Following my previous post that investigated the possibility of interpreting Venus and Mars according to Neoplatonic ideas, I am now going to consider the activity of a humanist who gathered around Ficino and who was part of the Vespucci family, Giorgio Antonio. According to the documentation gathered so far, he was member of the most important cultural circles in Florence and he established, through his activity as a humanist, fruitful relationship with European courts such as those of Loren and Hungary. Information about Giorgio Antonio are today scattered across very different sources and, in order to fully understand this personality, I had to consider a various range of material that included religious writings, philological and cartographic studies.
Giorgio Antonio (1434-1514) was born into a well-to-do family. Son of Amerigo Vespucci and brother of Bartolomeo Maria and S’Anastagio (the dad of Amerigo the navigator-explorer), Giorgio Antonio lived in Borgo Ognissanti where he shared a house with the nephew Giovanni, son of Bartolomeo. Giorgio Antonio has been identified with one of the male figures that appear in Ghirlandaio’s portrait in the Vespucci chapel. Overcoming previous hypotheses, the Florentine historian Marco Conti has recently advanced a new identification of the figures represented in the Madonna della Misericordia. Conti identifies the twelve characters with members of Amerigo the explorer’s family and suggests Giorgio Antonio to be the fourth male on the right side of the Virgin. The presence of the humanist in the painting might support those hypotheses that want Giorgio Antonio patron of Botticelli's S. Agostino in Ognissanti.
Giorgio Antonio has been studied especially for his role as a humanist, his activity as scribe and his employment as a teacher of Greek. The Vespucci brothers were a family of scribes and Giorgio Antonio, together with Ser Nastagio collaborated on copying manuscripts for the family library. They also did some copying for payment which allowed them to establish connections with families and relevant personalities in and outside Florence: Giorgio Antonio had contacts with the Hungarian humanist Petrus Garazda in the late 1460s; and Nastagio copied a Statius with the arms of King Corvinus which was decorated in Hungary. After the death of Ser Nastagio the writings were taken over by Giorgio Antonio who formed a notable collection of books, both manuscript and printed. Some of these were bequeathed to the Cathedral – of which Giorgio Antonio became Canon in 1480 - and to Ognissanti. The majority however was donated in 1499 to the convent of San Marco where Vespucci was appointed priest and became friend of Savonarola.
The convent of San Marco and his library formed one of the most important centers of humanistic and literary studies in Florence. The bibliophile Niccolo' Niccoli collected several manuscripts and wanted, at his death, his collection to be transformed into a public library. Cosimo de Medici gathered Niccoli’s books and created in San Marco the first library of modern times that rotated around the Medici’s patronage. The centre benefited not only from the books and manuscripts donated by Niccoli but also from those given by Cosimo de Medici and Giorgio Antonio who became one of the most important benefactors of San Marco. The Vespucci and his activity as scribe have recently caught some academic interest and a list of the manuscripts he possessed was drawn. One hundred forty-nine books have been so far identified although old inventories, like the one by San Domenico di Fiesole, reported the existence of one hundred and eighty manuscripts. The ones so far identified can be divided into two major sections: Latin and Greek, the former more numerous than the latter. Manuscripts and books than belonged to Vespucci are today easily recognisable due to their specific features: some bear the family coats of arms with four golden wasps; some the sign of Ognissanti, the family church; other that of the Arte della Lana of which some of the Vespucci were members. Some manuscripts also bear a note of possession “Georgii Antonii Vespuccii liber” followed by the name of those who the use of the book was extended to.
Scholarly attention has not only been given to the manuscripts Giorgio Antonio possessed but also to some philological aspects relating his knowledge of Greek and Latin. Recent studies suggested that Vespucci self-learned Greek and Latin information that seems to be confirmed by a letter that he sent to the Dominician brother Giovanni from the Badia of Settimo. In his writing Vespucci talked about his experience in copying Greek and Latin manuscripts and admitted that he had not reached a perfect level in neither. Despite his judgment, Vespucci’s knowledge of classical languages must have been reasonably good as he taught in one of Florence’s universities, the Studio Fiorentino. Not many information about Giorgio Antonio’s activity at the Studio have survived but it is known that he taught Latin and Greek. Indirect sources provided names of some of his pupils: Antonio Lanfredini, Piero and Giovan Vittorio Soderini, Alamanno Donati, Dionysius Reuchlin and Renee II, Duke of Loren. It has been noticed that several pupils of Giorgio Antonio were also taught by Ficino who was strictly connected to Vespucci through the several activities they were both involved in. A close friendship seems to have linked Ficino and Vespucci: Ficino asked Giorgio Antonio to check his translation of Plato’s writings and from in his letters appear the high consideration he had of Vespucci as a humanist. They shared interests in classical writings, Christian religion, astrology and the universe. Ficino died in the arms of Vespucci.
Ficino and Vespucci’s friendship can be related to sphere of the Medici patronage and, in particular, to their activity for the Compagnia de’ Magi, the Platonic Academy and the Studio Fiorentino. Studies on fifteenth century confraternities have highlighted the presence of Giorgio Antonio in the Compagnia de’ Magi, a lay group that, engaging with many devotional activities, had an important role in Florence’s religious life. Members of the Compagnia such as Donato Acciaiuoli, Cristoforo Landino, Pier Filippo Pandolfini and Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, produced sermons that have been said to reflect Ficino’s Platonic ideas although there is actually no proof that Ficino belonged to the group. Some of them - Vespucci included - were however a member of the Academy and of the Studio Fiorentino were Ficinian ideas must have circulated. Through these groups Giorgio Antonio established contacts with some of the predominant intellectuals of Laurentian Florence as all these activities were under the Medici patronage: the Medici took a hand in the Compagnia’s affairs, transforming the annual celebration of the Magi across the streets of Florence in an occasion of self-celebration; the Studio was said to be ‘thing’ of Lorenzo; and the Accademia was founded by Cosimo.
Although investigation are not concluded, there is enough evidence to believe that Giorgio Antonio played an important role in sharing Neoplatonic ideas through his activity at the Studio Fiorentino where some of those philosophical theories were formulated. The involvement of Giorgio Antonio in the Studio, the Accademia and the Compagnia suggests not only the importance the Vespucci family gained in the city but also the support it received from the Medici, having those three humanistic and religious circles benefited of the Magnifico’s confidence. The activity of Giorgio Antonio as a humanist can therefore be linked to the intellectual ‘climate’ of the time in which other personalities related to the Medici patronage - such as Landino, Poliziano, Ficino and Acciaiuoli - gravitated. The participation of Giorgio Antonio in these Medici-led humanistic gatherings, his employment as a tutor of Lorenzo de Medici and the involvement of other Vespuccis in the Medici’s affair (such as Amerigo who became one of the Medici’s property administrator) proves how the Ognissanti family interacted with the Medici on different levels.
It is also interesting to notice the ‘circular’ path the research took. Starting from Venus and Mars, considered a Vespucci commission due to the presence of wasps on the right corner, investigation considered a possible Neoplatonic interpretation of the panel. And by considering Ficino and the humanists of Laurentian Florence, the research returned to the Vespucci family by analysing the activity of Giorgio Antonio and, in particular, his friendship with Ficino and the Medici.
Sources
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Conti, Marco. 2010. “Nuove attribuzioni per la Madonna della Misericordia”, I Navigatori Toscani. Quaderni Vespucciani (Firenze, Firenze Libri): 280.
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