The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
by Jacob Burckhardt
Part Three: The Revival of Antiquity
Notes
Universities and Schools
The influence of antiquity on culture, of which
we have now to speak, presupposes that the new learning had gained possession of
the universities. This was so, but by no means to the extent and with the
results which might have been expected. (Note
1)
Few of the Italian universities show themselves in their full vigor till the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the increase of wealth rendered a more
systematic care for education possible. At first there were generally three
sorts of professorships--one for civil law, another for canonical law, the third
for medicine; in course of time professorships of rhetoric, of philosophy, and
of astronomy were added, the last commonly, though not always, identical with
astrology. The salaries varied greatly in different cases. Sometimes a capital
sum was paid down. With the spread of culture, competition became so active that
the different universities tried to entice away distinguished teachers from one
another, under which circumstances Bologna is said to have sometimes devoted the
half of its public income (20,000 ducats) to the university. The appointments
were as a rule made only for a certain time, sometimes for only half a year, so
that the teachers were forced to lead a wandering life, like actors.
Appointments for life were, however, not unknown. Sometimes the promise was
exacted not to teach elsewhere what had already been taught at one place. There
were also voluntary, unpaid professors. (Note
2)
Of the chairs which have been mentioned, that of rhetoric was especially
sought by the humanist; yet it depended only on his familiarity with the matter
of ancient learning whether or no he could aspire to those of law, medicine,
philosophy, or astronomy. The inward conditions of the science of the day were
as variable as the outward conditions of the teacher. Certain jurists and
physicians received by far the largest salaries of all, the former chiefly as
consulting lawyers for the suits and claims of the State which employed them. In
Padua a lawyer of the fifteenth century received a salary of 1,000 ducats, and
it was proposed to appoint a celebrated physician with a yearly payment of 2,000
ducats, and the right of private practice, the same man having previously
received 700 gold florins at Pisa. When the jurist Bartolommeo Socini, professor
at Pisa, accepted a Venetian appointment at Padua, and was on the point of
starting on his journey, he was arrested by the Florentine government and only
released on payment of bail to the amount of 18,000 gold florins. The high
estimation in which these branches of science were held makes it intelligible
why distinguished philologists turned their attention to law and medicine, while
on the other hand specialists were more and more compelled to acquire something
of a wide literary culture. We shall presently have occasion to speak of the
work of the humanists in other departments of practical life. (Note
3)
Nevertheless, the position of the philologists, as such, even where the
salary was large, and did not exclude other sources of income, was on the whole
uncertain and temporary, so that one and the same teacher could be connected
with a great variety of institutions. It is evident that change was desired for
its own sake, and something fresh expected from each newcomer, as was natural at
a time when science was in the making, and consequently depended to no small
degree on the personal influence of the teacher. Nor was it always the case that
a lecturer on classical authors really belonged to the university of the town
where he taught. Communication was so easy, and the supply of suitable
accommodation, in monasteries and elsewhere, was so abundant, that a private
appointment was often practicable. In the first decades of the fifteenth
century, when the University of Florence was at its greatest brilliance, when
the courtiers of Eugenius IV, and perhaps even of Martin V thronged the
lecture-room, when Carlo Aretino and Filelfo were competing for the largest
audience, there existed, not only an almost complete university among the
Augustinians of Santo Spirito, not only an association of scholars among the
Camaldolesi of the Angeli, but individuals of mark, either singly or in common,
arranged to provide philosophical and philological teaching for themselves and
others. Linguistic and antiquarian studies in Rome had next to no connection
with the university (Sapienza), and depended almost exclusively either on the
favour of individual popes and prelates, or on the appointments made in the
Papal chancery. It was not till Leo X (1513) that the great reorganization of
the Sapienza took place, which now had eighty-eight lecturers, among whom there
were the most able men of Italy, reading and interpreting the classics. But this
new brilliancy was of short duration. We have already spoken briefly of the
Greek professorships in Italy. (Note
4)
To form an accurate picture of the method of scientific instruction then
pursued, we must turn away our eyes as far as possible from our present academic
system. Personal intercourse between the teachers and the taught, public
disputations, the constant use of Latin and often of Greek, the frequent changes
of lecturers and the scarcity of books, gave the studies of that time a color
which we cannot represent to ourselves without effort. (Note
5)
There were Latin schools in every town of the least importance, not by any
means merely as preparatory to higher education, but because, next to reading,
writing, and arithmetic, the knowledge of Latin was a necessity; and after Latin
came logic. It is to be noted particularly that these schools did not depend on
the Church, but on the municipality; some of them, too, were merely private
enterprises. (Note 6)
This school system, directed by a few distinguished humanists, not only
attained a remarkable perfection of organization, but became an instrument of
higher education in the modern sense of the phrase. With the education of the
children of two princely houses in North Italy institutions were connected which
may be called unique of their kind.
At the court of Giovan Francesco Gonzaga at Mantua (1407-1444) appeared the
illustrious Vittorino da Feltre, one of those men who devote their whole life to
an object for which their natural gifts constitute a special vocation.
He directed the education of the sons and daughters of the princely house,
and one of the latter became under his care a woman of learning. When his
reputation extended far and wide over Italy, and members of great and wealthy
families came from long distances, even from Germany, in search of his
instructions, Gonzaga was not only willing that they should be received, but
seems to have held it an honour for Mantua to be the chosen school of the
aristocratic world. Here for the first time gymnastics and all noble bodily
exercises were treated along with scientific instruction as indispensable to a
liberal education. Besides these pupils came others, whose instruction Vittorino
probably held to be his highest earthly aim, the gifted poor, whom he supported
in his house and educated, 'per l'amore di Dio,' along with the highborn youths
who here learned to live under the same roof with untitled genius. Gonzaga paid
him a yearly salary of 300 gold florins, and contributed to the expenses caused
by the poorer pupils. He knew that Vittorino never saved a penny for himself,
and doubtless realized that the education of the poor was the unexpressed
condition of his presence. The establishment was conducted on strictly religious
lines, stricter indeed than many monasteries. (Note
7)
More stress was laid on pure scholarship by Guarino of Verona (1370-1460),
who in the year 1429 was called to Ferrara by Niccolo d'Este to educate his son
Lionello, and who, when his pupil was nearly grown up in 1436, began to teach at
the university of eloquence and of the ancient languages. While still acting as
tutor to Lionello, he had many other pupils from various parts of the country,
and in his own house a select class of poor scholars, whom he partly or wholly
supported. His evening hours till far into the night were devoted to hearing
lessons or to instructive conversation. His house, too, was the home of a strict
religion and morality. It signified little to him or to Vittorino that most of
the humanists of their day deserved small praise in the matter of morals or
religion. It is inconceivable how Guarino, with all the daily work which fell
upon him, still found time to write translations from the Greek and voluminous
original works. (Note 8)
Not only in these two courts, but generally throughout Italy, the education
of the princely families was in part and for certain years in the hands of the
humanists, who thereby mounted a step higher in the aristocratic world. The
writing of treatises on the education of princes, formerly the business of
theologians, fell now within their province. (Note
9)
From the time of Pier Paolo Vergerio the Italian princes were well taken care
of in this respect, and the custom was transplanted into Germany by Aeneas
Sylvius, who addressed detailed exhortations to two young German princes of the
House of Habsburg on the subject of their further education, in which they are
both urged, as might be expected, to cultivate and nurture humanism. Perhaps
Aeneas was aware that in addressing these youths he was talking in the air, and
therefore took measures to put his treatise into public circulation. But the
relations of the humanists to the rulers will be discussed separately.
Notes
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