Polydore Vergil on Discovery by Polydore Vergil; Brian P. CopenhaverReview by: Christiane L. Joost-GaugierThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer, 2005), pp. 577-578Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20477437 .

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Book Reviews 577

War (the war that fractured centralized control over Japan) until the death of the retired sovereign Go-Mizunoo (in 1680), the court continued to be an influential presence both politically and socially despite its financial hardships and limited direct political influence. Butler posits three reasons for the court's continued survival and influence during the period. The first is adaptation, as evidenced by the court's ability to adjust in order to maintain tra ditional authority while occasionally gaining new, if minor powers (2). The second reason is persistence: the willingness of groups such as nobles and influential warriors to acquiesce to the court's continued political survival. Perhaps social inertia would be a better description than persistence, but the idea that there were those who desired the continued existence of the court's influence so that it could be manipulated for personal gain is sound. Finally, the third reason for the survival of the imperial court is ideology; a passive rather than active con struction, the idea that the court expressed and structured social prestige remained a cultural ideal throughout the early modern period.

Butler covers a wide variety of topics, but his strongest arguments lie in his treatment of the court and its traditional position as the center of national ritual. Butler's analysis of the court shares similarities with Clifford Geertz's theater-state model, as it was only the Japanese sovereign and his courtiers who could carry out the time-honored divination and rituals associated with the traditional political center of Japan. Butler shines when explaining the elite position the court held as the home of the arbiters of high culture and social taste. Although historians such as Paul Varley have explored such topics, Butler provides a more thorough and far-reaching analysis.

There are weaknesses to the Emperor and Aristocracy inJapan. The sengoku period caused an exodus of the more highly placed courtiers to the countryside and allowed women places of influence at court previously denied them. One would think that this would warrant sig nificant coverage, as women came to be essential to the workings of the inner court, but But ler gives this subject short shrift.

In the final analysis, Emperor and Aristocracy presents a compelling narrative and a solid thesis. It is a remarkably easy read, comprehensive in its coverage of the subject, and a wel come addition to the literature of the field.

Polydore Vergil on Discovery. Polydore Vergil. Ed. and trans. Brian P. Copenhaver. I Tatti Renaissance Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. 721 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-674-00789-1.

REVIEWED BY: Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Washington, DC

Polydore Vergil, a native of Urbino during the years of Federico da Montefeltro's rule and a graduate of the University of Padua at about the time the young Copernicus was study ing there, is the author of several historical reference works that exemplify the extraordinary enthusiasm of Italian humanists for information gathering. Of these, On Discovery, or De inventoribus rerum, is one of the most important, if not the most original. Gleaning from

Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and patristic sources, Polydore attempts to showcase the discoveries and inventions of ancient Jews and Asiatic peoples for, as he believes, these had not always been appropriately credited by classical sources, such as Pliny and other encyclopedists. Unlike other humanist encyclopedists (Raffaele Maffei, whose great Commentaria Urbana was published in 1506), he does not hesitate, when he deems if appropriate, to discredit the ancient Greeks.

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578 Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXVI/2 (2005)

For this work, first published in 1499 in three books, Polydore made ample use of the great ducal library at Urbino, a fact that he acknowledges in both its first and second dedi cations. He describes Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro's enthusiasm for his previous work (a compendium on proverbs) as being so great that he wanted it "published right away."The dedications also describe his toil, as well as his ambitions to credit those who made discov eries that made a difference in the history of civilization. Polydore is engaged in a passionate search for knowledge about the universe we live in. Writing as an intellectual priest in the diplomatic service of the pope, Polydore explains his bewilderment in the fact that many of those who made discoveries were not Christians. Perhaps it was for this reason that he later became interested in the origins of Christian doctrines and practices, which became the sub ject of five books appended to the original three in a later edition of On Discovery, published in 1521.

This translation, by Brian Copenhaver, a scholar who needs no introduction to those involved with Italian Renaissance studies, presents the original version of Polydore's text in three books. The first of these considers the origins of God, nature, and humanity. It pays special attention to the discovery of the liberal arts and deals with other subjects of related interest, such as the origins of medicine and pharmaceuticals, poetry, magic, incantations, divination, and the interpretation of dreams. In book 2, Polydore is concerned with justice, law, government, and the origins of an array of related civic institutions, such as war, peace, weapons, horses, the calendar, clocks, the census, books, libraries, printing, and the art of memory. Polydore also considers who invented truces and treaties as well as various ways of fashioning them. He even ventures into the area of sports and the establishment of the Olym pic games as well as the origins of gambling and dice. Book 3 covers the field of agriculture in its broadest sense. Its discovery leads to others-in viticulture, animal husbandry, tech niques of spinning, weaving, and dying, cloth and shoe making. From here he branches out to consider important inventors of techniques of building urban structures, shipbuilding, car pentry, and navigation. His difficulties in finding the "true" inventor of the latter (navigation) lead him to conclude that it must have been Noah, no doubt the oldest practitioner of this art in his enormous reading list. Polydore's vast compendium on the literature of discovery closes with a final chapter that considers the many inventions whose authors are unknown.

This volume forms a most worthy addition to the I Tatti Renaissance Library. Its facing Latin and English texts are impeccably presented, preserving in both languages all book, chapter, and paragraph numbers. These are accompanied by an illuminating introduction, informative notes on the text, an extensive bibliography, and a substantial index. In making this volume-which used to be regarded as an esoteric work-available to a broad reader ship, Copenhaver's lucid first English translation will hopefully propel it into the domain of well-known works by humanists of the Italian Renaissance.

This volume is of major importance for all those interested in the various histories of the arts and sciences, including especially the history of art and the history of science. The curiosity it radiates demonstrates that in the fifteenth century, just as in the twentieth, inven tion and discovery were relevant areas of inquiry.

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