- Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions
- A cura di Roberta Ricci
Poggio and Alberti Revisited
- David Marsh
- © 2020 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.08
The careers of the Curial secretaries Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) reveal many parallels. In 1437-1438 the Este court of Ferrara, where Eugenius IV convoked a church council, provided a focal point for their friendship. It was to the Ferrarese canon Francesco Marescalchi that Poggio dedicated Book 1 of his Latin epistles (1436), and Alberti his Hundred Apologues (1437). Both men were inspired to critiques of contemporary society by the Greek satirist Lucian, and both indulged in composing brief witticisms that expose human vice: Poggio in his Facetiae (Jests) and Alberti in his Apologi (Fables) and Vita (Autobiography). From Lucian, they also learned to dramatize human foibles on the imagined stage of the theatrum mundi, or theater of the world: Poggio in his dialogues, and Alberti in both the Intercenales and Momus. Despite such literary affinities, their approach to ethical questions differed, especially concerning the validity of allegory, which Poggio rejected but Alberti embraced. As a tribute to his colleague, Alberti dedicated Book 4 of his Intercenales to Poggio; he prefaced the work with an ironic Aesopic fable that asserts the superiority of recondite scientific research over commonplace humanistic studies. Eventually, Alberti’s status as an outsider in Florence was reflected in the deterioration in his relations with Poggio. The rift was widened in 1441, when Alberti organized the Italian poetic competition called the Certame Coronario that was held in the Florence cathedral on October 22. Poggio was a member of the jury that, to Alberti’s chagrin, refused to declare a winner.
- Keywords:
- Aesopic fables,
- Leon Battista Alberti,
- Este court in Ferrara,
- Francesco Filelfo,
- Lucian of Samosata,
- theatrum mundi (theater of the world),
- Virgil and allegory.,
Rutgers University, United States
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
Poggio and Alberti Revisited
Autori
David Marsh
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3.08
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2020
Copyright
© 2020 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
Poggio Bracciolini and the Re(dis)covery of Antiquity: Textual and Material Traditions
Sottotitolo del libro
Proceedings of the Symposium Held at Bryn Mawr College on April 8-9, 2016
Curatori
Roberta Ricci
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
220
Anno di pubblicazione
2020
Copyright
© 2020 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6453-968-3
ISBN Print
978-88-6453-967-6
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-6453-968-3
Collana
Atti
ISSN della collana
2239-3307
e-ISSN della collana
2704-6230