Antonius Codrus Urceus Aldo suo salutem plurimam dicit.
{1} Tua singularis humanitas, qua, cum istic essem, erga me usus es, non sane merebatur ut te tam diu in litterarum mearum expectatione tenerem. Verum id evenit non oblivione nec negligentia, sed plurimis occupationibus et curis quae me superioribus diebus oppresserunt et etiamnum opprimunt adeo ut ne nunc quidem possim libere ea quae volo tibi scribere. Doleo certe. Vellem enim exponere ac enarrare quicquid mihi post meum a te discessum accidit et sermones quos ego et Nicolaus Leonicenus una de nostris studiis habuimus. Sed postquam non datur ocium, in aliud tempus differamus.
Primum accipe quae ad mandata tua spectant; deinde de rebus meis loquar.
{2} Opera Graeca quae flagitas non potes nunc habere, quoniam Nicolaus Graecus occupatus in aliis est. Cum perfecerit quae in manibus habet, tui memor ero.
{3} Versum Theocriti qui est in Helenae epithalamio corruptum habes, ideo intelligere non potes. Ego integrum habeo et manu Andronici, viri doctissimi et eloquentissimi. Sic autem iacet: παίσδειν ἐς βαθὺν ὄρθρον, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἔναν καὶ ἐς ἀῶ, ubi ἔναν legis positum pro ἔνην Dorice. ἔνη autem significat finem et principium mensis vel lunae. Dicitur tamen coniunctim, ἔνη καὶ νέα, sed Theocritus primam tantum partem posuit. Lege Aristophanis Nephelas: εὐθύς μετὰ ταύτην έσ’ ένη τε καὶ νέα, et infra etiam saepe. Iulius quoque Pollux haec dicit libro primo, ubi de partibus mensis loquitur: ὁμοίος ἄχρι τῆς τριακάδος, ἥν οἱ ’Αττικοί καλοῦσιν ἔνην καὶ νέαν. Hoc autem est quando luna vetus est et nova, ut dicere nunc solemus. Plura super hac re scriberem, nisi te plura apud Aristophanis commentaria lecturum existimarem. Pulcher certe est hic Theocriti locus et ratio metri quadrat.
{4} Impersonale verbum, quod est apud Ovidium cum accusativo, cum invenero, ad te scribam; nunc οὐ δύναμαι.
{5} Quod de ratione metrica, quae est in odis Pindari, scire cupis, res longa est et difficilis scriptu. Nam sunt aliquae odae quae habent XXIII versuum species; aliquae, quae XVIII; aliae, alium numerum; et commentarium meum admodum vetus est, ita ut vix legi possit. Curabo tamen, si iusseris, quoquo modo potero tibi satisfacere.
{6} Nunc, quid in rebus meis te facere velim, accipe. Si Apollonius transcriptus est, placet. Mitte. Ego tibi pecunias numerari iubebo vel aliquod opus Graecum, quod volueris, tibi rependam. Sin minus, omitte. Ego enim Patavii habeo qui illum exarari facit.
{7} Boetii opera quanti veneant scire cupio, et si Dionem historicum vel Graecum vel Latinum istinc habere possim.
{8} Vale. Tibi me commendo et rogo, ut me commendes Demetrio Moscho, viro docto, M. Antonio Sabellico, viro eleganti ac diserto, Raphaeli Regio, viro emuncto, domino Danieli, viro humano, et aliis nostrorum studiorum studiosis. Georgium Vallam non audeo dicere, quoniam illum mihi subiratum esse, cum istic essem, sensi. Et certe, nisi ille me quemlibet trivialem grammaticum contempsisset, nonnulla cognitu pulcherrima ex me accepisset. Sed stultus, qui haec scripsi, cum modice aut etiam intra modum litteratus sim. Alde mi humanissime, possem illud Iuvenalis dictum in hanc rem, de qua loquor, convertere: ‘hic vivimus ambitiosa paupertate omnes’. Sumus litterarum pauperes et volumus videri omnia scire. Recte igitur Paulus apostolus Corinthios monuit: ἡ γνῶσις φυσιοῖ, ἡ δὲ ἀγάπη οἰκοδομεῖ. Itaque officium nostrum esset non superbire, sed alterum ab altero discere et nos invicem amare, et hominem ignotum ter et quater, priusquam contemnas, versare.
Bononiae, XIIII Octobris MCCCCLXXXXII.
Notes to the Text
res longa est et difficilis Bononiae 1502 : res longa est difficilis Venetiis 1506
Translation
Antonio Codro Urceo greets his dear Aldus.
{1} That special humanity of yours that you showed me when I was there certainly did not deserve that I should keep you waiting for my letter for so long. However, this did not occur out of forgetfulness or negligence, but because of the several occupations and worries that oppressed me during the previous days and that still keep oppressing me, to such a point that not even now am I at ease to write you what I would like to. I am certainly sorry, for I would like to expose in detail all that happened to me after I left you and the conversations about our studies that I had with Niccolò Leoniceno. But, since no free time is given to me, let us defer that to another occasion.
First listen to what concerns your requests; then I will tell you about my affairs.
{2} As regards the Greek works that you keep requesting, you cannot have them now because Niccolò the Greek is occupied in other tasks; when he accomplishes the works he has now in his hands, I will get back to you.
{3} That verse of Theocritus, which is in Helen’s epithalamium, you have in a corrupted form, which is why you cannot understand it. I have it in a correct shape, and by the hand of Andronicus, a very learned and eloquent man. It goes like this: “playing deep into the night, since until both tomorrow and the dawn after that,” where you read the Doric form ἔναν in place of ἔνην. ἔνη actually means the beginning or the end of the month or of the moon. One hears ἔνη καὶ νέα [“the last day of the month”] used as a phrase, but Theocritus uses only the first part of it. See Aristophanes’ Clouds: “immediately after that day there is the one day which is both old and new,” and also later on, frequently. Also Julius Pollux says the same in book 1, where he talks about the parts of the months: “similarly up until the thirtieth day, which the Attic speakers call ἔνη καὶ νέα.” This is when the moon is old and new, as we are accustomed to say now. I would write more on this topic, should I not believe that you are going to read more in Aristophanes’ commentaries. At any rate this passage of Theocritus is beautiful, and the metrics work perfectly.
{4} The impersonal verb that in Ovid is used with the accusative case, as soon as I shall find it, I shall write you; now I am not able to.
{5} As far as the metrics in Pindar’s Odes, what you want to know is a matter long and hard to write. For there are some odes that have twenty-three types of verse; some that have eighteen; others, other numbers; and my commentary is so old that it almost cannot be read. Nevertheless, should you bid me to, I shall be sure to satisfy your inquiry in whatever way I can.
{6} Now listen to what I would like you to do for me. If the Apollonius has been transcribed, very well. Send it to me. I will send you the money, or else I will pay you back with some Greek work, whichever you should wish. If, however, it has not been transcribed, disregard my request, for at Padua I know someone who can have it copied out.
{7} I wish to know how much Boethius’ works cost, and whether would it be possible for me to have Dio the historian, either in Greek or in Latin, sent from there.
{8} Farewell. I commend myself to you and ask you to commend me to Demetrio Mosco, a learned man, to Marco Antonio Sabellico, an elegant and eloquent man, to Raffaele Regio, an acute man, to signor Daniele, a very kind man, and to the others who love the studies that we love. I do not dare to mention Giorgio Valla, since when I was there I perceived him being angry at me. For sure, had he not despised me as a commonplace philologist, he would have had from me some things most beautiful to know. But silly I am to write this, being a man who is only moderately educated, or even less than that. Aldus, my most gentle friend, if only I could have applied to this matter I am talking about that famous saying of Juvenal, “Here all of us live in an ostentatious poverty!” For we are poor in literary knowledge, yet we want to appear to know everything. Thus rightly the apostle Paul admonishes the Corinthians as follows: “Knowledge puffs up, charity edifies.” Accordingly, our duty is not to be haughty, but to learn one from another and to love each other, and to think over an unknown person three or four times before despising him.
Bologna, October 14, 1492.
Notes to the Translation:
Antonio Urceo Codro: an Italian humanist (1446, Rubiera in Reggio Emilia–1500, Bologna), teacher of Latin, Greek, grammar and eloquence at the university of Bologna (where also Nicolaus Copernicus was among his students). He is known for having completed Plautus’ Aulularia, composing a new fifth act meant to substitute the highly fragmentary original one. An authority in Greek studies, and a friend of Aldus, he is the dedicatee of Manutius’ second volume of the Epistolographi Graeci (1499): as our letter is about to testify, Codrus had greatly helped Aldus with the text of Theocritus, not only searching for codices, but also applying his expertise to textual cruces.
Niccolò Leoniceno: aka Nicolaus Leoninus, Nicolaus Leonicenus of Vicenza, Nicolaus Leonicenus Vicentinus, Nicolo Lonigo, Nicolò da Lonigo da Vincenza, was an Italian physician and humanist (Lonigo, 1428– Ferrara, 1524). A polymath, he studied Greek, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, then he taught them at the University of Ferrara from 1464 until the end of his very long life. As a forerunner in this field, he translated into Latin the ancient Greek and Arabic versions of Galen and Hippocrates’ medical texts.
Niccolò the Greek: to be identified with the previously mentioned Niccolò Leoniceno, with the nickname “the Greek” due to his special Greek erudition.
That verse of Theocritus: Theocritus, Idylls 18.14.
Andronicus: a copyist, and probably a philologist himself, known to Codro and, it seems, to Aldus too, but not better identifiable for us.
Aristophanes’: Aristophanes, Clouds 1131
…and also later on, oftentimes: ibid. 1176, 1177, 1194, 1220.
Julius Pollux: aka Ἰούλιος Πολυδεύκης, Ioulios Polydeukes (fl. 183 AD) was a Greek grammarian, lexicographer, sophist, and rhetorician from Naucratis (Egypt), appointed by Emperor Commodus as a professor of rhetoric at the Academy in Athens. Aldus Manutius published his fragmentary Ὀνομαστικὸν ἐν βιβλίοις ί (Onomastikón in ten books) in 1502.
Demetrio Mosco: a Greek humanist (mid-fifteenth century – after 1519) who arrived in Italy in 1470 and taught in Venice and Ferrara. His five-act Greek comedy Neera, performed onstage in 1478 in Mantua, is the first humanistic play having a pagan topic to be represented in Italy. He also wrote a Helen and Alexander in hexameters, and other poems.
Marco Antonio Sabellico: aka Marcantonio Cocci, Marcus Antonius Coccius (Vicovaro ~1436 – Venice 1506), friend of Pomponius Leto, professor of rhetoric and historian.
Raffaele Regio: aka Raphael Regius (~1440 – 1520), a Venetian humanist active also in Padua, best known for having demonstrated that the Rhetorica ad C. Herennium was not a genuine Ciceronian work.
signor Daniele: perhaps is to be identified with the Venetian nobleman Daniel Rainerius, Daniele Ranieri.
Giorgio Valla: aka Georgius Valla (1447–1500), an Italian humanist, rhetorician, mathematician, philologist and translator.
that famous saying of Juvenal: Juvenal, Satires 3. 182-183.
the apostle Paul: I Corinthians 8:1.
Neo-Latin Lab 