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Dinner Pieces
by
Leon Battista Alberti
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| Title: | Dinner Pieces |
| Author: | Leon Battista Alberti |
| Genre: | Various |
| Written: | ca.1430 to 1443 (Eng. 2024) |
| Length: | 332 + 307 pages |
| Original in: | Latin |
| Availability: | Dinner Pieces - vol. one and two - US |
| Dinner Pieces - vol. one and two - UK | |
| Dinner Pieces - vol. one and two - Canada | |
| Propos de table - Intercenales - France | |
| Intercenales - Italia | |
| from: Bookshop.org (US): vol. one and two |
- Latin title: Intercenales
- Edited and with an Introduction and Notes by Roberto Cardini
- Translated by David Marsh (1987 ed.)
- Previously translated by Marsh and published, also as Dinner Pieces, in 1987
- This is a bilingual edition that includes the original Latin text
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Our Assessment:
B : much variety, if somewhat uneven
See our review for fuller assessment.
| Source | Rating | Date | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renaissance Q.* | . | (42:2) Summer/1989 | Dilwyn Knox |
(* review of a different edition)
From the Reviews:
- "(T)he Intercenales are disquieting; the tone is too rancorous, the echoes of personal disappointment too insistent, to be spirited away easily. (...) The Intercenales are, then, important for interpreting a central protagonist of the early Renaissance-hence the value of the present translation. It is a good translation, fulfilling Marsh's intentions to provide a readable text while preserving "as much of Alberti's amplitude as English style will tolerate"." - Dilwyn Knox, Renaissance Quarterly
Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.
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The complete review's Review:
Leon Battista Alberti's Dinner Pieces collects fifty-three of these 'intercenales' -- pieces to be read "inter cenas et pocula" (over dinners and drinks); "in the tradition of symposial, or banquet literature", as suggested in editor Roberto Cardini's Introduction --, originally written between about 1430 and 1443.
Mostly grouped roughly by similar themes into books, the pieces range in length and style; many are in dialogue-form (some with recurring interlocutors); some are as short as a paragraph or two, others quite full-fledged stories
The books are variously structured; most come with introductory prefaces which also foreshadow or address the various pieces that follow -- "this first book of Dinner Pieces urges us that from early youth we must steel ourselves against all of fortunes vicissitudes", for example.
One book (IX) consists of only a single piece; several are diptychs, while others include a larger number and variety of pieces.
Besides its Preface, the first book has another brief prefatory piece, 'Scriptor' ('The Writer') -- "a paratext rather than an integral part of Book I", the Notes to the Translation suggest --, a brief back and forth between Libripeta and Lepidus who also appear, together and separately, in some of the other pieces.
Lepidus ('witty', it's suggested in the Notes, but also e.g. 'agreeable') is the writer, and stand-in for Alberti; Libripeta ('book hunter', Marsh suggests elsewhere), meanwhile: "incarnates the envious and sterile literatus who dissuades Lepidus-Battista from publishing the Dinner Pieces in Florence".
The first piece in Book I, 'Pupillus' ('Orphan'), is a biographical one, Alberti describes the hardships of his youth, in the form of his alter ego here, Philoponius, -- orphaned, "exiled from his homeland, deprived of his entire patrimony by his nearest relatives, and even excluded and cast out of the closeness and company of his own family" --, complaining that the greatest one was that he was prevented: "from pursuing his literary studies" -- and bitterly complains of the unjustness of the world (one of the collections more prominent theme).
So also, Alberti returns to Philoponius in Book IV -- in a dialogue in which, for example, he has a ... simple request:
Philop.. Aliorum divitias nec posco nec, si mihi commodes, volo. Peto ut mihi a cultu et studiis bonarum artium, quibus semper fui deditus, feliciora rependantur.In his Preface to Book VII Alberti suggests:
***. Visne te divitem et locupletem reddam, dum ipse non questui faciendo, sed litteris ediscendis dies ac noctes assideas ? dum tu omnem lucri faciendi rationem et occasionem longe spernas atque pre disciplina posthabeas ? cum a re nulla tuus animus eque atque a questus cura atque opere abhorreat ? Heus tu ! pecunias accumulare et accumulatas servare qui negligit, quod ipse facis, insanit, si se divitem eo pacto futurum expectat.
Philoponius. I do not desire the wealth of others, nor want them if you offer me. Rather, I ask that you repay me for my long devotion to the liberal arts.
[Friend]. Do you wish me to make you wealthy, when you are engaged night and day, not in gainful pursuits, but in literary studies, when you spurn every chance to make money as being less important than your learning, and when a concern for profit is the furthest thing from your mind ? Really ! Anyone who, like you, does nothing to accumulate and protect his wealth is mad if he expects to get rich.
Denique rauci omnes sumus hac etate oratores, ut perpaucos in eorum numero qui sese eruditos haberi velint offendas, quem sine risu et stomacho possis contionantem audire: ita omnes qui suggesta conscenderint, non orare, sed quasvis ineptias, que dicendo assequi possint, verbis, vultu, voce et omni gestu conari exprimere videntur.Alberti here makes fun of those who would simply imitate Cicero rather than go their own path -- and makes the case for his own, which, not least, is meant to amuse and entertain, rather than (primarily or simply) instruct. And Alberti does so quite well here; there is very much a mix of pieces here, with many clearly reflecting and commenting on the circumstances and some of the issues of the day, but Alberti also making an effort to be entertaining in his presentation. He also notes (in the Preface to Book IV) that: "I take pleasure in rare subjects which, like piquant herbs in an appetizer, should not be excluded from the lavish dinners of writers who, I confess, are richer than myself" -- reflecting then also the variety of subjects he addresses.
In sum, all of us in this age are so hoarse as orators that, among those who wish to be thought of as learned, you will find only a few whom you can bear to hear without laughter or irritation. For all who mount the speaker's platform seem not to orate but to express every absurdity of style through their words, faces, voices, and gestures.
Some pieces are more general and less personal -- so, for example, in the first book, there are pieces on subjects such as 'Religion' (on the efficacy of prayer), 'Virtue', and 'Patience', for example, -- these mostly in the form of dialogue-debate, where even a piece dominated by a single speaker such as 'Patience' has him relate a back and forth (a vivid encounter in his dreams with the shades).
There is a rather darker edge to many of the pieces, with characters disappointed by the world and mankind -- most strongly expressed by Neophronus in the dialogue set in the afterlife, 'Defunctus' ('The Deceased'), where he comes to realize: "Sic mihi contigisse dicendum est: nunc enim defunctus primum conspexi cum ceteros, tum etiam ipsum me summa semper in insania fuisse constitutum" (For now that I am dead, I have finally seen how everyone, including myself, lived continually in utter madness). He also laments how:
Desino, posteaquam sic sorte quadam ab ipsis diis est hominibus datum ut que instituant mortales queve agant ea omnia sint vana, levia, caduca ac nullius penitus pretii putanda.He even goes so far as to suggest:
Somehow the very gods have assigned mankind this destiny: everything mortals undertake proves vain, trivial, transitory, and utterly worthless.
De me autem sic possum ipse profiteri: quos ego dies dedi literis, quas operas, quidquid meditationis in libros contuli id plane postremo didici fuisse inutile omnino ac perditum.Alberti plays this out nicely with Neophronus describing how his kinsmen (affines) divvied up his possessions after his death, including his marvelous library, and what was done with his notebooks -- his life's work; just like Philoponius, his devotion and dedication to the liberal arts go ... underappreciated.
For my own part, I must confess that in the end I learned clearly that all the days of effort and reflection I had spent with my books were completely pointless and wasted.
But there are also amusing contrasts to this dark view, as in Libripeta's appeals to Apollo in 'Oraculum' ('The Oracle'):
Libr. Oro, Apollo favo. Hos libros dono affero. Aveo videri literatus.(In a rare editorial slip, this I Tatti edition leaves out the bracketed sentence in the Latin original (while it appears in English translation on the facing page).)
Ap. Sis, atque ut sis noctes diesque assidue lectitato. [Quam ob rem te laudent præbeto; id cum desit, multos ipse collaudato.]
Libr. Taedet; longeque malo videri quam esse.
Ap. Omnium ergo litteratorum obtrectator esto.
Libripeta. Be gracious, Apollo, I pray. I bring these books as an offering. I wish to seem a man of letters.
Apollo. Become one by reading night and day. Earn the praise of others; if they don't praise you, praise others.
Libripeta. That bores me; I would rather seem than be.
Apollo. Then be a detractor of all men of letters.
Appearance over reality comes up several times, including then also in a dialogue on poverty, where Peniplusius (a 'poor wealthy man'; i.e.one who lives beyond his means or pretends to be wealthy) argues that what is important is to be perceived to be wealthy, even if one isn't.
Common, too, to much of the collection is the very poor estimation of women. In a 'Debate on Marriage' it is argued that all women are: "lasciva, inconstans, importuna, superba, querula, procax, pertinax" (wanton, inconstant, troublesome, proud, querulous, shameless, and stubborn), while in 'The Deceased' Polytropus thinks it's obvious that:
Mulieres , quo se negligenter observari viderint, suapte natura, nullis adminiculis, innata vi, ex ingenio solere esse lasciviores.Among the longer pieces is 'The Love Affair', one of the story-like ones -- though one in which Alberti specifically says he wishes to be instructive, about women and about love ("which has the most destructive and deadly [pestiferum et pernitiosissimum] effects on the human mind") and women -- specifically Durimna, who falls obsessively in love with her husband's best friend but is spurned by the honorable friend -- do not come off well.
When women see that they are laxly guarded, they follow their natural instinct without any prompting, and abandon themselves to lust.
The fuller stories are among the more satisfying pieces, and there are some very nice flights of fantasy here, as in 'Nebule' ('The Clouds'), where the clouds complain that they don't get the respect (or the king or the protection of the laws) they deserve but prove too inconstant to change their circumstances when given the opportunity. Similarly, the much shorter 'Templum' ('The Temple') describes an uprising of the stones at the bottom of a temple's foundation, with disastrous results -- though its moral and message is shockingly reactionary, the stones concluding:
insanire illum qui nolit eum sese esse qui sit, prudentisque officio profecto fore quemcumque sors dederit locum non odisse; ac veterem quidem consuetudinem, etsi incommodam et iniquam, potius ferendam, quam novis institutis ipsum te atque alios in grave aliquod damnum ultimumque fortassis malum precipitem dandum.Stones already figured in 'Lapides' ('Stones'), where a similar lesson is taught; it is followed by 'Hedera' ('Ivy'), in which a pear tree complains that destructive and useless ivy is much more highly revered than it is, another sharp piece critical of human attitudes.
Anyone who does not know his place is mad. It is the duty of the wise man to accept his lot. It is better to tolerate ancient custom, even if it is harmful and unjust, than it is to seek changes which may plunge you and others into loss and other ruin.
From an examination of enigmas (in 'Convelata') to a debate on what to do with prisoners of war (in 'Hostis' ('The Enemy')) -- with its amusing outcome with a winning argument that proves anything but ("Placuit istius sententia, qua effectum est ut Pise prope delerentur" (His proposal was adopted, and nearly destroyed Pisa)) -- the Dinner Pieces offer a great deal of variety, both in presentation and subject-matter. As in much of his work, Alberti is almost too wide-ranging, in every respect; it is a quite erratic mix (but then: who wants the same thing for every dinner ?). He's at his best when he sees an idea through -- and he does so reasonably often here -- but there are also many pieces that stray about and/or peter out. Still, the variety and the clever situations and expression make for worthwhile reading.
- M.A.Orthofer, 4 November 2024
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Dinner Pieces:
- Harvard University Press publicity pages - vols. one and two
- Les Belles Lettres publicity page
- Polistampa publicity page
- Leon Battista Alberti at books and writers
- See Index of Latin literature
- See Index of Bilingual editions under review
- See Index of Books Written Before 1900
- Other books in the I Tatti Renaissance Library
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Leon Battista Alberti lived 1404 to 1472.
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© 2024 the complete review
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