PIAGNONE EXEMPLARITY AND THE FLORENTINE LITERARY CANON IN THE VITA DI GIROLAMO BENIVIENI SHERRY ROUSH At a sumptuous banquet hosted by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, Girolamo Benivieni (1453-1 542) —poet, scholar, and translator—found himself enjoying the witty dinner repartee of the cardinals engaging and powerful guests. 1 Benivieni, however, differed from his fellow diners in at least one important respect: he openly and unashamedly professed his association with the Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola. In 1494 Savonarola's supporters had ousted the perceived tyrant Piero de' Medici to set up an unusual republic in Florence. 2 Benivieni had translated various writings by Savonarola and had written some songs for Florentine civic processions and new rituals, such as the "Burning of the Vanities" in 1496 and '97. Piagnoni, once an insult given to Savonarola's religious reformists for their copious penitential weeping, became a collective name that adherents, like Girolamo, proudly embraced. At the table, the conversation began to focus on the civic reforms of the friar's followers, which continued even long after Savonarola was exe- cuted. 3 The other dinner guests so criticized Savonarola that they expected * I warmly acknowledge and thank Lorenzo Polizzotto for his generous assistance in suggesting better renditions of various passages of the Vita di Benivieni, as well as for his expertise in confirming the information presented in note 3. I would also like to thank William Kennedy, Claudia Lazzaro, John Najemy, Carol Kaske, Julia Cozzarelli, and all of the participants of Cornell University's Early Modern colloquium in March 2004 who gave me such constructive feedback on an earlier version of this paper. My thanks, too, go to Penn State colleague Maria Truglio who helped me to acquire a microform copy of Antonio Benivieni's Vita di Girolamo Benivieni from the Archivio di Stato in Florence. ^During this Republic between 1494 and 1498, Florentines claimed Christ as their king and the Virgin Mary as their queen, but looked to Savonarola for tem- poral guidance. See the descriptions of piagnoni governance by Girolamo Benivieni in Commento di Hieronymo Benivieni sopra a più sue canzone et sonetti dello Amore et della Belleza Divina, ff. 1 1 lr-1 12v and 1 15r-l I6v, and by Luca Landucci in his Diario fiorentino, as well as the critical studies by Donald Weinstein and Polizzotto. -Antonio Benivieni does not provide a date for the banquet. I suspect that the Quaderni d'italianistica, Volume XXVII, No. 1, 2006, 3 Sherry Roush to force Benivieni to blush with shame. Finally, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, future Pope Clement VII, felt obliged to ask, "Girolamo, voi fate professione di credere al Frate, come può stare l'essere insiememente amico et affezzionato nostro?" (Girolamo, you profess to believe in the Friar, [so] 4 how can you also be our friend and intimate? 40v-4lr). Benivieni, who is said to have never lacked for a ready response, happily replied in the "man- ner of Gamaliel to the Scribes": Monsignore mio, se l'opera del Frate è humana, la si risolverà presto per se stessa; se l'è di Dio, che che gli homini se ne facciano, l'andrà per certo innanzi. Ma Vossignoria Illustrissima non tema già mai delli amici e devoti del Frate, essi aspettando il miracolo, e che Dio operi, quieti se ne stanno. Guardisi bene ella da alcuni di questi mormoratori inquieti che l'ha d'attorno, i quali, sempre insatiabili, non restano o resteranno già mai di travagliare, e nuovi e vasti concetti concependo altrui sollevare per compimento e sfogo dei loro smoderati appetiti. (4lr-4lv) [Monsignor mine, if the Friar's work is human, it will resolve itself quick- ly on its own; but if it is of God, then no matter what men might do, it will move ahead. But your Excellency need not ever fear the Friar's friends and disciples, who quietly await the miracle that God might work. Rather guard yourself well against these dissatisfied whisperers around you who, insatiable, never cease to trouble others with their impious machinations and to vent their excessive appetites.] 5 With this remark Benivieni silenced the bitter and harsh provocateurs because it was apparent to all that he had "la conscientia più netta di loro, l'ingegnio elevato e la lingua pronta" (4lv, "a clearer conscience than they had, as well as lofty genius and quick wit"). The wise cardinal understood only too well Benivieni's words and sagaciously changed the subject of con- versation. The author concludes the episode by stating, "Girolamo si fu las- banquet took place in 1522, a date corroborated in a personal correspondence by Polizzotto. English translations of the Vita throughout are mine. In my citations of the Italian text, I have taken the liberty to modernize Benivieni's punctuation and expand his many abbreviations. In this manuscript, "può stare" is written above "accozzate voi," which was stricken by the author. -'The reference concerning Gamaliel and the Scribes ("il buon vecchio allegra- mente e tosto rispose, secondo l'antico motto di Gamaliel alli Scribi") is to Acts 5:34-39, which describes an episode of the envy of authorities toward the pop- ularity of Jesus' apostles. The author thus implies that Girolamo was creating a parallel between Savonarola and Jesus. — 4 — Piagnone Exemplarity ciato stare nella sua opinione e natia libertà" (4lv, "Girolamo was allowed to keep his own opinion and innate liberty"). The recounting of this episode is one of the more spirited descriptions in the Vita di Girolamo Benivieni by Antonio Benivieni the Younger (1 533- 98). A careful reading of this and other excerpts from the Vita can yield much more, however, than a chuckle at Medici flatterers or memories of the deceased Girolamo Benivieni's good example. The Vita offers a per- spective—approximately seventy years after the event described—on one of the primary representatives of piagnone ideology, and the subtle com- plexity of his relationship to both Medicean partisans (known as palleschi or bigi), as well as on other episodes to proponents of the secular Florentine republic (often called arrabbiati). 6 The purpose of this study is to enrich our understanding of the polit- ical and cultural relationships during the last decades of the Quattrocento and first decades of the Cinquecento by considering the Vita's import not as biography, but as a document to consider alongside other statements concerning the estimation of literary works and perspectives of the ques- tione della lingua at the time. I argue that we have inherited primarily Medicean and secular republican views on these issues from Cristoforo Landino to Niccolò Machiavelli, from Agnolo Poliziano to Giambattista Gelli, and from Lorenzo de' Medici himself to Francesco Guicciardini. Moreover, these views differ sometimes subtly, sometimes strikingly, from the piagnone position. While my focus is on Girolamo Benivieni, further study of his works and reputation may also help us to come to a better understanding of the intellectual and spiritual motivations of other cultur- al figures who embraced the piagnone ethos. Giovanni Pico della Antonio's retrospective (c. 1580) represents, of course, a late view superimposed on Girolamo's interpretive contributions during the earlier decades of the Cinquecento. There may be cultural and ideological reasons for writing a work like the Vita during the height of the Catholic Reformation—reasons certainly worth pursuing in future studies. On the date of the works composition, accord- ing to Antonio's biographer, Caterina Re, it is not possible to date the Vita with any more precision: "Quanto alla Vita di G. Benivieni, non abbiamo nessun argomento sicuro per determinare l'età in cui fu scritta. Certo non avanti gli ulti- mi dell'ottavo decennio del secolo o i primi del nono, almeno nelle redazioni da noi conosciute (poiché doveva trovarsi già presso il Benivieni il copista Gonnelli, e questi, vedemmo, si faceva prete nel 1589, e riveduta dopo il 1590" 36). According to biographical studies of both Benivieni by Caterina Re, the Benivieni share largely the same ideological perspective on literature and the questione della lingua. — 5 — Sherry Roush Mirandola and Sandro Botticelli, among others, followed paths similar to Girolamo Benivienis, flourishing in the artistically and culturally fertile milieu of the Laurentian circle before converting to the radical spiritual life expounded from the pulpit of San Marco. 7 Antonio Benivienis Vita di Girolamo Benivieni Antonio Benivieni the Younger wrote the biography of his great-uncle Girolamo Benivieni, consisting of 72 folios in the Carte Gianni version in the Archivio di Stato in Florence. The unusually long and prominent life of octogenarian Girolamo Benivieni surely deserved biographical treat- ment. When he published his edition of Dante's Divine Comedy in 1 506, Girolamo could claim the distinction, according to Carlo Dionisotti, of being the "maggior poeta in volgare, che a Firenze fosse rimasto" (377, "the greatest vernacular poet still living in Florence"). In addition to the afore- mentioned piagnone songs and translations of Savonarola's works, Benivieni also wrote well received pastoral poetry and recast a Boccaccian novella in verse. Moreover, he surpassed nearly all of his esteemed contem- poraries in the study of the Hebrew language. 8 He is buried in the same tomb in San Marco with his dearest friend Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94). Unfortunately, Antonio's Vita di Girolamo Benivieni has very limited value as a biography. In his sometimes exalted language, the adulatory nephew seems almost to have confused Girolamo's life with a vita di un santo. One scholar, Luigi Greco, recognized the importance to Dante stud- ies of one section of the Vita, republishing in 1 897 a brief excerpt as "La difesa di Dante di G.