Today private collections of books, art, and artifacts are often - - PDF document

Today private collections of books, art, and artifacts are often gifted or lent to libraries for their special collections and exhibitions. Many of these private collections were the foundation of public library collections, such as the British Library in London. During the Italian Renaissance (roughly 1300-1530), private collections of books and art were kept in private studies called studiolos. Each studiolo was decorated elaborately to reflect the patron to whom it belonged. During this period, the collecting of books and patronage of the arts were a social tool used to enhance one's reputation. While some studiolos were only to be viewed by a select few, the collections of those like Cosimo de’ Medici were intended to be viewed and admired by the public. Cosimo de’ Medici, banker and patron of the arts, wanted his collections to reflect his status. He is considered one of the greatest patrons of the Renaissance not only for the art he commissioned, but his overall rise to power and influence. As Cosimo and the Medici family rose in power, Cosimo used his wealth to enhance the reputation of the city. Cosimo de' Medici was responsible for three public libraries during the Italian Renaissance. A majority of the books collected by Cosimo de’ Medici were compiled and placed in a new library he commissioned at the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence in 1444 as a gift to the Venetian people (William 352). Known today as the Michelozzo Library, this library is considered the first public library in Renaissance Europe (Ingraham 150). 1 of 10

The Italian Renaissance was the age of the intellectual movement known as humanism. With its focus being on Greek and Latin roots, humanism was largely oriented toward rhetoric, the art of correct expression. The Renaissance is largely defined by its encouragement of humanistic ideas about civic duty, learning, and the arts. The popularity of humanism went hand in hand with patronage as it encouraged humanistic representations of art, architecture, and the translating of classical texts. Because of patrons like Cosimo de' Medici, humanist art and texts were able to be created and then collected and displayed in the homes

• f aristocrats. In the course of the fifteenth century, many Italian aristocrats homes featured

a studiolo. In the studiolo, a patron could spend his precious hours in literary pursuits, surrounded by private collections of art. The studiolo was an intimate space created for the devotion to reading and self-curated collections (Campbell and Giorgione 302). Studiolos would not only be a place for study and contemplation, but a private gallery in which to house one's private commissions. In a period when individuality went hand in hand with a growing sense of community, the studiolo worked as a “spatial expression of the notion

• f the private individual” (Campbell and Giorgione 302). The photograph above shows one of

the most famous studiolos, the Dukes of Urbinos studiolo. The walls of his studiolo are covered with wood panels portraying images representing the Duke's interests. The Duke of Urbinos studiolo exemplified the art and decoration of many studiolos. The studiolo represented an age in which privacy went hand in hand with exhibition. In his paper “Giorgione's ‘Tempest,’ ‘Studiolo’ Culture, and the Renaissance Lucretius,” Campbell writes that “the self could be a constructed and revealed through the mute but richly equivocal language of painting and sculpture, defining the owner's ‘personal space’ even in his or her absence” (Campbell and Giorgione 303). This persistence of the studiolo as a private space even in the absence of its patron shows how powerful the studiolo was as a tool to exhibit one's power and influence. The studiolo began as a private and interior experience but quickly became a public exhibition. Cosimo de' Medici understood the power of patronage and used his collections to demonstrate his own prominence within the Florentine community and the regions of what is now Italy. 2 of 10

The story of the Medici family is one that intrigues and inspires admiration. Cosimo de' Medici was born in 1389 and was a well-known Italian banker and politician. He was the first of the Medici political dynasty; a family that rose to such a high place of power they effectively ruled Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. Cosimo’s power grew as much from his great success in banking as his great patronage of “learning, the arts and architecture” (Strathern 45). By the time he was thirty, Cosimo’s collection had grown to over 68 volumes (Connors and Dresses 201), and his collection of commissions consisted of works by artists like Donatello and Michelangelo. In 1434, after a brief banishment, the Medici family returned to Florence and Cosimo de' Medici established himself in the heart of the city, calling himself the "father of the homeland.” As Cosimo rose in power, he used his wealth to enhance the reputation of

• Florence. It was the duty of a wealthy citizen to enhance the reputation of one's city

and contribute to the upkeep of the city church. The Medici family contributed much to the building of the Medici chapel and church of San Lorenzo. Cosimo de’ Medici went further by displaying his communal power in the building of the new Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, the Medici Palace. 3 of 10

The stones of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi resembled the Palazzo Vecchio (Town Hall), but also adopted new styles of building with classical motifs used to embed political

• messages. The Palazzo Medici-Riccardi eventually became the center for social and

business discussions between the Medici family and the community – this was a convergence of public and private places. Similarly, Cosimo’s own library was essentially closed to scholars, but the San Marco Michelozzo Library would eventually allow access to his private books. Through his support of Niccolò Niccoli, Florentine humanist and known book collector, Cosimo was responsible for the revival and study of ancient writers (Meechan 15). Along with his own private collection, Cosimo used the collection

• f Niccolò to create the Michelozzo Library, the first public library.

Before Cosimo de' Medici added the Michelozzo Library, the convent had a long history. Constructed in the 12th century as a Vallombrosan monastery, it was later passed to the Silvestrines who were driven out of San Marco in 1418. It was not until 1438 that the convent was given to the Dominicans ("Convent of San Marco"). The convent itself was made for the monks who occupied it and was the ultimate example of a private space, made up almost entirely of rooms decorated with paintings by Dominican Monk Fra Angelico for the purpose of private spiritual contemplation. Found in one such room, the image below shows St. Dominic reading — an example to the monk occupying the room that he too should be focusing on scripture. 4 of 10

When the Michelozzo Library was built, the convent was opened to the public for the first time as shown in Allie Terry-Fritch's article "Florentine Convent As Practiced Place: Cosimo De'medici, Fra Angelico, and The Public Library Of San Marco." Terry-Fritch writes of the transformation of San Marco from a private space to a public space and how this transformation affected the social and the intellectual practices of the convent. Libraries of the Renaissance were mostly "public" in the sense that scholars could have access to private collections of theological books. This changed as the widespread popularity of humanism in Europe influenced how education was structured. In the Middle Ages, students would need to travel alone to find sources of knowledge to learn from or attend a strictly religious university. During the Renaissance, scholars —humanists—would come together to learn from each other in public lecture halls or attend newly instituted universities. With these changes in education came changes to the Renaissance library. The most important innovations in the Renaissance library were the "relatively large number of collections in the secular domain, the great number and size of personal collections, and the emergence of a distinct, professional bibliographical literature" (Nelles 154) now available to scholars. The Library at San Marco is an example

• f these innovations as it combines the collection of Cosimo de' Medici and Niccolò

Niccoli, allocating numerous and diverse books of biblical and secular subjects into one space. 5 of 10

Cosimo de' Medici was extremely interested in humanism and the revival of classical ideas and artistic sensibilities. Cosimo established the Michelozzo Library at San Marco between 1441-44, securing Italian architect and sculpture Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi to design and rebuild the entire San Marco convent. The manuscripts available in the Michelozzo Library were mostly from the collection of Niccolò Niccoli, a famous humanist who flourished under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici. The manuscripts in Niccolò Niccoli's collection totaled over 800, and most were in Niccolò's

• wn handwriting (Ewart 220).

The manuscripts were originally chained to library benches placed in rows (Hancock 61). The majority of Niccolò's collection was of a classical nature, and Cosimo added much of his own private collection to the Michelozzo Library to diversify the Library’s own collection (Connors and Dresses 200). In his biography, Cosimo de' Medici writes of his purchasing and copying the manuscripts added to Michelozzo Library (Baker 76). The combination of Niccolò's and Cosimo's collections created the first extensive public library in Europe, where even original manuscripts were available to be borrowed by the literate public (Strathern 82). 6 of 10

The Italian Renaissance was a time of innovation and humanism, represented by the architecture of the period. Michelozzo's design of the Library was inspired by classical motifs with arches in the courtyard (reminiscent of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi) and a reading room featuring the form of a basilica (Connors and Dresses 201). "The San Marco library embodied three different Renaissance concepts of a public library: It was the common library of the Dominican convent in which it was housed, a collection made available to a circle of humanist investigators, and an institution supported by the public patronage of an eminent ruler" (Nelles 151). The Michelozzo Library at San Marco suffered an earthquake in 1457 and much of the

• riginal library was lost. The Library saw a period of closure, remaining unused for

nearly 200 years. The Library's initial collection contained around 3,000 manuscripts. As

• f 1751, with the appointment of its first librarian, the library held "11,000 manuscripts, in

addition to 566 incunables and over 1,600 sixteenth-century printed books, as well as ancient forms of the book" (Meecham 17). The Michelozzo Library was confiscated during the Napoleonic occupation of 1808, and the collection is mostly now in the National Central Library of Florence. While the convent itself is now a museum, the Michelozzo Library lives on with its small collection of books on display for public viewing. Below is a short video about the reopening of the Michelozzo Library in 2015 after having restoration work done. The video gives a wonderful overview of the Library and shows some key architectural points and some of the manuscripts on display. 7 of 10 8 of 10

As the American Library Association "Library Bill of Rights" states, books "should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves" ("Bill of Rights"). The purpose of the modern public library is to connect those in the community with the knowledge and information they need. For Renaissance libraries, the purpose was mainly to support scholarly learning. According to Craig Kallendorf in his article “Libraries” in Oxford Bibliographies, “the very concept of the Renaissance predicates access to a library, because if Antiquity were to be reborn, the guidelines for this rebirth had to emerge from research into the culture

• f Greece and Rome, which had to take place in a well-stocked library” (Kallendorf).

Libraries continue to adapt to meet the needs of the society and communities they serve. During the Italian Renaissance, the appreciation and importance of sharing private collections with others helped shape many of the libraries built during the 15th and 16th

• centuries. Inspired by the humanism movement, aristocrats began to patron artists and
• scholars. This patronage increased the popularity of the studiolo and represents the

change from private to exhibition during the Italian Renaissance. Within the San Marco Michelozzo Library, Cosimo de' Medici combined two private collections into one expansive public collection, a precedent which would lead to the growth of libraries throughout Renaissance Europe. 8 of 10

Angelico, Fra. "Mocking of Christ" c. 1440-41. Digital Image. Baker, Patrick. Italian Renaissance Humanism in the Mirror. 2015. Cambridge University Press. Google Books. Campbell, Stephen J., and Giorgione. “Giorgione's ‘Tempest," ‘Studiolo’ Culture, and the Renaissance Lucretius.” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 2, 2003, pp. 299–332. <www.jstor.org/stable/1261849> Connors, J., and Dresses, Angela. “Biblioteche: l’architettura e l’ordinamento del sapere" [Libraries: Architecture and the Ordering of Knowledge], in Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa, vol. 6, Luoghi, spazi, architetture, ed. Donatella Calabi and Elena Svalduz, Treviso-Costabissara, 2010, pp. 199-228. <http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/joseph_connors/files/libraries_architecture_and_the_

• rdering_of_knowledge_connors_english_2009_1.pdf>

"Convent of San Marco." The Museums of Florence. Hidden Italy, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2016. <http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/museum_of_san_marco.html> Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Michelozzo." Encyclopædia Britannica. <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michelozzo> Ewart, K Dorothea. Cosimo De' Medici. London and New York: The Macmillan, Co. 1899, 2006. Google Books. Hancock, Lee. Lorenzo De' Medici: Florence's Great Leader and Patron of the Arts. 2005. The Rosen Publishing Group. Google Books. Ingraham, Chris. "Libraries And Their Publics: Rhetorics Of The Public Library." Rhetoric Review 34.2 (2015): 147-163. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Oct. 2016. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul, in Greek, manuscript on vellum [eastern Mediterranean, eleventh or twelfth century]. Digital Image. <http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/the-history-of-script-sixty-important- manuscript-leaves-from-the-schyen-collection/lot.4.html> Kallendorf, Craig. "Libraries." Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford University Press, 26 June 2012. Web. 25

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LdM News. “The reopening of the Michelozzo Library, San Marco Museum.” Online Video Clip.

• Youtube. Feb 25, 2015. Web. November 13, 2016.

"Library Bill of Rights." American Library Association (ALA). N.p., 23 Jan. 1996. Web. 26 Nov. 2016. Manuscript leaf by Niccolò Niccoli, at the Library of San Marco. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistles of St. Paul, in Greek, manuscript on vellum [eastern Mediterranean, eleventh or twelfth century] Meehan, F. William. (2007). The Importance of Cosimo de Medici in Library History. Indiana Libraries Journal, 26(3), 15-17. 9 of 10

Messina, Antonello da. "San Gerolamo nello Studio" [Saint Gerolamo in the Office]. Digital Image. Nelles, Peter. "Renaissance Libraries." International Dictionary of Library Histories. By David H. Stam. London: Routledge, 2016. 151-55. Google Books. Web. 20 Nov. 2016. On the first floor, the library built by Michelozzo for Cosimo de' Medici - c. 1450. Digital image. The Museums of Florence. Hidden Italy, n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2016. Rubens, Pierre Paul. "Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici" c. 1612-14. Digital Image. Strathern, Paul. The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance. Pegasus Books.

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Terry-Fritsch, Allie. "Florentine Convent As Practiced Place: Cosimo De'medici, Fra Angelico, And The Public Library Of San Marco." Medieval Encounters 18.2/3 (2012): 230-271. Academic Search Premier.

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Vasari, Giorgio. "Portrait of St. Cosimo." Digital Image. This a PDF version of a presentation created on AdobeSpark by Jessica Sparks for Palomar College's LT 100 (Fall 2016: Nov 28, 2016), Prof. Marlene Forney. Link to the original presentation. 10 of 10