Music and Moral Philosophy in Early Fifteenth-Century Padua

Abstract

Of the generation of early humanists immediately following Francesco Petrarch, Pier Paolo Vergerio (c. 1369-1444) represents a seminal figure in the formulation of humanism's new educational theory based on classical models. Vergerio's writings are important for understanding the musical and intellectual culture of Padua, a city in which Vergerio resided, studied and taught for the most part during the years 1390-97 and 1400-1405. While at Padua, Vergerio composed his treatise on humanist education 'De ingenuis moribus et liberalibus adulescentiae studiis.' Completed no later than 1403, Vergerio dedicated his treatise to Ubertino (1390-1407), the youngest son of Francesco II Novello da Carrara, 'seignor' of Padua 1390-1405. 'De ingenuis moribus' represents the earliest post-classical formulation concerned with the role of moral philosophy in the pragmatic creation of civic being. The survival of over 300 manuscripts and 40 prints signals its influence and success in humanist culture.