannyutwouldbecome systemfcity-states;s a result,hemedieval ommunalraditionsofFlorence ndVenicewould urviveo nspire later geofrepublicanism.8Even more mportant,hankso thewritingsf civic humanists,lorence'srepublican alues of independentelf-government,reespeech,politicalparticipation,nd equality nder aw would survive,n the earlymodemperiod, o prevent monopoly fabsolutist olitical houghtnthemarket-place of deasandto prepareheground or hemodem evolutionn politicalideas and practice. rom n even onger erspectiveheriseof civichuman-ismstruck nother low against heAugustinian olitical radition f theMiddleAges.ForAugustinehevalueofpolitical ctivityn thisworldwas,sub specie saeculi, mostly egative; ub specie aeternitatistwas literallynothing, ince it did nothing irectly o promote he healthof the soul.Bruni's civic humanismhallengedAugustine y revivingn Aristotelianand Ciceroniannthropologyhich aw self-governmentnd other exter-nal goods as necessary o the dignity nd perfectionfhumanity.hisinturn ntailed newconceptionfhistory:twas no coincidencehatBruni,thehistorian, as thefirstodetachhistorical vents romheeconomy fdivineprovidencend to makepolitical iberty,otsalvation,hetheme fhishistory. or Baronthiswas a turn rom otherworldlinesso realityas theprinciple fhistory,ndthisviewled Baronto wonderwhetherhenewrealismvidentnQuattrocentoisual rtmight othavehadsomethingtodowith he tmospheref thehistoricalrisishehad tried o describe.Such, nbrief,werethemainconclusions f Baron'sCrisis, inishedn1952 and eventuallyublishedntwovolumesn 1955 byPrinceton niver-sityPress.A third olumeof supplementarytudies n thesamethemesappearedunder he mprintf HarvardUniversityress n thesame year

8 As was pointed out by Niccolo Valeri ( An American and the Renaissance,Newberry ibrary ulletin, [1956],88-92),thiswas itself challenge othemonarchical-Fascisttraditionf historiographyhich aw GiangaleazzoVisconti'sefforto unite talyin the fourteenthentury s a tragicfailureto do what VittorioEmmanuele I hadsucceeded in doing in the nineteenth entury. One cannotdoubt that Baron's keenoppositionto the crude Machiavellismof an historical chool inclined to recognizepolitical achievement nlyinsofar s it producespower-in isolationfrom veryothermotive,whetherdeal or ethical-has sprung,ike theopposition f otheriberally-mindedstudents, rom reaction gainstFascist and Nazi ideologies. Partlyfor thisreasonGennaroSasso ( Florentinaibertas Rinascimentotalianonell'operadi Hans Baron,Rivista torica taliana,69 [1957], 250-76) argued hatBaron's thesiswas internationalistand ideologicalratherhannationalist ndpower-oriented.



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314 JamesHankinsentitled umanisticndPoliticalLiteraturen Florence nd Venice t theBeginningf theQuattrocento.he Crisisrapidly ecame canonicalworkof Renaissancehistorynd was republishedn a condensed, ne-volumeeditionn 1966; it has remainedn print p to thepresent ay.9 n 1968acollectionf studies,mostly elated othe Baron hesis, ppearedwith heUniversityfChicagoPress.10 wenty ears aterPrincetonublished hetwo-volumeollectionmentionedbovecontainingaron'smost mportantarticles,many fthem nlargedndreworked. t the ime fhis death aronwas workingn a biographicaltudy f LeonardoBruni, fwhichmorewillbe said nduecourse.DespiteBaron's great uccessas a historian,is writings ereneverentirelyree rom ontroversy.ven hisfirstook, useful utbadly-editedcollection fBruni'swritings,ame under ttack.t becamea pawn nthewarbetween hilologyndGeistesgeschichteagedduringhe twentiesnd'thirtiesfthe entury.twaswidely elieved hat aron'schief ersecutor,LudwigBertalot,was usingBaron as a way of getting t his teachers,especiallyFriedrichMeinecke.11 he pattern ontinuedwiththe Crisis.AgainBaron'sscholarshiprew riticism. eadersof the Crisiswillrecallthatmuch fBaron'sbook s encumberedith laboratettemptso date nd

9 For Baron's influence n AmericanRenaissancescholarship,ee the Festschriftedited yMolhoandTedeschi cited,n. 6); DonaldFleming ndBemardBailyn eds.), TheIntellectualMigration:Europe and America1930-1960 (Cambridge,Mass., 1969); andAlbertoTenenti, Etudes anglo-saxonnes ur la renaissanceflorentine, nnales, 25(1970), 1394-99.ThroughJ.G. A. Pocock andhis followers aron's civic humanismhas had a second ife n thehistoriographyf earlymodemBritain ndAmerica; ee TheMachiavellianMoment: lorentine olitical Thoughtnd theAtlanticRepublicanTradi-tion Princeton,976),especially hapters and4. Thepenetrationf Baron'sideastothelevel ofthe textbookmaybe seen in Frederick artt'spopularHistory f talianRenais-sance Art New York,19873), whereBruni s described 243) as a sortofQuattrocentoChurchill.10HansBaron, romPetrarch o LeonardoBruni:Studies n HumanisticndPoliticalLiteratureChicago, 1968).11Bertalot eviewedBaron formallywice, n Forschungen iber eonardoBruniAretino, ArchivumRomanicum,15 (1931), 284-323, and in an untitledreview inHistorischeVierteljahrschrift,9 (1934), 385-400; two other rticles yBertalotwere neffecturthereviews f Baron, Zur Bibliographie erUbersetzungenes LeonardoBruniAretino, Quellen und Forschungen us ItalienischenArchivenund Bibliotheken, 7(1936-37), 178-95, nd Zur Bibliographie es LeonardoBruniAretino, bid.,28 (1937-38), 268-85. Kristeller,n editingBertalot'scollectedpapers Studien umitalienischenunddeutschen umanismusRome,1975]),censored,t Baron'srequest,hemore busiveremarksn Bertalot's eviews communicationfP. 0. Kristeller).udwigBertalot1884-1960),a German fHuguenot xtraction,tudiedwithKonradBurdach nd LudwigTraubein Munichbut ivedmostofhis workingifeas an expatriatecholar ndbookdealer nRome (1925-51) after eingexpelledfromhis position s a librarian t the BayerischeStaatsbibliothek.ertalot islikedBaronpartly ecausehe saw himas the darling fthecattedratici homhe himself ated.Bertalot's apersare conserved t the stitutotoricogermaniconRome communicationfHermannGoldbrunner).



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316 JamesHankinshumanistsa locutionurely referableo pre-humanists )ad expressedtheir oliticalommitmentsnclassical arb, lbertino ussato's ccerinisbeing erhapshebestknownuthardlyhe nly xample.15 tthe ametime thas been amply emonstratedyCharles avis, EmilioPanella,Quentin kinner,nd others hat herepublicanolkloref themedievalcommuneadbeen ivenome heoreticaleft,ver centuryeforeruni,by scholastic nd sub-scholasticritersuch as Remigio e'Girolami,Brunettoatini,ndPtolemyfLucca.16 heexpressionfthese alues smoremature, ore ecular,ndmore istorically-consciousnSalutatindBruni uthardlyriginal ith hem. n the ther and, etrarch'sontem-plative nd politicallyuietistttitudes,resentedy Baron s typical fhumanismefore 402, ave ome oseemmore ndmore xceptional,naberrationfthe eriod etweenhe all fthe ommunefPadua n1322and1400,whenhe umanistsfBruni's enerationppearednthe cene.7Other istoriansadtakenssuewithBaron's ttempto change helarger icturef Renaissanceolitical ulture.n contrasto Burckhardt'sviewoftheRenaissances essentiallyealisticndpost-ideologicaln itspolitics,aron resentedhe atefourteenthnd arly ifteenthenturys a

l5RobertoWeiss, lprimo ecolodell'umanesimoRome, 1949); thework fGiuseppeBillanovichand his school on preumanesimo s summarized y Guido Billanovich,Rino Avesani, nd Luciano Gargan nStoria della culturaveneta, I (Vicenza, 1976), 19-110, 111-41, nd 172-70,respectively.ee Rubinstein,PoliticalTheories n the Renais-sance, in Andre Chastel et al., The Renaissance: Essays in InterpretationNew York,1982), 153-200, Skinner, AmbrogioLorenzetti: he artist s political philosopher,Proceedings f theBritishAcademy, 2 (1986), 1-56, nd Machiavelli'sDiscorsiand thePre-humanistrigins f Republicandeas in Gisela Bock, Quentin kinner, ndMaurizioViroli eds.), Machiavelliand RepublicanismCambridge, 992), 121-41; Skinner's ri-tiqueofBaron onthispoint s inhis Foundations fModernPolitical Thought, ol. 1: TheRenaissance (Cambridge,1978), chap. 4. See also Ronald G. Witt. Medieval ItalianCulture nd theOriginsof Humanism s a Stylistic deal, in AlbertRabil, r. (ed.),RenaissanceHumanism: oundations, orms,Legacy Philadelphia, 988), I, 29-70,and,from differentpproach,Antonio antosuosso,n LeonardoBruniRevisited:A Reas-sessmentof Hans Baron's Thesis on the Influenceof the Classics in the LaudatioFlorentineUrbis, nAspects fLateMedieval Governmentnd Society:Essays Presentedto J. R. Lander, ed. J. G. Rowe (Toronto,1986), 25-51, arguing hat Baron greatlyoverstates runi's ndependencef his classical source,AeliusAristides,n theLaudatioFlorentinaeurbis.

16 CharlesTill Davis, Dante's Italyand OtherEssays. (Philadelphia, 984); Skinner,Foundations, hap. 3; EmilioPanella, Dal bene comune al bene del comune: trattatipoliticidi Remigiodei Girolaminella Firenzedei bianchi-neri, emorie omenicane, 6(1985), 1-198.17 See Rubinstein, PoliticalTheories. Salutati's shifts etweencivic and quietistvalues are discussed nWitt, TheDe tyrannondColuccio Salutati'sView of Politics ndRomanHistory, uova rivista torica,53 (1969), 434-74,and in a moreBaronianvein)in Hercules t theCrossroads: TheLife,Work nd Thought f Coluccio Salutati Durham,N.C., 1983).A convincing xplanationor alutati's nconsistenciesan be found n RobertBlack, The PoliticalThought f the Florentine hancellors, heHistoricalJournal, 9(1986), 991-1003.



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318 JamesHankinslevel ivil ervants. ost fnot ll ofthese rofessionsequirednexpertknowledgef rhetoric.ndeed,heriseof humanismould npart e ex-plained y changesn the nature f theseprofessionsuringheearlyRenaissance.9Kristeller'siew fhumanism,acked p byhiscomprehensivenowl-edgeofmanuscriptources,nevitablyaised ewquestionsbout aron'scivichumanists. eremen uch s SalutatindBruni eallys rootednthe alues nd ttitudesf he lorentineulinglasses sthey ad eemed oBaron?fthegreat lorentinehancellorsere s politicallyommittedsBaronrepresentedhem, ow had Salutatimanagedo surviven officethroughhepoliticalpheavalsf 1375-82? owhad Bruni urvivedheexile and returnftheMedici?WhyhadBruni, mmediatelyfter hesupposedrisisf1402 nd n hemidstf hewarwith adislas, one ffoserve he ignoref Rome ndthePapalStates?Why idheadmireettytyrantsuch s CarloMalatestandBraccioda Montone?Whydid theMedici artyake he upposedepublicanirebrandnto he eggimentofter1437?Whyhad Bruni emained lifelongriendfAntoniooschi, hedefenderf Milanese tyranny, edicatingwoworks o him?How toexplain alutati's acile hifts,nhismissive,ackandforthetweenhenew republicandeologyndthe old Guelfdeology?Whywas thereso little ommonroundetweenhe oolly ealistic iscussionsfpolicyfoundn the Consulte pratiche uringhe1390s, ndtheoverheatedrhetoricf Salutati's ublicetters? owtoexplain runi'smissivefthe1430s,which ontainettersspousing oliciesBruni rivatelyisagreedwith,ettersoth raisingnddamningheMedici,ettersulogizingheEmperornd heDukeofMilan? houldwritingsike hese, ndbyexten-sionBruni'sLaudatio andOration ortheFuneralofNanniStrozzi, otbe

seen spieces fpolitical ropaganda,heworkfprofessionalhetoricianswritingorpecificccasionsndnot nspottedirrorsf incereepublicanconviction?19Jerrold . Seigel, 'Civic Humanism' or CiceronianRhetoric?The CultureofPetrarch nd Bruni, ast and Present, 4 (1966), 3-48; idem,Philosophy ndRhetoric nthe talianRenaissance Princeton, 968); Herde, PoliticundRhetorik, nd Politische

Verhaltensweise. aron's reply to Seigel appearedas Leonardo Bruni: ProfessionalRhetorician' r 'Civic Humanist'? Past and Present,16 (1968), 21-37. Kristeller ascriticizedBaron's view of humanism n Florentine latonism nd its Relations withHumanism nd Scholasticism, hurchHistory, (1939), 201-11, repr. n Studies inRenaissanceThought nd Letters,II (Rome, 1993), 38-48; Humanism ndScholasticismin the talianRenaissance, Byzantion, 7 (1944-45), 346-74, repr. n Studies, (Rome,1956), 553-83; TheActive ndContemplativeifeinRenaissanceHumanism, nBrianVickers (ed.), Arbeit,Musse, Meditation,Betrachtungen ur 'Vita activa' und 'Vitacontemplativa'Zurich, 1985), 141-42; Humanism, n Charles B. Schmitted.), TheCambridgeHistoryof Renaissance Philosophy Cambridge, 1988), 131; RenaissanceThought nd theArts Princeton, 990),46-47.



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Hans Baron 319In the ast fifteen earswe have begun o getanswers o some ofthesequestions,hanks o a broadrevival f Bruni tudies ed byLucia GualdoRosa and Paolo Viti.Up until bout1980 there ad been, side from aron's

own work, ery ittle asic study fBruni's ife and works.There s eventodaynoreliable ibliographyfhisworks, o modem dition f his etters,andno calendar fhisstate apers; ndthemost erious iographicaltudyfhimwas that f CesareVasoli.20 ewer han dozenofthe eventy-fiver soworks rom ispenhave been criticallydited.21cholarly ork n Bruni,tseems,was longputoff ndeferenceo Baron's knownnterestn him.Yetfew cholarsnEuropewere ware hat aronhad spent he ast wentyearsofhis ifewriting biographicaltudy fhishero.22Thisunfinishedtudys notproperlybiographyut nothern the ongseries fpiecesjustificativeshat aronwrotenresponseo criticismsfhisthesis;nthis ase thebookwas primarilyntendeds a responseo the ssuesraisedbyJerrold eigel and PeterHerde. Baron's objectthroughouts toshow thatBruniwas not a professionalhetorician uta civichuman-ist : a patrioticlorentine ith consistentoliticaldeology hapedby hisexperiencesnthe ivicworld fearlyRenaissance lorence. o we aretakenthroughheperiod f the crisis oncemore, his imefrom biographical

perspective. anyofthe old dating ssues are raisedagain,together ithsomenewones,butthere s little ewresearch. heruling assion s not odescribewhatsortofpersonBruniwas or to give a nuancedview ofhisintellectualevelopment.aronwants o show hat runi'spolitical houghtandpoliticaloyaltieswere otallyonsistentrom 402to the ndofhis ife.Hence nchapterne much fwhichwas publishednarticle ormn1977)23we are toldwhyBruni'sscholastic ducation idnotgivehima medievalworldview; heburden f chapter wo is to explainwhy, fter he soul-shatteringvents f 1402,Bruni, nstead fstayingnFlorence o serve he

20 Dizionariobiografico egli italiani Rome, 1972),XIV, 618-33. I am preparingthree-volumeriticalbibliographyf Bruni's writings o be publishedby the Istitutostorico er l MedioEvo in theseries Nuovi studi torici see n. 12), anda biographyobe publishedby CambridgeUniversity ress.A biographical ketch f Bruni was alsogiven n the ntroductiono GordonGriffiths,amesHankins, nd David Thompson, heHumanism fLeonardoBruni, electedTexts Binghamton, .Y., 1987),9-46.21 For critical ditions f Bruni'swritings, ee the introductiono my RepertoriumBrunianum, (in press).22For Baron'spapers, ee Catherine pstein,A Past Renewed:A Catalogof German-speakingRefugeeHistorians n the United States after1933 (Cambridge,1993), 34.Baron's papershavenow been deposited t theDukeUniversityrchives. was able toseethe papersrelative o Baron's unfinished iography f Bruni thanks o thekindness fBaron's literaryxecutor,RonaldG. Witt.These papersare currentlyn depositat theBibliotecaBerenson,Villa I Tatti, nFlorence.23HansBaron, The Year of LeonardoBruni'sBirth nd Methods orDeterminingheAges of Humanists orn n theTrecento, peculum, 2 (1977), 582-625.



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320 JamesHankinsbonumommune,eft lorenceoservehe ope nRome; hapterhreeellsus why runi'snterestnthe latonic ialoguesndhishero-worshipf hecondottierendpettyyrantarloMalatestahould ot e seen s inconsis-tent ith is ivic umanism,nd oon.Whiletwould f ourse eunfairocondemnbook hat as eftna verynfinishedtate,nthis ase t eemssafe osaythatmong aron'smanycholarlyalents as not hat fthebiographer.aron'sBrunis a wooden uppet,n idealized rojectionfBaronhimself,ot portraitf a man.24hissometimeseadstomildlycomic esults,swhen aronries oexplainucheuxd'esprits theOratioHeliogabali,n imaginarypeech iven ytheEmperorlagabalusotheprostitutesfRome,n termsfa temporaryallfrom race ccasionedythewicked urialmilieu. egrettably,aron's tudy oes ittle o mproveour nderstandingfBruni'sife nd hought.A newunderstandingfBruni as,however,egunoemergenrecentyears.n1980 renaissancefBruni tudies as et ffwith he ublicationbyLucia GualdoRosa of F. P. Luiso's Studi u l'Epistolario i LeonardoBruni.25hiswork,he oundationfmodemrunitudies,adbeen tilized(with uiso'spermission)yBaronhalf centuryeforenhisLeonardoBruniAretino: umanistisch-philosophischechriften1928); but as Baronhimselfbserved,ts curious alf-existencein proof ince 1904 butnotpublishedntil 980)did much o inhibitheprogressfBruni tudies.26Followinghe ublicationfLuiso's tudi, ualdoRosaorganizedn nter-national quipeto surveyhemanuscriptraditionfBruni's pistulaefamiliaresith view oproducingcriticalditionf he ext. collabora-tive ffort asnecessaryecause f the xtraordinarilyidediffusionfBruni'sworks:s thebest-sellinguthorfthefifteenthentury,runi'sworks urvivenabout 200literary anuscriptsndnearly00 incuna-bula.27 roundhe ame ime aoloViti rganizednotherquipe ocalendarBruni's ublicwritingss chancellorfFlorence.n 1987hiscollaborators,togetherith distinguishedroupfolder cholarsnd omemembersftheGualdoRosa equipe, eld conferencen Bruni's areers a publicservantnd hancellorfFlorence.

24 The degree to whichBaron identified ersonallywith Bruni will be evident oanyone who peruses Baron's paperson Bruni,with theirfrequent assionateoutburstsagainst ther cholarswho criticized runi'sbehavior.25 FrancescoPaolo Luiso,Studi u l'Epistolariodi LeonardoBruni, d. Lucia GualdoRosa, Istituto torico er l Medio Evo, Studi torici, asc. 122-24 Rome, 1980).26 Hans Baron, Progress n BruniScholarship.A proposof F. P. Luiso's Studi sul'epistolariodi LeonardoBruni, peculum, 6 (1981), 831-39.27 See Per il censimento ei codici dell' Epistolariodi Leonardo Bruni, d. GualdoRosa and Paolo Viti (Rome, 1991). The first olume of the Censimento ei codici dell'Epistolario i LeonardoBruni, d. Lucia Gualdo Rosa,has nowappearedn theNuovi studistorici, ol. 22, published ythe stituto torico talianoper l Medio Evo (Rome, 1993).



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Hans Baron 321At thisconference,he proceedings f whichwerepublished y theItalianNationalnstituteorRenaissance tudies nFlorence n 1990,28duehonorwas paid to thecontributionf Hans Baron;butHans Baron's Bruni

(save in the contributionf Eugenio Garin)was nowheren evidence. n-stead, number f questions irst aisedby Nicolai Rubinsteinnd PeterHerdewerequietly aken p and developed.Rubinsteinimself resentedBruniwhose dealizedpresentationfFlorentineoliticaldealsandpracticecontrastedharplywith the actual functioningf politicsunder he pre-Medicean oligarchy.29e suggested hatBrunihad come to identify ispolitical utlookwith hat ftheMediciparty ythe ate1430s.He pointedout, furthermore,hat he context f Bruni'sfamous audatioFlorentinaeurbiswas thedefense f FlorentinemperialismgainstMilanese harges fhypocrisy.Milanesepropaganda rguedthatFlorencehad put down theliberties fher ubject ownsnTuscanywhile laiming o be thedefenderfItalian iberties gainstthe Milanese tyrant a charge, n Rubinstein'sview,notwithoutustice).Bruni's eply, ollowingalutati, eformulatedheideaof ibertyna waythatwas toprove fgreatmportance:eargued hatlibertynthe ase ofsubject ownswasnot obe defined s self-governmentbut as sharingnthe ibertyf themetropolis y iurevivere-by living naccordancewithust awsfree romrbitraryower.Thus n1404 Bruni adalready iscoveredheclassicoligarchicalmoveofredefiningositive ib-ertys negativeibertyhroughnappealtolaw.30This lineofthought as taken tillfurtherntwo articles yRiccardoFubini nd Anna MariaCabrini.31Both articles howedhowmuch ntellec-tual history as benefited rom he work of social historiansf the lastgenerationn therelationshipsetween ower, ocial class, patronage et-works,marriage atterns,ndpolitical nstitutionsuchas thepublicdebtfundsfFlorence. aronhadseen heFlorentineepublicfthe ateTrecentoas preservingnd extendinghevaluesofthepopular egimes fthe ate

28 Viti,Bruni ancelliere, itedabove, n. 12.29 Rubinstein,II Bruni Firenze, xtending he criticism irst oiced n FlorentineConstitutionalism ut anticipated, lbeit in an extremely ursoryway, in AugustinRenaudet's review of Baron's Crisis in Bibliothequed'Humanisme t Renaissance, 18(1956), 322-25: La belle definition ue, en 1428, Bruni,dans l'Oraison funebre ourNanni Strozzi,donnaitdes libertesflorentinest notamment e la 'libertasreipublicaeadeundae,'restaitllusoire. Cf. Scaglione'sreview fthe Crisis citedabove,n. 14), 134.

30 For an interestingarallelwith lassicalAthens,ee Martin stwald, romPopularSovereigntyo theSovereigntyfLaw: Law, Society ndPolitics n Fifth-Centurythens(Berkeley, 986), especiallyPart II.31 RiccardoFubini, La rivendicazione i Firenzedellasovranitatatale il contrib1utodelle Historiaedi Leonardo Bruni, nd Anna Maria Cabrini, Le Historiae del Bruni:risultati ipotesidi una ricerca ulle fonti, oth n Viti,Bruni ancelliere, 9-63 and 247-319, respectively,ontinuinghe ine of Fubini, Osservazioni ugliHistoriarum loren-tinipopuli LibriXII di LeonardoBruni, n Studidi storia medievalee moderna er

Ernesto estan Florence,1978), I, 403-48.



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322 JamesHankinsDuecento.nhisvariousrticlesnthe ociologicalontextfcivichuman-ismBaron cknowledgedhe xistencefoligarchicendenciesn Florenceafterhe iompi prisingf 1378, ut edenied eatedlyhat he iompi adledto the ormationfa closed ndconservativeulinglass.32n hisviewthe Florentineolitical lassafter he commercialailuresf the1340sacquiredmore pen, ntegrated,nd ivic-mindedharacter,nd tbecameabroadmiddle-classtratumfrelativeniformitynpropertytatusnd npolitical,ocial nd economicutlook. he socialhistoryf the ast wodecades asmade his osy iewof theFlorentineulinglassmuchmoredifficulto sustain. ecentworkhas argued owerfullyhatFlorentinesocietyn the ater ourteenthndfifteenthenturies as not bourgeoisworld,utratherne whose alueswere loser,more kin, othose fafeudal,ristocraticociety. t has emphasizedheclosedcharacterndaristocraticthos f Florence'siny ulinglass and argelyiscardedheolder,omanticiew fFlorences anegalitarianocietynwhich orkmenrubbedhouldersithmerchantankerss social quals.33Thenewview fFlorentineocietyasforcedcholarsoreconsiderhemeaningf Florence'sepublicaniscourse.owadayst s clear hat herelationshipetweenhepoliticalanguagendsymbolsfthecommunearound 400 nd he ctual llocationfpowers farmore omplexhantseemed ortyears go. IftheFlorentineepublicanismf Salutati's ndBruni'sday had preservedmany f theslogansof thepopular om-mune- liberty, participation,free peech -themeaningf thoseslogans adchanged rofoundlys the egimeaddevelopeditfullyromtherelativelyopular egimefthe 1280s nd 90s into hestable re-Medicean ligarchy. ith espectopolitical istory,aronwas simplywrongbout hesignificanceftheMilanesewars.Theyhad notmadepossiblehe urvivalfpopularegimesntoheHighRenaissance;hey adin fact olidifiedhe rip fthe ligarchyn the eggimentofFlorenceyvastlynlargingts pportunitiesor atronage.ithespecto he istoryfpoliticalhought,aronwasblind o the rueignificancefBruni's civic

32 See The HistoricalBackground f theFlorentine enaissance, History, .s. 22(1938), 315-27 repr. n expandedformnEssays, , 3-23); A Sociological nterpretationof the Early Renaissance in Florence, South AtlanticQuarterly, 8 (1939), 427-48(Essays, II, 40-54); The Social Background f Political Liberty n the Early Renais-sance, Comparative tudies nSociety nd History, .s. 4 (1960), 440-51.33CitedfromAnthonyMolho, MarriageAlliance in Late Medieval Florence Cam-bridge,Mass., 1994); and see his AmericanHistorians nd the talian Renaissance: AnOverview, Bulletinof the Society or Renaissance Studies,9 (1991), 10-23. The chiefdissenting oice from he recent consensusis RichardGoldthwaite, he Building ofRenaissance Florence (Baltimore, 980), opening hapters nd conclusion; ee also thestriking,ut ultimatelynconclusive vidence massedbyDavid Herlihy,The RulersofFlorence, 1282-1530, in CityStates in Classical Antiquitynd Medieval Italy, ed.AnthonyMolho,KurtRaaflaub, nd JuliaEmlen Stuttgart,991), 197-221.



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Hans Baron 323humanism :hattwas nfact subtle einterpretationnoligarchicermsfFlorence'sraditionalepublicananguage.34Thisnewunderstandingf Bruni s a defenderf oligarchyas beenbroughtutwith reat larityyFubini ndCabrini. hey howndetail heoligarchicrejudicesnformingruni's istoricalndpoliticaludgments:hispreferenceor he entraluthorityf he ignoriathe hiefnstitutionaltool foligarchicowernFlorence)o that fthe opular ouncils,uildsand fficialiforestieri;is endencyo sserthe overeigntyf he ommuneagainsthe mpire,he apacy,ndotherivals,nternalnd xternal,f heFlorentineligarchy;ispraise or he mergencyommissionsBalie) of he1390s,whichypassedraditionalopular roceduresn ordero permitheoligarchs o actwith peed and secrecyn wartime; is preferenceorprudentnd xperienceden ndfor xpertnowledgever heudgmentof thevulgar; isoppositiono exiling obles n thegroundshat heirexperiencef affairs as necessaryo the commonwealth;is fulsomechampionshipftheParteGuelfa,hat astionfthe ligarchy;isprefer-ence for heprinciplef merit ver hat fsortitionn choosing ublicofficials;issupportor heAlbizzi egime'sttemptso asserthe over-eignty f Florencegainst heEmpire; ndhis horror f the populistCiompi evolt f 1378.Fubini as also emphasizedn aspect fBruni'sHistorygnored yBaron:ts haracters a celebration,ot nly fFlorentineiberty,ut lsoofFlorentinemperialism.his, tshould e said,was oneof Baron'smajorblind pots.fnowadayshemperialemocracynd tscontradictionss afamiliarbject fstudy,t was less so in Baron'sday; ndBaron's penpartisanshipf littlelorence,hehome fthe ravend he ree,gainstthe yrantfMilan makes ormbarrassingeadingoday.nfact lorence

andMilanwere,s opponents,rettyvenlymatched;nd twasFlorence'simperialxpansionnTuscany, articularlyheacquisitionfArezzo n1384,which ad et ff he econdMilaneseWar; he ook dvantagef hechaos nLombardyfterhe eathfGiangaleazzoogobble pPisa. twasthe onquestfPisa n1406, ot he eath fGiangaleazzon1402, hat irstgaveBrunihe deaofwritingFlorentine istory.35Twoyearsfterhe roceedingsfthe 987 onferenceere ublished,PaoloViti ublishedcollectionfhisown rticlesnBruni ogetherithfewnewpieces.This ollection,eonardoBruni Firenze:Studi ulle let-

I Bruni s also treated s an oligarchichinkern a perceptiverticle y RussellDees,Bruni,Aristotle, nd the Mixed Regime in On the Constitutionf the Florentines,Medievalia et humanistica, .s. 15 (1987), 1-23,and implicitlyy JohnNajemy, TheDialogue of Power nFlorentineolitics, n City tates citedabove,n. 33), 269-87.35 Lorenzo Mehus (ed.), LeonardiBruniArretini pistolarumibri VIII (Florence,1741), I, 35-36= Ep. II, 4 (Luiso II, 3). The Italianversion f Bruni'shistory y DonatoAcciaiuoli frequentlyirculateswithGino Capponi's Conquestof Pisa. For Baron'sreadingof the Florentine-Milaneseivalryn the context f modemdebates aboutthepoliticsof theKleinstaat nd theGrossstaat,ee Pecchioli cited above,n. 6), 18f.



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324 JamesHankinstere ubblicheprivate,36onstituteshe irsterioustudyfBruni's ubliccorrespondence,he1800orsomissivee wrote s chancellornbehalf ftheFlorentineignoria,nly small umberfwhich adpreviouslyeenpublished.heseViti lacesntheirmmediateistoricalontextnd ries orelate otheworks runi rote nder isownname. iti's tudysparticu-larly seful s ittranscribesxtensiveortionsromhemostnterestingfthemissive,nablingeadersomake heir wnudgmentbouthem.Viti'scollectionontainsichnew archivalmaterials wellas manytechnicalhilologicalndpaleographicalata, utt lso, nevitably,epeatssome lderrorsndcreatesomenew nes see appendix). more eriousproblem ith iti'svolumes hisfailureo advance ny onvincingeneralinterpretationf Bruni s a public ervantnd politicalhinker. e hasunearthedew data aboutBruni's ctivitieselative o theforeignnddomesticoliticsfhisdaybut eems mbarrassedyhisownriches; efails ousehisfreshesearcho criticizeffectivelyhe ldpicturefBruni,still ess ocreatenew ne.Hedeclaresarlyn nthearge yntheticssaywhicheginshe olume II primatoiFirenze )hat eaccepts ithomereservationsheBaronianiew fBruni:Itthusppears videnthat ll theFlorentinexperiencef Bruni, ot usthis work n theHistories,s aconstantctof dhesionothe ity-subject,obesure,ocertain omentsof risisnadditionohisdetachmentspapal ecretaryrom 405 o 1415(12). He assumeshroughouthat runi as a strongdeologicaloyaltyorepublicanisms againstignorynd hatheres a high egreef ontinuitdidealebetween runi's rivateeliefs nd he eliefs ewas called pon oexpresssthe pokesmanor he lorentineignoria.his fcoursereatesproblemsf interpretation,incemanyettersppear o contradicthosebeliefs,or xample,etterscknowledginghe verlordshipf he ope ndemperor,r ettersraisingheDukeofMilan.Viti's olutioneems obethat, heneverruni'smissivegreewithepublicanhemesn supposedly)private orks uch s the audatioortheOrationorNanniStrozzi,heycanbe construeds expressingruni's ersonalonvictions;heneverheyare tvariance ith he pinionsprivatelyxpressedyBruni,heyanbetaken s empty, formulaic,rhetorical,r stereotyped.his solu-tion, ssumings itdoes clear istinctionnBruni'swritingsetweenhepublic nd he rivate,he hetoricalnd hepersonal,s lessthan atisfac-tory.Onthe ther and iti s, ohis redit, uchessnaive han aronboutthe ealitiesfpoliticalowernFlorencendmuchmorewillingo ook tevidence hich ells gainst aron's oseate iew f Bruni's haracterndbeliefs. e finds ew evidence otonly hat runiwastemptednto hechanceryfthe ignorefthePapalStatesthePope)between 405and

36 Paolo Viti, Leonardo Bruni e Firenze: Studi sulle lettere ubbliche e private(Florence, 1992).



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Hans Baron 3251415, ut lso that e tried opreparehegroundo as to be takennto heservice f thecondottieririnces arloMalatestandGiovanfrancescoGonzaga; ewasalsotempted,itinotes,o ake ervice ithMartin evenafter e had received lorentineitizenship.itiregardshese cts astrasgressioni369),blemishesn Bruni's ecords a republican.erecog-nizes hat runiouldbecriticalfcertainspectsfpopularovernment,such s its nstability28), ts umbersomeecision-makingrocesses39),and ts nti-meritocraticias 73).Headmitshat runi asdisingenuousnthe xtremebout lorence's otivesorts nprovokedttackn ts ellow-republicucca n 1429; f t s infacthe ase, s itwould eem n ightfViti'snew vidence,hat he uke fMilan ecretlycquiescednthe ttackonLucca 103), henmuch fBruni'sustificationorhewar urnsut obepositivelyendacious.ollowingubini, iti ecognizesheingoisticle-mentn Bruni'swritingbout lorence'smpirendquotes ome tartlingpassagesnwhich runialks bout henaturaluperiorityfFlorentinesoothereoples5-7).He points ut he gly ide fBruni's ehaviorfterheMedici oup n1434: hemissive ecomposedallingor he xtraditionndpunishmentfhisformerriends,iswillingnessoact s a republicanrontman or heMediceanegime,issilencebouthe nderminingfrepubli-can nstitutions,ndhis ies to theCouncil fBasel about henumberfFlorentinexiles ndthe eriousnessfthe hreathey resentedopublicorder172-73).Following ordonGriffiths,e recognizeshatBruni'sdescriptionf Florentineoliticsn hisGreek reatisen thePolity ftheFlorentines1439) is markedly orewilling o disclose heoligarchicelementnFlorentineovernmenthan isthree revious ritingsn thesubject.37ikeGriffithsandRubinsteinefore im), iti egardshis hiftas a signof Bruni's hangingolitical lignmentndhis acceptancefMediceanule.The last point eveals heanachronismn Viti's-and Baron's-ap-proachoBruni.ince hey oth egardrunin ome egrees a republicanideologue,hey anonly xplainnconsistenciesnhis houghtndbehaviorintermsf thechronologicalevelopmentf histhoughtrintermsftrasgressioni.ut fwe admithat runi'smpostaziones primarilyhat frhetorician,he roblemisappears.heLaudatioFlorentinae rbis nd heFuneralOration orNanniStrozzi reboth xamplesfepideictichetoric.In epideictichetoric,-s Bruni imselfaidwithpecific eferenceo theLaudatio,what ountssnot ruthut elling ourudience hathey ant ohear.38 few hetoricalnsinceritiesbout lorentinesotbeing ubjecto

37Griffiths,ankins, nd Thompson, he Humanism, 15.38 See Bruni,Epistularumibri VIII, ed. L. Mehus Florence,1741), II, 111-12 Ep.VIII.4): The orationwas written hen was young,fresh ut of Greek class. It was aboyish rifle, rhetoricalxercise. .. The rhetorical enre for critic hould onsider his,too) in panegyrics f this kind calls forboastfulness nd winning pplause. .. In civicpanegyricshe peech s directed o thosewhomyouwishtopraise;thegenre emands n



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326 JamesHankinsthe owerf few,rhavingbrilliant ilitaryecord,rbeing elightedopaytheir axes nsupportfa popularwar-effort,re excusable-justsBruni oundt xcusableopraise ings or heirustice, isdom,ndvirtue,bothn hisprivatendpublic orrespondence.hetreatisen the olity fthe lorentines,n the ther and,was a philosophicalreatise odellednparts fAristotle'soliticsanddirectedo anaudiencehatwouldmostlyhavebeen ontemptuousfpopular overnment).yBruni'swn heoryfrhetoricalenres, e mustoncludehat t s thephilosophicalreatisendnot he wo pideicticrationshich epresentruni's onsiderediewofthenaturefFlorence's overnment.Ifwe do awaywith he nachronismhatmen ikeBruni nd Salutatiwere deologuesinthe ense fhavingn exclusiveommitmento onepoliticaldeologyuch srepublicanism),e canmake etterense fViti'smaterial. s presentedyViti,much f hisnewresearchtandsn sharpcontradictionohisBaronianelief hat runi as committedepublican.fwe admithat lorentineepublicanisms presentedySalutatindBruniwas a rhetoricalrtifactotnecessarilynkeeping ith itherheirrivatebeliefsr the oliticalealitiesfthe ime, ecan at east avethemromsome f themore erioushargesgainstheirmoralharacter.nfact heattitudefboth alutatindBruniwasthat fpermanentnder-secretaries,loyal oFlorenceatherhan o he egimend arryingut o he est f heirabilitieshechangingolicies fsuccessiveoliticalmasters.heywerealso,undeniably,rofessionalhetoriciansn themost asic ense fbeingpaid alariesoproduceropagandaor he tate. heyweremade ytheirpolitical astersowriteettersnd peecheshatwere ometimesnconsis-tentwith rhostileo theirwnprivateonvictions,utno onethoughtheworse f hem orhat. alutati ndBruniwere lso human eingswithwives, hildren,nd estates homade achhisown ccommodationithchangingoliticalealitiesndprudentlyidwhateverrivateiews heyhad npartyolitics. s men hey ere seful atherhan eroic;nd f heirconscienceserenot s tenders somemodem istoriansouldike, heyhadmany therualities e can admire.he nconsistenciesmongheirvarious tterances,adeunderhe ressurefcircumstances,onotmean

audience, ndbrings ogether multitudefpeople,notfor hepurposeofhearing egalcases or deciding n publicpolicy, i.e., t s differentromudicial or deliberativeratory,which ccording o ancient heorywas obligedto respect he truth], ut n order o reapapplauseandpleasurefrom earingts ownpraises ung.... Historys onething, anegyricanother. istorymust ollow he ruth,anegyricxtollsmany hingsbovethe ruth. heinsincerityf theLaudatio is made patentwhenthispassage is comparedwith passagefrom heLaudatioitself Baron,FromPetrarch, 49): No doubt few foolswill suspectthat amtryingo capture ome popularfavor romhispanegyricf mine, nd thatntheprocess fwinning our oodwillanddisposing ourminds avorablyowardsmeas muchas possible, amtrespassingn the imits ftruth, ixing alse hingswith rue or he akeof rhetoricalmbellishment. runicontinues oprotestn thisveinfor lmost page.



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Hans Baron 327that heyhad no core convictionsnd values. But sincetheywere profes-sionalrhetoricians,istorians avetoworkmuchharder o detectwhat hesewere:theyhave to collect heevidence s fully s possible, econstructhecontext f each utterance,nd, s Robert lacksuggests,e sensitive o thehabits f thoughtcquired romrofessionalrainingndisciplines o longerfamiliar,ikegrammarnd rhetoric.39en to whomwords omeeasily reoften ble to reconcile ositions hat strictogicianmight ind ncompat-ible, but thisdoes not mean that heir tterancesre insincere r withouthistoricalnterest. he writingsf few fanypolitical hinkersre perfectlyconsistent ith achother. his swhy heymust e studied y historiansswell as by political cientistsndphilosophers.

Whydoes itmatter hatBruni, n light f recent tudies, eemsmuchmorea professionalhetorician hanhe does a civichumanist ? hereare, nmyview,twomainreasonswhy tmatters. irst,t showsthat hedisguises fpower mployed ytheMediciregime-theirttempto concealthe rueocusofpower yexercisingheir uleunder he loak of republicanforms-were ardly riginalwith hem. alutati ndBruni,s servantsf theoligarchic egime f1382-1434, ad donepreciselyhe amething orhalfcentury, roviding decentcovering f populist hetoric o conceal thegrowingoncentrationfpower nthehands fa few adrini.Manipulationofrepublicanymbolswasprobablymore onscious nd more ynical ndertheMediceans, ut t was notfundamentallyifferent.rom his erspective,Bruni'sparticipationntheMediciregime hould omeas no surprise.hetransitionromheAlbizzian ligarchyo theMediceanregimewas neitherideologically orpolitically he sharpbreak t is sometimesepresentedsbeing.The secondreasonwhythenewpicture fBrunimatterss because tmeans that the whole categoryof civic humanism needs to be re-thought-eitheriscarded ntirelyrredefinedo as to striptof ts exclu-sive links withrepublicanism. runi was alwaysExhibitA in Baron'sdefinitionf civichumanism:heexample hatbecameforhima kindofWeberian dealtype. fwe acceptthatBruni's oyaltyo Florencewas notprimarily deological-that the populist republicanism epicted n theLaudatio and theStrozzioration oes notrepresentis core beliefs-thenBruni egins o ook muchmore ikehisfellow umanistsnRome,Ferrara,Naples, nd Milan, ndmuch ess like the xemplarf a separate peciesofhumanist.40ike his fellowhumanists, runi'scorepoliticalconvictions

39See Black, Florentine hancellors.40 n thePreface o his translationf thePolitics Griffiths,ankins, ndThompson,The Humanism, 59-61) Bruni eems to have forgottenisremarksnthe Strozziorationaboutpopularis tatusbeing heonly egitimateorm fgovernment,orherehe identifiespopularis tatuswithAristotle's emocratia ndconcludes, thepopular tate s thereforenot a legitimate indof government.n thetext ditedby Baronas Epistola ad magnum[recte Magnae, i.e., Germany] rincipem mperatorem,atedto 1413, and attributedo



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Hans Baron 329thepoor.Mercenaries,oo, resomethingvery evelopedociety eeds;warlikeirtueasa positiveunctionromcivic erspective.he ecretfa happy epubliconsistsn itsprince,ts eadingmen, nd tscitizenspossessingndexercisingheclassicalvirtues. humanistducationsnecessaryo nculcatehese irtues.rue obilityies nvirtue,otdescent.Eloquencesproperoman ndhas he unctionf preadinghe irtuef hespeakerohishearers.ikeBruni,ecembriosa followerfAristotle,ndargueshatmarriagendthefamilyrenaturalnstitutionshichrethebuildinglocks fthe ommonwealthndnecessaryo ts urvival.goismiscondemned;uotinglato, bertoays hat earenot orn or urselvesalone, ut or ur amilies,urfriends,ndour atria.

[In additiono ourduty oworship od andhonor eligion] eshould lsodevoteurselves ithpecialove oour ountryhereourparents,hildren,ives, elatives,ndfriendswell;nogoodman ver earedodiefor is ountry.or he afetyf ne's ountryembraceshe afetyfall its nhabitants.Decembriohen ites heexamplefQuintusurtius,heDecii, tc.] romhistfollowshatweshould onor ith hewarmestovethegovernorndprince fourcountry,homwe call itspaterpatriae, nderwhoserulesubjectpeoples aregovernedwith almandquiet peace. ... More-over, veryitizenhould ake are o ivewith is fellowitizenswith sense frighthatsfair nd qual;heshould eitherehavehimselfn servilend bjectmanner,othat e sheldncontempt,nor hould eget bovehimselfo that eappearsooppressthers.Also,heshould esire or iscommonwealthhose hingshatrepeacefulndhonorable.inally,eshouldoconductimselfhat ebereputedgoodman nd fair-mindedaequus] itizeny very-one.Let himbe a cultivatorfthevirtues,speciallyustice ndmoderation,oth fwhichmost ause goodman ofindpproval.Lethimdiligentlybserve hemoresndcustomsfthe ommon-wealthndnever epartromhem....uch manwastheYoungerCato, [etc.]. (ff.93v-94r)ThereshardlysentencefDecembrio'se re ublicawhicheonardo

Bruniwould ave uarrelled ithonotherhantylisticrounds).ndeed,much fthe cholarshipnhumanismuringhe1980s, ocussingnre-gionalhumanisms,aspointedut theuniversalityfthethemes aronconnectedith he oliticalxperiencefFlorence.43fwecontinueousethe ermcivichumanist,t houldeclearlyecognizedhathe ttempto43 See JohnF. D'Amico, RenaissanceHumanismn Papal Rome: Humanists ndChurchmenn theEve oftheReformationBaltimore, 983); Margaret . King,VenetianHumanism n an Age ofPatricianDominance Princeton, 986); and Jerry . Bentley,Politicsand CulturenRenaissanceNaples (Princeton,987),esp. 196-222.



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330 JamesHankinsreform nd revalorize he ife of the city-staten accordancewith ncientmodels-the great civic humanist roject hat eginswith hegenerationof Bruni,Poggio Bracciolini, uarinoVeronese,GasparinoBarzizza, PierPaolo Vergerio, ndNiccoloNiccoli-was never project onfined o Ren-aissancerepublics.Civic humanism s notFlorentine,ut Roman. t is astyle fthoughtnheritedrom ncientRomethrough allust, ivy,Virgil,and above all Cicero. t aims t the eformfpolitical ommunitiesenerallyby improvinghe moral behaviorof theirruling lites. It does thisbyexposing hem o good etters, o the rtsworthyfa freeman, he iberalarts, he rtswhichmakemennoble,wise andgood.Takenin thismore general ense, t can be said thatBaron's idea ofcivichumanism etains coreofvalidity,nd can stand s an importantsupplemento theBurckhardtiannderstandingftheRenaissance.t is notreally contradiction,fter ll, to say that n age of egoism, llegitimategovernment,eligious risis, hallow-rooteddeologies,nd ncreasingndif-ferenceo communal aluesshould lso havebeen an age when ducators,scholars, ivil servants,nd menof letters verywhere rgedupon theiraudience heneedfor acrifice, atriotism,nd service othe ommon ood.It is not surprisinghat hemen of theRenaissance houldhave lookedfor

curesfor heir wndiseasesofspirit. urckhardtdmired he ndividualismof theRenaissance,uthe alsorecognized hat, aken o anextreme,tcouldbe destructivef civilized society. f Burckhardt rew attention o thediseases of thetimes,Baron was amongthe first o showhow theageattemptedts owncure, hrough form fBildung hat imed notonlyatpersonal istinction,ut lso atinculcatingsenseofpublicduty nd socialconscience.Humanisticducation s, likechivalry,n aristocraticorm fsocializationhatinksgoodbehaviorwithhonor. hat swhat thasalwaysbeen;thatswhy t s incrisis ntheradically galitarianocieties fthe atetwentiethentury.enaissance umanistsaughthat ruehuman xcellenceconsistednwisdom ndgoodness; hat ower nrestrainedy goodnesswastheworst f evils.Truepersonal istinctionnthe ivic ifehad toincludesenseofduty oone's community.fBaronwaswrong o readhishumanistsas ferventartisansfrepublicanism,ewas correctn seeing hathuman-ism, s a cultural rogram,oughtmore han he ultivationfthe ndividual.Itaimed lsotobring cholarshipnd earningo bearon the ask fbuildingthevirtues ecessaryothepreservationfcivilsociety.

HarvardUniversity.



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Hans Baron 331Supplementaryibliography

Bouwsma,W. J. Untitledeview f Baron'sCrisis,Renaissance ews,(1956), 7-30.Brown,Alison. Hans Baron's Renaissance, he Historical ournal, 3(1990), 41-48.Cervelli,. Review fBaron'sCrisis, ivistatoricataliana, 9 1967), 37-45. Cioffari,incenzo. eview f Baron'sCrisis, enaissance ews, (1955),203-6.Connell,William . TheRepublican radition,nand outof Florence, nGirolamoavonarola: iety, rophecyndPoliticsnRenaissancelorence, d.DonaldWeinsteinndV.R HotchkissDallas, 1994), 5-105.Constable, .,P. 0. Kristeller,ndG. Brucker.Hans Baron, bituarynSpeculum,4 1989),802.Fubini,R. Reviewof Baron'sCrisis,Giornale toricodella letteraturaitaliana, 30 1958), 31-38.Garin, . La retoricai Leonardo runi, n Dal Rinascimentol Illumi-nismoPisa,1970), 1-42.Gilmore, . P. Review fBaron'sCrisis,American istorical eview, 1(1956), 21-24.

Hay,D. The PlaceofHansBaron n Renaissance istoriography,n An-thony olho ndJohn .Tedeschieds.),RenaissancetudiesnHonor fHansBaron Florence,971), i-xxix.Holmes, eorge.TheEmergencef n Urbandeology tFlorence, rans-actionsf heRoyalHistoricalociety,3 1973),111-34.Kohl, . J.Review fBaron,rom etrarch,nHistoryndTheory,(1970),121-27.Radetti, . Le origini ell'umanesimoivile iorentinoel 400, Giornalecritico ella etteraturataliana,8 1959),98-122.Vasoli,C.Review fBaron'swork, inascimento,(1953),308-14.. Leonardorunilla ucedelle iurecentiicerche, tti MemoriedellaAccademia etrarchai ettere,rti scienze iArezzo,0 1988),3-26.

AppendixPaolo Viti's recent ollectionof studies, eonardoBruni e Firenze(Rome: Bulzoni, 1992), s a considerableontributiono Bruni tudies, ut

he also repeats ome ong-standingrrors nd addssomenew ones which tmaybe useful o correct ere.The textVitipublishes s an ineditum58-59)was previouslyublishedin the Deutsche Reichtags-akten nterAlbrecht I (ed. G. Beckmann[Stuttgart925],141-42,no. 92) as well as inE. MartenendU. Durand'sVeterum criptorum t monumentorum istoricorum, ogmaticorum,moraliummplissimaollectio[Paris,1724-33], , 1578).The oration o theEmperor Si laudestuas 55-56) transcribedrom antiniwas previouslypublished y S. Baluze (Miscellaneanovoordinedigesta, d. J. D. Mansi[Lucca, 1762], 150). The Oratio qua se defendit b accusationibus



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332 JamesHankinsimperatoris96, 109) is in facta missiva,not an independentration fBruni.IThe two ettersotheDoge ofVenice andto theAnzianiof Lucca(110-11) are in fact anonymous talian translationsf Latin missive; nadditiono thefourMSS listed y Viti, here re twenty-fourSS more ftheformerext nd seventeenf the atter.2hemissive ublishednpages133-34was previouslyublishednmyPlato in the talianRenaissance, I,405. Much of whatVitisays about he date andattributiono Bruni f theVaticanMSS Urbinas raecus 3 and 34 was anticipated yEmestoBerti,who is elsewhere riticized oraccepting oo rashly he attribution.3heconnectionetween runi'scompendiumfXenophon'sHellenicaand theintellectual xchangesat the Council of Florence was firstmade bySebastianoGentile n MarsilioFicino Lettere [Florence,1990], xix). IncriticizingllprevioustudentsfBruni'shand includinghepresent riter)inSection 1.3 Preliminarieruno studio ullagrafia i LeonardoBruni ),Viti seems unwillinglyo entertainhepossibilityhatBruni, ikePoggio,Niccoli, ndmany ther umanists,ad one handfornotarial ndchancerydocumentsndanotheror umanistic SS; so convinceds heofthis hat e

1The text s foundnFlorence,Archivio i Stato, ignori,Missive, a Cancelleria ol.33, ff.94r-97r,nc Licet gravissimumit mentibus ostris. he missivewas copied in anumber f iterary anuscripts,.g. Florence, ibliotecaLaurenzianaMS Plut.90, sup34,ff.183v-189v; aticanLibrary,MS Barb. at. 1927,ff. 2v-25rnd ChisJ V 119, ff.165v-169v;Rome, BibliotecaAngelica MS 141, ff.91r-94r. he titleused byViti takenfromfromBaron, Leonardo Bruni Aretino,Humanitisch-philosophischechriften Leipzig,1928], 174) comes fromherubric ftheAngelicamanuscript.hetexthas been publishedseveral imes, yA. Fabroni,MagniCosmiMediceiVita, I (Pisa, 1788), 51-55;C. Guasti,Commissioni i Rinaldo degli Albizziper il Comunedi Firenze dal MCCCXCIX alMCCCCXXXIII,Documenti i storia taliana, II (Florence,1873), 536-38; andH. Herre,DeutscheReichtagsaktennterKaiser Sigmund, , Teil 1 (Gotha, 1900), 495-98,n. 302.

2 The letter o theDoge of Venice inc. Poiche per o effecto elleopere) s foundnFlorence, ibliotecaNazionaleCentrale,MS Panciatichi 48, f. 73r; that o theAnzianiofGenoa inc. Se si ricerchano)s inibid.,ff. 7V-78r.hismanuscript,s is known,s a copyof a volumemissingfrom he archival eriesof Signori,Missive Ia Cancelleria n theArchivio i StatoofFlorence.To the four iterary anuscriptsfthe formeretter nownto Viti (Ricc. 1193 shouldbe Ricc. 1133) maybe added a furthereventeen: lorence,BibliotecaLaurenzianaMS Redi 113, 143; FlorenceBibliotecaNazionale CentraleNaz.11.1.71,Naz. 11.11.81,nd Magl. VI.197; Florence,Biblioteca Riccardiana 1074, 2272,2278, 2322, 2544; Lucca, BibliotecaGovemativaMS 1436; Paris,BibliothequeNationaleMS ital.593; Toledo,BibliotecaCapitular ,35;VaticanLibrary, org. at.402,Ross. 784,andVat. lat. 3125 and 8088. The letter o the Anziani of Genoa is found n twenty-fourothermanuscriptsn addition o the four istedbyViti:Florence,BibliotecaLaurenzianaPlut.43, 17 and90 sup.65,Redi 113, 143; Florence,BibliotecaNationaleCentraleMagl.VI,189 and VIII, 1373, Naz . 11.1.71, 1.11.81,I.IX.15, Nuovi acquisti 354; Florence,BibliotecaRiccardiana1074, 2272, 2278, 2322, 2544; Lucca, BibliotecaGovemativaMS1436; Naples, BibliotecaNazionaleXIII G 35; Paris,BibliothequeNationale tal.593, lat.17888; Toledo, BibliotecaCapitular ,35; VaticanLibrary, org. at. 402, Ross. 784, Vat.lat. 3215; Venice, BibliotecaMarciana,Marc. lat. XIV 221 (4632).3Ernesto Berti, La traduzione i LeonardoBrunidelFedonedi Platone d uncodicedella BibliotecaBodmeriana,MuseumHelveticum,5 (1978), 125-48.Vitialso ignoresthe extual vidence massedbya Berti ssociating odmer136 withBruni's ranslationfthePhaedo.



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Appendix 333dismisses he evidenceof a colophon n Padua, BibliotecaUniversitaria1499,f. 40r, Hec Demosthenes raciotranslata st fideliter erme Leo-nardumAretinume mensenovembrismillesimo uadringentesimoexto,apostolica ede vacante, ndfails oanalyze he eeminglyuthorialorrec-tions in the same MS. To the bibliographical otes to Lettereper iMalatesta (365-78) shouldbe added J. Hankins, The Humanist, heBanker, ndtheCondittiere: n Unpublishedetter f Cosimo nd Lorenzode'MediciWrittenyLeonardoBruni, n Renaissance ociety nd Cul-ture: ssays n HonorofEugeneF. Rice,Jr., d. J.Monfasani nd R. Musto(New York, 1991),59-70.The identificationfBruni's orrespondantDe-metrius ithDemetrio carano 336) was first uggested y me in 1987.4The text yBruniwhichViticalls De laudibus xercitiirmorum397) is infact he itle f an anonymousatin ranslation,urvivingn a singleMS, ofBruni'svolgare peech, heSermone etta Niccol6Tolentino, hich ur-vives n about90 MSS.5 On the same page Viti repeats he error fC. C.Bayley,whobelievedBruni'sDe militia o be concerned ith heFlorentinecommunalmilitiawhen n realityt s anattempto find lassical oots or hecontemporaryignitd avalleresca.6Viti's urge opreserveheBaronian iew ofBruni eadshim nto omestrangeudgments.orexample, erepeats313, 337) thehighlymplausibleidea, firstdvancedbyR. M. Zaccaria n the conferencen Bruniheld n1987, that he division fthe Florentinehancerynto wo officesn 1437was a plotbytheMediceans ostripheir olitical pponent runi fpowerand thathe was compensated y purely ceremonial ositionson thePriorate ndtheTen ofWar.7Quite part rom he bsenceof evidence hatBruni ever opposedtheMedici after1434 (and muchevidence thathe

4G. Griffiths,.Hankins, nd D. Thompsoneds.), TheHumanism fLeonardoBruni(Binghamton, .Y., 1987), 370-71.sThe Latinversion,which s not by Bruni, s foundonly n Biblioteca ApostolicaVaticana, Vat. lat. 1043 (inc. Omniumhumanorumxercitiorum)nd in a seventeenth-centuryopyof theVaticanMS in ParisBN Par. at. 17888,97-102.Viti's referenceeemsto be based on the error n Baron,Bruni chriften,75.6 C. C. Bayley, War and Society n Renaissance Florence: The De Militia ofLeonardo Bruni Toronto, 961); on the defects f this study ee Paul Oskar Kristeller'sreview n CanadianHistoricalReview, 4 (1963), 66-70. Thetraditionaliew,popularized

by Baron nd Bayley, hat runiwashostile o condottierind anadvocate fcivic militias,is questionednR. Dees, Bruni,Aristotle,ndthe Mixed Regime nOn the Constitutionof theFlorentines,Medievalia et humanistica, .s., 15 (1987), 1-23,and inmyarticles,The LatinPoetry f LeonardoBruni, Humanistica ovaniensia,39 (1990), 1-39,andThe Humanist, heBanker nd theCondottiere, ited n the text bove. The traditionalview s maintainednLucia GualdoRosa, L'elogio delle lettere dellearminell'operadiLeonardo Bruni, n L. Avellini ed.), Sapere e/epotere. l caso bolognese confronto,Bologna 13-15 aprile 1989, I: Formee oggetti ella disputadelle arti Bologna, 1990),103-13.7 R. M. Zaccaria, II Bruni cancelliere le istituzioni ella Republica, n P. Viti(ed.), Leonardo Bruni cancellieredella Repubblicadi Firenze,Convegnodi Studi Flo-rence,1990), 97-116.



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334 JamesHankinssupportedhem),his xplanationsclearly uttinghe art eforehehorse:Bruni as n fact akennto he eggimentofter 437 evenVespasiano aBisticci aid gli dettanoo stato ; f. his Vite. d. A. Greco Florence,1970], , 473).Thedivisionf he hanceryas urelyntendedorelieveheelderlyhancellorf ome fhisdutieso as tofree imoparticipateullynthesemost owerfulf civicdignities.n his efforto present runi s acovertnti-Mediceaniti escribeshe ollowing,atherool, entenceromBruni's istoryfFlorence s a denunciationf the progressiveuffo-cation f iberty 24-25) nFlorenceroughtbout ytheMediceans:InFlorencelso bout his imehere as drastichangen he ommonwealthand Cosimo e' Medici ndhisrelatives erebroughtack,having eenexpelled heprevious ear,while differentaction,ather umerous,assentnto xile. Thisudgmentits llwithViti's ccuratetatementlse-where336)that runivoided oliticallyensitiveopicsnhispublishedepistolary.imilarly,espitestudi ecenti64, 129), heres noevidencethat ugeneV usedhis nfluenceokeepBruninoffice s chancellor,overcominghe ostilityfCosimo e'Medici. hemost lausibleeadingfthe vidence ould how hat runi,ikemost ther eoplenFlorence,epthisheaddown uringhe artytrifef 1426-34.

Viti s also mistakenn arguing395-401) hat he OrationortheFuneral fNanni trozzi as deliveredyChancellorruninthepiazzaSignoriaspart f he elebrationsn16May 1428,markinghe nd f heMilaneseWar.n the irstlace, runilearly resentsisfuneralrationsa literaryiction,eclaring:We shallwritehis anegyrics thoughtwerean oratio eing pokent the eryndofhisfuneralites ita cribeturnobis uasi n psofunerisxtremoicaturratio ). econdly,runipeaksof thewarwithMilan s still nprogress ita Nanni trozzi] ocbelloadversusMediolanensiumucemcivitasnostraVenetique uncgeruntbellandonteriit ).nany asetheres noevidencehat atinwas ever sedbythechancellorn suchpublicoccasionsn Florence;hedozensofsurvivingicerieromheQuattrocentonownothe resentriterre ll nthevolgare.Thefollowingnpublishedext, pparentlynknownoViti, uggeststhat runi's rationor trozzi as ntendedt eastnpart,or oreignatherthan omesticonsumption.8he text eems obe a letterftransmissionmeant oaccompanypresentationopy fBruni's ratio orNiccolo IId'Este,heMarquessfFerrara.here re wo opies f he ext,othnthehand fMatteo trozzi. oth opies reundated,ut hey ppearna boundvolumerganizedydate etweenwo therocumentsated espectivelyMarchnd June 428. he etterurportsohave eenwrittenyMatteoiSimone trozzi,rotherfNanni. ut twas almostertainlyomposedyBruni imself.part romhe tyle, ui sapitAretini,nd he wo lassical

8 This textwas kindly roughtomyattentionyArthur ield.



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Appendix 335quotations, othfavoritesfBruni, here re no other xamples mong heextensive urviving ritingsf Matteo Strozzi n the Carte Strozziane fLatincompositionsfanykind.Bruniwas closetoMatteo s well as PallaStrozziandwouldhave been theobviousperson o composea letter nMatteo'sbehalf. Less than year aterhewouldcompose similaretter,this ime oCarlo Malatesta, nbehalf f Cosimoand Lorenzode'Medici.)9The theme f the etter,hat heMarquess hould uccourNanni'sorphanedsons, s continuous ith heOratio, or t the ndofthe refaceo thatpeechBruniwrites, Sed de funerisuidem ublicihonore atorumqueducationeet cura i qui possunt tdebent, tspero, rovidebunt. he etternd speechareplainlyinked ompositions,robablyart f a campaign rchestratedythe trozzi o haveNanni's ervices elebratedn a public uneralndto havehis sons ooked fter y Niccolod'Este.

9 See my article, The Humanist,he Banker nd theCondottiere, itedabove.

Florence, rchivio iStato, arte trozziane,er. II, 132,f.280r-vcopyA) andf.283r-Vcopy B). BothcopiesareautographsfMatteodi SimoneStrozzi.A title asbeen ddedbySenatore arloStrozzis. XVII): Lettera lMarchese i Ferrara crittaulla morte i NanniStrozzi.

Preclara dmodum,magnifice rinceps,trecte loriosa obisetiamatque etiamcogitantibusmorsfidelissimi erui tui Johannis, ratrisnostri, on mmeritoidero olet-pro patria tenim tproDominationeTua non dubitauit bcumbere-quo generemortis ullum ertealiudprestantiusogitari otest. uocircaprimum quidem ehementerngor 5eo fratrerbatus uimihi itamea carior rat, ursus ero, um ogito itandemliquandomoriendumuisse ec ullam larioremmortemi ullopacto potuisse contingere, aucorumannorum ccessionemparuiadmodum aciendam atus ngor lle, quo priusuehementerngebar,paulisper rimum,umdemum b preclarumenusmortisndiespene 10euanescit.Hoc itaquemodome ipsumconsolansrursus terum tqueiterum e flliis uos paruulos eliquit ogitatio uedampaulatim epensanimum ubit. a cogitatiosthuiusmodi:ilios uosegregia c nimirumsingulari ndole preditos ngensglorie umenet uelut ubarquoddamelaturos uisse, i ipsum arentemiutiusnuitapermanereontigisset. 5Nam preter gregiamndolem um doctrina t moribus, umpaternaquoqueimitationediutimirabilies rofectot arbitrorructuseperis-sent.Accedit uodDominatio ua ex omnibus numJohannemtpotefidissimumeruum uum unicediligebat, receteris numJohannemobseruabat,n uno deniqueJohanneanquamn iocundissimouodam20portufluctibus rincipatus uandoqueiactataacquiescereuidebatur.Quamobrempsiusuiuentis spectus, ui uel ex eo iocundissimusibi



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336 JamesHankinsfuisse idebaturuod ungue utdicitur)atius bs teipsum besse equoanimo patinonpoteras, antopereuodammodo ominationem uam25 admonuissett iberos uosbenignitatet argitateuasingularic peneincredibilirga e suaque et adiuuisses tad dignitatisradus xtulisses.Quod si fieret, on ambigo quin multofacilius dmirabiles uosdameffectus arerentuam si uel non adiutiuel destituti ssent.Quippecuiusdam on gnobilis oeteuera, mmo erissima ententiast:

30 haud facile merguntllosquorum irtutibusbstatres angusta omi.Quare non parum inpresentiarumngor commodorumd gloriamamissione ua nepotes uondam, uncuerofiliimeiuna cum parenteamiserunt.35 Proinde cogitantimihi quemadmodum uiuscemodi d gloriamcommodarecuperari ossent,non ab re uisum est Dominationi uequandam legantissimamrationem e servi tui laudibus LeonardoAretino iroomniumtatisnostre loquentissimouper ditammittere.Quod ideo feci, non quia memoriam idissimi erui tui in mente

40 Dominationis ue insiderepenitus gnorarem, eque eo quod illamipam memoriam riusuita tua desituramxistimarem,ed profectocumut Johannisui,Johannisnquamfamuli ui,assidua recordatiopropter ominationisue magnitudinemnterdum,t fit, opita c hacelegantissimaratione uandoqueexsucitatarecentius euiuescat,45 tum tiam t posterisuisquoddam erpetuum unimentumidelissimeergaDominationemuamseruitutisemper ppareat.d proptereaecilibentius uia laudes semuiui non ingratas el potiusgratissimasibifuturasrbitrabar,resertimumnona laudato olum, quoHector lleNeuianus audari upiebat,ed certe laudatissimo iro seruus lle tuus50 merito audetur.Quapropter, agnificeuctor tprinceps,e oroatqueobtestorthocopusculum,moleparuissimumed sententiarumerborumqueonderecertemaximum,nbibliothecauaclarissimatque eleberrimaollocareatque apponere igneris. uod si feceris, on solummihi, ed uniuerse55 familie ostre ratissimumrit tposterisuisperpetuum onumentumtante ttam fide rgate seruitutisxtabit, uod posteris ostris ratumadmodum uturumsse certissimeentio.

13 egregriam nimirum.s. B 22 tibi ocundissimus 24 tanteMSS30 emergereMSS 32 inpresentiarumnmarg.A 33 parente] atreB39 memoria 41 suaA 42 ut]tuB

30-31Juv. at. III, 164-65 48-49 Cic. Fam. V, 12 (7).



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Appendix 337Viti's book providesmany striking xamplesof Bruni'sability s arhetoriciano manipulate he languageof whatmight e called imperialhumanism. '0he main opics n this ort f discourse re praise f theHolyRoman Emperor s the one authorityble to bringpeace and unity oChristendom,o settle nternaluarrelsnd toprotectt from he nfidel. hepeoplesof Europe re committedohiscare;they re his oyal ons,he theirfather. e inheritshevirtues fCaesar,especiallyhis clemency. he textpublished or the first ime below gives yetanother xampleof Bruni'sfluencyn thisvein. t is a speechwrittenyBruniforFlorentinembassa-dors ttendingitherhe oronationfFrederickII as KingoftheRomansn1440 orthe oronationfAlbrechtII in1438. discoveredhenew ext omeyears ago in a MS in theBeinecke Library t Yale. Dr. MartinDaviessubsequentlyrought o my notice nothermanuscript itness f Aretineprovenance, ated 1449, n the VaticanLibrary.11t seemedworthwhileopublishthe texthereto illustrate urtherruni's skill as an imperialrhetorician.he spelling ollows hat f the VaticanMS; punctuationndcapitalizationre mine.10See especially55-62.11 ee my article, BruniManuscriptsnNorthAmerica, n L. GualdoRosa andP.Viti eds.),Per il Censimentoeicodici dell'Epistolario iLeonardoBruni, stituto toricoper l MedioEvo,Nuovistudi torici, 0 (Rome, 1991), 55-90,atp. 63.

C-BibliotecaApostolica aticana, S Chis.J.IV.19,ff. 89r-vArezzo, .1449)Y-New Haven,Connecticut,ale Universityibrary, S Marston 0,ff.129v-130rs. XV 3/4)LeonardiAretini d imperatoremratio ro parte omunis lorentie.

'Vidimus tellam ius n oriente venimusdorare um'. Verba untMattheiEvangeliste n capitulo. Serenissime tque glori-ossime princeps:Non sine probabiliratione imilitudo acta est abantiquisnter astigiummperialet astra ncelofulgentia.rimumnim 5ut nstellis st altitudotquesublimitasdmiranda,ic etiammperialisfastigiiublimitastaltitudoupermortalesttollitur.tstellafulgoremhabet t claritatem,ic etiam mperialis ignitaserenitatemt illustra-tionem ontinett fulgoremdmirandumucemque larissimamncivi-tates opulosque ffundit.tque xortus tellarumeu siderumliquid n 10futurumignificat t ostendit,ic etiam exortusmaximiprincipis toptimi, ualis tu es, repromittitominibus uturameculi felicitatem.Que quidem mnia,nenuncnoviter mereperta utes, udiquiddicatVirgilius oetarumoctissimus:



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338 JamesHankins15 ecce Dyoneiprocessit esaris strumastrum uo segetes auderentrugibusuoqueduceretpricisncollibusuva colorem.

Tranquillitatemt pacem poeta significareoluit x Cesaris stella seusidereproventuram,dque significaviter segetes t opera rusticorum20 que maxime issipantur bellis.Hanc igitur ranquillitatemtpacemetquietam eculifelicitatemopulusFlorentinusevotissimusuus peratex tuoexortuamquamxsalutari tella eusidere erYtaliam c ceterasmundipartesesse futuram.taque gaudens et exultanshac seculibeatitudinenos oratoresmisit ad orandumet venerandum uum25 sanctissimumc fulgentissimumubar.Noli enimputare, restantissimeCesar, ammultis eculis tantam etitiam uisse usceptamx alicuiusprincipis sumptione uanta per universummundum usceptaest exfelici sta adsumptioneua.Quid enimoptabilius sse potest utdebetquam ab optimo rincipe ubemari tregi, ui fidem fferat,ustitiam30 confirmet,ella Cristianorumollat, aci studeat t quieti,populoruminfideliumonatuset opera maligna repellat.Tue enimadmirabilesprestantissimequeirtutes,ua fides et moderatio, ua fortitudo t

clementia,ua incorruptaustitia, ua admirabilisapientia t altitudoconsiliimerito ancspem optimamivitatibustpopulispollicetur.n35 hacpopulusFlorentinusevotissimusuus onfiditt inasumptioneuamirabili audio xultavittque xultat. uodlicetper iterasampridem/f. 30r/ignificavit,amen ivis quoque affatibusernosoratores uosdemonstrari lenius voluit ac presentes uo culmini sublimissimogratularirohacfelici dsumptioneua, ecomendanse ipsum evote t40 humiliter ue sacratissime c invictissimemaiestati.Ceterum, ere-nissimeprinceps,non nulla seorsumexponerehabemus,que, cumdabiturocusettempus,uemaiestati eriosius xprimemus.

1 LeonardoAretini m. Y 2 eam Y 3 spatiumduodecim itterarumostcapituloCY 7 Ut] Et Y 12 alterum uturamost seculi canc. Y 15 processitedd.] precessitC: precessic Y 16 quoque CY] etquo edd. 17 apricis] pricibusC: a precibusY 17 uva] una CY 18 ex C ex corr.] e Y 19 sidere] syderaY 20 a om. Y et alterum m. Y 26-30, 31-32 sex litterae x initio harumlinearum bscissae suntin Y 30 paci] pati Y 36 licet om. Y 37 significaritC 38 sublimissimi Y 41 exprimere

2 Matt.2:2 15-17Ecl. IX.47-49.

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