Italian Renaissance Love Theory and the General Scholar in the Seventeenth Century

Clucas, Stephen

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-32604-7_3

Stephen Clucas⁴

Part of the book series: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées ((ARCH,volume 220))

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Abstract

This essay considers the uses made of Renaissance love theory by the seventeenth-century English scholar Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy (first published in 1621). It is argued that Burton’s approach is that of a ‘general scholar’, and a close examination of his sources reveal that he made use not only of the primary texts of Renaissance love theory such as the works of Marsilio Ficino and Leone Ebreo, but also the compendious works of later scholars working in medicine and law, as well as philosophy. Drawing on sources as diverse as Francesco Piccolomini’s weighty philosophical tome on civil science, Vniversa Philosophia de Moribus to a diminutive collection of Platonic commonplaces by Niccolò Liburnio, Burton’s work makes it clear that a history of the reception of Platonism in the seventeenth century needs to consider the various milieux of European general scholarship.

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Notes

1.
Nelson (1958), 257. All translations from Latin are my own unless otherwise stated.
2.
See Bravo (2006). See also Ligota and Quantin’s “Introduction” to the same volume, 1–38.
3.
Casaubon, Generall Learning, 89 and 92. See also Serjeantson’s “Introduction”, especially “General Learning and the Encyclopaedia” and “The Ideal General Scholar”, 13–21.
4.
Ibid., 95.
5.
Ibid., 96.
6.
Meric Casaubon to Oliver Withers, 24 February 1645, Lambeth Palace Library, Lambeth MS 595, 101–103, printed as an ‘Appendix’ by Serjeantson in Casaubon, Generall Learning, 194.
7.
Casaubon (1638), cit. Serjeantson in Casaubon, Generall Learning, 20.
8.
Burton (1628), 2 (hereafter cited as Anatomy). All quotations are from this edition, together with a cross-reference to the modern edition, Burton (1989–2000) (hereafter cited as AOM).
9.
Burton, Anatomy, 2 [AOM, vol. 1, 3].
10.
Serjeantson, ‘Introduction’ in Casaubon, Generall Learning, 18.
11.
See Erasmus (1511). For the mediaeval background of this ideal see Rohling (2012).
12.
Burton, Anatomy, 3 [AOM, vol. 1, 4].
13.
Burton, Anatomy, 8 [AOM, vol. 1, 11].
14.
Burton, Anatomy, 8 [AOM, vol. 1, 11]. Cf. Wecker (1562), ‘Pro Lectore’, sig. α 1 verso. I am indebted here (and throughout this paper) to the annotations of Burton in AOM, although I have occasionally amended them slightly, in the light of checking their references against the originals.
15.
Burton, Anatomy, 11 [AOM, vol. 1, 15].
16.
Burton, Anatomy, 5 [AOM, vol. 1, 6]: “I haue honourable Presidents for this which I haue done: I will cite one for all, Anthony Zara Pap. Episc. his Anatomie of Wit.” See Zara (1615).
17.
On Casaubon’s use of ancient and modern sources, see Serjeantson, ‘Introduction’, in Casaubon, Generall Learning, 26–27.
18.
Ficino, Commentarium in Convivium Platonis de Amore, VII.4. In Ficino (1576), 1358 (hereafter cited as Opera). English edition: Ficino (1944), 224 (hereafter cited as Jayne).
19.
Burton, Anatomy, 431 [AOM, vol. 3, 88]. See Ficino, Opera, 1360 (Jayne, 113) and Vairus (1583), I.3, 13. On Vairo ’s De fascino see Brann (2002), 213–214.
20.
Burton, Anatomy, 431 (AOM, vol. 3, 88). Ficino, Opera, 1357 (Jayne, 108).
21.
Burton, Anatomy, 413 [AOM, vol. 3, 58]. See Oratio VII.7 “Vulgaris amor est sanguinis perturbatio”, Opera, 1359: “In sanguine igitur illam meritò collocamus. In sanguine uidelicet melancholico”. “In the blood, therefore, we rightly place the fever of love; that is to say, in the melancholic blood” (Jayne, 226).
22.
Burton, Anatomy, 412 [AOM, vol. 3, 57]. See Ficino, Opera, 1361: “qui amore durante bilis incendio primum, deinde atrae bilis adustione afflicti, in furias, ignemque ruunt.” (Jayne, 114).
23.
Burton, Anatomy, 379 [AOM, vol. 3, p. 8].
24.
Godeffroy (1552), “Intentio Autoris summaque operis”, 1: “Et quî non inquam de amoribus nos etiam agemus vel relaxandi animi gratia, laborissimis omnium istius iuris studijs fatigati, quando & poëtarum genus dudum, otiosissimum his se iuuari ac iuuare illaesis moribus vult?” (“And who, I say, would not wish us to occupy ourselves with love or to alleviate our mind wearied with all its legal studies, when but a short time ago the idlest kind of poets have delighted, and are delighting themselves with this subject without any harm to morals?”).
25.
Burton, Anatomy, 377 [AOM, vol. 3, 4].
26.
Burton, Anatomy, 376 [AOM, vol. 3, 2].
27.
On this tradition of love treatises see Zonta (1975) [1910].
28.
Burton, Anatomy, 377 [AOM, vol. 3, 4].
29.
Ficino, Opera, Oratio, I.4, 1323: “Erubescat Dicaearchus, & si quis alius Platonicam maiestatem quod amori nimium indulserit, carpe non ueretur. Nam decoris, honestis, diuinis affectibus, nec nimium, nec satis unquam possumus indulgere. Hinc efficitur, ut omnis amor honestus sit & omnis amator iustus. Pulcher enim est omnis atque decorus, & decorum propriè diligit. Turbulentus autem ardor, quo ad lasciuiam rapimur […] amor contrarius iudicatur.” (Jayne, 41).
30.
Burton, Anatomy, 378 [AOM, vol. 3, 7].
31.
Ficino, Opera, 1361 (Jayne, 235). See, in particular, “inueniendis amoris accensi, amorem quaesiuimus & inueniemus.” (“aroused by love of finding love, so to speak, we have sought and found love”).
32.
Burton, Anatomy, 381 [AOM, vol. 3, 10].
33.
Burton, Anatomy, 14 [AOM, vol. 1, 19].
34.
Piccolomini (1583). In this essay I refer to the Geneva edition of 1596. On Piccolomini’s moral philosophy see Kraye (2002), and Poppi (1997), 59–78 and 206–213.
35.
Kraye (2002), 59–60. On “universal civil philosophy” see Piccolomini, Vniversa Philosophia, 4: “Dum quaeritur subiectum Ciuilis Scientiae, nomine Ciuilis Scientiae vniuersam Philosophiam Ciuiliem denoto, non partem eius […].”
36.
Piccolomini (1596), 531: “De instrumentis virtutum et summi boni quae naturae et fortunae munera dicuntur.”
37.
Piccolomini (1596), VIII.35, 595: “Pulchritudinem ex sententia Platonis ita definiendam censeo: Pulchritudo est vitalis fulgor ex ipso bono manans, per Ideas, Rationes, semina, & vmbras effusus, animos excitans vt per bonum in vnum redigantur. Per hanc definitionem omne genus causae elucescit.”
38.
Burton, Anatomy, 381 [AOM, vol. 3, 10].
39.
Piccolomini (1596), VIII.36, 597: “Definitur Pulchritudo à Peripateticis vario modo.”
40.
Piccolomini (1596), VIII.36, 597: “Censerem ego ex sententia Arist. 13 Metaphysicae ita esse definiendam, Pulchritudo est perfectio compositi, ex congruente ordine, mensura, & ratione partium consurgens. Cuius definitionis explicatio ex dictis satis est conspicua. Hanc censeo fuisse sententiam Aristotelis de Pulchritudine.” The reference is to Metaphysics, XIII.3.10, 1078b.
41.
Piccolomini (1596), VIII.37, 600–604.
42.
Piccolomini (1596), VIII.38, 599: “Pulchritudo & Gratia sint, tanquam radij & splendores Diuini Solis, in rebus variis vario modo fulgentes”.
43.
Burton, Anatomy, 381 [AOM, vol. 3, 10].
44.
Burton, Anatomy, 381 [AOM, vol. 3, 11].
45.
I am using the third edition, Vallès (1591).
46.
Vallès (1591), III. xiiii, 361: “Si omnia quae de amore à Platone, & aliis probatissimis philosophis scripta sunt, forent modò recensenda, iustus liber in sola hac tractatione consumeretur. Sed, cum modò non vnicam philosophiae partem susceperimus pertractandam, sed in multiplicibus & variis quaestionibus, stylem exerceamus: illud tantum de amore dicere erat tempestiuum, quod ad quaestionis modò propositae dissolutionem videbitur esse omnino necessarium.”
47.
Vallès (1591), III. xiiii, 362: “Amor igitur generatur in appetitu nonnumquam rationali, qui in cerebro residet: nonnumquam irrationali qui in hepate.” Cf. Burton, Anatomy, 385 [AOM, vol. 3, 16], where the passage is paraphrased “Affectus nunc appetetiuae potentiae, nunc rationalis, alter cerebro residet, alter epate, cor &c.”
48.
Burton, Anatomy, 381 [AOM, vol. 3, 11].
49.
Burton, Anatomy, 382 [AOM, vol. 3, 11]. The passage referred to is Symposium 180d-e.
50.
Burton, Anatomy, 382 [AOM, vol. 3, 11]: the Latin reads: “Duae veneres, duo amores, quarum vna antiquior & sine matre coelo nata quam caelestem venerem nuncupamus, altera vero Iunior a Jove & Dione prognata, quam vulgarem venerem vocamus.”
51.
Liburnio (1556), 24 verso: “Quoniam verò duae sunt Veneres geminum quoque amore necesse est. Geminam autem deam hanc esse quis neget? Nónne vna quaedam antiquor est, & sine matre Venus caelo nata, quam caelestem Venerem nuncupamus? Altera verò iuniore Ioue, & Dione progenita, quam vulgarem communémque vocamus?”. I have underlined the phrases which Burton quotes verbatim.
52.
See, for example, Liburnio (1537), and Liburnio (1551). His Virgil translation was printed in Venice in 1543. On Liburnio’s literary output see Peirone (1968).
53.
Liburnio (1556), 54 recto-65 verso.
54.
Ibid., 68 recto-127 verso. “Aliae sententiae ex eodem Platone depromptae” (“Other sententiae set forth from the same Plato ”).
55.
Ibid., 3 recto: “nonnulli ex eiusmodi hominum grege suis ipsorum quotidianis sermonibus, diuinos Platonis sensus confusè, intercisè, atque corruptissimè immiscere consuescant: his ergo remedio praesentissimo occurre posse indicarim, si optima quaeque talia ac tanti philosophi praecepta ex toto ferè eius opere collecta sub tuo nomine auspicatissimè publicarentur.”
56.
Ibid., 3 recto-verso: “Eiusdem verò, qui literarum studia leuiter attigissent, commodissimum fore visum est, vt nostro hoc labore ad apertiorem & pleniorem Platonis cognitionem peruenire valerent.”
57.
Ibid., “Typographus Lectori”, 66 recto: “existimaui operae pretium me facturum, si cum vobis exhibarem ita redactum in compendium, vt in manibus omnes habere possent ea, quae fusiùs, sub Socratis & aliorum persona, ab eo conscripta sunt.”
58.
Blair (2010), 6.
59.
Burton, Anatomy, 382 [AOM, vol. 3, 11–12].
60.
Ficino, Opera, 1342: “Esse uerò alios quosdam malos daemones Platonici nonnulli, & Christiani Theologi voluerunt. Sed de malis daemonibus nulla ad praesens nobis est disputatio. Bonos autem nostri custodes, proprio nomine angelos inferiores mundi gubernatores. Dionysius Areopagitica, quod in Platonis mente minimè discrepat uocare solet.” (Jayne, 80).
61.
Ficino (1532), 467: “At si minus tibi placet & familiarem hominis ducem daemonem appellare, saltem, ut placet nostris, bonum angelum appellato.”
62.
Burton, Anatomy, 382 [AOM, vol. 3, 12]. Ficino, Opera, 1345.
63.
Burton, Anatomy, 382 [AOM, vol. 3, 12]. Cf. Ficino, Opera, 1345: “Profectò in hominis mente aeternus est amor ad diuinam pulchritudinem peruidendeum: cuius gratia, philosophiae studia, & iusticiae, pietatisque officia sequimur.”
64.
Burton, Anatomy, 382 [AOM, vol. 3, 12].
65.
See, for example, Burton Anatomy, 457 [AOM, vol. 3, 131], 470–471 [AOM, vol. 3, 151–2], 482, 502. On Barth’s translation see Fernández (2006).
66.
Ebreo’s work was reprinted in Pistorius (1587), 331–608. The original Italian work was published posthumously in Rome: Ebreo (1535).
67.
Ebreo (1564), sig. [a vii] recto: “Plato in conuiuio de Amore disertè copioseque pertractans maximum hunc Deum per omnia tam diuina, quam humana latissimè sese diffundere pronunciauerit.”
68.
Burton, Anatomy, 380 [AOM, vol. 3, 9]. Cf. Burton: “Amor est voluntarius affectus & desiderium re bona fruendi”, and Ebreo (1564), 9 recto: “amorem verò affectum uoluntarium maxima quadam copulatione fruendi re, quae bona iudicatur, communiter esse definerem”.
69.
Burton, Anatomy, 383 [AOM, vol. 3, 13]. See Ebreo (1564), 56 verso-60 verso.
70.
Burton, Anatomy, 576–577 [AOM, vol. 3, 333–335]
71.
Ebreo (1564), 38 verso-39 recto: “In summa faelicitas nec in actu Dei cognoscendi, qui eius amorem nobis ingenerat, nec in amore, qui huic succedit cognitionis, sed solùm in actu copulationis intimae, & vnitae diuinaeque illius cognitionis consistit, quae quidem cognitio summa perfectio intellectus creati esse censetur: & actus ille est vltimus, atque beatus ipsius finis & in eo statu intellectu noster diuinus potius, quam humanus vocari meretur.” Cf, also earlier in the same dialogue, 36 recto-verso, where Philone tells Sophia: “De his autem proprius actus ipsius faelicitatis in cognitione, an in amore Dei reponatur, maxima fuit inter sapientes controuersia.”
72.
Burton, Anatomy, 578 [AOM, vol. 3, 336]. Cf. Ficino, Opera, 1327: “Vos autem amici hortor & obsecro ut amorem rem profecto diuinam totis uiribus complectamini […].” (Jayne, 49–50: “I urge and beg you all, my friends, to imbrace immediately this love, a thing certainly divine, with all your strength.”)
73.
Burton, Anatomy, 578 [AOM, vol. 3, 336]. Cf. Ficino (1580), 56.
74.
Casaubon, Generall Learning, 92–93.
75.
On Burton’s mixture of medical and religious imperatives see Lund (2010).

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Stephen Clucas

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Cecilia Muratori
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Gianni Paganini

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Clucas, S. (2016). Italian Renaissance Love Theory and the General Scholar in the Seventeenth Century. In: Muratori, C., Paganini, G. (eds) Early Modern Philosophers and the Renaissance Legacy. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 220. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32604-7_3

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