The Uses of Humanism Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History General Editor A.J. Vanderjagt, University of Groningen Editorial Board C.S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore M. Colish, Oberlin College J.I. Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton M. Mugnai, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa W. Otten, University of Chicago VOLUME 185 The Uses of Humanism Johannes Sambucus (1531-1584), Andreas Dudith (1533-1589), and the Republic of Letters in East Central Europe By Gábor Almási LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 On the cover: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Der teütsch Cicero, trans. Johann Neuber, ed. Johann von Schwarzenberg, illustrations by Hans Schäuffelin (Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner, 1534), f. 2r. Courtesy of National Széchényi Library (Budapest). This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Almási, Gábor. The uses of humanism : Johannes Sambucus (1531-1584), Andreas Dudith (1533-1589), and the republic of letters in East Central Europe / by Gábor Almási. p. cm. — (Brill’s studies in intellectual history, ISSN 0920-8607 ; v. 185) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-18185-4 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Europe, Central—Intellectual life—16th century. 2. Zsámboki, János, 1531-1584. 3. Dudith, András, 1533-1589. 4. Humanism—Europe, Central—History—16th century. 5. Humanism—Social aspects—Europe, Central—History—16th century. 6. Renaissance— Europe, Central. 7. Habsburg, House of. 8. Austria—Court and courtiers—Biography. 9. Humanists—Hungary—Biography. 10. Scholars—Hungary—Biography. I. Title. DAW1047.A46 2010 144.0943’09031—dc22 2009039182 ISSN 0920-8607 ISBN 978 90 04 18185 4 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, 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. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS List of illustrations ................................................................... vii Abbreviations ........................................................................... ix Acknowledgements .................................................................. xi Preface ...................................................................................... xiii Introduction: On the uses of humanism ................................ 1 Part One Humanist learning and networks in East Central Europe Chapter One: Aspects of East Central European humanist learning ............................................................... 19 Chapter Two: Humanist networks and the ethos of the Republic of Letters .................................................. 69 Chapter Three: The uses of humanism at the imperial court ........................................................... 99 Part Two The case of Johannes Sambucus Chapter Four: An ornament to the imperial court? ............... 145 Chapter Five: The multiple identities of the humanist: “vates, medicus bonus, historicusque” ................................ 199 Part Three The case of Andreas Dudith Chapter Six: The curious career of a heterodox humanist ... 239 Chapter Seven: The making of the humanist: self-fashioning through letters and treatises ....................... 285 Epilogue: Sambucus and Dudith encounter confessionalisation .. 329 Conclusion ............................................................................... 357 Bibliography ............................................................................. 365 Index ........................................................................................ 379 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Photographic reproductions of pages from the books Der teütsch Cicero (1534), and Sambucus’s Emblemata (1564, 1566) are courtesy of National Széchényi Library (Budapest). My thanks go to Director István Monok. Figure no. 3 is courtesy of Leipzig University Library, and figure no. 7 is courtesy of Wrocław University Library. 1. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Der teütsch Cicero, trans. Johann Neuber, ed. Johann von Schwarzenberg, illustrations by Hans Schäuffelin (Augsburg: Heinrich Steiner, 1534), f. 137v ................................................................................ 7 2. Emblem dedicated to Johann Aicholtz in the Emblemata (Antwerp: Plantin, 1564), 150 ........................................... 17 3. Anton Wilhelm Schowart, Der Adeliche Hofemeister Oder Wahrhafftige und deutliche Vorstellung was ein Adelicher Hofemeister vor Eigenschafften an sich haben (Frankfurt: Hartmann, 1693) Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, PR 638, Titelkupfer ........ 56 4. Der teütsch Cicero, f. 110r ..................................................... 103 5. Portrait of Johannes Sambucus in the Emblemata (Antwerp: Plantin, 1566), f A1v ....................................... 143 6. Emblem dedicated to Sambucus’s dogs in the Emblemata (Antwerp: Plantin, 1564), 164 ........................................... 209 7. Portrait of Andreas Dudith by Bartholomäus Strahowsky. Eighteenth-century copy of a lost oil painting held by Wrocław University Library ................................ 237 8. Emblem dedicated to Fulvio Orsini in the Emblemata (1564), 62 ............................................... 277 9. Der teütsch Cicero, f. 120r ..................................................... 317 ABBREVIATIONS* ADB Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ASG Archivio di Stato di Gorizia (Gorizia) ASV Archivio di Stato di Venezia (Venice) BA Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Milan) BM Biblioteca Marciana (Venice) BR Bibliothèque Royale (Bruxelles) BUWr Biblioteka Uniwersytecka Wrocław (Breslau) FHKA Finanz- und Hauskammerarchiv (in Vienna, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) FSzK Főszékesegyházi Könyvtár (Esztergom) GÖ Gedenkbücher Österreich (in FHKA) HHStA Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv (in Vienna, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv) HFU Hoffinanz Ungarn (in FHKA) HS Handschriften-, Autographen- und Nachlass-Sammlung (in ÖNB) HZB Hofzahlamtsbücher (in FHKA) Jahrbuch Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses Wien MOL Magyar Országos Levéltár (Budapest) OSZK Országos Széchényi Könyvtár (Budapest) ÖNB Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Vienna) SB Staatsbibliothek (Berlin) UB Universitätsbibliothek (Bremen) * I was generously allowed to consult the cited material in BR, BUWr, FB, SB, UB by Tibor Szepessy and Lech Szczucki. They concern letters to and by Andreas Dudith between 1581-1589 forthcoming in the last volume of his Epistulae. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book is a completely rewritten, enlarged and updated version of my doctoral thesis at the Central European University (Budapest, 2005). My first thanks go to Katalin Péter who attentively supervised the process of writing the dissertation, and then provided useful advice about writing the present book, which I began in the late summer of 2007. I also want to express my deep gratitude to several people who read and commented upon parts or the whole of this work at its differ- ent stages: Karl Vocelka, László Kontler, Arnoud Visser, Mónika Baár, and Pál Ács. I am most grateful to Tibor Szepessy and Lech Szczucki for allowing me to use the unpublished correspondence of Andreas Dudith. I am particularly obliged to friends and colleagues who let me read and use the unpublished results of their work-in-progress: István Fazekas, Paola Molino, Jeanine De Landtsheer, Jan Papy, Noémi Viskolcz, Antonio Dávila Pérez, Dirk van Miert, and Bálint Lakatos. I am also much indebted to Gábor Kiss Farkas and László Jarecsni for bringing some presto to my Latin translations, and to my scrupulous copyeditor Arnold Ross. The completion of this book would have been impossible without the different scholarships I was fortunate to enjoy in the last few years. I am very grateful to several foundations and their directors: Gerő András (Institute of Habsburg History, Budapest), Guido Abbattista (History Department, University of Trieste), Joseph Connors (Villa I Tatti, Florence), and Philip Benedict (IHR, University of Geneva). Gábor Almási Budapest 28 July 2009 PREFACE During the study of late sixteenth-century East Central European humanism my interest has been primarily guided by one question: What functions did humanism play in the lives of men of learning? More generally I wanted to explore how humanism functioned in late sixteenth-century society, to what degree it was socially meaningful. This question is closely linked to one of the key questions regarding humanism: What explains its prevailing popularity? To really answer such questions I found it essential to go beyond the conventional view which interprets humanism in a narrow sense as a literary movement or program. This book attempts to interpret humanism as a complex sociocultural phenomenon, in which clusters of knowledge, interests, values and practices have interplayed. At the centre of this book I try to bring to life the stories of two outstanding humanists of Hungary: Andreas Dudith (Sbardellatus) (1533–1589) and Johannes Sambucus (1531–1584). Although the itin- eraries of these two