Pauli Cortesii Protonotarii Apostolici in libros de Cardinalatu ad Iulium Secundum Pont. Max. prooemium. Colophon: Symeon Nicolai Nardi Senensis alias Rufus Calchographus imprimebat in Castro Cortesio, Die decimaquinta Novembris M.CCCCCX

THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN SAN GIMIGNANO - THE ECCLESIASTICAL CORTEGIANO

Folio (291x210 mm). [1], CCXLII [i. e. 224], [17] leaves. 242 leaves in total. Collation (simplified as compared with the ideal collation presented by Centi-Harris, see below): a¹⁰ A-E⁸ F⁸ FF⁶ G-H⁸ I²⁴ K-L⁸ M⁷ N¹⁴ NN⁸ O⁴ p² P⁸ Q¹⁷ q-r⁶ R¹⁸ S-X⁸. Leaves I21, N11, NN8, R13 and V8 are blank. Lacking the blank leaf a1. Leaf a10 is bound at the beginning of the volume, with the rest of gathering a bound at the end, after gathering X. Roman type. Colophon at l. V7v. The Annotationes (ll. X1-8) and the index (ll. a2r-a9r) are printed in two columns, the registrum (l. a9v) in three. Blank spaces for initials with guide letters. Contemporary flexible vellum, inked title along the spine (worn, title faded, spine slightly darkened). At the bottom of the title page, an ownership entry that is no longer legible, even under a Wood's lamp. Lower outer corner of the first ten leaves skillfully repaired with no damage to the text, final leaf slighlty soiled, some occasional marginal staining, all in all a very good, genuine copy in its original binding.

Extremely rare first edition. The editio princeps of Paolo Cortesi's De cardinalatu holds an undisputed place of prominence among the glories of the San Gimignano press, both for its antiquity and the historical and cultural significance of the work. The colophon of the edition cites the place of publication as “in Castro Cortesio,” referring to the ancient residence of the Cortesi family in a village on the hills of the municipality of San Gimignano, known today as Monti. The colophon also dates the printing to 1510 and names Simone Nardi, who worked as a typographer in Siena from 1502 to 1539, as the printer.

It has previously been suggested that, rather than transporting the types and press by mule to the San Gimignano region, the book was simply printed in Siena. Nardi's recently published annals, however, offer insight into his printing activity in Siena, revealing that no book currently on record was produced under his signature in that city between 16 May 1509 and the spring of 1511. The most convincing argument in favour of San Gimignano as the actual place of printing -under the direct supervision of the author- lies in the peculiar structure of the typographical artefact, which exhibits numerous changes of intention and editorial interventions that can only be explained by a work carried out in situ.

Indeed, a number of peculiarities surround the production of Cortesi's celebrated work. The inexperience of the printer, who had mostly printed only small publications up to that point, the author's apparently direct involvement in revising and correcting the proofs as they were being printed; and, finally, the author's early death, after which the edition was taken over by his brother, means that no two copies of the De cardinalatu are identical. Of the recorded copies, none exactly match another in terms of collation, and none reflect the printer's original intention, as outlined in the register, which provided precise instructions for assembling the volume (cf. S. Centi-N. Harris, Per il ‘De cardinalatu' di Paolo Cortesi: la copia ‘ideale', gli esemplari e i messaggi occulti, in: “Gli incunaboli e le cinquecentine della Biblioteca Comunale di San Gimignano”, San Gimignano, 2007, II, pp. 29-31).

The event that most disrupted the printing of the treatise was the author's untimely death. The precise date of the event remains unknown as the relevant news was communicated by the publication itself, which was ultimately completed by the author's brother Lattanzio with the assistance of friends Vincenzo Mainardi and Raffaele Maffei, known as il Volterrano. While the colophon bears the date 15 November 1510, this evidently did not mark the end of the printing process, as a note to scholars signed by Lattanzio Cortesi on l. X1r of the Annotationes is dated 1 December from San Gimignano.

Variations in the printing and collation are evident in the presence of several cancellantia leaves and additional quires. In addition, the placement of the preliminary quire signed a -containing the index and the preface/dedication- varies across copies: it may appear at the beginning, at the end, or, as in the present case, with the preface positioned at the front and the index at the back, thus rendering its placement ambiguous.

An additional quire π2 -not mentioned in the registrum and printed in a different typeface- contains a second dedication to Pope Julius II by Raffaele Maffei (following the one signed by the author on l. a10) as well as a letter from Vincenzo Mainardi to Lattanzio Cortesi dated 20 December 1510. This quire was clearly printed at a later stage, certainly after the author's death. This would explain its absence from several copies, including the present one. This two-leaf quire is also known to have been issued in 1513 with a new dedication to the recently elected Pope Leo X, replacing the previous dedication in copies that had apparently not yet been donated or sold by that time (cf. F. Bausi, La dedicatoria a Leone X del “De Cardinalatu” di Paolo Cortesi, in: “Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance”, LVIII, 1996, pp. 643-650).

Compared to the collation of the ideal copy proposed by Harris and Centi (cf. op. cit., p. 35), the present copy differs only in the omission of the additional quire π2 and the blank leaf a1. Apart from some variations in the order in which the quires are bound, these characteristics are also present in the only other copy we have encountered on the market in recent times. That copy, which once belonged to Giuseppe Renato Imperiali, was sold by Christie's in 1997 for US$ 9,200 and was not eligible for restitution due to discrepancies in the collation between different copies (Catalogue of The Giannalisa Feltrinelli Library. Part One: Incunabula and Other Italian Early Printed Books, 7 October 1997, no. 31).

The present copy is remarkably unsophisticated, still preserved in its original flexible vellum and not heavily pressed, unlike other copies housed in later leather bindings. As a result, numerous blank impressions found throughout the publication remain clearly discernible. For instance, on l. F2r, one can distinctly observe an impression reading ‘PAULI CORTESII PROTONO/TARII APOSTOLICI'. Harris and Centi describe this as a ‘subliminal signature' scattered here and there throughout the volume: “il fatto che questo messaggio destinato ai posteri sia stato segnalato per la prima volta dopo quasi cinquecento anni inevitabilmente induce a chiedere quanto fosse visibile per i contemporanei dello scrittore. Occorre però ricordare che la maggior parte degli esemplari visionati non recano la legatura originale, per cui atti ripetuti di martellamento e pressatura durante le fasi di rilegatura hanno ridotto la qualità dell'indentazione nella carta” (cf. op. cit., pp. 48-49).

Paolo Cortesi was born in Rome in 1465 and received a thorough education within the family environment, under the guidance of his father Antonio and his elder brother Alessandro. He himself vividly recalled the visits he made, in the company of his older brother, to the homes of Rome's most illustrious men (De cardinalatu, l. CXIC), as well as the strong impression and desire of emulation sparked by Pomponius Leto's lectures (ibid., l. CIV). He also frequented the house of Lucio Fazini, known as Fosforo, the learned and refined bishop of Segni from 1481, and that of Bartolomeo Platina, an apostolic writer and historian. Cortesi continued the curial career begun by his father. In October 1481 he was appointed apostolic ‘scriptor' in place of the late Platina, and in 1498 he was appointed apostolic secretary by Alexander VI, a position he held until 1503, when he resigned and retired to his villa in San Gimignano, built on the ruins of an ancient castle. The reasons for Cortesi's departure from the papal court are not known. Raffaele Maffei, in the preface of De cardinalatu, presents him as a man far removed from curial ambitions and devoted to his studies.

The Cortesi family enjoyed surrounding themselves with literary friends and poets, with the peak of this intellectual circle occurring between 1490-1500. Among the notable guests at the Cortesi residence were prominent writers, such as the poet Serafino Ciminelli (Serafino Aquilano), the apostolic librarian Giovanni Lorenzi, the Greek Manilio Rallo, the Palermo-born poet Pietro Gravina, Leonardo Corvino, bishop of Montepeloso, the poet Michele Marullo, the Cremonese grammarian Bartolomeo Lampridio, and the Tuscan poet-improviser Giacomo Corso. Although indirectly, Cortesi was also in contact with some of the most famous representatives of the humanist world: Ermolao Barbaro, Pico della Mirandola, and Angelo Poliziano. Cortesi was also in correspondence, if not friendship, with Lorenzo and Piero de' Medici, as evidenced by letters exchanged in 1491.

Cortesi's literary activity was varied and significant. Between 1490 and 1491, he composed De hominibus doctis, a dialogue written in the style of Cicero's Brutus which he dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici and which, together with Lilio Giraldi's De poetis, is one of the earliest and most important documents of humanist literary historiography. Though it remained unpublished for a long time, it was eventually printed in Florence in 1729 by Bernardo Paperini. During the final years of his stay in Rome, Cortesi worked on a series of projects, which he revised and completed in the tranquillity of Castel Cortesiano, most notably De cardinalatu, which he dedicated to Julius II. The decision to undertake this project may have been influenced by a suggestion from Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, along with a not entirely unfounded hope of securing the dignity of a cardinal.

The work is divided into three books with a total of thirty-four chapters. In the first book, “ethicus et contemplativus”, Cortesi outlines the peculiarities of the cardinal's office and lists the virtues and knowledge required to fulfil it. Book 2, “oeconomicus”, illustrates, through quotations and anecdotes, the etiquette the Cardinal must observe in his relations, both in private and public life. Book 3, “politicus”, provides a systematic treatment of the duties and prerogatives of the office, setting out a series of practical problems and solutions that the Cardinal must navigate in official acts, both ordinary (consistories, conclaves) and extraordinary (heresies, schisms).

The De cardinalatu was favourably received in the highest ecclesiastical circles, for which it provided a valuable code of conduct. It undoubtedly influenced Alessandro Farnese, who is frequently mentioned in the text. While the work does not reach the aristocratic, social, or intellectual heights of its secular counterpart, Baldassare Castiglione's Cortegiano, it nonetheless presents as a carefully considered and balanced work, prudent in its conclusions. The code for the prince of the Church aligns with an ideal of classical and curial composure, as reflected in its Ciceronian style and series of concepts, and continually reinforced by the inclusion of paradigmatic narratives.

Cortesi died before 15 November 1510, without having obtained the cardinal's dignity to which he secretly aspired, leaving his brother Lattanzio as his heir (cf. R. Ricciardi, Cortesi, Paolo, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, 29, 1983, s.v.).

Edit 16, CNCE13583; Adams, C-2710; BMSTC Italian, p. 200; G. Fumagalli, Lexicon typographicum, Florence, 1905, pp. 71-72; F.J. Norton, Italian Printers 1501-1520, London, 1958, p. 107; N. Pallecchi, Una tipografia a Siena nel XVI secolo. Bibliografia delle edizioni stampata da Simone di Niccolò Nardi (1502-1539), in: “Bullettino senese di storia patria”, CIX, 2002 (but 2004), pp. 205-205, no. 14; E. Guerra, Il ‘De cardinalatu' di Paolo Cortesi, in: “La formazione delle élites in Europa dal Rinascimento alla Restaurazione”, A. Cagnolati, ed., Rome, 2012, pp. 85-98; K. Weil Garris-J.F. D'Arnico, The Renaissance cardinal's ideal Palace: a chapter from Cortese's De cardinalatu, in: “Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome”, XXXV, Studies in Italian Art History, I, Rome, 1980, pp. 45-123.

[13687]