Renaissance Collections of facetiae, 1344-1490: A New Listing

8/11/2019 Renaissance Collections of facetiae, 1344-1490: A New Listing

1/16

Renaissance Collections of facetiae, 1344-1490: A New ListingAuthor(s): Barbara C. Bowen

Source: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp. 1-15Published by: The University of Chicago Presson behalf of the Renaissance Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2861581.

Accessed: 17/06/2013 13:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The University of Chicago PressandRenaissance Society of Americaare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,

preserve and extend access toRenaissance Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.204.192.85 on Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:16:02 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpresshttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rsahttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2861581?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2861581?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rsahttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress


2/16

RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

Edited y

MARGARET L.

KING

BRIDGET

GELLERT

LYONS

Associate

ditors

COLIN

EISLER

WALLACE

T.

MACCAFFREY

JAMES V.

MIROLLO

Newsand

Notes

ditor

MARGARET

L.

RANALD

Managingditor

DEBRA

M.

SZYBINSKI

Renaissance

ollections

f

facetiae,

344-I490:

A

New

Listing*

by

ARBARAC.

BOWEN

Introduction

The followingist ompriseslevenworkswhichwereperceived y

their

ontemporaries

s

anthologies

ffacetiae

nd

which

heavily

n-

fluenced

aterjoke

ollections.

rom

344,

when

Petrarch

evived

he

Classical

facetia

radition

ased on

Cicero

and

Quintilian, o

i528

when

Castiglione

drew on

Cicero's

oke

theory

or his

laughing

courtier, ach

collection

ffacetiae

though

never

original

n

our

senseof

the

term)

had

a

different

urpose

nd

a

different

one.

From

the

1530S

on

the

oke-books

were

collective,

rawing

ften

iterally

on a mixture f sources nd including he argeand verypopular

compilationsf

Gast

I54i)

and

Domenichi

1548). The

list

here

given

overs

he

first

alf f

this

arly

eriod.

There

retwo

main

problems

nvolved

n

the

ompilation

f

such

a

list.

First,

how

does

one

distinguish,

f

at

all,

between he

short

story,

onte

rfacezia, nd

the

verbal

oke, rencontrer

motto?

ength

is

not

necessarily

criterion;

he

Bel

ibretto

ompiler

no.

8)

can

pack

an astonishingength fnarrativentoonesentence, hereasmany

of

Sacchetti's

hort

tories

ulminate

n

a

punchline

which s

obvi-

ously

hemain

point.

Many

modern ritics

efuse o

make

uch

dis-

*This rticle onstituteshe irst

art

f

two-part

ist.The

second

art

will

ppear

in the

ummer,

986,

ssue fRenaissance

uarterly.

[

1

]

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/16

2

RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

tinction,ut

the

Renaissance ften

id

make t

the

alesof

Boccac-

cio's

Sixth

Day

all

concern

leggiadro

otto

r

a

pronta

isposta,

nd

many

ollections re

entitled

acezie

motti).

icerohad n

factmade

two

separate

distinctions: etween

cavillatio

r

humour

infused

throughout

speech

nd

dicacitas

r

witty

ne-liners;

nd

betweenjo-

king

nre

humorous

ubject-matter)

nd n verbo

verbal

wit).

These

two

oppositions

ecome confused r

conflated

uring

he

Renais-

sance, nd

are further

omplicated

y

the

fluidity

f

terminology

n

bothLatin

nd

thevernacular.

ut

believeRenaissance

ttitudes

re

clear

enough

to

ustify

list

offacetiae

hich does not

include

he

story ollections fBoccaccioandSacchettind their erynumerous

imitators.

We have

already

ouched

n the

econd

majorproblem,

which

s

whatto

include

n

such

a list.Facetiae

verlap

hort

tories;

hey

lso

overlap

pophthegms

since

witty

ayings

re

often hemark

f

the

wise

prince),

ables

since

many

fables re

humorous tories

well

be-

fore a

Fontaine),

ermon

xempla

frequently

omic),

pigrams

of-

ten

witty), nd

practicalokes which

re

primarily

hysical

ot ver-

bal andwhichboth he uthor fArlotto, o. 7, andCastiglionewill

include).

have

excluded ll

such

collections,

ven

f

they

ontain

few

well-known

okes,

in

order o

limit he ist o

works

which

by

title

nd/or ntent

mphasise

verbal

humour,

nd I

have

therefore

omitted uch

pparently

romising

andidates s Geiler on

Kaisers-

berg,

Abstemius,

nd

Till

Eulenspiegel.

This

is,

then,

listof

theextant

acetiae

ollections

rom

344

to

1490,

insomething lose to chronologicalrder notalways asyto

establish),

n

Latin, talian

nd

German.

There s no

Englishor

French

original

ollection

ntil

ater;

axton's

Fables

fAlfoncend

Poge,for

nstance,s

a

compilation

ftwo

previous

ollections. o

list

ike

his

ne s

available,

nd

bibliography

n

thewhole

subjects

both

stonishingly

canty

nd

hard

o

track

own.

Konrad

Vollert's

Zur

Geschichte

er

ateinische

acetiensammlungen

esXV.

und

XVI.

Jahrhunderts

Berlin,

9iI

) deals

with only

Poggio

and

Tiinger

for

thisperiod;GiovanniFabris' Per a storia ellafacezia inRaccolta

di studi i

storia

critica

etteraria-dedicataF.

Flamini,

isa,

i9i8,

93-

138)

discusses

ll

except

he

Mensa

hilosophica

nd

Tiinger,

utvery

superficially,

nd

Letterio i

Francia's

anoramic

ovellistica

Milan,

1924,

2

vols.)

doesn't

mention

etrarch,he

Mensa r

Tiinger.

There

is

only

one

good

general

iscussion

fthe

whole

subject,

y

Joanna



4/16

COLLECTIONS OF

FACETIAE,

1344-1490

3

B. Lipking, n an unpublished

issertation,Traditions f

thefacetiae

and theirnfluence

n

Tudor England (Columbia,

1970). Lipking

discusses very uthor nmy ist xcept eonardo,but did nothave

access o all the nformationow available.

For each item on

the istthe following nformation

s provided:

availableRenaissance

nd/or ood modem

editions, henumber f

jokes and whether hey re numbered nd titled,ome general ndi-

cation

f

thecollection's

urpose nd character,

nd a bibliography,

where elevant,

n

chronologicalrder.A surprising

umber fthese

joke anthologies, ven

when compiledby authors s famous s Pe-

trarch nd Leonardoda Vinci, have attracted o critical ttention

whatever.Only four f theworkshave prefaces,

hich re briefly

summarised

ere.

Many

scholars nd librarians ave assisted

my research n this

project. am particularlyrateful o the National

Endowment or

theHumanities or he

Fellowship t awarded

me in

i98i-2,

to the

Villa

I

Tatti,

o the

ibrarians

f

theBibliotecaNazionale,Florence,

theBritish

Museum,

HoughtonLibrary, heNewberry ibrary nd

theRare Book Room of theUniversity f llinois, o my colleagues

JohnJ. Bateman,

David Bright,JohnD'Amico,

JoannaLipking,

Donald

Stone

nd Patricia rutty-Coohill,nd to myresearchssist-

ant

LorettaWilliamson.

I. I343-5. Petrarch,

erummemorandarumibri,

1.37-9I.

In Fran-

cesco Petrarca, erummemorandarum

ibri, d.

GiuseppeBillanovich

(Firenze: ansoni,

943),

pp.

68-i03.

The unfinished erummemorandarumibrisone of Petrarch'seast

studied

works,

nd there eems o be

no

modemcritical iscussion f

the

nthology ffacetiae

t

the

nd

of Book

II.

The

previous

ections

of Book

II

are on

memory

nd

on

eloquence,

nd Petrarch

makes t

clear

hat

his

okes

are

a

part

f

eloquence

11.37).

The

entire

work

s

closely

modeled

on

Valerius

Maximus'

Factorum

ictorumque

emora-

bilium

ibri

ovem

29

A.

D.?),

which

has

nofacetiae

ection. ike

Vale-

rius,Petrarchubdivides heanecdotes feachsection ntoRomana

and

Externa,

ut

he

also adds

a

third

ivision,

Moderna.

Petrarch's

I4

unnumbered

nd untitled

acetiae

re

mostly aken,

as

he

mentions

II.38, 68, 73,

85),

from he

oke

passages

nMacro-

bius'

Saturnalia

II.

-7

and

III.7)

and from uetonius'

ives.He be-

gins

with

De

facetiis

c salibus llustrium

37-6i),

followed

by



5/16

4

RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

De

mordacibus ocis

(62-84)

and

De

ingenio

paupertatis

85-

9I).

Nearly

ll

thejokes,

whether

oman,

foreign

r

modem,

re

at-

tributed to or directedagainst famous people, fromancient

(Diogenes) to

very ecent

PopeJohn

XXII).

A

large

majority,

s in

Macrobius,

oncern

Augustus nd

Cicero.

In

hisbrief

ntroduction

37)

Petrarchtates

hatwe

can

call

the

ge-

nus

ofjokesfacetiae,ales

because

hey

easonour

speech)

r

apothe-

mata,which

s

Cicero's

word. The

Greeks se scomma

ormore

ag-

gressive

nd

unkind

okes (he is

thinking

n

particular

f

Plutarch's

passage

n

the

Quaestiones

onviviales,

II.

8).

Petrarch as

read

Ci-

cero'sdialogue njokesintheDe oratoreII.54-71),andbriefly en-

tions ts

distinction

etween

avillatio

nd

dicacitas,

nd

ts claim

hat

no

ars

fjoking s

possible ince

pontaneity

s essential.

Petrarch

ertainly

ants

both to

repeat

his favourite

okes

from

Macrobius

nd to

provide

modem

analogies

or

hem;

he

begins

by

juxtaposingCicero's first

oke and

one

by

a

nostri

emporis

doles-

cens.

But

hisModerna

ivisions re

very

hort nd concern

ew

peo-

ple:

Boniface

VIII,

John

XXII,

Dante,

the

countof

Fuxus,

Dinus

quidam, PetrusNanus, Lovatus,SanciusofSpain, quisdamvir

nobilis and

the wife of

Azzo

d'Este.

Despite

the

suggested

abel

apothematahe okes

are all

intended

o be comic

he

regards

hem

therefore

s

different

rom he

wise

sayings

n

De

sapientia,

11.31-

99),

and

few

ater

ollections

ill

be

as

homogeneous

s

this ne.

He

is fond

of

the

adjectivesfacetus,

rbanusnd

festivus,

nd

admires

he

wit

of

Augustus,

f

his

daughter

ulia

cavillatrix

n

primisocundis-

sima, 0)andofCicero, nd the bilityfAugustusndJulius aesar

to

takejokes

t their

wn

expense

68

and

69).

In

this

hort

assage

Petrarch

may

be said

to

have

resurrected

he

Ciceronian

hetorical

radition

ffacetiae,ormant

ince

Macrobius

in

the

fifth

entury.

he

passagewas

certainly

nown o

many

ater

authors

n

this

ist, nd

a

translation

f t

nto

French

was

published

in

Lyon

as

late

as

I

53

I:

Les

parolles

oyeuses

dictz

memorables

esno-

bles

&

saiges ommes

nciens.

Relevantibliography:one.

2.

1438-52,

first

omplete

dition

rinted

470.

Poggio

Bracciolini,

Facetiae. n

Poggius

Bracciolini,

pera

omnia,

d.

RiccardoFubini

(Turin:

Bottega

d'Erasmo,

964),

I,

420-91

(facsimilef

Basel,

1538

ed.).

Otherwise

ccessible n:

The

Facetiae

rJocose

ales

of

Poggio



6/16

COLLECTIONS

OF FACETIAE,

1344-1490

5

(Latin and

English)

Paris: Lisieux, 879);

and Poggio

Bracciolini,

Facezie,

ed. Marcello

Ciccuto

(Latin

and

Italian) Milan:

Rizzoli,

i983).

273

unnumbered,

ut titled, acetiae,

n

no particular

rder xcept

for

few groups

of anecdotes

bout the same person.Unlike

Pe-

trarch's,

he

collection

s a mixture f briefrepartees

nd fully-

developed

contes. he latter rethe best

known,

mainly ecauseof

their

wide diffusion

n France n

the

sixteenth entury.

lso unlike

Petrarch,

oggio usesno classical

okes; many

re ttributedo well-

known

people, butmany use

unnamedcharacters;

nd he mixes

funny tories, ften bscene,fables, nd accounts fmonsters nd

portents

hich renot ntended

o be comic.

Most ofthe

omicface-

tiae,

s critics ave

pointed

ut,

serve s satire gainst he

hreemain

butts

f

the medieval

xemplum:he corruption

f the

church, he

sexual ppetites f

women, nd

the tupidityfpeasants.

This is

the

most

nfluentialf

all

Renaissance

ollectionsSozzi

counts

34 editions

between 470 and

i5oo),

and the

only one still

well-known

oday.

t has

beentoo hastily

ssumed hat

t s typical,

whereas

n

fact, n thetime pan

coveredhere,

here sno typical

collection;

hey reall different.

ike Petrarch,

oggio is very on-

sciously

humanist. n the Praefatio

subtitled

Ne aemuli

carpant

Facetiarum

pus propter

loquentiaeenuitatem )

e states

whatwill

become he

ommonest

aptatio

enevolentiae

fjoke collectors: e all

need

some

relaxation

rom urworries nd

hardwork,

but he also

claims

stylistic

alue for

his

confabulationes:

Ego quidemexperiri

uolui,an multa uae latine ici difficulterxistimantur,on absurde

scribi

osse

uiderentur,

nd

n a

simple

tyle.

He wants o be read

a

facetis humanis,

hat s

by

people

ikethosewho frequentedhe

Bugiale

escribed

n

his

Conclusio,

here he

papal

secretariesssem-

bled

to tell all

tories,

tum

axandi

ut

plurimum

nimi

ausa,

tum

serio

uandoque.

Poggio's

is

probably

he most

original acetiae

ollection.

While

certainly

ot

all the

stories re

new,

as he

claims

a

number

an be

traced o Sacchetti nd to medieval xemplan particular), large

number

ave

no known

antecedents.

nsufficient

ttention

as

been

paid

to

his

colloquialstyle but

see

Tateo,

below),

to his

delightful

word-play,

specially

n

metaphors

or exual

ctivity,

ndalso to

his

fundamentally

oralview

of

ife; disagree

with

hose ritics

who

find im

fundamentally

moral.



7/16

6

RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

Relevant

ibliography:

LionelloSozzi.

Le Facezie

di Poggio nel

Quattrocento

rancese.

n

Miscellaneai studi ricercheulQuattrocentofrancese,d. F. Simone

(Turin: iappichelli,966),

pp. 409-5I6.

HenriWeber.

La

facetie

t ebon mot

du Pogge

a

Des

Periers.

n

Humanismn

France

tthe nd

ofthe iddle ges

nd n he

arlyRen-

aissance,

d..

A. H. T. Levi (Manchester:

Manchester

University

Press, 970), pp.

82-I05.

GilbertTournoy.

Facetiae Poggii?

Romanischeorschungen,

5

(1973),

I39-44.

Francesco ateo. II lessicodei Comici ellafaceziaatinadelQuat-

trocento. n

I classici el Medioevo nell'Umanesimo:

iscellanea

filologica

Genoa: Istituto

i Filologiaclassica

medievale, 975),

pp.

93-109.

Francesco

ateo.

La

raccolta

elle

Facezie lo stile comico'

di

Pog-

gio.

In

Poggio

racciolini

38-1i980

nel

VI

centenario

ellanascita

(Florence:

ansoni,

982), pp.

207-33.

Lionello

Sozzi. Le

Facezie

la

loro

fortunauropea.

n

Poggio

rac-

ciolini

38-I980,

pp.

23

5-59.

Joseph

E.

Salemi.

Selectionsfrom

the Facetiae f

Poggio

Brac-

ciolini [with

Latin

text,

ntroduction

nd

notes].

Allegorica,

(I983),

pp.

77-I83.

3. 1455.

Antonio

Beccadelli

Panormita),

e dictis

tfactislphonsi

e-

gisAragonum

ibri

uatuor.

rinted

t

Pisain

485

(this

dition

s

very

rare), nd at Basel in

1538,

witha commentaryyAeneasSylvius

Piccolomini no.

4

below), scholia

n both

works

byJakob

piegel,

and approving

marginalomments,

erhaps

lso

by Spiegel.

This is

not

a

joke

collection ut an

anecdotalbiography

whose

mainpurpose

s

to

create n idealisedportrait

f

Alfonso heMag-

nanimous ased

on the

portrayal

f Augustus n

Suetonius

nd Ma-

crobius.

t s

included

n

this

ist

because

Alfonso'sfacete

icta re an

important

omponent

f

this

portrait,

nd becausethey

eappear

n

mostlaterhumanist nthologies ffacetiae. he lateRenaissance

adopted

Alfonso

s its most

popular

deal

Prince,

ndPanormita's

work

was still

being

published

s a

Mirror-of-Princes

ook

in

the

seventeenth

entury.

anormita

pecifically

dmires

lfonso

ecause

he

is

sermone

dmodum

ucundus,

reuis

&

elegans,uenustus

&

clarus

Proemium

o Book

II),

and because cum

esset dmodum



8/16

COLLECTIONS

OF

FACETIAE,

1344-1490

7

facetus

urbanus,mirari amen

magis icuit,

uo

animo

quaque

mo-

deratione

pse

aliorum ales

pertulerit,uam

quomodo

ipse

iocos

protulerit IV. 27). Despite this dmiration,mostofAlfonso's icta

are

ententiaeather han acetiae.

The four

books have no

recognisable

tructure,ut

are

divided

into

between

6

and 6i numbered

aragraphs,ach

with

ts

marginal

comment.

f

we

countas

okes

only

the

paragraphs

abelled

Facete,

Iocose,

Vrbane

nd

Comiter,he

otal s

28, butnot urprisinglyhe a-

bels are

more

mbiguous

han hat.

Alfonso's efusal o be

surprised

whenan

earthquake

nterrupts

he

reading f

Virgil's ccount

f

the

death fDido (I.

32)

is Facete, uthiswitty omment o a scrounging

knight

onstantly

sking

him

formoney: If

go on

giving

o

you,

will make

myself oor

quicker

han

you

rich

11.26),

is

callednot

Facete ut

Frugaliter.

n

anecdote an even

be abelled oth

Facete

nd

Grauiter

1.6and

others),

n

excellent

llustrationfthe

Renaissance's

disinclinationo

separatewitand wisdom.

Relevant

ibliography:

Barbara

C. Bowen.

Roman Jokes and

the

RenaissancePrince,

1455-1528.

Illinois lassical tudies,

(i984),

137-48.

4. 1456, first rinted

538? Aeneae piscopo enensisn

ibros

ntonii

Panormitaepoetaeedictis

tfactis

lphonsi

egismemorabilibus,ommen-

tarius.

rintedn

the

Basel,

1538

edition f

Panormita's

e dictis

no.

3 above),

and

n

Aeneae

ylvii

iccolominienensis . .

opera uae x-

tant

mnia

Basel:

ex

Officina

enricpetrina,

I571], rpt.

Frankfurt:

Minerva,

967,

pp.

472-97).

This

commentary y Aeneas

Sylvius

Piccolomini,who two

years

ater

became

Pope

Pius

II, combines

pproval f Panormita's

De dictiswith

further

lattery

f

Alfonso.

Following

Panormita's

work

paragraph yparagraph,

t

consists

mainly

f anecdotes

nalo-

gous

to

the

ones

Panormita elates bout Alfonso.

There

are

stories

about the

EmperorsFrederick,

igismund

nd

Rudolph,

but

also

about a

large

number f other

ifteenth-century

ersonalities,

rom

kingsto humanists.The tone is heavilymoral,and Piccolomini

sometimes

omments

itterly

n the vils

f

his

time.

Again,

he

nlyjustification

or

ncluding

his

work

n

a list

fface-

tiae

s

that

many

f ts tories

wereused

by

aterjoke-collectors.

hey

are

on the

whole

ess

witty

han

anormita's,

ut

proved

o

bejust

as

popular.

Alfonso

had said

Panormita

11.

)

that fhe had been

n

an-



9/16

8 RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

cientRoman hewould have built

templewhere enators

ould get

rid of theirodiaatque lias animi

estes eforedeliberating

n the

senate-houseGraviternd uste nthemargin). iccolomini ecounts

that he Emperor

Frederick aid

senators hould eave simulationd

dissimulatio

n the

nteroom

f

his

palace. Alfonso sserted

hat rms

and etters

were

equally mportant

IV.

9,

Iuste);

iccolomini ells

charming

tory n

the

sametopic,whose punch-line

as the

Em-

perorFrederick tating hathe can

make

,ooo

knights

n one day,

but he

can't

make a doctor

n

i,ooo

years.

n

boththese ases

and a

number f others, he commentary

necdotenot the

originalwas

picked p by ateroke-collectors.

Relevant

ibliography:

one.

5.

1466-1471?

Lodovico

Carbone,

Cento renta

ovelle

facetie.

n Fa-

cezie

di Lodovico arbone errarese,

d. Abd-El-Kader alza (Livorno:

Giusti,900).

This s the

only dition;

he

MS,

according

o

Salza,

s

in

Codex H.

6

in the

Biblioteca

Communaledi

Perugia.

io8

untitledfacetie

urvive,

ome

n

fragmentary

orm,

n

thedam-

aged

MS described ySalza inhis ntroduction.his s as far s we

know the

first ernacular

ollection

ffacezie;

arbone

writes

n

tal-

ian

heavily

lavoured

withFerrarese ialect.

The collection

s,

as

he

says

himself

n

the

dedicatory pistle

o

Borso

d'Este,

una suave

mistura

i

facetie

antiche

moderne, uttogether

n

no

particular

order,

secondo

me occorrerano

lla

mente. The

ancient

okes

include 2 taken

rom iero's

De oratore

35-43,

45-6, 48-57

and

io5),

andin thededicatory pistleCarbone avishly raisesCicero

for le

sue bellissime dolcissime

iacevolezze.

The

modernjokes

ften

oncernwell-known

eople:

Popes,

bish-

ops, preachers, ante,

Cosimo

de'

Medici, Sigismondo

Malatesta,

variousmembers f

the Este

family,

ut also Carbone's

wife

Lucia

and

unnamed haracters.

arbone's xplicit urpose

s

to offer

orso

d'Este

ome

recreationrom

is

gravissimi ensieri

altissime

ogi-

tatione,

nd

his

mplicit urpose

s

undoubtedly

o

flatter

is

Prince

andpatron cf thepraise f Borso'svirtuesn94). Most of the okes

are

mildly

musing,

nd a few re

very unny.

one

is

explicitlyb-

scene, houghmany

eal

with exual

ituations. nusually,

few re

riddles

i6-i8),

and a number

ave

no

sources nown

o me.

Carbone

deserves

o be better

nown.Hisfacetie erenotprinted

in his

ifetime,

nd

their

nly

editor

epicts arbone

as a despicable



10/16

COLLECTIONS

OF

FACETIAE,

1344-1490

9

person,

ain and ambitious

whichhe may

have

been),

nd a medio-

crehumanist,

hich s unlikely.

e was a pupil

ofGuarino's,

whose

funeralration e deliveredn

1460,

a well-known umanist riter,

and obviously

rusted

y Borso. Giosue

Carducci

Dellepoesieatine

edite

inedite i Ludovico riosto, ologna,

i875,

ch.

ILL) nd

Giulio

Bertoni

La Biblioteca

stense la colturaferrarese

.

.,

Tornio,

1903)

sneer t him, but

laterwriters

ccepthim as a

humanist

f equal

standing

withJanus

Pannonius nd Galeotto

Marzio

(cf. R. Weiss,

Humanism

n

England

uring

he

ifleenth

enturyOxford:

Blackwell,

1941];

S. Prete,

Humanismus nd Humanisten

m

Fiirstenhofeer

Este in Ferrarawthrend esXV. Jahrhunderts, rcadia,

(i967),

125-13

8; and Marianna

D.

Birnbaum, anus annonius:

oet nd

Poli-

tician,Zagreb,

Jugoslavenska

Akademija

Znanosti

i

amjetnosti

i98i).

None ofthese

uthors venmentions

hefacetie;

nother

ook

by

Bertoni oes alludeto them

Guarino

a Verona

ra etteraticorti-

giani

Ferrara

1429-460)

[Geneva,

Olschki,

1921])

but only

n a

passing

remark p. 114). Cf

also L.

Paoletti n Dizionario iografico

deglitaliani,

IX (1976), art.

Carbone,Ludovico.

Relevantibliography:

Domenico

Defilippis,

Per unaedizione

ellejacetiae

i L. Carbone.

Annali ella acoltd iLettere

Filosofiaell'Universita

iBari, 9-20

(I976&77),

227-235.

6. Composition

nknown,

irst rinted

.

1470.

Anonymous,

Mensa

philosophica,

ractatus V:

De

honestis udis et

iocis. In

In hoc

Opusculotractature hisquibusutimur n mensa

.

.

Cologne,

i

Soo?

(University

f llinoisRareBook Room).

Translation:

he

Science

f

Dining

Mensa hilosophica):

Medieval reatisen

theHygienef he

Table

nd he

awsofHealth,r.Arthur

. Way London:

Macmillan,

1936).

241

unnumbered

nd untitled

rief

necdotes,

n

45

titled ut

un-

numbered

ections.

he

introductory

ections

I-4)

discuss

oking

n

general,

he

others

re subdivided

ccording

o

speakers

r

protago-

nists,mostly eligious

17

sections, rom opes toNuns) or social

(Emperors

o Armour-bearers,ews

nd

Artisans).

The

Mensa

hilosophica

s one ofthe

many

Renaissance

est-sellers

(the

BritishMuseum

Catalogue

ists

s

editions etween

480?

and

1525)

which

seem

not to

interestmodem scholars.

t was

partially

translated

nto

English

s

the

Schoolemaster

I576)

which

may

have



11/16

10

RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

influencedhakespeare,

nd

wasused

byFischart

ndby

sixteenth-

centuryoke

collectors

rom ebel

o

Johannommer

Emplastrum

Cornelianum,

6o5).

Ithasbeen

scribed

othe

hirteenth-century

s-

trologer ichael cot, oKonrad onHalberstadtfl.

320S),

and o

an otherwise

nknown

heobaldus

nguilbertus

f the

fifteenth

century;

he

most

plausible

onjecture

ay

be a

fifteenth-century

German

ominican

J.-Th.

Welter,

'exemplumans

a

itterature

eli-

gieuse

t idactique

u

Moyen

ge Paris:

uitard,

927],

p. 445).

Books

and II of

the

Mensa iscuss

wine,

meat, egetables

nd

seasonings,

nd

generaluestions

f ppetite

nddigestion.

ook

I

enumerateshe eople ne

meets

ttable, rom

mperors

oWicked

Women,

with necdotesoncerning

hem. omesection eadings

are

he

ame

s

those

n Book

V, and

everal

jokes

are old

here

too.

The oke

anthology

n

Book IV

has been

tudied

n

detail

y

Thomas

F. Dunn The

facetiae

f he

Mensa hilosophica

St.

Louis:

Washington

niversity

tudies,

9341).

Theedition

e

described

p-

pears

dentical

o

the

ne

discussed ere;

nfortunately,

is

isting

f

thejokes

ith

riefummaries

f ach

ontains

o

many

ross

rrors

intranslationhat ismonographannoteregardedsvery seful.

There

s

a sensible iscussion

fthe

Mensa

n Goswin

renken,

ie

Exempla

esJacob

on

Vitry

Munich:

eck,

9I4),

pp.

73-80,

and

few

useful

ages

n Brian

awn,

TheSalernitan

uestions:

n

ntro-

duction

o the

History

f

Medieval

ndRenaissanceroblem

iterature

(Oxford:

larendon

ress,963),

pp.

07-II.

Oneproblem

elatedo

dating

s thatwhereas

n thefirst

hree

books

ll

the uthorities

uoted

re

medical,

hePreface

nd he

n-

troductionotheFourth ookquoteMacrobius. o onehassug-

gested

what

seems

t least

plausible

olution:

hat

fifteenth-

century

ompiler

dded

he

Prefacend

Fourth

ook

to an

already

existing

ork

n three

ooks.

One

would

fter

ll

expect,

na medi-

cal

treatise,

medical

ustification

orjokes,

nd

we know hat

here

were

uch

ustifications

cf.

Glending

lson,

Literature

s Recreation

in

the

aterMiddle

ges Ithaca:

ornell

University

ress,

982]).

But he ourthookprefacelaims,ike omany enaissancenthol-

ogies,

hat

Albertusaid studioso

udusnecessarius

nd that

t.

John

dvocated

lay

orelax

he

mind

i),

that

xprobratio

rcontume-

lia

must

e avoided

nmensa

ii),

nd hat

ood okes

re

s

necessary

as

good

wine

iv).

The

okes

nthe

arly

ections

re ll

taken rom

Macrobius,

ut he

major

ource

f the

nthology

s

undoubtedly

medieval

xemplum

iterature.

y

no

means

llthe

okes

are

funny;



12/16

COLLECTIONS

OF

FACETIAE,

1344-1490

11

many

of those

about churchmen

nd

monks are

moral

or

hagio-

graphic, nd

in

sectionxxiii

(Popes)

all

are

quite serious. Of

the

comic ones

a

few

are

slightly

isque,

ut

only

one

is obscene

iii,

Dunn

92)

and tsoffensiveords re nGerman, otLatin.

This

anthologys n

fact most

unusual

malgam

f

rhetorical

nd

religious

ources, nd a nice llustration

f

the breadth

f

the

term

iocus

t

this

ime.

Alongside

ld

chestnuts

f

the

rhetoricalradition

we find

evils

empting

monks,

natches

f

history

f the

Papacy,

miracle

fthe

Virgin

Mary,

and satire n the

pluralityf

benefices.

The

collection

s

nteresting

n

all sorts f

ways,

nd deserves

mod-

em

edition.

Relevant

ibliography:

Goswin

Frenken,

Die

dlteste

chwanksammlung

es

Mittelalters

(Die

Mensa

Philosophicaines

K6lner

Dominikaners).

Jahrbuch

es

Kdlnischer

eschichtsverein,-9 (1927), 105-121.

7.

Composed

between

477

and

1488,

first

rinted

5

i4-i6.

Anony-

mous,

Motti

facezie

el

Piovano

Arlotto. ne

good

critical

dition y

Gianfrancoolena Milan:Ricciardi,

953).

Folena's

edition ontains

18

anecdotes,

aryingn ength

rom

few ines

o

eight

ages,

with

no

introduction

r

conclusion

utpre-

ceded

by

an

anonymousVita

of

the

protagonist.

rlotto

Mainardi

(1396-1484)

was

the

parish

priest f

Santo

Cresci n

the

dioceseof

Fiesole,and a

well-known

haracter

n his

lifetime

nd

longafter.

Many

stories

irculated

bout him

which

are

not n the

sixteenth-

century S

on

whichFolena

basedhis

edition.

The collections an ntriguing ixture fcomic tories, itty ep-

artees, ractical

okes,

moral

fables,wise

sayings, nd

accounts

f

Arlotto's

ustice,

compassion,nd

carita.

ometimes e behaves

ery

like he

dealised

rince

f

theDe

dictis.olena

uspectshat he

work

was

compiled

t different

imes: he

earlier

omic anecdotes

efore

Arlotto's eath

n

1484,

and the

ong

strings

f wise

sayings

t

the

end,

many

f

them aken rom

he

very opular

Vita

eifilosofi

ased

onDiogenesLaertius,much ater.A hagiographicntentionsobvi-

ous

throughout;

rlotto's

youthful

bscenities

re

excused,

nd

his

wisdom,

generosity,

ove of

the

poor

and

dislike

f

hypocrites

re

continually

tressed.

aritd

sa

keyword,

nd

towards he

nd

of

the

collection

re

a

number

f

prayers

nd

pious

sayings ending

o

por-

tray

Arlotto

s more

nd more

Christ-like.

After

oggio's,

this

s the

best-knowntalian

ollection

ffacetiae,



13/16

12

RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

and thas

had severalmodern

ditions. rlottookes

are

found

n

nos. 8 and 9 on this ist, nd n most

f thebig

sixteenth-century

compilations.hetitle uggestsdistinctionetween ottond ace-

zia which s

notmaintained

n

the ext,where he woterms

ften

appear

nterchangeable.

Relevant

ibliography:

Giorgio

etrocchi,

Un secondomanoscritto

ellefacezie

el iovano

Arlotto.

tudi i

Filologia

taliana,

2

(i964), 623-33.

8.

c. 1480? Anonymous,

el libretto

r

Detti

piacevoli.

Two modem

editions:Angelo olizianosTagebuch

I4771479)

mit

00

Schwdnken

und

chnurren

us

den

Tagen orenzos

es

Grossmachtigen

nd

einer or-

fahren,

d. Albert

Wesselski, ena,Diederichs, 929;

and

Angelo

Po-

liziano,Dettipiacevoli,

d. Tiziano

Zanato

Rome:

stituto

ellaEnci-

clopedia

taliana,983).

A

compilation

f

over

400

(Wesselski

13,

Zanato

423)

very

brief

anecdotes,

maxims

nd

proverbs

n

talian,many

f

which efer

pe-

cifically

o

the Medici

family

nd

their ssociates r to

other

well-

known

atefifteenth-centuryersonalities.

he

original

manuscript

has

disappeared,

nd themodern ditors

ake heir exts rom

hefirst

section

f Lodovico

Domenichi's

Facetie

t

motti

rguti

i alcuni

ccel-

lentissimi

ngegni,

t

nobilissimiignoriFirenze:

orrentino,

548).

Do-

menichi

tates

n

his

preface

o this dition hat

he first ection

s

based

on

a

manuscript iven

to him

by

a

friend,

lo

Stradino. The

matters further

omplicated y the

xistence f two

closely

elated

manuscripts,heone published y Papanti no. 9 below)andanun-

published

ne analysed y Messina. Theremaywell be other uch

manuscripts

o be discovered.

Wesselski

nd

Zanato

state heir

ase for

ttributing

his

ollection

to Poliziano

o positively hat t s now

generally ccepted. prefer

the

minorityiew of

Di

Francia nd

Messina that

he

attributions

notproven, nd can

see no solid

evidence hat his ext s a diary

or

day-to-day hronicle, y

one

person,of

events

relevant o

the

Medici nthe ate

470S.

Certainlymany necdotes anbe precisely

dated

n

these

years some

of

them

how

well-known igures

ike

Donatello

and Ficino

n an

unexpected

ight),but manyothers

re

undatable.

ome

have

obvious

ources

n

the xempla radition,

th-

ers nvolve

nonymous

haracters

nd

ncidents

rjokes which ould

belong

to

any period,

and a

sizable number

oncern

he Piovano



14/16

COLLECTIONS OF

FACETIAE,

1344-1490

13

Arlotto,

whose motti ere

n

oral

circulation efore

hey

werewrit-

ten down. There

are

many

proverbs

nd

maxims,

ome attributed

andsomenot, nd seeno reason opostulate single uthor r com-

piler.

Relevant

ibliography:

Letterio i

Francia, eview f Wesselski's

dition,

n

Giornale

torico

della

etteraturataliana,

0I

(I933),

I

3 I-38.

MicheleMessina. Una

raccolta

i

curiosita

etteraria,el tempodi

Lorenzo

l

Magnifico:

l

codice

B.7.2889

del

fondoConventi Ba-

dia

Fiorentina)

ella BibliotecaNazionale Centraledi

Firenze.

Aevum,

5

(I95i),

68-78.

Gianfrancescoolena. Sulla

tradizione

ei

Dettipiacevolittribuiti

l

Poliziano. Studi

di

filologia

taliana

Bollettinoell'Accademiaella

Crusca),

I

(I953),

43I-448.

Gianfrancesco olena.

Umori

del

Poliziano

nei

Dettipiacevoli.

L'Approdo, 3

(I954)9

24-30.

TizianoZanato. Per l testo

ei Detti

iacevoli

i

AngeloPoliziano.

Filologia critica,

(I98I), 50-98.

Tiziano Zanato. Sull'attribuzione e la

cronologia dei Detti

piacevoli. Cultura

neolatina, 3 (I983),

79-Io2.

9.

c. I480-c. I

520? Anonymous, Facezie e motti

ei secoliXV e XVI,

codice

nedito

agliabechiano,

ed. G. Papanti]

Bologna: Romagnoli,

1874;

rpt. Bologna,

Commissione per i testidi lingua,

I968).

As

mentioned

bove under o. 8, this

manuscriptollection f280

facezieMagl. i96 cl. VI) containsmanywhich re also in theBel li-

bretto.he

codex, given

ts

bove title

y the

ditor, s a compilation

by

differentands

Ricci aysthree),

nd

Papanti

hought

he

uthor

was

probably

the

Niccolo Angeli dal Buicine

(I448-c. I532) men-

tioned

n

nos.

269

and

270,

and whose

on Teodoro

s

the

protagonist

of

nos.

27I-3

and

275-9.

Ricci

doubts

this,

and thinks

t

more

likely

that

Niccolo

was one

of

the

owners

of thecodex

and the

copyist

f

nos. 264-70,

while Teodoro

wrote down

nos.

27I-280.

Wesselski

asserted hat he ompilerwas influencedytheBel ibretto,hileDi

Francia

hought

he

nfluence ent

theother

way.

These

questions

obviously

cannot

be settled

xceptby

detailed

xamination

f

the

texts

oncerned.

When

Faceziee motti ses the ame material s theBel librettot

s

often

n an

expanded

ersion,

o that he necdote

ains

n

clarity

ut



15/16

14

RENAISSANCE

QUARTERLY

loses

in

pithiness

nd

comic

force.

The collection

ncludes

most

of

the bscene

tories

f

the

Bel ibretto

nd adds

several

more, ncluding

fourmottiyTeodoro.Ofthehistoricalnecdoteshemajorityelate

to Florence

n

the

years

440-I480,

but

Ricci

uggests

hat he

uthor

also knew

the

Aragonese

ourt,

nd

Genoa.

Relevant

ibliography:

Wesselski's nd

Zanato's introductionso their

ditions

f no.

8

above,

the rticles here

isted,

nd:

PierGiorgio

Ricci. Una falsa

ttribuzione.

inascimento,

(I956),

355-62.

I0. I486. Augustini

Tiinger rocuratorisuriae Constantiensis

b

Eberhardum

ucem

acetiae

atinae

t

germanicae.

486. Apophthegmata

LIV.

Ed. Adelbert on

Keller,Tiibingen,

874 (Bibliothek

es Lit-

terarischenereins

n

Stuttgart,

I

8).

The first

ilingual ollection;

4

untitled

pophthegmata,ctually

exemplum-type

necdotes

ccompanied

y engthymoralisations,

n

Latin and

German

(the

dialect

f Southern

wabia). Nothing

s

knownof

Tiinger b.

I455) except

hefewdetails f

his

careerwhich

he

gives

us

in

the

facetiae,

which

remained

npublished

ntil

the

above

edition.

Today

he is known n

Germany

s

the

first azetien-

dichter,

nd sometimesncluded

njokeanthologies.

The

manuscript

s

dedicated

o Count

Eberhard f

Wiirttemberg.

Most of the

fulsome

edicatorypistle

onsists f

hyperbolic

lattery

of

the

Count,

but

Tiinger

does decline o

apologise

for

his

facetiae

sincebothaccomplishedrators ndgreat enerals ondescendedo

joke.

Some

of

the

tories re well

known

n

the

exemplum

radition,

many re bout

realpeopleand places n

fifteenth-centuryermany,

and several

re

autobiographical. uinger'smoral

comments ften

seem

poorly

dapted

to

the

anecdotes hey

ccompany.The main

themes

re

corrupt

nd

hypocriticalhurchmen, ain

and greedy

teachers

nd ascivious

women.

Relevant

ibliography:one.

II.

c.

I490-I504?

Leonardo

da Vinci,

Facezie. n TheLiteraryWorks

ofLeonardo

a

Vinci, d. Jean

Paul RichterOxford:

OxfordUniver-

sity ress,

939),

II,

87-9I;

in

Leonardo

da Vinci,

Frammentietterari

efilosofici,

d.

Edmondo

Solmi (rpt. d.

P. Marani,Florence:Bar-

bera, 979),

pp.

282-87; and n Carlo

Pedretti, he

LiteraryWorksf



16/16

COLLECTIONS OF

FACETIAE,

1344-1490 15

Leonardo a Vinci:

A

Commentary

oJean

Paul Richter's

dition

Ox-

ford:

haidon, 977),

2

vols., I,

pp. 273

and

275-6

(two

ofthese lso

inSperoni, elow).

A small number f okes

(Richter

as

I7,

Solmi

I9)

is

scattered

through eonardo'snotebooks. ometimes

e calls

hemrfacetiarfa-

cietia, ut sometimes e does not categorize hem,

nd

they

re then

not easy

to

distinguish

rom

hefables f

which

he

was so fond.Pe-

dretti dentifies

everal

okes

whichearlier ditors

ad not

known,

and there

may

well be

others.

They

were

not

of course

published

t

the

ime,

butPedretti

below)

thinks hat

y

the ixteenth

entury

t

least one readerof the Codex Atlanticuswas already hinkingn

terms f a

compilation.

Most of thefacezierefables r amusing necdotes, uttwo show

an

unexpected

lassical nfluence.

hejoke

aboutthe

good painter's

ugly children Richter , Solmi

5)

derivesfromMacrobius, but

Leonardocould have seen t n several ifteenth-centuryollections.

The anecdote bouttheman tied o a swordmuch oo big forhim

(Richter ,

Solmi

io)

is

ncomprehensiblexcept

o

thosewho know

that t was

one of thefamousokes attributedo Cicero. There s of

courseno meansof knowinghow many uch okes werecirculating

orally

n

the ate

fifteenthentury.

Relevant

ibliography:

Carlo

Pedretti,

The

Signatures

nd

OriginalFoliation f Leonardo

Da Vinci'sLibro . JWCI,

3 (i968),

I97-2I7. Charles peroni,

Two

Unpublished ales ofLeonardo. talian uarterly,2 (Fall,

i968), 33-38.

UNIVERSITY

OF

ILLINOIS,

URBANA

Documents

Renaissance Collections of facetiae, 1344-1490: A New Listing