Vernacular Culture and Greek Texts in Renaissance Florence: a Database of Florentine Vernacularizations of Greek texts (c. 1460-1500)

Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 C 26

Item

Manuscript copy id

MC0000061 See all items with this value

Translator

Bartolomeo Della Fonte (Fonzio) See all items with this value

Work

La calumnia di Luciano See all items with this value

Shelfmark

Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, 78 C 26 See all items with this value

Date

1472 See all items with this value

Place

Florence See all items with this value

Seen

Yes

Material

Parchment See all items with this value

Dimensions and Structure

208 x 138
III + 30 + I’
See all items with this value

Foliation

Folios are numbered in pencil in the upper right margin.

Collation

3 quires: I-III(10)

Ruling

Hard point

Type of script

Humanist cursive (formal) See all items with this value

Scribe

a) Niccolò di Giampiero Della Fonte, brother of Bartolomeo (fols. 1r-24r)
b) Bartolomeo Della Fonte (fols. 25r-v) See all items with this value

Annotations

a) Notabilia in red ink by Niccolò di Giampero Della Fonte
b) Numerous glosses autograph by Bartolomeo della Fonte. See all items with this value

Decoration

The manuscript is richly decorated.
a) The verso of the second original flyleaf (fol. IIv) houses an illumination by Bartolomeo Fonzio. It is an allegorical representation of Lucian's "ekphrasis" relating to the Calumny of Apelles (see Bibliography below).
b) Fol. 1r: decorated frontispiece with a blue initial on a red square decorated with a golden flourishing; the page is enriched by a flowery three-quarter border in Florentine style, which includes some putti and various animals. In the lower bar a green laurel wreath houses the coat of arms of the Este house.
c) Fol. 3v: golden oramental initial included in a square decorated with white wine-stems on a blue, pink and green background.

Illuminator

a) Bartolomeo Della Fonte (fol. IIv)
b) Anonymous Florentine illuminator (frontispiece and initial at fol. 3v). See all items with this value

Marks of ownership, inscriptions and previous shelfmarks

Fol. Ir-v: long bibliographical note in Italian, providing information on Bartolomeo Fonzio and his works. It is datable to the 18th or early 19th century.
Fol. IIIr: "Hamilton 416 | 99 -- 1884", in pencil (a reference to the previous provenance from the Hamilton collection, with call number 416; 1884 is the date of accession Berlin's Staatsbibliothek).
 

See all items with this value

Internal description

Fols. 1r-3v: "Proemio di Bartholomeo Fontio ne la Calumnia di Luciano a lo excellentissimo Hercole duca di Feraara" (sic).  Inc.: "Di tanti vitii da quali la natura humana e del continuo oppressata"; expl.; "a leggere sia piu grato et a lintendere piu aperto. Finisce il proemio incomincia il libro de la calumnia di Luciano".

Fols. 3v-24r: vernacular translation of Lucian's pamplhet, inc.: "Quanti mali da la ignorantia naschino di qui facilmente si puo comprendere"; expl.: "quasi da un certo splendore alluminate raguarderebbe".

F. 25r: Bartolomeo della Fonte, sonnet "Se non fusse l’ingegnio mio sì pingue", addressed to Ercole I of Este.

F. 25v: Bartolomeo della Fonte, sonnet "Pensando, excellentissimo Signore.", addressed to Ercole I of Este.
 

Notes

The manuscript can be identified with the copy sent by Bartolomeo as a gift to Ercole I of Este in summer 1472. It was recorded in an inventory of Ercole's library on 6 August, 1472 (Archivio di Stato di Modena, Archivio Estense, Camera, Amministrazione della Casa, Guardaroba, registro 92): "Libreto uno picolo in carte bone, in vulgare in pruosa, scripto e miniato a l’antiqua cum certe figure depinte suso una dele custodie, Chiamato B(ar)t(olome)o fontio de Calomnia lutiani, cum asse chuperte de brasilio stampado, cum duo azuli de ottone che fo presentato al prefato n(ostro) S(ignore)" (Tissoni Benvenuti 2023, 292-293).

Bibliography

- Agnoletto, Sara and Centanni, Monica, La calunnia di Botticelli. Politica, vizi e virtù civili a Firenze nel Rinascimento, Roma, 2023, with inclusive bibliography.
- Biadene, Leandro, "I manoscritti italiani della collezione Hamilton nel R. Museo e nella R. Biblioteca di Berlino", in: Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana 10 (1887), 313-355, at 323.
- Caroti, Stefano and Zamponi, Stefano, Lo scrittoio di Bartolomeo Fonzio umanista fiorentino, con una nota di E. Casamassima, Milano 1974, 103.
- de la Mare, Albinia Catherine, "New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence", in: Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento (1440-1525). Un primo censimento, ed. Annarosa Garzelli, Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1985, vol. 1, 395-600: at 515.
- Tissoni Benvenuti, Antonia, Curiosando tra i libri degli Este. Le biblioteche di corte a Ferrara da Niccolò II (1361-1388) a Ercole I (1471-1505), Novara 2023, 292-293 (with inclusive bibliography), 355, 362, 469, 487.

Record last updated

22 October 2024