Ostalo
Logica suis ipsius instrumentis formata auctore Foelice Vero Siceno: the editio princeps of Faust Vrančić’s autograph in the State Archives in Zadar
Danko Zelić
; Institut za povijest umjetnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Accompanied by introduction, notes and facsimiles, here presented is the editio princeps of a recently discovered and so far completely unknown Faust Vrančić’s autograph treatise on logic that was purchased (along with the meagre remains of his personal archive) in 1948 from Vrančić’s distant descendants in Prvić Šepurine, the Island of Prvić, in the vicinity of Šibenik. Other than being the only surviving autograph―in addition to the two thus far well-known printed editions, Logica suis ipsius instrumentis formata a Yusto Verace Siceno (Venice, 1608) and Logica nova suis ipsius instrumentis formata et recognita a Fausto Verancio episcopo Chanadii (Venice, 1616)―the manuscript in the State Archives in Zadar, transcribed and published in this volume contains arguably the oldest version of Vrančić’s Logic.
The examination of external features of the manuscript shows that the text of the treatise itself―although being identical in title and quite analogous in structure―is considerably shorter in length and accordingly of an earlier date than the text of the 1608 edition. It should, however, be explicitly stressed that the autograph script in Zadar is not a draft of the latter, but, quite the contrary, a completed, fully finalized work in its own right. In fact, judging from the manuscript’s thoroughly considered layout and different, ‘hierarchically’ arranged and used types of handwriting, it was prepared by the author himself in order to be sent directly to the printer and used by the typesetter as a template for the final layout of the book. However, given the fact that there is no evidence of the opposite, it should be inferred that this manuscript version of Vrančić’s Logica never came to be printed.
In the concluding part of the article some preliminary thoughts regarding the dating of the manuscript are briefly formulated. On the one hand, the name by which Vrančić signed his treatise―the until recently otherwise unknown pseudonym Foelix Verus―matches the name Felice Vero under which he supplicated and eventually obtained the patent privilege from the Venetian Senate for his own invention of the mill mechanism in 1590. Thus, the possibility that he was working on his treatise on logic by the beginning of the last decade of the sixteenth century should not be dismissed.
Another potential clue, perhaps not for the dating of the particular manuscript, but certainly for the enquiry regarding the time in which Vrančić wrote his ‘first’ Logic, is the identity of the still enigmatic Antonius Cornicinus, the author of the dedicatory four-verse epigram included in all three versions of Vrančić’s Logic. Cornicinus is positively a humanistic name, in all probability derived from cornix (Latin for crow).
Since the family name Vrančić, based on the Croatian word for crow (vrana), is a derivative of a very similar kind, Cornicinus is presumably the last name that Faust Vrančić had ‘invented’ for his paternal uncle Antun Vrančić (Antonius Verantius in order not to reveal the last name common both to the author of the treatise, and to the person who on that occasion wrote encouraging verses. Faust’s uncle, to whom he was deeply indebted for his education, was truly a remarkable intellectual and a man of outstanding political and ecclesiastical career in the service of the rulers of the Habsburg dynasty. At the time of his death, in 1573, he was the Archbishop of Esztergom, i.e. the primate of Hungary, and held the post of the Imperial-Royal locum tenens (a governor) for Hungary. If Antonius Cornicinus is indeed a pseudonym that Faust used to conceal the identity of Antun Vrančić, it would also imply that he wrote his first logical treatise (and sent it to his uncle who would respond with an epigram) while studying at the university of Padua (1568–1572).
Ključne riječi
Faust Vrančić; logic; Antun Vrančić; manuscript; editio princeps
Hrčak ID:
200258
URI
Datum izdavanja:
12.1.2018.
Posjeta: 782 *