Institutions and Dynamics of Learned Exchange

chapter 26 Institutions and Dynamics of Learned Exchange Kenneth Gouwens Throughout the early modern period Rome was a major center of literary pro- duction. With but few interruptions, popes and cardinals played key roles as patrons and hosts of gatherings of the learned. Among libraries, the Vatican came to hold pride of place.1 In the later 16th century, when concerns about or- thodoxy circumscribed both access and subjects of inquiry there, other collec- tions, both private and public, substantially compensated for those constraints. Their variety and in some cases specialization helped to diffuse research and to promote discussions among specialists. Academies, finally, were important sites of literary performance and learned conversation.2 Those of the early 16th century were few but influential, providing opportunities for interaction not only among literati and patrons, but also with artists and architects including Raphael and Bramante. Church authorities often figured prominently in the academies that proliferated in Seicento Rome, many of which had specific foci. The Accademia degli Arcadi (Arcadians), founded in 1690, would become a meta-academy of sorts, and its self-conscious redirection of taste would help to initiate a shift away from the stylistic flamboyance that had dominated the 17th century. The present chapter treats these aspects of Roman learned cul- ture in three periods, the points of inflection marked by the election of trans- formative popes: Alexander VI in 1492; Paul IV in 1555; and Urban VIII in 1623 to the death of Innocent XII in 1700. 1 Prelude: the Pursuit of Letters in Early Renaissance Rome During the pontificates of Martin V (r.1417–31), whose election ended decades of schism, and Eugenius IV (r.1431–55), papal patronage drew to Rome brilliant 1 See the new official history of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in seven volumes, which began publication in 2010. The first three substantial volumes, edited respectively by Antonio Manfredi, Massimo Ceresa, and Claudia Montuschi, cover the period 1447–1700. 2 On the definition, range, and character of academies in Italy, see A. Quondam, “L’Accademia,” in A. Asor Rosa (ed.), Letteratura italiana, Volume primo: Il letterato e le istituzioni (Turin, 1982), 823–98; Testa 2015; and the database of Italian academies at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/ ItalianAcademies/About.aspx (accessed 9 December 2018). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:1�.1163/9789004391963_028 Institutions and Dynamics of Learned Exchange 501 literati including the humanists Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni, and Flavio Biondo (also known as Biondo Flavio). In these decades the city’s intellectual life lacked the complexity and coherence that would develop later in the century. Nonetheless, the early Roman humanists articulated a shared yet flexible intellectual program that included papal advocacy, cultural criticism, antiquarianism, and debates about the development, dignity, and ideal form of the Latin language.3 The Roman-born philologist and polemicist Lorenzo Valla, who taught at the Studium Urbis (University of Rome) and worked in the papal curia from 1448 until his death in 1457, made crucial contributions to the development and prestige of philology.4 Then, in 1475, Sixtus IV refounded the Vatican Library “for the enhancing of the church militant, for the increase of the Catholic faith, and for the convenience and honor of the learned and studious”, and he appointed as its first official librarian the humanist Platina (Bartolomeo Sacchi).5 The most important intellectual in later Quattrocento Rome was the humanist teacher and antiquarian Giulio Pomponio Leto (1428–97/98), whose ca- reer in the city spanned half a century.6 In addition to teaching at the Studium Urbis, he formed what would be known as the Roman or Pomponian Academy. At his home on the Quirinal, Pomponio hosted informal gatherings of men of letters who took Latinized names and styled him their pontifex maximus (high priest). They discussed ancient history, made archaeological expeditions, en- acted plays by Plautus and Terence, and commented upon one another’s Latin compositions. His academy was not without controversy: In 1468 he and several followers, including Platina, were imprisoned in Castel S. Angelo and charged with crimes including conspiracy against Pope Paul II (r.1464–71). Ultimately the charges were dropped. In 1470 Pomponio was reinstated in his university post, and later that decade he refounded the academy, now as a religious so- dality. While exploring Christian antiquities, including the catacombs, and composing poems praising saints and popes, the academicians also renewed their studies of classical Rome.7 Beginning in the 1490s, Pomponio’s immediate 3 E. McCahill, Reviving the Eternal City: Rome and the Papal Court, 1420–1447 (Cambridge, MA, 2013). 4 On the papal curia, see Miles Pattenden’s chapter. 5 Bignami-Odier 1973; translation follows that of L. Boyle, “The Vatican Library,” in Grafton 1993, xi–xx, esp. xii–xiii. Boyle notes that in a letter written in 1451 Pope Nicholas V had first called for the creation of a library “for the common convenience of the learned.” 6 M. Accame, “Pomponio Leto, Giulio,” in DBI 84 (2015), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ giulio-pomponio-leto_(Dizionario-Biografico)/(accessed 10 December 2018). 7 On Pomponio’s home, see Denis Ribouillault’s chapter; on Roman antiquities, see Giuseppe Antonio Guazzelli’s chapter..

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