678 paul f. grendler
while in Venice Guarini wrote his Regulae grammaticales, which became
a widely used accidence and syntax manual. but Guarini was not satisfied
in Venice, possibly because, not being a Venetian original citizen, he
could not obtain a chancery position, the kind of post that humanists
often filled elsewhere in italy. So in 1419 Guarini moved to Verona, where
he held two positions. the commune of Verona appointed him to teach
rhetoric, including the Epistles and Orations of cicero, the signature prose
texts of a humanistic education, as a communal teacher at a good salary.
he also operated an independent school with boarders. Guarini remained
at Verona until 1430, producing a stream of humanistically trained pupils,
including some Venetian patricians. he and his pupils, some of whom
became influential humanistic pedagogues in turn, played major roles
in the development of humanism in Venice, Verona, and the rest of the
Veneto. Remigio Sabbadini many years ago chronicled the life of Guarini
and published an invaluable edition of his correspondence, some of which
Eugenio Garin has translated into italian.8 Rino avesani and Gian paolo
Marchi have studied the impact of Guarini and his pupils in Verona.9
almost all scholars see Guarini as a significant and positive influence
on the development of humanism and the Renaissance as a whole. by
contrast, anthony Grafton and lisa Jardine charge that Guarini was only
a skillful propagandist. he convinced parents to send their boys to him
for humanist educations at considerable expense but failed to inculcate
good moral values and eloquence. he succeeded only in teaching future
civil servants how to write oratorical set pieces.10 their book expresses an
unconvincing iconoclastic view of humanism, in which Guarini serves as
a notable example of its failures. humanism was much more than this,
and Guarini played a major role in Venetian and Veneto education and
humanism. he merits more attention.
8 Remigio Sabbadini, Guariniana. Vita di Guarino Veronese. La scuola e gli studi di Guarino
Veronese, ed. Mario Sancipriano (turin, 1964); Guarino Guarini, Epistolario di Guarino
Veronese, ed. Remigio Sabbadini, 3 vols (Venice, 1915–19; repr. turin, 1967). See also Eugenio
Garin, ed., Il pensiero pedagogico dell’umanesimo (florence, 1958), pp. 306–433, 473–503.
9 See the excellent monograph of Rino avesani, Verona e il suo territorio, 7 vols (Verona,
1960–2003), vol. 4 (1981): Verona nel Quattrocento, part 2: La civiltà delle lettere. See also Gian
paolo Marchi, “per una storia delle istituzioni scolastiche pubbliche dall’epoca communale
all’unificazione del Veneto all’italia,” in Gian paolo Marchi, ed., Cultura e vita civile a Verona.
Uomini e istitutioni dall’epoca carolingia al Risorgimento (Verona, 1979), pp. 37–42, 74–78, 95.
10 anthony Grafton and lisa Jardine, “humanism and the School of Guarino: a problem
of Evaluation,” Past and Present 92 (august, 1982), 58–80; and anthony Grafton and lisa
Jardine, From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenth- and
Sixteenth-Century Europe (cambridge, Mass., 1986), pp. 1–28.