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Pedagogia E Corte Nel Rinascimento Italiano Ed Europeo University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Pedagogia e Corte nel Rinascimento Italiano Ed Europeo Michele Rossi University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Rossi, Michele, "Pedagogia e Corte nel Rinascimento Italiano Ed Europeo" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 569. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/569 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/569 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Pedagogia e Corte nel Rinascimento Italiano Ed Europeo Abstract The research investigates the relationship between humanism and education, not merely from a pedagogical point of view, but also from a historical, political, cultural and anthropological perspective. The main focus is to explore the crucial role played by the court as an ideal environment for experimenting with new pedagogical ideas. In this way, the dissertation challenges the classic point of view proposed by the famous Italian scholar Eugenio Garin, which interprets humanist pedagogy as a product of the civic humanism that developed in the republican Florence. This critical perspective is still prevalent both in Italy and in the United States. Instead, I suggest that the court represented the ideal context to practice new ideas. In fact, Pier Paolo Vergerio (1370-1444), the author of the first humanist educational treatise, was at the Carrarese court in Padua, as well as his teacher, Giovanni Conversini da Ravenna (1343-1408); Vittorino da Feltre (1373 or 1378-1446), one of the most famous masters of the Italian Renaissance, created and directed his school (the Casa Giocosa) in Mantua, at the Gonzaga court, from 1423 to 1446; Guarino Veronese (1374-1460), another important humanist teacher, taught in Ferrara, at the Estense court, for thirty years. Therefore, the "corti padane" of the fourteenth and fifteenth century - Padua, Mantua, and Ferrara - were laboratories that produced a new image of the prince and the aristocracy. By theorizing and practicing education, humanists such as Conversini, Vergerio, Vittorino, and Guarino not only proposed a new pedagogy, but also created a new anthropology, both social and political. They placed the individual at the center of the stage, not in an abstract sense but by considering the prince and the scena cortigiana which surrounded him. In this way, these authors presented crucial examples of the dynamic and dialectical relationship between the prince and the intellectual, and its influence on education as well as culture and politics. This influence crossed the Italian borders and continued to operate outside the country in a European context for a long period of time, as demonstrated by authors such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Michel de Montaigne, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Romance Languages First Advisor Fabio Finotti Keywords Education, Educational Treatises, Pedagogy, Petrarchismo, Prince, Renaissance Subject Categories English Language and Literature This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/569 PEDAGOGIA E CORTE NEL RINASCIMENTO ITALIANO ED EUROPEO Michele Rossi A DISSERTATION in Romance Languages Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Supervisor of Dissertation Signature___________________ Fabio Finotti, Mariano DiVito Professor of Italian Studies Graduate Group Chairperson Signature____________________ Fabio Finotti, Mariano DiVito Professor of Italian Studies Dissertation Committee Stefania Benini, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages Kevin Brownlee, Professor of Romance Languages Fabio Finotti, Mariano DiVito Professor of Italian Studies PEDAGOGIA E CORTE NEL RINASCIMENTO ITALIANO ED EUROPEO COPYRIGHT 2012 Michele Rossi A Marcello, Annamaria, Graziano e Giovanna, la mia famiglia. iii Acknowledgments Questa ricerca non sarebbe mai stata completata senza la preziosa guida intellettuale, l’attenta supervisione e il generoso incoraggiamento del mio advisor, Prof. Fabio Finotti. A lui va il primo e più sentito ringraziamento. Un grazie sincero anche agli altri componenti della dissertation committee, Prof. Kevin Brownlee e Prof. Stefania Benini, per aver seguito il mio lavoro con costanza, passione ed entusiasmo. Desidero poi rivolgere un ringraziamento speciale ai miei maestri italiani: al Prof. Manlio Pastore Stocchi, con cui tutto è cominciato, e al Prof. Gino Belloni, per avermi fatto amare davvero Petrarca e la filologia, e per la sincera amicizia. Un pensiero particolare va alla Prof.ssa Paola Rigo, di cui ricordo con affetto e rimpianto il sorriso, l’eleganza e la gentilezza. Un abbraccio ai miei colleghi di dottorato americani e italiani all’University of Pennsylvania, che hanno condiviso con me parte del viaggio. In ordine di apparizione: Claudia Consolati, Chelsea Pomponio, Norman Rusin, Michael Edwards, Alessandra Mirra, Elisa Modolo, Claudia Scala, Sarah Massoni, Andrew Korn, Marco Lepore e Nicolò Moscatelli. Grazie a Nicola Gentili, per aver sempre creduto in me, per il continuo sostegno, e per Seattle; a Lillyrose Veneziano Broccia, per tutto il supporto, la sincera amicizia e un’estate indimenticabile a Firenze (e un bacio al piccolo Zanoby!); a Yari Moro, per le serate padovane, la passione proustiana e per avermi fatto scoprire Ginevra. Infine, come sempre, grazie alla mia famiglia: a Marcello, Annamaria, Graziano e Giovanna. Questo libro è per voi. iv ABSTRACT PEDAGOGIA E CORTE NEL RINASCIMENTO ITALIANO ED EUROPEO (PEDAGOGY AND COURTLY LIFE IN THE ITALIAN AND EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE) Michele Rossi Prof. Fabio Finotti The research investigates the relationship between humanism and education, not merely from a pedagogical point of view, but also from a historical, political, cultural and anthropological perspective. The main focus is to explore the crucial role played by the court as an ideal environment for experimenting with new pedagogical ideas. In this way, the dissertation challenges the classic point of view proposed by the famous Italian scholar Eugenio Garin, which interprets humanist pedagogy as a product of the civic humanism that developed in the republican Florence. This critical perspective is still prevalent both in Italy and in the United States. Instead, I suggest that the court represented the ideal context to practice new ideas. In fact, Pier Paolo Vergerio (1370- 1444), the author of the first humanist educational treatise, was at the Carrarese court in Padua, as well as his teacher, Giovanni Conversini da Ravenna (1343-1408); Vittorino da Feltre (1373 or 1378-1446), one of the most famous masters of the Italian Renaissance, v created and directed his school (the Casa Giocosa) in Mantua, at the Gonzaga court, from 1423 to 1446; Guarino Veronese (1374-1460), another important humanist teacher, taught in Ferrara, at the Estense court, for thirty years. Therefore, the “corti padane” of the fourteenth and fifteenth century – Padua, Mantua, and Ferrara – were laboratories that produced a new image of the prince and the aristocracy. By theorizing and practicing education, humanists such as Conversini, Vergerio, Vittorino, and Guarino not only proposed a new pedagogy, but also created a new anthropology, both social and political. They placed the individual at the center of the stage, not in an abstract sense but by considering the prince and the scena cortigiana which surrounded him. In this way, these authors presented crucial examples of the dynamic and dialectical relationship between the prince and the intellectual, and its influence on education as well as culture and politics. This influence crossed the Italian borders and continued to operate outside the country in a European context for a long period of time, as demonstrated by authors such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Michel de Montaigne, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. vi Table of Contents INTRODUZIONE Umanesimo e pedagogia: la prospettiva “cortigiana” e la prospettiva “civile” 1 CAPITOLO PRIMO Nel segno della pedagogia umanistica: da Petrarca a Rousseau 16 CAPITOLO SECONDO Petrarchismo e antropologia: Giovanni Conversini da Ravenna e la corte carrarese 41 CAPITOLO TERZO Il De ingenuis moribus di Pier Paolo Vergerio: pedagogia e formazione del principe 58 CAPITOLO QUARTO Scuole padovane e pedagogia umanistica: Gasparino Barzizza 95 CAPITOLO QUINTO Vittorino da Feltre, i Gonzaga e la Casa Giocosa di Mantova 106 CAPITOLO SESTO La rete europea di Guarino Veronese alla corte estense (1429-1460) 139 vii APPENDICE 1 Sulla lettura: utilità, piacere, dialogo 208 APPENDICE 2 Il terrore della solitudine: inquietudini pedagogiche tra Vergerio e Rousseau 227 APPENDICE 3 Educazione e danza 231 APPENDICE 4 Immagini commentate 241 BIBLIOGRAFIA 252 viii List of Illustrations Immagine 1. Vergerio, De ingenuis moribus 241 Immagini 2 e 3. Pisanello, Medaglia di Vittorino da Feltre 242 Immagini 4 e 5. Mantegna, Ritratto di corte 243 Immagine 6. Scuola di Giusto di Gand, Ritratto di Vittorino da Feltre 244 Immagini 7 e 8. Pisanello, Medaglia di Cecilia Gonzaga 245 Immagini 9 e 10. Matteo de’ Pasti, Medaglia ritratto di Guarino Veronese 246 Immagine 11. Ritratto di Guarino Veronese 247 Immagine 12. Cosmè Tura, Calliope
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