Antonio Cornazzano

Antonio Cornazzano (* around 1430 in Piacenza , † 1484 in Ferrara ) was an Italian dance master and dance theorist , choreographer , poet and writer . Like Guglielmo Ebreo , Antonio Cornazzano (often also written Cornazano in German-language texts) was a student of the Italian dance master Domenico da Piacenza .

Vita della gloriosissima Vergine Maria , 1471

Life

Antonio Cornazzano studied law at the University of Siena from 1443 to 1448 . From 1454 at the latest he can be found at the court of Francesco Sforza in Milan , where he wrote the Sforziade . In this epic, Francesco Sforza and his family are glorified. Francesco's daughter Ippolita Maria Sforza is dedicated to the dance treatise Libro sull'arte del danzatore (c. 1455). He also wrote a collection of Sonetti e canzone and the Vita della gloriosissima Vergine Maria , a book about the life of the glorious Virgin Mary. Cornazzano was also an ambassador for Francesco Sforza. So he was sent to France to meet the French King Louis XI. to congratulate on the accession to the throne. Cornazzano addresses the Medici in Florence in his work De florentinae urbis laudibus (written in Italian).

After the death of Francesco Sforza and his wife Bianca Maria Visconti, he sought asylum in Venice, where he completed De fide et vita Christi , in which he built a panegyric of the Serenissima .

From 1468/69 to 1475 he lived at the court of Bartolomeo Colleoni in the castle of Malpaga (near Bergamo). Cornazzano had been commissioned by Colleoni to write his biography. The result was the extensive work Commentariorum liber de vita et gestis invictissimi bello principis Bartholomeo Colei, per Antonium Cornazzanum ad clarissimam Bergomensem Republicam . This work is less important because of its historical or literary content (so it cannot be compared with Petrarch's De viris illustribus), but rather it is an impressive testimony to the life of the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni.

Shortly after the death of Colleoni he came to the court of Ercole d'Este in Ferrara . In the seclusion of the Ferrari court he wrote De Herculei filli ortu et de urbis Ferrariae periculo ac liberatione as well as the treatise on the art of war De re militari , which, in addition to the dance treatise , is one of his writings that are still known and received today. Also in Ferrara was the De excellentium virorum principiis , dedicated to Borso d'Este , which is written in Latin and Italian.

Cornazzano's work is a typical example of a court clerk who does not achieve top literary performance, but as a good courtier - in the spirit of Baldassare Castiglione's Libro del Cortegiano  - always carried out thorough work in accordance with the instructions of his master, which allows him to work at many of his courts Time to stand. He was equally versatile and adaptable in style, in the chosen language (Latin, Italian) and in the choice of topics: a family epic, treatises on dance and the art of war spring from his pen, as well as poetry and religious literature.

Works

• Libro sull'arte del danzatore , ca.1455 (Rome, Biblioteca Vaticana, Codice Capponiano no.203 )
  • The book of the art of dancing . Dance Books, London 1981, ISBN 0-903102-63-3 (translated and edited by Madeleine Inglehearn, among others)
• Commentariorum liber de vita et gestis invictissimi bello principis Bartholomeo Colei, per Antonium Cornazzanum ad clarissimam Bergomensem Republicam
• Anonymous (attributed to Antonio Cornazzano): De laudibus Antonii Martinengii , approx. 1470/74

literature

• Dante Bianchi: Antonio Cornazzano e le sue biography . Milan 1965
• Claudia Bonavigo: Antonio Cornazzano, verso il nuovo letterato di Corte .
• Roberto L. Bruni, Diego Zancani: Antonio Cornazzano. LA tradizioni testuale . Olschki, Florence 1992, ISBN 88-222-3971-7
• Andrea Comboni: Antonio Cornazzano e la Giostra de l'Amore del giugno 1478 a Ferrara. Testo e storia di una estravagante . In: Bollettino Storico Piacentino 73rd vol. (1988), No. 2, pp. 217-228.
• Andrea Comboni: Per l'edizione delle rime di Antonio Cornazzano .
• Giuliana Crevatin: Vita di Bartolomeo Colleoni . Vecchiarelli, Manziana 1990, ISBN 88-85316-16-6
• Veronique Daniels: Antonio Cornazzano . In: Music in the past and present . Directmedia, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-460-X (1 CD-ROM)
• Nicoletta De Vecchi Pellati: Quattro elegie e una lettera di Antonio Cornazzano a Nicodemo Tranchedini . In: Bollettino Storico Piacentino 78th vol. (1983), Issue 1, pp. 80-96.
• Giorgio Fiori: Notes on history and precisazioni biografiche su Antonio Cornazzano . In: Bollettino Storico Piacentino 74th vol. (1979), issue 2, p. 179ff.
• Maria L. Gatti Perer: Codici e incunaboli miniati della Biblioteca Civica di Bergamo. Edizione promossa dal Credito Bergamasco . Credito Bergamasco, Bergamo 1989 (catalog no.90 describes the manuscript of Antonio Cornazzano's Vita of Bartolomeo Colleoni)
• Diego Zancani: Antonio Cornazzano e una lettera inedita di Nicodemo Tranchedini . In: Bollettino Storico Piacentino 81st vol. (1986), Issue 1, pp. 122-127.
• Diego Zancani: Il "De Herculei filii ortu et urbis Ferrariae periculo ac liberatione" by Antonio Cornazzano . In: Bollettino Storico Piacentino 74th vol. (1979), issue 1, p. 60ff.
• Diego Zancani: Una lettera di Antonio Cornazzano and Guglielmo Ongarello . In: Bollettino Storico Piacentino 73rd vol. (1978), issue 2, p. 99ff.

Web links

• Publications about Antonio Cornazzaro in the Opac der Regesta Imperii