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Bruni, Cicero, and Their Manifesto for Republicanism

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Bruni, Cicero, and Their Manifesto for Republicanism Leanne Jansen Bruni, Cicero,and their Manifestofor Republicanism WasCiceroaworthyman of state? With the rise of the humanist movement in the fourteenth century,the vicissitudes of Cicero’spolitical career became a prominent topic of debate.¹ Scholars either expressed fascination for Ciceroas arole model for Republicanideologies,orrefused to accept this new,realistic imagebywhich the Roman orator unavoidablybecame liable to criticism. This paper will examine the biographyofCicerowritten by the Florentine chancellor and historian Leonardo Bruni.The Cicero nouus (1413)² is an attempt to compose an adequate translation of Plutarch’s Cicero as well as to rewriteCi- cero’spolitical life. On the one hand, Bruni wishedtorestoreCicero’sstatusasa literarymodel; according to him, an earlier translation of the Cicero into Latin, publishedaround 1401 by Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia, wasinadequate.³ On the other hand, Bruniwrotethe biographyinresponsetocontemporary Florentine politics, particularlythe ideologyofafreeRepublic: Cicero’slife offered aframe- work to set out Republican ideals. The biographyshould thereforenot be read merelyasapiece of antiquarian scholarship. Rather,asseveral modernscholars have alreadypointed out,itisanimportanthistoricaldocument by reason of its political celebration of (Florentine) republicanism.⁴ Although the political nature of the Cicero nouus has been illustratedquite well, one important theme in the biographyisgenerallyoverlooked: the interac- tion between Ciceroand Caesar.Iwillargue here that Bruni is able to put anew spin on the merits of Cicero’spolitical life by analysingthe conflict between these two men. Alarge part of the Cicero nouus is dedicated to Caesar’srise to It is not until the latefifteenth and sixteenth century that the discussion takes an explicit rhet- orical and stylistic turn: the exclusive emphasis on Ciceronian style, or ‘Ciceronianism’,was not typical of earlyhumanism; cf. Grafton 2010.For general overviews of Cicero’spopularity in the Renaissance, see Marsh 2013;Ward2013 treats the rhetorical side of this discourse. Forthis dating, see Hankins 2008, with Ianziti 2012,29n.8. Bruni, Cic.,416: Itaque indolui equidem Ciceronis uicem, et mecum ipse indignatus sum quod in eo uiro litterenostre adeo mute reperirentur,qui uel solus ne mute forent sua diligentiaprestitisset. All citations from Ciceronouus aretakenfromViti 1996,towhich the pagenumbers are referring. Cf. Botley 2004,21–23;Takada 2007,183 – 185; and Ianziti 2012,12–13,48–53 on the preface. Baron 1988, 121–122;Viti 1992, 343; Gualdo Rosa 1997, 193; Ianziti 2012.Ward2013,186 notes that with the Cicero nouus Cicero trulybecomes “the avatar of the humanist ideal”,i.e.anedu- catedman devoting his knowledge to the management of the state. OpenAccess. ©2020Leanne Jansen, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110716313-011 156 Leanne Jansen power and the aftermath of his assassination; this particularhistoricalscope gave Bruni the opportunitytoexamine closelyCicero’s(heroic) role in the final phase of the Republic. Bruni’sinvestigation of the relationship between Caesarand Cicero, partlythrough the innovative use of the LetterstoAtticus, leads to astrong antithesis in which Caesar represents tyrannyand the abuse of political rights and Cicerostands for civic freedom and self-determination. Asecond focal point of my paper willbeBruni’sconcern with freedom itself —libertas,the chief concept underlyingwestern Republicanthought from the moment Cicero gave it aprominent place in his political theory.Importantly, I have chosen the Cicero nouus as a primary sourcefor explaining Bruni’sRepub- lican convictions, whereas previous scholarship has tendedtoselect his more overtlytheoretical treatises.⁵ The Cicero nouus has further been employed on a secondary level to illustrate Cicero’ssymbolic status within Renaissance human- ism,⁶ but this has unfortunatelyproduced an incompleteand static picture. Little to no attention has been paid to the role that the historical reconstruction of Ci- cero’scareer playedwithin Florentine Republican thought.Itistrue thatthe pre- sentation of Ciceroasthe ultimateliteraryand civic model for the humanists is a salient feature of the biography, but that is certainlynot all there is to it.The Ci- cero nouus illustrates, as we will see, thatCicerowas actuallyperceivedbyBruni as one constituent element in the machine that wasthe Roman Republic; the (re-)contextualization of his life and work is arguablythe most rewarding out- come of Bruni’sproject.⁷ The biographyfurther enables us to see which episodes of Cicero’slife were particularlypersistent in influencinghis historical reputa- tion. It should be noted thatBruni’sbiographywas an enormouslyinfluential work especiallyinthe fifteenth century,surpassingeventhe success of Plu- tarch’s Life.⁸ As aresult, Bruni’sportrayal of Ciceromust to alarge extent have defined the scholarlyunderstanding of the orator’shistorical import. Hop- ing to provide more insight into Bruni’scontribution to Cicero’spost-antique story,Iwill demonstrate how the humanist cleverlydeploys the concept of liber- Studies ranging fromRubinstein 1986 to Hankins 2019,who ironicallymakesasimilar obser- vation regarding Bruni’s Historyofthe Florentine People (271). Iwill refer brieflytomost of these treatises below. Followingthe seminal ideas of Baron 1966 and 1988. Ianziti 2012, 12–13 argues similarlythat the biography offers acompletereinterpretation of Cicero’slife which results in aheroic pictureofthe orator.Iwould propose to steer away from this traditional emphasis on the portrayal of Cicero per se and focus on the process of re- constructinghis public reputation. Pade 2007,154–165, for the transmission and popularity of the Cicero nouus;cf. Ianziti 2012, 45.See Pieper in this volumefor Bruni’spresenceincommentariesonthe Philippics of the late fifteenth century. Bruni, Cicero, and their Manifestofor Republicanism 157 tas in order to turn the figure of Cicerointo abridgebetween ancient Rome and humanist Florence, presentinghim simultaneouslyasthe father and the timeless personification of Republicanliberty. Cicero as politicalrole modelinearly RenaissanceItaly Whereas in the Middle Ages scholars had mostlyconcentrated upon the spiritual and edifying(potentiallyChristian) aspects of Cicero’swritings, from the thir- teenth century areorientation took place that lent agreater emphasis on his character,public career,and political death.⁹ An earlysourcefor this discussion is abiographywritten around 1300 and transmitted in codex Trecensis 552, acol- lection of Cicero’swritings.¹⁰ This “Epitome of the life, deeds, outstanding schol- arship and booksaswell as the death of the most famousand illustrious man Marcus Tullius Cicero” (Epythoma de uita gestis scientie prestancia et libris ac fine uiri clarissimi et illustris Marchi Tullii Ciceronis)consists of ageneral account of Cicero’slife and adetailed discussion of his writings.¹¹ The biographyisre- markable because it presents an imageofthe Roman orator that is highlysocial- ly oriented: Licetautem Tullius in re publica administranda et defende<n>da tantum insudauerit to- ciensque pro amicis declamauerit tantumque pro suorum emulorum elidenda inuidia pug- nauerit ut uireseiincredibile sit suppeditasse humanas,sapientietamen desiderio adeo feruens fuit ad studium et scribendum ut mirum sit quomodo potuerit tantam utrisque ope- ramexhibere.¹² However,although Tullyput so much sweatinto managingand defendingthe state,so often defended his friends and fought so hard to counter the envy of his rivals that it seems scarcelybelievablethat the powers that drovehim werehuman, his desirefor wis- dom still made him burningafter studyand writingtosuch an extent that it is miraculous how he could exhibit such agreat fervour in both areas. MacCormack 2013;Baron 1988, 102–108;and Mabboux in this volume. Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale, ms.552. It contains amiscellanyofCiceronian philosoph- ical works, political speeches,and rhetorical treatises; see Tilliette 2003,1054 n. 11. According to Tilliette,thereare threefifteenth-century manuscripts containingthe same Vita Ciceronis, abridgedbut textuallysuperior;the codex Trecensis might offer afirst ‘version’. An introduction to and atranscript of the biographyare found in Tilliette 2003. Ciceronis Vita Trecensis,in: Tilliette 2003,1068. All translations aremyown unless otherwise indicated. 158 Leanne Jansen Despite the fact that this earlybiographyalmostexclusively contains information available in ancient and medieval authors (in the words of the editor,itisa“fa- tras informe”),¹³ the compiler is aiming at acivic readingofCicero’slife. The choice of sources indicates that he was interested especiallyinCicero’sconsul- ship, his role as agovernor of the Republic, his social relations,and his death.¹⁴ The compiler’sconcern with Cicero’spolitical reputation is clear from the pas- sageabove,which is not aquotation but an authorial observation. Some decades after the production of the Vita Trecensis,Petrarch started to engagewith Cicero’scivic life in asimilar vein. Despite his initial dislike of Ci- cero’spolitical pursuits when he discovered the LetterstoAtticus,Petrarch soon used them to give information about events and social relations in the late Republic. HisbiographyofCaesar, De gestis Cesaris,incorporates material from the letters written in the year 49 bce,because, as Petrarch explains,
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