Theodor Zwinger's Methodus Apodemica: An Observatory of the City as Political Space in the Late Sixteenth Century
Lucia
Felici
Università di Firenze
L. Felici, «Theodor
Zwinger's Methodus Apodemica: An Observatory of the city as
Political Space in the Late Sixteenth
Century», Cromohs, 14
(2009): 1-18
< URL:
http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/14_2009/felici_zwinger.html >
Abstract
With the Methodus Apodemica (1577) of the Basle philosopher and physician Theodor Zwinger travelling becomes an ars of great heuristic and formative value. Indeed Zwinger's book provides a modern method of analysis that predates the scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century. For the first time, the city is studied as political space. The city is the center of ethical, political, and civic values and the main arena of the human experience in history. The observation of the city by the travellers also assumed values of activity and a means of political investigation fondamental for the common good.
1. In 1577 Theodor
Zwinger published his Methodus
apodemica, in eorum gratia qui cum fructu in quocunque tandem vitae
genere
peregrinari cupiunt ... typis delineata, et cum aliis, tum quatuor
praesertim
Athenarum vivis exemplis illustrata with Eusebius Episcopius in Basel.
The work was immediately recognized as a model for the practice and
theory of
travel, and had a broad and long-lived success amongst treatises on
travel[1].
The Methodus
apodemica aimed at instructing the
art of travelling and profiting from the experience, under a conviction
of
travel's great heuristic and formative value both on the individual
plane and on
that of learning. Method, practical experimentation and theory fused in
the act
of travelling, that thus became a real and proper ars.
Nevertheless, as has been recently pointed out, the importance of the Methodus
apodemica cannot be circumscribed
by this aspect, fundamental as it may be. The compilation of a work of
broad
application in his time was also the means Zwinger chose to afford the
greatest
possible exposure of his philosophical concepts which were subversive
of
traditional
knowledge[2].
In
the four large books of the Methodus
apodemica he furnished a scientific
method with which all the practical (from aims to modes, to types,
destinations,
necessary precautions, etc.) aspects of travel could be analyzed as
well as the
speculative, as a moment of comparison of political, social, and
cultural
realities of one's own time. As an instrument of analysis of observed
society,
the examples presented were the models of four cities, Basel, Padua,
Paris, and
Athens, examined as to their political and institutional configuration,
as well
as the physical and cultural, as defined in the course of history. The
description of the city became a central moment in the study of reality
and more
generally in the learning process, taking on the function of
explanatory model
and confirmation of the methodological principles of the ars
apodemica. In his evaluation of the
city, Zwinger participated in the fertile humanistic tradition that had
made the civitas the center of ethical, political, and civic values, the place of
formation and
expression of free men engaged in furthering the public weal, and the
object of
an utopic projection that, founded on classical models, aspired to the
realization of a higher, harmonious, and rational civil
community[3].
Zwinger's particular contribution lay in connecting the analysis of the
city
from this perspective, to travel: through exploration of the city in
its
dimension as political space, in the Methodus
apodemica travel also assumed in
fact values of activity and a means of political investigation. This
aspect of
the Methodus,
even though important, has not yet been approached in the not
conspicuous
literature about it; but it should
be studied further, especially given
historians and political historians growing interest in the
city[4].
But not before having examined its context, because its genesis is
interwoven
with that of the Methodus
apodemica.
The “Methodus apodemica”: genesis of the work and of the idea of travelling as political observatory.
2. The
author of the Methodus
apodemica was Theodor Zwinger. The
plan for the work, however originated from an intellectual association
that had
formed in Basel eight years before its publication, between the famous
Basel
naturalist, his student Hugo Blotius and the Spanish merchant Marco
Perez. The
figure of Pierre Ramus instead, formerly considered to be one of the
fundamental
designers of the
initative,[5] remains in the background. Zwinger would have then laid the theoretical
plan,
the form and substance of the original design, and then transformed it
into the Methodus
apodemica. The contribution of Blotius and Perez
was however essential in the planning phase and, in part, the
realization: that
of Blotius, especially, in the development of the part relative to
travel as
observatory of political reality, while Perez most likely offered
energy and
financial support for the
undertaking[6].
The
collaboration of Zwinger, Blotius, and Perez was the fruit of their
common
experience and intellectual and religious orientations. All three had
experience
of travel, were awake to the realities of their times, were
characterized by
strong antidogmatic, anticontroversistic attitudes, inclined towards
scepticism
and cultural relativism and by a courageous openmindedness, fruit of
their
Humanistic and Erasmian formation. All three expressed their ideas in
far-reaching religious and cultural projects, also politically and
socially
useful, under the sign of liberal cultural progress and religious
tolerance.
Perez, a wealthy and cultured merchant from Antwerp, marrano and Calvinist religious chief, tireless supporter of intellectuals,
exiles,
reformers and innovative publishing houses, planned to acquire
religious freedom
in the Low Countries from Philip II, and once in exile, to establish in
Basel a
large production of silk that would provide work for emigrants of all
faiths.[7] Blotius, then a young student exile from Holland and with a
notable
interest in the analysis of political reality, was destined to become
the
creator of the Imperial Library in Vienna (as he understood it
a Bibliotheca
universalis included
everything knowable according to Gessnerian principles) and a learned
man with
the widest of international relations, involved in realizing the
extraordinary
project of a Bibliotheca
generis humani and of a Museum generis
humani in an area untouched by war,
with the final aim of arriving at a cultural and economic unification
of
Europe[8].
And finally Zwinger, who was, as is well-known, one of the more
fascinating
personalities of late Sixteenth century Basel. An immensely
erudite
intellectual, naturalist, and eminent teacher of Greek, ethics, and
medicine in
the University of Basel (of which he was twice rector), author of the
monumental Theatrum
humanae vitae and of a weighty
scientific and philosophical literature, Zwinger was a man with a broad
and
complex intellectual
profile[9].
The need for great liberty for his nature studies led him to join the
most
advanced notions of scientific learning, reached by the Paracelsian
experimental
method, with critically interpreted classical, Aristotelian, and
Galenic
thought. Aristotelian rationalism co-habited in him alongside a
fascination with
Platonic philosophy, alchemy, the Kabbalah, magic, and Hermetism. His
dialogue
with reformers and intellectuals of various confessions and cultures
did not
limit his openness towards the exponents of radical religious
non-conformism
– whom he rather protected and, as in the case of Sebastian
Castellio,
shared his engagement with the support for religious freedom
– as he was
solidly convinced of the substantially ethical nature of Christianity
and of the
harmfulness of doctrinal controversies. With his intellectual and
religious
activities Zwinger helped to keep alive the rationalist and
ethical-religious
inheritance of Renaissance thought and to open all that is knowable to
unprejudiced knowledge, in a growing international République
des
Lettres[10]. A rigorous and unitary investigative method, applied to all
disciplines, was, as
we will see, the innovative instrument with which he pursued his aims
and on
which he founded his very advanced scientific and cultural projects.
Zwinger was
one of the figures most representative of the cultural and religious
crisis in
late Sixteenth century Europe and, at the same time one of the first to
inaugurate the new century.
3. Contact
with the world of travellers in the course of their academic or
religious
wanderings and sojourn in Basel had strongly influenced the cultural
formation
of Zwinger, Blotius, and Perez. Perez was an exile and protector of
exiles;
Zwinger and Blotius were itinerant students who, like many youths of
the time,
gained their education in a peregrinatio
academica of the great European
universities and the Italienreise[11]. The three met in Basel, a city famous, in the Sixteenth century, for
its
cosmopolitan character and tolerance. A crossroad of international
traffic,
Basel was a center of European attraction for its cultured and tolerant
climate
and for the presence of many printing houses, a prestigious university,
and the
Erasmusstiftung, the foundation conceived by Erasmus of Rotterdam and
organized
by Bonifacio Amerbach to aid the learned, exiled, students, and poor
with no
denominational or geographic
distinctions.[12] Zwinger and Blotius were among thousands who participated in the
Erasmussstiftung’s grand plan to realize and spread across
Europe, through
the institution’s activities, Erasmian cultural and religious
ideals.[13] The experience of living in a city of a cultural character like Basel,
in the
name of Erasmus, and contact with the variegated crowd that moved over
European
roads, ever increasing because of the religious, cultural, political,
and
economic transformations inside Europe and because of the growth of
intellectual curiositas and the peregrinatio
academica[14],
were some important motives behind the decision of Zwinger, Blotius,
and Perez
to plan an ars
apodemica which would help
travellers to approach the experience of travel better and more
profitably.
However
it was the intellectual stimuli to Blotius and Zwinger in the course of
their
academic wandering that furnished the ideas and theoretical instruments
for the
realization of the Methodus
apodemica. For Zwinger the meeting
with Pierre Ramus and Bassiano Landi was fundamental. Ramus most of all
stimulated the development of his critical spirit towards modes and
forms of
traditional culture and his interest in Platonism. The very important
works of
Carlos Gilly have instead strongly redimensioned Ramus’
influence on the
Baselese naturalist both as regards to his reception of
Ramus’s
anti-Aristotelian position and to the adoption, in the Zwingerian works
(among
which the Methodus
apodemica) of his method and of the
synoptic tables with double brackets that formed their graphic
visualization[15]. The method and the tables adopted by Zwinger, much more innovative than
those
used by the Parisian master, had been discovered in Padua, where he
studied with
doctor Bassiano
Landi[16].
In
Landi’s school of theoretic medicine Zwinger was won over by
the
rationalistic approach to Aristotle’s thought that had been
characteristic
of the Paduan Studio since the education of Pietro
Pomponazzi and that had there found a fertile conjunction with the
empirical
methodology of scholars like Landi, Andrea Vesalius, Gabriele
Falloppia,
Francesco Bonafede: such that the University of Padua was known as a
unique and
famous center of experimental research for all
Europe[17].
Zwinger’s enthusiasm for this happy synthesis of
rationalistic
Aristotelianism and experimental scientific inquiry is clear also in
his preface
to the Methodus
apodemica, in which he praises the
Paduan school and compares it to and warns young readers of his work
against the
Parisian. The study of new and fascinating sciences (ancient and
oriental
languages, the Kabbalah) as taught at Paris, he considered, left one
“pregnant” with vast knowledge but vacuous
(“hac inani specie
Encyclopediae tumidi”) as it was not laid on a solid
Aristotelian
foundation, from which solely could come apprehension of the scientific
method necessary to the development of
knowledge[18].
Aristotelian thought was considered by Zwinger to be the foundation of
knowledge par
excellence, even if he interpreted
it critically and coupled it with other philosophical traditions,
arriving at a
very personal philosophical position which cannot be defined as of any
school[19].
4. The
key to Zwinger’s scientific activity is however the method he
developed,
the unifying element of his broad and varied intellectual
production[20].
Zwinger, “real and true master of method” ,
“ubi totus erat
methodicus”, according to Felix Platter and Johann Jakob
Grynaeus[21],
thought it the heuristic method to explore and know every
field of
knowledge and also to “invent” new sciences. His
notion was founded
on an innovative concept of order, understood as a “double
and
inverse” process of learning, which moved from the general to
the specific
and from the specific to the general through its articulation in
“ordo
inventionis” and “ordo doctrinae”, tied
respectively to human
sensory and intellectual cognition; this order replicated that of the
“via
docendi” inherent in human
nature[22].
According to Zwinger the rules of method were in fact dictated by
nature, and
were its soul, and reason had to extrapolate them and imitate them to
comprehend
reality (“ratio effingit et imitatur” the laws that
“natura
suggerit atque
dictat”)[23].
The methodological procedures were realized by direct experimentation
in reality
and found confirmation in history, conceived in the fullest sense of
the actions
of men in every field and time – Zwinger defined it
“ocularis et
sensata cognitio atque
demonstratio”[24] – and identified it with experience. History and experience
were
contrasted with philosophical theory, even though all were sources of
knowledge[25].
The coincidence of history and experience – entirely new even
in its
relation with theory – was the basis of knowledge and
presupposition for
the unitary character of it and of method. The methodus
unica with its adherence to the
natural cognitive procedures of mankind and to empirical reality, thus
united
deductive reason and inductive experience, theoretic and poietic
moments with
new and indivisible ties that allowed the acquisition of a real
empirical and
historical knowledge of every object, the organization of the growing
quantity
of ideas, their universal communication and not least, to extend the
field of
scientific inquiry infinitely, elevating even the
“practical”
sciences to the rank of scientific theory. All of reality, in its
cultural,
political, social, artistic, etc. aspects could be the object of
scientific
analysis. With this concept Zwinger gave birth to modern epistemology
and to the
modern classification of the sciences, taking his place with the
fore-runners of
Francis Bacon and the scientific revolution of the
Seventeenth
century.[26] Nevertheless, his admiration for Aristotle impeded him from, as Gilly
notes,
“cutting the cord between ancient and
modern”[27],
as he continued to consider order and harmony to be the ontological
basis of
reality.
The
scientific method and concept of Zwinger find their visual expression
in the
diagrams and tables, analytic and synoptic, that he used in great
quantity,
believing that the procedure “per schematismos” was
the most apt to
structuring logically the contents and giving an image that was both
clear
and complete, making mnemotechnique easier and above all realizing the
natural
method inherent in
science[28].
The tables were in fact compared to an “arbor
scientiae”, since they
reproduced the structure of a tree with its trunk, branches, leaves,
and fruit
for the procedure that they followed, replicating that of nature
–
“ita quoque dispositio per tabulas naturae aemula
evadit” and in as
much as they themselves were “natural indicators of the
way” for the
scholar, letting him orient himself in the vast and heterogeneous world
of
knowledge[29].
Thus Leibniz, in referring to him a century later, declares that the
tables
allowed movement “in generali tabula totam scientiae velut
geographicam
mappam”[30].
For the naturalist from Basel, as we will see, they will be
useful also as
an instrument for inquiry into political reality by travellers.
5. If
with his scientific methodology Zwinger inaugurated the modern era, his
search
for a method is important also because of its consonance with the
“spirit
of the times”. The question of method was in fact felt widely
in the
intellectual community of the late Sixteenth century, as can be seen in
the
great flowering of methodus – in the political, juridic, and historic fields with
Althusius and Bodin,
in the scientific with Bacon, and in logic with
Ramus[31].
Interest in the creation of methodological systems came out of the need
to find
an instrument for analysing, ordering, systemizing the growing amount
of data
available to men of the period from experience and knowledge, in order
to arrive
at a knowledge that was unitary, scientifically based, useful in
education and
to the progress of knowledge and to society.
Thanks
to his own trip from Paris to Padua, Zwinger could also observe the
cultural,
religious, and political world of his time and reflect on the
significance
of experience and of mankind’s actions in history. When he
returned to
Basel loaded with that baggage of experience and ideas, Zwinger was
ready to
begin the first of the four editions of his monumental Theatrum
humanae vitae, the most famous and
innovative encyclopedia of the time, in which all the human disciplines
were to
be catalogued on the basis of the revolutionary concept of science as
defined by
the learned one from Basel – and later celebrated by
Bacon[32].
But Zwinger was also ready to welcome the proposals of Blotius and to
plan with
him and Perez the Methodus
apodemica.
In
1568 Blotius confided to his teacher his idea of composing a work
describing the
political reality of the
times[33].
He had had the idea in Basel after observation of the transformations
occurring
in society made during his travels and above all with the encouragement
of
Zwinger’s philosophical and methodological ideas which, as he
said, had
“opened his
eyes”[34].
In the book planned by Blotius there would be the image not of an ideal
Republic
similar to that of Plato or More or based on speculative Aristotelian
schemes
like those offered by the medieval jurists, but rather a realistic and
scientific description of one or more real
“Respublicae” in order to
provide a model for travellers to use in observing cities and states
encountered
during their
wanderings[35].
The image of the city or state would emerge from a detailed and
articulated
arrangement of questions to which the traveller would respond using his
empirical observation of the reality around him. The sum of the images
resulting
from this analysis would allow the recomposition in a single picture of
the
fragmentary and incoherent visions of the political entities of Europe
and the
acquisition, in this manner, of a solid and realistic base for the
formation of
the citizen and development of a scientific political vision. Travel
thus took
on a notably political character, aiming at an analysis of the
structure and
organization of States functioning for the comprehension of
contemporary
political reality and reflection on it. The final aim of this cognitive
and
speculative process was public utilitas, that is, to contribute, in accord
with the most fecund lessons of Humanism, to the betterment of humanity
and
society.
6. Blotius’
original project was transformed into the more innovative Methodus
apodemica, realized years later by
Zwinger[36].
Blotius however contributed to the compilation of the political part,
supplying
his teacher with a series of tables for the analysis of cities and
regions, a
model for analysis of the city using Basel as the example, a
description of the
city of Padua and bibliographical information about Venice and Padua.
The
descriptive model of Basel was laid out according to the Aristotelian
categories
of corpus and anima whose applicability to concrete reality Blotius had learned
from Zwinger;
it contained information on the administration, town-planning, and
geographic
structure of the city
(corpus)
and its churches, university, modes and customs
(anima),
so that it provided an extremely precise image of it as political and
social
reality. It was Blotius’ intent to multiply the tables, with
the exemplum of Basel, by travelling and with the help of friends. This idea was
made
concrete by Zwinger in the Methodus
apodemica, although in the context
of a broader cultural design, that saw in intellectual cooperation and
public
dissemination of knowledge the “methodological hinge of
intellectual
activity”[37].
As for himself, Blotius then refuted the original idea of the great
universal
project of the Museum generis
humani Blotianum, to which the
entire European intellectual community would have contributed, brought
together
by the vision of a République
des lettres at the service of
culture and the State and by the sharing of higher values immune to
political-religious conflicts and free of cultural prejudices. The plan
remained
in a utopic state, an admirable utopia.
In 1569, still waiting to edit the planned political work, Blotius prepared the Tabula
peregrinationis continens capita
politica, a text in the form of a
questionnaire that travellers could use to describe the observed
political
situation using scientific criteria, and then fill in the relative
tables[38].
There were two novelties in the Tabula as it was the first proposal of an empirical systemization of material
collected
while travelling and one of the first of a
“private” nature, in the
sense that the compilers and enjoyers of the resulting tables would be
everyone
who used it. Earlier works on the analysis and betterment of political
and
administrative structures – like those by Francesco Sansovino
or Juan
Ovando y Godoy and Juan Lopez de Velasco – had in fact a
public and
official destination that excluded the private citizen from access to
the
information, and were rather the expressions of the reorganization of
the state
system taking place during the
century[39].
7. Blotius’ Tabula was divided into 117 questions, very detailed and precise. Grouped by
themes
relative to the basic elements that divided a State or a city into corpus or anima;
the traveller was to use empirical observation in answering. The first
twenty
questions cover the political form, the town-planning, the system of
weights and
measures, the money, the geomorphological aspects of the city or State
being
analyzed. A very large number of the questions were about the religious
aspects
from both institutional and cultural points of view (with reference to
the space
for religious freedom, especially regarding Jews and Anabaptists), as
well as
the political, social, and economic (paying special attention to the
effects of
the Reformation, to the religious and organizational character of the
churches
and ecclesiastic personnel, to their rôles in the town or
state). There
were a few questions also about the educational system and especially
the
university’s function. The space given to the real and proper
administration of the city was very broad in order to give a precise
examination
of the power and structure of the judiciary, of the nature and
prerogatives of
the government organs, of the social extraction of government members,
of the
organization of the bureaucracy, of justice and of the principal
offices (food,
defense, etc.) and the management costs. The other questions covered
various
arguments, from public and individual rights (hunting and weights,
inheritance,
divorce, etc.) to natural catastrophies, to festivities, public aid,
prevention
of epidemics and fires to garbage disposal,
etc.
Blotius used the Tabula as a guide for the trip he took to Italy in 1571 and during which he
wrote a
long and detailed
diary[40];
the text of the tables was published in the appendix of the third
edition of the
famous Itinerarium
Germaniae, Galliae, Angliae,
Italiae by the Humanist Paul
Hentzer[41].
But, as we shall soon see, the contribution of Blotius is very clearly
seen also
in the chapter of the Methodus
apodemica that is dedicated to the
analysis of the political physiognomy of the city, even though
re-elaborated in
the light of Zwinger’s scientific ideas. It was Zwinger
himself who
remarked on Blotius’ contribution to the compilation of the Methodus
apodemica in the
preface.[42]
The Methodus apodemica and description of the city as political space
8. When the Methodus
apodemica came off
Episcopius’ press, two other fundamental texts on the ars
apodemica had just recently been
published in Germany: Commentariolus
de arte apodemica seu vera peregrinandi
ratione by the Humanist doctor
Hilarius Pyrckmair and De
peregrinatione et agro napolitano by the jurist Hieronymus Turler. Both were descriptions of the
respective
author’s travels in Italy (and especially the cities),
undertaken
following Ramus’ methodology. The intent and aims of these
three works was
the same: to favor the development of the individual and society by
means of the
scientific comparison of different realities, as Zwinger himself
acknowledged in
the preface to the Methodus
apodemica.[43] Nevertheless, Zwinger’s work
stands out because of its innovation and the strength of its
methodological and
theoretical foundations.
The
purpose and the structure of the Methodus
apodemica were explained by Zwinger
in the preface. His ars
apodemica was born of the desire to
help mankind undertake an activity, travel, that he considered inherent
to human
nature and that in mankind reached its highest degree of
perfection.[44] Motion was part of the natural world, everything was in perpetual
movement
in man’s works and through him, in God’s
(“In perpetuo motu
sunt omnia propter hominem, homo propter Deum”), since man,
created in the
divine image, represented the point of conjunction between material and
spiritual reality, between microcosm and
macrocosm[45].
The whole preface is permeated by the hermetic philosophy acquired by
Zwinger
from Guillaume Aragosius’ De sole
triplici [46], wisely integrated with his new idea
of experience. The highest expression of man’s movement was
in his
intellectual mobility that should render him
“cosmopolitan”, pushing
him to explore the universe with his most important attribute: the
“intelligendi
munus”[47].
According
to Zwinger, however, cognitive action could not be separated from
practical
personal experimentation and historical experiences, which were
identified and
which, following the Hippocratic concept of istoría – revisited and amplified in the Methodus
apodemica – involved all
fields of knowledge. Travelling permitted, through experience, the
necessary
synthesis of practice and
theory[48].
The valuation of the practical aspect by Zwinger in the Methodus
apodemica – accentuated by
his concomitant turn towards
Paracelsism[49] – brought him, on the general philosophical plane, to a
scepticism towards
knowledge removed from reality and experience as he leaned strongly
towards the
new speculative models. Scepticism was the chief characteristic of
Zwinger’s intellectual activity, as he analysed all
disciplines through
that lens. As Gilly has mentioned, Scepticism and Hermeticism, in the
particular
interpretation of “operative knowledge”, found a
fertile synthesis
of consequences for modern epistemology and for the break with
traditional
patterns of thought in
Zwinger.[50] Practical experience was just as central to the development
of
Zwinger’s political concepts, since political doctrine found
its primary
base in direct and methodologically oriented observation of real cities
and
States, of the “vivas rerum publicarum formas”. [51] Significantly, Zwinger praised Machiavelli
in his preface of Il
principe edition’s published
by Perna, because Machiavelli founded the political science on the
observation
of the historical
reality.[52] The city represented the best place for
experimental observation as it was the place in which human activity
was most
clearly expressed and where the traveller could most immediately
perceive the
motives and mechanisms present in the historic activity of the men who
had
created it.
9. But
experimental observation was immediately translated, in
Zwinger’s thought,
into theoretical elaboration, in order to give life to his
grand and
utopian cultural project, which represented for him the aim of the
cognitive
process and fully expressed his cultural relativism and the
methodological
principles that marked his intellectual activity: the acquisition of
all
knowledge, disseminated like “precious merchandise”
throughout the
various “emporiums of the world” and meeting in a
State or in a
University or in a church, to then be again distributed into society
like
“Trojan
horses”.[53]
For
the realization of this project Zwinger called on all men of letters,
in his
conviction of the importance, for the renewal of science, of a gradual
and not
sensationalistic broadening of scientific research by single persons
rigorously
applying the experimental
method.[54] The knowledge thus acquired – scattered fragments of truth
present in all
human cultures and disciplines, collected and made public by an ever
widening
intellectual community alien to religious, cultural, and political
prejudices
– would have fermented ideas and awareness, producing a slow
but
inexorable erosion of the traditional culture of the modern age.
This
unprejudiced attitude in the face of tradition was reflected also in
religious
behaviour, which in Zwinger’s view inclined towards
indifferentism and
Nicodemism, especially in situations of conflict. In his Methodus
apodemica he advised the traveller
to be “deaf and mute” in the approach to religions
of countries
visited, so as to avoid futile involvement and to preserve
one’s own
integrity and intellectual
superiority[55].
The gaze that Zwinger and his Erasmian colleagues rested on European
realities
was by now beyond the confessional and cultural barriers firmly placed
by new
and old orthodoxies to intellectual renewal of European society.
If
the aim of travel was the enrichment of knowledge, the impulse to
travel was
equally, according to Zwinger part of man’s nature as
“political
animal”. This nature, given him by God, made him wish to
become
“totius mundi civis” and to communicate his
knowledge to everyone,
for better the human community. The need for collaboration and
co-habitation was
in fact reputed by Zwinger to be inherent in human nature, in its very
constitution[56].
Even
in the preface to the Methodus
apodemica the character of
investigation of the forms of associated life attributed by Zwinger to
travel
emerged clearly. That desire to explore the world and transmit the
newly gained
knowledge moved people of all social classes and ages, from the young
to the
elderly, and appeared to Zwinger’s eyes to be ever more
common in the
society of his
time[57].
Travelling, however, was full of dangers and difficulties: Zwinger, who
had had
experiences during his wanderings, declared that he had written the Methodus
apodemica in order to help the
growing number of travellers to face these and to enjoy a positive
experience[58].
10. Even
though the first motive in publishing the work was practical, it
comprised also
in its author’s intention a precise and elevated value on the
theoretic
plane: travel, like all other human activities, was pertinent to all
philosophy
and needed to be analysed using appropriate scientific instruments,
supplied by
method[59].
The selection of a methodus
unica as Zwinger here strongly
emphasizes, was necessary to the investigation of reality and
transmission of
knowledge.[60] Travel offered an optimal opportunity to comprehend the basic values of
scientific research.
To
render travel experience fruitful on the intellectual plane, Zwinger
proposed
the use of his tables, as the perfect instrument to guide the
methodical
learning
process[61].
The structure and contents of the Methodus
apodemica itself were illustrated
in four tables in the
preface[62].
The Methodus was divided into four books, dedicated respectively to the two aspects
of the
learning process: the
ενθύμησις universalis and the
εγχείρησις particularis. The books, with their
contents “finis, efficiens, forma, materia”,
referred to the four
Aristotelian “causae”. In the preface, Zwinger had
specified anyway
that his work would follow the Aristotelian
pattern, but aimed also at
overcoming gnosis and praxis in general observations, using also the
Hippocratic
notion of
χειροτριβίη,
pratical, manual experimentation, which in the illustration of
political reality
lead to
εγχείρησις,
to the
description of real, actually
observed
examples[63].
The title of Book I is “De peregrinationum
causis, accidentibus et speciebus”, and following the
Aristotelian model
contemplates procedures of theoretical and practical analysis realized
with
reference to universal principles. Various aims and modes of travel are
examined, their “substance”, the types of
travellers, the means for
coping with various financial or health hazards, etc. The analysis
ranged from
linguistic, topographic, religious, military, health aspects to
customs, notable
things, mechanical arts and social relations. Book II, titled
“De
praeceptis peregrinationum tum universim, tum singillatim”,
moved from
theory to practice, illustrating the “praecepta
contemplationis et
actionis” relative to practical aspects, moral and
behavioral
principles, and used examples. The third book was dedicated to the
description
of the four cities chosen as models. In the fourth book, as the title
says
“De particularium quorundam observatione”, was
advice as to the
description of elements to be observed during travel. The tables were
structured
according to the Aristotelian categories of “locus,
locatum” (the
stable elements) and “actio” (the dynamic
activities), and each of
these was divided into subcategories, meant to describe in great detail
every
single aspect of the argument; these subdivisions were indicated in the
tables
by the brackets.
11. The
third book carried out a basic function in the context of Methodus
apodemica. The examples of the four
cities were in fact intended to be the explanation and empirical
verification of
the universal precepts, in reality and in history, according to
Hippocrates:
“Quandoquidem [...] praecepta universalia exemplis
singularibus explicanda
sunt et veluti animanda: quid in urbe Basiliense, Parisiense, Patavina
et
Atheniense, vel observatum velut observandum sit, methodo mixta,
respectu quidem
locorum topicorum, respectu rerum pragmatica, utraque sane historica
expendamus”[64].
These descriptions, above and beyond their specific functions, also
carried a
significance particular to the cognitive process according to Zwinger:
they
offered a grid for scientific analysis of the basic entity of
associated life,
or the city, giving an important impulse to the development of a
science of politeia founded on direct observation of reality and of historical
documentation. In the Methodus
apodemica in fact was foreseen the
careful examination not only of political institutions –
important in
itself – but also of all the components and structures of the city, physical and cultural, that
permitted
the exhaustive reconstruction of human settlements and the history of
man’s application in his society to create social bonds,
economic
structures, political, religious, and cultural institutions,
and transform
them over time in relation to needs and ideas emerging from the body
politic.
The city thus became the best observatory of history and politics, of
which it
was the expression. And politeia regained its original and fullest meaning, to become the science of the
exercise
of human rights in as much as citizen and “political
animal” of the
human community. With this complete analysis of the city, besides the
specifically political institutions, the Methodus
apodemica showed itself quite
fertile also on the plane of political thought, renewing the
traditional
Humanistic reflections about civitas.
The
choice of cities to be analysed, to listen to Zwinger, depended on
their ties
with his personal formative experience: at Basel he had received his
first
rudimentary schooling, at
Padua and Paris he had studied literature and medicine and philosophy;
while
Athens on the other hand represented the ideal formative place as it
was the
home of Aristotle and Plato, who were the originators of his sense of
public
duty (“publica
θρέπτειρα
debemus”).[65] But it does not seem to me unfounded to assign a more general meaning
to the
choice. The Methodus
apodemica indicates a reasoned
itinerary for a path destined to form men and citizens responding to a
precise
cultural and political ideal, in which literary and scientific
knowledge is
joined with civic virtue and political and intellectual engagement; a
path
followed by Zwinger, but also indirectly proposed as a model for all
his
contemporaries.
12. In
his description of the city, Zwinger used his own knowledge and the
information
sent to him by Hugo Blotius, Luca Iselius, and Simon
Ostermann[66].
To strengthen the historical aspect he used Epitome
Historiae Basiliensis by Christian
Wurstisen, Les
antiquitéz et singularitez de la Ville, Cité et
Université
de Paris by Gilles Corrozet, the Historia
patavina of Bernardo Scardeoni, the De republica
Atheniensium libri quattuor of
Carlo Sigonius and the two works of Pausanius, the De tota Graecia
libri decem and the De florentis.
veteris Graeciae regionibus
commentarii[67]. His intention of providing historically accurate information to
travellers is
clear. As is the declaration that apodemica was a “choral” genre and in continuous progress
because of the
collaboration of travellers and scholars to the growth of
knowledge[68].
Each
city was analysed according to the pattern set out in the synoptic
tables. It
was subdivided into the following points: the general and detailed
configuration
of the territory; the physiognomy of the city, considered from the
point of view
of genre and species, which in turn was divided into material and
formal
elements; and within these latter were examined the
ecclesiastic,
educational, political, and economic structures: [Appendix
I][69].
The
analytic procedure included progressive phases of investigation and of
specification: the single arguments were illustrated in a precise order
of
succession that, following a progressive selection of themes, became
increasingly specific; in consequence every table generated others,
more
detailed and specific, thus making an “arbor
scientiae”. The
synoptic tables were followed by an explanation that was often very
detailed in
the single points, with information drawn from history and direct
observation,
so that a real topographic, historic, and artistic map of the city was
the
result.
The description of the
four cities proceeded followed a single pattern, even if for each city
the more
characteristic aspect was underlined and analysed more in detail: for
Basle, the
natural, town-planning, and cultural setting; for Padua the University
with its
illustrious faculty; for Athens, the political
structure[70].
Paris was penalized by comparison, because as Zwinger warned in the
foreword to
its description, he had selected the information “non tam
quae observata
sint, quam quae a nobis, dum studiorum causa illic haereremus,
observari
debuerint”[71]:
so that no specific aspect was pointed out, all were treated very
synthetically,
even the University, and the political aspect was entirely
absent[72].
13. Basel
was examined in the two parts that made up the city, Basilea
maior and minor according to an identical analytic
structure, and in all its components; a very synthetic chapter was
dedicated to
the surrounding
territory[73].
Let us take the description of Basel as a reference model for the other
cities,
and point out the differences. In the examination of the general
configuration
of the territory, one takes into consideration all the geographical,
naturalistic, climactic, town-planning elements and the characteristics
of the
inhabitants, their number, physical, intellectual, social, professional
aspects,
the social, political, economic and religious structures that they had
created.
One of the tables was, for example, structured in this manner:
[Appendix
II][74].
The
tables relative to the general physiognomy of the city, in the second
chapter,
followed an analogous pattern and in the part relative to the
“res”
inspected the geographical and human aspects in relation to nature,
while in the
part relative to the analysis of “homines”
(included in
“forma”) indicated the motives for
citizens’ association in
religious and political contexts (which however were not later
analysed).[75]
In
the third chapter there was the examination of the parts of the city
which were
“similar or different”. Together with the
“res”,
concerning the holy and profane (libraries, courts, ports, sewers,
etc.)
buildings, works of art, the flora and fauna, there were the
“homines”, always according to the three categories
of
“animus, corpus, fortuna” that here not only aimed
at establishing
physical characteristics, but the inclination to “theorica,
practica,
mechanica” activity and, in respect to social success, the
entity of goods
and honors and the qualities of everyday
relationships[76].
In illustrating the points relative to human activities, Zwinger listed
the
figures in Basel who had distinguished themselves in letters
(Bonifacius
Amerbach, worthy heir of Erasmus, received special praise), in
printing, and in
warfare[77].
The
fourth chapter, very synthetic and with no plates, was given to
“politia
ecclesiastica” while the fifth has numerous plates on the
“politia
academica”, which permitted the drafting of a very detailed
and exhaustive
picture of the entire educational system, of its history and internal
organization, with respect to the institutional organs, the faculty
(whose
characteristics and prerogatives were separated), and the disciplines,
up to the
modes, contents, and hours of the
lessons[78].
14. There were some tables in the sixth chapter describing the “constitutio politica” of the city[79]. These particular tables were very interesting both for their internal configuration and for the presence of explanations relative to details of analysis giving precise indications of the principles which, according to Zwinger, should inspire the representatives of civic power as they carried out their functions. The first table concerned the social structure of the city, which in Basel included the presence of nobles, Hohenstuben, and the “plebei”, organized under the four larger (Herrenzünfte) and eleven minor (Handwerkzünfte) guilds. The second table, defined on the basis of an organic conception of the State with a Platonic matrix – according to which it was a large body animated by a “mirifica” harmony among the single parts, which however did not exclude a political hierarchy – showed the structure of the Baselese judiciary and the connotative features of their work. At the top of the hierarchical scale of civic authority was the “magistratus”, the term Zwinger seems to have used in referring to the highest power, and in this case to the group that governed the city, which in 1521 was entirely made up of - like all the city’s governing bodies – representatives of the guilds: in these were the so-called Häupter, or Bürgermeister and the Oberzunftmeister. The magistrate had to be outstanding in his caution in knowing and judging and in his ability to act practically; (“partim interna animi prudentia in cognoscendo et iudicando, partim externa corporis dexteritate et facultate in agendo”); the populations of both town and country were under his jurisdiction. The magistrate thus had a double duty, both to know and to act. The resolution of public affairs (the “agenda”) was trusted to the internal consultation of the varying organs of political representation, the “democratic”, “political”, “aristocratic”. The first was made up of the greater Council, composed of two hundred members, in which there were six delegates from each guild (the Sechser), the judge from the two parts of the city, four delegates for each of the three guilds of Klein Basel, and all the members of the lower Council, the “political” organ which was in turn made up of sixtyfour members, including the heads of the various guilds, a Ratsherr and the Häupter. The greater Council ratified legislative, executive, and judiciary decisions taken exclusively in the lower and had the right to consult in questions of general interest to the community, the proclamation of war and peace, and the stipulation of negotiation. The “aristocratic” was a group of thirteen people, chosen from within the lower Council. The judiciary had also the duty of the “acta”, and above all the job of “iudicatio”, which it carried out in concert with the competent institutional figures, the iudices, subdivided into functionaries for financial and civil causes; to the functionaries for civil causes were trusted the resolution of controversies generated by crimes relative to property or contracts (for these there is a model, also very detailed, in the following table). The magistrate was thus called on also for “actio”, through “observation, listening, care” of all the elements necessary to maintain the State: his intervention could be “quietus”, in order to conserve peace and tranquility, or “turbulentus” in facing situations that required force (as in fires, floods, war), and was assisted by specific institutional figures (praefecti and signiferi Reipublicae centuriones)[80]. Zwinger’s description of the magistrate’s competences was very precise and detailed; also detailed was the graphic illustration of the other civic institutions: [Appendix III][81].
15. The
last table contained the complete description of the material
“res”
in Basel (libraries, fountains, forests,
etc.)[82]. In
the rest of the chapter Zwinger dutifully described the form of the politia of Basel, reviewing the highpoints of its historical evolution from the
middle
ages when the city was governed by a Bishop with monarchical powers, to
the
following battle for emancipation from his domination on the part of
the nobles
and populace – the one for the “desire for
honor”, the other
“aspiring towards liberty” – which had
lead to an early form
of oligarchic public representation, and then, after the birth of the
Confederation, to a more democratic political organization, in which
the people
also had numerous
representatives[83].
Finally there was examination of the motus
politiae, by means of the
description of the modalities for the election of magistrates and their
system
of alternating throughout history. In this context too, one had seen a
process
of democratization: the twelve counsellors who represented the
nobility,
knights, and patricians were joined by the thirty elected by the
people; the
consul or burgermaster, who was a knight nominated by the Council and
confirmed
by the Bishop, was later elected by the populace; and even the election
of the
political delegates, judges, and the “primary
magistrates” passed
from the patriciate and the Bishop to the peoples’ Senate, in
different
ways according to the office. A limit to this process was in the lack
of
turn-over in the offices, which were generally held for life by all the
members
of the Councils, with a change in functions in alternate
years[84]. The
seventh chapter had no tables and was dedicated to the
“oeconomica”
of the Basel
citizenry[85].
Following
a rather summary description of Paris, covering only the toponomastics
and civil
institutions (with the clear exclusion of the political ones), Zwinger
moved on
to describe Padua. His analysis concentrated particularly on the
University,
using many tables and copious information on its history, structure,
organization, docents, lessons, academic customs,
etc.[86] The greater attractiveness of Padua, Zwinger seemed to be saying to
young
travellers, lay in its Academy, made famous by well-known docents, by
its
exemplary organization, and by the wealth of scientific knowledge
taught there.
But one has the clear impression that the importance attributed to the
Paduan
Academy derived also from the fact that, in Zwinger’s eyes,
the
institution fulfilled a greater role than just the strictly
intellectual to
become a fulcrum of the cultural and civic formation of future
citizens, and
that for this eminent political and civic role, the University was
worthy of a
central place in his description of the city. Zwinger placed the civic
formation
of man in various institutions of the city, all contributing to it, to
a
different degree in different times and places.
The
other aspects of Padua, toponomastic, geographic, climactic, etc., were
examined
by means of tables analogous to those used for Basel, even if commented
more
summarily. Regarding the politia,
Zwinger did not include tables and only gave some synthetic information
about
the citizens, colonies, ties federated by and subject to Padua, on the
form of
government and its political evolution since the middle
ages[87].
16. In the description of Athens, it is the political component that occupies most of the space. It is true that Athens, birthplace of the “divine Plato” and wetnurse to the “admirable Aristotle”[88], was examined in all of its parts, with tables and erudite commentary; but it was the political structure that formed the center of interest for this city in the eyes of Zwinger. The emphasis given to the political constitution of Athens was one of the innovative aspects of the Methodus apodemica, since it contributed to that valorization of the Athenian republic that its beginnings saw before it became a myth in the XVIIIth century and famously contrasted to Sparta[89]. Differently from Rome and Sparta, taken up as ideal political models for reference and comparison, Athens, even though already celebrated by Bruni[90], had not in fact become a myth nor had it been the object of Sigonio’s scientific analysis, in his founding history of Greece and Athenian democracy, De republica Atheniensium[91]. Sigonio, like Postel before him – also author of a text on Athenian institutions, but of much less worth[92] - had been motivated by the desire to compare Athens and Venice, whose constitution had recently been illustrated by Donato Giannotti and Gasparo Contarini, with the intent of idealization[93]. But, even though the comparison was there, and to the disadvantage of the Athenian democracy, in his work the Modenese historian had tried to offer a complete and organic image of Athens, its history, and above all the characteristics and evolution of its judiciary, based on a lucid theoretical Aristotelian matrix, rigorous critical method, and on plentiful and selected historical documentation. In this way, and above all with the application of critical method in the reconstruction of the past, Sigonio revolutionized the study of Greek history, as he had already done for Roman and medieval history, contributing to its evolution in Europe, and also to the survival of Humanistic orientation in the Counterreformation, to whose censorial apparatus he indeed fell victim[94]. Thus, when Bodin in his Methodus (and again in the Repubblica) took up the theme of constitutions and compared the governments of Athens, Venice, and Rome, he found that Sigonio’s text was a fundamental, if not inarguable[95], reference. And so Zwinger found it, as he openly founded his description of Athens on it and so provided resonance for the Modenese author’s cultural contribution all across Europe[96].
17. In the Methodus apodemica, more than thirty pages of the chapters on Athens were dedicated to the political aspect. The numerous explanatory tables, bearing the usual subdivisions, offered a grid for analysis of the public and private offices that represented the various functions of the “corpus” of the State, superior and inferior, which together cooperated to keep it healthy.[97]In this case as well, the explanation of the single “voices” of the tables with comments and historical notes enriched the knowledge of political doctrine. For example, in the first table, dealing with the “form” of political offices; that is, those which “hominibus ratione politica conveniunt”, was illustrated the Platonic conception that the government of the State belonged to the wise men, since in the same way that the intelligence presides over the functions of the body, “ii qui intelligentia caeteris antecellunt, ex naturae instituto praeesse debent aliis”[98]. In another the various forms of government are carefully described, in relation to the ways of election of the magistrate (generically understood to be the wielder of supreme power): these modalities are easy to separate into “simple” republics, less easy into mixed republics with the exception of those like Sparta where the political configuration was clear from the beginning, “ut quam maxime ex regno et democratia et aristocratia composita videretur, popularis tamen forma praecellebat”[99]. The magistrate was named either coercively or at the will of others: in this latter case, Zwinger distinguished the constituted powers “extra praesentem Reipublicae formam” and those “in praesentis Reipublicae forma comprehensos”. The former were characterized by the attribution of power on the part of the family and from the successive change in the form of government – as happened for Saul and Pittacus, who had transformed the republic into monarchy and tyranny; Poland instead was brought forward as an example of the lack of coherence between the figure of the chief of the State and the structure of the State (the Polish elected a king destined to govern a kingdom “democraticus vel aristocraticus”). Power could instead be “supreme”, as in the case of princes in monarchies, of the people in democracy, the Senate in an aristocracy, in that they constituted the source of the law. In another table, relative to the analysis of the genus magistrate, Zwinger gave a real and true synthesis of his own political conception, in which the Platonic ideas on the structure of government and its correspondence with the human body melds with the Aristotelian categories of analysis of political power[100]. The magistrate wrote Zwinger, in imitation of God, was superior to all others “qui imitatione Dei possit, sciat et velit aliis preesse”) and as in the human body reason held a prominent role both in practical and speculative activities, so he must superintend analysis and practice, using consultation with his functionaries, of the questions to be faced and the means of resolving them, so as to carry out his duty which was that of “consulere, iudicare, imperare”; a conception that found its basis in the Aristotelian separation of political action into theoretical (itself subdivided into “agenda” and “acta”) and practical action.
18. More
in detail, the tables on Athens dealt with the following arguments. In
the first
was the usual subdivision of genre, species, cause, accidents,
material, form,
cause
efficient[101];
the single voices were in turn divided into subcategories and
illustrated in the
following tables. In the second, there was the pattern of public
offices in
which “in rem agit propter hominem, et vicissim in hominem
propter
rem”, dividing them into single and plural; the singles, into
sacred and
profane, and the profane into those used in the homeland or outside, or
in peace
or in war, with the means proper to the scope (here carefully
indicated).[102] In the third table was reproposed the analysis of man according to his
soul,
body, fortune, and in the fourth, the characteristics of
public offices,
structured on the basis of “cognitio” and
“actio”. The
table for the magistrature was as follows: [Appendix
IV]103]
In the fifth table were described the offices relative to
the various
sectors of public administration, with comparison to the holy
institutions[104].
The next table regards the differences of the magistratures in respect
to the
“causa efficiens”; that is, in respect to who gave
or received the
office with its relative specifications: [Appendix
V].[105]
The
sixth table diagrammed the reasons for change of the offices, in time
and in
space and for reasons internal and
external.[106] The seventh gave, under the category of “genre”,
the synthesis of
the political doctrines presented, while the eighth dealt with the
difference
between magistratures, simple and composite, essential (in the
categories of
“materia, forma, efficiens”) and accidental,
putting off to the
following tables the analysis of the single
“voices”[107].
The final two tables concerned the lower magistracies and their
characteristics[108].
The
detailed description of the Athenian politia by means of these tables and the “Aristotelae methodi
lumen”,
concludes with an equally long and ample explanation of the social and
political
structure of the Greek city, of all its sacred and profane judiciary
and their
characteristics, functions, prerogatives, and modalities of
election[109].
The Athenian constitution thus emerged from the ancient texts to become
the
living model of reference just like the cinquecentesque cities observed
by the
traveller wishing to know and act on the reality of his times, in a
fertile
synthesis of culture and experience. The Methodus
apodemica offered itself as a guide
for this fascinating voyage.
(translation by Amanda
George)
Notes
[1] The work and its success have not yet been systematically and fully studied: the more important contributions are by Carlos Gilly, in his fundamental and more general work on Zwinger, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation: Theodor Zwinger und die religiőse und kulturelle Krise seiner Zeit, I-II, “Basler Zeitschrift fűr Geschichte und Altertumskunde”, 77, 1977, p. 57-139; 79, 1979, p. 125-225, and the work of Justin Stagl on the ars apodemica, Die Methodisierung des Reisen im 16. Jahrhundert, in Der Reisebericht. Die Entwicklung einer Gattung in der deutschen Literatur, hrsg. von Peter J. Brenner, Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp, 1989, p. 140-176; Eine Geschichte der Neugier. Die Kunst des Reises (1575-1663), Wien, Kőln, Weimar, Bőhlau, 2002, p. 84-86 and 158-162 (with bibliography of his and others' texts at 365 ff.; english edition: A History of Curiosity. The Theory of Travel 1550-1800, Chur, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995). See also Paola Molino, Alle origini della Methodus Apodemica di Theodor Zwinger: la collaborazione di Hugo Blotius, fra empirismo ed universalismo, “Codices Manuscripti. Zeitschrift fűr Handschriftenkunde”, LV-LVI, 2006, p. 43-68.
[2] Ibid., p. 61.
[3] Besides the fundamental studies of Eugenio Garin, Scienza e vita civile nel Rinascimento italiano, Bari, Laterza, 1965, p. 33-65 and of Luigi Firpo, La città ideale del Rinascimento, Torino, UTET, 1975, see Giorgio Simoncini, Città e società nel Rinascimento, Torino, Einaudi, 1974 and Le ideologie della città europea dall'Umanesimo al Romanticismo, ed. Vittorio Conti, Firenze, Olschki, 1993 (Il pensiero politico. Biblioteca, 20) (both have bibliographies).
[4] Ibid.; Modelli di città. Strutture e funzione politiche, ed. Pietro Rossi, Torino, Einaudi, 1987; City States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy, ed. by Anthony Molho, Kurt Raaflaub, Julia Emlen, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991; Marino Berengo, L'Europa delle città, Torino, Einaudi, 1999.
[5] Ramus' contribution, considered essential by Stagl (Eine Geschichte der Neugier cit., p. 84 ff.), can be excluded on the basis of Paola Molino's research, Alle origini della Methodus apodemica cit., p.53, which cites also a letter in which Blotius expresses his thanks to Zwinger and Perez (p. 49). For these figures see the following notes.
[6] On this project see ibid.
[7] See August Bernus, Un laique du seizième siècle. Marc Perez, l'ancien de l'église réformée d'Anvers, Lausanne, G. Bridel, 1895, Paul J. Hauben, Marcus Perez and Marrano Calvinism in the Dutch Revolt and the Reformation, “Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance”, 29, 1967, p. 121-132; Antonio Rotondò, Pietro Perna e la vita culturale e religiosa di Basilea fra il 1570 e il 1580, now in Id., Studi di storia ereticale del Cinquecento, Firenze, Olschki, 2007 (Studi e testi per la storia religiosa del Cinquecento, 15), 2 voll., II, p. 492, 496-500; Carlos Gilly, Spanien und der Basler Buchdruck bis 1600. Ein Querschnitt durch die spanische Geistesgeschichte aus der Sicht einer europäischen Buchdruckerstadt, Basel, Frankfurt a. M., Helbing und Lichtenhahn, 1985, p. 232-235, 409-426 and passim.
[8] Lacking a complete profile of Blotius, see Leendert Brummel, Twee ballingen's lands tijdens onze opstand tegen Spanje. Hugo Blotius (1534-1608), Emmanuel van Meteren (1535-1612), Gravenhage, Nijhoff, 1972, p. 1-80; Howard Louthan, The Quest of compromise: Peacemakers in Counterreformation Vienna, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 53-84. Blotius' background has been carefully reconstructed by Paola Molino in her thesis, “Die andere Stimme”. La formazione di un intellettuale erasmiano del tardo Cinquecento: Hugo Blotius (1534-1575), Università degli studi di Firenze, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, a. a. 2004-2005.
[9] For a profile of Zwinger see Antonio Rotondò, Pietro Perna cit., II, p. 490-495 and passim: as Rotondò says, “the image of the man is in his abundant writing” (p. 490), which is still awaiting detailed exploration and publication. See also Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., and Alfred Berchtold, Bâle et l’Europe. Une histoire culturelle, Lausanne, Payot, 1990, II, p. 655-680.
[10] For this intellectual attitude see Hans Bots, Françoise Waquet, La République des Lettres, Berlin, De Boecke, 1997.
[11] Zwinger studied at Lyon, Paris, Padua, while Blotius had been in Louvain, Toledo, Orlèans, Strasbourg and in many Italian cities.
[12] For Basle see Rudolf Wackernagel, Geschichte der Stadt Basel, 4 Bde., Basel, 1907-1924; Alfred Berchtold, Bâle et l'Europe cit. (with a good bibliography) and the useful synthesis by Hans R. Guggisberg, Basel in the Sixteenth Century. Aspects of the City Republic before, during and after the Reformation, St. Louis (Missouri), Center for Reformation Reserarch, 1982. On the Erasmusstiftung see Lucia Felici, Erasmusstiftung. La fondazione erasmiana nella storia culturale e sociale europea (1538-1600), Firenze, Centro Stampa 2p, 2000.
[13] The scholars swore to defend “the name and reputation of Erasmus”: see the sixth disciplinary article ibid., p. 207. Zwinger received his scholarship in 1559, Blotius in 1568.
[14] On the peregrinatio academica see Hans Bots, Willem Frijhoff, Academiereis of Educatiereis Noordbrabantse Studenten in het buitenland, 1550-1750, “Batavia Academica”, I, 1983, p. 13-20; Histoire sociale des populations étudiantes, études rassemblées par Dominique Julia et Jacques Revel, 2 t. Paris, Editions de l’EHESS, 1989 and especially Dominique Julia, Les étudiants et leurs études dans la France moderne, ibid., II. On the travel in Modern Age see Antoni Maczack, Viaggi e viaggiatori nell'Europa moderna, Bari, Laterza, 1992; Eric J. Leed, The mind of the Traveler. From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism, Basic Books, New York, 1991; Justin Stagl, Eine Geschichte der Neugier cit.; Daniel Roche, Humeurs vagabondes. De la circulation des hommes et de l’utilité des voyages, Paris, Fayard, 2003.
[15] Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 230 ff., which cites a nice passage in which Zwinger discusses his doubts about Ramus. See also Jean Jehasse, La Renaissance de la critique. L’essor de l’Humanisme érudit, de 1560 à 1614, Paris, Champion, 2002, p. 111. Very much supporter of Zwinger’s Ramism is Wolfgang Rother, Ramo and Ramism in Switzerland, in The Influence of Petrus Ramo: Studies in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Philosophy and Sciences, ed. by Mordechai Fenigold, Joseph S. Freedman, Basel, Schwabe, 2001, p. 9-37; see also Guido Oldrini, La disputa del metodo nel Rinascimento. Indagini su Ramo e sul ramismo, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1997, p. 208. On Ramus see Walter J. Ong, Ramus and the decay of Dialogue. From the Art of Discours of the Art of Reason, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1958; Reijer Hooykaas, Humanisme, Science et Réforme: Pierre de la Ramée (1515-1572), Leiden, Brill, 1959; Cesare Vasoli, La dialettica e la retorica dell’Umanesimo. “Invenzione” e “metodo” nella cultura del XV e del XVI secolo, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1967. On the diagrams see Manfred Welti, Die europäische Spätrenaissance, Basel, F. Reinhardt, 1998, p. 63-101 and the chapter “Illustrations and diagrams” in Ian Maclean, Ideas in context. Logic, Signs and Nature in the Renaissance, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
[16] The importance of Landi’s teaching was pointed out by Zwinger also in the preface to Methodus apodemica cit., p. g1v. In Padua, Zwinger became important as secretary of Latin letters for the German nation. He also began there his large collection of mortuary inscriptions, which permitted him to compose many epitaphs for his compatriots.
[17] On the University of Padua see Storia della cultura veneta, Vicenza, Neri-Pozza, 1976-1986, ad ind.
[18] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus Apodemica cit., praefatio, p. g1v.
[19] Cfr. Antonio Rotondò, Pietro Perna cit., p. 558 ff. ; Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 136.
[20] His works ranged from the editions of texts by Galeno, Paracelsus, Ficino, Patrizi, Cattani da Diacceto, and Machiavelli, to the compilation of innovative works like the Theatrum humanae vitae and the Methodus apodemica: see Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 137-156.
[21] Felix Platter, Vita Theodori Zwingeri preface to the edition Theatrum humanae vitae of 1604 (posthumus); Johann Jacobus Grynaeus, Ein Christliche Leichpredig, die gehalten worden, bey der Begrebnus des Ehrnvesten, Hochgelehrten und weit berühmpten Herren Doctoris Theodori Zuinggeri; Medici, Philosophi, et Polyhistoris: zu Basel in S. Peters Pfarrkirchen den 12. Martij, im jar [...] M.D.LXXXVIII [...], Basel, Seb. Henricpetri, [1588], p. ij. Both cited with no other indications in Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation II, cit., p. 137.
[22] Ibid., p. 141 ff.
[23] Letter to Jacob Horst, 21 March 1574, cited ibid., p. 144.
[24] Theodor Zwinger, Theatrum humanae vitae, Basilea, P. Perna, 1571, p. 613 and edition of 1576, p. 3813. Cfr. Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 165 ff.
[25] Theodor Zwinger, Theatrum humanae vitae cit., p. 5.
[26] For a comparison with thinkers of the Sevententh century see Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 142 ff. and in particular p. 149-151. More generally, see Robert Flint, Philosophy as Scientia Scientiarum and a History of Classifications of Sciences, Edinburgh-London 1904 (repr. New York, Arno Press, 1975); Siegfried Dangelmayr, Methode und System, Wissenschafstklassification bei Bacon, Hobbes und Locke, Meisenheim a. G., Hain, 1974.
[27] Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit. II, p. 151.
[28] Ibid., p. 146 ff.
[29] Ibid., p. 147 ff.
[30] Gottfried W. Leibniz, Sämtliche Schriften, 6 Reihe, I, Berlin 1966, p. 295 ff., cited ibid., p. 148.
[31] Johannes Althusius, Politica methodice digesta (Herborn, 1603) and Iurisprudentiae Romanae methodice digestae libri duo (Herborn, 1623); Jean Bodin, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem (Parigi, 1566); Francis Bacon, Novum Organum scientiarum (Amsterdam, 1650); Pierre Ramus, Dialecticae libri duo (Parigi, 1556); but there were also minor works like those of Jacopo Aconcio, De Methodo (Basilea, 1558) and Johann H. Alstedt, Methodus admirandorum mathematicorum (Herborn, 1623). There is a method intended, even if not scientific, in the work De Jesu Christo servatore of Fausto Sozzini (1594). For the artes sermocinales see Cesare Vasoli, La retorica e la dialettica umanistica e le origini della concezione moderna nel “metodo”, p. 507-593 in Id., Profezia e ragione. Studi sulla cultura del Cinquecento e del Seicento, Napoli, Morano, 1978.
[32] On the Theatrum, which had two other editions in 1571 and in 1586, in which the contents were modified and considerably enlarged see Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., passim and Id., Il Theatrum vitae humane di Theodor Zwinger: da una historia naturalis dell’uomo al novum Organum delle scienze, in Magia, Alchimia, scienza dal ‘400 al ‘700: l’influsso di Ermete Trismegisto, Carlos Gilly and Cis van Heertum, eds., Firenze, Centro Di, 2002, and Ann Blair, Zwinger’s Theatrum humanae vitae, in Historia: Empiricism and Erudition in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Gianna Pomata, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2005, p. 269-296.
[33] See Paola Molino, Alle origini della Methodus Apodemica cit., p. 51 ff.
[34] See the letter from Blotius to Zwinger cited by Paola Molino, ibid., p. 49. On their relationship, as witnessed by the correspondence in Vienna and Basel, see ibid. and Ead., Sulle tracce di Hugo Blotius, “Biblos”, 54, 2005, p. 143-155, p. 144.
[35] The project is described in a letter from Blotius to Zwinger, 3 December 1569, cited by Antonio Rotondò, Pietro Perna cit., p. 492, and published by Paola Molino, Alle origini della Methodus Apodemica cit.
[36] For the differences between the two projects, see ibid.
[37] Ibid., p. 60.
[38] There is a German version of the Tabula in Justin Stagl, Vom Dialog zum Fragebogen. Miszellen zur Geschichte der Umfrage, “Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie”, 31, 1979, p. 611-638.
[39]See Justin Stagl, A History of curiosity cit., p. 124, 127 ff. and Id., Vom Dialog zum Fragebogen cit., p. 611 ff., 615. Sansovino wrote Del governo dei regni e delle Repubbliche in 1561; the reports of Ovando y Godoy and Lopez de Velasco on the Spanish possessions in America were in the Geografia y descripcio universal de las Indias, published in 1572.
[40] For Blotius’ travel diaries, see for now Paola Molino, Istruzioni per un viaggio in Italia: “Hodoeporicum Hugoni Blotii earum rerum quas in Italia vidit et observavit”, “Biblos”, 55, 2006, p. 115-127.
[41] Paul Hentzer, Itinerarium Germaniae, Galliae, Angliae, Italiae, cum indice locorum, terrum atque verborum commemorabilium. Huic libro accessere nova haec editione: I monita peregrinatoria duorum doctissimorum virorum; itemque II incerti auctoris epitome praecognitorum historicorum, antehac non edita, Nürnberg, Abraham Wagenmann, 1629, p. Zz 1-Zz 6.
[42] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica, praefatio, p. b1v.
[43] For these works, published respectively in 1674 and 1577, see Justin Stagl, Die Methodisierung der Reisen cit., p. 151 ff. and Id., Eine Geschichte der Neugier cit., p. 88-89. The two were also mentioned by Zwinger in his preface, p. b1v.
[44] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica cit., praefatio, p. a4v-b1r.
[45] Ibid., p. a3r ff.
[46] Ibid., p. a2r-b1v. Cfr. Carlos Gilly, Il Theatrum humanae vitae cit., p. 259 ff.
[47] Ibid., p. a2r, a4v.
[48]Ibid., p. a4v.
[49] Adhesion to Paracelsism was mentioned to Pietro Perna in a letter of 12 September 1577, published by Carlos Gilly in Corpus paracelsisticum, II, p. 745-822.
[50] Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 175.
[51] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica cit., praefatio, p. b2r.
[52] Werner Kaegi, Machiavelli in Basel, in Id., Historische Meditationen, Zürich, 1942-1946, I, p. 119-181. See Carlos Gilly, Spanien und der Basler Buchdruck cit., p. 36, 39, 131, 239.
[53] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica cit., praefatio, p. b1r.
[54] Cfr. Carlos Gilly, Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation cit., II, p. 172.
[55] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica cit., p. 48.
[56] Id., Methodus apodemica cit., praefatio, p. a3v,b1v.
[57] Ibid., p. b1v.
[58]Ibid., p. a2v, g1v .
[59]Ibid., p. b1v.
[60]Ibid., p. b4v.
[61]Ibid., p. b2r.
[62]Ibid., p. b2v-b4r.
[63]Ibid., p. b2r.
[64] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica cit., p. 159.
[65] Ibid.
[66] Ibid., p. b2r.
[67] Id., Methodus apodemica cit., p. 159. Wurstisen’s work was published in Basel in 1577 by Sebastianus Henricpetri: presumably Zwinger saw the manuscript. Instead Scardeoni’s remained in manuscript. Corrozet’s text was published in Paris in 1555 in Groulleau’s printing house, Sigonio’s in 1564 at Bologna by I. Rubrius, those of Pausanius at Basel, respectively in 1550 and 1557, the former by M. Isengrin, and the latter by J. Oporinus.
[68] Theodor Zwinger, Methodus apodemica cit., p. 159 f.
[69] Ibid., p. 161.
[70] Ibid., praefatio, p. b4v.
[71] Id., Methodus Apodemica cit., p. 226.
[72] Ibid., p. 226-252.
[73] Ibid., p. 161-226.
[74]Ibid., p. 188.
[75] Ibid., p. 186.
[76] Ibid., p. 186 ff.
[77] Ibid., p. 201.
[78] Ibid., p. 206 ff.
[79] Ibid., p. 213 ff.
[80] Ibid.., p. 214 ff.
[81] Ibid., p. 216.
[82] Ibid., p. 187
[83] Ibid.,p. 217.
[84] Ibid., p. 217 ff.
[85] Ibid., p. 218 ff.
[86] Ibid., p. 284-312.
[87] Ibid., p. 312 ff.
[88] Ibid., p. 319.
[89] For the contrast between Athens and Sparta in the Eighteenth century see Luciano Guerci, Libertà degli antichi e libertà dei moderni: Sparta, Atene e i philosophes nella Francia del Settecento, Napoli, Guida, 1979. On the importance of the Greek tradition for modern political thought, see Eric Nelson, The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought, Cambridge, University Press, 2004 (with bibliography).
[90] In the Laudatio urbis florentinae (1405) Athens is praised, on a par with Florence, for their analogous roles in defence of libertas, the one from the Persian threat, the other from the Viscount. More referred to Athens in Utopia: see ibid., p. 19 ff. For Rome and Sparta, besides the standard Hans Baron, La crisi del primo Rinascimento italiano, Firenze, Sansoni, 1970, ad ind., see City States cit., and especially A. Brown, City and Citizen: Changing Perceptions in the Fifteenth and Sisteeenth Century, p. 93-111; for Sparta see also Saffo Testoni Binetti, Immagini di Sparta nel dibattito politico francese durante le guerre di religione, in Ideologie della città europea cit., p. 105-124.
[91] This aspect of Sigonio’s activity, left in the shade even in William McCuaig’s fundamental, Carlo Sigonio, The Changing World of the Late Renaissance, Princeton, New York, Princeton University Press , 1989, has been revaluated by Giovanni Salmeri, La “Costituzione degli ateniesi” aristotelica, l’Atene di età imperiale e l’Italia del Sigonio, in L’ “Athenaion Politeia” di Aristotele. 1891-1991. Per un bilancio di cento anni di studi, a cura di Gianfranco Maddoli, Napoli, Edizioni Scientifiche italiane, 1994, p. 43-61. Sigonio, in 1564, published also De Atheniensium Lacedaemoniorumque temporibus liber in Venice.
[92] The De Magistratibus Atheniensium was published in Paris and Venice in 1541.
[93] Giannotti’s Della Repubblica de’ Veneziani, was published in 1526-27, Contarini’s De magistratibus et Republica Venetorum in 1543.
[94] For the importance of Sigonio’s work to the Counterreformation, see McCuaig, Carlo Sigonio cit. For the censures it brought him, see Id., The Ecclesiastical Censures of 1581-1583 against Carlo Sigonio and his Replies, available for now on the site of the Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies of the University of Toronto (http://crrs.utoronto.ca/), and Paolo Prodi, Vecchi appunti e nuove riflessioni su Carlo Sigonio, in Nunc alia tempora, alii mores. Storici e storia in età postridentina. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Torino, 24-27 settembre 2003, a cura di Massimo Firpo, Firenze, Olschki, 2005, p. 291-310.
[95] See Jean Bodin, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitione, Amsterdam, J. Ravestein, 1650 (anastatistic reprint, Aalen, Scientia, 1967), p. 171, 197 ff.; Sigonio’s positions are criticised for their adhesion to Aristotelian concepts, on p. 157, 167, 174 ff. (where the notion of “magistratus” is rejected), 185, 188, 190, 190. I refer to the edition in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Magl. 4.8.6. In the Repubblica there are numerous references to Athens and some to Sigonio: see I sei libri dello Stato, a cura di Margherita Isnardi Parente e Diego Quaglioni, Torino, Utet, 1964-1997, 3 v., ad ind.
[96] See above, p. 9.
[97] Ibid., p. 350.
[98] Ibid., p. 351.
[99] Ibid., p. 362.
[100] Ibid., p. 359.
[101] Ibid., p. 351.
[102] Ibid., p. 352.
[103] Ibid., p. 353 ff.
[104] Ibid., p. 355 ff.
[105] Ibid., p. 357.
[106] Ibid., p. 358.
[107] Ibid., p. 360-363.
[108] Ibid., p. 365 ff.
[109] Ibid., p. 370-384.
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