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Annio Da Viterbo E La Fondazione Di Luna. La Difesa Erudita Di Un Falso Tra Storiografia, Epigrafia E Numismatica Annius of Viterbo and the Foundation of Luna

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Annio Da Viterbo E La Fondazione Di Luna. La Difesa Erudita Di Un Falso Tra Storiografia, Epigrafia E Numismatica Annius of Viterbo and the Foundation of Luna Federico Frasson, Annio da Viterbo e la fondazione di Luna… Sylloge Epigraphica Barcinonensis (SEBarc) xvi, 2018, pp. 17-35 issn 2013-4118 data de recepció 1.2.2018 data d’acceptació 7.3.2018 Annio da Viterbo e la fondazione di Luna. La difesa erudita di un falso tra storiografia, epigrafia e numismatica Annius of Viterbo and the foundation of Luna. The erudite defense of a forgery Federico Frasson* Riassunto: Le falsificazioni di Annio da Viterbo, che ebbero una certa fortuna soprattutto nel XVI secolo, includono anche un frammento catoniano, in cui si attribuisce al dio Giano, identificato con il patriarca Noè, la fondazione di dodici città etrusche, tra le quali figura anche Luna, attuale Luni (SP, Italia), vicino a Sarzana. L’analisi della produzione antiquaria sarzanese dei secoli XVI-XVIII dimostra come gli eruditi locali avessero recepito la notizia dello Pseudo- Catone e avessero continuato, per ragioni campanilistiche, a dare un qualche credito a tale fonte, anche quando ormai le contraffazioni di Annio erano state ampiamente smascherate. Lo studio delle prove documentarie addotte a difesa dell’antichità del falso frammento di Catone illumina sul livello di preparazione dei dotti lunigianesi e sull’uso che questi ultimi facevano delle fonti letterarie, epigrafiche e numismatiche. Abstract: The forgeries of Annius of Viterbo, which enjoyed a certain success especially dur- ing the sixteenth century, feature a Catonian fragment relating to the foundation by the god Janus (identified with the patriarch Noah) of twelve Etruscan cities, including Luna, near the modern-day Sarzana (SP, Italy). The analysis of the Sarzanese antiquarian production (XVI-XVIII centuries) shows how local scholars had accepted the account of the Pseudo-Cato and had continued, for campanilistic reasons, to give some credence to this source, even when Annius’ forgeries had been already largely unmasked. The study of the documentary evidences, which were used by the Lunigianese scholars to defend the antiquity of the fake fragment of Cato, enlightens us as to their competence and their use of literary, epigraphic and numismatic sources. * Università degli Studi di Genova. Al Prof. Marc Mayer i Olivé e alla Prof.ssa Giulia Baratta vanno i miei più vivi ringraziamenti per aver accolto questo mio contributo all’interno della Sylloge Epigraphica Barcinonensis. SEBarc xvi, 2018, pp. 17-35 17 Federico Frasson, Annio da Viterbo e la fondazione di Luna… Parole chiave: Annio da Viterbo, Catone, Giano, Luna, falso Keywords: Annius of Viterbo, Cato, Janus, Luna, forgery Sul finire del XV secolo apparve sulla scena degli studi antichistici l’opera del frate domenicano Annio da Viterbo (1437-1502)1 che, con il suo accentuato misoelle- nismo, andava a minare le basi metodologiche degli studi umanistici, proponendo una radicale rilettura della storia più remota del mondo fondata sulle fonti di ori- gine orientale; in particolare, Annio (fig. 1) si poneva sulla scia di Giuseppe Flavio, che considerava la Bibbia ebraica come il resoconto storico più antico ed autorevole, di gran lunga più affidabile della tradizione greca, che, fino a Omero, avrebbe fatto ricorso a testimonianze orali, quando già da molto tempo gli Ebrei, i Caldei, gli Egizi 1. La bibliografia su Annio da Viterbo, il cui vero nome era Giovanni Nanni, è molto vasta: cfr. p. es. R. Weiss, «Traccia per una biografia di Annio da Viterbo», in Italia medioevale e umani- stica 5, 1962, pp. 425-441; E.N. Tigerstedt, «Ioannes Annius and Graecia Mendax», in C. Hen- derson Jr. (ed.), Classical, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies in Honor of Berthold Louis Ullman, II, Roma 1964, pp. 293-310; G. Baffioni, P. Mattiangeli, Annio da Viterbo. Documenti e ricerche, I, Roma 1981; E. Fumagalli, «Un falso tardo-quattrocentesco: lo pseudo-Catone di Annio da Viterbo», in R. Avesani, M. Ferrari, T. Foffano et alii, Vestigia. Studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich, Roma 1984, pp. 337-363; A. Grafton, Falsari e critici. Creatività e finzione nella tradizione letteraria occiden- tale, trad. it., Torino 1996, pp. 30, 40-41, 44, 51-52, 57-59, 62-64, 66-67, 70, 89, 106, 109-124, 127; G. Ferraù, Riflessioni teoriche e prassi storiografica in Annio da Viterbo, in D. Canfora, M. Chiabò, M. de Nichilo (a cura di), Principato ecclesiastico e riuso dei classici. Gli umanisti e Alessandro VI. Atti del convegno (Bari-Monte Sant’Angelo, 22-24 maggio 2000), Roma 2002, pp. 151-193; R. Fubini, Storiografia dell’Umanesimo in Italia da Leonardo Bruni ad Annio da Viterbo, Roma 2003, pp. 335-342; W. Stephens, «When Pope Noah Ruled the Etruscans: Annius of Viterbo and his Forged Antiquities», in Modern Language Notes 119, Suppl., 2004, pp. 201-223; G. Pedullà, «Annio, il falsario di Dio», in A. De Vincentiis (a cura di), Atlante della letteratura italiana, I. Dalle origini al Rinascimento, Torino 2010, pp. 596-603; W. Stephens, «Annius of Viterbo», in A. Grafton, G.W. Most, S. Settis (eds.), The Classical Tradition, Cambridge (Mass.), London 2010, pp. 46-47; W. Stephens, «Complex Pseu- donymity: Annius of Viterbo’s Multiple Persona Disorder», in Modern Language Notes 126, 4, 2011, pp. 689-708; R. Fubini, s.v. Nanni, Giovanni (Annio da Viterbo), in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LXXVII, Roma 2012, pp. 726-732; A. Scandaliato, G. Mandalà, «Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada e Annio da Viterbo: proposte di identificazione e prospettive di ricerca», in M. Perani, G. Corazzol (a cura di), Flavio Mitridate mediatore fra culture nel contesto dell’ebraismo siciliano del XV secolo. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Caltabellotta, 30 giugno-1 luglio 2008, Palermo 2012, pp. 201-217; I.D. Rowland, «Annius of Viterbo», in J.M. Turfa (ed.), The Etruscan World, Abingdon, New York 2013, pp. 1117-1129; W. Stephens, «From Berossos to Berosus Chaldaeus: The Forgeries of Annius of Viterbo and Their Fortune», in J. Haubold, G.B. Lanfranchi, R. Rollinger et alii (eds.), The World of Berossos. Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on »The Ancient Near East between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions«, Hatfield College, Durham 7th-9th July 2010, Wiesbaden 2013, pp. 277-289; V. De Caprio, «Annio da Viterbo e i toponimi», in L. Bertolini, D. Coppini, C. Marsico (a cura di), Nel cantiere degli umanisti per Mariangela Regoliosi, I, Firenze 2014, pp. 475-494; M. Mayer i Olivé, «El prefacio de las Antiquitates de Juan Annio de Viterbo: oportunidad e intención política», in J.M. Maestre Maestre, S.I. Ramos Maldonado, M.A. Díaz Gito et alii (eds.), Humanismo y pervivencia del mundo clásico. Homenaje al Profesor Juan Gil, IV, Alcañiz, Madrid 2015, pp. 1853-1868; I.D. Rowland, «Annius of Viterbo and the Beginning of Etruscan Studies», in S. Bell, A.A. Carpino (eds.), A Companion to the Etruscans, Malden, Oxford, Chichester 2016, pp. 433-445. 18 SEBarc xvi, 2018, pp. 17-35 Federico Frasson, Annio da Viterbo e la fondazione di Luna… e i Fenici registravano accuratamente in forma scritta gli eventi della loro storia2. La pretesa «rivoluzione» anniana si basava sulla riscoperta di molti testi, che si ritenevano perduti, come i Babyloniaca di Berosso (chiamati Chaldaica da Annio), una copia dei quali sarebbe stata data al viterbese da due domenicani armeni, che gli avevano fatto visita mentre si trovava presso il convento di Santa Maria di Ca- Fig. 1. Viterbo, Palazzo dei Priori, Sala del Consiglio, affresco raffigurante frate Annio (da Stephens, «Gli Etruschi…», cit., p. 3) 2. W.E. Stephens, «Gli Etruschi e la Prisca Teologia in Annio da Viterbo», in Biblioteca e società 4, 3-4, 1982, pp. 6-9; W.E. Stephens, «The Etruscans and the Ancient Theology in Annius of Viterbo», in P. Brezzi, M. de Panizza Lorch (a cura di), Umanesimo a Roma nel Quattrocento. Atti del Convegno su «Umanesimo a Roma nel Quattrocento», New York 1-4 dicembre 1981, Roma, New York 1984, pp. 314-322; M. Wifstrand Schiebe, «Tyrrhenus the Degraded Hero. On Changing Concepts in the SEBarc xvi, 2018, pp. 17-35 19 Federico Frasson, Annio da Viterbo e la fondazione di Luna… stello, a Genova3. L’opera di Annio, che con il suo impatto virtualmente avrebbe potuto segnare una svolta nel panorama degli studi, era però frutto di impostura, dal momento che tutti i nuovi testi antichi presentati e commentati dal frate domenicano non erano altro che invenzioni di quest’ultimo. Data alle stampe per la prima volta nel 1498 a Roma, per i tipi di Eucharius Silber, con il titolo di Commentaria super opera diversorum auctorum de antiquitatibus loquentium, l’opera, che oggi è più conosciuta con il nome di Antiquitates, derivato dal titolo dell’edizione parigina del 15124, riscosse un grande successo, tanto che, tra il 1498 e il 1612, ne furono fatte almeno diciotto edizioni in latino e due tradu- zioni italiane. La perdurante fortuna delle Antiquitates5, al cui curioso fascino non sfuggirono nemmeno Jean Bodin, Lutero, Erasmo da Rotterdam e Calvino6, appare piuttosto sorprendente, se si pensa che i sospetti di contraffazione si erano fatti strada molto presto negli ambienti umanistici, come dimostrano le riserve avanzate già dal Volaterrano, dal Sabellico, da Pietro Crinito, Jacques Léfèvre d’Étaples e Juan Luís Vives7. Questo successo, tuttavia, può essere spiegato con l’abilità di Annio, che aveva saputo dare armonia al suo lavoro, e aveva scelto, come fonti, autori che godevano di una grande reputazione presso i suoi contemporanei, inserendoli in una «catena filologica» accuratamente studiata; la stessa veste tipografica dell’imponente volu- me, che imitava lo stile universitario, contribuiva, poi, a incutere rispetto nel lettore. Il viterbese, senza mai lodare apertamente la sua dottrina, era riuscito a plasmare abilmente il suo personaggio di studioso serio e autorevole, giungendo persino, con Works of Annius of Viterbo», in Aevum 66, 1993, pp. 386-388; G. Petrella, L’officina del geografo.
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