James Hankins - The "Baros Thesis" After Forty Years

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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 Press

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The BaronThesis

after orty ears ndsome

Recent

tudies fLeonardo

runi

James

Hankins

It

was entirelyppropriatehat hedeath f Hans Baron n

November f

1988 shouldhave become heoccasionfor number f tributeso his

work

and influence s

a Renaissance

historian;

nd

since Princeton

niversity

Press,only fewmonths

arlier,

ad

issued a collection

f his

papers nd

articles, retrospective

ook at

his

contributionso Renaissance tudieswas

made all the moreobligatory.' mongthe moreperceptive ccountsof

Baron's workwas a

review-essayy

John

Najemy,

which

made

some

very

largeclaims for

he

mportancef Baron's work.2

It is

by now common-

place, wroteNajemy, thatwhat

Burckhardt

as

to

nineteenth-century

Renaissancehistoriography,

aron

s to its

twentieth-centuryounterpart:

each

provided

is

century's

most

nfluential,ompelling,

nd

debated

nter-

pretationfthe ignificance

fthe ultural evelopmentsf taly etween he

end of the Middle

Ages

and

the modem era. And

again:

In

recovering

Bruni and the civic humanism f the early fifteenthentury, aron did

nothing

ess

than

recastthe

entireRenaissancefrom etrarch o Machi-

avelli.

Large

claims

ndeed,yet

t is

difficult

o

quarrel

with

hem, spe-

cially oming

rom scholar f

Najemy's uthority.

aron

was

surely

ne of

the hree rfourmost nfluential

nterpreters

ftheRenaissancen

the econd

A primitiveersion f thispaperwas discussed

t a

roundtable n Hans

Baron

held n

November f 1992 attheHarvardUniversity enter or talianRenaissance tudies Villa

I

Tatti).Thanks

for

helpful riticisms o

William

Connell,

Arthur

ield, RiccardoFubini,

and

particularly obert Black,

and

(for

a

later

version)

to

AnthonyMolho,

R.

Burr

Litchfield,nd otherparticipantst the Workshopn Late Medieval and

Early Modem

ItalianHistory t BrownUniversityspring1994).

1

Hans Baron, n Search ofFlorentine ivicHumanism: ssays on theTransitionrom

Medieval to ModernThought2 vols.; Princeton, 988).

2

JohnM.

Najemy,

eview

ssay

of Baron's

Essays,

Renaissance

Quarterly,

5

(1992),

340-50.

309

Copyright995 yJournal

f

theHistory

f

deas,

nc.






310

JamesHankins

half of

the twentiethentury,

articularly

n

Italy and

America,

nd his

studies

f thehistory f

republicanismparked

broadrevival f

nterest

n

this opic

among

tudents f early

modem

history; heterm civic

human-

ism s now as widelyused among tudentsf eighteenth-s of fifteenth-

centuryolitics.

His lifelong ampaign

o nterpretiterarynd philosophical

texts

n their istorical

etting-a

method till

unusual

n

Baron's

youth-is

today

normalpractice

and rightly

o)

among ntellectual istorians

nd

historiansf political

hought.

What

s more

ontroversial,

owever,

s anotherlaimmade

n

Najemy's

review-essay:

Recentworkhas by

and large

confirmed aron's

view that

civic humanism

uccessfully romoted

distinctiveultural

rogram

nd

political utlook hat eshaped lorentine,oman, nd Italianhistory,ede-

fined

otions

f citizenshipnd

iberty,nd

created ew expectations

bout

the ole

of ntellectuals

nd education

n

society.

t

could

be argued-as

this

essay

will

argue-that

n

fact

he

tendency

f recent tudies f Florentine

intellectual istory,nd particularly

tudies

f

LeonardoBruni,

as been to

revise r

evenundermine

aron's view

of thenature nd significance

f the

phenomenon

e

called

civic

humanism. 3

It

maybe useful or urposes

f expositiono recapitulate

he

genesis nd

chieffeaturesf whathas becomeknown s the Baron thesis. Baron's

point

f

departure,

y

his own

ccount,

as Burckhardt's

nterpretation

f

the

Renaissance,

specially

his view of

the

ndividualism

f Renaissance

tal-

ians.4

Burckhardt amously

aw

the Renaissance s

a

period

when men

ceased

submerging

heir dentities

n collectivities

f

various

kinds and

sought

ikeartists

o

shape

hemselvesnto eautiful,owerful,

irtuous,

nd

wise

individuals, sing

as models dealized

versions

f their

Greco-Roman

forebears. or

Burckhardt

his

mplied

loosening

f

allegiances

o

family,

guild, tate,ndreligion, newwillingnesso treathese atter ot s givens

of

tradition

ut as Menschenwerke,lastic

to

the

hands

of theirhuman

makers.

t

was

this

more

than

nything

hatmade Renaissance

men

first-

born

mong

he

ons

ofmodern

urope.

or

Burckhardt,

f

course,

his

was

not an unqualified ompliment:

he

ndividualism

f theRenaissance ould

sometimes

ssue

n an

amoral goism,

ndifferent

o

the

good

of the

ommu-

3

Baron's civic

humanism

nd the so-called

Baron

thesis firstgained wide

currency

fter he publication

of his Crisis of

the

Early

Italian Renaissance: Civic

Humanism

nd Republican

iberty

n

an

Age of Classicism

nd TyrannyPrinceton,

955).

Further

tudies elating o

the

ame

themes ppeared

n

the ame year n Baron's

Humanis-

tic and Political

Literature

n Venice nd Florence

at

theBeginning

f theQuattrocento

(Cambridge,

Mass., 1955).

A revised dition n one volume

of theCrisiswas published

y

Princeton niversity

ress

n 1966; an Italianversion

f

Crisis

withfurtherevisions

was

published

as

La

crisi

del

primo

Rinascimento

taliano. Umanesimocivile

e

liberta

repubblicana

n un'eta

di classicismo

di tirannide

Florence,

1970).

4

Baron,Essays, I, ch. 16 and 17.






Hans

Baron

311

nity nd destructive

f

themoral

aluesnecessary

o the urvival f

civilized

society.'

As is

now clear from

hebrilliant

tudy

f Riccardo

ubini,

aronwas

early n his life disciple fErnst roeltsch, liberal rotestantheologian

who

(influenced

y

Dilthey)

wished to

reject

the

dogmatism

nd soteri-

ological

individualism

f

traditional hristianity,

nstead nterpreting

ts

message

s

a

theology

f social action.

n the

1920s

Baron

was also a

firm

supporter

f

the WeimarRepublic,

ager

to wean Germany

way from

ts

chauvinistic

nd monarchical

ast.6

He felt hat

he new era of

democratic

socialism

emanded

new

kind f education

ndculture

hat

wouldproduce

an active nd

nformed

itizenry.

e believedGermany's

nhealthyolitical

traditionad beenaggravatedy an entrenchedniversityulture tressing

philology

nd overspecialized

istorical

tudies; he

effectwas

to distract

attention

rom

arger

historical

ssues and thus

o

detach

cholarship

rom

political

ommitment.

oreover,gainst

heprevailing

hauvinism

hat ried

to

make

the German

pirit

he origin f

all

worthwhileontributions

o

civilization,

e

was

anxiousto demonstrate

hatGermany

was

in

fact

n-

debted

or

alued

parts

f her

ulture o other ands; his,

e

felt,

wouldhelp

make

educated

Germans

eadier

o look abroad nd

n

thenon-German

ast

formodelsof a healthy olitical ulture. inally, erhaps bove all,Baron

wanted

o

prove

hat umanistic

ulture

was

compatible

ith

olitical

om-

mitment.

n

obstacle o

the latter im

was Burckhardt's

dentification

f

humanism

ith hecultivation

f the ndividual.

his

was

a matter

f more

than urely

cademic

nterest,

s

Burckhardt'sook

had

acquired

omething

of

a

cult-following

mong

highly-educated

ut

politically

assive

Germans

during

he

1920s;

the

George-Kreis

or

xample

dmired hebook

mmoder-

ately.

The German lites

who admired

urckhardt's

reat

book,

however,

tended o ignore ismessage bout hedangers f untrammelledndividual-

ism nd to focus

nstead

n his seductive icture

fgenius

iberated rom

he

claims

of traditional

orality

nd

social

convention.

I

See

FelixGilbert, istory:

oliticsorCulture?

Reflections

n Ranke

ndBurckhardt

(Princeton,

990), ch.4.

Baron's

ownview

of Burckhardt's

olitics

was less nuanced:

ee

his essay

Burckhardt's

ivilization

f theRenaissance

a Century fter

ts

Publication,

Renaissance

News,13

(1960),

207-22,repr.

n Essays,

155-81.

6

RiccardoFubini, RenaissanceHistorian:The Careerof Hans Baron, Journalof

Modern

History, 4 (1992),

541-74,published

n Italian as Una

carrieradi

storico

del

Rinascimento:

ans Baron

(Naples,

1992).

Sketches f

Baron's

career nd the

nfluences

upon

him

had

been given

earlier

n G. Cervani,

II Rinascimento

talianonell'opera

di

Hans

Baron, Nuova

rivista torica,

39 (1955),

492-503;

AugustBuck,

Hans

Baron's

Contribution

o

the Literary

istory

f theRenaissance,

n

Anthony

Molho

and John

A.

Tedeschi eds.),

Renaissance

Studies

n

Honor

ofHans Baron Florence, 971),

xxxi-lviii;

Eugenio

Garin,

Le prime

icerche i

HansBaron

sul Quattrocento

la

loro nfluenza

ra

le due guerre,

n ibid.,

lix-lxx;

and, formodern

political

context,

Renzo Pecchioli,

'Umanesimo

civile'

e

interpretazione

civile'

dell'umanesimo,

Studi

storici,

13

(1972), 3-33.






312

James

Hankins

These concerns repared heground

orBaron's majordiscoveries s a

Renaissance istorian.ometime

n the

ate 1920sBaron'sresearch egan o

disclose n fifteenth-centurytaly-supposedly

hehomeland fthe

detached

individual urturedn classicizing ulture-a traditionfhumanisticit-

erature hathad

shown tself

olitically ommitted,

nd

committed,

ore-

over, o republicanism.7

t

was the expression f civic-minded,epublican

cultures

n

Venice and

Florence

n

which itizens nd scholars ad worked

togethero serve

he

bonum

ommune-a far ry rom he ulture vokedby

Burckhardt,world f rootless ntellectuals anderingmong hecourts f

illegitimateyrants. his discovery

f a civic humanisticradition as for

Baron the germof his famous

thesis. As Baron himself elieved that

scholarship hould servethepublic good, it was importantor him to

understand

ow Italian intellectualshad made the transition rom n

otherworldly

o a

this-worldly utlook,

rom

rivate

o

public

commit-

ments, nd

from world

in

which ntellectual nd moral effort imed

primarilyt salvation

n thenext ife o

a

world

n

which

he ivil

community

became

hefont

f

value. He wanted

ot

merely

o describe ivic humanism

but

o explainhow

t

had

come

about,

or o

explain ts genesis

wouldbe to

explain

he

genesis

f modern ttitudes

o thestate

nd

to

whatwould

now

be calledthe public sphere.

Baron's researches

nto

the origins

f civic humanism t length ook

shape

n his

greatwork,

The Crisis

of

the

Early

talian Renaissance:

Civic

Humanismnd

Republican iberty

n

an

Age of

Classicism nd

Tyranny.

n

this ook

Baron schewed nternalist

xplanations

or

he

ppearance

f

what

he calledcivic

humanism.

he

civichumanismf

Quattrocento

lorence

was

not

a natural

utgrowth

f Trecento

umanism ut

a

new

departure

o

be

explained

n

terms

f new

political

onditionsround he

year

1402. Before

1402 humanists ad generallyacked seriouspolitical ommitments;heir

scholarship

ad served

imited, ersonal

oals;

their

hilosophy,

nsofar s

they ad one,was

Stoic

or

otherworldly;

heir

utwardiveshad beenthat f

rootless ourtiers

r

quietist

itizens. he Florentine

ivic tradition,n

the

other

and,

while

t

had

preserved

he

healthy olitical

ifeof the

hirteenth-

centuryommune,

tood

part

rom

he

earned ultural raditionshat

might

have

given

it

nurture.

t

was

only

the

long struggle

with

Giangaleazzo

Visconti

n the

1390sthat

ad

brought

hese

wotraditions

ogether,reating

thehybrid ulture fpolitically-committedildung hatBaron called civic

humanism.

n

the crisisof theMilanese

Wars,

whenFlorence's

very

xist-

ence

was

threatened,rivate

cholarship

f

the Petrarchan

ariety

eemed

selfish nd

trivial. lassical

earning,

o retain

ts

relevance,

would have to

subordinate

tself o

the

ideological

and educational

needs of

the

state.

Leonardo

Bruni-for Baron the embodimentf civic

humanism-quickly

7

The termBu7rgerhumanismus,ranslated

s civic humanism, aron first sed

in

the introductiono his Leonardo BruniAretino.Humanistisch-philosophischechriftenr

(Leipzig, 1928).






Hans Baron

313

outgrew

his

youthful

ttraction

o

pure

classicism -symbolized by

Niccolo

Niccoli-and forged

new kind

of classicism

whose aim was to

nurturend celebrate

he traditions f Florentine epublicanism

nherited

from hecommunal ge.

Florence's ictory

n theViscontiwars nd thenew

kind f

humanism

t

engendered ad,forBaron,

esults f

world-historicalmportance.

t

meant,

first

f all,

that

taly

would notbe united nder single yranny

utwould

become

system

f

city-states;

s a

result,

hemedieval ommunalraditions

ofFlorence nd

Venicewould urvive

o

nspire

later

ge

of

republicanism.8

Even more mportant,hanks

o thewritingsf civic humanists,

lorence's

republican alues of independentelf-government,ree

speech,political

participation,nd equality nder aw would survive,n the earlymodem

period, o prevent monopoly

f

absolutist olitical hought

n

themarket-

place of deasandto prepare

heground or hemodem evolution

n political

ideas and practice. rom n even onger erspectiveherise

of civichuman-

ism

struck nother low

against

he

Augustinian olitical

radition f the

MiddleAges.

For

Augustine

hevalue

of

political ctivity

n thisworldwas,

sub specie saeculi, mostly

egative; ub specie aeternitatis

t

was literally

nothing, ince

it

did

nothing irectly o promote he healthof the soul.

Bruni's civic humanismhallengedAugustine y revivingn Aristotelian

and Ciceronian

nthropology

hich

aw

self-government

nd other exter-

nal goods as necessary o the dignity nd perfectionf

humanity.his

in

turn ntailed

new

conception

fhistory:

t

was no coincidence

hat

Bruni,

the

historian,

as the

first

o

detachhistorical vents

rom

he

economy

f

divine

providence

nd to make

political iberty,

ot

salvation,

hetheme

f

his

history. or Baron

thiswas a turn rom otherworldliness

o

reality

as

the

principle

f

history,

nd

thisview

led Baron

to wonderwhetherhe

newrealismvidentnQuattrocentoisual rtmight othavehadsomething

to

do

with he

tmosphere

f the

historicalrisis

he

had tried

o describe.

Such,

n

brief,

werethe

main

conclusions f Baron's

Crisis,

inished

n

1952 and eventuallyublished

n

twovolumes

n

1955 by

Princeton niver-

sity

Press.

A

third olume

of

supplementary

tudies

n the

same

themes

appeared

under

he

mprint

f Harvard

University

ress

n

the

same year

8

As was

pointed out by Niccolo Valeri ( An

American and

the Renaissance,

Newberry ibrary ulletin, [1956],88-92),thiswas itself challenge othemonarchical-

Fascisttradition

f historiographyhich aw Giangaleazzo

Visconti'seffort

o unite taly

in the fourteenthentury s a tragic

failureto do

what VittorioEmmanuele

I

had

succeeded

in

doing

in

the nineteenth entury.

One

cannot

doubt that Baron's keen

opposition

to the crude Machiavellism

of an historical chool inclined to recognize

political achievement nly

insofar s

it

producespower-in isolation

from veryother

motive,

whetherdeal or ethical-has sprung,ike the

opposition f other

iberally-minded

students,

rom reaction gainst

Fascist and Nazi ideologies. Partly

for thisreason

GennaroSasso ( Florentina

ibertas Rinascimentotalianonell'opera

di Hans

Baron,

Rivista torica taliana,69 [1957],

250-76) argued

hatBaron's thesiswas internationalist

and ideologicalratherhannationalist ndpower-oriented.






314

James

Hankins

entitled

umanistic

nd

Political

Literature

n Florence

nd

Venice

t the

Beginning

f the

Quattrocento.

he Crisis

rapidly

ecame canonical

work

of

Renaissance

history

nd

was

republished

n a

condensed,

ne-volume

editionn 1966; it has remainedn print p to thepresent ay.9 n 1968a

collection

f studies,

mostly

elated

o

the Baron hesis, ppeared

with

he

University

f

Chicago

Press.10 wenty ears

aterPrinceton

ublished

he

two-volume

ollection

mentionedbove

containing

aron's

most

mportant

articles,

many

fthem nlarged

nd

reworked.

t the ime

fhis death

aron

was working

n a

biographical

tudy

f LeonardoBruni,

f

which

more

will

be said

n

due

course.

Despite

Baron's great

uccess

as a

historian,

is writings

ere

never

entirelyree rom ontroversy.ven hisfirstook, useful utbadly-edited

collection

f

Bruni'swritings,

ame under

ttack.

t became

a pawn

n

the

war

between hilology

nd

Geistesgeschichte

agedduring

he

twenties

nd

'thirties

f

the entury.

t

was

widely elieved

hat

aron's

chief

ersecutor,

Ludwig

Bertalot,

was

using

Baron

as

a way

of getting

t

his

teachers,

especially

Friedrich

Meinecke.11

he

pattern

ontinued

with

the

Crisis.

Again

Baron's

scholarship

rew

riticism.

eaders

of the Crisis

will

recall

that

much f

Baron'sbook

s encumbered

ith laborate

ttempts

o date nd

9

For Baron's

influence n

American

Renaissance

scholarship,

ee the

Festschrift

edited y

Molho

andTedeschi

cited,

n.

6);

Donald

Fleming

nd

Bemard

Bailyn eds.),

The

Intellectual

Migration:

Europe

and

America

1930-1960

(Cambridge,

Mass., 1969);

and

Alberto

Tenenti,

Etudes anglo-saxonnes

ur la

renaissance

florentine,

nnales,

25

(1970),

1394-99.

Through

J.

G. A. Pocock and

his

followers

aron's civic

humanism

has

had a

second

ife

n the

historiography

f earlymodem

Britain

nd

America;

ee

The

Machiavellian

Moment:

lorentine

olitical

Thought

nd the

AtlanticRepublican

Tradi-

tion Princeton,976),especially hapters and4. Thepenetrationf Baron'sideastothe

level

of

the textbook

maybe seen

in

Frederick

artt's

popular

History

f

talian

Renais-

sance

Art New

York,

19873),

where

Bruni s

described 243)

as

a

sort

ofQuattrocento

Churchill.

10

Hans

Baron,

rom

Petrarch

o Leonardo

Bruni:

Studies

n Humanistic

nd

Political

Literature

Chicago,

1968).

11

Bertalot

eviewed

Baron

formally

wice,

n

Forschungen

iber

eonardo

Bruni

Aretino,

Archivum

Romanicum,

15

(1931),

284-323,

and

in an untitled

review

in

Historische

Vierteljahrschrift,

9 (1934),

385-400;

two other rticles

y

Bertalot

were

n

effecturther

eviews

f Baron,

Zur Bibliographie

er

Ubersetzungen

es Leonardo

Bruni

Aretino, Quellen und Forschungen us ItalienischenArchivenund Bibliotheken, 7

(1936-37),

178-95,

nd

Zur Bibliographie

es Leonardo

BruniAretino, bid.,

28 (1937-

38),

268-85.

Kristeller,

n

editing

Bertalot's

collectedpapers Studien

um

italienischen

unddeutschen

umanismus

Rome,

1975]),

censored,

t Baron's

request,

he

more

busive

remarks

n Bertalot's

eviews communication

f

P. 0.

Kristeller).

udwigBertalot

1884-

1960),

a

German

f

Huguenot

xtraction,

tudied

withKonradBurdach

nd Ludwig

Traube

in Munich

but ived

mostof

his working

ifeas an expatriate

cholar

nd

bookdealer

n

Rome

(1925-51)

after

eing

expelled

from

his

position

s a

librarian

t

the Bayerische

Staatsbibliothek.

ertalot

isliked

Baron

partly

ecause

he saw him

as the darling

f

the

cattedratici

hom

he himself ated.

Bertalot's apers

are conserved

t the stituto

torico

germaniconRome communicationfHermannGoldbrunner).






Hans Baron

315

redate ertain f Bruni's

writings.

he method mployed ombined

radi-

tional echniques

f historicalnd philological

riticism ith

what an only

be called

kind fhistorian'sonnoisseurship:

aron

nsisted hat hedate

of

certain ritingsikeBruni's audatioFlorentinae rbis ndDialoguescould

be

divined

y correlating

he

mood

of these

writings

ith

he

historical

experience

ftheir

uthor.

Many

f

Baron's

datings avenot tood p well

at

thisdistance

f

time,

nd his peculiar

methods

ave

diminishedather han

enhanced

heplausibility

f his arger onclusions.12

There

were, f course,

more erious riticisms

f theBaronthesis han

academic uibbling

verdates.

Several eviewers f theCrisis ast

doubt n

the dea that he arge

cultural hanges

Barondescribed ould

be related n

any simple way to Florence'swarswith the Viscontiand King Ladis-

las-what

Lucia Gualdo

calledBaron's punctilious

earch ormathematical

correspondences

etweenmilitarynd

political vents nd

literary

exts. 13

Other

eviewersalled

nto

uestion

aron's nsistence

n the

mportancef

Florence ndthedateof

1402

n

the

genesis fthenewhybrid orm

fculture

combining umanism

nd

republican

deology.

4

Their

kepticism

as

amply

vindicated

y subsequent

esearch. fter

he

work

of Roberto

Weiss, Giu-

seppe

Billanovich,

Nicolai Rubinstein, uentin

kinner,

onald Witt, nd

otherst s clearthat heroots f thehumanist ovementreto be foundn

Arezzo,

Bologna, nd

the

Veneto,

ndthat

many

f

these ictatoresndearly

12

Questions boutBaron's datings

werefirst

aised

n

a review f Baron'sCrisisby

G.

Seidlmayer

n

Gottingischer

elehrnte nzeigen,1956), 35-63, republished

n

idem,

Die

Entwicklung er talienischen

riih-Renaissance:olitische

Anlasseundgeistige lemente

(Zu den Forschungen

on Hans

Baron),

n

WegeundWandlungen

es Humanismus, d.

H. Barion (G6ttingen, 965), 47-74. Baron's dismissivereaction s in From Petrarch,

108n. For a summary

fthe iteratureriticizing aron's

datings f

Bruni's earlyworks,

see my

Plato in the talian Renaissance London, 1990), I, appendix ,

and theforthcom-

ing secondvolumeof myRepertorium

runianum:

CriticalBibliographyf the Writings

of

Leonardo Bruni Istituto torico

taliano er

l

Medio Evo, Nuovi

studi

torici; ol.

1 is

in press). As

Nicolai Rubinstein as

remarked II Bruni Firenze:retorica

politica, n

Paolo

Viti

[ed.],

Leonardo Brunicancelliere della

Repubblica di Firenze,

Convegnodi

Studi

Florence,

990], 15-28),

Baron's

redating

f Bruni'sworks remostlyrrelevanto

his larger onclusions.

13

Lucia Gualdo

Rosa, La

strutturaell'epistolariobruniano

il significato o-

litico, n Viti,Bruni cancelliere,372. She generally ollowsBaron and Garin n her

interpretationf

the relationship etween deology nd

rhetoric

n

Bruni's

work.

14

See

Sasso,

Florentinaibertas ; eidlmayer,

eview of

Crisis,

cit., n.

12

above;

Aldo Scaglione,

review of Crisis,

in Romance Philology,

10

(1956),

129-37;

Charles

Trinkaus,

eviewof Baron,Crisis,

n

JHI,

17

(1956),

426-32; Wallace

K. Ferguson,

The

Interpretation

f talianHumanism:

he

Contribution

f Hans

Baron, JHI,

19

(1958),

14-

25. Baron replied

to

Ferguson

n

Moot Problems

of Renaissance Interpretation:

n

Answer o Wallace

K. Ferguson, JHI, 19 (1958),

26-34. David Quint,

Humanism nd

Modernity:

Reconsiderationf

Bruni's

Dialogues,

Renaissance

Quarterly,

8

(1985),

423-45,points ut

some nternal ifficulties

ith

Baron's

reading f theDialogi

ad Petrum

Histrumnd their onnectionwith he1402 crisis.






316

JamesHankins

humanistsa locutionurely referableo pre-humanists )

ad expressed

their oliticalommitments

n

classical arb, lbertino ussato's ccerinis

being erhaps

hebestknown

ut

hardly

he

nly xample.15

t

the

ame

time thas been amply emonstratedyCharles avis, EmilioPanella,

Quentin kinner,nd others hat herepublican

olkloref themedieval

communeadbeen ivenome heoreticaleft,ver century

efore

runi,

by

scholastic nd

sub-scholastic

riters

uch as

Remigio e'Girolami,

Brunettoatini,

nd

Ptolemy

fLucca.16

he

expressionfthese alues s

moremature,

ore

ecular,

nd

more istorically-conscious

n

Salutati

nd

Bruni uthardlyriginal ith hem.

n the ther and, etrarch'sontem-

plative nd politicallyuietistttitudes,resented

y Baron s typical f

humanismefore 402, ave ome oseemmore ndmore xceptional,n

aberrationf

the

eriod

etweenhe

all

fthe

ommune

fPadua

n

1322

and

1400,

when

he

umanistsfBruni's

eneration

ppeared

nthe

cene.

7

Other istorians

ad

taken

ssuewithBaron's

ttempt

o

change

he

larger icturef Renaissanceolitical ulture.

n contrasto Burckhardt's

viewof

the

Renaissance

s

essentially

ealistic

nd

post-ideological

n

its

politics,

aron

resented

he ate

fourteenth

nd

arly

ifteenth

entury

s

a

l5RobertoWeiss,

lprimo

ecolodell'umanesimoRome, 1949); thework f

Giuseppe

Billanovich

and

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, Ambrogio

Lorenzetti: he artist s

political philosopher,

Proceedings f theBritishAcademy, 2

(1986), 1-56, nd Machiavelli'sDiscorsiand the

Pre-humanistrigins f Republican

deas in Gisela Bock, Quentin kinner, ndMaurizio

Viroli eds.), Machiavelli

and

Republicanism

Cambridge, 992), 121-41; Skinner's ri-

tiqueofBaron onthispoint s inhis Foundations fModernPolitical Thought, ol. 1: The

Renaissance (Cambridge,1978), chap.

4. See

also Ronald G. Witt. Medieval

Italian

Culture nd theOrigins

of Humanism s a

Stylistic deal,

in

Albert

Rabil,

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 Influence

of the

Classics

in

the Laudatio

FlorentineUrbis,

n

Aspects fLate

Medieval Governmentnd Society:Essays Presented

to

J.

R.

Lander,

ed. J. G.

Rowe

(Toronto,

1986), 25-51, arguing

hat Baron greatly

overstates

runi's

ndependence

f his

classical source,

Aelius

Aristides,

n

theLaudatio

Florentinae

urbis.

16

CharlesTill Davis, Dante's Italyand OtherEssays. (Philadelphia, 984); Skinner,

Foundations, hap. 3;

Emilio

Panella, Dal

bene

comune al

bene del

comune:

trattati

politici

di

Remigio

dei

Girolaminella Firenzedei

bianchi-neri,

emorie

omenicane,

6

(1985),

1-198.

17

See Rubinstein, Political

Theories. Salutati's shifts etweencivic and quietist

values are discussed

n

Witt, The

De

tyranno

nd

Coluccio Salutati's

View of Politics nd

RomanHistory,

uova rivista

torica,

53

(1969), 434-74,

and

in

a moreBaronian

vein)

in Hercules t theCrossroads: TheLife,Work nd Thought f Coluccio Salutati Durham,

N.C.,

1983).

A

convincing xplanation

or

alutati's

nconsistenciesan be found n Robert

Black, The PoliticalThought

f the Florentine

hancellors,

he

Historical

Journal, 9

(1986), 991-1003.






Hans

Baron 317

period

f

deological truggle

etween

epublicanism

nd signory.

he crisis

of

1402 for

Barongenerated

new culturalmovementmphasizingecular

values and commitment

o

the

community-a

view which

challenged

Burckhardt'sicture fa traditionalociety reakingpart nder hepressure

of egoistic ndividualism

nd llegitimateower. everal cholars, owever,

rejected his ttemptt

revisionism.hilipJones,

eterHerde, nd implic-

itly)

Nicolai RubinsteinookBaron

to

task

forhis

naive

view of

republican

politics

n

medieval nd Renaissance ity-states. 8hey argued

hat hese

societieswere

in

reality

not

as

devoted

to

liberty

s

their

raditions

f

political olklore ould uggest;nternally,

ull reedom

as enjoyed nly

y

property-owningurgesses

f ocal origin nd prolonged esidence,

hile

externallyhefreedomfsubject ownswas limitedythe mperial laims f

the

metropolis.

herehad always been a stridentontradiction etween

therhetoricf freedomnd thereality f Renaissance

overnment;his

did

not change

with hehumanists.

n

fact,Renaissance epublicswere oligar-

chies

and, from

democratic oint f view,had not

muchbetter

laims

to

legitimacy

han Renaissance

yrannies. or Jones

nd Herde,

the

titanic

struggle

etweenmonarchic nd

republican

rinciples aron saw at

the

dawn

of the

Renaissance

was

merely

he

continuation

n

antique

ress

of a

century-longropaganda ar between wo essentiallyimilar orms fgov-

ernment.

Jones's

nd

Herde's view received

urther

upport

n the

mid-1960s s

thework

of P. 0. Kristeller n Renaissance umanism egan

to

be

widely

influential.

everal scholars

ttempted

o

turnKristeller's

nterpretation

f

humanism

nto

critique

f

Baron.

Kristeller's iew

of

humanismaw

the

phenomenon

s

a phase

n the

history

f rhetoricnd drew ttention

o

the

professionalmployments

f the

humanists;

orhimhumanismould

not

be

understoodpart rom ts social and nstitutionalontext.twasnotenough

simply

o

say

whether

humanistived

n

a

republic

r

a

court;

ne should

look

also

at the

professional

oles

he

filled.One could

only

make

sense of

humanistic

iterature

fone

saw

thatmost

rofessional

umanists

as opposed

to nterestedmateurs)

ad worked s schoolmasters,rofessorsf iterature,

political ecretaries,

nd

chancellors, mbassadors,

ourt

poets,

nd

high-

18

PhilipJones, Communes nd Despots: The City-State n Late-Medieval taly,

Transactions

f the Royal

HistoricalSociety, th ser.,

15 (1965), 71-96,

and reviewof

Baron's Crisis 2nd ed.),

in

History, 3 (1968),

410-13;PeterHerde,

Politik nd Rhetorik

in Florenzam Vorabend

der Renaissance,

Archiv ar Kulturgeschichte,

0 (1965),

141-

220; idem,

Politische

Verhaltensweiseder Florentiner

Oligarchie,

1382-1402, in

Geschichte

nd

Verfassungsgeftige:

rankfurterestgabe

fur Walter chlesinger

Wies-

baden, 1973); Nicolai

Rubinstein,Florentine

onstitutionalism

nd the Medici Ascen-

dency

n

the

Fifteenthentury, n Rubinsteined.),

Florentine

tudies Florence,1968).

Rubinstein

efends aronagainstHerde

withrespect

o Baron's interpretation

f

Salutati

in

idem,

Florentina ibertas, Rinascimento

.s.

26 (1976), 3-26, some points

made

earliernTrinkaus's eview n. 14,above).






318

JamesHankins

level ivil ervants. ost

f

not

ll

of

these rofessionsequired

n

expert

knowledgef rhetoric.

ndeed,

he

rise

of humanismould

n

part

e ex-

plained y changes

n

the nature f these

professionsuring

he

early

Renaissance.9

Kristeller's

iew f

humanism,

acked

p by

his

comprehensive

nowl-

edge

of

manuscriptources,nevitably

aised

ew

questions

bout aron's

civichumanists.

eremen

uch

s SalutatindBruni

eally

s rooted

n

the alues nd ttitudes

f he

lorentine

uling

lasses s

they

ad

eemed o

Baron?

f

the

great

lorentine

hancellors

ere

s

politically

ommitted

s

Baronrepresentedhem, ow had Salutati

managed

o survive

n

office

throughhepolitical

pheavals

f

1375-82?

ow

had Bruni urvivedhe

exile and returnftheMedici?WhyhadBruni, mmediatelyfter he

supposedrisis

f1402

nd

n

he

midst

f he

war

with

adislas, one

ff

o

serve he

ignore

f Rome ndthe

Papal

States?

Why

id

he

admire

etty

tyrantsuch s Carlo

Malatesta

nd

Braccio

da Montone?

Whydid the

Medici artyake he

upposedepublican

irebrand

nto he

eggimentofter

1437?Whyhad Bruni emained

lifelong

riend

f

Antonio

oschi,

he

defenderf Milanese tyranny, edicatingwoworks o him?How to

explain alutati's

acile

hifts,

n

his

missive,

ackand

forth

etweenhe

new republicandeologyndthe old Guelfdeology?Whywas there

so little ommon

round

etween

he

oolly

ealistic iscussions

f

policy

found

n

the Consulte

pratiche uring

he

1390s,

nd

the

overheated

rhetoricf Salutati's ublic

etters? ow

to

explain runi'smissive

f

the

1430s,which ontain

ettersspousing olicies

Bruni

rivatelyisagreed

with,

etters

oth

raising

nd

damning

he

Medici,

etters

ulogizing

he

Emperornd

heDuke

of

Milan?

houldwritings

ike

hese, ndby

exten-

sion

Bruni'sLaudatio and

Oration

or

the

Funeral

of

Nanni

Strozzi,

ot

be

seen spieces fpolitical ropaganda,heworkfprofessionalhetoricians

writing

or

pecific

ccasionsnd

not

nspotted

irrors

f

incere

epublican

conviction?

19

Jerrold

.

Seigel, 'Civic Humanism' or Ciceronian

Rhetoric?

The

Cultureof

Petrarch nd Bruni, ast and Present, 4

(1966), 3-48;

idem,Philosophy ndRhetoric n

the talian

Renaissance Princeton,

968); Herde,

Politicund

Rhetorik, nd Politische

Verhaltensweise. aron's reply to Seigel appearedas Leonardo Bruni: Professional

Rhetorician' r 'Civic Humanist'? Past

and Present,

16

(1968), 21-37. Kristeller as

criticizedBaron's view

of humanism n

Florentine latonism nd its

Relations with

Humanism nd

Scholasticism,

hurch

History,

(1939), 201-11, repr.

n

Studies in

Renaissance

Thought nd Letters,II (Rome, 1993), 38-48; Humanism nd

Scholasticism

in the talianRenaissance, Byzantion,

7 (1944-45), 346-74, repr. n

Studies, (Rome,

1956), 553-83; The

Active

nd

Contemplative

ife

in

RenaissanceHumanism,

n

Brian

Vickers (ed.),

Arbeit,Musse,

Meditation,Betrachtungen ur 'Vita activa'

und 'Vita

contemplativa'Zurich, 1985), 141-42;

Humanism,

n

Charles B.

Schmitted.), The

CambridgeHistory

of

Renaissance

Philosophy Cambridge, 1988), 131; Renaissance

Thought nd theArts Princeton, 990),46-47.






Hans

Baron

319

In the

ast fifteen earswe have begun

o get

answers o

some of

these

questions,

hanks o a broadrevival

f Bruni

tudies ed

by

Lucia Gualdo

Rosa

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 even

today

no

reliable

ibliography

f

his

works,

o modem

dition f his etters,

and

no calendar fhis

state apers;

ndthemost erious iographicaltudy

f

himwas that

f Cesare

Vasoli.20 ewer

han

dozenofthe eventy-five

r so

works rom

is

pen

have been critically

dited.21cholarly

ork n Bruni,

t

seems,

was

longputoff

n

deference

o Baron's known

nterestn him.

Yet

few cholars

n

Europe

were ware

hat aronhad spent

he ast wenty

ears

of

his ifewriting biographical

tudy

f

his

hero.22

Thisunfinishedtudys notproperlybiographyut nothern the ong

series

fpiecesjustificatives

hat aron

wrote

n

response

o criticisms

fhis

thesis;

n

this ase the

bookwas primarily

ntended

s a response

o the

ssues

raisedby

Jerrold eigel and

Peter

Herde. Baron's object

throughouts to

show that

Bruni

was

not a professional

hetorician ut

a

civic

human-

ist : a patriotic

lorentine

ith consistent

olitical

deology

haped

by his

experiences

n

the ivic

world f

early

Renaissance

lorence. o we aretaken

through

he

period f the crisis

once

more, his ime

from biographical

perspective. anyofthe old dating ssues are raisedagain,together ith

somenew

ones,but

there s

little

ew

research. he

ruling assion

s not o

describewhat

sortof

person

Bruniwas

or to

give

a nuancedview of

his

intellectualevelopment.

aronwants

o show

hat runi'spolitical

hought

and

political

oyalties

were otally

onsistent

rom

402

to the ndof

his

ife.

Hence

n

chapter

ne much

fwhichwas published

n

article

ormn

1977)23

we are told

why

Bruni's

scholastic

ducation

id

not

give

him

a

medieval

worldview;

he

burden

f

chapter

wo

is

to

explain

why,

fter

he soul-

shatteringvents f 1402,Bruni, nstead fstayingnFlorence o serve he

20

Dizionariobiografico

egli italiani

Rome, 1972),

XIV, 618-33.

I

am preparing

three-volume

ritical

bibliographyf

Bruni's writings

o be publishedby the

Istituto

storico

er l MedioEvo in the

series Nuovi studi

torici see

n. 12), anda biography

o

be publishedby

CambridgeUniversity

ress.

A biographical ketch f

Bruni was

also

given n the ntroduction

o GordonGriffiths,

amesHankins,

nd David Thompson,

he

Humanism fLeonardoBruni, electedTexts Binghamton, .Y., 1987),9-46.

21

For critical ditions

f Bruni's

writings, ee the introduction

o

my Repertorium

Brunianum,

(in press).

22

For Baron's

papers, ee

Catherine pstein,

A

Past Renewed:

A

Catalogof German-

speaking

Refugee

Historians

n

the

United States after

1933 (Cambridge,

1993),

34.

Baron's papers

havenow been deposited

t theDukeUniversity

rchives. was

able tosee

the papers

relative

o Baron's unfinished

iography f

Bruni thanks o thekindness

f

Baron's literary

xecutor,

Ronald

G. Witt.These papers

are

currently

n

deposit

at

the

Biblioteca

Berenson,

Villa

I

Tatti,

n

Florence.

23

Hans

Baron,

The Year of Leonardo

Bruni'sBirth

nd Methods orDetermining

he

Ages of Humanists orn n theTrecento, peculum, 2 (1977), 582-625.






320

James

Hankins

bonumommune,

eft lorenceoserve

he

ope

n

Rome; hapterhreeells

us why

runi'snterest

n

the

latonic ialoguesndhishero-worship

f he

condottierendpetty

yrantarloMalatestahould ot e seen s

inconsis-

tent ith is ivic umanism,nd oon.Whiletwould f ourse eunfairo

condemnbook hat as

eft

n

a

very

nfinished

tate,

n

this ase

t

eems

safe

o

say

that

mong

aron's

many

cholarly

alents as not hat f

the

biographer.

aron's

Bruni

s a

wooden

uppet,

n idealized

rojection

f

Baronhimself,

ot portraitf a man.24hissometimeseads

to

mildly

comic

esults,

s

when

aron

ries o

explain

uch

euxd'esprit

s theOratio

Heliogabali,

n imaginarypeech iven y

the

Emperorlagabalus

o

the

prostitutesfRome,n termsfa temporary

allfrom race ccasioned

y

thewicked urialmilieu. egrettably,aron's tudy oes ittle o mprove

our

nderstanding

fBruni's

ife

nd hought.

A

newunderstanding

fBruni

as,however,egun

o

emerge

n

recent

years.

n

1980

renaissancefBruni tudies as et

ffwith he

ublication

by

Lucia Gualdo

Rosa of F. P.

Luiso's

Studi u

l'Epistolario

i Leonardo

Bruni.25

his

work,

he oundationfmodem

runi

tudies,

adbeen tilized

(with

uiso's

permission)

y

Baronhalf

century

efore

n

his

Leonardo

BruniAretino: umanistisch-philosophische

chriften

1928);

but as Baron

himselfbserved,ts curious alf-existencein proof ince 1904 butnot

published

ntil

980)

did much o inhibithe

progress

f

Bruni

tudies.26

Followinghe ublication

fLuiso's

tudi,

ualdoRosaorganized

n nter-

national quipe

to surveyhemanuscriptradition

f

Bruni's

pistulae

familiares

ith

view o

producing

criticaldition

f he ext.

collabora-

tive ffort as

necessary

ecause

f the

xtraordinarily

idediffusionf

Bruni'sworks:

s the

best-selling

uthor

f

thefifteenthentury,runi's

works urvive

n

about 200

literary anuscripts

nd

nearly

00 incuna-

bula.27

roundhe ame ime aoloViti rganizednotherquipe ocalendar

Bruni's

ublicwritings

s chancellor

f

Florence.

n

1987

his

collaborators,

togetherith distinguishedroup

f

older

cholarsnd omemembersf

theGualdoRosa equipe,

eld conferencen Bruni's areer

s

a public

servantnd hancellor

fFlorence.

24

The degree to whichBaron identified ersonallywith Bruni will be evident o

anyone who peruses Baron's

paperson Bruni,with theirfrequent assionateoutbursts

against ther cholarswho

criticized runi'sbehavior.

25

FrancescoPaolo Luiso,Studi u l'Epistolariodi Leonardo

Bruni, d. Lucia Gualdo

Rosa, 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 su

l'epistolariodi LeonardoBruni, peculum, 6 (1981),

831-39.

27

See Per il censimento

ei codici dell' Epistolariodi Leonardo Bruni,

d.

Gualdo

Rosa and Paolo

Viti

(Rome,

1991). The first olume of

the Censimento ei codici dell'

Epistolario i LeonardoBruni, d. Lucia Gualdo Rosa,

has now

appeared

n the

Nuovi studi

storici, ol. 22, published ythe stituto torico talianoper l Medio Evo (Rome, 1993).






Hans Baron 321

At this

conference,he proceedings f

which

were

published y

the

ItalianNational

nstituteorRenaissance tudies

n

Florence n

1990,28

due

honorwas paid to thecontributionf Hans Baron;but

Hans Baron's Bruni

(save in the contributionf Eugenio Garin)was nowheren evidence. n-

stead, number f

questions irst aisedby Nicolai Rubinsteinnd Peter

Herdewerequietly aken p and developed.Rubinstein

imself resented

Bruni

whose dealized

presentation

f

Florentine

olitical

deals

andpractice

contrastedharply

with the actual functioningf

politics

under

he pre-

Medicean oligarchy.29e

suggested hat

Bruni

had come to identify

is

political utlook

with

hat f

the

Medici

party y

the

ate

1430s.He

pointed

out, furthermore,hat

he context f Bruni's

famous audatio

Florentinae

urbiswas thedefense f FlorentinemperialismgainstMilanese harges f

hypocrisy.Milanese

propaganda rguedthatFlorencehad put down the

liberties fher ubject owns

n

Tuscanywhile

laiming o be thedefenderf

Italian

iberties gainstthe Milanese tyrant a

charge,

n

Rubinstein's

view,

notwithout

ustice).

Bruni's

eply, ollowing

alutati, eformulatedhe

idea

of

iberty

n

a

waythat

was to

prove

f

great

mportance:

e

argued hat

liberty

n

the ase of

subject

owns

was

not o

be

defined s self-government

but as

sharing

n

the

iberty

f the

metropolis y

iure

vivere-by living

n

accordancewithust awsfree romrbitraryower.Thus n1404 Bruni ad

already

iscovered

he

classic

oligarchical

move

of

redefiningositive

ib-

erty

s

negative

ibertyhrough

n

appeal

to

law.30

This line

of

thought

as taken tillfurther

n

two articles

y

Riccardo

Fubini nd Anna Maria

Cabrini.31

Both articles

howedhow

much

ntellec-

tual history as benefited rom he work of social

historians

f the

last

generation

n the

relationships

etween

ower,

ocial

class, patronage

et-

works,marriage

atterns,

nd

political nstitutions

uch

as

the

public

debt

fundsfFlorence. aronhadseen heFlorentineepublicfthe ateTrecento

as

preserving

nd

extending

he

values

of

the

popular egimes

f

the

ate

28

Viti,Bruni ancelliere, itedabove, n. 12.

29

Rubinstein,

II

Bruni Firenze, xtending he criticism irst

oiced n Florentine

Constitutionalism ut anticipated, lbeit in an extremely ursory

way, in Augustin

Renaudet's review of Baron's Crisis in

Bibliotheque

d'Humanisme t Renaissance, 18

(1956), 322-25: La belle definition ue, en 1428, Bruni,dans

l'Oraison funebre our

Nanni Strozzi,donnaitdes libertesflorentinest notamment e la 'libertasreipublicae

adeundae,'restaitllusoire. Cf. Scaglione'sreview

f

the Crisis citedabove,

n.

14), 134.

30

For an interestingarallel

with

lassical

Athens,

ee Martin stwald, romPopular

Sovereigntyo theSovereigntyf

Law:

Law, Society

nd

Politics n Fifth-Centurythens

(Berkeley, 986), especiallyPart

II.

31

RiccardoFubini, La rivendicazione i Firenzedellasovranita

tatale

il

contrib1uto

delle

Historiae

di

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-

tini

populi Libri

XII

di Leonardo

Bruni,

n

Studi

di

storia medievale

e moderna

er

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






322

James

Hankins

Duecento.n

hisvariousrticlesnthe ociological

ontext

f

civic

human-

ismBaron cknowledged

he xistence

f

oligarchic

endenciesn Florence

after

he

iompi prising

f 1378, ut

e

denied eatedly

hat he iompi ad

ledto the ormationfa closed ndconservativeulinglass.32n hisview

the Florentineolitical

lass

after he commercialailures

f the

1340s

acquired

more pen, ntegrated,

nd

ivic-mindedharacter,

nd

t

became

a

broadmiddle-class

tratumfrelativeniformity

n

property

tatusnd

n

political,

ocial nd economic

utlook. he social

history

f the ast

wo

decades as

made his

osy

iew

of theFlorentine

uling

lassmuch

more

difficult

o sustain.

ecentworkhas

argued owerfully

hatFlorentine

society

n the

ater

ourteenth

ndfifteenthenturies as

not

bourgeois

world,utratherne whose alueswere loser,more kin, othose fa

feudal,

ristocraticociety.

t

has emphasized

he

closedcharacter

nd

aristocraticthos

f Florence'siny uling

lass and

argely

iscardedhe

older,

omantic

iew fFlorences an

egalitarian

ociety

n

which

orkmen

rubbed

houlders

ith

merchant

ankerss social quals.33

Thenew

view fFlorentineociety

asforced

cholars

o

reconsiderhe

meaning

f Florence'sepublican

iscourse.

owadays

t s

clear

hat he

relationship

etween

he

political

anguage

nd

symbols

f

the

commune

around 400 nd he ctual llocationfpowers farmore omplexhant

seemed

ortyears go.

If

the

Florentine

epublicanism

f Salutati's nd

Bruni'sday had preserved

many

f the

slogans

of the

popular

om-

mune- liberty, participation,

free

peech -the

meaning

f

those

slogans

ad

changed rofoundly

s

the

egime

ad

developeditfully

rom

the

relatively

opular egime

f

the 1280s

nd

90s into hestable

re-

Medicean

ligarchy.

ith

espect

o

political

istory,

aronwas simply

wrong

bout he

significance

f

theMilanesewars.

They

had notmade

possiblehe urvivalfpopularegimesntoheHighRenaissance;hey ad

in fact olidified

he

rip

fthe

ligarchy

n the

eggimento

fFlorence

y

vastlynlarging

ts pportunities

or

atronage.

ith

espect

o he istory

f

politicalhought,aronwas

blind o the rue

ignificance

f

Bruni's civic

32

See The Historical

Background

f

the

Florentine enaissance, History, .s.

22

(1938), 315-27 repr. n expanded

form

n

Essays, , 3-23);

A Sociological nterpretation

of 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.

33

Cited

from

Anthony

Molho, Marriage

Alliance in Late Medieval Florence Cam-

bridge,Mass., 1994); and see his

AmericanHistorians nd

the

talian Renaissance: An

Overview, Bulletinof the Society or Renaissance Studies,

9

(1991),

10-23. The chief

dissenting

oice from

he

recent consensus

is Richard

Goldthwaite,

he Building of

Renaissance Florence (Baltimore, 980), opening hapters

nd conclusion; ee also the

striking,ut ultimately

nconclusive vidence massedby

David

Herlihy,

The Rulersof

Florence, 1282-1530,

in

City

States in Classical Antiquity

nd Medieval Italy, ed.

AnthonyMolho,KurtRaaflaub, nd JuliaEmlen Stuttgart,991), 197-221.






Hans Baron

323

humanism :

hat

t

was nfact subtle einterpretation

n

oligarchic

ermsf

Florence'sraditional

epublicananguage.34

Thisnew

understanding

f Bruni s a defenderf oligarchy

as been

broughtutwith reat larityyFubini ndCabrini. hey howndetail he

oligarchicrejudices

nformingruni's istorical

ndpolitical

udgments:

his

preference

or he

entraluthority

f

he

ignoriathe

hiefnstitutional

tool foligarchic

owern

Florence)o that fthe opular ouncils,

uilds

and fficialiforestieri;is

endency

o ssert

he

overeignty

f he

ommune

againsthe

mpire,he apacy,ndother

ivals,nternalnd xternal,

f he

Florentineligarchy;ispraise

or he mergency

ommissionsBalie) of he

1390s,which

ypassedraditionalopular rocedures

n ordero permithe

oligarchs o actwith peed and secrecyn wartime; is preferenceor

prudentnd xperienceden

ndfor xpert

nowledgever heudgment

of the

vulgar;

is

opposition

o exiling obles

n

thegrounds

hat heir

experiencef

affairs as necessary

o the commonwealth;is fulsome

championship

ftheParteGuelfa,hat astion

f

the ligarchy;

isprefer-

ence for heprinciple

f merit ver

hat

f

sortitionn choosing ublic

officials;is

supportor heAlbizzi egime's

ttemptso asserthe over-

eignty f

Florence

gainst

he

Empire; nd

his horror f the populist

Ciompi evolt f 1378.

Fubini as

also

emphasized

n

aspect

f

Bruni's

Historygnored y

Baron:ts haracters a celebration,

ot nly

fFlorentineiberty,ut lso

of

Florentinemperialism.his,

t

should e said,

was oneof Baron'smajor

blind

pots.

f

nowadays

he

mperialemocracy

nd ts

contradictionss a

familiar

bject

f

study,

t was less so

in Baron's

day;

nd

Baron's

pen

partisanship

f

little

lorence,

hehome fthe rave

nd

he

ree,gainst

the yrantfMilan makes

ormbarrassingeadingoday.

n

fact lorence

andMilanwere,s opponents,rettyvenlymatched;nd twasFlorence's

imperialxpansion

n

Tuscany, articularly

he

acquisition

f

Arezzo

n

1384,which ad et ff he econd

MilaneseWar; he ook dvantage

f

he

chaos n

Lombardy

fter

he eath

f

Giangaleazzo

o

gobble

p

Pisa.

t

was

the onquest

f

Pisa

n

1406,

ot he

eath fGiangaleazzo

n

1402,

hat

irst

gave

Bruni

he deaof

writing

Florentine

istory.35

Two

years

fterhe

roceedings

fthe

987

onference

ere

ublished,

Paolo

Viti

ublished

collection

fhisown rticles

n

Bruni ogether

ith

fewnewpieces.This ollection,

eonardoBruni Firenze:Studi ulle let-

I

Bruni s also treated s an oligarchic

hinker

n a perceptiverticle

y Russell

Dees,

Bruni,

Aristotle, nd

the Mixed Regime in

On the Constitution

f the Florentines,

Medievalia

et humanistica,

.s.

15

(1987),

1-23,

and

implicitly

y

John

Najemy,

The

Dialogue

of Power

n

Florentineolitics,

n City tates citedabove,

n. 33), 269-87.

35

Lorenzo Mehus

(ed.), LeonardiBruni

Arretini pistolarum

ibri

VIII

(Florence,

1741),

I, 35-36

=

Ep.

II, 4

(Luiso

II, 3). The

Italianversion f Bruni's

history y Donato

Acciaiuoli frequently

irculates

with

Gino

Capponi's Conquest

of Pisa. For Baron's

readingof the Florentine-Milaneseivalryn the context f modemdebates aboutthe

politicsof the

Kleinstaat nd theGrossstaat,

ee Pecchioli cited above,

n.

6),

18f.






324

JamesHankins

tere ubblicheprivate,36onstitutes

he irsterioustudy

fBruni's ublic

correspondence,

he1800or

so

missive

e wrote s chancellor

n

behalf f

theFlorentine

ignoria,

nly

small umber

fwhich ad

previously

een

published.heseViti lacesntheirmmediateistoricalontextnd ries o

relate otheworks

runi

rote nder

isown

name.

iti's

tudy

s

particu-

larly seful s

it

transcribes

xtensive

ortions

romhe

most

nterestingf

themissive,nabling

eaders

omake

heir wn

udgmentbout

hem.

Viti'scollectionontains

ichnew archivalmaterials

well

as many

technicalhilological

nd

paleographicalata,

ut

t

lso,

nevitably,epeats

some ld

errorsndcreatesome

new nes

see appendix).

more

erious

problem ith iti'svolumes hisfailure

o advance ny onvincing

eneral

interpretationf Bruni s a public ervantnd politicalhinker. e has

unearthed

ew data about

Bruni's

ctivities

elative o the

foreign

nd

domesticolitics

f

his

day

but eems mbarrassed

y

his

own

riches;

e

fails

ousehisfreshesearch

o criticize

ffectively

he

ld

picture

f

Bruni,

still ess

ocreate

new ne.He

declaresarly

n

nthe

arge yntheticssay

which

egins

he

olume

II primato

i

Firenze )

hat e

accepts

ith

ome

reservationsheBaronian

iew f

Bruni:

It

thus

ppears vident

hat ll the

Florentinexperience

f Bruni,

ot

ust

his work

n

theHistories,s a

constantctof dhesionothe ity-subject,obesure,ocertain oments

of risis

n

addition

o

hisdetachment

s

papal ecretary

rom 405 o 1415

(12). He assumes

hroughout

hat runi as a

strongdeological

oyaltyo

republicanisms against

ignory

nd hat

heres a

high egree

f ontinuitd

idealebetween runi's

rivate

eliefs nd

he eliefs e

was called

pon

o

express

s

the

pokesman

or

he

lorentine

ignoria.

his fcourse

reates

problemsf interpretation,

ince

many

ettersppear o contradicthose

beliefs,

or

xample,

etters

cknowledging

he

verlordship

f he

ope

nd

emperor,r ettersraisingheDukeofMilan.Viti's olutioneems obe

that, heneverruni'smissivegree

withepublicanhemes

n

supposedly)

private orks uch s

the

audatio

or

the

Oration

or

NanniStrozzi,hey

canbe construeds

expressing

runi's

ersonal

onvictions;

henever

hey

are

t

variance

ith he

pinionsprivatelyxpressedyBruni,

hey

an

be

taken s empty,

formulaic,rhetorical,r stereotyped.

his solu-

tion, ssuming

s

it

does clear istinction

n

Bruni'swritingsetweenhe

public

nd

he

rivate,

he hetoricalnd

he

personal,

s

lessthan atisfac-

tory.

Onthe ther and

iti

s,

ohis

redit,

uchessnaive han aron

bout

the

ealities

f

political

ower

nFlorencendmuchmorewillingo ook t

evidence hich ells

gainst

aron's oseate

iew f Bruni's

haracternd

beliefs.

e

finds

ew evidence

ot

only

hat

runi

was

tempted

nto he

chancery

f

the

ignore

f

the

Papal

States

thePope)

between 405

and

36

Paolo Viti, Leonardo Bruni e Firenze: Studi sulle lettere ubbliche e private

(Florence, 1992).






Hans Baron

325

1415, ut lso that e tried opreparehegroundo as to be takennto

he

service

f the

condottieririnces

arlo

Malatesta

nd

Giovanfrancesco

Gonzaga;

e

wasalso

tempted,

iti

notes,

o

ake ervice ithMartin

even

after e had received lorentineitizenship.itiregardshese cts as

trasgressioni369),blemishes

n Bruni's ecords a republican.e

recog-

nizes

hat

runi

ould

be

critical

f

certain

spects

f

popularovernment,

such s its nstability28), ts umbersome

ecision-makingrocesses

39),

and ts

nti-meritocraticias

73).

He

admitshat runi asdisingenuous

n

the xtremebout lorence's

otives

or

ts nprovokedttackn ts ellow-

republicucca n 1429;

f

t s infacthe ase, s itwould eem n ight

f

Viti'snew vidence,hat he uke f

Milan ecretlycquiesced

n

the

ttack

onLucca 103), henmuch fBruni'sustificationorhewar urnsut obe

positively

endacious.

ollowingubini,

iti

ecognizes

he

ingoistic

le-

mentn Bruni'swritingbout lorence'smpirendquotes ome

tartling

passages

n

which

runi

alks bout

he

natural

uperiority

f

Florentines

o

other

eoples5-7).He points ut he gly ide fBruni's ehaviorfter

he

Medici

oup

n

1434:

he

missive e

composedalling

or he

xtradition

nd

punishment

f

his

former

riends,

is

willingness

o

act s a republicanront

man or heMedicean

egime,

issilence

bout

he

ndermining

f

republi-

can nstitutions,ndhis ies to theCouncil fBasel about henumberf

Florentinexiles nd

the

eriousness

f

the hreathey resentedopublic

order

172-73).Following

ordon

Griffiths,

e

recognizes

hatBruni's

description

f Florentine

olitics

n his

Greek reatisen

the

Polity f

the

Florentines

1439)

is

markedly

ore

willing

o

disclose

he

oligarchic

element

n

Florentine

overnment

han is

three

revious ritings

n the

subject.37

ike

Griffiths

and

Rubinsteinefore

im),

iti

egards

his

hift

as

a

sign

of Bruni's

hanging

olitical lignment

nd

his

acceptance

f

Mediceanule.

The last point eveals he

anachronismn Viti's-and

Baron's-ap-

proach

oBruni.

ince hey oth

egard

runin

ome

egree

s a

republican

ideologue,hey anonly xplainnconsistencies

n

his houghtndbehavior

in

terms

f the

chronologicalevelopment

f his

thought

r

in

terms

f

trasgressioni.

ut f

we admit

hat

runi's

mpostaziones primarilyhat f

rhetorician,

he

roblemisappears.heLaudatioFlorentinae rbis

nd he

Funeral

Oration

or

Nanni

Strozzi re

both

xamples

f

epideictic

hetoric.

In epideictichetoric,-s Bruni imselfaidwithpecific eferenceo the

Laudatio,what ounts

s

not

ruth

ut

elling our

udience hat

hey

ant o

hear.38 few hetoricalnsinceritiesbout lorentinesot

being ubject

o

37

Griffiths,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 a

boyish rifle, rhetoricalxercise. .. The rhetorical enre for critic hould onsider his,

too) in panegyrics f this kind calls forboastfulness nd winning pplause. .. In civic

panegyrics

he

peech

s directed o those

whomyou

wishto

praise;

the

genre emands n






326

James

Hankins

the ower

f few,

rhaving

brilliant ilitary

ecord,rbeing elighted

o

paytheir axes

n

support

f

a popular

war-effort,

re excusable-justs

Bruni ound

t xcusableo

praise ings

or heirustice, isdom,

ndvirtue,

bothn hisprivatendpublic orrespondence.hetreatisen the olity f

the lorentines,

n the ther and,

was a philosophicalreatise

odelled

n

parts f

Aristotle's

olitics

and

directed

o an

audience

hat

would

mostly

havebeen ontemptuous

f

popular overnment).

y

Bruni's

wn

heory

f

rhetorical

enres,

e mustonclude

hat t s thephilosophical

reatisend

not he wo pideictic

rations

hich

epresent

runi's onsidered

iewof

thenature

fFlorence's overnment.

If

we do away

with he

nachronismhat

men ike

Bruni nd Salutati

were deologuesinthe ense fhavingn exclusiveommitmento one

politicaldeology

uch s

republicanism),

e canmake etterense f

Viti's

material. s presented

y

Viti,much f his

newresearchtands

n sharp

contradiction

ohis

Baronianelief hat

runi as committed

epublican.

f

we admit

hat lorentine

epublicanism

s

presentedy

Salutatind

Bruni

was a

rhetoricalrtifact

ot

necessarily

n

keeping

ith

itherheir

rivate

beliefs

r the

olitical

ealities

fthe

ime,

e

can at east avethem

rom

some

f themore erious

hargesgainst

heirmoral

haracter.

n

fact he

attitudefboth alutatindBruniwasthat fpermanentnder-secretaries,

loyal

oFlorenceather

han o he

egime

nd arrying

ut o

he est f heir

abilities

he

changingolicies

f

successive

olitical

masters.

hey

were

also,

undeniably,

rofessional

hetoricians

n the

most

asic ense f

being

paid

alaries

o

produceropaganda

or he

tate.

hey

weremade

y

their

political

asters

o

writeettersnd

peeches

hatwere ometimesnconsis-

tentwith rhostile

o their

wn

private

onvictions,

utno onethought

he

worse f

hem or

hat. alutati nd

Bruniwere lso human

eings

with

wives, hildren,nd estates homade achhisown ccommodationith

changing

olitical

ealities

nd

prudently

idwhatever

rivate

iews

hey

had

npartyolitics.

s men hey

ere seful atherhan

eroic;

nd

f

heir

consciences

erenot s

tenders somemodem

istoriansould

ike, hey

had

many therualities

e can admire.

he nconsistencies

mongheir

various

tterances,adeunder

he

ressure

f

circumstances,

o

notmean

audience, ndbrings ogether multitudefpeople,notfor hepurposeofhearing egal

cases or deciding

n publicpolicy, i.e.,

t s

differentrom

udicial or deliberativeratory,

which ccording

o ancient heorywas obliged

to respect he truth], ut

n

order o reap

applauseand

pleasure

from earing

ts own

praises ung....

History

s one

thing, anegyric

another.

istorymust ollow he ruth,anegyric

xtollsmany hings

bove

the ruth. he

insincerity

f the

Laudatio

is made patent

whenthispassage is compared

with

passage

from heLaudatio

itself Baron,

FromPetrarch, 49):

No doubt few foolswill suspect

that am

tryingo capture ome popularfavor

romhispanegyricf mine,

nd that

n

the

process f

winning our ood

will

and

disposing

our

minds

avorably

owardsme

as

much

as possible, amtrespassingn the imits ftruth, ixing alse hingswith rue or he ake

of rhetorical

mbellishment. runicontinues

oprotest

n this

vein

for lmost

page.






Hans Baron

327

that heyhad no core convictions

nd values. But since

theywere profes-

sional

rhetoricians,istorians ave

to

workmuch

harder o detectwhat hese

were:

they

have to

collect

he

evidence s

fully

s

possible,

econstructhe

context f each utterance,nd, s Robert lacksuggests,e sensitive o the

habits f thoughtcquired

rom

rofessional

raining

n

disciplines o longer

familiar,

ike

grammar

nd rhetoric.39en to whomwords ome

easily

re

often ble to reconcile ositions

hat strict

ogician

might ind ncompat-

ible, but thisdoes

not mean that

heir tterancesre insincere r without

historicalnterest. he writings

f few

f

anypolitical

hinkersre perfectly

consistent

ith ach

other.

his

s

why hey

must e studied y historianss

well as

by political

cientists

nd

philosophers.

Whydoes itmatter hatBruni, n light f recent tudies, eemsmuch

more

a

professional

hetorician han

he

does

a civic

humanist ?

here

are,

n

my

view,

two

main

reasonswhy

t

matters. irst,

t

shows

that

he

disguises

f

power

mployed y

theMedici

regime-their

ttempt

o conceal

the rue

ocus

of

power y

exercising

heir

uleunder he loak of republican

forms-were

ardly riginal

with hem. alutati nd

Bruni,

s

servants

f the

oligarchic egime

f

1382-1434,

ad done

precisely

he ame

thing

orhalf

century, roviding

decent

covering

f

populist

hetoric o

conceal

the

growingoncentrationfpower nthehands fa few adrini.Manipulation

of

republicanymbols

was

probably

more onscious nd more

ynical

nder

the

Mediceans,

ut t was notfundamentallyifferent.

rom his

erspective,

Bruni's

participation

n

theMedici

regime

hould

ome

as no

surprise.

he

transitionrom

heAlbizzian ligarchyo theMedicean

regimewas neither

ideologically

orpolitically he sharpbreak

t

is sometimes

epresented

s

being.

The secondreason

why

thenew

picture

f

Bruni

matterss because

t

means that the whole categoryof civic humanism needs to be re-

thought-eitheriscarded ntirely

r

redefinedo as to strip

t

of ts exclu-

sive

links with

republicanism.

runi was

always

Exhibit

A

in

Baron's

definition

f

civic

humanism:

he

example

hatbecame

for

him

a

kind

of

Weberian deal

type.

f

we

accept

thatBruni's

oyalty

o Florencewas not

primarily deological-that

the

populist republicanism

epicted

n

the

Laudatio and the

Strozzioration oes

not

represent

is core beliefs-then

Bruni

egins

o ook much

more ike

his

fellow umanists

n

Rome,

Ferrara,

Naples, nd Milan, ndmuch ess like the xemplarf a separate peciesof

humanist.40

ike his

fellow

humanists,

runi's

core

political

convictions

39

See Black, Florentine

hancellors.

40

n

the

Preface o his translation

f thePolitics Griffiths,

ankins, ndThompson,

The Humanism,

59-61) Bruni

eems to have forgottenis

remarks

n

the Strozzi

oration

aboutpopularis tatusbeing

he

only egitimate

orm fgovernment,

orherehe

identifies

popularis

tatuswith

Aristotle's

emocratia

nd

concludes,

the

popular

tate s therefore

not a legitimate indof government.

n thetext

ditedby Baronas Epistola ad

magnum

[recte Magnae, i.e., Germany]

rincipem mperatorem,

atedto 1413, and attributed

o






328 JamesHankins

were

bout hevalue

ofvirtue nd

eloquence,

nd about hevalue of

classical

antiquitys providing

odels fvirtue nd

eloquence.

hesewereuniversal-

istvalues,valuesthat ouldbe instantiated

n

any ort f regime r constitu-

tion; hey re thevalues of a ruling aste,not localpolitical deology. or

Bruni s forAristotle,ignori ouldbe good rulers, uling

n

the nterestsf

thegoverned,

r

they

ouldbe

tyrants;

ut

opuli

could

lso be

good

orbad.41

What

distinguishedood governments

rom ad was not their

onstitutions

butthevirtues

f their ulers. runi's

belief n thevalue

of

the

active

ife,

wealth,militaryalor,

nd

the

family-all

beliefsBaron

ssociated

with

his

civic humanists -can

be

documented

verywhere

n

Italian

humanist

writings

f

thefifteenth

entury,

ot

ust

in

republican

riters. he

change

Baron observedn thecharacter f humanismetween hegenerationsf

Petrarchnd of

Bruni-the move

or

rather he

return)

f

humanismo the

public phere-may

be

found

ot

only

n

Florence nd

Venice,

but

hrough-

out

taly,

n

signorial egimes

s

well as

in

republics.

Consider, y way

of

comparison,

heDe re

publica

of

UbertoDecem-

brio.42 ecembrio

was born

nd educated

n

Lombardy,

erved s humanist

secretary

o

Giangaleazzo

Visconti's

son,

Giovanni

Maria,

from1404 to

1410, nd was thefather f

Pier

CandidoDecembrio, ecretaryrom 419 to

1447 to Filippo Maria Visconti,Duke of Milan. The elder Decembrio's

treatisewas dedicated

n 1422

to

Filippo

Maria

Visconti,

he

tyrant f

Milan withwhomFlorencewas

at war

through

uch f the

1420s and 30s.

The work

begins

with

call

to revive

he

iberal

rts

f ancient

ombardy,

those arts thathad nourished

he noble

intellects

f

Virgil

and

Catullus,

Ambrose nd Augustine. or Uberto, s for he o-called civic humanists,

theurban ommonwealth

s

a product

f

nature, rising rommutual eed,

and based upon ustice.Everyone

houldbe treated

quallyunder

he

aw.

Since civiccommunitiesre not blebythemselvesosupply ll their eeds,

there aturallyrises needformerchantsnd formoney. uying nd selling

are natural o

society;

ven

pawnshops

re

necessary

o

supply hewants f

Bruni see Baron,

Humanistic

nd

Political Literature, 73-81), the author

mistakenly

identifies

emocratia s the hird f Aristotle's ood

forms f government,nd, ranslating

it as popularis

tatus, eclares t to be theform f

constitutionn use in Florence.Theattri-

bution f this

work o

Bruni s

suspect,

or

easons shall

give

n

vol.

2

of

my

Repertorium

Brunianum.

41

Bruni, s

papal secretary,

ather

onveniently

as

able to

condemn heRoman

people

in

their evolt

gainst

he

pope

as

perverse,

runken,

nd

lazy (Ep.

I.4 and

I.5,

ed.

Mehus, , 6-11).

42

Text

unpublished; use the autographMS, Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana

123

sup.;

cf.

Kristeller,ter talicum, , 328. The parallelsbetweenBruni's

political heory

nd

thatof both

Ubertoand Pier Candido Decembriowere observedby Kristeller n

Pier

Candido Decembrio

nd His

Unpublished

reatise n

the

mmortality

f the

Soul,

in

L.

Wallach ed.), The Classical Tradition:

iterary

nd

Historical tudies

n

Honorof

Harry

Caplan (Ithaca,N.Y., 1966), 536-58, repr.

n

Kristeller's

tudies,

I

(Rome, 1985),

281-

300.






Hans

Baron

329

thepoor.

Mercenaries,oo, re

somethingvery

eveloped

ociety

eeds;

warlikeirtue

as

a

positive

unctionrom

civic

erspective.

he ecret

f

a

happy epublic

onsistsn

its

prince,

ts

eadingmen,

nd

ts

citizens

possessingndexercisingheclassicalvirtues. humanistducations

necessaryo

nculcate

hese irtues.

rue

obility

ies

n

virtue,

ot

descent.

Eloquences

proper

oman ndhas

he unctionf

preading

he

irtue

f he

speaker

o

his

hearers.ike

Bruni,

ecembrio

s

a

follower

f

Aristotle,

nd

argues

hat

marriage

nd

the

family

re

natural

nstitutionshich

re

the

building

locks

f

the

ommonwealth

nd

necessary

o

ts urvival.

goism

is

condemned;

uoting

lato,

berto

ays

hat

e

arenot orn or

urselves

alone,

ut or ur

amilies,

ur

friends,nd

our

atria.

[In

additiono

our

duty o

worship

od and

honor

eligion]

e

should lso

devoteurselves ith

pecial

ove o

our

ountry

here

our

parents,

hildren,

ives,

elatives,

nd

friends

well;

no

good

man ver

earedo

diefor

is

ountry.or

he

afetyf

ne's

ountry

embraceshe

afety

fall

its

nhabitants.

Decembrio

hen

ites

he

examplef

Quintus

urtius,

he

Decii,

tc.]

rom

his

t

follows

hat

we

should

onor ith he

warmestove

the

governornd

prince f

ourcountry,homwe call itspaterpatriae, nderwhoserule

subjectpeoples are

governed

with

alm

and

quiet peace.

... More-

over, veryitizen

hould ake are

o ivewith

is fellow

itizens

with

sense f

right

hats

fair nd

qual;

he

should

eitherehave

himself

n

servile

nd bject

manner,o

that e s

held

n

contempt,

nor hould

e

get bove

himself

o that

e

appearso

oppress

thers.

Also,he

should

esire

or

is

commonwealth

hose

hingshat

re

peaceful

nd

honorable.

inally,

e

should

o

conduct

imselfhat

e

bereputedgoodman nd fair-mindedaequus] itizeny very-

one.

Let him

be a

cultivator

f

the

virtues,

speciallyustice

nd

moderation,oth fwhich

most ause

goodman o

find

pproval.

Let

him

diligentlybserve he

mores

nd

customsf

the

ommon-

wealth

nd

never

epartrom

hem....

uch

man

wasthe

Younger

Cato,

[etc.].

(ff.

93v-94r)

There

s

hardly

sentence

f

Decembrio's

e

re

ublicawhich

eonardo

Bruniwould ave uarrelled ithonotherhantylisticrounds).ndeed,

much

f

the

cholarshipn

humanism

uring

he1980s,

ocussingn

re-

gional

humanisms,

as

pointedut the

universality

f

the

themes aron

connected

ith he

olitical

xperiencef

Florence.43

f

we

continueo

use

the erm

civic

humanist,t

houlde

clearly

ecognized

hathe

ttempt

o

43

See John

F.

D'Amico,

Renaissance

Humanism

n

Papal

Rome:

Humanists

nd

Churchmen

n

the

Eve

of

the

Reformation

Baltimore,

983); Margaret

. King,

Venetian

Humanism n

an

Age of

Patrician

Dominance

Princeton,

986); and

Jerry .

Bentley,

Politicsand CulturenRenaissanceNaples

(Princeton,

987),

esp.

196-222.






330 JamesHankins

reform nd revalorize he ife of the city-state

n

accordancewith ncient

models-the great

civic humanist

roject

hat

egins

with he

generation

of Bruni,Poggio Bracciolini, uarinoVeronese,GasparinoBarzizza, Pier

Paolo Vergerio, ndNiccoloNiccoli-was never project onfined o Ren-

aissancerepublics.

Civic humanism s not

Florentine,

ut Roman.

t

is a

style

f

thought

nherited

rom ncientRome

through allust, ivy,Virgil,

and above all Cicero.

t aims t the eformf

political ommunitiesenerally

by improving

he moral behaviorof

their

ruling

lites.

It

does

this

by

exposing

hem o

good etters,

o the rts

worthy

f

a

free

man,

he

iberal

arts,

he rtswhichmake

men

noble,

wise and

good.

Taken

in

thismore general ense,

t

can

be said

that

Baron's idea of

civichumanism etains coreofvalidity,nd can stand s an important

supplemento theBurckhardtiannderstanding

f

theRenaissance.

t

is not

really contradiction,

fter

ll,

to

say

that n

age of egoism, llegitimate

government,eligious risis,

hallow-rooted

deologies,

nd

ncreasing

ndif-

ference

o communal alues

should

lso

have

been an

age

when

ducators,

scholars,

ivil

servants,

nd men

of

letters

verywhere rgedupon

their

audience

he

need

for

acrifice, atriotism,

nd service o

the ommon ood.

It is not surprisinghat hemen of theRenaissance houldhave lookedfor

curesfor heir wndiseasesofspirit. urckhardtdmired he ndividualism

of the

Renaissance,

ut

he also

recognized hat,

aken

o an

extreme,

t

could

be

destructive

f

civilized

society.

f

Burckhardt rew attention o the

diseases

of the

times,

Baron was

among

the first o

show

how the

age

attempted

ts own

cure, hrough

form

f

Bildung

hat imed not

onlyat

personal istinction,

ut

lso

at

inculcating

senseof

publicduty nd social

conscience.

Humanistic

ducation s,

like

chivalry,

n aristocraticorm

f

socialization

hat

inks

good

behavior

withhonor. hat

s

what t

has

always

been;thatswhy t s incrisis ntheradically galitarianocieties fthe ate

twentiethentury.

enaissance umanists

aught

hat

rue

human xcellence

consisted

n

wisdom nd

goodness;

hat

ower

nrestrained

y goodness

was

the

worst

f evils.True

personal

istinction

n

the

ivic ifehad to

include

sense

of

duty

o

one's

community.

f

Baron

was

wrong

o readhis

humanists

as

fervent

artisans

f

republicanism,

e

was correct

n

seeing

hat

human-

ism, s a cultural rogram,ought

more

han

he

ultivationfthe ndividual.

It

aimed lso

to

bring cholarship

nd

earning

o bearon the

ask fbuilding

thevirtues ecessaryothepreservationfcivilsociety.

HarvardUniversity.






Hans Baron

331

Supplementaryibliography

Bouwsma,W. J. Untitledeview

f Baron's

Crisis,Renaissance ews,

(1956), 7-30.

Brown,

Alison. Hans Baron's Renaissance,

he Historical ournal, 3

(1990), 41-48.

Cervelli,.

Review fBaron'sCrisis, ivistatorica

taliana, 9 1967), 37-

45.

Cioffari,incenzo.

eview f Baron'sCrisis,

enaissance ews, (1955),

203-6.

Connell,

William .

The

Republican radition,

n

and outof Florence,

n

Girolamoavonarola: iety, rophecy

nd

Politics

n

Renaissance

lorence, d.

DonaldWeinsteinndV.R HotchkissDallas, 1994), 5-105.

Constable, .,

P.

0. Kristeller,nd

G. Brucker.Hans Baron, bituary

n

Speculum,

4

1989),

802.

Fubini,R.

Reviewof Baron's

Crisis,Giornale toricodella letteratura

italiana,

30

1958),

31-38.

Garin,

.

La retorica

i

Leonardo

runi,

n Dal Rinascimento

l

Illumi-

nismoPisa,1970),

1-42.

Gilmore,

.

P.

Review f

Baron'sCrisis,

American istorical eview, 1

(1956),

21-24.

Hay,D. The PlaceofHansBaron n Renaissance istoriography,n An-

thony olho nd

John

.

Tedeschieds.),

Renaissancetudies

n

Honor fHans

Baron Florence,

971),

i-xxix.

Holmes, eorge.

The

Emergence

f n Urban

deology tFlorence, rans-

actions

f

he

Royal

Historicalociety,3 1973),

111-34.

Kohl,

. J.Review f

Baron,

rom

etrarch,

n

History

nd

Theory,(1970),

121-27.

Radetti, . Le origini ell'umanesimo

ivile

iorentinoel

400,

Giornale

critico ella

etteratura

taliana,

8

1959),

98-122.

Vasoli,C.Review fBaron'swork, inascimento,(1953),308-14.

.

Leonardo

runi

lla

ucedelle

iu

recenti

icerche,

tti Memorie

dellaAccademia etrarcha

i

ettere,

rti scienze i

Arezzo,

0

1988),

3-26.

Appendix

Paolo

Viti's recent ollection

of studies, eonardo

Bruni e Firenze

(Rome: Bulzoni, 1992),

s a considerable

ontributiono Bruni

tudies, ut

he also repeats ome ong-standingrrors nd addssomenew ones which t

maybe useful

o correct

ere.

The text

Vitipublishes s an ineditum

58-59)was previously

ublished

in the

Deutsche Reichtags-akten

nterAlbrecht

I

(ed.

G. Beckmann

[Stuttgart925],

141-42,

no.

92)

as well as

in

E.

Martene

nd

U. Durand's

Veterum

criptorum t monumentorum istoricorum,

ogmaticorum,

moraliummplissima

ollectio

[Paris,

1724-33],

, 1578).

The oration o the

Emperor Si laudes

tuas 55-56)

transcribed

rom antiniwas previously

published y S. Baluze (Miscellaneanovoordinedigesta, d. J. D. Mansi

[Lucca, 1762], 150).

The Oratio

qua se defendit

b accusationibus






332

JamesHankins

imperatoris96, 109)

is in facta missiva,not an independentration f

Bruni.IThe two etters

o

the

Doge

of

Venice and

to theAnzianiof Lucca

(110-11) are in fact anonymous talian translations

f Latin missive; n

additiono thefourMSS listed y Viti, here re twenty-fourSS more f

theformerext nd seventeen

f the

atter.2

he

missive

ublished

n

pages

133-34was previously

ublished

n

my

Plato in the talianRenaissance, I,

405. Much of whatViti

says about he date and

attributiono Bruni f the

Vatican

MSS Urbinas raecus

3 and 34

was anticipated y

Emesto

Berti,

who is

elsewhere

riticized

or

accepting

oo

rashly

he attribution.3he

connection

etween

runi'scompendium

f

Xenophon's

Hellenica

and the

intellectual xchanges

at the Council of Florence was firstmade by

SebastianoGentile n MarsilioFicino Lettere [Florence,1990], xix). In

criticizing

ll

previous

tudents

f

Bruni'shand

including

he

present riter)

in

Section

1.3

Preliminari

er

uno studio ulla

grafia

i Leonardo

Bruni ),

Viti

seems unwillingly

o entertainhe

possibility

hatBruni,

ike

Poggio,

Niccoli,

nd

many

ther

umanists,

ad one hand

for

notarial nd

chancery

documents

nd

another

or

umanistic

SS;

so convinced

s he

of

this hat

e

1

The text s found

nFlorence,Archivio i Stato, ignori,Missive, a Cancelleria

ol.

33, ff.94r-97r,nc Licet gravissimumit mentibus ostris. he missivewas copied in a

number f iterary anuscripts,.g. Florence, iblioteca

LaurenzianaMS Plut.90, sup

34,

ff.183v-189v; aticanLibrary,MS Barb. at. 1927,

ff. 2v-25rnd Chis

J

V 119, ff.

165v-

169v;Rome, Biblioteca

Angelica MS 141, ff.91r-94r. he titleused by

Viti

taken

from

fromBaron, Leonardo Bruni Aretino,

Humanitisch-philosophischechriften Leipzig,

1928], 174) comes from

herubric ftheAngelicamanuscript.he

text

has been published

several

imes, y

A.

Fabroni,Magni

CosmiMediceiVita, I (Pisa, 1788), 51-55;C. Guasti,

Commissioni

i Rinaldo

degli

Albizzi

per

il

Comune

di

Firenze dal MCCCXCIX al

MCCCCXXXIII,

Documenti

i

storia

taliana,

II

(Florence,

1873), 536-38; and

H.

Herre,

DeutscheReichtagsakten

nterKaiser Sigmund, , Teil

1

(Gotha, 1900), 495-98,n. 302.

2

The letter o theDoge of Venice inc. Poiche per o effecto elleopere) s foundn

Florence, ibliotecaNazionale

Centrale,MS Panciatichi 48, f. 73r; that o theAnziani

of

Genoa

inc. Se

si

ricerchano)

s

in

ibid.,

ff.

7V-78r.

hismanuscript,s

is

known,s a copy

of

a

volume

missing

from he archival

eries

of

Signori,

Missive

Ia

Cancelleria

n

the

Archivio i

Statoof

Florence.To the four iterary anuscriptsf

the formeretter nown

to

Viti

(Ricc.

1193 should

be Ricc.

1133) may

be

added a

furthereventeen: lorence,

BibliotecaLaurenzianaMS Redi 113, 143; Florence

BibliotecaNazionale Centrale

Naz.

11.1.71,Naz. 11.11.81,nd Magl. VI.197; Florence,

Biblioteca Riccardiana 1074,

2272,

2278, 2322, 2544; Lucca,

BibliotecaGovemativa

MS

1436; Paris,BibliothequeNationale

MS

ital.

593; Toledo,

Biblioteca

Capitular ,35;

Vatican

Library, org.

at.

402,

Ross.

784,

andVat. lat. 3125 and 8088. The letter o the Anziani of Genoa is found n twenty-four

other

manuscripts

n

addition

o the four isted

by

Viti:

Florence,

BibliotecaLaurenziana

Plut.43, 17 and

90

sup.

65,Redi 113, 143; Florence,BibliotecaNationaleCentrale

Magl.

VI,189

and

VIII, 1373,

Naz

.

11.1.71, 1.11.81,

I.IX.15,

Nuovi

acquisti 354; Florence,

BibliotecaRiccardiana

1074, 2272, 2278, 2322, 2544;

Lucca,

Biblioteca

Govemativa

MS

1436; Naples, Biblioteca

NazionaleXIII G 35; Paris,BibliothequeNationale tal.

593, lat.

17888; Toledo, BibliotecaCapitular ,35;

VaticanLibrary, org. at. 402,

Ross.

784, Vat.

lat. 3215; Venice, Biblioteca

Marciana,Marc. lat. XIV

221

(4632).

3Ernesto Berti,

La traduzione

i

Leonardo

Brunidel

Fedone

di

Platone d

un

codice

della BibliotecaBodmeriana,MuseumHelveticum,5 (1978), 125-48.Vitialso ignores

the extual vidence massedby

a Berti

ssociating

odmer

136 withBruni's

ranslation

f

thePhaedo.






Appendix

333

dismisses

he evidence

of

a colophon

n

Padua,

BibliotecaUniversitaria

1499,

f. 40r,

Hec Demosthenes racio

translata st fideliter er

me Leo-

nardumAretinume

mensenovembris

millesimo uadringentesimo

exto,

apostolica ede vacante, ndfails oanalyze he eeminglyuthorialorrec-

tions

in

the

same MS. To

the bibliographical

otes to Lettereper

i

Malatesta (365-78) should

be added

J.

Hankins,

The Humanist,

he

Banker, nd

theCondittiere: n Unpublished

etter

f Cosimo nd Lorenzo

de'Medici

Written

y

Leonardo

Bruni,

n Renaissance

ociety

nd

Cul-

ture: ssays

n HonorofEugene

F. Rice,Jr., d. J.

Monfasani nd R. Musto

(New York, 1991),

59-70.

The identificationf

Bruni's

orrespondant

De-

metrius ithDemetrio

carano 336) was first uggested

y me

in 1987.4

The text yBruniwhichViticalls De laudibus xercitiirmorum397) is in

fact he

itle f an anonymous

atin ranslation,urviving

n a singleMS, of

Bruni'svolgare peech,

heSermone etta Niccol6

Tolentino, hich ur-

vives n about

90

MSS.5 On the same page Viti repeats

he error f

C.

C.

Bayley,

who

believed

Bruni's

De

militia

o be concerned

ith

he

Florentine

communal

militiawhen n reality

t

s an

attempto find lassical oots

or he

contemporary

ignitd avalleresca.6

Viti's urge

o

preserve

heBaronian iew of

Bruni

eads

him

nto ome

strangeudgments.orexample, erepeats313, 337) thehighlymplausible

idea, first

dvancedby

R. M.

Zaccaria

n

the conferencen

Bruni

held

n

1987, that

he division f

the Florentine

hancery

nto wo offices

n

1437

was a plot

by

the

Mediceans

o

strip

heir

olitical

pponent

runi f

power

and that

he

was

compensated

y purely

ceremonial

ositions

on

the

Priorate nd

the

Ten of

War.7Quite part

rom he

bsence

of evidence

hat

Bruni ever opposedthe

Medici after1434

(and

much

evidence that

he

4G. Griffiths,.Hankins,

nd D. Thompsoneds.),

TheHumanism fLeonardo

Bruni

(Binghamton, .Y., 1987), 370-71.

sThe Latin

version,

which

s not by

Bruni, s foundonly

n Biblioteca Apostolica

Vaticana, Vat.

lat. 1043 (inc.

Omniumhumanorumxercitiorum)

nd in a seventeenth-

centuryopy

of theVaticanMS in ParisBN Par.

at. 17888,97-102.Viti's reference

eems

to be based on the error n Baron,

Bruni chriften,

75.

6

C. C. Bayley, War and

Society n Renaissance Florence:

The

De Militia of

Leonardo Bruni Toronto, 961);

on the defects

f this study ee Paul Oskar Kristeller's

review n CanadianHistorical

Review,

4

(1963), 66-70. The

traditionaliew,popularized

by Baron nd Bayley, hat runiwashostile o condottierind anadvocate fcivic militias,

is questioned

n

R. Dees,

Bruni,Aristotle,nd

the Mixed Regime

n

On the Constitution

of theFlorentines,

Medievalia et humanistica,

.s.,

15

(1987),

1-23,

and in

myarticles,

The LatinPoetry f Leonardo

Bruni, Humanistica

ovaniensia,39 (1990),

1-39,

and

The Humanist, he

Banker nd the

Condottiere,

ited n the text bove. The traditional

view s maintained

n

Lucia Gualdo

Rosa,

L'elogio delle

lettere delle

armi

nell'operadi

Leonardo Bruni,

n

L. Avellini

ed.), Sapere e/e

potere.

l

caso bolognese confronto,

Bologna

13-15 aprile 1989,

I:

Forme

e

oggetti

ella disputa

delle 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.






334 JamesHankins

supportedhem),his xplanation

s

clearly utting

he

art

efore

he

horse:

Bruni as n fact akennto he eggimentofter 437 evenVespasiano a

Bisticci aid gli dettanoo stato ; f. his Vite. d. A. Greco Florence,

1970], , 473).Thedivisionf he hanceryas urelyntendedorelievehe

elderlyhancellor

f ome fhis

duties

o as tofree

im

o

participateully

n

thesemost owerfulf civicdignities.n his efforto present runi s a

covertnti-Medicean

iti

escribes

he

ollowing,

ather

ool,

entencerom

Bruni's istoryf

Florence s

a

denunciation

f the

progressive

uffo-

cation f

iberty 24-25)

n

Florence

rought

bout

y

the

Mediceans:

In

Florencelso bout his imehere as drastichange

n

he ommonwealth

and Cosimo

e' Medici nd

his

relatives ere

broughtack,having

een

expelled heprevious ear,while differentaction,ather umerous,as

sent

nto

xile.

This

udgment

its

ll

withViti's ccurate

tatementlse-

where336)

that runi

voided olitically

ensitive

opics

n

his

published

epistolary.imilarly,espite

studi

ecenti

64, 129),

here

s no

evidence

that ugene

V

used

his

nfluence

o

keep

Bruni

n

office s chancellor,

overcominghe ostility

fCosimo e'Medici. hemost

lausibleeading

f

the vidence ould how hat runi,ikemost ther eople

n

Florence,ept

his

headdown uring

he

arty

trifef 1426-34.

Viti s also mistakenn arguing395-401) hat he Orationorthe

Funeral

f

Nanni

trozzi as delivered

y

Chancellor

runi

n

the

piazza

Signoria

s

part

f he

elebrations

n

16

May 1428,marking

he nd f he

Milanese

War.

n the irst

lace,

runi

learly resents

isfuneral

rations

a

literaryiction,eclaring:

We shallwrite

his

anegyric

s

though

t

were

an oratio

eing poken

t the

ery

nd

ofhis

funeral

ites

ita

cribetur

nobis

uasi

n

psofuneris

xtremo

icaturratio ). econdly,

runi

peaks

of thewar

with

Milan s

still n

progress ita Nanni trozzi]

oc

bello

adversusMediolanensiumucemcivitasnostraVenetique uncgerunt

bellando

nteriit ).

n

any

ase

theres no

evidencehat atinwas ever sed

by

the

chancellor

n

suchpublic

occasions

n

Florence;

he

dozensof

surviving

icerie

romhe

Quattrocento

nowno

the

resent

riterre ll

n

the

volgare.

The

followingnpublishedext, pparentlynknown

o

Viti, uggests

that runi's ration

or

trozzi as ntendedt east

n

part,

or

oreignather

than omesticonsumption.8he text eems

o

be a letterftransmission

meant oaccompanypresentationopy fBruni's ratio orNiccolo II

d'Este,

he

Marquess

f

Ferrara.

here re wo

opies

f he

ext,

oth

nthe

hand

f

Matteo trozzi.

oth

opies

re

undated,

ut

hey ppear

n

a

bound

volume

rganizedy

date etween

wo ther

ocumentsated

espectively

March

nd June 428. he etter

urports

ohave eenwritten

y

Matteo

i

Simone

trozzi,

rother

f

Nanni. ut

t

was almost

ertainlyomposedy

Bruni imself.

part

romhe

tyle, ui sapitAretini,

nd he wo

lassical

8

This text

was

kindly rought

o

my

attention

y

Arthur ield.






Appendix 335

quotations, oth

favorites

f

Bruni,

here re no other

xamples mong

he

extensive urviving ritings

f Matteo Strozzi

n

the Carte Strozziane

f

Latincompositions

f

any

kind.Bruniwas close

to

Matteo s well

as

Palla

Strozziandwouldhave been theobviousperson o composea letter n

Matteo'sbehalf. Less

than

year

ater

he

would

compose

similar

etter,

this ime

o

Carlo Malatesta,

n

behalf

f Cosimoand Lorenzo

de'Medici.)9

The theme f the etter,

hat he

Marquess

hould

uccour

Nanni's

orphaned

sons,

s continuous ith

he

Oratio,

or t the ndofthe

reface

o that

peech

Bruniwrites, Sed

de funeris

uidem ublici

honore atorumqueducatione

et cura

i

qui possunt

t

debent,

t

spero,

rovidebunt.

he etter

nd speech

are

plainly

inked

ompositions,robably

art

f a

campaign

rchestrated

y

the trozzi o haveNanni's ervices elebratedn a public uneralndto have

his sons ooked fter y Niccolo

d'Este.

9

See

my article,

The

Humanist,

he Banker nd the

Condottiere,

ited

above.

Florence,

rchivio

i

Stato,

arte

trozziane,

er.

II,

132,

f.280r-v

copy

A) andf.283r-Vcopy B). BothcopiesareautographsfMatteodi Simone

Strozzi.

A title

as

been

dded

by

Senatore arlo

Strozzi

s. XVII):

Lettera l

Marchese

i Ferrara crittaulla morte

i NanniStrozzi.

Preclara

dmodum,magnifice rinceps,

t

recte

loriosa

obis

etiam

atque

etiam

cogitantibus

mors

fidelissimi erui tui

Johannis,

ratris

nostri, on mmeritoidero olet-pro patria

tenim t

pro

Dominatione

Tua non dubitauit

bcumbere-quo genere

mortis ullum ertealiud

prestantiusogitari otest. uocircaprimum quidem

ehementer

ngor

5

eo fratrerbatus ui

mihi

ita

mea carior

rat, ursus ero, um ogito

i

tandem

liquando

moriendumuisse ec ullam

lariorem

mortem

i

ullo

pacto potuisse contingere, aucorum

annorum

ccessionem

parui

admodum aciendam atus ngor lle, quo prius

uehementer

ngebar,

paulisper rimum,

um

demum b

preclarum

enus

mortisn

dies

pene

10

euanescit.Hoc

itaque

modo

me

ipsum

consolans

rursus terum tque

iterum e flliis

uos paruulos eliquit ogitatio uedampaulatim epens

animum ubit. a

cogitatio

sthuiusmodi:

ilios uos

egregia

c nimirum

singulari ndole preditos ngensglorie

umenet uelut ubar

quoddam

elaturos

uisse,

i

ipsum arentem

iutius

n

uitapermanereontigisset.

5

Nam

preter gregiam

ndolem um doctrina

t

moribus,

um

paterna

quoque

imitationediutimirabilies

rofecto

t arbitrorructus

eperis-

sent.

Accedit

uod

Dominatio ua

ex

omnibus numJohannem

tpote

fidissimumeruum uum unice

diligebat,

re

ceteris num

Johannem

obseruabat,

n

uno

denique

Johanne

anquam

n iocundissimo

uodam

20

portu

fluctibus

rincipatus uandoque

iactata

acquiescere

uidebatur.

Quamobrempsiusuiuentis spectus, ui uel ex eo iocundissimusibi






336

JamesHankins

fuisse idebatur

uod ungue ut

dicitur)atius bs

te

ipsum besse equo

animo pati

non

poteras, antopere

uodammodo

ominationem uam

25 admonuisset

t iberos

uos

benignitate

t

argitateua

singularic pene

incredibilirga e suaque et adiuuisses tad dignitatisradus xtulisses.

Quod

si fieret, on ambigo quin multofacilius dmirabiles

uosdam

effectus arerent

uam

si

uel

non adiutiuel destituti ssent.Quippe

cuiusdam

on

gnobilis oete

uera, mmo

erissima ententiast:

30

haud facile

mergunt

llos

quorum

irtutibusbstat

res angusta

omi.

Quare non parum inpresentiarumngor commodorumd gloriam

amissione

ua

nepotes uondam,

unc

uero

filii

mei

una cum parente

amiserunt.

35

Proinde cogitanti

mihi

quemadmodum

uiuscemodi d gloriam

commodarecuperari ossent,

non

ab

re uisum est

Dominationi

ue

quandam legantissimam

rationem e

servi tui laudibus Leonardo

Aretino iro

omnium

tatis

nostre

loquentissimouper

ditammittere.

Quod

ideo

feci,

non

quia

memoriam

idissimi erui

tui in

mente

40 Dominationis ue insiderepenitus gnorarem, eque eo quod illam

ip<s>am memoriam rius

uita tua desituramxistimarem,

ed profecto

cum

ut Johannis

ui,

Johannis

nquam

famuli

ui,

assidua recordatio

propter ominationis

ue

magnitudinem

nterdum,

t fit, opita c hac

elegantissima

ratione

uandoque

exsu<s>citatarecentius

euiuescat,

45

tum

tiam

t posteris

uis

quoddam erpetuum

unimentumidelissime

erga

Dominationem

uam

seruitutis

emper ppareat.

d

propterea

eci

libentius uia laudes

semui

ui non

ingratas

el

potius

gratissimasibi

futurasrbitrabar,resertimumnona laudato olum, quoHector lle

Neuianus

audari upiebat,

ed certe laudatissimo iro seruus lle tuus

50

merito audetur.

Quapropter, agnifice

uctor t

princeps,

e oro

atque

obtestorthoc

opusculum,

mole

paruissimum

ed

sententiarumerborumqueondere

certe

maximum,

n

bibliotheca

uaclarissima

tque

eleberrimaollocare

atque apponere

igneris. uod

si

feceris,

on solum

mihi,

ed uniuerse

55 familie

ostre

ratissimum

rit t

posteris

uis

perpetuum

onumentum

tante ttam fide rgate seruitutisxtabit, uod posteris ostris ratum

admodum

uturumsse certissimeentio.

13

egregriam

nimirum.s.

B 22

tibi ocundissimus 24

tante

MSS

30

emergere

MSS

32

inpresentiarum

n

marg.

A

33

parente]

atre

B

39

memoria 41 sua

A

42

ut]

tu

B

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






Appendix

337

Viti's book providesmany striking xamples

of Bruni's

ability

s a

rhetoriciano manipulate he languageof whatmight e called imperial

humanism. '0he main opics n this ort f discourse re praise f the

Holy

Roman Emperor s the one authorityble to bringpeace and unity o

Christendom,

o settle nternal

uarrels

nd to

protect

t from he

nfidel.

he

peoplesof Europe re committedo

his

care;they re his oyal ons,he their

father.

e inheritshevirtues f

Caesar,especially

his

clemency.

he text

published

or the first ime below

gives yet

another

xample

of Bruni's

fluency

n thisvein. t is a

speech

written

y

Bruni

forFlorentine

mbassa-

dors

ttending

ither

he

oronation

fFrederickII as

King

of

theRomans

n

1440 or

the oronation

f

Albrecht

II in

1438. discovered

he

new

ext

ome

years ago in a MS in theBeinecke Library t Yale. Dr. MartinDavies

subsequentlyrought o my notice nothermanuscript itness f Aretine

provenance, ated 1449, n the VaticanLibrary.11t seemedworthwhile

o

publish

the text

here

to

illustrate urther

runi's

skill

as an

imperial

rhetorician.

he

spelling ollows hat f the VaticanMS; punctuationnd

capitalization

re mine.

10

See especially55-62.

11

ee

my article, BruniManuscripts

n

North

America,

n L.

Gualdo

Rosa and

P.

Viti eds.),Per il Censimentoeicodici dell'Epistolario iLeonardoBruni, stituto torico

per l

Medio

Evo,

Nuovi

studi torici,

0

(Rome, 1991), 55-90,

at

p. 63.

C-Biblioteca

Apostolica aticana,

S Chis.J.IV.

19,

ff. 89r-v

Arezzo,

.

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

venimus

dorare

um'. Verba unt

Matthei

Evangeliste

n

capitulo<secundo>. Serenissime

tque glori-

ossime princeps:

Non sine probabiliratione

imilitudo acta est ab

antiquis

nter

astigium

mperiale

t astra n

celo

fulgentia.

rimumnim

5

ut

n

stellis st altitudo

tque

sublimitas

dmiranda,

ic etiam

mperialis

fastigiiublimitastaltitudoupermortalesttollitur.tstellafulgorem

habet t claritatem,ic etiam

mperialis ignitas

erenitatemt

illustra-

tionem ontinett fulgoremdmirandumucemque larissimam

n

civi-

tates opulosque ffundit.

tque xortus tellarumeu siderumliquid

n

10

futurumignificat t

ostendit,

ic etiam exortus

maximiprincipis

t

optimi, ualis

tu

es, repromittit

ominibus

uturam

eculi felicitatem.

Que quidem mnia,

ne

nuncnoviter me

reperta utes,

udi

quid

dicat

Virgilius oetarum

octissimus:






338

James

Hankins

15 ecce Dyoneiprocessit esaris strum

astrum uo segetes auderentrugibusuoque

duceret

pricis

n

collibusuva colorem.

Tranquillitatemt pacem poeta significare

oluit x

Cesaris stella seu

sidereproventuram,dque significaviter segetes

t

opera rusticorum

20 que maxime issipantur bellis.

Hanc

igitur ranquillitatem

t

pacem

et

quietam

eculi

felicitatem

opulus

Florentinus

evotissimus

uus

perat

ex tuoexortu

amquam

x

salutari tella eu

sidere

er

Ytaliam c ceteras

mundi

partes

esse futuram.

taque gaudens

et

exultans

hac

seculi

beatitudine

nos

oratores

misit

ad

orandum

et

venerandum uum

25 sanctissimumc fulgentissimumubar.Noli enimputare, restantissime

Cesar,

am

multis eculis tantam etitiam

uisse

usceptam

x

alicuius

principis sumptione uanta per universummundum usceptaest ex

felici

sta adsumptione

ua.

Quid

enim

optabilius

sse

potest

ut

debet

quam ab optimo rincipe ubemari

t

regi, ui

fidem

fferat,ustitiam

30

confirmet,

ella Cristianorum

ollat, aci

studeat

t

quieti,populorum

infidelium

onatus

et

opera maligna repellat.

Tue

enim

admirabiles

prestantissimequeirtutes,

ua fides et

moderatio,

ua fortitudo t

clementia,ua incorruptaustitia, ua admirabilisapientia t altitudo

consilii

merito anc

spem optimam

ivitatibus

t

populispollicetur.

n

35

hac

populus

Florentinusevotissimusuus onfidit

t in

asumptione

ua

mirabili

audio

xultavit

tque

xultat.

uod

licet

per

iteras

am

pridem

/f. 30r/ignificavit,

amen

ivis quoque affatibuser

nos

oratores uos

demonstrari

lenius

voluit ac

presentes

uo

culmini sublimissimo

gratulariro

hac

felici dsumptioneua,

ecomendanse

ipsum

evote t

40

humiliter ue sacratissime

c invictissime

maiestati.

Ceterum,

ere-

nissimeprinceps,non nulla seorsumexponerehabemus,que, cum

dabiturocus

et

tempus,

ue

maiestati eriosius

xprimemus.

1

Leonardo

Aretini

m.

Y

2

eam

Y

3

spatium

duodecim

itterarumost

capitulo

CY 7

Ut]

Et

Y

12

alterum uturam

ost

seculi canc.

Y 15

processit

edd.] precessit

C:

preces

sic Y

16

quoque

CY]

et

quo

edd. 17

apricis] pricibus

C:

a

precibus

Y 17

uva]

una CY 18 ex C

ex

corr.]

e

Y

19

sidere] sydera

Y

20

a om. Y et

alterum m.

Y

26-30, 31-32

sex

litterae x initio harum

linearum bscissae suntin Y 30 paci] pati Y 36 licet om. Y 37 significarit

C 38

sublimissimi

Y

41

exprimere

2

Matt.

2:2 15-17

Ecl. IX.47-49.

Documents

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