Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, :o11 DOI: 10.

1163/156798911X546161
ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
ARIES
www.brill.nl/arie
Giovanni Gioviano Pontano ()
on Astrology and Poetic Authority
Matteo Soranzo
McGill University
Abstract
Larticolo esamina per quale ragione Giovanni Gioviano Pontano (1:,1o) ha spiegato
in termini di causalit astrologica lorigine della sua autorit poetica, con lo scopo di illustrare
un elemento di continuit tra Medioevo e Umanesimo. I testi presi in esame sono il poema
Urania (scritto nel 1;1,; stampato nel 1o), il dialogo Actius (scritto nel 1,
1,,; stampato nel 1o;), il commento al Centiloquio pseudotolemaico (scritto nel 1;;;
stampato nel 11:) e il trattato De Rebus Coelestibus (scritto nel 1;1,; stampato nel
11:). Si sostiene che lapproccio astrologico allautorit poetica di Pontano deriva dalla
sua interpretazione del primo aforisma del Centiloquio, e che questa scelta era dettata dal
tentativo di mettere in questione la teoria del furor poetico di Marsilio Ficino, le cui opere
stavano diventando sempre pi diuse nel contesto della Napoli Aragonese alla ne del
Quattrocento.
Keywords
Authorship; Astrology; Giovanni Pontano (1:,1o); Marsilio Ficino (11,,);
Aragonese Naples
Nanque ab iis potissimum stellis poetae formantur
(De Rebus Coelestibus II: Sig. E ii v)
. Introduction
Since Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault problematized the ideas of author,
authority and authorship in Western culture, many scholars have contributed
to reconstruct the history of these concepts in classical antiquity, and in pre-
modern and early-modern Europe.
1
Minnis and Carruthers, for example, have
1)
Bennet, Te Author, ,:8.
: Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
investigated the evolution of the notion of authorship throughout the Mid-
dle Ages, with a special focus on biblical exegesis.
2
Durling, Greene, Quint
and Weimann have focused on how the ideas concerning the author of a text
changed during the Renaissance, and have investigated this cultural process in
relation to broader events such as the Reformation and the invention of print-
ing.
3
While shedding new light on what Barthes and Foucault only briey
discussed, these scholars have emphasized the elements of rupture, rather than
continuity, between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. By more or less
tacitly endorsing a historical narrative that presents the Renaissance as fore-
shadowing Modernity, Quint and Greene have characterized the Renaissance
author as the literary equivalent of a Renaissance man. Conscious of his orig-
inality, free from religious constraints and opposed to hierarchical views of
knowledge, the Renaissance author outlined in this scholarly tradition found,
in the imitation of antiquity, a renewed sense of freedom that marks a step
away from the Middle Ages.
If one looks at the views of writers and exegetes living in the Quattrocento,
however, the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance is not as clear
cut as scholars have generally assumed. Indeed, humanistic philology, the anal-
ysis of texts in their historical context, the study of manuscripts, and a new
awareness of problems of transmission contributed to emphasize the role of his-
torically determined humans in the construction of authorship. Even so, Quat-
trocento poets and interpreters continued to construct their authorial personae
and conceptualize problems of authorship in the language of Aristotles theory
of causality, thus following in the footsteps of their predecessors living in the
late Middle Ages. Biblical interpreters Hugh of Saint Cher (1:oo1:o) and
Nicholas of Lyra (1:;o1,), for example, used to accompany their Bibli-
cal commentaries with an exegetical prologue called accessus ad auctores, which
applied Aristotles fourfold notion of causality to biblical textuality. In par-
ticular, they extrapolated from this theory the tools necessary to dene the
subject matter (material cause), stylistic features (formal cause), general inten-
tions (nal cause) and the author (ecient cause) of the text at stake. Tis
2)
Minnis, Medieval Teory of Authorship, ;11;; Carruthers, Te Book of Memory, :
:;.
3)
Durling, Te Figure of the Poet, 11::1o; Greene, Te Light in Troy, 1:1, o; Quint,
Origin and Originality in Renaissance Literature, 1o; Weimann, Authority and Representa-
tion in Early Modern Discourse, 1::.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: :
framework, as Minnis has demonstrated, contributed to renew interpreters
curiosity about the role of human authors in writing the Bible and their inter-
est in the literal sense of Scripture. Moreover, this framework provided the-
ologians with a new set of arguments in support of their discipline, grounded
on divinely inspired texts, as opposed to philosophy, based on texts written by
human authors.
4
In line with their medieval predecessors, writers continued to use the lan-
guage of causality to enhance the status of emerging disciplines like Rhetoric
and Poetics since the beginning of humanism. Te terms of this defense of
literary studies were rst set on December : 11, when professors at the
University of Padua and members of the city communal institution invested
Albertino Mussato (1:o11:,) with the title of poet laureate to celebrate his
intellectual and political accomplishments.
5
Tis ocial recognition of liter-
ary studies was publicly criticized by Dominican friar Giovannino of Mantua
who, consistent with the teachings of Tomas Aquinas, envisioned poetry as a
useless discipline subordinated to the other liberal arts and publicly preached
against the Paduan studio for having awarded an academic title to a poet.
6
In his
defense, Mussato grounded his academic title in two forms of authority (habet
auctores laurea nostra duos), which stem respectively from the doctors (docto-
rum series) and political institutions (cum plebe senatus) of Padua, and from
God (cum simul excelso ius habet illa Deo). Based on this twofold authority,
Mussato could argue that poetry had expressed in enigmatic forms what Moses
had explained in plain words (planis verbis).
7
Poetry, therefore, was presented
as the equivalent of theology and not as the lowest of liberal arts as maintained
by Dominican friars. With more or less radical results, Mussatos apologetic
4)
Minnis, Medieval Teory of Authorship, ;88, 88;, 1111.
5)
Witt, Coluccio Salutati and the Conception of the Poeta Teologus, o:; Witt, In
the Footsteps of the Ancients, 11;1;.
6)
Witt, In the Footsteps of the Ancients, 1;18.
7)
Cecchini, Le epistole metriche : :8: Dux: habet auctores laurea nostra duos;/
Doctorum series, Studii reverentia nostri,/ Signavit titulis singula gesta suis;/ Et super
his legem statuit cum plebe senatus,/ Observaturum tempus in omne dem,/ Munera
perpetua pro laude perennia nobis/ Sanxit et ut nostra semper in urbe legar./ Talia si Venetas
fuerint vulgata per oras,/ Quippe fuit vero nuntia fama minor./ Quodque aliquis sacre
laceret gmenta poesis,/ Abroget ut vero, litera questa tua est./ Grande ministerium nescit,
carissime, nescit:/ Non nisi divinos hoc capit artis opus!/ Hec fuit a summo demissa scientia
celo;/ Cum simul excelso ius habet illa Deo./ Quae Genesis planis memorat primordia
verbis,/ Nigmate maiori mistica musa docet.
:o Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
strategy inuenced humanists such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Coluccio Salu-
tati, who continued to use the language of Aristotles theory of causality to
enhance the status of their discipline.
8
Tis article examines why and how Giovanni Gioviano Pontano (1:,
1o) explained poetic authority in terms of astrological causality to further
illustrate this element of continuity between the Middle Ages and the age of
humanism.
9
A professional astrologer, a poet and a literary theorist, Pontano
used the word author (auctor) as a synonymof cause to explain the inuence of
planets on human endeavors, and particularly how stars are capable of impart-
ing on human beings the gift of prophecy and poetry. First, I will argue that
Pontanos astrological approach to poetic authority stems from his interpre-
tation of the rst aphorism of the Centiloquium, a text that he and his con-
temporaries erroneously attributed to Ptolemy. Secondly, I will suggest that
Pontanos choice of using astrology to explain poetic authority is best under-
stood as a response to Marsilio Ficinos theory of poetic frenzy (furor), which
was becoming increasingly popular in the context of Aragonese Naples at the
end of the Quattrocento. In doing so, I will focus on the poem Urania (written
1;1,; rst printed 1o) and the dialogue Actius (written 1,1,,;
rst printed 1o;), which I will cross-reference with Pontanos commentary on
the pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquium (written 1;;; rst printed 11:) and the
treatise De Rebus Coelestibus (written 1;1,; rst printed 11:). Method-
ologically, this paper builds on Pierre Bourdieus theory of cultural production
and examines texts not only as specimens of early modern theory of authorship,
but also as tools by which Pontano took position and responded to alternative
options available in the cultural eld of Aragonese Naples.
10
Te reconstruc-
tion of the cultural eld and the conceptualization of authorship in terms of
Bourdieus notion of cultural capital, in my view, are particularly appropriate
to investigate the ways in which culture was transmitted in Quattrocento Italy,
8)
Witt, Coluccio Salutati and the Conception of the Poeta Teologus, :o.
9)
Giovanni Pontano was born on May ;, 1:, in Cerreto di Spoleto, near Perugia. He
died in September 1o in Naples. Pontano studied language and literature in Perugia.
Tanks to Antonio Panormitas intercession, from 1; to 1, he served the Aragonese
kings of Naples as advisor and military secretary. From 18o to 1, he served as royal
chancellor. Retired to private life in 1,, he died in 1o surrounded by his fellowmembers
at a community of intellectuals called porticus or academia pontaniana. For a recent
biographical prophile, see Monti Sabia, Prolusione.
10)
Bourdieu, Te Field of Cultural Production, 11, 1;;18:; Bourdieu, Language and
Symbolic Power, ;o1.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: :;
and especially among loosely institutionalized and unocial groups of intel-
lectuals such as Pontanos academy.
11
. Staging Authority: Urania and Pontanos Horoscope
On February 1 1o1, as the Italian historian Girolamo Borgia recounts, a group
of fteen scholars gathered to witness Giovanni Pontanos performance and
discussion of his Urania.
12
Once the leading political and intellectual gure
of Quattrocento Naples, Pontano was an old man retired from public life
when he summoned his pupils to read them what he considered his poetic
masterpiece, that is, a ve-book-long poem in Latin hexameters in which he
stages himself in the act of instructing his son about the causes of things.
Critics have generally approached Urania either as a didactic poem expressing
the poets fascination with the natural world or as an imitation of classical
poets such as Manilius, Lucretius and Ovid.
13
Pontano, however, was not
only a poet but also a well-known writer of astrological commentaries and
treatises, as well as the owner of a remarkable collection of patiently annotated
astrological texts of Arabic, Greek and Roman origin.
14
In addition, Pontano
had personally collaborated with scholars like George of Trebizond (1,
1;:) and Lorenzo Bonincontri (11o1,1), who were among the most
11)
Celenza, Te Lost Italian Renaissance, o8o,; ;;o; Furstenberg-Levi, Te Fifteenth-
Century Accademia Pontaniana, .
12)
Pontano, Carmina, xxxv: Cal. Februarii 1o1, Pontanus legere coepit suam Uraniam in
sua achademia, cui lectioni fere semper quindecim generosi et eruditissimi viri auere; nec
vero ipse ego Hieronymus ullum unquam praeterii diem, quin adessem, et quae potui in
margine anotanda curaverim, quae quidem sunt ab eiusdem auctoris oraculo exprompta
(February 1, 1o1. Pontano began to read his Urania in his academy. Fifteen generous
and most erudite men attended the reading almost every day. But I, Hieronimus, did not
spend one single day without attending and made sure to write on the margins whatever I
could. Indeed, these annotations are extracted from the oracle of their very author). Unless
otherwise indicated, all translations are mine. I would like to thank Professor William
Gladhill for his invaluable help in translating Pontanos often dicult Latin.
13)
Hubner, Perseus, Eridanus und Cola Piscis, 1,1oo; Goddard, Pontanos use of the
didactic genre, :o:o:; Haskell, Renaissance Latin Didactic Poetry on the Stars, ,
::; Tateo, Ovidio nellUrania di Pontano, :;,:,1.
14)
Trinkaus, Te Astrological Cosmos and Rhetorical Culture, o;:; Rinaldi, Sic Itur
ad Astra. Giovanni Pontano e la sua opera astrologica nel quadro della tradizione manoscritta.
:8 Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
prestigious astrologers and interpreters of astrological texts of the time.
15
In
my view Urania, as its public performance leads to believe, was more than a
literary pastime or an exercise in expressing astrological doctrines in elegant
Latin verses. Rather, in constructing its authors persona as a follower of Virgil
and the recipient of a precise astrological conguration, Urania and its public
performance were meant to embody Pontanos astrological approach to poetic
authority.
Although astrology had already been used to construct authorship, nobody
before Pontano had linked poetic authority to the inuence of stars and plan-
ets with such a degree of sophistication. In Paradiso ::, for example, Dante
had recounted his ascension to the Sphere of Fixed Stars and accompanied
this moment of his voyage to heaven with a praise of Gemini and Mercury,
which were respectively the constellation rising at the time of his birth (Ascen-
dant) and the planet that is thought to rule upon this constellation because
of one of its essential dignities (Domicile).
16
As Ascoli has recently discussed,
however, the use of the constellation Gemini in the last cantos of Paradiso is
only one among Dantes multiple strategies to construct his authorial persona.
By praising his natal chart for his talent as a writer, Dante manages to recon-
sider his entire work from the point of view of eternity, thus rethinking his
authorial persona from the perspective that characterizes the conclusion of his
Divine Comedy.
17
In Urania, instead, Pontano systematically uses the word auc-
tor (author) as a synonym of cause to explain the eects of specic planets on
human lives and deeds.
18
Tis interplay of authorship and causality is evident
fromUranias proem, in which Pontano asserts his poetic authority in astrolog-
ical terms and presents his work as stemming from his exceptional knowledge
of Virgil, and his horoscope:
Tell me, goddess, Urania, who take your name from heaven itself, tell me, Muse, most
famous daughter of Jove, which res shine in the rmament, which stars wander in
the silent sky; with which stars the vast zodiac shines forth and how the planets follow
15)
Rinaldi, Pontano, Trapezunzio, ed il Grecus Interpres del Centiloquio pseudotolemaico,
1:1;1; Rinaldi, Un sodalizio poetico astrologico nella Napoli del Quattrocento, ::1
:.
16)
Durling and Martinez, Te Time and the Crystal, 8,o.
17)
Ascoli, Dante and the Making of a Modern Author, ,o.
18)
In Urania, the word auctor occurs thirteen times. It usually refers to planets such as
Jupiter in Urania 1, o:,: Iupiter inde pater cunctorum auctorque bonorum or Apollo in
Urania , ;: Musarum nequis prolem putet, auctor Apollo. It can also refer to God in
Urania 1, 8;1: Ille opifex rerum et mundi inviolabilis auctor.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: :,
their courses; whence [come] the human and animal kinds, whence the sea and winds
get their motion; whence the noblest earth generates dierent ospring from one or
more seeds; and whence the fortunes of things abide and the course of the future.
And may your chaste sisters listen to this invocation too. And while you sing, and
Echo resounds through the hollow valleys, I will gather sprays of laurel and verdant
ivy, I will set up altars from green turf and will brighten the shady places, and make
solemn gifts to the tomb of the beloved poet, who is buried on the green height,
and Parthenope care for the watery surge of Sebethos. And may you, Phoebus, father,
inventor and author (auctor) of poesy, assist me along with Latonas virgin daughter,
glory of the night, and all those gods and goddesses under whose will the heavens
exist. And I address you, Bountiful Venus (we have played enough with tender res),
companion of the Aonides, excellent guide of poets, while we sing of the wandering
res of heaven, of the beloved constellation, under which the great world conceived
the earth and sky (i.e., Aries), of which signs and constellation obey you (i.e., Taurus),
o goddess, be favorable and, felicitous, glide to me on your snow-white swans. O,
would the Charites inspire me, and sweet Grace would touch my lips with Greek honey
while I sing. And you, my son, prepare yourself for huge undertakings, and walk with
me through the illustrious regions of heaven. For Mercury will be with you, whose
grandfather was the sky-bearer Atlas, and he, a youth will teach [you] the signs of the
art.
19
Te prologue of Urania stages the poet and his son conversing under a starry
sky, in the proximities of an altar built in Naples to commemorate Virgil, under
the inuence of the Muse Urania and the inux of the planets, particularly
Venus and Mercury. Te structure of the prologue, which starts from a series
19)
Pontano, Urania 1: 11: Qui coelo radient ignes, quae sidera mundo/ Labantur
tacito, stellis quibus emicet ingens/ Signifer, utque suos peragant errantia cursus,/ Unde
hominum genus et pecudes, unde aequor et aurae/ Concipiunt motus proprios, unde
optima tellus/ Educit varios non uno e semine foetus/ Et rerum eventus manant seriesque
futuri,/ Dic, dea, quae nomen coelo deducis ab ipso/Uranie, dic, Musa, Iovis clarissima
proles,/ Et tecum castae veniant ad vota sorores./ Dum canitis resonatque cavis in vallibus
echo,/ Ipse legam laurique comas hederamque virentem,/ Ipse aras statuam viridi de cespite
et umbras/ Lustrabo, tumuloque feram solennia dona/ Dilecti vatis, viridi quem monte
sepultum/ Parthenope liquidamque colit Sebethos ad undam./ Ipse chori pater ac princeps
et carminis auctor,/ Phoebe, adsis, noctisque decus latonia virgo,/ Dique deaeque omnes,
quorum sub numine coelum est./ Tuque adeo, comes Aonidum, dux optima vatum,/ Alma
Venus (teneros nati sat lusimus ignes),/ Dum coeli errantes ignes, dum sidus amatum,/
Quo terraeque fretumque et magnus concipit orbis,/ Dum canimus quae signa tibi, quod
pareat astrum,/ Diva, fave et niveis felix allabere cygnis./ Omihi si Charites spirent, si blanda
canentis/ Gratia mesopio contingat labra liquore./ Tu vero, nate, ingentes accingere ad orsus/
Et mecum illustres coeli spatiare per oras;/ Nanque aderit tibi Mercurius, cui coelifer Atlas/
Est avus, et notas puerum puer instruet artis.
o Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
of questions, and the use of the metaphorical designation of stars as res (ignes)
both contribute to insert Urania in the poetic genealogy of Virgils Georgics.
20
Further elaborating on the prologue of Georgics, the text continues with an
invocation to the Muse Urania, which articulates in a twofold appeal to Virgil,
indicated by a reference to his tomb in Posillipo, and to the stars.
21
According
to the conventions of the recusatio, a commonplace by which the poet expresses
his desire to write in a dierent style, Venuss help is invoked in pursuing
a goal that surpasses the tender res (teneros ignes), a reference to Pontanos
earlier collection of married love elegies, De Amore Coniugali, in which the
poet had dedicated a series of lullabies to his son. Tis goal includes singing
about the constellations Aries and Taurus, whose names are elegantly conveyed
through two periphrases based on astrological lore. Te designation of Aries
stems from a theory called thema mundi, which maintained that this sign was
at the astronomical mid-heaven at the moment of Creation.
22
In a way that
recalls the iconography of the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, the poet then
designates Taurus by referring to its dependence from Venus, thus alluding
to the doctrine of planetary Domiciles as explained in Ptolemys Tetrabiblos.
23
Te prologue ends with an invocation to Mercury, whose inuence is called to
help the poets son.
Te reference to the planets Venus and Mercury, along with the allusion to
the constellation Aries, stems from Pontanos natal chart and his belief in the
astrological causes of his poetic talent. Scholars have occasionally explained
the invocation to Venus found in the prologue as a tribute to Lucretius De
20)
Dalzell, Te Criticism of Didactic Poetry, :, 1111; Virgil, Georgics I: ;: so,
in apprehension, keep an eye on each months constellation, and note where the cold star
of Saturn steals away to, and in which orbits the planet (ignis) Mercury is wandering.
21)
On Pontanos view concerning the exact location of this tomb, see Trapp, Te Grave of
Vergil, 1o11.
22)
On the thema mundi see, for example, Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio,
I: :1 (:): Tey also oer the reason that these twelve signs are assigned to the inuence of
dierent divinities. Tey say that when the world was being born, at the very hour of birth,
Aries, as mentioned above, occupied the middle of the sky and the moon was in Cancer.
For a discussion on the reception of this theme in pre-modern and early modern period, see
Lippincott, Giovanni di Paolos Creation of the World, ooo8.
23)
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, I: 1;, Te planets also have familiarity with the parts of the zodiac,
through what are called their houses, triangles, exaltations, terms and the like. []. To
Venus, which is temperate and beneath Mars, were given the next two signs, which are
extremely fertile, Libra and Taurus. For a detailed discussion of Ptolemys denition of
domicile and exaltation, see Tester, A History of Western Astrology, o;, ;, ;;;8.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: 1
Rerum Natura, thus explaining Uranias prologue as a specimen of human-
istic imitation.
24
However, I would rather explain the astrological references
found in the prologue as a declaration of authorship that corresponds to a
passage from the second book of De Rebus Coelestibus, a long astrological
treatise that Pontano started in 1; while working on Urania.
25
Tis sec-
tion of the treatise deals primarily with poetry and is conveniently addressed
to Pontanos pupil Jacopo Sannazaro, who received the nickname (Actius)
once accepted into Pontanos intellectual community.
26
In a section devoted
to explaining the four cardinal points of a natal chart and their features, Pon-
tano argues that both his love for classical authors and inclination to poetry
stem from the positive inuence of Venus and Mercury at the time of his
birth. Based on an examination of De Rebus Coelestibus, I would suggest
that by appropriate constellations (signis accomodatis) Pontano makes refer-
ence to the system of Domiciles, and thus refers to Taurus and Libra for
Venus, Gemini and Virgo for Mercury.
27
In addition, by places (loci), Pon-
tano always makes reference to the system of Houses, that is, the twelve
sections of a natal chart, starting from the angle of the ascendant (i.e., the
cusp of the First House), that indicate specic features of an individuals
life.
28
Finally, by congurations (congurationes), Pontano makes generic ref-
erence to one of the ve angular relationships, or aspects, that planets form
with each other in a natal chart.
29
Citing his chart as an example, there-
fore, Pontano explains to his interlocutor how poets are made by specic
stars:
24)
Gambino Longo, Savoir de la nature et poesie des choses, :1,.
25)
De Nichilo, I poemi astrologici, 18.
26)
Te choice of dedicating this book to Sannazaro, however, may also result from Pietro
Summontes editorial choices, as argued in Monti Sabia, La mano di Pietro Summonte,
:o1.
27)
See, for example, De Rebus Coelestibus, I Sig, ii v: E quibus satis apparet temporis, signi
ac sideris (ut est dictum) ratione habita Taurum accomodatissimam Veneris domum esse.
(From these factors it is clear that Taurus is the most appropriate domicile of Venus in
consideration of its time, sign andas I said beforeconstellation). On Pontanos use
of the rhetorical notion of appropriateness in an astrological context, see Trinkaus, Te
Astrological Cosmos, ooo:.
28)
De Rebus Coelestibus, II Sig. Eiii r: De DuodecimSigniferi Locis (On the Twelve Houses
of the Zodiac).
29)
De Rebus Coelestibus, V Sig. I iii r: Quocirca in hac tam dicili consideratione et
causa: errantium stellarum omnium status: habitus: situs: collocatio: conguratio inter se:
et in his Saturni quoque partes examinandae sunt: quis etiam e planetis ipsis pollere: et
: Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
No-one became a good poet in whose natal chart (genitura) Venus and Mercury were
not found in their appropriate signs, in favorable houses (locis) and in suitable aspects.
Indeed, poets are made above all by these planets []. And I, the author of this treatise,
was never instructed by any teacher how to compose a poem, how to learn philosophy,
or how to interpret heavens signs. For nature alone, my souls innate force and the
constant reading of ancient authors brought me to these disciplines.
30
In order to decipher Pontanos references to the position of Venus and Mercury
in his natal chart, one needs to establish with a sucient degree of precision
the position of his ascendant, that is, the constellation that was rising on the
eastern horizon at the moment of his birth.
31
Tis information is found in the
second book of Urania, in which Pontano explicitly ascribes to his ascendant
in Aries the moody and unpredictable features of his destiny. In general, the
second book of Urania is devoted to explain the origin of zodiacal signs by
means of etiological tales that, in my view, are all based on the rhetorical trope
of personication, and the astrological systems of Domicile and Exaltation.
In particular, Pontanos Urania consists of a series of mythical narratives in
which animals and people are turned into constellations by personications
of their corresponding planets. By matching the systems of Domicile and
Exaltation with the angles of a natal chart, each mythical narrative is followed
by a short prole of four kinds of individuals born with the ascendant, mid-
heaven, descendant or imumcoeli in a particular sign of the zodiac.
32
Consistent
tanquam dominari inter alios videatur. (On account of which, in such a dicult inspection
and situation, you have to examine the state, position, ordering, reciprocal conguration,
and also Saturns role in them. It (i.e. Saturn) seems to be the only planet to exert an inuence
of its own as if it dominated among them).
30)
De Rebus Coelestibus lib. II Sig. E ii v: Nullus evasit bonus Poeta: cuius in genitura
Venus Mercuriusque in signis accomodatis: in locis idoneis: in appositis congurationibus
inventi non fuerint. Nanque ab iis potissimum stellis Poetae formantur. [] Nos qui haec
scribimus nullo a praeceptore ad carmen componendum: aut ad philosophiam ediscendam:
aut ad coeli signicationes intelligendas instituti sumus. Sola enim natura insitaque animi
vis: ac veterum scriptorum lectio assidua: ad haec ipsa nos traxit.
31)
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, III: 1 Since the chronological starting point of human nativities is
naturally the very time of conception, but potentially and accidentally the moment of birth,
in cases in which the very time of conception is known either by chance or by observation,
it is more tting that we should follow it in determining the special nature of body and
soul. For a discussion of the ascendant and its history, see Whiteld, Astrology. A History,
o.
32)
On the angles of a natal chart, and the history of this system, see Whiteld, Astrology: a
History, .
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
with Pontanos poetic ideal of wonder (admiratio), Urania reports how Mars
had turned the ram Helles into the constellation Aries, thus causing Apollos
disbeliefa rhetorically elaborate way of explaining why Mars and Sun have,
respectively, their Domicile and Exaltation in Aries.
33
Te poet, then, suddenly
switches from the third person narrative to a rst person meditation on his life,
in which he explicitly discusses the eect of Aries rising at the moment of his
birth:
Whoever is born with this sign [Aries] rising, now will accumulate great wealth and
will abound in overowing streams of wealth; but then, on the contrary, thrown in
harsh misery and poor, will barely be able to quench his thirst when his waters have
dried up. For it is the nature of this sign to change and bring alternating fates. You
certainly see how sheep now wander with wool hanging on their back and a prosperous
eece, and then, shorn, ee the bite of horse-ies in the woods. To me, born while that
constellation was rising, a fertile mother did not give brothers, and nature did not allow
other branches to grow up from this sprout. What she gave me, instead, was frankness
of expression and judgment of speech, along with strong eloquence and thoughtful
reasoning. Howoften, alas, I lament about my unrequited loyalty and unacknowledged
eorts, and because no remuneration is granted to my good deeds: a fruitless work and
an unrewarded service.
34
If one takes into account the poets declared ascendant and the details Pontano
gives about the place (Cerreto di Spoleto, a town in central Italy) and date of his
birth (May ; 1:,, Julian Calendar) in his letters, his complete natal chart can
be easily calculated with the use of a modern astrolabe.
35
Bearing in mind the
33)
On Pontanos poetics of marvel, see Deramaix, Excellentia et Admiratio dans lActius de
Pontano, 1;1:1:.
34)
Urania :: :oo:1;: Hoc surgente, aliquis veniens ad munera vitae/ Ingentis nunc
divitias cumulabit, opumque/ Auet undanti rivo; nunc rursus in arctam/ Pauperiem
coniectus inopsque arentibus undis/ Vix sedare sitim poterit: nam sideris huius/ est mutare
vices, alternaque fata referre./ Ipse vides nunc lanico pendentia villo/ Terga ovis ac ditem
felici vellere lanam,/ Nunc tonsos errare greges ac tergore nudo/ Spicula per silvas fugitare
sequentis asili./ At mihi nascenti sub eodem sidere mater/ Non fratres foecunda dedit,
nec germine ab uno/ Passa est germanos natura adolescere ramos;/ Sed fandi libertatem
arbitriumque loquendi/ Addidit et dictis vires et pondera rebus./ O quotiens sterilemque
dem ingratosque labores/ Conqueror, et quod nulla meis bene gratia factis/ Respondet,
sine fruge operam ac sine munere nem. Pontano further discusses the curious detail of
Ariess inuence on brothers in De Rebus Coelestibus, Sig. I v r.
35)
On Pontanos date of birth, see Monti, Il problema dellanno di nascita di Giovanni
Gioviano Pontano, ::; Monti Sabia, Una lettera inedita di Giovanni Pontano ad Eleonora
dEste, 1o.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
nine-day dierence between Julian and Gregorian Calendars for the 1oos and
observing the apparent movements of the constellation Aries on the horizon of
Cerreto, it can be inferred that Pontano was born between :1 and :ooax.
36
In this time-span, moreover, Venus and Mercury were respectively located in
the prominent rst and third Houses of Pontanos horoscope, while Mercurys
strength was additionally enhanced by its position in relation to Gemini, its
Domicile. Te exceptional importance attributed to Venus and Mercury in
Urania and De Rebus Coelestibus, therefore, nicely corresponds to what Pontano
presumably considered to be his natal chart.
37
Along with the public performance of 1o1, the early dissemination of
the section on Aries before the denitive publication of Urania, in my view,
conrms that Pontano and his followers used astrology to negotiate and assert
intellectual authority. While in Naples, the Florentine humanist and pupil of
Politian, Petrus Crinitus (1;1o;) was exceptionally allowed to compile
an anthology of Pontanos writings, which he nalized between 1,o and
1,,.
38
Tis collection, now found at the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence,
opens with the section from the second book of Urania that deals with the
constellation Aries, and in which the poet reveals his ascendant. In the overall
structure of Crinitus anthology, Uranias verses on Aries play the role of a kind
of prologue to a long specimen of Pontanos poetic works. In general, Pontano
personally collaborated in compiling anthologies of the literary productions
of Aragonese Naples for his Florentine readers, thus accumulating cultural
capital in the eyes of other groups of intellectuals, such as Politians school
in Florence.
39
Te choice of opening Crinituss anthology with important
information about his natal chart, therefore, further demonstrates that Pontano
used Urania, and astrology, to assert his poetic authority in and outside of
Naples.
36)
For my calculation I have used an open-source software called Electric Astrolabe.
37)
Te importance attributed to Venus and Mercury may also explain Pontanos early gloss
of Messahallahs De Causis, Motibus et Natura Orbis, recently published in Rinaldi, Pontano
e le tradizioni astrologiche latine medievali, o,.
38)
Pontano, Carmina, XXXIVXXXV; De Nichilo, I poemi astrologici di Giovanni Pontano,
:8:,; Parenti, Una testimonianza parziale della forma Crinito dellUrania, :;o:;;.
39)
Another anthology of this kind is found in the manuscript Marc. Lat. XIV 1o; [;o8],
commissioned by the Florentine ambassador Antonio Ridol to the scribe Pietro Cennini,
and personally revised by Pontano between 1o,1;1. On this manuscript, see De Nichilo,
Dal carteggio di Pontano, ,o8; Iacono, La tradizione manoscritta, ;o, ;,, 88.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
. Explaining Authority: the Pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquium
It would be short-sighted, however, to interpret Pontanos astrological approach
to poetic authority out of its original context, thus disregarding its sources and
howit may have responded to alternative views available at the time. Te choice
of a specic explanation of authorship, as Bourdieu has explained, responds to
the same need of distinction that generates the adoption of a literary genre, the
denition of a specic style and the choice of a particular language.
40
Bour-
dieus views are particularly tting for Quattrocento Italy, where loosely insti-
tutionalized intellectual communities attempted to dene themselves through
the adoption of a specic language like Latin or the vernacular or the agreed
preference for a certain genre like elegy or epic poetry. Furthermore, Bour-
dieus theory especially applies to Aragonese Naples, where the cultural eld
was composed of several intellectual communities in reciprocal competition. In
this perspective, the early dissemination of Urania, its public performance, its
language and, more importantly, its underlying explanation of authorship are
best understood as acts by which Pontano tried to accumulate cultural capital
by accepting, criticizing or refuting the way in which poetic authority was dis-
cussed elsewhere. In particular, I would like to suggest that Pontanos astrolog-
ical approach was a response to Marsilio Ficinos approach to poetic authority.
Scholars disagree on whether Ficinos texts and ideas were known and imi-
tated in Quattrocento Naples. In an old, yet still valuable, contribution, intel-
lectual historian and neo-Idealist philosopher Giuseppe Saitta claimed that
Pontano disagreed with Florentine neoplatonists and criticized their ideas
because of his peculiarly naturalistic worldview that foreshadows modern sci-
ence. More recently, Noel Brann has not only claimed that Pontano knew
Ficinos works very well, but he has also used Pontanos works as instances
of Ficinos fortune outside of Florence.
41
Notwithstanding their obvious mer-
its, however, neither Saitta nor Brann have managed to back up their claims
with sucient evidence of Ficinos diusion in Quattrocento Naples. As I will
demonstrate in the remainder of this paper, Ficinos ideas, along with other
products of Florentine culture, were successfully spreading in Pontanos Naples.
In contrast to Brann, however, I will show that Pontanos language betrays a
subtle criticism of Ficinos explanations of poetic authority and in particular of
his theory of poetic frenzy (furor).
40)
Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 8,.
41)
Saitta, Il Pensiero Italiano nellUmanesimo e nel Rinascimento, ooo; Brann, Te
Debate over the origin of Genius, 1:1:o.
o Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
Marsilio Ficino (11,,) and his Florentine followers explained poetic
authority by assuming the existence of a supernatural cause called frenzy (fu-
ror), whose manifestations throughout history were described through the
invention of a genealogical myth. Although strange for modern readers,
Ficinos mythical genealogies and Pontanos astrological theories need to be
interpreted as equally valid symbolic constructions, which oered dierent
rational explanations of authorship. In a recent reassesment of Ficinos rein-
terpretation of the vatic myth, Raphael Falco has used Blumenbergs notion of
remythicization to account for this philosophers distinctive way of explain-
ing poetic authority in light of Platos dialogues and other late ancient texts
such as the Corpus Hermeticum and, in particular, the Orphic Hymns.
42
Rather
than a defense of poetry per se, as Allen has clearly assessed, Ficino envisioned
poetry as a method for awakening human souls from their bodily prison and as
an earthly sign of the souls immortality.
43
In Ficinos synthesis, constellations
and planets were indeed responsible for creating a favorable context for the
reception of divine frenzy through their inuence on human humors.
44
Te
inuence of planets like, for example, Saturn, however, was subordinated to
the action of amatory, prophetic, mystical and poetic frenzies on human souls,
as Ficino assessed in the light of Platos Phedrus and its late-antique commenta-
tors. In his perspective, Ficino and his followers approached poetry as a divinely
imparted gift that, like prophecy, religious rituals and philosophy, was directly
caused by God.
In contrast to Ficino, Giovanni Pontano and his Neapolitan disciples were
inclined to ground their astrological explanation of poetic authority in the
Centiloquium, a collection of aphorisms erroneously attributed to Ptolemy
until the second half of the sixteenth century.
45
Tis text had been well known
in the Latin West since the twelfth century and was mandatory reading for
university students of astrology.
46
Because of its diusion, this apocryphal text
played a major role in shaping the way in which astrology was perceived and
practiced in Quattrocento Italy.
47
In addition, an authentic revival of this work
42)
Falco, Marsilio Ficino and the Vatic Myth, 1o1o.
43)
See Allen, Te Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, :; and, idem, Te Soul as Rhapsode:
Marsilio Ficinos Interpretation of Platos Ion, 1:o1:,.
44)
For a recent discussion of Ficinos synthesis of medical and theological views of human
genius, see Brann, Te debate over the Origin of Genius, 8:1:.
45)
Grafton, Cardanos Cosmos, 1;; Rutkin, Use and Abuse of Ptolemys Tetrabiblos, 1.
46)
Grendler, Te Universities of the Italian Renaissance, 1o11.
47)
Lemay, Origin and Success of the kitab tamara, 1o; Faracovi, Le immagini e le forme,
;;;,.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: ;
started in Aragonese Naples when the Cretan scholar George of Trebizond
translated into Latin, annotated and dedicated a Greek copy of this text to
King Alfonso il Magnanimo between1 and 1o.
48
In my view, the prestige
associated with the Greek language along with this texts unusual ideas on the
causes of prophecy had a particular appeal to Giovanni Pontano, who soon
became the protagonist of this revival. In particular, Pontanos interpretation
of the Centiloquium became the bedrock of his theory of authorship and,
eventually, the basis for his critique of Ficinos ideas.
From its rst aphorism, the pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquium combines two
incompatible systems of thought, that is, Ptolemys view of astrology as a ratio-
nal practice based on conjecture and an hermetic view that associates astrology
with magic, prophecy and poetry.
49
In particular, the Centiloquium envisions
astrological knowledge as caused by the inux of stars and planets upon a spe-
cial portion of the soul that is closer to the stars, thus oering an idea of poetic
inspiration that sharply diers from Ficinos notion of furor.
50
Te contradic-
tory view found in the Centiloquium stems both from its mistaken attribution
to Ptolemy and its actual Arabic origin. Originally entitled Kitab Tamara,
the Centiloquium was written by an Egyptian astrologer of the Tulunid era
(8o,,o DC). Te work includes one hundred aphorisms (originally called
kalimat) grouped into topics such as the interpretation of natal charts, the
rules for determining the right time for an action and the relationship between
celestial patterns and pathologies such as epilepsy, folly and blindness. Accom-
panied by the commentary of Ahmad ibn Yusuf, the text was translated into
Latin in the twelfth century. In the fourteenth century, the text was translated
into Greek either from the Arabic version or maybe from the twelfth-century
Latin translation.
51
If Giovanni Pontanos interest in the Centiloquium stemmed from his
knowledge of George of Trebizond, his inclination to apply this texts astro-
logical doctrines to poetry came from his acquaintance with Lorenzo Bonin-
contri. A poet and astrologer from Siena, Bonincontri had collaborated with
48)
Monfasani, Collectanea Trapezuntiana, o,:o,, ;1.
49)
Ps.Ptolemy, Centiloquium, aph. I: A Te & Scientia; from thyself and learning: for it
cannot be, that he who is skilful should pronounce particular forms of things; nor can the
fancy undertake a particular, but general notion of the sensible matter; in such things we
must use conjecture. None but those endued with Divine Inspiration predict particulars.
Te English translation is found in Coley, Clavis Astrologiae Elimata, 1.
50)
Lemay, Origin and Success of the kitab tamara, ,:.
51)
Lemay, Origin and Success of the kitab tamara, ,;,8.
8 Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
King Alfonso and his increasingly prestigious state bureaucrats between 1o
and 1;.
52
At that time, King Alfonso and his son Ferrante were starting
an ambitious project of statecraft by creating a new class of assistants, gen-
erally recruited from abroad, to face the dicult task of imposing the fragile
Aragonese authority over the rebellious nobles of Naples and its Kingdom.
53
Along with the administration of the Kingdom, this emerging group of bureau-
crats was actively involved in an intellectual community called Porticus,
directed by Antonio Beccadelli (1,1;1).
54
In line with the intellectual
orientation that marked the Porticus, Bonincontri and Pontano chose Latin
as their written language and revived the light-hearted values of Roman erotic
elegy as a way of distinguishing themselves from the local schools of grammari-
ans and the austere values of the local nobility.
55
In addition, Bonincontri, who
was becoming increasingly knowledgeable in astrology, began to write Latin
verses in which he attempted to sum up his astrological, philosophical and
theological interests. As Rinaldi has inferred from a poem addressed to Bonin-
contri around 1oo and found in a collection of elegies entitled Parthenopeus,
Pontano was already thinking of composing complex astrological poetry at
this point in his career. In addition, the poem demonstrates that Bonincon-
tri and Pontano cultivated astrology and poetry together, and were sharing
their knowledge and projects. From this peculiar combination of literary and
astrological interests, in my view, both Bonincontri and Pontano were induced
to produce their own annotated translations and commentaries of the Centil-
oquium, which they both completed around 1;;.
56
In trying to resolve the exegetical puzzle posed by the combination of Ptole-
maic and hermetic doctrines found in the rst aphorism, Pontano dened for
the rst time his distinctive astrological approach to poetic authority. Tis
defense is inscribed in Pontanos gloss to the rst aphorism of the Centilo-
quium, in which he struggles to understand the dierence between inspired
and conjectural forms of divination. Having to choose between this texts com-
bination of hermetic and ptolemaic doctrines, Pontano ascribes natural div-
52)
Grayson, Bonincontri, Lorenzo.
53)
Abulaa, Ferrante of Naples. Te Statecraft of a Renaissance Prince, :o; Vitale, Sul
segretario regio al servizio degli Aragonesi di Napoli, ooo1; and her Modelli culturali
nobiliari nella Napoli aragonese, ,. Bentley has examined the intellectual ramications of
this pattern; Bentley, Politica e cultura, :o:o.
54)
Beccadelli, Hermaphroditus, 11o.
55)
Soranzo, Poetry and Society in Aragonese Naples.
56)
Rinaldi, Un sodalizio poetico-astrologico, :1:.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: ,
ination to the action of celestial motions on human souls while provocatively
discussing divine inspiration as a belief, rather than a philosophically estab-
lished truth. Also, he brings forth the view that the motion of stars is the cause
of poetic talent, thus provocatively envisioning a link between astrology and
poetry:
Te rst [kind of prediction] seems to be triggered by the stars; none of those which are
mentioned, and which are indicated by celestial motions, by certain reason or counsel.
We usually call frenzied those motions that are uncontrolled and are not moderated
by human art and reason, and we call frenzied and raving those who act in that way;
some people even call them demonic, while they are vulgarly dened as spirited. As I
said, the predictions of these individuals are ascribed to the stars, although it is believed
that prophets prophesy under the inuence of some kind of divine inspiration (divino
quodam aato), and their prognostications and predictions are called Gods oracles.
Te second kind consists of reason and observation [] But as art alone does not
make poets good and nature is exceedingly strong in them, likewise discipline alone
does not make an astrologer. Since the astrologer is an interpreter of celestial signs, it is
necessary that nature exercises its inuence upon him even more than it does upon the
poet: as they assert, physicians and emperors should be fortunate, and this is ascribed
to a benign celestial conguration at birth.
57
When the commentary was composed, Pontano needed to distinguish his
approach to poetic authority because Ficinos texts and ideas were spreading
among the writers gathered around King Ferrantes sons Federico and Alfonso,
and Princess Ippolita Sforza, an intimate friend of Lorenzo de Medici.
58
In
contrast to Giovanni Pontano and his followers, the community of poets
gathered around Ippolita and Federico chose the Tuscan vernacular as its
distinctive literary language, and began to imitate the genre and style of their
57)
Pontano, Centum Ptolemaei Sententiae, lib I Sig. Aaa ii v-aaa iii r: Et prior illa videtur a
stellis excitari, nulla eorum quae dicantur, quaeque coelestibus motibus indicentur, habita
ratione aut consilio. Hos motus ut inconsultos, ac nulla humana arte, rationeque temepratos
appellare solemus fanaticos, et eos ipsos qui sic moveantur, tuc fanaticos, tum lymphatos
dicimus, quidam etiam daemoniacos, vulgus spiritatos appellat. Quorum omnis, ut dixi,
praedictio statim referatur ad stellas, quanquam prophetas divino quodam aatus vaticina-
tus credimus, quorum pradictiones, atque vaticinia Dei ipsius habeantur oracula. Posterior
arte, id est ratione, atque observatione constat. [] Sed ut bonos Poetas ars sola non ecit,
plurimumque in iis natura valet, sic neque sola disciplina mathematicum percit, in quo
cum coelestium signicationum interpres sit, multo etiam magis quam in Poeta necesse
est ut natura ipsa vires suas exerceat, quando medicum quoque et imperatorem asseverent
fortunatum esse oportere.
58)
Soranzo, Audience and Quattrocento Pastoral, oo.
o Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
Florentine contemporaries. In 1;o1;;, Lorenzo sent Federico an anthology
of Florentine poetry entitled Raccolta Aragonese, whose last section includes
Lorenzos commentary on his own poems in light of Ficinos ideas.
59
In 1;8
1;,, Ficino personally corresponded with Ferrantes son, Cardinal Giovanni
of Aragon, whom he provided with a synopsis of his view on the immortality
of the soul.
60
In a literary eld that was attributing a growing cultural capital
to the Tuscan language and Ficinos ideas, Pontano sought to defend the
distinguishing features of his group, that is, the use of Latin as a literary
language and astrology as the explanation of authorship.
While writing the Centiloquium and nalizing Urania, Pontano further
investigated the poetic implications of his astrological view of authorship in
the aforementioned second book of De Rebus Coelestibus. Suitably dedicated
to the young poet Jacopo Sannazaro, this section of Pontanos treatise includes
an interesting denition of the scope of astrology and situates poetry within the
eld of this discipline. In particular, De Rebus Coelestibus explains that since the
writing of poetry is an activity of the soul and the body, its study is not limited
to moral philosophy or theology, but it belongs to astrology. In this perspective,
poetic choices such as the adoption of a specic language or literary genre are
envisioned as caused by stars and planets:
Te ow of a song is not always the poets choice and judgment. We have to look at
the motion [of stars] and how it excites the humors and seeds by which these things
called phantasms are visible as if they are waken fromsleep. On account of their quality
and combination, one [poet] composes Lyrical poetry and another Elegy, one pursues
Iambs and another pursues Epic, so that nothing else resounds but bellicose sounds.
Te qualities and natures of those seeds are so diverse that destinies cannot be seen in
the mind alone or in specic individuals, but rather in the mixtures of bodies and in
very few individuals.
61
59)
De Robertis, Lorenzo Aragonese, ;, ,, 11; Mazzacurati, Storia e Funzione della Poesia
nel Comento di Lorenzo de Medici, 8o;.
60)
Soranzo, Audience and Quattrocento Pastoral, oo; Rees, Ficinos Advice to Princes,
,;.
61)
Pontano, De Rebus Coelestibus II, Sig. E fol. ii r-v: Nec vero semper Poetae arbitrii ac iuris
est carmen ipsumfundere quando expectandus motus est quantumhumores illos seminaque
ipsa concitet a quibus visa ipsa quae phantasmata dicuntur veluti e somno expergiscantur.
pro quorum etiam qualitate ac temperatione alius Lyricum pangit alius Elegiacum ille
Iambicum. sequitur hic Heroicum ut nihil prorsus nisi bellicum personet: adeo seminum
ipsorum diversae sunt qualitates ac naturae quae quidem neque in animo solo neque in
hominibus singulis fata perspiciuntur sed in misturis corporum et in hominibus quam
paucissimis.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: 1
Pontanos application of astrological causality to the problem of poetic
authority illustrates how humanists continued to investigate the sources of
poetic authority in terms of causality. Te presence of alternative approaches to
authorship that characterizes Aragonese Naples, however, betrays a dierence
from Mussatos defense of literary studies in fourteenth-century Padua. On the
one hand, Pontano and his contemporaries continued to enhance the status of
their discipline by speculating on the causes of their texts. Rather than marking
a rupture with the Middle Ages, therefore, new books such as Platos dialogues
or the pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquiumcontinued to be examined in light of old
questions. On the other hand, Quattrocento writers were not always aliated
with well-established universities but rather belonged to loosely organized and
spontaneous communities of scholars, which were inclined to create dierent
and often competing solutions to the problemof authorship. Tis competition,
as I will demonstrate in the conclusion of this essay, is inscribed and radicalized
in Pontanos dialogue Actius.
. Transmitting Authority: Jacopo Sannazaro and Actius
If around 1;; Pontano and his followers had sucient cultural capital to dis-
miss the work of competitors with vaguely polemical remarks, twenty years la-
ter Florentine ideas were rmly diused in Naples so that Pontanos authority
was under siege. In order to rearmhis legacy and defend his theory of author-
ship in an increasingly polarized cultural eld, between 1, and 1,, Pon-
tano wrote the dialogue Actius.
62
In this text, printed posthumously in 1o;,
the competition among dierent theories of authorship is dramatized in the
form of a conversation that stages an emerging poet (Sannazaro) as the embod-
iment of his new mentors (Pontanos) views, which are paraphrased and ap-
proved by a professor of natural philosophy (Johannes Pardo). If understood in
its original context and interpreted in relation to the history of authorship, Ac-
tius stages the ocial naming of Sannazaro-Actius as Pontanos legitimate suc-
cessor to the leadership of the Porticus. In constructing Sannazaros authorial
persona, Actius implicitly defends the astrological approach to authorship that
denes Pontanos community against alternative views coming from Florence.
By giving and accepting the newnickname Actius, Pontano and Sannazaro
symbolically represent an important event in the cultural eld of Naples. As
used to happen in other humanistic communities, Pontano and his followers
62)
Monti, Ricerche sulla cronologia dei Dialoghi di Pontano, :8:8,; Monti, Per la
storia del testo dellActius del Pontano, :;o:;,.
: Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
adopted classicizing nicknames to express their devotion to ancient literature
and reinforce their sense of belonging to the group. By accepting the nickname,
writers could subtly declare a specic cultural orientation, express a certain
literary taste and even suggest their polemical targets.
63
Until 1,, Sannazaro
was a well-known writer in Aragonese Naples under the nickname of Sincero,
and he shaped his intellectual career in relation to the Aragonese court and
university professor Giuniano Maio, professor of Rhetoric and Poetics at the
local Studio. After Maios death, he progressively joined Pontanos circle, an
event that he expressed poetically in the second version of Arcadia and recalled
in his Piscatorial Eclogues, two texts written after 1,o. More precisely, in the
second version of his Arcadia Sannazaro constructed himself and Pontano
as respectively the Neapolitan boy Sincero and the old shepherd Meliseus,
two characters whose symbolical encounter is found in the conclusion of the
text.
64
Also, Sannazaro recalled the etymology of his nickname and praised his
investiture as Pontanos follower in the second Piscatorial Eclogue, which stages
Meliseus in the act of presenting a gift to his pupil for having written about
seashores (acta).
65
If framed in its original context and interpreted in relation to Pontanos
astrological approach to authorship, Actius is not only a technical treatise of
poetics as scholars have generally assumed. Marc Deramaix and Laurens Pierre,
for example, have investigated the features of Pontanos poetics of wonder and
his careful reuse of Virgils verses in relation to the humanistic discussion on
rhetoric.
66
Liliana Monti Sabia and Mauro De Nichilo have focused on the
section devoted to the writing of history and explored the rhetorical themes
and historical circumstances that caused Pontano to draw, for the rst time, a
distinction between history and historiography.
67
Guido Martellotti, Giacomo
Ferra and, as a side note, Paolo Valesio, have emphasized the innovative char-
acter of Pontanos approach to poetry and interpreted it as a forerunner of stylis-
63)
Furstenberg-Levi, Te Fifteenth-Century Accademia Pontaniana, ,o.
64)
Soranzo, Audience and Quattrocento Pastoral, o1o:.
65)
Sannazaro, Latin Poetry: Tis the shepherd Meliseus, the shepherd himself, once gave
me, when the old man chanced to hear me as I sang from my lofty rock. He said: Boy, let
these be the rewards for your muse, since you were the rst to sing along our shores. For
a very erudite discussion of the meaning of Sannazaros nickname see Riccucci, La profezia
del vate, :;:8.
66)
Deramaix, Excellentia et Admiratio dans lActius, 1;1:1:; Laurens, Le poids dun
ocon de neige, :,.
67)
Monti Sabia, Pontano e la storia; De Nichilo, LActius del Pontano e una lettera di
Bernardo Rucellai, :o,.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
tic criticism.
68
Only Francesco Tateo has focused on this dialogues representa-
tion of authors and has underlined howActius unusually constructs Sannazaros
persona as a poet and the recipient of prophetic dreams.
69
More recently, Shu-
lamit Furstenberg-Levi has pointed out how Pontanos Actius stems from the
authors attempt to reinforce his intellectual heritage by indicating and reveal-
ing the names of his heir.
70
Tateo and Furstenberg-Levi, therefore, have paved
the way for my own intepretation.
Taken as a whole, the authorization of Sannazaro staged in Actius can
be read as a polemical attempt at defending Pontanos astrological approach
to authorship against the growing success of Ficinos ideas at the Aragonese
court. In Actius, Sannazaros authorization starts from a discussion about the
causes of his prophetic dreams, and ends with a praise of Pontanos Urania
as the epitome of a new ideal of poetry. If matched with the cultural eld of
Naples in the 1,os, Actius brings forth a controversial and highly polemical
message. At that time, the King and his collaborator Francesco Pucci were
contributing to the diusion of Tuscan vernacular and Ficinos ideas at court. A
well-trained humanist versed in eloquence, Latin poetry and classical exegesis,
Pucci became librero mayor of the Aragonese Library in 1,o, and during his
tenure he signicantly improved King Ferrantes collection.
71
In 1,1, Ferrante
commissioned a manuscript copy of Ficinos translation and commentaries of
Platos dialogues to the scribe Pietro Ippolito da Luni. Te copy, now at the
British Library, was lavishly illuminated by the Neapolitan artist Matteo Felice,
whose hand is often found among the richest items of the Aragonese Library.
72
Pietro Ippolito da Luni and Matteo Felice also collaborated in producing an
illuminated copy of Ficinos Platonic Teology, which was nished in 1,.
73
Ippolito da Luni, moreover, compiled a selection of Ficinos texts and collected
them in a richly illuminated anthology of ancient philosophers translated into
Tuscan vernacular.
74
Courtly intellectuals, in other words, were increasingly
interested in Florentine platonism and prone to adopt Ficinos ideas.
68)
Martellotti, Critica metrica del Salutati e del Pontano, :;; Ferra, Pontano critico;
Valesio, Strutture dellalliterazione, :8.
69)
Tateo, Tradizione e realt, 8, ;o.
70)
Furstenberg-Levi, Te fteenth century Accademia Pontaniana, 8,.
71)
Mazzatinti, La Biblioteca dei Re dAragona in Napoli, xcixcii.
72)
Tese two manuscripts are now found at the British Library and are part of the Harley
collection (Mss. Harley 818:).
73)
Mazzatinti, La Biblioteca de Re dAragona, lxivlxv.
74)
Tis manuscript is nowfound at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples (Biblioteca Naziona-
le XII E :).
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
In the explanation of the causes of prophecy that forms the rst part of
Actius, Pontano reconciles his astrological views with natural philosophy, thus
translating the intention of De Rebus Coelestibus in dramatic terms. Pontanos
text defends the authors approach to authorship by using the persona of
Johannes Pardo to explain frenzy (furor) in astrological terms. Pardos explana-
tion, which translates the language of a dicult metaphysical inquiry excep-
tionally well, in a witty and conversational tone, is based on an astrological
interpretation of Aristotles De Anima:
[Johannes Pardo] Aristotle maintains that there is an external mind (mens). Tis mind
as I believe he thinksglides into human souls as if it were coming from elsewhere.
And likewise, it gives the soul the duty (ocium) to think, investigate and nally judge
that which might bestow what is suitable to the artists for the accomplishment of the
designated task. And it is my opinion that just as radiance (lumen) comes into the eyes
fromthe light (lux) that pours forth fromthe sun (for the light is also external, that is, it
is a celestial substance emitted by heaven and the sun that comes to us fromelsewhere);
so the mind is infused by the movements of heaven itself and the stars, through what is
called sympatheia in Greek and Cicero called contagio in Latin (although I would rather
call it contages, since contagio is generally taken as unhealthy and pestilential these days).
So, as I was saying, by the perpetual movement of heaven and the stars the mindthat
acute, accomplished and intrinsically constant disposition to thinkis poured into our
souls by a gift of God.
75
Tis view of the stars as the cause of dreams is eventually used to criticize
alternative theories about the causes of prophecy and poetry as directly infused
by God. Trough a brilliant use of a fragmented syntax that seems to suggest
stylistically the eerie atmosphere of oracles, Pontano is conducting a subtle
critique of Ficinos Teologia Platonica, and more specically of the second
chapter of book 1 of this treatise. As a sign of the immortality of the soul,
this section of Ficinos treatise investigates prophecy, and asks when human
75)
Pontano, I Dialoghi, 1: Externam quidem esse mentem putat Aristoteles eamque
veluti peregre advenientem, ut sentire illum arbitror, in animos hominum illabi idemque
animis praestare ipsis ocium ad cogitandum pervestigandumque, denique ad iudicandum
quod articibus ipsis ad conciendum destinatum opus praebeat dextera. Ac mea quidem
sententia, perinde ut de luce per orbem a sole diusa lumen oculis accenditur ad viden-
dum atque discernendum ea quae oculis obiecta sunt (nam et lux externa, idest coelestis
res est eque coelo a sole diusa peregre ad nos advenit), sic a coeli ipsius siderumque com-
motionibus, per eam quae Graece est, Latine contagionem fecit Cicero (mihi
magis placet appellare contagem, quando contagio in malam ac pestilentem hodie partem
accipitur), sic, inquam, a coeli stellarumque agitatu perpetuo animis nostris mens, idest vis
illa cogitandi tam acuta et solere tamque etiam sibi constans dono dei infunditur.
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
reason can empty itself from external inuences so that the mind can receive
the inuence of higher minds.
76
Ficinos answer is articulated in a list of seven
kinds of emptying or release (vacatio), the rst of which is sleep.
77
What Ficino,
based on Plato, had explained in terms of a direct contact between human and
divine minds, is paraphrased as a pious ction by Pardo, who prefers to analyze
this phenomenon as resulting from a natural inux caused by stars and planets:
But how, I say, do those visions, divine and lled with sanctity, of knowledge of future
events and (as we Christians say) of arcane mysteries, take place without the contact
[contages] of the stars and heaven? Terefore, just as that mind [mens] is given to
the most famous seers, the sibyls, from the heavens, by which looking indeed at the
most remote things and in no way into themselves, they foretell and foresee things
which the seers themselves have never thought or experienced before, in the same way,
those visions from the heavens are oered to those who are sleeping, indeed to those
individuals as though they are occupied by no care or thought and indeed emptied and
deprived of their senses, to the extent that there appears to be nothing human in them.
Poets rightly describe that frenzy (furor) of those prophesying, which is called frenzy
because it is beyond human senses. What, therefore, is [named] frenzy in prophets,
doesnt have [that] name in the case of those who are asleep. Piously, rather than
accurately, some good men call it divine visitation (visitatio) or apparition (apparitio),
as if God himself, or some kind of divine entity, were really visiting those men in dreams
or appeared to them while they were at rest.
78
Based on his interpretation of Aristotle in astrological terms, and in line with
his critique of religious accounts of prophetic dreams, Pardo concludes his
argumentation by praising poets and alluding to Pontanos astrological ap-
proach to poetic authority. As part of Pontanos strategy to construct San-
nazaros authorial persona as a way of defending his astrological explanation of
76)
Ficino, Platonic Teology, 1,.
77)
Ficino, Platonic Teology, 111oo.
78)
Pontano, I Dialoghi, 1: At quomodo, inquam, ent, quomodo absque siderum con-
tage et coeli visiones illae divinae quidem ac sanctitatis plenae futurorumque cognitionis
atque (ut Christiani dicimus) arcanorum mysteriorum? Quemadmodum igitur mens illa
coelitus sibyllis oertur vatibus praeclarissimis, per quam remotissimas quoque res nihilque
ad se spectantes, ne cogitatas quidem prius nec concupitas vates ipsi et praedicunt et praevi-
dent, eundemad modumcoelitus visiones illae oeruntur dormientibus, iis quidemut nullis
occupatis aut curis aut cogitationibus, ipsis vero sensibus ita liberis ac vacuis, ut nihil utique
humanum eis inesse videatur; sicuti recte quidem a poetis describitur furor ipse vaticinan-
tium, qui, quod praeter humanos at sensus, furor est appellatus. Qui igitur in vatibus furor
est, in dormientibus caret nomine; pie tamen magis quam proprie a bonis quibusdam viris
tum visitatio tum apparitio divina dicitur, quasi Deus in somniis illos inviserit aut numen
iis aliquod apparuerit quiescentibus.
o Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
poetic authority, Pardo tacitly approves of the work of astrologers in this eld
by simply referring to their work:
Howespecially fewand most rare poets are, whose force of genius is believed to emanate
from the heavens! Tey have such an acquaintance with divine visions, as if it were a
right of hospitality. And they also have that imprint imparted by the heavens which is
tting for receiving these visions, which fall from heaven through sympathy (contages).
On this topic, those who are devoted to that sidereal science called astrology in Greek,
wrote many things that, at this point, I prefer to relegate to their discipline.
79
Sannazaros characterization as an avid reader and admirer of Urania is part
of the strategy by which Pontano transmits his poetic authority to his pupil
in Actius. After having explained the properties of Latin hexameter by directly
quoting fromUrania and Virgils Aeneid, Sannazaro-Actius solemnly concludes
his speech by situating Pontano in a poetic genealogy starting with Empedocles
and leading to his master through the model of their common author, Virgil.
Urania, the poem on causes, is used once again to present stars as the causes of
poetic authority:
With their poems, Empedocles disclosed the nature of things to the human race,
Dorotheus of Sidon that of the stars; Lucretius and Manilius imitated them in Latin,
and with what eloquence and tropes, my God! How much splendor shines forth from
the most brilliant lights of the former into the latter! He [Lucretius] brings the reader
wherever he wishes, demonstrates what he intends, with unsurpassed subtlety and
artfulness exhorts, frightens, incites, and nally, when needed, he brings everything
back with magnicence, appropriateness and that aforementioned admiratio. So that,
after having rubbed o the rust from his rough verses, with which Virgil eventually
honored Roman poetry, he does not seemlacking at all. And if in the latters [Manilius]
Astronomica some embellishment was needed to reach poetic appropriateness, our
Senex [Pontano] recently managed to add to it and bring it to perfection. Posterity,
I think, will perhaps more generously judge his Urania because, I know, it will feel less
envious of it.
80
79)
Pontano, I Dialoghi, 1: Quampaucissimi vel rarissimi potius existunt poetae, quorum
ingenii etiam vis e coelo manare credita est! Quibus itaque divinis cum visionibus haec inest
familiaritas, tanquam hospitii ius, et illa quoque eisdem inest a coelo informatio accipiendis
apta visis quae de coelo per contagem illabuntur. Qua de re ab illis qui sideralis scientiae
quae Graece dicitur studiosi sunt permulta traduntur, quae nos ad illorum hac
in parte disciplinam relegamus.
80)
Pontano, I Dialoghi, :8:,: Aperuit rerum naturam generi hominum carmine suo
Empedocles, sideralis disciplinae Dorotheus Sidonius, quos Latine imitati Lucretius ac
Manilius, Christe optime, quid copiae, quod ornatus, quantus e clarissimis luminibus eius
eicat in altero splendor! Rapit quo vult lectorem, probat ad quod intendit, summa cum sub-
Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,: ;
. Conclusion
In continuity with their Medieval predecessors, as the case of Pontanos Naples
demonstrates, Quattrocento intellectuals continued to discuss poetic author-
ity in the language of causality. Te interest of Ficino and Pontano in ancient
texts such as Platos dialogues or the pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquium, there-
fore, is not indicative of a rupture with the Middle Ages. On the contrary, the
case examined reveals how new texts were actually explored with old questions
so that the traditional interplay of authorship and causality was enriched by
new arguments, rather than dismissed. Moreover, Pontanos performance of
Urania and the transmission of authority staged in the dialogue Actius illus-
trate how the language of causality continued to be used to negotiate, dis-
pute and defend the authority of a discipline and the prestige of an intellec-
tual community in relation to or against alternative ideas. While an exhaus-
tive history of early modern theories of authorship still remains to be writ-
ten, however, a close-up onto the case of Pontanos Naples may enrich the
conclusions of this essay with the clues to a more complex historical sce-
nario.
On August ; 1,, a few months before starting to write the rst draft
of his dialogue Actius, Pontano was in Florence as an ambassador of King
Alfonso II, and was trying to nd a diplomatic solution to the threat posed
by Charles VIII to the Kingdom of Naples.
81
While in Florence, Pontano may
well have met Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, thus directly
experiencing the atmosphere of religious fervor and messianic anxiety that set
the stage for Girolamo Savonarolas political ascent.
82
As can be inferred from
the manuscript versions of the twelfth book of De Rebus Coelestibus (written
1,o1,8; rst printed 11:) and the third book of De Fortuna (written
1,81,,; rst printed 11:), which were heavily altered by their posthu-
mous editor Pietro Summonte, Pontano was harshly critical of Savonarola and
tilitate et articio, hortatur, deterret, incitat, retrahit, demum omnia cum magnitudine, ubi
opus est atque decoro, et hac de qua disputatum est admiratione, ut expurgatis rudioribus
illis vetustatis numeris, quibus postea Virgilius Romanam illustravit poeticam, nihil omnino
defuisse videatur. Alteri vero in astronomicis, si quid ornatus poeticoque defuit decori, addi-
tum nuper ac suectum a nostro Sene. De cuius Urania, ut arbitror, iudicabunt posteri
fortasse liberius, quod, certo scio, de ea sentient minus invidenter.
81)
Monti Sabia, Prolusione, ::.
82)
Weinstein, Savonarola, Florence and the Millenarian Tradition, :,1:,:.
8 Matteo Soranzo / ARIES 11.1 (:v11) :,,:
violently criticized the friars success among Florentine intellectuals.
83
What is
more, Pontano openly sided with astrologer Lucio Bellanti in trying to debunk
Savonarolas authority as the nefarious consequence of a negative astrological
conguration, thus using his astrological views as a powerful instrument of
political subversion.
84
If framed in this broader historical context, Pontanos
distinctive approach to poetic authority might prove to be more complex
than a consequence of his astrological studies, a critique of Marsilio Ficinos
success in Quattrocento Naples or a tribute to his pupil Jacopo Sannazaro.
Tis complexity stems from the fact that the authority of a poet and a prophet,
as Pierre Bourdieu suggested in a still illuminating critique of Max Weber,
ultimately does not reside in the intrinsic quality of an individuals charisma but
rather in the relations among multiple agents that discuss, negotiate, attribute
or deny this form of authority in a specic cultural eld. Te unravelling of
these relations, however, would demand a thorough historical reconstruction
that goes beyond the scope of this essay.
85
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