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Pythagorean Echoes in the Savoy and French Political Ethics and Art of the XVth and XVIth Centuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
In a singular ignorance of mediæval cabalistic writings and even of much that is Rabbinical, faint and far commerce only with Rabanus Maurus, and a little closer with Averroës and Avicenna, I was reminded lately in a somewhat retarded grand tour in the more Latin countries of Europe of Disraeli's famous declaration of being on the side of the angels. Like our French interpreter friend, M. Maurois, I began to wonder what he really meant: in general it seemed to me that a good many of Disraeli's race and countrymen, not at all because they were markedly of progressive politics, were less faithful to him than one might have looked to see or even have wished, in any obvious sense of his phrase. They led to bad punning even on the relative attractions in Italy of two cheeses at dinner known as bel paese and Gorgonzola, the Laborite and Conservative of it. I began to think that the cleavage could not be staged for my own party's exclusive enjoyment, and bearing in mind those things of verbal abstention I saw engraved “For the Honor of Italy,” I began to consult the ancient worthies of the joint heirs of the antique honneur des hommes à la longue robe, Tasso's antico onor and antico esempio, again.
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References
page 341 note 1 Cf. on this theme, Gray's Letters:
Mr. Gray to Mr. Wharton
Proposals for printing by subscription in this large Letter, the Travels of T. G. Gent., which will consist of the following particulars:
XV
Arrival at Florence. Is of opinion that the Venus of Medicis is a modern performance, and that a very indifferent one, and much inferior to the K. Charles at Charing Cross. Account of the city and manners of the inhabitants. A learned dissertation on the true situation of Gomorrah.
It is to be noted that Gray in dying “gave proof of the decay of his senses.” “The decay I mentioned was this: seeing the Master sit by him, he said, O' sir, let Dr. Halifax or Dr. Heberdeen be sent to. He certainly meant for physical assistance, now Dr. Halifax, the Regius Professor of Law, his acquaintance, was a divine and no physician.” Mr. Walpole, who had accompanied Gray to Italy, that country of “very publick and scandalous doings between the vine and the elm trees, and how the olive trees are shocked thereupon” had not passed the stage of historical red inking from his friend and tutor on his return. The ways of the Scarlet Woman and the Laws of Savoy seem to have sat somewhat lightly on Gray, beginning even at Calais; and in his famous migration at Cambridge, “dirty” is even thus underscored in the account of his drunken and disorderly neighbors. With reference to these he adds; “I maintain that one sick rich has more of pestilence and putrefaction about him than a whole ward of sick poor.”
page 342 note 2 See in general for Pythagoras, Pythagore, les Vers d'Or, par Mario Meunier, Paris, “L'Artisan du Livre,” 1925.
page 342 note 3 On the subject of direct mediæval imitation of Classic Art, in the Picard region in especial, see Elie Faure, L'Esprit des Formes, note z, page 23:
Certaines statues de Reims, par exemple, ont une allure méditerranienne évidente, qui eût pu appuyer trop aisément notre exposé en démontrant, non pas la parenté spirituelle de la sculpture grecque avec la sculpture française, mais l'influence que la sculpture grecque, par l'intermédiaire des modèles romains, a pu exercer sur l'art français à un moment donné et dans des circonstances d'ailleurs exceptionelles.
There is still for an ordinary amateur of Renaissance art history like myself the most abundant and beautiful guidance, in the works of M. Faure's Master, Eugène Müntz. For the Meleager story at the precise moment of the Leges Sabaudae, 1497, just between the Customs of Brittany, 1480, and of Paris, 1505–1518, See page 814, Histoire del'Art pendant la Renaissance, Vol. ii, L'Age d'or.
As a matter of personal observation I might mention the apparent affiliation of the “Dead Persian” from the gift of King Atalus I of Pergamus to the Acropolis, in the second century, b.c., now at Naples, (beautifully placed against destruction in the vaultings with a red Pompeian background) and the St. Sebastian of Giorgio in the Church of that name on the Appian Way, a votive of the Borghese family to mark the exquisite and poignant sheer plastic beauty of the cherished alabaster slab of Quo Vadis, Domine. Giorgio, Master Andreoli, 1465–1553, painter, potter, and sculpter, designed his masterpiece from a model by the greater Bernini, whose best work it is thought by some, for whom the St. Leonard of the Sixtine Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore is either unknown or ascribed to the more primitive Piero Bernini, to get round its simple loveliness. Giorgio was known as Giorgetti to distinguish and rate him beside Giorgione, with whom he has much in common, in artisan distinction. Giorgione probably painted his intimate and delicious Storm for the house of this friend. For this last, see a volume of new humanistic simplicity, candor, and artistic beauty, Le Problème de Giorgione, Louis Hourticq. Membre de l'Institut, Paris, 1930.
page 344 note 4 A Victorine manuscript, No. 517, now Bib. Nat. 24839, paper, with the appearance of being something like a corrected proof for the illuminator or an early printer, the hand not difficult but strongly resembling what we found on a menu card at a country inn in Italy near the Certosa of Pavia, the Inn itself a modest Hôtel of the Visconti, and the working ground-plan of the famous Saint-Pol. The address to the Virgin is at fol. 130; Beati qui lugent, 136.
page 345 note 5 Primavera e Fiore della Urica Italiana, Tomo i, p. 277. Piccola Biblioteca Italiana.
page 349 note 6 Cf. The second part of More's Utopia, finished at Antwerp in 1516, and often thought to reflect to a considerable extent actual Low Country conditions and thought, as in the chapter, “Of the Religions in Utopia.” The general type of education flowing from the presses of Groningen, before Paris and Lyons is well summed up by More: “Both childhood and youth is instructed and taught of them. Nor they be not more dilegent to instruct them in learning than in virtue and good manners. For they use with very great endeavor and diligence to put into the heads of their children, whiles they be yet tender and pliant, good opinions and profitable for the conversation of the commonweal. Which when they be once rooted in children do remain with them all their life after, and be wonders profitable for the defence and maintenance of the state of the commonwealth. Which never decayeth but through vices rising of evil opinions.” See Emile Dermenghem: Thomas Morus, Paris, 1927.
page 350 note 7 The British Museum has two practically identical copies (format and type a trifle smaller and finer in one case, text and abbreviations without change). The list of tracts includes:
De divinis nominibus; De predestinatione et reprobatione divina; De effectibus salutiferis eucharistie; De professionibus ecclesiasticis; De observatione festorum; De symonia et quodam casu matrimoniali; De justo bello; Continens breve consilium de jure decimarum; De superstitionibus; De practica eijciedi demones; De temerario iudicio Huyssitarum circa potetatem pape.
page 352 note 8 Gerson: Instruction des curez pour instruire le simple peuple (Brit. Mus. 3835, a69): Les curez ou leurs vicaires ou predicateurs si aucuns se treuvent lisent et exposent ung chapitre de cette presente doctrine: ou plus ou moins selon leur discretion: poseement, clerement et entendiblement à tous, qu'ilz pouvoient & estudient lejour precedent avecques leurs chappelains leur leçon, affin que plus clerement le jour ensuyvant & plus fructueusement ilz l'exposent aux ignorans. … Et sera fait semblablement en la grant parrochiale quant il n'y aura point lors de predication. Et se pourroit lors raisonnablement abreger les prieres communes & aultres mandement selon leur discretion. Et specialement en caresme seront songneur de lire et exposer ce que touche profession: & de induire leur peuple a deument soy confesser et de bonne heure. Et affin que l'adessusdicte lecture ne soyt hainé infructeusement par faulte d'auditeurs … laquele desirons, commandons pour nostre estre desor mais inviolablement observée. Fait a Paris, le x iour de Mars, L'an de grace Mil cinq centz et sept. fol. viii. Maistre Jehan de Gerson: iadis chancellier de l'Eglise de Paris, pour l'instruction de tous simples chrestiens.
page 352 note 9 This footnote is placed in conclusion, in lieu of a dedication to the Romance Faculty of Columbia University in the Summer Session of 1923. The inspiration and interest of its generous, valiant, and modest example, both the hosts' and guests', must be with me always. The grace, instruction, and brilliant prestige of Signor and Signora Benedetto Croce in works and ways have been, then and since, a tonic comfort to us all.