Viator 46 No. 1 (2015) 277–304. 10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.103510  

THE FIRST VERNACULAR CAESAR: PIER CANDIDO DECEMBRIO’S TRANSLATION FOR INIGO D’AVALOS WITH EDITIONS AND

TRANSLATIONS OF BOTH PROLOGUES

Hester Schadee*

Abstract: Among the first humanist translations of classical Latin texts is Pier Candido Decembrio’s ver-nacular version of Julius Caesar’s Commentaries. While his dedication of Caesar’s Gallic Wars (1438) to Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, has long been in print, the two dedications with which he prefaced the remaining books of the Caesarean corpus, both addressed to the Aragonese nobleman Inigo d’Avalos, have remained almost unknown and accessible only in manuscript. This article presents editions and trans-lations of these prologues, dates them (to 1438–1442, and post-1452, respectively), and identifies the Latin manuscript family from which they derive. It then reconstructs the cultural and political contexts of Decem-brio’s Caesar translations, showing how these literary gifts made him a cultural ambassador for Visconti and himself. Finally, it examines Decembrio’s approach to Caesar, whom he valued not as political or military exemplar, but as writer of history. The last preface, which contains a res gestae of Inigo’s father, the Castil-ian constable Rodrigo Lopez, also sheds light on Decembrio’s own historiographical practice. Keywords: Julius Caesar, Pier Candido Decembrio, Inigo d’Avalos, Rodrigo Lopez Davalos, Filippo Maria Visconti, Alfonso of Aragon, humanism, translation, vernacular, classical reception.

In 1438, Pier Candido Decembrio translated Julius Caesar’s seven books of the Gallic War into Italian. The enterprise is remarkable for several reasons. Decembrio’s ver-nacular Caesar, dedicated to Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, is among the earliest humanist translations of classical Latin writings into Italian.1 Furthermore, the choice of text bears on the Renaissance reception of Caesar, a highly significant yet controversial figure in Quattrocento political thought.2 Caesar was arguably the most famous of the Romans, having made a name for himself as general, dictator and sup-posed first emperor, parricide of the fatherland or, according to taste, victim of tyran-nicide. Since he was, moreover, the writer of his own deeds, Caesar also provoked reflections on the aims and means of historiography, matters no less important to the humanist cult of exemplarity. The prologue with which Decembrio dedicated his

 *h.schadee@exeter.ac.uk. It is my pleasure to thank Arndt Brendecke, Antonio Moreno Hernández, and David Rundle for their generous advice at various stages of this research, and the Princeton Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts for funding my travels. I should also like to thank the librarians and staff at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Vatican; Holkham Hall, Holkham; Biblioteca Angelica, Rome; Biblio-teca Palatina, Parma; Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III, Naples; and the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini, Naples, now closed, see n. 85 below. This article was written before I was aware of Paolo Ponzú Donato’s “Il Bellum Alexandrinum e il Bellum Africum volgarizzati da Pier Candido Decembrio per Inigo D’Avalos,” Interpres 31 (2013) 97–150, kindly brought to my attention by Susanne Reynolds at Holkham Hall, which examines three manuscripts containing the minor wars; I have, however, drawn on Ponzú Donato’s conclusions for my classification of the manuscripts, which includes a further three manu-scripts containing the eighth book of the Bellum Gallicum and (parts of) Bellum civile.

1 While translation from Greek into Latin was not uncommon, humanist translations from classical Latin into the vernacular are extremely rare at this early date. The first of which I am aware is Antonio Loschi’s ps.-Quintilian’s Declamationes (1392), also produced in the Milanese orbit; see Andrea Rizzi and Eva Del Soldato, “Latin and Vernacular in Quattrocento Florence and Beyond: An Introduction,” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 16, no. 1/2 (2013) 231–242, at 239. Shortly before Decembrio, Antonio da Rho produced the Vite degli Imperatori Romani (1431), but this is an adaptation rather than a strict translation of Suetonius. Its dedicatee was likewise Filippo Maria Visconti, who attained a reputation as “protector of the vernacular”; see Massimo Zaggia, “Appunti sulla cultura letteraria in volgare a Milano nell’età di Filippo Maria Visconti,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 170 (1993) 161–219, and see n. 21 below for Decembrio’s other translations for Visconti prepared in 1438.

2 See bibliography in nn. 39, 44–45, 47, and 49–50 below.

278 HESTER SCHADEE translation of the Gallic War to his lord Visconti has been published twice, yet its contents have rarely been discussed—perhaps because they show Decembrio’s interests in Caesar to differ from those of modern scholarship.3

At an unspecified time, Decembrio proceeded to translate the second seven books of the Caesarean corpus, to wit Aulus Hirtius’s eighth book of the Gallic War, Cae-sar’s own three books of the Civil War, and the anonymous Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars, which he however attributed to Hirtius.4 He offered them to the Arago-nese knight Inigo d’Avalos, by means of two dedicatory prefaces. These efforts of Decembrio’s raise further questions, including not only when, but also why he dedi-cated his vernacular Caesar to the Spaniard. In this case, however, an additional obsta-cle to interpretation has been the fact that these latter two prologues—placed before the eighth and the twelfth book respectively—have never appeared in print. This article therefore presents editions and English translations of the dedicatory pref-aces addressed to Inigo d’Avalos that Decembrio attached to the latter part of the Cae-sarean corpus (see appendices). Furthermore, it identifies the Latin manuscript family on which Decembrio based his translations, and re-dates these two dedications, which are shown to have been written at least ten years apart. This philological research forms the framework for reconstructing the cultural and political contexts of Decem-brio’s Caesar translations, or more precisely, the ways in which Decembrio’s literary gifts made him a cultural ambassador for Visconti and for himself. The last part of the article examines the contents of Decembrio’s dedications, including the one to Vis-conti, and so illuminates the humanist’s approach to Caesar and the uses of history. Discussion of the third preface also sheds light on Decembrio’s own historiographical practice in the form of a res gestae of Inigo’s father, the Castilian constable Rodrigo Lopez. A finding list of manuscripts of Decembrio’s Caesar translations concludes the article.

THE DATES OF DECEMBRIO’S PREFACES

Inigo d’Avalos was born in the first years of the fifteenth century as son of the Castil-ian Rodrigo or Ruy Lopez, count of Ribadeo (1357–1428), a man of relatively humble origins who had risen to become constable of Castile. In 1421, Rodrigo’s support for the sons of the Aragonese Ferdinand of Antiquera against King John II of Castile resulted in his exile, after which he placed himself and his family under the protection of King Alfonso of Aragon. Alfonso himself was adopted by Queen Joanna II of Na-ples in the same year, and spent the next two decades making good his claims to her realm. In 1435, Alfonso took Inigo with him during one of these campaigns, and both men were taken captive by the Genoese in the naval battle of Ponza. They were handed over to Filippo Maria Visconti in Milan, where Inigo spent the next years in close proximity to Pier Candido Decembrio, the duke’s secretary, and was granted the title of ducal chamberlain. After Alfonso’s conquest of Naples in 1442, Inigo became one of the most important figures of the kingdom, receiving the title of great cham-

 3 Alfred Morel-Fatio, “La traduction des Commentaires de César par Pier Candido Decembrio,” Biblio-

thèque de l'Ecole des Chartes 55 (1894) 343–348, on the basis of Paris, Bibliotèque Nationale de France, MS Fonds italien 124, who also gives the Castilian translation made after Decembrio’s Italian contained in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 10187; and Carlo Frati, “Il volgarizzamento dei ‘Commentarii’ di G. Cesare fatto da Pier Candido Decembrio,” Archivum romanicum 5.1 (1921) 75–80 (see n. 8 below).

4 Decembrio’s translation of the Bellum hispaniense is not preserved in any of the known manuscripts, but we may presume that he did not neglect to translate precisely this book for his Aragonese dedicatee.

THE FIRST VERNACULAR CAESAR 279

  

berlain in 1449, and of count of Monteodorisio in 1452. He remained a loyal com-mander of Alfonso and his Neapolitan successor Ferrante until his death in 1484.5 In the titulus of a manuscript of Decembrio’s first dedication to Inigo, the recipient is assigned the title “magno camerario” (great chamberlain). On this basis, Giovanna Lazzi has claimed 1449 as a terminus post quem for the translation.6 The contents of this preface, however, make clear that this date is impossible. In the final section of the dedication, where he comments on its genesis, Decembrio writes the following:7

Having newly translated from Latin into vernacular the Commentaries of the deeds done in Gaul by Julius Caesar, and offered these to our most serene prince here present, turning my hand to the rest of the work I am encouraged by him himself to dedicate the following books to your name, starting in this from the supplement of the eighth [book] of Hirtius, down to the last one of the civil wars which we have dedicated to your name.

The prince is Visconti, to whom Decembrio dedicated Caesar’s seven books of the Gallic War on 13 February 1438, as the earliest extant manuscript of that text, itself from 1442, records.8 Filippo Maria died on 13 August 1447, and in the unlikely event that Decembrio wished to honour the dead duke’s wishes, the words “newly” regard-ing the translation, and “here present” regarding Visconti, would be odd. The terminus ante quem, thus, is 1447. Secondly, King Alfonso is portrayed as having been battered by Fortune, and the more admirable for the stoicism with which he bears (in the pre-sent tense) his fate. Such a characterization is perfectly appropriate after the king’s defeat at Ponza delivered him into Milanese captivity, but would seem impertinent following his conquest of Naples, of which Decembrio makes no mention. This nar-rows the timeframe of the dedication to between February 1438 (the date of the dedi-cation of the Gallic War to Visconti), and February 1442 (Alfonso’s capture of Na-ples).9 It may be possible to be more precise. Inigo was released by Visconti on 16 May 1440, with a safe conduct for six months to return to Aragon.10 If, therefore—as is highly likely—not only Visconti but also Inigo was present at the time of writing,

 5 For Inigo d’Avalos’s biography, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (DBI), s.v. “AVALOS, Iñigo

d’, conte di Monteodorisio”; Raffaele Colapietra, “Il Conte Camerlengo Innigo d’Avalos protagonista dell’umanesimo cortigiano aragonese” I and II, Napoli Nobilissima 27 (1988) 141–149, 196–202; Zaggia, “Appunti sulla cultura” (n. 1 above) 180–182; and Pier Candido Decembrio, Vita Philippi Mariae tertij Ligurum ducis, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (RIS) 2nd ed., XX, 1, ed. Attilio Butti, Felice Fossati, Giuseppe Petraglione (Bologna 1926) 3–438, at 402–403 n. 1.

6 Giovanna Lazzi, “Un Cesare per Cesare: intento politico e iconografia classica,” Rivista di storia della miniatura 5 (2000) 35–46, at 36–37; Colapietra, “Il Conte Camerlengo” (n. 5 above) 142.

7 Transcribed and translated from Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. M VII 156 (hereafter ms Ch).The edition of the full text with variant readings and translation are given in Appendix I.

8 This manuscript is Genoa, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS G IV 27. It was copied, signed and dated by the scribe Jacopo de Medicis. A transcription of its dedication to Filippo Maria Visconti was made by its then-owner Guiseppe Vernazza in 1776, and is now preserved in Modena, Biblioteca Estense, MS Alpha O 8, 18 (Est. ital. 846). This transcription in turn was published by Frati, “Il volgarizzamento” (n. 3 above), who did not know the whereabouts of the original manuscript. “Filippo Maria” is added to “most serene prince here present” in Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli Vittorio Emanuele III, MS XIV 3 D (hereaf-ter ms N1); and Naples, Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini, MS C F 2-2 (hereafter ms N2).

9 A. F. C. Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous: King of Aragon, Naples and Sicily, 1396–1458 (Oxford 1990) 210–251; Giuseppe Galasso, Il Regno di Napoli: Il Mezzogiorno angioino e aragonese (1266-1494) = Storia d’Italia, vol. 15.1 (Turin 1992) 561–587.

10 Decembrio, Vita Philippi Mariae (n. 5 above) 402–403 n. 1.

280 HESTER SCHADEE then the dedication was made between February 1438 and May 1440. Following so shortly on Decembrio’s completion of the Gallic Wars, it is tempting to see his trans-lation of the Caesarean corpus as a unified project, designed from the start to have two dedicatees: seven books for Visconti and Inigo d’Avalos each.11

That Decembrio’s first preface for Inigo was written while the latter was still in Milan is confirmed by two other manuscripts, which both address the Aragonese as “ducale camerario” (ducal chamberlain).12 This office was granted to Inigo during his time at the court of Visconti.13 Hence the two witnesses were either written between 1438 and 1440/2 or reflect a prototype from these years. Confirming Decembrio’s intent to translate all remaining seven books for Inigo at the latest by 1442, they in turn provoke the question of why there are two different versions of the first preface: one in which the Aragonese is called ducal chamberlain, a title he possessed by 1440, and one which addresses him as great chamberlain, an office he attained only in 1449. One may hypothesize that a scribe diverged from his model in order to take account of the changed circumstances at the time of the copy. The other possibility is that De-cembrio himself produced an updated version.

A look at the second preface composed by Decembrio to Inigo d’Avalos shows that this latter proposition is not just possible, but indeed highly likely. For here, Inigo is addressed as “conte” (count)—not in the titulus, where he is again “great chamber-lain,” but in the text itself: “let your excellency, illustrious count, not believe that we want to pursue any flattery,” rendering it impossible that anyone but Decembrio was the author of the phrase.14 The second dedication, thus, indisputably dates from after 1452, when Inigo was made count of Monteodorisio. The conclusion must be that while Decembrio proposed to translate the second seven books of the Caesarean cor-pus in his preface to Hirtius’s eighth book of the Gallic War by 1440/2, he only made good on this promise after 1452, when he added the three minor wars, introduced by a second preface before book 12. Preparing the presentation volume of this second in-stalment of his translation for Inigo, Decembrio is likely to have included a new copy of the first instalment, updating its tituli to reflect his dedicatee’s new rank. That De-cembrio so created a new prototype for the first prologue—text as well as titulus—is confirmed by the manuscript tradition. All “magno camerario” manuscripts contain identical variants of a number of, again identical, readings in the two “ducale cam-erario” codices, such as “exagitato” for “peragitato,” and “la mente” for “lamane.”15

This leaves the question of when Decembrio completed books 9 to 11 of the cor-pus, corresponding to Caesar’s own Civil War. Given the location of the second preface before the twelfth book, The Alexandrian War, one may assume that the Civil

 11 Decembrio’s intention to translate “fin al ultimo dele civile bataglie” (ms Ch) should not be taken to

exclude the three minor wars, which are referred to as “gli tre libri ultimi dell battaglie civile Pompeiane” in Holkham, Holkham Hall, MS 541 (hereafter ms Ho). That he intended to translate all seven books is also indicated by the phrase “al resto delopera lamane accomodando” (ms Ch).

12 These mss are ms Ch and Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, MS Misc. 1192 (hereafter ms Pa). 13 Lazzi, “Un Cesare per Cesare” (n. 6 above) 42. 14 Transcribed and translated from ms Ho. The edition of the full text with variant readings and transla-

tion are given in Appendix II. 15 A full list can be found in the notes to the edition in Appendix I.

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War was done directly following Decembrio’s first preface and Hirtius’s book 8.16 However, neither of the two “ducale camerario” manuscripts has the Civil War, and conversely all manuscripts containing (fragments of) the Civil War derive from the post-1452 prototype. This leaves the distinct possibility that Decembrio initially only translated book 8 of the Gallic War for Inigo, and completed the Civil and Minor Wars together after 1452, placing a new preface in the middle, thus avoiding the inelegance of having two prologues on either side of book 8.

DECEMBRIO AS CULTURAL AMBASSADOR

Why did Decembrio offer translations of Caesar to the Aragonese worthy Inigo d’Avalos, once when the latter was captive in Milan, and again when he was a high-ranking dignitary and nobleman in the kingdom of Naples? Decembrio’s first dedica-tion must be understood in the context of the political history of the 1430s and 40s, involving Milan, Naples, and Aragon. Alfonso of Aragon was also King of Majorca, Sicily, and Sardinia, and in control of much of Corsica. With his adoption by the An-gevin Queen Joanna II of Naples, he hoped to add the mainland Mezzogiorno to his Mediterrenean insular empire. He was opposed, however, by Joanna’s kinsmen Louis III of Anjou and, after the latter’s death in 1434, his brother René of Anjou. The An-gevins made common cause with Filippo Maria Visconti, who had his own reasons to oppose Aragonese expansion, as it threatened to imperil Milanese control over the port city of Genoa. This Ligurian harbour was the main commercial counterpoint to the empire of Venice, with which Visconti was embroiled in constant struggles for territo-rial as well as maritime dominance. In 1433, Venice, Florence and Pope Eugenius IV formed one of many anti-Milanese alliances. Visconti in turn in the summer of 1435 sent out an ambassadorial mission to secure support against Venetian ambitions. His diplomats visited the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, as well as René of Anjou, then imprisoned in Dijon. In September 1435, an alliance was signed between René of Anjou and Filippo Maria Visconti. The latter’s secretary Pier Candido Decembrio was involved in both ambassadorial visits.17

Meanwhile in Milan, however, the situation was changing. The Genovese victory at the Battle of Ponza in August of that year had brought Alfonso into Visconti’s hands. All sources report that the duke treated his Aragonese prisoner with the utmost cour-tesy.18 This hospitality was calculated, as Visconti was conceiving of another solution to the Aragonese problem. In autumn 1435, Filippo Maria set Alfonso of Aragon free after making a secret pact with him. One part of the treaty, with immediate effect, stipulated that Alfonso bolster Visconti’s authority over Genoa, while Visconti was to aid Alfonso’s Neapolitan ambitions. The other, which would become operative after

 16 See also nn. 4 and 11 above. 17 Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous (n. 9 above) 14–18, 33–44; Francesco Cognasso, “Il ducato viscon-

teo da Gian Galleazo a Filippo Maria,” Storia di Milano, Vol. 6: Il ducato visconteo e la repubblica ambro-siana (1392–1450), ed. Fondazione Treccani degli Alfieri per la Storia di Milano (Milan 1955) 294–351; DBI, s.v. “DECEMBRIO, Pier Candido” 488.

18 Quoted in Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous (n. 9 above) 205–206.

282 HESTER SCHADEE Alfonso’s conquest of that kingdom, delineated the future spheres of influence of both lords.19

While Alfonso was set free, his courtier Inigo remained in Milan, presumably as guarantor. Yet rather than enemy he was now an ally, and a deputy of Alfonso whose goodwill was to be cultivated. The title of ducal chamberlain which Visconti granted to Inigo in Milan must be seen in this context. So must Visconti’s authoritative sug-gestion that Decembrio offer a literary translation to his captive guest. As a humanist secretary, Decembrio combined several roles: that of scholar, and that of writer of practical literature such as missives or political speeches.20 The embassy to Emperor Sigismund and René of Anjou shows Decembrio in this latter capacity. His translation of Caesar and its dedication to the Aragonese grandee exemplifies the overlap between both functions: itself a work of humanist scholarship, the text was designed for diplo-matic deployment. If the translation of the entire Caesarean corpus was planned by 1438, it was a gift with the potential to link in perpetuity Visconti and Inigo as joint recipients of one of the most famous texts of Antiquity. The division would elegantly underline their standing: equal friends and readers who would both be offered seven books, Visconti’s superiority as host and duke reflected in his receipt of the most prized Gallic War 1–7, while his knightly visitor Inigo was granted the remainder. If Visconti commissioned the books for Inigo only after receiving the Gallic War, it was nonetheless a cultural gift confirming the good will between the Milanese duke and his Aragonese ally. Decembrio, thus, producing his Caesar translation for Inigo at Vis-conti’s request, was truly a cultural ambassador.

Inigo also received copies of the two other translations from Latin into the vernac-ular undertaken by Decembrio for Visconti in 1438, namely Q. Curtius Rufus’s His-tory of Alexander, and Leonardo Bruni’s On the Punic War (1419), a Latin history based on Polybius’s Greek original.21 Other manuscripts copied for Inigo in his Mila-nese years include Bruni’s Latin translation of Aristotle’s Ethics, and a number of original compositions by Bruni and Poggio Bracciolini.22 For the present purposes, the

 19 DBI, s.v. “FILIPPO MARIA Visconti, duca di Milano” 778; Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous (n. 9

above) 207–209. The text of the treatise is published in Giampiero Bognetti, “Per la storia dello stato vis-conteo,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 54 (1927) 237–357.

20 For the range of duties of humanist secretaries, including Decembrio, see Marcello Simonetta, Rinascimento segreto: il mondo del segretario da Petrarca a Machiavelli (Milan 2004). See also Douglas Biow, Doctors, Ambassadors, Secretaries: Humanism and Professions in Renaissance Italy (Chicago 2002); and the biographical studies of Alison Brown, Bartolomeo Scala, 1430–1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat (Princeton 1979); and Carol Kidwell, Pontano: Poet and Prime Minister (London 1991).

21 Turin, Biblioteca Reale, MS Varia 131 (Curtius) and Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS 10301 (Bruni). Decembrio’s gives the order of translation thus: “quia nosse cupis quae opera potissime transtulerim, scito omnes libros Quinti Curcii, dein Commentarios Julii Caesaris, postremo Polibii de bello punico a me in maternum sermonem redactos esse,” in a letter to Francesco Pizzolpasso, quoted in Vittorio Zaccaria, “Sulle opere di Pier Candido Decembrio,” Rinascimento 7 (1956) 13–74, at 15 n. 1. However, Decembrio’s Curtius dedication is dated 21 April 1438 (see New Haven, Beinecke Library, MS Marston 9 Florence), while the Gallic War translation was offered to Visconti on 13 February of that same year; see n. 8 above. It is possi-ble that Decembrio’s dedication of the Curtius was delayed by the Comparison between Alexander and Caesar which he composed himself and added to the translation.

22 Listed in Lazzi, “Un Cesare per Cesare” (n. 6 above) 42; and Massimo Zaggia, “La versione latina di P.C. Decembrio dalla ‘Repubblica’ di Platone,” Interpres 13 (1993) 7–55, at 14 n. 31 and 46 n. 147; and see n. 13 above.

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most interesting of the manuscripts made for Inigo is undoubtedly a Latin text of Cae-sar’s Gallic War, now in Valladolid.23 Again, Decembrio functioned as cultural bro-ker. The Latin Caesar was copied on 26 March 1440 at the Visconti castle of Porta Giovia, by Ambrogio Scarile of Milan, the scribe who also executed the miscellaneous Bruni and Poggio texts for Inigo.24 On the basis of the titles attributed to Caesar in the titulus (“Gai Iulii cesaris imperatoris maximi continui consulis et perpetui dictatoris bellorum gallicorum ab eodem descriptorum”), it is possible to assign this text to a family of Gallic War manuscripts with Italian origins.25 This group includes among others a codex, now in Vienna, which contains the initials “I A”: otherwise unex-plained, they may well refer to Inigo d’Avalos.26 A third manuscript of this family, copied in Milan and now at the Vatican, contains a letter addressed by Decembrio to the Milanese Bishop Bartolomeo Capra discussing Caesar’s authorship.27 This latter manuscript and the text produced by Ambrogio Scarile for Inigo in fact appear to be copied from the very same prototype.28 Turning to Decembrio’s vernacular translation, the same titles, in exactly the same form, are listed in the tituli of this text: “Incomin-cia lystoria de Caio Julio Cesare Imperatore Maximo continuo consulo e perpetuo dictatore de le Bactaglie di Gallia da luy proprio discripte.”29 Decembrio’s vernacular translation thus depends on a manuscript from the same family. It is entirely plausible that the unidentified prototype of the Valladolid and Vatican copies, both copied in Milan in close proximity to Decembrio (vide the inclusion of his letter to Capra), was also the mother text of the vernacular translation produced by this humanist in the same city within two years of the Valladolid manuscript.30 This unknown manuscript, then, may well have been Decembrio’s own.

These manuscripts were among the spoils that earned Inigo his description by Ves-pasiano da Bisticci as bibliophile and Maecenas.31 That Vespasiano deemed the

 23 Valladolid, Biblioteca Historica de Santa Cruz, MS 301. 24 “per Ambrosium Scarilem Mediolanensem. In castro porte Iovis militem. Sabbato Sancto xxvi Martii

MCCCCXL in camera strenuissimi .d. Inici Miltis”; quoted in Manuel Isidro Guijosa, “Íñigo de Ávalos y el texto del Bellum Gallicum de César en un escriptorio milanés,” Julio César: textos, contextos y recepción. De la Roma Clásica al mundo actual, ed. Antonio Moreno Hernández (Madrid 2010) 167–196, at 172. Ambrogio Scarile also copied the miscellaneous texts by Bruni and Poggio (see n. 22 above); and Zaggia, “Appunti sulla cultura” (n. 1 above) 181 n. 70.

25 Isidro Guijosa, “Íñigo de Ávalos” (n. 24 above) 173; and see Virginia Brown, “Latin Manuscripts of Caesar’s Gallic War,” Paleographica, Diplomatica et Archivistica: Studi in onore di Giulio Batelli, vol. I (Rome 1979) 105–157, esp. 119, for a discussion of other tituli in this family.

26 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Pal. 248. 27 Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. H V 140. Decembrio’s letter to Capra is discussed at

n. 53 below. 28 Isidro Guijosa, “Íñigo de Ávalos” (n. 24 above) 174. 29 Quoted from Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS 1387 (hereafter ms An); cf. “Finisse el septimo libro de-

lystoria di C. Julio Cesare Imperatore Maximo continue consule e perpetuo ditatore de le bataglie da lui proprio descripte” (ms Ch).

30 While Valladolid, Biblioteca Historica de Santa Cruz, MS 301 only contains the Gallic War, Manuel Isidro Guijosa, “Precisiones en torno a la historia y a la filiación del Ms Bibl. Colegio Santa Cruz, 301 de Valladolid (‘Bellum Gallicum’ de César),” Minerva. Revista de filología clásica 20 (2007) 111–129, both Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS Pal. 248, and Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. H V 140 also contain the other Wars; Virginia Brown, The Textual Transmission of Caesar’s Civil War (Leiden 1972).

31 Vespasiano da Bisticci, Renaissance Princes, Popes and Prelates, trans. William George and Emily Waters, intr. Myron Gilmore (New York 1963) 330–332: “Count Camerlingo.”

284 HESTER SCHADEE Aragonese worthy of inclusion in his Lives of Illustrious Men shows just how well Inigo, aided by Decembrio, adapted to the cultural standards of the Italian peninsula. It remains to ask, however, what Pier Candido Decembrio gained from supplying these texts to Inigo. Here the parallels with Decembrio’s dealings with Humfrey, duke of Gloucester are of interest. In the same years, from 1437 to 1444, Decembrio con-ducted a correspondence with the English duke, who was in the process of amassing the manuscript collection that would become the core of the Bodleian library in Ox-ford.32 Eager to expand his holdings with texts available in Italy, Humfrey sent Decembrio his library catalogue, asking in turn to receive the catalogue of Visconti’s famous library at Pavia. Considering at least a hundred indispensable manuscripts lacking from Humfrey’s collection, Decembrio set about procuring copies for the duke. More than forty volumes were sent to London, among which Caesar’s text in Latin.33 As reward for Decembrio’s efforts, Humfrey offered him an annual stipend of a hundred ducats, if Visconti would allow this payment to his secretary; the humanist for his part requested the duke buy him a villa once owned by Francesco Petrarch, though neither scheme appears to have borne fruit.34 This relationship had been insti-gated not by Humfrey, but by Decembrio, whose vehicle for making contact was a Latin translation of Plato’s Republic, which he offered to dedicate to the duke.35 It is worth noting here that Decembrio, who had to support his own family and that of his deceased brother, was habitually short of money, and remonstrated with Visconti regarding his perceived underpayment.36 Decembrio thus exchanged his literary gifts for money or property, and used dedications and copies of manuscripts to forge con-nections with noble houses across Europe, in England as well as Spain—perhaps

 32 This correspondence was published in Mario Borsa, “Correspondence of Humphrey of Gloucester and

Pier Candido Decembrio,” English Historical Review 19 (1904) 509–526; and again in Alfonso Sammut, Unfredo duca di Gloucester e gli umanisti italiani (Padua 1980). Their dating was revised by Vittorio Zaccaria, “Pier Candido Decembrio traduttore della Respublica di Platone,” Italia medioevale e umanistica 2 (1959) 179–206, at 180–184 and 206, whose chronology is followed here.

33 Sammut, Unfredo (n. 32 above) 80, cat. n. 235. I have not found a record of a copy of Decembrio’s Caesar translation in Humfrey’s collection.

34 Borsa, “Correspondence” (n. 32 above) 511–512. 35 Leonardo Bruni had offered his Latin translation of Aristotle’s Politics, once promised to duke Hum-

frey, to Pope Eugenius IV instead. With Plato’s Republic, which Decembrio explains to the Englishman is an equally worthy text, he hoped to replace Bruni in Humfrey’s good graces. However, Decembrio proved no less wily than his Florentine colleague, as he proceeded to dedicate the individual books of the Republic to other people, while assuring the duke that he would still be the dedicatee of the whole work. Isidro Gui-josa, “Íñigo de Ávalos” (n. 24 above) 172–173, suggests that Inigo delivered a copy of the Republic to king Alfonso on his return from Milan in 1440 (see n. 10 above); however, Mario Borsa, “Pier Candido Decem-brio e l’umanesimo in Lombardia,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 20 (1893) 5–75, at 68, explains Decem-brio’s “et pro rege Hispaniae a milite insigni Don henico nuper expedita et integer transcripta” as refering to Inigo de Mendoza, marquis of Santillana, and King John II of Castile. Epist. I–IV; IX, Borsa, “Correspond-ence” (n. 32 above) 512–515, 517–518 = Epist. 18–21, 26; Sammut, Unfredo (n. 32 above) 180–185, 190–191. The translation was to be a revised version of the text prepared by Manuel Chrysoloras and Pier Can-dido’s father Uberto, on which see I Decembrio e la tradizione della Repubblica di Platone tra Medioevo e umanesimo, ed. Mario Vegetti and Paolo Pissavino (Naples 2005). For an up to date bibliography on these events see Roberto Weiss, Humanism in England During the Fifteenth Century, 4th ed., ed. David Rundle and Anthony John Lappin (Oxford 2009) 85–109, http://mediumaevum.modhist.ox.ac.uk/documents/ Weiss_Instalment_III.pdf.

36 DBI, s.v. “DECEMBRIO, Pier Candido” 488–489; and Decembrio, Vita Philippi Mariae (n. 5 above) 63, 334.

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hoping these would lead to professional employment elsewhere, where the conditions surpassed those in Milan.

While there is no evidence that Inigo ever paid Decembrio, his cultural networking nevertheless paid off. This forms the background to the second Caesar translation offered by Decembrio to Inigo. While Inigo’s star rose in Naples, Decembrio was caught in the political turmoil of Milan. After the death of Visconti he faithfully served the new Ambrosian Republic, so much so that when Francesco Sforza, the condottiere appointed to lead the troops of the Republic, turned his army against her, Decembrio denounced him as traitor. He was lucky, then, to be on a diplomatic mis-sion in Rome when Sforza took Milan in 1450, which marked the beginning of De-cembrio’s wandering years. He was first employed by Pope Nicholas V, with long detachments to Naples in 1451 and 1452. After Nicholas’s death in 1455, Decembrio gained a position as secretary to King Alfonso of Aragon in 1456. Following the king’s death in 1458 he entered the service of his son Ferrante, where he remained until 1459.37 In the preface to the second instalment of his Caesar translation, Decem-brio writes that the old friendship between him and Inigo “renews itself more every day, nor does it suffer any change on account of time or distance from the eyes.” It is known that, during these Neapolitan sojourns, Decembrio stayed in the house of Inigo d’Avalos.38 It is likely that his old friend and host also recommended Decembrio for the secretarial position. When Decembrio translated the remaining Caesarean books in these years—in 1452 or shortly after—he probably took up the old project in recogni-tion of the long-lasting friendship and present patronage of Inigo.

DECEMBRIO’S PRESENTATION OF CAESAR

After considering when and why Decembrio dedicated his translation to Inigo, it re-mains to see how the humanist portrayed Caesar. This matter is of particular interest since the figure of Caesar had great symbolic value and was often employed to make political statements.39 Throughout the Middle Ages he was celebrated as the first Ro-man emperor, and hence as predecessor of the current Holy Roman emperor and, by extension, his Italian vassals. He was a prototype for princes, and an acclaimed founder of cities, including Florence. Caesar even held theological significance, since the establishment of the Empire was viewed as a prerequisite for the coming of Christ. This perspective was popularised in Dante’s Divine Comedy, where Caesar resides in Limbo with the virtuous pagans, while his slayers Brutus and Cassius are forever mauled in the mouths of Satan, side by side with Judas Iscariot who betrayed the son of God.40 While dissenting voices were sometimes heard—in the twelfth century, John of Salisbury, for instance, following Cicero, labelled Caesar a tyrant, and Brunetto Latini suggests that the assessment of Caesar (hero or traitor) was a common topic of debate in the thirteenth-century communes—a real counter-narrative emerged only at  

37 For Decembrio’s biography see DBI, s.v. “DECEMBRIO, Pier Candido”; and Borsa, “Decembrio e l’umanesimo” (n. 35 above).

38 Lazzi, “Un Cesare per Cesare” (n. 6 above) 36–37. 39 For an overview see Hester Schadee, “After Caesar: The Man and his Text over Two Millennia,” The

Landmark Caesar, ed. Kurt Raaflaub (forthcoming). 40 Dante, Inf. 4, line 123; Inf. 34, lines 61–67.

286 HESTER SCHADEE the turn of the fifteenth century, when Florentine humanists denounced Caesar from a republican perspective.41 Leonardo Bruni, in his Laudation on the City of Florence (1404) and Histories of the Florentine People book I (1416) charged that Caesar, overturning the Roman Republic, had imposed slavery on its citizens, to the detriment of the greatness of Rome. Florence, he argued, preserved the spirit of republican Rome, since she was founded not by Caesar but before, by the veterans of Lucius Sulla.42 In a Controversy (1435–1440) on the merits of Caesar and Scipio Africanus which had a wide fortuna in Italy and beyond, Bruni’s friend Poggio Bracciolini lacer-ated Caesar, casting him as tyrant and epitome of Stoic vice, and claiming that in sub-jecting the Republic, Caesar had also destroyed Latin eloquence, since free speech is incompatible with single rule.43

Due to the work of Hans Baron, these republican, anti-Caesarean diatribes have be-come almost synonymous with a new, politically engaged classical scholarship, indig-enous to Florence, which he called civic humanism.44 Following in Baron’s footsteps, but seeking to counteract his florentinocentrism, scholars have identified equivalent “courtly” or “subdital” humanisms in Italy’s autocratic states, whose outputs are held to be anti-republican or at least pro-monarchical.45 These humanists in princely em-ploy supposedly rallied to Caesar’s defence, exalting him as ideal Renaissance prince or even emblem of monarchic rule. Arguably, this reflects a misunderstanding of Baron, who sought to identify a collaboration between intellectuals and the political class of citizens which he believed to be unique to Florence.46 In any case, it misrepre-sents the literature produced by humanists at princely courts. For them, the opposition of autocracies—the virtually unchallenged type of regime throughout Europe—and republics, which so exercised the Florentines and their twentieth-century students, held little intrinsic interest.47 Consequently, their largely—but not exclusively—posi-

 41 John of Salisbury, Polycraticus (ca. 1159) esp. 8.17–21; cf. Cic. Off. 1.112; Brunetto Latini, Li Livres

dou Tresor, ed. Francis Carmody (Berkeley / Los Angeles 1948) III.2.9. 42 Bruni’s Laudatio is available in various editions, e.g., Hans Baron, From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni:

Studies in Humanistic and Political Literature (Chicago 1968), trans. in Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society (Manchester 1978); for his histories see History of the Florentine People, 3 vols., ed. and trans. James Hankins (Cambridge, MA / London 2001–2007). Coluccio Salutati, Invectiva in Antonium Luschum (1403), Prosatori latini del Quattrocento, ed. and trans. Eugenio Garin (Milan 1952) 8–37, at 17–21, had already reattributed Florence’s founding from Caesar to Sulla in his exchange with the Milanese secretary Antonio Loschi, but did not draw political consequences from this; see Ronald G. Witt, Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Works and Thought of Coluccio Salutati (Durham 1983) 247–252.

43 The Controversy is available in Davide Canfora, La controversia di Poggio Bracciolini e Guarino Veronese su Cesare e Scipione (Florence 2001).

44 Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny (Princeton 1955); idem, In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism: Essays on the Tradition from Medieval to Modern Thought (Princeton 1988).

45 “courtly humanism”: Werner L. Gundersheimer, Ferrara: The Style of a Renaissance Despotism (Princeton 1973); “subdital humanism” (from subditi, subjects): Benjamin G. Kohl, “Political Attitudes of North Italian Humanists in the Late Trecento,” Studies in Medieval Culture 4 (1974) 418–427.

46 This element of Baron’s vision is explained in its original context of Weimar Germany by Riccardo Fubini, “Renaissance Historian: The Career of Hans Baron,” Journal of Modern History 64.3 (1992) 541–574; and Lucia Gualdo Rosa, “L’umanesimo di Leonardo Bruni: revisionismo ‘made in U.S.A.,’” Schede umanistiche 19.1 (2005) 25–37.

47 Guarino Veronese, for instance, only ventures there on Poggio’s provocation. Compare his De praestantia in the Controversy to Epist. 668 in Guarino Veronese, Epistolario, ed. Remigio Sabbatini (Turin 1951) II.216–220; and even then his De praestantia hardly reads as a defense of monarchy, pace Baron,

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tive Caesar reception does not invert Florentine categories, but rather bespeaks priori-ties particular to their own positions.48 Decembrio’s engagement with Caesar illus-trates this point. Since Bruni’s Laudation was recirculated in 1434, provoking Decem-brio to respond with a Panegyric in Praise of the City of the Milanese (ca. 1436), while Poggio wrote the first tract of the Caesar-Scipio Controversy in 1435, the temptation to see Decembrio’s translations as part of these debates is strong.49 Indeed, it has been claimed regarding the Comparison between Caesar and Alexander which Decembrio added to his translation of Curtius’s History of Alexander in the same year of 1438 that “it is inconceivable that Decembrio had been unaware of [this] heated exchange of pamphlets and their ideological significance, and that his own praise of Caesar was not written with the anti-monarchist, republican protagonists of the debate in mind.”50 Of course it is possible that Decembrio’s choice to translate Caesar was triggered by these contemporary discussions. But it must be stressed that there is nothing in Decembrio’s Caesar dedications that addresses the opposition of monar-chies and republics, however obliquely. Indeed, Caesar’s particular accomplishments appear largely irrelevant to the humanist, except in as much as he was a historian. Thus, Decembrio uses his dedication to Visconti to reaffirm his attributions of the various parts of the Caesarean corpus, while his dedications to Inigo provoke reflec-tions on the changeability of Fortune and, consequently, the uses of history and its writers, ancient and modern.

Decembrio’s dedication of Gallic War books 1 to 7 to Visconti begins by noting that many people have doubted that Caesar wrote his own Commentaries, attributing them to Suetonius Tranquillus or Julius Celsus instead.51 This is “no small error,”

 Crisis (n. 44 above) 64–75; Marianne Pade, “Guarino and Caesar at the Court of the Este,” La corte di Ferrara e il suo mecenatismo 1441–1598, ed. Marianne Pade, Lene Waage Peterson, and Daniela Quarta (Copenhagen / Modena 1990) 71–91, esp. 82–84; and Davide Canfora, Prima di Machiavelli: Politica e cultura in età umanistica (Bari 2005) esp. 26–30, 95. A similar point is made in James Hankins, “Exclusi-vist Republicanism and the Non-Monarchical Republic,” Political Theory 38 (2010) 452–482.

48 See Hester Schadee, “‘I don’t know who you call tyrants’: Debating Evil Lords in Quattrocento Humanism,” Evil Lords: Tyranny from Antiquity to the Renaissance, ed. Nikos Panou and Hester Schadee (Oxford / New York forthcoming), for the criticism of Caesar voiced by Giovanni Pontano, employed at the court of Naples in the second half of the 15th c.

49 Decembrio’s De laudibus Mediolanensium Urbis panegyricus is available in Giuseppe Petraglione, “Il ‘de laudensibus mediolanensium Urbis panegyricus’ di P. C. Decembrio,” Archivo Storico Lombardo 8 (1907) 5–45. For the rivalry between Florence and Milan and its literary reflections, see Manfred Lentzen, “Die Rivalität zwischen Mailand und Florenz in der ersten Hälfte des 15. Jahrhunderts: Zu Pier Candido Decembrios ‘De laudibus Mediolanensium urbis in comparationem Florentie panegyricus’”, Italienische Studien 9 (1986) 5–17; Florence and Milan: Comparisons and Relations: Acts of Two Conferences at Villa I Tatti in 1982-4, 2 vols., ed. Craig H. Smyth and Gian Carlo Garfagnini (Florence 1989); Antonio Lanza, Firenze contro Milano: Gli intellettuali fiorentini nelle guerre con i Visconti, 1390–1440 (Anzio 1991).

50 Marianne Pade, The Reception of Plutarch’s Lives in Fifteenth-Century Italy (Copenhagen 2007) 1.251–252; see n. 21 above, and see Zaggia, “Appunti sulla cultura” (n. 1 above) 205. In fact, the Compari-son between Caesar and Alexander shows remarkably little interest in political questions.

51 The attribution to Suetonius derives from Orosius, Hist. 6.7, 1–2, and is based on a misunderstanding of the discussion of the Commentaries’ authorship in Suet. Iul. 56.1, where he asserts that Gallic War I–VII and the Civil War are Caesar’s, and Gallic War VIII is by Aulus Hirtius, while admitting to being unsure about the Minor Wars. This is still the state of play today, with Hirtius a possible candidate for the Alexan-drian War. Orosius also gave Suetonius’s cognomen Tranquillus, which caused the author sometimes to be split in two: Suetonius who wrote the Lives of the Twelve Caesars, and Suetonius Tranquillus, who wrote the Commentaries. Julius Celsus, whose name frequently appears in the colophon as “Julius Celsus Con-

288 HESTER SCHADEE Decembrio maintains, and since the truth outweighs considerations of friendship, he proposes to correct it. The Gallic and Civil War, he states, were actually written by Caesar himself, except for the eighth book of the Gallic War which was composed by Aulus Hirtius, who wrote the Alexandrian, African and Spanish Wars as well.52 These attributions were not entirely novel: Decembrio had made the same claim in 1423 in the letter to Bartolomeo Capra discussed above.53 Moreover, the Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati had earlier identified the Gallic War as Caesar’s, similarly noting that others “erred not a little,” in 1392/4 and, implicitly, in 1376.54 New for Decembrio in his dedication to Visconti, however, is the framework in which he presents these observations. It is not at all surprising, according to Decembrio, that Caesar wrote down his own deeds, for ancient sources report that the Roman leader, so accom-plished in arms, was also a man of letters. Indeed, he maintains that the famous em-perors and illustrious generals of old, with few exceptions, were learned not only in Latin but also in Greek. To persuade Visconti of this fact, Decembrio lists, besides Caesar, also Augustus, Tiberius, Germanicus, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero.55 As proof for his assertions, he refers the duke to Suetonius, Hirtius and Cicero, who all commented on Caesar’s writing of the Commentaries.56 As the inclusion of Caligula and Nero suggests, the political reputation of Caesar and the others is not the issue for

 stantinus V[ir] C[larus] legi” appears to have been a late antique corrector. Virginia Brown, “Caesar, Caius Julius,” Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum: Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries, vol. III, ed. Ferdinand E. Cranz (Washington, DC 1976) 87–140, at 90, 93; Giuliana Crevatin, “Il riuso del corpus cesariano nell’Italia del Trecento,” Cahiers de l’humanisme 1 (2000) 119–150, at 131, 147.

52 “non minimo errore”; Frati, “Il volgarizzamento” (n. 3 above) 76–77. Decembrio was wrong on this; see n. 51 above.

53 “Nam quis vel mediocriter eruditus ignorat Gallici belli libros a Caio Iulio Caesare conscriptos, oc-tavum vero praescripti belli ab Hircio suffectum, tres autem civilis belli pompeiani consequentes ab eodem Caesare editos fuisse, reliquos vero Alexandrini, Africi et Hispaniensis ab Hircio additos, sicut ipse testatur? Ex quo magis admirari compellor Tranquillum perscripsisse horum quidem trium bellorum incertum haberi auctorem, aliosque ab Oppio, nonnulos ab Hircio eos libros compositos existimasse. Quis enim tam exors est, qui Hircii ipsius ultimum Gallici belli perlegerit, <qui> non intelligat ab eodem promissos prescitosque fuisse?” Quoted in Giuseppe Billanovich, “Nella tradizione dei Commentarii di Cesare. Roma, Petrarca, i Visconti”, Studi petrarcheschi 7 (1990) 263–318, at 314. This letter is included in Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. H V 140; cf. n. 27 above.

54 “Non Commentarios C.Cesaris de bello gallico, quos multi, non mediocriter errantes, ut arbitror, Iulio Celso tribuunt; non etiam communes illos De bello civili,” Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati, ed. Francesco Novati (Rome 1893) vol. II, Epist. VII, 11, 289–302, at 299–300, tentatively dated 1392 by Anthony Luttrel, “Coluccio Salutati’s letter to Juan Fernández de Heredia,” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 12 (1970) 235–244, while Ronald G. Witt, “Salutati and Plutarch,” Essays presented to Myron P. Gilmore, 2 vols., ed. Sergio Bertelli and Gloria Ramakus (Florence 1978) 1.335–346, at 339, prefers 1393 or 1394. The implicit reference occurs in a 1376 letter to king Charles V of France: “cum sciamus tres fore Gallias, prout in principio commentariorum belli Gallici testatur Iulius Cesar”; Hermann Langkabel, Die Staatsbriefe Coluccio Salutatis: Untersuchungen zum Frühhumanismus in Florentiner Staatskanzlerei und Auswahledi-tion (Cologne / Vienna 1981) 125.

55 “Ne credano egli per che facesse fati darme, non sapesse pero littera, perche si rivolgerano ne la mente sua li famosi imperatori, e illustri capitanii passati, ritrouerano tuti queli, excepto pochi, non solamente in littere latine, ma ne le greche anchora essere stati doti et eruditi, el nome de li quali per che sarebe longo areferire, e supervacuo ala Vostra excellentia lassero al presente. Solamente arecordando non tanto Julio Cesare, ma Ottauiano, Tiberio, Germanico, Galligula, Claudo, e Nerone …” Frati, “Il volgarizzamento” (n. 3 above) 77.

56 “E si di queste ragione alchuno da me la fede rechiedesse, veda li libri di Suetonio, de hircio e di Tullio”; ibid. Remarkably, the relevant passages of these authors precede Decembrio’s translation in ms An, fol. 1r.

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Decembrio. In as much as he holds up Caesar as a model to Visconti, it is as a ruler who appreciated the liberal arts, as the humanist no doubt desired his own lord to do.57 Decembrio’s dedication of the remainder of the Caesarean corpus to Inigo d’Avalos in the next prologue echoes some of these themes. Again, there is nothing anti-republican or even pro-monarchical about this text: in fact, Decembrio cites Brutus and Cato Uticensis as examples of magnanimity and constancy, without as much as a comment on the fact that precisely these two men were Caesar’s best known ideological ene-mies.58 He also again juxtaposes arms and letters, noting approvingly that the Romans took care to instruct their offspring equally in both, and deemed no one worthy of rule who was not trained in literature as much as in military matters. What this dedication adds to the one to Visconti is Decembrio’s argument for the reason for the importance of letters, among which particularly history. The case he makes is a variant of the familiar view that history is a magister vitae, offering exempla that instruct one how to live one’s life.59 These exempla, however, are not heroic actions, be they political or military; rather they promote a frame of mind. Human existence, so Decembrio opens the dedication, is afflicted by the vagaries of Fortune. History provides the only anti-dote, because it teaches constancy in the face of trials and tribulations. On the one hand, the example of past events shows that bad luck may still change itself for the better, and thus offers consolation. On the other, demonstrating the instability of the human condition, it cautions against attaching value to fleeting worldly vanities, when one should cultivate virtue instead. In this regard, history teaches resignation and care for the soul. As such Decembrio’s dedication of Caesar’s historical writings promotes the same stoic moral code advocated in contemporary philosophical discussions of virtue versus Fortune, such as those of Poggio Bracciolini.60

Overlapping with this stoic aspect, Decembrio’s prologue displays a Platonic strand. When the humanist notes that the Romans deemed only learned men worthy of rule, he attributes this conviction to Plato—the reference is of course to the education of the guardians and especially the philosopher-king in the Republic.61 Furthermore, he translates verbatim a passage from the “Dream of Scipio” of Cicero’s Republic, the Roman answer to Plato’s dialogue on the same theme.62 Scipio explains that virtue is the greatest good, which cannot therefore be adequately rewarded through worldly honours: instead it must serve as incitement to further virtue. The Roman method to

 57 See n. 36 above. 58 Pompey, who appeared to have aspired to single rule as much as Caesar, never became a republican

hero, in contrast to Brutus and Cato. 59 Pier Paolo Vergerio’s De ingenuis moribus 40 (1402–1403); Leonardo Bruni’s De studiis et litteris 18

(ca. 1424); Enea Silvio Piccolomini De liberorum educatione 73 (1450), Humanist Educational Treatises, ed. and trans. Craig W. Kallendorf (Cambridge, MA / London 2002) 49, 109, 225, resp.

60 Poggio Bracciolini’s (1440) De infelicitate principum, ed. Davide Canfora (Rome 1998) and id., (1447-8) De varietate fortunae, ed. Outi Merisalo (Helsinki 1993). The theme was introduced by Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae (1360).

61 Plato, Resp. esp. bks. 5, 473C–D; 6; 7. Such allusions do not imply philosophical understanding: there is no reason to believe Pier Candido’s reading of Plato was more sophisticated than his father’s, or that of Guarino Veronese, as evaluated in James Hankins “The Reception of Plato in the Early Renaissance: Two Case-Studies,” Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols. (Rome 2004) 2.51–90.

62 The text is preserved in Macrobius’s Commentary, In Somn. 1.4.2, which quotes a now lost section of Cicero’s Republic.

290 HESTER SCHADEE ensure this, says Scipio, was to erect statues of great men, which kindle the memory of their deeds and so inspire imitation. According to Decembrio in his preface, history fulfils the same function, since the text preserves past accomplishments to serve as models for posterity.63 Perhaps inspired by the concept of bodily and spiritual vision common to Platonism and medieval theology, he likens history to a mirror, which presents the past to the mind just like images to the eye.64 Thus he offers his transla-tion of Caesar’s Commentaries as an aid in Inigo’s moral education: “a mirror in which to adorn your mind.”

Once again the parallels with his presentation of Plato to Humfrey, duke of Gloucester are noteworthy. “Scipio’s Dream” is also referenced in his dedication of book 8 to Humfrey, where Decembrio provides a short comparison of Plato’s and Cicero’s respective studies on the state.65 Furthermore, in the dedication of the Repub-lic’s seventh book, Decembrio adduced the duke himself as a ruler well-versed in this platonic curriculum.66 Decembrio’s prologue to Inigo contains a similar flash forward to modernity. If history offers such profit and delight, how much more laudable are those who proffer their own lives as examples to the mind of those who knew them?67 Neatly moving from the general to the particular, and from the abstract to the personal example, Decembrio concludes his dedication by discussing two specific cases, more familiar, as he notes, to Inigo than to himself. The first of these is Inigo’s lord Alfonso of Aragon, who exemplifies not one but two crucial considerations: first, that not even a king of his stature is immune to the onslaughts of Fortune; second, that greatness of spirit, as displayed by Alfonso, is the only remedy to which mankind has recourse. As noted above, it is a fitting representation to his vassal of a king who had entered Milan in captivity and was released as friend, but nevertheless still far from fulfilling his Neapolitan aspirations. The other example adduced by Decembrio is Inigo’s father Rodrigo Lopez. After his exile from Castile for supporting the Aragonese faction, Rodrigo Lopez’s chequered career was memorialised in Spanish chronicles and poetry as an example of the changeability of Fortune.68 He fulfils precisely the same role in Decembrio’s dedication of his Caesar translation. Demonstrating that prudence, talent, and probity are no match for Fortune, but mental constancy is, Rodrigo must be a model for his son, now held honourably captive in Milan.

The career of Rodrigo Lopez is also the theme of Decembrio’s final prologue to his translation of the Caesarean corpus. However, reflecting Inigo’s change in circum-

 63 Decembrio’s argument recalls Vergerio’s De ingenuis moribus esp. 35–36, in Kallendorf, Educational

Treatises (n. 59 above) 43–45. 64 Plato, Symp. 210A–212B. See Margaret Miles, “Vision: The Eye of the Body and the Eye of the Mind

in Saint Augustine’s De trinitate and Confessions,” Journal of Religion 63 (1983) 125–142; and compare Pierre de Limoges, Libro de locchio morale et spirituale (1260s). See also James Hankins, “Plato in the Middle Ages,” Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols. (Rome 2004) 2.7–23.

65 Sammut, Unfredo (n. 32 above) Epist. 42, 211–213, lines 46–67. 66 Ibid., Epist. 41, 209–211, lines 40–53. 67 The same comparison is made by Vergerio in De ingenuis moribus 10; Kallendorf, Educational Trea-

tises (n. 59 above) 13. 68 See Luis Suárez Fernández, “Auge y caída de un hombre nuevo: El condestable Ruy López Dávalos,”

Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 195 (1998) 43–79; Oscar Perea Rodríguez, “El Cancionero de Baena come fuente historiográfica de la Baja Edad Media castellana: el ejemplo de Ruy López Dávalos,” Cancioneros en Baena. Actas del II Congreso Internacional Cancionero de Baena. In memoriam Manuel Alvar, 2 vols., ed. Jesús Serrano Reyes (Baena 2003) 1.293–334.

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stances, this time the topic is not Rodrigo’s fall from grace—which would now only have been an embarrassment to his son—but rather his triumphs. Drawing on Inigo’s stories and “many and trustworthy testimonies”—presumably Spanish chronicles and biographical literature—Decembrio recounts a number of episodes from Rodrigo’s military life.69 The preface thus constitutes an early example of an Italian humanist’s reworking of medieval Spanish materials.70 Although the context is historical, the incidents themselves are highly fictionalised, quite likely reflecting the invention of his Spanish sources, whose chivalric sensitivities are echoed in his text. The first episode pertains to the 1386–1387 invasion of Castile by the duke of Lan-caster, John of Gaunt. Rodrigo allegedly duelled with an English knight, killed him, and took the spray of golden ears of wheat which graced his helmet. Decembrio offers the account as evidence of Rodrigo’s probity from the early age of twenty-two—al-though in actual fact Rodrigo was about thirty at the time of the alleged encounter. The story also explains the origin of Rodrigo’s emblem—golden ears of wheat—which was used by Inigo as well, and decorates several of the latter’s manuscripts.71 During the same war, Rodrigo supposedly managed to deliver documents to Lancaster by swimming across a turbulent sea, thus fulfilling the obligations of a settlement and saving his country from becoming the duke’s tributary.72 Decembrio likens this bold

 69 There was an extensive biographical historiography in late medieval Spain which aimed to document

the deeds (“hechos”) of precisely such “new nobles” as Rodrigo, a response to high social mobility meaning that ancestry no longer guaranteed status; see Robert Folger, Generaciones y semblanzas. Memory and Genealogy in Medieval Iberian Historiography (Tübingen 2003). However, the treatment of Rodrigo by his contemporary Fernán Pérez de Gúzman in his Generaciones y Semblanzas is shorter than Decembrio’s, while the longer accounts discussed in Suárez Fernández, “Auge y caída” (n. 68 above)—Juan Dávalos de Ayala’s Vida y hechos ilustres y sucésion gloriosa de Rui-López Dávalos and Martín Ximena Jurado’s Historia de Arjona—post-date the Lombard humanist’s, as do the sections on Rodrigo in Gonzalo Argote de Molina’s Nobleza del Andaluzia (Seville 1588); and Alonso López de Haro’s Nobilario genealogico de los reyes y titulos de España, 2 vols. (Madrid 1622) 1.104–108.

70 There is some literature on the influence of Italian humanism on Spanish historiography, such as Stefan Schlelein, Chronisten, Räte, Professoren: Zum Einfluß des italienischen Humanismus in Kastilien am Vorabend der spanischen Hegemonie (ca. 1450 bis 1527) (Berlin 2010); and Martin Biersack, Mediterraner Kulturtransfer am Beginn der Neuzeit: Die Rezeption der italienischen Renaissance in Kastilien zur Zeit der Katholischen Könige (Munich 2010). For the reverse—the importance of Spanish models for Italian hu-manist historians—see the introduction to Gaspare Pellegrino, Historiarum Alphonsi Primi Regis libri X, ed. and trans. Fulvio Delle Donne (Rome 2012). The topic would be worth exploring at greater length, since Decembrio’s res gestae of Rodrigo followed shortly on Lorenzo Valla’s Gesta Ferdinandi regis Aragonum, ed. Ottavio Besomi (Padua 1973); Historia de Fernando de Aragón, ed. and trans. Santiago López Moreda (Madrid 2002), commissioned by King Alfonso to commemorate his father, and coincides with Bartolomeo Fazio’s Rerum gestarum Alfonsi regis libri, ed. and trans. Daniela Pietragalla (Alessandria 2004), commis-sioned by the same king to record his own conquest and reign of Naples. This latter text in turn appears to have sparked biographical histories of condottieri such as Giovanni Simonetta’s De rebus gestis ab Fran-cisci Sfortiae commentarii, ed. Giovanni Soranzo = Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, 2nd ed., vol. xxi, 2 (Bologna 1932).

71 Lazzi, “Un Cesare per Cesare” (n. 6 above) 42. These manuscripts include Decembrio’s Curtius translation, now in Turin, Biblioteca Reale, MS. Varia 131 (see n. 21); and his translation of the first seven books of the Gallic War, copied in Naples and now in Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS Ricc. 1569, discussed in the Note on the Manuscripts below. Another version maintains that the duel would decide the fate of the besieged city of Benavente, and that Rodrigo took the English knight’s golden spurs, and banners with red and white stripes, the latter later recurring on Rodrigo’s coat of arms; Suárez Fernández, “Auge y caída” (n. 68 above) 49.

72 Another version has it Rodrigo merely rode his horse into a river and then swam the final stretch; ibid. 49.

292 HESTER SCHADEE deed to Caesar’s audacity in Alexandria, described in the following book, where the Roman managed to bring himself and his documents in safety by swimming from one boat to the next, holding his paperwork high in his hand.73 While Rodrigo was among those besieged by Lancaster at Benavente, where other sources locate the duel, and an agreement was reached between Lancaster and the Castilians, there is no evidence that Rodrigo played a significant role in either of these proceedings.74

The next example, says Decembrio, was no less worthy of praise: when the city of Murcia was in revolt, Rodrigo managed to secure a parley, and immediately slew the rebel leader and threw his head out of the window. He then took the city gate, and so brought the citizens back under royal control. In actual fact operations lasted from 1395 to 1398, and the rebel, Andrés García de Laza, was only executed in 1399.75 The following incidents appear to merge two different historical episodes. The first one purports to show that Rodrigo prevailed no less in “equanimity and forbearance than in audacity and skill in arms,” for he offered the supreme command granted to him by the king to certain grandees from the royal house, so that disputes over rank would not delay their campaign. These royal nobles, however, refused his offer, and these distractions allowed the Portuguese to take the city of Tuy. The king then solved the issue by elevating Rodrigo to the rank of constable. Decembrio continues the story with Rodrigo’s interception of a Portuguese reconnaissance, which allowed him to trick the enemy and free the city of Alcantara. Tuy indeed fell to the Portuguese King John I in 1398 when Rodrigo failed to break their siege; but the campaign against the relatives of the Castilian king which was led by Rodrigo and appears to underlie De-cembrio’s account took place in 1394 and 1395. A messenger of the Portuguese con-stable Nun Alvarez Pereira was captured in 1397, while the first documentary refer-ence to Rodrigo as constable dates from 1399.76

Decembrio’s avowed purpose with these res gestae in miniature was to sing the praises of contemporary worthies, so “we will not always recall the memories of Scipio or Curio or Fabricius or Sertorius, but will speak of those who in our own time have done deeds worthy of immortality.” Indeed, the humanist not only maintains that the moderns can equal the ancients—a frequent topic of discussion in Renaissance Italy—but rather uses the, supposedly verifiable, greatness of contemporaries to vali-date accounts of ancient excellence.77 Recalling the achievements of Rodrigo proves that such deeds are possible in the present, which will lend credibility to his account of Caesar’s actions in the past, and spur towards imitation in the future. With this in mind Decembrio quotes Aulus Hirtius, who noted regarding his own decision to continue Caesar’s reports that “we listen in one way to those things that captivate us by their novelty and wonder, and in another to those which it befits us to give as testimony.”78 Decembrio concludes the preface with another reference to the intertwined enterprises

 73 Caes. B Alex 21, although Decembrio’s version draws on the more extensive accounts in Suet. Iul. 64

or Plut. Caes. 49. 74 Suárez Fernández, “Auge y caída” (n. 68 above) 49–50. 75 Ibid. 55–58, 64. 76 Ibid. 53, 59–61. 77 Charles Trinkaus, “Antiquitas versus Modernitas: An Italian Humanist Polemic and its Resonance,”

Journal of the History of Ideas 48.1 (1987) 11–21. 78 Decembrio’s prologue translates Hirtius, B Gall. 8, preface.

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of the doers and recorders of great deeds. The examples set by Rodrigo, he has shown, were no less memorable than the genius and virtues of the Romans. What is lacking to illuminate them, the humanist notes drily, is only “the pen of excellent writers and their eloquence.”

To conclude, Decembrio approached Caesar as writer. In contrast to received opinion on Caesar’s status as an ideological model for Renaissance autocrats, Decem-brio was silent about his political career, and mentioned his military exploits only in passing. The two prologues to Inigo shared similar themes: the didactic value of an-cient and modern history respectively, and the service performed by writers who pre-serve great deeds in words. The earlier preface to Visconti was devoted to the attribu-tion of the Commentaries to Caesar, and so in veiled terms exhorted the duke to hold literature in similar esteem. As the dates of the three prologues showed, Decembrio customized his presentation according to both the rank (ruler or courtier) and the situ-ation (honourable prisoner or peer of the realm) of his recipients. Caesar’s strength lay therefore not in any specific meaning, but rather in his easy fit within Decembrio’s cultural brokerage. Dating and embedding the dedications in the context of contempo-rary politics as well as of Decembrio’s own career showed how they fulfilled different yet overlapping functions. All three Caesar translations were objects through which networks of friendship and obligation were forged, between a humanist, a courtier and a prince. Filippo Maria Visconti commissioned Decembrio’s first translation for Inigo as a diplomatic gift. Yet Decembrio also employed Caesar, side by side with the pro-vision of numerous manuscripts, as a means to oblige Inigo to himself—just as he had used Plato in relation to Humfrey of Gloucester. His second Caesar dedication to Inigo is testimony to the longevity of that connection, which survived the vicissitudes of both men’s states and careers.

NOTE ON THE MANUSCRIPTS

When Mario Borsa wrote his study of Decembrio and humanism in Lombardy in 1893, he believed the Caesar translation to be lost. One year later, Alfred Morel-Fatio knew one Italian manuscript and one Castilian translation, whereas in 1921 Carlo Frati knew five Italian texts plus a copy of the preface to Visconti.79 With the help of Paul Oskar Kristeller’s Iter Italicum, and online resources such as Manus, it is now possible to identify at least nine more. Below is a finding list of these manuscripts, with some codicological information and a note on which parts of Decembrio’s translation are preserved in each. This shows that Decembrio’s translation of the first seven books of the Gallic War, written by Caesar himself, was significantly more popular than the remainder of the Caesarean corpus.

The following nine manuscripts preserve only Gallic War books 1 to 7 and its pref-ace to Filippo Maria Visconti: Genoa, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS G IV 27, copied in 1442 by Iacopo de Medici. An eighteenth-century transcription of its dedication to Visconti is preserved in Modena, Biblioteca Estense, MS Alpha O 8, 18 (Est. ital. 846), and was published by Frati; the original Genova manuscript, whose location

 79 See nn. 3 and 8 above.

294 HESTER SCHADEE Frati did not know, is his number (4). Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS Ricc. 1569, copied in Naples for Inigo d’Avalos by Iacobus Laurentianus, and illuminated by Cola Rapicano. Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli Vittorio Emanuele III, MS XI AA 51, also copied by Iacobus Laurentianus, and illuminated by Gioacchino de Gigantibus. This is Frati’s number (2). Messina, Biblioteca Regionale Universitaria Giacomo Longo, MS F. N. 7, copied in 1485 in Naples by Pietro Hyppolito Lunense, scribe of the king, for Don Federico, Prince of Squillaci. New Haven, Beinecke Li-brary, MS Marston 179, probably copied by Giovanmarco Cinico of Parma. Paris, Bibliotèque nationale, MS Fonds Italien 124. This is Frati’s number (3), also tran-scribed by Morel-Fatio. Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II, MS 1113, copied by an unknown scribe in the second half of the fifteenth century. Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Redi 13 (158), copied in the seventeenth cen-tury.

Decembrio’s first dedication to Inigo d’Avalos is preserved in six manuscripts. Two of these give the first version of the preface, based on a prototype from between 1438 and 1440/2. Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. M VII 156 (here ms. Ch), which contains the complete Gallic War, including Hirtius’s book 8. This manuscript is Frati’s number (1). It dates to around the 1440s and is a high-quality codex with multi-coloured illuminated initials. Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, MS Misc. 1192 (here ms Pa) which contains Gallic War book 8 with its preface to Inigo only.80 The codex dates from around 1450 and is also of good quality, with somewhat more abbreviations than the other, and initials decorated only in red. The remaining four manuscripts give the second version of the preface, based on a prototype postdating 1452. This family divides in two branches, with two codices each. Branch one: Holk-ham, Holkham Hall, MS 541 (here ms Ho) containing Commentaries 1–13, and of the Spanish War only the title. This manuscript may be Frati’s number (5). It is variously described as dating from the mid-fifteenth century and stemming either from Northern Italy or Naples, or from the third quarter of the fifteenth century and originating in Ferrara.81 It is a codex of the highest quality, with multi-coloured illuminations and generous use of gold. Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS 1387 (here ms An) which con-tains Commentaries 1–9, preceded by excerpts from Cicero, Hirtius, and Suetonius on Caesar as writer.82 The codex dates from the last third of the fifteenth century and is of fair quality, written in a not quite regular cursive, with a notable number of correc-tions. Initials are left blank for illumination. Branch two: Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli Vittorio Emanuele III, MS XIV D 3 (here ms N1) which contains Commen-taries 1–13. It was written ca. 1475 in Naples.83 It is a good quality codex, in a neat humanist hand tending towards cursive. Initials are left blank for illumination. Naples, Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini, MS C F 2-2 (here ms N2) which contains Com-

 80 Contents kindly confirmed by Grazia Maria de Rubeis. 81 William Hassall, The Holkham Library (Oxford 1970) pl. 97b; Léon Dorez, Les manuscrits à pein-

tures de la bibliothèque de Lord Leicester à Holkham Hall, Norfolk: choix de miniatures et de reliures, publiés sous les auspices de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres et de la Société des Bibliophiles François (Paris 1908) 67–68; Ponzú Donato, “Il Bellum Alexandrinum” (n. * above) 116–121.

82 A description is available at http://manus.iccu.sbn.it//opac_SchedaScheda.php?ID=43646. 83 Contents kindly confirmed by Emilia Ambra; described in Ponzú Donato, “Il Bellum Alexandrinum”

(n. * above) 121–122.

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mentaries 8–13. It was written in Naples, ca. 1480.84 It is also a good quality codex, and similar to the other one in its branch but not a descendant. Initials are left blank for illumination.

Decembrio’s second preface to Inigo d’Avalos is preserved in three of the codices based on a post-1452 prototype, namely ms Ho, ms N1, and ms N2. The fourth one, ms An, breaks off well before. In the following editions, the first preface to Inigo d’Avalos is transcribed from ms Ch, and the second from ms Ho. Variant readings from all other manuscripts are given in the footnotes, except for the second preface in ms N2, as the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini in Naples has been closed since 2012, when its director was found to have sold thousands of manuscripts from its holdings.85

 84 Enrico Mandarini, I codici manoscritti della Biblioteca Oratoriana di Napoli (Naples 1897) 205;

Ponzú Donato, “Il Bellum Alexandrinum” (n. * above) 122–123. 85 It is therefore possible that ms N2 is no longer in the Biblioteca Oratoriana dei Girolamini. I consulted

the first preface to Inigo there on microfilm in summer 2011. A recent introduction to the case can be read at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/books/unraveling-huge-thefts-from-girolamini-library-in-naples.html.

296 HESTER SCHADEE APPENDIX I. Transcribed from Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Chig. M VII 156. Word divisions and spelling are maintained, but abbreviations have been expanded, and punctuation, capi-talization, and u/v distinction modernized. Orthographical variants such as u/o, i/e, ll/gl are numerous and go unnoted; other variant readings are indicated in the footnotes. Prologo86 de P. Candido sopra li Commentarij de Gaio Julio Cesare incominciando dal supplemento de Hircio consulare fin alultimo dela guerra civile traducti in vulgare. Al magnifico Cavaliere Igingo87 de Canalos ducale Camerario.

Per molte varietate che nele cose humane dala fortuna continuamente vediamo occorrere, Ignigo88 mio preclarissimo89, niuno studio agli excellenti homeni delistoria piu utile e digno mapare, laquale le passate operatione anteponendo alintellecto nostro, si come un spechio agliochi corporali, cio che di cura e diligentia amester ne fa vedere. Inche di certo una gran consolatione neli casi felici, negli adversi una gran patientia per altrui exempli sacquista, che degli altre virtute, amio iuditio90, e superiore, poi che niuna senza quella longamente si puote avere. Per che queli che soprano bene ano posto neli piazer mundani, ne altro chala potencia eli honori populari estimano, molto son distanti dala drita e vera voluptate, ne reposo de piensieri ma piu grave peso aquelli agiongeno. Laquale opinione, o da pocca noticia deli veri studij, o da vana confidentia deli ben presenti suole evenire. Manel vero, quello achi per intellecto o per continuo legere linconstancia dele cose humane e nota et acconosciuta, non facilmente ad ogni impeto dessa si lasseno regere, ma ponderando diligentemente le presente condicione con le passate, e luna alaltra91 con ingenio adaptando, niente ano novo o inmeditato, e cio che molte volte e avenuto poter dinovo occorrere aloro intendeno, ele dure fortune sovente infelice casi transformarsse.92 La qual meditatione

Prologue of P. Candido to the Commentaries of C. Julius Caesar, starting from the supplement of Hirtius, of consular rank, down to the last of the civil war, translated into the vernacular. To the magnificent knight Inigo d’Avalos, ducal chamberlain. Due to the many vagaries of Fortune we see continually occurring in human affairs, my dearest Inigo, no pursuit seems to me more useful and worthy of outstanding men than that of history, which, holding up past deeds to our mind just like a mirror to our bodily eyes, lets us see what requires care and effort. For from the examples of others one surely gains great comfort in happy events, and great forbearance in adverse ones. This, in my opinion, is superior to other virtues, since one cannot in the long run possess any of those without it. Hence those who attribute the greatest good to worldly pleasures, and do not value anything but power and popular honors, are very far from right and true pleasure, and no peace of mind but rather a greater burden comes upon them. This misconception is wont to arise either from little knowledge of true studies, or from vain confidence in present goods. But truly, those to whom, either through reason or from constant reading, the inconstancy of human affairs is known and recognized, they do not easily let themselves be ruled by any assault from her [= Fortune]. Instead, carefully weighing the present condition against the past, and ingeniously tailoring one to the other, they experience nothing new or unconsidered, and understand [that] what has happened many times [before] can happen again to them, and that harsh

 86 This titulus is present only in Ch and Pa. N1 and N2 have no tituli. The titulus of Ho reads: “Al

Illustre Signore Inicho de Davalos Magno Camerario del Regno di Sicilia. Prologo de P. Candido sopra li septe ultimi Commentarij dele cose agitate de Caio Julio Cesare.” An is identical to Ho except “Inico” for “Inicho,” and “magno cavalero” for “magno camerario.” This latter is probably a copying error, since “magno camerario” is used in the titulus before the Civil war.

87 Ignigo: Pa 88 Inicho: Ho N1 N2. Ignico: An 89 plecarissimo: N1 N2 90 indicio: Ho An 91 lula alatra: Ho 92 transformarse: Ho An N1 N2

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unsingulare piacere alanimo degli homeni illustri sole addurre. Inde evene93 che lavita nostra senza doctrina da molti una imagine de morte e appellata. Ne altra cagione induxe gliexcellenti Romani antiqui equalmente amagistrar li figli suoi nele littere e neli arme, senon che sequendo lopinione platonica niuno libero e dimperio digno estimaveno, che de questi studij, e de queli altri exercicij fusse indocto, ma tuti dui aloro noti esser volevano, acio che lingenio non mancho del corpo adoperando in luce venessero. La cura del quale senza dubio in le facende generose e primo duce, per tanto legendo loro li passati casi deglihomeni excellenti in arme, o vero inlittere, e la vita loro aconoscendo, meno la fortuna solevano extimare. E che colui cossi averso daogni humanitate che la constantia de Cato Uticense non comendi? Che la magnaminitate de Bruto non reputi digna dogni admiratione? O per memoria de simile exempli alimitatione non sacenda? Fu gia consuetudine a Roma glieffigie de quelli che dela Republica94 ben meritato avevano con le statue in publico apponere, a cio che la loro presentia una continua aricordancia adducesse a tuti de ben fare, assay conoscendo la virtute per tal merito non poterse dignamente premiare, ma solo deglialtri essere incitamento a la gloria. Per questo, lamentandose Lelio, come recita Tullio, niuna statua a Nasica impremio del tyranno uciso in publico esser posta, responde Scipione in questa forma. Ben chela conscientia sola dele facende illustre excellentissimo premio sia ala virtute, nientedimeno quella virtu divina non statue al piumbo appogiate, ne fronde darescente95 lauro, ma dalcuni piu stabili e verdigianti premij dhonor desidera,96 donde niuno assai digno premio aquelli si puo rendere, che ala vera fama anui son stati rettori e duci. Inche se listoria da molte et singular persone recitata e scripta, tanta utilitate et piacer ne suol97

fortunes often transform themselves into happy outcomes. This meditation is wont to bring a singular delight to the minds of illustrious men. It is for this reason that our life without learning is called by many an image of death. And no other reason caused the outstanding ancient Romans to instruct their offspring equally in letters and in arms, if not that, following the Platonic view, they deemed no one free and worthy of rule who was untrained in these studies as well as in those other exercises. Rather, they wanted both to be known to them, so that they stepped out into the world tending to their mind no less than their body. Doubtlessly care for this is the first guide towards noble deeds, in as much as reading the past cases of men [who were] outstanding in arms or indeed in letters, and knowing their lives, they were wont to esteem fortune less. And who is so removed from all humanity that he does not commend the constancy of Cato Uticensis? That he does not judge the magnanimity of Brutus worthy of all admiration? Or through the recollection of similar examples does not rouse himself to imitation? It was then the custom at Rome to appoint the likenesses of those who had well served the Republic with statues in public [places], so that their presence provided a constant reminder to all to do well—knowing fully that one cannot adequately reward virtue by such a tribute, but [that it can] only be an incitement to glory for others. Because of this—as Cicero recounts—when Laelius bemoaned that no public statue had been erected for Nasica as reward for slaying the tyrant, Scipio responded in this manner: “Although knowledge of illustrious deeds alone is the most outstanding reward for virtue, nevertheless this divine virtue does not desire statues anchored on lead, nor branches of withering laurel, but certain more stable and ever-green rewards of honor.” Hence one

 93 advene: N1 N2 94 re p.: Ho. Re pu.ca: An 95 da rescente: N1 N2 96 Cf. Macrob. In somn. 1.4.2: “Nam Scipionem ipsum haec occasio ad narrandum somnium provocavit,

quod longo tempore se testatus est silentio condidisse. Cum enim Laelius quereretur nullas Nasicae statuas in publico in interfecti tyranni remunerationem locatas, respondit Scipio post alia in haec verba: ‘Sed quamquam sapientibus conscientia ipsa factorum egregiorum amplissimum virtutis est praemium: tamen illa divina virtus non statuas plumbo inhaerentes, nec triumphos arescentibus laureis, sed stabiliora quaedam et viridiora praemiorum genera desiderat.” The tyrant is Tiberius Gracchus, whose murder was instigated by Scipio Nasica.

97 nel suo: An. ne suo: N2

298 HESTER SCHADEE prestare, quanto piu sono anche egli de laude e comendatione digni, che lexempio dela vita propria anteposeno al nostro ingenio. Reguarda ale magior facende che nel etate nostra vediame farse, Ignigo98 preclarissimo, e intenderai la gloria aniente altro appogiarse cha ali difficili et grevi casi, in che loperatione dela virtute sola consiste. E per recitare alchuni brevemente che a te molto meglio cha ame99 proprio noti sono: Alphonso100 Serenissimo Re daragona101, el caso del quale quanto piu dala fortuna e stato oppresso, tanto piu a tuto el mondo illustre e noto e fato. De quanta laude et exaltacione ti par dessere comendato, inche dui singulari exempli anui preposti vediamo in continua admiratione dela sua fama sempiterna? Niente in prima dala fortuna poter esser securo, quando in uno Re si magnanimo, singulare, e prudente, ogni diligentia dal suo impeto oppressa fue, e non mancho intendere ne lice ogni adversitate ala grandezia delanimo sempre essere inferiore, quando esso neli adversi casi non mancho chali prosperi retene la dignita e la grandezia del animo suo insuperabile. Ne altro remedio anui resta inquesta dubbia e flutuante vita, seli casi in meditati et subiti continuamente vogliamo attendere, dali quali niente se non la grandezia delanimo ela notitia de fati excellenti ne puo liberare. Molti exempli poteria apponere ali ochi tuoi, se non che li piu domestici evulgati assai ne pono admonire dela conditione humana. Rodrigo102 Lopez103 tuo patre illustre conestabile e rectore del Regno de Castiglia, de quanta prudentia, ingenio, probitate, e constantia fusse adoptato, a niuno notabile homo deletate nostra e ignoto. Nientedimeno, da simili caso peragitato104, e danimo constante e invicto remanendo, continuo exemplo sera a te et ala casa tua da non degenerare dasi singulare splendore e probitate sua. Per tanto, avendo io traducto novamente di littera in vulgare li Commentarij dele facende agitate in Gallia per Julio Cesare e queli intitulati al Serenissimo Principo nostro qui presente105, e al resto

cannot offer them a sufficiently worthy reward other than that they have been our guides and leaders towards true fame. Thus, if that much profit and delight is wont to arise if the history reported of many and distinguished persons is written down, how much more still are those worthy of praise and recommenda-tion who place the example of their own lives before our mind? Look at the great deeds which we see [people] perform in our age, most renowned Inigo, and you will understand that glory does not anchor itself upon anything but difficult and harsh events, in which alone the workings of virtue consist. And to recount briefly a few [cases] which are much better known to you than to myself: Alfonso, most serene king of Aragon, whose case was made more illustrious and known to the whole world the more he was afflicted by Fortune—by how much praise and exaltation do you think he is commended, in whom we see two singular examples held up to us in continuous admiration of his eternal fame? First, that nothing can be safe from Fortune, when in a king so magnanimous, distin-guished and prudent all his effort was afflicted by her assault. And no less to understand that regardless what adversity is always unequal to greatness of spirit, since he retains his dignity and the greatness of his invincible spirit in adverse no less than in prosperous events. Nor is there another remedy for us, in this uncertain and fluctuating life, if we want to be continuously on guard against unexpected and sudden events, from which nothing but greatness of mind and knowledge of outstanding deeds can free us. Many examples I could place before your eyes, if I did not put up the most homely and best-known to forewarn sufficiently about the human condition. Rodrigo Lopez, your illustrious father, constable and leader of the Kingdom of Castile—of how much prudence, talent, probity and constancy he was possessed is unbeknownst to no noble man of our time. Nevertheless he was harassed by a similar

 98 Inicho: Ho N1 N2. Ignigo: An 99 ad me: N1 N2 100 Alfonso: N1 N2 An 101 da ragona: Pa. da Ragona: An 102 Rodrico: N1 N2 103 lopem: Ho An N1 N2 104 exagitato: Ho An N1 N2 105 “Philippo Maria” is added after ‘qui presente’ in N1 and N2.

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delopera lamane106 accomodando dalui proprio inducto sono li sequenti libri al nomo tuo ascrivere, incominciando per questo dal supplimento delottavo de Hircio fin al ultimo dele civile bataglie quelli al nomo tuo inscripti habiamo. Legerai adoncha queste nostre traductione, Ignigo prestantissimo, si come un spechio a te preposto in cui adorni el tuo ingenio acio che ala memoria dela paterna fama el nomo tuo si coniunga. Inche la nostra affectione107 debitamente108 dei preponere ad ogni studio se forsse inessi mancho da nui perfectamente expresse sono le laude desi preclaro e digno principo.

fate, and retaining his constant and undefeated spirit, he will be a continuous example to you and to your house not to fall short of such singular splendours and probity. On this score, having newly translated from Latin into vernacular the Commentaries of the deeds done in Gaul by Julius Caesar, and offered these to our most serene prince here present, turning my hand to the rest of the work I am encouraged by him himself to dedicate the following books to your name, starting in this from the supplement of the eighth [book] of Hirtius, down to the last one of the civil wars which we have dedicated to your name. You shall now read these translations of ours, most outstanding Inigo, held up to you thus as a mirror in which you adorn your mind, so that your name joins itself to the memory of paternal fame. And you must duly put our execution before any intent if perhaps in them there are less than perfectly expressed by us the praises of so renowned and worthy a prince.

 106 la mane: Pa. la mente: Ho An N1 N2 107 effectione: N1 108 devitamente: Ho

300 HESTER SCHADEE APPENDIX II. Transcribed from Holkham, Holkham Hall, MS. 541. Word divisions and spelling are maintained, but abbreviations have been expanded, and punctuation, capitalization, and u/v distinction modernized. Orthographical variants such as u/o, i/e, ll/gl are numerous and go unnoted; other variant readings are indicated in the footnotes. Al Illustre Signore Inicho de Davalos Magno Camerario del Regno109 de Sicilia. Prologo secondo de P. Candido sopra gli tre libri ultimi dell battaglie civile Pompeiane scripte110 da Hircio historico fidelissimo. Negli primi tre libri dele battaglie civile scripte da Julio Cesare et intitulate a te, Inicho111 mio preclarissimo, copiosamente le laude delhistoria da nui referite sono, quantunque niuno exemplo privato in testimonio dela veritate112 sia referito. Assai credendo satisfare la copia de tanti illustri huomini quanti da nui continuamente in essa se legeno, ma considerando come el ditto historico scrive113 che altramente quelle cose udimo che denovitate et admiratione naprendeno, altramente quelle che114 pertestimonio ne convene dire, ale laude degli presenti revolgeremo115 elstilo, ne sempre de Scipio o Curio o Fabricio o Sertorio faremo memoria, ma de quelli ch aletate nostra hano fatto opra de immortalitate digna parleremo. Ne per questo creda la tua excellentia Illustre Conte nui volere sequire alchuna adulatione per aditamento de caritate o benevolentia verso te, la quale sapiemo intale augumento essere devenuta che piu ultra non si puote accrescere, ma per lo vero amore che gran tempo fra nui inveterato omgni giorno piu si rinovella ne per tempo o distantia delochi patisse mutatione achuna. Per tale cagione, volendo nui lassare memoria del clarissimo et dignissimo patre tuo Rodorico lopes gran conestabile del Regno de castiglia, referiremo achuni exempli dela virtute sua. Acio che quelli116 che legerano glhistorie degli sequenti libri dele civile battaglie maiore fede quelli agiongeno ne despereno poterse fare quello cha agli tempi nostri essere fatto vidiamo. Secondo aduncha che da multi et fideli

To the illustrious sir Inigo de Davalos, great chamberlain of the kingdom of Sicily. Second Prologue of P. Candido to the last three books of the Pompeian civil wars written by Hirtius, most trustworthy historian. In the first three books on the civil wars written by Julius Caesar and dedicated to you, my dearest Inigo, the praises of history are abundantly related by us, although no private example is offered as testimony to the truth. Believing that the abundance of so many illustrious men as we continually read in this [history] quite suffices, but considering that—as said historian says—“we listen in one way to those things that captivate us by their novelty and wonder, and in another to those which it befits us to give as testimony”, I turn my pen to the praise of those present, so we will not always recall the memories of Scipio or Curio or Fabricius or Sertorius, but will speak of those who in our own time have done deeds worthy of immortality. And by this let your excellency, illustrious count, not believe that we want to pursue any flattery to increase affection or goodwill towards you—this we know to have reached such height that it cannot grow any further—but [we undertake this work] for the true love which, having grown old for a long time between us, renews itself more every day, nor does it suffer any change on account of time or distance from the eyes. For that reason, wanting to make recollection of your most renowned and worthy father Rodrigo Lopez, great constable of the kingdom of Castile, we will relate a few examples of his virtue—so that those who read the histories of the following books of the civil wars attach greater faith to those, and do not despair that one can do that which we see to have been done in our own times. Thus we

 109 Regnio: N1 110 “Pompeiane” is lacking in N1 111 Inico: N1 112 “integramente da nuy” is added to “dela veritate” in N1 113 Namely Hirtius, B Gall. 8, preface: “tamen aliter audimus ea, quae rerum novitate aut admiratione

nos capiunt, aliter, quae pro testimonio sumus dicturi.” 114 “udimo che denovitate et admiratione naprendeno, altramente quelle che” is lacking in N1 115 revolgereno: N1 116 a quilli: N1

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testimonij e referito, et date alchuna volta udire sarecordiamo. Rodorico tuo patre, habiando el Re de Spagna guerra con lo Duca de Lincastro, et essendo a presso ala cittate de Tuy, uno cavalere Inglese del ditto Duca con grande audacia prise a dire se alchuno volesse fare pruova dela persona con lui infatti darme essere apparechiato adefendere la iusticia dela causa del Signore suo. Elche udindo Rodorico, alora de etate de vintidue117 anni, richiese licentia al Re de combattere con esso, a cui prima el Re non volse assentire, dopoi, habiuta la licentia del consiglio, ambi dui armati nel mezo degli exerciti saffermareno. Ivi118, sopra el ponte, ala prima mossa Rodorico quello uccise et gitoe a terra et a prelo119 per lelmo, sopra el quale portava uno macio despigue doro: quello tolse via et cosi dopoi insegno de victoria dalui et dagli suoi continuamente portato fue. Questo nonminimo exemplo fu dala probitate sua inquella etate: ma dopoi, acresciuto lo ditto Rodorico in virtute et honore, essendo tra lo Re suo di Spagna et lo ditto Duca de Lincastro fatto conpositione con certi patti et conditione che dentro aduno diffinito tempo esse Re dovesse pagare certo pondo doro al ditto Duca, altramente el Regno120 suo restasse sotto tributo obligato, et in rescuotere121 lauro tanto de tempo per difficultate fusse passato che apena gli restasse lultimo giorno, el Duca de Lincastro ultra uno certo bracio de mare circa el spacio de duo miglia in mezzo dalaltra parte alogiato stave122, sperando che se quello giorno lauro non pagasse gliera misso, non poterse piu differire chel Regno de Spagna non remanesse sotto tributo, et tutte le nave et navicelle dalatra parte haveva fatto redure, acio che alchuno passare non potesse. La qual cosa intendendo, Rodorico, che li era agionto, et come el passare gli fusse tolto, acio che la patria sua non remanesse tributaria, lassata la compagnia sua sopra la ripa et spolitato dele veste tolta sola la camisia in capo con le littere de cambio arditamente dalaltra parte semisse a nodare123 solo, nesenza pericolo dela vita

record according to what is related by many and trustworthy testimonies, and what we hear at times from you. When the king of Spain was at war with the duke of Lancaster, and your father Rodrigo was near the city of Tuy, an English knight of said duke took to saying with great audacity that if anyone wanted to prove himself in a duel against him, he was prepared to defend the justice of the cause of his lord. Hearing this, Rodrigo, still only twenty-two years of age, requested the king’s permission to duel with him—to which the king at first did not want to assent, but later, having permission from the council, both set themselves, armed, in the middle of the armies. There, on the bridge, Rodrigo killed him at the first move, and cast him to the ground and grabbed him by the helmet, upon which he sported a spray of golden ears of wheat: this he took off, and so from then on this insigne of victory was forever carried by him and his kin. That is no small example of his probity at that age: but later, when said Rodrigo had grown in virtue and honor, there was a settlement between his king of Spain and the said duke of Lancaster, with certain terms and the condition that within a definite time that king should pay a certain weigh of gold to the said duke, otherwise his kingdom would remain under a tribute obligation. In collecting the gold, due to difficulties so much time had passed that only the last day was left to him. Across a certain sea arm about a distance of two miles, the duke of Lancaster stood quartered in the middle of the other side—hoping that if that day the gold he did not pay was not brought to him, it could no longer be delayed that the kingdom of Spain would be put under tribute, and he had made bring all the ships and boats to the other [=his] side, so that nobody could cross. Roderigo, who had arrived there, understanding this business and how the possibility to cross was taken from him, in order that his fatherland not be put under tribute left his company on the shore, took off his clothes, and, carrying only

 117 xxij: N1 118 lui: N1 119 appreselo: N1 120 Regnio: N1 121 rescodere: N1 122 stasiua: N1 123 anatare: N1

302 HESTER SCHADEE undegiando el mare et turbato: et da gli suoi desperato dela vita dalaltra parte se vene. Ivi receptato in una picola nave casa duno pastore et refocilato al focho al Duca prefatose ne vene: el quale non picola maraviglia se dede de tanta audacia. Et cosi presentate le littere fu casone dela liberatione de tutta Hispania. Non certo dissimile exemplo a quello de Cesare124, el quale essendo in Alexandria circa la expugnatione duno ponte et per subito concorso deglinimici regitato in una navicella cadendo molti inseme con lui et per questo salindo nel mare per ducento passi nodando pervene ala proxima nave, con la mane sinistra elevata acio che glilibelli che tegniva non si bagnasseno, et conli denti trasendo laveste adreto: acio che glinimici le spoglie da lui non riportasseno. Seguita uno altro exemplo del dicto tuo patre non di minore laude digno, perche essendo la cittade de Murcia, capo della ditta provincia de Murcia del Regno di Spagna, peropra di uno homo factioso rebellata contra lo suo Re: et havendo el ditto Re mandate molti degli suoi per redurla a compositione et obedientia, che deli cittadini erano stati crudelmente uccisi, ala fine fu misso Rodorico125 preditto dal Re con trecento huomini da cavalo per la ditta compositione: el quale come ale parte dela cittade fu agionto con piacievole parole obtene che daloro de dentro receputo fusse, acio che con quello chera principale dela concordia conferire potesse et essendoli conceduto che solo dentro126 entrasse alultimo con molte preghiere che almancho con quaranta degli suoi gli fusse dato lintroito obtene, non potendo evenire alchuno periculo per la paucitate deloro, in questo modo impetrato lintrare con quelli se congiunse. Al quale siando venuto alincontro el dicto factioso et rebelle con grande moltitudine de gente darme dentro ala casa a parlamento conlui, senevene el ditto Rodorico, prima con bassa voce quello prise a reprendere dela novitate fatta contra el Re suo perla quale la cittate127 fusse posta in arme, ala fine multiplicando le parole dicendo Rodorico lui havere apriso nome de traditore et quello turbandose a questo devenero che se dicesse piu oltra questo nome non lo pateria, et

his shirt on his head, with the promissory notes in his hand, boldly began to swim to the other side—alone, and not without risk of his life for the sea was choppy and rough: and while his men feared for his life he made it to the other side. There, having been received in the small ship house of a shepherd and refreshed at the fire, he went to the aforementioned duke, who was not a little surprised by such audacity. And thus, the documents having been handed over, was the reason for the liberation of all Spain. The example is certainly not dissimilar to that of Caesar, who, in Alexandria, during the battle for a bridge, was cast into a boat by the sudden onrush of enemies, with many men falling with him. For this reason he climbed into the water, and reached the next ship by swimming two hundred strokes, with his left hand raised high so that the documents he held did not get wet, and drawing his clothing deftly with his teeth, so that the enemies would not carry off spoils from him. Let there follow another example of your said father no less worthy of praise. For the city of Murcia, capital of the said province of Murcia in the kingdom of Spain, had rebelled against its king on account of a factious man: and the said king had sent many of his men to bring [the city] to settlement and obedience, who had been cruelly slain by the citizens. In the end, the aforesaid Rodrigo was sent by the king with three hundred horsemen for the said settlement. When he had reached the site of the city, he ensured through friendly words that he was received by those inside, so that he could confer about an agreement with him who has the leader; and it being granted to him that he alone could enter, in the end he obtained, through many pleas, that he was granted entry with at least forty of his men, there being no possibility for any danger on account of their scarce number. Once his entrance was beseeched in this way, he met with them. At this point, when the said faction leader and rebel had come with a great crowd of armed men into the house to parley with him, the said Rodrigo went up to him. First, with low voice, he started to reproach him for the revolt conducted against his king for which

 124 Caes. B Alex 21, but Decembrio draws on longer accounts in Suet. Iul. 64 or Plut. Caes. 49. 125 Rodoricho: N1 126 “dentro” is lacking in N1. 127 cita: N1

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altramente fareve contra lui. Alora Rodorico, datto signo agli suoi che quello occidesseno, lui primo fece lassalto, et tagliatogli el capo, et gitatelo fuora della finestra, in mezo del populo le littere etiandio al nome del Re sparse in mezo de tutta la turba, et uscindo de casa alultimo armatamanu, continuamente combattendo con esso populo, pervene ala porta dela cittade et quella aprisa havendo, per forcia et suasione sue dela propria audacia confidandossi tutti li cittadini dala rebellione reduxe alobedientia del Re proprio. Ne mancho valse el ditto Rodorico de equanimitate et patientia como de audacia et peritia darme, perche essendo obsidiata la cittade de Tuy del Re de Portogallo, et havendo mandato el Re di Spagna128 alchuni deli suoi maiori de casa sua con grande multitudine de gente per soccorso della ditta cittade: fece andare inseme Rodorico tuo patre con altre gente, dato lordine che aduno certo locho per unirse se ritrovasseno inseme, concedando al ditto Rodorico la presidentia de tutte quelle gente et degli condutteri. Frantanto essendo venuto a quello locho, dui de quelli maiori de dignitate et auctoritate recusareno de volere essere subietti al ditto Rodorico, allegando non essere iusto che lui de auttoritate et dignitate inferiore alore fusse presidente. Per la qualcosa Rodorico che el bene et lutile del suo Re a tutte glialtre cose preponeva, offerse de sua propria voluntate a quelli la presidentia, el baculo delimperio volere remettere, purche al stato del suo Re fusse comodo et utile, maloro per questo etiandio non ben concordi la cosa reduxeno in tal termino che la cittade per questa dimora et differentia si perdete. Per tale respetto essendo accresuto el Re de Portogallo de potentia et de stato, non solamente la ditta cittade et altre castelle prise129 ma una altra cittate per nome dicta Alcantara incommincioe ad obsidiare. Unde el Re di Spania, acio che Rodorico non havesse casone de contendere piu ultra de presidentia con altri, el fece ordinare gran conestabile del suo Regno, et contremilia persone130 da cavalo ala liberatione dela ditta cittate lo fece andare. Fratanto el Re de Portogallo fra la cittate el fiume che li presso decorreva como inlocho piu securo gli suoi

the city had been put in arms; in the end, increasing his words, Roderigo said that he had taken on the name of traitor—and he, perturbed, reached the point where he said that he would not further suffer this name, and otherwise would act against him. Then Rodrigo, having given the sign to his men that they kill him, himself made the first assault, and having cut off his head, and thrown it out of the window, he scattered amongst the people letters even in the name of the king, in the middle of the whole crowd. Exiting the house in the last armed maniple, and constantly fighting with these people, he reached the city gate and, having taken it, by force and by his persuasion, trusting his own boldness, brought back all citizens from rebellion to obedience of their own king. Nor did said Rodrigo prevail less in equanimity and forbearance than in audacity and skill in arms, for when the city of Tuy was besieged by the king of Portugal, and the king of Spain had sent some of the grandees of his own house with a great number of men for the aid of that city, he made Rodrigo your father go with them, together with other men. Having given the order that they would come together at a certain place to unite, he granted the said Rodrigo the command over all those men and over the captains. In the meanwhile, after arriving at this place, two of those highest in rank and authority refused to agree to being subjected to the said Rodrigo, alleging that it was not right that he, inferior in authority and rank, would be commanding them. For this reason, Rodrigo, who put what was good and useful for his king above everything else, offered of his own will to agree to hand over the command, the scepter to them, as long as that was convenient and useful—but they, being not even amenable to that, drew out the matter for such length of time that the city was lost by the delay and disagreement. The king of Portugal, having grown to this extent in power and state, took not only the said city and other strongholds, but began to besiege another city by the name of Alcantara. Whence the king of Spain, in order that Rodrigo would have no reason to contend further with the others about the command,

 128 despagnia: N1 129 aprise: N1 130 homini: N1

304 HESTER SCHADEE allogiamenti posti haveva. Et tuttavolta la cittade obsidiava et combateva, et acio che alchuno non potesse occupare elttransito del fiume, el suo conestabile con parte delo exercito ad obviare achi passare volesse posta haveva. Rodorico non longe dali in locho securo gli allogiamenti teniva, alquale siando agionto uno exploratore mandato del Re, et dali suoi apriso essendo, in prima de volerlo in picare loprise amenazare,131 dopoi pergando132 lui lavita la concedete con questa conditione, che podesse andare et ritornare intel suo exercito a suo piacere dumente chel vero sempre referisse et dalui continuamente se presentasse. Cosi andando et ritornando el ditto exploratore Rodorico, presente quello, fece apparentia de volere andare verso el conestabile de esso Re. Per tale ragione133 lo exploratore, questo credendo essere vero, al suo Re presto ando a referire, perche quello non longue piu del spacio de trea miglia havere veduto partire referiva. Donde el Re mandato tremilia degli suoi al conestabile el proprio exercito fece indebelire, el che havendo suspicato Rodorico peruna altra via al ponte della cittate senevene, et assalindo lo exercito del Re, tuttolomisse in fuga, dopoi caciandolo per spacio de dodecemiglia non solo la ditta cittate fece libera dala obsidione ma molte altre cittade al suo Re per tale victoria sottopose. Questi sono exempli digni degloria et de fama, et non mancho degli antique Romani memorabilia, ne de virtute et deingenio a quelli inferiori, benche dalo splendore del stilo degli excellenti scriptori et de eloquentia de quelli non siano equalmente illustrati. Finisce el prologo. Incommincia el libro dele battaglie civile intitulato Alexandrino scripto da A. Hircio historico fidelissimo et tradutto in vulgare da P. Candido felicemente.134

had him ordained great constable of his kingdom, and made him go to the city with three thousand horsemen. Meanwhile the king of Portugal had quartered his troops between the city and the river which ran near it as a safe place. And all the time he besieged and attacked the city, and in order that no one could occupy the transit of the river, he had stationed his constable [there] with part of the army to block whoever sought to pass. Rodrigo had his quarters not far from there in a safe place. When a reconnaissance man sent by the king had arrived there, and had been taken by his men, rather than seeking to strangle him, [Rodrigo] started to threaten him, and then, when he begged for his life, granted it with this condition: that he could go and return to his army at his pleasure as long as he always reported the truth and regularly presented himself to him. While the said reconnaissance man thus left and returned, Rodrigo, in his presence, created the appear-ance of seeking to move against the constable of that king. Hence the reconnaissance man, believing this to be true, immediately went to his king to report, and thus reported that he had seen him depart not much more than three miles distance. As such the king, sending three thousand of his men to the constable, caused his own army to weaken, and Rodrigo, having cut them off, made for the bridge to the city by another way, and attacking the army of the king put all to flight. Then, giving chase for a distance of twelve miles, he not only freed this city from the siege, but through this victory subjected many other cities to his king. These are examples worthy of glory and fame, and no less memorable than those of the ancient Romans, nor in virtue or talent inferior to those, even if they have not been equally illuminated by the splendor of the pen of excellent writers and their eloquence. Here ends the Prologue. Here begins the book of the civil wars entitled Alexandrinian, written by A. Hirtius, most trustworthy historian, and translated into the vernacular by P. Candido happily.

 131 aminaciare: N1 132 pregando: N1 133 cagione: N1 134 “Comentario duodecimo:” is added to “felicemente” in N1.