Anatomy of a Dispute: Leonardo, Pacioli and Scientific Courtly Entertainment in Renaissance Milan
Summary (2 min read)
The Battle of the Books: Social Status and the Nobility of Scientific Disciplines at Court
- De divina proportione is far from being the book of technical mathematics and sophisticated calculations of the golden ratio that one might expect at first from a teacher of abacus.
- 18 Letters by Gabriele Pirovano, Aloisio Marliani, and Nicolò Cusano appear often in the correspondence of Duke of Milan.19 I have found a wealth of letters signed by each of these physicians in the Milanese archives, most relating to the health of various members of the Duke’s extended family.
- Not only were these learned physicians trusted members of the court but—at least in the case of Varesi and Pirovano—they were also the representatives of that class of “celestial” mathematicians practicing astrology and astronomy who considered themselves superior to scholars like Pacioli.
- Be this as it may, the courtly scientific disputation presented the occasion for Pacioli to defend the nobility of mathematics as superior to all other arts and sciences, including astrology and astronomy, which—Pacioli argued—depended on the true principles of geometry.
- VIIr; for its importance for natural philosophy, see fol.
Crossing Boundaries: The Dispute as Means of Social Advancement
- Leonardo’s Paragone has been often identified as the first treatise to maintain the superiority of painting over the other liberal arts and as a significant testimony to the newly acquired status of the artist in society.
- As Pacioli had done for mathematics, Leonardo defends the nobility of his discipline (which was generally associated with the mechanical arts), against the claims of another discipline.
- It seems more likely that their function as spectators was to gave respectability and prominence to the event and, indirectly, to Leonardo’s and Pacioli’s performance.
- Alberti, instead, explicitly adheres to the Horatian motto “ut pictura poesis.”.
- In arguing for a higher social position for themselves and their disciplines, they attempted to gain new prestige and status outside the strict boundaries of university training and traditional education.
Science and Spectacle: The Scientific Courtly Dispute as Courtly Entertainment
- As one looks closely at much of the intellectual production in fourteenth- and fifteenthcentury Italy, one cannot fail to notice that a large amount of this output revolves around intellectual disputes.
- On Leoniceno’s medical disputes, see also Daniela Mugnai-Carrara, “Una polemica umanistico-scolastica circa l’interpretazione delle tre dottrine ordinate di Galeno,” Annali dell’Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze 8 (1980), 31-57.
- See also my comments on the importance of scholastic disputatio in late medieval and Renaissance culture in “In Praise of Art.” 56 Previous scholars had tended to concentrate on the academic dispute generated in Bologna following Leoniceno’s publication of his theories.
Conclusions
- The academic disputation was a constant, statutory feature of Italian universities from the very moment of their foundation.
- Almost unfailingly, these disputes seem to have resulted in the production of polemical texts.
- Whereas scholastic, humanistic, and courtly disputes show common features, there are elements of the courtly dispute that seem to set it apart from the other two types.
- Biagioli’s study of Galileo certainly provides positive evidence of Galileo’s crafty use of disputation for social and intellectual promotion at the Medici court in the sixteenth century.
- In order to fully assess the role of esm9-2_2.pmd 4/21/2004, 3:58 PM134 patronage in science in the sixteenth-century, it seems essential to historicize these instances further by looking closely at the earlier period.
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Cites background from "Anatomy of a Dispute: Leonardo, Pac..."
...(Azzolini, 2004, pp. 115, 123) This debate formed the catalyst for De Divina Proportione, which he completed in December 1498 and published in print in 1509.25 The argument he presented during the disputation was also included by Pacioli in the dedicatory letters in both Summa Arithmetica and De…...
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Frequently Asked Questions (9)
Q2. What was the role of the court in the battle?
The court, with its emphasis on spectacle and entertainment, represented a privileged space in which to wage such intellectual battles.
Q3. How many golden ducs did Varesi earn?
He rapidly ascended to power and prestige: by 1480 Ludovico il Moro assigned Varesi an annual salary of a hundred golden duc-15 Ibid., fol.
Q4. What is the significance of the letters of dedication of some of the Ferrarese physicians?
as in the case of Pacioli and the Ferrarese physicians, the letters of dedication of some of their writings allow us to infer that they were written and produced for courtly consumption and geared towards the acquisition of privileges and the consolidation of patronage relationships.
Q5. What is the role of the courtly dispute in the sixteenth century?
As such, it involves courtiers and intellectuals, academicians and craftsmen, subtly crossing the conventional boundaries of fifteenth century Italian court hierarchies, and allowing for the subversion, permissible only by the Duke’s willingness to grant patronage, of the social order of Renaissance society.
Q6. What is the significance of the study of Galileo?
Biagioli’s study of Galileo certainly provides positive evidence of Galileo’s crafty use of disputation for social and intellectual promotion at the Medici court in the sixteenth century.
Q7. What was the role of disputation in the educational curriculum in Italy?
41 Within Italian universities the scholastic disputation was an integral part of the educational curriculum, sanctioned by the university statutes.
Q8. Where was the teaching of music at the university?
29teaching of music at the university level was at Milan between 1494-1499, when Franchino Gaffurio was appointed by Ludovico “ad lecturam musicae” in the Milanese studio.
Q9. What is the significance of the duel?
As the passing of time has relegated most of this figures to oblivion, it is only through an accurate reconstruction of their role at court that historians can assess fully the importance of the duel and the roles played in it by Pacioli and Leonardo.