Brunetto Latini's Politica: A Political Rewriting of Giovanni da Viterbo's De Regimine Civitatum, Reti Medievali Rivista 29/1 (2018), pp. 189-209. (original) (raw)
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The Latin of De magistratibus et republica Venetorum
The Republic of Venice, 2019
This translation is based on the Latin text as printed in Contarini's collected works (Opera, Paris 1571), edited and revised by Alvise Contarini and his assistants, and reprinted in Venice with small variations in 1578. This is the edition generally used by modern scholars who quote Contarini from Latin. We have intentionally overlooked earlier editions-the first Latin edition (1543) and its various reprints, the Italian translation by an anonymous hand (1544)-and Lewkenor's English translation (1599), which draws on multiple sources (including the Italian translation of 1544, deriving from the 1543 Latin edition), collated with the Latin text from the 1571/8 edition (as recently discussed by Florio 2010). We have thus avoided the tendency to group versions of the text before the 1571 edition as a single entity. There are significant divergences between the different versions of De magistratibus circulating before 1571, which include substantial interpolations, mistranslations, amplifications, stylistic simplifications, and at times (intentional) meaning alterations. The most common type of alterations have a stylistic nature, and are motivated by a classicizing intent on the part of Alvise Contarini, aiming to make the language adhere more closely to the standards of Ciceronian Latin 18 as regards lexicon and phraseology, syntax and word order, emphasis and ornatus (cf. Florio 2010, 90-101). 17 I am very grateful to Amanda Murphy for valuable comments and suggestions on several drafts of these notes. 18 On humanistic Ciceronianism see below. Cf. also Jensen 1996, investigating the origin of the "Ciceronian ban" advocated by "Ciceronianist" humanists and intended to "banish medieval neologisms and replace them with classical equivalents" (689). This ban is already traceable in the first edition of Contarini's treatise, but becomes l Giuseppe Pezzini
In this paper, I intend to show that the interdisciplinary study of chronicles can tell us much not just about the texts themselves, but also about their possible purpose, intended audience, and reception. In order to do this, I use the chronicle written by the civic notary Giovanni Codagnello of Piacenza (d.1235) as case study. In particular, I focus on the annals and on some of the myths and fabulous histories there included, as these have not received much attention. Through a philological analysis of these myths, I argue that Codagnello consciously re-elaborated works by authors such as Isidore of Seville, Paul the Deacon, Dares Phrygius, and others, fitting them to his own purpose: to convince his fellow citizens that the civil war which broke out in his city in the 1220s and 30s was not only disruptive, but also went against a tradition of civic unity and alliance with the city of Milan which originated in times unmemorable. Indeed, a consequence of the civil war was the interruption of the century-long alliance with ‘anti-imperial’ Milan and the passage to the enemy front, led by the ‘pro-imperial’ Cremona, a former arch-enemy of Piacenza. Thus, together with re-assessing these myths (which with few exceptions, have been largely overlooked or misunderstood by historians of communal-age literature and history) and placing them within a precise historical context, I argue that in communal-age Italy chronicles and fabulous histories could have a high political importance. Indeed, through the analysis of contemporary literature, archival documents, and meta-textual mentions to orality present in the chronicle, I argue that historical texts such as these could be read in civic assemblies – the core of political life in contemporary communes – or anyway incorporated into political orations, thus playing an important role when it came to take decisions of political nature. Finally, I analyse the manuscript itself, arguing that this was commissioned by the civic government of Piacenza in around 1250, and that therefore, even after the death of its author, this chronicle was intended to continue to serve important public political functions.
Tacitean scholars have noticed allusions to Livy by Tacitus since at least the end of the nineteenth century. Ever since, many works have attempted to identify and explain Tacitus’ interest in Livy’s history of Rome, generally focusing on comparisons regarding how these authors describe military events and Senate debates . The prevalent idea sustains that Tacitus alluded to Livy not only as a means to emulate him, but also to establish a contrast between past and present, demonstrating discontinuities and similarities between the monarchic and Republican past and the Principate . In this sense, Tacitus represented the past under the Principate as well as offered a political interpretation of that regime, establishing his authority as a historian . In this article, I follow this line of analysis, inquiring the dialogue established by Tacitus with Livy’s work about a specific theme: the question of loyalty (fides) within the context of Roman slave society. Although there are many references to slavery in both authors , little has been asked about the possibilities of intertextuality concerning the episodes involving masters and slaves, and freedmen and patrons. The relationship between slavery, manumission and citizenship is a common concern of Livy and Tacitus, even though they wrote at different moments of state regulation of slavery. I wish to point out a probable connection between the way in which Livy describes the origin of manumissio uindicta, through the story of the slave Vindicius, who exposed a conspiracy denouncing his master’s involvement (Liv. 2.4.6-5.10), and how Tacitus told the story of the freedman Milichus, who also denounced his patron because he took part in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero (Ann., 15.54-55).
4. Rule by Natural Reason: Late Medieval and early Renaissance conceptions of political corruption
This paper argues that, from about the eleventh century CE, a new and distinctive model of corruption accompanied the rediscovery and increased availability of a number of classical texts and ideals, particularly those of Cicero and the Roman Jurists. This new model of corruption accompanied a renewed emphasis on classical ideals in theorising the political, and a subsequent change in the way in which political life was conceived in Europe.