Salvatore Morellus, encyclopaedic poem including religious exposition, animal stories from bestiaries and Aesop's Fables and erotic anecdotes, composed for Duke Ercole II of Ferrara, in Latin and Italian, manuscript on paper

146 leaves, 144mm. by 102mm., text complete, one or two leaves missing from index at end, collation: i-xvii^{8, xviii6, xix4, xx5 (vi wanting), horizontal catchwords, foliated by main scribe in top right-hand corner and quire signatures added by same hand in lower right-hand corner on first half of each gathering, written space 114mm. by 75mm., single column, 27 lines of a fine humanistic hand in brown ink (the ink eating into paper and causing 'shine-though' in gathering xiv, xviii and xix, each book beginning with 2-line capital in same ink, somewhat wormed at beginning and with stains to outer edges throughout, but in good and sturdy condition, original binding of vellum (recovered from a thirteenth-century Latin manuscript, now wormed and very defective) over pasteboards, with front board loose and back board missing, remains of string ties}

provenance

The author names himself as Salvatore Morellus in the colophon on the recto of the second flyleaf, and on the verso of the same dedicates his work to Herculi duci quarto Ferraris Excellisimo, the son of Alphonso, ie. Ercole II d'Este (5 April 1508 to 3 October 1559; held office 1534-59), the fourth duke of Ferrara, and the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and the infamous Lucrezia Borgia. This is evidently the author's own personal copy: there are numerous corrections throughout in the main hand, such as that on fol. 6v where the word subito is inserted and statim removed to keep the number of syllables in the line the same, which are most likely those of an author revising the text, rather than a scribe correcting a bad reading of an exemplar. Furthermore, there are copies of personal letters to and from the author on fols. 134v-41r, dated between November 1550 and November 1552, of little importance to anyone other than him.

text

This is the only recorded copy of this work and is the most substantial work by this author yet to emerge. Kristeller gives only three references to him, and two of these are most probably variants of the same work (Iter Italicum, I, p. 56: Ferrara MS. I 437, a "collection of Carmina ... in 8 books" written by and addressed to Daniel Finus (a bibliophilic resident of Ferrara in the early sixteenth century); and Iter Italicum II, p. 49: Parma MS. 1487, a "collection of Carmina, in 8 books, mostly directed to Daniel Finus"; both containing only a few lines of verse by Morellus. The third volume is from the Biblioteca Communale of Ascoli Piceno, in the March of Ancona, MS. 197, a slim volume of 23 folios containing three poems by Morellus.

 

The present volume adds much to what we know of the career of the author. Two of the letters at the end address him as molto magnifico messere, and hint at his importance within Ferrarese intellectual circles in the mid-sixteenth century. In addition, it is only through the dedication of this volume that we can perceive that Salvatore Morellus was active in the court of Ercole II; although other poems to Ercole II by Daniel Finus do appear in Ferrara MS. I 437 alongside verse by Morellus, indirectly connecting him to the court.

 

The work itself is a vast, compendium-like poem of approximately 3,750 lines of verse, which surveys a wide range of intellectual pursuits of Renaissance Italy. After a short Proemium, books 1-5 discuss religious matters, encompassing the Virgin (fol. 1r), the Passion of Christ and his resurrection (3r & 11v), the Last Judgement (16r), the Seven Penitential Psalms (20r), the life of St. Lucy Virgin and Martyr (24v), the Lord's Prayer (27r) De festo Paschatis epifanie (27r), De festo pentecostes (28r) and De conversione domini Pauli (28v). Books 6 and 7 bring in mythological elements with De nuptiis Psyches et Cupidinis (29v) and De eisdem nuptiis (43r), and book 8 continues on the same theme with 101 moralised fables (including De viro iuso ab uxore on fol. 52v, De puero et fune on 54v, De rustico et Hercule on 61v, and De viro Zelothipo qui uxorem dedarat custodiendam on fol. 71r, and many animal-tales gleaned from bestiaries, Aesop's Fables, and other related texts: including De aquila et corvo, the Eagle and Crow, and De cicada et formica, the Cicada and the Ant, on fol. 55v; De castore genitalia sibi amputante, the Beaver who amputates his own testicles, and De Thunno et delphino, the Tuna-fish and the Dolphin, on 56v; De asino et equo, the Donkey and the Horse, on fol. 59r; De simia et duobus eius natis, the Monkey and her two offspring, on 60r; De leone et Rana, the Lion and the Frog, on 62r; De lupo et agno, the Wolf and the Lamb, on 63r; De leporibus, the Hare, on 69v; De cigno et ciconia, the Swan and the Stork, on 70r; De lupo et sucula, the Wolf and the Sow, on 74v; and related texts such as De rege et cercopythecis, the King and the Monkey, on 67v, and Batrachomyomachia, or the 'Battle of the Mice and Frogs', on 66v. Book 9 and 10 contain a similar collection of more scandalous anecdotes, including erotic tales such as Mentula queritur de urbe Roma, the Penis's complaint against the city of Rome, on fol. 89r; De Florentino pedicatore, the sodomite of Florence, on 91v, De Petrantonio Franco ignorante modum coeundi, concerning Peter-Anthony the Frenchman who was ignorant of the ways of sex, and De vicario non faciente notis virginum, the priest who was not able to 'have knowledge' of the virgins, on 92r. Books 11 and 12 carry on in a similar vein but with more historical anecdotes, including short discussions of the death of the Roman Emperors from Julius Caesar (fol. 119r) to Domitian (121r), and leaps from here to sixteenth-century politics with discussion of the short reign of Pope Marcellus II (123v) and the dedicatee of the volume: Ad Herculem 4 ducem Ferrarie (124r). Book 12 draws to a close with the sciences: Arithmetica prima inter mathematicas artes on 128r, and Duces Ptholomeo totum orbem peragravit on 128v, and even medicine: In chirurgium imperitum artis medice on 128v. Book 13 sees a return to Biblical matters with a lengthy poem on Ruth (131r). To this has been added five letters to and from the author, mostly dated between November 1550 and November 1552, some short verses De Priapo and De tuenda sanitate on fol. 140v, and a few pages of an incomplete index to the various anecdotes found in the volume.