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Petrarch and St. Augustine Brill’S Studies in Intellectual History Petrarch and St. Augustine Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History General Editor Han van Ruler, Erasmus University Rotterdam Founded by Arjo Vanderjagt Editorial Board C.S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore M. Colish, Yale College J.I. Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton M. Mugnai, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa W. Otten, University of Chicago VOLUME 210 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/bsih Petrarch and St. Augustine Classical Scholarship, Christian Theology and the Origins of the Renaissance in Italy By Alexander Lee LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 Cover Illustration: Portrait of Petrarch, after Altichiero (c. 1379), from MS Paris B.N. lat. 6069. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lee, Alexander (Historian) Petrarch and St. Augustine : classical scholarship, Christian theology, and the origins of the Renaissance in Italy / by Alexander Lee. pages cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; volume 210) Originally presented as the author’s thesis (Ph. D.—University of Edinburgh). Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-22403-2 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Petrarca, Francesco, 1304–1374—Religion. 2. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo—Influence. 3. Humanism—Italy—History. 4. Italy—Intellectual life. 5. Renaissance—Italy. I. Title. PQ4543.L44 2012 851’.1—dc23 2011050680 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.nl/brill-typeface. ISSN 0920-8607 ISBN 978-90-04-22403-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-22602-9 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. For my parents, Chris and Ingrid Lee, with love. CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ ix Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 I A Question of Attribution .................................................................. 31 II Stoicism and ‘Augustinianism’ in the Secretum .......................... 63 III All in the Mind: Otium in the De Otio Religioso .......................... 113 IV The Hidden Life of Solitude .............................................................. 159 V The Holy Passion of Friendship ....................................................... 229 VI Eloquence and Philosophy ................................................................. 277 Epilogue ............................................................................................................. 351 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 357 Index ................................................................................................................... 375 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book has been in preparation for almost six years, and it is no under- statement to say that it would never have existed, much less come to frui- tion, were it not for the love and kindness of my parents, Chris and Ingrid Lee. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that I would never have come to Renaissance history had they not opened my eyes to the magical world of art and books when I was a child, and so selflessly propelled me to follow my heart from the very beginning. Their unceasing encouragement and support defy all description, and I don’t think that I will ever be able to express how incredibly grateful I am to have such a wonderful family. This book is dedicated to them with love. Having begun life as a PhD thesis submitted to the University of Edin- burgh, this volume bears the impression of those who so patiently guided my studies. Prof. Richard Mackenney, Dr. Stephen Bowd, and Prof. Jon- athan Usher consistently opened new horizons to me, showed me new avenues to pursue, and sometimes saved me from the most glaring errors, always with great warmth of heart. Their generosity of spirit, kindness, and advice have been a never-ending source of encouragement and helped make the early stages of this study a truly exciting journey of discovery: for this, I am profoundly grateful. In developing this work for publication, I have been lucky to have ben- efitted from the help and advice of a number of scholars who read and commented on various chapters at different stages. In particular, I would like to thank Prof. Nicholas Mann, Dr. Gavin Kelly, Prof. Sir Brian Vickers, Prof. Luc Deitz, and Dr. William Rossiter. The gratitude which I owe to my wife, Ida Gyurian, however, is truly vast and there is no way adequately to convey how much this volume is indebted to her. She has always been there with love and kindness, encouragement and support, and I could not possibly even being to count the occasions on which she has endured arcane discussions about Petrarch with loving affection, incredible patience, and a cheering smile that has lifted my spirits immeasurably at even the most difficult times. I really could not have completed it without her: this book carries with it my love. For unwavering friendship through good times and bad, I will always be grateful for some of the best people I could hope to know: James O’Connor, x acknowledgements who has done so much to stay in touch from New York and Frankfurt, Dr. Luke Houghton, Sr. Mary Thomas, Dr. Timothy Stanley, Dr. John Davies, Dr. Alexander Millar, Dr. Pit Péporté, Yascha Mounk, and most of all, my brother, Piers Lee, who will never know quite how much I love him. The various academic institutions at which I have had the good fortune to work while this book has been in progress have contributed greatly to the finish product. The School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, the Università degli studi di Bergamo, the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick, and the Laboratoire d’Histoire at the Université du Luxembourg have given me the opportunity to benefit from a friendly collegiality, a happy atmo- sphere of mutual support, and an unending reserve of stimulating discus- sion at all times, and I am thankful for the chance to have worked with such a marvellous collection of scholars. Many of the chapters in this book received their first airing at a number of conferences and seminars, and I have benefitted greatly from the com- ments received at these events. Thanks are due to the organisers of the Society for Renaissance Studies Annual Conference (July 2006), the Denys Hay Seminar at the University of Edinburgh (October 2006), the ‘Augus- tine and Readers’ Conference at the University of St. Andrews (November 2006), the South Central Renaissance Conference, held in San Antonio, Texas (March 2007), the ‘Spirit of the Age’ Conference at the University of Kingston (July 2007), the Medieval European Research Seminar at the University of Manchester (November 2007), and the Society for Italian Studies Interim Conference at the School of Germanic and Romance Stud- ies in the University of London (April 2008). I am also very grateful for the help of the staff of the University of Edin- burgh Library, the National Library of Scotland, the British Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Cambridge University Library, the Biblioteca dell’ Università degli studi di Bergamo, and the Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg. I would also like to thank the Society for Renaissance Studies for granting me a Study Fellowship which allowed me an invaluable opportunity to conduct research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. INTRODUCTION Petrarch is commonly viewed as the father of humanism, and as a har- binger of the Renaissance in Italy. Viewed as a precursor of the classi- cal enthusiasms of figures including Coluccio Salutati and Lorenzo Valla, and of the self-consciousness of those such as Marsilio Ficino, Petrarch is held to have looked back affectionately at the ‘pure radiance’ of antiquity, and to have looked forward to an age of rebirth and renewal, the advent of which he endeavoured to assist.1 An avid classical scholar, he recon- structed the surviving decades of Livy’s Ab urbe condita while still a young man,2 and discovered not only Cicero’s letters to Atticus in the library of Verona Cathedral in 1345,3 but also Cicero’s previously unknown oration Pro Archia in Liège in 1333.4 His works bristle with his enthusiasm for clas- sical Latinity. As his contemporaries were quick to appreciate, he strove to emulate the written style of the classics, and peppered his prose works with quotations from ancient literature.5 In his choice of genres and sub- ject matter, too, he turned often to antiquity, and Cicero, Seneca, Virgil, Livy, and Valerius
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