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Debora Magno ARCHIVIO STORICO MESSINESE Periodico fondato nel Millenovecento SOCIETÀ MESSINESE DI STORIA PATRIA ARCHIVIO STORICO MESSINESE - 84/85 - MESSINA 2003/2004 Pubblicazione realizzata con il contributo della Regione Siciliana - Assessorato BB.CC.AA. e Pubblica Istruzione ATTILIO RUSSO COSTANTINO LASCARIS TRA FAMA E OBLIO NEL CINQUECENTO MESSINESE* Ciò che colpisce, riguardo alla figura di Costantino La- scaris, è il contrasto tra la fama che accompagnò in vita l’u- manista e l’oblio in cui cadde a qualche decennio dalla sua morte, a Messina, anche se soltanto per un determinato in- tervallo di tempo. Le amnesie sospette su Lascaris iniziano precocemente e già nel 1518, dopo neanche un ventennio dalla sua scomparsa, Francesco Iannelli, che nella città del- lo Stretto era stato tra gli allievi di Costantino, manifesta un clamoroso vuoto di memoria a proposito dell’ex maestro. Nel poemetto Sylva de naturae parentis tenore1, infatti, Ian- nelli esclude inspiegabilmente Lascaris (e Bessarione) dal nutrito elenco d’illustri umanisti dell’epoca presente nell’o- pera, scritta in Calabria e dedicata a Iacopo Sannazaro. L’as- senza dalla Sylva, comunque, potrebbe sembrare più un fat- to episodico o locale2, giacché, quasi contemporaneamente, * Contributo presentato dal Socio Rosario Moscheo. 1 Del manoscritto, segnalato per la prima volta da G. Lipari, si è occu- pata P. Megna che, correttamente, fa rilevare la sorprendente reticenza di Iannelli circa il Lascaris, «laddove sono menzionati Giano Lascari e l’altro maestro del Giannelli, Carlo Curro» (P. MEGNA, Per l’ambiente del Lascari a Messina: una Sylva di Francesco Giannelli, in “Studi Umanistici”, IV-V, Mes- sina 1993-1994, pp. 307-347 spec. 327-329). 2 Il sacerdote calabrese Francesco Iannelli, scriveva la Sylva a Locri, dove svolgeva l’attività di precettore dei Marullo, potente famiglia mes- 6 ATTILIO RUSSO un altro illustre alunno di Costantino quale Cristoforo Sco- bar non si dimostra così “ingrato”. Nel 1520 lo Scobar, nella premessa al suo De rebus praeclaris Syracusanis, non di- mentica pertanto di citare l’antico «praeceptor», definendo- lo «sapientissimus» e «praestantissimus»3. Lo stesso Iannel- li, poi, rientrato a Messina dopo l’esperienza calabrese e di- ventato curatore, nel 1526, dell’edizione del De urbis Messa- nae pervetusta origine (opera postuma di Bernardo Rizzo, anch’egli ex allievo di Costantino), non tralascerà stavolta, nella postfazione al libro, di ricordare i tempi del discepola- to «sub Constantino illo Lascare, viro summe venerando»4. sinese feudataria del luogo. In seguito, Iannelli avrebbe fatto ritorno a Messina mettendosi al servizio di un’altra famiglia nobile peloritana: quella dei La Rocca (ibid., spec. pp. 316 e 347; G. LIPARI, Per una storia del- la cultura letteraria a Messina, in “Archivio storico messinese”, s. III, vol. XXXIII, 1982, pp. 65-187 spec. 113). 3 L.C. SCOBAR, De rebus praeclaris Syracusanis, Venezia 1520, f. 13v. 4 Così scrive Francesco Iannelli, nella propria lettera dedicatoria ac- clusa alla fine del De origine di B. Rizzo: «vir ille amplissimus Bernardus Rictius, patricius messanensis, et palladiae ac moecenatum (si qui aevo eius fuerant) venerandae cohorti merito connumerandus, Ioannes Philip- pe magnifice, prosocer tuus nunc quidem tibi citra rubore nominandus, olim vero, dum in humanis ipse ageret, et nos sub Constantino illo La- scare, viro summe venerando, graecis literis imbueremur, pientissimus patronus meus, diligentissimus rerum antiquarum perscrutator, ex pro- batissimis, ac pervetustis historiae scriptoribus historiolam de mamerti- nae urbis, et patriae de qua semper, atquae omnifariam benemeritus est, origine compilaverat. Aderam ego saepe, cum ea de re verba ipse faceret cum Constantino: quem dixi, sene venerando, qui et ipse vetustissima- rum historiarum studiosissimus et habitus est, et fuit» (B. RIZZO, De Urbis Messanae pervetusta origine, Messina 1526, f. 8r-v). Il manoscritto quat- trocentesco del libro del Rizzo era andato in eredità al figlio di questi, le cui due figlie avevano sposato i due fratelli Filippo e Cristoforo La Roc- ca, i quali ne commissionarono quindi la pubblicazione a Iannelli nel 1526 (cfr. C. BIANCA, Stampa, cultura società a Messina alla fine del Quat- trocento, Palermo 1988, II, pp. 341-356 spec. 345-346 nt. 2). Tali partico- lari sull’edizione dell’opera, relativi ai due La Rocca (insieme ad altri det- tagli su Francesco Cameni, autore della lettera prefatoria al testo), furo- no riferiti in seguito da Francesco Maurolico, con molta precisione, nei propri due libri aggiunti al De poetis latinis di Pietro Crinito (v. infra, nt. 8). Il Maurolico, aveva pure dedicato dei versi encomiastici al Rizzo ed a COSTANTINO LASCARIS TRA FAMA E OBLIO NEL CINQUECENTO MESSINESE 7 In tal modo, altre menzioni riguardanti Lascaris dovettero certo essere relativamente numerose in quegli anni, un po’ per tutta la Sicilia e la Penisola, dove il dotto bizantino ave- va operato lasciando un significativo retaggio5. Per quanto concerne l’ambito messinese, è dallo scien- ziato e storico Francesco Maurolico che si avranno, qualche tempo dopo, ulteriori notizie su Lascaris e la sua scuola in riva allo Stretto, contenute nel De piscibus siculis tractatus per epistolam (1543)6, nel Prologus de quantitate (1554)7 e nei due libri aggiunti dal matematico al proprio compendio del De poetis latinis di Pietro Crinito (1555)8. Ma già nella Filippo La Rocca, pubblicati nello stesso De origine (f. 9r), che possono considerarsi il primo scritto dello scienziato messinese dato alle stampe, tra quelli attualmente conosciuti. 5 Si ricordi ad esempio la menzione di Lucio Marineo Siculo, nel 1514, nella lettera a Cataldo Parisio (che si legge in G. BOTTARI, La problematica “de viris illustribus” nel Quattrocento siciliano, in “Quarto quaderno di fi- lologia, lingua e letteratura italiana”, Verona 1992, pp. 63-103 spec. 65). Posteriore è la citazione di M. PANCLARENO in Vita Francisci Pharaoni con- tenuta nella prefazione di Francisci Pharaoni Institutiones grammaticae, Brescia 1537 (che ricorda laconicamente l’insegnamento di Lascaris a Messina, e può leggersi, insieme ad altre, anche in P. REINA, Delle notizie istoriche della città di Messina, II, Messina 1663, pp. 47-52; cfr. anche BIANCA, Stampa, cit., II, pp. 420-421). 6 Cfr. R. MOSCHEO, Tra umanesimo e scienza: lo Stretto di Messina e gli Halieutica di Francesco Maurolico (relazione presentata nella “Giornata di studio in onore di A. Minasi”, Scilla-R.C., 6-9-2003, di prossima pubblica- zione). 7 La data di completamento del Prologus è riferita da R. MOSCHEO, Me- cenatismo e scienza nella Sicilia del ’500, Messina 1990, p. 208. 8 I due libri del Maurolico (corrispondenti al sesto ed al settimo), con le menzioni di Lascaris, possono leggersi in G. MACRÌ, Francesco Maurolico nella vita e negli scritti, seconda edizione, Messina 1901, pp. XXXV-XLVIII spec. XXXVII e XLIII. Il Maurolico scrive, implicitamente, della scuola mes- sinese (e dei discepoli) di Costantino trattando di Pietro Bembo e di Fran- cesco Faraone. Scrivendo di quest’ultimo egli è comunque piuttosto am- biguo, e definisce Costantino Lascaris, Bernardo Rizzo e Matteo Caldo “amici” del Faraone, mentre ne furono maestro il primo e condiscepoli gli altri due. La data del 1555, come anno di pubblicazione del compendio mauroliciano, fu riferita da L. PERRONI GRANDE, F. Maurolico, professore del- l’Università messinese e dantista, nel vol. collettivo R. Accademia Pelorita- 8 ATTILIO RUSSO sua prima lettera al Bembo, nel 15369, Maurolico aveva ri- cordato i tempi in cui il patrizio veneto aveva seguito nella città del Faro gli insegnamenti del maestro bizantino10, ri- petendo in seguito la medesima notizia, con un accenno nella Cosmographia, stampata nel 154311. Sempre intorno alla metà del secolo, poi, il Maurolico darà alle stampe un volume di poesie in cui dedicherà un interessante sonetto al Lascaris12, definito enfaticamente «alma divina… per la cui dottrina… qui Messina fioriva un tempo quasi un’altra Athene»13. Infine, egli inserirà in calce ad una propria opera pubblicata nel 1556, insieme ad alcuni apocrifi neotesta- mentari, un breve scritto d’autore sconosciuto in cui si menziona l’umanista quale traduttore, dal greco in latino, na dei Pericolanti, CCCL Anniversario dell’Università di Messina, pp. 41-61; di nuovo in R. MOSCHEO, Francesco Maurolico tra Rinascimento e scienza ga- lileiana. Materiali e ricerche, Messina 1988, p. 306. 9 La lettera è edita integralmente in MOSCHEO, Francesco, cit., pp. 271- 274. 10 Il Bembo, da parte sua, rispose a Maurolico con una lettera del 1536, dimostrando di avere ben vivo il ricordo di «Constantini Lascaris optimi sanctissimique viri, qui me erudit». Peraltro, in varie lettere l’umanista avrebbe citato l’antico maestro, usando nei suoi confronti espressioni af- fettuose (P. BEMBO, Epistolarium, libri sedecim, in Opere del cardinale Pie- tro Bembo, Venezia 1729, p. 243). 11 Il Maurolico scrive nella Cosmographia (completata nel 1535 e pub- blicata nel 1543) che Bembo, sotto Costantino Lascaris, «a Messina si era impegnato un tempo per lo studio delle lettere greche», ripetendo esat- tamente la frase iniziale della propria lettera del 1536 (F. MAUROLICO, Co- smographia, Venezia 1543, f. 4r), e riferisce anche d’uno strumento re- galato dal patrizio veneto al dotto bizantino (v. infra, nt. 124). 12 Il sonetto, contenuto in un volume stampato da Pietro Spira, proba- bilmente nel 1552 (F. MAUROLICO, Rime del Maurolyco, Messina, f. hij), si leg- ge in R. MOSCHEO, Scienza e cultura a Messina tra ’400 e ’500: eredità del La- scaris e “filologia” mauroliciana, in “Nuovi Annali della Facoltà di Magiste- ro dell’Università di Messina”, 6 (1998), pp. 595-632 spec. 621. Per l’anno di stampa del volume cfr. MOSCHEO, Mecenatismo, cit., pp. 127 e 202. 13 Viene ripetuto così, dal Maurolico, il noto e lusinghiero giudizio di Aldo Manuzio, espresso nella lettera ad Angelo Gabrielli (in prefazione al primo libro del De octo partibus orationis del Lascaris): «Athenae alterae propter Constantinum». COSTANTINO LASCARIS TRA FAMA E OBLIO NEL CINQUECENTO MESSINESE 9 del testo d’una lettera che la B.V.
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