“Fra Sabba da Castiglione: The Self-Fashioning of a Renaissance Knight Hospitaller”

by

Ranieri Moore Cavaceppi

B.A., University of Pennsylvania 1988

M.A., University of North Carolina 1996

Thesis

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Italian Studies at Brown University

May 2011

© Copyright 2011 by Ranieri Moore Cavaceppi

This dissertation by Ranieri Moore Cavaceppi is accepted in its present form by the

Department of Italian Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy.

Date Ronald L. Martinez, Advisor

Recommended to the Graduate Council

Date Evelyn Lincoln, Reader

Date Ennio Rao, Reader

Approved by the Graduate Council

Date Peter M. Weber, Dean of the Graduate School

iii

CURRICULUM VITAE

Ranieri Moore Cavaceppi was born in Rome, Italy on October 11, 1965, and moved to

Washington, DC at the age of ten. A Fulbright Fellow and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Ranieri received an M.A. in Italian literature from the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996, whereupon he began his doctoral studies at Brown

University with an emphasis on medieval and Renaissance Italian literature. Returning home to Washington in the fall of 2000, Ranieri became the father of three children, commenced his dissertation research on Knights Hospitaller, and was appointed the primary full-time instructor at American University, acting as language coordinator for the Italian program.

iv

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I deeply appreciate the generous help that I received from each member of my

dissertation committee: my advisor Ronald Martinez took a keen interest in this project

since its inception in 2004 and suggested many of its leading insights; my readers Evelyn

Lincoln and Ennio Rao contributed numerous observations and suggestions. Without

their steadfast guidance, the clarity and scope of my work would have suffered

enormously.

I would also like to thank the members of the Italian Department at Brown

University, especially Massimo Riva and Mona Delgado, for their unfailing support

during my years as a graduate student. I also wish to thank the Graduate School for

promoting advanced research in the humanities.

In Washington, DC, I would like to thank William Kloman for tirelessly

proofreading my work. I also need to thank Damon Smith for correcting all of my Latin

translations. I am deeply grateful to American University for nurturing my teaching career while providing me with wonderful library resources.

I wish to thank the many scholars, both in Italy and the United States, too numerous to name, who kindly shared with me advice and encouragement.

Last but not least, I would like to recognize the great contribution of my family,

my wife Hilary Dove and my children Francesca, Orlando, and Sebastian, whose

encouragement, love, and support made this work possible.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Signature page ...... iii Curriculum Vitae...... iv Preface and Acknowledgments...... v Table of Contents...... vi List of Illustrations...... ix

Introduction...... 1

0.1 Sabba Castiglione’s Roles and Works...... 3 0.2 Methodology and Justification...... 8

Chapter One: From Proud Lineage to Particularized Patronage...... 11

1.1 An Elusive Lineage...... 11

1.2 An Adequate Humanist Education...... 13

1.3 Studies in Pavia...... 17

1.4 A Sojourn with the Gonzaga...... 22

1.5 Knight and Antiquarian...... 23

1.6 Among the Roman Curia...... 28

1.7 The Commenda faentina: Origins and Topography...... 35

Chapter Two: A Hospitaller Eclogue: Sabba’s Lamento...... 43

2.1 Pastoral Origins and Development...... 45

2.2 Sabba’s Inclusive Language Use...... 53 2.2.1 Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga’s Tirsi...... 58 2.2.2 Niccolò Machiavelli’s Mandragola...... 72

2.3 Literary Components of the Lamento...... 79

vi 2.4 Pastoral Conventions...... 89

2.5 Imagery and Ideology...... 97

2.6 Military Text and Subtext...... 107

2.7 Modern Analyses of Sabba’s Eclogue...... 112

Chapter Three: Liturgy, Rules, and Spirituality...... 121

3.1 The Order’s Origins and Ethos...... 122

3.2 Structural Codification...... 125

3.3 Augustinian Principles, Benedictine Practices...... 130

3.4 The Divine Office...... 133

3.5 The Book of Psalms...... 138

3.6 The Lyons Breviary...... 142

3.7 A Particularized Version of Christianity...... 146

3.8 Personal Piety, Group Prayer ...... 151

3.9 Objectives of the Order...... 154

Chapter Four: Italian Hospitaller Imagery...... 161

4.1 Hospitaller Imagery before 1500...... 163 4.1.1 Saintly Icons and Sepulchral Inscriptions...... 164 4.1.2 Holy Sepulchre Imagery...... 167 4.1.3 Hospitaller Imagery in Rhodes...... 169 4.1.4 Medieval Hospitaller Architectonic Features...... 172

4.2 The Codification of Hospitaller Iconography...... 174 4.2.1 Guillaume Caoursin’s Incunabulum...... 175 4.2.2 The Commenda di San Jacopo...... 176 4.2.3 The Rhodes Missal...... 179 4.2.4 Bodrum Castle...... 182 4.2.5 The Abbazia di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri Gerosolimitani...... 184

vii 4.3 The Amalgamation of Hospitaller Purpose and Imagery...... 186 4.3.1 The Siena Frescoes...... 188 4.3.2 Exploiting New Realities...... 191

4.4 Sabba’s Contributions to Hospitaller Imagery...... 193 4.4.1 Extant Wall Inscriptions...... 195 4.4.2 Lost Wall Inscriptions...... 202

4.5 An Unexplained Malady Becomes a Life-Altering Event...... 207

4.6 Sabba’s Idiosyncratic Aesthetics...... 209 4.6.1 Eclectic Influences Displayed in the Commenda...... 210 4.6.2 Art and Artists in the Ricordi...... 216

4.7 Contemporaneous Knight Hospitaller Aesthetes...... 221 4.7.1 Luigi Tornabuoni...... 221 4.7.2 Leone Strozzi...... 224 4.7.3 Annibal Caro...... 229

4.8 Aesthetics with a Purpose...... 238

Chapter Five: The 1554 Frontispiece: The Essential Sabba...... 241

5.1 Woodcuts: A Cinquecento Novelty...... 242

5.2 The studiolo Motif...... 244 5.2.1 Petrarch’s solitudo...... 244 5.2.2 Renaissance studioli...... 247 5.2.3 Religious Representations...... 249 5.2.4 Sabba’s studiolo...... 251

5.3 The Essential Sabba...... 253

Bibliography...... 258

Illustrations...... 279

viii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Photographs by the author unless otherwise indicated.

1. Rhodes, Greece, Church of Our Lady of Philerimos. A Hospitaller Knight, detail of fresco by Ayios Yeoryios “Chostos.” 15th century. (Kollias, The City of Rhodes and the Palace of the Grand Master, fig. 47.)

2. Faenza, Commenda church. Sabba Castiglione with the Holy Family and Saints Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria, fresco in church apse by Girolamo da Treviso. Ca. 1533.

3. Boston, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Polyptych Madonna con il Bambino in trono e sei santi, by unknown Cretan or Constantinopolitan artist. Early 15th century. (Calò Mariani, “I Cavalieri Gerosolimitani e il Baliaggio di Santo Stefano in Puglia. Committenza di opere d’arte e relazioni culturali,” figs. 14-16.)

4. Siena, Piccolomini Library of the Siena Cathedral. Enea Silvio Piccolomini [the future Pope Pius II] Presenting Eleanor of Portugal to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, fresco by Pinturicchio. 1503-1508. (Available online at http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosiero:Pintoricchio_002a.jpg.)

5. Siena, San Giovanni Chapel of the Siena Cathedral. Kneeling Knight in Armor, detail of fresco by Pinturicchio. 1503-1504. (Barbero and Merlotti, eds., Cavalieri. Dai Templari a Napoleone: storie di crociati, soldati, cortigiani, p. 98.)

6. Siena, San Giovanni Chapel of the Siena Cathedral. Aringhieri with the Cloak of the Order of the Knights of Malta, fresco portrait by Pinturicchio. 1503-1504. (Barbero and Merlotti, eds., Cavalieri. Dai Templari a Napoleone: storie di crociati, soldati, cortigiani, p. 98.)

7. Faenza, Commenda church. Marble inscription mounted on interior wall beside main door entrance. Ca. 1536.

8. Faenza, Commenda courtyard. Southeast portico frieze. Ca. 1525.

9. Faenza, Commenda courtyard. Detail of southeast portico frieze showing terracotta tondo with inscription “POST TENEBRAS LUCEM.” 1528-1529. (Savelli, “Gli interventi edilizi realizzati da fra Sabba alla Commenda elencati in un documento coevo,” fig. 3.)

ix 10. Faenza, Commenda courtyard. Detail of southeast portico frieze showing terracotta tondo with fragmentary Pope Clement VII coat of arms. 1528-1529. (Savelli, “Gli interventi edilizi realizzati da fra Sabba alla Commenda elencati in un documento coevo,” fig. 3.)

11. Faenza, Commenda courtyard. Detail of southeast portico frieze showing terracotta tondo with inscription “EXPLORANT ADVERSA VIROS” and Castiglione family coat of arms. 1528-1529. (Savelli, “Gli interventi edilizi realizzati da fra Sabba alla Commenda elencati in un documento coevo,” fig. 3.)

12. Faenza, Commenda church. Francesco Menzocchi, monochrome fresco. Ca. 1545-1547. Sepulchral epitaph on the left-side church nave wall by unknown artist. Ca. 1554.

13. Florence, Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo. Sepulchral tombstone by artist known as “il Cicilia.” 1515. (Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini a Firenze, fig. 61.)

14. Florence, Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo. Sepulchral Tornabuoni coat of arms by artist known as “il Cicilia.” 1515. (Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini a Firenze, fig. 62.)

15. Early sixteenth-century Strozzi coat of arms. (Plate from Ciabani, Le Famiglie di Firenze, vol. 3, p. 766.)

16. Florence, Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo. Marble Strozzi crest and inscription. 1543. (Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini a Firenze, fig. 71.)

17. Portrait of a Knight by Titian. Ca. 1550. (Sire, The Knights of Malta, p. 109.)

18. Portrait of a Knight by unknown artist. Late 16th century. (Sire, The Knights of Malta, 65.)

19. Civitanova Marche, Collezione Antica della Galleria Moretti of the Pinacoteca Comunale di Civitanova. Portrait of Annibal Caro by unknown marchigiano artist. 1557-1560. (Available online at http://www.500annibalcaro.it/galleriafoto.aspx.)

20. Civitanova, Marche, Mayor’s Office. Tondo portrait of Annibal Caro by unknown artist. 1562-1565. (Available online at http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/File:Annibal_Caro.jpg.)

21. Tondo portrait of Annibal Caro by Alessandro di Cristofano “del Bronzino” Allori. 1560-1566. (Pandolfini Casa d’Aste. Dipinti Antichi, Arredi provenienti da una dimora lombarda, Arredi provenienti da un palazzo faentino, Argenti e gioielli, Firenze 7, 8, 9, 10 ottobre 2003.)

x

22. Rome, Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso. Annibal Caro sepulchral tombstone and marble head by Giovanni Antonio Dosio. 1567. (Available online at http://www.centrostudicariani.it/luoghi.aspx.)

23. Faenza, 3rd edition Ricordi frontispiece. (Sabba Castiglione, Ricordi overo ammaestramenti di Monsignor Saba da Castiglione cavalier Gierosolimitano, ne quali con prudenti, e Christiani discorsi si ragiona di tutte le materie honorate, che si ricercano a un vero gentil’huomo. Con la tavola per alphabeto di tutte le cose notabili. Venice: Paolo Gherardo, 1554.)

xi

INTRODUCTION

This study focuses on Sabba da Castiglione (ca. 1480-1554), a Knight Hospitaller of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who composed a manual of proper conduct for knights, the Ricordi, in which he gave structure and definition to the Order’s rules, customs, and liturgy, codifying the daily deportment of its members. Sabba also architectonically refurbished his military order’s estate in Faenza during the last forty years of his life. No monographic study of Sabba in English exists, and there is little information about him in Italian. Sabba is an instance of the self-fashioned courtier- knight of the later Renaissance who combines an unusual set of roles: Hospitaller commander, canon regular, art collector, courtier, poet, and preceptor of knightly rules.

Between the years 1545 and 1554, a time of complex conflicts for the

Hospitallers, Sabba composed his Ricordi, which summarizes the Order’s essential practices and tenets for its members. Written in the vernacular, the Ricordi is an adaptation of the older ricordanze genre, typically a vehicle for anecdotes, aphorisms, and recollections on mercantile affairs for the benefit of family members.1 In it, Sabba delineates the responsibilities of a Hospitaller preceptor. His life in Faenza, his political aspirations, linguistic experiments, and ideas on religious reform are described; instruction in knightly combat is offered; and geopolitical issues of the day are vigorously

1 The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, ed. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 159, 210. See also Fulvio Pezzarossa, “I Ricordi di Sabba da Castiglione e le scritture familiari dei religiosi emiliani,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 95-124. 1 2 engaged. Farcical passages replete with colloquial phrasing appear alongside passionate theological discourse expressing a strident anti-Lutheran viewpoint. The solitarius motif recurs in the Ricordi; laudatory references to Petrarch’s words and deeds are scattered throughout. Sabba professed, somewhat disingenuously, that the Ricordi was intended as a conversation with his Hospitaller great-nephew fra Bartolomeo Righi, but its numerous printings in the sixteenth century and its breadth of scope suggest a wider target audience.

The Ricordi underwent three separate editions during Sabba’s lifetime (1546, 1549, and

1554).2 Between 1546 and 1613 twenty-five editions were published (20 in Venice, 2 in

Bologna, 2 in Milan, and 1 in Mantua); it was not republished until 1999.3

Sabba’s roughly twenty extant letters, from his early adulthood and first

experiences as a knight, provide insightful documentation of his sojourns in Rhodes and

Rome while describing in detail his early art collection and his military career.4 For the

most part written between 1505 and 1508, these epistles describe the uncertainties of life

in the Levant, as well as the perils of fighting the enemy and of searching for classical

archeological troves.

2 The three editions that Sabba wrote grew substantially over a ten-year period, the first one comprising 72 ricordi (or chapters), the second edition increased to 124, and the definitive edition added a few lengthy chapters totaling 133: Ricordi di F. Sabba di Castiglione (Bologna: Bartolomeo Bonardo da Parma, 1546); Ricordi di Frate Sabba di Castiglioni (Bologna: Bartolomeo Bonardo da Parma, 1549); Ricordi overo ammaestramenti di Monsignor Saba da Castiglione cavalier Gierosolimitano, ne quali con prudenti, e Christiani discorsi si ragiona di tutte le materie honorate, che si ricercano a un vero gentil’huomo. Con la tavola per alphabeto di tutte le cose notabili (Venice: Paolo Gherardo, 1554). 3 Sabba Castiglione, Ricordi ovvero ammaestramenti, ed. and introd. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 1999). 4 See Sabba Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri: voci di un carteggio, 1505- 1542, ed. and introd. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2004); Alessandro Luzio, “Lettere inedite di fra Sabba da Castiglione,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 2nd ser. 3 (1886): 91-112.

3 0.1 Sabba Castiglione’s Roles and Works

I begin my dissertation with a study of Sabba’s Milanese origins and early education, his interrupted law education at Pavia, and a sojourn with the Gonzaga court in

Mantua, as well as his knightly service in Rhodes and among the Roman Curia. An examination of Sabba’s early adulthood provides not only pertinent historical information on the Hospitaller Order but also examines pivotal moments that would define a humanist

Italian knight, especially when, in 1515, at the age of thirty-five, Sabba became a

Hospitaller commander, accepting a post previously held by his friend Giulio de’ Medici

(1478-1534), the future Pope Clement VII. He took up residence at the Order’s

Commenda, or commandery, a district headquarters similar to a feudal estate, in Faenza,

Romagna, part of the Papal States.5

In my second chapter, I describe Sabba Castiglione’s 1529 eclogue of 109 octaves in hendecasyllabic sdrucciolo (dactyl) meter, the Lamento.6 Despite its literary significance, no close analysis of the Lamento exists. In modern times, Claudio Scarpati and Giancarlo Schizzerotto have broached the subject, the latter republishing the poem in a modern edition.7 In it, a painful amatory dilemma unfolds against a bucolic backdrop.

5 Sabba’s Commenda di Santa Maria Maddalena del Borgo Durbecco in Faenza, Romagna, was located on the southeastern edge of that small city on the ancient Emilia road. Commanderies, found throughout western Europe, housed the district commanders of knights and provided revenue for Hospitaller fortresses in the Levant. The origin of the term Commenda is unclear and has yet to be established. Each commandery comprised lodging for a few brethren, a chapel, sometimes a functioning hospice, and often farmland that provided the financial wherewithal. The commanderies were grouped into districts called priories, themselves grouped into langues, or tongues, corresponding approximately to eight geographical areas of western Europe. The grand master and Hospitaller headquarters were in the Convent, a fortress compound located variously, during the Middle Ages and up to Sabba’s epoch, in Jerusalem, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Malta. 6 Il lamento pietoso del disgratiato Clonico pastore contra d’amore & di Delia crudele da lui sommamente amata. Novamente stampato & diligentemente rivisto (Venice: Gieronymo Pencio da Lecco, 1528 [1529]). 7 Claudio Scarpati, “Ricerche su Sabba Castiglione,” in Studi sul Cinquecento italiano (Milan: Vita e pensiero, 1982), 27-125. Giancarlo Schizzerotto published it again after a 440-year interlude in his romagnolo literary analysis, Teatro e cultura in Romagna dal Medioevo al Rinascimento: la Tragedia de

4 The shepherd Clonico surprises a bathing nymph and is shooed away. He falls madly in love with her, sinks to despondency, then attempts to take his own life. The goddess

Diana appears, convinces him to cease trying to kill himself, and sends him on a perilous journey to a mountaintop where, before the temple of Apollo, Clonico reclaims his lost tranquility. Thematically, correlations with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are obvious; also noteworthy is the observance of a formal bucolic code inherited from Iacopo

Sannazaro’s Arcadia.8 Sabba’s eclogue is animated by a free use of familiar

mythological representations and embellished with pastoral tropes from classical,

medieval, and Renaissance antecedents. True to the tenets of the Hospitaller Order, the

Lamento defines the purposeful life, expounding the centrality of pursuing inner spirituality through outward endeavors.

My third chapter describes the Knights Hospitaller, and Sabba Castiglione specifically, as members of a military order whose spiritual commitment was akin to that of canons regular. Hospitaller activities were bifurcated, exhibiting both warlike functions and daily sacred liturgical duties. In the Convent headquarters at Rhodes, the

Hospitallers defended the island and fought enemy Ottoman forces nearby on the

Anatolian Coast. As commander of a precettoria in Faenza, Sabba helped support the

Order in the Levant through administrative work, the yearly raising of funds, and knightly drills.9 The chivalric code of the Hospitallers is well understood, and their

military exploits have been related by historians. But the regimen of prayer and ritual

casu Cesene di Ludovico da Fabriano e Il lamento pietoso o La Barona di fra Sabba da Castiglione (Ravenna: Edizioni della Rotonda, 1969), 100-130. 8 See Iacopo Sannazaro, Arcadia, ed. Francesco Erspamer (Milan: Mursia, 1990). 9 Precettoria or domus were the terms originally employed for the Hospitaller commanderies in western Europe. See Anthony Luttrell, “Gli ospedalieri nell’Italia settentrionale dopo il 1312,” in Riviera di Levante tra Emilia e Toscana, un crocevia per l’Ordine di San Giovanni; atti del convegno, Genova – Chiavari – Rapallo, 9-12 settembre 1999, ed. Josepha Costa Restagno (Genoa: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, 2001), 172.

5 that comprised a significant portion of the knight’s everyday life is less known.10

Liturgical evidence from the beginning of the twelfth century, such as breviaries and psalters, provides insight into the spiritual ideals of Christian knights. Sabba’s Ricordi delineates the Hospitaller Order’s daily liturgical practices, as well as a personal regimen to follow. The outlook of its dutiful knights cannot help but be shaped by the Order’s canonical nature, including its routine Night Office, familiar hymns and psalms, and oft- repeated tenets. Sabba does not let the reader forget that the knight’s military obligation must be soundly complemented by spiritual piety reinforced through daily liturgical practice. Rules, customs, and sacred monastic vows are the core of what constitutes a

Knight Hospitaller.11 As one of the few sixteenth-century Hospitaller writers that

described the Order’s geopolitical and spiritual aspects, Sabba provides valuable interpretation of the knightly precepts that accompany the knight’s daily routine.

In my fourth chapter, I describe Italian Hospitaller imagery as it pertains to the

Commenda’s architecture, frescoes, iconography, and inscriptions commissioned by

Sabba during his active forty-year role as a managerial knight and patron of the arts.

Penitential Hospitaller austerity found expression in the simplicity and functionality of

the Commenda’s grounds: a private orchard; an ambulatory for the sick; a school for the poor; and a columned, porticoed inner courtyard with arched gateways connecting the

Commenda church to the living quarters. Marble inscriptions throughout the compound

10 The historian Cristina Dondi has written on the liturgical practices of the military orders, but the information available is scant before the mid-sixteenth century. See “Hospitaller Liturgical Manuscripts and Early Printed Books,” Revue Mabillon New ser. 14 (2003): 225-256; and The Liturgy of the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem: A Study and a Catalogue of the Manuscript Sources (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2004). 11 Along with rules prescribed by Hospitaller hierarchy, the knights were also bound by general customs (usances) constituting common practices of the Order not specified by the hierarchy, as well as the three canonical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. See Edwin James King, The Rule, Statutes and Customs of the Hospitallers, 1099-1310 (London: Methuen, 1934. Reprint, New York: AMS Press, 1981).

6 expressed basic Hospitaller tenets.12 Today’s Commenda faentina is unusual because its

buildings are better preserved than any other former Hospitaller commandery in Emilia-

Romagna, and it is the only one with walls that remain structurally sound and that still

contain several well preserved Renaissance frescoes and inscriptions.13 The cabrei, the extant ecclesiastical Hospitaller inventories, reveal that Sabba’s sixteenth-century efforts played no small part in maintaining the Commenda’s structural integrity by repairing the damage from fifteenth-century neglect.14

Sabba commissioned fresco panels in the Commenda church that became central to his particularized Hospitaller legacy, the first by Girolamo da Treviso “the Younger”

(1508-1544) in the church apse (circa 1533), and later those of Francesco Menzocchi

(1502-1574), set above Sabba’s sepulcher in the church nave (circa 1545).15 The earlier work by Treviso depicts Sabba in a knight’s crimson tunic kneeling beside a feathered

warrior helmet, a portrait nearly identical to that of the more celebrated Pinturicchio (ca.

12 At present fifteen epigraphic writings survive on the walls of the Commenda or in a nineteenth-century text by Gian Marcello Valgimigli, Frate Sabba da Castiglione Cav. Gerosolimitano e Precettore della Commenda di Faenza. Cenni Biografici Raccolti da Gian Marcello Valgimigli (Faenza: Pietro Conti, 1870), 11-37. For the architectonic norms of Hospitaller fortresses and commanderies, see Jonathan Riley- Smith, Templars and Hospitallers as Professed Religious in the Holy Land (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), 31-35. 13 Emilio Nasalli Rocca, “Istituzioni dell’Ordine Gerosolimitano di Rodi e di Malta nell’Emilia e nella Romagna: contributo alla storia del diritto ospedaliero,” Rivista di storia del diritto italiano 14 (1941): 63- 103. 14 Besides in the Ricordi and letters, Sabba’s management of the Commenda is documented in the following extant materials: (a) a January 1546 testament; (b) a December 1550 testament; (c) a 1621 Commenda inventory in the Malta Archives; (d) a 1786 inventory housed in the Biblioteca Comunale Manfrediana di Faenza; (e) a 1789 Commenda inventory in the Malta Archives; and (f) an 1870 “verbale di consegna,” or handover of property, from the Italian monarchy to the Faenza Comune of artistic objects confiscated by Napoleonic forces. See Anna Rosa Gentilini, “La biblioteca di fra Sabba da Castiglione,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 253-254. 15 For a monographic study of Menzocchi, see Francesco Menzocchi: Forlì 1502-1574, ed. Anna Colombi Ferretti and Luciana Prati (Ferrara: Edisai, 2003). A discussion of Treviso’s workmanship is found in Mauro Lucco, “Di mano del mio Travisio, pittore certo valente e celebre,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480- 1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 357-378.

7 1454-1513) fresco in the Siena Cathedral depicting Alberto Aringhieri as a young man in the military garb of a Hospitaller, the fortified city of Rhodes in the background.16

Subsequently, the artist Menzocchi was commissioned to provide frescoes around

Sabba’s future sepulcher; he painted several allegorical figures surrounding Sabba the

Hospitaller patron with the Holy Family, who are themselves enveloped by various symbols of knighthood and the liberal arts.

In the fifth chapter, the studiolo, or studio, provides a distinct portrait of Sabba by way of a final frontispiece woodcut, revealing the spiritual and intellectual bent of the humanist commendatore.17 This image was added to the 1554 third and definitive edition

of his Ricordi, showing Sabba content at his studiolo writing table, surrounded by his

books and knightly weapons. Ugo Rozzo, in his history of Italian xylography, deems this

frontispiece to be remarkable for the mid-sixteenth century both for its Hospitaller

imagery and its display of books within the study.18 The woodcut is emblematic of

Sabba’s monastic life conducted within the Order’s parameters of social utility. He

presents an iconographic image of the devout humanist knight who prefers the tranquility

of his Commenda to the bustle of the city, a desideratum treasured in antiquity,

lost during most of the Middle Ages, then lovingly restored in the fourteenth century to

its exalted state by Petrarch in his De vita solitaria.19 Sabba evokes the image of the

16 For an insightful retrospective on Pinturicchio and his formative years in Rome and masterpieces in the Siena Cathedral, see La Libreria Piccolomini nel Duomo di Siena, ed. Salvatore Settis and Donatella Toracca (Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini, 1998), 217-252. 17 For an exhaustive study of the studiolo across epochs, see Wolfgang Liebenwein, Studiolo. Die Entstehung eines Raumtyps und seine Entwicklung bis um 1600, (Berlin: Gebr Mann, 1977), translated by Alessandro Califano as Studiolo. Storia e tipologia di uno spazio culturale, ed. Claudia Cieri Via (Modena: Panini, 1988). For a more particularized study of how the Italian Renaissance scholar was portrayed in his study, with references made to Sabba Castiglione, see Dora Thornton, The Scholar in His Study: Ownership and Experience in Renaissance Italy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 99-125. 18 Ugo Rozzo, Lo studiolo nella silografia italiana (1479-1558) (Udine: Forum, 1998), 90, 114. 19 Petrarch, De vita solitaria, ed. Marco Noce, introd. Giorgio Ficara (Milan: Mondadori, 1992).

8 solitary scholar surrounded by books, much as Petrarch himself is depicted among the frescoes of the Italian painter Altichiero (ca. 1364-1393) in the Sala Virorum Illustrium of the Carrarese Palace in Padua, portraying illustrious men from Petrarch’s De viris illustribus.20 Contemplation became the predominant theme for Sabba, who shunned the

mundane courtly world to embrace divine matters and sacred texts. The purely

intellectual aspects of his endeavors were expressed by the essential cultural objects of

his epoch mentioned in the Ricordi and painted beside his funeral monument: saintly

images, secular artworks, maps, spheres, mathematical instruments, and a variety of

clocks, accoutrements indicating pursuits both intellectual and practical in nature. His

two last wills and his manual of knightly conduct provide enough information to ascertain that his ideal studiolo was essentially realized: the requisite art and books were present, and the appropriate spatial configurations were fulfilled.

0.2 Methodology and Justification

The study of minor literary figures helps clarify the etiology of literary canons.

We can better understand how the center evolved -- those literary and historical markers

most familiar to us -- by examining individuals who were on the margins. Research that

focuses on the major events of sixteenth-century life can be profitably complemented by

study of a courtier-scholar from an isolated region who was not readily susceptible to the blandishments of the urban elite. Sabba’s reports of his experiences in Rhodes represent

one of the few extant firsthand Italian commentaries on the Levant in the early

20 Petrarch, De viris illustribus, ed. Guido Martellotti (Florence: Sansoni, 1964). The subsequent fresco helped engender the “cult of the personality” in Italy, whereby various political leaders exhibited their intellectual prowess by commissioning or funding architectural and artistic projects. For a thorough explanation of the work’s iconographic significance, see Theodor E. Mommsen, “Petrarch and the Decoration of the Sala Virorum Illustrium in Padua,” Art Bulletin 34 (1952): 95-116.

9 Cinquecento, a time of perpetual conflict with the Ottoman Turks. He lived in the Near

East when few Europeans did, and in Rome when classical excavations were being conducted at a fever pitch. Sabba’s writings are my source for documentation on how religious knights operated in the Aegean and in Rome during the pivotal years leading up to the Protestant schism and the fall of Rhodes. His two sojourns in Rhodes (1505-1508 and 1515-1518) produced insightful commentaries on discoveries of antiquities in the

Levant that he made half a century after the travels of Cyriac of Ancona (1391-1452).21

Sabba’s writings reveal his desire to create and nurture an idyllic oasis in the hinterlands of Romagna. Many ambitious Renaissance courtiers were attracted to various courts by promises of power and comfort, but Sabba attempted to construct his own microcosm of an idealized court in that isolated setting, replete with the prerequisite glitter and culture, but on a greatly reduced scale. I have examined recent scholarship on

Sabba and the Hospitallers, including that of Anthony Luttrell, Helen Nicholson, Emilio

Nasalli Rocca, and Jonathan Riley-Smith, but there has been little in-depth investigation of an Italian commandery.22 My work describes the Commenda faentina during Sabba’s forty-year sojourn, using his knightly manual, his correspondence, and his last two wills

21 See Cyriac of Ancona, Cyriac of Ancona: Later Travels, ed. and trans. Edward W. Bodnar with Clive Foss (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003). 22 A majority of Anthony Luttrell’s journals published over the past four decades can be found in three volumes: The Hospitallers in Cyprus, Rhodes, Greece and the West: 1291-1440 (London: Variorum, 1978); The Hospitallers of Rhodes and Their Mediterranean World (Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1992); and The Hospitaller State on Rhodes and Its Western Provinces, 1306-1462 (Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1999). Emilio Nasalli Rocca’s full bibliography and many significant articles concerning Italian military orders are available in Studi storici in onore di Emilio Nasalli Rocca, ed. Serafino Maggi (Piacenza: Deputazione di storia patria per le province parmensi, 1971). Nasalli Rocca also wrote one of the first twentieth-century articles about Sabba Castiglione, “Fra Sabba Castiglione: solitarius et parvo contentus,” Humanitas 9 (1954): 577-84. Helen J. Nicholson provides not only a history of the Hospitallers but also an analysis of their impact on medieval European literature in The Knights Hospitaller (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2001); and Love, War, and the Grail: Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights in Medieval Epic and Romance, 1150-1500 (Leiden, Netherlands and Boston: Brill, 2001). Jonathan Riley- Smith is known for his ground-breaking work on the role of the medieval Knights Hospitaller. See especially The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050-1310 (London: MacMillan, 1967); and Hospitallers: The History of the Order of St. John (London: Hambledon Press, 1999).

10 to establish the functions of this Hospitaller outpost and its involvement with the surrounding community.23

I have surveyed relevant materials in Italian and English, relying especially upon the work of local Emilia-Romagna scholars such as Antonietta Paolillo and Anna Rosa

Gentilini to focus my inquiry.24 I have visited Faenza to examine archives central to the story of the Hospitaller commandery.25 Sabba’s scope of interests and activities was exceptional even for an age of burgeoning individualism, the persona he fashioned was complex and sometimes contradictory, and his residence on the via Emilia was expressive of his life’s work as a scholar and a knight. My hope is that my efforts will provide fruitful lines of further Hospitaller research and help frame issues for future scholarly discussion.

23 See footnotes 3 and 4 above and Sabba Castiglione, I due testamenti di Fra Sabba da Castiglione, ed. and introd. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000). 24 Antonietta Paolillo published material on Sabba’s antiquarian and art collecting predilection, Fra Sabba da Castiglione: antiquario e teorico del collezionismo nella Faenza del 1500 (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000); Anna Rosa Gentilini edited the proceedings of a 2000 conference devoted to Sabba, setting the groundwork for an interdisciplinary approach to studying him, in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004). 25 Of great help was the Stefano Casanova publishing house in Faenza, which provided me many relevant texts and hard-to-find articles about Hospitallers in that city. The Biblioteca Comunale Manfrediana di Faenza was also very helpful in providing me copies of original manuscripts of the Ricordi as well as letters written by Sabba.

CHAPTER 1

From Proud Lineage to Particularized Patronage

Sabba da Castiglione (ca. 1480-1554) was a Knight Hospitaller of the Order of St.

John of Jerusalem who composed an exceedingly popular sixteenth-century manual of conduct for knights, the Ricordi, which provided essential information regarding the

Order’s rules and observances. In his manual, Sabba also described indiscretions of his early years, furnishing object lessons for young knights perusing his book. Yet many details of his origins and early life in Milan, Pavia, Mantua, Rhodes, and Rome remain shrouded in mystery; the information available is fagmentary and sometimes contradictory. Using Sabba’s Ricordi, last will, and letters for firsthand information regarding his youth, along with safely ascertained secondary sources regarding his life as a student, courtier, knight, and diplomat, one can delineate the arc of events that led to

Sabba da Castiglione’s forty-year tenure as preceptor of the Hospitaller commandery at

Faenza and his rise to prominence as a poet, humanist scholar, and mentor.

1.1 An Elusive Lineage

Sabba Castiglione was born in Milan, but there is no precise documentation of the year; we surmise that it was around 1480. Sabba’s Ricordi tells the day of his birth:

Però non vorrei che per aver io un nome raro e inusitato che alcun credesse che fosse di pagano e di gentile, e perciò dico ch’io mi nomino 11 12 Sabbà, perché venni in questo mondo di miserie e guai il giorno di santo Sabbà abate solennissimo, il quale è il quinto giorno di dicembre.1

Sabba Castiglione was the son of Giovanni Castiglione of Milan. There is no reliable

record of his mother. Two problematic, undocumented renditions of Sabba’s parentage

are provided by Vincenzo Ranieri and Carlo Castiglioni. Both authors propose Livia

Alberici of Pavia as Sabba’s mother, while Carlo Castiglioni says that the father was

Giovanni di Francesco da Castiglione, made a Milanese senator by Massimiliano Sforza

in 1513.2 From 1819 until his death in 1852 Pompeo Litta composed genealogical trees

of various noteworthy Italian families in the Famiglie celebri italiane.3 Litta’s text

consists of a multitude of charts with brief biographical summaries of the more important

individuals. The “Castiglioni di Milano” are given five separate genealogical trees, which oftentimes name spouses and specify professions. Therein information about

Sabba is incomplete -- there is no mention of his youth -- and sometimes inaccurate.

While two siblings are mentioned, Faustina (who married Francesco Mantegazza) and

Gian Enrico, “ascritto nel 1494 al notariato,” Sabba’s mother’s name is notably absent.

A Bartolomeo Castiglione, the name of the only putative progeny of the three siblings, appears in Sabba’s Ricordi and his two testaments identified as a great nephew, fra

Bartolomeo Righi Castiglione, the supposed grandson of Faustina Castiglione and son of

1 Sabba’s baptismal namesake, Saint Sabbas of Palestine (439-532), whose feast day is observed on December 5, exerted a considerable influence in the structure of hermitages, and he oversaw four hospices and six monasteries outside Jerusalem. Sabba Castiglione, Ricordi ovvero ammaestramenti, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 1999), 236. 2 Vincenzo Ranieri, Memorie storiche per servire alla vita di Fra Sabba Castiglioni Nobile Milanese, Cavaliere Gerosolimitano, e Commendatore del suo ordine in Faenza nel secolo XVI (Lugo: Vincenzo Melandri, 1821), 14; Carlo Castiglioni, “Un maestro di spirito per cavalieri: Fra Sabba Castiglioni,” La Scuola Cattolica 7th ser. 9 (1937): 278-79. 3 Pompeo Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane. Volume primo del conte Pompeo Litta, 3 vols. (Milan: P.E. Giusti, 1819 -1824). The text contains no pagination and is essentially an undocumented genealogical compendium of historical Italian families.

13 Giovanni Righi; according to Litta, however, Bartolomeo is Sabba’s son, who died in

Palermo in 1570. No documentation is provided for this claim.

Sabba’s early years from about 1480 to 1500 were probably spent in Milan, during the rule of Ludovico il Moro (1452-1508), which lasted until 1499. One commentary, written in 1954, claims that Sabba studied in Milan at the “scuola del

Telesio,” but Bernardino Telesio was not born until 1508, at a time when Sabba was almost thirty years old and returning from his first sojourn in Rhodes, thus such remarks are unfounded.4 But given that Sabba was immediately admitted into the Gonzaga court

in Mantua in his mid-twenties, and that he achieved success within the Hospitaller Order

before he turned thirty, one might assume that Sabba had solid social credentials in both

Milan and Mantua and that he made the most of them, for nowhere is there any mention

of a family inheritance or of lands bequeathed to him.

1.2 An Adequate Humanist Education

Sabba was given an adequate education but not an elaborate one with expensive

private tutors. By the end of the fifteenth century, offspring of many wealthy and

ambitious Italian families studied Greek. Sabba’s cousin Baldassarre Castiglione (1478-

1528), for example, left Mantua to study Greek in Milan in the 1490s. Baldassarre’s correspondence with his mother describes his desire to have his son Camillo instructed in

Greek.5 Sabba was never afforded such privileges, which entailed a financial

commitment apparently too steep for his branch of the family. A survey of Sabba’s

4 See Giuseppe Rossini, “Fra Sabba da Castiglione,” Ecclesia 13 (1954): 240. 5 Baldassarre Castiglione, Lettere inedite e rare, ed. Guglielmo Gorni (Milan: Ricciardi, 1969), 24-25: “io vorrei ch’el attendesse adesso più col greco, perché è oppinione di quelli che sanno ch’el s’habbia da cominciar col greco, ché il latino è nostro proprio, quasi che l’homo l’acquista, ancorché poca faticha gli usi, ma il greco non così.”

14 Rhodian letters explicitly establishes that he was unable to read any Greek, which remained a relatively exotic (and exalted) endeavor well into the sixteenth century.6

At the end of the Quattrocento parents and communal councils organized neighborhood schools of ten to thirty students. By pooling their money and hiring laymen or clerics, they would form independent, so-called “communal” and “Latin” schools and, in rare instances before the Counter Reformation, church schools. Sabba was himself probably schooled at home by relatives or in such a neighborhood classroom, a benefit he he was able to offer to needy adolescents during his years as a Hospitaller preceptor in Faenza.7

During Sabba’s youth in Milan, students were generally encouraged to adopt a

Latinate style based on the imitation of classical authors, especially Cicero’s letters and

orations.8 Rhetoric was taught through imitation; from its content students were expected

to gain useful worldly information. The sententiae from Cicero’s works dominated the

practice of rote memorization from the classics.9 Paul Grendler offers a succinct

commentary on secondary studies during the late Quattrocento and the Cinquecento:

One cannot overestimate the importance of education in the Renaissance. The extraordinary political, social, economic, and even linguistic diversity -- divisiveness would be the better term -- threatened to pull the peninsula apart at any moment. But schooling united Italians and played a major role in creating the Renaissance. Humanistic pedagogues developed a new educational path very different from education in the rest of Europe in the early fifteenth century. Thereafter, Italy’s elite of rulers, professionals,

6 Paul Grendler, The Universities of the Italian Renaissance (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2002), 18. 7 Sabba Castiglione, I due testamenti di fra Sabba da Castiglione, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000), 158-160. In 1536 Sabba established his Scuola di Lettere, a free Latin school for thirteen students, the number of pupils commemorating Christ and the apostles. Sabba’s school would continue to exist in some form until 1825. See Piero Zama, Le istituzioni scolastiche faentine nel Medioevo (Milan: Libreria Editrice Milanese, 1960), 71-79. 8 Paul Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 222-229. 9 Grendler, Universities, 405.

15 and humanists shared the language of classical Latin. They shared a common rhetoric. And they drew from the same storehouse of moral attitudes and life examples learned in school.10

Whether Sabba was taught at home or attended a Milanese Latin school, the focus would have been on grammar and readings of Ianua, Guarino, and Cato, followed by closer readings of Cicero, Virgil, Terence, and Caesar. The latter authors were the core of the humanistic curriculum by the end of the fifteenth century, although teachers had a multitude of classical authors from whom to choose. Students often learned Cicero’s letters for rhetoric; Virgil for poetry; and Caesar, Valerius Maximus, and Sallust for history. Terence, Horace, and Ovid were frequently included, and Homer may have been added in Latin translation.11 Schooling for adolescent students with finite resources would have augmented these readings with an emphasis on the ars dictaminis, which

elevated writing over oratory. For the sake of practicality and to staff an efficient

bureaucracy, such students were beginning to be educated to become court humanists,

expected to write letters and compose treatises as secretaries, diplomats, and courtiers.12

Sabba expresses the spirit of the age:

Opera certo piuttosto di un Demostene o di un Cicerone, che di un dottor di leggi! Perché tra legisti, rari sono i buoni oratori, per rispetto che pochi di loro si dilettano di eloquenza, avvenga che tutta la facondia del mondo sia nelle leggi e massimamente nei “Digesti” [a component of the Justinian Corpus Iuris Civilis], di maniera che ragionevolmente di quelle si può dire quel che disse M. Tullio [Cicerone] di Platone: – Si Iuppiter locutus fuisset, non aliter locutus fuisset quam Plato [If Jupiter had spoken, he would not have spoken differently than Plato].13

Imitating Cicero’s prose was considered a necessary precursor to university studies.

Passages from Peter Lombard’s Sentenze as well as readings from the Bible would have

10 Ibid., 410. 11 Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy, 203-205. 12 Ibid., 209-212 13 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 89

16 been incorporated into the rote memorization required of a student in a Latin school, but the good-Christian motif was only a rudimentary component of secondary studies.14

Sabba, as may be expected, intermingled biblical references with classical ones:

Per essere voi cavaliere di S. Giovanni vi accaderà andare in diverse parti del mondo e conversare con varie nazioni, pertanto vi ricorderò in ogni luogo e con qualsivoglia persona essere sempre vero e buono cristiano e in tutte le vostre azioni valervi quanto più potete degli esempi della Sacra Scrittura e massimamente delli sacrosancti Evangeli, li quali saranno la vostra “Etica” di Aristotele e li vostri “Uffici” di M. Tullio [Cicerone], perché di quella e di questo sono tanto più degni ed eccellenti, quanto quelli furono opere composte da puri e semplici uomini, e questi dati e promulgati per la propria bocca e viva voce di N.S. Gesù Cristo, vero Dio e perfetto uomo e sapienza del padre eterno.15

The theme of human understanding and of human conceptual limitations is

neither new nor extreme. Dante is but one of many authors who couple the fame of the ancient writers with human frailty. The fusion of pagan and Christian elements would have posed dilemmas for anyone, let alone an introspective Hospitaller Knight such as

Sabba. Thus, Sabba intersperses his manual with content “seguendo la opinione di

Agostino, ornamento della Chiesa, e del mio Seneca.”16 From the number of direct

citations in the Ricordi, St. Augustine (354-430) and Seneca the Younger (4 BC - 65 AD)

appear to remain throughout Sabba’s life his favorite Christian and classical authors.17

Augustine personified spiritual awakening; Seneca embodied stoic independence in the face of overwhelming adversity. Sabba’s later writings draw repeatedly on Seneca for examples. It was natural for Sabba to salute Seneca: “con ricordarvi del detto di Seneca che del servizio il vero frutto consiste in avere servito, e così, di tutte le altre cose ben

14 See Grendler, Schooling, 333-62. 15 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 106. 16 Ibid., 193. 17 See especially Ivano Dionigi, “Presenze classiche in Sabba: Seneca,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480- 1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 193-198.

17 fatte, il vero frutto sta in averlo fatto.”18 Seneca would inspire the Hospitaller Knight:

“Vi farete familiar delle opere di Seneca, le quali in qualsivoglia fortuna vi faranno

costante e forte.”19

Sabba was an adequate writer but lacked the elegance and ingenuity of his more celebrated contemporaries. His later writings appear to have been intended for

Hospitaller Knights versed in the vernacular but not necessarily in the humanities.20

Sabba’s writing is easily read, oftentimes employing textual analogies and rhetorical anaphora. His vernacular text is interspersed with historical anecdotes, apologies, and parables.21 Sabba’s last two testaments, however, are written in simple juridical Latin

perhaps composed by their respective notaries. Both wills contain detailed biographical

commentary pertaining to his youth and his experiences as a young knight in Rhodes and

Rome.

1.3 Studies in Pavia

Sabba pursued post-secondary studies at the University of Pavia in southwestern

Lombardy, studying jurisprudence from about 1500 to late spring 1505. He began but

did not finish a legal education:

E però io feci ben a non dottorarmi in leggi, perché sì come sono sdentato, così stato sarei un dottorello in troco lude, l’altro perché gli

18 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 61. 19 Ibid., 52. 20 Ibid., 14: “E se alcun altro (come accade) mi tassasse [biasimasse] d’aver io scritto nella mia volgar lingua, overamente materna, mi scuserò ch’io scrivo ad un giovane e cavalier, e altre persone ch’hanno il natural disio di sapere, ma non sanno il latino, i quali senza comparazione sono assai più di quelli che lo sanno, e non a litterati; i quali, come di continuo sono occupati nei gravi studi delle alte scienze e degne discipline dei grandi e famosi autori greci e latini, così degnàti non si sarebbero pur mirar la coperta e il titolo, che non leggere in corpo le vergate carte de li miei senili deliramenti.” 21 See Paolo Trovato, “La lingua di Sabba” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno. Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 73-93.

18 avvocati e procuratori di nostri tempi per la maggior parte sono come li soldati di ventura, li quali pur che il soldo loro gli corra, non curano punto che la guerra sia giusta o ingiusta, lecita o illecita. Gli giudici poi (non dico delli buoni e integri) perché gli garbugli fanno per loro, vedono volontieri e accarezzano e favoreggiano gli ingarbugliatori e strafogliatori, perché fanno buona e mantengono la bottega. E però si dice “mentre la lite pende, la banca rende.22

Sabba’s use of “sdentato” and “dottorello,” as well as the witty yet derisive maxim

“mentre la lite pende, la banca rende,” seems a way of making light of his failure to complete his legal training “in troco lude,” a variation of “in utroque iure,” in both canon or civil law. Expressing his dearth of passion and ambition for studying law, Sabba cannot resist invoking the stereotype of a profession sometimes seen as composed of mercenaries lacking a moral compass. His assessment of the profession was not original; such sentiments existed in the Trecento in Boccaccio’s and Petrarch’s attacks on lawyers and the study of law.23 In the early sixteenth century Pavia’s university concentrated its academic resources on law. Its most famous professors taught law, and Pavia ranked behind only Bologna and Padua in the number of faculty and students enrolled in legal studies.24 At the end of the fifteenth century at Pavia, professorships held by civil jurists outnumbered those held by canonical ones two to one, a direct correlation with overall

student body preferences.25

The seventeenth-century author Antonio Beffa Negrini wrote that at Pavia Sabba

was enrolled in the Collegio Universitario di S. Agostino, founded in 1429 by Sabba’s

22 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 139. 23 For Petrarch’s views on lawyers, see Le familiari 20.4, ed. Vittorio Rossi and Umberto Bosco, 4 vols. (Florence: Sansoni, 1933-42), 4:13-22; Letters of Old Age. Rerum senilium libri 18.1, trans. Aldo S. Bernardo, Saul Levin, and Reta A. Bernardo, 2 vols. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 2:672-679. For Boccaccio’s criticism of law, see Genealogiae 14.4, (Venice, 1494, facsimile edition) in The Renaissance and the Gods, ed. Stephen Orgel (New York: Garland, 1976). 24 Grendler, Universities, 82-93. 25 Ibid., 457-458.

19 distant relative, Cardinal Branda Castiglioni.26 This collegio provided room and board to

some of its students irrespective of background or nationality, courtesy of the

Augustinian Order, so long as they were of modest economic means. The possibility that

Sabba may have received financial assistance at Pavia, as well as the fact that he later

became a Knight Hospitaller and that he subsisted in great part upon the benefices of the

Roman Curia, attest to the exigencies of his Milanese patrician class as well as to the

resourcefulness and keen ambition of Sabba’s immediate family.

From the end of the fifteenth century until the solidification of Spanish dominion

in Lombardy during the mid-1530s there were perpetual political upheavals in Milan, at

the time the largest city in Italy. Consequently, there was a great disruption of the

patronage system for patrician families like the Castiglione.27 Without a strong signoria,

or domestic lordship authority, and increasingly subject to foreign dominion, the

Milanese patrician class became susceptible to economic hardship.

Scholasticism was prevalent during Sabba’s time at the University of Pavia, where legal instruction at the beginning of the sixteenth century was grounded in ancient

Roman law. From the Roman Corpus juris civilis there developed additional medieval commentary -- emanating especially from Bologna -- that essentially dismantled and reconstructed texts. Comprehension and reasoning mattered more than style. In the

Cinquecento, a student would list the affirmative and negative views and then resolve the contradictions dialectically. Thus, Sabba applied Scholastic methodology to (perhaps both civil and canon) law, attempting to create universal legal principles. The

26 Pietro Vaccari, Storia della Università di Pavia, rev. 2nd ed. (Pavia: Università di Pavia, 1957), 104. During the twentieth century the collegio was renamed the Collegio Universitario Castiglioni Brugnatelli, which today offers lodging and extensive amenities for female students. 27 See Giorgio Chittolini, Città, comunità e feudi negli stati dell’Italia centro-settentrionale (XIV-XVI secolo) (Milan: Unicopli, 1996), 167-180.

20 interpretations of several late medieval scholars helped strengthen the relationship with the late Roman period: Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1313-1357) and Baldo degli Ubaldi (ca.

1327-1400) guided Italian jurisprudence with fourteenth-century tenets that reconciled

Roman law with contemporary legal thinking. Both authors attributed great authority to the ruler and emphasized the status of persons and their property, the distinction between public and private, and the principle of seeking equity when necessary.28

An emphasis on the keen mind of the able jurist presumed the ability to find a

satisfactory compromise between city-state or princedom statutes and the supranational

laws of the Holy Roman Empire (not to mention the ubiquitous Catholic Church), in

theory reconciling black law with real-life experiences. Sabba’s rhetorical writing and

speaking skills would have been buttressed by readings pertaining to civil law such as the

Digest and Codex of Justinian, the Libri authenticorum (a collection of 134 imperial laws

compiled in the sixth century), and Libri feudorum (customs and practices of feudal law).29

Sabba later placed Pavia within the humanistic ambit when he discussed a famous

book once owned by Petrarch that was at the library of Pavia. This so-called Virgilio

Ambrosiano is adorned with a miniature by Simone Martini from 1340.30 Sabba’s

expansive account in the Ricordi of Martini’s Virgilian bucolic image is itself a sign of

the burgeoning codification of artistic representation during the mid-sixteenth century:

Che essendo io giovane e dando opera alle leggi in Pavia, tra le altre cose belle, preziose e rare che erano in essa libraria [del Castello di Pavia], vidi e più volte l’ebbi in mano, e certo non senza riverenza, il Virgilio in pergameno di esso M. Francesco [Petrarca], ove nel principio in una carta da un canto era scritto di sua mano quella epistola che

28 See Grendler, Universities, 430-473. 29 Ibid. 30 Virgilio Ambrosiano, MS S.P. 10/27, Milan: Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

21 comincia Laur[e]a propriis virtutibus illustris, et meis longum celebrata carminibus et etc. [Laura illustrious for her own virtues, and for a long time celebrated by my poems] e parimenti, pur di sua mano, gli era quel frammento di quell’altra epistola quid ergo ais finxisse me mihi speciosum Laurae nomen etc. [why therefore do you say that I conceived for myself the beautiful name of Laura]. In fondo del foglio di una lettera più minuta, pur di mano del medesimo, gli era scritto: cum esset ductus Paulus ad mausoleum Virgilii, fertur dixisse: si te mortuum invenissem, vivum restituissem, o poetarum maxime [Paul having been conducted to the mausoleum of Virgil, it is told he said: if I had found you dead, I would have restored you to life, oh greatest of poets]. Dall’altro canto del foglio di figure della grandezza quasi d’ un sommesso, ma molto belle, delicate e ben finte, gli era un pastore che mongeva una pecora o capra che fosse, a canto a questo gli era un contadino che con un ronciglione potava una vite. Di sotto a questo gli era uno Enea armato, in piede appoggiato ad un’asta; a lato a questo gli era un Servio, il quale con la man destra levando una cortina, con la sinistra accennava Virgilio, il quale, colcato in terra sopra l’erbe verdi e fiorite, con la destra mano pontellava la guancia e il mento e nella sinistra tenea un calamo, tutto pensoso e quasi astratto. Da basso scritto, gli era pur di sua mano, ma di lettera più grossetta: Sena tulit Simonem digito qui talia pinxit [Siena produced Simone who painted with his finger such things].31

Sabba’s summation of the Martini miniature is instructional for its allusion to Virgil’s three masterpieces: Aeneidos, Bucolica, and Georgica. There is iconography within the iconography, as Sabba intermingles comments about his legal studies in Pavia with his devotion to the father of humanism. He even evokes a lofty identification of himself in relation to Petrarch, a compatriot who had lived abroad and studied law, had been enamored of Cicero’s writings and sought solace through the study of classicism and, ultimately, had given up the law for more altruistic, humanistic pursuits. Through

Petrarch, a rudimentary yet vital link is established with a previous world, a continuum of

the medieval experience that stretches back to antiquity.

31 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 212-213. See also Marco Collareta,”La miniatura di Simone Martini per il Petrarca descritta da Sabba da Castiglione,” Prospettiva 53-56 (1988-1989): 335: “contrasto, tipico del Cinquecento maturo, tra una arcaica ‘diligenza’ ed una più moderna ‘prestezza’ non ha varcato la soglia dello studiolo ancora tutto umanistico, dal quale frate Sabba guarda, senza troppi distinguo, al pittore amico del Petrarca come agli scultori contemporanei ed amici suoi.”

22 1.4 A Sojourn with the Gonzaga

Sabba Castiglione left Pavia and his studies in May 1505, traveling to the Mantuan court ruled by the Marquis Francesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519). His leave-taking involved the kind of frivolous behavior that had become a rite of passage for authors of his epoch to reminisce about in later accounts. As befitting a Knight Hospitaller, the older Sabba merely alludes to his earlier pursuit of women:

Essendo io giovane nella città di Pavia allora felicissima e famosissima in lettere, trovandomi a caso ad una solenne festa, ove erano molte donne nobili, virtuose e belle, da alcune di loro con molta istanza fui ricercato a dire qual fosse la vera bellezza della donna.32

Sabba’s youthful fecklessness included his rudderless pursuit of jurisprudence; his

transition to more worthwhile pursuits began in Mantua, where he soon met two important artists, Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1430-1506) and Gian Cristoforo Romano (ca.

1470-1512), who would leave a lasting imprint on him. Sabba’s strong affinity for Gian

Cristoforo is noted by a third party shortly after the friendship had been struck. The artist became an immediate source of inspiration:

Io trovai in Rodi uno giovene da Castiglione il cui nome non ho in memoria. Mi disse che alla tornata mia mi darebbe certe cose antiche da portare alla Signoria di Madama: dandomele, le portarò comodamente e cum gran diligenzia. Questo tale è grande amico di Cristofalo scultore.33

An appreciation for art was also stimulated in Mantua by the Marchioness Isabella d’Este

Gonzaga (1474-1539), a noble patron of artists and collectors. These influences set Sabba

on a vocational path that would sustain him financially for the rest of his life. Sabba

abruptly left Mantua in summer 1505, then suddenly resurfaced in the eastern

32 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 153. 33 Luca Coffani, a Florentine physician working for the Gonzaga, writing to his master, Francesco II Gonzaga, from Cyprus on 20 August 1505, just months after Sabba had met these pivotal individuals in Mantua. See Sabba Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri: voci di un carteggio, 1505-1542, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2004), 3.

23 Mediterranean in August, where he joined the Hospitaller Order and volunteered for military service in Rhodes, just off the southwestern Anatolian coast. The Ricordi introduction states that Sabba became a Knight Hospitaller on August 5, 1505, personally assisted in the ceremony by his Italian compatriot and mentor, then Hospitaller Admiral and future Grand Master Fabrizio del Carretto (ca. 1460-1521).34 Dutiful service in the caravan, the Order’s contingent in the East maintained to protect the Levant possessions, with which Sabba served two tours of duty in Rhodes, from 1505 to 1508 and 1515 to

1518, qualified him for his managerial role in the Commenda faentina.35 In Rhodes,

Sabba began a three-year correspondence with the Marchioness Isabella that provides valuable insights into his antiquarian activities while stationed there as a knight.

1.5 Knight and Antiquarian

Sabba’s last will describes his becoming a Knight Hospitaller, which would prove to be a momentous, life-altering event:

Reverendissimus Dominus frater Sabbas olim Ioannis de Castiliono mediolanensis, eques hierosolimitanus et comendator seu praeceptor

34 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 16. These introductory remarks “al pio sincero e candido lettore,” that is, “to the pious, sincere and pure reader,” are later included in the 1554, Paolo Gherardo definitive third edition of the Ricordi: “con pregar divotamente il mio Redentor Gesù Cristo e la sua gloriosa madre, mia perpetua avvocata, e San Giovanni Battista, mio confalone, che mi concedano grazia (avvenga che peccator sia) di vivere quel poco di tempo che avanza e morir cristiano, cattolico e vero religioso cavalier gerosolimitano dell’ordine di San Giovanni il cui reverendo e onorato abito, nella infelice e lamentevol Rodi (quale senza lagrime non posso nominare, né ricordare) indegnamente presi nell’anno 1505, alli 5 d’agosto, per mano della felice memoria del Reverendissimo e Illustrissimo fra Fabrizio Carretto, allora ammiraglio della sacra religione e poi, per suoi dignissimi meriti, divenuto Gran Maestro; ed essendo allora il governo del bene commesso timone del magisterio nelle mani del Reverendissimo e Illustrissimo fra Americo di Ambosia, santa e felice ricordazione, certo amendue persone dignissime, sollennissime e religiosissime, delle quali le ben gradite anime per loro sante e virtuose opere mi persuado essere in luogo ove desidererei che andasse la mia quando, abbandonando in terra le caduche e corruttibili spoglie, soddisferà al debito della natura umana, al quale ognun che nasce di necessità è obbligato, che sarà quando piacerà al Creator dell’universo. Lettor mio dolce, soave e caro, vale, e prega N.S. Dio per fra Sabba peccator, vecchio, infermo e solitario. Dalla Magione di Faenza, alli 28 di giugno 1549.” 35 For more on the caravan’s role in Hospitaller tradition, see Helen Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller, 86.

24 meritissimus praeceptoriarum civitatis Faventiae et Meldulae, qui (ut asserit) iam anni qutriginta quatuor preterierunt, assumpserit habitum et insignia equitis sacre religionis S. Ioannis Baptiste ordinis hierosolimitani in civitate Rhodi sub die quinta mensis augusti anni 1505 a Reverendissimo et Illustrissimo fratre Fabricio de Carreto.36

Within the span of one summer in 1505, Sabba Castiglione went from student life in

Pavia to an instructive sojourn among nobility in Mantua, followed by a sudden journey

to the Anatolian coast, where he joined the Hospitaller knighthood, becoming a member

of a multinational armed religious order fighting Ottoman Turkish expansion in the

eastern Mediterranean.

Officially known as the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the Hospitaller Order

was founded in Jerusalem at the end of the eleventh century, shortly before the First

Crusade commenced in 1096, as a means to provide care for weary travelers, the poor,

and the sick.37 During the twelfth century its members became categorized as priests,

knights, sergeants at arms, nonmilitary sergeants, and sisters (cloistered in European

Hospitaller convents). By the mid-1100s the Hospitallers had assumed military

responsibilities and established codes of conduct for all brethren stationed in Europe or

the Levant. Elias Kollias makes clear that the knights residing in Rhodes during the early

sixteenth century were under intense pressure to safeguard, reinforce, and repair the

various fortifications on the island and on the Anatolian mainland and that the knights’

36 S. Castiglione, I due testamenti, 4: “The most reverend lord fra Sabba, son of John da Castiglione, of Milan, Knight Hospitaller and Commander or rather a most worthy Preceptor for the Preceptories of the city of Faenza and of Meldola, who (as he asserts) forty-four years ago obtained the habit and the insignia of knight of the sacred religion of St. John the Baptist of the Hospitaller Order in the city of Rhodes, on the fifth day of the month of August of the year 1505, from the most reverend and illustrious fra Fabrizio del Carretto.” 37 See Jonathan Riley-Smith, “The State of Mind of Crusaders to the East, 1095-1300,” in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, ed. Jonathan Riley-Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 66- 90; Anthony Luttrell, “The Earliest Hospitallers,” in Montjoie: Studies in Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer, ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Rudolf Hiestand (Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1997), 37-54.

25 military preparations were continual yet in the end futile. Probably no more than three hundred knights and circa five to seven thousand mercenary forces were present in

Rhodes during the last years before the fateful 1522 Ottoman Turkish siege, which would result in defeat and the expulsion of the vastly outnumbered knights from Rhodes.38

Adding to the siege mentality long prevalent among the knights was the harsh reality that they had few outlets for diversion: the Hospitallers were supposed to honor their strict religious vows; the Greek Orthodox natives did not freely interact with the Roman

Catholic knights, viewing them as Western interlopers. And few of the knights, who were typically younger sons of minor nobles, were literate or cultured; most were unable to enjoy the classical (and to a lesser extent) Byzantine surroundings.39

Sabba, however, was duly impressed by the antiquities in Rhodes and recent

archeological discoveries in nearby Bodrum, as evidenced by one of his extant 1505-

1508 Rhodian letters to Isabella d’Este:

Aviso adunque a quella come qua a Rode glie sonno molte sculture excellentissime et presertim [specialmente] in nel giardino de lo Illustrissimo et Reverendissimo Monsignor Gran Mastro [Emery d’Amboise], le quale per non essere cognosciute sono sprezate, vituperate et tanto tenute a vile che iaceno scoperte al vento, a pioggia, a neve et a tempesta, le quale miseramente le consumano et guastano. Unde io mosso a pieta de la lor crudel sorte, non altramente se in tal stato veduto avessi le insepulte ossa del mio patre, io feci ex improviso un sonettaccio quale mando a la Signoria Vostra et apiccailo al collo a una de quelle statue. A la fine non ho saputo operare altro se non che alcuni di questi nostri militi Reverendissimi, de li quali el tacere è bello, hanno detto che noi altri Italiani siamo tutti idolatri et però se delettamo de queste follie il per che a me è stato necessario de callare, et con quelli occhi ch’io ho veduto l’altri miei dispiaceri me forza de mirare questo ancora, sed de hoc alias [ma di questo (dirò) un’altra volta]: tempo è ch’io torni al mio primo lavoro.40

38 Elias Kollias, The Knights of Rhodes: The Palace and the City (Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1994), 44-59. 39 See Vincent J. Flynn, “The Intellectual Life of Fifteenth-Century Rhodes,” Traditio 2 (1944): 239-255. 40 S. Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri, 9-10.

26 With these words, written in September 1505, Sabba reveals his fondness for antiquity, his antiquarian efforts on behalf of Isabella d’Este, and his contempt for his less aesthetically appreciative brethren. He makes self-effacing comments regarding his own poetic endeavor, the “sonetaccio” unfortunately lost to posterity. In the same letter one finds Sabba’s testimony regarding the safety and transportation of antiquities to Isabella from Rhodes, Kos (until 1522 a Hospitaller island stronghold just to the north), and

Bodrum (a small promontory on the Anatolian mainland northeast of Kos):

come al presente glie acade a certi soi propositi de avere bisogno grandissimo de statue et altre antiquitati et per essere l’insola de Rode et parimente quella de Lango [Kos] et Castello Santo Pietro ove gli è la sepultura che fece Artimisia a Masuleolo suo marito luogi cupiosi de queste cose, suplica a la Sua Signoria Reverendissima che quella se degni de fargline parte et che in questo la Sua Signoria Reverendissima non voglia mancare per niente per che esso non porria avere cosa più grata.41

Acting as Isabella’s agent in search of highly desired Greek antiquities, Sabba asks

Isabella to help facilitate the transport of certain sculptures. By October 1506, Sabba was in communication with the Hospitaller captain at St. Peter’s Castle, having heard of a sumptuous underground sarcophagus not a part of the main Mausoleum of Mausolus’s tomb chamber carved with a hunt of nymphs and many different animals, all of one marble piece.42 The following October, in 1507, Sabba contemplated moving the entire sarcophagus to Italy, but the impracticality of the plan soon rendered the operation

moot.43

Sabba describes to the marchioness in March 1508 the few precious antiquities being sent to her after years of haggling with Hospitaller superiors, merchants, and

41 Ibid., 10. 42 Ibid., 31-32. See also Benjamin Arbel and Anthony Luttrell, “Plundering Ancient Treasures at Bodrum (Halicarnassus): A Commercial Letter Written on Cyprus, January 1507,” Mediterranean Historical Review 11 (1996): 79-85. 43 S. Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri, 76.

27 political authorities in Milan and Venice. Unable to bring back any of the newly discovered ancient Greek sarcophagus or a marine monster statue neglected by

Hospitaller officials on Rhodes, Sabba complained voiceforously of having been blocked on both sides of the Mediterranean by unscrupulous individuals:

Et ultra el detto monstro, io frate Sabba, senza saputa alcuna del Reverendissimo Gran Mastro, invio a la Vostra Signoria tre teste di marmo tutte insieme aùte da l’insula di Lango alias Cos et puramente un corpo di marmo senza braccia, testa et gambe aùto dall’insula de Delo, le quale cose se non sono come la Vostra Signoria merita et come io desideraria, quella, avendo rispetto al mio bon volere, si degnarà de accettarle di bono animo et di buono core.44

The sum total of Sabba’s archeological recoveries in the Levant on behalf of Isabella was

modest: three medallions; three marble heads from Kos; two marble Amazon heads from

St. Peter’s Castle in Bodrum; a marble torso sculpture without limbs or head found in

Lindos, Rhodes; one damaged torso sculpture from Naxos and another from Delos; and

the “legnio torto,” a type of aloe wood artifact.45

Putting his best face forward, Sabba concludes his last extant letter from Rhodes to Isabella, dated March 26, 1508, on a cheerful note, evoking the goliardic spirit of a young knight pursuing life’s pleasures while on a more consequential mission. He signed the letter “de frater Sabbas Castalius,” his pseudonym evoking the mythological inspirer

of poets, Castalia.46 The allusion to poetry’s female inspirer conveys a sense that the young gentleman knight was embarked on a self-imposed mission to safeguard art,

inspired by Isabella d’Este.

44 Ibid., 101. 45 Ibid., 29-115. 46 Ibid., 104. Castalia was a nymph that Apollo turned into a fountain in the Delphic sanctuary at the foot of Mount Parnassus; her role was to inspire poetry for those who drank from her source or quietly listened to the gushing waters. See Oskar Seyffert, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature, and Art, rev. and ed. Henry Nettleship and J.E. Sandys (New York: Gramercy, 1995), 117.

28 In his more carefree moments, Sabba deems himself to have been inspired by the

Muses to nurture an artistic disposition to please both benefactor and potential reader. In his letters especially, one finds a glimmer of gaiety -- even playful self-deprecation -- in the midst of the geopolitical turbulence attending his deployments to Rhodes as well as the theological agitation rampant during his tenure in Faenza. But despite occasional levity, Sabba’s temperament is more often austere or even melodramatic, befitting the times and the personal gravitas of an erudite antiquarian and knightly preceptor.

1.6 Among the Roman Curia

Sabba left Rhodes in 1508 to accompany his mentor and Hospitaller procuratore, or chief representative, to the Vatican, Fabrizio del Carretto, acting as his immediate subordinate. Del Carretto’s job was to promote the Order’s interests before the Curia.

Sabba’s last extant letter to Isabella d’Este, dated July 15, 1508, described his relief upon being transferred to Italy:

Per la presente la Vostra Signoria serrà avisata come da poi li lunghi errori a li dì passati agionsi da Rodo in Roma ove si alcuna cosa posso o vaglio suplico de speciale grazia a quella che se degni di comandarme, per che in Levante et Ponente et dounque la mia fortuna me balestrarà, io serrò quello medesmo servo di Vostra Signoria che sono stato per fino adora et mai non serrà che non reputi summa foelicità el gratificare et servire a quella.47

During Sabba’s Roman residence from 1508 to 1515, the patronage of Isabella d’Este is

replaced by that of the powerful Florentine Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII,

depicted in the outstanding 1516-1517 fresco by Raphael (and disciples) in the Vatican

Stanza dell’Incendio di Borgo, which celebrates the ninth-century “Giuramento di Leone

47 S. Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri, 113.

29 III.”48 The fresco also depicts the sumptuous elegance of the Medici papal court during

the first two decades of the sixteenth century, as art patronage among the Curia reached

new heights. Of greatest interest to us, however, are the Knights Hospitaller depicted in

this fresco panel; white crosses on their scarlet surcoats distinguish them from the others.

The one clearly recognizable knight is Fabrizio del Carretto, Sabba’s mentor. The fresco

shows del Carretto’s hand clutching a rosary with a Maltese cross at its end, the rosary

and cross together distinctive symbols of the Hospitaller grand masters.49 Indeed, del

Carretto had relinquished his Hospitaller diplomatic functions in Rome by 1513 to

become the Order’s grand master until his death in 1521. His prominence in the fresco is

a reminder of Hospitaller influence within the Roman Curia, and the lofty status of the

Order between the two sieges of Rhodes in 1480 and 1522.50

Despite the elevated Hospitaller status in Rome during the early sixteenth century,

Sabba ultimately deemed his seven-year Roman assignment unpleasant from a personal

standpoint. In Faenza, he composed his Ricordi, wherein he denounces the institutional

excesses of the papal courtiers by way of sarcastic and parodic depictions. This “curiale

Babilonia” is castigated for its opulence and hypocrisy, and the pretensions of its

ecclesiastical aristocracy (i.e., archbishops and cardinals):

– Chi è prudente al mondo? – son certo che mi dirà:

48 Leo III was exonerated following accusations of embezzlement and adultery. The fresco also depicts the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517), and more specifically a 1516 conclave in which Leo X confirms the Unam Sanctam papal bull -- originally crafted by Boniface VIII in 1302 -- sanctioning papal spiritual supremacy. 49 See Giovanni Morello, “Note sulla croce, armature ed ‘abito’ dei Cavalieri di Malta,” Waffen- und Kostümkunde 22 (1980): 97-98. 50 One of the earliest Hospitaller historians, Iacomo Bosio, states that Fabrizio del Carretto was occasionally away from Rome on diplomatic missions, at which times Sabba acted as his proxy by petitioning the pope or the sacred college of cardinals in person. See Bosio, Dell’istoria della sacra Religione et illma. militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano di Iacomo Bosio, vol. 2 (Rome: Stamperia Apostolica Vaticana, 1594-1602), 495.

30 – Quel gran cortegiano romano il quale, ancora che andasse in corte ignobile, povero e ignorante, pur col suo senno ha fatto tanto che dopo l’avere streggiato mille mule e, forse, tanti altri asini, divenne cupista in Parione, poi un sollecitator di cause, e poi procuratore, anzi, “garbugliatore” in Campidoglio e in corte Savella. Finalmente aiutato dalla sua buona disgrazia e sciagura, protonotario e, tandem, vescovo in Abruzzo e ora, per passare più avanti, studia tutto il giorno come un cane l’epistole del beato Paolo, e Dio sa se lo sa poeta quae pars est. E però il poveretto tuttavia vive come quello affamato cane, quale avendo ancora in bocca il tozzo del pane a lui dato, tanta è l’avidità e ingordezza di aver dell’altro che né quello né questo gli giova. E così l’insaturabile e misero cortegiano, ancora che’l sia ricco e forse oltra il merito suo, tanto è l’ardente desiderio d’aver dell’altro che né l’uno né l’altro gode. S’io domanderò di questo buon prelato della Santa Romana Chiesa qual è il suo ultimo fine, mi dirà farsi reverendissimo e illustrissimo e poi, se lo potrà, Servus servorum Dei!51

Sabba’s indignation is hardly less than Martin Luther’s, but he would battle the

Reformation vigorously. His sentiments perhaps presage the Counter Reformation,

which exposed the papacy’s excesses while correcting them. He had lived in Rome for

over seven years as legal aide-de-camp to Fabrizio del Carretto. From this experience,

Sabba formulates a farcical caricature of the Roman court, sometimes whimsical and anecdotal (ricordi 32 and 69), sometimes scathing (ricordi 72, 73, 74, and 82). Maxims dedicated to courtly life are plentiful throughout: “però dice il proverbio ‘Chi vive in corte more alla paglia.’”52 Sabba’s perspective is that of a scandalized moralist.

When Sabba lashes out at the wickedness of the prelates in the Church, it

sometimes seems in reaction to the wounding of his immense pride in the institution’s

Italian heritage and his dismay at its current plight. Santa Cortesi describes Sabba’s

anticlerical stance:

La polemica antiereticale presente nei Ricordi, tesa a preservare il patrimonio culturale oltre che dottrinale messo in discussione da Lutero,

51 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 72. The Latin phrase Servus servorum Dei, servant of the servants of God, is an epithet used for the pope. 52 Ibid., 198.

31 convive così con un atteggiamento anticuriale o antiecclesiastico che deriva dalla polemica umanistica contro gli abusi ecclesiastici: Salutati, Bruni, Bracciolini, Valla ne erano stati significativi esponenti. L’anticurialismo di Sabba si fa particolarmente caustico quando punta i suoi strali contro l’opulenza, la pompa degenere e corrutrice del cardinalato, che costituisce l’aristocrazia ecclesiastica. Efficacissimo in proposito R 118 Quali sono stati gli uomini grandi al mondo, in cui l’esaltazione della figura ascetica di S. Girolamo si contrappone ai cardinali ricchi di entrate.53

This pomposity is widespread. The idyllic rendition of courtly life by his cousin

Baldassarre includes questionable characters who, in the carefree manner of the epoch, became archbishops and cardinals. These accessions are noted at the beginning of Book

IV of Il libro del cortegiano: “Ché, come sapete, messer Federico Fregoso fu fatto arcivescovo di Salerno; il conte Ludovico, vescovo di Baious; il signor Ottaviano, duce di

Genova; messer Bernardo Bibbiena, cardinale di Santa Maria in Portico; messer Pietro

Bembo, secretario di papa Leone [and eventually cardinal].”54 Sabba has apparently

carefully studied and assimilated Baldassarre’s work. Both authors discuss the courtly

system in depth and detail, and both authors mention numerous mutual acquaintances.

The two men both served in the Roman Curia from 1513 to 1515. Their friends in

common included Pietro Bembo and Isabella d’Este Gonzaga. And they were distant

relatives from the same patrician class with the same family name. Perhaps pride, animosity, or modesty prevented Sabba from ever mentioning Baldassarre in any of his works, including the Ricordi, which was first published in 1546, eighteen years after

Baldassarre died (1528).

53 Santa Cortesi, “L’elaborazione del tema della ‘cortegiania’ nei Ricordi di fra Sabba da Castiglione,” in Sabba da Castiglione, (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 154. 54 Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, ed. Ettore Bonora (Milan: Mursia, 1972), 284.

32 The sixteenth-century disdain for ecclesiastically ambitious men lacking scruples appears to be part of a burgeoning ambivalence towards courtly practices. As Carlo

Ossola points out, the court system is perpetually transforming and reformulating itself, from classical times to the present.55 Discussion of courts and courtiers is ubiquitous in

the Ricordi, which contains classical and medieval exempla, brief stories that illustrate

moral truths, provide useful precepts, and teach that prudence and virtue are necessary

traits for a successful prince or a courtier. A humanistic education and an appreciation of

the classics did not necessarily clash with acceptance of orthodox theological precepts in

mid-sixteenth-century Italy. The afterlife and its attainment were then a source of

constant preoccupation. Disagreements from the late 1520s onwards about grace and free

will were two of the major issues separating the Protestant and Catholic camps, alongside

their disagreements about sacraments and papal authority.

The extent of the temporal powers of the Vatican had occasionally been

questioned before the Cinquecento. Its boundaries in central Italy became the main topic

of dispute as the sixteenth century began. The pope was a Catholic prince, primus inter

pares, although this dynamic was beginning to shift as well, for the little fiefdoms of the

city-states were being realigned internally and foreign forces had begun attacking the

peninsula. As Fernand Braudel eloquently states:

Mais au XVe siécle déjà, au XVIe à coup sûr, ce n’est même plus de simples États territoriaux, d’États-nations qu’il faut parler. Alors surgissent des groupes plus larges, monstrueux: agglomérats, héritages, fédérations, coalitions d’États particuliers – des Empires, si l’on peut se servir dans son sens actuel, malgré son anachronisme, de cette formule commode. Autrement, comment désigner ces monstres? En 1494, ce n’est plus seulement le royaume de France qui intervient au-delà des monts, mais un Empire français, rêvé il est vrai. S’installer à Naples, c’est

55 See Carlo Ossola, “Il ‘luogo’ della corte e le sue ‘rappresentazioni,’” in Dal <> all’<>: storia di un libro e di un modello sociale (Turin: Einaudi, 1987), 101-120.

33 son premier but. Ensuite, sans s’immobiliser au cœur de la mer Intérieure, courir en Orient, y soutenir la défense chrétienne, répondre aux appels réitérés des Chevaliers de Rhodes, délivrer la Terre Sainte, telle est bien la politique complexe de Charles VIII, malgré ce que dit un Filippe Tron: politique de croisade, d’un seul trait, elle barre la Méditerranée. Or, il n’y a pas d’Empire sans mystique, et dans l’Europe occidentale, hors de cette mystique de la croisade, entre terre et ciel. L’exemple de Charles Quint le prouvera bientôt.56

Sabba expressed patriotic concern for the regional political strife perturbing Italy. Like

Dante and Petrarch, Sabba embraced a cultural identity that bound disparate people together on the peninsula. The three editions of Sabba’s Ricordi were written between the mid-1540s and mid-1550s, and the comments on the Curia in them reflect the early influences of the Paul III-inspired Council of Trent (1545-1563). Sabba expresses a wary sense of always facing uncharted waters while cognizant of past upheavals that had tested the Italian psyche to its core. He works within the spiritually retrenched confines of an

Italian patrician class that urgently seeks resolution to its generational crisis. Sabba had declined the official patronage of the Roman Curia even at a young age when his future professional success was by no means guaranteed. In 1523, Sabba had also declined the opportunity to serve as personal secretary to the newly elevated Pope Clement VII, himself a Hospitaller Knight and former preceptor of the Commenda faentina.57 Serving

as Clement’s secretary would have set him on a career path to the upper reaches of the

papal bureaucracy, yet Sabba opted for a proverbial smaller pond where he would

decidedly be a bigger fish. He had already established himself as preceptor of the Faenza

commandery and had no apparent intention of ever returning to the courtly world of

major urban centers.

56 Fernand Braudel, La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerrannéen a l’Époque de Philippe II, 2 vols., rev. 2nd ed. (Paris: Armand Colin, 1966), 2:9. 57 Pope Clement VII sent Sabba a papal brief formally requesting his assistance at court, a copy of which is preseved in Arch. Segr. Vat., Arm. XL, 8, fol. 164, Vatican Secret Archives.

34 Sabba was to create his own Hospitaller court in Faenza, financially and juridically supported by the single largest bureaucracy in Italy, the Catholic Church, in a more or less unsupervised way. Sabba maximized all of his professional abilities by creating a solitarius lifestyle conducive to his predilections within his Order, an organization that was still powerful and respected. Protestant reformers rejected religious orders and disbanded them. The European knighthood and especially the Crusades were widely disparaged in later centuries, both portrayed as cruel, wasteful, and corrupt. The history of the Hospitallers, however, does not conform to that image. Jonathan Riley

Smith describes the military order ethos as sui generis, in which the prevailing mood remained penitential, and austerity was the dominant feature of knightly life: “Five centuries later [during the sixteenth century], the fact that the Hospitallers had never lost touch with their obligations as nurses contributed in a major way to their salvation,” unlike the Templars.58 Within the confines of the Faenza commandery, Sabba would soon demonstrate tenacious self-confidence and a purpose-driven resilience -- actualized in deeds and with words -- not yet apparent in other Catholic institutions.59

58 Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Towards a History of Military-Religious Orders,” in The Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe: Festschrift for Anthony Luttrell, ed. Karl Borchardt, Nikolas Jaspert, and Helen J. Nicholson (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2007), 281. 59 Ironically, such an entity was founded concurrently with Sabba’s move to the Faenza preceptory, as a remedy to the general ineffectiveness of existing Catholic institutions in combating the Reformation. This vacuum of Catholic leadership helped foster Ignatius of Loyola’s Jesuit Order during a twenty-year period from the spiritual awakening of its leader to the legitimization of the Jesuit Order with the 1540 papal bull, Regimini militantis ecclesiae. Working alongside the decrees of the Council of Trent of the 1550s and 1560s, the Society of Jesus was able to proselytize successfully in the latter half of the sixteenth century throughout Europe. Ignatius wrote the Jesuit Constitution in 1554, the same year as Sabba’s death, as an attempt to delineate precise rules for his Order to observe and to shield it from accusations resulting from its precocious success. For an interesting study describing gentlemen knights like Ignatius of Loyola who eventually pursue military objectives for the greater glory of God, see Mario Domenichelli, Cavaliere e gentiluomo: saggio sulla cultura aristocratica in Europa (1513-1915) (Rome: Bulzoni, 2002), 77-222.

35 1.7 The Commenda faentina: Origins and Topography

The humble origins of the Commenda faentina are traceable to a 19 March 1137 document cited by Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli (1708-1777) in Monumenta Faventina:

“prior ecclesiae hospitii Sancti Sepulchri in suburbio civitatis Faventiae foris portam pontis.”60 By 1301 the Holy Sepulchre establishment in Faenza was most certainly taken

over by the Hospitaller Order: “praeceptor hospitalis Sancti Sepulchri burgi Portae

Pontis, de ordine Sancti Johannis Hierosolymitani,” relinquishing the hospice work to an

established military order by the earliest years of the Trecento.61 Despite the added

security of having a venue inside the city gates, the Order does not relocate in Faenza at

any time, but rather remains content on the via Emilia in the Borgo Durbecco on the

southeastern edge of the city, just outside its medieval walls, ensconced less than two

hundred meters from the Lamone River bridge abutting the fortifications.

Information regarding the early history of the Commenda di Santa Maria

Maddalena della Magione del Borgo Durbecco di Faenza is scant, but Emilio Roberto

Agostinelli has summarized its original topography. In the twelfth century it was a simple church with a single nave whose entrance was on the northwestern side, with the apse on the southeastern edge of the property. Later a perpendicular, right angle

“quadrangular” construction on the side farthest from via Emilia, on the western edge of the Hospitaller property, formed an L-shape whose corner pointed towards Jerusalem and provided a protective buffer whose inward frontal construction faced the city and walls of

Faenza, about two hundred meters away. A second L-shaped construction adjoining the

60 Lodovico Antonio Muratori, Ad scriptores rerum italicarum Muratorii accessiones historicae faventinae. Prodeunt nunc primum opera et studio J. B. Mittarelli (Venice, 1771); Camillo Rivalta, “La Chiesa della Commenda di Faenza e la sede dei Cavalieri Gerosolimitani,” Atti e memorie della R. Deputazione di Storia patria per l’Emilia e la Romagna 3 (1937-1938): 283. 61 Rivalta, “La Chiesa della Commenda di Faenza,” 284.

36 first one was finished in the fourteenth century, allowing for an open courtyard in its center.62 We can safely surmise that upon his arrival in 1518, Sabba found an austere

thirteenth-century brickworks construction with overt Romanesque features possessing a

single nave with a semi-circular apse. An arched portico three meters wide flanked the

eastern edge of the nave, only a few centimeters from the edge of the via Emilia. On the

southeasterly side, adjoining the apse was a rectangular bell tower over five stories high;

the westerly border of the nave projected onto a quadriportico, the symmetric columned

porticoes on all four sides surrounding a courtyard with a central cistern, the southerly

edge of which was completed under Sabba’s patronage in the late 1520s, and the back of which faces the Levant, to the southeast.

The Hospitaller presence in Faenza was modest before Sabba’s tenure, receiving scant notice in extant documentation, where the focus begins with Sabba’s presence and his renovations of the Hospitaller compound: “Ma colui che diede un nuovo volto alla chiesa e ai fabbricati annessi fu Fra Sabba della famiglia Castiglioni, o come dicesi comunemente da Castiglione, che prendeva possesso della Commenda del Borgo

Durbecco nel 1518.”63 From its concrete thirteenth-century Romanesque origins, the

Commenda church appears to have had its ceiling height almost halved to an elementary

barrel vault that is still in place.64 While this basic architectonic feature is not discussed

by any of the preceptors from the fifteenth century onwards, including Sabba, there is

reason to believe that the distinctly segregated area above the nave was created to house

62 Emilio Roberto Agostinelli, “Il restauro del complesso della Commenda di Faenza,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 453-454. 63 Rivalta, “La Chiesa della Commenda di Faenza,” 287. Sabba was on duty in Rhodes or Rome in 1515 when he was appointed preceptor; he arrived in Faenza in 1518, after his second tour in the Levant was completed. 64 Ibid.

37 and care for the humble and infirm or the traveling weary, away from the quarters occupied by the Order’s members.

Faenza was a provincial city in Romagna under the dominion of the Manfredi family during the fifteenth century, until Cesare Borgia’s conquests in the early 1500s caused it to revert to his rule. Faenza’s citizens subsisted on the fertile agricultural land surrounding it, while enjoying a lucrative trade in majolic ceramics renowned throughout

Europe. Niccolò Machiavelli described the ferocious actions taken by Cesare Borgia, il

Valentino, in taming a lawless Romagna for his burgeoning domain:

Preso che ebbe il duca [Cesare Borgia] la Romagna, e trovandola suta comandata da signori impotenti, e quali più presto avavano spogliato e loro sudditi che corretti, e dato loro materia di disunione, non di unione, tanto che quella provincia era tutta piena di latrocinii, di brighe e di ogni altra ragione di insolenzia, iudicò fussi necessario a volerla ridurre pacifica e obediente al braccio regio, darli buon governo.65

In October 1500 Cesare set out for the Romagna; Faenza held out, its citizenry backing

the teenaged Lord Astorre Manfredi, who capitulated in April 1501, on Borgia’s promise

that his life would be spared. Borgia, however, broke his word and sent him as a prisoner

to Rome and eventually ordered his drowning in the Tiber River.66 In 1503, upon the

death of Cesare’s father, Pope Alexander VII, the brash usurper Cesare could not hold on

to his newly created fiefdom in north-central Italy, and all his territorial conquests

eventually reverted to the Papal States under the new Pope Julius II by 1504. The Papal

States, stretching down the Adriatic coast from Bologna and Ravenna, across the

Appenines and into the Tiber valley to the countryside south of Rome, were bordered by

65 Niccolò Machiavelli, Il principe. Scritti politici, ed. A. R. Ferrarin (Milan: Mursia, 1986), 51-52. For a full discourse by Machiavelli of Cesare Borgia’s infamous brutality, see also therein, “Descrizione del modo tenuto dal Duca Valentino nello ammazzare Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, il Signor Pagolo e il Duca di Gravina Orsini,” 123-129. 66 Christopher Hibbert, The Borgias and Their Enemies, 1431-1519 (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), 224-225.

38 the duchy of Ferrara to the north, the independent Republic of Florence to the west, and the Spanish dominion to the south between Rome and Naples.

Machiavelli’s depiction of Romagna as essentially lawless, dangerous, and perpetually torn by internal strife provoked by competing feudal claims -- including those of the Faenza Manfredi clan -- became a lasting stereotype of this region for subsequent historians. That image was reinforced by Francesco Guicciardini’s depiction of personal experiences there, as told in his masterful twenty-volume Storia d’Italia, which covers the pivotal years 1490-1534. Guicciardini was a direct beneficiary of the Medici popes’ largesse, appointed by Leo X in 1516 governor of Modena and the following year governor also of Reggio Emilia. He was made president of the papal province of

Romagna in 1524 by Clement VII, with the express purpose of pacifying the turbulent region torn by factional strife. In 1526 he became lieutenant general of the papal army, encamped mainly throughout Emilia-Romagna during the 1520s, quelling provincial dissent.67 Guicciardini had served as president from May 1524 to January 1526, a 660-

day period, after which he entrusted the governing of Romagna to his brother and vice

president, Iacopo. Upon relinquishing his presidency, Francesco warned Iacopo that

Romagna was difficult to subdue and manage, requiring constant diligent oversight and a

firm hand to maintain discipline.68 He offered hope only for Faenza, where he housed his

67 Francesco Guicciardini, Storia d’Italia, ed. Ettore Mazzali, introd. Emilio Pasquini (Milan: Garzanti, 2006). Francesco Guicciardini’s written Istruzione delle cose di Romagna a suo fratello Iacopo seems meant not only for a loyal brother but also for posterity, should he be reproached at a later date. 68 Francesco Guicciardini, Opere inedite di Francesco Guicciardini, illustrate da Giuseppe Canestrini e pubblicate per cura dei conti Piero e Luigi Guicciardini: La Presidenza della Romagna ossia carteggio tenuto dal Guicciardini, deputato al governo di quella provincia da Clemente VII, 1524-1525 (Florence: Cellini, 1866), 393: “Non ha poco né facile peso chi ha il governo di questa provincia, perché oltre male natura degli uomini e le triste condizioni delle parzialità, e ’l non potere essere presente sempre in ogni luogo, e avere per questo a maneggiare il più delle faccende per mano de’ ministri, causa molti disordini; se una esatta e assidua diligenza del superiore non vi provvede, e se etiam non si vendica tanta riputazione e di

39 wife and children and which he deemed to be relatively quiet and, among the towns of

Romagna, the least susceptible to uprising, albeit easily prone to skirmishes if its civic leaders were not appeased.69

Travel in Romagna remained dangerous during Sabba’s residence, but the danger

to Faenza would have been somewhat alleviated by the Hospitaller creed, which required

providing hospitality, food, and shelter to all requesting aid. Those seeking voyage to the

Holy Lands in the late Middle Ages often traveled on foot not only to Ancona or Brindisi

but also to Rimini; those travelling from northeast Italy (the Veneto) to Rome on

pilgrimages likewise often crossed the Romagna territory.70 Hospitaller enclaves were

established twenty to thirty miles apart along the via Emilia or in its environs, including

Imola, Faenza, Forlì, Cesena, Rimini, and Misano, with Faenza’s Commenda facing

Forlì, Rimini, and the Adriatic:

As these itineraries indicate, the routes taken by the pilgrims relied heavily on the road-building initiative of ancient Rome, and the distribution of stopping-places bears the millennial imprint of the imperial system. On the Via Emilia especially one can trace the regular spacing of small towns that grew up round the old mutationes or staging posts, placed at intervals of seventeen to twenty Roman miles. Typically the hospices of the Order of St. John were built at the east gate of the town and bore the name of St. John de Ultramare, to signify that they served the travellers to Jerusalem, rather than the growing number who sought the tomb of St. Peter. Others were in the country, at difficult points on the road such as

volere e di sapere fare bene, e di potere difficilmente essersi ingannato, e che le faccende tutte dependino da lui, che gli uomini gli abbino rispetto, e lo temino come se fussi sempre presente.” 69 Ibid., 402-403: “Faenza è città quieta, perché non vi è nessuno capo eccessivo sopra gli altri...non potete fare loro maggiore piacere che non alterare né ingeririsi nella libertà de’ loro ufficii, ma lasciargli fare a loro. E in ogni occorrenza mi sono ingegnato tenergli satisfatti, perché Città da mantenersi amica per le vicinità delle cose di Toscana; e perché in uno accidente non si potrebbe fare conto alcuno di Città di Romagna, se non di questa.” Guicciardini had a predilection for Faenza, residing in Faenza proper for virtually all of 1525; Guicciardini spent more nights in this city than any other during his 1524-1526 tenure as president of Romagna. See Gaetano Ballardini, “Nuovi documenti intorno alla presidenza di Francesco Guicciardini in Romagna,” series 4, 4 R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’Emilia e la Romagna (1938- 1939): 113-123. 70 Mauro Mariani, “Gli ordini ospitalieri in Romagna,” in Pellegrini, Crociati e Templari (Castrocaro Terme: Edizioni Moderna, 1994), 182.

40 bridges, and here the obligation of the hospice included keeping the route passable and in good repair.71

The Commenda faentina exhibited all of the prerequisite elements of a medieval

welcoming center: it was southeast of a small provincial city, beside a mercantile route

long favored by travellers, and only two hundred meters from the only river utilized by

the faentini, the Lamone.72

Just as Sabba was about to begin his forty-year tenure in Faenza, the Hospitaller

settlements in Romagna experienced a significant change in mission from caring for

travelers in a direct way, to providing sources of revenue for the Hospitaller Levant

enterprises. The care of Hospitaller estates was awarded to a privileged few within the

ranks, either those of high birth (like the future Clement VII) or knights who had

performed admirable service during a caravan tour of duty (like Sabba Castiglione).

The Faenza property, once the honorific Knight Hospitaller abode of a Medici

cardinal, was a venue granted only to an individual held in high esteem by the Medici

family as well as by the Hospitaller Order. The appointment of Sabba as preceptor in

January 1515 occurred during the first Medici papacy, that of Leo X, 1513-1521, at a

time this pope was promoting his friends and family to key posts, including ones

formerly held by his Medici cousin Giulio, who preceded Sabba as preceptor of the

Faenza commandery and, as Clement VII, would visit Sabba during two sojourns in

Faenza.73 The humility expressed in Sabba’s later writings precluded mentioning these

71 H.J.A. Sire, The Knights of Malta (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 162. 72 As is typical with modern Italian roads, the Commenda faentina does not actually rest beside the so- called via Emilia, but on the “Corso Europa (109)” (between the river and the Commenda) and to its immediate right begins the “via Forlivese,” which will go on for another one (or two) hundred meters before another name is given to the ancient road. Adding to the confusion, the tiny square beside the Commenda’s facade has inherited its own legal address: “Piazza Frà Saba.” 73 According to Santa Cortesi, Giulio Cesare Tonduzzi’s 1675 Historie di Faenza also suggests that a third visit by Clement VII occurred on 5 December 1532. See Tonduzzi, Historie di Faenza: Fatica di Giulio

41 visits and allowed only passing reference to his friendship with the two Medici popes, in ricordo 73, “Quale deve essere il principe,” his ode to great leaders of noble blood:

O felice e bene avventuroso paese, poi che da Dio sei fatto degno di essere retto e governato da un sì buono e virtuoso principe [the family patriarch Cosimo de’ Medici]! Avendo io fatto menzione della felicissima e inclita casa de’ Medici [especially Cosimo e Lorenzo the Magnificent de’ Medici], non ho potuto tanto temperare e reffrenare la giusta affezione che non mi abbia trasportato alquanto più avanti di quello che era l’intenzione mia, però penso che non mi avrà spinto punto fuora delle termini del vero. Non intendo però parlare per ora delle sante e felici memorie di Papa Leone, né di Papa Clemente, con il quale in minoribus [minor orders], avanti le bene meritate promozioni e assonzioni al cardinalato e al pontificato, mentre fu cavalieri di nostra religione e priore di Capua, ebbi assai intrinseca servitù, perché delle loro santità le virtuosissime opere e dignissime imprese sono per ancora al mondo sì verdi, sì chiare e manifeste che bisogno non hanno de’ miei ricordi o d’altri.74

In the commandery, an inscription, VETUSTATE COLAPSAM INSTAURAVIT F SABBAS DE

CAST MED M HIER / SEDENTE CLEMENTE VII PONT MAX OPTO ANNO DOMINI M D XXV, is visible as the reader faces towards the Adriatic and the Levant beyond.75 This self- fashioning declaration was made early in his tenure as preceptor: Sabba, a Castiglione who became an effective Knight Hospitaller, has taken over the Faenza commandery

Cesare Tonduzzi Pubblicate doppo la di lui morte da Girolamo Minacci, Nipote, & Herede dell’autore, Dedicate all’Eminentiss. E Reverendiss. Signore Card. Rossetti Vescovo di detta Città (Faenza: Gioseffo Zarafagli, 1675) (reprint, Bologna: Forni, 1967), 618. For a detailed study of Pope Clement VII’s travels in Romagna during the late 1520s see Nerio Zanardi, “Dalla prigionia di Clemente VII in Castel S. Angelo alla incoronzaione di Carlo V in S. Petronio,” Strenna storica bolognese 33 (1983): 359-391. See also Giancarlo Schizzerotto, who succinctly states the following papal visits in Teatro e cultura in Romagna dal Medioevo al Rinascimento: la Tragedia de casu Cesene di Ludovico da Fabriano e Il lamento pietoso o La Barona di fra Sabba da Castiglione (Ravenna: Edizioni della Rotonda, 1969), 82: “Il 22 ottobre 1529 Clemente VII, diretto a Bologna per incontrarvi Carlo V, lo visitava nella Magione e lo rivedeva una seconda volta al ritorno dalla capitale emiliana l’undici aprile 1530.” Francesco Lanzoni confirms the two visits by Clement VII and states there was a February 1541 visit by Paul III to Faenza, which would have likely resulted in an encounter between this latter pope and Sabba, in La Controriforma nella città e diocesi di Faenza (Faenza: Fratelli Lega, 1925), 45. 74 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 102-103. 75 “Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Milanese and Hospitaller military soldier restored this edifice in ruins from antiquity in the chosen year of the Lord 1525 under the great pontificate of Clement VII.” See Lorenzo Savelli, “Gli interventi edilizi realizzati da fra Sabba alla Commenda elencati in un documento coevo,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 438-440.

42 from its previous Hospitaller commander, a prominent Medici who is the current pope.76

Pride through association becomes a defining attribute of his early years, one that Sabba

wishes to impress upon those gravitating near his sphere of influence; it is a theme that

will be fully articulated in succeeding decades through his patronage of Hospitaller

iconography and his own writings.

76 “Self-fashioning” is a literary term used by Stephen Greenblatt to describe how prominent individuals, especially during the early modern historical period, attempted to control their identities by means of literary and artistic markers; it means the shaping of one’s identity as an artful process. See Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).

CHAPTER 2

A Hospitaller Eclogue: Sabba’s Lamento

In January 1529, Sabba da Castiglione’s eclogue, Il lamento pietoso del disgratiato Clonico pastore contra d’amore & di Delia crudele da lui sommamente amata, was published in Venice, “novamente stampato & diligentemente rivisto,”

according to its title page. The poem was composed of 109 octaves in hendecasyllabic

sdrucciolo (sliding) meter and consists of emotionally charged mythological content

representing the author’s theological inclinations.1

An eclogue is a pastoral poem, usually brief and in the form of dialogue between shepherds in an idyllic rustic setting. Sabba’s eclogue is a poem of moralizing in which a dilemma of pastoral love unfolds against a backdrop of bucolic topoi that include melancholy tears, rhetorical anguish, a locus amoenus, mythological tableaux involving bothersome nymphs, Ovidian transformations, and the personal intervention of deities.

Sabba’s story, like others of its genre, takes the reader through a landscape strewn with analogies, hyperboles, similarities, contrasts, and contextual and inter-textual associations

1 Sabba Castiglione, Il lamento pietoso del disgratiato Clonico pastore contra d’amore & di Delia crudele da lui sommamente amata (Venice: Gieronymo Pencio da Lecco, 1528 [1529]). The Venetians were in the habit of changing the calendar year on March 1, the so-called more veneto, and most studies about Sabba’s poem give an incorrect 1528 publication date. For an explanation of the proper dating, see Claudio Scarpati, Studi sul Cinquecento italiano, “Ricerche su Sabba Castiglione” (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1982), 41-42. Only one edition of this pastoral was published, a tidy sixteen-sheet octavo vade mecum measuring 13.8 centimeters in length and 9.7 centimeters in width. Today there are only three extant copies, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library; and Harvard University’s Houghton Library. Giancarlo Schizzerotto published it again after a 440-year interlude in his Teatro e cultura in Romagna dal Medioevo al Rinascimento: la Tragedia de casu Cesene di Ludovico da Fabriano e Il lamento pietoso o La Barona di fra Sabba da Castiglione (Ravenna: Edizioni della Rotonda, 1969), 98-130. For this chapter, I have relied on modern Italian punctuation used by Schizzerotto. 43 44 with past literature. It is probably correct to define the pastoral genre, even more so than

other genres like the narrative epic, as “il luogo dove un’opera entra in una complessa

rete di relazioni con altre opere,” as evidenced in the Trecento when the classical genre resurfaced with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio invoking numerous topical antecedents.2

Sabba’s eclogue, like other early Cinquecento pastorals, offers vivid topography infused with a Neo-Platonic sensibility, and united by numerous mythological representations.

Sabba exploits pastoral tropes from classical, medieval, and Renaissance antecedents that involve a wounded Cupid, a mountainous labyrinth, and a destructive amatory obsession involving several characters. Only a realization of the meaning of love by the protagonist

Clonico supplies the crucial element that cures him.

Sabba’s eclogue contains a brief, enigmatic introductory notice “Al Lettore,” presumably composed by the publisher, that precedes the octaves:

Veggendo io che non pur si contentavano alcuni, invidiosi de lo altrui honore, di havere furtivamente suttratte queste rime a lo loro autore, ma ancora senza vergogna publicamente le recitavano come cose proprie, non mi sono potuto contenere (avenga che io sia certo di far cosa non grata a chi le fece, per essere la opera imperfetta) che io non le habbia fatte imprimere col titolo del loro vero autore, et tanto più per havere trovato la prima copia di suo mano. Leggansi adunque per istanze di Sabba Castalio, et non di chi falsamante se gli usurpava. Nè mi sono curato di mandarle fuori sotto l’ombra di alcuno signore et favorevole, perché mi rendo certo che la sua fama sia tale che non solo li suoi domestici amici, ma qualunque, a cui solo per nome egli sia noto, li sarà pronto difenditore contro le rabbiose lingue de maldicenti.3

2 Maria Corti, Principi della comunicazione letteraria (Milan: Bompiani, 1976), 156. Dante’s contribution to the Trecento bucolic revival is modest, wherein late in life, between 1319 and 1320, he wrote two short Latin hexameter pastoral poems (both under 100 verses) to the Bologna professor Giovanni del Virgilio, with the intent of providing a defense of his vernacular Divine Comedy. See Mauda Bregoli-Russo, “Le Egloghe di Dante: un’analisi,” Italica 62 (1985): 38: “In conclusione, le Egloghe di Dante, al di fuori di un esercizio letterario o di uno scontro di posizioni culturali, rappresentano la giustificazione della poesia della Commedia in stile remissus et humilis: giustificazione scritta in latino allo scopo di comunicare con i dotti.” 3 S. Castiglione, Lamento, publisher’s note “Al lettore,” Ai.

45 The Latinized “Sabba Castalio” is in the context of the humilitatis causa rhetorical artifice, a topos of the “opera imperfetta.” The final phrase, “difenditore contro le

rabbiose lingue de maldicenti,” is a rhetorical detractor topos meant as a preemptive

defense of his poem, such as evidenced in other major works, including the introduction

to the fourth day of the Decameron.4 While Boccaccio’s apology functions as a midway proem, Sabba’s (purported editorial) interjection is found at the very beginning, creating

intrigue by way of a familiar literary convention with its readers.5

2.1 Pastoral Origins and Development

A discussion of background information useful for approaching Sabba’s eclogue

should include the third-century-B.C. Greek poet Theocritus, whose Idylls are the earliest

known Western writings that deliberately (and descriptively) recount an earthly paradise

for pastors, their locus amoenus, or idealized place of comfort.6 This delightful spot

defined the characteristics of picturesque landscape as the setting for song: a place of

leisure, attention to nature, and versifying shepherds. Theocritus’s formula was imitated and transformed in the first century B.C. in Virgil’s Bucolics.7 For the Middle Ages and

the Renaissance, Virgil is the most important bucolic poet of the classical age, offering

the Greek Arcadia as the geographical home of the god Pan. Gods and shepherds mingle

in Virgil’s pastoral world; allegorical figures and metaphors populate his ten eclogues. In

Virgil, Arcadia becomes a retreat for erudite poets and their friends, a place of solace

affording clarification of man’s intellectual and moral purpose and a place for examining

4 Giovanni Boccaccio, Tutte le opere, ed. Vittore Branca, vol. IV (Milan: Mondaori, 1976), 41. 5 See Simone Marchesi, “‘Sic me formabat puerum’: Horace’s Satire I, 4 and Boccaccio’s Defense of the Decameron,” MLN 116 (2001): 1-8. 6 Paul Alpers, “What Is Pastoral?” Critical Inquiry 8 (1982): 437-440. 7 Virgil, Bucoliche, ed. Mario Geymonat (Milan: Garzanti, 2006).

46 man’s active and contemplative lifestyles.8 Affectation, satire, morality, and allegory

become central elements of pastoral poetry, usually rendered overt and explicit through

contemplation of past and future idealization. Since Virgil’s time, the pastoral world has

symbolized “the life of retirement and leisure apart from the lust for gain and place which

characterizes the city.” This locale “is a beneficent refuge; its narrow bounds represent

the circumscription of desire, its simplicity is a welcome relief from the press of affairs in

the great world.”9

Petrarch revived the bucolic literary genre in the fourteenth century by composing

the twelve-eclogue Latin Bucolicum carmen (1346-1357), which recounts pivotal stages

of personal and political history during his lifetime.10 While the Virgilian eclogues are

Petrarch’s primary model, the overall theme of the eclogue is rooted in the Church’s

historical condition at that time, portrayed as mostly averse to spirituality and lacking

able governance; interspersed among the political and theological diatribes are found

three eclogues dedicated to his beloved Laura and brother Gherardo (eclogues ten,

Laurea occidens, and eleven, Galathea, pertaining to Laura, and eclogue one, Parthenias,

to Gherardo). Petrarch reconfigures pastoral poetry to his particularized late medieval

world and to his exigencies:

Pastoral poetry is born therefore of suggestions from literary tradition as well as stimuli from a personal historical reality that the poet

8 Peter Marinelli, Pastoral (Methuen: London, 1971), 37-56. For the definition of essential pastoral terminology, see Marinelli, pages 8-9, whereby “pastoral” is the most all-encompassing word acting as a pseudo-genre term, applying to any mixed poems of description or dialogue, part-narrative and part- dramatic; “idyll” derives from the Greek word “eidyllion,” meaning image or picture, and it describes a short, descriptive or narrative poem possessing idealistic qualities; “eclogue,” which has come to mean a pastoral dialogue, comes from “ecloge” in Classical Greek, meaning merely a selection of an author’s writings; “bucolic,” deriving from the Greek “boukolos,” a keeper of cattle as opposed to merely a shepherd or a goatherd, originally indicated an elevated status for the central figures in the story. 9 Ibid., 45. 10 Petrarch, Bucolicum Carmen, trans. and annot. Thomas G. Bergin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974).

47 hides behind the rustic screen. Even if the allusiveness and programmatic obscurity of the poetic text make it difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend or pinpoint the bucolic scene’s context, the depiction still may refer to autobiographical or period reality.11

Petrarch’s eclogues were highly esteemed in Renaissance Italy: sixteen separate editions

were printed in the sixteenth century alone, but in subsequent centuries they fell into

relative obscurity, as only three editions of the poems were published in Italy between

1581 and 1970.12 Petrarch’s eclogues are eventually deemed as topically too medieval in content, wherein under the veil of pastoral allegories the theological and moral flaws of

his particular epoch are described minutely.

The most obvious bucolic model for Petrarch and his contemporaries to follow

was Virgil’s Bucolics, while Theocritus was known by name only in the fourteenth

century. The late-fourth-century author Servius was another invaluable aid for the

commentaries he provided on Virgil’s formal features: the alternation of narrative by the

author and dramatic dialogue among the protagonists; use of rustic themes; invocation of

pagan deities; the significance of names of characters and their roles in the story; the

addition to the story line of sundry topics including amorous complaints; and

interspersing in the text elegy, mythological narrative, and current events.13 While

meaning in these eclogues, according to Servius, was either of an autobiographical,

historical, moral, or religious nature, the reader had to glean the intentions of the

pertinent allusions and allegories for himself.

11 Stefano Carrai, “Pastoral as Personal Mythology in History,” in Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works, ed. Victoria Kirkham and Armando Maggi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 173. 12 Bergin, ed., in Petrarch, Bucolicum Carmen, xii. 13 See Janet Levarie Smarr, ed. and trans., in Giovanni Boccaccio, Eclogues (New York: Garland, 1987), liii.

48 In the fourteenth century, Giovanni Boccaccio grasped the literary uses Petrarch

made of an ornate lexicon and sophisticated allegorical content, wherein deeper meanings

were ingeniously concealed beneath seemingly trivial surface events.14 Boccaccio, as a

proponent of vernacular poetry as espoused by Dante at the beginning of the Trecento,

wrote the Caccia di Diana (1333-1334), Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine (1341-1342), and

Ninfale fiesolano (1344-1346).15 The latter two poems would influence Renaissance

pastoral poets by their varied sources and generous use of mythology for masking topical

issues. Boccaccio would compile the first anthology of bucolic poetry, including poems

of Virgil, Dante, and Petrarch and, of course, his own.16 Boccaccio may thus be

considered the first writer to deem both classical and vernacular eclogues not mere imitations of Virgil’s poetry but worthy additions to a noble literary tradition that

describes events of concern to contemporary readers by way of allegorical content.

Boccaccio’s Comedia delle ninfe, a prosimetrum work like Dante’s Vita nuova, is

deemed the first modern vernacular pastoral romance telling the story of a shepherd,

Ameto, all the while commenting on the mercantile cultures of Florence and Naples (the

latter was Boccaccio’s home as a young law student) by way of the storytelling of its

characters.17 As an allegorical tale of vice and virtue, the Comedia makes use of a

14 Giovanni Boccaccio, Genealogie deorum gentilium, ed. Vittorio Zaccaria, in Tutte le opere, ed. Vittore Branca, vol. 8 (Milan: Mondadori, 1998), 1420-1423. 15 Anthony K. Cassell and Victoria Kirkham, eds. and trans., in Giovanni Boccaccio, Diana’s Hunt / Caccia di Diana, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1991), 22, make evident that the Caccia di Diana poem was not published until the nineteenth century, yet now provides us with an early allegorical- mythological scheme for Boccaccio’s later vernacular poems. The Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine, by contrast, also called the Ameto or the Ninfale d’Ameto, appears in twenty-nine manuscripts dating from the late fourteenth century and nine printed editions, the earliest one from 1478. For a modern critical edition which restores Boccaccio’s original Latinisims and expunges later contaminations, see Boccaccio, Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine (Ameto), ed. Antonio Enzo Quaglio (Florence: Sansoni, 1963). See also Boccaccio, Ninfale fiesolano, ed. Armando Balduino (Milan: Mondadori, 1974). 16 Smarr, in Boccaccio, Eclogues, lxi. 17 See Judith Serafini-Sauli, ed. and trans., in Giovanni Boccaccio, L’Ameto (New York and London: Garland, 1985), xiii-xxi.

49 pastoral setting -- including two Italian eclogues in terza rima containing moral and

religious allegories much like the Divine Comedy, thus continuing the intense vernacularization that would culminate with the Ninfale fiesolano, Boccaccio’s last complete original vernacular work before the composition of the Decameron.

Boccaccio’s verses, at their core, display pagan mythological content wherein

Christian virtue is exalted by means of allegory. The sources for Boccaccio’s vernacular

poetry are many and varied: Ovid’s Metamorphoses; Apuleius’s Golden Ass; Boethius’s

On the Consolation of Philosophy; Dante’s Vita Nuova and Divine Comedy; Petrarch’s

Latin and vernacular poetry; the Bible; Latin, French, and Italian bestiaries; and medieval hunt manuals.18 Boccaccio’s vernacular poems each provide a locus amoenus, whether it

is Diana and nymphs bathing in a woodland spring (Caccia di Diana) or the shepherd

Ameto being reprimanded by Venus until he burns not with lust but with the flame of

Christian understanding (Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine), his transformation representing

a shift to the proper spiritual order once his physical desires have been replaced by the

rule of reason.19 Anthony Cassell and Victoria Kirkham interpret the stag that narrates

the Caccia di Diana as an early incarnation of Ameto, for they are both solitary figures

errant who find nymphs in the woods and are privy to the invocation of a goddess who

promises grace and restores emotional equilibrium to the protagonists. Both works can

be considered allegorical poems of Christian virtue triumphant.20

Pastoral topoi also occur in Boccaccio’s Ninfale fiesolano; unrequited love and emotional despair dominate the early phases of the poem:

Deh, o bella fanciulla, non fuggire

18 Cassell and Kirkham, eds. and trans., in Boccaccio, Diana’s Hunt / Caccia di Diana, 7. 19 Ibid., 31. 20 Ibid., 32-33.

50 colui che t’ama sopra ogni altra cosa; io son colui che per te gran martìre sento, dì e notte, sanz’aver mai posa; io non ti seguo per farti morire, né per far cosa che ti sia gravosa: ma sol Amor mi ti fa seguitare, non nimistà, né mal ch’i’ voglia fare. (Ninfale fiesolano 100, 1-8)21

Excessive amatory impulses abound, with a persistent personification of Love as if it

were a powerful individual commanding others to be constant in their amorous pursuits.

The obsessed protagonist Africo characteristically claims good intentions, especially

towards his newly beloved nymph Mensola; it is himself the protagonist most grievously

intends to wound. The poem will take a tragic turn to unintended consequences for the

star-crossed lovers, an unintended pregnancy recalling Ovid’s Callisto ravaged by Jupiter,

as the mortal shepherd Africo sets off a chain of troublesome events, like Actaeon

intruding upon a vengeful Diana:

E quivi giunto, ad una bella fonte trovò una ninfa star tutta soletta, la qual, vedutol, tutta nella fronte impalidio, e su si levò in fretta <> dicendo, e giù pel monte si fuggìa paurosa e pargoletta; il volonteroso padre a pregarla incominciò, e poi a seguitarla. (Ninfale fiesolano 87, 1-8)22

At the heart of the eclogue lies what Umberto Bosco defines as the nucleus of the genre:

“il monologo-lamento del pastore.”23 In Boccaccio one can find precise markers for late

Quattrocento vernacular rustic idylls similar to the poem Nencia da Barberino (ca.1470), attributed to Lorenzo de’ Medici or his circle. In the Florentine world, such pastoral

21 Boccaccio, Ninfale fiesolano, 32. 22 Ibid., 28. 23 Umberto Bosco, Sulla letteratura del Rinascimento (Florence: Le Monnier, 1970), 34.

51 works came to comprise an informal codification, based on Italian literary models, of the

theme of spiritual love versus carnal desire, usually set in a bizarre mythological world

that acts according to its own whims. In Boccaccio’s Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine and

Ninfale fiesolano one also finds early examples of a vernacular pastoral where the

allegorical intentions of the author are influenced by Virgil’s Bucolics.24 Boccaccio’s imprimatur legitimizes the vernacular pastoral with components both classical and medieval. Boccaccio’s material is sometimes farcical and parodical, often bolstered by examples from mythology and history sometimes evocative of Dante and Petrarch.25

During the fourteenth century prominent Italian authors began imitating earlier classical and medieval texts, as evidenced by the works of Dante, Petrarch, and

Boccaccio. Petrach discusses imitatio in letters espousing the transformative application of Seneca’s famous apicultural and digestive metaphors in Epistulae morales 84 (a central text for late medieval and Renaissance discussions of imitation), whereby a new literary product is born from a variety of sources and then concealed by dissimulation in the new context.26 G. W. Pigman describes three versions of imitation to be found in

Renaissance texts: (a) “following,” the gathering or borrowing from others of phrases and

passages that are easy to decipher and nontransformative; (b) “transformative imitation,”

wherein the differences between new text and old model are as pronounced as the

similarities therein; and (c) “emulation” (or “eristic imitation”), which attempts to surpass

the original model’s essential values and actions, thus becoming indebted to the

24 Enrico Carrara, La poesia pastorale (Milan: Vallardi, 1909), 156-159. 25 Paolo Orvieto, “Boccaccio mediatore di generi o dell’allegoria d’amore,” Interpres 2 (1979): 14-17. See also Judith Serafini-Sauli, ed. and trans., in Boccaccio, L’Ameto, xx. 26 See G. W. Pigman III, “Versions of Imitation in the Renaissance,” Renaissance Quarterly 33 (1980): 4- 10. Pigman credits Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE) as the first author to discuss the power of imitation involving transformation and dissimulation.

52 conventions or framework of the original while significantly altering the model.27 These various forms of imitation, whether of ancient or near contemporary texts, were utilized frequently by Renaissance authors, including Sabba Castiglione, to make new material more palatable -- in his case a bucolic poem replete with Hospitaller themes -- employing content and phraseology similar to those used by prominent classical and late medieval

Italian authors. Such imitation marks the new text as meant for the edification of erudite readers likely to recognize similarities between the original and the new texts and able to appreciate the conceits embedded in the new material.

Iacopo Sannazaro further invigorated the bucolic genre at the turn of the

Cinquecento with his Petrarchan landscape and lovelorn motifs with Virgilian subject matter, all presented in a prosimetrum text. Sannazaro’s Arcadia is a pastoral story that blends elements of the Virgilian text with Tuscan Trecento vernacular poetry, offering a shifting series of eclogues and prose (twelve each for the final edition of 1504, published two years after an unauthorized version) interpreting such idyllic themes as an idealized pastoral setting, deep melancholy on the part of the protagonists, and political allegory which is veiled and difficult to decipher.28 With the aid of the classical Theocritus and

Virgil as well as the vernacular Petrarch and Boccaccio, Sannazaro created an inspired

and extraordinarily multifaceted work:

The theme of unfulfilled love, the great theme of Petrarch’s Rime, is also making practically its first appearance in pastoral outside the Latin eclogue, and again its development was to be out of all proportion to such

27 Ibid., 32. 28 Iacopo Sannazaro, Arcadia, ed. Francesco Erspamer (Milan: Mursia, 1990). Sannazaro is often incorrectly credited with being the first European writer to mix prose and verse in a pastoral composition. The credit actually lies with Giovanni Boccaccio’s 1341-42 Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine, which is composed of prose and tercets. Boccaccio is also deemed the first writer of a pastoral composition in the vernacular. Sannazaro was well aware of the Trecento masters (and the late Quattrocento ones as well), and his learned command of their writings was adapted for his own specific purposes; the result is a masterpiece of refined, lofty emotions under the guise of stylistic and formal simplicity.

53 an insignificant beginning. Virgil’s Coridon provided Classical authority for the theme, but only Valerius and the young Boccaccio had used the idea in the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth century it at last became possible to add Theocritus’ Cyclops to the list of love-sick pastoral figures; and the pastoral of Virgil, Theocritus, Petrarch and de’ Conti himself all worked on the imagination of Iacobo Sannazaro to produce the first great work of Italian pastoral, the Arcadia.29

Enrico Carrara judged Arcadia to be a masterpiece of the genre.30 After 1504 the pastoral

eclogue became a durable convention, thriving throughout the sixteenth century.

Aristocratic in temperament, the pastoral provided authors such as Sabba an aulic

language of amorous desperation, and a tradition of ethical purification through heroic

deeds. By the 1510s, it had become codified within certain hierarchical themes which in

Italy were often derived from Boccaccio, Dante, Petrarch, and Sannazaro. If we follow

Renato Poggioli, pastoral poetry, at its core, is the exaltation of a particular conception of

private life and reflects the spiritual autobiography of the writer cultivating it.31

2.2 Sabba’s Inclusive Language Use

Sabba fondly mentions Iacopo Sannazaro and Pietro Bembo in Epistola de le

lingue d’Italia al Venerabile Padre, dated 1 May 1549 and addressed to fra Leandro

Alberti, the Dominican in charge of the Bologna Inquisition in the 1540s. It appears at

the end of the second and third editions of the Ricordi (1549 and 1554):

E questa mia opinione, ritornando io da Rodo, che fu nell’otto [1508] e ritrovandomi in Napoli la comunicai [la questione della lingua] col Sannazaro e poi del ventisei [1526], trovandomi in Padoa col Bembo, amendue miei osservandissimi e dignissimi signori, e l’uno e l’altro dottissimo e ingegnosissimo e di perfetto e saldo giudizio, sì nel volgare

29 Helen Cooper, Pastoral: Mediaeval into Renaissance (Ipswich, UK: D.S. Brewer, 1977), 103. 30 Carrara, La poesia pastorale, 199. 31 Renato Poggioli, “The Oaten Flute,” in The Oaten Flute: Essays on Pastoral Poetry and the Pastoral Ideal (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975), 23.

54 come nel latino, e nessuno di essi biasimò, anzi piuttosto la commendò [qualche varietà linguistica], come la ragione vuole. Sì ch’io penso, anzi credo certo che per queste ragioni la P.V. [Paternità Vostra] si acquieterà, di sorte che più non mi pungerà dell’avere usato e se per l’avvenire userò la lingua italiana. E acciocché conosciate questo nostro volgare non solamente essere mutabile, corruttibile e retto dall’uso, come ho detto di sopra, ma ancora governato dalla vicissitudine, e che ciò sia vero mi ricordo che tutti i dicitori, compositori e poeti volgari d’Italia, che erano assai per rispetto delle corti, ognuno attendeva a rime, a versi, chi a sonetti, chi a canzoni, chi a strambotti e chi a capitoli; e la povera prosa non era punto apprezzata né stimata né ricordata, anzi dirò che in tutta la Italia altri non erano che facessero professione di prosa volgare se non il Sannazaro, il Bembo e il Calmeta.32

Sabba’s Ricordi, an educational treatise written between 1546 and 1554, addresses

numerous topics including knightly deportment, art criticism, clerical responsibilities, and

the religious controversies of his epoch. Here Sabba appears as a proponent of the lingua

cortigiana, or courtly language, inasmuch as it promotes variety. Perhaps Sabba added

Iacopo Sannazaro and Vincenzo Calmeta, sustainers of a variegated, courtly style, as an embellishment meant to fortify his argument. Then again, Pietro Bembo may have already proved receptive to Sabba’s argument, when they talked face-to-face; Bembo left

Sabba a copy of his Prose della volgar lingua during a 1527 visit to Padua, just months before Sabba composed his eclogue.33

This postcript to the Ricordi brings the reader back full circle to a pure,

unadulterated world where one can wax contemplative amid the rural greenery. Using

bucolic landscape and language, Sabba concludes his remarks with a fanciful analogy on

32 Sabba Castiglione, Ricordi ovvero ammaestramenti, ed. and introd. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 1999), 377-378. 33 An extant text in the Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza has the following handwritten notation: “È di fra Sabba di Castiglione al quale esso M. Pietro Bembo donò in Padova a li xv iulii 1527.” See Claudio Scarpati, Studi sul Cinquecento italiano, 42.

55 the necessary inclusivity of language, endorsing a less orthodox language dominated by

Tuscan:

Ma poi essendosi interlasciate e quasi abbandonate le rime, uscì in campo la prosa, la quale a’ tempi nostri è salita in tanto colmo e riputazione, anzi in tanta boria, che ardisce e presume di cozzare e pareggiarsi al latino. E in questo fine non lascerò di dire ch’io non giudico uomo savio colui che ha uno spazioso e largo prato per cogliere erbe e fiori e si restringe come vile in un picciolo, stretto e angusto cantoncino di esso; e quello che ha libertà d’andare per la città e serrasi e chiudesi volontariamente in una cameretta e di quella non intende di uscire, sempre giudicherò oppresso da umore malenconico. Non altro se non che alla P.V. come obbediente e ossequioso figliuolo mi raccomando e offero.34

To end a deliberately strident work -- and the final sections of Ricordi are indeed highly

polemical -- Sabba chooses mild words and gentle reassurances, offering the reader an

open and cheerful disposition. That melancholy achieved through escapism and at the

expense of human interaction should be eschewed seems an odd conclusion to the

writings of a man whose overriding concern was the self-fashioning of a highly

particularized solitarius et parvo contentus vixi motif: “solitary and content with little I

lived.”

Sabba’s linguistic opinions are not far removed from those of his cousin

Baldassarre Castiglione’s belief that Latin is the proper standard by which to gauge the

vernacular. Despite apparent resistance to the growing Tuscanization of Italian, Sabba

and Baldassarre both decry a rigid linguistics imposed at the expense of a dynamic, living

language, one that continually transforms itself in response to new experience and

winnows out formulations that have lost their utility.35

34 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 378. 35 For the predilection for Latin in Baldassarre Castiglione’s linguistic arguments, see Mario Pozzi, “Il pensiero linguistico di B. Castiglione,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 156 (1979): 196-198.

56 Sabba employs pastoral imagery throughout his few extant writings that concern language, as in the preamble to his Ricordi, addressed to his great-nephew fra

Bartolomeo Righi:

E se alcun altro dirà in questa mia picciola operetta non essere alcuno artificio, io lo concederò, ma ben dirò che alcuna fiata in un solitario boschetto, un selvatico uccellino senz’artificio veruno co’ suoi naturali concenti diletta agli ascoltanti assai. E una semplice pastorella, all’ombra d’un fronzuto albero senz’altra arte di quella della natura, con sue rusticane canzonette, spesse fiate all’orecchie di chi l’ode porge piacere assai. E alcuna volta in un diserto luogo tra sterpi e spini nasce un fiore, il cui naturale colore è assai più vago e dilettevole di quelli che sono con molta diligenza e con grand’arte dipinti.36

The anecdotal desert flower flourishing against all odds is set here against the linguistic morass enveloping Italian literary circles in the 1520s. Sabba concludes his 1549 remarks to his nephew with the analogy of a spider spinning its web:

Vedesi ancora un ragno, picciolo animaletto, senz’avere imparato da altri che dalla natura, nei suoi naturali lavori esser tanto eccellente e mirabile, che ancora non è stato dall’artificio agguagliato. E così si veggono le cose naturali senz’arte non essere ingrate, anzi piacere e dilettare, e forse talvolta tanto più delle artificiose, quanto che la virtù dell’arte è minore di quella della natura, la quale, sì come fu prima, così fu di essa arte la inventrice.37

Spontaneous language evolution is to be admired; nature is to be cherished for its quirky imperfection; a less ornate (perhaps less precise) lexicon is to be valued for its energy and its proximity to nature. But Sabba takes the mantra perhaps too far, suggesting that the use of the vernacular puts a work on a higher moral plateau. Overall, Sabba’s Ricordi preamble tends to equate linguistic pleasure with linguistic diversity.38 In any case, by

1549, when both the preamble and the concluding remarks addressed to fra Bartolomeo

36 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 18. 37 Ibid. 38 Paolo Trovato delves into the linguistic anomalies in the text in “La lingua di Sabba,” in Sabba da Castiglione 1480-1554: dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000 (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 73-93.

57 were added to the main body of work, the questione della lingua had been resolved in favor of the Tuscanization espoused by Pietro Bembo. That Sabba argues for a plurality of voices (and dialects) at this time is a testament to his independent streak. The editor

Paolo Gherardo provided the authoritative version in 1554 with the final contextual changes desired by the author and appears to have cleansed the work of excessive

Lombard dialectal variations, as few exist within the text despite Sabba’s protestations.

Unlike many of his peers, Sabba does not endorse the linguistic compromise offered by Bembo and others as a way to avoid the political quagmire that was Italy throughout the sixteenth century. He shuns the favoritism shown the better-established

Tuscan language that perhaps inadvertently advanced peninsular unification. Sabba’s

Italian is “la mia italiana lingua, et massimamente la lombarda per essere io lombardo, anzi pur lombardozzo, come dice il Tosco.”39 Sabba’s linguistic pluralism contrasts with the Italian political landscape, where particolarismo regionale was in disfavor; even

Baldassarre Castiglione scholars posit a politically inspired linguistic evolution from the cortigiano model to one more italiano and even toscano. Indeed, the final edition of the

Cortigiano favors a lingua illustre, or illustrious language, that is far more homogenous than its own text suggests (editorial changes notwithstanding) and that ultimately takes into consideration the era’s political debates and realities.40 While Sabba’s prose influences are not perfectly spelled out, the Ricordi shows a distinct predilection for both

Bembo’s and Sannazaro’s writings and provides enigmatic praise for Vincenzo Calmeta’s vernacular works: “anzi dirò che in tutta la Italia altri non erano che facessero professione

39 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 375. 40 See Pozzi, “Il pensiero linguistico di B. Castiglione,” 201-202.

58 di prosa volgare se non il Sannazaro, il Bembo e il Calmeta.”41 Accordingly, the first two

are deemed illustrious writers by Sabba in the aforementioned appendage to his work, as

his parting shot on the questione della lingua. Sabba was a proponent of a national

language that paid tribute to the Latin classics and respected the Trecento Tuscan literary

tradition, but one that absorbed and deployed the best, most vigorous elements of Italy’s

regional dialects. Sabba embraces and employs neologisms, asserting that Dante and

Petrarch themselves were well-disposed towards non-Tuscan words, especially those with

the possibility of entering the mainstream:

E tanto più che Dante, Petrarca e Boccaccio, tre lucerne ardenti e inestinguibili del volgare nostro, non solamente usarono vocaboli toschi, ma di tutte le province d’Italia, come manifestamente si vede per il discorso delle loro opere. E il Petrarca si valse non solamente della italiana, ma della provenzale, come “soggiorno,” “magione,” “chiere,” “merce,” “despitto” e molte altre simili parole. E Dante, come riferisce Gio.Villani nella sua Cronica, compose un libretto, il quale intitolò Della Volgare Eloquenza e non della “toscana,” e il medesimo nel suo Convivio riprende per molte belle ragioni molti malvagi italiani i quali preferivano la lingua provenzale alla italiana, e non disse alla toscana.42

2.2.1 Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga’s Tirsi

The reader may notice plot, characters, and lexicon shared by Sabba’s Lamento

and the eclogue Tirsi by his distant cousin Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga

composed post quem December 1507 and ante quem March 1508 for that winter’s

carnival at Urbino.43 These eclogues are two of only six known Italian Renaissance

41 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 378. 42 Ibid., 375. 43 For the most recent and authoritative study on the Tirsi’s composition, see Vela, “Il Tirsi di Baldassar Castiglione e Cesare Gonzaga,” 245-272, which notes three December 1507 letters to Pietro Bembo that discuss a new canzone being composed, referring to octave 40’s laudation of Bembo and the direct incipit verse in the eighth line which cannot be antecedent to December 1507: “E cantò dolcemente: Alma cortese.” Vela also believes that all Tirsi editions since the eighteenth century are incorrect hybrid versions based partly on the correct Vat. Lat. 8203 Tirsi manuscript (with the Cesare Gonzaga dedicatory epistle to

59 poems using both octaves and the hendecasyllabic sdruccioli. Both poems, composed

twenty years apart, are short, concise, and representative of the early Cinquecento. The

Tirsi probably provides Sabba’s Lamento with key contextual topoi that describe a brief

yet crucial rite of passage ending on a positive note and a change of heart initiated by a

female mythological figure. The Lamento repeats the Tirsi story line with similar stock pastoral characters and exotic allegorical figures. Both eclogues portray an idealized setting rife with personal anxiety. The key elements of Tirsi, as José Guidi remarks, are threefold: (a) an Edenic vision, (b) a love quête with a sacred dimension that involves an initiation rite, and (c) a theological construction with the truth revealed within a sacred

dimension of certitude.44 All three elements will appear in the Lamento.

Tirsi is an encomiastic egloga recitativa dedicated to the Urbino court,

specifically to Elisabetta Gonzaga, the Duchess of Montefeltro. The play is an

introductory exercise by the newly arrived (and newly appointed) court authors

Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga as a token of their gratitude for the

Montefeltro patronage. Tirsi’s topoi are enacted in stock phrases spoken by characters

deriving from the bucolic code developed by Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid, Boccaccio, Dante,

Sannazaro, and Petrarch; the lyricism found in the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta is evoked

Elisabetta Gonzaga) but eventually contaminated by the princeps veneziana 1553 stamped version. Subsequently, it was relied on in part in a revised 1771 second edition by Pierantonio Serassi (1721-1791) and is still used by modern scholars such as Bruno Maier; for the first contaminated version, see Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga, Stanze pastorali, del conte Baldesar Castiglione, et del signor Cesare Gonzaga, con le rime di M. Anton Giacomo Corso (Venice: [figli di Aldo], 1553). 44 See José Guidi, “Thyrsis ou la cour transfigurée,” in Ville et campagne dans la littérature italienne de la Renaissance: II. Le Courtisan travesti, ed. André Rochon (Paris: Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1977), 185-186. Maria Corti broadens the key elements of the bucolic code to include an Arcadian setting (or bucolic Eden); divinities, pastors, and actual contemporaries co-existing; the daily life of pastors, consisting chiefly of music-playing and chatter about love woes; and a nexus occurring between the “symbolic reality” of the bucolic text and the “historic reality” of the writer’s particular epoch. See Corti, Metodi e fantasmi (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1969), 286-287.

60 by Tirsi.45 Containing only 55 octaves, one of which is a 14-line ballata meant to be

sung twice, and with an unusual description of moresca dancers at the end of the poem,

Tirsi requires the use of only three characters (Iola, Tirsi, and Dameta, names previously

used by Virgil in his Eclogues), a small chorus of singers, and perhaps a few dancers in exotic costume. The play provides very little action; it is a vehicle for mythological allusions and courtly references -- with an encomiastic bow to feminine authority and benevolence in Urbino.

Iola is the first pastor the 1507 Urbino audience meets, and he stereotypically complains of being spurned by the lovely nymph Galatea. The second pastor, Tirsi, appears in the eighteenth octave, beseeching Iola’s help in finding the goddess of his desires:

E se tali son quei che a queste fonti Fanno agli armenti suoi la sete doma, Non ha Parnaso i piú honorati monti, Né le sue selve piú lodata chioma. Hora sí par che ’l colle i’ monti, Ove è la dea la qual tanto si noma: Di che el dio Pan assai ringratio e lodo, Ché d’esser giunto qui troppo mi godo. (Tirsi 19)46

Bucolic references include a stream, the herd, the foliage of a Dantesque forest, Mount

Parnassus, and the god Pan. Classical mythological elements are intermingled within a

moment of celebratory idyllic fulfillment and Tirsi’s expectations of meeting the as-yet

unnamed renowned goddess. The reference to “Parnaso,” the sacred mountain of Apollo

and the Muses, as well as the references to the “corte” and the “pastori,” are references to

the corte urbinate, wherein reside the pastori-poeti-cortigiani; “la dea che tanto oggi si

45 See Guidi, “Thyrsis,” 157-158. 46 Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga, Tirsi, ed. Claudio Vela, in La poesia pastorale nel Rinascimento, ed. Stefano Carrai (Padua: Antenore, 1998), 277.

61 noma” will be revealed later in the text to be Elisabetta Gonzaga. Pan serves to reinforce the bucolic ambience, being the protector of pastors, woods, and herds.47 The gloomy

Iola declines to accompany Tirsi on his quest for the goddess, too enmeshed in his own misery. Iola is comforted only by his proximity to the elusive Galatea and his occasionally happy dreams concerning her. During Iola’s second bout of despair, a third pastor, Dameta, appears (in the thirtieth octave, the only octave in which all three characters speak, roughly the midway point of the poem) and offers to accompany Tirsi on his quest. At this juncture, specifically octaves 33-47, the context shifts from the mythological and pastoral to the encomiastic and urban, as Dameta delivers an extensive eulogy to the unknown goddess and her retinue of nymphs and literate pastors, apparently alluding to real-life intellectual figures residing at Urbino (octaves 40-44), including

Pietro Bembo (octave 40).48 Tirsi’s excitement and desire increase in the next two

octaves (48-49):

E già le care tue dolci parole M’hanno cotanto intenerito el core, Che prima che nel mar s’atuffi el sole Disposto ho di vederla e farle honore. E ben del mio tardare assai mi duole, Perché degli anni mei persi ho il migliore. (Tirsi 49, 1-6)49

The spiritual conversion of Tirsi begins abruptly and will conclude shortly in the final

octaves; Tirsi believes wholeheartedly what Dameta has just told him and reproaches

47 For Pan as an obligatory character within a pastoral context, see Virgil, Bucoliche, Ecloga X, 26: “Pan deus Arcadiae venit.” 48 According to Bruno Maier, whose critical edition provides relevant yet not fully agreed-upon information, octaves 40-44 discuss five noteworthy Urbino literary courtiers: Pietro Bembo, Ludovico da Canossa, Morello da Ortona, the Magnifico Iuliano de’ Medici, and Roberto da Bari. Claudio Vela, meanwhile, indicates that besides Bembo and the Magnifico, whose incipit verses are quoted in the Tirsi octaves 40 and 43, the identity of the other three cannot be ascertained. See Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del Cortegiano, ed. Bruno Maier (Turin: UTET, 1981), 574-575; Vela, “Il Tirsi di Baldassar Castiglione e Cesare Gonzaga,” 263. 49 B. Castiglione and Gonzaga, Tirsi, 284.

62 himself for having wasted time in a melancholy state, “Disposto ho di vederla e farle honore. / E ben del mio tardare assai mi duole,” now eager to pay homage to her. His words of praise are interspersed with a final eulogy by Dameta to the Duke of

Montefeltro (50-51). An octave pastoral chorus (52) is immediately complemented by the final words uttered by Tirsi and final words of encouragement by Dameta:

Tirsi: Tanta dolcezza è nel mio cor discesa, Dameta, odendo la harmonia di questi, Ch’io sento da un desir l’anima presa Che mi ralegra il core e i spirti mesti; E parmi che a me stesso i’ faccia offesa, Che de ire ad honorarli homai piú resti.

Dameta: Ben li fia tempo, o Tirsi, aspetta alquanto Che altro ci resta anchor miglior che ’l canto. (Tirsi 53)50

The pastor Tirsi is fully enraptured by the eulogy pronounced by Dameta, as if he would wrong himself were he to abstain from the company of Elisabetta’a courtly entourage.

Dameta responds with a detailed explanation of the moresca dancers to be seen performing (octave 54), followed by his final remarks extending hospitality and good cheer to Tirsi:

Andiamo, o Tirsi, homai, che mi par l’hora Che essa qui a una fontana venir suole, E a l’ombra cum le sue nymphe dimora, Dove passar non può raggio di sole, Cantando a mano a man ballan talhora Le nymphe coi pastori, e talhor sole. Quivi ad agio vederla ben potrai; A cena e albergo poi meco verrai. (Tirsi 55)51

50 Ibid., 285. 51 Ibid., 286.

63 By the “fontana” water source protected by foliage too thick for the sun’s rays to

penetrate, Tirsi will find the goddess and her nymphs. Here, at ease, he will behold her.

Dameta even bestows upon him food and shelter, as tempting a locus amoenus as ever

there was in a courtly Renaissance pastoral. Tirsi, the “pastore externo,” has left his

“patria” and quickly found a secure, fulfilling venue in the idyllic, reassuring Urbino

described by Dameta. There is no anxiety or uncertainty in this play; the pastoral

exaltation is pronounced and forceful, with the mythical Urbino of Dameta’s dialogue as

the spiritual apex for these “learned” pastors.

Tirsi offers a positive resolution to the familiar pastoral dilemma of unrequited

love. There can be no time for hesitation in a 55-octave play, which must praise its noble

patrons and portray the learned pastors as willing and able to live beside such kindred

spirits. The dimension of the shepherd’s voyage is far more vividly portrayed by Sabba in the Lamento: his 109-octave poem is twice as long, permitting more digression. But the salient action is the same for both poems: a shepherd’s successful journey leads to a pure, Neo-Platonic ideal involving spiritual love for a deity, in Tirsi transparently representing Elisabetta Gonzaga in her hybrid courtly-pastoral setting at Urbino.

The poem’s vision is idyllic within the bounds of its metaphors and allusions, a bucolic oeuvre à clef that requires some erudition on the part of the audience, but no great metaphysical sophistication to comprehend satisfactorily. More importantly for our comparison to Sabba’s eclogue, Tirsi’s plot may commence in morose pastoral lethargy, but it culminates in a newfound alert aristocratic serenity. And in both poems, it is a female divinity around whom fecundity and personal joy flourish, whereby all pastors can find renown, a tranquil environment, and spiritual peace:

64 Dameta: Par che la terra e il fiume e il bosco rida, Ove el suo santo piede el passo piglia, E l’aria intorno el suo bel nome grida, Ove ella volge le honorate ciglia. A questa ogniuno i suoi pensieri affida E sempre ha ben chi seco si consiglia: Tanto è prudente et ha in sé tanto amore, Portando sempre in fronte el sacro honore. (Tirsi 37)52

The goddess offers a nurturing environment full of laughter and good cheer, as well as protection to those whom “i suoi pensieri affida,” for she has “tanto amore” to give and a

“sacro honore” to uphold. What begins for both poems as merely an encomiastic pastoral displaying prototypical bucolic motifs, now also displays a linguaggio aulico -- courtly language -- that seeks to sanctify the preordained role of the nobility and the “sacro honore” placed upon it.53 Thus what may have begun for both Castiglione writers in the initial octaves as stock pastoral characters bemoaning their beloved nymphs evolves into an auliccizante strain that unavoidably brings into focus the geopolitics of their respective decades.

In Tirsi one finds the unnamed dea, Elisabetta Gongaza, as represented in the 37th octave, walking amidst gaiety and laughter as if emanating from the terra, fiume, and bosco with her santo piede. In the same vein Sabba Castiglione explains his bucolic surroundings (“valle, montagne, bosco, prato o riva”) within the context of a sacrifice to

Apollo in the holy temple:

Allhor si sentirà pur d’ogni canto risonar la mia dolce et chara piva

52 B. Castiglione and Gonzaga, Tirsi, 281-282. 53 Bruno Maier suggests that the “sacro honore” in octave 37 refers either to the goddess’s worthy pursuits or to the letter “S” put on Elisabetta Gonzaga’s clothing, as later described in Baldassarre Castiglione’s Cortegiano, when referring to Unico Aretino’s allusion (in the Cortegiano I, 9) to the Duchess’s diadem in the form of a scorpion. See B. Castiglione, Il libro del Cortegiano, ed. Maier, 573.

65 né mai sarà sanza mio lieto canto valle, montagne, bosco, prato o riva; e spesso a visitar tuo tempio santo cinto verrò di non mai secca oliva ove farò, per tanto beneficio, di più odorifer fuoco sacrificio. (Lamento 108)

Never will the bucolic topoi presided over by Apollo, the god of music and the Muses, be

without Clonico’s pleasing canto, as honor and sacrifice to this god will continue in

perpetuity. The beneficio of the sacrificio, the homage and the respect observed for a

higher calling, ultimately enlightens these troubled pastors. A quick metaphoric scaling

of the allegorical sacro colle by the pastors Tirsi and Dameta, much in the same vein as

Clonico’s feat, is the cleansing action that brings Tirsi into the fold and provides royal

(divine) tutelage to worthy pastors: the court society of Urbino. Tirsi, the earlier work, is

still hopeful about the potential for principalities, the power of the courtly personalities,

and the sacredness of the court and its prince and princess. One should not forget the

sacred representation of nobility that the encomiastic Tirsi is infused with, the divine

tutelage by the nobility immediately embraced by the shepherd Tirsi: “Ond’io volli venir

qui col mio gregge / Per viver sotto questa santa legge.” (Tirsi 48, 7-8).54

By early 1508 and the final composition of Tirsi, the invasions of 1498 have

already taken place and the Borgia machinations upon the Marches and Romagna already

occurred, sending Guidobaldo da Montefeltro into exile from 1497 to 1503. Order was

briefly restored in those regions with the death of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI, and the

Montefeltro Urbino court was elegantly refurbished with such luminaries as the two Tirsi

authors, Pietro Bembo (an Urbino resident from 1506 to 1512), Bernardo Bibbiena, and

Gasparo Pallavicino. As time-specific as a brief pastoral play can be, Tirsi’s encomiastic

54 B. Castiglione and Gonzaga, Tirsi, 284.

66 tone displaces the praise of Diana or Venus for that of the nameless goddess who can be none other than Elisabetta Gonzaga. Its eulogies are ultimately geared towards proclaiming the sanctity of the nobility:

La tentative inlassablement répétée de Castiglione pour installer la vie de cour dans une dimension métaphysique, de manière à la soustraire parfaitement aux fluctuations de l’histoire et aux ravages du temps, y trouve sans conteste l’un de ses points d’aboutissement. La réalité n’est évoquée, fût-ce au prix d’une illusoire présentation des choses, que dans la mesure où elle peut confirmer cette impression de pérennité.55

This play would not have been written in such an upbeat, Neo-Platonic spirit either before the Montefeltro restoration or anytime after the demise of the Urbino court due to the Italian Wars. The Tirsi is optimistic, playful, and full of life, as seen in the final archetypical solar image of regal (and fatherly) authority and of divinity itself, as witnessed in the brief eulogy to Guidobaldo:

Dameta: Dirti el tutto di lui mai non potrei: È docto e saggio, e qui tra noi è un sole, Clemente ove si puote, e iusto ai rei, Splendido, e il nostro ben procura e vole. Mille e mille opre sue narrar saprei, Ma tempo è di dar fine alle parole, Percioché di lontan, s’io non m’inganno, Scorgo i pastor’ che al sacrificio vanno. (Tirsi 51)56

The play quickly reaches its conclusion, the Duke’s eulogy signaling the successful return of political order, and of clemency, so long as it does not infringe on a king’s rightful power. Tirsi expresses unflinching enthusiasm for the permanence of the Urbino duchy. Unbeknownst to the two authors, in April 1508, only a few weeks after the play’s

55 Guidi, “Thyrsis,” 180. 56 B. Castiglione and Gonzaga, Tirsi, 285; for solar symbolism, in both its positive and destructive aspects, see Matilde Battistini, Simboli e allegorie (Milan: Electa Mondadori, 2002), 192. The sun can also be deemed a symbol of the god Apollo.

67 performance at court, Guidobaldo would die, signalling the beginning of the decline of

Urbino due to the wars involving the Papal States.57

In poetic form, the Tirsi is a precursor to Il libro del cortegiano, wherein a

complete prose codification is undertaken by Baldassarre with the intent to celebrate the

courtly utopia that has already been shattered, and Baldassarre conveys in the Cortegiano

a conversation concerning the Christian prince and the ethical-political issues of the

gentlemanly courtiers surrounding him. The varying drafts and modifications by

Baldassarre to his Cortegiano, until his own death in January 1529 in Toledo, Spain -- the

same month that Sabba’s Lamento was published -- provide the realization that

Baldassarre has endured personal disappointment, political distress, and the death of

many loved ones, including his pastoral co-author Cesare Gonzaga and many individuals

who had been present at the Urbino court with Baldassarre and are present in Tirsi.

Towards the end of Book IV of the Cortegiano, when the discussion turns to princes and politics, the protagonists beseech heaven for a worthy prince, given the gloomy state of affairs in Italy:

Allora messer Bernardo Bibiena ridendo, – Signor Ottaviano, – disse, – voi entrate nella parte del signor Gaspare e del Frigio –. Rispose il signor Ottaviano pur ridendo: – La lite è finita, ed io non voglio già rinovarla; però non dirò più delle donne, ma ritornerò al mio principe –. Rispose il Frigio: – Ben potete oramai lassarlo e contentarvi che egli sia tale come l’avete formato; ché senza dubbio più facil cosa sarebbe trovare una donna con le condizioni dette dal signor Magnifico [duca Iuliano de’ Medici], che un principe con le condizioni dette da voi; però dubito che sia come la republica di Platone e che non siamo per vederne mai un tale, se non forse in cielo –. (Il libro del cortegiano IV, 42)58

57 For a concise explanation of Urbino’s plight during the sixteenth century, see Claudio Donati, Ducato di Urbino (1443-1631) (Milan: F. M. Ricci, 2001). 58 Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, ed. Ettore Bonora (Milan: Mursia, 1972), 320-321.

68 A somber account of courtly matters pervades the fourth book in Castiglione’s

melancholy tribute to a vanished golden age, a literary creation that futilely evokes

fanciful idyllic comportment. Baldassarre’s preface in the Cortegiano is a sad

deliberation on famous courtiers that have died, and that, implicitly, could have

ameliorated the geopolitical troubles (and sense of powerlessness) in Italy.59 A sad

resignation, or sense of fatalism, envelops the work at its very beginning, before the idealized comportments of courtly life are even presented in the text.

Sabba Castiglione, too, delves into Italian politics, extracting from Baldassarre’s treatise both phrases and lexicon, and agreeing wholeheartedly in the 73rd ricordo, “Qual deve essere il principe,” with his cousin’s views concerning good government and princely responsibilities:

E se a caso, come spesso avviene, alcun di quelli che sono al calunniare pronti mi dicesse questo mio savio e buon principe essere come la repubblica di Platone, la quale al mondo non si trovò mai, e io risponderò che sì come esso Platone descrisse una repubblica come dovrebbe essere e non come sono, così io descrivo un principe come essere doverebbe secondo il mio giudizio, se non erra, e non come sono.60

A comparison of the two texts suggests a studied reading by Sabba of Baldassarre’s

Cortegiano. How else to interpret the citation to Plato’s Republic within the context of

skepticism about good government? Both Castiglione authors bring a courtly perspective

grounded in a theological-scriptural perspective that remains discordant with the vagaries

of Machiavelli and Guiccardini. Baldassarre’s 1520s model espouses Federico II

Gonzaga (1500-1540), Duke of Mantua, in the 42nd chapter of the fourth book:

ché oltra la gentilezza de’ costumi e la discrezione che in così tenera età dimostra, coloro che lo governano di lui dicono cose di maraviglia circa l’essere ingenioso, cupido d’onore, magnanimo, cortese, liberale, amico

59 Ibid., 23-25. 60 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 101.

69 della giusticia; di modo che di così bon principio non si po se non aspettar ottimo fine.61

Sabba’s 73rd ricordo espouses Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-

1574), as the potential savior of the war-torn Italian peninsula. After praising the defunct

Lorenzo il Magnifico (1449-1492) and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516):

Ma poi che le vicine cose meglio si intendono che le lontane, e tanto più che non minor biasimo è il tacere il vero che dire il falso, non mancherò dire che di qua non molto discosto, si sente, si ode un gran ribombo e un gran suono della chiara fama del moderno duca della magnifica e bella città di Firenze, Cosmo de’ Medici, illustrissimo di sangue, ma molto più di virtù e di bontà.62

Even when turning back to Sabba’s late 1520s Lamento, one can discern the attachment to hierarchical knightly order and precedent that overrides the pastoral format.

While beginning the Lamento eclogue in a pure pastoral setting involving three weary shepherds -- Coridon, Leandro, and Clonico -- the entry of Diana and her lengthy monologue alters the texture of the discourse, much as Dameta’s discourse does in Tirsi.

Sabba’s pastor Clonico, in much the same vein as Baldassarre and Cesare’s pastor Tirsi, is meant to ascend his particularized “monte,” towards a “fontana” to make a “sacrifitio” to a god that will erase past errors:

Presso la celebrata et sacrata ara del biondo Apollo una fontana sorge d’una acqua viva, fresca, dolce et chiara, che a chi ne gusta gran conforto porge. Questa dal petto ogni fantasma amara et da la mente ogni error cieco scorge; poi che di questa harrai gustato alquanto tu ne verrai al sacrifitio santo. (Lamento 101)

61 B. Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, ed. Bonora, 321. 62 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 101.

70 What begins for both plays as an encomiastic exercise in proto-typical bucolic motifs eventually displays a courtly language with allusions to a ducal or a Hospitaller code of conduct. What began for both poems as stock pastoral characters bemoaning beloved nymphs eventually brings into context the place and time of the authors’ respective decades. In the Tirsi one finds the unnamed “dea”; in the Lamento one finds refuge in an

Apollonian mount far more difficult to reach than Elisabetta’s retreat.

The purification that occurs so swiftly and painlessly is the most unusual contextual thread found in the texts, one not repeated in other Italian pastorals of the early

Cinquecento. Explanations are rendered that are so satisfactory and pleasant that emotional relief and comfort asuage both troubled pastors:

Clonico: già mi par che ’l si appaghi il duol del petto; el fuoco che mi abbrucia è mezzo estinto, sì che con buon augurio, o Dea immortale, prendarò mio camino. Vale, vale. (Lamento 109, 5-8);

Tirsi: E già le care tue dolci parole M’hanno cotanto intenerito el core, Che prima che nel mar s’atuffi el sole Disposto ho di vederla e farle honore. E ben del mio tardare assai mi duole, Perché degli anni mei persi ho il migliore. (Tirsi 49, 1-6)63

Tirsi: Tanta dolcezza è nel mio cor discesa, Dameta, odendo la harmonia di questi, Ch’io sento da un desir l’anima presa Che mi ralegra il core e i spirti mesti; E parmi che a me stesso i’ faccia offesa, Che de ire ad honorarli homai piú resti. (Tirsi 53, 1-6)64

63 B. Castiglione and Gonzaga, Tirsi, 284. 64 Ibid., 285.

71

These two eclogues go beyond the encomiastic portrayal of allegorical figures

representing the Christian way of conduct; they provide immediate resolution to vexing

emotions through divine intervention. And all the deities in these eclogues are positive

forces who try to ameliorate the human condition; the goddess-duchess in Tirsi and the

goddess Diana, who exhorts the benevolent Apollo in Lamento, and all of the deities

exhibit a positive force devoid of any ambiguity. Mysticism and mythological characters

in these pastoral settings are rendered approachable and dignified, not menacing and self- absorbed as in other contemporary pastorals. Tirsi situates itself within the environs of

Elisabetta Gonzaga, thereby also celebrating the Duke Guidobaldo Montefeltro, the most obvious beneficiary of the 1504 Urbino restoration: “Mercé d’un bon pastore, el qual governa” (Tirsi 50, 3).65

Tirsi expresses the pastoral continuum of experience expressed by Ovid, Virgil,

Boccaccio, Sannazaro, and Petrarch, with an encomiastic desire for courtly praise

revealed by Dameta’s eulogy. Yet, above all other themes, rules the primacy of pleasure.

Tirsi offers accessible allusions and a sprightly demeanor that rejoices in a newly

reestablished (post-1504) Urbino world order. In Sabba’s more perturbed Lamento,

written over twenty years after Tirsi, the bucolic spectrum shifts, tending towards a

military-religious ethos listing numerous allegorical figures and an extensive array of

pious acts required of Clonico for redemption. Sabba’s 1529 eclogue is already at a

crossroads between the early stage of Baldassarre’s literary career (Tirsi in 1508), which

is still infused with hope and good cheer, and the demeaning failure of the Italian courtly

ideal during later decades of the Cinquecento (Il libro del cortegiano, edizione princeps

65 Ibid., 284.

72 April 1528), hence Sabba’s judgmental 1546-1554 Ricordi. The acerbic Lamento of

Sabba shows signs of severe strain and anxiety, holding on to mere fragments of idyllic

comfort. Its pre-Tridentine vigor has already begun transmuting into a strict Hospitaller

code of conduct that leaves little time for idyllic merriment.

2.2.2 Niccolò Machiavelli’s Mandragola

A different line of inquiry brings us to Niccolò Machiavelli’s five pastoral

canzoni inserted into the Mandragola during the author’s five-week sojourn in Faenza

from June 19 to July 26, 1525, a visit whose primary purpose was the creation of a

romagnolo militia. Francesco Guicciardini, Romagna’s president and Machiavelli’s host

at the time, mentions Sabba only once in his writings -- in a somewhat ambiguous

statement -- in a letter from Faenza in July 1524: “Con fra’ Sab[b]a da Castiglione ho

facto abonantamente l’officio di che vi dixe messer Paulo d’Arezo; et in ogni occasione

che io possa fargli piacere non mancherò.”66 From October 1525 to January 1526

Machiavelli corresponded with Guicciardini discussing five canzoni to be added to

Mandragola for a performance scheduled for the winter carnival festivities in Faenza in

February 1526.67 It was a production specifically designed for the Faenza audience at a

time Sabba was preceptor of the Faenza commandery, and it is related to Sabba for two

additional reasons: Sabba was a friend to both Guicciardini and Machiavelli, and the

vocabulary and content of the canzoni tend towards the world of nymphs and shepherds

later explored by Sabba in the Lamento. Guicciardini had relinquished his post of

66 Francesco Guicciardini, Carteggi di Francesco Guicciardini, vol. VII, ed. Roberto Palmarocchi and Pier Giorgio Ricci (Rome: Istituto Storico Italiano per L’Età Moderna e Contemporanea, 1956), 110. 67 Niccolò Machiavelli, Opere II, Lettere, legazioni e commissarie, ed. Corrado Vivanti (Turin: Einaudi, 1999), 415.

73 president of Romagna by the end of January 1526 to pursue a military mission, entrusting

his duties to his brother Iacopo Guicciardini. The play was probably not performed at

this particular time, at least not with its author or the erstwhile president in attendance.68

The five canzoni were to be strategically placed before the prologue of the play and at the end of the first four acts, cantata da ninfe e pastori insieme. The relatively late appearance of these canzoni, coupled with textual allusions relating to political turmoil and unstable social mores interspersed throughout the play and poems, render their structural relation to the play interesting, especially given the fact that the five poems were never published until the Settecento.69

In one of his letters to Machiavelli, Guicciardini asks about content, as he still intended to host the performance during the 1526 Faenza carnival season:

[Faenza, 26 dicembre 1525] Niccolò onorando. Io comincerò a rispondervi dalla commedia, perché non mi pare delle meno importanti cose che noi abbiamo alle mani, et almanco è pratica che è in potestà nostra, in modo non si gitta via il tempo a pensarvi, e la recreazione è più necessaria che mai in tante turbulenzie. Io intendo che chi ha a recitare è a ordine, pure gli vedrò fra pochi dì, e perché non si accordano allo argumento, quale non intenderebbono, ne hanno fatto un altro, quale non ho visto, ma lo vedrò presto; e perché desidero non sia con l’acqua fredda, non credo possiate errare a ordinarne uno altro conforme al poco ingegno delli auditori, e nel quale siano più presto dipinti loro che voi.70

Guicciardini, who had spent most of 1525 in Faenza, attests to the turmoil in Romagna

and suggests tweaking the composition, especially with regard to the argumento (the

prologue), so as to accommodate the modest understanding of the local audience with

68 A succint summation of the early editions and the contextual sources of the Mandragola are provided by Giorgio Inglese, “Mandragola di Niccolò Machiavelli,” in Letteratura italiana: le opere. Volume primo. Dalle origini al Cinquecento (Turin: Einaudi, 1992), 1009-1031. 69 Arnaldo Bruni, “Gli intermedi della Mandragola,” in Il teatro di Machiavelli: Gargnano del Garda (30 settembre-2 ottobre 2004), ed. Gennaro Barbarisi and Anna Maria Cabrini (Milan: Cisalpino, 2005), 368. 70 Machiavelli, Opere II, 413.

74 respect to allusions probably unfamiliar to them. Even the erudite Florentine

Guicciardini was unsure of the precise meaning of some of the comedy. And the actors

were local romagnoli, apparently not well versed in the Tuscan dialect. In a letter of

January 3, 1526, Machiavelli offers Guicciardini five canzoni for a musical group composed of one nymph and three pastors:

E che lei [Barbera] et io abbiamo pensato a venire, vi se ne fa questa fede: che noi abbiamo fatto cinque canzone nuove a proposito della commedia, e si sono musicate per cantarle tra gli atti; delle quali io vi mando alligate con questa le parole, acciò che V. S. possa considerarle; la musica, o noi tutti o io solo ve la porteremo.71

As the correspondence makes clear, Guicciardini had intended to use Machiavelli’s

mistress Barbera Raffacani Salutati and her musical troupe to recite the ballads between

acts as theatrical interludes and musical entertainment for the audience.72 These brief

canzoni appear to be anticipatory foreshadowings meant to arouse curiosity in the

audience. In the first of these five so-called intermezzi, the protagonist is the personification of Amore, recalled in jovial Petrarchan phrasings. The opening canzone provides a soliloquy on the fleeting nature of life, its uncertainties, and the need to flee noia with love’s guidance:

Perché la vita è brieve E molte son le pene Che vivendo e stentando ognun sostiene; Dietro alle nostre voglie, Andiam passando e consumando gli anni, Ché chi il piacer si toglie Per viver con angosce e con affanni, Non conosce gli inganni

71 Ibid., 415. The autograph originals attached to the letter are no longer extant. Two of the poems, those after the first and third acts, were not original; they had been used in Machiavelli’s Clizia. 72 Ibid., 407 (16-20 October 1525): “Mentre che voi sollecitate costì, e noi qui non dormiamo, perché Lodovico Alamanni et io cenamo a queste sere con la Barbera e ragioniamo de la commedia, in modo che lei [Barbera] si offerse con li suoi cantori a venire a fare il conto in fra gli atti: et io mi offersi a fare le canzonette a proposito delli atti, e Lodovico si offerse a darli costì alloggiamento, in casa i Buosi, a lei et a’ cantori suoi; sì che vedete se noi attendiamo a menare, perché questa festa abbia tutti i suoi compimenti.”

75 Del mondo; o da quai mali E da che strani casi Oppressi quasi – sian tutti i mortali. Per fuggir questa noia, Eletta solitaria vita abbiamo; E sempre in festa e in gioia, Giovin leggiadri e liete ninfe, stiamo. Or qui venuti siamo Con la nostra armonia, Sol per onorar questa Sì lieta festa – e dolce compagnia. Ancor ci ha qui condutti Il nome di colui che vi governa, In cui si veggon tutti I beni accolti in la sembianza eterna. Per tal grazia superna, Per sì felice stato, Potete lieti stare, Godere e ringraziare – chi ve lo ha dato.73

This canzone may be considered stylistically a “ballata mezzana” with a reprise of three

verses; it utilizes key phrases, including the incipit, from Petrarch’s 71st Rerum

vulgarium fragmenta. It displays the Petrarchan topos regarding the fugacity of time, as

well as a pastoral locus amoenus motif described vivaciously with “giovin leggiadri e

liete ninfe, stiamo,” all incorporated within the Faenza trajectory of a “Sì lieta festa -- e

dolce compagnia” to the individual who has invited the troupe and thereby elicited the songs, President Francesco Gucciardini: “ci ha qui condutti / Il nome di colui che vi governa” (7-8). Encomiastic in tone, the first poem alludes to the Guicciardini-sponsored celebrations within a generalized pastoral theme. Machiavelli embraces this imagery by evoking a distant, spring-like atmosphere with nymphs and pastor, an inevitably stylized and artificial setting wherein he praises his friend Guicciardini while also rendering homage to Petrarch.

73 Niccolò Machiavelli, La Mandragola di Niccolò Machiavelli, ed. Roberto Ridolfi (Florence: Olschki, 1965), 195-196.

76 As Arnaldo Bruni makes clear, Machiavelli’s lexicon harkens back to Petrarch,

Dante, and Boccaccio. The prevailing sentiments are certainly Florentine in nature, and

blend with the vernacular topoi of fleeting time and love’s universality and inevitability, organically fusing the poetic sentiments with dramaturgic exigencies.74 Petrarch’s 71st

Rerum vulgarium fragmenta expresses strong desire for Laura; the poet bemoans his distraught condition and reveals his suicidal thoughts, but it is the idyllic landscape that most vividly recalls the beloved Laura. A restlessness without pause, “L’amoroso pensero ch’alberga dentro,” has overwhelmed the poet in absolute, suicidal, and obsessive terms. The passionately smitten poet’s heart dominates his daily life, spoiling the bucolic scenery as a source of tranquility that allowed him to lead an exemplary

solitary life. Nature is reduced to being a spectator to the poet’s sorry condition; staying

in its midst saddens him, and fleeing is futile:

O poggi, o valli, o fiumi, o selve, o campi, o testimon’ de la mia grave vita, quante volte m’ udiste chiamar morte! Ahi dolorosa sorte! lo star mi strugge e ’l fuggir non m’aita. (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta LXXI, 37-41)75

The corroding presence of Amore is ubiquitous in the canzone, an overriding emotion that triggers dolore for its being unrequited.

Machiavelli projects a jovial atmosphere in his opening canzone, and the expanded dramaturgical content means to demystify the moral and political hypocrisy of early Cinquecento Florence by paying homage to Love’s power -- and inevitabilty -- as

74 See Bruni, “Gli intermedi della Mandragola,” 388-389. 75 Francesco Petrarca, Canzoniere, ed. Gianfranco Contini, introd. Roberto Antonelli, notes Daniele Ponchiroli (Turin: Einaudi, 1964), 96.

77 an inherent construct of human nature.76 After the first act, Machiavelli’s second

canzone expands upon the Guicciardini-inspired locus amoenus for “giovin leggiadri e

liete ninfe,” as the universality of love is discussed by the canzone previously utilized in

Clizia:

Chi non fa prova, Amore, Della tua gran possanza, indarno spera Di far mai fede vera Qual sia del cielo il più alto valore; Né sa come si vive, insieme, e muore, Come si segue il danno e ’l ben si fugge, Come s’ama se stesso Men d’altrui, come spesso Timore e speme i cori adiaccia e strugge; Né sa come ugualmente uomini e dei Paventan l’arme di che armato sei.77

A canzone in madrigal form, the poem expands upon the amatory theme, coupling Love’s

reach with Callimaco’s passion and the uncertainties inherent in his quest. Eroticism and

carnal desires are core themes in both Clizia and the Mandragola.

Pastoral intermezzi were significant components of Italian Renaissance theatre

and were often accompanied by musical arrangements.78 While Machiavelli’s 1526

Faenza rendition does not disturb the Aristotelian unity of time and space, the intermedial

pastoral content in the Mandragola serves the audience as an aesthetic antidote: a

realistic rendition of city life and intrigue is ameliorated by an amusing bucolic sojourn

that both entertains and serves as a surreal escape.

76 Bruni, “Gli intermedi della Mandragola,” 392: “Dovendo scorciare in formula le motivazioni interne, si potrebbe dire quindi che se l’anatomia del Principe disvela le radici della politica, la Mandragola e la Clizia si incaricano di demistificare ogni ipocrisia moralistica, ravvisando nel destino di ognuno la centralità di un amore-determinante.” 77 Machiavelli, Mandragola, ed. Ridolfi, 196-197. 78 See Pieri, La scena boschereccia, 118-119; Nino Pirrotta, Li due Orfei: da Poliziano a Monteverdi (Turin: Einaudi, 1975), 143-199.

78 The last three canzoni lose much of their pastoral overtones, making textual

allusions to the central figures of the play, their cynical deceit, and the concomitant

naïveté of others, all wrapped in classical vernacular language derived especially from

Petrarch and Boccaccio.79 Perhaps even parodical in intent, Machiavelli’s language in

the Mandragola utilizes a pastoral framework with initially encomiastic overtones but

later digresses to a contextual examination of Amore, wit, and cunning within the

Florentine mercantile world of ingenious self-serving tricks that promote only the vested

interests of interested parties. The story line acts as a barometer of lost innocence and a

disparagement of the squalid politics of the Florentine republic.80

Mandragola is not only satire but also a condemnation of the political and moral

degradation of the bourgeoise.81 The five poems, two from the 1524 Clizia and a third

which is encomiastic to Faenza and Guicciardini, now appear to scholars to be

excessively fragmented and venue-specific, and were excluded from the main text in

recent editions by Roberto Ridolfi and Pasquale Stoppelli.82 The latter critic retains the near-certain belief that the comedy was indeed performed in Faenza, reasoning that a performance so extensively worked upon, with both a local acting troupe and a visiting

musical group rehearsed for the play, must have been performed. Guicciardini was

certainly absent from Faenza, however, and Machiavelli did not attend. Machiavelli was

79 Bruni, “Intermedi della Mandragola,” 392-393: “Non per caso le giunte poetiche contribuiscono a costruire quella costellazione testuale che ricongiunge l’azione delle commedie agli archetipi di riferimento (Canzoniere e Decameron). In base a tali premesse, viene rimodulata quella concezione dell’amore che, operativa nella gioventù di Callimaco e affliggente nella senescenza di Nicomaco, scopre infine la croce della carnalità come un destino inevitabile per ogni stagione della vita dell’uomo.” 80 For an explanation of political symbolism and vision employed by Machiavelli in the play, see Ronald L. Martinez, “The Pharmacy of Machiavelli: Roman Lucretia in Mandragola,” Renaissance Drama (1984): 1- 43. 81 See Roberto Ridolfi, Studi sulle commedie del Machiavelli (Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1968), 63-101; for a brief explanation of the significance of the five canzoni, see 99-101. 82 For a critical edition of the play, see Pasquale Stoppelli, La Mandragola: storia e filologia, con l’edizione critica del testo secondo il Laurenziano Redi 129 (Rome: Bulzoni, 2005).

79 also absent from the February 5, 1526, performance of Mandragola in Venice.83 With only circumstantial evidence of an actual performance, the issue of Sabba’s attendance is moot. Still, it is unlikely that he was unaware of the preparations.

A consideration of Sabba’s eclogue alongside Machiavelli’s canzoni provides interesting contrasts. Machiavelli promotes moral renewal by shocking the viewer with strong sexual overtones that may seem to belie his true dissatisfaction with the reigning political malaise and abrogated social mores. Sabba’s bucolic poem more directly commends a revived moral code to his reader. What Machiavelli endorses with subtle sardonic wit, Sabba proclaims forcefully through allegorical characters with positive moral attributes that cascade unambiguously from his play. Sabba’s style may not be jovial and witty, and his morality at times appears more headstrong than nuanced, but one sees his machinations openly at work. Machiavelli’s moral agenda is covert and his meaning and intent often available only with effort and only to the reader who approaches his writing by “reading between the lines.”

2.3 Literary Components of the Lamento

The heart of Renaissance self-fashioning, as described by Stephen Greenblatt, is the observance of codified literary conventions recognized by virtually all authors, including Sabba Castiglione: “Literature functions within this system in three interlocking ways: as a manifestation of the concrete behavior of its particular author, as itself the expression of the codes by which behavior is shaped, and as a reflection upon

83 See the essay “La Mandragola a teatro,” in Niccolò Machiavelli, Mandragola, ed. Pasquale Stoppelli (Milan: Mondadori, 2006), 147-153.

80 those codes.”84 Sabba’s eclogue fits this formula insofar as it is a regimented adaptation

of classical and Renaissance pastoral themes particularized by a pious author seeking a

Neo-Platonic resolution to spiritual and emotional turmoil. Sabba delivers symbolic

structures such as the spiritual awakening and the arduous physical activity of the main

protagonist, which bear a clear relationship to Hospitaller objectives; the subtext becomes

the moral education of fellow knights and a warning of the miseries that accompany

profane love, which is to be avoided at all costs. Virtue lies in a commitment to worthy

activity grounded in sublime concerns:

Incomincia la Barona composta per Sabba Castallio.85

LO ARGOMENTO

Felici torme, a queste mie parole date le orecchie vostre intente e pronte, et vederete come ognhor si dole chi segue Amor nascosto in vaga fronte, et con chi di ciò liber esser vole gli convien superare uno erto monte. Sculpite in la memoria il caso empio, chè mille danni schifa un solo esempio.

Dopo il lamento Clonico pel tedio d’amor volse di sè farse homicida, ma Diana franco il fa de tal assedio per ch’ella sempre ogni smarito guida, et al tempio di Apollo per rimedio mandollo insieme d’una scorta fida; ma pria predice a Clonico meschino ciò che trovar se sol per tal camino. (Lamento 1-2)

84 Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1980), 4. 85 A pseudonym “Sabba Castalio” is employed, perhaps to mask a first literary enterprise until one could gauge the feedback from the readership. Sabba made no mention of his eclogue in any of his extant letters or the three Ricordi editions composed during his lifetime.

81 Moral intent guides literary premise, focusing on recognizable literary markers: melancholy love, divine intervention, an arduous expiation, and ciò che trovar se sol per tal camino, an unambiguous reference to Dante’s midlife quandary in his first canto’s memorable tercet.86 Diana inhabits a primordial venue of mythical beasts, burdens, and

challenges, and is herself a familiar Renaissance mythological figure who appears in

courtly pastoral plays such as Niccolò da Correggio’s Fabula di Cefalo and Baldassarre

Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga’s Tirsi.87 The enigmatic subtitle for the eclogue’s

argument, “Incomincia la Barona composta per Sabba Castalio,” leaves one guessing as

to the meaning of Barona, perhaps a feminine laudatory title for Diana herself,

suggesting a virtuous, noble, or illustrious character.88 Of significance is a rare courtly

predisposition within the bucolic genre signaled by the octave, such verse infrequently

used for lyric pastorals of the early Cinquecento.89 Sabba’s poem, while not a

masterpiece of the genre, exhibits a discrete talent for an eclectic imitation of themes

echoing the exigencies of an isolated Knight Hospitaller reminiscing from a courtly

perspective and for a courtly audience.

In roughly 900 verses, including a premise, Sabba produces through imitation a concise eclogue with a clear story line and an uplifting dénouement. There are seven

86 Dante, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 1 Inferno, ed. and trans. Robert M. Durling, introd. and notes Ronald L. Martinez and Robert M. Durling (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), I, 1-3: “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, / ché la diritta via era smarrita.” 87 The only edition of Correggio’s works widely available in print is found in Niccolò da Correggio, Opere: Cefalo – Psiche – Silva – Rime, ed. Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti (Bari: Laterza, 1969). A recent, reanalyzed edition of the Tirsi is provided by Claudio Vela, “Il Tirsi di Baldassar Castiglione e Cesare Gonzaga,” 245- 292. 88 Its etymology cannot be tracked down. Probably, la Barona is either dialect not recognized today (possibly from Lombardy, Veneto, or Romagna), or an endearing appellation for Diana, the noble lady and savior to Clonico. See Schizzerotto, Teatro e cultura, 95. 89 Authors who used the octave from the late fifteenth century to Sabba’s 1529 composition include: Baldassarre Castiglione and Cesare Gonzaga in the Tirsi; Bernardo Bellincioni in the Egloga o vero Pasturale; Luca Pulci in parts of the Driadeo d’amore; Angelo Poliziano in the Stanze and Orfeo; and Luca Valenziano in parts of his eclogues.

82 characters, two of whom do not speak. The story begins in a wooded area where the

pastors Coridone and Leandro, enamored of two nymphs, are discussing their amorous

woes. They hear the lamentations of the pastor Clonico, who bemoans his amorous

anguish while preparing to put an end to his life. Clonico, as he tells it, had been chasing

a stag when he came upon the murmur of water and a splendor of flowers, wherein lay

the beautiful but cruel nymph Delia, who is angered at having been discovered naked.

Unlike the sweet, inviting shepherdess in Virgil’s Bucolics, this Delia offers the lovestruck protagonist only grief and heartache. Clad in a white gown, the nymph disappears, leaving Clonico mired in misery and expressing a desire for death to the point that Clonico wishes celebration to attend his burial. Clonico’s despairing monologue, which forms a mournful crescendo that dominates the plot, is interrupted by the sudden return of Delia, who is followed in turn by Cupid, depicted as weak and utterly beholden to Delia. The implication is that love is totally unreliable as a guide; it can lead one to despair and self-destruction:

Qua la ninfa Delia gli appare. Ecco colei che mi tormenta e stratia; per questa il corpo mio tanto si langue. In li mei gravi stenti hora ti satia, bàgniati tutta nel mio caldo sangue, fammi, crudele, almeno questa gratia, aspetta che ’l mio corpo io faccia essangue; poi che di crudeltà brami la palma, potrai far mille ingiurie a questa salma.

Costei fugge da qui con tanto corso por mostrar che di me si doglia forte, ma lei, più cruda assai che tigre o orso, adesso gode di mia acerba morte. Ella mi porgerebbe ben soccorso se pietà havesse di mia oscura sorte, ma vol mostrar che pietà gli arda il petto, ma mal s’accorda, col mostrar, l’effetto.

83 (Lamento 53-54)

The goddess Diana appears, offering comfort and assistance to the beleaguered shepherd, beseeching him to desist from suicidal thoughts and harken back to happier times when “sol spendeva il tempo in dolce canto / con Ninfe sotto crepitanti allori” (68,

5-6). A fight for Clonico’s mind and soul commences. Diana tells Clonico to travel through a dark valley and up to the summit of a rocky and steep mountain with the helpful guide Poesia. Along the way, he will encounter a leopard, lion, and wolf, but he must not look back. Clonico will carry two branches, of laurel and ivy, bypassing a band of Vices and the false flatteries of the Tower of Fortune, finally to arrive at an upland plain composed of water, greenery, and wind. Thereon lies the Temple of Apollo, which only the pure of heart may enter. The journey becomes Sabba’s Hospitaller version of the ancient tale of the choice of Hercules, a favorite theme of Renaissance writers, in which two ways of life were represented by the personifications of virtue and desire.90

Following Servius’ Virgilian commentary of the Pythagorean choice, as exemplified by the letter Y, which offers the parting of man’s comportment with regard to virtue or vice, so too does Sabba’s main protagonist have to make clear-cut choices.91 On one column

Fame tramples Time and Death. Inside the Temple and to the right are the seven Liberal

Arts; to the left are warriors, whose perennial fame is safeguarded by the written words:

“non per li grandi acquisti sono lustri / questi, figliuol, ma per li fatti illustri” (Lamento

97, 7-8). To another side are found minor artists (sculptors, painters, architects) whose

efforts are sometimes remembered only in writings, their artwork lost forever. Sabba’s

description at this juncture recalls not only Dante’s purgatorial mountain ascent but also

90 See Theodor E. Mommsen, “Petrarch and the Story of the Choice of Hercules,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 16 (1953): 178-192. 91 Ibid., 184.

84 Petrarch’s vernacular Triumphi in terza rima, exhibiting the tendency to itemization of

persons of renown, a key topos for both Petrarch’s poem and Sabba’s rhetorical

buttressing of his ideals (at the latter stages of his eclogue) being the rhetorical force of

constant enumeratio and descriptio (enumeration and description).92 The water that

gushes beside Apollo’s altar will purify Clonico’s thoughts once he tastes it. After

reciting a ritual prayer, enveloping his body with the two branches, and calling out the

name “Phebo” in front of the statue of Apollo, Clonico will quickly recognize Amore’s perfidious way of making men blind and insane. Lastly, Clonico must make a poetic

garland laureation to Apollo’s statue, representing the patron god of poetry, then

immediately leave the Temple.93 With only four octaves remaining, Diana ceases her

discourse. Clonico thanks her profusely, for his amorous pangs are already receding as

the eclogue concludes.

The scenes in Sabba’s poem are far more static than other eclogues, relying, for

the most part, on Diana’s discussion of redemption. The poem provides ample turmoil,

but ultimately Diana’s sound advice rules the conversation and cures Clonico. The

eclogue declares the worthiness of intellectual pleasures and describes the molding of the

good citizen (or knight), concerns which are paramount to the writer. In the guise of a

humble pastoral whose content reflects its courtly predecessors, Sabba does not merely

immerse the reader in pleasant surroundings, he also seeks to delineate a resolution for an

anguished heart. Within the charming bucolic setting, Diana guides Clonico through a series of metaphysically redemptive obstacles.

92 For Petrarch, see Triumphi, ed. Marco Ariani (Milan: Mursia, 1988), 69. 93 Petrarch, as the archetype of poets laureate in the modern era, received his garland in Rome on April 8, 1341, setting the tone for future ceremonies and privileges granted to poets. For the evolution of poetic laureation, see J. B. Trapp, “The Owl’s Ivy and the Poet’s Bays. An Enquiry into Poetic Garlands,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21 (1958): 227-255.

85 Sabba’s pastoral presents a moral allegory steeped in the cult of Diana. In the

Romans’ virgin huntress (known as Artemis to the Greeks), the reader encounters the

stern and robust personification of chastity. In the simple allegory of Chastity

overwhelmed by Lust, Diana represents the last barrier protecting the prudish nymphs

from Bacchus’s lustful satyrs and punishing lustful gazes by the mortal Ovidian hunter

Actaeon.94 Through Clonico, the eclogue’s listeners experience first an uneasy lethargy,

then a tormented dependency on love, and finally (thanks to Diana) an exhilarating freedom -- all followed by Clonico’s requisite encomium to the virginal goddess,

restating the ubiquitous pastoral dynamic of dependency yielding to freedom:

Allhor si sentirà pur d’ogni canto risonar la mia dolce et chara piva né mai sarà sanza mio lieto canto valle, montagne, bosco, prato o riva; e spesso a visitar tuo tempio santo cinto verrò di non mai secca oliva ove farò, per tanto beneficio, di più odorifer fuoco sacrificio. (Lamento 108)

The name Clonico appropriately refers to one in an agitated or turbulent state, derived

from clonos, a Greek medical term signifying spasm, a convulsive motion.95 Clonico’s

emotional resolution appropriates symbols from the “dottissimo e ne la musica experto”

Clonico of Iacopo Sannazaro’s Arcadia.96

Within Christianity, the tower is a symbol of vigilance and ascent, as well as

representing a link between man and God.97 Characteristically, this spiritual link is

contrasted by the erotic aspect of the tower, as expressed in the myth of Danae,

94 For literary sources, see Cassell and Kirkham, eds. and trans., in Boccaccio, Diana’s Hunt / Caccia di Diana, 6-13. 95 Marzia Pieri, La scena boschereccia nel Rinascimento italiano (Padua: Liviana, 1983), 145. 96 Sannazaro, Arcadia, 203-204. 97 Battistini, Simboli e allegorie, 272-273.

86 impregnated by Jupiter after being imprisoned by her father inside a bronze tower, a mythological precursor to the allegories of courtly love.98 Sabba’s pejorative reference to

the Tower of (the goddess) Fortune identifies flattery as a capricious quality that will

inevitably lead to misfortune. Fickleness suggests vice, thus Fortune contrasts with the

personification of Virtue, in this case the goddess Diana, as an allegorical guide

representing morality and stability. Believing vain praise or flattery, as Diana suggests,

tempts fate through the whimsies of Fortune herself. Sabba came to envision himself as a

moralist, intolerant of vice or the human predisposition to embrace the ambiguous power

of Fortune while ignoring God’s natural love in ameliorating the inescapable travails that

afflict mankind. Sabba’s ricordo 30, “Circa la prudenza nell’una e l’altra fortuna,” a

brief yet poignant commentary that not only evokes a pastoral landscape across a journey

similar to Clonico’s but also offers the vernacular title of Petrarch’s De remediis

utriusque fortunae (On the Remedies of One or the Other Fortune), his Latin dialogue

meant to provide sound advice to the reader, for Sabba symbolizes the ups and downs that man must endure without deconstructing too closely either good fortune or bad luck:

Desiderando che voi, come prudente nell’una e l’altra fortuna, foste il medesimo, vi ricorderò a non confidarvi molto nelle prosperità, né disperarvi nelle miserie. Ma come discreto considererete spesso che sì come in questo infido e fallace mondo ai sereni succedono le tempestà, alle tempestà li sereni, così alle felicità succedono le miserie, alle miserie le felicità, e al riso succede il pianto e al pianto il riso; e come in un lungo viaggio or si trovano montagne, ora pianure, ora sassi, ora prati, ora fanghi, ora polve, ora fiumi, ora fonti, così nel mutabil corso di questa mortal vita a vicenda si trova ora piacere ora dispiacere, ora allegrezza ora tristezza, ancora che per un minimo e momentaneo piacere, mille guai, mille affanni e mille noie.99

98 Ibid. 99 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 44.

87 A more humane, textured, and multilayered view of Sabba is displayed through the

pastoral lexicon he employed, almost twenty years earlier, in the eclogue. Life is seen

there as an arduous journey requiring patience and fortitude; distorted views and

enervating vices must be strictly avoided. Life’s journey is tumultuous; many obstacles

must be overcome; one cannot be distracted by fleeting pleasures or awestruck by

unforeseen occurrences.

That Sabba was well versed in Sannazaro’s Arcadia is clear, especially when one compares some of the meter and rhyme in Sabba’s poem with the few passages from

Sannazaro that concern Clonico:

(Leandro) Aimè, Coridon mio, che cosa oscura è a rimirar costui tanto erronico; tratto mi pare fuor di sepoltura, così smorto ne vien et malinconico; certo gli è trasmutato di figura, Coridon mio, se questo è ’l nostro Clonico. Clonico è certo. Aimè, che faccia pallida, che crin non colti, aimè che barba squalida! (Lamento 8)

In this octave Sabba lifts material directly from Sannazaro’s first two tercets describing,

in the eighth eclogue, Clonico’s arrival on a donkey (his first appearance in the text), as

the shepherd Eugenio discusses his friend’s love-struck plight in the rhyme scheme

erronico-malinconico-Clonico:

(Eugenio) Ove sí sol con fronte exangue e palida su l’asinello or vaine, e maliconico con chiome irsute e con la barba squalida? Qualunque uom ti vedesse andar sí erronico, di duol sí carco, in tanta amaritudine, certo direbbe: – Questi non par Clònico. – (Arcadia VIII, 1-6)100

100 Sannazaro, Arcadia, 139-140.

88

Comparison of the two poems leaves little doubt that Sabba’s Clonico and his initial

description originated in Sannazaro’s Arcadia. Renaissance authors frequently used such

imitation, wherein characters, situations, and vocabulary from earlier works are reproduced and employed in a new context.101

One finds contentment in Sabba’s eclogue, following Diana’s explanation and as

the emotional dénouement happily and suddenly unfolds for the formerly melancholic

Clonico:

Allhor dinanzi agli occhi ti fia piano, figliuolo, il tuo error cieco et enorme; allhor vedrai quanto sia cieco e insano chi seguita d’Amore l’oscure orme; fa’ che tu stia dal scietro suo lontano nè intrar più tra sue pallide torme, perchè visto hai a che fin si procaccia chi d’Amor segue la fallace traccia.

Allhora altiero di cotal vittoria ché porto preso harrai di sì crude onde farai una ghirlanda per memoria di queste verdi et honorate fronde; la qual avanti a quel lume di gloria sospenderai ch ha chiome auree et bionde, et poi dinanzi al tempio in su le porte in marmo scolpirai tutta tua sorte. (Lamento 104-105)

Taken in context with the remaining octaves in which Clonico professes eternal love for

Diana and a burgeoning understanding of spiritual love, these two concluding octaves

directed by Diana towards Clonico point out the insanity of Clonico’s ephemeral (yet

ardent) physical love, of which he will be cleansed once he has placed the garland inside

101 See Pigman, “Versions of Imitation in the Renaissance,” 6.

89 the Temple in front of Apollo, the embodiment of the classical spirit, standing for the rational and civilized side of man’s nature.102

2.4 Pastoral Conventions

From the beginning of the eclogue, Sabba evokes classical themes regarding time and mutability, marked by a profound appreciation for the Petrarchan rural landscape.

All occurs within the courtly medieval quête of loving, obsessing over, and suffering because of a cherished woman, as in the stories of Guinevere and Lancelot or Tristan and

Isolde. Paris’s love for Helen does not fulfill all the elements later associated with courtly love but seems to foreshadow the medieval celebration of doomed attraction.

Sabba’s argument channels the ambivalence in the spirit of courtly pastime; the bucolic genre engenders discussion of love and its consequences. Sabba also channels the vernacular Italian theme of unexpected arousal and confusion in an idyllic setting.

Sabba’s poem is tinged with Dantesque themes, Petrarchan motifs, and a labored search by the protagonist for truth and relevance in a cruel, chaotic world. Clonico ultimately achieves access to a garden of paradisial delights -- the lush gardens of Apollo where calm and reason rule. True transformation could not occur within the pastoral fields, for contemplation and anxiety rule there. Midway through Sabba’s story, we are reminded both of Boccaccio’s words regarding Callisto’s banishment for having become pregnant and of the antique source of Sabba’s adaptation of the ursine transformation:

I’ posso esser annoverata omai, o Caliston, con teco, che com’io già fosti ninfa, e poi con molti guai Diana ti cacciò per ogni rio, perché Giove t’ingannò, come sai,

102 See Trapp, “The Owl’s Ivy and the Poet’s Bays,” 240-242.

90 ed in orsa, crudel, ti convertio; e givi errando e le cacce temevi, mugghiando quando favellar volevi. (Ninfale fiesolano 334)103

The unfortunate Callisto, an unwitting nymph tricked by gods, as related by Ovid appears

to be immediately transformed into a bear once Diana discovers her pregnancy.104

Boccaccio does not repeat Ovid’s chronology verbatim; rather, he appears to abridge the tale into a single punitive action by the goddess. Sabba’s use of the animal refers to the punishment of the cruel nymph Delia; the mythological transmutation of nymphs into bears (and then into constellations) for egregious acts within the pastoral setting cannot be mere coincidence.

The tripartite division of the poem includes the essentials of the genre: a protagonist falling in love, his resultant suffering and lamentation, and his eventual purification. Boccaccio helps provide material to the first part, while Petrarchan sentiments dominate the mournful second episode. The third part is accompanied by

Dantesque echoes recalling the arduous journey in the Purgatorio and Paradiso, with allegorical animals and gatherings of past men found in the journey prescribed by Diana.

The latter third of the poem requires Clonico to climb Mount Virtue, bypass the Tower of

Fortune, and, reaching the Temple of Apollo, dedicate style, ingenuity, and intellect to the god. Only then, through the counsel of Diana and the generosity of Apollo, does

Clonico achieve cleansing of his physical passion and resume his former intellectual predisposition towards virtue.

103 Boccaccio, Ninfale fiesolano, 101. 104 For more on the bear in medieval French and Italian traditions, especially as it pertains to Dante, see Ronald L. Martinez, “Dante’s Bear: A Note on ‘Così nel mio parlar,’” Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society 111 (1993): 213-222.

91 Eclogues are typically poems of enamorment, loss, and redemption. Their

dénouments can be celebratory (like the Lamento), melancholy (like the Orfeo), or ambiguous (as in Sannazaro’s masterpiece, Arcadia). In Arcadia the plot is left unresolved and becomes a vehicle for political allegory. Arcadia concludes, in part, with

Sincero’s discombobulated nocturnal voyage towards a final encounter with a nymph, a scene replete with references to Ovid’s Euridice.105 Arcadia stands for an imaginary locus amoenus, where Sannazaro, acting through Sincero, tries to escape unrequited love.

But he finds no solace amongst the shepherds and returns to the city disenchanted. Near the end of the voyage Sincero wishes for death:

Lettore, io ti giuro (se quella deità che in fin qui di scriver questo mi ha prestato grazia, conceda, qualunque elli si siano, immortalità agli scritti miei), che io mi trovai in tal punto sí desideroso di morire che di qualsivoglia maniera di morte mi sarei contentato. (Arcadia XII, 44)106

The final lamenation, recalling Sincero’s sentiments before leaving Naples for Arcadia, suggests a serious ambiguity regarding repatriation into his native city.

The pastoral backdrop provides a nucleus from which an author can digress. The nymphs, pastors, and divinities are subject to metamorpheses and happenstance, which

each author’s imagination decodes according to the polemical value the author intends.

In Sannazaro’s case (I do not seek to generalize his pastoral genius), the rich interplay of

themes and lexicon is matched only by the enigmatic elements of the tale. Perhaps

polemical and political, certainly ambiguous, Arcadia takes the readers’ breath away,

simultaneously denying them resolution. The three pastors at the end of Arcadia display

105 Sannazaro, Arcadia, 215-216. 106 Ibid., 221.

92 a melancholy that “betrays a certain modesty and impenetrability.”107 The last pastor

calls his verse lowly and poor, yet proclaims his poem’s power to make the world green

again (“rinverdesi”):

(Meliseo) I tuoi capelli, o Filli, in una cistula serbati tegno, e spesso, quand’io volgoli, il cor mi passa una pungente aristula. Spesso gli lego e spesso, ohimè, disciolgoli, e lascio sopra lor quest’occhi piovere; poi con sospir gli asciugo, e inseme accolgoli. Basse son queste rime, exili e povere, ma se ’l pianger in cielo ha qualche merito, dovrebbe tanta fé Morte commovere. Io piango, o Filli, il tuo spietato intèrito, e ’l mondo del mio mal tutto rinverdesi; deh pensa, prego, al bel viver pretèrito, se nel passar di Lete amor non perdesi. (Arcadia XII, 313-325)108

A cautionary tale emerges: one should not let love be forgotten or ardor fall by the

wayside, for Lethe the stream of forgetfulness provides forgetfulness only of the guilty

memories of sin. Sannazaro’s words harken back to Dante’s identification of the source

of this river, the mountaintop of Purgatory, where Lethe’s waters offer loss of memory as

the price of freedom from passion.109 The cost of tranquillity is rendered steep by the stark choices offered.

The Lamento’s sixteenth octave seems to attest to the Knight Hospitaller’s appreciation for both Petrarch’s melodic accounts of nature and the innocence of the

107 William J. Kennedy, Jacopo Sannazaro and the Uses of Pastoral (Hanover, NH, and London: University Press of New England, 1983), 146. 108 Sannazaro, Arcadia, 237. 109 Dante, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Volume 2 Purgatorio, ed. and trans. Robert M. Durling, introd. and notes Robert M. Durling and Ronald L. Martinez (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), XXVIII, 121-133; XXXI, 91-102; XXXIII, 91-129. Sannazaro’s modern editor, Francesco Erspamer, states that the reference is to Virgil’s Aeneid VI, 705. See Sannazaro, Arcadia, 237n325.

93 moment about to be disturbed by raw human emotions. Sabba provides a quick glimpse

of the proverbial calm before the storm, just moments before the cruel nymph appears:

Mai sì stanco non fui, da allhor che nacque, lo spirto mio nell’aere sereno, et come a la mia stella iniqua piacque mi scorsi un bosco avanti molto ameno: ivi erano ombre estive et gelide acque et de vaghi uccellin tutto era pieno; ivi eran fior vermigli, persi et gialli, con mormorar de liquidi cristalli. (Lamento 16)

With the murmuring of “liquidi cristalli,” Sabba evokes the “chiare, fresche et dolci

acque” Petrarchan incipit, shrouded in a melancholy rendering of incipient apprehension:

“ivi erano ombre estive et gelide acque / et de vaghi uccellin tutto era pieno.”

What began in Petrarch as a melancholy canzone of frustrated love, “né mai in dolci o in sì soavi tempre / risonar seppi gli amorosi guai / che ’l cor s’umiliasse aspro e feroce,” became an appropriate locus for later authors:

I’ seguí’ tanto avanti il mio desire ch’un dí, cacciando sí com’io solea mi mossi; e quella fera bella et cruda in una fonte ignuda si stava, quando ’l sol piú forte ardea. Io, perché d’altra vista non m’appago, stetti a mirarla: ond’ella ebbe vergogna; et per farne vendetta, o per celarse, l’acqua nel viso co le man’ mi sparse. Vero dirò (forse e’ parrà menzogna) ch’i’ sentí’ trarmi de la propria imago, et in un cervo solitario et vago di selva in selva ratto mi trasformo: et anchor de’ miei can’ fuggo lo stormo. (Rerum vulgarium fragmenta XXIII, 147-160)110

Petrarch’s theme of the melancholy inherent in the pastoral retreat is a poetic invitation to

investigate, analyze, and constrain desire. Ovidian metamorpheses play on these issues.

110 Petrarca, Canzoniere, 31.

94 Leonard Barkan observes that the sequence of transformations within Rime XXIII

“dramatizes mutability and the fragmentation of identity.”111 Lover becomes lamenter, a

victim of metamorphosis and happenstance, a passionate stag overcome by forces beyond

his control.

The myth of Actaeon and Diana blends fate, fortune, classical mythology, and

salaciousness engendered by accidental voyeurism. Sannazaro’s Arcadia seizes on these

motifs, with separate descriptions of Diana’s encounter with Pan and Actaeon given in

prose and verse:

Né consentire che gli occhi nostri non degni veggiano mai per le selve le vendicatrici ninfe, né la ignuda Diana bagnarse per le fredde acque, né di mezzo giorno il silvestre Fauno, quando da caccia tornando stanco, irato sotto ardente sole transcorre per li lati campi. (Arcadia III)112

La säette, la corda, l’arco e ’l dardo, ch’ogni animal fea tardo, omai Diana dispregia, e la fontana ove il protervo Atteon divenne cervo; e per campagne lassa le sue compagne senza guida. (Arcadia X, 128-132)113

What initially is given leeway because of Pan’s hierarchy (“il silvestre Fauno”) within the

Arcadian world, is later retold in the tenth eclogue via a ritmo frottolato (the hemistich breaks): the hendecasyllables piani a minore with a forte caesura and rimalmezzo augment the invective against the mythological transgression. With a purposefully brusque and choppy change of style (more rhythmic with each subsequent verse), they help illustrate the primordial chase and horrific wrath of the nymphs towards the

111 Leonard Barkan, “Diana and Actaeon: The Myth as Synthesis,” English Literary Renaissance 10 (1980): 336. 112 Sannazaro, Arcadia, 79. 113 Ibid., 188.

95 unwitting human, leading to catastrophic mutation.114 Sabba’s later rendition is more

acerbic, for Clonico’s bucolic sweetness evokes a Petrarchan world of rivers and flowers

all too quickly displaced by the venomous spite of the pitiless nymph with a far crueller

tone than that employed by previous Italian vernacular writers:

Volgendo i lumi lampegianti adietro mi scorse un tratto ch’io l’era da presso, onde in aspetto assai turbido e tetro disse: Chi di venir qui t’ha commesso? Non ti vergogni tu? Deh, fatti indietro: non è a bifolchi il venir qua concesso. Et poi con ambedue le man mi sparse de l’acqua, unde il mio cor di subito arse.

Fuori del fonte allhor la ignuda donna saltò, in vista assai torva et superba, et presto prese la sua bianca gonna qual stava stesa sopra la verde herba et poi mi disse, quando ella fu in gonna: La vendetta al tuo error, pastor, si serba; et poi fuggendo qual cacciata belva il camin prese per la folta selva. (Lamento 20-21)

The scene, seemingly moralistic in tone, is covertly suggestive; it describes the

vulnerability of the nude nymph in her diaphonous white gown, a source of great

consternation for Clonico. The situation is ripe for the personal intervention of deities via

the familiar classical motif of violated innocence. The denouement that flows from the situation with its mythological tableaux is inescapable within Sabba’s composition; he is

a literary heir of the Trecento masters as well as more immediate Italian vernacular

predecessors.

114 For a concise explanation of Sannazaro’s stylistic innovations, see Maria Corti, “Rivoluzione e reazione stilistica nel Sannazaro,” in Metodi e fantasmi, 307-323.

96 Love fleetingly turns into its opposite as Clonico expresses willingness to consign his soul to Pluto’s underworld, so long as he is allowed to tell Pluto his tale of torment and wreak vengeance upon the cruel nymph. Cupid is now in such a discomfited state that Clonico emphatically tells him to rush to Hades as well to end his suffering, otherwise turmoil and anguish will continue to plague him:

Ma prima va’ da quel crudo Plutone qual d’ogni nostro oprar sol la giù è certo. Questi è quel che là giù rende ragione et premia et danna ognun secondo il merto; et se ben fosse horribile vecchione, di folto e oscuro pel tutto coperto, non ti smarrire, a lui forma il processo contra costei di sì nefando eccesso. (Lamento 62)

But Diana suddenly appears and harshly reprimands Clonico for daring to end his life, a reprimand that will slowly yet inexorably return him from the brink of death into a state of solace:

Diana appare, & parla a Clonico. Aimè, che cosa è questa miseranda? Leva la man, pastor, da questo uffitio. Et quale è cosa al mondo più nefanda che darsi con sua mano acerbo esitio? Dimmi, qual cruda sorte ti commanda a fare un tanto horribili malefitio? Chè so che di miserie ha ben gran copia chi uccidere si vol con sua man propia. (Lamento 65)

This is the turning point in the eclogue, the crisis that eventually prods the bucolic poem into a quick resolution by way of Diana’s narrative. Henceforth, Sabba’s narrators diverge from the mythological content employed by Sannazaro, while retaining the lexicon and phraseology used by the vernacular masters of earlier generations.

97 2.5 Imagery and Ideology

Near the midway point of Sabba’s eclogue, Diana enters the fray; her discourse will guide the rest of the poem. Following a brief exchange with Clonico, Diana delivers a monologue that runs from the 70th to the 105th octave, speaking for all but the last four octaves, where Clonico speaks the final lines of the eclogue. Sabba’s poem employs

Petrarchan language but adds Dantesque imagery. Diana presents Clonico with an escort,

Poesia, and enlightens the tortured protagonist; her words provide inner solace for the shepherd and abatement of the underlying spiritual quandary. The struggle towards redemption begins with clear objectives and includes homage to the god Apollo:

Piglia questi duo rami, o pastor mio, di verde lauro et edera pallente et fa’ che faccia ciò che commando io: con fé divoto presto arditamente vattene al tempio del crinuto Iddio che ’l fuoco spegne nell’humane mente. Ivi al suo altare con felice auspicio farai di queste foglie sacrificio. (Lamento 71)

The gifts to be rendered to Apollo include laurel and ivy branches, the double garland

(from Virgil’s eighth eclogue by way of Servius) signifying a poetic coronation through the emblems of laurel signifying evergreen immortality and ivy (also evergreen) as a symbol of perseverance and learned labor.115 Laurels recall Petrarch’s repeated wordplay involving Laura and evoke the reward for great achievements customary in both classical and contemporary epochs; it is also one of Apollo’s signal attributes. A grove of laurels

is said to grow on top of Parnassus, the home of the Muses; thus the laurel branch implies

artistry as well as achievement. Ivy is a primary attribute of satyrs; it is a plant sacred to

115 See Trapp, “The Owl’s Ivy and the Poet’s Bays,” 240-252.

98 Bacchus in antiquity, as well as an evergreen representing immortality.116 Deploying

symbology applicable to satyrs, gods, and humans against a backdrop of immortality

creates a complex, multifaceted context.

Diana’s narration bombards the listener with Dantesque imagery that foreshadows

Clonico’s ritual cleansing following his voyage through Purgatory. Sabba’s phrases in

the ensuing octaves maintain the dark mythological imagery: “andrai per una ombrosa

valle” (72, 3); “per questo indietro non voltar le spalle, / anzi segui secur che ti conduce”

(72, 5-6); “un monte troverai sassoso et erto” (72, 8); “una macchiata lonza un duro assalto / ti darà per turbare il tuo camino” (73, 3-4); “Questi è un crudo leon che tutto

smaglia” (74, 5); “Allhor presto a tua guida pianta l’orme / chè, dove ella è, la sua

fierezza dorme” (74, 7-8); “Questa è la lupa, e co’ suoi fieri denti / dal dritto e buon

camin ciascun disvia” (75, 3-4); “Questa, o pastor, quanto ogni nostra sorte / sia vaga,

varia e instabile ci insegna” (79, 5-6). In his arduous journey alongside Poesia, Clonico

has encountered allegorical animals, heroic warriors, inspired artists, and gatherings of

wise men. He has scaled the Mount of Virtue, avoided the influence of a band of Vices

and the flattery of Fortune, and finally arrived at the Dantesque summit crowned by

Apollo’s temple:

Quando sarà che in su la cima arrivi un pian vedrai ov’ogni primo è spento. Ivi son puri fonti et chiari rivi con aura dolce d’un tepido vento, ombre d’arbori schietti et sempre vivi et d’uccellini un lepido concento. Ivi è sì grato et sì soave odore Ch’infiammar può a virtute ogni vil core. (Lamento 82)

116 Ibid.

99 Arriving before the temple, Clonico stops to gaze at the inscription above its elegant entryway:

Se d’ogni vitio pria non ti disarmi, sappia ch’entrar qua dentro non ti lice, perché nessun coprir pò questo tetto ch’abbia la mente maculata e ’l petto. (Lamento 84, 5-8)

Clonico must be pure of heart and mind before proceeding into Apollo’s temple. His rite of passage must include an introspective examination. The purification process turns inwards; the cleansing rituals commence. Mindful of his errant ways, Clonico submits himself to the mercy of the god. Prostrate before Apollo’s statue, Clonico is told by

Diana to call out the following ritual prayer:

O sacrosanto figlio di Latona, che tutto illustri col tuo chiaro raggio, se quello è ver che in ogni banda sona che drizzi ogni smarrito al buon viaggio, per tua infinita gratia anco a me dona che liber sia da sì crudele oltraggio chè, se io n’esco, io ti giuro pel mio petto sacrarti il stil, l’ingegno et l’intelletto. (Lamento 103)

Sabba appears to be constructing a richly stylized version of knightly spirituality, which will require pious comportment and an appreciation of both the practical and cultural aspects of the world. His eclogue seems to celebrate his own idiosyncratic characteristics: a pious yet worldly individual seeking the tranquility of a meditative lifestyle, a soldier-scholar ready to teach others the lessons life has taught him. Clonico’s voyage can be seen as a metaphor for Sabba’s past experience and his aspirations for the future.

100 While piety appears to dominate the last third of the eclogue, disparate threats that

Clonico encounters reveal the particular spiritual struggles of the Knight Hospitaller. In the shaded valley Clonico encounters a ferocious leopard evidently symbolizing lust,

Clonico’s most sinful impulse and egregious temptation, the one that against Clonico

“più che a nessun farà gran guerra” (73, 8).117 After vanquishing one feline beast,

Clonico encounters another, a lion, symbolizing pride (and its oftentimes wrathful

consequences), “un’altra fiera ancor ti assaglia” (74, 3), requiring Clonico to stand close

to his guide, Poesia; she can subdue the lion’s ferocity by her mere proximity to the

beast.118 The third allegorical creature is a fiera lupa that menaces “dal dritto e buon

camin ciascun disvia” (75, 4). Sabba clings to the medieval meaning of the she-wolf, portaying her as a dominatrix personifying evil by way of her rapacious fierceness and

cunning, characteristics that made her useful as a symbol for temptation to sin.119 It is

Dante’s use of the allegorical animals in Inferno I, 28-68 that most clearly defines the meaning for Sabba, inasmuch as Clonico has veered from a purpose-driven life and his time on earth is being frittered away. Hence, the three beasts encountered in the Divine

Comedy appear in the savage woods barring the protagonist’s journey to salvation.

Among the various interpretations that have been suggested, “the most likely correlates

them with the triple division of Hell into sins of disordered appetite (she-wolf), violence

(lion), and fraud (leopard).”120

117 Sabba’s poetic rendition identifies the leopard with the protagonist’s lust. See also George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 21: “The leopard is a symbol of sin, cruelty, the Devil, and the Antichrist. It sometimes appears in representations of the Adoration of the Magi to show that the Incarnation of Christ was necessary for redemption from sin.” 118 Ferguson, Signs and Symbols, 22, contends that occasionally the lion, because of its pride and fierceness, can be used as a symbol of the Devil, as supported by Psalm 90:13: “Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.” 119 See Cassell and Kirkham, eds. and trans., in Boccaccio, Diana’s Hunt / Caccia di Diana, 34. 120 Durling and Martinez, introd. and notes, in Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, 36n32.

101 In Apollo’s temple is found the personified image of Fame, a female figure upon

a column, symbolizing triumph over death, “Questa è colei che l’hom ch’è sotto terra /

tra’ del sepolcro et fallo vivo in terra” (85, 7-8). Fame is also one of the six states of man

in Petrarch's Triumphi, in which the author depicts the vision of Fame accompanied by a

long procession of noteworthy historical figures. Probably no literary text of the late

Middle Ages and early Renaissance had a wider influence on pictorial art, and oftentimes

there developed an iconographic theme of a personified bright goddess (oftentimes with

eyes, mouths, and tongues on a feathered dress as described by Virgil) triumphant over

Death (depicted by the three Fates or Death herself prostrate beneath the chariot wheels --

even though a triumphal chariot is only described in the Triumphus Cupidinis).121

Sabba’s 86th Lamento octave describes old Father Time being held forcibly by Fame beneath her right foot, “Costei tien sotto il dextro pede / un Vecchion bianco per antiquo pelo” (86, 1-2). Beneath her left foot lies Death, who although powerful and proud, cannot vanquish the man who achieves eternal fame and glory:

et benchè paia sì fiera et superba, pur questa donna ogni sua furia monca. Questa, da poi la carne seppellita, all’onta sua tien l’hom più chiar che in vita. (Lamento 87, 5-8)

Sabba’s predilection for constructive action is matched only by his desire for eternal fame. He seemed to believe that the self-fashioning of individuals through charitable and righteous deeds and a pious heart would lead to dignified rest and positive remembrance, and that studious and thoughtful living will accomplish this objective. The Seven

Queens, personifications of the seven liberal arts composed of the trivium and the

121 James J. Rorimer, “The Triumphs of Fame and Time,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 35 (1940): 242-244.

102 quadrivium, Clonico identifies as the “divine” foundations of his well-being on Earth and

in the afterlife:

Dentro a le porte eccelse et pellegrine gli occhi tuoi porgerai dal dextro corno; ivi con questa son sette Regine, ciascuna sopra un tribunale adorno. Queste, o pastore, son tutte divine et de seguaci hanno gran copia intorno; chi queste adora, figlio, habbia per certo che ha fama, gloria, eternità per merto. (Lamento 88)

By the right side of the altar, the corno dell’Epistola, are the seven personified liberal

arts; alongside the writings of the early Church Fathers, Sabba has placed the intellectual and contemplative attributes most worthy of veneration. The numerology involving seven alludes to the Pythagorean tradition for the number of chastity, often associated with the goddess Diana, and also recalls Boccaccio’s seven Florentine women who double as huntress-nymphs to propel Ameto's conversion from brute to man in the

Comedia delle ninfe fiorentine.122 In the Lamento, the individual who follows these

“sette Regine” shall receive eternal fame and glory as a reward for a lifelong quest of

learning. An erudite man, a man of letters in search of knowledge as well as spirituality,

is at the core of Sabba’s makeup. Now the protagonist (implicitly the poet) achieves an

epiphany. The twin themes of external locus and internal yearning, clad in pagan

imagery, converge in a Christian knight’s version of an earthly paradise, a locus amoenus

where his true calling is realized on a mountain beyond the inviting but false gardens of

hope. A. Bartlett Giamatti writes that the false earthly paradise as conceived by

sixteenth-century Italian authors was a battlefield of the human predicament, whereon

one learns that desires are self-induced illusions, which through tribulation must be

122 See Cassell and Kirkham, eds. and trans., in Boccaccio, Diana’s Hunt / Caccia di Diana, 30-31.

103 overcome to achieve inner harmony, one’s true earthly paradise, or, at minimum, an

agreeable existence:

The place is remote in space and time (or both), and it involves some ideal of love or harmony. These twin themes, the first “external” and concerned with the place’s “geography,” the second “internal” and related to its way of life, are found in every account. It is a beautiful place because that is the best symbol for man’s inner need and desire for peace and harmony; it is lost or far away or fortified or, as we shall see, false, because that is the only way to convey man’s daily awareness of the impossibility.123

Apollo’s garden and temple, by contrast, offer an oasis of spiritual cleansing and healing remote from the pleasant terrain of shepherds. Sabba abandons the bucolic environment

(like many of his contemporaries) for a more lofty locale. Others before Sabba saw the pastoral’s dialogue between shepherds as complete within itself, the beginning and the end of the story. Instead, Sabba’s protagonist climbs the mountain to arrive at Apollo’s temple, as if entering a terrestrial Eden. Here one finds the true locus amoenus, offering redemption and renewal:

Presso la celebrata et sacrata ara del biondo Apollo una fontana sorge d’una acqua viva, fresca, dolce et chiara, che a chi ne gusta gran conforto porge. Questa dal petto ogni fantasma amara et da la mente ogni error cieco scorge; poi che di questa harrai gustato alquanto tu ne verrai al sacrifitio santo. (Lamento 101)

The words of Petrarch’s famous canzone “Chiare, fresche et dolci acque” are evident, but so too is the association of Clonico’s redemption with fountain water, Dantesque imagery evoking the Purgatory fountain recounted in Purgatorio XXVIII, 121-133, and then briefly mentioned again in Purgatorio XXXIII, 113, as Dante reaches the earthly paradise

123 A. Bartlett Giamatti, The Earthly Paradise and the Renaissance Epic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966), 84.

104 summit, suggesting the formative power (and potential) derived from God's will;

likewise, in Purgatorio XXXII, 139-145, where the Castalian Spring on Mount Parnassus

is utilized as a metaphor for writing poetry, wherein no poet -- no matter how inspired -- can put into words the beauty of the eternal light of the divinity. Sabba’s imagery also recalls the Fountain of Life from which the Rivers of Paradise flow in Revelation 22:1, as

well as the fountain associated with the Creator himself, as depicted in Psalm 35:10: “For with thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light we shall see light.”124 From the ground

where Apollo’s temple lies springs the water that will excise fantasma from the heart and

error from the mind. Water here recalls the sacrament of baptism, the washing away of

sin, and the beginning of a new life of purpose. The traveler does not tarry overlong in

Sabba’s rarefied sanctuary of redemption. Freed from the anguish of misdirected

emotion, he must return to the commonplace world reinvigorated, there to earn merit and

perhaps fame but, most important, to find salvation through the performance of principled

deeds.

Among the images available for Clonico’s inspection in Apollo’s temple are those

of illustrious men of civilization and men of war “dedicati a Marte” (Lamento 93, 3).

They are placed to the left of the altar, the corno del Vangelo in Catholic churches, as a

reminder of the duty of Christian military men to defend the Gospel by all means

available, especially by the subjugation of infidels. This contrasts symmetrically with the right-hand corno dell’Epistola, where the noble Seven Queens represent piety, contemplative studies, and an enlightened spirit.125 Active and contemplative lives

achieve synthesis in the final images of Sabba’s poem, wherein male military prowess

124 The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version. 125 The corni dell’altare refer to the areas of the altar where the two passages from the Scriptures are read during mass, namely the Epistles of the Church Fathers and the Gospel proper.

105 joins with the female attributes of the seven liberal arts in homage to Apollo, whose symbol is the sun.

The chaste goddess Diana acts as Clonico’s arbitrer and guide, helping him

achieve harmony by exposing the vanity of the brutish passion that has lured him from the spiritual path. Life’s journey must be a deliberate progression that provides purpose

and meaning to oneself and others. Diana’s antepenultimate octave, a ritual prayer to

Apollo and perhaps the most poignant comment in the poem, implores the god to show

Clonico his true nature and set him upon the “good” journey, away from the base traits that led him astray, inspiring the pastor to consecrate to Apollo “il stil, l’ingegno et l’intelletto” (Lamento 103, 8). Clonico himself, in the last four octaves, praises Diana’s lengthy exposition, the final octave focusing on the protagonist’s signal achievement in escaping the Petrarch-like “labyrinth” and embracing the “good precept.” In this context, the reader is reminded of Petrarch’s anguish for much of his adult life, the labyrinth representing the passion of love which raged in the poet’s soul, and the variety of ways in

which a person can be kept captive by unrequited love.126

Sabba’s ethos is based on precedent, duty, and the acceptance of both Catholic

doctrine and the Hospitaller code. He espouses an active life for knights: the role of the

Hospitallers in western Europe, after minimal sleep, was to pursue a pious regimen at

night and in the morning, then, by day, to engage in physical exercise to make the man

complete. Both satire (which depends upon a particular reference) and allegory (which implies a universal reference) are peripheral to the poem, which invokes an idealization of physical and mental comportment, thereby generating moral sentiment. In this respect,

Sabba has adapted the pastoral code to his exigencies: (a) a conventional landscape --

126 See Gaetano Cipolla, “Labyrinthine Imagery in Petrarch,” Italica 54 (1977): 267-268.

106 mental or imaginary -- that caters to bucolic symbols and topoi; (b) human and divine

fictional characters that enable the religious argument to coexist with secular endeavors

and various species of love; and (c) a magical realism overlaying worldly existence,

transcending the mundane to offer otherwordly engagement, however perceived. Sabba’s

eclogue is a vernacular Cinquecento expression (post-Sannazaro) that diverges

stylistically from an amorosa or cortese predisposition to one that seeks refuge from the

mutable ideals of humanism in a life governed by the eternal verities of morality.

If one accepts W. W. Greg’s premise that the pastoral preserves a contrast

between a bucolic existence and a more complex type of life -- and that events in the

pastoral are in reaction against a world that is too overbearing -- then Sabba’s version

typifies an existence that flees beyond the idyllic to embrace robust moral precepts and

social norms.127 While the pastoral genre describes what is, indeed, an extremely

artificial setting, Sabba’s symbolic imagery, especially towards the end, harkens back to

ancient predecessors and, with the exception of Diana’s central role, tends to downplay

mythological motifs, choosing instead to fuse classical with Christian iconography, abetted by a syncretic etymology. Latin poetic canons of the late humanist period

permitted a disparate array of topoi drawn from Virgil to Seneca to Ovid, so long as they

bore some resemblance to Christian themes. For the purpose of strengthening goodness

in its perpetual struggle with evil, Sabba naturally esteemed dedicated Christian warriors

versus halfhearted or unmotivated ones, spiritual attraction versus physical, and energetic

noble pursuits versus merely self-serving ones. Sabba utilizes the eclogue as a textbook to inform and to codify moral discipline in the guise of a pastoral entertainment.

127 Walter Wilson Greg, Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama: A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration Stage in England (New York: Russell & Russell, 1959), 4-6.

107

2.6 Military Text and Subtext

On his perilous journey to Appolonian redemption, Clonico encounters a band personifying the seven capital Vices, the so-called “deadly sins” of pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. In themselves, these are not the most grievous offenses possible, but Christian orthodoxy considers them root causes of all sin. Sabba tinkers with these dangerous traits, adapting them to the exigencies of Hospitaller

Knights while attributing altogether novel meanings to some of them:

Sotto certe caverne fredde et atre vedrai di molte squadre un cieco asillo. Di totte queste il pigro Otio è patre: il gelido Timore a ciò sortillo, la trepida Viltate è la lor matre, Ignavia è il capitano del vessillo; è quella torma, poi che ogn’alma atrapola, Ebrietà, Sonno, Lascivia et Crapola. (Lamento 76)

Fear, sloth, and lust seem the most threatening of human weaknesses from Sabba’s

Hospitaller point of view. They stand out among the perverse band that inhabits the

“cold caverns” which are their refuge, as the most threatening to the goals of knighthood, but they cannot inflict mortal wounds so long as one is not “embraced” by them. Like

Ariosto’s Orlando furioso knights, who are frequently exposed to the allegorical personifications of temptation by pleasure, as Ruggiero evidences in Canto VI, so too will Clonico be vulnerable to temptation by vice.128 Albert Russell Ascoli describes the assimilation of Ruggiero’s character into that of Hercules as an allegory of education, and recalls the Pythagorean Y crossroads, but in Ariosto’s case, the multiple twists and turns

128 Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, vol. 1, introd. and notes Marcello Turchi (Milan: Garzanti, 1974), 132-139.

108 of plot reverse the usual understanding of human life as the chronological progression

from adolescent folly to mature prudence.129 In Sabba's eclogue, the significance of

temptation has to be read more literally, like the false “marriage” cave symbolism of

Virgil’s Aeneid Book IV, a political allegory in which the goddess Juno seals Dido’s fate

by means of a sudden tempest as the queen and Aeneas seek shelter in the cave where

they become lovers. What begins with the hunting scene as carefree adolescent high

spirits culminates in the confines of the cave as adult desire and lust.130 Twenty years

after writing the Lamento, in 1549, and in the twilight of his life, Sabba reiterated in the

Ricordi his insistence on the necessary knightly virtues, especially that of moderation.

Sabba argues in the 86th ricordo, “Circa l’abito della virtù,” that virtue is acquired

consciously through habitual daily behavior:

E pertanto dovete sapere che la virtù morale altro non è che un abito elettivo che consiste circa la mediocrità [giusto mezzo], il quale non si acquista per un solo atto di virtù, onde avviene che per un solo atto di virtù non si può dire l’uomo virtuoso, ma per l’abito sì.131

An honest, deliberate, and delineated daily regimen makes men decent. Taking excessive

food and wine are acts of debauchery (ricordo 14, “Circa il mangiare e il bere”): “O vino

falso dementatore.”132 A useful knight requires sleep to reinvigorate body and mind, but

must allow himself only the necessary bare minimum. Sabba invokes Trecento masters

on the question of sleep in ricordo 11, “Circa il dormire”:

Per essere il dormire necessario all’umana natura, dormirete quanto la necessità ricerca, e non più, anzi manco, con ricordarvi il sonno altro non essere che un simulacro di morte, e parimenti terrete bene a

129 Albert Russell Ascoli, Ariosto’s Bitter Harmony: Crisis and Evasion in the Italian Renaissance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987), 55-58. 130 See Marilynn Desmond, Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval Aeneid (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), 84-85. 131 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 135. 132 Ibid., 33.

109 mente il detto di Dante: “che seggendo in piume, in fama non si vien né sotto coltre,” e del Petrarca: “il sonno e l’oziose piume hanno del mondo ogni virtù sbandita.”133

The twelfth ricordo, “Circa il levare per tempo,” reinforces the notion that all one’s time

on Earth must be spent wisely and deliberately. The personified Sonno found in the hole

alongside the Vices is comprehensible in view of Sabba’s focus on time and diurnal

knightly duty.134

Most dangerous to the proper mindset of a worthy knight is timore, the fear of challenges and of enemies that induces inertia. In Sabba’s world there is no time for fear, which can easily lead to slothfulness. Perhaps reflecting on the tribulations of the

Hospitallers in the Levant, as well as the diplomatic and military inertia displayed by

Pope Clement VII which contributed to the sack of Rome in 1527 and damaged papal prestige, Sabba uses the tale of Clonico to urge listeners to act purposefully and fearlessly for the well-being of one’s self and others. Fear’s engendering vice may also derive from

Sabba’s concern over the loss of spirituality by nations as well as individiduals due to

Protestant upheavals in the north and the everpresent Muslim threat in eastern Europe and

the Mediterranean. Timore leads to apathy and idleness and is at war with both faith and

good works. There is no room for sloth in the Knight Hospitaller’s world. Action,

deliberateness, and perseverance must rule the day. Idleness, moral inertia, carelessness,

and laziness (ozio, ignavia, negligenza, and pigrizia), all loosely synonomous, are viewed

as sinful variations of sloth, which can be cleansed only if one “wears out” the vice’s

133 Ibid., 27. 134 “Sleep” was used by Italian authors during the Renaissance to evoke connotations of perturbation and confusion, a state of relative weakness and uncertainty. This notion differs from the understanding of “dreams,” which were deemed truthful and useful if occuring just before dawn. See especially Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno, XXVI, 7-9, and Purgatorio IX, 13-18.

110 stains with praiseworthy actions: “consumarla nel continuo uso di opere degne e

laudate.”135

Sabba’s knightly profession and his role of commander of knights may help to

explain his use of military allusions in the poem. His devotion to military prowess in

words attributed to Diana is clear:

Volgendo gl’occhi poi da l’altra parte molti homini vedrai di ferro onusti; questi son stuoli dedicati a Marte, arditi, accorti et nell’armi robusti. Nulla potrebbe in guerra esser nova arte a questi imperator felici e augusti; ciascun un tropheo ha di ricche spoglie e ’l fronte cinto d’honorate foglie. (Lamento 93)

Sabba’s emphasis here may reflect his alarm at both the declining fortunes of his order

and the recent fall of Rome to Imperial troops. The geopolitical situation of the Italian

Hospitaller Order during the late 1520s seemed to signal its military nadir on all fronts.

With a weakened Pope Clement VII, the only person who could command the Order

besides its designated leaders, Hospitaller influence was diminished. Sabba’s post-1530

aesthetical sensibility gave more attention to artists and their works, as noted in the 109th

ricordo. But in the late 1520s, Sabba’s commentary prioritized extant threats to the

warrior caste in Italy.

Diana deemed honored men of war worthy of their ancient glorification; their

remembrance will last in perpetuity, “chi per salvar la patria de perigli, / altri per dominar

gente et paesi”; their deeds will live on, if only through the written word. But what can

their victories mean if death ultimately triumphs? The stuoli of the 93rd octave, the

“armed multitude,” are dedicated to Mars, yet Sabba, the dutiful Knight Hospitaller,

135 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 151.

111 cannot avoid the humbling realization of mankind’s mortality, an inevitability that can strike suddenly, especially for heroes. In his final octaves, Clonico appears to have abandoned the idyllic pastoral setting for a highly charged contemplation of warriors, artists, and men able to defend and preserve what (little) is decent in society. Apollo’s plateau, as described by Diana, is where one becomes realistic, renounces the pointless gratifications pursued below, and embraces the quest for transit to a true paradise.

Clonico’s military shield, the symbol of Christian chivalry, given power by God’s own will, assumes a newfound significance of righteousness. While not impregnable, it imparts genuine significance to the protagonist’s spiritual efforts, his personal foibles, and his potential redemption:

O se questo mio petto mai riscaldo et se mai trovo a tanto ardor lo scampo, questo mio seno tormentato et caldo mai più non fia per l’amoroso vampo, perch’al petto farò scudo sì saldo che in van gli pianterà Cupido il campo, et cotesti occhi miei, anzi duo laghi, nel mirar non saranno più sì vaghi. (Lamento 107)

The protagonist is now spiritually armed and will not easily fall prey to vain amorous yearnings. Clonico’s challenging journey towards salvation can be seen as a model for the sort of mental and spiritual training that could transform a pleasure-seeking youth into a pious, disciplined soldier of God. His tale, a despairing fall from grace followed by a hard-won reawakening, all thanks to the intervention of a virtuous lady, corresponds well to Sabba’s own knightly aspirations, darkened for the moment by a sense of the world collapsing around him. Sabba’s Clonico, aided by allegorical characters derived from an evolving vernacular anthology assembled by Petrarch and his successors, becomes the

112 nucleus around which Sabba crafts a representational play with a high moral purpose.

The eclogue well describes the siege mentality of its author: Sabba is physically

exhausted and in a state of great anxiety, not unlike that of the tormented Clonico in his

bucolic setting. The fortunes of man, especially of the Italian Christian man, are darkly

adverse and potentially disabling, yet Clonico manages to break free of lethargy and

regain hope and motivation. Diana cautions, however, that men will always be hard-

pressed to find solace:

Questa, o pastor, ognhora più fedele in farte ingiuria et onta sempre harrai. Da questa cieca, instabile et crudele fin che ti spolpi non sperar giamai se non tosco, veleno, assentio et fele, miserie, prede, esilii, stratii et guai; chè fu decreto in ciel, mentre eri in cuna, che sempre havresti adversa la Fortuna. (Lamento 81)

The list of calamities with which Fortune afflicts man’s life is impressive as Diana speaks

her final words. Constant battle looms not only in the heart of the shepherd but also in

the mind of every proactive Christian man. The battle is ever-present, the threat constant.

Sabba’s pastoral rendition of the battle, overtly mythic while covertly theological, was composed amid the spiritual and geopolitical upheavals of the late 1520s, when disaster was always a moment away, dogging mankind, nipping at its heels.

2.7 Modern Analyses of Sabba’s Eclogue

Scholarly criticism of the Lamento in recent years has been infrequent and usually unflattering. Two scholars, Claudio Scarpati and Giancarlo Schizzerotto, however, have offered extensive commentary. Schizzerotto re-published the Lamento in 1969, the first

113 time in 440 years, using the singular 1529 edition extant in only three American

libraries.136 His accompanying commentary focuses on Sabba’s life and

accomplishments, followed by a brief explication de texte placing Sabba’s work in a

faentina vernacular literary tradition. He provides a brief plot summation and describes

certain sources Sabba probably utilized, focusing on the Sannazaro-Sabba correlation.

Schizzerotto also provides information regarding the contribution of the Lamento’s

Venetian publisher, Pencio da Lecco.

Schizzerotto’s primary contribution to the research on Sabba lies in his

painstaking effort to reproduce the eclogue and to provide the first substantial

information on Sabba and his pastoral since it was published. Working with virtually no

studies from preceding centuries, Schizzerotto assembles a history of the man and his two

principal works, the Lamento and the Ricordi. One can argue that his 1969 research

piqued an interest by scholars and fostered further study of Sabba da Castiglione

beginning in the late twentieth century. Schizzerotto’s own summation of the eclogue is

brief and circumspect, leaving ample room for additional commentary by future scholars:

“L’interesse della favola pastorale di fra Sabba, più che nel modesto valore letterario,

riesede nelle circostanze esterne che ne accompagnarono la pubblicazione.”137 While not

a flat-out dismissal of the importance of the poem, it is nonetheless a tepid appraisal.

In 1982 Claudio Scarpati published an updated study focusing on Sabba’s

Ricordi. He briefly analyzes the eclogue, adding the discovery of the third extant text at

136 Schizzerotto, Teatro e cultura, 98-130. Schizzerotto appears to have used the two texts available at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at the Folger Library. The third, at Harvard, was unknown to the scholar at that time. 137 Ibid., 83.

114 the Houghton Library at Harvard.138 In less than ten pages, Scarpati provides a plot summation along with some observations on contextual and stylistic influences. He suggests, like his scholarly predecessor, similarities between Sabba’s poem and

Sannazaro’s Arcadia.139 According to Scarpati, Sabba’s influences on the pastoral are

varied and wide-ranging, a mini-serbatoio of the eclogue from the standpoint of the

Italian vernacular since the Trecento:

Il Castiglione tentava dunque col Lamento di offrire una sintesi della propria cultura poetica volgare, in equilibrio tra gli esemplari trecenteschi e il magistero ancora ben vivo del Poliziano e del Sannazaro. E insieme volgeva la materia pastorale ad una dichiarazione stoica e neoplatonica di etico superamento della passione in favore del culto intellettuale della virtù.140

Scarpati’s analysis posits a deep appreciation by the Hospitaller author for both classical

and vernacular major works, and a broad understanding not only of the obvious

Florentine influences but also of the northern Italian tradition of Galeotto del Carretto,

Niccolò da Correggio, and Antonio Fileremo Fregoso.141 Moreover, he argues that

Sabba’s work reflects the linguistic experimentation of the 1520s, composed just as this

experimental mood was waning: “il Lamento di Sabba è opera nascente di un ciclo del

gusto letterario: apparendo sullo scorcio degli anni venti, il Lamento vedeva la luce

proprio sul declinare di quell’attitudine di sperimentazione linguistica e tematica cui le

Rime del Bembo avrebbero posto risolutamente termine colla loro prima edizione.”142

Stylistically speaking, however, Scarpati considers the work overreaching in its scope,

ultimately failing because of its exaggerated contaminatio:

138 Scarpati, Studi sul Cinquecento italiano, 41. 139 Ibid., 40-46. 140 Ibid., 44. 141 Ibid., 45. 142 Ibid., 45-46.

115

Il Castiglione non sa o non vuole organizzare l’egloga dietro la suggestione di un esemplare unico: piuttosto si protende volonterosamente in un gioco combinatorio, come se la sua premura fosse quella di non soffocare alcuno dei suggerimenti offerti da un ben ordinato patrimonio di letture. Ne deriva una contaminazione fittissima che investe tanto la superficie testuale quanto la tessitura del narrato.143

Scarpati faults the poem for its hodgepodge of themes that borrow indiscriminately from

predecessors. Its lack of thematic organization and structure, he says, makes the work

imperfect.

Scarpati’s and Schizzerotto’s disparagement of Sabba’s eclogue is tempered by

other scholarly work that seeks to classify the poem and grant it serious recognition for

its unique characteristics. In 1973 Louise George Clubb provided a historical

background to the Italian pastoral, listing the various elements inherent in a pastoral and

defining subsets of the pastoral genre, with an emphasis on the genre’s evolution to the

late sixteenth century. Therein lies a breakdown of Sabba’s poem useful for better

understanding its proper place in the broader genre:

[Camillo] Della Valle’s Fillide illustrates the continuation of the court entertainment of the static recited eclogue with mythological tableaux. Cases of love, here set in slight motion with minor complications, stated as problems in the manner of court games, are demonstrated by a range of effects from tears to nymphs’ practical jokes on an amorous old shepherd, resulting in Ovidian transformations into trees and streams and requiring the personal intervention of deities. As in [Torquato Tasso’s] Aminta, the sense of elegant pastime and probably of Neo-Platonic rite is strong, but both of these aspects are displayed in Fillide with uninhibitedly unverisimilar mythological representations. Its direct predecessors include Poliziano’s Orfeo, Sabba da Castiglione’s (La Barona) Lamento del disgraziato pastore Clonico (1528) [1529], and [Marc’Antonio] Epicuro’s Mirzia, which, significantly, passed for new when published pseudonymously long after its author’s death.144

143 Ibid., 44. 144 Louise George Clubb, “The Making of the Pastoral Play,” in Petrarch to Pirandello: Studies in Italian Literature in Honour of Beatrice Corrigan (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973), 53.

116 Within the sixteenth-century Italian pastoral tradition, Sabba’s eclogue is an intermediary

representational work that highlights the late Italian courtly tradition of reciting pastoral

poems contextualized with mythology. It is a pastime of well-read individuals who grasp

allusions and, in the case of the Lamento, are attuned to the Neo-Platonic sentiment that

gives gravitas to the work as a spiritualized statement of the human condition. What

might differentiate Sabba’s poem from Clubb’s generalizations are the genre’s frequent

playful interactions of the characters in the form of beffe, kept to a minimum in the

Lamento. In this respect, Sabba’s eclogue is a moral tale more than a mere courtly

amusement, the latter usually marked by clever dialogue and frisky banter.

Marzia Pieri’s 1983 in-depth study of the pastoral genre, La scena boschereccia

nel Rinascimento italiano, describes Sabba’s moral eclogue as a bucolicismo aulicizzante

whose author is well aware of its chronological place and cognizant of its ethical

resonance:

Questo nuovo bucolicismo aulicizzante può di nuovo assumere movenze severe e moralistiche, come ne Il lamento pietoso del disgratiato Clonico pastore, uscito a Venezia nel 1528 [1529]. Sab[b]a da Castiglione, che ne è il serioso autore, rappresenta in 109 ottave una storia di disperazione amorosa e di purificazione etica attraverso la scalata di un immancabile monte, che molto deve a Dante, Petrarca e Sannazaro. Siamo lontani dalle scoperte pedanterie dei chierici bolognesi di pochi anni prima, in un ambito istituzionalmente letterario ben consapevole di indiscutibili gerarchie fra parole e cose.145

In Pieri’s view, idyllic representation is infused by Sabba with an intrinsic ethical component and spectacular imagery interspersed with continual coups de théâtre. Her

one-paragraph summation of the eclogue’s salient themes suggests a religious component

that does not overwhelm the story; the eclogue evokes a motif established at the end of

145 Pieri, La scena boschereccia, 116.

117 the preceding century, that is, a courtly, noble presence that infuses the work with vigor,

honesty, and the pursuit of a serious life based on lasting moral precepts.

The four aforementioned critics affirm the Knight Hospitaller’s desire to provide viewers or listeners with an erudite moral tale based on symbols, allusions, and literary topoi. Its stylistic components are judged defective mainly due to what they see as the overreaching breadth of scope Sabba employs at the expense of thematic focus. Sabba’s

eclogue expresses the context of a man in the villa cinquecentesca (the justifiably

analogous Commenda faentina), one that reveals itself through the poetic declarations of

the protagonist Clonico. Clonico’s travails can thus be decoded: Sabba’s personal views

of the outside world are therein revealed with straightforward symbolism.

The Lamento stands as a moral vernacular pastoral that delineates the proper

mindset of a Knight Hospitaller and aims for the apex of good spiritual conduct. Beyond

the simple categorization of the Lamento as a moral eclogue, its literary worth lies in

describing the particular objectives of its author and reminding its readers of their civil

and social obligations within a 1520s context. Sabba’s Clonico is placed in the amoena

loca but knowingly agrees to withdraw from it, for the true refuge of a good man lies not

in aesthetic pleasantry but in purposeful activity leading to spiritual fulfillment: Sabba

promotes the dual Hospitaller tenets that require pious Christian fellowship as well as

military action of its members.146 This eclogue fundamentally addresses the “greater

good of society” dilemma from the perspective of a Knight Hospitaller. The later Ricordi

is a further elaboration -- with extensive detail rendered in prose -- of some of the same

topics described above. There are no essential contradictions between Sabba’s two

146 For an excellent summation of the bifurcated roles of Hospitallers as a “supranational” religious order with dual objectives, see chapter 4, “The Hospitallers’ Organisation and Religious Life,” in Helen Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2001), 68-97.

118 literary works; if anything, there is a heightened undertone of urgency and despair in the

Ricordi, made more poignant by a sense of accumulated pain that does not permit allusion or rhyme to enter into its austere dialectic.

Sabba’s eclogue is relatively short with a pleasant resolution and little ambivalence about its themes. The poem is representational in a mythological-spiritual hybrid ambit and set in a lethargic, decadent, lush bucolic surrounding. The shepherd

Clonico might be the main character, but the goddess Diana dominates the proceedings.

Appearing as an allegorical character representing spiritual cleansing and redemption, in the mold of Dante’s Beatrice, Diana’s role is to explain the topographical trajectory leading to Apollo, her twin brother. Clonico is able to make a life-altering decision to pursue the daunting upward path, abandoning the Edenic yet morally stagnant pastoral locus. Anxiety and turmoil are ever-present in the discourse between Clonico and Diana, and danger and grief abound as Clonico struggles to overcome physical desire that can rot the soul.

In the Lamento, contemporaneous Hospitaller concerns are projected life-size, helping convey the lesson that physical activity resulting in the betterment of society will elicit inner peace and impart a level of spirituality that will create the good Christian man.

Clonico’s weaknesses are commonplace, but as he climbs Apollo’s mountain or gazes at the depiction in the temple of the illustrious men who safeguarded society in the past, he comes to recognize the great and challenging deeds he and others must perform. The

Christian call to action is exemplified at the eclogue’s end, where Clonico accedes to

Diana’s instruction to depart the rustic pleasure ground and strive to reach Apollo’s temple. Sabba does not abhor the bucolic locus; he merely rejects the dangerous lethargy

119 that allows thinking but inhibits acting and promotes obsessing while denying

satisfaction.

Sabba’s eclogue represents a secondary phase in the development of the early-

sixteenth-century pastoral form that attempts to incorporate classical themes and late

Quattrocento vernacular content. In view of its dialogue between two characters, didactic

intent, theological content, quick narration, and use of the octave, as well as a certain

sense of empathy and understanding for the plight of characters, one may define the

Lamento as influenced by the medieval sacred representation format.147 The Lamento

may be categorized as a transitional form inspired by contemporaneous courtly pastoral

drama stylized to represent a particularized ethos. Sabba’s triple combination of (a) the

octave format with (b) moral content in (c) a vernacular language is unusual, not often replicated by other Italian poets, and not found elsewhere in a Hospitaller context.

Sabba’s Lamento is detached from both courtly and city life yet promotes an active life dedicated to personal salvation through public service. Inherently worthwhile and deliberate in content, the brief Lamento seeks immediate solutions amidst a tempest of emotional uncertainty. True to the traditions of the Hospitaller Order, its author succeeds in defining a purposeful life and delineating essential roles for men that will afford some sense of tranquillity, all in the interest of inner spirituality and outward human progress.

Sabba partially alters the concept of otium; no longer, as depicted by writers for over two millennia, does the plowman labor while the shepherd loiters and contemplates matters close to his heart. The idle intellectual pleasures purportedly indulged in by the shepherd need to be supplanted by spiritual awakening and self-awareness, resulting in the emergence of a good citizen. If public recitation of Sabba’s eclogue did not move

147 See Hayward Keniston, “Verse Forms of the Italian Eclogue,” Romanic Review 11 (1920): 174, 182.

120 every listener to adopt purposeful and proper comportment, the Lamento surely delivered an engrossing discourse promoting Hospitaller precepts.

CHAPTER 3

Liturgy, Rules, and Spirituality

Hospitallers in Sabba Castiglione’s epoch included priests, knights, sergeants, and

nuns, all of whom were professed religious who took vows of poverty, chastity, and

obedience. They lived communally in houses or commanderies, bound to a daily

regimen regulated by rules approved by the pope. As members of a military religious order, knights were expected to fight, work, and pray. Their routine activities included

both martial drills and prescribed liturgical obligations. As a Knight Hospitaller, Sabba

Castiglione’s spiritual commitment was that of a regular church canon. Knights were not

monks and did not lead a cloistered existence, nor were they simply volunteer crusaders,

since their vows lasted a lifetime. They were, along with the Templars, milites Christi;

both orders had developed as such in order to defend Christian interests in Jerusalem.

The chivalric and military endeavors of the extraordinarily resilient Hospitaller Order are

well understood, but the liturgical practices and organizational rules of the Italian

Hospitallers of the early Cinquecento are poorly understood and have been little

examined, partly due to the dearth of firsthand information and partly because of the

liturgy’s arcane complexity.1

1 Available information on Hospitaller liturgy before the Knights moved to Malta recently increased, largely because of studies by Cristina Dondi and Anne-Marie Legras. Only five breviaries and four missals from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries still exist, along with eighty Hospitaller manuscripts that might be considered pertinent to liturgical practices. See especially Dondi’s recent study of available Hospitaller records: “Hospitaller Liturgical Manuscripts and Early Printed Books,” Revue Mabillon, n.s., 14 (2003): 225-256. 121 122 3.1 The Order’s Origins and Ethos

The origins of the Hospitaller Order determined its ethos and core objectives for

centuries to come. Circa 1070, a few merchants from Amalfi with the aid of Benedictine monks appear to have built a hospice to serve European pilgrims in Jerusalem, located between the Holy Sepulchre and the fifth-century Byzantine Church of St. John the

Baptist.2 The putative founder and first leader of the Hospitallers was Gerard, probably an Italian from the Piedmont region, who was later venerated as a saint by the Order although never officially recognized by the Church as such.

In 1099, Jerusalem fell to forces of the First Crusade and control by European

Catholics was established over what was called the kingdom of Jerusalem, one of four new crusader jurisdictions in Syria and Palestine, and certainly the most important.

Godfrey of Bouillon, the Duke of Lorraine, was made Jerusalem’s ruler by leaders of the

victorious crusade and forthwith appointed twenty secular canons in the Church of the

Holy Sepulchre, who by 1114 became regular canons and conformed to the ideals of

community life without personal wealth.3 Thereafter a profound shift in the Hospitaller

Order’s membership occurred whereby the largest group of novices came from various

parts of France, especially Langue d’Oc. Godfrey donated lands and money to the

hospice in 1100, helping establish French dominance over the Hospitallers, which would

continue until the Order was expelled from Rhodes in January 1523.4

2 While the location is not certain, archeological remains point to a location virtually equidistant from the two churches. See Hugues Vincent and Félix-Marie Abel, Jérusalem: Recherches de topographie, d’archéologie et d’histoire, vol. 2, pts. 3-4 (Paris: Gabalda, 1922-26), 646-647, 959-964. See also Jaroslav Folda, The Art of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, 1098-1187 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 67-68, 274-281, 505, 554-557. 3 Cristina Dondi, The Liturgy of the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem: A Study and a Catalogue of the Manuscript Sources (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2004), 37-38. 4 See Cartulaire général de l’Ordre des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem (1100-1310), ed. Joseph Delaville Le Roulx, 4 vols. (Paris: Leroux, 1894-1906), 1:1, no. 1.

123 In 1102-03, the pilgrim Saewulf described a hospital where there was a

monasterium, perhaps indicating a hospice and a church (or churchly functions),

dedicated to St. John the Baptist: “Iuxta quam est hospitale, ubi monasterium habetur

preclarum in honore sancti Iohannis Baptistae dedicatum.”5 A blurring of boundaries and

identities between various Western groups and institutions operating in the Holy Land is

evident throughout the historically brief stay of Europeans there up to the 1291 fall of

Acre. In Jerusalem cooperation occurred even among Roman Catholic and Orthodox

Christians, perhaps in humanitarian response to the pitiable condition of Jerusalem and its

Western inhabitants, who oftentimes could not find lodgings in the holy city.

An 1113 bull by Pope Paschal II recognized the Hospital of St. John as a distinct

entity, allowed its brethren to elect their own masters, and established its ownership of

property donated to it. It also formally recognized Gerard as the founder of the Hospital.

The 1113 papal privilege was a milestone; it did not create an order per se, but it

amounted to papal recognition of the Hospice as an independent organization protected by and subservient only to the pope. The 1113 bull was followed in succeeding decades by further papal promulgations allowing the Order to build villages and churches, maintain cemeteries, and be exempt not only from paying the one-tenth tithe expected of all Christians but also from the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Jerusalem as well as that of bishops and archbishops wherever the Order operated. Priests who served the Order were

likewise exempted and were subject only to the direct authority of the pope. Needless to

say, the broad scope of such priviliges occasionally caused bitterness and resentment and

brought Hospitallers into conflict with local ecclesiastical authorities. Many of the same

5 “Near which is a hospice, where a splendid monastery is kept dedicated in honor of Saint John the Baptist.” See Robert B. C. Huygens, ed., Peregrinationes tres: Saewulf, John of Würzburg, Theodericus (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1994), 267-269.

124 privileges were accorded other supranational orders such as the Templars, the

Cistercians, and certain other orders of friars, whose subjugation to local control would have been impractical and interfered with their fulfilling their vocational missions.6

The Order of the Temple was founded in the early twelfth century by a small group of Latin fighting men who had been serving as defenders of pilgrims visiting holy sites in Jerusalem as milites ad terminum, or temporary knights for a specific purpose; thus, the Hospital was in existence before the Temple but not as a military body.7 Some scholars have hypothesized that the Templars were donati, or oblates of the hospice, who broke away as a separate warrior class.8 Certainly, there was significant overlap in personnel between the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of St. John, the budding hospice, and the more general crusader warrior class residing in Jerusalem.

Hospitallers originally followed the sixth-century monastic tenets of St. Benedict, which prescribed segmented sleep interspersed with the recitation of verses and psalms.

When the world beyond their precincts was asleep, the Knights Hospitaller chanted -- perhaps murmuring softly -- the prayers of the Night Office. Hospitaller rules of the twelfth century reflected the exigencies of operating among hostile elements,

6 Helen Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell Press, 2001), 4-8. 7 Anthony Luttrell, “The Military Orders: Some Definitions,” in Militia Sancti Sepulcri, idea e istituzioni: atti del colloquio internazionale tenuto presso la Pontificia Università del Laterano, 10-12 aprile 1996, ed. Kaspar Elm and Cosimo Damiano Fonseca (Vatican City: n. p., 1998), 79. 8 The Hospitallers, unlike the Templars, have survived as an order for close to a millennium; the Templars were disbanded in 1312 after a relatively short two-hundred-year duration. The Hospitaller military vocation would survive until their eviction from Malta in 1798, when secular powers in western Europe could no longer permit an active military order in their midst. The Hospitallers differ from lay crusaders in that they had a permanent obligation, theoretically in perpetuity, while the crusaders had expressly circumscribed timetables and military duties that expired after a few years. Also, the religious obligations of lay crusaders were more limited; they were not required to perform daily liturgical practices like the Hospitallers. They provided an essentially short-term solution, while Hospitallers were committed for the duration of the Muslim threat. For a good synopsis that accentuates the latest historical understanding of various Western interests merging in the Levant from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, see Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, revised 2nd edition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 1-214.

125 incorporating a modified Augustinian rule derived from the canons of the Holy

Sepulchre, whereby food, prayer, and sleep were also prescribed, but social and religious

behavior was more tightly configured to encourage engagement with neighboring

communities to provide a buffer between the Christian and non-Christian spheres.

3.2 Structural Codification

In the early twelfth century, the distinctions between monks, canons, and

confratres (associate members making annual donations but not taking full vows) were

still imprecisely defined.9 Yet, both the Hospitaller and Templar Orders vividly express

the codification that occurred during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the former

institution fostering transnational norms and a noblesse oblige emanating from a warrior

class that transcended nation-state geopolitics. Kaspar Elm encapsulates the complex

esprit of the Hospitaller corps:

Comunque importanti sono anche la spiritualità, più difficile a cogliersi, la liturgia e la propria immagine storica di cavalieri, sergenti e sacerdoti, uomini e donne, nelle quali si collegarono elementi di una cultura aristocratica, sviluppatasi nel primo millennio, e quelli di una cultura spirituale in un complesso ben amalgamato di strutture religiose, norme, tradizioni e mentalità. Tale complesso creò un sentimento di unità, al di là delle barriere regionali, nazionali e linguistiche, che è rimasto connaturato fino ad oggi negli ordini cavallereschi ed ospedalieri ancora esistenti, al di fuori di tutte le tensioni interne e di tutte le divergenze.10

From this complicated spirituality, the Western Church hierarchy began a detailed codification of the ordo monasticus, the ordo canonicus, and the ordines mendicantium;

9 Anthony Luttrell, “The Earliest Hospitallers,” in Montjoie: Studies in Crusade History in Honour of Hans Eberhard Mayer, ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Rudolf Hiestand (Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1997), 39. 10 Kaspar Elm, “Gli ordini militari. Un ceto di vita religiosa fra universalismo e particolarismo,” in Militia Sacra: gli ordini militari tra Europa e Terrasanta, ed. Enzo Coli, Maria De Marco, and Francesco Tommasi (Perugia: Società Editrice S. Bevignate, 1994), 17.

126 from these various sources emerged a sacrosanct institution dedicated to serving

Christian interests in hostile territories. After the relatively few years that it took for the

amalfitani and for Gerard to organize a hospice in Jerusalem, and shortly thereafter to

commence an institutional structure, Vatican enthusiasm grew evident, for at the heart of

this hospice work was direct assistance to western European Christian pilgrims in the

Levant. Soon thereafter, the Hospitallers began to create an order marked by transnational inclusiveness administered through an exclusive caste of knights, clerics, and sergeants at arms.

According to the papal tenets of diocesan uniformity, such an organization would be expected to conform its Divine Office, prescribing daily prayer and lesson, to that of the cathedral within whose diocese it was established. Thus, the Holy Sepulchre inevitably influenced nearby hospices and like institutions.11 The Sepulchre’s liturgy was completely Western, not Eastern Orthodox, and of a Gallic-Roman bent that could not be traced to a single Western diocese; it amalgamated Western liturgical books and codes brought to Jerusalem then codified, perhaps by William of Tyre (formerly prior of the

Holy Sepulchre and then Archbishop of Tyre) early in the twelfth century. The earliest extant manuscripts, from 1130 to 1160, are French, mainly Norman. One of these, a book of breviaries and ordinals, describes the liturgy’s composite nature:

Incipit breviarium adbreviatum idest quoddam excerptum de pluribus libris secundum antiquam consuetudinem institutionum ecclesie dominici Sepulcri, partim secundum novam [consuetudinem] legendi et canendi in eadem ecclesia sicuti patres antiqui et priores predicte ecclesie, valde probabiles viri communi assensu, parique voto et bona discretione simpliciter ordinaverunt ac nullo contradicente firmiter tenere et habere

11 The 517 Council of Gerona promoted this centralized attitude, which also was beneficial to a hierarchical system imposed by the papacy. See N. van der Wal and B. H. Stolte, eds., Collectio tripartita: Justinian on Religious and Ecclesiastical Affairs (Groningen, Netherlands: Forsten, 1994), A. 2.32.c.1.

127 pariter decreverunt. Si autem aliquid hic de predictis consuetudinibus quod scriptum non sit defuerit in fine libri huius queratur.12

While this passage was written by Templars, it demonstrates that the breviary was originally compiled by the canons of the Holy Sepulchre from various select books, and that its form had been revised by the priors of the Holy Sepulchre.

Freed from control by local diocesan bishops and endowed with papal privilege, the Hospitallers became the first truly centralized order of the Church, one that derived much of its legitimacy from liturgical practices originating from the Holy Sepulchre.

Knights Hospitaller were warrior canons who recited the offices and then rode out (or boarded ships) to kill Christendom’s enemies. The latter practice, along with the twelfth- century penitential wars, created a complex and contentious debate within Western theological circles. Repeated papal bulls throughout the thirteenth century legitimizing both the Hospitallers and the Templars, however, made such arguments moot. Both

Hospitallers and Templars originally had rudimentary rules to which numerous statutes and traditions (only the former of which required papal approval) were added over time.

The Hospitaller Rule was written between 1145 and 1153, during the command of

Raymond du Puy, the second Hospital master, who served from 1120 to 1160. The Rule, eleven clauses of which replicate elements of the Templars’ earlier Rule of 1129, emphasized order, codification, and militarization. The Rule of Raymond du Puy became the basic law the Hospitaller Order, prescribing in detail the comportment of Hospitallers as well as drawing distinctions between knights and chaplains within the Order: the three

12 Barb. Lat. 659, fol. 26v, Vatican Library: “Here begins an abbreviated breviary that is a certain excerpt from many books according to the ancient habit of institutions of the church of the Lord’s Sepulchre, partly after the new [custom] of reading and singing in the same church, as the ancient fathers and the priors of the aforementioned church, greatly commendable men ordained in simplicity by common agreement, with an equal vow, and with good discretion, and with no one contradicting decreed equally to hold and keep [the ordinances and customs] firmly. If, however, anything here concerning the aforementioned customs is found lacking, because it has not been written, let it be sought at the end of this book.”

128 vows (1-2); service at the altar and visits to the sick (3); alms and preaching (4-7); self- discipline required of brethren (8-13); vigil for a dead brother (14); obedience to the rules

(15); care of the sick (16); settlement of altercations and disputes amongst the brethren

(17-18); and the use of the Cross on the habit (19). A papal bull of Eugenius III in 1153

confirmed the Rule, but its origin and use most likely preceded the bull by a decade or

two.13 The Rule consisted originally of fifteen clauses (1-15); the last four clauses (16-

19) were added later. Four of the clauses (4, 8, 13, 17) are virtually identical with

Augustinian tenets. The 1153 bull by Pope Eugenius III, a second bull by Pope Urban III

in 1185 reconfirming the Rule with minor changes, and an amended version produced

during the tenure of Grand Master Alfonso of Portugal in 1206 are all lost, the last two at

the fall of Acre in 1291. Scholars are indebted to fra Guglielmo di Santo Stefano, one of

the earliest and most prolific historians of the Hospitaller Order, who between 1287 and

1290 compiled the first significant collection of Hospitaller documents (all rendered in

Provençal), including the texts of the 1185 and 1206 confirmatory bulls.14 The oldest

preserved copy of the Rule is a 1253 Latin manuscript now in the Vatican.15

The Hospitallers came to be governed by five sets of regulations: (1) the nineteen

rules of Raymond du Puy, which set the ground rules for the Order by the middle of the

twelfth century; (2) statutes issued by the Order’s General Chapter when the need was

felt to amplify or revise the Rule; (3) the esgarts (des frères), recorded judgments

concerning discipline against brothers for infractions committed; (4) the usances, or

13 Cartulaire général, 1:166-168, no. 217. 14 No monographic study of Guglielmo di Santo Stefano has been performed. For a brief summation of his works, see Delaville Le Roulx, “Les Statuts de l’Ordre de St.-Jean de Jérusalem,” BEC 48 (1887): 347-354; Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, c. 1050-1310 (London: MacMillan, 1967), 32-36, 260-273. Guglielmo’s extant works are still in manuscript form in MS Fr. 6049, Bib. Nat. Paris. Excerpts are also found in Cartulaire général and in Edwin James King, The Rule, Statutes and Customs of the Hospitallers, 1099-1310 (London: Methuen, 1934; New York: AMS Press, 1981). 15 Vat. Lat. 4852, Vatican Library.

129 customs, of the Hospitallers as recorded by the Order’s hierarchy; and (5) bulls issued by

various popes confirming the Rule and establishing statutes. Popes often involved

themselves in the internal affairs of the Order, threatening reform or granting exemptions

to existing regulations.

Raymond’s Rule has remained the definitive authority for the Order. Provisions

of later rules, including those in the Stabilimenta Rhodiorum militum produced by a

Chapter General in 1489, were always superseded by the charitable principles of the

original Rule. Chapters General, composed of senior Hospitaller officials from all its

territories, met at regular intervals and acted as the Order’s legislature and advised grand

masters, particularly in matters of fortifications and defense. However, the 1489

Stabilimenta, appears to have superseded all other statutes and usances promulgated since

Raymond du Puy’s mid-twelfth-century term in office. Its rules prescribed the practices

of charity, sharing, and hospice oversight, and it remains significant for the

organizational specificity it injected into the Order’s hierarchy. Jurgen Sarnowsky’s

research into fifteenth-century Chapters General establishes that the 1489 gathering

updated the Order’s legislation, enforced past statutes and discarded others, and garnered

extra tithes from the western preceptories for the Convent headquarters.16 The 1489

statutes were also effective in combating complacency, streamlining the acquisition of revenue, and tailoring protocol.

16 Jurgen Sarnowsky, “The Oligarchy at Work: The Chapters General of the Hospitallers in the XVth Century (1421-1522),” in Autour de la Première Croisade. Actes du Colloque de la Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (Clermont-Ferrand, 22-25 juin 1995), ed. Michel Balard (Paris: Sorbonne, 1996), 269-274.

130 3.3 Augustinian Principles, Benedictine Practices

Nine pieces (eight treatises and one letter) comprise the monastic tenets of St.

Augustine, known as the Regula Sancti Augustini or Rule of Augustine, which theologians have debated since Augustine’s death in 430.17 St. Augustine’s importance

to Sabba’s understanding of the Hospitaller ethos can hardly be overstated. Reference to

the fifth-century bishop of Hippo (in present-day Algeria) appears in the Ricordi twenty- four times. Only St. Paul, the first-century apostle to the Gentiles credited with bringing structure to early Christianity, is given greater attention (twenty-eight references). Early

Augustinian canons were clerics who worked beside bishops and performed the cathedral

liturgy, as distinguished from vagantes, priests who had no established relationship with

the bishop. Between the seventh and eleventh centuries canons came to be clerics living

a monastic life according to the rules of the nearest cathedral. Vows of poverty and

communal living, however, were not strictly enforced. The Lateran Synod of 1059

marked the beginning of reforms that separated regular canons from secular ones: the

former adhered to Augustine’s rules and the latter rejected them, especially those

concerning communal living and poverty. The 1059 synod effectively reestablished the

role of canons from half a millennium earlier, when the 535 Council of Clermont had

defined the canonicus as distinct from the clericus. The five-hundred-year interval had

produced laxity and a lack of uniformity vis-à-vis obedience to bishops, residence

requirements, and liturgical recitation. The virtues and practices most relevant to

religious life, according to Augustine, are charity; mutual duties of superiors and

17 Scholars know little about the provenance of the Rule of Augustine, and their dates are mostly a matter of conjecture with respect to the life of Augustine. See Luc Verheijen, La Règle de Saint Augustin 2 vols. (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1967), especially the exhaustive bibliography in volume 2, pages 221-239, that analyzed 274 manuscripts containing 317 texts.

131 inferiors; prayer in common; care of the sick; silence; and vows of chastity, obedience,

and poverty. Augustine’s “rule” had become little more than a loose summation of

essential tenets substituting contemplation for idleness. The reestablishment of canonical

structures during the latter half of the eleventh century coincided with the gradual

diminution of the Benedictine Order, as the Vatican enunciated more options to holy life.

The Augustinian tenets had more flexibility and appeared less rigid, although by the

twelfth century their proponents had reasserted the familiar vows of chastity, obedience,

and poverty. Like monks, regular canons lived in communities and took vows. But they

differed from monks in that they ministered to people beyond their gated communities.

Active pastoral care was deemed essential to their purpose, which they fulfilled without

adherence to the highly detailed prescriptions of the Benedictine Rule. The fact that

Hospitallers observed customary monastic hours and followed a prescribed liturgy still

causes some scholars to incorrectly categorize them as monks.18

By at least the third decade of the twelfth century, the Holy Sepulchre canons, the

Hospitallers, and the Templars emerged fully organized and self-regulated, but each with

its own character and nuances. All three led lives of active, non-cloistered service rather

than adhering to the closed Benedictine regime dominated by prayer. And all three

operated near the supposed burial grounds of Jesus first identified by Saint Helena. As

various groups of knights came to Jerusalem to serve under the prior of the Holy

Sepulchre, a “law and order” exigency was recognized by the hierarchy of the Holy

Sepulchre, which needed to impose discipline but which also had to be pragmatic, which meant following the somewhat flexible Augustinian precepts appropriate to an active life

18 Some scholars consider the Hospitaller Order an Augustine-Benedictine hybrid, largely because the Divine Office practices were shared by monks and Hospitallers. However, it seems somewhat a misnomer, for the Knights are canonical and Augustinian in both deeds and rules.

132 in a secular world. The rough-and-tumble lifestyle prevalent in the Levant also precluded the more strict Benedictine regime dominated by prayer.19

Jonathan Riley-Smith, a preeminent Hospitaller scholar, estimates that more than a third of the Levant settlers became churchmen on some level, subjecting themselves to various rules but also taking refuge in an infrastructure that provided safety and the comfort of large numbers.20 For its very survival, the Latin Church in the East and its offshoots had to become proactive and outward-looking. The insular Benedictine system, if followed exclusively, would have caused harm to the Christian infrastructure of the

Levant in part by isolating vital resources that needed to be shared among Christian institutions. The adoption of Augustinian principles by both Hospitallers and Templars is reflected in their separate but similar rules and statutes and by their mutual adoption of the liturgy of the cathedral church of Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre. The nineteen

Hospitaller rules composed between 1120 and 1153 refer to members as clercs, implying they were canons, not monks.21

As the Hospitallers grew in strength and numbers, in regard to their liturgy, at least, the Order mimicked the Benedictine uniformity of Cluny, whereby daughter-houses of a foundation established in another diocese or territory adopt the office of the mother- house rather than the office of the diocese within which the new house was settled.22

19 Scholarly accounts portray the need for a benign authority over oftentimes reckless knights, which became more regulated and austere as formalized structures and strictures developed. For a good synopsis and useful primary sources, see Anthony Luttrell, “The Earliest Templars,” in Autour de la Première Croisade: actes du Colloque de la Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East (Clermont- Ferrand, 22-25 juin 1995), ed. Michel Balard (Paris: Sorbonne, 1996), 193-202. 20 Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusaders 1095-1131 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 19. 21 Cartulaire général, 1:62-68, no. 70. 22 For the Cluniac reform of the tenth century and its influences on other orders throughout western Europe, see Pierre-Marie Gy, “La liturgie des chanoines de Saint Ruf,” in Le monde des chanoines (XIe-XIVe s.) (Toulouse: Privat, 1989), 181-191.

133 Throughout the late medieval period and into the Renaissance a distinctive Hospitaller liturgy based on the Holy Sepulchre model increasingly became an integral part of the

Order’s heritage.23

3.4 The Divine Office

After the late eleventh century, the centralized authority of the cathedral and its bishop began to wane in the face of the division of urban dioceses into ever more numerous parishes and the unwieldy burgeoning of the duties of parish priests.

Recitation of the Divine Office outside monasteries became increasingly a matter of private devotion during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Portable breviaries, which collected in a single volume all of the necessary elements for the recitation of the offices, were available in the twelfth century. In Hospitaller commanderies, however, group reading and recitation of the daily Divine Office remained the norm. The Divine Office, or Liturgy of the Hours, included the daily singing of hymns, reading of lessons, and recitation of psalms, an observance second in importance only to Mass and Communion and obligatory for all priests and members of religious orders. In the twenty-fourth

Hospitaller usance, implemented in 1239, the canonical hours became obligatory: “Se aucun freyre n’est a toutes les hores du jour a l’iglise, et son bailli se plaint de lui, soit en tant de settaines com il aura failli d’ores.”24 While the prevalent Hospitaller custom had been to observe interspersed nightly and early morning canonical rituals, there was occasional resistance to compliance, as expressed in the fifty-eighth usance, under which repeated absences would be sanctioned with a quarantine period (either seven or forty

23 Dondi, The Liturgy of the Canons Regular, 42. 24 Cartulaire général, 2:540, no. 2213.

134 days) or even expulsion.25 For inadequately schooled members, one hundred fifty Patre nostres could be recited in lieu of reading and reciting the offices, but as the 123rd usance makes clear, gradual psalms, vespers for the dead, the Office of the Virgin and matins were fundamental to the daily ritual:

Ici est establi en le sainte meson del Hospital que chascun frere, qui n’en est prestres, doit dire tous les jours cent et cinquante pater nostres: pour matines du jour, XIII; pour matines de Nostre Dame; XIII; pour prime dou jour, VII; por tiercie dou jour et de Nostre Dame, XIIII; pour midi dou jour et de Nostre Dame, XIIII; por none dou jor et de Nostre Dame, XIIII; por vespres dou jour et de Nostre Dame, XIIII; por les XV salmes, qui se dient devant matines, doivent dire XV pater nostres; por vegiles des mors, XIIII et por vespres de mors, VII. Et ces pater nostres les freres doivent dire tous les jours, que devant que aprés, ou tout ensemble, s’il leur plast.26

According to Cristina Dondi, the only noteworthy variations in fifteenth- and sixteenth- century Hospitaller texts occurred in a shorter Office of the Virgin, in a more regionally specific sanctoral (prayers, hymns, and lessons for feast days of saints), and in other significant localized feasts. The Hospitallers as a canonical order followed the cursus romanus (with a strong Gallican influence), with a Matins Office, or Office of Readings, with one to three nocturns (a division of matins) consisting of antiphons, psalms, and three lessons for each assigned nocturn. The liturgy prescribed appropriate times for saying the hours and celebrating Mass, daily rituals that are the official prayer of the professed.27 Dondi notes that the liturgy in early Hospitaller ordinaries and breviaries was an amalgam of prayers, psalms, canticles, antiphons, responsorials, and chants

25 Ibid., 544. 26 Ibid., 558. 27 Anne-Marie Legras and Jean-Loup Lemaitre, “La pratique liturgique des Templiers et des Hospitaliers de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem,” in L’ecrit dans la societe medievale: divers aspects de sa pratique du XIe au VXe siècle. Textes en hommage à Lucie Fossier, ed. Caroline Bourlet and Annie Dufour (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1991), 77-137.

135 familiar to various French regions.28 The repertoire of the liturgical chant remained

virtually uniform from the twelfth century to the 1545-1563 Council of Trent.

Vigils, matins, and lauds (the primary nighttime and early morning offices)

comprised the ever-expanding Night Office as part of the pious all-night vigil, with three

lessons each for canonical orders. (Monastic orders required four lessons for each Night

Office.) Importantly for the Hospitallers and their highly structured lives, the other six

canonical hours (out of a total of nine) were brief. Nighttime and morning were devoted

to spirituality; afternoons were mostly left for military activities, bureaucratic matters,

and studies (for the small group of erudite members within the Order, Sabba being a

prime example). K. V. Sinclair draws upon the mammoth four-volume Cartulaire

général compiled by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx to succinctly summarize the thirteenth-

century Hospitaller liturgical practices: a prescribed set of fifteen psalms, followed by

matins, with prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline interspersed throughout the

day, with special emphasis on the Office of the Dead, a central component of Hospitaller

liturgy given the military context and a high mortality rate among its members.29 E. J.

King, using the usances of the Hospital, gives this rendition of Sunday and feast-day mornings in the Hospitaller Convent:

The day began with Matins, said just after midnight, followed immediately by Lauds, which would begin about one clock, after which the brethren returned to bed. The next service was Prime at seven o’clock, followed by the early Mass, or Missa Familiaris, for the Serjeants-at-Office, at which the brethren were not bound to be present. After Prime the brethren performed their toilet, and had their breakfast or Mixtum, consisting of bread and wine. The next duty was the Morning Mass about eight-thirty, often called the Lady Mass and sometimes called the Chapter Mass in other religious orders, where it was followed by the daily Chapter.30

28 Dondi, The Liturgy of the Canons Regular, 44-60. 29 K. V. Sinclair, “New Light on Early Hospitaller Practices,” Revue Benedictine 96 (1986): 122. 30 King, The Rule, Statutes and Customs of the Hospitallers, 144-145.

136

Individual preceptories did not often house more than a few professed brethren; it was rare even to have a knight and a sergeant or a chaplain. (The problem of insufficient

Hospitaller chaplains would become acute in later centuries.) Rule 14 had established the

trental, thirty masses to be said for every dead brother. In the Convent five chaplains

were required to read from the Psalter every evening for the souls of benefactors; after

1262 solemn vespers and vigils of the dead were sung on the Sunday before Lent; on the

first Monday in Lent, a solemn requiem office was said for the souls of deceased grand

masters and brethren.31

The Office of the Dead consists of vespers, matins, and lauds, and was commonly

celebrated each weekday -- in addition to the daily office -- but exigencies could cause it

to be celebrated on a Sunday or a feast day.32 There are no liturgical sources containing

an Office of the Dead before the ninth century, and until Pope Paul VI’s 1971 changes in

the Liturgia Horarum it was practiced without significant changes for over a millennium

and remained part of the daily pensum in monasteries.33 The Hospitallers made it part of

the funeral liturgy, alongside a cult of past leaders and specific saints, in appreciation for

the sacrifices of brethren who had fallen in the Levant. The office could be celebrated

with matins complete with three nocturns, or it might be part of the daily cursus when

only one nocturn was said at matins. The celebration of the Office of the Dead, while

never directly alluding to a purgatorial state, rested on the tacit assumption that the

31 Cartulaire général, 1:66-67, no. 70. See also the brief synopsis by Riley-Smith, Knights of St. John in Jerusalem and Cyprus, 251. 32 Knud Ottosen, The Responsories and Versicles of the Latin Office of the Dead (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1993), 3. 33 Ibid., 3-4.

137 departed souls experienced an afterlife full of fear and uncertainty which prayers from the

living might help assuage.34

By the first half of the sixteenth century, this office indirectly led to a plethora of

indulgences granted for prayers to the dead throughout Western Christendom. The office serves as both the funeral vigil and regular prayers for the dead, consisting of antiphons

(Scripture sung or recited before and after each psalm) and responsories (Scripture verses

chanted after the lessons of the Night Office), the lessons therein being derived from

various Church Fathers but not made uniform until the Council of Trent. Like the Office

of the Virgin, the Office of the Dead was recited primarily by professed clerics and

monks, in commemoration of and for the benefit of the faithful departed. The psalms chosen for the dead served as antiphons alluding to the state of the dead, some of which

were recited from late antiquity onwards, as the writings of St. Augustine make clear; the

lessons from Job can be traced back to the fifth century.35 The responsory was a

composition found both in the Office of the Dead and the Psalterium per decadas.36

Thus, Hospitaller life became liturgically structured from sunset to mid-morning.

Most of the daytime was taken up with military or other practical matters, but certain liturgical verses and phrases would have become ingrained into the psyche of each

Knight Hospitaller, especially ones with an acute spiritual sensibility. And a responsory repeated several hundred times a year across all medieval Europe can be expected to have had a significant impact on the basic Christian concepts of death.

34 Ibid., 47-49. 35 Augustine, Enchiridion ad Laurentium, de fide et spe et caritate (Corpus christianorum. Series latina 46), ed. Van den Hout and others (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1969), 20-114. 36 The most famous response (and paradoxically most obscure in meaning), Libera me, domine, de viis, refers to Christ’s descent into hell. One of the most important texts in Latin liturgy (after the Creed), this response may have depicted a medieval understanding of deceased pre-Christian people awaiting passage to heaven, perhaps even providing hope through redemption for those already condemned to hell.

138 3.5 The Book of Psalms

The Hospitallers began in the 1182 statutes promulgated during the stewardship

of Roger des Moulins a daily ritual which placed its devotional emphasis on the book of

Psalms. During the nightly lecture meant to be performed by at least five Hospitaller

clerics, sections of the Psalter were recited for the Order’s benefactors: “Clerici quoque

quinque pro animabus benefactorum domui Hospitalis consueverunt sua psalteria nocte

qualibet recitare.”37 The wording of the accompanying devotional prayers is not

available to us, but the psalm readings probably lasted for upwards of an hour, with

nightly offices looming shortly thereafter at midnight.

Sabba da Castiglione’s Ricordi confirms the centrality of the Old Testament book of Psalms to Hospitaller liturgy as practiced in the Commenda faentina, and Renaissance

liturgiologists are in common agreement that Psalms was during that period central to

Christian spirituality.38 The so-called semper in psalmis meditemur, the constant, slow

repetition of scriptural passages aloud, ensured that Psalms was never far from a canon’s

mind or lips.39 The Augustinian Praeceptum 2.3 contains an oft repeated instruction about praying the psalms: “Psalmis et hymnis cum oratis deum, hoc versetur in corde quod profertur in voce.”40 While a majority of Knights Hospitaller were probably barely

proficient in their respective vernacular languages, a noteworthy minority of managerial

37 Cartulaire général, 1:428, no. 627: “Also five clerics on behalf of the souls of benefactors to the Hospitaller house are accustomed to recite their psalms every night.” 38 The Psalms, called by the Hebrews Tehillim, or hymns of praise, were composed mostly by King David, but many of them are by Asaph and others. There is confusion in the numeration of the Psalms, caused by St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation of the Greek Septuagint numbering. I have chosen to utilize the Latin pre-Tridentine Catholic numeration as read by Sabba in his epoch, citing the The Holy Bible, Douay- Rheims Version for uniformity. 39 Joseph Dyer, “The Psalms in Monastic Prayer,” in The Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages, ed. Nancy van Deusen (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1999), 59. 40 George Lawless, Augustine of Hippo and His Monastic Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 84. This critical text with all the Augustinian rules is the most commonly cited work in this field.

139 knights was well versed in Latin and paid attention to the theological implications of

Psalms. Educated brethren of the Order would likely have attended Latin grammar

schools, where the phrase psalterium dicere, or to speak of Psalms, was a familiar part of

early education.41

Medieval pious men and women believed the psalms were divinely inspired

verses that not only reflected the joy and sadness of King David’s life but also were a

prophetic precursor of Christian theology. In keeping with the Hebrew traditions of

morning and evening services, the earliest psalmic offices were first celebrated publicly

after Constantine’s edict in 313, whereby the so-called “cathedral office” came to be held

in the principal church of each ecclesiastical center.42 By the time the Hospitaller Order was founded in the late eleventh century, the process of “Christianizing” the Psalms was complete, following the liturgical prescriptions of Benedict’s Rule within a context of exegesis influenced by Origen and the Alexandrian school as well as eremitical offshoots in the Levant.43 Characterized as “prosopological exegesis,” the anachronistic

Christianizing of the Psalter accompanied an ever-burgeoning use of psalmic antiphons in

the Divine Office.44

During Sabba’s tenure as a Hospitaller preceptor from 1518 to 1554, psalms

remained the primary component of the liturgical offices for both monastic and secular

41 Mary Kay Duggan, “The Psalter on the Way to the Reformation,” in The Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages, ed. van Deusen, 177. See also relevant works by Paul Frederick Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989) and Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 82-84. 42 James W. McKinnon, “The Book of Psalms, Monasticism, and the Western Liturgy,” in The Place of the Psalms in the Intellectual Culture of the Middle Ages, ed. van Deusen, 48. 43 Origen is believed to be the first Christian to comment on the entire Psalter, clearly influencing other Church Fathers in the process, with Augustine perhaps being the most prolific in Ennarationes in psalmos. There exists a perpetual polemic about Psalms concerning its allegorical and prophetic contents. 44 See Michael Slusser, “The Exegetical Roots of Trinitarian Theology,” Theological Studies 49 (1988): 463-475.

140 canons and clergy. That Psalms played a crucial part in the liturgical practice of the

Hospitallers is demonstrated by Anne-Marie Legras and Jean-Loup Lemaitre in a groundbreaking article on Hospitaller liturgy: “L’office est à neuf leçons aux Matines et les Heures sont canoniales. Rien ne peut être plus explicite.”45 A complete breviary of

the early sixteenth century would contain the full daily required reading of the clergy but

usually did not include the full Latin text of Psalms; its increasing reach during the

century to a broader audience was spurred by publication of the Bible in the vernacular

languages of Protestant-leaning countries. The liturgical Psalter generally contains the

abbreviations or full text of the relevant psalms organized for the approximately eight

hours of the Divine Office that generally follows the rite of the Holy Sepulchre.46

Sometimes present in a liturgical Psalter are offices for the dead, with particular reference to the seven penitential psalms: 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142 (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 in Hebrew numbering).47 Roger’s statute 357 states that matins are to be preceded by the quinze psaumes (the “gradual” psalms, those used in the Mass):

Il est acostumé a nostre maison que l’en dit toz jors au mostier, devant que l’on comence matines, le XV psalmes, fors que a feste de IX leçons, et fors la veille de noel, et fors la veille de l’aparition. Mais dedens les octaves de noel, ne de pasques, ne de pentecoste, ne de l’assumption nostre Dame, ne de la feste de qui le saint est de l’yglise, ne dit-on nules des XV psalmes.48

Statute 284 specifies the liturgical obligations of Knights Hospitaller:

Le § 284 rappelle les obligations liturgiques des frères: ecouter ou dire Prime, puis la messe, après la messe Tierce et Midi (Sexte). Il est également permis de dire Tierce et Sexte avant la messe, c’est-à-dire de

45 Legras and Lemaitre, “La Pratique Liturgique,” 82. On page 83, the two writers state that “Templiers et Hospitaliers, ordres placés plus ou moins théoriquement sous la règle de saint Augustin, appartenant à l’Ordo canonicus, suivent donc le cursus romanus, l’office canonial à neuf leçons, avec trois nocturnes de trois leçons aux Matines des dimanches ou des fêtes doubles.” 46 Duggan, “The Psalter,” 154. 47 Ibid., 155. 48 Legras and Lemaitre “La Pratique Liturgique,” 83.

141 regrouper les petites Heures en début de matinée, avant la messe, ce qui donne au frère plus de temps après pour vaquer à ses affaires. Ce même paragraphe évoque la messe chantée quotidiennement... Outre la messe de la férie ou de la fête du jour, il était possible de célébrer d’autres messes, les messes votives et surtout les messes pour les défunts.49

Keeping in mind that a collegial, canonical institution was supposed to hold a particularized Mass for the dead and for ferial or feast days, the essential elements of

Hospitaller practices are expressed here, as the devotional regimen of the Hospitallers was geared towards daily repetition in the early morning hours and also provided an appropriate cult of the dead. The psalms that come most into focus, the penitential and gradual ones, become significant determinants of the European Christian ethos because the pre-Tridentine liturgical practices of the Western Church were largely dominated by the chanting and singing of psalms.

Psalm 12 (13 Hebrew) contains connotations of impending martyrdom and reflects the anguish of an individual preparing to meet his fate. It begins as a song of lamentation: “How long dost thou turn away thy face from me? How long shall I take counsels in my soul, sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” From despair, David begs, “Consider, and hear me, O Lord, my God.

Enlighten my eyes, that I never sleep in death: lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him.” The phrase illumina oculos meos is in the offertory of the Mass for the fourth Sunday after Pentacost. The psalm moves quickly from grief to acceptance to hope; by the fifth verse the psalmist feels fully reassured by God’s presence: “They that trouble me, will rejoice when I am moved: but I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing to the Lord, who giveth me good things: yea I will sing to the name of the Lord most high.”

49 Ibid.

142 Psalms is replete with military imagery; the psalmist cries to God for protection and for victory over mighty adversaries, described variously as cruel, unjust, and intransigent. Psalms cited by Sabba in the Ricordi bear directly on immediate concerns of Christian warriors. Psalm 24 (25 Hebrew) is a prayer for forgiveness of sin and protection against enemies: “To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul. In thee, O my

God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on thee shall be confounded. Let them all be confounded that act unjust things without cause. Shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths.” And later, “My eyes are ever towards the Lord: for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare.”

In the seventh penitential psalm, Psalm 142 (143 Hebrew), David calls upon God for instruction and for victory: “Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, to thee have I fled: teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land: for thy name’s sake, O Lord, thou wilt quicken me in thy justice. Thou wilt bring my soul out of trouble: and in thy mercy thou wilt destroy my enemies. And thou wilt cut off all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.”

3.6 The Lyons Breviary

Essential to clarifying or codifying the sixteenth-century liturgical practices of the

Hospitallers, is a 1517 French breviary published at Lyons that adopted liturgical proceedings emanating from the February 1509 Chapter General in Rhodes. It is safe to assume that this particular chapter was convened in part to reestablish uniformity in the face of local contaminations continually intruding upon the Hospitaller liturgy:

Forma confirmationis et constitutionis hujus libri facta per capitulum generale Rhodi celebratum. Frater Emericus Damboyse Dei gratia sacre

143 domus Hospitalis Sancti Johannis Hierosolymitani magister humilis . . . . Datum Rhodi in nostro conventu dicto nostro generali capitulo die prima mensis februarii, anno incarnationis dominice millesimo quingentesimo nono.50

This text was reprinted in 1551 without alterations (although appending a missal tailored for Hospitallers), providing evidence of continuous uniformity in the first half of the

Cinquecento.51 This text, perhaps more than any other, helps identify the liturgical practices prevalent in western European Hospitaller commanderies. According to

Cristina Dondi, the adoption of local components was limited to the introduction of a few preferred saints from liturgical calendars and sanctorals, while the liturgical repertoire remained generally faithful to that of the Holy Sepulchre:

Explicit breviarium secundum usum ordinis Sancti Johannis Hierosolymitani, ex approbato usu Dominici Sepulchri, excerptum, cum multis non vulgaribus officiis quod plerisque quibus squalebat mendis prius castigatum impressit Lugduni Cyriacus Hochperg, ejusdem civitatis et bibliopola et calcographus non mediocris, anno post virgineum partum decimo septimo supra mille et quingentesimo ad decimum octavum kalendas januarias.52

Dondi is of the opinion that Hospitallers were able to exert such liturgical uniformity over time because of their use of Chapters General and their pyramidical hierarchical

50 Breviarium secundum usum Ordinis sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani (Lyons, Cyriacus Hochperg, 1517), f. AB. See Hanns Bohatta, Bibliographie der Breviere, 1501-1850, 2nd ed. (Nieuwkoop, Netherlands: B. de Graaf, 1963), 154. See also Robert Amiet, Missels et bréviaires imprimés (supplément aux catalogues de Weale et Bohatta), Propres des saints (édition princeps) (Paris: CNRS, 1990), 211: “The form of the confirmation and constitution of this book was made by the general chapter held at Rhodes. Brother Emery d’Amboise by the grace of God, the humble master of the sacred Hospitaller house of Saint John of Jerusalem . . . . Given at Rhodes in our convention at the aforementioned general chapter on the first day of the month of February, in the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1509.” 51 Amiet, Missels et bréviaires imprimés, 126; Julien Baudrier, Bibliographie lyonnaise: recherches sur les imprimeurs, libraires, relieurs et fondeurs de lettres de Lyon au XVIe siècle, vol. 6 (Paris: Librairie ancienne d’Auguste Brun, 1904), 272. 52 Breviarium secundum usum (Lyons, 1517), f. YY8: “Here ends the breviary according to the usage of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, from the approved usage of the Lord's Sepulchre, excerpted, including many non-vernacular offices, which, having been purged of the many errors with which it was previously soiled, Cyriacus Hochperg printed at Lyons, being an excellent bookseller and printer of the same city, in 1517 on the 18th day of January after the Virgin birth.”

144 structure.53 Hospitaller liturgical uniformity developed from the fourteenth century

onwards and can be described as an ongoing effort by the hierarchy to prevent a fate

similar to that of the Templars, to the extent that prescribed spirituality and codified rules

could signify to others an unwavering firmness of character by the Hospitaller Order.54

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the officium quotidianum de Beata Maria

Virgine (BMV), developed between the tenth and twelfth centuries to be recited by either congregations or individuals, was in general use and became an obligation of the clergy until the 1568 Breviarium Romanum was promulgated. Generally found in the Book of

Hours, which from the thirteenth century became independent of the Psalter (and, some argue, replaced the latter as the essential book of Christian piety), the officium de BMV evolved from a short three-lesson form to become a full office containing all hours.55

The Hospitaller use of this office appears to be a variant of the office adopted in

Toul, France.56 As the earliest use of this office by Hospitallers occurred in Acre in the

latter half of the thirteenth century, it seems likely that liturgical material from the Toul-

Verdun-Metz dioceses (adjoining each other) in the Lorraine region was introduced by

the 1255-1261 patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacques Pantaleon, previously Bishop of Verdun.57

Apparently the only thirteenth-century divergence between the Hospitaller office series

and the French one is found in the short Office of the Virgin, with the short lesson

capitulum at the canonical hour of None.58 Eventually the Hospitallers developed a

variant series where this capitulum at None is replaced with one found in the Roman use,

53 Dondi, “Manoscritti liturgici dei templari e degli ospitalieri,” 104. 54 The Saragossa breviary is now in Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Res. 1912. 55 For a full explanation, see Dondi, The Liturgy of the Canons Regular, 129-133. 56 See Falconer Madan, “Documents and Records A. Hours of the Virgin Mary (Tests for Localization),” Bodleian Quarterly Record 3 (1920): 40-44. 57 Dondi, The Liturgy of the Canons Regular, 131. 58 Ibid., 132.

145 In plateis.59 This variant series is found in four separate sources ranging from circa 1250

to the latter fifteenth century, and then again in the sixteenth-century Lyons breviary.

Among the few early extant printed Hospitaller books, the Lyons breviary (1517

and 1551) presents the newer variant series of the officium de BMV, while two other

Western breviaries from the late fifteenth century have the earlier variant at None. Dondi believes the first original Hospitaller variant was exported to the Hospitaller “daughter houses” in Europe (essentially the commanderies and fortresses) from thirteenth-century

Acre, while the second Hospitaller variant series was developed later, in stages. Dondi demonstrates that the mandate for publication printed on f. ++3v of the 1517 breviary

edition states that it used as exemplar a manuscript from Rhodes that was considered to

be a better source for the original liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre.60 In turn, the variants to

the Hospitaller officium de BMV, which also represents a Roman-Gallican influence on the Order between the sojourns in Acre and Malta, and more specifically during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were probably introduced in Rhodes. This inference is

made by Dondi because of the presence of this latter variant series in two books of hours

from Rhodes and other identical variant versicles in the Office of the Dead present in a

Holy Sepulchre breviary found in Cyprus (where the Hospitallers, along with most of the

59 Ibid. Dondi does not specify which of the two Roman uses was utilized, the one emanating from the Lateran Basilica or from the papal household. The true significance of the “Roman use” lies with its origins in Rome, as opposed to France or the Levant. Other Latin rites include the Ambrosian, Beneventan, Celtic, Gallican (with many regional variations, all originally deriving from Charlemagne’s Roman- Frankish attempts to develop a uniform imperial liturgy), and Mozarabic. For more on the diverging Latin rites instituted in western Europe, see S. J. P. Van Dijk and J. Hazelden Walker, The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy: The Liturgy of the Papal Court and the Franciscan Order in the Thirteenth Century (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1960), 80-87. 60 Cristina Dondi’s research aids immensely in this matter; as to be expected, the Holy Sepulchre records are scant. However, their interpretation often intersects with Templar and Hospitaller manuscripts. See Dondi, The Liturgy of the Canons Regular, especially 103-133.

146 Latin establishment of Jerusalem after the fall of Acre in 1291, had moved before settling

in Rhodes in 1309).

Since all Hospitaller liturgical texts printed in the Italian peninsula between 1500

and 1554 are lost, we have to interpret the few extant liturgical texts available elsewhere

within proximity of Italy. The Lyons breviary is extremely useful because of its

chronology and because the very act of its 1551 reprint displays continuity within the

Order. This explication is but one indication that the Hospitaller Order, as a highly

centralized institution, overcame many limitations related to its internationality through a

precisely delineated structure, a constant updating of rules and statutes, and a pre-

Tridentine liturgical code that was essentially uniform throughout the Mediterranean and

western Europe.

3.7 A Particularized Version of Christianity

Sabba’s somewhat simplified version of Christian doctrine does not reflect

particular beliefs harking back to early Christianity per se, so much as it represents a

homogenous approach to spirituality adapted to and resulting from the Hospitaller ethos.

Scholarship on Sabba Castiglione often emphasizes the theological connection between

early Church doctrine and the reform-minded principles of pious Italian individuals during the Counter Reformation. A theological ellipsis occurs, however; Sabba’s religious tenets are typically discussed within the general parameters of Church history but without consideration of how the daily Hospitaller liturgy may have shaped Sabba’s core beliefs. The claim made by some that Sabba sought an earthy, more primitive form of Christian spirituality to supplant that which had been corrupted by Roman Catholicism

147 is an oversimplification, if not flatly erroneous.61 Sabba’s Ricordi reflects a thematic

structure well grounded in the utilitarian strictures of the Hospitaller tenets. Had Sabba

disapproved of wealth or worldly power in more absolute terms, he would likely have

chosen the life of a hermit or a monk. Rather, he led an engaged, active life in an order whose members interacted with the community at large. Interpretations of Sabba’s religious views typically give scant attention to Hospitaller liturgical practices while attempting to force him into the convenient mold of the riformatori.62 Yet even a prima facie analysis would reveal Sabba’s much greater attraction to the established ecclesiastical order than to renegade Protestant reformers. In addition to Sabba’s detailed treatment of the Order’s liturgy in the Ricordi, missals and breviaries form the bulk of the few pertinent extant texts from western European commanderies.63 Certain volumes

include the Hospital’s calendar, which explicitly states the special observances: a nine-

lesson office devoted to St. John the Baptist each week (begun in 1300), a nine-lesson

office and corresponding votive Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

(introduced in 1358), and a nine-lesson office and corresponding votive Mass of the Holy

Cross to be read every Friday (begun in 1354).64 The Hospitallers developed their own

61 One example comes from a 2000 lecture on Sabba’s legacy, which suggests a spiritual aesthetic reminiscent of early Christianity, followed by the Counter Reformation retrenchment of the guard. In this case, Hospitaller tenets and rules per se are neither mentioned nor analyzed. See Adriano Prosperi, “Tendenze religiose e movimenti ereticali a Faenza negli anni di fra Sabba” in Sabba da Castiglione 1480- 1554, dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 57-71. 62 Those who attempted to reform Church doctrine and practices before the Counter Reformation are variously called eretici, evangelici, luterani, riformatori, or spiritualisti, each description reflecting the degree of orthodoxy of the historical figure and the perspective of the individual historian. A landmark study of this period and of these individuals is Delio Cantimori’s Eretici italiani del Cinquecento e altri scritti, ed. Adriano Prosperi (Turin: Einaudi, 1992). For a specific discussion of the Reformation movement within Faenza, see Francesco Lanzoni, La Controriforma nella città e diocesi di Faenza (Faenza: Lega, 1925). 63 Cristina Dondi, Anne-Marie Legras, and Anthony Luttrell are in agreement on the relative liturgical uniformity of those texts and the Hospitaller liturgy’s connection to the Holy Sepulchre. 64 Legras and Lemaitre, “La pratique liturgique,” 92.

148 customs: a daily lecture by the chaplains and a reading of the Psalter for the

benefactorum domui of the Order was indicated by a statute promulgated by an 1182

Chapter General.65 Early on, the Hospitallers had promoted a virtual cult of the dead and

prescribed prayerful devotion for their benefactors. As discussed in chapter three, certain

saints (e.g., Michael, Sebastian, George, and Catherine of Alexandria) were emphasized in Hospitaller art and devotions. Hospitaller favorites tended to be either figures relevant

as conquerors of dangerous enemies or heroes who suffered persecution because of their

faith. Hospitallers also developed a strong devotion to St. John the Baptist, the Virgin

Mary, and the Holy Cross, with veneration of these subjects dispersed throughout the

liturgical calendar. Until the Counter Reformation, regional feasts were permitted by a

1262 statute, an astute expedient for a growing institution with a widely disparate

membership.66

To understand Sabba Castiglione’s spiritual predilection, one should consider his

personal book collection. Surviving inventories of the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries that help shed light on his essential influences and interests include a 1621

inventory of the Commenda now preserved in Malta; a 1786 cabreo, or inventory, of the

Commenda property now found in Faenza; and a 1789 inventory now in Malta.67

Within the three inventories (as well as the two last wills and the Ricordi), 112 texts are identifiable as Sabba’s, although a significant majority of these was lost over the

65 Cartulaire général, 1:428, no. 627. 66 Ibid., 3:49, no. 3039. 67 Processo dei miglioramenti della Commenda di Faenza fatto dal sig. Priore d’Inghilterra Comm. Cesare Ferretti nell’anno 1621, MS 5828, Malta: National Archives of Malta; Inventario e Cabreo di tutti li beni della venerabile Commenda della sacra Religione Gerosolimitana, eretta nella città di Faenza sotto il titolo di S. M. Maddalena fatto d’ordine di Sua Eccellenza il Signor Commendatore Fra Antonio Grassi, Patrizio Romano, l’anno 1786, MS 111, Faenza: Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza; Processo della visita de’ miglioramenti della Commenda di S.ta Maria Maddalena di Faenza fatta dal Ven.do Sr. Commendatore Frà Antonio Grassi Patrizio Romano Comandante delle Galere Pontificie visitati dal Ven.do signor Bailo d’Armenia Frà Lodovico dei Conti Caprana, 1789, MS 5830, Malta: National Archives of Malta.

149 years. Anna Rosa Gentilini examined the three inventories and provides this list of

religious texts therein: Bible without date, of unknown provenance; a Bible with

commentary by Niccolò de Lyra in six volumes from 1528-29 published by Lyons de

Marechal; one 1515 Quintuplum salterium Gallicum Romanum conciliatum without date

or authorship; a 1541 complete works of St. Augustine published in Paris by Bonhomme-

Guillard (of ten volumes, only nine were extant at the time of the first inventory); one

Explanatio psalmorum (or Enarrationes in psalmos) by St. Augustine without date but

probably one of the three late-fifteenth-century editions; one De civitate Dei by St.

Augustine without any title page information; one volume of the three-volume 1516

complete works of St. Ambrose from Basel by Hartmann publishers; one St. Gregory the

Great Moralia in Job, published in Venice by Andrea Torresani in 1496; a St. Basil

Exameron a greco in latinum conversum published in Rome by Iacobum Mazochium in

1515; a complete works by Origen published in Paris by Iodoco Badio Ascensio in 1530;

and the Epistole by Pope Nicholas I published in Rome by Franciscum Priscianensem in

1542.68

The three editions of the Ricordi spanned the years 1546 to 1554, so it is not

surprising for Sabba to have embraced a homogeneous orthodoxy as an underpinnining

for his diatribes against the often mentioned peste luterana and emphasized uniformity

and rules, as befits a manual of conduct for knights. Yet, given that harsh polemical

theological commentaries were common in the writings of the latter part of Sabba’s life,

one finds among his books very few sixteenth-century theological texts. Among them is the Enchiridion christianae institutiones in Concilio Provinciali Coloniensi editum,

68 Anna Rosa Gentilini, “La biblioteca di fra Sabba da Castiglione,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 261.

150 edited by Johannes Gropper and published in Venice in 1543 by Comino da Tridino, a work noted for its emphasis on conciliation between Catholicism and Lutheranism.69

Also present is Bartolomeo Platina’s 1469 Vitae Pontificum Platinae historici liber de

vita Christi ac omnium pontificum qui hactenus ducenti fuere et XX, significant as the

first systematic papal history.70 In addition, there are two works of unknown origin,

Confutatio Lutheri and Liber invictissime Anglie regni fidei defensio contra Martinum

Lutherum; an Assertionis Lutheranae confutatio printed in Cologne in 1524 (probably written by John Fisher); and two undated texts by Alberto Pio da Carpi, Confutationes contra Lutherum and Contestazione d’Erasmo.71 Ultimately, the reader seeking the inspiration for Sabba’s theological commentaries in the Ricordi is left with numerous

references to Bible passages, interspersed with references to the early Church Fathers,

Saints Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Anthony of the Desert, Bernard of Clairvaux, John

Chrysostom, Eusebius of Caesarea; Pope Gregory I (“the Great”); and Origen.72

Overt religiosity within Sabba’s extant library is fragmentary but his choice of

books still manages to convey a deep affection for psalmody, an attribute expressed in the

Ricordi as well as inherent in the Order’s liturgy and its conception of personal

spirituality. Sabba’s book collection is replete with diatribes against Luther, a near-

obsession also evident in the Ricordi. The three inventories and Sabba’s two testaments

provide but a fragmented picture of Sabba’s original library, but they do provide the

69 Ibid., 263. Bound to this text is the 1543 Canones Concilii Provincialis Coloniensis published by Giovanni Francesi. 70 Ibid. Additionally, it is one of the few works in Sabba’s library that can be found in all three inventories and that survives to this day in the Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza. Of the texts extant today, it is far and away the most autographed and commented upon by Sabba within the margins, which according to Anna Rosa Gentilini reflects Sabba’s preoccupation with (but not necessarily adherence to) the principle of papal primacy. 71 Ibid. 72 The purpose of this chapter is to illuminate the liturgical practices of the Italian Renaissance Knight Hospitaller, not to deconstruct theological components within the Ricordi.

151 modern scholar with an educated guess based on percentages: that is, of the 112 texts that

can be identified as belonging to Sabba, the aforementioned works clearly comport with

the major theological themes found throughout Sabba’s writings.

3.8 Personal Piety, Group Prayer

The late-eleventh-century Gregorian reforms bespoke the Church’s growing

tendency towards organizational structure of religious orders, especially the mendicant

orders that were trying to distinguish themselves from the occasionally disreputable

monastic ones.73 Personal piety became a key ingredient of holiness, whereby the secular

clergy was obligated to privately recite the offices with abridged lectures and without

music; thus the breviary developed as a portable text briefly covering the essentials. At

the same time, there developed the need to codify each ritual of the theological day,

listing all the orations, chants, and lectures that could possibly occupy a twenty-four-hour

cycle. A practicing Hospitaller such as Sabba would have been exposed in his mid-

twenties in Rhodes to a recurring series of rituals, which would have been performed at

designated times throughout the day at Mass or as part of the Divine Office, the two

buttressing rituals of the Christian religion.74

In medieval and early modern Europe, one would have been hard-pressed to avoid

the periodic bell ringing that called the faithful to recite prayers. Religion, as Robert

73 Pope Gregory VII, pontiff from 1073 to 1085, is credited with the Gregorian reforms, a majority of which are in the Dictatus papae, twenty-seven papal dictates streamlining the concept of papal supremacy and canon law. Gregory VII is less known as the the first pope to state categorically that war on behalf of Christianity was an act of charity that could be penitential, which probably influenced Pope Urban II’s decision in 1095 at the Council of Clermont to proclaim a war to free churches in the Levant from Muslim rule -- especially the Holy Sepulchre, which triggered the First Crusade by the end of the eleventh century and the ad hoc creation of military orders in the Levant. See Riley-Smith, The Crusades, 1-16. 74 Robert Amiet, “Catalogue des livres liturgiques manuscrits et imprimés conservés dans les bibliothèques et les archives de Turin,” Bollettino storico-bibliografico subalpino 77 (1979): 579.

152 Amiet aptly describes, was an inescapable aspect of daily life across the Christian world

from Constantine’s time to the Enlightenment, whereupon longevity increased, the

mortality rate dropped, and a growing secularism infused with the vigor of burgeoning

nation-states slowly usurped the daily functions of the Church:

c’était véritablement l’unique nécessaire, et, du berceau à la tombe, en passant par les moindres circonstances de la vie privée et publique, tout passait par l’église, toutes les choses essentielles, et même accessoires, se faisaient à l’église. De plus, il faut souligner oportunément, quitte à énoncer un truisme, que, dans ces mêmes temps, il n’y avait ni presse écrite, ni cinéma, ni radiophonie, ni télévision, c’est-à-dire aucune “distraction” d’aucune sorte . . . C’est dire que les gens étaient littéralement rivées au terroir, et qu’il leur fallait de toute nécessité trouver sur place, sans jamais rien pouvoir attendre d’ailleurs, ce que les Romains désignaient cyniquement par l’expression panem et circenses.75

Within the context of previous religiosity and its focus on the afterlife, the menacing

threat emanating from the Levant, and the desire to retrace the footsteps of the earliest

Christians in the Holy Land, the Hospitaller Order originally arose. In the Holy Land, any shrine-church reached at the end of an arduous journey was ripe for elaborate

ceremonials potentially generating public displays of fervor.

In ricordo 2 Sabba Castiglione delineates the daily liturgical regimen of the

individual Knight Hospitaller in an Italian Commenda, specifying eleven hymns and

prayers to be said by the knight as he awakened and dressed himself, and also when

preparing for bedtime:

Per aver l’abito di religione senza le opere è una vana, anzi morta religione. Pertanto, accompagnando con queste, ogni mattina senza intermissione, udirete almeno una messa con quella divozione che si conviene; così infallibilmente direte con divozione le orazioni che siete obbligato. E ancora che in elezione vostra sia dire centocinquanta pater nostri, l’ufficio della Madonna o quel de’ morti, nondimeno v’esorto ai centocinquanta pater nostri, per essere la prima instituzione di nostra religione.

75 Ibid., 580.

153 Oltra le vigilie e feste comandate dalla Santa Madre Chiesa, osserverete e solennizzerete le vigilie e feste comandate dalla nostra religione, secondo la forma degli stabilimenti. Vi confesserete e comunicherete quattro volte almeno l’anno, secondo essi stabilimenti e buone usanze della religione. Farete elezione di un sacerdote di santa vita, sofficiente e pratico, quale abbia a confessarvi, e da quello di continuo vi confesserete, con ricordarvi che non manco nuoce all’anima il mutar dei confessori che ai corpi il mutar dei medici. La mattina, quando vi leverete, abituerete di continuo dire le infrascritte orazioni, mentre vi vestite: [1] Gratias ago tibi omnipotens Deus Aeterne, qui me hac nocte et etc., [2] Vias tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi, [3] Illumina oculos meos, [4] Pater noster, il [5] “Credo degli Apostoli”, qual è la regola della cristiana fede. Il [6] Miserere mei Deus secundum magnam misericordiam tuam, L’ [7] Ave Maria, la [8] Salve Regina, [9] Ave, santissima Mater Dei, lo [10] In principio erat Verbum e [11] Qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi. E le medesime orazioni direte la sera quando anderete a letto, mentre vi spoglierete, il che facendo, spero che giorno e notte sarete sotto le ali della protezione di N.S. Gesù Cristo e della sua santissima Madre.76

The salient features of the community daily liturgical practice of Italian Hospitallers were probably common to other western European Hospitallers: hear Mass every morning; recite the prescribed prayers; observe the feasts and vigils of the liturgical year; and confess and take communion at least four times a year. The preceptor was expected to choose a suitable priest (if possible, a Hospitaller chaplain) to help maintain the piety of the knights in the preceptory.77 The penultimate paragraph contains the liturgical hymns

and prayers of interest, since Sabba is trying to effectively spell out the essential

character of the Knight’s routine obligations to Scripture by bringing together current

practices of the Hospitallers as expressed in General Councils, “secondo la forma degli

stabilimenti,” and through the amalgamation of Psalters and devotional prayers to Mary,

76 Sabba Castiglione, Ricordi ovvero ammaestramenti, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 1999), 19-20. 77 See David Frank Allen, “The Hospitaller Castiglione’s Catholic Synthesis of Warfare, Learning and Lay Piety on the Eve of the Council of Trent,” in The Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe: Festschrift for Anthony Luttrell, ed. Karl Borchardt, Nikolas Jaspert, and Helen J. Nicholson (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2007), 262-263.

154 along with references to basic Christian prayers, including the Paternoster, the Apostle’s

Creed, and the opening words to St. John’s Gospel.

Devotion to the Virgin Mary played a significant role in the lives of Knights

Hospitaller. As such, the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina are appropriate additions to the daily prescribed prayers chanted by the individual Hospitaller, for the role of the Knight

Hospitaller involves both piety and chivalry, and it is the reverence for the Virgin Mary that inspires the knight to act in a chivalrous and spiritual manner towards women and to exhibit towards them a non-sexual love. The former hymn is one of the most common prayers in Christianity; the latter hymn became incorporated into the liturgy as one of four antiphons of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it remains a part of compline in the Latin

Rite. A daily recitation of the Salve Regina is still believed by some Catholics to provide an indulgence.

3.9 Objectives of the Order

The dual role of a Knight Hospitaller in Europe required pious practice at night, and in the morning, after the various liturgical offices were finished, physical exercise was prescribed. In ricordo 40, “Circa lo esercizio corporale,” Sabba delineates the drills and exercises performed by knights to maintain their strength and skills:

Pertanto vi esorterò la mattina, dopo udita la messa e detto l’ufficio che siete obbligato, a giuocar d’armi, come di spada e brocchieri grandi, di spada e targa, di spada e rotella, di spada e cappa; e perché siete di statura grande, di spada di due mani, di picca, di azza, di mazza. Vi diletterete lanciare la partesana, il dardo, tirar di balestra, di schioppo, di arco turchesco. Vi diletterete giuocare alle lotte, di correre, di saltare a un salto, di giuocare alle prese con pugnali e altre armi curte, per valervene alle strette. E tutti questi esercizi, sì come vi faranno buona lena, così potranno nei bisogni servirvi e aiutarvi.

155 E insomma vi diletterete di maneggiare mediocremente ogni e qualsivoglia maniera d’armi, acciocché ai bisogni sappiate adoperare tutte quelle armi, le quali, non per elezione, ma per sorte vi verranno alle mani, perché allora si conosce il buon cavalieri nell’armi quando si vale d’ogni sorte d’armi nelle necessità.78

The requirements were highly utilitarian: pious, healthy troops had to be ready for battle

on short notice. Many of the games mentioned were emblematic of court society, yet the

repertoire is variagated and includes practice using small arms. Knights Hospitaller

needed to be proficient wielding the most current Western tools of the military trade.

Warlike attributes were not thought to detract from or conflict with the spiritual or gentlemanly nature of the well-born knight; physical exercise was an invigorating and most purposeful pastime.

But Sabba at times had to walk a fine line between honoring the spiritual precepts of his order and fulfilling his responsibilities as a conscientious, fiscally responsible commendatore, especially as events in the Italian peninsula led to an austere Counter

Reformation. Sabba warns in ricordo 69 against nepotism and admonishes the Italian

Hospitaller to strive to be gracious, deliberate, and efficient:

e ricorderetevi spesso che le commende della nostra religione non furono ordinate e instituite per ingrassare e arrichire gli parenti, come molti sciocchi e ignoranti credono ma acciocché quei poveri cavalieri, i quali per li lunghi servizi, fatti inabili al servire o per vecchiezza o per debilità delli corpi, avessero dove e come vivere, e tutto quello che a loro avanzava dalli diritti e gravezze della religione e dell’ordinata e onesta vita andasse al comun tesoro per intertenimento di essa religione e di quelli poveri cavalieri i quali di continuo servono in convento senza benefici.79

As a preceptor, Sabba was in a position akin to that of a feudal overseer; he was

responsible for the livelihoods of several individuals on the Hospitaller estate. In ricordo

78 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 54. 79 Ibid., 66.

156 70, Sabba discusses the basic requirements for running a Commenda, including the necessity of providing for a chaplain:

Parimenti terrete buon conto delli servizi e delle mercedi delli servitori e cappellani e similmente di tutte le spese ordinarie ed estraordinarie della casa vostra. E insomma di tutte le cose vostre avrete tal notizia e cognizione che se ’l vostro fattore mancasse all’improvviso, senza aver reso conto, o che li suoi libri non si trovassero, non abbiate da curarvene molto.80

The preceptor must serve the needs of a multifaceted organization whose duties of military engagement, religious observation, and hospice work all must be fulfilled. He must tend to the needs of the Order while maintaining independence from secular lords as well as episcopal authorities. Integrity was paramount to Sabba, who flinched at the duplicity and the elaborate dishonesty perpetrated by many of his courtly as well as churchly contemporaries. The actions of the Knight Hospitaller needed to be heartfelt, his beliefs genuine, for him to consider himself a man of honor. In ricordo 110, Sabba expresses these beliefs by outlining a Hospitaller spirituality that emphasizes individuality and inner piety through reciting (occasionally in the presence of others but often alone) both psalms and the Office of the Virgin:

dice l’ufficio della donna, ma più spesso dice il salmo dirupisti e altre opere pie in apparenza, e io gli risponderò che l’uomo di questo mondo, per scellerato e ribaldo che ’l sia, vorrebbe parere ed essere riputato e tenuto buono, virtuoso e religioso in pelle e in superficie come l’archimia e come l’ipocrito, e per questo fa queste prospettive e apparenze. E se mi domanderà: – Queste opere non sono spirituali? – io dirò di sì. – Non sono buone? – Dirò di sì. – Adunque – dirà esso ancora – io sono spirituale e buono –, e io negherò la conclusione o, come dice il loico, la consequenza, perché acciocché le opere siano buone, non basta che siano buone di genere, ma ancora siano buone di circostanza, perché tali opere buone di genere e di circostanze sono vere, buone e meritorie.81

80 Ibid., 67. 81 Ibid., 187.

157

Thus, Sabba formulates a comprehensive Hospitaller theme of spirituality, not only

honoring Psalms and the mother of Jesus but also performing righteous deeds and

speaking righteous words. “Circostanze” meant for Sabba the overall context and

choices of our lives, the dilemmas facing individuals, and their responses to the crises

that befall them. For an empty shell with an ornate facade leaves the man without

redeeming qualities and hinders his spirituality. Additionally, such statements seem

meant to help counter the accusations of corruption and hypocrisy levied by Protestant

sympathizers in Europe, as well as to acknowledge within the Catholic Church a need for

sincerity of purpose behind the actions taken by the putative servants of Christ.

Sabba follows a schematic approach to the knightly Order, charging it with

fundamental responsibilities that persisted until Napoleon’s late-eighteenth-century

invasion of Malta. Thus, Sabba in ricordo 120, “Del capitano d’armi,” beseeches

Hospitallers to never separate their faith from their military pursuits, for their objectives

-- when deconstructed -- are to promote and protect Roman Catholicism and to quell

heresies that may weaken it or mislead its adherents.82 Paradoxically, religion becomes both a causa bellum and a mitigating factor that tempers the violent extremes of human nature. What seems a potentially untenable conflict between adherence to Christianity and waging war is amplified later in the same ricordo in terms essentially Machiavellian, in style if not in content: “Vorrei fosse amato e temuto, amato per la religione, per la eminente virtù e benignità, temuto per la giustizia, amato dalli buoni e valenti, temuto dalli rei e cattivi.”83 Sabba envisions a gentle warrior who shows no mercy to heretics.

82 Ibid., 262. 83 Ibid., 263.

158 In the same ricordo, the preceptor recalls the error of the ancients who neglected their obligations to religious institutions:

Provveda che le chiese, li monasteri, gli ospitali e altri luoghi pii e religiosi, consecrati e dedicati all’onore e servizio di N.S. Dio, non siano rubati, sacheggiati e violentati, con ricordarsi del Magno Pompeo, il quale dopo avere spogliato il gran tempio della santa città di Gerusalem, mai non ebbe più vittoria alcuna e alla fine morì miseramente.84

Sabba’s principles are based on precedent, duty, and obligation, never deviating from

Roman Catholic doctrine or the Hospitaller code.

Towards the end of Sabba’s Hospitaller vade mecum, in ricordo 128, Sabba reminds his readers that St. Augustine’s principles themselves are at the core of the

Hospitaller tenets:

Ritrovandomi io adunque nella Magione nel mio picciolo studiolo, sì per la intepidita vecchiezza, la qual d’ogni tempo si agghiaccia di freddo, come per la stagion gelata e umida, iviluppato e stretto in una mia cioppa di lupi, certo mio rifugio e ricovero nelli distemperati tempi, aveva davanti l’opera della “Città di Dio” del mio S. Agostino. E ch’io dica mio non vi maravigliate punto, perché la sacra religione nostra gerosolimitana è sotto la regola del prefato santo, della quale divina opera non dirò altro se non che ella fu secondo l’altezza dell’ingegno e secondo la profondità della scienza e dottrina di esso Agostino, corruscante sole della Santa Chiesa di Gesù Cristo.85

His is a well-crafted, picturesque rendition of how one knight wishes to be remembered: as a servant of God and men content in the solitary refuge of his studiolo. The

Augustinian erlebnis survives, aided by the practical influence of Benedictine organizational discipline. In the middle of the sixteenth century, as the Counter

Reformation was gaining momentum and angry theological polemics filled the air, Sabba reiterates the earliest underpinnings of the Hospitaller canonical rules and the

Augustinian precepts on which they are based.

84 Ibid., 265. 85 Ibid., 340.

159 The Davidic Psalms was the core of Hospitaller liturgy long before the Counter

Reformation. In ricordo 130 Sabba purposefully forges a nexus between King David and an ultimate Christian redemption: “Il medesimo [che dal suo seme nascerebbe il desiderato Messia] fu promesso al gran re David, organo del Spirito Santo e da Dio eletto secondo il cuore suo, nonostante le molte e gran guerre per lui fatte.”86 A strong affinity emerges not only from the liturgical contributions of the Hebrew king but also from

David’s dual role as a fierce warrior and a theological poet extraordinaire. Ultimately,

Sabba extrapolates the spiritual bounty of David’s Old Testament angst and piety as a harbinger of New Testament salvation.

Liturgical evidence from the early twelfth century to the middle of the sixteenth century provides a basis by which to interpret the spirituality of Christian knights. By the second ricordo Sabba delineates the daily liturgical activities of an Italian Hospitaller

Knight, repeatedly harkening back to the prototypes from which the Order’s knighthood drew its legitimacy. Hospitaller scholars have frequently focused on the military exploits of the Order and have as well examined some of the salacious social mores attributed to it by its detractors. But its core function as a canonical order determined its activities throughout its nearly one-thousand-year existence. Sabba never lets the reader forget that military obligation must be soundly complemented by spiritual piety through daily liturgical practice. Sabba tries to correct any misapprehension of the spiritual underpinnings of the Order by finishing his third and final vade mecum edition with a parting comment in ricordo 133:

Per essere non poca vergogna e biasimo ad un monaco e ad un religioso non sapere gli ordini, le costituzioni e buone usanze della religione sotto la quale vive, pertanto vi ricorderò a leggere e studiare

86 Ibid., 361.

160 spesso li stabilimenti della nostra sacra religione e quelli osservare con le opere e con gli effetti e, soprattutto, quelli che obbligano a peccato mortale.87

Fine de li primi e ultimi ricordi composti per me fra Sabba di Castiglione Mil.Hier. e Com.re de la Magion di Faenza trascritti per mano di don Zacchario Bilingue mio mastro di schola et capellano. A li 10 di giugno del 1553.88

Hospitaller rules, religion, and buone usanze are at the core of what constitutes a Knight

Hospitaller. To ignore the essentially spiritual nature of the Hospitaller Order is to ignore a fundamental component of the fortitude of its members.

87 Ibid., 371. 88 This last paragraph is a handwritten note by Sabba found only in MS 101, the supposed final draft of the definitive third edition of the Ricordi, in the Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza. “Don Zacchario Bilingue” was incorrectly spelled by Sabba and should have read “don Zaccaria Bellenghi.”

CHAPTER 4

Italian Hospitaller Imagery

Italian Hospitaller imagery had no uniform style or iconography during the first four centuries of the Order’s existence (ca. 1100-1500); until the early phases of the

Counter Reformation it remained susceptible to numerous artistic influences emanating from Mediterranean cultures, including the Byzantine. In the early sixteenth century, however, a particularized artistic sensibility spread throughout Italian Hospitaller priories and their commanderies which reveals both the overall priorities of the Order and the specialized pursuits of its local preceptors, such as book collecting or military prowess.

As with any undertaking of an educated person, in Sabba Castiglione and certain other contemporary Italian Hospitaller Knights one finds the tendency to express both core

Hospitaller values and individual aesthetic preferences. While a sixteenth-century iconographic study of the Commenda faentina suggests the Order’s Jerusalem origins, it also shows traditional Hospitaller imagery coexisting alongside an Italian High

Renaissance (ca. 1480-1540) interest in modern modes of decoration and representation.

Alongside a growing Hospitaller artistic uniformity throughout the late fifteenth century, in part attributable to the printing press and in part to the sensationalized military exploits of Hospitaller Knights, by 1530 individualized efforts at self-fashioning began to be reflected thoughout the Italian peninsula and later in Malta. This tendency, evidenced by the works of Titian commissioned by Venetian Hospitallers, is well demonstrated by

161 162 Sabba’s aesthetic choices during the 1530s and 1540s in the Commenda faentina. The relatively grand Hospitaller properties become vehicles for expressing the stability of the

Order, as its western European estates and churches employed particularized iconography to enhance its reputation.

Sabba’s patronage offers vibrant glimpses of certain well defined aspects of his epoch that highly individualize his tenure in Faenza. An exploration of Sabba’s aesthetic principles provides a cogent picture of Renaissance aesthetic traits vis-à-vis those of the

Italian Hospitallers; Sabba’s artistic patronage illustrates a convergence of conflicting ideals and good intentions in a man who forsook the Roman Curia in favor of a provincial venue near the central Adriatic Coast. Here is a true Catholic believer immersed in knightly ideals, who becomes the commander of the Commenda di Santa Maria

Maddalena in Faenza, establishes a free school for the indigent, and becomes an avid collector of art, artifacts, and books. He encourages an active hospice on the Commenda grounds and restores those neglected grounds by adding meaningful frescoes inside the

Commenda church, completing the quadriportico, and installing epigraphic inscriptions throughout. Sabba’s pictorial artifacts reveal a reform-minded military knight bound by monastic vows who seeks to embellish his abode with trenchant reminders of the

Hospitaller Order’s mission and its resolve in the face of the Roman Church’s precarious geopolitical situation in the Mediterranean.

163 4.1 Hospitaller Imagery before 1500

Northern Italy produced an abundance of knightly representations during the

Middle Ages. These celebrate the duties, ideals, and ethos of knighthood in the institution’s different embodiments -- freelance crusader knights, Hospitallers, Templars

-- and portray the ideal knight’s general comportment as manifested or imagined by the knightly class, pious patrons, or even the artist himself.1 As described by the historian

Franco Cardini, the medieval knightly class exchanged ideas and values within its own

community and among peers of the individual knight’s home region, creating a broad

spectrum of knightly behavior and ethos, and a multiplicity of iconic representations of

knights in a variety of media and styles. The chivalric code may be deemed a product of

internal and external forces of considerable variety.2 While this construct is an outwardly

simple premise, it presumes a far-reaching cultural environment and suggests a corollary:

medieval society’s basic structure and connective fabric generated and defined

knighthood in its several varieties and also determined its codes of behavior and its

imagery. Of less significance in this regard are the codified rules of established

institutions or the personal commissions of individuals associated with those entities.3

For this reason the artistic representations of the exploits of the Hospitaller Order are

valuable as reliable images (unless purposefully cryptic): they provide as much

information about core beliefs as does the written record. While secular chivalric themes

1 For a useful synopsis of medieval Italian knightly iconography from 1250 to 1480, see Marjatta Saksa, “Cavalleria e iconografia,” in La civiltà cavalleresca e l’Europa: ripensare la storia della cavalleria. Atti del I Convegno Internazionale di Studi, San Gimignano, Sala Tamagni, 3-4 giugno 2006, ed. Franco Cardini and Isabella Gagliardi (San Gimignano: Pacini, 2007), 139-158. For the influence of the lay mercantile society on medieval church iconography, see Georges Duby, Le temps des cathédrales: l’art e la société, 980-1420 (Paris: Gallimard, 1976). 2 Franco Cardini, Le guerre di primavera. Studi sulla cavalleria e la tradizione cavalleresca (Florence: Le Monnier, 1992), 69. 3 Ibid., 102.

164 were represented throughout Italy until the late 1400s, the overriding themes of

Hospitaller artworks were devotional, generally depicting man’s mortality and intense

displays of spirituality from the High Middle Ages to the humanistic Quattrocento.4

Religiosity, in Hospitaller artistic symbolism, was infused with a chivalric military spirit that is virtually ubiquitous in extant imagery. Later images found in Flemish tapestries or frescoes depicting courtly knights throughout northern Italy in such places as the

Mantuan Palazzo Ducale and ferrarese Palazzo Schifanoia would portray a more gentle and refined cortegiano in urban palaces. They would reflect the evolving fashions of the nobility and their supporting cast of knights and express the new elite’s preferences regarding courtly behavior, and they would help trace the growing intricacies of rank and position reflecting the burgeoning temporal power of the European nation states.

4.1.1 Saintly Icons and Sepulchral Inscriptions

Until the early sixteenth century Italian Hospitaller iconography had been generally limited to representations of John the Baptist, the Archangel Michael, and the

Virgin Mary.5 Italian brethren began to have tombs with personalized epigraphy only

after 1400 -- with a few notable precursors in Puglia -- whereupon decorative personal

burial sites for knights began to be commissioned throughout the Italian peninsula, typically displaying a post-medieval design which was eclectic and individualized.6

Hospitaller inscriptions extant in Rhodes are mostly funerary in nature and number

4 Saksa, “Cavalleria e iconografia,” 152. 5 Anthony Luttrell, “Iconography and Historiography: The Italian Hospitallers before 1530,” Sacra Militia 3 (2002): 23. 6 Ibid., 25-26. See also Ludovica Sebregondi, “Commende Gerosolimitane a Firenze: tracce di storia artistica,” in Riviera di Levante tra Emilia e Toscana, un crocevia per l’Ordine di San Giovanni: atti del convegno Genova -- Chiavari -- Rapallo, 9-12 settembre 1999, ed. Josepha Costa Restagno (Genoa: Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, 2001), 599-601.

165 roughly one hundred. Some eight hundred carved coats of arms are also present on the

island. Forty-two similar inscriptions and about three hundred escutcheons are to be found in Bodrum Castle, on the southwestern Anatolian coast. These personalized

displays are likely a response to the fact of Rhodes being an isolated outpost at the

extreme limits of Latin Christendom facing the Ottoman empire.7 Latin is the

predominant language of the inscriptions, followed by French and the occasional Italian

and Spanish. An overwhelming majority of the textual inscriptions are epitaphs

following a general formula: hic iacet followed by a general description of the deceased

(e.g., nobilis or reverendus dominus frater), then proper family names, followed by

offices held (prior, preceptor hospitalerius, etc.) and the date of death -- qui obiit anno

domini -- and the requisite cuius anima requiescat in pace amen.8 Toward the end of the

fifteenth century the epitaphs evolve into a visually more elegant form, as Gothic script

began to be replaced by a classical style originally based on available medieval

Carolingian and Romanesque models.9

The renowned Italian scholar of inscriptions Armando Petrucci contends that this

revival of antique script that supplanted the Gothic style was promoted by Petrarch in the

1366 Epistolae Familiares, for he deemed the classical Roman letters superior to the

poorly legible Gothic script.10 These classical epigraphic capital letters or, more exactly,

“capitals of Romanesque type” (the supposedly antique script of eleventh-century and

7 Anna-Maria Kasdagli, “Hospitaller Rhodes: The Epigraphic Evidence,” in The Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2007), 109-112. 8 Ibid., 116. 9 Ibid., 117-128. In Rhodes proper the Lombard script lasted until the 1370s, whereupon it was replaced (at a relatively late stage) by Gothic script, which survived for the first seven decades of the fifteenth century. The island of Cos contains the oldest extant classical “Renaissance” script from 1454, while in Rhodes it first appears in 1471. 10 Armando Petrucci, La scrittura: ideologia e rappresentazione (Turin: Einaudi, 1986), 19-20; and Petrucci, Le scritture ultime: ideologia della morte e strategie dello scrivere nella tradizione occidentale (Turin: Einaudi, 1995), 91-93.

166 twelfth-century Tuscan manuscripts and monuments of earlier Carolingian and

Romanesque models) eventually formed a classical monumental script by the mid-1400s.

Its clarity and simple elegance allowed longer epigraphic phraseology and monuments bearing viable poetic composition. From the Italian Hospitaller perspective, one of the earliest and most revered sepulchral marble slabs was dedicated to a learned Florentine preceptor, fra Giuliano Benini. It was erected posthumously in the Commenda of San

Jacopo in Campo Corbolini in 1454 and inscribed in simple, easily legible Roman script:

IULIANO BENINO EQUITI STRENUISSIMO YEROSOLI MITANO PISAR[UM] PRIORI ITALIE Q[UE] LOCU[M]TENE[N]TI CUIUS MORTEM PATRIA RELIGIO Q[UE] PIISSIME FLENS SPLENDIDO FUNERE CELEBRAVIT THOMAS SALVETTUS IURIS CONSULTUS RELIGIO[N]IS Q[UE] PATRONUS COMPATRI OPTIME DESE MERITO CRISTIANOR[UM] Q[UE] PROPUG[N]ATORI ACER[R]IMO POSUIT. VIX[IT] ANN[OS] LXV. OBIIT XXI AP[RI]L[I]S MCCCCLIII.11

The white marble inscription contains no decoration and is placed on the cappella maggiore’s left wall. In each corner is a small Benini tondo coat of arms, each containing a white Hospitaller cross on a circular red background with red chain links on decussating gold relief. At the top and bottom of the slab, near the edges, are stretched recessed ovoid decorations. The epitaph is framed on all four sides by elegant black marble. Despite occasional variation, funereal inscriptions throughout humanistic Italy -- including those in Hospitaller preceptories -- tended towards plain lettering occasionally accompanied by understated ornaments.

11 Ludovica Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze: percorsi storici dai Templari all’Ordine di Malta all’era moderna (Florence: Edifir, 2005), 67-68: “Thomas Salvettus, jurisconsult and patron of religion, placed [this stone] for his child’s godfather, who had deserved very well by him and was a most fierce defender of Christians: Iuliano Benino, the most energetic Knight Hospitaller, Prior of Pisa and Lieutenant of Italy, whose death [his] country and religion, lamenting most faithfully, celebrated with a splendid funeral. He lived 65 years. He died on April 21, 1453.” Unless otherwise noted, all Latin translations are my own.

167 4.1.2 Holy Sepulchre Imagery

The Holy Sepulchre area in Jerusalem had been the headquarters and primary

focus of the Hospitallers from the twelfth century until its abandonment by Christian

military forces retreating from the Egyptian Maluk capture of the city in 1247. The

Order’s exit from Jerusalem and its final departure from the Levant mainland with the fall

of Acre in 1291 severed vital ties and interrupted mainland Levantine influence on the

Order’s preceptories in western Europe.12 To Christian pilgrims and crusading knights,

the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the ultimate object of their devotions, as it

incorporated both the burial place of Christ and the site of his resurrection. Opposite the

south front facade of this damaged church, the Hospitallers constructed a series of buildings after 1099 and began the charitable endeavor of assisting pilgrims soon after

Jerusalem’s 1099 conquest by crusaders. The churches of St. Mary the Great, St. Mary

Latin, and St. John the Baptist were established immediately to the south of the holiest

church in Christendom.13 While no realistic drawing exists of the Sepulchre until

sixteenth-century drawings were made following 1555 exterior restorations, the consensus of art historians is that a Byzantine style of soft round arches and domes with many mosaics and icons played a great part in the decorative scheme during the

formative twelfth century when Hospitallers were present:

One must imagine the Church of the Holy Sepulchre glowing with all the subdued richness with which we are familiar in St. Mark’s at Venice. Abbot Daniel describing the rotunda in 1106 lists figures of apostles in the arches above the tribune, and a considerable iconographic scheme,

12 For a relevant study of mainland Levant Hospitaller artwork and architecture, see Stephen C. Spiteri, Fortresses of the Knights (Malta: Book Distributors Limited, 2001). Also of interest with regard to Hospitaller art in Israel and Lebanon is Jaroslav Folda, Crusader Art in the Holy Land: From the Third Crusade to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). 13 T. S. R. Boase, Castles and Churches of the Crusading Kingdom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), 14.

168 centering on the Anastis, Christ releasing the souls of the just from limbo, above the altar.14

Of this lavish Byzantine artistic patrimony there remains today only a fragment of

mosaics in the Chapel of Calvary, showing “Christ in Glory.”15 In the fifteenth and

sixteenth centuries, occasional nostalgic drawings and woodcuts depicted Jerusalem anachronistically with the fabled Holy Sepulchre occupying a central role in the city panorama. Examples are the famous (ca. 1436) Hours by René of Anjou (British

Museum, MS. Egerton 1070) and woodcuts (1486) illustrating Erhard Reuwich of

Utrecht’s Levant voyage.16

As Jonathan Riley-Smith contends, the Hospitaller ethos originated in and around

Jerusalem in areas directly managed by the Order’s knights, who ran two hospitals in the city, a burial ground just outside, an infirmary in the Judaean hills, a church, an almonry,

an orphanage, and a mobile hospital that accompanied Christian field armies.17 These

charitable establishments exhibited an architectural topography that appears austere and

penitential: clean, bare lines only occasionally broken by ornate moldings over windows

or doorways, a minimalist feature all but absorbed by the simplicity of buildings designed

to express integrity and virtue. “On the whole, splendour was rejected in favour of a

severe, almost puritanical, religion that was identified with nobility and expressed itself

in prowess and charity. The message seems to have been that the brothers were

embodiments of the ancient Roman virtues of piety and nobility,” Riley-Smith

14 Ibid., 9. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid., 25. 17 Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Towards a History of Military-Religious Orders,” in The Hospitallers, the Mediterranean and Europe: Festschrift for Anthony Luttrell (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2007), 278.

169 observes.18 A hospital service environment was established immediately. It attempted to

visually represent the military ethos of the Hospitallers, as is evident in Hospitaller

landmarks throughout Europe and around the Mediterranean. Even amongst ruins and

rudimentary excavations, a striking proclivity on all buildings for coats of arms is

evident. It reaches an extreme starting in the 1570s with the installation of more than 400

marble slabs marking the tombs of knights on the floor of the Conventual Church of the

Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John in Valletta, Malta.19

4.1.3 Hospitaller Imagery in Rhodes

The two-hundred-thirteen-year dominance by Francocentric Hospitaller knights

on Rhodes after its capture in 1309 fostered a burgeoning of the arts (especially in the

fifteenth century) that would be noticed by visiting artisans and knights like Sabba

Castiglione.20 By the fifteenth century the town of Rhodes was sharply divided into two sections: the Collachium, the residence compound of the European knights, and the lower

town comprised of Greek villagers.21 The Hospitaller citadel was enclosed by walls

within which were the Palace of the Grand Master, the arsenal, the Church of St. John,

and the hospital; along its main thoroughfare were auberges, or Hospitaller lodgings

representing the eight European langues. At the the northeastern edge of the citadel lay

the port wall and harbor, while the south side contained the town surrounded by a main

wall and numerous ditches. As with other Frankish-held territories of Greece, Rhodes

18 Ibid., 280. 19 See Hannibal P. Scicluna, The Church of St. John in Valletta: Its History, Architecture and Monuments (Rome: Casa M. Danesi, 1955). 20 Elias Kollias, The Knights of Rhodes: The Palace and the City (Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1994), 36. 21 The etymology of Collachium derives from the Latin verb colligere -- to gather, border, or delineate -- and signifies the residence area, much in the same vein as terminology that seeks to distinguish monastic quarters from those of lay people. See Santa Cortesi, ed., Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri: voci di un carteggio 1505-1542 (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2004), xxxi.

170 under the Hospitallers became a hodgepodge of art that might be classified either as

Western, Byzantine-Palaeologan (mainly Greek Orthodox with a propensity for panel

icons), or eclectic, a hybrid that intermingles iconographic and stylistic traits of

Byzantine and Western art.22 In all, some seventy-six pictorial complexes remain in

Rhodes today that were there before the 1522 Hospitaller exodus; about fifty were

painted between 1309 and 1522.23 These murals or frescoes often depict knightly saints

and designs fashioned from geometric motifs (pillars, arches, diamonds, circles). The

compositions and themes span a wide range and frequently display boldness in style and

content. The art appears to be an amalgamation of regional genres adapted to express

various Hospitaller topoi. This hybridism is exemplified by the fifteenth-century fresco

showing a Hospitaller Knight kneeling in prayer, resplendent in red and white military

garb and surrounded by shields, a work done by Ayios Yeoryios “Chostos” in the Church

of Our Lady of Philerimos (fig. 1). While the piece is badly damaged, one can make out

its similarity to contemporary Rhodian painting when compared to earlier Byzantine and

Western paintings. This often-used kneeling pose also appears in Girolamo da Treviso’s

1530s fresco commissioned by Sabba, wherein Sabba, in a knight’s crimson tunic, kneels

beside a plumed warrior’s helmet (fig. 2).

Grand Master Pierre d’Aubusson, the Order’s leader from 1476 to 1503, played an indirect yet significant role in erecting, restoring, and acquiring architectural works

and artistic objects for the benefit of the Convent proper. The surviving Rhodian

hospital, adjacent to the palace and inside the Collachium, begun in 1440, was completed

in 1489 under d’Aubusson’s stewardship. Ornamental detail appears in the form of

22 Kollias, The Knights of Rhodes, 37-40. 23 See Elias Kollias, The City of Rhodes and the Palace of the Grand Master (Athens: Ministry of Culture Archeological Receipts Fund, 1988), 85.

171 shields “carved with some competence, figures modeled with some feeling for roundness

of form, and throughout a freer undercutting of the detail.”24 The earliest extant tomb

slabs on the island in Roman script date from this period, as do the high, thick walls surrounding the Hospitaller enclave and two significant illuminated manuscripts. The

“Rhodes Missal” and Guillaume Caoursin’s masterly illustrations (both discussed below),

are both examples of the first iconographic period of Hospitaller art, about 400 years after

the Order’s founding. Alongside the more established tradition of Byzantine wall frescoes and icons, the Knights Hospitaller living in Rhodes would have seen imagery depicting the Order’s history in the Levant. In the late fifteenth century, western

European artists began to contribute elements such as varying perspective and tones of color, and there was an increased representation of the Order’s military leaders in ornate tomb slabs and encomiastic frescoes within the Rhodian Hospitaller compound. While the aforementioned missal and illustrations possess a virtually pure Frankish stylistic provenance, the murals beginning to be painted in the Collachium proper were made to complement the surrounding Byzantine art. They are now considered a “Franco-

Levantine” blend.25 Artistic developments in north-central Italy played an important part

in modifying the artistic style both on the continent and around the Mediterranean, as will

be seen in the impact Sabba Castiglione’s two lengthy deployments in Rhodes had on the

iconographic programs within the Commenda faentina.26

24 T. S. R. Boase, “Military Architecture in the Crusader States in Palestine and Syria,” in A History of the Crusades, Volume IV: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 247. 25 Ibid., 250. 26 For more on the “rite of passage” deployment to Rhodes required for advancement in the Hospitaller Order, see Helen Nicholson, The Knights Hospitaller (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2001), 86.

172 4.1.4 Medieval Hospitaller Architectonic Features

The main church within the citadel of the Order of St. John in Rhodes was

destroyed in 1856 by a gunpowder explosion, however some extant drawings and

descriptions convey the essential characteristics of what was the principal Hospitaller church until 1522 and the general architectonic motifs seen by Sabba in the early sixteenth century, which were in part imitated by other church commende in Europe.27

The church was composed of a rectangular nave with two aisles flanking it divided by columns, the nave was buttressed with a wooden barrel vault strengthened by crossbeams, the aisles had sloping roofs of wood, and the crossing and transepts were covered with stone ribbed vaults and opened onto the north side and the sacristy. To the south lay a chapel; the apse was square and projected from the eastern wall, and a detached rectangular campanile stood to the southwest of the church.28 The church

appears to have been built during the fourteenth century, possibly under Syrian and

Italian medieval architectural influences, for its general scheme is not deemed local to the

island.29 It appears that the main church differed from other structures in Rhodes, although the numerous Byzantine icons and frescoes found on the island probably also covered the walls of the church, for the indigenous and highly established tradition of

Byzantine wall painting endured during the Hospitaller dominion and was merely

modified by way of certain Western elements.

As Antonio Cadei observes, both Hospitallers and Templars celebrated the

resurrection of Christ by means of architectonic structures that reflected the loca sancta,

27 See Pietro Lojacono, “La Chiesa conventuale di S. Giovanni dei Cavalieri in Rodi: studio storico- architettonico,” Clara Rhodos 8 (1936): 245-288. 28 Boase, A History of the Crusades, 244. 29 Ibid.

173 the Anastasis, the site of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.30 While this symbolic building

construct is not as established in Italy as in England, France, and Spain, Cadei has nevertheless proposed a hypothesis regarding the Templar and Hospitaller practices.

Each competed with the other to be keeper and protector of the Anastasis, but the

Templars appear to have built the earliest symbolic edifice celebrating that service. In western Europe until the fall of Jerusalem, single-nave churches (the cappella-torre motif) expressed the desire of both Orders to be remembered as custodians of the Holy

Sepulchre. From the 1200s onward there arose a notable tendency to imitate the three- nave basilica (with Romanesque and Cistercian influences predominating), in dutiful architectonic homage toward Europe -- ever more important in a pecuniary sense with virtually all the Orders’ revenue emanating therefrom.31

Constrained by the Ottomans in a war of attrition that inexorably pushed the

Hospitaller Order from east to west (from Jerusalem to Acre to Cyprus to Rhodes and

finally to Malta), practical considerations, certainly for major edifices, also had to be

considered. Military exigencies in the Levant dictated the expansion of architectonic

dimensions for the sake of both legitimacy and survival. Still, a majority of Hospitaller

churches built on European soil in the ensuing centuries continued a humble format with

a single nave and a semi-circular apse: “L’iconografia è quella tipica ricorrente nelle

chiese minori -- come nelle numerosissime suffraganee delle pievi sparse nelle campagne

toscane -- cioè ad unica navata orientata e conclusa da abside semicircolare.”32 The

30 Antonio Cadei, “Architettura sacra templare,” in Monaci in armi: l’architettura sacra dei Templari attraverso il Mediterraneo (Florence: Certosa di Firenze, 1995), 62-63. 31 Ibid., 172-173. 32 Italo Moretti, “L’‘Hospitale Sancti Iohannis de Podioboniççi,’” in Luciano De Filla, Giorgio Merlini and Italo Moretti, La Chiesa di San Giovanni in Jerusalem alla Magione di Poggibonsi (Siena: Ente Provinciale per il Turismo di Siena, 1986), 26.

174 recurring semi-circular apses and antechambers reflect the mira rotunditas -- the admirable roundness of form -- prevalent throughout Jerusalem after the Christians settled briefly in 1099, and which is in full evidence in the apse, domes, and archways of the Holy Sepulchre.

4.2 The Codification of Hospitaller Iconography

The Hospitaller Order had no clearly defined artistic style of its own before the late fifteenth century, when important military events in the Levant, the introduction of the printing press, and increased art patronage by northern Italians (especially as relates to burial practices of the wealthy classes) helped infuse a new programmatic visual identity into the Order. The first Hospitaller imagery on the Italian peninsula was sparse and sporadic: a few tombstones and frescoes in Barletta (Apulia), Florence, Genoa, or

Faenza. But by the seventeenth century such images would be both widespread and uniform. An urgent desire to memorialize one’s knightly deeds for posterity became commonplace among patrician Hospitaller brethren of the sixteenth century, producing a proliferation of effigies, tombstones, and frescoes throughout Europe. The artistic patronage of a few Italian Hospitallers, employing the artists available (e.g., in Rhodes,

Rome, Florence, or Romagna), coalesced into the later uniform code.

Anche numerose tombe, dal secolo XVI in poi, conservano l’effige di Cavalieri di Malta ora con l’armatura che reca la croce incisa, ora con le insegne dell’Ordine appese al collo sopra la corazza. Nella chiesa di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a Roma, per esempio, è possibile osservare, a pochi metri di distanza tra loro, sia l’uno che l’altro tipo.33

33 Giovanni Morello, “Note sulla croce, armature ed ‘abito’ dei Cavalieri di Malta,” Waffen- und Kostümkunde 22 (1980): 101.

175 As H.J.A. Sire demonstrates, by the sixteenth century the Order faced the increasing

necessity for European commanderies to funnel funds to help support the Order’s military

activities to its Mediterranean outposts.34 Concurrently, individual preceptors began to

adorn their domains with embellishments designed to impress upon visitors, especially

potential donors, the importance of the Hospitaller military mission. These images,

especially the ones found in north-central Italy, came to represent the fundamental (yet

perhaps idealized) aspects of the righteous knight: his daily comportment and his

unwavering faith. In visual terms, the first uniform Hospitaller iconography shows the knight in armor with the cross of the Order on his chest, as he is more frequently depicted in frescoes, sculptures, texts, and tombs immersed in solemn prayer, engaged in active warfare, or as a recumbant effigy.

4.2.1 Guillaume Caoursin’s Incunabulum

Guillaume Caoursin’s account of the siege of Rhodes set the stage for an unofficial codification of Hospitaller imagery by means of its colorful illustrations.35

Formally belonging to the “international Gothic” style, these lavish drawings were executed between 1483 and 1489 in Rhodes and illustrate various significant episodes from Hospitaller lore, such as the 1480 siege of Rhodes and the subsequent 1481 earthquake.36 Within just a few years of the successful defense of the island, Guillaume

Caoursin, the vice-chancellor of the Order, published a Latin account of the siege

accompanied by vivid illustrations glorifying knightly resistance to Ottoman might. The

34 H. J. A. Sire, The Knights of Malta (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 169. 35 For the earliest earliest incunabulum of this text, see French, 15th century, MS Latin 6067, Bib. Nat. Paris. 36 Kollias, The City of Rhodes and the Palace of the Grand Master, 92.

176 publication of this work brought attention to the Order to new heights: Hospitaller

membership in the Convent proper increased by over one third, and young Europeans like

Sabba flocked to the storied Rhodes citadel to serve in its defense during the last years of

Hospitaller rule in the Levant.37 More important to this research, the National Library of

Malta possesses sixty incunabula, among them a copy of Caoursin’s masterpiece

Rhodiorum historia that previously belonged to fra Sabba Castiglione and was likely

among his prized possessions. The book bears Sabba’s signature as well as an autograph

note by the famous early-seventeenth-century Italian historiographer fra Giacomo

Bosio.38 This valuable text marks the first attempt after the fifteenth-century Gutenberg

printing revolution to provide a history describing successful Hospitaller military

engagement; it evocatively illustrates significant historical events in pictures and text glorifying the Order’s martial prowess and its stout defiance in the face of obstacles.

4.2.2 The Commenda di San Jacopo

In Florence, in the middle of the fifteenth century, there began a Hospitaller

tradition infused with artistic innovation that would persist until the middle of the next

century. Fra Giuliano Benini, preceptor of the Commenda di San Jacopo in Florence

from 1432 to 1453, has provided us with the best preserved art and architectural work

commissioned for an Italian commandery in the 1400s. The fresco style employed is

typical of the early Quattrocento Florentine emphasis (in Masaccio’s mold) on

chiaroscuro and perspective that betrays the unperfected technique exhibited by early

masters in the Giotto manner. Fra Giuliano, like many of the well-educated Hospitaller

37 Sire, The Knights of Malta, 54-55. 38 Guillaume Caoursin, Rhodiorum historia (1480-89) (Ulm: Johann Reger, 1496). The volume is not described in any inventories of the Commenda faentina.

177 knights, made the customary sojourn in Rhodes, and once traveled throughout the

Dodecanese islands in the southeastern Aegean sea. Ludovica Sebregondi suggests this voyage -- along with fra Giuliano’s presence in the Rhodes Convent -- provided the

impetus for the aesthetic innovations in the Florence Commenda that establish Levantine

Hospitaller style and themes within a nonmilitary Western setting.39 Fra Giuliano’s

commissioned work from about 1450 is a useful reference point when considering

Sabba’s commissioned work in Faenza some seventy years later that resulted in a

refurbished Commenda di San Jacopo church with inspirational frescoes and a newly

decorated and furnished cappella maggiore therein. In the loggia with a colonnaded

portico adjacent to the church can still be found various heraldic Hospitaller crosses and

lion heads at the corners of the building or above the columns, as well as family arms and

ensigns of this noble Hospitaller patron. These include especially the capitello a scudo

del portico containing on each of the four sides either the Hospitaller standard or the

Benini family arms.40 Alterations to the portico and church of San Jacopo during fra

Giuliano’s tenure provided space for the hospice work of the Order as well as serving the

patron’s obvious desire for remembrance: the Benini family crest adorned with the

Hospitaller cross recurs throughout the complex. Extant to this day are features with this

characteristic in the tabernacle, sacristy, preceptor’s living quarters, and portico.41 Much of the stone artistry and column work has been credited to Andrea di Nofri, a documented

“lastraiolo” or stone artisan, who appears to have executed the wishes of the Hospitaller commander regarding his military order’s particular symbols. Michelozzo (1396-1472), the famous Quattrocento Florentine architect, is probably responsible for constructing the

39 Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze, 53-71. 40 Ibid., 64. 41 Ibid.

178 inner loggia and perhaps other elements, such as some of the decorated entryways, the private lodgings, and the sacristy itself.42

Of particular note is an emerging -- yet still not rigidly specific -- classification of

the mid-fifteenth-century Italian Hospitaller commenda, with recurring typologies beneficial to both dutiful societal service and later refined enshrinement:

gli ospedali erano in genere costruzioni modeste, con poche stanze e un numero limitato di letti, che accoglievano sia poveri che pellegrini. Venivano spesso edificati presso corsi d’acqua che facilitavano l’approvvigionamento idrico e permettevano di smaltire i rifiuti, ed erano di frequente ubicati nei pressi delle porte cittadine o all’esterno della cinta muraria per agevolare i viandanti che vi trovavano rifugio. Anche i loggiati rappresentavano una soluzione architettonica frequente, ma non peculiare dell’Ordine e già utilizzata dai Templari: numerose chiese gerosolimitane sono infatti precedute o affiancate da un porticato destinato all’accoglienza dei pellegrini e al riparo dei viaggiatori.43

The Florentine commenda portico was constructed -- probably by Michelozzo but

possibly by Andrea di Nofri -- during fra Giuliano’s preceptory 1432-1453 oversight, and

the whole complex was depicted in the 1448 Libro dell’andata o Viaggio al Santo

Sepolcro e al Monte Sinai, in which Bartolomeo Rustici illustrates the principal

Florentine churches.44 Additionally, fra Giuliano is known to have created a lush garden

beside the commenda for the cultivation of various produce and decorative greenery.45

Soon celebrated as a splendid addition to the distinguished city, the well-appointed commenda was the creation of a cultured preceptor of a noble lineage who was familiar with the most famous modern artists and architects such as Brunelleschi and

42 Ludovica Sebregondi believes that a majority of the extant sculptured work commissioned during fra Giuliano’s tenure was executed by Andrea di Nofri, an obscure and hard-to-pinpoint artist. Howard Saalman gives most of the credit for architectonic design and execution to Michelozzo, stressing the humanist cultural accord between patron and artist. See Howard Saalman, “The Palazzo Comunale in Montepulciano: An Unknown Work by Michelozzo,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 28 (1965): 45. 43 Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze, 66. 44 Ibid., 61-62, 66. 45 Ibid., 66.

179 Michelozzo.46 Hospitaller art at the end of the Quattrocento was far from uniform and

throughout the Italian peninsula depended partly upon the architectural idiosyncracies of

the churches and other existing edifices being decorated. The aesthetic bent of the local

artisan workforce and the preexistence of religious orders on the properties also exerted a

considerable influence on iconographic style and imagery. If the Order had a prevalent

architectural style, it would derive from the thick rectangular Romanesque features of

numerous Hospitaller churches, some previously owned by the Templars, with abutting

porticoes and adjoining cloisters. Within the limitations imposed by its disparate langues

and far-flung territories, the Hospitallers achieved a recognizable modicum of

homogeneity that was expressed through its recurring iconographic topoi and an attention

to devotional symbolic meaning.47 Relative uniformity would be achieved only during

the sixteenth century, as military escalation and increased artistic patronage made their

influence felt within the Hospitaller Order.

4.2.3 The “Rhodes Missal”

The “Rhodes Missal,” of which a single copy remains, is an illustrated liturgical

text reflecting the Gallic aesthetic tradition circa 1500. The missal was donated by

Aleman de Rochechenard, the Hospitaller prior of Saint-Gilles, to the Rhodes Convent in

1504.48 The book is readily identifiable by the frequent insertion of the lions of the de

Rochechenard arms along with Hospitaller emblems, the former often appearing in the

border below each of the book’s miniature illustrations and the latter scattered throughout

46 Ibid., 67. 47 See Valerio Ascani, “L’architettura religiosa degli ordini militari in Toscana,” in Monaci in armi: l’architettura sacra dei Templari attraverso il Mediterraneo (Florence: Certosa di Firenze, 1995), 244-245. 48 For the only comprehensive study of this particular Hospitaller missal, see Eustace A. Alliott, The Rhodes Missal (Bedford, England: Order of St. John, St. John’s Gate, 1980).

180 the text. Contemporary documents pertaining to its early acquisition can be found in

Archives of the Order of St. John in the National Library of Malta, copied into the chief

register for 1511-1512 of the Grand Master Fabrizio del Carretto.49 Carretto was Sabba’s

chief mentor in the Order who appointed Sabba to the vice-procurator position in Rome

and facilitated his stay in both Rhodes and Rome during the first two decades of the

sixteenth century. While successfully transferred from Rhodes to Malta, the missal’s

whereabouts became unknown in succeeding centuries. It eventually reappeared and was

sold by the Florentine bookseller Leo S. Olschki in 1929 to the Library of the British

Order of St. John at St. John’s Gate, London. The work, thought to have been composed in Lyons, contains 108 folios and is deemed a “festal missal,” being profusely decorated and containing the proper of masses only for major feast days.50 Its lavish decorations

feature armorial bearings intermixed with naturalistic flowers and winged dragons. The

scenes are set in landscapes where island castles conjure up images of Rhodes, the

images often framed in arches and pilasters. Pictorial backgrounds portray rivers

winding through rocky hills, with castles rising above towns alongside their banks and

symbolic animals, birds, flowers, and fruits. The missal is thought to be a good example

of the work of late-fifteenth-century French illuminators, perhaps of Lyons or central

France, and the scenes are generally cast in a brilliant hue with burnished gold. Two

whole-page and twenty-eight half-page miniatures depict Bible stories. Individual

miniature folios depict Gospel scenes, while the main text is written in black in the old

Gothic style; red letters mark the most important religious holidays. As described by

Eustace Alliott, the artist utilized a full palette of colors. Gold paint is used unsparingly

49 Codex of the Order 401, fols. 24-33, Valletta: National Library of Malta. 50 Alliott, The Rhodes Missal, 24.

181 for the borders and frames the miniatures; the human figures are probably the work of a

competent ecclesiastical artist, and there is ample evidence throughout of artistic license

invoked on points of detail.51 The work is generally lush in color and tone, providing a

basic -- if not sophisticated -- sense of perspective: the illuminations show Renaissance

influences from outside Italy. Elaborate garments are worn by God the Father and

several of the saints, but humble folk such as shepherds usually wear plain garb in red,

blue, or green, and most garment folds are outlined in stippled gold. As a beautifully

illuminated prayer book explicitly for Hospitaller Convent use, this elaborate and

expensively illuminated missal was unquestionably treasured by Grand Master Fabrizio

del Carretto, as his lengthy documentation of the text in Hospitaller records confirms.52 It was likely del Carretto, the guiding force in Sabba’s early career, who convinced Sabba to return to Rhodes for his second tour (ca. 1514-1517) to assist him during this highly volatile period for the Order’s Convent, despite Sabba’s displeasure with his first stay, as evidenced by his letters from the first period (1505-1508).53 As a collector of fine art and

a devotee of sacred texts, the “Rhodes Missal” would have made a lasting impression on

Sabba. Hospitaller breviaries and missals written before the middle of the sixteenth century, however, have virtually disappeared; only five breviaries and four missals from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries still exist, including the “Rhodes Missal.”54

Hospitaller war efforts perhaps prevented acquisition of illuminated liturgical texts during

the early part of the sixteenth century, as Hospitallers were devoting their attention and

51 Ibid., 27-28. 52 Codex of the Order 401, fols. 24-33, Valletta: National Library of Malta. 53 Sabba Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri: voci di un carteggio 1505-1542 (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2004), 9-115. 54 See Cristina Dondi’s recent study of available Hospitaller records: “Hospitaller Liturgical Manuscripts and Early Printed Books,” Revue Mabillon n.s. 14 (2003): 225-256.

182 their resources to protecting Rhodes and acquiring vital supplies. A generous French

prior’s gift of a lavish devotional book to isolated Christian defenders in a war-torn part

of the Levant would certainly have been welcomed and cherished by those on Rhodes

who, like Sabba and del Carretto, were far from Christianity’s strongholds.

4.2.4 Bodrum Castle

The Castle of St. Peter the Liberator of the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of

St. John of Rhodes was built by Hospitallers gradually over a period of more than one

hundred years (beginning about 1407) on the southwestern Anatolian coast near

Halikarnassos on the east side of Bodrum harbor, thus familiarly called Bodrum Castle.

The castle was built using stones from the ruined tomb of the fourth-century BC Persian

satrap Mausolus, whose previously undiscovered underground sarcophagus was of great

interest to Sabba and mentioned in his letters from Rhodes.55 Bodrum Castle was

intended to replace the Hospitaller fortress in Smyrna to the north which was seized by the Ottomans in 1402. Accordingly, it was given the same dedication, to St. Peter.

Probably the Hospitaller hierarchy thought its heavy fortifications would prove a

nuisance to the Ottomans, keeping the castle, on the island of Kos, and the Rhodes

Convent safe from attack if a major enemy presence were to be established on the

mainland peninsula of Zephyrion, a mostly barren defensive site removed from any

population centers.56 Until the fall of Rhodes in 1522, the Mausoleum’s stones were used

55 Mausolus’s lavish tomb was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World in ancient times, along with the Hanging Garden of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, and others. Its fame survives in the word “mausoleum,” meaning a building housing a tomb or tombs. 56 Anthony Luttrell and Kristian Jeppeson, The Maussolleion at Halikarnossos: Reports of the Danish Archeological Expedition to Bodrum. Volume 2: The Written Sources and Their Archeological Background (Moesgaard: Jutland Archaelogical Society, 1986), 143-147.

183 to fortify the castle. The construction of the castle started around 1407 under the guidance of the French Grand Master Philibert de Naillac, and its chief architect was the

German Henrik Schlegelholdt. They used squared green volcanic stone, marble columns, and limestone from the nearby ruins, which acted as a virtual quarry, unaware of its historical significance. The Mausoleum’s remains were identified as such only in 1494.

The first massive castle walls were completed in 1437. Altogether, the Order erected five towers and seven gates to better protect this essential military garrison. In the early sixteenth century, the few sculptures from the Mausoleum that hadn’t been smashed and burnt for lime were integrated into the castle for decoration. These included twelve slabs

representing the “Amazonemachy” (combat between Amazons and Greeks) and a single

block of the “Centauromachy” (combat in which centaurs take part), a few standing lions,

and one running leopard. Overall, the architecture of the Bodrum Castle was of a very thick fortification of limestone and other stone that was northern European and medieval in appearance, having been built on a minor scarp foundation at the northern edge of the

peninsular plateau using the natural rock foundation as a natural wall and building towers

on the solid rock above it.57 In the fifteenth century, heavy gunports, covered batteries,

strengthened interior passages, and massive artillery had been added, enhancing the

castle’s aura of impregnability. The castle grounds were studded with more than two hundred coats of arms and seals of the Hospitaller Order and its noble membership, and included a hodgepodge of locally collected classical sculptures and slab reliefs that were likely underappreciated and certainly neglected. In addition to the antique reliefs and ubiquitous symbolic lions, there were some figure panels in Bodrum of the “Rhodian style,” such as St. George above the mid-fifteenth-century grand master Jean de Lastic’s

57 Ibid., 156.

184 shield, and the Virgin Mary with three saints.58 Of particular interest are the early

sixteenth-century crosses of the Order (ca. 1510) beside the coats of arms, some of which

are early examples of what would come to be known as the rectilinear “Maltese cross”

shape, which by this time coincided with the full development of the Order’s eight

langues (the eight points to this stylized cross may be a symbolic result of this division).59

As discussed earlier, Sabba Castiglione gives an appraisal of art in the area and bemoans the general neglect of art treasures in the two most important Hospitaller establishments of the first half of the sixteenth century, the Rhodes Convent and Bodrum Castle. During the siege of Rhodes, Bodrum Castle was so strongly defended that it was bypassed altogether by the Ottomans. Considerable reinforcements of men and munitions were moved from Bodrum to Rhodes, effectively increasing that island’s fortification over a one-hundred-year period. Hospitallers remaining garrisoned at Bodrum eventually left of their own volition, taking advantage of a peace treaty offered by Suleiman to join the main forces convening in Crete in January 1523.60

4.2.5 The Abbazia di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri Gerosolimitani

Southern Italian Hospitallers, as expressed by the Order’s Commenda in Apulia near Monopoli, perhaps best exemplified the similarities and divergences among Italian priories throughout the peninsula. Of significance are the studies by Maria Stella Calò

Mariani in Apulia on the southeastern Adriatic Italian peninsula. In the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth century this zone incorporated into its frescoes and paintings various styles, including the classical, late-Gothic, Byzantine, and Romanesque.

58 Boase, A History of the Crusades, 242. 59 See Sire, The Knights of Malta, 104. 60 Luttrell and Jeppeson, The Maussolleion at Halikarnossos, 158.

185 This is helpful in looking at the art of a specific Hospitaller setting, the Monopoli

Abbazia di Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri Gerosolimitani:

Ne era nato un linguaggio ricettivo e conservatore insieme (di radice tardogotica, con residue nostalgie dell’antico e dell’eredità bizantina e romanica, ravvivato da echi di volta umbro-romani, lombardi, toscani, veneto-dalmati, fiammingo-napoletani), ai cui esiti ben si addice la definizione di “pseudo-Rinascimento” o Rinascimento umbratile, coniata dallo [Federico] Zeri a significare l’irrazionale libero accostamento di elementi medievali e rinascimentali, spesso esteriormente accolti, e riferita all’area adriatica meridionale.61

The artistic currents from northern Italy played an important role in the process, yet the

dominant style was Byzantine in this part of Italy. Thus, it is a southern Hospitaller

Commenda that crested -- in both a financial and an artistic sense -- in the early sixteenth century. Two centuries earlier, in 1317, the Order had taken over the property from the

Benedictines, whereupon the polyptych painted altarpiece, as well as the tomb sculpture, show Commenda commissions at their apex. The imagery in both commissions shows deliberate patronage of the arts from Venetian artists and eastern Mediterranean islands such as Crete.62 Thus emerges the polyptych “Madonna con il Bambino in trono e sei santi,” now at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a stunning work notable for its clarity of

imagery. St. Stephen (namesake of the abbey) and St. John the Baptist (patron saint and

namesake of the Order) are identified as the saints closest to the Mother and Child (fig.

3). Mainly emanating from an early-fifteenth-century Cretan (or possibly

Constantinopolitan) source, the polyptych maintains similarites with Byzantine Venetian

painting of the Madonna and Child mold of the latter Trecento such as those by Paolo

61 Maria Stella Calò Mariani, “I Cavalieri Gerosolimitani e il Baliaggio di Santo Stefano in Puglia. Committenza di opere d’arte e relazioni culturali,” in Fasano nella storia dei Cavalieri di Malta in Puglia: atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Fasano 14-15-16 maggio 1998 (Il Convegno Internazionale di Studi Melitensi) (Taranto: Centro Studi Melitensi, 2001), 291. 62 See Calò Mariani, La pittura del primo Cinquecento e del primo Seicento in terra di Bari (Bari: Adriatica, 1969), 73-98.

186 Veneziano (ca. 1300-1362).63 This minor masterpiece has been largely ignored by

Hospitaller scholars in their quest for pictorial imagery, but one can see in it a precocious

and startingly vivid work that required educated patronage and elevated capabilities by

the artist(s). Perhaps commissioned from the Cretan workshop of Angelos Akotantos, it

portrays six saints all directly or loosely associated with the Hospitaller Order: St. John

the Baptist; St Augustine, whose rules form part of the Order’s practice; St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers; St. Sebastian, a prominent soldier martyr for Christ; St.

Nicholas, the most prominent saint and the one most represented throughout Puglia; and, of course, the commandery’s eponymic St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr on record.

The unknown artist clearly intended this work for the Hospitallers and portrayed the

Order within a context of struggle and battle, of ultimate sacrifice for the sake of redemption. This theme seems to reflect the gradual loss of Christian dominions in the

Levant, bespeaking the fading fortunes of the disparate Mediterranean Christian forces.

It was likely especially poignant for its patrons, the ospedalieri pugliesi, whose coasts were invaded and ransacked by Ottoman Turks in the Quattrocento.

4.3 The Amalgamation of Hospitaller Purpose and Imagery

In the late fifteenth century there began a coalescing of aesthetic tendencies -- displayed modestly from an architectonic standpoint but appearing opulent and vivid as decorative artwork -- celebrating the military prowess of Hospitaller Knights, whereby visions of holy war and a “good death” elicit the grace of God and provide powerful propaganda for the Order's work both in the Levant and in western Europe. Thus characteristics that only a few scholars hint at truly reflect deliberate objectives within the

63 Calò Mariani, “I Cavalieri Gerosolimitani,” 273.

187 Hospitaller domain, whether expressed through art or edifice, to make public statements that are simple, linear (and at times circular), graceful, and heraldic, “il cui tratto unificante, al di là dello sforzo nominalistico, sembrerebbe risiedere in un’esecuzione caratterizzata dall’adozione di una gamma ristretta di tinte, applicate in campiture piatte, alternate alla stesura neutra del fondo, che emerge bordata da nette linee di contorno.”64

Even at its incipit, the emerging form demonstrates a contaminatio bridging secular themes, chivalric motifs, and religious allegory, realized in an architectural setting that harkens back to Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre. These all seem intended to edify the

Order’s membership and help promote loyalty among its lay followers. Hospitaller imagery, until the Tridentine movement modified certain tenets, involved what has been called a cult of the Sepulchre defining the Order as a military unit meant to provide protection and sanctuary to endangered Christian pilgrims and characterized by specific liturgical and devotional practices.65 The fall of Acre in the late thirteenth century precluded a pilgrimage to the Sepulchre, and the westward advance of the Ottoman threat and the concomitant need for revenue collection seem to have focused the Order’s attention on the aggrandisement of its real property and its management. To rise from the military orders’ thirteenth-century defeats, the early fourteenth-century demise of the

Templars, and the Hospitallers’ 1522 expulsion from the Levant, the Order became ever more reliant on imagery in order to clarify its raison d’être and justify its constant quest for revenue. Ergo, its increased patronage of the arts; its emphasis on opulence in its priories and their churches; and the increased ostentation of its vestments, armor, and

64 Gaetano Curzi, La pittura dei Templari (Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 2002), 115. 65 For useful terminology and historical trends regarding the early pilgrimage and cult development of the Holy Sepulchre, see Franco Cardini, “La <> in Toscana: storie di santi, di reliquie, di pellegrini e di cavalieri,” in La Via Francigena nel Senese: storia e territorio. Siena, Accademia dei Rozzi, 23 febbraio -- 14 marzo 1985, ed. Renato Stopani (Siena: Salimbeni, 1985), 23-31.

188 shields. Perhaps without fully intending a major revision of its public image, the

Hospitallers had already begun, first in Rhodes and then Malta, to project vivid new

imagery that would migrate to all of the Order’s western European properties and priories.66

4.3.1 The Siena Frescoes

The first images in the Italian peninsula to depict Hospitallers on Rhodes are

found in the Siena Cathedral. Of three frescoes painted between 1503 and 1508 depicting

Hospitallers wearing either plain black Hospitaller frocks or full military armor and

surcoats, two show a Rhodian background. Their painter, Bernardino di Betto detto il

Pinturicchio (ca. 1454-1513), learned his techniques as an assistant for Perugino, crafting

courtly images that display a passion for antiquity and present a solemn representation of

public life.67 Pinturicchio’s three frescoes, located on the northwest side of the Siena

Cathedral adjacent to the west transept, were commissioned by Cardinal Francesco

Todeschini Piccolomini to complement the elaborate tombs therein, especially that of his uncle Enea Silvio, the fifteenth-century Pope Pius II (1405-1464), which is in a setting of particular extravagance amid a display of family magnificentia. The first of the three

Hospitaller frescoes is on the southeast wall of the Siena Cathedral’s Piccolomini library.

It is the fifth in a series of scenes showing events in the life of Pope Pius II and depicts

Enea Silvio Piccolomini [the future Pius II] Presenting Eleanor of Portugal to the Holy

Roman Emperor Frederick III on February 24, 1452. Enea Silvio was credited with

66 For symbolic imagery pertaining to Jerusalem and Rome, see Damiano Neri, Il S. Sepolcro riprodotto in Occidente (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1971), 36-50. 67 For an insightful retrospective on Pinturicchio and his masterpieces in the Siena Cathedral, see La Libreria Piccolomini nel Duomo di Siena, ed. Salvatore Settis and Donatella Toracca (Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini, 1998), 217-252.

189 negotiating the marriage in his role of ambassador to the emperor. Immediately behind

the central protagonists are two somber black-clad Hospitallers, one of whom (with particularly individuated features) has the emblematic white eight-pointed Hospitaller cross of profession on his chest (fig. 4).

A pair of frescoes on the Cathedral’s left transept, located in the chapel of San

Giovanni near the baptismal font, and an austere bronze David by Donatello, show fra

Alberto Aringhieri, first as a young man in military garb and then as an older man in a

black Hospitaller cloak. Aringhieri had been appointed superintendent of the Cathedral

works in 1480, a position he still held at the time the Pinturicchio frescoes were

commissioned.68 He also appears as the plain-clad figure on the right in the fresco panel

with Enea Silvio.

The Kneeling Knight in Armor portrays Aringhieri as an attractive young

Hospitaller Knight on his knees in prayer visible in profile (allowing a better view of his

layered garments) in full military attire. He wears a suit of plate armor beneath a loose

scarlet surcoat with a Hospitaller white cross on its chest (fig. 5); his ornately plumed

helmet rests nearby. The fresco probably shows Aringhieri during his Caravan tour of

duty in Rhodes sometime around the failed 1480 Ottoman assault. In the background is

the Rhodian Convent and its inner harbor.

Aringhieri with the Cloak of the Order of the Knights of Malta depicts Alberto

Aringhieri piously kneeling in contemporary Hospitaller garb of black under-robe and

black mantle with an eight-pointed cross on the left breast. He wears a black skullcap

68 Frank A. D’Accone, The Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 249.

190 and his hands are clasped together in prayer; the fortified city of Rhodes is visible and clearly labelled in the background (fig. 6).

The fresco panel in the Piccolomini library with Enea Silvio became a vital component of Hospitaller lore, emphasizing the Order’s significant everyday role in mainstream Italian public life, a visual codification initiated by Pinturicchio in Siena.

Along with the robust self-fashioning by Aringhieri, a prominent Hospitaller member, and Guillaume Caoursin’s celebration of the 1480 Hospitaller victory at Rhodes, the library fresco helped set an innovative tone by emphasizing fame and respect due a military order not yet a topic of everyday conversation. The thematic innovation that occurred in Siena has been interpreted as the connecting of various forces of humanistic interpretation (antique influences, as understood by the humanists) and the particular needs of patrons, theologians, and worshippers -- what has since been defined as a finely tuned aesthetic balancing act between the sacred and the profane:

The innovatory aspect of [Pinturicchio’s] commission, the first of its kind in Siena, and bold even in the context of Roman painting which was so much more steeped in the influence of the antique world, should also be seen in this arrangement of Christian elements in a secular, even pagan idiom. Similarly the building itself is a strange hybrid of a funerary chapel and a classical library. The result is an unicum, a show-piece, in which classical culture and political celebration are blended together in a manner that is only apparently innocuous, translated by Pinturicchio and his workshop into splendidly decked figures and lively archeological digressions.69

69 La Libreria Piccolomini nel Duomo di Siena, 218.

191 4.3.2 Exploiting New Realities

After hundreds of years in the proverbial wilderness -- outnumbered by increasingly powerful enemies in the Levant, bedeviled by the frightening political purge

executed upon the Templars, and slowly losing geographical territory and the attention of

monarchs as well as theologians -- the Order was eager and finally able to reformulate

itself as a potent geopolitical entity in the Mediterranean, bolstered by its successful 1480

defense of Rhodes. The transformation would have immediate artistic repercussions in

Hospitaller enclaves throughout Europe. The Order’s first noticeable redefinition in Italy

proper is signalled by Pinturicchio’s Siena commissions. Mere decorative artifice, such

as evidenced in the Bodrum Castle, now gives way to Cinquecento artistic pageantry

imbued with the emerging geopolitical realities:

L’immagine stessa del cavaliere, legata in tempi più antichi alle forme simboliche ed evocative della figurazione nobiliare equestre, cede il passo, già nel Quattrocento, ad una più attuale e realistica idea della milizia, tutta intesa in termini ormai militari nell’accezione più comune del termine (si veda il celebre ritratto doppio dell’Aringhieri, affrescato da Pinturicchio nel duomo di Siena).70

The somber patron is portrayed humbly kneeling in Hospitaller vestments, and the pious artifice is imbued with the broader scope of a patron knight functioning productively within the city environs, and within the context of a Christian world in ferment. This new highly auto-defined artistic posture would resonate in the Faenza frescoes of Sabba’s commissioned artists Francesco Menzocchi and Girolamo da Treviso thirty years later, both in the literal and figurative senses.

Franco Cardini discusses the diverse ideals that were converging in the later

Renaissance, in which European knighthood was forced to define itself as an institution

70 Mario Scalini, “Il libro e la spada: osservazioni sulle scelte dei materiali esposti,” in Monaci in armi, gli ordini religioso-militari dai Templari alla battaglia di Lepanto: storia ed arte (Rome: Retablo, 2004), 172.

192 and to decide how to present itself to the outside world, embracing a “cerimonia di

addobbamento” that extends into the realm of knightly comportment.71 In its heyday, the late Quattrocento and the Cinquecento -- indeed a momentous period in the Hospitaller world on all fronts, military, theological, and geopolitical -- the Order’s particular brand of chivalry produced a coherent, self-confident organization that not only garnered approbation but also justified respect:

Una cavalleria status symbol, che era necessario tradurre in termini culturali congrui rispetto a quelli che al momento apparivano più significativi; e che quindi doveva per forza di cose misurarsi con i valori etici, estetici e anche civici del mondo classico.72

For four hundred years a slow evolution had been occurring within Hospitaller fiefdoms

throughout Europe and the Mediterranean whereby power accrued through an orderly

hierarchical structure coexisting alongside mainstream lay Christian society in mainland

western Europe. Saint Bernard’s De Laude novae militiae gave twelfth-century military

orders their initial aura of legitimacy and gravitas, but the ruthless uprooting of the

Templar Order in the early fourteenth century was an alarming lesson that had, over the

years, led Hospitallers to diligently defend their territorial possessions and

conscientiously follow their written code, thereby endowing the Hospitaller Order with

credibility, substance, and an aura of legitimacy. This “sacralizzazione dei ‘cavalieri di

chiesa,’” as defined by Cardini, became pivotal in the process that allowed the

Hospitallers to accomplish the urgent transformation from crusading in the Levant to

operating large estates in western Europe while defending a few fortress islands in the

Mediterranean from Ottoman encroachment. This strategy began in the immediate wake

71 Franco Cardini, “Introduzione,” in Monaci in armi, gli ordini religioso-militari dai Templari alla battaglia di Lepanto: storia ed arte (Rome: Retablo, 2004), 27. 72 Ibid., 33.

193 of the Templars’ demise, but reached its apogee in the first half of the sixteenth century

mainly because of three related factors: (a) the Mediterranean warfare with the Ottoman

Turks, (b) the evolution of the nation-state and establishment of primacy by European princes, and (c) the theological schisms ravaging Europe.73 Geopolitical realignment in

the Mediterranean substantially changed the Hospitaller nexus from Jerusalem and

Rhodes to Malta and western Europe. To enhance the spirituality of the Order -- as

opposed to its crucial military and political aspects -- artistic topoi were developed that

helped define the Hospitallers as a legitimate branch of the Roman Church worthy of

recognition and support. Hospitaller polity came to require an iconographic underpinning

uniting their spiritual role and their military purpose.

4.4 Sabba’s Contributions to Hospitaller Imagery

Sabba’s artistic patronage is displayed in the Commenda faentina in both

commissioned artworks and numerous wall inscriptions, and is the primary source for

Italian Hospitaller imagery in the first half of the sixteenth century. This patronage

demonstrates both the affection Sabba evidenced toward his military order, the fiery pride

he took in being a Hospitaller, and his determination to preserve the memory of his own

carefully crafted persona for the instruction and edification of posterity. Francesco

Menzocchi’s funeral frescoes in the Commenda church provide the preceptor’s chosen image of himself, a pious suppliant before the Holy Family receiving the benediction of the infant Jesus. Below this grouping, Sabba’s sepulchre appears between allegorical images of Silence and Solitude, in turn flanked on the left by battle armor, shield, and helmet and on the right by tools of worldly learning -- books, sextant, armillary sphere,

73 Ibid., 45-51.

194 and compass. The images surrounding the tomb suggest the multiple sides to the man:

soldier, scholar, aesthete, and man of God. It also highlights the dichotomy at the heart

of the Hospitaller Order, a religious institution whose initiates are simultaneously charged

to fight and to pray daily in defense of Christianity.

Sabba’s activities as director of the commandery on the via Emilia, including

writing memoirs and letters, reveal an energetic individual capable of genuine spirituality

yet deeply appreciative of worldly goods, especially art objects, beloved books, and

symbolic manifestations of that spirituality and of the idiosyncratic persona he assiduously fashioned:

Un Ospedaliere come Fra Sabba di Castiglione non solo raccolse marmi classici a Rodi e creò una collezione di dipinti e di sculture nella sua commenda di Faenza; egli fondò, proprio a Faenza, una scuola e compose un testamento spirituale, i suoi Ricordi. In tutta l’Europa molte commende divennero palazzi e le chiese vennero decorate con pitture e sepolcri scolpiti.74

Institutional precedent observed in Rhodes and Rome (leavened perhaps with the

worldliness of secular Italian courts and courtiers) helps define the particularized ethos of

Sabba’s secluded oasis. There, disciplined spirituality was fundamental to a comfortable courtly establishment that evidenced an erudite humanism imbued with traditional

Christian values:

L’ideale della vita solitaria coltivato e praticato da fra Sabba sintetizza ed esprime un modello di comportamento religioso volto alla contemplazione, all’osservanza delle sacre scritture e dei Padri della Chiesa; la libertà di coltivare l’otium letterario subordinato a un’ascesi spirituale e morale, quindi un modello umanistico cristianamente rivissuto;

74 Anthony Luttrell, “I Cavalieri di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, Rodi e Malta,” in Monaci in armi, gli ordini religioso-militari dai Templari alla battaglia di Lepanto: storia ed arte (Rome: Retablo, 2004), 58- 59.

195 un modello cortigiano di consapevole appartenenza a un’elite colta e religiosa insieme.75

Sabba’s legacy, beyond his hortatory public Ricordi and revealing private correspondence, includes the best-preserved and artistically best-appointed Hospitaller enclave of north-central Italy, the Commenda faentina, whereby spiritual and cultural aspects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries become manifest through imagery and inscripted maxims that define the northern Italian Renaissance Knight Hospitaller.

Indeed, epigraphic expression became an essential accompaniment to the iconographic display within the Commenda church.

4.4.1 Extant Wall Inscriptions

Sabba’s predilection for inscriptions is evident throughout the Commenda faentina and in records of his epigraphic writings that survive. The literary scholar

Giancarlo Schizzerotto resumed analysis of Sabba’s inscriptions almost one hundred

years after Gian Marcello Valgimigli recorded some of Sabba’s inscriptions, but between

the writings of these two researchers the study of Sabba da Castiglione came to a virtual

halt.76 The texts of fifteen inscriptions are known: six are on the Commenda walls; nine

appear only in Valgimigli’s writings. They serve as testimony to Sabba’s humanistic

bent and to what Schizzerotto calls a “prepotente passione epigrafica.”77 The six extant

original inscriptions include three portico cloister epigraphs, a fresco inscription in the

75 Santa Cortesi, in the introduction to Ricordi ovvero ammaestramenti, by Sabba Castiglione (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 1999), xxv. 76 See Giancarlo Schizzerotto, Teatro e cultura in Romagna dal Medioevo al Rinascimento: la Tragedia de casu Cesene di Ludovico da Fabriano e Il lamento pietoso o La Barona di fra Sabba da Castiglione (Ravenna: Edizioni della Rotonda, 1969), 71-97; and Gian Marcello Valgimigli, Frate Sabba da Castiglione Cav. Gerosolimitano e Precettore della Commenda di Faenza. Cenni Biografici Raccolti da Gian Marcello Valgimigli (Faenza: Pietro Conti, 1870), 11-37. 77 Schizzerotto, Teatro e cultura in Romagna dal Medioevo al Rinascimento, 84.

196 apse, a sepulchral epigraph in the nave, and one marble inscription describing Sabba’s school for children. It reads:

LITERARIUS LUDUS QUEM FR SABBAS CAST EGENIS ET PAUPERIBUS STRUXIT EREXITQUE SEDENTE PAUL III PONT IMPER CAROLO V AN SAL M D XXXVI [fig. 7].78

This marble epigraph has been moved about the Commenda over the centuries and now rests close to its original location on the inner wall near the church entrance. Its fitful migration is an apt metaphor for Sabba’s numerous destroyed epigraphs and lost heirlooms.

More clearly indicative of Sabba’s habitual self-promotion are the earliest inscriptions etched onto porticoes attributed to his early patronage, one of which sets the tone for his long residency and speaks to posterity. It is situated directly above three

terracotta tondi (circular representations), two of which are encircled with extant

inscriptions of their own, that decorate pillar capitals in the Commenda portico.

VETUSTATE COLAPSAM INSTAURAVIT F SABBAS DE CAST MED M HIER SEDENTE CLEMENTE VII PONT MAX OPTO ANNO DOMINI M D XXV [fig. 8].79

The inscription is executed in an unusual form: square ceramic tiles in terracotta, approximately 25 centimeters in length, on which are etched in relief classic Latin letters.

78 “An elementary school that friar Sabba Castiglione instituted for the needy and poor and constructed while the pontiff Paul III was sitting and Charles V was emperor. Year of [our] salvation 1536.” The school offered a free education to poor children near the Commenda, especially those who were orphaned: nine were chosen from the Borgo Durbecco and four more from two other nearby towns, Oriolo and Meldola. Children of modest means were allowed to enroll if their families could afford the tuition. For a discussion of Sabba’s school, see Piero Zama, Le istituzioni scolastiche faentine nel Medioevo. Sec. XI-XVI (Milan: Libreria Editrice Milanese, 1920), 75-81. 79 “Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Milanese and Hospitaller soldier restored this edifice in ruins with age in the chosen year of the Lord 1525 while Clement VII the great supreme pontiff held his see.” See Lorenzo Savelli, “Gli interventi edilizi realizzati da fra Sabba alla Commenda elencati in un documento coevo,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 438-440.

197 The letters appear to have been chiseled with extreme care and reflect a refined

aesthetics, allowing a particular art patron to shine through his commissioned works. In

the Commenda, this inscription is visible as the reader faces toward the Adriatic and the

Levant beyond, and parallels the church apse and the bell tower. The inscription alludes

to Sabba’s own origins as well as the ancient origin of the buildings, celebrating his

restorative powers as the benefactor of the property.

The first tondo inscription, POST TENEBRAS LUCEM (“After darkness [comes

the] light”), surrounds a plain terracotta cross (fig. 9). The second tondo is fragmentary,

displaying Pope Clement VII’s coat of arms, essentially his particular miter, with no

visible inscription (fig. 10). A third tondo bears the epigram EXPLORANT ADVERSA

VIROS (“Misfortunes test men”) surrounding the Castiglione family arms, a lion prancing on its rear feet, its tongue extended toward a castle tower held in the animal’s front paws. Above the lion is a small, plain Maltese cross (fig. 11).

“Post tenebram lucem,” or “after the darkness [comes the] light” refers to the Old

Testament book of Job 17:12: “noctem verterunt in diem et rursum post tenebras spero lucem.”80 The biblical verse is one of nine passages from Job chanted during matins of

the Office of the Dead, and has particular resonance as a memento mori and hope of

resurrection. Job’s successful weathering of his tribulations also reminds the faithful to

be resilient in the face of adversity, and to hope for future solace. Suffering has a

purpose in Hospitaller lore, and purposeful sacrifice is the supreme means of attaining the

reward of eternal salvation. By the more conventional “explorant adversa viros,” the

reader is meant to understand that adversity is the true test of one’s mettle. The Roman

80 Biblia sacra: iuxta vulgatam versionem, ed. Robert Weber, 4th ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 745. The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version: “They have turned night into day, and after darkness I hope for light again.”

198 poet Silius Italicus (ca. 25-101) in his Punica (Liber IV, 603-604) in the lines “Explorant

adversa viros, perque aspera duro / nititur ad laudem virtus interrita clivo,” means

“adversity tries men, and virtue unafraid struggles up the rugged steep to fame.”81

The portico display of the papal insignia of Clement VII plays a central role in the

mystique and prestige of this particular Commenda, as Clement (as Cardinal Giulio di

Giuliano de’ Medici) was Sabba’s immediate commandery predecessor. Having been

made a cardinal in September 1513 at the beginning of his cousin’s tenure as Pope Leo

X, Giulio served concurrently as preceptor of the Hospitaller commanderies both in

Faenza, Romagna, and Capua, Campania. Although absent from Faenza throughout his

preceptory tenure, which lasted less than two years (September 1513 - January 1515), his

elevation to cardinal and later election to the papacy in November 1523 gave the

commandery he headed greatly enhanced prestige and renown -- which Sabba willingly

promoted, thereby enhancing the value of his own position. Thus the Knight Hospitaller

Giulio de’ Medici moved to Rome to become a prince of the Church and later its pope,

while Sabba abandoned his position in Rome as Fabrizio del Carretto’s assistant to

become master of a relatively rural Hospitaller outpost. Sabba then hosted two visits in

1529 by his friend and Faenza predecessor, the second Medici Pope, Clement VII.82 In

all likelihood, the tondi were completed in 1528 or 1529, certainly after 1525, as the tondi

81 Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus, Punica I: Books I-VIII (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1949- 1950), 212. 82 For a detailed study of Pope Clement VII’s travels in Romagna during the late 1520s see Nerio Zanardi, “Dalla prigionia di Clemente VII in Castel S. Angelo alla incoronzaione di Carlo V in S. Petronio,” Strenna storica bolognese 33 (1983): 359-391. See also Giancarlo Schizzerotto, who succinctly states the following papal visits in “Il Lamento Pietoso o la Barona,” 82: “Il 22 ottobre 1529 Clemente VII, diretto a Bologna per incontrarvi Carlo V, lo visitava nella Magione e lo rivedeva una seconda volta al ritorno dalla capitale emiliana l’undici aprile 1530.” Francesco Lanzoni confirms the two visits by Clement VII and states there was also a February 1541 visit by Paul III to Faenza, which likely would have resulted in an encounter between this latter pope and Sabba, in La Controriforma nella città e diocesi di Faenza (Faenza: Fratelli Lega, 1925), 45.

199 are not mentioned in a 1525 notary act which scrupulously itemizes all architectonic additions.

The irony remains that Sabba shows his connection to Clement in art and epigram, while no extant writing of his mentions the pope’s visits at all. A letter requesting Sabba’s services as a “cameriere segreto” speaks to the intricate relationship between Clement VII and Sabba, a relationship from which Sabba obviously benefited and which he memorialized within the Commenda grounds as well as in his letters and memoirs. In the following two paragraphs of a four-paragraph papal brief Clement VII futilely exhorts his friend and Hospitaller compatriot to join him as one of his private assistants in the Curia in 1523:

Quo fit ut illud tu, quamquam absens, in memoria tamen et in mentione nostra assidue verseris, talique te haberemus loco, quali multae et magnae virtutes tuae, longaque consuetudo et familiaritas nobiscum tua promerentur. Te igitur non modo in familiarem, sed Camerarium etiam nostrum libenter et generose recipimus ac aliorum Camerariorum nostrorum qui a cubiculo nobis sunt numero et consortio favorabiliter aggregavimus, quoadque tu deinceps omnibus familiarium et camerariorum nostrorum gratiis prerogativis ac privilegiis sine tamen eorum preiudicio uti et gaudere possis, tam absens quam apud nos praesens, tibi concedimus.83

Sabba surely pleaded to keep his modestly solitary lifestyle in Faenza whereby he would live out his years in relative obscurity. He would be close enough to the main roads and urban centers that a pope might spend the night as his guest but far enough from the ceaseless urban bustle that he remained comfortably peripheral to the often cutthroat civil and religious discourse in the politics of the Papal States, of which his domain was part.

83 “Thus it happens that, although absent, you are constantly in our mind and on our lips, and that we hold you in such high esteem as your many great virtues and your long friendship and familiarity with us merit. We receive you therefore willingly and with magnanimity not only as a friend but also as our chamberlain, and we have favorably placed you in the number and company of our other chamberlains that are assigned to our service, and we grant to you that henceforth you may use and enjoy all the favors, prerogatives, and privileges of our friends and chamberlains, without however their prejudice, whether you be absent or here with us.” See S. Castiglione, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Isabella d’Este e altri, 137-140.

200 That Sabba’s response was accepted by Clement VII, we can be fairly certain, as a 1525

papal brief later confirms numerous pecuniary exemptions and Hospitaller prerogatives

granted to the Commenda faentina under Sabba’s leadership. This document allows special privileges because of the friendship between pope and knight while still recalling

Clement’s 1523 request to Sabba to join the Roman Curia:

Proptereaque nobis humiliter supplicari fecisti ut tibi desuper opportune providere de benignitate apostolica dignaremur nos igitur qui hunc Ordinem cuius professores aliquando fuimus paterna ac speciali protectione singularique charitate complectimur peculiari semper benivolentia prosecuti tuarumque virtutum et probitatum memores, dudum familiarium et Camerariorum nostrorum consortio te ascripsimus.84

Here as elsewhere, self-fashioning by Sabba has displayed honesty, evoked endearment,

and demonstrated a knack for self-fulfillment. These brief exchanges testify to Sabba’s

resourcefulness in creating and safeguarding his chosen way of life.

More straightforward and less enigmatic is the simple testimonial inscription

beneath Girolamo da Treviso’s fresco on the Commenda church’s rear apse wall, in

which Sabba appears as a living patron active in the world, performing charitable deeds

as a Knight Hospitaller. For those unable to recognize the distinguished bearded man in

brightly colored Hospitaller garb, the epitaph to Sabba’s right and below the Madonna

and Child -- essentially a marble throne slab -- explains the picture: “F SABBA CAST /

PRECEPTORE / HIER TARVIS PICT / FACIEBAT / M D XXX III.”85 Perhaps of

even more relevance is the eleventh-century Holy Sepulchre-inspired apse that originally

contained three single-lancet windows (the middle one actually two, tightly joined

84 Ibid., 141: “And because you caused humble supplication to be made to us that we deign from on high with Apostolic benevolence to provide for you in an appropriate manner, therefore we, that embrace this Order, of which we ourselves were once professed members, with a paternal and special protection, having always treated it with particular benevolence, and mindful of your virtues and of your uprightness, a little while ago appointed you in writing to the partnership of our friends and chamberlains.” 85 “The painter Treviso made [this fresco] while fra Sabba Castiglione was Hospitaller Preceptor, 1533.”

201 vertically) that were sealed to allow the commissioning of this fresco painting. Sabba was willing to make architectonic changes, whether they be walling in windows, adding to a portico, or altering the play of light and shadows.

Sabba da Castiglione, the quintessential Italian Renaissance Knight Hospitaller, proceeds to describe himself more definitively in his 1554 sepulchral epitaph in the middle of the left-side Commenda church nave wall (fig. 12):

D. O. M. PUTREDINI ET CO RRUPTIONI RESUR RECTURIS UTINAM IN MELIUS SABBAS MEDIOLAN. EX GENT. CASTIL. FR. ET MIL. HIER. SOLITA RIUS ET PARVO CO[N] TENTUS VIXI PARVO CONTENTUS ET SOLITARIUS HIC IACEO ANGUSTE QUALIS FUERIM NEC EGO SCIVI NEC TU QU[A]ERAS QUISQUIS ES SI PIUS ES DEPRE CARE DEUM PRO ME HOSPES SOSPES ABI VALE ET VIVE MEMO[R] LETI VIVENS MORITURO MIHI POSUI MORTALIUM VITA ORTUS LAB OR ET MORS OBIIT AN. DOM. SAL. MDXXXXXIIII

202

DIE XVI MEN. MART.86

Dually defined by family lineage (“Sabbas mediolan / ex gent Castil”) and military association (“fr / et mil Hier Solita / rius”), Sabba’s epitaph, consisting of a sandstone slab colored black, indelibly links the spirituality of the departed knight with his family background and his lifelong commitment to the Hospitaller Order. Sabba’s spiritual tension and frustration with mortality (“Hospes sospes abi / vale et vive memor leti. / Vivens morituro / mihi posui”) is beckoned by the “fr / et mil” (“frater et miles”) into a rhetorical conversation that reduces human existence to its barest form: birth, daily labor, and death. The ablative phrase contained in the identical phrases “parvo contentus” is ambiguous enough to induce a question: Is Sabba “content with little” and, in his narrow tomb now, “contained by little,” especially with regard to the empowering and eclectic existence he lived in Faenza far removed from urban centers and courts?

4.4.2 Lost Wall Inscriptions

Degradation of the architectural works, due mainly to the ravages of World War

II, caused the loss of precious inscriptions from several Commenda faentina walls. The nineteenth-century historian Gian Marcello Valgimigli provides us with the words to some of the vanished inscriptions, often accompanied by details of their former location albeit not their appearance.87 Sabba’s brief yet poignant sentiments seem to have been

86 “To God, Best and Greatest. For the decay and corruption may they rise again for the better, I, Sabba, of the Castiglione family, Hospitaller friar and knight, lived by myself and content with little. Content with little and by myself here I lie in a narrow space. What sort I was neither did I know nor should you ask. Whoever you are, if you are a pious man, pray to God for me. O visitor, leave safe and sound, farewell, and live mindful of death. While alive I put this up for myself, who would be dead. The life of mortals is birth, work, and death. He died in the year of the Lord and Savior 1554, day 16 of the month of March.” See S. Castiglione, Ricordi, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 1999), xxviii. 87 Valgimigli, Frate Sabba da Castiglione, 11-37.

203 interspersed throughout the Commenda grounds. On a garden archway, for example, one once could have read:

[...] DIIS IMMORTALIBUS ET HONESTAE VOLUPTATI F SABBAS MED CONS [...]88

This enigmatic (and now destroyed) inscription apparently was meant to convey a sense of personal pleasure resulting from some unknown endeavor, perhaps the creation of the contemplative garden or indulgence of art patronage itself: “...fra Sabba of Milan consecrated to the immortal gods and to an honest pleasure [...].” The evocation of the classical gods and the exculpatory adjective “honest” are probably used for rhetorical purposes, perhaps to evoke sympathy and praise for art’s worthy patron.

And on a garden archway lost to World War II aerial bombings less than fifty meters from the edge of the Commenda quadriportico, we would once have been able to read:

SATIS. DIVES. QUI. NON INDIGET. PANE SATIS. POTENS. QUI. NON. COGITUR. SERVIRE CIVILES. CURAE. PROCUL. HINC. ABITE SABBAS. CASTIL. SOLITARIUS SE. IPSO. CONTENTUS HOS. SECUROS. INCOLIT. HORTULOS PAUPER. AN DIVES SI. CORDATUS. ES. COGITA.VALE.89

Sabba evokes Petrarch’s sense of solitude that leads to richness of heart; he gives thanks for the bounty of wisdom and peace of mind that accompanies it. Petrarch’s interest in solitude is a direct extension of his literary otium, which he adopted from Roman antiquity and overlaid with a Christian sensibility. There are striking similarities between

88 Ibid., 12. 89 “Rich enough is he who does not need bread, powerful enough is he who is not compelled to serve. Civil concerns, go far away from here. Sabba Castiglione all alone, content by himself, inhabits these untroubled little gardens. Poor or rich, ponder if you are wise. Farewell.” Ibid., 11.

204 Petrarch’s De vita solitaria tenets and Sabba’s lifestyle as Commendatore faentino.90

Often overlooked is the essential premise that Petrarch sought solitude to contemplate and to engage his intellect. The homo solitarius should escape from active participation in the world’s affairs in order to purposefully pursue studies and produce writing which would bring glory to the individual as well as benefit to mankind; solitude becomes a key element in the cultivation of the intellect. Ultimately, De vita solitaria is a strategy intended to generate wholesome wisdom, whereby solitude is deemed not so much spiritual as introspective. Petrarchan solitude is not a closed experience; it necessitates occasional interaction and the stimulation offered by intelligent discourse. Petrarch even asserts that he would rather forgo solitude than renounce friendships.91 Petrarch abandons the rigid asceticism of the early Church mystics for the tranquil hedonism found in the writings of the more temperate ancients. Sabba’s version of the vita solitaria is a hybrid form of private religious devotion, philosophical contemplation, and active engagement with artists, friends, and other knights.92

The line “SE. IPSO. CONTENTUS” alludes to Seneca the Younger’s vivere secum topos from Epistle IX (Seneca Lucilio suo salutem).93 Indeed, Seneca provides some of

90 Francesco Petrarca, Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, vol. 1, ed. Antonietta Bufano with Basile Aracri and Clara Kraus Reggiani, introd. Manlio Pastore Stocchi (Turin: UTET, 1975). Petrarch began De vita solitaria in Vaucluse in 1346 and was able to finish it only in 1366. 91 Ibid., 352. 92 See also Antonietta Paolillo, Fra Sabba da Castiglione: antiquario e teorico del collezionismo nella Faenza del 1500 (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000), 73-74. The so-called “dimora in campagna” is of fundamental importance to Sabba’s immediate generational predecessors, and has its humanistic roots in the Florentine Quattrocento precursors, including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Angelo Poliziano, whereby isolation immersed in one’s thoughts and direct contact with nature stimulated the mind’s intellectual capabilities. Leon Battista Alberti’s propensity for purposeful architectural harmony in the country villa and its gardens developed in Tuscany and was embraced by the privileged Italian citizenry. 93 Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Seneca: Epistles 1-65, trans. Richard M. Gummere (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 50: “Ergo quamvis se ipso contentus sit, amicis illi opus est.” “Therefore, although he is self-sufficient, yet he has need of friends.” “Se contentus” is a recurring word in Seneca’s

205 the earliest introspective perspectives, a “care of the self” motif that has been seen as a prequel to Augustine’s Confessions, a text generally regarded as the first autobiographical work in Western literature: “Tale predilezione per Seneca si spiega vuoi col suo moralismo consonante con gli accenti ascetici e ‘savonaroliani’ di Fra Sabba, vuoi perché

Seneca era da lui ritenuto il più vicino al suo Agostino, al quale viene infatti allineato.”94

Besides numerous laudatory citations of Seneca throughout the Ricordi, Sabba had in his library Seneca’s Opera omnia as a source of reference.95 Whether or not the stoic formulation is the earliest antecedent of Sabba’s garden-gate paean to self-sufficiency, the connection allows the reader to place Sabba in a sphere of detached solitude that helps articulate Sabba’s purpose in Faenza and his attraction to an ideal self-sufficiency that engenders contentment.

In Sabba’s perhaps most severe epigraphic statement, available to us only from written records, he warns would-be pilferers that theft (or indeed any removal) of material from his library is sacrilege that will incur censure by two popes and the angry vengeance of three saints. The notice appeared near the entrance of his studiolo: writings translated by Richard Gummere as “self-sufficient,” while the ninth letter by Seneca displays compromises between a philosopher’s necessary seclusion and a need for friends and human interaction. 94 “This predilection for Seneca is explained by the consonant moralism with ascetic and ‘savonaroliani’ accents of Fra Sabba, and because Seneca was held by Sabba to be the closest to his Augustine, to whom in fact he [Seneca] becomes aligned.” Ivano Dionigi, “Presenze classiche in Sabba da Castiglione: Seneca,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del Convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 194. See also Catharine Edwards, “Self-Scrutiny and Self-Transformation in Seneca’s Letters,” Greece & Rome 2nd Ser. 44 (1997): 25. Of further interest is the monograph on solitude by John D. Barbour, which examines autobiographical traits throughout Western literature, The Value of Solitude: The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2004), 43- 44: “Roman orators and rhetoricians such as Cicero and Seneca tried to reconcile the demands of public service with the contemplative life. They added a new emphasis on the attractions of retirement to a country estate; the favored place for solitude was not desert wilderness but a well-maintained rural residence. Like the Christian debate about solitude, the classical tradition found mediating positions, such as the view that solitary study should eventually benefit others, or that country retirement was a justified reward for long years of public service.” 95 Ibid., 197; Anna Rosa Gentilini, “La biblioteca di fra Sabba da Castiglione,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 262.

206 D. O. M. QUISQUIS - ES - CAVE - NE - QUID - HINC EXTRAHAS - SUBTRAHAS - DETRAHASVE SI - HUIUSCE - ADMONITIONIS - ERGO ADVERSUS - IERIS - FECERISVE SCIAS -TE - SACRILEGUM CLEMENT - VII - IULIIQ. III - CENS. AC - BEAT. - IOAN. BAPT. HIERON -ET - ANTONII - SUB - QUORUM - TUTELA POSITA - HAEC - SUNT OB - SPRETAM - TUTELAM IRAM - ET - INDIGNATIONEM ULTRICEM - INCURRISSE HOSPES - SI - SAPIS - VIDE - LEGE - ABSTINE CAVE - ET - VALE PARVUS - SABBAS PARVAM - POSTERIS - STRUXIT - BIBLIOTEC. ANNO - SAL - HUM - MDLI SEDENTE - IUL. III - IMP. CAROLO V.96

This menacing malediction implicitly boasts of Sabba’s position among privileged and powerful churchmen and presumes his ability to punish others through heavenly intervention.

That the longest epigraphic writings involve Sabba’s death and his library is instructive. Sabba paid great attention to posterity after an ostensible brush with death in the mid-1540s, and his objectives over the last decade of his life concerned the way and the means by which future generations might remember and regard him. Menzocchi’s

96 “To God, Best and Greatest. Whoever you are, beware lest you take, subtract, or extract from here anything. If therefore you do or act against this admonition know that you are sacrilegious, and that by scorning their guardianship you have incurred the wrath and avenging indignation of Clement VII and Julius III, censors, and of blessed John the Baptist, Jerome, and Anthony, under whose guardianship these goods were placed. Guest, if you are wise, see, read, and abstain, beware and farewell. An unimportant Sabba instituted this small library for posterity in the year 1551 of human salvation, during the reigns of [Pope] Julius III and Emperor Charles V.” See Valgimigli, Frate Sabba da Castiglione, 37; Cortesi, ed., S. Castiglione, Ricordi, xxii.

207 (circa 1545-1547) frescoes beside Sabba’s sepulchre are assumed not yet to have been commissioned or finished when Sabba fell ill, given the artist’s history.97 The 109th ricordo did not appear until the 1549 edition of the Ricordi. In tandem with the 1550 second testament describing the “in campanilis” library completion, however, it suggests

Sabba’s intention to convey a picture of enlightened humanism as practiced by a late

Renaissance Knight Hospitaller, one humbly respectful of Church mandates and fully supportive of the Counter Reformation then taking shape on the Italian peninsula. Yet one also detects an individual sufficiently humanist to choose for himself classical funereal imagery.

4.5 An Unexplained Malady Becomes a Life-Altering Event

An undiagnosed yet apparently grave 1544 malady is described at the beginning of Sabba’s first testament, written in January 1546, acting as the likely impetus for many of the works for which he is remembered -- the sepulchral lapidary slab and frescoes beside it, presumably many of the epigraphs throughout the compound, and, most clearly, parts of the Ricordi itself:

Sed cum idem frater Sabbas, de anno 1544 de mensibus iulii et augusti in civitate Faventie, in edibus Mansionis, a gravi et periculosa egritudine opressus fuerit non sine potius periculo mortis quam spe vite, et cum ab ipsa omnipotentis Dei gratia aliquantisper convaluerit, sed non penitus ab ea immunis et liber maximo animi merore et displicentia non sine periculo recidiundi, ex variis locis, et presertim ex urbe Roma, a quamplurimis amicis et familiaribus suis auctoritate et fide dignis acceperit commissiones iam datas et expeditas fuisse ab apostolica sede non solum super comendis predictis verum etiam super spoliis, “res quidem insolita.” Quocirca cum ipse frater Sabbas prostratus et pene exinanitus existeret ex maximo mentis et animi merore ultra corporis imbecilitatem

97 See Anna Colombi Ferretti and Luciana Prati, eds., Francesco Menzocchi: Forlì 1502-1574 (Ferrara: Edisai, 2003), 258-262.

208 ob recentem aegritudinem ut decet bonos christifideles in eorum pertubationibus et miseriis oppressos conversus ad eius Dominum Jesum Christum et eius immensam maiestatem, occulis non sine lachrimis plenis, deprecando ut ob eius immensam, maximam et infinitam misericordiam dignaretur eius mentem illustrare ad exequendum, faciendum et operandum omne id quod ad laudem et honorem eius immensae maiestatis cederet, non sine tamen anime sue salute et ad comodum, beneficium et utilitatem eius almae Religionis, eius verae piae matris.98

Whether this passage represents Sabba’s words or language inserted by the Faenza public notary, Pietro del fu Baldo de’ Pritelli, it is a lucid commentary on a unique situation and certainly, by the standards of Hospitaller Knights in Romagna, “res quidem insolita,” meaning “the matter in fact unusual” or “the affair indeed unusual.” The will is a testamento nuncupativo, orally pronounced by the testator and written in front of the notary and nine other witnesses (later to be redrawn formally and signed by the notary), and it is unusually detailed for such an instrument.99 The existence of such a testament is attributable to Sabba’s epistolary pleadings with Pope Paul III and the pope’s subsequent

authorization enabling Sabba to compose these documents, thus circumventing Sabba’s

monastic vow of poverty (but not those of chastity and obedience).100 Thus two thousand gold coins worth of wealth, much of which presumably came not from his

98 Sabba Castiglione, I due testamenti di fra Sabba da Castiglione, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000), 144: “But when the same brother Sabba in the year 1544 in the months July and August in the city of Faenza, in the Commenda edifice, had been oppressed by a grave and dangerous sickness not without a greater danger of death than hope of life, and when he by the omnipotent grace of God for some time regained strength, but not being thoroughly immune and free with the greatest grief and displeasure of the soul, and not without danger of relapsing when he heard from various places, and especially from the city of Rome, from many authoritative and trustworthy friends and acquaintances of his, that commissions had already been given and sent by the Apostolic See not only regarding the aforementioned Commende, but also regarding the spoils, ‘an unusual thing indeed.’ Therefore when brother Sabba was bedridden and almost emptied by the greatest grief of mind and spirit beyond the capacity of his weak body on account of his recent sickness, he turned, as befits good Christians oppressed in their disturbances and sufferings, to his Lord Jesus Christ and his immense majesty, praying with eyes full of tears that he deign, on account of his immense, great, and infinite mercy, to illumine his mind to pursue, do, and carry out all that tended toward the praise and honor of his immense majesty, but not without the salvation of his own soul, and toward the advantage, benefit, and utility of his nourishing Religion, his true loving mother.” 99 Ibid., xx. 100 Ibid., 146.

209 family but from revenue attributable to the Commenda, was appropriated by Sabba and

eventually sanctioned in exchange for his influential patronage and service. These activities occurred while Sabba was recovering from his near fatal 1544 maladies and are

evidence of Sabba’s intention to benefit himself and fra Bartolomeo Righi da Castiglione,

his sister’s grandson and Sabba’s great nephew, fellow Knight Hospitaller, heir apparent,

and protégé, for whom (Sabba asserted) he wrote the Ricordi. While ostensibly leaving

all his possessions to the Hospitaller Order, Sabba carefully sought out a papal exemption

and wrote two detailed testaments in four years -- revising sections pertaining to

completed works but not those concerning inheritance -- providing that fra Bartolomeo,

who would become Sabba’s successor as preceptor, would inherit without any lien

virtually all of his private property, military equipment, linens, furniture, kitchen utensils,

and clothing, as well as all of the livestock maintained on the Faenza Hospitaller property

and various personal items located elsewhere.101

4.6 Sabba’s Idiosyncratic Aesthetics

Sabba’s personal possessions become emblematic of the Hospitaller ethos particularized for an Italian Renaissance knight. Sabba’s artworks, personal books, armor, and other valuables -- both those extant and those only described in the last will and the Ricordi -- were of enormous importance to him, and thus are of great value to those who would define the humanist knight and understand the complex dynamics of his epoch.

101 Ibid., 24-30.

210 4.6.1 Eclectic Influences Displayed in the Commenda

Inside Sabba’s library four separate Latin maxims appear inscribed on the

tavolino intarsiato built by fra Damiano da Bergamo, inlaid within oblong cartouches,

which in turn face toward the four corners of the table, are:

NATURA EXIGUO PARABILIQ[UE] CONTENTA;

TEMPERANTIA CORPORIS ANIM[A]EQ[UE] CERTISSIMA SALUS;

FRUGALITAS VOLUPTATI IMPERET; and

VOLUPTATES ABEUNTES SI SAPIS COGITA.102

Apt epigraphic models of stoic Christian virtue and ethos, these four maxims are at the

spiritual nexus, so to speak, of Sabba’s studiolo, where he may have arranged books of

current interest and other cherished items. In Sabba’s own studiolo description in ricordo

109, “Circa gli ornamenti della casa,” one gets a genuine sense of the joy Sabba derived

from his prized possessions:

L’adorno [“il mio picciolo studiolo”] con una figura di un S. Girolamo di terra[cotta], ma finta di bronzo, quasi di tutto rilievo e di grandezza di un cubito, di mano di Alfonso da Ferrara, la quale arditamente può comparire tra gli altri suoi lavori più famosi. L’adorno con un quadretto di tavola e con due quadri di due teste, una di S. Paolo e l’altra di S. Giovanni Battista, di commesso, di mano del mio venerando padre Fra Damiano di Bergamo, opere tutte tre eccellentissime, ma pur a me pare che nella testa di S. Giovanni il buon padre, avanzando sé medesimo, mostrasse lo estremo e l’ultimo di quanto egli sapeva. Parimenti lo adorno con una urna antica di alabastro orientale, con alcune vene di calcidonio, la quale certo non cede a nessun altro vaso di alabastro, che io abbia veduto insino alla presente ora, ancora che in Roma e altrove ne abbia veduto molti. E se non che le cose sono mie, per avventura mi estenderei più oltra in laudarle, sì come la lor dignità merita, ma non voglio che alcuno pensasse ch’io abbagliato dall’affezione che

102 “Nature is content with a little and the procurable; Moderation of body and soul is the most certain salvation; Let frugality rule over pleasure; Reflect on fleeting pleasures if you are wise.” The table is still in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Faenza. See Dora Thornton, “‘Le mie cose’: fra Sabba da Castiglione e i suoi oggetti,” in Sabba da Castiglione (1480-1554): dalle corti rinascimentali alla Commenda di Faenza. Atti del convegno, Faenza, 19-20 maggio 2000, ed. Anna Rosa Gentilini (Florence: Olschki, 2004), 320- 321.

211 naturalmente si porta alle proprie cose, avessi trapassato li segni della verità. E con molte altre cosette lo adorno, le quali, sì come non sono della dignità ed eccellenza di queste, così di esse non ne fo menzione, né memoria alcuna. Se per avventura voi mi domanderete quali ornamenti più di tutti gli altri desidererei in casa mia, vi risponderò senza molto pensarci armi e libri. Quelle, fine e buone a tutta prova, di mano eccellente e buon maestro italiano o tedesco; ma ben vorrei che fossero conservate limpie, forbite, lustre e nette, come devono essere le armi di un gentil cavaliero e non rugginose come quelle di un sbirro. Li libri vorrei fossero di autori gravi, maturi, approbati e autentici, ma esercitati e voltati e non polverulenti da scrivergli con il dito sulle coperte, perché avere li libri e non adoperarli è come non averli. E questo acciocché ad ogni tempo, e di guerra e di pace, l’uomo sia atto e utile e buono, con ricordarvi che le armi rade volte fanno imprese onorate e degne, se non sono governate e rette dalla prudenza e sapienza, le quali mai si trovano ove non sono lettere. E che ciò sia vero, troverete pochi Romani o Greci avere fatte imprese gloriose e degne di memoria che non siano stati litterati.103

Expressing praise for the craftmanship and skill of da Bergamo, Sabba sheds light on some of his favorite three-dimensional art objects. In these four paragraphs, more than anywhere else, one discovers the pride, joy, and significance that each of Sabba’s personal objects possesses for him. Sabba enunciates his enduring motif, urging

“prudenza e sapienza” and cautioning the knight who gravitates only toward arms while neglecting his “lettere.” The “gentil cavaliero” will surround himself with ennobling art and tasteful furnishings and be restrained in his personal deportment and expressions of opinion.

Conscientiously renovated, revitalized, and altered, Sabba’s Commenda became a destination on the ancient Roman via Emilia that attracted cultured fellow knights, noted artists, and noteworthy contemporaries, serving as a showcase for Hospitaller style and purpose. By mid-sixteenth century, no other Hospitaller compound in the Italian peninsula displayed such an abundance of aesthetic grace and purpose, and to this day no

103 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 167-168.

212 other Hospitaller Commenda is remembered for its Cinquecento art and architecture.104

In a sense, the Faenza commandery and its accoutrements physically complement, in stone, metal, wood, and paint, Sabba’s particularized literary rendition of the austere

Hospitaller code as espoused in the Ricordi and meant to educate Cinquecento Knights

Hospitaller in correct moral conduct and proper religious observance in order to glorify

God, defend the Church, and garner ultimate salvation for themselves.

Among Sabba’s surviving possessions, and generally attributed to Alfonso

Lombardi, is a terracotta patinata, a delicate terracotta relief showing St. Jerome in penance beside his desert cave accompanied by his animal companion, a lion. Lombardi

(ca. 1497-1537) was a sculptor and medalist who worked throughout northern Italy and achieved fame after a sudden premature death, as confirmed by Giorgio Vasari in his

Vite, approximately concurrent with Sabba’s Ricordi.105 Originally painted to imitate

bronze, no color pigments remain of this exquisite -- if stark and angular -- relief now

housed in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Faenza, which fortuitously managed to acquire a

few essential objects prized by Sabba.106 In literary descriptions and visual renderings,

St. Jerome and the lion appear frequently. Sabba describes the terracotta relief in ricordo

109. His possession of it is interesting, given that St. Jerome is not a particularly favored saint in Hospitaller lore. The attributes of St. Jerome, however, seem to resonate with

104 Fra Leandro Alberti praises Sabba’s art sensibility and patronage in his best-selling Descrittione di tutta Italia. See Leandro Alberti, Descrittione di tutta Italia di F. Leandro Alberti Bolognese, nella quale si contiene il sito di essa, l’origine & le signorie delle città & delle castella, co i nomi antichi & moderni, i costumi de popoli, le condicioni de paesi: et piu gli huomini famosi che l’hanno illustrata, i monti, i laghi, i fiumi, le fontane, i bagni, le minere, con tutte l’opre marauigliose in lei dalla natura prodotte (Bologna: Anselmo Giaccarelli, 1550), 393v. 105 See Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ piú eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue, insino a’ tempi nostri. Nell’edizione per i tipi di Lorenzo Torrentino, Firenze 1550, vol. 2, ed. Luciano Bellosi and Aldo Rossi (Turin: Einaudi, 1991), 732-735. 106 The tavolino intarsiato, the terracotta relief, and an ancient Roman cinerary urn (ca. CE 100-200) comprise the three extant pieces mentioned in ricordo 109.

213 Sabba’s code and mode of conduct and self-fashioning. One of the early Church Fathers,

St. Jerome’s great contribution was the Bible’s fourth-century Latin Vulgate translation.

While living in Bethlehem, a lion supposedly became his constant companion in gratitude

for Jerome’s having removed a thorn from one of its paws. Images of St. Jerome show

him as a hermit in the desert; often he is shown with the lion, a skull, a crucifix, and

(sometimes) an owl nearby, and beating his chest with a stone. Strengthening Sabba’s

affinity for St. Jerome is the role this saint plays as a traditional conduit between faith and

intellectual activity. In the early days of Christianity, hermits were seen as wild men,

adrift on their visions. Jerome was invoked to promote an identification between monk

(or hermit) and spiritual reflection, thanks to his depictions in early Quattrocento art. 107

Sabba’s wills and Ricordi amply describe his eclectic aesthetic predilections and the substantial artistic acquisitions made throughout his adult life, the third and final edition of his memoirs having been completed just months before his death. His selection and gathering of favored artworks, books, and artifacts had spanned some forty years, yet the undoing and dispersion of this highly orchestrated accumulation began soon after his death. Six documents provide the essential chronology of what Anna Rosa

Gentilini refers to as Sabba’s patrimonial dismemberment: (1) his January 1546 testament; (2) his December 1550 testament; (3) a 1621 Hospitaller Commenda compilation of inventory, still extant in the Malta Archives; (4) a 1786 Cabreo that is today housed in the Biblioteca Comunale di Faenza; (5) a subsequent 1789 Hospitaller

Commenda inventory also extant in the Malta Archives; and (6) a “verbale di consegna” from the Italian monarchy to the Faenza Comune of artistic objects confiscated by

107 George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 124- 125. The owl, when present in images, has usually come to symbolize Satan, one who hides in darkness and fears the light; alternatively, it can symbolize solitude and, by extension, the hermit’s life.

214 Napoleon’s forces.108 The first concrete information we have regarding the fate of

Sabba’s material legacy was compiled in 1621 within the annotated text of an internal

Hospitaller inventory, Processo dei miglioramenti della Commenda di Faenza fatto dal

sig. Priore d’Inghilterra Comm. Cesare Ferretti nell’anno 1621. Here, on sheet 71 --

with a 19 November 1620 date clearly displayed -- is a specific comment concerning the

books in the Commenda faentina:

et in detto studio di Fra Sabba abbiamo ritrovato mancarvi molti libri per le scansie vuote che ci sono, et avendo con diligenza procurato saperne la causa, abbiamo ritrovato che molti anni sono ne fu levata una gran quantità da un agente della religione nostra che stava in Roma et questo fu, dicono, pochi anni dopo la morte del Comm.re Fra Sabba.109

Perhaps the Roman Hospitaller agent understood the rarity and value of certain of

Sabba’s books and appropriated them for the Vatican collection. In any case, it appears

that a number of very valuable books were removed within a few years of Sabba’s death,

even while his great nephew fra Bartolomeo Righi da Castiglione was the Faenza

Commendatore and perhaps unwilling to counter Vatican directives. Thus, books and

possibly some artifacts were taken away in “gran quantità” within “pochi anni” after

Sabba’s death.110

A second dispersion occurred in the 1830s, whereby Valgimigli traced a

substantial loss of the library’s contents clearly not inflicted by the mysterious sixteenth-

century Hospitaller visitor from Rome but by a papal functionary in Bologna, as

evidenced in an 1842 account by Gaetano Giordani: “Sono pochi anni che i libri di lui

[Sabba] furono dispersi e venduti: si comperò una gran parte d’ essi dal sig. Dott.

108 Gentilini, “La biblioteca di fra Sabba da Castiglione,” 253-254. 109 Processo dei miglioramenti della Commenda di Faenza fatto dal sig. Priore d’Inghilterra Comm. Cesare Ferretti nell’anno 1621, MS 5828, Malta: National Archives of Malta. 110 Ibid. A 1610 inventory lists 102 books, of which 95 are legible and attributable to Sabba’s collection, seven of them being deemed illegible.

215 Gaspare Benelli, Segretario della bolognese Legazione.”111 Valgimigli, having brought

to light this second significant dispersal, estimates its occurrence at about 1830, “che

codesto mal consigliato sperpero si riferisca intorno al 1830.”112 Ignazio Massaroli

concurs with this statement, having become by the end of the nineteenth century the

largest private collector of Sabba’s writings. He accurately describes in bibliographical

format the various editions under his ownership or inspection, covering 1546 to 1613,

and pursues the nineteenth-century textual diaspora by declaring that substantial volumes

were sold in 1875 by Gaspare Benelli to his brother Luigi. Subsequently, they were

purchased by Massaroli, including several Ricordi editions, as is evidenced by his

virtually perfect bibliographical account of Sabba’s writings, including the Ricordi,

Consolatoria, and letters:

I libri poi raccolti dal fu dott. Gaspare Benelli furono venduti quasi per intero nel 1875 ad un libraio di Napoli; eccettuati alcuni comprati dal libraio Ramazzotti di Bologna, pochi dei quali vennero poi in mia mano. Così pure è a dirsi che non tutti gli oggetti d’arte andarono dispersi, giacchè il busto marmoreo di S. Giovanni, un’urna cineraria antica d’alabastro, il piano di una tavola con lavori di tarsia di Fra Damiano da Bergamo, ed alcuni libri, già di pertinenza di Fra Sabba, e che si ritrovavano ancora appresso il parroco della Commenda, furono nel febbraio del 1870 depositati nella Biblioteca comunale di Faenza, dalla quale passarono nella Pinacoteca, da’ libri in fuori, e il San Girolamo di Alfonso da Ferrara fu acquistato per vil prezzo in un’asta pubblica dal Sacerdote faentino Don Domenico Valenti.113

This dispersal to venues in Faenza and in Pianoro, just outside Bologna where Massaroli

resided, caused Sabba’s literary renown a rebirth in the late nineteenth century. Often

overlooked by twentieth-century critics, Ignazio Massaroli provides a bibliographical

111 Gaetano Giordani, Della venuta e dimora in Bologna del Sommo Pontefice Clemente VII per la coronazione di Carlo V. imperatore celebrata l’anno MDXXX (Bologna: Tipografia Governativa alla Volpe, 1842), 11n32. 112 Valgimigli, Frate Sabba da Castiglione, 37. 113 Ignazio Massaroli, “Fra Sabba da Castiglione e i suoi Ricordi: appunti storico-bibliografici,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 2nd ser. 6 (1889): 370.

216 chronology that leaves out only Sabba’s Lamento pietoso eclogue.114 In the last

descriptions of the dismemberment of Sabba’s library, Massaroli also mentions the

removal of some of Sabba’s other prized possessions, which had been standing beside the

cherished texts: an ancient urn, the tavola intarsiata, and the St. Jerome terracotta

patinata. The alabaster Roman urn reflects the admiration for classical craftsmanship

expressed in Rhodes by the humanist knight; the fra Damiano da Bergamo tarsia table

highlights the eclectic aesthetic of the Hospitaller patron in his praise for fine

craftsmanship; and the St. Jerome terracotta relief supplies the recurring symbolic

imagery so pertinent to a humanist Knight Hospitaller who embraced both learned

solitude and pious spirituality.

4.6.2 Art and Artists in the Ricordi

The encomiastic 109th ricordo is a paean to great ancient, medieval, and

contemporary art as seen through Sabba’s eyes over his lifetime. Sabba found three

categories of art especially worthy of praise: (1) contemporary imitations of ancient

styles, especially those of the Quattrocento, the works of Donatello being the most

prominent in Sabba’s estimation; (2) particular art objects that bore comparison with

ancient art forms and were also of value for their literary or critical significance and their

ability to engender discussion on their provenance, reputation, and relation to humanism

or the liberal arts; and (3) objects related in some way to Sabba’s personal experience.

An overriding theme for Sabba seems to be personal proximity to specific artists or direct

114 Sabba Castiglione, Il lamento pietoso del disgratiato Clonico pastore contra d’amore & di Delia crudele da lui sommamente amata (Venice: Gieronymo Pencio da Lecco, 1528 [1529]).

217 access to their works.115 Casually mentioned alongside recognized masters of Italian

Renaissance art such as Michelangelo and Raphael are minor regional artists who came into direct contact with Sabba. In many instances, these had rendered service to

European Hospitaller properties and Sabba would have encountered them either in Rome or Faenza. Thus, Albrecht Dürer and Donatello receive much praise (Sabba owned an etching by Dürer and a marble bust he mistakenly attributed to Donatello), and so does

Giulio Romano (1499-1546), Raphael’s disciple and assistant (“E chi di mano di Giulio

Romano suo discepolo, il quale nel pingere sicuramente si va accostando al suo maestro”) and Sabba’s acquaintance in Mantua as well as court artist to Isabella d’Este.116 Sabba never mentions Giulio Romano’s Hospitaller fresco depictions in the Stanze vaticane, even though they were almost certainly painted while Sabba was with the Roman Curia.

Yet one reads extensively about Girolamo da Treviso and Franceso Menzocchi, two able artists who accepted commissions for extensive projects in the Commenda church.

Sabba’s aesthetic taste seems circumscribed by the same practicality that characterizes other areas of his life. Personal collegiality or even chance introduction seem to have been influential, as was Sabba’s ability to offer patronage to several minor artists.

In the 109th ricordo, Sabba accords high praise and unusually detailed attention to two artists, Gian Cristoforo Romano (ca. 1470-1512) and Cristoforo Foppa “il

Caradosso” (1452-1527). The fact that they were in Pavia and Mantua while Sabba resided in those cities and that he had firsthand knowledge of them, seems to have influenced his critical appraisal of both men. Sabba proclaimed Gian Cristoforo Romano perhaps the third greatest artist of the early Cinquecento: “E se non che nella età sua più

115 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 159-172. Sabba does pay tribute to all the recognized great contemporary artists, from Michelangelo and Raphael to da Vinci. 116 Ibid., 163.

218 verde e più fiorita fu assalito d’incurabile infermità, forse tra li due primi stato sarebbe il

terzo [dopo Michelangelo e Donatello].”117 The goldsmith il Caradosso provided

firsthand instruction to Sabba regarding antiquities, especially precious jewels and medallions, and was a source of appraisal for Isabella d’Este in the late 1400s and early

1500s, and to Sabba “all’età nostra è stato senza paro [con metallo, argento o bassorilievo], come si può vedere nella città di Milano per un suo calimaro d’argento di

basso rilievo, fatica d’anni ventisei, ma certo divina.”118 While artists personally known

to Sabba tend to garner glowing praise in Sabba’s personal memoirs, it is also true that

north-central Italy was then laden with talented yet generally overlooked artists. Sabba

sought in the Ricordi to enhance their repute as well as that of his home region. Thus are

exalted Alfonso Lombardi (a.k.a. Alfonso da Ferrara, 1497-1537), Guido Madanino da

Modena (1450-1518), and Bernardi Giovanni del Castello (1496-1533), who appear in

Sabba’s vade mecum alongside Verrocchio (a celebrated Florentine artist), Pollaiolo

(who worked for the popes in Rome at the end of his life, making the tombs of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII), Bellini (a famous Venetian artist from an artistic family with a world- famous workshop), and Mantegna (Vasari’s choice for a model court artist, working first in Padua and then in the Gonzaga court in Mantua).

In paying homage to homegrown local artists, Sabba reveals a desire to interject and highlight his own plentiful forceful opinions regarding artists and their art. He is also

quick to mock the ignorant art collector without aesthetic appreciation:

E oltra ciò, per meglio dirvi la dignità della pittura, vi dirò avere conosciuto al mondo molti grandi uomini, dico grandi di ricchezze e di dignità, ma del resto ignoranti, grossi, goffi e fatti con l’accetta come li santi d’Abruzzo, li quali per mostrare al volgo di avere ingegno e spirito,

117 Ibid., 161. 118 Ibid.

219 facevano gran professione di dilettarsi di antiquità e massimamente di medaglie di uomini stati al mondo degni e famosi ma tanto gustavano o intendevano simili cose quanto l’asino la lira.119

In a few words, Sabba tells the reader about his personal knowledge of many noteworthy

contemporaries and, simultaneously, about the woeful lack of artistic sophistication of his

opinionated peers who lack his own discerning taste and appreciation for art’s subtleties.

His scathing remarks indict those who seek gravitas by posing as art connoisseurs and the

attention-seeking clergy often denounced elsewhere in his memoirs. That said, Sabba’s

approach appears contradictory when, on the one hand he feigns indifference to the

material world of his courtly peers -- a world he had left behind -- and on the other he

expresses diffidence toward the less aesthetically astute members of that realm that

borders on hostility. Aesthetic standards as an expression of the “ideale di vita

cortigiana” had come to express themselves also through the innovations of perspective,

chiaroscuro, and other novel artistic techniques and symbols, some more obscure than

others but all gratifying to the connoisseur even if sometimes perplexing to the common

man.

Accordingly, Massimo Ferretti discusses the open contrast between mere

technical convention and a more deep-seated belief that aesthetic capacities are tied to a

shared conceptual experience and communication between the artist and viewer:

Tale spazio coincide invece con la cultura umanistica matura, con l’ideale di vita cortigiana: quando ‘far parere per arte di prospettiva quello che non è’ e compiacimento contemplativo s’identificano in un’altissima convenzione intellettuale. Ad essa è ancora nostalgicamente legato, a metà Cinquecento, Sabba Castiglione. Quando sottolinea il carattere elitario delle ‘opere di Pietro del Borgo o di Melozzo da Forlì, le quali forse per le lor prospettive e secreti dell’arte sono a gli intendenti più grate che vaghe a gli occhi di coloro che meno intendono’ non si riferisce pertanto a quanti sono effettivamente partecipi di un’intelligenza operativa

119 Ibid., 165.

220 e progettuale, come in Brunelleschi, ma ad un’attitudine tutta ‘liberale’ e socialmente coltivata.120

So long as the art ennobles the patron and provides icons of the true faith and its

appointed military order, Sabba can contemplate and research trends and give artistic

advice in letters or in the Ricordi, or embellished with bucolic imagery, as in his only

published poem. Sabba’s comments regarding artistic imagery and symbols precede his

vitriolics against ignorant art collectors by only a few lines. Sabba has precise ideals and

standards. He loves not only frescoes but also woodcut decoration, sculpture, woodcut

inlay, and tomb-slab epigraphs.

Sabba’s writings about art are interspersed with the possessive “mio,” expressing

a personal involvement with “his” artists, and his heartfelt fondness and familial affection

toward such individuals as Girolamo da Treviso and Francesco Menzocchi, noteworthy

mainly for their compelling extant frescoes.121 Antonietta Paolillo sees Sabba’s artistic

scope as straightforward and lacking the ulterior considerations that might have been in

play some decades earlier while catering to the artistic desires of Isabella d’Este: “La

scelta dei due artisti (che lavorarono alla Commenda l’uno attorno al 1533 e l’altro fra il

1540 e il 1549) non sembra essere dovuta a particolari ragioni stilistiche, ma semplicemente alla volontà di servirsi degli uomini migliori attivi nelle vicinanze.”122

120 Massimo Ferretti, “I maestri della prospettiva,” in Storia dell'arte italiana. Forme e modelli, Vol. XI (Turin: Einaudi, 1982), 468, quoting ricordo 109 in S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 163. 121 S. Castiglione, Ricordi, 163: “E chi di mano di Giulio suo discepolo, il quale nel pingere sicuramente si va accostando al suo maestro. Chi di mano del mio [Girolamo da] Travisio, pittore certo valente e celebre, presto, risoluto e universale nel colorito, nel chiaro e scuro, in fresco, a guazzo, ad olio, pratico di paesi, di lontani, di casamenti, di prospettive, sì come fede ne fanno le opere sue per più città d’Italia, massimamente in Bologna e in Faenza, nella mia cappella della chiesa della Magione, nella quale (se ’l mio giudizio non erra) penso che avanzasse sé medesimo. Ma piaciuto fosse a N.S. Dio che sì come fu grande nella pittura e architettura, nella quale molto presumeva, così stato fosse al morire più accorto e più cauto.” 122 Paolillo, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, 67.

221 4.7 Contemporaneous Knight Hospitaller Aesthetes

Sabba was not the only Cinquecento Knight Hospitaller who sought to define

himself through his writings or the commissioning of art. Luigi Tornabuoni, Leone

Strozzi, and Annibal Caro are three such Hospitallers from north-central Italy whose

careers can help us better understand Sabba’s context and motives. Luigi Tornabuoni is

emblematic of the changes occuring in sepulchral imagery, working along parallel lines with the Siena-based Pinturicchio, who depicted Alberto Aringhieri. Annibal Caro was a

court Hospitaller, who sought fame through the patronage of powerful noblemen who

enabled him to write. Leone Strozzi was the patriarch of an established Florentine

family, whose artistic patronage in the Commenda Corbolina fiorentina as well as his

wartime battlefield exploits defined his legacy without producing any known extant

writings besides letters.

4.7.1 Luigi Tornabuoni

Among the scant Florentine Hospitaller iconography is the sepulchre stone and

accompanying heraldry of fra Luigi Tornabuoni (1442-1518) placed in 1515 by Luigi

himself on the floor beside the altar of the Hospitaller Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo

(fig. 13).123 The white marble tombstone depicts the Florentine preceptor with a long-

flowing habit, the familiar rectilinear eight-pointed Hospitaller cross on his chest, and the typical beret on his head, his right hand holding a large unidentified book while the left arm is raised as if supporting his head for slumber or reflection. He gingerly grazes a

sword and rosary (with large beads, of which one is in the shape of a skull). Around the

figure is a decorative intarsia black marble inlay with grotesque images of skull and

123 Ibid., 79-81.

222 bones at the bottom two corners, a recurring harpy intertwined in a volute (ivy-like) spiral

formation that turns into an eagle with a vase on its head; and finally in the top two

corners are found the Tornabuoni escutcheon. Inside the black intarsia marble (and

forming part of the white marble just below the feet of fra Luigi) is a chiseled epitaph

with Roman-style characters:

D M S

LUISIUS TORN EQ

HIER PR PIS MXXD

CREA FAT CONSUL

SIBI VIVEN POS

M D X V.124

This is the earliest example of a Cinquecento Italian Hospitaller who incorporated family emblems with his role as a Knight Hospitaller:

Nell’iscrizione sono utilizzate lettere capitali che si rifanno a esempi classici ma che hanno ormai raggiunto un carattere rinascimentale. Il fatto che Tornabuoni si sia fatto erigere vivente (sibi vivens posuit) una tomba di così complessa concezione (insieme terragna come antico simbolo di umiltà, ma di qualità suprema e raffinatezza ineguagliabile) è comunque caratteristico del Cinquecento appena iniziato, un secolo che vedrà spesso tombe volute -- per assicurarsi l’immortalità -- nel corso della vita. A questa allude anche la testa sul braccio, un atteggiamento tipico del sonno, non della morte.125

This sepulchral slab is the exemplum which Sabba seems to replicate, although such early

Cinquecento Hospitaller tombstones are few and a direct connection to the faentina work

cannot be proved. The erudite humanism at play in north-central Italy, however,

124 See Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze, 81, whose translation of Tornabuoni’s cryptic epigraph modifies that of Pompeo Litta and appears the most plausible rendition yet: “D[eo] M[aximo] S[alvatori]. Luisius Torn[abuoni] Eq[ues], Hierosolymitanus Prior Pisanus MXXD. Crea fato consulens. Sibi vivens posuit. MDXV;” “To God the Greatest Savior. The knight Luigi Tornabuoni, Hospitaller Prior of Pisa, a creature taking counsel for his fate. [While] living he placed [this marble slab] for himself. 1515.” 125 Ibid., 81.

223 unquestionably focused Hospitaller-commissioned art into a narrow range of motifs.

Luigi Tornabuoni’s sepulchral image portrays several key elements later adopted and used: the long and thick Hospitaller sword (or spadone) is an emblem of his vigor and courage; the rosary identifies Tornabuoni as a man of faith; the book testifies to his cultural breadth. Ludovica Sebregondi points out that the noble essence of this knight is conveyed by a sophisticated use of marble inlay and etching to showcase the man’s intense wrinkled frown and his gaunt body and elongated hands -- expressing in this particular instance mortality, intense purpose, and lasting dedication to his cause.126

An innovative application of the Hospitaller crest appears to be a purposeful

adaptation of the Tornabuoni family coat of arms in evidence during the previous century and the early Cinquecento. Previously, the lion rampant had dominated the shield, alternating in green and gold colors sections creating what appeared to be four separate colored triangles with the large lion placed vertically in the middle. A discreetly small shield was in the device’s middle, becoming a shield within a shield, perhaps in homage to the Florentine republic and the relatively recent Quattrocento wealth and success of the

Tornabuoni family: “Inquartato in croce di sant’Andrea d’oro e di verde al leone contrariante i campi, caricato sull’omero dallo scudetto del popolo fiorentino legato di rosso.”127 The Florentine shield remains in the sixteenth-century version but is now

ornately expanded, modesty perhaps giving way because of the family’s expanding role

in Florentine affairs and its steadfast support of the Medici family; the more sumptuous

126 Ibid., 83. 127 Roberto Ciabani with Beatrix Elliker, Le famiglie di Firenze, vol. 3 (Florence: Bonechi, 1992), 723.

224 1515 crest is likely in remembrance of Luigi Tornabuoni’s firm alliance with the Medici

clan.128

Underneath the rectangular marble slab is a larger, more formal Tornabuoni coat of arms, a shield in which is found the lion rampant in typical profile form and a very small Hospitaller cross at the very top of the crest (fig. 14). Alongside its borders are the

Tornabuoni golden lily and blue ball motif with a singular “L X” representing one of the

Hospitaller priory seats under Tornabuoni control.129 As an ensemble, this work by the

unknown artist “Cicilia” is evocative of those individuals’ support for the Medici regime: the blue ball evokes the pontiff’s rule alongside the golden lilies of the Medici family, both converging upon the successful “repatriation” of Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici), whose triumphant 1515 entrance into Florence, the so-called

“ingresso trionfale di papa Leone X,” was written about by both famous contemporaries and witnesses to the scene.130

4.7.2 Leone Strozzi

Fra Leone Strozzi (1515-1554) was born in Florence and named for the reigning pope, Leo X, who also happened to be the paternal uncle of Strozzi’s mother, Clarice di

Piero de’ Medici. By the time he was twelve years old, Leone had been given by the

second Medici pope, Clement VII, both the Commenda Corbolina and the Priory of

128 See Eleonora Plebani, I Tornabuoni: una famiglia fiorentina alla fine del Medioevo (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2002), 68-84. 129 See Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze, 80. 130 One need only mention Giorgio Vasari’s Vite and Ragionamenti (in this particular case the Vita di Andrea del Sarto) or the monumental “processional” fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio “Sala di Leone X” that include such luminaries as Pietro Aretino, Ludovico Ariosto Pietro Bembo, Lorenzo de’ Medici, and Giovanni delle Bande Nere; also represented are the statues of David by Michelangelo and Judith and Holofernes by Donatello in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, which created an ancient Roman atmosphere of pomp and circumstance.

225 Capua in Campania.131 From 1537 come the first extant records of active patronage by

fra Leone on behalf of the Commenda Corbolina: an ornate diadem on top of the main

crucifix, placed above the altar polyptych and an ornate “palla sopra alla lampana de l’altare maggiore.”132 Leone then entered into the direct service of the Hospitaller grand

master as one of the Order’s priors, and reaching Malta in May 1539 soon became

embroiled in family affairs that sought to alienate the Medici from Florence. The Strozzi

had ended on the losing side after the 1537 Battle of Montemurlo, resulting in the

imprisonment of Leone’s father, Filippo, who died soon thereafter in prison at the hand of

the Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici. In the early 1540s Leone fought alongside Francis

I’s French troops in the Mediterranean, then enemies of the Medici clan, and even

alongside Sulemain II, which became such a scandal within Italy that in 1544 the

emperor took away Leone’s Capua Priory and the Commenda Corbolina.133 Before

suffering this penalty, Leone had assisted financially in a few restorations in San Jacopo

in Campo Corbolino, perhaps supporting his expressed desire to restore favor to his

family name, all of whose members had come under intense pressure from the Medici

family ruling Florence. An extant 1543 granite stone slab in the San Jacopo courtyard

wall bears an etching in the form of a small rectangular marble slab inscription

memorializing Leone Strozzi’s approved restorations:

RESTAURATO AL TE[M]PO DEL R[EVEREN]DO F[R]A LEONE STROZZI M D XLIII.

131 Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze, 86. 132 Ibid. 133 Ibid., 88.

226 Above these chiseled words is found a revised Strozzi family shield, newly embellished with the distinctive eight-pointed Hospitaller cross. In the middle of the coat of arms are

three horizontally placed, waxing crescent moons, the so-called “strozze” or lunettes that

uniquely defined this family’s coat of arms, a so-called stemma interzato a fascia: “D’oro

alla fascia di rosso caricata di tre strozze d’argento,” as described by the voluminous

Famiglie di Firenze heraldic compendium of recent publication (fig. 15).134 The 1543 innovation lies in the crest’s transformation from a shield-like emblem originally curved only on the bottom side -- square on three of its four sides -- to an ornate octagonal shield with novel contours not only on its sides but also on its face, the middle of the shield where the lunettes are placed jutting out toward the viewer (fig. 16).

Titian’s Portrait of a Knight, composed about 1550, is perhaps a portrait of Leone

Strozzi after he had been deprived of his knighthood (fig. 17). More commonly referred to as the “Gentleman with a watch,” this particular portrait, given to Felipe IV (1606-

1665) in 1637 by the so-called Prince of Piombino, the Spanish Viceroy Niccolò

Ludovisi (1613-1664), became a part of the Prado Museum collection in 1827. A

Maltese cross was “crudely painted on later” after Titian’s composition.135 In the

portrait, the knight, wearing the subsequently added off-white cross on his austere

clothing, rests his left hand on a clock, perhaps to indicate not only his temperance or

self-restraint but also the transitory nature of life on earth. While Titian included clocks

in other compositions, they are rarely actually touched by the subject; here the artist

might be showing the knight touching the clock to indicate biding his time awaiting the

restoration of his knighthood.

134 Ciabani, Le famiglie di Firenze, vol. 3, 766. 135 See Sire, The Knights of Malta, 109.

227 During Leone Strozzi’s star-crossed final decade, he performed various

redemptive acts meant to help him regain his former stature in European courtly circles.

In 1545 King Francis I granted fra Leone all of the (non-exportable) income of the six

French priories. This important concession on the part of the French king induced the

pope, the Grand Master Juan de Homedes y Coscon, Cosimo de’ Medici, and Charles V

to cease their intransigent opposition toward fra Leone, agreeing that the Hospitaller

Order itself would adjudicate all of the Order’s European territorial possessions and

would oversee the Capua Priory and the Commenda di San Jacopo, transferring the

income to fra Leone. After fighting for Mary Stuart Queen of Scots in the early 1550s

Leone returned to Malta in 1552 as captain of the Order’s galley squadron. In 1553 a

letter by the grand master and his counsel beseeched Cosimo de’ Medici to restore the

Florentine Commenda unencumbered to fra Leone.136 This missive proved futile, and in

1554, upon hearing about the ongoing 1554 Battle of Marciano near Siena, fra Leone

volunteered to fight yet again his sworn enemy, the Medici grand duke. In the

southwestern Maremma Tuscan area he was wounded by an arquebus at a siege in

Scarlino and died in July of that year at the age of 39.

Another painting, thought to be a posthumous portrait of fra Leone Strozzi, shows

a haughty knight in full military garb, metal breastplate bursting outward from the chest, suggesting to some what many presumed all along: that Leone Strozzi was first and foremost a condottiere whose family interests superceded any matters concerning the

Hospitaller Order or geopolitical entities in general (fig. 18).137 The warrior shines forth

in this vivid realistic painting, in which the familiar Hospitaller surcoat is replaced by a

136 Sebregondi, San Jacopo in Campo Corbolino a Firenze, 88. 137 Sire, The Knights of Malta, 65: Sire finds this provenance doubtful.

228 dark breastplate with a large Maltese cross front and center. The ubiquitious white collar protrudes from a leather-like neck cover, and the subject’s face appears pallid and chalky, perhaps signifying his recent death. On the upper right hand corner of the picture is written “LEONE DI FILIPPO / STROZZI / PRIORE DI CAPUA.” His family relations provide

the only biography concerning Leone, from 1890, wherein its two principal authors, Piero

Strozzi and Arnaldo Pozzolini, attribute this portrait to Iacopo del Conte (1510-1598) on

the grounds that Iacopo was commissioned to do a portrait of Leone’s condottiere

brother, Piero, and the two works “sono di egual fattura e maniera.”138 In this instance,

authenticity and provenance are of less concern than the actual result: a painting said to

show the condottiere Hospitaller portrays a physically formidable barrel-chested knight

who appears somber, projecting a determined look of uttermost seriousness. The

Hospitaller cross front and center in the portrait is the only prominent symbol. Leone

Strozzi was a proud Hospitaller, but he sacrificed the Order’s core principles and was

eager to fight with the French or the Ottomans if it meant helping to destroy his family’s

enemies, the Medici. In his correspondence he called himself “priore di Capua”

repeatedly, evincing the allure the Hospitaller title held for him, even though he played a

contradictory role in regard to the Order.139

Leone Strozzi did not enjoy reverential posthumous treatment. After being killed on the Tuscan coast, he was buried for less than a year in Porto Ercole when Charles V’s

forces dug up his cadaver and contemptuously dumped it into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Aside

from the mysterious portrait attributed to Iacopo del Conte, there are two other extant

remembrances, one in Bernardo Tasso’s canzone, “Ben fu barbaro Scita,” and the other

138 Piero Strozzi and Arnaldo Pozzolini, Memorie per la vita di Fra Leone Strozzi: Priore di Capua, per la prima volta pubblicate con note e documenti inediti (Florence: Carnesecchi, 1890), vii. 139 Ibid., 100-103; see especially the letters exchanged among Strozzi family members.

229 inside the Cappella Strozzi of Sant’Andrea della Valle, constructed in Rome for his

nephew Leone di Roberto, which bears the epigraph

LEONI STROZZAE PHILIPPI FILIO FLORENTINO ORDINIS HIEROSOLIMITANI PRIORI CAPUAE CLASSIS ENRICI II GALLORUM REGIS GENERALI PRAEFECTO LEO STROZZA PATRUO. 140

4.7.3 Annibal Caro

Fra Annibal Caro (1507-1566) is a provocative Hospitaller who bequeathed posterity an admirable literary legacy but did not patronize artists of his epoch. Born in

the Marches to the son of a pharmacist (speziale), Caro studied classical Greek and Latin literature in Medicean Florence. He translated the often imitated second century-CE

Greek pastoral tale Daphnis and Chloe (1538) attributed to Longus, and remains noteworthy to this day for his translations of Virgil’s Aeneid and Aristotle’s Rhetorics. In his twenties he became part of the Roman Curia, serving various members of the Farnese family, especially Pier Luigi Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III and eventual Duke of

Parma and Piacenza. After the duke’s assassination in 1547, Caro served as Cardinal

Alessandro Farnese’s secretary in Rome, and in 1555, at the somewhat advanced age of

48, attained, by way of Farnese, the Hospitaller knighthood he had actively and repeatedly sought, and preceptorship of the Commenda di Montefiascone di San Giovanni e San Vittore outside Viterbo. Although Caro was rarely present at his commandery and his preceptorship was mainly a sinecure, Caro sought to emphasize his Hospitaller status in his writings and through several portraits in Hospitaller garb commissioned by the

140 Ibid., 113: “Leone Strozzi to his uncle Leone Strozzi, son of Philip, the Prior of Capua of the Hospitaller Order, the Commander General of the navy of Henry II of the Gauls.”

230 Farnese family. Virtually all of his later correspondence and published works contain the

“commendatore” title beside his name on the title page.141

Besides Caro’s celebrated translations, he is best known for a burlesque comedy, the Comedia degli straccioni, written in 1543 but published only posthumously in 1582 by Sabba’s erstwhile Venetian publisher, Aldo Manuzio. Other works useful to understanding this talented humanist are his 1558 prose and verse Apologia degli

Academici di Banchi di Roma contra messer Lodovico Castelvetro, an acerbic tirade against an outspoken Protestant; a collection of Rime, a “canzoniere cariano” that was

mostly sonnets but also included canzoni, ballate, and sestine; and his epistolary record spanning four decades, the Lettere familiari.142 Caro leaves us with a variety of written

works that could be generally defined as eclectic and provocative, especially considering

that they were composed just as the Counter Reformation was becoming increasingly

potent. The Straccioni, a dramatic burlesque containing sardonic and raunchy plot contrivances, concerned two Levant merchant siblings. Caro’s correspondence confirms

that it was intended for theatrical production in Rome and meant for only the Farnese

family and their entourage to witness. The production never took place, and its

posthumous publication nearly forty years after its 1543 composition was in part due to

the shifting winds of political change that altered its relevance and appeal. The

Straccioni, an early Cinquecento Italian play in the vein of Niccolò Machiavelli’s

Mandragola, became a literary casualty of a turbulent century wherein the fortunes of the

141 Annibal Caro’s Hospitaller membership offered a yearly stipend and feudal lands and servants to oversee and was utilized by the humanist writer to disseminate his newfound prestige as a Hospitaller commander; Annibal is never associated in his writings or portraits as a mere friar (or fratello) but only as a Commendatore. See especially the later epistles in Annibal Caro, “Lettere familiari,” in Opere, ed. Stefano Jacomuzzi (Turin: UTET, 1974), 676-789. 142 For his original works, see Caro, Opere.

231 leading Roman families quickly changed with the ascent of each succeeding pope. In

1565 Caro declined Alessandro Farnese’s request to stage the play in Venice.143

The Straccioni is a five-act prose play loosely modeled on the Achilles Tatius’s

Leucippe and Clitophon which serves as a guise for satire on Rome and papal machinations and praise for the benevolent power of the Farnese family over its friendly subjects. Boccaccian in flavor, it also evokes ancient Greek comedy with its themes of piracy, spouses lost at sea, and surprising betrothments. A long prologue sets in motion the fanciful milieu of merchant brothers and a female relative presumed lost at sea but actually captured by Ottoman Turks. The remainder of the play takes place in the busy piazza in front of the Farnese palace during the reign of the Farnese Pope Paul III. Two elements of the play are of interest in comparison to Sabba’s writings: (a) many of the characters are lewd, greedy, and dishonest. Several of the characters -- including the only knight, the Cavalier Giordano -- are portrayed as trivial and violent and preoccupied with lustful pursuits; and (b) the play’s language is uniformly Tuscan, with no differentiation made among its various social classes, a shortcoming rendering its vernacular lexicon problematic.

Caro’s beautifully executed translation of Daphnis and Chloe’s travails, however, provided wide access to a bucolic composition that became de rigueur for an educated humanist knight. It tells the story of two young waifs saved by rustics, the budding love of the pubescent youths, their untimely separation by pirates, and their abductions by soldiers and jealous lovers. In the third of four acts the two youths are separated after unsuccessfully attempting to make love; soon thereafter the unscrupulous wife

Lycaenion, the “little she-wolf” spouse of a nearby town-dweller, ensnares Daphnis and

143 See Annibal Caro, Comedia degli straccioni, ed. Marziano Guglielminetti (Turin: Einaudi, 1967), xviii.

232 seduces him. Ultimately, the young lovers find each other, their precocious bucolic love

is restored with nuptials, and they embark upon a pastoral life and render devotion to Pan,

the nymphs, and “Love” (here meaning the carnal kind).

By contrast, Sabba’s original bucolic poem in 109 octaves is a spiritual, Neo-

Platonic journey of self-discovery with little playfullness and a considerably more

unsettling denouement -- not of carnal union between experienced husband and virginal

wife but of self-conquest and epiphany. The extreme diversity between their writings

reflects their diverse life experiences: Sabba led a solitary life in the Commenda faentina,

where he sought individuality and freedom by aesthetic embellishment in strict

conformity to Scripture. His temperament and his active Hospitaller command precluded

the hedonistic indulgences of secular court life.

Most of Caro’s adult life was spent as a member of the Farnese entourage among

the Roman Curia or residing under Farnese patronage in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome or

the Villa Farnese at Caprarola. It seems quite probable that the decor in these two major

Farnese residences were a reflection of Caro’s tastes and preferences, for he was known

to pursue decorative programs “intended for a highly literate, aristocratic clientele which

delighted in a display of wit and erudition.”144

Caro exhibits his refined aesthetics in a lengthy November 1562 epistle to the mannerist painter Tadeo Zuccaro (1529-1566). In it, he minutely describes the artistic furnishings for the Palazzo Farnese:

Resta un modello straordinario di rapporto fra le arti e i saperi, ché i suggerimenti storici si combinano e si saldano con quelli letterari antichi e moderni, in un processo di traduzione in pittura di fatti letterari, personaggi, vicende, avventure, luoghi e paesaggi. Cui ancora nel 1565,

144 Clare Robertson, “Annibal Caro as Iconographer: Sources and Method,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 45 (1982): 172.

233 15 maggio, fa seguito quanto indica e spiega ad Ottavio Panvinio da dipingere nello studio (<>). Ma anche con altri artisti il Caro ebbe rapporti importanti, come, ad esempio, con Giorgio Vasari, da cui il 10 maggio 1558 sollecita l’invio di un’opera da fare con calma e senza l’abituale fretta d’esecuzione del Vasari e da eseguire in soddisfazione delle esigenze e dei gusti del Caro stesso, anche se infine <> l’artista stesso, aggiungendo una precisazione: <>.145

Caro’s letters at times appear exaggerated, even inflammatory, but throughout his life he

always expressed fealty and obedience to the Farnese. Tiziana Temperini argues that

Caro’s letters and translations represent his attempt to alleviate intellectual and political

uncertainties by way of fantastical renderings of bucolic imagery, suggestive comic

travesty, and highly acerbic writing. Through his loyal service to one of the most

privileged Roman families of the sixteenth century, Caro was spared many of the

indignities that befell many of his more famous literary contemporaries:

Eppure la corte [Farnese], con il suo modello ideologico e culturale, sarebbe rimasto per lui un punto di riferimento. Quel modello ideale, che appariva ormai superato dalla storia e stava lentamente dissolvendosi, era radicato così profondamente nei suoi sentimenti e nel suo comportamento da poter convivere con i dubbi e le incertezze, comuni a tutta una civiltà, come quella del ’500, che guardava con angoscia all’enorme dilatarsi di un mondo sempre più vasto e razionalmente incontrollabile.146

Both Annibal and the Farnese family appear to have made the most of his fame as

one of the great sixteenth-century Italian translators of classical Greek, as well as his

Hospitaller knighthood. Upon becoming a Knight Hospitaller in 1555, Annibal Caro’s

portrait was commissioned on several occasions by the Farnese. The first extant portrait,

145 Riccardo Scrivano, Ritratto di Annibal Caro. A cinquecento anni dalla nascita (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2007), 126-127. 146 Tiziana Temperini, “Percorsi di invenzione manieristica nelle Lettere di Annibal Caro,” in Annibal Caro: le Lettere familiari e le traduzioni patristiche, ed. Stanislao Tamburri (Civitanova: Comune di Civitanova Marche, 1997), 34.

234 executed during Annibal’s late years, was composed by an unknown marchigiano painter probably between 1557 and 1560. It is now in the Collezione Antica della Galleria

Moretti of the Pinacoteca Comunale di Civitanova in the Marches region (fig. 19). This

portrayal is dark and heavy, a most somber rendition of an Italian Hospitaller at the height of the Counter Reformation. This painting shows the knight facing slightly right but with his whole face and front torso visible. His stark black surcoat is offset by a thin white collar protruding from the cape and an eight-pointed off-white Maltese cross that dazzles like a star. Annibal sits on an ornate chair beside a studiolo table on which rests an open book, an inkwell, and a quill. His left hand is delicately raised, offering a glimpse of an enigmatic sheet of paper. His face reveals no sentiment; his eyes are open and look directly at the onlookers; much of his face is concealed by his grey beard.

A second extant painting commissioned during Annibal Caro’s lifetime was made by an unknown painter between 1562 and 1565 for Duke Pier Luigi Farnese and is now in the Civitanova Mayor’s office (fig. 20). A simple black coat covers Annibal’s torso, and white collar wings protrude from the black frock. There is a Maltese cross hanging from Annibal’s neck. In this painting Annibal’s massive grey beard occupies the front and center of the image as the Hospitaller is seen in three-quarter view. His mouth is slightly ajar, as if he may be on the verge of speaking. A semi-circular Latin inscription surrounds the top of his body: “F. ANNIBAL CARUS DE CIVITATE NOVA IN PICENO EX

PROTOME IN BASILICA S. LAURENTII IN DAMASO DE URBE.”147 This particularized

and somewhat cryptic epigraph was probably posthumous, although it could have also

been composed in the last year or two before his death. Either way, it stands out for three

147 “Fra Annibal Caro of the new community in Picenum [what the Marches were called in the Roman epoch] from the Protome [a mythic hybrid beast] in the Basilica of Saint Lawrence in the House of Damasus of the city [Rome].”

235

reasons: (a) “IN PICENO” recalls the Roman influence and dignity of the Marches

forefathers, bestowing upon Annibal and his kin an ancient, noble pedigree; (b) The

mythical “protome,” a bull-like hybrid animal, here Caro’s particularized symbol, evokes

pre-Roman cultures, such as the Phoenician, Greek, or Assyrian, and is often seen as a

bust or on ornate Greek column capitals. Its symbolism is a mystery, but it connotes a

god or hero venerated for fertility, strength, power, and courage; (c) the Basilica of San

Lorenzo in Damaso is Annibal’s burial place.148

Another significant portrait from Annibal’s later years is attributed to Alessandro di Cristofano Allori (1535-1607), a pupil of the famed Agnolo “Bronzino” (1503-1572), whose nickname Alessandro sometimes adopted as his own, “del Bronzino Allori” (fig.

21). Considered a mannerist painter who preferred composing portraits, his exquisitely detailed oil rendition of Annibal -- which depicts the forehead wrinkles of a serious middle-aged knight fixing his gaze upon the viewer -- is different from the other portraits in that the face is elongated and extremely detailed, and the pitch black color tones virtually envelop the oval portrait from the grey beard on down, with the notable exception of two mid-size white Maltese crosses: a pendant cross hanging mid-chest on the archaic Quattrocento version of the Hospitaller surcoat with its stitched, slightly curved, eight-pointed cross above the heart. The head virtually touches the top of the frame, while the Hospitaller’s clothing overwhelms the middle and bottom of the painting. A white collar protrudes from the surcoat and no background is visible except

148 See Claudia Sagona, Punic Antiquities of Malta and Other Ancient Artefacts Held in Ecclesiastic and Private Collections, vol. 1 (Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2003), 77. There were protome discoveries -- both sculptural and numismatic artifacts -- in both Malta and Rhodes, the two principal Hospitaller venues. Protome imagery harkens back to a pre-Roman Italic period and to the ancient Greeks and their contemporaries, thus becoming apt imagery of one of the most famous humanist Renaissance Greek translators.

236 for an undefined black and opaque dark brown coloring. The circular inscription to the

left and right of his head states simply: “ANNIBALE CARO.” Of more interest is the

autograph verso wax seal (“timbro a ceralacca”) alongside the bistre inscription,

“Annibale Caro dipinto da Cristofano Allori detto il Bronzino.”149

Annibal does not need to display studiolo-like accoutrements to solidify his

reputation for erudite humanism; his publishing background speaks for itself. Unlike

Sabba, who fashioned his persona to rely heavily on his Hospitaller credentials, Annibal

is a man who sought Hospitaller membership primarily to enhance his social status.

Annibal Caro is perhaps the contemporaneous Hospitaller antithesis to Sabba da

Castiglione: urbane, desirous of fame and fortune, and achieving both through literary

brilliance and the lifelong patronage of influential members of the Roman nobility.

Annibal was also exceedingly proud of his knightly status and, as evidenced by his own

letters, took it very seriously.150

Annibal died in Rome on 22 November 1566, and his remains were placed in the

Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso. There is an engraved black marble slab on the left

side wall of the nave below which his remains are buried; it bears the inscription

D O M ANNIBALI CARO EQUITI HIEROSOLIMITANO OMNIS LIBERALIS DOCTRINAE POETICAE IN PRIMIS ORATORIAEQUE FACULTATIS PRAESTANTIA EXCELLENTISSIMO

149 Pandolfini Casa d’Aste. Dipinti Antichi, Arredi provenienti da una dimora lombarda, Arredi provenienti da un palazzo faentino, Argenti e gioielli, Firenze 7, 8, 9, 10 ottobre 2003 (Florence: Pandolfini Casa d’Aste, 2003): “Olio su tavola, al recto iscrizione dipinta ‘Annibale Caro.’ Reca al verso timbro a ceralacca e antica iscrizione a bistro ‘Annibale Caro dipinto da Cristofano Allori detto il Bronzino.’” 150 See, for example, Annibal’s letter to a fellow Knight Hospitaller in Malta just weeks before the 1565 Ottoman siege of the island, in Annibal Caro, “Lettere familiari,” in Opere, 767-768.

237 PETRO ALOISIO PARMENSIUM DUCI ET ALEXANDRO CARDINALI FARNESIIS OB SPECTATAM IN CONSILIIS DANDIS EPISTOLIS QUE SCRIBENDIS FIDEM ATQUE PRUDENTIAM SUIS VERO ALIISQUE OMNIBUS OB SINGULAREM PROBITATEM AC BENEFICENTIAM CARISSIMO VIX ANN LIX MEN V DIES XII. [fig. 22]151

Beneath the black marble epigraph, the so-called “lapide in arenaria patinata di nero,” is the Caro family coat of arms, whose fading colors jut outward from the white marble monumental ensemble. Beneath the family crest is a second epitaph, chiseled onto white marble with the inscription

IOANNES ET FABIUS CARI FRATRI OPTIMO IOANNES BAPTISTA IOANNIS F PATRUO BENEMERENTI POS[UIT] OBIIT X V CAL DECEMBRIS M DLXVI.152

Above the two citations is a plain white marble sculpted head of Annibal, surrounded by a marble shell-like composition. The upper epigraph is enclosed by columns and roof, a simple classical white marble structure with plain linear grooves. Giovanni Antonio

Dosio (1533-1609) is credited with overseeing this multi-layered funereal work in San

Lorenzo in Damaso in 1567, a work that certainly tends toward the Mannerist and even

151 “To God, Best and Greatest. To Annibal Caro, Knight Hospitaller, most distinguished for his excellence in every liberal study, especially his poetic and oratorical ability, very dear to Pietro Luigi, Duke of the Parmensi, and to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, on account of his good faith and prudence in giving counsel and writing letters, and [very dear] to his own and to all on account of his singular uprightness and beneficence. He lived 59 years, 5 months, 12 days.” 152 “Giovanni and Fabio Caro to their excellent brother; Giovanni Battista, son of John, to his well deserving uncle placed [this monument]. He died November 17th, 1566.”

238 contains elements usually associated with the Baroque, with its ornate, flowery three- dimensional relief and mixture of surfaces in a single memorial that incorporates sculpture, lapidary epigraph, and painting. Annibal Caro’s elegant memorial is a monument to a gifted man of letters as well as to the gratitude borne by one wealthy patrician family for a lifetime of allegiance by a valued loyal servant.153

4.8 Aesthetics with a Purpose

Sabba da Castiglione and numerous of his Italian Knight Hospitaller near contemporaries were, in various ways, commissioners of art that had as its goal assuring those knights’ remembrance by posterity. Sabba and those near contemporaries shared particularized beliefs of men sworn to obey an order’s tenets and rules that had been shaped by an aggregation of ecclesiastical and courtly influences. Each was unique.

Sabba was an active knight with a refined artistic sensibility and a robust theological bent. Alberto Aringhieri was perhaps the most elusive, but he energized a set of symbols emanating from Rhodes and from Caoursin’s heroic imagery that would be emulated for more than half a century. Aringhieri acted, perhaps unintentionally, as a codifier of

Hospitaller symbols that became traditional. Luigi Tornabuoni followed the prevalent

Florentine and the newly resurfaced classical lapidary styles in his elegant bequest, a monument somber and rich in gravitas that celebrated his noble origins. Leone Strozzi was part condottiere, part Knight Hospitaller and would discard his Hospitaller obligations for the sake of familial honor. His is a problematic contribution to

Hospitaller lore because of his contradictory relationship to the Order’s knightly code and

153 See Carolyn Valone, “Giovanni Antonio Dosio: The Roman Years,” The Art Bulletin 58 (1976): 528; also of interest regarding the Farnese patronage is the family studies monograph by Helge Gamrath, Farnese: Pomp, Power and Politics in Renaissance Italy (Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2007).

239 cause. Annibal Caro, a literary genius and the only polyglot classicist among the

Hospitallers mentioned, is the only one who could claim no noble lineage. Rather,

Annibal was a pharmacist’s son and a noble family’s loyal retainer who sought self- aggrandizement through the wealthy patrician Farnese family. He remained always subject to their whims and received his knightly title through them only during the last decade of his life.

Hospitaller patronage and advocacy led to numerous sixteenth-century artworks projecting imagery shaped by events occurring in the Mediterranean and the Levant between 1480 and 1565, namely, the lengthy battle with the Ottomans and the escalating fervor of the Counter Reformation. The 1480 siege of Rhodes inspired Guillaume

Caoursin’s vivid color plates and his evocative epic tale of that engagement. For the first time ever, robust Hospitaller imagery was broadcast throughout western Europe, thanks to Johann Gutenberg’s invention of movable type and other improvements in the technology of printing, which combined with woodblocks could provide illustrated books. Before the late fifteenth century, there had been no way for such widespread promulgation of images of relevant saints, particularized crosses, or other precise representations applicable to the Hospitallers. Knights Hospitaller had been, in essence, a variegated collection of footloose adventurers, devout Christians, and otherwise unemployed younger sons of the minor nobility emanating from numerous countries and regions of western Europe.

Influenced by diverse cultures and numerous fashions, sixteenth-century Italian

Hospitaller imagery owes its greatest debt to Florentine styles, which in turn responded to fifteenth-century Gallic and, to a lesser extent, Byzantine influences. As a burgeoning

240 multicultural military organization, the Hospitallers’s actual patron saint, John the

Baptist, often was overshadowed by various Greek and Latin saints who particularly

inspired Christians in the Levant or became incorporated into the Christian lore of

regions or cities near particular preceptories.154 Images of St. Catherine of Alexandria (a

martyr subject to intense devotion throughout the Middle Ages, especially from Latin

crusaders and Eastern Orthodox denominations), St. George (slayer of the Dragon), the

Archangel Michael (of the flaming sword), and St. Sebastian (the Roman martyr) abound.

These characters either were seen as victims of pagan brutality or came to symbolize

Christian military victory over heathens, thus serving a dual purpose in Western

commanderies, especially those in Italy, where efforts were made to conflate the

victorious saints with suffering Eastern Christian sacrificial figures.

Always including his foremost symbols, “armi e libri,” Sabba’s imagery

managed to express Hospitaller qualities perhaps depicted elsewhere in Italy and the

Mediterranean, but especially well suited to his own idiosyncratic ethos. In symbols and

words the imagery he sponsored evoked particularized concepts of faith, honor, and

virtue that spoke to Italian Hospitaller sensibilities besieged by both European doctrinal

turmoil and Mediterranean warfare. Imagery found in the Commenda faentina

complements and reinforces the Italian Hospitaller message and purpose as conceived by

Sabba da Castiglione, a devout, inspired, patristic, and erudite individual, and when

coupled with written documents such as his Ricordi and the epigraphs installed

throughout the commandery, encapsulate the essential precepts of the Hospitaller Order.

154 For a well-documented study of Hospitaller reliquaries and their corresponding saints, especially those influenced by the Rhodian sojourn, see Mario Buhagiar, “The Treasure of Relics and Reliquaries of the Knight Hospitallers in Malta,” in Mario Buhagiar, Essays on the Knights and Art and Architecture in Malta, 1500-1798 (Malta: Midsea, 2009), 29-54.

CHAPTER 5

The 1554 Frontispiece: The Essential Sabba

Active in an age of assertive self-promotion, Sabba da Castiglione remains withal an elusive figure of unclear origins. He gained admission to the Gonzaga court at

Mantua, served as a knight in the Levant, gathered antiquities for Isabella d’Este

Gonzaga, and worked among the Roman Curia all while still in his twenties. He became preceptor of the Hospitaller commandery in Faenza in his early thirties, whereupon he

disappeared behind the Commenda’s walls, becoming a virtual recluse there. Having

tasted and recoiled from the tumult and temptations of his boisterous epoch, Sabba was

content to observe its affairs from his wayside retreat.

Interrupting his prized tranquility sometime after 1522 must have come the

dismaying news that the Hospitaller cohort on Rhodes had been driven from their island

stronghold by Sulemain, and later that they had settled on Malta, where they paid the

king of Spain “rent” of one falcon per year.1

While Sabba’s fellow knight aesthetes sometimes flaunted their grandiose personae in heroic oil paintings and polished marble representations, Sabba maintained an air of humility, portrayed in his sepulchral fresco on his knees before the baby Jesus.

Sabba’s ultimate self-definition comes in the form of an unpretentious woodcut executed

(as Cinquecento woodcuts often were) by an unknown artist. The third and final edition

1 David Nicolle, Knights of Jerusalem (Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2008), 194. In all of Sabba’s extant writings, nowhere is the name Malta to be found, a stunning omission perhaps attributable to his anger, humiliation, or both at the plight of his once-powerful order. 241 242 of the Ricordi, published posthumously in 1554, contains this woodcut as its frontispiece,

which depicts Sabba in his studiolo and captures the essence of the man as an idealized

Renaissance Hospitaller Knight (fig. 23).2 Ugo Rozzo, in his history of Italian

xylography, deems Sabba’s studiolo woodcut to be a unicum for its content and manner

and for its unusual display of books.3 The woodcut portrait contains symbols of both the

active and the contemplative sides of the Hospitaller preceptor. And it serves as an

emblem of Sabba’s knighthood that portrays the vita solitaria, treasured since antiquity.

The woodcut presents a visual codification of the studious humanist knight enjoying the quiet of his Commenda far from the distracting urban bustle.

5.1 Woodcuts: A Cinquecento Novelty

Woodcuts, also called woodblocks, have a relatively short history in Europe prior to Sabba’s 1554 frontispiece. A woodcut is fashioned by carving a picture or design into the flat surface of a wooden block, then pressing the inked surface onto paper or other porous material. Woodcut is typically a collaborative art wherein an artist creates an image which a carver engraves onto a block and a printer transfers onto pages. The first known European woodcut is the Bavarian Buxheim Monastery master (28.8x20.6 cm) representation of St. Christopher carrying the Christ child through a raging storm; this still-extant print, hand-tinted in several colors and now in the John Rylands University

2 Sabba Castiglione, Ricordi overo ammaestramenti di Monsignor Saba da Castiglione cavalier Gierosolimitano, ne quali con prudenti, e Christiani discorsi si ragiona di tutte le materie honorate, che si ricercano a un vero gentil’huomo. Con la tavola per alphabeto di tutte le cose notabili (Venice: Paolo Gherardo, 1554). The frontispiece of the third edition has an incorrect 1555 date, while the last page of the text, 135v, has the colophon correctly dated 1554. 3 Ugo Rozzo, Lo studiolo nella silografia italiana (1479-1558) (Udine: Forum, 1998), 90, 114.

243 Library at Manchester, bears a 1423 date.4 Ugo Rozzo states that the first woodcut depicting a studiolo is a German one from 1475, while the first known Italian studiolo

woodcut was printed in Milan in 1479.5 In the latter part of the fifteenth century

woodcuts began to be used frequently as book illustrations. In Florence and Milan, two

Italian centers of book printing, woodcuts were often adopted from renderings produced

in Nuremberg.6 The spectacular 1500 woodcut View of Venice by Jacopo de’ Barbari resulted from associations between the Italian artist and artists in Nuremberg.7 But it was

the German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) who brought the art of woodcut to an

unparalleled level of refinement. Dürer achieved fame throughout the Christian world for

his extravagant imagery and technical brilliance in a variety of mediums including painting; drawing in ink, charcoal, and silverpoint; watercolor; etching; and copperplate engraving. Yet Dürer scholar H.T. Musper judges “his greatest work” to have been a fifteen-sheet large format (39x28 cm) woodcut series depicting St. John’s vision of the

Apocalypse, published in book form in Nuremberg in 1498.8 Dürer produced dozens of

woodcuts, most with religious themes, including 1523’s The Last Supper, wherein he

displayed “a striking perspective and achieved what he admired so much in the Italians”

-- producing work “after the manner of the ancients.”9

As a fine art, woodcuts offer dramatic stark black-white contrast and an ability to

convey an almost primal energy, but woodcutting’s importance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lay not so much in the refinement achieved by some practitioners, but

4 For the early history of woodcuts, see Imre Reiner, Woodcut/Wood Engraving: A Contribution to the History of Art (St. Gall: Zollikofer, 1947), 7-12. 5 Rozzo, studiolo nella silografia, 10. 6 David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print (1470-1550) (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 35. 7 Ibid., 43. 8 H.T. Musper, Albrecht Dürer, trans. Robert Erich Wolf (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1966), 33. 9 Ibid., 35.

244 in its efficiency in replicating and publishing images. The technique was especially useful for illustrating printed texts.

5.2 The studiolo Motif

The studiolo (in Latin a scriptorium cubiculum, also called a bibliotheca or armariolum) is rooted in classical tradition, wherein the cultivated Roman preferred the quiet of his country estate to the hectic urbs. The premise of the vita solitaria is that an erudite individual requires a private place for contemplation, reading, and writing. The private study, while not as clearly codified in Roman times as it was during the

Renaissance, is evidenced in the works of Cicero and Pliny the Younger, wherein the villa retreat was the favored locus for productive introspection, reading, or writing.

Whether in natural daylight or by nighttime lamplight, the studiolo provided isolation that stirred inner contemplative thoughts. The writings of Cicero and Pliny and their favored idyllic forms of contemplation gained renewed popularity during the late Middle Ages.

5.2.1 Petrarch’s solitudo

While references to a private room for study and meditation are variously expressed in the lives of Charlemagne, the eremitic mystics, and the Avignon popes, it is

Francesco Petrarca’s deliberate lifestyle and his text De vita solitaria that best formulated the principle.10 While living an introspective life dedicated to contemplation and writing,

Petrarch developed a vita solitaria typology whose fundamental attribute was an active

10 Francesco Petrarca, Opere latine di Francesco Petrarca, volume primo, ed. Antonietta Bufano with Basile Aracri and Clara Kraus Reggiani (Turin: UTET, 1975). Petrarch began De vita solitaria in Vaucluse in 1346 and was able to finish it only in 1366. While in Verona in 1345, Petrarch examined Cicero’s letters. One can reasonably assume that these epistles had a significant bearing on his later works.

245 intellectualism. Petrarch cites the examples of Cicero and numerous other classical

authors. While genuine bucolic tranquility was available only to some, everyone

possessed the capability to create a solitudo imaginaria, a recourse available to certain

Church Fathers such as Saint Ambrose who were able to cultivate a small private refuge within a busy and crowded city. Petrarch’s study was the smallest of five rooms on the second floor of his Arqua home near Padua, which is still preserved to this day. The

room is is 6.2 by 2.8 meters and is adjacent to his bedroom, its only window opening to the north and overlooking a garden. Traces of flowery murals and Petrarch’s book descriptions help us reconstruct some of the features of his studiolo, although his furniture remains a matter of conjecture. Wolfgang Liebenwein presumes that the room was very simple, possibly consisting of nothing more than a chair, table, and bed, whereby a brief sleep could be countenanced, offering renewed productive contemplation; Petrarch referred to his studiolo as a bibliotheca or an armariolum, and it

was in this setting that he preferred to receive his guests.11 It was the room where he died

on 18 July 1374.

For Petrarch, the life of the solitarius entails constant awareness of God and

diligent intellectual endeavors which inspire meditation, facilitate writing, and lead to the

preservation of one’s memory for posterity. Familiarity with illustrious ancient men and

their works is a prerequisite for an adequate understanding of mankind, a subject,

Petrarch observes, best contemplated at night when silence is more easily attainable.

11 Wolfgang Liebenwein, Studiolo. Die Entstehung eines Raumtyps und seine Entwicklung bis um 1600, (Berlin: Gebr Mann, 1977), translated by Alessandro Califano as Studiolo. Storia e tipologia di uno spazio culturale, ed. Claudia Cieri Via (Modena: Panini, 1988), 35.

246 According to Liebenwein, Petrarch’s solitudo involved three elements: place (actual or virtual), time (preferably night), and correct personal predisposition.12

Petrarch sought solitude to contemplate and to engage his intellect, but he did not emulate the extreme measures of the early Christian hermits. The homo solitarius should certainly escape from active participation in the world’s affairs in order to enable the purposeful pursuit of studies and writing which would bring glory to both the individual and mankind, but Petrarch’s path was more that of a moderate hedonism meant to result in mental repose conducive to literary creation. Ultimately, De vita solitaria is an educational program that leads to a wholesome wisdom, wherein supportive physical pursuits are prescribed as well. Practicing these principles, Petrarch became the exemplary poet laureate whose dedicated life became a model of inspiration for centuries to come.

Posterity has taken Petrarch’s cultivated image of the writer sitting beside his desk surrounded by books and glorified it further. From it has arisen the “culto della propria personalità,” whereby the various signori of northern Italy exhibited their own cultural prowess by commissioning or funding architectural and artistic projects. A crucial first example occurred with the work commissioned by Francesco il Vecchio da Carrara in the sala virorum illustrium of Padua. This lord of the city commissioned the frescoes only after Petrarch had dedicated his De viris illustribus to him. Oddly enough, the portrait of

Petrarch, painted shortly after his death, is the only original fresco in the series to survive the fifteenth century fires that wiped out the other portraits. It shows the poet sitting at his desk, his right profile facing the viewer, with books scattered on the desk and a round reading lectern to his left. There is shelf space behind him that may double as an

12 Ibid., 33.

247 armoire, a trunk sits in front of the table on the floor, a few knickknacks are evident and an expansive view of mountains emerges from the large oval window. At the bottom of the fresco is a little curled-up dog. Petrarch has a solemn expression, perhaps absorbing information from an open book nearby. The forms of the furniture are somewhat Gothic, and the linear perspective is somewhat awkward. This depiction was quickly copied elsewhere; one need only go to the Abbey of Viboldone in Milan or to gaze at the

Darmstadt Codex to realize that Petrarch’s image in this particular pose was being reproduced elsewhere by the end of the fourteenth century.13

5.2.2 Renaissance studioli

As the third book of Libri della Famiglia by Leon Battista Alberti makes clear, by about 1400 the personal study had become a much desired resource of the successful man:

Solo è libri e le scritture mie e de’ miei passati a me piacque e allora e poi sempre avere in modo rinchiuse che mai la donna le potesse non tanto leggere, ma ne vedere. Sempre tenni le scritture non per le maniche de’ vestiri, ma serrate e in suo ordine allogate nel mio studio quasi come cosa sacrata e religiosa, in quale luogo mai diedi licenza alla donna mia ne meco ne sola v’intrasse, e più gli comandai, se mai s’abattesse a mia alcuna scrittura, subito me la consegnasse.14

This patriarchal comment exemplifies the mercantile exigencies of the Quattrocento man.

Separate bedrooms for spouses were required, ideally connected by a secret door; the woman should have her separate niche for clothing, while the master of the house should have his libraria cella. On a grander scale, Cosimo de’ Medici’s private quarters

13 See Theodor E. Mommsen, “Petrarch and the Decoration of the Sala Virorum Illustrium in Padua,” Art Bulletin 34 (1952): 95-116. 14 Leon Battista Alberti, I libri della Famiglia, ed. Ruggiero Romano and Alberto Tenenti (Turin: Einaudi, 1969), 267. In addition, see Alberti, L’architettura. De re aedificatoria, ed. Giovanni Orlandi, introd. Paolo Portoghesi (Milan: Edizioni Il Polifilo, 1966), 427.

248 consisted of camera, anticamera, scriptoio, and agiamento.15 For Cosimo the scriptoio

was primarily a personal library, but the additional use of such spaces for religious

contemplation is envisioned, as evidenced by the inclusion of sacred books and rosaries.16

During the middle of the fifteenth century the Vatican established private studioli, which had been a distinctive feature at Avignon. In Ferrara, Lionello d’Este constructed the

Belfiore study, whose decoration with allegorical renditions of the muses perhaps reflected the inspiration hoped for in the room.17 At the same time, Poggio Bracciolini’s

Academia Valdarnina began furnishing his gymnasiolum (his diminutive word for a study

cum bibliothecula) with antiquities. Thought-provoking paintings and statues began

appearing in the villas of the wealthy, and the studiolo was elevated within privileged

homes to the status of a private family chapel.

Federico da Montefeltro’s castles took the studiolo to more grandiose levels by

the end of the Quattrocento. In the palazzi ducali of Urbino and Gubbio, one observes

ornate private studies as they were during the Renaissance. (Arguably, the Urbino study

is the most researched in Italy, in great part because of its excellent condition.) Among

the nobility, the aesthetic configurations of the study were becoming emblematic of the

supposed knowledge of the ruling class. Symbolism and allegory began to infiltrate the

artwork, to the extent that sapientia and providentia were key traits represented in the

frescoes, intarsia, and paintings. But the studiolo’s use as a genuine private library was

diminished while its function as a room to meet and impress visitors increased. In the

early Cinquecento, with Isabella d’Este Gonzaga’s camerini, studioli, and grotta, such

15 Liebenwein, Studiolo, 43. 16 Ibid. 17 For a thorough study of Lionello d’Este’s study, see Anna K. Eorsi, “Lo studiolo di Lionello d’Este e il programma di Guarino da Verona,” Acta Historiae Artium Academia Scientiarum Hungaricae 21 (1975): 15-52.

249 spaces began to function not only as repositories for art and artifacts, but also to represent

a lifelong quest, an endless pursuit of interesting and edifying collectibles. By the end of

the sixteenth century, many studioli had become specialized, acting only as repositories

of precious items.18

For Sabba the personal study, which became increasingly secular in its use by the

mid-sixteenth century, was the ideal location for a man to contemplate, so long as the

accoutrements of the room represented a somber perspective. As evidenced in his

Ricordi and in his last will, Sabba’s studiolo’s embellishments contained many images of ascetic or saintly figures:

È evidente che Sabba ha voluto seguire la tradizione dell’umanista che si circonda dei ritratti delle autorità morali e culturali in cui si riconosce. Significativa dunque la sua scelta di immagini di santi martiri o che comunque avevano dedicato la loro vita all’ascesi e alla penitenza. Chiaramente questo era il modello di vita che Sabba intendeva aver sempre presente, una vita estranea alle occupazioni mondane, volta alla contemplazione delle cose divine e allo studio dei testi sacri.19

This imagery helped reinforce a singular topos within the Commenda studiolo, wherein

intellectual work for the betterment of the Order was paramount and emblematic

(oftentimes religious) devices became treasured heirlooms. Such ornaments exhibited the

seriousness of the knight’s taste and sensibility.

5.2.3 Religious Representations

The sacred component of the study was substantially codified and legitimized

through pictorial representations of Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine. The 1442 Jerome

in His Study (now residing at the Detroit Institute of Art) begun by Jan van Eyck and

18 Liebenwein, Studiolo, 103-135. 19 Antonietta Paolillo, Fra Sabba da Castiglione: antiquario e teorico del collezionismo nella Faenza del 1500 (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000), 75-76.

250 finished by Petrus Christus was originally placed in the scrittoio of the Palazzo Medici.

Liebenwein states that the spatial dimensions of this painting are based on Petrarch’s

Paduan image.20 While adhering to the typical studiolo image, van Eyck amplified his

Jerome with de rigueur accoutrements of the epoch, including an astrolabe, containers, books, writing utensils, and a rosary. The desk (perhaps a trunk or sarcophagus) displays a prominent dead bolt, which may symbolize the theological treasures therein and reflect the archival nature of Jerome’s work. The domesticated lion at the foot of the desk is

Jerome’s traditional companion.

Saint Augustine’s 1480 studiolo portrait by Sandro Botticelli also accentuates the

scientific instruments and manuscripts on display. The overflowing garland robe

immediately catches the viewer’s eyes. Petrarch’s earlier image is evoked, for Augustine

appears pensive -- agitated perhaps but certainly alert and pensive. Augustine seems

inspired, and meant to inspire others, in his contemplative setting. The painting’s

technique is refined, and its perspective exemplary. The room’s accoutrements and the

books scattered on the desk elicit curiosity, but it is the restless spirit of Saint Augustine

that captures the mood of the painting. Perhaps he has been startled by a sudden

theological realization.

Vittore Carpaccio’s 1502 Visione di Sant’Agostino (part of a theological cycle

dedicated to Saint Jerome) is a stylized representation of the studiolo motif, evoking

Classical Roman sensibilities. Small and large sculptures are displayed in the room,

books are scattered throughout the room, and the obligatory artifacts -- both secular and

theological, with a special emphasis on (what appear to be ancient) containers and flasks

-- are discreetly tucked in niches about the room. There is a formal aura surrounding

20 Ibid., 105.

251 Augustine. He has taken his pen off his writing tablet, but his face seems to reveal only a

transitory, fleeting respite for inner contemplation. The viewer is left with the impression

that he will recommence his writing shortly. In this studio there is a sense of wealth and

authority. The accoutrements therein include a miter and staff, for Augustine was a

bishop as well as a Father of the Latin Church. The crimson robes of a cardinal revealed

beneath his white cloak are an anachronism explainable by the belief that early Church

leaders in Rome and the Mediterranean performed functions that eventually fell to

cardinals.21 On the back wall is an altar niche flanked by doorways leading to two side

rooms, the left one crammed with a table which holds more books and artifacts, and

above this table hang an hourglass, armillary sphere, and bells.

5.2.4 Sabba’s studiolo

An apt characterization of Sabba’s studiolo is Antonietta Paolillo’s observation in

Fra Sabba da Castiglione: antiquario e teorico del collezionismo nella Faenza del 1500:

Lo studio di Sabba era un tipico studio di umanista in cui convivevano strumenti di lavoro, oggetti che soddisfacevano il gusto artistico del personaggio e ogni cosa che poteva avere un significato simbolico per lo studioso, che poteva offrire una lettura in chiave etica o spirituale a chi sapesse interrogarla, a chi avesse la sensibilità e la padronanza culturale per capirne il valore emblematico.22

In his pursuit of productive solitude, throughout his tenure as a Hospitaller preceptor

Sabba da Castiglione appeared to embrace the vita solitaria tenets of Petrarch, to whom he looked as an example and an inspiration. So content was Sabba with his reclusive existence, most observers agree, that he ventured beyond the Commenda grounds only on

21 George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 222- 223. 22 Paolillo, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, 77.

252 the rarest occasions, perhaps just three times during his forty-year tenure as preceptor.23

Early in his tenure, Sabba’s studiolo was established in one location within the

Commenda, then around 1550 it was moved to another. Aside from a comment in

Sabba’s first (1546) testament placing it next to the preceptor’s private bedroom (thereby

emulating Petrarch), the study’s initial location is unknown (or unagreed-upon). But its

later placement has ample documentation.

A 1940 lithograph by Giuseppe Ugonia (1881-1944) provides a view of the

Commenda faentina entrance, church, and campanile. Local Faenza historian Giuliano

Bettoli, also director of the Amici della Commenda, interprets the evidence in the

lithograph: “Sotto il campanile, si vede il piccolo ambiente -- era senz’altro lo studiolo di

fra Sabba -- demolito, per errore, nel restauro del 1955 circa.”24 A one-story street-level

room, three or four meters square, juts from the left wall of the church’s nave where it

joins the apse, four or five meters from the base of the refurbished bell tower. The

room’s only window faces the via Emilia, providing light for reading and writing and

permitting Sabba, when he chose, to keep an eye on the daily life unfolding outside his

commandery, or even to converse with passers-by.

Sabba’s plan, set forth in the 1550 testament, appears to have been to assemble his books, artworks, antiquities, scientific instruments, and devotional and ceremonial accoutrements on the second level of the compound’s campanile, accessible only by a staircase rising from near the altar of the Commenda church, itself adjacent to the small

23 Gian Marcello Valgimigli, Frate Sabba da Castiglione Cav. Gerosolimitano e Precettore della Commenda di Faenza. Cenni Biografici Raccolti da Gian Marcello Valgimigli (Faenza: Pietro Conti, 1870), 23. According to Valgimigli, the only recorded visits by Sabba in Faenza outside of the Commenda were a 1525 participation in the Corpus Christi procession, a 1546 visit to the Confraternità del Crocifisso, and a 1550 visit to the Dominican convent. 24 Letter of Giuliano Bettoli to author, July 13, 2007.

253 writing room; that same testament treats the restoration as a fait accompli and provides an

appropriation for the collection’s upkeep.25 In the 1554 Ricordi frontispiece, Sabba

seems indeed content, engrossed in prayerful concentration at his writing desk in a notably spare and modest studiolo workspace.

Elsewhere Renaissance studioli were developing into elaborate, richly appointed chambers for displaying the books and artworks that defined their owners’ particularized personalities, often eclipsing their original purpose as private spaces for study and meditation. In reconfiguring his Commenda studiolo, Sabba divided its functions between two locations (although only a dozen or so meters apart), thereby restoring its utility as a contemplative cell on the one hand, while preserving its use as a private art gallery on the other.

5.3 The Essential Sabba

The 1554 Ricordi frontispiece reveals the essential Sabba da Castiglione, devoid of armor real or symbolic. Its portrait of Sabba is simple and its subject’s demeanor humble. It provides a focused, uncluttered image of Sabba surrounded by only the most basic accoutrements representing his life’s work. In the woodcut Sabba sits in profile on a leather chair that incorporates a writing surface, in the fashion of some student desks.

Books are scattered on a bookshelf from which depend a shield, sword, and rosary. On the writing table there is an inkwell and an open book that faces the viewer, in which

Sabba seems to be writing (with his left hand) the words “Dirige Domine sinistram meam in laude[m] tua[m],” “Lord direct my left hand for your praise.” While holding a pen in

25 Sabba Castiglione, I due testamenti di fra Sabba da Castiglione, ed. Santa Cortesi (Faenza: Stefano Casanova, 2000), 34-46.

254 his left hand and an ink scraper in his right, Sabba looks at the book, appearing to make corrections or perhaps just finishing the writing on the page. The brief epigraph acknowledges Sabba’s sinistrality, a topic which, in my research, I have not seen incorporated into any other Renaissance artwork. The woodcut is not of extraordinary caliber, but the work appears to have been executed by a capable artist.

The woodcut portrait’s setting is presumably Sabba’s studiolo on the grounds of the Commenda faentina. The image seems to acknowledge the Counter Reformation, for it is devoid of any images which might be misconstrued in the newly restrictive atmosphere, such as spheres, astrolabes, artifacts, or artworks that could convey unorthodox implications. Because of the woodcut’s lack of spatial definition the viewer cannot precisely visualize its subject’s location within the room or in relation to the outdoors as might be seen through a window. Stark simplicity marks the scene.

In the Ricordi frontispiece woodcut, Sabba’s clothing is plain, displaying less glory than gravitas. In all likelihood, he is wearing an undergarment, an under-robe, and a sleeveless mantle with cartridge pleating towards the neck. The cap on his head resembles the square biretta often worn by Hospitallers and some priests.26 There are

three distinctly separate shirt collars around his neck, a feature found in no other

Hospitaller depiction.

An eight-pointed Maltese cross hangs around Sabba’s neck; its prominent display, along with a shield and sword, is a reminder that the Ricordi was written especially for

Knights Hospitaller. The tenets Sabba endorses in the Ricordi are meant to educate and

26 For descriptions of Hospitaller clothing, see Giovanni Morello, “Note sulla croce, armature ed ‘abito’ dei Cavalieri di Malta,” Waffen- und Kostümkunde 22 (1980): 89-105.

255 guide Hospitallers. Sabba’s perspective on life and his source of strength and inspiration are all rooted in the Hospitaller world.

The sword and a heraldic shield hanging from the shelf signify Sabba’s military background as well as his patrician origins. The lion rampant holds a miniature castle above which appears a shaded Greek cross. Both the lion and various styles of cross, including the Greek, have been used elsewhere by the Hospitallers. An extended

Lombard family, the Castiglione used various emblems, including the castle-and-lion, which offers an obvious play on the family name.27 The scattered books and the casually hung sword and shield suggest the nexus of the active and contemplative lives led by the

Ricordi’s author.

The books on the shelf reveal only the fore-edges. Before 1554, books in art were generally shown standing or leaning in a vertical fashion with the front boards facing the reader, their pages were left open, or they revealed only the spines. According to Rozzo, there is only one previous Italian woodcut, from 1544, that displays book fore-edges.28

Sabba’s woodcut displays only the books’ fore-edges except for one book which is displayed vertically with two pages open to the reader. Writing on the pages is crudely represented by vertical lines running across them. There is an errant paper dangling between two books, contributing to an overall sense of a busy person’s untidy workspace.

The words written on the page of the book on Sabba’s desk offer a curious message on sinistrality -- “Dirige Domine sinistram meam in laude[m] tua[m]” -- wherein

Sabba seems to confront a deep-rooted social stigma head-on, while seeking to dedicate even this supposed flaw to the praise of God. Right-handedness appears to be the

27 For a selection of Castiglione emblems and shields, see Pompeo Litta, Famiglie celebri italiane. Volume primo del conte Pompeo Litta (Milan: P.E. Giusti, 1819-1824). 28 Rozzo, studiolo nella silografia, 114.

256 statistical norm for all societies, the left-handed deviation often frowned upon and

considered a stigma.29 In heraldry a bar sinister, a band passing from upper right to lower left of an escutcheon, represented bastardy.30 Destra and sinistra have carried implications, respectively, of praise or reproach for two millennia. Right implies propriety, while left has “sinister” connotations. The Bible uses the words “left hand” in

a variety of contexts, some ripe for misuse. In Matthew 25:31-46, at the Second Coming,

all the nations will be gathered before the triumphant Son of Man, who will divide

mankind “one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And he

shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.” Those on the left “shall go

into everlasting punishment: but the just into life everlasting.”31 Saved will be those who

fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, took in the stranger, clothed the naked, and

visited the sick and imprisoned. The damned, those on the left, will be those who refused

those comforts to the weak and needy.

In Christian rituals, counterclockwise (leftward) movement occurs only in

penitential and funereal contexts.32 In Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox funerals, the priests move around the coffins counterclockwise while aspersing and censing the deceased.33 While Sabba’s frontispiece inscription – “Dirige Domine sinistram meam in

laude[m] tua[m]” – does not match any known maxims, it is syntactically similar to the

antiphon: “Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam,” “Direct, O Lord,

29 Scholars generally put sinistrality at 10 to 12 percent of the populations of modern Europe and the Americas. For statistical studies on the propensity of left-handedness, see Chris McManus, Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 202-210. 30 Ibid., 273. 31 The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version. 32 B.C. Blake-Coleman, “The Left Heresy and Directional Preference in Early Science and Technology,” Folklore 93, no. 2 (1982): 151. 33 Ibid., 162.

257 my God, my way in thy sight.” In both, “Dirige Domine” is followed by similar first and third person singular pronouns that beseech God. The antiphon Dirige Domine was composed before the thirteenth century and traditionally used at matins in the Office of the Dead as part of a funeral or memorial service. It is currently obligatory for the clergy only on the feast of All Souls and in certain burial services. In recent centuries, the word dirige, “dirge” in English, has come to mean a funeral hymn, lament, or mournful composition. The message in the frontispiece may have been a play on words referring to

Sabba’s death: the word “sinistram” may carry a double meaning, acknowledging

Sabba’s sinistrality while alluding to the sinistral funeral procession of the clergy. Seen from this perspective, the woodcut’s message may be both defiant and devotional, whereby his “stigma” is acknowledged while liturgies for the pious dead -- and specifically for Sabba -- are also intimated.

Often strident in his opinions and criticisms in the Ricordi, in its frontispiece

Sabba, nearing death, seems to want to give no offense, save perhaps what may be taken by relentless foes of sinistrality. Prideful things are put away; antiquities, art treasures, and scientific equipment are set aside. In the scene shown in the frontispiece there is none of this. There are only books and sword and shield and writing implements and a humble man-at-arms, a knight and scribe serving his God, his pope, and his military order.

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1. Rhodes, Greece, Church of Our Lady of Philerimos. Ayios Yeoryios “Chostos,” a Hospitaller Knight, detail of fresco. 15th century.

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Figure 2. Faenza Commenda church. Girolamo da Treviso, Sabba Castiglione with the Holy Family and Saints Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria, fresco. Ca. 1533.

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Figure 3. Boston, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Unknown Cretan or Constantinopolitan artist, Madonna con il Bambino in trono e sei santi, polyptych painting. Early 15th century.

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Figure 4. Siena, Piccolomini Library of the Siena Cathedral. Pinturicchio, detail of Enea Silvio Piccolomini [the future Pope Pius II] Presenting Eleanor of Portugal to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, fresco. 1503-1508.

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Figure 5. Siena, San Giovanni Chapel of the Siena Cathedral. Pinturicchio, detail of Kneeling Knight in Armor, fresco. 1503-1508.

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Figure 6. Siena Duomo. Pinturicchio, Aringhieri with the Cloak of the Order of the Knights of Malta, fresco. 1503-1508.

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Figure 7. Faenza Commenda church. Marble inscription mounted on interior wall beside main entrance. Ca. 1536.

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Figure 8. Faenza Commenda courtyard. Southeast portico frieze. Ca. 1525.

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Figure 9. Faenza Commenda Figure 10. Faenza Commenda Figure 11. Faenza Commenda courtyard. Terracotta tondo courtyard. Terracotta tondo courtyard. Terracotta tondo with inscription “Post with fragmentary Clement VII with inscription “Explorant Tenebras Lucem.” Ca. 1525. coat of arms. Ca. 1525. Adversa Viros.” Ca. 1525.

Figure 12. Faenza, Commenda church left-side nave. Monochrome fresco by Francesco Menzocchi, ca. 1545-1547; sepulchral epitaph by unknown artist, ca. 1554.

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Figure 13. Florence, Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo. Marble sepulchral tombstone by artist known as “il Cicilia.” 1515.

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Figure 14. Florence, Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo. Marble sepulchral Tornabuoni coat of arms by artist known as “il Cicilia.” 1515.

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Figure 15. Strozzi family coat of arms. Early 16th century.

Figure 16. Florence, Chiesa Corbolina di San Jacopo. Strozzi crest and inscription, marble. 1543.

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Figure 17. Titian, Portrait of a Knight. Ca. 1550.

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Figure 18. Unknown artist, Portrait of a Knight. Late 16th century.

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Figure 19. Pinacoteca Comunale di Civitanova (Marche). Unknown marchigiano artist, portrait of Annibal Caro. 1557-1560.

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Figure 20. Civitanova (Marche) Mayor’s Office. Unknown artist, portrait of Annibal Caro. 1562-1565.

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Figure 21. Pandolfini Casa d’Aste 2003 auction catalogue. Cristofano Allori “il Bronzino,” portrait of Annibal Caro. 1560-1566.

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Figure 22. Rome, Church of San Lorenzo in Damasio. Giovanni Anton Dosio, sepulchral tombstone and accompanying head of Annibal Caro, marble. 1567.

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Figure 23. Ricordi 3rd edition. Unknown artist, woodcut frontispiece. 1555 [1554].