Gino Belloni and Riccardo Drusi, eds. Vincenzio Borghini. Filologia e invenzione nella Firenze di Cosimo I.

Gino Belloni and Riccardo Drusi, eds. Vincenzio Borghini. Filologia e invenzione nella Firenze di Cosimo I. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 2002.

This catalogue was designed to accompany an exhibition of identical designation held at Florence's Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale from March 21 to April 20, 2002, organized by the library and the Comitato di Studi Vincenzio Borghini of Venice's Universita Ca' Foscari. Supported by the Regione Toscana and the Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, the exposition and its corresponding anthology represent the collaborative efforts of some twenty scholars and constitute a fitting tribute to one of the major figures of the Italian Renaissance. We find in the miscellany ample justification for the serf-confessedly oxymoronic title given to this enterprise (xxi-xxii), as the text presents documentation relating both to its subject's accomplished philological labors and to a notable inventiveness in confronting his city's past. Preceding the main text are a "Sommario" of its contents and data on contributing authors (vii-xiii), a "Presentazione" (xv-xvi), a "Premessa" (xvii), a "Prefazione dei Curatori" (xix-xxiii)--all very useful in conveying the significance of the contributions made by Vincenzio Borghini (1515-1580)--and an informative sketch showing how the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale came to possess most of the Benedictine's collection (xxv-xxviii).

The bulk of the volume consists of eight main sections, each dedicated to one facet of don Vincenzio's erudition and containing further subdivisions: "1. Il giovane Borghini" (1-11), "2. Gli interessi antiquari e la scuola del Vettori" (13-47), "3. L'amministrazione della pietia (lo Spedalingo)" (49-60), "4. Ricerca storica e invenzione: la collaborazione di Borghini con Cosimo I e Francesco, i suoi rapporti con gli artisti, gli apparati effimeri" (61-166), "5. I testi antichi volgari, la lingua di Firenze e l'idea di lingua" (167-347), "6. Il metodo filologico e le polemiche dallo Scriver contro altrui alle castigazioni e alla Lettera intorno a' manoscritti antichi" (349-56), "7. Il carteggio" (357-81), and "8. I libri del Borghini" (383-92). Between the fourth and fifth chapters we find an unpaginated series of illustrations relating both to the exhibit in general and to items detailed in the catalogue. Before the book's concluding table of contents (435) are a list of works cited, arranged by abbreviated form (393-416), as well as indices of individuals mentioned (419-30) and of documents adduced (431-34).

Section Five, the accumulation's longest segment, might well also be its most interesting, particularly for admirers of Borghini the philologist. Within its pages appear the names of many important persons whose works attracted the Prior's attention, including Giovanni and Matteo Villani, Pietro Crescenzio (the vernacular rendering of whose agricultural treatise was recognized by Cinquecento authorities as holding "un posto di primo piano tra le prose del 'buon secolo della lingua,'" 218), Livy, Seneca, Dante, Boccaccio, Franco Sacchetti, Annibal Caro, Ludovico Castelvetro, Pietro Bembo, and Benedetto Varchi. Two subsections of "5. 18. La consulenza al Varchi per L'Hercolano," may serve to exemplify the editors' procedure in presenting and commenting on the exhibition's components. In both cases--"5. 18. 1. Lettera al Varchi: sollecito a scrivere un'opera sulla lingua" (341-44) and "5. 18. 2. Riferimento a un passo dell'Hercolano che chiama in causa il Borghini" (344 47)--we are given a specification of the collection to which the item currently belongs, followed by a detailed description of the document itself. Next in each instance comes a thorough examination of the significance of the piece in the context of Borghini's intellectual life and cultural milieu. That relating to the "lettera al Varchi" first surveys its history of publication, then outlines the addressee's involvement in the well-known controversy between Caro and Castelvetro (relying on Antonio Sorella's edition of the Hercolano, Pescara: Libreria dell'Universita, 1995--cited presumably because of its recent composition and thus greater accessibility relative to preceding versions). Don Vincenzio's motivation for intervening is characterized here, in the words of Gino Belloni (Vincenzio Borghini dall'erudizione alla filologia. Una raccolta di testi [Pescara: Libreria dell'Universita, 1998] xii), as "un sincero 'campanilismo,' un 'orgoglio municipale'" (343), the expression of which is shown to be tempered somewhat in this missive by the writer's keen rhetorical skills. A commentary appearing in the next section brings to bear remarks by J. R. Woodhouse in pointing to the disjointedness marking many of Borghini's writings--a trait overtly recognized by the author himself. Featured here too is background information regarding the Prior's reference to Varchi's citation of him in the context of muso/musare (used by Dante in Inferno XXVII, 43), an explication that takes into consideration don Vincenzio's familiarity with Boccaccian texts.

Noteworthy among the treasures offered the reader in this compilation is a passage entitled "6. 2. Lettera intorno a' manoscritti antichi: un trattatello di filologia italiana" (353-54), which explores a brief, incomplete disquisition ending with the intriguing phrase, "'perche meglio sintenda col fatto quelche io vo dire'" (353). "Rara avis nella storia del metodo ecdotico," we are informed, "e l'unico antico trattatello di filologia italiana, nel senso che si propone di ragionare sulla costituzione dei testi partendo dai manoscritti antichi" (354). The essay's conjectured trajectory is traced in the introductory section, which notes its presence in 1844 in the library of Marquis Pierfrancesco Rinuccini and its disappearance probably between 1889 and 1902. As is observed elsewhere by the director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (xvii), the recent recovery of the codex and its donation to that entity offered an ideal occasion for the exhibit on Borghini. Gino Belloni, principal organizer of such enterprise, was responsible for this generous act, making him--along with other parties involved in the development of the project--quite deserving of our gratitude for a most worthy achievement.

MICHAEL T. WARD

Trinity University