Domenico da Piacenza

I am happy to report that Alessandro Pontremoli, professor at the Università degli Studi di Torino (in the Dipartimento di Discipline artistiche, musicali, e dello spettacolo no less - only an Italian University would have such a thing!) agrees with both of my suggested readings in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale f.ital. 972, the De arte saltandi of Domenico da Piacenza. One problem in the manuscript is a word which appears to be “erzadergia,” obviously nothing Italian! The generally received transcription of this has been “azidenzia,” the contrast between “natural” and “accidental” qualities of motion in Aristotelean thought being the supposed point of the passage in which it appears. My reading, however, is “eczidenzia,” or, in modern Italian orthography, “eccedenza” or “excess,” the point being the contrast between the mean and the excessive in Aristotelian thought, as applied to the motions of dancing. This reading involves a further modification in reading another word in the text, unfortunately, and this has led other scholars, notably Barbara Sparti, editor of Domenico, to reject my reading. The text says that there are in dance “bontade per natura e molte per †erzadergia† in sua operatione.” This is generally (reading “azidenzia”) rendered as “goodness by nature and many [good] things by accident (as opposed to by nature) in its performance.” I read “molte” as the modern Italian “multe,” however, and, of course, I read “eczidenzia,” so I render the phrase as “goodness by nature and penalties for excess in its performance.”

Likewise, Pontremoli supports my reading of another problematic word, “utropelia,” again nothing obviously Italian. The context is, “Aristotle in lo 2o lauda la utropelia la quale del mezo tene la virtu.” Others, not noticing the “L” written between the “e” and the “i” above the line in the manuscript, have read “utropelia” as “Utopia” and have thus mangled the Italian to make it refer to the second book of a non-existent work by Aristotle called “Utopia” — quite an anachronism, since “utopia” was not coined until 1516 by Sir Thomas More, over half a century after the Domenico manuscript was written! But I read “utropelia” as an attempt to render, probably from a lecture (see later on this), the Greek word “eutrapelia” or “wit,” the mean between buffoonery (or professional clowning) and boorishness in the second book of Aristotle’s Nicomachaean Ethics. This requires no mangling of the Italian, which then reads clearly, “Aristotle praises “eutrapelia,” which has the virtue of the mean, in the second [book of the Nicomachaean Ethics].” Domenico uses this particular example of the mean because Aristotle was talking about pastimes when he wrote of it, and Domenico is talking about his favorite pastime, dancing. Alessandro Pontremoli has said (addressing me as “caro dott. Casazza” - always nice to be accorded the title for obvious merit, even though it was never formally granted, and better that they ask “why was it not granted?” than that they ask “why was it granted?”), “sono d’accordo con Lei sia sulla questione della 'ectidentia,' sia sulla questione della 'utropelia'.” And he sent me a file containing the galley proofs of the proceedings of a 1999 conference in Bologna which includes his wonderfully perceptive argument that the Domenico manuscript is a “reportatio” or something between a “reportatio” and a “redactio” of a university lecture in the form of a “disputatio” — in other words, a standard lecture of the mid-fifteenth century.