THE TWO BEMBOS: A FRESH LOOK AT THEITALIAN QUESTIONE DELLA LINGUA

In his dialogue Ercolano, that appeared posthumously in 1570, Benedetto Varchi introduces himself as one of the interlocutors, discussing matters of language with Count Cesare Ercolano and questioning the relative merits of Homer and Dante. In order to prove Dante's superiority and impress his opponent, Varchi not only seeks the opinion of two important contemporary men of letters who would be championing Dante's excellence, but also adds

... mi pare ricordarmi, che M. Sperone quando io era in Padoua, fusse nella medesima sentenza: ... questo sò io di certo, che egli non si poteua saziare di cerebrarlo, e d'ammirarlo. 1

I seem to recollect that M. Sperone, when I was in , was of the same opinion ... this I know for sure, that he was never tired of praising and admiring him [Dante] (my translation).

It is interesting to observe Varchi, the champion of those who held that the language spoken on the Italian peninsula was nothing but Florentine, seeking the testimony of Sperone Speroni, the one who, in the "questione della lingua" held a diametrically opposing view. Obviously Varchi, writing toward the end of his life, is reminiscing about his days in Padua, when he had been a member of the "Accademia degli Infiammati" 2 and remembers Sperone Speroni as his friend and as one of Dante's supporters, rather than considering him an intellectual iconoclast or, worse, a dangerous disbeliever accused of heresy by the Inquisition. Interest in Sperone Speroni throughout the years has been mercurial, his fortunes being mostly tied to literary criticism; scholars have, therefore, tended to scrutinize his theories of the theatre 3 rather than concentrating their attention on his contribution to the theory of language. The few who have given heed to the "Questione della lingua" have done so either by examining Speroni's attitude as opposing the Tuscans, or by seeing him as a precursor of Saussurian linguistics. 4

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One cannot help to ponder over the words that one of the most respected linguists of our generation, Gianfranco Contini, wrote about the relationship between the appreciation of poetry and textual exegesis. 5 Not unlike Contini's observation that the alternative "o si legge ο si commenta" does not constitute an anguished and disturbing inevitability, the reinterpretation of Sperone Speroni as a modern linguist is not incompatible with a methodical historical search that tries to tie the thought of Speroni to that of his great predecessor. We will, therefore, seek out historical facts, unravel internal evidence, determine the terminus a quo and the terminus ad quem of the works we study, scrutinize biographical elements, read correspondence, examine later works, all in order to unravel the knowledge that Speroni had of Dante and to determine the debt he owed the father of the Italian language. We wonder whether de Saussure's warning that there are two "routes qui conduisent l'une à la diachronie, l'autre à la synchronie," 6 shouldn't be tempered by his observation that "chaque langue forme pratiquement une unité d'étude, et l'on est amené par la force des choses à la considérer tour à tour statiquement et historiquement." 7 We should, hence, look at Sperone Speroni as one of the pre- cursors of modern linguistic theories, but also try to determine how he has adapted ideas and theories that have been bequeathed to him by Trissino. In doing so, we will discover that there is an uninterrupted line that, beginning with Dante's De vulgari eloquentia and passing through Trissino's translation and his dialogue Il Castellano, blossoms out in Speroni's Dialogo delle lingue and that each generation colors Dante's words in a different manner and interprets his linguistic views according to its own time. We shall finally try to discover why (in spite of the fact that each spokesman for each generation has, beneath the cloak of a similar outward appearance, often made substantial changes) Speroni's Dialogo did not contribute to the creation of a scientific language in , as one would have normally expected. For the purpose of our search, it would be futile to enter the discussion on the date of composition of the De vulgari eloquentia 8. Suffice to say that scholars are fairly much in agreement with Mengaldo's assessment that this book was commenced not before 1303 and, up to I, XII, certainly not after February 1305 (the date of Marquis Giovanni di Monferrato's death, since he is mentioned in I, XII, 5 as still being alive); the 33 rest of the book was probably written not much later than 1306. The most important observation to be made is that it reflects the exile's non-parochial views on language and testifies to the extent of the pilgrim's journeys, prior to his fortieth birthday. Dante is so aware of his innovative qualities that the very first words of the De vulgari eloquentia are

Cum neminem ante nos de vulgaris eloquentie doctrina quicquam inveniamus tractasse, (I, I, 1)

Since I find that no one before me has treated systematically the doctrines of eloquence ... 9

Of the many revolutionary statements contained in this short treatise, none was to impress readers more than the definition of the difference between static and dynamic languages and the glorification of the vernacular:

dicimus ... quod vulgarem locutionem appellamus eam qua infantes assuefiunt ab assistentibus, cum primitus distinguere voces incipiunt: vel, quod brevius dici potest, vulgarem locutionem asserimus, quam sine omni regula nutricem imitantes accipimus. Est et inde alia locutio secundaria nobis, quam Romani gramaticam vocaverunt. ... Harum quoque duarum nobilior est vulgaris: tum quia prima fuit humano generi usitata: tum quia totus orbis ipsa perfruitur, ... tum quia naturalis est nobis, cum illa potius artificialis existat. (I, I, 2-4)

... that which I call "vernacular speech" is that which babies be- come accustomed to from those around them when they first begin to articulate speech; or, as it could be put more succinctly, I would claim as vernacular speech that which we learn without any rules in imitating our nurse. We can also acquire another speech, which is dependent on this one called by the Romans "grammar" ... Of these two [kinds of speech] the vernacular is the nobler both because it is enjoyed by the whole world ... and because it is natural to us, while the other is more of an artificial product.

It is not my purpose here to explain the difference between this passage and the statements contained in Convivio I,V and I,X, the analyses of Mengaldo 1 0 and Giustiniani 1 1 being sufficient. The difference doesn't seem to have been noticed by (or to have impressed) any of the Renaissance participants to the "Questione della lingua." The medieval duality between "natura" and 'ars" 34 that Pézard adduced as being the major cause for the greater nobility of the vernacular 1 2 will become, especially in Speroni, the duality between "verba" and "res." Of equal importance to the Renaissance men who read and either accepted or rejected the De vulgari eloquentia is the declaration of the continuous changeability of human languages, which is expressed by Dante thus,

... si vetustissimi Papienses nunc resurgerent, sermone vario vel diverso cum modernis Papiensibus loquerentur. (I, IX, 7)

... if the most ancient Pavese were to come back now, they would speak to the modern Pavese in a different or variant language.

and his further enumeration of the various vernaculars used in the different regions of Italy (I,X). Dante's rejection of all dialects is significant, but much more so in his downgrading of all Tuscan dialects, Florentine included, a fact that will be used later on by his detractors to attempt to prove the spuriousness of the treatise. Hence, according to Dante, since none of the vernaculars of Italy is acceptable, one must track down the elusive panther for which he has been searching, and describing it as

illustre, cardinale, aulicum et curiale vulgare in Latio, quod omnis latie civitatis est et nullius esse videtur, et quo municipalia vulgaria omnia Latinorum mensurantur et ponderantur et comparantur. (I,XVI,6).

the illustrious, cardinal, courtly, and curial vernacular of Latium is that which belongs to all of the Latian cities and seems to belong to none, against which all the municipal vernaculars are measured, and compared.

Dante further argues that, just as it is possible to discover a vernacular peculiar to one city, so it is possible to find one that is particular to a whole region, or to half of Italy, or to the whole of it (Ι,ΧΙΧ,1). What the Renaissance writers didn't see, or didn't want to see, was the fact that Dante's attention was focused on verse, rather than on prose, and that he chose only those poets who he thought were worthy of using the illustrious vernacular, only the most excellent ones, namely those who wrote canzoni on the great subjects of arms, love, and rectitude (ΙΙ,Ι,1, ΙΙ,ΙΙ,1, II,II,9). 35

Dante's treatise remained practically unknown during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; a copy known as the "Codice Trivulziano" seems to have been acquired at the beginning of the sixteenth century by Giangiorgio Trissino, who made it first known among his friends in Florence, then in . Cardinal Bembo had a copy of the Trivulziano manuscript made and used some of its material in the Prose della volgar lingua, while Trissino translated it and interpreted it to suit his own theory in 1529, in a dialogue, known as Il Castellano. Prior to writing this dialogue, Trissino had written an Epistola de le lettere nuovamente aggiunte nela lingua italiana, addressed to Clement VII, probably in November 1524. 1 3 In it, he praises innovation because, in human endeavor we do not behave or act as our forefathers had, and, to his detractors' horror, he refers to his own language as "Italian," rather than as "Tuscan" or "Florentine," declaring that

in molti vocaboli mi parto dal'uso Fiorentino, e li pronunzio secondo l'uso Cortigiano. 1 4

in many words I depart from Florentine custom and I pronounce them according to Courtly usage.

The epistle stirred a violent controversy, as proven by the dedication by the printer, Tolomeo Janiculo, of Il Castellano, in 1529, to its public. 1 5 In it, the printer reminds the readers that the author's opponents are hidden under the figure of Filippo Strozzi, while the author's own position is defended by another interlocutor, the Castellano himself, the name from which the dialogue received its name. The author does not appear as one of the participants in the dialogue: his place is assumed by a fictitious Arrigo Doria: why Trissino refused to accept the paternity of his book and hid under such a pseudonym is still open to conjecture. The author narrates how, while in Rome, Giovanni Ruccellai, who had just been elevated by Pope Clement VII to the rank of governor of Castel Sant'Angelo, converses on the subject of the Italian language with Jacopo Sanazzaro, Antonio Lelio, and Filippo Strozzi; this one immediately impugns Trissino's letter to the Pope on the ground that its title contains the words "lingua italiana" while the proper term should have been Tuscan language. Interestingly enough, Filippo Strozzi, who is placed in the dialogue as the opposer of Dante's De vulgari eloquentia, uses Dante's own 36

Classification of languages, defining the language spoken on Italian soil as "lingua di sì"; when confronted with the authority of Dante's book that Trissino had just translated into Italian, Strozzi has no other recourse than to deny the book's authenticity. This will be, in general, the position of the "Toscaneggianti," who could not accept Dante's testimony that undermined their position. Trissino's theory is based on the difference between genus, species, and individual. He classifies human speech as a "genere generalissimo," the widest genus possible, which appears beneath many species, known under the names of Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Slavic, German, and so on and so forth. Each language is further divided, so that the Italian language is subdivided in Roman, Sicilian, Tuscan, Apulian, Venetian, Lombard, and other similar sub-species; each one of these can be considered as a genus in its own right, possessing its own peculiar pronunciation and lexicon. In this passage, Trissino paraphrases Dve I,X,9, where Dante had remarked that

nec non in eadem civitate aliqualem variationem perpendimus,

we may even observe certain differences within a single city, and I, IX, 4, in which Dante had observed

aliter ... locuntur; ... et quod mirabilius est, sub eadem civilitate morantes, ut Bononienses Burgi Sancti Felicis et Bononienses Strate Maioris.

others still have dissimilarities in their speech ...; or what is even more remarkable, those residing in the same city, like the Bolognese of the Borgo of San Felice, as against the Bolognese of the Strada Maggiore.

Trissinos' reasoning continues in line with Dve I,XIX: let us remove, he says, the few words that differentiate my own idiom from my brother's Palla, and our tongues will be the same; let us remove from the dialects of Prato, San Miniato, and Florence those words that are peculiar to each borough, and what is left is Florentine; let us remove the words that are not common to all towns in Tuscany and we shall have Tuscan; let us remove the idioms and terms that are not common to all Italian dialects, and we shall have Italian. It is interesting to notice the distinction made 37 by Trissino between law and sciences: in a trial, says Sanazzaro, siding with Castellano, whoever produces the largest number of witnesses will be the winner. In the sciences, on the other hand, truth alone shall prevail, and, as one can well perceive in this particular case, truth will be adduced not only by Boccaccio's authority, but by that of many other authors, among whom stands Dante himself. Not only in Convivio, says Trissino, but throughout the Commedia, Dante has used the term Italian rather than Florentine; the main testimony adduced by Castellano will be Dante's book della Volgar Eloquentia so that Arrigo Doria is dispatched to seek Trissino's recent translation of this book. Arrigo Doria first reads the passage from Dve where Dante extolls the poets of the so-called Sicilian school (I,IX, 1-4). Castellano interprets Dante's words to suit Trissino's theory, and Arrigo goes on reading I,XIX, 1-2, to show the existence of an illustrious vernacular common to all of Italy, then cleverly quotes Dante's attack on the Tuscan poets (I,XIII,1), and concludes by quoting I,XII,4, ending with the words

non resta in dubbio, che il volgare, che noi cerchiamo sia altro, che quello, che hanno i popoli di Toscana. (Castellano, p. 19 recto.)

there is no doubt that the vernacular we are looking for is something other than the one the Tuscan people employ.

Sanazzaro then concludes by upbraiding Filippo Strozzi to prove that

la lingua di Dante, e del Petrarca, e di molt'altri antichi dicitori, si dee chiamare Italiana ... (Castellano, p. 20 verso.)

the language of Dante, of Petrarch, and of many other ancient poets, ought to be named Italian ...

It is obvious that Trissino has not only twisted Dante's words to suit his own purpose, but he has also conveniently forgotten Dante's exhortation in Book II, about the "vulgare illustre" being the vehicle for the most elevated subjects ("salus," "venus," and "virtus") and Dante's definition that these subjects ought to be treated in the "vulgari altissimo" only by the "doctores" who have sung these subjects in "cantiones." 38

This tendency of appropriating Dante to prove one's point of view will be common to everyone, friend or foe of the theory of the "italianità della lingua." Even the dean of the position of the "fiorentinità" had, as we have already seen, procured for himself a copy of the Trivulziano manuscript; yet, although Bembo clearly has recourse to Dve in his Prose della volgar lingua, he fails to mention it by name, although he takes notice of La vita nuova, il Convito, le Canzoni, and la Commedia. 16 Dante's paternity, which is putative in Bembo, can be easily demonstrated in Sperone Speroni, in spite of the fact that neither Migliorini, 1 7 nor Vitale 1 8 seem to stress the direct derivation from Dante through the Trissinian intermediary. Mazzacurati stresses "il Bembismo dello Speroni," and concedes that "tra il pensiero del Bembo e quello dello Speroni, a parte il razionalismo critico e il conseguente storicismo di quest'ultimo, si è chiaramente inserito il pensiero del Trissino," 1 9 and then, oblivious of the Dantean original, devotes his attention to Speroni's anti-Latin position. 2 0 Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti was born in Padua in 1500; 2 1 the most reliable biographical information can still be gathered from Forcellini's outline in the Paduan's life, appended to the 1740 edition of his works, which was based on twenty-four volumes of Speroni's manuscripts. 2 2 In spite of Speroni's outspoken anti- Tuscan position, his authority in the matter of language remained so great that the Accademia della Crusca consulted his works in the preparation of the first edition of its dictionary; 2 3 his reputation as a Dante scholar became quite prominent, because of the pro-Dante position he had taken in the Apologia. 2 4 We are aware of Speroni's personal acquaintance with Bembo, since, in a letter addressed to Felice Paciotto in Pesaro, he says:

... vediamo un poco se il nostro Dante, il quale fu sommo Virgiliano, come egli dice, è degno di essere letto, come fu già altra volta; ο se è nulla, siccome il Bembo soleva dirmi. 2 5

And, since we are going to devote our attention on Speroni's Dialogo delle lingue, it is important to emphasize his personal acquaintance with and his admiration for Trissino, the man who, in my estimation, had a much greater bearing on the dialogue than it has been heretofore believed; on this subject we have Speroni's own testimony: 39

Onde poiché io fui in Vinegia, mi fei portare fino a Murano, ove io avevo inteso essere quel mirabile nobile spirito del Trissino, solo per potermi gloriare di aver veduto Venegia e lui, il quale è oggi così un miracolo tra begli ingegni, quanto al saper render conto delle cose sottili ... ed andando a casa sua, egli conosciuto il mio desiderio, mi accolse amorevolissimamente. 26

Consulting the Opere is not only interesting reading but it also enlightens us on the date of composition of the Dialoghi, on the date of composition of the Apologia, on the intellectual and political climate under which the Dialoghi were composed, and on what prompted their writing. It is, finally, an important document on the influence of the Dialoghi in France. Speroni had been a pupil in of Peretto Pomponazzi, for whom he always maintained a loving admiration: he introduces him as one of the interlocutors of Dialogo delle lingue (a work that was written, as we shall see, between 1530 and 1542), and he often bemoans his passing away. In the "Dialogo della istoria," for instance, he says: "Ma perché in questo ragionamento io non ho meco il Peretto, che regga e guidi ordinatamente le mie parole ..." 2 7 It wasn't without any danger to remain faithful to Peretto Pomponazzi: his treatise De immortalitate animae, in which the immortality of the soul was denied, had been burnt in the public place in ; his teachings, though, were kept alive in Padua and Averroistic thinking permeated the rationalistic teaching of the "studio padovano" of the first half of the sixteenth century. This is the Padua in which young Sperone Speroni was asked to teach, first logic in 1520, then , until 1528. There he met Bembo and, when the "Accademia degli Infiammati" was created, his confreres considered him so worthy that, at the beginning of November 1542, he was elected "Principe dell'Accademia." 2 8 The Dialoghi were first printed in Venice by the house of Aldus in 1542, 2 9 and reprinted in 1542, 1543, 1544, twice in 1546, 1550, and 1552. The book is dedicated by Daniello Barbaro to Ferdinando Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, and the name of the author does not appear in it, probably because, as we read in the Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana, Daniello Barbaro had the dialogues printed, without affording Speroni the chance of correcting them. 3 0 Whether Speroni would have changed any of the words, had he been given the chance to do so, we do not know; it is sure that the Dialoghi were to haunt him for many years to come. 40

We learn from the Apologia, printed posthumously in 1596, but probably written around 1570, 31 that a so-called "gentiluomo" had sent the Inquisitor an annotated copy of his dialogue and that he had been forced to defend himself in front of the "Reverendo Padre Maestro." 3 2 How sincere his words are, and whether he is performing for the benefit of the Inquisitor, is questionable. He sounds quite dramatic when he relates that once confronted by the Inquisitor, who read to him excerpts from the dialogue, he remained thunderstruck "non altrimenti che se da folgore ο da bombarda venisse il suono delle parole." 3 3 Coming back to his senses, he asked himself whether he, himself, had written such statements, "poscia che mi fur tolti li miei dialoghi e dati in mano agli stampatori." 3 4 This is probably the same information that was available to the author of the Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana, from whom we gain further proof of the popularity of the Dialoghi in France: it is in the Opere that we learn that six editions of the Dialoghi were printed in Italy in a span of sixteen years "nè quasi andò, che i Francesi, nazion per altro sì avara cogli'Italiani delle sue laudi, rapiti e presi da inusitata facondia per opera del Gruget gli han trasferiti nella lor lingua." 3 5 This information is corroborated by Brunet who states that "Il y a une traduction française des Dialogues de Speroni, par Cl. Gruget, Paris, Groulleau, pour Jean Longis et Sertenas, 1551 in -8, dans laquelle l'éditeur a inseré le dialogue de la Cure familière, et celui de la Dignité des femmes qu'un traducteur anonyme avait déjà publié à Paris en 1548, in -16." 3 6 This is the avenue through which the Dialogo delle lingue entered France and became known to Joaquim du Bellay, who was to use it in the Deffence et illustration de la langue françoise. The Dialogo delle lingue is, then, the product of a young Speroni; the action is imagined to take place in Bologna, in the year 1530, since one of the interlocutors, the Cortegiano, mentions that Messer Romolo [Amaseo] held an address on the supremacy of Latin in that city one year before that date, and we know that episode to have taken place in 1529. 3 7 It is significant that the dialogue takes place in Bologna, the university city where Speroni had studied under Peretto Pomponazzi, who is one of the inter- locutors. The other ones are [Pietro] Bembo, Lazaro [Buonamico], the Cortegiano, the Scolare, and [Costantino] Lascari[s]. The dialogue is also the work of a Speroni who deeply feels his ties to the city and the university where he is teaching. Of the other 41 interlocutors, Bembo had been one of his companions there, Lazaro has just been appointed lecturer in Greek and Latin "nello studio di Padova," while the "Scolare" epitomizes the free spirit of the most enlightened of the Italian universities. Further proof of the Paduan influence can be found in the scheme which, as Miss Harth has remarked, 3 8 is exquisitely Aristotelian. The dialogue begins with an introduction in which the positions of the combatants in the "questione" are introduced; this is followed by a conversation between Lazaro, Bembo, and the Courtier, in which Lazaro lavishly praises Latin; his defense of Latin is interrupted by a critical intermezzo in which the Cortigiano establishes the difference between matter and form, and Bembo sets forth the importance of "facondia"; it is followed by Lazaro's further attack on all vernaculars that are, by their own very nature, barbaric. Lazaro's outburst is followed by a second critical intermezzo in which Cortegiano examines Lazaro's inability to make himself understood among ordinary people; Bembo's defense of the vernacular is countered by Lazaro who compares it to a poorly tuned musical instrument; it is, in turn, followed by another critical intermezzo in which Cortigiano interjects his own defense of the vernacular, against Lazaro's inability to conceive the steady and constant progress of the vernacular. Bembo gives an impassioned reply in which the vernacular is compared to a plant that is born, grows and dies; as the vernacular grows, so does Latin die: the Ciceronians are doomed. Bembo's speech is followed by a fourth critical intermezzo, which is really a discussion between Bembo, who wants the Italian vernacular to be based solely on the models of Petrarch and Boccaccio, and the Cortigiano who favors a national speech, based upon the language spoken in the courts. Of highest importance is the report, given by the student, of a discussion that had purportedly taken place between Peretto and Lascaris, on the subject of language. The necessity of translating the works of the ancients into understandable contemporary language is brought forth by Peretto, who explains his theory on language; Lascari's opinion that classical languages are better suited to explain science and philosophy is, in Peretto's words, based on nothing but sheer habit: books on science and philosophy are translatable into any other language, as evidenced by good and intelligent Aristotelian translations, that are not based on elegance but on reason: pure form is dangerous. Speroni's Bembo, thus, speaks through both corners of his 42

mouth. He begins by repeating, against Lazaro, the same arguments that Cardinal Bembo had used in the Prose, only to switch to Dante's theory of the autogenic nature of languages, and to deride Lazaro's use of a dead Ciceronian tongue. To Lazaro, who had compared the vernacular to wine dregs, Bembo hypothesizes that there will be soon many good authors writing in the vernacular as perfectly as and Homer did:

peroche se la nostra uolgare hoggidi non é dotata di cosi nobili auttori: già non è cosa impossibile, che ella n'habbia, quando che sia poco meno eccellenti di Virgilio, & d'Homero: cioè che tali siano nella lingua uolgare, quali sono costoro nella greca, & nella latina (p. 100 recto)

and if nowadays our vernacular is not blessed with such noble authors, it is not impossible that there soon will be some who will be almost as excellent as Virgil and Homer: namely that they will be as good in the vernacular as these are in Greek and Latin.

Taking again the cue from Dve, Bembo compares languages to a living tree:

Che cosi uuol la natura: la quale ha deliberato, che qual arbor tosto nasce, fiorisce, & fa frutto: tale tosto inuecchie e si muoia: & in contrario, che quello duri pur molti anni, il quale lunga stagione harà penato à far fronde (108 recto, 109 verso).

Thus has it been decreed by nature: who has decided that a tree that is born, blooms, and fructifies rapidly; the same tree will age and die equally soon: on the contrary, those that took a long time to sprout branches will last many years.

A corollary of this evolutionary theory of languages is that Latin and Greek have come upon their sunset:

la lingua Greca & Latina gia esser giunte all'occaso: ne quelle esser più lingue, ma charta solamente inchiostro (p. 109 verso).

Greek and Latin have reached their sunset: they are no longer languages but mere paper and ink.

It is interesting to see Speroni, who, at this juncture, has not 43 yet seized the full impact of his Venetian friend's linguistic conservativeness, putting on Bembo's lips the very words that will be sealing the doom of Ciceronianism:

ditelo uoi per me, che non osate dir cose latinam te con altre parole, che con quelle di Cicerone (p. 109 verso).

you should tell it for me, you who don't dare to express anything in Latin, unless it is with Cicero's words.

Realizing that his Venetian friend favors the Tuscan dialect, Speroni now puts on his lips words that indicate how deep Trissino's influence was: in order to speak good Italian, says the changed Bembo, one should rather be a native of the Po valley, rather than being born in Florence

ch'egliè meglio per auentura nascer Lombardo, che Fioretino: (p. 110 verso)

that it is better to happen to be born a Lombard than a Florentine.

Nevertheless, even in the Dialogo the historical Bembo and Speroni's character remain tied to the old theory of the supremacy of the ancient Florentine authors. To oppose this position, there arises now a new interpreter of Speroni's mind, the Cortigiano who, using almost the same words Trissino had uttered, declares that he does not recommend an outright dialect, such as Paduan or Bergamasco, but he says that

voglio bene, che di tutte le lingue d'Italia possiamo accogliere parole, & alcun modo di dire, quello usando come à noi piace (p. 111 verso).

I should recommend that we cull words from every Italian dialect, and such idioms as we please.

The student, finally, relating the discussion that his master, Pomponazzi, once had with Lascaris, makes the final distinction between content and form, using the old duality between "verba" and "res" that Trissino has changed as being the distinction between opinion and science. In the student's words, one should heed only the matter contained in books, so that 44

Dio uolesse in seruigio di che uerrà dopo me, che tutti i libri di ogni scienza, quanti ne sono greci, & latini, & hebrei: alcuna dotta, & pietosa persona si desse à fare uolgari: (p. 113 recto).

Oh, if only God would grant to the benefit of future generations that an educated and merciful person were to translate into the vernacular all books of every discipline, whether Greek, Latin, or Hebrew.

These words are put on the lips of Peretto, the Mantuan teacher of Aristotelian philosophy who, in real life, had boasted not to know a single word of Greek. This new character continues, stating that all languages possess the same worth. They have only whatever value has been infused in them by man, so that if

traducendosi à nostri giorni la philosofia seminata dal nostro Aristotile ne buoni campi d'Athene, di lingua greca in uolgare, ciò sarebbe nõ gittarla tra sassi in mezzo à boschi, oue sterile diuenisse, ma farebbesi di lontana propinqua, e di forastiera, che ella è, cittadina d'ogni provinicia (p. 115 verso).

if the philosophy bequeathed to us by Aristotle in the beautiful fields of Athens were to be translated from Greek into the vernacular, this wouldn't be tantamount to throwing it onto the stones in the woods, where it would wilt, rather from distant it would become propinquous, from a foreign tongue, which, as it were, it is, it would become a citizen of every region.

The importance of concepts, as opposed to empty rhetoric, is emphasized by Peretto who extolls the gifts of the intellect versus the inane attitude of the pseudo-humanist who

no curañdo di saper, che si dica; uanamente suole imparare a parlare; & lasciando l'intelletto dormire, sveglia & opra la lingua (p. 117 verso).

not caring to know what is being said, inanely learns how to speak; and allowing his mind to doze, wakes up and wags his tongue, because man's ultimate happiness lays in facts, not in the sound of words:

la nostra propria felicità; la quale è posta nell'intelletto delle dottrine non nel suono delle parole (p. 117 recto). 45

our own happiness, which resides in the very center of science, not in the sound of words.

Nowhere else do we find stated with greater force the dichotomy between the letters and the sciences, between poetry, where only the traditional Tuscan language will bring man fame, and the sciences, that can be expressed in any vernacular:

che se uoglia ui uerrà mai di comporre ò canzoni, ò nouelle al modo uostro, cioè in lingua, che sia diversa dalla Thoscana, & senza imitare il Petrarca, ò il Boccaccio: per auentura uoi sarete buon cortigiano; ma poeta, ò oratore, non mai (p. 120 verso).

that if the desire were ever to come upon you to write either poetry or novelle in your own way, namely in a dialect different from that of Tuscany, or without imitating Petrarch, or Boccaccio, you may, perchance be a good courtier, but you will never be a poet or an orator.

We are reading here, the dichotomy between literature and the sciences as codified by Bembo, that will plague for two centuries to come. Those who listened to Bembo never forgot the words that Lazaro had uttered about the supremacy of Latin, and, reasoning that Italian is the closest one to Latin, among the Romance languages, they saw in it an inherent nobility that made it, by antonomasia, the best. In this dichotomy we can find the seed of that "errore umanistico" that, seeking in the theory of "autenticazione" its very raison d'être, was forsaking "cose" in favor of "parole." The number of those who listened to Speroni's words was very scant and, for this reason, with the exception of Galileo, Italy lacked for almost two centuries a true scientific prose. This lack of greater impact on the part of Speroni's dialogue can be laid at the feet of the above-mentioned accusation of heterodoxy that was hurled at him toward the end of his life and that, probably caused the delay in the final publication of his manuscripts. It must be admitted that the dialogue contains some very daring religious metaphors and that, even if these were eliminated, the work still would lack the religious fervor that was needed to become popular in the climate of the Counter Reformation. We must conclude that those who dared to oppose the establishment were doomed to oblivion. This phenomenon 46 was to continue for years to come; one has only to look at the fate of Bergantini who, some one hundred and fifty years later, will be advocating the introduction of new scientific vocabulary into the Italian lexicon, only to be opposed by the "Cruscanti" and forced into almost complete oblivion. 3 9 One final consideration seems to be pertinent; I was, I believe, successful in showing the direct line that unites Dante's De vulgari eloquentia to Speroni's Dialogo della lingue through the inter- mediary of Trissino's Il Castellano: we could then also link Du Bellay's Défense et illustration de la langue française to a Dantean paternity. In the past twenty years it has been dismaying to see Italian literary and linguistic interpretations colored by political persuasion and to see French interpretations of the Renaissance colored by chauvinism. It is hoped that future scholars will pursue investigations in this field in a non-political and non-biased vein.

ROBERT C. MELZI Widener University

1 Benedetto Varchi, Hercolano. Vinezia, appresso Filippo Giunti e Fratelli, 1570, p. 215. 2 On Varchi's association with the "Accademia dagli Infiammati" see Mario Emilio Cosenza, Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists and of the World of Classical Scholarship in Italy 1300- 1800. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. 1962, V, 3584. On the dating of Ercolano, see a letter, dated Aug. 30, 1570, in which the Giuntis dedicated their book "Al serenissimo Principe di Toscana, nostro Signore [Cosimo I il Grande]"; in the letter it is stated that the dialogue had been substantially revised by Varchi during the last years of his life. See also Guido Manacorda, Benedetto Varchi. Pisa: Nistri, 1903, p. 133. 3 See J. E. Spingarn, A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance. New York: Columbia U. Press, 1899; Bernard Weinberg, A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance. Chicago: The U. of Chicago Press, 1961. 4 See Raffaele Simone, "Sperone Speroni et l'idée de la diachronie dans la linguistique de la Renaissance italienne," in Hermann Parrett ed. History of Linguistic Thought and Contemporary Linguistics. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1976, pp. 302-316. 5 Gianfranco Contini, "Philology and Dante Exegesis," Dante Studies LXXXVII (1969), 1-32. 47

6 Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale. Paris: Payot, 1968, p. 138. 7 de Saussure, p. 140. 8 On De vulgari eloquentia see the bibliography appended to Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, «De vulgari eloquentia» Enciclopedia Dantesca. Roma: Instituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, II, 415; Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, "Introduzione al «De vulgari eloquentia»" Linguistica e retorica di Dante. Pisa: Nistri-Lischi, 1978, pp. 120-123; Maurizio Vitale, "I preliminari.1 Dante e la nozione del volgare illustre, "La questione della lingua. Palermo: Palumbo, 1978, pp. 27-29; Robert S. Haller, Literary Criticism of Dante Alighieri. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1974; Alex Preminger, O. B. Hardison Jr., and Kevin Kerran, eds. Dante, in Classical and Medieval Literary Criticism. New York: Frederick Ungar Pub. Co., 1974, pp. 404-446; Gerhard Rohlfs, "La lingua di Dante nella «Divina Commedia»" Nuovi argomenti 9 (January-March 1968), pp. 66-73; Ignazio Baldelli, "Il De vulgari eloquentia," Terzo Programma 4 (1965), pp. 113-121; Robert Lafont, "A propos de Dante et du 'Vulgaire illustre'," Cahiers du Sud Ν. 386 (53e année) (1965), pp. 127-129; Vito R. Giustiniani, "Noterelle grammatiche e volgari," Italica 56,4 (Winter 1979), pp. 369-376; Giorgio Padoan, "Vicende veneziane del codice Trivulziano del «De vulgari eloquentia»," Dante e la cultura veneta; atti del Convegno di Studi. Firenze: Olschki, 1966, pp. 385-93; Antonino Pagliaro, "Comunità linguistica e lingua comune nella dottrina linguistica di Dante," Dante e l'Italia meridionale. Atti del Congresso Nazionale di Studi Danteschi. Firenze: Olschki, 1966, pp. 115-129; Riccardo Ambrosini, "Aspetti della lingua di Dante," in Marcel Boudreault & Frankwalt Mohrer, eds. Actes du XIIIe Congrès international de linguistique et philologie romanes tenu à l'Université Laval du 29 août au 5 septembre 1971. Quebec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 1976, II, 905-13; Cecil Grayson, "Dante's Theory and Practice of Poetry," in Cecil Grayson ed. The World of Dante: Essays on Dante and His Times. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1980), pp. 146-165. Bruno Migliorini, "Dante nella storia della nostra lingua," Lingua d'oggi e di ieri, Caltanissetta: Sciascia, 1973, pp. 65-74; Dante, Literature in the Vernacular, translated with an introduction by Sally Purcell. [Birmingham?]: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1980. 9 In spite of the fact that Sally Purcell's book is more recent (see footnote 8), I prefer Haller's translation which is based on the Marigo edition. 10 Mengaldo, Linguistica, pp. 60-61. 1 1 Giustiniani, "Noterelle p. 372. 12 André Pézard, La rotta gonna. Gloses et corrections aux textes mineurs de Dante, II, Firenze, Paris, as quoted by Mengaldo, Linguistica p. 61. 48

13 Pio Rajna, "Questioni cronologiche concernenti la storia della lingua italiana: Datazione di un manifesto memorabile di riforma ortografica," La Rassegna XXIV (1916), 257-262. "Epistola del Trissino de le lettere nuovamente aggiunte ne la lingua italiana," in Tutte le opere di Giovan Giorgio Trissino, Verona, Jacopo Vallarsi, 1729. On Trissino, in addition to the bibliography in Vitale, La questione ... p. 122, see T. Gwynfor Griffith, "Giangiorgio Trissino and the Italian Language," Hermathena CXXI (Winter 1976), 169-84. 14 Trissino, "Epistola," Opere, II, 200. 15 Dialogo del Trissino/ intitulato il Castellano/ nel quale si tratta de la lingua italiana. [Vicenza, Tolomeo Janiculo, 1529]. All quotations will be from this edition; the translation is mine. Although the copy I have consulted does not bear the imprint of Janiculo, it is printed with the same font, and bears unmistakable traits of the same printer who has also produced Dante/ De La Volgare/ Eloquenzia/ stampata in Vicenza, per Tolomeo Ianiculo da Bressa nel anno MDXXIX Del Mese di Genaro. The book is dedicated to Cardinal de' Medici by a Giovanbattista Doria. 16 On Bembo see Vitale, La questione, p. 115. 17 Bruno Migliorini, Storia della lingua italiana. Firenze: Sansoni, 1958, 2nd ed. 1960, 327-49. 18 Vitale, La questione, p. 69. 19 Between Bembo's thought and that of Speroni's, if one forgets the critical rationalism and consequent historicism of the latter, Trissino's thought has clearly inserted itself. Giancarlo Mazzacurati, La questione della lingua dal Bembo all'Accademia fiorentina. Napoli: Liguori, 1965, p. 53. 2 0 Mazzacurati, p. 69. 21 On Speroni see Vitale, La questione, p. 125. See also Dialogo delle lingue herausgegeben, übersetzt und eingeleidet von Helene Harth (Humanistische Bibliotek Reihe II: Texte Band II). München: Wilhelm Fink, 1975. On Speroni's influence on Du Bellay see the recently reprinted Pierre Villey, Les sources italiennes de la Défense et illustration de la langue française de J. Du Bellay. Paris, 1908; Marcel Françon, "La Deffence et illustration de la langue françoise et l'influence italienne," Mélanges à la memoire de Franco Simone: France et Italie dans la culture européenne. I. Moyen Âge et Renaissance. Turin: Centre d'études Franco- Italiens, Université de Turin, pp. 421-426; indispensable the "Nota introduttiva" to "Sperone Speroni" in Mario Pozzi, Trattatisti del Cinquecento, Milano: Ricciardi, 1978, I, 471-509. 22 Opere/ di M. Sperone Speroni/ degli Alvarotti/ tratte da' Mss. originali/ Tomo Primo/ in Venezia, MDCCXL/ appresso Domenico Occhi/ Con licenza de' superiori, e Privilegio. The book was dedicated by Natal dalle Laste and Marco Forcellini "Alla Magnifica città di Padova ed ai Magnifici Signori Deputati. The preface was dedicated to the well- known Abate Antonio Conti. 49

23 See Accademia della Crusca, Gli Atti del primo vocabolario, editi da Severina Parodi. Firenze: Sansoni, 1974, p. 69. From this book we learn that "lo 'Ntriso" was given the task of reading Speroni's books [Intriso was the academician's name of Giovan Simone Tornabuoni]. 24 The Apologia was probably written around 1570; it was published by Della Vedova as a pamphlet: Apologia di Dante scritta intorno al 1575 dal padovano Sperone Speroni. Padova, 1865. See "Sopra Dante. Discorso Secondo." Opere, V, 504. 25 Let us briefly see whether our Dante who was, as he says, a great admirer of Vergil, is worthy of being read, as he has been other times, or whether he is not, as Bembo used to tell me (Opere, V, 281). 26 Then, since I was in Venice, I had myself transported to Murano, where I had heard that admirable and noble spirit of Trissino to live, for no other purpose than to be able to boast that I had seen Venice and him, who is now almost a marvel among geniuses, as one who is able to relate the most subtle matters ... and, having arrived at his house, he, who heard about my wish, received me most lovingly (Opere, IV, 87). 27 Since in this treatise I don't have Peretto with me, to sustain and orderly guide my words ... (Opere, II, 267). 28 Opere, IV, 251. 29 I dialoghi di messer Speron Sperone. Vinegia, in casa de' figliuoli di Aldo, 1542. 30 Biblioteca dell'eloquenza italiana di Monsignore Giusto Fontanini con le Annotazioni del Signor Apostolo Zeno, Venezia Giambatista Pasquali, 1753, I, 101-102. Daniel Barbaro had taught moral philosophy at Padua in 1537. See Cosenza, I, 396. 31 We read in Opere I, 327 that the "Apologia" had been written fifty years after "Dialogo d'amore" and that this dialogue had been written in 1520. 32 Opere, I, 266. 33 ... as if the sound of such words was coming from thunder or from a cannon. 34 since my dialogues were taken away from me and given to the printer (Opere, I, 266). 35 and it didn't take long that the French, a nation normally very parsimonious in praising the Italians, enraptured and enamored of their unusual eloquence, translated them into their language, by the work of Gruget (Opere, p. X). 36 There is a French translation of the Dialogues of Speroni, prepared by Cl. Gruget, and printed by Groulleau for Jean Longis and Sertenas, 1551, in which the editor has inserted the dialogue on Care of the Family and the one on Dignity of Women, that had already been anonymously translated in Paris in 1548 in 16: Jacques-Charles Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1864, V, 487. 50

37 Cecil Grayson, A Renaissance Controversy: Latin or Italian. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960, p. 6. 38 Dialogo delle lingue, Harth transl. pp. 57-59. 39 G. P. Bergantini's, an important Italian lexicographer of the 18th century, was relegated to oblivion for advocating to insert into the Italian lexicon the new scientific terminology advanced by Newton. See G. P. B. C. R. T. (Gianpietro Bergantini) Scelta d'immagini ο Saggio d'imitazioni e concetti. Venezia, Giacomo Caroboli & Domenico Pompeati, 1762.