Petrus de Vinea

One page of the collection of letters of Petrus de Vinea in the manuscript Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticanus Palatinus lat. 972, fol. 56v (14th century)

Petrus de Vinea (also - not contemporary - de Vineis , Italian Pier delle Vigne ; * before 1200 in Capua ; † April 1249 in San Miniato ) was Protonotarius and Chancellor of the Roman-German Emperor and King of Sicily , Frederick II from the house the Staufer .

Petrus de Vinea went through the career of the imperial administration as an official. After studying at the prestigious University of Bologna , he became a notary of Frederick II in 1220, and since 1224 he has been attested as a judge at the Grand Court. From 1230 to 1231 he was the head of the imperial commission, which drafted the Melfi Constitutions , the first European state code since ancient times .

He subsequently gained importance as a lawyer and Latin stylist as well as head of the chancellery (protonotary since 1243) and advisor to the emperor. Petrus, who was one of Frederick's closest confidants and who had effectively held the position of senior minister since 1244, was also entrusted with diplomatic missions by the emperor. In February 1235 he traveled to England as head of a Sicilian delegation to woo Frederick for the hand of Princess Isabella . Certainly through his influence, the style of the imperial letters and manifestos was decisively upgraded. The collection of letters in Latin compiled around 1270 and known by his name has been preserved in numerous manuscripts.

The background to the case of Petrus de Vineas, who was also considered a close friend of Frederick, cannot be clearly explained. In 1249, a poison attack was carried out on Friedrich II from the emperor's court . Peter was suspected of participating and blinded . Imprisoned in San Miniato , he died shortly afterwards, either by suicide or by being blinded. It is possible that Petrus de Vinea actually established connections with the emperor's opponents (such as the Pope), or that he fell victim to an intrigue.

The glamorous career of Petrus de Vinea, who, however, had acquired his extensive fortune through corruption among other things, is also an interesting aspect of the work of the fascinating figure of Frederick II. Peter belonged to Frederick's “ Sicilian school of poetry ” and composed two canzons himself. In retrospect, the life of Petrus de Vinea was greatly transfigured, including by Dante in Canto 13 of the Inferno of the Divine Comedy .

literature

• Franziska Arnold: CF Meyer's drafts for a poem "Petrus de Vinea" . Dissertation, University of Frankfurt 1941.
• Friedrich Baethgen : Dante and Petrus de Vinea. A critical study . Beck, Munich 1955.
• Benoît Grévin: Rhétorique du pouvoir médiéval. Les "Lettres" de Pierre de la Vigne et la formation du langage politique européen (XIIIe-XVe siècle) (Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 339). École Française de Rome, Rome 2008, ISBN 978-2-7283-0808-8 .
• Hans Martin Schaller :  Della Vigna (de Vinea; la forma de Vineis o Delle Vigne non è attestata nelle fonti coeve), Pietro. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 37:  Della Fratta – Della Volpaia. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1989.
• Hans Martin Schaller: List of manuscripts for the letter collection of Petrus de Vinea ( MGH Aid 18). Hahn, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-7752-1125-X (together with Bernhard Vogel)
• Hans Martin Schaller: Staufer time. Selected articles (MGH Schriften 38). Hahn, Hannover 1993, ISBN 3-7752-5438-2

Web links

• Petrus de Vinea in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Latin letters from ALIM ( Epistolarum libri VI after the edition by JR Iselius); Epistolarum libri VI. Tomus II ; Epistole stravaganti