|
|
Filippo Buonaccorsi(Philippus Callimachus Experiens, Filip Kallimach, Fillippo Buonaccorsi, Bonacurarius, Caeculus, Geminianensis)
b. May 2, 1437, San Gimignano, Tuscany d. November 1, 1497, Cracow, Kingdom of Poland
Poet, politician, philosopher, diplomat, historian, rhetorician, teacher
Relations with Pomponio LetoCallimachus' relationship with Leto could be characterized generally as one of friendly admiration and respect before deteriorating into one of mutual distrust, betrayal, and hatred (at least on Pomponio's part). In his Epigrammata, Callimachus presented Pomponio as his superior intellectually and creatively, calling him a decus eruditionum. He also hoped for Leto's approval for his "unrefined frivolities and trifles" (nugas illepidas ineptulasque). In his Defensio, Leto portrayed Callimachus at first as his friend, happily welcoming him to pursue his studies. In time, however, Pomponio notes that, as he came to discover Buonaccorsi's corrupt character, he became an enemy instead of a friend to Callimachus. Whether due to expediency in light of his arrest and imprisonment, genuine hatred or both, it is not surprising that Leto named Callimachus as the prime instigator of the conspiracy. However, as late as 1490 in his Ad Innocentium VIII, Callimachus praised Pomponio as one of the "most learned and eloquent" men ("…ab eruditissimo aliquo et facundissimo uiro, qualis Pomponius, Cortesius, Policianus, Scala…") whose works served as models in his own oration. Whether the reason for this reference to Pomponio was simply rhetorical strategy or genuine lingering affection, it is clear that Callimachus held Leto in high esteem until the end of his life.
TestimoniaThree epigrams dedicated to Leto in Epigrammatum libri duo, c. 1460-68
(Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1963a)
Excerpt concerning Callimachus from Leto's Defensio (TEXTUS, Repertorium Pomponianum):
Callimachus, quem utinam nunquam cognouissem, cum Romam uenit, a me, quia litterarum studium imitari uidebatur, hospitaliter acceptus est. Inde, cognita eius insania et improbitate, ex amico repente inimicus factus sum, coepique habere non hominem, sed eius peruersos mores odio, qui satis a meis abhorrebant. Ego frugalitatem, parsimoniam et sobrietatem semper amaui. Ille contra commessationibus, ebrietatibus et omni rerum intemperantiae incumbebat, parui existimans omnes praeter se ipsum. Mihi et animo subdolo minatus est, et coram haec uerba, nescio an ex se an ex fanatico spiritu, saepe pronunciauit: "Veniet tempus quo me praecipiente et iubente multa uerbera sustinebis, ex quo tentabis me placare, et non dabitur tibi locus aut aditus." Ego subridens semel ac iterum petii, si haec proferret ex animo. Ille subiunxit: "Abi, et cum tempus erit experieris." Discessi, et pro risu caepi haec cum amicis narrare. Testis est Episcopus Campanus, testis Platina, testes alii multi. Campanum etiam monui, ne amicitiam cum Callimacho haberet hominemque quoad posset negligeret. Venetiis uero, cum de eo quidam me interrogassent, respondi: "Nullum sit inter uos uerbum de tali homine", et uocem extuli: "Nescitis, o Planella et Fabrici (sic appellantur socii) in tantam insaniam Callimachus prolapsus est, ut superiori aestate uerbera mihi comminatus sit?" Inde uerti sermonem [189] ad Planellam, qui longo tempore Callimachum cognouerat: "Memor sum consilii tui, praedixisti mihi omnia." — At ille: "Cuius, inquam?" — "Cum in cena dixisti: Caue a conuersatione Callimachi. Haec ut amicus loquor, sunt apud te uerba; huius obseruantiae hactenus fuit, ut nullum habeat ueteranum amicum." — Videte igitur, seuerissimi iudices, et animaduertite quaeso, quod nullum mihi erat cum tali latrone commertium.
An excerpt from Callimachus' letter, dated April 15, 1471, to Dziersław Rytwiański, the Palatine of Sandomierz and an influential advisor to King Casimir IV, in order to convince the powerful nobleman to protect him from an extradition notice passed at the Polish diet in 1470. While defending his innocence in discussing the plot, Callimachus alludes to his accusers and indirectly to Leto and other members of the Accademia.
Itaque interrogandi fuerant accusatores mei, si propriis opibus et auctoritate ad id accedere uolebam et quomodo perficere potuissem, aut si alios, quorum dignitas tantae rei sufficeret, consilii participes habebam. Nam si per me tale quid transigi potuit satisque mihi opum et praesidii fuerat, profecto non ita a uobis negligi debui, ut per manus uestra quasi ad carnificinam extraderer, maxime quod uoluntas, non peccatum in me arguitur. Voluntatis autem solus Deus scrutator est et iudex (Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1967).
De quibus rebus si dicendum foret ab eruditissimo aliquo et facundissimo uiro, qualis Pomponius, Cortesius, Policianus, Scala, Calphurnius, Brognolus, Albertinus, uel alio quopiam, qui ingenio, exercitatione, doctrina cum his, quos nominaui, esset conferendus possetque velut illi assequi oratione, quantum uellet, o, quam multa, quam sublimia et uel rerum ipsarum magnitudinem uel augustissimi huius loci dignitatem coaequantia audiretis! (Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1964).
LifeBuonaccorsi was born on May 5, 1437 in San Gimignano, Tuscany to a merchant family related to the Tedaldi of Florence. His grandfather was a Venetian by birth. His earliest education probably began in San Gimignano, with Mattia Lupi, and later continued in Siena (Cavelli 1915). From an early age, he found himself in humanist circles in Florence and Venice, and began composing his first poetic works there. In 1461, Buonaccorsi set off from Venice to Rome with Marino Condulmero, also called Glaucus. Thanks to his friendship with Platina, he was able to move in Roman humanist circles. Buonaccorsi soon met Leto and, as result of their shared interests in ancient literature, become involved in his Accademia (Domański 1966).
Buonaccorsi's association with Leto and his Accademia (1461-68) was one of the most defining experiences in his life. His education in ancient literature and grounding in humanist studies owes almost everything to his time with the members of the Accademia. Buonaccorsi was drawn to Leto's Academy because it was one of leading centers of humanist erudition and hence a magnet for leading intellectuals and dignitaries from Rome and across Italy. During his time there, he became one of its most important intimates. Through his ties at the Accademia, Buonaccorsi was able to become a familiare and the secretary of Cardinal Bartolomeo Roverella (Segel 1989). Discussions of ancient literature and philosophy shaped Buonaccorsi tremendously, as the style and themata of his Epigrammata attests. Furthermore, he was no stranger to the reenactments of ancient rituals and deeply critical discussions of politics, especially concerning the Papacy. His own early homoerotic verses seem to confirm contemporaries' accusations of sexual licentiousness levied at him and other members of the Accademia. Buonaccorsi was known pejoratively as "Caeculus" among the intimates of the Accademia (Segel 1989). Leto, however, gave him what would be his literary and most familiar name: Callimachus. Leto, Platina, and others referred to Buonaccorsi under either of these two names in describing his role in the plot to assassinate Paul II and the subsequent arrest of most of the Accademia's members in 1468.
While large aspects of the plot are uncertain, the main protagonists generally regarded Callimachus as one of its principle instigators and even its leader. Leto's Defensio paints a very dark picture of Callimachus as someone completely debauched and utterly selfish. Indeed, Leto wished that he had never met him at all ("Callimachus, quem utinam nunquam cognouissem…"). Leto continued that there were many others, such as Platina and Campano, who could attest to Callimachus' wickedness and treachery ("Testis est Episcopus Campanus, testis Platina, testes alii multi."). Platina, however, revised his opinion of Callimachus as the leader of the plot once he had returned to papal favor and claimed that Callimachus lacked the talent and energy to orchestrate such a plot (though initially he had confirmed Leto's assessment in his deposition). Regardless of his role in the plot, Callimachus fled Italy out of necessity after its discovery and went into exile.
Callimachus' constant flight from Papal authorities took him across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus and Chios to Constantinople, until he found permanent safety in Poland. It was there that his fortunes and career had a rebirth. He found protection and patronage from the Tedaldi present in the Polish kingdom as well as from powerful bishops, such as Gregory of Sanok and Zbigniew Oleśnicki (Olkiewicz 1981). Even after his papal arrest warrant was rescinded, Callimachus decided to remain in Poland and became one of the leading proponents of humanistic studies in Cracow. He took part in Conrad Celtis' Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana. He continued to maintain correspondence with his friends and leading intellectuals in Italy, such as Bartolomeo Scala, Marsilio Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola. In the latter part of his life, he became a tutor, diplomat, and advisor to the Polish kings. His later works focus on the Kingdom of Poland's relations with the Ottoman Empire, especially the benefits and costs of joining forces with Venice and the Papacy against the Ottomans' expansion into the European continent. Callimachus died in 1497 and was buried in the Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity in Cracow. The epitaph of his tomb serves as a fitting summary of his career:
PHILIPPVS CALLIMACHVS EXPERIENS NACIONE THVSCVS VIR DOCTISSIMVS/
VTRIVSQVE FORTUNE EXEMPLVM IMITANDUM ATQVE OMNIS VIRTVTIS CVLTOR/ PRECIPVVS DIVI OLIM CASIMIRI ET JOHANNIS ALBERTI POLONIE REGVM/ SECRETARIVS ACCEPTISSIMVS RELICTIS INGENII AC RERVM A SE/ GESTARVM PLVRIBVS MONVMENTIS CVM SVMMO OMNIVM BO/ NORVM MERORE ET REGIE DOMVS ATQVE HVIVS REIPVBLICE/ INCOMMODO ANNO SALVTIS NOSTRE MCCCCLXXXXVI CAL/ ENDIS NOVEMBRIS VITA DECEDENS HIC SEPVLTVS EST List of Major Works by CallimachusEpigrammatum libri duo
BAV, Urb. lat. 368 (complete)
BAV, Vat. lat. 2869 (contains 26 epigrams) Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library), Cim. 128 (partial, first book only) Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, J. XI 34 (partial, second book) Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Lat. Medii Aevi 367 (contains 25 epigrams) Two books of epigrams composed in Venice and Rome between 1460 and 1468. This work was confiscated by Papal authorities after Callimachus' escape from Rome. The work was supplemented by Callimachus with new poems composed in Poland in a later redaction. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1963a.
Fannientum
BAV, Vat. lat. 2869
BAV, Vat. lat. 5156 BAV, Vat. lat. 8865 BAV, Vat. lat. 7192 BAV, Barb. lat. 2031 BR, 1226 Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Lat. Medii Aevi 367 Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, 327 BML, Pluteo LXXXXI Sup., 43 BML, Pluteo XXXIV, 50 BNCN, IV F 64 A collection of love and occasional poetry that Callimachus wrote sometime in 1469/70, but dedicated only in 1472 to Arnolfo Tedaldi, an influential member of a prominent merchant family active in Poland and the Ottoman Empire. Tedaldi and his family sheltered Callimachus during his flight and encouraged him to flee to Poland. Maciej Drzewiecki, a pupil of Callimachus and future primate of Poland, sent a second revised edition of the work to Lorenzo de'Medici in 1491. A critical edition is available in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1981.
Carmen saphicum in vitam gloriosissimi martiris Sancti Stanislai episcopi cracoviensis
This work was written between 1470 and 1472. The work survives in an undated, sixteenth-century printed edition by Haller in Cracow. The only poetic work by Callimachus printed in Poland during the sixteenth century.
Biga epistolarum ad magnificum et insignem dominum Derslaum de Ritwianny palatinum sandomiriensem
Written in 1471, these letters offers Callimachus' perspective on his persecution by the papal police and the enforcement of his arrest warrant in Poland stemming from his alleged role in the plot. Printed in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1967.
Vita et mores Gregorii Sanocei Archiepiscopi Leopoliensis
Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, sign. nr. 2198
Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, sign. nr. 59 Written between 1475 and 1477 and dedicated to Zbigniew Oleśnicki the Younger, the Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland. The oldest surviving manuscript dates from 1555 and is preserved in the Jagiellonian Library, Cracow. The authoritative critical edition by Irmina Lichońska is published Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962c.
Rhetorica Callimachi
This work was written between 1476 and 1477. A manuscript with a later title page from the seventeenth or eighteenth century was discovered by Kazimierz Kumaniecki in Wałbrzych (Wallenberg), Poland in 1948. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1950. The MS is located in the Kórnik Library in Kórnik, Poland.
Biga epistolarum ad reverendum Sbigneum de Oleśnica scholasticum cracoviensem Regni Poloniae vice-cancellarium
These letters were written in 1478 to Zbigniew Oleśnicki (1430 – 1493), Archbishop of Gniezno, Primate of Poland, vice-chancellor of the Polish crown, and nephew of the Polish cardinal of same name. Printed in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1967.
Vita et mores Sbignei cardinalis
Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, sign. nr. 2198
Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, sign. nr. 59 This work was composed in 1480 and is a biography of Oleśnicki. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962c.
P. Callimachi Geminianensis Historia de rege Vladislao seu de clade Varnensi
BAV, Reg. lat. 681
BAV, Ottob. lat. 2280 Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Cod. Lat. 368 Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library), Sign. IV 3037 BNMV, Lat. Cl. 10 Nr. 125 BSB, Lat. 464 ÖNB, Nr. 3522 This work was written sometime between 1484 and 1490 and dedicated to Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The first edition printed in Augsburg in 1518 with the second one being printed in 1582 in Cracow. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1961.
Attyla (Attila)
Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Lat. Med. Aevi 368, ff. 1r-20v.
Modena, Biblioteca Estense, Lat. 155, ff. 10r-25v ÖNB, Lat. 3522, ff. 6r-18v Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library), Sign. IV 3037, ff. 2-12 This work was written in 1486 and first printed in 1489 (without place of publication). It was reprinted with the title Historia de rebus gestis Attilae Hunnorum regis in 1513, 1542 (Basel), 1543, and 1566. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962a.
De his quae a Venetis tentata sunt Persis ac Tartaris contra Turcos movendis
BNMV, Mss. Latini Cl. Lo Nr 125
This work was written between 1487 and 1493. Editio princeps printed at the Hague in 1533. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962b.
Philippi Callimachi Experientis Ad Innocentium VIII Pontificem Maximum de bello inferendo Turcis oratio
BNMV, Mss. Lat. Cl. Nr. 125
Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Cod. Lat. 368 Budapest, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Cod. Lat. 178 ÖNB, Cod. 3522 BSB, Cod. Lat. 464 Warsaw, Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library), Sign. IV 3037 This work was written in c. 1490 and first published in 1519. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1964.
Consilia Callimachi
A collection of maxims and advice to the Polish king, Jan Olbracht, that is attributed to Callimachus and was written possibly in October of 1492 in Vienna. Critical edition in Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1887.
Bibliography — Modern EditionsBuonaccorsi (ed.) 1887: F. Buonaccorsi, Consilia Callimachi in ed. R. Wšetečka. Pamiętnik Słuchaczy Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 1887.
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1950: F. Buonaccorsi, Rhetorica. ed. K. Kumaniecki (Warszawa 1950).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1961: F. Buonaccorsi, Historia de rege Vladislao, eds. I. Lichońska, T. Kowalewski and A. Komornicka (Warszawa 1961).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962a: F. Buonaccorsi, Attila, ed. T. Kowalewski (Warszawa 1962).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962b: F. Buonaccorsi, De his quae a Venetis tentata sunt Persis ac Tartaris contra Turcos movendis, eds. A. Kempfi, T. Kowalewski and M. Cytowska (Warszawa 1962).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1962c: F. Buonaccorsi, Vita et mores Sbignei cardinalis, ed. I. Lichońska (Warszawa 1962).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1963a: F. Buonaccorsi, Epigrammatum libri duo, ed. K. Kumaniecki (Wrocław 1963).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1963b: F. Buonaccorsi, Vita et mores Gregorii Sanocei, ed. I. Lichońska (Warszawa 1963).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1964: F. Buonaccorsi, Ad Innocentium VIII de bello Turcis inferendo oratio, eds. I. Lichońska and T. Kowalewski (Warszawa 1964).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1967: F. Buonaccorsi, Epistulae selectae, eds. I. Lichońska, G. Pianko and T. Kowalewski (Wrocław 1967).
Buonaccorsi (ed.) 1981: F. Buonaccorsi, Callimachi Experientis carmina, a c. di F. Sica con introduzione di G. Paparelli (Napoli 1981).
Michael T. Tworek
6 November 2011. This entry can be cited as follows:
Michael T. Tworek, "Filippo Buonaccorsi," Repertorium Pomponianum (URL: www.repertoriumpomponianum.it/pomponiani/buonaccorsi_filippo.htm,
|
 |