22-02-1525

The Comedy as Social Space of Otium

This letter marks a kind of turning point as to the role of otium and leisure in M.’s biography and writings. In this letter, his literary practice emerges not so much as a product of forced otium and, thus, as a sort of compensation for the lack of an official position in public service, but rather as an important social ritual of otiose leisure. In fact, the first performance of the Clizia was part of a lavish feast organized by Jacopo Falconetti, who had made his fortune with bricks and was therefore called “Il Fornaciaio”. According to Ridolfi, M. had started visiting Fornaciaio’s circles after the death of Cosimo Rucellai, which marked the end of the gatherings at the Orti Oricellari: “Gli Orti sono chiusi per sempre, ma un altro orto gli s’è aperto: quello di Iacopo Fornaciaio, fuor di Porta a San Frediano” (Ridolfi, Vita, 323). Although the group of the Orti remained active, even after the final closure of the gardens (see the section “Nerli on the Orti Oricellari Group after the Death of Cosimo Rucellai “ in the Notes), more or less consciously, M. seems to seek for another more ‘popular’, but no less elitist space of otiose leisure. Falconetti was a “rich plebeian who boasts one of the most fashionable banquet tables in Tuscany” in order to celebrate the end of his banishment from Florence (Benner, Be Like the Fox, 292) – the reasons for his banishment are unknown. Instead of performing the Mandragola, M. had promised to write a new comedy on the occasion, most probably struggling with time, composing it “in gara col calendario” (Ridolfi, Vita, 326).

In Nerli’s letter, and related sources, we learn a lot about early modern practices of leisure in the upper classes of Florentine society. Jacopo Fornaciaio’s bunfight centered on M.’s comedy was obviously legendary and is mentioned in the third book of Donato Giannotti’s Della repubblica fiorentina. To prepare the main attraction of the feast, i.e. Machiavelli’s Clizia, Nerli writes in this letter Falconetti even had “the garden leveled off to make it into a stage for your comedy.” From Vasari we know that the famous decorator Bastiano “Aristotele” da Sangallo was hired to design the stage set and the scenery, which “molto piacquero all’universale” (cf. Vasari, Vite, III, 987-88). The music for the intermezzi was composed by Philippe Verdelot, the choirmaster of the Florentine cathedral and one of the leading musicians of his time. The songs were written to be performed by Barbara Salutati, an artist and courtesan M. had become infatuated with at Fornaciaio’s dinner parties (see section on M. and Barbara Salutati in Notes)

M.’s Clizia was obviously part of a festival the aim of which was to attract “not only the first and most noble patricians of the city but also […] the middle class and after them […] the plebeians. These are things that are usually done only for princes”, as we learn in Nerli’s letter. Hence, M.’s comedy in this letter is depicted less as a product of his forced otium rather than as part of the otiose leisure the cultural elite of the Florentine republic used to enjoy: a group composed of the Medici and other important families, whose excellence, in this letter, is rather defined by shared cultural practices of otiose leisure than by birth and wealth

 

Hyperbolical Rhetoric and Social Punning

This letter, like many others in M.’s correspondence, is a playful and fascinating demonstration of the linguistic and rhetorical variety and the social complexity of epistolary networking in early modern Florence (on the “Social Worlds of Florentine Letter Writing” in general see Najemy, Between Friends, 19–24 et passim).

Nerli’s praise is hyperbolic and the language he uses full of superlatives (“magnificenzie”, “cose solite farsi solo per li principi”, “La fama della vostra commedia è volata per tutto”, “che passerà anche e’ monti”). The admiration and familiarity as suggested by this letter possesses an ironic tone and must be seen in the light of the complexity of the social codes and formulas of communication within M.’s cultural context and the circles he associated himself with. Moreover, an ambiguous example of word play, which is typical of M.’s cryptic communication with the larger group of his male friends and fellows, encompassing several layers of meaning, is condensed in the last sentence: “Fate che per niente voi mi manchiate, per quanto voi stimate la grazia del re di Tunisi, e raccomandatemi a tutta la barbogeria”. The phrase vacillates between allusions to the oriental state of Tunis in the Barbary (i.e. North Africa) as well as to graces distributed by men with political power like the King of Tunis (perhaps alluding to Ippolito and Alessandro de’ Medici who were among the spectators in Fornaciaio’s garden), and furthermore to the name of M.’s actress and mistress “La Bàrbera” (Barbara Raffacani Salutati) and the self-fashioning of M. and his friends as “foolish old lovers” (“barbogio” meaning old dotard) (cf. Ruggiero, chap. 5).

The conscious mix of styles in the letters written by M. and his friends corresponds to the variety of allusions to different parts of human life and culture, which involve both popular and erudite leisure activities characteristic of the Renaissance. Those otiose practices seem to be particularly prone to a literary style which Erich Auerbach has characterized by the notion of ‘Stilmischung’, i.e. a careful combination of sublime and low subjects with different levels of style, which clearly ignores the criterion of the aptum in ancient rhetoric (cf. Auerbach, Mimesis, esp. chap. VIII).