Giovanni Aurispa

Giovanni Aurispa (1376 – 1459) was an Italian historian and savant of the 15th century. He is remembered in particular as a promoter of the revival of the study of Greek in Italy. It is to Aurispa that the world is indebted for preserving the greater part of our knowledge of the Greek classics. [Elmer Adler, "The New Colophon: A Book Collector's Quarterly", vol. 2 (1948) p.334.]

Life

He was born at Noto in Sicily in 1376. A scholarship from the King of Sicily enabled him to study at Bologna from 1404-1410. Soon after, in 1413-4, he went out to Greece as a private tutor for the sons of a Genoese merchant, Racanelli, and settled on the island of Chios. Here he learned Greek, and began to collect books, including a Sophocles and a Euripides. [Elmer Adler, "The New Colophon: A Book Collector's Quarterly", vol. 2 (1948) p.333.] He also obtained a number of Greek texts, including a Thucydides which he sold to Niccolo Niccoli in 1417. [Charles L. Stinger, "Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari", p.36]

In 1418, he again visited Constantinople, where he remained for some years, perfecting his knowledge of Greek and searching for manuscripts. He worked so hard at this that he was accused to the Greek emperor of buying all the sacred books in the city.

On 15th December 1423 he arrived in Venice, with the largest and finest collection of Greek texts to reach the west prior to those brought by Bessarion. In reply to a letter from Ambrogio Traversari, he says that he brought back 238 manuscripts. These contained all of Plato, all of Plotinus, all of Proclus, much of Iamblichus, many of the Greek poets, including Pindar, and a great deal of Greek history, including volumes of Procopius and Xenophon which had been given to him by the emperor. [Charles L. Stinger, "Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari", p.36] . Also the poems of Callimachus and Oppian, and the Orphic verses; the historical works of Dio Cassius, Diodorus Siculus, and Arrian. Most of the works were hitherto unknown in the west. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=Il8MAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA211&dq=aurispa&ei=W-9KSKaTH5SCjwGe14jlDQ The biographical dictionary of the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge] , vol 4, 1844, p.211]

Further items included the oldest manuscript of Athenaeus; a 10th century codex containing 7 plays by Sophocles, 6 by Aeschylus -- the only manuscript in the world of these --, plus the "Argonautica" of Apollonius; the Iliad, Demosthenes, and many more. [Catholic Encyclopedia] A Herodotus was also among the collection; also the Geography of Strabo. The texts are all listed in the letter to Traversari. [William Roscoe, [http://books.google.com/books?id=NvQFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA31&dq=aurispa&lr=&ei=ZfdKSK20F6PujAGZxdzmDQ#PPA31,M1 The Life of Lorenzo De'Medici, Called the Magnificent] , p.31; "Epistulis Amb. Trav." lib. xxiv, Ep. 53 ]

But the only patristic text was a volume containing 200 letters of Gregory Nazianzen. In a letter to Traversari, he explains:

:I have not brought any sacred volumes from Greece except the letters of Gregory, which are, I believe, 200. This book is in faultless condition, and all the pages can be read, but its beauty is hardly such as to invite the reluctant reader. Long ago I sent from Constantinople to Sicily a good number of very choice sacred volumes, for I admit frankly that they were less precious to me, and a number of malicious persons often brought charges to the Greek emperor, accusing me of pillaging the city of sacred books. With regard to the heathen books, it seemed to them not such a great crime. [Charles L. Stinger, "Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari", p.37] .

Back in Venice, he is said to have been obliged to pawn his treasures for 50 gold florins to provide for the shipping costs. Traversari wrote to Lorenzo de' Medici who made him a loan to redeem the manuscripts. Traversari also arranged to exchange Niccolo's transcriptions of newly discovered texts by Cicero for Aurispa's transcriptions of Aristotle's "Rhetoric" and "Eudemian ethics".

In 1424 Aurispa went to Bologna, where he became professor of Greek at the university. But this was not a success. At the urging of Traversari, from 1425 to 1427 he held the prestigious chair of Greek studies in Florence. This ensured that his collection was copied widely among the humanists.

By 1430 he had managed to recover one bundle of manuscripts from Sicily. These included a volume of Saint's lives, a Gregory Nazianzen, one of the Orations of John Chrysostom, a Psalter, a volume of the Gospels, and the comedies of Aristophanes. The remainder of his manuscripts never seem to have returned to him. [Charles L. Stinger, "Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari", p.37] .

Quarrels at Florence led him to leave in 1433, and move to Ferrara, where he was patronised by the House of Este. He taught the classics, took holy orders and obtained preferment in the church. Alfonso, King of Naples, asked him through his friend Panormita to move there, but he declined.

In 1438, when the council of Basel was transferred to Ferrara, Aurispa attracted the attention of Pope Eugene IV, who made him Apostolic Secretary, and so he moved to Rome. He held a similar position under Nicholas V, who presented him to two lucrative abbacies.

He returned to Ferrara in 1450, and died there in 1459, at the age of almost 90.

Considering his long life and reputation, Aurispa produced little: Latin translations of the commentary of Hierocles on the golden verses of Pythagoras (1474) and of "Philisci Consolatoria ad Ciceronem" from Dio Cassius (not published till 1510) ; and, according to Gesner, a translation of the works of Archimedes.

Aurispa's reputation rests upon the extensive collection of manuscripts copied and distributed by him, and his persistent efforts to revive and promote the study of ancient literature.

Notes

References

*
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02112a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia article]