Chapter 4 Making an Impression: From Florence to Rome and from Manuscript to Print

Julia Haig Gaisser

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Chapter 4 Making an Impression: From Florence to Rome and from Manuscript to Print

Julia Haig Gaisser
Julia Haig Gaisser

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This chapter is in the book The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass

CHAPTER 4Making an Impression : From Florence to Rome and from Manuscript to Print And so we shall demonstrate that we are really from the family of Plato, for it knows nothing except what is festive, joyous, heavenly, divine. —Marsilio Ficino, Commentarium in Convivium Platonis, De AmoreTwo events in the early fourteenth century determined the fortunes of Apuleius for over 150 years: Boccaccio’s decisive encounter with the Metamorphoses in the late 1330s and the reappearance of the philo-sophical works in Italy a generation earlier. Boccaccio discovered not the manuscript of the Golden Ass but its literary riches, and he brought his fi nd back to Florence a decade or so before Zanobi da Strada ar-rived with the manuscripts from Monte Cassino. The newly discovered philosophical works, overshadowed in the fourteenth century by their literary siblings, came to the fore in the fi fteenth, fueling the reception of all of Apuleius’ works and fi nally propelling them into print in 1469 in one of the earliest editions of a classical author printed in Italy. The reappearance of the philosophical works at last reunited the two strands of Apuleius’ oeuvre. They had been separated for nearly a thou-sand years: while the literary works lay unnoticed in Monte Cassino, the philosophical works enjoyed a rich fortuna in northern Europe but were essentially unknown in Italy. 1 But by the early decades of the four-teenth century texts from both traditions had become available to read-ers like Pseudo-Burley and Thomas Waleys in northern Italy. The liter-ary works came to these early scholars—at an unknown number of removes—from Monte Cassino; but they almost certainly saw the phil-osophical works not in Italian manuscripts but in texts brought from France (or even England or Germany), perhaps by way of Avignon. 21 Of the twenty-six extant philosophical manuscripts written before 1200, not one is known to be of Italian origin; only three were written in Italy before 1300. See Klibansky and Regen, Die Handschriften, 49–50. 2 At least one manuscript of the philosophical works is known to have been brought to Italy from Avignon: Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana N 266 sup. See Klibansky and Regen, Die Handschriften, 88–89. 05_Gaisser_Ch04_p129-p172.indd12905_Gaisser_Ch04_p129-p172.indd 12910/8/20074:49:31PM10/8/2007 4:49:31 PM

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CHAPTER 4Making an Impression : From Florence to Rome and from Manuscript to Print And so we shall demonstrate that we are really from the family of Plato, for it knows nothing except what is festive, joyous, heavenly, divine. —Marsilio Ficino, Commentarium in Convivium Platonis, De AmoreTwo events in the early fourteenth century determined the fortunes of Apuleius for over 150 years: Boccaccio’s decisive encounter with the Metamorphoses in the late 1330s and the reappearance of the philo-sophical works in Italy a generation earlier. Boccaccio discovered not the manuscript of the Golden Ass but its literary riches, and he brought his fi nd back to Florence a decade or so before Zanobi da Strada ar-rived with the manuscripts from Monte Cassino. The newly discovered philosophical works, overshadowed in the fourteenth century by their literary siblings, came to the fore in the fi fteenth, fueling the reception of all of Apuleius’ works and fi nally propelling them into print in 1469 in one of the earliest editions of a classical author printed in Italy. The reappearance of the philosophical works at last reunited the two strands of Apuleius’ oeuvre. They had been separated for nearly a thou-sand years: while the literary works lay unnoticed in Monte Cassino, the philosophical works enjoyed a rich fortuna in northern Europe but were essentially unknown in Italy. 1 But by the early decades of the four-teenth century texts from both traditions had become available to read-ers like Pseudo-Burley and Thomas Waleys in northern Italy. The liter-ary works came to these early scholars—at an unknown number of removes—from Monte Cassino; but they almost certainly saw the phil-osophical works not in Italian manuscripts but in texts brought from France (or even England or Germany), perhaps by way of Avignon. 21 Of the twenty-six extant philosophical manuscripts written before 1200, not one is known to be of Italian origin; only three were written in Italy before 1300. See Klibansky and Regen, Die Handschriften, 49–50. 2 At least one manuscript of the philosophical works is known to have been brought to Italy from Avignon: Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana N 266 sup. See Klibansky and Regen, Die Handschriften, 88–89. 05_Gaisser_Ch04_p129-p172.indd12905_Gaisser_Ch04_p129-p172.indd 12910/8/20074:49:31PM10/8/2007 4:49:31 PM

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