Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 14

[223] The anonymous biographer says: "Scripsit praeterea et affinium suorum gratia, ut linguae latinae ignaris prodesset, patrio sermone annum ante trigesimum aetatis suae etruscos libros, primum, secundum, ac tertium de Familia, quos Romae die nonagesimo quam inch.o.a.rat, absolvit; sed inelimatos et asperos neque usquequaquam etruscos ... post annos tres, quam primos ediderat, quartum librum ingratis protulit" (_op.

cit._ i. xciv. c.). It appears from a reference in Book ii. (_op.

cit._ ii. xxviii.) that the Treatise was still in process of composition after 1438; and there are strong reasons for believing that Book iii., as it is now numbered, was written separately and after the rest of the dialogue.

[224] Note especially the pa.s.sage in Book iii., _op. cit._ ii. 256, _et seq._

[225] There is, I think, good reason to believe the testimony of the anonymous biographer, who says this Treatise was written before Alberti's thirtieth year; and if he returned to Florence in 1434, we must take the date of his birth about 1404. The scene of the _Tranquillita dell'Animo_ is laid in the Duomo at Florence; we may therefore believe it to have been a later work, and its allusions to the _Famiglia_ are, in my opinion, trustworthy.

[226] The pedigree prefixed to the Dialogue in Bonucci's edition would help the student in his task. I will here cite the princ.i.p.al pa.s.sages of importance I have noticed. In volume ii. p. 102, we find a list of the Alberti remarkable for literary, scientific, artistic, and ecclesiastical distinctions. On p. 124 we read of their dispersion over the Levant, Greece, Spain, France, England, Belgium, Germany, and the chief Italian towns. Their misfortunes in exile are touchingly alluded to with a sobriety of phrase that dignifies the grief it veils, in the n.o.ble pa.s.sage beginning with p. 256. Their ancient splendor in the tournaments and games of Florence, when the people seemed to have eyes only for men of the Alberti blood, is described on p. 228; their palaces and country houses on p. 279. A list of the knights, generals, and great lawyers of the Casa Alberti is given at p. 346. The honesty of their commercial dealings and their reputation for probity form the themes of a valuable digression, pp. 204-206, where we learn the extent of their trade and the magnitude of their contributions to the State-expenses. On p. 210 there is a statement that this house alone imported from Flanders enough wool to supply the cloth-trade, not only of Florence, but also of the larger part of Tuscany. The losses of a great commercial family are reckoned on p.

357; while p. 400 supplies the story of one vast loan of 80,000 golden florins advanced by Ricciardo degli Alberti to Pope John. The friendship of Piero degli Alberti contracted with Filippo Maria Visconti and King Ladislaus of Naples is described in the autobiographical discourse introduced at pp. 386-399. This episode is very precious for explaining the relation between Italian princes and the merchants who resided at their courts. Their servant Buto, p. 375, should not be omitted from the picture; nor should the autobiographical narrative given by Giannozzo of his relation to his wife (pp. 320-328) be neglected, since this carries us into the very center of a Florentine home. The moral tone, the political feeling, and the domestic habits of the house in general must be studied in the description of the Casa, Bottega, and Villa, the discourses on education, and the discussion of public and domestic duties. The commercial aristocracy of Florence lives before us in this Treatise.

We learn from it to know exactly what the men who sustained the liberties of Italy against the tyrants of Milan thought and felt, at a period of history when the old fabric of medieval ideas had broken down, but when the new Italy of the Renaissance had not yet been fully formed. If, in addition to the _Trattato della Famiglia_, the letters addressed by Alessandra Macinghi degli Strozzi to her children in exile be included in such a study, a vivid picture might be formed of the domestic life of a Florentine family.[A] These letters were written from Florence to sons of the Casa Strozzi at Naples, Bruges, and elsewhere between the years 1447 and 1465. They contain minute information about expenditure, taxation, dress, marriages, friendships, and all the public and personal relations of a n.o.ble Florentine family. Much, moreover, can be gathered from them concerning the footing of the members of the circle in exile. The private _ricordi_ of heads of families, portions of which have been already published from the archives of the Medici and Strozzi, if more fully investigated, would complete this interesting picture in many of its important details.

[A] _Lettere di una Gentildonna fiorentina_, Firenze, Sansoni, 1877.

[227] Notice the discussion of wet-nurses, the physical and moral evils likely to ensue from an improper choice of the nurse (_op. cit._ ii. 52-56).

[228] These topics of _Amicizia_, as the virtue on which society is based, are further discussed in a separate little dialogue, _La Cena di Famiglia_ (_op. cit._ vol. i.).

[229] _Age of the Despots_, pp. 239-243.

[230] In stating the question, and in all that concerns the MS.

authority upon which a judgment must be formed, I am greatly indebted to the kindness of Signor Virginio Cortesi, who has placed at my disposal his unpublished Essay on the _Governo della Famiglia di Agnolo Pandolfini_. As the t.i.tle of his work shows, he is a believer in Pandolfini's authorship.

[231] I use this word according to its present connotation. But such literary plagiarism was both more common and less disgraceful in the fifteenth century. Alberti himself incorporated pa.s.sages of the _Fiammetta_ in his _Deifira_, and Jacopo Nardi in his _Storia Fiorentina_ appropriated the whole of Buonaccorsi's Diaries (1498-1512) with slight alterations and a singularly brief allusion to their author.

[232] Such information, as will be seen, is both vague and meager. The MSS. of the _Governo_ in particular do not seem to have been accurately investigated, and are insufficiently described even by Cortesi. Yet this problem, like that of the Malespini and Compagni Chronicles, cannot be set at rest without a detailed comparison of all existing codices.

[233] The anonymous biographer expressly states that the fourth book was written later than the other three, and dedicated to the one Alberti who took any interest in the previous portion of the work.

This, together with the isolation and more perfect diction of Book iii. is strong presumption in favor of its having been an afterthought.

[234] The _Oeconomicus_ of Xenophon served as common material for the _Economico_ and the _Governo_, whatever we may think about the authorship of these two essays. Many parallel pa.s.sages in Palmieri's _Vita Civile_ can be referred to the same source. To what extent Alberti knew Greek is not ascertained; but even in the bad Latin translations of that age a flavor so peculiar as that of Xenophon's style could not have escaped his fine sense.

[235] See _Op. Volg._ vol. i. pp. lx.x.xvi.-lx.x.xviii.

[236] _Op. Volg._ ii. p. 223.

[237] _Op. Volg._ i. 10.

[238] It should, however, be added that Vespasiano alludes to Pandolfini's habits of study and composition after his retirement to Signa. Yet he does not cite the _Governo_.

[239] It is clear that all this reasoning upon internal evidence can be turned to the advantage of both sides in the dispute. The question will have finally to be settled on external grounds (comparison of MSS.), combined with a wise use of such arguments from style as have already been cited.

[240] Anyhow, and whatever may have been the source of Alberti's _Economico_, the whole scene describing exile and winding up with the tirade against a political career, is a very n.o.ble piece of writing.

If s.p.a.ce sufficed, it might be quoted as the finest specimen of Alberti's eloquence. See _Op. Volg._ v. pp. 256-266.

[241] See _Op. Volg._ Preface to vol. v.

[242] It is greatly to be desired that Signor Cortesi should print this _Studio Critico_ and, if possible, append to it an account of the MSS. on which Pandolfini's claims to be considered the original author rest.

[243] _Op. Volg._ vol. iii. The meaning of the t.i.tle appears on p.

132, where the word _Iciarco_ is defined _Supremo uomo e primario principe della famiglia sua_. It is a compound of [Greek: oikos] and [Greek: arche].

[244] See pp. 24, 28, 88, and the fine humanistic pa.s.sage on p. 47, which reads like an expansion of Dante's _Fatti non foste per viver come bruti_ in Ulysses' speech to his comrades.

[245] _Op. Volg._ vol. i.

[246] He calls it _il nostro tempio ma.s.simo_ and speaks of _il culto divino_, pp. 7-9.

[247] _Op. Volg._ vol. iii.

[248] _Ibid._ p. 160. This enables us to fix the date within certain limits. Niccol III. of Este died 1441. Lionello died 1450. Alberti speaks of the essay as having been already some time in circulation.

It must therefore have been written before 1440.

[249] Like Boccaccio, Alberti is fond of bad Greek etymologies.

Perhaps we may translate these names, "the G.o.d-born" and "the little pupil." In the same dialogue Tichipedio seems to be "the youth of fortune."

[250] See _Revival of Learning_, p. 339.

[251] _Op. Volg._ iii. 179.

[252] _Ibid._ p. 186.

[253] _Op. Volg._ vol. ii. pp. 320-322.

[254] _Il Santo._ Probably S. John.

[255] Alberti in a Letter of Condolement to a friend (_Op. Volg._ v.

357) chooses examples from the Bible. Yet the tone of that most strictly pious of his writings is rather Theistic than Christian.

[256] _Op. Volg._ vol. iv. See, too, Janitschek's edition cited above.

[257] Bonucci believes it was composed in Italian. Janitschek gives reasons for the contrary theory (_op. cit._ p. iii.).

[258] _Op. Volg._ vols. iii. and v.

[259] Pa.s.sages in the plays of our own dramatists warn us to be careful how we answer in the negative. But here are some specimens of Amiria's recipes (_op. cit._ v. 282). "Radice di cocomeri spolverizzata, bollita in orina, usata piu d, lieva dal viso panni e rughe. Giovavi sangue di tauro stillato a ogni macula, sterco di colombe in aceto ... insieme a sterco di cervio ... lumache lunghe ...

sterco di fanciullo ... sangue d'anguille." All these things are recommended, upon one page, for spots on the skin. I can find nothing parallel in the very curious toilet book called _Gli Ornamenti delle Dame, scritti per M. Giov. Marinelli_, Venetia, Valgrisio, 1574.

[260] _Op. Volg._ vol. iii. 367; vol. i. 191, 215.

[261] _Op. Volg._ v. 233.

[262] _Op. Volg._ i. 236.

[263] I may refer to the Latin song against marriage, _Sit Deo gloria_ (Du Meril, _Poesies Populaires Latines du Moyen Age_, pp. 179-187), for an epitome of clerical virulence and vileness on this topic.

[264] _Op. Volg._ iii. 274.

[265] _Op. Volg._ v. 352.