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Personal, Domestic, and Republican Values in the Moral Philosophy of Giovanni Caldiera

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Margaret L. King
Margaret L. King*
Affiliation:
Brooklyn College
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Extract

Giovanni Caldiera (ca. 1400 - ca. 1474) was well known in his day as a secondary figure of the Venetian humanist circle. An examination of his three moral philosophical works—the De virtutibus moralibus et theologicis, the De iconomia veneta, and the De praestantia venetae politiae—will provide, it is hoped, an understanding of the fundamental nature of his intellectual activity. Committed as much to the scholastic and Aristotelian as to the humanist traditions, Caldiera draws on each of these to affirm the values of the Venetian patriciate he served as self-appointed spokesman. He merits attention, therefore, not only as a creative thinker, but also as a resourceful apologist for the ideals and objectives of a governing élite seeking to maintain its power at home and to extend it on land and sea abroad.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , Winter 1975 , pp. 535 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1975

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References

1 I am indebted to Prof. Paul Oskar Kristeller for his thorough criticism of the typescript of my dissertation, upon which the present essay is based, and for the many additional suggestions, bibliographical and substantive, which make the present article less flawed than it would otherwise have been. I am thankful, too, to Dr. Patricia Labalme of Barnard College and Dr. Henry Rosemont, Jr., of Brooklyn College, for their invaluable editorial assistance.

For a more complete exposition of Caldiera's life and works, see my doctoral dissertation, ‘Venetian Ideology and the Reconstruction of Knowledge: Giovanni Caldiera (c. 1400 - c. 1474),’ Stanford University, 1972; and Juliana Hill Cotton's article in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. xvi (1973), which supplies some additional information. In calling Caldiera a ‘humanist,’ I follow Kristeller's definition of a humanist as a thinker who pursued the studia humanitatis: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy (see his Renaissance Thought, the Classic, Scholastic and Humanist Strains [Cambridge, Mass., 1955; rpt. New York: Harper and Row, 1961], pp. 8-11). Since Caldiera is an Aristotelian, an astrologer, a medical doctor, and an earnest student of natural philosophy, all pursuits not typically considered humanistic, some scholars might object to this nomenclature. Nevertheless, his interests in the classical poetic tradition, evident in the Concordantia (see below, n. 9), and in moral philosophy, constitute sufficient grounds for according him this title.

2 Joannes Calderia (Latin form for Caldiera), De virtutibus moralibus et theologicis libri 8; De oeconomia veneta libri 2; De praestantia venetae politiae, et artibus in eadem excultis tam mechanicis quam liberalibus; De virtutibus quae maxime rei publicae venetae dcbentur libri 5, Oxford, Bodleian, Laud. Misc. 717. Henceforth I shall refer to these works, in the manuscript version just cited, as the De virtutibus, the De iconomia (the spelling of the term preferred by the author in his text), and the De praestantia. Modern copies of the De iconomia and De praestantia were made from the Oxford original (see my dissertation, p. 237) and are now located in Venice (Bibl. Marciana, cod. Lat. x, 225 [3799] and cod. Lat. x, 356 [3261-63]; modern copies of the De praestantia alone are located in Florence (Bibl. Rice, 669 [M I 23]), and in New Haven, Connecticut (in the possession of Mr. Laurence Witten; see Kristeller, , Iter Italicum, 11 [London: Warburg Institute, 1967], 519 Google Scholar; Mr. Witten has kindly confirmed the existence of this manuscript, apparently an eighteenth-century tracing of a fifteenth-century manuscript).

3 J. H. Cotton, in the work cited, suggests ca. 1395 for Caldiera's birth. I speculated in my dissertation, pp. 28-30, that the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century cittadino Caldiera family was a nonnoble branch of an extinct noble family. However, Mr. Alexander Cowan (Department of Humanities, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic) brought to my attention in 1973 a seventeenth-century Cronaca delle famiglie dei cittadini venetiani (Vienna, Österrcichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. 6204) which states that the Caldiera family, unrelated to the noble Caldieras, originated in Milan and settled in Venice in the contrade of San Marcilian and San Alvise. Their coat of arms, divided by a vertical bar, showed on the left half a single pale color, and in the right, a cooking-pot on the fire (logically, since ‘caldiera,’ in Venetian dialect, signifies the pot in which polenta is cooked). For Caldiera's immediate family in the fifteenth century, see my dissertation, pp. 32-37; for his presence at the University of Padua, see the same, pp. 4-8; for the estimation of the date of his birth, see the same, pp. 25-27.

4 A series often orations delivered at the University of Padua in the years 1423-1425 are found in Venice (Marc. cod. Lat. xi, 102 [3940], fols. 44-51, 71-72, 73-83); and a late eighteenth-century copy of eight of the ten in Udine (Bibl. Comunale, Fondo Manin, 1335 [176], pp. 527-558). The tenth oration in the Marciana codex is untitled but may be identified as the second of the two contained in the Murano codex 1201 now in Camaldoli (see below). A codex, originally no. 1201 of the San Michele da Murano library in Venice (Johannis Benedicti Mittarelli, Bibliotheca codicum manuscriptorum monasterii S. Michaelis Venctiarum prope Murianum [Venetiis: ex typografia Lentiana, 1779], cc. 207-208), but now in the library of the Monaci Eremiti Camaldolesi O.S.B., S. Eremo Camaldoli, near Arezzo, contains other copies of the fifth and the last (untitled in the Marciana codex) of the ten, the Oratio habita in conventu legum Alhani Mauroceni universitatis legist arum rectoris, et Michaelis Mauroceno ejus fratris, and the Cum rectoratus insignia eidem Albano conferrentur, oratio habita in cathedrali ecclesia Padua. (This codex also contains a copy of Caldiera's letter to his brother Cristiano, prefatory to his exposition of the Distichs of pseudo-Cato; see below, n. 7). Prof. Kristeller has also recently brought to my attention three of Caldiera's orations in the British Museum. The first, the Oratio habita a Joanne Calderia pro commendatione universitatis artistarum et medicorum ad legatum de Ursinis (Add. 15336, fol. 95-95v), is another version of the first of the ten Venice orations. The second (Oratio … in funebri pompa … Orsati Justiniani, Add. 15406, fols. 91-97v) and the third (Oratio habita in colegio phisicorum Vend, pro principio priorale … , Add. 15406, fols. 98-101) were delivered in Venice at a later time. Caldiera's Aphorismorum liber to Hieronymus Lazzarelus is found in a miscellaneous codex of medical works in Munich, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (cod. lat. monac. 339, fols. 11ff.); a fragment of the same is in the Vatican (Pal. Lat., 1086, fols. 1-25v). A fragment of another medical work, probably by Caldiera, the Consilia medica, appears in the Vatican (Pal. Lat. 1115, fols. 204v-207). For these works see also my dissertation, pp. 80-84.

5 For the terminal date of Caldiera's stay in Padua and move to Venice, see my dissertation, pp. 12-20. J. H. Cotton places Caldiera's removal to Venice in 1436.

6 For Madonna Ursula and her Paduan property, see my dissertation, pp. 15-17, 33-34, and 45-47; for Cataruzza, see pp. 34-43, and Chapter 1, passim. As Cataruzza was sufficiently old to marry Andrea Contarini in 1451 (dissertation, p. 20), she was probably, though not certainly, born prior to Caldiera's departure from Padua in 1436-1437.

7 The commentary on pseudo-Cato's Disticha moralia, the Catonis expositio pro filia erudienda, appears in manuscripts in Modena (Bibl. Estense, Fondo Campori 293 [Gamma T, 5, 5]); Naples (Bibl. Governativa dei Gerolamini, M.C.F. 2-22); Padua (Bibl. del Seminario, 39); Udine (Bibl. Comunale, Fondo Manin, 1335 [176], pp. 367-526; an eighteenth-century copy); and, according to information recently supplied to me by Prof. Kristeller, in the British Museum (Add. 15406, fols. 2-88, including preface and epilogue). While Cataruzza is the object of the Catonis expositio, the versions I consulted (those in Modena and Naples) were probably revised for publication some time after their original composition, and were dedicated not to Cataruzza, but to Caldiera's brother Cristiano. Caldiera explains to Cristiano that Cataruzza had by that time outgrown the childish study of the school-text and had moved on to compose a work of her own: the De laudibus sanctorum. J. H. Cotton does not assume that there were two versions, but that the dedication was written and appended to the work immediately after Cataruzza's change of heart. For the dedication to Cristiano, see my dissertation, pp. 84-85. Cataruzza was the dedicatee of another of Caldiera's major works, the Concordantia (see n. 9). Cataruzza was praised for her erudition and virtue by two contemporaries and friends of her father's, Filippo da Rimini and Antonio Vinciguerra (see my dissertation, pp. 36-41, and below, n. 11). J. H. Cotton, perhaps because unaware of Cataruzza's marriage to Andrea Contarini (see my dissertation, p. 20), does not read Filippo's verses as an epithalamion, as does Remigio Sabbadini (in his “Bricciole umanistiche— XIII. CATERINA CALDIERA,” Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, t. 43 [1904], 245); the words themselves are ambiguous. The verses were certainly composed prior to Cataruzza's death in 1463 (dissertation, pp. 41-42), since the manuscript (Guarneriana 57, in San Daniele del Friuli) already formed part of Guarnerio's library in 1461 (Giuseppe Mazzatinti, Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia [Forli: Luigi Bordandini, from 1890], ra, 104). They may have been composed before her marriage in 1451. Cotton also suggests that Vinciguerra, who wrote a consolatoria on Cataruzza's death, may have been a suitor of Cataruzza's. Since Caldiera's wife, Ursula, had previously been married to a Marco Vinciguerra (dissertation, p. 33), it is conceivable that Antonio was a member of her first husband's family, and thus indirectly related to Cataruzza. He is not, however, mentioned in Ursula's will. In any case, it is unlikely that Vinciguerra courted Cataruzza before her death. It seems that the difference in their ages was probably such that Cataruzza would have been married by the time that Vinciguerra would have been of an age for the pursuit of that enterprise.

8 Caldiera's Liber canonum astrologiae ac totius orbis descriptione ad Alphonsum … regent Aragonum appears in fragment in Venice (Marc. cod. Lat. viii, 72 [3273]), and complete in Seville (Bibl. Colombina, cod. 92-4-5). Caldiera's work, J. H. Cotton points out, may have used as its source some fourteenth-century Tabulae astronomicae in a codex purchased by him on Feb. 18, 1428, in Venice. This codex, also containing the Canones tabularum Alphonsi of John Danckonis of Saxony, is now in Columbia University, cod. Plimpton 162.

9 The De concordantia (or concordantia) poetarum, philosophorum et theologorum exists in manuscript at Fossombrone (Bibl. Civica Passionei, cod. iv) and the Vatican (Pal. Lat. 985 and Urb. Lat. 1178). It was published by Michelangelo Biondo in 1547 (Concordantiae poetamm philosophorum et theologorum [Venetiis: Apud Cominum de Tridino Montisferrati, Anno Domini MDXLVII]). For an exposition of the Concordantia, see my dissertation, pp. 87-88, and Chapter ii. Charles Trinkaus and Eugenio Garin have placed Caldiera, on the basis of his Concordantia, in the fifteenth-century humanist tradition of the authors of a ‘poetic theology’ ( Trinkaus, , In Our Image and Likeness [London: Constable and Co., 1970], 11, 704-12Google Scholar; and Garin, ‘Cultura filosofica toscana e veneta nel Quattrocento,’ in Umanesimo europeo e umanesimo veneziano, ed. Vittore Branca, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Centro di Cultura e Civiltà, Civiltà Europea e Civilta Veneziana, Aspetti e Problemi, 2 [Firenze: Sansoni, 1963], pp. 12-13). For a discussion of the arguments posed by Trinkaus and Garin, see my dissertation, pp. 95-97.

10 For Caldiera's trip to Naples and career in Venice, see my dissertation, pp. 20-24. That Caldiera practiced medicine in addition to his humanist activities can be deduced, Prof. Kristeller has indicated to me, from the words of Venice's ducal secretary to Naples, Niccolò Sagundino, who claimed in 1455 to have recovered his health ‘… usus potissimum fidelissima et prudentissima opera clarissimi viri atque primarii medici Johannis Calderiae … ’ (document no. xxix, from the Vatican cod. Ottob. 1732, fol. 61, published by Sabbadini in ‘Andrea Contrario,’ Nuovo Archivio Veneto, 31 [1916], 413; for Sagundino, see also below, n. 11). For Caldiera's career in Venice after his return from Naples, see my dissertation, pp. 18-24 and 70-75.

11 See my dissertation, pp. 57-70. Andrea Contrario appears as interlocutor with Caldiera and Filippo da Rimini in the dialogue Symposium de paupertate written by the latter (see my dissertation, pp. 66-69; I am currently preparing an edition of this text), suggesting that he, like Filippo, knew Caldiera personally. For Niccolo Sagundino, see Franz Babinger, Johannes Darius (1414-1494) Sachwalter Venedigs im Morgenland und sein griechischer Umkreis, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften philosophisch-historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, Heft 5 (München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1961), pp. 9-52; for Antonio Vinciguerra, see Arnaldo della Torre, Di Antonio Vinciguerra e delle sue satire (Rocca S. Casciano: Stab. Tip. Capelli, 1902); for Filippo da Rimini, see Gothein, Percy, Früh-humanismus und Staatskunst in Venedig (Berlin: Verlag die Runde, 1932), pp. 252, 325Google Scholar; Patricia Labalme, Bernardo Giustiniani: A Venetian of the Quattrocento, Uomini e Dottrine, 13 (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1969), pp. 98-99; Arnaldo Segarizzi, ‘Cenni sulle scuole pubbliche a Venezia nel secolo xv e sul primo maestro di esse,’ Atti del R. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arte, Ser. viii, v. 18, anno 75 (1915-1916), 643-646; Tonini, Carlo, La coltura letteraria e scientifica in Rimini dal secolo XIV ai primordi del XIX (Rimini: Tip. Danesi già Albertini, 1884), I, 235–241 Google Scholar; and della Torre, Vinciguerra, pp. 14-15; for Contrario, see Sabbadini, ‘Contrario.’

12 For Caldiera's contacts with Guarino and Barbaro, see my dissertation, pp. 55-57. Francesco Barbaro's letter (April 30, 1451) to Guarino Veronese, which I have only recently examined, suggests that a closer relationship between Barbaro and Caldiera existed than I had previously supposed. Barbaro refers to Caldiera as ‘doctissimus,’ and ‘mihi amicissimus’ (Epistolario di Guarino Veronese, ed. Remigio Sabbadini, R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, ser. 4: Miscellanea di Storia Veneta, ser. III, torn, viii, xi, xiv [Venezia: La Società, 1915-1919], vol. B (xi),no. 844, p. 559). Caldiera may also have had some contact with Bernardo Giustiniani. A formal letter to Giustiniani, pointed out to me by Prof. Kristeller, is located in the British Museum, along with other Caldiera works (Add. 15406, fols. 89-90v; see above, n. 4).

13 Caldiera's Expositio in psalmos, Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Fondo Estense, 1000 [Alpha K, 3, 6], composed before April 27, 1462, when it was signed by the copyist Cornelius de Mera; see my dissertation, pp. 23, 86. We learn about the funeral oration from a Sanudo manuscript; see my dissertation, p. 24. A copy of the oration itself is in the British Museum (see above, n. 4).

14 For the date of Caldiera's death, see my dissertation, pp. 24-25.

15 Only the De praestantia is mentioned by the eighteenth-century scholars Le Bret and Hody (Johann Friedrich Le Bret, ed., Magazin zum Gebrauch der Staaten- und Kirchengeschichte, Theil IV [Ulm: August Lebrecht Stettin, 1774], pp. 168-69; Humphredus Hodius, De graecis ilhtstribus, linguae graecae literarumque instauratoribus, eorum vitis, scriptis et elogiis, libri duo [Londoni: Regiae Societatis Tipographi, 1742], pp. 103-104). Modern authors were aware of the De praestantia, largely through these sources, and of the De iconomia (see above, n. 2, and my dissertation, p. 237) without understanding the relationship of the two works. The De virtutibus has been ignored. For a more detailed historiography of the moral philosophical works of Caldiera, see my dissertation, pp. 235-239. The interdependence of Caldiera's works can be demonstrated from internal evidence. However, the circumstances of the translation of the Aristotelian works which Caldiera utilizes in his own treatises suggest that a model for his triadic sequence of moral philosophical sciences was already provided him in the humanist and earlier medieval traditions. Leonardo Bruni completed translations and commentaries of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, and the pseudo-Aristotelian Oeconomica, in 1416-1417, 1438, and 1419-1420, respectively, and himself sees the three studies as sequentially related: ‘Aut enim circa mores nos instruunt aut circa rem familiarem aut circa rem publicam. Harum primam ethicam, secundam oeconomicam tertiam politicam Graeci appellant’ (Hans Baron, ed., Leonardo Bruni Aretino: Humanistisch-philosophische Schriften, Veröffentlichungen der Forschungsinstitute an der Universität Leipzig [Leipzig-Berlin: Verlag und Druck von B. G. Teubner, 1928], p. 121). Caldiera no doubt knew these works, by which he is deeply influenced, in Bruni's translation. (The availability and diffusion of at least one of Brum's three translations and commentaries is amply demonstrated by Josef Soudek, ‘Leonardo Bruni and His Public: A Statistical and Interpretative Study of His Annotated Latin Version of the [Pseudo-] Aristotelian Economics,’ Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, v [1968], 49-136.) Caldiera may also have derived the pattern of the sequence of personal, domestic, and political ethics directly from scholastic definitions of the branches of moral philosophy. Vincent of Beauvais, for instance, uses language similar to Caldiera's: ‘Practica est moralis philosophia, et sic dicitur ab effectu, quia consistit in agendo et non in speculando, sicut vult Aristoteles c. 10. quia non est contemplationis gratia, sed quantenus boni fiamus. Itaque Mechanica et Moralis fiunt circa operationes animae. Quae ab antiquis solet dividi in Monasticam, Oeconomicam, et Politicam: quae divisio datur penes habitus diversus, quibus mediantibus homo regit seipsum, vel propriam familiam, vel civitatem totam’ (Bibliotheca mundi, sen Speculi maioris Vincentii Burgundii praesulis Bellovacensis, Tomus Secundus, Speculum doctrinale, Opera et studio theologorum Benedictinorum Collegii Vedastini in alma Academia Duacensi [Duaci: ex Officina Typographica Baltazaris Belien; sub Duacensi Circino aureo, Anno M.D.C. xxiv; Nachdruck, Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlaganstalt, 1965], i:i8:17E).

16 De virtutibus, fol. 5. ‘Ut Moralis Scientia una est sive cognoscitur ab unitate homines [sic; hominis] qui virtuti subiicitur. Et Ychonomia ab unitate parentum. Et civilis ab unitate Principis.’ In correcting Caldiera's texts, I have merely noted serious errors. Erratic capitalization has been retained where it is expressive. Eccentric spellings of words, which are numerous, and inconsistent spellings are retained.

17 Ibid., fol. 67v. ‘Praeterea homines si solitariam vitam agere curant, sive iconomiae partes sunt, sive cuiusque politie amicitia semper sunt indigentes.’

18 De praestantia, fol. 101v.

19 De virtutibus, fol. 23. ‘Nam primi philosophantes eos … mores tradiderunt qui ad hominem sibi soli viventem sufficiebant, vel ut Ichonomiae vel familiae pars habebatur, aut rei publice pro moribus in omni genere civilitatis conveniret… .’ In this passage, the author proceeds to distinguish between these moral systems of the ‘first philosophers’ and the ultimate one of Christian truth, of which they were ignorant.

20 Ibid., fol. 35. ‘Et immo Prudentia omnes moralis philosophiae partes complectitur, Ethicam, Yconomicam atque Politicam.’

21 De iconomia, fol. 79. ‘Et quia triplicia sunt genera morum circa quos homines omnes versantur, quia alique vivunt sibi ipsis, quidam familiae, et alteri rei publice.’

22 In making political existence superior to other forms of existence, Caldiera is in harmony with Aristotle, who claims that the state is the highest form of a human community, which aims at the highest good (Politics, i:i:i252ai-6. But Caldiera enhances his claim of the supremacy of political existence, it will be seen, by making that supremacy a structural principle, guiding the articulation of his moral philosophical theory, and a historical principle, evident in the pattern of the development of human society.

23 This historical progression from individual to civic life is described in the De iconomia, fols. 81 and 96v-97, and the De praestantia, fol. 123V.

24 De praestantia, fol. 101. ‘Policia ergo optima est tamquam ultimata omnium morum perfectio, in qua maxime omnium institutionum et legum apparet integritas.’

25 Ibid., fol. 133V. ‘Nam praeclare quidam sunt virtutes monasticae, praeclare magis si Iconomiae conveniant, praeclarissimae magis quae civitati adiudicantur.’

26 By the ‘monastic’ life, Calderia means the life of the individual man, not necessarily in isolation, but apart from institutional contexts. The term was used in this sense in late antiquity and by scholastic philosophers (see n. 15). Some of the virtues that Caldiera discusses as pertaining to the ‘monastic’ life are practiced, by definition, in the social world—liberality and magnificence, for example. They are still seen as ‘monastic’ virtues, however, because they are practiced by the individual man not acting as a paterfamilias or statesman.

27 Books i-x of Aristotle's Ethics correspond to Books i-viii of Caldiera's work, with the following differences. To the topics covered in Aristotle's Books i-iii, Caldiera adds the Augustinian distinction between memory, intellect, and will, and the Thomist formulation of free will. “Where Aristotle discusses the virtues and their extremes in Books iii-v, Caldiera begins with the seven theological and moral virtues, then returns to the Aristotelian model to discuss liberality, magnificence, magnanimity, modesty, mildness, social decorum, and shame, then digresses again to deal with the seven deadly sins. To Aristotle's discussion of the intellectual virtues in Book vi, Caldiera adds an Augustinian concept of wisdom. To Aristotle's discussion of friendship in Books viii-ix, Caldiera adds a discussion of bestiality, the opposite of friendship; of friendship as the force of universal love; and of friendship toward the state. Finally, where Aristotle treats of pleasure and happiness in Book x, Caldiera identities perfect happiness with the Christian summum bonum. For a fuller discussion of Caldiera's ethical theory, see my dissertation, pp. 239-342. Here I confine myself to elucidating those of his ideas most useful in defining his social and political outlook.

28 The following summary of Caldiera's discussion of the seven moral and theological virtues is drawn from fols. 25-37 of the De virtutibus.

29 Ibid., fols. 29v-30. ‘… [A]uro … quod in tribulationis fornace probatum est… et sponse quae deo virtualiter indissolubiliter coniungitur… . [S]upreme firmamento … a quo aquae voluptatis ab aquis aeternitatis dividenti [sic; dividentur]… . [R]osa rubens gratuito humore irrigata, a quo nutritur, conservatur, et augetur.’

30 The following summary of Caldiera's discussion of the seven sins is drawn from fols. 49v-55v of the De virtutibus.

31 Caldiera later approves of the pursuit of wealth, in contradiction to his cautions against avarice in the De virtutibus. For comments on Caldiera's discussion of Venice's preeminence in the field of commerce, see my dissertation, Chapter in, sec. 3, passim.

32 De virtutibus, fol. 52v. ‘… [U]t insaciabili quadam cupiditate, que nullo sibi usui sunt aliis egentibus prohibet.’

33 The sins that Caldiera here enumerates were all condemned, he explains, by Christ hanging on the cross. Each of his afflictions is a reminder to avoid a related sin (ibid., fol. 49v). ‘Nam caput declinavit ut Superbos humiliaret. Apertionem lateris passus est ut Invidiam propelleret. Pro inimicis exoravit ut Iratos doceret. Crucem humeris tulit ut accidiosos repelleret. Item spiritum patri, et corpus cruci, matrem discipulo, et vestes crucifixoribus [sic, without verb], contra avaros qui omnia avidius sibi servant… . Preterea continuis flagellis, variisque stimulis affectus [sic; est] contra Luxuriosos, qui voluptuosis tantummodo blandimentis ad venerea concitantur.’

34 Caldiera discusses this series of virtues (including liberality, magnificence, magnanimity, moderation, mildness, wit, indulgence in games and relaxation, and shame), on fols. 37-45 of the De virtutibus. I have limited my own discussion to the virtues of magnificence and magnanimity, described on fols. 3 8V-40V.

35 Ibid., fol. 39. ‘Propterea magnificus quia magna faciens, quibus non omnes sumptus sufficiunt sicut in celebrandi nuptiis, que plurimis diviciis celebrande sunt, et quia rarius fiunt eo dignius celebrentur. Similiter etiam … in edificatione domorum, castrorum et civitatum, quae sunt perpetuo durturae in quibus magnifici splendor apparet. Similiter etiam et in edificatione templorum, in quibus divina omcia maxima cum devotione [sic; without verb].’

36 Ibid., fol. 38V. ‘Et immo qui pecunias facile a parentibus acceperunt ipsas etiam facilius elargiuntur. Nam servare studiosius quisque solet que laboriosius conquiruntur, quam ea que nullo labore accipiuntur.’

37 Ibid., fols. 39v-4o. ‘Proprietates itaque quae magnanimo essentialiter conveniunt sunt, ut pro magno bono, pro rei publice salute, pro obervando divino culto, sed [sic; se] laboriosis periculis exponat. Item quod se rebus maximis exponens mortem preeligat, ne indignum aut turpe aliquid facinus profiteatur… . Quod vero magnanimi dignitatem amplius ostentat ut nuUis aliorum meritis indigere videatur, quibus etiam si caruerit vix petit vixque indigens exposcit, sed quos egere vel inopes novit his liberaliter et prompte succurrit.’

38 Caldiera draws heavily on the pseudo-Aristotelian Oeconomica I (especially chaps. 3:1343b7-5:1344b22; and 6:1345a24-1345b40) and on Aristotle's Politics I, in defining the relationships of husband and wife, the responsibilities of child-rearing, the master-servant relationship, the nature of servants (slaves for Aristotle, and probably for Caldiera), and the role of the father in the household in general. While he is clearly familiar with these works, however, Caldiera is far more inventive in composing the De iconomia than the De virtutibus, where his reliance on Aristotle was nearly complete and his deviation from the Aristotelian text exceptional.

39 Caldiera's definition of family members and their responsibilities, moral and practical, is in two parts. He defines the moral behavior to be expected of each kind of family member on fols. 82-89 of the De iconomia, and the practical duties or activities of each (together with a disquisition on marriage and female roles) on fols. 90v-90. Repeating himself frequently, Caldiera does not maintain these distinctions with rigor. Accordingly, I Have not attempted to duplicate his exposition, but have drawn on statements from both of these passages in my summary.

40 Ibid., fol. 99. ‘Quare si ipsarum aliqua a sua valitudine dilabatur corpus omne egrotare dicetur, magis tamen aut minus secundum quod principalior aliqua pars amplius dilabetur. Iconomia similiter et communicatio quam domestica suas principales et minus principales habere partes debet. Et quidem omnes incolumes, ne si aliqua una depereant, universa etiam domus diruat.’

41 Ibid., fols. 99-99v. ‘Item equi, boves, aseli, aves, et cetera animata et inanimata domui famulantia sua iura, suasque portiones exposcunt.’

42 Alberti's Della famiglia, ed. Cecil Grayson, in the Opere volgari, Scrittori d'Italia, 218 (Bari: G. Laterza, 1960). A comparison of Caldiera's De iconomia with Alberti's work may be found in my dissertation, pp. 380-382.

43 De iconomia, fols. 83, 82v.

44 Ibid., fol. 90. ‘Domus ergo melioribus civitatis locis sitae, solerti ingenio, maxima praeclaraque arte struantur. Primumque patentes fores habeant, ut cum introcuntes postes subierint, et extraneis [sic; extranei] at [sic; et] domestici, ipsorum praccognoscant adventum… . Patentia etiam intrinsecus loca esse debent. Item solo luminosque coelo coperta, ne latens introitus latentem fraudem pariat.’ This and the following quotation are introduced by Caldiera under the topic of the ‘material’ aspect of domestic economy.

45 Ibid., fol. 91. ‘Domus enim non pro divitiarum copiis a civibus formande sunt, sed pro decentia Civitatis et meritis personarum. Magnificentia enim in edificatione templorum ,et civitatum atque castrorum [sic, without verb]. Quae vero civibus domus conveniunt, non splendentes sed utiles suis meritis accomodentur. Que enim sertis marmoreis et artificiosis lapidibus structae sunt, item etiam auro et splendentibus impictae coloribus, et a civilitate et ab ipsorum dignitate aliene prorsus esse videntur. Magis et enim se dignum admiratione faciat iconomus pro virtute qua prestat quam pro sumptuosa domo qua precellere curavit. Non domus sed virtus immortales homines et diis pares facit.’

46 Caldiera's assumption of the father's preeminent role in the family may be observed throughout the De iconomia. The statements summarized here, however, are drawn from fols. 90v-92v.

47 Ibid., fol. 88–88v. ‘Non enim servi instrumenta tantummodo domibus sunt, sed animata, pro quo et seipsis, et cum superioribus paruerit [sic; paruerint] ad omnia domus praesidia sufficere posse videntur… . Preter servos sunt et alia instrumenta, etiam animata domuis servientia ut bos, aselus, et equus. Multa etiam preter hec domui necessario et instrumentaliter servientia quae ab ipsis domesticis humanisque servis reguntur.’ The other inanimate ‘instruments’—household implements—alluded to here form a necessary part of Caldiera's hierarchy of household members. Aristotle also distinguishes between slaves, as animate instruments, and tools, as inanimate instruments, in the Politics I:4:1253b23-1254a16. Caldiera does not merely distinguish between these categories, however, but suggests that the servant is only a semihuman phenomenon, as close to the realm of the nonhuman as to that of genuine human reality (fathers, wives, children). He implies the similarity of the conditions of animate and inanimate instrumentality by compressing both in the lowest categories of the domestic hierarchy.

48 Caldiera's advice to parents that children should be prepared to carry family responsibilities in the future is phrased in explicitly political terms (De iconomia, fol. 88v): ‘Postea vero filiis, qui suorum parentum vices gerunt, quibus magis aut minus parendum est, secundum quod a parentibus benemeriti iudicantur. Et sicut in principatu sapientia principis adnotatur, ita etiam principatus dignitas suos principes erudit, et ipsos principatu dignos reddit’ (italics mine). Aristotle makes a similar point in Politics vii:14:1332b13-41, saying that the citizens must learn to govern while young. However, Aristotle also suggests at the same point that one must learn to be governed and to obey as well as to govern— that ‘all the citizens alike should take their turn of governing and being governed’ (ibid., 11. 26-27). Caldiera makes no such statement.

49 See my observations on Caldiera's discussion of the nature of republican ‘hope,’ below, pp. 559-564.

50 This is made clear mainly in regard to the rearing of children (De iconomia, fol. 87-87v). Fathers are concerned with the practical and scientific education of their children, women with their prenatal nurture and physical requirements in infancy. The proper fulfillment of these biological needs will affect the child's moral character, but only because character is seen by Caldiera to have a biological basis, and not because of the intellectual or prudential qualities of the mother. For Caldiera's discussion of gestation and infant care, see my dissertation, pp. 352-354.

51 De iconomia, fol. 84.

52 The following summary of Caldiera's discussion of matrimony and alternative conditions of woman is drawn from De iconomia, fols. 92v-95v.

53 Ibid., fol. 84v. ‘Mulieres preterea cum invalidum consilium habeant, nullaque naturae lege firmatum, et ad voluptates facile quisque declinet, repente inconsulte atque impudentes [sic; impudenter] in maxima dilabuntur facinora.'

54 Loc. cit. ‘… [T]oto terrarum orbe, omnibusque seculis perpetua gloria memoranda tradetur.’

55 Ibid., fol. 94v. ‘… [U]t mortue mundo, deo tantummodo et omni sanctimoniae vivere credantur.’

56 Ibid., fol. 95-95v. They live in brothels (lupanaribus), he says, because they are more savage than wolves (multo sevius quam luporum impium genus); while wolves may kill men's bodies, they may not kill their souls, whereas prostitutes destroy both body and soul: ‘Quae si aninio contineatur [sic; contineantur] ipsum fedant. Si verbo proferantur fetidum os reddunt. Nullus praeterea sensus pro ipsarum conventu servatur incolumis. Quicquid honoris et gloriae, item quicquid divitiarum et valitudinis longis laboribus promeruimus, harum brevi consuetudine depereunt.’

57 Aristotle sees the state as an enlargement of the household and village community, and thus as a natural creation, but more perfect because more developed than its component parts (Politics i:i:1252a22-1252b35). Caldiera goes further than Aristotle, however, in viewing the family effectively as the microcosm of the state, not only a unit which, when aggregated with other units of its kind, produces a larger and different entity, but as in itself the pattern of the moral and structural nature of the state to which it pertains.

58 De iconomia, fol. 80v. ‘Et quia omnia Iconomia Policie assimilatur, et domus etiam civitatis similitudinem gerit.’ Caldiera makes this likeness explicit. Monarchy, aristocracy, and ‘timocracy,’ the three modes of rule encountered in states, are encountered within families as well (ibid., fols. 81v-82): ‘Similiter etiam Iconomiae haec tria regimina habere videntur. Nam si eius qui preest dominium attenderimus, Regnum dicitur. Si autem viri et uxoris etiam regimen attenderimus Aristocratia dicetur. Quod si filiorum et famulorum regimen attenderimus, veluti quaedam Timocratia dicetur. Sed in civitatibus haec regimina magis seiuncta videntur. Nam quaedam uno presule reguntur; et quaedam a nobilibus ut Aristocratia; et alia a popularibus sive ignobilibus, ut Timocratia… .’

59 De praestantia, fols. 137v-138. Digressing from his summary of the theological virtues as practiced in Venice, Caldiera suggests that such virtues are best instilled from childhood. ‘Saepenumero diffinitum est, quod virtutes quecunque a puero accipiuntur, firmiores semper habentur, et pro ipsarum usu amplius perficiuntur. Quare bene instituti parentes suos liberos ad pietatem erudiunt ut inopibus vel aliter egentibus pro caritate subveniant… . Quibus omnibus perfecte a se gestis, et maxime que ad deum et homines attinent, boni habentur homines, et in rebus praeclare gerendis plurimum observantur. Quare viri qui boni in civitate habentur, etiam familiam, et omnem domesticam consuetudinem, melius regere noverunt.’

60 For a discussion of Caldiera's descriptions of Venetian life under the rubrics of the fourteen mechanical and liberal arts, see my dissertation, pp. 390-430. Within the framework of these systems of the arts, Caldiera describes some of the city's conspicuous achievements—in commerce, ship-building, navigation, warfare, painting, and intellectual activities. A similar exposition of Venice's excellence in the mechanical arts appears in the Concordantia (Urb. Lat. 1178, fols. 181v-184).

61 The following summary of Caldiera's exposition of the superiority of the republican to the purely private manifestation of virtue is drawn from fols. 133-134 of the De praestantia.

62 Ibid., fol. 134. ‘Ex quo sibi etiam Patricii nomen promeruissent, postea vero et celites fierent.’

63 Aristotle asserts in the Politics (1:2:1252b27-1253a39) that political existence is normal and natural for men. Caldiera, however, once again surpasses Aristotle in asserting the imperative of political responsibility. For Caldiera, individual morality must be perfected in republican participation. Political existence is not only natural, but obligatory, and related to salvationary needs as much as or more than purely personal behavior.

64 His exposition of the republican dimension of the four moral or cardinal virtues is not essential to this analysis and shall be omitted. See, however, my dissertation, pp. 440-444.

65 The following summary of Caldiera's exposition of the republican aspect of faith is drawn from fols. 134-135 of the De praestantia.

66 Ibid., fol. 134. ‘Sicut enim quisque inviolatam servare deo fidem tenetur et suum intellectual taliter coercere ad credendum omnia que dei maxime sunt, ita et quisque similem praestare fidem debet rei publice que omnes nostras partes promeretur, et a qua merita omnia maxima habituri [sic; habitura] speramus.’

67 Ibid., fol. 134v. ‘Ex quo sicut deum per fidem nos visuros aliquando putamus, ita pariter nobis satisfactum minime existimamus, nisi supremam rei publice foelicitatem manifeste comprehenderimus… .’

68 Loc. cit. ‘Quare mutua inter collegas fides rem publicam immortalem reddit.’

69 The following summary of Caldiera's exposition of the republican aspect of charity is drawn from De praestantia, fols. 135v-137.

70 For a detailed discussion of the Venetian charitable institutions called scuole, see Pullan, Brian, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971)Google Scholar, Part 1, ‘The Scuole Grandi,’ pp. 33-193.

71 De praestantia, fol. 136. ‘… [Q]uia ipsarum delabuntur castra, item etiam turres et moenia. Item etiam domus maxima arte constructe dissoluntur et pereunt. Item etiam homines ab aliarum erectione deficiunt.’

72 The following summary of Caldiera's exposition of the republican aspect of hope is drawn from De praestantia, fols. 138v-139v.

73 Ibid., fol. 139. ‘Nam sicut deus infinita largitione bene sperantibus se praebet, ita et civibus in omni genere politie pro ipsorum meritis praeclaris muneribus donantur.’

74 Fragments of Caldiera's analysis of social structure appear on fol. 138-138v of the De praestantia, under the earlier-introduced heading of'charity.’ As it is centered, however, under the topic of hope, I have drawn on some of his earlier statements and perceptions in elucidating his exposition of the republican aspect of the third of the theological virtues.

75 By ‘foreigners,’ Caldiera follows normal usage and intends not only non-Italians but anyone not born in or with recognized citizen status in the city of Venice.

76 De praestantia, fol. 139v. ‘Si pariter ex populari sint ordine, tanta aliquando fuerunt in re publica merita, ut patricii consulto senatu procreentur.’ Caldiera here refers to the unusual instance when, on Sept. 31, 1381, in the aftermath of the Chioggian war, thirty popolano families were granted nobility for their service to Venice. The grants of nobility were, needless to say, not typical of the honors awarded to the people of Venice in return for their republican ‘hope,’ but constituted an exceptional moment of social advancement for a small segment of the nonnoble population.

77 Ibid., fol. 138. ‘Nam qui dominio proxime subministrant, maximum illius ordinis magistratum sibi vendicant, sicut Franciscus a Sega, qui supremus omnium quae in senatu geruntur, primus dictiones et epistolas accipit, et eas inquirendas consulte senatui praebet, eiusque ordinis multi sunt qui et honoribus praecipuis, et utilitatibus magnis a senatu donantur.’ The frequency with which foreigners were promoted to positions of influence in the Venetian bureaucracy is a subject worthy of further investigation. As secretaries and chancellors were necessarily members of the citizen order (see Andrea da Mosto, L'archivio di stato di Venezia: Indice generale, storico, descrittivo ed analitico, Bibliothèque des ‘Annales Institutorum,’ v [Rome: Biblioteca d'Arte Editrice, 1937], 1, 73), such bureaucratic posts presumably either required citizenship as a prerequisite of office or, in the case of foreigners, bestowed the benefit of citizenship upon the office-holder. As the functions attributed to him by Caldiera suggest, Francesco da Sega, or Siega, was a Cancelliere Grande of Venice, an office of key importance (see Enrico Besta, Il senato veneziano, origine, costituzione, attribuzioni e riti, R. Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, Ser. iv, Miscellanea, Ser. 2, vol. v [Venezia: a spese della Società, 1899], p. 206). Della Sega appears in the Commemoriali as ducal secretary, occasionally empowered to represent the republic abroad, from February 1408/9 to March 1439, and as chancellor from December 1439 to November 1444 (I libri dei commemoriali, ed. Riccardo Predelli, R. Deputazione di Storia Veneta, Ser. 1, Monumenti Storici, Ser. 1, Documenti, vols. 1, VII, VIII [Venezia: a spese della Società, 1876-1883], vii, Book x, nos. 79, 184; viii, Book xi, nos. 18, 68, 74, 197, 209, 224, 226, 232, 296; XII, 18, 23, 100, 104, 109, 137, 139, 143, 187, 215, 240; XIII, 11, 17, 38, 48, 56, 65, 143, 151, 188, 228, 240, 246, 272).

78 Depraestantia, fol. 138. ‘Sunt et aliorum ordinum cives quibus difterentes maximique magistratus pro ipsorum meritis conferuntur, … ut pro ipsorum meritis principes scolarum habeantur, et pro ipsorum sanctimonia deligantur et sic pro etate, pro meritis hominum, supremas honoris et gloriae in omni magistratu partes accipiunt.’

79 Ibid., fol. 139-l39v. ‘ Qui … consultores principis, item procuratores, advocatores, et omnes ordines sapientum, et coeteri qui sibi aliquid honoris vel utilitas praefixerunt ad earn aliquo spei genere praecurrerunt. Quod si magis de re publica bene meriti fuissent, etiam ad coeteros omnes posteros sui feruntur honores, suaque finitur [Sic; fertur) utilitas.’ For the offices of the procurators, the avogadori, and the savi, see da Mosto, Archivio, 1, 25-26, 68-69, 22-23, respectively.

80 De praestantia, fol. 138. ‘Si vero ex senatorio fuerint ordine, ita a senatu traduntur honoribus et rei publice magistratibus quantum consulte promereri creduntur; et sic ab inferioribus dignitatibus tanto altius extolluntur quantum etiam ipsarum benemeriti existimantur.’

81 For a systematic and efficient description of the functions of Venetian government councils, see da Mosto, Archivio. For a more comprehensive description, see Guiseppe Maranini, La costituzicne di Venezia dopo la serrata del Maggior Consiglio (Venezia: ‘La Nuova Italia,’ 1931).

82 The following summary of Caldiera's defense of autocratic rule is drawn from fols. 146-147v of the De praestantia.

83 Caldiera may have known of this Platonic issue (whether it is better to have a virtuous ruler capable of interpreting the laws in any instance, or, in the absence of such a virtuous man, laws to which even the ruler is subject) from Plato's Laws iv:709a-715d (translated and dedicated to the Doge of Venice by George of Trebizond in 1462). Plato is resigned to the fact that such a virtuous lawmaker could not in actuality exist; Caldiera sees just such a figure in the Venetian doge.

84 De praestantia, fol. 147.

85 The counselors (see da Mosto, , Archivio, I, 21 Google Scholar) are described as advising the doge ‘where it is necessary for the better operation of the republic’ (De praestantia, fol. 147v). The three capi (da Mosto, loc. cit.) decide which matters are to be put before the prince (De praestantia, loc. cit.). The savi grandi (da Mosto, 1, 22) supervise the execution of decisions as advised by the Senate (De praestantia, loc. cit.). The savi di terra ferma (da Mosto, loc. cit.) are seen as carrying out Senate commands in matters of war and peace (De praestantia, loc. cit.). The savi agli ordini (da Mosto, 1, 22-23) advise on naval matters (De praestantia, fols. 147v-148). For the Council of Ten (da Mosto, 1, 52-55; De praestantia, fol. 148), see below, n. 85. The censors advise the prince about actions to be taken to prevent shame from befalling the citizens and the republic (De praestantia, loc. cit.); a group of censors were charged after 1517 with preventing broglio elettorale (Besta, Senato, p. 269; da Mosto, Archivio, 1, 77), and it is possible that an earlier attempt at a magistracy of this sort was in effect at the time that Caldiera wrote, and was later dissolved and reconstituted. The Councils of Forty (da Mosto, 1, 63-64) are seen as advising about civic or financial matters, or violent and criminal acts (Depraestantia, loc. cit.). Caldiera mentions two such councils, although at this time there were three. The Senate (da Mosto, I, 34-38) is convened by the prince and advises on the most important and controversial matters (De praestantia, loc. cit.). The Great Council (da Mosto, 1, 29-33) advises on matters in its jurisdiction, and its ‘judgment’ cannot be overruled (De praestantia, loc. cit.).

86 De praestantia, fol. 148. ‘Horum decemvirorum tanta est auctoritas atque potestas, ut nihil violentum rei publice patiantur, et non solum qui male agunt, sed ct qui mala loquuntur, etiam qui mala cogitant gravius puniantur, tamquam nulla ex parte fedari se sive infici rem publicam patiantur’ (italics mine).

87 Ibid., fol. 148V. ‘Nam hi omnes pro aetate maximi, pro incesso dignissimi, pro vestium ornatu splendidissimi, pro sermone eloquentissimi, et pro coeteris in regendo Senatu probatissimi, qui omnes suo principi Veriora Melioraque tradunt, ex quibus et posse et sapientia et morum integritatem Principis arguimus.’ This triumphant statement concludes the De praestantia.

88 The De virtutibus had been dedicated to Cristoforo Moro, whose virtues are frequently extolled in the body of Caldiera's work, and for whom Caldiera may have performed some services of astrological prediction. Caldiera asserts in his preface his own long-standing devotion to the Doge, and claims that he had predicted Moro's election, based upon the observation of the stars, and announced that prediction publicly, before the Doge's election had actually occurred. Under his rule, Caldiera concludes, Venice shall always enjoy every happiness. The Moro dedication (De virtutibus, fol. 2-2v) is interesting both for its glamorization of the ducal role and for its indication of the intrusion of astrology into the business of government.

89 The following summary of Caldiera's discussion of the origin and destiny of Venice is drawn from fols. 102-103 of the De praestantia.

90 Ibid., fol. 102. ‘Nam pariter coniuncti mundi valitudinem servant, et seiuncti omnia corrumpuntur [sic; corrumpunt].’

91 Caldiera's analysis of the four Aristotelian ‘causes’ of Venice appears on fols. 145-146 of the De praestantia.

92 A more striking instance of Caldiera's use of religious symbols to glorify political entities is found in the De virtutibus, fol. 68v. Here the three participants in a league against the Turks (Pope Pius II, Philip, Duke of Burgundy, and Cristoforo Moro, then Doge of Venice) are likened to the persons of the Holy Trinity: ‘Quare credant [sic; cedant] amicitiae omnes que perpetua memoria credebantur, et hanc solam trium divissimorum [sic; divinissimorum] Principum amicitiam mererentur, que in teris similitudinem gerit tribus divinis personis que maximo et indissolubili perpetuoque amore iunguntur.’