DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53068#0311
PERSONALITY
No praise is more weighty than this—“summa bonitas” set beside “admir-
abile ingenium”. For he who wrote these words was counted among the most
exacting intellects of humanist Italy—CELIO CALCAGNINI of Ferrara, at
that time Papal Protonotary, after service with Maximilian, Julius II and
Alfonso d’Este; he was a man in whose presence the highly versatile Erasmus
had to confess himself to be as if “exlinguis”, tonguetied, when Celio welcomed
him to Ferrara in Latin, in the most honourable terms, with fluent eloquence.
If such a practised intelligence found occasion to acknowledge in the artist
precisely his intellect, his admiration was certainly not limited merely to his
capability; it must have applied to the man of all-round perfection, the truly
cultured nature,—in fact, the seldom realised ideal of humanism. The words
“doceri ac docere”-—-“learning and the capacity for intellectual leadership
are the reward of life”—commendatory beyond every kind of praise, are a
splendid reflection, truly worthy of humanity, of this conscious growth, self-
control and readiness to help others.
§ Raphael’s Role in Intellectual Society
This was the attitude of mind which Raphael was observed to take towards
the fastidious society of Rome—“in the arena of talents”—with equal demands
upon himself and others. He had been accustomed to life at this high state of
tension since his youthful days in Urbino. Beside the Arno he had sought it
himself in the bottega ofBaccio d’ Agnolo, and there he was “il primo dicostui. . .”
Now in Rome the liveliest and choicest intellects from the palace at Urbino
met him again; on his repeated visits to his birthplace he must have come
across them. Bembo, then in his youth, had his portrait painted by Raphael;
the painter’s St George is connected with Castiglione’s mission to England;
Bibbiena, Giuliano de’ Medici—they all found their way repeatedly to the Papal
Court, the chosen nucleus about which an exalted society formed itself in the
freest intellectual atmosphere.
§ Julius II as Maecenas and the Medici Legend
It was Rome, not the Pope, that brought them together. More and
more the legend evaporates of the success of a Medici as Maecenas at the
Court of Leo; what there took shape was no more than had already been
brought together under the great Della Rovere Pope—and anyone like Erasmus
and Ariosto who at any time sojourned as guest among this society and later
became separated from it by life or his own resolve, like Sadolet, longed to be
back again amid the scintillating excitements and agreeable formalities of its
intercourse. “For everything converges on this soil as in a theatre . . . lesser
minds have their place everywhere, but Rome is the home of all men of true
culture—it maintains and promotes them.” In these terms CARDINAL
RIARIO pleads for the return of Erasmus in his pressing letter of invitation—
u 293
No praise is more weighty than this—“summa bonitas” set beside “admir-
abile ingenium”. For he who wrote these words was counted among the most
exacting intellects of humanist Italy—CELIO CALCAGNINI of Ferrara, at
that time Papal Protonotary, after service with Maximilian, Julius II and
Alfonso d’Este; he was a man in whose presence the highly versatile Erasmus
had to confess himself to be as if “exlinguis”, tonguetied, when Celio welcomed
him to Ferrara in Latin, in the most honourable terms, with fluent eloquence.
If such a practised intelligence found occasion to acknowledge in the artist
precisely his intellect, his admiration was certainly not limited merely to his
capability; it must have applied to the man of all-round perfection, the truly
cultured nature,—in fact, the seldom realised ideal of humanism. The words
“doceri ac docere”-—-“learning and the capacity for intellectual leadership
are the reward of life”—commendatory beyond every kind of praise, are a
splendid reflection, truly worthy of humanity, of this conscious growth, self-
control and readiness to help others.
§ Raphael’s Role in Intellectual Society
This was the attitude of mind which Raphael was observed to take towards
the fastidious society of Rome—“in the arena of talents”—with equal demands
upon himself and others. He had been accustomed to life at this high state of
tension since his youthful days in Urbino. Beside the Arno he had sought it
himself in the bottega ofBaccio d’ Agnolo, and there he was “il primo dicostui. . .”
Now in Rome the liveliest and choicest intellects from the palace at Urbino
met him again; on his repeated visits to his birthplace he must have come
across them. Bembo, then in his youth, had his portrait painted by Raphael;
the painter’s St George is connected with Castiglione’s mission to England;
Bibbiena, Giuliano de’ Medici—they all found their way repeatedly to the Papal
Court, the chosen nucleus about which an exalted society formed itself in the
freest intellectual atmosphere.
§ Julius II as Maecenas and the Medici Legend
It was Rome, not the Pope, that brought them together. More and
more the legend evaporates of the success of a Medici as Maecenas at the
Court of Leo; what there took shape was no more than had already been
brought together under the great Della Rovere Pope—and anyone like Erasmus
and Ariosto who at any time sojourned as guest among this society and later
became separated from it by life or his own resolve, like Sadolet, longed to be
back again amid the scintillating excitements and agreeable formalities of its
intercourse. “For everything converges on this soil as in a theatre . . . lesser
minds have their place everywhere, but Rome is the home of all men of true
culture—it maintains and promotes them.” In these terms CARDINAL
RIARIO pleads for the return of Erasmus in his pressing letter of invitation—
u 293