Poliziano | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Poliziano from a fresco painted by Renaissance artistDomenico Ghirlandaio in theTornabuoni Chapel,Santa Maria Novella,Florence | |
| Born | Agnolo Ambrogini (1454-07-14)14 July 1454 |
| Died | 24 September 1494(1494-09-24) (aged 40) Florence, Republic of Florence |
| Cause of death | Poisoning |
| Occupation(s) | Poet,dramatist andwriter |
| Doctoral advisor | |
| Notable students | Alessandra Scala,Cassandra Fedele,Piero II de' Medici |
Agnolo (orAngelo)Ambrogini (Italian pronunciation:[ˈaɲɲoloambroˈdʒiːni]; 14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known asAngelo Poliziano (Italian:[ˈandʒelopolitˈtsjaːno]) or simplyPoliziano, anglicized asPolitian,[1] was an Italianclassical scholar andpoet of theFlorentine Renaissance. His scholarship was instrumental in the divergence ofRenaissance (or Humanist) Latin frommedieval norms[2][3] and for developments inphilology.[4] His nicknamePoliziano, by which he is chiefly identified to the present day, was derived from theLatin name of his birthplace,Montepulciano (Mons Politianus).
Poliziano's works include translations of passages fromHomer'sIliad, an edition of the poetry ofCatullus and commentaries on classical authors and literature. It was his classical scholarship that brought him the attention of the wealthy and powerfulMedici family that ruledFlorence. He served the Medici as a tutor to their children, and later as a close friend and political confidant. His later poetry, includingLa Giostra, glorified his patrons.
He used hisdidactic poemManto, written in the 1480s, as an introduction to his lectures onVirgil.
Poliziano was born as Agnolo Ambrogini inMontepulciano, in centralTuscany in 1454.[5] His father Benedetto, a jurist of good family and distinguished ability, was murdered by political antagonists for adopting the cause ofPiero de' Medici in Montepulciano; this circumstance gave Agnolo, as his eldest son, a claim on theHouse of Medici.
At the age of ten, after the premature death of his father, Poliziano began his studies atFlorence, as the guest of a cousin. There he learned the classical languages ofLatin andGreek. FromMarsilio Ficino he learned the rudiments ofphilosophy. At 13 he began to circulate Latin letters; at 17 he wrote essays in Greek versification; and at 18 he published an edition ofCatullus. In 1470 he won the title ofhomericus adulescens by translating books II-V of theIliad into Latinhexameters.Lorenzo de' Medici, the autocrat of Florence and the chief patron of learning inItaly at the time, took Poliziano into his household, made him the tutor of his children,[6] among which werePiero the Unfortunate and Giovanni, the futurePope Leo X. The humanistic content of his lessons brought him into constant conflict with their mother,Clarice. Lorenzo also secured him a distinguished post at theUniversity of Florence. During this time, Poliziano lectured at the Platonic Academy under the leadership of Marsilio Ficino, at the Careggi Villa.
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Among Poliziano's pupils could be numbered the chief students ofEurope, the men who were destined to carry to their homes thespolia opima ofItalian culture. He also educated students fromGermany,England andPortugal.
It was the method of professors at that period to read the Greek and Latin authors with their class, dictatingphilological and critical notes, emending corrupt passages in the received texts, offering elucidations of the matter, and teachinglaws,manners, religious and philosophicalopinions of the ancients. Poliziano covered nearly the whole ground of classical literature during his tenure, and published the notes of his courses uponOvid,Suetonius,Statius,Pliny the Younger, andQuintilian. He also undertook a recension of the text ofJustinian II'sDigest and lectured about it. This recension influenced theRoman code.
Poliziano wrote a letter toJohn II of Portugal paying him a profound homage:
and considering his achievements to be of merit aboveAlexander the Great orJulius Caesar. He offered himself to write an epic work giving an account of John II's accomplishments in navigation and conquests. The king replied in a positive manner, in a letter of October 23, 1491, but delayed the commission. The epic work regardingPortuguese discoveries was only written almost one hundred years later byLuís de Camões.[8]
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Poliziano spent his final years without financial or other worries, studying philosophy.Piero the Unfortunate even askedPope Alexander VI to make him a cardinal.
It is likely that Poliziano washomosexual, or at least had male lovers, and he never married.[9] Evidence includes denunciations ofsodomy made to the Florentine authorities, poems and letters of contemporaries, and allusions within his work (most notably theOrfeo). He may also have been a lover ofPico della Mirandola.[10]
Prior to his exhumation in 2007, the circumstances of his death were also sometimes considered to be evidence of homosexuality: some evidence suggested that he was killed by a fever (possibly resulting fromsyphilis) which was exacerbated by standing under the windowsill of a boy he was infatuated with despite being ill.[11] Others thought that his death was precipitated by the loss of his friend and patronLorenzo de' Medici in April 1492, Poliziano himself dying on 24 September 1494, just before the foreign invasion gathering in France swept over Italy.
In 2007, the bodies of Poliziano andPico della Mirandola were exhumed from theChurch of San Marco in Florence to establish the causes of their deaths.[12] Forensic tests showed that both Poliziano and Pico likely died of arsenic poisoning, possibly the order of Lorenzo's successor, Piero de' Medici.[13]
Poliziano was well known as a scholar, a professor, a critic, and a Latin poet in an age when the classics were still studied with assimilative curiosity, and not with the scientific industry of a later period. He was the representative of that age of scholarship in which students drew their ideal of life fromantiquity. He was also known as an Italian poet, a contemporary ofAriosto.
At the same time, he was busy as a translator from the Greek. His versions ofEpictetus,Hippocrates,Galen,Plutarch'sEroticus andPlato'sCharmides distinguished him as a writer. Of these learned labours, the most universally acceptable to the public of that time were a series of discursive essays on philology andcriticism, first published in 1489 under the title ofMiscellanea. They had an immediate and lasting effect, influencing the scholars of the next century.
Anthony Grafton writes that Poliziano's "conscious adoption of a new standard of accuracy and precision" enabled him "to prove that his scholarship was something new, something distinctly better than that of the previous generation":
By treating the study of antiquity as completely irrelevant to civic life and by suggesting that in any case only a tiny elite could study the ancient world with adequate rigor, Poliziano departed from the tradition of classical studies in Florence. Earlier Florentine humanists had studied the ancient world in order to become better men and citizens. Poliziano by contrast insisted above all on the need to understand the past in the light of every possibly relevant bit of evidence — and to scrap any belief about the past that did not rest on firm documentary foundations ... [But] when he set ancient works back into their historical context Poliziano eliminated whatever contemporary relevance they might have had.[14]
His Latin and Greek works include:
His principalItalian works are:
His philosophical works are:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Politian".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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