Re: VMs: Quattrocento Minor Characters...

["Rafal T. Prinke" <rafalp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Rene Zandbergen wrote:

> > > I guess "anyone active in Northern Italy at any
> > time during 1400-1500"

> > This would be too limiting, I am afraid.
> 
> My thoughts exactly. Of course there are quite
> practical reasons to limit the scope, but still,
> anyone who may have been in contact with, or
> influenced by the styles and conventions that
> appear in the VMs (think 'humanist hand' for
> example) should be allowed to be included.

That's why exactly why I pointed it out. The scope
is so wide that it is not achievable in reasonable
time, IMHO. There were really thousands of Italian
educated people all around Central Europe - and
as far as Moscow (which I mention just to remind
that the Kremlin swallow-tailed walls were built
by an Italian architect). In Poland, Bohemia and
Hungary there are whole towns built from scratch
by Italians, not to mention many important buildings
- including the beautiful townhall in my city:

  http://www.ga.com.pl/poznan4.htm

On the other hand, the universieties of Bologna and
Padova were *the* schools where Polish, Czech and Hungarian
youths went by hundreds. So both the "humanist hand"
(of which I am not really convinced, BTW) and types
of cyphers do not really limit the area of VMS origin
that much. It would be much different if the same
arguments could be brought foreward for a country
with less expansive culture - but Italy was then much
like the USA is now. If a rock song is in English,
it does not mean the author was American or British.
It is even highly likely he/she wasn't!

> If you're serious though, the best thing is
> just to start. The more one talks about it,
> the smaller the chances that it will happen.

But what the project (certainly involving a lot
of hard work) can prove? There will be thousands
of "minor" intellectuals, artists, writers and
diplomats listed - but chances are high that
"our" author will not be among them. 

Best regards,

Rafal (in pessimistic mood)
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