Angelus Politianus Aldo Manutio Romano suo salutem dicit.
{1} Redditae mihi fuerunt literae tuae, quae perspicue declarant non modo quam sis homo doctus, verum etiam quam mei studiosus. Est enim scribendi genus illud tuum minime triviale, cultum quinimmo, subactumque velut exercitatione multa, sparsumque denique fruge bona veterum lectionum. Tum epistolam sic laudas nostram Graece scriptam, quippe ad Graecum hominem, magis ut amorem videaris habuisse in consilio quam iudicium. Sed tamen utcunque sit, equidem tibi vel ob id placuisse eam laetor, quod quanto ego tibi fuero doctior, tanto minus fortasse poenitebit amicitiam te nostram tam cupide, tam vehementer expetisse.
{2} Facit autem ut in ea mihi epistola faveam nonnihil Emanuel ipse Adramyttenus, qui respondens ita prorsus ultra modum laudavit ut omnibus me suis Graecis, quicunque aliquot ante saeculis scripserunt, hominem citra mare natum non dubitaverit anteferre. Iurare illum solitum quoque Picus meus literis significat, dum legeret hanc epistolam, ne ipsas quidem tam esse Athenas Atticas. Quare placerem profecto mihi Graeci hominis testimonio, nisi Cretensis fuisset Emanuel. Etenim hoc genus ut mendaces notavit Epimenides, qui tamen et ipse Cretensis, ut mentiri non minus potuerit, ideoque non mendaces illi. Sic ergo verus Epimenides, atque ita rursus illi mendaces. Vides hunc dialecticorum Ψευδόμενον. Mihi tamen extra iocum veros esse omnino Cretenses libet.
{3} Iam quoniam de epistola me amo, ne palpum quidem reiciiam, quod obtrudis Rustici nomine. Monstrum enim prorsus, immo autem scelus inexpiabile, si laudatori suo poeta non crederet. Sed cupio praesens te praesente frui aliquando, siquidem absens ita delectas. Accipio vero iam nunc inter amicos et quidem primi ordinis. Nec enim explorandus ultra quem Picus noster receperit. Ille, inquam, Picus, cuius nunquam nec cessavit ingenium nec erravit iudicium.
{4} Alexandro Sarcio cottidie plus debeo, tibique esse eum familiarem summopere gratulor. Vir est profecto sincerus, candidus, amoenus, idem fidus, acer, ingeniosus, experiens. Hunc velim meo nomine plurima salute impertias, quando me assidue laudat, estque non inter postremos Pici nostri familiares.
Vale.
Notes to the Text
Aldo Manutio Romano Ald : Alto Manuccio V
Redditae … tuae Ald : Accepi abs te binas literas eodem exemplo V
ideoque Ald : ideo V
Ψευδόμενον … Cretenses Ald : mihi tamen [blank] extra iocum veros esse omnino V
reiciiam Ald : reiciam V>
obtrudis Ald : obtrudisti V
Alexandro Sarcio Ald : Martino Casali V
Hunc … familiares Ald : denique numerandus et ipse non inter postrema Pici bona, cuius nunc domestica negotia procurat. Nam de Chrisophoro ipsius fratre, qui maiore natum totum, quod dicitur, a vertice ad pedes Picum eundem gubernat, hoc equidem ausim pronuntiare: tam esse illum rebus adminstrandis, inter omnis quos adhuc equidem viderim, praecipuum qui [in error for quam] est in disciplinis universis eminens Picus. Nescis autem ex duobus germanis uter magis amico amicus, uter verior, uter efficacior. V
Translation
Angelo Poliziano to Aldo Manuzio, a Roman
{1} Your letter has been delivered to me. It plainly announces non only how learned a man you are, but also how devoted you are to me. That style of yours is hardly quotidian; rather, it is cultivated: softened as if by laborious plowing and finally seeded with the fine fruit of ancient readings. Then you so praise my letter written in Greek — precisely because it was to a Greek! — that your purpose seems more like love than judgment. But whatever the case may be, I myself am glad that you liked it, also for the reason that, the higher you rate my learning, the less regret you perhaps will feel at seeking my friendship so eagerly and emphatically.
{2} Also leading me to applaud myself a bit for that letter is Manuel Adramitteno himself, who in his answer praised me so extravagantly as not to hesitate to place me, a man born on this side of the sea, ahead of any of his own Greeks writing in the past several centuries. My friend Pico too writes to tell me that Manuel regularly swears, whenever he reads this letter, that Athens itself is not as Athenian. I therefore could be very pleased with myself on the testimony of an actual Greek — except that Manuel is from Crete. For Epimenides indicates that this race is given to lying. But since he is from Crete, this means he too could equally have been lying, and so one must conclude that they are not liars. This means that Epimenides was telling the truth, which makes them liars again. Here you have the logicians’ “Liar.” Jokes aside, my preferred view is that Cretans are utterly truthful.
{3} Given that I love myself for my letter, I can hardly now reject the sweet-talk you offer on account of my Rusticus. It would be quite portentuous — indeed, an inexpiable crime — if a poet failed to believe someone celebrating him. But I want to enjoy your company in person one day, given how much delight you bring even when absent. For now, however, I receive you among my friends — indeed, among those of the first order. I need no additional information about someone admitted by our friend Pico, that same Pico, I tell you, whose intellect never fails and whose judgment never errs.
{4} Every day I am more deeply in Alessandro Sarti’s debt, and I greatly congratulate you on having him as a friend. He is a genuinely honest man, cheerful and pleasant, but at the same time faithful, shrewd, clever, and enterprising. Please give him warmest greetings on my behalf, since he praises me without pause and is not among the least friends of our Pico.
Farewell.
Notes to the Translation:
Your letter has been delivered to me: Manuscript V has instead, “I have received from you two letters from the same original.” On the duplication, see the final note on 7.7.4.
Fine fruit of ancient reading: P. is borrowing his metaphors from Cicero, On the Orator 2.131.
That Athens itself is not as Athenian: 1.8.2
Which makes them liars again: P. is playing with the so-called “Epimenides paradox,” in which the legendary Cretan philosopher Epimenides, who opposed as fallacious the belief of his countrymen that Zeus was mortal, is imagined to say, “All Cretans are liars.” The basic form of the paradox was known as “The Liar” and was attributed to Eubilides of Miletus.
Alessandro Sarti: Sarti’s name has been substituted for that of Martino Da Casale. See the notes on 7.7.3. (What should we do about this? –R)
Please give him warmest greets…Pico: This last sentence is not in the manuscript, which instead continues from the previous sentence, “who finally should himself be counted not among the least possessions of Pico and who now manages his household affairs. As for his brother Cristoforo, who, being older, governs the same Pico from his head to his toes, as the saying goes, I personally would dare to proclaim the following: he is as excellent in managing things, compared to all whom I have seen so far, as Pico is eminent in all branches of learning. Of the two brothers, you could not say which was a better friend to their friend, which was truer, which was of greater profit.”
Neo-Latin Lab 