Patronage and Humanist Literature in the Age of the Jagiellons: Court and Career in the Writings of Rudolf Agricola Junior, Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox by Jacqueline Glomski (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 741 givingbalanced treatment to all majorregionaland imperialactorsin the region: theCrimeanKhanatewhichdependedmostly on theconsideration of theOttomanSultans;theNogai,who overtwocenturies lostmuchoftheir influence; the Kalmyks, who to some extentassumedtheirpositionin the seventeenth century; theCossacks,whosecommunities had evolvedsincethe late fifteenth century along thelargerrivers, particularly theDon Cossacks and theZaporozhianHost,and sincethemid-seventeenth century theUkrainian CossackHetmanate;thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whichlost influence during thecourseoftheseventeenth century, and lastbutnotleast MuscoviteRussia. To investigate and describethe interaction of all these actorsin an area whichis, forgeographical reasonsalone, alreadyhighly complex(further and more detailedmaps than the two includedshould havebeen added)requires extensive research and higherudition. Davies has fulfilled his task superbly.The book can be recommendedto historians withvariousscholarly interests: thosewho are interested in theprocessesof (military) colonization willfind important chapters on theso-called Abatisand theBelgorodLine or on garrison towns;social historians willfinddetailed information on socialgroupssuchas theodnoduortsy' historians ofUkrainewill acknowledge thatDavies has takenthemostimportant Ukrainianhistorical literature intoconsideration (e.g.inhistreatment ofthePereiaslav agreement); military historians willreadwithinterest abouttheMuscovite wagenburg tactics, different commandstructures and foreign formations inRussia'sarmy.In the lastthird oftheseventeenth century, Muscovite Russiaabandoneditspolitical isolationand became morethana regionalpoliticalactorby participating in the Holy League againstthe OttomanEmpire.In 1696 Russian and Ukrainiansoldierssuccessfully laid siege to the Ottomanfortress of Azov, locatedat themouthoftheDon. Although thisis an accountofa worldfarremovedfrom thepresent day, Davies's volumenevertheless contains muchthatcouldbe valuablyappliedto our understanding of thecomplexities of contemporary Polish,Lithuanian, Russianand Ukrainian political relations. Historisches Seminar Universität Freiburg G. Hausmann Glomski,Jacqueline. Patronage andHumanist Literature in the Ageofthe Jagiellons: Courtand Careerin theWritings ofRudolfAgricola Junior,Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox.University ofTorontoPress,Toronto,ON, Buffalo, NY and London,2007. xiv + 336 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Appendices. $75.00:£45.00. Despite thepatronageofRenaissanceartand architecture by Sigismund I (1506-48),Cracowwas nota hospitable place forwandering humanists inthe earlysixteenth century. The springs ofcourtpatronageweredrunkdryby royalservants suchasJustus LudovicusDecius andJohannes Dantiscus, while theuniversity itself was onlybeginning to reform itscurriculum. The present 742 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2OIO worktracesthefortunes ofthree poetae and teachers whoworkedin Cracow in and aroundtheseconddecade ofthesixteenth century: RudolfAgricola (nottobe confused withtheDutchhumanist ofthesamename)and Valentin Eck,bothofwhomoriginally hailedfromsouth-western Germany, and the Englishman, Leonard Cox. Through theirprodigiousoutputthese three helpedintroduce the normsof Italianateneo-Latinliterature to a part of CentralEurope. Glomskigivesus herenot so mucha biographical accountof thethree scholars as a guideto humanist practice.Her study consists ofthreesections thatarerespectively entitled 'Careerism inCracow','Hero-Making3, and 'The Need forImmediateProduction'.Glomskiexplainsthetypesof dedicatory and commendatory poem thatmight be appendedto a workto winovera patronorpublisher. Forpatrons, panegyrics shouldfollow a standard format ofenumerato (recounting theprospective patron'sdeeds),comparano (comparing theseto theaccomplishments ofclassicalheroes), praeteritio (begging to leave outthepatron'smerits becausethey wereso many, buttelling themanyway), dubitatio (claiming an insufficiency oftalent with whichtorecount thesemerits), andnarratio (relating stories thatillustrated thepatron's virtues). Forpublishers, commendatory poemsmightbe enlisted eitherfrom well-known scholarsor fromstudents themselves, fortheseconstituted the marketforthe bulkof humanist texts. In thecase ofthelatter, itwasparticularly important thatthe commendation dwelton thework's brevity. Butitwasseldomenoughtorelate in formulaic fashiontheachievements ofprospective sponsors. The patrons themselves had tobe rendered heroic,and givenillustrious pedigrees. Alexius Thurzó,patronofEck,was descendedfrom insignificant Hungariangentry, butEck,bycouplingThurzóto theLatintursio (porpoise), was able to arrive at an ancestry thatwentback to Neptune.At thesame time,theneedsof themomenthad to be addressedand humanists preparedto use theirpen to extolan event,promotea policy,or urgea dynastic alliance.Glomski's accountof humanist practicein Cracow is supported by seventy scholarly pagesofnotesthatgivelengthy quotations from texts toillustrate thestyle and technique ofhersubjects. Eck,Agricolaand Cox were,however, largely unsuccessful in theirsearch forpatronage.Cracow University was not fully'laicized' and so salaried opportunities werefewthere. Although Glomski provides detailedevidenceas to whomthethreehumanists soughtoutforpatronage, we cannotknowfor surejust how successful theywerein obtaining preferment. The careersof Eck,Agricolaand Cox suggest thatdespitesome earlygainstheymade no greatbreakthrough intocourtpatronage norobtainedsustained support from theheroeswhosedeeds theyenumerated and whosepoliciestheyextolled. Agricolathusspenthislastyears(he died in 152 1,aged thirty) lamenting his impecuniousness and wishing to return to Lake Constance;Eck wentoffto Hungaryto teach in the school at Bártfa(Bardejov)beforebecomingthe town'smayor;and Cox spentsomeyearsas a schoolteacher in neighbouring Löcse (Levoca)before returning, via Cracow,toEnglandand totheheadship of Reading School in Berkshire. It was therethathe publishedhis most importantwork, TheArteorCrafle ofRhetoryke (1530). reviews 743 Hungaryis normallycontrasted badly with its early sixteenth-century neighbours. It had no university and,after the1470s, no printing press.Most ofitsmagnates wereboorsand eventhoseholdinghighjudicial office were frequently illiterate. Hungary's greatest Renaissanceachievement, thelibrary gathered byMatthiasCorvinus, gathered dustafter hisdeathin 1490.It is all themorecurious, therefore, thatall threeofGlomski's humanists shouldhave spentsucha considerable...