Buonaccorso da Montemagno
Encyclopedia
Buonaccorso da Montemagno was the name shared by two Italian scholars from Pistoia
in Tuscany
. The elder Buonaccorso da Montemagno (died 1390) was a jurisconsult and ambassador who made a compilation of Pistoia's statutes in 1371. Poems are uncertainly attributed to him.
The younger, Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno (Pistoia 1391/93 — Florence
16 December 1429), nephew of the elder, was a Renaissance humanist
. He was a judge in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence (1421) and in September of that year was appointed Maestro in the Studio fiorentino. In his poems (Rime), if they are not his uncles', he imitated Petrarch
's sonnetti d'amore setting an example for fifteenth-century Petrarchism. The younger Buonaccorso was highly esteemed for his public orations, in which Cristoforo Landino
ranked him with Boccaccio,and Leone Battista Alberti
and Matteo Palmieri
. In July 1428 he was sent as ambassador to the Duke of Milan, to establish the terms of the peace treaty in which Florence had acted as the ally of Venice.
Buonaccorso's De nobilitate, an outstanding expression of the literary topos
of the New Man — Homo novus
— whose nobility is inherent in his own character and career, was translated into English by John Tiptoft, created Earl of Worcester
and published in 1481 by William Caxton
, as Here foloweth the Argument of the declamacyon which laboureth to shewe. wherein honoure sholde reste. It was rendered in play form, still in Latin, by Sixt Birck
and published at Augsburg in 1538.
The language of the Orazioni and the Rime were cited in Antonio Francesco Grazzini
's Vocabulario, published by the Accademia della Crusca
, as exemplars of the purest Italian verse and prose.
Pistoia
Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...
in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
. The elder Buonaccorso da Montemagno (died 1390) was a jurisconsult and ambassador who made a compilation of Pistoia's statutes in 1371. Poems are uncertainly attributed to him.
The younger, Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno (Pistoia 1391/93 — Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
16 December 1429), nephew of the elder, was a Renaissance humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
. He was a judge in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence (1421) and in September of that year was appointed Maestro in the Studio fiorentino. In his poems (Rime), if they are not his uncles', he imitated Petrarch
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
's sonnetti d'amore setting an example for fifteenth-century Petrarchism. The younger Buonaccorso was highly esteemed for his public orations, in which Cristoforo Landino
Cristoforo Landino
Cristoforo Landino was an Italian humanist and an important figure of the Florentine Renaissance.-Biography:...
ranked him with Boccaccio,and Leone Battista Alberti
Leone Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer and general Renaissance humanist polymath...
and Matteo Palmieri
Matteo Palmieri
Matteo di Marco Palmieri was a Florentine humanist and historian who is best known for his work Della vita civile which advocated civic humanism, and his influence in refining the Tuscan vernacular to the same level as Latin. He was sent as Florentine ambassador to the court of Alfonso of Naples...
. In July 1428 he was sent as ambassador to the Duke of Milan, to establish the terms of the peace treaty in which Florence had acted as the ally of Venice.
Buonaccorso's De nobilitate, an outstanding expression of the literary topos
Topos
In mathematics, a topos is a type of category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space...
of the New Man — Homo novus
Novus homo
Homo novus was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul...
— whose nobility is inherent in his own character and career, was translated into English by John Tiptoft, created Earl of Worcester
John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester
John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester KG , English nobleman and scholar, was the son of John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft and Joyce Cherleton, co-heiress of Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton. He was also known as the Butcher of England...
and published in 1481 by William Caxton
William Caxton
William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer. As far as is known, he was the first English person to work as a printer and the first to introduce a printing press into England...
, as Here foloweth the Argument of the declamacyon which laboureth to shewe. wherein honoure sholde reste. It was rendered in play form, still in Latin, by Sixt Birck
Sixt Birck
Sixt Birck, as Xystus Betuleius was a German humanist of Augsburg, "a notable German scholar of the New Learning".At the end of his schooling in Augsburg the Protestant Reformation began...
and published at Augsburg in 1538.
The language of the Orazioni and the Rime were cited in Antonio Francesco Grazzini
Antonio Francesco Grazzini
Antonio Francesco Grazzini was an Italian author.-Biography:He was born at Florence of a good family, but there is no record of his upbringing and education. He probably began to practise as an apothecary as a youth...
's Vocabulario, published by the Accademia della Crusca
Accademia della Crusca
The Accademia della Crusca is an Italian society for scholars and Italian linguists and philologists established in Florence. After the Accademia Cosentina, it is the oldest Italian academy still in existence...
, as exemplars of the purest Italian verse and prose.
External links
- Library search: "Buonaccorso da Montemagno" (Italian)
- Bonacursus de Montemagno/ Birck, Sixt (edd. (conversio in dialogum)): De vera Nobilitate Orationes Duae, a duobus invenibus nobilem puellam ambientibus apud Senatum Romanum habitae, Augusta 1540
Sources
- (Buonaccorso) Giambattista Carlo Giuliari, ed. Prose del Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno: inedite alcune da due codici della Biblioteca capitolare di Verona (Romagnoli) 1874. Sixteen Orations and biographic notice of the younger Buonaccorso, (pp xvi-xviii). Reprinted (Bologna : Commissione per i testi di lingua) 1968.
- Raffaele Spongano, editor. Le rime dei due Buonaccorso da Montemagno (Bologna: R, Patron) 1970. Poems of both Buonaccorso.
- Arie Johan Vanderjagt, Qui sa vertu anoblist : the concepts of noblesse and chose publicque in Burgundian political thought (Groningen: J. Miélot) [1981]. Fifteenth century translations of Buonaccorso's De nobilitate and others.
- David Herlihy, Medieval and Renaissance Pistoia: The Social History of an Italian Town, 1200-1430 (Yale University Press) 1967. Expanding horizons for natives of Pistoia.