Doctissimo viro Domino Aldo Romano tanquam fratri honorando et [per A]ngelum Rolandum cito reddantur
Hieronymus Varadeus Aldo suo salutatem
{1} Expectavi iam diu ut aliquid ad me litterarum dares qui magno desiderio tenebar quid per te post discessum meum actum esse intelligendi. Sed nuper non parum quoque me expectatum a litteris tuis fuisse perspexi. Offendi enim domi litteras tuas ad 4 Calendas Iulias scriptas quibus quantum operis confeceris amice ac diligenter perscribis. Ego vero qui hoc officium tuum saepissime desideravi et qui una cum Laurentio non minus meo quam tuo, sed ne invidiose loquar nostro, te accusavi quod ne litteris quidem invitatus aliquid nobis de te nunciares, permolestum habui circiter mensem has tam optatas litteras in scriniis propriis latuisse.
{2} Quod ea negligentia factum est qua familiares ignari rerum saepe utuntur, dum quae qualia sint non agnoscunt, ea inania aestimant ac nihili pendunt. Lustravimus dominii huius urbes omnes salutavimusque cum Principe, in qua re mensem fere consumpsimus. Eo tempore tuae huc litterae perlatae fuerunt et sub spe reditus mei qui proximus videbatur, ita repositae fuerant, ut eas invenisse fortunae rationis potius fuerit. Haec igitur causa fuit qua tibi tam diligenter quam optabas de Oeconomicis satisfactum non fuit. Illa nunc transcribi mandavi et, nisi me Graeca scriptoris fides fefellisset, ea iam accepisses.
{3} Spero tamen omnino in proximam ebdomadam ad te per bibliopolam Asulani examinatura transmissurum. Tu quod ad reliqua spectat absolve occepta et quae disposuisti perfice. Ego quaecumque opera absolveris ut ad me singula mittas expecto. Idque non tam de Graecis quam Latinis omnibus dictum volo. Opto quoque ut ea paucula Ausonii opuscula, quae apud te reliqui, vel reddas vel commodes tantisper dum studiosis quibusdam ostendemus, et nisi imprimere velis Lippi opus ac Festi Pompeii reliquias, ut ea quoque ad me mittas rogo.
Vale et me tanquam te ipso utere. Amo enim te iuxta te ipsum si credi dicique fas est.
Mediolani. Pridie Calendas Augustiis 1498
Translation
Girolamo Varadeo greets his friend Aldus,
{1} For a while now I was waiting that you send some letters to me, who greatly desired to understand what you did after my departure. But recently, I have noticed that in your letters you you were expecting to hear from me very much. For it was at home that I chanced upon your letters, written on June 28th, by which you have written out in a kind and diligent fashion how much of your work you have completed. But I, who most often desired this task of yours and who, – lest enviously I speak together with our Lorenzo, my friend no less than yours – I accused you because supposedly you not even unwillingly reported something about you in your letters, I was bothered that these very desired letters hid in my own letter cases for nearly a month.
{2} This happened because of the negligence that friends use who often are ignorant of objects as long as they do not know what sort of things they are, as long as they judge them to be worthless and value them as nothing. We have traversed all cities of this lord and we greeted the Duke Ludovico, in which affair we spent up almost the entire month. At the very same time, your letters were brought to this place and in the hope of my return that seemed soon, they were set aside in such away so as to be more capable to find them by the fate of reason. Therefore, this is the reason why to you there were no amendments made to Oeconomics as diligently as you wanted. I commissioned them to be transcribed, and, unless the certainty of a Greek hand had deceived me, you would have already received them.
{3} I hope, however, that I will hand them over to you entirely next week for examination through the bookseller Asulanus. As for the rest, you complete what was begun, and finish what you have settled upon. Whatever works you complete, I expect you to send them to me individually. I want this said not so much entirely about the Greeks as much as every Latin. Also, I want that you return these few works of Ausonius that I left in your possession, or that you have them at your disposal in so far as we display them to some learned men, and, unless you want to print the work of Lippus and the remnants of Festus Pompeius, I ask that you send these to me as well.
Goodbye, and use me as if I were yourself. I love you as you love yourself if anything is rightly believed and said.
Milan. 31st of July, 1498.
Notes to the Translation:
in your letters you were epecting to hear from me very much: In the Latin, there is a litotes for emphasis, thus “very much” instead of the double negative. Here is a poignant example of the common trope that one desires the absent to be present by means of letters within humanistic circles.
Lorenzo: Lorenzo de’ Medici.
very desired letters hid in my own letter cases: see the note above. However, here is the admission that Girolamo did in fact have the letters of Aldus that he was waiting for. This too could be a trope dating back to Petrarch who claims to have found long lost texts forgotten in a corner (Familiares 1.1). One wonders the significance of the literary game in which Girolamo (=Petrarch) and the letters of Aldus (=the letters of Cicero), if, indeed, Girolamo intends this trope.
the Duke: P. De Nohlac suggests Ludovico Sforza (“Il Moro”) who was the Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499. Allied with Emperor Maximillian I, he fought against the French kings Charles VIII and Louis XII. In 1500, after the battle of Novara, Ludovico was handed over to Louis XII.
Oeconomics: A Socratic dialogue written by Xenophon (c. 431 – 354 BC) that discusses household management “economics”. The printing press of Aldus in Venice produced one of the earliest modern editions of Xenophon, and, perhaps, here one has the snapshot of the preparation before printing, namely the commission of transcribing the text. If this is the case, then Girolamo was integral to the publication process of the first modern editions of Xenophon.
Bookseller Asulanus: Perhaps, Andrea Torresano di Asola (AD 1451 – 1529), who spearheaded the Torresani printing press. He was the father-in-law of Aldus who later undertook the completion of the first modern edition of Galen that included Galen’s medical, philosophical, and autobiographical writings.
Ausonius: Decimus Magnus Ausonius (c. AD 310-395) was a Roman poet.
Lippus: Perhaps, Aurelio Lippo Brandolini (c. AD 1454? – 1457), a Florentine humanist, who wrote Republics and Kingdoms Compared that is a Socratic dialogue set in the court of King Mattias Corvinus of Hungry between the king himself and a Florentine merchant; thus, an important political work predating Machiavelli.[5] It seems, here, that Girolamo and Aldus are considering a posthumous publication of one of the works by Lippo Brandolini.
The remnants of Festus Pompeius: Sextus Pompeius Festus (2nd century AD) was a Roman author on grammar and lexicon.
The Latin term reliquia signifies not simply the remains of what last, but also the ashes of a person. Here, there are two more common themes of the Italian Renaissance. The first is that the book stands in place, or embodies the author. Second, here is the sense of belatedness found in Renaissance writing: they are chasing after the scraps of Classical civilization, doomed never to restore it completely.
use me as if I were you: Another trope in humanistic epistolary writing to signify that the other is another self who shares a like mind, thus, creating intimacy within a culture of client-patron relations.
Girolamo Gradeo (Varadeus) di Ragusa in a reply to Aldus whose letters he found at a later time discusses the exchange of manuscripts for editing and printing. Unfortunately, not much is known about Girolamo Gradeo. In a letter between Daniel Clary and Aldus (see Letter 16), one learns that, at one point, Girolamo Gradeo was a nobleman seeking entry into Aldus’ circle.
Doctissimo viro Domino Aldo Romano tanquam fratri honorando et [per A]ngelum Rolandum cito reddantur
Hieronymus Varadeus Aldo suo salutatem
{1} Expectavi iam diu ut aliquid ad me litterarum dares qui magno desiderio tenebar quid per te post discessum meum actum esse intelligendi, sed nuper non parum quoque me expectatum a litteris tuis fuisse perspexi. Offendi enim domi litteras tuas ad 4 Calendas Iulias scriptas quibus quantum operis confeceris amice ac diligenter perscribis. Ego vero qui hoc officium tuum saepissime desideravi et qui una cum Laurentio non minus meo quam tuo, sed ne invidiose loquar nostro, te accusavi quod ne litteris quidem invitatus aliquid nobis de te nunciares, permolestum habui circiter mensem has tam optatas litteras in scriniis propriis latuisse.
{2}Quod ea negligentia factum est qua familiares ignari rerum saepe utuntur, dum quae qualia sint non agnoscunt, ea inania aestimant ac nihili pendunt. Lustravimus dominii huius urbes omnes salutavimusque cum Principe, in qua re mensem fere consumpsimus. Eo tempore tuae huc litterae perlatae fuerunt et sub spe reditus mei qui proximus videbatur, ita repositae fuerant, ut eas invenisse fortunae rationis potius fuerit. Haec igitur cause fuit qua tibi tam diligenter quam optabas de Oeconomicis satisfactum non fuit. Illa nunc transcribi mandavi et, nisi me Graeca scriptoris fides fefellisset, ea iam accepisses.
{3}Spero tamen omnino in proximam ebdomadam ad te per bibliopolam Asulani examinatura transmissurum. Tu quod ad reliqua spectat absolve occepta et quae disposuisti perfice. Ego quaecumque opera absolveris ut ad me singula mittas expecto. Idque non tam de Graecis quam Latinis omnibus dictum volo. Opto quoque ut ea paucula Ausonii opuscula, quae apud te reliqui, vel reddas vel commodes tantisper dum studiosis quibusdam ostendemus, et nisi imprimere velis Lippi opus ac Festi Pompeii reliquias, ut ea quoque ad me mittas rogo.
Vale et me tanquam te ipso utere. Amo enim te iuxta te ipsum si credi dicique fas est.
Mediolani. Pridie Calendas Augustiis 1498
Girolamo Varadeo greets his friend Aldus,
{1}For a while now I awaited that you send some letters to me, held by the great desire to understand what was done by you after my departure. But recently, I have observed that in your letters you desired me not a little bit. At home, I was displeased at your letters that were written on June 28th by which, in a kind and diligent fashion, you have written out how much of your work you have completed. But I, who most often awaited this task of yours and who will speak not enviously to Lorenzo who is my friend no less than yours – our friend – , I accused you because supposedly you were not even unwilling to report something about you in your letters, I was bothered that these very desired letters hid in my own letter cases for nearly a month.
{2}This was done out of the negligence that friends use who often are ignorant of objects as long as they do not know what sort of things they are, as long as they judge them to be worthless and value them as nothing. We have traversed all cities of this lord and we greeted the Duke Ludovico, in this affair we spent up almost the entire month. At the very same time, your letters were brought to this place and in the hope of my return that seemed soon, they were set aside in such away so as to be more capable to find them by the fortune of reason. Therefore, this is the reason why to you there was no satisfaction as assiduously as you were desiring about the Oeconomics. I commissioned them to be transcribed, and, unless the certainty of a Greek hand had deceived me, you would have already received them.
{3}I hope, however, that I will entirely transfer to you the things for examination next week through the bookseller Asulanus. You complete what concerns to the rest begun, and finish what you have settled upon. Whatever works you complete, I expect you to send them to me individually. I want this said not so much entirely from Greek as much as Latin. Also, I want that you return these few works of Ausonius that I left in your possession, or that you have them at your disposal as long as we indicate by some eager remarks, and, unless you want to print the work of Lippus and the remnants of Festus Pompeius, I ask that you send these to me as well.
Goodbye, and use me as if I were yourself. I love you as you love yourself if anything is rightly believed and said.
Milan. 31st of July, 1498.
{1} in your letters you desired me not a little bit: In the Latin, there is a litotes for emphasis, thus “desire” instead of “await”. Here is a poignant example of the common trope that one desires the absent to be present by means of letters within humanistic circles.
Lorenzo. Lorenzo de’ Medici.
very desired letters hid in my own letter cases: see the note above. However, here is the admission that Girolamo did in fact have the letters of Aldus that he was waiting for. This too could be a trope dating back to Petrarch who claims to have found long lost texts forgotten in a corner (Familiares 1.1). One wonders the significance of the literary game in which Girolamo (=Petrarch) and the letters of Aldus (=the letters of Cicero), if, indeed, Girolamo intends this trope.
{2} the Duke. P. De Nohlac suggests Ludovico Sforza (“Il Moro”) who was the Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499. Allied with Emperor Maximillian I, he fought against the French kings Charles VIII and Louis XII. In 1500, after the battle of Novara, Ludovico was handed over to Louis XII.
Oeconomics. A Socratic dialogue written by Xenophon (c. 431 – 354 BC) that discusses household management “economics”. The printing press of Aldus in Venice produced one of the earliest modern editions of Xenophon,[2] and, perhaps, here one has the snapshot of the preparation before printing, namely the commission of transcribing the text. If this is the case, then Girolamo was integral to the publication process of the first modern editions of Xenophon.
{3} Bookseller Asulanus. Perhaps, Andrea Torresano di Asola (AD 1451 – 1529), who spearheaded the Torresani printing press. He was the father-in-law of Aldus who later undertook the completion of the first modern edition of Galen that included Galen’s medical, philosophical, and autobiographical writings.[3]
Ausonius. Decimus Magnus Ausonius (c. AD 310-395) was a Roman poet.[4]
Lippus. Perhaps, Aurelio Lippo Brandolini (c. AD 1454? – 1457), a Florentine humanist, who wrote Republics and Kingdoms Compared that is a Socratic dialogue set in the court of King Mattias Corvinus of Hungry between the king himself and a Florentine merchant; thus, an important political work predating Machiavelli.[5] It seems, here, that Girolamo and Aldus are considering a posthumous publication of one of the works by Lippo Brandolini.
Festus Pompeius. Sextus Pompeius Festus (2nd century AD) was a Roman author on grammar and lexicon.
The remnants of Festus Pompeius: the Latin term reliquia signifies not simply the remains of what last, but also the ashes of a person. Here, there are two more common themes of the Italian Renaissance. The first is that the book stands in place, or embodies the author. Second, here is the sense of belatedness found in Renaissance writing: they are chasing after the scraps of Classical civilization, doomed never to restore it completely.
use me as if I were you: Another trope in humanistic epistolary writing to signify that the other is another self who shares a like mind, thus, creating intimacy within a culture of client-patron relations.
Neo-Latin Lab 