The Italian Mind Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts Editor-in-Chief Francis G. Gentry Emeritus Professor of German, Penn State University Editorial Board Teodolinda Barolini, Columbia University Cynthia Brown, University of California, Santa Barbara Marina Brownlee, Princeton University Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin-Madison Craig Kallendorf, Texas A&M University Alastair Minnis, Yale University Brian Murdoch, Stirling University Jan Ziolkowski, Harvard University and Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection VOLUME 12 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mrat The Italian Mind Vernacular Logic in Renaissance Italy (1540–1551) By Marco Sgarbi LEIDEn • BOSTON 2014 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sgarbi, Marco, 1982– author. The Italian mind : vernacular logic in Renaissance Italy (1540–1551) / by Marco Sgarbi. pages cm — (Medieval and Renaissance authors and texts, ISSN 0925-7683 ; volume 12) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-26409-0 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-26429-8 (e-book) 1. Logic—History—16th century. 2. Language and languages—Philosophy—History. 3. European literature—Renaissance, 1450–1600—History and criticism. 4. Aristotle— Influence. I. Title. II. Series: Medieval and Renaissance authors and texts ; v. 12. BC38.S46 2014 149’.910945—dc23 2013040359 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.com/brill-typeface. 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CONTENTS Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... vii Sources and Abbreviations .......................................................................... ix 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Logic in Context ................................................................................... 1 Vernacular in Context ......................................................................... 10 Prospectus ............................................................................................... 19 2. Language, Vernacular and Philosophy ................................................ 23 Res vs. Verba ........................................................................................... 23 The Shadow of Pomponazzi ............................................................. 31 The Accademia degli Infiammati .................................................... 41 3. Sperone Speroni between Language and Logic ............................... 45 Wisdom and Eloquence ..................................................................... 45 Speroni’s Pomponazzi ......................................................................... 58 Speroni’s Most Loyal Disciple: Bernardino Tomitano .............. 65 4. Benedetto Varchi and the Idea of a Vernacular Logic (1540) ...... 71 Aristotelian Anthropology ................................................................. 71 Varchi’s Logical Library ...................................................................... 79 Varchi’s Logic at the Accademia degli Infiammati .................... 81 The Universals ....................................................................................... 106 Method and Order ............................................................................... 111 An Anonymous Dialogue ................................................................... 120 5. Antonio Tridapale and the First Vernacular Logic (1547) ............. 127 Antonio Tridapale and Knowledge as Power .............................. 127 The Elements of Logic ........................................................................ 133 The Operations of Logic ..................................................................... 142 6. Nicolò Massa’s Logic for Natural Philosophy (1549) ....................... 154 Nicolò Massa between Philosophy and Medicine ..................... 154 The Elements of Argumentation ..................................................... 158 Scientific Demonstration ................................................................... 168 vi contents 7. Alessandro Piccolomini’s Instrument of Philosophy (1551) .......... 175 Piccolomini in Padua .......................................................................... 175 A New Instrument ................................................................................ 186 The Structure of Logic ........................................................................ 195 Logic for Natural Philosophy ............................................................ 205 8. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 213 Vernacular and Logic .......................................................................... 213 The Logician in the Printing Presses .............................................. 219 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 229 Index ................................................................................................................... 241 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the help and support of numerous people and institutions while I was working on this book. This research has been pos- sible thanks to a Jean-François Malle Fellowship at Villa I Tatti. The Har- vard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. While any list of reasonable length would undoubtedly be incomplete, I nonetheless want to acknowledge the great help of Annalisa Andreoni, Nadja Aksamija, Andrew Berns, Luca Bianchi, Richard P. Blum, Giancarlo Casale, Simon Gilson, Craig Kallendorf, Victoria Kirkham, Jill Kraye, David Lines, Peter Mack, Vittoria Perrone Compagni, Riccardo Pozzo, Anna Maria Siekiera and Valerio Vianello. I gratefully acknowledge also all the sugges- tions and criticism of the anonymous peer-reviewers. My gratitude also extends to the participants of the Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination Seminar directed by Stephen Clucas on “Italian Renaissance Philosophy in the Vernacular: Alessandro Piccolomini” and to the confer- ence “Aristotele fatto volgare: Aristotelian Philosophy and the Vernacular in the Renaissance” for their comments and suggestions. An earlier version of chapter 4 was read at the I Tatti’s “Fellow Seminar: Literature and the Academic World”, while shorter version of the first two parts of chapter 3 was presented at the conference “The Philosophy of Humanism and its Place in the History of Philosophy”, organized by Lodi Nauta, whom I thank for his kind invitation. Despite the invaluable assistance of many people, any and all errors or shortcomings in this book are mine, and mine alone. I am particularly grateful to Robert Norris and James A.T. Lancaster for their help in revising my book and for all their precious suggestions. SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS All Greek and Roman authors are cited in their most familiar single-name form, both in the text and in the bibliography, e.g. Cicero (not Marcus Tul- lius Cicero) and Quintilian (not Marcus Fabius Quintilianus). All titles are given in the original language with the exception of Aristotle. My general rule has been to preserve original spelling and punctuation, even when erroneous, except where there are critical editions. Sometimes, when fit- ting quotations around the text, I have silently changed a lower case ini- tial letter to an upper, or vice versa, as the sentence requires. Long and significant quotations from primary sources are provided with the original text alongside the translation. ASF Archivio di Stato, Firenze ASMN Archivio di Stato, Mantova BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Città del Vaticano BL British Library, London BML Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana BNF Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris BNCF Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Firenze CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Logic in Context Of all the centuries of Western thought, the Cinquecento was perhaps the one which had the most profound impact on the history of logic owing to the rapid succession of doctrinal upheavals the discipline underwent. It is not possible in just a few pages of introduction to discuss in detail, and with any degree of exactness, the complexities and original ideas that arose during this hundred-year period. I prefer therefore to trace the major currents of thought that influenced logic between the end of the Quattrocento and the beginning of the Cinquecento, thereby providing a context for