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The Artis Grammaticae Opusculum of Bartolomeo Sulmonese: A Newly Discovered Latin Grammar of the Quattrocento
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
In the course of collecting manuscript copies of the Latin grammar of Guarino Veronese (1376-1460) I recently chanced to examine Codex Palatinus Latinus 1760, which according to the inventory in the Vatican Library contains a copy of Guarino's grammar. The inventory is correct: this manuscript does indeed contain the work in question, but as I quickly discovered, it also contains another grammatical work, unnoticed by the compiler of the inventory.
This is a manuscript of eighty-two leaves, of which the text of Guarino's grammar occupies the first thirty-two (fols. 1-32), and the second work the remainder (fols. 33-82), with a blank page (fol. 32v) between the two.
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- Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1978
References
1 The entry in the inventory reads as follows: ‘Pal. Lat. 1760. Membr. s. xv, form 8 maj, foll. 82. 1. Guarini Veronensis viri clariss. artis grammaticę opusculum incipit foeliciter. Partes grammaticae sunt quatuor… . 82. id sane feceris si in his te profecisse intelligam. Ad laudem Dei.’
2 The coat of arms, unfortunately, cannot be identified on the basis of the microfilm reproduction at my disposal.
3 The dedication reads: ‘Ergo vale Illustrissime domine sicque meas lucubratiunculas susceperis ut ad digniora et qu[a]e maiorem fructum apportent me incendas, id sane feceris si in his te profecisse intelligam.’
4 The heading reads (fol. 33): ‘Bartholomei Philalitis Sulmonensis Poaetae [sic] Clarissimi Artis Grammatic[a]e Opusculum Incipit.’ The work begins: ‘Activum verbum est illud quod in o terminatum a se passivum in or accepta r littera format,’ and ends (fol. 82): ‘cum vero locutionis est in poetis exponendis ac oratoribus perdiscemus.’ The desinit is immediately followed by the dedication, which in turn is followed by the words ‘Ad laudem Dei.’
5 See Eubel, Conrad, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, 2nd ed. (Monasterii, 1913), II, 262 Google Scholar. Eubel indicates as his source of information the Garampi index in the Vatican Archives. See also Ughelli, Ferdinando, Italia Sacra, 2nd ed. (Venice, 1717), 1, col. 1382Google Scholar, and Gams, Pius Bonifacius, Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Calholicae (Regensburg, 1873-1886), p. 928 Google Scholar. It may be noted that Eubel, Ughelli, and Gams refer to Bartolomeo Sulmonese as Bartholomaeus de Scalis. I have not seen this name in any of the primary sources available to me. See also Jacques Quétif and Echard, Jacques, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum Recensiti (Paris, 1719-21), I:II, 874–875 Google Scholar. A photograph of the gravestone may be found in Antonio Chiaverini, Ovidiade di Pietro Odi di Montopoli (1425-1463), Accademia Cateriniana di Cultura di Sulmona, Quademo 13 (Sulmona, 1974), facing p. 40. The inscription reads ‘BARPTOIEMAEVS SVLMONEN[SIS] EX PRAB | DICATORVM ORDINE IN THEO[LO]GIA MAG I ISTER QVI A PIO H PONT[lFICE] MAXflMO] VALVE | [N]SI ET SVLMONEN[SI] EPISCOPATV INSIGNI I TVS ECCLESIAM REXIT ANN[OS] XXVII | SIBI IPSI ADHVC VTVENS | P[OSVTT] | ANNO CHRISTI SAL[VTIS] M CCCC LXXXXI | MENSIS IVNII DIE XXVIIII.’ See also Chiaverini, Antonino, La Cattedrate Basilica di S. Panfilo in Sulmona, Accademia Cateriniana di Cultura di Sulmona, Quaderno 22 (Sulmona, 1976), p. 39 Google Scholar, and Ughelli, loc. cit.
6 See Cinquini, A., ‘Spigolature da codici manoscritti del secolo xv: il codice Vaticano-Urbinate Latino 1193’, Classici e Neolatini, 7 (1911), 173–200 Google Scholar, esp. 195-198. The poem begins: ‘Fama tui Latium totiens repetita per orbem,’ and ends (1.100): ‘Aequoreis valeat referens ad littora merces.’ For a description of the manuscript see Codices Urbinates Latini, III (Rome, 1921), 199-203, esp. 202.
7 Bartolomeo wrote two poems for Pius II, both in elegiac couplets. They are preserved in two copies: Biblioteca Vaticana, Chigi J VII 260, fols. 16v-20v, and Trieste, Biblioteca Civica, II XII, fols. 16v-19v. The first poem begins: ‘Quantula Musa diu misero mihi luxit in antro,’ and ends (1. 144): ‘Non parva at mentem munera suscipias.’ The second poem begins: ‘Quae nimium iacuit miseranda poesis,’ and ends (1. 44): ‘Respirare queat dummodo nostra chelys.’
8 The poem dedicated to Panormita is an epigram consisting of seven elegiac couplets. It is preserved on the flyleaf of a manuscript in the Biblioteca Ariostea, Ferrara (shelf mark II 133). It begins: ‘Crimina non[n]unquam referunt co[m]menta poetae,’ and ends: ‘Sis pater; ipsi tibi filius alter ego.’ The heading reads: ‘Bartholomei Sulmonensis Antonio Panormitano.’
9 There are two known copies: Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, J 235 inf., fol. 111-111v, and Genoa, Biblioteca Universitaria, C VII 46 (formerly Gaslini 40), fol. 96-96'. For the complete text of the letter see Appendix I.
10 Shelf mark Autograft 156/36.
11 For the text of the letter see Appendix II.
12 The text is reproduced in Appendix III.
13 Carlo de’ Rosmini, Vita di Francesco Filelfo da Tolentino (Milan, 1808), III, 44-45: ‘Fra i nemici e i detrattori del Filelfo va pur registrato un certo Bartolomeo di Sulmona, che avea con disprezzo parlato del Poema Sforziade. Piattino Piatti in un epigramma che leggesi fra le sue impresse poesie inveisce contro costui, e contro il suo ardire di offendere il Filelfo, terminando così “Urbs te perdet ubi scierit te lacerasse Philelphum.” ‘ Bartolomeo refers to Filelfo in his grammar in the section dealing with synecdoche: ‘Quare Philelphum non imiteris dicentem in sua Sfortiade “infractusque vices,” id est “bella,” hoc est “habens bella infracta,” quod nequaquam dici potest, nam bella nee totius pars sunt, scilicet hominis, nee corporea res est’ (fol. 82).
14 See Pastor, Ludwig, Geschkhte der Päpste (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1886), 1, 405, 504Google Scholar.
15 See Sabbadini, Remigio, La scuola e gli studi di Guarino Guarini Veronese (Catania, 1896), pp. 38–47 Google Scholar; ‘Dei metodi nell'insegnamento della sintassi latina,’ Rivista difilologia, 30 (1902), 304-314; ‘Elementi nazionali nella teoria grammaticale dei Romani,’ Studi italiani difilologia classica, 14 (1906), 113-125; Keith Percival, W., “The Historical Sources of Guarino's Regulae Grammaticales: A Reconsideration of Sabbadini's Evidence,’ Civiltà dell'Umanesimo: Atti del VI, VII, VIII Convegno del Centro di Studi Umanistici ‘Angelo Poliziano’ (Florence, 1972), pp. 263–284 Google Scholar.
16 Concerning the grammar of Gasparo Veronese see Sabbadini, Remigio, La scuola e gli studi di Guarino Guarini Veronese, pp. 45–46 Google Scholar. The work begins: ‘Activum verbum est quod in o finitur et format passivum in or.’ I am aware of the following manuscript copies: Florence, Archivio di Stato, Bardi II 179, fols. 83-128; Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Plut. 52, Cod. 19; Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, D V 27 (285), fols. 2-61; Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, MS. Lot. XIII. 53 (=4417). For printed editions see Reichling, Dietrich, Appendices ad Hainii-Copingeri Repertorium Bibliographicum, v (Munich, 1909)Google Scholar, 34, nos. 1527-29; Oates, J. C. T., A Catalogue of the Fifteenth-Century Books in the University Library Cambridge (Cambridge, 1954), p. 264 Google Scholar, no. 1425; Guamaschelli, T. M., Indice generate degli incunaboli delle biblioteche d'ltalia, III (Rome, 1954), 11–12 Google Scholar, nos. 4178-80; Giamb. Carlo Giuliari, ‘Edizioni di opere Veronesi quattrocentine,’ Il Propugnatore, 5:5/6 (1872), 267-268, no. 37.
17 Opera (Basle, 1543), sig. F6v.
18 Valla refers to Latin several times as ‘lingua Romana’ in the preface to Book I of the Elegantiae—see Opera, sigs. A2-A3; Garin, Eugenio, Prosatori latini del Quattrocento (Milan and Naples, 1952), pp. 594–600 Google Scholar. In the preface to Book II he calls Donatus, Servius, and Priscian ‘tres illi tanquam triumviri, de quorum principatu inter eruditos quaeritur’ (Opera, sig. C5; Garin, p. 602).
19 For an example of a medieval discussion of this question see the extracts from the Glosa admirantes, a thirteenth-century commentary on the Doctrinale of Alexandre de Ville-Dieu, transcribed by Charles Thurot in his Extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir a Vhistoire des doctrines grammaticales au moyen âge (Paris, 1869), pp. 377.
20 On Pomponio Leto's grammatical works see Ruysschaert, José, ‘Les manuels de grammaire latine composés par Pomponio Leto,’ Scriptorium, 8 (1954), 98–107 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the same author's ‘A propos des trois premières grammaires latines de Pomponio Leto,’ Scriptorium, 15 (1961), 68-75. The printed edition to which I refer here was published in Venice by Baptista de Tortis; see Hain, Ludwig, Repertorium Bibliographicum (Berlin, 1925)Google Scholar, II, 229, no. 9834. The statement about the parts of speech reads: ‘Grammaticae orationis partes sunt sex: nomen, pronomen, verbum, adverbium, coniunctio, et praepositio’ (sig. a2). Pomponio then proceeds to explain: ‘Participia et gerundia verbo cuius species sunt viri eruditi non segregavere. Interiectionem adseverationemque et actractionem [sic] adverbiis addiderunt’ (sig. a2v).
21 Nebrija's argument regarding the status of the gerund reads as follows: ‘Nos tamen dicamus, cum neque nominis neque verbi neque participii ratio illis [scil. gerundiis] conveniat, aliam quandam esse partem orationis, quae tamen maximam habeat similitudinem cum nomine. Neque id mirum videri debet, cum multi plures, multi pauciores quam octo partes orationis posuerint’ (Introductiones Latinae Explicitae, sig. c6v). Regarding the supine he makes the following statement: ‘Quod de gerundiis diximus, idem de supinis did potest: esse aliam ab octo partibus orationis’ (sig. C7). For a bibliographical description of this edition see the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (Stuttgart and New York, 1968), II, col. 490, no. 2225.
22 columen A, colluviem G.
23 perfectionem A, profectionem G.
24 tam AG.
25 quod A, quoad G.
26 Ravenantem A, Ravenatem G.
27 beneficium AG.
28 petentibus A, potentibus G.
29 rê Cod.
30 I.D.V. Cod.
31 huius Cod.
32 futurus Cod.
33 I.D.V. Cod.
34 V.I.S. Cod.
35 paczo Cod.
36 V.I.S. Cod.