The exhibition Renaissance invention makes us enter the intellectual and material world of humanists at work, from their ancient sources of inspiration to their place of retirement. It also testifies to the way in which manuscripts have traveled to France at XVe century.
Jean-Marc Chatelain is general curator and director of the reserve of rare books at the National Library of France. Former student of the School of Charters, he is an associate member at the French language and literature study center for XVIIe And XVIIIe centuries (Umr 8599). His work focuses on the history of the book and the history of literature and ideas to XVIe And XVIIe centuries.
He co -managed the exhibition to the Bnf Richelieu Renaissance invention. The humanist, the prince and the artistand the homonymous catalog, Paris, National Library of France, 2024.
Shooting & editing: Ariel Suhamy.
The life of ideas : What does the term rebirth mean ?
Jean-Marc Chatelain: We can understand the term rebirth in two ways. He can first designate a period, this is the meaning that he is given today – very generally a period of history which is roughly that of XVe And XVIe centuries.
And then, more precisely, it designates the way in which the literature in the era of the Renaissance designed their own modernity: the way in which they represented their own work as a way of reviving the culture of antiquity.
This painting is one of the masterpieces of Italian Renaissance painting. It has been awarded for a certain time to Raphaël, but for a long time it has been returned to the master of Raphaël who is the Perugin. This painting represents Apollo on the right part with the shepherd Daphnis, to whom the tradition attributes the invention of bucolic poetry.
It is a very representative picture of the painting of the Renaissance by the beauty of the forms: we can see it in the attitude of Apollo, which recalls works of ancient statuary. One can think for example of the Apollo du Belvedere, even if this painting is most certainly prior to its rediscovery (at the end of XVe century). No matter: it is indeed a common inspiration that will seek in plastic forms of ancient culture to invent its own modernity.
The life of ideas : What do we call the “ Republic of letters »» ?
Jean-Marc Chatelain: The first certificate we know of the term “ Republic of letters »Appears at the very beginning of XVe A century in the correspondence of Poggio Bracciolini – Pogge, as we say in French. More precisely in a letter he received from one of his friends, who congratulates him for the work of exhumations of great manuscripts of antiquity authors in various medieval libraries, especially in southern Germany.
One can wonder about what this term “ Republic of letters », To which we associate today the idea of a social network of scholars, which is expressed in particular by the work of correspondence. Nevertheless, I am not sure that in the first certificates that we meet from this term to XVe century we do not have to hear the word of “ Republic of letters ” – res publica litterarumOr RES PUBLICA LITTERATA In Latin – in its really ancient sense of common thing, or public. And therefore this “ common cause “Letters, this” common cause “Builders, before designating a social network, well designates the common objective that founds all of these social relationships, that is to say the letters heard in the sense of culture of antiquity. It is therefore this idea of a fight, of a common conviction which gives all its meaning to this expression.
And what is this thing ? This is the study of humanities – Studia Humanitatis As we say in a Latin formula taken over from Cicero, moreover quite difficult to translate precisely into French, we say studies of humanity but that does not mean much. These humanist studies, in a very general way, this is what makes this common cause of the scholars and what founds all the unity but also all the tensions which can browse this republic of letters.
The life of ideas : What is the role of studiolo For humanists ?
Jean-Marc Chatelain: the studiolo To roots that will seek in the Middle Ages – it is not an invention of the Renaissance – but it is true that it is a place that has become emblematic of the work of the literature during the Renaissance. Its meaning makes two major cultural traditions of the relationship with texts and letters converged.
On the one hand, the properly Christian tradition of spiritual reading, of the meditation of the texts. And in this iconography of studiolowe clearly feel the rest of a representation of the cell, a place of retirement which is informed by the long Christian tradition of the monastic cell, of the place away from the world.
The other tradition that comes to get involved, and perhaps take over, it is that of literate leisure (Otium Litterarum), therefore another form of retirement: a studious retirement such as it is thematized in particular by Cicero, Seneca, and a whole series of ancient authors. This is what they call leisure among the letters, literate leisure, that we find in this idea of studiolo. This other form of retirement is not exactly a withdrawal from the world, but a step aside in the opposition between the negotiumpublic affairs, andotiumthe place of leisure, meditation, more private.
And in a way, we find in the iconography of studiolo This double dimension, Christian, spiritual on one side, and ancient on the other, in the importance that occupies in this iconography the figure of Saint Jerome, in famous paintings, in particular of Carpaccio. We have reproduced in the exhibition a painting by Vincenzo Catena which is at the National Gallery. We still find Saint Jerome in the exhibition through the engraving of Dürer who represents him in his studiolo. Saint Jérôme is both the spiritual author and at the same time the great letter, a model of the work of translation at the Renaissance, and which occupies for example a central place in the mental and spiritual universe of Erasmus.
This manuscript of the Life of the Twelve Caesars de Suetone is magnificent, written by one of the greatest humanist calligraphs at the end of XVe A century in the Padua region, Bartolomeo Sanvito. The manuscript is also recommended by the importance of his illumination, his painted decor, which is due to the master Gaspare da Padova (Gaspard de Padoue). The characteristic of this decor is to reproduce, at the beginning of the lives of each of the Caesars, ancient currencies of the Roman Empire.
The life of ideas : How does Machiavelli talk about this literate retreat ?
Jean-Marc Chatelain: Machiavelli explains that when he will read the ancient authors, he strips his everyday clothes to put a ceremonial dress. So there is this beauty of the place of studiolothat we find in the habit, and in the approach which supposes to put ourselves in a disposition-the very one of beauty. He also explains that once in this provision for beauty, he maintains a direct dialogue with his authors, he questions them and they answer him.
The life of ideas : Why is Petrarch’s figure central ?
Jean-Marc Chatelain: There is a Petrarch treaty which is particularly interesting, it is its Treaty of Solitaire Life. We can see in this work very well how, in this praise of lonely life, Petrarch brings together two traditions, that of the spiritual reading of the texts, and that of the literate practice of ancient authors.
Basically when Petrarch talks about lonely life, he speaks less about a truly lonely life than a life among books, and this life among books is also a life of dialogue. When it is intended for ancient authors in the Treaty of familiar lifehe has an expression which is completely significant, where he speaks of talking to the books (Cum Libris Loqui). So books are not there in a passive reading report, but they are replaced in the very lively movement of a dialogue.
This is one of the first printed editions of Virgil, and the copy that we present is extremely precious, because it is entirely covered with annotations of the hand of one of the greatest humanists of the XVe century, Angelo Poliziano (Politian Angel).
This copy shows us not only the intensity of the reading work of humanists, but also the way in which it is accomplished. Virgil’s text is surrounded by all kinds of textual parallels, that is to say in relation to Virgil’s text with other texts from Antiquity.
The life of ideas : How is the period reflected in the BNF collections ?
Jean-Marc Chatelain: The humanist rebirth has a very important role in the very development of the collections of the National Library of France. It is a truly founder moment. It is said that the royal library dates back to the Charles V bookstore, but it is a myth: it does not go up at the end of the XIVe century, but rather at the end of XVe century.
It also happens that the collections of the Royal Library have been considerably enriched by the contribution of humanists, and in particular by the block contribution of certain large humanist libraries. The Italian wars played a completely decisive role in enriching the collections. We have an often somewhat irenic vision of humanism, but you should also know that this period of conflicts, this period of wars in Europe, was ultimately beneficial for the dissemination of this humanist culture, and in France, thanks precisely to the enrichment of the royal collections.
It was done first under the reign of Charles VIII by seizure of a large part of the Aragonese kings of Naples. Charles VIII was the grandson of Marie d’Anjou, and could take advantage of hereditary rights over the kingdom of Naples-which had been, before the Aragonese domination, under that of the Angevin dynasty. Charles VIII took hold of Naples (in 1495) and had the books that the Aragonese kings had kept in the Castel Nuovo to the Château d’Amboise, a privileged residence of Charles, VIIIwhere the royal library was.
His successor Louis XIIwhich was an Orleans, went down to Italy to seize the Duchy of Milan, since he was the grandson of Valentine Visconti, descendant of the Dukes Visconti of Milan. Louis XII Then was communicated an inventory of the library which was kept by the Dukes of Milan at the Château de Pavie, and had the Château de Blois transferred, where the royal library was now, around 600 manuscripts.
This is also what explains that we can devote a small section to Petrarch in this exhibition, first insisting on this first part of Petrarch’s work, perhaps the most fundamental, which is his library. Because according to historical circumstances, a large part of the Petrarch library was found from 1388 at the Library of the Dukes of Milan in Pavia. This is why all this part of the Petrarch library, which was in the collection of the Dukes of Milan, is still today in the collections of the National Library of France.