Oliviero Forzetta
Encyclopedia
Oliviero Forzetta was a notary and physician of Treviso
from a family of self-confessed usurers
. He engaged in money-lending, married into the local aristocracy, and was an avid collector of Roman antiquities
of all kinds and drawings, dying a very rich man. He was not himself a scholar. He was actively searching out marbles, bronzes, coins and engraved gems as early as 1335, according to his surviving "wish list". His example was innovative in that he did not acquire objects because they were of rare or unusual materials, but precisely because they were old; the collection was published in a catalogue in 1369, the earliest such catalogue to exist to this day. One of his consistent sources was the workshop of a Venetian painter, Angelo Tedaldo, otherwise virtually unknown. His collections, more typical of the following century than of his own, were dispersed at his death. His Latin library—for he had nothing in the vulgar (Italian) tongue—of at least 136 manuscripts was bequeathed between the Augustinians
and Franciscans of Treviso, with the proviso that the books should be made available to secular men as well as well as the brothers. Luciano Gargan has published other contemporaneous libraries of secular individuals, to provide contrast and emphasize the unusual character of Forzetta's reading: classical texts, the Latin Church Fathers and medieval commentaries, as well as numerous twelfth- and thirteenth-century works on science and ethics, and some poetry
.
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
from a family of self-confessed usurers
Usury
Usury Originally, when the charging of interest was still banned by Christian churches, usury simply meant the charging of interest at any rate . In countries where the charging of interest became acceptable, the term came to be used for interest above the rate allowed by law...
. He engaged in money-lending, married into the local aristocracy, and was an avid collector of Roman antiquities
Antiquities
Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...
of all kinds and drawings, dying a very rich man. He was not himself a scholar. He was actively searching out marbles, bronzes, coins and engraved gems as early as 1335, according to his surviving "wish list". His example was innovative in that he did not acquire objects because they were of rare or unusual materials, but precisely because they were old; the collection was published in a catalogue in 1369, the earliest such catalogue to exist to this day. One of his consistent sources was the workshop of a Venetian painter, Angelo Tedaldo, otherwise virtually unknown. His collections, more typical of the following century than of his own, were dispersed at his death. His Latin library—for he had nothing in the vulgar (Italian) tongue—of at least 136 manuscripts was bequeathed between the Augustinians
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
and Franciscans of Treviso, with the proviso that the books should be made available to secular men as well as well as the brothers. Luciano Gargan has published other contemporaneous libraries of secular individuals, to provide contrast and emphasize the unusual character of Forzetta's reading: classical texts, the Latin Church Fathers and medieval commentaries, as well as numerous twelfth- and thirteenth-century works on science and ethics, and some poetry
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
.