Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice at the Beginning of the Quattrocento : Studies in Criticism and Chronology

Re-examining Latin and Italian literature of 1400 in the light of contemporary political events and experiences, the author arrives at substantial corrections of the accepted views of the genesis and chronology of many early humanistic and political writings.Intensively presented, the book treats such subjects as the date of Antonio Loschi’s Invectiva in Florentinos and of Gregorio Dati’s Istoria di Firenze, both of which are established by means of literary detective work. About half of the book is devoted to a discussion of Leonardo Bruni’s works—disputed versions, dates, origins.Providing a background for these studies is the struggle for political power and freedom carried on by the highly-developed Italian city-states, centered chiefly between Florence and Giangaleazzo of Milan, and expressed in part through an interchange of biting pamphlets and learned dialogues.This important work provides correlative evidence of the evolution of humanism during the Italian Renaissance. INTRODUCTION: Literary and Political Approaches to Early Renaissance Literature: A Problem of Method I GIOVANNI DA PRATO’S PARADISO DEGLI ALBERTI 1. A Presumed Historical Source for the Year 1389 2. The Paradiso as Anachronistic Fifteenth-Century Fiction Excursus: The Date of the Paradiso II PUBLICISTS DURING THE FLORENTINE STRUGGLE WITH GIANGALEAZZO VISCONTI OF MILAN (1397-1402) 1. The Date of Antonio Loschi’s Invectiva in Florentinos Excursus: Pitfalls in the Dating of Loschi’s Invectiva 2. The Date of Cino Rinuccini’s Risponsiva alia Invettiva di Messer Antonio Luscho 3. Two Strata in Salutati’s Invectiva in Antonium Luschum Vicentinum 4. A New Chronology of the Pamphlets Accompanying the Florentine-Milanese Struggle III THE DATE OF GREGORIO DATI’S ISTORIA DI FIRENZE 1380-1406 IV LEONARDO BRUNI’S LAUDATIO FLORENTINAE URBIS 1. Two Versions of the Laudatio? A blind Alley 2. The Alleged Pre-1402 Origin of the Laudatio. A Refutation Excursus: A Recent Abortive Approach to the Problems of the Laudatio 3. The Date of the Laudatio: Summer 1403 or Summer 1404 4. Salutati’s Invectiva as a Source of Bruni’s Laudatio 5. A Letter of Pier Paolo Vergerio (Epistola LXXXXVI) and Bruni’s Laudatio V BRUNI’S DEVELOPMENT AS A TRANSLATOR FROM THE GREEK (1400-1403/04). THE DATE OF HIS EPISTOLA 18 Excursus: The Date of Salutati’s Epistola XII 10 VI BRUNI’S DIALOGI AD PETRUM PAULUM HISTRUM 1. A New Theory: Successive Composition of the Two Dialogues in 1401 and after 1402 2. One-Dialogue Manuscripts of the Dialogi Excursus: Cod. Vat. Lat. 1883, a One-Dialogue Manuscript of the Dialogi from the Council of Constance 3. The Title of the Dialogi 4. The Date of Dialogus 1 Excursus: Indications that Dialogus II was Written after Bruni had Left Florence 5. Summary: A Reconstructed Chronology of Literature around 1400, and a New Perspective VII THE GENESIS OF BRUNI’S ANNOTATED LATIN VERSION OF THE (PSEUDO-) ARISTOTELIAN ECONOMICS (1420-1421) VIII AN EPISTOLARY DESCRIPTION BY BRUNI OF THE FLORENTINE CONSTITUTION IN 1413 1. Problems of Authenticity and Date 2. An Edition of Bruni’s Unpublished Letter IX THE ANTI-FLORENTINE DISCOURSES OF THE DOGE TOMMASO MOCENIGO (1422-1423) 1. An Apparent Monument of Anti-Florentinism in the Early Quattrocento 2. A Reconstruction of a Perverted Chronology 3. The Three Discourses as a Partial Forgery 4. The Forger, His Bias, and the Date of the Falsification 5. The Source Value of the Genuine Parts of the Discourses Index