Publishing in Laurentian Florence : Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini’s Edition of Poggio’s Historiae Florentini populi

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details. Author(s): Title: Year: Version: Copyright: Rights: Rights url: Please cite the original version: CC BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Publishing in Laurentian Florence : Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini’s Edition of Poggio’s Historiae Florentini populi © 2023 Brepols Published version Merisalo, Outi Merisalo, O. (2023). Publishing in Laurentian Florence : Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini’s Edition of Poggio’s Historiae Florentini populi. In S. Niskanen (Ed.), The Art of Publication from the Ninth to the Sixteenth Century (pp. 331-346). Brepols. Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia, 93. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.IPM-EB.5.133088 2023 Publishing in Laurentian Florence Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini’s Edition of Poggio’s Historiae Florentini populi* Outi Merisalo (Jyväskylä) Poggio Bracciolini’s eldest son, Jacopo (1442–1478), was not only an author in Latin and the vernacular but also an accomplished scribe. Probably his most important project was the Latin edition (1472) and vernacular translation (1476) of his father’s last, incomplete work, Historiae Florentini populi, an alternative history of Florence. This article will examine the publication in manuscript and print of the Latin and Italian texts. Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), apostolic secretary from 1403 until 1418 and again from 1423 until 1453, is known not only for his role, from the late 1390s onwards, in developing the humanistic book script, littera antiqua, and the sensational, well-publicized manuscript discoveries during the Council of Constance between 1414 and 1418, but also for his extensive literary output comprising letters, moral dialogues such as De avaritia (1429) and works in dialogue form pertaining to contemporary history, such as De varietate fortunae (1447–1448), as well as a collection of novellas, Facetiae (1452). Furthermore, he made some translations from Greek (Diodorus Siculus as well as Xenophon’s Cyro- * Part of the research for this article was carried out thanks to the Academy of Finland and University of Jyväskylä project Lamemoli no. 307635 (2017–2022). I have the pleasure of thanking David Speranzi (Florence), Ada Labriola (Florence), Iolanda Ventura (Bologna) and Susanna Niiranen (Jyväskylä/Lamemoli) for kind help in providing access to indispensable materials both manuscript and printed. The Art of Publication from the Ninth to the Sixteenth Century, ed. by Samu Niskanen with the assistance of Valentina Rovere, IPM, 93 (Turnhout, 2023), pp. 331–346. © DOI 10.1484/M.IPM-EB.5.133088     This is an open access chapter distributed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International License. outi merisalo332 paedia).1 From early on a staunch Medicean, his career seemed to have been crowned by his appointment to the chancellorship of the Republic of Florence in 1453 at the age of 73. In 1456, however, the chancery was in such a state of chaos that Poggio was sidelined, embittering him greatly towards the Medici regime.2 Poggio’s correspondence indicates that he was working on a lengthy text in the last years of his life.3 In 1458 he wrote to his friend Domenico Capranica: Sed cum multa recenseantur, a quibus proficisci potuerit scribendi tarditas, una omissa res est, que precipua me occupatum tenuit diutius in scribendo, ut cum finis iam adesset, cupidus ac studiosus incubui ad absolvendum inceptum opus, quod, tanquam in tela accidit, tantummodo sum orsus. Textura adhuc caret; sed ea brevi, ut spero, perficietur. Sepius enim repetere iubemur que scribimus antequam edantur, ne qua detur detractoribus obloquendi occasio. Hec causa extitit que me ab reliquis distraheret curis.4 1 The classic biography is E. Walser, Poggius Florentinus: Leben und Werke, Leipzig, 1914. On his role in developing the new script, see now T. De Robertis, “Humanistic script: origins”, in The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography, ed. by F. T. Coulson, R. G. Babcock, Oxford, 2020, pp. 511– 25. For the letters, see P. Bracciolini, Lettere, ed. by H. Harth, 3 vols, Florence, 1984–1987; for the literary works mentioned, see P. Bracciolini, Dialogus contra avaritiam, ed. by G. Germano, Livorno, 1994; Id., De varietate fortunae, ed. by O. Merisalo, Helsinki, 1993 (Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, B 265); and Id., Facéties: Confabulationes, ed. and transl. by S. Pittaluga, É. Wolff, Paris, 2005. There is no modern edition of the Diodorus Siculus translation, see C. Sideri, Per la fortuna di Diodoro Siculo fra XV e XVI secolo: la traduzione latina di Poggio Bracciolini e i primi volgarizzamenti, con un saggio di edizione critica dei testi volgari, unpublished PhD diss., Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice, 2020, pp. 41–42, accessible at <http://dspace.unive.it/handle/10579/17835?show = full>, 29 November 2022. The Cyropaedia translation has not been printed. 2 For Poggio and the Medici, see O. Merisalo, “The Historiae Florentini populi by Poggio Bracciolini. Genesis and fortune of an alternative History of Florence”, in Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity. Textual and Material Traditions: Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8–9, 2016, ed. by R. Ricci with assistance from E. L. Pumroy, Florence, 2020, pp. 25–40, at 25, with bibliography, n. 1. 3 See Bracciolini, Lettere, ed. Harth. 4 “But while many things may be listed as having delayed my writing, one thing has been left unsaid. It has too long kept me particularly busy, as, the end approaching, I willingly and industriously set out to finish the work that I had begun and for which, as happens when weaving a web, I had 333publishing in laurentian florence The only extensive text that seems to come into question here is Poggio’s history of Florence, Historiae Florentini populi, which was published posthumously by his son Jacopo Bracciolini. The official, state-sponsored history of the city from Antiquity to the fifteenth century, also entitled Historiae Florentini populi, had been written by Poggio’s friend Leonardo Bruni (1370–1444) between 1415 and 1442.5 As indicated by the title Historiae, Poggio’s work, while touching in brief upon Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, concentrates on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, from the wars against Archbishop Giovanni Visconti of Milan (c. 1290–1354) to the peace of Lodi (1454). It is not a straightforward continuation of Bruni’s work but rather an alternative history of Florence.6 Jacopo di Poggio: Life and Works The short life of Poggio’s eldest son, Jacopo di Poggio, was heavily marked by his Republican convictions, a love-hate relationship with the Medici regime, and activity to promote his father’s literary legacy. Exiled in 1466 for anti-Medicean activities, he was allowed to return to Florence on paying a fine of 2,000 florins. In the late 1460s and early 1470s he was definitely mixing in the highest echelons of Florentine society.7 By 1477, however, only put the threads in place. It is still lacking a well-defined structure, but I hope to complete it soon. Of course, we are told to revise our text several times before publication in order not to expose ourselves to slanderers. This reason has kept me from attending to other business.” Letter to Domenico Capranica, ep. fam. 9.45.7–15; Bracciolini, Lettere, ed. Harth, vol. 3, p. 507. For an analysis of this passage, see Merisalo, “Genesis and fortune”, p. 26. 5 See L. Bruni, Historiae Florentini populi, ed. and transl. by J. Hankins, History of the Florentine People, 3 vols, Cambridge, MA, 2001–2007 (The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 3). 6 For Poggio’s friendship with, and somewhat complex attitude to, Bruni, see A. Field, The Intellectual Struggle for Florence: Humanists and the Beginnings of the Medici Regime, 1420–1440, Oxford, 2017, p. 293. 7 A. de la Mare, “New research on humanistic scribes in Florence”, in Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento 1449–1525, Un primo censimento, 2 vols, ed. by A. Garzelli, Florence, 1985, vol. 1, pp. 395–574, at 448 (Inventari e cataloghi toscani, 18), identified him as Lorenzo’s Secretary A, active between 1469 and 1471. Another possible identification of Secretary A is, however, with ser Luigi di Andrea Lotti of Barberino, Lorenzo’s first chancellor, see V. Arrighi, “3.15 Le origini della cancelleria medicea: Luigi Lotti”, Consor- outi merisalo334 a progressive estrangement from the Medici, no doubt due to his political views, led him to approach Lorenzo’s political enemies. In that year, he entered the service of Cardinal Raffaele Riario (1461–1521), great-nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. One of the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy against Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano on 26 April 1478, Jacopo was among the first to be hanged at the Bargello.8 In addition to his scribal activities, Jacopo wrote some original texts in Latin, such as the dialogue Contra detractores, dedicated to Lorenzo, probably at the end of the 1460s, and a Life — of which only the volgarizzamento by Battista Fortini has been preserved — of the condottiero Pippo Spano, a friend of Poggio’s.9 Jacopo’s edition of Poggio’s Historiae Florentini populi was the most important of his Latin-language works.10 Imitating Petrarch and Bruni, who had translated novellas from Boccaccio’s Decameron into Latin, Jacopo also made a Latin version of the novella of Quintius Fulvius and Gisippus (Decameron X 8). On the other hand, Jacopo also specialized in translations from Latin to Tuscan. Texts included Lives of the Scriptores historiae terie politiche e mutamenti istituzionali in età laurenziana. Catalogo della mostra, ed. by M. A. Morelli Timpanaro, R. Manno Tolu, P. Viti, Florence, 1992, pp. 98–100. I have the pleasure of thanking David Speranzi of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence for providing copies of this article; also see D. Speranzi, “Palatino Baldovinetti 62”, in I manoscritti datati della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, III: Fondi Banco Rari, Landau Finaly, Landau Muzzioli, Nuove Accessioni, Palatino Capponi, Palatino Panciatichiano, Tordi, ed. by S. Pelle, A. M. Russo, D. Speranzi, S. Zamponi, Florence, 2011, p. 100 (Manoscritti datati d’Italia, 21). 8 For Jacopo’s biography, see O. Merisalo, “Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini, traducteur des Historiae Florentini populi du Pogge”, in Passages. Déplacements des hommes, circulation des textes et identités dans l’Occident médiéval, ed. by J. Ducos, P. Henriet, Toulouse, 2013 (Études médiévales ibériques. Méridiennes), pp. 57–64, and O. Merisalo, “Il concetto di libertas individuale da Jacopo di Poggio Bracciolini”, Studi umanistici piceni, 33 (2013), pp. 131–36, with bibliography. 9 See ibid., p. 131 and n. 5, with bibliography. The dedication copy of the dialogue is BML, 46.2 (fols 71–92). 10 This is the title transmitted by both the dedication copy to Frederick, BAV, Urb. lat. 491, and BNM, Lat. Z. 392 (= 1684). The Urbino manuscript once gives the variant “Iacobi Poggii Florentini in historias Florentinas Poggii patris. prohemium” (fol. 1r). 335publishing in laurentian florence Augustae as well as Poggio’s Latin translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, dedicated to Ferdinand I of Aragon, king of Naples, a connection inherited from Poggio and, again, no friend to the Medici. An even more important project was the volgarizzamento of his own edition of Poggio’s History of Florence. In 1469–1471, Jacopo dedicated to Lorenzo a commentary on the chapter Nel cor pien d’amarissima dolcezza (TF Ia) of the first redaction of Petrarch’s Trionfo della fama.11 Editing the Historiae Florentini populi : Jacopo’s Edition of Poggio’s Text Judging by the preface to the dedicatee, Frederick of Montefeltro, duke of Urbino (1422–1482), another highly placed contact inherited from Poggio, Jacopo had finished his edition of Poggio’s unfinished History in eight books by 1472.12 Furthermore, Jacopo gives important information on the genesis of Poggio’s treatise and his own role in editing the text: Poggius enim ingrauescente etate tamquam emeritis stipendiis, cum Roma, ubi magna cum laude uixerat, uenia a Pontifice impetrata in patriam reuertisset, ut memorie tante urbis consuleret, 11 Merisalo, “Il concetto di libertas”, p. 132, with bibliography. The commentary circulated in both manuscript (e.g. BML, Ashburnham 965) and print: GW M34531 (“Poggius, Jacobus: Sopra il trionfo della fama di Francesco Petrarca, ital. [Rom: Apud S. Marcum (Vitus Puecher), vor 15.X.1476]”, ISTC ip00851000; and GW M34528 (“Poggius, Jacobus: Sopra il trionfo della fama di Francesco Petrarca. Florenz: Francesco Bonaccorsi für Alexandro di Francesco Varrochi, 24.I.1485”), ISTC ip00852000. 12 In the preface, Frederick’s successful siege of Volterra in 1472 is referred to: “Cumque hoc anno tua uirtute Volaterrani, antiquissima Etrurie ciuitas, montis asperitate et loci natura freti imperio nostro rebelles sub iugum uenerint”, here quoted according to BNM, Lat. Z. 392 (= 1684), fol. 4r. (“And since this year, thanks to your valour, the Volterrans, a most ancient people of Etruria, who, trusting to the difficult mountain ground and the very nature of the site, had rebelled against us, were subjected to our power.”)Frederick’s letter of thanks has been preserved in BAV, Urb. lat. 1198 fol. 81r–v; Frederick refers to Jacopo as amicus suus; cf. also Jacopo’s 1472 letter of presentation to Frederick added to his brother Battista’s Life of Condottiero Niccolò Piccinini in BAV, Urb. lat. 916, fol. 58v: “Non nouus venio in amicitiam. sed paternam resumo. quae tibi egregia cum Poggio fuit”. (“I am not establishing a new friendship [with you] but taking over my father’s friendship — yours with Poggio was excellent.”). outi merisalo336 inter priuata publicaque negocia commentaria rerum Florentinarum, a primo bello cum Iohanne Mediolanensi Archiepiscopo usque ad pacem cum Alfonso per Nicolaum pontificem factam, morte preuentus reliquit. Mihi uero, ut primum per etatem licuit, ne nostre rei publice plurimorumque clarorum uirorum memoria deperiret, nihil fuit potius quam omnia in octo digesta libros summa cum diligentia in unum corpus redigere ac legenda posteris tradere.13 (Emphasis mine.) Jacopo’s contribution is even more important according to his own translation of the preface: come prima et per l’eta et per molte occupationi m’e stato licito, achioche la memoria della cicta nostra et le opere di molti prestantissimi huomini per Ytalia non manchassi, a nessuna altra cosa o piu dato opera che a ridurla insieme, et diuisola con somma diligentia in octo libri, mandarla in luce et farne copia a ciascuno desideroso d’intendere.14 (Emphasis mine.) While the Latin text is somewhat vague as to the origin of the division of the text into eight books, the vernacular text attributes it to Jacopo. Interestingly enough, the vernacular version also explicitly refers to a very concrete operation of publishing (mandarla in luce) and distributing the text to those wishing to understand the subject (farne copia a ciascuno desideroso d’intendere). Considering the existence of Bruni’s Historiae, the official state-sponsored history of Florence, it is safe to assume that 13 “Poggio, getting on in years, retiring, as it were, from business, was given leave by the Pope to return from Rome to his native country. In order to enhance the memory of such an eminent city he wrote the first draft of a history of Florence from the first war with John, archbishop of Milan, until the peace made with Alfonso through the mediation of Pope Nicholas. He left this work incomplete at his death. My main occupation, as soon as my age would permit it, has been to preserve the memory of our state and the memory of many famous men. Thus, I have built up a text out of one divided into eight books and handed it over to posterity to read.” BNM, Lat. Z. 392 (= 1684), fol. 3v. For a detailed analysis of this passage, see Merisalo, “Genesis and fortune”, pp. 30–31. 14 “as soon as [my] age and many occupations would permit me, in order to preserve the memory of our city and the deeds of many excellent men in Italy, I have concentrated on making a continuous narrative of [the text], and after having divided it into eight books with the greatest care, publishing it and giving a copy of it to whomever would wish to be informed”; BNCF, Palatino Baldovinetti 62, fol. 2v. 337publishing in laurentian florence Poggio-Jacopo’s treatise aims at presenting a fresh view on the latest period of the glorious and tormented history of the citystate. The public targeted will consist not only of Florentine readers but all those interested in expanding their knowledge of the subject. That Jacopo carried out a thorough revision of Poggio’s text, at least part of which might have remained at a very sketchy stage at the author’s death, has been demonstrated elsewhere.15 Jacopo’s edition has been preserved in four manuscripts, of which two, BAV, Urb. lat. 491, and BNM, Lat. Z. 392 (= 1684) were written in the fifteenth century, and two others, BML, Plut. 65.40, and Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, V. G. 34, are from the sixteenth. Jacopo’s volgarizzamento, variously entitled Historie fiorentine/Istoria fiorentina circulated in both manuscript and print in the fifteenth century. In addition, there is a very interesting fifteenth-century fragment with the first four of the books, BNCF, Palatino Capponiano 64 (see below, p. 339).16 Publishing the Historiae Florentini populi in Latin a. Vespasiano da Bisticci The celebrated publisher of luxury manuscripts, Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421–1498), author of Vite of important personalities encountered during his long professional life between 1440 and 1480, was responsible for the dedication copy of Jacopo’s edition that was presented to Frederick of Montefeltro, Vat. Urb. lat. 491.17 It was 15 For a detailed analysis, see O. Merisalo, “Terranovam natale meum solum. Remarks on the textual history of Poggio Bracciolini’s Historiae Florentini populi”, Renaessanceforum, 3 (2007), < https://www.njrs.dk/3_2007/10_ merisalo.pdf > (accessed 29 November 2022), and, more concisely, Merisalo, “Genesis and fortune”, pp. 32–34. 16 For a detailed analysis of this manuscript, see ibid., pp. 33–34. 17 For a detailed description of this manuscript, see La biblioteca di un principe ‘umanista’. Federico da Montefeltro e i suoi manoscritti, ed. by M. G. Critelli,<https://spotlight.vatlib.it/it/humanist-library/catalog/Urb_ lat_491> (accessed 29 November 2022), as well as A. Labriola, “7. Poggio Bracciolini, Historia Florentina [sic]. Libri I–VIII”, in Federico Da Montefeltro and His Library, ed. by M. Simonetta, J. J. G. Alexander, C. Martelli, Milan, 2007, pp. 152–61. Frederick’s arms on fol. ivv, just as the emblem “F(redericus) C(omes)” on fol. 1r, date the manuscript to the time before outi merisalo338 written by Gundissalvus Fernandez de Heredia († 1511), apostolic protonotary, bishop of Barcelona (1478) and Tarragona (1490), who worked for Vespasiano da Bisticci between 1469 and 1482 producing volumes for Frederick of Montefeltro, Lorenzo and Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, Alfonso di Ferdinando, duke of Calabria, as well as Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. The sumptuous programme of illumination and decoration was carried out by, among others, Pietro del Massaio, Francesco Rosselli, and the Master of the Hamilton Xenophon, active from 1460 until 1480, who was a member of the workshop of Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico until 1478.18 Even the second fifteenth-century manuscript, now BNM, Lat. Z. 392 (= 1684), is probably connected to Vespasiano’s enterprise. This luxury manuscript on parchment was possibly decorated by Mariano del Buono and workshop, employed by Vespasiano between 1470 and 1480.19 The script is an upright littera antiqua; the arms on fol. 1r have yet to be identified (Pl. 5). The text conforms to that of Frederick’s dedication copy. The manuscript was acquired by 1715 by G. B. Recanati (1687–1734), who used it for the first printed edition of the Latin text in that year.20 b. The Informal Circuit: Copying as an Exercise? The publication history of Poggio-Jacopo’s Historiae in manuscript ends with the Venice volume. There is, however, some dissemination of the Latin text in the sixteenth century. A volume, now BML, Plut. 65.40, on paper datable to the early years of the century, shows a series of more and less inexperienced hands seemAugust 1474 when he was created Duke of Urbino. Thanks to Ada Labriola for kindly providing a copy of her article (October 2020). 18 La biblioteca di un principe ‘umanista’, ed. by Critelli. 19 Merisalo, “Genesis and fortune”, p. 31, with bibliography. 20 For this learned patrician, friend of Apostolo Zeno, among others, who bequeathed his important manuscript library to the Marciana in 1734 and edited the Latin version of Poggio-Jacopo’s Historiae Florentini populi in 1715, see Merisalo, “Genesis and fortune”, p. 31, with bibliography, and pp. 36–37, as well as Archivio dei possessori, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, < https://archiviopossessori.it/archivio/1130-recanati-giambattista >, (accessed 29 November 2022). 345publishing in laurentian florence but also in London and Bruges, the likely targets being the large Florentine merchant communities in those places. Florence itself was rightly expected to provide a good market for both prints.44 The Strozzi continued to sell the volgarizzamenti even beyond the death of Girolamo di Carlo in 1481/2, at least until 1483, though at a discount. It is not known when the 1476 run went out of print.45 Of Jacopo’s translation, more than 150 copies still survive in public holdings.46 Conclusion The publishing history of Poggio’s last work, the Historiae Florentini populi is interesting from a number of points of view. Reflecting Poggio’s conflict with the Medici regime in the last few years of his life from 1456 until 1459, he set out to compose a non-official history of Florence that could be seen as a counterpart to Bruni’s official, state-sponsored Historiae Florentini populi. Poggio did not complete his text, which was heavily edited and brought to conclusion by his son Jacopo, whose short life was marked by his Republican ideals that put him on a collision course with the Medici regime. Poggio-Jacopo’s Historiae, dedicated to Poggio’s friend Frederick of Montefeltro, count and later duke of Urbino, who was to be one of the backers of the Pazzi conspiracy of 1478, reflect Jacopo’s political stance as regards both content and publishing history. A few Florentine luxury volumes, of which at least the dedication copy to Frederick, now BAV, Urb. lat. 491, was produced by Vespasiano da Bisticci’s publishing house, catering for princes and kings, under the close supervision of Jacopo himself, represent the short-lived upscale circulation, or commercial circulation tout court, of the Latin work in the fifteenth century. The Poggio-Jacopo Latin text is only transmitted in the sixteenth century in two paper manuscripts written by a series of more and less inexperienced hands which suggest that the copies were made as writing exercises. Poggio’s incomplete text is transmitted as a draft in a paper manuscript from c. 1500. The Latin text was 44 Edler de Roover, “Per la storia”, pp. 112–13. 45 Ibid., p. 113. 46 ISTC, <https://data.cerl.org/istc/ip00873000> (accessed 29 November 2022). outi merisalo346 first printed in 1715 by G. B. Recanati, whose work began a true Poggio renaissance, leading to the publication of other important treatises such as De varietate fortunae (1723). Jacopo’s publishing project was not limited to the Latin text but also covered the dissemination of the work in his own vernacular translation. Jacopo again closely supervised one of the luxury manuscripts, now BNCF, Palatino Baldovinetti 62, and seems to have entertained the possibility of dedicating the translation not to Frederick but to the Signoria of Florence, thus conferring it a new municipal status vieing with that of the state-sponsored Bruni text. In the end, Frederick was not dislodged from the position of dedicatee. Jacopo was also in close contact with the international Florentine merchant Girolamo di Carlo Strozzi, a member of a dynasty with a long history of conflict with the Medici, who decided to print both Donato Acciaiuoli’s vernacular translation of Bruni’s Historiae Florentini populi and Jacopo’s volgarizzamento of his own edition, Istoria fiorentina, in Venice in 1476. The two histories were also quite often sold together, which no doubt contributed to diminishing their differences in public perception and probably conferred some aura of officiality to Poggio-Jacopo’s text, ensuring its success well beyond Jacopo’s political disgrace in 1478.