Humanistic historiography under the Sforzas: politics and propaganda in fifteenth-century Milan (review)

150 Reviews Iona, Kells, and Derry provides a useful view of early Irish church history in microcosm. It wiU merit a place on student reading lists over the long run for its translation of the Irish Life of Columba and over the short run for its bibUography. Lynette Olson Department of History University of Sydney Ianziti, G., Humanistic historiography under the Sforzas: politics and propaganda infifteenth-centuryMilan, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988; cloth; pp. xvii, 254; R. R. P. AUSS69.95. Dr. Ianziti presents a carefully articulated and closely argued case for the significance in the development of humanistic historiography of the historical writings of Lodrisio Crivelli and Giovanni Simonetta. Functionaries of the Sforza regime, they contributed in turn to a Milanese chancery project to produce a version of recent history which could legitimize Francesco Sforza's seizure of power and lend credence to histitleto rule. Since he lacked any legal or dynastic claim, there remained only his virtus and his actions. Supposedly he intervened to save Milan from chaos and to guarantee its survival as an independent entity. The historical realism of earlier Florentine humanists had dissolved the unified, providential, medieval overview, so that events and the interplay of human forces could come into their own. Flavio Biondo made the narrating of contemporary events respectable, and Facio's Commentaries on the actions of Alfonso of Naples, clearly modelled on Caesar, showed how a historical apologia might be constructed. The Milanese chancery saw the usefulness of just such partisan history for its diplomatic and propaganda initiatives. CrivelU began his version of Sforza history in 1461-3 but lost favour after completing only two books on the career of Muzio, Francesco Sforza's father. Ianziti argues that they are, nevertheless, a microcosm of the history Crivelli planned and that inferences can be drawn from them about his methods and approach. A detailed comparison with CrivelU's chief source, the Compendio of Antonio de' Minuti, provides a fascinating closeup of his methods. It also illuminates the relationship between sourcebooks provided by regimes, rather confusingly called 'blueprints' by Ianziti, and humanistic histories. Crivelli abandoned the chronological framework of Minuti in favour of a thematic arrangement, 'a sequence of meaning not time', which Ianziti nevertheless calls 'narrative'. To dub this process deconstruction of the time sequence, followed by a footnote citing Barthes (pp. 112-3), does seem to m e a somewhat inflated impression of some prosaic juggling of source material. I felt similar qualms about insistent references to the 'epistemological thrust' or 'epistemological impulse' of earlier humanist histories. Reviews 151 Interest in the historical project waned with the unproved poUtical situation after 1464, only to revive with the flurry of diplomatic activity in the mid 1470s. This time, Ianziti says, the results in the form of Giovanni Simonetta's Commentaries, the most important humanistic historiographical achievement from fifteenth-century Milan, were momentous. The patient investigations of eariier chapters now serve to iUuminate both the context and the distinctiveness of Simonetta's work. Again there is a detailed analysis of the relationship between the work and its sources and the process of 'deformation' which turned history into propaganda. A further chapter explores the fortunes of the Commentaries, especially their significance as the first important work of history to have been published by means of the newly-invented printing press. Their translation into Tuscan by Landino raises the question of their influence on Machiavelli, on his reflections about new princes and virtu and even on his approach to politics in general. One minor but pleasing feature of this impressive piece of textual analysis and historical reconstruction is that Ianziti's occasional, lively translations and colloquial language have survived the editorial pen of the Clarendon Press, so that Minuti's Compendio is described as the expression of a gut reaction, 'a kind of collection of Sforza gripes' (p. 86). W . G. Craven Department of History Australian National University Imam Malik ibn Anas, Al-Muwatta: the first formulation of Islamic law, trans. A. A. Bewley, London, Kegan Paul, 1989; cloth; pp. xxxviii, 465; R. R. P. £35.00. In al-Muwatta' Malik (A.D. 713-796) encapsulated Islamic jurisprudence as it had evolved in the Prophet's City...