the venetian intellectual world 575
in Trecento Venice. doge andrea dandolo, it has been noted, was, like
Petrarch’s four hypercritical friends, a graduate of the university of Padua,
where they had studied natural philosophy but he had studied law. in
both cases, Venice is seen to export its young men westward to Padua,
where they came in contact with intellectual currents of terraferma italy
one or two generations before Venice launched its project of territorial
domination. The Venetian contingent at Padua would be largely made
up of young nobles who were of the same rank and often the same clan
as those who held sway in the Senate. of the same ilk were the nobles
who, from the last years of the Trecento, were educated in the humanist
curriculum and, so trained, seized direction of the humanist movement
in Venice even as they assumed important political or ecclesiastical roles.
andrea dandolo, the doge-historian who corresponded with Petrarch,
had forged this path. Generations of patrician intellectuals would follow
his lead over the next few centuries.
The Arrival of Humanismas ronald Witt has shown, the humanist movement began in italy as
early as the 13th century with the increased intensity of classical studies
among the secretaries and bureaucrats of urban courts and councils.9
in that early resurgence of classical awareness, Venice played but a
small role—far smaller, strikingly, than nearby Padua. humanism came
to Venice late in the 14th century when a new generation of patrician
youth embraced the study of ancient books for their own delight, and
for the benefit of the state.10 From the outset, humanism in Venice was
9 ronald G. Witt, In the Footsteps of the Ancients: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato
to Bruni (leiden, 2000).
10 For humanism in Venice, see Margaret l. King, “a Study in Venetian humanism
at Mid-Quattrocento: Filippo da rimini and his Symposium De Paupertate, analysis and
Text,” Studi veneziani n.s. 2 (1978), 75–96; n.s. 3 (1979), 141–86; n.s. 4 (1980), 27–44; King, The
Death of the Child Valerio Marcello (chicago, 1994); and the many contributions of Vittore
Branca, especially: “ermolao Barbaro and late Quattrocento Venetian humanism,” in John
r. hale, ed., Renaissance Venice (london, 1973), pp. 218–43; “l’umanesimo veneziano alla
fine del Quattrocento: ermolao Barbaro e il suo circolo,” in Storia della cultura veneta,
vol. 3 (1980), Dal primo Quattrocento al Concilio di Trento, part 1, pp. 123–75; Vittore Branca,
“l’umanesimo,” in Storia di Venezia, vol. 4 (1996): Il Rinascimento. Politica e cultura, ed.
alberto Tenenti and ugo Tucci, pp. 23–755; also the essays by various authors collected in
Vittore Branca, ed., Umanesimo europeo e umanesimo veneziano (Florence, 1964); and the
essays by Branca collected in his volume La sapienza civile: studi sull’Umanesimo a Venezia
(Florence, 1998). in addition see hans Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence