Ferrone, Silvano (trans.), Francesco Petrarca De Viris Illustribus bk. I (Firenze: Casa Editrice Le Lettere)
Text name(s): De Viris Illustribus; On the Lives of Famous Men
Number of pages of primary source text: 488
Author(s):
Dates: 1338 - 1364
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- Coptic - Bohairic
- Latin
Translation:
- Original language included.
Translation Comments: Ferrone uses the critical edition of Guido Martellotti (1964 Sansoni press) to establish the original Latin text of this translation
Geopolitical Region(s):
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Literature - Prose
- Biography
Subject Headings:
- Literature - Other
- Classics / Humanism
- Church Fathers
- Religion - Institutional Church
Apparatus:
- Index
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
Among the many literary models which attracted Petrarch’s attention from early in his life, the genre of biography and its manifestation in the format of the several authors who wrote a De Viris Illustribus was of particular interest to him. The reason for this centers on the fact that in a De Viris Illustribus, the author takes particular interest in presenting the life of an individual as a vehicle for teaching moral behavior. For Plutarch, who wrote parallel biographies on famous Greeks and Romans, or Suetonius, who wrote about the lives of the first Roman emperors, moral behavior was framed in the context of moral philosophy and ethics. Jerome and authors in subsequent centuries adopted this model, but chose the lives of famous Christians and framed moral behavior in the context of Christian piety. As such, Petrarch inherited a biographical tradition with two halves which he sought to merge into one whole in his De Viris Illustribus. This effort to merge both the Classical and the Christian is the hallmark of an individual frequently described as the father of humanisim.
There are two books in Petrarch’s De Viris Illustribus, book I which focuses on the lives of Romans who most captivated his attention, and book II which focuses on prominent biblical figures intermingled with some Greek mythological figures and Mesopotamian rulers as well. In this volume Ferrone presents book I of Petrarch’s text. The Romans featured (primarily kings, generals, and civil leaders) are selected for their value for teaching moral principles as Petrarch recounts the lives of the individuals in question drawing from the sources available to him. His presentation Romulus is thus a summary of Livy’s account in the Ab Urbe Condita, but where Livy presents multiple versions of why Remus was killed, Petrarch unflinchingly explains that his death was justified on the grounds that Romulus had divine approval that was superior to Remus. On occasion, Petrarch will comment more explicitly on the moral lessons of a life in concluding sentences that function as a sort of epilogue. Consider for example his evaluation of Pyrrus:
Hic Pyrro vite finis; sic non Italici modo et Greci et Asiatici regni spem, sed Siculum simul et Macedonicum insuper et paternum Epyri regnum et laboriosum spiritum una hora perdidit. Ite nunc, mortales, et fidite presperis.
“This was the end of the life of Pyrrus, and thus not only lost the chance for rule in Italy and Greece and Asia, but at the same time rule in Sicily, Macedonia, and even his ancestral kingdom of Egypt along with his vigorous spirit in the space of one hour. Go now, mortals, and trust in good fortune.”
As Petrarch’s De Viris Illustribus progresses, moralizing epilogues continue to grow in intensity and earnestness, coming to a climax in the penultimate life on Scipio Africanus who stands as the ultimate model of temperance, good morals and outstanding leadership. Such a glowing evaluation is hardly a surprise considering that Scipio would subsequently become the subject of Petrarch’s endeavors to write an epic on this Roman in his Africa (reviewed in a separate entry on OMSB).
It is of essential importance to note the several complications surrounding the composition of the text. Petrarch never completed the work and there were at least three different versions of the text as he started and stopped writing his De Viris Illustribus. One version aimed to focus on individuals from the Roman Republic, another on Christian fathers and the final version sought to combine both in an effort to present good men from all ages in a humanistic spirit. Ferrone grapples with the complexity of the text by presenting, for instance, the alternate version of the Scipio Africanus account and focusing his comments in the introduction on the history of the composition of the text and to some extent, the textual tradition of De Viris Illustribus. Finally, anglophone students and scholars should note that there is no available English translation of this work. Ferrone’s edition presents the Latin text with a facing Italian translation.
Introduction Summary:
Ferrone’s introduction in Italian (7 pp.) is rather sparse and assumes that the reader is familiar with Italian humanism and much of the content of the De Viris Illustribus. For a concise introduction to the dynamics of the text, readers who are new to Petrarch’s De Viris Illustribus would be well advised to consult Kohl, Benjamin “Petrarch’s Prefaces to de Viris Illustribus” in History and Theory 13 (2): 132-144 (1974) and Witt, Ronald “The Rebirth of Romans as Models of Character” in Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works by Victoria Kirkham and Armando Maggi (eds) Chicago UP: 2009 pp. 103-112.
Cataloger: BW
