Cosimo Bartoli

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Cosimo Bartoli, portrait woodcut from the Ragionamenti accademici (1567).

Cosimo Bartoli (born December 20, 1503 in Florence , † October 25, 1572 ibid) was an Italian humanist , translator , art theorist and diplomat . He also worked several times as a conceptual designer of painterly, architectural and sculptural objects. Not least because of Bartoli's close personal connections to artists such as Michelangelo and Giorgio Vasari, his literary works are a valuable source for the history of the visual arts in the Florence of the Cinquecento .

Bartoli was in the service of Cosimo I de 'Medici mainly occupied with simple administrative activities and secretarial tasks. In the 1560s he was sent to Venice as the ambassador of the Grand Duke , where he brought several manuscripts of his own works and translations of other people's writings to print (which had been completed for a long time). The first group includes such heterogeneous works as the literary analyzes by Dante Alighieri in the Ragionamenti Accademici, which were probably written between 1550 and 1552, or the mathematical and optical investigations in Del modo di misurare le distantie . Bartoli thus belongs - like Lodovico Dolce , for example - to the group of so-called Italian polyhistorii , who are characterized by a wide range of knowledge and interests and often very extensive literary productivity, but received little (financial) recognition for their achievements during their lifetime.

In his capacity as a translator of art theoretical writings by Leon Battista Alberti ( L'architettura and Della pittura ) and Albrecht Dürer , Bartoli ensured the dissemination of the treatises written in Latin among artists and the transfer of artist knowledge on both sides of the Alps. In addition, his possible involvement in the writing of Giorgio Vasari's artist biographies is being discussed intensively in research. Bartoli was also practically involved in artistic projects in Florence through his close friend Vasari, for whom he designed numerous allegories and pictorial themes, which the painter implemented in his workshop (for example between 1555 and 1572 in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence). In addition, in the early 1550s, Bartoli independently designed the architectural design of the Palazzo Ricasoli and the sculptural decoration of the adjacent garden by the sculptor Francesco Camilliani .

Publications (selection)

Le piante, le provincie, le prospettive, e tutte le altre cose terrene , 1564
  • L'architettura di Leonbattista Alberti. Tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli. Torrentino, Florence 1550.
  • Del modo di misurare le distantie, le superficie, i corpi, le piante, le provincie, le prospettive & tutte le altre cose terrene, che possono occorrere a gli huomini. Secondo le vere regole d'Euclide & de gli altri più lodati scrittori. Francesco de 'Franceschi Senese, Venice 1564.
  • Ragionamenti Accademici di Cosimo Bartoli Gentil'huomo et Accademico Fiorentino, sopra alcuni luoghi difficili di Dante. Con alcune Inventioni & significati, & la Tavola di piu cose notabili. Francesco de 'Franceschi Senese, Venice 1567.
  • Opuscoli Morali di Leon Batista Alberti, gentil'huomo fiorentino. Francesco de 'Franceschi Senese, Venice 1568.

literature

  • Roberto Cantagalli, Nicola De Blasi:  Bartoli, Cosimo. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 6:  Baratteri – Bartolozzi. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1964.
  • Charles Davis: Cosimo Bartoli and the Portal of Sant'Apollonia by Michelangelo . In: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz , Volume 19, 1975, pp. 261–276.
  • Judith Bryce: Cosimo Bartoli (1503-1572). The career of a Florentine polymath. Droz, Geneva 1983.
  • Thomas Frangenberg: Bartoli, Giambullari and the prefaces to Vasari's Lives (1550). In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Volume 65, 2002, pp. 244-258.
  • Giovanni Maria Fara: Albrecht Dürer lettore e interprete di Vitruvio e Leon Battista Alberti in un'inedita versione di Cosimo Bartoli. In: Rinascimento , Volume 53, 2002, pp. 171-347.
  • Francesco Paolo Fiore, Daniela Lamberini (eds.): Cosimo Bartoli (1503-1572). Leo S. Olschki, Florenz 2011, ISBN 978-88-222-6082-6 ( table of contents ).

proof

  1. ↑ On the dating cf. Charles Davis: Cosimo Bartoli and the Portal of Sant'Apollonia by Michelangelo . In: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz , Volume 19, 1975, pp. 261–276.
  2. ^ Giovanni Maria Fara: Albrecht Dürer lettore e interprete di Vitruvio e Leon Battista Alberti in un'inedita versione di Cosimo Bartoli. In: Rinascimento , Volume 53, 2002, pp. 171-347
  3. ^ Thomas Frangenberg: Bartoli, Giambullari and the prefaces to Vasari's Lives (1550). In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Volume 65, 2002, pp. 244-258.
  4. ↑ Alessandro Cecchi et al. Ugo Muccini: Palazzo Vecchio. Guida storica. Florence 1980.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Bartoli, Cosimo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian humanist, translator, art theorist and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1503
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1572
Place of death Florence