BMCR 2009.03.18, Gemma Donati, L'Orthographia di Giovanni Tortelli

Gemma Donati, L'Orthographia di Giovanni Tortelli. Percorsi dei
classici, 11.  Messina:  Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi
Umanistici, 2006.  Pp. xix, 407; pls. 24.  ISBN 88-87541-31-0.  EUR 60.00 
(pb).

Reviewed by Giancarlo Abbamonte, Universita\ degli Studi di Napoli
Federico II ([email protected])
Word count:  1663 words
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It is only in the last few decades that scholars have paid much
attention to the biography and the works of the humanist Giovanni
Tortelli (Arezzo 1400-1466). Tortelli studied in Florence, where he
befriended Leonardo Bruni and had the opportunity to study Greek with
Filelfo and Carlo Marsuppini. From 1423 to 1433 Tortelli lived in
Mantua, where he attended the classes of master Vittorino da Feltre,
then the most eminent teacher in classics. In order to improve his
knowledge of the Greek language and to complete his humanistic
training, Tortelli left Italy for Greece around 1433 and remained there
until 1438.

After a period spent in Bologna, in 1447 Tortelli moved to Rome where
he developed close relations with pope Niccolo\ V. (Tommaso
Parentucelli, 1447-1455). It was this pope who commissioned Tortelli to
found the Vatican Library by gathering manuscripts from far and wide,
as well as providing the new library with numerous translations from
Greek into Latin, commissioned for that purpose from the most
illustrious Italian humanists of the time (e.g., Guarinus of Verona,
Leonardus Iustiniani, Antonius Loschi, Laurentius Valla, Giannozzo
Manetti, and the young Niccolo\ Perotti).

Although the foundation of the Vatican Library can doubtless be
regarded as Tortelli's most important contribution, he nevertheless
deserves to be studied also for his major literary work, entitled De
orthographia. De orthographia is a sort of alphabetical lexicon, which
gives the correct Latin orthography of c. 3440 Greek terms and--by
means of quotations from ancient authors -- provides information on
their etymology and meaning.[[1]]

Tortelli's De orthographia may be considered the first in a long line
of important Humanistic Latin lexicographies such as Laurentius Valla's
Elegantiarum libri, Iulianus Maius' De priscorum proprietate verborum,
and most of all Niccolo\ Perotti's Cornu copiae. These works show a
linguistically modern approach towards Latin, which completely
supplanted the Medieval tradition of Latin lexica (e.g. Papias,
Hugutio, and John Balbi). Humanist activity in the field of Latin
Lexicography culminated in Ambrosius Calepinus' vocabulary of 1502,
which may be considered the first to employ a modern approach towards
Latin lexicography. In this sense we may see De orthographia as the
first in a series of steps towards a modernization of Latin
lexicography.

If we thus consider Tortelli's importance on the intellectual stage of
his time as well as his work's immediate success, it is more than
surprising that scientific research on this humanist has so far been
scarce and what has been produced is hardly comparable to the much more
substantial works on other--often far inferior--works of the 15th
century. So far the only works on Tortelli are an older biographical
study 1920[[2]] and a number of articles, while a reliable edition of
De orthographia is still sadly missing. Only a sound edition however
would allow scholars to see more clearly what sources Tortelli knew and
employed in his writings.

Donati's book is therefore the first monograph on this author and his
work. Her main concern is to trace the various phases of its creation.
In her first chapter, "Genesi e struttura" (pp. 1-85), the author
outlines the most essential episodes of Tortelli's biography and points
to his time in Bologna (1441-1445) as the moment when he began working
on De orthographia. She connects this period of intellectual activity
with Tortelli's friendship with Niccolo\ Volpi, a humanist from Vicenza
but resident in Bologna, who spurred him on to embark and continue on
his lexicographical enterprise.

Donati's second chapter, "Le lettere di Niccolo\ Volpe" (pp. 87-186),
contains an edition of the 26 letters which N. Volpi wrote to Tortelli.
The inclusion of the letters as part of the book is justified by
certain passages in which the two humanists discuss lexicographical
problems which would later arise also in De orthographia. Although the
letters' contents are not necessarily concerned with the first stages
of Tortelli's work as a whole, they are still important for the
understanding of numerous of its lemmata of which they provide
something like a 'first redaction'.

In the third chapter, "La tradizione" (pp. 187-251), Donati deals with
De orthographia's extant witnesses divided into three groups. The work
enjoyed an immediate success first in Italy and subsequently also in
the rest of Europe. Donati lists 23 manuscripts containing the full
text of De orthographia and 12 more containing 'only' excerpta. In
addition Donati chooses four incunables which likewise contain the full
text (Lucca, U. Han, 1471, HC 15563, Venezia, N. Jenson, 1471, HC
15564, Treviso, H. Liechtenstein, 1477, HC 15565, Venezia, F. Pincio,
1493, HC 15572). Her selection of these four editions is justified by
her research on the relations and dependencies both among those four
and between them and other contemporary and subsequent ones.

In the fourth and last chapter, "I rapporti tra i testimoni" (pp.
253-342), Donati presents her results drawn from a partial collation
(for a significant section) of the work's principal witnesses and
attempts to delineate certain relations between them. She also revises
the role played up to now by the manuscript Vat. Lat. 1478 (A) which
has so far been considered a sort of codex unicus. In fact it was even
believed that Tortelli himself had written it in order to present it to
pope Niccolo\ V. as a gift. Instead, Donati persuasively argues that
the main handwriting is not Tortelli's, although she attributes to him
the marginal notes. She likewise doubts the text's authority over all
others since it lacks 16 lemmata present in other witnesses (see Donati
p. 254). Nevertheless A remains an invaluable document not least
because it still constitutes a partial autograph - even if the spell of
the codex unicus has been broken.

Donati's fourth chapter is followed by an appendix called "Architettura
e indice dei lemmi" (pp. 345-383), in which the author provides a list
of lemmata as contained in De orthographia. Previously anyone intending
to consult De orthographia--a lexicon not organized according to the
alphabetic principle -- needed above all two things: time and patience.
>From 1994 onwards it was possible to consult the index published by
J.-L. Charlet and M. Furno on the basis of two incunables from
1471.[[3]] Donati's index surpasses the older one by far and will
doubtless be of great help to anyone who wishes to consult De
orthographia. The appendix is followed by a rich section of indices (of
reproductions, of manuscripts, of key words, and of names).

Donati's monograph is highly specialized and addresses an audience of
philologists specializing in humanistic texts. The first chapter,
especially, proves at times to be tough reading due to the author's
attempt to insert numerous biographical notes into a chapter generally
concerned with the first stages of the work's creation. Here it might
have been advisable to separate the two spheres and help the reader
gain a first impression by dedicating an introductory chapter
exclusively to Tortelli's life, reserving the information on the work's
creation for a separate chapter.

Donati's principal achievement consists in her recension and study of
De orthographia's transmission and the important conclusions she draws
regarding the manuscripts' interrelations and interdependencies. Any
future editor will have to keep them in mind. Nevertheless, as the
recent critical edition of the Cornu copia has shown, a simple
collation of a work's extant witnesses is not always enough to
establish precise readings, especially when it comes to quotations from
ancient authors. Here it is necessary to attempt a theoretical
reconstruction of the author's personal library, i.e. the works of
ancient authors at the humanist's disposal. In Tortelli's case, e.g.,
Donati has proved convincingly that the Virgilian and Statian
quotations were inserted only in a second phase and drawn from the
comments of Servius and Lactantius Placidus (p. 269). On the other
hand, it remains unclear what redaction of those highly complex works
Tortelli had at his disposal. In general however it may be observed
that Donati's analysis of the individual lemmata focuses primarily on
their critical/textual aspects (i.e., readings and relationships among
the manuscripts) and less on the intricate questions of their sources.

Tortelli's work enjoyed great success, due in particular to its printed
editions which allowed for widespread circulation and use.
Nevertheless, as Charlet was already able to demonstrate, significant
differences exist between the two editions from 1471 (Rome and Venice).
The Venetian edition omits certain parts of the text and presents the
lemmata in a different sequence. The Roman edition however contains a
greater number of mistakes.[[4]] To assess how widely those first
printed editions circulated and what role they played in making the
work known all over Italy and eventually Europe, it will be necessary
to study their textual variants. Any future critical edition should
thus include their readings in its apparatus.

In conclusion, if we consider the pivotal role Tortelli played both in
the history of modern Latin lexicography and in the foundation of the
Vatican Library and consider likewise the scarcity of scholarly studies
dedicated to him, we can only welcome Donati's book on Tortelli. It
constitutes a milestone on the road towards the true end of scholarship
on Tortelli--a critical edition of De orthographia.--by giving us
precious insights on the work's 'genesis' and its transmission, which
must be regarded as extremely complex.

Establishing a correct text of Tortelli's vocabulary will by no means
be as easy as it was, for instance, in the case of the Cornu copiae
(where scholars were able to draw on the manuscript Vaticanus Urbinas
Latinus 301, written by Perotti's nephew and corrected by Perotti
himself).[[5]] If one considers that seven scholars worked for more
than 12 years on Perotti's critical edition it becomes exceedingly
clear that a critical edition of Tortelli's De orthographia cannot be
tackled by a single scholar alone. On the basis of my experience as
co-editor of Perotti's Cornu copiae, I would suggest assembling a team
of scholars who may together tackle this huge task (i.e. studying the
transmission and the work's sources). Certainly Donati would be
destined to play a prominent role in such a difficult but highly
desirable enterprise.

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Notes:


1.   See e.g. the entry Myrmidon in Donati p. 267, which provides an
example of a lemma in De orthographia: Myrmidones cum y graeco, sequens
i latino scribitur. Populi fuerunt Thessalia a Myrmidone Iovis filio et
eorum duce cognominati, ut scripsit Heratosthenes. Servius vero super
IIo Aeneidos librum dixit fuisse in Attica regione puellam Myrmione
nomine ob solertiam et castimoniam Minervae gratam, quae cum aratrum in
odium Cereris a Minerva conditum hominibus demonstraret, a turbata
Minerva in formicam versa fuit, quae graeca lingua myrmix dicitur, quam
damnavit ut nunquam desisteret a congregandis granis. Sed quia
adveniente peste in Aegina insula ex formicis deinde populi restituti
sunt, ut late narravit Ovidius libro Metamorphoseon, populi illi dicti
sunt Myrmidones.

2.   See G. Mancini, Giovanni Tortelli cooperatore di Niccolo\ V nel
fondare la Biblioteca Vaticana, in "Arch. Storico Italiano" 78, 1920,
pp. 1-108.

3.   See J.-L. Charlet-M. Furno, Index des lemmes du De orthographia de
Giovanni Tortelli, Aix-en-Provence 1994.

4.   See e.g. at the beginning of the letter V, the Roman edition
prints as follows: Dictionum Graecarum quae Latine scribuntur et a T
littera initium sumunt orthographia finit. Incipit earum quae ab V
littera initium habent. Venetian edition omits this introduction.

5.   The critical edition of Perotti's Cornu copiae is not only based
on the ms. Vaticanus Urbinas Latinus 301, but also on three printed
editions, which were very successful after the death of Perotti:
namely, the editio princeps (Venice, Ludovico Odasi, 1489), the
Venetian second printed text edited by Polidoro Virgilio (1496), and
finally the edition printed by Aldus Manutius (Venice 1526), which is
the first to provide the readership with an accurate index of words
occurring as lemmas in Perotti's Cornu copiae.