• Italian Miscellany, 1440-1458

Extent:
  • 1 v. 21.1 x 14.5 cm (119 folios)
Date:
  • 1440-1458
Language:
Author:
  • Da Livorno, Jacopo (GIACOMO) Di Nanni
Abstract:
  • Manuscript copy of a work by neo-Platonic philosopher, Marsilio Ficino, along with the only known copy of an anthology of letters by the humanist teacher, Jacopo di Nanni da Livorno.
Description:
  • (1) fol. i recto: Calendrical notes, beginning "Hic est terminus in Venetiam...," followed by entries numbered from 1 to 19. Verso blank.
  • (2) fols. 1r-3r: “Sanctissimo in Christo patri et Domino... [fol. 3r] de malatestis habendo tanquam fratri carissimo.” Fol. 3v is blank. Examples of formal addresses for letters to various public and familiar people, roughly sorted by rank, beginning with the pope, cardinals, archbishops, abbots, and others, followed by rulers (the emperor or king, dukes and barons, military leaders, and nobles), professions follow, then family, friends (including Ad mulierum pulcherrimam), and more distant relatives; finally, bureaucrats, including the final address for an influential rector or clerk. Important figures, all active in the 1440s or shortly before, are used as examples, such as Bartolomeo Zabarella, Archbishop of Florence (r. 1439-45), Emperor Frederic III (r. 1440-93), and Sigismundo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-68).
  • (3) fols. 4r-107r: “Vergognia sarebbe adere signori senatori e insufficiente lufficio della lingua ... civitates qua re remota omnis mos sanctus in nihilum redigi necesse est Vale” Giacomo [Iacopo} di Nanni da Livorno (fl. ca. 1428-76), a priest and teacher (see Provenance), compiled this unedited autograph epistolary anthology, containing nearly 400 Latin and Italian letters, either fictitious or abridged from authentic correspondence, for use in teaching good epistolary etiquette and style, with marginal additions, corrections, and topical headings in the author's hand. Alfonso V of Aragon's first military expedition into Tuscany in 1447-1448 is recorded (fol. 23v), and Francesco Sforza is addressed as “conte” (fol. 58v), apparently before his elevation to Duke of Milan in March 1450. Several locations near Livorno, Tuscany, are mentioned: Pisa on fols. 20 rand 87r; Volterra on fols. 27r, 45v, and 74r; and Bibbona on fol. 65v. Jacopo himself may be addressed on fol. 72r. Many entries, however, follow a more general narrative without a known addressee: they begin with an expression of affection, mention prior meetings, and discuss other letters sent, received, or anticipated from the reader. Adding to its value as a teaching tool, there are multiple letters in duplicate, first in Italian, followed in Latin, to serve as linguistic comparisons; for example: fols. 27v-28r, letters describing Mark Anthony; fols. 38-39, letters purportedly from Cicero to Caesar; fols. 43v-44, letters mentioning Piero della Francesca; fol. 97rv, letters featuring Boccaccio. Information about Jacopo di Nanni da Livorno is fragmentary.
  • (4) fol. 107v, Temporibus Octaviani cesaris cum exuniverses mundi partibus illi quod preaherant provinciis scriberent senatoribus ... herodis regis scripxit senatoribus sic de christo jesu, incipit, “Apparuit temporibus istis et adhuc est homo magnae virtutis ... in colloquio gravis rarus et modestus inter fiolios [sic] hominum. Valete." Pseudo-Lentulus, Letter of Lentulus. This is an apocryphal letter attributed to Publius Lentulus, a fictional Prefect in Judea, who supposedly preceded Pontius Pilate. It is addressed to the Roman senate during the reign of Tiberius, which describes Jesus's appearance. The rubric here, however, attributes it to the reign of Octavius. Ernst von Dobschütz's 1899 study identifies over 75 manuscripts produced in Germany, France, and Italy that include this letter, all dating from the fifteenth century. The rubric in this manuscript places it within Dobschütz's C recension (pp. 308, 319).
  • (5) fols. 108r-113r, Invectiva Marsilii Figlinensis ad suum Ghuardavillam Volteranum, incipit, “Cogis me tetrum ac detestandum non hominum dico sed infimum belluarum genus ... [fol. 113] ut inquit ille irisci [sic] poterit in quod ante dese confiteri voluerit finis,” Explicit invectiva [Marsillii: expunged] Figlinensis in inferos Pedagogos ad suum [Ghuardavillam: expunged] [Volteranum: expunged] Ego sum Testis; [fol. 113v blank]; Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Invectiva Marsilii Fighinensis ad suum Ghuardavillam Volaterranum. Text published from the present manuscript: Emilio Cristiani, ed., "Una inedita invettiva giovanile di Marsilio Ficino," in Rinascimento, 17 (1966), pp. pp. 214-22. This is the only extant manuscript copy of a youthful work by the neo-Platonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino. This tract, however, was written between 1451 and 1454 when he was still a young scholar working as a tutor (ripetitore) for the family of Piero di Messer Andrea de'Pazzi, a wealthy Florentine and friend of the Medici (Cristiani, pp. 212-13). It was written at the request of a member of Guardavilla family of Volterra, an influential family with connections to the Medici, Biagio di Michele di Neri (Cristiani, p. 212, n. 3). Cristiani used this manuscript for his edition, the first and only of this text, in 1966.
  • (6) fols. 114r-119v, Calendar, January-December. Rubrics at the top of each folio provide the number of days, hours, and moon cycles, followed by standard calendrical tables including the moon's position, dominical letters, and the nones, ides, or calends; astrological position of the sun is also noted for each month. Only a single feast: January 1, Feast of the Circumcision of Christ.
Binding note:
  • Original Italian binding, probably from Pistoia, ca. 1458.
Provenance:
  • Princeton MS. 253 is described in Cristiani's article on Marsilio Ficino's Invettiva, pp. 209-22. Purchased by the Princeton University Library from Les Enluminures, Chicago, which may have purchased it at an Italian auction house, Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, Florence.
Source acquisition:
  • Purchase, 2018. AM 2019-74.
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