16/20-10-1525

Humanist Practice and Otiose Punning

This letter provides insight into the linguistic awareness that M. and his correspondents display. Reflecting on the uses and origins of idioms and proverbial expressions seems to be part of an otiose pleasure of letter writing in early modern Italy. M.’s explanations and philological comments on two Tuscan expressions used in his Mandragola prove his erudition and especially his expertise in the humanist technique of derivation at the same time as his sense of irony due to the subtle use of language, expressions, and different styles. The comic intention behind M.’s ‘display of erudition’ reveals itself in the digression on the proverbial idiom of the toad and the harrow. M. says to have consulted – like the character Timoteo (cf. Mandragola III,11) – many books in order to resolve the philological problem of the meaning and the origin of this expression for an unwelcome return. For the sake of tracing the sources and the tradition, he quotes poets such as Burchiello as well as non-existing reference works, such as the Second Decade of Titus Livius’ History, known to be lost (on intertextual references to Burchiello and other Italian authors in M.’s texts and the letters of his friends and chancery colleagues see Ferroni, “Cose vane”, 218, esp. n9 and Puppo, “Machiavelli e gli scrittori italiani”, 157–158; on intertextuality and imitatio in M. see Najemy, Between Friends, 257, esp. n24).

 

Theatre and Leisure

M.’s remarks on the careful preparations for the staging of his Mandragola in Faenza exposes his artistic creativity not only as a product of forced otium, but rather as a significant part of early modern leisure practices in the Italian communes: a kind of festival which needs careful preparation for its perfection (“Sì che vedete se noi attendiamo a menare perché questa festa abbia tutti i suoi compimenti”). Although the theatrical event, which had been scheduled for the carnival period, was in the end not realized (see entry on the letter from 03-01-1526), the respective correspondence provides us with interesting insights into the entanglement of friendship, patronage, and otiose leisure. The theatrical effects of the Mandragola were not limited to its actual performances, even more so as the comedies were, so to speak, also staged by M.’s correspondence and other paratexts, which might even have expanded the otiose experience of theatrical play (e. g. by discussing and translating its vocabulary). In this and other letters (e. g. 26-04-1520, 01-08-1520, 17-05-1521, 06-09-1525, 16-10-1525 to 20-10-1525, 03-01-1526 and 28-02-1526), Machiavellian comedy is presented as a multifaceted performance art which comprised textual and diverse non-verbal elements such as body language and music. The intriguing role of its protagonists such as the singer and actress Barbara Salutati was not limited to the realm of art. Apart from the economic and professional factors involved in Renaissance comedy, it was a social and political, as well as sensual, event and, hence, a collective practice of otium, which embraced both the body and the intellect of communities. M.’s correspondence presents us his comedies as a sort of “traveling form” (cf. Levine, Forms, 4–5 et passim), which, thanks to processes of translation and transfer, can be moved not only from Renaissance Tuscany to the Romagna, but also between very different political and social contexts such as the papal court in Rome or the Venetian carnival. Therefore, the comedies imply different forms of (potential) leisure.