Giannozzo Manetti

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Giannozzo Manetti (Latin Iannotius Manettus ; born June 5, 1396 in Florence , † October 27, 1459 in Naples ) was an Italian humanist , philologist and politician.

Life

Giannozzo Manetti had started an apprenticeship as a businessman before he received a humanistic training in Florence at the age of 25 from the Camaldolese monk Ambrogio Traversari and the Jew Immanuel Abraham di San Miniato, who converted to Christianity. In Florence he was also a member of the humanist circle of Santo Spirito .

Manetti was a brilliant orator, was a rare exception of his time and had a perfect command of all three classical languages (i.e. Hebrew in addition to the usual Latin and ancient Greek), was well educated and owned one of the most important Renaissance libraries , which is essentially still within the Palatina Fund Vatican is together. His work includes speeches, biographies (by Dante , Petrarca and Boccaccio and so on), historiographical works, translations from Greek and Hebrew (after Jerome he was the first to re-translate the Psalter from Hebrew) and philosophical treatises. His translation of Aristotle is particularly important . Like few others, he embodies the spirit of Italian Renaissance humanism .

The Renaissance image of man finds a significant expression in Manetti's treatise De dignitate et excellentia hominis ( On the dignity and majesty of man ; 1452). Manetti presents the human being here as an almost perfect being. Even the human body, which Manetti describes anatomically correct down to the individual parts, is highly praised for its functionality and perfect arrangement. In the human soul, Manetti particularly emphasizes the intelligence, which enables him to achieve tremendous creative cultural achievements. So man rules almost like a god on earth over the world that is at his service. Manetti is thus against the belief of the "misery of man" ( miseria hominis ) that was widespread in the Middle Ages , as it is in the treatise De miseria humanae conditionis ( On the misery of human existence , spread by Lothar von Segni , later Pope Innocent III). End of the 12th century). Manetti's work contains many new ideas for the early Renaissance, but was hardly received by other authors. It was used as a source in Pierre Boaistuau's Bref discours de l'excellence et dignité de l'homme , echoes can also be found in Fernán Perez de Oliva's Diálogo de la dignidad del hombre . Closely related thematically is the much more famous treatise by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola with the title On Human Dignity .

Manetti also wrote a biography of Pope Nicholas V , in whose service he was himself. He was also supported by the Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci in building his library. This in turn wrote a biography about Manetti.

Source collection

  • Stefano U. Baldassarri, Bruno Figliuolo (eds.): Manettiana. La biografia anonima in terzine e altri documenti inediti su Giannozzo Manetti. Roma nel Rinascimento, Rome 2010, ISBN 88-85913-54-7

Editions and translations

  • Elizabeth Riley Leonard (Ed.): Ianotii Manetti de dignitate et excellentia hominis (= Thesaurus Mundi. Vol. 12). Antenore, Padova 1975 (critical edition)
  • August Buck (ed.), Hartmut Leppin (translator): Giannozzo Manetti: About the dignity and sublimity of man . Meiner, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 978-3-7873-0958-0
  • Alfonso De Petris (Ed.): Giannozzo Manetti: Apologeticus. Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 1981, ISBN 88-8498-172-7 (critical edition)
  • Myron McShane, Mark Young (Eds.): Giannozzo Manetti: A Translator's Defense (= The I Tatti Renaissance Library. Vol. 71). Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2016, ISBN 978-0-674-08865-8 (Latin text and English translation of Apologeticus )
  • Stefano U. Baldassarri, Benedetta Aldi (ed.): Giannozzo Manetti: Historia Pistoriensis. SISMEL, Firenze 2011, ISBN 978-88-8450-442-5 (critical edition)
  • Stefano U. Baldassarri, Rolf Bagemihl: Giannozzo Manetti: Biographical Writings. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2003, ISBN 0-674-01134-1 . Contains: Trium illustrium poetarum Florentinorum vita ; De illustribus longaevis (excerpt); Contra Iudaeos et gentes (extracts); Vitae Socratis et Senecae . Latin text and English translation. Review by Federica Ciccolella in Electronic Antiquity 8.2, 2005, pp. 88–91 ( online ; PDF; 92 kB)
  • Gabriella Albanese, Bruno Figliuolo (eds.): Giannozzo Manetti a Venezia 1448-1450. Con l'edizione della corrispondenza e del Dialogus in symposio. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 2014, ISBN 978-88-95996-48-6 (critical edition).
  • Anna Modigliani (ed.): Vita di Nicolo V. / Giannozzo Manetti (De vita aic gestis Nicolai V. summi pontificis - Tommaso Parentucelli, 1398-1455). Roma nel Rinascimento, Rome 1999.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ On the novelty of Manetti's presentation and its reception cf. Martin Schmeisser, "Like a mortal god ...". Giannozzo Manetti's conception of human dignity and its reception in the age of the Renaissance , Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2006, passim, summary pp. 244–246.
  2. ↑ See the editions Vespasiano da Bisticci, biographical descriptions of famous men of the Quattrocento , selected, translated and introduced by Paul Schubring, Diederichs, Jena 1914 and Vespasiano da Bisticci, Great Men and Women of the Renaissance: thirty-eight biographical portraits , selected, translated and introduced by Bernd Roeck with the collaboration of Monika Pelz and Marcella Tantardini, Munich 1995.
personal data
SURNAME Manetti, Giannozzo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian humanist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1396
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1459
Place of death Naples