The Humanist and the Franciscan: A Letter of Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna to Peter Philargus of Candia

THE HUMANIST AND THE FRANCISCAN: A LETTER OF GIOVANNI CONVERSINO DA RAVENNA TO PETER PHILARGUS OF CANDÍA Some years ago Dragutin Kniewald published a long article containing extensive information on the early humanist writer, Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna,1 and a description and study of the contents of two codices in Zagreb which contained respectively Conversino's Epistolarium and his Historia Ragusi.2 Kniewald gave extensive discussion and evidence to establish the necessity of referring to this humanist with the full title of Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna as in earlier studies there had been a confusion and conflation whereby two different men, both called Giovanni da Ravenna and who were roughly contemporary, were fused into one person.3 Remigio Sabbadini had indicated somewhat earlier that there were two men, one of whom was born in Ravenna and who in his career had been a scribe for Petrarch and had died at Florence as a professor of literature in 1420. The other man was born in Buda to a doctor but was sent to Ravenna at an early age and began his career there so that it became his second homeland.4 Kniewald established that it was this second man, who lived from 1343 to 1408 and had served as notary in Dubrovnik from 13841387 , who was the author of the letters that make up the 1DMgUUn Kniewald, "Johannes Conversini de Ravenna, dubrovacki notar 13841387 ," Glas de l'Académie Serbe CCXXIX, Classe de littérature et de philologie 3 (Belgrade, 1957) 39-161. 2The two codices from Zagreb are II d 55 (Historia Ragusii) and ? c 61 (Epistolarium). On Ms ? c 61, see Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum 5 [Alia Itinera ?? and Italy ??. Sweden to Yugoslavia, Utopia, Supplement to Italy (A-F)] (Leiden and London, 1990) 452-53, where he refers to Zagreb: Knjiznica Jugoslavenske Akademije Znanosti i Umjetnosti (1955) and back to the Kniewald article on p. 453. 3Kniewald cited (p. 38, n. 1 and p. 41, n. 3) the two chief earlier studies: F. Racki, Ivan Ravinjanin, ucenik Petrarkin, dubrovacki !cancelar (1384-1387) kano preteca humanizma u Dubrovniku [Rad Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti LXXIV, Razredi Filogicko-Historicki i Filosoficki-Juridicki 10] (Zagreb, 1885) and R. Sabbadini, Giovanni da Ravenna insignefigura d'umanista (1343-1408), da documenti inediti (Como, 1924). 4Kniewald 157-58. Franciscan Studies 52 (1992) 184 THOMAS E. MORRISSEY Epistolarium.5 Kniewald also determined that while Conversino's other works that are known to have survived had copies which could be found in other libraries, this codex II c 61 appears to be the sole copy of the Epistolarium.6 Finally Kniewald argued convincingly from the evidence that the collection of letters dates from the period 1406-1408 while Conversino was at Muggia.7 The dating can be somewhat fixed in that one letter is to Peter of Candia (the letter with which this article is concerned), whom Conversino addressed as Archbishop of Milan, a title which Peter had assumed in 1403, while Conversino as mentioned died in 1408.8 In addition there are letters to Franciscus Zabarella, who had gotten to know and had befriended Conversino during the period that the latter was in Padua and Venice; the letters assume Zabarella was still teaching at Padua and was not yet named bishop of Florence and then a cardinal.9 The letters that make up this collection thus had to be within the approximate dates that Kniewald gave. The letter of more immediate interest and reference for this article was the one to the Archbishop of Milan, Peter of Candia.10 Born as Peter Philargus on the island of Crete around 1340, Peter took the name Candia from his place of origin. He had an extensive academic career after entering the Franciscans about 1357 and 5Kniewald 87ff. In addition to these works by Conversino and for further information on his career and his observations on the events going on in his world see also: Libia e Diño Córtese, eds. [Giovanni Conversini da Ravenna], La Processione dei Bianchi nella città di Padova (1399) (Padova, 1978). 6Kniewald 84-86. 7Kniewald 84. I must confess to some trepidation in asserting the strength of Kniewald's argument...