374 BuoniCattolici
tues literature was the first religious literature written and consumed on a
large scale by the Italian laity. Lay products differed from the clerical in that
they elaborated the virtues and vices more by examples than analysis. These
works gave pride of place to secular sources: tales of the Roman emperors
and examples from pagan moralists like Seneca and Cicero were common.
Christian and Old Testament figures complemented the pagan core, but the
image was of a nonclerical world.^145
This literature is virtually unedited, with the happy exception of theFior
di virtu`,a mid-thirteenth-century vernacular treatment first printed in 1491
and now available in a modern translation.^146 In number of manuscripts, it
overshadows all the rest.^147 What made it so popular? Certainly, its Italian
dress and its focus on secular examples were critical. The organization by
virtues and vices linked it to the growing desire for confessional preparation.
There was also a distinctly ‘‘legal’’ feel to its piling up of ‘‘witnesses’’ and
‘‘authorities’’—it is a massive text. This must have recommended it to read-
ers touched by the revival of Roman law in communal Italy. Along with
exempla, theFiorprovided each vice and virtue with pithy proverbs and
sayings that commended themselves to memorization. The exemplary stories
are often entertaining, even amusing, and occasionally set in the cities of
north Italy. The second most popular lay author of moralizing literature was
Albertano of Brescia. He also wrote theological treatises that circulated
among the laity, or at least among confraternity members.^148 Albertano
wrote in Latin, but that did not hinder his popularity. He has recently been
the subject of a fine study in English.^149 His works are all marked by a certain
practicality and an engagement with the civic life. Both Albertanus and the
Fior di virtu`share a strikingly sympathetic attitude toward women.^150 TheFior
author condemned writers who used only ‘‘bad women’’ in their examples.
He declared: ‘‘In fact every day, we see examples of women strongly resisting
and defending themselves against the violence of men, while the latter do
not have to defend themselves against women. So that those who speak so
badly of these poor and unfortunate women would do better to be silent
since, naturally, they do not have a true and honorable foundation.’’^151 This
attitude is a world away from the stereotyped misogyny sometimes show-
cased as typical of medieval moralists. Whether Albert’s or theFior’s enlight-
ened views affected their readers is impossible to say. That two of the most
- For examples, see the anonymousFlores Moralium Auctoritatum(xivcent.) of Verona, Biblioteca
Capitolare,ms clxviii( 155 ), or theTrattato delle quattro virtu`cardinali,found in Florence, Biblioteca Nazio-
nale Centrale,msII.iv. 269 (xivcent.). - Reprinted inThe Florentine Fior di Virtu`of 1491 ,trans. Nicholas Fersin (Philadelphia: Stern, 1953 ).
- The Biblioteca Riccardiana of Florence, e.g., has no fewer than fifteen manuscripts of the work.
- As evidenced, e.g., by their presence in Padua, Biblioteca Civica, C.M. 215 (latexiiicent.), fols.
1 r– 46 v, a late-thirteenth-century codex. Here they share space with such ‘‘secular’’ texts as aDe Natura
Animalium,aNotabilia Boetii(recording remarkable dates and births), and aTractatus de Spera. - See Powell,Albertanus.
- Ibid., 116 , compares the authors on women.
151 .Florentine Fior di Virtu`, 18 ; on this passage, see Powell,Albertanus, 116.