Articles / Aufätze
Some pedagogical and syntactical aspects of Francesco da Buti’s (1324–1406) Regule grammaticales

Chiara Martinelli
Lucca, Italy
Abstract

This essay aims at giving an account of some pedagogical and syntactical aspects of Francesco da buti’s (1324–1406) Regule grammaticales, a Latin grammar written in Central Italy in the second half of the 14th century. It occupies an important place in the history of positive grammar, providing an excellent example of Latin teaching in late medieval Italy. In fact, da Buti treatise deals not only with grammar, but also with rhetoric and Ars dictaminis, as was customary in the Italian tradition in the final centuries of the Middle Ages. This article analyzes the sections devoted to nouns and verbs, while also pointing out some pedagogical features, such as the exercises of the thèmata and the use of the vernacular as a tool for learning Latin composition.

Table of contents

This article examines the Regule grammaticales of Francesco da Buti (1324–1406), the most popular grammatical textbook composed in Italy in the 14th century. This is a section of a highly systematic treatise, which deals with rhetoric and Dictamen in addition to the traditional discussion on the parts of speech. The Regule grammaticales share many features with the Italian tradition of secondary school grammar, and Pietro da Isolella’s Summa (13th cent.) is one of their most important sources. However, da Buti’s textbook has also some individual features of its own, which are of pedagogical intent. It has a highly peculiar structure: the author has organized the material into an order of progressive difficulty, which may reflect his teaching practices (Black 2001: 100). The Regule are also one of the earliest Italian grammars to make frequent use of exercises in the vernacular, the so-called thèmata. These exercises, which consist of sentences to be translated from the vernacular into Latin, will be illustrated below.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

A.Primary sources

Alexander de Villa-Dei
. Das Doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei Kritisch-exegetische Ausgabe by Dietrich Reichling. Berlin: A. Hofmann 1893 (Repr., New York: Burt Franklin 1974.)Google Scholar
Bene of Florence
Summa grammatice. Pisa: Biblioteca di Santa Caterina, MS 66.
Bono da Lucca
. Cedrus Libani Ed. by Giuseppe Vecchi. (= Testi e manuali dell’ Istituto di filologia romanza dell’Università di Roma, 46.) Modena, S.T.E.M. 1963.Google Scholar
CIMAGL = Cahiers de l’institut du Moyen-Âge grec et latin
. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen 1969– .www​.cimagl​.dk since 2010.
[ p. 224 ]
Donatus, Aelius
. Ars minor, Ars maior Ed. by Louis Holtz. Donat et la traditon de l’enseignement grammatical: Étude sur l’Ars Donati et sa diffusion (IVe–IXe siècle) et édition critique. Paris: CNRS 1981.Google Scholar
Evrard of Béthune
. Eberhardi Bethuniensis Graecismus Ed. by Johann Wrobel. Breslau: G. Koebner 1887.Google Scholar
Folchino de’Borfoni
. Cremonina Ed. by Carla Desantis. (= Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 201), 178–179. Turnhout: Brepols 2003.Google Scholar
Francesco da Buti
. Regule grammaticales. Edizione critica e commento di Chiara Martinelli. Doctoral dissertation. Università di Pisa 2007.Google Scholar
Glossarum compendium. Cesena, Biblioteca Malatestiana, MS S. XXII. 3.
GL = Grammatici Latini
Ed. by Heinrich Keil. 8 vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner 1855–1880 (Repr., Hildesheim: Georg Olms 1981.)Google Scholar
Giovanni da Soncino
Notabilia. Venezia: Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS lat., Classe XIII, 13 (4308).
Goro d’Arezzo
. Regule parve. See Marchesi. “Guarino Veronese. Regule grammaticales Ed by W. Keith Percival. The Regule Grammaticales of Guarino Veronese. Electronic edition. www​.people​.ku​.edu​/~percival​/Guarino​.pdf. (Last accessed: 21.2.2018) 1910.Google Scholar
Hugo of St. Victor
. De grammatica. Cited after Jean Leclercq, “Le De grammatica de Hugues de Saint-Victor”. Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 14.263–322 (1943/45).Google Scholar
Hugutio of Pisa
. Uguccione da Pisa. Derivationes Ed. Enzo Cecchini, Guido Arbizzoni et al. Firenze: SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo 2004.Google Scholar
John of Genoa
. Catholicon. Darmstadt, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Inc. V 8. Nürnberg: Anton Koberger 1483.Google Scholar
Valla, Lorenzo
. Epistole Ed. by Ottavio Besomi & Mariangela Regoliosi. Padua: Antenore 1984.Google Scholar
Papias
. Ars Grammatica Ed. by Roberta Cervani. Bologna: Pàtron Editore 1998.Google Scholar
Peter Helias
. Summa super Priscianum Ed. by Leo Reilly. 2 vols. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 1993.Google Scholar
Pietro da Isolella
. Summa grammatice. Une grammaire latine inédite du XIIIe siècle Ed. by Charles Fierville. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1886.Google Scholar
Priscian
Prisciani Grammatici Caesariensis Institutionum Grammaticarum libri XVIII Ed. by Martin Hertz GL II III
Sponcius
. Summa de constructione. Une grammaire latine inédite du XIIIe siècle Ed. by Charles Fierville, 177–192. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1886.Google Scholar

B.Secondary sources

Alessio, Gian Carlo
1981 “Hec Franciscus de Buiti”. Italia medioevale e umanistica 24.64–122.Google Scholar
1985 “Postilla per Arsegino”. Lucidissima dictandi peritia: Studi di grammatica e retorica medievale ed. by Filippo Bognini, 145–161. Venezia: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari.Google Scholar
Banti, Ottavio
1995 “Francesco da Buti civis pisanus”. Bollettino Storico Pisano 64.1–18.Google Scholar
Black, Robert
1996 “The Vernacular and the Teaching of Latin in Thirteenth-and-Fourteenth-century Italy”. Studi medievali 3:37.703–751.Google Scholar
2001 Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and innovation in Latin schools from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Education and society in Florentine Tuscany. Leiden & Boston: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
[ p. 225 ]
2011 Studies in Renaissance Humanism and Politics: Florence and Arezzo. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Copeland, Rita & Ineke Sluiter
2009 Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language arts and literary theory, AD 300–1475. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Franceschini, Fabrizio
2003 “Le Regule di Francesco da Buti tra scuola laica e osservanza: Un atlante linguistico dell’Italia tre-quattrocentesca”. Contributi di Filologia dell’Italia Mediana 17.51–130.Google Scholar
2006 ““Si petis de patria, sum pisanus”: La presa di Caprona e altri momenti di storia pisana nell’opera di Francesco da Buti”. Bollettino Storico Pisano 75.103–127.Google Scholar
Fredborg, Karin Margareta
1973 “The Dependence of Petrus Helias’ Summa super Priscianum on William of Conches’ Glose super Priscianum ”. CIMAGL 11.1–57.Google Scholar
1981 “Some Notes on the Grammar of William of Conches”. CIMAGL 37.21–41.Google Scholar
1988 “Speculative Grammar”. A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy ed. by Peter Dronke, 177–195. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 “Notes on the Glosulae and its Reception by William of Conches and Petrus Helias”. Arts du langage et théologie aux confins des XIe–XIIe siècles: Textes, maîtres, débats ed. by Irène Rosier-Catach. (= Studia artistarum, 26), 453–483. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grévin, Benoit & Anne-Marie Turcan-Verkerk
2015 Le dictamen dans tous ses états. Perspectives de recherche sur la théorie et la pratique de l’ars dictaminis (XIe–XVe siècle). Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grondeux, Anne
2000 Le Graecismus d’Évrard de Béthune à travers ses gloses: Entre grammaire positive et grammaire spéculative du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Kristian
1990 Rhetorical Philosophy and Philosophical Grammar. Julius Caesar Scaliger’s theory of language. München: Wilhelm Fink.Google Scholar
Kneepkens, Corneille Henri
1978 “Master Guido and His View on Government: On twelfth century linguistic thought”. Vivarium 16.108–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1987 “ Suppositio and supponere in 12th-Century Grammar”. Gilbert de Poitiers et ses contemporaines: Aux origines de la logica modernorum ed. by Jean Jolivet & Alain De Libera, 325–351. Naples: Bibliopolis.Google Scholar
1990 “Transitivity, Intransitivity and Related Concepts in 12th Century Grammar. An explorative study”. De ortu grammaticae. Studies in Medieval Grammar and Linguistic Theory in memory of Jan Pinborg ed. by Geoffrey L. Bursill-Hall, Sten Ebbesen & Konrad Koerner. (= Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 43), 161–189. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Law, Vivien
1986 “Grammatica normativa nel XIII sec.” Aspetti della letteratura latina nel secolo XIII ed. by Claudio Leonardi & Giovanni Orlandi, 125–145. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.Google Scholar
Luhtala, Anneli
2013 “Pedagogical Grammars before the Eighteenth Century”. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistcs ed. by Keith Allan, 341–358. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marchesi, Concetto
1910 “Due grammatici latini del medioevo”. Bullettino della Società Filologica Romana 12.23–56.Google Scholar
Marmo, Costantino
1994 Semiotica e linguaggio nella Scolastica: Parigi, Bologna, Erfurt 1270–1330. La semiotica dei Modisti. Roma: Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo.Google Scholar
Mazzoni, Francesco
1971 “Francesco di Bartolo da Buti”. Enciclopedia dantesca 3.23–27. Roma: Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani.Google Scholar
[ p. 226 ]
Percival, W. Keith
1972 “The historical sources of Guarino’s Regulae grammaticales: a reconsideration of Sabbadini’s evidence”. Civiltà dell’Umanesimo ed. by Giovannangiola Tarugi, 263–284. Firenze: Olschki.Google Scholar
1975 “The Grammatical Tradition and the Rise of the Vernaculars”. Current trends in Linguistics ed. by Thomas A. Sebeok, vol. XIII: Historiography of linguistics, 231–275. Mouton: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
1976 “Renaissance Grammar: rebellion or evolution?” Civiltà dell’Umanesimo ed. by Giovannangiola Tarugi, 73–90. Firenze: Olschki.Google Scholar
1983 “Grammar and Rhetoric in the Renaissance”. Studies in the theory and practice of Renaissance Rhetoric ed. by James J. Murphy, 303–330. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
1994 “Nebrija and the Medieval Grammatical Tradition”. Antonio de Nebrija: Edad media y renacimiento ed. by Carmen Codoñer & Juan Antonio Gonzàles Iglesias, 247–257. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.Google Scholar
Rizzo, Silvia
1995 “Sulla terminologia dell’insegnamento grammaticale nelle scuole umanistiche”. Vocabulary of Teaching and Research between Middle Ages and Renaissance ed. by Olga Weijers, 29–44. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996 “L’insegnamento del latino nelle scuole umanistiche”. Italia ed Europa nella linguistica del Rinascimento ed. by Mirko Tavoni, 3–29. Modena: Panini.Google Scholar
Rosier-Catach, Irène
1983 La grammaire spéculative des Modistes. Lille: Presses Universitaires.Google Scholar
1984 “Transitivité et ordre des mots chez les grammairiens médiévaux”. Matériaux pour une histoire des théories linguistiques ed. by Sylvain Auroux, Michel Glatigny et al., 181–190. Lille: Presses Universitaires.Google Scholar
Rosier, Irène
1992 “Quelques aspects de la diversité des discussions médiévales sur l’adjectif”. Histoire Epistémologie Langage 14:1.75–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994 “L’introduction des notions de sujet et de prédicat dans la grammaire médiévale”. Archives et documents de la SHESL 10.81–119.Google Scholar
2010 “Grammar”. Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy ed. by Robert Pasnau & Christina Van Dyke, vol. I, 196–216. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sabbadini, Remigio
1896 La scuola e gli studi di Guarino Guarini Veronese. Catania: Galati.Google Scholar
Sivo, Vito
1989 “Ricerche sulla tradizione grammaticale medievale”. Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Bari 32.111–150.Google Scholar
[ p. 227 ]