The Origin of the Word "Humanist"Author(s): Augusto CampanaSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 9 (1946), pp. 60-73Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750309Accessed: 20/10/2010 05:11

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THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST"

By Augusto Campana

Of the words of Italian origin which found their way into the European vocabularies at the time of the Renaissance few are more significant than

umanista. It is the unusual vitality of this word which gives it a special claim to the attention of philologists and historians, for in the course of almost five centuries the term took on various moods and shades of meaning-some of them of great cultural significance-and gave birth to a great number of derivatives, especially in the English tongue.

It is therefore justifiable that a thorough study of the word in its historical development should be undertaken. What I intend to do here, however, concerns only the first part of the story. I hope to add some material to the meagre evidence regarding the earliest use of the word; to throw fresh light on its original meaning; and to suggest what seems to me a reasonable ex- planation of its etymology. For the rest I shall limit myself to some casual observations and remarks.

The subject has hitherto been only briefly touched upon by Remigio Sabbadini and Vittorio Rossi. That two such great students of Italian humanist literature should have devoted attention to the theme suggests its importance. One earlier mention was made in 1909 by Vladimir Zabughin., also a distinguished scholar in that field. "There can be no doubt," he says, "that the word umanesimo is of recent coinage, and I believed that this was also the case with umanista, until I happened to find the latter word in a forgotten epigram of the second half of the fifteenth century."1 It is a matter for regret that Zabughin did not describe his source more precisely and that he had no opportunity of referring to it again. An important piece of evidence thus remains unknown to us, and only a lucky find can bring it again to light. Until then we must content ourselves with Rossi's suggestion that the epigram to which Zabughin alludes was "certainly in Latin."

Writing later than Zabughin, but without reference to him, Sabbadini re- marks: "I have never come across the word umanista in Latin texts. The earliest use made of it in vernacular texts occurs in Lodovico Ariosto's sixth Satire (25-27) 'Senza quel vizio son pochi umanisti' . . ."2 And Rossi, in the second edition of his major work, says: "The word umanista does not appear in Latin until the second half of the fifteenth century, and in Italian only in the third decade of the sixteenth; and the word umanesimo is of recent date. Yet, even at the end of the fourteenth century it pleased the pioneers of a new and truer awakening of classical learning to revert to an elegant Ciceronian phrase and to call their studies studia humanitatis, meaning those studies which tend to integrate and perfect the human mind and which are therefore the only ones

1 V. Zabughin, "L'umanesimo dinanzi al problema della vita," Atti del terzo Congresso della Societa Filosofica Italiana, Rome, 19o9, Modena, 1910, p. 5 of the offprint.

2 There follows a chronological reference which we shall discuss later; R. Sabbadini, II metodo degli umanisti, Florence, 1920, p. i, note I.

6o

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 6I

worthy of man." In a note he refers to the two texts quoted by Zabughin and Sabbadini.1

No valuable contribution is to be found in the big Italian dictionaries which for the sixteenth century give only the quotation from Ariosto and add one from Varchi. It appears that the word is rare in the literary texts of the Italian Renaissance. It may have been more frequent in the practical usage of the spoken language, for we shall see afterwards that the term was applied to practical rather than to cultural matters. But it does not gain a wide diffusion in the spoken and written language of the educated until the end of the nineteenth century; it then takes on a different meaning under the influence of modern historians of literature.

The very fact, however, that the word is rare is an invitation to search for it. I have been fortunate in finding some evidence of its early use which I shall communicate here, with comments, and in chronological order. The extracts cover the sixteenth century from the first to the last years, and three of them are earlier than Ariosto's verse. I have, of course, omitted Zabughin's source from my list; until it has been identified it raises some doubts, without affording full evidence. But I have included the two already known examples from Ariosto and Varchi.

A quest of this kind is always to a large extent governed by chance, and although I would still maintain, after a search of several years, that the word is rare, it is probable that the evidence here collected could be further aug- mented, perhaps even considerably. As often happens, once attention has been drawn to a certain subject, it is easier for others to add more material. New facts can be fitted into the picture without an effort and be assessed at their true value. It is hoped that the present documentation may be increased by further discoveries in printed or written sources which otherwise might remain hidden, or unknown except to those who cannot appreciate their importance.

(I) A document in the Municipal Archives of Bologna dated 2 Ist October, 1512, and relating to Giovanni Antonio Modesto, lector in Rhetorics and Poetry at the University of Bologna from I512 to 1516, begins with these words: "Salarium lo. Antonii Modesti humanistae. Item Io. Antonio Modesto humanistae conducto ad Rhetoricam et Poesim ..." Some years later, in a document ofJanuary i9th, 1516, he is said to have been "conducto ad litteras humanitatis." This would mean that he was appointed to the chair of the Humanities which had been established only a short time before.2

This is the first document which connects the word umanista with a fixed date, and it may be useful to point out that although it is a Latin text it bears

1 V. Rossi, II Quattrocento (in the new edi- tion of the Storia letteraria d'Italia, published by Vallardi), Milan, 1933, pp. 6 and

I5, note 2. 2 G. Albini, "Dell'umanista Francesco

Modesto" (brother of Giovanni Antonio), Atti e memorie della R. Deputazione di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna, s. III, XVII, 1898-99, p. 9, note 2, from the "Partiti degli

Anziani" of Bologna (Archivio di stato); but in U. Dallari, I rotuli dei lettori legisti e artisti dello studio bolognese dal 1384 al 1799, I, Bologna, I888, p. 216; II, 1889, pp. 6, 9, I2, Modesto always appears under the heading "ad Rethoricam et Poesim," and in I515-16 another name appears "ad Literas humani- tatis" (II, p. 12).

5

62 AUGUSTO CAMPANA

evidence of the use of the term in the vernacular. The literal translation of the word into Latin is in accordance with the current business practice of notaries and public offices. On linguistic grounds, therefore, the document testifies to the existence of the word in Italian, and not to its entry into the Latin vocabulary. It would have been a different matter if it had occurred in a literary context. In the light of this evidence Zabughin's epigram, though perhaps not conclusive, might be of great interest, and it is the more regret- table that it cannot be traced.

(2) Giuliano Fantaguzzi of Cesena (1453-1521) is the author of a bulky chronicle of his times of which an unedited autograph manuscript exists. United with it in the same volume is a kind of note-book containing miscel- laneous entries, which, apart from their local interest, present a lively picture of the confused and rustic education, the intellectual interests and quaint enthusiasms of this country nobleman. It is a provincial reflection of Italian Renaissance civilization. The note-book and the chronicle together provide a mine of miscellaneous information. In this note-book, Fantaguzzi records among the "homini singulari" who lived in his native town in 1512 the "Mo. F. Uberto maestro de schola et umanista e poeta."I In another part of the same miscellany, listing in great disorder all kinds of notes brought together from various sources and jotted down as they passed through his mind, Fantaguzzi enters a curious selection of words ending in -ista. This list merits publication in full for the linguistic interest which it affords: "Jurista. Legista. Artista. Canonista. Tomista. Scotista. Sophista. Umanista. Terminista. Contratista. Sacrista. Vochabolista. Antista. Abachista. Alchim- ista. Summista."2

In making a list of these words without regard to their meaning and guided only by their common ending -ista, the worthy Fantaguzzi seems to have been inspired by a certain curiosity, caprice, or even linguistic flair, however crude and primitive. Three of the words turn up again in another list which reads: "Scola e studio in gramatica. retorica. dialetica. loica. musica. geometria. astronomia. arsmetrica. fisico. cirusico. armorum. archi- tettore. sculto(re). pictore. canonista. legista. artista."3

Here Fantaguzzi apparently began with the intention of enumerating the disciplines of the mind, the seven liberal arts, increasing their number to eight by including "loica"; he went on to collect under the same heading various other occupations including artistic and technical professions like "cirusico" and "armorum." The two lists deserve a fuller linguistic commentary than the present context allows.4 The first list is especially interesting and is bound

1 The passage is edited by L. Piccioni, Di Francesco Uberti umanista cesenate, Bologna, 1903, p. 212, from Fantaguzzi's own manu- script in the Biblioteca Comunale di Cesena, MS. 164.64, p. 81 (f. 233r., in the old page numbering). On Fantaguzzi, see Piccioni, pp. 195-7.

2 MS. cit., p. 74 (f. 228V); "Summista" seems to have been added later, but in the same hand.

3 MS. cit., p. 169 (f. 278r); this part of the

MS. contains notes and various matter in alphabetical order; the last two words are added later in different ink.

41 am doubtful about the meaning of contratista in the first list; antista [sic] must come from antistes: compare Tommaseo- Bellini, Dizionario della lingua italiana, I, Turin, 1865, p. 490. I should add, for those whom it may interest, that Fantaguzzi uses artista also in the sense of artigiano, both in the plural "li artista" (the plural ending in -a

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 63

in itself to attract the attention of philologists, though the occurrence of the word umanista in it adds nothing to the other example of its use by Fantaguzzi.

(3) The Venetian Marino Sanuto, recording in his diary the death of Aldo Manuzio on 6th of February, 1515, calls him "optimo humanista et greco." (A few lines further down Raffaele Regio, who delivered the funeral speech, is called "lector publico in questa citta in humanita.")1

(4) The passage from Ariosto is found in the Satire (numbered VI or VII in different editions) addressed to Pietro Bembo in which the poet invites his friend to help him find a Greek teacher for his son Virginio. He explains that he requires a man not only of sound learning but of good morals, and describes the dangers with which his choice is beset. The six relevant lines exist in two versions. The only known manuscript of the Satires is in the Biblioteca Comunale in Ferrara and was at one time regarded as an auto- graph; but the corrections alone are in the poet's own hand. The original text (lines 25 ff.) runs thus:

Pochi sono grammatici e humanisti Senza il peccato per cui Sabaot Fece Gomorra e i suoi vicini tristi;

Che mand6 il fuoco gifi dal cielo et, quot quot Eran, tutti consunse, si che apena Camp6 fuggendo uno innocente Lot.

Ariosto first altered line 26: "Senza il vitio per cui Dio Sabaot," then proceeded to cross out entirely and rewrite in his own hand the lines begin- ning with "Senza il peccato etc.," and in the end again corrected the first line. The final text, therefore, reads:

Senza quel vitio son pochi humanisti, Che fe' a Dio forza non che persuase Di far Gomorra e suoi vicini tristi:

Mand6 fuoco da ciel ch'uomini e case Tutto consumpse et hebbe tempo a pena Lot a fugir, ma la moglier rimase.2

According to Catalano, "the editions of the Satires derive from two main sources, the clandestine print of 1534 which reproduces the Ferrarese manu-

still survives in the dialect of Romagna) and "li artisti," MS. cit., p. 9, relating to the Verona fairs.

II diarii, XIX, Venice, 1887, p. 425. This notice was published several times (see A. A. Renouard, Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde, 3rd ed., Paris, 1834, p. 392; also by A. Firmin-Didot, A. M. et l'hillinisme a Venise, Paris, 1875, PP- 396-7). The autograph of this passage is reproduced in a photograph in T. D(e) M(arinis), "Manuzio, Aldo, il Vecchio," Enciclopedia Italiana, XXII, 1934, p. I84.

2 I have used the collotype reproduction in: Le satire autograf di Lodovico Ariosto, Bologna, 1875, and the photograph of the passage in

question (f. 35r) reproduced by M. Catalano, "Autografi e pretesi autografi ariosteschi," Archivum romanicum, IX (1925), p. 63. Cata- lano deals, on pp. 58-64, with the question of the hands; later he abandoned his opinion that the codex was written by Gabriele Ariosto, brother of Lodovico (see Vita di L. A., I, Geneva, 1930, p. 445, note 51). G. Tam- bara's edition, Le satire di Ludovico Ariosto, con intr., etc., Leghorn, 1903 (see pp. 14 and 158), is inadequate; he omits some of the corrections and prints the first version in his text; he also prints "quot," taking the second "quot" for a slip of the pen, not realizing that he should have read "quotquot."

64 AUGUSTO CAMPANA

script without the corrections, and Giolito's edition of 1550 which takes into account practically all the corrections of the manuscript."1 The Crusca quoted without distinction one edition of the first, and one of the second type.2 That is the reason why we find the earlier rather than the later version of our passage in the dictionary of the Crusca and in all the dictionaries based on it. It is also the version which chiefly interests us here, because it links humanisti with grammatici. The poem probably belongs to the years 1523-4.3

(5) In the year 1544, the printer Aramezzino of Venice published for the first time the Silva de varia leccion by the Spanish author Pero Mexia4 in the Italian translation by Mambrino Roseo of Fabriano. This was the first foreign translation of this extremely successful book which was translated into nearly all European languages and published in many reprints. In his first version, on which the Italian and French translations are based, Mexia relates (Bk. I, ch. 21) the legend of Cola Pesce, and, quoting Pontano, calls him: "Ioviano Pontano, varon doctissimo en lectras de humanidad, y singular poeta y orador." In Mambrino Roseo's translation the passage reads: "il Pontan l'uno, grande humanista, oratore, et poeta"; and in Claude Gruget's French translation it reads: "l'un est Pontan grand humaniste, orateur et poete." If in the first version of the Spanish original the passage is as I have quoted it above,5 then Gruget must have known and remembered not only the Spanish text but also the Italian translation. We shall have to come back to Gruget's text later on, as the first recorded use of the word humaniste in French.

(6) Varchi uses the word in a letter to Luca Martini written between 1545 and 1546, but not published until 1841. In this letter, Varchi blames the fifteenth century men of letters for quibbling over matters "of little importance or of no doubt." He names, as examples, Filelfo, Leonardo Aretino, Pontano, Valla, Poggio, Merula and Domizio Calderini and continues: "La qual cosa quanto stia bene e sia richiesta, e massimamente a quegli che fanno professione d'umanita, lasciar6 giudicare agli altri, e dir6 solamente che queste ed altre cosi fatte non so se sciocchezze o malvagita, hanno e meritamente in buona parte cagionato quella poca riputazione, per non dir dispregio, nella quale sono oggi non solamente gli umanisti, ma i filosofi, e generalmente tutti coloro i quali o si dilettano delle lettere o atten- dono alle scienze." [How far this is a good and desirable thing, especially for those whose profession is the Humanities, I leave to others to judge. In my opinion these and other cases of, I do not know whether to call it stupidity

1 "Autografi," etc., pp. 62-63. 2See G. Manuzzi, Vocabolario della lingua

italiana gia compilato dagli Accademici della Crusca, 2nd ed., IV, Florence, 1865, p. 815, note c.

3 Catalano, Vita, I, pp. 548-52. Sabbadini, i.c., with reference to Rossi, Giorn. Stor. d. lett. it., XLVI, 402, dates it Dec. 1523, but this is due to a misunderstanding caused by the different numbering of the Satire. The Satire with which Rossi deals is that addressed to B. Pistofilo.

1 La selva di varia lettione. Tradotta nella

lingua italiana per Mambrino da Fabriano; see E. Toda y Guiell, Bibliografia espanyola d'Italia, III, Sant Miquel d'Escornalbou, 1929, p. 79, no. 3219; A. Palau y Dulcet, Manual del librero hispano-americano, V, Barcelona, 1926, p. 172.

5 I1 have seen only three late editions: Venice, G. Giolito, 1553, for the Spanish text (a reprint of the second version); Lyons, B. Honorati, 1556, for the Italian; Tournon, C. Michel, 16Io, for the French text. The first version of the Spanish text appeared in Seville, 1540; Palau y Dulcet, V, 172-

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 65

or malice, have to a large extent justly contributed to the low reputation and even contempt in which are held at present not only humanists, but also philosophers, and generally speaking, all those who either enjoy literary studies or devote themselves to the sciences.]1

(7) Paolo Manuzio's letter to his son Aldo (the younger) on I7th October, 1573: "E anche una vergogna, ch'io sia tenuto principe de gli humanisti, e che non habbia un Virgilio, un'Horatio, un Salustio, un Livio." [It is a shame that I who am considered the prince of humanists, should not possess a Virgil, a Horace, a Sallust, or a Livy.]2

(8) In a letter written 12th January, 1573 (I574 if the date of the letter is in the Florentine style), Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici asks his brother Francesco Maria to release "Mes. Piero da Barga Humanista di Pisa" from his teaching obligations for a period of six months to enable him to take up service with the Cardinal." Pier Angelio da Barga was a lecturer in Greek and Latin literature at Pisa university from 1549 to 1596.

(9) Bologna university in the first years of the century was our point of departure and chance leads us back to it at the end of the century and of our survey. At the beginning of this period, in 1515, an independent chair of the Humanities had been added to the existing chair of Rhetorics and Poetry.4 The rolls show that the lectors of the new chair had always belonged to the Faculty of Artisti. But in 1588 the Municipal Government decided to transfer Tomaso Corria, Professor "humanarum litterarum" to the roll of the Legisti.5 The "Artists" chose the first opportunity to lodge their protest. In 1595 the Chair fell vacant and no less a person than Justus Lipsius was about to be elected to it. During the session of 25th January of that year the Dean of the Arts Faculty "proposuit maximum praeiudicium esse Universitati" (or, as we would say, the Faculty) "quod humanistae describantur in rotulo DD. legistarum cum vere sint Artistae et sub iurisdictionem DD. Artistarum," without regard to the exception made in Correa's case; and he insisted on asking the Vicelegato to declare "humanistas esse et esse debere Artistas et describi debere in rotulo Artistarum."6 The letter written on this occa- sion to the Vicelegato still exists. "Trattandosi di condurre in questo Studio di Bologna alla lettura dell'humanita il sig. Justo Lipsio" the Faculty of the Artists requests that the new professor be included in "rotolo nostro," even though his predecessor had been on the roll of the legisti: "e perche

1 Lezioni sul Dante e prose varie di Benedetto Varchi la maggior parte inedite, ed. G. Aiazzi-- L. Arbib, Florence, 1841, II, p. 81 (for the date see pp. 73, 78, and cf. I, p. 337); also in Opere, II, Trieste, 1859, p. 738.

2Ed. A.-A. Renouard, Lettere di Paolo Manuzio copiate [by P. A. Tosi] sugli autografi esistenti nella Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Paris, 1834, p. 301.

3 Ed. A. Fabroni, Historiae Academiae Pisanae II, Pisa, 1792, p. 427, note; ibid., p. 47I for the dates of Bargeo's teaching activities. If the letter was addressed to Francesco Maria after he had become Grand Duke (on the Ist

April, 1474), the date must be wrong. I owe the reference to G. Manacorda, Storia della scuola in Italia, ed. Sandron, I, I (1914), PP- 277-8; Manacorda's expression "come si diceva a Pisa, l'umanista," implies that the word sounded new to his ears, or at least unusual.

4 E. Costa, "La prima cattedra d'umanita. nello studio bolognese durante il secolo XVI," Studi e memorie per la storia dell' Universita di Bologna, I, I (1907), pp. 23-63-

5 Costa, p. 6o, note i, and cf. Dallari, op. cit., II, 1889, p. 229.

6 Costa, p. 61, note 2.

66 AUGUSTO CAMPANA

l'humanita e arte et che di raggion devono i professori esser sottoposti alli Sig.ri Artisti, si come ancora per privileggio antico appare che detti humanisti et tutti quelli della Citta pagavano tributo per riconoscimento d'essere sudditi all'Universith delli Sig.ri Artisti."'1

"The said humanists" are obviously those appointed to the "lettura dell'humanita," that is the chair of the Humanities. It is not so easy to understand the expression that follows, "quelli della Citta." I believe that this term refers to the umanisti of the town, teachers of the regional schools of Bologna who also formed part of the academic body. They were, in fact, in right of an ancient custom, enrolled in the Faculty of Arts, and labelled "Ad lecturam gramatice per quarteria," "Ad gramaticam pro quarteriis" or some similar phrase.2

What do we learn from these documents? In the first place, they answer the question as to the precise meaning of the term umanista. In its original sense, the word is closely connected with the scholastic system: it qualifies a person as a public or private teacher of classical literature, of the chair of humanitas or umanitd. This meaning is evident in the two Bolognese docu- ments of the first and the last years of the century and in the Pisa docu- ment (our numbers I, 8, and 9). It is less evident, but no less certain in the first example from Fantaguzzi (2). It is still clearly implied in the quota- tion from Ariosto (4), if one remembers that the Satire is concerned with a scholastic question; and without running the danger of being either rash or pedantic, we may take the double term "grammatici e humanisti" in the first version of the poem to denote two successive grades of school teachers.

This is, in my opinion, the primary meaning of the word. But the examples from Mambrino Roseo (5), from Varchi (6) and from Paolo Manuzio (7) point to a second phase in which the word assumes a more comprehensive and general meaning. It refers to the student of classical learning who is not necessarily also a teacher. This is especially plain in Mambrino Roseo's use of the word in translating from a text where it does not occur. The translator thereby shows unmistakably what meaning he attached to the term umanista. In Marino Sanuto's time (3) we may already be on the threshold of the second period, and the comparatively early date of his testimony is therefore relevant. Still, from the way it is used I would not conclude that the word had already quite lost its bearing on school matters. It should not be forgotten that Aldo Manuzio's early career, both as a public lector in Ferrara and as a private tutor to the Pio family, lords of Carpi, was that of a teacher, and that the

1 Ed. Costa, p. 61, note 2; later, but with- out reference to the earlier edition, in G. Zac- cagnini, Storia dello studio di Bologna durante il Rinascimento, Geneva, 1930, p. 298, note 2; the text of the document is more complete, but, I think, less correct than in Costa's edi- tion: e.g. "di raggione dicono"; the date, too (29 Jan., Costa, 27 Jan., Zaccagnini), and the press-mark are rendered differently in the

two editions. The artists carried their case, judging by the Roll of 1595-6; Dallari, II, p. 256.

2Dallari, op. cit., I and II, passim; the lecturers in grammar of the quarters of the town are mentioned even in the earliest of the preserved rolls, 1384-85, though styled simply "In Gramaticha" (I, p. 5 and cf. IV, 1924, p. 7 ff., years 1381-82 ff.).

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 67

brilliant life of printer, editor and philologist on which he later embarked, belongs entirely to the period of his maturity. It is therefore possible that in Sanuto's time the word has just begun to take on that wider significance, that application to a less precise, less technical field in which we find it securely established in 1544. But at the same time the word may still have retained its old associations with schools and teaching, and it is therefore wise to reserve our judgment until more evidence comes to light. One thing is, however, certain, and it enhances Sanuto's value as a witness. In his mind the word umanista refers only to Latin literature; and he feels compelled to add the curious qualification "e greco" in order to make clear that Aldo was a student of both languages.

The primary sense of the word clearly connected it, therefore, not with humanitas in general, but with humanitas-umanitd in the strict and technical application to Renaissance schools.1 It seems a priori unlikely that this process can be reversed-that the narrower sense could have been second in order of time. But to clinch the argument we must examine how the word was formed.

Taken in connection with the whole family of words ending in -ista, the linguistic structure of the word umanista stamps it as belonging to scholastic vocabulary. The ending itself has a long history. It existed in the ancient languages and has never ceased to be formative. Its most prolific period, how- ever, is our own, and it gains an ever growing diffusion. Whether coupled with its counterpart -ismo in abstract nouns, or not, the suffix -ista denotes a person following a certain profession, possessing certain qualifications, or belonging to a certain philosophical, political or social group.2 At the time when the word umanista was first recorded a number of parallel words describing persons, groups and bodies connected with elementary and academic schools had been in general use for centuries. Grammatista and abachista belong to the first category; canonista, decretista, decretalista to the second, together with iurista which has a more generic meaning. It is worth noticing that even today a tendency persists in the Faculty of Law, stronger than in any other, to apply similar words to the occupants of particular Chairs. Terms like summista, terminista, thomista (thomatista), scotista, occamista, etc., describe the followers of certain philosophical schools, and also, occasionally, and at given moments, the teachers and students connected with a particular Chair or syllabus. And finally, the words artista and legista still reflect the organization of mediaeval universities and their division into two faculties, Arts and Medicine on the one hand and Law on the other. If the history of the suffix -ista, with its enormous range and formative power, ever comes to be written, one chapter in it should be devoted to the vocabulary of mediaeval schools,

1 Some examples of the terms humanitas- umanita?, as used in the schools, can be found above; see I, 3, 6(?), 9.

2 As I am no philologist I may be excused for the following bibliographically incomplete note: see the heading -ist in Murray, A new English dictionary on historical principles, V, 1901I, pp. 514-5. The article is practically a short

history of the ending from ancient to modern times; see also the paper, familiar to Italian readers, by B. Migliorini, "I1 suffisso -istico" (with frequent references to -ista), in his Saggi sulla lingua del Novecento, 2nd ed., Florence, 1942, pp. 90-133; by the same author, Lingua contemporanea, 3rd ed., Florence, 1943, PP- 75-6.

68 AUGUSTO CAMPANA

particularly the universities. It would make a most instructive contribution to the history of education.

It is, therefore, very likely that the earlier terms for special schools or branches of instruction provided the models after which the word for the teachers (and also the students) of the Humanities was formed. True, little is known of the living organism of mediaeval and Renaissance schools, and their technical language often escapes or baffles us. Words like umanitd and umanista will not show their outlines clearly across the distance that separates us from them until our vision has become wider and sharper. It is not too much to predict that, on closer view, terms still in use during the last century in Italian schools, particularly ecclesiastical ones (grammatica, umanitd, rettorica) will appear much older than they are generally believed to be. It might be argued that the term humanitas-umanitd, in its relation to teaching, ought to have been studied before the present attempt was made. Perhaps our argument would thereby have been placed upon a sounder foundation and made more convincing. But this type of inquiry cannot be expected to proceed in the strict order of a mathematical demonstration; and a dissertation on the r6le of that word in schools and curricula is still waiting to be written by some student of education who is both a historian and a linguist.

When and where was the word umanista used for the first time? I must leave to others the researches and observations for the date. Even though Zabughin's text remains unidentified, I consider it likely that sooner or later some evidence from the end of the fifteenth century will come to light, more probably in documentary records than in literary texts. I do not, however, believe that its date will be prior to the middle of the century, or even as early as that. As to the place, any surmise on this point involves a risk. But the earliest documents which prove that the word umanista originated in Italy in the atmosphere of the schools, also point to the direction in which its birthplace should be sought. Most of them come from Emilia (the Bolognese documents, Fantaguzzi, Ariosto), and our thoughts turn naturally towards the greatest University centre in the Po valley: Bologna. This suggestion is, of course, no more than a working hypothesis which only covers our present incomplete information.'

This detailed discussion was rendered necessary by the revealing silence which students have hitherto maintained on the subject. It was considered too obvious to need any further clarification, that the word umanista belonged to the same sphere of ideas as the terms humanitas, studia humanitatis, which

1 [Since writing the present article, I have collected some other examples of the sixteenth century which fit well into my reconstruc- tion; but I shall leave my article in its present state, while the new material will be com- municated on another occasion. Meanwhile P. O. Kristeller has found in a letter written in the vernacular in 1490 an example where

the word is used for teacher (in Fabroni, op. cit., I, 369, note 2; see my postscript p. 73)- I am delighted that my opinion as expressed above has so quickly found its confirmation, though the new document, coming from Pisa, weakens my hypothesis concerning the Emilian origin of the word.]

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 69

our first humanists borrowed from antiquity and introduced into their schools' and which from the Renaissance schools passed into the modern systems of education and into our whole intellectual world. But it may be pointed out that students of the Renaissance have deceived themselves in taking the result for granted. They have overlooked that a specific study of the origin and formation of the word umanista was an obligation from which, strictly speaking, they ought not to have felt themselves exempted. For, if my interpretation is correct, the line of descent is not direct. The links are not found in the realm of abstract ideas, but only in the humbler field of school life and terminology; they lead through the restricted, practical, workmanlike region in which the word stands as a name for a tutorial chair or a certain phase in the classical syllabus of Renaissance schools.

Reduced to the precise and concrete limits of a linguistic analysis, the etymological link between umanista and humanitas loses its vagueness and gains solid reality in the social framework of the period. The main lines of the story, the origin of the word in the atmosphere of the Italian humanist schools, and its reception mainly by the spoken language during the Cinquecento are now clear enough, and will probably not require to be greatly modified. However, new researches and new finds may enrich the picture and disperse the remaining obscurities.

The little that is known about the diffusion of the word in Europe during the sixteenth century tends to confirm our conclusions. The dates of some of the texts with which I am now going to deal would have allowed of their inclusion in my first list, but they may just as well be discussed by way of an appendix. The scarcity of the available documents should act as an invita- tion to students of other European languages and civilizations to augment their number.

In order of time, Germany takes the lead. The word humanista occurs four times in the Latin text of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum which appeared in several editions between 1515 and 1517. That there was room for the word in the militant language of the famous satire confirms our theory that it was not originally at home in the rarified air of humanist latinity-in Germany no more than in Italy. For the fictitious authors of the Epistles are the representatives of the old education, the theologians, friars, and teachers of grammar, against whom the champions of German humanism launched their invective. The four passages in which the word recurs are: Ep. I, 7:

1 A good selection of evidence from Italian humanists was made by W. Brecht in the appendix to K. Brandi, "Das Werden der Renaissance" (i 9o8), now reprinted in Brandi, Ausgewdhlte Aufsdtze, Oldenburg, Berlin, 1938, pp. 302-3 (see also Rossi, op. cit., pp. 15-6, note 3); selections from German humanists in E. K6nig, "'Studia humanitatis' und verwandte Ausdriicke bei den deutschen Friihhumanisten," Beitrdge

zur Geschichte der Renaissance und Reformation Joseph Schlecht . . . dargebracht, Miinchen-Freis- ing, 1917, pp. 202-7; see also K. Burdach, Riforma, Rinascimento, Umanesimo, trans. D. Cantimori, Florence (1935), P. 71, note 2. Burdach's reference to the rubric of humaniora in the library catalogues of the period requires elaboration: library inventories and similar sources may provide new and excellent material for the history of the term.

70 AUGUSTO CAMPANA

"Et isti humaniste nunc vexant me cum suo novo latino, et annihilant illos veteres libros, Alexandrum, Remigium, Iohannem de Garlandia," etc.; I, 42 (App., I): "hospes noster (meaning Erasmus!) qui est bonus humanista"; I, 46 (App., 5) : "metrificavi illa carmina ex tempore, quia ego pro parte sum humanista"; II, 58: "Ego vellem quod omnes universitates facerent in simul (corr. contra) et concluderent contra omnes poetas et humanistas, quia destruunt universitates." 1

These examples, as the last one especially shows, are, like the Italian examples, closely linked with University life. But contrary to the Italian use -at least, contrary to the documentation provided by our limited material- they seem to refer to pupils as well as to teachers. As to the date, no one who accepts the theory that the word umanista originated in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century or possibly a little earlier, will be surprised to find it used in Germany so soon afterwards. It is sufficient to remember what importance the student population from across the Alps had gained in North Italian Universities, by weight of numbers if by nothing else; and the situation must have encouraged quick and lively intellectual contacts. However, it is strange that the German word does not appear until the end of the eighteenth century; at least, German scholars, generally more alive than others to questions of this kind, do not record any examples of an earlier use. If no proof to the contrary turns up, this means that the word remained the property of a small, if active, group of educated people and that its continuity in German language and thought was less complete than in Italy, France and England.

The earliest date which French lexicographers and linguists record under the heading humaniste is 1539, the alleged date of Claude Gruget's translation of a Spanish text; they quote the phrase which we know already: "Pontan, grand humaniste." A later quotation from Montaigne is also recorded. The French definition of the word "Celui qui enseigne ou &tudie les humanites" corresponding to the old double meaning of the Italian school term, is still valid nowadays.2 But the date 1539 is wrong; Gruget's trans- lation appeared more than ten years later under the title of Les diverses lefons de Pierre Messie.3 If I am right in arguing that Gruget's translation was influenced by the Italian text which uses the word umanista, rather than by

1 These passages are indicated in the "Index verborum" of E. B6cking's edition (Ulrichi Hutteni operum supplementum, II, Leip- zig, 1869, p. 208); they are found in I, pp. 12, 64, 71, 277; for the correction "contra" see Bo6cking, II, p. 752 (of the Ist edition). The passages, except the last one, are also quoted by Brecht, p. 303; ibid.: "Die Epistolae

S. . gebrauchten humanista als bereits herge-

brachte Bezeichnung." 2 The first example is given by Hatzfeld and

Darmesteter, Dict. gendral de la languefranfaise, I895-1900, s.v., and by M. Delboulle from Recueil de vieux mots (in preparation but not published; cf. F. Brunot, Histoire de la langue franfaise, I, 4th ed., Paris, 1933, p. XXIX,

hence in Brunot, II (ed. 1906), p. 240; the second example is in Littr6, Dict. de la langue

franf., II, Paris, 1883, 2063. The definition quoted in my text comes from Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, where the etymology, a little too simplified, "D6rive du radical de humanite," and the information that the word was admitted by the Academie in 1718 are also to be found.

3 Paris, E. Groulleau, 1552, see Palau y Dulcet, V, p. 172. The dates: Rouen, I525, and Lyons, 1526, of two editions which the Cat. gin. des livres imprimis de la Bibl. Nat., Auteurs, CXIII, Paris, 1932, p. 814, quotes, without amendments, are, in fact, 1625 and 1626: see Palau y Dulcet, V, p. 173.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 71

the Spanish original in which it does not appear, then we have here a proof that the use of the term came from Italy to France. This is in fact what we would have expected.

We are better informed on the use of the word in English than in any other language, thanks to the Oxford Dictionary which gives a long list, a minute analysis, and many dated examples of the various meanings.1 The earliest dated example (1589) comes from the commentary on the Georgics by the Italian scholar R. Flemyng. The way in which Flemyng places "humanists" side by side with "grammatists" suggests that we are still in the atmosphere of the schools or very close to it. The Oxford Dictionary, referring to Ariosto and the date "1539" (Gruget), correctly calls the English word an adaptation from the French and the Italian.

In Italy the two meanings, that of teacher and of scholar in humanities, which we traced in the sixteenth century, linger far into the nineteenth century, perhaps with a slight bias in favour of the original meaning. To these two a third one was added, that of pupil in humanities, which we have already met in other European countries; I cannot say if this meaning is a late-comer; the nineteenth-century dictionaries record it for their own period without giving any examples.2 In our own time all three meanings have gone out of use rapidly and completely in Italy. Having lost its original values, the term has become a historical definition. If we now speak of a humanist, we think of a scholar who played a part in the revival of classical learning during the Renaissance as by humanism we mean the literary aspect of that revival.

It would be worth while to follow up this latest transformation of the two words in the European languages and civilizations of the last centuries. But the story would fill a book, not an article, and requires a writer, whose mental equipment and temperament are equal to the patient pursuit of all the disguises, migrations and interrelations of the two concepts. Yet, I am tempted to say a few words on the subject. The first language in which the word "humanist" lost its reference to an actual or ideal condition and assumed a retrospective or historical sense was, perhaps, the English, from the seven- teenth or eighteenth century onwards.3 Then came Germany, and we ask our- selves whether the word Humanist was at once coupled with the word Human- ismus, and how this link was forged. For the two nouns are not necessarily con-

1 Murray, IV, pp. 444, and 444-5 for the derivatives (humanism, humanistic, humanistics, humanistical, humanistically).

2 The word seems to be quoted for the first time in the 4th edition of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, V, Florence, 1738, s.v. In the definition "Che professa belle lettere, o lettere umane," the expression "che professa" means professor or teacher; the example from Ariosto and one from Salvini follow. More important are the two dic- tionaries which I have quoted in another connection, that by Manuzzi, IV, p. 737, and that by Tommaseo-Bellini, IV, 2, 1879,

p. 1655. It should be remembered that Manuzzi misunderstands the definition given by the Accademia della Crusca and connects the examples incorrectly with his definitions; and that Tommaseo omits the wider sense altogether.

3 Murray's examples appear to be reliable: "Caelius Rhodiginus . . . and Bonifacius Bonifacii, another learned humanist" (Lassels, 1670); "The humanists of the fifteenth cen- tury" (Gibbon, 1764); the examples become more numerous from 1870 onwards; from 1881, also in the adjective form of the word.

72 AUGUSTO CAMPANA

nected, and the story of humanism and Humanismus is not necessarily simpler than that of humanist because it is more recent. After the beginning of the century, there are German as well as English examples, but they have other philosophical and theological connotations. The word Humanismus is first used in the sense of a historical event by K. Hagen, in a work published irr I841-43, and then by Voigt whose famous book first appeared in

1859.1 At this point the link between Humanist and Humanismus is complete in form as well as in substance. German learning and scholarship were, therefore, the agencies which opened the doors for the entry of the double term into all the European languages, and, if I am not mistaken, chiefly with the aid of two circumstances. The first is that the terms are soon so closely coupled as to become inseparable and their joint diffusion had many times the momentum that each would have had alone. The second lies in the great and deserved reputation of Voigt's book in which the word Humanismus is used from the title-page onwards, and this is no negligible or superficial coincidence.

Within a few decades the word Humanismus had become so universal2 that it was admitted even into those languages which had not previously accepted the earlier meanings of the word humanist. Among them, strange to say, was a language which may be called dead, but which is none the less a European language, namely the Latin of the philologists. Neither classical nor mediaeval Latin knew the word humanista, and the Latin of the humanists was too fastidious to tolerate the intrusion, at least the open intrusion, of the new expression. But for all that the term has succeeded in insinuating itself into the Latin of the philologists, which in many ways is heir and successor to the Latin of the humanists. It is true there are some modern philologists who try to keep the language free from adulteration by a modern word, and who, therefore, prefer the well-known round-about phrases to the modern term. But there is no lack of examples of humanista in the last century,3 and I should not be surprised to find, one day or another, the word *humanismus in a philo- logical or theological University thesis. The use of one of the words is almost bound to draw the other after it.

But this is not the end of our story. The word humanism has recently started on a fresh career of its own. From all sides and under many titles

1 On Humanist and Humanismus see Brecht, op. cit., p. 304; E. Heyfelder, "Die Ausdriicke Renaissance und Humanismus," Deutsche Literaturzeitung, 1913, cols. 2248-50; K6nig, op. cit., p. 202, note I; Burdach, op. cit., pp. 80-2, 159; on humanism, Murray, I.c. (but note that the example of 1832 has no historical meaning).

2 In Italian the form in which the word was preferably used in the beginning, evi- dently under the northern influence, is umanismo, and an example in I. Del. Lungo, Prose volgari inedite . .. di A. Ambrogini Poliziano, Florence, 1867, p. v, indicates that it was regarded as a new creation: "l'umanismo, secondo e tornato(?) in uso chiamare la let- teratura del rinascimento"; later, umanesimo

became the more usual form, for reasons im- plied in a remark by Migliorini, Saggi, p. 96, note 2; I do not know any examples of umanista in this sense which would seem sig- nificant by reason of their date. Umanesimo and umanista in the new sense appear rather late in the dictionaries: they are, I think, registered for the first time by Petrocchi, Novo dizionario universale della lingua italiana, II, Milan, 1891, p. 1181. 3 I have not myself made any researches on this point, but I think that the use of the term by H. Hagen, Zur Geschichte der Philologie und zur rimischen Litteratur, Berlin, 1879, p. 237 ("humanistarum, qui vocantur"), 242 ("humanistae", genit.) in a paper already published in 1877 is worth noting.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD "HUMANIST" 73

there is talk of a new humanism, and the old word is again coloured by new ideal values. These will, in their time, be the concern of future philologists and historians.

POSTSCRIPT

I have already pointed out (see p. 68, note I) that the present article is published here as it was written in the first half of I946. I have decided to insert neither the new material which I have collected meanwhile, nor the few bibliographical notes which ought to be added here and there. But an article recently published by P. O. Kristeller must be acknowledged now: "Humanism and Scholasticism in the Italian Renaissance" (Byzantion, XVII, I944-45, PP- 346-374). This paper, which I have been able to read, thanks to the kindness of my learned friend, is of the greatest importance for a comprehensive valuation of Italian humanism, and also for my particular problem (see p. 366). I should like to express here my pleasure that we have both arrived independently at nearly identical conclusions. In fact in one com- pressed page Dr. Kristeller shows the origin of the word in the sphere of the Italian universities (he quotes an example of I490, up to now the oldest known); its penetra- tion into official use; its connection with the ancient words of the school ending in -ista, and its meaning of teacher of humanities. He moreover suggests that the old term humanista has been misunderstood under the influence of the conception of Renaissance humanism accepted by modern students (a conception which his whole article shows to be indefensible); instead, as he concludes in accordance with what I wrote on p. 68-69, "The old term humanista ... reflects the more modest, but correct, contemporary view that the humanists were the teachers and representatives of a certain branch of learning which at that time was expanding and in vogue, but well limited in its subject matter."

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to the translator of my article, whose task was by no means an easy one, and to my friends, Dr. N. Bujatti and Dr. J. Hess, for their help with the revision of the text and the translation of the present Post- script.

Rome, October I947.