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Abstract
This article aims to elucidate a single element in the humanist royal ideology of Renaissance Naples that becomes highly conspicuous during the government of Alfonso V of Aragon after his conquest of the Regno and his entry into its capital in 1442. Alfonso's successful recruitment of a distinguished humanist personnel to his court in Naples upon his arrival on the Italian mainland was followed by a coherent and creative programme of ideological representation that repeatedly located Alfonso's rule of the Regno within a classical framework of a specifically Hispanic character. The article reconstructs the political and intellectual context of this ideological manoeuvre, examines its classical content, and argues that it was designed as a considered response to a series of polemical attacks upon the Mediterranean politics of the new Alfonsine regime.
Notes
1. Important interpretations of Neapolitan humanism under the Alfonsine regime: CitationGothein, Il Rinascimento nell'Italia meridionale; CitationAltamura, L'umanesimo nel mezzogiorno; Resta's preface in CitationBeccadelli, Liber rerum gestarum Ferdinandi regis, 5–58; CitationTateo, L'umanesimo meridionale; CitationSantoro, ‘Humanism in Naples’; CitationBentley, Politics and Culture; CitationFerraù, Il tessitore di Antequera. For Alfonso's reign: CitationPontieri, Alfonso; CitationRyder, Kingdom of Naples; idem, Alfonso.
2. Fullest discussion of Hispanic elements: CitationDriscoll, ‘Alfonso of Aragon’.
3. CitationBeccadelli, De dictis et factis. I have relied on the version of Panormita's text provided in the Rostock edition of 1589. This version is taken from an earlier Wittenberg edition of 1585, prepared by David Chytraeus, who also supervised the Rostock reprint, for which he supplied a revised preface. It is not significantly different from the earlier edition issued at Basle by Jacob Spiegel in 1538. The most recently published version of De dictis et factis is in the 1990 edition of the Catalan translation of De dictis et factis made in the late fifteenth century by Jordi de Centelles: Panormita, Dels Fets et Dits del Gran Rey Alfonso: versió catalana del segle xv de Jordi de Centelles, ed. d'Eulàlia Duran (Barcelona, 1990). But here the parallel Latin text which accompanies the Catalan translation is the product of a comparison of the Latin text of the rare Pisan incunabula of De dictis et factis, issued in 1485, with a later eighteenth-century edition printed in Palermo. It is not an authoritative text; its contribution to the process of establishing a critical version of Panormita's words is extremely limited, and I have not relied upon it. For Panormita, see: CitationResta, ‘Antonio Beccadelli’; Bentley, Politics and Culture, 84–100, 135–7, 147–61, 160–8; CitationRyder ‘Antonio Beccadelli’.
4. Ryder, ‘Antonio Beccadelli’, 132.
5. Beccadelli, Liber rerum, 35.
6. For a general history, see CitationMoss, Printed Commonplace-books.
7. For these combined ideals, see CitationSkinner, Reason and Rhetoric, 83–4.
8. For the Neapolitan humanists in government and their relations with Petrarch, see CitationBillanovich, ‘Pietro’; CitationKelly, The New Solomon, 41–9, 62–3; Stacey, Roman Monarchy, 119–44.
9. For its application to the Neapolitan material, see Stacey, Roman Monarchy, 119–44.
10. CitationCalasso, I glossatori (for da Caramanico's text, see 200).
11. Stacey, Roman Monarchy, 31–2; 75–144.
12. See Kelly, The New Solomon.
13. Bentley, Politics and Culture, 20.
14. For the civil war under Ferrante, see CitationAbulafia, Western Mediterranean Kingdoms, 223–9; Bentley, Politics and Culture, 24–33.
15. CitationRyder, Alfonso, 288.
16. For the rebellion in Calabria of 1444, see CitationPontieri, ‘La Calabria del secolo’; Ryder, Kingdom of Naples, 288, 321, 323; Ryder, Alfonso, 247–8.
17. Ryder, Kingdom of Naples, 31–2, 104, 136–68.
18. ‘Proposta’, 714: ‘non e amata per niente: anci, e plu tosto odiata.’
19. Ibid.: ‘le loro superbie, mali modi et tiranie desonesti.’
20. Ibid.: ‘tenire sotto pedi … cum desonesti modi … non se fidi de veruno Italiano ne anche ne ami, ne voglia veruno, cossa da farve perdere molto lo amore de questi vostri subditi.’
21. Ryder, Alfonso, 254.
22. CitationCroce, La Spagna, 34–5; Ryder, Alfonso, 313.
23. For the personnel of the Alfonsine administration, see Ryder, Kingdom of Naples.
24. For the context of the campaign of 1447–8, see Ryder, Alfonso, 272–81.
25. Pontieri, Alfonso, 285; Ryder, Alfonso, 278.
26. CitationManetti, ‘Oratio ad Senenses’, 155: ‘Cum Florentini amici ac finitimi vestri … Alfonsum … in mediam pene Etruriam adventasse cognovissent … ad celerem … preparationem … se se ceteris posthabitis converterunt, ut commemorato regi singulas quasque Italorum populorum libertates pervertere et occupare cupienti atque anhelanti viriliter et animose (admodum ut cupiebant) repugnare ac resistere valerent.’ For discussion, see Bentley, Politics and Culture, 123–4. For Manetti and Alfonso, see CitationBotley, ‘Giannozzo Manetti’.
27. Manetti, ‘Oratio ad Senenses’, 155: ‘ne Alfonsus opido capto oportunissima et accomodatissima futurorum tam maritimorum quam terrestrium bellorum sede potiretur, unde universam Italiam (nedum Etruriam solam) facilius postea diripere ac vexare posset.’
28. Ibid.: ‘Quanta mala quantave damna calamitosus et pernitiosus Alfonsi regis cum infestis eius exercitibus in Etruriam adventus vobis et rebus vestris intulerit, nedum explicare sed vix modice et temperate referre difficillimum esset.’
29. Ibid., 157–8: ‘Balnea namque – ut pauca e multis leviter attingamus – suapte natura libera et cunctis tendentibus pervia et expedita variis suorum militum direptionibus ita impedivit, ut egrotantes in egrotantibus suis persistere quam in sevas et inhumanas Catalanorum et Hispanorum hostium manus venire maluerint.’
30. Ibid., 158: ‘Pascua quoque alterum Senensis agri fructum et ingens civitatis vestre emolumentum, que prius armentis et gregibus undique pullulare cernebantur, ob quotidianam quandam boum et ovium ceterorumque similium animalium direptionem, occisionem atque abactionem usque adeo exhinanivit, ut iam pene cunctis pecoribus vacuefacta esse videatur.’
31. Ibid.: ‘Nonne frequentibus latrociniis et assiduis direptionibus cuncta queque publicarum viarum loca ita infesta et exosa habentur.’
32. Ibid.: ‘reliqua omnia vestra partim direptionibus partim populationibus partim vastationibus perverterit ac vastaverit.’
33. Ibid., 162: ‘Hoc tamen unum pretermittere non possumus: Romanos maiores nostros cunctos vel exterorum regum vel peregrinorum populorum vel alienigenarum gentium in Italiam adventus usque adeo abhorruisse, ut cum Gallis cum Tracibus cum Cimbris… deinde cum Pyrro Epyrotarum cum Philippo Macedonum cum Antioco Syrorum cum Tigrane Armeniorum cum Mitridate Ponti… cum Hannibale denique Penorum duce pluribus diversisque bellis congredi non dubitarent, ne illi alienigene ingentium exercituum ductores aliquam oportunam bellandi sedem in Italia nanciscentes possiderent, unde postea semper cum commemoratis regibus et nationibus belligerare cogerentur.’
34. Ryder, ‘Antonio Beccadelli’, 23–41.
35. Panormita, De dictis (IV. Prooemium), 92: ‘Consueverunt transmarinae provinciae sua quaeque Romae Italiaeque sufficere. Sicilia insularum celeberrima, frumentum zaccarumque: Sardinia, coria ac caseum: vinum Corsica, Ebusus salem: atque aliae, alia. Sola Hispania Romae atque Italiae imperatores ac reges dare solita est. At quales imperatores aut quales reges? Traianum, Adrianum, Theodosium, Arcadium, Honorium, Theodosium alterum. Postremo Alphonsum, virtutum omnium vivam imaginem, qui cum superioribus iis nullo laudationis genere inferior extet, tum maxime religione, id est, vera illa sapientia, qua potissimum a brutis animalibus distinguimur, longe superior est atque celebrior.’
36. Botley, ‘Giannozzo Manetti’, 129.
37. For the text of the 1445 oration, see CitationSandeo, De regibus, 169–75. For his repetition of the genealogy elsewhere, see Manetti, Biographical Writings, 114–5; and his unpublished oration on the occasion of the visit of Emperor Frederick III to Naples in 1452 in Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1604, fols. 7v–22v, 8r–8v.
38. Leonardo Bruni to King John of Castile, ca. 1435, in CitationSoria, Los humanistas, 113–4: ‘ut non minus vere, quam eleganter a Claudiano poeta scriptum sit, Provinciarum alias frumentum, alias ferrum, alias aliud quidam mittere consuesse; solam vero Hispaniam Imperatores Imperio Romano dare….’
39. See CitationClaudian, I, 243–5. For the availability of Claudian from the twelfth century onwards, see CitationReynolds, Texts and Transmission, 143–5.
40. CitationPacatus, ‘Panegyric of Theodosius’, 451–2 (II.4.2–5).
41. For Aurispa's discovery of the Panegyrici Latini and their immediate diffusion, see CitationSuster, ‘Notizia’; CitationReeve, ‘Classical Scholarship’.
42. For a new discussion of its use in texts about Alfonso, see Citationdelle Donne, ‘Letteratura elogiativa’.
43. See Driscoll, ‘Alfonso of Aragon’, 87–96; CitationRotili, L'arco di Traiano, 8–12. For the parliament, see Ryder, Alfonso, 242, 248.
44. For the inscriptions, see CitationHersey, The Aragonese Arch, 3.
45. Panormita, De dictis (I.1), 21: ‘Tum rex, accepimus, inquit, Herculem etiam non rogatum laborantibus subvenire consuesse … sine labore et periculo nemo adhuc gloriam consecutus est.’
46. For a detailed description and illustrations, see especially Hersey, The Aragonese Arch. For the Herculean imagery, see CitationBurger, Francesco Laurana, 31; Hersey, The Aragonese Arch, 30, 37, 39, 40, 55, 94, n. 26.
47. See, for example, ‘Rape of Proserpine’, in Claudian, II, 293–377, 317.
48. Pliny, Panegyricus, 14.5; 82.7.
49. CitationMattingly, Coins, III, lxvii-lxviii.
50. See CitationTate, ‘Mythology’, 3.
51. For these points and further discussion, see Tate, ‘Mythology’, 4–5.
52. See Hersey, The Aragonese Arch, 20, 24–6.
53. See, for example, Valla's letter to Alfonso commending Ferdinand of Cordoba, a young scholar of prodigious talent, as ‘a fellow citizen and countryman of Seneca and Lucan’ in CitationValla, Laurentii Valle Epistole, 259.
54. CitationStacey, Roman Monarchy, esp. 75–144.
55. For the specifically princely character of these virtues, see Seneca, De clementia, 1.19.4 (moderatio); I.1.2; I.3.2 (humanitas); I.5.3 (magnanimitas); I.3.3 (clementia).
56. For the ‘culto di Seneca’ at the court of Alfonso, see CitationAlbanese, ‘Tra Domenico da Peccioli’, 14, 44–6.
57. Albanese, ‘Tra Domenico da Peccioli’, 45–6.
58. See CitationManetti, Biographical Writings, 164–5.
59. Cited from Ryder, Alfonso, 319.
60. Panormita, De dictis (I.31), 31: ‘Super lectionem Annaei Senecae, quem praecipue rex coluit, atque perdidicit ….’
61. Ibid. (I.49), 37: ‘Legebamus fortassis Annaei Senecae epistolas … quaerebatur super praecepto Hecatonis, tantopere a Seneca laudato: SI VIS AMARI, AMA.’ The citation is from Seneca, Epistulae Morales, 9.6.
62. Ibid. (III. Prooemium), 68: ‘Hispanos conterraneos suos amasse et respexisse, quod epistolas Senecae ex latino in patrium sermonem verterunt, quo divini illius libri cognitio, etiam litterarum rudes non lateret.’ For Alonso de Cartagena's hugely popular translation of the works of Seneca, see CitationLawrance, ‘On Fifteenth-Century Spanish Humanism’, 72. For the influential work of the Castilian judge and scholar on De clementia and its mid-Quattrocento Spanish context, see CitationRound, ‘Alonso de Cartagena’. For Seneca's reception in Spain, see CitationBlüher, Seneca in Spanien.
63. Panormita, De dictis (II.48), 63: ‘Iusticia dicebat se quidem bonis gratum esse, at clementia etiam malis’; (II.49) 63: ‘Qui nimis lenem et mansuetum principem quereretur, expectandum iis esse dicebat, ut ursi ac leones, quandoque regnarent, hominis sane clementiam esse, beluarum feritatem’ (rehearsing De clementia, I.26.4).
64. Ibid. (II.49), 63: ‘… hominis sane clementiam esse, beluarum feritatem.’
65. Ibid. (II.21), 53: ‘Qua mansuetudine et benignitate ipsos etiam hostes sibi exinde benevolos reddidit, universoque post hoc regno Neapolitano, ab Aquila Marsorum urbe, ab Rhegium usque Brutiorum, sine adversario, in pace summa et tranquillitate potitus est.’
66. See, respectively, ibid. (I.51), 39; (II.41) 61–2; (I.17), 27.
67. Ibid. (II. Prooemium), 43: ‘ea duntaxat excerpo atque perstringo, quae ad exempla virtutis ac probitatis accommodari posse videantur, quo illis maxime in promptu sint, qui de Alphonso quotidie aut loquuntur, aut orant, aut scribunt: aut denique imitari eum studebunt fortassis in posterum’; ibid. (I. Prooemium), 20: ‘Reges vero ac terrarum principes, rempublicam domi militiaeque gerentes ….’
68. For Erasmus and Pliny, see CitationRundle, ‘Not So Much Praise as Precept’; for Hercules Gallicus, see Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric, 92–3.