Cardinal Bessarion's Library Collection

Chapter Four: Cardinal Bessarion’s Library Collection
Cardinal Bessarion is best known for the large library collection he amassed and which formed the
nucleus of the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. The collection was formed of about 900 volumes, over
half of which were in Greek. The collection is dominated by a selection of religious, philosophical and
historical texts, although there are also examples of books on mathematics and some literature. This
chapter will look at the library in the context of the cardinal’s career and his cultural achievements. I
will demonstrate that Bessarion’s collection was unique in comparison with other fifteenth-century
Italian libraries gathered by his contemporaries but that it had an essentially western character. If his
collection is viewed as a whole rather than as two individual collections divided by language, it
becomes apparent that Bessarion was collecting with a Western readership in mind. The choice of
Venice as the repository for his books was arguably an effort to establish a cultural status in the
Republic that mirrored that of the Medici in Florence and the papacy in Rome.
Scholarship to date has considered the Latin and Greek collections in isolation. Concetta Bianca argues
that the Latin books were gathered haphazardly in the form of gifts and bequests. Scholars of the Greek
collection maintain that Bessarion had a specific agenda to preserve the Byzantine heritage after the
Fall of Constantinople. Using Lotte Labowsky’s work on the multiple inventories produced for this
collection, I am proposing instead that Bessarion actively worked towards the creation of a single
collection that ended up being defined by his assimilation into a Latin environment.
The books that he collected in both Greek and Latin reflect the contemporary interests of Italian
scholars. His grand donation to the Republic of Venice was a gesture that established his status as a
fifteenth-century western patron. Undoubtedly Bessarion was sensitive to the preservation of his
cultural roots in the form of literature. However, I would maintain that the library collection was a
larger project that the cardinal conceived of in terms of his Latin legacy.
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The Act of Donation
By the Act of Donation, which was signed on 31 May 1468, Cardinal Bessarion bequeathed his entire
book collection to the Republic of Venice. This act has been fundamental in defining how scholars
interpret his library. Underlying clues in Bessarion’s action seem to lend weight to the conclusion that
the cardinal perceived his library to be a collection in the style of a fifteenth-century Italian patron. The
essential implication of the act of donating his collection to a western institution was that Bessarion
perceived his library to have a western character that would flourish in an Italian home. He chose to
donate the collection to a secular power that was part of the western tradition rather than to a Byzantine
institution such as one of the Basilian monasteries that he supervised.
In her book, Bessarion’s Library and the Biblioteca Marciana: Six Early Inventories, the historian
Lotte Labowsky rightfully places much weight on the Act of Donation as a lens through which to
analyse the collection. This well documented event records the donation of Bessarion’s existing book
collection to the Republic of Venice. Labowsky’s analysis commences with the act of 1468 and
considers the nature of the collection in the aftermath of the Donation. The significance of Labowsky’s
work for this study is its thesis that the Donation was a fundamental element in any interpretation of
Bessarion’s perceptions of the nature of his library.
However, Bessarion originally bequeathed his library to the monastery on the island of S. Giorgio
Maggiore in the Venetian lagoon in around 1463-64. This initial bequest to the Benedictine monastery
included only the Greek half of his collection. This raises the question of what he planned to do with
the Latin books which were almost as numerous as the Greek. While we do not know Bessarion’s
intentions for the Latin collection, it is evident that he initially conceived of his library as two separate
collections to be treated in different ways. By 1468 he saw the books as a single unit – so what
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changed? No one has considered whether this shift reflected a change in the cardinal’s motives for
collecting or for making a donation. It is proposed here that this was a pivotal moment in the life of
Bessarion’s collection revealing the cardinal’s conception of his library as a western cultural project.
Although the actual document of the bequest to S. Giorgio Maggiore has been lost, it is likely that it
was made during Bessarion’s embassy to the Venetian Republic in 1463-64. In many respects S.
Giorgio Maggiore was an obvious destination for the cardinal’s Greek books. It could be argued that
the monastery was a symbol of the Venetian desire to perpetuate and dominate the Byzantine
inheritance and thus an ideal repository for a collection of books which played a contribution in that
very preservation of Greek culture. Nonetheless Bessarion chose a western, not a Greek institution,
albeit one with many Byzantine connections. It was one of the richest institutions in Venice and it had
held possessions in the Empire for centuries: in Negroponte, Tebe, Candia, Pera and Constantinople.
Its dependents included churches and monasteries in Greek territories. It was even named after the
national Greek saint, and owned two important relics of St George – his head and one of his arms. 1 In
addition S. Giorgio Maggiore had established a reputation as a cultural centre and as a host for
important guests of the Republic – the Patriarch of Constantinople was accommodated there when the
Greek contingent arrived in Venice on its way to the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438.
However, the monastery of S. Giorgio Maggiore belonged to the western Roman Catholic Benedictine
Order, which was renowned for its high quality scholarship, and this might have been an alternative, or
additional, reason for the cardinal’s interest in it. In the fifteenth century there was a strong intellectual
revival in the Order led by Ludovico Barbo, the abbot of the monastery of S. Giustina in Padua. 2 After
1431 the Congregation (a group of Benedictine monasteries in Padua belonging to the consortium of S.
1
Zorzi, ‘Bessarione e Venezia’, 209. Zorzi cites documents published in L. Lanfranchi’s volume dedicated to S.
Giorgio Maggiore, II-IV, Venice 1968-86 and G. Damerini, L’isola e il cenobio di S. Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
1969, 35, 134.
2
The Rule of St Benedict in English, 22.
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Giustina) revived in numbers, reputation and wealth throughout Italy. S. Giorgio Maggiore joined this
Congregation. The Order’s scholarly reputation was based on acts such as the donation of the Italian
philologist Giorgio Valla’s library to the monastery of SS Peter and Paul in Milan, as well as the
presence of the Benedictines at courts such as that of Francesco Sforza, where intellectual life was
carefully nurtured. 3 Bessarion was following a tradition of donation established by highly placed
western patrons. By doing so his behaviour demonstrated that he was emulating the practice of
conventional western networks of patronage.
Within this environment S. Giorgio maintained an excellent tradition of scholarship. Benedictine
library holdings and surviving writings demonstrate that the monks’ interests were humanistic: they
owned books in Latin and in Greek. The main subject matter of the literature focused naturally on the
study of the Bible, St Paul and the Church Fathers.4 For example, in 1453 the library of the Paduan
Benedictine monastery of S. Giustina was catalogued and found to hold 1,337 titles. 5
S. Giorgio’s established reputation for scholarship and its active library tradition may have made it
initially an ideal repository for Bessarions’ books. Reading and library traditions were fundamental to
the Rule of St Benedict.6 Chapter 48 of the Rule refers to a library and the habit of reading:
3
Collett, Italian Benedictine Scholars and the Reformation, 4.
4
Collett, Italian Benedictine Scholars and the Reformation, 8.
5
It provides an instructive comparison with Bessarion’s collection: the similarity of the texts in each library
demonstrates that the cardinal shared western interests in certain authors and types of literature. The emphasis of
the S. Giustina collection lay in the Scriptures, writings of the Fathers and texts regarding the Benedictine Rule.
There were several editions of the Bible, parts of the Bible and the Breviary. Other authors included St Gregory,
Thomas Aquinas, St Bernard, Bonaventura, Aristotle, Plotinus, Virgil, Pliny, Dante and Petrarch. There were
grammars, Greek vocabularies and medical books. Although vastly bigger than Bessarion’s library, the character
of the two collections is very similar.
6
Gisolfi and Sinding-Larsen, The Rule, the Bible, and the Council, 19, 23. For the English language translation of
the Rule see The Rule of St Benedict in English.
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During the days of Lent, they should be free in the morning to read until the end of the tenth
hour... During this time of Lent each one is to receive a book from the library, and is to read
the whole of it straight through. These books are to be distributed at the beginning of Lent. 7
Reading was advocated as a means of meditation, and the use of the library was structured and
expected. In the annual reading circle each monk was given a text for which he had to account the
following year. An exchange of books would take place at Lent. A small ceremony was instituted by
which the books were placed on a carpet in the Chapter house, and St Benedict’s De observatione
Quadragesimae was read before the volumes were distributed to the monks. 8 However, the practice of
outside consultation may have been less desirable in Bessarion’s eyes. The situation of lending books
and distributing them from a carpet in the Chapter house implies that it was not common for
Benedictine libraries to have a reading room. Benedictine libraries served the liturgical needs of the
monks, supplied them with religious reading, but also supplied outside scholars with access to texts for
consultation. Books were frequently lent outside the monastery with the provision of a signed receipt. 9
Bessarion stressed in his donation document that nothing in his collection could be alienated. The
Benedictine practice of lending may have made him ultimately wary of his bequest to S. Giorgio
Maggiore.
By 1467 Bessarion had changed his mind about the bequest and obtained a bull from Pope Paul II
revoking the donation to S. Giorgio Maggiore. This decision is referred to in all three of the documents
which would make up the eventual Act of Donation in May 1468. The Act of Donation sets forth the
cardinal’s reasons for donating his library, for revoking the original bequest to S. Giorgio Maggiore,
and for choosing Venice in its stead. It is arguable that Bessarion’s choice of Venice is key to
interpreting his library as a collection established to reflect the interests and needs of Italian scholars.
7
8
9
Gisolfi and Sinding-Larsen, The Rule, the Bible, and the Council, 24. For library rituals in Benedictine
monasteries, Gisolfi and Sinding-Larsen cite the Benedictine monk, Jean Mabillon’s (1632-1707) work,
Tractatus de studiis monasticis in tres partes distributis...auctore P. D. Joanne Mabillon..., Venice 1745.
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In the Instrumentum Donationis Librorum Bessarion gives the official reason for changing his mind -
he was put off by the inaccessibility of the island: ‘...considering the monastery because it was an
island, to which one cannot go except by boat’.10
As water has never been a major impediment in Venice, it is unlikely that this was the only reason. In
1433 Cosimo de’Medici had stayed on the island of S. Giorgio Maggiore and made provision for the
construction of a new library by Michelozzo Michelozzi to replace the old one. Bessarion may have
been anticipating this grand home for his books, but in 1463 when the donation was made, the library
was still just a plan. It was not begun until 1471. Bessarion may have doubted whether the project
would be realised and whether the integrity of his collection could be maintained. The cardinal’s
decision also appears political. The monastery’s strong link with the Florentine Medici was politically
inauspicious. From 1467 the relations between Venice and Florence were tense, and Bessarion may
have wished to demonstrate his loyalty to the Republic by revoking a donation linked to Florentines.
The cardinal’s choice of Venice as the site of his library is often considered to be motivated by his
perception of the maritime state as a ‘second Byzantium’, implying that Bessarion had an agenda to
house his books in an environment as similar to the Greek lands as possible. Bessarion had links with
Venice on many levels, and it should not be overlooked that he would have perceived the Republic to
have a special relationship with the Byzantine Empire. He seems to have identified with it on an
emotional level as a refuge for the Greeks and a ‘home from home’. Writing in his letter, which
followed the Act of Donation, to the Venetian doge Cristoforo Moro, Bessarion says that,
For since all nations from almost the whole of the earth flow into your state, especially that of
the Greeks, who coming from their provinces by ship first disembarked in Venice, seem to
10
‘…consyderans quod monasterium ipsum sit in insula, ad quod nisi navigio iri non potest...’, Instrumentum
Donationis Librorum, cited in Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library, 154.
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enter an alternative Byzantium, having been driven to your city and bound by necessity to you
moreover.11
However, much is made of this comment as evidence that Bessarion chose Venice as the closest venue
in character that he could find to Constantinople. Bessarion’s words were probably a reference to the
Venice which the Greeks encountered in 1438 on their way to the Council of Ferrara-Florence. It was a
moment of splendour for the city and it made a significant impression on the Byzantines. The
Byzantines felt welcomed by Venice as friends, and this amity seems to have been recognised by
Bessarion throughout his career. He was also heavily involved there because of the Greek community,
which was the largest Greek minority in Europe over which the cardinal had ecclesiastical authority as
Uniate Patriarch from April 1463.12 As the Ottomans advanced over the years, Venice became the port
of entry for the Greek refugees. This influx became a flood after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
The city took on the role of a haven, and many Greeks settled there in the Greek Quarter. Their
presence made Venice a comfortable home where the Byzantines could re-establish their communities
in an environment which was not too dissimilar from their own. While these assets are not
insignificant, it is proposed here that Bessarion chose Venice for a host of political reasons that had
more to do with his efforts to be seen, in the eyes of his Italian peers, as a western patron.
Why Venice? At this point the significance of the decision to treat the Latin and Greek texts as one
collection becomes apparent. This shift in concept, which is not frequently commented on, doubled the
size of the bequest and its importance. It is arguable that it demanded a grander solution. In the 1460s
Venice was a thriving, wealthy Italian state. Its population of 80,000-100,000 inhabitants was rivalled
only by Paris, Naples and Milan. The Venetians had just defeated Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of
Milan, and they dominated the Adriatic (Istria’s coast, Dalmatia, Albania and the Ionian and Aegean
11
‘Cum enim in civitatem vestram omnes fere totius orbis nationes maxime confluant, tum praecipue graeci, qui
e suis provinciis navigio venientes Venetiis primum descendunt, ea praeterea vobiscum necessitudine devincti, ut
ad vestram appulsi urbem quasi alterum Byzantium introire videantur.’ Cited in Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library,
148.
12
Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library, 5. For reference to Bessarion as the Patriarch see Giorgio Fedalto, Ricerche
storie sulla posizione giuridica ed ecclesiastica dei Greci a Venezia nei ss. XV e XVI, Florence 1967, 33-34.
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Greek islands were still under Venetian control). 13 The Republic seemed more likely than the small
island of S. Giorgio Maggiore to have the resources to construct the sort of grand library envisaged by
Bessarion for his collection.
The cardinal had a personal relationship with Venice, which was an equally important factor in the
donation arrangements. The Venetians flattered Bessarion with acts and words, boosting his credibility
as an important figure in Italian politics. In 1460 the cardinal stayed in the city on his way to
Germany.14 On his return he stayed in Venice again and was greeted rapturously. It was at this point
that his name was inscribed in the Maggior Consilio, the list of Venetian notables. Bessarion had
established a relationship with Venice regarding the Crusade for which he campaigned tirelessly. In
1463 he was sent as papal legate to the Republic to coordinate the military effort, and it was during this
embassy that he reached the peak of his political statesmanship. He subscribed to the emerging concept
of Venice as the ideal ‘polis’ which was advanced in two treatises written by the humanist Paolo
Morosini.15 All the actions of the Republic are presented by Morosini as motivated by a love of liberty,
tempered with a clear head for economics and legal structures. He too was heavily involved with the
negotiations between Venice and Pope Pius II, and his aristocratic republicanism seems to have
appealed to Bessarion. The cardinal is effusive in his flattery of Venice, writing in his letter to the doge
following the Donation,
Firstly I cannot choose a place which is more protected, ruled by fairness, maintained by laws,
or governed with integrity and wisdom, where there is a home for virtue, restraint, seriousness,
justice and loyalty, where there is the most and greatest rule, thus it is even and moderate.
Minds are free to deliberate, there are no desires, none poisonous in sin, prudent men hold the
13
Zorzi, ‘Bessarione e Venezia’, 198.
14
Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library, 4.
15
Defensio Venetorumm ad Europae principes contra obtrectatores and De rebus et forma reipublicae venetae
Gregorio Heymburg Germanorum doctori praeclarissimo.
147
tiller of rule and the good are put in command ... and forgetful of private conveniences they
manage with the unanimous consent of the whole republican body and with great integrity. 16
The Estense ambassador, Iohannes Arcimboldus, described Bessarion as ‘tutto Veneziano’ in a letter to
Galeazzo Maria Sforza.17 Although this was not intended as a compliment from the perspective of the
Milanese, it indicates that the cardinal was widely recognised for his empathy with the Republic.
Venice even supported his bid for the papal tiara in 1471. 18 It is not surprising, then, that given this
mutual admiration, Bessarion thought of Venice when he was casting about for a home for his books.
The cardinal’s choice of Venice as the beneficiary of his donation could also have been motivated by
his desire to apply political pressure to the Republic. Bessarion had campaigned throughout his career
for a crusade to be launched against the Ottoman Turks, and a Venetian initiative was critical to the
success of this project. At the Council of Mantua (1458-59) Pope Pius II appointed Bessarion and
Nicholas of Cusa to engage in negotiations for a Venetian contribution to their crusade against the
Ottomans. In 1463 Pius sent the cardinal to Venice as apostolic legate, with the mission to muster
support for another crusade attempt. Bessarion stayed for a year, consorting with the Venetian notables
and exercising his right to vote in an election. He succeeded in persuading the Venetians to go to war
as early as 29 July 1463. They embarked on a conflict with the Ottoman Turks which would last until
1479.19 By donating his library to the Republic, Bessarion was perhaps making a gesture which he
hoped would encourage Venice to continue their participation in the war with the Ottomans.
16
‘Primo enim non videbam quem locum eligere tutiorem possem, quam eum que aequitate regitur, legibus
tenetur, integritate ac sapientia gubernatur, ubi virtutis, continentiae, gravitatis, iustitiae, fidei domicilium est; ubi
imperium ut maximum est atque amplissimum, ita aequabile et moderatum; animi in consulendo liberi, nulli
libidini, nulli delicto obnoxii, prudentes clavum imperii tenent, et boni malis praeponuntur ac privatorum
commodorum obliti totum corpus reipublicae unanimi consensu et summa integritate procurant.’ Cited in
Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library, 148.
17
‘...conoscendo esso cardinale callido, astuto e venetiano...’ Milan, Archivio di Stato, carteggio sforzesco,
Roma, filia 69.
18
Zorzi, ‘Bessarione e i codici greci’, 106.
19
Zorzi, ‘Bessarione e Venezia’, 204.
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An argument is often advanced that Bessarion was motivated to move his library collection from Rome
to Venice in 1468 because of the then Pope Paul II’s hostility to humanism. 20 However, a re-
examination of this idea reveals that there are many points of weakness. This theory is dependent on
Paul’s reputation for philistinism, which is based on the influential account of his life written by the
aggrieved humanist Bartolomeo Platina.21 His assessment of the pope was understandably coloured by
the harsh treatment he had endured at Paul’s hands after the discovery of a plot to overthrow the
papacy. All the men involved were connected to Bessarion in some way – indeed, the cardinal even
made a special plea to the pope for the release of Platina. 22 Nonetheless it seems unlikely that the
cardinal was tainted by association for long. It is argued by some scholars, such as the cardinal’s more
recent biographer, Giuseppe Coluccia, that Bessarion feared some sort of reprisal from the pope
because of his link with the alleged conspirators. 23 However, within twelve months the last of the
accused was released, and several of the conspirators were reinstated to their curial positions, so it is
hard to argue that a peripheral witness would have been the target of Paul’s hostility. In Chapter 1 I
suggest the opposite: that Paul II was very much a patron of humanism, and that in many respects he
advocated the cardinal’s agenda, although the propagandistic success of Platina’s Lives has influenced
subsequent interpretations of his attitude towards scholarship. It is arguable that Bessarion actually
shared intellectual attitudes with Paul II and with Venice and that this was a triangular relationship that
was manifested in the donation of the library to the Republic. After all, it was the pope who approved
the change of bequest. Contrary to conventional opinion, which interprets the transfer of the library to
Venice as an attempt to remove the books from Paul II’s orbit in Rome, the donation may have been
evidence of a closer relationship with the pope than historians have traditionally acknowledged.
20
Zorzi in ‘Bessarione e Venezia’ claims that Bessarion had good reason to be uneasy about curial links between
San Giorgio Maggiore and the popes (San Giorgio had a history of curial control from the 1430s when Gabriele
Condulmer , later Pope Eugenius IV, was its commendatory abbot) since Paul II had made his hostility to
Neoplatonism and the Roman academies abundantly clear by 1467. The monastery might not have made a secure
refuge for a library dedicated to these themes. Zorzi, ‘Bessarione e Venezia’, 209.
21
Platina, The Lives of the Popes, 277ff .
22
Cardinals Gonzaga and Bessarion made a special plea to the pope on 20 April 1470. Dunston, ‘Pope Paul II
and the Humanists’, 303.
23
Coluccia, Basilio Bessarione, 230.
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An additional factor in the donation to Venice may have been the fact that it was Paul’s native state
and that the pope was performing a balancing act between appeasing his ‘patria’ and nurturing the
sovereignty of the papacy. Scholars have not previously considered this as a potential element in the
equation. With the gesture of this generous gift, Bessarion may have been assisting Paul II in
reconciling the papacy and the Signoria. Venice had a tradition of seeing itself as a chosen city of God
and an heir to the Byzantine Empire.24 Frequently this clashed with the papal self-image of sacred and,
increasingly, temporal authority. When the pope was a Venetian himself, as was the case with Pope
Paul II, these tensions were enhanced by the expectations both Rome and the Republic held for papal
favour. In Paul’s case these relations had become fragile during his time as Cardinal Pietro Barbo when
the then pope, Pius II appointed him bishop of Padua in 1459 over the Signoria choice of Gregorio
Correr. Paul was forced to renounce his claim in 1460, and a personal resentment towards the Venetian
government began to fester.25 As pope, Paul developed a sense of paranoia, believing that envoys from
Venice were sent to spy on him. He and the Republic then struggled over control of the state of Rimini.
To the irritation of the Venetians, the pope paid only lip service to a crusade effort and attempted to
thwart the Signoria’s taxation of the clergy to fund such a campaign. 26 On the other hand, Pope Paul II
did make gestures to appease his native state, and the goodwill Bessarion’s donation generated towards
an ambassador of the pope may have contributed towards these gestures. Paul identified himself as
Venetian throughout his pontificate; in 1470 he established a studium generale in Venice; and he made
three visits to the city between 1464 and his death.27 Given the lengths to which Bessarion went to
protect the interests of the other popes whom he served, such as Pius II, it is not inconceivable that his
donation to Venice was intended to help consolidate papal power.
24
Robertson, ‘Paul II: Zentihomo de Venecia e Pontifico’, 147. Robertson cites Paolo Prodi, ‘The Structure and
Organization of the Church in Renaissance Venice: Suggestions for Research’, in J. R. Hale, ed., Renaissance
Venice, London 1973, 409-30.
25
Robertson stresses the bitterness that this conflict generated in, ‘Paul II: Zentihomo de Venecia e Pontifico’,
154.
26
Robertson, ‘Paul II: Zentihomo de Venecia e Pontifico’, 158-62. Primary sources from the Archivio di Stato,
Milan, Archivio Sforzesco and from the Archivio di Stato, Venice are cited to support this statement in
Robertson’s chapter, see notes 31ff.
27
Robertson, ‘Paul II: Zentihomo de Venecia e Pontifico’, 151-72.
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Marc.Lat.Z.14: The Act of Donation Document
The formal bequest of the library to the Republic of Venice was transacted via an elaborate document
that served to formalize the donation. It is suggested here that this document served a ceremonial
purpose establishing the significance of the donation and the credentials of Bessarion as a western
patron. The document is bound into a volume in the Biblioteca Marciana, datable to 1468. It consists of
66 folios, measuring 250 x 170mm. It is stored in a copper plated box which has three iron clasps and
is decorated with a tooled foliage pattern. On the left of the front cover the arms of S. Marco have been
embossed and on the right are those of Bessarion.28 Above the coats of arms are four lines of text in
gold reading,
INDEX LIBRORUM VARIUSQUE LINGUA/E BASILICAE DIVI MARCI PER
BIS/ARIONEM CARDINALEM EPISCOPUS PA/TRIARCHA
CONSTANTINOPOLITANUM DICATORUM.29
The contents of the volume consists of a letter making the donation to the doge Cristoforo Moro (1390-
1471) (Figure 41); a request to Pope Paul II to revoke the original bequest to the monastery of S.
Giorgio Maggiore; the institution of the donation; an index of Greek books and an index of Latin books
(Figures 42 and 43). The document has multiple functions. Firstly it is ceremonial: liberally illustrated
with bianchi girari, putti and gold initials. The letter to the doge is particularly elaborate with a margin
of vine scroll on a red, blue, green and gold background framing the first page of the text. At the top
and bottom of the left-hand border are two medallions containing naked putti playing the harp and the
lute in a landscape. In the lower frieze the winged lion of St Mark stands in a landscape, one paw in a
stream, holding the book symbolising the Evangelist’s scripture. Flanking the beast are the coats of
arms of Bessarion and Moro supported by two mermen blowing trumpets. The right-hand border is
also decorated with bianchi girari (a white vine scroll pattern, typical of north Italian manuscript
28
Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.14.
29
‘Index of the dedicated books in various languages for the basilica of the Divine Mark by Bessarion Cardinal
bishop, Patriarch of Constantinople.’
151
illumination) but in the centre there is a blank space, possibly the site of another scene with a Cupid or
a coat of arms. Each section of the book is introduced with a gold initial on a background of bianchi
girari. This was meant to be a lavish manuscript and indicates the importance Bessarion invested in
this donation. The collection had to be celebrated in this document in order to impress on the Venetians
the richness of the treasure they were receiving and to inspire the degree of reverence which the library
would have merited.
Determining to what extent Bessarion’s commission for this document was unusual in its degree of
decoration is problematic. Legal documents and charters are not frequently studied for their
illustration. In addition, the texts are scattered throughout national, local and private collections making
access complicated. Documents also suffer a high attrition rate: they disappear in fires, vandalism,
thefts, misplacements and sales. However, Elizabeth Danbury’s introduction to English decorated
documents convincingly argues that their embellishment can be ascribed to their role as evidence of
official favour (be it royal or ecclesiastical) and associated status. 30 Bessarion’s Act was closely linked
to the papal license which permitted him to make the bequest. As mentioned, it included Pope Paul’s
permission to revoke the donation to S. Giorgio Maggiore and to bestow the books on the Republic. It
is possible that the elaborate decoration of the document was a bid to identify the cardinal’s donation
with papal authority.
Secondly it is a legal transaction, evidenced by the many notaries and ecclesiastical officials bearing
witness or leaving their signature. The notaries ‘L. Dathus, R(omano) D. Cardinal, B. de Reate and L.
Pathum’ all signed the document on folio 8.31 This was another instance in which the textual content
was lent authority by the elaborate nature of the decoration. There were pressing reasons for these legal
30
Danbury, ‘The Decoration and Illumination of Royal Charters in England’, 157-61.
31
‘In fine vero bullae apparabent trae alterius manu scriptae sub plica: sic dicentes L dathus extra vero dictas
plicam apparabant aliae trae est alterius manu scriptae sic dicentes: Gratis pro Rmo d. Cardinali et paulo infra B
de Reate. A tergo ispius bullae apparebant aliae litterae alterius manus: sic dicentes Rta apud me L pathum.’
152
measures, not least of which was to secure the approval of Paul II. The original bequest to S. Giorgio
Maggiore had to be revoked officially, and this is repeated in the letters to Moro and Paul as well as the
Institution of the Donation. Then there were conditions attached to the donation which the Venetians
were to be legally bound to observe. The books must be housed in a library constructed for that
specific purpose.32 Bessarion repeatedly states that the library must be easy to access and convenient. 33
Most importantly Venice was prohibited from selling or alienating any of the volumes in the
collection.34 And not least, the document functions as the index of the collection. The two lists begin
with illuminated initials in gold on bianchi girari, and each item starts with a large capital alternating
in red and blue ink. By commissioning this interplay of words and decoration, Bessarion was giving
visual weight to the concept of the bequest as an inalienable package.
This was not a post mortem bequest. In 1469 fifteen mules carried thirty boxes full of Bessarion’s
books to Venice from Rome.35 It was unusual to give away a library collection before death, and it
raises questions about the use Bessarion made of his books. His original bequest to S. Giorgio
Maggiore in 1463 was made as a ‘donatio inter vivos’ whereby Bessarion reserved the use of his books
during his lifetime. Five years later he was willing to surrender them immediately. If these were texts
he worked from then why was he able to do without them after 1468? His residence remained in Rome
and his academy continued to function. The answer may lie in the dates. In 1463 the cardinal was
enjoying a good relationship with Pius II and had reached the culmination of his political career. His
position was secure. By 1468 events in Rome had changed this benign climate. Even though the
cardinal was not implicated, an academy like Bessarion’s was at the centre of a conspiracy to oust Pope
Paul II. Bessarion may have wanted to demonstrate his loyalty to Paul by making a donation to the
32
‘…in libraria ibidem conficienda seu facta aut constructa...’ (fol. 13).
33
‘…donare; ut facilius; et commodius ingenia plurimorum illustrentum. Et ipsi libri publici forent; et posteritati
servirent...’ (fol. 12).
34
‘Neque possint: aut eis liceat praefatos libros aliquomodo vendere, vel alienare: nec illos vel aliquem illorum
extra dictam civitatem Venetiarum aliquot modo alicui unquam concedere: vel praestare: sive mutare...’ (fol. 14).
35
Zorzi, ‘Bessarione e i codici greci’, 108.
153
pope’s homeland – a contribution to the papal efforts to smooth over relations between Venice and
Rome.
The Collection
Bessarion’s collection is usually treated as two separate libraries: one in the Greek language and the
other in Latin. Many historians define 1453 as a watershed in Cardinal Bessarion’s collecting habits.
Scholars treat this year, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, as the moment when
Bessarion started to focus on preserving any and all Greek texts on which he could lay his hands. It is
seen as a campaign to save Byzantine culture, a culture that the cardinal feared would be destroyed by
the occupying Ottoman forces. The scholar Marino Zorzi concentrates on these motives when
assessing Bessarion’s collecting strategy. His chapter ‘Cardinale Bessarione e la sua biblioteca’ in I
Luoghi della Memoria Scritta: Manoscritti, incunaboli, libri a stampa di Biblioteche statali Italiane
analyzes the Greek collection in the context of Bessarion’s scholarship. Zorzi notes the predominance
of ancient writers and Byzantine theological texts and identifies the goals of the library: to transcribe
the most important Greek texts; to preserve Greek texts from destruction; to make them more widely
known; and to achieve greater Greek penetration of the western European continent. Zorzi’s approach,
however, is weakened by his cursory attention to the Latin collection, which he suggests was put
together in less of a hurry and with less preoccupation with ancient writers. This is typical of how the
Latin collection generally is either overlooked or perceived to be fundamentally different in content. It
is argued here that there were actually many points of similarity between the collections and that in
both cases Bessarion was systematic and selective, consciously driving the character of his complete
library.
In this section I propose to consider both collections as a whole, drawing together the two isolated
areas of study to demonstrate the multiple factors influencing the nature of this book collection. A re-
154
assessment of Bessarion’s collection from a chronological and contextual perspective demonstrates
that he had a methodical rather than reactionary approach to the development of his library. It can be
argued that one of the principal results of this approach was to create a library that served a western,
specifically Italian, scholarship. Even though this aspiration could not have emerged in Bessarion’s
collecting habits before 1440 and his emigration to Italy, the early texts he acquired laid a foundation
for his philosophies and scholarship that he would capitalize on when he established himself in Rome.
It is clear that Bessarion’s collection resonated with western intellectual interests from its inception. In
a letter, which mentions Bessarion, from the Latin scholar Ambrogio Traversari to Filippo Pieruzzi at
the time of the Council of Florence (1439), Traversari writes,
I am now familiar with the bishop of Nicaea, a man of singular merit and culture. He is full of
brains although younger than the others, in fact he’s in his thirties. Having questioned him for
a long time on manuscripts, I found that he had not carried many with him, had left the grand
majority of them at Modone: I questioned him about this and he described to me that he had
left there two volumes of Strabo, texts totally new to us. He also has many other works but
unknown to us.36
It was this fledgling collection that so impressed Traversari. As early as his period of study with
George Gemistos Pletho, Bessarion was collecting works by Ptolemy, Strabo and minor Greek
mathematicians, all of which would capture the attention of the western scholars. In his article
‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, Elpidio Mioni points to the continuity of Bessarion’s collection. He
retained an interest in these Greek authors throughout his life. According to Mioni, he also copied
manuscripts of works by Aristotle and Archimedes during this time. 37 Although Bessarion had already
acquired a sizeable library by the time he began instruction with George Gemistos Pletho, it was a
36
Quoted and trans. in Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, 63 from L. Mehus, Ambrosii Traversari latinae
epistolae, I, Florence 1759, letter 30. Sadly, I have found no further evidence to explain the connection with
Modon (modern Methoni). As a long-time colony of Venice, it is possible that this is an indication that Bessarion
had some sort of relationship with the Republic from an early stage in his career.
37
Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, 65.
155
library typical of a Basilian monk: rich in religious texts and patristic commentaries. It was under
Pletho that his collecting habits expanded to include profane literature with a particular interest in
philosophy and science, a focus which would continue to shape his collection after he came to Italy.
Texts from Plutarch, Xenophon, Lucian and the laws of Plato (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.
526 and Marc.gr.z.523) date from this period in Byzantium and are largely autograph. 38 These were all
authors to whom scholars were turning in the West, and Bessarion provided a conduit for the
transmission of such texts to Italy.
When Bessarion was tutored in Pletho’s community on the island of Mistra, where he studied the
liberal arts with an emphasis on mathematics, he developed an interest in Greek ancient texts. In his
article Elpidio Mioni asserts that at this stage Bessarion’s knowledge of Latin was minimal and that
there is no evidence that he collected Roman authors. However, John Monfasani has provided a
convincing case in his recent book Bessarion Scholasticus for the young man’s awareness and
appreciation of western Scholasticism in the form of the books by Thomas Aquinas that he collected
before his departure to Rome.39 Although there were myriad bibliophiles in Byzantium, I have found
no evidence of a widespread interest in western texts among them. Bessarion’s inclusion of western
authors in his collection seems to have been unusual. His Greek volumes were typical of the erudite
Constantinopolitan collector, for example the scholar George of Cyprus’s library included Plato,
Aelius, Aristides, Demosthenes as well as liturgical and theological writers such as Gregory of
Nazianzus.40
Pletho instilled in Bessarion an appreciation of Plato and Neoplatonic writers which would endure
throughout his life and characterise a significant proportion of his collection, becoming the basis of his
38
Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, 65. See also Zanetti, Latina et Italica, 284-85 and Leporace and
Mioni, Cento codici bessarionei, 53-54, n. 50.
39
Monfasani’s recent book, Bessarion Scholasticus, looks at Bessarion’s interest in Scholastic literature and
proposes that he was well grounded in medieval philosophy as well as the more modern Platonic movement.
40
Staikos, The History of the Library, 430.
156
intellectual agenda in the West. This interest would develop into a passion after the Council of
Florence in the wake of Pletho’s text De Differentiis, which ignited the debate among the scholars in
Italy over the comparison of Aristotle and Plato. The theme would flower in the aftermath of the Fall
of Constantinople of 1453 with Bessarion’s collection of Neoplatonic writers and his own book In
calumniatorem platonis.
In the years before the Fall of Constantinople other patterns in Bessarion’s book collecting can be
identified that demonstrate that the cardinal’s agenda was shaped by his political interests, which were
newly focused on the West. The move from Constantinople to Rome in 1440 had a dramatic impact on
the shape of the collection. Bessarion began to form an extensive library of books in Latin. As
discussed in the section on the donation, the relationship between the Latin and Greek collections is
crucial in determining Bessarion’s motives as a cultural patron. By looking at the library as a single
collection of books in two languages characterised by the common subject matter of history,
philosophy, rhetoric and theology, we can see Bessarion in the process of developing a library that
reflected the scholarly nature of his western environment. The pivotal move to Rome facilitated an
expansion of his book collecting activities rather than a change of focus away from the Greek
collection. Bessarion continued to collect mainly history (Herodotus, Thucydides and Cassius Dio) as
well as philosophy (Plato, Plotinus and Proclus).
Not only was Bessarion preparing a legacy of books for the Italians, he was also motivated to collect
works that echoed his political interests as well as the debates that he engaged in. Bessarion was
preoccupied with the Union of the East and West Churches, and the library reflects this in the
acquisitions from the 1440s onwards in both languages, for example the Acta Concilii florentini
(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.120) in Greek and the Opera Domini Reverendissimi de
spiritu sancto (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.135) in Latin.
157
In the tradition of examining Bessarion’s library as two separate collections, the scholar Concetta
Bianca has considered Bessarion’s Latin collection most extensively. She posits that these books
reflect the cardinal’s personal interests more accurately because he was not under the same pressure to
‘save’ Latin culture and could therefore be more selective in the acquisition or rejection of titles. 41
According to Bianca, the Latin library represented the theological debates, philosophy and religious
subjects in which the cardinal was involved. This observation is doubtless accurate – Bessarion would
not have collected works that he was not interested in. The library was characterised by the humanist
movement emerging in Renaissance Italy. One of Bessarion’s first acquisitions after his move to Rome
was a Cicero copied in Florence in 1441, containing De natura deorum and De Officiis.42 Bianca
argues that Cicero’s works were standard texts for every western humanist’s library. 43 In 1445
Bessarion commissioned a copy of Cicero’s In Verres and the Philippics from the Florentine scribe
Petrus Stroza, as well as works by Aulus Gellius, and Pliny. 44
However, there is little evidence that Bessarion was collecting the Greek books in any more of a
haphazard fashion than he applied to the acquisition of the Latin works or that he was unwilling or
unable to indulge his personal preferences for particular subjects. During the 1440s he was expanding
his collection rather than shifting focus away from the acquisition of Greek texts. For example, as head
of the Basilian Order in Italy he had access to the libraries of many monasteries in the south. From
these institutions the cardinal acquired works such as the Acts and Letters of the Apostles translated
from the Hebrew into Greek (Venice, Biblioteca Mariciana, Marc.gr.z.7); a collection of laws written
41
Bianca, Da Bisanzio a Roma, 46.
42
This manuscript (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.414) is inscribed with the date 1441. See Zanetti,
Latina et italica, 166; Marcon, ‘Miniatures in Latin Manuscripts’, 389, number 8; Bianca, Da Bisanzio a Roma,
54.
43
44
Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z. 430 is inscribed with the date 1445 and the name ‘Petrus Stroza
absolvit Florentiae…’ on folio 220v; Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 120. For
more information on Petrus Stroza and Bessarion, Bianca cites A. de la Mare, Messer Piero Strozzi, a Florentine
Priest and Scribe, in Calligraphy and Palaeography, ed. A.S. Osley, London 1965, 55-68.
158
in 1175 in the circle of Roger II’s court in Sicily (Venice, Biblioteca Mariciana, Marc.gr.z.172); and
the Lives of the Saints, written in 1279 in the reign of Charles I of Sicily (Venice, Biblioteca Mariciana,
Marc.gr.z.362).45 The theological theme of these acquisitions is entirely compatible with the character
of the Latin collection, and this continuity supports the theory that the Latin and Greek libraries should
be perceived as a single collection with common motives driving the acquisition policy.
In the first half of the 1450s Bessarion moved to Bologna as a papal legate. Studies of the cardinal’s
library tend to focus on the development of the Greek collection in this period, implying that the
momentous events of 1453 dominated Bessarion’s collecting habits. However, the Bolognese
appointment was a very formative period for Bessarion’s Latin collection. The entire library became so
important to the cardinal that he took the trouble to send it to Florence during a phase of unrest in
Bologna in 1452.46 It was here too that he established relationships with renowned scribes such as
Iohannes Caldarifex and illuminators such as Giovanni da Rimini, who decorated a copy of Lactantius
(Venice, Biblioteca Mariciana, Marc.lat.z.40), which will be examined in more detail in the next
chapter.47 This phase of collecting reflects an effort to consolidate Pope Nicholas V’s political mandate
– the cardinal acquired many books in ecclesiastical law, as well as decrees and bulls. 48 Using the
inscriptions that the cardinal made on the flyleaf of his books, scholars have been able to identify rough
dates for certain acquisitions.49 The phrase ‘liber meus’ is proposed by Bianca to relate to the period of
the cardinal’s Bologna appointment (1450-55). Many of these fulfill a practical role in his duties, and
their acquisition provides evidence that Bessarion tailored his collection to reflect and enhance his
duties as a western cardinal. For example, he bought many western legal texts for his library during a
45
Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, 71-72. For more literature on these volumes see Leporace and Mioni,
Cento Codici Bessarionei, 30, 43-45.
46
Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 125. This transfer is confirmed by a letter from
Niccolò Perotti to Poggio Bracciolini in which he says that while he was in Rome all the books were packed up
and sent to Florence – see Mercati, Per la cronologia della vita e degli scritti di Niccolò Perotti, 144-46.
47
Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 128. See Chapter 5 on manuscript illumination.
48
49
For example, books in which the cardinal identified himself as Cardinalis Tusculanus must have been acquired
after 23 April 1449 when he received the title. The same is the case for the title, Episocopus Sabinensis, by which
Bessarion was referred after October 1468.
159
period of consultation on issues of penal procedure with Barbazza – the famous Sicilian legalist who
wrote Tractatus de praestantia Cardinalium. Works by St Ambrose (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,
Marc.lat.z.21) were secured from the estate of the professor of canon and civic law at Bologna, Battista
Manzolini, after he was imprisoned on a charge of conspiracy against the state. 50 Actual texts on law
included the Lectura of Bartolo (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.201); the Decretals (Venice,
Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.177) and two volumes of the Speculum iuris by Guglielmo Durante
(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.215). 51
Bessarion invested a great deal of interest in western scholarship which manifested itself in this period
through his attention to the famous university of Bologna, and this interest is demonstrated by the
books which he collected during his appointment in the city. These included philosophical texts such as
Flores totius logicae (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.302) and Super libris phisicorum
(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.255), which reflected the university tradition in teaching
philosophy. This symbiotic relationship between this bastion of western learning and Bessarion’s book
collection extended to the cardinal’s interest in the wellbeing of the university, which is discussed in
Chapter 1. Among Bessarion’s major commissions in Bologna was his request for the entire
university’s reading list to be copied for his collection.
While in the north, Bessarion also maintained contacts with the Roman scholars and continued to
collect literature associated with humanism. It was during the Bolognese period that he produced a
Latin translation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Clearly Bessarion was focused on making ancient Greek
texts more accessible to the West. His collection was being shaped by the needs and demands of
western intellectuals to whom the cardinal was catering. During the time in Bologna it is clear that his
interest in the Latin classics evolved, and he had several texts copied and illuminated. Among them
50
Manzolini died on 14 January 1454; Bianca, Da Bisanzio a Roma, 72. See also Nasalli Rocca, Il cardinale
Bessarione, 35; and Bacchelli, La legazione bolognese, 146.
51
Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 133, nn. 122-24.
160
were Ovid’s Works (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.444) in 1452; excerpts from Virgil
(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.440); and a Vitruvius (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,
Marc.lat.z.463).52
But the cardinal did not neglect his theological interests in Bologna, a theme that ran through both his
Greek and Latin collections. He continued to build his rich collection of ecclesiastical authorities such
as the writings of St Augustine and Thomas of Aquinas. Bessarion demonstrated an interest in
contemporary ecclesiastical affairs that were topical in Italy, acquiring texts such as the Acta Concilii
Basiliensis by his colleague Cardinal Capranica (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.166).
Pursuing these theological and philosophical interests during his Bolognese years, he ordered seven
volumes of writings by St Thomas Aquinas to be copied in 1453 (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,
Marc.lat.z.116, 117, 118, 124, 125, 126, 127).53 It is clear that during his appointment in Bologna,
Bessarion was focused on his role in the Roman Catholic Church, and the interest in western theology
complemented the cardinal’s programme of local patronage. He established the monastery of Corpus
Domini; built at his expense the Cappella dell’Assunzione in the church of the Madonna del Monte
(which was once decorated with a fresco of Bessarion and Niccolò Perotti) and restored the church of
the Madonna di San Luca.54 Bessarion’s work in Bologna ended up being an integrated programme that
resulted in establishing his position as a western patron.
While Bessarion was in Bologna, Constantinople fell to Mehmet II. In 1453 Aeneas Sylvius
Piccolomini lyrically described the context in which Bessarion was collecting:
What shall I say of the countless books, as yet unknown to the Latins, which were there [in
Constantinople]? Alas, how many names of great men will now perish! Here is a second death
52
Bianca, ‘La formazione della Biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 135.
53
Bianca, ‘La formazione della Biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 132.
54
Bacchelli, ‘La legazione del cardinale Bessarione (1450-1455)’, 143. See chapter 3 of the present dissertation.
161
for Homer and for Plato too. Where are we now to seek the philosophers’ and the poets’ works
of genius? The fount of the Muses has been destroyed. 55
On one level the cardinal’s efforts to collect Greek texts reveal that he shared Piccolomini’s
perspective. However, it is suggested here that Bessarion’s behaviour implied that at least an equal
focus of his concern was on the consequences of this destruction for the West. Traditionally
Bessarion’s collection of Greek manuscripts is perceived to be a reaction to the assault on his heritage
in the form of the Ottoman Turks. It can, however, be argued that his general interest in Latin ancient
classics, which emerged in Bologna, was an influential factor in the development of his Greek library
at the same time with its focus on history and philosophy. He collected the Greek works, Problemata
of Aristotle (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.259); Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ De
Compositione verborum (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.429) and the Histories by Diogenes
(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.372) among others. At this stage the Latin and Greek book
collections complemented each other. From the book dealer Giovanni Aurispa, Bessarion acquired
titles such as Planudes’ Anthology and the tenth-century copy of the Athenaeus Naucratites (Venice,
Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.447).56 Based on the evolving shape of Bessarion’s Greek collection, it
might be concluded that his motives were more complex than previously assessed. An aspect of his
agenda seems to have been to represent to the western world the past reputation of a nation that had
once been so great that it produced these texts. Secondly Bessarion’s collection was a statement that
the empire remained great in the present even if the physical Byzantium no longer existed. This mass
of Greek literature that he collected exerted the power of the Byzantines through its influence on
humanists and leaders in the West.
Some of our most definitive evidence for Bessarion’s collecting strategy can be found in an
examination of the collection’s evolution during the cardinal’s later years. Lotte Labowsky has made
the most comprehensive contribution to the study of Cardinal Bessarion’s library in her book
55
Quoted in Setton, Papacy, II, 150.
56
Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, 72-73. See also, idem, Cento codici bessarionei, 56.
162
Bessarion’s Library and the Biblioteca Marciana: Six Early Inventories, published in 1979. By
looking closely at six inventories, compiled in 1468, 1474, 1524, 1543, 1545/6 and 1575, she examines
the development of the classification system which characterised what would be the foundation
collection of the Biblioteca Marciana. The inventories of 1468 and 1474 are the most interesting for
this study because a close examination of the differences between them offers valuable evidence for
the evolution of the library.
In 1468 746 books became the legal property of San Marco, Venice. However, far fewer would have
actually been sent to the Republic as Bessarion retained some for his personal use during his lifetime.
By the time of the second inventory in 1474 the collection had grown considerably because the
cardinal had continued to acquire books up to his death in 1472. There was also a large consignment
held in Urbino by Duke Federico da Montefeltro. A letter exists (Labowsky does not identify to whom
it was sent), copied for Annibale Olivieri degli Abati in 1785 requesting the:
Transfer of several locked chests with books which had been deposited at the convent of Santa
Clara by the Cardinal of Nicaea, to the Secretary of the Signoria of Venice, enacted in the
presence of Count Federigo da Montefeltre, who had been asked to be kind enough to take on
this task on behalf of the College of Cardinals, the executors of the testament of the afore-
mentioned Cardinal. The count was instructed to send one of these chests, locked as it was, to
Rome into the custody of the aforementioned College. This was done and carried out in his
presence and in addition an inventory was made of all the books in these chests, in respect of
which the Count, even against the instructions given by the Cardinals, had a detailed statement
made of the quantity of books in each chest, which are also particularized in the legal
document drawn up concerning the aforementioned transfer. 28 February 1474. 57
57
MS Pesaro, Biblioteca Olivieriana, MS 443, no. 949, ff. 425-425v; printed and translated in Labowsky,
Bessarion’s Library, 137.
163
There is also evidence that Venice was making efforts to recover books which it perceived to be part of
the Bessarion bequest.58 In total they had found approximately 265 extra manuscripts by the time the
1474 inventory was compiled.
Although not the ostensible aim of the study, Labowsky’s work demonstrates that Bessarion’s donation
was organic – it continued to grow after the official bequest. This has implications for the cardinal’s
collecting habits. Do his motivations become more self-conscious in the years 1469-72? He knew he
was building a grand legacy, and this may have been reflected in the books he chose and
commissioned. By comparing the titles in Labowsky’s Table of Concordance I 59 I looked at the
manuscripts which featured in columns Ag (Inventory 1468 – Greek) and Al (Inventory 1468 – Latin)
against those which appear in column B (Inventory 1474). When a manuscript is listed in the later
inventory but not in the earlier I have assumed it is an addition to the 1468 list or a book which the
cardinal retained for his personal use between 1468 and 1472. Over a third of the Greek additions and
over half of the Latin are religious in nature. There is almost nothing new by Plato or the
Neoplatonists, although the Greek inventory includes six manuscripts of works by Aristotle.
Acquisitions of books on the sciences drop substantially along with the classics. This contrasts with the
1468 composition of the collection which is dominated by classical texts and Neoplatonic Christian
writers such as Dionysius the Areopagite. What accounts for this change?
Bessarion’s circumstances and preoccupations, which were firmly rooted in the West at this point,
should be looked at to answer this question. The Franciscan Bernardino di Bevagna copied the
translation of Metaphysics by Bonet for him in 1468 (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.304);
Theodoricus Wulf of Lubeck produced a copy of the letters of Gregory the Great (Venice, Biblioteca
58
Cumque per totam Italiam notum sit studium et opera prestita a nobis in recuperando residuum librorum
dimissorum et donatorum ecclesie nostre Sancti Marci per quondam Reverendissimum dominum Cardinalem
prefatum... (Valentinelli, Bibliotheca Manuscripta ad S. Marcum Venetiarum, ed. G. Valentinelli, vol. I, 1868-
1873, 33, n. 1; printed in Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library, 126).
59
Labowsky, Bessarion’s Library, 428-53.
164
Marciana, Marc.lat.z.82); and Iohannes Caldarifex did De civitae Dei by St Augustine (Rome, BAV,
Urb.lat.78).60 Bessarion inherited Cardinal Carvajal’s library in 1469, increasing his collection of
political and ecclesiastical texts with a focus on civil law. 61 He acquired his own law books
independently during this period, including the Decretals (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,
Marc.lat.z.183) and the letters of Ivo and Hildebert (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.84).
Simultaneously, the cardinal became involved in the debate about temporal benefices which resurfaced
during the pontificate of Paul II. He collected several volumes related to this issue including three
books by his contemporary Rodrigo Sánchez di Arévalo, who wrote extensively on ecclesiastical
poverty.62 The focus on religious subjects in both the Greek and Latin collections demonstrates that, at
least in Bessarion’s final years, there was a common strategy for acquisitions in both languages.
Acquisition
Bessarion collected the bulk of his library while occupying various ecclesiastical positions in the West.
The perk of this career was that it gave him the means of acquisition. Firstly, the appointments that the
cardinal held provided him with substantial financial resources, giving him the money with which to
enlarge his collection. He used merchants, such as Leonardus and Lamponicus Bibliopolae as well as
the influence of friends to acquire books. 63 He did this by subsidizing a host of agents and purchasing
the fruits of their research. Among his agents were the Venetian Francisco Barbaro and the Greek
Michael Apostolis. The relationship with these men was more than that of servant and commissioner:
Bessarion frequently made reference to their amicable relationships. In a letter to Barbaro the cardinal
expresses his pleasure and gratitude as well as their friendship:
60
61
Bessarion wrote the epitaph for Carvajal’s tomb in the Church of S. Marcello; Bianca, ‘La formazione della
biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 154. See also Mohler, Kardinal Bessarion, I, 278.
62
One of these was De remediis afflictae ecclesiae (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.90) which was
dedicated to Bessarion and was illustrated with his coat of arms; Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina
del Bessarione’, 156.
63
The most notable among these friends were Niccolò Perotti, Leonardo Bruni, Flavio Biondi, Francesco Filelfo,
Lorenzo Valla, Poggio Bracciolini, Guarino Veronese and Marsilio Ficino. Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e
Filologo’, 72.
165
I received the letters and the Tacitus...The second was more pleasing to me, I do not express
this easily ... [as] the others have filled me with love for you which I very much hold dear. 64
Later in the same letter he is even more explicit:
Indeed it is permitted for me to boast greatly, because you combine in my letters not only the
books, which I choose, which I was seeking, but also the closeness of a very great friendship I
keep with me.65
Barbaro procured books for Bessarion to own and to borrow, presumably for copying by his own
scriptorium. The cardinal wrote again to Barbaro,
If your Cornelius [Tacitus] was not silent, he could report back to you how humanely he was
handled by us, how liberally he was treated, how happily he was hosted by us for five months
already...66
Bessarion’s methods of acquisition were also directly related to his western political career in that the
appointments he was granted by the various popes provided him with the opportunities to gather more
books. In 1449 when he became bishop of Mazzara in Sicily he acquired the six volumes of the
Dictionarium morale and Quaestiones in sententias by Pietro da Candia (better known as Pope
Alexander V), that had belonged to the cardinal’s predecessor, Giovanni Rosa di Caltagirone. 67 Later,
64
‘Accepi litteras et una Cornelium Tacitum....Uter mihi fuerit iucundior, haud facile expresserim; quippe alter
sitim, quam iam diu visendi sui animo meo excitaverat, uberrime ac plenissime sedavit, alterae me ad te
amandum, quem ante summopere diligebam, compleverunt.’ Letter 26, Bessarion to Francisco Barbaro, 9 May
1453, Mohler, Kardinal Bessarion, III. Translation Laura Bolick.
65
‘Mihi certe licet summopere gloriari, quod unis meis litteris non solum librum, quem optabam, consecutus
fuerim, verum etiam tanti viri amicitiam mihi conciliaverim.’ Letter 26, Bessarion to Francisco Barbaro, 9 May
1453, Mohler, Kardinal Bessarion, III. Translation Laura Bolick.
66
‘Si Conelius tuus tacitus non esset, posset tibi referre, quam humaniter a nobis susceptus, quam liberaliter
tractatus, quam hilariter quantum iam mensem nobiscum hospitatus sit, quem interea filium, quam ingenuum et
liberalem ac apud nos dimiserit.’ Letter 27, Bessarion to Francesco Barbaro, October 1453, Mohler, Kardinal
Bessarion, III. Translation Laura Bolick.
67
Caltagirone acquired both books before he became bishop. The first volume was written in Bologna in 1384
and the second was copied in 1384 in Padua. Bessarion’s ex-libris features on the first folio of both books.
Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 122.
166
when Bessarion held the position of archimandrate of San Salvatore di Messina (1456-62) he received
The Sacred Life of Gregory the Pope (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.357). 68 Bessarion may
have also picked up manuscripts as gifts or requisitions from the Franciscan and Basilian churches
under his protection.
Apostolic trips, for example to Germany (1460), also resulted in the growth of the collection by
exposing the cardinal to a selection of books beyond the borders of the Italian states. In Germany he
bought four volumes of works by Nicholas of Lyra from a Nuremberg monastery (Venice, Biblioteca
Marciana, Marc.lat.z.18, 23, 27 and 30) and two volumes of works by William of Auvergne (Venice,
Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.305 and 306). 69 There was much activity in 1461 during his mission to
Vienna where he acquired a book on arithmetic and geometry (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,
Marc.lat.z.332), and where two political works were dedicated to the cardinal: De naufragio suo by
Niccolò Sagundino and Summa de casibus conscientiae by the Franciscan friar Gratian. In addition,
another Franciscan friar, Hellfericus of Babhusen copied out a commentary by Duns Scotus for
Bessarion (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.109) while the cardinal was in the Austrian
capital.70
While Bessarion seems to have been constructing a western humanist library, there was also an
opportunistic element to his acquisition programme which nonetheless does not appear to have
undermined the cohesion of the library. Above all, the status and authority that Bessarion acquired
through his integration into Italy had an impact on the ways in which he built up his library. The
68
69
Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 147. Bianca cites the following publications
regarding Bessarion’s experience in Germany: E. Meuthen, ‘Zum Itinerar der deutschen Legation Bessarions
1460-1’, Quellen Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 37 (1957), 328-33. See also Mohler,
Kardinal Bessarion, I, 294ff. For Nuremburg see G. Schuhmann, ‘Kardinal Bessarion in Nuernberg’, Jahrbuch f
ür Fränkische Landesforschung, 35-35 (1975), 447-65. Bessarion’s speech that he delivered to the monks is
printed in Mohler, Kardinal Bessarion, III, 377-83.
70
The volume by Duns Scotus has been decorated with the cardinal’s coat of arms on folio 2r. Bianca, ‘La
formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 148.
167
cardinal’s prestige made him the recipient of many gifts and bequests during his time in Rome. Some
of his books were gifts: the Minister General of the Augustinian Hermits, Gerardo da Rimini gave him
a book by Marsilio da Inghen.71 Bessarion also inherited books. He received three of them: Strabo’s
Geographia (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.379), a collection of extracts from Diodorus
Siculus, Plutarch and Aristotle (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.406), and Ptolemy’s
Geographia (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.517) from the sons of his former tutor, George
Gemistos Pletho. He also acquired three liturgical books in Latin from the heirs of Cardinal Isidoro
Ruteno, and he gave them to the chapel of S. Eugenia in his titular church of SS Apostoli, Rome. 72
More books arrived following the deaths of Patriarch Isidore of Constantinople and of the bookseller
Giovanni Aurispa. The latter was the secretary to Emperor John Palaeologus and was accused of
running off with many sacred and secular Greek texts in 1416 and 1421-23. One of these was the
renowned Iliad (the eponymous Homer A) which Bessarion seems to have acquired after Aurispa’s
death. There is extant correspondence between Bessarion and Nardo Palmiero on Aurispa’s collection
on 24 June 1459 revealing the machinations behind these acquisitions. The cardinal wrote:
We ask you to send the inventory of all the Greek books and to show them to us and we will
see everything for ourselves.73
Such a statement seems to imply that Bessarion deployed a degree of discrimination and a collecting
strategy: he was quite clear about only wanting certain books in Aurispa’s collection. Indeed,
Bessarion had already singled out a few of Aurispa’s books and he asked Palmiero to set aside two of
them.74
71
Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.264 was copied in 1405 by the Eremitani brother ‘Leonardus de Monte
Ylcino’ (f.75r). Bianca, ‘La formazione della biblioteca latina del Bessarione’, 121.
72
Mioni, ‘Bessarione Bibliofilo e Filologo’, 61-83.
73
‘Petimus etiam a te, ut mittas ad nos inventarium omnium librorum graecorum et significes nobis, an nos
viderimus omnes.’ Letter from Cardinal Bessarion to Nardo Palmiero, 24 June 1459, Mohler, Kardinal
Bessarion, III, 493-94.
74
‘Libros illos, quos tua manu notatos habemus, tu vero nostra, rogamus te, ut ad partem seponas et cum eis duos
alios.’ Mohler, Kardinal Bessarion, III, 493-94.
168
The character of Cardinal Bessarion’s collection was also shaped by his methods of acquisition. These
were determined by his circumstances and involved both, what could be called, passive and proactive
methods. Through his established networks of friends and associates, through active searching and
passive inheritance, Bessarion deployed all methods of acquisition at his disposal and applied them to
both his Latin and Greek collections. This common treatment should be interpreted as further evidence
that he perceived his books to be two halves of a single collection.
Context: Private and Public Book Collections
By comparing Bessarion’s collection with the others put together by his contemporaries, it becomes
clear that he envisaged a library that mirrored a concept rooted in the fifteenth-century West. While
there was no shortage of libraries or book collectors in the first half of the fifteenth century in
Constantinople, Bessarion treated his collection very differently from his peers. Virtually all libraries
in the Byzantine Empire were housed in and maintained by an ecclesiastical institution. The most
renowned example of this practice can be found in Theodore Metochites’ donation of his entire book
collection to the Chora Monastery. In contrast, Bessarion chose to donate his library to the Republic of
Venice, a secular governmental institution.
It is necessary to set the cardinal’s collection within two contexts which overlap but are essentially
different. The first context situates Bessarion’s collections among those established by contemporary
cardinals. The second comparison lies with the libraries established by secular humanist patrons in
Italy during the fifteenth century.
The cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64), who was summoned from Germany by Pius II to reside in
Rome from 1458 to 1464, was the owner of a collection of books that most closely resembled that of
169
Bessarion. Both cardinals were motivated by their belief that an understanding of philosophy and the
Church Fathers was the route to truth. To this end Nicholas of Cusa brought his library with him to
Rome where he launched into a programme of exchanges, loans and copying with other collectors in
the city.75 It was this system of collecting and using his library that mirrored Bessarion’s practices.
Concetta Bianca has written an extensive article on Cusanus’ library in Scrittura, biblioteche e stampa
a Roma. 76 Drawing on the material in her discussion, it becomes possible to see that Bessarion and the
German cardinal collected similar content for their libraries. When Cusanus arrived in Rome the
library consisted of books received during his papal legateship in Germany; philosophy books
belonging to Pierre de Bruxelles; and gifts from Petrus Bangen and the bishop of Padua Faustino
Dandolo. There were sixteen texts on astronomy acquired in Nuremberg in 1444; Greek books bought
in Constantinople; and books linked to the Council of Basel.77
Cusanus’ dealings with Bessarion reflect mutual interests in intellectual themes. Bessarion presented
him with a copy of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and encouraged Cusanus’ Neoplatonic interests. 78 Under
the Greek cardinal’s guidance Cusanus acquired the whole of Plato’s dialogues and Proclus’s
Theologia Platonis, which he had translated by Pietro Balbi who was also in the service of Bessarion.
Like Bessarion, Nicholas of Cusa was the nucleus of a circle of scholarly familiars, although his group
was not as big nor met as frequently as that of Bessarion. Many of those who followed Bessarion
overlapped with Cusanus’ circle like the editor Giovanni Andrea Bussi and the scholar Gaspare
Biondo.79 Cusanus was less successful than Bessarion at ensuring the future integrity of his book
75
Bianca, ‘La bibliotheca romana di Niccolò Cusano’, 676.
76
Cusanus was motivated mainly by interest and curiosity, and he had an unusual system of classification – by
argument, century and provenance. He had a particular interest in collecting antiquarian books. He owned a
seventh-century Glossarium (British Library, Harley 5792); a tenth-century Livy (British Library, Harley 2672);
and numerous twelfth-century manuscripts. Bianca, ‘La bibliotheca romana di Niccolò Cusano’, 688.
77
78
79
170
collection. Of the 270 manuscripts in the library of St Nikolaus-Hospital at Bernkastel-Kues (the
institution founded by Cusanus for the care of the sick), fourteen are now in the Bibliothèque Royale,
Brussels, forty-eight are in the British Library, and others are scattered in Oxford, in the Vatican, Paris,
Strasbourg, Bressanone and Volterra.80
Another significant similarity between the collections of the two cardinals lies in the location of their
library foundations. Despite being buried in S. Pietro in Montorio in Rome, Nicholas of Cusa preferred
to leave his library to his native country. Bessarion too was buried in Rome, but chose to leave his
books to Venice. It is possible to interpret these efforts to leave a legacy outside of Rome as a
reflection of the cardinals’ efforts to establish a dominant position in the humanist culture of states that
were not already overshadowed by the papacy.
In comparison with other contemporary cardinals, Bessarion’s collection was rather unique. One of the
largest Italian private libraries (second only to Bessarion’s) during the fifteenth century belonged to
Cardinal Domenico Capranica. On 14 August 1458 the cardinal founded the Collegio Capranica,
leaving his book collection to the scholars resident at the institution. 81 According to the 1480 inventory
(Rome, BAV, Vat.lat.8184) there were 388 volumes containing 2000 works. 82 However, this library
had a different character to Bessarion’s collection. Capranica owned a collection that was typical of a
Renaissance cardinal who had risen through the ranks after taking a degree in civil law. The books
were chosen for their practical application to his day to day work. Volumes on canon law, legal tracts,
and ecclesiastical treatises dominated the library. 83 There were large numbers of patristic texts,
80
81
‘…quod libri S.R.D. qui sunt necessarii pro dicto collegio ordinentur deputentur et disponantur pro utilitate et
commodo studentium in dicto collegio et alii vendantur.’ Quoted in Antonovics, ‘The Library of Cardinal
Domenico Capranica’, 141.
82
This figure comes from a copy of the earliest inventory drawn up in 1480 for the Biblioteca Capranicense. The
copy can be found in the Vatican Library, BAV, Vat.Lat.8184, ff. 1-46. Saraco, Il Cardinale Capranica, 54.
83
Antonovics’ article on Capranica’s library includes an analysis of the profile of the cardinal’s collection
organised according to the layout of the library. Antonovics, ‘The Library of Cardinal Domenico Capranica’,
143.
171
reflecting contemporary interests and debates such as those that arose at the Council of Florence.
Unlike Bessarion, Capranica did not aspire to be a representative of Renaissance humanism – there
were no books in Greek or Hebrew. Classical authors were few and far between, and there was little
evidence of any interest in archaeology, history or philosophy.
Bessarion’s contemporary, Cardinal Guillaume d’Estouteville also owned a collection of books and, as
we have seen, the two men may have had some sort of relationship in their cultural ventures. 84
However, Bessarion’s library surpassed that of the Frenchman in size and scope. The library of
Cardinal Guillaume d’Estouteville contained 249 works in 269 volumes. As with Capranica,
d’Estouteville was primarily focused on building a collection of texts on civil and canon law, creating
an indispensable tool for his job in the Curia.85 His manuscripts included patristic works, theological
texts, some science and a smattering of history. However there were only five classical authors and no
contemporary humanists among the books. Unlike Bessarion and Capranica, d’Estouteville divided his
collection between various institutions that he patronised during his lifetime, sending 109 volumes to
S. Luigi dei Francesci in 1483; 61 volumes to the Vatican in the same year; and 181 to the Roman
monastery of S. Agostino in November 1484.86 While Bessarion’s collection reflects shared interests
with other cardinals, this ecclesiastical character was merely one element in the make-up of his library.
The distinctiveness of Bessarion’s library is explained by his aspirations to assume the roles of both a
secular humanist patron and a Roman cardinal. This is demonstrated by a comparison with the libraries
of fifteenth-century western lay collectors.
84
See Chapter 2 in which I discuss the hypothesis that Bessarion’s chapel frescoes may have been connected to
Cardinal d’Estouteville’s mural programme in S. Maria Maggiore.
85
Esposito Aliano, ‘Testamento e inventari’, 315.
86
Esposito Aliano, ‘Testamento e inventari’, 317.
172
Despite differences in their circumstances, Federico da Montefeltro, the duke of Urbino (1422-82) and
Bessarion shared a passion for books. Federico was able to establish a working library during his
lifetime, and this was the collection of a secular prince with a side interest in scholarship. In the first
instance he was a ruler and a mercenary, with a hobby in humanism. The duke was one of the best
known collectors, and he and Bessarion were friends. 87 Through their relationship we can see one of
the ways in which Greek studies were promoted in Renaissance Italy. Bessarion played a role in the
education of the duke’s sons Buonconte, Antonio and Guidobaldo. Federico’s esteem for Bessarion
and his diligence in making sure his sons could read Greek reveal a powerful Renaissance prince’s
attitudes towards Greek. Bessarion wrote to Buonconte da Montefeltro to offer encouragement in the
Greek language. He told the boy that knowing both Latin and Greek would enhance his virtues, please
his father and bring glory to the family.88 The cardinal also planned to test the child, instructing him to
memorise this letter in its Greek or Latin version (Niccolò Perotti was probably responsible for the
Latin translation).89
Federico took the small collection of books on practical subjects which he had inherited and turned it
into a library of 900 volumes.90 By comparing the two collections, it becomes apparent that like
Bessarion, Federico conceived of his library as a working space rather than a mere collection of books.
The cardinal’s collection was to languish for half a decade after his death before it was housed in a
library, but the Urbino library functioned in the duke’s lifetime. Thought had been given to the layout
– the inscription over the door read:
87
For a discussion of Bessarion’s relationship with Federico da Montefeltro see Carlo Ginzburg’s The Enigma of
Piero, an unorthodox interpretation of Piero della Francesca’s The Flagellation of Christ.
88
‘Aliis certe virtutibus tuis si utriusque etiam linguae cognitionem addideris et patris desiderio respondebis, et
immortalem apud omnes gloriam consequere.’
Letter printed in Clough, ‘Bessarion and Greek at the Court of Urbino’, 160-171.
89
‘ Interea volumus, ut hanc nostram epistolam diligenter discas ac fideliter commemares, ut in nostro istuc
adventu eam memoriter referre possis nec solum modo recitare verba, sed etiam sententias, sive graece malueris
sive latine, nihil enim refert. Interrogabo quippe te quam exactissime de omnibus. Tu vide, quid sis responsurus.’
Letter reprinted in Clough, ‘Bessarion and Greek at the Court of Urbino’, 160-71.
90
This estimation is made by L. Michelini Tocci in ‘La formazione della biblioteca di Federico da Montefeltro:
codici contemporanei e libri a stampa’, in Federico di Montefeltro, III, 9-18. Peruzzi, ‘The Library of Glorious
Memory’, 33.
173
If you, o visitor, wish to know in which order the books are placed, read these short lines. To
your right, the sacred texts, and the law volumes, and the Philosophers and the Doctors; nor is
Geometry missing. On the left hand some Cosmographers, some Poets and all of the
Historians.
The furniture was also carefully chosen including a table in the centre with benches, a brazier with
tripods for heat, a bronze lectern and three ladders for accessing shelves.
Although both men apparently wanted their libraries to be practical and aesthetic spaces, a difference
in the motivations behind their collecting can be detected. It is arguable that Federico’s purpose in
amassing this collection was to demonstrate that he was a humanist scholar-prince, thus enhancing his
authority and his reputation. There were fewer religious texts in his collection than in that of Bessarion
– he mainly collected works of literature and humanist philology. In all aspects, according to Marcella
Peruzzi’s history of the collection, it was a typical humanist selection: a body of classical authors,
some vernacular works and contemporary texts. 91 Library tours were held regularly, and the librarian
was expected to draw the visitor’s attention to the cost, elegance of the script and sumptuousness of the
illuminations. The appearance of learning was as important as the content of the books. The evidence
examined so far demonstrates that Bessarion had a more academic set of motivations. However
similarities can be found in the commissioning of books. Both men relied on agents, such as
Vespasiano da Bisticci for Federico and Michael Apostolis for Bessarion. They both set up scriptoria in
Urbino and in Rome.92
Book collections were not the preserve of priests and princes, but were also amassed by the educated
middle class. A contemporary collector of this kind was the Florentine Francesco Sassetti (1421-90)
91
Peruzzi, ‘The Library of Glorious Memory’, 32.
92
Peruzzi, ‘The Library of Glorious Memory’, 36. On the activity in the Urbino scriptorium see C. Martelli, ‘Il
Petrarca da Bartolomeo della Gatta per Federico da Montefeltro e lo scriptorium del duca attorno al 1480’,
Prospettiva, 119-120 (2005), 2-22.
174
who was a bank manager for a Medicean establishment and later Cosimo de’Medici’s personal
assistant. His library consisted of only 120 books on mainly classical subjects with a few patristic
texts.93 He declared that his primary interests were poetry and history, and he disposed of the inferior
manuscripts.94 The collection is important for its quality rather than quantity. No doubt Bessarion
would have coveted Sassetti’s ninth-century copy of Martial, his De Civitate Dei by Augustine and
maybe his fifteenth-century version of Vitruvius. Like the cardinal, Francesco employed his own
scribes: Hubertus, Niccolò Fonzio and Bartolomeo Fonzio.
The context of the physical structure of the library was significant in regards to Bessarion’s collection.
Cosimo de’Medici commissioned a new library for the monastery of S. Marco in Florence in 1444 as
part of the renovation of the whole institution.95 This may have been the sort of building Bessarion
envisaged for his library. The architect Michelozzo Michelozzi was hired for Cosimo’s project, and his
design ushered in a new tradition in library planning in the fifteenth century. Situated on the first floor,
it was at the same level as the cells. At this stage the primary message conveyed was that the scholars
must enter the monastery’s territory to access the books – Bessarion’s library in contrast would be
separate from any religious structure. The model plan for Cosimo’s library provided for a long hall
with three naves and twelve piers separated by a row of Ionic columns. 96 The space is characterised by
its linear structure, simple elegance and Brunelleschian proportions. On the wall to the right of the
entrance are three full-length windows and nine smaller ones looking out onto cloister. There are a
total of 64 benches in each of the naves.
In the end Bessarion’s library would be housed in a far different type of structure. By the early decades
of the 1500s the books were still in boxes and were being moved from one location to another in the
93
Albinia de la Mare has written a chapter on Francesco Sassetti’s library, ‘The Library of Francesco Sassetti’,
esp. 164.
94
De la Mare, ‘The Library of Francesco Sassetti’, 166.
95
Ulman and Stadter, The Public Library of the Renaissance, 4-5.
96
Cecchini, ‘Evoluzione architettonico-strutturale della Biblioteca pubblica’, 27.
175
doge’s palace and the basilica of San Marco. The procurator Vettor Grimani and the new librarian
Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) made efforts to persuade the Senate to invest in a more permanent
solution by hiring the architect Jacopo Sansovino (1486-1570) to design a suitable library in the Piazza.
In 1537 Aretino described the basic plan of a two-storey elevation with Doric columns below and Ionic
above.97 By 1564 the books could be moved into the new reading room, nearly a century after
Bessarion’s donation. However it can be speculated that it was a setting which would have met with his
approval. Sansovino had modelled the library on descriptions of ancient libraries in Pausanias’ Guide
to Greece. Writing about Hadrian’s library in the temple at Athens, Pausanias recorded,
the hundred columns of Phrygian marble, with walls built just like the columns, and pavilions
with gilded roof work and alabaster, decorated with statues and paintings. Books are kept in
them.98
According to Deborah Howard in her book on Jacopo Sansovino’s architecture, the architect likewise
erected a colonnaded facade, used marble, gilding, painting and sculpture to create a classical
environment for a classical collection. 99 Special attention was paid to the vestibule of the reading room
for the public school where the pupils learned Greek and Latin philosophy, law, history and literature -
a curriculum based on the character of the cardinal’s collection. The library even faced east on the
advice of the ancient writer Vitruvius to prevent sun damage to the books.
The function and the definition of a library were pertinent issues to Bessarion and other fifteenth-
century collectors. This was especially apparent in the evolution of the Vatican Library. Prior to Sixtus
IV (1414-84) there was no library: the pope had a personal collection which he moved around as part
of his treasury and which was usually dispersed at his death. Nicholas V was the first pope to address
97
Aretino’s letter of 20 November 1537 was written to Sansovino and first published in Venice in 1538. It is
translated into English in Appendix 1 of Howard, Jacopo Sansovino, 158.
98
Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans. P. Levi, I, Central Greece, London 1971, 53; cited in Howard, Jacopo
Sansovino, 27, n. 99.
99
Howard’s section on the Biblioteca Marciana traces its evolution from its beginnings in 1537 to its eventual
completion in 1591 after Sansovino’s death. Howard, Jacopo Sansovino, 17-28.
176
this problem. He was an avid collector of manuscripts, and Sixtus IV would later commission a fresco
of his predecessor’s coat of arms on the vaulting in one of the library rooms in recognition of his
contribution. Nicholas’ collection of Greek texts was the only one to surpass Bessarion’s. However,
under Nicholas V it remained a collection rather than a library. His intentions to provide a physical
space were never realised: there was no financial backing to guarantee its permanence, and, crucially,
he made no provision for the public.100 The collection occupied a single room and was lit by a single
window, while the books were arranged in chests organised by Nicholas himself. 101
In comparison to the emerging papal library Bessarion was forward-thinking. His collection was
personal and was shaped by his own agenda. However, during his lifetime he conceived of it as a tool
for the public community of scholars, and handed it over to the Venetians. As an individual he did not
have the means to provide an edifice and employ a librarian but he gave it to a wealthy and powerful
government. Eventually it would form the basis of the Biblioteca Marciana collection, housed finally in
the sixteenth century and equipped with a librarian.
Despite not having the resources or the tools to rival the papal collection, Bessarion’s library was
doubtless both an inspiration to the popes as well as being conceived to imitate the papal collecting
efforts. Calixtus III (1378-1458), Pius II and Paul II did not pursue the plans of their predecessor Pope
Nicholas, although they all added to a growing papal collection. In his short pontificate Calixtus had an
exhaustive inventory drawn up. Legend has it that this was a preliminary step to selling off the
collection but these rumours seem to be unfounded. By 1456 it was still intact although he was actively
lending manuscripts to humanist cardinals – eleven Greek volumes were loaned to Cardinal Bessarion
100
Bignami-Odier describes Nicholas’ good intentions which failed to materialize. However, his plans were in
keeping with those posthumously realised by Bessarion. Bignami-Odier, Bibliothèque Vaticane, 10.
101
Bignamier-Odier makes reference to A, Albareda, ‘Il bibliothecario di Callisto III’, Miscellanea Giovanni
Mercati, Vatican City 1946, IV, 178-200: 192; and Paul Fabre, ‘La Vaticande de Sixte IV’, Mélanges
archéologiques historiques, 15 (1895), 455. Bignami-Odier, Bibliothèque Vaticane, 10.
177
by the pope.102 Though a great humanist and writer, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (later Pius II), did not
think of book collecting as a project for providing the public with access to texts. What he amassed
during his lifetime was treated as a personal collection and became the property of the Piccolomini
family on his death.103 His nephew, Pope Pius III, moved the books to Siena in 1503. 104
The official foundation of the Vatican Library is marked by the bull issued by Sixtus IV on 15 June
1475 (three years after Bessarion’s death) entitled Ad decorem militantis Ecclesiae.105 This provided a
physical site (‘loca eis accommodata preparat’); a designated staff (‘ipsorum librorum et Bibliothece
gubernatorem et custodem deputavimus’); and financial security. Bartolomeo Platina was the
appointed librarian and his tireless work to expand the collection resulted in nearly 1,000 books being
added to the library during his tenure.106 The pope recognised that the volumes in the papal collection
had been carelessly treated and were in a state of disrepair. They had also been scattered among many
collections, and part of the librarian’s duty, according to the bull, was to gather them in one place
(‘sparsa librorum volumina ad ipsorum profectum in unum reducit’). Sixtus wanted this library to
function as a public institution instead of a private papal collection. He stated that it should serve the
cause of humanist learning, opening the doors to intellectual men (eruditorum quoque ac litterarum
studiis insistentium virorum commodum). Even more radically, he stipulated in the bull that conditions
for study were to be conducive (‘ut sectatores liberalium artium eo facilius ad tam precelsum humane
conditionis fastigium acquirendum’). This focus on public access as well as the scope of the collection
resonates in Bessarion’s library and could suggest that one of the cardinal’s legacies was to inspire the
Vatican Library.
102
Bignami-Odier, Bibliothèque Vaticane, 12.
103
Bignami-Odier cites A. Piccolomini, ‘De codicibus Pii II e Pii III deque bibliotheca Ecclesiae cathedralis
Senensis’, Bulletino Senese, 6 (1899), 483-96. Bignami-Odier, Bibliothèque Vaticane, 12.
104
Only part of the collection was moved because Pius III died before the transfer could be completed. See
Bignami-Odier, Bibliothèque Vaticane, 12-13.
105
Reprinted in Ruysschaert, ‘Sixtus IV’, 523-24.
106
Bignami-Odier cites A, Albareda, ‘Il bibliothecario di Callisto III’, Miscellanea Giovanni Mercati, Vatican
City 1946, IV, 178-200: 197-98. Bignami-Odier, Bibliotheque Vaticane, 24. Documentary sources can be found
in E. Muntz and P. Fabre, La Bibliothèque du Vatica au XV siècle, d’après des documents inédits. Contribution
pour servir à l’histoire de l’humanisme, Paris 1887 (reprinted Amsterdam 1970), 316-17; 339-44; and Robert
Devereesse, Le fonds grec de la Bibliothèque Vaticane des origines à Paul V, Vatican City 1965, 37-42.
178
Conclusion
The aspects of Cardinal Bessarion’s collection that have been analysed in this chapter lead to the
conclusion that its formation reflects the work and inspiration of a patron of Italian humanist culture.
Certainly he was trying to preserve Greek culture in his concerted efforts to gather together important
classical and religious texts, but it should be asked for whom this collection was built. When his
collection is considered alongside his equally impressive Latin library the western nature of the
exercise becomes apparent. It is possible that his choice of Venice as the repository for his books can
be attributed to the cardinal’s wish to dominate the humanist scene of an important Italian state in the
way that the papal collection did in Rome and the Medici library did in Florence. The framework for
assessing Bessarion’s library should be chronological and contextual: although his interest in
Byzantium looms large in this structure, it should be understood that he was filtering it through the lens
of a man assimilating and succeeding within a western environment. An examination of the contents of
the collections and his methods of acquisition support this theory by demonstrating that similar
principles lay behind the formation of the Greek and Latin collections. History, philosophy and rhetoric
are the predominant subjects of the volumes along with theological works. Books were collected
through agents, commissions, gifts and bequests. In comparison with other libraries of fifteenth-
century collectors, Bessarion’s collection resembles a blend of a secular humanist patron and a
working cardinal. Such a large number of Greek texts were unheard of in the collections of
contemporary cardinals such as Capranica and Guillaume d’Estouteville. However Bessarion
possessed rather more religious and theological works than men such as Federico da Montefeltro and
Niccolò Niccoli.
This chapter has looked at Bessarion’s books as a collection and as a stage in the history of the library.
The importance of the cardinal’s role in the development of these institutions is evident in the eventual
179
foundation of the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice where Bessarion’s collection formed the kernel of the
library’s holdings. Having considered all 900 books as a whole, I would now like to look at the
decoration of individual volumes owned and commissioned by the cardinal.
180

Cardinal Bessarion's Library Collection

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What was Cardinal Bessarion's library collection?

What was Cardinal Bessarion's library collection?

How did Cardinal Bessarion acquire books for his collection?

How did Cardinal Bessarion acquire books for his collection?

Chapter Four: Cardinal Bessarion’s Library Collection

institution such as one of the Basilian monasteries that he supervised.

Bessarion’s perceptions of the nature of his library.

conventional western networks of patronage.

Within this environment S. Giorgio maintained an excellent tradition of scholarship. Benedictine

island, to which one cannot go except by boat’.10

Bessarion for his collection.

following the Donation,

donation to Venice was intended to help consolidate papal power.

INDEX LIBRORUM VARIUSQUE LINGUA/E BASILICAE DIVI MARCI PER

BIS/ARIONEM CARDINALEM EPISCOPUS PA/TRIARCHA

would have merited.

with papal authority.

visual weight to the concept of the bequest as an inalienable package.

Latin collection generally is either overlooked or perceived to be fundamentally different in content. It

the time of the Council of Florence (1439), Traversari writes,

transmission of such texts to Italy.

well as philosophy (Plato, Plotinus and Proclus).

spiritu sancto (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.135) in Latin.

Petrus Stroza, as well as works by Aulus Gellius, and Pliny. 44

wrote Tractatus de praestantia Cardinalium. Works by St Ambrose (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,

(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.215). 51

university’s reading list to be copied for his collection.

(Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.440); and a Vitruvius (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,

as the writings of St Augustine and Thomas of Aquinas. Bessarion demonstrated an interest in

Basiliensis by his colleague Cardinal Capranica (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.lat.z.166).

volumes of writings by St Thomas Aquinas to be copied in 1453 (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana,

resulted in establishing his position as a western patron.

Piccolomini lyrically described the context in which Bessarion was collecting:

of genius? The fount of the Muses has been destroyed. 55

of Aristotle (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.259); Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ De

humanists and leaders in the West.

the evolution of the library.

document drawn up concerning the aforementioned transfer. 28 February 1474. 57

1474 inventory was compiled.

commissioned. By comparing the titles in Labowsky’s Table of Concordance I 59 I looked at the

expresses his pleasure and gratitude as well as their friendship:

Later in the same letter he is even more explicit:

keep with me.65

scriptorium. The cardinal wrote again to Barbaro,

under his protection.

Geographia (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Marc.gr.z.379), a collection of extracts from Diodorus

see everything for ourselves.73

that he perceived his books to be two halves of a single collection.

Context: Private and Public Book Collections

Venice, a secular governmental institution.

Italy during the fifteenth century.

in Constantinople; and books linked to the Council of Basel.77

Strasbourg, Bressanone and Volterra.80

were not already overshadowed by the papacy.

evidence of any interest in archaeology, history or philosophy.

of fifteenth-century western lay collectors.

– the inscription over the door read:

Urbino and in Rome.92

scribes: Hubertus, Niccolò Fonzio and Bartolomeo Fonzio.