Venetian Renaissance humanist and naval architect
Vettor Fausto
or
Vittore Fausto
(1490?1546) was
Venetian
Renaissance humanist
and
naval architect
. He was an expert in
Greek
and the
classics
. He worked as a copyist and a soldier in his youth. His studies led him to propose the construction of a
quinquereme
, a galley with five rowers per bench. He published original poetry in Greek, had a hand in the publication of the
Complutensian Polyglot Bible
and edited classical texts for publication, most notably the
Aristotelis Mechanica
, which he translated into
Latin
. In his later years he grew disillusioned with Venetian politics, even being accused of treason.
Life
[
edit
]
Education and work as a scribe
[
edit
]
Fausto was born in 1490 to a modest family of
Greek
origin. They probably immigrated to Venice from
Cephalonia
.
Fausto was a
Venetian citizen
by birth and a native of the city.
His original name, in
Latin
, was Lucius Victor Falchonius. By 1511, he had adopted a different surname, going by Victor Faustus in Latin and Niketas Phaustos in
Greek
.
[3]
According to
Paolo Ramusio
, he was a child prodigy, although nothing is known of his early education.
Besides Latin and Greek, he learned some
Hebrew
and
Aramaic
.
In 1508?1509, he studied under, worked for and lived with the professor Gerolamo Maserio at the
Scuola di San Marco
. He was made to copy out Greek texts, such as
John Tzetzes
and some commentaries on
Aeschylus
.
Fausto published his first Greek epigram in 1509 in
Giovanni Tacuino's
[
it
]
edition of
Noctes Atticae
by
Aulus Gellius
.
In 1510, he was offered a teaching job in
Lucca
by
Aulo Giano Parrasio
. According to a letter he wrote to
Jacopo Sannazaro
in early 1511, Parrasio absconded with 90 of his books, abandoning him at
Chioggia
. The letter is valuable for the light it sheds on Fausto's reading up to that point. The majority of his books were in Greek: Aeschylus,
Plutarch
,
Theocritus
,
Athenaeus
,
Lucian
,
Nikephoros Blemmydes
and
Cyril of Alexandria
.
In 1511, Fausto joined
Marco Musuro
as a pupil and copyist. His adoption of the name Fausto around this time may have been related to his entering the
Aldine Academy
. In 1511, he published an edition of
Terence
's comedies with his own treatise,
De comoedia libellus
, and editions of three works by
Cicero
. All of these were printed by
Lazzaro de' Soardi
[
it
]
.
He published a second Greek epigram in his edition of Terence.
In 1512, he published a third Greek epigram in
Urbano Bolzanio
's
Grammaticae Institutiones
.
The completion of his education is uncertain, but
Marino Sanudo
calls him a doctor.
Spain, the army and France
[
edit
]
In 1512, Fausto went to Spain.
He probably brought with him Tacuino's Greek
type
for use in the fifth volume of the
Complutensian Polyglot Bible
, published in 1514.
Although his overall role with the bible was minor, he did contribute one of the introductory Greek epigrams praising the project's founded,
Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros
.
Cisneros offered him a professorship of Greek at the
University of Alcala
, but he declined. He left Spain in 1513.
During his time in Spain, he befriended the Venetian ambassador,
Giovanni Badoer
.
From 1513 to 1515, during the
War of the League of Cambrai
, Fausto served in the
Venetian army
in the
Terraferma
under
Bartolomeo d'Alviano
. His immediate superior was the
condottiero
Baldassare Scipione. In 1516, Badoer was named ambassador to France and brought Fausto with him. In Paris, Fausto joined the literary circle around
Guillaume Bude
. In 1517, he published a Latin translation of the
Aristotelis Mechanica
dedicated to Badoer. This was a
critical edition
based on over twenty manuscripts.
It was published at Paris by
Josse Bade
.
According to Lilia Campana:
Fausto's authorship greatly contributed to the restoration of Greek science in the Western world and inaugurated a new field of study devoted to mechanical questions. It also enacted a cultural process that gradually led to the legitimization of the
artes mechanicae
, paving the way for the
scientific revolution
[...] It was because of Fausto's contribution to Renaissance science that sixteenth-century Venetian Humanism, in its last phase, embraced topics focusing on
banausic arts
and, in doing so, legitimized the
ars mechanica
into a
scientia
. . .
[16]
The integration of mathematics, mechanics, and other scientific topics into Venetian Renaissance culture is affirmed by the organization of the
Accademia Veneziana
in 1557.
[17]
At some point, Fausto visited
Germany
, but the chronology of his travels between 1512 and 1518 is not completely certain.
Professor and naval architect
[
edit
]
In 1518, Fausto returned to Venice. He was offered a chair teaching Greek by the
Republic of Ragusa
, but declined. He competed for and won the chair of Greek at the Scuola di San Marco, although his rival,
Egnazio
, complained of "machinations". Sanudo praised Fausto's winning lectures on Lucian and the
Argonautica Orphica
. Fausto held the chair from 16 October 1518 until at least 1529. In 1524, he was lecturing on
Hesiod
and
Pindar
.
During this period, Fausto wrote his
Orationes quinque
(Five Orations).
He also began theoretical work on the
quinquereme
, which he first proposed to the
Arsenal
in 1525.
In 1526, he was authorized by the
Venetian Senate
to build one.
It was, he claimed, based on an ancient Greek design. Fausto's version had "five rowers on a single bench, each pulling a separate oar." Years later,
Galileo Galilei
referred to it was the "great galleass".
[22]
It underwent sea trials in 1529. Although faster than lighter
galleys
at short distances, it was inefficient over longer ranges. Only one was ever built.
Disillusionment
[
edit
]
In 1530, Fausto succeeded
Andrea Navagero
as librarian of what would become the
Biblioteca Marciana
, including the collection granted to Venice by Cardinal
Bessarion
.
In 1530, he was approached by the French ambassador,
Lazare de Baif
, to work in France. He refused, but became disillusioned with his work in Venice in the years that followed. Accused of treason by agents of
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
, he was arrested and tortured in 1539. He was accused of planning to go to France to help construct ships. At the time, France was allied with the
Ottoman Empire
against Charles V and Venice. There were rumours that Fausto was murdered, but he was eventually declared innocent and released.
In July 1546, Fausto contacted the
Florentine
ambassador to negotiate a move to Florence, but nothing came of it.
This is the last record of Fausto alive. He probably died towards the end of the year. He never married, had no children and did not make a will. His sister, Apollonia, claimed his few belongings in January 1547.
His
Orationes quinque
were published posthumously by the
Aldine Press
in 1551, dedicated to
Pier Francesco Contarini
with a brief introductory biography of Fausto by Paolo Ramusio.
Writings
[
edit
]
Fausto's known published writings are:
In addition to the published works above, Fausto left unpublished a Latin epigram in a manuscript now in the
Biblioteca Estense
.
He also made marginal annotations in his copy of the
editio princeps
of
Homer
's
Iliad
, published at
Florence
in 1488. This copy survives and is now in the Biblioteca Marciana,
shelfmark
Gr. IX 35 (=1082). His notes show that he had access to the famous Homeric codex
Venetus A
, which was in the Biblioteca Marciana (Gr. Z 454 [=822]).
There are a total of twelve surviving letters sent by or to Fausto. This is only a small fraction of his correspondence, but it shows that he corresponded in Greek, Latin and
Italian
. His known correspondents include
Andrea Navagero
,
Jacopo Sannazaro
,
Pietro Bembo
,
Giovanni Battista Ramusio
,
Marino Becichemo
, Lucilio Maggi "Philalteus" and Giustino Decadio.
Notes
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Campana, Lilia (2010).
Vettor Fausto (1490?1546), Professor of Greek and a Naval Architect: A New Light on the 16th-century Manuscript "Misure di vascelli etc. di…proto dell'Arsenale di Venetia"
(PDF)
(MA thesis). Texas A&M University.
- Campana, Lilia (2014).
The Immortal Fausto: The Life, Works, and Ships of the Venetian Humanist and Naval Architect Vettor Fausto (1490?1546)
(PDF)
(PhD diss.). Texas A&M University.
- Campana, Lilia (2017).
"Vettor Fausto (1490?1546), Professor of Greek at the School of Saint Mark"
(PDF)
. In Federica Ciccolella; Luigi Silvano (eds.).
Teachers, Students, and Schools of Greek in the Renaissance
. Brill. pp. 311?341.
- Campana, Lilia (2018).
"The Defence of the Venetian
Dominio Da Mar
in the Sixteenth Century: Ship Design, Naval Architecture, and the Naval Career of Vettor Fausto's
Quinquereme
"
(PDF)
. In Georgios Theotokis; Aysel Yıldız (eds.).
A Military History of the Mediterranean Sea: Aspects of War, Diplomacy, and Military Elites
. Brill. pp. 44?78.
- Campbell, Gordon, ed. (2003).
"Fausto, Vettor"
.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-860175-3
.
- Ferreiro, Larrie D.
(2010).
"The Aristotelian Heritage in Early Naval Architecture, From the Venice Arsenal to the French Navy, 1500?1700"
.
Theoria: An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
.
25
(2): 227?241.
- Morantin, Patrick (2016).
"Un temoin de la lecture du
Venetus A
a la Renaissance: l'edition
princeps
d'Homere annotee par Vettor Fausto (
Marcianus gr.
IX. 35)"
.
Revue d'histoire des textes
.
11
: 95?133.
doi
:
10.1484/J.RHT.5.110487
.
- Morantin, Patrick (2017).
Lire Homere a la Renaissance: Philologie humaniste et tradition grecque
. Droz.
- Murphy, Stephen (2019). "Review of
Morantin 2017
".
Renaissance Quarterly
.
72
(3): 1005?1007.
doi
:
10.1017/rqx.2019.264
.
S2CID
204475043
.
- Piovan, Francesco (1995).
"Fausto, Vittore"
.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
, Volume 45: Farinacci?Fedrigo
(in Italian). Rome:
Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
.
ISBN
978-8-81200032-6
.
- Rose, Paul Lawrence
;
Drake, Stillman
(1971). "The Pseudo-Aristotelian
Questions of Mechanics
in Renaissance Culture".
Studies in the Renaissance
.
18
: 65?104.
doi
:
10.2307/2857079
.
JSTOR
2857079
.
- Wilson, N. G.
(1988). "Vettor Fausto, Professor of Greek and Naval Architect". In A. C. Dionisotti; Anthony Grafton; Jill Kraye (eds.).
The Uses of Greek and Latin: Historical Essays
. Warburg Institute, University of London. pp. 89?96.
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