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The Philosopher, the Poet, and the Fragment: Ficino, Poliziano, and Le stanze per la giostra Author(s): Christina
Storey Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 98, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 602-619 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3738288 . Accessed: 14/09/2013 13:36
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THE THE AND
PHILOSOPHER, FRAGMENT: LE STANZE
THE FICINO, PER LA
POET,
AND
POLIZIANO, GIOSTRA
Nec tamen Aligerum fraudarim hoc munere Dantem, Per styga per stellas mediique per ardua montis, Pulchra Beatricis sub virginis ora volantem; Quique cupidineum repetit Petrareha triumphum; Et qui bisquinis centum argumenta diebus Pingit; et obscuri qui semina monstrat amoris: Unde tibi immensae veniunt praeconia laudis, Ingeniis opibusque potens, Florentia mater.1 So wrote Poliziano, the scholar-poet who, according to Croce's formulation, brought the 'secolo senza poesia'2 to an end. It is, of course, at best a simplification to describe the period between Petrarch's death (1374) and Angelo first major vernacular work, Le stanze per la giostra del Magnifico Poliziano's Giuliano di Piero dey Medici (c. 1476),3 as one without poetry. Italian verse continued to be written throughout the early and mid-fifteenth century. If we restate the formulation, however, as the 'century without erudite poetry rendered in a grand style', we begin to place Poliziano as a vernacular poet more accurately. We also identify the qualities that so distinguish his poem: its self-conscious use of a grand style that imitated classical idioms to present an erudite, mythological content.4 Yet as the opening quotation also shows, Poliziano traced his vernacular roots, and much of his philosophical conceits, to much more modern, distinctly Tuscan, sources. The poem is of importance to literary and cultural historians interested in the early phase of Laurentian Florence. The ambience of this early period, and in particular the philosopher Marsilio Ficino's influences on intellectual life, have long fascinated and perplexed scholars. Not only was Le stanze composed in this context; the poet also had a personal relationship with the philosopher 1 Nutricia (Florence: AntoniusMiscominus, 1491), cited and Angelo Poliziano, Silva cui titulus translatedin Eugenio Garin, Portraits (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), fromtheQuattrocento p. 183. *Nor would I desist frompaying tributeto Dante, | who with fairBeatrice to guide him | peaks of the mountains;| and Petrarch sped throughthe netherand upper realms | to the loftiest who renewsthe triumphof love; | he who in ten days createsa hundredtales | and he who reveals the originsof an obscure love. | Hence, eternalgloryreflects upon you, | inexhaustiblein genius, unsurpassed in art, | Mother Florence!' The two unnamed poets are Boccaccio, author of the Decameron,and Cavalcanti, whose sonnet 'Donna me prega' had an enduringinfluencein the Florentinepoetic tradition. 2 Benedetto Croce, Poesiapopolaree poesia d'arte (Bari: Laterza, 1957), p. 22. 3 The exact date ofthe work is uncertain.I have chosen to followthe line of scholarshipthat believesthe poem was begun after April 1476 and thatGiuliano de' Medici's death in 1478 caused the poet to his suspend work. It is generally assumed thatthe poem was intended,to some degree, to celebratethe historical joust held by Lorenzo in his brotherGiuliano's honourin 1475. 4 Poliziano's use of a grandstylederivedfromhis studyofthe classics,along withhis preference Imitationin theltalian forlate classical authors,is discussed in Martin L. McLaughlin's Literary Renaissance(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995). Poliziano showed a consistentchoice of the more rare,eruditesources fromwhich he derived his own Latin and vernacular'high' style(pp. 191209).
CHRISTINA
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Ficino.5 On these grounds, the poem has been approached as a cultural product that may yield important information about the exact cultural and aesthetic influence of Ficino's philosophy. However, this area of scholarship appears extremely problematic. Le stanze has an established tradition of scholarly explication in terms of Ficinian doctrines of love. The stanzas which describe the realm of Venus (1. 122-24) and the figure of Simonetta (1. 33-54) are said to be Platonic 'keys', as it were, unlocking the interpretative riddle of the unfinished poem. The critics who posit this, however, look all too quickly to Ficino as responsible for the presence of such elements. The methodology of this scholarship is purely intertextual: its approach has been to identify possible textual and thematic links between the poem and Ficino's writings, particularly his commentary on Plato's Symposium, II libro delVAmore (1469). Certainly, there is much evidence to suggest that Poliziano and his poetry were influenced in some manner by Ficino and his work during the early and and Ficino, both members of the Medici household, Poliziano mid-i47os. moved in circles centred around Lorenzo il Magnifico. Believing that Ficino must have 'influenced' Poliziano, critics have searched for direct verbal and thematic echoes of Ficino in Le stanze. Yet, since there is only one plausible intertextual reference in the poem, the conclusion that Ficino's philosophy shaped Le stanze at the textual and doctrinal level is unconvincing. A survey of the secondary literature dealing with Ficinian influence on Le stanze can leave one with the impression that Poliziano simply translated Ficinian philosophy into poetry.6 The methodology of previous attempts to assess Ficino's influence on Le stanze has therefore left little room for examining relationships that are not restricted to intertextual references. The 'Ficinian Platonism' of Le stanze has generally been taken for granted. Even those scholars who have drawn parallels between Dante's Beatrice, Petrarch's Laura, and Poliziano's Simonetta cast their interpretations of this rela? in Ficinian terms.7 Yet, while the love doctrine of Ficinian Platonism tionship and that of the Tuscan tradition are related through their main source, Plato, they are nevertheless distinct. Absent, therefore, are studies that analyse Le stanze's use of the 'traditional' Platonism of Tuscan love poetry. Although studies by literary and art historians have greatly enriched our understanding of the poem's use of sources, they too have had limited success in providing fully consistent and convincing interpretations of the poem's Platonism. This article is an attempt to clarify this particular area of investigation. Rejecting Ficino's intertextual influence suggests that we should approach the 5 Garin, Portraits, p. 167. 6 Ficinian Platonist analyses of the poem are provided by: Sandra Bermann,'Neoplatonism in Politian's Stanze per la giostra',ForumItalicum, 15 (1981), 11-21; ArnolfoFerruolo,'A Trend in Renaissance Thought and Art: Poliziano's Stanze per la giostra\Art Bulletin,37 (1955), 17-25, Their Circle of and 'Botticelli'sMythologies,Ficino's De Amore,Poliziano's Stanze per la giostra: delle Stanze', in Love', RomanicReview,44 (1953), 246-56; Mario Martelli, 'Simbolo e struttura (Lecce: Conto, 1995), pp. 101-37; P-M. J.McNair, 'The Bed AngeloPoliziano: storiae metastoria of Venus: Key to Poliziano's Stanze', Italian Studies,24 (1970), 40-48. 7 See Giancarlo Mazzacurati, IIproblema storico del Petrarchismo italiano dal Boiardo a Lorenzo (Naples: Liguori, 1963).
604
Ficino,
Poliziano,
and
(Le stanze
per la giostra'
relationship between the poet and philosopher from a broader perspective. That Ficino was a tremendously influential figure of the period is beyond doubt. In order to understand better Ficino's specific spheres of influence in Le stanze, I have chosen to examine the role he had in shaping those areas of intellectual culture that bear most relevance to the poem. The philosopher's influence in the continuing humanist debate over the vernacular, his conception of elevated style, and his extraordinary sensual aesthetics are central to a broader, and response in Le stanze. possibly more accurate, understanding of Poliziano's It is fairly clear that Poliziano had reservations with regards to many Ficinian Platonic speculations.8 As this article will demonstrate, a critical differentiation between the Platonism of the Tuscan tradition and that of Ficino's Platonic theology must be made if the presence of Platonic conceits in Le stanze is to be properly read. A clear assessment of Le stanze's use of vernacular narrative models, descriptive language, and Tuscan love doctrines will permit a better estimate of Ficino's specific influence. Rather than approaching the intellectual doctrines and and literary relationship between Ficino's textual philosophical Poliziano's poetic fragment as a direct one, we should read the poetry in the 'in? direct' cultural context of Poliziano's reception of Ficino's aesthetic principles and his application of them to a work of poetic art. It is these principles that this article will first examine before focusing more directly on the poem itself. Ficino, as the leading figure in the movement known as Florentine Platonism, was the first scholar with sufficient knowledge of Greek and theology to devote himself to recovering the 'hidden wisdom ofthe pagans'.9 Ficino's contribution as the outstanding translator and commentator of Plato cannot be underestimated.10 While professing merely to explicate Platonic doctrines, Ficino was also, in his own right, a philosopher. Not simply the translator of Plato, Ficino was a powerful disseminator of Platonic teaching. There is testimony to his success: in a 'catalogus amicorum nostrorum' Ficino listed sixty-seven of Florence's leading intellectuals and statesmen among his students and associates.11 Ficino and his teachings were popular with a variety of audiences. His broad 8 Thomas M. Greene, The Lightin Troy: Imitationand Discoveryin RenaissancePoetry(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), p. 153. See also VittoreBranca, 'Tra Ficino e Poliziano', in della parola (Turin: Einaudi, 1983). Garin, speakingofPoliziano's corpus, Poliziano e Vumanesimo notes that while Plato is in evidence in Poliziano's Latin works,thereis littletrace of Ficinian Platonism:Portraits, p. 170. 9 JamesHankins,Plato in theltalian Renaissance, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 1991), 1,282. At thetime ten of Plato's dialogues. Twenty-three of Cosimo's death in 1464, Ficino had translated dialogues had been translatedby 1466, and possibly all thirty-six by 1469. During the years 1469-74 he composed his magnum opus, the TheologiaPlatonica, in eighteenbooks. De christianareligione in 1484 the to his translation in 1474. Afterwards, Ficino returned was written projectand finally first editionof the Platonis operaomniawas printed. 10 Paul O. The Philosophy Press, Kristeller, ofMarsilio Ficino (New York: Columbia University and commentedon Plotinus. 1943), p. 3. Ficino also translated 11 Hankins,Plato in theltalian Renaissance,1, 298. The term'student' is not used here strictly under Ficino. Rather it is a descriptionthat loosely in reference to those who studied formally of people who had some degreeof intellectual fitsan assortment exchangewith Ficino. See James Hankins, 'The Myth of the Platonic Academy of Florence', Renaissance Quarterly,44 (1991), fromthat 429-76 (p. 455). During the 1460s one can discernFicino's evolvingrole and reputation ofa youngscholarto thatofan intellectual guide and typeofspiritualguru.ArthurField describes Ficino's role as one of 'ethicalleadershipto the Florentineyouth'. See ArthurField, The Origins Press, 1988), pp. 195?96. ofthePlatonicAcademyofFlorence(Princeton:PrincetonUniversity
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appeal can be partly explained by one aspect of Platonic philosophy: its abi? lity to support multiple interpretations.12 The lack of pressure to conform or commit himself to a rigid system furthered the appeal of Platonic teachings for Ficino.13 His students and associates ranged from the aristocrat seeking cultural embellishment, to those simply following the latest trend, to those with a real interest in philosophy. Of interest here is the broader influence the Ficinian cultural aims, its assessment of project had on the definition of humanism's vernacular poetry, and the specific elements of Ficino's writing and ideas that informed Poliziano's poetics and style. Ficino's project, to revive the Platonic theology of the ancients and, by so doing, to revive ancient Christianity, redefined the cultural aims of the hu? manist movement for the generation coming of age in the 1460s and 1470s. Rather than simply reviving the study and imitation of classical Latin authors as a means of regaining a linguistic resemblance to the ancients, the Laurentian humanists believed that they could ground their cultural revival at a deeper level: one which changed men inwardly. Ficino's method of evaluating sources evoked different values from that of Bruni and Alberti. Ficino placed less value on the literary and rhetorical forms of his sources, and privileged instead their content. This approach allowed Ficino to synthesize material gained from a were exammultiplicity of sources and genres: philosophy, myths, poetry?all ined for content that served Ficino's project of reviving ancient religion, and this theme became his organizing principle. The implicit strategies grounding Ficino's project set the stage for a radically new method of using the 'classics': the Laurentian humanists could now approach the classical canon and the ver? nacular classics for material useful to the production of works which might rival their predecessors. Such an ambition was at the heart of contemporary rhetoric that associated Lorenzo's 'age' with a new period of 'golden culture', in ancient times.14 Ficino's revision of humanist previously experienced only cultural aims thus reshaped the possibilities for an erudite vernacular poetry. Poetry, along with music, occupied a particularly high position among the liberal arts in Ficino's philosophy. Following Plato's Phaedrus, he saw poetry as a type of divine madness. It is not surprising, then, to realize that Ficino was concerned about the divorce of philosophy from poetry. Examples of poetry ornament or depth could easily be found in lacking in particular philosophical Pulci's successful works and Lorenzo's early verse.15 A golden age of culture had 12
and Civic Life in theRenaissance(New York: Eugenio Garin, ltalian Humanism:Philosophy Harperand Row, 1965), p. 10. 13 In of Platonic thought,Field notes that Ficino 'never keeping with the sense of flexibility demanded such a literaldevotion[to philosophy]fromhis friends'as he himself had {The Origins, p. 199). 14 For the 'golden age' see Ernst H. Gombrich, 'The mythamong Lorenzo's contemporaries, Renaissance and the Golden Age', Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes, 24 (1961), 306-09, and Harry Levin, The Myth of the Golden Age in the Renaissance(New York: Oxford Press, 1972), pp. 38-39. University 15 Particularly Pulci's Morganteand Lorenzo's Canzoni a ballo. Lorenzo did, of course, write or 'high' poetry, but he was particularly interested in low poetry poetryinformed by philosophy, during this period. See Paolo Orvieto, Lorenzo de' Medici (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1976), PP- 35-38.
606
Ficino,
Poliziano,
and
'Le stanze
per la giostra'
to have appropriately 'elevated' poetry: high poetry was not possible without a union with philosophy. Ficino did not have to return to antiquity, however, to find poets that combined their art with philosophy. He had only to turn to the trio of Cavalcanti, Dante, and Petrarch to find verse filled with philosophical concepts. The poetry of Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1250-1300) seemed to reflect many of Ficino's own * ideas. Ficino himself wrote that Guido Cavalcante, philosopho, tutte queste cose artificiosamente chiuse ne' sua versiV6 Dante, too, was praised by Ficino. In the preface to his vernacular translation of Dante's De monarchia, Ficino described Dante as a philosophical poet who embellished his books with many Platonic thoughts.17 Ficino, then, cast Dante as one of his Platonic predecessors.18 Tuscan poetry should therefore be studied for the Valori fondamentali delPidealismo filosofico classico-cristiano'.19 Ficino's contribution to the debate about high vernacular poetry was his validation of the Tuscan poetic tradition as an important imitative source. He did this by ofTering an innovative approach to the Trecento writers: one which sought to locate and extract the philosophical elements of the stilnovo tradition. and Trecento vernacular poets as moral 'philosoAddressing the Duecento in resolved several issues raised by the ambition of creatpoetic clothing phers' ing works which could claim to represent an era of a golden culture. An age of superlative culture needed to have poetry, and it needed a poetry that elevated the cultural tradition. For late fifteenth-century Florence, that cultural tradi? tion was both Roman and Tuscan, classical and vernacular. A way to synthesize this dual inheritance had to be found. The new poetry had also, by definition, to be in a refined and grand style, and this required the poetic incorporation of ideas. Through an imitation of the Tuscan poets, philosophical philosophical concepts could be simultaneously co-opted by contemporary poetry, while the classics of the vernacular tradition could be elevated to the same value system as those of antiquity. It is perhaps in this that Ficino's influence on Poliziano can best be discerned. Poliziano attempts a degree of synthesis of classical and Tuscan poetic sources that went far beyond that of his predecessors. As will shortly be illustrated, Poliziano turned to his Tuscan predecessors for the bulk of the philosophical concepts which ensured Le stanze was high poetry. 16 librodelVAmore, ed. by S. Niccoli (Florence: Olschki, 1987), vn. i. 7. Ficino follows Ficino, // witha fairly this statement long explicationof Cavalcanti's famous 'Donna me prega'. However, the source for Ficino's reading of Cavalcanti comes froma ratherinaccurate commentaryon Cavalcanti's Canzone by Egidio Colonna: see Sears Jayne'snotes to his translationof Ficino's on Plato's 'Symposium'(Dallas: Spring Publications, 1985), p. 174. See also M. Commentary of Donna meprega', in Ficino and RenaissanceNeoplatonism, Ciavolella, 'Ficino's Interpretation ed. by Konrad Eisenbichlerand Olga Pugliese (Toronto: Dovehouse Editions, 1986), pp. 39-49. See also Lorenzo's commentson Cavalcanti in his Comento on his sonnets. 17 Paul O. Kristeller, to him in 'Marsilio Ficino as a Man of Lettersand the Glosses Attributed the Caetani Codex of Dante', RenaissanceQuarterly, 36 (1983), 1-27 (p. 10). 18 Ficino's desire to see Dante as a Platonistis reflected his of a passage by misinterpretation of De monarchia.Kristellerwrites that it reflects Ficino's rejectionof the Aristotelianconcept in Dante's textaccordingto which man as a combinationof soul and body is corruptible. Ficino changesthetextin such a way thataccordingto his own Platonicview thebody alone is corruptible ('Marsilio Ficino as a Man of Letters',p. 10 n. 30). 19 Mazzacurati, II problema storico, p. 63
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con? Although Ficino's project, and his promotion of the 'philosophical' tent of Tuscan poetry, established the framework for new vernacular poetry, the central issue of literary style remained. The question was: how to write philosophical poetry that avoided an excessively exhortatory and (Ciceronian) rhetorical tone and instead embraced classical (Greek) eloquence? The solution lay in a style which allowed the philosophical content to be 'hidden' within the poetry rather than explicitly announced. Dante may have been a philosophical poet, but his didactic use of philosophy was far from hidden. Although Ficino had received at least a rudimentary humanist education, he was 'at times critical of the rhetorical mode of writing as meretricious and insincere'.20 Personally Ficino preferred, both in his own writings and in Plato's, the use of mysterious language. This choice reflects the distance that Ficino placed between himself and his predecessors. The earlier humanists placed an emphasis on oratory and their rhetorical style aimed at persuasion and (political) power. Their master of style was Cicero, his works on rhetoric being his most popular books.21 Ficino's style, on the other hand, aims at the mystical and the contemplative, one which suggests something unspoken rather than explicitly stated. The presence of 'mysterious' language in Plato is the obvious source of Ficino's ideas about style.22 He believed that the writing of philosophers and poets contained hidden teachings: in his study of the fragments of ancient theologians, for example, Ficino hoped to find hidden the doctrines ofthe prisca theologia.23 Poetry, for Ficino as for Plato, was a rational art created through the bestowal of divine madness.24 Ficino believed that poetry, as an art ofthe word and a medium for the divine, spoke best to the soul and its power of intuition. The poet, through his creation of a multi-layered text, could invoke meanings and thoughts, denotations and connotations, which first appeal directly to the discursive reason and then, at a sublimer level, to the intuitive. The perception of philosophical truths need not be apparent to the casual reader: the philosophy may remain 'hidden' since those who know how to look will find it. In this way, poets could create texts at once exoteric, or obvious in meaning, such as the narrative of an event such as a joust, and esoteric, or clear in meaning only to those who had the contextual knowledge necessary to see the 'deeper' meanings encoded by the poet in philosophically symbolic language. The solution to the early Laurentian dilemma of poetic style, then, was rooted in the ability of philosophical poetry to convey its truths in an implicit, esoteric way. Elegance of style and beauty of form could be maintained if function of philosophic the pedagogical poetry was hidden. The poet could rely on well-placed strategic symbolism to suggest further meaning, to induce, gently and eloquently, the reader to look beyond the textual surface to the 20 Hankins,Plato in theRenaissance,i, 270. 21 Among theearliesttextsprinted(takingthisas an example ofestablishedpopularity)wereDe and Rhetoricaad Herennium oratore, Brutus,and Orator in 1465; De inventione (pseudo-Cicero) in 1470. 22 See Don Cameron Meant: The Rediscoveryof Pagan Symbolism and Allen, Mysteriously in theRenaissance(Baltimore:JohnsHopkins Press, 1970), p. 134. AllegoricalInterpretation 23 Field, The Origins,p. 113 24 Michael Allen, Icastes: Marsilio Ficino's Interpretation ofPlato's 'Sophist' (Berkeley:Univer? sityof CaliforniaPress, 1989), p. 156.
608
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Poliziano,
and
'Le stanze
per la giostra'
hidden mystery. Ficino himself wove Christian and pagan mythology together, mobilizing both to illustrate subtler aspects of the 'hidden meaning'. Pagan divinities and myths were emptied of their traditional content and reascribed a more 'accurate' significance by Ficino. His novel mobilization of pagan images was taken up by Poliziano, who used classical mythology in Le stanze as a device to reinforce the poem's philosophical concepts through the creation of beautifully sensual images. Ficino's emphasis on the importance of sight suggests that in his hierarchy of the arts, those that concern themselves with hearing and sight rank at the top.25 This was strong support for the belief that beautiful things have, in themselves, a real moral value. They could be admired for their beauty because, in the process, anyone with the right orientation could make them into worthy objects This was a neat escape from the Augustinian conception of contemplation. that those things that aimed at enjoyment for their own sake were idolatrous or sinful.26 The production of visual (and aural) beauty in the arts of poetry and painting could now justify itself on the grounds that their beauty served a higher function. For the poet Poliziano, this translated into the utilization of a highly sensual language to evoke richly detailed images for his reader. A fusion of mythological subject matter with beauty of style allowed the pagan figures to suggest 'deeper' meanings, thus elevating the work and providing justification for the display of beauty. Given the episodic structure of the poem,27 my textual analysis will be in two parts. The poem's narrative, centred around Julio, pauses to explore the mythological enclave ofthe realm of Venus. Since these stanzas contain the only plausible intertextual reference to Ficino and have consequently been analysed as a poetic tour de force of Ficinian Neoplatonism, they will be considered separately from the narrative thread that begins with the lovers' meeting, resumes with Julio's dream, and ends with his prayer. The essential thematics of the stilnovo story of this sequence will be examined before returning to the problematic, and elusive, mythological episode. Poliziano's poetic response to Ficino will be seen to exert itself indirectly through narrative and style, rather than through textual references and 'keys'. Ernest Hatch Wilkins judged Petrarch's Trionfi as 'the most triumphant poem of the early Renaissance' ,28 and it is clear that the text had a wide circulation in manuscript long before the 1460s and the advent of printing in Italy.29 Poliziano was certainly familiar with the poem, and its genre, since this idea let25 Michael Allen, The PlatonismofMarsilio Ficino: A Study ofhis 'Phaedrus' Commentary, its Sourcesand Genesis(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1984), pp. 51-52. It is clear thatof the two,hearingand sight,Ficino intended'to subordinatesightto hearing'(p. 51). 26 Alfonso and Procaccini, Alberti and the "Framing" of Perspective',Journal of Aesthetics Art Criticism, 430 (1981), 29-39 (p- 33)- Procaccini uses the Augustiniancategoriesof uti (use of things)and frui (enjoymentof things)to make his analysisthatpleasure should be predicated on use. 27 Guido Di Pino has commentedmost explicitlyon the episodic natureof the poem. See his 'Gusto figurativo nella poesia volgaredel Poliziano', Lettereitaliane,7 (1955), 130-44. 28 Cited in D. D. Carnicelli,Lord Morley's Tryumphes of FrauncesPetrarcke (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 20. 29 On the wide circulationof the see Carl Appel, Die Triumphe FrancescoPetrarcasin Trionfi, kritischem Texteherausgegeben (Halle a.S.: Niemeyer,1901).
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teraria was 'una tradizione espressiva vivamente suggestiva e sollecitante nella fantasia del Poliziano ai tempi delle stanze'.30 Indeed, in the brief sketch of ltalian literary history at the end ofthe Nutricia, quoted at the outset of this ar? ticle, Poliziano notes Petrarch only for his Trionfi.31 Choosing this poetic genre easily permitted the use of both classical and vernacular echoes. It was also one that Poliziano could reshape to conform to the poetic criteria of high poetry. The genre of 'una serie organica di trionfi' was one with a 'carattere allegorico e allusivo alla eterna leggenda dell'uomo'.32 Poliziano was able to combine the popular form of an epic-chivalric poem with the more elevated poetic model of the triumph. The triumphal sequence of Love, Chastity, Death, Fortune, and finally Fame also allowed Poliziano to mobilize the archetypal stilnovo story of a man transformed into a lover/poet by the appearance of a 'miraculous' woman, transformation into a guiding Muse through Death, and the the Beloved's lover's subsequent inspiration to 'deeds' (or poetry) that would ensure Fame. Poliziano was therefore able to ground Le stanze's conception of Love, and its effects, in the 'vaga tendenza platonica degli antichi poeti toscani',33 ofthe stilnovo and Petrarchan tradition, rather than in the more systematic Platonism of Ficino's philosophy.34 The example of Petrarch's Trionfi is felt not only in Le stanze'? general narrative scheme but also in its language. In the introduction of Julio as a devotee of Diana, Julio chastizes those who follow love, telling them: non nudrir di lusinghe un van furore, che di pigra lascivia e d'ozio sorge. Costui che '1 vulgo errante chiama Amore e dolce insania a chi piu acuto scorge. (1. 13) This is an echo of Petrarch's Trionfo d'Amore: chiama Amore' (1. 76), and of 'Questo e colui che '1 mondo
E nacque d'otio e di lascivia humana, Nudrito di pensier dolci e soavi, Facto signore e dio da gente vana. (1. 82-84) Poliziano's autonomous shaping of his vernacular material, and of the tradi? tional narrative and philosophical conception of love, is apparent in the language of the second stanza. Here Poliziano interweaves his poetic language with vocabulary (here italicized) that evokes the stilnovo and Petrarchan tradition of a love as an ennobling force:35 30 Branca, Poliziano e Vumanesimo, p. 46. 31 On the particularpopularityof the Trionfiin Tuscany, see Carlo Dionisotti, 'Fortuna del e umanistica, medioevale Petrarcanel Quattrocento',/ta/z"tf 17 (1974), 61-113 (pp. 68-70). 32 Branca, Poliziano e Vumanesimo, p. 53 n. 5. 33 Paul O. Kristeller, and Letters, Studiesin RenaissanceThought 4 vols (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura,1956-96), 1, 214. 34 It should be pointed out thatthe veryfashionableness of Ficino's Platonic teachingsamong to the indirect Platonism a greaterreceptivity Lorenzo's contemporaries helped, in turn,to foster of the Due- and Trecento lyricists. 35 My readingof thisstanza is based on Mazzacurati, II problema storico, p. 90.
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Ficinoy
Poliziano,
and
(he stanze
per la giostra'
O bello iddio, ch'al cor per gli occhi spiri dolce disir d'amaro pensier pieno e pasciti di pianto e di sospiri nudrisci l'alme d'un dolce veleno, gentilfai divenir cid che tu miri, ne pud star cosa vil dentro al tuo seno; Amor, del quale i' son sempre soggetto; porgi la man al mio basso intelletto. (I. 2) Certainly, the Tuscan tradition of presenting human love poetically as an ennobling force was grounded in general Platonic concepts linking the image of the Beloved to the Beloved's soul, and so to Beauty itself; this in turn generated the love that causes the lover's elevation. Trecento writers had found their Pla? tonism in the Christian tradition, beginning with Augustine, and consequently their use of Platonic concepts did not constitute a 'dottrina ben determinata'.36 A reader, therefore, must not mistake this traditional Platonism of the second stanza for an indication that Poliziano intends an interpretation of the poem within a Ficinian Platonic context. Poliziano maintained as autonomous a poetic stance toward his vernacular models as he did with regard to Ficino's philo? sophy.37 If Poliziano had wanted to alter significantly the philosophical content of the stilnovo story, we can reasonably assume that he would have signalled this change through a significant change in language. The language of the above stanza illustrates, however, that Poliziano chose to retain the most evocative of the stilnovo and Petrarchan vocabulary, thereby suggesting that the philosoph? ical concepts of Le stanze are those of the 'antichi poeti toseani\38 The first triumph, or transformation, occurs when Julio is struck by Cupid's into the miraculous figure of Simoarrow, and the white doe metamorphoses netta. A similar degree of linguistic linkage with the stilnovo and Petrarch is again seen in Poliziano's description of these events. The description of Cupid in the Triumph of Chastity, Quei vincitor che primo era all'offesa, Dal man dritta lo stral, da l'altra l'arco, E la corda a l'orecchia avea gia stesa,39 is moved in an Ovidian direction details so that it becomes: through its elaboration with more visual
Tosto Cupido entro a' begli occhi ascoso Al nervo adatta del suo stral la cocca, Poi tira quei col braccio poderoso Tal che raggiugne Tuna alPaltra cocca; 36 Kristeller, and Letters, Studies in RenaissanceThought i, 214. 37 One critic,forexample, has described Poliziano's relationship to Petrarchas one which was scolastico a collocare il 'decisamente al di fuori di una linea d'imitazione di tipo strettamente suo rapportocol Petrarca su di un piu vasto piano di comune civilta letteraria'(Mazzacurati, 17 storico, p. 75). problema 38 Kristeller, and Letters, Studiesin RenaissanceThought 1, 214. 39 Petrarch,Trionfo della Castitd,iv. 34-36, in Rime,Trionfi epoesielatine,ed. by F. Neri (Milan and Naples: Ricciardi, 1951), p. 510.
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La man sinistra con l'oro focoso, La destra poppa con la corda tocca. (i. 40) Poliziano also turns to Petrarch's poetry for the most striking visual descrip? tions of Simonetta. For example, the following lines from Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta are recollected in the presentation of the 'marvellous' vi? sion of Simonetta: le crespe chiome d'or puro lucente e '1 lampeggiar de Tangelico riso che solean fare in terra un paradiso. (RVF, 292. 5-7) e '1 ciel di vaghe et lucide faville s'accende intorno e 'n vista si rallegra d'esser fatto seren da si belli occhi. (RVF, 192. 12-14) Dal bei seren de le tranquille ciglia sfavillan si le mie due stelle fide ch'altro lume non e ch'infiammi et guide chi d'amar altamente si consiglia. (RVF, 160. 5-8) Poliziano weaves these images together and shapes of a woman of ideal beauty: them into the description
Candida e ella, e candida la vesta ma pur di rose e fior dipinta e d'erbe; lo inanellato crin dall'aurea testa scende in la fronte umilmente superba. Rideli a torno tutta la foresta, e quanto puo suo cure disacerba; nell'atto regalmente e mansueta, e pur col ciglio le tempeste acqueta. Folgoron gli occhi d'un dolce sereno, ove sue face tien Cupido ascose; l'aier d'intorno si fa tutto ameno ovunque gira le luce amorose. Di celeste letizia il volto ha pieno, dolce dipinto di ligustri e rose. (1. 43-44) If we look further into these lines, a multiplicity of fragmented literary re? collections appears beneath the primary Petrarchan subtext. The single line 'Folgoron gli occhi d'un dolce sereno' fuses references to Propertius, Ovid, Claudian, Horace; the rest of the stanza recalls Cavalcanti, Arnaut Daniel, Claudian.40 Clearly, then, Poliziano also enriched the Petrarchan and Dante, and images by creating a dense series of intertextual references. language Poliziano certainly used a great deal of Petrarch's language and imagery in his description of Simonetta and the encounter in the forest. This linguistic linkage between Simonetta and Laura (and by association, with Beatrice) can 4? Greene, The Lightin Troy,p. 168.
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only have been intentional.41 Poliziano has taken a well-established and familiar lyric narrative sequence and re-presented it, updated it, and transformed it through his use of highly visual and detailed language. Like Laura, Simonetta is presented as a model of physical perfection.42 She is introduced as Julio's inspirational Beloved and in this role Simonetta absorbs the function of Laura, who had 'quickened into life the feeble germ of virtue that Nature had sown in my heart. It was she who turned my youthful soul away from all that was base, who drew me as it were by a grappling chain, and forced me to look upwards.'43 The obvious, and clearly intended, placement of Simonetta within the de? scriptive and functional tradition of the donna di gentil cor may well reflect Ficino's influence. He had noted the Platonic concepts in this tradition, and had signalled that as such, they were worth poetic imitation. This does not mean, however, that Ficino proposed that the poetic form be kept and the 'vague' concepts replaced with his own. Nor does the poem present sufficient linguistic evidence to suppose that Poliziano intended this traditional Platonism to be read as Ficinian philosophy. Clearly, then, Poliziano presents Simonetta, and Julio's initial response to his sudden 'innamoramento', in keeping with the established Tuscan lyric tradition.44 A woman of miraculous beauty appears. Her beauty, indicative of a gentil cor, causes him to fall immediately and completely in love. The experience of love transforms him into a poet. Love, he discovers, as stanza i. 60 suggests, is both uplifting and bitter-sweet. One would have to stretch Poliziano's language throughout the above stanzas near to the breaking-point to transform such standard Petrarchan imagery and stilnovo Platonic concepts into a convincing example of 'Ficinian' doctrine. The triumphal theme resumes in 11. 28 with Julio's dream. The events ofthe following eighteen stanzas continue the essential stilnovo thematics through? out the death of the Beloved, her 'resurrection' as a guiding and inspirational memory, and the subsequent promise of Fame. Cupid calls for help from Julio, who doesn't know how to respond. Cupid tells Julio in 11. 31 that he must focus his attention away from Simonetta, and must instead concentrate on winning a 'trionfal palma'. The overtones of military victory maintain the pretext of the epic-chivalric atmosphere. The stronger intertextual association of the 'trionfal palma' is, however, with the poet/lover's acquisition of fame through the production of poetry inspired by the unobtainable Beloved. Reinforcing this association is the arrival in the next stanza of Glory, History, and Poetry, who have come to aid Julio in his quest. Within the same stanza, Simonetta is resurrected as Fortune and the promise of Fame is suggested: 41 As MartinMcLaughlin makesclearin Literary in theltalian Renaissance, Imitation Poliziano's reworked familiar withmore obscure conceptualizationand use of imitatio consistently fragments references to create new forms.Poliziano employed this method in his Latin and Greek literary studies as in his ltalian (pp. 209-16). 42 Rodolfo M. Jodi,'II del Poliziano', Studipetrarcheschi, petrarchismo 4 (1951), 59-89 (p. 67). 43 Petrarch,The Secret,trans.by William Draper (London: Chatto and Windus, i9ii),p. 121. 44 Poliziano's criticalengagementwiththis is further evidenced by his introduc? lyrictradition to theRaccolta aragonese. In this,he again suggestssubtleand effective toryletter reinterpretations of the lyrictradition.
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Poi vede lieta in forma di Fortuna surger sua ninfa e rabbellirsi il mondo, e prender lei di sua vita governo, e lui con seco far per fama eterno. (n. 34) However, before Julio can give himself over to the pursuit of Fame (literally through the joust, metaphorically through poetry), an important modification of Fortune must occur (11. 35-37). Poliziano conceives of Fortune as a force that 'a nostre cose allenta e stringe il morso' (n. 35), but believes that men must not waste time in lamenting her cruel actions. He writes: 'Beato qual da lei suo' pensier solve, | e tutto drento all virtu s'involve' (11. 36), and further: 'O felice colui che lei non cura | e che a' suoi gravi assalti non si arrende' (11. 37). This orientation toward Fortune reflects Poliziano's humanist modernity, for it echoes Taffermazione rinascimentale che "virtu vince fortuna"'.45 Death and Resurrection as Muse/ Exhorting Julio to view his Beloved's Fortune from a humanist perspective implies several things. Poliziano retains function as Muse, but announces that she should become an the Beloved's inspiration both for noble poetry and for action. Poliziano places a particular emphasis on the ennobling function of love: yet, as Quint and others point out, he also reshapes the conception of ennoblement from one which grounds itself in Christian theology to one which saw love as the catalyst which transforms human potential into humanitas.*6 The moral of the stilnovo theme has thus become its power to inspire the lover to noble activity (jousting and poetry, for example) in the pursuit of humanitas, rather than simply to effect spiritual elevation. Certainly the link between the Beloved and the poet's work was prefigured in the Tuscan writers. However, they had, to varying degrees, subordinated the beloved's secular to her spiritual function. Poliziano reverses the equation: the emphasis on the poetically visual details in Simonetta's presentation, and the final stanza, Con voi men vegno, Amor Minerva e Gloria, che '1 vostro foco tutto el cor m'avampa; da voi spero acquistar l'alta vittoria, che tutto acceso son di vostra lampa; datemi aita si ch'ogni memoria segnar si possa di mia eterna stampa, (n. 46) function of the stilnovo story was now suggests that the spiritual, philosophical hidden below the secular, poetic function. Love should not inspire lamenting or burlesque poetry; it should inspire the poet to render as beautifully and as eruditely as possible the poetic experience of inspiration. Poliziano presents an example of such poetry grounded in beautifully evocative images in the mythological enclave of Venus's realm. If the narrative of Le stanze demonstrates Poliziano's masterful understand? ing and shaping of the Tuscan tradition, the episode of the realm of Venus displays a similar control over his classical material. The primary model for 45 Branca, Poliziano e Vumanesimo, p. 52 n. 3. 46 See the introduction to David Quint's translation of Le stanze (Amherst:University of MassachusettsPress, 1979).
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this episode is a passage from the Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii Augusti by the Roman poet Claudian.47 Poliziano's descriptions ofthe realm of Venus, the mountain in Cyprus, the return of Cupid, Venus's palace, and the sending out of the putti all echo similar descriptions in Claudian. Claudian also offered an alternative to Petrarch's lists of allegorical, mythological, and historical figures model, Poliziano was able to produce a and, through his use of Claudian's of attributes.48 poetry personified There is, however, a significant difference between Claudian and Poliziano. Venus, in Claudian's version, does not recline on her bed and certainly not with Mars. Claudian wrote: illa suum dictis adfatur talibus agmen: 'Gradivum, nostri comites, arcete parumper, ut soli vacet aula mihi'.49 In Poliziano, however, there is the following description Cupid's return: Trovolla assisa in letto fuor del lembo, pur mo' di Marte sciolta dalle braccia, il qual riverso li giacea nel grembo pascendo gli occhi pur della sua faccia: di rose sovra a lor pioveva un nembo per rinnovarli all'amorosa traccia; ma Vener dava a lui con voglie pronte mille baci negli occhi e nella fronte. (i. 122) of the classical description fails into one of two distinct developments of Mars and in the Middle Venus. One which version, myth predominated Ages, was that Mars had committed adultery with Venus, wife of Vulcan; Vulcan, who discovered them, had held them up to ridicule and scorn. This rendering derived from Homer through Ovid.5? Another, older interpretation in which Mars had been Venus's could be found in Hesiod and Pausanias legitimate husband long before Homer married her off to Vulcan, and they had had a daughter Harmony.51 Both these variations were known and exploited in late Quattrocento Florence: Lorenzo wrote a poem, Amori di Venere e Marte, which recounted the Ovidian version, while Poliziano and Botticelli presented renditions of the Hesiodic variant.52 Poli? Clearly, then, stanza 122 had other sources in addition to Claudian. ziano's most likely model for such a 'Hesiodic' description of Mars and Venus was Lucretius's De rerum natura. Lucretius had described Mars 47 Claudian, Epithalamium, ed. by U. Frings(Meisenheim: Hain, 1975), 49-91. 48 Poliziano, in 1. 73-76, introducesPaura, Piacere, Lacrime e Pallore, Risata, and Gioventu. 49 Claudian, Epithalamium, 189-91. McNair translates:'Then Venus thus addresses her attendant throng:"Comrades mine,keep away fora while the god of war thatthe palace may be mine alone'" ('The Bed of Venus', p. 42). 50 McNair, 'The Bed of Venus', p. 44. 5* Erwin Panofsky, StudiesinIconography: HumanisticThemes in theArt oftheRenaissance(New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1939), p. 163. 52 McNair, 'The Bed of Venus', p. 45. This would be Botticelli's Venusand Mars. This of the scene awaiting
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in gremium qui saepe tuum se reiicit aeterno devictus vulnere amoris, atque ita suspiciens tereti cervice reposta pascit amore avidos inhians in te, dea, visus, eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore.53 Ficino, too, had described a harmonious relationship between the deities, and this is the one plausible textual link between the authors to be found in Le it has often been cited in conjunction with this stanza, stanze. Consequently, and has been used as the pretext for forcing a Ficinian reading of the poem as a whole. In II libro delVAmore, Ficino writes: Marte e superiore di fortezza, perche egli fa gli huomini piu forti. Venere doma Marte, impero che quando Marte nella nativita dello huomo signoreggia, dona magnanimita e iracundia, e se Venere proximamente vi si aggiugne, benche non impedisca la magna? nimita da Marte concessa, nientedimeno raffrenael vitio della iracundia, ove pare che, faccendo Marte piu clemente, lo domi. Ma Marte non doma mai Venere. (v. viii. 7-9) Although this passage is astrological in its analysis, it is reasonable to assume some link between it and De rerum natura's version of the myth.54 Poliziano did not, however, need Ficino to recover this variant for him: De rerum natura had been widely read since the 1420s. It is unreasonable, therefore, to assume that Ficino was the only source of Poliziano's conception of the deities' rela? tionship. To posit that this astrological passage proves that the psychology of love suggested in this mythological enclave follows a Ficinian system is highly If Poliziano really had wanted to present, in a speculative and unconvincing. a poetic explanation of Ficino's philosophy, one would exmythological guise, and closer textual links. As it is, Le stanze's Tuscan Platonism to find more, pect this is only to be expected since both is generally suggestive of Ficino's?but are rooted in Plato. In the realm of Venus, the loose textual reference to II libro delV Amore suggests only that the myths and deities described are intended to evoke some 'deeper' association, since Ficino's writings had established their use as illustrative and esoteric devices. The majority of the most strikingly sensual descriptions of pagan deities and mythological figures occurs in 1. 93-119. This section includes Poliziano's ekphrastic rehearsal of the intaglios, fashioned by Vulcan, that adorn the doors of Venus's palace. The employment of ekphrasis had a long classical history, and had been used by the Tuscan writers. With Dante, the use of ekphrasis acquired a didactic function. In the Purgatorio, Dante provides three illustrations of humility (x) and thirteen examples of punished pride, displayed on pavement (xn. 64). tombs, as a 'puntare de la rimembranza' The use of ekphrasis had established poetic and didactic functions. It constituted a test ofthe poet's linguistic skill in creating visual art through words; it allowed for the interesting presentation of mythological or intellectual infor? mation; and it enabled the poet to suggest some allegorical or esoteric mean? ing hidden within. Ekphrasis was the perfect literary vehicle through which a
53 Lucretius,De rerum natura,ed. by Cyril Bailey,2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1922), 1. 33-3754 Ficino wrasreading Lucretius in the 1450s when he experienced his 'spiritual' crisis, and it is clear that Lucretius's Epicureanism had notable,early influenceon Ficino (Kristeller,The p. 24 n. 22). Philosophy,
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Ficinian style and a 'nuova classicita'55 in the ltalian language could be created. Poliziano employed ekphrasis to both ends. In keeping with the stylistic choice to suggest hidden meaning rather than announce it, the didactic function ofthe intaglios is implicit, as are the Platonic concepts of the stilnovo love narrative. The intaglios sculpted by Vulcan, the divine artificer and founder of cities, can be divided into three groups: the birth of love among the gods, love between gods and mortals, and human love. The basic philosophic concept running through all the scenes is the same as the narrative: that love is an ennobling and and ascent (or ennoblement) are emphasized civilizing force. Metamorphosis in each group. Venus is born and descends to earth; Jove, Neptune, and Saturn all transform themselves into various forms. Love, even in its lowest form, has the power to inspire 'noble' action. Polyphemus, the huge hairy giant of the last panel, is motivated by his love of Galatea and 'ha gran voglia di saper notare | per andare a trovarla insin nel mare' (i. 117). The ennobling function of love is subtly suggested and effected by creating strongly sensual and appealing visual images. In the case of Polyphemus, on the other the image is amusing but endearing. Venus's birth (1. 99-100), hand, is dominated by purity of beauty. Poliziano thus found in the exercise of ekphrasis a model that could be mobilized to present discrete 'quadri' that were as sensually appealing as they were suggestive of an esoteric reading hiding beneath the surface. The rape of Europa (1. 105-06), for example, reads like a painting. Poliziano's use of this example to reinforce the elevating function of love requires further contemplation because the reader is invited to figure out how Europa is ennobled by Jove's rather forceful love. Their very beauty and prodigious variety signal to the reader that these myths may have esoteric depths: they present a multifaceted view of love 'nella sua istintivita e sensualita, e raramente nella sua tenerezza, ma anche, nella sua ideale funzione nobilitante'.56 Throughout the narrative of Le stanze, Poliziano demonstrated his mastery of the Tuscan tradition. Here, in the intaglios, there is a similar display of brilliance. The descriptions in stanzas 1. 93-119 echo, at least, six Homeric Hymns, Hesiod, Ovid, Tibullus, Horace, Catullus, Theocritus, and Virgil.57 Combining a synthetic approach to his sources with the use of beautifully sensual language, Poliziano's realm of Venus is able to reproduce in the vernacular a 'clima di eterna e ideale bellezza creato dai poeti classici'.58 I have suggested that, rather than search for Ficinian doctrines, the poet and philosopher's relationship may be better understood from both larger and more narrow perspectives. The aesthetic innovations that Ficino promoted, of and Poliziano affected, show themselves in Le stanze's new mobilization 55 Mazzacurati, II problema storico, p. 79. 56 Renzo Lo Cascio, 'II lavorodell'ape e la poesia dell Stanze', in // Poliziano e il suo tempo: Atti internazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento del IV convegno (Florence: Sansoni, 1957), pp. 289-331 (P- 327)57 Ronnie H. Terpening, 'Poliziano's Treatmentof a Classical Topos: Ekphrasis, Portal to the Stanze', Italian Quarterly,17 (1973), 39-71. 58 Natalino Sapegno, 'II sentimentoumanistico e la poesia del Poliziano', in Compendio di storia della letteratura italiana, ed. by Natalino Sapegno, 3 vols (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1975?77),I: Dalle origini alla finedel Quattrocento, pp. 723-32 (p. 729).
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the vernacular canon and its suggestion of a 'deeper' meaning. These in turn resulted from new literary values aiming at esoteric elegance of style, and from a related effort to revive Tuscan poetic Platonism. With a clearer understanding of Le stanze's relationship with Ficinian philosophy and poetics, we can now briefly consider a possible new view ofthe fragment's significance.59 I offer an alternative interpretation based on my understanding of the poem as an experiment in style, presented for Lorenzo's personal poetic benefit. As a subject, the recent joust provided appropriate material for the demands of the epic-chivalric genre, and the 'love affair' between Giuliano and Simo? netta, followed by Simonetta's death in 1476, supplied a perfect vehicle for the archetypal stilnovo 'love story'. Who might the poem's audience have been? Given the poet's close relationship with Lorenzo, and the poem's opening dedication to 'ben nato Laur, [la] causa, [il] fin di tutte le mie voglie' (1. 4), it is fair to assume that Lorenzo, and the circle around him, was the main audience. It is clear that the poem intends its readers to understand Giuliano for Julio, and that the Beloved is a poetic rendering of Simonetta Cattaneo. never emerge from their While Julio/Giuliano and the Beloved/Simonetta mythological presentation, Lorenzo, in Book 11 (4-8 and 14), is addressed both the poem, the historical as a historical personage and as a poet. Throughout realities ofthe characters and their actions are lost in the process of Poliziano's mythologizing. The function of the poem as didactic is difficult to reconcile with the obvious attempt at poetic elegance, and with the near perfect maintenance of the poem's mythological cast.6? Although Poliziano included several poetic images that corresponded to the historical images ofthe joust,61 the only character who is presented with any historical accuracy is Lorenzo. One could easily conclude that Le stanze's poetic style, with its lyricism and beauty, was much more successful than its narrative;62 this in turn suggests that the exploration of these issues was in fact the poem's raison d'etre.63 The poem's function would then become that of an experiment, or display case: within Le stanze, one could find an example of a new high style that synthesized 59 Various interpretations have maintainedthat Le stanze should be understood as a formof political propaganda. This view has found its most articulatevoice in JeanieG. Moore, 'Medici per la giostradel MagnificoGiuliano de' Medici', Myth-Making: Poliziano's Stanze cominciate RenaissancePapers, 36 (1989), 1-20. A related view explores the poem as a personal message directedat Giuliano with regardto his (lack) of political activity:see W. Welliver,'The Subject and Purpose of Poliziano's Stanze', Italica, 48 (1971), 34-50. 60 Gaetano mitica nella poesia del Poliziano', in Dalle origini Trombatore,'La trasfigurazione alla finedel Quattrocento, pp. 732-39 (pp. 733-34). Trombatorepointsout thatthe elevationof all charactersto a mythological plane is achieved in the opening stanzas and remainsso throughout the poem. 61 For example,the appearance of Pallas in Book 11,and Giuliano's standardforthe 1475 joust withPallas painted on it by Botticelli. 62 'Ma valido solo a disporrela materia' (Giuseppe De l'argomentodel poema? E un pretesto, alla finedel Quattrocento, Robertis,'L'ottava del Poliziano', in Dalle origini pp. 739-48 (p. 743)). 63 Criticssuch as Greene, The Lightin Troy,and Paul Colilli, Poliziano's Scienceof Tropes(New York: Lang, 1989), have descended to a deep subtextualand psychologicallevel in theiranalysesof Poliziano's 'fearofmultiplicity' ofthe poem as reflecting Poliziano's work,and theirinterpretation as an indicationof Poliziano's subtextualreferences depends on theirreadingsof the fragmentary obsession with disseminationand dispersion. I am not convinced that this is an approach that ofthe poem. Therefore,I have chosen to examinethe poem in a way yieldsthebest understanding to his poem. thatdoes not involvea psychologicalprofileof Poliziano's relationship
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the vernacular with the classical, while presenting it with an esoteric form of beauty. That Poliziano would address Lorenzo so personally, and as a poet, is not surprising if we remember that they were close personal friends and shared a love of poetry that bound them artistically. Given that Lorenzo was open to and desirous of poetic criticism from his friends,64 it is reasonable to conclude Poliziano could have conceived of Le stanze as an alternative to Lorenzo's own, more traditional, love poetry. Indeed, if one looks carefully at Le stanze, it becomes apparent that the poem employs certain strategies that overcome some shortcomings of Lorenzo's poetry.65 The most important of these is the adoption of the third-person voice to narrate the stilnovo themes. This, in turn, is made possible by recontextualizing the stilnovo love story within a narrative framework of chivalric tradition, the joust. Like Pulci before him, Poliziano uses the newly emerging genre of nar? rative poetry, while retaining elements of lyric conventions.66 By removing his personal voice, Poliziano was able to tell the familiar and newly renovated love story within a larger context, thereby 'reinventing' and reviving an important genre in Italian poetry.67 He is no longer restricted to telling the tale, along with all its suggestions of Platonic concepts and ideal beauty, from a personal point of view.68 He can now place the narrative within a mythological framework which for permits, and encourages, poetic descriptions of 'le trombe e l'arme'?jousts, example. Detaching the poet's first-person voice from that ofthe lover permits a greater flexibility in describing love and its effects. No longer does the poet himself have to have a Beloved about whom he writes poetry: he can instead write of both the Beloved and the lover/poet from a removed-subject position. By describing the of love on a the effect lover, poet implicitly refers to his own source ennobling of inspiration, but it is a far subtler and more elegant reference than that of the earlier Tuscan writers. Narrating from a position external to the narrative also permits the use of poetic devices new to stilnovo traditions, such as the ekphrasis of the intaglios, and allows elegant expansion on the 'philosophical' elements of ennobling and humanizing love. It makes sense that Poliziano would have taken this approach to his poetry. As opposed to Lorenzo, whose primary intellectual activity was writing Italian verse, this does not seem to have been Poliziano's 'first' passion. His forays into vernacular poetry are striking for their experimental flavour, as well as for their degree of polish, elegance, and eclectic learning. Obviously this was a poet who was more interested in solving linguistic and stylistic issues than in producing 64 to Lorenzo de' Medici (New Haven: Yale Uni? Angelo Lipari, The Dolce Stil Novo according Press, 1936), pp. 12-13. versity 65 By 1478, Lorenzo had written Tuscan form.See Paolo Orvieto, 'early' poetryin a traditional Lorenzo de' Medici (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1976). 66 Mark Davie pointsout thatPulci's Stanze per la Giostra(1481), a poem of 160 ottavewhich celebrateda Medici joust in 1469, was 'Poliziano's point of departure': 'Luigi Pulci's Stanze per La giostra:Verse and Prose Accounts of a FlorentineJoustof 1469', ltalian Studies,44 (1989), 41-58 (p. 42). 67 The octave formof narrative poetryhad been used by Boccaccio. Poliziano's innovationsin the genrewere takenup and 'perfected'by Ariosto. 68 The voice of the lover-poetcan be seen in Dante, Caval? semi-autobiographical/first-person and Lorenzo. canti,Petrarch,
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a large corpus of vernacular verse?just as, in his classical scholarship, he was interested in solving typical problems of interpretation rather than producing weighty commentaries.69 And his experiments succeeded. Both Le stanze, as an example of high vernacular style, and Orfeo, as the first drama in ltalian, later became important models:70 and it is surely plausible that the great scholar-poet intended them to be precisely that. Corpus Christi College, Oxford Christina Storey
69 See Poliziano's Miscellanea (Florence: Miscominus, 1489). See also his Miscellaneorum centuria secunda, ed. by Vittore Branca (Florence: Olschki, 1978), and AnthonyGrafton,Joseph and Exegesis(New York: Oxford 1: Textual Criticism Scaliger: A Historyof Classical Scholarship, Press, 1983), pp. 21-43. University 70 Le stanze was a model forlaterwriterssuch as Ariostoand Tasso. Orfeohad a tremendous influencein the developmentof ltalian pastoral and opera: see Elizabeth A. Newby,A Portrait (New of theArtist: The Legendsof Orpheusand theirUse in Medieval and RenaissanceAesthetics York: Garland, 1987), pp. 109-21.

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The Philosopher, the Poet, and the Fragment: Ficino, Poliziano, and Le stanze per la giostra Author(s): Christina

THE THE AND

PHILOSOPHER, FRAGMENT: LE STANZE

THE FICINO, PER LA

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