Boncompagno da Signa, Amicitia and De malo senectutis et senii
by M. Dunne
Boncompagno was born in Signa, not far from Florence, sometime between 1165 and 1175. He first studied at Florence but soon moved to Bologna, becoming a teacher of grammar and rhetoric there. One of the most famous teachers of rhetoric in his time, he was regarded by his contemporaries as being the most skillful, the most original, and the most fertile in imagination of them all. The Amicitia was written toward the end of 1205 at Rome. Its unspoken purpose is to act as a guide in identifying and classifying the various kinds of people who try to gain our trust by posing as friends. Indeed, the text excels in describing in exuberant detail the many ‘false’ friends we encounter in life. Boncompagno’s last work (he died sometime after 1240), the Libellus de malo senectutis et senii, was written when he was old and, as a final irony, without friends. It contains a stark description of the human condition as each one enters into old age and decrepitude and finally encounters death. To the end, Boncompagno continues to regard all of human life with a skeptical, even cynical eye, a detached observer of and commentator on the society of his time.
Boncompagno was born in Signa, not far from Florence, sometime between 1165 and 1175. He first studied at Florence but soon moved to Bologna, becoming a teacher of grammar and rhetoric there. One of the most famous teachers of rhetoric in his time, he was regarded by his contemporaries as being the most skillful, the most original, and the most fertile in imagination of them all. The Amicitia was written toward the end of 1205 at Rome. Its unspoken purpose is to act as a guide in identifying and classifying the various kinds of people who try to gain our trust by posing as friends. Indeed, the text excels in describing in exuberant detail the many ‘false’ friends we encounter in life. Boncompagno’s last work (he died sometime after 1240), the Libellus de malo senectutis et senii, was written when he was old and, as a final irony, without friends. It contains a stark description of the human condition as each one enters into old age and decrepitude and finally encounters death. To the end, Boncompagno continues to regard all of human life with a skeptical, even cynical eye, a detached observer of and commentator on the society of his time.
- By (author) M Dunne
Other Titles in this Series
Robert Grosseteste at Munich
The Abbreviatio by Frater Andreas, O.F.M., of the Commentaries by Robert Grosseteste on the Pseudo-Dionysius
Volume 14
A Thirteenth-Century Textbook of Mystical Theology at the University of Paris
The «Mystical Theology» of Dionysius the Aeropagite in Eriugena's Latin Translation with the Scholia translated by Anastasius the Librarian and Excerpts from Eriugena's «Periphyseon»
Volume 4
Paul of Venice, ‘Logica magna’: The Treatise on Insolubles
Edited with an Introduction, English Translation, and Commentary
Volume 27
The Notory Art of Shorthand (Ars notoria notarie)
A Curious Chapter in the History of Writing in the West
Volume 20
Similar Books
«Solazoxa festa, stradolze e stracomplia»
Festschrift für Raymund Wilhelm zum 65. Geburtstag mit Beiträgen zu Diskurstraditionen und mittelalterlicher Philologie
Volume 249
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes – Journal of Medieval and Humanistic Studies
Volume 51
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Éthique, politique, religions
Superstition (XVIIe - XXIe siècles). Sémantique, histoires et cultures
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
La Lettre clandestine
La littérature philosophique clandestine, ses éditeurs et ses éditions
Volume 34
Libertinage et philosophie à l’époque classique (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)
Athéisme, Modernité et Sécularisation / Atheism, Modernity and Secularization
Volume 23
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Nicholas of Lyra’s Commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and Luke
Franciscan Exegesis in a Time of Crisis
