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Manetti's Life and Works chapter 1 Manetti’s Life and Works 1.1 Introduction This chapter provides an overview of Manetti’s life and works, focusing on his later years, when he worked on his Latin translations. It also explores his connections with influential contemporaries such as Leonardo Bruni, Lorenzo Valla, Cardinal Bessarion and Pope Nicholas v. Manetti’s career can be subdi- vided into roughly three periods: his Florentine years, before 1453–1454; his stay at the Vatican from 1453–1454 to 1455; and his final years in Naples, from 1455 to his death in 1459. The most comprehensive contemporary source for Manetti’s life was writ- ten by one of his friends, the Florentine book-seller Vespasiano da Bisticci. Among Vespasiano’s extensive biographical writings are two sections that are dedicated to Manetti: the shortest one, the Vita di meser Giannozo Manetti, Fiorentino (hereafter: Vita) was expanded as the Comentario della vita di messer Giannozzo Manetti composta da Vespasiano e mandata a Bernardo del Nero (hereafter: Comentario) which is significantly longer.1 Next to Vespasiano’s biographies, there exists a Latin biography, written by Naldo Naldi, and an anonymous metrical biography in Italian, the Vita in terza rima. The latter was published recently, together with several legal documents from the Florentine and Neapolitan archives.2 Some of Manetti’s letters were edited by Giuseppe Cagni, who also made a reconstruction of the Manetti family library.3 I base my overview mainly on Vespasiano’s biographies, 1 Both biographies were published in Vespasiano da Bisticci, Le vite, (ed.) Aulo Greco (Florence: Istituto Palazzo Strozzi, 1970–1976). 2 Stefano Baldassarri and Bruno Figliuolo, Manettiana: La biografia anonima in terzine e altri documenti inediti su Giannozzo Manetti (Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento, 2010). The anony- mous biography may have been written by Vespasiano da Bisticci: Riccardo Fubini and Wi- Seon Kim, “Giannozzo Manetti nei resoconti biografici di Vespasiano da Bisticci,” Human- istica v, no. 1 (2010): 35–49. Naldi’s biography was published as Naldo Naldi, Vita Iannotii Manetti, (ed.) Ludovicus Antonius Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 20 (Milan: Ex typographia Societatis Palatinæ in Regia Curia, 1731), 529–608. 3 Giuseppe Cagni, Vespasiano da Bisticci e il suo epistolario (Rome: Edizione di Storia e Letter- atura, 1969); Giuseppe Cagni, “I codici Vaticani Palatino-Latini appartenuti alla biblioteca di Giannozzo Manetti,”La bibliofilia 62, no. 1 (1960): 1–43. For Manetti’s library, see Chapter Two below. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi: 10.1163/9789004324374_003 10 chapter 1 since the other sources mentioned do not offer much new information where the translation project is concerned. Two other biographies are worth mentioning: the first is Vespasiano’s Vita di Nicolao p.p.v. on the life of Pope Nicholas v, and the second is a biography of the same Nicholas v written by Manetti himself.4 The translation of the New Testament is mentioned in both works. Manetti’s biography of the Pope is especially interesting, as it is one of the few places where he reflects on his own activities at the Vatican court. Manetti’s Florentine career was studied thoroughly some decades ago by Lauro Martines, who combined Vespasiano’s biographical writings with legal documents from the Florentine archives.5 Most of Manetti’s public speeches were edited by Heinz Wittschier, and several other writings were published by Alfonso De Petris in the 1970s and 1980s. Recently, new studies have appeared on Manetti’s life and works. A conference was organized around Manetti’s person in 2008, resulting in a volume of papers.6 As for his later years in Rome and Naples—when the New Testament translation was produced—these were discussed thoroughly in Paul Botley’s recent study.7 1.2 Florence (1396–1454) Giannozzo Manetti was born in Florence on 5 June 1396 as the son of Bernardo Manetti and Piera Guidacci. The Manetti family had been rather obscure in the 14th century, but it had begun its social climb two generations before Giannozzo’s birth: his paternal grandfather, Giannozzo di Lambuccio, had been the first Manetti to become a Prior (in 1358). His son Bernardo, Giannozzo’s father, was dedicated to business rather than politics, and he increased the family fortune to the point of being the tenth richest man in Florence in 1427.8 Giannozzo showed an aptitude for figures, and was introduced into his father’s company when only a young boy. But his other talents soon led 4 Vespasiano’s biography of Nicholas v is available in Vespasiano, Le vite, vol. 1, 35–81. For Manetti’s biography of the Pope, see Giannozzo Manetti, DevitaacgestisNicolaiQuintiSummi Pontificis, (ed.) Anna Modigliani (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 2005). 5 Lauro Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 1390–1460 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963). 6 Baldassarri; Stefano, Dignitas et excellentia hominis. 7 Botley, Latin Translation in the Renaissance. David Marsh is working on a biography of Ma- netti. 8 Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 131–138..
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