Part 8

Not to dip bread into the wine of which one is drinking along with others.

To suspend eating while a man of importance is drinking.

To postpone drinking till the man of importance has finished.

Not to speak to a man who is in the act of drinking. (This rule seems to contemplate ‘potations pottle-deep,’ such as engage all one’s energies for some little while together: for a mere modern sip at a wine-glass such a rule would be superfluous.)

To retain one’s spoon when one’s plate is removed for another help, (One spoon, it may be inferred, is to last all through the meal, serving as a fork.)

Not to eat an excessive quantity of bread with the viands.

Not to re-place one’s knife in its sheath prematurely. (It may be presumed that each guest brings his own knife.)

The reader who considers these rules in their several categories, and with due allowance for difference of times, manners, and ‘properties,’ will, I think, agree with me in seeing that the essentials of courtesy at table in Lombardy in the thirteenth century, and in England in the nineteenth, are, after all, closely related; and that, while some of our Friar’s tutorings would now happily be supererogatory, and others are inapplicable to present dining conveniences, not one is ill-bred in any correct use of that word. The details of etiquette vary indefinitely: the sense of courtesy is substantially one and the same. In Fra Bonvicino’s manual, it appears constantly in its genuine aspect, and prompted by its truest spirit—not so much that of personal correctness, each man for his own credit, as of uniform consideration for others.

The same is eminently the case with some of the precepts given by our next author, Francesco da Barberino. Nothing, for instance, can go beyond the true rationale of courtesy conveyed in the following injunction (which we must not here degrade from its grace of Tuscan speech and verse):

‘Colli minor sì taci, E prendi il loco che ti danno; e pensa Che, per far qui difensa, Faresti lor, per tuo vizio, villani.’

Or this:

‘E credo che fa male Colui che taglia essendo a suo maggiore: Chè non v’ è servitore S’ el non dimanda prima la licenza.’

Indeed, I think that the tone prevalent throughout Barberino’s maxims of courtesy on all sorts of points is fairly to be called exquisite. Our extract from him brings us (it may be well to remember) into the closest contact with the social usages which Dante in his youth must have been cognisant of and conforming to; for, in passing from Bonvicino to Barberino, we have passed from Lombardy to Tuscany—the latter poet being a native of the Val d’Elsa, in the same district as Boccaccio’s birth-place, Certaldo. The date assigned to Barberino’s work, the Documenti d’Amore, is just about the same as that of Bonvicino’s, or from 1290 to 1296. Yet I apprehend we must receive this early date with some hesitation. In 1290 Barberino was but twenty-six years of age; whereas the Documenti d’Amore, a lengthy and systematic treatise on all kinds of moral and social duties and proprieties, seems to be rich with the hoarded experience of years. That so young a man should even have sketched out for himself a work of such axiomatic oracularity seems à priori unlikely, though one has to accept the fact on authority: that he should towards that age have completed the poem as we now possess it appears to me barely compatible with possibility. His other long poem, still more singular on the like account, is referred to nearly the same date. I observe in it, however, one passage (Part 6) which must have been written after 1308, and probably after 1312. It refers to a story which had been narrated to Barberino ‘one time that he was in Paris.’ Now his journey on a mission to Provence and France began in 1309, and ended in 1313.

I shall here give place to my brother, and extract verbatim the notice of Barberino contained in his book of translations, The Early Italian Poets.

‘Francesco da Barberino: born 1264, died 1348.

‘With the exception of Brunetto Latini (whose poems are neither very poetical nor well adapted for extract), Francesco da Barberino shows by far the most sustained productiveness among the poets who preceded Dante, or were contemporaries of his youth. Though born only one year in advance of Dante, Barberino seems to have undertaken, if not completed, his two long poetic treatises some years before the commencement of the Commedia.

‘This poet was born at Barberino di Valdelsa, of a noble family, his father being Neri di Ranuccio da Barberino. Up to the year of his father’s death, 1296, he pursued the study of law chiefly in Bologna and Padua; but afterwards removed to Florence for the same purpose, and became one of the many distinguished disciples of Brunetto Latini, who probably had more influence than any other one man in forming the youth of his time to the great things they accomplished. After this he travelled in France and elsewhere; and on his return to Italy in 1313, was the first who, by special favour of Pope Clement V., received the grade of Doctor of Laws in Florence. Both as lawyer and as citizen, he held great trusts, and discharged them honourably. He was twice married, the name of his second wife being Barna di Tano, and had several children. At the age of eighty-four he died in the great plague of Florence. Of the two works which Barberino has left, one bears the title of Documenti d’Amore, literally Documents of Love, but perhaps more properly rendered as Laws of Courtesy; while the other is called Del Reggimento e dei Costumi delle Donne,—of the Government and Conduct of Women. They may be described, in the main, as manuals of good breeding or social chivalry—the one for men, and the other for women. Mixed with vagueness, tediousness, and not seldom with artless absurdity, they contain much simple wisdom, much curious record of manners, and (as my specimens show) occasional poetic sweetness or power—though these last are far from being their most prominent merits. The first-named treatise, however, has much more of such qualities than the second, and contains moreover passages of homely humour which startle by their truth, as if written yesterday. At the same time, the second book is quite as well worth reading, for the sake of its authoritative minuteness in matters which ladies now-a-days would probably consider their own undisputed region, and also for the quaint gravity of certain surprising prose anecdotes of real life with which it is interspersed. Both these works remained long unprinted; the first edition of the Documenti d’Amore being that edited by Ubaldini in 1640, at which time he reports the Reggimento &c. to be only possessed by his age “in name and in desire.” This treatise was afterwards brought to light, but never printed till 1815. I should not forget to state that Barberino attained some knowledge of drawing; and that Ubaldini had seen his original MS of the Documenti, containing, as he says, skilful miniatures by the author.

‘Barberino never appears to have taken a very active part in politics, but he inclined to the Imperial and Ghibelline party. This contributes with other things to render it rather singular that we find no poetic correspondence or apparent communication of any kind between him and his many great countrymen, contemporaries of his long life, and with whom he had more than one bond of sympathy. His career stretched from Dante, Guido Cavalcanti, and Cino da Pistoia, to Petrarca and Boccaccio: yet only in one respectful but not enthusiastic notice of him by the last-named writer (Genealogia degli Dei) do we ever meet with an allusion to him by any of the greatest men of his time. Nor in his own writings, as far as I remember, are they ever referred to. His epitaph is said to have been written by Boccaccio, but this is doubtful. On reviewing the present series, I am sorry, on the whole, not to have included more specimens of Barberino; whose writings, though not very easy to tackle in the mass, would afford an excellent field for selection and summary.’

Thus far my brother. I will only add to his biographical details that, at the very end of Francesco da Barberino’s life, he and one of his sons were elected the Priori, or joint chief-magistrates of the Florentine Republic; and that the Barberini who came to the papal chair in 1623 as Urban VIII. was of the same family. His patronymic is enshrined to many loose memories in the epigram ‘Quod non fecere Barbari fecere Barberini.’ To all that my brother has said of the qualities, and especially the merits, of Francesco, I cordially subscribe. The Documenti d’Amore is really a most capital book,—I should suppose, unsurpassed of its kind, and also in its interest for students of the early mediæval manners, and modes of thought. Its diction is remarkably condensed—(Italian scholars say that it shows strong traces of the author’s Provençal studies and predilections)—and it is proportionately stiff work to hasty readers. Those who will peruse it deliberately, and weigh its words, find many niceties of laconism, and much terse and sententious good sense as well—lengthy as is the entire book. This is indeed no slight matter—twelve sections, and something like 8500 lines. It is exactly the sort of work to elicit and to account for editorial enthusiasm.

I extract in full the stanzas bearing directly upon that which (following the impulsion of Fra Bonvicino) has become our more immediate subject—the Courtesies of the Table. The tone of society which we find here is visibly in advance of the Lombard Friar’s, though the express precepts of the two writers have a good deal of general resemblance: the superiority in this respect is very much the same as in the language. Barberino’s diction seems quite worthy of a Tuscan contemporary of Dante, and his works are still drawn upon as a ‘testo di lingua.’

‘The third point of good manners Which thou art to observe at table Thou mayst receive thus; Thinking out for thyself the other details from these few.

And, in entering to table, If he who says to thee “Go in” is a man of distinction, On account of his dignity It behoves thee not to dispute the going.

With thine equals, it beseems to decline For awhile, and then to conform to their wish: With superiors, affect Just the least demur, and then acquiesce.

With inferiors, keep silence, And take the place which they give thee: and reflect That, by resisting here, Thou, by thy default, wouldst be making them rude.

In thine own house, remain Behind, if they are thy superiors or equals: And, if thine inferiors, thou shalt seem No other than correct if thou dost the same.

Understand the like, if thou givest To eat to any persons out of thine own home: Also remain behind when it happens That thou art entertaining women.

Next consider about placing Each person in the post that befits him. Between relatives it behoves To place others midway sometimes.

And, in this, honour the more Those who are strangers, and retain the others by thyself: And keep cheerful Thy face and demeanour, and forbear with all.