The Civilisation of the Renaissance in ItalyBurckhardt, Jacob
History
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy
Burckhardt, Jacob
Italy -- Civilization; Renaissance -- Italy
In the Middle Ages, the cities were proud of their saints and of the
bones and relics in their churches.[339] With these the panegyrist of
Padua in 1440, Michele Savonarola,[340] begins his list; from them he
passes to ‘the famous men who were no saints, but who, by their great
intellect and force (_virtus_) deserve to be added (_adnecti_) to the
saints’--just as in classical antiquity the distinguished man came close
upon the hero.[341] The further enumeration is most characteristic of
the time. First comes Antenor, the brother of Priam, who founded Padua
with a band of Trojan fugitives; King Dardanus, who defeated Attila in
the Euganean hills, followed him in pursuit, and struck him dead at
Rimini with a chess-board; the Emperor Henry IV., who built the
cathedral; a King Marcus, whose head was preserved in Monselice (_monte
silicis arce_); then a couple of cardinals and prelates as founders of
colleges, churches, and so forth; the famous Augustinian theologian, Fra
Alberto; a string of philosophers beginning with Paolo Veneto and the
celebrated Pietro of Albano; the jurist Paolo Padovano; then Livy and
the poets Petrarch, Mussato, Lovato. If there is any want of military
celebrities in the list, the poet consoles himself for it by the
abundance of learned men whom he has to show, and by the more durable
character of intellectual glory; while the fame of the soldier is buried
with his body, or, if it lasts, owes its permanence only to the
scholar.[342] It is nevertheless honourable to the city that foreign
warriors lie buried here by their own wish, like Pietro de Rossi of
Parma, Filippo Arcelli of Piacenza, and especially Gattamelata of Narni
(d. 1642),[343] whose brazen equestrian statue, ‘like a Cæsar in
triumph,’ already stood by the church of the Santo. The author then
names a crowd of jurists and physicians, among the latter two friends of
Petrarch, Johannes ab Horologio and Jacob de Dondis, nobles ‘who had not
only, like so many others, received, but deserved, the honour of
knighthood.’ Then follows a list of famous mechanicians, painters, and
musicians, which is closed by the name of a fencing-master Michele
Rosso, who, as the most distinguished man in his profession, was to be
seen painted in many places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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