CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON HUMANIST CAREER PATTERNS DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE QUATTROCENTO

The humanists who sought patronage or employment in England during the second quarter of the Quattrocento, thus the established account, were minor figures, unable to hold a candle to their celebrated peers such as Guarino da Verona or Leonardo Bruni; they had failed to find employment in Italy and therefore had been forced to ven• ture north.1 The present investigation shifts the focus of attention from the issue of literary accomplishment to other factors that may have determined the professional careers of the humanists concerned. The inquiry considers first, why the humanists, who sought patron• age or employment with Humphrey, duke of Gloucester in the late 1430s and early 1440s, were predominantly unknown figures at the time of their contacts with Gloucester or his middlemen. Second, it examines the differences between these minor figures and celebrated humanists such as Guarino or Bruni. Finally, it draws attention to structural changes in the Italian job market that may have affected the course of humanist careers during the first half of the Quattrocento. The aim is to raise awareness of factors other than literary accomplish• ment which influenced the course of humanist careers; at the same time, this preliminary survey intends to create a basis for the exam• ination of the case studies in the subsequent chapters of this section. Modern scholars usually cite appointment to an elevated position in Italy and/or international scholarly reputation as marks of dis• tinction that defined the rank of an individual humanist within the humanist community. The failure of the humanists who sought patron• age or employment in England during the late 1430s and early

1 Rossi, p. 9, "I contatti col mondo italiano rimasero percio affidati, in un primo tempo, a figure minori destinate a far parte di una storia dell'umanesimo europeo proprio per quella funzione di mediatori che esse esecitarono alPestero, ripetendo l'esperienza dei 'vagantes' perché avevano poche speranze di afFermazione in patria ove erano pressoché sconosciuti." For similar, if less emphatic, statements compare HAY, p. 328 and RUNDLE, 'Virtue and Weiss', p. 189. 212 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

1440s, to have attained such elevated positions or to have enjoyed such an international reputation by the time they first established contacts with Gloucester or his middlemen tends to be read as an indication of their lack of literary competence.2 Reputation is an elusive quality; appointment to office, on the other hand, can be charted with a degree of precision. A compar• ative survey of the careers of twenty professional humanists who were active during the first half of the Quattrocento suggests that during this period, a humanist was on average thirty-four years old before he was appointed to a leading chancery position or lectureship; in fact, fifty per cent of these humanists attained such distinction only during the latter half of their thirties or their early forties.3 In many cases, little is known about the careers of these men before they assumed such a high office. The biography of an eminent human• ist like Poggio Bracciolini gains profile only during the Council of Constance, by which time Poggio was already in his mid- to late thirties; nor is much known about the first three decades in the lives of Leonardo Bruni or Guarino da Verona.4 The humanist clients of Humphrey, duke of Gloucester were all born during the first decade of the Quattrocento; when they first sought to establish contacts with the duke or his middlemen in the late 1430s and early 1440s they therefore were in their early to mid- thirties.5 Consequently, the relative obscurity of these men at the time of their first contact with Gloucester or his middlemen was not necessarily an indication of their putative literary shortcomings; rather, it may have resulted from the fact that, at that point, they were yet too young to have made their professional breakthrough in Italy or

2 For the implicit acceptance of fame and/or elevated office as measures of humanist distinction see VICKERS, p. 351, pp. 353-4; SCHIRMER, pp. 20-21, p. 28, WEISS, Humanism, p. 21, p. 41, p. 52; SAMMUT, pp. 7-8, p. 21. 3 Below, Appendix II, central column. On the basis of Kristeller's définition of humanism, cited above, chapter sixteen, p. 205, a professional humanist is, for the purposes of this investigation, defined as a man who earned his living primarily by the exercise of a profession that was immediately connected with his specialist knowledge of the studia humanitatis (teachers/lecturers, publicists, chancery clerks). Members of other professional groups, such as jurists, clerics, or patrician amateurs, who were interested in the humaniora, but whose professional career and economic survival did not immediately depend on their humanist accomplishment are excluded from consideration. 4 DAVIES, 'Friends and Enemies', p. 10; VASOLI, C, 'Bruni, Leonardo', DBI, xiv (Rome, 1972), 618-33, at pp. 618-9; SABBADINI, R., Vita di Guanno Veronese (Genova, 1891), pp. 1-11. 5 Below, Appendix II, nos. 13, 15, 18.