CroALa & LatTy: nodus

Nodus 1916206 in documento brodaric-s-epistulae.xml

8 István Brodarics to Angelo Cospi1 [Sine loco], [1515–1516]2 Manuscript used: EFKK, Categoria V. Titulus IV. cc. 142v–143r. Published: V. Kovács Sándor, Egy humanista a mohácsi vész korában (Kálnai Imre), Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények, 1970, 372. In Hungarian: V. Kovács Sándor, Magyar humanisták levelei XV–XVI. század, Budapest, 1971, 596. Brodarics calls Cospi’s attention to a youngster who prepares for studies in Italy, even though he is not an old acquaintance of Cospi. Eximie ac Doctissime Vir, salutem et commendationem.

Etsi nulla mihi vel parva admodum cum Tua Dominatione intercessit familiaris necessitudo, qua fretus liberius illi oneris quippiam auderem imponere, exoratus tamen precibus huius boni viri,3 quem vel ex eo bonum dixerim, quod litterarum sit cupidus, scribendum duxi ad Tuam Dominationem hominemque illi non parvis mihi officiis devinctum singulariter commendandum, existimans Tuam Dominationem non minorem huius petitionis meae habituram rationem, quam si quis ex veteribus illius amicis ad se scriberet.

Est enim non minor quandoque in conciliandis, quam in retinendis ac sanctissime colendis amicitiis voluptas. Si locum et exactius rem consideramus, verissimum est illud Martialis nostri omnes hi veteres novi fuerunt.4 Quis enim nostrum iure dicere potest sibi ullum veteri amore vinctum, qui non idem ei olim novus fuerit. Quare non diffido Tuam quoque Dominationem, quam ut omni in virtute, ita in amicitia quoque colenda plurimum voluptatis ponere, nullum est dubium amico novo et visu forte tantum cognito aliquid tribuituram, quae si dignabitur mihi quoque vicissim quippiam iniungere, faciam, ut quicquid viribus et ope mea confici poterit, id se amico diligentissimo mandasse intelligat, cui me unice commendo. Quae et semper optime valeat.

Datum etc. 1  Angelo Bartolomeo Cospi (1430–1516) Humanist, philologist, teacher of rhetoric at the Vienna University. 2  Giving an exact date for the letter is problematic. Sándor V. Kovács, who first published the text, dated the letter to the second half of the 1530s, because he thought that Brodarics might have got acquainted with Angelo Cospi on his trip to Italy in 1536. Regarding the fact that Cospi died in 1516, the date given by V. Kovács is obviously impossible. Cospi taught rhetoric at the University of Vienna, and it is clear that Brodarics knew him only slightly. However, we know about Cospi that he spent some time in Pozsony in 1515, where in the house of Girolamo Balbi he translated the Didorodus Codex (Libri duo, primus de Philippi Regis Macedoniae, aliorum re quorundam illustrium ducum, alter de Alexandri filii rebus gestis.) The translation was published after Cospi’s death, in 1516 in Vienna in the print-shop of Vietor. (Compare: Hermann Zsuzsa, Egy humanista karrierje (Balbi Jeromos), Az Egyetemi Könyvtár vkönyvei, Budapest, 1964, 233.) Since Balbi, just like Brodarics, belonged to the circle of György Szatmári, Brodarics might have met Cospi through him in 1515-16 when Cospi stayed in Hungary. 3  We do not know whom Brodarics recommended to Cospi. 4  Compare: Martialis I, 54, 5. (Ad Fuscum). Brodarics connects Martialis’ line skilfully to his own text. In the original: Nec me, quod tibi sim novus, recuses; / Omnes hoc veteres tui fuerunt.