Martino da Canale

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Martino or Martin da Canale (also Martin da Canal ) was a Venetian chronicler of the 13th century. The only surviving work, which was probably created between 1267 and 1275, is known as Les Estoires de Venise .

Work and tradition

Almost nothing is known about Martino or Martin da Canale , apart from the work Les Histoires de Venise, which he wrote . He lived in the 13th century and mastered both Venetian and French and Latin. He may have been a clerk at the Dogana da mar , the main customs office for goods coming into Venice from the Adriatic . Emmanuele Cicogna assumes in the preface to the 1845 edition that Martino was not a Venetian, but a foreigner who had lived in the city for many years, since he always wrote about Venice in the third person, expresses himself in non-Venetian language and the first name Martino is in the da Canal family does not occur. The name Marino was used there. In addition, the self-designation as "maitre" did not correspond to the usual designation in the nobility of the city.

Da Canale actually refers to himself as “maitre” in his work, but he does not share with “master” what trade he was. His reference that he used documents from the customs office in question may indicate that he was working there, but this is not certain. According to da Canales, his work was written between 1267 and September 1275, the core probably between 1267 and May 1268. For this purpose, he translated into French from the official historical works, which, as he himself writes, were written in Latin. Among these works was certainly the Chronicon Altinate , which the correspondence points to in various respects, such as the scarcity of the representation before Ordelafo Falier , the Trojan descent of the Venetians or the alleged invasion by Pippin , the son of Charlemagne, or the confusion of the Doges Pietro Tradonico and Pietro Tribuno . But Gina Fasoli already regretted that a concordance had never been drawn up. For his stories of Venice he used numerous official sources , but also the Gesta Innocentii III , perhaps Robert de Clari . He reproduces in full two of the Latin documents from which Canal quoted, namely the privilege that the Venetians received in Jerusalem in 1125 and the Partitio Romaniae of 1204 - although the latter could also be a later addition.

Martino da Canale wrote his history book in French. As he writes in his introduction, he chose this language because of its aesthetic quality and its international appeal . He considered French to be particularly suitable for spreading knowledge of Venice in all regions relevant to trade in the lagoon city. Martino da Canale was probably never in France for any length of time, and his French has a strong Venetian tinge. One therefore speaks of "Franco-Veneto". This mixed language enjoyed high prestige, which was related to the takeover of chivalric culture in Italy, because while the French chansons de geste were still copied up to around 1260 , such epics were written in Franco-Italiano from around 1260 to 1300. This was due to the rise of the bourgeoisie, which in Venice was also based on knightly forms. On the other hand, the poor reception of the work could be traced back to this language, which went out of fashion in favor of the Volgare in the mid-14th century. It was also overshadowed by the huge success of the Chronicle of Doge Andrea Dandolo, so that it was forgotten. Even Marco Foscarini does not mention it in 1732, who was a great expert on the tradition. Instead, the first references appear again in Lorenzo Mehus in 1759, Girolamo Tiraboschi (1806) and Pierre Louis Ginguené (1821).

Cosimo de 'Medici in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, detail of a fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Cappella dei Magi

It is unclear where Martino's work ended up in the following centuries. It only appeared in the collection of the Marchese Riccardi in Florence between 1756 and 1758 . There in 1659 Gabriello and Francesco Riccardi bought a palace from the Medici (hence Palazzo Medici Riccardi ) in order to have a place for their art and book collection. The collectors Riccardo Romolo and Francesco Riccardi significantly expanded the collection in the 17th century. From 1737 the family made the holdings publicly accessible. In 1813 the city bought the library, in 1815 the state.

Four writers have worked on the text, with three apparently from a writing school, possibly the office of doge came. Except for the first part, they could be copies of a da Canales autograph , or they were created directly under his supervision. Gina Fasoli assumed that the manuscript in the Riccardiana was a 14th-century copy and that the original remained in Venice. Alberto Limentani assumed a drafting time around 1300. Even Henry Simonsfeld believed he could see from the many gaps that it could not be an autograph, while Limentani concluded, on the contrary, that the author wanted to leave room for additions. Antonio Carile believed, like Fasoli, that the Florentine copy was a copy.

His chronicle has been used as a source by later Venetian historians. The manuscript is in the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence (Ricc. 1919).

The first edition was made, after preliminary work from 1841, in 1845 by Filippo Luigi Polidori in the Archivio Storico Italiano under the title La cronaca dei Veneziani del Maestro Martino . Martino himself occasionally writes about Estoires de Venise . Alberto Limentani adopted this name for the work as the title of the 1972 edition.

reception

The work da Canales offers details on countless questions that were brought up from a Romance and linguistic, but above all from a historical perspective. At first, questions of political history were in the foreground, in particular those relating to the Fourth Crusade and the battles between Venice and Genoa in the middle of the 13th century. Da Canale's portrayal of the Venetians as loyal to the Pope and their unselfishness not only found a grateful reception in Venice - the Chronicle of Doge Andrea Dandolo argued similarly - but it also contributed greatly to the myth of Venice. In accordance with the changes in the historical sciences and their questions, the Chronicle also offered itself, as it were, as a quarry, for example to work on cultural or social-historical issues that Da Canale only mentions in passing. So was Antonio Carile show that de Venise founding myth and legends about the Estoires Translation have been spelled out of Saint Mark.

In the year of the first edition, a brief article by Angelo Zon appeared in the Archivio Storico Italiano .

In the 1960s, Alberto Limentani , who edited da Canale's work in 1972, published several studies that initially revolved around da Canales' writing style, then his interpretation of the Fourth Crusade, references to seafaring, and finally, in 1976, "approximations" of his biography.

In 2006 Maria Luisa Meneghetti dealt with the Venetian culture of the 13th century.

Editions

  • Digital copy, ed. Francesca Gambino in the Repertorio Informatizzato Antica Letteratura Franco-Italiana (RIALFrI).
  • Alberto Limentani (ed.): Martin da Canal, Les estoires de Venise: cronaca veneziana in lingua francese dalle origini al 1275 . Olschki, Florence 1972. ( Fondazione Giorgio Cini . Civiltà veneziana. Fonti e testi. Series III. 3).
  • Filippo Luigi Polidori (ed.): La cronique des Véniciens. Cronaca veneta, de maistre Martin da Canal, dall'origine della città sino all'anno 1275, tratte da un codice della Biblioteca Riccardiana (with Italian translation by Giovanni Galvani), in: Archivio Storico Italiano 8 (1845) 229-800 ( Discorso del Tradutore , pp. 229–251; Osservazioni sulla… dal nobile Angelo Zon , pp. 252–256; Estratti dall'opera ms. in lingua latina del cronista Marco , pp. 257–260; La chronique des Veniciens de Maistre Martin Da Canal , pp. 268–707 (digitized, pp. 268 f. ); Annotazioni alla cronica del Canale , pp. 709–766; Appendice , pp. 767–783; Tavola alfabetica delle materie , pp. 785–798; Indice , P. 799 f.). ( Digitized version )

translation

  • Laura K. Morreale (Ed.): Martin da Canal. Les Estoires de Venise , Padua: UniPress 2009 (English).

literature

  • Girolamo Arnaldi : Canal, Martin da , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 2, Munich, Zurich 1983, Col. 1426 f. ISBN 3-7608-8902-6
  • Sandro Baffi: Martino da Canale: motivations politiques et choix linguistiques , in: François Livi, Christian Bec: De Marco Polo à Savinio , Paris 2003, pp. 35–46. ISBN 978-2-84050-275-3
  • Gina Fasoli : La Cronique des Veneciens di Martino da Canale , in: Studi medievali , terza serie 2 (1961) 42–74.
  • Johannes Karayannopulos, Günter Weiß: Source studies for the history of Byzantium (324–1453) , Wiesbaden 1982, p. 467 (No. 451). ISBN 3-447-02244-2
  • Alberto Limentani :  Canal, Martino. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 17:  Calvart-Canefri. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1974, pp. 659-662.
  • Alberto Limentani : Martin da Canal e Les estoires de Venise , in: Gianfranco Folena (ed.): Storia della Cultura Veneta , vol. 1: Dalle Origini al Trecento . Neri Pozzi, Vicenza 1976, pp. 590-601.
  • Șerban V. Marin: A Chanson de Geste in the 13th Century Vencice: The Chronicle written by Martino da Canal , in: Medieval and Early Modern Studies for Central and Eastern Europe 2 (2010) 71–121. ( academia.edu )
  • John Melville-Jones (Ed.): Martin da Canal, Les Estoires de Venise , English translation by Laura K. Morreale. Archivio del Littorale Adriatico, UniPress, Padua 2009. ISBN 978-88-8098-267-8

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Șerban V. Marin: A Chanson de Geste in the 13th Century Venice: The Chronicle written by Martino da Canal , in: Bogdan-Petru Maleon, Liviu Pilat (ed.): Medieval and Early Modern Studies for Central and Eastern Europe , Alexandra Iioan Cuza University Press, Iași 2010, pp. 71–121, here: p. 78.
  2. ^ Henry Simonsfeld (ed.): Chronicon Venetum quod vulgo dicunt Altinate (MGH SS 14), Hannover 1883, pp. 1-69.
  3. ↑ Șerban V. Marin: A Chanson de Geste in the 13th Century Vencice: The Chronicle written by Martino da Canal , in: Bogdan-Petru Maleon, Liviu Pilat (Ed.): Medieval and Early Modern Studies for Central and Eastern Europe , Alexandra Iioan Cuza University Press, Iași 2010, pp. 71–121, here: pp. 105 f.
  4. ↑ Șerban V. Marin: A Chanson de Geste in the 13th Century Vencice: The Chronicle written by Martino da Canal , in: Bogdan-Petru Maleon, Liviu Pilat (Ed.): Medieval and Early Modern Studies for Central and Eastern Europe , Alexandra Iioan Cuza University Press, Iași 2010, pp. 71–121, here: p. 114.
  5. ^ For example, Aldo Rosellini: Il cosiddetto franco-veneto: retrospettive e prospettive , in: Filologia moderna II (1977), pp. 219–303, but also Max Pfister : Brunetto Latinis Livre du Tresor , in: Wolfgang Dahmen , Günter Holtus , Johannes Kramer , Michael Metzeltin , Wolfgang Schweickard , Otto Winkelmann (Hrsg.): Writing in another language. On the internationality of Romance languages ​​and cultures , Tübingen 2000, pp. 53–63, here: p. 55.
  6. ↑ This view was represented by Henning Krauss : Epica feudale e pubblico borghese. Per la storia di Carlo Magno in Italia , ed. by Andrea Fassò, Padua 1980, p. 217f.
  7. ↑ p. 115 f.
  8. ^ Antonio Carile, G. Fedalto: Le origini di Venezia , Bologna 1978, pp. 63-65.
  9. ↑ Angelo Zon: Osservazioni sulla Cronaca di maestro Martino da Canal… con alcuni estratti di altra antica cronaca veneziana scritta in lingua latina , in: Archivio Storico Italiano 8 (1845), pp. 253-267.
  10. ^ Alberto Limentani: Note sullo stilo adventureo-romanzesco di Martino da Canal , in: Cultura neolatina 21 (1961), pp. 220-228; ders .: Tradizione letteraria e funzione pubblicistica nella preghiera a San Marco di Martino da Canal , in: Cultura neolatina 24 (1964), pp. 142–198 and Cinque note su Martino da Canal , in: Atti del Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 124 (1965-66), pp. 257-281.
  11. ↑ Alberto Limentani: Maistre Martino da Canal interprete cortese delle crociate e dell'ambiente veneziano del secolo XIII , in: Venezia dalla prima crociata alla conquista di costantinopoli del 1204, Florence: Sansoni 1966, pp. 61-105.
  12. ^ Alberto Limentani: Elementi di vita marinara veneziana nel lessico di Martino da Canal , in: Bollettino dell'Atlante linguistico mediterraneo 8-9 (1966-67) 93-111.
  13. ↑ Alberto Limentani: Approssimazioni alla biografia di un cronista duecentsco: Martino da Canal e gli Ziani , in: Studi di ononre Italo Siciliano, Florence: Olschki 1976, Vol 2, pp 657-675..
  14. ↑ Maria Luisa Meneghetti: Martin da Canal e la cultura veneziana del XIII secolo , in: Medioevo romanzo 30.1 (2006) 111–129.
personal data
SURNAME Martino da Canale
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Martin da Canal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Venetian chronicler
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH 13th Century