Friday, 10 August 2012

Two elusive Bartolomeos (Bartolomei?)

La Retorica di M. Bartolomeo Cavalcanti, published in Pesaro by Bartolomeo Cesano, 1559

Bartolomeo Cavalcanti is a somewhat shadowy character (i.e. doesn't have a Wikipedia entry!). I found a brief biographical notice in the Oxford Companion to Italian Literature - he was a Florentine scholar-diplomat who ended up working for the Este and Farnese families, and died in poverty in Padua in 1562. His Retorica was 'amazingly successful' - ten editions were published between 1559 and 1585. For this information, I am indebted to the author of the article, one Christina Roaf.

Another elusive character is the publisher, Bartolomeo Cesano. He was a printer in Pesaro in the mid-fifteenth century, but that seems to be about al that is known about him. I was particularly intrigued by his printer's device, shown on the title-page of this volume, which depicts a serpent rearing up from a fire to bite the finger of a hand emerging from a cloud above it. The motto around the device is 'Cosi a' ciascun nocente si come qui al serpente', which I think roughly translates as 'May all who do harm suffer the same fate as the serpent'. I assumed it was a reference to some mythological or biblical story, but couldn't think of anything involving a snake biting a hand emerging from a cloud -- and for once even Google couldn't provide anything helpful! So I tried a text-search of the Bible for anything involving snakes, serpents and vipers, and found a likely source in the story of Paul who, having been shipwrecked on the island of Malta, was gathering a bundle of brushwood for a fire when a snake emerged from it and fastened onto his hand. Paul shook the snake off into the fire, and showed no ill-effects from the bite, which caused the islanders to think he must be a god. So why the cloud in Cesano's device? Well, perhaps it isn't a cloud, but smoke from the fire -- or perhaps it was just a convenient way for the artist to get out of depicting any more of St Paul! But I wonder why Cesano chose it?

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