Flavio Biondo
Flavio Biondo (Latin Flavius Blondus ; * 1392 in Forlì ; † June 4, 1463 in Rome ) was an Italian humanist and historian. He is considered to be the actual founder of archaeological science and antiquarian topography .
Life
Biondo initially trained as a notary in Cremona and studied with Giovanni Ballistario , from 1410 he worked in several law firms. From 1423 to 1427 he was exiled from Forlì.
He lived temporarily in Milan , where he discovered and copied the only handwriting of Cicero's dialogue "Brutus".
In 1432 Pope Eugene IV appointed Biondo to be his secretary in the papal chancellery . Biondo accompanied the Pope into his exile, was his secretary in Ferrara and Florence, and returned with him to Rome. After the death of his employer, he remained in the same position with the successors Nicholas V , Kalixt III. and Pius II.
As a great expert on antiquity, he turned to the task of collecting the materials for his historical, antiquarian and topographical works with particular devotion. Biondo was the author of three encyclopedias which formed the basis of all subsequent dictionaries of Roman archeology and antiquity.
If he can also be called a historian with reservations, it is because he took over the sources and traditions unchecked without checking their truthfulness by criticizing the sources . In addition, he largely lacked an instrument for historically sound work.
Biondo proceeded differently than Winckelmann , who was of extraordinary importance for modern classical archeology as well as for art history as a scientific discipline. Winckelmann derived his standards of value from aesthetic categories that corresponded to the zeitgeist of the Enlightenment , and approached classical antiquity through questions of art history. On the other hand, Biondo, Poggio Bracciolini and other contemporaries pursued the development and recording of both still existing and already lost remnants of antiquity with antiquarian interests.
Fonts
His works, which were edited by his sons after his death, include:
- Italia Illustrata (1474)
- a detailed description of Italy with all important cities and municipalities
- Romæ Instauratæ Libri Tres (1482)
- dedicated to Pope Eugene IV .; the first attempt at a topographical description of Rome with an (almost) complete list of Christian buildings
- Romæ Triumphantis Libri Decem (1482)
- dedicated to Pope Pius II .; a cultural-historical study of ancient Rome
- Historiarum Ab Inclinatione Romanorum Imperii, Decades III, Libri XXXI (Venice, 1483)
- describes the history of Italy from the fall of the Roman Empire to Biondo's own time (1440). Three decades of these are complete and the first book of the fourth has survived.
expenditure
-
Edizione nazionale delle opere di Biondo Flavio. Istituto storico italiano per il medio evo, Rome 2008 ff. (Critical edition)
- Volume 1: Blondus Flavius: De verbis Romanae locutionis , ed. by Fulvio Delle Donne, 2008, ISBN 978-88-89190-48-7
- Volume 2: Blondus Flavius: Borsus , ed. by Maria Agata Pincelli, 2009, ISBN 978-88-89190-62-3
- Volume 4/1: Blondus Flavius: Italia illustrata , ed. by Paolo Pontari, Part 1, 2011, ISBN 978-88-89190-87-6
- Volume 4/2: Blondus Flavius: Italia illustrata , ed. by Paolo Pontari, Part 2, 2014, ISBN 978-88-98079-18-6
- Catherine J. Castner (Ed.): Biondo Flavio's Italia Illustrata. Global Academic Publishing, Binghamton (NY) 2005–2010 (Latin text, English translation and commentary)
- Volume 1: Northern Italy. 2005, ISBN 978-1-58684-255-0
- Volume 2: Central and Southern Italy. 2010, ISBN 978-1-58684-278-9
- Jeffrey A. White (Ed.): Biondo Flavio: Italy Illuminated. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2005 ff. (Latin text and English translation)
- Volume 1: Books I – IV , 2005, ISBN 0-674-01743-9
- Flavio Biondo: Rome in Triumph , Volume 1. Books I – II. (= The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 74.) Transl. by Frances Muecke. Ed. by MA Pincelli. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2016.
literature
- Riccardo Fubini: Biondo, Flavio. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 10: Biagio-Boccaccio. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1968, pp. 536-559.
- Rita Cappelletto: Recuperi ammianei da Biondo Flavio (= Note e discussioni erudite. Volume 18). Rome 1983
- Ottavio Clavuot: Biondos “Italia Illustrata” - Summa or New Creation? About the working methods of a humanist. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3-484-82069-1
- Ottavio Clavuot: Flavio Biondos Italia illustrata. Portrait and historical-geographical legitimation of the humanist elite of Italy. In: Johannes Helmrath , Ulrich Muhlack , Gerrit Walther (eds.): Diffusion of Humanism. Studies on the national historiography of European humanists. Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-506-0 , pp. 55-76.
- Marc Laureys : Biondo, Flavio. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 106 f.
- Tanja Michalsky : Mental Maps of the Early Modern Age. Coping with historical space in the 'Italia illustrata' by Flavio Biondo , in: Monumenta Illustrata , Dietrich Boschung and Alfred Schäfer (eds.). Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-7705-6427-9 , pp. 45-69.
Web links
- Digitized rarity in the Bibliotheca Hertziana
- Historiarum Ab Inclinatione Romanorum Imperii, 1483 at Gallica
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Biondo, Flavio |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Blondus, Flavius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1392 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Forlì |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 4, 1463 |
| Place of death | Rome |