Chancellor Of Florence Research Articles

Political Obligation and Self-Sufficiency in Leonardo Bruni's History of the Florentine People

Abstract Leonardo Bruni (1377–1444), chancellor of Florence, is today more famous as an initiator of civic humanism and a proponent of early modern republicanism than as a historian of medieval Florence. He owes this position most of all to Hans Baron, who argued that Florentine civic humanism—an exemplary mode of communal existence dedicated to the active life—as found particularly in Bruni's writings, stemmed from the resurgence of interest in antiquity, which pointed forward to a liberating, civilizing, and progressive modernity. Though James Hankins has recently argued that the dual theses of civic humanism and republicanism are mischaracterizations of the larger thrust of Italian Renaissance political thought, the scholarly literature overwhelmingly portrays Leonardo Bruni as incipiently modern and, by definition, un-medieval. But in emphasizing the role of antiquity in Bruni's “modern” thought, scholars have overlooked the importance of medieval history in the formulation and the content of Bruni's arguments. This article seeks to rectify this misappreciation by demonstrating how that quintessential medieval struggle, the conflict between popes and emperors, plays a central role in Bruni's political thought as it is found in the History of the Florentine People, written from 1415/16 to 1444.

No untranslatables! (Box 5, TO TRANSLATE)

It was through the Italians that translation as a theoretical enterprise was revived in the Renaissance. This was in large part thanks to Leonardo Bruni, erstwhile chancellor of Florence and indefatigable translator of Greek into Latin at a particularly heady moment in the history of humanism: the early fifteenth century, two generations after that other indefatigable humanist (albeit one ignorant of Greek), Petrarch. Indignant over criticism of his translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Bruni threw himself into De interpretatione recta (On Correct Translation) in the mid-1420s. His anger at a churchman whose critique revealed misunderstanding not only of Greek but also of his own ‘mother tongue,’ Latin, produced a passionate statement about translation’s importance to the modern Western world. Bruni seems to be the first to have used traductio and traducere to mean ‘translation’: words that would come to replace interpretare, vertere, and convertere, as Remigio Sabbadini has noted, and thus words that insist on the act of transporting, and even transformation. Transformation is, in fact, at the heart of Bruni’s meditations: the ‘best translator will turn his whole mind, heart, and will to his author, and in a sense be transformed by him’ (De interpretatione recta). But after

Writing History in Renaissance Italy: Leonardo Bruni and the Uses of the Past, by Gary Ianziti

Gary Ianziti’s new book is not, per se, a study of Leonardo Bruni (c.1370–1444). Rather, it is a study of Bruni—first-rank humanist, translator of Aristotle, and chancellor of Florence—as a writer of history, and its aim is to push back against what Ianziti describes as two ‘diametrically opposed’ attitudes towards humanist historians: that held largely by Renaissance and early modern specialists, which identifies Bruni and his peers as ‘the founders of critical methodologies’ fundamental to modern historiography; and that of the ‘medievalists’, who deny such a methodological rupture, and see the new contribution of the humanists mainly in terms of the classicising language and rhetoric they introduced (pp. 3–4, 7). The humanists, argues Ianziti, could do both, but these changes were accessories to their real goal of ‘upgrading’ historical accounts to fit ‘the needs and tastes of their readership’ (p. 4). Far from initiating a linear process leading to modern academic history-writing, the humanist historians of the Renaissance—despite their regular emphasis on rational causation and generally critical treatment of sources—practised something quite different. Seeking to show what the writing of history in Renaissance Italy was, or could be, Ianziti moves chronologically through the historical works of its most notable early exponent to uncover ‘the mechanics and processes of history writing as Bruni and his contemporaries actually practiced them’ (p. 3).

A visual invention: The angels at Eve's side in Ghiberti's Genesis panel

Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455) was proud of how many figures he managed to fit into the narrative panels of the Gates of Paradise (1425–52). When the contract for the third set of doors for the Baptistery of Florence was signed on 2 January 1425, it was expected that their design would match that of the first set by Andrea Pisano (dated by inscription 1330; installed in 1336) and the second set by Ghiberti himself (installed on Easter day, 19 April 1424): 28 small quatrefoil pa nels in an ornamented latt ice framework, set in seven rows of four across the two valves.1 For the history of the commission, the program and the panels, see Richard Krautheimer with Trude Krautheimer-Hess, Lorenro Ghiberti, Princeton monographs in art and archaeology, 31 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982 [1956]), pp. 159–202. A program by Lionardo Bruni, former chancellor of Florence, which was drawn up before the contract, called for narrative scenes from the Old Testament in the 20 panels of the top five rows and single figures of prophets in the eight panels below.2 The letter with Bruni's program is discussed and transcribed by Krautheimer and Krautheimer-Hess, Lorenzo Ghiberti, pp. 159–62, 169–70, 372, 408. The surviving documents suggest that it took several years before the commissioning Calimala guild allowed Ghiberti to change the third set of doors to a format that he preferred: 10 large narrative panels, stacked five per valve, in a lattice framework ornamented with a floral frieze, statuettes of prophets in niches, and projecting heads in roundels at the intersections. Ghiberti did not mention the negotiations with the guild in his Commentaries (C.I447), only their result: ‘I was given the license to execute it [the door] in whatever way I believed would turn out most perfectly and most ornate and most rich. I began the said work in the panels [quadn], which were a braccia and a third in size; these istorie most copious with figures were the istorie of the Old Testament , in which I contrived to observe with every measure in them to try to imitate nature, as much as were [fosse] possible to me, and with all the lineaments that I could produce in it and with compositions excellent and rich with very many figures. I put around one hundred figures in some istona, in some istorie less and in others more.’3 Lorenzo Ghiberti, I commentarii, II, 22, ed. Ottavio Morisani (Naples: Ricciardi, 1947), p. 45. Cited in subsequent notes by commentary and paragraph number.

History of the Florentine people

Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), the leading civic humanist of the Italian Renaissance, served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405-1414) and chancellor of Florence (1427-1444). He was famous in his day as a translator, orator, and historian, and was the best-selling author of the fifteenth century. History of the Florentine People in twelve books is generally considered the first modern work of history, and was widely imitated by humanist historians for two centuries after its official publication by the Florentine Signoria in 1442.This third volume concludes the edition, the first to make the work available in English translation. It includes Bruni's Memoir, an autobiographical account of the events of his lifetime, and cumulative indexes to the complete History.

Leonardo Bruni, Florentine Traitor? Bruni, the Medici, and an Aretine Conspiracy of 1437*

AbstractThis study weighs the evidence for Leonardo Bruni's estrangement from the emerging Medici party (from the 1420s) and the Medici regime (from 1434). Bruni had ties to both the Mediceans and their oligarch opponents, although ties with the latter appear to be stronger, particularly in terms of Bruni's humanist relations. While Bruni stayed on as Chancellor of Florence when the Medici took over in 1434, some recent studies suggest that the Medicean government was making things difficult for him. The study finally reproduces a report from the Milanese Chancery of 1437 stating that Bruni will support a rebellion in Arezzo against Florence, which will result in the "destruction and ruin of the Florentines."

Pope Eugenius IV and Jewish Money-Lending in Florence: The Case of Salomone di Bonaventura during the Chancellorship of Leonardo Bruni

In hisEulogy of Florence(Laudatio Florentinae Urbis)Leonardo Bruni praised her constitution for giving first place to justice, “without which no city can exist or deserve the name.” Moreover, he said, “Not only citizens, but aliens as well are protected by this commonwealth. It suffers injury to be done to no man, and endeavors to see to it that everyone, citizen or alien, shall receive the justice that is owing to him.” During Brum's own tenure as chancellor of Florence, however, we hear of a Jewish banker who was ruined by the heaviest fine in the history of the city after a trial that one modern scholar has described as a monstrous miscarriage of justice.

PROMOTING POGGIO IN THE AGE OF REFORM: CORRESPONDENCE OF TOMMASO TONELLI AND WILLIAM SHEPHERD

The works of the Rev. William Shepherd of Liverpool (1768–1847) are not much read nowadays; nor, alas, are those of Cavaliere Tommaso Tonelli, a Florentine contemporary of Shepherd's. But between them these two established the European view of the humanist Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) which endured a century and more, and which placed Poggio full square at the centre of the Revival of Letters. The story of his famous rediscovery of classical authors — speeches of Cicero, Quintilian entire, Lucretius, among others — and of his career as papal secretary and Chancellor of Florence was first treated synthetically in Shepherd's biography, The Life of Poggio Bracciolini. The book went through two editions (Liverpool 1802 and 1837), with an intermediate Italian translation, greatly augmented, from the hand of Tonelli (Florence 1825). Besides the Vita di Poggio, Tonelli was also responsible for the publication of Poggio's Latin letters, in an edition which was not rivalled until the last decade and is even now not wholly supplanted. Hallam's influential literary history opened an account of the Renaissance with some pages on Poggio, and that was a direct result of studying the labours of Shepherd and Tonelli, the former having ensured that copies of these works were placed in the critic's hands.

PROMOTING POGGIO IN THE AGE OF REFORM: CORRESPONDENCE OF TOMMASO TONELLI AND WILLIAM SHEPHERD

The works of the Rev. William Shepherd of Liverpool (1768–1847) are not much read nowadays; nor, alas, are those of Cavaliere Tommaso Tonelli, a Florentine contemporary of Shepherd's. But between them these two established the European view of the humanist Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) which endured a century and more, and which placed Poggio full square at the centre of the Revival of Letters. The story of his famous rediscovery of classical authors — speeches of Cicero, Quintilian entire, Lucretius, among others — and of his career as papal secretary and Chancellor of Florence was first treated synthetically in Shepherd's biography, The Life of Poggio Bracciolini. The book went through two editions (Liverpool 1802 and 1837), with an intermediate Italian translation, greatly augmented, from the hand of Tonelli (Florence 1825). Besides the Vita di Poggio, Tonelli was also responsible for the publication of Poggio's Latin letters, in an edition which was not rivalled until the last decade and is even now not wholly supplanted. Hallam's influential literary history opened an account of the Renaissance with some pages on Poggio, and that was a direct result of studying the labours of Shepherd and Tonelli, the former having ensured that copies of these works were placed in the critic's hands.

Coluccio Salutati's Critique of Astrology in the Context of His Natural Philosophy

Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) is best known as the Petrarchan humanist chancellor of Florence, defender by his rhetoric of the Florentine cause against Visconti Milan, and influential patron of the inauguration of Hellenic studies in Italy and of intensified study and imitation of classical texts. He was also by his own studies, writing, book collection, and personal contacts conversant with at least some of the medieval scholastic traditions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Although it might be too much to call him either a natural philosopher or a theologian, his interest in these subjects was deep. The following essay examines major lines of his thinking concerning nature and divine operation through nature in this world as they are put forth in his De fato et fortuna of 1396.1 It culminates in an analysis of the important critique of astrology presented in that work. The late fourteenth century was notable not only for a profusion of apologetic and practical astrological writings but also for the anti-astrological treatises of the scholastic natural philosophers and theologians Nicole Oresme and Henry of Langenstein. Although Salutati does not seem to have been influenced by these writings, his own work is parallel to them in certain respects and should be included in this anti-astrological genre.2

Alison Brown. <italic>Bartolomeo Scala, 1430–1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat</italic>. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1979. Pp. xi, 366. $25.00

Journal Article Alison Brown. Bartolomeo Scala, 1430–1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1979. Pp. xi, 366. $25.00 Get access Brown Alison. Bartolomeo Scala, 1430–1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1979. Pp. xi, 366. $25.00. James R. Banker James R. Banker North Carolina State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 85, Issue 4, October 1980, Pages 925–926, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/85.4.925 Published: 01 October 1980

Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat

Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat

Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat. Alison Brown

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsBartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat. Alison Brown Julius KirshnerJulius Kirshner Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 55, Number 3Jul., 1980 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2847243 Copyright 1980 The Mediaeval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat. Alison Brown

<i>Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat</i>. Alison Brown

Bartolomeo Scala 1430-1497 Chancellor of Florence, The Humanist as Bureaucrat, by Alison Brown

<i>Bartolomeo Scala 1430-1497 Chancellor of Florence, The Humanist as Bureaucrat</i>, by Alison Brown

Salutati's Opinion of Non-Italian Latin Writers of the Middle Ages

Coluccio Salutati, along with Petrarch, is generally looked upon as one of the principal founders of Italian humanism and the Renaissance movement. Professor Berthold Ullman states in his excellent and latest work on Salutati that the renowned chancellor of Florence ‘was second to Petrarch in the humanistic movement, but not far behind'; he points out that Coluccio was the acknowledged leader of this movement for some thirty-two years, from the time of Petrarch's death in 1374 until the chancellor's own in 1406. Vergerio hails Salutati as the leading philosopher of the age; for Antonio Loschi he was the outstanding Latin writer of his time. His reputation as a Latin stylist and moralist, already in the fourteenth century, had spread far beyond the borders of Italy.