guishes twenty-six types of friends; since many of them
are less than admirable, he is here undercutting more
uplifting works such as Cicero’s De amicitia. Libellus
de malo senectutis et senii, Buoncompagno’s pessimistic
last work, is based on his sad experience of his own
decline; here, then, he is undermining Cicero’s paean
to the blessings of old age, De senectute.
Many of the characteristics of Buoncompagno’s writ-
ing that make it interesting to the modern reader—such
as his lively fl ights of narrative fancy, his pervasive sense
of irony and satire, his fondness for quirky digressions
into obscure erudition, and his quarrelsome insistence on
his originality—allow a strong individuality to emerge
from his work. However, these same traits limited its
practical impact in his own time, compared with the
more mundane efforts of his less colorful contempo-
raries. Nevertheless, Buoncompagno’s advocacy of a
more direct and less artifi cial style of letter writing, in
contrast to the classicizing and ornate approach favored
by the Orléans school of dictamen, ultimately carried
the day.
See also Boccaccio, Giovanni
Further Reading
Editions and Translations
“Boncompagnus.” In Testi riguardanti la vita degli studenti a
Bologna nel sec. XIII (dal Boncompagnus, lib. 1 ), ed. Vir-
gilio Pini. Testi per Esercitazioni Accademiche, 6. Bologna:
Biblioteca di Quadrivium, 1968. (Excerpts.)
Breviloquium, ed. Giuseppe Vecchi. Bologna, 1954.
“Cedrus” and “Boncompagnus (or Bonconpagnus or Rhetorica
antiqua).” In Briefsteller und formelbücher des eilfi en bis
vierzehnten jahrhunderts, ed. Ludwig, Rockinger. New
York: Burt Franklin, 1961, Vol. 1, pp. 121–127, 128–174.
(Reprint of 1863–1864 ed.; Cedrus, complete; Boncompag-
nus, excerpts.)
Libellus de malo senectutis et senii, ed. F. Novati. Rendiconti
della Regia Accademia dei Lincei, Classe di Science Morale,
Series 5(1), 1892, pp. 50–59.
Liber de amicitia, ed. S. Nathan. Miscellanea di Letteratura del
Medio Evo. Rome, 1909, Vol. 3, pp. 46–88.
Liber de obsidione Ancone, ed. Giosuè Carducci et al. In Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores, 2nd ed., Giulio C. Zimolo. Bologna:
Zanichelli, 1937, Vol. 6, part 3, pp. 3–55.
“Palma.” In Carl Sutter, Aus Leben und Schriften des Magisters
Boncompagno: Ein Beitrag zur italienischen Kulturgeschichte
im dreizehnten Jahrhundert. Freiburg im Breisgau: Mohr,
1894, pp. 105–127.
“Rhetorica novissvma.” In Bibliotheca iuridica medii aevi: Script
anecdota glossatorum, ed. Augusto Gaudenzi. Bononiae
(Bologna): P. Virano, 1892, Vol. 2, pp. 249–297.
Rota veneris, ed. Friedrich Baethgen. Rome, 1927.
Rota veneris, ed. Paolo Garbini. Rome: Salerno, 1996.
Rota veneris: A facsimile Reproduction of the Strassburg Incu-
nabulum, ed. and trans. Josef Purkart. Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars’
Facsimiles and Reprints, 1975.
V tabule salutationum. In Giulietta Voltolina, “Lo scambio
epistolare nella società medioevale attraverso l’opera inedita
di un magister dell’Universita di Bologna: Boncompagno da
Signa.” Rivista di Cultura Classics e Medioevale, 30, 1988,
pp. 49–55.
Critical Studies
Gaudenzi, Augusto. “Sulla cronologia delle opere dei dettatori
da Buoncompagno a Bene di Lucca.” Bulletino dell’Istituto
Storico Italiano, 14, 1895, pp. 85–174. (For Buoncompagno,
see pp. 86–118.)
Purkart, Josef. “Boncompagno of Signa and the Rhetoric of
Love.” In Medieval Eloquence: Studies in the Theory and
Practice of Medieval Rhetoric, ed. James J. Murphy. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1978, pp. 319–331.
Sutter, Carl. Aus Leben und Schriften des Magisters Boncom-
pagno: Ein Beitrag zur italienischen Kulturgeschichte im
dreizehnten Jahrhundert. Freiburg im Breisgau: Mohr,
1894.
Tunberg, Terence O. “What Is Boncompagno’s ‘Newest Rheto-
ric’?” Traditio, 42, 1986, pp. 299–334.
Voltolina, Giulietta. “Lo scambio epistolare nella società medio-
evale attraverso l’opera inedita di un magister dell’Università
di Bologna: Boncompagno da Signa.” Rivista di Cultura
Classica e Medioevale, 30, 1988, pp. 45–55.
Witt, Ronald G. “Boncompagno and the Defense of Rhetoric.”
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 16(1), 1986,
pp. 1–31.
Hanns HohmannBURCHARD OF MOUNT SION (fl. 1280)
German Dominican, pilgrim to the Holy Land and au-
thor of a travel narrative, Descriptio Terrae Sanctae, the
fi rst systematic description of the portion of Palestine
west of the Jordan.
Nothing is known about Burchard’s origins or life ex-
cept that he joined the Dominican convent at Magdeburg
and by 1280 had undertaken his pilgrimage. Burchard
stayed in Acre for some time and was connected with
the Dominican convent of Mount Sion, from which his
name is derived.
In 1283, Burchard wrote his travelogue, entitled De-
scriptio Terrae Sanctae, based on his recollections of the
Christian holy sites he visited, of the topography, fl ora,
and fauna, and of the sociopolitical conditions of the
Holy Land, with a particular emphasis on Jerusalem.
He was an excellent observer, critical and empirical
by nature; he often challenged statements made by
previous authors no matter how authoritative, if their
accounts were contradicted by his own observations.
For example, during his visit on Mount Gilboa, he ex-
perienced a heavy rain, despite the account of King
David’s curse “neither let there be rain upon you”
given in the magnifi cent passage in II Samuel 1:21;
thus he challenged the interpretation of the biblical
text. He also showed a very early interest in bibli-
cal archaeology. Having been aware of the historical
evolu tion that had caused the destruction of many early
Christian sites in Palestine, he recommended digging
through the strata of ruins in order to reach the original
holy places.BURCHARD OF MOUNT SION